1st Movie In Perth

Friday marked our 9th week in Perth & my completion of 3 weeks in my job. I've fallen into a routine, waking up at 5 am to get ready for work, leaving home at 6 am, arriving at my workplace car park by 7 am, making another 1 hour drive back home, watch MasterChef at 7.30 pm & going to bed by 10 pm. We've been kept occupied last weekend searching for cars. Now that that's settled, we finally have some time to ourselves. Received an invitation on Sat morning from Nix to have lunch at P & J's place. Immediately, I got to work, preparing for a pear tart, whose recipe I got on the internet. I finished work early on Friday & we bought ingredients for the tart. I was going to try it out over the weekend but instead everybody became my guinea pigs. Wrecker came at almost 12 noon to pick up our Lancer & we got $100 for it. Even though it's only a car, we've somehow gotten attached to it, feeling a sense of regret as it was being taken away. 

We watched our 1st movie in Perth today. I was looking forward to Transformers but I think it's kinda disappointing. I would have preferred the storyline to involve the Transformers more, let Optimus Prime's leadership & compassion shine through. We got the movie card that'll allow us to buy 2 tickets at $11 each for a year. Unlike in Singapore, movie tickets are priced at $18 regardless of the day or time of the showing. You're not allocated seats as well, so you can sit wherever you like. This 1st come 1st serve basis is good as if you don't want to get lousy seats, then don't come in late. Only thing I noticed was, the littering is worse than it is in Singapore. As we left the theatre, we noticed popcorn scattered all over the seats & floor. It's almost as if at the end of the movie, everyone just toss their unfinished popcorn into the air, allowing them to land all over the place before throwing the empty box on the floor. The clean up crew must have a headache after each screening. I always believe that we should take care of public places as we would our own home. Oh well...

I'm looking into soap making for my next project, other than baking on my days off. I can't wait. But 1st, I'll have to buy essential oils & necessary equipments. I don't think home made soap will be cheaper than those sold in shops but you get to customise them. A typical cold processed soap requires a combination of at least 3 oils, caustic soda, distilled water, essential oils (not a must but it's a natural fragrance) & additives like grounded oatmeal (for the scrub effect) or aloe gel (for soothing & moisturising effect) or vitamin e (for antioxidant effect). After the mixture has been left to set for 24 hours, the soap block is cut into smaller bars & aired for a month before it can be used. 

I once read in Nix's blog that someone commented about the blogs of migrants he/she had read were mostly about cupcakes. I'm beginning to understand the rationale behind it. When you've more or less settled down (house, job, car), what you want to do next is to pursue your interests. That's part of the reason why we came here, aye? In Singapore, I never had time for hobbies. I'm perpetually exhausted, working 12 or more hours a day. Off days are used to catch up on sleep & spend time with loved ones. Now, we're just catching up on the things we missed out. I'll try my hand at gardening once spring arrives. I think nothing satisfies a cook more than using the produce he/she grows.