Albany

The trip down to Albany, which is located approx. 400 km south of Perth, is perhaps the best navigation flight that we can do here. Besides being the furthest point from our base that we can go to, the one thing different about this visit is that we have to do a stopover at the Albany aerodrome to refuel. And if you arrange your flight to depart with some of my fellow coursemates, it becomes a road trip,being able to talk cock and take pictures in the arrival terminal while we rest.

Albany Aerodrome

Albany Terminal

Typically the trip there takes about 2 hours, saving at least 4-5 hours from a road trip. There's not much to see along the route there, except for the Stirling Ranges, a range of mountains and hills stretching 60km wide west to east, with the highest peak being Bluff Knoll (i'm not bluffing you) at 1095m above mean sea level.

Closer to the city of Albany, towards the coastal side, there is the Western Power Wind Farm, where err, wind is farmed, and is the largest and newest such facility in Australia. Great southerly winds, drive the 12 turbines and generate about 3/4 of the city's electrical usage.

Of course, since Albany is at the most southern tip of Western Australia, facing the Southern Ocean, the coastal part of Albany has quite a view. But i'm informed that there are alot more places to see while on the ground at Albany, such as The Gap, the Two People's Bay and etc.

cant really see much of the city from here

We (Me, "Kilo Hotel" and "Sierra Hotel"), were the second group from our company visiting Albany that day. The previous group had left 1/2 hour before us. After refuelling our aircraft, of course thanks to the kind old man from BP Aviation, we parked our aircrafts in this open space near the terminal, locked up our aircrafts and began our photo-taking session. Landings and takeoffs in Albany were not coordinated by any Air Traffic Controllers, which made it all the more fun.

our formation

"Sierra Hotel" taking off while i was at the holding point

ELMO TMX

Kids nowadays really have it good. I saw this interesting toy featured on www.boingboing.net, and it's the latest version of the tickle-me-Elmo series. Besides being able to luff for no reason, this version of Elmo TMX (short for Tickle Me eXtreme) beats the other pathetic Elmos hands down by being able to roll, fall and stand when 'tickled'.

Released here in Australia on the 19th this month, this toy is already "selling out fast" according to sales assistants in departmental stalls such as K-Mart and Target. I wonder if i should keep this as an investment, to sell it on Ebay for double its retail price when stocks are cleaned out. To see what's so special with this Elmo, take a look at this video i took.

hiding behind Elmo & nope, i'm not lickin his butt!

A crabby meal

Since Kelvin has completed his training here, we decided to celebrate by pampering ourselves with a meal of snow crab last week. These white creatures have been taunting us to eat them ever since we stepped into chinese restaurants all round Perth. It was Kelvin's last chance to teach them (it) a painful lesson not to sit in their (its) tank, tempting us while we order some usual fare of duck and pork.

The snowy bastard weighed approx 4 1/2 pounds, and was fried with some salted egg york i think. Its meat was of course white, like most crabs, but was exceptionally soft. 5 of us attacked this evil creature with our mouths the moment it was presented to us. Ah it was sweet revenge for the months of mental torture this vile beast subjected us to. I think we finished it within 15 min? mabbe shorter. I had expected it to put up a better fight, but there wasnt really much meat (for 5 hungry guys, and one of them is Kelvin), so i was disappointed my revenge only lasted this short while.

Sensing the creature, in its final moment, had dealt a terrible blow to our pockets, we decided not to kill order its ally, the lobster. So we ordered the usual cheap fare, the combination plate consisting of roast duck, char siew, and roasted pork, the excellent hot plate tofu and the very tasty beansprouts fried with salted fish.

We should have expected at about $30AUD per pound, the snowy white bastard wasnt going to let us go so easily. In the end, revenge on the crab costs us $157, and the total costs for the meal costs us $45 each for 5 pax. I finally understood why almost all the chinese restaurants here have snow crabs, cos it costs so bloody expensive just to have one. Personally, big or small crabs, snow or normal, didnt really matter to me. I would have preferred normal crabs, if i can have several of them, instead of one snow crab. At least now that revenge is out of the way, i am at peace finally, and start having my normal cheap crabs from now on.

Of Margaret River and Augusta

Late last month, i finally managed to do my Margaret River/ Augusta trip. These two locations are located about 160 nautical miles, about 300km+, from Perth. A road trip would usually take about 3-4 hours just to get there, but thankfully for me, the trip to and fro took me only 3 1/2 hours, although i had to hold my bladder for the entire journey.

This region of Western Australia is famous as a tourist attraction, and also for its wine grapes grown in vineyards located around Margaret River. I havent been to the town of Margaret River before, although we did drove past several vineyards along Margaret River on the way back after diving in Dunsborough.

I guess the brown patch would be how vineyards look like from 2000feet above

The coast of Margaret River - splendid view!

Facing the Indian Ocean

Margret River

More Margaret River





cant remember why i put this picture




Margaret River to the Indian Ocean

This sortie is one of the best sortie available in terms of scenery, tracking along the western coast from Bunbury, to Busselton and then to Margaret River and finally Augusta. I thought the view from Margaret River was great, until i travelled further south about 30nautical miles away to the town of Augusta.

Augusta - Hardy Inlet

Augusta is the nearest settlement to Cape Leeuwin, which on the furthest southwest corner of the Australian continent. Cape Leeuwin's landmark is perhaps its Lighthouse, which has been around since 1895. Now it is a fully automated lighthouse, and is an important navigation station as well as being a weather station.

Cape Leeuwin and its lighthouse

The closest i dare to descend to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, cos i ham-chee i will crash

East of Cape Leeuwin is Flinders Bay, also known as the Bay of Whales. It is said that Humpback whales and Southern Right whales interact socially in this bay on migration from the cold waters of Antartica. Too bad i didnt know about this before i went up for this flight, else i would have at least try to see if i can spot any whales from high up.

Augusta - Flinders Bay

the coastline of Flinders Bay

I guess without this sortie, i would never have the chance to visit this region of Western Australia. Would i want to do this again? Probably not, if i have to pay for the fuel. So this will be my first and last ever air-trip here. And having to hold my bladder for 3 1/2 hours wasnt exactly a comforting thought. Next up, Albany photos!

Of 霍元甲 aka Fearless

Havent been updating this site once again. Guess i'm slowly losing the interest. These few weeks have been interesting, with ups and downs. The "up" sides being travelling to Margaret River and Albany, and enjoying every moment of it, knowing that i will never get to do this ever again. More of this later.


Anyway, today being Movies Tuesday (tickets for $9 instead of $15), my friend and i decided to go catch a movie. Initially i wanted to watch "Miami Vice", which my roomie thought was "Grand Theft Auto" like.... but the timing didnt suit me. So ended up catchin this show called "Fearless" , starring Jet Li, apparently it's a chinese show. Even better, there'll be english subtitles. Not that i dont understand mandarin, just that I like my shows with english subtitles. So even for a chinese show, i would usually glance at the subtitles, especially so for the opening of this show, where a whole paragraph of chinese characters popped out.

I entered the theatre without a clue what the movie's about, not aided by the lack of promotional posters for the show in the cinema. Imagine my worst fears when i entered the theatre to find it completely empty, as if we had boooked the entire cinema for ourselves. Fortunately, or unfortunately, 3 other patrons, who are unsurprisingly chinese as well, entered the cinema slightly later.

Only when the movie started did i realise "Fearless" was 霍元甲! You know, the song where Jay Chou raps dunno what, the only verses heard being "huo huo huo huo huo". I was glad, for i had heard about this movie and wanted to catch it, but didnt have any high hopes for it to be screened here. I'm not going to say anything about the plot, since the movie's quite old (apparently shown in singapore 4 mths ago), though it was only screened here recently. But the movie got me all interested about this character 霍元甲, and i googled him when i got back. I was quite disappointed the movie didnt stick close to the actual facts, although 霍元甲 was nonetheless a hero in the eyes of many chinese at that time, perhaps even now. But i guess, that's the price of entertainment. Fact is hardly as exciting as fiction, and that's why we pay money to watch movies.

Overall it was a good show. After the show i practised my kungfu on my friend, since all chinese know kungfu mah, and it irritated him abit, with him calling me "childish" along the way back. I suspect that he's afraid to confront me directly, since i will be able to kick his arse all the way back to chinatown, with my "迷蹤拳".