Art Gallery of Western Australia

The Art Gallery of Western Australia is one of my favourite places in Perth. Apart from being a lover of artwork, I love the different exhibitions that they display and host.

At the moment they have been able to transport pieces from the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City to have a rotating display of artwork of different themes (a MOMA series, perhaps you caught the photography one?). The latest one is the evolution of art forms of the twentieth century from impressionism, cubism, surrealism and beyond, from Van Goh to Dali then the movement towards photography as an art form, as well as sculptures and abstract art. 

The displays were rather extensive and if you want you can hire audio or better yet wait around until the tour and get more information on the pieces than just the little description on the side of the piece. Understanding the context of the artist and the artwork enhances the experience and gives you a better idea of the head space the artist was in at the time it was produced.

The MOMA series is $19 for adults and $9 for juniors (students between years 1 to 12) and children under 5 is free. There is also a voucher in the entertainment book which gives up to 25% off the tickets for up to 4 tickets.

Once you are done with the exhibition there are plenty more to explore at the Art Gallery and I love all the different rooms. Some of the works are so spectacular. Stay for a while and take it all in (I assure you it won't take as long as the Lourve!). If you get a chance head down to the basement, you see some amazing Australian artwork and a Rodin sculpture. You'll also discover that the art gallery was once the law courts and the basement still retains the court room and a couple of the cells (which I swear is size of the bedrooms of today!). 

bf with the Rodin artwork

So LIFE LIKE. It's uncanny!

The mascot for the Art Gallery of WA - the bushman such a beautiful artwork, conjures so much feeling.

So make it a day, go to the art gallery explore all that it has to offer, see the MOMA series, have lunch or better yet complete it with ice cream at the Ben and Jerry's ice cream scoop van just a few meters away. And HEY it's cheaper than going to the movies! 

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival

Every year around March, the French Film Festival starts, sponsored by Alliance Francaise.

I love French films and never seem to get enough of it, especially their comedy and romantic films. They are so enjoyable and an absolute delight to watch without the trashy lame rom-coms of Hollywood. Instead they are rather insightful and witty. And anyway, it's nice to see my favourite French actress and actors on screen.

Tonight I'll be heading to Cinema Paradiso to watch Sophie Marceau in Happiness Never Comes Alone (Un Bonheur N'Arrive Jamais Seul) with my younger cousin, who also happens to be a lover of French films as well. Before we see the movie we be heading to Oliver's Restaurant because my cousin hasn't been and hopefully it will be better than the last time I went.

Then on April we will be seeing Meet Me in Real Life (Chercher Le Garcon) and heading to P'tite Ardoise Bistro, to complete our French experience.

I would recommend you to see a film or two or more. Check out the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival website here for the schedule of films and trailers and book tickets through Luna Palace Cinema group here.

Experience the magic of France, even if it is just for a couple of hours. It's on in Perth from 19 March until 7th April. Check it out!

Playing building

I don't know how many of you try building sandcastles in the sand... But I'm pretty sure architecturally it's not as amazing as this...

Now this is a sandcastle..

Busy week

I have been meaning to share with all of you the wonderful dinner I had at Tom Randolph's new fine dining restaurant No. 4 Blake street, in North Perth. It was absolutely wonderful for him to have invited me and my boy. But alas, I have been swamped with family commitments since I had the dinner ONE and a HALF weeks ago and I am never behind with reviewing places I have been kindly invited too.

It's just with Chinese New Year and the lovely visit of my Uncle, Aunty and cousin from UK it has been a whirl-wind of late nights, along with the usual chaos of work!

In fact, I really should be sleeping instead of updating this on my phone. I have work tomorrow and it starts at 730am!!

So, I leave you with the Chinese New Year Massive dinner that is celebrated by my immediate family (no uncles, aunties, grandparents involved - that came on Tuesday and Wednesday that just went..).

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I hope to post tomorrow or Sunday! promise!

Like I said the immediate dinner celebrations for Chinese New Year was a banquet! Cooked by my Mum and Dad. It was lovely. The strawberry sorbet was the perfect cleanser after the massive meal. I love Weis.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Here's to the new year and to the year of the snake!

Unveiled - 200 years of wedding glamour @ Western Australia Museum

I went with a couple of workmates to a very glamourous exhibition at the WA Museum - 200 years of wedding fashion.

It was amazing to see dresses from 1828 right through to Dita Von Teese Vivienne Westwood wedding dress to the divine Christian Lacroix dress. To learn the evolution of the white dress and the start of a multi-billion dollar industry.

It's definitely worth a peak. Unfortunately no photos are allowed so this outfit - a wedding alternative by Aurelio Costello outside in the foyer will have to do.

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Head down to the WA Museum and make it a day by having tea (or lunch or breakfast) at the Muse cafe (on the grousa of the museum) under the trees or in their tea rooms.

The exhibition is on until 24 of March so check it out! Oh and there is a small fee involve but it's cheaper then movie ticket! You could even book online at museum.wa.gov.au

Gong xi fa cai! (Happy Chinese New Year) and here's to the new hairstyle!

Today is Chinese New Year Eve and it is said that you celebrate by going back to your family homes and spend time with them and of course lots of food is involved.

Apart from eating, (which at the moment the feast is being prepared and I have helped my parents as much as I can with the preparation for our massive feast..(the post of the food will follow soon)) - Chinese people believe that you should cut your hair or trim it before you ring in the new year. This way you have gotten rid of what was bad before to welcome a happy and prosperous year.

A new look for a new year right?

I don't believe in the superstition, but coincidentally I ended up booking my hair appointment with Stephanie Chew owner and hair styler of S2C designs. Colour and trim and a fringe.

Stephanie prepping me for my colour

Colour done! and now sitting under "the egg" waiting for dye to set

She did a fab job I think and it didn't take as long as I thought it would! Yay! And as always reasonably priced at $120 for colour, cut and style for mid-length hair, not bad for Perth hey!?

She was rather busy today so there wasn't as much chatter although I did find out that she just got engaged! How exciting!

Anyway here's to new hairstyle and of course a Happy Year of the Snake!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

What do you think? Before the haircut on the left - waiting for her to finish with her previous client and the after on the right? I also ended up dying it a couple of shades lighter than my hair but keeping it as natural looking as possible.

From Piccaso to Warhol.. Exhibition

I went to see Piccaso to Warhol - 14 artist through the modern art age and it was pretty amazing. Pollack, Piccaso wow.

I can now fully appreciate the fuss that surrounds modernist and surrealist. Usually I tend to appreciate the romanticism age of painting and those of Van Gough and Leonardo and Monet. Now I have a new appreciation for the modern artists and surrealists.

The exhibition is in it's last days now (having shown for a good 6 months) and will finish this Saturday so if you get a chance try and see it. Totally worth it!

Here's a bit of previews from the photos I took from the exhibit.

Piano man

As part of the Awesome Festival for the school holidays there are random pianos (and out of tune) scattered all across Perth and the Cultural Art Centre. You are encouraged to jump on one and twinkle the ivory keys.

I took a photo of this ole business man sitting at one of the Pianos in the middle of Murray street mall. He looked rather shy and awkward when jumping onto the seat at first, but then one he started to play he was rather relaxed and seemed almost like a kid.
It was a pity that the street performer near him was making such a horrible racket with some toy DJ machine and his laptop.

I sneaked in a photo, because for some reason, seeing this after work, after I got off the bus and away from the peak hour traffic horror, it made me smile.

Date night

Bf and I have date nights where we spend time together as a couple minus our friends and family (not that we mean that we don't love being in their company as a couple, but you know you need your own couple time). So a few weeks (to a month?) back we went to see the Mousetrap (a murder mystery) on stage, at His Majesty Theatre.

The Mousetrap, a Agatha Christie novel (not the mousetrap game nor the kid's movie!), was really quite a spectacular show. It has been running for 60 years (this is their 60th year!). Like I said before it's a murder mystery and the answer to "who dunnit?" question is asked to be kept as a secret after each show so that it can be enjoyed by others. You can't even Wikipedia it! Trust me! Anyway, the show is much faster paced that I imagined with bits of humour through all the seriousness of the murder. The best bit is trying to guess the twist (and believe it or not we got it right!). If it comes back to Perth you really should go and see it, otherwise it's still running on Broadway and West End and will be travelling to New Zealand.

  

The set of the Mousetrap @ His Majesty's Theatre

OLIVER'S RESTAURANT on James Street

 

Before the show the we had dinner at Oliver's Restaurant on James street in Northbridge, which was something bf wanted to go back and try and we really did enjoy it last time we were there. Unfortunately, this time around it was rather disappointing (and they still have this strange fascination with sprouts!!)

We ordered an entree special - a prawn ravioli dish. It came out and the presentation was rather clumsy. They gave us THREE huge pieces of ravioli and it looked like well.. something threw up, but I guess at least it smelt good.  

 

The prawn ravioli special.

But apart from the dish smelling beautiful, this was where it ended. The pasta was not cooked and you can clearly tell it wasn't by the fact that it still tasted like dough! and when you look at it, it was still that uncooked dough colour, EXCEPT they have tried to hide it with their yellow sauce. EPIC FAIL. 

 

I think it's rather unacceptable that this was to happen. But hoped that this was just a lapse (not that that's an excuse! especially seeing as it was the special!).

Our mains consisted of their regular a la carte menu of pork belly for the boy and the fish special for me. 

Pork belly

Bf enjoyed his dish although the crackling wasn't too crackled, the pork was succulent and the sauce matched well, although he did wish there was more.

The fish special of snapper with bacon pieces and scallops on the other hand, although cooked well, not overcooked, had this very strong fishy smell that you sometimes get when the fish is off or starting to be and I just hope that wasn't the case (I didn't get food poisoning so it wasn't the case!). I couldn't fish the meal though because of the smell, it just got to me too much.  The scallops on the other hand were cooked perfectly.

The fish special

It really was a disappointment that the meal was rather lack-luster and in fact bordering failing and to top it off the waiters tried to charge us for distilled water which we didn't have. Pity because we had such a good time the last two occasions we went to Oliver's.

THE MOON CAFE

 

After watching Mousetrap we hunted for a dessert place in the city, (not a cake place - because then we would have ventured to No. 44 King Street Cafe) which did not exist much to our disappointment.  So we drove into Northbridge and sat at the Moon and ordered our dessert of mud cake for the boy and the Afghan cookie for me. 

The Moon's chocolate mud cake with ice cream

The mud cake was rather heavenly and was not dense like it traditionally is but the hot chocolate sauce it came with was the perfect match to the ice cream and cake.

The Afghan Cookie

The Afghan cookie is a biscuit with a punch with pecan nuts mixed through it. It was crunchy and has this wonderful nutty flavour to it. It's divine with the chocolate sauce and ice cream. It made the night.

The great thing about the Moon is the fact that it provides hearty food in the dead of the night (and decent food at that) and has a great range of desserts including dessert pizza (big enough to satisfy all sweet tooth). It's chilled and filled with backpacker waiters. The service isn't the best but the vibe and love is there.

Overall, the night date was just the perfect bit of culture, excitement, disappointment and delight. The perfect way to spend it with my boy.