Gage Roads

Ladies Who Lunch have done it again: this time in Fremantle. We went to Gage Road Brewery right on the waterfront, in the re-purposed “A Shed”. The venue is huge - no need to book with its enormous capacity. This aerial photo is from their own website:

We had planned to sit outside and watch all the ships coming and going into the port, but there was a sudden change in the weather and it was actually raining! There was also a cold wind blowing in from the sea.

The brewery produces about ten different beers. I ordered the most popular (Summer Ale, I think it’s called) while Val always goes for cider.

For eats, we went for tacos:

This was my serve: chicken with a spicy salad.

As we were eating, we watched a few guys with professional equipment making a promotional video:

Then they ordered themselves a big lunch off camera.

Before we left, I took a photo of some of the vats:

The beers all have strange names. I’m not sure how Gage Roads select them.

It was an interesting venue for a delicious lunch. I want to go again.

Malaysian Dreams

One of the vlogs I follow on YouTube ( Tread the Globe) are currently in Sabah. They go out for breakfast every day. My mouth waters when I see them eating roti. I discovered that there is a Malaysian restaurant not far away, so I headed there this morning:

Roti telur w. spicy sauce.

Must try their lunch menu next!

All this reminds me of my own trip to Sabah. I was working at UWC in Singapore and joined their expedition to climb Mt. Kinabalu. I was keen to show that even their Librarian was up for an adventure. Everything was organised to the 9th degree. We had several porters who carried all our food up the mountain. It had to last a few days and consisted of large quantities of rice, in which we hid more valuable items such as tins of corned beef and a bottle of whiskey. This was to protect our supplies from pilfering! Everyone had an apple and an orange every day.

The group of sixth formers and staff was divided into groups of 4 or 5. Each group set off at 15 minute intervals. At a rest stop, they had to wait for the next group to arrive, to make sure all was well. I remember we ate a lot of curry, as the leader’s partner was Indian. The students begged me to cook something different one night, so I produced corned beef hash which went down well! I wish I could find my photos of the trip, but they are long gone in the days before blogging.

Not many can say they have climbed Mt Kinabalu (4095 m) and the highest mountain in Borneo.

Return to Mandurah

After too many hot days in a row, including more 40 degrees forecast, it was time for another brief Mandurah escape. The sea breeze always brings down the temperature to some extent.

When I arrived at Seashells, I was annoyed to find no spaces in the undercover carpark, except for at least half with a big Reserved sign on them. These belonged to penthouse suites and other apartments privately owned, but they were all unoccupied. In the end, I parked next to all the laundry trolleys waiting to be collected. I soon got a phone call asking to remove my car. I insisted they found me another spot : and not one outside in the hot sun. I’ve never had this problem before and put it down to the fact that Seashells staff must be using the spaces. Anyway, I did get a covered park and could relax and have a siesta.

I’m on the first floor with a view over the lake:

This is the sea view at the front of the property:

One issue with this room is the enormous TV screen which glowed with this picture all night long:

There are also a couple of new pics by Emma, whose work is all over the hotel: