Macho's Mummy: Working holiday in Perth 30th Sept

I have been spending most of my summer holidays since 2005 doing researches for my school. I wouldn't consider myself to be passionate about researches although I don't think I repel the thought of being a part-time researcher.

One of the requirements for doing a summer studentship research for my school is I have to take part in a poster competition where I have to compete with my other fellow colleagues. The one with the best / most meaningful research will then have to represent New Zealand to compete with the Australians at the ANZ IADR conference.

I did not win any prize this year (or any previous years hehe). However, the school was extremely generous and decided to sponsor all of us who took part in the competition to attend the conference that was held in Perth this year. We found out about this great news early this year and the time finally arrived after all the preparations (we had to prepare a A0 size poster supplement to our presentation) and long wait.. I took off to Perth on the 30th Sept; last Tuesday.

As we were all given a fixed amount of money, I tried to cut on costs by taking a midnight shuttle leaving Dunedin on Monday evening 8:30pm. I arrived at Christchurch airport 3am the next day and waited for 2 hours before I could check in at the Pacific Blue airline counter. Including transiting time at Sydney airport, the journey totaled up to about 10hours. It was a good 10 hours though as I managed to get lots of sleep with the aid of motion sickness pill(s).

I was all excited about going to Perth especially at the thought of finally being able to enjoy some good long sunshine as well as get away from a place that requires me to wear layers of clothing just to stay warm. As I walked out of the airport after arrival, a wave of cool air welcomed me. It was just the right weather!! Not too hot and not too cold. Perhaps would be better if it was a little warmer but not having to put on my down jacket all the time - it was simply awesome!

Quickly hopped into a cab, I headed straight to the Trinity college - McDonald court. It's a hall of residence for the students of University of Western Australia (UWA) but it also has a few apartment units specially catered for visitors. Each self-contained unit consists of 2 bedrooms and therefore the unit was just right for all of us (5 in total).

At the main entrance of Trinity college.

Straight after unpacking, we wandered out hunting for food... and to my delight - Malaysian restaurant!! :):) Being the Penang Char Kway Teow lover, how could I resist the temptation?

The cook was from Penang so I had high expectation. Tasted good overall; however, if less salty - perfect.

My meaning of 'working holiday' - some work and lots of fun. Some work = the rest of my first day and part of second day were spent reading up on the background information for my research again so I could present it and attend to all questions smoothly..