Automatic Checkout Teller - Stockland Woolsworth

While we were buying bread this afternoon at Stockland Woolworth's we encountered a new beast at the checkout - An automatic checkout machine. Extremely Complex with 20 different slots and outlets. Basically, the customer had to press start and scan their items on the machine, placing each item in a plastic bag before continuing to the next. The machine was very particular about the order. After that you had the option of paying via cash (even accepts 5cents coins... hehe), credit card or EFTPOS. It was a particularly fun. However, just to make sure we werent scamming Woolworth's, they had a checkout operator watching us all the while with eagle eyes. I suppose they've had people scan 1 item and then stuff 6 into the plastic bag.

They've had this machine for 8 months now but this is the first time we saw it... Pretty interesting but a bit slow if you're in a rush. I suppose its a viable alternative if the regular checkout lines are congested.

Birthday Breakfast

Joe was very sweet to me on my birthday. He knows that I had to work on my birthday, he tried his best to spend the morning with me with a nice yummy breakfast.
He was looking online, which place is nice for breakfast. Unfortunately, I had to go to work, so we can't go too far. So I decided on having breakky on Ba Ba Black in East Perth at the very last minute.



Ba Ba Black is a small cafe situated at the corner of Plain and Royal St.
People there were nice and friendly.
We had english breakfast tea.



A big breakfast



and a super huge pancake.
This was the best pancake I ever tasted in my life. Trust me.
But I couldn't finish it. So sad.

After breakfast, I went to Miss Maud to get some cakes for my colleagues at work.
It's a tradition to buy cake for everyone on your birthday. I know it's weird, but I think it's quite nice. I love sharing nice things with people on my birthday haha :)
I bought Black Forest cake and they loved it.



Annette bought me Baci and a birthday card, and a new girl Racheal gave me ferrero rocher.
So nice of them.. I'm happy~

Thank you everyone that wished me on my birthday. Really happy.

Pre Birthday dinner @ Alure, Burswood

Joe booked a table at Alure in Burswood on my birthday.
I wore pretty dress that day... and it was sleeveless!

Anyway, let's talk about what we had that day.



This was on the house. Strawberries cubes in watermelon juice.
Not too bad, quite refreshing, it's just not chilled enough.



Watermelon Martini. Love it :)

For our entrees, we ordered quite a few dishes and it was fantastic.



Sashimi platter & Beef Tataki.



We had those and felt we need more for entree, so I ordered one more.



Crab Cake. It was soooo yummy!! I never try this in my life! Very special.
Compliment to the one who created this dish.

As for our mains. we ordered 3 dishes to share.



Seafood Platter



Red Emporer



Pork with pomegranate gravy.
Not too sure about that mains.. Joe, Frances & I agreed that the mains were a bit dissapointing.
Seafood was fresh but taste abit bland. Pork was abit too tough but gravy was quite creative. Red Emporer was good, no comment on that.

We had dessert after that. I read some reviews on the internet about the desserts in Alure.
So I must try the dessert, no matter what.
We had the Torrone ice cream, toffee center, white chocolate crust



Valrhona chocolate fondant with iced double cream



It was beautifully decorated and it took about 20-25min to prepare the dessert as they make it on scratch. It was impressive and the taste of it was excellent.



I had to take a photo with it :P



Alure had won quite a few awards for the past few years.
Definitely going back there one day probably for the entree and dessert :P Yum.