Every prospectors who saw the huge gold nugget soon started to dig deeper and quicker, hoping they will strike similar jackpot, if not bigger. More and more immigrants started to flow in from across the world during the gold rush in Kalgoorlie and soon after, the number of immigrants in Australia far outweighed the number of ex-convicts that were sent here from Britain.

We then waited til 4 p.m. for the gold pour demonstration. Sadly, camera is off-limit as well in the hall, so no photo was taken.

A gold bar was placed in a crucible and was left to burn and melt in a furnace. The furnace was burning at around 1000 degrees Celcius as it was the melting point of gold. We can really felt the heat eminating from the furnace as we sat several feets away from it.

The worker then took out the burning crucible and pour the gold liquid into a cast and it was left to cool and solidified for about 3 minutes - just enough time for the worker to remove his safety goggle and fireproof clothing. Then, he submerged the cast into a tank of cold water for about 1 minute and..Voila! A 24 carat (99.9% purity) gold bar has just been created! Too bad the gold bar was worth about $400,000 so it's impossible for it to be passed around and to let us have a feel of it. =(

At the end of the demonstration, a security guard was waiting at the side exit. The guy who showed us the gold pour said that he will be escorted to the office each time at the of his demonstration, so that the gold bar that can be weighed and verified. If the weight of the bar doesn't tally with that in the record, he will be without a job tomorrow. If it tallies, then we can all come back tomorrow at 10 a.m. and listen and watch him repeating the same thing all over again. LOL



There is a self-operating minting machine near the exit. For a mere $2, you can mint your own coin and have it as a token of souvenir.



My mistake was to remove the coin too soon with my hand, and that is why the fingerprints are visible on the surface of the coin. Sigh~

We took a stroll around the city somemore before catching our bus home at the Wellington Station.


Everywhere we went that day, there was this news headlines stating 'Masterchef Relegates Election Debate'. The nation will be helding their federal election on 21 August, and the new Premier Julia Gillard has decided to seek fresh mandate from the people (unlike our *cough* Na *cough* Jib).

But, the reality show Masterchef has taken over the country by storm and there is nothing to stop the viewers from catching the Grand Finale episode this Sunday. NOT EVEN A LIVE ELECTION DEBATE between the PM and the Opposition Leader.



So, politics has to take a back seat and rescheduled their election debate to 4.30 p.m. today as not to coincide with Masterchef finale that will be showing at 7.30 p.m.

I will be rooting for Adam - the guy that looks like a samurai - because he is a MALAYSIAN!!

As you guys may have probably known, the World Cup can really consume a great deal of time off your daily schedule; not to mention the amount of energy it consumed to stay awake at 2.30 in the morning almost daily to watch the more interesting matches on telly.

There is this Malaysian restaurant smacked right in the heart of Perth CBD that serves reasonably delicious and economically-priced foods.

We reached there around 1.15 p.m. and not surprisingly, there was a good queue of people lining up for some cheap, delicious Malaysian fare.

Vivian ordered the Garlic Roasted Chicken Rice, as it's the closest semblance to our usual chicken rice back in Malaysia that you can possible get here.

I've tried the chicken rice before, so I ordered Roast Chicken but with noodles instead.

It looks really tempting upclose and the chicken was great and never disappoint as usual. However, the noodles were a bit bland and soggy - which wasn't exactly to my liking.

Anyway, the total meal cost us A$ 12.00 which is something you don't usually get here as a plate of Nasi Lemak can easily cost you A$ 10.00 (not to mention there is no 'santan' in the Aussie's version of Nasi Lemak...*Huge sigh*)

Later on, we wandered around the city to burn off the calories. =)

There is a new Apple store that just opened in the city and it looked pretty inviting. We went inside and took the opportunity to try out the new Apple iPad. It's a cool gadget, something like a bigger version of an iPhone and so I don't see myself owning one anytime soon since my iPhone pretty much perform the same tasks for me. But for those using Blackberries, perhaps iPad is the ideal complement to compensate for what the iPhone has and the Blackberry is lacking.

We also went to an Oriental groceries shop in Northbridge and it's possibly the biggest one I've ever been into. They have an impressive array of all things Asians and we were excited to find that they actually sell Salted Fish as we've been looking for it for a very long time yet to no avail.

One thing about Oriental supermarket is that their owners or cashiers aren't really friendly. They always seemed to be annoyed when you're paying for your stuffs at the counter, rather than looking happy and friendly that someone actually contributing to their overheads! Perhaps it is an 'Asian thing' as well? Hmm...