The weekend was pretty cold really. Saturday I think the maximum temperature was 7 degrees. Cold. Damned cold. I stayed indoors with my heater on for most of the day. But on Sunday I wanted to go somewhere instead of being cooped up in the apartment.
As it turned out, there were three of us that wanted to explore. M1 and M2, and a Chinese teacher by the name of Lily, who met us at the West Gate.
The HyMall is about 3 kms from the college - and it is a pleasant walk. Apparently it is a problem getting the bus - so walking is the best option. It is a good walk through much of the built up area and industrial sites. Just prior to reaching a big canal which had a huge barge travelling in it, we found a walled area that is farmed. There were elderly men tending the garden there.
We noticed too that along the walk the wonderful streetscape plants were all in bud - magnolia buds about to burst forth, and camellias every where.
When we reached the HyMall we entered an amazing supermarket. One that I will put right on top of my list of preferences. It is a TESCO supermarket - I think TESCO is an English chain.
It was huge - and what a surprise, much of the product has English labelling. Whoo Hoo. I can at last tell what is in the packages!
And as we were walking around one of our students from the college who works there as a promo girl for a dairy company spoke with us. There are a few staff there that speak some English.
The bakery section was wonderful - with a whole lot of baked items that we recognised, and a whole lot of very interesting items. There was hot chickens!!!! M2 and I bought one. Very small chicken - would never have made it to our supermarkets, but for us it was a pleasant change. They also had wonderful looking meat balls in sauce, duck and chicken in sauce for take way. The array of meats in the butchery was excellent.
I have no means of cooking at this point, so it was a matter of looking and planning! The items in the freezer section were well labeled and very enticing, and they had a great range of fresh fruit and vegetables.
On and on we walked - trying NOT to buy anything - as we somehow had to carry it back with us. And we weren't sure how we would get home!
It was a great adventure - we were so pleased to see so many foods with labelling that made some sense to us. Much of the product was of course Chinese, but the English labelling was excellent.
In the end we did have a few bags of goodies to carry and luckily we found a taxi that took us right home to the college. The taxi fare was less than $2!
I think that supermarket will be a very popular haunt for us Aussies!
Now I must buy a wok and work out how the stove works.
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