Toby's Estate, Chippendale

Named after its founder, there are four Toby's Estate owned and run cafes in Australia - two in Sydney, one in Melbourne and one in Brisbane. They also have one cafe in Singapore and another one in New York.

After 11 years in Sydney and passing this cafe countless times, I finally had the chance to try their coffee all thanks to my ex-DLC bestie, Jennie, who was re-visiting Sydney from HK. We were doing touristy stuff across the road on the grounds of the University of Sydney, so we had to refuel with some chow.

After some time of renovations, now we could see their roastery through a panel of glass.

Since I had a mocha over at Dave's, I ordered a cappuccino ($3.80) here and was very happy with it. Just like what Peter (my PhD supervisor, who is also my occasional coffee advisor) said, they have good coffee here.

Peter also recommended their french toast because he said it is unique. And so I ordered one to share with Jennie. Mmmm, their french toast with spiced poached pear, strawberries and chai anglaise ($13.50) - yummeh! However, we felt that we could have had a tad more anglaise.

Jennie wanted to be 'health-conscious' and ordered a Botanica cold pressed juice ($8.50). A very green one and she enjoyed it. She even kept the jar.

Toby's Estate, Chippendale
32 - 36 City Road, Chippendale, NSW 2008, Australia
Tel: +61 2 9112 1131
Weekdays 7:00am to 4:00pm (Takeaway from 6:30am)
Weekends 8:00am to 4:00pm

Sports Carnival 2008

You must be wondering why I still attend events organised by the 4 Malaysian student unions. To cut to the chase, and also to admit, it is because I freaking BOTHER and haha, I like to be where there are many people.

So, I set my alarm to wake me at 7 in the morning. When it rang, I turned it off and ended up waking up half an hour later. Ah, just in time to go to Coles to buy myself a bottle of Nutella, I thought. Arrived at Coles at 8 sharp, just to be reminded that daylight saving has ended, which means I was ONE HOUR EARLY...

Sigh, nevermind. So I forgotten to turn my clocks back an hour. Thank goodness for petrol stations. Managed to buy my breakfast and lunch there. I ended up arriving really early at the Sports and Aquatic Centre of the University of Sydney. Super early lor...

Main reason for being there was to support Jenny. You should see Jenny in action on court and off. So, er, excited and into the game...

Must be the Gatorades and the Red Bulls that she's had that's making her so pumped up:

The carnival also served as a meeting point, too. Met up with MGM and MFest dancers from last year, like Ru Jih, May Wan, Edison and Kok Kit, who is also my primary schoolmate.

Ah, not forgetting the Mauritian turned Malaysian, Jonathan Leung.. haha..

I've not had so much fun in a long time. This kind of fun only comes when you feel like you are part of a group. On this day, I definitely felt like I belonged. What's funny is that I barely knew this group of people in the morning. By the end of the day, we were exchanging phone numbers, e-mail addresses and snapping photos. I'd have to thank Jenny for introducing her new committee to me! But then, I was also in a self-introducing mood that day, or in Jenny's words, "expanding network mood": Hello, I'm Chrys, er, I didn't get your name. Nice to meet you!

Out of all the new friends I made, I liked three of them the best; Pek Lynn, Vivian and Shaun:

That was what I was up to the entire day, other than cheering for MASA (yes, yes, I am betraying MSA but, hey, I know more people in MASA and they are way cuter and more happening). But, as usual, MSO took the trophy home. They beat everyone else flat in volleyball, basketball, netball, soccer and badminton. MSA won tennis. I think. I cannot recall the results. But, I do know that MSO is overall champion (again), MASA is second, MSA third with SUAMS in last position.

In between, I also took some time to walk around campus, walk Ru Jih back to International House, as well as Chris to his Jewish College accommodation. Ended up finishing off Ru Jih's packet of peanut M&M's, posing to let her check whether I look more like Charlene or Gillian, and talking about relationships. Sigh, Ru Jih, still young la you, enjoy life la. Chris gave me a tour of his college and showed me the MILO can that he's on.

After the sports carnival, Jenny and I went out for dinner in Newtown with Miow. That was when he told us the exciting story of how Nic was issued a speeding fine. He even recorded it on his phone! Dessert was had at the Taiwanese tea place on George Street with Edison. Such a gentleman, he. Not only did he pay for my tea, he paid for my signature hot chocolate as well! Thank you, yea... We finished off the day gossiping, critisizing, hypothesizing and laughing at the wateredge of Darling Harbour.

Congrats!

This post is especially dedicated to a beloved member of our household here in suburban Epping.

She is a person who is way different from me. She is intelligent, has plenty of discipline and determination.

She has a fiesty persona and has a very contagious cute laugh.

She is hardworking in every aspect: studies, exercise, watching One Tree Hill and making fun of her cousins....

And gosh, her eyelashes can sweep dust off your face if you let her come close enough!

I would say that she's tough on the outside but tender on the inside. A little like her bro.

Okay, main point of this post is to congratulate her on receiving the International Merit Scholarship from the University of Sydney, which is worth AUD5,000! Woohoo!!! All the hard work paid off!

Oh, so looking forward to the buffet, whenever that will be!


Erin, we're so proud of you!!! Love ya!!!

Audrey in Sydney (Episode 2)

Day 3:

Lunch was this


and was shared between all of us


at where else? The Sydney Fish Market, of course! Oh, Auds and I shared a serving of lobster, too. Exquisito mucho!

We saw Nic's new place for the very first time today and it's a good place (when the doors and lifts are working, that is). Jona, Auds, Shaun and I then headed over to Bondi to try the infamous Fried Mars Bar Sern Li was telling us about during lunch. And also because Bondi is another must-see place when you're in Sydney. If you look at the signboard in the pic below, you'd notice that there are quite a few things that you are not allowed to do or bring to the beach. Sheesh... and don't Auds and Jona look sweet together? Aw....



We went climbing over the rocks to watch how some people were fishing. We also enjoyed the big splashes of waves that went up at least 6 feet high. Something very embarrassing happened to Auds but I'm keeping mum. You wanna know? Go ask her yourself. And so the day ended with...



Day 4:

Shaun wanted Auds to see his main campus and assured her that she will like the place. I mean, who won't? It's the oldest uni in Aus so off we went and Auds couldn't stop taking pics. The Main Quadrangle exudes charm and it's Harry Potter-ish features make everyone go 'ooh' and 'aah'.


Darling Harbour was our next stop but Darling Harbour is not much fun, really. I mean, we're not kids so we can't actually see the fun there but it was something we had to tick off our itinerary. Auds took pics of the city skyline, which I will not be posting here as we know what a city looks like and almost all cities look the same.

Days 5 & 6:

We spent the day bumming around. I had to finish off as much of my essay so days 5 and 6 we 'bumming-the-house' days. On Day 6, we had visitors from Adelaide and Perth over for dinner at Borelli's. So we had people from everywhere! Nic, Miow, Shaun, Erin and myself are Sydneysiders, Auds is a Melbournian, Josh came up from Adelaide, Kevin is from Perth and his sis came over from Subang for a holiday. A mini reunion sort of thing, just that it's also with newly introduced people. After dinner, we came home and they played a few rounds of poker.


I later served dessert, which was a chocolate mud cake Auds and I baked earlier in the day. I served it with strawberry and Bulla vanilla ice-cream! Yum! Too bad I didn't take a picture of what I made. And when Nic lost all his chips, he resorted to doing silly stuff like taking pictures of this:



Day 7:

We frantically packed our bags and made sure everything was unplugged, all windows and doors tightly closed. I had to check and re-check that I brought everything necessary should I manage to arrange for an interview. And at 5:00pm, we started walking towards the station to catch the train to the Domestic Terminal to board our flight to Melbourne. And so it was tonight that our Melbourne Winter Adventure started.