My last minute Melbourne trip (Episode 2)

I met Audrey's parents and grandmother for the first time today. We had breakfast at their place - nice townhouse Auds rented for them - before we headed down south. South-east to be more exact. We decided to take the coastal road while we it was bright and only take the freeway at the end of the day. Hence, we made a random brief stop to take in the freezing sea breeze. I took the opportunity to snap pictures of the infamous colourful Melbourne boathouses:

And look at this! This car was in front of us more than half the journey! I quickly took a picture of it as there are very few of these around. Notice how far apart the driver and the passenger are sitting. Oh, and it's left-hand drive...

Our first stop was Sorrento, town of Vanilla Slice. Honestly, it was nothing spectacular but worth a try. It's erm, a slice of pastry in vanilla-flavoured cream/fluff. Haha.. I'm bad at describing the things I eat. Sorrento is a quiet coastal town with a port that caters to ferries departing to and arriving from Philip Island and apparently Tasmania. It enjoys fresh air and picturesque scenery. There are also many B&B outlets, which suggests tourism demands.

Unfortunately for me and fortunately for my bank account, the glass art gallery down by the beach was not open. Otherwise, I think I'd have bought myself a pretty ball of paperweight.

On the way to the car to drive to the back beach, we saw this cute thing!!!:

Having explored the 'front' of Sorrento, we headed to Back Beach. It's still Sorrento but at the back where the waves are higher, stronger and wilder. The wind is much chillier and the seagulls seem to take longer to fly from one end of the photograph to the other. And, it did seem like the sky was threatening to pour...

Despite the gloomy weather, we were determined to see the places we planned to. Thereon, we drove inland to Arthur's Seat Maze. I'll leave it to the photographs to showcase the brilliant autumn colours and well-manicured gardens. Too bad we didn't have the sun or else we could have captured near perfect pictures!

Oh, and we took silly pictures as well. This place had all sorts of mazes and one of them was made out of gigantic tyres:

Oh, and let's have a task for you - spot Audrey!

Aud's dad walked on this maze that was supposedly 1.5km long...

After practicing our mazing skills, we finally attempted the main maze.

Auds and I followed her grandma and we were the first ones out! It was pretty scary as the hedges were really tall!

We'd definitely have sweet memories of this place.

Maybe our next visit should be when the maize maze is open!

We were left with this image to ponder on for the journey back to Clayton. Aud's mum thought it was a rock. I thought it was a cargo ship. What do you think that was in the horizon?

My last minute Melbourne trip (Episode 1)

Seeing that Auds came to Sydney to see us, I took the chance to visit her (and also my youngest aunt and cousin) in Melbourne. It was a very on-the-spot decision. She was telling me about her graduation and I asked if she had friends attending it. When she said no, I asked if she'd like me to come. She was surprised but hmm, I guess it's nice to surprise people once in a while. What was even more surprising was that my dad allowed me to go.

It was quickly put together. Looked up the flight tickets on Virginblue, bought them and started planning. We exchanged emails on our itinerary, I informed my workplaces about my leave, arranged for a dinner with my relatives and it was all set.

I was so excited about the trip that I forgotten that I had an afternoon shift at OOSH! I went, "See you next week!" and Sue was like, "No, this afternoon!"

I arrived Melbourne late on a Monday night. Auds came with Ryan in a car she rented. I think it was a Nissan Tiida hatchback, auto with a CD player. Luckily, I didn't bring any of my own CDs for if I did, I'd pity the people in the car with me.

Auds lived on a road that branched off the road my bro lives on. By foot, it would probably take only 5 minutes to get to her place. She lived in a 3-bedroom townhouse with a fellow Malaysian, Chiang Wey and a Chinese lad, Titus. Occassionally, Yvette, Titus' girlfriend would also stayover. Auds had the master bedroom and Titus was sweet enough to lend us his extra single mattress.

Before heading to dreamland, we looked up the map for the directions for our journey tomorrow.

The Girl Effect

I just had to show you guys something Pet shared with me:

Impromptu Chef

The video of Auds cooking, as promised:



Oh, and not forgetting, the end product:

Audrey's Sydney Weekend Getaway!

I can already see a few heads shaking and thinking, "Wah, she came in April leh, now only you blog about it ar?"

I can only say one word: SORRY.

But, haha, better late than never right?? =P

So, due to my poor memory, I will not go into every single tiny detail of her weekend here with us, other than the fact that it was wet when she arrived when it was sunny the week before. I can also disclose that she arrived late on a Thursday night, as I remember going to the airport with Shaun after work. Oh, and be warned: this is going to be a long post as I'm squeezing the entire trip in.

Let's start with breakfast on Friday, the last meal we had with Justin before we had to drop him at the airport for his flight back to KL. I ordered pancakes with banana and a mug of my usual mocha:

Shaun and Justin ordered the same dish. I think it was poached egg on toast with bacon and smoked salmon:

After saying goodbye to Justin, we took Auds on a walk to let her soak in the cityscape of Sydney. And she went shutterbugging away! As this is her second time in Sydney, we only needed to cover the few landmarks that she missed the last time. We went to Hyde Park, which also covered the Archibold Fountain and St. Mary's Cathedral:

She couldn't resist the temptation to snap shots of what goes on in the park as well, for example a yoga (or pilates) class, and a bout of chess:

Oh, and I think we had people staring at us when she took shots of these:

After Jona finished working, he joined us for dinner at Newtown, with other Sydneysiders the girl knows. More 'crazy' people. After having Thai for dinner, we headed over to Mickey (I think its' called) for dessert. Jona was flirting with the waiter. Don't deny it Jon, you were... We only took pictures of two of the best slices of cakes we ordered, which were the lemon meringue and the Mars Bar cheesecake:

And of course, a picture with the two sweeties we introduced to her in Melbourne two years ago:

The next day, we made a trip to the place that's at the bottom of this signboard:

Jona insisted on a group picture in the car so here it is:

And Auds insisted I include this picture in this post so here it is:

Pictures paint a thousand word, right? What do the following pictures tell you about the temperature up there?

And it wasn't even winter yet! Geez! Luckily, the sun came out from behind the clouds after we parked the car and walked to the lookout at Echo Point. That allowed us to quickly snap a few better lit shots of the valley and why the place is called Blue Mountains:

As we were feeling hungry, we headed back down to town in search for food. We returned to Echo Point after lunch. While Jona paid for parking, he spotted a furry friend:

There were many walking trails but we decided to take the shortest one, which was to one of block of the Three Sisters. It was seriously no joke going down the flight of stairs as they were so steep! Jona took slightly longer to get down to the rock as he was doing this...

... that captured this:

While we were walking back to the car, Shaun and Auds took turns to experiment with Jona's DSLR, taking opportunity of the beautiful autumn colours. Here are some of the shots they took, including the Korean-poster-looking/wannabe one of myself:

The last stop was Leura, where we took Auds to the teahouse for scones and of course, tea. Oh, and there's always time for goofing around... haha...

After much deliberation, we finally decided to have homecooked food for dinner. So, we headed over to Coles to get some groceries and came home to prepare the food. Shaun let Auds have a go at the stove. It was something Shaun adapted from a recipe he learnt from Justin and it was yummylicious! There will be a video in my next post regarding this so do keep yourselves posted.

Auds left on Sunday night with a heavy heart but hey, all fine now, eh?

It's funny

The potato chip packaging crackles. The voice of Eliza Doolittle and Professor Higgins resonates in the hall. It's a lazy and cold Sunday afternoon in suburban Chippendale. It is now the beginning of the end of the first half of 2008. Winter is dripping wet this year.

Feeling fidgety from the mug of mocha two hours earlier, yours truly is now sitting in front of a friend's laptop screen churning out random thoughts on her blog while listening to Julie Andrew's singing in the background. It's funny how I blog when I have caffeine and alcohol in my body system. Simply funny.

Since many of my recent posts included pictures or videos, I thought this post would only contain words. Words. As empty as they are being just words, they are nevertheless important. At least to me. It's funny how the pitter patter of rain makes you think of what you say or do.

In a few days, the Melbournian will become a Sydneysider. Our Epping hall will yet again become a refugee camp. I am so glad that the sofa-beds are well-used. See, a first class Honours is not everything, my dear. Your second class upper has managed to secure you a place in one of the world's leading research institutes in children's medicine. We second class upper scorers rock!

I am looking forward to the change in dynamics in our Epping household. Now, it's 3 Leos against 1 Scorpio, with the lion having two lionesses in his pack. It's funny that I choose to look at it from an astrological point of view. I have an evil grin on my face now imagining the future.

Uprooting has consequences. It makes you think of both your past and your future. What shaped your present? What will become of you? It's funny that we reflect and ponder but do nothing about out thoughts. What good is just 'abstract doing'? What does that change? Nothing. It may change the way you think. It may change the way you talk and carry yourself. But in essence, does it really change anything?

The rain has stopped. The tip tap of my typing is clearer now. Passers-by avoid the brown puddles outside, just as we avoid setbacks in life. Once in a while, we misjudge a shallow pool of water and end up cursing an expletive when the water soaks our new suede shoes and opaque stockings. In my opinion, misjudging is what many of us do best. Every decision is like that puddle of water. It's funny how I think puddles of water represent the decisions we make in life.

Wouldn't it be lovely if decisions were all made for you? Wouldn't it be lovely if you had the world at your feet? Wouldn't it be lovely if there were no puddles of water?

Hell no.

It's funny I think that despite how inconvenient setbacks are in life, they are crucial in shaping a better designed future. Without these puddles, how would I know which puddles are deeper than others? How would I know which to avoid? How would I know which to ignore and just walk into?

I am still fidgeting from the caffeine in my system. I am distracted by the activity in the kitchen. What are we having for dinner, I wonder. Something hearty and warm, I hope. I am thinking of my trip to Gold Coast more than dinner. It's funny how an event further away from the present excites me more.

We want the future to come faster but prefer to revert to the past. Why is that? Have we not made mistakes in the past as well? We will also make mistakes in the future so why the preference? Funny how we are fickle-minded and are natural whiners.

Simply funny.

Let's start winter...

... with something that tugs at the heartstrings...

aiyo, so cute lah...

Here In My Home

Happy Anniversary!

To Mummy and Father,

Happy 30th Anniversary!

Your loving daughter, SJ.

Chee Kin in Sydney!

Remember the dance party I attended? Yes, the one that had me going home at 4:30am and sleeping at 5:30am. Guess what? I slept for a total of 3 hours and had to dash to Darling Harbour to meet a very important person - Mr. Fong Chee Kin!

You might be wondering who this person is. If you're not interested in my version, click on his name on the right and that will lead you to his lovely star-themed blog. But if you are too lazy to click the mouse button, here is my intro of this fine young lad:

I first got to know Chee Kin 14 years ago. At that time, he was probably as tall as my waist. He was an obedient and intelligent young boy with good manners and a helpful disposition. Occasionally, tempers would flare when his spelling results weren't as good as Jie Hui, Yi You or Li Xin's. He took very good care of his younger brother, Chee Seng. I especially remember the time I taught him some songs and a dance. His dance partner was Li Xin for the concert the year they were graduating and they made a really good pair! He also sang in my choir. I would have to say that out of all my students, he was one of the few that made quite an impact. And then, we lost touch...

Many people say that the internet is a God-sent. I would have to agree because it helped reconnect Chee Kin and I. It was through Friendster that I found him and we started to correspond. Alright, he's not the best when it comes to replying MSN messages but at least, we are in touch now. Imagine how excited I was when he told me that he would be coming over to Sydney!

Well, I guess I wasn't as excited as he was to be flying on the new A380. Yes, he's a plane maniac and no prizes for guessing that he wants to be a pilot.

During his time here in Sydney, his dad and he stayed at the serviced apartment directly opposite Xin Wen's old place. I think it was called Maestri Tower or something along that line. So, I was their tour guide for 3 days and I started it off with a hearty breakfast at Pancakes on the Rock. As it was a Saturday, the market was open and Uncle had a nice time looking at the bric-a-bric that were sold. And oh, we just had to take a picture since it's been such a long time since we met!

After that, we walked up to the Harbour Bridge to climb one of the pylons. Check out the view:

From there, we walked back down to Circular Quay where they had to confirm their day trip to the Blue Mountains. And how can you not take a picture of the coat hanger when you visit Sydney?

Of course, from there onwards would be the famous Opera House, which to Chee Kin (and myself) was more normal than fantastic.

I then brought them into the Royal Botanical Gardens to see the flying foxes hanging upside-down on the trees before heading down to Woolloomoolloo for some famous Harry de Wheel hotdogs.

Rest assured that I brought them to all the landmarks in Sydney - QVB, Town Hall, Chinatown, Paddy's Market, the University of Sydney, Sydney Fish Market, Chinese Friendship Garden, St. Mary's Cathedral, Hyde Park. I will not dwelve into details because firstly, I don't remember them very clearly anymore and secondly, I'm too freaking lazy to type them all out. But, I can tell you that I even drove them to Bondi Junction and Bondi Beach. Chee Kin was thrilled to buy himself a Quiksilver (or was it a Billabong?) sweater. Yes, I know what you mean when you say that the air-conditioning in Taylor's is cold. Oh, and Bondi Beach was where they had a taste of heaven - the world-famous Pork Ribs of Hurricane!

All in all, it was terrific to be able to just meet up with Chee Kin again. I hope you enjoyed yourself, dude. I know I enjoyed myself immensely!

Next time, bring Jie Hui along!