my new love

is 陶復邦！

Things about job searching is so constantly on my mind, i dreamt that i secured a job already.

=.=’

Aussie trip (Day 8)

Continuation from here.

Today is going home day!

And mr driver came to pick us from the hotel to the airport.

This time round we got no choice but to rent a trolley because we have too many stuffs to be carried by hand.

We are going home on airbus A380 (too bad i didnt get a chance to take a picture of the plane)!

And i get to sit business class!

Dad and mum definitely deserve the luxury for all their hard work through the years. For me, its an extra big bonus.

With the express departure tickets, we dont have to queue for immigration and security clearance!

Went to have lunch at the foodcourt:

Red rooster – a must must try when you are in aussie. The chicken is fabulous.

We didnt go to the silver kris lounge though, just shopped around for magazines before boarding:

I cant describe how omg freaking good the services are + the comfortableness i felt throughout the 8 hours of flight.

I read before somewhere that they address you by your name in BC. True enough, they addressed me by my surname i.e. ms sim. Not just one of the attendants but at least 3 of them i think.

The super comfortable seat which can be converted into a bed.

Big screen with useful compartments! On the left you open up to see a mirror with lights and the drink holder. On the right you have power source plugs (for your laptop etc).

Huge leg room and an area for you to prop up your legs.

Remote control + buttons for you to adjust your seat.

Time to say goodbye to aussie!

Before the flight took off the attendant came to take our orders on what drinks we would like after takeoff and what we wanted for dinner later on.

For meals, they actually lay out and set your table for you!

Appetizer:

 

Smoked duck breast meat. And the attendants came by with a basket filled with different varieties of bread and sauces for the salad. I chose garlic bread and honey mustard sauce.

Main course:

Chose snapper with black bean sauce with rice and veggies.

Dessert:

I chose brownie ice cream!

The meal was really sedaplicious.

And after that, we got to choose from a tray of filled with an assortment of cheese + crackers and fresh whole fruits that were pushed out and served.

Lastly, we were offered chocolates too, which i didnt take.

I originally planned to sleep onboard and i really dozed off during takeoff. But after that, i was wide awake throughout! Entertained myself with 3 1/2 movies. I missed the other half of the movie – sniper. LOL.

 

I love the sky.

During the flight, fresh hot refreshing towels were served 3 times, refreshments and tidbits – packets of potato chips, bars of chocolates were served continuously. And toilet wise, wow it was huge! Haha! I went to the wrong one throughout the flight! I didnt know ours was behind and i went to the one in front, which was the first class toilet. I think its at least 4 times the one in economy. Mum said the business class’s one is smaller than the FC but still huge.

Dad converted his seat into a bed and went into a deep sleep through the flight. It was a comfortable bed!

And 2 hours before we were due to land, we were served another meal.

Fried prawn noodles with tom yum sauce.

 

We got to alight from the plane first and our baggages were already on the conveyor belt even before we reached there – they were tagged priority. We didnt even have to wait for them to come out.

Its impossible for me to describe every thing but i just want to say that the whole experience was really cool. It was pure (wooh!)ness, shiokness and enjoyment. And thumbs up to the cabin crew, i would rate the service and experience 1000/100.

In future, if im going to take long flights again, i’ll want to save moolah and take BC again! 

And that sums up the whole of my aussie trip.

Till the next one!

Aussie trip (Day 7)

 

Based on recommendations from the guy who gave us road directions yesterday, we decided to go to Manly!

Its a super cold day today with super strong winds. And all of us left our jackets back in the hotel =.=’

No need to bring, we bring.

Need to bring, we never bring.

It felt like 5 degree celsius out there.

At the ferry terminal:

 

 

 

Now i see this photo then i realised that it was 18 DC on that day! Haha!  

Their ferries’ timings are super on the dot.

On the way there, got closer to the sydney harbour bridge!

 

Its like a small town with a beach, rows of shops and oceanworld etc. 

We walked down one side of the street and then back up on the other.

Shopping shopping shopping!

Reaching the end of the street we came to the beach.

And we continued shopping/walking the other side of the street.

A baazar!

After we were done, we took the ferry back.

Super excited, cause i know we will be passing by the sydney opera house!

When we were approaching it, i walked out and standby to snap snap snap. The huge gust of wind outside felt like typhoon. I couldnt even stand still, not to mention the wind felt like it was -100 DC. I was so afraid that the camera would slip out of my numbed hands.

Nevertheless,

Nice hairstyle.

Wanting to finish our unfinished shopping at Paddy’s Market + missing the taiwanese cuisine, we went right back to chinatown!

珍珠奶茶,  肉圆, mixture of 青菜, 海鲜面, 酸辣汤, 糖醋虾.

The 肉圆/ba wan as they call it, is something i always wanted to try. Our first time there, i saw it on the menu but sadly it was only available during weekends. And lucky me got to order it this time round!

Despite just finishing lunch, we saw a long queue outside this stall (located opposite taiwanese eatery) and the typical response is to go queue too!

 

OMG! Those mini puffs are so delicious! The insides are filled with custard-a-like cream. Do heed the caution on the board – it is freaking hot and since the insides are bursting with pipping hot filling, you have to pop one whole into your mouth (if you bite/ tear them into half, all filling will drip out). 

 

Super fresh fruits and vegetables at the market.

That very night, we went back to the food court for dinner. Being a saturday, it was bursting with people. Even the food court. So we decided to have KFC! Haha!

It was very fresh and nice. And so pipping hot that my fingers got burnt!

But what i really liked about is that they provided wet tissues with the meal!! See the get fresh packet?

 

No weather is too cold for an ice cream!

 

Sadly, that sums up the last night that we had in aussie.

Aussie trip (Day 6)

Continuation from here.

We took a lot of photos today (400+ just for this day).

Didnt go for breakfast because we planned to have a feast at the Fish Market!

Weather was not bad, cool air con temperature winds pairing with the scorching sun. Can feel the sun’s heat but wont perspire.

On the way to darling harbour,

However, we didnt know how to continue from darling harbour and so we began asking for directions. A lady told us that we could take the train but after we reached the station, we didnt know which of the 2 entrances to go down to. LOL. And we were so lucky to see another person there whom we can ask directions from, who asked us to follow him since he is taking the same train. Very nice person, he asked where we had been to already and gave us more suggestions on places to go!

Our stop is just 3 stops away and they have a conductor to collect the fee from you onboard. But we were at one end of the train, the conductor were at the other and we were about to get off soon. In the end we decided that dad would go up to the conductor to pay but on the way there the guy (who gave us directions) told dad that theres no need to. And really we got off without paying leh! I was nervous while getting off because later the conductor call police how? LOL.

I am pretty curious about this system. Because if the conductor didnt come fast enough to you and your stop is here you dont have to pay? From what i see is no one goes up to the conductor, everybody waited for the conductor to come. In the end my conclusion is that if you sat long enough for the conductor to come to you then you must pay for the ride. Hahaha!

5 minutes walk from the station, we reached! But its completely different from what i had imagined. I thought it would be like our wet market with individual stalls selling fresh raw seafood, then after you choose what you want they cook it on the spot for you!

What it was was actually a place full of cafes + restaurants, which serves plenty of cooked fresh seafood (in its original form, fried or baked etc) displayed out and awaiting hungry customers! Then there was this one market with all kinds of mostly raw seafood. So you can choose either to save the hassle and eat straight there or buy home and cook it the way you want!

Let me show you whats sold in the market first:

Its like a seafood heaven. They have so many types of seafood and many varieties on just that 1 kind of seafood, say for example, prawns alone they have at least 7 different kinds.

Oysters!

Octopuses and scallops!

Prawn bar!

I love the shell colour and pattern of this species of prawns!

Lobsters, crabs, crayfishes, seasoned mixture of mini octopuses, squids.

Blue mussels!

Look at the slabs of fresh sashimi!

1/10 part of the entire fish area.

I believe there are some that i didnt take photos of.

We actually wanted to eat in here, there are alot of mini stalls selling all the delicious looking seafood! But as you can see the crowd is terrible = we couldnt find seats. Therefore we decided to back to the first cafe we saw, the one nearest to the entrance.

The stalls actually more or less sell the same stuffs. And so this is how a cafe looks like:

You can choose

seafood in its original flavours, or

those with added flavours!

Our sumptuous brunch:

The prawns are really omg so damn fresh + super sweet + crunchy! Usually when you peel prawns – detaching the head from the body, some yucky black liquid ooze out right? These prawns here ooze out white liquid! Im not exaggerating but these are the nicest prawns ive ever eaten. Dad is the only one who ate oysters so they were all polished off by him and he said they were very good.

Cheese baked lobster and scallop + fried calamaris + prawn lollipops! Everything we had was really yummilicious! But the portions were just too big and we didnt really touched the sides. At least we managed to finish the seafood, if not very wasteful.

Next up on the agenda will be to the sydney aquarium! We took the train back to darling harbour and this time round, another conductor hopped onto the train at the 2nd stop and we managed to pay our fares before we got off.

Sydney aquarium is located at darling harbour but since it is such a huge place we didnt really know how to get there and so we followed the directions that people had told us. It was a big round away. I think we took at least 25 mintues to walk there. As we strolled, we took lots of pictures, to compensate the ones we took on the first night here that didnt turn out well.

Sydney tower and Australia’s flag!

Ha! If i inched 1cm towards my left, i would have fallen into the waters already!

The whole place is so big that they actually have these mini trams to fetch people from one end of the harbour to the other.

Just by looking the exterior, the place looks so small. But it actually took us 2 whole hours to explore the entire place. 

Too many photos to upload so i shall just upload some of them.

Colourful corals.

Sotong/squid (i dont know how to differentiate them) swimming! So graceful and i like its skin texture! + starfishes + lobster.

The-made-my-goosebumps come out eerie scary looking eels. Look at how they squirm in and out of the holes!

I love the jellyfishes (pun not intended)! Arent they pretty!?

Cute little penguins!

Nemo!

 

They were very fascinated with this coin spinning machine.

We are here to actually look at the dugong – mermaid of the sea but its not at the pool.

 

 

 

Ohhh~ We managed to catch the dugong here though! So cuteee!

Schools of fishes.

Look at this!

At first i thought that was the eyes and the mouth, looks like its face isnt it? But then i thought cannot be, how can the eyes be below? How to swim like that? Thats the nostrils la cause i think i saw the eyes up above later on. Hahaha! But i may be wrong.

Touch pool!

If i never remember wrongly these are sharks’ egg shells.

 

Ha! Dont the mini shark look like a missile?

Fun time i had in there.

  

Since we are already there, we decided to go shopping @ harbourside shopping centre because 90% of the shops were closed by the time we were there on the first night.

Oh my god, theres baskin robbins there too!

Sydney tower at night. I think i want to try climbing that too.

We had a late dinner that night at the chinesy restaurant again!

Yums but the portions were so big.

Burps.

Aussie trip (Day 5)

Continuation from here.

Woke up late today and dad and mum went for breakfast while i lazed in bed.

Afraid that the storm may come back anytime, we decided to go take photos with the landmarks first!

 Sydney Opera House.

 

Sydney Harbour Bridge.

We brought our jackets out but the sun is scorching hot. And so that makes phototaking so freaking troublesome. We have to pass the bags, jackets here and there plus balancing the camera while holding on to everything.

So ive decided to

just put on my jacket anyway.

But i find it so hot (and i think i look weird in it) that i took it off again =.=’

Mr Prime Minister stays right opposite!

And because my infamous jumping shots were unsuccessful even in bright (sunny) daylight, my dad decided to switch positions to see how it turns out.

As you can see, its still not successful. He looked like he was gonna do cartwheels. Heh.

Luna Park – one of the oldest amusement park.

Ive wanted to climb the harbour bridge initially but i didnt. Im definitely coming back to climb and to visit luna park! I went to the website, the rides looks fun! Admission is free, you just have to pay for the rides.

 

Singapore dont have ice-cream van hor?

After spending some time there, we proceed on to chinatown!

 

After effects of the sandstorm. Whats worse is that sydney is under water restriction during that period of time. I read news that the government is considering lifting the restriction to allow the residents to wash their cars and homes but i dont know if they did in the end.

And here we are!

Towards Australian and Chinese Friendship.

Eh! And while i was arranging these photos i saw yet another Dixon again! See towards the left. OMG! Haha!

We went shopping and i bought a bag from a shop that imports korean goods. And we went to the store opposite to have lunch. Its taiwanese cuisine!

朱妈妈台湾小吃.

The small cosy place is filled full with people. You can guess how nice their food was!

 珍珠奶茶, 糖醋虾, 海鲜粥, 鱿鱼羹, 热豆浆配油条, mixture of 青菜.

 Did i just say how nice the food was?

Anyway, it was time to digest all the food by shopping! To our delight, we found out that the Paddy’s Market that we were planning to go the next day was actually just opposite chinatown (30 seconds walk).

The only piece of cloud in the sky. Pretty.

After crossing the road (20 seconds to wait for the traffic lights)

and the tracks (10 seconds),

here we are!

It was a huge place. Bags, clothes, watches, footwear, fresh fruits & vegatables etc.  Stall owners are 90% asians.

 

However, it was thursday, late night shopping day in sydney! Shops are opened till 9pm instead of 5.30pm!! So as not to waste the opportunity, we decided to come back to Paddy’s another day and start on the shopping! We cabbed to

 

Pitt Street, where it is the largest shopping area in town (if i never remember wrongly).

This is the Sydney Tower.

So freaking happy when i saw

 MYER!

And so mum and i, went on a shopping spree! Poor dad had to wait for us outside (he didnt like shopping).  After about 2 hours, we went to the food court for a break and had fruits to quench our thirst!

Very fresh but costs A$8.

And the stall, had the trays of cut fresh mixed fruits displayed out and apparently the best seller because they just scooped bowls and bowls of it out. Just by looking at the attractove and colourful trays made me want to finish the entire tray up. I wanted to take a picture of them but was blocked by the crowd! Lol.

Very satisfied with what i got at MYER but because it was too expensive so i didnt really buy much. The place that i was dying to go to was Target. Cheap(er) and good! Before this we already asked alot of people where is it located. Alot dont know and some said Pitt Street. But we didnt see any there.

So we decided to call it a day and check it out with the concierge at the hotel. On the way back to the hotel, i decided to ask the cab driver if he knew. Turns out, there was one but not in the city area - it was quite a distance away, say 25 minutes cab ride? And we decided not to return to the hotel and go straight there – Bondi Junction.

Westfield Shopping Centre.

It was a huge huge place! Really really huge! Didnt get to explore all because i headed straight for Target!

And dad went for a 2 hour drink while looking after our loots from MYER.  

Before we went back, it was to Woolworths supermarket again! We went there to buy john west tuna – tastes really nice but is super expensive in singapore.

I was really happy to be able to get heels there! I never really shop for footwear in singapore because i know i cant fit into them. Spent alot but i think its better to buy there myself than ship them all back to singapore. I can use the exhorbitant shipping fees to buy so many more pieces of clothings.

Dinner that night was at the hotel’s chinese restaurant with a very chinesy feel!

 The service and food especially was 100 times better than the one we had in gold coast.

 

Thats the end of day 5! But the only regret i had was that why i didnt even think of going into David Jones to have a look. Wanted to kick myself in the ass. Ha!

Aussie trip (Day 4)

Continuation from here.

Today we are leaving gold coast. 

Great place, great people here.

Im so gonna miss this place.

Went to have our last breakfast here before going to the lobby to wait for mr driver to come fetch us to the domestic airport.

Very nice pool scenery behind!

On the 1 hour 20 minutes way there, mr driver told us about the sandstorm in sydney that morning which we were clueless about. Of course we were worried that the flight got cancelled or what, or that we flew all the way there and couldnt do anything.

We got pretty lost at the domestic airport. LOL. Do you know that theres no need to have your passports chopped when you are travelling domestically? And we were like looking for the passport chopping counters. HAHA! Another thing is you will only see about 10% of the people using a trolley to carry their lugguages. Thats because trolleys are rented at A$4 a cart. We also had to pay for our excess baggage. After we solved all problems and crossed the security check, we went to the food court to have snacks while keeping an eye on our departure time. Lots of flight were cancelled and delayed and there were so many people at the airport.

Our flight was being delayed for an hour initially, then longer, then shorter again. Kept changing. So we went to the gate and continued to monitor.

Sandstorm so bad, that even brisbane looked like this.

And stupid me didnt know that there will be a delay and thought that this is a short flight so i kept my storybook in my lugguage. Feeling really bored, i walked back to the store to look for mags but nothing caught my eye so i turned my eyes to the storybooks. Look what i found!

Sophie Kinsella!

Ironically, after i walked back and had a trip to the toilet, it was time to board! =.=’

Bye Gold Coast.

An hour later, hello Sydney!

The trip felt pretty fast, cause i was asleep the whole time. I smiled as the gush of cool air hit me as we walked out of the airport. Mr driver came to pick us up and it was only a 20 minutes ride to the hotel. By then, sydney was already cleared of the storm, whats left was all cars, buildings etc were covered in sand, reddish orangey in colour.

After we settled in, we walked to the 5 minutes away darling harbour and looked for places to have dinner. It was freezing cold as we walked. The winds were strong and in no time my nose and fingers got frozed up. Not that im complaining about it though. Haha! I think the strong winds are the aftermath of the storm.

In the end, we went to the habourside shopping centre’s foodcourt, and found the one and only chinesejap (cause also got udon) cuisine!

Guess how much all these costs? Really really freaking expensive. A$55 = S$70.

Things are really expensive in aussie in general and the bottled peach tea that i love, it costs a whopping average of A$4.

The very 1 thing that i can do there and not in singapore is to have pipping hot soup for my meals outside (i usually choose not to have hot stuffs outside for fear of perspiring)! With me wearing a jacket and not perspiring at all somemore.

Dessert would be ice-cream!

In the cold!

Shiok!

We took some pictures around the area but the camera’s not really funtioning in the night.

Alot of pictures cannot make it. LOL. And so we gave up and went shopping! Thats the only shopping in sydney that opens till 9pm.

Thats all for day 4!

Aussie Trip (Day 3)

Continuation from here.

And so it was a day to the tropical fruit world.

We had already booked the bus the day before (at least 1 day before is required).

The same routine, the bus went around picking people and then we set off for the world.

On the way there, we saw huge acres of sugarcane plantations!

I really love the sky in aussie. The clouds looks as if they are near enough for me to poke at.

We thought since it was pretty faraway, not alot of people will go, turns out its the opposite!

We went through different stations on this tour and there is a guide at each station.

First was to the fruit tasting session. After some explanations by mr guide no.1, we were invited to sample on the fruits (which i believe is taken from their plantation?) all cut and laid out in front of us.

They were really generous with the fruits -  i was one of the last few who took so it looked as if there is little only.

The blackish-brownish stuff is actually chocolate!

All the fruits are omg so freaking sweet! Especially the pineapple, it doesnt have the ’siap siap’ and ‘cut tongue’ feeling at all! So different from the ones i ate in singapore. And i usually dont eat dragonfruit but that was absolutely delicious. It was so different from the normal ones we saw.

Look at the books my dad bought there. Dont even know if he read it yet. Haha!

Next, we sat on a huge tractor, led by mr guide no.2, to the plantations!

As he drove very very slowly, he explained to us the different trees, plants and fruits.

And then we came to the macadamia tree, where we were asked to hop off the tractor. I eat and love macadamia nuts but i didnt know that they came from a tree until now.

Mr guide no.2 showing us how to crack the super hard shell of the macadamia with the tool.

And then we queue up, take turns and get hands on!

To be eaten right off the shell!

Tastes like a macadamia nut all right! LOL! Its just the nut without all the added flavourings (salted, abalone, honey roasted etc). Fresh and nice!

Then we continued with the rest of the (super huge) farm. It was pretty difficult to take pictures while the tractor is moving, despite so slowly.

Guess which fruit this bush(?) belongs to!! Haha i never knew it grew like this! Look at the fruits on it and guess ah! I will reveal the answer somewhere.

Some kind of biggest tree trunk or something? I forgot =X

Then it was the mini choo choo train station!

It was really cute! Haha! And so mr guide no.3 drove us round sceneries.

The 3 of us had to coordinate not to smile until all of us is ready because we used the self take function (which captures automatically when it detects a smile). It doesnt help that the choo choo train is moving and we had to make sure the camera doesnt fall off. This is the best out of all liao. Stop laughing at my mouth hor! LOL.

Up next will be the boat ride.

And we were given bread to feed the ducklings(?)! I think they were pretty much starved. They were practically chasing after our boat which is by motor and through the whole long boat ride

After that, it was the mini farm!

I thought we can only feed the kangaroos and didnt know that there are actually others! We fed them till they are so full, they didnt come towards my hand full of food anymore.

If i knew, i would have kept half a packet for the meh mehs! ( sheep = meh meh right? correct me if im wrong ah, im so confused about goats and sheep)

By the time i got there, i only have about 1/4 of a packet left. I would love to feed more to the lambs. So cute!

I was really afraid of the donkey, because of this bad experience (scroll down to the llama part). I thought they looked alike and was afraid it will bite me!

 Mr guide no.2 came with the tractor to fetch us back to the starting point and thats the end of the whole tour. So enriching and fun! I love it!

Had lunch at the cafe in the souvenir store before the bus came by to pick us up.

 My dad was so fascinated with the fresh macadamia nuts that he went to look for it in the fruit store and bought 3 packets home! So heavy, i think they weighed about 3kg. Haha.

 

The taller than anybody avocado!

 

I just love their beaches. Fine sand, clear blue waters.

 Dinner that night was back to the chinese restaurant in the hotel. Food was ok but service was much much better (because got different captain!) Haha!

 

Supper for the day was strawberries that i bought from the supermarket on day 1. Yet they were still so crunchy and fresh, unlike those i bought in singapore, have to be eaten right away, if not they turn mouldy super fast.

And, the answer to the above question is:

Tiurfnogard!

PS: Can understand the answer? LOL. Since i cannot type the answer upside down like how mags do, i typed it the other way round, so read it backwords! Hahahaha!

a true account

Time: 12.40am

Venue: Turning out of van’s house at the traffic lights.

the ipod was once again in its ’sot’ mannerism so i had to tune in to the FM. it was fish leong’s song. then all of a sudden i heard a guy’s voice singing together with her. got a shock and thought that maybe its a special duet version. but after that part, no more!

!!!!!!!

i would choose to think that the DJ forgot to off his mic and sang along.

and not that i met with some spooky stuffs!!! i even looked through the rear view mirror and checked on the back seats. i have a super imaginative mind.

***

i was really still feeling moody from yesterday and the whole of today. but right after i went for the gathering, my moodiness are gone. i totally forgot that i was even upset. the wonders of friends. i really had fun. thank you so much my friends. u made my 3 hours absolutely fabulous. im still feeling quite down now but it was much better than before. though i dont have many friends but its the quality of them that counts.

***

its so tiring to be angry and upset for such a long period of time. im letting it go.

but its just so difficult to let go of something that hurts you so badly.

haiz.

i’ll see how it goes.

im so sad

that i actually cried in public just now.

so embarrasing, with people staring at me.

i was already sad enough with the previous thing and now this.

i seriously didnt see it coming.

nobody likes to be accused.

this, will definitely leave a scar on me.

i wanted to talk to you now but i think i shall wait till the most important thing is over first.

but i also want to clear the air as soon as possible.

i was lucky i didnt get into major accidents on the way home.

i just dont know what to say.

just throw myself into the sea maybe.