Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Fun in Noosa, Brissy, Gold Coast and Sydney

Noosa Heads in Sunshine Coast: Surfing looks alot easier than it actually is especially if you are a small person. Like me. But it was way cooler than I expected. Cut to midget dragging the board which was too heavy for her and double her height. Cut to midget getting repeatedly slammed by waves. Cut to waves slamming board and board slamming into my head. But it was sooooooo fun! Bodyboarding was a thriller and alot easier than expected. But it is the attempting to stand without bending your knees while a massive wave was carrying you that was tricky. Human instinct says wave here, grab board by edge and kneel. Putting your hands by your stomach and doing a press up on the board with one leg in the air and your chin down sounds ridiculously unstable. It wasn't the balancing that was the issue but getting into an unnatural position while balancing that was the problem. And the waves were the biggest I have seen. You hear a roar, you turn around, you see some angry foam charging towards you, next minute you are under drinking copious amounts of salt water and back on the shore. I managed to stand up through about 3 times in 2 hours. Definitely coming back for more. Noose heads is gorgeous. White sand, beautiful people. Morning surfing, afternoon lunch and walking around the little towns and shops and evening a walk in the park or maybe building sandcastles by the beach. Night, some seafood platter dinner at Matise or pizza at Zachery's and drinks at a bar. I could do this alll month!

Gold Coast: Gold coast was so Miami that most of their street names, suburbs and attractions are named after places in Miami. Come on, they even have their own Miami beach there. It was fun to be with schoolies kids (Oz version of spring break but for year 12 kids) for one day than it became tiresome that they were drunk and rowdy every night. I'm to old and grumpy to watch 17 year olds pick up, get smashed and make a fool of themselves. Steak is fabulous at this place called Holy Cow. One of the best prime eye fillets I got. You don't even feel like you are really chewing, and when you do...explosion of juices and fats everywhere. Sangria was also good and strong at La Paella, to make up for their less than fabulous Paella which resembled a strange mixture of risotto and fried rice more than paella. There are so many asian restaurants and stores in gold coast that was kinda freaky.

Brisbane: We spent about 8.5 hours there, 1.5 of which was at the airport and 2.5 of it was running around like a headless chicken trying to return the car on time, pump petrol and pack away food from a restaurant that refuses to pack food for you. When shit happens, it floods your house. I was trying to get the cafe to let me pack food away because bob was trying to return the car. But they wouldn't. So i went to target to get a plastic container. And just when I was in a rush, i picked the container without a price tag so by the time i got to the cashier, they had to page someone to come down and give them the price. Second transit in Brissy was better. Brissy is alot bigger than expected. We spend most of the time dissing it because we were snotty melbourne elitists, but really it was very nice and laid back. Was nice to catch up with Vicky for lunch there. The crazy part: a completely artificial beach in the middle of the waterfront city, complete with lifeguards and sand.

Sydney: Sydney felt like a blind date with a long lost family friend. Bob got a job there and will be moving there next year, and there is a very high possibility that I will be joining him the year after. So this trip was really to suss things out. Shu and Tariq being the kind host they were, were doing a pretty good job selling sydney to me. But the hustle and bustle and pollution hasn't grown on me yet. Once again it is because I am being stuck up about Melbourne. Hey it did win most livable city in the world for a reason.

Brownie points for Sydney:
  • Bondi beach's Hurricane for dinner. Massive dinosaur size ribs dripping with sauce. Clarence wasn't impress but bob and I were. (1 point)
  • Best fried rice, duck with plum sauce and salt pepper calamari rings in Super bowl, this fantastic restaurant in chinatown. But the service was also the worst I ever had. The food took 1 hour to come. We told the waiter we had been there for 30 minutes, and he snapped back at us: "No! I saw you, you just sat down." He must have had a sad childhood. He would routinely walk away in the middle of people ordering and stalked around looking like he owned the place. It took talking to 6 waiters and finally the manager before our food arrived, dish for dish. With the rice coming first. Tariq looked so pissed I was raring him for a fight. (0 points..good food bad service cancels itself out)
  • The existence of a Lindt's chocolate bar. (1 point)
  • 4 story high Supre. (2 points)
  • They have proper beaches: Manly and Bondi were beautiful (2 points)
  • Alot of steak houses like Ribs Rump and Grill, Kingsley and Supper Inn, where according to sydneysiders and disregarded by the rest of the world, it was where crown prince of denmark and aussie girl Mary, now crown princess, first met. (2 points)
Total: 8 points (minus points for pollution, rude people and crazy drivers)

So there goes my 10 day long vacation up to the middle of the eastern coast of Oz. It felt good travelling with Bob again, this time as a more solid couple after our north-eastern coast trip of America last dec. We kept refering to ourselves on that trip as the demo version couple. Demo version Bob and Charissa took lots of photos. Real version Bob and Charissa burp at each other. That's the difference. It is endearing. Really.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Sydney Baby

In Sydney right now. Just landed yesterday. I feel like a small town girl in a big city. Went to skygarden to club with Shu, Tariq and gang till 4am last night before ending it off with mackers. Sydney strangely resembles new york alot. The club was very philly-like in terms of crowd and music. The pain in my foot from killer heels was also very familiar.

Woke up at midday today and had a massive dose of yummy yumcha before shopping at paddy's market. Once again I was blown away by the proportions. Had a butterfly air-tattooed to me with pretty glitter and all. Will update more!!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

FOOD!!!

You know how everything always happens at one go. When you are busy, everything has to be done at the same time, deadlines, exams, applications yada yada. And then suddenly you are free, and you have absolutely nothing to do, except a very dirty toilet to clean and a couple of errands to run. But by then, you are already too lazy to do any of these errands.

Anyway, my point is, my exams are over and I am bored. So bored that I borrowed three cookbooks, bought like 80 dollars worth of raw food from Queen Vic Market and made pesto paste from scratch. In the last few days, we have seen fish stew, rice wine chicken stew, pesto chicken and pasta in pesto white wine sauce, sambal string beans, honey ginger soy and oyster sauce chicken, Choy Sum made ala Kylie Kwong style, red bean soup and beef and mustard, go through our house, courtesy of Regine, Bob and the housemate without exams.

Next week, we will be featuring: Steam/fried fish maybe with aioli sauce, Savoy cabbage wrapped mince meat parcels, vine tomato and basil brushetta, Asian glass noodle salad with mince beef and chili, sweet corn chicken soup, chicken stock, shrimp and sweet tomato cream pasta and something involving bak choy.

Friday, November 10, 2006


Make your own Asian MTV!!! Start off with fuzzy image of girl on some moving vehicle. As the song title rolls past, the image gets clearer and clearer.  Posted by Picasa

Girl looks wistfully outside the window, hand in classic 'You can't see my teeth' position. This is the part where the entrance of the song starts. If the MTV has a slightly higher budget, there might be raindrops streaming down the window Posted by Picasa

Girl sees boy/cute dog/KFC/some sale going on and smiles. This normally leads to the next shot of her looking at the camera and singing a song about the thing that catches her eye. The camera continues to be slightly jerky to simulate the moving of the tram. The background of the MTV whizzes behind her blurry while the MTV poplette remains in focus. Posted by Picasa

Spot where Santa's hat is Posted by Picasa

Santa on the mail? Posted by Picasa

Santa in the mail Posted by Picasa

Santa on Burke Street Guy Posted by Picasa

Santa at a tram stop Posted by Picasa

Santa: Swanston Street Posted by Picasa

Santa on a tram Posted by Picasa

Santa in Safeway Lygon Posted by Picasa

Santa in Fredos Posted by Picasa

Santa in the City in November

In a fit of boredom, and also because it is part of my church's christmas program publicity material, Reg and I ran around the city putting Santa's hat everywhere and snapping pictures. Reg would stand and put since she is one cm taller than me, and I will snap. It felt like some underground fugitive work. I also took enough cheesy shots of Reg that she can star in her own Asian MTV.

So, plugging for the program, if you are free on the 17th of Dec at 6pm, come down for the concert at CrossCulture Church of Christ. It is called, "Where on Earth is Santa?" Thus the random shots of hats.

Thursday, November 09, 2006


Spring Racing is about two things, being fashionable and drinking.. Posted by Picasa

and sipping champagne while doing the Audrey Hepburn... Posted by Picasa

And taking photos of yourself Posted by Picasa

Kimono!! I wish I had a recognisable national costume too Posted by Picasa

By half past eleven in the morning, we were all already kinda tipsy and trying to hold out till noon. It feels very "dole-bludger-honey-i-beat-my-kids-to-get-alcohol-money" kind of mentality to get drunk before noon Posted by Picasa

hey when you are cold, any body part to keep warm is a useful body part Posted by Picasa

There were the polka dotti girls having a party next to us Posted by Picasa

Daphne's self potraits Posted by Picasa

Up there is where rich people who can afford to pay $480 a seat sit while they look down at us commoners jostling in the mud...times haven't change since Shakespheare's globePosted by Picasa

And here is a picture of a horse bum..in case you wanna know what it looks like Posted by Picasa

Regine bet on this one...Activation..unforturnately it failed to activate... Posted by Picasa

This horsie looks really sad!! Awww!! It is like...what...again...but im tired!! Posted by Picasa

Pop Rock was the prettiest horse there with a swishy tail! Posted by Picasa