Viv's Wedding

Fragility. Impulse.

I'm just shocked and speechless at what happened in Virginia Tech today. I sat in the library today, feeling a strange chill running down my spine. Looking at the busy faces around. I mended the Unicef booth at the front entrance of Union house today. Laughter. Chatting. People milling around. Twice removed from a campus that sounds and look radically different from mine today. Maybe it is because I did an exchange in the US, that everything reported feels closer to heart. I feel the anxiety to be continually updated about what happened, and an intense sadness.

Shu's Graduation in University of Sydney

How cool is this...graffiti alley! Anywhere else it would look dodgy, but because it is in USyd, it looks artistic

Uni Syd is way more beautiful than MelbUni...

Once again, point above proven. This is their sports field. When they said Unimelb has the prettiest campus, they lied!

And they get to do their graduation in a hall with a stainglass window...tariq told me to move to Usyd so i can have a fancy graduation that is not wilson hall

Graduations are such boring events..chilling outside when the speeches are on

All the asian visual art students..who said asians were not creative..

Shu and I....she looked the least kooky from all the other students...very professional

Their beautiful quad and courtyard..reminds me so much of upenn

Sydney Randomness

We have silver man in Melb and they have balancing bike man.

Dinner with Arlene and Bob at Y2K..they have fantastic macha icecream with red bean, and bubble tea. It was good to meet up with old friends in Syd, Arlene, Dor, Shu and Clarence.

Wine Cheese and Chocolate Tour at Hunter Valley

Our really dodgy hotel room on top of a very noisy bar with rowdy patrons and no on-suite bathroom....it was erm...interesting...

Wine tasting tour....after a while its like..we don't care anymore..it all taste the same!

Beautiful view overseeing the vineyards

My First Degustation Meal at Terroir, Hunter Valley, NSW

This frozen kiwi fruit was suppose to cleanse my palate....not sure what that means but it looked cute

Waygu beef cheeks braised with hungerford hill shiraz, on braised witlof & paris mashed potato, served with bearnaise sauce

Caramalised lemon tart with coconut sorbet...very yummy

Bob and I at Terroir

It had a beautiful interior...nice clean and white..obviously won lots of awards

BBQ duck with sweet pickled lemons on basmati rice & choy sum..this one was a winner

Boudin Blancof prawn, snapper& braised leeks on poached iceberg lettuce with a pinot noir beurre blanc and tapenade...my favourite..

Easter Hoilday in Sydney

Sydney grows on you. It gets pretty when you are walking around slowly in places like darling harbour, circular quay, the rocks, chinatown, oxford street or norton street. Sydney reminds me of a mini-new york. Very fast. Very chaotic. Very crowded. Crazy traffic filled with impatient drivers, rude pedastrians and one-way streets covered with traffic lights. But after 10 days there, I'm starting to grow fond of its bright lights, posh nosh bars and pretty harbour front views. I confirmed my internship there in June/July so I'll be back to explore more.

As sad as it sounds, I spent at least 2-3 hours a day in the state library attempting to do some work. It fell into some sort of routine. Bob goes to work. I wake up. Have a heavy brunch usually involving eggs, lots of meat and hot choc. Work in state lib for 2-3 hours. Msn people back in melbourne on what a loser I am. Meet people for lunch or explore sydney on foot. Dinner with Bob. Sleep at 10pm. Found a fantastic laksa and har mee place called Malay Chinese, and chocolate cake at Lindt's concept cafe was out of this world. Brunetti's can't compare.

Important Words of Advice from the Top Guys

"What do you mean you don't read the Herald Sun and listen to triple J? Do you also sip soy latte and get the AFR delivered to your doorstep?"

Nothing like an external guest speaker to shake everyone out of the academic ivory tower. This has been the best word of advice I have gotten throughout my university life: If you can't connect with the common folks, your marketing career is over. That and what I learned in Wharton: Always keep duplicate copies of everything you fax/email/mail, and if anything goes wrong, blame the intern.

Everything I ate...in a week

I first saw this book in the Upenn bookstore and was utterly fascinated. It is a pretty darn difficult task photographing EVERYTHING you ate for one year. Also makes any social dining situation quite an embarrassement. Unless you are asian. For some reason asians like to take photographs of their food, myself included.

So I tried to test my memory and recall all the food I ate/drank in the last week. I was sitting in the library with my head in my hands trying to do that.

Monday:
Brekkie - Soy and cereal
Lunch - Vietnamese rice paper roll with prawns and pear juice from Random Uni Store
Dinner - Steak and pumpkin

Tuesday:
Brekkie - Soy and cereal
Lunch - Dahl and veggie pie from Food Co-op
Dinner - Cabbage meat roll

Wednesday
Brekkie - Soy and cereal
Lunch - half a sushi roll and apple green bubble tea
Dinner - Lamb wrapped in Bacon, salad and a glass of rose at Vibe

Thursday
Lunch - Cabbage meat rolls with Soba
Dinner - Burger and fries from Lord of the Fries
Drinks - Lemon Lime Bitters at Golden Gate Hotel

Friday
Brekkie - Soy and cereal
Lunch - Rice, Sambal Egg, Beef rendang and fried chicken at Norsiah's Kitchen
Dinner - Tapas at Espresso Bar on Degraves: Roast Eggpplant, meatballs and ice chocolate
Drinks - Red wine at Park Hyatt

Saturday
Lunch - Japanese pepper beef cubes and rice
Dinner - Ban Mian at Chom Chom

Sunday
Brekkie - bacon and egg sandwich, soy hot chocolate, apple carrot beetroot juice at Tropicana
Lunch - Soy milk at Wing Loong (I think thats the name of the restaurant)
Snack - Watermelon
Dinner - Japanese pepper beef cubes
Supper - Edamame and juice

Monday
Brekkie - Soy and cereal
Lunch - Nestea, Unagi sushi and peach
Dinner - Oyako-donburi (chicken and egg over rice)

Right now: a cup of warm lemon and honey, yoghurt and muesli