i finally set aside some hours for 'social' time over this weekend. i'd say i was pretty *well rewarded*.
saturday was the cLaw bake off. cinnamon scrolls, half a pecan-pie (because the crust felt more like being on the floor than staying in the pie pan), butter cookies, apple and cinnamon wholemeal muffins and truly authentic biscotti. yum yum.
the afternoon started off on an *eventful* note, with me walking up three flights of concrete stairs carrying two bags of mixing bowls, cookie cutters, butter and flour - to the wrong apartment, then walking back down, only to realise that wearing thongs on a rainy day was a really really bad idea. just after the stepping off the top step, the water got the better of me and i slipped, tripped and fell, and went flying down the stairs, only to land squarely on my ass and elbow about 6 stairs down. the only thing that enforced the hilarity of the moment was the fact that there was a young boy (probably 7-8 yrs old), who was helping his mom carry in the groceries, who said, with his mouth gaping open, "are you okayyyyy????" he then proceeded to tell me a story about how he did the exact same thing last week when he was coming home from school and how he had "slid down the stairs like a water slide". he also stopped to emphasise that he had his backpack on, and that was the only thing that shielded his butt from the excruciating pain that apparently, i was experiencing. and yes, there was a reference to my butt. =.= so after a good minute of half-lying on the stairs, i gathered my things and my pride and got up to go and find the right stairwell leading to jess' apartment.
and as things would have it, i now have a massive bruise on my back to attest to my clumsiness.
lesson 1: don't wear thongs on a rainy day.
i feel an onus to point out now that here i sit, on a rainy day, in the postgrad lab at uni, with thongs on. *sigh*. at least you can be sure that i'm gonna be avoiding concrete stairwells for the rest of today!!
the *eventfulness* of the afternoon continued. as i alluded to before, annabelle was taking the pie crust out of the oven, and in just a split second when i was walking by, i saw the pan falling... so naturally i put out my hand to try and catch it. between the two of us, we were completely helpless and now, as a result of my insensitivity to heat, i've got a boil on my arm to prove my failure of catching the stupid pan.
lesson 2: heed friends' advice when they warn that just because you can't feel that something's hot, doesn't mean that you're not gonna get burnt.
then came sunday.
went out to a 21st party for a guy in my bible study group. i gotta say. the entire afternoon reminded me of home: from the masses of food to the distinct different groups of friends, the video-speech in lieu of the person not being able to make it for the party to the "speech" his mom gave... just everything.
and it ended up making me feel pretty "introvertedly" reflective. maybe that's just a synonym for lonely. that much is unclear.
i just kept thinking about friendship and the timeline across how friendship occurs, develops and grows. as i asked trish last night, how long do you think it takes for acquaintances to become friends? and how long does it take friends to become good friends? and then good friends, best?
it was probably a softer (and significantly less painful) note to end my weekend on, but at the end of the day, sunday made me think a lot and now, i still get amazed at how the ideas of "friends" and "family" are universal.
anyhow, a bruise, a burn and a couple of new friends later... my weekend was pretty complete.
*bumbling along*
in one word, living in a new city could be summed up as many things. some would say "exciting", "exhilarating" or even just downright "awesome". i, however, choose to stick with "interesting".
there's something about it when you wake up one morning and you realize... 'hey. this is my home now'. this happened to me just the other day. it was one thing to be here when the delivery guy dropped off 19 massive boxes of stuff that got shipped over from perth. but it's quite another to realize that when everything is unpacked and in its new home... that you're settled. but the thing i've realized is that there's a strong dichotomy between being physically settled and emotionally settled.
i'm not sure how this gets measured or how it's even quantified. but at the end of the day, can people have more than one place that they call "home"? i think it would really suck to move to a place and to never ever feel at home. to me, that would feel like a waste of time, because at the end of the day, you want to feel comfortable in a new place so that you can get the most out of it. maybe it's the friends that you make and the people you meet which make you comfortable and thus, make you feel at home. or maybe is the familiarity of the activities or the realization of a 'better' or more enjoyable lifestyle.
either way, it all comes back to the fact that change takes time. perhaps before i would've been too impatient or too short-sighted to see it. but now i feel like i'm really into this.
moving here was a good thing. a very good thing, indeed.
there's something about it when you wake up one morning and you realize... 'hey. this is my home now'. this happened to me just the other day. it was one thing to be here when the delivery guy dropped off 19 massive boxes of stuff that got shipped over from perth. but it's quite another to realize that when everything is unpacked and in its new home... that you're settled. but the thing i've realized is that there's a strong dichotomy between being physically settled and emotionally settled.
i'm not sure how this gets measured or how it's even quantified. but at the end of the day, can people have more than one place that they call "home"? i think it would really suck to move to a place and to never ever feel at home. to me, that would feel like a waste of time, because at the end of the day, you want to feel comfortable in a new place so that you can get the most out of it. maybe it's the friends that you make and the people you meet which make you comfortable and thus, make you feel at home. or maybe is the familiarity of the activities or the realization of a 'better' or more enjoyable lifestyle.
either way, it all comes back to the fact that change takes time. perhaps before i would've been too impatient or too short-sighted to see it. but now i feel like i'm really into this.
moving here was a good thing. a very good thing, indeed.
*food buff.*
sydney's definitely delivering on the whole "good food" vibe. granted, i still haven't had a kick-ass bowl of laksa (last night's home-cooked dinner aside =p) which is even worthy of being compared to hawker's cuisine back home in Perth, but there's just so much OTHER good food around!
one thing i didn't mention in my last post was that there seems to be a little tradition starting. so far, before we do the send-off at the airport, we always seem to take a walk to world square with the intention of eating at makoto (the sushi train restaurant). we then put our name on the waiting list, wait 15 minutes while talking about how long we've been waiting, and then afterwards decide that it's not worth waiting for, so we head over to sushi roll for comparable-ish sushi at 3/4 of the price!!
okay sorry. i digress.
rach and i went venturing the other night and deciding so scope out our plethora of nearby restaurants. instead of walking up the "hill" (it's not really a hill, we're just kinda lazy) towards crown st, we decided to walk to liverpool/pitt st area to check out what else is there. we ended up stumbling on this freakishly taka-resembling but korean restaurant which was super super busy and packed and noisy (hence the taka reference), but with reeeealllyy good value-for-money food! just my luck that i didn't bring my camera out that night. but fret not, i'm pretty sure we'll be headed back there again so i'll make sure i some snaps!
for now, here's a little display of the restaurants we've been hitting up:
east ocean, 1/421-429 sussex st, haymarket
found this place on a recommendation from a friend. with this friend being a mainlander, i can totally see why she would like it. the entrance to this place is along the main dixon street walkway, but it's one of the only restaurants that don't have annoying people standing out the front yelling, forcing passer-bys to to look at their menu. such enticement. service aside, i really liked the food here. but then again, having people being rude to you in a language you don't speak kinda makes things worse.
but granted, their food was good.
marigold chinese restaurant, 683 george st, haymarket
DIM SUM. again. while it wasn't my first "reaction" when we did east ocean and marigold back to back, i've finally decided that (after going back again) this place wins. there's two levels to the restaurant, make sure you go to the top level. it's always packed and noisy, but the crowd just makes it feel super authentic. the waiters and trolley-pushers are ever so slightly obnoxious at the same time as being both pushy AND helpful, that it makes the whole dim sum experience believably authentic.
best dish? hands down their pai kuat (spare ribs). best. sauce. ever. and better yet, they don't do the whole dragon palace trick-you-chunks-of-meat-that-are-actually-chunks-of-yam thing.
please don't let the lack of photos here make it seem like this place wasn't worth it. coz it's exactly the opposite. the food was so good... i forgot to take photos. whoops!
dae jang kum korean restaurant, 35 goulburn st, haymarket
this is my took be gi in sydney. word for word. dish for dish. the only thing that dae jang kum does better is that they have SO much more space. bye bye to waiting 45 minutes for a hope to get a seat when you're a party of more than 2! i loved everything about this place. including the korean water bottles, the korean MVs playing on the big flatscreens and the big portions of everything! there's no value for money like it.
dishes you see below are the bulgogi, chicken bulgogi, oyster dolsot bimbimbab and the seafood pancake. yummmmmmm.
anyone who comes to sydney to visit us is going to get to try this place. word.
toraya japanese restaurant, level 2 @ the mandarin centre, chatswood
honest and modest japanese food. it felt authentic. wasn't mindblowingly awesome, but when you're paying $9 for a pretty sizeable bowl of gyudon, you can't really complain right? plus... udon comes free with every "meal" you order. bonus!
pizza e birra, 1/500 crown street, surry hills
gourmet pizza. yum yum. i can't believe how insane this place is. so many people lined up outside. supposedly, they don't take bookings over the phone. but i called up anyway to ask them what their wait time was like for a group of 5, and the guy was nice enough to put my name on the list, take down my number and tell me to head on over in about half an hour. sadly, i missed their call coz my phone was in my bag, so when we got there they had given our table away. but it only took about 10 minutes for the next table to be cleared and thank goodness this table was in the corner, next to the light! MUCH better than sitting in the middle of the restaurant amidst the flurry of LOUD conversation going on and the bazillions of tables around.
foodwise, little caesars still kicks their ass. but balancing my impression in terms of atmosphere AND food, this place was pretty sweet.
we went with one seafood, one chunky meat and their signature 'pizza e birra' pizza. the last one hands-down was the best. puff crust to perfection.
zellini's cafe, 34 belmore road, randwick
after a night of bowling (3 games for $15 @ amf - hehe), raph, rach and i decided that we deserved some desert. seeing that we were in randwick, we decided to stop off at zellini's after seeing their cake range through the front class. we weren't disappointed. we ended up getting a lemon cheesecake (which to me was extra extra extra cheesy), a chocolate-ish cake that had a funky name which now totally escapes me, and raph had a vanilla shake.
maybe i'm too much of a "small city" gal, but i think that charging $2 bucks per person just coz it's a public holiday is a bit excessive. i mean, charge us a percentage surcharge if you want... but there's just something off putting when i see a sign that says $2 bucks extra per person... it's unprofessional almost.
flo, 1/242 elizabeth st, surry hills
this was officially the first cafe i went to in sydney. it so happened to be the morning that rach and lil got to sydney! we were all a little tired due to lack of sleep, but for some reason, this place wasn't quite as satisfying as what we were expecting. it was a sunday morning, granted service might be a little slower, but they took aages to get the food out. some people who stopped in to get a coffee on the go had to wait like 10 minutes for their coffee. but, their food did look quite pretty. that counts for something right?
and that just about sums it up!
gosh we're gonna get fat living here. hahahahhaha. =p
one thing i didn't mention in my last post was that there seems to be a little tradition starting. so far, before we do the send-off at the airport, we always seem to take a walk to world square with the intention of eating at makoto (the sushi train restaurant). we then put our name on the waiting list, wait 15 minutes while talking about how long we've been waiting, and then afterwards decide that it's not worth waiting for, so we head over to sushi roll for comparable-ish sushi at 3/4 of the price!!
okay sorry. i digress.
rach and i went venturing the other night and deciding so scope out our plethora of nearby restaurants. instead of walking up the "hill" (it's not really a hill, we're just kinda lazy) towards crown st, we decided to walk to liverpool/pitt st area to check out what else is there. we ended up stumbling on this freakishly taka-resembling but korean restaurant which was super super busy and packed and noisy (hence the taka reference), but with reeeealllyy good value-for-money food! just my luck that i didn't bring my camera out that night. but fret not, i'm pretty sure we'll be headed back there again so i'll make sure i some snaps!
for now, here's a little display of the restaurants we've been hitting up:
east ocean, 1/421-429 sussex st, haymarket
found this place on a recommendation from a friend. with this friend being a mainlander, i can totally see why she would like it. the entrance to this place is along the main dixon street walkway, but it's one of the only restaurants that don't have annoying people standing out the front yelling, forcing passer-bys to to look at their menu. such enticement. service aside, i really liked the food here. but then again, having people being rude to you in a language you don't speak kinda makes things worse.
but granted, their food was good.
marigold chinese restaurant, 683 george st, haymarket
DIM SUM. again. while it wasn't my first "reaction" when we did east ocean and marigold back to back, i've finally decided that (after going back again) this place wins. there's two levels to the restaurant, make sure you go to the top level. it's always packed and noisy, but the crowd just makes it feel super authentic. the waiters and trolley-pushers are ever so slightly obnoxious at the same time as being both pushy AND helpful, that it makes the whole dim sum experience believably authentic.
best dish? hands down their pai kuat (spare ribs). best. sauce. ever. and better yet, they don't do the whole dragon palace trick-you-chunks-of-meat-that-are-actually-chunks-of-yam thing.
please don't let the lack of photos here make it seem like this place wasn't worth it. coz it's exactly the opposite. the food was so good... i forgot to take photos. whoops!
dae jang kum korean restaurant, 35 goulburn st, haymarket
this is my took be gi in sydney. word for word. dish for dish. the only thing that dae jang kum does better is that they have SO much more space. bye bye to waiting 45 minutes for a hope to get a seat when you're a party of more than 2! i loved everything about this place. including the korean water bottles, the korean MVs playing on the big flatscreens and the big portions of everything! there's no value for money like it.
dishes you see below are the bulgogi, chicken bulgogi, oyster dolsot bimbimbab and the seafood pancake. yummmmmmm.
anyone who comes to sydney to visit us is going to get to try this place. word.
toraya japanese restaurant, level 2 @ the mandarin centre, chatswood
honest and modest japanese food. it felt authentic. wasn't mindblowingly awesome, but when you're paying $9 for a pretty sizeable bowl of gyudon, you can't really complain right? plus... udon comes free with every "meal" you order. bonus!
pizza e birra, 1/500 crown street, surry hills
gourmet pizza. yum yum. i can't believe how insane this place is. so many people lined up outside. supposedly, they don't take bookings over the phone. but i called up anyway to ask them what their wait time was like for a group of 5, and the guy was nice enough to put my name on the list, take down my number and tell me to head on over in about half an hour. sadly, i missed their call coz my phone was in my bag, so when we got there they had given our table away. but it only took about 10 minutes for the next table to be cleared and thank goodness this table was in the corner, next to the light! MUCH better than sitting in the middle of the restaurant amidst the flurry of LOUD conversation going on and the bazillions of tables around.
foodwise, little caesars still kicks their ass. but balancing my impression in terms of atmosphere AND food, this place was pretty sweet.
we went with one seafood, one chunky meat and their signature 'pizza e birra' pizza. the last one hands-down was the best. puff crust to perfection.
zellini's cafe, 34 belmore road, randwick
after a night of bowling (3 games for $15 @ amf - hehe), raph, rach and i decided that we deserved some desert. seeing that we were in randwick, we decided to stop off at zellini's after seeing their cake range through the front class. we weren't disappointed. we ended up getting a lemon cheesecake (which to me was extra extra extra cheesy), a chocolate-ish cake that had a funky name which now totally escapes me, and raph had a vanilla shake.
maybe i'm too much of a "small city" gal, but i think that charging $2 bucks per person just coz it's a public holiday is a bit excessive. i mean, charge us a percentage surcharge if you want... but there's just something off putting when i see a sign that says $2 bucks extra per person... it's unprofessional almost.
flo, 1/242 elizabeth st, surry hills
this was officially the first cafe i went to in sydney. it so happened to be the morning that rach and lil got to sydney! we were all a little tired due to lack of sleep, but for some reason, this place wasn't quite as satisfying as what we were expecting. it was a sunday morning, granted service might be a little slower, but they took aages to get the food out. some people who stopped in to get a coffee on the go had to wait like 10 minutes for their coffee. but, their food did look quite pretty. that counts for something right?
and that just about sums it up!
gosh we're gonna get fat living here. hahahahhaha. =p
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