*time for an update*

heaps of stuff going on the last couple of weeks. well, at least it feels that way.

starting with two weeks ago. we found a place! we were very lucky with the whole thing... and it all happened so fast! rach came over so we could find all our furniture... turned into such a hectic week!

so while rach was here, just happened to be that the backstreet boys were finishing up their australian tour, so for old times' sake, we went to watch! and you know what? it was TOTALLY worth it. hahah. they did all of their old songs... and in my opinion, their older stuff is still way better than their newer stuff. haha. we were a bit far back, but it was still totally worth it!





i may have mentioned before, the week before rach got here, i was totally craving for japanese. but the thing about being on your own is that you can't really go to restaurants! well, i mean, you can... but really, who wants to go and sit by a sushi train on their own!! so, once rach got here, jap was totally on the list... and oh yeah, it was worth it.

makoto, 119-121 liverpool st, sydney

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my thoughts: you definitely don't go to makoto to eat tuna gunkan or california roll! but honestly, the beef tataki sushi? genius! best part of it? this place is a 10 minute walk from home. thank goodness sushi ain't fattening!

and check this out - the chef is smokin' something (i'm not sure what)... but i gotta get me one of those torch guns!!!



just for keepsakes, here's one of us, happy chappies after some awesome sushi!!



musashi, 447 pitt st, haymarket

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just last week, elina and i decided that we were craving jap (again), so we went to check out makoto's sister restaurant, musashi. i believe i blogged about this place last year, when ben, shell, rach and i were in sydney last may. and once again, musashi did not disappoint!



what we ordered: rainbow roll, sashimi, beef teppanyaki.
fish so fresh and the dipping sauce for the beef teppanyaki was out of this world!

more KESC updates: the kingsford eat street challenge continues...

KESC 6: dinner at oportos, followed by dessert at abcafe

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let me say it now, someone totally needs to bring oporto's to perth. i ordered a bondi burger with chilli - for fast food? it was pretty damn good! pity though, coz the meal cost $10, so on my scale, they get put next to nandos. as for dessert, lychee icecream sound good to anyone? coz for $7, i thought it was pretty sweet! some of the other girls ordered the chocolate brownie and the hot chocolate. i always love it when there's choco art on top of the foam. so pretty!



KESC 7: dinner at gourmet pizza kitchen, 333 anzac parade, kingsford

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you gotta read jess's entry on the jelsie blog for full effect. long story short, eight of us went to GPK, only to be greeted by a corner full of 5 year old boys. honestly, there had to be at least 20 of them. shouting, throwing play-doh, fighting, battling, pushing, shoving... let's just say, the food took half an hour to come, while we took 15 minutes to eat and get outta there. too bad, coz the pizzas were actually really good!! my new favorite is the geneva with added jalapenos. nothing quite like a chilli hit!



this brings me to my final thought. DID YOU KNOW. kfc here doesn't have hot and spicy!!! shock horror. absolute shock horror.

*catching up on food*

people say the food in sydney is something else. someone even gave me a book which proves that sydney takes its food seriously. so when you're in a new city, living on a budget it only makes sense to make friends with people who know good, cheap places to eat!

luckily for me, the friends i've made so far are quite the foodie-bunch. and what's even better, is that down the road from uni lies a plethora of cheap-eats restaurants!

here are some examples:


my first sydney laksa at some restaurant in kingsford.
price: $7.50
my thoughts: pretty good for the price, but it definitely didn't soothe my craving for hotness! and i should also note that i forgot to ask for yellow egg noodles, so my thoughts are probably skewed by my distaste of the vermicelli rice noodles.


beef lasagne for dinner at giovanna's italian restaurant, along anzac parade in kingsford
price: $14.50
my thoughts: the plate looked really bare, especially without any kind of garnishing on top. i gave this restaurant a 3.5 of 5.


stir fried kuey teow with beef and vegetables at kingsford chinese restaurant
apparently this restaurant has been around for over 15 years and is famous for offering big portions for little cost - i can now attest that it's true!
price: $6.80
my thoughts: this totally beats the pants off chilliz at karawara. hands down! but still, it just ain't as good as dad's beef hor fun!!


chicken laksa from wokmaster, maroubra
price: $7.00
my thoughts: better than the one along anzac parade, but there was still something missing... so definitely not as good as hawker's in northbridge!

these next two don't technically classify as "nearby uni", but i still consider them to be pretty cheap-eats!


the "strawberry patch" at pancakes on the rocks
price: $12.95
my thoughts: a classic that's really hard to stuff up. i wouldn't say it's anything spectacular, but it's definitely satisfying.


the "monte cristo" at pancakes on the rocks
price: $14.95
my thoughts: again, nothing oh-my-goodness about it, but it was satisfactorily tasty

so this entry here marks the beginnings of my sydney food catalogue. there's only one *problem*: can you believe that i still haven't had proper jap yet? how shocking!! ;) i do, however, guarantee that this *problem* will be rectified by the end of the week. =p

*new habitats*

three words have prominently arisen from my weekend activities: property inspections suck.

as you would have it, i spend yesterday morning wandering the streets of randwick in search of suitable accommodation for Rach and myself in this big, new city. funnily enough - before yesterday morning, i was actually looking forward to it! now? i am educated for the better.

what's so good about walking around for hours and hours, waiting in the hot blazing sun for a tardy real estate agent to show up and open house for 15 minutes or less. not only that, but then you end up going inside and realising that your first intuitions were correct. yesterday, i viewed seven different apartments. five of which i had significant doubts, judging by the photos online. in addition to the really hot afternoon weather yesterday, to make matters worse, each second property on my list was on the same street. i thought - oh how cool - it means that most of the properties are in the same area. in reality it just meant that i walked from one property to the next, then back past that first property to see the second, then back past the second to go see the third, and so on and so forth. by the end of it, i had tan lines on my feet and shoulders and now, i feel that i can confidently say that i know the apartment buildings along avoca st, randwick straight off the back of my hand.

funnily enough, with each passing inspection, i found myself getting more and more confused. when i was trying to describe the properties to rach, details of each of the apartments started getting melded together. i mean, which one had the black skirting? or the renovated kitchen? or the toilet that made me feel really depressed? honestly, apart from the two below, without photos to jog my memory, i honestly can't remember what i thought about the rest! the one good thing that came out of yesterday however, is that we found one good property at a "reasonable" sydney price, and so with our fingers crossed, we're going to pray that our application is successful.

so check out the two properties below... =)

apartment 1

apartment 2

in all honesty, my prayers are going towards not only a successful application so that we won't be homeless over here... but i would be lying if i said that i didn't have hopes to never have to live through another day of seven property inspections again!!

*new chapter, new city*

phew!

one month later and it's helloooo to sydney! so no, i didn't back out last minute... and yes, i still am quite terrified.

i suppose that this move has been all the more terrifying because of the abounding support that i've received from all of my loved ones back home. given any expression of doubt, uncertainty or dubiousness, i was met with unequivocal confidence and assurance that no, i would be fine. now... if only i could be as sure as them!

leaving was hard. it was great having a final farewell party though - and i'm really grateful that so many people showed up - especially those who i hadn't seen for yonks and yonks!


the chubs @ my farewell... with jas there in spirit..!


the last "sisters" shot we took. *sadface*

purposefully, i procrastinated throughout the entire last week of packing though... but to my own credit, i did finally finish and i must say that i think i did a pretty good job of being thorough! i ended up side-cataloguing everything, just to be sure that in the case that i need some obscure object that was sitting covered in dust on the fourth shelf down of my bookcase, i'm pretty sure i could tell you which archive box it's in and whereabouts in the box it is (i.e. how far down!).

i marvel at my pedanticity (i know this is not a word, but really... it should be, because everyone knows what it means!!). and i really didn't know i was so anal about particular things until i started packing. but the real skill that i displayed throughout that entire last week was my ability to get side-tracked by things of age. seriously, i spent 5 minutes packing a few books and cataloguing them, and then i'd come across a photo album from primary school and spend the next half an hour laughing at how stupid people's hair cuts were. in most cases i then proceeded to find whoever else was at home to show them my findings.

one word: sigh.

the hardest part about leaving was being at the airport. although it was great having my besties & family send me off, it was tragic looking back. i will admit, my record of countless months without tears was broken by a few stray tears as i was walking along the tarmac. (to the chubs: at least i now know i'm not completely emotionless!!)


one last chubs group hug.

it's not exactly hard being here alone. i mean, i always have been a person who likes being on my own for periods of time (but yes, i do also have a need to be around people!). but i think i feel more affected now because i left home when things were really good. back in 2007 when i left for canada (okay, i know this isn't exactly an ideal comparison given the temporary nature of study exchange), the world of opportunity for travel and experiences completed enveloped me. you might even say i felt beckoned. but now? things are completely different! there were so many different opportunities, so many different roads to take, many of which didn't require moving interstate. i could've done honours, i could've gotten a job, i could've even done grad law back home at UWA.

so amongst the big questions puddling around inside my mind, i wonder, did i make the right decision or not? my faith tells me that after much perseverance in prayer, the fact that my move interstate was relatively easy and straightforward, i'm most likely on the right path. but still, right now i can feel i tiny little flicker of apprehension.

as my mum so rightly said, i need to give it a couple of months. and that, i am gung-ho willing to do. =)

so a few tales since i've gotten here.
[1] the walk across the UNSW campus is killer. those basser steps make you want to die. and really, good luck if you're not wearing comfortable shoes. i myself, was lucky enough to have forgone wearing flappy charles & keith flats in favour of my good ol' billabong thongs. i'm pretty sure that if i had worn the C&K's, it'd be welcome to blister-town by now!


the captions (if you can read them), say it all... it really is a dreaded walk

[2] the sydney bus system is crazy/ultra-confusing/AND awesome all at the same time
it took me this entire first week to really figure out how the whole bus thing works and to remember which buses take me where. after a good five years since needed to rely on public transport system, i can heartily say that (a) i reeeealllly miss my car and (2) carrying groceries home on a bus just plain sucks.


just a glimpse of the quandary known as the sydney eastern region bus service

[3] pidgeons. what a lovely way to wake up every morning. without fail, these two little birdies have come to chirp me awake... EVERY morning. how pleasant. =.=


but hey, they know me so well they even stayed around for me to take a photo of them.

okay, and here's a glimpse of what my room looks/looked like after my boxes of stuff arrived. =)


for those of you who were readers back in 2007 during my exchange in toronto, the duvet sheets probably look really familiar. =p

markedly, i think i'll stop here. i'm sure that there'll be heaps to blog about over the next few days as classes start. but i make no promises.

if you're reading this, thanks - coz you're probably even more faithful to this blog than i am at this point!!

*hi-5*


- pheebs.

official move date

so now it's done & done! tickets are booked, accommodation is *almost* sorted, and dates are locked-in.

official move date to sydney: 15th february

wow! it's all becoming real. really really real. it just occurred to me - i've only got 9 days of full-time work left! and worse... only 35 days left in perth! so that means there's only 35 days to make sure i catch up with everyone i need to see before i go. so many loose ends! gotta send quite a few thank-you gifts (and us chubs still need to fit in secret santa!!). oh, and of course there's going to be a lot of "catch-up" coffees and lunches and dinners... and of course, my kick-ass farewell party (which c'mon was a given) to plan!

*tear* 

how sad is leaving.

i can already feel it: one big chapter of life is about to close. and to be honest, i really don't know how i feel about the next one opening.

the time has come

after planning for the future for so long, it's weird how all the emotion has been sucked out of me. i really expected a climax when i got the good news that i got accepted to UNSW. but now... weirdly i'm left feeling confused.

as most of you would know, i spent the latter half of last year deliberating about what to do this year in 2010: whether to work, spend another year at curtin doing honours, do honours at another uni, or go and do postgrad law at a uni over east. in due course i applied for a few (some might say 'too many') different uni's over east namely and lucky me - i was accepted to quite a few of them. after the sydney trip last year, i really did think that i had my heart set on sydney - i was so sure that i wanted to go to UNSW. i mean, as everyone tells me, there are just so many benefits of sydney over melbourne!

after hearing back from monash, i first thought it was scary that they started in january - simply because it meant that i'd have to leave some time this week. i mean, how am i meant to pack up my life in just one week? i swear it's not possible - there's just wayyyy to many people that i haven't seen or caught up with yet and too many things that haven't been organised! so immediately, there's one pro to UNSW - they don't start until late february.

i really should say - i know that i've made my decision. i know i'm going to UNSW. but somehow, deep down, i feel confused... or maybe even conflicted. i'm not sure whether it's the arising emotions and realisation that i'm really, actually going to be leaving perth, leaving family, friends and everything familiar, or if it's because i'm just ready to go right now, and that i don't want to wait another month to leave. getting into and choosing UNSW means another 3 weeks of work and another 3 weeks of just planning, and not 'doing'.

i keep asking, why do i feel this way??? i mean, i know i'm usually the planning type. i love to plan things down to the letter. take holidays for example - i always end up with pages and pages of research and notes about places to go, things to do - even details down to bus times and how much things cost. but now... it seems that the timing of everything is just completely throwing me off!

don't get me wrong - i love perth. i love living here and i love being within my comfort zone (duh!). but there's half of my heart which is tugging and saying that i'm ready to up and leave right now, right this moment. the other half is glued here. the other half knows that it's gonna be hard to leave and to say bye to things as they are right now.

in two words: i'm torn.

welcome to 2010.

there's no better way to celebrate the coming of a new year: family, friends, fireworks and a foreign city. luckily for me, i managed to get all four lined up in a 10-day holiday. =p

it's funny how year 2009 held so many things, but at the end of the day - i can't quite remember the important things! what i do know though, is that i've been incredibly slack in keeping things up to date and in order, both here and in my journal! in any case, i can retrospectively say that my final semester at uni wasn't all that easy - there was plenty of stress, but plenty of fun at the same time. i did get the chance to learn a lot about myself - and that's always a good thing!

so my last post up here was in august - that's four whole months ago!! and believe me a whole load of stuff happened in that time - much too much to even begin to catch you all up! i will however try make a list:

- i finally cut back hours at work to 20 hrs a week
- i dyed my hair and it was wayyyy too dark
- i had 2 really really bad hair cuts - one of which was the day before my birthday party. =.=
- i turned 21 and had an awesome time celebrating with a booked out ice-skating rink, ice-hockey, speeches and videos (aww) and lots and lots of presents. =D
- got through my final semester of undergrad uni without too much fuss - except i will say that capstone sucks.
- celebrated rach's birthday - but it was so memorable that i can't remember what we did..
- celebrated raph's birthday with a really kick-ass steamboat dinner
- won $50 bucks at the cas
- went to sydney (which i think i mentioned in a previous post already... but can't remember)
- went down south with my besties for an absolutely awesome couple of days (which was much too short!!)
- finally decided what i wanted to do with myself for the next few years (i'll leave the details to later)
- decided to sell my car
- started buying dresses, and discovered that i actually like them
- went on a holiday to singapore, hong kong and macau

and that just about brings us up to now!

so details about this year can only be announced after friday the 8th of january. i have my fingers tightly crossed that i receive a positive response from the university of my choice, because if i don't, then it's sayonara perth in just 6 days!! isn't that scary?

i'm so not ready to leave my family and friends. and as much as i love being independent... premature departure is just totally wrong!

well, i hope this new look for my blog makes things easier to read and easier to follow! i've missed you all! *hugs*

all but intentions.

hehe.

okay, so i've been laggard lately. i'll admit it! but so much has gone on lately. all that includes a trip to sydney, a setback from melbourne, and a lot of food. good food. but i'll get to that later. =)

on the side of a quick update, i'll start by acknowledging that i'm used to juggling multiple responsibilities through the uni semester, but with so much changing in just the past two weeks, i'm left with two feelings. 1) regret and 2) distaste. 

before i start, i'll put a disclaimer because i realize how slammed it is that after two months of not blogging, i come up with all this negativity. but sorry. this is my forum of candor.

1. regret: i realize that i've passed up so many opportunities. the girls will attest to me saying this... but i know that bailing on events is probably one of my top ten traits. LOL. honestly, now that i think about it retrospectively, is it all worth it? passing up dinners with friends, community groups, volunteering opportunities, serving in church... i feel like i missed out on a lot. i can see what my life could have been like... and then i see what it is like now. and i'm not entirely sure i like what i know. 

so now this leads me to...

2. distaste: a seed has been planted and so i'm starting to doubt the "studies come first" motto. now that's pretty funny seeing that it's my last semester of my undergrad degree... and yet more studies await next year. but the distaste part comes in when i say that i think my priorities are a little funny. they're not wrong. they're not bad. they're just a little funny. i wonder at what point in time i became the girl who would stay home from a party or gathering to study. i don't like it!

all of this comes down to choice. and decisions. i'm working on it. hahah.

the other thing i feel i need/want to mention is my severe aversion to rigidity. and as it turns out, rigidity has been following me everywhere lately. i don't want to be a quitter, but sometimes i'm just so tempted!

anyhow, so moving away from the bad and onto the good.

sydney rocked.

deep down, i had hoped that i wouldn't like it just so that my choice would've been made easier. but i loved it. so now i'm in that "whatever" phase of decisions and i'm just going to take it as it comes. i don't need to decide on anything until january next year so i've made a pact with myself to try and enjoy the "freedom" from making and binding decisions.

there's a few photos from sydney. all of them can be viewed by clicking here. =)

as usual, we ate heaps. but we walked heaps too so i guess that kinda evens things out! but i should say thanks to those who told us where the good places were to go - it all came in really handy and made our trip all that more efficient. ;)

we managed to do all the touristy things we needed to do (except for a ferry trip to manly - which i actually really wanted to do). and i suppose that the only bad thing from the trip was that i totally didn't realize that my camera was set at 0.3MP for the entire trip.. so the photos that i do have are only large enough to print a 6x4! ordinarily, this would suffice, but there were a couple of prints that would reallllyyy have looked awesome framed up as an A4. so enter sad face here. =(

anyhow, i'm feeling that this has been enough thorough reflection on my part. 

time to stop writing about life and go live it!

*hugs*

- pheebs.

so it's been a while

as in true phoebe-style, time has gotten the better of me.

but! there's been lots and lots going on. and i am finally here, with time, to actually sit down and write about them!

the first thing i should post about is my spontaneous trip to singapore. four days is probably the shortest overseas trip i've ever taken, but weirdly enough it was actually the most productive! the main purpose of the trip was to go and see my grandma - which i'm really really glad i did. so now even though she can't hear, see or know who we are anymore, i'm really glad that i went. then of course, there was all the family things, which i love.

so the shopping. well, i found another ted baker bag - that's always a good sign! and the lady there actually remembered me from last december which struck me as kinda weird? or funny at least. and she also recognized the tote ted baker that i was carrying, she remembered that i bought it in melbourne on sale. it was that part which made me just a tad bit freaked out. but hey, i figure i'm safe because i didn't tell her my name... either way, it was all just a little too weird for me.

i also found 10 pairs of shoes over the 3 days there, which beat out my previous record which stood at 8. =p it was pretty awesome though because i would walk into a store and *ding*, immediately i was just drawn to a pair which i just HAD to buy. so considering that i only shopped for two days, i pat myself on the back and say "good job". =) i would take pictures and post them up here, but i probably would be mocked for buying six pairs of shoes which look pretty much the same. in my view though, you can never have too many pairs of the same shoes. particularly, if they're cheap asian shoes that work their purpose well at least for six months. funny though because i think i've bought at least 4 pairs of the same shoe... i'm just lucky that the chinese manufacturers have kept supplying singaporean shoe stores with the same shoes for the past two years... what would i do without my C&K flats?!?

so while i don't love singapore, there are a few things there which pacify me. here are three things:


first: apple juice with aloe vera bits.
my only question is.. why can't they manage to bring this into australia???


second: roti prata at midnight
it's just such fatty goodness... hahahah. =p


third: chicken rice
okay so this didn't come in the oil-proof brown paper wrapping, but still singapore's hainanese chicken rice just can't be beat.

now it's time for some other photo highlights:


for the first time ever, i went to a singapore museum. and believe me, this wasn't by choice. mum was looking for some trippy syringe-pens at singapore general hospital (SGH) and we somehow managed to get shanghai-ed into touring their museum. =.= i have no words.


lucky for me, my dates in singapore happened to cross paths with jas and luke and their holiday so we met up and went for some awesome japanese along with my cousin ben and his girlfriend, faith. food was awesome - i'm really glad i got to go back to shokudo. but funnily enough, the only photo i have with both jas and luke turned out to be fully blurry. hahaha. so this one will have to suffice!


we also went to check out mustafa, because i don't think they believed me when i told them about the 24-hr indian palazza of all neccesities/consumables that you could imagine. and true enough, in a world full of toothpaste, i managed to find one with a green appled flavor! and grape, and orange and strawberry. and they came in cute little tubes. oh how i wish i was a kid again. too bad i wasn't game enough to try it - for me, toothpaste is synonymous with mint. anything else is just plain weird. lol.


the other rocking aisle was that with all the tv dvd boxsets. you can't imagine how upset i was to realize that 1) the prices weren't any better than that in australia, and 2) everything i wanted to watch, i own already. *sad face*.


i guess scary seafood places aren't restricted to china. singapore has them too! and as my uncle put it, just because they're live - doesn't mean they're fresh!


and i realized again that i'm really not a seafood person. some people really get a "high" or a "kick" from seafood. i guess i just don't.


what would singapore be without those hawker stores that are state-wide famous for their awesome good food? this place is famous for their teo-chew porridge.. honestly, in my opinion? i couldn't tell the difference between this and rice and water. but hey, maybe i'm just not asian enough! =p *shock horror*


and of course, a singapore trip just isn't complete without a pure chocolate ice blended from coffee bean. =)

okay well that's about it for now.

you'll all be glad to hear that the LSATs are well and truly over. so! i'm happy living in ignorance at least for the next week and half until results come out. =)

til next time!


- pheebs.