*doesn't get much better than...*

visits from family.

there really isn't anything better! the past few weeks have been so hectic with uni getting into full swing and with starting a new job and all. but finally, life in sydney is settling down.

well well! lots of things to report. and lots of photos to show too!

food @ home

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surprise surprise. rach and i have actually been doing a lot of cooking over here! and because the first meal turned out pretty tasty - not to mention pretty!! we decided to start a photo-journal. =)



mum, dad and lil's week in sydney

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it was so great to have them all come over here to check out our new place and to see more of sydney! but after a week full of re-sightseeing and eating... i think i'm ready to never have to trek down to the opera house for at least a good month or two. i miss mum and dad. i really do. don't get me wrong here, it's an awesome thing to be over here, living out this new phase of life. but it doesn't mean that i don't miss how things were. having them here just reminded me of all of that.

all in all, it really was a great week. here's some snaps:



skyping with the family

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how would we live without the internet?!

our family certainly couldn't!! the week after mum, dad and lil got back to perth, it was mum's birthday! while we had a "mini" celebration here (we made eggs benedict - yes, WITH the homemade hollandaise sauce, sausages and apple pie!) in sydney, the family still had a good ol' family dinner back home in perth. to keep things fun, they skyped us towards the end of the evening and it was hilarious!! anecdotally, the second photo below shows just how interested everyone was when i launched into a story about the murder case i'd been following in the king st supreme court over here. looks like everyone's just incredibly engaged right?? hahaha.



raph's long-weekend in sydney

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long and behold, just a few weeks after mum and dad were here, raph decided to fly over for the anzac long weekend! figures that it was perfect timing, seeing that it was the "last" weekend before my JD classes decided to get all psycho with the assessment due dates! regrettably, i still spent most of the weekend writing my criminal law court report, but there was just enough time to spare to spend some awesome quality time with my big bro! gosh, i miss him heaps too.

funnily enough, we didn't take many photos at all! totally unlike us! i guess we just got carried away with the actual "doing" part of things and forgot to stop to snap photos of the "doing" of things. =p but here's a *few* shots anyway.




all in all, a very good couple of weeks.

stay tuned for some restaurant reviews over the next couple of days! =D

*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.