Leaving Sydney

Well, it's here, the eve before I leave Sydney.

I'm still busy cleaning my room and trying to stuff all my junk into what little space provided by my suitcases and bags. I still haven't vacuumed my room, there's still clutter everywhere, and I'm getting sleepy. In all honesty, I opened the window to start blogging slightly before 3 am, and now it's 20 minutes to 6 am. And I am still not finished. And I haven't slept.

I suppose it's a good time to look back on the year that had been, and appreciate every moment here in Sydney. I have been lucky enough to meet good friends, and that has added so much fun to every experience. I have been given a superb room, exceeding my biggest expectations, and I know my room is very much a part of the reason I like it here. I have visited Melbourne and Canberra, and these are just the cherry atop the icing: I would have been more than satisfied to just remain within and enjoy everything Sydney has to offer. I have experienced many things that have given me much joy and happiness: watching a concert at the Sydney Opera House, having afternoon tea in a quaint little cottage amidst falling autumn leaves, living amidst an international community, looking down from a cliff and taking in the breeze, and oh so many more I can't possibly list everything down (I could, but it would take a really long time).

Indeed, all memories that will last me a lifetime of laughter, amusement, and wistfulness.

Goodbye, Sydney. You've been very good to me.

1 day left!

Ouch. So it's finally come to this: tomorrow will be my last full day in Sydney, and it'll be filled with nothing but rush, rush, rush! I still have so many things to do, and so little time to do them in! I still haven't finished with clearing my junk and cleaning my room, I've still got a whole mountain of library books to scan and return, I've still got to take care of all the official stuff that's left, and I have a final lunch gathering with what's left of my friends!

But anyway, this time I thought I'd blog about my experience at the Sydney Opera House last Saturday! What a great day: I went a little earlier so I'd be able to relax and not panic, so I arrived almost a couple of hours (maybe even more) before the actual event was scheduled to start. But I had a good time, going around and snapping some pictures:

I visited the beautiful toilets quite a few times (they're seriously one of the prettiest I've seen!), and also dropped into the souvenir shop to pick up a few random items. And then it was time for the pre-concert briefing at 7.15 pm, so I followed the crowd and ended up listening to some guy talk about the music we were about to hear, with glass of chardonnay in hand (AUD$8, but ooooh, it was so fun cos everyone was all posh with their dresses and glasses and all!). And then at 8 pm it was time to enter the Concert Hall and enjoy the wonders of the Tchaikovsky Spectacular!!!! Seriously, the moment you step inside, you can almost feel the excitement and thrill in the air, cos the first thing you hear is the sound of the orchestra tuning their instruments, and the anticipation gave me goosebumps! Cameras and the like aren't actually allowed inside the Concert Hall, so all pictures below were taken illegally, muahahahahaha!

I put away my trusty Pentax when the music started though, so there are no pictures of the actual performance. The repertoire for the night (with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra being led by conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy) started off with Finlandia (not by Tchaikovsky, but by Sibelius, who wrote the piece when they were under Russian rule or something, and since Tchaikovsky was Russian, well, I'm sure you see the link), then moved on to the highlight of the night, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, which was performed superbly by James Ehnes, the solo violinist. Then it was the break, in which I tried to go to the toilet but to no avail cos the queues were just so long: I ended up getting James Ehnes' latest CD and getting his autograph!!!! Then it was back to the Concert Hall, and time for the Sleeping Beauty! Ah, I felt so happy when they played the famous waltz, at one point in time, I just leaned back in my chair, breathed deep, and took in the whole sight and sound. It's still kinda hard for me to register the fact that I'm here in Sydney, at the grand Opera House, catching a concert. Now that was a mega achievement.

And that's it, people. I'll have one last blogpost tomorrow, and then then next post after that will be written from Malaysia. Sad and happy, but oh well, c'est la vie! Cheers, people!

2 days left!

I really don't know where the time has gone. I only have 2 days left before flying back to Malaysia, and I suppose I'm happy and sad at the same time. Anyway, today I went to DFO at Homebush, and I had to take the train and bus to get there. Here are some pictures of today's outing, which took more or less 4 hours in all. You can see they've even put up Christmas trees inside Central Station.

And if you haven't known by now, I've had to find my own food source for the past 3 weeks, as the kitchen is not operating during the summer holidays. There entire place is literally quiet and there are no laughs, screams, and the like. Quite peaceful, really, but at times it can get quite creepy and lonely. Sometimes I go out and eat (like in Broadway), but occasionally I cook. Well, actually I cook quite often in my little kitchen, and I guess I've 'improved' my cooking skills. Like the time I cooked hainanese chicken rice from scratch. As in none of that stir-through sauces you get in bottles, but I actually hiked it all the way to Chinatown to get chicken, garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander, chicken stock cubes, kecap manis, sesame oil and the like. It came out pretty good, even if I do say so myself! Take a look:

Looks good, hey? I'm especially proud of this because I made everything from scratch, even the chilli condiment (the colourful one) and the garlic ginger condiment (not the belachan though, that's from a jar you can get at the Asian supermarket at Chinatown). The rice as well, that's hard work, people!!!! But I'm generous, and I'm willing to cook it for anyone who wants to give it a go! Muahahahaha! And I also managed to cook some lamb, and it came out tasting pretty good as well! I don't know why, but lamb seems to be quite cheap here, like, I can get a couple of reasonable cuts of lamb (don't know what part, all I know is it tastes good and I like it) for a couple of dollars. Sure, you have to pay more if you want the choicest cuts and no bones, but hey, a little bone is good, and you get to suck up the marrow, yum yum! I mixed mustard, soy sauce, honey, and a whole bunch of random ingredients lying around, sizzled it on the non-stick pan (don't cook it too long, minimize turning the meat over and over). The mini sausages are called pork chipolatas.

Yummy! Again, anyone up for a go, just lemme know! (hey, that even rhymes!) And one times I had some leftover chicken wings lying around so I decided to make fried chicken! And I fried up some rice too, which always tastes good! Check it out:

So you see, I've had quite a bit of fun experimenting around with food! And I suppose it saves some moolah, cos these ingredients are comparatively cheaper than eating just one meal out and all.

And that's it for this time, hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a couple more blogposts before I fly back home! Cheers, y'all!

P.S. You guys heard/read the news about Hugh Jackman getting injured???

I turn 25 in Sydney!

Wow does time pass quickly. It seems like only yesterday I was leaving for Sydney, and now, in just a matter of days, I'll be back home. I know I haven't been blogging at all the past month, and there are many reasons for this: firstly, at times I actually forgot I had a blog; secondly, I was too lazy; and thirdly, in all honesty, I guess I just didn't feel like blogging about my last days here in Sydney.

But this I have to blog about: my 25th birthday!

That's right, it was my birthday today, so I decided to celebrate by going to Nando's at Broadway. All by myself. Very lonely, and while I ate my quarter chicken (extra hot!) and spicy rice (not spicy!) and drank my little bottle of Coke, I couldn't help feeling really sad. Bittersweet. But still, this past year has been a great experience, and it's interesting, celebrating your birthday alone in a foreign land. Here are some pictures from my birthday 'celebration', and the saddest part (or funniest and funnest, depending on how you see it) was having to ask one of the staff to snap a picture of me and my meal.

And that's it from me, people. I'll blog more tomorrow, and try to bring you all up to what I've been doing these past few weeks. Cheers!

And happy birthday to me!!!! Muahahahaha!