Winter break, so far...

I seem to be really bad at blogging regularly huh? It's been 11 days since my last blogpost, and even that one was late! I've really gotta try to blog more regularly, I can't keep accummulating pictures and events and vomit them all out in one go. So I guess I'll just have to recap the most interesting event that have happened since my last post.

On the 26th of June, some of my fellow IH residents were still here in Sydney, and I managed to spend some time with them before they had to go back home. Su-Wen, Yu Ning and I decided to take a walk around Glebe, which is this really quaint little suburb just about 10-15 minutes away (I've blogged about Glebe before, refer to my previous blogposts if you're really curious). We browsed through Glebe Markets again, but we didn't stay too long this time, just walked in and literally walked one round and out again. We took a slow, leisurely stroll down the main road and ended up at Foley Park Playground, where Su-Wen and Yu Ning revisited their second childhood amongst the hammock and the swings.

World Cup season has also come and gone, and my room has been quite the gathering site for our football-watching cum makan sessions. I've whipped up countless amounts of pasta and garlic bread, and lotsa calories have been consumed in the process. My friends also brought over chips and wine with them, so yeah, it's been a football party, more or less. Here's a combination of pictures of all the football-watching cum makan sessions that have occurred over the past month:

Su-Wen and I have also discovered this great new place called Parma Cucina Bar which is in the Jane Foss Russell Building, which is like, just 40 steps away from IH, and it serves possibly the best-tasting chocolate milkshake on campus! It's cheap, too, what with our Access cards and all, we get a huge metal canister (that's literally what it looks like, serious) of chocolate milkshake for approximately AUD$3.85, which is pretty cheap, by Sydney standards.

Then July happened, and almost everyone went home. Here at IH there were only about 40 residents remaining, and it was pretty lonely and quiet. I conducted a few culinary experiments, and managed to whip up cheese baked garlic rice with barbeque chicken, Malaysian-style laksa, and beef ribs soup, all of which were pretty decent. I also ate some exotic fruits (exotic to Malaysian tastebuds, at least) like the pomegranate, strawberries, and cherries. I enjoyed the strawberries so much, I think I might go back for more!

Last week I also managed to go to two of the Hillsong Conference night events, which were held at the Acer Arena at Olympic Park, and we had to take the train for that (it's approximately AUD$5.40 for a return trip, I think). Here's a few pictures from one of the nights I went:

On the 13th of July, IH was having people in to spray pesticide or insecticide or whatever for pest treatment work, and I don't know how it's connected (maybe they don't want the food to carry toxins), but the dining room and kitchen were closed the whole of that day, which meant we had to search out our own food options. Neil, Robert, Marian and I decided to go to Newtown for some Thai food, and Robert said this restaurant called Newtown Thai had the best flavours (and lunch specials that cost AUD$6, cheap by Sydney standards), so we went there. I had the spicy chicken fried rice (well, actually it's just fried rice with chicken, and I asked them to make it spicy, but spicy chicken fried rice just sounds so much more appetising, don't you think?) and it was fantastic! The flavours remind me of good ole Malaysian food, and man, I wanna go back there for more!

That afternoon I also managed to catch the latest Twilight movie, Eclipse, in Hoyt's, the cinema in Broadway. I was so happy, cos I was forcing myself to finish all the Twilight books (I finished on Sunday) and I stayed up till 5 in the morning just to finish up the Twilight and New Moon movies. I've never watched any of the Twilight movies in the cinema before (I didn't even like Twilight before coming to Sydney - see how much Sydney has corrupted my brain?), but I was quite impressed by Eclipse... I think it's the best Twilight movie so far, and I know Su-Wen and Elizabeth are planning to come back to Sydney and put me through some Twilight-bashing debate sessions, but I'm ready for them, bring it on, grrrrrrrrrrr. I can't wait for the Breaking Dawn movie now, although I've read online that it's going to be two movies instead of just one, since the Breaking Dawn book was so long and all (even the plot itself is long and complicated, you can't just squeeze all that into one movie!), so that's something to look forward to!

And on Wednesday, just two days ago, Kevin and Shelley wanted to go around the university and take pictures and all, so I joined them and had fun snapping some shots here and there of campus life (not much life currently, what with it being winter break and all). Then we met up with Junya and headed over to Parma Cucina Bar because Shelley wanted a tiramisu, and I had a chocolate milkshake (again!) and it was yummy. That night I went out with some coursemates to Nando's at Broadway for dinner, and it's too bad, but I didn't bring my camera along. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go back there again sometime soon, muahahahaha! I had the quarter chicken meal (extra hot!) which came with a side (I had the spicy rice, it was just some rice with turmeric) and a drink (I had a Coke, but of course!) and then they came back to IH and I brought them for a little tour around, and then they came to chat in my room. But here's some shots of the photowalk (is that the term for it, trishie?) around the Sydney University campus:

And those are the eventful events (lame phrasing, I know) of the past week and a half! Now I really have to try to blog more regularly!!!! And here's a little bit of not-so-useless trivia: this is my 200th blogpost!!!! That's two hundred, people! Hahahaha, and here's to many more! Cheers!

Watsons Bay!!!!

So here's the blogpost I said I'd write about the Watsons Bay trip which took place on the 24th of June (I know it's like 2 weeks ago, but really, I've been too busy and lazy to blog). A whole bunch of us girls (Lisa, Meredith, Nav, Su-Wen, Yu Ning and myself) were feeling kinda bored so we decided to go explore this place that was recommended to us by Flavia. So we set off in the morning, took a bus to Circular Quay and from there a ferry (return ticket = AUD$10.60). We had to wait about 15 minutes for the ferry to come though, so I managed to take some pictures while we waited.

The ferry ride was simply amazing! The wind in your hair, the sun on your face, the smell and feel of the water as the engines whip up the foam... Yeah, you end up with messy hair and sunburn and droplets of water on your precious camera, but it was still a pretty fun ride. We snapped lotsa pictures too. I tried - unsuccessfully - to take pics of myself with the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but my head got in the way of the background scenery, so I'll prolly have to go back there with a friend who will specifically take pictures of me. I managed to take pics of my friends though.

Watsons Bay is beautiful! It's like this little peaceful village surrounded by water, and I was so excited when we stepped off the ferry. Immediately it feels like it's a different place, like some ancient civilization from a time far far away... okay, maybe not that dramatic, but still, it has the feel of a quaint little fishing enclave and you know what that feels like.

We took a hike along the South Head Heritage Trail (at least that's what I think it was), and we reached the peak of the cliff (was it a cliff?) and managed to see the Hornby Light (is that what it is? the red and white lighthouse thingy?) and that was pretty and all. The prettiest part was when we all just lounged on the grass and rocks overlooking the bay, now that was breathtakingly beautiful, tranquil and very sigh-inducing. I enjoyed lying down and just looking up at the vast blue skies and listening to the waves crashing against the rocks below.

Then it was time for lunch, and we went to this cafe/restaurant place (a part of it's on stilts over the water!) called Doyles Fishermans Wharf and I had the fish and chips, 2 pieces of fish with a generous portion of fat chips (couldn't finish it!), and that was AUD$11.80, and apparently they don't give you the tartare sauce for free, so a small tub of that was a dollar extra. If you squint at the picture of the menu close enough you'll see that it says "all fish meals golden fried in beer batter using premium vegetable oil & served with chips, lemon & Doyles own chilli plum sauce"... The premium vegetable oil must have been really topnotch. It was yummy yummy yum! Meredith, Nav and myself sat inside the restaurant (I think we were sitting over the water) while Lisa, Su-Wen and Yu Ning sat outside and were attacked by half-starved crazy birds of prey. I looked out of the window and realised the view was fantastic, like something out of a postcard (my miserable photography skills might not make it look like a postcard, I know, but what I saw there in person was pretty magnificent).

Then it was the ride back to Sydney, and we realised we didn't have a single group picture of all of us, so we managed to get two army guys to snap a couple of pictures of us on the ferry.

And that was that. What a fantastic day. I wanna go back again, but financially, I know that might not be possible. Still, Watsons Bay was a fantastic experience, and one I prolly won't forget anytime soon (unless of course I suddenly develop a drastic overnight case of amnesia, in which case I'll forget everything). But even if the memories fade, I'm sure the happy feelings associated with that day won't. And with that, cheers, people!