PMS

In the middle of this year, at the start of June, I went holidaying with my family to Scandinavia. Because this was part of a tour package, that meant spending a few days out of 11 days in total out of the country, be it Singapore for them and Australia for me.

This is mostly going to be a foodlog, but I’ll put in some interesting photos as well I guess.

Our first stop was Finland (not including the stopover at Istanbul, Turkey). By 1pm local Finland time, we reached Helsinki airport. Everyone was tired because we had left Singapore at 11.45pm (GMT +8), arrived in Turkey at 5am EEST (11 hours plane ride?).

We reached our hotel (the Radisson SAS) at 3.30pm and had the opportunity of walking around after getting our rooms and freshening up. The tour group met and walked to the local Chinese restaurant at around 6.15pm. Normally, I wouldn’t go for the Asian foods in non-Asian country given that I am there to experience the local gourmet- but what can you do when your tour group’s asian and there’s always bound to be someone who misses asian food. SO. FINNISH CHINESE FOOD. Excitement.

First course: some sort of soup. Eggy. Then came the heavily battered chicken and the very chinesey Grandmother’s Beancurd (ma po tofu- soft tofu in spicy sauce, and usually with minced meat). Eh. We were done at 7pm- so our group decided to head to the Forum to walk about.

For the start of summer, it was approximately the same temperatures as the start of winter in Sydney, so I didn’t really miss much. But the sun was glorious. The sun didn’t really set, and the hotels all around this latitude have double curtains to keep the light out. It’s only 95% effective, because you still get the glow on the edges of the window.

Now, breakfast the next morning was wonderful. My family woke around 5am, but breakfast wasn’t til 6.30am. It was a continental buffet, but not the kind you get in the States. The cocktail sausages were juicy and tasty, not greasy at all. I had a mix of plain and strawberry yoghurt too, with fresh berries. And the little mini muffins were so delicious my mum had some on takeaway for the bus ride later.

After breakfast, our tour group headed out to drive around the city at approximately 9am, with a knowledgeable tour guide. We visited the Senate Square, the University, the White Cathedral Senate Council, the Temppeliaukio Church and the Sibelius Monument, as well as the Olympic Stadium where the 1952 Olympics were held. I purchased some postcards and sent them out at this point before we headed off to the Market Place (Kauppatori) on the coastal streets of Helsinki. We purchased plenty of berries and black cherries because they looked nice and juicy. They were sweet as well.

Lunch was at a Hong Kong restaurant- it was… okay. Slightly better than what we had for the dinner before. I can’t find my photos for this.

1pm-3.30pm was free and easy, so we walked around the city. At 4.30pm, we boarded the Viking Line ship, Gabriella. The cruise ship left port at 5.30pm, which was also when the dinner buffet started. It was great: fresh salmon, fresh salads, cheeses, mushrooms, pastries- particularly the doughnut omg, berries, etc.

Was pretty full by 6.30pm, which was a good time to walk around. Our cabin was next to the window and we had a porthole for a window as well as a small bathroom (each cabin has one). Walked around the deck a few times, enjoying the cold breeze and my hair whipping about my face. I think the deck closes at 9pm. At 9.30pm, I watched the sun set on the horizon- which just barely goes under.

Our next destination: Sweden. Stay tuned!

The one feeling I love most about road trips is that of amazement. You leave A to get to B, and in between it all on the road is thinking how big the world is. I love watching the skies. I love watching trees and rolling hills go by me. I don’t do it too long though as I tend to fall asleep at some point. And I love falling asleep in cars on long road trips, having done plenty of that when I was back in Singapore driving to KL, Malaysia.

The road from Wollongong to Kiama wasn’t like that though, but we were expecting scenery as we took the route the visitors’map claimed was scenic.

It was undoubtedly beautiful to go down on the hills seeing the ocean and the coastline in the horizon. Photos were snapped by me and H; Arrch and the boyfriend thought we were a little too camera-happy. Which you know, is totally worth it when you go through your photo collection later in life.

We parked approximately 200m away from the big blowhole. The weather was the sort of calm that everyone loved, but we were hoping for more tumultous winds that would drive the water through the hole high up into the sky. It wasn’t too grand that day unfortunately, and we did not visit the smaller blowhole which would have been good at almost any time.

There was a spit of land out into the water, with chunky, rocky terrain that the boyfriend and I overcome to reach to that red little beam thing (it’s in one of the photos on this post). Arrch and H weren’t feeling too adventurous to follow us. The water level rose; it was around 4pm that Marco and I decided to make our way back to them- the easy path back was beginning to be immersed in water. Even easy wasn’t that easy. On the way we encountered a quartet of Japanese people who had their portable stove out there on the rocks, looking forward to feasting with a view.

We headed back to our car and decided to stop for ice cream at a place we drove past earlier. 2 hours of driving later, we reached Devonshire, hoping to try out the smokehouse but it was closed on Sunday. We ended up having Thai near my place and that was good too.

It was a lovely Sunday morning on the 2nd of August. The boyfriend and I head out to get his car ready for the long journey ahead, whilst my cousin H and Arrch made their way to my place. By 10.30 am, we were all ready to go.

We arrived at the Nan Tien Temple an hour later and  not so famished, having had some chocolates and fruit on board. People were parking and or heading towards to temple from the carpark as the boyfriend eased into a parking spot. I think it might have been a little harder to find a closer parking space to the temple if we were to arrive at lunch time. Nevertheless there seemed to be enough parking for more visitors.

It was odd that it didn’t feel like a Sunday out of the city and felt more like an actual holiday or a day off work. It was pretty energising.

What caught our eyes after the towering Pagoda (where the ashes of the cremated are kept), were the little stone sculptures of monks scattered around the Temple Grounds. Each stone sculpture had a unique pose and we got a little creative ourselves, although those photos are unfortunately, not on my camera.

What more can we do but to explore at the actual temple? We headed up the steps into what seemed like a courtyard, and ahead of us was the temple sitting on top of more stairs. No photos were allowed to be taken inside the temple though. There were lots of opportunities to snap our cameras at every other part, and we did just that. I didn’t get a panaromic view of the courtyard from the top of the stairs, but I did take a video of its expanse.

The boyfriend paid for a pocket of joss sticks ($10AUD), of which contained 15- leaving 3 left as we had no 5th person with us. He stuck them in my bag, and I broke one as you know how handbags go.

I was interested in the vegetarian lunch ($9 AUD pp), but it wasn’t extraordinary like I thought it would be. It was ordinary as ordinarily as the food person puts the food sloppily on the plates before handing them to us. The noodles were fine (there was the rice option, but everyone seemed to go for the noodles). The tofu (tofu! <3) and vegetables were alright- at least they were tasty when put together.

After lunch, we snapped some more photos and headed to the Bell of Gratitude. Not that we knew it was there, but found it out merely through exploration. It was a little of a walk and Arrch and I decided to race to the Bell. He won without a contest really. I was mostly out of breath but regained it as H and the boyfriend made it to the Bell on a leisurely walking pace.

The Bell didn’t sound too loud, but the couple after us managed to make it a decibel or two louder. Nevertheless, it was close to 2pm and we head down the path, towards the tourist shop where they had heaps of stuff, and a museum of Buddhist art and sculptures. The museum is a definite must to visit.

After procuring a few postcards, we decided to head down South to Kiama next on a scenic driving route.

This is backlog of photos I’ve taken in the past year that is amusing. I love my camera phone (Sony-Ericsson c902) for these sort of random things.

At Work…

The usual deliveries to the IT department in the appearance of an unusual container.

At 38°C cake shop on George Street…

There are 3 things wrong with this, and the Engrish isn’t one of them.

At the local supermarket in World Square…

It wasn’t stinky or anything but it looks hideous. I now understand why foreigners to South East Asia don’t like these prickly green fruits because they don’t look that great here.

Sometime in December (yes, another backlog), I made a visit to Hyde Park for a doll outing. Hyde Park, Sydney, is huge, so we chose to meet on one end of it- which was close to St Mary’s Cathedral and where the Archibald Fountain was.

It was only me and the organiser sitting on a park bench, overlooking the fountain for a good one hour. An hour during which a singing man appeared, took off his top, and went for a swim in the fountain. He didn’t quite stop singing as he got out of the fountain 15 minutes later thereabouts and went back to his empty milk crate a couple of paces away. Two policemen came and questioned him, and they left together after a while. The singing man was pretty good natured and didn’t cause any commotion otherwise.

Anyhow, I took three photos at the park, as the weather wasn’t that great. I might take better photos next time. Hyde Park is really beautiful and there’s always many people there. I’ve read, and eaten at the park there once on two occasions. I would do more of that were it in a comfortable proximity.

Wikipedia has an interesting background story for the fountain. The fountain itself was commissioned by the editor of a magazine, and he wanted a French artist to come up with the concept.

Again, as always, my posts are usually 1 month late. I went to a Motorcycle Show last month to have a look at these beautiful road beasts held at the Showground in the Olympic Park. It was all quite exciting, and there were lots of motorcycles parked along the road as we walked from the carpark to the venue. There were so many different types of people there!

Tickets cost about $17AUD per person. And the image to the right was one of first bikes I saw and thought was kind of neat.

I took a lot more photos throughout the show, but I shall only post up those that I like. I don’t have photos of cruisers, dirt bikes and scooters as I didn’t fancy them as much.

I think my favourites would be the Honda bikes (a couple of them; wish I would be able to ever ride a racing bike!), one Ducati Monster and the Kawasaki Ninja.

Honda’s bikes are <3. Like below.

Wish I took more photos of it, including its specs, because I don’t remember names and numbers and other finer details. Looking forward to actually getting one of them bikes some day!

And here’s a Honda CBR125R.

Which is so red and <3.

And last but not least check this custom bike out. (I might have a thing for black.)

All in all, it was a good event to go too- a definite eye-opener. I’ve always loved bikes but never got into learning more about them. Did about two rounds before heading off.

I’m so sorry for not posting more often. Perhaps after saving up for a smaller, niftier digital camera, I’d be able to share more about my life soon ^^;

I went to the San Francisco Museum of Art during Thanksgiving weekend. I was going to do an art review on an exhibition there, and a quick browse on the website led me to find some interest in the 1000 Journals Project.

In a nutshell, the project is to send 1000 anonymous empty journals around the world, and by leaving them around or sending them to people, the journals get passed all around the world, getting filled with entries of different people.  The exhibition was hard to locate, and you have to find it almost by accident, since there are no signs leading to it at all. It struck me that this was much like how the participants of the journals would’ve stumbled on these strange books waiting to be filled as well.

The collage of the pages blown up and exhibited on the wall, from afar, they look like colorful tapestry quilts. I took some picture of the collages, so here they are.

Had some friends of a friend (Sarah) from Singapore visit Sydney recently, and a mutual friend (Arrch), of said Sarah, played chauffeur and introduced them to Kat and I. We went on a trip to Fox Studios on Sunday night (past 8), which was surprisingly, not so deserted and had several shops still open.

After a chilly walk about, we got back into Arrch’s car and headed straight to Pancakes on the Rocks – a prominent pancakes place that opens almost 24/7.

Entree was the seasoned & cooked golden brown wedges. They were devoured most scrumptiously, although someone said “I could do this better”.

Right up next was the gourmet pizza with a crispy sort of base. It was delicious. When we were done with the “starters”, we asked for our desserts to be served.

Kat and I shared a Blueberry Heaven. Totally delightful. The two friends of Sarah shared a Vanilla and Chocolate Surprise while Arrch had a whole Lemontyne to himself. I think all of us enjoyed the desserts muchly. Because we stepped out of Pancakes on the Rocks with smiles and warmed tummies.

Fondue for 2, with marshmallows, banana bread, bananas and strawberries. Milk and dark chocolate.

Chocolate is very delicious.

Hot chocolate (dark) is pretty, but not as great as a thick Italian chocolate (dark).

MB wasn’t that crowded on Saturday’s noon, but only because no one really wants to eat there for lunch. Found my bf and I a nice table where we sat to enjoy the chocolates and the newspaper for the day. This would otherwise be hard to do later in the afternoon.

It’s the most prettiest thing I’ve ever seen outside at a shopping mall. Incredibly blue skies in the backdrop and a fountain that everyone seems to take for granted, strolling past it as if it were nothing more than a pebble at a beach.

The gears are fantastic, and the details! Burnished metals, aged by time. I felt like I was in a steampunk sort of reality. That or in a scene reminiscent of The Golden Compass. Just brilliant, really.

Quoting Wikipedia:

The intersection of Florence Street and Hunter Street became a pedestrian mall in the early 1990s. At the centre of the pedestrian mall is a large water clock sculpture, designed by Victor Cusack.

It is somewhat odd that it would be in a place like Hornsby, which isn’t exactly around a CBD. Most tourists to Sydney would miss it altogether. Makes me feel a little sad when I think of that.