Joannekhoo.net

2012 New Year Resolution

2012-01-03T15:55:00.002+11:00

I've been doing resolutions as far back as I can remember. January has always been the month of excitement. Everyone anticipates a fresh start. Everybody is filled with hope that this year will be a year of success. But how do you measure success if you don't have a goal to begin with. So that's where resolutions come into the picture.

But this year, I started becoming more intentional with my resolutions. Before that, I used to have a list of about 10 items on my resolution sheet. Be more punctual, be fitter, run more often, read at least 12 book a year. But then I hardly ever achieve my resolutions, simply because many of them are written without any strategies in mind or in the grand scheme of things, many of them (like read 12 books a year) is not really that important.

I think resolutions should be called goals. Goals are less flimsy and more intentional. To have a goal is to have an aim. Resolutions is more of a list of what you should or should not do. There's no real aim.

I also believe that your yearly goal should fit somewhere within your life plan. If your life plan is to be financially free by 45, fit enough to run 10 km at any given moment, have a good relationship with your family and friends, have a business, own a house etc, then your resolutions for the year should align with your life plan. Your yearly goal should also be accompanied with strategies and a list of potential barriers.

So this year, instead of having a million different resolutions, I have only 4 resolutions (goals). This covers career, fitness, my own business and improving my Chinese language skills. The fewer goals, the better it is I say.

One of my overall strategies is to organize my life a bit better. I realized that been disorganized has caused me a lot of unnecessary stress. I started with my e-mail. I have a lot of unread mail in my inbox. The first thing I did was to archive everything. I then re-organized my labels and ensured that nothing ever stayed in my inbox. E-mails were either replied or sorted. E-mails that I left to reply later would be starred. If I don't reply within a week, I probably won't be bothered after that, hence it will be taken out of inbox into another folder or discarded.

I'm also measuring progress by jotting down many aspects of my life. I'm going to start keeping a food diary where I write down whatever I eat. Since middle last year, I've kept a fitness journal where I wrote down every workout routine I've done (including weight, reps and timing). I am also writing down whatever I do during a day, how much I weight and my body fat % (if and when measured). I estimate that this will take about 30 minutes of my time in a day but I think it will be worth it.

When I was 4: Honey stars

2011-11-25T17:57:00.004+11:00

I am able to recall many moments of my early childhood. I always assumed that this was a normal phenomenon, only to realise that many don't recall much of their early years. I don't believe that I have a special ability or memory. I'm able to because every so often, when I'm unable to fall into the slumbers of sleep, I play a game with myself - I force myself to recall memories of my life, starting from my earliest memories. I believe that earliest memory I can recall is probably when I was 18 months old. So I'm starting a new series on my blog called: "when I was".

I've always been called butterfingers since I was young. I guess I deserved that title. Meal after meal, I'll tell myself, "Don't drop it. For once, don't drop it." But it always happened. I always spilled my rice, milk, cereal, you name it. Once, I was eating a bowl of cereals. I don't remember the name of the cereal. But it was golden in colour, shaped like stars and tasted sweet, like it was coated with honey. (Perhaps it was called, honey stars?) I remember it being yummy and I was in euphoria. But my euphoria moment didn't last long, before I knew it, I was sent into the fast-speed elevator and descended back onto earth. I had dropped the entire bowl of honey stars cereal. Unlike Van Gogh who painted the sky with stars above Cafe Terrace, I painted the carpet of the apartment with my stars.

O no. Big blunder. I would be scolded for sure. Lucky for me, being a lactose-intolerant baby, the cereal was dry. Otherwise, I might not be here to write this entry. Anyway, having grown a long white beard, I twirled it with my right index finger and in my infinite wisdom, came up with a brilliant thought, "I shall hide the cereal under the beanbag. No one would know. After all, it could have been anybody in this household."

So I did just that. I dragged the beanbag across the hallway and placed it on top the evidence. Problem solved.

A few days later, my mum discovered the evidence. "Who did this?" she asked. I kept quiet. After all, my brilliant coverup had no loopholes in it.

Little did I know, I was the only one in the household who ate honey stars.

When I was 4: Ribena

2011-11-23T07:22:00.002+11:00

When I was 4: Life

2011-11-23T07:13:00.003+11:00

When I was 18 months old

2011-11-23T06:57:00.005+11:00

I am able to recall many moments of my early childhood. I always assumed that this was a normal phenomenon, only to realise that many don't recall much of their early years. I don't believe that I have a special ability or memory. I'm able to because every so often, when I'm unable to fall into the slumbers of sleep, I play a game with myself - I force myself to recall memories of my life, starting from my earliest memories. I believe that earliest memory I can recall is probably when I was 18 months old. So I'm starting a new series on my blog called: "when I was".

I don't recall too much of my 1.5 year life. I have only two mental snapshots of that period in my short life. The first snapshot was in Mt Buller, Victoria, Australia. My extended family were up in the mountains for a ski trip. I was obviously too young to ski. All I remember was the dark sky with heavy snow. I remember it being cold and gloomy, with a wooden signboard in front of me. We must be standing in front of a restaurant or a hotel.

My second memory is being in Singapore. I remember being on an escalator in a shopping centre in Singapore. I remember that my parents had bought a large Mercedes toy car for me, one that I could sit in and pretend I was legal to drive. It came equipped with batteries and pedals. All I can recall was my dad carrying the car (probably in the toy box) and the long escalator ride. Sometimes, when I'm gallivanting the shopping paradise island, I still find myself looking around, hoping for something to "click", to see whether I can recall the exact shopping center we were in, the long escalator engrained in my memory.

An evening adventure with a friend’s 4 year old child.

2011-11-19T20:54:00.000+11:00

“Jesse, let’s catch some stars together!”

“Weee!!!” He bent his tiny knees and leaped like a little frog up into the sky. He had his arms spread open, reaching for the highest star he could.

I grabbed an invisible star and placed it in my mouth. “Yummy!” I exclaimed.

“What is yummy?”

“The stars are so yummy! I can taste…mmmm…chocolate and strawberries. What do you taste?”

He grabbed the wind and clutched his tiny fingers and brought them to his mouth. He opened and closed his mouth, grinded his teeth, made a chewing motion and licked his lips. He paused for one second like a little professor in deep thought. His eyes then lit up and he said, “I taste chocolate too! And strawberries. And ice cream. I love ice cream! I love stars!”

“Let’s grab more stars,” I said excitedly to him.

We ran along the pedestrian pathway and leaped up like little frogs. We leaped and leaped till we reached the moon. There, we sat by the pond covered by lotuses eating ice cream, chocolate and strawberry flavoured stars.

Mediocrity and procrastination

2011-11-18T21:06:00.000+11:00

The room is full of shadows. The lonely fluorescent lamp had been flickering for the past six months but he hasn’t had it changed. It slowed down his reading and work progress because it made his eyes tired. But I can still read, he reasons.

The girl in the photo, 2007

2011-11-18T20:53:00.002+11:00

I stared at the girl. I felt a slight notion of pain and envy. She had on a summery flowery top with frills at the bottom. She had a huge grin spread across her face. Her laughter seemed so genuine. Her eyes twinkled mischievously. She had messy locks and curls flowing from her head. A few strands of hair defying gravity, rebelled against her. Salty water and the gentle breeze touched her lips and tiny droplets hung on to her skin. The waves were up to the buckles of her knees. Part of her denim shorts were drenched in sea salt. She didn’t seem to mind. I saw white waves rolling in like froth on a cappuccino. I saw the clean blue sky speckled with flying seagulls. At the most front of the photo, there was the happy girl.

It was 2007. It was a time of happiness.

Snippets of my Asian Education - Part I, the Voiceless

2011-11-18T20:49:00.004+11:00

She wasn’t very tall. She had a sturdy built. Hair up to the shoulders. A pair of round, gold glasses sat on the bridge of her nose. She always wore a conservative dress.

I haven’t spoken much to her before. After all, I was considered a quiet child. One who spoke little to others, what more to authorities.

You are lying, she said sternly to me. You know what they do to kids who lie, she asked me? I lowered my gaze and stared at my pristine white Velcro shoes. My mum always made sure my shoes were spotless. She continued, there’s a machine in the teacher’s staff room. They put lying kids in the chair and put the machine on their heads. We use that machine to tell whether you are lying or not.

I swallowed my saliva and tried to blink back tears. I said nothing. I didn’t know how to explain myself, aside from repeating the words, “I’m not lying.”

We took a class test a few days before. It was an easy test where we had to name parts of a snail in the Malay language. There were the eyes, the tail, the shell and the tentacles. Sesunggut it was called. Tentacles = sesunggut. With a double “g”. But back in the old days, like illustrated on the chart pasted at the back of the classroom wall, it was spelled with a single “g”.

Class, you may start the test. Remember not to cheat and not to look at the chart.

I scored almost a perfect score, except there was a problem. I spelled sesunggut with a single “g”, like in the chart.

She called me up front and called me a cheat. Why did you look at the chart? I didn’t, I said timidly. So why did you spell it similarly to the chart. I don’t know, I mumbled. So you cheated, she accused me.

I thought about it for a long time. Why did I spell it the similar way? It’s because I’m always at the back of the classroom where the chart is located when I drink my water or sharpen my pencils. I stare at the chart while doing it. I have somewhat a photographic memory. I must have memorized the chart.

But I couldn’t voice my thoughts. The words couldn’t and wouldn’t form in my mouth. I didn’t know how to form a rationale argumentative statement to state my case. Before her existence in my life, I’ve never been accused of anything I’ve never done before.

For the first time, the 7 year old me, with tears quietly streaming down my face, sat alone in the cafeteria and cried out to God.

Hello world

2011-11-18T16:39:00.002+11:00

I've been extremely disconnected from the blogging world. That being said, I do keep a fitness blog, where I just down my fitness progress. But there's nothing like writing as an outlet of emotional expression. I lost my dot net domain as a result of my sheer procrastination. I kept saying "tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow" for 30 days leading up to the date of my domain expiration. A week after it expired, I finally decided to put an end to my laziness and renew the domain. I clicked on the link and I couldn't do it. Guess what, a week later, some idiotic company bought my domain and if I want my domain back, I would need to pay USD600 or higher. I am not paying that ridiculous amount for my a domain with my own name. I'm so angry at companies that take advantage of situations like this. Why would they buy my name? Sigh. I can complain all I want. But I've learn my lesson. Don't procrastinate. Expect the unlikely - that is even if your name is pretty rare and the chances of someone else (or in this case, company) wanting to acquire your name seems pretty low to you, don't take the risk. Secure your property.

Revelation

2010-05-10T20:42:00.005+10:00

From tonight's episode at home:

Me: Do you want ginseng chicken soup?
Brother: No.
Me: Why not? It's good for you.
Brother: No.

*5 minutes later I placed a bowl of ginseng soup in front of him*

An hour later:

Me: Do you want probiotic pills?
Brother: No.
Me: It's good for you.
Brother: Okay, I'll have one.
Me: Take two.
Brother: Okay.

Is this a revelation of the kind of mother I will be? O o...

Help

2010-05-06T15:42:00.005+10:00

I'm struggling for healthy breakfast ideas. After months of the usual yoghurt and muesli routine, I'm getting tired of it. I don't quite like drinking milk, plus I never finish my carton of milk in the fridge hence milk with muesli is not an option.

I don't quite like eating toast because it's not enticing enough and it's not exactly healthy.

What's a healthy, yummy and easy-to-make breakfast alternative?

New blog header

2010-04-16T06:31:00.003+10:00

haha, i created it because i wanted to play around with photoshop. Don't think it will be up for long though, only till I come up with something better (or more meaningful).

Out with the old and in with the new

2010-04-16T00:12:00.004+10:00

Its 12 am and I'm a hyper bunny right now. I just had two cups of coffee and a pot of tea! I was out for coffee with a bunch of girlfriends and I was really zoning out of the conversation. My mind gets that way sometimes but tonight I was so out of it to the point that I think I was being downright rude.

"So jo, are you coming for the event?"

"Sorry, what event again?"

"Event xyz"

"Em, when is it again?"

So coffee it was! Felt much better after that. Unfortunately, I'm really hyper right now. I will use my energy to blog!

Anyway, a month ago, I've decided to make the courageous move to chop off my long hair. I've been deliberating for a while but I've never had the guts to do it. You see its a big deal to me because the last time I had short hair, I was 4 years old. After that, it was long hair all the way.

Long hair felt like a safety net. Horrible fringe? That's okay, your long hair will make up for it. Chubby cheeks? Your long hair will cover it. Hairdresser having pms and gave you a bad hair cut? Get your hair cut again - there's room (hair) for error.

One fine day, last month, I've decided to book an appointment at the hairdressers. Counting down to THE day, I've sought various opinions from different people on whether I should make that bold move. I think there were 9 nays and only 1 ay. So on the day of the appointment, I decided to cancel my slot. But when i arrived, I felt bad for doing a last minute cancellation and thought that I should just get a trim anyway.

An hour later, I walked away with a short bob and feeling 100 kgs lighter. Allow me to tell you what changed my fickle mind again.

It was simple. It was the hairdresser's taunting. She taunted me, I tell you. It was like a dare.

Upon sitting down on the chair, she asked me, "How would you like your hair cut?"

Me: Do you think short hair would suit me?

She: Short hair can suit anyone. It depends on whether you like it or not.

Me: Hm, but what do you think works for me?

10 second pause

She: You should just stick with long hair.

Me: Why?

Another 10 second pause (I think it was deliberate, for dramatic effect)

She: Cause you're not ready.

Me: Why do you say that?

She: Cause I just know it. I can see it in a customer. I'll know whether she is ready or not. You are not ready.

Me: What? Maybe I'm ready. I want to cut my hair short.

She: Most customers walk in here thinking they are ready but really, they are not. They walk away regretting their decisions. I don't want you to regret yours.

Me: I'm ready! Cut my hair short.

She: You sure you won't regret this?

Me: I'm sure. Just do it now before i change my mind. Quickly, take the first snip!

So within seconds, she chops off a huge chuck of my hair.

And you know what, I felt nothing - no regret nor pain. On the contrary, I immediately embraced my new look. In fact, I'm thinking of cutting it even shorter. Since it's already short, I might as well go for the full effect. After all, hair grows =)

Using Mac webcam

When my hair is styled

The eye

2010-04-14T01:36:00.004+10:00

I'm finally making use of my wacom tablet. For the first time ever, I've decided to experiment in digital art. It is so fascinating! Sigh, should have discovered this earlier! I'm having a ball just playing with my tablet and experimenting with different colours and digital tools!

Drawing/painting digitally was quite daunting initially because its definitely not the same as drawing on paper. You can't physically blend colours together and its a strange feeling having to look elsewhere (screen) while your pen manouvers around the tablet. I was really clumsy with the digital pen at first but after a while, I started warming up to it.

Here's my first sketch ever~! It's very raw but I'm quite satisfied considering this is my first try =)

Same piece as above, but i added subtle "noise" (texture) to the skin.

I'm loving my disney songs

2010-04-12T18:42:00.003+10:00

Ever since I can remember, my dad had always complains that "they don't make songs like they used to anymore". He claims that modern songs are mostly just noise without any real meaning. And every time some current singer makes a remake of a classic old song, my dad goes, "you see, songs of my generation are so good that modern singers make a remake of them."

*roll eyes*

But in recent years, I've been catching myself saying the same stuff as my dad as well.

They don't make disney movies like they used to anymore!

Disney movies these days have no meaning. The young audience only want to laugh at silly things the cartoon characters do. I miss the whole wicked stepmother, prince charming and happy ever after concept. Nobody can get bored of a good fairy tale. In my opinion, the last great disney movie was toy story (the fact that the soundtrack was awesome is an added bonus). Okay, and maybe..finding Nemo.

Other that that, boo yah. nothing great.

Here are some of my favourite disney songs:

Mulan: A girl worth fighting for

Cinderella: Mouse song

The little Mermaid: Kiss the girl

Beauty and the Beast: Belle

Clash of the Titans (2010)

2010-04-10T11:26:00.004+10:00

I don't know how this movie made it to the cinemas. It should have gone straight to the dvd rental store. I have nothing too much to say about this film because in summary, its exceptionally bad. Full stop. Rotten tomatoes critics rate it at 30%.

Visual effects: On the first sight of the Roman gods, I couldn't help but burst out laughing (perhaps this movie should be in the 'comedy' category). The visual effects were so...1980s. It looked like normal humans were filmed and subsequently, the movie makers put some sort of glowing ring around their bodies to give them this god-like effect. Hello, we are in the 21st century. I'm sure we can get better visual effects than that with our current technology!

Script: There was nothing clever about the script. Every single line was predictable and cliche that it was so cringe-worthy. Such as, "I've been watching over you...We belong together."

3-d: Why bother with the 3-d effects? There were hardly any scenes that required it. The use of the 3-d effects was not creative at all. There was nothing really popping up or etc that made you feel like you were part of the movie (that's the point of the 3d effect right, to make you feel that props in the movies are floating out of the screen and into the seat you are sitting in). Instead, we have to endure murky visuals wearing 3-d glasses that gave me a headache. This movie will work perfectly the same way 2-d. I read somewhere that the 3-d effects were incorporated at the very last minute. It definitely looked like a very rushed job.

And I expected many more battle scenes. The Kraken who is suppose to be this deadly formidable creature didn't even have a battle scene at all. All the Kraken did was flip around in the ocean like a giant squid, made a few roars and then was immediately killed by Perseus (demi-god protoganist).

When they were making this expensive film, didn't anyone tell the director, Louis Leterrier what was wrong? It doesn't take a genius to see that this movie was badly made. I'm fine with badly made low-budget films but I always feel disappointed when I see a badly made big-budget movie that had so much potential to be developed into a great film.

Relationship between exercise and sleep

2010-03-24T10:09:00.008+11:00

This year, I've taken up kickboxing as a form of exercise. I try to attend about 2-3 sessions per week. The class is pretty intense and most people there are EXTREMELY fit. I'm talking about guys & girls with black belts in karate. They train pretty much everyday. After a kickboxing session, they would run back to the changing room, change into their karate outfits and then join the karate class. On the other hand, I'll be so buggered that all I'll be thinking about is food and water.

Yesterday I had a pretty intense session as I had a 45 minute personal training session which was immediately followed by the usual 1.5 hour class. At the end of it, my hands were trembling so much, I had difficulty typing smses (My hands are still trembling today. I tried to paint earlier but failed pathetically).

That being said, last night, I had the best sleep ever. I immediately fell into dreamland the moment my head touched the pillow. Today is one of those rare days that I woke up feeling extremely fresh despite sleeping for only 6 hours. Good sleep is a rare treat for me as I usually wake up feeling like death has hit me despite sleeping a good 8 hours. I attribute this treat to my intense workout yesterday. Bring it on!

Salt attack

2010-03-22T20:02:00.001+11:00

Dad has been cooking lots. As much as I appreciate the gesture, I always shudder at the amount of salt he uses in the food. We always tease him by asking him whether he is enjoy his dish of salt or soy sauce and whether that piece of chicken/pork/beef is a good condiment for his dish.

Eat less sodium kids! Excessive salt is bad for you.

From BBC News

Why is too much salt bad?

In adults, when levels of sodium are too high, the body retains too much water and the volume of bodily fluids increases.

Many scientists, although not all, believe this process is linked to high blood pressure, or hypertension, which in turn is linked to a greater risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.

With high levels of fluid circulating through the brain there is a greater chance that weaknesses in the brain's blood vessels are exposed, and that they may burst, causing a stroke.

Similarly, a greater volume of fluid passing through the heart can place additional strain on the organ, increasing the possibility of coronary disease.

However, there are many potential causes of hypertension and coronary heart disease, and some scientists deny that salt plays any significant role at all.

An adult will be able to remove salt from the body through the kidneys into the urine.

However, very young babies do not have the capacity to process large quantities of salt as the kidneys are not yet developed.

If they are given adult food with a higher salt content before they are at least four months old, excess sodium can accumulate in the body, causing kidney, liver and brain damage, and in very occasional cases, death.

It is recommended that babies are given only milk, whether breast or formula, for the first four months of life.

Baby foods are supposed to contain lower levels of salt, and it is recommended that if adult foods are to be given, unprocessed foods should be used, and no salt added.

How much salt should we eat?

The government recommends that adults should eat 6g of salt a day. However, the average intake of salt is between 9g and 10g a day.

Experts estimate that if average consumption was cut to 6g a day it would prevent 70,000 heart attacks and strokes a year.

The main sources of salt in the diet are processed foods and salt added during cooking or at the table. Meat and meat products, and bread can also be high in salt.

Processed foods are thought to account for around 75% of the average person's salt intake.

However, research published in The Lancet medical journal suggested that most people could not tell the difference between loaves with markedly different salt content.

Salt is added to processed foods to aid preservation and to improve taste. Sodium is present in additives such as monosodium glutamate and sodium bicarbonate.

Small amounts of sodium can be found naturally in some foods such as eggs and fish.

The salt we sprinkle on our food from cellar accounts for only 10%-15% of our intake.

Weekend rambles

2010-03-20T18:06:00.003+11:00

1. Sometimes I feel frustrated/sad whenever I see blog posts on Forever 21, Victoria Secret or anything U.S. related! Because everything there is so darn cheap compared to Australia. For example, a decent looking dress from Forever 21 is about 20 dollars. Australia's equivalent to U.S. Forever 21 is probably Supre. I walked into Supre the other day and a pair of shorts is $40!!! Woe is me. I've hardly bought anything from Australia the past few years because I can't bring myself to buy such expensive stuff when I know I can get it cheaper elsewhere.

2. Leon: the professional! I'm more in love with Natalie Portman than ever before. I've recently watched her first debut film and fell in love with little 11 year old Portman. I don't think she was meant to be the main character of the film but she definitely stole the show. Her character was extremely complex as her 11-year old character had a fatherly-romantic relationship with a man in his mid-40s. I know it sounds really wrong yet it came out so innocently beautiful. There was nothing lustful in the film but rather two lonely and lost characters finding each other and in that, found a new meaning and hope to life.

3. Make up! Wei Chee described me as a late bloomer because I've only recently been fascinated with make up! I bought 2 sets of 88 make up palette over the internet ($20 each!) and have been experimenting with the colours. I'm so happy. I feel like my face is a piece of canvas and I'm creating art.

4. Speaking of painting, I've been spending so much of my spare time painting! After this painting episode is over, I won't be touching my paint brushes for the next....few months! I'll post up pictures when I'm done!

5. Run for the kids. I recently joined a 14.6km charity run. Note to self: never ever gulp down protein shake + yoghurt 30 minutes before your run! Let's just say I had stitches even before the ran began. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the run. I love massive events - the fact that everyone is united for a single cause is so beautiful!

6. Garden report - Sigh, one of plants have been attacked by fungus and its slowly dying on me!!! The rest of the plants are thriving. I've been having meals out on my balcony, basking in the summer/autumn heat. I love checking on my plants progress and watching new leaves sprount and new flowers blossom. It's like watching a miracle performed before your eyes.

The Hurt Locker - Best Picture Oscar win

2010-03-08T21:21:00.004+11:00

The Hurt Locker, which churned out only $20 million in worldwide box office snagged the Best Picture Oscar award at the 82nd Academy Awards, along with 5 other awards. The win came as a surprise to me and to many others as Avatar was favoured to win. It was the lowest-grossing best picture winner of all time. Hurt Locker cost a mere $11 million to make compared with the more than $230 million cost of Avatar.

How did this low budget and low revenue movie (which was going to bypass the Australia cinemas and straight into the dvd stores) win so many awards?

This film centres on a three-man U.S. Army bomb squad stationed in Baghdad. The team leader, William James goes around Baghdad city examining and defusing IEDs (homemade bombs). The two other men provide rifle cover while he does his job.

This Iraq war film is very much unlike most Iraq war films I've seen. Although it's not a typical Hollywood combat film, the focus is very much on the emotional and psychological side of the war. That being said, this film is still very much suitable for men to watch. The movie left me hanging off the edge of my seat throughout the entire duration. Unlike a typical movie where there's a built up of the storyline, climax and then conclusion, this show seems to be at a climax throughout the entire duration. Sometimes the stretching of anxiety makes it unbearably painful to watch. It makes me want to scream, "where's the downtime/comic relief where the men go back to their bunks, play cards, talk about women and ogle at their pictures like in all typical Hollywood war films?"

The thrill and beauty of this film lies in the stripped-down simplicity of the movie. All you feel is the rustling wind. All you hear is the occasional buzzing of the flies swarming in the sweltering dessert heat. All you see is the enemy. All the enemy sees is you. All that lies between you and the eye of the enemy are your guns. And the only thing that determines life or death is the trigger. You wonder whether you are going to die the next minute. And then you wait…for the right time. Because precision and timing determine everything. Wrong move, you die. Right move, he dies.

And while James does his job defusing IEDs, locals stand on their balconies, peep out windows and stare at them. You wonder who are the mere civilians and who are your enemies? How do you tell? The team’s lives are possibly in danger yet they wouldn’t want to go on a shooting rampage, taking away innocent lives. Can you imagine being in that scenario for an entire year of your life? Unsure whether you are allowing your enemy to take away your life simply because you mistook him/her for an innocent bystander. The tension! I guess it came to the point where they countdown and look forward to the end of each day not because tomorrow is going to be different but because they were one day closer to leaving Iraq.

Also, this film sinks in a slight feeling of futility. In some ways, it seems like the war is pointless. You detonate a bomb, another one is planted tomorrow. You kill an enemy, a replacement comes in tomorrow. What is the point of war then? The war seemed to screw some people up – like James who is a very brave soldier and is darn good at his job. But he didn’t seem to care whether he lived or die. Denoting bombs to him seem more like a challenging piece of art rather than a mission done for a greater cause. He was in Iraq to escape the confines of the usual domestic life – like the message shown at the start of the movie stating, 'the rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.”

To conclude, this movie is really good but I’m not sure whether it’s deserving of its Best Picture award. Maybe because I’m bias. I love Avatar. It’s the only movie I voluntarily watch in the cinema twice (oops, I lied. I watched Slumdog twice as well).

I have many other things to say about this movie, like my slight discontentment with certain parts of the movie. For example, the ending left me wondering whether the film was pro-war or against the war? There was no real stand, which made the movie slightly unfocused. For me, being able to nail themes of a movie is very important. But in this case, I found the movie slightly unfocused…a little to much of it was left to the interpretation of the audience. But then again, it classified itself as an arthouse film.

Other points:
The film set was also in Jordan, some parts of it lies only a few miles away from the border of Iraq, increasing the authenticity of the film.

In addition, the movie was mostly filmed from a hand-held camera giving it the feeling that you are THERE, standing a few meters away.

Of food poisoning and golf balls

2010-03-07T12:12:00.004+11:00

This weekend, I've been down with a bout of food poisoning. Not cool at all. The suspect? A tiny piece of raw king fish I had for lunch yesterday at a little Japanese Cafe in Chinatown. How does one tiny piece of fish cause me so much pain and grieve?

Backtracking little...I've been taught that life is about causes and effects. So, I was going to meet H in the city for lunch. But the yam char place we intended to patronized was closed. We stood there for about a mere minute at the entrance of the restaurant when objects that looked like...golf balls started falling from the sky! Not kidding. It was freaky (like the 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs' movie) Everyone started running for shelter. Upon closer inspection, the golf balls were actually abnormally huge pieces of ice. It was hailing. Then without any warning, the sky got really angry. I haven't seen Melbourne hit by rain so hard before.

We waited under the shelter for about 30 minutes till the rain subsided a little and then we quickly ran to the nearest eatery which was that dodgy Jap cafe. So really, the real culprit was the golf balls falling from the sky. Had it not hailed, I wouldn't have risked my tummy in that questionable cafe.

And just before, I cooked myself a nice piece of Wagyu steak. It was the most delicious thing I've cooked in a while. The meat was lined with fat that melts in your mouth. So good! I was in euphoria....for about 5 minutes till I instinctively ran to the bin. I could feel my stomach churning.

"Don't puke. Its a good piece of EXPENSIVE steak! Don't puke. Don't puke! You'll need to cook lunch again!" I kept telling myself over and over again.

Let's just say my meditation did not work. I'll keep the gross details to myself.

At Flinders Street Station

Fancy a swim?

Source of pics

Braised Lamb Shanks with Rosemary

2010-02-21T10:22:00.005+11:00

If you're planning for a dinner party but don't have much time to cook on the day of the party, here's a good recipe for you. This braised lamb can be prepared days in advanced - in fact, its probably better because the sauce will taste richer.

A braise is like a stew, but requires less liquid and has a longer cooking time. Allow about two and half hours for the lamb to cook.

Pour with a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Serve 6

Ingredients:
6 lamb shanks
2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped
3 large carrots, peeled, cut into 1/4 inch-thick rounds
10 garlic cloves, minced
3 slices of bacon
1 750-ml bottle dry red wine
1 800 g can diced tomatoes with its juices
1 400 g can low-salt chicken broth
1 400 g can beef broth
5 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel (the rind of 1/2 a lemon)

preparation
Sprinkle shanks with salt and pepper.
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add shanks to pot and cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes.
Transfer shanks to bowl.

Add onions, carrots, garlic and bacon to pot and saute until golden, about 10 minutes. Stir in all remaining ingredients. Return shanks to pot, pressing down to submerge. Bring liquids to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover; simmer until meat is tender, about 2hours.

Uncover pot; simmer until meat is very tender, about 30 minutes longer. Transfer shanks to platter, tent with foil. Boil juices in pot until thickened, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon over shanks.

Adapted from epicurious.com

Coffee frenzy

2010-02-09T22:21:00.004+11:00

Sensory Lab

I spotted this joint in David Jones as I strolled past this place on my way to get some groceries. My plan of having a quiet night was immediately dismissed as I stepped into this place. Out of the blue, a friend who was patronising the place called out my name , I joined him and his friend for coffee and we subsequently made our way to a long dinner.

To some coffee lovers, this place might seem a little pretentious and overly commercialised - with the staff wearing lab coats and the expensive interior. But there will always be a tension between keeping it "real" and commercialising it. On one hand, commercialing a place might make it lose its authenticity. On the contrary, commercialising it exposes the world of coffee to non-coffee geeks like me. My usual response to coffee is "mmm...this is good" or "this is not very good/the froth is burnt" - needless to say, very limited coffee vocab.

The girl behind the counter spent an entire 10 minutes kindly and enthusiastically dishing out her wealth of knowledge on coffee. In summary, she told me that real coffee is not the coffee as I know it. She tells me to think of coffee as a fruit and not as a bean. I responded, but isn't coffee grinded from its beans? Yes, but the beans are in the fruit, she replied. The coffee that I've been drinking all this while is brewed by one method - the espresso method. In fact, there are many more ways to brewing coffee. She introduced me to the siphoning method of brewing coffee.

Siphoning method:
Grind the coffee, add it to the top vessel. Add cold (or hot) water to the bottom. Put the bottom on a heat source. Add the top vessel with its attached siphon. Watch. Liquids defy gravity. The brew gurgles, but it's not boiling. Remove from heat source. Watch the coffee move back down, or "south". Watch the bottom vessel's brewed coffee gurgle as air is drawn through the spent grounds to release the built up vacuum. Remove top vessel. Smell. Ahhh. Pour. Taste. More ahhhh.
Source

My reaction to my first taste of siphoned coffee?

It taste nothing like the coffee I know but like bitter fruit juice.

For now, I'm still sticking to my usual coffee - espresso method but I will test new waters once in a blue moon.

Sensory Lab
David Jones
297, Little Collins Street
Melbourne

Dead man espresso

Saturday lunch saw me at Dead man's espresso. The timber shutters and concrete columns provide a very nice, classy ambience.

Again I can't comment much on the coffee, lest I embarass myself. In summary, coffee is good.

A word on the food. A fly on the wall told me that the food here is suppose to be excellent. Matt Preston (THE food critic) gave the food raving reviews - particularly the BLT pork belly sandwich. With high expectations, I ordered my meal enthusiastically. The BLT sandwich came with an absolutely delicious tomato soup. I'm not one for thick sour tomato juice but the tomato soup had an easy and good consistency for swallowing, it was not too sour and the broth they added into it was amazing. The pork belly was sandwiched between two slices of toasted bread that was laced up with some sort of herby-pesto filling. It was light and flavourful. A word on the pork belly. hm...i thought that was the most disappointing bit. I found the pork belly slightly dry and very thinly sliced. Maybe it was suppose to be like that - but the flavours from the pesto filling seemed to have overpowered the pork belly taste. Sigh, almost perfect but not quite.

Overall, I give the place 7/10. Most points for the ambience plus coffee. The food was good but a tad overpriced.

Dead Man Espresso
35 Market Street, South Melbourne

St Ali

I'm loving this water truck.

St. Ali itself.

Saturday was a brilliant day not only because our happy stomachs were full from all the Dead Man Espresso goodness but because it was St. Ali's live street art and Laneway party. Graffiti artists were invited to paint the lane St Ali was situated on. Good crowd. Met quite a few people. Really kewl stuff. There was a dj playing. Booze. Mmm.. and of course, coffee from St. Ali.

St. Ali
12-18, Yarra Place
South Melbourne

Decorating my apartment balcony

2010-02-01T20:35:00.006+11:00

From my apartment balcony, you can feast your eyes on the most spectacular view of the city of Melbourne.

However, the balcony is short of anything spectacular. In fact, its bare and ugly - used as a storage for junk.

Last week, I've decided that I've had enough and decided to deck up my balcony. It was a pretty whimsical idea, impulsively decided while I was having a shower. Later that night, I spent a good few hours reading up on different potted plants to buy. And oh boy, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

I imagined myself driving over to the nursery, pick out a few potted plants and ta-da, the balcony will be all so nice and pretty. But alas, good things never come easy.

To my surprise and amusement, there are so many factors to consider. Firstly, the wind. Because I live pretty high up, it tends to get pretty windy out on the balcony. Hence, I can't buy plants that are too small in case they topple over. On the flip side, I can't buy plants that are too big because my balcony is tiny.

The wind also causes plants to dry out quicker. Hence, I need to buy pots that are less susceptible to drying out the roots (terracotta pots dry out plant roots quicker than other pots).

Also because its a covered balcony, it doesn't get the full sun (more than 6 hours of sunlight). It gets sunlight only in the morning but no afternoon sun. It was only when I was at the nursery did I realise that most plants (especially flowering plants) needed full sun .

Plus, what kind of soil do I use?!? And how much do I water? Do I water a little everyday or do I water a lot at a time but only every other day? Did you know that plants need good drainage system, otherwise the roots will rot?

And I needed to get a set of table and chairs. I didn't want anything too expensive yet I didn't want anything too cheap-looking.

So much to think about!

After a couple of stressed-out days, I've finally redecorated my balcony.

I hopped onto gumtree and scouted for a garden set. I came across this beautiful garden set for a decent price. The table top is made of solid marble. And if you study the table closely, you'll notice imprints of fossils on the marble top. The heaviness of it is good to withstand the strong winds. I also like how it has a french feel to it and the colour matches the balcony tiles.

The plant in the gray pot is a Begonia. The fantastic thing about this flowering plant is that it doesn't need the full sun. In fact, in thrives in the partial shade.

In the hanging rattan basket are daisies, lavender and coriander.

On the left, is my little yet-to-grow herb garden in the wooden wheelburrow and in the small pots. I've sowed some thai basil and thyme seeds. Hopefully I'll see little sprouts in a few weeks *cross fingers*

I've painted this painting orange to match the orange-y flowers.

That's an orange million bells plant. This is suppose to be trailing plant. I'm hoping that it will grow and the flowers will overhang from the iron cage. That will be a beautiful sight (if it's still alive by then!)

More plants on the other side of my balcony. In that gray pot is premium potting mix. It's most convenient (but expensive unfortunately) to buy premium potting mix for container plants.

On the table is an oil lamp. I absolutely adore the lamp. It's made of a beautiful white stone and the heavy weight is once again, great for battling strong winds. The oil I bought is suppose to keep mosquitoes away.

On the left is a gardenia plant. In the white pot is rosemary. In the yellow pot is Birds of Paradise which will hopefully produce beautiful colourful flowers. (Can't remember the names of the other two plants).

Silver falls. A foliaged plant which is ideal for hanging baskets.

The past few days, I've been having my breakfast out on the balcony while watching the city pass me by. It's a wonderful feeling. It's these little pleasures that mean so much sometimes...

Now, the trick lies in maintaining and nurturing this garden =)

Siep Reap, Cambodia - Itinerary and tips

2010-02-01T18:04:00.004+11:00

Before I forget, here's our itinerary for the Cambodia trip.

Day 1:
Flew into Siem Reap.
Checked into hotel near the Old Market.
Roamed Old Market.
Took a tuk tuk to Phnom Bakheng, an Angkor temple built on top of a hill, to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, the whole affair is a bit of a circus act. It was almost impossible to find a good standing spot (let alone, sit) to watch the sunset. The temple was jam-packed with tourists and there were hundreds of tuk tuk drivers parked and waiting at the bottom of the hill for their returning customers. It was almost a miracle that we manage to locate our tuk tuk driver amongst the many tuk tuk drivers.

Headed back to the city, had dinner, roamed around the night market and a massage. Cheap massages are a plentiful in the city (costing between USD$8 - USD$10)

The town wasn't as shabby and dead as people made it out to be. We actually had quite a blast in the little town. There were a few street bustling with restaurants and streetfood cafes catered for tourists. There are a couple of night markets around. Sure, you shouldn't expect a vibrant nightlife like Bangkok but it was definitely good enough for us.

*Tip: Your ticket allows you to enter the Angkor area for free the day before after 5 pm. For example, if you bought a one-day pass for Sunday, you are permitted to enter the Angkor area after 5 pm on Saturday*

Day 2:
Rented bicycles, cycled to Angkor Wat (Small City). We really enjoyed our cycling experience. Bicycles are cheap to hire (USD$2 per day) and it's good exercise too. Another plus point is that you can roam the temples at your own pace without worrying about having no transport back or having the tuk tuk driver wait on you. A note of caution: you need to be relatively fit if you were to cycle to the temples. We probably cycled about 50km that day.

Angkor Wat is the largest and undoubtedly the most breahtaking of the monuments at Angkor and is widely believed to be the largest religious structure in the world. It is simply unique, a stunning blend of spirituality and symmetry, an enduring example of man's devotion to his gods. Relish the very first approach, as that spine-tickling moment when you emerge on the inner causeway will rarely be felt again. It is the best-preserved temple at Angkor, as it was never abandoned to the elements and repeat visits are rewarded with previously unnoticed details: Lonely Planet guidebook 2009.

We hired an unofficial local guide to take us around the temple. Our guided tour experience was an amusing one. We called it the "Slumdog millionaire syndrome". Do you remember the part in the movie where Jamil played tour guide to tourists at the Taj Mahal:

"The wife died in a car accident"

"I thought she died from child labour"

"Exactly sir, she died on the way to the hospital..."

Our tour guide's explanation wasn't exactly correct. I checked my guidebook a couple of times and found his explanations quite contradictory. We could have asked him whether pigs flew and he would have agreed with us to keep us happy. But it was all part of the fun. heh.

After spending a good three hours at Angkor Wat, we cycled to Angkor Thom (Big City). Angkor Thom was built in the late 1wth century and was one of the largest Khmer cities. The most photographed feature of this monumental construction would probably be its towers with four faces pointing in each of the cardinal directions.

Cycled back to the city.

Had dinner at one of the street food stalls.

Massage.

Day 3:
Headed to the floating villages of Chong Kneas on Tonle Sap Lake. If you want a break from the temples, you should take an excursion to the villages. Everything there was literally floating = floating shops, floating homes, floating restaurants, floating schools. Imagine living on water your entire life! Mind you, it is quite touristy and you might get irritated by the local kids pestering you for money. You need to take a tuk tuk to the Phnom Krom dock and then hire a boat.

After that, we decided to continue our boat ride to the flooded forest of Kompong Phluk. We fell in love with the locals in this place. It's definitely not as touristy as the floating villages and managed to interact quite a fair bit with the locals. The friendly village is made up of houses that are built on bamboo stilts of about 6m to 7m high. It's definitely an interesting sight and I think, its worth the visit. O, you can also take a boat ride through the flooded mangroves.

Day 4:
We headed back to the Angkor temples. The first temple we visited was Ta Prohm. This temple is definitely a must see! The temple has a msytical atmosphere about it because of the trees that have grown intertwined amoung the ruins. This temple was also intentionally left unrestored to retain that natural mystical feel. The popularity of this temple have been intensified ever since the film Tomb Raider (2001) was filmed here.

We then went to the East Mebon temple to watch the sunset. Even though this temple is packed with tourists during sunsets, it is still not overruned by tourists unlike Phnom Bakheng. I much prefer this temple for sunset viewing purposes. You can actually secure a place to sit here!

Headed back to the city, dinner.

Day 5
We went for a quad bike tour. It was definitely a good experience for all of us. We rode through villages and paddy field. We also made a one-hour stop at an orphanage. The children there are extremely diligent, discipline and smart! A boy I met there picked up the english language only a year ago and his english vocab was already pretty vast. They learn about 3-4 languages in the orphanage including their own local language (Khmer), mandarin, japanese and english.

To book for a quad bike tour, visit www.quad-adventure-cambodia.com.

We checked out of our hotel and moved into the Meredian for our last night. It was a good and relaxing ending to our trip.

Day 6
Relax in hotel. Enjoyed the complimentary buffet breakfast (yum!).

Checked out of hotel.

Adios!

Other tips:
If you have time, you should go for an Aspara dance performance. Its approx. $10-$25 for the Old Cambodian dance performance plus buffet dinner.

You do not have to change your money to Cambodian Riel. Most people deal with USD in Cambodia.

You are expected to tip the locals for their services. USD$1 should be sufficient. (You Americans have spoilt the market!!!)

Siem Reap, Cambodia 2010

2010-01-08T13:16:00.006+11:00

Old Market

Old Market

Cycled to the temples. Cheapest form of transport and needless to say, the most tiring. But definitely the most exciting way to get there.

Oil for motorcycles

Hi cutie.

Angkor Wat

One of the gallery walls in Angkor Wat

Reading on the steps of one of the ancient libraries

Climbing up for a better view of the sunset

The crowd anticipating the sunset

Angkor Thom

Floating Villages on Tonle Sap Lake

In a floating orphanage

We bought chocolate for the kids

Kompong Phluk, 1 1/2 hours away by boat.

Wondering where your dried shrimps come from?

Folding the mats, in case it rains at night

1 USD buys 20 drinks. We bought 20 drinks for the kids. Free drinks = chaos

Get in line or there's none for you.

Fishing baskets

Fancy a haircut?

Schoolchildren hard at work

Volleyball with the locals

Observing from above

Off to visit the mangroves. Everybody is in Angkor beer singlets!

Our little cheeky boatboy

On the way back to Siem Reap. Lazing on the front deck

Siem Reap nightlife

Interesting matchboxes

I like the scribbled floor

Lots of bbq eateries

Ta Phrom temple, where the film Tomb Raider was shot.

Quad biking

Orphanage. A little volunteer teaching the rest of the class.

Goodbye, Siem Reap! Love you long time!

Leaving on a jet plane

2009-12-17T23:45:00.003+11:00

Ill be off to Singapore tomorrow!

I'm currently packing my bag. I've realised that whether I'm travelling for one week, two weeks or a month, I'll pack about the same amount of clothes/stuff: 1 pair of high heels, 1 pair of sandals, 1 runners, make up pouch, 1 formal dress, 4-5 casual dresses, 2 casual tops, 2 tops for sports, 3 pairs of shorts, 1-2 pairs of pjs, 1 belt, 1 scarf, 2 jackets (one for the plane and a light cardigan), 1 pair of sunnies, 1 bikini, undergarments, 1 journal, 1 bible, 1 book to read, 1 laptop, 1 ipod and lots of cables - for phones, camera, laptop.

How do you define yourself?

2009-12-16T00:47:00.003+11:00

A friend posted that question to me tonight.

I paused for a while and answered, "I don't know." I felt foolish. Its like not being able to give an answer when asked to list three strong qualities of yourself at a job interview. It shows that you are unsure of yourself, that you aren't confident and that you came unprepared.

I told him that I honestly cannot give him an answer. If I was asked that question a year ago, I would have given him a totally different answer. I would probably describe my passions, my strengths and weaknesses. That I love travelling. I love new ideas. I like writing but I don't do it very well. That I live off passion. I'm stubborn. I can be quite ill-disciplined. I'm very curious about life - about why people do the things they do and why do people say the things they say. And the list can go on. But ask me today, and I tell you that I now know much less of myself than I did before. I became uncertain about the things I thought I was sure of. My perceptions of myself and my view of life have been teared apart. I now question what I thought was fundamental in relationships. What I thought was important to me now lies at the bottom of my priority list.

Perhaps, that's why I haven't really been blogging. I have hundreds of drafts. I type half an entry and then I save it. Simply because, I dont know whether I believe in what I write anymore.

I guess I'm in the process of redefining who I am. It came unexpectedly but in a way, I'm glad it did. Because, knowing that I don't know anything has humbled me.

I finally did it

2009-10-30T18:54:00.002+11:00

Cars and I don't gel very well. I don't pay too much attention to them. I've mistaken a BMW for a Honda or a BMW for a Merc many a time. They all look the same to me, so long as its approximately the same colour (all dark colour cars look the same). Two weeks ago, I told a couple of people that K recently acquired a blue Honda Prelude. It turned out to be a blue Skyline. At least I got the colour right. A couple of times, I've walked up to a car, yanked on the door knob and asked myself, "why can't I open the door?!?" only to realise a few seconds too late that I'm trying to open the door of the wrong car.

So, the inevitable occured today.

Today, A accompanied me to buy some fruits and vegetables. I happily picked out my fruits and vegetables for the next week, crossed the road and proceeded back to his car (or so I thought). I then yanked the door open and was about to slide my body inside and plonk myself on the seat, when just in the nick of time, at the corner of my eye, I noticed a man recoiling in horror, with his eyes bulging out, jaw dropped and hands up in the air, like a man at war caught by surprise by his enemy.

Then there was that two second freeze, where I stared at him and he stared at me while I trying to process all that information in my brain, "Why is there a strange man in my seat? Why does he look so shocked? O o..is this the right car? Oh no, I almost sat in a strange man's lap."

I quickly slammed the door shut, did a quick apologetic wave and ran in front. To say I was slightly embarassed was an understatement.

A who then noticed what happened, started laughing and said, "You were about to make a stranger's dream come true."

I glared at him and said, "Don't bring it up."

To which he replied, "It will be tonight's topic of conversation with the boys."

Crue Coffee Lounge, South Yarra

2009-10-28T16:57:00.005+11:00

Hello! First, a short note to say that I'm doing well. A couple of people have asked me where have I been and why have I been sounding so crestfallen as of late. I'm here to say that I'm back and well =) I've learnt so much about myself and life in the past few weeks that I can't wait to share it all on my blog. But till I find the right words to say, I'll leave you guys with some yummy-licious pictures.

Last Saturday, Ivy invited me out for brunch with her hubby and the Sohs. They decided to venture out to this new joint, Crue Coffee Lounge which lies on the other side of town. The cafe is well-known for its good coffees. So we were there to test out this theory and also indulge ourselves in their extensive menu.

Spiced fried eggs with chorizo sausages and rocket leaves on flat bread. Absolutely delicious. A fresh change from the usual poach eggs that I usually have. And you can't go wrong with chorizon sausages.

Ives ordered a rhubarb and cream with bananas on bread. (I think there were bananas although I can't spot them in this picture)

Nasi goreng. They have taken nasi goreng to a different level (!). It won't be everybody's cup of tea especially when you have tried the real thing and you would know they have butchered the original recipe and put a western spin to it. But hey, to each his own. The nasi goreng tasted a little sweet and it was fried with bacon (hello? bacon! nasi goreng being a malay dish is suppose to be halal. but who can argue with bacon. yum yum)

They reserved a cozy corner for us. It's always good to make a booking, especially on a busy Saturday morning.

Overall verdict? You'll definitely see me there again! Lovely ambience. With my knowledge on coffee (almost zilch), I can't say too much about the coffees except to give you the standard answer, "its good". But based on all these numerous reviews floating around the world wide web, its safe to say that the coffee its excellent as many are claiming that its one of the best coffees they have tasted in Melbourne. With regards to the food, oh yumm!!! And, apparently, they change the menu quite frequently. Excellent, I always love a good surprise =)

Do pamper yourself at Crue Coffee Lounge, South Yarra.

194 Toorak Road, South Yarra
Melbourne, Australia
03 9827 5058

Perfunctory

2009-10-05T10:02:00.003+11:00

I have been contemplating shutting down my blog for a while. I have lost the ability to express how I feel on this blog. Everything has boiled down to a string of meaningless entries – pictures, what I have been doing and a couple of videos. And my entries are few and far in between. It’s not who I am. In fact, I now don’t know who I am. All I know is that I haven’t been happy for a while. And the state I was in was unhealthy. If there’s anything I learn from the past few months, is firstly to always trust your gut instincts. If something doesn’t feel right, it is not right.

Secondly, always remember that you are worthy because you are a child of God. So many words and accusations have been thrown my way – I’m insecure, emotionless, cold, unaffectionate, standoff-ish. I know that the daggers have been thrown without spite or ill intentions but it was out of frustration. But harm has been done. It affected my self-esteem and my sense of self-worth.

Anyway, the point of it all this is to say that I’m in a better place. I hold no grudges. If anything, I now understand myself a little better. I know that tomorrow will be better than today and today is better than yesterday. And that means, I’ll be back to my cheery self. If I could have turned back time, I would have done some things differently. But we make our choices and live with the consequences. Carpe diem.

I'll end this entry with a video. MUST WATCH!

I gotta feelin' that today is gonna be a good day....

San Francisco - The rest of the trip

2009-09-14T23:06:00.008+10:00

I feel uneasy every time I view my blog because my San Francisco travel chronicles is incomplete. Since it's too tedious writing daily travel travels, I'll just condense the rest of my trip into one huge entry. So here it is"

The Golden Gate bridge cycling adventure
On the 4th of July, J and I spent Independence Day cycling across the Golden Gate bridge to Sausolito and then finally to Tamira. I recommend all tourists to rent a bicycle from Fisherman's wharf and give it a go! Definitely one of the best things we have done on this trip. The views along the way were breathtaking. One cannot imagine that just a couple of km (okay, many kms) out of San Francisco, you'll experience a huge change in scenery - from one of tall skyscrapers to ducks, swamps and little wooden bridges across creeks. But a word of warning: You need to be fit! There's a lot of uphill climbs! And the entire journey took about 6 hours (granted we rested heaps and spent lots of time walking around the shops in Sausalito)

Happy 4th of July everybody! It was my first time celebrating America's Independence Day. I always wondered what it would be like. It was something I read in novels and watch on tv but have yet to experience. I was so excited, like a little town girl stepping into a big bad city for the very first time. I can now report that, 4th of July was like any other Independence Day (like Malaysia's Merdeka Day or Australia Day). More than anything, the day was used to recuperate and to spend time with love ones.

Off we went. We rented our bikes from Fisherman's wharf.

Families basking in the sun and enjoying their picnics

Fishing and crabbing activity. I've never tried crabbing before. So the entire experience fascinated me. Its actually pretty simple. You grab a huge crab net, dump in some sort of meat (usually chicken bones) together with huge rocks to sink the net. You then drink some beer, chat with your mates, perhaps fish while waiting for the unsuspecting victims to crawl into your net. At this point, its all up to Lady Luck. Because the water is pretty murky, you won't be able to tell whether a crab is now in your net or whether it has entered your net, savoured a delicious meal and now made a quiet exit. So, you pull up your net once in a while to check on your findings (or the lack of). If you are lucky, you'll be having a hearty meal tonight. Otherwise, spare some loose change for pizza across the road.

At the Golden Gate bridge entrance

It was pretty enjoyable riding along the Golden Gate bridge despite the fierce winds. I can now say, I've cycled on the Golden Gate bridge!

Left the Golden Gate bridge. Its 2 miles to Sausolito (why do Americans use miles? why can't they use km like most of the world. So much easier!) Pedal on.

Finally we arrived at Sausolito. It's one of the most beautiful towns I've ever come across. Every shop/house had so much character.

Check out the houses

We had lunch here

A kid caught something. Care to guess what it is?

A stingray!

*At this point, my camera battery died. So no pics =( We took some pics on J's blackberry but unfortunately, his blackberry went for a swim and drowned. I later recharged my camera at a camera store before the 4th of July fireworks*

4th of July fireworks display
We spent our 4th of July night watching the Fisherman's wharf fireworks display.

Man with his American alligator. cute!

Check out the massive crowds. Many families camped out on the grass many hours before the fireworks display in order to grab a sweet spot. The people in the background were standing in a private parking lot. Luckily for us, we didnt have to compete with the masses for a spot as J decided to buy tickets for the 4th of July fireworks boat.

Here's a subpar photo from the boat. Initially, we werent sure whether the tickets were worth it because they cost quite a fair bit. However, our skepticism was blown away the moment we witnessed the fireworks display. It was one of the best displays I've ever experienced! I think fireworks are getting more advanced these days. We even had a couple of smiley faces up in the sky. And a few times, we had Saturn close to earth (planet with huge ring around it).

Wish I could have captured the smiley face instead. Need better camera =(

Alcatraz prison
The next day, we paid Alcatraz prison a visit. The prison tour was very interesting. It was a self-assisted tour. Each of us were given a set of headphones of which we can pause and rewind at anytime. The voice on the recorder would direct us where to walk and stop. The audio even included appropriate noises and sounds (such as prisoners marching, forks and spoons clanking on tables, prisoners throwing punches) that made the whole experience feel really real.

Ironically, the best views of San Francisco city are from Alcatraz prison. This was very depressing for the prisoners, seeing sights and hearing sounds that they would never be able to experience for themselves.

Prisoners clothes and shoes

Grenades were thrown from above during the crossfire between police and prisoners at the time of the Alcatraz siege. It was after this terrifying experience that the Government decided that the prison was to close to San Francisco city. Imagine if the prisoners managed to successful escaped that day.

Empty prisoner cell

Furnished prisoner cell

Kitchen. Notice the black markings where the knives are meant to be kept. This is to ensure accountability of all the knives.

Breakfast menu. The prisoners were served pretty good food.

A real human head? I think not. Dummies were made during one of the famous attempts to escape the prison. Pretty smart I say.

Sutro Baths ruins
A visit to San Francisco is not complete without a visit to the Cliff House and Sutro Baths ruins.

Sutro Baths History
On March 14, 1896 the Sutro Baths were opened to the public as the world's largest indoor swimming pool establishment. The Baths were built on the sleepy western side of San Francisco by wealthy entrepreneur and former mayor of San Francisco (1894-1896), Adolph Sutro. The vast glass, iron, wood, and reinforced concrete structure was mostly hidden, and filled a small beach inlet below the Cliff House, also owned by Adolph Sutro at the time.

A visitor to the Baths not only had a choice of 7 different swimming pools—one fresh water and six salt water baths ranging in temperatures—but could visit a museum displaying Sutro's large and varied personal collection of artifacts from his travels, a concert hall, seating for 8,000, and, at one time, an ice skating rink. During high tides, water would flow directly into the pools from the nearby ocean, recycling the 2 million US gallons (7,600 m³) of water in about an hour. During low tides, a powerful turbine water pump, built inside a cave at sea level, could be switched on from a control room and could fill the tanks at a rate of 6,000 US gallons a minute (380 L/s), recycling all the water in five hours.

The baths struggled for years, mostly due to the very high operating and maintenance costs, and eventually closed. A fire destroyed the building in 1966 shortly after, while in the process of being demolished.

Taken from wikipedia

Sutro Bath ruins

All about balancing

Oops, almost fell

Spot me! Cliff House in background.

Finally seated nicely for a pose on the ruins

Dog and man on rock

Peek-a-boo, from a cave

Jason finds this sign really hilarious because it's (almost unnecessarily) descriptive.

The best lemon sorbet ever!!! From Cliff House. Warning: Will cause a dent in your wallet but its worth it (in my opinion).

Little Italy

Little Italy is definitely worth a visit if you're touring San Francisco. It's adjacent to Chinatown and a stone's throw away from Fisherman's Wharf (at this point, you'll realise that San Francisco is a pretty small city).

Unlike Little Italy in Melbourne (Lygon Street) which feels almost Australian-nise (if there's such a thing), many of the Italian restaurants in that area seem to retain their authenticity. In some of the restaurants, many of the staff speak predominantly Italian, every inch of the four walls are covered with photo frames, the establishment is extremly dimly lit, there's lots of extravagant (almost gaudy?) interior fittings like chandeliers and Italian music is played. I don't know whether its an Americanise Italian thing or whether they are a true representation of Italian restaurants but it sure does feel like the real thing.

One of the restaurants that we loved was a restaurant called Mona Lisa.

Mmm...love the buns. They were garlic-flavoured.

Very inventive. In addition to light source, the candle fixed onto the wine bottle served as a nice decorative piece as well.

Woodfire pizza

Sammie's visit
Sam is one of my best friends from high school. She's currently located in Texas. While I was in SF, she flew over to SF to visit me one weekend. Her visit was definitely a highlight of my trip as I have not seen her in the past 5 years (that's half a decade). She's my motivation buddy over emails and msn chats. You should look at some of our emails. They seem so ridiculous and bimbotic sometimes - "Do or die, I'm going to exercise this weekend! I'm fat!" and then we rant on about how we "almost went for a run but felt so lazy..." haha. She might visit me in lonely Australia next year *cross fingers* =)

We brought Sam to Sausolito again as she hasn't been there before. No cycling this time.

We also visited Muir Woods. Muir Woods National Monument is known for its giant old growth stand of ancient redwood trees that are Muir Woods uniquely sheltered in a hidden canyon protected from ocean wind. These trees are 254 feet tall and over 1,000 years old.

Needless to say, the trees are ginormous.

Old fallen tree

Saturday afternoon was spent at Haight-Ashbury. Haight-Ashbury is a district in San Francisco, named after the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. The neighbourhood maintains a bohemian ambience and its a thriving center of many independent local shops. I saw a few huge stores selling hundreds of varieties of shisha. We entered a store selling solely vinyl records from different eras (we don't get that kind of thing in Melbourne. The demand is too low). We also entered a trickster shop - you know, those tricks you played on others when you were a kid (fake lizards, fake chewing gum, fake farts). I bought a lovely vintage-inspired dress from an independent label store.

On Sunday, we paid a visit to Coit Tower. It was nothing much to shout about, especially since we have been to Twin Peaks a couple of times. It's pretty much a short tower on top of a hill where you can catch a bird's eye view of the city.

Coit Tower was built in Pioneer Park atop Telegraph Hill in 1933 at the bequest of Lillie Hitchcock Coit to beautify the City of San Francisco. Lillie bequeathed one-third of her estate to the City of San Francisco "to be expended in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved".
Taken from Wikipedia

View from Coit Tower

San Francisco is a hilly city

On Sunday, we paid UC Berkeley, one of the world's most preeminent universities, a visit. The campus was vast and green.

Gorgeous campus

On the way to residential halls

Famous Lombard St - most croquet street in the world. And may I add, most beautiful street? Look at the lovely flowers. I wouldn't want to live on this street though. You'll have to pick up your daily morning newspaper in full view of the daily throngs of tourists.

Brought Sam to Twin Peaks. Another photo-taking opportunity.

*My San Francisco travel chronicles ends here. The rest of my stay there was pretty repetitive. I wouldn't want to bore you guys with repeats of similar photos*

Overall, I enjoyed my stay in San Francisco. In many ways, San Francisco city plan and tram lines reminds me of Melbourne, only that the city was older, bigger and the people were more diverse. Perhaps, if Melbourne was a hundred years older, it would have resembled San Francisco. But, there's one thing it fell short of - good food. I've come to realise that I dislike American food. Unfortunately, it is what you see on tv - extra greasy, extra large, extra salty and extra sweet (especially at the diners). Sure, there are decent restaurants in SF but many are mediocre or subpar. And very surprising to me, it's very difficult to find a decent juice bar or salad bar (actually any juice or salad bar at all). In Melbourne, if you walk into any random restaurants, chances are they will be at least mediocre or good. In San Francisco, I try not to take my chances. Other than the food, everything else was great. I love the people and especially the fact that its so diverse in culture. Observing the people there, it's almost impossible to describe what an average American looks or sounds like because, everyone is just different!

Till next time! xoxo.

Read about my entire trip here

Too cute

2009-09-11T15:58:00.002+10:00

On my birthday, dad calls...

Dad: Happy birthday.
Me: Thank you
Dad: How are you?

*me thinks, I just saw you a couple of hours ago. We live in the same house!*

...
Love teasing dad because he portrays himself as oh-so-manly sometimes.

Me: Is Mr... your best friend?
Dad: I dont have a best friend.
Me: But he is your most favourite friend friend, yeah?
Dad: Yeah
Me: So, he is your best friend!
Dad: ...

...
Dad: Will you be home for dinner?
Me: No, heading out
Dad: What about me? Youll be out, shen (brother) will be out, mum will be out. What am I going to do?
Me: You can take my place. I'm always stuck at home while you guys gallivant.
Dad: O...okay.

Too cute!

Of trains and watches

2009-09-10T18:12:00.008+10:00

I turned a year older last thursday. There were many memorable moments. I thought I'll jot them down before they are all long forgotten.

1) So the big day started with a lunch celebration with my most favourite friend, Ann.

We have not caught up one-on-one for ages. Our catch up was way overdue. Our catch up took place in a relatively new established tucked away in an alleyway off Little Bourke Street, near Hardware Lane. She was my sugar mummy for the day as I forgot to bring my wallet out. She paid for my meal plus a glass of house white =)

I briefly looked at Ann's blog earlier today and clicked on her old archives (starting 2006). We were so young and carefree then. Trips to Victoria Market, GoldCoast, Vietnam, birthday celebrations and weddings. And then, there was my 21st celebration, followed by hers 8 months later. Oh my, how much have we grown!

Our amazing friendship commenced across the corridor where her room was located opposite mine. And then, our friendship blossomed over meals in the huge communal dining hall, walks to biology classes and on the basketball court in Carlton gardens. How I love the summer in Melbourne when the sun sets at 9 pm! Imagine if I stayed on a different level from her, I wouldnt have been as close to her as I am now. How different would life be! *shudder*

2) Just before dinner, I was lying on my bed surfing the web. My brother knocks on my room door, smiles sheepishly, pauses for a bit and said, "I got you a present!" I was pleasantly surprise because it was unexpected. He wrapped the gift up really neatly (in old newspaper). I didnt know that boy could wrap! I shook the box but failed to guess the contents. I unwrapped the present and a CK box was revealed. My first thoughts were, "perfume again?" as he got me a perfume for my birthday last year. He said, "Nope, its not a perfume." I opened the box and found a CK watch! At first glance, I loved the watch. The strap and face was completely silver and resembled a thick trendy arm bangle. Nice!

3) Half hour later, J came by to take me out for dinner. I spotted a forever friends paper bag in his hand. My first thoughts were, "Nooo..tell me its nott a soft toy." I have too many given to me already and I didn't really want another one in my room. Fortunately, he reassured me that it is not a soft toy. I was pretty curious as to what the present was. For the past couple of days, he has been telling me that he was worried I might not like the present and it is rather expensive, so he is hoping I'll like it. I reassured him that I'll like whatever he gets. Sooo, what is this present that he bought for me?

I asked him whether I could open the present then. He said that he thought of giving it to me over dinner. But after a while, he changed his mind and told me to open the present. I took the box out of the bag and saw the words written on it. "L-o-n...g-i-n-e-s..." I tried pronouncing the words. "Don't you know what that brand is?!?"

"Hm....not really," I answered.

"Are you serious? It's a really really expensive and established watch brand. The lady at the counter assured me that you will definitely know that brand..."

I thought, "Watch??? Another one???" The initial expression on my face registered surprise - like shocked-surprise rather than pleasant-surprise. Didn't I just receive another watch 30 minutes ago? It was way too coincidental! I never wear watches and suddenly I had two brand new ones in the span of 30 minutes.

J was upset because it was definitely not the reaction he was hoping. Everyone he met, including the girl he bought the 'forever friends' paper bag from, the guy who did the engraving behind the face of the watch, the lady who was lining up behind him when he did the engraving, all said, "Wow, Longines, she is gonna love it! She is so lucky"

And here I was, not knowing what sort of brand it was and with a new watch sitting on my left wrist. On hindsight, it was almost comical.

I felt pretty bad because I knew that he went through greath lengths to surprise me on my big day special.

Despite my unexpected initial reaction, I do love the watch and I think its absolutely exquisite. Here it is:

There are diamonds on the face of the watch

3) Half hour later, I got ready to head out for dinner. Before we headed out the door, J sighed and said, "Since the Longines watch strap has not been readjusted, you should wear your brother's watch." So, I grabbed the watch, ran out the door and into the elevator. I then put on the watch in the elevator. Guess what happened next? The lift hit the ground floor and we stepped out the lift. That was when we heard the loud CLANK. J said, "Your watch fell down the lift shaft!"

I said "No it didnt. It's still on m....Oops," as I pulled up my jacket sleeve to reveal my naked left wrist. We stared down the lift shaft, and there it was, shining back at us....many many many feet below....my 1 hour new watch! Die! Brother will hunt me down.

Sigh. Not my fault. What's the probability of me dropping an object down such a small confined gap!!!

4) Moving on. J planned a nice dinner for us which involved us dressing up pretty formally =) The destination was a surprise till the taxi driver said, "So, you guys are heading to the tram restaurant?" when J told him which road to drop us at. "Urgh," he cries. "All my surprises are not working out."

5) I was extremely excited that we were eating at the tram restaurant. Just a week before, I asked J whether he has tried the food there. He said no and I said no too but we should check it out one day. Although, the concept seems pretty gimicky, I heard the food was surprisingly good.

We were to board the tram outside Crown Complex. We were slightly early and had time to kill. I turned to him and said, "Nice tie. I really love the colours. J said, "Thanks. The florist thought so too!"

"Huh? What? Florist? What florist? You bought flowers?!?"

"Urgh....I'm so silly. Yes, it was meant to be another surprise but I blew it. Everything is not working out!" he sighs in dismay as his plans went awry.

6) The tram finally arrives. Away from the cold and into the toasty tram!

Definitely not your typical daily tram - No shriveled apple core rolling on the floor, no crushed Mcds paper bag stuffed between seats and no smelly body odors.

The food was definitely up to expectation. Didn't fail to impress at all. If you are a big drinker, you can definitely milk your money's worth as all alcohol on board is free flow.

Here's the menu for those who are interested:

Appetiser
Cream, liver and cognac pate crowned with pink peppercorns
Roasted red capsicum dip served with assorted crisp bread

Entrees
Grilled kangaroo loin brushed with lemon myrtle, thyme and honey, served on vegetable and chive frittata with bush tomato chilli jam
Winter warming soup jerasulem artichoke and potato soup topped with toasted sour dough gremolata

Mains
Macadamia chicken grilled chicken breast on sweet potato mash and baby spinach with a macadamia pesto sauce
Victorian farmed eye fillet of beef on a sweet potato and herb rosti, with seasonal vegetables and wild mushroom jus

Cheeses
Selection of australian cheeses served with pear paste, fruit bread and water crackers

Desserts
Warm Sticky Date Pudding topped with butterscotch sauce served with cream
white chocolate and passionfruit mousse with praline and vanilla raspberry coulis

Beverages
Wine Selected Victorian Red and White Wines
From the Bar Beer / Whisky / Brandy / Gin / Vodka / Bacardi Rum / Dry Vermouth / Bourbon
Coffee / Tea
Liqueurs Port / Cognac (v.s.o.p.) / Drambuie / Frangelico / Cointreau / Tia Maria

Butter in a traditional silver container. Made us feel like royalty =) My butter at home comes straight from a plastic container.

Grilled kangaroo loin

Potato Soup

Warm chocolate and passionfruit mousse

Variety of cheeses

7) After a hearty meal (we couldn't finish our meal but most other patrons looked like they licked their plates clean. How do they do it!), we cabbed back to the city. J presented me with a bouquet of tulips - yellow and purple. (I was surprise! Not. haha) My first ever bouquet from him. Absolutely lovely combination! He proudly admitted that he picked out the colours himself =) Mum loves the tulips more than I do. She now suggests that we should buy fresh tulips every single week as they brighten up the house and makes our home look neater. Flowers do make a difference!

8) I messaged R on gmail chat and said: "It's my birthday today. You forgot but i remembered yours yesterday =( Sing me a birthday song."

He promptly called back and said: But I remembered. I just didnt want to disturb you.

Me: Is that how you want to play it now? Ooo....I'll always remember that line...Sing a song or tell me a joke.

R: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to..whats-your-name-again....Now, thats a song and a joke.

haha...I got to give it to him. That's a good one =)

9) I hopped onto twitter and saw Kenneth's tweet that went "Today seems like a jaded day." I replied him and wrote "Today seems like my birth-day".

Kenneth is one of my most favourite friends in Melbourne. We have known each since we were 9 years old! He used to be this small. haha. (i should stop because he always threaten to tell horrible childhood stories about me to my new friends. About my geeky and tomboyish days) He took me out for Japanese yesterday at a restaurant located near my place and we proceeded to Bennett's Lane, a cozy jazz bar off Little Latrobe Street. We have both taken a liking to jazz music ever since we first patronised that establishment many years ago.

10) O, my other favourite-st friend, Wei Chee, sent over a lovely toga, off-white dress to me. It was absolutely lovely. Many of my clothes sitting in my wardrobe has been either bought or picked by her. We will walking in shopping malls when i go, "I'm tired. I want to sit down. Why don't you pick something for me and I'll just put it on." She loves to dress people up and I love her to dress me up. We make a perfect pair. Must I give you any other reason why we have been best friends since forever =)

11) The one and only Cheryl (whom I affectionately call Salad and also my other favourite-st friend. I can't help it if there's so many people in my top list) sent me a very very cute e-card. I loved it so much that I think I've viewed it 10 over times. I wish I could put it up here but unfortunately I cannot. Salad is someone whom I speak to practically every single day over msn chat and gmail chat. She is someone I rant to all the time from "I'm sad. I have problem a b c" to something random like "I'm eating chicken". During a particular school term break, we used to hang out almost everyday for an entire month. Its still a wonder that we didn't get sick of each other - from ice skating, playing playstation to sleepovers. Great fun!

13) The day before my birthday, Jesse and I were planning to have a game of tennis together. On the way there I said, "Hey, do you know its my birthday tomorrow?" I love seeing people's reactions when I tell them =)

Jesse: No, its not. Don't lie.

Me: Really it is.

Jesse: No, we celebrated it a few months ago

Me: No we didnt! It's in September

Our argument went back and forth for almost 5 minutes.

Finally, he believed me and said, he will treat me supper. The Chinese special combination fried rice was yummy! (why does every single Chinese restaurant name that dish "special" combination? Whats the logic behind it?)

14) Two days ago, Ives, Steve and Ann took Sue and I out for dinner to celebrate our birthdays at a Thai restaurant along Johnson Street (Sue's birthday is today). As a group, we have captured many happy memories before in that restaurant, including Ann's 20(?) birthday. That restaurant has pretty much witnessed our growing up.

15) I've deactivated my facebook a few weeks ago but I turned it back on two days before my birthday to check for a certain event invite. Subsequently, I thought I re-deactivated it but I guess not. A couple of days ago, I tried logging into my facebook and found my wall and inbox flooded with birthday. A big thank you to everyone. P/s: especially Wing yan who smsed me on my mobile and then wrote on my wall. I'm sorry, I have been procrastinating and kept forgetting to personally thank you. So, I'll do it here. THANK YOU =)

pps: We managed to retrieve the watch. Very fortunately, some guys were scheduled to do some lift maintenance work a few days after that incident. Otherwise, it will be 300 dollars just to retrieve the probably damaged watch. And also very fortunately, the watch seems to be in perfect condition. I'm still puzzled at this miraculous discovery. Oh well, I'm just counting my lucky stars =)

Despite many hiccups in J's surprise and the relatively small birthday celebration (as oppose to the huge costume party I threw last year), it was one of the best birthday celebrations ever =) Thank you everybody who made it special.

Exchange of vows

2009-09-09T17:50:00.002+10:00

The perfect wedding ceremony.

I can tell that they will probably have a wonderful marriage =)

I'm Yours - McDonalds version

2009-09-07T18:01:00.000+10:00

If you are down, this is guaranteed to make you smile

The weekend

2009-08-31T13:53:00.005+10:00

The Point, Albert Park Lake

Complimentary steak bits starter

Caramelised chicken wings, pumpkin gnocchi, emulsion of potato and black truffle

250g Waygu Scotch fillet

Lorne, Great Ocean Road

I accompanied J for a car cruise at a Great Ocean Road on Sunday morning. A car cruise sounds more interesting than it really is. Basically consist of a huge convoy of cars driving to a certain destination and back. It was an early start. We left Melbourne at 5.30 am, got to Lorne by 8, headed to Apollo Bay but turned back because I started feeling car sick, took a stroll by the beach in Lorne, had brekkie, watched the sky turn gray, jumped back into the car and got back to Melbourne by 11.30 am.

San Francisco - Day 8 and 9 (Premium Outlet Mall, Japantown)

2009-08-14T03:28:00.017+10:00

Sorry for the extremely back-dated entry. I've been lazy. My San Francisco trip seems so far behind me now. Anyway, I thought I still post up my travel entries for friends who are interested in what I got up to when I was there and for those who intend on traveling to SF in the future.

Thursday 2/7/09 (Day 8)

We drove to the Vacaville Premium Outlet (known as Direct Factory Outlet in Australia) in the afternoon. What supposed to be an hour drive took over two hours because of this one minor accident on highway 80. I spent most of my time in the Coach store and walked out with two coach bags. Things were so cheap! Couldn't help it. J waits patiently for me for over an hour till the last 10 minutes when he said, "Can we enter other stores now?” We entered Polo Ralph Lauren where we picked up three polo Ts for him. I thought the shirts look good on him because the shirts were custom-fitted. Also, the inside of the shirt collars were of a different colour to the shirt, making the shirts look unique and expensive.

Before leaving the premium outlet, he buys a Coach clutch for me ☺

We then headed back to San Francisco. Had dinner at a Thai restaurant and then called it a night.

Friday 3/7/09 (Day 9)

We headed to Chinatown to have dim sum at Hang Ah Tea Room. That restaurant established itself as the oldest dim sum restaurant in San Francisco. The dim sum was quite delicious – particularly the har kau (prawn dumpling) and the fried bean curd. However, the service was atrocious. I noticed a couple on the adjacent table complaining a couple of times to the waitress.

I then strolled around Chinatown by myself as J headed back to do some work.

Here's an interesting bit of information. Many Chinese people first migrated over to San Francisco in search of gold. They couldn't really find any but were instead met with hostility from the locals. In order to protect themselves, they had to build their own community. As such, San Francisco Chinatown is very self-sufficient. They have their own doctors, pharmacists, school, bank etc. Also, you'll notice lots of family associations in Chinatown. Each family had to protect themselves during the earlier years of harsh adversity and hostility.

A family association

Murals along Ross Alley that depicts the everyday life of the Chinese American community. Ross Alley is the oldest alley in Chinatown and was known for housing brothels and gambling joints.

Today, Ross Alley is home to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. Did you know that fortune cookies did not originate from China? Most people living in China do not even recognise fortune cookies. Some entrepreneur probably invented this cookie and tried to pass this cookie off as a traditional Chinese cookie to make it seem more...exotic? Some argues that the fortune cookie was invented in California. Anyhoo, this factory is always packed to the brim with tourists. It's a very small factory, housed in a tiny shop lot. Initially, there were only two female workers making the cookies but I think they have expanded over time because I saw four people making the cookies when I visited the place.

Fire escapes serve as clothes lines.

J and I met up a couple of hours later and headed to Japantown. Japantown comprises of about six square city blocks in the Western Addition of San Francisco. The area is home to a large number of Japanese restaurants, supermarkets, indoor shopping malls, other shops and more. Japantown is definitely worth a visit if you're traveling to San Francisco.

Photo stickers!!! They bring back sweet memories. I took lots of photo stickers when I went on a student exchange to Japan many years ago. My host sisters and I took photo stickers almost every other day. Photo sticker centers were really popular in Japan at that time but the craze has since that down.

I always loved these nicely packed Japanese desserts. The packaging always look so pretty that I always want to leave the goodies intact as long as I possibly can (that is till I succumb to temptation of stuffing my face with the sinful delights)

Celebrating the Tanabata Fesitaval. Love or wish poems are written down on colourful strips of paper and then hung onto bamboo trees.

After a quick stroll around Japantown, we settled at a Shabu Shabu restaurant for sukiyaki. There are a couple of huge Shabu Shabu restaurants in this area. We just settled on one. We ordered suki yaki and oh boy, it definitely satisfied my taste buds.

I surprised J with a gift for our anniversary. I'm usually very good with surprises as I can put on a poker face pretty well. Unfortunately for me, when we arrived at Japantown, I zipped open my bag to take my camera out and totally forgot about the present. Immediately he saw the mysterious wrapped item and queried, "What's that? Is it for me?"

The waitress explained to us that in Japan, they break raw eggs into a bowl and use the eggs as a dipping sauce. I wasn't used to the idea of dipping my noodles and meat in just cold raw egg, so i mixed some soup with the egg.

We experienced three false fire alarms three weeks in a row. Twice was early in the morning. Once, at 3 am! During the 3rd time (at 3 am), I couldn't be stuffed going down anymore. I told J, "You go. I'll go down if I smell smoke." Mentally, I pictured an escape plan in my head. We were staying on the second floor. I did a rough mental calculation and concluded that I probably could escape the fire (if there was one) since I was only 2 floors up. Worst case scenario, I will jump out of the window and break a leg. J told me not to be silly and sternly forced me to get up. Lesson learnt: I'm not rational and 100 times lazier when I'm sleepy.

My only consolation. Having a picture taken (albeit, a bad one) with the firemen. Men in uniforms. Mmmm...(okay, maybe not this set of firemen. I like my men a bit younger.)

Live.Love.Laugh

2009-08-08T03:03:00.003+10:00

Live.Love.Laugh.

I miss laughing.

I haven't been myself as of late. Which means, I've been thinking lots. Which is not necessarily healthy. But the thinking has led to lots of questioning. What do I live for. What do I stand for. I need to find my answers. I need joy in my life.

Difference between XX and XY

2009-08-06T14:13:00.004+10:00

A few days ago, my brother stumbled out of his room, groggy-eyed and said in a very casual manner, "I think I need to go to the doctor."

"Why?" I asked.

"O, I think I'm partially blind. I have a blind spot"

"What?!?! What do you mean you think you are blind?" I asked astonished. I was more astonished by the fact that he mentioned it so offhandedly rather than the subject matter itself.

"I played soccer yesterday and some guy kicked the ball right into my eye. I fell down and couldn't get up for a couple of minutes because of the immense pain. I couldn't see for a couple of seconds. I closed my eyes and opened them a few minutes later. My vision cleared a little and I was very happy I wasn't completely blind."

Still extremely shell-shocked by what he told me, I said, "Why didn't you go to the doctor yesterday when this happened? Your retina could be detached. You might need surgery done immediately. This is very important. You could be partially blind forever!"

I couldn't believe that instead of doing what I thought a normal person would do (i.e. check himself into the emergency department immediately), he went to have dinner with his friends instead (in a half-blind state mind you), went to bed and then contemplated going to the doctor the next morning.

Ann who was at my place at the time the conversation took place said, "Boy will be boys. They take things so casually."

Yesterday, my eye was a little swollen. I showed my mum and she said that it's nothing to be concerned about because that happens sometimes. But I insisted on going to the doctor anyway. You can never be too cautious when it comes to your eyes! (I've had pretty severe cases of conjunctivitis before) So I went today and got some antibiotics and ointment for the eye infection.

Men are from mars and women are from venus. Clearly.

Happiness is a state of mind

2009-08-03T17:08:00.000+10:00

"When I get sad, I stop being sad, and be awesome instead... True story !"

Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson - How I Met you Mother

Childhood memories

2009-07-31T14:13:00.004+10:00

When I read Karen Cheng's latest post, I couldn't help but recount my childhood. Although I lived in the concrete jungles in Malaysia, I spent a lot of my time hanging off tree branches, plucking fruits, swinging in the hammock tied between two willow trees and playing with my dogs. In that aspect, I had the most fabulous childhood. I didn't need the television or computer to entertain me. I had so much more fun climbing up the papaya (also known as paw paw) trees or the local Malaysian jambu tree (jambu is also known as 'water apple'. What a silly name. Jambu sounds better!)to pluck the fruits when they were in season. I even made a little "cubby house" for myself on the jambu tree. I would balance a couple of sticks between two branches and sit there for ages reading a book, doing my homework or munching on snacks.

I grew up with dogs. I had six dogs in total. I spend a lot of time doing my homework in the garden with the dogs in my lap. We had a wooden slide in our garden. I taught one of my dogs how to climb up the stairs and slide down it like a circus dog. How adorable. Afterwards, he would sit on top of the slide for hours on end, every single day. He must have felt like the king of the world.

I can still vividly recall my very close encounter with a bee swarm attack. Once I was climbing up the jambu tree to pluck its fruits. My fingers were up in the air, ready to grab the bunch of jambus, when I noticed a huge black rugby ball shaped thing hanging from the branches, only 2 inches away from my fingers. It took me about 5 seconds to realise the predicament I was in. I quickly jumped down from where I was (luckily it wasn't a very high jump) and ran back into the house. I reported my findings to my dad who then called the exterminator. The bee hive miraculously disappeared a couple of days later.

Friday nights were my most highly anticipated night. My parents joined a church cell group which congregated in alternate homes every Friday night together with about twenty other parents. You know what this means? 20 parents = 30 to 40 kids! Time of our lives! We played 'cops and robbers' (we call it 'police and thieves'), 'hide and seek', 'ice and water' and lots of other games. Dirt and grime didn't matter to us at all. I remembered hiding in huge drains, in bushes and the best hiding place was under a car. No one could find me for ages till I gave myself up.

Sadly, one day my mum decided to landscape the garden and all the fruit trees were cut down which included, one langsat tree, one rambutan tree, one jambu tree, two papaya tree and two banana trees. Needless to say, I wasn't happy at all but now, I can see how a nice landscaped garden looked better than a disorganised fruit orchard.

And to top everything off, one fine day, our two willow trees decided to give up on us. They died of some sort of infestation. It was like liver cancer - there were no symptoms for years. By the time we discovered the internal infestation, it was too late.

But my love of nature didn't end there. I started hiking and camping in the jungles of Malaysia. We bathed in rivers and when nature called, we gave our disposals back to nature. I learned how to build fires from using just matchsticks, twigs and branches without any fire starters. I learned how to put sulfur around my tent to keep snakes away. I've encountered a wild boar, smelt the urine of a roaming tiger (the guide told us that judging from the urine smell and temperature, the tiger was just ten minutes away), navigated through mountains using a compass. I slept best when I was in jungles. A soft mattress cannot compare to sleeping on the hard ground in the middle of the jungle, free from human pollution. The air always smelt so fresh that I think my lungs would burst.

If and when I have kids one fine day, I want to make sure they enjoy as much nature as they can before the telly, computer and game consoles rob them of their childhood.

Moment of silence

2009-07-26T10:15:00.008+10:00

A smsed me the other day to tell me about the sudden passing of her uncle. It happened unexpectedly on a beautiful family vacation while they were hiking. C called me a month ago to tell me that her dad has been diagnosed with cancer. Yesterday, Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysia's most celebrated film director died of a sudden stroke. Last month, MJ, King of Pop, shocked the world with his passing. Five months ago, a friend died in the Australian bush fires. What do we make of all this? Sometimes we question where's God hand admist all the grief and sadness? The bitter truth of the matter is, we will never know. We can ask all the whys but the rhetorical question will only drive ourselves crazy.

When my paternal grandmother passed away, my dad did not cry at her funeral. He said it was because she once told him that tears were useless once a person passes away. Instead, give your loved ones all your love while they are still alive. Why release grudges only once a person moves on from this world. Why cry tears of regret. Why cry tears of pain. In one of the Terminator:Sarah Conner Chronicles episodes, Cameron (the good terminator, protector of John) asked John, why do humans cry when someone has passed away? He replied that it was a way to cope with grief.

We should cry all we want, to cope with our grief, but once we get through that phase, we should get out of bed, breathe in and out and try to make the most of our lives - in rememberance of those who have passed away, for your sake and for the people you love that are still living.

By Yasmin Ahmad.

Thanks Yasmin for all your great short films. You may have moved on but you left a legacy behind. You will be sorely missed by many. RIP.

Priscilla Ahn - Dream

2009-07-26T10:09:00.000+10:00

Shitake mushroom

2009-07-24T09:13:00.000+10:00

My mom and I were shopping at a Japanese grocery store when my dad texted me:

Honey dere,
Buy the shit somthing mush room. We need for hot pot toonight.

-Dady

From mydadisafob.com

Goodbye San Francisco

2009-07-19T15:47:00.002+10:00

Right after J waves me off at the airport, he scurries off to the car rental office and exchanges his rented car for a new one, Bumblebee, the Transformer car. Stuff him! So unfair =(

Booklist

2009-07-16T11:54:00.004+10:00

I go through a lot of books in a year because I buy at least one book every 3 weeks. The unfortunate part is that I have trouble remembering the books I read, especially if they don't leave much of an impression on me. So when friends ask me to recommend books, sometimes my mind goes blank. As such, I'm resorting to jotting down the title and author of every single books I've read, starting from today!

Off the top of my head, here's what I've been reading the past couple of months. I'm sure there's heaps more but as usual, my brain fails me.

The curious incident of the dog in the night time – Mark Haddon
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cairo Trilogy - Naguib Mahfouz
Marley & Me – John Grogan
The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
Losing My Virginity – Richard Branson
After Dark – Haruki Murakami
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
Leave Me Alone – Nurong

I'm still gnawing at the book, Lolita. From the title itself, one can guess that the content would somewhat controversial. I picked it up because it was listed as one of the Border's staff current favourites. I'm always slightly hesitant to trust the taste of bookshop staff. The last time I asked for a recommendation, I was refered to a book that had the crown jewel's of the protagonist chained to the floor of a dark dungeon. In short, heavy heavy S&M. Not my kinda thing. Surprisingly, this book Lolita wasn't as bad as I thought. I would have imagined that there will be more controversial details regarding certain explicit sexual acts but the author did not dwell too much on those aspects. Instead, he focused his writings on the complicated mind of the protagonist.

....

On a short note, today a stranger was very kind to me. I was looking for a spot at the cafe in Borders. Most of the tables were occupied. A stranger then walked up to me, from the other end of the cafe, and said that I could take his seat as he was leaving. What a kind act, I thought. He took so much effort just to tell that to a stranger.

I relayed the story to J later on. He said in response that the stranger perform that kind gesture because I was female. I was appalled and I said that I would like to believe he did that because he was kind. He wasn't even hitting on me. J asked me whether I thought the stranger would have done the same for him, a male. I said, yes, just to pissed J off.

I guess, being female helped but still, it was a very kind act all the same.

Post-edit: I read this post out to J and he said, "Haven't you thought about why most kind acts done to you are made by men?" I said, "Maybe because men are kinder!!!" Can't people be nice for the sake of being nice??? Surely there are such people out there, otherwise our world is doomed.

Beauty queen failure

2009-07-15T15:50:00.005+10:00

Amongst many many other reasons, one reason I can never be a beauty queen is because performing the entire beauty routine takes too much effort.

This evening, I've decided to put in more effort in my washing up routine.

The routine went as such: Shower which included washing hair and body, towel drying hair and body, blow-drying hair, putting moisturizer on face, putting eye cream, putting on body lotion, flossing teeth, brushing teeth.

Normal routine goes: Shower which includes washing hair and body, towel drying body, let hair drip dry, put moisturiser on face, brushing teeth.

Activities usually omitted:

Blow-drying hair (I was cursing for the whole 15 minutes! It's sooo tiring. Holding up the hair dryer is tiring enough)

Washing face with facial wash (I forget quite often these days. My bad)

Eye cream (something I should do because of my very dry skin)

Body lotion (again, I should do because of my very dry skin)

Flossing teeth (more of a health rather than beauty thing. The dentist is going to kill me)

The entire routine this evening took one hour. And I didn't even put on any make up.

Being female is tough sometimes.

Don't sweat the small stuff

2009-07-15T11:57:00.003+10:00

Today I walked into a small local camera store with the intention of checking out the Canon 500D. Upon walking into the store, I noticed a woman standing behind the counter. I assumed she’s about 55 years old judging from the crow’s feet at the outer corners of her eyes and the streaks of gray in her hair. But the thing I noticed most about her is the lack of kindness in her eyes.

I stood in front of the glass window where the Canon SLR cameras sat for about 10 seconds when she asked me in a matter-of-fact manner, “Do you have any questions?”

I asked whether I could see the Canon 500D.

She took out the Canon 500D and told me that it was the latest model for its range. She then immediately asked, “Have you seen this online? What’s the price you saw online?”

I said that I’ve only checked the Canon official website and have not really looked around.

She said, “Well, I can’t show you the camera because many people check out the camera and then buy it online. Are you going to buy it today?”

I replied, “I’m not sure yet. It depends. Can I see it?”

She then acutely point to the camera, which is now back in its original spot, securely locked behind the glass window and said, “there, you can see it.” I swear I saw a smug look plastered on her face.

I stared at her with a I-can’t-believe-you-are-so-darn-rude look. Did your dog just die? Did your husband divorce you recently?

I said, “It’s okay. Thanks,” and promptly walked out of the store. What I really wanted to say is, “How would I know whether I’ll be interested if I can’t even have a proper look at it. Even if I’m interested, I would never have bought it from you, evil witch.”

Anyway, I was upset for like 5 minutes before I realise that it’s not worth it. She probably had a bad day/bad life. I always think that you can see that sort of thing from someone’s eyes.

Then I proceeded to Walgreens to get some lip balm. The person behind the counter was really nice. I asked her for the nearest post office and she gave me lots of details with a smile. Then I met a local artist on the street who was handing out his name card and trying to persuade passer-bys to buy his cds. I didn’t buy his cd but I told him I’ll check out his website. We had a small chat and then parted ways.

The point of this short rant is to point out that, for every single horrible person you meet, you’ll meet many more good people. We shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. Otherwise we might miss the bigger picture.

Blackberry ad

2009-07-10T11:33:00.000+10:00

Blackberry. Your office is where you want it to be.

San Francisco - Day 7 - Sears' Fine Food, Castro, Organic Market, Twin Peaks

2009-07-09T06:15:00.007+10:00

Taken from private diary entry (written by Joanne from a 3rd person's perspective):

Wednesday 1/7/2009
Jason does some work in the morning. They then head to Sears' Fine Food for brunch. According to Jason, this place is quite famous and served very good breakfast.

#1

Sears' Fine Food. The Sears opened in 1938 at Powell and Sutter Streets. As legend goes, Ben Sears was a retired circus clown whose wife, Hilbur, inherited a Swedish pancake recipe.
The airy, dollar-size cakes quickly became the enduring certerpiece of Sears home-style menu.

#2

Joanne orders their famous pancakes with maple syrup and butter. Jason orders a big breakfast – consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash brown and toast. Their food arrives. Joanne’s pancakes taste alright. She loves the butter that came with it. It was very fragrant. The interesting thing about the meal was the maple syrup. It was heated up! She never had hot maple syrup with pancakes before. She also loved the maple syrup because it was not too sweet and just the right consistency (not too thick). Jason loved his food. Joanne found his hash brown interesting. Her idea of hash brown were the Mcdonald’s type. Small sized. However, this hash brown was huge – the size was an equivalent of two slices of toast. Jason said that this is how hash brown was originally cooked – the Mcdonald ones were imposters. The hash brown was very tasty. The inside was soft and the outside was crispy. The bacon was very crispy – tasted like beef jerkey. Joanne is not used to the bacon because it was hard and dry. Apparently, bacon in America is always cooked like this, unlike in Australia where the bacon is slightly brown but still soft and juicy.

#3

Jason with his meal

#4

Eggs, bacon and hash brown

#5

Pancakes

#6

Heated up maple syrup

#7

Overall, they had a pretty good experience at the restaurant. It's easy to see why the restaurant is popular with both locals and tourists.

They then retrieved their car. Joanne drives in America for the first time. It was a slightly daunting experience because she was not used to driving on the right side of the road and she didn’t really know her way around. Unconsciously Joanne always swerved close to the right because she was used to being on that side of the road. But they got to their destination, Castro, safe and sound.

#8

They didn’t spend too much time at Castro. Joanne expected the street to be longer. Castro was a very nice area though. They past by Twin Peaks tavern, checked out movie times at the Arthouse cinema, entered a couple of stores. Joanne also got coffee from a coffee specialist café. They had hundreds of different varieties of coffee in that store. They also entered a bookstore but didn’t stay too long because it was all gay-related books (nothing that is relevant to Joanne or Jason). They also tried locating Castro Camera – the shop that Harvey Milk opened and operated it (and was also used in the movie set ‘Milk’) but couldn’t locate it. Joanne thinks that shop has been converted into something else.

#9

Castro

#10

Castro Cinema. Shows arthouse films.

#11

Bought a coffee with this coffee specialist shop

#12

San Francisco's first openly gay bar

#13

Castro Camera shop used to occupy this blue building

They then stumbled upon an organic local market. Joanne is thrilled because there are not many good organic markets in Melbourne. Also, organic food in Melbourne always blow a hole in your pocket. On the contrary, the organic food here is relatively cheap. For example, a pallet of organic strawberries cost only 4 dollars. (In Melbourne, ONE organic lemon may cost $2) Joanne found many varieties of vegetables, fruits and fungus that she never knew existed. For example, she saw pink mushrooms. It looked so pretty. She bought a packet of salad leaves with flowers. She never knew flowers could be consumed.

#14

#15

#16

#17

Variety of salad leaves with flowers

#18

#19

#20

Trumpet pink mushrooms

After the organic market, they headed to Twin Peaks. Jason has been raving about this place and have been wanting to bring Joanne there for the past few days. They drove there and Joanne is quite enthralled by the view. From Twin Peaks, you can see the entire San Francisco city. They view was absolutely breathtaking. They took numerous photos including some star jump shots.

#21

Eating a flower on the way up to Twin Peaks. It tasted quite nice actually as the nectar was quite sweet. However, Jason hated eating flowers.

#22

View from Twin Peaks

#23

Photoshopped

#23b

Photoshopped 2

#24

#25

Doing jumps. There were many failed attempts. Either bad photographer or bad jumper. I blame the photographer.

#26

#27

#28

#29

After that they headed back to the hotel.

They went out at 8.30 pm for dinner at a Malaysian/Singaporean restaurant called Malaysian Singaporean restaurant near golden gate park (Clement Street, between 9th and 10th Avenue, off Geary Blv). They order a nasi lemak, roti canai and chah keoy teoy. Joanne found out about the restaurant through some food forums online. Theres lots of raving reviews on this restaurant (it suppose to be quite authentic). Joanne was slightly disappointed. It’s okay, considering that its not Malaysia – kinda like Malaysian food in Melbourne. Can’t complain too much as her expectations were not that high in the first place.

San Francisco - Day 7 - Chinatown, Financial District, Ferry building

2009-07-03T16:30:00.008+10:00

Taken from private diary entry (written by Joanne from a 3rd person's perspective):

30/06/09

They both wake up at about 8 am and spend some time in the hotel. Jason does some work. At about 2 pm, they walked to Chinatown to grab some lunch.

#1

On the way to Chinatown, we dropped by a couple of hotels to check out the room rates. We also checked out the actual rooms. I wouldn't have guessed it but this is an elevator door. To my initial surprise, many hotels located in downtown San Francisco are housed in very old buildings complete with creaking floors and scary-looking elevators. Many hotels also have that old musky smell, probably from the carpet.

#2

Trapped behind metal bars, inside the moving elevator.

After their fruitless search for take-away tim sum (was searching for it on the wrong streets. Chinatown is huge) they settle at this very authentic looking Chinese restaurant that Joanne spotted.

#3

Sam Wo restaurant, 813 Washington Street, Chinatown, San Francisco.

Joanne thought that place was interesting because the open kitchen was located downstairs and the dining area was upstairs. They had to crawl up this tiny set of steep stairs to the dining area.

#4

Steep stairs leading towards dining area

The words “100 years old” is inscribed on the front of the menu. Joanne thinks, “the food must be very very tasty.” Joanne orders a dry wan ton mee with char siew. Jason orders a typical wan ton noodle soup. They also order a plate of fried spring rolls. As they wait for the food to arrive, Joanne looks around and observes the restaurant. For a split second, one can believe that he/she is in China – the old school glass shutter windows, little stools with wooden tables, creaking floors. But the thing that took the cake was the ancient-looking food elevator that Joanne have only seen in the old parts of Penang city, Malaysia.

#5

#6

Low stools with wooden tables

#7

Food elevator

The food arrives. Upon Joanne’s first inspection of the food, she was slightly disappointed. The wan tan noodles does not look like what she expected. She expected thin springy noodles. But this was thick yellow noodles with cabbage! For the life of her, she has never seen cabbage in wan ton noodle soup before (not even in Hong Kong) She thought, maybe it’s a San Francisco version. She tried it, and it turned out not too bad, as long as she does not compare it to her wan ton mee that she knows and love. Jason’s food on the other hand, was not so great. His noodles taste quite floury. According to Joanne’s cooking experience, this can only mean that the noodles has been cooked for a tad too long. Jason did not each much of his meal. Joanne shares her noodles with him.

#8

Joanne's fat wan ton noodles

The bill arrives. It was the cheapest meal they had so far. Only 8.50 for their meal. $4.50 for Joanne’s dish and $4 for Jason’s.

They both walked around Chinatown, looking for the famous Golden Gate bakery and tim sum shops. They finally found what they were looking for – all located on Jackson Street. They were a little full at that time. So they decided to come back another day.

They then head to the Financial District of San Francisco. According to a local, the Financial District is sadly quiet right now because of the recession. They walked to the financial district and found it to extremely quiet. They were not sure whether its because it’s not peak hour (3 pm) and everyone is still stuck in the offices or it’s because of the recession. They walked around and tried looking for the office building Jason worked at before a couple of years ago. They finally found it.

#9

Financial District

#10

San Francisco's icon, TransAmerica

They hung around for a bit and then headed to the San Francisco ferry building. The ferry building was San Francisco's main transportation depot before the Golden Gate bridge and Bay bridge was built. Jason does some work there (answer phone calls) while Joanne observes cargo ships carrying cargo. Joanne found the large ships fascinating. It was the first time Joanne saw so many large ships carrying full load of cargo. Jason thinks Joanne is silly.

#11

Ferry building

#12

Bay bridge leading to Treasure Island

#13

Cargo ship

After spending an hour there, they both headed back to the hotel.

#14

We passed by Union Square on the way back to the hotel. Some local artists were demonstrating their artwork

#15

#16

Union Square, a place to gather

#17

Love the animals

#18

We hung out at borders for a bit

#19

A couple of hours later, they headed back out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown that they spotted earlier. They saw a newspaper clipping stuck on the door that gave raving reviews on the restaurant. As such, they both assumed that the restaurant served good food. Joanne ordered pho and Jason ordered rice with fried egg, pork chop and radish. They didn’t serve broken rice there but they served normal chinese rice instead. They were both quite surprised because every Vietnamese restaurant in Melbourne served broken rice. Their food arrives. Joanne did not really like her noodles because it didn’t taste like the pho she normally eats in Melbourne nor Vietnam. It tasted very much like chinese soup with cabbage, pepper and msg. Further, the waiter who served them spoke to them in Cantonese. Not very authentic. Jason’s food was not too bad. Overall, the food was okay but not deserving of any sort of award.

#20

Pork chop, fried egg and radish with rice

#21

Pho

San Francisco - Day 6 - Fisherman's wharf, Lombard Street

2009-07-03T05:42:00.005+10:00

Taken from private diary entry (written by Joanne from a 3rd person's perspective):

29/06/09
They head to Fisherman’s wharf – Pier 43 ½ and Pier 39.

#1

On the way to Fisherman's wharf. San Francisco is very hilly.

#2

Going down the most crooked street in the world, Lombard Street

#3

At Pier 43 1/2

#4

Pier 43 1/2 video

They have lunch at Pier 39. Jason is happy because he gets to eat his clam chowder which he has been craving for the past few days. They also order an orange juice. Jason does not really drink water but juices and other drinks.

#5

Pier 39

#6

#7

Clam chowder in sourdough bread

After lunch, they walk around Pier 39 and take pictures. Joanne notice fat walruses sunbathing on a floating deck. Jason thinks they are elephant seals but Joanne thinks they are walruses. (Jo's edit: upon googling, Joanne realise that they are sea lions) They also spot Alcatraz prison from Pier 39.

#8

Sea lions

#9

Alcatraz prison in background

#10

#11

This is for Cheryl, who loves Ben & Jerry's.

#12

Taken for J who said "this carousel brings back nostalgic memories." He sat on it four years ago. Note: he was definitely more than 12 years old when he sat on it :P

They then head to Ghirardelli chocolate factory. They both sampled a piece of peanut butter chocolate each but it was slightly too sweet for their liking. Joanne throws half her piece away.

#13

#14

They then both headed to Crown & Crumpet, a tea salon located in the Ghirardelli village, to have tea. That salon served 40 different types of tea. They didn’t want to drink anything sweet. They both took advantage of the free wireless from the nearby hotel. They ordered a pot of tea that taste like roses and sweet honey. It was very nice.

#15

Then they head back to the hotel. Jason does more work. Joanne types up diary entry. And then Joanne blogs.

#16

They both have a very late dinner – 9.30 pm. They walk to Chinatown. Joanne is very grumpy and moody because she feels faint from the lack of food. Upon reaching Chinatown, they realise that most restaurants have closed or are starting to close. They are both quite surprised because they thought Chinatown would still be alive at this time.

They settle at one of the few opened restaurants. Joanne orders a roast duck + siew yok on rice. Jason orders a roast duck + char siew on rice. The duck was okay. The siew yok was not great. Jason did not really eat his duck because he doesn’t like anything with bones (Jo's edit: so picky!)

San Francisco/Las Vegas - Day 3,4,5

2009-07-03T04:06:00.005+10:00

Taken from private diary entry (written by J in 3rd person perspective, pictures inserted by Joanne)

Friday 26/06/09
Joanne and Jason wake up early in the morning. Today they go to Las Vegas! They’re a little late, and decide not to risk it and catch a cab (as opposed to drive themselves) to the airport.
The flight to Vegas was quick and easy. Joanne slept the whole time!
As soon as they land, they’re greeted by oodles of pokies machines – the usual Vegas welcome.

#1

Pokies machine at Las Vegas airport

Jumping on a $6 airport shuttle, they plus the many other holiday goers on the bus visit the various hotels dropping off passengers.
They’re dropped off at the luxurious, 5 star Trump hotel – just 5 minutes off the main Vegas BLVD strip. It is an impressive structure, reminisce of a giant gold bar rising from the scorched dessert earth.
Check-in was easy, they’re up at the 54th floor – a nice studio apartment, complete with their own personal spa, in-mirror tv, massive king size double bed with, and kitchen facilities. The studio was magnificent, Joanne falls in love straight away and jumps on the bed.

#2

Trump Hotel

#3

Trump Hotel lobby

After settling in, they headed to Harrahs to collect tickets their Mac King comedy show tickets. After collecting the tickets at the box office, they have a small snack lunch at Ming’s Chinese restaurant in Harrahs.

They then decided to try their fate at roulette. Joanne broke even at Roulette.

#4

On the Las Vegas strip

After that, they went for the Mac King comedy show which started at 3 pm – excellent seating.

#5

#6

The show was a combination of magic tricks and comedy. It was very funny and the tricks were quite impressive.

#7

With Mac King himself

They then made their way to New York New York, stopping by Caesar Palace and losing more money at roulette (Jo: We didn't play that much, probably about $20 each)

#8

Pirate ship at Treasure Island Hotel

#9

Rest in peace Michael Jackson. You will be greatly missed by millions. Taken in front of Madame Tussauds wax musuem, the Venetian Hotel

#10

They had a very bad late lunch of Americanised Italian food at Serendipity – pasta (which was red), and Caesar salad with more cheese and sauce than salad. (Jo's note: Do not eat there, ever!)

#11

Very buttered, red pasta

#12

Cheese and sauce with salad as condiment

At New York New York, Jason has a Ben and Jerrys ice cream – it was massive!

#13

Inside New York, New York

#14

They collect their Zumanity of Cirque du Soleil tickets at New York, New York.

The show was interesting... It was very adult. Combined explicit sensual acts with circus acrobatics, but the focus was on sex themes (Jo: hm, it was little too raunchy for our liking. We didn't expect so much sexual connotations/jokes. But the acrobatic acts were still very good. Only that they did it half naked)

#15

Zumanity stage

#16

Outside New York, New York

On the way back, they dropped by Excalibur, MGM Grand, M&Ms shop, Harley Shop, and Bellagio Hotel.

#17

Harley Davidson restaurant

#18

Motorcycles of patrons

#19

The strip at night

#20

Paris

#21

The Wynn

#22

#23

Bellagio fountains

#24

Excalibur

#25

M&Ms shop

#26

Saturday 27/6/09
They were rudely awakened by the apartment emergency alarm
“Your attention please. There’s been an emergency. Please evacuate the building. The lifts are closed”
It was a mad rush of bodies trying to get down the building. Joanne and Jason, along with a very bleary-eyed group of tourists realise they’re on the 54th floor! They have many flight of stairs to the ground level.
There is a little bit of tension as the stair well heats up. This was due to the radiating body heat, however people are nervous that there was a fire.
Jason’s thinks “My parents don’t even know I’m in Vegas!”
They’re relieved on the 20th floor when a gentleman sticks his head in and says it’s a false alarm.
Jason and Joanne returned to their room.

They then head out to buy tickets for Jersey Boys

#27

They had a nice lunch dinner of pizza and pasta at Venitian Lux Café

They gambled a bit more – lost more money on roulette (Jo: Jason lost money, not me :P)

They headed back to hotel to relax. They went for a short dip in the pool.

After that, they went to California Kitchen at the massive Fashion Strip complex for a nice dinner of barley and pea soup, Singaporean prawn style rolls, and pasta with chicken.

They had great seats at Jersey Boys. It was a fantastic production describing the life of the group “The four seasons”. Very entertaining for its live music, and dramatic story. (Jo: It's rated as the top show in Vegas. If you can only make it for one show, I highly recommend that you watch this one. For Melbournians, Jersey Boys are hitting Melbourne this month till the next few months. Go grab your tickets!)

After the show, they have oyster shots at an Oyster Bar.

Sunday 28/6/09
Another late wake up. They head down to the pool level and relax for 3 hours in the blistering heat. They have an afternoon lunch of fried chicken wings, and a ham sandwich.

They go for a swim, and relax under the umbrella.

#28

Swimming pool area

Time flies by quickly. Before they know it, they realise its already 3:30pm and they have to check out by 4! After a quick room inspection, they return the key cards and give their bags to the bell boy. Their airport shuttle is due at 5:30. They shop in the fashion centre across from Trump. Joanne buys a nice $50 jacket and $20 guess sandals.
Shuttle to the airport at 530.
Flight is at 8.14 pm
Land in San Francisco International Airport
Take BART (train) to city. Get out at Powell Station.
Stop by a take-away pizza shop for take away pizza.
Back at hotel.

Las Vegas video

Las Vegas Tips
Stay on strip. Can stay off strip if planning to rent a car. A hotel off the strip may be cheaper but if you take into account the cab fares/car rental and inconvenience, you may be better off paying a little more for a hotel on the strip.

To walk from one end of strip to the other end (MGM Grand to Circus Circus hotel) may take up to 1 hour! And this is walking with sneakers (as oppose to high heels). It is that long!

Half price tickets. Don’t buy your tickets at full price! Buy on the day itself at one of the many half price ticket booths that’s abundant along the strip. Basically, you can buy a ticket at a heavily discounted price for a show that night itself.
Just make sure you get your seats allocated as soon as possible! You buy the ticket, then go to the box office of the hotel where the performance is, and get those seats allocated ASAP!

Also, some half price ticket agents do package deals - get discounted tickets plus a 3-course dinner at 50% off.

Recommended shows = Mac King comedy shows (afternoon shows), Mystere Cirque de Solei show and definitely Jersey Boys! (Jersey Boys is hitting Melbourne from July till October. Grab your tickets! It’s a must watch)

Some of the best deals require you to be 25 or over. (free Mac King tickets if you are over 25 and if buy a drink valued at $9.99 or more. Free tickets can be collected at Harrah’s box office or information desk).

San Francisco - Day 2 - Shopping downtown, Transformers

2009-07-03T02:38:00.003+10:00

We started our day with lunch at a very authentic-looking Japanese restaurant located on Post Street, near our hotel. I was thrilled that the sashimi chef and most other patrons were Japanese. It only means that the food is good.

#1

J's beef on rice

#2

Katsu chicken

We then proceeded to walk down Post Street, towards Union Square. I head inside my all-time favourite US store - Victoria's Secret. Why don't we have this brand in Australia?!? I grinned from ear to ear upon seeing the huge SALE sign! How wonderful. And to top it off, today was the first day of the special promotion - nighties were 50% off on top of their already reduced price! I bought a nightie that was only $8 when its original price was about $39. Poor J waited for over an hour for me (okay, I lied, its probably 2 hours). He entertained himself by replying e-mails on his blackberry. After that, I kept apologizing profusely and said, "I'm not usually like this but everything is so cheap and nice!" Sigh.

Total damage: $400. Very painful.

#3

Very extensive receipt

I told J I'll treat him ice cream in return for waiting for me (tip: A man's happiness is through his stomach). We head to the famous Cheesecake Factory that's located above Macy's, Union Square. The Cheesecake Factory is a famous American franchise. The company currently operates 146 dining outlets in the U.S. This place reminds me of Swanson's, only better. We are yet to try their famous cakes.

#4

#5

Outside courtyard on the 8th floor of the Macy's building

#6

Forgot to take pictures of their food.

#7

View of Union Square

J then headed back to do some work. I continued shopping. Notable stores were Forever 21 and Zara (why doesn't these stores exist in Australia)?

#8

Forever 21, 7 Powell Street, San Francisco.

Image taken from here

#9

Image taken from here

#10

The shop occupied three levels

Image taken from here

We met up again at 7.30 pm, had dinner at Firewood Pizza café in the Metreon*. We share a salad and pasta. That's fast becoming our typical meal to order in an American joint. I find the American portions extremely huge and cannot finish a meal by myself.

#11

The pastas in a typical American joint are always very cheesy. Americans must love their cheese.

#12

Huge bowl of salad

We then watched Transformers 2 in the cinema at Metreon.

#13

*Metreon is a shopping center located in downtown San Francisco at the corner of 4th St. and Mission St

The interesting thing about many of the cinemas here is that there are no allocated seating. This means that we have to arrive pretty early in the cinema to secure good seats. Also, their cinema menu is very extensive - hot pizza, fried chicken pieces, nachos, hotdog, etc. On top of that, what amazed me was the butter popcorn. You can add your own BUTTER DRIPPING from the self-serve dispenser to drip over your already buttered popcorn. Oh goodness, imagine the calorie count.

San Francisco - Day 1 - Touchdown, Chinatown

2009-07-02T16:21:00.004+10:00

We touched down in San Francisco International Airport at 10.30 am. The customs and baggage claim wasn't too much of a hassle. We then took a sky train to the airport car rental area to pick up our car.

The road system was a little daunting as we had to drive on the right side of the road! A tape recording looped in our heads repeating, "Stick to right lane. Stick to right lane. Stick to right lane." Our nerves calm down after we got used to the road system.

Heading into the city, I notice many HUGE cars on the road, cars that I've never seen in Australia. There were many big American SUVS - none of these exist in Australia.

We finally arrive at our destination and we parked our car in a car garage (In America, they used the term 'car garage' as oppose to 'car park complex'. I found it really strange at first.) We then checked in to our hotel.

After settling in for a bit, we then head to Chinatown to scout for food. I was starving at this point. We walked to Chinatown which was about 15 minutes away. On this walk, it dawned upon me that San Francisco is pretty hilly! Who needs the gym when you can get a good exercise from just from walking up and down the city.

Upon seeing Chinatown, I was pretty impressed. It was huge. It's apparently the biggest Chinatown outside Asia. Walking around Chinatown, I kept telling J, "It feels like we are in China!"

Chinatown is always bursting with life during the day. You can find all these different types of chinese herbs, preserved food and sun-dried fish. The produce the shops sell always look so fresh. You can even buy fish that are still swimming in plastic cartons. Or watch old people play ancient chinese instruments or chinese checkers on road pavements. The exterior of the buildings are painted with vibrant colours – green, red, blue, gold complete with Chinese scribblings. It's so chinese! And there’s so many different varieties of tidbits to nibble on - char siew pow, take-away tim sum and many different types of chinese cakes. I watched this documentary which interviewed a Chinese guy walking around San Francisco chinatown. He said, "Char Siew Pow is like a hamburger for a Chinese person." Hilarious.

Compare this to the Chinatown in Melbourne consist of only ONE street with a couple of small dingy lanes branching out from that ONE street, which Melbournian would not be impressed?

#1

Chinatown main entrance on Grant Street

#2

#3

Chinese-y things

#4

Oriental fans

#5

See no evil, hear no evil, talk no evil

#6

We are definitely in China

#7

Dried fish

#8

Chinese bakery

#9

Chinese-looking cakes

#10

Interestingly, take-away dim sum is a trend in this Chinatown (as oppose to eating in)

#11

Selling fish on the pavement. This reminds me of Hanoi.

I was absolutely fascinated with the fire escapes, evident on almost every building I saw in San Francisco. Being an old and established city, fire escapes are an inescapable feature of the buildings facade.

#12a

#12b

#12c

#12d

#12e

San Francisco's icon
#13

#14

Tips on planning your perfect holiday

2009-06-30T14:10:00.004+10:00

I thought of sharing some tips (particularly tips for visiting the U.S.) with you guys which I found useful when I was booking hotels, flights and sorting out the car rental.

Of course, the main key is doing your RESEARCH!!! Do not rely solely on one source (say, lonely planet guide book)

I always find tripadvisor.com extremely helpful as a starting point. Type in the city/town you are visiting (in my case, San Francisco) and then, click on 'Things to Do' or 'Overview' or 'Restaurants' etc. It reveals to you all the top attractions, top restaurants, top hotels. I use tripadvisor a lot when I'm looking for hotel reviews. Never book a hotel without checking the reviews first. Also, you can click on 'map' when checking out a hotel. It shows you the location of the hotel on googlemaps.

Also, can may want to check out priceline.com. This website provides a lot of cheap hotel + car rental + flight packages. You may save a lot by using this website. I suggest getting the flight + hotel packages only if you don't mind obscure flight times. For example, you'll might arrive at your destination at 6 pm and leave your holiday destination at 8 am in the morning. Another popular website would be continental.com

Consider checking the local newspapers to see what's happening in the local scene or to check for good reviews at any eateries.

If possible, book flights and hotels during the mid-week, NEVER weekends. Its cheaper and there may be mid-week sales! For example, cheapest airticket from San Francisco to Las Vegas was 350 (after tax) when I checked on Sunday but on Tuesday it was 224 (after tax)!!!!

If you are a risk-taker, you may patronise lastminutetravel.com. I used this to book the hotel for my Las Vegas trip. The interesting thing about this website is that the actual hotel names are not revealed to you till you have finalised your transaction. Think about it as a mystery gift. They only provide you with details of the hotels (such as hotel ratings, restaurants in the hotel, location of hotel, hotel facilities etc). I saved $60 by using this website but my heart was racing before the hotel name was revealed. The same feeling I get before I view my exam results. Nonetheless, I was pretty satisfied with the hotel.

And of course, I always love hostelworld.com. It's the best website for booking hostels. Customer reviews when looked at in aggregate quantities provide pretty accurate feedback. [Don't you get irritate at those trivial negative reviews such as, "I hate that hostel because there are no tea making facilities." Sigh. So much angst and therefore, bad ratings for such trivialities. How about great location? Doesn't that deserve great ratings?!?]

Last but not least, ask your local friends for tips =)

Hello from San Francisco

2009-06-30T13:54:00.004+10:00

I'm currently in San Francisco. Everything has been a little crazy the past two weeks. Two weekends ago, I'm all rugged up in the snow fields and tumbling down ski runs in Australia. Mid-week, I'm in San Francisco, all blurry-eyed and jet-lagged and trying to adjust to a whole new environment. And last weekend, I was sweating under the blazing Las Vegas sun.

Anyway, I'm here for next couple of weeks because J is here for work. He might be here for a couple of weeks to a couple of months. So, just 2 1/2 weeks ago, I thought, "Hey, it's a good idea if I come along." And so, in that short span of time, I've had to get my visa approved, book tickets, pack and do various stuff.

No complains. I'm here, I'm loving this place and I don't want to go back to Melbourne anymore.

Snowboarding at Falls Creek

2009-06-30T13:24:00.004+10:00

We went snowboarding at Falls Creek two weekends ago. It was really early in the season so I didn't expect too much snow. Only six runs were open (no black runs were open) but being a newbie snowboarder, I was happy sticking to intermediate and beginner runs. It snowed on the third day we were there, so it provided extra coverage. Overall, it was a good trip.

Love the snow-capped mountains

We stayed at Astra Lodge. It's easily the best ski lodge I've stayed in. I usually put up at some cheap, crappy ski lodge. But because its low season, we took advantage of the half price accommodation deals.

The hotel is equipped with a heated swimming pool, spa and sauna. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful. You can expect fantastic personal service from them. Complimentary cold and cooked breakfast is provided. We are talking about bacon, grilled tomatoes, sauteed mushroom, sourdough bread, poached eggs with awesome hollandaise sauce. You can also have cereal, fruit and toast. In addition, complimentary tea and coffee are served all day in the lounge area.

Whether you are staying there or not, I urge you to patronise their restaurant for dinner. The food is amazing. The Astra Lodge restaurant have won many awards before. Yet the price of the meal is pretty reasonable - probably the average price of an upper-class restaurant. Remember to make a booking if you're heading there.

Fireplace

Another good restaurant/bar/lounge to try is this other Japanese joint at Silverski lodge. It's a pretty relaxed atmosphere. Perfect for chilling out with friends. The food was pretty good but I must say that the selection was pretty limited. Nonetheless, it's still worth a visit.

Japanese gyoza

Grilled beef with rice

Japanese noodles with a variety of vegetables

Queen's birthday weekend - Mornington Peninsula

2009-06-22T10:27:00.004+10:00

A couple of us headed to Morning Peninsula for a weekend trip during the Queen's birthday weekend.

Hello, mornington!

Our first activity was deep sea fishing

Caught my first fish

Caught my second fish

There were multiple parasites stuck onto the fish' body. It was disgusting.

We had dolphins swimming with our cruising boat for a while.

The next day, J and I took a morning stroll by the ocean while everyone else slept in.

Later in the day, we stopped by a maze. A pretty easy maze in comparison to the one I did in New Zealand.

We also played boardgames.

The winner of snakes & ladders.

We watched the movie 'Dodgeball' the night before. We decided to play a similar version to the game. We couldn't find a ball, so we used a huge rubber dice instead.

We also stopped by Redhill Estate. Bought a chardonay.

At night, we played my all-time favourite childhood game - hide and seek in the dark. We stayed at a huge accommodation, complete with five rooms, two huge living areas, a study area, two bathrooms and kitchen. Guess where I hid? The seeker couldn't find me.

Can't spot me, can you?

Brother turns 21

2009-06-22T09:40:00.002+10:00

Mini cakes from Laurent. Yum!

There wasn't much of a celebration because the poor boy had exams on his birthday. Number of attendees at his "birthday party" = 3. Me, birthday boy and birthday boy's friend.

Nightmares

2009-05-28T13:34:00.004+10:00

Night #1:
Fat boy from old high school chasing me in train station. Woke up in cold sweat.

Night #2:
Got chased by some money laundering tycoons. Ended up on the edge of a very high crane. Woke up in cold sweat.

Night #3:
Discovered that a friend died. Woke up in tears. Checked facebook and found that he is still alive and holidaying in Europe. Phew.

Night #4:
Found myself in the middle of war in Pakistan. Woke up in cold sweat.

Sigh.

On eating humble pie

2009-05-27T21:38:00.001+10:00

Msn conversation on how I will act when J has gravely wronged me:

Joanne says: (9:37:11 PM)
actually probably silent treatment
Joanne says: (9:37:19 PM)
and ask you to meditate on what you did wrong
Jason says: (9:37:26 PM)
hehe
Jason says: (9:37:27 PM)
baby...
Jason says: (9:37:39 PM)
it's good that you tell me to think about what i did wrong
Jason says: (9:37:47 PM)
thats better than totally walling me off
Joanne says: (9:37:47 PM)
and write out a fullly detailed document on what you did wrong (point form) plus remedies and guarantee that you wont do it again.
Jason says: (9:37:56 PM)
really honey?
Jason says: (9:38:01 PM)
i'll keep that in mind
Joanne says: (9:38:28 PM)
plus for next week, im allowed to act like a spoil princess with no complaints from your end
Jason says: (9:38:51 PM)
hehe
Jason says: (9:38:52 PM)
baby.
Jason says: (9:38:55 PM)
but you already do
Jason says: (9:39:02 PM)
=)
Joanne says: (9:39:27 PM)
and then you must act like you are silently enduring the painful torture but will not complain for my sake.

Asian dads...hahahaha

2009-05-26T21:52:00.003+10:00

From MyDadisaFOB

Americans like food

Last year, my family went to the wedding of a family friend who was marrying into a Caucasian family.

In the car on the way up:
Dad: What’s Helen’s husband’s name?
Me: The groom? Chase.
Dad: Cheese?
Me: No, Chaaaase.
Dad: Cheeeeese?
Me: Chaaaase.
Dad: Chaaaeeees?
Me: uh… better.

Later, during the reception, the groom’s younger brother walks by our table:

Dad: What’s Chese’s brother’s name?
Me: Silas.
Dad: What? SA-LA?! What’s with this family? One son called Cheese and the other Salad!

Stop lying to me

Dad: Should I get Blueberry Boat?
Me: A what?
Dad: Blueberry Boat. That or iPod Touch Phone?
Me: iPhone?
Dad: iPod phone.
Brother: Do you mean a BlackBerry Bold?
Dad: Blueberry Bold, you know what I meant.
Brother: BLACKBerry Bold.
Dad: Blueberry Bold. I know it’s called that, don’t think your Daddy stupid.
Brother: But it really is-
Dad: Remember what I said last time about correct me on Blueteeth?
Me: It’s BlueTOOTH-
Dad: See, I know better than you two, I won’t get trick anymore.

Of passing days

2009-05-25T20:43:00.010+10:00

Yesterday
#1
Yesterday J and I visited the Camberwell flea market. Loved it. Lots of hidden treasures. From lego pieces, vintage dresses, bags to computers.

Of memorable quotes:
a. Me pointing to an unknown object that looked like an extinct computer that’s older than me. “What’s that? Is that a computer?” I asked the man mending the stall.

“It’s the latest computer in the market,” he said with a straight face without batting an eyelid.

b. One seller took a look at the price on one her vases and said to friend, "Hm...I think this vase is too cheap." She then proceeded to replace the price tag of $15 to $30. 100% increment in price. So arbitrary. That was a common trend in the market.

Cute buttons and little trinkets

Vintages dresses hung on a green wooden fence

Second hand books and an old sewing machine at the back of someone's ute

Posing with children's books. I saw lots of pre-owned Enid Blyton books! <3

#2
Yesterday, we also rockclimbed. We have been doing so, two weekends consecutively. I must say that I did pretty badly yesterday. My muscles are apparently still sore from last weekend. I have underdeveloped muscles. Sigh. There was a route (Grade 16) that I tried completing a few times but failed because of my lack of height. I just couldn’t reach the next handhold. It was frustrating because I knew what to do technically but I didn’t have the strength to do what was effectively a chin up.

Attempting the said uncompleted route. Sigh. Was carrying a chalk bag. My palms get really sweaty when I climb.

#3
Yesterday after rockclimbing, we proceeded to watch Wall-E on blu-ray disc. My first blu-ray film. I must say the quality is so much better than a dvd quality. J managed to get it for an extremely cheap price - $20 at the Camberwell flea market. It’s usually about $40.

Memorable quotes from Wall-E:

“Wall-EeEeeEeeEE….”

“EVaaaAaAaaaaaa….”

“Wall-EeEeeEeeEE….”

“EVaaaAaAaaaaaa….”

“Wall-EeEeeEeeEE….”

“EVaaaAaAaaaaaa….”

“Wall-EeEeeEeeEE….”

“EVaaaAaAaaaaaa….”

X 1000000000…..

Enough said.

That was about the only dialogue in the entire film.

My verdict? Hm….it’s great for kids I guess.

Movie theme: Save the earth, don’t pollute, exercise and don’t get fat or else, you’ll start rolling around like bowling balls.

Today

#1
Today I passed by a man who was writing with black ink on an envelope. I peered closer and saw that he was writing an address on it with neat handwriting. More envelopes sat uniformly on his table. I imagined that he was writing to his family who lived 1000000 miles away and that made smile =)

#2
Today I was sent an updated picture of my sponsored child. Attached to the picture is a short update of the child’s profile. It reads:

Thanks for your love and support, D is presently in level 1 of primary school in Honduras, which is equivalent to first grade in Australia. His performance is making steady progress.

Soccer, art and riding a bike are D’s favourite recreational activities…

D lives with his mother. His mother occasionally works as a labourer. D works at home carrying water, doing odd jobs and cleaning. There are 5 children in the family….

#3
Today, I had lunch with Sue. After walking up and down Flinders Lane, we settled at café Frais, a small café in an alley off Flinders Lane. We both have an affinity for little tucked away cafes in quaint lanes. Sue had a quiche filled with a variety of wild mushrooms. The quiche came straight from a piping hot oven. The crust was crumbly. Quite impressive.

I had a penne carbonara. The cream tasted pretty fresh but I’m not the best judge for carbonara dishes as it’s my first carbonara dish in years as I’m slightly lactose/cream/fat intolerant. I didn’t finish it lest I’ll get a tummy upset later.

Café Frais opened three months ago. Everything is freshly made. Do patronise the place. Good cafes are hard to come by in the city these days.

Café Frais
Flinders Lane
Between Swanston St and Russell St

A lane off Flinders Lane

Cafe Frais signboard

Penne carbonara and hidden quiche with complimentary salad in background

Wagyu burger, Rockpool Bar & Grill

2009-05-19T14:52:00.006+10:00

On a whim, without making any reservations, J and I decided to try out luck at Rockpool Bar & Grill last friday night. I've heard raving reviews about their wagyu beef hamburger and had to satisfy my curiosity.

It was everything I expected. The meat was tender and juicy, topped with cucumber, cheese, tomatoes and some sort of sauce. I loved it. Definitely one of the best burgers I've eaten. The hamburger can only be ordered at the bar & grill, NOT the restaurant. At $18 it was definitely value-for-money. We also had complimentary bread for starters. J ordered the wagyu steak along with a beer and a salad. I also ordered wine. Total damage = $75.

Rockpool Bar & Grill
Crown Casino Complex
Melbourne
ph: 03 86481900

El Bulli - Best restaurant in the world

2009-05-14T21:36:00.003+10:00

The restaurant has a limited season from April to October; bookings are taken on a single day the previous October. It accommodates only 8,000 diners a season, and gets more than two million (not a typo. Its 2 million~!) requests. The average cost of a meal is 250 euro; the restaurant itself has operated at a loss since 2000, with operating profit coming from El Bulli-related books, and lectures from Adrià.

You know what's scary about going to a restaurant like this? What if, I manage to dine there and I don't know how to enjoy the meal because my culinary taste is not refined enough?

Salad with pomegranate

2009-05-14T19:44:00.005+10:00

Lovely Jane made a salad with pomegranate the other day. It was absolutely delightful. I have not had that combination of salad before. The sacs are juicy, slightly acidic but not as sour as passion fruits. Plus, if anything, the lovely combination of colours make a pretty picture. Inspired by her, I made that dish tonight.

Ingredients:
Rocket salad
Baby spinach
Pomegranate
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Organic honey

Facebook - social tool vs spam tool

2009-05-14T12:49:00.002+10:00

Seriously, don’t you think Facebook is becoming like a spam tool (almost like the old almost non-existent Friendster) Everyday without fail, I’ll get notifications about someone building some virtual restaurant on some street and the main newsfeed is flooded with quizzes. I wouldn’t mind IQ testing quizzes but the majority of quizzes are, ‘How well do you know XYZ? ABC have scored 37% to questions such as ‘Is my right hand bigger than my left hand’. To which ABC will write, “O I guess I didn’t know XYZ as well as I thought. I’m such a horrible friend.”

But really, the only thing on Facebook that is of interested to me are photos, videos and links. Then again, it irritates me when I see 149203489243 photos of girls with the same background (sometimes in the toilet) but apparent different post (probably turned their head by 1 degree angle).

Anyway, despite all my complaints I’m still keeping my Facebook account. It is such an important social tool. To delete facebook is almost committing social suicide. Many events invites are given through Facebook these days. Not too long ago, sending out invites through facebook seemed a little insincere…and now, we have moved to mass invites through facebook.

I saw one funny comment on someone’s facebook wall the other day. That person just got married the other day and a friend said, “Are you living in denial? Update your facebook status!” The friend was obviously being sarcastic but there’s some truth in that don’t you think. To some, you’re not really in a relationship until you update your status. That’s funny because a while back, I thought that walking down the street hand-in-hand was a sign that you’re in a relationship.

Chaos – French film (2001)

2009-05-13T14:48:00.002+10:00

Last night, J and I rented the film Chaos. It’s a French film made in 2001. I absolutely loved it. The plot of the movie is so melodramatic that it is almost comical and light hearted. However, the movie is underpinned with serious themes that in a way, sadly reflects our current society – where life is about our selfish needs and not about others.

There are so many running themes that it seemed almost chaotic as suggest by the title but in my opinion, it is a perfect mess. The film held my interest for the full 109 minutes even from the start. The movie started off with a bang when a professional French couple, Paul and Helene, coincidentally witness a prostitute, Noemie, being bashed up by pimps. She was savagely beaten up in front of their car bonnet. As a result, her blood dripped over their windscreen. Paul, instead of helping the girl, locked their doors for their own safety at the expense of the girl’s life. When the pimps left, the girl lay motionlessly on the ground. Paul got out of the car. One would presume that he would help the girl. However, unexpectedly, he started wiping her blood off his windscreen and then drove off. His wife was shocked and asked him, “Should we call the ambulance?”

He replied in a matter-of-fact tone, “Can’t you see blood on my windscreen. I need to wash this car.”

The next scene brings us to an automatic carwash place with wipers washing off the blood. It was a representation of how Paul could easily wipe off the bloody memory of the girl who was bashed up till near death.

Helene, cannot forget the incident, and the next day she goes to the hospital, where she finds the prostitute, Noémie, in a coma. Moved, Hélène stops work and leaves her family responsibilities to stay with Noémie throughout her recovery, aiding her as she regains mobility and helping her to communicate since she can't yet speak. It is surprising as to why Helene would help a complete stranger when she normally leads a self-absorbed life. Helene herself cannot understand and says to Noemie, “I don’t know why I’m here too.” Helene’s own life is in chaos with a dysfunctional relationship with her husband and son yet she immerses herself in helping someone else out of her mess.

The rest in italics is taken from Wikipedia

When one of the pimps returns to threaten Noémie, Hélène follows him out of the hospital, knocks him unconscious, and leaves him for the police to find.

Meanwhile, Paul and Hélène's son Fabrice, a university student, is cheating on his girlfriend with another girl, who is pregnant. When his girlfriend discovers the truth, she destroys his apartment. He moves into Paul's apartment just as Hélène moves out, and the two girls follow him, much to Paul's chagrin.

When Hélène returns home for a day, one of Noémie's pimps goes to the hospital with a friend and removes Noémie under the pretense that they are relatives taking her for a walk. Noémie, who still cannot speak, is unable to protest. Hélène meets them on the sidewalk and, realizing that Noémie is not safe at the hospital, "kidnaps" her and brings her to Paul's mother's house. Here Noémie recovers her ability to talk, and relates her life story: her name is actually Malika, and she is a French-Algerian immigrant.

As Malika recovers, the two plan Malika's freedom and revenge on her abusers. Hélène's life changes forever as the selfishness of her husband and son becomes apparent.

Some might view this as a feminist film, in that all women are heroines and all men are bad. I don’t know whether that was the intention of the director. However, in my opinion, despite the plot of the film, the movie did not come across as a feminist one. Perhaps its because, nearing the end of the movie, Helene asked L whether she could trust again. Helene continued, “Not all men are bad.”

I love this movie. It is definitely one of my favourites. Be prepared though, you’ll either hate it or love it. It is not catered for the general audience.

Mobile phone pictures

2009-05-13T13:21:00.004+10:00

I recently received my new free LG U990 phone as part of my renewed mobile contract. As with most (if not all) phones these days, it comes with an inbuilt camera. This phone is supposed to be known for its camera as it even has a image stabilizer. I'm yet to properly test the camera myself . But yesterday, little 2 year old Faith tested out my camera for me when Ann and I babysat in the evening. She took about 30 pictures herself. They can never start too young.

I realised today that I forgot to remove the plastic protection cover over the lens. Hence, the pictures are blurry.

"Take a picture of the starfishes. How many are there?"
"Two!"

"Take a picture of the baby starfish"

"Take a picture of Aunty Ann. Count to three."
"One....five...ten...two....three...four..six...smile"

"Take a picture of me"

"Take a picture of the river"

Baby Faith who cannot be separated from her plastic bottle because grandma gave that to her.

This is my shot of the river.

Day out at Footscray

2009-05-09T12:07:00.003+10:00

This morning, a couple of us headed down to Footscray for breakfast. FYI, Footscray is a Vietnamese-migrant saturated area. It is fast becoming my favourite hang out joint. Let me tell you why.

Firstly, while waiting for the rest, Ann, Jas and I strolled into a Vietnamese bakery. I couldn't wait for breakfast and wanted my food NOW. So, I decided to order a Vietnamese roll. It was absolutely delightful and worth every penny. And it was healthy to boot. The bread itself was a french baguette. FYI, french baguette is part of the Vietnamese staple diet because the French once invaded Vietnam. The french baguette was stuffed with slices of pork ham and beef ham with lots of vegies such as carrots, radish, lettuce etc and it was dripping with a slightly sweet and spicy sauce. So yummy. It definitely beats a conventional sandwich. Good food, tick~!

When the rest arrived, Ives brought us to a local Vietnamese restaurant that served pho. I LOVE pho. Actually, I love most type of noodles. This pho in particular tasted pretty authentic. The soup was quite tasty and it didnt have too much msg in it. More good food, tick tick~!

After breakfast, we headed to a store that sold yong tau foo. The fish paste used look so fresh! And we were definitely spoilt for choice. They sold most types that I can think of at the top of my head. I picked out a few pieces for dinner tonight.

Next, we headed to the market to buy chicken bones. I'm planning to make some chicken stock for dinner tonight. Oh my~! Seriously, I had a real shock entering the market. It didn't feel like Melbourne. For one second, I thought I was back in Vietnam. I kept telling Ann, "Oh my goodness, I feel like we are back in Hanoi! Look at those people selling food illegally by the side of the streets with their little baskets." The market was absolutely packed with people. Most of the vendors probably originated from Vietnam because they were speaking in Vietnamese. Although the place was pretty packed, I didnt mind because I do like crowds. I like busy streets and just watching people in general. The best part about the market is that, they were pretty liberal with their free fruit tasting. Ives and I probably tasted about 10 different sort of fruits today. And to top it off, most of the stuff sold there is relatively cheap compared to other markets or the supermarkets. I might make it a weekly routine to head to Footscray for breakfast and marketing from now on. Ten ticks for Footscray!

Vibram FiveFinger Shoes

2009-05-08T08:10:00.002+10:00

The future of our running shoes?

The typical human foot is an anatomical marvel of evolution with 26 bones, 33 muscles and hundreds of sensory receptors, tendons and ligaments. Like the rest of the body, to keep our feet healthy, they need to be stimulated and exercised.

That’s why we recommend wearing FiveFingers for exercise, play, and for fun. Stimulating the muscles in your feet and lower legs will not only make you stronger and healthier, it improves your balance, agility and proprioception.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

The shoes certainly looks strange to me. Could this just be another fad like the crocs? But apparently, the best shoes for us is our own bare feet. Certainly looks interesting! I'm not sure about buying them now, maybe when they start getting a little more popular. They are not the most aesthetically appealing pair of shoes. I can imagine stares darting at my feet. They remind me of webbed feet!

Yawn. Going for a run now.

Conversation with brother

2009-04-28T15:37:00.004+10:00

Conversations with the brother can be pretty fruitless sometimes.

He was telling me about certain acts he has done over the weekend.

I was appalled and told him, "Don't lie! You're joking right?"

He replied, "Why not? Why are you so surprised?"

I said, "Because...it's...wrong! How would you feel if I did what you did?"

He said, "Well, its not good."

I retorted, "See! Exactly my point!"

He replied, "Well, its different. You're the girl."

No rebuttal from my end. What do I say to that?

In another conversation, I told my brother to stop acting so barbaric and caveman-like. To emphasize my disgust I said, "Most girls will not like it if you burp so loudly in front of others."

He said, "I don't do it in front of girls."

I said rhetorically, "I am a girl!"

He said definitively, "You are different."

No point arguing sometimes.

Still in pain

2009-04-23T19:26:00.002+10:00

It's Day 3 and I'm definitely not feeling any better. Urgh.

My appetite has been greatly suppressed too. It's like my nerves are all screwed up. I can't seem to feel full or hungry. I take my next meal based on a conscious recall of what I ate in my previous meal. It's so strange. For example, I ate two eggs for breakfast. So, logically, that should keep me content but not full. As such, I ate a normal portion for lunch.

I feel inhuman.

Mum and I

2009-04-23T12:21:00.003+10:00

Today our mini task at hand reaffirmed the fact that mum and I has strikingly different personalities. Mum was trying to find an appropriate plastic bag to place the spare mattress in. The spare mattress was limp on the floor, ill fitted in a plastic bag that was way too big for the mattress.

Mum approached me and asked whether I had smaller plastic bags to fit the mattress in. I looked across the room and my first thoughts were, “Why must the mattress be protected? Can’t we just dump it in the cupboard?” Knowing mum who is pretty meticulous, the answer would be a clear no. First point of difference.

“No, I don’t think we have such big plastic bags,” I replied.

Mum then takes an old bed sheet from the linen cupboard.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Since no bags can fit, I’ll wrap it up in old bed sheets.”

“But it’s so troublesome!” I protested. Second point of contradiction. I hate unnecessary hard labour. Imagine having to wash the old bed sheets.

I looked at the mattress and said to her, “Why can’t we just cut up the plastic bag?”

Mum retorted, “No. We might need such a huge plastic bag in the future.”

“I’ll figure out a solution when the necessity calls in the future. Anyway, how often do we need such big plastic bags,” I said. Mum likes to keep spare stuff around for “just-in-case” situations. I, on the hand, hates clutter. Sometimes, mum would buy a bag, shoes or clothes and keep it for months, till the right occasion arises. On the contrary, sometimes, I take my shoes off in the middle of the shopping centre and swap it for the ones I just bought. What’s the point of buying things if you are not going to use them? Instant gratification is so satisfying sometimes.

With much hesitation, mum agreed with my suggestion as that seemed like the most viable option.

So I took out my scissors and set out to cut up the plastic bag.

“Make sure you cut a straight line across,” mum said as she observed me.

“I’m certain it’s not going to be a straight line but it doesn’t matter anyway.” Fourth point of contradiction. Mum is a bit of a perfectionist which is great in many ways because you can almost be certain that if she does something, it will be a job well done. I on the hand, sometimes just want the job to be done. Who is going to notice whether it is a straight line or not. It’s just a plastic bag anyway.

With such clashing personalities, life has not always been peaceful. But as my wise (only sometimes) younger brother, the man of little words said, “Sometimes we need to compromise because at the end of the day, it is family that is of utmost importance.” I’m still learning that.

Short Updates

2009-04-21T23:00:00.009+10:00

Stomach bug

I've been in bed all day. I think I have contracted some sort of stomach virus, as diagnosed by yours truly. I've been running a fever and my stomach has been churning and cramping up. It's a horrible feeling. The last time I've had the unfortunate luck to be acquainted with similar viruses was during my trip to India.

The unhygienic level in India is absolutely off the scale. Pavements trampled by millions served as plates to kids eating samosas. I saw waiters in supposedly high-class restaurants using their hands to reposition food on huge white plates as they carried out food from the kitchen to the tables (I'm sure that happens here as well. I maintain that ignorance is bliss). No one was spared from all filth. The stomach bug I contracted in India five years ago led to the irritable bowel syndrome I now have. My stomach has never been the same since the trip. Nonetheless, I still love India and would definitely return to that place. They say that India is a place you'll either hate or love. Nothing in between because nothing there is mediocre. I chose to love it.

Thousand steps
Last Saturday saw me climbing up a thousand steps. It was my second time doing it. It's a popular route at Mt Dandenong which is near Melbourne. I'll be heading there again this weekend!

Seafood feast at Queenscliff
A couple of us spent the Easter weekend being charitable. So we would like to think =) More like, being gluttons. We were are a festival at Queenscliff where volunteers cooked up a huge seafood feast for tens of thousands of people. The proceeds went to the Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital.

The food was mediocre at best. I guess, we couldn't expect much from mass cooking. We had to wait in line for about half hour to one hour to buy our food. Trust me, that was not fun at all. That being said, the company and good weather made it a pretty relaxing and enjoyable day.

A volunteer serving food

The masses

Queenscliff is such a pretty quaint town. Many of its houses were refurbished and converted into commercial buildings/retail outlets/hotels. However, most of the facades were beautifully maintained.

A quaint secondhand bookstore! I think it used to be a church

I bought the Three Musketeers with a classic hard leather cover for $7.

A pretty garden we walked past

Jason Mraz concert
Last night, I was at Jason Mraz's concert. For the past two months, I've been so hyped up about the concert. He is definitely one of my favourite songs - not just because I like his songs but how he as a person, has impacted the world. I love how he is such a huge advocate for the environment, world peace and even, personal health. You should hop over to his blog to check out his writings. He keeps it so real in his blog.

His performance last night was exactly what I expected. He is such a natural performer. He didnt look like he had to try very hard. His songs are beautiful and he sounds exactly like how he does in his albums.

I liked how he interacted heaps with the crowd. He told us last night, "Don't tell anyone but Melbourne is my favourite city". Does he say that in every city he performs? I know he constantly says that Korea is his favourite country. Did he contradict himself there? Can he have Melbourne as his favourite city and Korea as his favourite country? Are both not the same thing? Mraz, are you betraying our feelings???

He performed the song 'Lucky' last night. The part by Colbie Caillat was performed by this local artist, Lisa Mitchell. Who is she??? I goggled her after I got back. She was a contender on Australian Idol. Her singing was absolutely atrocious - it was completely the wrong key and tune at various parts of the song. Her rhythm was wrong. She had zero stage presence. She looked like a mesmerized fan gawking at Mraz when they were dueting. I heard one lady behind me say, "She's a piece of sh*t" when the song ended. That basically summarized everybody's reaction.

The photo is a little blurry because the lens was really dirty. I didn't realise till I uploaded the photo =(

Before the concert

If you're interested, here's the duet 'Lucky' by Jason Mraz and Lisa Mitchell

Passionfruit

2009-04-17T13:28:00.002+10:00

My current favourite fruit. Yummy! Looks pretty too.

10 Day detox plan

2009-04-14T14:40:00.006+10:00

As of yesterday, I've decided to go on a detox plan for 10 days! For the longest time, I've always had digestive problems - commonly known as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). IBS is a blanket term for a variety of diseases causing discomfort in the gastro-intestinal tract. In short, it's uncertain what's the exact causes for such gastro discomforts and there's no known cure for it. However, having a good lifestyle will definitely reduce the symptoms. So, I'm doing this detox plan for two reasons - to improve my digestive system and to decrease my fat percentage.

I've decided to go on a more relax plan - basically, a plan I can sort of sustain in the long-run. I rather do this than allow my body to go into starvation mode and in turn, reduce my metabolic rate. I currently take in about 1500 calories to 2000 calories per day (approximate count). I don't want to take in a lesser amount than that.

I foresee that my biggest challenge would be abstaining from pasta and white rice. I live to eat pasta! Sometimes I eat pasta for breakfast, lunch, dinner a few days in a row.

Below will be the food I'm allowed to consume:
Fresh fruits
Fresh vegetables
Egg whites
Feta cheese
White fish (no salmon or tuna)
Beans (Lots of beans! Main source of sustenance and protein)
Avocado
Seeds (I just bought a huge packet of sesame seeds)
Raw honey (Preferably manuka honey but its too expensive)
Sweet potato and pumpkin (for sustenance. No normal potatoes because its too starchy)
Soy milk
Muesli

On top of that, I'm following a herbal detox program from A. Vogel.

This is my diet so far. On impulse, I started this detox plan on Monday afternoon.

Monday – Day 1

Greek salad and roast vegetables for afternoon tea.

Dinner – muesli with milk [Yet to purchase soy milk] and mixed veges with beancurd.

Custard apple

Tuesday – Day 2
Muesli with milk [yet to purchase soy milk]

Banana

Roast vegetables + greek salad

Chick peas salad + kidney beans salad

[Body acting up a little. Probably not used to the sudden increase in fibre intake]

Pomegranate

Corn + pumpkin soup

Fish

Parsley + onions + tomato salad

Pear

Passion fruit

Eggs

Muesli with soy milk

Thursday – Day 4
[Digestive system has improved. Don’t feel as bloated and there’s less water retention]

Muesli with soy milk

Fish

Pear

Baby cos lettuce

[Feeling full but dissatisfied because I have not been eating rice/pasta nor drinking coffee]

Noodles [argh! I succumbed to temptation! =( I couldn’t resist. Mum was cooking it]

Fish

Smoothie

Friday – Day 5
[Is it only day 5? I’m not even half-way then. OMG.]

Passionfruit x2

Tofu

Lettuce

[To be continued]

Hopefully, my digestive system would improve after the 10 days (it better!). Then, I would re-introduce brown rice and occasional unhealthy eating (on weekends) to my system.

Wish me luck!

Von Haus, Melbourne

2009-04-06T15:18:00.008+10:00

On Saturday night, J and I took the opportunity to dine at Von Haus. The first time I was there was two weeks ago for Krystin's birthday. As I didn't try any of the dishes the first time round, I've decided to venture there again.

I must say that the second visit proved to be an equally delightful experience.

I had cacciatore sausauge, chickpea and olive stew with sourdough bread on the side. Price: $16. The cacciatora sausage was relatively strong in flavour. This was balanced out by the mild gravy and chickpeas. The gravy had a tinge of herb-y taste. The tomatoes added a little bit of sweetness to the dish. Overall, it was a pretty light and healthy dish. It's not one for a meat lover but it was perfect for someone like me who preferred simple yet delicious meals.

J had the beef mushroom & casserole with potato salad and sourdough bread on the side. Price: $16. The gravy was relatively rich in flavour, infused in bay leaves and other herbs. The gravy was of the right consistency. However, the beef could be just a tad more tender. Overall, I think the dish was pretty good.

Although the dishes ain't nothing fancy, I give two thumbs up for this place. The dishes looked like something that were whipped up in someone's grandmother's kitchen. This is no surprise, as the restaurant brands itself as "rustic", evident with its red and white enamel plates. With so many commercial restaurants popping up serving artery-clogging dishes, sometimes I prefer simpler meals. J said it right, "taste like a home-cooked meal".

O, apparently they serve different dishes everyday at the chef's fancy. Looks like I'll never be bored of this place with it's ever changing menu.

There are three tables in the courtyard. The picture is blurry because I took a quick, shaky snapshot of it. I was too embarrassed taking so many pictures of the tiny restaurant. I felt like an Asian tourist.

Satisfied customer

Von Haus
1a Crossley Street, Melbourne
(off Bourke St, between Exhibition St and Spring St)
Phone: (03) 9662 2756
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-11pm, Sat 5pm-11pm

Little bro

2009-03-30T21:58:00.005+11:00

Little bro turns 21 in June but sometimes we still treat him like he is 12. This is evident in our family conversations. He mentioned over dinner that he was planning a camping trip at the Wilson Promontory. Here's our advices that we kindly dished out to him:

Dad: Do not pitch your tent next to the sea
Mum: Do not touch bugs
Me: Do not start your journey at night. You should pitch your tent when there's daylight
Mum: Do not dive (head first) into the river

Little bro wasn't happy. He retorted that he will make sure that waves crash into his tent, he will pick up every caterpillar he finds, dive into a river that's saturated with fishing hooks hanging from fishing lines and start his journey at 8.30 pm.

Photoshopped Doggie

2009-03-30T16:10:00.006+11:00

Jells Park on Saturday

2009-03-30T12:02:00.001+11:00

Eliminate puffy eyes

2009-03-29T01:05:00.001+11:00

This video is definitely for my puffy eyes!

Riverland Bar and Cafe

2009-03-25T23:08:00.004+11:00

I spent two hours of my night tonight at this place. It's one of my favourite places to drink beer or coffee (more often beer rather than coffee). Tonight was the perfect night for it. The air was still, the temperature was slightly chilly but not cold enough to warrant a jacket and surprisingly, there was a vibrancy in the air, even though it was a Wednesday. Perhaps the good temperature drew the crowds out.

This bar-cum-cafe is located near Federation Square, adjacent to the yarra river (hence the name, Riverland) The decoration provides a very laid-back atmosphere. The outside is filled with rows of picnic-style wooden tables and benches. Its simple interior/exterior suit the atmosphere perfectly. It's a great place to just chill. It's not flashy at all and it's not a place that you feel a need to dress up for.

I like this picture because it seemed like the waiter was posing for us. Unfortunately, he is not in focus.

Riverland Bar and Cafe
Location: Federation Wharf (near Federation Square)
Opening times: Monday-Sunday, 7 am till late
Price Range: Main meals under $20
When: Monday - Sunday, 7am til late
Phone: +61 3 9662 1771

Joke book

2009-03-25T19:42:00.004+11:00

A long, long time ago, someone bought me a joke book for my birthday. He bought it because he said I didn't make good jokes and should memorize some, you know, to make more friends at a party or something.

Anyway, I rediscovered the joke book that was buried under all my other books on the bookshelf. Here are a few jokes:

How do you fix a woman's watch?
You don't. There's a clock on the oven.

How many men does it take to open a beer?
None. It should already be opened when she brings it.

If your dog is barking at the back door and your wife is yelling at the front door, who do you let in first?
The dog, of course. He'll shut up once you let him in.

haha. I'm painfully aware that I'm female and this is degrading to my own sex. So here's some for the benefit of us women:

How many men does it take to change a roll of toilet paper?
Nobody knows, it has never happened.

The man said, "I don't know why you wear a bra; you've got nothing to put in it."
The woman said, "You wear pants don't you?"

While a woman was making breakfast one morning, her husband walked up to her and pinched her bottom and said, "You know, if you firmed this up we could get rid of your girdle."
Despite being annoyed, the woman bit her tongue and kept silent. THe next morning, the man woke his wife up by pinching her on the breast and said, "You know, if you firmed these up, we could get rid of your bra."
This time, should could not stay silent. Rolling over, she grabbed her husband's penis and said, "You know, if you firmed this up we could get rid of the postman, the gardener, the pool cleaner and your brother!"

Krystin's birthday brunch

2009-03-22T13:58:00.008+11:00

Saturday morning saw me at Krystin's birthday brunch. It was held at Von Haus, a quaint small cafe-cum-bar in Melbourne. Believe me when I say it was small. It was probably the size of my room. It had just one big communal table in the middle and a couple of wall benches complete with high wooden stools in the corners of the room. But that's exactly what I liked about this cafe. When I walked in, I thought, "This is just so MELBOURNE!" Melbourne is about its little cafes with GOOD coffees hidden in alleyways. Discovering a new hidden gem always sends a thrill of excitement up my spine. This is no exception.

Now, the thing about these hideaway cafes is that you always THINK you're the only one that knows about these hidden treasures. You keep them low-key and perhaps, whisper their names to a couple of intimate friends that you should share the good news with. Lo and behold, you soon realise that those cafes are not such a secret! Then you curse the food blogs and the papers that made you discover those cafes in the first place.

Honestly, I didn't manage to sample much of the food. I think I was too excited upon seeing people I have not met up with in a long, long time. Namely, law school friends. I had a mocha. It was pretty decent. I had some fruits off the fruit platter that Krystin ordered. I tried pomegranate for the first time. YES, first time! It was so yummy. Fruits aside, I didn't eat anything much else. I vouch to go back there again, and will give you guys a decent review.

Picture time

That's the large communal table

Lovely Krystin who looks so happy!

Tony was there as well

Krystin prepared party packs for all of us! In it were chocolates and a note written specifically for each one of us. I was so impressed. It almost felt like it was MY birthday. She's so thoughtful and generous! For most people, birthdays are about receiving. But Krystin was so selfless. She requested for no presents. Instead, if we wanted, we could partner with her and donate some money to specific charity funds that she has chosen.

Krystin, you are really inspirational. You have such a big heart, a laugh and smile that is contagious and you have so much love to give. Oh, and I always love reading your blog. Though sometimes, your fabulous writing puts me to shame. Thanks for everything. I thoroughly enjoyed our friendship. I still remember the day we spent together studying Administrative law. I was such a wreak that day. Without your help, I might not have even passed that subject (omg, another semester of law school. Kill me God) Looking back, it seems even sadistically funny. Remember how we kept complaining to each other about how we hate law school and how we are definitely going to fail this subject. And then we would both tell each other that no, we are not going to fail. We can and will pull through. Following which, we continued studying for another one hour before the vicious cycle repeats itself. That 15 hours with no breaks in between, not even for lunch or dinner, save two rushed toilet breaks, was probably one of the craziest days but I'm glad I went through that with you. haha. Happy birthday sweetie!

Von Haus
1a Crossley Street, Melbourne
(off Bourke St, between Exhibition St and Spring St)
Phone: (03) 9662 2756
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-11pm, Sat 5pm-11pm

Women drivers - YouTube clip

2009-03-22T11:12:00.001+11:00

It's hilarious!

Letter to my future myself

2009-03-21T04:27:00.002+11:00

Dear Jo (in the future),

Here's a letter from your younger self. I'm writing this on the 21st of March 2009. I'm feeling slightly tipsy right now - which is a pretty good feeling because I feel free from any inhibitions. I think I'm pretty fun when I'm tipsy because I talk more, laugh more and I'm definitely very honest. Ask me any question and I'll tell you no lies! Hopefully, you are like this too. Are you?

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this is to serve as a reminder. A reminder for what, you ask? A reminder that in your life, you've been pretty blessed. Remember the time, you prayed to God with all your heart that He will surround you with true, inspiring and genuine friends. Guess what, He did. He couldn't have done better because right now, I have pretty amazing friends in my life.

I've gone through many rough patches. I've done things I wished I didn't do. Things have happened that I wished didn't happen. But I know with all my heart that God from above is watching over me. I've met all these amazing people. Sometimes, I forget who they really are. Sometimes, we rub shoulders a little too often and I get irritated. But when I stand back, I realise that these people are so amazing. I've so much to learn from many of these individuals. They inspire me in so many ways. Through some, I've learnt the meaning of unconditional love. Through some, I've learnt how to forgive. I've learnt how to be more patient. I've learnt what it means to sacrifice. I've learnt what it means to think outside the box. I've learnt how to be less judgemental. In short, I've met so many amazing people.

Sometimes, I feel alone. Sometimes, I think no one cares or no one understands. How irrational can I get sometimes. So dear you, every time you feel this way, please refer to this letter that I'm writing to you now. Chances are, you'll feel this way sometimes. Hopefully, not very often. But when you do, know that God have answered your prayers once upon a time and He has placed wonderful people in your life. Sometimes, you have to look beyond the superficial differences and focus on their positive points. When I was 14, someone who was dear to me told me something important. He said, "Do not disregard anyone because there's always something to learn from someone.' I still battle with that but I'm trying. I realised that it's easier for me to be cynical now than when I was younger. So I figure that, it will probably be even easier for you to be cynical as you are older than I am. I'm hoping that didn't happen, did it? Well, remember to take care of your heart. Keep it soft. Remember, how blessed you are and life will seem a little easier.

Kind regards,

Joanne (21 March 2009)

Boulevard Re-Opening Night

2009-03-21T02:50:00.004+11:00

I just got back from Boulevard. Tonight was its grand re-opening. As with all clubs in Melbourne, the queue was crazy! It almost seems like getting into a club is a novelty. We took 45 minutes to get in which is considerably short by Melbourne standards. Initially I thought they weren't allowing people inside because it was too packed (fire regulation reasons). However, I peeped inside and spoke to the bouncers. Apparently, the long line was due to the hold up at the payment counter. This proves one of two things: 1) They have a terribly inefficient payment system OR 2) The long queue was intentional to hype up the club. Seriously, there were many more people outside than inside.

They had only three people handling the payments. Seriously, so inefficient! I saw many people leave the queue to head to other clubs. What a lost of revenue. I would have thought they should have worked out these nitty gritty stuff when the club was closed for months.

Oh, interesting stuff! Apparently, a guy tried to jump over this high glass just to cut the queue and enter the club. And, there was a fight between this guy and management. I think he was frustrated with the long wait. The police escorted him away.

That being said, I was pretty glad we didn't give up and persisted! The music was awesome! I loved the sound system. The dj spinning was excellent. I loved his music. When I first saw him, I thought he was Malaysian which got me pretty excited. I walked up to him and asked him where he is from. He said he was mixed Spanish and Filipino. Oo, mixed blood, nice! We chatted for quite a bit. At one point, he passed me the microphone. I daren't say anything into the mic. God knows, the crowd might have magically disappeared after that. He also djs at a club near my place on Saturday nights. I might head there more often now.

These are a couple of my observations tonight:
Straight girls like to make out. Either 1) they might be bisexual (if that's the case, it's okay. Their choice. I don't judge) or 2) because there are guys watching them make out and they like that idea. The kissing sessions are always accompanied by a photography session. Following which, the photos will probably be displayed on Facebook.

Girls can get terribly clumsy when influenced by alcohol. This girl with high heels stepped on my toes. Omg, I was in pain was such a long time.

You are able to make friends in a long queue. I think I made about 6 new friends in the queue.

I've encountered more sweaty girls tonight than guys.

A good sound system makes such a HUGE difference.

Goodnight world, so tired. It's 3 am.

Amelia, 2001 French film

2009-03-20T14:51:00.003+11:00

Couldn't really sleep again last night. Sigh. Ended up watching Amelia, the French film. Its pretty good. Very arthouse. I think I need it watch it again to fully appreciate the film.

I loved the cinematography. I don't quite know the technical terms for the style. But throughout the entire movie, I kept thinking that many of the scenes would provide beautiful lomography still shots.

I was slightly disturbed by the movie. I can't quite put a finger to why I felt this way. I ended up having absurd abstract dreams about the movie. My dream was like an arthouse film of the arthouse film. So queer. I think it's because I can't quite figure out the one underlying running theme in the film - the one that makes you go, ah, that's why this film was made.

In a nutshell, the movie was about a young girl, Amelia, who spends most of her life camouflaged in the background. She had an emotionally detached dad and a pretty eccentric mother who died because someone landed on her in the process of committing suicide. Two deaths in one day. She spends most of her life basically watching life goes by. She is pretty much an observer who prefers indulging in the simple stuff in life. To cut the story short, one day, she finds this tin box filled with a boy's childhood items. She then made it her mission to return this tin box to him. She thought to herself, if she gets a positive reaction upon handing the tin box to the man, she will make it her mission in life to continue doing good for others. A little like Mother Teressa, I suppose. So, she goes on trying to add a little happiness to everybody's lives. Soon, she meets this queer boy who likes collecting discarded photographs of strangers from passport photo booths. And she falls in love with him. Perhaps because in a way, he was like her, different and detached from the rest of the world. It took her a long time to overcome her shyness and reveal her love for him, but she finally does and they get together.

It's a little hard to relate to Amelia because she's pretty much 'larger than life'. It's an arthouse film after all. But, you cant help but like her innocence and purity.

In short, it's a good film. Go watch it if you haven't.

Update on learning Chinese

2009-03-20T02:10:00.003+11:00

I've been learning Chinese for over seven weeks now. I'm happy to say that I've improved heaps since I've first started. More than anything, the weekly classes serve as a motivational tool and guilt-tripping tool - "CRAP, I'M SO FAR BEHIND!" I'm not as discipline as I should be when it comes to practicing Chinese. The thing about languages is that you need to be very consistent with practicing the language. I have a couple of friends that I try to speak Chinese to. I speak to them on one condition - that they will attempt to the best of their abilities, to not laugh at my horrendous Chinese.

Aside from that, I've been trying to write weekly letters in Chinese to WC. The content of the letters are usually something simple - such as, "How are you? Today I played tennis..." But, I'm getting there! My last letter was two pages long. That's a real achievement for me. Of course, I couldnt do it without the help of the dictionary.

In addition, I've been trying to write Chinese e-mails. I wrote a couple of e-mails to Ann. haha. The Mac comes with an inbuilt chinese dictionary. Another reason to buy a Mac!

Any volunteer recipients for my Chinese letters/emails? I'll allow you to laugh at my Chinese in secret.

My room

2009-03-18T22:48:00.008+11:00

Below are pictures of my room as promised!

#1 I dismantled my study desk recently and kept it away. As a result, my room looks more spacious. How lovely. My brother walked in and he said, "Look at this space! I feel I can do anything in this space!" An extra space of 1.5 x 1.5 meters can add so much excitement in one's life.

The painting hanging on the right wall is the one I recently painted (see previous post)

#2 The place where I'm standing connects to the bathroom

#3 I like my duvet cover. I bought it on a trip to India. It's handmade using a very light, airy cotton. Perfect for summer. Except that its always freezing cold in Melbourne. The best about this duvet cover is the price. I love purchasing stuff from developing countries.

#4 I feel so proud of my ingenious brain for placing this study lamp on my bed headboard. It's perfect for night reading. The arm can extend out quite a fair bit. Before this brilliant idea strucked me, I was reading my novels in dim light (don't tell mom). And I wonder why my eyesight is deteriorating!

#5 The only soft toy I want in my room. Otherwise, it might unfortunately end up in the charity bin. It's from my brother for my about 7 years ago. A once asked me what's its name. I said, Geoffrey! He said, why Geoffrey. I replied, I don't know why but it looks like one. For a long time, I was quite mystified why I automatically associated it with such an old traditional English name. And suddenly, one day it clicked! Think Toys R US!

#6 Here are my other soft toys that I do not really want. Its taking up unnecessary space. The smaller photo frame was given by R. In it are pictures of my high school prom night! Seemed like donkey years ago. I remember all the girls looking so pretty and dolled up. The guys on the other hand, looked nervous trying to make sure they did the right stuff, like pulling out chairs for their dates, trying not to step on the girls feet as they dance. haha, tough stuff.

#7 A picture of C and I. I love the photo frame.

#8 A wooden pig and a wooden horse. There's a story behind this. One day, T was visiting Melbourne. I was working on a painting while he was watching. To keep him entertained, I placed a sketchbook in front of him and asked him to doodle. After 10 minutes of working furiously on some drawing, he asked me to guess the animal he drew. Very confidently, I said, "PIG!" He furrowed his eyebrows for a few seconds before he said, "No its not! It's a horse! Can't you see the difference?" The next day, he bought these two wooden toys for me from the art gallery he visited. You know, just so I could tell both the animals apart.

#9 I love train station clocks. Firstly, I'm able to tell the time first in the morning in my half-blind state (literally). Secondly, I think it just adds character to a room. It will be even more perfect if its in a study room (if I had one).

#10 My tall boy. I love photo frames with black and white photos in them.

#11 My many perfumes. Two are given by brother. One by my mum. And the rest by people not related to me - they better not be or you know, it will be incestuous. Looks like I don't need to buy anymore perfumes for the next few years!

#12 I call this - spaceship speakers. It looks like a spaceship, no? J gave this to me. I love it. The tip changes colour according to the music you are playing.

#13 See now its green! I love the lamp behind the spaceship. It's a little Japanese lamp given to me as a present by A.

#14 I hate the sight of wires crawling all over the floor. It's so disconcerting. So, I've decided to dump the entire multi plug outlet into my last drawer. Just shut the drawer and problem solved! On the same note, I've sneakily used a bed valance to hide my printer and my other multi plug outlet under my bed. Its so convenient that way. Everytime I need to print something, I just take the wire from under my bed, plug it into my laptop and start printing.

#15 Many helicopters were circling the city today. I wonder why. Is it to do with the earthquake that shook Melbourne today? What's happening to Australia? Two earthquakes in two weeks. Boo! First the bushfires and now this!

Okay, that's all. Documenting this was fun. I might be living in a new place in a couple of years/months time or I might decide to go berserk and redesign my entire room. You never know! Sometimes, it seems like my goal in life is to watch my parents recoil in horror as I mention heart-attack worthy ideas - like painting my bed white, the desk to some other shade of brown, painting a feature wall of some weird colour and I once thought that it was good idea to paint pictures on the wall - like it was some huge piece of canvas.

Painting in bedroom

2009-03-18T00:16:00.003+11:00

I painted this today to hang in my bedroom. I will take a picture of my room soon to show you all how it fits with the rest of the deco.

My mum and brother were out tonight. My dad and I were the only ones at home, left alone to our own devices. I was engrossed with my painting and my dad was sitting across the table reading the news. Once in a while, I would ask him for his opinion on my progress. Dad is a funny one. After an intent study of my painting, like one would observe a painting at the Louvre, he said, "Hm...it looks very nice but I don't quite understand. What's the meaning behind your painting?"

"Em...there's no meaning. It just looks pretty."

"I also don't understand why do you leave a white patch on one side. Why can't you paint the entire thing brown?"

"But that's how the painting is suppose to be!"

"Oh I see. The brown line is not very straight. What's all these jagged things?"

"That's the design!!!"

"Oh..."

I was trying very hard to ignore his last comment but against my own will, I took it in! I've decided that the brown line wasn't very straight. And so, I kept working on it. But it kept getting worse and worse. And I can't paint when I'm frustrated. But I couldn't stop painting as well because I couldn't stand the sight of the ugliness. So for the next half hour, I was trying to paint a straight brown line in between blaming myself for my lack of skills and poor dad, for throwing in his two cents worth.

Finally, I told myself to just stop! I reckon the hardest part is stopping because you'll always think that the painting can be further improved.

So there you go, that's the story of the painting with the not-so-straight brown line.

Canon G10

2009-03-10T23:57:00.004+11:00

I've just purchased a Canon G10. It will be excellent for travelling. It's not too heavy yet it takes pretty decent shots. I'm ecstatic right now!

Here's a picture of Melbourne's breathtaking view from my apartment.

No editing has been done to it. I rested it on the balcony railing.

World Bank says collapse has arrived

2009-03-10T10:54:00.003+11:00

Peter Martin
March 10, 2009

THE World Bank has broken a taboo, becoming the first official organisation to predict the global economy will shrink during 2009, to collapse for the first time in more than 60 years.

A previous forecast from the International Monetary Fund predicted global growth of just 0.5 per cent this year, something it described as a recession but "still positive".

The new World Bank assessment, prepared for next week's meeting of finance ministers and treasurers from the world's 20 largest economies, was not specific about the extent of the collapse other than to say that global economic activity would shrink "for the first time since World War II, with growth at least 5 percentage points below potential".

Global industrial production would be down 15 per cent by the middle of this year, with world trade on track to record its largest decline in 80 years.

Of special significance to Australia, the bank said the sharpest falls in trade would occur in East Asia, including Japan and Korea, which between them buy a third of Australia's exports.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the findings as "very disturbing" but refused to be drawn on whether the Government would need to update its forecast that Australia's unemployment rate would peak at 7 per cent.

Official figures to be released on Thursday are likely to show Australia's unemployment rate hitting 5 per cent for the first time since 2006.

An extra 650,000 jobs were lost in the US in February, taking the US unemployment rate past 8 per cent for the first time in 25 years.

This morning's Dun & Bradstreet business expectations survey will indicate that 1 in 4 Australian businesses plans to cut staff, with employment expectations the worst in the survey's history.

Treasurer Wayne Swan, who will attend the London G20 meeting, said the World Bank report underscored the need for a strong economic stimulus program.

An IMF report released on the weekend pressed nations such as Australia to implement additional stimulus measures, saying "given the anticipated weakness in the global economy over the next two years, consideration should be given to providing fiscal stimulus that goes beyond the measures already announced."

"Given the likelihood that the economic weakness will continue into 2010, there should be less concern that the expenditures will only be put into place once the economy has begun to recover," the report said.

IMF staff found the most effective stimulus programs were those involving government investment, while the least effective involved income tax cuts.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull continued to propose tax cuts on Monday, saying that bringing forward the tax cuts already legislated for July this year and July next would be "like a rising tide, lifting all boats". He also proposed rebating a portion of the superannuation guarantee contribution to small businesses.

The World Bank report warns disruptions caused by the economic crisis are all but certain to overwhelm the ability of institutions like it and the IMF to protect the economies most at risk.

Bank president Robert Zoellick pleaded for wealthy governments to create a "vulnerability fund" and to set aside a fraction of what they spend on stimulating their own economies to help others.

"This global crisis needs a global solution and preventing an economic catastrophe in developing countries is important for global efforts to overcome this crisis," he said.

"We need investments in safety nets, infrastructure, and small and medium-size companies to create jobs and to avoid social and political unrest."

Different day, same news. But worse. Sometimes, I just want to skip through all the bad reports in the papers but I would have reached the end by then. I don't like reading the sports section.

The little girl who silenced the world for 6 minutes

2009-03-09T21:08:00.004+11:00

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1992)

Voluntary address to the United Nations by Ms Severn Suzuki, a 13-year old child from Canada

Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki and I'm speaking ECO, the Environmental Children's Organisation. We're a group of 12 and 13 year olds trying to make a difference – Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money to come here ourselves, to come five thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways.

Coming up here today I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future. Losing my future is not like losing an election, or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. I'm here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go.

I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in our ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals are in it. I used to go fishing in Vancouver, my home, with my dad until just a few years ago we found a fish full of cancers. And now we hear of animals and plants going extinct every day, vanishing forever.

In my life, I have dreamt of seeing great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see. Did you have to worry of these things when you were my age? All these are happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions.

I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions but I want you to realise – neither do you. You don't know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer. You don't know how to bring the salmon back up a dead stream. You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct. And you can't bring back the forests that once grew where it's now a desert. If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it.

Here you may be delegates of your governments, businesspeople, organisers, reporters or politicians but really, you're mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, and all of you are someone's child. I'm only a child yet I know we are all part of a family five billion strong. In fact 30 million species strong and borders and governments will never change that.

I'm only a child and yet I know we're all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal. In my anger, I am not mine and in my fear, I am not afraid of telling the world how I feel. In my country, we make so much waste. We buy and throw away, buy and throw away, buy and throw away and yet northern countries will not share with the needy even when we have more than enough. We're afraid to share. We're afraid to let go some of our wealth.

In Canada, we live the privileged life with plenty of food, water and shelter. We have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets. The list could go on for two days. Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent time with some children living on the streets.

This is what one child told us:

"I wish I was rich. And if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicines, shelter and love and affection."

If a child on the street who has nothing is willing to share, why are we who have everything still so greedy? I can't stop thinking that these are children my own age that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the 'favelas' of Rio. I could be a child starving in Somalia. Or a victim of war in the Middle East. Or a beggar in India.

I'm only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on finding environmental answers and in poverty and finding treaties, what a wonderful place this earth would be. At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us how to behave in the world. You teach us to not fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?

Do not forget why you are attending these conferences, who you are doing this for. We are your own children. You are deciding what kind of a world we're growing up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying, "Everything's going to be alright. It's not the end of the world" and "we're doing the best we can" but I don't think you can say that to us anymore.

Are we even on your list of priorities? My dad always says, "You are what you do not what you say." Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown-ups say you love us but I challenge you, make your actions reflect your words.

Thank you.

Sometimes we need to view the world from the eyes of a child

And from the eyes of Forrest Gump:
So, I never went back to work for Lieutenant Dan. Though he did take care of my Bubba-Gump money. He got me invested in some kind of fruit company. And so then I got a call from him saying we don't have to worry about money no more and I said, "That's good. One less thing". Now, Momma said there's only so much fortune a man really needs and the rest is just for showing off. So, I gave a whole bunch of it to the Four Square Gospel Church and I gave a whole bunch to the Bayou La Batre Fishing Hospital. And even though Bubba was dead, and Lieutenant Dan said I was nuts, I gave Bubba's momma Bubba's share. And you know what? She didn't have to work in nobody's kitchen no more.

Twitter for beginners

2009-03-09T17:42:00.002+11:00

I finally jumped on the bandwagon and decided to sign up for twitter. I've been hearing over and over again that twitter is extremely useful, is the next big thing and it feeds almost live news. But where do I begin? How do I even find interesting people to follow or even people for that matter? Is it like facebook? Do we type in email addresses or names? So many questions and no answers, till I found this!

From twitip.com by Darren Rowse

1. Set up your profile

The first thing you need to do is to set up that profile. See that bar on top of your twitter page? Click Settings and start filling up your profile. The notable areas in here are URL, bio, picture and design. Put up a link to your site or blog in here along with a brief description. Upload a picture to differentiate yourself from the others and then tweak your Twitter design. Like any other social networking site, it is important to completely express what you are or what you stand for in your profile.

2. Follow people with similar interests

Now that you have a profile, start following people. You can find these people in Twitter directories. I use Twellow and JustTweetIt. These sites can introduce you to Twitter users that have the same interest as yours. Follow these people and observe their tweets. You may also try following who these people follow but read up their descriptions and visit their blogs to make sure you’re still on the right niche. Being on the right niche will make it easy for you to build a community with a similar interest.

3. Get into the conversation

So now that you are following people, you will now see some tweets on your board. Read up on what the people your following are up to and reply if it interests you. For example, a person narrates how he is going to conduct a meeting. You may then reply with ideas. When someone asks a question, don’t hesitate to answer if you know it. Don’t be afraid to interact.

4. Don’t spam

Spam is the cause of many unfollows on Twitter. There is a character limit for a reason. Do not send repeated messages to people. Do not constantly direct message (DM) them with links.

5. Update daily

Alright so you’re blending in the community. Now update daily if possible. I know some Twitter users who unfollow because of inactivity. Reply to people and update people with what’s going on with your life. Soon you’ll be recognized and you’ll get some follows.

6. Find the latest buzz and contribute

Now it’s your time to contribute. Find a topic that will interest your niche and tweet it. Since you have established relationships with your followers (through replies), you will get more attention. It’s a nice strategy to always append “please retweet” at the end of your tweet. There will be some people who will be so interested that they will retweet. There are others who will reply to you about the link you tweeted. But you are not a “nobody” anymore. You are not just talking to yourself. People are now responding to your tweets.

7. Help other people out

The famous saying “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you” holds here. Before you can receive retweets, you must help others first by retweeting their messages. Help the people in your niche. One day you’ll be surprised on how eager they are to help you back.

8. Create relationships

Now it’s time to create constant connections. Soon you will find that some users are more active than others. You will get to talk with the same group of people at the same time every night. But don’t get bored. Interact with these people and create relationships. Ask how they are doing and try to touch on their interests.

9. Integrate Twitter with other social networks
Have a blog? Then post to Twitter when you have a post that will interest your niche. Have a Facebook profile? Then ask people to add you. Twitter is really a vital part of web 2.0. It can serve as the core. It can let you build relationships that can branch out to other social networks.

10. Establish relationships even outside Twitter

Have a lot of friends on Twitter? Then take it to another level. Ask for their messenger and talk to these people on a more intimate level. Call them through Skype or even arrange a meet-up. Twitter can create real relationships.

Congratulations! You are now an official member of the Twitter community. You talk, act, think and breathe like us. Perhaps you find yourself spending every five minutes updating Twitter on what you are doing. But I guess I’ll save Twitter addiction for next time.

Moomba Waterfest

2009-03-08T21:57:00.004+11:00

The annual Melbourne Moomba festival was on this weekend. It runs for four days consecutively – Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (labour day). It just ended with a bang (literally). I stood with my face pressed against my window watching the fireworks shoot into the sky. I let out a smile of reminiscence and even grinned to myself. I always loved the Moomba festival. I’ve been for every single one the past seven years, save the last two years.

I can’t quite put a finger to it. There’s something about the Moomba festival that always keep me excited. It certainly isn’t the greasy, overpriced hotdogs, the games that make me want to throw up or the ugly prizes (example, pirated oversized Tom the cat in the wrong shade of colour) that I want to throw away before I arrive home.

Yet every year, I buy the greasy food, sit on a ride that I swear I’ll never go on again and play some overpriced game (while secretly hoping deep down inside I do not win a huge ass toy).

Maybe it’s the time of the year – it’s the first quarter of the year when the year is still filled with renewed hope. Maybe it’s the crowd. Secretly, I love crowds. Not too big but just a nice, sweet, cozy crowd. Preferably, with kids and balloons. Also, it’s the fact that it’s next to the river. Anything with water is always calming and makes people happy. Or maybe, its just the cheesy funfair. Maybe, deep down inside, I like going on crappy funfair rides, eating greasy overpriced food and then complaining about all of it after with an alternate frown and grin to boot.

In summary, I love the Moomba festival. Actually, I just like funfairs. The last one I been to was three months ago in Malaysia. Again, against my better judgment, we sat on a ride that spun round and round, and it just wouldn't stop! After what seemed like forever, I got down and said, "I think I'm going to puke." I puked, not once but three times.

Again, in summary, I still love funfairs.