I am more than one month late in blogging about my weekend getaway to Surfers Paradise in the Gold Coast. Thanks to Pawpaw, bliss is two and a half days of eating, sleeping, tanning, people-watching, lots of juices and caffeine fixes - completely stress-free.
At Watermark Hotel. 5 minutes walk from the beach.
Magazines and fish and chips are all you need for a people-watching session.
Beautiful weather, great coffee, bikini babes - what else could I have asked for?
Lots of sun, sand and the ocean.
I spent a couple of hours watching these Japanese girls take MTV-like videos and photos from one end of the beach to the other.
Not forgetting to plug my iPod in.
Brunch at an interesting all-you-can-eat pancakes place with a hot air balloon theme.
Best meal of the trip was at this Japanese restaurant.
We gave all the theme parks a miss because 1) they were too touristy and expensive; 2) didn't have that much time; 3) I wanted a more relaxing R&R weekend; 4) I think I've outgrown the theme park phase in my life.
The only disappointment I got on this trip was that we didn't manage to get bookings for the Dracula's cabaret and dinner. I made it up with a Swedish massage at the hotel spa before checking out though so all was good.
surfers paradise
sorting out my blings
I fell in love with this Accessories Mirror Cabinet the first time I saw it on Xuan's blog. How nice will it be to have all your bling blings all organised neatly and kept safely tucked behind your dressing mirror? And a full length one with adjustable angles too! So elegantly perfect.
But until I know what my longer term plans are with respect to my living location, I don't really want to invest time and money into researching and purchasing another piece of bulky furniture. Furthermore, I don't think I have that many pieces of jewellery to fill it up. So when I stumbled upon a smaller and significantly cheaper storage solution to my messy stash of earrings and necklaces in the form of these shown below, I snapped them up without much hesitation.
This is my necklace and bracelet collection that modest as it is, has completely filled up all the available hanging slots in this organiser.
And here, the almost but not quite half filled earrings/studs rack. Although I have since added several more pairs of such delicate personal adornments from the day this picture was taken, the rack still looks bare.
Instead of dedicating a whole corner of my room to a standing mirror/cabinet, I have allocated a space within my rustic bookshelf for my humble stockpile of blings. Don't they look pretty all placed together?
However, I'm not saying I am over the idea of getting the aforementioned mirror cabinet and I especially will not say no to it being gifted upon me!
so much reading to do!
I was extremely delighted to discover all the e-books available for download in various apps when I first got the iPhone such that I have been downloading all the free ones I come across, which are mostly classics. Although I have been looking forward to reading the complete Lyonesse Trilogy by Jack Vance which I purchased in December last year for a hefty 49.99AUD, I have not even progressed past the opening chapter in these three months due to the distraction by these free literature.
I currently have these on my e-book shelf:
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen which I finished in 2 nights
- The Romance of Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bedier: 57% read
- The complete Sherlock Holmes collection by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: 2.5 out of 8 volumes read.
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: 13% read
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: I am embarking on the daunting task of reading this epic historical novel and God knows how long I will take to finish it, if ever I will.
And all these remaining ones which I have not even started:
- Five volumes of Grimm's Fairy Tales
- 11 issues of Archie Comics
- The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
- The Odyssey of Homer by Homer, translated by Alexander Pope
- Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
and more as I continue with the downloads...
recent forays into the kitchen
In my quests to 1) save more money and 2) have a healthier diet, I have been doing a fair bit of cooking in the recent months. I tend to cook double servings in the evenings so I can pack for lunch the following day - this saves me the cost of a dinner and a lunch everyday!
Although I try to plan the home menu to be on the better side of the health-o-meter with a few rules in mind - I try to use fresh produce more instead of processed food these days, no MSG, rarely ever add any salt at all, only olive oil is used for cooking, every meal has the daily minimum required serving of nutrients the body requires, among a few others - I do occasionally reward myself with a few sinful concoctions, especially on weekends.
Here are just some of the homemade creations in the month of January and half of February.
I made a whole lot of wantons with two types of fillings - prawns with marinated minced pork; and fresh shitake mushrooms with chopped carrots and marinated minced pork - which I cooked in two different ways: i) clear wanton soup with a lot of bak choy and ii) Szechuan style dumplings tossed in a self created spicy and sour sauce. I had contemplated deep frying a third batch but decided against it as that dish would have dropped into the negative on the health-o-meter scale.
These fresh shitake - egg tofu - marinated minced pork with chopped carrots stacks are something I came up with on a whim. I sprinkled some spring onions over them to add some colour to the otherwise boring looking dish, added a bit of soy sauce and steamed them in the rice cooker. I have never seen or eaten anything that looks like this but it turned out really yummy! The picture on the left shows the Szechuan style dumplings in the foreground.
This dish below must be the oiliest, fattiest, most indulgent dish created in my kitchen in the last two months. Thanks to Jamie Oliver, the rich and extremely creamy meaty mushroom sauce went perfectly with the oven roasted pork loin and sausage combination. I would very gladly pay AUD25-30 for such a dish cooked to such standards.
On the other end of the scale, these homemade Vietnamese rice paper rolls are so light to eat and so full of goodness I had them for consecutive days when I wasn't feeling in the best of health. Some of what I used for the fillings include: carrots, boiled chicken pieces, spring onions, parsley, cucumbers, boiled prawns, boiled crab sticks, boiled rice vermicelli and crushed almonds or peanuts.
An occasional treat to go with the plain rice paper rolls could be some self marinated honey soy oven baked chicken which can be eaten on its own or shredded to be added as a filling to the rolls.
Another yummy healthy light dinner snack on the home menu was Sang Choy Bao, greatly modified from the traditional versions that usually tag along with the Peking Duck dish when ordered at Chinese restaurants.
I always order the same pasta dish whenever I visit my favourite café along Danks Street - Sopra Café above Fratelli Fresh - Rigatoni Ragu Alla Bolognese. I tried to replicate this dish in my kitchen and got about 80% close to how I expected it to turn out. The following months will definitely see me experimenting a few more times to perfect it to expectations, time permitting.
I had a craving for some assam fish curry and so made some. I am embarrassed to say that instant curry paste pack was used for this although I did contribute some additional seasoning to enhance the taste. Some fresh fish fillets and fish head from the market, lots of tomatoes and onions were all I needed otherwise. I searched everywhere in the vicinity for some lady's fingers (they call them okra here in OZ) but in vain so had to do without them.
Pappadums, cucumber slices and roti prata that were the substitutes for rice and salad went perfectly well with the assam fish curry.
In contrast with the assam fish curry, this Thai red curry with king prawns was cooked from scratch, ie. the chilli paste and curry sauce were blended from raw ingredients.
Because of my longstanding history with such respiratory ailments, I decided to revive my herbal soup drinking habit. I now try to make these supposedly lung nourishing soups fortnightly, if not every week.
On scorching summer days such as this, salads are lifesavers on the dinner table. I had lots of fun making this Tuscan salad of basil leaves, tomatoes and crispy ciabatta which also happens to be my favourite salad from the many listed in Jamie Oliver's big book of recipes lying in the kitchen.
Another of the many first time attempts on top of those listed above, was this virgin try at making lasagne. A vegetarian one - asparagus and green pea lasagne was chosen in order to lessen the guilt at cooking and eating such a rich sinful dish.
My previously non existent cooking genes seem to be surfacing and I'm all set to flaunt it with a vengeance!
tea forté
My current favourite for afternoon tea.
Throw in some colourful Japanese snacks and I'm instantly happier.
cny in sydney
This is the first time in my 4.5 years away from home that I am spending Chinese New Year in Sydney without my family. 独在异乡为异客, 每逢佳节倍思亲 (simple translation: I'm alone, a stranger in a foreign land, and I miss my family more on festive occasions.) aptly describes how I feel when I read/hear about all the merry making and family/friends get-togethers, especially on 除夕夜 (CNY Eve) when all families sit down for the symbolic 团圆饭 (reunion dinner).
A group of "orphans" like me who cannot bear the thought of dining alone on CNY Eve gathered to have a pseudo reunion dinner of hotpot (we call it steamboat in SG).
We even splurged on an abalone to simulate what we usually see in reunion dinner spreads back home.
Some other hotpot favourites that we cannot do without: sliced beef and chicken, fish tofu, assorted balls, fishcakes wrapped in dried tofu skin, enoki mushrooms and quails' eggs (my #1 fav!).
The orphans settling down for the spread.
Everyone present had their +1 (a spouse and 3 accompanying pets) except me. I had planned to bring along my monkeys - 小毛 and 小黑 - to join the zoo gathering but forgot due to the rush in getting to the dinner venue after flying back from a work trip to Wagga Wagga. So I was the loneliest of them all. :(
Pockey, Summer and Barley held by the 1x spouse in the last pic.
We spent the after dinner hours chasing after the over hyper pets which greatly helped with the digestion in our overstuffed stomachs.
There was a mini highlight on CNY Day 1 in the office in the form of 年糕 (a sweet and sticky glutinous rice cake) - a dessert popularly consumed during this festive period that symbolises 年年高升 (raising oneself higher - mostly referring to one's career - with each year).
The girls preparing the sweet sticky rice cakes in the kitchen.
We had it coated with a mixture of flour and eggs and panfried until it turned crispy on the outside. I remember my Grandma used to add slices of sweet potato or yam with the rice cake pieces before coating with the flour-egg mixture which was doubly yums.
I kept to my family tradition of wearing red on CNY Day 1 and so did several others at work. I am embarrassed to say I did not buy any brand new red clothing this year and had to recycle my outfit from last year's. Another :(
Here we gathered all the ang kong kongs (a Hokkien phrase meaning extremely red) for a photo session where after a few NGs, we finally got a decent shot of all the pretty people.
We then got back to our respective stations at work and spent the day trying very hard to concentrate but still frequently got distracted by thoughts of our loved ones back home.
in memory of rae
I landed back in Sydney after a 2.5 week trip home on Monday evening, 3rd Jan 2011. The first SMS I received brought extremely bad news about the sudden deterioration of Rae's condition; she's been battling stage 3c ovarian cancer since she first got diagnosed with it in June 2004. It sure brought back memories of a previous phone call that brought depressing news of a beloved friend's fatal accident when I returned from a business trip to South Africa.
In the few hours that followed, my Tudi kept me updated on her situation via Whatsapp (the application that to me, makes getting an iPhone most worth the $1000 as it keeps me connected to all my loved ones all the time everywhere). Rae eventually passed away at home surrounded by her family and close friends that evening at around 8.50pm Singapore time.
I started this blog entry the day after Rae's passing but I never got around to completing and publishing it until now. Just like how it took many years for me to accept the reality of my Dad's passing, I didn't want to believe that the same Rae I spoke to on the phone just the night before - she who was so chirpy on the phone and convinced me and Tudi that her condition had improved by heaps since we last visited her the week before - will never nag at me to take care of myself or to constantly remind me to blog blog blog so she could know what I was up to ever again.
It was under very strange circumstances that I got to know Rae back in 2005. We got to know about each other's existence through a group of mutual gamer and blogger friends. Because of her illness, she wasn't sure if she would be accepted so she tried to hide behind a made-up cyber identity that she created when she interacted with me. Tudi and I saw through her facade through her blog entries - we knew the level of maturity shown in what she wrote could not have been written by a 20 year old - and were disgusted by her pretence and lies. I still remember the skepticism we had before we agreed to our first face to face meeting initiated by Rae. I am very thankful for that meeting which changed everything we thought of Rae and brought an additional member to my limited circle of trusted friends.
Because of her age and life experience, Rae was more of a mother figure to me than a mere friend. In fact, the care and concern she'd shown me over the years way surpassed what I experienced from my own Mum (not that my Mum doesn't care for me, but that she rarely ever shows it).
Knowing how I always get very bad menstrual cramps, Rae bought me a hot water pack for easing the pain when she saw me off in 2006 as I embarked on a lonely journey to Sydney for a new job. After reading my complaints on how I couldn't find a single decent bolster in Sydney, which affected my sleep, she and Tudi spent a bomb to air freight me one so that I wouldn't have sleepless nights anymore. She also gave me this gadget to replicate those perfectly boiled soft runny eggs from Ya Kun that I love so much such that I may get to have this comfort food away from home.
To lessen my homesickness especially during special occasions, Rae collaborated with BH who was in Sydney on an internship programme to organise a surprise party for the first birthday I spent abroad away from all my family and friends. She made sure BH got the flattering nickname she knew me by - "Chioest", meaning the prettiest - on the cake. Subsequent birthdays were never lacking in presents such as these from her too.
I in turn surprised Rae and Tudi, thanks to my accomplice BH, when I suddenly showed up in Singapore for a 'farewell' lunch she was supposed to have for BH. This is the first ever photo we took together and I had to mosaic Rae's face back then when blogging it due to her wanting to keep her identity a secret to her other younger gaming friends.
We then spent a lovely day just eating our way around, as were what we always did whenever I went home.
Rae loved to eat, just like me. We both loved the same food such as the Dim Sum at Carlton Hotel, frogs legs porridge from Geylang, the daily soups from Soup Restaurant, the economical fried noodles and bee hoon I got for her from Simei etc etc. Up until her condition got so bad she had to stay in bed, we used to feast and pig out by eating at several places a day. As the years went past, we stopped doing that and switched to having homecooked meals at her place instead so she didn't have to tire herself out with all the travelling. In her last days, very fortunately I was back in Singapore the two weeks prior to her passing, Tudi and I got her some Nasi Lemak that she'd been hankering after. I am glad we got to satisfy one of her last cravings on earth.
Rae particularly loved the prawn noodle soup and Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (佛跳墙) - my Uncle's specialties - ever since she tried them for the first time in 2008 when she came over to my place for Chinese New Year lo hei with BH.
We even got down to playing a few rounds of mahjong after the lo hei. It was one of the most memorable CNYs I had.
Rae's condition started to go downhill from late 2009 onwards. My heart went out to her whenever I read about the pain and suffering she went through as documented in her journal. I made a little framed card with the best photo of us 3 spending yet another girly session at Rae's house (below) and mailed it to her with all my prayers for her, hoping it will cheer her up and spur her on a little more. It never got to her thanks to either Australian Post or Singpost and I let it stop at that, never once thought of giving it another go at making another card.
Such a short entry to sum up the many years of friendship and already so many regrets to add to the ever growing list: I promised to learn to cook that prawn noodle soup that Rae loved so much but I never got down to doing it; I never tried harder to send my regards to her either by phone, email or mail; I knew Rae loved reading my blog so much she would click into my site a few times a day to check for updates and yet I couldn't put in that extra effort to blog more frequently; I did not insist on seeing her one last time before leaving Singapore when my visit was cancelled due to a miscommunication with her son when in my heart I knew it would probably be the last time I would ever see her and she did indeed leave us shortly after.
I do not know how many more of such farewells I can take. As I combat my homesickness and grief at Rae's departure this recent month, I can't help but wonder what it is I am here in Sydney for, so far away from everyone I love. Personal freedom? Money? Career? Life experience? Are these worth the time lost in spending with the elderly grandparents who raised me, my Mum and Bro who I have not felt so close to until now, and all the friends who love me like Rae did?
Although it has taken me more than a month, I owe it to Rae to finish writing this. I know she's looking down at me from somewhere and waiting eagerly to read my final masterpiece on her. I hope I can do better at updating my blog from now on so that she doesn't have to get disappointed again if she visits when she gets bored in heaven, and all my friends too will know of what's going on in my life and not get worried unnecessarily again.
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