2 of 6

...was spent on clearing out the wardrobe and lazing abt. my head was spinning quite badly that i was confined to the bed most of the time. a pity 2 of 6 has to be spent tis way.

WT called from taipei last night for a chat. after hearing other half out, he expressed the same dilemma other half and i had abt going home for good. at the same time, he's equally supportive of our decision. we're so grateful for his call and support. we cant wait to see him in taipei or singapore alternatively, for another catch up session.

1 of 6

today gotto be my favourite day in winter tis year. the sky is clear blue, the sun is bright and sunny and the weather is nice and warm but not scorching hot and most importantly not humid. its almost like spring without the ah-choos (caused by pollen from blooming flowers). in fact, it felt like late spring. it feels wonderful to be out on such a fantastic weather. other half and i even ditched our jumpers (sometimes), wearing jus our short-sleeved tees.

our day went in the following sequence:

1. lunch at harry's cafe de wheels in chinatown

walked past central train station to get to harry's.


sydney has a capitol building too.

tis hotdog stand first became famous at woolloomooloo. they sell pies as well but other half and i had hotdogs.






view from where we were sitting while enjoying our lunch.


2. paddy's market for macadamia nuts, sunflower seeds and dried apple rings. i'm your snacker here.

3. darling habour + cockle bay + harbourside shopping centre.

row of flowers lining a section of the sydney convention centre.


even the seagulls were having a splash in such wonderful weather.




in conjunction with 'national tree day' tomorrow.







opposite tis row of boats was the stretch of restaurants and bars aka cockle bay wharf (see next pic).





on pyrmont bridge overlooking IMAX. compare tis pic with tis.


4. sydney fish market

some pics taken on our way from darling harbour to fish market.

carpark to sydney fish market.


used to eat tis... pacific oysters from tassie.


but we had tis today. pacific oysters from south australia. it looked so much fresher than the tassie ones.


christis's oysters, where we bought our oysters. i suppose they only sell oysters. not sure abt other seafood cos we only buy oysters from them. the rest like lobsters and stuffs are bought from other shops. normally from peter's.


found a spot and sat there enjoying what seem like an aphrodisiacal dose. :P


one of the many seagulls, preying on our oysters, caught on camera.


5. broadway shopping centre

after fish market, we followed a road map (we wanted to try a different route today) and walked to broadway shopping centre to the kmart to buy some stuff for my brother (the one going shanghai).

tis is the second overhead bridge i've ever seen in australia so far. btw, the first one was fenced up too.


saw tis buidling which by my standards i wont live in BUT tis one gave me the nice feeling abt it. i dont know how to explain.


finally saw the sign we i wanted to see. we're there at last. its not that far from fish market but i'm too tired from my backaches. blame pms!



for the record, all the above were done on foot. its amazing how much i can walk today, since i was having cramps and backaches. u can see me stretching my back like an old lady whenever we come to a traffic light. i think other half should now stop playing his ps2 and give me a foot massage. hehehe!

ps: oops i've done it again! i said i wont speak anymore or post pics of darling harbour but i jus did it!

final decision made... one day early

hi guys i'm back. okay, here's the latest update. around noon, we received the final confirmation and details of other half's job offer. then after, we made calls home to inform our families of the news and also our (tentative) date of arrival. i also made a call to agent C to let her know that i'm really gonna leave sydney. she seems to be in high spirits, more hyper than tis morning when she called me. as what she told me earlier in the week, company xxx is interested in getting me in to the singapore office. ermmm... i'm not so sure abt the position but will allow the opportunity to discuss it with the director. who knows, they might have something else that i may like. *chuckle*

after other half left for work, i finally sat down to pack. oh god, we had accumulated so much junk over jus 8 months at our current place (cos i remember we threw away alot of stuff before we moved in here). for 4 hours, i went through the computer desk, all the magazines lying around and a drawer. sound so inefficient hor? the drawer though not very big, has all the admin stuff, important documents and barang barang which i've to go through one by one. time consuming job! sheesh, i can foresee tons of work ahead. *_*" i was transferring scribblings, lying around the computer table, into my palm when i stumbled across tis list of places to visit that i update every now and then.

here are some of the places.... (pictures were kope from the internet)

longitude 131, ayers rock in northern territory of australia

eungella national park, st bees island in mackay of queensland, australia

bruges (aka brugge) in belgium

huka lodge in the northern island of new zealand

the great pyramid at giza, egypt

zermatt, switzerland (5.5 hour drive from benn)

jus these ones for now. will post the rest another time. :)

bear with me

please fricking stop telling me that i grew up in singapore and there's nothing abt having to get used to. u're so wrong. go tell all the universities in australia (and probably US & UK too) that they're wrong in organizing returning home counselling program for overseas students returning home. go tell them that the students were born and raised in their home countries and there's no such thing as not getting used to.

the asian culture do not believe in showing and discussing emotions openly. we like to deny certain feelings in us for fear of being perceived as weak or have lost credibility or something else which i dont know. whereas the western culture recognizes, understands, and embraces that feeling and do something abt it, such as having the returning home counselling. having stayed and worked here has made me think very differently abt living the life we all say is short. so i thank the Lord for tis experience. with regards to staying or leaving, i've done what i could and now it is His calling.

the decision will be made based on whats most appropriate for us as well as our families. sometimes, such decisions can only benefit one person as it seems like it but it is not so. be it in sydney or singapore, i know other half and i sure make the best out of it and shine. life is short and we'll both live it to the fullest. how many times have we heard and uttered that?

so now, i jus need time to come to terms with the decision (if we're leaving. which we'll officially make by friday or saturday or who knows earlier). gimme time. lemme rant. send me jokes or funny pics for a good laugh. for those of u who are sick of hearing me talking abt it again and again, come back here next week or maybe never.

how to let go?

agent C (i've 2 agents currently) called me at least 3 times and left 2 voice messages yesterday morning. i had to return her call only at 2ish cos i was at work. she must be frantic trying to catch hold of me; which is why she swayed to think that i was avoiding her, cooking up a i might be going back to singapore and so cant take up the offer story. i was feeling quite offended when i heard her voice message telling me (ended with a mocking laugh - so i thought) dont be afraid to turn down the offer (when she actually means stop avoiding me and pick up the fricking phone). she told me abt having to be transparent to her regarding the whole matter and asked if i'm rejecting her due to an offer elsewhere. hey, so she is implying that i cooked up a i'm leaving sydney story to turn down her job offer? why would anyone do that? thats kinda extreme isnt it? telling the truth is so much easier than having to come up with an excuse. besides, PP is a well-known recruitment agency in the healthcare/ pharma industry here and there is a high chance of me bumping into them (if i'm what she said to have accepted another offer elsewhere. i could easily bump into them. in north ryde where most pharma companies congregate) or them hearing news of me working where where.

after i hung up the phone with her, i sat down to write an email to her. though i was feeling rather pissed being misunderstood, i tried to sound as professional as i can. afterall, from a recruitment consultant's point of view, they must have heard lies ever so often. also, i wanna preserve my composure.

since my email, i havent heard from her. i dont know whats on her mind. perhaps she's waiting till friday to hear my decision though i've made myself clear in my email that i'm declining the offer. no point making company xxx wait when the outcome is probably gonna be i'm really going back. i'm leaving sydney. boohoohoo. and so, company xxx can start looking at another candidate.

and i have yet to speak to my other agent (agent C...shit...she's also C. lets call her agent CV) abt tis situation and offer 2 yet. i'm leaving the job to agent C to tell agent CV cos they're colleagues within the same office premise. :P but soon (within these few days or when our verdict comes on friday), i'll write out something to agent CV.

even though our verdict is what i'd expect, i'm still hoping we can stay (due to too many reasons). though other half's offers back home are very lucrative in terms of training, growth, paywise; more and more options are opening up here too, as if to make us stay. to complicate/ aid the decision making process, company xxx who offered me the job agent C is hooking me up to, might have something for me in singapore. yayy & argh.

i want to go touch every building. i want to go to every place we've been before. i want to bring back with me a container of air that kept me going all these years. i dont know if i'll finish it in one breath so i'll need a huge container of it to last me some time, to help me adjust to the newold environment. the closer we get to making the final decision, the more depressed i am, the more i struggled. i cant bear to leave tis place i called home (not australia or sydney per se but jus tis place, tis space). i cried a couple of times jus thinking of leaving tis place. its like knowing u're going to lose someone u hold close to your heart. the process to finally having the person leave u is tormenting. letting go is not an easy feat. so much action has been going on inside my pea brain (though i look like i've a big head... its my hair lah), its been working overtime more than it can handle. at home, at work. before i sleep, during my sleep, after i wake. the fuse in my brain might jus die on me. God bless me.

CSP saga

forewarn: tis post contains a galore of pictures that may take u a while to download.

i was damn mad jus now. over 3 char siew pau. okay, the story started off like tis.

other half and i went to east ocean for yum cha. after abt 20mins in the queue, it was finally our turn. we were really famished so we ordered and ordered but stuck to our list anyway. (we always write a list of dim sum we feel like having that day). har gow, yee chi gow, seafood gow, pork ribs, chicken feet, csp, pei dan chok, tau foo fa, mango pudding.

after the pei dan chok, we had enough and went for our respective dessert. so we ta bao the 3 untouched csp. hehe, i sure know we cant finish so much food but ordered it anyway. their csp is the best i've had so far, including singapore. if u dont know already, i'm halal. i dont eat all pork. my mom hated it for she has to cook alternatives but she has gotten used to it eversince. its been so long already.

so we told the wait staff to pack the csp. we waited and waited. saw him zipping in and out of our supposedly vip area (they open up the area to cater to weekend crowds). we were so finished with our dessert (left licking the bowls) and were ready to make a move but still no sight of the csp. other half waved for the same wait staff and asked him what happened to our csp. he said to wait for the cart. huh? huh? i beg your pardon?!! we were referring to our ta bao-ed csp. he seems to have forgotten abt it already...in jus less than 10mins?!? okok, i wont blame him. business was so good and he probably ta bao many csp too.:P we waited and waited.... still no csp. the (something like) managers or perhaps supervisors walked by and one saw that we had no more stuff on the table and thought we were waiting for our bill. we then told her we were waiting for our ta bao-ed csp. she let out that "paiseh" look like she forgotten all abt it, gave that wry smile and spoke cantonese into her walkie talkie and walked off.

within mins, a lady came with the csp and she wanted to chop on our card. we were trying to tell her those csp were from a chop before. she raised her head to look at us and mumbled "no...no", drew a circle on "5" within the "medium" row (that is, that was our 5th medium dish) and walked away, without hearing us out (apparently she speaks not much english).

so we thought we'll sort it out at the cashier. we went there and explained to the paiseh manager. she didnt get it. the real manager (in suit) came and we explained at least 3 times to him. no one seems to understand english us. arghhhhh!!!!! i wish we spoke cantonese. we wanted to get the wait staff who attended to us to come forward to explain but other half said thay guy seem so blur. no point at all. for once, i felt like i cant stand up for myself, over such a simple matter. i seem to have lost my voice. my first time feeling the language dialect barrier. but still, i didnt care. i carried on explaining even though the restaurant was jam packed, carts were whizzing past us and a queue of hungry grouchy-looking customers standing nearby. and frankly, its not abt the $4.20 (though it'll be $8.40 for jus 1 serving of csp). its abt money paid for something we didnt eat. in the midst of explaining, i so wanted to give up but i dont believe no one understands me (yep, by tis time, i took over the talking from other half). its a principle i want to stand up to. so what happened after a long saga, they voided that receipt and issued us a new one. i tell u, the staff really should go for english classes. the place is so popular with angmohs, and if they ever encounter another csp saga, they'll be able to handle mah. :P to think that i raved so much abt east ocean. tis dining experience may well be my last. hehe... i'm not so petty. even though i mentioned on my blog that i will boycott kingsford chinese, i still ta bao stuff from them.

~~the alleged csp~~


we were all over the place in the afternoon. chinatown, pitt street, martin place (near channel seven's studio. where we stumbled on what we thought was the movie set of Superman V. taxis, cars, buses - all with US license plates; probably made up ones, props, camera lights, etc), bondi junction then back to martin place (we bought return train tix) for more Superman V action. no leh, no sight of superman. there was filming done at the end of the footpath where we stood but access was denied. we hung ard for a while taking pictures and seeing one water truck splashing water on the road to create rainy weather before heading home. it was getting cold and i didnt wear enough.