Camels, sheep and 1m long pizza

Had the best lunch break ever today.

Allow me to explain.

So when I walked into World Square this morning, I saw them setting up a marquee tent with Sex in the City 2 posters stuck up everywhere.  Her signature white dress of the film is hanging up on a mannequin, so I thought I would be seeing Sarah Jessica Parker in from of Marcs during my lunch break.

But I was wrong.  I took an early lunch with a cadet, an intern and a bunch of grads. I walked into world square and SAW A CAMEL OMG! Then went super high because- I mean seriously, it's not everyday you get to see a camel on your lunch break!

We ate at Mr B's (by the way, the $10 thai/jap lunches are no longer $10, but $12! Just FYI :) and then after bumming for a bit we headed back into the office to do some "work" on a Friday afternoon.  If you are wondering why M & I are in casual, it's CASUAL DAY TODAY! I.e. clean up the junk in the office.  A good example shown below.

This desk cannot be used due to the huge-frickin-normous amount of paper/files on it. Crazy.  It is also missing a chair.  After our clean up session, the desk was clear, and a chair was allocated to this poor lonely desk.  Also, far far in the bg, you may see many cartons of Boags/Pure Blondes.  Due to finishing my work 1 day early (yesterday), I pretty much had nothing to do today, so helped out with the cleaning of the above desk, and the unpacking/icing of the aforementioned beers.

But before that, I headed out to get a glimpse of the new Westfield. In my opinion, I don't really see what's so great about the new Westfield EXCEPT THERE ARE GOING TO BE FREAKING HEAPS OF SHOPS SOON! YAY!  I wish it was closer to the office :(  but it's only about 15 min walk away.  On the way back, I bought a cake.

Hi Baabaa Sheep! 

Yes, at this point, my day was pretty fantasmo.

Just to recap, what I had done up till that point:

1. Saw a camel
2. Got a photo WITH the camel
3. Had pad thai for lunch.. AGAIN
4. Saw the camel AGAIN
5. Saw the new shops
6. Bought a sheep cake
7. Month end drinks

Month end drinks is always good. I end up seeing colleagues for the first time in weeks because we're always stuck at the clients'.

Anyway, afterwards I get a buzz from who else but Borbs who is impatiently waiting for us in the lobby to go to dinner. Our walk there was highly entertaining, as he serenaded (more like spammed) us with "Now if you want to take a picture of the fascinating witches who put the scintillating stitches in the britches of the boys who put the powder on the noses of the faces of the ladies of the harem of court King Caractacus YOU'RE TOO LATE!!!!!!  BECAUSE THEY JUST PASSED BY!".

Before today, I had NEVER heard this ridiculous little song before, but it's quite catchy :)

ANYWAY, after our walk, where do we end up?

CRINITIS!

We ordered:

1m long pizza with three different toppings.

Wedges

AND I FORGOT TO TAKE A PIC OF THE PORK BBQ RIBS WE HAD.  But man, it was so good, I feel like I can still taste the bbq in my mouth. OMG I WANT MORE. I WANT TO GO TO HURRICANES!

For all those that don't know, Crinitis charges cakeage- meaning they charge a fee if you bring a cake and cut it in the restaurant (which is reasonable I think), and they send you singing/bongo playing men to drum a err whatever cultural version of happy birthday. Hawhaw.  Because we didn't want to be billed extra, we told them to NOT bring out our cake and we just want to borrow their fridge for a few hours.

After dinner, we headed to the Harbour, sang 'happy birthday', cut the sheep and I napped while the others cuddled up to their other halves, or went to watch an asian street performer pretend to swallow a burning torch.  At that point, I felt quite pooped out, as I had woken up especially early to get to training this morning, and I guess all the excitement of seeing a camel and eating a sheep cake kinda got to me, so I departed and took the train home.

When I was on the train, (listening to SHINee of course), a bunch of asian guys were dragging an unconsicous looking guy onto the train. They smelt STRONGLY of liquor and were loud and rowdy.  As a result, I moved into the upper carriage so I could play NudeRunner and Coin Frenzy in peace.  Turned out that guy wasn't as unconscious as I thought, because halfway through my train ride, I heard him wretch and cough and spew. Hahahaaa. Lucky me.

ANYPOOS. When I got home, it was about 10.40 and there was a package waiting for me (YAY! BEST FRIDAY EVER, RIGHT?)  I was opening it up, thinking it was Eat, Pray, Love ,or Grimms Fairy Tales, or the short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", OR a second copy of Tom Sawyer (left my copy in Orange when I went there for a bs trip earlier this year). BUT IT WASN'T. Infact, it was a purchase which I forgot I made, but I'm very glad I have it. It's quite entertaining.

Presenting...











The playbook!

Ok. So I guess this book wouldn't really come in handy for me ;D but being quite a fan of the show, I felt quite obligated to buy the book as it was under AUD 10.

So congrats to me, overall a very good day.  Perfect end to an up&down week!

Now, to finish my marketing poster and hopefully I'll be able to go out this weekend.

Hope you all have a nice weekend!

Blast from the past- Shanghai

Hello and welcome to another chapter of my life.

I am online and wasting time because I really, really do  not want to know anymore about tort, or torts committed by infants, or contracts. BLAH So sick of studying.  So I resorted to spring cleaning (despite the fact it is indeed winter right now). AND GUESS WHAT I FOUND?!

An old photo album!

My cousin E, M, and I (And the thing in the bg is my textbook!)

E is approx 5 months younger than me, but she's always been bigger? And skinnier, and whiter than me. Haha.  She lives in the US now and is as fob/trendy as ever. Hahaha!

stolen from facebook. muahaha

My giant family in Shanghai. Geez Louise. SO tall.

Gramps!

hmm what should i name this stance..

Currently waiting for Tom Sawyer to come in the mail.  I get so excited whenever I heard the mail man drive by the house that I always almost press my face against my window which looks like this.

WHY. IT IS LUNCH TIME AND STUPID WATER DROPLETS HAVE NOT DISAPPEARED!

Japan v Cameroon was an interesting game :D 1-0

Fujiya, BBQ KING Firecrackers and PHILLIP RUDDOCK

Firstly, before I forget, I saw Phillip Ruddock today at Chinatown. Bahaha. He was surrounded by a crowd of people at a freaking intersection (the start of Chinatown at Market City).  At first, I just noticed the crowd as I was walking towards George St. I mouthed a swear word when I had to propell through the crowd of sticky people and immediately regretted it because I saw a channel 9 camera pointed in my direction.  Sixty minutes? STOP FUDGING FILMING WHERE THE BLOODY TRAFFIC LIGHTS ARE!  Then I saw Phillip Ruddock.  Tick. Two famous people in one week.

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY.

So earlier this morning I was ranting on about how D lost my logbook, etc- well this morning, we both took action and drove to the RTA and bought another logbook. Apparently I just fill out all the hours I did before (wth). I think that's utterly stupid. How easy would it be to fudge hours. Gaaah. $13. Which came from my wallet (wallet and purse = same thing Rohan) and I think it means NO DRINKS FOR BELLE THIS FRIDAY- which is a pity because I'll be in the city all morning and afternoon. Sigh sigh sigh.

After that, I drove to the docs to get a referral letter to some breath test clinic.  I think M had some helio-something bacteria a while back.  I did some research, and apparently, if it's left untreated (killed), it would cause cancer. So I suggested we all get tested sometime this week so that we can be cleansed asap and prevent any unnecessary death. Got there, waited for eons, came out and drove to the dentist (lol) to get a radiology referral letter for K. 

D & I stopped off at home, before heading out again (yes, I drove alot today) to yumcha. Waited for another couple of eons before a table was finally offered to us. Ate $40 worth of food. What the hell. So expensive. I swear I didn't eat that much. T_T;

After that we went home, chilled for a bit, then drove M to Thornleigh and drove out to city with D &K. Yes. I drove even more. :D  By then it was about 5ish and traffic into the city was a breeze. Got there in no time. Geez. I should use bullet points or something. This sounds so disjointed.

• Walked to Ichiban Boshi
• Found out they were having repairs and won't be open until Friday (or something)
• D&K&I had a little debate about where we should go for dinner. K suggested Kinokuniya (yes, I'm serious. D said Gumshara, and I suggested Fujiya)
• We went to Fujiya (after much persuasion) and we didn't regret it at all. All the tense frustration and irritation was stripped from our bodies once we walked into the extremely tiny front door.  Why? Because looks are deceiving.  The outside of Fujiya (the place above Delafrance on George) looks shabby, but the interior is a different story.  It was so spacious and awesome. So serene. It was really quiet when we got there.

Practically the entire floor looked like this. May I suggest we have a big group dinner here sometime? It's so close to work. xD

D: Lemon Squash, K: Calpis (lol) with peach, B: Calpis with grape

K: Sushi Udon Set

B: Salmon- I just craved sashimi so I ordered a whole lot

D: Sushi and sashimi set

When I say I like japanese food, what I really mean to say is I like to eat raw fish.  Seriously, it is like the greatest thing IN THE WORLD- except it may give you the worst.  Worms. Gosh. But I thought, TO HELL WITH THAT, if I die from worm explosion, at least I'll die half happy. :) 

So when we were all content and full and jolly, we came across a blockage.

BOY WAS I GLAD TO SEE THIS. MARTIAL ARTY BOYS IN THEIR FLUFFY PANTS. WOOHOO. I love them. This is why I love Chinese New Year. It's a combination of some of my favourite things.

Fluffy pants and sequins.

Kidding.

Really, I love firecrackers and lion dancing. I also love the fact that men can wear fluffy pants and look manlyish at the same time. With sequins too. lol.  K & I had a good chuckle about this before we realised D was missing. :O Turns out he was across the road.

So we followed him, and got front row seats. Freaking awesome. There were three bunches of firecrackers which were heaps long. At least 5m long each.

When my internet connection improves, I'll upload my CNY video onto youtube to show you how freaking awesome firecrackers are.  I did that last year and triggered this HUGE martial art discussion between martial arty people. Great fun.

After it finished, they got a huge round of applause and we got the car and drove to Thornleigh before going home.  I DROVE SO MUCH. SO HAPPY.

TWILIGHT PARADE IS ON SUNDAY!

Day 4- Macau Part 1

Yes. Finally. The post on Macau. One of the most brilliant experiences I have been through. Travelling around on unfamiliar territory with a bunch of similiarly clueless friends is the best thing ever. SO much happened in so little time. E.g. We bussed through half the island in less than 5 minutes. Goodness me. Oh, and a terrifying run in with immigration authorities. Who could forget that. Keep reading for some handy hints that should be read by travelling ABCs.

DAY FOUR

SO, we were supposed to depart Hong Kong early, except Bosco had an appointment with the HK immigration department in the morning to get his adult HKID. [In HK, everyone holds an ID card- folks under the age of 18 hold a child ID, and adults obviously get the adult ID card.  Once a child ID card holder turns 18 he/she must make an appointment with a govt dept to upgrade their ID card. Pretty much all of our BBQSKAMS had to meet with the people from the govt.]  Then he met the rest of us at the terminal where we ran to buy tickets for the next ferry.  The lady at the counter told us we had roughly 15 minutes (I'm not sure if that's right anymore) before the gates closed for the next ferry, so of course we all sprinted through the terminal to find Immigration.

Ah, Immigration.  Before I go on with this, allow me to jump back a few days to when I had just received my temporary adult ID (a sheet of paper that you use while your card takes about 14 days to print/arrive). D and I had this conversation.

B: I'm going to keep this sheet.
D: No you're not. What if you lose it?
B: ... I won't.
D: No. You can hold on to your passport. It means the same anyway.
B: T_T Fine.

I had my passport in my bag for the rest of the trip, however, I had entered HK using my ID card instead of my passport.

Now skip to the moment at customs- the lady/man (lol crap, too long ago, I've forgotten already) was asking for my ID.

X: Can I please have your ID
B: Err, I don't have it. I have my passport.  *hands*
X: *flicks through all the pages*  How did you get into HK?
B: With my ID.
X: Where's your ID?
B: I haven't got it yet =-=;
X: Where's your temporary ID?
B: With my dad.
X: Why?
B: *currently thinking of ways to kill D* He was scared I'd lose it.
X: Oh. What's your ID number.
B: Er, I have NO idea. (Honestly, NO idea.)
X: ...

AND THEN HE/SHE WALKED TO ANOTHER COUNTER TO TALK TO HIS/HER SUPERIOR ABOUT ME.

Perhaps for 10 or so minutes, they thought I was a teenage drug trafficker or something nasty like that, which would taint my perfect immigration record. :(  I was getting dirties from other people behind me who wanted to get through immigration, but then I realised I wasn't the only one on the receiving end. WOO, at the counter on the other side, Bosco was also in the same damn position as me. AHAHA!

But yeah. Minutes later, we were both granted 3 month Visas into Macau (Whee stamps in Passport!) and a lecture from Immigration staff about keeping temporary IDs with us at all time.  (Naturally D got a grilling from me when I got back to the hostel.. >:)

Tickets to and from Macau

We boarded the ferry looking like people who had sprinted for their lives from immigration to the right gate.

The ferry was far from what I imagined.  It had nice seats, reminded me of an aeroplane without the entertainment system. Not having an entertainment system was okay though. Some people spent most of the time snoozing. :P

At last we arrived at Macau's ferry terminal, where we were swamped with tour guides badgering us to follow their tours which was very annoying. Found our way to the bus stop and got on the first 31 we saw I think.

I don't remember much anymore (should have blogged about this earlier) so hopefully Bosco, Mawson or Quentin will fill in some gaps.  But I remember we got off the bus in hope of finding the famous food street- but apparently we had travelled too far and ended up here.

Doesn't this look like old HK?

Man. I am trying hard to remember what happened afterwards, but it's so HARD. Everything seems like a blur.  All I remember is a lady on the bus telling us to get off asap and cross the road to take the same route but back to our intended stop. Gah.  Macau's too small.  It takes about 5 mins for me to get to Carlingford Court by bus,  but 5 minutes in Macau equates to travelling to the other half of the island. Yeesh.

So we got off at the right place 8) and started walking towards food street, when we see this sign. 

We didn't eat there of course.  We ate HERE. Quentin and Sharon was separated from us XD and they had to sit with some strangers, while the rest of us had a little booth.

What we ordered:

Beef bible stir noodles (don't think this was ours)

Was this Char siu stir noodle?

Beef with noodle soup

Beef stomach stir noodles (mine)

Wontons in Fat Rice Noodles

Unfortunately of the 7 or so odd hours we spent in Macau, we didn't get a chance to eat real portuguese food. :(

But I end this post here. Getting super hungry from looking at these photos ;D time for migoreng!

Mamak

Hi folks :)  (I don't think I actually say that word IRL because it sounds a bit weird).

I felt the need to boast about what I did the other day before my memory fails me and I forget or something. Rex has a nice recount of this day, and you can read that HERE. Diti has one too- and you can read that HERE. All the photos posted up here are from Samantha's camera 8) Thunks.  I haven't touched my camera in ages- lately I've been thinking that it's not so bad afterall and maybe I should just hold onto it for a bit longer before a better camera comes along... :/

But before I go on about my visit to Mamak :D, Winnie has a JOB at DJ so you can all visit her on Boxing Day or something. I was on the phone with some people at Forrester's Beach  8) and they were having a pillow fight. T'was loud, and I couldn't hear her properly- I just heard David Jones. So, yay. :) Employee discounts. :D

SO, on Tuesday, I woke up nice and early and headed off to the optom- tried on a pair of contacts which were of the wrong prescription, chucked a mini tantrum in my head. It was such a waste of time. I could have been sweet talking randoms on the street into buying red ribbons for World Aids Day- but noo, I was stuck in a silly room jabbing a finger into my eye. Bah. Humbug.

After that, M + I returned a couple of DVDs to E library and I walked to the station and bumped into Harry.  He was on his way to a music interview- something to do with composing in the future. I misheard at first and thought he was going to an interview for a musical =_=;. (I need hearing aids) Got off at Town Hall and went our separate ways. Then I decided to give Lis a call to see where I could meet up with her and sim, and when I did... well, I didn't really recognise her. Ahaha. Lis spent last week in Japan, and I bet she spent everyday shopping.  On Tuesday I was standing outside St Andrew's Church/Cathedral looking for her. I couldn't see her. But I saw sim talking to a stranger by her side. But it turned out to be no stranger- it was lis and her fashionable self. Hahahaha. I still can't get over it :P Seriously, you had to be there ;D

We walked to Eating World and spent about 10-15 minutes contemplating whether we should eat but then luckily Sam arrived announcing that we should eat at MAMAK. WOOPDIDOO.

Photos are from Sam's fb. She's in Hk, I have no msn, so I've just copied them from there w/o her permission. But she won't mind :D

TADAAA Finally :D

Fried Rice. Too much spice D:

Chicken curry?

Hokkien fried noodle - this was pretty good. I think it was supposed to be migoreng..

ROTI :D

OMG- best roti in the world. Coconut + pandan + icecream = LOVELOVELOVE

 Bought a 500ml bottle of Vivar Nanowater  because it had nice packaging. *-* Yay materialism.

Getting hot again today. D:  See you all soon!