of more da lat touring

Day 02
In which we were driven around lots more and visited even more touristy places
Photos of Day 02: flickr, Picasaweb

The tour provided us with breakfast, lunch, and dinner (if you haven’t guessed yet), and this morning we had a buffet breakfast at our hotel. This was kinda like a semi-intercontinental breakfast that included rice porridge, dumplings, soup, and stir-fried noodles. Wasn’t too bad, but not especially great either.

We visited the Domain De Marie Church first and was given a quick rundown on Saint Catherine Lebrouge (?), whose remains reside here. Bought a totally ugly cardigan for mum from the church store, where all profits goes to the poor. It’s really ugly… but considering our differing and divergent tastes in fashion, I think she’ll like it. I hope so… it’s so ugly I don’t think I can give it away.

Next stop: Palace of the last King of Vietnam. Surprisingly small and sparse, though perhaps it hasn’t been as ornate as it was originally.

But was thinking about it… Vietnam’s a pretty poor country, in comparison to what people were living in back in the 1960’s, this would have been really luxurious.

Final stop before lunch: Valley of Love. Similar concept with the waterfall place, though the lake is apparently man-made. Lots of things for couples to sit together on or lean against – the usual posing type stuff; demure females and macho males.

While it’s quite boring (and so far the place where you get harassed by hawkers and touters the most), it’s a lovely day and there’s a nice clean and cool breeze ruffling our hair.

It appears that our travelling companions thought Khanh Ha and I were 15-16 years old. Surprise, surprise then that they were shocked to find out otherwise. Our tour guide, Kim, and most of the couples are around 24 themselves, so they kinda felt weird calling us by the elder honorific. hahah Made us feel weird too.

Stopped by a dried/preserved fruit and tea place. They gave out free samples, except when 2 of the guys left after sampling some and didn’t buy anything, they swore at them. The shop assistants followed us around with sulky and baleful expressions, as though they resented having to rely on people like us for their livelihood.

Customer service at its best. =P

Lunch was at Nha Toi. They were selling homemade wine, Aunt Nga opened one of the bottles and the released pressure made the red wine splatter all over her white Ralph Polo shirt.

After lunch, the tour factored in “siesta” time… but because us Westerners ain’t use to that, we went around shopping for another shirt for Aunt Nga…. except everything was knitted or woolen, jackets, jumpers and cardigans…. it was rather odd. So we trekked back to the hotel for a couple of hours.

Discovery Channel is awesome XD

We went out to go to this waterfall thingy and a zen library monastery.

What was so awesome about the waterfall place was that you could “coaster bob” down. That was so much fun!! We coaster-bobbed it back up too ^_^ muhahah

The temple was so lovely and quiet… really relaxing.

After dinner, we (as a tour group), had some che (vietnamese bean type of dessert that usually involves some coconut juice) – which was really really good – and did a bit of hand embroidery portait/landscape shopping. We got to see how these amazing artworks were made (normal sized pieces had about 2 ppl embroidering it) and also some massive ones. One was about 2m high and 1.5m wide and the entire surface was embroidered. It took 6 people about 6 months to complete it.

We then tandem-biked around the lake. That was also very fun. A bit freaky though, because we rode with traffic and we were taking left turns and eventually had to ride on the wrong side of the road to return the bikes (no one thought this could possibly be a bad idea except for us Westerners =.=;;)

Day 03
In which someone has a birthday and we celebrated our last night in da lat
Photos of Day 03: flickr, Picasaweb

One of our travelling companions’ birthday today and Kim is going to surprise him with a cake! How nice of her

First stop is Lang Biang Mountain. The sight was amazing, the distant cloud-ladened mountains, the sprawling city that abruptly turns into rolling (in a pixelated kind of way) fields. There were hawkers up here too, both down at the bottom (where we hired the old skool jeeps to head up the mountain) and at the top. It’s hard to say no to these people when they’re playing the baby card (whom was slung on her back – sleeping peacefully and obliviously). Dogs are in abundant too (okay, so it was only 3 dogs, but they were so cute! ^_^).

When we were leaving, transferring from jeep to tour bous, we were accosted by 4 kids (probably under 8 years old) begging for money.

Their pleas sounded like a mantra and while it was hard to make out exactly what they were saying, the meaning was inescapable. So terribly hard to deny such faces.

Next, we walked around… I guess you’d call it a park. Interesting stuff there: bamboo bridges and piers, obsure stone features (supposedly the main attraction was to try to find five animals in the what seemed like a normal waterfall feature), and flowers.

Lunch was at Cafe Bong Hong (Cafe Rose), where we yet again had the omelette dish (much to everyone’s dismay and was vocalised by a collective groan haha). Remember the birthday cake? That was served after lunch ^_^ It was funny because his wife and him linked arms to eat the birds on the cake… only she was a bit klutz and droppd her bird onto his pants XD hahahahah

There was a huuuuge break between lunch and the next stop.

At 16:10, we were picked up to go to look at some more flowers (le yawn). It was a bit mmm, but there are some really strange flowers floating about.

We had an early dinner at, I think, 17:30? lol Our driver got rather pissy when the restaurant people (who was there to organise the scooter arrangements – so kinda semi valet parking haha) didn’t move the scooters out of the way, resulting with us blocking a looooot of traffic for a while.

To celebrate our last night, each person had a glass of red wine. Oddly enough, they served it with ice… O_Oa

We went to a cafe afterwards, had an apple pancake.. which was really just alike a thick crepe, folded over, with apple slices inside =.= felt slightly rorted…

Day 04
In which it is not fun to have a maniac driver
Photos of Day 04: flickr, Picasaweb

We kept finishing our touring stops early that we managed to have lunch at 10:30am at Ngan Thach Quan lol XD. After “lunch”, we stopped by a place to grab some souvenir tea and coffee stuff.

The driver was driving so fast that it felt like we were going to have a horrible accident and all perish >_< I’m serious!

We’re going down this windy mountain road, stuck behind a semi-trailer transporting one of those huge shipping cargo containers… you know how you kinda veer the car a bit to the wrong side of the road to see if there’s any oncoming cars in sight? He was doing that a lot, several times thinking that it’d be “safe” to overtake the semi-trailer (on a windy road!!!) and would start to overtake, only to brake and retreat behind the semi-trailer, as an oncoming vehicle barrel up.

Once he had to brake really sudden and hard to avoid crashing, my aunt fell out of seat (bruised her back) and I was sitting in front of the door well, so had this little rail in front of my seat… The momentum made me fall onto it and almost through it. I was holding my camera and the barrel of my lens kinda glanced the rail, but when i realised what was happening, I shifted my body to protect the camera =.=;;

Everyone made me change to a “proper” seat, where I sat, trembling.

of mostly the tour of da lat

Day 00
In which we embark for the Motherland (well, one of our Motherlands anyways)
Photos of Day 00: flickr, Picasaweb

It was a mad last minute packing that had to be done before we headed off to the airport; we were a bit overweight and found that combining the 2 luggages actually made a difference in weight.

Co (Viet for aunt, lady, or miss) Lien (dad’s then fiancee and now wife), my cousin Khanh Ha, and Khanh’s Ha mother (Aunt Nga) met us at the airport. Boy, it was muggy! And it was 8.30 at night too! We weren’t really prepared for such weather haha, and made us feel even more tired.

Traffic was crazier than I had remembered. The road was absolutely packed – both ways! There were lots of liberal use of the horns.

Shops were still opened, people were lounging around roundabouts (no idea, but they were mostly hugging couples *eew*), cafes, pool rooms… so many lights, sounds, and smell. It was pretty much a sensory overload for my tired brain…

… and it was hot.

We stayed at a distant relative’s place (dad’s cousin), where my paternal grandparents were already there. It was also hot inside too.

Found out that we were going on a Da Lat tour for 4 days and 3 nights… and that we would have to wake up at 4am to catch the 6am tour bus… T_T

Day 01
In which we were driven around lots and forced to play “getting to know everyone” games
Photos of Day 01: flickr, Picasaweb

We woke up at 4:30am – half an hour later than what we were suppose to – and had rush to the tour bus. The taxi driver was like, “Would it be okay to drop you off here [here being about half way to the tour place] and transfer you to another cab? I have an appointment soon and I’ll be late for it if I drive you there.” … seriously? My aunt thought this was a really dumb idea and told him rather coldly to keep driving.

We got there in time and I was really relieved that it was a large mini-van and not one of those old coaches I’ve been seeing along the way.

It harboured lots of mosquitoes though. *Shudders*

On our way to our breakfast point, the tour guide (Kim Tuyen) tried to involve us in some “getting to know people” games. There were 10 of us, 3 of whom were couples (2 couples were newly weds from the day before and this was pretty much their honeymoon).

Tim was a bit unwilling to play and when we played a musical pass-the-parcel game (where the starting person sings and when they stop singing, the person in possession of the parcel had to sing – which is a bit of a jip, because the first person whom the parcel/singing stopped at was me).

Sang Sukiyaki (dunno why that’s always the first song to sing that pops into my head) and deliberately/mischieviously stopped singing when the parcel landed on my brother. Man, he was so pissed off; relegated himself to the back of the bus and didn’t talk to anyone until after breakfast.

Breakfast was at Buffet Van Thanh and the place was heeeaps nice. The food wasn’t too bad either. Tim had Com Tam (broken rice with pork chop, egg/meat loaf, 2 tomatoe slices, and 1 cucumber slice), I had ham and eggs with toast… and a warm glass of soy milk (the asian type, which is the sweet version). We had some time to wander around and be tourist-y lol.

Lunch was at a restaurant called Tam Chau, where it’s kind of in a amusement/recreational park with a torrential waterfall as its centrepiece.

Mum went here a couple of months ago and there was barely a trickle. So we rather got lucky – or perhaps it was just that right time of the season.

We then went to a temple on top of a mountain. On the way, there was an accident involving 2 scooters that most probably happened 3-5 minutes before we trundled up to that corner. It was pretty serious and there were heaps of people who were rubber necking and a handful who were actually helping out.

The wreckage was awful, especially when I saw blood pools on the road T_T (my brother thought it was oil spillage… but I’m quite certain it wasn’t). It was kind of surreal, my mind seemed to focus on the small things: the plastic slippers that seemed to be tidily discarded beside a really old scooter that had lost it’s wheel and was resting on the road upright on its frame, while the newer scooter was on its side, wheel all twisted, headlights smashed…

What was sad to see was the tour buses and coaches that squeezed past the crowd (we were one of them), going past a line of waiting tour buses, coaches, a 4WD… and right at the end…. the ambulance with no flashing lights or blaring siren.

At the temple, a monk wandered over to chat with us and used my camera to take a photo. We did the usual incense thing in front of the various gods that lined the inside of the temple. Although I’m not all that religious, I prayed that the people involved in the accident were okay and wished them all the best.

Just before dinner, we stopped by a really old train station. It was exciting for about 2 minutes =P

We had a really awkward and uncomfortable dinner with the rest of the tour group (breakfast and lunch, we were split up 6 and 4) and then checked into VinaGolf. A supposedly 4 star hotel… with free internets! =D That’s at least 1 star right there ^_^

It’s rather funny.. We found out that if you open the fridge door for too long, the tv turns off. I flipped the switch labelled “tv” and it turned off. But when I turned it back on… the tv wouldn’t go on.

Lots of flipping switches, taking the tag out of its holder, and pressing buttons, my brother was like, “omg! Nooooo you broke the tv!!!”

Lamenting the death of the tv, he looked into the fridge melancholically and a couple of seconds later, the tv turned on….

Yes, we were scratching our heads too.

It’s hard to see so many living in poverty. Saw houses that’s like mansions and were built next to tiny, run-down shacks. (My mum tried to assure me later that it’s quite possible that the people living in the run-down shack lived next door in the mansion, only they didn’t build over the shack due to sentimental reasons…. hmm possible, but am sceptical of its probability).

What’s it like to live in constant remainder that you have no money and some else has lots?

Noticed that there’s a lot more Christian churches than temples. One of the small towns we passed through had a huuuge and magnificent church. It was surrounded by hovels. Slap in the face much?

of apologies

I haven’t been blogging as often as I should… sorry if anyone has been wondering what I’ve been up to or what the heck’s been going on in squishies’ neck of the woods.

promise that i’ll get something up … soonish =P

but here’s something to … um.. i dunno.. something =)

i smile every time i look at this photo… ^_^ it was such a fun night!

of stuff that happened before i left

As a mini farewell (and in the tradition of Terrific Thursdays), Alan, Mong, Grace, Ram, and I had dinner at Sushi Tei and then headed down to Harbour Kitchen.

The desserts there are fantanbulous! Absolutely amazing…

Okay, mostly fantanbulous.

My favourites included:

* strawberry panna cotta, pink pepper corn ice cream and strawberry chutney;

* blackberry parfait;

* coconut & lime leaf brulee with coconut biscotti; and

* nutmeg & baileys parfait with crisp milk chocolate

Wah… mmmm…. *drool*

Must see photos: Alan’s camera, mine on picasaweb and flickr.

Friday was the Scorpion’s bday (well combined party for Kath, Kevin, and Suzie).

We had dinner at BBQ City or King or something.. it was Korean in any case.

Then taxi-ed it up to Cruise Bar.. only i realised i had left my batteries at work to recharge.. and i didn’t have the swipe card to get in T_T

Thought I’d try my luck with the security guard dude and hopped out in front of my building. Luckily i didn’t need to as this dude who was walking in front of me ended up going into my building! =D yay. Also, there were these tipsy chicks loitering outside were happy to see someone swipe into the building… though they were not so subtly making fun of him at the elevator =.= so rude.

Anywho, made it to Cruise without any issues and the night seemed sooooo looong. Was so tired because i was up until 2 or 3am packing.

Photos from Leon, Tim, Kath, and mine on flickr and picasaweb

of the 18th oct weekend

Hmmm … for completeness sake.. I think I shall blog about the events that came up before I left for a 10-day gallavant around in Vietnam.

On Thursday (18th October), Alan, Ram, Mong, Grace, and I resumed our troll through the Sugar Hit list. First, of course, dinner must be had at a Uighur (?) restaurant.

It was the first the girls had been there and while the food was quite strange to them, it was tasty (okay for some dishes anyways) and definitely filling.

We had… ooh lamb skewers (which were loved by all), onion bread (mostly loved by me haha), dumplings, samosa, an eggplant dish, and hand-made stir fried noodles.

Our first Sugar Hit for the night was at the Radisson, which was practically across the road from where we had dinner.

They served with a small glass of the usual Brown Brother’s orange muscat and flora dessert wine:

Mixed berry crepe stack (blueberry, raspberry, strawberry), 5 spice panacotta with palm glaze, roasted macadamia nuts with quandong creme brulee

To be brutally honest, it wasn’t that great. The crepe was floppily rubbery, the creme brulee while interesting taste-wise was runny (the top caramelised sugar layer that’s suppose to be hard and gets stuck in your molars), and the panacotta was 5 spices too many – causing a disorderly rioting rabble on the tongue.

We were warned that the Radisson wasn’t that great, but I guess we just wanted to see what the fuss was about. Now we knew, and disappointedly trekked to our next stop.

The Intercontinental, also mindful of who’s stayed there, was so posh we kinda talked in hushed voices. Sadly, they were out of room in a very prettily decore-ed bar, so we had to make do in the (what looked like) a buffet bar on level 1 (or 2 I can’t quite remember), where all the old people seemed to be.

There, An Loc and Ricardo joined us (much to Ram’s joy as he resumed flirting with Ricardo til the end of the night).

Intercontinental served, with either Hennessy XO or the muscat wine: (supposedly) Caramel Walnut Cognac Slice, Triple Chocolate Hennessey Pyramid, Passionfruit & Strawberry Gelee

I say supposedly, because it didn’t seem like what was given to us. I mean.. look at the one that looks like it’s got a piece of cheese stuck on top! (Turned out to be white chocolate). And one turned out to be coffee-tasting which was rather yuck.

Another disappointment. Alan tried to rally us to go to the Sugar Hit at the Four Seasons, but I just couldn’t bear having another disappointment (and also I was rather full).

So after some classy loitering in front of the Intercontinental, we went home.

All photos of the night: Alan’s camera, mine on Picasaweb and flickr.

Friday saw Tim Z. and I having lunch with Phuong, Alan H., Patrick, Allen, and Alan @ Roof bar or whatever it’s called during the day.

Zomg, the line was loooong and the servings (I thought) were huge. Nice chips! Toasted foccacia!! Niiiiiice.. only sad thing was, when I couldn’t finish my foccacia, they didn’t have a take away option =( boo.

I think I went home after work. I have no photos from that night or a GCal entry. lol

Saturday: Atomic! Geek convention! Wah!!

Actually it wasn’t that exciting. It was smaller than I thought it would be and while it was almost as geeky as I imagined it would be, it wasn’t as fun.

We entered into some comps, walked around and noticed several things:

1. Girls at Atomic were usually show girls in tiny short shorts or skirt or extremely skin-tight clothes, or all of the above with the requisite high heels. There were a couple of geeky girls milling around (not including us *gasp*), but unsurprisingly it was 95% male lol

2. The Cosplay competition drew some hardcore cosplayers. There was a guy as a Wookie, another as a storm trooper – there was a girl storm trooper too!!! <3 - various jedi characters, and some unidentifiable characters from games or sci-fi stuff. Surprised they're mostly star wars characters? hehe I wasn't. But it was fun spotting them and trying to figure out who they were and how much their costume cost... oh and whether or not they were hot in it!

3. Hmm... I think that's about it lol I can't remember

Freebies are freebies and it shall always draw a crowd. They were throwing things into the crowd - some of which had sharp pointy bits >_<

A box hit my arm and onto the ground, the guy behind me picked it up and asked if I wanted it. The Asian blood in me could not resist the offered freebie and demurely accepted.

When we (Leon, Minh, Ram, and I) were thoroughly bored, we went out to have lunch... only to get distracted by games on these huge inflatables (okay there were only two).

Leon and Ram ended up on this gladiator-style inflatable platform with eer.. padded sticks? They looked like oversized cotton buds.

Anywho, it was heaps funny. Ram kept belting Leon around the head, whom would roar "owww" for each hit, and then would try to rally back with hits of his own. Leon scored a massive hit on Ram's hand, which left his hand trembling - that sounded odd neh? But it did.

Of course there had to be a Sparta moment.... =.=

When one of the boys asked later who won, Leon grinned sheepishly and said, “Ram…” Though I thought Leon held his own pretty well =)

Afterwards, since couldn’t bum at Minh’s, we decided to go to Ikea at Rhodes.

Man, Leon and Ram were tooling it up good in there =.=

I loooove Ikea! =D

We then went home to get ready for tonight.

Photos of us messing around being geekier than usual, as well as shenanigans in Ikea, on flickr and Picasaweb.

Carlo’s and Tommy’s bday was held at St. James Hotel.

We had dinner in the bar area – their steaks were goooooood. Ryan didn’t know what sauce to get (aside from the mushroom sauce already there), so he got me three types.

I could only identify 2: mustard and seeded mustard, but didn’t know what the middle one was.

I dutifully spread small amounts of mustard and seeded mustard onto my steak piece (because I thought it was rather bizarre putting mustard types onto steaks.. i mean… what the!) and took a bite. Wah! So good!

So I tried the unidentifiable dollop with the steak and got sucker punched in the face. Omg was that thing crazy hot! But in the wasabi-hot way: hits you and nonchalantly leaves you all dazed, wondering where the heck did that come from.

Tim noticed my reaction and asked what happened, I told him, and he tried a (wisely) smaller dollop of the unidentifiable substance… and coughed, “Whoa, that’s strong.”

Worked out later – okay I lie, Ram worked it out – that it was Hot English Mustard (hey, I suspected, cuz I’ve tried American mustard before and it wasn’t like this). Those crazy English! hahah XD

Anywho, up we went for the party and immediately hogged the bay windows. The bay window seat was unbelievably (and uncomfortably) big, but it was nice still =)

Photos from Kath and me on Picasaweb and flickr.

of birthdays and a bbq

Friday was my supervisor’s birthday. I had told the new intern, Anusha, of the event and that we got him a gelato cake a couple of days earlier. Stupidly, I forgot to tell him not to say anything and he had wished RC a happy birthday and so RC most probably knew that a cake was imminent. *sighs* I guess at least he didn’t know what *kind* of cake =D muhahah

Anywho, it was a PureGelato cake: hazelnut and chocolate. Wah, it was good! XD Got me slightly hyper hahah

Shara called me into her office and whisphered (so RC couldn’t hear), “Why’s the cake 52 dollars?!” >_< I hurriedly explained that the cake itself was only $35, but because it needed to be delivered, there was a $16.50 fee.

She winced... I winced.

"Perhaps we should go back to the old cake shop," she said tactfully. "Get something around here, like Michel's or something, so we don't have to get it delivered." I winced at the mention of Michel's. Alan has totally ruined me for "normal" cakes, bumping my expectations of cakes, desserts, etc higher - and dare I say, a tad more "refined"? lol *dessert snob* XD

Couple of photos on flickr and picasaweb of the team!

Ram and I met up with some of the guys at the noodle markets in Hyde Park, though Ram needed to be at Opera Bar for 2 events, and so he skedaddled soon after.

The chilly wind brought the temperature down – poor Gness was only wearing a tshirt and jeans so he was freezing his butt off – and turned my toes into blocks of ice.

“Leon… can you sit on my feet?” I implored with a puppy dog look. He shot me a what-the look and bemusedly declined. T_T

“Gness… can you sit on my feet?” More puppy dog look with +2 to forlorn-ness.

Awkward pause.

“I don’t think I’m the most appropriate person to do that,” he said carefully. “Because I’m freezing my arse off!” Bah.

Sean distracted me by sharing half of his potato and bacon japanese pancake thing *yummo*, but not being able to ignore my cold, cold tootsies any more I pleaded Sean to sit on my feet.

He laughed.

Then stopped.

Then asked rather incredulously, “You’re not joking, are you?” T_T Apparently Leon and Gness thought it was a joke too! Bah.

Happily, he agreed to sit on my feet =D yay! Mmm warm toes – it really makes a difference!

Not able to take the cold any more, we headed to Shark Hotel, where the guys (Gness and Sean) played pool until Carlo showed up.

Sean, finding out that the cover charge was 25 bucks and was RnB, said a hurried goodbye and went home.

Happily, Carlo got Gness and I into Space for free. =D Awesome. Thanks Carlo ^_____^

Gness and I were trying to find Duy, the birthday boy, but after doing the rounds, realised that he wasn’t there yet! We pondered on the probability of him being drunk and passed out in his hotel room XD hehehe But when Carlo gave a shout out to Duy… Gness and I looked at each other and was like… Hey! He’s here!!!

Hung around for a bit, wished Duy a happy birthday at 12, and then left shortly.

Found Ram in the kebab store on the other side of the road, picking up some random Japanese guy. lol Typical.

Poor Ram had to get up so early to go to Elanor’s bday paintball thing (he got massive bruises from it, and lots of it! lol), while I slept some more til about 11.30am. Dragged my tired bum out of bed to run errands. One of which was to get some waxing done.

After three places, I ended up at the store that my dad and bro usually get their haircut in Liverpool. I told the lady what I wanted and was told to take a seat – “it won’t take long”. Five minutes later, a jolly stout lady shouted from the back of the store filled with guys (at least 4 of them in various states of hair styling), “Who was it that wanted some waxing done?” T_____T I was so embarrassed… to say the least.

One guy jokingly replied, “Me! Me!” Gah.

I have to say… she was very efficient and effective. It took most probably 30 seconds all up lol.

After dropping Ram off at Different Drummers, I made my way to Chiefly Plaza for Addy’s birthday dinner at Sushi Tei… Only problem was… I had forgotten the name of the restaurant and vaguely knew that it was @ Chiefly.

So I called up Minh who, lucky for me, knew the address. I was quite early, so I ambled my way there. While I was waiting for the lights to change, I looked around trying to find a sign that said Sushi Tei. It occurred to me however after not finding it and automatically crossing the road when the indicator thingy went off that it might be situated *behind* me.

And so it was.

I was already about halfway across when I looked, which meant I had to dash back across the road. =.= So silly.

Sushi Tei’s pretty nice and had attentive service. Price wasn’t too bad either. =D

Karaoke was up next and we were there for… I don’t know how long. But there was an Amercian dude there, Richard, who (by his petrified, pasted-on-smile look) was being brutally introduced to K. eheh poor thing.

Somehow we ended up in Cruise Bar, though it was uncivilly crowded inside and smoky outside – so we sat aways away from the joint, chatting and generally freezing our butts off.

We huddled around like penguins – Richard’s sweater was *very* warm ahahah He was the only one out of the group who wasn’t affected by the cold wind. Daym New Yorker =P

After much talk of going on a kebab run or pancakes, we ended up at Pancakes on the Rocks. Awesome.

Pick up annoying Ram, who was barhopping – only because the places they visited were closing up for the night (it *was* 2am after all) – and made us barhop too after him. =_=

As soon as I got into the car, I wished I had brought my work passes and keys – I was totally busting to go >_< By the time I got to the M5 motorway, it was horribly insistent and uncomfortable. Ram told me to just pull over on the shoulder and pee there... but... so many cars! What if they knew what I was doing!? I remembered after the main tunnel was a very dark "rest area" (I don't know why it's there, but it's kinda like a bit of a detour off the road), so I was hanging out for that... only to find that the police had set up a massive RBT there T_T noooooo. whyyyyyyyy!!!!! Bah.

So yes. I did end up going at the side of the motorway, passenger doors wide open and Ram pretending to root through the boot, as if he was looking for something. >_< Double bah.

Anywho! Photos of Addy's birthday night from Addy’s camera and mine (flickr and picasaweb).

Linda had a bbq at her place on Sunday. It was nice to catch up and eat. =D That’s pretty much all we did really. haha

Photos on flickr and picasaweb.

of a relatively quiet weekend

Last Wednesday I met up with Alan at the Westin’s Lounge Bar for lunch… well… a Sugar Hit lunch. lol

The french waiter, however, told me that the Sugar Hit is usually on at night, or (he added) whenever the chefs were ready. I was really surprised because Alan had called them up and was told that it would be available.. twice!

Boo I say!

Disappointed and (I guess) slightly embarrassed, Alan wrote them an Email, which (we found out later on) was answered by the french waiter. He told us that it was regrettable that such a miscommunication had occurred and that “naturally” we were entitled to a free Sugar Hit or High Tea. XD

So come Friday, the waiter who served us was unfailing polite and painstakingly made sure everything was alright. It was funny though that when Alan got there, he was like.. “I’m sorry sir, but that table is Reserved” but when realising that it was reserved for Alan, he said, “Oh! We have been expecting you.” lol Alan got all paranoid and worried that they were going to spit in our food or something. hehehe

We first had the High Tea, which was really filling between two people and quite nice – nothing especially spectacular though. The tea Alan had was Peppermint and I had Carribean Summer (which was quite strong, slightly musky? Not too sure.. cinnamony?).

The Sugar Hit, though, was awesome! =D

Served with a glass of orange muscat and flora was: Seasonal Berries in Aloe Vera Jelly With Citrus Curd and Pineapple Mousse separated by biscotti and garnished with honeycombe noodles. (stolen from Alan’s caption lol). It was oh so scrumdilliumtious! XD

Boy was it hard to eat though! The waiter recommended us eating all the layers together, but the biscotti was a bit too thick to break easily with the spoon and the harder I pressed down, the more the jelly and berries (which were strawberries, bluberries, and raspberries) kinda got squished out. >_<

So I ended up nibbling at the biscotti then cramming the "layers" in after. Classy...

Alan added the Westin photos with the rest of his Sugar Hit photos… and I’ve got photos on Picasaweb and Flickr.

Afterwards, we met up with Ram and some of his IBM friends/coworkers at Maccers, where Alan decided to go home and we drifted off to Opera House after loitering around, as groups tend to do.

There I met some more IBMers and chatted to Ian/Tina and Michelle, congratulated Vivan on her engagement… hmm what else. Leon, Tim, and Gness dropped by …and Tim and Gness accompanied me to the station.

Glad I went home early! Ram didn’t get home til about 3 >_<

Waited about 2 hrs in the doctor’s waiting room to get my Hep A/B and thyphoid shots. Bah, went through so many trashy magazines during that time…

But before that, I bumped into an old primary school friend: Suzanna. It was so surprising to see her; and while it was kinda awkward, it was kinda nice too… even though I felt like some dorky year 6 kid next to her casually glamourous look. Tall, skinny, blonde… face hidden behind reflective sunglasses. (Envious much? lol Admittedly I was… such is insecurity =P )

I was suppose to go to Kelly’s Italian night thing (where the gurls each bring a recipe and decides what to make, go shopping, and cook, etc), but Maria invited us over to mark Joe’s passing of 2 years that same night. While Ram and I usually follow the first-invite-first-attend rule, there are some things which are exceptions to that rule – this was obviously one of them. =P

We had a lovely dinner (had bun seow – basically a vietnamese-style crepe/pancake/omlette and finished off with some yummy cheesecake) and chatting for hours and hours. Was there from 5pm to 11:30pm. It was really good to just hang out and chat ^_^

Anson and I have been emailing each other on geeky things since then heheh

The girls were really thoughtful though… Betty sms’ed me when they were having dinner, then Myle called up to see where I was because they were going to have dessert. I really should have sms’ed them or something, in hindsight… but I guess I kept thinking there was still time to pop over after Joe’s thing.

Sunday: Had yumcha at Tingha in Parramatta, with Uncle Vinh, Aunt Linh, and her father.. and dad and Tim of course =)

Marathoned House on Saturday and Sunday… so much so that every episode seemed the same: heart/lung/kidney/liver failure… bleeding where they’re not suppose to be bleeding. Jaundice! But then again, I guess there’s only so many organs that can go wrong where they can say, “[patient]’s going to die if we don’t figure things out!!! and NOW” And the usual stuff House gets up to. He’s such a bastard sometimes though… <3 Hugh Laurie!!! XD

Minh sent me something about how House and Wilson is kinda like Sherlock Holmes and Watson – the gay-but-not-gay thing hehehe it was rather interesting.

of an uber fat long weekend

Friday: Me whinging about not having peking duck on my graduation night ended up with a *ahem* double date with Phuong and Dat. =D

We ate at BBQ King and it was sooooooo good =D Yay for peking duck!! (Few photos from Dat’s camera and mine – here and here).

Dinner was topped off by ice cream from Passionflower! Mmmm lychee and rose petals (yes weird i know, but it’s just so good!)

A couple of months back, Proxima was acquired by Compuware… then they decided to close off all international offices – including the one they just acquired. Which meant Tien, Ben, Felix, Jelly, Ruby, etc were all out of the job. =(

Happily, all who were looking for a job has had offers and the interns went back to uni.

Anywho, I digress. They were celebrating the end of Proxima at Paddy Macguire’s in Capitol Square, so Ram and I joined them (minus Phuong and Dat, they went home I think).

Met up with Leon and headed home… bumped into like 2-3 groups of Peer Networkers!! How random… lol but it was nice to see them again ^_^

Someone was injured near 3 Wise Monkeys and the ambulance arrived just as we did at the scene… as soon as the ambo came, these bunch of viets pissed off, the girl was on the phone, worriedly talking in viet about the dude who was down. Curiouser and curiouser… hmm..

Saturday: Hmm, what did I do…. Went to the library, then went to Oktoberfest in Fairfield. It was quite fun (except for the plastic horns =.= they were really annoying) and we pretty much ate the entire time we were there… german/austrian food, german/austria desserts, fairy floss!!! mmm sugary goodness lol

Mong and I were sitting there for a long while, realising that the guys have been gone for a while – wondering where they had gotten to. Our musings were interrupted by the opening parade… and we saw them at the back of the parade, with their silly hats on, waving to people. =_=

Photos here and here.

We arrived to Irf’s bday/housewarming party a bit late and it was in full swing when we got there. The lounge room had become a mini dance floor.

“Shot on arrival!! Shot on arrival!!” Irf slurred shouting could be heard over the din of heavy RnB bass and cheering. Apparently everyone had to take a shot of something when they came… even the pizza dude lol.

Mark imbibed a wee bit too much and threw up over the balcony. While Irf, rightfully enough, spent 2 hours in the bathroom alternating between throwing up and passing out.

Leon was given Sean’s cup of wine that a moth had suicided in… we watched him bring the cup up, then put it down to speak, bring it up, put it down… and after several times of this, he finally drank it. Of course we were like “EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW” and when he realised what happened, he turned to me and asked bewilderedly, “Why did you let me drink it!?!?” >_< Because I didn't think you would! You goose...

More dancing, SingStar aaaand ... the police came... so yes, it was rather a wild night. haha

Photos from Kath’s, Tim’s, and Leon’s camera.

Sunday: Bday brekky @ mounties. So full. Just a small group: Phuong, Dat, Ruby, Tien, Myle, and Ed.. oh and of course Ram =D He was still hungover ahhaha. Photos from Dat’s camera

After not doing stuff I was suppose to, like clean my room, I got ready for Vic’s and Swati’s wedding reception and Ram whisked me off to Le Montage. The place was pretty nice and the program was pretty cool.

One of my favourite bits of the night was when Vic’s dad asked Swati to put her left hand on the table, then Vic to place his right on top of hers.

“Vic… I asked you earlier to put your hand on top of Swati’s at the beginning of my speech.” Vic’s dad solemnly said. “I just wanted you to know that this will be the last time you will ever have the upper hand.” XD

Due to a wardrobe malfunction (rather I don’t have enough boobs, wore the wrong bra, and when I moved my arms I would flash someone if they stood at the right angle), I didn’t take that many photos.. but! Some for your viewing pleasure (lol) here and here.

I love my new dress… it’s just light enough to be picked up by the breeze and it’s like… oooh XD (not Marilyn Monroe like, but more like a floaty thingy around my knees ^_^ )

Monday: Floriade!!! Pity we didn’t have access to a tarago, we had to take two cars cuz we had 6 people going: Leon, Ram, Alan, Mong, Betty, Ram, and me… and Betty was going to stay back in Canberra, so 1 carful of ppl home.

Anywho… flowers were pretty nice, except combination of wind, heat, and generally having bloomed already, some flowers had wilted or even lost all their petals! So many photos… took 273, so I really need to sort them out =P

Met up with Carina and had dinner @ Bellucis and dessert at Rubees (frozen custard! but apparently it was a bit runny that day).

Bellucis was quite nice, but price was a bit above average. Rubees was good!! ^_^

See Alan’s photos, Leon’s, Ram’s, and mine (here and here).

Tuesday: Had Thai after work, then we started our Sugar Hit escapades at Sheraton at the Park. (Thanks to Alan for the photos! ^_^)

Sheraton served baked basil-scented Alaska, rose wine poached pear, and vanilla-bean crème brulee.

The crème brulee was awesome and so was the Alaska, which was surprisingly soft (thought it would be similar to a meringue). They served us Brown Brother’s Orange Muscat and Flora. The poached pear was okay.

Swissotel served us white chocolate creme brulee, bitter sweet chocolate sorbet and Toblerone chocolate tower.

The orange muscat and flora was served to us again (though Ram opted for the Hennessey XO), but it was in a small, chilled, fluted glass which made the wine taste so much better! The desserts on the other hand were a disappointment.

Too much chocolate, the tower thing was meh. The creme brulee was pretty awful – eggy at the bottom and barely caramelised at the top.

Shangri-La served us rhubarb and white chocolate gelato, macaron with raspberry ganache, and roast banana gianduja mousse (but it was poach pear mousse).

Definitely the BEST out of the three. Each dessert was great and while it stood on it’s own, I thought it was quite complimentary with the others. Served with Brown Brother’s Cienna and Cabernet (I’m guessing.. could be the other one). I normally don’t like red wines, but this I loved straight off the bat. It was light, not overbearingly sweet, and “spritzy”. hehe

So! That was pretty much my uber fat long weekend. Weight gain is an issue, but it’s Good Food Month >_< bah

Alan and I are hitting The Westin and Radisson tonight - maybe to Selah for dinner =)

Remembered my camera this time! So photos should hopefully be up sooooon.

[Edit 10-10-07: Linked to more photos!]