Gong Hei Fatt Choy!!!

GONG HEI FATT CHOY!!!

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wishing you and your family good health and prosperity!

Eat, drink and be very merry!

Had a wonderful day at home with my family. Had reunion dinner last night with a yummy bbq. Today, celebrated the new year with our tea ceremony, and for dinner a yummy chai and steamboat. You got to love chinese dinners at home :) I just wish that CNY was a public holiday as in other countries, lucky that it was on a Sun this year so we crammed in a few dishes from other days of CNY into one!

Day at the races
Went to the Wellington Cup yesterday and had a really great time. Lots of interesting things to see plus money to win or lose depending on your luck :) Some really cool fashion and some absolute fashion disasters. I was a bit on the underdress side of things but I rather have that than be a fashion disaster. I didn't realise how big the whole event was and how much it was a party be it high class fashion to teenagers drinking in the middle of the field.

Wear your sunscreen... *plays the sunscreen song* ...people don't you learn? I saw lobsters out there. Sense would have it that if your skin that's not normally exposed to the sun would mean you'd need a little teeny bit more of sunscreen, obviously someone didn't tell some people.

What's on around the world?

Back in NZ and back to work... fun. It's amazing how the body quickly adjusts to sleeping in over the holidays but it takes so long to retune the body to waking up early enough in time for work :) Soon enough I'll be waking earlier when work starts... although I somehow think that it'd be slightly easier to wake up knowing that you won't be sitting at a desk all day entering data.

Currently looking around for interesing apps to add to this site.

I've been looking around online on the little cool things that people make and have managed to find this buzztracker that traces the world news - it's the map on the right that has the red dots.

I also found this site: Newsmap site

Day 8 : 8 Jan : Home time

Home time
End of a holiday, end of a good time away. Had a great week away from it all and not having to work. You know that you've enjoyed yourself when you wish you could stay longer to see or do more things. So it was definitely a great time away. I think we'll be back pretty soon :)

Travellers tip: never forget about Tax Refund Schemes!!!
In Australia, if you spend over $300 in one store you get your GST back! :)
The only problem, you have to have the goods on you to show proof. Unfortunately, you have to show it to them after immigration which means it's going to be handluggage... make sure you bring a suit bag so you can have all your clothes that you bought in it!

Day 7: 7 Jan : speed shopping and finding the cool shots

To market to market we go...
Paddy's Market, if you want anything, search and ye shall find some pretty good bargains. Still love going to Paddy's Market, it's just the pleasure of being able to pick some cool stuff plus see some funny things.

We manage to get a 5min massage... highly recommended. With the amount of walking around with a bag on my shoulders, I did not realise how sore and stiff my shoulders were until mr massage person went for it... ouch but good. Now I see why there are so many people advertising for massages in backpacker hostels.

MC Luksa
As ever we continued our search to try out Laskas from Sydney. Upstairs Paddy Market we found MC Luksa ("McLucksa"). Yum yum yum.

Shop shop shop
Spend our last full day around the center of town with the aim of visiting the QVB and do a little bit of shopping... oops I did more than a little bit of shopping. At least now I'm happy to say that I have a few more items to wear before I start work ;)

Food critiques tour:
MC Lucksa
Budget: $ c'mon it's cheap asian food and always under $10 :)
Big range of lakas to try out from your typical ones to Penang Laksa... yummy!

Day 6: 6 Jan : Lions, Tigers & Bears ...oh my!!!

Zoo time!

With the threat of thunderstorms, Nick & I headed off to the zoo. :) Took a nice & short ferry-ride to the Zoo and got to go on the Cable car that headed up to the main entrance.

One of the big things that you notice at Taronga Zoo is space. The animals don't really have a lot of room to roam about when compared to Wellington or Auckland zoo. One of the saddest ones are the birds, with such a large wingspand, you'd think that condors would be in a big enough site. Wrong, two big birds in such a small space. At least the zoo is undergoing reconstruction, so hopefully more of the animals get their space.

Feeding time
I've normally seen lions and tigers just sitting in the shade minding their own business. Not today, Nick & I were lucky enough to be visiting those sites just as feeding time was to take place. Those lions and tigers really know when they're getting fed. We stayed by the tigers and waited till they were fed. Here are some of the really awesome pics:

[pics to be inserted]

Sydney Rocks!
Literally. Seriously.

After the zoo we had a look around Circular Quay and then to the Rocks. Having been to the market at the Rocks before, I expected that we'd just roam about the streets seeing what the place is like outside of market time. Not quite. We walked all around the whole Rock. Literally The Rocks sit on a very VERY large piece of rock and we walked all around it from the side facing Circular Quay right around. It's interesting to see how a whole area can be carved up, almost as if it's on an island of Rock.

Ya Uber-great!
Having tried a variety of foods, we went quite the opposite for dinner and opted for Bavarian instead of Asian. :) This was definitely an experience! Imagine being in a packed restaurant with a whole lot of waiters dressed in old fashioned German costumes (as in short short, bracers, short skirts, tops with fuffy sleves...). Not only there, there was a bank playing everything from German music to the chicken dance... You'd think this is a place for tourist but it was mostly local Aussies there :)
May I introduce you to the Lowenbrau...
Bars: cool... they serve you in large glasses that come in 3 sizes: 0.3, 0.5 and 1 litre!
Food: a little bit of something everyday
Alcohol: it's an experience just to try getting schnapps served to you on a long wooden board (sorry no pics, wish I had tho) plus also having 0.5 litres of beer to yourself (or more ;)).
Patrons: funny - imagine a restaurant full of people raising their glasses and swaying side to side singing along to some tune.
Recommended: hell yes, it's an interesting experience in itself.

Food critiques tour:
Lowenbrau
Budget: $$$$ well really it's anything between $50-$100 for two people but if you throw in alcohol make it a lot more :)
It has 2 bars, one attached to the restaurant and UberBar which seems to attact trendy Sydneysiders as well as the gawkyest tourists (not us by far).
Comments: not really that much of a tourist trap - it's only the upstairs bar that funny tourists walk in with their shorts, bags, hats...

Day 5: 5 Jan: rain rain go away...

just another lazy day... supposed to go into the city but it's raining. I have to admit that i like the rain here, it just goes straight down, or at a slight angle if there's a slight breeze. None of this Wellington business where the rain comes from the sides or Auckland rain where it swirls at your feet and goes up! Nice and cooling, so the temperature is cool in the low twenties.

Stayed at the house and hung around Macquarie. Fun to watch people learn how to ice skate at Macquarie, I just can't wait till the new ice rink is built in Wellington.

Thank goodness for Thursday late night shopping! Shops open late and you can go around in the cool evening to see things.

Food critiques tour:
unhealthy stuff :)
Managed to try Aussie versions of
- fish and chips - mega expensive for your plain and simple fish and chips! I paid AU$6.50 for a small
- aussie meat pie

Pedometer:
5433 + 700 that's what you get when you're lazy :) altho only for when i was out of the house :)

Rain rain go away... come back another day

Day 4 : 4 Jan : 50 60 80

I should be at work but I'm driving around Sydney instead

Macquarie - easy driving
Went to Macquarie when the shops were open but only had a quick look around. We were interested with Chatswood so off we went.

50 60 80 Driving Sydney 50 60 80
Wherever you drive it's either 50 = absolute residential driving filled with humps, 60 = main roads, 80 bigger than main roads/motorways/highways.

Driving to Macquarie is essentially driving down a v long road = easy
Driving to Chatswood is another story
Not that it's hard, with Nick as my trusty navigator I can't go wrong direction-wise. What's hard is which lane to take. It's normally really obvious in NZ as there's normally one lane. However let's say going down Epping Road there are 3 lanes which then split into at least 5 lanes when you get to the traffic lights, it makes turning at traffic lights interesting... you don't know whether the road you're turning into is one, two or three lanes so you don't know if you should be on the absolute right lane or can be on the second to right lane.

I've learnt to switch lanes faster in much more congested traffic now :) Don't worry the car is perfectly fine, I've had NO close calls or anything like that. Just learnt how to move quicker than in NZ. I now wish that I have my own automatic car. Ok I wish I had a car, but now I want an automatic one. :) All in all the drivers are rather nice drivers.

Another curiousity is that if there are 2 lanes you really should drive on the right to avoid driving into parked cars. Have found out that in the evenings, people tend to park their cars on the left lane so beware.

Yum char - thousand seater style
Found a thousand plus seater yum char restaurant in Chatswood Westfield. Imagine Grand Century restaurant but double or triple the size and put in a ton more of tables with streamline lanes for carts, waiters for food, drinks and payment allocated to the different quarters of a room and you've got yourself a well-oiled yum char restaurant.

Survival of the shops
What I have found interesting in Chatswood is the survival of small independent shops. Chatswood has two shopping centres - Westfield and Chase. I love the shopping centres but I also like walking around malls/pedestrian only streets. It's interesting in an area such as Chatswoods with two giant shopping centres, the small shops not attached to the mall survive and are bustling. Strength of the spending power :)

Food critiques tour:
Kam Fook - Chatswood Westfield
Budget: $$ (under $50)
An experience to be had to see so many people having yum char. Even at 1:30 it's still packed and you have to take a number to get in!

Vietnamese place
To be critiqued :)

Pedometer:
15361 + 700 steps which is over 6.144km

Day 3: 3 Jan: Rest em feet

Didn't get up to much today, mostly rested the feet.

Direct Factory Outlets: only worth it during sales
In the afternoon we headed to the Direct Factory Outlet for a spot of bargain shopping. Truthfully, it's an overglamourised place a bit like Dressmart. Only worth going if there are sales going on like the New Year Sales. Otherwise, you're better off paying a few (and I do mean only a few) dollars more and going into the city to get some proper service and products.

The Rivers store was supposed to be a superstore with lots of stuff... yeah sure they have lots of stuff that's supposed to be cheaper but we found it was only a few dollars. Not only that, it was a self-serve place so if you couldn't find the left foot, you're on your own.

Other shops had annoying staff that just wanted to make the sale. Fake niceness was just oozing out of them.

There are some genuinely cheaper shops like the perfume one but you have to know what you want, locals know the normal price and flock to these stores... get in, grab it, get out.

Food critique tour:
DFO foodcourts: Subway and some other bakery thingie
Subway: service is terrible, they don't know how to make things and extremely slow
Bakery thingie: crusty bread thing

Comments:
DFO isn't worth the hype ...only go there during sales
I remember going to another factory outlet place when I was younger, now that was worth your money. Unfortunately I can't remember where it was. Go to a proper factory outlet store if you want a bargain not a pseudo factory outlet retail store.

Pedometer:
14257 + 700 steps = over 5.702km

Day 2: 2 Jan: These boots were made for walking...

... and they'll walk all over you! : 2 Jan : Day 2

So what follows the 2nd hottest day recorded in Sydney... rain of course!

Nevertheless we headed into the city...

~> !Travel tip!
Get a Sydney TravelPass! It's cheaper than those tourist passes! $47 ...it covers a massive region and includes train, bus and ferry!

I love overseas public transport. The bonus about Sydney trains are it's speed, it's quiet, size and they are DOUBLE DECKERS! :)

We headed for Central Station and had a quick exploration of the Queen Victoria Building. Again, we've noticed that Sydney retailers are silly. 2 Jan you'd think there'd be extra tourists in the city, still most of the retailers (except for the few smart ones and food places) were closed. *duh*

It's on sale Sale SALE!!!
Had a nice look around the QVB, then set a course for exploring downtown CBD shopping district :) We went up and down George St and Pitt St exploring the large shopping centres and Meyers (was Grace Bros), David Jones, Centrepoint, Pitt St Mall and anywhere else in between. We still have to go back to a few places. Why? Why it on sale of course! It's a good time to shop, but it's a bad time for your credit card. We didn't go crazy, have a list of things to get so we're not spontaneously shopping. :)
Special mention to David Jones, as Nick noticed, it has that special charm as Kirks, old-fashioned registers with notes stuck all over it, and the people addressing you by your name.
Also managed to find Dymocks. I love big bookstores, it's not the biggest bookstore that I've been in but nice to just browse around and see what is out there. Nice little cafe to rest our feet too.

These boots were made for walking and walk and walk they will do...
Even though you've been walking to and fro from work everyday or that you're in nice comfy shoes, it makes no difference it's a fact that you'll get very sore feet.

A bar somewhere - off George street
The identity crisis bar: Old meets new
Found another place to rest our feet. It's quite funny seeing how Sydney keeps on upgrading itself. We ended up in a place that seemed like an old wateringhole but the decor was trying to be upmarket. Result: mix of guys wanting to sit down with their beer, a few chicks and plus a couple of tourists :)

The tourist mover - monorail
Memories from taking the monorail when I was little was that it was empty and you could do as many rounds... wrong... jam-packed just like a Malaysian MRT, only managed to do 3/4 of the loop.

~> !Travel tip!
The Sydney monorail requires you to buy a "ticket" which is really a token that you slot into the machine to enter the platform so there's no ticket required when exiting. Take advantage and if it's not too full, stay on the monorail for as long as you like.

Laid back lifestyle
Te Papa, Wellington closes at 6pm so in a major tourist city where I'm sure there are over 100,000 visitors a day, you'd think that museums or other tourist attractions would be open much later. Tough luck. The Powerhouse Museum closed at 5pm so don't even head over there after 4pm. Must be the laid back lifestyle. Even the people walk slow and if you're thinking about getting good speedy service, you have another thing coming.

Laid back attitude to technology too... Credit card = sign sign sign
In NZ you can attach a pin no to your credit card not in Australia. Even though the eftpos machine says enter pin after you press credit, you still have to sign for it. You know, when I went to Australia a few years back, they were still getting to grips with eftpos, they still are. In NZ, min eftpos purchase is $2... in Australia, min eftpos purchase is $20... go figure.

If there's business to be made, trust the Chinese to be the ones open
If everything else is closed, the place to head towards is Chinatown. Everything was still bustling with people, almost all shops open and streets packed with people and tourists right into the night.

~> !Travel tip! : Paddy Markets
If you're a tourist and you're going to the markets, don't BE a tourist. Nick & I were at a stall with other tourists. Stupid things they did:
1) made it very obvious that they thought it was very cheap;
2) took the price as given;
3) told the guy where they were from (unfortunately they were NZers - Mr Stall Holder was smart enough to say "Kia Ora" and amuse the tourists whilst trying to sell another shirt).
So what if it's Sydney people! You're in a market you should still try to strike a bargain. Admittedly it is Sydney so the bargain is only a few dollars. The tourists paid full price, we paid a lot less :) nuff said

... ain't that a Darling?
Walked around Darling Harbour and really felt touristy :)

We have pigeons, they have these...

Went back to Chinatown to search for dinner. Interesting drink stalls at the foodcourts... no biggie that he's selling water, soft drinks, juice and of course... alcohol :) I kid you not... alcohol... anything from your common wine to your stellas, heinekens and a few spirits too!

Food critiques tour:
Sumo Salads - Centrepoint (?)
Budget: $ (under $10 per person)
Food: why salads of course
Comments: Yummy yummy yummy. Healthy, tasty, satisfying and as expensive as fastfood. Eat greens or processed meat in between cardboard? The choice is rather obvious. It was pretty cool, they even weighed the serving to make sure they were giving you enough stuff like chicken in the salad.

Food court - Chinatown, back one of the entry ways on Dixon Street and it's below street level
Budget: $ (under $10 per person)
I love Asian style food courts, wished that we had them in NZ. Altho a bit curious in their food
- Laska - very creamy and too much coconut milk, quite bland
- Gado Gado - ingredients that even Nick couldn't figure out... you know its a bit sus
- ice kachang - yum!
- crush ice lychee - yum
I managed to find a Laska, but Nick didn't so he's on a search to find Aussie-style Laska

Pedometer:
29139+700 steps just walking around the city. Apparently it's over 11.655km!

...and these boots will walk over you!

Day1: 1 Jan: The 2nd Hottest Day Ever Recorded

1 Jan: Day 1: Hot hot hot! : You know when you go to Sydney, you're in for sunshine and more sunshine plus it'd be hot... it got a little bit too hot

Interesting start to the day :
1 Jan so I expected the neighbours upstairs to be up... yep where they up. I swear that I went will go crazy hearing Bon Jovi played one more time. Didn't get any sleep at all... was counting on at least 2-3 hours sleep but no luck. Only by the time we left for the airport the party was winding up.

Arrived at the airport 4:30...nice. Surprisingly there lots of other people for a new years 4:30 tho quite a few planes going that day. Our plane was only half full so that was good.

Flight: uneventful - didn't get to flyover the city upon arrival
Landing rating: 7.5 - pretty good few bumps - v slow descent - thought that it was going to stall in midair.
Arrival time: 7amish... still a whole day to explore!

Had a short power nap and decided to walk to the Eastwood Shops... hot hot hot! Even Nick said it was hotter than the Hawkes Bay.
The temperature gauge said it was 44+degrees celsius.
Found out at night that today was the hottest New Years Day recorded and then it was recorded as the 2nd hottest day ever to be recorded!!! (Hottest day ever recorded was 44.3!) Hmmm we should have tried raw egg and see if it cooked on the ground!

Lessons learnt:
* Bottled water by "Mount Franklin" tastes weird
* price of Coke is expensive to say the least! Cheapest place to buy it is from vending machines. Tastes a bit bland compared to NZ
* not many people wear hats for sun protection, looks like if you want sun protection you have an umbrella

Food critiques tour:
Place: Excellent BBQ Kitchen - Eastwood Shops
Budget: $ cheap asian food need i say more :)
Food:
- BBQ pork & noodles - ok though char siew could do with a longer cook so that it caramalises
- siew mie - big and chunky
- crispy skin chicken - nice
- crush ice lychee - yummy!!! so so sooooo good on a hot hot hot day

Comments:
Retailers make money on 1 Jan - no way!
With a bit of spare time to take things easy we popped over to the Macquarie Shopping Centre... it was closed! The place was packed with cars and people walking around aimlessly trying to get in, the only thing open was the cinema and fast food! You'd think that if you want to make a lot of money you'd be open because everyone was on holiday! It was almost as if it was a Boxing Day Sale down there except shops weren't open!

Pedometer:
9720 + misc700
Not bad only to Eastwood shops and walking around Macquarie for a short while, didn't count other times

Sydney 06

Yay! Nick & I are in Sydney! We're here from 1 - 8 Jan so we're enjoying our time away :)

Aims of this trip:
* have a break
* go sightseeing
* food critique tour :)
* shop shop and shop :)

Also keeping an eye on how far i'm walking each day when we leave the house.