snow in the summer

Things have been busy since I got to Melbourne.

All in all good and positive so far.

I got in late Tuesday midnight, well, practically Wednesday early AM . Got home past 1AM and hit the sack immediately. Thursday and Friday were then just busy going to meetings, 5 of them in 2 days. It is the equivalent of what I had for 6 months in Vancouver! Unbelievable.

I find things here go at a faster pace, a lot faster, although Melbourne isn’t even quite as dynamic as other parts of Aussie like Sydney. But Vancouver is just amazingly slow, super laid back, and people move unbelievably slowly.

Weather is great right now. It’s early spring and the temperature is nice, except on Thursday when it rained and I was soaking wet trying to get from William St to Flinders St station. Erk! I underestimated the rain here because rain in Vancouver just means drizzle. And I forgot how windy it could get here.

Got my new iPhone 3Gs yesterday. They have a 100-point check thingy here and that’s why I had to wait till now to get a phone line and a handset. They basically have to check your record and you have to furnish sufficient documentation for identity proof before they would hand you a handset.

Got myself registered with Medicare yesterday, so I can be more at peace knowing that health care is covered.

Things here are EXPENSIVE! It is a proven statement.

Coming from North America, I was completely shocked at the prices of things here. What I would get for $6.80 in Canada sells for $14.50 here. A bottle of Sally Hansen is around $4 in NA and $12 here. I could go on to give more examples but you get the point.

They said it is because:

1. Aussie is relatively far away and so cost of transportation of goods jacks up the prices.

2. Aussie imports a lot of their food products from other parts of the world.

3. There is a lack of competition between stores/superstores here, unlike in NA.

But oh well…

More meetings next week. Looking forward to another busy week.

Later, cheers.

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Life Down Under starting out in melbourne

I miss Vancouver already.

Little things that you take for granted and that you will miss when you’ve left..

The fresh, cool, breezy, clean air.

The WEATHER that doesn’t make me feel sweaty or muggy or suffocate me even when I walk for hours and hours.

The WEATHER that is shady, cool, cloudy and rainy most of the time.

The WEATHER that makes you forget everything else when you are tucked in under the blankies.

No need for AC (air-cond). The cold is natural.

The FOOD, OMG. The seafood. The fresh fruits and veggies. My favorite cherries that are picked in the morning and go into my mouth in the afternoon.

The fact that you can walk in to any unheard-of restaurants anywhere and not expect to be disappointed by the food.

The view of mountains and water as I step out of the house and into the car.

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Travel Canada, vancouver en route to melbourne, leaving vancouver, transit in KL, travels

I haven’t blogged in here for so long, and almost kinda lost the momentum.

Anyways… days had been quite busy and packed in Van lately, trying to plan things out, tie up loose ends, and get things ready.

I’m in KL today, en route to Melbourne. 70% of the journey was done yesterday — Van to HK for 13 hours, transit in HK and HK to KL for about 5.5 hours altogether. I’m trying to take a deep breath now before heading to Melbourne and that’s another 8 hours plus transit.

Met some interesting people on the plane yesterday. I couldn’t get an aisle seat as the plane came from New York and was already half filled. Erk I hate middle seats!

So I got trapped between 2 gentlemen from NY. Nice guys though.

And there was this elderly Punjabi lady who was trying to unload her cabin bag from the compartment. The bag was kinda heavy and I didn’t think she would go anywhere trying to move it herself. So I helped her. She is a very noble and sincere looking lady well dressed in her cultural outfit.

After I successfully put the bag on the ground for her, she bowed lightly, and with a very wide happy sincere smile, used her palm to touch my head and tapped on it lightly a couple of times, saying, “Aww… God BLESS YOU!” Her voice reflected how happy she was that I helped her. It was so sweet. Then she asked what my (good) name was, and said thank you.

I was thinking about the whole event as I walked out to the terminal.

Then at HKIA (HK airport), I was pulling my hair out as I spent an hour there just trying to get connected, disconnected, and on and off before I had to just switch off my lappie and board the plane to KL. Urgh!

Anyways… got a busy week ahead in Melb. Meetings and meetings…

Later, cheers Mate!

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Travel Canada en route to melbourne, leaving in vancouver, transit in KL, travel

Went downtown yesterday… it was a hot day and I fell asleep in the car while reading, hehe :p

Anyways, went for a meeting at Blenz and I had this iced moccha. I also ordered a shaken peach iced tea for Sze Zin and guess what… I was kept waiting over the counter long enough to drive me nuts. I can’t stand it when people make me wait like stupid. How was it like stupid? Well, this waiter took my order, I paid, and he passed my order on to his fellow waitress who was then making 3 ice blended’s for another lady. She was swaying her way back and forth ever so slowly and it took her forever to get the 3 cups of order done. Finally she went to my order. Again, moving ever so slowly to just get that 1 iced tea done. Then she put the iced tea on the counter for me. She went back and moved from left to right, right to left, and I was wondering what the heck she was up to.

There were 2 other customers AFTER me, and they both had walked away with their cuppas. I was still standing there watching this not-so-attractive ballet-wannabe movements. The waiter was done with all the orders and it looked to me like both of them were now relaxing while I was still standing there!! I started to get pissed.

“Hey guys, so is this going to take much longer, you think?” I asked both of them.

The waitress looked confused with my comments, and before they opened their mouth, I said “I’ve been waiting here forever, and your 2 other customers who came AFTER I did have also walked away with their orders.”.

The waiter: “Erm… what are you waiting for?” (in very low, polite voice)

Me: (in high-pitch angry voice and face) “MY ORDER!?! What else am I waiting for???”

The waitress then tried to speak in defense, saying that they only had one machine that makes moccha, and that she was working on the other order. I said, “I don’t care about that. It takes too unreasonably long for me to just get my cup of moccha. And 2 other customers have walked away. I have a meeting in progress, you know?”

The waiter handed me a “Friends of Blenz” card rightaway without saying much. It’s basically a card that they give out to customers who are not satisfied so that they get a free item the next time they order. He then went on to apologize, and took over the moccha work by himself.

And guess what, it didn’t even take 1 minute to make my drink when I stand in their face like that. But when I was being nice, they took forever.

Anyways… enough of the emotions.

We had sushi and bento for dinner downtown after the meeting before heading home.

My chicken teriyaki bento that came with salad, 2 pieces of gyoza, and 4 pieces of tempura including 2 ebi tempura. Yum~ Of course I couldn’t finish this all by myself.

And Sze Zin had this tray of sushi (salmon, crab meat and avocado).

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Travel Canada, food, vancouver BC, bento, blenz, canada, coffee, dinner, downtown, japanese food, sushi, van, vancouver, vancouver photos

So… last Sunday I made Bakuteh (Fujian for Pork Ribs Soup) using the Eu Yan Sang herbs and spices from Malaysia. It was my first time ever!!

Yeah, I’m not a cook. I think that cooking takes up lots of time, but last Sunday I decided to give Bakuteh a try. It turned out quite well, actually. =proud grin=

If you don’t know what it is, Bakuteh is a very famous Chinese delicacy. As the name suggests, it uses lots of herbs and spices, and pork ribs as the main ingredients. I used lots of Romaine lettuce, shitake mushrooms and fried tofu puffs. And I also managed to get this fresh red chillies, the kind that is really hot, to go with the soup and steamed rice.

All in all, good meal.

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food bakuteh, chinese fod, food, pork ribs soup