I've just dropped my test database.
There's about a year's worth of data in there and it's never coming back.
and I hate senior managers who don't read their email before asking you to do stuff.
and graphics algorithms that just won't work because there's a tiny bug somewhere.
Today just isn't my day.
oh my god.
I am exhausted. I was supposed to be doing some leisurely unpacking today, but instead I spent eight hours cleaning out a tiny two bedroom apartment. :p
This included:
- clearing out all random junk that we didn't move the day before
- making about eight hundred trips to the garbage room
- making about four thousand trips to the car
- washing the bathroom
- vacuuming everything
- steam cleaning the carpets
- mopping the wooden floors
- wiping down all horizontal surfaces to clear off dust
- cleaning the windows, including outside
- de-greasing the oven
- helping to move the World's Heaviest TV down the stairs
- carrying a steam cleaning machine down the stairs
Notable mentions of the day:
We managed to fill an ENTIRE car to the brim with stuff. Rented steam cleaner, fan, ironing board, plastic chairs, buckets, bins, clothes racks, clothes, boxed goods, more kitchenware and random food, etc. It was like that experiment where you have three glasses: one filled with pebbles, one filled with sand, and another with water. You put the pebbles in the car first, then when you realise you have more stuff to cram in, you start pushing sand into the holes between pebbles. Then when you realise you have even MORE stuff, you get desperate and water fills in the bits between the sand until you have a solid entity that you can't separate, but you've managed to do the seemingly impossible and fit the contents of three cars into one car. The downside is if you need to find an individual item (such as one's phone as it rings while one is driving), you can forget it.
Special mention goes to the three hundred plastic bags that we had accumulated between us.
We didn't have any lunch, either :(
I also had a fun (read: horribly stressful) adventure where I went to buy cleaning products and managed to wedge the car against a pillar while parking in a narrow spot. The worst part is, it wasn't my car :( My predicament was noticed by a woman who parked next to me, and then a guy driving by in his car, who had an idea that if he got enough guys he'd be able to lift the car up and move it over a few inches. After a couple of valiant tries, he flagged down more men to help. My rescuer ended up being a charming gay man who instead of using brute force just waved his hand and exclaimed "Oh, don't worry darling! if you just turn the wheel and reverse out you won't scratch your car. Here, darling, I'll do it for you" -- and like magic, it was done. My hero! It was a bright spot in an otherwise horrible day.
packing
Packing has been a nostalgic adventure. I've come across things I forgot that I owned, like square white plates, pie moulds and lots of little gadgety things. I have a lot of stuff just
around the place, but not often used. I'm sure I could live comfortably anywhere as long as I had a bed, blankets and an internet connection.
Putting my life into boxes feels very sad. You shouldn't be able to quantify me as a person by the stuff that I own, yet if I didn't have all these things I'm sure I wouldn't be the person that I am...
It hasn't quite sunk in that I'm moving yet. I guess I'll miss my room and its frustratingly dim lighting. I'll miss the massive balcony window that I have (but I probably won't miss the balcony, because I never used it :p). I'll miss the wooden floors, the granite kitchen, the downlights, and the palatial bathroom with no window - especially the superb shower pressure and temperature. Goodbye to my massive mirrored floor-to-ceiling built in wardrobe with ample cupboard space. I'll miss you. I'll miss little Erskineville village, the awesome thai place three minutes up the road, and King st only ten minutes' walk away. I will especially miss the ten minute commute to and from work or the city. I will *not* miss the cockroaches, or the funny mould growing in the corner of the laundry, or the not-very-blockout blinds, or the traffic noises early on Saturday mornings. I will very comfortably live without our dodgy garage where people steal radiators and floor mats from your car on your birthday (bastards. :p) and I surely won't miss paying rent money to anonymous people. Or dealing with incompetent real estate agents.
Just typing this list out has already made me twice as nostalgic as when I started. Perhaps it's wise that I stop and get back to the packing...
thoughts of a soon-to-be ex-tenant
Moving day is fast approaching. We don't actually have any internet connectivity, and the house is getting gradually packed up, so it feels less like home. I spent yesterday sorting through my clothes, making three piles: stuff I want to keep, stuff I want to give to the salvation army or smith family, and stuff that I want to auction on eBay :p I feel ashamed that I have clothes I've never worn before. How lame is that?
I spent tonight packing up the kitchen, since most of it is mine. I remember when we moved in, we inherited a whole moving box of kitchen goods from my parents' house - stuff like tupperware, sandwich maker, pots and pans, mugs and utensils. Now I'm leaving with all that, *plus* my own baking trays, scanpan cookware, cake mixer, blender, more tupperware, more crockery, and even more utensils. It doesn't fit into one box anymore. :|
We lined up all the champagne corks we've collected over the past year along the window sill and took a photo. There's literally a pile of corks. I feel very sorry for our livers (mostly Alison's), and that wasn't even all the corks from the champagne we've opened. I remember we threw away at least 10-15 about three months after we moved in....
The story of our internet is kind of amusing: TPG forgot to tell me that they can't cancel my internet halfway through a billing cycle, so internet just stopped on the 21st of the month. I tried to use it yesterday and the helpdesk guys just told me that my account was inactive and to call back tomorrow to find out why. Thanks, guys! Anyway, I couldn't be bothered to pay $50 to reconnect it for 4 days when I really shouldn't be distracting myself with internet anyway, so it helped, even though it is mightily painful to be cut off from the outside world... for instance, we couldn't take advantage of the Desperate Housewives/Heaven promotion that was advertised on TV last night, which promised a box of their new ganache heaven ice creams delivered TO YOUR DOOR within 2 hours if you register on the website.... mmm...
Tomorrow I have to cancel all the other utilities like the phone, gas and electricity.
Tonight was our last night when both of us are in the house; we watched the O.C like old times but without the pink and without the cheese. Tomorrow night I'm having drinks at The Rose with the Eclectical gang, Thursday I'll be packing, Friday I'll be picking up the trailer and such, and Saturday is D-Day.
Here's to the last week of sleeping in. I'm going to miss waking up at 8:30!
wedding of the year
On paper, this weekend looked crazy: Gab's work farewell drinks and mum's birthday on Friday night, The Wedding on Saturday, and Gab's uni group farewell on Sunday. In amongst all these social events I was supposed to be packing in preparation of The Big Move next Saturday (yeah, right) and hoping that everything was generally going to plan.
Well, it all turned out okay in the end, if you ignore the fact that I didn't pack a single thing.
Mum's birthday dinner was a nice evening. We ate at the Hurstville Chinese Restaurant, then afterwards I went back and we played with Dad's new karaoke system. Jasmine seems to behave herself much better after going to training, so she was allowed to stay in the house with us for pretty much the whole night and she didn't even chew on anything. Bonus!
Deb and Greg's wedding was wonderful. The ceremony was held in St Brendan's church in Annandale, followed by a reception at La Mirage in Five Dock. It's the first church wedding that I've been to where I've known the couple. The best part was being able to catch up with old Squiz friends, including Blair, who'd flown all the way from the UK to attend! That's true dedication.
The reception was lots of fun - Greg and Deb both looked stunning, and the bridesmaids as well. Agi looked very sporting in his tux and gave a hiliarous speech that only the squizians from The Golden Age really understood the jokes to. It's amazing how much he managed to fit into there, including a reference to The Avalanches' song Flight 22; Greg going home drunk in a towel from Blair's party; all the lunches we had at various places including Japanese in Norton St Plaza...
There was ample food, including some extra courses I didn't expect to be catered for (an appetiser which I thought was entree, and a second dessert!), however the best thing was the dancing element. They spaced out the courses with dancing in between, so of course I got up and grooved my way around the floor. I had fun dancing with Rodders (who was acting a tad drunk) and Blair, but Gabs was my main dance partner. I think the higlight for me was that Xerx and I got the chance to show our Cha Cha on the dancefloor! It was SO much fun using the ballroom dancing classes to finally do some social dancing :)
They had some small bonboniere made from the same stationery as the invitations - silver with royal blue mesh paper which was very delicate. The decorations overall were immaculate, very crisply white and elegant. Ali turned up in a bow tie which I thought was adorably cute!
Afterwards, Blair, Rodney and I went for drinks at Zanzibar to catch up on the past 3 years. I think Blair's had a lot of fun over there, travelling to various places like Iceland (Iceland!) and around europe of course... he's thinking of moving out of London just for a change. He offered me his place to crash if I'm ever in the UK again, which was really nice. We were all falling asleep at around 2:30, so we headed off home but I'm sure I'll catch up with those guys again soon :)
Today was Gab's farewell at her parents' house in Pymble. She has a really nice front yard full of trees but with a paved area which is ideal for barbeques and friendly gatherings... the downside being that you have to drive to Pymble! The weather was cool, but it was nice seeing her house again. We moved the party inside and had a fun afternoon just chatting, playing Cluedo, arguing with Chito that stockings are NOT comfortable, laughing hilariously when he tried a pair on, building up a log fire, and eating all their great BBQ food.
We gave her the cash for her camera, so she'll hopefully get the chance to buy it during the week and play with it before she goes. T minus 5 days for her, and T minus six for me.
the joys of syndication
I can't believe it's taken me so long to start subscribing to rss feeds.
I like to think of my brain as a CPU. It's capable of processing vast amounts of information, but only if I take advantage of that capability and give it stuff to process. I've wasted so many idle cycles in the past few years by manually visiting sites I like to check for updates, instead of channelling it all back to my doorstep. There's so much useless information out there that could be stored in my brain
right now, but instead I'm eating almond pocky and lamenting my ignorance. I'll never be able to catch up on stuff I missed!
Clearly, I'm a geek by profession only.
google fever
Alison and I just spent the past two hours drooling over
google's new jobs and
darling harbour offices in Sydney.
I would LOVE to apply for a job at Google, just to see the kind of stuff they do, but I'm not qualified for any of the IT jobs available :( Alison, however, IS actually qualified for a job in online services and will probably apply for one (hence two hours of drooling, updating resumes, delving into old transcripts, etc)
In case you haven't noticed yet, I'm a huge Google fan. Possibly even the world's biggest google fan (in the non-merchandise-wearing fan category). Google can do no wrong in my eyes, and they're
always coming up with new and exciting online gadgets to organise or index my life. The fact that they're building up a sydney base is exciting news to me. You go, Google.
Anyway. I actually meant to write about my evening today, but got a little bit distracted.
Tonight we (me, Gabby, Hunt and some of the sorority house gals) went for a drink at
the rose of australia followed by dinner at Stir Crazy Thai across the road. The Rose is my local pub, and I'm ashamed to admit that I've never stepped a foot inside until tonight. I have only myself to blame for not discovering the diverse cocktail menu earlier, which includes mars bar infused vodka and five different types of chocolate liqueur. Just think: I could have been drinking myself stupid at happy hour for the past 18 months! The bar is actually quite trendy inside, and the food menu is tempting, though we opted for thai given Gabby's impending departure to non-asian shores.
The thai food was good as always, and following the recent norms it was fun catching up with a small group of people I don't see very often. I haven't really spoken to Hunt or Connie since Japan, so we reminisced a bit and ate some fantastic thai food. (Stir Crazy, you rock my world!) For the record, we had Panang Duck Curry, Tofu cashew nut stir fry, and Pad Thai. So very delicious. We finished up at about 9:15 and I got home three minutes later in time to see the end of the O.C. with Alison & co. I'll definitely miss the commuting times when I move back home :(
The rest of the night is already spoken for. :p
One frustrating thing about today: I forgot to cancel my direct debits for rent, so I've overpaid $140. It's probably going to take our inept real estate agent six weeks to organise a refund.
surprise!
One of the more delightful benefits of moving out is the random phone calls from real estate agents who want to show prospective tenants around. It's just like a surprise inspection, only there's no reward at the end of it, e.g. no rise in the amount of rent you pay. You just have to furiously clean the place, hide away your valuables, and pretend that the apartment was always like this while you've been staying here.
We've had two phone calls for prospective tenants already, one
outside of the 14 day period when we're obliged to let the real estate agents have access to the property. Ordinarily I wouldn't be too bothered, but a) our real estate agents are thick as a pile of bricks, and b) they don't seem to understand the concept of "advance warning". Our conversations went something like this:
Agent: Hi, it's Justin from the real estate, I was wondering if I could show people around your apartment this Saturday?
Me: Uh... not a good idea. The place should probably be cleaned first. (read: people probably don't want to see the cockroach traps, and we have to hide away all our valuables).
Agent: Oh, that's okay! (fake laugh) we always show apartments when people are moving. I'm not bothered by the mess.
Me: (stoic) We are. And isn't this Saturday before the 14 day period?
Agent: It is, but we've had so much demand for this property! It's been very well received.
Me: Interesting. (hops online, finds it listed for $35 per week MORE than what we are currently paying. Insanity!)
Agent: So can we do Saturday?
Me: (pause) We'd really prefer not to.
Agent: Well, okay. (fake laugh) How about next Saturday?
Me: Fine.
Agent: (more fake laugh) okay, I'm going to hold you to that one!
Me: Whatever.
Cut to the next weekAgent: Hi, it's Charles from the real estate here, can I make an appointment to show tenants around tomorrow? (note: time of phone call was 5:54pm)
Me: Say, didn't you people call up earlier last week to arrange an appointment for next saturday?
Agent: Oh, really?
Me: Yeah. Really. Nasally guy with a fake laugh - answers to the name of Justin?
Agent: OH! you've been speaking to Justin?
Me: No - I made him up. Listen, perhaps you people should employ an assistant, or even outlook to coordinate these phone calls.
Agent: Let me just check with Justin and get back to you.
Me: holding my breath.
I can't wait for further adventures of moving out, including Packing Up My Life Into Small Boxes, Cancelling Utilities, Working Out What To Throw Away Instead Of Moving It, Heaving Furniture Lifting, Dusting (part 1), Cleaning The Bathroom Till Shiny and Dividing Up Household Posessions. It will be an interesting two weeks.
just like "Friends"
We've just worked out that Alison's life is straight out of a Warner Bros TV show ("Friends", in case you haven't read the title of this post).
There are some minor cultural differences, like inner city terrace houses instead of New York apartments, and a higher girl:boy ratio, but the basics are there. I present the facts to you:
1. Three of her friends are already living in a terrace house in the inner city (the "Monica and Rachel" household) where most of the group gatherings have been hosted lately.
2. She is about to move in with two other people from her social group (the "Joey and Chandler" household) which will become a secondary venue for group gatherings
3. Her group features a "Ross and Rachel" style on-again, off-again couple
4. Two of the group are brother and sister (I'm awed they still talk to each other; I think if I spent that much time around my brother we'd probably disown each other in a few months)
5. There is no shortage of shrill people who fit the Monica bill
6. They're all twentysomethings afraid to break out of the codependence phase
The more we thought about it, the more pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Some of the people might be a tad offended at which character they've been labelled with, so that remains a secret for now.
If my life had to resemble a TV show, I'd definitely want
the O.C: the attractive, brooding, heart-of-gold boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks; the society parties; the wardrobes; the mansions AND, of course, the Cohen family (Go Seth! Go Kirsten and Sandy! Best TV Family Ever!)
soccer madness
Also, in an episde of "unbelievable events that actually happen in real life", Ling scored World Cup tickets to Australia vs Brazil and Australia vs Croatia (I think?) matches, but SHE'S NOT GOING TO GERMANY.
This scenario would be okay if she could on-sell the tickets for a massive profit, but she can't. The tickets aren't transferrable or refunable - you need to pick them up using your passport as ID - so she's paid $800 for tickets to two soccer matches she won't get to see. omg.
decadence
I'm writing this while sitting on my bed. I've never been able to do that before, and it's
awesome. Laptops rock.
I just came back from Gus' "it's the end of the world as we know it!" cocktail party, which looked a lot like a regular party with alcohol and BBQ. It was cool seeing people that I rarely see, like Ian T, Hoa and Ling. I had a lot of fun, mostly because the guys were making a lot of lame jokes that became funny as a result of the alcohol. Hoa seemed to have a preoccupation with dominatrix (dominatria?) and Gabs and I made blackerry friands. mmmmm... blackberry friands... We also played pictionary on George's A2 architect paper, which resulted in some golden moments - would
you draw the mona lisa and a door to describe the word "secret"?
Good times. We've made some plans to go hiking in the blue mts on the June long weekend, so fingers crossed that comes to fruition.
the sun shines on some
I'm glad those
miners in Tasmania are free. The rumour is they'll get
up to $3 million in deals with the media to sell their story. Eddie Macguire has flown down to Tasmania to shout people beer; David Koch is climbing into ambulances; everyone's trying to get a slice of the pie.
It's scary to think they were trapped in a tiny box for two weeks. They spent five long days wondering if they were going to make it out alive. And then spent a further nine days after they were discovered snacking on muesli bars and waiting for a big enough hole to be dug out.
In the same time period, I walked from Manly to The Spit, spent $62 on taxi fares, swam 2.5 kilometres, flew to Malaysia and back, attended a wedding, visited the physiotherapist three times, bought a laptop, spent 32 hours at work and ate McDonalds twice (I regret this part).
Smack me if I whinge about being bored or having nothing to do ever again.
amusement.
so,
this is their secret plan to win people back...
the mushrooms
Okay, there's a back story to this. Ever since Xerx and Kel house sat last October, there has been a can of buttered mushrooms sitting in the pantry. We don't use canned mushrooms - I like using fresh mushrooms in my cooking. So, the can has been sitting around next to the danish syrupwaffle and tomato paste for a good eight months now.
Not having much in the house (since I just came back from Malaysia - yes, I feel quite decadent) and since we're moving out in a few weeks, we decided to use up some of the remaining food we have in the cupboards. I think to myself: well, we have some spinach, and some filo pastry, so why don't we make a spinach quiche? A quick visit to
all recipies yielded a
spinach quiche recipe with a five star rating and almost 400 comments! It must be a winner. Then, we read the ingredients and found out that we need
a can of mushrooms! It was the perfect recipe!
We haven't shopped for days so there's no food in the house, and yet we get quiche - a five star recipe quiche - AND the mushrooms will no longer haunt me. My day is complete.
Chinese Wedding
The celebrations for my cousin's wedding began last night. It was the bride's family dinner, which meant 100 of my relatives together in one room. Scary. The reception ceremonies are mostly similar to a western wedding reception, except for a few minor differences:
- Dress is decidedly not formal. Many people were there in jeans and t-shirts, including girls in denim skirts. We felt very overdressed.
- They favour singer/entertainers to jazz bands. This is not always a good decision.
- They had a giant fake cake on display (at least 8 tiers) which they pretended to "cut"
- There was a big fanfare and FLAMING SWORDS when they announced the food was served.
- No dancing :( everyone sat around and did the typical asian thing of "no, don't pick me I don't want to participate in your silly games" when the entertainers tried to get people involved.
- They had twenty bottles of red wine to share between 22 tables. No way that would last five mintues at a western wedding.
- Orange was a big theme. Everyone had a glass of orange cordial used to toast the bride and groom when they walked around.
I was on a table with Sharon, Vivien and Aunty Sandy's family including Ah Yee. My parents somehow scored seats on the bridal table along with Sharon's parents, Mei Fong's parents and relatives of the groom. Since I didn't understand most of what was said, Sharon was translating parts of it for us. We spent our time taking lots of photos in the meantime to keep us entertained. Sharon, bless her underaged heart, spent time drinking red wine.
After the reception we headed back to Brunei Lane for some traditional ceremonies including the combing of the bride's hair. However, the same wedding ceremonies advisor was hired for the bride and the groom's side, so she was over at the groom's place until early morning doing all the ceremonial stuff he had to do before today's wedding. Poor Mei Fong had to stay up until at least 2:30 to do all the ceremony stuff and then wake up early today to get ready!
We had breakfast in the hotel this morning (RM22 for a huge buffet) to save time, but we needn't have bothered. When we got to Brunei Lane just before 9am, we encountered the caterers setting up the food for breakfast/lunch. While everyone waited for the groom and the ceremonies master to arrive, we spent time taking pictures with Mei Fong(looking beautiful in her wedding gown), eating, and nominating Adrian as a part of the wedding ceremonies. This was quite funny because the wedding advisor didn't speak English, and we don't speak chinese.
Adrian's role involved greeting the groom, opening his car door when he arrived, and offering tea at various points along the way. When the groom arrives, he has some tea with his enterouge in the bride's house while the bride hides away in her room. The bride and her friends are supposed to make it difficult for the groom to enter the room, and set him a list of challenges he must pass before he can enter. Once all that is done, they have the marriage ceremony, then they go away. Traditionally they are supposed to wait three days before coming back, but now they shortcut and walk around the block. Then they greet all their elders in the tea ceremony, accept red packet gifts, then they give red packets to all the unmarrieds. (I'm paraphrasing this based on some hasty translations from surrounding people when there was loud chanting and clapping going on).
The whole ceremony took about three hours from the bride's side. Most guests left when the bride and groom left for Butterworth (where the groom lives on the mainland) to do it all again for his side. In true Malaysian style, people took a lot of the leftovers from the caterers like bee hoon, curry chicken and kue. A surprising amount of food was gone by 12.
We left to go back to the hotel and rest up before the groom's side reception later that night. Adrian and Dad spent time watching the Thomas Cup badminton competitions between China and Denmark (a couple of days earlier Malaysia was knocked out by Denmark, which is surprising. You don't think that the danes would have a hidden (or even not-so-hidden) talent for badminton.) Afterwards, we spent an hour or so shopping in Gurney Plaza. There's a lot of upmarket stores compared to Komtar, obviously not as cheap but still plenty of shoe shopping. In two days I must have seen at least a thousand varieties of shoes. It's much better than Australia where you only get the same types of shoes wherever you go because everything is a chain store :p
I bought some boots for RM90 and a swimming costume for doing laps. So now I've purchased a suit, shoes, swimming costume, random clothing and other miscellany in preparation for moving.
We met at Brunei Lane later to head for Butterworth, where the groom was having his reception. In contrast to Mei Fong's reception, it was in a scout hall with plastic chairs and folding tables, managed by outside caterers with about three times the people. We had cleverly asked about the dress code in advance, so this time we didn't show up in our formal gear. Adrian even wore jeans.
It was a very bizarre evening. There was an 'entertainer' who sang for the first half of the night, and she was a) way too loud, b) dressed in seventeen different costumes (each song required a costume change), c) pure kitsch. It kept us amused just anticipating what she would change into next. Also, the highlight of the food catering was a dessert soup. It was served in ONE bowl, with ten spoons, so we had a shared bowl of soup between us all (the lucky VIP table actually got one bowl each - how decadent). We couldn't really talk much because we were so near the (very, very loud) speakers, so we let our photography speak amongst us.
Sharon drank a lot of alcohol over three days considering her age. I'm surprised she gets away with it :P
Most other impressions of going back have been different - not bad or good. The food has been tasty, though I wish we got the chance to eat more satay. Penang seems to have a lot more one way roads than I remember, and if you make a wrong turnoff it seems virtually impossible to go back where you want to be, because there are rarely any traffic lights - they just shunt traffic through t-intersections when roads meet other roads (they're all usually one way anyway, and not that the locals would obey the lights if they were there).
I managed to get in some exercise doing laps in the hotel pool. The hotel seems to be going downhill. We got one bar of soap to share between the shower and the sink. And every day we were there, they took our towels for cleaning but didn't have enough to replace them at that point. They send them away for cleaning and replace them later. The problem is that they didn't replace them at all, so every single day we had to call housekeeping to get them to send some towels up (huh? surely if EVERY guest is calling for more towels, you'd make it a habit to replace them early?). We also had a bizarre encounter with the internet connection - every day we had to get the password reset because it was only valid for 24 hrs and it wasn't possible to extend it. They also gave our hotel room to someone else two days into our stay. Dad had to reset our hotel keys, because ours were deactivated. However, we only reset them one at a time so whenever we discovered one was dead, we got it reset and that invalidated the other one. It took us three resets to work this out! By this time, he was really pissed off.
Anyway, i'm now sitting on the flight to Sydney on an Boeing 777-200 which is a 2-5-2 seat configuration. I don't think I've ever been on one before, it does seem a little roomier than an ordinary 747 as long as you're not stuck in the middle seats. The amount of luggage that people bring onto the planes these days is incredible. On my flight from penang, every single overhead compartment had one (or more) of 'on-board' suitcases in it. Are you people really in need of that much stuff on your flight???
Transiting in KL I bought an M&Ms dispenser for Cameron as a housewarming, then spent time looking for pineapple tarts (unsuccessfully). Next time, gadget...
penang, malaysia
I'm sitting in a two room suite in the Gurney Hotel, Penang. I've been here less than 24 hours and I've already gone shopping, bought a suit, eaten vast amounts of delicious hawker food, and marvelled at the driving (which I've never really noticed before). I'm also contemplating getting a massage and foot spa at the hotel (a steal at RM65, or $23 Australian).
Everything is so cheap compared to Australia. People are horrified if you pay more than RM2 for parking, and you can eat a delicious, satisfying meal for less than 1 australian dollar. This morning we bypassed the hotel buffet breakfast and dad went to the markets instead. He bought a whole bunch of local favourites for breakfast, like apong (rolled up wafer thin pancakes), char hor fun (fried rice noodles), many varieties of kue (cake) and wrapped rice parcels for about 5 australian dollars for the four of us. It wasn't even the cheapest or the tastiest breakfast we could have had - tomorrow morning we'll head to Ayer Itam where my great-aunt lives to eat some of the fresh food at the Ayer Itam markets.
I mentioned the driving too - the rule seems to be anything used for enforcing order on the roads, such as lane lines, traffic lights and stop signs, are only suggestions. People here just go wherever they see a gap (or even when they don't), relying on your excellent braking skills to keep both parties accident-free. They also don't see a problem creating a lane when there isn't one, or "sharing" a lane with a motorbike or another car. Driving back from the airport was the funniest hour I've spent in a car, just observing all of these traffic infringements - committed by my cousins as much as anyone else.
Shopping in Penang is so FUN! Our haunt from childhood is a place called Komtar, a cheap shopping mecca full of chinatown-esque stores. I remember buying our super nintento and a whole slew of games here when we were kids. A few years ago they added a new section to it called Prangin mall, which is 5 or 6 storeys of shoes, jewellery, clothes and novelty shops selling stuff AT MALAYSIAN PRICES, which is pure heaven. Unfortunately my walking legs couldn't quite keep up with my eyes, and I piked mid-afternoon to come back to the hotel. I'll be back, however...
I never used to like visiting malaysia - the heat, mosquitoes, lack of hygiene, my weak immune system and lack of local language skills always made the visits uncomfortable. All I would eat in those days was satay, char hor fun and McDonald's nuggets (or KFC's "smashed potato" as sen-sen used to call it). Now it feels different and fun, like an adventure with lots and lots of shopping.
I have a lot of memories of the food from childhood, like the colourful melamine plates at hawker stalls; people frying things non-stop in front of massive woks with vast clouds of steam or smoke rising from the hotplates; walking through aisles of different food vendors with huge stacks of clay pots, trays of sweets, and piles of fresh vegetables on display. Satay vendors were the most impressive because they were constantly turning the fifty sticks cooking at a time and used a huge hand-held wooden fan as a bellow for the flames.
I remember buying drinks from stalls in plastic bags tied with string and a straw sticking through the top, which was so cool to my nine year old self. My brother and I used to looove sarsi (more commonly known as root beer) and drank it to cool down from the heat. I remember ordering milo (or "meelo") at local openair restaurants and have it served with condensed milk instead of the natural stuff. I remember being introduced to Koko Krunch by my cousins' house in Singapore and them being surprised at eating more than a handful of cereal at any one sitting. Every time we visit Malaysia, my cousins will take us out to supper as soon as we arrive, or for breakfast they'll go to the markets and buy a whole bunch of things to bring back. A lot of things you take away from a hawker stall come wrapped in wax paper and tied with string, which just adds to the charm.
My mum said that an old man used to have a wonton noodle soup stall on the corner of her street. If you wanted noodles, you just yelled down the street at the man would cook the food and bring it to your door. She also used to get cake sellers who carried a huge basket full of sweets and cakes on their backs, and walked door-to-door. You bought whatever you wanted from the basket - it was delivered straight to your front door!
The hawker centre is a bit of an institution here. It's like a huge openair restaurant with an awning (in case of rain).There are a bunch of metal tables and plastic chairs in the middle, and the hawkers are stationed around the edge of the dining area. Each has their own metal stall and associated woks, pots, steamers or hotplates to cook their food. The manager/owner of the space will come up and take your drink order - and there's all sorts of exotic stuff here like kopi-o (strong, thick malaysian coffee), barley water, coconut juice, iced milo, spiced milk, and the
regular juices and soft drinks. Meantime, you go up to the hawker stalls and place your food orders. They'll somehow remember who you are, find you in the melee, and deliver the food fresh to your table minutes later, at which time you pay them the tiny sum of money it cost you for this banquet. Every stall owner has a different coloured set of melamine plates, chopsticks and spoons so they know who it belongs to when it all gets washed later.
Food seems so much more casual, plentiful and varied here than in Australia. In Australia, it's always so formal with set mealtimes and set places to eat (though i suppose that no way a roadside food vendor would be licenced with australia's health regulations.) If i'm hungry in Malaysia, there's always someone selling something on a street corner or in a hawker centre. Food places stay open a lot later here as well.
I can't believe I've wasted so many trips disliking this place. It's such an entirely different yet familiar experience and has so many quirks (and cheap shopping :) that I love coming back now.
seachange
So, a while ago I told my parents that I’m planning to move to London. My mother took it a lot better than I expected, but my dad seemed really sad. :(
I’ve never believed that I’d have the mental strength to want to move anywhere so far away, especially another country. I’m an indecisive person by nature, it took me eight hours to work out which of two backpacks I wanted to buy before my recent trip to Japan. So, taking six months to reach the decision to go to London is a pretty good record for me. I've been thinking about 'maybe' going for months, but it all solidified when Gabby announced that she was going to go, and I spent the weekend in Melbourne mulling it over with Cameron. Both he and Alison are probably sick of hearing me talk about it, so now that I’ve come to a decision at least they’ll get some peace.
At the moment I’m living in a rare period of mental clarity – this decision makes sense to me on both a rational and emotional level. Work is fairly uninspiring and doesn’t offer me a whole lot of mental challenge any more. I’ve been there for almost three years now, so it’s probably time for a change. Alison and I have wanted to move out of Erskineville for a while, so it makes sense for me to move home to spend time with my family before I go, and she can move in with her friends who are all keen to move to new places. I’ll sell my car, start eBaying a lot of my stuff and find new homes for my non-portable possessions. I’ve started mentally reviewing everything I need to do before I go, like going to the dentist, physiotherapist, optometrist, cancelling my health insurance and other direct debits, finding a new place to live, finding a new job, getting my visa, establishing a London bank account, cancelling my credit cards... there’s a lot to do, and I hope three months is enough time. :p
I’m afraid that I'll start wavering as I get closer to d-day. I already have mini attacks about 'ohmygod, what about
' and I don’t understand how I can possibly have even thought about moving. Then I get back to being excited about the new things that I’ll experience and wonder how I can possibly doubt going. I'll take it as a good sign that the panic attacks are only a small proportion to the time I’m anticipating travelling.
I'm trying not to think about anything that I’ll miss while I’m gone. I can always come back if things don’t work over there. I think I’m just ready for a mental change, and going for a different job or moving somewhere else in Sydney just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Moving out to Erskineville was fantastic, but we’ve been there for eighteen months and we’re getting sick of the cockroaches (well, I am :p)
I'm very keen to try something different, and at least I'll be able to travel around Europe for a while!
exercise plus!
I am surely in exercise credit. To celebrate ANZAC day, I walked from Manly wharf to The Spit at Mosman with Ian, Khanh, Scott, and Hema. Let me just say that
this is not as easy as it sounds. Actually, it doesn't even sound very easy, but it
was very scenic.
If you're going leisurely, it'll take you about four hours to do the walk, or if you're walking with Scott and Hema, it'll take you three. :p I don't recommend it for people who dislike stairs, especially uneven ones, but the views along the tops of the cliffs were beautiful, and would probably be even better on a sparkling sunny day.
We stopped about two thirds of the way through the walk to have lunch on a secluded beach. Khanh and Ian were very prepared and brought sandwiches, couscous, cheese & crackers, corn and associated cutlery along. Hema had made avocado and chili sandwiches. (don't ask). I, the underprepared, had brought grapes, a mandarin, and almond pocky. Not exactly a balanced lunch. Thankfully, my friends are very generous people and allowed me to mooch off their supplies.
It continually surprises me how BIG Sydney harbour really is, and how many beautiful shoreside spots are around the place. There were easily a dozen beaches and rocky outcrops that would be perfect for a picnic, and you would be virtually guaranteed a place to yourselves.
Khanh and I were snap-happy all the way along, and got mocked for it (actually, Khanh took the brunt of the mocking - thanks hon, I appreciate it).
In the past week I've also played two games of frisbee - 1 hr, no halftime, no subs - and decided to run around for fun on Saturday with some guys from Frisbee. We did the
beep test to see how fit we are. It's confirmed: there is no way I will ever make it into the army.
