Da Kween!

She's so cute :) It's impossible not to feel love for Kweenie ;)

The boys wore top hats and morning suits (tails!)....

The girls wore dresses and feathers and flowers in their hair. Essentially, we were just too cheap to buy a hat ;) Come on, those feather thingies cost me 15 squids! Not that you can see it in this photo.

U&W, do you recognise my dress? *grin* I lost 10 squids on the second and third races :( Then thought as an unemployed bum, I really shouldn't be betting anymore. So I spent my squids on a jug of PIMMS instead :P It was a great experience to see a gazillion people dressed up at Ascot, but I don't think I'll be going back again.

This little piggy...

... went all the way to fcking town :D

Our pre-dinner "snacks" and aperitif:

Waterside Inn - IMHO, makes a statement: "Fck off Gordon Ramsay @ Claridges" *grin* Okay, to be fair, Claridges is only a one star Michelin. Waterside Inn is a three star Michelin. However, it's all I've got to compare in Rondon :P Value for money, from what I remember, I paid 80 squids for a very _very_ average meal at Claridges. Degustation at Waterside Inn sets you back 91 squids. That's not much more for a full force, you're-ready-to-explode-from-happiness experience :D You'll get the full service. This includes umbrella coverage ten steps from the cab to the restaurant door, to me getting to personally meet the chef, Alain Roux :) I have never felt so looked after at a restaurant in my life.

Our mackeral amuse bouche:

Where to start? Admittedly, C picked better entrees than me. His foie gras terrine was sooo deliciously smooth. You know what put me off foie gras terrines? Gordon Ramsay's at Claridges. After GR's terrine, I've avoided it at all costs. My mistake tonight, because OMG, Waterside Inn's was kickass and I could've eaten it all. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it. I do have a picture of my yummy flaked Cornish crab though:

Next up, my scallop vs C's lobster medallion! Scallop delish, but lobster divine:

Rose petal sorbet to cleanse our palate:

Then comes the main course of Roasted Challandais duck with a lemon and thyme jus potato and garlic mousseline! Here's a vid of the duck carving. With the background dinner conversation between me and C edited out *grin*

The end result:

And bl00dy hell, that garlic mousseline, T, you'd step on D's back to eat it ;) Almost there, only the dessert of raspberry souffle and bottle of gerwerztraminer, followed by tea with petit fours to go! :) I wish I wrote down the gerwerztraminer maker and vintage. It was seriously beautiful to drink. Really fragrant, and not too sweet.

You can't tell, but the waiter poked a hole in the middle and filled the souffle with raspberry sauce. It made the souffle rise :)

When you take crap photos, just make em black & white :P

The finale, here is my personalised menu from Alain Roux :) Okay, so I was really tipsy and sent back the message, "I had a really awesome (double underlined) meal!" to the kitchen *lol* I wasn't in top form ;) I really hope Chef Roux and his team understood the compliment:

Seeing is believing

C is finally in Rondon!

Me: "Smiiiiile!"
C: "NO."
Me: "This is going in my blog" :P

White lies

If you ask me how job hunting goes, my standard answer is, "The same. I don't want to talk about it." It's the answer I gave my Dad today, when he asked me FOUR times in the space of seven minutes, how job hunting was going. My Mum knows better, and avoids asking me because she knows the question upsets me. My Dad, I inherited his stubborness. So he was quite peeved when I politely refused to talk about it and eventually, I just had to be downright blunt and quit chatting to him online.

I would like to think, that I'm the sort of person who's always straight up with you (the anonymous reader, the caring friend, the coffee buddy, etc). If you ask me how I'm doing, I'm assuming you cared enough to want to know the truth, and that's why you asked. So if I'm having a sh*t day, I'm going to tell you, "I've had better days," and leave it at that. We don't have to talk about it, I don't want to rant about it, and I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to say, "OOOH, GREAT! Just WUN-DER-BAR!" Which is what Babsy expects me to answer regardless of how I'm actually feeling :P But, why Babsy? Why do I have to lie to family and friends about such a trivial thing? Does it make you feel better that you asked, and I answered appropriately? Does it relieve you of your friend duties? :) Small chit chat makes people comfortable?

I hate job hunting. With a passion. I've had 10 different jobs in my career. Well, okay, my first job was as a 14 year old helping little old ladies find the right colour yarn in a dusty craft store. Anyways, you'd think job hunting gets easier. However, as a contractor, it doesn't. For the past week, my mornings were spent applying for a multitude of jobs, answering some random phone calls from useless agents, and coping with radio silence from agents for jobs that I _do_ want. Does that sound like something I'd like to spend time talking about? It makes me sad, it makes me depressed. I _know_ I'm capable. All it takes is a chance to prove it.

I'm not going to lie and say, "Everything's dreamy," when it's not. I'd just rather not talk about it. I believe there are better things to talk about, and that particular subject just makes me mopey. I'm sure my flatmate B will vouch for my mood swing when the subject comes up :P

Would you rather I lie to you? Is there a better way for me to respond? I won't hate you for asking, but you're not going to make me talk about something I don't want to talk about. I like taking the shortest path, but if you'd rather I spend an extra 10-15 mins making you feel alright about me not wanting to talk about certain subjects, let me know. I'll help you build that bridge *grin*

4 meridians away

This is what my cousin sees in China:


This is what I see in Europe:


A totally different perspective:


Hard to believe we're living in the same world:

Summer festivities

LOOK, we all still have our jackets on! It's still bl00dy cold for Summer!!!

Waz is no longer a festival virgin :)

Heartbroken

Love is like a pair of worn-in sneakers. If they hurt the first time, you persist, wear them in, and make them fit. The pain and blisters eventually fade away...

Or some sh*t like that. Tricked you, sneakers aren't meant to hurt in the first place :P But these ones did! Gawd, they looked good, but they killed and I bled. But I won the battle, and wore them to death. Literally. That's my sock poking out of the toe.

The holes don't actually bother me, they've been there for yonks. I would've kept these sneakers if it wasn't for all that mud! After O2 on the weekend, my shoes were filthy. I'm way too lazy to scrub mud off my shoes :) Introducing my new loves:

Waaah, so clean, white and shiny! :D Unemployment does funny things to me, it makes me spend money I shouldn't be spending :P But even my own Mother was telling me to buy new shoes, so I guess the expense is justified ;) Hrm, wonder if I can claim these as part of Squid Overlords' uniform expenses...

"We are ONE"

Pierre, I will never forgive you for not inviting me to Faithless in Sydnery. How could you? Fck me. I'm now more in love with Faithless than the Chemical Brothers. Thank gawd I'm unemployed and was able to make it to the O2 Wireless Festival on Friday. It was a last minute decision, and after some scrounging around, I even managed to score SH a ticket for 20 squids. Pretty good deal considering I paid 40 squids for my own ticket!

I'm quickly finding out I've been missing out on a lot when it comes to live gigs. I've always been a fan of Faithless, just never seen them live. To be really Engrish, "I'm GUTTED that I didn't see them when they were in Sydnery!" *grin* We made it pretty close to the front of the Main Stage, and it was practically a mosh pit. Loads of fun, and the vibe was great :)

I also saw Kelis bring the boys to the yard with her milkshake :)

After 4 hours of festival goodness, I headed off to meet T&W at Fix for more dancing. Imagine my surprise when J&D were there too! *lol* But I quickly set them straight, and sent them off packing with their cousins to the more RnB friendly, Cafe de Paris. By that stage, I was also well and truly pickled by multiple Smirnoffs and mojitos :P And I still made it to Pacha! Can you believe Pacha is only the third club I've been to in Rondon? Gawd, I poked a guy right in the eyeball on the dancefloor *cringe* At 3am, SH and I left the club (after she had finished beating up the bouncers), had a late night falafel pita with chips, and headed home.

20 hours later, it's time to do it all over again with Daft Punk back at the O2 Wireless Festival :) Only it's raining at the moment :(

Laying cables

I was walking around, waiting for Niffies today, when I spotted this:

WC1 is Rondon's first female only luxury toilet! Right opposite Selfridges. Since they were having a sale (1 squid entry as opposed to the usual 5 squids!), and I really needed to go anyway, and Niffies was nowhere to be found, I decided to splurge and go in luxury. What was it like?

Meh. You get a giant toilet bowl. A giant sink with motion sensor. Nothing really _worth_ paying for. Where's the luxury? Where's the heated seat? Where's the soft music piping in while I do my business? Or the plasma to keep me entertained with the latest celeb news? So much potential unrealised. There's really nothing that luxurious about a giant bowl. Unless one has a giant ass.

Well, I made the most out of my spent squid and did a #1 AND a #2 :D

Mostest hilariousness

OMG. Plan 9 from Outer Space! YOU MUST WATCH.

I thought for once, instead of searching for the mostest awesomeness movie, I'd watch the most worstestess movie ever made. I first heard Plan 9 mentioned in a Seinfeld episode years ago. I didn't even realise it was a real movie back then. Recently, I came across this wikipedia entry, listing the worst films ever. I picked Plan 9 because it had won a Golden Turkey Award (this is another brilliant list).

I don't even know how to describe Plan 9's genre. Is it horror because of the zombies? (Or are they actually vampires? Or even, zombie vampires?! *lol*) Or is it sci-fi because of the "aliens"? Doesn't this paragraph alone make you want to watch the movie already? ;) Line after line, and scene after scene in this movie, made me burst out in laughter. I haven't had this much fun with a movie in a long time! It opens with the following lines:
"Greetings my friends. We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives... And remember future events such as these, will affect you, in the future."

*LMAO*

The movie is just filled with dialogue like this. Other choice lines:
- "The ever beautiful flower she had planted, with her own hands, became nothing more than the lost roses of her cheeks."
- Stewardess: "What in the world...", Pilot: "That's nothing from this world."

Worst UFO ever, even the string's still visible! *grin*

- "Your space commander has returned from earth."

- "It's been absolutely impossible to work through these earth creatures. Their soul is, too controlled."

(Worst aliens ever)

My favourite line, "Because all you of earth, are IDIOTS!!" *grin* It's not just the dialogue that's bad. Take a look at this:

Worst set design for a cockpit ever

Most random zombie vampire scene ever

Please please please, watch this movie :)

Things change

I spent some "quality" (read: high maintenance) time with Babsy today *grin* As Babsy caught up on a previous post on my blog, she turned to me and quipped, "I remember when you hated Rondon".

It's true. There was a time when I first arrived, when I ticked off every month that passed by as a survival milestone. Things were just so _hard_. Alone, starting a new life in an unfamiliar city, getting a job, living out of a suitcase, finding a home. I even broke off a "friendship" when the one person I knew who could help me out, turned her back on me. When times are tough, you really find out who your true friends are. There were such down times, when all I thought was, "Wtf am I doing here?". At one stage, I was bawling my eyes out on the phone to my big brother. The one person I could talk to in my family who would understand. I hated it here, yet if I left, was I a failure? He told me I had nothing to worry about, that if I was unhappy, I should just come home. It wasn't failure, I'd tried it and there was nothing wrong with finding out it wasn't right for me. He told me to set a deadline and to come home.

The thing is, almost everyone who moves here goes through the same pains and self-doubts. We've all done the couch surfing, and the penny pinching. We've all struggled, it's like an initiation. I think part of the problem was, I never had to struggle so hard for anything I wanted before. All my life, I've pretty much easily achieved everything that I've set out to accomplish. Did well in school. Went to university on a scholarship. Joined a prestigious consulting company (hah!). Travelled the world. Earnt enough to live an easy lifestyle. So it was a hard kick to the guts when the one thing I had such high expectations for, and had always dreamed of doing, almost became the biggest disaster in my personal life.

I set a deadline, and it came and went. I don't know what changed, but at about the 8 month mark of my stay in Rondon, I finally felt life was normal again. I stopped being sad. I finally understood when people said they loved Rondon because there was always something to do. So to those that have just moved here, and to those that are about to leave Sydnery, my advice is to give your new city at least a year to win you over. It gets better, and a lot less scarier. It really does. I don't hate Rondon anymore, and each month flies by without a sigh of relief from me :)

What does...

... a delivery of 24 pies look like? This girl definitely ain't going hungry for awhile :)

Thanks J&D for doing the order. It's chicken and mushroom pie for lunch today ;)

Home again

It's a funny feeling. Since I got back from Sydnery about... 8+ weeks ago (shite!), I've been either working or travelling. Haven't really had the chance to settle back in to routine. So coming back from Ibiza and being unemployed, is... AMAZING *grin* I'm sure this feeling won't last. In fact, I'm sure the feeling declines at the same rate as my savings :P For the moment, I just love the freedom and love just being in Rondon. It's like being a first time tourist again.

So in the past 5 days, I've managed to cram in:
- Checking out the new Whole Foods Market store with T&W - finally, a produce heaven in Rondon;
- Surreal Things at the V&A;
- Trip to Billingsgate fish markets for 2kg of prawns and razor clams;
- Chilli crab at Sus' place *YUMMO*
- Homemade laksa (FINALLY! I had time to crack open the laksa paste tub);
- Portobello markets. I always find myself back at the Coffee Plant people watching...

Mountain of chilli crabs!

Recovery

Well, kinda. Only in the sense that I was drinking and dancing lots, but this time, at a beach...

I did try to chillax and catch some rays on a deckchair, but it was too hard. The music was great and it was impossible to ignore. Bora Bora is like an after party beach bar. Wrong place for recovery. Every so often a plane flies over us and a cheer breaks out from the mob. If it's an incoming, we all knew what those people on the plane had ahead of them. The party's just getting started. If it's an outgoing, we all felt for the poor bastards who've had to leave the island.

16 hours later, as I was passing out on a deckchair back at Bora Bora after another clubbing marathon, a girl approaches me and squats down for a whispered conversation.
Girl: "I saw you dance the other day."
Me: "Err, okay..."
Girl: "You looked really cool. And I was wondering..."
Me thinking: Maybe I'm about to get invited to a VIP party!
Girl: "... if you would like my spare drugs because I'm going home today."

*lol* Okay, so maybe, I dance a little retardedly :) I obviously attract attention.

Thank you Babe, for showing me Ibiza Uncovered ;) It definitely had a lot less drunken Chavs than I expected. I'm no longer an Ibiza virgin, and I have a great tan to show for it.

AdF, you're next to be initiated! Bring on your 30th!

Lost in Space...

Literally.

(Tada - hot stewardesses in tight skimpy outfits!)

It's so silly! I've been clubbing so many times before. I've been to festivals with tens of thousands of people before. I've _never_ ever been lost. Never. Until I got to Space. This place is a maze of areas. I kept entering the same rooms, doing the same rounds and frustratingly finding the same exits or entrances. It's an experience more traumatic than it sounds. Each room was packed. At my height, air is scarce, the view is of elbows, and do you really think Spaniards take a "cutesy" (*gag*) oriental saying, "hola!" seriously? I have no idea why, but the sight of me brought a lot of smiles to faces everywhere I went. And a lot of head patting. I can't comprehend the head patting. Am I really that exotic in Spain? Actually, at one point, I pulled out my good ol' Australiana pasaporte to prove that I wasn't Japonés or Chino :)

While waiting for a friend, I made the mistake of showing off my "prowess" at the language to a random guy standing by the cigarette machine. The next thing I know, the guy is making gestures downstairs at his "pollo", and telling me it's "mucho grande". Amazingly, I bumped into him later on when I was lost, and he was kind enough to pull me through the crowd in the room. And I didn't even have to touch his pollo in return :P

More boobies!

After 10 hours of clubbing, I was tired. Knackered beyond belief. So I headed home at the o'so-late hour of 1am. Only to find 2 out of 3 of my flatmates already crashed out in bed :) The final flatmate arrived home at 11am!

Losing my virginity

Friday 1st June, the last day of my contract. At 5pm, I shoot out the door at work with my luggage in tow. Never to see the vomit yellow porta-warehouse again. Can you believe for the past 8 months I've been working on a train platform? Every morning, for those 8 months, a fire alarm test went off at 10am. That environment was designed to drive people crazy. No wonder the project was 4 years late!!

I arrive at the airport, and start drinking all by my lonesome. The bar crowd starts to build up. All of a sudden, I'm meeting random party-goers, and the group just gets bigger and bigger. As far as I'm aware, I'm 1 out of 2 Ibiza virgins in that group. It's an experience. It starts off with the party plane. It's a plane full of people with one destination in mind - the Space opening party in Ibiza. _Everyone_ I spoke to was going to be there. By the time we board the plane, everyone's buzzing with excitement and liquoring up. iPods are plugged in and pumping out music. A glass of champers gets delivered up the aisle to me :) The only thing missing are the tight lycra stewardess outfits. Don't worry, that comes later ;)

Surprisingly, everyone resisted the urge to go out when we arrived at 1am. Instead, we had an early Friday night and saved ourselves for this the next day:

I don't know when in my life it happened, but I seem to have reached the point where I can afford to lie around all day on a luxury yacht, tanning myself on deck, drinking sangria and watching as champagne gets sprayed onto nekid boobies. Yes, nekid boobies. Okay, fine, it was cheap champagne. But still - there were nekid boobies on my boat.

We sailed to Formentera and spent the day drinking. I would've swam more if there weren't soo many jellyfishies in the sea :( You know, I haven't felt this warm since January 2006. Seriously.

Ignorance isn't bliss

I never knew the Chemical Brothers were Electro Gods. All this time, I'd heard their name, but never seen them live or heard any of their music. Until tonight. At the spur of the moment, I bought myself a ticket to their gig at the Roundhouse. Best gig I've been to in Rondon yet! They're amazing live! Good enough for me to get over my frustration of being evacuated from the venue about 10 mins before they came onto stage. I waited out in the cold for over an hour, with no news about what was going to happen. I eventually walked away and headed to the bus stop. Good thing the bus stop was close by. Just as I was about to turn my back on the Chemical Brothers, I saw people heading back into the venue again. So I stayed.

It. Was. GREAT.

I was one level up and had soo much dancing space with a perfect view. Tons of people were packed on the dancefloor below. To think I was ready and willing to give up on the Chemical Brothers, all because I had never heard them before. It wasn't just the music that was good, the accompanying background visuals were pretty awesome too. I had so much fun :) I'm so glad I stayed.

All these years, I've been missing out on the Chemical Brothers. Ignorance isn't bliss at all. And I can't believe I forgot my camera :(

Oooh, and I finally had myself a Hache burger from Camden! I ordered a Sicilian, which was a Prime Beef steak, topped with Parma ham, and melted buffala mozerella cheese. On a fresh ciabatta bun. MMMmmm, YUMMO. I had to wait 20 mins for it, but I chowed it down in less than 10 :) The place was packed. Not sure if it's worth 8+ squids, but it's definitely one of the better burgers I've had. I'll be back, with friends.