strawberry milk bars...

... seen at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok.

weekend in melbourne

I had a weekend getaway to Melbourne in August courtesy of Pawpaw. As there were so many places and activities covered in that short time frame, I'm too lazy to go into details for the whole trip. Instead I'll let the pictures and the brief captions show you the highlights.

On the streets:


lights bokeh from traffic/cars/buildings



neon boards in Chinatown



purple wigs for a tv commercial shoot



playing with fire in public



hire a bicycle anywhere in the city to reduce your carbon footprint



back alleys and lanes full of artistic graffiti


The parks and the gardens:


Captain Cook's Cottage in Fitzroy Gardens



Fountain in Carlton Gardens right outside the Royal Exhibition Building



Fountain in Carlton Gardens right outside the Royal Exhibition Building



Doing the signature tourist jumps outside Captain Cook's Cottage



Doing the signature tourist jumps outside Captain Cook's Cottage



Doing the signature tourist jumps outside the Royal Exhibition Building



Along the Yarra



Random school girls posed for my camera


Art Galleries and Museums:


Had a history lesson with King Tut



Aboriginal art



Taking the Dinosaur Walk in the Museum



The science corner


The State Library:


Majestic entrance



Inside La Trobe Reading Room



The famous domed roof



Cowen Gallery in the library


The food:


Hearty breakfast on Lygon Street - the little Italian suburb



The Soup Place off Flinders Lane



Best macarons in town from Brunetti's



Best macarons in town from Brunetti's


Lastly the most indulgent splurge: a date with Andrew Lloyd Webber that you can read here.

And that's all folks. Til the next trip.

june iphoneography

He just wants to lock you away.



I left my lips behind.



Seeking refuge in the shadows.

ampersand cafe bookstore

Thanks to Pawpaw for this amazing discovery of a gem, I spent an idyllic Saturday afternoon in Ampersand Cafe Bookstore situated along Oxford Street in Paddington. It's not just another cafe along the street full of them, but one that is part of a three storey library of over 30,000 used books with big comfy couches tucked in discreet corners where you can enjoy endless cups of great coffee - I had the best, creamiest Chai Latte ever there that afternoon - while enjoying a good read you pick off the bookshelf right next to you. They also offer a full breakfast and lunch menu in addition to the usual coffee sweets and pastries displayed at the counter.

I managed to get a seat on the uppermost floor by the window that overlooks the vibrant street outside so I could people-watch while getting my caffeine fix or when my eyes are tired of reading through those tiny fonts on my favourite books. I even managed to pick up a humongous cook book that contained over 300 Chinese, Far Eastern and other Asian dishes for only $3.50 thanks to a special promotion where a pre-purchased $10 voucher entitled us to five cups of coffee and a book up to a value of $15.

I absolutely love the place and don't mind spending a few more weekends there. Oh and by the way they do cash and bookstore credit exhanges for pre-loved books too and can even organise home visits if you have a book collection of more than 200 for sale. Fits in nicely with my plan to try and clear out some space in my overflowing bookshelf to make way for more good reads.

Here are a few pictures taken with my iPhone of the place. It's worth a visit there yourself when you have the time.

coffee, bread and butter

'tis the season of shedding leaves

I only just saw I had this iPhone case and changed all the phone accessories to reflect the changing season as we said goodbye to summer.



In contrast with the brilliant autumn sun we had most of the season last year, we've just had rain and more rain this fall.

tea forté

My current favourite for afternoon tea.





Throw in some colourful Japanese snacks and I'm instantly happier.

summer sunday opera

I've always wanted to go watch opera at the Sydney Opera House. So it wasn't on an impulse that I braved the scorching Sydney summer heat all dressed up to make my way to town when I could have stayed home in the comfort of my air conditioned bedroom.

The result was a relaxing Sunday afternoon of ice cold beer, aromatic coffee and a 90 minute performance of best-loved opera classics. I was blown away by the power of the performers' vocals, especially the guest artiste Rosario La Spina who brought out all my goosebumps the moment he started to sing.

However, I couldn't quite appreciate the pieces played in the second half as they don't sound nearly half as romantic when sung in English. I will opt for Italian opera any time even though I do not understand a single word.

If you're interested in opera too, do check out their events calendar. A friend who also went to watch opera in that same weekend caught Carmen and was full of praises for it. I think that, or Madama Butterfly would have been more impressive than what I went for as these tell full stories with elaborate costumes and elegant choreography instead of just bits and pieces of songs as an introduction to opera.

spending a day with emperor qin's warriors

If I ever get the opportunity to do a complete tour of China, the three historical monuments top on my to-visit list in no particular order of preference are: the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and his Terracotta Army.

The moment I read that these entombed warriors of China's First Emperor are travelling to Sydney, Australia, I decided I have got to go see them. Over 120 rare objects featuring 10 complete terracotta warrior figures dug up from Emperor Qin's burial site are now being exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until 13 March 2011.





I was ushered into a little theatre to watch a short 15min introductory video on the background of this recent archaelogical discovery before entering the exhibition hall. The clip was very informative but I found the exhibition slightly disappointing; not having read the event details beforehand, I had expected to see more of an army on display instead of just the 10 lonely figures. I did not feel that such an exhibition of this scale warrants an admission fee of $20 per adult even though these artifacts had been transported a great distance.

Nothing beats seeing these grand afterlife armies all lined up in battle formation in the excavation pits over an impressive 56 square kilometres of land in their hometown in Xi'an. So it was with no hesitation at all that I entered the lucky draw upon exiting the exhibition hoping to win 2 tickets to an all expense paid trip to see these warriors up close and personal. Wish me luck!

highlights of my sg trip: eating non-stop

Everytime I return to SG, I go around eating all the local food with a vengeance. When deciding on venues for my appointments, all decisions will be centred around what type of food I have yet to cross out on my to-eat list. And more often than not, I end up eating five or six meals a day and gaining five kilos in the span of less than three weeks.

This most recent trip, I kind of overdid this eating business and got myself an extremely sore tummy and endless trips to the toilet on the second day. A visit to my regular doctor earned me a scolding from him for being too greedy when I listed the types and amount of food I had on the very first day back home. I didn't allow enough time for my digestive system to get used to the extremely oily, extremely spicy and extremely salty food that are in large contrast to what I normally consume in Sydney. I was punished for my gluttony by having a strict plain porridge diet imposed on me for a few days.

Below is a series of pictures of some of my gastronomical adventures taken with the iPhone camera and edited with some really cool apps such as Instagram and Tiltshift Generator.


Here's showing you a greedy me to kick off the series of pictures.


Mum made these glutinous rice balls in a thick sweet syrup on Winter Solstice.


My favourite was the black sesame glutinous rice balls.


I found a Hakka Delights stall in Food Opera at Ion selling these traditional 'Abacus yam balls' - 算盘子. My grandma being Hakka used to make it when I was a kid but stopped in recent years as it's very time consuming and a lot of work to cook this from scratch. This tasted authentic enough but I found it lacking in shrimps, mushrooms and minced meat.


I requested for homecooked crabs but my uncle decided to substitute with lobsters! I was more than happy, of course.


Alright, this was something I could have done without... but as it's a favourite among many in my family, I couldn't really say no when my uncle asked if he could include this for dinner.


More homecooked stuff! This is my uncle's specialty braised duck in lots of different spices.


Grandma's dining table... a full spread of cantonese, hokkien and teochew dishes even though she's hakka!


I haven't had hokkien prawn noodles in a long long long time and so I felt I had to have it at least once this trip.


After reading so much about the super thick peanut butter toast from Kim Gary Hong Kong Cafe on Angel J's blog, I made a special trip to Tampines One to try it. It was pure indulgence. I felt really guilty after finishing it all by myself, leaving none for my Mum who was my dining companion for that evening.


I had 'lor mai gai' - steamed glutinous rice with chicken - for breakfast almost every other day, among many other dishes. I always end up eating all the meat and leaving the rice...


Flyaway treated me to a nice cosy dinner at Soup Restaurant where I satisfied my craving for their signature Samsui chicken. The soup of the day was double boiled winter melon and pork rib soup.


My bro took my whole family to try out the best roast in Bugis. It was sooooooooooooo good!!!


Bro's gf received an order from her family in Indonesia to buy lots and lots and lots of bak kwa for her short trip home before New Year's Day. So we all trooped down to Chinatown and bought 5kgs of these oily sheets of meat!


I went with Tudi for some steamboat buffet at 鲜得来 in Nex. I loved those elaborate looking pots.



Here's Tudi's greedy looking face. So cute right?


Had a late lunch with Xuan at PS Cafe in Paragon and I chose the most interesting dish on the menu - Laksa Pesto. It was just simply spaghetti in a bit of laksa gravy. Wasn't fantastic but wasn't too bad either. I may try cooking it myself.


Caught up with the HAH ex housemate for dinner at TCC in Ion. It was her first time in Ion since she returned home for good in Aug. *Gasps* Again, I ordered the most exotic sounding dish on the menu - mentaiko spaghetti with salmon tataki. 美味しい!


The only fast food joint I visited during this trip was to Carl's Junior where I had the Portobello Mushroom burger. It was so so so big but so so so good!


Here's another shot of my gluttonous face to wrap up this entry.

いただきます!!!