Thoughts from a soggy mind - best served Cold

I haven’t been blogging for about a month now and it’s really due to my filled calendar over the past month. Now, after finishing my BIOL1004 formal report, I’m finally gonna blog about the spring break which ended, err…two weeks ago =p

Spring Break 2007 will go down in my life history as one of the most memorable holidays I’ve ever had for more than one major reason; and one of them is my family’s visit to Australia for six days =)

Been looking forward to their visit since March when they confirmed that they were coming in September…and I’ve been preparing since July after my Melbourne trip. APEC in Sydney nearly threw a spanner into my works but thankfully all worked out well in the end (more on this later).

Friday 7th September 2007
So I went to Sydney a day before Dad, Mum and Sis arrived via flight MH123 (the same flight that took me to Australia in February). Embarrassed to say that my poor sense of direction betrayed me 30 minutes into my arrival at Sydney- I somehow missed George Street and ended up walking in a circle. In the end, though, I managed to find my way to QVB and took the bus to Epping where I was to put up a night with my friends from Macquarie. Thanks Victor and Szerhui for braving the rain to bring me from Macquarie Center to your place! Played, or more like, learned to play, poker at one of the Macquarie ppl’s house before meeting up with Shirlynn. Rain prevented me catching up wif Li Cheng and Xin Yin though. Had an early night after an exhausting day; gotta wake up early the next morn.

Saturday 8th September 2007
Woke up at 5.30am and proceeded to the bus stand at about 6.10. Victor kindly woke up early to guide me to the nearest bus stand.Thanks loads!
Arrived at the city at about 7am, right on schedule. Then I took the Airport Link and guess what? Impeccable timing yet again. Arrived just 5 minutes after MH123 touched down safely on the runway; now for the (possibly) long wait as they cleared customs. Finally, at about 8.45am I could see the three people who’ve been there for me since I was born, walking down the aisle towards me. Pure joy!
Checked in at the hotel and then off we went for lunch at Sydney Fish Market. Getting there was a bit of a hassle given my poor sense of direction and equally terrible photographic memory of places I’ve visited (nothing wrong with my photographic memory of lecture notes though, which is weird) but we finally got there. Maybe it was having lunch with family for the first time in seven months, but the seafood was awesome. The seafood platter once again proved to be fantastic and the prawn kebabs, together with scallops, were heavenly.
A tour of Darling Harbour, and a ferry ride to Circular Quay followed. We just HAD to see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge by sea Then a visit to QVB followed by dinner, gelatissimo and shopping at Chinatown, before we went back to the hotel and retired for the night.

Sunday 9th September 2007
Woke up early and proceeded to have breakfast at a cafe nearby- this was our first experience of an Australian breakfast together and we simply loved it. The pouring rain made the hot breakfast all the more welcome =) A train ride to Blacktown followed- we visited Featherdale Wildlife Park which in my opinion is way better than Taronga Zoo! We stroked and posed with koalas, fed kangaroos, and enjoyed the antics of numerous Australian wildlife on display. Ever seen an albino kangaroo? They’re cute!!:P
In the afternoon we went to Bondi beach, had fried Mars Bars and then nightfall came. Had a Very long walk to the Rocks as APEC forced the closure of the Circular Quay train station, hence the nearest one was Wynyard And oh, APEC made Sydney sleepier than Canberra. Really. But in a sense, it made traveling less stressful given that there were much fewer people to block our passage on the pedestrian sidewalks =p
After pizza and pancakes (of course!) at Pancake on the Rocks, and a spot of shopping at Woolworths, we retired for the night. Canberra beckons the next day.

Monday 10th September 2007
The bus ride to Canberra was pretty uneventful and we checked in with minimal fuss.
Lunch at the Hog’s Breath Cafe was, pardon the pun, breathtaking. Thanks Barney for recommending this place! Had primed rib steak and chicken caesar wrap, both of which totally set a new standard of such food in me. After lunch, despite the rain we had a stroll near the lake and then Kokoblack chocolate which sent us to heaven momentarily (and figuratively, at that).
Dinner was at Su Yin’s place where Mum cooked while Sis and I helped. Before that, my deepest gratitude to Su Yin and Yuet Ling for cutting up all the ingredients beforehand; without your help we would have taken much longer! Anyway, I tasted Mum’s cooking for the first time in seven months and it was great to have friends around to share the joy: Daryl, Jared, Jason, Su Yin, Wan Phei and Yuet Ling were all there. 
Took my family to my room here in Ursula Hall for a short tour and then called it a night. Halfway through the trip, everything’s going great, i thought to myself.

Tuesday 11th September 2007
Morning was occupied by a trip to the Australian National Museum, and as we found out pretty soon, plenty of jostling with hordes of school children! Luckily it was my fifth trip to the museum so i knew the place inside out and we managed to avoid the crowd ;p Had lunch at Chicken Gourmet cuz we wanted a quick lunch and I wanted my family to try out Chicken Kiev, hehe.
The afternoon at the Parliament House was pretty crowded too. Apparently the school children had the same programme for the day as we did! On top of that, Parliament was sitting and they were entertaining the Canadian Prime Minister, too. Didn’t see John Howard but I did get a glimpse of Kevin Rudd
Had dinner at Iori where I totally fell in love with the wasabi. Then brought my family to Mooseheads which was very quiet due to the holidays, had a drink and thus ended our stay in Canberra.

Wednesday 12th September 2007
Went back to Sydney and we had lunch at Seoul Ria where amazingly, despite our normally small stomach capacity we finished all the food spread out over our table. We had Modum Gui, Bibiembab, a fish dish, and spicy seafood noodles. The food was scrumptious! It was even better than when I tasted it back in April.
Finally, we managed to get to Sydney Opera House which was closed during the APEC summit. The tour, though slightly expensive, was very informative and the view inside the House was simply spectacular. The history of the House was riveting, too. At night, more noodles beckoned at a Vietnamese noodle bar. To be honest, I had run out of ideas of what to eat but we uncovered a gem by accident I’ve never eaten noodles this smooth and silky…After dinner we went back to the hotel for a final packing; all of a sudden it’s the final night of my family’s stay in Australia.

Thursday 13th September 2007

My family’s final day in Australia was pretty uneventful. We spent quite some time at the airport though; browsing the shops and having some lunch. People can trumpet all they like about how grand KLIA is, but seriously…the check in area, shops and especially the eateries are all way better here at Sydney Kingsford Smith airport. I still shudder at the thought of the atrocious food and ambiance at KLIA. Plus there was a huge viewing gallery for the public to see planes being loaded and taking off; and MH122 taking my family back home happened to be parked closest to the gallery! What a bonus Finally, it’s time to say goodbye and I watched my Mum, Dad and Sis go through the Customs gates, out of my sight. Stayed at the airport and watched the plane takeoff before I boarded a bus back to Canberra.

And here are some pics :

Posing with Kangaroos at Featherdale Wildlife Park

Happy Family @ Bondi Beach

The view from our hotel room

Mum’s cooking - Fish in tomato sauce

Mum’s cooking - Herbal chicken

Mum’s cooking - Stir fried prawns

The awesome steak at Hog’s Breath Cafe

The plane taking off, sending my family back to Malaysia

I had lots of fun and joy during this magical six-day period. It’s been quite a while since we had a holiday together and to have my family visit me here in Australia was just fantastic. Thanks Dad, Mum and Sis for spending the time and money to come over…I’ll be home in 2 months’ time!

p/s: To people who read this post till the very end, thank you for your patience and sorry for the super long post, hehe. Took up quite a bit of your time and internet quota, didn’t I? =p

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 5:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.