More more updates! Post-exam fun!

18th Nov 07- Badde Manors Cafe and Glebe Street Market

More photos which I was too lazy to upload the past month or so. After my exams, I had a few days free to play before I return to Singapore. On 17th Nov, I went to Manly beach and on 18th, Zhen and I had another sumptous breakfast at Badde Manors and we visited the annual Glebe Street Market. Here are the photos!

Our FAV breakfast place! a.k.a Bad Manners..

Muesli, Fruit and Yoghurt- Comes with a cute pint of milk for the muesli.. Zhen and I were very fascinated with the cute pint and colourful yoghurt and fruits! They tasted really healthy and yummy!

Here's the muesli! Boy, do I LOVE muesli!

Mediterrainean (did I spell this correctly? hee) Breakfast- consisted of fried eggs, grill haoumi cheese, brinjal, olives, pickles, focaccia bread. Not as nice as the vegeterian breakfast that we tried previously.

Us and our breakfast!

Then we strolled along Street where rows of stalls were set up...
Zhen zhen entertaining herself with the hat.. haha.

Popiah for $5?? Daylight robbery again! It was a group of chinese students who were selling it... Hmm.. next time I can consider selling ice kachang or something at like $5 too?? Since Aussies like to try new stuff and ice kachang can keep them cool during summer. Then I can earn big Aussie bucks!! Muahaha. This person was quite cool...he was looking at a person's side view and cutting the paper accordingly and he did it really well and accurate...he did not need to re-do again!

Us and Glebe.. before Zhen flew off for NZ...

17th Nov 07- Manly Beach

On a bright Saturday morning, I woke up at 6am and headed down to Manly beach all by myself! My friends wanted to go shopping but I preferred the outdoors and nature. I am in Australia afterall! I can do all the shopping that I want when I am back in Singapore. It was a fantastic 'me' day...enjoyed the sun, breeze, sand...observing what the Australians do on the beach (nude-tanning!!)...did the 10km trek from Manly beach to Spit bridge too! It did not even feel like 10km because the scenary was breathtaking...there was a gradual change in what I saw.. from the beach to sails on the sea to bush walking through a desert-like-place then a forest and many other smaller, but cosier beaches...Okie, shall let the photos do the talking!

Here's a shot of the ferry that I took to Manly beach- it departed from Circular Quay so I had a magnificant day and night view (when taking the ferry back) of the habour bridge and opera house.

Me, myself and I on the ferry!

Above are shots of the Manly Sunday markets- they are slightly different from the markets that I went previously as they sold alot of nice 'artsy' stuff. Spoke to a mother of an autistic boy who could paint very well and she was selling his art pieces at the market. They are from Malaysia and they actually heard of the Autistic Resource Centre that I was attached to in Penang! What a coincidence! When I told her that I am currently studying OT, she told me that OT has helped her son alot and that made me beamed with pride :)

This is the famous Manly beach- but there are not many MANLY men around!! What a disappointment for chiobu! Anyway, I wasn't dressed in my best (full-full-full bikini wear- think only Daph and YJ know this code..haha) to flirt with them. No wonder Australia has one of the world's highest skin cancer prevalence...there were many bodies baking under the super-duper hot and piercing sun (you know that kind which you feel can penetrate through and kill your skin cells straightaway??). Some were nude somemore! Ouch! Imagine hot sizzling, cracklling hair, hot milk and fried birdies.. Okie, this is getting too much... heh heh. Clever me forgot to bring or apply sunblock and ended up a roasted piggy at the end of the day...sigh.

A group of really young girls posing for photos- I can't even pose like them! Boy, do they grow up fast...was still wearing arena swimming costume at their age...

This father was happily burying his son who seemed very happy to be buried as well...His son was in there for quite sometime...Look! The father even had time to make a sandcastle around him...it was such a nice fatherly-sonly moment.. Awwww

Two cute old man sun tanning! How cool is that! Can you imagine two of our taxi divers basking under a sun like that? They must be thinking- siao ah le!!

After sitting around the beach for quite sometime with my delicious booze drink and lunch, I started my 10km trek with a good full stomach! Me looking all so fresh before the trekking! Below are some shots which I captured on the way...enjoy :)

Yup! This marks the end of a wonderful day at Manly beach...After typing this post, I am all looking forward to returning to Sydney for more trekking, bushwalking and exploration!! :)

OTTP Seminar

15th Nov 07- OTTP Seminar

Remember the project that I mentioned in some previous posts? Well, we had our final seminar where the organisations that various groups worked with came to see our presentation on what we have achieved the past few months. Our group ZAACK (Zhenzhen, Amber, Adrian, Chun Yi, Kerrie) completed an interactive educational package for elderly refugees. We also trialled the activities that we created with two groups of elderly refugees (this was the fun part of the project!). Although the seminar was not as formal as NYP's FYP, some groups were very creative in capturing the audience attention which allowed them to understand their projects better. I am quite impressed with their creativity, something which I felt, we Singaporean students lack. Here are some photos of the seminar:

ZAACK in action
Us and the nice poster that Kerrie made

Us with our lecturers

Joan, Wan Ru and I with our lecturer's guide dog- he is really guai!!

The Singaporean OT students with our lecturers

Our version of 'XI'...

'NU'...

'AI'...

'LE'!

Elain, Zhen, me and Amber

Post Exams Celebration!

15th Nov 07- Montezuma's and Andrea's House Stayover

After our exams and the seminar, Zhen and I celebrated at a Mexican restaurant with Amber. We went to Paramatta, hoping to find good food and boy were we lucky! Montezuma's is really unique as it serves authentic mexican food and has a really nice ambiance. The menu was gigantic and the fonts were so complicated and difficult to read. What is worse is when you put 3 indecisive ppl togther and it took us nearly half an hour to choose to 2 dishes! I think the waitress was quite amazed by us.. haha. Had a really fun time with Amber as we talked about our love life (not like I have got much to share now..anyway I prefer to listen to the juicy bits than share.. haha).

After the cosy dinner, Zhen and I headed for Andrea's house for our stayover. The next day, we invited Joan and Vivien over to our place for steamboat and stayover. It was our very last gathering before everyone splits up during the summer break.

Us at Paramatta!

The Mexican name of the dish is really complicated.. this is ****** something. Anyways, it is chicken coated with chocolate, tomato and coconut.. sounds disgusting right?? But it tasted oh-so-great!! Did not know such a weird combi would turn out so good! The choco and tomato were both mild and not overpowering so they blended pretty well and gave the juicy chicken a mellow sweet taste. The coconut gave the crunch and the spanish rice was similar to our malay yellow rice- found it rather hard and tasteless though.

This is some prawn dish served with spanish rice and the hot wraps (inside the tissue)! The piping hot wrap tasted really good with the prawn coated with cheesy-tomato sauce. The juicy prawns were nicely complemented with the tasty sauce which has the right blend of saltiness and sweetness.

Love the cosy woody feel of the restaurant! The colourful decos made the place so bright and cheery! =)



Zhen and I took turns to take photos with Amber who made such a great host and brought us around Paramatta. She is one sweet girl whom we love to bits!! =)

Us at Andrea's big big bungalow! She lives at the north part of Sydney where the 'better off' Australians live so the house there were definitely much nicer than what we have at Berala! The surrondings seemed so much more serene and tranquail too. Anyways, we watched DVDs throughout the night..hmm.. actually I think we slept through the night with the movie playing on the screen...haha. Here's a shot that we took when we just woke up all fresh and awake!

Above is the bread and butter pudding which I baked for the steamboat party. It was one of my rare successful baking attempts. We ate it with really superb ice cream which we bought at a really good deal! We were all so so so stuffed that night- felt like I was 9 months pregnant man. This marks the end of our Post Exams Celebration! =)

More Updates!

11th Nov 2007- Walk Against Warming and Una's at Darlinghurst

More Aussie happenings which are really out dated... haha. In the midst of our exams, Zhen and I decided to try out something that can never be done in Singapore- Strikes and protests!!! We took part in Walk Against Warming, a demostration against climate change which had to be done before the elections. Each state would have a demostration in the city on the same day. Sounds cool eh?? How could we miss that!

Before we head for the demostration, we had to fill our stomachs with good brekkie of course. We headed for Una's, a German cafe famous for its big portion of delicious german food! Despite its good reviews, we were very disappointed by the quality of its food and service. I don't think we would ever go back there again..sigh.

Once again, we had to take the food-and-us-shot!

The Big breakfast was not as BIG as expected. It was salty and the saussage was dry and skinny (think straight okie)...Boohooo.. how disappointing!

This is the Chicken Schwitzel (I hope I got the spelling correct). It is a popular German kind of sandwich. This tasted pretty normal, just like a chicken sandwich.

And then the exciting and fun part comes!! Nope, we did not go for it prepared, they had ready-made posters to spare us!

Hearing the speeches before the walk...

And the walk begins!

Zhen and I looking all excited...it is our virgin experience mah..
Ohh.. Aussies really dare to make BOLD political statements..

How cool is that??

Families, people of all ages joined in the walk!
Okie, this is a random shot of Wan Ru's creative "chicken drumstick".. haha. She was craving for it so she decided to put the mince meat on the broccolli and baked it... well, it did fulfilled her craving! It was quite hilarious lah.. haha.