Sunday 27 July 2008

WILL MISS YOU, MUMMY =)

Mummy has touched down safely in Singapore. Just webcam-ed with her and Daddy. Gah. Oh and my new housemate, Daniel, has officially moved in. And I didn't exactly have a very pleasant lunch experience. Plus I caught a camouflaging speed camera. Nasty.

ANYWAYS I'm here to blog about the past week or so. Mummy and I got back to Perth on Tuesday, 15/07, and on Thursday, 17/07, we went down to the city 'cos Myer had a MEGA sale. But before that we had lunch at Fast Eddy's.Mummy's cappuccino! Apparently it was good on first sip but it turned cold fast and then lost its taste.

Mummy's spaghetti bolognese. Eh. Super not al dente. But the sauce was good. I remember Mummy having spaghetti bolognese at Cafe Vero or something like that in Subiaco and the sauce was sour to the top!

My supposedly spicy nachos. Good thing they have a tray of condiments. Happily helped myself to the tabasco sauce and THEN my nachos became spicy.

This ice coffee can get me admitted to the hospital for diabetes if I drink it again. You got my point.

Myer's MEGA sale? So mega they ran out of the red kettle I've always wanted to get. So I gave them my details so that they could contact me when stock comes in. I didn't go back empty handed, though! I got a photo album haha for my Sydney photos. Bought watermelon+strawberry chiller from Icy Ice and then went home.


Nothing much happened the next few days except meeting Daniel and his parents for the first time, showing him around, then meeting them again on Monday (21/07) for dinner at Terrazza. OH! Orientation! We had coffee with the freshies on the same night, same place. So after the dinner, we went back, and then Daniel and I went out again to Terrazza.


Tuesday (22/07) Mummy and I decided to go down to Hyatt for buffet lunch since it was finally open. But seriously. Why does your website say it's CLOSED when I called and you said it's OPEN?!

Anyways. Ya. Photos.Cool new designs. But the chair is not as comfy as before. *notes*

The salad and fresh food booth.

Clockwise from crab: Crab, I-don't-know-what-but-looks-like-baby-lobster, raw salmon with some sauce and in the middle it's fresh tomato with cheese and a leaf.

The crab was so not fresh. The baby lobster look a like was REALLY fresh. Salmon was pretty ok. The tomato was good. Good combination, yes, including the leaf. Oh and guess what? They no longer serve fresh oysters. Only on weekend dinners. I felt like turning the table then and there when I heard about it. I mean, seriously.

Cooked fod booth.

Clockwise from sausage: sausage, a small little slice of pizza, mashed potato, beef stew (?), pan fried fish, grilled steak and in the middle chips.

The sausage was salty to the max. But then agin, all sausages are salty so I can't complain. That slize of pizza was not bad. THE MASHED POTATO WAS LIKE MELTING IN MY MOUTH! Super fine and smooth and I'm pretty sure creamy as well. Beef stew was not bad too. But I had better ones. Oh I mixed a bit of the beef stew gravy with the mashed potato and it was WAY BETTER than KFC's mashed potato. Pan fried fish TASTED good (brings back childhood memories) but it was still flaky. Like I said, buffet fish, always. THAT piece of steak was good but their later batches were crap. Totally.

Penne with pesto sauce and roast beef. Penne was al dente! Bravo! *applaudes* The roast beef was good too. Medium rare texture, was so in love with it.

DESSERT BOOOOOOTH! Sad to say they no longer have their super LOOOOONG table of desserts. I really loved that but oh wells. Renovated.

Mini pavlovas, tarts and slabs.

Fruits for the, uh, fruit deprived. I mean, really, you go all the way to a buffet place for fruits??

Ice cream and free toppings! Their range of toppings kinda sucked but mini marshmallows made me happy.

Apple crumble with apricots if you like. One of the red pans was for waffles (with maple/chocolate syrup at the side but not in the picture. The other red pan was for sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and cream in those two bowls.

This display was right smack at the entrance and it totally made me look forward to dessert. Sherry trifle, different fruit puddings, tiramisus, chocolate mousses, mini cheesecakes/mango slabs/chocolate cakes and tartlets!

Chocolate cake.

Peach upside-down cake. Yes, that's what it's called. Not 'cos there's a name displayed but 'cos I've seen recipes of this.

Talking about display of names. NONE OF THEIR DISHES HAD AT LEAST THEIR NAMES DISPLAYED MUCH LESS DESCRIPTION. What's up with that, man?

Apple strudel.

Creme caramal and, uh, burnt chocolate mousse? I don't know lol.

Clockwise from waffle: waffle drizzled with maple syrup, mango slab, mini pavlova, tiramisu cake, banana tart, custard tart.

The waffle was nice and crispy! Mango slab was ordinary. Pavlova was interesting 'cos it was my first time but it was a biiiiit too sweet. Tiramisu cake was oh-kay only, but much better than the one they had before renovation. BANANA TART WAS THE BOMB. Fragrant banana cream, fresh burnt bananas and chocolate tart case. Reminds me of the super duper artificial-to-the-max banana cake at Monterey's that had dried banana on top instead of fresh. Cheap. Custard tart was good too! Loved the custard.

Clockwise from creme caramel: creme caramel, peach upside-down cake, chocolate cake, apple strudel, sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and in the middle apple crumble.

Creme caramel was sweet to the spine. Yes, spine. Peach upside-down cake was good! Chocolate cake was like. I tasted more sugar than chocolate. You get my point. APple strudel was crap. The pastry was either too thick or super not fresh. Apple crumble was so-so.

Mango and macadamia cheesecake and tiramisu.

THE CHEESECAKE EXPLODED IN MY MOUTH! Super shiok. The tiramisuuuuuu. Why did they use, whiskey. Totally spoilt the tiramisu. AND there were no sponge fingers in there. Only plain cream with whiskey and chocolate dusting. Use kahlua, man, kahlua.

Ice cream! Lemon sorbet. Sourness was just right but the sweetness was crazy. Remember how I said Y2K Super Cafe in Sydney's ice cream was too sweet? This one was worse.


After 25% discount. Originally A$78. In my opinion? Over-priced. True, it's newly renovated but, hello? No oysters except for weekend dinners? Limited variety in cooked food? And such sucky desserts? This was a huge disappointment. It's not longer a place I'll recommend my friends to go. To think I used to go all crazy whenever I talk about Cafe at the Hyatt buffet. No more.


Wednesday after dance practice I went over Eunice's place to join them for freshies' dinner. Quite a number of houses were open so the freshies were spread everywhere. Eunice was (and still is) just next door so might as well.


Thursday. Uh. Dance prac?


Friday Aunty Lucy, Mummy and I went down to Subiaco. Then at night was combined cell. Was posted into Jeremy Low's cell! Ah crap. Can forsee the many insinuations coming my way.


SATURDAY! Went down to city again and FINALLY GOT MY RED KETTLE! Then rushed back to UWA area for service. Service messed me up. You see that music player there on the right? Play the song "Healer". Listen to the lyrics. I wasn't just in tears. I was pouring. It's like thunderstorm on my face, no joke. Mike Guglielmucci was, is and will truely amazing with his strength and ability to worship and priase God at such times. He wrote that song immediately after he found out he had cancer. Like hospital->results->rush home->hit record button in studio->burst into worship. He did not plan this song verses by verses, bridge by bridge or chorus by chorus. It just came out. Just like that.


I'll talk about food fest and Sunday another time. For now, I'm off! =)


signing off~DE XIN

Wednesday 23 July 2008

WTF

You never notify me about events and yet you still expect me to drive.


signing off~DE XIN

Monday 21 July 2008

WHAT AM I TO YOU?

It used to take me just a few days to get over this same issue. Now? It's been three weeks. Three weeks. You guys are pushing things further. I went to Sydney, hoping to look at you guys in a different angle. But you guys are doing more things to prove me right.

Just TODAY you guys did it again. Assumptions after assumptions. Ignorance after ignorance. Advantages after advantages.

Seriously.

What am I to you?


signing off~DE XIN

Saturday 19 July 2008

SYDNEY 2008 PART 2

Ok. Woke up. Had my fruits and medicine. With the dance performance just around the corner, I really need to get well ASAP. If not for the performance I'd refuse to take medicine. No choice. So here I am with another Sydney post!


On Monday, 7th of July, Hillsong Conference started! However it only started late afternoon so Mummy and I could wake up a little later and go out for lunch! We decided to go to World Square because we heard there was DIN TAI FUNG!!!!!!!!!! So we got on our feet and walked there.

Photos on the way!We finally reached but. There was a queue =(. The queue wasn't exactly too long but we were pressing for time so we decided to just drop it and go somewhere else for lunch. We had 8 more days anyways!

So we walked around andTHAI EXPRESS?! But Mummy wasn't too keen on Thai food. We walked up and down and finally decided on a Japanese restaurant, Sushi Roll.

Authentic Japanese? Food, yes, chefs, no. Hah! At least 75% of the waiters/waitresses and chefs were Koreans! I could very easily tell from the way they spoke. And one thing I loved about this restaurant was, the lighting was so perfect it's not only easier taking photos, it's much easier to see when the FRESHEST sashimi was placed on the moving belt as well!

The moment I sat down, I saw my favourite sushi and immediately pulled it out from the belt, together with others.Clockwise from top left: salmon and avocado roll, unagi, salmon and avocado, tobiko roe!

And if you think that small amount of wasabi was harmless, you're dead wrong. A spice lover like me was sniffing like nobody's business. The salmon and avocado roll was good! Nice and fresh. Tobiko roe too. Always loved it when the roes pop in my mouth when I bite on them. The two salmon and avocado ones were good too!

Mummy doesn't take sushi 'cos of her weak tummy so she took katsu don. Chicken katsu with omelette on a bed of rice. Mummy said normal haha.

I didn't realise the unagi sushi had cheese until I ate one. Super shiok!

Cheese sushi. I think. Cheese overload. I enjoyed it but I don't think a normal rational person will like it haha.

THIS ONE WAS THE BOMB I TELL YOU. Grilled salmon sushi. FWAAAAAH. I wanted to get one more but I could imagine the bill getting more and more expensive sooo I held back my temptation =(.

After lunch, Mummy needed to go Coles. Forgot why. But anyways.Dragon look-alike thingy. Haha.

I just had to =P. But got warned by a security guard 'cos photo-taking wasn't allowed in the building. I didn't know! Yikes. He came up super close to me some more. Tsk. If he wasn't the security guard I would have..ya. Haha.

Time was running out so we walked back to our apartment. More photos on the way back!OH! My first Easyway in Sydney =D. Joined the membership too! Woohoo! Please get my card if you want to drink from Easyway haha I'm collecting points.

So we got back to the apartment, washed up a little and went down to the bus and OFF WE WENT TO HILLSONG CONFERENCE DAY ONE!

I'm about to show u a 180 degrees view of acer arena.HAHA ok sorry, I'm lazy to compile them into one picture.

GENESIS! WHY BEHIND SO BLUR ONE?!

Yay Genesis! See. People take so much nicer =P.

JIN! COME BACK TO PERTH!!!!! ToT

Talking robot cubes =D.

Female robot cube cannot go up.

Female robot cube still stuck. Singers singing underneath it for the opening song!

The full band singing/playing for the opening song. Female robot cube disappeared! Praise the Lord!

Red is the colour!

ISRAEL HOUTON! LIKE, OMGOSH!

Preacher that evening during the 4.30 sermon was Robert Barriger. His sermon left the first and second-greatest impact on me. He touched on the passage about how Jesus helped 10 lepers (I think) but only 1 came back to give thanks.

Main point of the story was that it doesn't matter when people don't give appreciation for all that you do because you're doing it all for Jesus and not for those people. That message came with so much warmth for me given that I went to Sydney with all that bitterness in me.

When the first night rally at 4.30 ended, a few of us stayed behind for the second night rally at 7.3. We only had tickets for the first one so we waited in the public queue for the second one and the queue wasMASSIVE!

Jim and I waiting to get in there.

Same thing but different angle. Right smack opposite =D.

Tim Costello! Doing tithes and offerings haha.

Maaaaassive. 20,000++ people! No joke! Human avalanche wouldn't be fun at all.


JUDA SMITH! Dedicated father of two nuggets (lol) and one wife. Gah. We need more of these kinda men around. That are still single. xD

He talked about embracing Grace (and how guys shouldn't think guys hugging guys is gay, amen) and how we're God's children by birth (birth as in baptism) and not by worth. Even in normal context, we're never children of worth but children of birth to our parents. In other words, unconditional love and God's Grace.

The train ride back was torturous. Super jerky driver. Plus the long walk back to the apartment (good thing Mummy went back early or she'll be famished). Total of about 2 hours! Had gastric on the way back so when I got back I gobbled down one whole slice of taro sponge cake and then had a good night's rest.


Ah first day. Absorbed so much. Man. Now you know why I've registered for next year =D.


signing off~DE XIN