WOAH!!!

SECOND DAY! Omgosh omgosh so GOOD but yet so tired. 9am-8.30pm man! Started with Brian Houston preaching in the morning ralley. I slep through most of the combined stream, though HAHA super tired lah, my gosh. Then was the electives session at 1.30!

I went for the worship session with Diana and Wayne. Main arena. FOURTH ROW FROM THE FRONT!!!Sooo near!

Darlene Zschech! I'm still so amazed at her singing. Seriously.

Louie Giglio! Can you believe he's already 51. My gosh. He's just so amazing AND funny.

Went for the Dance and Dramatic Arts stream. I LEARNT SO MUCH! I couldn't believe it. Choreography, how you should choose wisely according to the event and song and audiences, how you should choreograph in order to maximise your dancers' abilities, how amazing is that.

Night ralley. We moved a bit closer to the centre. Just a bit. But made a whole lot of difference.
I just love the projections.

Jentezen Franklin spoke at the night ralley.
He. Is. HILARIOUS. And so amazing. I learn so much from his sermons every single time.

Not to mention the worship was always super impactful. Did I mention Chris Tomlin led the worship stream's worship as well? He is AWESOME!

After the conference, the bus took us back to our apartment/hotel and a big bunch of us walked over to Hurricanes for ribs at Darling Harbour.
The huge bunch. Plus 3 more smaller tables. You can imagine the size.

Eunice and I!

Octopus salad. A$22. BUT IT WAS SO GOOD OMGOSH THE DRESSING WAS TO.DIE.FOR!!!

FULL RACK OF PORK RIBS Omgosh YUM!

Walked back after dinner with Eunice, Lijin and Rebecca. Got bubble tea at the dessert store near our apartment/hotel. It was actually better than EasyWay's! I guess. I don't have to go far to get bubble tea!

signing off~DE XIN

FINALLY THE OPENING!

4th day in Sydney already. Time passes really fast, hey. Gah. Anyways! Wayne, Diana and I actually wanted to go down to Paddington Market but apparently it was closed so we decided to go back there on Saturday so that we can not only go to Paddington Market but also shop around that area as well.

Since our original plan was postponed, we went for Din Tai Fung instead!!! But we reached there at 11am when it only opened at 11.30. So what did we do? SHOP. I got a pair of shoes, and so did Wayne. Walked a bit more and then we were back at Din Tai Fung!Aaah. Spoons and bowls on display. Miss those stuff.

8 xiao long baos (soup dumplings with pork meat)!!!

My Dan Dan Mian (noodles in spicy peanut sauce). Sooo good omgosh. Lurved it.

Diana and Wayne ordered pork and prawn dumpling soup. The soup was gooooood. Dumplings were totally awersome as well.

They also ordered the prawn fried rice. I've tried it before so I already knew it would be good =D.

Taro dumplings!!! My favourite! Gah I had three of those haha Diana doesn't take taro and Wayne only took one. Omgosh omgosh I can hyperventilate and die happy HAHA.

We continued shopping, where I bought another BAG for only $36! Then we decided to walk over to QVB but along the way we saw a sports shop on sale because their lease was ending. EVERYTHING HALF PRICE.

Guess what I got. A pair of Puma black with silver stripes high cut sneakers.Originally $140 but I only paid $70 for it. I also got another top, originally $80 (that's insane) but I only paid $40! I was dead happy.

We totally walked through QVB and came out the other side. Along the way, we walked pass a cupcake stall. Diana got a choc-choc cupcake. I got...
Cheesecaaaaaake!!!!!! Totally.Splendid.And.Awesome. Best I've had so far in Australia. YUM.

We walked over to Sports Girl. Well guess what. I BOUGHT ANOTHER PAIR OF SHOES. Bright gold high cut sneakers that can be folded and buttoned down to look like a normal pair of sneakers with a super long tongue. $70. (You can check it out at https://shop.sportsgirl.com.au/index.html and go to shoes, flats, and click on "New Bling Hi Top" and mine will be the GOLD one.) I'm going insane. I swear. And I haven't found a nice wallet yet.

We rushed back to the apartment/hotel because I was supposed to meet Genesis to get Diana's and my arm band for Hillsong. Went back to the room, rested for a while and down we went to the bus, set off at 4pm to ACER ARENA!

I WAS SO EXCITED!
AS HUGE AS EVER!

Did I mention HOW COOL the OPENING was!
The lights flashed to a classical song. Can't remember the name of that song! Dammit.

This Cross was hung right in the middle of the arena. It was SO COOL. In fact, it was the last photo I managed to capture before I was chided for using the camera. Nonsense stuff. There was no notice or announcement stating we can't use cameras!

After a good sermon (with very awesome worship sessions), our team left for dinner. A few of us (say, 20 odd?) went to Super Bowl.
I had Original Recipe Combination Congee. There was chicken balls, liver, intestine and whatnots. I've never had anything like that before! I totally enjoyed it! Ohoh I also had like green tea milkshake with pearls from Y2K Supercafe. Not baaad.

Walked over to Woolworths after dinner to buy some stuff and then back to the apartment/hotel. Now? Tiiiiiired.

signing off~DE XIN

DAY 3, MORE FOOD!

I had to move out of the room I was sleeping in the past two nights and check-in to another room. Waited for Diana and Wayne to arrive so that I can let Daian move in to the room we're sharing while she's here with Wayne. Wayne's sharing a room with Kah Hon and Jeremy, though.

So they came around 3 and when they put their stuff down, we headed out for super late lunch hahaha. I was dying for Din Tai Fung but it was already closed because of the time so we decided to go over to Capitol for Harry's Pie.Top left (clockwise): prawn tiger, cheese and bacon tiger, chilli dog. Tiger means mashed potatoes and mashed peas. The mashed peas actually tasted good! It tasted like the pea snack. My chilli dog was hot dog with chilli con carne. It was spicy. IT WAS ACTUALLY SPICY. Satisfying to the maaax.

We walked around a bit, I bought EasyWay bubble tea (looks like I'm gonna keep to my bubble-tea-everyday-in-Sydney tradition) before heading back to the hotel/apartment to meet with the whole team to head down for dinner.

We had dinner at a buffet place, Garden Buffet, in Star City (equivalent to Burswood in Perth but probably a bit better).
Aimee on the table, with the boys terrorizing her HAH.

The WIDE spread. You see one stretch, then there's another stretch, and then a third last stretch.

Pizza, baked pasta and ravioli/spaghetti with carbonara sauce.

Bottom (clockwise): lamb, pork crackle, I-don't-know-what-and-I-didn't-touch-in-the-end, osso buco, beef (really awesome although a bit dry) and something that tasted like spam.

Dessert!!!!!! Top (clockwise): two different triffles (THEY WERE SO GOOD OMGOSH), two different jellies (reminded me of those childhood jelly-in-the-cup), passionfruit cheesecake (it was SOUR?!), some citrus-y cake which was AWESOME, strawberry shortake (I think and it was not bad), caramel eclairs (not bad) and brownie in the middle which was SO SWEET it nearly killed me.

That wasn't all I had. I also had tiramisu (the coffee taste was too strong and there was too much cream and not enough sponge fingers and slightly dry), sticky date pudding, apple and rubharb crumble with custard and watermelon. OH and a coke float. Yummm.

Joshua Lau did something cool with his forks and some toothpicks.
Same concept as the bird beak balancing on the tip toy most people played as a kid.

Walked over to Woolworths with a few of them to do grocery shopping. Back at the apartment now. Had some fruits. Super full. Gah.

signing off~DE XIN

DAY 2!

Omgosh I. Am. So. Tired. But the cause of this tiredness is definitely worth it. Was supposed to wake up at 7 this morning but I OVERSLEPT by FORTY FIVE minutes. Rushed like mad and managed to meet the rest at the lobby at 8.30am before heading down to the train station to take a train down to Paramatta to take a shuttle bus to HILLSONG ON THE HILLS!

On the double-decker train..The boys.

They were HILARIOUS ok! Leonel was playing with that small window thingy and then Chris decided to open it for him and -wahlah- Leonel got whacked in the head by the window. AHAHAHA I COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING OK!

At Paramatta station, we scouted for some breakfast. I bought HAZELNUT CHOCOLATE STRUDEL at some German bakery. Oh.My.Gosh. It was. SO GOOD. Plus a long macchiato that was so strong and yet so smooth. It was not too hot either. Finished it in minutes. Nice lah.

There was this cupcakes store where Pia stood outside, waiting for it to open. Once they opened, Pia was the first to rush in HAHA.
$2 for one cupcake. I think it's insane. But they looked cute lah.

The last Hillsong shuttle bus came but it was super packed and guess what! They immediately sent another shuttle bus down! Talk about love.

When we reached the church, it just brought back so much fond memories. A year.
I can still clearly remember where I sat a year ago. And how Jiahuei dragged a few of us all the way to the front just to take pictures with Jonathan Douglas when service ended =_=.

Hillsong bus! I so love it!

After alighting from the shuttle bus back to Paramatta train station, Eunice, Leonel, a few other UWA girls and I took the train to city central for Harry's Pie.

I got the curry pie with cheese sauce.

Ooomgooosh. It was just awesome. To top it all off, I went to Passion Flower to get sticky rice ice cream. It's just like eating pulut hitam with cream but frozen. Aaaaaahhhhhh......

We met up with the rest at Paddy's Market. Got some track pants for myself and nothing more. It felt like Fremantle mix Shanghai mix pasar malam in there. So I was out with the boys (Jim, Chris, Leonel) in no time.

While we were out, I saw this little kid feeding the seagulls.
DAMN CUTE LAH!

We decided to move on to Queen Victoria Building (QVB) but along the way, I managed to get my EasyWay bubble tea!
Double pearl. How AWESOME LAH!

Met the UWA girls on the way to QVB but as we were making our way there we somehow lost all the girls but Eunice. The boys went on their hunt for nice jackets while Eunice and I just walked around.

Bumped into Lynn, Karen and Yee Mei at Nine West. I managed to get a handbag! Originally $189, reduced to $89. Karen got the same one too. Next hunt: wallet.

Eunice went back while I was at Nine West. Lynn, Karen, Yee Mei and I continued shopping at Supre. I bougth SCARVES. New addiction. It's just amazing how I can still use them in Singapore where the malls are CRAZILY cold. Did I mention the Supre here has SEVEN STOREYS?! But only the first two levels were open because we went in when they were about to close.

Four of us went back to the apartment to put our shoppings down and lazed on the sofabed while watching the new Hillsong DVD; Faith+Hope+Love. Totally. Awesome. Took us a while to get our butts off the beds and onto the streets again for dinner.

Dinner was at Darling Harbour. We wanted to go Hurricane for ribs but we had to wait 1-1.5 hours for a place! So we walked on, wanted to go Pancakes on The Rocks (DH branch) but there was a queue. So we walked on again and decided on Waterfront Grill.

Nachos! Not bad lah. Wasn't fantastic though.

Lynn's greek salad with chicken. The chicken was SO GOOD. Tasty and tender.

Yee Mei and Veli's rib and rump. They were struggling to finish towards the end haha!

Karen and I shared a 300g sirloin steak (medium rare) with mashed potato. We chose the garlic butter with truffle-something sauce. The sauce was TREMENDOUSLY AWESOME!

The steak was tender....but would've been better if it was juicier. Karen only took 1/3 of the steak lah! I struggled to finish my larger part. Don't ask about the mash (which wasn't very good actually). We didn't manage to finish it.

After dinner, we walked over to Lindt Chocolate Cafe. I got a cup of hot dark chocolate. SO. FREAKING. WICKEDLY. AWESOME. Nice and smooth and aromatic and EVERYTHING NICE.

They had a wide display of cakes as well which I daren't touch 'cos I was so full. Ohoh!
And macaroons (which they call Delis I think). ICE CREAM TOO! But their ice creams didn't have much variety.

On our way back (where we got lost numerous times over just one bridge), Karen returned a DVD and rented another one. DID I MENTION HOW COOL THE RENTING MACHINE IS! It's just like a vending machine! Well, almost.

So it's a machine with a touch screen. You pick the DVD you want to rent/buy, swipe your credit/debit-master card, and the DVD comes out! You return the DVD into the machine itself too! It's dead cool. I swear.

So we watched Role Model. I didn't pay attention haha 'cos I was using my laptop talking to the mother. Now everyone's asleep except for me and my room mate. Which reminds me. I should take a picture of the apartment. Maybe tomorrow. =D

signing off~DE XIN