RIP Nelson R.Santana

I'm still in disbelief that you're gone Nelson..
Though is been a long while since we talk but I knew I would always look forward to hanging out with you again if and when I'm back in Orlando..
I know you had the thing for bikes but I would never guess that your passion would have taken a toll on your life.

I remember you telling me you would love to migrate down under cause you picture Australia to be really cool lol
Well nelson, I hope you'll be able to see down under better from up there!

I'm glad that I went back the second time and became really good friends with you
I'm thankful that those times we hanged out are still fresh in my mind and I'll not feel sad thinking your gone but laugh at all those times when you acted really idiotic

Nelson..
Thank you so much for listening to me, coming over to hang out with me, talking to me on the phone for hours when I was down and lost, going to the club, watching movie, taking a joy ride in your car, trying spanish food and dropping by the last few days before I went back to say bye..

I'll miss making fun of you and hearing you talk shit about things..

Now the only thing I have of yours is that smelly Spice Mill shirt which you threw behind your car for months after you were fired but at least It'll bring back memories of the good days when I first met you..

I remember you telling me everything happens for a reason..
I hope you've found your reason Nelson, RIP

Friday night out and MARDI GRASS @ Home

Mardi Grass fell on a Saturday, 7th of March. The night before, I had dinner at Darling Harbour Hurricane"s Grill and Steak Bar which is the place to go for RIBS and more RIBS!
Waited for the longest period of time, sun set sun rise sun set sun rise and on and on...


Finally we were seated and the place is really dark, lots of ambience with small blazing fire on a panel which separates the kitchen and dinning area.

We ordered their house special, Hurricane's ribs i think there were pork ribs and lamb ribs...gosh felt like a carnivore!
To balance out the meaty dish, there was the octopus salad

The pictures taken that night were from my phone camera..proud of my samsung omnia haha

Octopus Salad

RIBS

Bone Collector
See the flaming small fire behind me

Next we headed down to this German beer place which served mango beer!!
Well, is not something new since I've tried it before in Brotzeit@ Vivo, yea is about the same kinda taste.

The bar was filled with drunk people mostly ang mohs.. the bar closed at 11 something close to midnight, can't get used to the fact that most places close relatively early here..

Anyway, since the night is still young, we walk around the city and decided to have supper at SEOUL RIA

I like the place, very anyo-haseyo feel, they have korean boss, korean ppl serving, korean drama playing, korean song blasting, korean ppl eating

And they have interesting desserts!!!

Ice cream in the shape of a mango
there were others in coconut shape, watermelon

The "seed" of the mango is hazelnut filling

BINGSU
Korean ice kacang

Besides all the dessert, we ordered a boat of sashimi and some stir fried dish and a bottle of plum soju.


The next day, which is MARDI GRASS day, we had plans to celebrate it the AUSSIE way which is to throw a BBQ or how they call it here "let's have a BARBIE"

All the meat for BBQ was prepared by kajie and I

Marinated beef and lamb


Marinated prawn and octopus


KEBAB PRAWN

The BBQ area is just opposite our apartment but there's no formal booking to the place, is on a first come first BBQ basis. So KT sat down there like 2hours before to "CHOP" the place.
At first we thought of just putting our stuff there on the table but you never know what will happened since the BBQ area is just next to the playground maybe some kids would dig their hands into our food!

Ah pek number 2 came into the apartment and straight away sank his feet into my powerpuff slippers. He said it was a natural reaction!

After countless times of bringing all the stuff up and down to the BBQ area from our apartment,
We were ready to BARBIE!!

The BBQ pit works with $1 coin each round like playing arcade game. When the fire dies and game's over we put in more coins.


The guys took it from here and controlled the fire and BBQ.

While we went back to our childhood days and attack the slide...wooooooooweeeeeeeeeMy roller coaster post

The light supposedly to shine on the place we BBQ our stuff was down, so we were cooking in partial blindness but the food turn out to be really yummy anyway

Before


After

Bluey bunny came down to play

After the cleaning up, the older generation decided to be IN so I suggested we played truth and dare while sipping wine from Hunter Valley.

Truth and dare took another turn and became more of MARDI GRASS haha

School Life

I guess that this must be the most important post. After all, I'm here primarily to study but so far my blog postings make it seem as though I'm on a holiday..which is not true!

What should i say about school life...I've 3 days week starting mostly at 10am- 1pm. One evening class from 6-9pm.

I wake up at 8am to look pretty




If I don't spend so much time looking HAWT, there would be time for breakfast

Bluey would be having his breakfast too, not like there's any distinction between the meals he has everyday since is always the same food and he eats all day like a PIG


Off to train station to catch the train before 9.30am, I spend AUD 4.80 to and fro UNI a day

Is called TRAIN for a reason, is not MRT is really a TRAIN like bollywood style can dance on top and hop from one section to another, just imagine!

So i take the train to my favourite stop REDFERN which is always filled with police looking out for criminals, yes REDFERN is a bad area but is the stop closest to uni. Every morning there's like a student march to UNI from the station.

Most of my classes stretch for 3 hrs..sigh and both of it deals with ECONOMICS, small and big.
I've not taken any pictures around uni, don't want to act like tourist but I'll get hold of some pictures in class if I can. The classes are like ancient since University of Sydney is the oldest in Sydney but they give you a very OXFORD feel haha

The only part which makes it MODERN and REAL are the grafitti on the table which is something RARE in NUS


I shall include the conversation going on:

"Hannah Brown is a SLUT"

"What's her number?"

"********"

"I want Hannah BRown's number not your MUM"S "

"It's the same number"


I've not been blogging much due to week after week of online quizzes for macroecons and microecons and I've just ended week 2 only! I don't know how much longer I can stick to doing masters of commerce before I become a NOOB like what my sister calls me. At least international business side is much more fun and exciting!

Hunter Valley part 2

Trying hard to keep updating my blog so thank goodness for weekends, here's Hunter Valley part 2!!

The next morning we woke up early to eat up the remaining food from the night before. Well, since we're leaving our little cottage soon, we decided to take more pictures of the surrounding of the place we stayed; Elysium Vineyard & Cottage.

Rocking on the rocking chair trying to act sickly like those dying girls in korean drama

Morning meditation

What's in there????

Here's the interesting part of the toilet in the cottage. Because the main toilet door can't be locked properly, one of the guys put a chair there with a sign which says..

Is kind of scary as you can see, especially at night when you walk past the chair is as though saying someone is sitting on the chair!!!haha

Fireplace

Outside the garden or rather the car park

Our roommate, Charlene from Guangdong and currently working in JP Morgan


Charlene's good friend David who's really funny and he likes to listen to everything about Singapore

After we packed up, it was time to continue our winery tours. Both my sister and kt had already bought the most bottle of wines as compared to everyone else, and the buying doesn't stop..I'm not a big fan of red wine but white wines especially dessert wines are nice. Make a wish..make a wish

Some leftover grapes that weren't picked


Olive tree

My sister told me that previously in the winter when she came up to Hunter Valley with my parents, it was quite pathetic as most of the vineyards were just dried vines. So, the peak period in Hunter Valley is during the summer. Anyway, our last day in Hunter Valley was the last day of Summer, officially Autumn started today.

The clear sky and low clouds makes it all feel really Brokeback LOL

We stopped by at a church.

This church is really unique, I would think that a church should have confession rooms but this one has a CRYING ROOM which is suppose to be sound proof, probably for wailing women when their husband leaves them.

Looks like a scene from a milk or cheese advertisement in New Zealand

Like I mentioned, Hunter Valley is not just about wine, there's chocolate and cheese too, so we went for a cheese tasting session!

Cheeezzzzz

I think our final destination was the Botanic Gardens which cost 15aud i think to get in and nobody was really interested so we just took pictures outside, is cheaper..what to expect when traveling with a whole lot of accountants haha

A friendship book I found in one of the shops..emo haha I wish my close friends were with me in this part of my journey in life

And finally, the wine collection from this Hunter Valley trip..

Old collection

New collection from this trip

I'm just going to cut and paste some information of the history of Hunter Valley wine:

Australia’s oldest wine region is also the home of some of the world’s most distinctive and outstanding wines. The most recognised of these is Hunter Valley Semillon, a truly remarkable wine that has been called ‘Australia’s unique gift to the world’. Hunter Valley Shiraz is also well-known. It is a medium bodied and savoury wine that pairs extremely well with food and, much like Hunter Valley Semillon, ages gracefully. Other outstanding varieties are Chardonnay and Verdelho.

The next post I guess I should be blogging about our version of celebrating pre and during Mardi Gras day