All refreshed and relax from the month off and I'm back in London and back to work and the wheels are in motion. The whirlwind holiday was brilliant, nice to relax and sleep in (somewhat) and have the time to do as I please... Yes, I think I can get used to that lifestyle! Ok, and the intentions to update this blog went down the hole cos the internet at home is soo sloooow...! ..will do in due course...

Anyway, I flew out on the Sunday evening and all was well. Settled in my window seat and ready to rought it out (miss my business class! ..sob sob.. such hard life). Lots of hours later.. voila arrived at Bangkok. Unfortunately didn't sleep much on the plane, those BA seats are small! And then we were told flight is delayed due to crew not having enough sleep (!!). Bah. Spent 1/2 hour chatting to sis & nephew, ate my free meal, shopped for prices at duty free and time to queue again. Was tempted to do a manicure and pedicure for B600 but thought might be pushing it for time.... but only to find out later that I had plenty of time since it was delayed even more! Bah! Getting tired sitting there waiting... I think we ended up delayed for 4hours?! So late arrival into Sydney... and guess what? The transit flight to Melbourne was delayed too!! Grrr..!! Ended up in Melbourne around 1.30pm. Quick lunch and mucking at home and started feeling drowsy. I wanted to stay awake so I can sleep properly and adjust to the time difference. By 5-6pm I KO-ed and thought a nap is ok.... 13hours later..! hahaha... Can't believe I slept for sooo long! Didn't even have dinner and didn't hear any noise around me. Quite amazed.

The first few days were all family related. Chinese New Year celebrations lasted a few days, and since my brother & his family were around, few family dinners etc. On top of that, I had only a handful of friends left in Melbourne, and of course, were all working during the day... so rather bored. But I had plenty of things to clean up and trawl through (clothes, knick-knacks, etc). By the weekend I managed to meet up with TH (oh, thanks for dinner..cheap and nasty, but very much yummy!) , stole a car (thanks ling!), and lunched with Jase (thanks Jase!).

By the second week I was getting bored. Went swimming, shopping, lunched with people in the city, movies, etc. Saw Priscilla Queen of the Desert musical on Wednesday with TH which was actually quite good! We had awesome seats close to the front of the stage, and I was well positioned to catch the ping-pong ball thrown from the stage (think, what tricks uses a ping pong ball?!) Would recommend it to everyone! And on a lovely Sunday afternoon TH escorted me around the city for my SLR session... and finished with dinner at Madame Sou Sou as recommended by Eel, didn't live up to the expectations though!

Final week in Melbourne was to do everything on the list I have yet to tick off! lol.. Had yumcha at Taipan with mum & godmum, haircut & colour, dinner with Balwyn girls and last catch up with people at Oyster on Little Bourke. Highly recommend this place! When I entered the restaurant there were a couple of people asking this dude for autograph & picture. Don't recognise him but he had a big table of Americans - I'm guess a director of some sort perhaps?! The setting was intimate and food was yummy. Good company, good wine. And also managed to meet up with a long lost friend of 12 years! (wonders of facebook! ;p )

And with the frantic last minute packing.. I arrived in Sydney on the sunny Saturday. Was informed that Sydney has had a miserable wet summers, alas I brought the sun with me! ;)

Saturday afternoon arrival at the airport and went to Five Dock for lunch, nothing special, was in the area. After that checked into the hotel and went shopping.. well wondering around.. didn't have anything to buy, plus my bags were FULL! Stayed at the Swissotel on Market Street, lovely lovely place. I had an executive suite complete with big bed, big bathroom and even a coffee machine! ;) My windows were literally facing the Sydney Tower! And of course, the location was awesome - round the corner was Pitt St mall!

Had dinner reservations at Rockpool that night, been looking foward to trying out the place. Service was good, setting was nice, but food: so-so, average. They got my order wrong and when it arrived it was a piece of grilled fish on a big white plate. No garnish, nothing fancy. My first reaction was, 'Gee, is that it?' as I had order the fish with eggplant accompaniments. So then I thought, maybe it comes as a side dish. 5-10 mins later: 'Ok they got my order wrong'. But what can you do? I'd already started eating. So ho-hum. And we enquired if they could make us mash - no, only what's on the menu. Boo. However I must say the dessert was teriffic! We were full by the end but can't make a trip there without having dessert (despite have half a dozen cupcakes in my room!). Ordered the Chocolate rice crackle cake (initial thought: coco pops cake?!). But it was deeeelish!! Not coco pops cake, but chocolate was delicate, and rice crackle was a bit of a twist, and yes you can eat the gold leaf!! *lol* That sorta made up for the meal.. but still MEH...

Next day took a drive up north. "We went to Pittwater near the Basin. We saw Lion Island, Broken Bay and Pittwater. It was real sunny." *lol* That's someone's feedback and summary. It was a beautiful day that definately warranted a convertible to go cruising, alas that is history. Unfortunately with these places there's not much to do there, just looking at the pretty views. On the way home we stopped at Manly beach and then it was hometime. So with the bulk of the day gone, I was back at the hotel scoffing another cupcake! ;)
Before dinner we went to McMahons Point to capture some photos of the harbour. Unfortunately it was cold unlike the night before and there's only so much I could bear before back to the warm warm shelter of the car. Had a quick Italian dinner and before I knew it, back in the hotel to pack. Was watching some strange movie in the room and next thing I knew it was Monday... I was waiting for my chauffer to sort out transportation issues and just loitered at Pitt Street. Had a few issues with the hotel wanting to charge for another night but I showed them who was boss! lol... Anyway, we went to Bill's at Woollahra and had his signature Sweet corn fritters with roast tomato, spinach and bacon *yummo!* Just had a short stroll and rest at Coogee Beach and before I knew it, was time to depart from down under and make the gradual trip north. I was a little concerned about my luggage weight but got through fine..with another massive load in my handbag! (SLR is HEAVY!!)

And so the trip home sweet home ended..
Conclusion - well, it had been more than 18 months since I've been home and was definately looking forward to the trip. It was nice to be in somewhat familiar surroundings and just to relax!! Well, after the 13hour "nap", I guess sleeping in just came naturally! Oh, and to skip the cold cold winter! :)

PS: i have finally got round to uploading photos and everything...
www.flickr.com/ajinomoto
..and am still enjoying my 'aussie' song bubbly by colbie callet! no she's not aussie, just that the song was played a lot on the radio.. and it's really cute... and it was playing as i was going to the airport, leaving the country... hmm...