Highlights from 29th June - 1st July 2006

29th June 2006
It's house searching from our day 2 in Sydney. We went around the areas around the City - Ultimo, Pyrmont especially. Will be sharing our accomodation for the 1st 6mth or a yr with Kevan, thus a 2 bedder is our main focus. Security and assessability are my main concerns and the first day was pretty fruitless until our last stop at Goldboroughs (a cotton wool factory-turned serviced apartment). A fully furnished 2 bedroom will set us back a cool AUD560-590 per week depending on which unit we might take. The rooms are pretty huge though, with 2 storeys good serviced facilities and stuff. We thought it will be our home for the next 6-12 months at least as the other units we viewed in the day were unfurnished and cost quite expensive too.

The night was good as we met up with our seniors like Aaron, his wife Aileen and Meixuan. We had dinner at Superbowl, a more famous Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. Food is good and cost quite economically considering the high cost of cooked meals in Sydney! Haha. Got many tips from them regarding life in Sydney and also their experiences during their last 1 yr. Really a great gathering all in all as we feel not alone but part of a big family... haha... We met up at 730pm and chatted till around 10pm. Highly informative and it seems we will be having a great time ahead (except that things will no longer be as cheap as in Singapore... haha...)

30 June 2006
Another morning of home searching! But this time round, we seems to be getting closer to our rented home for the next 6-12 months! We viewed a fully furnished apartment at Saunders Street (see left). It is near the Sydney fish market and about 15-20 mins walk to the City. It is in Pyrmont area and is a nice residential area. Best thing is, it is gg only for AUD490 and it has a carspace! Good deal we think. Seriously considering it our rented apartment already! But it is still subject to competition from other interested parties. Really hope to get it!

Do stay updated whether if it really becomes my mailing address in Sydney for the next 6-12 months! Haha..

After the home search, Max's sis drove us to Birkenhead, a place with lots of factory outlets and cheap stuff. But, the lunch was EXPENSIVE as usual! Got the cheapest dish once again - fish and chips @ AUD5.5. Hazel had laksa which is not spicy at all for AUD7.50! Unbelievable ya? But it's true.


After some bargain buying, we made our way back to the hotel and the highlight of the night was trying the famous Krispy Kreme donuts! Lots of variety (like sour cream, blueberry, choc devil, apple, strawberry, etc..). But the best would have to be the ORIGINAL. Freshly baked and taste good but Hazel and I feel that the donuts are really too sweet. Seems that each donut has been coated completely with sugar.










Sydney is a great city but there seems to be little to do at night (after 8pm) other than clubbing or gambling at the Star City Casino. We did neither but went back to our room to play mahjong while watching the Germany v Argentina match. But it was not for long as I was too tired and kept dozing off.

1 July 2006
Day 4 in Sydney, 1 more day after today before I have to start work @ PwC Sydney. My mum's auntie and uncle came to pick us up @ 1030 to drive us to their house at Glenwood at the west of Sydney. We stopped by Parramatta for dim sum at 香满楼 and some sightseeing of the '2nd city to Sydney'.

Dim sum is good. After which, we took another 20 mins to reach their house. A single storey house with 4 bedrooms. Really nice decor and feels very home-ly. The house was actually a 'show-house'. We were then driven to a nearby market to look look see see. It happens to be one of the 3 big scale markets in Sydney, called 'Parkleas Markets'. The other which we had gone to is 'Paddy's Market' at Chinatown. As the Parkleas Market is in the suburbs, the prices of stuff there are generally cheaper but quality definitely differs slightly.

Our mode of transport back to hotel was train. We took the train from Blacktown station. It took just slightly under 45mins for us to reach Town Hall station and it's back to hotel after which. Tonight is another night which will see us being deprived of sleep again! Haha.. coz it's England v Portugal AND Brazil v France!!