A Day of Aussie Life

I experienced a day of Aussie family life. 
First, my best friend, Min and I went Christmas shopping at Westfield Miranda. We arrived just before 10am and the car park was almost full! Christmas shopping is the busiest time at the mall. I didn't go all "shopping crazy"! :) I was really proud of myself and bought only what I still needed to buy - a skirt for Juliane, a pressie for a good friend, and a Lush product. :) 
After our Christmas shopping, I went with Min to help the other parents with doing up the final touches on the graduating banner for the graduating Year 6 classes (Year 6 = Pri 6). It was a good two hours of hard work and the end product was amazing. :) Although I am not a parent of any of the graduating kids, I was asked to sign my name behind the banner too! It was really nice of the parents to include me. :)

After dinner (I had roo meat again! :D ), I took photos with everyone! :)

Aunty and Uncle who always treat me very well, like a daughter :)

Min and Graham who welcomes Min's nutcase friend with roo meat! :)

Me in the company of two really handsome guys! :)

It is so sad that it is my last night in Sydney. I really enjoyed being part of an Aussie family. :)

Memory Lane II

Friday is late night shopping in the city! :) I always love shopping in the city. I remembered I used to pack all my lectures and tutorials into the first 2-3 days of the week so that I would have the rest of the week free to do grocery shopping on Thursdays (suburb late night shopping) and window-shopping on Fridays (city late night shopping) haha. :)

Since I was in no hurry, I lazed in bed lol. I only left for the city around 11am. I went to The Queen Street Mall. I visited The Myer Centre, Brisbane Arcade, Wintergarden, Broadway on The Mall, Macarthur Central... just taking in the sights and sounds. :) No lah, I wasn't shopping at those shopping centres that I mentioned. I really was just looking. :) I did shop but only at those shops which I used to frequent when I was studying in Brisbane lol. What can I say? I am a woman of habit lol.

City hall

Xmas decorations at The Queen Street Mall

In the evening, I walked over to the South Bank. It is my routine or if you like, my ritual lol. I always go to the South Bank after my city shopping on Fridays. At South Bank, there are quite a number of eating places and the most importantly, there is the Friday Night Market where you can find art, craft, homewares, collectibles, designer fashion and more. :) I took some photos of the city lights from the South Bank. Lovely views. :)

Victoria Bridge, Office buildings and Treasury Casino (building bathed in green lights)


Finally I decided to have dinner at Decks Seafood and Steak Restaurant. I was seated outdoors where the evening breeze was nice, cool and refreshing after a warm day. I ordered an Atlantic Salmon (AUD$31): salmon grilled with sautéed kiphlers and chorizo sausage topped with tomato and citrus salsa. It took a while for my order to arrive because it was quite crowded. But it was ok as I took the time to relax and enjoy the scenery, the breeze and basically, enjoy life. The salmon was beautifully done and went really well with the tomato and citrus salsa.


After dinner, I took a nice leisurely walk around the South Bank to take in the sights as well as to aid in my digestion (:P) before heading home. I felt very contented as I have taken another trip down memory lane.

Last Minute Shopping

This is the last weekend to get Christmas stuff lol. There sure were A LOT of people at the malls. Juliane and I were window shopping at both Paragon and Centrepoint in the late morning.

After dinner, we went to Ikea because I needed to get some frames. Again, there were many people. The queues were really long at the cashiers. :( After that, we had desserts at Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe, Anchorpoint. The girls shared a Mango Pomelo Cream while I tried the Triple Snow Ice. I thought the girls' dessert was much nicer, mine tasted kind of weird, the 3 favours (mango, strawberry and red bean) didn't really blend well together. :(

People, People Everywhere!

Juliane and I went to Paragon. She wanted to go to her "turn-turn" but I refused. She refused to talk to me and was sulking away when she followed me around at Marks & Spencer. Fine, if she wanted to sulk, go ahead. I wasn't going to coddle her. Finally, she broke her silence when we were at The Spoon Soup. She was hungry haha. We shared a set meal: Clam Chowder and Walfdorf salad.

After lunch, we walked over to Takashimaya where we did most of our Xmas shopping. I was really amazed to see so many people around. It was quite scary too as there seemed to be quite a number of people coughing around. Don't want to catch something... :(

After 2 hours, I decided we have had enough with the crowd. We waited close to 30 minutes before we got a cab home. Real glad to be home, away from the crowd. :)