CNY Roadtrip

It felt a little weird and sad, that this is my first CNY away from any family. But it was a day of great fun going on a roadtrip out of Sydney.

Smile! We're off!

First to the Nan Tien Temple at Wollongong which was about an hours drive away from Syd. Nan Tien, meaning "Paradise of the South", is the biggest Buddhist temple of the southern hemisphere. It is a beautiful serene temple with vast open spaced gardens. As it was CNY, the temple was quite crowded with people coming for prayers and tourists. What surprised me was how commercialised it was - like instead of accepting a donation for some prayer joss-sticks, a tiny packet of joss-stick was sold at AUD20 per packet!

Next, we headed to a beach holiday town of Kiama. The local aboriginal meaning of Kiama is "where the sea makes noise". Kiama is famous for the Kiama Blowhole where water is projectiled and sprouted high up with the vigorous movement of the pounding waves beneath it. But there would be no blowing of the hole today. The sea was calm and the waves were mild. Here's my pic of the hole.

the blowhole in action! (as seen in www.kiama.com.au)

We took the scenic coastal route back to Sydney and drove through the Sea Cliff Bridge. This recently completed bridge is 665 metres above sea. Driving through and looking over the water made it feel like driving on water. Spectacular!

Perfect place to be jumping off something!

I didn't take this picture. I wish, tho! It's from totaltravel.com.au

Finally, there's not much worse than being tired and stuck in a horrendous traffic crawl bunched up with all the weekend holiday makers driving back to Syd.

Sew Simple

I've signed up for a basic sewing class at the Sydney Community College and had my first class last Tuesday. It's a bit of an uphill task really, but I want to be able to design and create my own fashionwear, do my own alterations and make my own dresses. I think i was inspired by my new friend Rain, a designer/dressmaker who made PL's wedding dresses and the dress i wore to her wedding.

Given the timeslot for this class (10am to 2pm) I expected the class to consist of housewife aunties... but then that was quite a silly assumption as why would aunties join a sewing class? They would know it all already! There's 8 students in my class including myself. There were a few school leavers, a tourist, a housewife, and some inbetween jobs people. Most of them were around my age. There was a 19yo girl who i got along with and asked me how old i was. And when i told her i am turning 30 this year, she fillipped! She said i didn't look it at all and she expected me to be around her age! She didn't know that her comments totally made my day! Hehe *grin*

This class is for absolute beginners who know nothing about sewing. In our first lesson, we learnt how to take measurements of ourselves, all the functions of a sewing machine and how it works, and how to thread a sewing machine. In our next lesson, we'll start learning how to cut up fabric and start sewing!

I am really excited about this course. Hopefully when i complete this course, i can take up a dressmaking course and i'll really be on my way to making my own stuff!

One Tree Hill / Boston by Augustana

I hopped onto YouTube to look for the music video of Boston by Augustana. And I found this!

It's an alternative music video of Lucas and Brooke, two characters out of the drama series One Tree Hill. OTH is a teeny highschool drama series which i follow religiously. Why is this *soon to be out of her twenties* hooked onto this teen drama? Maybe it's because this show has got fantastic plotlines (which centres around two half brother basketballers and their family, lovers and friends), nailbiting cliffhangers (*spoiler here* S3 ends with a car crashlanding into a creek and a newlywed brother jumps in for rescue. Who will survive?) Maybe it's for the great music and gorgeous actors, male and female (as obvious in this music video). Or maybe it's because its a fantasy of an exciting highschool life that i didn't lead.

Anyhow, this is a fantastic series. Seriously. Alto S4 hasn't yet been as good as the last 3 seasons, i will plough on, and keep bugging the gadgetboy to download the latest episodes for me.

On YouTube, i still don't understand why people go tru all that effort and post all sorts of stuff on YouTube... but i think i am gonna enjoy OTHing on YouTube. And to the maker of this music vid, well done!!!

Seafood Marinara

In an effort to learn yet another skill (*and yes, i have been whipping up quite a few dishes since arriving in Sydney, much to everyone's surprise*) I searched for a simple marinara recipie over the internet and modified it to include some seafood and fresh mushrooms. And voilà! A masterpiece!

Here's the ingredients and directions :

1 can stewed tomatoes

1/2 can tomato paste

3 fresh tomatoes

a handful of fresh mushrooms

some marinara mix and prawns

1 diced onion

1 cup white wine

some garlic, mixed herbs, salt, black pepper and olive oil

Blend tomatoes, canned tomatoes and tomato paste, minced garlic, mix herbs, salt and pepper in a food processor until smooth.

In a pan, saute diced onion and mushrooms in olive oil, then blended tomatoes and white wine.

Simmer for about 20 minutes and add in the prawns and marinara mix.

Stir until the prawns and seafood is cooked.

Serve over cooked pasta!

ta da!

The taste tester gave this a 7.5 out of 10! (*applause! applause*) His comments were that it needed some sugar to neutralise the acidity in the tomatoes.