Vivid Sydney 31 May 2009

Went for a walk on Sunday across the Sydney Harbour bridge from North Sydney.. The walk was fantastic and we were treated to nice surprise as we witnessed incredibly beautiful images projected on the sails of the iconic Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid Sydney Festival of Music, Light and Ideas..Lucky that we decided to bring our camera with us and managed to take some wonderful pictures of this wonderful event..

Life can be so beautiful.. you will be treated to beautiful surprises in life as long as you don’t say “No” to the opportunities!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8071639.stm

Am I eating too much cheese

A very cheesy event..

very very cheesy!

I love to eat cheese after coming to Australia.. maybe because I am surrounded by cheese.

Havarti or Cream Havarti (Fløde Havarti in Danish) is semi-soft Danish cow’s milk cheese.
Cheddar cheese is a relatively hard, pale-yellow to off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting cheese originating in the English village of Cheddar, in Somerset.
Edam (Dutch Edammer) is a Dutch cheese that is traditionally sold as spheres with pale yellow interior and a coat of paraffin. Its Spanish name is queso de bola, literally “ball cheese.” It is named after the town of Edam in the province of North Holland,[1] where the cheese is coated for export and for tourist high season.
Babybel is a brand of cheese sold internationally. It began in 1865, with the founding of “Etablissements Jules Bel” in Orgelet, France. In 1947, the brand Bonbel was introduced. [1] This pressed cheese is easily recognizable thanks to its distinctive red wax. In 1977, the miniature Babybel version appeared as, Mini Babybel which is marketed as a uniquely natural and convenient snack. Manufactured by the French group Fromageries Bel, it is produced in Évron, in the northwest of France.

A common way of eating cheese is to cut them into small pieces and eat them with plain water crackers like this one:

A very long trip to Melbourne

We had two weeks off for the last Christmas and we decided to drive all the way to Melbourne!!

It was a 10-day trip and we drove nearly3500km in 10 days from Sydney to Melbourne and back.

This was the route that we have taken:

Sydney to Melbourne and Back to Sydney

A list of cities/towns that we have been

And this is a list of towns/cities that we have been that we can still recall the name!

We are still processing all the photos. So, expect more photos to come..

Strawberry, White Choc Muffin

My first attempt to make muffins.. and it turned out to be quite good:)

I got the recipe from here.

These are all the ingredients:

All ingredients - see list below

300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
150g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
170g (1 cup) chopped white chocolate
2 teaspoons (10ml) lemon juice
250ml (1 cup) milk
125ml (1/2 cup) oil (we use peanut oil, but any mild-flavoured oil could be used)
1 large egg (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
200g berries (we used strawberries and raspberries)

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Celsius fan-forced).
Line 12 holes of a muffin pan (1/3 cup capacity holes) with patty/muffin cases. Similar to the one suggested in original recipe, I used paper-lined foil cases that measure 5cm across the base and 8cm across the top.

Whisk lemon juice, milk, oil and egg in a medium bowl until combined.

Mix self-raising flour, caster sugar and white chocolate together in large bowl. Stir in berries.

Gently stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Stop stirring once the ingredients are combined (do not over mix). The batter should be quite wet.

Divide mixture evenly between muffin cases.

Divide mixture evenly into muffin tray

I was so nervous because the mixture was still very wet. I was not sure whether I was doing the right thing!

Bake for about 22-27 minutes. To check whether muffins are cooked, press lightly on the centre of a muffin; if it springs back, it’s ready. A knife inserted into the centre of a muffin should come out without any batter attached.

End results:

Christmas is coming~~

This is the second xmas in Land of Oz for me. The first xmas was good for me as I got my first job offer here. The second xmas is good too as I finally got a pay rise. Not huge but encouraging.

Yesterday was our company Xmas party. It was held in the trendiest pub – Establishment in Sydney CBD. It was really fun. A lot of alcohol (as you can expect), food, dance music, people, and dance moves. I have danced but did not drink.. I really like the time to dance my heart out as it is really a good way to relax and relieve my tension over the past few weeks.

The theme of the xmas party was Light, Camera & Action. So the dress code was naturally Glamorous, Fabulous, or In a character. It was fun to see them really dress up and into a character. There was a guy who came as Princess Leila!! Yes, he looked really funny.

He looked exactly like this photo! Funny, isn’t it?

There were Shrek, a number of Jokers, a Batman, few Wonder Women, Sailor Moon, Marilyn Monroe, King Kong Girl, King Kong himself, etc.

I wore a little black dress with bright blue cardigan. Normal and simple..

8 Nov 2008: Everglades Garden

Everglades is one of Australia’s foremost heritage gardens. This treasure from the 1930s sits in twelve and a half acres of European-style gardens and native Australian bush with breathtaking views over the Jamison Valley in the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains. http://www.everglades.org.au/ IMHO, nothing really special there.. but it was a good walk in some nice gardens on a beautiful day!

Floriade 2008 – Canberra

It is another long weekend in Sydney - Labour Day long weekend, which co-incides with the Floriade 2008! So we took the chance to visit the biggest flower festival in Australia, ushering in the most beautiful season in a year – the Spring..

Annual Event: Sat 13 Sep – Sun 12 Oct 2008

Floriade, Australia’s celebration of spring, blooms into Canberra each year transforming the usually green canvas of Commonwealth Park into a tapestry of colour. Over a million colourful bulbs and annuals bloom on cue, creating a vibrant display unrivalled by any other event of its kind.

There are a lot of tulips, poppies and other flowers that I don’t know their names..

Little flowers

Little flowers-close up

Tulips!!!

Tulips + Me!

There are a lot more… after the jump!

Sneak preview to my wedding photos..

New Heater

As weather is getting colder by days, we bought this new heater..

It could make flame effect beautifuL!

New Heater

And also our dinner.. prepared carbonara spaghetti with yummy campbells mushroom soup + lotsa green leaves (rocket salad mix)..

Carbonara Spaghetti

Snowy Mountains Anzac Day (Part 2)

Continuing the photo post..

We continued driving towards Kosciuszko National Park. This is the largest national park in New South Wales and one of the greatest in the world. Covering almost 675,000 hectares, the park contains the highest mountains in Australia, the famous Snowy River and all NSW ski fields. Its many and varied attractions include walks through alpine herbfields; spectacular caves and limestone gorges; scenic drives; and historic huts and homesteads. 

In summer, vehicle pass is AUD16. The fee increases to AUD27 during winter!

Because it was still summer. We paid AUD16 to enter the park. And the pass was valid for one day. Then we continued to drive towards Perisher Valley.. 

The moment I stepped out of the car, I realised that I was not wearing enough clothes! It was freaking windy and cold in Perisher Valley! The strong wind almost blown me away!

 

Didn’t I look funny!?

Climbing to the lookout point..

more & more photos..