Happy Sunday

I think it should be mandatory that a Sunday be sunny and warm. Should a Sunday fall on a rainy, unpleasant day, then another day must replace that Sunday. I had a good time today walking the city on my own. After church, I took a train to the city, did some window shopping and stopped by the office to do some work. After a couple of hours, the lure of the bright sunny day outside was too much so I left the office for the national gallery. I thought it would be interesting (and very the chic) to do a spot of art appreciation.

The last time I went to the gallery was when I had a couple of hours to spare waiting for Gaz to pick me up. It was summer, warm, and two years ago. Since then, I did not have much reason to stop by the gallery. I'd shifted offices and the gallery is a little out of the way for me.

So this afternoon when I visited the gallery, I was pleasantly surprised by how much more exhibits they seem to have. New exhibits. There were also an interactive area for kids, art videos etc. There was a big projector screening the process of making a dress on a model in conjunction with a textile and design exhibition on at the time. There was a whole new section in the gallery now open to the public. I thought it was a good use of space. They'd put some exhibit cases all along a corridor in a brilliant use of space.

Overall, the gallery had indeed made good use of its space and the exhibits are more interesting and exciting. This is evidenced by the large number of people lounging around, enjoying the cafe space and exhibit space in the gallery.

A twist to the old stained glass windows
A view of the outside world through the National Gallery's famous full length windows with water running down them

Australia

Gaz and I went to watch Australia the movie in the big screen yesterday night. It was a three hour movie, and had some mixed reviews from the public. The poster above publicising the movie looks like it's a cross between Pearl Harbour and Gone with the Wind. It's supposed to be an epic love story, set in the beautiful sceneries of the Northern Territory.

The scenery of the land was spectacular, similar to the pictures shown below.





The depth of the characters weren't, though. For a multi million dollar project, it fell short of my expectations. I expected to feel a range of emotions - anger (because one of the themes of the movie was about the Stolen Generation - where little Aborigine children were forcibly taken away from their parents for a 'better life' with the whites), lovey dovey (Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman's characters were in love), triumph (Nicole Kidman's character goes through hardships to revive her near bankrupt property by nudging aside the movie's villain). Instead, I felt a smattering of each of these emotions, not enough to move one.

The movie is passable, but certainly does not give enough oomph in my opinion, for the budget and talent behind it.

Paua

During our NZ trip, we had a local delicacy Paua. Paua is the Maori name for a species of sea snails. It is similar to abalone, however the taste couldn't be more different. While abalone is sweet, paua tasted like... nothing. It was rubbery, and it tasted nothing like abalone. Perhaps it was the restaurant, or the way it was serve but our Paua eating experience was not the best.

We went to a Thai restaurant on the last night in Kaikoura (I just had to have some Asian, my comfort food after a few straight days of burgers, salads etc). It was strange finding a Thai restaurant in the town when there were no Asians in sight! Including the Asian tourists we saw in the town, the ratio was about 1 Asian to 20 Caucasian.

On the waiter's recommendation, we ordered the Paua salad. The dish had a good combination of tangy flavours to it but the paua slices failed to make it to the party.

Paua salad
Paua shells have lovely swirls of colour. They are also known as sea opals because of the resemblance in colour and are used to make jewellery
Fresh paua

We also ordered the seafood combination stir fried with basil, and the red chicken curry. Gaz liked the seafood stir fry - the sauce was a nice one with basil, sweet and salty. Very tasty.

Stir fried seafood with basil

Red chicken curry

We fiddled around with the camera in the restaurant taking pictures of the food and the waiters thought we were food critics. If we were, then we'd failed miserably because I can't even remember the name of the restaurant!

It's World Toilet Day!

Did you know that today the 19th November is World Toilet Day? It was declared so by 17 Toilet Associations around the world in 2001. It's good to know that someone cares :)

I once formed purely out of fun, a Toilet Girls Club during primary school. Unfortunately it never took off and all two and a half members (the half member was under probation) disbanded after a couple of months. We never did anything really, unlike these 17 Toilet Associations that supports more equality (more toilets for women, the disabled and mothers with babies), cleaner toilets and more toilets for the less fortunate. They discuss these issues plus other related issues such as sanitation, toilet aerodyamics, water saving initiatives in their annual World Toilet Summit.

Until today, I never really thought that much about toilets. Not enough to be a member of the national toilet association and to be excited about attending the annual Toilet Summit. But this really caught my attention - a tru blu gold toilet! It's a genuine gold toilet in a gold shop in Hong Kong.



p/s: There's no point and proper ending to this blog post. The quality of this post is indicative of how much manure I've been copping at work.
p/s2: Now, how did they get such a good photo of the bowl when explicitly mentioned no photos allowed?

Crayfish for Dinner

We had crayfish for dinner yesterday night. We got it frozen from the local supermarket. Gaz grilled it with lashings of garlic butter on top. It was delicious, though I much prefer the fresh version of it. Gaz also cooked tau miu with creamy egg white sauce and chicken and sweet corn soup. Yup, you heard it right... I didn't even need to help out during the cooking. I just sat my bum down and enjoyed the dinner. And though I said I'll wash up, I went to take a 'nap' in bed and woke up the next morning with all the dishes washed. Aren't I lucky? :)

The crayfish

Who are you looking at?

Our dinner

Crayfish with flavoured rice

Life is a Fruit Bowl

We have a fruit bowl at work, and every Monday and Wednesday two boxes of fruit arrive in the morning ready for anyone who craved a little healthy sugar hit. I chose a nectarine that had the most amazing fragrant, sweet smell. It sat in my drawer for two days and even some tissues I had next to it were permeated with the fragrance. With great expectations, I took it out of the drawer yesterday, washed it and bit into it. It was SOUR. I bit in different places but there were no sweet spots. I had to throw it away. It's just too much to take, after the tantalising sweet fragrance, to bite into a sour fruit.

As I pondered over the events of the day on the way home in the train, I can draw some similarities in life to the nectarine. What if you just didn't expect something to turn out the way it did because it looked so improbable it would do so? Not so long ago, the economy was robust to say the least. Now newspaper headlines are screaming about job cuts, stock market tumbling further, property prices slowing, dollar at a low on a daily basis. So, if one has been released from their job, they can't even make their fortune from some other sources, or sell their property to get some money. The last resort, to move away to some other country where cost of living may be cheaper isn't that much more attractive because the low value of the dollar (admittedly an extreme option). Just yesterday speculations tore around town about a bank cutting 10% or 3500 of their workforce. Another has 2000 on the cards. Total financial sector job cuts = 10,000.

The state we're in right now just seemed so improbable 9 months ago. And unlike being able to throw away this nectarine for a sweeter one, there are none other nectarines out there. Every nectarine is sour at the moment.

The good thing is that, there are other fruits in life. Peaches, for family and cherries for friends, for instance. They're both stone fruits too, just like nectarines. At least there is a higher chance that they'll be sweet and will be more fulfilling.

Remembrance Day

Today the sound system in the office floor crackled to life, shocking everyone into silence. Ever since we moved into the new office about five months ago, we have never heard what the voice over the system sounded like, and most probably did not realise there was such a system. So guess what the voice was saying? 'Let us put on.. blah blah blah...' then it stopped. It started again a minute later, 'lest we forget'. Ahh... now it made sense what the Voice was saying. It was Remembrance Day, a day to remember the sacrifices made by soldiers during the World War 1. Major hostilities ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month thus the special date. Many people on the street were wearing a pin of a single (fake) poppy flower on their blazer, while somber men in green uniforms and beret sold these remembrance pins around street corners. And so, in remembrance of the brave people who sacrificed their lives and endure horrific war fights, we in the office observed a minute's silence. Lest we forget.

History is Made

Today history is made as the world watches the first African American man take the stage as the new President of the most influential and powerful country in the world - USA. It is indeed a special moment in history and no doubt his name will make it to history textbooks around the world. If I had kids and they were studying in a M'sian school, I can imagine the teacher saying, "Ini Barack Obama, dia mencipta sejarah menjadi Presiden US hitam yang pertama". But it's not all about race, it's not about the colour of his skin. He was a superior candidate from beginning to end. His charisma shone throughout and no inappropriate actions such as sticking one's tongue in front of the entire public watching, or wardrobe malfunction, or compulsive lying got in his way. He is a truly polished individual, charismatic, and has sound resolve to make US a better place.

Can you believe that people from Indonesia and Japan are celebrating? Indonesia because his mother married an Indonesian so she's considered naturalised, and Japan because there is an actual town by the name of Obama! If his step brother in-law was still living in Malaysia, Malaysia would be putting up banners and claiming victory too.

For me, I got my own little piece of history by buying one of the newspaper with Barack Obama on the front waving to me. I read it on the train home and now it's all crushed. Gaz suggests I throw it away coz it's only going to yellow and probably will not be worth anything in 30 years' time. So much for trying to capture that piece of history.

Fab Jap Food

We found this Japanese joint in the city on our last night in Christchurch. It was some Japanese name trailed by a 'bar and cafe' so it seemed like an average eating place on the surface. It was small, and decently furnished in the inside but nothing to shout about. There weren't many gwai lo's in it so we know it's not a posh place. So why did we pick a place that didn't seem like fab food to us? Well, simple... because we'd ran out of money and just had about enough to get us a meal and pay for departure taxes at the airport the next day.

So, in we went and were showed to a table for two. It turns out that the waitresses were gosh... real Japanese, and the cook was too, and the menu had Japanese characters, so it was all authentic stuff. The prices were reasonable though, which is equivalent to a Jap fast food joint in Melbourne. You know, the Japanese named Chinese stuff e.g. ramen, bento boxes etc. But the food which was delivered out from that hole in the wall that separates the kitchen and the restaurant was nothing like it. They were delicious! This is what we ordered:

Two serves of tempura battered fresh oysters as entree. The oysters were sweet and fresh, the batter was crisp and light and to top it off, my fave item - Tobiko!

Can anyone guess what this is? You can spot the bits and pieces of chopped up octopus in it... It's baby octopus in wasabe sauce. The sauce was very tasty as I don't mind the sharp taste of wasabe at all. But I did mind eating raw octopus so Gary finished it all. It was very chewy.

My fave eel atop a bed of creamy eggs and rice. It was deeleeciouss! The eel was sweet and tender, and though the eggs could be a little creamier, it didn't disappoint.

This dish is new to us - rice in green tea. We couldn't taste any green tea, and the waitress told us the soup stock was made out of bonito flakes. The roe was a little too salty for me but when mixed it added taste to the dish. Very heartwarming for a cold night.

This is crumbed chicken fillet in ginger flavoured soy sauce. Gaz loved the sauce so much he insisted I learn how to make it upon my return to Melbourne. I think he's forgotten about it now, which means I don't have to bust my chops looking for the recipe!

Overall, we paid $48 for these dishes, and a bottle of Jap beer, which I did not take a photo of since I did not know how to appreciate the juice. For that price, I probably would have gotten only an entree, a main and a drink in a good Jap r'ant in Melbourne! I wish we had more time (and money) for another meal there, but we didn't so we shall have good memories of it.