Why am i awake?

I'm suffering from jet lag. At 2.30am, I'm still awake. Had pancakes on the rocks with angeline and amit gotcha just now at midnite. I totally forgot verma till gotcha asked.. :p But the pancakes are good as ever.

I need to wake up in less than 5 hours time. Yet, i'm just typing away on my blog and imagining that i can do lots of work tomorrow. Yeah, the whole world thinks i can somehow get everything done anyway. Strange. Anyway, i've already planned for lunch venue tomorrow. It's going to be one of those award winning restaurants in hunter valley. Not that i really trust their award system in aussie, but then i dun really have a choice.

And i heard nicole's staying put at HQ. YAY!!!! This means i can get more work done at my own time own target. I still hope to go back this friday. I wanna get out of here!

Perth surprise

When flying over to Newcastle from Brisbane on Wednesday, I didn’t even need to unpack. I was leaving for Perth in a couple of days. On Thursday night, I worked with Angeline till 2am. So we didn’t do much work on Friday (except for me and my endless conference calls) and I let her do the 2-hour drive to Sydney airport. The last time she drove was 3 years ago?

Now for perth. Did the surprise pop-up for elinn’s birthday, but siew gave it away unwittingly. Anyway, I think she’s happy to see me since we hardly have a chance to meet in Singapore. It’s funny how you make time for people when you’re overseas instead of in Singapore. After chilling out at the pub, we headed to vennie’s place. Somehow there was a major miscommunication that happened and we scraped the plan. On Saturday, we drove down to dez’s house. It was beautifully set next to the Indian ocean. But I think the best part was her dogs! That night, we had 5 dogs altogether (2 from dez, 2 from siew n gf, and 1 from danielle). They weren’t really helpful when we went fishing as they entangled all the fishing lines somehow. Naughty dogs.

Had barbeque that night at dez’s house. Wendy was trying to teach me how to put some garlic n rosemary into the lamb but I’m just not good at craft. In the end, jasmine n wendy took over from me. Well, I warned them… Anyhow, dez made me drink the corona that siew supposedly brewed, but I couldn’t take in anymore. Apart from the fact that I didn’t wanna drink n drive (it’s like 1 hour drive from dez place back to the hotel??). So I only managed like half a bottle. I was really full!

Flying back to Sydney today. Guess what? The stupid road works throughout the entire route from city to airport caused all 3 highways to be totally jammed up. And so I missed my flight again by 5 minutes. SHIT! I’m really pissed off since I set off really early for the airport (although it’s also partially my fault for heading the wrong direction initially). So now I’m at the airport typing out this blog. I’m going to miss my dinner with angeline and amit at tetsuya (supposedly 1 of world’s top 5 restaurants). Whatever. As long as I can still get to Sydney tonight. I’m so getting used to missing my flights now… :(

Under the sea, under the sea

To compensate ourselves for overworking, kit kat and me took the dinner cruise last Thursday night with seafood buffet along gold coast. It was good for chilling out and relaxing the mind. Got a few weirdos on-board (including us) that helped to keep the boat entertained although there was a live performance on board too.

We flew to Cairns on Friday for the weekend and stayed in port douglas. The whole saturday was spent at the great barrier reef. For the first time, i actually got over my phobia of the deep blue sea n snorkelled next to all the big fishes! Of course i was clinging on to the floating rope for my life.. The corals were beautiful. We did the underwater observatory and submarine thingy too. It's a pity the light spectrum in the sea was limited, restricting the colours of the corals..

On Sunday, we did the Kuranda train n skyrail thingy to see the rainforest. It's a pity we didn't have that much time to spend touring the markets in the village, but trust me, we are totally over forestations. I'd rather go to a zoo next time.

Reality sinks in when we're back in brisbane. I really have to finish my work now and get out of here to go newcastle. The only consolation is that, i'm driving a car with a GPS now to avoid being lost. Then again, i'm already so familiar with the roads that i don't need a GPS now... Whatever.

Speeding kills

Now for the bad part about driving. I got caught for speeding. Again. This time in another state of Australia. I'm so going to be blacklisted in EVERY state here.

Cruising surfers paradise

The good thing about driving is that, in the process of getting lost (since i rely on kit kat to read the map while i drive, n kit kat really has no sense of directions!), you'll get to know the place better. While staying at Sanctuary Cove in Gold Coast, i drove up n down surfers paradise so often that i know all the shortcuts! I can even tell you where all the shopping centres, hotels n eating places are without a map. It's funny that we drive past all the worlds (i.e. dreamworld, seaworld, movieworld) every other day n i dun even feel like going in any of them at all.

Last weekend, i went with kit kat to tasmania. Oh man, the things we do just to see some silly lakes. But of cos, the water's beautiful. Still, we both agreed that NZ is somewhat nicer, although we've already made plans to be back in tasmania some time next year... hmm..

This weekend, we'll go to Cairns as recommended by the client. Now we're having problems trying to find accommodation again. Wonder why the whole world's going there. I'll probably just visit the great barrier reef that the client raved about. Of cos, both kit kat n me can't swim, much less snorkel or dive, so we will need some glass-bottom boat to show us the clear waters.

One thing about brisbane is that the seafood here is tastier than sydney's. Plans are already made for dinner places for the whole week, including doing the seafood buffet dinner cruise at gold coast this Thursday (costing abt AUD100 per person??) before flying to Cairns on Friday. Just means that we'll have to starve a bit these couple of days... Now, does this really sound like a working trip?? :p

Birthday in Tokyo

It's been a long time since i had spare minutes to update the blog. Working in Tokyo was really stressful. Not only do you have to walk their speed (twice as fast as even the fastest singaporeans), the things are also really expensive. Instant noodles with a couple of slices of char siew costs USD10??

The first weekend was spent in Kyoto. My hosts were really nice (in fact, too hospitable) and Mrs Wada put me up in her house, which is some traditional place right next to the temple that she takes care of. Her son drove us around, while Hidetoshi acted as my translator. Kyoto is really a beautiful place.

Oh, i had to spend my birthday in tokyo. Unfortunately, i worked till almost 10pm that night, leaving only a couple of hours for celebration. Nevertheless, leng bought 6 mini-cakes and combined them into a "single" cake for me. Quite sweet of her. :)

After waitlisting for every single flight from tokyo back to singapore, i finally flew back on Saturday morning, arriving just in time to go for elias class. Spent the entire sunday at NTC attending the poomsae course. Phew, i think i passed both the theory n practical tests (and probably everyone else too). My family celebrated my birthday for me after my course so we went for dinner at miramar. Gotta go back to office tomorrow morning to settle all my outstanding stuffs. So much work to do!! Then i'll have to cut my hair in the evening. That's about all the time i have before flying off to brisbane on tuesday morning. ARGH!!! Damn stress lor!!