Aussie Day 5 - Manly Beach Babes

13/09/05 Tuesday
We scrapped our initial plan to ski in the Snowy Mountains as we felt there were too many risks involved driving up. Threadbo seems like a great place but with our limited knowledge and finances, it didn't seem like such a sane idea. Hence, we had a bit more time to explore the city and the less risky suburbs.

Once again the SEP folks were in school in the morning. Our first stop for the day was the AMP tower, the city's tall phalic symbol from which you could get a bird's eye view of the region.

And the view from the top looks something like this. Having been around a bit, and clutching our maps as we gazed into 360 degrees of miniscue Sydney was enormous fun in itself. In this photo we could see Wooloomooloo, (which we almost drove to) and the NSW Art Gallery...

....and the Harbour Bridge and North Sydney. (The SOH is blocked)

We spied at unsuspecting individuals though the powerful binos... (above: ZX though the looking glass)
There was also a snazzy multimedia presentation with multiple screens and fancy pneumatics that tickles your senses as it takes you to explore the vast expanse of Australia. Quite an enjoyable experience all in all.

We met up with YH and gang at Hungry Jacks, and headed down to Ali Baba's for lunch. For the uninitiated, Ali Baba's is the local Kebab fast food joint. There were discussed and decided to take a cruise down to Paramatta.
Yet for some unknown reason, we got sidetracked and were convinced to visit Manly Beach by another tourist.

Chinks (at information counter): Hi, We'd like to know how to get to Paramatta please.
Info: Sure, here'll some free brochures, you need to go to Circular Quay to check out the departure times
C (in unison): Okay, thanx!
Strange Tourist: Hi! You guys tourists too?
C: Nooo.... just very lost locals.....
ST(delight): Ooh! You should go visit Manly, it's soooooo beautiful....
C: Uh, yeah, sure, but we dun really wanna see more sand.
ST(fervour): Oohhh.... but you HAVE to go to Manly, I just came back from there....
C: Umm.... That's very relevant to us but we'd rather be going to Paramatta.
ST (Hysterical): But Manly was sooooo beautiful.....blah blah blah...must visit..... blah blah.....
C: Ok, now you're being incoherent. Stop babbling, strange tourist, we're going off....

And so we made our way to the Quay, but on the way....

Me: Hey anyone noticed the crowns on her #11 and #21.
C (unison): Yeah!
GF: Wah Lao.....
Captain Cook: Hey folks, wanna hop aboard Captain Cook Cruises? Only obscenely expensive and totally not worth it. But you're dumb chinks, no?
GF: Uh, actually we just wanna get to Paramatta....
CC: Huh? Sorry I work for CCC, can't tell you more, oops, it's 430! Time to knock off and get piss drunk. Finally I can take off this ridiculous wig... (disgruntled snort)
Shafiq (Giggles): Yeah that looks pretty f***ed up...
Someone: So how? We still wanna go to Paramatta?
C (unison) : I anything.
Someone else: Wanna go Manly? Paramatta like nothing wan leh...
C (unison): I anything, but first I need to get some of that Gelato from Gelatissimo.....


On the ferry to Manly Beach.
You can't actually tell but to our right is a sharp decent to the Ocean. From the top we can also see the town of Manly.
We're supposed to be topless and flexing our beef boosted bellies in this shot, but some of us were too modest....
GF got butt cramps and got stuck in the railings as we climbed back in.... And boy did we capitalise on that.
With Manly behind us

Dinner was an exemplary display of Singaporean kiasuism. We found a food court with 2 rival economic rice (cai fan) stalls that offered stack all you can deals for AUD $5. And they offered quite a good range of dishes. Bad mistake for them. Baaaaadddd Mistake. Being the model citizens that we are we ravaged the stalls like the Talented Mr. Ripley.
ZX and Charles strategized and set their foundations of fried rice before builing an ivory tower of lemon chicken, kalamari, fried prawns, venison, and an assortment of chinese dishes.
To give you an idea of how much food there was, GF and ZX could barely finish their food. This is GF of "2 plates a meal" and ZX of "2 steaks and a bangers" fame we're talking about.


Not quite the paradox you might have thought.

Aussie Day 6 - The O.C.

14/09/05 Wednesday

Going to Penrith Valley Orchards was something planned back in Blk 324, Clementi Ave 5, a few days prior to flying over. The problem was, we had no clue how to get there. We called them up and found out that there was no means of public transport that could get us there.
Determined to get there, we once again rented our car from Excel Car Rentals, and plotted our route of advance.
The ever-inquisitive people at Excel wanted to know where we were going.
"Penrith Valley," we replied.
"What's there?" came the bewildered response.
We looked at each other, suddenly not so sure if the trip would be a fruitful one.
But our worries were needless, as Penrith was full of fruits. Literally.
Well mainly oranges. At $1.30/KG.

The farm owners welcomed us as we approached their shed. "How many boxes will you need?" she asked. We glanced at the size of the carton and were a little taken aback. In my opinion we only required a box an eighth of the one they offered.


We had our fun in the farm, playing catch, taking free kicks, and of course, plucking fresh oranges off the trees.
Is it Chinese New Year already?
Dunking! Something we picked up from the SAF commandos.

Horsing around with the farm animals ...

Whitewater rafting was next on our agenda. We had great expectations of the place, it being the official competition grounds for Whitewater Rafting in the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
So we were sorely disappointed when we only saw a manmade water rafting route that went in circles. Definitely too repetitive and costly for us.

We dropped Diana back at the YWCA to meet her sisters. The rest of us decided upon having lunch at North Sydney, en route to the much hyped-about Kuringai-chase National Park. We were hoping food would be less pricy out of the city.
And so we drove across the Habour Bridge once more...

... first in search of food. And food proved most elusive to starving wanderers. We missed a turning to a KFC outlet, parked and got chased away by a tow truck outside a pizza place, and were on the wrong side of road from countless MacDonalds. Finally I got relief from a hugh (and I mean bigger than Singapore-sized) Kit Kat bar, purchased from a fuel station. Take that Gastric Acid. And of course we had to find a decent MacD's shortly after.

Kuringai- Chase was highly recom-mended by Charles. And indeed it was a beautiful park.
The serenity and zen-like quality of the place was enchanting, around us were hills, peaceful waters and a young couple making out.... Wait what was that again?
So the obviously very underaged and even more obviously unamused couple took their monkeying somewhere else and left us with a parrot which GF was trying to bribe with oranges from Penrith and the rest of us trying to restraint YH from attacking GF for "wasting the oranges".

Satisfied with the day's activities, we made our way back to Sydney City. Stopping for dinner at the $5 Steak place yet again. Once again I had 2 steaks....
The best part was being able to catch up with Soccer from the large overhead Plasma screens. We watched the highlights of games as YH gave multiple hints that he wanted to leave. Finally, exasperated (read: dulan), he resigned to watching Agassi vs Federer on another screen.

And Diana bought us Supper! Mmmm.... Doughnuts ....

Aussie Day 7 - Bondi-ng

15/09/05 Thursday
We began the day with a visit to the Sydney Fish market. It wasn't the first time for some of us, and thos who had been there (Chares and PJ) claimd there was nothing much to look forward to. Nevertheless it was an attraction that I did not want to miss.

There were actually 2 parts to the large building. Nearer to the water was the visitors' area where tourists could eat and make purchases.Deeper in and separated by a door that restricted our entry was the market area, resembling our local wet market.

So our area was a little like the a very large Cold Storage, and of course, combined with an even bigger Long John Silvers'.

Lunch! Tucking into fried fish and crispy crustaceans.
Pelican outside the SFM
After lunch we proceed to Bondi Beach, Sydney's very famous beach. More Sun, Sand, Sea and Surfers!
The pictures will deceive you into thinking that we have finally found some semblance of warmth. And that held true as long as we stayed on land. YH and I gungho-ly jumped a la suicide bombers into the sea and were shocked by how cold the water was, a rude reminder that this was still early spring. Charles and gang were more conservative and literally tested water, reluctant to take that 1 bold step.

So while the land-dwellers aimed to bronze themselves, we piled on the sand...... making molds at the most anatomically inappropriate places.

Finally, bored, we got ourselves a ball, and we juggled and played beach soccer. Here we see GF attempting a bicycle kick.

Aussie Day 8 - To Brisbane!

Aussie Day 9 & 10 - Survivor

Aussie Day 11 - Dream On

Aussie Day 12 - Denial, Anger, Bargainning, Depression, Acceptance

Noodles

I took my place in the coffeeshop, one near to my home. Across the table, a middleaged woman in a business suit chatted incessantly with her companion, a thin balding man, gesturing furiously with her elegantly manicured hands.

"I'm not very hungry, I ordered a bowl of fishball noodles," the woman quipped.

"Is it good?" her partner queried.

"Don't know leh, never try before," came the reply.

The conversation shifted back to stocks and shares, and almost instantaeneously, I became bored, suddenly impatient that my food was taking so long. I folded my ten dollar bill into half 5 times before it became physically impossible to shrink it any further with my bare hands. My stomach made a loud uncouth noise, momentarily distracting my neighbours. I pretended not to notice them looking.

Then he came, the son of the fishball noodles hawker. It was a new tennant that took over the stall, replacing the old bachelor who had passed away recently. The adolescent was about 18 years of age, a big sized fellow who dwarfed both his parents. His eyes were large, a little droopy at the corner, and the smile on his face seemed a permanent fixture. As he carefully laid the metal tray onto the table, slowly unloading the bowl, chopsticks and saucer of sliced red chili before the woman, his actions were delayed and unnatural, like he needed considerable effort to do so.

"Two dollars," he articulated his words with great deliberation, and smiled foolishly at the woman, unaware that she was more than a little uncomfortable of his presence. She slid a neat stack of coins across to the boy's side, and he scoped them up and counted his treasure as he walked back to the stall.

The woman muttered to her friend in a barely audible tone, almost wincing pain as she stirred the noodles. She took 1 mouthful of the blackish looking strands and had her suspicions confirmed. The noodles were indeed awful and her facial expression as she ate screamed this undeniable fact.

My lunch finally arrived, but I ate without tasting. I was overwhelmed by sympathy for the boy, watching him, as he stared with childlike wonder at the televsion screen, preoccupied in his own world. He was almost an adult, only it was a boy of seven who peered out from those eyes.

I felt a pressing guilt. It made me think about the things I've been taking for granted, my soul misguided by material wants instead of a sense purpose. I suddenly felt suffocated, sick of myself, and desperate for direction.

I walked over to the boy, tapped gently on his shoulder. He turned, startled.
"One packet, dry, with chili," I tried to put forward slowly. He nodded and strode towards his perspiring mother.

That night I warmed the noodles for supper. They were the worse noodles I've ever eaten in all my fifteen years. But I loved it for all the intangible ingredients.



Afternote:
This brief encounter is entirely true and I wrote it in 1997. The stall closed soon after. A couple of years later I saw the boy again working at a coffeeshop at Pasir Panjang clearing tables.
He was as happy as always.