Wollongong

I had previously started a blog entry for Wollongong and it just disappeared. I thought I had saved a draft...it was a good effort, too. Arghhh!!!

Anyways, on a nice spring Saturday, we (LJ, JC, and I) drove down south of Sydney to get out of the city. First stop, Stanwell Top/Park. We kindda got lost but we found this nice hotel/retreat called Tumbling Waters retreat (http://www.tumblingwatersretreat.com/) by the mountains. If you want to have a nice and quiet weekend, not to mention a great view of the pacific ocean...here's the place. From there, we saw the lookout we were looking for...a great view of the pacific ocean where people go for hang gliding...and for this day, a group of Jaguar owners (old, new, classic cars) getting together and enjoying the nice sunny day. LJ was wearing the wrong shirt this day...red shirt with a Ferrari logo.




Next stop, we drove further down to Bulli Beach. Just another beach in this country of beaches! Ruby's for lunch...great, huge burgers!!! Driving around near the beaches and lookouts, you'll see a lot of signs such as no hang gliding, no golfing, no horsing around, etc.
We passed by this typical Aussie surfer dude who was selling his golf clubs and surf boards...must be one of the people banned from golf. By the way, while I'm at this subject, the next day, I went to the Olympic Park at Homebush and went to hit some golf balls. Too bad I couldn't post the video of me taking some shots. If you know how I could post videos in this blog, let me know.

How about the sign above and the next picture:
We then drove up to some mountain (Mt K...something) and had a good view of the city of Wollongong...I think that's Wollongong. And downtown, you'll get to see this postcard perfect picture of a lighthouse and some girls who dare swim in dangerous waters...watch out for those stingrays...I hear they kill people (just kidding...I wouldn't think there would be any in those waters anyway).










Last stop, Nan Tiem temple in Wollongong. I almost got my head chopped off:

This is the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere (that's LJ, by the way, in the middle of the picture).

That was a lot in one day. We could have gone further south to Kiama and Gerringong...but I guess, some other time.

For the sake of updating my blog

Sigh!!!! What's there to update.

My coworker had an extra ticket to watch a show at the Opera House and invited me to join her and her parents to see "I am my own wife". A very weird play performed by one person doing at least 10 characters, at least four different accents (American, German, French, and impersonating Keanu Reeves). If I understood it right, its this gay guy interviewing an old man about WWII in Germany who owns antique furniture. Yawn!!! Like I said, it was weird!

The following night, my friend Yawen (not yawn! I almost typed "Yawn") invited me to go to this media event sponsored by "The Fourth Estate" (Mike Walsh interviewing this CEO I don't know) about media advertising. Check out the website...Mike Walsh has some interesting articles about the media. Yawen just started a job at 9MSN (as in Channel 9 that merged with MSN...here in Australia, at least). And she started the job with Paul, the husband of the coworker who I went to the Opera house the night before. Small world!!! Sydney must be small. Another example: at Michelle and Andrew's wedding, one of Michelle's guests were friend's with Andrew's good mate's girlfriend. They didn't expect to see each other at the wedding. The world is getting smaller and smaller. How about this - my mom just got back from Sydney and she meets one of her patient's niece at the hospital who was visiting from Sydney. And now I am meeting this person this weekend! Another example: my french friend, JC, meets this other french guy, Sean Marc, at a friend's party. Both their cousins from back home are bf/gf...How about that! (So now they even call each other cousins even though they're hardly related!).

Another party at the house - Natasha's going away party! More food! Too much food! Natasha is off to South Africa for 3 months to do missionary work at an orphanage. Then moving to India to do more missionary work. I admire her for that! Quitting her job, leaving everything behind, and starting off in an unknown place where she doesn't know anyone. May the force be with you!!! Goodluck, Natasha! I'm sure we'll cross paths again. Enjoy and make the most of it where ever you are!!!

Tax Return

Gawd! I'm filing my second tax return for this year...not that I'm being audited or applied for an extension. Australia's year end is June 30.