Lawn Bowling

Lawn bowling is for the retired and therefore, it must be boring. Not from my experience. The idea is, you throw a white ball on the field and you have to throw your ball so it is as close to the white ball as possible, basically. Now there are some strategies to it but you'll just have to try this game to get into it.

The funny part of the day was the advertisement posted in the lawn bowling area. Because it is an oldies' game, it shouldn't be a surprise when you see this sign to the right:

Disco Fever Xmas Party 2008

Our Xmas party this year was held in Nov (cheaper!) at Doltone House (not cheap) at Pyrmont, near Star City Casino with a view of the Harbour Bridge. The theme was "Disco Fever" and we all had to dress up in 70s. I had my mom send her dress from that period and I wore a blonde afro (eek, I look ugly. haha!!). The best costumes were donned by the guys who had to rent their suits, bright orange and purple bell bottom pants, afros, and platform shoes.

The best part of the party was the entertainment...us! Every year, there is a dance competition (yep, they really take it seriously) to take home the most coveted price...bragging rights to be the #1 in the whole company. We were lucky to have a professional choreographer in our group. Some teams hired one. The dressmaker team sewed their own costumes.
Our team danced to the tune of "Disco Inferno" (Burn, baby, burn). Everyday, we were practicing our routine (great exercise) that we got sick of hearing it.

...and the winner? Not us. It was the S.A.B.A team who pretty much had naked guys (gay good looking ones), like strippers strutting infront of the whole company.

Great Ocean Rd - 2nd time

The first time I went to the GOR, we got to the 12 apostles at night...too late to take any good pictures. The second time around, it was pouring rain! But I managed to take some great pictures along the way (London Bridge, 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge - check out my shots in my photogallery).

I have a visitor from the US! Yippee!!!

My fourth friend from the US to visit me down under: Yingying!!! The first day must have been the longest day for you, YY. I picked her up at the airport after at least 14hrs of flight, drove straight to the Blue Mountains (2hr drive) to see the Three Sisters, drove back to have dinner at the Kirribilli Club, then coffee in Crows Nest at a place called "New Orleans"...like you never left the US. (Picture below: Brad, Celestine, YingYing)

One day in November...

...I rented a car on Saturday. Looked at the map and saw Copacabana beach on the North Coast. I was interested so I drove up. I was curious if it had anything similar to the famous one in Brazil. Nothing much to it. But the song kept playing in my head...it goes something like this:

"Her name was Lola. She was a showgirl...at the Copa, Copacabana! The hottest spot North of Havana...at the Copa, Copacabana!"

Operation Xmas Child

Operation Christmas Child is an organization that collects donations for kids and are sent to third world countries. Our job, as volunteers, is to make sure the shoe boxes filled with stuff are complete with something to wear, write, wash, love, and play. Some things we have to remove if found in the boxes are bibles, any notes referring to religion, battery operated items, and food (all are put in a reject box) but still maintaining the integrity of what was originally put in the box by the donors.

I was put in the line for boys age 10-14 yr old. It was interesting opening these boxes. Some would be filled to the top and some less. Some would have girly stuff (maybe intended to be given to the boy's sister), some would have pictures of the donors. I found a nice watch that I left on there (I shouldn't have because it was battery operated). Some would not meet all the requirements so we would have extra tshirts, toys, pencils, or writing pads to add. The funniest for me was taking everything out of the box to check the checklist and not being able to put everything back in there.

Little Bambinos

We had the Leichhardt Italian Festival on Norton St, just a few feet away from the house. They featured lots of Italian food and the little Bambinos (Fiats). They are so cute!!! This was more worth it than the Sydney Motorshow and its free!!! These 50yr old classics are definitely cooler than the new models.

Sydney Motorshow

It sucks, its boring! They didn't even have Porsche, Mercedes, and BMW. Maybe they don't have the budget for this anymore. The car industry is going down that the US Big 3 (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) needs a portion of the $700 billion payout from the government.


There were some futuristic-looking cars like the Toyota Hybrid but I still like the old-fashioned cars like the Ford Mustang.



The best part of the show, though, was when we rode on their 4-wheel drives in a makeshift rugged terrain outside the Sydney Convention Centre. It felt like going on a ride at Disneyland...well, not really. But it was more exciting than the showcase.

Southern Highlands

Mei, Paul, and I planned to drive to Canberra and back in one day. Mei just got her red 'P' driver's license and was her chance to use it during our day trip. We didn't quite make it to Canberra, not because Mei was slow, but the trip was more leisure, didn't matter where we ended up, or even if we got lost. It was an adventure trip.

First stop was unplanned. We saw some signs to the Nepean Dam, which looked similar to the Hoover Dam in Nevada/Colorado. Then we drove to the town of Bowral, famous for the Tulip festival and the home of the greatest cricketer of all time, Donald Bradman. We drove past lovely country houses around the area of Bowral and Mittagong. And next stop to Berrima where we stopped to check out their pottery/painting galleries, a nice mom & pop coffee shop, then thought, it was time to go home. We didn't even reach halfway thru to Canberra.

On the way back, I took Mei and Paul to this popular Portuguese restaurant at Petersham called "Silvas". Petersham is where you will find tons of Portuguese and Brazilian shops. It was Saturday night and the place was packed. All we could do was a take away and ate the kebabs in the car. Must try!!!

Relative State

My cousin LJ had a gig with his band, "Relative State", at the Cat & Fiddle in Balmain. They usually play at the "Basement" in Blacktown, all the way in woop woop! (Blacktown is Filipino town). We've gone a couple of times all the way there and finally, they have come closer to the city, in Balmain. Sounds like they are moving up!

LJ used to have a band in the Philippines (Mush Carnival) and they were even featured on MTV Asia. How cool is that? At one of their gigs here (at Sydney University), they opened for a famous singer from the Philippines (sorry, I'm not up to date on who that famous person would be). But that's good publicity for them.

And here's another cool story:

There is this Spanish looking guy at work and when I finally met him during one of our drinks at a pub near the office, he said, "O! Kamusta?" Nobody in the office would have guessed he's Filipino coz he looks meztiso. Anyway, after talking to him, I found out that he used to be a drummer for a very famous band, Razorback, in the Philippines. Wow, I work with this guy. I told LJ about it and he told me that, yes, he does know him (Miguel Ortigas). LJ used to record at one of Razorback's recording studio. But LJ said there was another band similar to the Razorbacks that he liked better than them. Here's another twist. Miguel told me his wife worked for this company in North Sydney and it happened to be the same company as my friend's. So I immediately text my friend and she did worked with her. What's so funny was when she received my text message, she was on the same elevator as her. What a small world!!!

Ripples Cafe at Luna Park

Since spring has started, I thought we'd try some nice restaurants around Sydney with a view of the city skyline. Located outside the North Sydney Olympic swimming pool by the Luna Park ferry station, Ripples Cafe gave us this option.

Ripples Cafe is an award winning alfreso BYO cafe where diners enjoy the stunning uninterrupted views of the Harbour, Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge (yep, that was our view!!!).

After dining, we ran for the ferry to Darling Harbour and had dessert. There is a Lindt's Cafe but unfortunately, they were already closed for the night (so early!).

Thanks for spending the night with me (Mei, Paul, Cherry, LJ, My). We'll do another one of these soon!

Absentee Voter

I just voted for the US Presidential Election as an absentee voter. First time doing this before everyone else and being part of a historic election. I hope the one I voted for wins.

Cirque du Soleil - Dralion

It took me a while to finally get to see a production of Cirque Du Soleil. I remember one of the first ones, "O", in Vegas. And now, "Dralion". The two performances that I liked were 1) the tiny, skinny girl who did an inexplicable acrobatic performance standing on one hand that didn't even flinch or wobble while her whole body was moving around, and 2) the trampoline guys who made it so easy and fun to jump on a trampoline. I know its not easy because we have a trampoline at home and to control yourself from being flown out of it is a bit tricky. You wouldn't want to jump too high!

S-P-0-R-T-S-C-R-A-F-T Summer Fashion Show

I was invited to watch the Summer Fashion show at our company, which I was so excited about, coz we get to see the new line before everybody else. I usually attend our monthly sales meeting where they show us the best and worst sellers of the month. Of course, I do help out with that reporting!

About a week before the show, our company unveiled its Olympic uniforms at the opening ceremony in Beijing...tracksuit pants. I wasn't really impressed by it but apparently, the New York Times thought it was the best outfit of all the countries.

Our catalogue models were Kristy Hinze and Norbert but unfortunately, they were not the same ones you see in these pictures. I hope to get invited to the next fashion show, for our other label S-A-B-A.

Jason Mraz Concert

This is the 2nd concert I've been to in Australia (I think). I went to see Jason Mraz held at the Enmore Theatre in Newtown. Wasn't really much of a big fan until recently and I'm glad I went.

WYD08 - Sunday Mass

The big and final event of the World Youth Day 2008 is the Papal Mass at Randwick. This is the 4th time I'm seeing the Pope. And I can now cross WYD off my list of things to do.

...next WYD has been announced. To be held in Spain.

WYD08 - Randwick Vigil Mass

We did our pilgrimage walk from Central Station to the Randwick Racecourse. A pretty long walk (we were originally gonna start at North Sydney) but with the huge crowd and walking with friends, the moment just passed by. We also had to carry our own backpacks and sleeping bags for the overnight stay at the racecourse.

Along the walk, we joined an East Timor group in praying the rosary at Centennial Park. We passed by all different groups from different countries carrying different flags. The whole WYD week, these were the flags I've seen: poland, canada, wales, italy, germany, mexico, spain, US, philippines, indonesia, brazil, scotland, korea, japan, malaysia, singapore, india, pakistan, vietnam, new zealand, sudan, south africa, argentina, ireland, england, burma, east timor, australia, tonga, france, puerto rico, guam, lebanon, and more that I didn't recognize.

Then came the Vigil Mass hosted, of course, by the Pope himself. It was a great feeling to be with the Pope with at least 200k pilgrims all together. And a once in a lifetime experience camping at Randwick with the rest of the pilgrims overnight. It was freezing, middle of winter weather, with just a sleeping bag (two for me). I woke up a couple of times during the night. Around 1am, there were still people up chatting and making noises. By around 3am or 4am, I woke up again and I heard silence. It was full moon and there was a halo around the moon. It was amazing!

WYD08 - Domain

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Sydney on Sunday but his official "coming out" was Thursday, July 17th. So I've taken Thurs and Fri off to join in with the rest of the pilgrims for the celebrations.

The Pope arrived in his boat-a-cade (as in motorcade) straight to Barangaroo where he did his opening blessings. We were assigned at the Domain where his pope mobile would pass through. We waited for about 3hours to see his pope mobile pass by so quickly (for safety reasons) and all I got was this shot (I would have had a closer shot if the nuns infront of us didn't take our front view. We had already marked our territory!!!). I did see his torso after clicking the camera. This would actually be the second time I would see the Pope because I was in Rome in 2005 just after Pope JPII passed away.

Xmas in July

Why not? Its cold, we have all-year-round Xmas lights at our house, and we're doing it for a cause. My flatmate wants to raise $1200 AUD to build a well in Africa through an organization (Life Outreach International) and provide water for life. My other flatmate just wants an excuse to party. Hehe! So we appropriately decorated our house with Xmas decors and we dressed up in something red, white, green, gold or silver. Without giving too much detail, we raised close to $500 and hopefully getting close to the goal. Thanks to all of you who donated to the cause! And for my first Xmas celebration in July!

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Blessed Pier Giorgio is the patron and role model for the young masses. With World Youth Day approaching, the relics of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati was brought to Sydney. And I had a chance to touch and pray to his relics at St Benedict's church. Learning more about Catholicism, touching objects onto a first class relic makes the object a 3rd class relic. This would be the beginning of my pilgrimage to the World Youth Day celebration that ends on July 21st with the Papal mass at Randwick Racecourse.

Pier Giorgio was a vibrant young man born into a wealthy family who dedicated his 24 short years to the needy, to works of social action, charity, prayer and community. He would always say, "Charity is not enough: we need social reform." His father would not give him much spending money but the money he received, he would give to the poor...even if it meant he had to run home to be on time for meals to give up his train fares. When he was a child a poor mother with a boy in tow came begging to the Frassati home. Pier Giorgio answered the door, and seeing the boy's shoeless feet gave him his own shoes. At graduation, given the choice by his father of money or a car he chose the money and gave it to the poor. (To read more: http://www.bettnet.com/frassati/).

And so it became that with his selfless charity work to the needy, when Pier Giorgio passed away, it was the poor that petitioned to begin a cause for canonization. He was beatified in 1990 by Pope John Paul II.

Sample Sale

My new company (I can't seem to spell it out here because the last time I posted about my new job, someone at work searched for the company and my blog showed up. So I had to kill that blog posting. I wouldn't want my coworkers knowing all my stories). Anyway, my new company, being a clothing company, had a sample sale one Friday. The labels we have (there's two of them...damn, I can't say it on here) are pretty high end, with textiles coming from Europe. Normally, a shirt that would cost $130 AUD was being sold for $20. Pants over $100 were also $20. Jackets for $200 were being sold for $50. But of course, since they are samples, you have to be careful what you pick. My coworker almost bought a blouse that was cut at the back or pants that had a big hole on its leg. It was fun but hard to shop and not being able to try it on.

So I got my employee card last week which entitles me to a 35% discount on our clothes. I tried it that same day and went to MYER in the city. After trying on a few things, I was ready to pay...but was totally rejected. The sales lady told me I had to go to a freestanding store to be able to use my employee card. I told our State Manager that if QVB was not an option for me, I would not have bought the stuff. I was trying to help improve our sales!!! Eventually, I did get the stuff I wanted but was given a bit of a hard time. It was an experience!

Guiness Book of Records

...came to Leichhardt. Being the "little Italy" of Sydney, they held the event for the longest line of pizzas (I know its a bit silly). Along Norton St, they set up a long table starting from the street where we live (Macauley St) all the way to about Marion St...221 meters long and 826 pizzas in total.


Its a bit corny. What they should have done is make one long piece of dough with all the ingredients on it and roll it through the oven...then feed it to us (it was basic cheese pizza). But we did make it to the Guiness Book of World Records. I've never seen one happen before or participated on any.


Just to prove this is real, one of the pictures shows a lady representing Guiness Book of World Records. Actually, after she measured it, it was short of the record. So they had to make an additional 3-4 pizzas to cover it. And there were still some leftovers.

"Good News Week"

I had tickets to be part of the studio audience of the TV show, "Good News Week". Its sort of a comedy show/competition where they have a panel of celebrities and they compete to answer current event news. Unfortunately, I didn't really know who the celebrities were (they had Kelly Rowlands from "Destiny's Child" in the morning taping) and I didn't get some of the Aussie jokes. Haha!

There was a lady whose only job is to fix his tie and shrubs off anything that's on his suit. What bug me the whole time was the host's pants sticking inside one of his high cut boot and nobody told him (not that they would put the camera on his feet anyway).

Leichhardt to City

Who would have thought I'd walk (or could walk) from our house to the city (approx 6km far)? Nobody did...and I proved them wrong. I started off at 10am and got to Chinatown at about 11:45am, just in time for their mass. Along the way, I did some short stops (but did not buy anything) to an antique shop, glass shop, art gallery, was asked for directions, pub, checked out the price of a vespa, looked at the menu for a Korean and Japanese restaurants, and withdrew some money at the bank. It was a bit of an adventure.

Western Plains Zoo (Taronga)

Taronga Zoo has a branch in Dubbo which is a safari style drive through around the zoo. You can also rent bikes to look around. The animals are sectioned by continent, some you can have animal contact, and most are fully restricted.

We had too many pictures so I'll just show a few of them that I like. The zoo had animals ranging from kangaroos, emus, tigers, water buffalos, giraffes, zebras, tortoise, koalas, monkeys, elephants, cheetahs, dingos, and a lot more. I recommend checking out this place - not a typical zoo but a safari style zoo.

Dubbo Observatory

This is exactly what we saw at the Dubbo Observatory - I thought they had glued a picture of Saturn on the telescope.

And of course, we had a look at the moon and Alpha Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System.

Wellington Caves

The largest stalagmite found in the Southern Hemisphere is located at the Wellington Caves.

Next to these caves we went to was a phosphate mine. I didn't know phosphate was made out of bat poo!

Ready Steady Cook

I was able to get tickets for a TV show on Channel 10...a cooking competition show, similar to the Iron Chef. My first time being in a studio audience (we almost got into the David Letterman show in New York one time).

We were at the audience for about 3hrs for a 30min show to be aired like 6 months later. The double takes and bloopers are what made it take that long. And the audience participation with the applause, oohs and ahhhs when they zoom in on a food. It was soo funny! Anyway, if you get a chance in your hometowns to be part of a studio audience, its an interesting behind-the-scenes experience. Try it!

Meteorite Crater

Do you see that mountain range behind us? That's actually a meteorite crater. Where we are used to be flat. Where we're standing is on top of a hill (among lots of hills) that was formed from that hit.

And without those glasses, that's Doogie Howser on the right (with the red T shirt)

Kings Canyon

I was more impressed with Kings Canyon than Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Its so grand...like the Grand Canyon in Arizona (not that I've been there). We did a 3hr, 6km walk, climb, and walk some more all around Kings Canyon under a heat of about 30 degrees!!! Whew!!!

They say the Grand Canyon is not really a canyon. Its a gorge. The difference between a canyon and a gorge is this: 1) a canyon starts off with a crack and widens for water to flow through; 2) a gorge starts of with water flowing then widens the gap. Kings canyon started off with a crack while the Grand Canyon had water first. So it should have been called the "Grand Gorge."

During our 3hr drive back to Alice Springs on dirt road, it actually rained a bit, which is pretty unusual. We had rainbows along the way. Wild horses, kangaroos, and donkeys. Then we stopped over at this little town where they sell the best coffee in Australia (what a marketing ploy by our tour guide. I bet she gets a free drink out of this place every time she brings her group). I tried it anyway. It taste just like any other coffee.

Ayers Rock

Sunset

It took us approximately 4hrs to drive from Alice Springs to the town of Yulara to see the most famous of them all. The huge monolith, centered in Australia, that is Uluru!

Uluru was turned over to the aboriginals back in 1985 with the Australian government leasing the place for 99 years. As it is with the Olgas, this place remains sacred to the aboriginals. Through our walk around this one piece of rock, we see aboriginal camps, waterholes, and paintings. It is advised not to climb up the rock. Although if you'd like to, you better get there before 8am. After 8am and when temperatures are predicted to go up to 36 degrees, they close it down for climbers.

Some stories say that if you take a piece of the rock, weird things suddenly happen to you. So some people have actually couriered what they have stolen back to Uluru. Beware!

This place was unbelievable! One huge rock in the middle of the continent. Amazing!

Sunrise!

Kata Tjuta (the Olgas)

I remember we had a competition at work and one of the groups called themselves, "Kata Tjutas", and here I am seeing this place.

Compared to Uluru, the Olgas is a bunch of massive rocks (actually, composed of rocks and pebbles), higher than Uluru, but similarly formed from tectonic plates pushing the ground up. It is still a sacred place to the aboriginals (they still come to this place to perform rituals) and so they advice people not to climb it (how would you feel if other people start climbing your church???).

The temperature must have been in the 30 or 40 degrees. One of the girls in our group didn't even walk with us and by the time we got to our campgrounds that night, she had to be brought to the hospital...for dehydration. The tour guide recommends bringing at least 1.2 liters of water to the walk. Otherwise, they won't let you go.

Camel Farm

Did you know that Australia has about 1 million camels? Even middle eastern countries import camels from Australia. John Stuart (in which the Stuart Highway was named after), used camels to carry his things while he explored Australia. Camels can last about 3 weeks without water and if you've been to the outback, you'll know why camels would last better than horses.

From Alice Springs to Uluru, we passed by a camel farm. I've never tried riding on a camel so for $5 bucks, I went around the track. At the farm, they also sell camel burgers. I wanted to try it but I was already too full that morning.

How's this concept - what if I buy a camel burger and feed it to the camel???

And the hump? That's all fat!!!

Alice Springs

My first impression of Alice Springs was this: small town consisting of hotels, motels, tents, campgrounds, and swimming pools. Wrong!
Alice Springs is situated in the middle of the continent in the Northern Territory. Population: 30,000. This place is pretty much a stopping point for tourists heading to Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and Kings Canyon. But they do have a few sites to see which I checked out during my 2 day stopover.

1. Mbantua Gallery and Museum - exhibits paintings (prices ranging from $3,000 to $14,000 AUD) by the aboriginals mostly from the north (a place called Utopia). I was amazed at how many aboriginals from that place were so talented. Painting must be a part of their culture. One of the most famous artists is Albert Namatjira.

2. Anzac Hill - the only hill you can climb up in Alice Springs. All others are sacred. You can see a view of Alice Springs from the top point.

3. Todd Mall - I didn't think they would have a mall!!! Lots of shops and restaurants.

4. Reptile Museum - you wanna see some fossils, Terry, the crocodile, live snakes, lizards

I recommend going to Alice Springs from April to August. It was probably 36 degrees when I was there. The heat was just a turn off!!!

Toilet Seat Covers

I was a bit disappointed when I came here to Australia and found that public toilets do not include the toilet seat paper covers...I mean, not even in five star hotels!!!

The first time I saw one was actually on the plane...c/o Virgin Blue Airlines. Thank you, Richard!

And today, I was at the Westin Hotel and had to use their restroom. I was surprised when I went inside the stall and found it fully equipped with toilet paper seat covers.

Now I know where to use public toilets when I'm in the city. Shh, don't share it to anyone!!!

Harbour Bridge Pylons

Two days after I climbed the Harbour Bridge, I went for more and climbed up the bridge's Pylons. Boy were my baby cows (my calves) were hurting after that.

The Pylons of the bridge were not part of the original design. They serve no structural purpose. They are just there for aesthetics and they don't even touch the bridge except at road level.

Bridge Climb

I'm on top of the Harbour Bridge! Whew!

Peruvian Restaurant

I went to the best Peruvian restaurant (ever!!!) that I'd like to share with everyone...and please try the place. This place was recommended by a Peruvian so it must be really good.


If you're a meat lover, you'd love this place.

La Parrillada
470 Parramatta Rd
Petersham, Australia
02-9560-0943

Enjoy!!!

Mardi Gras Parade

The Mardi Gras Parade is one of the most celebrated Gay and Lesbian events in Australia. As you may already know, San Francisco is the #1 gay capital in the world and Sydney comes in as #2. And so there is no doubt that this would be such a big event that even its "sister-city", San Francisco, had a float represented from Castro.

It was crazy as expected!!! Here's just a few pictures to share