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