Night Noodle Markets

Despite some hesitation, I did end up visiting the Night Noodle Market at Hyde Park.The pretty lights convinced me that I needed to visit although naturally, we ended up going when it was still light outside and therefore the lights were not turned on. Of course.




A. and I shared the beef ramen burger and also the teriyaki chicken rice burger. Hmm. Where to begin. Well the rice burger was mainly consumed by myself and by the end of it, my jaw was tired from trying to break down the 'buns' of the burger. When I was younger, we didn't have a non-stick rice cooker therefore every time we cooked rice, a layer of rice would be stuck and it was hard and almost inedible. That was basically what the rice buns reminded me of. Sometimes I feel that I can be quite harsh when it comes to giving my opinion, and then sometimes I don't. When it comes to food, nearly everything falls under the opinion of, "It's alright" and when I actually don't like something, I really really don't like it. Sadly, this fell into the latter category.


Mini pancakes w/ chocolate sauce and strawberries.

A. was still a little hungry which justified our trip to Pancakes on the Rocks. We shared the Hot 'n' Troppo with crepes substituted for the pancakes. I am actually not a big fan of pancakes and after my 3 day stint of eating pancakes for breakfast everyday in Toronto (it was free!), I have been put off about the idea of pancakes. 

My Henna Experience

Almost two weeks ago, I hennaed my hair. I'd been meaning to do it for over a year but kept putting it off. During one of my boring classes, I decided to bite the bullet and purchased henna from an online store. So why did I want to use henna? I wanted something more natural and healthier for my hair mainly. I also wanted to add more depth into my hair without committing to or maintaining something  different to my natural hair colour. One of my biggest pet peeves (which is quite silly) is: that I cannot stand looking at people's regrowth, especially when their natural hair colour is quite dark and their dyed colour is lighter or vice versa. 


Finally finding a use for my camomile tea bags (I dislike camomile tea).




I mixed my pure henna powder with camomile tea and the juice of one lemon and set it aside for two hours. In hindsight, I probably should have let the dye release for a longer period of time, however I was impatient and the dye released had already started.



From people's experiences online, a lot of people complained about the smell. I didn't mind it too much but it essentially smelt like grass. I have virgin black hair and like most Asians, each strand is both thick and coarse.

 The reason my ends are so brown is because that part of the hair was in direct sunlight.

Application was pretty easy although as you can see in the photo, I did have gaps. I left it in my hair for around 3.5hours before washing it out.


A. tells me that my hair looks healthier and shinier (the key benefit provided by henna treatments). Henna doesn't lighten hair but merely deposits colour and pigment therefore my hair is still essentially black. However, in the sun it has brownish-redish highlights. The photos were taken a few days after I hennaed my hair and I believe that it has oxidised a little more now so that it is less vibrant in the sun.





All in all, I am quite happy with the experience and will most likely be henna-ing my hair again in the near future, with a greater focus on my ends as I don't believe that they are as conditioned as the crown of my head.

Sweethearts Rooftop BBQ

On Friday night, A and I went to Sweethearts Rooftop BBQ for his friend's birthday celebration. It has been raining in Sydney for the past 2 weeks or so which I don't mind except when there is sideways rain. Luckily, it only started to pour once we got to the venue.

A green salad with halloumi. It was really tasty!

I can't believe that it is already September! It is my birthday in 3 months and I will be leaving in 80 days!

BoA Fraud Team, I Love You.

Well the only exciting part of my week was getting an email from Bank of America telling me that I had suspicious fraudulent activity on my debit card. And I did! There is a first for everything. Someone tried to buy $600 worth of electronics and pay for a $200 hotel. Jokes on them, I only had <$250 on that card and I didn't know banks were watching my transactions that closely. After a 40 minute call to America (hope I didn't spend over my cap amount ...) I will be getting a new debit card to me. It took forever to state the address I currently have and having to spell out Sydney and 'NSW' is weird. I sincerely hope that the card actually gets to me. When it does, I will finally be transferring money out of it and closing it. Originally I didn't want to pay the $50 in fees and I thought I would be doing more shopping on American sites, but after this experience it's just not worth the hassle. Also, the fraudulent activity only happened after I purchased jeans from Aeropostale. Hmm =/ I guess I never paid too much attention to online websites and assumed that they were safe, and never really thought about the work that banks do. You learn something new everyday.

When I was originally speaking to the operator, it felt like this.

N.B I don't know why her voice actually changes in her second and third try. I swear it wasn't like that in the movie.

I hate automated services. The frustrating moment when I was saying "fraud ... fraud.... FRAUD" and it refused to understand me.

Melbourne: Last Day

I seem to have a tendency to forget about concluding travel posts (case in point, my major travel trip in 2012).

12th July 2014
This was our last day in Melbourne however we had plenty of time before our 8pm flight. First stop was breakfast at the QVM which was a stone's throw away.

Potato borek. Mmmmm...

Bratwurst with a ridiculous amount of sauerkraut.

We headed to the Melbourne Museum because it was free for students!

This was a little creepy, I have to admit.

I don't know why, but the story of Phar Lap has always stuck with me. It is probably one of the few things - if not only thing- that I remember from Year 8 history. I think I also learnt something about mini skirts ... perhaps. Oh and watching the mini series Vietnam in class (Nicole Kidman looks nothing like that now. Quite funny).

Lunch at a random place in Chinatown. Plastic tasting dumplings.

We caught the airport bus from Southern Cross station and it reminded me an awful lot of the stations in Europe.





And that is the end of all my Melbourne posts. I guess I should put the standard two questions.

My Overall Thoughts
Now, the age old debate: Sydney or Melbourne. Truth be told, I don't have an opinion. To each their own. When it comes to major cities, I don't really understand the debate on which one is better because the way I see it, they are different in their own way and suburbs are almost always the same. I feel like Sydney feels busier, but is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Personally, I'm not a big fan of big cities. A few people told me that they think that Melbourne is quite European, but I don't really see it. Melbourne feels like the love child of Philadelphia and Chicago.

Would I re-visit?
Not particularly. When I have a family - and granted that I am still in Sydney - I would probably visit as it is super close.

Melbourne Trip: Brighton Beach & St Kilda

11th July 2014
This was my day as I had done most of the planning. We headed to Brighton Beach to do the coastal walk to St Kilda.

Breakfast at Manchester Press.





On the train, it was quite overcast however when we got off the skies were starting to clear up. It was a pretty boring walk. Also a long easy walk at at around 10 km and it was so windy!











By the time we arrived at St Kilda we were starving and headed to Lentil as Anything. The place was packed so we ended up being seated at the very back next to their lentils....

Lentil as Anything is a series of pay what you can, not for profit vegetarian restaurants in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. The restaurants wholly rely on the generosity of their patrons, volunteers and suppliers to operate, receiving no government or church funding. Patrons are asked to "pay what they feel" the meal, service and beverages are worth by contributing an amount of their choice into a box at the counter.

On our way to Luna Park, we passed by some very tasty cake and pastry stores. I picked up a cherry crumble which tasted very funny; it tasted like the artificial cherry flavour in cough medicines.






 
I wanted to stop by Luxbite before we headed back to the CBD. The desserts from Luxbite weren't that sweet! I really liked the Lolly Bag Cake. The green tea cheesecake bothered me since I am not a fan of buttercream (however it isn't stated in the description...) and I'm not a big fan of macarons, but Endless Love was too pretty to not get!






(L - R) Endless Love, Lollybag Cake, Green Tea Cheesecake

For the last night, we switched hotels to one further north in the CBD as it was quite a lot cheaper than staying at the Victoria Hotel. We also got upgraded! 

View from the room. Right next to the QVM.