Sydney, I Miss You

Last trip to Sydney was 5 days before Christmas last year and was an in and out trip, hardly enough time to meet my friends, drink all the flat white to satisfy my caffeine cravings, visit the new cafes that have popped up in Surry Hills, buy all the vintage ceramics and glassware at the opp shops, nose around the Mitchell Road Auction House, gorge on lovely bread from Bourke Street Bakery and Central Baking Depot, walk the parks and beaches... And almost a whole year has gone by without a work trip to Sydney this year, the biggest drawback of the new role. I miss everything and everyone.

So even nursing this (new) cold which followed 2 bouts of walking pneumonia, I am determined to enjoy myself when I get there in 2 days' time. So let me get back to lying on the couch and resting my mind, body and soul. Then I will be ready for you Sydney!!

Stop And Look

 Often we are so busy with wok and life that we don't have the luxury of time to observe simple things around us, of what Mother Nature has created. But when we stop for a moment and actually take that time to observe, what beauty we see...

A vibrantly coloured grasshopper perched on the gate, even if it first gives you a big shock, you can't help but admire the lively coat it has. What a beaut.

You admire it for a brief moment while contemplating how to get through your own front door (because it is quite big and scary), and then the problem is solved for you because the gorgeous work of Nature flies off back into its natural surroundings.

Or you go for a walk and notice this flowering tree, all up and down its trunk, the pretty orangey-red flowers, with little green buds and fruit, interspersed between the leafy foliage.

We just need to stop a little, look a little. And then get back into our busy, frantic work and lives.

Enjoy The Journey

People are normally in a hurry to get from point A to point B, finish their chores, complete their goals. The journey towards the goal is just a means to an end.

They have no tine to stand and stare.

No time to wonder whether the pretty white/yellow/pink flowers growing amongst the grass, could possibly be a weed, considering how lovely they are, and weeds conjure up an image of bad, choking plants. No time to notice that the little white daisies grow invariably in a ring, such a wonder of Nature. No time to wonder what those guava-looking green fruit growing on wooden fences are, and if they are edible. No time to notice these pigeon-looking birds but with a lovely pink collar and bib, hanging out on the grass verge, 2 pairs in all, scouring the grass for seeds, fluttering around when they spy a person coming a little nearer to them to take a better look. Were they pigeons (prettier than normal ones) or were they a type of parrot (G thinks so when he saw my photos). I just think they are so pretty and I have never seen any pigeon or parrot like them.

And I also think that the journey in itself is something to be enjoyed, something which I had enjoyed to the fullest during my 6 months' of bliss and quiet. Now I am back to rushing around...

On The Jacaranda Trail

The other day, armed with my trusty little camera, I decided to go on a Jacaranda trail in the neighbourhood. Apart from the lovely purple blooms set against a very hot, blue sky, and the fallen petals forming a lavender carpet beneath my feet, I got a few more interesting little nuggets along the way.

There was a retro horse float that was parked by the side of the road. It was the cutest thing and didn't look quite big enough for a regular-sized horse. Maybe a Shetland pony? Or maybe horses in the old days are smaller than those today, a little like people?

Then the tri-colour of yellow, pink and purple blooms set next to one another caught my eye. The sunny Spring weather has caused all the plants to flower and what a visual treat that is.

Yet another retro-looking object along the way, a drinking fountain in the green patch overlooking the lovely views. It actually works.

So I got more than purple flowers along the trail. Life is always interesting, even the small, little things you observe along the journey.

Ten Things I Would Miss About Sydney

1. The weather. I like the temperate nature and the changing seasons, even though I am not so keen on days turning dark at 4.30 pm. I like how the flowers bloom in Spring or even a warm late Winter, especially the luscious pink Cherry blossoms and the beautiful purple Jacaranda. I like the fresh days where it's not too cold. I like the warm days where 30% humidity garners a universal howl from Sydneysiders.

2. Treasure-hunting at weekend markets and opp shops. My all-time favourite activity. I love the different markets and the aspects special to them. Rozelle for new clothes made from vintage patterns and material, Surry Hills for all things retro and gorgeous, Glebe for wonderful, bohemian gift ideas, North Sydney for home-made yummy goodies, Kirribilli for a mish-mash of old cast-offs and new arts and crafts.

3. Great coffee and fabulous cafes. I like the cafe vibes and the lovely aroma of coffee. I like the independent cafes which means no one needs to ever go to a chain like Starbucks, pay a fortune to get a lousy coffee for their caffeine fix. I like how your regular barista remembers your order even if he doesn't know your name. I like the fact that soy milk is widely available for lactose-intolerant people like me.

4. Shop assistants and cashiers at the supermarkets sound genuinely friendly when they greet you and talk to you. Friendliness comes easily to them and is not forced and artificial. It makes going to the shops such a nice experience.

5. Strangers at the bus-stop or going for a walk in the neighbourhood or that you meet going alone to the cinema say hello or good morning to you. Sometimes, they even strike up an interesting and not-so-brief conversation. Once again, neighbourly friendliness is not frowned upon. It makes community living so pleasant.

6. Cheap and authentic Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. Due to the large number of immigrants from these communities, they have also brought their cuisine with them and their price range caters to the student and immigrant worker sectors.

7. To-die-for bread. Bread that is solid and heavy and filled with wholesome ingredients, freshly-baked and piled high on the shelves. Fennel and sour cherry, hazelnut and raisins, fig and barberry, caramelised onion, soy and linseed - these are some of my favourite varieties.

8. Bus drivers who will inevitably patiently wait till an elderly passenger with their shopping or a mother with a child, laden with a stroller and nappy bag, has shuffled down to their chosen seat, sat down before moving off. And also drivers who say hello and good morning and passengers who sing out a thank you from the back door to the driver before alighting at their stops.

9. The great parks and beach walks. A free and wonderful way to connect with Nature, breathe in fresh air, look at the beautiful blue skies and just enjoy Mother Nature's gift to our 5 senses.

10. Lastly, the handful of good friends that I've made, with whom I've shared many a soy flat white, Malaysian curry chicken with fried rice and a caramel slice.

Spring And My Anti-Green Fingers

Some people have green fingers, I know my mum does. Unfortunately, I did not inherit those genes from her. In fact, I have what I call the anti-green fingers. Everything I attempt to grow, inevitably dies sooner or later. I've managed to kill hardy plants like cactus, usually by enthusiastic over-watering.

Thus I've developed what I think is an idiot-proof way of handling cacti. Not that I've gone out intentionally to buy more plants - just to end up killing them. But this cactus was 1 of 3 that I picked up just outside my first flat when someone was moving and left them out, together with a lovely jade plant which I've handed over to a friend when I went away for 3 weeks and never took it back since I figured it would thrive better in his courtyard.

But back to the cactus, there were 3 of them but now there are 2. I cannot remember exactly what befell the third as I've probably blocked the trauma out of my memory, but the last 2 have survived the last 3 years with me. My idiot-proof solution is to ignore them and not water them. For weeks. It seems to work. I water them when I remember that I haven't done so for a long time, especially when it hasn't rained for a while. So the other day I went out onto the sunny balcony and saw 2 furry grey nubs on the top of my cactus. I figured it was a sure sign of impending death. Something was growing on it, some fungus or parasite or something. So I did an act of kindness and fed it some water to send it on its last journey which I was pretty sure would be forthcoming.

Little did I expect the bigger of the 2 furry nubs to sprout open the following day and yellow petals could be seen. OMG, it's not a parasite, it's a flowering bud and it's started to flower in the sunny weather once I've watered it.

That was really amazing. And today, the bud has opened up into a lovely yellow flower with a red dot centre. Spring is truly here. I've not killed the cactus, but instead have helped ("nurture" would be going too far I think) it blossom.

A Sepia View

Not as dramatic as the scarlet red photos that were in the papers because I was still snug under my duvet at the early hours of dawn, but this was about 7.30 am when G got me out of bed to have a look. It had the old photo, sepia-tone look about it. Quite pretty so I didn't think, "OMG, the end of the world is here!" as did many of the other people who apparently were up and about earlier (and who had watched too many recent Hollywood end-of-the-world movies).

Summer In Winter

We've had a few really sunny days here coupled with some lovely warm nights which created a false expectation that Spring or even Summer is here early this year. I mean who has 27C in the winter? And people walking around in singlet, shorts and thongs? Who??? I guess Sydney, that's who.

Of course we celebrated the sunny weather with some typical summer activities. With the inlaws in town last week, we traipsed off to the North Sydney Farmers' market and got some nice spinach and fetta sourdough, lovely honey and garlic smoked trout, blue cheese, avocado and tomato and headed out to Balmoral beach for a picnic. Perched on the wooden bench with the warm sun beating down on us, it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

The following day saw temperatures soaring up to 27C and we headed down to the quaint little Southern Highland towns of Bowral and Berrima. Eating, drinking, exploring cute shops and bakeries and trawling through lots of antique shops with amazing inventory, made for a very interesting way to spend our time. I learnt a few new things including what an "anti-macassar" is. For those who are interested, it's a cloth cover placed on the back of chairs to prevent staining by hair cream (called macassar oil).

We also drove up to the Blue Mountains where Neil, my father-in-law was the only person there wearing shorts, just because he's from the South Island and was warm enough even though we were up on the mountains. Even though it was quite sunny (but still relatively cool up on the high altitude), the rest of us preferred to protect our legs with more clothing.

The lovely cooperative weather meant that it was perfect for us to take our out-of-town visitors on these day trips and to enjoy the outdoors activities. The Kiwis basked in the sun and tried to retain that warm feeling before they head home the following week into the cold.

This summery weather has also tricked plants into flowering early. I've seen lovely cherry blossom trees blooming everywhere on our street. Crowned with lovely, big, pink flowers, they were a sight to behold. Pretty blooms of orange and yellow flowers were also sprouting up on neighbourhood garden lawns. Nature's beauty is everywhere. Spring will be here soon cos it seems like summer is already!

Nature And Food

We have a waterfall in our backyard (literally)! A charming handwritten scrawl in chalk on the pavement helped orientate the unfamiliar towards the lookout point where the waterfall is. The (minor) roar of the water was unmistakable. We just need to find the path that leads down to it. There are lots of bushwalking possibilities in the neighbourhood, we just need to find a map of all the walking trails and start planning our new activities. Life is all about change, if nothing else, isn't it?

Well and some things never change. Love for my food that is. Being our first real weekend in the new house (last weekend was spent unpacking and clearing the bomb site so that didn't really count), I decided that we were going to make pizzas for dinner tonight. Somehow, my pizza which was on the pizza stone didn't come out as nicely cooked as G's which was on the pizza baking tray. But I love, love, love the anchovies. I just wish that I also had smoked oysters on mine, the smell of the anchovies just triggered off a craving for that. G reckons my body is zinc-deficient. I think that is right, I used to have regular cravings for smoked oysters and used to open up a tin and eat it right there and then with a fork on the spot.

Now listening to the rhythm of the patter of rain outside, it is such a nice comforting sound to end a good day.

Flower Power

Spring is in the air. These really colourful flowers which looked like poppies, carnations and a cross-breed chrysanthemum were really beautiful.

I had little vases of them around the house when we had Alex and Pete over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. Dinner consisted of little chive dumplings and siew mais for entrees (bought from our fave Thai supermarket), the main course was Malaysian fish curry with basmati rice with raisins, and a dish of stir-fried tang-oh. For dessert, we had some taro and water chestnut cream Thai confectionary in aromatic cases made of pandan leaves. It was a success and didn't tax us too much because we had combined store-bought and home-cooked dishes, all the food were personally tested by us in the past.

We had brekkie on the balcony that weekend and the flowers added a nice touch to our breakfast table, even if it's for our personal pleasure. A small gesture, but a a lovely addition to starting the weekend on a pretty note.

Jervis Bay - Booderee National Park

Booderee Park is a beautiful place. The gorgeous weather was a bonus considering it was supposed to be rainy the whole time we were in Jervis Bay. The various beaches were really pretty, but the water was just too cold even for a quick dip. I got in thigh deep before giving up and sitting in the creek which was as warm as bath water. I say creek, M says ditch.

We saw an echidna in the bushes, it was so cute and we thought it was a porcupine, it had yellow-tipped quills. We also saw some tame kangaroos in the garden of some holiday accommodation in the Park and they were watching me sceptically as I half-crouched in a ready-to-flee position as I posed for a photo. I mean, kangaroos apparently can kick you in the guts and yank out all your insides with one powerful kick, except these two were little joeys. I stayed clear of the big mummy/daddy one which was standing about six-foot tall at the other end of the grass patch. As we drove out of the Park, we saw a wallaby standing by the side of the road, as though waiting for the lights to change before he crossed! He didn't even bat an eyelid as our car went by, he must be so used to traffic, it was a really interesting sight to suddenly see a wallaby standing by the car.

We certainly had a good day out with Mother Nature.

Mittagong - Post Script

I walked on the grass to get a closer look at the pretty Spring flowers in a little park while we were in Mittagong. Suddenly G pointed out the many lumps on the grass and asked if they were doggy poo. I had trod on one, it was all squished on the soles of my shoes. I realised the entire place was covered with these brown doggy poo longish clumps and I was surrounded by and trapped amongst all the doggy poo!

Getting more traumatised by the second, I tried to tip toe my way out of the" mine field", avoiding the "land mines" as best as I can. I was pretty agitated by the time I slowly picked my way out of the grassy park to the pavement and frantically tried my best to scrape the flattened brown muck off my shoes, against the grass as best as I can.

G then theorised that they were possibly not doggy poo because:-


1. There were just too many of them, hundreds literally, littered across the entire park - it would have taken a horde of dogs to do that;
2. They were too uniform in size; and
3. Most importantly, they did not smell! (this was the reason that won me over cos doggy poo really smells)

As he thought it through, while I continued my traumatic attempts to clean my shoes against the grass while holding onto a lamp-post for support so that I don't accidentally fall over, on the poo, he finally concluded that the "doggy poo" pieces were actually pieces of earth, made when an instrument is poked into the earth and pulled out, in order to loosen the soil and aerate it! Arrgghh... I wish he had come to this well-reasoned conclusion earlier. It would have saved me a lot of TRAUMA...

Spring?

Spring arrived with a promising start.

My little cactus flowered, a once a year event, it knows the changing of the seasons and the budding and flowering heralded the coming of Spring. Then 2 days into the new season, the weather turned chilly and windy and I almost froze last night because I didn't have my winter coat. It has been 3 weeks since I last put on a winter overcoat to go to work, and today, the fourth day of Spring, I had no choice but to pull an overcoat out of the closet again. It was a very good decision because the temperature dipped to 16C maximum, it was windy and felt like Winter all over again.

I certainly hope this Spring isn't like last year's which really felt like Autumn. I look at my flowering cactus and hope.

Through My Window

One of my favourite websites, Apartment Therapy features a regular "Through My Window" entry where readers send pictures of what they see through their window. I thought it would be interesting to feature what I see through mine.

Every morning, with my white roller blinds down, I see the artistic silhouette of the trees outside my window. They are now bare in the winter and look very skeletal, but in a desolate and beautiful way, if skeletal can be that. I find that image like that of a photo negative, the pure black and white, casting a surrealistic, cinematographic quality about it.

The night scene on the other hand, is vibrant, the contrast of old brick buildings refurbished to house funky shops catering to every adult fetish, hip Asian restaurants and take-aways, numerous gay bars and clubs and other slightly more mainstream shops selling art supplies and gay literature (ok I said SLIGHTLY more mainstream not completely mainstream).

Tonight there was another different scene through my window. It was the night of the lunar eclipse where the earth comes in between the moon and the sun and throws its shadow on the moon covering it completely for a moment. The moon bled a dark crimson orange at the time I took this picture.

Three different images, all in the same 24 hours. Isn't life ever changing?

Bare Bones

This winter, I noticed many bare trees, I don't remember all these beautiful, bare bones of trees standing against the sky last winter. There is a sense of desolation, of solitude, of peace and serenity these trees convey. Perhaps also with their silhouette, comes a message of hope. That when the cold winter passes, it will be Spring and with it comes a renewal of Life.

Magnolias

There are just so many beautiful things all around us. Very often very simply.

This exquisite branch sitting in this vase is a Magnolia branch that M had cut from a backyard plant. It is so gorgeous and captivated my attention all the way from the corner of the gallery. I gravitated towards it immediately with my camera. Beauty. And the most beautiful things in life are the simple things.