Finding House

1st place we viewed. Smaller than our current place. $420/week

Accommodation in Australia is freaking expensive. Period.

We used to pay $1820 per month for 2 bedroom 1 bathroom. That's equivalent to RM5460 ! wtf.

Anyway long story short, we got evicted cause the owner's moving back into the property. So we have to find a new place to move.

Kennedy St

We managed to locate a place nearby at Kennedy St. 2 bathrooms 1 bedroom 1 car space and an enormous rooftop bbq area with a view of the city, all going for $575/week.

We applied for it and were apparently the only one who applied. Great news! Got it. We even had the price reduced to $550/week. *starts to imagine having BBQ there during new years eve with a view of the fireworks *

Problem solved or so we thought.

Actually I told the agent I wanted another view of the place to measure the door cause we have a massive refrigerator that could potentially not fit through the walkway.

Went back there 1 afternoon with the agent and lo and behold she brought another potential tenant to view the place. A caucasion in his mid 30s. Next day the agent told us the other applicant has got the place.

Cibai.

I asked for the reason and she mentioned that it was the preference of the owner. Racist. ;(

2 bedroom 1 bathroom - $440-$460 / week (meek street)

After that we had to continue our search. The only problem was when we thought we already had that place, we gave a notice to move out in 3 weeks time. And we couldn't retract that notice.

So die die must move out in 3 weeks time.

2 bedroom 2 bathroom for only $460/week. Foryst st. (damn cheap)

There was 30-40 interested parties in the place and we had to line up just to go view the place. We didn't apply cause the place was quite dirty.

2 bedroom 2 bathroom 1 LUG - $625/week (Elizabeth street)

This one is super duper nice. It's quite new, only 1 year+. But it was quite pricey + the carpet smelled like someone's cat died there. *blueh*

Wifey also viewed another property - THE JAMES during the week. 2 bedroom 2 bathroom for $450/week. Good price considering it's landed property. It was our 1st choice when we first saw the ad on the net.

Turns out it was so pathetically small "it's meant for mouse to live, not human." (wifey's comments)

New place

After all the searching, thank god we managed to find our place. 3 levels, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies and a car space. - for $450/week

What happened was I called the agent once we saw the ad on the internet. So he agreed to let us view the place on thursday, before the official inspection on Saturday. Once we saw it we applied for it and placed a deposit on the same day.

It was quite sneaky and I felt real bad when I joined the official inspection on Saturday. I wore a cap to avoid anyone recognizing me. The poor agent had to explain to them that the property had been taken and boy were they pissed!

Among them stood one of wifey's colleagues, Clancy. haha. She still doesn't know we were the one who went through the back door and placed a deposit on the place. I don't think she should ever find out. ;p

*It was actually a good thing we got rejected for the 1st place on Kennedy st. Now we get an extra bathroom and save $100/week. Plus it's only 100 metres from our current place.* Glee

Anyway we'll be moving next week. Busy busy.

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CNY eve + Rita's Farewell

Nice looking gift wrapped box

It was the 13th February, the eve of the Valentines day. I had previously went down to the city to buy a present for my babeh.

So I was contemplating whether to give her today or tomorrow. Finally decided to give it to her today, can't wait to give it to her. haha

She gave me a lovely V-day card the next day. Left it on the computer when I went to brush my teeth. So cheeky.

Earrings

It was a set of earrings from Gucci. Hoped she liked it.

Besides that, it was also the eve of CNY. So excited. But there wasn't any CNY mood at all. So sad. ;(

We went down to Chatswood Mandarin to catch a cantonese flick, in search of some CNY mood through the movie.

72 Tenants of Properity

We went to watch the 72 Tenants of Prosperity. Initially I assumed it was a CNY-themed movie with red posters and the launch coinciding with CNY.

But apparently it's a remake of a 1970s film from the Shaw Brothers. Not exactly CNY-themed but still damn funny nonetheless.

It had so many famous actors & actresses in it because it was partly sponsored by TVB. It also had scenes from famous TVB series as well. Really ROFL.

Fish Soup Beehoon from May's Malaysian

Before the movie we had lunch at the food court below the cinema. Yummy fish soup beehoon for about $9.00. Luckily we only ordered 1 dish to share as the portion was gigantic.


At night we meet up with some friends for Rita's farewell. She's going back to Shanghai after a failed attempt at marriage and under constant pressure from her parents to return to the motherland.

We gathered at a korean BBQ buffet for $30/pax. When we sat down we started to chit chat while waiting for everyone to arrive and got told off for that! What nerve! The taukeh simply came over and ordered us to start eating.

No exaggeration. ORDERED!

I hope the place closes down the next time we pass that area.

All the food

Anyway the atmosphere was like a kopitiam with air-con, with the buffet table located right in the middle of the establishment.

There was a huge selection of pork, beef & chicken marinated in different sauce. Small variation of seafood included prawns, squid, mussel.

It's quite a good value for that price if you feel like gorging yourself.

NOTE TO SELF:

Beware of eating buffet with PRC. They can't stop revisiting the buffet table to get more food eventhough they can't finish it themselves. The mentality is, "Since I've paid for it, I MUST get more value than my money's worth". Shoves all those food on the table and get others to finish it up.

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Valentines Day 2010

Chinese New Year 2010

It has been long hiatus since my last post. So here's a post on V-day 2010 to kick-start things for 2010.

Mr. & Mrs Sim =)

It was quite fascinating this year as V-day fell on the same day as the 1st day of the Chinese New Year.

This year for valentines we decided to go to AZUMA KUSHIYAKI in Chinatown. It's located in Chinatown just a few steps away from the cinema in George Street.

We initially wanted to try the branch at Chifley Square, the menu looked more delicious but alas they don't open on Sundays.

When we first entered the vicinity we were shocked by what greeted us. It's like a cafe style, noodles takeaway type of establishment. A far cry from the suitable dining place for V-day.

Environment

Thank god the actual restaurant is further inside the complex. It's a typical japanese restaurant setup with very "zen" lighting.

We opted for the Special Valentines Menu for $88. Actually we didn't have a choice as ala carte wasn't an option. But it was quite good value for 7 course degustation.

Appetiser (4/5)

• Crispy Lotus Root marinated with Smoked Salmon & Avacado.
• Grilled Abalone with Mornay Sauce.
• Duck Breast Tatsuta Fritters.

We started off the night with the appetiser. Man this was really good especially the Crispy Lotus Root with that lovely sauce.

When we saw the menu and saw 3 listings under appetiser we thought that we had to only choose 1 option. So we were pleasantly suprised to get all three. ;)

Seared Tuna Salad served with Ponyu Vinaigrette (2.5/5)

Seared tuna was nice, but the gravy was quite salty. I'd prefer to have seared tuna on a sushi plate.

Simmered Silver Cod with grated white radish (3.5/5)

The cod was so fresh it literally melted in our mouths. The prawn was a pleasant addition but I did think it was a weird combination with cod, prawn and eggplant.

I did finish slurping up all the gravy.

Wagyu Beef Steak with Soy Garlic Sauce (4.5/5)

Near perfection.

Recently we had bbq wagyu beef at another japanese establishment and we were blown away by the tender sweet tasting taste.

Needless to say we had high expectations for this dish and it definitely didn't disappoint.

Simmered Scallop Soup (2.5/5)

Tasted like miso soup with lots of enoki mushroom.

Scattered Spring Sushi wrapped in Bamboo leaves (2/5)

Now this was a weird one. I kinda liked it cause I generally like sushi but Mrs Sim didn't. So I had 1.5 and she only had the remaining 0.5.

It quite sweet with some mince meat, salmon roe scattered around the rice. Extra points given to the presentation with the bamboo leaves.

I initially hoped that it was the triangular rice cakes that you find in japanese supermarkets. I don't know what it's call but I refer to them as triangle cakes. They taste really superb.

Japanese Chestnut Mont Blanc Cake (1.5/5)

Poor attempt at dessert. But I'm not a dessert lover anyway.

Overall it was quite a pleasant experience. Not overly romantic as I would have liked but still pleasant nonetheless.

It was also quite interesting peeping at the pair of hongkie cum japanese wannabes with full blond hairdos and japanese anime dressings sitting behind us.

I'm back

So much had happened since my last post.

- Got married to a beautiful woman
- Ventured into business .... and failed ;(
- Shifted office
- Learned many things about myself, still trying to improve on the lousy bits
- Religionized myself
- Honeymooned in Bali

There should be a couple more which I can't recall. But if I can't recall it's probably not important enough.

Anyway its time to start blogging again.

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