Recapping...a monster of a post awaits your perusal!

Pangs of guilt are hitting me low and fast for not updating sooner. However fellow readers, I have an excuse! My camera has been held hostage by my Aunt Tracy for a fair number of weeks (due to the fact that I kept forgetting to take it home each time I popped into her place for a visit). Therefore causing me to have no choice but to postpone updating until I retrieved my precious camera and returned it to its rightful home (afterall, what is a post without pictures?). It is therefore my pleasure to present you with a whopper of a post to make up for all my weeks of inactivity! [Long post. Many pictures below. Beware. Read at own bandwidth risk.]

(Events are in chronological order...somewhat...)

Chinese New Year

The first big event that happened since my last post was of course, one of the biggest Chinese celebrations of the year (and every single single person's favourite event), Chinese New Year! This year's family get together for Dad's side of the family was held at Gu and Matt's new place in Oatley. Compared to previous years, it was a slightly subdued affair, with Chris and Helen AWOL in Malaysia and Uncle Edward off lion dancing with the Yau Kung Mun people.

Sadly, the amount of food prepared for these family gatherings have also decreased over the past few events as relatives busy themselves with sending kids off to gymnastic competitions, piano recitals, coaching schools, etc, rather than spend a good hour or two preparing a vegetable monet, pavlova, butterscotch pudding, apple crumble, Vietnamese-style pork with tomato rice, etc... (ah, those were the days, my friend! Those were the days!) Not that I'm complaining that there wasn't any food, it's just that gatherings we have nowadays are but shadows of their former selves.

This year, we had the addition of traditional lion dancing entertainment from the kids as Aunt Angela had managed to track down a shop in Chinatown that still sold children-sized lion heads since the kids all seemed to have developed an interest in lion dancing after watching a couple of performances this year. Hence the absolute delight that we were all treated to on the day with all the kids having a go lion dancing and "eating the lettuce head", an essential part of any lion dancing performance (which was really the end bit of a carrot placed on a plastic chair). Although us older Ha's helped out by using Nicole and Justin's toy drums, cymbols and tambourines to provide them with the right music to dance to, it was really the kids time to shine and shine they did! I was so impressed by the exact way they managed to mimic the steps and mannerisms used by an authentic lion dancer. Damien and Nathan in particular just blew me away, throwing the bit of carrot up in the air and then also catching it in their "jaws" and tossing their head from side to side in time with the music. It left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside seeing them having so much fun together. (Although this scene soon turned into utter chaos when all the kids started fighting over who got a turn dancing as the "head" as no one wished to be the "tail" and really, there are only that many ways one lion head can be shared between 7 kids!).

That lion's head sure came in useful on Chinese New Year

I also managed to receive quite a few "Lei See" (lucky money) pouches this year and some of them had very cute designs like Doraemon, Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty printed on them! Here's to hoping that other people (*cough* not mentioning any names, you know who you are!) get married soon whilst I stay blissfully single for at least a few years to come. It is a major source of income for all single Asian kids and I do not quite feel like parting with it just yet...

My non-taxable income! I love being single and Chinese!


St George Open Air Cinema - Notes on a Scandal

I went out with my high school friends about a month ago to the St George Open Air Cinema to watch Notes on a Scandal starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. The acting was suburb but somehow left me feeling extremely depressed, probably due to the fact that all the teachers portrayed in this movie were either psychotic or extremely bland and "loser-ish" to the point of being somewhat comical. It left me wanting to drown in a pool of self-pity before re-evaluating my career path.

It was my first time at the open air and I was rather worried that the heavens were going to open on us by the bucket load as it had been for the past week before the screening but the day dawned (somewhat) bright and sunny and stayed that way for the remainder of the day. It was also on a Tuesday night and the dedicated Tafe student in me felt rather guilty for skipping class but since the girls wanted to meet up beforehand and try vegetarian yum-cha in Chinatown before making our way down to the Mrs Macqaurie's Point, gluttony won hands down and I faked some poor excuse to my Chinese teacher at Tafe.

I was glad I went though, despite not enjoying the movie as much as the others, the atmosphere there was brilliant, with the big screen positioned so that you could take in the Harbour Bridge and Opera House's nightscape (if you had either gotten in early enough to sit in a good seat or had a couple of St George bank account holders in your entourage of friends, we, however, were just a tad on the late side and ended up sitting on the side, in the dining area, which still offered us a good view of the screen, just at a bit of an angle) and we were even treated to an impromptu 10 minutes or so of fireworks (which were either a practice run for the arrival of the QEII and QM, or Valentine's Day?).

Uni

Not much to say here except that uni has started and with it the fears and anxieties of whether or not I'd be able to pull off teaching Chinese and Japanese in a high school to kids (who are probably native speakers pretending not to be native speakers in order to rig the system). I tried yet againt to change to teaching ESL but everything clashed with everything else on my timetable the moment I tried to enroll in ESL Curriculum Studies (which is somewhat weird since I'm only going to uni for one and a half days and the possibility of clashing should be zilch!). My only choice now is to either grin and bear it through pract teaching and all, change universities, or take a year off and try again next year. The two latter options are not too appealing since I like the fact that I know the people in my classes since languages and education classes tend to retain the same people. Starting fresh with no friends to turn to in any learning context is something I want to avoid as much as possible. So I guess bearing with it is the only way.

Anyone willing to coach me on the whole Chinese continuers and extension course from Years 7 to 12?

I also have a little too many day time hours spare this semester. I so need a job...and the cash that comes with it. I'm fed up with job hunting. It's a pointless exercise and leaves me feeling more and more depressed by the day. Job criterias are crazy, interviews only provide me with false hopes, and I can't believe the stuff I'm writing in my cover letters. Everyone writes that they have the same sort of qualities. How do they possibly discern who gets a job and who doesn't based on what someone types in a cover letter?

Job ads are also very silly. I hate the word 'experience'; I hate the word 'essential'; I loathe the words 'experience essential'. Do I really need a current driver's licence AND reliable car if I'm just going to be stuck in a filing room the size of a broom closet at the back of an office all day having deep and meaningful conversations between mountains of manila folders? And how in the world does one know if they are 'personable' enough for a job?

Sophia's Birthday "Breakfast" at Kazbah

You're probably quite relieved at this point to know that this is the last event in this post. I congratulate your eyeballs on getting you this far. For those who simply scrolled down the post to look at the pretty pictures: shame on you, you cheat! (Not that you'll be reading this if you're only interested in photos anyway.)

But, I digress...in celebration of Soph's 20th birthday, we decided to head to Balmain's Kazbah on Darling for an (get this!) all day breakfast! The breakfast banquet menu is recommended for 8 or more people, which we originally had, but Johanna somehow managed to get rostered on for work so we were short one stomach but priced at $20pp for food, we weren't about to turn down this impressive menu despite the waiter's insistence that it was way too much food for 7 girls. "That's alot of food, you know", he had said, and we (young and inexperienced fooderers) that we were, paid him no heed, only to have it come back and haunt us in the form of this:

To Start
Date & Banana Porridge, Stewed Rhubarb
Warm Rice Pudding, Saffron Poached Pear, Cinnamon and Hazelnuts
Sweet Couscous with Nuts, Dried Fruits, Stewed Rhubarb and Cardamom Milk

*******

Eggs & Sides
Poached, Scrambled and Fried On Turkish Toast
Merguez Sausage, Bacon, Roasted Tomato, Hash Brown, Mushrooms, Halloumi, Spinach

*******

Breakfast Tagines
-Lamb Mince, Sucuk, Feta, Spinach, Roast Capsicum, Caramelised Onion, Roast Tomato, Eggs
-Pumpkin, Feta, Spinach, Roast Capsicum, Caramelised Onion, Roast Tomato, Eggs

*******

Pancakes
Banana and Strawberry with Maple Syrup and Double Cream
Chocolate and Raspberry with Butterscotch Sauce and Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream

*******

A lunch out with friends somehow turned into some sort of gruelling marathon with plate after plate of scrumptious cuisine being brought out of the kitchens. And the food was excellent too! I'm a huge fan of the Pumkin and Feat Tagine. It was sensational stuff! It was richly flavoured with herbs and cooked to perfection. The hashbrowns were also absolutely delicious, and I'm talking better than McDonald's quality here! The sweet couscous and banana and date porridge we had up first were also wonderfully divine but favourite by far though, would have to be the dessert. The two pancakes turned out to be literally cakes...baked in pans! They were filled with so much yummy sweet and flavoursome goodness that I just couldn't help but eat a slice, or two, despite having probably eaten about two days' worth of food in a 3 hour session.

We ended up working to a strategy of eating, then resting and chatting, allowing the food to somewhat digest, then picking up where we left off on our plates. It was pretty funny actually because we managed to finish quite a fair bit (well, by our standards anyway!) of the second round of dishes and were pretty pleased with ourselves, until Soph pointed out the fact that we still had pancakes left. Which left us feeling a strange mixture of horror and glee...luckily, we were able to pack half of the pancakes up and take them home so I didn't feel as guilty as I did with all the other dishes we'd had. Next time, I'm going to arm myself with a guy or two, but even then, I think finishing off all the dishes would definitely be a challenge!

Happy birthday once again, Soph, and thanks for organising the event!

Note: for an alternative version of the day's events, visit Dna's blog here or via the link on the right hand side.

Pretty much self-explanatory, Sophia, and her gift unwrapping

Yet again, self explanatory

The lamb tagine and fried, poached and scrambled eggson Turkish toast on the end, which was apparently delicious, but alas, I was too full to try any and had to content myself with watching others happily poking at their own slightly running yolks.

Beautifully made Turkish bread and toast

More traditional breakfast fare: Merguez Sausage, Bacon, Roasted Tomato, Hash Brown, Mushrooms, Halloumi (how nice do those hashbrowns look?)

Chocolate and Raspberry with Butterscotch Sauce and Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream
Banana and Strawberry with Maple Syrup and Double Cream

(One's chocolatey and laden with butterscotch sauce, and the other slightly less condemning, with a sensational vanilla double cream that suberbly complements the pancake)

How's that for a birthday cake with a difference, Soph?

Look how deliciously sweet those strawberries look, just bursting with flavour and goodness!

The brave diners who soldiered on till the very end. We came close to giving up at times (Rena: "let's just ask him to pack the pancakes up and not bother taking them out") but we hung in there till the very end! And victory sure was sweet...like, maple syrupy, chocolate and butterscotchy kind of sweet.

Love the dress, Julia! And the headband too, Donna! Thanks everyone for making it such a great day!

I'm already in the midst of planning a rematch at Kazbah with some of the family and friends. This time I'm going in prepared for a feast!

Edit: I can't believe this post took me 2 days to complete. One of my students showed up very late for her lesson so I decided to use my er...sudden spare time up very wisely and worked on this post. That's all from me then.

Until next time!