Another "mixed bag" post! #1

It's been 3 months since I've last updated (*edit* looks like only one month since this post was started about 2 months ago! The dating system counts it from the day your post is born, not the day it is posted), I really have to get out of the habit of sporadically updating with epic posts and then disappearing for weeks (months) at a time. To satiate your curious minds I've got another mixed bag post for you all. (For some bizarre reason, my blog functions are completely in Japanese! Fingers crossed this blog gets uploaded properly.)

In a somewhat chronological order:

Reattempted Kazbah's Breakfast Menu

This time I was armed with guys. Big, hungry guys and a fair number of girls and we tackled that crazy breakfast menu and managed to not only enjoy ourselves immensely (with Ray and Yat doubling up in their comedy act all afternoon) but also demolish most of the food set out for us despite the oppressive heat that voting Saturday which would usually leave people with no appetite at all. Good work everyone!

Ray had us in fits of laughter as he began providing us all with the Cantonese equivalent of the dishes set out before us (such as 'quails' eggs' instead of 'poached eggs' and 茐油餅[cong you bing, a kind of northern Chinese fried dough with shallots dish, although the 'cong' character is wrong and should really have a 心 underneath it, but I couldn't find it in the list of characters!] instead of 'hashbrowns') after Yat mistook the halloumi for tofu.

It was a good set up of people too, with everyone at least knowing a few others on the table meaning no awkward silences throughout the meal. I was also pleased to see that the proportions of the dishes were adjusted accordingly since we ended up being a party of nine as opposed to our seven the first time we went. Foodwise, the dishes were as marvellous as they were the first time we went. My only slight complaint would be the fact that the service was not as great as the first time we went, probably due to the fact that it was a tad bit more on the busy side than the previous occasion. All in all though; great food + great company = an absolute success! Thanks for coming everyone!

Bonnie and Ray, rediscovering their lost childhood or perhaps they never grew out of it in the first place...

Bon showing Helen a thing or two in regards to the intricacies of crayon doodling.

Ray amazed by the massive plate of food before him. You can almost hear him saying: "Waahahhahahaaa...."

I still can't get over how good the pancakes are...

Marijuana?!? So THAT'S why we enjoyed ourselves so much!

Kat, Bon and Helen

Thanks for the photo Mr Kazbah!

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New Job!

For those who may not know already, towards the end of March, I had my first group interview and subsequently scored my first venture into retail. I've discovered that retail isn't really for me. It's way too stressful and I'm sick of hearing the same 5 CDs worth of songs on repeat all day long! It would probably be slightly less nerve racking if there wasn't so much pressure to sell! Sell! SELL! I've never been able to handle that sort of pressure very well and I think I'm a little too honest to be a good sales person.

You learn from your experiences though and boy have I learnt things I never even considered before in my life! Every single time I walk into a store now, I notice things like how soon I'm greeted by the staff, how helpful they are in providing me with advice and introducing me to promotions and specials etc...so far Japan City's still up there at the top of my list of places I enjoy shopping at. (Although this may be due more to the fact that they're somewhat overpriced and never busy and therefore ALWAYS have the time to help you if you approach them, but gift wrapping definitely wins them bonus brownie points too).

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Tezuka's Exhibit at the Sydney Art Gallery with Mel and Kev

A very interesting exhibit although it could probably have been spiced up a bit more and the lighting was a tad too dim for my liking. I was quite amazed by the detail that Tezuka goes into in his mangas, in terms of the actual drawings and how the page is composed, and also the plot and characterisation. There's alot of thought that goes into each one of his works and I can quite honestly say that I have a newfound appreciation for Tezuka's works.

The exhibit also left me wanting to buy manga from Kinokuniya and subsequently read it on the train home (these spending urges however, were countered by the fact that at that time of the exhibit, I had yet to be paid and really didn't want to spend anything until I had proof that I had more than a single digit figure in my bank account).

Mel and Kev were excellent company and Kev was a good enough sport to wait for Mel and me whilst we finished up viewing the exhibit a long time after he had gone over the stuff by himself. (We sort of lost him halfway through...sorry Kev!)

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