Mum and Auntie Jean have been pestering me to keep this updated again, so I'm forcing myself to sit down and write another post. I have a week of events to catch up on, but it has been a quieter week really, so it shouldn't be too long!
Tuesday 13th August was the first day after my last update, and I had another chilled out morning after a long lie - no classes for the day. I feel like I keep repeating myself on this with respect to which classes I have but my mum keeps asking me which classes I have on such-and-such day and I don't think she's quite grasped that it's always the same yet; Dad correctly pointed out, "If she read the blog she'd know that!" After my quiet morning, a friend and I met for some lunch in Chinatown in the afternoon. I had sticky honey chicken, which was excellent and there was definitely a huge choice of dishes you wouldn't ordinarily see in any Chinese take-away back home - only solution will be to try them all out, I think! Before our food was served, we were presented with a little tea-pot filled with warm, weak tea, which was pretty strange and not particularly palatable, however I did drink a cup in pursuit of good manners. This plan was promptly wasted when the waiter practically ran over and filled my cup from the teapot once more - thanks for that, mate. Afterwards we bought some cakes from a Chinese bakery and ate them in the sunshine in Victoria Park - excellent afternoon, centred around good food.
Wednesday was another day of classes, however Competition Law was cut short half way through as the lecturer had a child minder issue; in truth it had been a long day and I was glad to get home sharp. I went into Coles on my walk home and did some more food shopping. I feel like I'm in the supermarket every other day or so, picking up odd items for the flat. Wednesday night was spent watching some episodes of Still Game after cooking dinner - I had totally forgotten just how funny a programme Still Game is since it had been so long since I watched it. I've stayed up late three nights this week watching it and I've seen nearly 4 full series worth of episodes!
Early in the week I also had a look around the University of Sydney Social Societies website to see what clubs and societies there were to join during my time here. I saw quite a few which caught my attention - mainly the Soccer Society (obviously!) as well as the Wakeboard and Water-Ski Society. The Soccer Society play every Tuesday and Friday and the lads I've been playing with the last few weeks play Monday and Thursdays, so it means I can play 3 or 4 times most weeks which is great in this weather! The Wakeboard and Water-Ski Society is something which I'm really keen to try once or twice before I go home but I think it's too expensive a hobby for me to be taking part on every trip to the water. Must get a job soon!
Thursday brought another long lie and a chilled out day before doing some shopping - again! - and then some uni work in the afternoon, followed by some TV at night. I caught an old episode of Australia's Got Talent, before the new series started on Sunday; it's a totally mad programme over here, Dawn French is on the judging panel and it's hilarious! Thursday night also brought about the FA Centenary match between England and Scotland at Wembley, but I decided not to stay up late to watch it since I had my 10am class at uni the next morning. Turned out that Scotland did alright and lost 3-2, but the biggest positive for me was that the United players did quite well. That reminds me, in order to try and keep any football chat in this blog to a minimum, I've started another United-specific blog to share my thoughts and views on the team this season and beyond. I'll post the web address at the bottom of this post if anyone fancies reading it. Friday brought my final day of classes for the week at uni and on Friday afternoon I met up with the guys in the Soccer Society for a game in the afternoon.
The plan on Saturday was to go to the Morrison once again so we could keep taking advantage of the $1 dollar oysters for the month of August and get some cheap drinks into the bargain. Afterwards, my plan was to meet up with the people from the Soccer Society once more to go to a different pub, not far from campus, in order to watch the first match of the Premier League season. However, I ended up going out with some mates to a few bars instead and arrived home at a pleasant 4am. We went to one place called the Scary Canary near Darling Harbour, which was a great little bar/club and I actually met a girl there who was in my school year at Beaconhurst - unbelievable! We had a great night and after a trip to McDonalds I arrived back in the flat to watch the United game; I managed to find an online stream showing the game, saw we were 2-0 up and decided that it was time for bed. Poor effort from myself, but it had been a long night, in fairness.
Sunday brought a bit of a hangover after our long night, and I spent the day watching TV - Australia's Got Talent and X-Factor were the highlights. I'd urge everyone to go onto YouTube and search for the video from Australia's Got Talent of the guy in the wheelchair who does acrobatics - and yes, you did read that correctly. It's amazing, go watch it! Today is now Monday and I've had another day of classes today, except Intellectual Property where we have a reading week this week. I came home after class, watched the new episode of Breaking Bad and made some dinner. It feels like this post has been a bit rushed and I've promised myself once again that I'm going to keep it updated more frequently to make it easier to remember all the things I've been doing. I'm not sure what my plans are for the rest of the week, but I also promise that I'll get a few photos for the next post too!
Today marks exactly one month to the date that I landed in Sydney, and I've had so many great experiences already - several months more of a similarly brilliant time would be great!
Here's the address for my United blog:
keeptheredflagflyinghigh.blogspot.com
Until next time,
Jamie
Showing posts with label Chinese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese. Show all posts
Monday, 19 August 2013
Tuesday, 6 August 2013
This post is pretty much all about food
This is an attempt to keep this blog updated more regularly, so hopefully this post will be a little bit shorter!
Firstly, there are one or two things which I think I forgot to mention in my previous blog posts which slipped my mind at the time. The first thing was the car crash which myself and a few others witnessed about a week ago! It wasn't a bad one and nobody was injured or anything like that, but there was an incredible noise as a driver ploughed into the back of another car at a set of traffic lights. There was smashed glass from the lights all over the road and considerable damage to the two cars, but both drivers got out and were fine, thankfully. It certainly shook up our night out though! I'm sure there was something else too, but I can't remember what it was - maybe it'll come back to me...
Anyway, my last update was posted late on Friday night; Saturday the 3rd August began with an excellent long lie, followed by a shower and some breakfast. I had no plans for the day until the afternoon, so with the football league season kicking off in England in a few hours time, I spent the morning reading the sports sections of the British newspapers. It's a little bit odd getting all of my news online when I'm used to reading newspapers and watching TV back home. On that note, I heard a rumour from my sister that my mum is considering changing her daily newspaper from the Daily Mail to the Guardian, or something else; I would just like to take this opportunity to publicly declare myself very much in favour of the proposed move. Furthermore, it's probably not surprising how little news coverage the Australians are giving the current Ashes series, where England are running away with things a bit. After the recent Lions victory down here too, sport is not a popular topic of conversation in the pubs at the moment!
On Saturday afternoon I met up with some other International Students for an arranged game of football - it's alright to call it football in this context, since most of them were Europeans and knew what I was talking about! This was the first time that I had played football closer to the middle of the day and it was melting! It was quite a hot day, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is winter here. I've also noticed a distinct difference in the quality of the grass which we play on here, given that most of the time we're making do with a rugby or Aussie rules pitch to play football on. This makes the ball unpredictable as it bounces and skips across different lumps and bare patches; it's a real test of your ball control.
For Saturday night's entertainment we had arranged to meet up at the Morrison again - which is the place where we previously ate oysters after our day out at the zoo. For the month of August, every day between 6pm and 7pm they're having an "Oyster Hour" which means you can order the shelled delicacies for a mere dollar each - fantastic value considering they are usually sold for four times the price, in the very same restaurant, any other time of the year. The truly brilliant thing about going to the Morrison on a Saturday night however, is that they also have a drinks Happy "Hour", which isn't really an hour because it lasts from 5pm till 7pm - ideal! We headed along at 5pm sharp and had a few drinks before a bell was rung to mark the time at 6pm and you were able to go and order a platter of oysters; the place was packed and there was literally a queue of 10-15 people at the bar all ready to place their orders.
Afterwards we ended up going for some Chinese food since we were all starving - apparently even though they are expensive, oysters aren't the most filling of dinners. The menu was all in Chinese, since we decided on a restaurant near the Chinatown part of the city, which made choosing a little bit tricky. There certainly wasn't any chips and curry, or sweet and sour chicken to be spotted anywhere amongst the vast array of options. Eventually, I spotted chicken teriyaki with noodles, and feeling confident that I had made a selection which I would enjoy, I proceeded to order my food. It turned out to be really nice and even though you could probably describe the place as a takeaway, it was far better than any Chinese food we get at home. The night proceeded with a few more pubs before heading home for a quick - still a little intoxicated - FaceTime chat with those back home and off to bed.
Photo of the Chinese from Saturday.
I spent Sunday chilling out, catching up on the highlights of Saturday's football and doing some work which I had to prepare for my uni classes on Monday morning. It's not Monday night, and I had another 3 classes today which all went quite well - glad to say that at the beginning of week two I'm not finding any of them boring, which is good news. Lastly, I've also came to the conclusion tonight whilst cooking some broccoli to go with my dinner, that whilst I am a pretty decent cook (which will be proven by the following picture) I do miss my mum's cooking.
I ruined the broccoli - overcooked it.
Until next time,
Jamie
Firstly, the broccoli and a pretty good effort at a medium-rare steak. Before anyone cracks any "poor student" jokes, it was a cheap cut of meat, from the supermarket! Still, tasted fantastic though - compliments to the chef. Second photo is a quick snapshot of my uni timetable.
Firstly, there are one or two things which I think I forgot to mention in my previous blog posts which slipped my mind at the time. The first thing was the car crash which myself and a few others witnessed about a week ago! It wasn't a bad one and nobody was injured or anything like that, but there was an incredible noise as a driver ploughed into the back of another car at a set of traffic lights. There was smashed glass from the lights all over the road and considerable damage to the two cars, but both drivers got out and were fine, thankfully. It certainly shook up our night out though! I'm sure there was something else too, but I can't remember what it was - maybe it'll come back to me...
Anyway, my last update was posted late on Friday night; Saturday the 3rd August began with an excellent long lie, followed by a shower and some breakfast. I had no plans for the day until the afternoon, so with the football league season kicking off in England in a few hours time, I spent the morning reading the sports sections of the British newspapers. It's a little bit odd getting all of my news online when I'm used to reading newspapers and watching TV back home. On that note, I heard a rumour from my sister that my mum is considering changing her daily newspaper from the Daily Mail to the Guardian, or something else; I would just like to take this opportunity to publicly declare myself very much in favour of the proposed move. Furthermore, it's probably not surprising how little news coverage the Australians are giving the current Ashes series, where England are running away with things a bit. After the recent Lions victory down here too, sport is not a popular topic of conversation in the pubs at the moment!
On Saturday afternoon I met up with some other International Students for an arranged game of football - it's alright to call it football in this context, since most of them were Europeans and knew what I was talking about! This was the first time that I had played football closer to the middle of the day and it was melting! It was quite a hot day, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is winter here. I've also noticed a distinct difference in the quality of the grass which we play on here, given that most of the time we're making do with a rugby or Aussie rules pitch to play football on. This makes the ball unpredictable as it bounces and skips across different lumps and bare patches; it's a real test of your ball control.
For Saturday night's entertainment we had arranged to meet up at the Morrison again - which is the place where we previously ate oysters after our day out at the zoo. For the month of August, every day between 6pm and 7pm they're having an "Oyster Hour" which means you can order the shelled delicacies for a mere dollar each - fantastic value considering they are usually sold for four times the price, in the very same restaurant, any other time of the year. The truly brilliant thing about going to the Morrison on a Saturday night however, is that they also have a drinks Happy "Hour", which isn't really an hour because it lasts from 5pm till 7pm - ideal! We headed along at 5pm sharp and had a few drinks before a bell was rung to mark the time at 6pm and you were able to go and order a platter of oysters; the place was packed and there was literally a queue of 10-15 people at the bar all ready to place their orders.
Afterwards we ended up going for some Chinese food since we were all starving - apparently even though they are expensive, oysters aren't the most filling of dinners. The menu was all in Chinese, since we decided on a restaurant near the Chinatown part of the city, which made choosing a little bit tricky. There certainly wasn't any chips and curry, or sweet and sour chicken to be spotted anywhere amongst the vast array of options. Eventually, I spotted chicken teriyaki with noodles, and feeling confident that I had made a selection which I would enjoy, I proceeded to order my food. It turned out to be really nice and even though you could probably describe the place as a takeaway, it was far better than any Chinese food we get at home. The night proceeded with a few more pubs before heading home for a quick - still a little intoxicated - FaceTime chat with those back home and off to bed.
Photo of the Chinese from Saturday.
I spent Sunday chilling out, catching up on the highlights of Saturday's football and doing some work which I had to prepare for my uni classes on Monday morning. It's not Monday night, and I had another 3 classes today which all went quite well - glad to say that at the beginning of week two I'm not finding any of them boring, which is good news. Lastly, I've also came to the conclusion tonight whilst cooking some broccoli to go with my dinner, that whilst I am a pretty decent cook (which will be proven by the following picture) I do miss my mum's cooking.
I ruined the broccoli - overcooked it.
Until next time,
Jamie
Firstly, the broccoli and a pretty good effort at a medium-rare steak. Before anyone cracks any "poor student" jokes, it was a cheap cut of meat, from the supermarket! Still, tasted fantastic though - compliments to the chef. Second photo is a quick snapshot of my uni timetable.
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