Popo, Please Get Well Soon

I couldn't sleep well last night. Despite the long working hours I endured during the day. My whole mind was swirling with how-am-I-going-to-get-through-tomorrow's-work and how-long-do-I-have-to-wait-to-move-on thoughts. I am having some problems with work currently.

It was amongst these self-centered thoughts when I remembered Popo (Cantonese for Grandma) is scheduled for an operation today. I knew about this since last week and had made mental check to call and comfort her on the day of the op. Sadly, I realised I had totally forgotten about her well being. I tried praying for her instead but still, my mind was constantly distracted.

I thought of a childhood incident when I was still living in my Ipoh ancestral home with just Gong Gong (Cantonese for Grandpa) and Popo for company. Actually I do not remember the incident as I was all but two years' old but Popo always retell the story to me till today. She gleefully related to me how very greedy and fat I was and would stuff almost anything I could get my hands on, into my mouth. To the extent that I would even drink the bottle of soya sauce. It was Chinese New Year and I think I was gorging on too many mandarin oranges for my own good. Stomach upsets and diarrhoea soon wrecked up the little me and I had to be hospitalised for two nights.

Popo told me she stayed with me throughout the two nights in the hospital and forgone the Chinese New Year celebrations for my sake. She had only me on her mind. I wish I was old enough then to remember this.

Popo is now in her late seventies. For all Popo had done for me, how could my thoughts not even be with her? She is probably going under the knife now as I write along these lines. Seriously, I am quite unhappy with myself. Whoever says adulthood is fun when only work and money dictate your life? Or had I allowed work to consume me? Decided to write my thoughts down for the better of me, as future self reminders too - to spare thoughts for my loved ones still well and around me from time to time.

So Popo, please get well soon. I will make a trip down to KL as soon as I can.

Popo & Me

To Sydney!!! (Final Installment)

Truth be told, this third and final installment of our Sydney trip is markedly emotional for me. I'd just say Mr. Gecko and I had to battle and thaw the frostiness building up between us. As usual, I was the troublemaker. I should have known better than to hurt him with offensive remarks. Well. Mr. Gecko, I am terribly, terribly sorry. :'(

Other than that, Sydney can't be more beautiful and favourable on our last 2 days in the city. We were particularly happy with our new accommodation at Altamont Hotel. It's certainly a value-for-money boutique hotel though with only gay mags as reading materials at the hotel lobby, we suspected the hotel being frequently patronised by gays. :) We did not see any gays around during our stay but even if there were, so what yeah? We love the place!

Having Breakfast At Altamont Hotel's Tuscan Styled Garden Rooftop

We took our last 2 days slow and easy. Quite tired to narrate our trip any further and so I shall just paste pictures to replace words. Only one other thing I had to comment no matter what, we were at our busiest - swatting flies away from our faces there. Flies are really omnipresent creatures in Sydney! Maybe it's due to the approaching summer I don't know, what we do know is THEY ARE REALLY EVERYWHERE and they stick to you like you are a moldering leg of ham!!!

The Quieter Side of Manly Beach - We Took A Half-Hour Ferry Ride From Circular Quay To Reach The Beach


Watsons Bay - The Gap is Really Beautiful. High & Sharp Cliffs with Huge, Smashing Waves Below. This place is famous for having the highest number of suicidal cases in Sydney)


*Grrr...* The Very Pesky Flies. Flies Everywhere!!!


The Long Winding Road To Mrs. McQuaries Lighthouse


*heehee* Do not underestimate the sun in Sydney!!! My face was reddish and started peeling on the last day. Slap on those moisturiser and sunblock please!!! My poor chapped & terribly wrinkled face...

After a day in the CBD (St. Martin) and George Street's very llllooooonnnngggg shopping strip *Queen Victoria's Building is really magnificent*, it was about time to head for the airport and back to Hougang. No doubt we left with a heavy heart but after a week's hols, home sounds like good music to our ears too. On the ride home, I couldn't help but started wondering where will we head for our next adventure? Huh? Mr. Gecko? :)

Adios Sydney!!! Thanks for all the happy times!!!

To Sydney!!! (Part 2 - To Blue Mountains)

Life Fleets By As We Move On To Blue Mountains

One 2 hour train ride from Sydney's Central Station promptly took us out of the concrete jungle to Sydney's less populated but famous mountainous countryside. Greeneries and majestic Mother Nature rule the game here. It was a nice and refreshing change of scenery as we arrived at Katoomba train station - greeted by the ultra-fresh air and cold mountainous winds. We felt almost like we were on Hogwart's express train ride as we toot-toot to a stop at the small but quaint train station lugging our luggages and first stepped onto the platform.

Blue Mountains is truly nature at its best. We were awed struck by the grand backdrop of blue sky, blue swirling mist amidst the expanse of lush foliage and dominating rugged cliffs. I felt like a tiny ant and Mr. Gecko? A little lizard lah! :)

The thought of bush-walking and basking in mommy nature made Mr. Gecko all the more excited. The backdrop fuelled his leggy powress as he egged and dictated the his lazy sidekick to charge full steam ahead!

The Blue Mountain's trolley made life easy for me as it took us along the mountain trail to explore Gordons Fall and other Blue Mountain famous sites. We also went a trail-walking, stopping by at the oh-so-cute Leurella Toy Musuem and stopped by *overhype again* Leura Cascades. All we see is a small trickle of water in comparison to what our guidebook claimed to be one cascade of pour. Geez.

Left Row - Trail-Walk / Overhype Leura Cascade / Spring Blooms
Middle Row - Blue Mountain / The Three Sisters
Right Row - Gordon Fall / Piggee At Toy Museum / Nature Lovers

Things went downhill *no pun intended* for me in the mid-day with the increasingly inclement weather as sheer physical strains took its toll on me. It was big mistake for me to belittle the weather conditions in Sydney, I did not bring clothes to provide me sufficient warmth and Mr. Gecko was already damn irritated with me and tagged me as a pampered brat. Still, we had to call it a day after exploring The Three Sisters in a Scenic Train and a cable ride and I was, to my horror, nose bleeding! I feel guilty till this day for marring the whole day for Mr. Gecko.

Ahh... it was not too bad an idea to retire early as we got to enjoy our night stay at Old Leura Dairy - Studio. It was my major-est highlight of the trip and proved to be one of the greatest delights for us!! We felt we were being tucked away in a little world of our own much like The Little Prince story. I swear, it's almost magical.

Us - Enjoying Old Leura Dairy - Studio In Blue Mountain

The second day in Blue Mountains started great with the balmy weather and a van ride to Jenolan Caves with an experieced guide. We explored the Temple of Baal and the guide kindly stopped at some site visits like Govett's Leap, another rugged landscape and to an open field to spot wild wallabies along the way. *Arrgh!* It's a dung infested minefield. We had to side-side-step-step a long way of shit to justfiably observed the wild wallabies from a safe distance. Can you imagine the wallabies shit and eat all on the same patch of grass and they can do the same thing at the same time (eating while shitting)??!

Top Left - Jenolan Caves (Limestone Formation) - I call it the Devil's Mouth
Top Right - A Seemingly Angel-Like Formation Inside Temple of Baal
Bottom Left - Beautiful Flowery Blooms
Bottom Right - Jameison Valley, Another very Beautiful landscape we stopped by on our way to Jenolan Caves

All too soon...it was time to head back to Sydney's city late in the evening. I felt a pang of loss for no reason. I can't explain why too. Perhaps because I knew with the pulling away of the train, I will not feel the Blue Mountains' magic again with Mr. Gecko for some years to come? Perhaps I felt the whole trip's coming to end soon? I can't pinpoint. I am only too glad I had the chance to experience all Blue Mountains has to offer, courtesy of my good, old Mr. Gecko.

To Sydney!!! (Part One)

Mr. Gecko and I came back from a week's trip to Sydney just last week. From unpacking, destressing from jetlag, dealing with the mountain of work accumulated to Mr. Gecko's birthday celebration plans, I was kinda hard pressed for time to post this holiday entry and I so want to do so before my feelings and enthusiasm wear thin.

Sydney, definitely is one of our most independent and researched travelling experiences. We raced against time to book our air tickets and in the event, paid for 2 days of entrance fees at the NATAS Travel Fair. We practically combed every budget hotels online in Sydney / Blue Mountain for 2 months before eventually we settle down on 3 budget boutique hotels over the week's stay which stretched Mr. Gecko's dollars and cents to its limits.

By far, Sydney also broke many first travel records for us: Longest distance travelled (10 hours of flying), longest time in transit (Spent 4 hours in transit in Malaysia's KLIA airport), longest stay in one destination (7 days, 6 nights) and most travel research done for a destination. We really spent a lot of time beforehand, at least 2 months, to do our research and planned our 7 days travel itinerary - being our first time there and our mode of transport in Sydney all public and damn lots of legpower needed. Sydney public transport and cab fares - not cheap! Well, we really did our homework quite diligently that I felt I already knew Sydney even before I went there!

1. Arrival - Took a train from Sydney International Airport station to Central station
2. We got lost for a while in the maze of streets while hunting down our hotel. Pic taken at the end of George Street
3. Yipee! We found Vulcan Hotel!

Two things that really amazed us in Sydney, besides the costly standard of living there, were the erratic weather and how early Aussie shops / businesses retired from a day's work. Even their hotel concierge! We were given keys to enter the hotels from a locked SIDE door if we came back any later than 7 in the evenings! The weather was still pretty chilly (late Spring) especially when it rained. A day in Sydney starts early. Strong sunlight was streaming into our window as early as 6 in the morning, like it's 9 in Singapore and you guess it, night creeps in pretty early in the evening too. So having a well-planned itinerary was of utmost importance as we wanted to squeeze in as much activities as possible during the daytime.

For the first 3 days in Sydney's city heartland, we were venturing to most of the touristy places like Darling Harbour, The Rocks, Wooloomoolloo, Sydney Fish Market, Chinatown and of course, the renowned Bondi Beach. Ahh... I hate to write this but Darling Harbour, to the both of us, is really all name, vastly overhyped and *kekekeke* expensive! The scenery was nice only in some areas around Cocke Bay Wharf which is really unexciting in itself, unless night life to you is a must. It is really just a long row of upmarket restaurants and pubs. Don't even get me talking about Darling Harbour Mall. What mall? BUT, I will not recommend you to give this place a miss if you are a first-timer to Sydney, just like nobody should not give Sentosa a miss if coming to Singapore for the first time.

Ohh... but we do love walking the short distance from our hotel to Sydney Fish Market in the morning and arrived there with a hungry stomach for the bounty of fresh seafood. It'd be even more glorious if we could eat under the canopy of bright sunshine, the winds carrying the smell of the sea with the Sydney Harbourbridge view... if only the seagulls and seabirds will leave us alone *sigh~~* and there are really many, many birds which will only be too happy to share your breakfast! :)

It also helped that we had strategically planned to arrive in Sydney during the weekends so I can explore all those infamous weekend markets!! Paddington market, The Rocks market, Bondi Beach market... gimme more! Gimme! Gimme! Seriously, I saved all my money so as to shop to my heart's content over there. Disappointingly for me, this was not to be so. Prices at these flea markets are not dirt cheap nor bargainable as those markets in Hong Kong or Bangkok. Aussies are very proud of their own handiwork and crafts, you have to pay to duly appreciate. But it was still pretty exciting to throng through all the knick knacks and to rest our tired feet in one of those quaint little courtyard cafes for a cuppa. The Rocks will be best place to experience that! You truly wish you can own one of those charming little stone cottages that will transport you back to those old English times.

I did venture to Oxford Street but by the time we arrived after getting lost and walking all those spacious winding streets... I only wanted to sit down after I arrived. The few shopping strips I went to along Oxford Street... gosh! A normal Charles and Keith lookalike soles sets me back by at least a hundred Aussie dollars. I where got the heart to spend? Mr. Gecko was sweet and kept on encouraging me to swipe his plastic card despite the price but I felt it was not worth buying something I can get in Singapore for a much lower cost. Yeah?

1. View of Sydney Harbourbridge - The Rocks area
2. We discovered this charming, underground puppet-maker store in The Rocks area
3. The famous Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Wooloomoolloo - A Must!
4. Exploring our way to Oxford Street to go to Paddington Market

I really could yada on but you may hard it hard to stifle your yawns. I realised it's kinda long huh? Generally, it was fun-filled the first three days as we explored every nook and canary of Sydneysiders' everyday life. I'll cut this short by declaring Bondi Beach's the best for our first three days. It was the brighest and sunniest that day though the seawater's temperature still not for the faint hearted. Still... woo~~woo~~~ the whole beach strip was packed (hunks a galore!!), these people really loves the sun over there. There were also quite some nudies sunbathing and we top off the day by having a hearty Chi-na meal in a Chinatown foodcourt before we packed for Blue Mountains for the next 2 days. Ahh... by then, we were already missing our rice and sick of the bread / meat affair Western style.

Hee-ya!!! To the Blue Mountains!!!

1. Suntanning At Bondi Beach (or trying to)
2. Hmm... Soft sand
3. A Bikini Babe For Me Please!

The Birthday Race

It was the time of the year again when my head was crammed with half baked ideas how best to celebrate Mr. Gecko's birthday. There's been a whirlpool of events for me lately and also having just came back from holidays, I hardly have the luxury of time to gather all the ingredients and mesh them all into one perfect plan.

I planned to make him work hard for his present this year so I had clues scattered around the house for him to hunt and to guess where I had hidden his prize. A la a mini Amazing Race. The hardest was to come up with all those poem-like riddles for each clue. Gosh, I am really too brain dead to write futher details. Will let the pics do the narration instead.

Piggee gave the first clue


Found the second clue - in the toilet


Found the third clue - Piano

and... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. GECKO!!!


A nicely wrapped birthday present

Mr. Gecko, may all your wishes come true!