My Blue Heaven

Homesick

First day back at work. Been pretty slow today.. or rather, my brain has been pretty slow today. 3 weeks holiday makes for one rusty web developer. (Er.. how do I use visual studio again? Hehe.) Anyway, had a fairly warm welcome from my work colleagues which was nice. I suppose bringing back a family pack of TimTams and a tin of true blue aussie Milo helps. Esp considering the IT directors (my managers) are both aussie. 🙂

It’s not all been warm and happy on my end. Though the weather is considerably warmer than when I left.. with spring in the air and flowers a-blooming (quite pretty really.. gonna have to take some pics).. I’ve been feeling the homesickness quite keenly. Esther had commented on how leaving home the 2nd time is more difficult. And I think she is right. I really miss Sydney. But what I miss the most – more than the scrumptious jap restaurants, yummy Boost smoothies, beautiful sandy beaches, the nightlife and karaoke-craziness, my wonderful friends… is my family. My parents. Even though I still get irritated with them at times, I really miss their presence in my life. I guess I feel kinda lost without them. I miss my home… the completeness of having your family around you. Coltrane included of course. 😛 I’ve been feeling pretty sad and depressed since arriving back in London. It suprises me how strongly I feel about my family. And that they feel similarly. I didn’t realise we were such a close knit family. Guess you don’t realise these things till they’re gone. *sigh*

Anyways, before I make myself cry at work, I better finish up and get back to work! Nearly 6pm now. Yay! I’m tired. Jetlag sucks.

Current listening :: “If I Had You” – Bic Runga (new album “Birds” – kinda depressing album.. by the last track, it feels a bit slit-your-wrists)

Hello from Heathrow

So I’m sitting here on my laptop in Heathrow airport in a cafe, making use of some rather expensive wireless internet. Its kinda cool though… wireless is cool. 🙂 Anyway, am waiting for kwai to arrive (we caught sep flights from HK because our tickets were booked separately – tho we managed to travel together for 3/4 of the way) – his flight was 2 hours later than mine.

Man I’m tired. 13 hour flights are not fun. I did get a fair amount of sleep – but considering I didn’t sleep at all the night before as we had to leave my uncles flat at 4am to get to the airport by 5am to make my 7:40am flight…. it is understandable that I kinda totally passed out once I got on the plane! I woke up about 6 hrs later, only to realise I had at least another 6 hours to go before I could get off cattle class on my Qantas 747.

But I digress. I’m tired. I think kwai’s flight has probably landed now. And my wireless connection ends in abt 10 mins time. So better wrap this post up. Its kinda wierd and mildly depressing to be back in London. Back to cold reality. Although the temp is only a mild 15 degrees today.. which is definitely much warmer than the 5 degrees in which we left London.

Oh yeh.. HK was fun. Shopping in HK is ultra fun. I shopped wisely though – stuff I had planned to buy beforehand, and stuff that is a fraction of the price I would have paid here in London. My purchases include a new pair of specs (Gucci, plastic and blue!), new G7 logitech wireless mouse for work (coz my work mouse sucks), a gorgeous shiny Michael Kors designer watch (very elegant), a pair of pale blue sketchers (coz the heel has worn away on my current diesels and it hurts my ankle), plus a few cheap computer bits.. like memory sticks, multi card reader etc. Can’t believe how cheap electronic stuff is in HK. Thank you Mongkok Computer Centre! 🙂 Ok gotta go now! More updates and photos to come.

Hello from HK!

Just a quick post to say hello from Hong Kong! I had a fairly smooth flight, arriving late last night, and am currently staying with my Uncle Philip (uncle number 4) in his flat in Ma On Shan. Today he is taking us to visit Kwai’s very old grandparents, then its on to Mongkok for some shopping and touristy things. Then I’m getting my hair cut in Tsim Tsa Tsui before going to dinner with Uncle Ken (uncle number 2) at a japanese restaurant in the area.

HK is so tall. There are so many sky scraper apartments I think I’m gonna get a sore neck from looking up so much.

Well, better head off now! More updates later. And of course pics to come from my time in Sydney. Gonna have to do some massive culling… we took soooooo many pics. :/

Quick update

Man time flies. I can’t believe I have only 4 1/2 more days left in Sydney. I’ve been going out heaps this week with Kwai. We had a really good couple of days just exploring more of Sydney. Haven’t really met up with many ppl this week as most seem to be too busy. But we’ve enjoyed our time out together, and have had lots of quality time with my parents too.

Our activities included watching a movie in a gold class cinema (def a nice experience – and ultra cheap b4 5pm on a weekday!), relaxing at the Ryde Aquatic Centre, Kwai playing golf with my dad, Kwai and myself cooking up a storm for my family and 2 friends, doing the Bondi to Coogee walk (absolutely gorgeous views, plus a refreshing dip in the sea to finish), eating at 2 (out of 3) of my fave jap restaurants in Sydney CBD, eating yummy 1.9kg lobster at a chinese restaurant with family, meeting up with a girlfriend for a scrumptious Max Brenners suckao, multiple harbour cruises and walks round Sydney Harbour, scrummy steak dinner at Kingsleys Steakhouse on King Street Wharf (highly recommend this restaurant – great views of sunset over King St Wharf, and awesome steak!!) plus an impromptu salsa at La Cita nearby who has Thursday Latin Summer night with a live latin band playing (free entry too!). Ahh.. here’s to making the most of Sydney (and the entertainment book! :P)

Home sweet home

So here I am, back in beautiful Sydney, Australia. And loving it. There really is no place like home. I gotta admit.. I love Sydney! We’ve been so busy, I haven’t had time to blog. Have spent lots of time with family, which is really nice. Went on an impromptu family day trip down the coast to Kiama and Wollongong last wed! Have also met up with numerous friends for lunches, dinners, catch ups etc. And it only took about 3 days to recover from jet lag. Unfortuntely, I haven’t recovered from my cold.. I’m even on antibiotics now. 🙁 But I guess I’ve not exactly been resting up.

It’s kinda surreal being back here. Not as much now.. coz it just feels like I’ve never left! But at first… it was sorta weird being back. Like everything was familiar.. yet somehow not. Things like buses being blue and white, instead of red. Or driving for the first time in 10 months.. a bit scary! I’m back to my old self now. 😛 I’ve driven round quite a bit now… into the city, out to the beach etc. I can’t believe I still remember all these roads so well. It’s like I never left. Like I’ve just picked up where I left off, 10 months ago.

We went clubbing for the first time in 10 months on Fri night. That was fun. Got home at nearly 5am. Like the old days. 😉 And today after church and lunch with church ppl, Kwai and myself went for our first trip to the beach. It was an absolutely beeeeautiful day. Hot, sunny, clear blue skies. So after going home to get our gear, we headed out to Freshwater beach. It was gorgeous. Warm and sunny.. and the water was perfectly cool and refreshing. I even caught a few waves body surfing. 🙂 Oh how I’ve missed the beach!!!!

Anyway its late and I’d better get to bed. Had quite a busy weekend, with late nights and not much sleep. It’ll be so nice to sleep in tomm. Got a fairly busy week coming up! Our schedule is very rapidly getting filled up!

Btw, I apparently still have an aussie accent. Which seems to be a relief to my friends here. 😛 Though they do seem to love Kwai’s cute british accent. Hehe. As do I. 😉