Thanksgiving 2013

2013 is coming to an end, time to reflect and come up with a new year resolution.

1 Corinthians 15:57

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2013 has been a year filled with plenty of ups and downs for me. A year which I cried buckets but grew stronger and much braver than another other years. A special year with increasing spiritual growth and better walk with my Lord. 

Thank you Lord for being in my life, hearing and answering my prayers; forgiving me of my sins, love me and flood me with your grace and mercy. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! 

1. In and out of hospital, fainted in the gym, bad migraine attacks in Singapore & Melbourne.

2. NTEU bans release of results, delaying my transfer.

3. Transfer screwed up, unable to access to onshore lesson materials.

4. Bank deposited all my money into wrong account.

5. Made use of by new ' friend' for enrollment and thrown aside.

6. Stalked by junkie / took lift with junkie.

7. Selfish project mates, one man show for assignments.

Romans 8:31

If God is for us, who can be against us? 

Despite all these crap that I had to face throughout the year, God blessed me with many more, so much that I forgot all my troubles for I know I am not alone. 

1. Reunited with Lord, attend church and cell weekly - spiritual growth.

2. 21st birthday party with my loved ones, helped mended broken relationships.

3. Made many new brothers and sisters in Christ.

4. Made many new friends - true friends who are sincere and cares.

5. Learn new life skills : do laundry, cook , clean house, dishes , change light blubs , manage rent , manage bank account, aunty level grocery shopping,

KILL ROACHES

6. Explored Melbourne with close friends, family and my favourite boy for our anniversary.

7.Explored Australia - Sydney with friends.

8. Did well for my onshore semester.

9. Received parcels and cards filled with love from friends temporarily stationed around the world.

10.Strengthen relationship and treasure bonds with family and friends.

11. Independence.

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The list just go on and on...

Resolution for 2014.

Let Jesus be the center of my life.

" Abba Father in heaven, I pray and give thanks for Your grace, guidance and mercy throughout 2013. Despite being in a foreign land, I do not feel lonely because I have Jesus. Thank you lord for Your strong spiritual presence, providing me with comfort and strength when I am down. Thank you Lord for being my light in the darkness, shepherd of my life. Life couldn't be any better without Jesus. As 2013 comes to an end, I pray for continuous spiritual growth, improvement in my walk with Lord my God. Lord may You be my shepherd to shine light and provide me with directions in my life as 2014 will be a year of critical life transitions. Lord I pray for salvation of my family and my boy, good health and happiness for everyone. Lord I also pray for Alabaster, may we continue to grow spiritually together as brothers and sisters in Christ, to do everything that is pleasing in Your eyes, glorifying to Your name. Father please mold me in your image, to love like the way You love Your children - You selflessly gave Your only blameless son for unworthy sinners like us. I thank You and praise You Lord, in Jesus most precious name, Amen."

Brighton Beach / Gami Chicken & Beer

Last week of spring and my cousin is here to pay me a visit in Melbourne :D

Time to pay Brighton beach a visit on this perfect sunny day. Check out the blue sea peeps.

check out the colourful bathhouses! 

AUD 5 for 3 huge and ripe mangoes :) 

chilled mangoes and anchovies salad - perfect snack for picnic by the beach.

My gosh the sun was scorching and really unbearable that day despite the breeze though, just saying ><

After sun tanning my tummy couldn't stop growling so I had to head back to the city quickly for dinner. Check out Gami below for my favourite fried chicken in Melbourne city.

Gami Chicken & Beer

100 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000

If you don't already know, Gami does delivery for people who lives in specific proximity with AUD3 delivery charge and minimum expenditure of AUD30? Have to check it out with my mates again but it is really convenient if you are planning to stay in and enjoy your meal :B

 sausages on hot plate

 half-half (whole chicken in 2 flavours) fried chicken : sweet chilli and original

No matter who many pieces I eat I won't get sick of eating unless I have those with the sweet soy sauce. Each piece of chicken fried to perfection. The crunch is something not to miss. Almost every one orders a whole chicken there. Remember to make a booking or visit early to avoid disappointment!

Tastes really good even if you leave it over night - especially the sweet chilli ones. All you have to do is to microwave for a min and half to heat them up. Missing them already :(

spicy seafood soup

you get bits of scallop, squid, prawns and glass noodles in the spicy soup. Trust me it is really spicy, perfect choice for dinner on a winter night.

Don't forget to get a mug of chilled beer to go down with your meals. Ultimate yum!

Rare Steakhouse

Rare Steakhouse

6/61 Little Collins St

Melbourne VIC3000

My partner loves steaks. Hence, during his visit I have decided to give him a belated birthday dinner treat at Rare Steakhouse after reading plenty of good reviews online as well.

Best steak I ever had so far. The steak is grilled to the wellness of your choice. I prefer mine to be medium - tender and juicy but not overly bloodied. My partner enjoyed his steak as well but the ribeye is a better cut, more tender if you ask me, pricier as well teehee.

We were served bread and olives before our mains, we paid extra for the olives about AUD 4.50 . Do expect to pay at least AUD100 without wine to go along your meat if you intend to dine here. It is an awesome place, recommended for anniversary celebration as well since it has a pretty good ambience. 

Here goes some pictures for you to judge for yourselves peeps. Cheers mates!

 

200g ribeye steak , mashed potatoes ( mushroom sauce - additional AUD4.50)

 300g porterhouse steak , baked potato with sour cream and chives ( black pepper sauce - additional AUD4.50)

 garden salad with balsamic vinegar (ordered separately about AUD11)

Queen Victoria Summer Night Market

Queen Victoria Summer Night Market

5-10 pm 

Wednesday nights only

6 November 2013 -26 February 2014

If you have been reading my blog since the beginning you will notice that Queen Victoria Market also have a winter night market.

The summer night market compared to the winter night market has a large scale with more food stalls and things to shop. They have BBQ, Spanish, Chinese, American, Indian food and etc. Almost anything you can name with more seats as well. Do head down as early as 5 pm to order food and grab a seat. Trust me if it gets so packed in winter around 6pm the situation is worse in summer.

Here are some dishes we had that night, an average of AUD12/ dish.

After everything it is always good to down a bottle of chilled beer or a cup of lemonade slushy.

Perfect!

Come and expect to spend quite a bit because the servings are relatively small and pricey. I do recommend coming down with your mates to try a variety and make your money worth every single penny :D

My boy enjoying his chilled beer after yummy dinner. Looking pretty satisfied hahahas.

seafood paella 

 bbq pork ribs

soft shell crab burger - my cousin's and my boy's favourite dish.

 exotic meat platter : kangeroo, emu, crocodile meat

really good, well-marinated meat. The kangeroo meat is so flavourful.

 honey glazed chicken wings with chips and must-have BLUE CHEESE DIP!

This is a must not miss dish be it summer or winter night market. Be early no to miss out on the blue cheese dip. The honey glazed wings are yummy but you will probably get sick of it after eating too many. I had about 10 in one sitting so you can probably guess it.

BBQ pork - overly charred for my liking. I don't wana risk cancer after eating. I prefer the bbq roast meat at the coffeeshop back in Singapore more.

Sydney Tower Buffet

Sydney Tower Buffet

Level 4/Castlereagh St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

As we were planning for our Sydney trip we realised that Sydney Tower entrance fee is about AUD25 so might as well pay a little more to enjoy the beautiful scenery and buffet lunch spread.

P.S. not for those with motion sickness or scared of heights.

Each group are allocated to a specific table that is clearly numbered to make it easier for guest to find their seats as the entire thing revolves around Sydney Tower for 360 degrees bird's eye view of the city.  Perhaps it is just me and my group of friends, once we noticed the revolving motion of the building, we started getting really dizzy, staring on at my plate and stuffing myself with food hahahas.

I must say that the spread is not very wide but the seafood is very fresh. Everything shown below is just first helping of all the dishes available before we grab for more :)

Oh AUD35 for a set of photographs, postcards, key chains and beer opener for memory keepsake.

 cold platters and salad

 fried finger food

 mains

 my HAPPY ICE CREAM! honestly I forgot the name but there are butterscotch bits with vanilla for a sweet crunch. Best buffet ice cream ever!

 

dessert spread :B

 Bird's eye view of Sydney's scenery

I must say that it is a nice experience having lunch at such an affordable price - not cheap but if you take out the entrance fee for the tower, an hour and half long buffet really worth every penny. However, once is enough, it is a pity that we were too dizzy to enjoy the scrumptious spread available.

Emperor's Garden Restaurant - Sydney

Emperor's Garden Restaurant - Sydney

96-100 Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000, Australia

Time to pay sydney a visit with the girls after our exams. Nothing beats traveling around with good company. The girls will be graduating after this semester and since our exams ended and we did pretty well Sydney will be a good reward hehe.

One of the mornings we had dim sim cravings so we decided to head down to emperor's garden restaurant for yumcha. We have never been there before but the food the serve seems pretty authentic and there are many chinese elderly there, thus we gave it a go.

The dim sims were pretty authentic but you can't compare to those back home though. the hakau skin is too thick ><

 hakau

 siew mai

 char siew bao

 fong zhao

 pai kut

 pi dan chok

On the whole the dim sims were pretty authentic and yummy judging that it is a restaurant in Sydney and not in asia. It was pretty satisfying to down a cup of hot puer with the meal. It seems pretty surprising to the waitress that a group of relatively young girls came over that early in the morning for breakfast - the rest of the restaurant is filled with elderly you see. 

It is recommend to give it visit if you happen to be in Sydney's china town especially when the dim sims are not pricey compared to the ones in melbourne :D

Chat Thai

Chat  Thai

20 Campbell St, Haymarket NSW 2000

According to all of my friends in Melbourne, one place that we must visit in Sydney is Chat Thai. The food is awesome but pretty pricey. We spent a total of AUD89 for everything. 

Here's what we ordered:

1. Spicy sauce fried fish

2. King prawns with glass noodles

3. Prawn tom yam soup

4. Seafood fried rice

5. Mango sticky rice

The dishes tastes really great but very spicy ><

I love it that they come in huge portions and it is sufficient for a group of three. Hearty meal after a long day's trip at the blue mountains. I would recommend to order take out during peak period so that we do not have to wait for too long before we can have our dinner. 

Yummy dinner in the comfort of our apartment at Zara Towers. Shall go back and visit there again if I have the chance, anyway air ticket isn't too expensive with budget airlines, teehee.

Sovereign Hill Balarat / New York Bakery

I have always wanted to visit this cowboy town. Didn't manage to enter Sovereign hill the last time because they sun is going to set soon and it wouldn't worth every penny for the almost AUD50 entrance fee.

I was disappointed that I had to rush while exploring sovereign hill while on day tour but nevertheless I had a lot of fun in this cowboy town.

New York Bakery

(in Sovereign Hill, Ballarat)

Although it is the only place that serves food in Soverign Hill but they serve really good food especially the two dishes below. Very very yummy.

Moist, fluffy pancakes goes well with sweet butterscotch syrup.

Not overly sweet that spoils your appetite but makes you wana have more to satisfy your pancake cravings!

Don't expect the food there to be cheap though...

banana pancakes with ice cream and butterscotch syrup <3

beef pie

time to bowl mates

for a fee you get to decorate your own candles with the dyes.

say cheese while making umbrella lollies!

Take part in the gold mine tour 18 meters underground to check out how it is like for miners to mine underground as well as watch a short clip on the story of two chinese immigrants on the fate in mine. Spooky and fun experience down and underground :)

Real gold in the mine. Dig it out and you will be rich!