The Running Man

A Good Sunday in Sydney (finally!)

As the title suggests...I finally had a semi-fun or interesting Sunday in Sydney. So to mark the momentuous occassion (sarcastic I know :P) I have decided to blog it (luckily I brought my new camera out..so much more convenient than that SLR I borrowed from Ant..also it was a slow day today).
The day began when we went to Fox Studies to the Entertainment Quarter, where there was usually a multicultural market there on Sundays. We went around lunchtime and decided to try out the 'ethnic' food that was on offer. At the market there was this Spanish stall which sold 'typical' Spanish food (duh)...well anyway they had this really nice 'Chorizo Roll' (see menu pictured on the right) which is essentially a Spanish sausage (with herbs and spices) in a bun. It was ok...a different taste, but what made it really good was the sauces..oh I gotta remember to get the sauces next time :P we put so much on our rolls that it was almost drenched in it. There were 2 types: one green pesto + parsley sauce and another 1 that was red in colour and contained tumeric and (that red spice that is used in some curries...forgot the name). Wanted to buy some home for dinner but we forgot :(. Delicious (for the sauces). Recommended.

Marissa and me at the stall, with the two 'Spanish' guys..haha. Now for those who don't know Marissa, she is Ant's gf..and from my 3 mths living with them, she has always been very thoughtful, generous, caring and so very nice to me (I really appreciate it and am so thankful for that).

Us with our Chorizo Rolls and the sauce!

Quite a simple set up...BBQ, chorizo sausages, red peppers...and probably a very healthy profit margin if the sausage and bun is being sold at $5.50 each. Mmmmm...I can still smell those sausages.

For those of you who know me, you would probably know that 1 roll with a bit of sausage in it, is not enough for lunch :P. So with that thought Ant and myself went off in search of more 'ethnic' food (that is my term given to food that is unusual and probably cannot or hard to get in Australia because of a non-mainstream culture). As you can see from the picture (left) its quite a small market and pretty touristy stuff, but at least the food was unique and prices reasonable. We stopped by this other stall...that sold Euthopian food! In case you don't know..Euthopia is in Africa (and is usually on the news for all the wrong reasons...civil war, starving and malnutritioned children, etc...oh and very good long distance marathon runners...see the Olympics?).

Here is what we had...it can be described as a pancake with chic peas, butter chicken and potatoes (see the picture above going from R to L). It was so filling, which makes me wonder that if this was typical Euthopian food then there should be plenty of fat Euthopians around. Luckily I had Ant and Marissa to share it with me. It was something different from the normal mainstream stuff and pretty tasty (cost: $6.50).

After our Euthopian food we went off to get our movie tickets for 'The Lakehouse' but due to a programming error we found out that we'd missed the show :P. So instead we went off and tried to search for the traditional photo shot I took with Ant when we were at Fox studios in 2000. Now that was during the time of normal 35mm cameras, it was 1 of those cut-out figures with the heads missing and you could just stick your head through them and take a picture. I am pretty sure I was Arnold Swarzenneggar and Ant was Marilyn Monroe..ahaha. So in keeping with tradition we set off in search of it. Unfortunately, that was some years ago and they have removed that cut-out. So we decided to take a new picture near the site of where that cut-out stood:

Ant is pretending to hold onto the Kangaroo's tail...while I look like I got my hand on the guy's butt and have some kind of perverted smile :P how embarrassing! haha...Marissa is the only 1 looking normal in the pic.

We then went to the Broadway Shopping Centre, where we caught the Lakehouse...not bad..only an ok chick flick (no surprises for guessing who wanted to watch it). Oh and on impluse I bought a 1 GB thumb drive on sale @ $49...according to Ant its pretty cheap and I wanted 1 anyway (because I didn't want to be dragging my 60 GB portable HDD everywhere and its not so convenient...plus it has got all my important photos and songs :P). Later that day, I was scheduled to meet my good old OCS friend Chuan Syn and his wife, Cindy for dinner...

I was going to meet them at Kings Cross @ 7pm...so after a short break back at home I went off to the train station. Along the way, there was a boat show at Darling Harbour (pictured)...there were all these boats, and yachts on sale there and as you can see, there was plenty of them. Sigh...if only I had a spare couple of million in my pocket...I would definitely be there! haha...

I took CS and Cindy to Ramankan, this little 'hole-in-the-wall' Japanese resturant in Chinatown (gotta give credit to Ant for showing it to me only a couple of days before)...you know its good if you actually see lots of Japanese eating there. There is no sign..only this doorway by the street that leads to an elevator..you go up to the 1st level..and can there is this nice cosy Jap resturant. If you are reading this dear...I will take you here definitely...so much better than the Kinokuniya place we use to eat...oh and it has your Cha Su Raman ;). After this very authentic dinner, which both CS and Cindy loved...I took them to this ice-cream cafe 'the Riveria cafe' for some desert. At this point I was feeling pretty good becuase you know when you are taking visitors around a new city you want them to really enjoy the places you think are good...genuinely..and not out of politeness. This was the case with Ramankan (score 1!). Anyway because Cindy likes ice-cream we decided to order a 'Rainbow' (cost: $30..not cheap for ice-cream) that is meant to be shared between 2-3 people (as described on the menu). This is what we got!!! (see CS's expression..not to mention mine and Cindy's) It was huge..I counted at least 12 scoops + of ice-cream all of varying flavours (mango and passionfruit were my favourite!). So for all those ice-cream lovers out there...this is your heaven.

The following pictures show us as we tried to tackle this monster...

Group picture of us while we can still smile as we prepare to tackle this rainbow. Oh and there were larger sizes on offer too..and the more economy minded one would have gone for the 'Maxy' which is for 5-6 people (I shudder to think about what the size of that 1 would be...and it should be able to feed at least 8 people).

A close-up of the ice-cream..see all the pretty colours :P

CS and Cindy slowly working it down...you can see that Cindy is clearly enjoying this monster. Ahh...the joys of marriage life together :P it only seemed like yesterday when I met this young hot-shot pilot at OCS during our Tango time...how things have changed, he is still my good friend we ate a lot together when in S'pore hahaa...

Finally finished..or at least make it look decently 'finished'.

But I think CS (and myself) are paying the price for our determination...at this point we all are on a sugar high (something like drinking lots of alcohol but with sugar). We all are just laughing and talking about crap...must have been the sugar. Still qutie fun..its like sharing a bottle of JD or vodka amongst the 3 of us.

Ahhh..the lovely Cindy, still looks like she is ready to order a second serving (I think its coz me and CS mainly did all the eating haha...just kidding Cin if you are reading this...I am very sure you did your part :P) Should try the mango flavour next time...delicious...haha :P

The lovely couple with the sign just as we are leaving...hmmm...I don't think anyone of us can sleep tonight (too much sugar..I am now afraid of ice-creams).

CS and myself. Looking forward to catching up with him in S'pore when he returns in Jun 07.

After we parted company, I couldn't wait to call Ser and tell her about my day. Not that it is spectacular of anything, but at least I have something to tell her and it was quite a relaxed and fun day for me. Usually, when we talk Sundays are pretty boring for me as its just household chores and watching TV :P. So really looking forward to at least sharing with my dear all these new places that was discovered. Also feeling the effects of the sugar and was waiting for the opp the entire day to 'surprise' her...haha

ps: didn't talk to Ser...am posting this to remind myself not to do what I did.

posted by Darren at 12:05 PM