KayEll and London

After a whirlwind four days in KL, I'm finally in London! Summer this year here is awesome because its not hot - feels like autumn in Sydney =)

My favourite things in KL..

Free internet and facebooking at Starbucks hehe..now why don't we get this in Sydney!

Food food food..what else???

Greasy char kway teow and nasi bojari

Assam laksa and Yong tau foo

Mee siam and kopi ping (ice coffee)

  Tandoori chicken/nan/dahl and Prawn mee

Shopping and more shopping at KLCC (under the twin towers)

hanging out with Mumsie

and seeing my lovely cousins..

When did i get so pale?? I guess that's what 5 months in the office does to you..

Waiting waiting waiting at KL airport when my flight was delayed. My flight was scheduled to leave at 11.40pm but we didn't board until 1.30pm, then the pilot told us that we couldn't take off until they received clearance to fly over Afghanistan. Eventually he announced that we couldn't get it and would have to fly around Afghanistan, meaning more fuel would have to be put in.  We were told to all remain seated and to unfasten our seatbelts while the plane was being refuelled..very strange..and we didn't take off until 4am!

So after a very long and tiring journey, I finally made it to Heathrow.  I'm staying in a cute apartment near St Paul's cathedral- sharing with two girls, one from New York and one from Shanghai.

     Nice and spacious..

We even have a cool little terrace..perfect for parties!

2 days of training so far but not much else..hopefully things will fire up soon!

Saturday Sunshine & Partytime

Saturday brunch at Bird Cow Fish in Surry Hills with uni peeps.  A bit slow on landing a table and delivery of the food - but can't really blame a place for being busy and popular!

With busy banker and lawyer working lives in full swing, it was awesome to catch up with Ali, Dom, Trish and Irma over brunch

Smoked trout omelette with rocket; poached eggs (or vanilla ice-cream hehe), grilled ham, montpellierbutter on sourdough toast

 The first dry weekend in awhile which was perfect for strolling down to Circular Quay and a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition 'THE HOURS: VISUAL ART OF CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMERICA' has just started and its worth a peek if you happen to be around the area (free entry).  My favourite work was the one of iconic portraits re-created with different materials which was reflective of the person's identity, and then photographed. Eg. Marilyn Monroe with diamonds, Che Guevara with black bean sauce and Sigmund Freud with chocolate sauce.

 This English chic was performing a contortionist street theatre act outside the MCA -she fit into a 16inch box!

Don't you hate it when you ask strangers to take photos for you and they can't even frame a shot (I thought it was obvious we wanted the Opera House and not the Toaster in the background!) and then they want to take photos of themselves too!

Afterwards Tez, Sarah and I went to see 'Red Road' (screening as part of the Sydney Film Festival) at Dendy Opera Quays. The movie was set in Glasgow so I couldn't even catch half of what they were saying with the thick Scottish accents. Took about an hour into the movie before you even knew where the story was heading, but that made the emotive involvement at the end even more powerful.

Then it was off to Danny's 25th drinks at The Argyle.  This guy is so popular I didn't know half the people who turned up - the tag line of the night from every new person I met was 'Danny was my tutor'. How come I never went to any social events of my tutors at Uni?? Yes, this guy definitely has a loyal fan base and entourage =) Happy birthday Danny, hope you had an awesome night!

Matty - you definitely look 19 in this photo - actually with that little boy lost look you could even pass for 7 =P

Battle for the cutest couple award: Mel & Rock vs JC & Trish

Just holding alot of drinks..no alcoholics here..no siree..

New friends made and a reunion with old friends I haven't seen since high school or first year Law Revue days =)

A lovely weekend but now I'm getting sick from walking in the cold/rain 2 nights in a row trying to find a taxi . Only 2.5 weeks of winter for me..woohoo!

Culture Vultures

Ok, I take it back. Sydney does have great cultural events happening and plenty of artsy type things on - you just have to look for it..and preferably not live anywhere west of Leichardt either or it really is a hassle to get to. Someone please open an arthouse cinema out in this area.

 Two Saturdays ago, Viv, Ali, Candice, Em, Ju and I went for a lovely dinner at Front restaurant at Sebel Pier One before attending Bodytorque, by The Australian Ballet at the Sydney Theatre. The performance comprised five choreographic contemporary pieces, each quite different from each other. I really enjoyed it.

We also spotted one of the guys from Human Nature in the audience, I don't know his name but it wasn't the really short one, wasn't the one from dancing with the stars and 'cabaret' and wasn't the cute one (cute being used as a relative term to the other members)..which leaves the strange looking one with the ugly goatee. Yes you know which one I'm talking. I love Sydney star spotting.

 Sunday saw my first trip to the Art Gallery of NSW in about 5 years and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised.  They have renovated the gallery since the last time I went there - spacious interiors with a modern cafe and restaurant overlooking pretty views of the Domain - it is a really cool place to hang out and check out contemporary art on the weekend.  Sarah had an extra ticket to an event there - a lecture on the Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt followed by a film on Beethoven's Hair, as part of their 'Revolution and the Romantic' SSO lectures. Sounds boring I'm sure to most but it was actually really interesting.  However, we were the youngest people at the lecture/film by a good thirty years!! C'mon young people, its cool to like classical art and music..it really is =)

  In other news...yes I am jetting off..yet again! Just had my flights confirmed today and will be leaving Sydney on 12th July for work training, stopping on the way to KL for 4 days before hitting London for 6.5 weeks. After training I'm taking a week off - thinking of going to Sth Italy, Greece or surrounding islands but nothing definite yet.  Yup, I'm back in  Europe this summer and I can't wait =)

Happy Graduation to Me!

I love posting photos just for the sake of it =)

Commerce/Law graduation at UNSW - 4 May 2007

Followed by big graduation bash at Mint Bar

and the few that kicked on to The Argyle =)

February.March.April...

The blushing bride to be..

Chris and Ken with the birthday gal, JY



Trish stealing my drink!!



*pok pok pokkkk pokpokpokkkkk*



Then...came the long awaited 4 day Easter long weekend

Started off with Good Friday Easter service followed by indulgence after indulgence (and I thought Easter was about sacrifice ??)

Good Friday Pho at Canley Vale - documented by jc

Takoyaki experimentation at Muz's - chocolate/banana/cinnamon combined with Cookies & Cream cheesecake by Jeanne. plus an introduction to wii - my mii looks nothing like me!!



Girly Good Friday sleepover at JYs. Pretty cocktails, freshly baked cookies, teeny movies, manicures, curls with ghd, girly mags, wedges n pizza, midnight chicken zhook (sp?), chocolate, late night gossip sesh, breakfast of pancakes with banana, blueberries and honey...and a departure many many calories heavier..



Haven't had my hair cut since Berlin and decided to go with a non-Asian stylist after being pleasantly surprised by the snip skills of the French-Algerian semi-punk hairdresser in Berlin. However, the Farah Fawcett is only temporary, my hair its still straight as usual..

It was great to see you in Sydney again Di!



...and finished off with Easter Sunday lunch - documented by jc.

and so its back to work tomorrow morn...