Still Busy
Monday February 22, 2016
Been back in the country for a full week now, having had an amazing time over in Melbourne seeing the sights, eating the food, seeing old friends and of course, the Final Fantasy: A New World concert which was the main purpose of the trip. I arrived on Thursday night and spent it at Andy's house, eating some teriyaki chicken burgers and the best onion rings I'd ever had, while watching his friend play Final Fantasy X for the first time - great way to get into the mood for the weekend. On Friday, I met up with Sonny at Madame Squint where I had a soft shell crab bao, and did some shopping around DFO South Wharf, H&M and Emporium. I ended up at Lygon Street, because I really wanted something from Brunetti, the delicious desserts place with cabinets of cheesecakes, fondants, macaroons, pralines... every imaginable sweet. After that, I wanted some steak, but because it was the Friday night before Valentines and I was sweaty and gross and #ForeverAlone, I felt intimidated going into one of the Italian restaurants and dining by myself, so I went to good old Chin Chin and dined like a king.
On Saturday, I went with Andy to Manchester Press for their famous bagels, then continued wandering around town for more clothing bargains. I had lunch at Mamak, and trained all the way out to Windsor where I surprised Ben for his birthday. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at the pub there, called Windsor Castle, and even tried a chicken parma. Yeeeah. On Sunday, I met Darius for breakfast at the famous Hardware Societe and had a most delectable lobster benedict. I have so much writing to catch up on for my food blog, it's not funny. I followed him to church as well, inside the cinemas at Melbourne Central, and met some of his friends for lunch at Lentils As Anything, a vegetarian "pay what you want" establishment in East Melbourne. I was back in town to get ready for the Final Fantasy concert at the Melbourne Recital Hall.
I thought I could bring a drink into the amphitheater so I purchased a large bottle of cider from the bar while mingling in the crowd of hardcore Final Fantasy fans, some of which had brought along plushies (Tonberry, Boko, Cactuar :3) or even cosplayed for the night (Red Mage, White Mage, Auron, Cloud, Aeris). As I reached the door, I saw a sign saying no food or drink inside, so I had to scull my drink and ended up extremely drunk and emotional for the first half of the concert. But even as I sobered up for the second half, the music was still fantastic and nostalgic and powerful. There were cheers from the crowd during the most epic themes from almost 30 years of Final Fantasy music, and as the night drew to its climax, we were invited to provide a single word vocal for the final song - One Winged Angel!
I was off to the airport extremely early on Monday morning. I played To Zanarkand and Let it Go on the piano in the departure hall, but there was no applause this time around - probably because the airport was pretty empty at that time of day. Of course, Jetstar was late by an hour, which meant that once I got to Auckland, I would only have an hour to get through customs, get lunch, get to the domestic terminal and catch my flight to Wellington. That lunch I had from Auckland International Airport was the most depressing meal I've had - having spent four days in Melbourne eating the most delicious food ever and having to come back to New Zealand and eat Subway of all things... truly sad.
Since then, I've been super busy still, trying to finish the project I'm on. We were at Coenn's Provisions on Tuesday for Tim's birthday, drinking heavily at Fork and Brewer and S & M's on Friday for Bobby and Cory's farewell, I was at Pete and Bronwyn's wedding on Saturday where I was the only person to volunteer to speak, and I was at music at Central Baptist on Sunday. It's been an action packed weekend and I need another couple of days to unwind... but there's no rest for the weary. I was almost tempted to go back into work to do some loading optimisations, but I think I should stay at home and relax.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:01am on Monday February 22, 2016 :: 0 comments :: 
Melbourne Bound
Thursday February 11, 2016
I have been insanely busy lately. My current project is six weeks long, and we are currently in week five. Fortunately for me, I'm at Auckland airport, waiting for a plane to Melbourne while the team back in Wellington are pushing towards the final deadline. Still, I did a few nights of overtime last week to get through my huge list of tasks so it was not without my own sweat and tears.
People have been visiting. I caught up with Melburnians Ants, Jo, Ben and Jill when they were here for a wedding. My parents came and visited too, and we enjoyed much delicious food. It was dad's birthday (almost) while they were down so I took them to Matterhorn and Floriditas.
A couple of weeks ago, I was up at 5.30am to see all five classical planets in the sky at the same time. Looking out to the glow of sunrise out east was Mercury, then looking in an arc high in the sky, Venus in its dawn brilliance, Saturn, Mars, the waning quarter moon and finally Jupiter. It was a sight to see. Absolutely stunning. I've never seen all five at once like that before, and I think it speaks volumes of the kind of wonderful city I live in that I was able to walk out onto my balcony and see all of this so clearly.
Last weekend was Waitangi Day and Chinese New Year, which I spent with my parents, my sister and two nephews. I think it's important to observe tradition; it is custom to be with family on Chinese New Year's Eve for a reunion dinner. The next day, my parents were off to Malaysia with 4kgs of cherries, 2kgs of plums, a loaf of bread, wine, chocolates, smoked salmon, crackers....
So the reason I'm in Melbourne is that I am fulfilling an old dream that has been in planning for the past decade: see a Final Fantasy orchestral concert. It's going to be mega. All the nostalgia, emotion, memories and melodies. I will hopefully be stuffing my face full of delicious food too. Looking forward to it!
Posted by Jeremy at 12:48am on Thursday February 11, 2016 :: 0 comments ::
Melbourne
Monday January 5, 2015
I'm finally back at home in Wellington after a 10 hour journey with Mike and Phil down State Highway 1 from Auckland yesterday. The past week has been amazing, having spent most of it exploring Melbourne and sampling some of the delicious things the city had to offer.
Last Monday, we took the train from Wallan to the Southern Cross Station, then took a tram to Southbank where we dumped all our belongings in our apartment just across from the Crown Casino Complex. We met up with the others from KCC at a Vietnamese restaurant called Rice Paper on Swanston Street, then walked around the expensive Emporium before heading back for a break. We struggled to find a suitable place for dinner that night - several popular places were booked out or unavailable over Christmas and New Years, but eventually we settled for a place called Gingerboy, which served contemporary South-East Asian cuisine. On our way back home, I got some Nitrogen-frozen gelato from this place called The Lab, but it wasn't really anything special.
On Tuesday, I said my goodbyes to the KCC gang and went to Ants and Jo's place in the center of town. I rushed to meet Dave and we set off on a foodie tour of Melbourne! Dave showed me a few places that had his art on display, which was super cool. I don't remember where half of these places were as I was still trying to get my bearings, but we did end up at the Queen Victoria markets. Rows and rows of fresh fruit and vegetables on display, bustling with people seeking the best bargains and shop keepers yelling (aggressively?) about their produce. Awesome stuff! We got some fresh fruit juice and some American style donuts, and continued on to the deli meats and cheese section before heading down to QV for some lunch at a Japanese place called Don Don. The tour continued to the Old Melbourne Gaol, Melbourne Museum and the Carlton Gardens, Lygon Street (for some pretty good gelato and an amazing dessert shop called Brunetti) and Federation Square and ACMI. Great to catch up with you Dave, and thanks for the awesome guided tour! I went out with Ants, Jo, Ben and Jill for dinner at Red Spice QV before having a quick tipple at Cookie Beer Hall. Big day!
I decided I needed a bit of time to myself, so on Wednesday, New Year's Eve, I went solo around the city, visiting the Lindt Cafe, Melbourne Central, Chinatown, Christmas Square (appropriately decked out for the season), Hosier Lane (with all the street art), Birrarung Marr Park on the way to Rod Laver, MCG and the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Shrine of Remembrance and back up to Southbank. There was a lot of walking but the sun was brilliant and pleasant. Being solo meant I could easily get a seat at some of the more popular establishments, namely the two big ones on my list - Chin Chin, a famous South-East Asian eatery on Flinders Lane, and Om Nom, a dessert restaurant in the Adelphi Hotel. Fantastic experiences there, be sure to see the write ups on my Food Blog! I ended the day back at Ants and Jo's with a good old Australian barbeque, but the night's festivities had just begun.
The five of us made our way to Federation Square, where hundreds and thousands of people had packed the area, hoping to usher in the New Year with a bang. The atmosphere was awesome, and despite it being totally crammed (people had brought along prams and babies - what the hell?), it was pretty great to be in such an exciting place. When the countdown hit zero, fireworks from all around the city's buildings shot into the sky, synchronised with each other. Fantastic stuff! So much better than those Auckland fireworks. We ended the New Year celebrations clubbing at the Irish Times Pub, right around the corner from home.
New Year's Day was a slow start, with a delicious champagne brunch in the late morning as we slowly roused from a night of lights and sound. I followed Ben and Jill for a walk around town but ended up splitting from them at Melbourne Central. As I walked down to Southbank, I casually strolled by Rice Paper, the restaurant from the first day in town. When I looked inside, who should I see but my KCC crew, having a late lunch there. I followed them back home for a bit, and headed out again to the game arcades to watch them claim their 2000 tokens. I said my goodbyes and trekked to the Eureka Tower for some stunning 360 degree views of the city. Melbourne's pretty cool like that - almost all the tall buildings are localised to the inner city, leaving the urban sprawl visible for miles. The weather was stunning and it was such an awesome view of the whole area.
I rushed over to the Queen Victoria Market area to meet up with Andy at Coconut House, a Malaysian place famous for their laksa. Good stuff - Melbourne's definitely got standard in this respect, with some of my family members back in Malaysia commenting on how good the laksa looked. We continued on to Dessert Story, where I got a mango pomelo sago pudding for myself and Andy proceeded to order a two-person mango shaved ice dessert for himself. We went back to his place to play some Smash Bros for a bit, then I left to see the Gas Brigade Fireballs shooting out on the riverbank by the Crown Casino.
On the day I left Melbourne, the forecast said it would be a whopping 38C - apparently this is like a hairdryer continuously in your face. I would have liked to experience this phenomenal heat just once, but unfortunately I had a plane to catch at 9.30am. I was walking around the airport hungrily when I spotted my last chance to have a chicken parma - so I took it. It was okay. Would have probably been better at a proper place that wasn't the airport, but at least it's another checkbox I can check. I met up with John, who was also on the same flight and we headed to the departure gate. However, on the way, I spotted a piano in the middle of the shopping area, and after checking to see there were no restrictions, I sat on the stool and started my rendition of Let it Go on a baby grand piano in the middle of Melbourne Airport. And that was awesome. I began to build confidence as the momentum of the song followed through to its climax, and a small family sitting nearby burst into applause at the end of the song. What a wonderful way to finish my time in Melbourne!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:34am on Monday January 5, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Weddings and Things
Sunday December 28, 2014
I made it to Melbourne on Boxing Day after a very early Jetstar flight with plenty of unhappy babies. Anyway, after a tiki tour of the CBD, we were taken to the Upper Plenty Conference Centre and we've been here since.
We're kinda in the middle of nowhere but it is incredibly serene and pretty. This area was ravaged by the bush fires a few years ago and it's easy to see the evidence of that devastation, but at the same time, quite inspiring to see the regrowth coming through. There are wild kangaroos around, and we saw a baby huntsman spider too. We've been playing cards and going on bush walks, but most importantly there's been heaps of preparation for Blake and Jacinta's wedding. It has been fun catching up with various KCC people - it always is!
Today has been pretty hot, but the wedding went off without a hitch and we're about to tuck into some food. Tomorrow we'll hit town for some adventures in the city!
Posted by Jeremy at 8:19am on Sunday December 28, 2014 :: 0 comments ::