Easter in Atlanta
Tuesday April 23, 2019
The weather has finally been warming up. I can leave my heavy winter jackets at home and walk out with a hoodie - today I even wore shorts. The grass is regaining its full green hue and the trees are beginning to grow their leaves back, and in a few weeks time, we'll start getting some cherry blossoms in High Park.
I spent Easter in Atlanta for a friend's wedding. When they first sent the invitation out, it said "Athens" and I thought to myself what an awesome holiday it would be to go to Greece, especially since I missed that part of Europe in 2017. But no, it was actually Athens, Georgia, which is about an hour and a half outside of Atlanta. The more I researched the sights and sounds (and food) of Atlanta, the more excited I got about going. I booked accommodation, I sorted out a rental car to drive to Athens, and I planned a basic itinerary.
I remember the plane coming into Atlanta. Everything was so green. The trees looked so lush and vibrant, and outside of the city centre it looked like a forest. I found it really pretty. After checking into my AirBnB, I walked around downtown; it was sunny and 25C. Centennial Park was unfortunately closed because of a 4/20 Festival, but there were plenty of other things to see. I had dinner at Sweet Georgia's Juke Joint, where the food was kinda average, but the entertainment was fantastic.
Overnight, a massive thunderstorm hit the city, waking up me and shaking the house. I got an amazing slow-mo capture of one lightning strike over downtown. Another hit so close to my AirBnB that it sounded like an explosion. All this brought heavy rain on Friday morning, so I ended up taking a Lyft to the World of Coca Cola instead of walking there. It was interesting to see all the old Coca Cola memorabilia and advertising from so long ago, as well as learn about how it started and how far they've come. I got to try lots of different drinks from around the world, and I spotted an L&P bottle among the collection of global products, but I was a little bit over the propaganda. As I left, the rain had cleared, so I had lunch at the nearby Waffle House (at the suggestion of my American friends) and walked an hour to Piedmont Park. I walked around the greenery for a bit, catching the regional Pokemon Carnivine (I swear the whole trip wasn't just for Carnivine) but as it rolled around to 3pm, it started to rain again, so I sought shelter from underneath a bridge. When the rain stopped, I continued my explorations to the south, following the beltline trail to the Ponce City Market.
Ponce City Market is a massive food hall, with cuisines from India, South Africa, Japan and China, as well as local flavours. I had a honey and lavender gelato from Honeysuckle Gelato, then for some reason the police showed up and we were told to evacuate the building. It didn't last long though, so I was back inside trying to decide what to have for dinner. I settled on trying some catfish, with a Vietnamese inspired salad, that was really light and refreshing, and I finished it off with a key lime tart and a cashew fudge donut for breakfast on Saturday.
I was up early to get to the airport on Saturday so I could collect my rental car. I was pretty excited about this, it's been a while since I've driven and my first time driving alone on the right side of the road, but I was confident and had no problems. My first stop was to the northern parts of the city for lunch at this Malaysian restaurant that had piqued my interest. I ordered yong tao foo curry laksa, and it was, put simply, absolutely delicious. Afterwards, I drove to Stone Mountain, a massive...stone mountain... to the east of Atlanta, and hiked up for some fantastic views of the city. Just like I had seen on the way in, the whole area was covered in green trees of every shade. The clouds began to darken and the rain that had been far off had begun to creep closer, but thankfully it was only passing, and it wasn't too heavy. I made my way down the mountain and started the hour-long drive to Athens.
I arrived in good time, and after scrubbing up, I drove to the wedding venue. It was cold and a little bit rainy, and for some reason, it never occurred to me that it was going to be an outdoor wedding. I joked to the groom's brother that neither of them were good at choosing the weather for their weddings (his had torrential rain in Auckland). But despite the chilly wind, the rain held out mostly and my friends were married successfully. I didn't really know many people at the wedding, apart from the groom's family, but it was good to see the people I knew and catch up with them. The reception was really nice too, and I was quite impressed by the display of seven cakes at the end, each of them a particular aspect of their heritage, their place of belonging and their home. From Colombia, there was a tres leche (three milk) cake and a negra torta (wine-soaked cake with fruit and nut), from Malaysia there was a pandan cake, from the US there was a ridiculously sweet Georgian pecan pie and a New York cheesecake, and from New Zealand, there was a lamington cake and a pavlova.
It was relatively early to bed and early to rise the next morning as I had to drive back to Atlanta airport and catch my flight. For some reason, it had not crossed my mind that I needed to apply for a visa waiver to get back into Canada, especially since I had just renewed my passport, so there was mild panic as I hurriedly filled out an electronic application for it. Thankfully it was approved within minutes.
The coming few weeks will be busy as we finish everything for E3, and I'm desperate to get back to work to help the team out. I'm also looking forward to the Avengers: Endgame movie, and of course, summer!
Posted by Jeremy at 2:30am on Tuesday April 23, 2019 :: 0 comments :: 
Been a While
Saturday May 28, 2016
Things have been insanely busy, as usual. Where do I even start? So much as happened since the last blog post.
Doomsday Clicker has been performing well, and we managed to hit all our deadlines - but not without some troubles along the way. The v1.3 Android release saw a torrent of negative reviews reporting the game would not boot properly, and since we were lined up for featuring, it was of utmost priority to fix the issues. The Game Sync implementation wasn't as robust as we had initially tested, and pretty much my fault, so we scrambled to build stability around all those systems. Thankfully, things came together in the end, and we secured our featuring on Google Play and the iTunes store. I've had a lot of feedback from friends who have enjoyed the game - especially the amazing and catchy soundtrack.
In honour of its successes, the PikPok 19th birthday party was completely Doomsday Clicker themed, with an amazing volcano cake with Monkey and the Red Button on the top, and three cocktails and two shots bearing the names of some of the doomsdays you can cause in the game. The atmosphere was fantastic and it was good to see heaps of people there. There was arm wrestling - we even managed to convince Mario and Tyrone to go head to head. There was dancing and shenanigans but all in all, I think lots of people had a good time.
There was an exciting thunderstorm a few days ago, lightning illuminating the night sky just after midnight, with some heavy rain accompanying the storm. I would have counted 30 flashes of light in the five minutes I was watching, some strikes being very close to the city itself. Wellington's geography means it doesn't get many thunderstorms, so it's always such a delight to see them - as long as you're indoors and warm.
Mat was down last weekend for some 30th birthday parties. We met up with Tim for his at Spruce Goose, and afterwards Mat went for board games with that crew while I went to Phil and Will's for their flatwarming. They had moved into their new place over Anzac weekend - I helped them shift a lot of their bulky furniture and drove the truck for them. Mana and Vix rocked up with some ingredients for making mulled wine, and what a fun time that was! I didn't realise it was so simple - create your syrup first with a little bit of wine, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, orange peel, lemon peel, and any other spices or fruit you want to throw in. When the syrup is the right consistency, pour the rest of the wine in and let it warm without boiling, or the alcohol will evaporate. Easy!
Strawberry Fare's last day is tomorrow. It is truly the end of an era. They have decided to close their doors while the owners look to focusing more on their other restaurants. The past couple of weeks have seen hundreds of loyal fans trying to get the last desserts, myself and Mat included. They weren't taking any bookings, so I decided that I would try going at 11am on Sunday morning to secure my final Devil's Dream Cake. Sure enough, no one was stupid enough to have dessert for breakfast except for Mat and myself, so we enjoyed our final meal at Strawberry Fare forever. You could say that it was...a bittersweet experience.
At the start of the month, I was in Auckland for Mel and Jarrod's wedding - number four of seven this year. The weather was stunning and the location was picturesque. I was on parking warden duty, so had to be there early, but with my swanky haircut and sharp suit, I was exuding confidence and style as I greeted the guests and directed them down the driveway. The wedding was really nice, given they had only a month to plan it. Everything fell into place and it ran smoothly. The next day was Mother's Day, so we went out for yum cha to Sun World in Newmarket, and then back to my sister's to see my two nephews. They're growing up so fast, especially the little one. He's not as moody as he was the last time I saw him, so it's good to see him being more sociable and having more fun. So cute!
There's been karaoke, Andrew's 30th at Five Boroughs, NZIF shows - Eli Matthewson of Jono and Ben fame, and Taking off the Bird Suit - we had hotpot, Ghibli movie nights, Iron Giant at the Embassy, Formal Friday at work, Dianne's birthday and Vix and Tessa's flatwarming. There's been plenty of Louis Sergeant desserts, lunch at the Crab Shack and a massive seven-tiered rainbow cake for Keir's farewell. I need to remember to blog more often or I'll forget all these memories.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:16pm on Saturday May 28, 2016 :: 0 comments ::
Easter
Wednesday March 30, 2016
I cleverly took the four days after Easter off so I could enjoy ten days away from work. Last Thursday, we released an incremental called Doomsday Clicker for iOS and Android. It's been a pretty short burn project, starting on the first week of January and taking two months to soft launch, and another month to hard launch, but the team and I are very proud of what we achieved.
March rolled in pretty quietly, save for a surreptitious boozy karaoke the weekend before, as well as an historical barbeque at Rob's house and Sam and Hannah's engagement party at SFBH. There were some glorious days too, and we took advantage of the brilliant weather one afternoon by cycling around Oriental Bay and the waterfront in a Crocodile Bike. There was Newtown Fair, Cuba Dupa, Tim's stag do, Bobby's leaving and the Dreamworks Exhibition at Te Papa. It's been action-packed.
Over Easter, I was in Auckland where I caught up with Mat, Will and Tom at Circus Circus for lunch on Friday, then joined by Graeme for some board games at Will's later that night. I got a sharp-looking haircut at Hairport on Dominion Road before meeting Charlotte in Newmarket for lunch, and then rushing off to the real reason I was in Auckland - Amy and Vincent's wedding at Nathan Homestead in Manurewa, where I played Lana del Ray's Young and Beautiful as Amy walked down the aisle. It was a beautiful sunny day with a mild breeze, so cue panic when one of my piano sheets fell off the stand. Thankfully I recovered and improvised for a set of four bars before someone very kindly put the music back. Cue more panic when I realised I couldn't see Amy walking down the aisle as everyone was standing in the way, so when she suddenly appeared at the front, I had 15 seconds to wrap up the song - and again, thankfully I nailed the transition to the coda and ended gracefully. The bride and groom were both happy with how things turned out and apparently no one noticed that I had two panic moments, so job well done!
We were at the Heritage Hotel's Tearoom for the reception - a marvelous dining hall with a spectacular view over the harbour. The food was good and the company was great, but even as the reception drew to a close, people were still amped to head out for more festivities. I had to decline, because I had a flight back to Wellington the next day... for another wedding!
My bro Phil took me to the airport early on Sunday morning to catch a surprisingly on-time Jetstar flight to Wellington. Once off the plane, I was home immediately to shower, and off to Timothy and Andrea's wedding at the Island Bay Presbyterian Church. As a groomsman, my task is simple: make sure the groom gets married. As a side though, I was also helping to set up the church and pack down the reception areas, as well as smile pleasantly for the photographs. Again, the ceremony and reception were heaps of fun, and I got to catch up with heaps of people and meet new people too.
It was a tiring two days and I was exhausted come Easter Monday. I took it easy and rolled out of bed after 11am, getting KFC for lunch and doing my grocery shopping for the week. I managed to fit in some squash too, just to make sure I wasn't a complete vegetable the whole day. Yesterday I even made it to the gym, and made chizza - a pizza where the base is chicken. Today was even more productive: I went for physio, returned my suit, practiced piano for this Sunday and did leg day at the gym. And I have so much time leftover today that I even wrote a blog post.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:30am on Wednesday March 30, 2016 :: 0 comments ::
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 ::
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 ::
Suddenly August
Thursday August 7, 2014
I was up in Auckland last weekend for May and Norman's wedding. Awesome to catch up with my KCC crew and even more exciting to see these two be married and to celebrate with them over a fantastic meal at the Cube on Swanson St in the city.
I got to see my two nephews - the older one is as giggly as ever, and extremely excitable, the younger one we call fei jai because of his cute chubby cheeks! They really do grow up so fast and I really wish I could see them more often. I also took my parents to this amazing restaurant called Chikos on Lincoln Road. The chef there is Filipino but trained in French cuisine and his food combines contemporary flavours of Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Japan to produce some truly delightful and inspired dishes. I was blown away by the immaculate presentation of each dish, as well as the freshness of the ingredients and the exciting, unique taste of the meal. Definitely one to visit again in the future, and for $30 per main, a very reasonably priced one at that.
This week has been pretty busy too. I went for yoga again on Monday but felt so horrible afterwards that I'm probably just going to skip the last two classes - I ended up having some shooting pains down my leg and it was so hot and humid that I felt like I was going to pass out. I've just come back from Luke's birthday celebration at the Lighthouse Cinema where we ate an Adventure Time cake and saw Princess Mononoke.
One more week until Wellington on a Plate! Organising people together for this is worse than herding cats, but I'm sure the negativity will melt away once I get some burgers in my mouth. This week's baking challenge was a vegetable cake - a cake with a vegetable as the primary ingredient. Our bakers pulled together with pumpkin, beetroot, zucchini, mushroom (ugh!), onion (ugh!!), potato and rhubarb; huge congratulations to Jules and Tim for their contributions to the challenge - next week's is pie!
Posted by Jeremy at 12:08pm on Thursday August 7, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Weddings
Saturday June 8, 2013
Since being back in Auckland, I've been scurrying around the place meeting various people and helping to organise decorations for Jono and Charlotte's wedding. I arrived safely on Thursday morning at Auckland Intetnational Airport where Jono picked me up and took me to my parents' shop in the city; conveniently this meant he could pick up his suits for his wedding. Later that day, I met Mat at Sean Connolly's Grill for one of the most tantalising steaks I've ever had - wagyu rump with miso hollandaise sauce and garlic and herb butter, with a side salad and the famous duck fat chips. Absolutely delicious! If I had infinite money, I would definitely be back to try everything else on the menu.
Friday I was helping to set up the French Bay Yacht Club for the wedding reception, and then off to Howick for the rehearsal, via Greenlane McDonald's for some Georgie Pie! The pie tasted like childhood - that familiar crispy pastry with the hearty filling of mince, steak and cheese. Great job on replicating the pies of yore, would eat again.
And finally today, a special day for two dear friends who are now husband and wife; today was a lovely day and many of us there were privileged to share the occasion with you. The ceremony was touching and the reception was fun and delicious. It was good catching up with friends and talking about my overseas travels, and it was good getting to know acquaintances better. I was humbled by the great feedback I got for my speech and I'm glad that my anecdotes resonated well with people.
The reception ended early so we squeezed a little bit more out of the day by grabbing some milk tea from Jay's Tea on Dominion Road. I'm exhausted but today has been incredibly fun.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:23am on Saturday June 8, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Eat, Sleep, Eat
Sunday May 26, 2013
The title pretty much exactly sums up what I did yesterday. We went to the market in the morning for a quick browse at the local produce and brought back some fresh mango, jackfruit and lychee, as well as some beef and sotong nasi lemak and some tofu fah (everything was sooo goood). I took a brief nap in the afternoon to prepare myself for the night's dinner.
Last night we were at Five Sen5es at the Westin Hotel to celebrate my cousin's wedding. I had not seen her in 15 years and it was amazing to be there with my extended family to enjoy a wonderful meal in honour of the bride and groom. Like a typical Chinese wedding dinner, there were eight courses of decadent and exquisite food, including abalone, pork belly and Peking duck. It was a night to remember and it was made even more special because of my family.
The dinner was quite late so I had a few hours to kill beforehand. I walked around Pavillion Mall with my cousin's husband for a bit, and he showed me Tokyo Street, a collection of Japanese shops on the top floor of the mall, as well as a multinational alfresco dining alley with restaurants from Ireland, Italy, Spain, Turkey and more, lining a whole walkway. We wandered down to Starhill as well - the sheer opulence of the products on display were matched only by the ridiculousness of the male toilets. It seems fitting that a shopping complex that sells necklaces and earrings for over a million dollars should have two employees in the bathroom who operate a large bamboo lever system to deliver water to the hand basin.
So unnecessary.
Also, I love being five inches taller than everyone else. Malaysia should totally be a heightocracy.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:52am on Sunday May 26, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Not Long To Go
Sunday May 19, 2013
The word "home" in English commonly means one's place of residence or a geographical area that one identifies with as their place of belonging. When I talk about home, my home is in Wellington, where I work and live. When I talk about home, my home is in Auckland, where I grew up and lived for 20 years of my life. When I talk about home, it's odd because I'm using the word in a way that many Malaysian expats will use it - our "home" is Malaysia. When we go back "home", we're returning to the motherland; and though I am officially a New Zealand citizen, Malaysia will always affectionately be "home", because it's where I was born.
The last time I was back in Malaysia was Christmas 2009/New Years 2010. It was full of fond memories... much of it spent enjoying the fantastic food, but also a great excursion to China and Hong Kong, and of course, seeing family that I had not seen in over 7 years. I'm always looking forward to long haul trips, and I can't wait to catch up with everyone and eat everything. People often have a list of things to buy or things to see when they go overseas - when you go to Malaysia, you have a list of things to eat. Whether it be the aroma of durian from pasar malam, or the anticipation as your favourite roadside cendol is prepared, or cooling off with some barley water as you wait for the bak kut teh or yong tau foo to arrive, or playing mahjong while your auntie prepares her famous nasi lemak - my favourite memories about Malaysia are often associated with food. It is such an important part of our culture and who we are.
It's been a while since I last blogged... Robot Unicorn Attack 2 has been out for almost a month now and is doing very well, with over three million downloads the last time I checked. We also released Turbo Racing League, a snail racer based off the DreamWorks Animation movie due out in July. Work has continued to be busy as I wrap up my duties before I leave for holiday.
At the start of the month I was in Auckland for Reuben and Shereen's wedding. Though the rain was torrential, the ceremony and reception were fantastic and it was great to catch up with people and celebrate the marriage of two of my good friends. I got to play piano at KCC's Sunday service and had a great time, and I got to see my nephew as well. It was a rushed weekend, but thoroughly enjoyable. The following weekend, Surya had made his way down to Wellington after graduating in a Masters of Science, so we went out for dinner at Ozeki and milk tea at Noah's Ark.
Finally, a decent milk tea place!
I went ice skating last night with Amy, Mitchell and Chloe. I was surprised at how good they were - it never really occurred to me that they had such hidden talents! The last time I had been ice skating was probably 10 years ago, at Sunway Pyramid in Malaysia, so it was a very awkward start to getting back on the ice. I've never really been one to ice skate or rollerblade or do anything graceful like that, so for most of the hour I was clumsily flailing like a moron around the rink. Despite my frantic yelling and panicked expressions, I had a good time and was proud that I bailed only once during the time I was there, and furthermore, only Mitchell was around to witness my elegant barrel roll, from which I recovered quickly and nonchalantly resumed skating.
It's now only four more sleeps until my flight back "home". Still many things to sort out and people to catch up with before I leave - exciting times ahead!
Posted by Jeremy at 11:42am on Sunday May 19, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
The Past Month
Sunday April 14, 2013
...has been absolutely manic. Following on from February's packed schedule, I had events on each weekend in March. After our failed comet viewing attempts at Makara, we decided we'd keep going back for the fantastic night sky and the shooting stars. As winter settles in, the sunsets become earlier and the skies become cloudier still, so we're taking each opportunity as it comes, and we've never been disappointed.
Well maybe that one time when Chloe and I saw all the shooting stars and Mitchell missed like, seven of them. Zing!
Apart from our frequent trips out to the west coast, I've been at Tom and Astrid's pirate-themed engagement and housewarming celebration, as well as Dale and Bec's engagement party. I went bowling at Bowlarama for Jono and Karlyn's farewell, checked out Pete and Bronwyn's new house, saw some dragonboating and did some Shufflin' and Gangnam Style at Luba's D-themed birthday party.
I spent Easter up in Auckland, catching up with the old KCC gang and getting some good old milk tea from Momo's with Sam and Jo, who have now relocated to Melbourne. I played Dominion, 7 Wonders, Citadels and Dixit. I spent a day at Auckland Zoo with my nephew, checking out all that has changed since I was last there 15 years ago. There was curry and steak and seafood... and more steak, and more seafood. Easter was full of great people and delicious food.
The following weekend, we made our way down to the South Island for Matt and Clare's wedding at Peel Forest. Having never been to the South Island before (gasp!), we went for an epic road trip that spanned 1,500km over three days.
First leg of our journey was Wellington to Picton on the 2.30am Bluebridge Ferry. We secured a private cabin for ourselves so we could get some sleep for the long drive ahead. We were expected to land at Picton at 6.30am but they lost power to the main engine and that delayed us until 8am - a blessing in disguise as we managed to get that little bit extra sleep.
We hit Picton just as the sun began to rise over the islands of Queen Charlotte Sound and started the drive to Nelson. The sounds were misty from the early morning, and the water totally still and glass-like. We picked up some breakfast at Havelock - a bacon and egg pie for me - and reached sunny Nelson around 10am. We continued on to Murchison where we had lunch, then crossed over to the east coast via Lewis Pass. The scenery through Lewis Pass is so diverse, with forests, rivers, mountains, snow and barren desert all visible in the space of a two hour drive. We had a quick squizz around Hanmer Springs (not enough time to relax at the pools unfortunately) and made our way to Christchurch for dinner. With sunset rapidly approaching, we picked up the pace and headed out to Peel Forest.
Peel Forest is in the middle of nowhere. It was only on Friday morning that we realised that our accommodation was called "Peel Forest Ecolodge". It was so "eco". No flushing toilets (ugh compost), wasp infestation in the main room, five minute walk through moderate bush from the carpark and cold bunk beds. Even the beds on the ferry were better. I mean, it would have been fine if we were there for a camping trip but we weren't - we were there for a wedding and we needed modern amenities. We arrived around 11pm, after many difficulties finding the place, and passed out.
We were up around 8am and headed out to Lake Tekapo, only 90 minutes drive away. The day was overcast and the usually azure lake reflected the greys of the sky. We stopped by the iconic Church of the Good Shepherd and admired the grandeur of the Southern Alps in the distance, with its sprinkling of snow clearly visible. We hurried back to Peel Forest for the wedding.
The church was tiny, fitting maybe 80 people at full capacity, but nevertheless the ceremony was lovely; both the bride and groom tearing up at various points in the service. The reception was in a marquee at Peel Forest Lodge, where we had quite possibly the best rare steak ever. Juicy, succulent and tasty - everything that meat should be. After hitting the dance floor (yet more Shufflin' and Gangnam Stylin'), we adjourned to the lodge in anticipation of another long drive the next day. I could not help but admire the crystal clear skies from the Ecolodge (we were in the middle of nowhere, afterall) and spent about 30 minutes staring up at the heavens. The Milky Way was quite visible, as were many familiar southern hemisphere constellations. And in a moment of pure magic, there was a shooting star across the sky!
We were grateful for the extra hour of sleep from Daylight Savings, and we left the Ecolodge for Christchurch. We let Google navigate us to Cathedral Square, but the effects of the devastating earthquake have rendered many of the city center's roads off-limits. We parked near the closed Rydges hotel and wandered around a bit, looking at all the grim sites of rubble and destruction. We followed the Avon River down to the new shipping container mall, which had a nice vibrant atmosphere and was bustling with buskers and filled with Sunday morning coffee aromas. We had a quick brunch in Upper Riccarton before taking State Highway 1 to Kaikoura.
Kaikoura's awesome. The peninsula boasts some fantastic views of the mountains to the west and Pacific Ocean to the east, and right down by the coast, one can enjoy some delectable seafood from the world famous Original Kaikoura Seafood Barbeque shack. I had a seafood chowder and whitebait fritter, but people on other tables had splashed out for some grilled crayfish. Yum! A few minutes driving north, we stopped at Ohau Point to take a look at the adorable seal pups swimming upstream under State Highway 1 towards the local waterfall, before continuing the journey to Blenheim and Picton to take the return ferry.
We arrived in Picton with plenty of time to spare and had some takeaways before boarding the ferry. The boat ride to Wellington was as smooth as the trip over, and in three hours we were back on the North Island.
Whew!
Posted by Jeremy at 12:22pm on Sunday April 14, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
The Definition of Wellington's Summer
Sunday January 27, 2013
The Metservice says that we're supposed to have a sunny spell for a whopping ten days in a row. Not sure if this is unprecedented for Wellington, but it certainly seems like something novel since I've been here. Plenty of things have been happening to take advantage of the summer weather!
After badminton yesterday, I celebrated Australia Day with a few of my workmates with a low-key barbeque. There was plenty of fine meats to be had, and lots of good old fashioned Australian racism too (JOKE). I was sad I couldn't stay for longer as I had to rush to the Sprig and Fern for Matt and Claire's engagement party. Good to catch up with people and form some sort of plan for the trip down south in April. Looking forward to it!
Last weekend was Wellington anniversary, and I went to the Game Master exhibition at Te Papa with Jordan and Loic. Highly recommend it and had heaps of fun there - there's an impressive collection of video games there dating back to the old arcade-style games to the newest consoles - Wii, PS3 and Xbox360 - and with the advent of mobile gaming in the past few years, some iOS and Android games as well. I was blown away by how well some of the arcade games had aged; while some were very difficult to play, they're still incredibly fun and it was interesting to play them with their original control schemes - joysticks and track balls galore.
The exhibition really brought back the nostalgia, with Sonic 1, Sonic 2 and Super Mario Brothers showcasing the pinnacle of platformers in the 1990s, and in comparison how these IPs have evolved and branched out to Sonic Generations in 3D on the Playstation 3 (though I was having a bad time with this) and New Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo DS. Moving on from the Sega and the Nintendo sections, there was Blizzard (Starcraft 2 and Warcraft III), Will Wright (Sim City... and then his later games like Spore and The Sims which I didn't care about), Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island), a large open area for Dance Central, Singstar and Rockband, then a section for Indie games and mobile games, including Castle Crashers, Braid, Flower, Flow, Journey, Minecraft, Fruit Ninja Kinect, Jetpack Joyride, Chopper 2 and of course, Sidhe's own brick-breaking phenomenon, Shatter!
There was some kid playing Shatter when I arrived and he was playing it wrong. I suggested he hit the Right Ctrl button to unleash Shard Storm against the first boss, but he ignored me and continued being wrong. Jerk.
I have been playing Sonic 4 for a while, which I bought on Steam over Christmas, and like Sonic Generations at Game Masters, I was having a bad time with it. The physics are all wrong and there's no sense of momentum in the game. The trajectory of Sonic as he runs and jumps feels difficult and nothing like what his good old 16-bit days felt like. Though the game is pretty, it simply doesn't compare to Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 on the Genesis, and it's a pity that the series has devolved to this state. Frustrated from this experience, I turned to Lego Lord of the Rings. The game has some great humour and lots of content, but is quite easy and the first few stories can feel tedious and grindy. I've progressed to the point where I have lots of abilities, so it's much more interesting and fun now.
Works has been going well. Before I left for the US, I was supposed to be on a particular "barfing rainbows" project; I was reassigned onto Rise of the Guardians on my return and since its completion in November, I have been maintaining the company's core code base - as well as the fantastic Game Jam week we had to finish the year. Though the barfing rainbows project was also supposed to finish in November, it's been extended until March and I'm fortunate enough to be put back on that project. Most of the game is there and functioning, but it's a very valuable IP so we want to make sure that the metagame and the UI system are high quality and well polished. Looking forward to seeing this out on the App Store!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:17am on Sunday January 27, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Back in Wellington
Monday January 7, 2013
First post of the new year. Not quite back at work yet - my past self was wise enough to apply for these first three days off as time in lieu. My sleep schedule is all wrong and I'm still quite tired.
New Year's Eve was really nice. I had some friends over for a potluck dinner which turned out to be a feast of meats and deliciousness. There was ample food to go around and plenty of leftovers for the next day. We played a few games of Spaceteam and Taboo before heading out to the peninsula to watch the Sky Tower's annual "worst New Years fireworks I've ever seen". We ended the night in style with a glass of strawberries in Lindauer.
It was such a fine day the next day that we met at Wing Wah for an impromptu yum cha, then went to Cornwall Park to spend the afternoon. We talked a lot about goals and resolutions for 2013 and decided that to start off the new year, it would be a great idea for Alice to go pet a sheep in the paddock. Sadly this mission failed. Nevertheless, after giving up, Alice randomly blurted out that she wanted Steamboat, and so plans were set in motion for Steamboat at mine. Awesome!
Equally as random was our decision to head out to the Pinnacles in Coromandel for a day trip trek. Planning for this took approximately 20 minutes. We met at mine at 7am and began the two hour drive to Thames, via Greenlane Countdown for some supplies and McDonalds for some breakfast. After some dusty gravel roading, we reached the base of the track around 10am. It was another brilliant day, with ample sunshine and a light breeze to keep the temperatures down. The trail led us through some classic New Zealand bush, full of beautiful greenery. We reached the Pinnacles Hut around 1pm for lunch, and then the glorious peak around 2pm for some fantastic 360 degree views of the Coromandel Peninsula. And of course the first thing people do is check their phones for 3G reception and post to Facebook. We returned to the carpark in just under 3.5 hours to start the drive home at 6pm. Despite some traffic woes along State Highway 2, we were back at mine at 9pm. Day was seized!
I spent Thursday cleaning the house in anticipation of my parents' return from Malaysia, but enjoyed yet another round of Peking Duck from Sun World with some ex-colleagues and current colleagues. Mitchell and David were feeling a bit adventurous, so we made our way into town and got some milk tea from Hulucat. Asian things that you can't get easily in Wellington :( Their taro milk tea with mango pudding is still as good as I remember.
On Friday, I was at Charlotte's house for hers and Jono's engagement party. Though it was a bit windy, the barbeque was stacked full and grilling a multitude of steaks and sausages. We did run out of gas though, so we resumed cooking on the frying pan. There was plenty of food to be had and it was great to meet the rest of the bridal party, with plans in motion for the stag do as well! Exciting times... Jono and Charlotte's wedding will be only one of three weddings I'm going to this year!
I had dinner with my parents and grandmother at Star Cafe on Manukau Road on Saturday, then went to Ben's for some games afterwards. I got to play Mafia as a real player for the first time in forever, and dominated as a civilian (bahahah). Some interesting rules in this game, I didn't quite like the voting and trial system, but thought that it was interesting that the sniper dies from guilt if he doesn't shoot a Mafia. Might just steal this for my own games ^_^
Sunday was church in the morning, Mexicali Fresh in Newmarket for lunch, DotA in the afternoon (it was grim...), a quick catch up to see my nephew before leaving, then a BBQ with the CSC at Sarah's. Good to see them, even if it only happens once, at approximately the same time each year. I felt a bit bad for turning up (almost uninvited too, trololol), eating, then rushing off to catch my flight.
And so today is Monday and even today is drawing to a close quickly (I've had two naps today). I've had a great Christmas and New Years but it's time to head back to work... soon.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:28am on Monday January 7, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Monthly Check-In
Thursday July 26, 2012
I think it took me about a week in New Zealand to realise I wasn't on holiday anymore and to feel back in routine and get over the jetlag. Only a week :( But here I am, just over a month later and America seems like such a long time ago.
Things have been busy since I got back. There was the release of Black 2 and White 2 in Japan, as well as Pokemon Conquest in English. I've been busy hacking bits of information from the ROM with a friend of mine who is originally from Canada but is on a student exchange in Singapore. The developers have chosen to lay the information out in strange ways. Normally things are aligned to byte boundaries, but in Conquest, you often find clumps of data that span any number of bits between 3 and 10, making it difficult to discern data. Progress has been slow but the more we become used to this stupid system, the more patterns we find in the data. We had some great breakthroughs using Tinke's graphics utilities to batch export the Warrior and Pokemon Gallery images - exciting stuff!
Work at Sidhe has been pretty full on as well. Upon arriving back, I'd learned that I had been reassigned to another project starting immediately, and due out at the end of October. We are still in the prototype phase, and finding many challenges with the development and design. Stay tuned for exciting updates! We'll be on both iOS and Android.
I was in Taupo at the start of the month for Richard and Tanya's wedding. The weather was brilliantly sunny, despite dropping to -1C overnight. The lake and snow-capped mountains in the distance make the area so scenic. The church ceremony was okay, the highlight being the newlyweds walking out to the tune of the Star Wars theme. The reception though was great - fresh oysters galore! It was great catching up with school friends that I hadn't seen in a while, even if some of them still owe me money for accommodation. It was a great weekend away from Wellington, and to cap it all off, I coincidentally bumped into my youth group friends from Auckland in Turangi's Burger King. Small country >_>
I caught up with one of my old flatmates who had moved to the UK four years and is back in New Zealand for a month or so. It was a socially draining but very enjoyable weekend. Also got to play a bit of 7 Wonders too! Good times.
I still haven't sorted out my photos from America. There's over 2500 of them (and not all of food) but hopefully when the dust from Conquest settles, I'll have some time to go through all of them and process them.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:54am on Thursday July 26, 2012 :: 0 comments ::
Counting Down
Wednesday May 2, 2012
So the project I've been working on for the past four months or so is finally in submission and we're just waiting for Apple to review it. Once that's done, it'll be out on the AppStore and you awesome people who actually read my blog will be the first to know about it. You get more points if you actually download it too. I can provide hugs and/or personalised thank you messages with the download if you so wish.
It hit me in the shower last night that my trip to the US is really close. I am really excited. Excited about the chance to travel and get away for a while. Really excited about the food. Reminiscing about all the delicious things I ate in San Francisco last year - especially that Key Lime and Mango Cheesecake, oh my goodness it was soooo good. Excited about friends I'll be catching up with and friends who I haven't met in person before. It's going to be amazing.
In short since my last update:
- saw the Avengers movie (it was awesome)
- finished the game Limbo
- still playing weekly badminton (two new recruits this Saturday!)
- average weekly alcohol consumption has increased (hopefully tolerance too)
- helped to ship a project I didn't work on (I actually just pushed buttons on a webpage) - this is now out on the App Store as DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop!
- sang "My Heart Will Go On" at karaoke on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, and scored 100% for it
- decoded a secret message that said two of my good friends are engaged (most convoluted way ever - but still better than updating your Facebook status) - congratulations to you both!
- started watching Adventure Time, Invader Zim and Samurai Pizza Cats
The days are quite short now and the cold has definitely set in. Winter is here :(
Posted by Jeremy at 7:51am on Wednesday May 2, 2012 :: 2 comments ::
Hamilton - More of a Shallow Pit than a Hole
Wednesday February 15, 2012
I was in Hamilton over the weekend for a friend's wedding. We drove up on the Friday and back down again on the Sunday - a surprisingly large number of roadworks being done on State Highway 1 meant the drive took longer than expected. We had some delicious woodfire pizza in Tokoroa before reaching our destination, a holiday home on the east side of Hamilton, around 9pm. I swear it was raining moths at one point, with the stupid insects committing suicide all over the bonnet of my car. Disgusting.
Saturday was the day of the wedding. Since the ceremony was not until after lunch, we decided to check out the city center and found some nice cafes along the main road. One could have easily mistaken the scene for Cuba Street really, the food was nice, with an the atmosphere to match. I guess if you go to Hamilton with the expectation it's a horrible void of swirling toilet waste, and it turns out that, hey, there's some nice places, then you'll come away with an improved opinion of the city. The weather was nice and sunny and certainly this was a nice change from the overcast gloom of Wellington - though I suspect the weather was equally nice and sunny in our absence.
Anyway, Jono and I performed our usheral duties admirably and the ceremony went off without a hitch. The reception also went well and the food was delectable - although my only complaint is that the ham was a bit too salty! The cheesecake however, was divine, as was the pavlova, and the wedding cake, which was masterfully decorated with 6kg of white chocolate planks, was also delicious.
We stopped in Tirau for lunch at the Cabbage Tree Cafe on the way back to Wellington on Sunday. Tirau, despite its size, has some excellent cafes and certainly ranks above Hamilton in terms of character and likeability. We were home by 6pm and that gave me enough time to clean the stupid suicidal bugs off my car.
What a weekend. Congratulations to the married couple, Jono and Karlyn Dixon! Photographs are in the gallery.
Posted by Jeremy at 7:57am on Wednesday February 15, 2012 :: 0 comments ::
Missing Auckland
Monday December 5, 2011
I often get asked if I would move back (or when I'm moving back) to Auckland for work. A few months ago, I thought about how hard it would be to leave what I have now - a good job, great friends, a good flat and flatmate, 15 minutes to anywhere in town, badminton on Saturdays, Strawberry Fare - and many other things. I thought about how awkward it would be if I went back to Auckland, but only because I hadn't been back since Easter and it felt like I'd drifted apart from people. I know I complain a lot about Wellington, especially about the weather and the lack of good Asian food, but the city is neat and compact, it has character and most importantly, after 4 years, it's finally feeling more like home.
I was in Auckland last weekend for a friend's wedding (I missed that big 5.7 earthquake too). Two of my other friends at the wedding were in a similar situation to me - they felt like they'd drifted apart from various people there and were wondering if it was going to be awkward seeing them again after so long. But it wasn't. We just slotted back in naturally and it felt like nothing had changed. It felt good. It was good to be reminded that strong friendships endure time and distance, and for that I'm thankful.
The wedding was amazing. The bride was an hour late - I know it's the norm for brides to be late to a wedding but Jo has never been known for her punctuality anyway, so it was a compounding effect. The ceremony was nice and the food was delicious. Jo had set up a candy bar for people to take away a sweet reminder of the day - such a great idea! I want a candy bar at my wedding. After cleaning up the church, we went to the reception restaurant to begin preparations for the night's dinner.
And what a dinner. Buffet style, unlimited oysters. I had 10! No regrets. The seafood was fresh and juicy, the roast pork, chicken and beef were sumptuous and the salads were light and refreshing. There was two different kinds of cheesecake for dessert - one was lemon, the other was some kind of chocolate concotion, I think. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it tasted like there was some kind of berry flavour. In any case, I was lucky I didn't overeat because it was time to break it out on the dance floor. Party rock - whoo!
I caught up with my school mates at Sun World for yum cha. And again, there was no awkwardness (apart from the natural awkward aura that Tom provides) - we just chatted like old times. Food was top notch as usual. We went our separate ways and I went to catch up with my sister. I haven't seen my nephew in so long - he's grown so much and he is still absolutely adorable. He's a bouncy baby and smiles back at you when you smile at him. It was so cute when he tried to grab the cat - I feel sorry for the poor cat, as my nephew is just clutching whatever his little hands can grip: whiskers, ears, fur, tail!
My flight was quite late so my parents and I went out for dinner at KK with some relatives who were visiting from Brisbane. I hadn't seen them in around 10 years and I was shocked to see how much the three girls had grown. I wouldn't have been able to recognise them in the street. It was good to see them again and of course, the food really hit the spot. Why can't we get nice things like that in Wellington!?
Photos from this brief but very enjoyable trip to Auckland in the gallery.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:47am on Monday December 5, 2011 :: 4 comments ::
Chap Goh Mei
Sunday February 28, 2010
Today is the 15th and final day of Chinese New Year, and I thought it would be appropriate to share a soppy love song at church this morning, so two weeks ago I recruited Jono and phonetically taught him some Mandarin and today, with all our friends watching eagerly and the church congregation not knowing what to expect, the two of us sang Tong Hua.
So nervewracking. I actually stuffed up in the middle of the song but thank goodness I managed to hit the right note to keep going.
Anyway, last night we were at Arashi celebrating the "end of Chinese New Year" ¬_¬ and it was just great for everyone to get together and catch up over a nice meal and an awesome dessert.
Strawberry Fare has three new desserts on their menu! I wanted to try the Chocolate Bleeding Heart which was chocolate pudding with Baileys in the centre, but unfortunately they had run out so I tried the Lime Tart which was absolutely delicious. Beth tried the Flourless Cake, which was a gluten free chocolate cake with some berries, much like the Raspberry Drenched Cake.
We were approached by a lady from a nearby Hen's Night table who was seeking a random guy for the bride-to-be to kiss and Dave volunteered, with hilarious results. We continued to analyse Dave's love life using the wine bottles, wine glasses and salt and pepper shakers to illustrate various people.
Last weekend I was up in Auckland for Hsin-Yao's wedding, so it was really good catching up with all my school mates at the same time. I figured I would leave the people photos for someone else to handle (I'm looking at you, Mat) so all you will see on my blog are food photos. You'll also notice we went to Sylvia Park to kill time between the church service and the reception, and I stumbled upon EB's shelf of Rugby League 3 games! \o/
On Sunday, I randomly turned up at KCC and attended the young adults bible study, before having Chinese New Year dinner with family and friends, before an 11 hour bus back to Wellington...
Posted by Jeremy at 5:49am on Sunday February 28, 2010 :: 2 comments ::