here today, gone tomorrow

it's been barely two months since i returned from my last trip to singapore, and i'm gearing up to return. thanks to the ability to take some leave without pay, this trip will be the longest i have ever stayed (and the longest i ever plan to stay) -- 5 weeks. within those 5 weeks i'll be hopping over to hong kong for a few days, catching up with YC, seeing some of the sights and maybe catching a movie or two at the hong kong international film festival. then island and i will also be joining up with noodlez, mellow yellow and slam man for a a week in kota kinabalu, including climbing mt kinabalu.

should be fun :)

i've barely caught up with the uploading of photos since the start of the trip... but here's a roundup in pictures of some of what i've been up to since late december.

• clay caloundra outing
• SWANS christmas gathering at oishii sushi and nza's place
• Singapore trip
• day 1
• day 2
• isabelle (my neice!)
• day 4
• days 5 & 6
• stillfishing DG retreat day 1
• stillfishing DG retreat day 2 + ARPC NYE dinner
• new years day
• week 2 (can you tell i was getting a bit lazy with my albums by this stage? :p)
• sydney pit stop for some nice ribs... hmm... yummm!
• BLT (brisbane leadership training conference)
• NBL finals game 3

phew!

got a few days left to get all my packing and other prep done... i feel quite disorganised and tight on time, so probably shouldn't be sitting here blogging! anyways, gonna go salivate at the prospect of eating some nice nice food, such as the likes of the fare featured on singapore food blogs like ieatishootipost. might even try to tag along as a makankaki if i get the chance :)

previously on...

greetings from singapore. now that i'm on holidays, and internet access outside of APAC have been severely disrupted by the recent earthquake in taiwan, it seems a perfectly logical time to blog... right?! anyways, entries have been somewhat infrequent around here, so i thought i'd try to do a bit of a recap of what i've been up to in the last month or two, before a new year begins. here goes:

• saturday 04 november -- visit to the newly opened ikea logan. i was enticed by ivan's ravings about ikea's famous sausages which he regularly ate in KL. alas, this particular ikea did not serve them! anyways we went for lunch and a walk around the massive store. [photos]
  
  
• saturday 04 november -- went along to a surprise birthday party for ST, and subsequently hung out with a few unicellers for more surprises and dessert at the newly reopened (and relocated) blue lotus dessert lounge. [photos]
  
  
• sunday 05 november -- watoto childrens choir performance at a local church
  
  this is a video clip of their opening sequence. it's the second time i've seen the choir perform, and much of it felt familiar / similar to the first viewing. i guess the novelty wore off, but the message they bring still makes an impact. check out their tour dates to see if/when they're coming to a venue near you.
  
  
• thursday 09 november -- dinner at the ottoman cafe in west end with ST and HZ, catching up a year after we last had a similar meet and eat. [photos]
  
  
• thursday 16 - tuesday 21 november -- flew to sydney to meet ES and co. from singapore, visiting to attend MH's wedding. [photos]
  
  also caught up with my sister and BIL, who took us to bills surry hills for brunch. they have almost all of bill's cookbooks, and reckon his food is a goer - simple but tasty. my scrambled eggs with toast and gravlox salmon don't look as interesting as the sweet corn fritters sis ordered, but it was a fairly filling if not inexpensive meal. nice decor and fairly busy venue.
  
  photos specific to david and michelle's wedding on saturday 18 november are here.
  
  
• saturday 25 november -- visit to sirromet winery, as requested by ES. the shtes joined us for the winery tour and winetasting, followed by some scones for afternoon tea. a somewhat cultured feeling afternoon, leaving me as sure as ever that i just plain don't like wine. [photos]
  
  
• thursday 07 - monday 11 december -- went to sydney again for another long weekend to attend another wedding. flex leave is good :) a few of us from clay made the trek, and while there caught up with some other ex-brisbanites for a meal at tony roma's, famous for ribs. the collage shows the onion loaf entree my table had - a bit of a change in presentation from your usual onion rings - and also my regular slab of (what i think were the) carolina honeys ribs. i don't often order ribs but i have to say these were very nice indeed. anyways, photos of alex and jenn's wedding on saturday 09 december are here.

well that's about all i have up till about mid december. will probably post more about my christmas holidays etc when i get around to uploading photos and the like. which probably won't happen until after i return to brisbane. which means it'll be after i get back to work. which means i'll be slack again... ;)

hello photoblogging! yeah!

hooray! i've got photoblogging happening!

here are a few selected photos from my recent trip to sydney... click to see larger.


the entree: upon arrival, a quick pit stop at a newly opened krispy kreme doughnut shop... here you can see part of the 'conveyor belt' of doughnut production happening behind a perspex(?) wall. if you stand near the front counter long enough the staff usually offer you samples, so i contemplated just taking the samples we got given, and leaving! after all... i only wanted to try a sample... :p


the main course: watching the lion king at the capitol theatre. what a treat! pity they didn't allow photos inside the venue...


the dessert: a mid afternoon snack at the cho dumpling king in chinatown. this place was quite packed for 2:30 in the afternoon - we waited nearly half an hour to be seated. small, very cosy, and yeah pretty nice food :)

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man i don't know if this is just the novelty speaking but this photoblogging thing is so cool! i love it :D suits me almost to a tee... if i'm still feeling keen later on i might go and post up some other stuff from the last few months, although doing too much post-dated stuff feels somewhat at odds with my perception of the spirit of blogging :p