Travel Diary: Sydney (Day 2)

Continuing our adventures around Sydney, we started our day bright and early at the Fish Market. Known for its fresh seafood, the Sydney Fish Market is one of the must-go places when visiting Sydney!

Sydney Fish Market

It didn't disappoint. 10 minutes into sitting down with our food, I found the girl gobbling up her lobster and abalone like there was no tomorrow. Her verdict: excellent and worth the money spent! 

One catch about the Fish Market is to be careful of the seagulls flying around if you pick a seat outside! These birds have been known to swoop down and grab your food so be very wary :)

Afterwards, we found our way back to the city for souvenir-shopping. Strolling along Strand Arcade, we got to Haigh's and piled our basket with chocolates. My favourites were the marshmallow kokettes and chocolate-coated nougats. There are quite a few of these chocolate shops around the vicinity so if you're looking to get souvenirs for a friend who's a chocolate-lover, this is the place to go.

Next stop: Circular Quay.

And we rounded off the night with dinner at Hurricane's. The ribs were amazing, as always. :)

Christmas is around the corner! I love it when all the Christmas lights and decorations go up; it puts you in such a festive mood. Though it's also a timely reminder that the year's coming to a close. Makes me ponder over what I've achieved this year - I'll save that for another post :) Have you done your Christmas shopping? What are your plans this Christmas? ;)

And I'll end off this post with this: 

Hope. Dream. Glow. X'mas.

Travel Diary: Sydney

Stellina came to Sydney to visit earlier this week! Even though it's been three years since I moved to Sydney, it's been quite a while since I last toured this city, so going around with her again was a refreshing experience. 

Our first stop: Centennial Park.

After an hour exploring the park, we finally found our way to the Equestrian Centre where the horses were housed. (Travel Tip: definitely remember to check the map for where you're headed before you go or you'll easily find yourself getting lost in the park!)

her selfie stick got so many strangers staring at us! it was hilarious but so fun HAHA

The walk was totally worth it. We didn't expect horse-riding to be so popular so we skipped out on making a booking and missed out our chance for a ride on the horses, but at least we got to have a tour around the stables! The Equestrian Centre houses 5 different stables, so there's bound to be one that suits what you're looking for. Lesson learnt is definitely to remember to make bookings for your horse-riding lesson! The last time I rode a horse was probably 10 years ago, so seeing these horses again was really quite exciting.

Our next stop: Bondi Beach.

I think this reignited my love for beaches. I've been a parks > beaches person for over a year now. But revisiting this beach again made me all happy-chappy. There are plenty of cafes just along the beach, so it's a great place to relax and chill for a couple of hours. Tons of people come here to surf, and the beach is located about a 20-minute bus ride from the city so it's incredibly convenient. I imagine that if I could choose the location of my dream house, I would want one overlooking a beach like that.

Rounded off the night with pancakes!

Good night, Sydney.

Updates on Day 2 will be up soon :)

Recent obsessions

I can't quite explain it, but recently I've grown pretty very fond of the idea of studying and living in Los Angeles. There's something so magical about the city that even though I haven't been there in person, the images I'm looking at, the blogs I read, and the videos I watch all make me crave a trip to LA so ridiculously badly.

Los Angeles, or the city of dreams, as they love to call it.

I concur that it's probably because I've been reading a tad too much of fashiontoast.com but part of this obsession can also be attributed to this korean drama series that I've been hooked on. The Heirs, anybody? It's been a while since I've indulged in a drama like that. When you think about it, it's your typical korean drama storyline - poor girl, by some twist of fate, meets the heir of a multimillion dollar company and it just so happens that he falls in love with her. Yes, sounds predictable so far? And then comes along the ex-best friend of this heir, who also happens to be another well-to-do, and he, too, falls in love with the same girl. Wunderful. What does make this plot better is that the acting of the entire cast is very decent, there's not a single actor who isn't remotely an eye candy, and there are some moments in the drama that really make you go gah-gah. Probably something that the everyday girl would fall for, aka me. 

Seriously, though! You can't say no to some of these moments.

And in the meantime, I'll just be dreaming about my trip to LA.

Things I've learnt from just missing the gold medal

10th November 2014 is a date I'll always remember because it reminded me once again that good is never really enough. People aspire for better things and always want better things than they've already gotten, but this is just a part of human nature. 

So we learn to accept. We learn to take a step back and think about things in the perspective of an overall view and I realise, 'what's there to be sad about?' I got what I expected and predicted exactly what would come out of it, and I've completed the project in its entirety without any regrets.

For someone who started this project, absolutely clueless about what direction to take with it, and finally completing it with considerably good marks - why am I still feeling like I've lost when I've won more than I'll ever know?

This year has been extremely rewarding. It's taught me so many facets to writing a good paper, to being a better person, to reading countless interesting articles and in a sense, it has altered the way I look at things. As they say, the biggest takeaways are not in the ending point - it's always in the process. 

Ask me to do it over, and I wouldn't have done it much differently. And why do I say that? Because everything happens for a reason. At least now I know not to take the little things for granted, and I have, in a way, paid the price for it. 

Other things aside, I knew from the outset that this was a mountain to climb and I launched into it with barely enough oxygen to take me to the top, but I went ahead anyway. And I made it.

Three years ago I asked myself what I would get out of embarking on a degree like this. Three years later, I've attained it. What matters is never really in the present frame, but the goals you look forward to checking off in the future and the things you hope to achieve in a year, in two years, maybe even three.

So, where do you see yourself in one year? 

On priorities

I'm moving back in a couple of weeks so there's only a few days left for me to decide what my plans are for next year. Nothing's definite, but you gotta take the step forward to go somewhere right? 

In the midst of all this packing it's made me think about what I want to keep and how I'm going to bring everything important back home with me. That's probably why I've started musing about other things like what I would do if I only had an hour to live? If not meeting a person, then what hobby?

What movie would you watch if you could only watch 1 movie? 

What books would you read if you could only choose to read 5 books for the remainder of your life? 

Though to be frank, I've sometimes wondered how long it would take for one person to finish reading all the books in just one column of a library shelf. 

It does, in a way, force you to think about where your priorities lie.

I suppose I've always been the type of person to wonder about all the different possibilities and want to try all the things I can get my hands on, but if I asked you to pick the one thing - just one thing - you'd set foot on first… What would it be?