Day 43 - meatballs!

My favorite meal in IKEA - gluten free carrot cake & meatballs!

take away for our apartment!

Looooong day at work. Luckily I like my job. From our recent trip in IKEA. I looove their meatballs!

Day 42 - The Loft Cafe

Before my shift at work, Ana invited me for lunch at the Loft Cafe before it closes this Sunday. She bribed me with coffee and I ended up having beef sausages and chocolate croissant with it. AND I saw the longest bananas I've seen in my life. No Pun Intended

.

Good brunch

Day 41 - Shared Stalls

This post is dedicated to my sister and Hailey :) Now you can go to the stall together. SYNCHRONIZED PEEING. Come to Sydney and pee. Bea wants to pee in the small one :)

Day 40 - Reward

After my first big assignment and mid-term exam, I decided to get a treat. One of my two favorite partners in crime. CHOCOLATE and ORANGE :) Bea and I both love this. MINT and CHOCOLATE is a close second.

I try to avoid chocolate but sometimes I need it.

OOH. And thanks to all my friends who have been reading my blog. I've been keeping my promise of uploading one picture a day. I hope I can do this the rest of the year :) More than 2000 views and I've been in Sydney barely a month and a half! Thanks for the support! I'll try to make the pictures as interesting as possible!

Day 39 - I love my eggs

There's nothing like a nice plate of scrambled eggs, omelet, eggs benedict or sunny-side up to start my day right. I love eggs for breakfast. I've been doing scrambled eggs the past month but since we got new pans from IKEA, I can finally do a decent omelet. Though I think I put too much inside that it sort of didn't close. Hehe!

Champagne ham, mozzarella cheese & cherry tomato omelet

Day 38 - beautiful bridge

A car ride down the famous Anzac bridge. Beautiful. I took a picture on our way to Ikea and on our way back.

Day 37 - IKEA

A Day in IKEA with my flatmates :)

Even though we accidentally brought home the wrong table, I still got a beautiful almost perfect room. I have the nicest flatmates and our apartment is like a college dorm that has everything you can need. We even have a beautiful flower in our dining table :) Most people move places at least 3-4 times before settling, I got my perfect apartment in 1 try :) Thank you God for always taking care of me.

Day 36 - WARNING: Food-gasm

Breakfast courtesy of my ever late but lovable "Lil sis". Created by the cutest "CHEF" in the Loft cafe in Bondi Junction Westfield :)

*Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon
*Chocolate Croissant
*Strawberries and Banana Crepe

BREAKFAST at the Loft

Then a truly satisfying dinner, one of the cheapest meals I've had during my one month stay here but worth more in taste :) The LONGEST trek while raining during winter to Newtown for some authentic Thai food. My fingers felt frost bitten and I was ready to snap at anyone who had food in their hands. It was worth the almost one hour walk to get here. Hehehe!

*Pad Thai with Pork
*Spring Rolls
*Satay Chicken
*Cream Cheese New York Cheesecake Pie

Thai Dinner at Newtown

What a great day of food, friends and secrets revealed :)

Day 35 - Rainy Winter Night

Dinner, Dessert and Movie on a random Thursday night

After four days of studying, I decided to take one night off. It took me almost an hour to get from my campus to my apartment during rush hour when it normally takes me 10 minutes! Wow!
Please stop raining Sydney. Its been 4 days.

DAY 34 - Healthy lunch?

Chicken Parmigiana, Chips and Garden Salad

Would you call this a healthy lunch?

Day 33

"Your blog is full of pictures", an avid blog reader of mine commented. Hahaha! Well, its only appropriate since my blog name does rhyme and sound like DIMSUM.

Anyway, this post is dedicated to Ely and my Hong-Kong driven girls who love this brand. COTTON ON is not a big deal here, in fact it's like Kamiseta or Bayo. Though local Australian brands are given greater priority than imported brands, COTTON ON is affordable, like a small SM boutique that is everywhere! So here it is, right in front of my street. As in, I can be there in 30 seconds from my apartment. Cool huh.

I must say though, I'm in love with local Australian brands that are affordable like Sports Girl, Ally, Bardot and Seduce to name a few!

Day 32 - Stressful Day

Fries and Sundae to brighten up my day

1st month in Sydney

I've survived! I've done all my laundry batches successfully, I've been cooking and eating well, my room is vacuumed with new sheets every week and I've even started exercising! I miss futsal and wake boarding terribly but I'll be doing that within a week or a month so I'm looking forward to it!

Key-less lockers for gyms in Manila like in Sydney!

Day 30

Harry Potter Marathon the whole afternoon and then watching the last movie. Epic.
Apparently, people who don't read the book but have watched all the movies are not true Harry Potter Fans because we ask too many questions :)

Pizza, beer, pasta, popcorn, gumballs, nachos and chips were all consumed in a span of an afternoon. Yes, that's how we roll.

In tribute to Harry's last movie :)

Awesome!

Day 29 - Sydney Fish Market, Bondi Beach & Jackson's On George

By far, this tops my list of one of my best day AND night in Sydney so far.

It was a great day because of the company I was with such as my Sydney sister Bea, and some new sort of "old" friends. I felt like I knew them longer than today or at least closer than even from Ateneo where I knew some of them. And to celebrate my 1st month here, I finally got to drink after my 1 month detox from all the despedidas. Hahaha!

And my day went something like this (full set of pics in my private Facebook account) :

1) SYDNEY FISH MARKET
Highlights *Seafood Platter for four
               *Fending our food against the seagulls by the docks

Seafood Platter!

1) Winter Festival at Bondi Beach
Highlights * FRIED MARS BAR YUM! No wonder Oprah loves it.
               * Free chai latte which Bea took advantage of :)
               * Rink in the middle of the beach. Sand+Ice equals wet boots.

 

3) Dinner at Nando's & Drinks/Dancing at Jackson's on George
Highlights *Yummy Portuguese Chicken at Nando's
               *Moe dancing the Party Rock anthem
               *Kitin & Mendel's laugh fest in Mcdonalds
               *Dancing girls in the poles
               *Finished a pint of beer because it cost $9. I HATE BEER :)

Got home at 3am. Just like Manila on a Friday night. DETOX OVER. But got to super study next week :)
 

Day 28

My box finally came! It felt like Christmas. Due to the massive amount of stuff that my wonderful sister was able to put inside, my room would look like a giant closet and supply area. So I went to K-mart and bought a nice hot pink plastic case to put my seasonal clothes.
It was my lazy day of cleaning and studying.

Chaos!

DAY 27 (Sydney Aquarium & Cooking Night)

It was a great day.

First, it was my first real "TOURIST" place to visit in Sydney and luckily it was free, thanks to my side job. Luckily, I was allowed to bring a friend and Bea hasn't been there yet. We felt like kids who were dropped in the water! I truly had fun exploring and seeing all the majestic creatures underwater :) Here's some of the highlights:

Happy Feet!

Let's see who blinks first!

Even fishes want to chill and just lie in the sand

Being kids :)

Oh bea. I told her no touching.

Dugong!

Sting Ray mid stroke

No traffic rules for fishes

Finding Nemo!

Blue Tang

Blowfish

Jaws. Freaking scary

Do sharks yawn? I caught him in action!

After spending half a day looking at fishes, we got hungry! So we decided to do our first cooking night. It was me, Bea and Kenny.

MENU FOR THE NIGHT:

Annick - Cheesy Chicken Mushroom Pasta
Bea - Chorizo Tomato Penne
Kenny - Herbal Chicken Soup

More to come fo sho! :)

DAY 26 (Sydney bag collection)

I remember talking to my old "teammates" Katey and Yna, regarding which of my bags to bring to Sydney. Since my love for these frivolous things started in 2008, which coincidentally is the same time I started in SSI hmmmm, I've decided to not buy bags for a year (unless its on SALE) while I'm here.

So after weeding out the DOs (Bring the YSL definitely because Katey will use it if I leave it Manila) and DONTs (Not the Gucci because you can't sling it over your shoulder), I decided on the TOP 5 below :)

YSL Muse, Longchamps, LV Neverfull and Michael Kors

So, cheers to my goal of not adding to my collection while I'm here! :)

DAY 25 (3 meals a day keeps the doctor away)

I'm getting the hang of this blog thing. I actually was able to do links and make my page look presentable!  Look at the right tab ------->

Anyway, below is a typical breakfast-lunch-dinner for me if I'm not stuck in school. I hope to get more creative with my shots in the future. And even though I "pretend" to be healthy, I usually have a cookie or chips after each meal. Hahaha!

Scrambled Egg w/ Parma Ham, Cherry Tomatoes & Onions, Peanut Butter slice and apple juice

TAKE AWAY lunch - Thai Iced Tea with Minced Pork & Black Fish over Rice

Ceasar Salad w/ Cherry Tomatoes, Shredded Chicken & Bacon Bits :)

I made 2 out of 3 meals! Not bad!

DAY 23 and 24

Saturday : I tortured myself by going window-shopping. I don't like it. I cannot indulge until I get a job. I can feel it. Next week is my week :) Crossing my fingers.

DAY 23 : Torture

Today, I went to a new church which is nearer than St. Mary's Cathedral. Mass is earlier so I don't have to walk in the cold. I still prefer St. Mary's but while it's "winter" in Sydney, the nearer the better.

I've been trying to make healthy meals until my Zumba classes start next week! Thanks to http://www.zumbaaustralia.com.au/! For dinner, Bacon-Tomato Marinara Pasta with a quarter chicken and one glass of Coke. After that it's water therapy. I'm only allowed one glass of non-water liquid every day. Let's see how long that'll last. Hahaha!

Oh yeah...and I had a M&M cookie for dessert :) Yum! I will try the Snickers cookie next time. $1.50 for 6 pieces!

DAY 24 : Pasta for dinner

Yes girls, I promise to cook for you when I get back! I have a year to practice :)

DAY 22

DAY 22 - Friday afternoon in the library

A picture is worth a thousand words. So these two are enough. Tiring day..