Day 5 - Science centre and the buffet

It is absolutely bucketing down rain again. As I deliberately coincided my holiday with the kids school holidays, we decided to go to the Science Centre. Completely indoors! My sister has a membership there that gives them unlimited entry. She also had a membership for the zoo, but unless I'm a maid, I can't use their free membership. So today, at the Science Centre, I'm the maid.

I wasn't too fussed with all the exhibitions, the kids were way more excited than I was.

If only I really COULD turn it on....

We also went to their omni theatre, which is a massive dome like theatre. Kind of like IMAX. But much bigger.


After 2 hours at the Science Centre, we decided to have lunch at the buffet outside the Omni Theatre. Japanese buffet! There is even a kitchen section, where you can order food made to order and delivered to your table!

Clockwise: Whiting, abalone, squid, king fish, tuna, salmon, octopus, ginger
Centre: Tamago (Egg)

Paper hotpot - Black chicken soup

Prawn and black chicken herbal soup

Grilled chicken chop

Baked oyster with ketchup and cheese........
Tempura prawns

Satay chicken sticks

Black pepper pork chops

Stuffed bean curds, siw mai, glutinous rice, corn, chickpeas

Me gorging on siw mai, steamed dumplings and tempura prawns

Laksa

Cold Cha soba

Taro and sweet corn ice cream

Eclair

After stuffing ourselves to the brim, it was time to head home and pack for Vietnam tomorrow. My sister was busy packing the kids school bags, sleepover bags, swimming bags, bowling bags, golfing bags, movie bags etc etc. I was busy packing my stuff for the trip.

I convinced my sister to share one suitcase and one hand luggage thinking it'll help us pack light. My sister had filled the suitcase before I even had a chance to put my stuff in! She even packed a chopping board for crying out loud!

It was a wet and dreary weather.

The clearest day I've had

Instead of going out for dinner like we originally planned, we sent my brother in law to go bring us back some dinner:

Hainese chicken rice with bbq pork

Fried hainese chicken rice with bbq pork

Hokkien Char Mee - Malay style

After dinner, we had to rush the kids over to my sister's friend's place where they're going to sleep over for the night. We then ran around trying to find a money exchange to make sure we had money to spend when we got to Vietnam! We also picked up a few buns for breakfast before crashing into bed after midnight.

Day 4 - Cycling at East Coast

Its been a good 10-15 years since I've been on a bike. But they're right in saying that you'll never forget how to cycle. Mind you, it didn't seem like that the first 2mins I got onto the bike. I narrowly missed crashing into a tree, and almost plowed my nephew over. But within 15mins, I was racing him down the bike track at East Coast, whilst my niece was trailing behind us asking us to slow down.

My sister, on the other hand, was breaking her back trying to teach my youngest nephew how to cycle without his training wheels.


I'm so proud of him!! It took him about 30mins to start cycling on his own! The rest of the time was spent trying to steer, start and brake. He didn't really get the braking down pat, and opted to crash land every time he wanted to stop. Hehehe

We cycled for 2 hours before lunch. t was my niece's special lunch day where she can eat all the gluten, dairy and egg that she wants. She gets 2 of these meals a week, so for today's meal, it had to be Maccas. One thing I love about Singapore Maccas is their fried chicken. Yes I know.... but their fried chicken is really really good! There's probably as many people eating Maccas chicken as they do KFC chicken.

As the kids scoffed down their Maccas meal, me and my sister had a light snack before dragging them to Subway with us.

After Subway, the plan was for the kids to go watch a movie with my sister whilst I went to Junction8 to do more shopping. They actually missed the movie, which turned out to be a good thing considering my sister had to prepare a whole heap of stuff before we went to Vietnam.

Since we knew we were going to be eating out every night in Vietnam, we decided to make our comfort detox soup for dinner.


Our "detox" soup usually involves a HEAP of veggies (About 80% is all veggies). Almost always have to have wongabok, mushrooms and mince. We also add a bit of fish balls and other types of veggies. This time we also added some sliced fish and topped it with fried onions.

Tropfest 2008

Despite the weather, we decide to brave it and attend Tropfest 2008. I made a quick dash to the shops and raid my cupboards to see what I could whip up. Not too bad of an effort even if I do say so myself.

Dark chocolate and almond crossiants

Innards of my great work!

Our picnic spread

Semi sun-dried tomatoes, grapes and grape tomatoes

Clockwise: Blue Brie, double brie, water crackers, dutch smoked cheese, champagne ham, pepper pate, hot spanish salami, gruyere cheese and caramelized onion pita crisps.

The crowd

One of the Tropfest sponsors was eclipse mints. We ended up scoring 14 packs between just me and Gus. Alan didn't end up getting ANY mints at all. Gus also won himself a brand new beach chair and free alcohol!

We actually had a really great time at Tropfest, and the movies this year was probably the best since I've been going. I really really enjoyed it. Too bad it started raining just before the intermission so we packed up and left. I definitely will be going again next year!

Australia Day long weekend at Jervis Bay

Day 1

Cookies had organised a weekend away to Jervis Bay. I took the Friday off work, after I dumped the responsibility of breaking the news to our Project Manager that the estimates for a project may be 5 times what he expected. What a great way to start the trip. The plan was for Gus to pick me up and we would drive down to Jervis Bay, around the same time that Cookies and friends would be leaving. Gus rocks up at my place on time, only to be greeted by my dad and my 7 bags. I think he had a semi stroke when he saw that. We shoved everything into the boot and off we went to Dan Murphy's. We had been given the responsibility of stocking up on alcohol for the trip. So here I am, in Dan Murphy's, with a trolley filled to the brim with alcohol. And who should I bump into? My Dad. He's eyes practically popped out when he saw the amount of alcohol I had in the trolley! He kept lingering around the cash register as we were paying, with his jaw practically on the floor. I have a lot of explaining to do.

We made a quick get away and shoved all the alcohol into the car. Gus has a new TomTom which we turned on to give us directions all the way to the front door of our rented house. Whilst we were nearing Kiama, I decided to give Cookies a call to see how far away they were, as there were talks of meeting up for lunch. Apparently they haven't even left the house yet. Good one. We were supposed to get the keys off her, but since we were supposed to leave around the same time, we figured she could keep the key. So what could we do? We stopped in Kiama and took a nice leisurely stroll around the town and I ended up showing Gus where the blow hole was.

The blow hole

We jumped back into the car and drove to Berry, where we had decided to stop for lunch. It also allows me to hit "The Berry Bon Bon" shop where we picked up the most delish triple choc rock candies last time. I clean the shop of their supplies before we went in search for food. Gus picked out this little café/restaurant in the back alley of some shop. Within minutes, we had ordered our lunch and a spider each. Apparenly Gus has never had a spider before, so I decided to devirginise him! LoL

Gus with his first spider

Chicken schnitzel burger with the works

Beef burger with the works

God the food was really good. I was completely stuffed by the time we were finished. We trundled back to the car and off we went to Jervis Bay. 5mins from our destination, Cookiez called to check where we were. Wow, I didn't realise we took that long sightseeing! They actually managed to beat us! It took us awhile to find the place as you need to find this tiny little secluded driveway, but we managed to pull up outside the house. This is when Cookiez comes running to check if we had a sleeping bag. Apparently our 3 bedroom house turned out to be a 2 bedroom house. We originally had 10 people sharing 8 beds. We now had 10 people sharing 6 beds. This will be a cosy holiday ;)

We unload everything into the house when Cookiez and the rest of the gang decided to go grocery shopping. Whilst they were out, I did the next important thing. Jellyshots.

1/2 of the alcohol and snack food supply

I also managed to squeeze a whole heap of alcohol into the fridge to start chilling. Life is all about priorities. When they get back from the shops, everyone relaxes a bit before Richard and Alex begins cooking dinner for the rest of us. Since it'll be a good few hours before dinner is ready, I headed out for a stroll around town when I bumped into Gus (who snuck out earlier). We scoped out the alcohol store before heading back to the house.

Dinner was a lovely spag bols put together by R&A. We completely stuffed ourselves with pasta and some wine before turning on the tv to watch Federer vs Djokovic.

Spag Bols

Half way through the night, Dave, Mey and Christine showed up as they left after work. Next thing you know, the corks are off the bottles and we're having shots. (I needed the alcohol to numb the pain of Federer losing!) We started playing drinking games which involved us drinking over 3/4 of a bottle of cowboy shots.

Since there were only 6 beds, we decided to rotate the sleeping arrangements each night just to be fair. So whilst half of the people decided to watch a DVD, I passed out into bed.

Day 2

10 people. One Bathroom. You gotta be quick otherwise you'll be waiting for ages! After a quick shower, I went downstairs to the aroma of freshly cooked bacon and eggs. After a nice breakfast, everyone got changed and ready for an early morning swim at the beach. I also bought a new brand of spray on sunscreen (Face of Australia) which was fantastic! This sunscreen is completely non greasey and so easy to apply! In fact, everyone started using it because it was so good. There were also a few trigger happy people who just went around spraying people with sunscreen (You know who you are!). We gathered our gear and headed into town so we could quickly pay for a dolphin cruise we were going to do later in the day. I also managed to pick up a really nice straw hat to stop me from turning into a Lobster! We then headed to Collingwood beach, which is about a 5-10min walk from our house and we had a fantastic time!

Walking to Collingwood beach

The waves were quite gentle and calm, letting people like me who isn't really confident to start swimming at the beach. We also brought along my Volleyball and a football which we tossed around and used as a floatie. We eventually packed everything up to go home for a shower before heading off to our cruise. I bought my DSLR camera along as well.






About 45mins into the cruise, we finally spotted a dolphin in the far farrrrr distance. Everyone swarmed to the front of the boat (Where I had planted myself for the entire ride) trying to spot the dolphin. Next thing you know, Christine (who was standing next to me) screamed "Dolphin!". I looked down and the Dolphin is DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH ME! My DSLR goes off like a fire cracker and I managed to capture the only shots of the dolphin.


After that, he was gone. The boat continued to cruise for awhile after that without a sight of a dolphin. I gave up and retreated to the cool and shadey cabin. About 15mins from when we're about to return back to shore, the boat slows down and an announcement goes over the PA that they've spotted some dolphins. Without thinking, we grabbed our cameras and ran onto the deck.

At first, I couldn't actually see any dolphins. Someone near me screamed and next thing you know, you can see the dolphin weaving in and out from under the boat. The dolphins like to ride the current the boat causes, so as the boat is going, they're catching a free ride, meaning plenty of photos for me!

Its breathing!

And you know the funny thing? We spotted these dolphins just a few hundred meters from where we were swimming today! We get back to shore and immediately find a cafe for lunch. Well, lunch at 4pm.

Another patriotic shot - It is Australia day after all

Mey wanted an artistic shot

My hooooooooge burger and chips!

Gus's $19 frozen snapper and chips

We head back to the house where we get ready and hit the beach again. This time round, the water was much colder and much much windier! Mind you, we had a fantastic time though. We head back to the house again where Mey and Dave were busy cooking dinner for everyone else. Luckily they were making Viet Summer Rolls, which is quite light. Everyone was quite full after that late lunch.

Viet summer rolls - Pork, beef and prawn

The rest of the night was spent infront of the TV watching Bourne Ultimatium.

Day 3

I ended up sleeping on the floor in the lounge room for the night and ended up freezing my arse off. I had to get up in the middle of the night to look for a jumper and tissue since my nose was all blocked up. I ended up getting up really early as well since it was so cold I couldn't sleep and had to have a shower to defrost. When people finally got up, it was basically a breakfast of Miso soup, instant noodles, bacon and eggs plus cereal.

We then packed our stuff for a day at the beach. Armed with my trusty beach umbrella and volleyball, we set up shop at Collingwood beach. As I'm laying there relaxing, Gus decided it was time to give his volleyball net a go.

Gus warming up

Hmm...what does this button do?

Is there candy in this thing?

The boys comparing the length of their rods

Apparently its alot more complicated than extending the pole and tying it down..... *cough*

We gave up on the net and decided to just play volleyball in the water. By "volleyball" we mean a bunch of full grown adults screaming, yelping, screeching and splashing about to keep the ball in the air. We had an absolute blast of a time and there were quite a few people who looked like they wanted to join in on the game. But there were also a few who wanted to drown us.

We called it quits and headed back to the house around lunch time to avoid the sun. This was a chance to grab a quick bite, which meant gorging on chips and dip. But Gus did cook me lunch!


After that, we basically lazed about and watched TV for awhile before we all bundled into the car to Hyams beach. We had originally planned for a Volleyball rematch, but the minute we saw the waves crashing to shore, we knew that it wasn't going to happen. Didn't stop us from trying though. That is, until the ball gets dragged out to sea.

We then spent the next hour getting dumped again and again by the waves. There were a few times where I got completely smashed by the waves and got dragged backwards on my ass back to shore. I almost lost my board shorts a few times and ended up with an ass full of sand. I gave up after a while, but it still took me about 30mins to feel like I was back on land.

Back at the house, whilst everyone was having a shower, it was me and Christine's turn to make dinner. On the menu was a bacon, olive and chillie pasta bake, with home made garlic bread and salad.

The spread

MmMmm cheesy....

My plate round 1

Half way through dinner, the Australian Open Men's finals were on. So we pretty much spent the rest of the night watching Djokovic play Tsonga. I ended up having to drink half a bottle of alcohol because I couldn't stand the suspense! I wanted Tsonga to win so badly!!! The night ended pretty early as we had an early day tomorrow.

Day 4

We had ALOT of leftover pasta from last night. So breakfast was another carb loaded pasta meal. We quickly got changed and headed down to the beach. And although it was grey and cloudy, we committed and all jumped into the water for a last game of volleyball! It was then time to do some final packing a good clean of the house before we headed back to Sydney. All in all, it was a fantastic trip!!!