The start of the eating spree

After getting rudely woken up at 9am with a hangover, I managed to pack my bags for a night out with the girls and headed into the city. After dumping everything at the hotel, we caught a cab to my favourite Jap restaurant Don Dons. (I'm not giving the address as its crowded enough and I don't want the prices to go up!!) All of my friends who have been to Don Don's absolutely love their udon noodle soup. Whenever you order a meal, they generally give you a piece of sushi, or a small bowl of udon noodle soup. We always swap the sushi for their udon. ALWAYS.

Entree udon noodle soup - the best you will ever have. I guarantee it.

After their udon noodle soup, their seaweed udon salad will have to come a close second. This is a must have in Summer, and a must have most of winter as well.

Seaweed udon salad

After completely stuffing ourselves, MnMs had to meet up with some friends to go to the Human Body exhibition. As I knew I'd be nursing a hangover, I decided to skip that and go to the Paddington Markets with Cookies instead. After a lot of impulse buys, we decided it was time for some cookie ice cream sandwiches!

Mochaccino - Chocolate cookies with espresso ice cream

Chocolate cookies with strawberry ice cream

God these were so good! And such a great way to celebrate our impulse buys! We really wanted their strawberry shortcake version, but they were all sold out. Oh wells, we both had bags of chocolate coated coffee beans (Creme brulee and mint flavours) and that should tide us over til dinner time.

We caught a bus back to the city, and stopped by World Square to pick up some snacks and ice cream for the night. After we got back to the hotel, we freshed up and decided to take a nap whilst waiting for MnMs to show up again. It was this time, when the both of us were in bed together, that house keeping decided to burst in. God this looked really REALLY bad. I swear there were no wandering hands under the covers!!!

When MnMs finally showed up, we did some DVD shopping before going to our favourite Spanish Restaurant, Encasa. Ever since we took MnMs here, this has become a "must visit" place. We decided to forgo the paella, and focus on the tapas. I think we got a bit greedy...

Octopus marinated in Lime

Spinach and pine nut omelette

King prawns in a saffron tomato sauce

Bread rolls to mop up the sauce

Fried potatoes with spicy salsa and garlic mayo

Chorizo fried in a herb butter

Garlic mushrooms

We were soooooooo full by the end of the meal! I wanted a lot more bread rolls to mop up all the delicious sauce, but I felt like my stomach was going to split open! But the food was so good!! I think the jug of sangria really pushed us over the edge though.

Because we were so full, and MnMs was so trashed, we decided to take a walk around the city and ended up at Darling Harbour. It was inside the shopping centre that we spent an entire hour in the shoe store because some people can't decide what shoes to buy! We actually got locked into the store because someone also insisted on fixing the shoes and rearranging their shelves!!!

After walking off all the food, we headed back to the hotel room and thats when the snacks and shot glasses came out:

Cowboy shots!

Lets just say we had a very interesting night. Lots of gossiping, LOTS of laughing, and there was an incident that involved ice cream and a window. We finally crashed into bed after 1am.

Crazy week follows a crazy weekend

Yes I know I've been really lazy in blogging. My excuse is that work is absolutely crazy! I'm in meetings a good 5 hours each day, sometimes I don't even sit at my desk for a full hour before I'm in another meeting. I'm staying back every night and I've resorted to taking things home to do as well! Anyway, thats my excuse. So what have I really been up to? Lets start with last Friday. We had a massive company wide party meeting. This was held at the Horden Pavillion at Fox Studios. We even hired out the exhibition hall next door to it. I won't go into too much detail, but basically, it was bloody awesome! I didn't take my photos the whole night since I was around my big boss, and I was preoccupied with the alcohol and food. But heres a few snaps anyway:

Acrobats

They thought it was a great idea to have these massive balloons bouncing around the room, until the balls started smashing glasses and beer bottles. My bag got a whole glass of champagne, whilst my workmate copped a glass of wine to her back. The balls disappeared quite quickly after that. They had a great band, a massive paella stand (Which I missed out on!), cocktails (Which I also missed out on!) and lots of finger food. I was busy acting sober around my big boss and didn't get much food. All I know was every time I turned around, people were munching on lamb chops, prawns etc etc. GRRRRR

I stayed til we got kicked out, and it took me a good 1.5hrs to get my bags from the cloak room and then line up for the taxi. By the time I got home, it was past 1am.

Early the next morning, I get a 9am call. MnMs is up from Melbourne, and since I had my work party, I didn't get to join her for dinner on the Saturday. The plan was to get up whenever I recovered from my hangover, head towards the city for my favourite Japanese restaurant. Somehow, I still got woken up at 9am!! Multiple times by different people! GOD DAMN YOU PEOPLE!! LET ME SLEEP IN!!

When I finally did get up, it was the start of a massive eating spree! (Which I'll do in separate posts)

Whoa! Slow down!!!

I can't believe how crazy work has become over the last few days. Thursday last week things were still ok. I had completed my project way ahead of schedule with only a few other tasks that needed attention. So I was asked to jump onto another project as peacemaker/cleaner-uper. Basically, poo hit the fan, there were conflicts and heated arguments, and I was thrown into the mix to make everything better. I finally managed to settle everything down and was ready to put my head down and charge along with the actual work, when at 3pm, my old project manager came up to me and said "When you get a chance, like in the next 2 hours, could I get you to have a catch up with so-and-so for a handover? You're our new test lead on the project and will be taking over everything, and so-and-so is also going on leave and today is her last day". Talk about advanced warning!

Ontop of trying to finish my 2 existing projects, I now have to take on another project which is HUGE in comparison to my current ones. I was always meant to jump onto the project, but my focus was purely on the technical component and I was also supposed to "do my own thing" as we're in the middle of revamping all our work processes. Instead, I now have to do both the technical component and worry about the main body of work. This is ontop of the interviews I have to go to. No, I'm not looking for a new job, only looking at hiring other people to help me out. Oh, I've also been roped into all our process improvements which are just eating away at my hours. PLUS, I've been "volunteered" to give a presentation on my experience on my last project. If that goes well, my PM would also like to "volunteer" me to do a company-wide presentation. All of this needs to be done before I go on leave which is just 4 weeks away! And if we do find a new person by then, I'll need to train all of them up!

It seems everytime I'm about to go on leave, work just explodes into craziness. Infact, I felt the first twitch in my face just then. Not good. I should really stop looking at my calendar. I think in my 7.5hr working day, about 4-5hours are purely for meetings. OMG! HELP ME! I'm definately going to need my holiday in a months time.

Chicane

There is a huge cafe space directly below my office. When I first joined, the cafe was literally deserted. However, it was close and I went and tried their coffee once and never went back. They eventually closed down and the place was left empty for quite a few months. I walk to work one day and suddenly see the place under construction. After what seemed like a really long time, the cafe finally reopened and is today's Chicane.

Initially the place was quite deserted as well. The customers were badly burnt by the previous owners and it looks like it was going to take a lot of effort for their business to pick up. I even went in one day to try their coffee, took one look at their menu and went "This isn't a lunch place for me". Fast forward a few months, and you'll be lucky to get a table on a Friday afternoon without booking. And this place is HUGE. The place is completely packed out at lunch times and there are patrons from morning til night. It is now one of our unofficial meeting rooms. (I've lost count the number of times I've walked past and seen people have "meetings" there)

I've eaten at Chicane once or twice, mostly for farewell lunches. Their eat in menu is quite nice. Steak and beef burgers, pasta, risotto, grilled fish, lamb kebabs and the most divine salt and pepper squid. Because of their menu, I've never bothered eating there unless its a big organised lunch event. It was only recently that I found out that they have some great pre-made sandwiches, and for $8.70, you can get a salad with it as well. Of course I had to give it a go, and now I am completely hooked!!

Moroccan Lamb Baguette with Tuna Nicoise salad

Tandoori Chicken with Baked potato and chorizo salad

MmMmm its packed with chicken

Veggie burger with Roast veggie salad and Walnut Garden Salad

Moroccan Lamb Baguette with Caesar Salad and Pumpkin, Sundried Tomato and Bocconcini salad

Chicken Schnitzel Caesar Sandwich, Caesar Salad and Sweet Chilli Noodle salad

I have yet to have a sandwich and salad I did not like. The Moroccan lamb has got to be my favourite one so far, and I love their Caesar salad! Their premade sandwiches generally don't change, but they also have a sandwich bar section where you can choose your own fillings. Their salads change every day so you don't get sick of what they have to offer, but I think their caesar is always available.

What I love about Chicane is the great value and the fact that you're really full after eating. Not "Omg I'm going to be sick" full, but you definitely won't be starving by the end of the day. I've actually started to organise lunches there as its turning out to be a great catch up join. And I'm going to make it a mission to try all their sandwiches!

Chicane Cafe
20 Bond St
Wynyard

Azuma

I found out recently that my workmate has accepted a position elsewhere and will be leaving our team really soon. She has been a part of our "World Safari Lunches", which is when we try out a new restaurant once every 3 weeks and splurge a bit. No food court stuff for us. Although we're having a team farewell, we thought it would be good if the 3 of us went for a private lunch to have a bit of a chat before she left. We decided on Azuma since they have wagyu beef on their menu and we were all craving for some red meat.

We arrived at Azuma to a serene setting and excellent service. We decided on a bento box each, and ordered a serve of wagyu beef to share.

Noodle Bento - $35.00
Udon Noodle Soup, Teriyaki Chicken, Tempura, Rice, Salad and Fruit

Noodle Bento - $35.00
Cold Soba, Teriyaki Chicken, Tempura, Rice, Salad and Fruit

Sashimi and Tempura - $38.00
Sashimi, assorted Tempura, grilled seasonal fish fillet, rice and Miso soup

There was so much food I couldn't fit it into the one photo! Yes that one bento box!

Seared Wagyu Beef served with Daikon & soy citrus sauce - 100g for $22.00

The bento boxes were such good value we could barely get through the food. I went for the hot udon noodle soup since I've ordered it before at their little takeaway food court joint Ton Ton. The tempura was unbelievably light, I could almost convince myself its low fat! Almost.....

The Wagyu beef was a bit overdone for my liking. We ordered medium, but it was more well done. I think next time we're going to order rare so we can taste how buttery it should be. The sauce however, was heavenly! If I wasn't so full, I would've ordered another bowl of rice and a big spoon to scoop up all the sauce! It was sooo unbelievably good!

We had a great time sitting around chatting without getting kicked out (which is always a plus). The service was attentive but no overbearing. The food was a bit over priced for what you get, but we had a great lunch catching up with my workmates that it was worth the money.

Azuma
Tel : (02) 9222 9960
Fax : (02) 9222 9962
Address : Level 1, Chifley Plaza, 2 Chifley Square
(Cnr. of Phillip & Hunter Street)
Sydney NSW 2000

This is going to be a VERY long day....

We had a farewell drinks thing last night after work, generally at these functions, I tend to leave around 8pm at the latest (Considering is a weeknight). Last night, the speeches didn't even start until about 8pm, so by the time speeches were done and calls for final drinks before the bar tab closed it was almost 9pm. We were all going to leave, but somehow I got suckered into a game of pool, and a bunch of us stayed back at the pub until about 11pm when we got kicked out. Instead of going home, we moved onto the next pub for more drinks before we got told that we're going to get kicked out soon. I decided it was time to leave whilst the others decided to stay til closing time. By the time I got home, it was well past 12:30am.

It wasn't all the alcohol that killed me, it was the fact I couldn't sleep. I don't have a pounding headache hangover, I have "the whole room is still spinning" hangover. It feels like I haven't slept in 48hours. It was a bacon and egg roll type morning.....I would love to go home because I'm just not functioning. But with the amount of work and commitment going on, I can't go home. And I can't even have a quiet night in since theres Meyo's birthday thing tonight. And there is no sleeping in tomorrow since I need to be up early to be ready for beach volleyball. And of course, Sunday is Mothers day. There will be no rest for the wicked this weekend. Maybe someone should just shoot me right now. Atleast it stops the room from spinning.