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Am definitely feeling indifferent about coming from 15°C weather to 29°C plus humidity. Arrgh... Lee would definitely be laughing at me right now. Blek.
It feels different coming home. I feel different being home. It's like time stopped the day I left. The calendar in my room still sits at November...
The step up at this morning's relationship declaration program was an elegantly simple affair. We arrived at the majestic 127 year old Glebe Town Hall 10 minutes early, and were greeted by the registering officer, Nick Hespe, whom we first met at the City of Sydney office. He was accompanied by two other officers who worked at the Glebe Town Hall, and informed us that it was their first relationship declaration ceremony at their council office. So they were just as excited.
We were ushered upstairs, where we got a glimpse of the gorgeous interior with stained glass windows and classic high plaster ceilings. As if to accentuate the mood of the morning, incidentally there was a pianist in the main hall next to our room who was playing something.
In the small hall where the ceremony was held, one of the officers had made an effort to dress up a little table with a vase of fresh flowers. I was pleasantly surprised at the gesture.
The declaration of our relationship to the City of Sydney, read out by Nick, was fairly quick. We were then needed to sign two copies of the certificates.
And as if to the day couldn't be made even more special, when we walked out to the car, Lee decided to traditionally get down on one knee and propose... Right there, publicly on Forest St.
We trudge through the Internet every day, surfing sites, reading blogs, getting the news, that it's become an every day common occurrence to us. You'd barely think twice about who you're reading or how it affects you. In the days before Technorati and RSS, you'd manually hyperlink someone's site to yours if it was something you enjoyed reading.
I vaguely remember thinking, "Hmm, a cartoonist's site. He's linked me. I guess I'll return the favour." That was early June 2003. Sporadically we'd leave comments on each other's blogs.
Fast forward to Easter 2006, I get an email from him sharing his point of view about something I had just written. It could have been from anyone. The occasional visitor feeling like he/she's connected with me for what I wrote, and maybe sharing a friendship through instant messenger thereafter. Yet somehow, it wasn't left as that.
I feel like I'm sitting here now as a result of that "accidental click" four years ago. The surrealism of witnessing first hand, globalisation at its best. At the time the world argued about how the Internet revolution would create an anti-social society, a few of its denizens lived to prove otherwise.
I still look at Lee sometimes and feel the need to pinch him - to know he's really there. (Heheh...) On the other hand, it makes me smile knowing that its from some strange twist of fate that we're together. And that we've been right there under each other's noses, reading and watching each other's lives go by, without making much contact.
This is to us. A year to the month when we embarked on the journey of merging our lives' paths. Owed to the click of a mouse.
Definitely the unconventional and more modern way of doing this. Come Friday, April 27th - Lee and I will be declaring our relationship with the City of Sydney.
A month ago, we went to the city council office to register with the Relationship Declaration Program. We decided that it might help my de facto relationship PR application later on, and would also be a step up for our commitment to each other. It's set for April 27th, 11.30am (GMT 10) at the Glebe Town Hall.
I am nervous about it, being the commitment-phobe by record. Yet somehow, it's a step I want to take, albeit slowly, towards a more permanent commitment. The traditionalist in me argues that the de facto relationship provisions are a bane to marriage. But Australian society is such, again because of the high cost of living where people can't even afford to get married, and the thought that marriage is merely an institutional rite of passage replaced by cohabitation. I feel it such a pathetic thing, that a celebration of two people's commitment is devalued by people's disillusionment through divorces and have become a profit-making industry that puts people off the whole affair. Why do weddings have to be about money?
The traditionalist in me is disappointed with my decision to go this way. Admitting that I am one of those girls who have dreamed of a lavish affair for that once-in-a-lifetime moment, I am saddened by this eventual reality to have to resort to this, temporarily. Although, the rebel inside me wishes to prove otherwise.
In the meantime, Shaz asked what I was going to wear and said I should have flowers for hope. I don't know what to think of it. In some way, it is special. But even being congratulated for it, I feel awkward.
In all fairness to my new friends who've all started reading my blog quietly, and emailed me or left a comment about this week's postings, I have to admit that there is a tinge of hope glowing from your support. It might have just been my impatience and the fondness of a hurried lifestyle with the comforts of home, (and a number of other things) that has made me wish I had adjusted quicker here that brought me to loathe living in Sydney.
I would have only been here five months come Tuesday. Almost three months of which was spent sick in bed and emotionally caught up in my own thoughts of what I want in my life. When I had gotten myself out of it, I decided to try something new and meet friends with a "friends ad". That left me about a little over a month and a half to invest in creating a new network of friends I could seek social, emotional and moral support from. From that little time, the news that I decided to go home to work had brought two friends to want to organize a little farewell party for me, and another new friend persuading me to come back by giving me a list of things to look forward to which she wants to share with me. What stirred me most was when the latter said to me last night,
"You're a positive influence in my life... You're a resilient person. ...You must come back."We had only met thrice before.
Then just less than an hour ago, from the former.
... People are really funny, Australians in particular. Nobody seems to want to be indebted to anyone else, but they don't understand that a lot of what is given is given freely. Even if you can't find Australians to be your 'family' (I use that term really loosely here), I do hope that you can find other ex-pats (like H and me) to be your family.I was almost left tearing reading her email.
I know that when I do go back, things will be different. And I can't expect things to remain the same as when I left, because I had felt in some way that I had outgrown KL. Although knowing I will be welcomed home with open arms, a bit of my heart will be left here in Sydney. Then I will somehow be caught between two worlds. At least it will give me the clarity and time to recuperate from the negative things that's happened here. And maybe next time around, it will feel like a fresh slate.
note... No Foodie Friday postings today. It's been too much of an emotional week for me. But I've decided to take on the task of making Bak Kut Teh on the weekend. So you'll see how it turns out next week. ^_~
Talking it over with him, and another new friend, and writing to Shaz, especially about the things I can't write or talk about to just anyone about has lifted my burdens a little more. In the process I realize that there is something more about Sydney that seems to keep people "apart", geographically speaking.
I've seen and heard people say how the travelling or commuting distance between Sydney suburbs are often a hindrance to meeting up more frequently or spontaneously. The choice leaves it to the 52 weekends and handful of public holidays to catch up with friends and extended family. It isn't much time, is it?
I'm so fond of spontaneous travel, and calling up friends to come out and meet up with me - whether because they or I need company or an opportunity to unload frustrations and stress. Here, Sydney's division by the beautiful harbour view of the Parramatta river makes distances greater. Roundabout travel on public transportation means you take 2-3 times the given time to get to certain suburbs. While an entirely landed city like KL means that after hours, it takes you about 15-30minutes to get from any suburb on the circumference into the city. Ironically, I'm beginning to appreciate our planned city highway systems so much more now. It never mattered to me if a friend lived too far away, I was able to drive "out of my way" to see them spontaneously.
One friend's experience with another friend who lives two suburbs away - which isn't that far, merely a 15 minute drive - found that her friend doesn't want to meet on a weekday because it took her a total almost three hours everyday to commute to and fro work. Hence making her too tired to want to do anything else but go home.
The other thing I miss so badly back home is how eating out is so cheap! (compare dollar to dollar, without converting) And a wonderful point of socialization for everyone anywhere in KL. The mamak stalls are a gift to KLites (or any Malaysian, for that matter). 24 hours a day, you can find food or a place to hang out with friends. I believe it's the epitome of Malaysian culture. It's a place where young and old, rich or poor, regardless of age and creed - everyone gathers here to socialize. I think this article "Maslow's Hierarchy of Mamak" describes it best.
...when one heads to a mamak with a group of friends to hang out and talk about the flavour of the day, he or she is inadvertently motivated to an eventual self-actualisation.So yes, despite what some would comment - that it's not the city or place, and that people are the same everywhere - I will always beg to differ. There will be similarities, and there will always be differences. It's the differences that make a place or person unique. As much as every individual's experience of life will be different. But opportunities for socialization and the ease into it which a city will allow is what will differentiate each place from the other. And probably are the deciding factor if the city is impersonal for all levels and needs of society or not. Everyone needs to belong. I don't feel like I belong here.
~"Maslow's Hierarchy of Mamak", Think Online
The near end of my almost five month stay in Sydney has begun to force me into reflection. Albeit, very depressing one. I can't tell you exactly why, but I've begun to feel myself sinking into hopelessness as homecoming looms.
I don't feel like I've achieved anything being here except negative experiences. I wish I could say that the good things that did happen is enough to make me want to move here permanently, unfortunately I'm beginning to have mixed feelings about the whole thing.
I felt like I've come here extremely optimistic about things, and am going home feeling beaten down and frustrated with empty hopes. Maybe I had done everything wrong. Had too much high expectations and was too confident. I felt optimistic that I could overcome the obstacles I'd face. Instead, I'd been given bigger ones I could never have imagined.
Life in Sydney is too alien for me. And I don't feel I can live with it. I am too weak, feeble, naive... for a city life probably too individualistic for me. I may have said KL felt soul-less, but Sydney feels impersonal... And almost superficial. Everyone here seems too caught up in their own lives that they haven't time for anyone else. I've heard so much about Lee's friends and were excited to meet them. Yet I've only met a tiny fraction. Maybe it's because he's barely been in touch with most. Or maybe it's obviously not the Australian way to share things like this with friends.
To me, everything has been obviously a stark contrast from home. Money seems the first order of the day for all. The high cost of living the city entails for survival here, forces everyone into their own world. Especially from a cultural perspective. Some may say that city living is such, and I won't argue that KL isn't like that. But I feel, KL's metropolitan population of 6.9million paired with its people's sense of community, is what I'd rather call home despite political instability; compared to Sydney's mere 4.2million and its inhabitants' self-absorbed lifestyle. There is obviously a "better" standard of living here, but at what cost? As I've seen, it's at the cost of not being able to own your own home. It's at the cost of having a wedding to share with family and friends no matter the number. It's at the cost of being suspicious of anyone being friendly or helpful beyond familiarity or individual culture. It's at the cost of paying high taxes, so that the government can take care of you when you're old and not your own family or kids. It's at the cost of cultural differences and not being able to understand or tolerate differences. Australia claims to embrace multiculturalism. But I believe they have a long way to achieve it. Despite some political tensions among the races now, at least Malaysia has experienced and achieved multicultural harmony, and it's citizens know how to deal with it.
I remember vividly the words of a Brother during a leadership camp attended when I was 14, saying that it is only through displacement do we learn more about ourselves. Being here has done that to me, and made me appreciate what I had more. It is always the tiniest of things that we miss most from home, only after we've left. Malaysia may be an Islamic nation, but I miss the warmth and induced welcome we extend to strangers in our over-flowing churches back home. Here, I can be at Mass for weekends and I still feel invisible amid the half-filled hall. How ironic that Christianity is allegedly the staple religion of Western civilisation and yet their priests struggle to keep their community alive. In a country where churches are at almost every corner, pubs are more packed than Masses. A huge contrast to Malaysia's Catholic churches' struggle with the government to have churches built.
I spoke to another new friend, who've moved here three years ago, and she shares in common with me the ideals of friendship and community life. She states her experience in Sydney as a place where people can often "disappear" out of your life, and often never reappearing. People here don't put much importance into friendships unless its to invite you to a barbeque or party. She had found out when one of her friends disappeared for a while, he had been terribly sick. She asked why he hadn't called her for help with simple things, like the shopping or looking after him. She was greeted with a deeply surprised and clueless response, "Why? I had my mum to do all that for me." She had not once received a call from a friend, to ask for help like an emotional listening ear or such, despite offering. To add to that, she had shared with me that her husband felt that at the short year he lived in Melbourne, he had made more friends there than the 12 years he's lived in Sydney. My heart fell very heavily listening to her experience. I had grown up to surround myself with people who are like her - who extend emotional and moral support beyond family, beyond prejudice or differing opinions. It has become for me what the phrase "No man is an island" means. Yes I have my family, but my friends are a staple of my life too. And their friendship goes beyond attending a picnic with me or getting drunk with each other at the pub. I will and have done things beyond expectations. Given selfless acts and gifts as a token of friendship and asking nothing in return but their company. Maybe it is because there have been so much years and time invested into it. While here I've barely had any. And though I've started, I did become disillusioned reading other people's friends ads with statements such as "No travellers" or "If you're in Sydney for no longer than 6 months, don't email." Such harshness and insincerity, I almost cannot comprehend with today's Internet age. Does adulthood make people so hardened? So cynical? So closed to new experiences? I feel it does, and it feels like it's hardening me for all the wrong reasons, sadly.
Tonite, I can't sleep. I toss and turn in frustration. Suddenly indecisive over calling Sydney home. Maybe going back, and working, would give me more clarity. I don't know. I'm just disappointed that reality has sent me off into this deep moment of doubt. Almost not wanting to come back, even for Lee. *sigh* I want to remain optimistic to try again. With hope that maybe the next time around, things will get better. Yet now, depressed and feeling completely alone, how do I choose? What do I choose? A lifetime with someone I love and can never find anyone else comparable vs. surrounding myself with a community of friends and family whom I love and share a more wholesome lifestyle? Things could change though, even as I see it. So how do I choose?
14 days, potentially filled with ambiguity, as already felt prior. Someone said to me that going home won't alleviate homesickness. It merely adds to it. I don't doubt that. Especially when I'm beginning to feel vague about where to call home now.
I've already begun work on the film. Sifting through, too slowly, the 120 page script; and helping the production builder find a big top here in Australia. It's exciting to know that I get to work and utilize real people skills again, instead of being caught up with "baby-brain". Plus the theme of this film is going to be amazingly horrific. I've never been a fan of horror, as any of my friends and family can tell you. So to be a part of this mad circus from a production perspective will be thoroughly interesting.
From the last Foodie Friday post, part two of my Fukuoka, Japan foodie experience (while filming Sumolah) continues with a look at non-sushi dishes.
I can't remember this dish's name or the restaurant we had it, but it was a fusion Japanese and Chinese resto. This noodle dish was served cold and had a fusion of Chinese-style servings. The brown-looking sauce (bottom centre) is poured onto the noodles. While the rest of the accompaniment are, depending on preference, poured together into the noodle bowl, or eaten separately with the rice or noodles - like in Chinese style dining.
One of my favourite restaurants was in Fukuoka city, walking distance from our hotel, Nishitetsu Grand. I can't remember the name, but it definitely wasn't your ordinary sushi restaurant. What delighted me was the variety on the menu.
I always love trying out new dishes, new meats... And when I saw horse meat on the menu, I knew I'd give it a go. The horse meat arrived raw, served like sashimi, but with garlic, soy sauce and oil. It was delicious and tender.
In Japanese cuisine, raw horse meat, called sakura (桜) or sakuraniku (桜肉, sakura means cherry blossom, niku means meat) because of its pink colour. It is very chewy. It can be served raw as very chewy sashimi in thin slices dipped in soy sauce, often with ginger and onions added. In this case, it is called basashi (Japanese: 馬刺し). Fat, typically from the neck, is also found as basashi, though it is white, not pink. Horse meat is also sometimes found on menus for yakiniku (a type of barbecue), where it is called baniku (lit., horse meat) or bagushi (lit., skewered horse); thin slices of raw horse meat are sometimes served wrapped in a shiso leaf.
~taken from Wikipedia
In Malaysia, we don't usually see many different types of Japanese desserts. It would tend to be maccha zen (green tea ice-cream), or if you're lucky, wasabi aishu (wasabi ice-cream). A lot of other Japanese desserts or sweets (like the mochi) would, in my opinion, seem similar to the Chinese deserts or sweets because they have the same ingredients. 
This is oshiruko. It's made of azuki (a *very* sweet red bean soup) with mochi, and usually served with umeboshi (pickled plums) as a much needed palate cleanser. But in this case, I think my oshiruko was served with takuan (yellow pickled radish).
*If I made any mistakes with the Japanese names or references, please feel free to clarify.
In today's email...
Please be informed following CBJ1 maintenance had been postponed until further notice.Right. Now I really wonder...
We apologize for the inconvenience occurred.
Regards,
Support Team
Exabytes.com.my
My blog host provider has sent me the following notice
Maintenance Description:With this whole blogger registration debate of late, despite Pak Lah shooting down the proposal, I'm still honestly suspicious with this outage. Call it paranoia, or whatever.
TMNet has scheduled a repair and audit activities in the CBJ1 Data Center (formerly known as MyLoca) that involved the whole Data Center. It is part of an ongoing effort to ensure the integrity and reliability of the electrical power system of the Data Center at all times. The agenda of the planned outage are as below:
1. Power Upgrade (4x PDU + 4xSTS - to cater for capacity requirement)
2. Repair / audit /retest (to resolve major outage on 16/9 and 3 /10)
3. Batteries replacement (end of lifespan for 816 units UPS batteries need to be replaces)
4. Migration (re-cabling problematic power connection to new PDU/STS)
5. Installation of Monitoring Tools/probe and software
6. Megatest - assessment and audit 640 cables to the rack to check for fitness (detect harmonic /voltage drop or leakage.
Maintenance Impact:
The maintenance will begin at 07.00AM Malaysian Time on Saturday, 14th April 2007. The work is expected to conclude within 24 hours, at approximately 07.00AM Malaysian Time, Sunday, 15th April 2007.
During these 24 hours period of activities, the AC power supply will be totally shut off due to security measures. We have been advised by TMNet to properly shut down all our servers and equipments before the activities take place at the said time. As a result, all web sites and emails hosted on CBJ1 data center will be inaccessible during this planned maintenance.
Anyway, bottom line is - my blog will be inaccessible 7am (14th Apr) - 7.00am (15th Apr) GMT +0800
In my research for the travel television programs I had done recently, along with basic readings of the history of the Philippines and Australia, I've begun to find an amazing common denominator of discrimination towards the Chinese. In Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and as I have just discovered, in Australia too, have the Chinese been utterly ousted through reasons of jealousy.
First, colonialism would allow and invite Chinese tradesmen or labourers to work in colonised countries all over the world. Then somehow the local migrants would grow jealous of them and would either cause riots or create immigration laws to forbid their propagation in that new land. Does this mean that the Chinese are doing something right and are obviously smarter than the colonisers?
Could their trade successes be attributed to their survivalist attitude? Or could the fact that their money-driven idealism and successes that stem from it be the envy of other cultures? Or maybe the hard core fact that while the world has reached 6 billion in population, more than 1/5 is Chinese is enough to make the other races feel threatened?
The Philippines, during the Spanish era, had racial riots against the Chinese because they found them to be successful tradesmen. Thus deciding they were no longer welcomed in the Philippines, unless they assimilated. Hence the Tsinoys. Indonesia forced their Chinese to assimilate by enforcing Anti-Chinese legislation forcing them to adopt Indonesian-sounding names, closed down Chinese schools and publications, and disallowed the use of the Chinese language in any medium. While in Australia, I've just discovered the Lambing Flat Riots during the gold mining era. Sentiments which led to their restrictive immigration acts.
The new Federal Parliament, as one of its first pieces of legislation, passed the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 to "place certain restrictions on immigration and... for the removal... of prohibited immigrants". The act drew on similar legislation in South Africa. Edmund Barton, the (first Australian) prime minister, argued in support of the Bill with the following statement: "The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman."While I understand completely that the Chinese with their gambling and gangsterism aren't exactly your most ideal neighbours, and neither does their contemporary embrace of communism helps, but why is this cause to vilify them, particularly when their Western counterpart have their own evils and declare human rights for all?
~White Australia Policy, extracted from Wikipedia
The reason I'm pointing all this out is not because I'm outraged at the injustices put upon the Chinese - because I believe that the Chinese themselves have suffered a great deal from their own government and emperors of their time, hence forcing them to become permanent refugees and wandering migrants the world over. I write this because I question the little bit of Chinese roots I have. I have no Chinese pride whatsoever and know nothing of the race or culture. Instead, I embrace a religion that is professed by Western civilization, speak a language passed on by colonizers, and have adopted Western philosophical thinking and structure. Hence, the only bit of Chinese I carry in me is my surname. I am shamed by my own fellow men for not being able to speak any dialect, or not having a Chinese name. But being able to understand why they are being shunned would at least make me question, should there be an ounce of pride in me for being part Chinese? That is my Chinese dilemma.
Bloggers United Malaysia will be having a gathering come May 19th.
Bloggers United Malaysia Gathering 2007 - Embrace and Engage
An event in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day on 3rd May
Date: 19th May 2007, Saturday
Time: 6.00pm - 11.00 pm
* Forum: 6.00pm - 8.00pm
* Drinks: 8.00pm - 8.30pm
* Buffet: 8.30pm - 11.00pm
Venue
The Lake View Club
Lot 3606, SS12/1, Subang Jaya
47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Malaysia
Tel: +603 (0)3733-8342
RSVP by 9th May 2007 (Wednesday). Please send all correspondence to howsyh[at]gmail[dot]com.
Speakers: We have confirmed attendance by Jeff Ooi, Marina Mahathir and Tony Pua. We will update this list as soon as others confirm!
Details at http://bum2007.wordpress.com/
Here we go again... The earlier talk that the government wants to register bloggers looks like it is going to be a reality.
BLOGGERS using locally hosted websites may be asked to register with the authorities, Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said.The biggest concern from this announcement is that these blogs hosted on Malaysian servers (like mine), would end up in a forced migration to foreign servers, thus making the local hosting industry suffer.
He said registration was one of the measures the Government was considering to prevent the spread of negative or malicious content on the Internet. ...
~Bloggers may have to register, The Star, April 5th 2007
Our Minister of (mis)Information had apparently said the registration mechanism is being formulated by Singapore, and Malaysia will adopt it.
Zainuddin said in the quest for political power, people were willing to resort to slander, disseminate lies, use unauthorised sources or choose not to verify the source of the information.What's interesting to me is that, while the government is so intent on weeding out critical thinkers and bloggers who question the government's action through registering them, what are they doing to register our 4.9mil unregistered voters? How about making it compulsory for every Malaysian citizen?
"This is very dangerous as they are writing and taking steps to gain power. Their objective is to topple the government, widen the reach of their political doctrine and assist any parties for political purposes," he said.
Zainuddin said he concurred with the monitoring and registration proposal forwarded by the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry.
Zainuddin discussed the blog issue and how the island republic was approaching the matter in a meeting this morning with his counterpart, Information, Communications and the Arts Minister Dr Lee Boon Yang.
The Malaysian minister said Singapore had formulated a mechanism for the registration of blogs which consistently churned out articles on politics.
He pointed out that Singapore had a class licensing framework to supervise new media forms such as blogs, subjecting them to certain code of ethics under the supervision of the Media Development Authority.
~Politically-motivated Blogs Must Be Monitored And Registered, Says Zam, Bernama, April 6th 2007
I'd also like to congratulate the bloggers who made the formation of the National Alliance of Bloggers possible last Thursday. I feel like I'm missing out on it all. Nevertheless, it feels somewhat surreal to be part of digital democracy and the blogging revolution.
It's been a long Easter weekend, being a public holiday from Good Friday up to Easter Monday yesterday. So besides spending time with each other, Lee & I went up to the Blue Mountains on Easter Sunday with two of my new friends, B & H.
The drive up was pretty, with some stretches lined with deciduous trees changing colour for autumn. Most of these trees aren't native to Australia, and were brought over by the English migrants who wanted to be reminded of home. Besides passing by quaint little towns on the drive up, which you can't pretty much tell we were ascending, there was the occasional clearing that revealed majestic views of the Blue Mountains.
We made The Three Sisters our main destination of the trip. 
Although we were caught in the rain, and clouds covered our views at Echo Point, we made a picnic out of it while sitting in the shelter.
We didn't take the walk into The Three Sisters, and instead spent the time taking the Cableway down to the foothills. At the bottom was a scenic Walkway with an accessible boardwalk with three different routes.
Walking towards the scenic Railway, which was built modelled after the coal miner's railway down to the mines, we caught a framed view of the Katoomba falls.
The view of The Three Sisters and surrounding valley from the scenic Cableway.
We didn't get the chance to do much else that day. But there were other things to do like chestnut and walnut (or fruit, depending on season) picking in the orchards if we went along Bells Line in the north of the mountains; and art galleries to visit as well.
Absolutely in love with Vietnamese food, I'd been wanting to visit Cabramatta for a taste of Sydney's Little Vietnam. Lee & I finally went on Saturday. Being about an hour's drive out west from the city, I had sussed some places out at the Eatability site while Lee asked his Vietnamese laundry lady the best place to eat there. The name that came up, Thanh Binh on John St, Cabramatta.
Pork rice vermicelli with chao tôm. The sugar cane stick is missing from my dish! Apparently, the prawn meat already peeled off and cut for me. Bah.
Cha gio. Pork spring rolls. Did you know that they also have autumn, winter and summer rolls? The cold rolls are autumn and summer, they're served with fresh rice paper. I'd like to assume that cold food tend to be serve in hot seasons, much like sushi. But everyone confuses the same for all rolls calling them egg roll or spring roll, maybe because the Chinese (and other cultures) has the same. My fave is the gỏi cuốn (Summer roll). But Thanh Binh didn't have any more.
Cho Gio/Spring Rolls - crispy deep-fried rails filled with a mixture of seasoned pork and vegetables.
Winter Rolls - same as Spring, but half the size with a shrimp tucked inside.
Goi Cuon/Summer Rolls - soft, fresh rice paper rolls filled with vermicelli, lettuce, mint, and either shrimp, pork, or both.
Autumn Rolls - same as Summer, but filled with fried tofu and bean sprouts.
We walked about the commercial village in Cabramatta after lunch, and even into some of the grocery stores and a kitchenware shop, because Lee's been looking for a cleaver. Everything felt strangely familiar, the sights and smells. Save for the Vietnamese shops and signages, it almost felt like KL.
Your token arch for every Chinatown.
Cabramatta is also the place where the film, Little Fish starring Cate Blanchett, was filmed.
Along with the arch, there's also the traditional lion creature to ward off evil spirits. To which Lee pointed out...
April 30th, destination Kuala Lumpur. I finally got my airticket "home".
Truth be told, the decision to go back to KL instead of wrangling visa troubles to stay on, was made easier with a job offer. A six month contract to line produce another film that will be shot in Batam, Indonesia. So technically I won't be home in KL the whole time. But I will be back for Sumolah's premiere May 2nd, and two best friend's weddings in December. This time it will be Lee's turn to spend Christmas in KL, and maybe pop a holiday to a neighbouring country. I'm eyeing Vietnam very diligently.
While back in KL, I'll apply for my Permanent Resident visa to Australia come August. We've decided to do the de facto relationship visa, and since the Australian government count Internet relationships with minimum 12 month from the time we met in person, it will need to be from August.
As much as I've tried to cope with life here - without work and friends - I feel this sinking feeling leaving Lee behind. It feels like I've been here longer than four months. Everything I do here is now accompanied by the feeling of dread. I wish I didn't need to leave. But I know I wouldn't be happy not taking the job. And I know I am not happy being apart from Lee. Even if it will be for a few months. The thought has crossed our minds, how I can still take on freelance work back in Asia for a few months, then come back to Sydney - making it my new home. It's weird, having to be apart for months at a time, then resume normalcy in that cycle. But if it works for the both of us, I guess why not.