Taronga Zoo

On Christmas Eve, David, Cindy and I went to the Taronga Zoo. We had to take a ferry from Circular Quay before getting to take a gondola ride to the zoo entrance.


As soon as we arrived, Cindy and David were quick to start looking for animals.


We were able to see giraffes up close and personal. They were much taller than us even though we were elevated! Did you know that a giraffe's tongue is dark blue to prevent sunburn as they eat the leaves at the top of trees?


We saw some elephants do some tricks, but afterwards, they just headed towards their barn.


Throughout the zoo, they had different animals that you could pretend to be. David and I decided that the gorillas were the best!


We saw some lions...


tigers...


and bears!


We've also been watching a show called "Meerkat Manor" and we were able to see the meerkats in person. This one was just sitting around!


The zoo was located at a distance where it had some amazing views of the city.


David discovered a new favorite animal. The ostrich.


We watched the gorillas fight over some long leaves after this courageous one went out into the water to retrieve them.


We watched the koala feeding which was very cute and a lot of fun! We learned that baby koalas eat their mother's poo so that they can develop the bacteria needed for them to digest the eucalyptus leaves.


Finally, we were able to go into an exhibit with kangaroos and emus. We were able to see the kangaroos jump around after the emu attacked them!


If you look closely, the kangaroo in the front has a joey in her pouch. Unfortunately, it wasn't as cute as you exhibit since the legs and tails are the only parts sticking out.


We also saw wombats, which were Cindy's new favorite animal. But this wombat was MUCH bigger than we thought wombats would be.


Isn't this kangaroo so cute? It's feasting on his holiday meal.

Overall, the zoo was definitely worth visiting if you had 4-5 hours to walk around. There were so many exhibits of animals that you can't see in the US.

Merry Christmas everyone! Our Christmas was spent on a 3 hour hike from the Spit Bridge to Manly. After we returned and had lunch, we rested before we made a Christmas dinner of a roast beef, roast veggies, homemade stuffing and chocolate cake!

We hope everyone else has a great Christmas!

Casino Night

On Friday night, David and I went to Darling Harbour to eat dinner with some friends before we headed off to the only casino in New South Wales. It's considered a casino because it has tables as well as pokie (slot) machines. As mentioned before, most bars have pokie machines for your enjoyment, so we were going to check out the tables.

A couple of annoying things happened as we tried to enter the casino. As we entered, I was specifically stopped. You would think it's because of my age, but they stopped me because I wasn't allowed to bring in my messenger bag. Besides my messenger bag, the security guard also said that I wouldn't be allowed to enter since I was wearing thongs. He even mentioned that "especially on Friday", I wasn't allowed in with thongs. Luckily, we were able to go to another part of the casino to check in my bag and enter in another area, where the guards weren't looking at my feet.

My big complaints of this are: Don't casinos want ANYONE to come in and gamble away their money? Are they really restricting people based off of what they are wearing?

After we entered, we only ended up staying for a couple of hours for certain reasons.

1. The roulette table only had 1 zero, but all the numbers were scattered around the board and not the same as in the US. How could I play my numbers if they weren't touching each other?

2. ALL the blackjack tables had automatic shufflers. There was no shoe, so how could we even pretend to count cards??

3. Finally, the big annoying one. The craps tables was just very different. There was only 1 craps table in the entire state of New South Wales. The minimum bet was $10 and you couldn't bet $1 on the random small bets like hard ways or the C/E. Those bets were a minimum of $5 each. A couple of funny things were that instead of the pass/don't pass line, it was the win/don't win line. After losing some money, we decided it wasn't worth it to stay at the craps table!

After the casino, we headed back to Darling Harbour where I found a $20 bill on the ground! It makes up for part of our losses. Dave and I parted separate ways so that I could spend the night with Cindy in her hotel since she had just arrived!

The weekend has been very chill with Cindy, but I think we're going to try to go to the zoo today.

George's Random Visit

On Tuesday, I get a message from George that he is in Sydney until Thursday morning. We decided to meet up for dinner on Wednesday night. After meeting up with George and teasing him, we decided to go eat dinner in the Sydney tower. There are 2 restaurants in the tower, 360 and Sydney Tower Restaurant. 360 didn't have any openings, so we went to Sydney Tower Restaurant.

It was a buffet style menu and the restaurant was revolving. The food wasn't that great, but you are paying for the view. Since it was George's last night, he really wanted to see the city.

Here's a picture of part of the view. Unfortunately, it's near impossible to take a good photo at night.


Here's a photo of George and me. We discovered that he cannot smile any bigger than that. Thanks for dinner! It was great being able to see you again and catch up after a couple of years. Hopefully I'll see you again sooner rather than later.


On my way back to the ferry, we walked past the Martin Place Christmas tree, so I took a photo of it. The lights on the tree change colors throughout the night.


I still can't believe Christmas is coming up. It doesn't feel like it since it's so warm here. But on a sad note, I'm a little sick and trying to get better before Cindy comes on Friday. I hope it goes away soon!

Congratulations!!

Apparently, this past weekend was very busy back in the US for some of our friends. There were two wedding proposals over the weekend.

Congratulations, Mindy and Andrew! We hope you're enjoying your break in the warm weather in San Diego. A photo from our wedding with them.



Congratulations, Kristine and Oren! It sure looks cold back in MA with all that snow. What a pretty place to propose. =)

Audrey's last night

Audrey had come to Sydney on December 1st, which was also our day at the horse races and Thanksgiving. She's been a great companion during the weekdays and very good at encouraging me to work out. Since she had been to Australia a couple of times before, we didn't have to do any sightseeing and she had some other friends in the area. This was a perfect combination since David and I had spent the past two weekends getting scuba certified. She was kind enough to not only leave her used surfboard for me to practice on, but brought us out to dinner on her last night.

We went to Whitewater Cafe in Manly, which had some great food. We sat in a booth made for 5 people so we were very spread out. David and Audrey decided to move closer to me to take a photo before dessert.



Audrey got something called the Affogatto, which was vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso and a shot of frangelico. You take the two shots and mix it with the ice cream.



Dave got the chocolate dessert. It came with a chocolate decadent cake, which was like a molten chocolate cake. Bittersweet chocolate ice cream and a chocolate torte. There was also a shot of creme anglaise to pour over his chocolate cake.



I had gotten a passionfruit torte that was on top of a "salad" of tapioca and lychee. There was also some passionfruit sorbet on top of the other "salad". It was very tasty and I'm really appreciating the amount of passionfruit that I can find in Australia.



Audrey's currently on her flight home. Hopefully she was able to upgrade or at least have no one siting beside her. Maybe she'll be back in the new year with a job in Sydney. =)

Australia's strange word: Pressies. In context, "I've got to go to the mall and finish buying the pressies for Chrissie." Yes, apparently everything must be shortened and adding -ie to the end of it. This country is definitely weird...

SCUBA Certified

David and I finished our SCUBA program this weekend. We are now officially able to go diving on our own. We went on two dives on Saturday at Fairlight beach, which is a rare site that classes go to. We saw some fish and lots of sea urchins. As I watched my fellow divers swim in the kelp, which is slightly prickly feeling, I was afraid that someone was going to put their hand onto a sea urchin. On Sunday, we went to Shelley Beach to finish our two final dives. There was a storm brewing for this afternoon and conditions in the water were increasingly worse on our second dive.

After our final dive, we only had to pass our final exam. The final exam is 50 multiple choice questions and you only need to get 38 right to pass. One girl managed to not pass the exam. It was kind of embarassing since within the mulitple choice questions, there is usually 1-2 absurd answers, so you only have 2-3 choices to really choose from. Instead of retaking the exam (after we went through all the wrong answers), she is going to re-read the book and come back to re-take the exam.

Anyways, David and I got a little certificate and a giant t-shirt for our certification. Sophia and Eddie, we can't wait for Cairns!

Besides SCUBA, I spent Friday enjoying the sun by running, laying by the pool and trying to surf again. This time, surfing was much harder because the current was so strong. It was much more fun with Nicole since both of us are pretty terrible and I can spend my time laughing when both of us are struggling to even stand in the shallow weather.

Australia's strange phrase: Have a good Chrissie. Yes, they'll even shorten Christmas. This country is so silly.

Tetsuya's - Number 5 Restaurant in the World

On Tuesday night, we had a booking at Tetsuya's for 8 PM. Tetsuya's is ranked the 5th restaurant in the world and is known as Best Restaurant in Australia. The menu is a fixed price menu that is 14 courses and is very expensive. Seeing as this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, we were excited to go with a big group. The restaurant was like a little maze because there were so many hidden private rooms to hold different party sizes and a couple dining rooms to hold smaller groups.

We didn't start our meal until around 8:30 PM and didn't end our meal until around 12:30 AM. Yes, the meal took 4 hours to serve! Overall, it was relatively short turnarounds throughout most of the meal, but with all the courses and wine pourings, it was just a very long meal. Most of our group did the wine pairings with the meal, which was supposed to end up about 1 bottle per person. David and I decided to share a wine pairing between the two of us. I noticed that I'm very bad at remembering to drink the wine while eating my food since I'm too focused on the eating and tasting of the food.

We had our own private room for our group. Audrey and I were the first to arrive, so we were able to make ourselves comfortable.

In our room, there was this strange looking pole that was decoration along with some paintings. All the restaurant's artwork was a cross between aboriginal and something else.


Before the first course was served, we were served warm rolls (either white or sourdough) and they had this black truffle and parmesan butter on the table. I could have just eaten that all night if I didn't have 14 courses to go through!

Cold Corn Soup with Saffron & Vanilla Ice Cream
This soup was a bit thicker than expected, but it was obviously delicious. I was amazed at how the corn taste had penetrated throughout every bite. I couldn't really taste the saffron in the ice cream, but I think I was too happy with the corn part.




Smoked Ocean Trout and Avruga Caviar

The smoked ocean trout tasted and looked very similar to smoked salmon. It was diced into fine pieces. On top of the caviar is what they called a bon bon. It was a scallop mouse that was wrapped around a quail egg. To eat it, we were supposed to break the bon bon and mix the quail egg with the trout and caviar. Overall, this was probably my least favorite course because I'm not a huge fan of smoked fish, but it was still quite tasty and I finished my portion.


Leek & Crab Custard
This dish was thick and creamy. The broth on top was excellent and went very well with the custard, but I found it hard to ensure that I had enough broth at the end to mix with my custard. David said that he had perfect ratios throughout the entire dish.


Sashimi of Big Eye Tuna with Wasabi & Ginger Vinaigrette
The tuna was delicious and very delicate. It was also served on top of some finely sliced beets and pickled beet roots. I liked this dish a lot, but I also love raw tuna.


Tetsuya's Signature Dish
Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Daikon & Fennel served with a Seasonal Green Salad


Even though this piece of ocean trout looks rare or raw, it is actually cooked. Instead of the traditional confit style of cooking slowly in duck fat, this piece was cooked in grapeseed oil and some other oil. It makes the taste much lighter. On top, it's seasoned with konbu and coriander seed. It's set on some daikon and has some ocean trout roe on the side of it. There is also some parsley sauce.

We could all see why this was his signature dish. It was not only delicious but very creative and different. The only change that I had wished was that the portion was smaller. Even though this was only the 5th course, I was getting quite full!


Ravioli of Queensland Spanner Crab with Tomato and Basil Vinaigrette
This dish was a ball of crab and something else that formed into a spongey like texture. The texture reminded me a lot of the fish balls that you eat with hot pot. It was set on top of some more loose crab that was wrapped in some seaweed. The fresh basil was very strong, but was quite good.


Steamed Baby Abalone with Braised Oxtail & Orange
There were three small pieces of abalone on this dish and a little bit of oxtail. I actually wished there was more oxtail because it was so tender and delicious. The abalone was very chewy, but I think that is just the way abalone tastes like.


Breast of Duck with Braised Witlof with Sansho & Walnut Jus
This was definitely my favorite dish of the night. The duck was perfectly cooked and the sauce was amazing. The braised "witlof" was just a fancy way of saying small endive.


Seared Filet of Veal with Wasabi Butter
By this course, I was starting to feel really full. I really enjoyed the wasabi butter, even though other people did not like it. I think it's because it reminds me of horseradish cream that I love. The veal was very tender and I actually didn't eat all my pieces because I knew we still had 3 sweet dishes to go.


Comte with Lentils
This was our transition from savory dishes to sweet. In the spoon was sweetened lentils and some grated cheese on top. The lentils reminded me of green bean soup in terms of taste so it was very weird combined with the cheese.


Each person only got one spoonful of the lentils and cheese. It would have been too much if we each had to eat 4 spoonfuls!


After our short transition, we decided it was time to take a photo of the group. From left to right is Oscar, Audrey, Ian, me, David, Katie, Lily, Charlie, Teddy, Endrico and Alex.


Lily was about to go home since she had arrived on Monday morning and was obviously jet lagged. She had even started her job as soon as she arrived. It was actually her birthday and our server convinced her to stay for a little longer because they brought out a birthday surprise for her. I didn't get to photograph the actual dish, but it was dark chocolate sorbet, orange sorbet with a flourless chocolate cake. She ended up staying for the entire dinner since by now we only had a couple of dishes to go.


Beetroot & Blood Orange Sorbet and Summer Pudding
The Australians love pickled beetroot. There are more cans of it in the supermarket than cans of other vegetables and they often put it in sandwiches. This sorbet was very powerful in terms of beetroot taste. I could barely taste the blood orange. There was also diced bits of pickled beats at the bottom of the glass.

The summer pudding was delicious. There were strawberries and blueberries in it.


Banana Mousse & Caramel Ice Cream
The banana mousse was in the rolled up pastry and it tasted as if I was eating a banana. The taste was very powerful, but in a good way. The caramel ice cream was delicious and set on some light spongy cake.


Chocolate & Coffee Pave with Cocoa Infused Jelly & Praline Ice Cream
The cocoa infused jelly is that strange filmy thing on top of the cake. The ice cream was delicious. Since I'm not a huge fan of coffee, the cake was a bit too coffee for me, but it was still pretty good.



Petit Fours

Green Tea Marshmallow Square,Chocolate Macaroon with Lemon Curd, maybe some sort of truffles. I think the white one was coconut based.

By this time, I was extremely stuffed and starting to not pay as much attention to the server during her descriptions. I was also very excited to see mini macaroons on the petit four plate.


By this point, I was getting very tired and was very full and content. The meal was amazing and definitely worth the money that we had spent. If you have an opportunity to go here, then make a booking early since the place is often sold out.

Scuba Diving

David and I have completed one weekend of getting certified for scuba diving. We spent most of Saturday in a classroom talking about theory and reviewing our homework and taking short quizzes. We also talked about equipment. On Sunday, we had our pool training, which involved a morning of assembling and disassembling equipment, 200 M swim and 10 min of treading water. At first, I didn't think I'd be able to do the treading water bit, but amazingly David and I survived it!

In the afternoon, we finally got everything on and went into the pool for some lessons. Overall, it was pretty good and fun except that there is a lot of gross stuff in the pool. Lots of dead bugs, hair, bandaids, etc. It's very unpleasant.

We have more homework this week, but next weekend we'll be diving by Shelly Beach, where we will hopefully see lots of stuff! They even have an old motorcycle in the middle that has a reef around it. I wish I had an underwater camera that would take good photos that I could upload here!

Christmas Party

This past week, the weather has been very weird. Some days it'll start off pouring rain, but will end up being very clear and bright blue skies. Other days, it has started off bright and clear and then in the afternoon, the clouds roll in and then it will rain for a half hour before clearing up again. The great thing about these short rainstorms is that I was able to get a great photo of the Opera House with no on on the steps!


We also walked in parts of the botanical gardens and went to visit this lovely pool that was in the gardens.


Yesterday night (Friday), it was Bain's Christmas Party. It was a masquerade ball, so earlier in the month, the retired crew had gone mask shopping. Here's a photo of David and I before the party.


The party was held in the Museum of Contemporary Art. Their upper levels are used as private function space and have some amazing views. Since we were the first ones to show up, we were able to get some great shots. Casey is checking out the view.


Nicole, me and Casey with our masks on and with the bridge view.


As you can see, it got more crowded, so you couldn't take any photos with no one else in it. Here's a photo of Kirsty and Ele. They had these masks that were attached to headbands so when you wanted to, you could just push it above your head so it wasn't on your face. I was definitely jealous since my mask was making my face hot.


Anton finally stopped working and showed up with Danielle. At least I was able to get a photo of him before he turned bright red from drinking. =)


Unlike the Boston Holiday Party, there was actually a sit down dinner with assigned seating. The favors at the party were there Christmas Crackers that you pull apart to open.


The retired crew, Danielle, Nicole and me.


Ben finally decided to show up during the middle of dinner and luckily he dragged us outside!


There were fireworks outside! I couldn't tell if it was only for Bain's party or for all the other Christmas parties that were happening in the area.


Overall, this Christmas party was great and we didn't want to leave so early. With the last ferry leaving at 11:45, we had to go home and get some rest. We're about to start our scuba diving lessons this weekend, so we need to be somewhat rested so I don't fall asleep in the classroom!

Australia's interesting fact of the day: Happy Christmas! All the banner in the area say "Happy Christmas" instead of Merry Christmas. I think they actually say happy christmas to you as well even though they all listen to the same Christmas music as us and it's definitely Merry Christmas!