I am starting off my blog post this week with a video demonstration of my new favorite obsession 🙂

TIM TAMS!!!!

After being told there was a way to eat these like an Aussie, I felt obligated to share this with everyone back home. I am hoping my Tim Tam problem will disappear soon, as its already going on two weeks and that is typically about as long as my guy, food, and random interests last.  If still interested after that two week hump, real problems could be ahead. I might not be able  be able to drink coffee and tea the same ever again!!!! I have fallen in a deep romance with Tim Tams, in which I have still not returned from yet. Here is a 4 minute video of my  Tim Tam demo (I am sure you will waste more time today randomly clicking on strangers Facebook pages, so just check out the Tim Tams, yea?)

YES,  I had just woke up before recording this. YES, you view me drinking my first sip of coffee of the morning (very vital for any cognitive functioning over here).  YES, I still have last night make up on. NO, I  did not comb my hair.  So just enjoy me in my morning rambling raw!! 🙂

 

Pyrmont Festival

One day while I was bored wasting countless hours Google searching the dumbest things possible, I came across a wine, food, and art event happening in the city. This is right up my alley and knew I had to make sure to be there Saturday afternoon to make an appearance.  After being a responsible adult (or grandma) and staying in Friday night working on a paper, I was up first thing Saturday to get this festival started. I walked on down the street to the bus stop and waited for he bus to be super late, like usual.So I just kept taking pictures of guys with horrible shoe choices, like usual.

Once finally on the bus it was extremely hot and sticky and the Asian kid (the owner of that shoe above) next to me kept insisting on moving closer to me. Ehhhh puke. Then the girl in front of me  kept taking selfies the entire time during the ride. If you cant get a good selfie after 20 minutes of trying, just stop, put the Iphone down, it happens to the best of us, it is not your day dear. So,  double puke. Finally I arrived to Darling Harbour where I saw the bridge open up for the first time. I DIDNT EVEN KNOW IT COULD DO THAT!! MIND BLOWN!

After another 20 minutes of walking around the streets, using only Google Maps and my natural horrible direction skills to guide me, I arrived!

Nothing like it taking 2 hours to get some where that should only take 20 minutes!

The place was crowded as it appeared to be a very good turn out of this lovely Saturday afternoon.The Pyrmont Festival  was showcasing the very best of the Pyrmont Precinct and Mudgee Region. They advertised having more than 50 restaurants, wine bars, hotels, winemakers and artists featured. The overall atmosphere was vibrant, probably from the plethora of wineries and places for people to get their little buzzes on. It was very kid and family friendly with a petting zoo and dogs running around everywhere. Oh, and in case you didnt know, you will get a lot of weird looks going into a petting zoo without a kid.

I knew I should of just borrowed one off of Craigslists for the day!

As I walked through the festival there were exhibits on  every side of displaying some of the local art. Some where outstanding, but sadly my wallet did not agree – so they stayed put:( The biggest emphasis appeared to be on all the wineries that were from the local area. I, not being familiar with any of the wineries, frankly had no where particular to go, so just did what any normal single girl alone wine tasting would do.

Just went to all the wineries with the hottest looking guys to talk with.

IT’S JUST SCIENCE 🙂

Too bad all the guys were in their late 40’s and not much to look at, even after my 10th tasting I still found the LJ Hooker Bear more attractive.  

Overall, with live music performances, plenty of wined up winos, and delicious food trucks and stands to grub from, it was a very very nice time.  

If you would like more information on this festival which is still going till the 25th of May, please click here

 

Sushi Trains, Choo Choo Away!

I am re-bringing up the topic of sushi here in Australia with this post, but with a bit more detail now as my opinion is just getting worse:/ Like I have mentioned before, sushi here is treated more on the lines of  fast food. I am sure there are plenty nice sit down places, but I have still yet to come across one. Besides having “little whole in the wall” places, serving pre-made sushi like they do at 711, what seems to be the most common are sushi train restaurants. At these places, everyone sits around the the oval or rectangles shape sushi bar and grabs the pre-made sushi off the track of moving food . Each plate is color coordinated with a price for whatever lies on the plate, with anywhere from 2 to 4 pieces on each plate.  I have seen everything from chicken schnitzel sushi to red plum sushi, to barbie soda and pudding floating around. Our “norm” back at home are not so much the norms here. This makes these places to become very frustrating for me.

I am sitting there, just watching the food go by over and over again, not knowing what to grab because I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT IS. Yes, I can keep referring back to the menu with tiny pictures and labels, but each time I look down to see whatever that is, it has already past by me and now I got to wait another 5 minutes to see that “whatever it is” thing again. Sushi is too expensive to just grab something and hope for the best. I am sorry my friends, but that is not a risk my hungry tummy or bank account wants to take! Furthermore (here lies the biggest issue), the quality of the sushi suffers tremendously with this style of service. The fish – just going around and around in the warm air – and sits there for god who knows how long! By the time I get it in my mouth, its warm and chewy and just not as appetizing as it is when its nice and fresh. Sushi trains as a whole are just not my thing. As someone who has included sushi as a major stable in her diet for over 10 years,  it appears I will need to be putting down a good amount of money to find the good sushi here.  This will have to wait till I get a job or win the lottery (annnnny day now for either of these:) )

 Closing Thoughts

Another week and a half as passed by, and I really do not have too much new to report.  Oh, vacation weight is gone! Woot woot, 2 hours a day of cardio and a bunch of salad and chicken later, one more week  and I’ll look better than I did when I arrived (This is if the Tim Tams do not attack!) This whole  being unemployed gig is getting really old. I am in saving mode till I have an income, which also means I do not have the money to spend to do cool things I want to! I do plan on going to the zoo and races this week, so that should be something fun to tickle your curiosities with. School is taking up a lot of time like I anticipated, and kinda of… ummm…SUCKING THE CREATIVE JUICES RIGHT OUT OF ME???! But hey, its giving me another challenge to conquer, and the CHALLENGE IS ACCEPTED!

I am still very much lonely here down under. I honestly never thought it would take this long to make a stable group of friends.  I have a friend here… and a friend there… and a friend here… and a friend there, but no two friends who actually know each other :/ Starting over socially gets harder the older I get, as I find myself being very picky with who I want to invest my time in and on. But I guess when you are just meeting people in  the most random ways, its hard form a bond easily. Plus.  trying to get to know someone from scratch takes a lot of interest and time before genuine “care” evolves. Meeting 60 people in 6 weeks hasn’t allowed for much dedication to anyone other than a text here and there.  Even with the zillion matches on Tinder, meet up group hang outs, and random run ins,  no concrete relationships are really coming from any of it.  I suppose this is the problem when you are trying to meet people, with the intentions of forming all types of relationship –everything just gets all muddled together and in return, no relationships actually form.

Lastly, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all my readers and a shout out to Roger Arden 🙂 With only 12 posts and a few months time, I have over 5,000 views, 500 unknown readers subscribed to my blog, over 30 shares and countless new friends  made in the process. I genuinely love reading everyone’s comments, and receiving follow up emails from readers telling me your thoughts and asking questions (Minus the one guy who told me to drop dead, how rude!) I enjoy writing papers in school, usually between 6 to 20 pages a week in assignments, but none compare to enjoyment I get from writing on here.

Starting this blog was one of the best decisions I could have made, well, along side moving to Australia of course 🙂

Awwww bed time now, where sleep still doesn’t come easy. I  just want to laugh, love, dance, travel and learn all the time!!! I feel I am doing the best with what I have to work with so far, but man oh man, I  just keep getting overwhelmed and impatient with excitement of unknowing of what the rest of this journey has awaiting for me…

Truly excited for life 🙂

FACT: Life will always  just makes more sense with flowers in my hair.

<3 Michelle