Manly and Tea at the Rocks

So my camera has this oil painting setting that is fun to play with. At first I thought it was a setting for taking oil paintings, and there's other settings for watercolor and crayon, and I was like oh this camera assumes that I run across those things on a daily basis.

But because I have ADHD and like to fiddle with things, I found out that it makes photos look like oil paintings!! Big surprise.

And of course, I like to take pictures of the opera house.

Manly Beach

Scones and Tea at Tara's Tea Room on the Rocks. Probably the best service I have had here in Sydney.

As weird as it sounds, I miss tipping people!

Scone flavors: Plain, Cheeeeese!, apricot and raisins, and maple.

I am in LOVE with the tea cozies! I must learn how to knit one pronto! I got the classic earl grey.

Fresh out of the oven!

Sydney Hamburger

I am getting another one of these asap.

Tim Tam Slams are for amateurs

I am not a big fan of the tim tam slam. The first time I tried to do it, the whole thing fell in my cup. It was a big fail. All my fault, but still.

The other day I was cutting up some amazing looking strawberries and I wished I had some chocolate bars to melt and dip in. No chocolate bar, however, yes tim tams...

I put them in the microwave for 45 seconds and the two biscuits reluctantly separated in the gooey chocolaty goodness and I put some cut up strawberries on top. I think it was a success.

I wish I had some Cool-Whip to put on top though, although I can't seem to find that anywhere in Sydney, any ideas?

P.S. I just learned that Arnott named the biscuits Tim Tam after he went to the Kentucky Derby and named it after the winning horse. And since I lived in Kentucky for 10 years, I pretty much feel a personal connection to the biscuits. Yes. Definitely.

Now some pictures to lure you into the idea.

A bowl of strawberries. hmmm what to do?

You put them on melted tim-tams of course!!

High Tea at the Victoria Room

I was very excited to hear that Australia is the number 4 country in the world for drinking the most tea. I came to the right country! I mean I guess I could've gone to England or Ireland but the sunshine in Australia is quite addicting. And of course being a crazy tea fiend, I had to do high tea.

Time for High tea! Very dimly lit room but a very exotic and mysterious feel.

The High Tea menu although I thought they could do better than the white tea cups and stainless steel teapots. Maybe next time I'll bring my own tea cozy to dress it up.

The sugar "mis" cubes are just too precious.

Tea Sandwiches: Chicken and Wild Herb was my favorite. And the Salmon with Watercress on wheat bread was so delicious. Very delicately made. I'm glad it wasn't just some piece of ham slapped onto pieces of ill shaped bread.

The dessert selection. Oh goodness. I wish these were like ten times the size. I normally really don't like cheesecakes, but these mini ones were very creamy and awesome. The chocolate mousse in chocolate cup along with raspberry on top dusted with confectioner's sugar was a work of art. The red velvet cupcake was pretty normal, but who doesn't like red velvet cupcake? Oh my roommate, ha. Um the strawberry tart had a very delicious cream cheese filling. I hoped for little tiramisu cups or something but these definitely fit the bill.

The scones. They were pretty normal scones. The creme fraiche with scone was unbelievable though. I want to eat that thing by the spoonful.

A wonderful tea time experience with Jo!! and we ended it with glasses of sparkling wine! Perfect afternoon.

Heaps of Food Pictures

Yummy rice pudding I found at The Chicken Shop on King Street Newtown. Delicious. I am addicted. Too bad they only make them like twice a week.

Chocolate Soufflé at the Max Brenner Chocolate Bar. warm and goooey

Pancakes on the Rocks! Basically a fancier Waffle House. But I don't know what it is with Australian bacon but it's amazing!! Hash browns taste weirdly similar to Waffle House. Eggs were a little dry, not nothing unfix-able by loads of Tabasco

The Farmer's Market. Lots of organic produce and different food vendors. I got this delicious Free range egg and bacon sandwich. I don't know why roaming around makes chicken produce awesome eggs but that's all I am getting from now on. So perfectly orange yolk. Really good for samples if you're hungry on a Saturday morning.

You know you're in Sydney when...

In no particular order

• all the birds sound angry and are ready to attack food aka you
• you have to sort out all your problems by 5pm Friday because noone is available on weekends even if they're supposed to be working
• the sun is bright enough to shine out your ass
• the bus fine for putting your feet on seats is twice as much as drinking alcohol on bus.
• Chinese restaurants barter for you to go eat there
• they charge you money for take out boxes (same for China)
• people are willing to go out of their way to help you. Thanks to the IT guys at Uni
• everything that the IT guys deal with goes wrong
• you almost get hit by 5 cars in one day
• you stumble across the best food at the best markets sold by the best people
• you don't have to get worried about getting molested on the dancefloor
• you just want to dance
• crazy homeless people chain smoke 17 dollar pack cigarettes

• even if things in life go wrong, you are still enjoying every single minute of it.

First week in Sydney

My first post in Sydney!
I have been trying to write a post but since my computer's harddrive was busted trying to connect to the network here, I have had to send my harddrive back to Wake since Thinkpads suck really hard.
My phone doesn't really work either and the cell phone they gave us is totally a rip off. I have spent 60 dollars in just a week on phone calls and texts!
And Whoever said textbooks are cheap here is clearly delirious! I am running out of money fairly quickly. Especially when Laundry costs $4.50 a load and $1.50 every 8 minutes to dry.
So I'm going to be old school asian and start washing my clothes in a stream. First I have to go find a stream.

However, I have not been bothered by these things too much. Or as much as I would've been. Because it's sunny here pretty much everyday! Although it's a bit chilly, it warms during the day and I have had all the time in the world to just sit in the sun and just enjoy the weather!
The town that is near where we live is called Newtown and it's a very eclectic and busy neighborhood with many amazing Thai and cute little restaurants and a bunch of really chill bars. I have had to walk everywhere but I guess that will keep the beer weight off. Getting groceries is pretty fun since the nearest large grocery store is about 2 miles away, but we just keep stealing their carts to wheel back and we get pretty funny looks on the street. But no worries since they're not being green hauling their stuff in cars and we are being super environmentally friendly!

Another cool thing was the Aroma Festival. It was a huge huge festival dedicated to coffee, tea, and chocolate from around the world. I almost had a small stroke when I heard this was happening because those things are basically my life plus air. It was a huge venue and there were lots of interesting vendors and free samples. All the pictures will be up on facebook when I get my computer back. Although internet here is per data. So uploading pictures is probably going to cost me like 10 dollars but I will do it!

Classes have started and I'm signed up for two classes at the same time. Apparently it happens here all the time so I guess I will just decide that day whether I feel like learning about Cognitive psychology or some Marine Bio! We actually have to go to the beach to measure sea stuff. I'll let you know how that goes.

But so far, Australia is awesome, people are super friendly and I think that with the sun shining almost everyday, who can be in a bad mood?
Now I'm off to get a burrito. I miss Chipotle