Brunch at Deus, Sunday, November 8th, 2009

Brunch at Deus: After sleeping late and finishing off some laundry work, Vonnie picked us up for a brunch at Deus. It’s a biker’s paradise with Harleys and Deus bikes scattered around you. We met Lu and Fadilla there and ordered for some Sunday brunch. Shilpi & I played safe and ordered some scrambled eggs and toasts with a cup of Deus’ famous coffee which is supposedly Sydney’s second best.

After the brunch, Vonnie took us for a nice drive around the city. The weather was wonderful with a slight drizzle and wind. We crossed the New South Wales art house, a beautiful Catholic church and the botanical gardens. We got a beautiful view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera house together. The bonus was a huge sexy Hummer parked outside and we all posed and took pictures as if we owned it! J The Aussies like their weather really sunny and bright and hated the weather outside. I also chickened out seeing the weather as I had a running nose, so we headed home.

At the moment, I am trying to note down today’s events before my laptop’s battery dies out as the plug points here doesn’t fit our Indian plugs, and the converter is not working for my laptop plug! The dustbins our stinking and overflowing as the house has not been cleaned by the house keeping people this week! Called them twice and they said it will be done soon. Shilpi and I are planning to go out again in some time as the weather gets better and our apartment is clean again!

Evening Updates: Shilpi and I went out for a walk in Darling Harbour and got some dinner home. Shilpi had a sub and I got a sea food pack. The prawn sucked big time and I had to fry it again before I could eat it! Sandesh reappeared at 1am!

Opera House & Manly Beach, Saturday, Novemcer 7th, 2009

Saturday, Shilpi and I woke up early and set off to explore Sydney, clueless where to go! We took a day ticket for 17 bucks which gave us the option to use as many ferry, train and bus trips throughout the day. We walked down around 4 kms to the town hall station, and took a train to Circular Quay. We walked by the harbour side towards the beautiful Opera house. We crossed a street magician who should have been at the Broadway and some aboriginal musicians who were playing some wonderful music.

The sight of the Opera house was breath-taking! After taking a zillion snaps and a few souvenirs, we took a ferry to the Manly beach. We sat at the Baverian Bier Cafe (yes! I have spelled Beer correctly.) Shilpi, had a beer at this very famous joint and we headed towards the beach. The beach was small but beautiful. After spending some time here, it was already evening and we headed back to Circular Quay. We went to Vrindavan for some Indian dinner to end a very nicely spent and eventful day.

Shoe bitten Yam Cha, Friday, November 6th, 2009

Shilpi and I headed office in a cab, though it was a short walk from home, (we didn’t know the way). Sandesh was already in office as we were running a little late. We found our way up to our teams and they greeted us warmly. The morning went by quickly -- meeting and greeting many known and unknown faces.

Von invited us for a Yam Cha lunch at the Fish Market. I knew the experience was going to be different and I was super excited about it. To describe Yam Cha, all the food is pre-cooked. Around 10 of us sat on a big round table as some Chinese ladies came in with trolleys loaded with different kinds of dumplings, fried food, etc. Apart from the normal chicken, lamb and veggies, it included pork, beef, chicken feet, squids, fish, prawns, etc. It was a huge variety of food which I never tried before. Some of it was good, absolutely loved the squids, some of it was awful like the chicken feet, which looked so disgusting that I couldn’t dare to try it. Sandesh and Shilpi gave it a try and their screwed-up face said it all. I was sure I didn’t miss anything! Overall experience was great!

Google street view: As the street view on Google maps for our office street was not updated in the last year, the maps team took a video to update it on Google maps. To make the street look more Googly, all of us in office went down and stood on the Pirrama Road, waving and cheering as the video was taken. Super experience on the first dayJ . The Sydney Morning Herald covered it on their news here:

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/technology/technology-news/google-street-view-car-comes-to-sydney/20091106-i1d7.html

And here’s the video:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/aussi

e-googlers-gather-for-street-view-stunt-20091106-i1e0.html

Sandesh went off to his friend’s place and we saw him off at the Darling harbor in the evening. The cafes and bars beside the harbor were packed with beautifully dressed girls and handsome guys, ready to wash away the week’s tiredness with some good food and wine. I have to admit, Sydney’s nightlife is absolutely fabulous. We finished our dinner at an Indian restaurant called Vrindavan. Food wasn’t exciting at all, so Shilpi and I did some grocery shopping and got back home.

P.S: Forgot to mention about the horrible shoe bites! First day at office and I had worn my new pair of formal shoes. I never had a clue that in Sydney people walked so much! They made us walk all the way to fish market and back. Result: I had to spend the weekend wearing sandals L!

Sydney with Rice Congee, Thursday, November 5th, 2009

After a very long flight and crossing three time zones we reached Sydney. It took us 1 and half hours to clear out from the airport after depositing a packet of lentils, 2 packets of popcorn and a cockroach from Shilpi’s bag!

Vonnie (Von or Yvonne) and Sandesh came to pick us up from the airport. They took us to the China town here, which reminded me the China town back home in Calcutta. Vonnie ordered some Noodle soup and Congee. Congee is a crispy fried batter which you break into the rice and noodles porridge. Though it was less spicy for the Indian palate, it tasted great with the traditional Chinese jasmine tea! We headed home after a late dinner and called it quits as tomorrow would be the first day at office.