Sydney - My Beloved City

Sydney.....Sydney.....how I love thee.....

I can never get sick of this vibrant city, no matter how frequent I had visited this place. This was my third trip there since I arrived in Newcastle 2 months ago. First trip was a hasty one-day journey to get my NSW medical registration at the old mental health institution near the suburb, a small building tucked right at the end of a corner of a HUGE compound ( for those who can't imagine how secluded it was, think of our Communicable Disease Center CDC next to TTSH). Nice environment to work in, as one of the administrators there said, but I think it was really inaccessible....since I had to walk 45 minutes from the entrance of the compound before I located the building.

My second trip there was few weeks back when I had a lift from my landlord. It was during the Mid-Autumn Festival which made the timing perfect since I was desperately craving for my ultra-sweet mooncakes and Chinese cuisine. That was an eventful trip. I met up with some of my brother's friends and bunked in with one of them, a very kind and ultra-sweet lady from Hong Kong who held British and Australian passports, and who was studying Nritrition (Iris, please correct me if I am wrong) at the University of Sydney. I met students from other parts of Asia as well, and did crazy things like queueing a long 2 hours for a Chinese tim-sum buffet (No regrets...the food was simply succulent and high-quality). It was somehow heartwarming to see so many Chinese or Asians on the streets and I felt very much at home, a feeling which I had and would never experience back in Newcastle. As expected, I hang around Chinatown most of the time, and by the end of 3 days, was loaded with boxes of mooncakes and pineapple cakes to last me for a long while in Newcastle. Interestingly, I met up with a fellow Malaysian/Singaporean PR pilot-to-be during my stay there and had a stimulating chat with him through the night, comparing our lives in Australia and back home. The Malaysians or Singaporeans living in Newcastle have very much assimilated into the Australian lifestyle and thinking, and hence I always find difficulties relating to them.

I had the fortune of taking another lift from a colleague during the weekend and met my dear friends there again. This time I decided to make a trip down to the Sydney Opera House and Lake Macquarie, and once again immersed myself in the air of vibrance and culture. The weather was perfect, with the bright smiling sun and the cool caressing breeze. The lake was inviting and the greeneries soothing. I had very much wanted to plant myself down on the grass and enjoy my novel, but I had to meet my friends for grocery shopping at Paddy's Market later. We cooked curry chicken that night and chatted through the night. I did some shopping the next day, having realised that my shoes were wearing off after all the extensive walking, and needed to get my favourite Cantopop casette tapes for listening in the car ( yes, you can call me primitive but my car is not fitted with a CD player). I was disappointed to leave the place empty-handed this time, but not before getting myself a cool pair of sunglasses for the coming summer and some cookies at the Chinese grocery shop (I am putting on weight every minute here with the snackings). By the way, Julio Iglesias is performing at the Opera House in November, so I am planning to trod down during that period to catch his concert.

As for now, it's back to the mundane hospital work and usual challenges for me.