fuchsia fragments

Week 2: Playing Tour Guide

2/28/2016 09:47:00 pm

It's been an interesting week... things are progressing slowly in the office but at least I'm no longer twiddling my thumbs all the time! Hooray...!

I also had two visitors from home so there were two familiar faces in the office. It's a welcome change but personally, I think I prefer it when I'm there doing my own thing. I feel responsible to entertain them and low and behold, spent my whole weekend with them. I didn't mind so much but a day and a half with the same company can be a bit stressful and challenging - especially when I get the feeling they don't completely embrace the culture or the customs. I am liking wandering around on my own and it's a lot harder to 'fit in' with the locals when I have two Caucasians with me who are absolutely fascinated by well - everything.

Lady colleague and I had a wonderful day in Hakone visiting the Open Air Musuem and doing the loop around Hakone by rail, ropeway, cable car, boat and bus. It was mightly fresh though! Very glad to hop on the Romancecar back to Shinjuku in the evening. And it gave me ideas of what to do when my parents arrived. Hopefully the volcanic activity will cease and we will be able to visit the stop where they do the funny black (sulfur) eggs!

Today was going around town - Shibuya and Harajuku because that's what people think of when they think of Tokyo. We did Takeshita St, Daiso and then we were at Yoyogi Park waiting for almost an hour for a few Elvis impersonators to dance. Interesting but doesn't really catch my attention. Then we had kaizen sushi in Ometesando which I thought was average (and a bit of a tourist trap really) before they went back to their hotel. I dropped by the Farmer's Markets to pick up some groceries and got these tri-coloured carrots. They were so crispy when I cut them up for my soup this evening and delicious.

A Japanese colleague told me to go outlet shopping (apparently it's the right time) and it sounds like a great idea. Some of the streets are paved with those funny cobblestones and I have worn through my pair of black wedges... so sad because they were Nine West and relatively new. :( So I need to find a replacement pair.

chinatown

Week 1: Settling In

2/23/2016 06:19:00 pm

Arriving at 5 AM has its advantages such as no traffic in the morning and being able to rest for a few hours and freshen up before the new day. I certainly think red-eye flights are the better ways to go as it saves a potentially a day and if you are travelling, that's potentially one night's accommodation you save. The jetlag is another story but I've been getting use to working to my bones up to the time that I travel that it's not overly difficult to catch a few z's when flying. It doesn't mean I don't have jetlag though but it beats being bored for hours on end. This is the third flight in a row where I have not watched any of the entertainment on-board and declined meals/drinks - maybe I could do the whole budget traveller thing?

So I've gotten through week 1 - settled into my apartment. Got some essentials and realised as I was unpacking that I didn't actually pack as much as I had thought. Excellent news, means I can shop more! Here's the part where I hope the Aussie dollar starts making up its lost ground and fast.

This week has been about meeting the team again and I can already sense a firmer barrier between us that last time. I know that they are shutting me out. However, everyone is telling me to let it go for now and that I should plan lunches instead. So I have been!

I've already managed to secure two harder-to-find bottles of whiskey (Yamazaki 12 & Hibiki 17) so that is a major item off my list. Can't wait to try it. No good wine in Japan means I am learning to drink whiskey. It's not so bad as I am starting off with like 1 part whiskey to 10 parts ginger ale. I happen to like ginger ale. But bad whiskey is well... really bad. My sister is planning to visit in March and I'm wondering if we will have time / want to go and visit the Nikka distillery in Yoishi.

I visited Yokohama on the weekend. It rained out so was a bit boring. Also, the Chinatown isn't as cool as the ones in San Fran or New York. It probably doesn't even stack up to Sydney. It was all about the buns and Shanghai dumplings it seemed and very tourist orientated. I walked into one of the Asian grocery stores and it was really only selling snacks and drinks and a few dry goods. A little bit disappointing. One thing I really wish I'd brought with me is a jar of mum's chilli!!!

I'm not liking the current season's clothes at Zara or H&M or Uniqlo so haven't stuck into the shopping yet. May go and venture out on the weekend. My colleagues tell me it is outlet sale time... I kind of need to get paid first...! Can't bankroll myself forever.

Have already tried a few interesting things in the supermarket. I bought what I thought was fish cake which turned out to be this rice or tofu cake thing. Wasn't particularly pleasant. And then this is my bad as I should have known when it said 700g but still stupidly thought it was milk when it was drinking yoghurt. At least with the yoghurt, I can pour that over my granola!

Generally and especially with the exchange rate, I am finding most things expensive. Except alcohol as you'd expect as they don't have additional taxes etc. But fresh fruit, veg and meat will cost you $$$. Their strawberries are AMAZING though. Got a couple of familiar faces in the office with me this week so should be an interesting week. We have a team dinner tomorrow and then I'm off to Japanese Language school on Thursday evening!

asian

Ending with a Bang

2/16/2016 09:45:00 am

It has been a very busy final few days in Sydney with barely any downtime at all.

Had three full days of workshops and training at the Spit. It is a beautiful location however needing to get to the office by 8 AM is kind of hard. And the bus actually left without people – wow. The first day we had 8 hours of training plus a dinner and networking evening. That was excellent but getting home from Chowder Bay is again a difficult feat. The training is definitely ‘transformational’ and unlike any other seminar that you would expect Finance experts to go to. Another thing about these events is that you will never go hungry… in fact, I’m pretty sure there is a high probability that you will gain weight. There’s breakfast Danishes and yoghurt on arrival, freshly baked cookies for morning tea, lunch buffet with an extensive range of salad and two hot options followed by fruit and cheese platters and afternoon tea is usually another sweet option. Of course, always served with a huge selection of tea, coffee and other cold beverages.

On the last day, we were treated to a team event and my boss may have potentially blown her yearly budget on this one afternoon! A chartered 4 hour cruise with canapes and drinks on a boat! Wow so amazing – we are definitely very fortunate to have her look after us (she is sacrificing her business class travel this year to save money!). The weather was hot and sunny with a cool breeze at times – absolute perfection. I really enjoyed myself and the boat was certainly big enough so you only had to chat to the people that you wanted to. This was followed by drinks at Bungalow 8 and it was over a year ago that I’d been there during the Christmas Party the year before. It was not going off… nevertheless, was there for a few hours and good to get to know other colleagues from interstate, especially those that I don’t work with directly.

Friday was the day where running around doing chores really takes it out of you. it was a hot day and driving around Sydney in Friday traffic (who would have thought?) makes everything seem so much harder. Got to have lunch with my parents and sister though – Vietnamese!!! I am going to miss pho and crispy chicken and bbw so much in Tokyo. I reckon Vietnamese is one of my favourite types of cuisine. Picked up my tank of helium which was enough to fill 100 balloons and about 20 enormous foil balloons that I bought off eBay. Winning… my sister was really concerned that we wouldn’t be able to use the existing nozzle on the tank and that we were going to run out of helium. Neither of those things happened but the back up plan was to go get them filled up in the shop and pay for it. We got our whole pig for the spit… and you are definitely desensitized when you see the animal. Salted it, iced it, dried it and got it ready for the morning to throw on the spit. Roasting a whole animal is a challenge: they are heavy, its raw, the spit is HOT, the rod needs to go through the animal precisely… it really is harder than you imagine. Anyway, I really want to say a huge thank you to my coz and Albert for helping on Friday and Saturday. Seriously could not have done it without you guys.

Saturday: party time! Can I please have more sleep? Got about 5 hours but getting up at 7 AM to get the fire going and mount the spit is kind of weird. We got it on just before 9 which meant we were on time. Our basting sauce had too much sugar and soy so it turned the pig black pretty quickly (it wasn’t burnt but you can really tell that the skin was charred) and we probably tried to over insure ourselves too much by getting the fire way hotter than it probably should have been. No matter because by 6 PM the pig and cooked and moist and freaking delicious. And yes, we had CRACKLING! And as usual, Asian mother means 50 people invited – cater for 100. The food. And Asian people don’t listen!!! NO GIFTS means… NO GIFTS! And it was not bring a dish. Why was everyone bringing a dish? Appreciated but it means you all have to take boxes of food home. We seriously could have had a lunch session and a dinner session and we would still have food leftover…

I am being quite hypocritical when I say the above as I actually made lots of things for a dessert table knowing that it will go to waste – I just wanted pretty pictures. The cake pops were made from the tops of the cake and the macarons were the culls from an event a few weeks earlier. The kids loved the jelly and the strawberry tree was so pretty but again everyone was so full of the meat and seafood that they barely had any room left for sweets. The best part of the night was spent outdoors by the spit and then playing with bubbles and sparklers with the kids and Maxxie. What I wouldn’t give to be 4 or 5 again… or a well-loved puppy. Such a carefree life!

Taking photos was another fun part of the night as we had a very keen amateur photographer in Carmen’s father. Thank you uncle! You bring humour and professionalism to the role in spades! It really was a great party and I think everyone had a really good time. The kids got to take balloons home (hilarious when you try to fit two gigantic helium aeroplanes into a Kluger already seated with 7 people… hahaha), everyone doggy bagged, cake was a hit, kids had fun (Ethan did a poop just before leaving and his parents had already packed his bag in the car… he seemed really proud of himself too which made it more funny), dogs had fun and the clean up began! This was one event where I was glad most things were disposable but there was a lot of garbage bags at the end of it. I was hydrating myself during the party more than I was eating. They say that the organisers of a party do not get to enjoy themselves – I kind of see where that comes from as you are too busy making sure everyone else is well fed and hydrated and having a good time!

Needless to say Sunday was a day of doing nothing except packing. My bag ended up being 30.3 kg talk about using up your allowance to the max! Who knew it was so hard (I actually think I did not pack any casual sweaters… oops, guess I will have to buy one on the weekend). Everything seemed to fit which was good. I guess I should look forward to unpacking now that I have arrived? I requested an upgrade but was declined – the flight was absolutely full which was so sad for me. I had an aisle seat but I actually think the window seat is better for sleeping. I didn’t get much sleep as there were constantly people walking up and down the aisles. Thankfully, we arrived early so I got to catch 3 hours in the apartment before work. It feels weird to sleep until 9:20 on a weekday (11:20 Sydney time no less). So lucky I got to rest as I think I would be shattered otherwise.

So looking forward to every challenge and experience over the next 5 months.

catch up

Catch ups to tide me over

2/06/2016 11:23:00 pm

I never considered myself to have a full social calendar. I love the occasional (some, more frequent) catch-ups with my friends and this week has been a full week of coffees, lunches, dinners and drinks with some of my favorite people - thank you so much for organising these, for the hugs (and a couple of tears), for the the laughs, for the gifts and for the excitement you all feel for me. I am so grateful and lucky to have the chance to see you all.

As eventhough I've switched off in the office, there is so much I feel like I need to do in this final week. It's Chinese New Year! It's my dad's birthday! I haven't packed... what am I going to do???

Last night, I had a fancy (overpriced) dinner at Black followed by drinks on the Sky Terrace at the Star. I couldn't think of a better Friday night to see the Sydney skyline afterdark and I couldn't think of better people to spend it with. I am going to miss my two blondes terribly... and I am absolutely hoping that Madison's bf will have a trip to Tokyo soon so she can visit with him. We would totally wreak havoc on the bars in Tokyo!!!

I actually didn't realise how much I'd had to drink until I got home. I pretty much crashed and woke up with a headache/ hangover. A needless reminder that I am no longer as young as I use to be. So it was quite a painful morning to get up and be in Cabramatta for Yum Cha with another bunch. The drive there and parking were a nightmare and I wondered if I should have been driving at all. I was fine once I got to the place and we started shoveling food like it was our last meal. You should have seen the overflowing lazy susan...! We all love to pick on Jack (sorry Jack). Brunch/lunch followed by my second official tour of Cabramatta where we went to get Avocado and Durian shakes, Red Lea chips (famous for its Paprika Salt) and Pork Rolls. And we finally found the shop selling Oriental Lillies for Li. We walked up and down each mall until we finally found them in BKK! Yay! Can't wait till I'm back for Rusty Chef and Christmas in July!!!! Woohooooooo. Definitely going to miss this bunch.

Then I got home to crash for an hour or so before CNY dinner at a family friends place. So stuffed there was steamed fish, abalone, chicken, prawns, roast pork and some traditional dishes. Then there was sesame glutinous rice balls and watermelon seeds and sugared candies... so much nostalgia. I think this is the first year where we've really felt the red exuding from a dinner. The luckiness and the tradition. I even got to see Lion Dancers at the Star on Friday night. And lanterns everywhere and crackers and so much more than I expected. So happy.

Another few full days. Let's see if I will have time to write about it. Time for bed.

long day

another summer wedding

1/24/2016 04:11:00 pm

baking

in 2016, i want...

1/11/2016 12:41:00 pm

Right - so 11 days into the new year and I finally have somethings I want to jot down.

Firstly, my goals have changed. I've spent the past two years really solidly working on my business - slowly but steadily. I was not getting a ton of orders but there were peaks and I was really enjoying it. I like spending time on my own in the kitchen and just tuning the world out while I bake. It was great especially when you're given a task that you haven't done before and in the end, you manage to do it. Really fulfilling.

In the last year months, and even more closely, this past weekend, I've also realised that I try to do too much at the expense of other things. I've spent around 30 hours this weekend (not kidding) in the kitchen for cakes and prepping for a wedding. It's exhausting. Even now, I've taken a day off whilst it is 30 degrees outside and smoldering in the kitchen. I've hidden away to the darkness that is my bedroom, shades down and looking for some quiet comfort.

I'm moving to Tokyo in a few weeks and I am really looking forward to it. The end game to this step is a promotion and to focus on my career goals. With that comes even more time away from baking. It's not a hard equation: would I throw away my (pretty) stable career for one that's just budding, waiting by my laptop or phone for a new order to come in? Not likely. Not in this decade...

So as I was baking my nth tray of macarons in the evening last night, I sort of wondered if I'd be willing to come back to all this: giving up weekends at a time. I know I don't do it for the money for there's no money to be made really on this lower end of the scale. It's more the enjoyment and giving happiness to others. Maybe I will cut back? Or maybe I will rethink my strategy? What will I turn down? What is easy and achievable?

I look at what I wanted to do in 2015 - more cake classes and things related to baking. But even wanting to do that, I didn't find the time. It's almost like saying to those acquaintances, border line friends yes we'll catch up, let's do it. And you never do. And in all honesty, you probably never will.

2016 is easy: career goals + savings + travel + seeing my friends in other parts of the world.

Here's to a new year.