ThienX

She will know that I was lying and I WILL, in fact, be there tonight for her 21st birthday dinner and after drink festivities!!  Yay for surprises weeeeeee

I HEART YOU LINSAYYYY

Flew up to Sydney Thursday night, and came back on Tuesday morning, going straight from the airport to my 930 class.  BALLER STATUS.  

Thursday: Coffees, hot choc, and orange juices at Cafe Hernandez.  Sleepover in Mish’s cute tiny room in her hostel-like house, where 50-year-old Colombian men sing karaoke.  I, unfortunately, did not get to experience this.

Friday: Escaping the torrential downpour and eating at Casa di Nico by the Harbour.  Handtossed pizza (I saw him do it!) topped with prosciutto, parm cheese and rocket.  Sydney Aquarium where we saw a giant croc, sharks, fishies (including Dorys and Nemos), octopuses, dugongs (inappropriate manatee-like creatures who like to show their ding dongs) and… Marine Biologist Jack, aka love of my life.  ”BEST” and “FRIENDS” penguin necklaces and crazy straw cup straw bought.  Chinese leftovers brought to our swank Marriott hotel.

Saturday: Shopping on Oxford St where I bought a silver ring with a Dumbo elephant on it, and a vertical gold three-leafed ring from Fringe, an amazing store where there a bunch of little vendors inside selling cute clothing and jewelry.  AND it’s a bar.  Genius.  Paddington Market, where I bought a heart back cutout floral dress.  Hotpot, spring rolls, and salad at a Vietnamese restaurant by Mish’s house.  Karaoke at nighttime, where “Buddy Holly,” “Love Story,” and “Too Little Too Late” were the highlights.

Sunday: Wicked at Capitol Theatre.  Front row seats on the second level.  Aussie actors with American accents, including Australian Idol semi-finalist Rob Mills.  Dinner at an Indian Restaurant in Surry Hills.  Curry chicken, and cool little Indian snacks consumed.  Photos by the Bridge and Opera House taken.

Monday: Lunch in Surry Hills at an amazing place where we shared five dishes.  Some of them include a meatball sub, a charcuterie plate, and a roast beef salad.  All pretty simple but with little twists that equaled awesomeness.  Ferry to Manly where we walked the promenade, bought cheap souvenirs and took pictures by the beach.  Fish and chips dinner where Cat was surprised with little muffins with sparklers.  And ice-cream at Australia’s ONLY Ben & Jerry’s!

All in all, we probably picked the worst weekend to go to Sydney, seeing as how we had group projects due the following week, but well worth it!   

Took the train to Camberwell with Anya and Jojo.  Johan and his friend Jason met us on the train from the Glenferrie station, which is where Jason lives.  The three of them are all Mauritian and they all speak francais!  I try to listen and figure out what they say, but it usually fails. 

The Camberwell market is just outside the train station.  We just had to follow the crowd and we were there!  There was some cool jewelry that I bought, as well as ceramics and clothing.  However, it looked like some people literally just found whatever junk was in their house and decided to stick it on a table and put it up for sale.  Imagine the possibilities…

After, we went to Glenferrie and ate lunch at Kimchi Lunchbox.  I got a massive bowl of bulgogi beef with rice and it was deeeelish!  Even though I was full (I sampled other peoples’ meals), I HAD to get the frozen yogurt by the train station.  I have been missing froyo for the past few months, especially when it was hotter in February and March.  At this place, if you guess how much it weighs correctly, you get it for free!  Johan guessed 353g for me, but it turned out to be 342g.  The guy working there was really adorable, and he kindly picked out the good strawberries for me when I asked him to. :)

Oh, there were also a bunch of apples on the tram that I found highly entertaining. 

Jason had to get changed for his RMIT soccer game so we went to his Unilodge at Swineburne Place.  His place has separate bedrooms and looks more like an apartment because his walls are painted and he has nice couches.  And a balcony!  We took the train back to Flinders, and met him at Princes Park to go see him an action.  There was not a lot of spectators at all, but we made a clever sign that said “#28 Have my babies!”  The other players found it amusing.  Sadly, RMIT lost, but our sign kept everyone’s spirits up (or I’d like to think it did).  

We popped in at the Buddha’s Day Festival at Federation Square, where there was a dance demonstration going on.  There was a big shrine with a Buddha, and you could buy flowers for it or pray with incense.  There were also a bunch of food vendors along Yarra River, where they were selling turnip cakes, fried bananas, and vegetarian meat dishes.  After a long day, we went back to the Unilodge, where I slept for prooobably 15 hours. 

Spent the day at Chadstone, a massive shopping mall, that has the basic stores, like Sportsgirl and Country Road, as well as more high-end stores, like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Miu Miu.  Later that night, I got ready with Geri in her apartment on the twelfth floor.  She was going to her friend Cat’s brother’s 21st birthday at a bar in Fitzroy.  She was going to take me as her plus one and as tempting as the open tab sounded, I already had plans.  She lent me this really cute navy strapless dress that has pretty flowers on it.  Cat picked me up from the apartment and we drove to Footscray for a carpark party at her parents’ friend Harry’s place.  He lives in this awesome warehouse that houses a cool red fridge, a Maserati, and a cowskin rug.  It’s a really modern place and I am super jealous.

Then we drove to Crown to go to a club called Fabrique, where Cat’s friends were throwing an early 22st birthday celebration, since she won’t be here this weekend to celebrate (we are going to Sydney).  They played awesome music, including “Baby,” which equals an awesome night no matter WHAT.  She reserved a table and we had Hennessy and vodka.  Yum (not actually)!  

My Jeffrey Campbell platform gladiator heels were killing me at the end of the night, but thank god her friend Dennis was there to give me a piggyback ride to Mark’s car!  

So Jojo and I made the trek up to Sydney Road, which was like a twenty-five minute tram ride (I have no sense of time) up Elizabeth Street, which turns into Royal Pde, which turns into Sydney Road.  We talked to this nice man on the tram who told us when to get off because there are some good shops along the street.  Well, being the fatties we are, we were on a mission to find A1 Lebanese Bakery, which is one of the restaurants that Mr. Anthony Bourdain went to on his trip to Melbourne.  He mentioned some good Lebanese pizzas and minced lamb inside bread, or something.  Our goal was to go to all of the restaurants that he went to in Melbourne.  We have already gone to Sichuan House, where we had some spicy spareribs.  It was good, but nothing TOO special.

As we made our way along Sydney Road, we saw Town Hall Kebab, which was ALSO on his list!  Hitting 2 food places in one outing, hella yes!  This is where they had kebabs, which are essentially gyros.  They were out of chips though, which is super lame.  Apparently they are open until 4am though, which is totally cool.  The chicken kebabs we got were okay  Nothing too special.  

A1 Lebanese Bakery seemed to not be that great either.  We had a minced lamb pizza which was basically a spread of minced lamb on some fluffy pita bread type thing, and some lemon juice sprinkled on top.  Not so yem.

So yeah, we’re not too sure if we’re going to continue our goal of eating at all of Anthony’s Melbourne places.  But this picture of Banh Mi from Hoi An from his Top 5 Food Porn Moments slideshow is quite mouth-watering… and I want it NOW!

We did, however, discover an entire grocery store full of vegetables and fruits, AND a giant Mediterranean grocery store that had fresh pastas, cheeses, and sweets.  Yum!  

It’s always a good day in Melbourne when you have good food :)

#CaliforniaGurls on repeat. does this make me a cali girl? (noooooooooooooo!)

Went to see Letters to Juliet last night, starring Amanda Seyfried (who I LOVE).  It was free through my Unilodge, and THANK GOD, because it was pretty awful.  It’s about how women in Verona write these sad letters to Juliet at Verona courtyard.  These group of women answer them, so Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), whose fiance Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal) has semi-abandoned her to go to a wine auction, decides to join in.  She goes on this big adventure with a Brit grandma who is trying to find her lover Lorenzo from 50 years ago, along with her disapproving grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan, an Australian posing as a Brit) yadda yadda yadda.  I wasn’t expecting much out of it, but some of the lines were just so laughable!  The Verona setting was beautiful and all, but who on earth did her wardrobe selection??  They put her in the drabbiest dresses and some weird touristy shoes.  Is that how they want American fashion perceived as?  Not okay. 

The very last line of the movie, when Charlie falls off of some vines (after a Romeo and Juliet-esque scene on a balcony.  Yeah.):

“Can you move?”

“Only my lips.”

Geri and I went and got cocktails at Spleen Bar (awful, I know) afterwards.  I got a drink that had muddled strawberries, which is my fave thing ever.  A douchebag in his fifties asked if we were lesbians and then proceeded to tell us his friend had a big, well, you know.  Geri told him off and I love her for it!  The perfect ending to a cold rainy day.  

Did my Global Marketing presentation today.  I’m pretty much useless to the group and I feel a bit guilty… but oh well!  That’s done with.  Now I just have to do my Fashion Merchandising project, where we have to go create a lookbook and some other fancy stuff for a menswear line called MenGen, targeted for 30-50 year old males.  What a great target group!  Not.  The only good part of this has been that I got to interview my hairdress at Zucci hair salon at David Jones, when I went to get a free Aveda hair treatment.  He was actually only 23, but we just pretended he was 30.  His name was Ryan, he was the ish, and he made my hair silky smoothhhhh.  Afterward, he answered some questions that my group had put together so we could get to know our target market better.  I just wanted an excuse to talk to him and find out more about him.  He lives in Monee Ponds and shops on eBay.  Yipee!

I am finding inspirational pictures for our mood board.  I can’t use this because it doesn’t really go with our whole theme, but I AM digging it. It’s so fun and cheery!  Unlike this weather…

JoJo and I are trying to plan a trip to Fiji so hopefully we’ll see some sunshine preeeetty soon!  We talked to STA and some Asian company, both reps seemed a bit useless, but we shall see!  Ideally we want to spend some time on the mainland Nadi and then go island hopping.  C’est la vie, bitches.

Songs currently on repeat (a lot):

Eenie Meenie (feat. Sean Kingston) - Justin Bieber

Handle Me - Robyn

Keep It Goin’ Louder (feat. Nina Sky & Ricky Blaze) - Major Lazer

Kiss and Tell - Justin Bieber

California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg) - Katy Perry

Dirty Talk - Wynter Gordon

Hello (Glee Cast Version) [feat. Jonathan Groff] - Glee Cast

Thanks to Natasha, who feeds my crack music addiction and sends me songs, including Glee songs and sick remixes by LBL 

Food log:

-banana slathered with Nutella, and half of a Waffle On waffle consumed after

-half a waffle with Nutella slathered

-fishcakes and rice

Had dinner at Cat’s house.  Her grandma, cousins, aunts and uncles were all there.  They were all really cool and nice.  We had yummy hot pot again.  This time I did NOT eat any squid (last time Cat said that the squid was a fish cake.  She lied.)  We had a huge bowl of fruit salad and muffins for dessert.  The muffins had adorable little decorations stuck in them, like flowers and pine trees.  

Derek, Mish and Dave came later.  And then we watched Hil Duff’s Raise Your Voice.  Cat knew WAY too many lines of that movie than a normal person should.  

Went to Lavish at the Docklands.  It took a good 15 minutes for Jojo to get me to sneak in.  I had already semi-screwed it up and we kept going back and forth on each other’s phones.  Her telling me to just go in, and me being a huge pansy.  The bouncer turned the other way and we strolled in.  ”Baby” came on and we went effing crazing.  Tore up that Asian dancefloor.  And by tore up, I mean i bashed my head into another girl’s because I was so freaking excited.  We got some yummy vodka sunrises.  

Went to Pony at 3am at Little Bourke and Exhibition.  It’s like a rock bar that plays music by like Phoenix and The Strokes.  Pretty cool and lots of cute boys!  You can’t wear open-toed shoes or heels because a girl once fell down the stairs and died.  Sliiightly morbid, I know. 

Stayed up until 6:45am with Geri, Dan, and Jack, watching That 70s Show and MTV music videos.  Or “music clips” as they say here.  

After our finance test that we have been stressing out about, Linsay and I got Grill’d.  Their burgers are massive and their chips with herb mayo are deee-freakin-licious.  I got the Summer Sunset burger which has avocado, bacon, pineapple, lettuce, relish and herbed mayo.  SO GOOD.  And apparently everything is like fresh and good for you.  Or something like that.  I ate knowing very well that I was also having a free Greek cuisine dinner with Unilodge on Flinders in 45 minutes.  But that didn’t stop me.

We all walked to this restaurant on Lonsdale, the Greek food district.  I sat with Geri, Anya and Johan (who are from Mauritius), Jojo, and these three guys from Indonesia (I think).  We got this spread of warm flatbreads with three dips.  One was like tzatziki, another was capsicum (aka bell pepper), and the last was like pickled veggie shiz.  They were all quite good, but capsicum was def my fave.  Then we got these little rolled-up grape leaf covered rice things.  My descriptions are fantastic, clearly.  Last, we got a plate of heaps of shredded lamb and chicken and some lettuce in between.  We didn’t know if we would be getting some sort of wrap with it, but alas we did not.  They did bring us some chips though.  All in all, this dinner was quite good, especially because it was free!

I went out with Geri, Johan, her cousin Vanessa, and her two friends from Colombia David and Sergio.  They were really funny and we didn’t leave until 1am.  We went to Melbourne Central Lion Hotel, which is actually INSIDE Melbourne Central!  Who knew.  They have everything at Melbourne Central: a mall, food courts, train station, movie theatre… The pub was pretty big with a dancefloor, a live 80s cover band playing the stage, a bar, pool table, and plenty of tables.  There was some good music, and Geri requested some Britney but the DJ did not comply.  We got home around 3am.  They started watching Bruno in the common room, but I was tired and refuse to sit on those couches so I went to sleep. 

@jockin_jayz at a crowded bar.. “i hate girls! they are so pushy!” *turns to me* “not you! you’re pretty.” #PULFLN (Pick-Up Lines from Last Night)

Yes, that is reality.  I want to compile a book of pick-up lines I’ve heard in Melbourne.  They’re really quite fantastic.  This one was told to me by this boy named Tristen.  I’m a sucker for that name, but not for a line like that, buddy!

The MET Party was pretty much THE BOMB.  It was at Baroq House in DreweryLane, which is an alleyway off of Lonsdale.  We had to wait outside for a few minutes and once we got inside, the bar was really effing packed.  But with a $10,000 tab and a time limit, what do you expect!  I managed to get four vodka sunrises, which just made me full more than anything.  Good fun with some good friends.  I’m gonna miss these RMIT shitshows!

Oh also, I was the designated photographer of the night.  What’s new!

@jockin_jayz too bad that no one celebrates cinco de mayo in melbourne BUT @arzE, you and the guys were AMAZING last night!! <3

Went to the Vampire Weekend concert last night with Cat’s friends Mish and Dave.  Stupid teens decided it was a good idea to start moshing at the start of “Cousins” (aka Chris Tomson’s best drumming EVER).  Dave managed to push them back, but I thought one of them was still behind me so I elbowed that son of a.  Turns out it was Dave.  Sorry for the bruised ribs, dude!

PS- How CUTE is Chris Tomson??  He did not stop smiling and looking like he was having the time of his life when he was drumming.  MARRY ME, PLEASE. 

@jockin_jayz dj at onderground played @justinbieber’s “baby” AND “eenie meenie” last night. I’M IN LOVE!