Sydney is a beautiful city. It is probably one of two cities in the world (that I’ve been to) I would consider beautiful - the other being Paris. [The Swiss cities are beautiful but they are not big nor really "modern". Rome is gorgeous but it's not "beautiful". London is amazing but it's not "beautiful".]

This was my third trip to Sydney and I had a grand time. The weather was good - we had generally bright sunny days with temperatures rising to 20C (yes, it’s Spring already here in Australia). The company was lovely. We did lots of fabulous stuff, as you’ll soon read. And I wasn’t worried about work because the day before I left Canberra, I finally took a small but important step forward in the research process: I think both my supervisor and I have actually, finally, agreed on a topic!

Day One
I arrived in Sydney on Wednesday, 24 August, at 1230H. I met up with my cousins and had lunch in a food court in Australia Square, sitting outdoors under the sun. We then popped into Lincraft (they’re running a yarn-clearance sale nationwide) where I bought two types of yarn - one to make a loopy & lacy shawl and one for a sweather. We then dropped by a cafe to take-away coffee and lounged on a lawn under the sun in Hyde Park. Dinner later that day was a AUD5 steak in the infamous Slip Inn (the one where an Aussie girl met a Danish prince).

Day Two
As with most people on holiday, we had a late start to the day. Breakfast at 11H was take-away coffee and doughnuts from Krispy Kreme that we consumed sitting on a bench in Wynyard Park. As we were still stuffed from the late breakfast, lunch was just french fries in McDonald’s - they are the best, they taste exactly the same all over the world. We then walked around the shopping area of the CBD, finally plonking down in Gloria Jeans on Park Street to watch the world go by. We then had an early dinner of pizza and pasta in Zia Pina, located in the Rocks area before strolling over to catch an opera - Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel - at, where else, the Sydney Opera House! The day ended with drinks at the Sidewalk Cafe & Bar, located under the Opera House, where a jazz band was performing.

Day Three
We had yet another late start on Friday, so late that we decided to dispense with breakfast and went straight to lunch at Bay Swiss (I’m addicted to their Thai Chicken Soup). This was followed by a leisurely two and a half hour Afternoon Harbour Cruise - a very sedentary affair that was an absolute pleasure! When that ended we decided to sit down some more at the Grumpy Baker Cafe on Oxford Street, but only after a quick stroll in and out of shops in the area. Then it was a quick succession of the Borders bookstore, drinks at the Swissotel, a leisurely stroll through Darling Harbour to Chinatown and finally supper seafood buffet in the InterContinental Hotel.

Day Four
We had big ambitions for this day. Really big ambitions. We wanted to climb the Harbour Bridge at 08H but some of us (i.e. not me!) were watching Gilmour Girls late into the previous night and couldn’t wake up early enough! So we trooped off to the Saturday Glebe Market instead and then sat down for a big late weekend breakfast, i.e. lunch, in Badde Manors. Breakfast/lunch ended at 1430H and I was quickly swept away to Central Station for my 15H coach back to reality, work, and home…

p/s more photos from the Sydney trip will be uploaded in a week or two…

Posted on August 29th, 2005 by jl
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You know you’re in a country with far too much wealth when:

• you can walk up to a cafe and order a triple shot skinny soy latte with caramel, or a hundred other similarly whimsical permutation of coffee.
• you find soyghurt, yes, you read right, soyghurt (that’s yoghurt made with soya milk) on the supermarket shelves.
• milk comes in a zillion varieties: full fat, light, lighter, white coloured water, soy, lactose-free, vitamin-enriched, added minerals etc. etc.
• salad vegetables are washed, pre-cut and packed in sealed plastics for sale on supermarket shelves.
• meat is sold sliced and diced for easy cooking.
• many people choose to become vegans and vegetarians not because of religious considerations but because of health, political, and other such personal criteria.

Posted on August 26th, 2005 by jl
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I’m on a coach on a last minute trip to Sydney…

The lazy cousin decided to fly in from Hong Kong and take an impromptu holiday in the Land Down Under and I’m trooping off to Sydney to meet up with her.

Sydney… at the moment it spells respite from problems, difficulties, stress and worries…

Posted on August 24th, 2005 by jl
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I knitted a new scarf over the last two days. I bought a ball of Cleckheaton’s Studio yarn in colour #23 from Lincraft a couple of weeks ago and thought I’d make a scarf out of it as a practice and test for an upcoming knitting project.

The yarn is made from 50% mohair and 50% acrylic. I love the texture of mohair - it’s so soft and light on your skin. The scarf feels so luxurious. I used one whole ball for the scarf and it turned out to be almost 2 metres long.

However, I’m not sure I like the colour of this scarf. The yarn was dyed a mixture of olive, light green, dark brown and an orange-y brown which resulted in these alternate strips of colour as it was knitted. I’m quite happy with how the pattern of the scarf turned out, I’m just not too keen on the colour. I’m not really a fan of orange (it makes me slightly sick…) and I didn’t know it would show up so prominently in the finished product. I only bought the yarn because it was on sale at a very, very err.. good price.

What shall I do with it…??

—

Note on pattern: I cast on 18 stitches and knitted it using only the garter-stitch with a pair of 12 mm needles. After every 10 rows, I added a yarn-over (yo) after every knit-stitch - these were released on the following row in order to get the extra long loops. I think the scarf would look more “dainty” if it was done in stocking-stitches. That’s the next thing to try with a ball of “nicer” coloured yarn!

p/s yes. i am obssessed with knitting at the moment…

Posted on August 21st, 2005 by jl
Filed under: Posts with Photos, knitting | 10 Comments »

The Australian newspaper published an article on 12 August 2005 revealing a ranking table that compares teaching performance across Australian universities. The league table was reportedly prepared using data obtained from the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training. This is apparently the first time an official exercise was conducted to compare teaching performance across Australia and the data would apparently be used by the federal Government for funding purposes. As you will read in the article, the methodology, and therefore the results, are not uncontentious.

I will not comment on the article or the ranking - there’s a clause in my present scholarship contract that prevents me from making certain comments - but I will direct you to the article (here) and this table that was published in the print edition of the newspaper. You can make your own conclusions.

Posted on August 18th, 2005 by jl
Filed under: blah blah | 1 Comment »