Heads Up, Again

I've run out of pictures from the Manila Pen, so here are some teacups from Bygone Beautys.

So: How did that one cup of chamomile tea at the Manila Peninsula change my life?

The answer to this question - and more - can be found in my new blog, The Great Big Jump.

More to come in the following days.

Tea in Sydney

All I wanted to do, on the single non-chaotic day I had in Sydney, was to have tea in the Queen Victoria Building.  

Forgot what the cookies were behind the counter, but this picture has peppermint tea and two scones with jam and cream. Perfect.

My Reflection

Picture taken at the Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland, NZ. 

When I started this blog back in May, I had a stack full of JPEGs from Australia and New Zealand that I sincerely promised to post on a near-daily basis. As good as my intentions were, however, most of those plans came to nought when I got swamped with other things - in particular, work, fiction-writing, and constant updates for Domesticity. 


Then graduate school happened.

We Have Pie

While we're mourning the demise of Domesticity - and, um, investigating questionable sightings of Meimei enjoying cocktails in Puerto Galera with a certain Hollywood actor scheduled to shoot a movie in Manila this month - we bring you this long-unpublished entry from the Domestic Travel archives. 


Special thanks to Picasa Web Albums for helping to bring this blog back to life. 

My favorite Australian fast-food chain is Pie Face.

They have meat pies on the menu (steak, mince, and chicken, in various forms) with appropriate sides (gravy and mash) and fruit pies for dessert (cherry and apple), but on this day - at the Kings Cross branch - I decided to go with their Tandoori Vegetable pie.

This is exactly what you need on a nippy autumn day: a crisp crust, warm filling, and a little Indian bite that practically doesn't need any ketchup. Never mind that the filling is practically made of lentils and other beans, because that stuff is awesome.

I did consider checking out Harry's Cafe de Wheels, too, but Pie Face had already taken care of my savory pastry fix by the time I found the Harry's location in Wooloomooloo. And a real pity, too.

The only other pie-related bummer here: not getting any of the sweet fruit pies, if only for all the pastry-related jokes I could get out of them. ("Yeah, I went out to Kings Cross for tarts. What about?")

Tea Party Crashers

A few priceless moments from Bygone Beautys in Leura... and by "priceless moments" I actually mean "a total freaky-deaky experience for those of you who have a phobia against dolls, because: seriously."

We r in ur tea party

Laffin at ur guests HA HA HA

By the by, Maurice Cooper of Bygone Beautys does have quite an impressive collection of tea pots, which you can see in person when you stop by the store. (And yes, they have their own tea service, too - though I chose not to snack there, since we didn't have much time left in Leura and the traffic going back to Sydney is all sorts of craptastic hell.) You'll see more of those - and a few sweet pieces of crockery - in future entries of this blog. 

Dear Universe

I saw this at a really sweet little antique shop in Leura called Bygone Beautys. 

Should I take this as a sign? 

Just curious,

Meimei

More Unconventional Roses

A sequel to our  previous rose post.

Not an Angry Bird, We Swear

Photos taken at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney.

Im on ur dining tabl

Nomming on ur leftovers

The View from Kings Cross

When my parents found out that my hotel was located in the notorious Sydney neighborhood of Kings Cross, they were practically horrified.

They've heard all of the stories before about Kings Cross being the red-light district of Sydney. The last thing they wanted was to see their daughter wandering alone in a neighborhood notorious for drugs, drunkenness, and all sorts of indecent behavior. They did not want me going around at night, on my own, knowing that some drunk Australian would mistake me for a Filipino prostitute.

Riiiight. As if Filipino prostitutes roam the streets at night in hoodies and jeans.

All of that changed, however, when I actually arrived in Kings Cross.

Here's the main hub at Kings Cross Road, taken during the sunset. At night this place can pretty much get lit up with lots of neon lights and sparkling billboards. There are fine restaurants and even finer clubs to visit here, so it can get pretty exciting.

Look! It's Darlinghurst Road, with takeout places on one side and XXX-rated entertainment on the other! Ironically, I barely even noticed the "wildlife," day or night, except for the occasional drag queen or two. The only tarts that I was interested in throughout these trip were of the pastry persuasion (mmm, neenish tarts), so it was a good thing for me to stay home and limit my night runs to the nearest Coles supermarket.

(Which reminds me: Dear Coles, could you please remind Curtis Stone that he actually looks much better when he's chubby? Your in-store displays are proof that I can no longer buy him as that hot ab-tastic cheffy-chef TV host who's all over American TV right now. Especially when I can see the sweet, clean-cut version of his face right next to the lamingtons.)

And here is Victoria Street, home to hippy-dippy backpacker hotels. (Disclosure: My hotel is actually on Victoria Street, but it's not even remotely close to backpacker-y.) Believe it or not, even with the low-rent trippiness, there are still signs of gentrification in this neighborhood: autumn foliage, wrought cast-iron balconies, and apartment dwellers walking yappy little dogs. This, I think, feels like what Sydney should be, in its own idiosyncratic way.

Ironically, I did run into a few backpackers from New York during one of the tours that I'd taken as part of this trip, and I casually mentioned that I was staying in a hotel at Kings Cross, which I compared to "the movie version of Times Square, with all the neon lights and the XXX clubs." Their response: "Sydney has a red light district?"

Now, that's what I call an answer.

Roses Aren't Just Red

Winter may have been inching closely towards the Southern Hemisphere during my visit, but that did not stop these roses from remaining in full bloom. These are but four of them.

Photos taken at The Rose Garden at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney. Not shown: the scads of office workers crashing at the Rose Garden (and the rest of the place, actually) for lunch and a little lie-down under the sun.

What You Won't Do For Love, Pt. 2

Photographs taken at the Royal Botanical Garden in Sydney. 

"Dearest Mei: 

I know you love gardens. 

I know you love art.

And I know for sure that you love dogs. 

What You Won't Do For Love, Pt. 1

Most guys will come up to a woman and ask, "Is this seat taken?" But Lachlan Macquarie, on the other hand,  always made sure that his wife had the best one in the house:

The inscription:

Be it thus recorded that the road round the inside of the Government Domain called Mrs Macquaries Road so named by the Governor on account of her having originally planned it measuring 3 miles and 377 yards was finally completed on the 13th day of June 1816.

And the view, as it is now: 

Mrs. Macquarie's Chair is now part of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. Pictures taken by yours truly. 

The Great Trans-Tasman Nommage Debate

Photo taken at the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) in Auckland, NZ.
(That tea-time china set, by the by? Lovely.)  

This one's for those of you scoring at home, and would rather not bring up the same old debates about Russell Crowe and Keith Urban with your Aussie and Kiwi friends.

You're Flying to Sydney

One last post before I go.

Since I gave New Zealand a lot of love in my last entry, I thought I'd also post about my other destination on this trip: Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Since I'll be traveling alone to Sydney, I'm already looking forward to "doing my own thing" apart from the tours I've already done. I know for sure that I'll be doing THIS on my own:



And there's more - so much more - which means I'll be taking a lot of pictures! This is going to be an adventure.