Phantom of the Opera at Lyric Theatre

Got to City Noodle Cafe a bit late, as we're on Day 2 of the OSC saga. I'm supposed to be on call starting tonight, but because of tonight's show, I got a colleague to cover for me. He wasn't too happy. I had to remind him that we made the arrangement two weeks ago, and that the OSC ESS was raised yesterday during his watch, and not today.

Anyway, the show was pretty good - better than I expected. Magnificent props and of course, wonderful music. Anthony Warlow plays The Phantom, Ana Marina plays Christine, and Alexander Lewis plays Raoul. There were lots of stage props that left me wondering how they actually did it. For example, the ghostly image in the mirror in Christine's boudoir, The Phantom's mannequin coming to life, The Phantom's boat gliding in the underground lake, etc. While the show left me in awe, GF admitted that the music and The Phantom spooked her a bit. Aww. :-)

Busiest Day of the Year

My colleague received an emergency page for the RADIUS proxy. Given that I'm the main man for ICD, I offered my assistance. Spent the whole day stopping and starting the processes and Oracle, rebooting the nodes, etc. Didn't help any. Getting a constant stream of 100020 and 100015 errors. Lots of charging error messages on the TA. Looking real bad.

Aside from that, the Melbourne project manager wants to know when I'm going down for the CPU and memory upgrade. The Sydney project manager wants to know why I still haven't created those FI Electra cases. (Because I'm busy?) GF is wondering if I'm free to talk. My team leader wants to know if I'm bringing GF to the Friday team dinner. My colleagues wants to continue with the FI-OWB testing.

STOP!

Carmina Burana at Greenhalgh Theatre

Carmina Burana concert at UTS Ku-ring-gai's Greenhalgh Theatre. I was having second thoughts about going because one, I don't have a car; two, I don't know where it is; and three, it looks like it's gonna rain. In the end, I still went because I've never been there before.

I read somewhere that Willoughby Council has arranged for a special bus that will bring people from Chatswood station to the venue. When I got to Chatswood, I realized that I don't know the departure times of the shuttle bus. Worse, I can't find it anywhere outside or around the station. On a hunch, I braved the rains and walked over the Zenith Theatre and true enough, there's a waiting bus there.

During the first part of the concert, the Willoughby Symphony Choir performed Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes, with two pianos providing accompaniment. After the intermission, the choir performed Carl Orff's Carmina Burana with the participation of Opera Australia’s Lorina Gore - Soprano, Paul McMahon - Tenor, and Jose Carbo - Baritone. Have to say I liked the first part more. Maybe opera really is not for me.

The shuttle bus brought us back to Chatswood. Took the train to Strathfield, where GF and I had dinner at the Bagan Burmese Restaurant.

Rose Bay and Watsons Bay

Been a while since I went out with GF, excluding the weekly dinners and badminton nights. For the long weekend, we decided to go to Watsons Bay. It has been raining the past few days. Fortunately, it stopped for a while this morning. Or else, it would've been a Gumballs lunch at Westfield Parramatta, then The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian in the afternoon. Or worse, Sex and the City.

En route to South Head, we passed by Rose Bay. The weather was so nice, I decided to stop by. Not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny, not too cloudy. We walked from the marina to the wharf, then back to the car. For the trivia-inclined, Rose Bay was named after The Right Honourable George Rose, who was joint Secretary to the British Treasury with Thomas Steele.

Along Old South Head Road, we stopped again at Macquarie Light, Australia's first lighthouse, which began operations on November 30, 1818. Took a couple of pictures, then continued on to Watsons Bay. At Robertson Park, we had a sandwich lunch specially prepared by GF. With the rain clouds fast approaching from Sydney Harbour, we quickly crossed the street to Gap Park to take in the spectacular sea views. While waiting for the drizzle to abate, we had hot chocolate and a Bambino cone from the nearby Gelatissimo store. By 3pm, we went back to GF's place for a little afternoon TV.

Burwood Food & Wine Festival

I wasn't expecting much from Burwood's Food & Wine Festival. I reckon it doesn't differ much from the Campsie Food Festival. Still, it's been a while since the family went out (and I get to meet GF on the side).

We parked at Burwood Plaza, then started walking along Burwood Road towards Westfield. A short section was closed to vehicular traffic, and there are stalls on each side of the road. I understand there are 20 restaurants offering selected food from their menus and 7 wineries offering wine tastings. On stage is the Casanova's Kiss band, and various games and rides and roaming performers to entertain the kids.

It started drizzling when we got there around 1:30pm, so we took shelter inside Westfield. Some ice cream and fried dumplings later, we met up with GF and her family at the festival. (That's where our moms met for the first time. Mom actually mistook her to be GF's friend.) After that, we went on to Rhodes Shopping Center for the Ikea clearance sale and their cheap mirienda. The kids' menu has smaller servings, but is definitely cheaper and you get a free fruit.

Jazz and Blues Festival at Darling Harbour

Went to Darling Harbour with GF in the afternoon. Not for the Jazz & Blues Festival, but to meet up GF's friend from Adelaide (and her friends in Sydney). We arrived a bit early, so we decided to watch the concert at the Aquashell Cockle Bay. Starting at 5:45pm, it's the 'Sinatra and Ella Swing' with the Ed Wilson Big Band featuring Monica Trapaga, Frank Bennett & Jeff Duff. If you're not familiar with the Sinatra and Ella songs, think Michael Buble and Tony Bennett.

G...e later arrived with boyfriend A....n and friend P.....k, and off we went looking for a good place to eat. We ended up having dinner at Super Bowl in Chinatown. That's steamed dimsum, lemon chicken, Peking-style spare ribs, stir noodles, and steamed rice. It started drizzling again on our way back to Darling Harbour, so everybody parted ways. GF and I went back to Star City, where we had hot chocolate, chai latte, and Mortal Sin at Lyric Cafe before going home.

Kiama with Relatives

Our relatives from Pangasinan are back in Australia for their annual vacation. Given their big numbers this year, my brother and I had to drive two cars to bring them around. Drove down to Martin Place to pick them up from the city, then brought them over to the house for a look-see. After a short rest, it's a long drive to Kiama, where we spent an hour or so looking at the blowhole, waiting for a big one. The winds are strong and chilly, but the waves are not in the proper harmonics to produce a big blow. With nothing left more to do, we headed back to Sydney, stopping at a roadside McDonald's restaurant for late lunch.

The guys wanted to pick up some souvenir items at Paddy's Markets, so we dropped them off at Chinatown, while we went back home to recuperate. At night, it's back to the city for a farewell dinner at the BBQ City Korean restaurant.

First Ever Tupperware Party

Heard of Tupperware Parties before, but never attended one. Probably one of the experiences you have to try at least once in your life. GF was gracious enough to be the host, while K---n demonstrated the products she have on hand.

Two things I didn't know about Tupperware:
1) Given that the brand and products are so popular and well-known, it's hard to believe that you can only buy Tupperware products via direct sales.
2) I have no idea how expensive these things are! I mean, these are plastic bowls and food containers, like other plastic bowls and food containers. How high-tech can they get?!

Being a male who doesn't cook that much, I'm pretty sure I bought the least among all those present. Just a set of four flexible chopping mats, which I intend to use in the future.

Mother's Day Weekend

Went to Chedi Thai Restaurant at Newtown on Saturday night to celebrate Mother's Day (Eve). Original plan was for Sunday, but my brother can't make it. For some reason, our GPS PND (personal navigation device) conked out again. Can't even turn it on. Doesn't seem to be the battery as we're sure it's charged. Good thing I brought along my GPS Bluetooth module with me, which I don't normally do. Paired with TomTom Mobile on my E65, we were able to find our way to Newtown. As usual, traffic is really bad. Two lanes each way with one lane dedicated for parking. We spotted an empty spot, so I quickly slipped the car in. No wonder the spot was free - it's 4P Ticket.

Dinner was quite good (as I ordered most of the dishes):

• salt and pepper squid
• crispy tamarind chicken
• marinated BBQ pork
• deep-fried whole snapper in chili sauce

With an hour to kill before our parking time is up, we walked along the sidewalks of King Street. Lots and lots of restaurants and shops selling trinkets and curios. Best find of the night is Gould's Book Arcade. This two-story shop probably has more books than a library. Massive collection of audio cassette tapes and LPs, comic books, posters, concert programs, etc. Fortunately for me, I'm currently trying to pare down my own book collection.

For obvious reasons, I decided not to join GF's Mother's Day lunch. Instead, I visited them afterwards and gave her mom a bunch of chrysanthemums. That's actually the first time I bought anyone flowers. I hope she's happy. Dinner is fried rice and KFC at GF's house. To be fair, I also bought Mom some flowers on my way home.

Combined Shipping, Not!

For the past 4 days, I've bought a total of three brand new Swatches from eBay. Given that I already have an Irony, a Jelly in Jelly, and an AutoQuarz, I really shouldn't be buying more. Then again, this is what eBay does to new users. I mean, compared to the SRP, these things are CHEAP.

First up, I bought a Swatch Extra Thin (a.k.a Swatch Awearness) GK326 for only US $10.50 on Sunday morning. At Squiggly, it's listed for EUR 36.13.

That same night, I bought an automatic Swatch Roundabout SAN108 for US $35. On Squiggly, it's EUR 54.62. Actually, I didn't win the auction for the Roundabout. From an initial price of US $0.99, the bids went all the way up to $29. I put in an extra dollar, but looks like somebody has already put in a max bid. I kept upping the ante until I'm the winner at $31, with only a few minutes to go. Just to be on the safe side, I put in my own max bid of $35. After the deadline has passed, I found out that I lost the auction to a guy who put in $35.99 in the last 5 seconds. I was dumbstruck - now I know what the expression "having the rug pulled underneath you" felt. Anyway, the good news is that I was sent a second chance offer, which I immediately grabbed.

Today, I picked up an automatic Swatch Nume-Rotation SAM107 for US $26. Squiggly is asking for EUR 54.62.

The reason I bought so many in so short a time from only one seller is because I misunderstood one of his terms. The condition said, "maximum of 3 items for combined shipping." With a shipping charge of US $22 each, I figured that's a savings of $44. Apparently not so - you get 3 items shipped together, but the individual shipping charge still stays. Fortunately, I got a discount of $7 on the 2nd and 3rd item. I guess this means no more new watches for the next few years.

2 microSD Cards in 1 Day

Again, I blame these purchases on eBay. Do I need two 2GB microSD cards? Not really, but they're so CHEAP. Not really, but it's a great feeling to win in an auction.

On the other hand, do I need two microSD cards? Yes, one for the X20 and one for the S2 IS. Are they cheap? Yes, for now. It's even free shipping and handling from apusacution.

Hunting and Gathering with TomTom

Based on Anna Gavalda's 2004 novel, Hunting and Gathering (a.k.a. Ensemble, c'est tout) is a romantic comedy set in Paris. Audrey Tautou plays Camille Fauque, an anorexic office cleaner (a.k.a surface engineer), who dabbles in sketches during her free time, much to her Mom's dismay. She lives alone in a shoe-box of an apartment. One day, she meets her stuttering neighbor Philibert Marquet de la Tubelière (played by Laurent Stocker). He sells postcards for a living and aspires to be a theatre actor. Sharing the opulent apartment left behind by his grandmother is Franck (Guillaume Canet), a womanizing chef, who grows weary of taking care of his elderly granny Paulette (Francoise Bertin). Over the course of a year, the movie tracks how the main protagonists come together and draw inspiration and support from each other.

GF was asking me what's the meaning of the movie title. I don't know the answer, but I told her that's a very good question. :-) At Westfield Hurstville, we had snacks at McDonald's and Japan Crepes. Back at home, I upgraded our old 1st Edition TomTom One to the latest software. The latest version of TomTom Home can't recognize our device, so I had to download and install an older version. Once TT Home is able to see our TT One, it proceeded to download the latest V7 firmware and install it. By using a patched ttsystem file, the TT One is now able to make use of the latest Australian maps. Easy as that.

Grilled Crunchy Salmon

I actually picked up this recipe from GF's Mom. My sisters' have done grilled salmon before, but for some reason, they're never as crunchy as the ones from Ramen-kan. So here's the trick. The secret is to pan-fry the salmon slabs, then grill it in the oven. If you get the timing right, it'll come out crunchy as pictured.

Foxtel and WYD 2008

A couple of new things happening today. My brother is not used to the lack of quality programming on Australian TV, so he subscribed to cable TV. The Foxtel cable guy came in this morning to install the service. TV viewing at home will never be the same again.

On a personal note, GF applied for volunteer work with WYD, and was accepted on a one-day-a-week basis. Starting today, she clocks in at the WYD office along Liverpool and calls back interested volunteers to get their details. Since I was in the city anyway, we had dinner at Zozo Korean Restaurant.

The Steinway Spectacular

Tickets for The Steinway Spectacular are a bit pricey, but how often do you get to see eight Steinway concert grands together on one stage, played by eight of Australia's leading pianists? A hundred dollars gets me and GF front-row seats to the concert. (Second-row seats, actually.) The sound and experience you get is really up close and personal. From where we are, we can see the pianists play, their dancing fingers, their facial expressions, their glistening foreheads, etc.

Musical director, conductor, and host is Guy Noble. His spiels are quite funny and interesting. First playdate for The Steinway Spectacular is actually at Melbourne's Hamer Hall on April 11. Mr. Noble calls it a rehearsal for the Sydney leg. Another trivia: for today's concert, we have a new Steinway specially chosen by the Vladimir Ashkenazy at Steinway's Hamburg factory to replace one of Opera House's three concert grands.

The concert opened with Gerard Willems and Clemens Leske playing Mozart's Sonata for two pianos in D major, KV 448. After that, we have Tamara Smolyar and another guy playing Babadjanian Armenian Rhapsody for two pianos. Next up is the Alla marcia & Tarantelle movements from Rachmaninov's Suite No. 2 for two pianos, Opus 17 performed by Sydney Conservatorium of Music students Gregory Kinda, the youngest scholar to enter the Conservatorium, and Alexey Yemtsov, recently discovered and championed by Ashkenazy. Then, a four-piano arrangement of Gounod's Grand Fantasia on Themes from Faust before the interval.

After the interval, we have Strauss' Die Fledermaus Overture, Grainger Fantasy, Ravel's Bolero (with the inclusion of flute and drum), a Gershwin medley, and the final movement of the Organ Symphony by Camille Saint-Saens. For the finale, the eight Steinways and the Grand Organ played The Jolly Jumbuck Fugue from the Waltzing Matilda ballet written by Sir Charles Mackerras. As an encore, the pianists played Peter Allen's I Still Call Australia Home. The piece was so moving, I almost broke into tears.

Bavarian Bier Cafe

Had dinner at the Bavarian Bier Cafe with some fellow Fil-Chi's. I had my reservations at first, given that the place is usually quite noisy whenever I pass by. Turns out it's not boo bad during weekends. We had the pretzel, the pork belly and the sausages. You also need to try their flavoured beer.

For dessert, we went to Lidnt Chocolat Cafe at Cockle Bay Wharf, but there's just too many people. so it's off to Starbucks for coffee, chocolate, and conversation.

1st Australian Red Bull Flugtag

What's a flugtag, you ask? I don't know myself, but Wikipedia tells me it is flightday in German. Cooked up by Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz and first held in 1991 in Vienna, the competition would have groups of people trying to fly homemade human-powered contraptions as far as they can. Very similar to the Birdman Rally competitions held in Manly Wharf, though I can't say which one is the original. Most oftentimes, these things don't actually fly at all. Competitors and audience alike are only there for the fun of it.

GF and I got to Mrs. Macquaries Point a couple of hours after the start of the event. The embankment area is truly packed with people. We stayed for a while and watched groups of people launch themselves into the water in their flying machines. It was funny the first few times, but then it starts to get monotonous pretty quickly. The weather was quite good, so we walked our way back to Circular Quay through the Royal Botanic Gardens. Coffee and hot chocolate at the Customs House cafe.

First Ever eBay Purchase

I'm in the market for an mp3 player. Not just an mp3 player though because most of my music collection is encoded in OGG. So that narrows down my choices to iRiver or Samsung. I started to lean towards Samsung because the newer ones are becoming more and more stylish. Aside from that, some of the Samsung players now come with Bluetooth. Paired with a pair of Bluetooth stereo, you can get your music wirelessly. What's more, the Samsung can support two BT devices. More fun for everyone. Still, I believe the iRiver has better sound quality.

So I logged on to eBay and did a search on iRiver x20. A couple of hits came up. One has a starting price of $50 on Marchi 31, currently $60, and the auction ends in 9 hours. I've never tried bidding on eBay before, so I immediately signed up and put in a bid of $61. There was an instant counter-bid of $62. Apparently, eBay has this feature called proxy bidding. Put in your max price, and eBay will slowly counter any winning bid up to the maximum bid price you define. So I put in $63. Another automatic bid of $64. I put in $65, and lucky for me that's how it remained till the close of the auction.

What I didn't notice is that the seller has another x20 for sale, ending at about the same time. With all my attention on the first x20, the second one slipped through my radar - there's only 1 bidder for it with a few minutes to go. Notwithstanding the fact that I've already won an x20, I put in a bid for $51. Proxy bidding upped it to $52. I was about to bid more when the auction ended. Checking the bidding log, my rival increased his max bid to $55.55. Too bad for him, some stranger swooped in and won the auction at $56.55.

Ah, didn't know this eBay thing could get so competitive and addictive. The way I like it.

April Fools Birthdays

It's a good feeling when people remember your birthday. The whole 6th floor cafe area was reserved for the big event. Lunch buffet consisted of salads, sausages, steaks, chops, breads and rolls and potatoes. For drinks, we've got mineral water, softdrinks, fruit juices, beer, and wine. For dessert, everybody got a portion of the big chocolate cake, and before we left, everyone got a bottle of wind (your choice of 2005 red or 2007 white.) Happy birthday, NSN.

After work, I met up with GF. As to be expected, she has some presents for me (sweaters from my favourite store), even though I specifically asked her not to get me anything. For her punishment, I didn't invite her to my birthday dinner at Botoli. Fortunately, somebody else did. We ordered honey prawns, mushrooms and vegetables, lemongrass chicken, and a few others I forgot already. Anyway, one of the kids on the other table is celebrating his birthday, so the restaurant gave him an ice cream scoop with a candle on top. I'm always up for a freebie, so we asked the waitress if we can have the same thing. To my surprise, she declined. I had to admit I was a bit miffed, but not for long. After we had our orange dessert, the waitress brought out an ice cream cake from Pure Gelato, complete with sparkling candles, courtesy of GF. Ah, one of the more memorable birthdays I've had.