And the winner is...(fanfare)...

All right, all right, somehow in the midst of studying for my (one) exam, I've managed to find time to judge the car naming competition! There have been a number of good entries. Melissa's suggestion of 'Blue Steel' was apt since he IS blue, steely and really really good looking! But unfortunately, she decided to name one her fish that, and we can't have two things in the same family with the same name! It would be too confusing. Nat's entry of 'Joey' from NKOTB also came very close since he WAS my favourite and at some stage I had a plan to marry him one day (what happened?).

'Tim Junior' was never really an option...'Wazza' made me laugh and 'Nemo' was cute. I also just thought of 'Ferris' (yes I am a true child of the late 80s/early 90s). Sadly however, there can only be one winner and taking into consideration that it is a Japanese brand car and it will (hopefully) be transporting me from place to place (but not through time!), the winner is indeed Hiro, named after Hiro Nakamura from the TV show Heroes:

Congratulations Kev! What will it be? A Mars bar? Twix? Bounty? I'll even personally deliver it to you in Singapore!!! Quoting Hiro: Yatta!!!!!!

it's hot and it's in a pot!

It's HOTPOT! Yummo!!! This is one of my favourite activity-meals (next to Korean barbeque and Malaysian popiah) and thankfully they have it here in Sydney too! And yes, it's 'hot' in every way. This was not as spicy as some I've had (the one I had in Chengdu by far tops the list) but still it was good enough. This restaurant provided an authentic China experience with slow service and me fumbling to order in Chinese! I had a great time though - good food and wonderful company, what else can you ask for? For more pics, go here.

aussie girl in chinatown

I had a FANtastic 'China night out' last weekend with three girlfriends. First stop was a Uyghur restaurant in Chinatown. For those who don't know, Uyghurs are an ethnic minority group in the far northwest of China. We had 大盘鸡 dapanji (literally, a big plate of chicken. This is one of my favourite dishes, made with chicken, potatoes, chilli and garlic. Well we didn't actually get a big serving, we ordered a small one making it a 小盘鸡 xiaopanji 'small plate of chicken'), 烤羊肉串 kaoyangrou chuan (lamb kebabs - with about 50 times the amount of meat per stick than in China!) and 抓饭 zhuafan (or 'polo' in Uyhgur which is also another one of my favourites - a rice dish cooked with carrots and meat). And we also had the classic China vegie dish - stir fried broccoli. Yummy!This place was so authentic it even had fake grapes and vines hanging off the ceiling. I wish I had taken photos! Oh well, I'll just have to go back sometime to get some photos.

Our China night didn't end there. This was followed by 'dessert' at a cafe where I enjoyed a hot pearl milk tea and others had redbean ice type drink-desserts. THEN we made our way to a karaoke place complete with all the chinese pop songs that the world has ever heard (none of which I am able to sing)!!!! Sad to say, 'Love Shack' and 'Eternal Flame' were the highlights (for me at least)!

To top it all off, we stopped at Krispy Kreme for doughnuts...which was totally unchinese. But yummy all the same. Thanks girls for helping me get over some of the 'home-sickness'. I had a great time!

(BTW, the winner of the car naming comp will be announced soon, once I'm sure that all the entries are in)

Happy Birthday Andy!

It's my brother-in-law Andy's birthday today.

So here is a limerick in your honour, Andy. It may be the first limerick I've ever written, or at least that I remember writing:

There once was a young man named Andy
Who didn't like to drink brandy
Chicko rolls were his choice
He has a great voice
And I think he likes to eat candy!

OK it doesn't make much sense but at least it rhymes. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!

Car Naming Competition!

As I said, I don't have any kids to post pics of but I do have a car!

Those of you who know about my car saga will know that I have been blessed to have been given a car to use during my year back in Sydney. It's a GREAT car with lots of extra features like leather seats, central locking, power windows, power mirrors and a CD (including mp3 and wav) player but...I can't drive it yet! It happens to be a manual (trans: stick shift) and I have previously only driven auto. So I'm in the process of learning (or should I say stalling)!

To celebrate this wonderful gift, I need your help in naming the car! I'm thinking 'Jonah' after my ex-flatmate's ex-german shepherd puppy - since they are both boys that I can't control! See the 'In memory of' section in the side panel.

Please enter your name suggestions by making a comment. The prize (there should always be a prize) is a chocolate bar of your choice. If you're not in Australia, you will receive it the next time I see you (may be a while yet for some of you)!

Another way you can be involved: my car needs 'healing' as the air-conditioner is broken and will be too expensive to fix. Since it is 'winter' (Xining spring) now, it won't be a problem for a while but when the summer comes around, it's going to get quite sweaty. So please be asking that somehow (by divine intervention?) that the air-con will be fixed.