My internal compass took a while to adjust in Penang or perhaps it was just subject to interference from someone who doesn’t have the same high calibre internal compass as I do. Anywho, there is an intersection in Georgetown that we will call the Octopus. It took us into its embrace and threw us out on a different tentacle each time. Never the tentacle we actually wanted to venture down. At the end of the Octopus ordeal we made it onto the right tentacle.  However, the photo below was from a journey we took on one of the wrong tentacles.  It was without a doubt the most colourful shop security “screen/door” that I saw during my trip. It was on a hardware store so it was in their best interest for it to look good at all times.

Another day, we ventured into the heart of Little India in Georgetown in the search of a Saree shop with helpful sales assistants as Jo was in need of some Indian attire.  We eventually came to the Rao Saree Centre and the search was over.

Hello colour!

Hello oh so pretty fabrics!

Hello delicate embroideries!

Hello sarees that would probably add an additional 10kg to your weight due to the beading on them.

There was sights to see everywhere you looked.

Cottons. That were cheaper than chips

Shelves, upon shelves that were groaning with sarees and this is just a small corner of the store.

Pretty blues.

Jo picked out some fabric sets, got measured, I took photos and then it was a case of come back in a week or so to pick them up.

Another day we went up to Kek Lok Si. It’s a relatively large temple complex in the hills overlooking the eastern side of the island. From my bedroom window I could spy the Kek Lok Si complex from the complex we could just spy home. As per always, click on the photos to view the bigger versions.

As is usual in a temple complex there was plenty of colour and pattern.

After Kek Lok Si, we continued up the hill to see just what pushing the little car that would could take and enjoyed the fresh, cleaner air at Air Itam Dam. It was so green and lovely.

Oh and look Miffy cheese!

I’ve just spent the last ten  minutes trying to write an opening sentence about Saturday night. Instead I’ve written the above.

Saturday night, I went to the Judy. ahh, the Judy for a show called Rumour Has It: Sixty Minutes Inside Adele. Sam was in town so she came along, as did one of the nursies from my old work and her daughter. It wass a fantastic show. I would go as far to say that Naomi Price live was better than the Adele studio recordings. I like Adele, she write a good song and has an amazing voice but I often feel listening to the studio work that it’s just a little too equalised. I love music with good dynamics. Music where you know the singer is feeling those words from their toes to the every strand of hair on their head.

Naomi Price brought that oomph into the songs of Adele on Saturday night along with some cabaret comedy, some sass and some all round good times.

If you are in Noosa for the Long Weekend Festival or Melbourne for the Cabaret Festival, I strongly suggest getting tickets and going along to see an ah-mazing show.

I tripped walking out onto the balcony. Of course I would have to fall on my dodgy ankle, my poor left ankle. That darn right ankle always gets off scot free. Jo was at work of course but as per usual she put on her “oh Helen” cap and brought me home chocolate and ice packs. Not that we didn’t have enough chocolate in the place already but … (see previous post)

Yep! A White Knight bar! Hadn’t had one of those in years. Super mint chocolate goodness.

What else did I do in Penang?

Well.

The birthday girl had a birthday and Easter. That meant more chocolate and presents.

We spent the day wandering round George Town and the shops. Nothing exciting or really interesting to report really.

Dinner though needs to be reported. There was roti! (and curry) for dinner at one of the makanans at Batu Ferringhi and then a wonder of the markets before a round of birthday mojitos at Bora Bora.  Roti! (the ! is always needed at the end of roti! because one always get chipper about the prospect of a roti! overload).

Looking at my collection of photos, I’ll think I break this post here and save the touristy day that was Easter Monday for another post.

Ever since I got back, people have been asking me about all the exciting things I saw and did whilst in Penang (I didn’t visit Malaysia, I visited Penang, since I didn’t leave the island at all). My answer is that I didn’t go to Penang for a week of sightseeing and shopping but I went for a week of girlie hanging out with one of my dearest friends. This means a week of chocolate, movies, food, casing the shops, drinks and general girlie shenanigans. Sure there was a few little touristy things thrown in here and there but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I’ll start here, in Penang where I am for a week visiting one of my dearest, dearest friends for her birthday. I flew out of the GC on Friday morning and about 12 hours later I was in a massive round of hugs with Jo at the Penang airport. Happy times.

Air Asia was very good to fly with and on the GC-KL plane I think I had more leg room than I have ever had before.

We went out to dinner at Song River on Friday and had a very, very nice meal. The fried rice from the gum boots man was so smokely delicious and the satay from one of the other stalls was oh so good as well. We washed our meal down with watermelon juice and that was just like drinking summer.

Then it was back to the apartment to natter about the last 3.5 months and for me to get mothered, “now that you’ve finished your Lemsip you can go to bed”.

You see, I came home from a trip to Sydney for work three weeks ago with a dreadful cough. I’ve not felt unwell other than having for the first week a quite moist productive cough and rounds of coughing fits that would see me gripping what ever was closet to me so I didn’t cough my self to the moon. The second week it became a fairly dry cough but still massive coughing fits and my voice continued to sound well not the normal sweet voice I normally have. At the end of the second week the lower left side of my chest was causing me so much pain that I thought perhaps I had cracked a rib. Off to the doctors I went and after getting checked out to make sure it wasn’t anything more sinister it was confirmed that I had most likely pulled the muscles in that part of my chest. I was put on a cough suppressant and some antibiotics. The cough suppressant worked reasonably well to reduce my coughing fits to little piddly coughs. Well until I got to Penang of course and a day of travel and contrasting weather caught up with and the coughing returned in force. A cup of lemsip though and a good steam though managed to push the cough away again to just tiny coughs. The pulled muscles though not so fun. It hurts to laugh and well we do a fair bit of laughing. Still pain is the name of the game and whilst I could get some plastic surgery done whilst I’m over here, I don’t think they replace muscles yet. It is just a waiting game.

Yesterday we went to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion which is a museum of Nyonya life in the early heyday of Penang. Part of the museum is a Chinese jewellery museum which wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped as well it had been some time since the jewellery had been polished. The rest of the museum made up for it though, there was ornate furniture decorated with mother of pearl and some exquisite embroideries and very nice door handles and good turn of the century English floor tiles.

We then had a “scenic” walk round Georgetown before arriving at a shopping centre or really a “sweet Holy Grail of air con”. It was then a “scenic” walk round a series of connected shopping centres before a “scenic” walk to another shopping centre where I was looking for something an old coworker had asked me to bring back for her.

After that mission we hopped back in a taxi and headed back to the area where Jo lives to go to a shiny new shopping centre where we had lunch. One thing that Jo and I have in common is a love for hot food so we both ordered a curry laska for lunch that she had had before. One thing we didn’t think of is that my poor throat after three weeks of coughing is pretty scratched up. Curry laska not such a good idea. Some gelato made it better though.

Back to the apartment then for some couch/movie/chocolate time and I finally watched Finding Nemo. Yes, I had never watched it. A few laughing coughing fits later the movie was over.

We had dinner last night at Bali Hai. We had a freshwater fish steamed Hong Kong style. It was lovely. There was obligatory coconut water out of coconuts.

After dinner it was time for some tropical berry mojito shakers at TGI Fridays whilst we watched children play in the water light show in the piazza and listened to a local trio whilst we of course nattered some more.

And that was my first 24 odd hours in Penang. Today is a big day as not only is it Easter Sunday, hello chocolate and hot cross buns but it is Jodes birthday . Which is the reason I’m visiting

I’m still on Queensland time, so I’m awake waiting for the birthday girl to rise.

And there we have it, one Pikey bream from 2d to 3d.

]]> http://www.helenthura.com/blog/2013/03/10/a-pikey-bream/feed 0 http://www.helenthura.com/blog/2013/02/11/feb-ru-ray-the-first-ten-days-but-no-cake http://www.helenthura.com/blog/2013/02/11/feb-ru-ray-the-first-ten-days-but-no-cake#comments Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:26:56 +0000 Helen http://www.helenthura.com/?p=2139 I’ve got four days left at my current job before I embark on a big change and go off to be an accountant. I’ve made three cakes to farewell others in the last 10 days and I’ll be making another one tomorrow night for one of the guys who is posting out on Wednesday. All those cakes will be in another post shortly…

On Saturday I went up the coast. After having my farewell party the night before. I was very good and only had four drinks all night. One of those was a frozen apple pie cocktail. That was divine  Just like drinking an apple pie. So, so, so good.  Saturday was not classic beach weather but the water was nice and the waves were quite decent. An old Woodfordia friend was having a vintage garage sale on Saturday -> thus the reason for the trip up the coast. I picked up the most divine Osti shirt dress. So, so divine and just the loveliest colours. A photo may appear at some stage.

Going back to the day before, Friday. Friday marked Chan’s last day working for the company and it marked a week left for me with the company before I change jobs as well. Big things abound for the both of us this year. We’ve been desk buddies etc for the last 18mths We met up for one last coffee at Pour Boy, the best coffee consistently in our end of town.

I took my first box of stuff home the other day. That’s the first time it really hit me that I’m changing jobs. Nothing says change like packing up five years of your work life and then walking out the door with an archive box filled to the brim. I’ll bring another box home tomorrow and that should be just about everything I think.

I’ve got my eye set on a few events later this year which mean I need to get my fitness back to a pre-uni and pre-flood level. I moved away from Asics GT 2100 series that I’ve lived in for the past x years and picked up a pair of Mizuno Wave Inspire 9. OMG, I enjoyed my Asics but these shoes are like playing in a whole new ballpark. They’re light, just the right bounce and by darn they are blue.

Just like almost every other house in SQLD, the  mock oranges have flowered and then of course it rained so off came all the petals. Will have to give the patio a very big clean on the weekend as those petals almost bake onto to the tiles. Fun times. People keep commenting on the scent when they visit but I smell nothing

Chan finally had dinner at Catcus Jack’s after hearing the rest of us at work rave about it for for the past few years. Chocolate Nachos, so, so, so good. One time we will go to Cactus Jack’s and have dessert first I think.

Last Sunday, I finally got my beach wish for the summer. Blue skies, great weather, open beaches, perfect water temperature and darn decent waves. I’ve tried a couple of times this summer to go to the beach but every time I’ve been thwarted by crap weather, closed beaches or last minute plan changes. The girls at work near on couldn’t believe it that I finally got my beach day.

Just loved this detail on the Ladies change rooms at North Burleigh.

I picked up a tray of strawbs at the start of the month for $9. Hello strawberry jam!

Strawberry jam, cooling so I can test it for set.

Strawberries, sugar and lemon juice waiting to become jam.

Glass jars all washed and waiting to go in the oven before they get filled.

And one last picture for this lot. A snipped of one of the baby quilts I’m making at the moment Just love that May Gibbs fabric.

There we have. The first ten days or so of Feb-ru-ary in photos.

Well after movie 4 I sort of got side tracked by life. So here are movies 5 to 13. One of the bummers is that I have been slightly running round like a chook with its head cut off this week is that I have managed to doze off in 5 of 9 I saw in the past week. Hasn’t really mattered in most as I was able to find my self pretty quickly but there was one or two when I went hang on a second what I have just missed?

Parents
We were undoubtedly the largest group in the cinema with there been 8 of us and 2 girls that Thor ran into that she also knew
Watching parents made me realise that I quite possibly know a bit more Icelandic than I think I do as I was able to pick out quite a few words that I knew as well as following the conversation loosely when my eyes were resting. I was unsure about it been shot in black and white but it worked in keeping the film quite gritty. Just as I like seeing movies filmed in Brisbane especially to pick out familiar sights it was also cool to play pick out the Reykjavik sights in Parents, I think they drove past the apartment block where my sister used to live (Herdis, have you seen Parents?) and there was obliviously a few cafes that they used which were familiar to Pabbi. It was gritty, dark, slightly depressing but also sort of uplifting in showing what parents go through and the decisions they make for their children.

Quinceañera with short film out of milk
Was the movie that made me say I have to go to BIFF this year. I first heard about it last year some time when it was doing the festival circuit in the northern hemisphere and I remember watching the short and knowing that I had to see this movie. I really, really enjoyed it. It was the perfect blend of angst and comedy set against a community which is grappling with gentrification.
The short film was a laugh but also a good look at how a child sees her mothers affair as it happens right before her eyes.

The Future is Unwritten: Joe Strummer
I missed a bit of this film due to going to sleep but from say the 80% that I did see, I really enjoyed it. They drew heavily on the large wealth of archived material and in particular the use of the audio from his BBC World Service radio show London Calling. It was remarkable. One of fun things about the film was that it kept on coming back to people sitting round a fire, singing and chatting in various locations around the world. The film was knitted together quite well in how they used

Eagle vs Shark
This was everything I thought Napoleon Dynamite was going to be and more. A film from New Zealand which was really, really, really fantastic. The right amount of laughs, the right amount of darkness and the right amount of everyday blandness and of course good old New Zealanders and the word awesome. This was in my top handful of movies for the festival. It was just a crackpot.

Barakat
I had high hopes for this one but I missed the middle of it since I dozed off and I never quite caught it again. It tells the tale of two Alegiran women during the recent civil war

Donkey in Lahore
This was the first of two Brisbane produce docos that were screened together at GOMA, both of which were delightful. I was on my seat for most of Donkey in Lahore as I crossed my fingers and hoped that it was going to work out for Amber and Amir. A fantastic movie.

Unlikely Travellers
Unlikely Travellers was the subject of a fair bit of controversy over the subject matter of this documentary and it was a very, very thought provoking film.

An Old Mistress
This was a last minute addition to my viewing schedule and it really surprised me.

Once
Based on the paragraph description in the BIIF booklet, it sounded like a pretty nice movie about a busker who through chance manages to make a break. Little did I know that two leads are both accomplished musicians before they are actors. The busker is played by Glen Han of The Frames and the female lead is Mar Irglova. Even more surprising was that The Frames were in town to support Bob Dylan and popped into to the theatre to play a few songs acoustically for us.

Really not much has changed since I made that post on Nov 24, 2008. Speaking of the number 8, this little corner of the Internet that I call my own turns 8 in March! Wow!

Here is the list from 2008, I’ve changed one or two

1. Dew drops
2. Jacarandas
3. Botanical gardens
4. Hot chocolate
5. Live music
6. Christmas ornaments
7. Honeygold Mangoes
8. Kitchenware stores
9. Salad
10. Gum trees
11. Oxfam
12. Lavender
13. The markets
14. Liberty prints
15. Thunderstorms
16. Ginger beer
17. Soft hair (I’m guessing I meant freshly washed hair)
18. Photography
19. The sound of cicadas
20. Folk
21. Msn Ahh the days of MSN Messenger and ICQ before that. Nowadays it is Skype, sweet sweet Skype.
22. The Mountain Goats
23. Ginger nuts
24. Patterns
25. Postcards
26. Christmas
27. Mowing the lawn
28. The smell of the rain
29. Polished floors
30. Going bush
31. The dairy section
32. Dresses
33. Window seats
34. Handkerchiefs
35. Pesto
36. Pain au Chocolat
37. Cherries
38. Colour
39. Falling snow
40. Reading
41. Cloves
42. Country roads
43. Rocking chairs
44. DIY
45. My family
46. Fresh flowers
47. The Farm
48. Roast chicken
49. Book shops
50. Pot plants
51. Sea kayaking
52. Soup
53. Lush
54. Melbourne
55. Pink (colour)
56. ABC Fora. Now rebadged as ABC Big Ideas -> I still love it.
57. Recycling
58. Girraween
59. Bed linen
60. SES
61. My camera
62. Morocco
63. The beach
64. 4zzzfm
65. Cooking
66. Marigolds
67. Bollywood
68. Cake
69. Central Asia
70. Tupperware
71. The library
72. Free range eggs
73. Kitchen aid
74. Iceland
75. Weddings
76. Ice cream
77. Fairy lights
78. Rosemary
79. Milk
80. Internet banking
81. Ikea
82. Henna
83. Lip balm
84. Brisbane
85. Green grass
86. Water
87. Tetris I used to play a lot of Tetris. I’ll insert Figgjo Flint Lotte in on this line I think.
88. Pasta
89. Laughter
90. Jam jars
91. Wattle
92. Friends
93. Sunshine
94. Woodford
95. Quotes
96. Nectarines
97. Pretty things
98. Smiles
99. Fireworks
100. Life

Only one really big change, the other two are just changes to bring them up to 2013. There are a couple of other entries that I could have changed but it was a hard call.

H

Of course one of the few things on my must do list for Christmas in Hobart was a visit to the Gardens. le Sigh. I love those gardens. I didn’t get to fully explore the Japanese Gardens this time, just had a quick rush in to take photos of the Ginkgo biloba.

Oh and a little snap of the Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum cv. Utsusemi) as well.

Highlights included this Rhododendron Azma in the Rhododendron Terraces

Mum and Margaret did a lot of this. Botanising we call it, both of them with their BSc hats on.

My favourite area of the garden on this trip was probably the Deciduous Lawn and the Oak Collection.  I had a very nice time taking photos of backlit leaves. The angle of the sun in Tasmania makes it so nice for taking backlit photos.

Like this one (unlabelled tree).

or this one (English Oak Hybrid (Quercus x robur))

or this one (Pyramidale Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)).

My most favourite photo of the outing was this one, a very quick photo as we got back to the cars. Taken just like that because the light was just right. My cousin Erica and her little bear.

Aren’t they just special?

If you want to check out the rest of the photos from our jaunt to the gardens, head over to Flickr to my Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens Set

The Museum of Old and New or really a place full of crazy old stuff and even crazier new stuff.

One of my must do things whilst in Tasmania for Christmas was to go to MONA, sadly I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to on my visit to MONA but still I did see a fair bit.

It confirmed me that the detail in barkcloth is amazing, Sidney Nolan was nuts, you really can just take anything and call it art.

Such as this.
Queen (A Portrait of Madonna) by Candice Breitz (2005)

Last Thursday night, I tripped the light fantastic across the stage of the Concert Hall at QPAC. Level of overall excitement that night? Oh, about 300%. This graduation ceremony meant 500 times more to me than my undergraduate ceremony Looking back at that post now makes me realise just how much I’ve changed in the last six years! To start with I now own more pairs of heels than I do flats! I also graduated with a full mouth of teeth (the fake tooth that I had back in 2006 broke the day before the ceremony). Just like my undergrad there was only a small number of people graduating with my degree (13 grads and 5 of us at the ceremony). Unlike my undergrad though, I knew just about everyone graduating with my degree (Graduate Diploma in Business – Professional Accounting) and those who graduated with the Masters as we’ve all done at least 75% of our subjects together. This of course meant that before the ceremony, during the ceremony and afterwards there was lots and lots of excited chatter, hugs, drinks and celebrations.

My dearest friend sent me flowers at work which of course made a bit of an emotional mess as it had been a roller coaster day at work. I also got some more flowers, cards, a graduation bear and a bottle of bubbles which made me feel very loved. I’ve had a lot of support from those I work with the last 2.5yrs since I returned from uni and as one of the ladies said “it feels like we are all graduating with you”, so true.

The Accountancy school lucked out and got the evening graduation ceremony. Mum had arrived the night before and was ever so kind to drop me at work in the morning with all my accoutrements. I got ready at work, with a flat iron plugged in beside the ECG machine and a revolving stream of work mothers taking photos, rearranging my dress and what not else. Then it was onto QPAC for the real deal to begin. I met up with T who I started with two years ago and we went off to get robed and played a game of Cinderella trying to find mortarboard that were exactly the right size. Once we were robed it was time for a celebratory glass of bubbles.

There was then more bubbles and hot chips to give us fuel for the next few hours before we lined up for photos, photos and photos.  Before we knew it it was time for us to head back stage again for our final briefing. We thoroughly enjoyed walking the hallways of backstage at QPAC. It was quite something.  Seats were found on stage and then it was a briefing and then we watched our family start to stream in.  After a bit of waving and pointing Mum found me on stage.

I was the 182nd person to graduate on Thursday night. That was a lot of names to read out before me! QUT was live streaming the grad ceremonies but unfortunately only two people I know were able to watch the stream. For the rest of my family and friends the website kept crashing.

When the ceremony was finally over after much, it was time for lots more hugs, excited chatter and what not with another round of celebratory bubbles. Smiled so much all night. Then we had to return our gowns and head back to reality. Reality for me is just under seven weeks left at my current work before I head off into the big accounting world. Going to be a bit of a change!

and that is how I graduated last Thursday night.

The street is filled with the soft patter of rain drops, the Four Tops from next door and the sound of whistles and yelling carrying up the hill from the netball.

The makings of Christmas presents cover the living room floor and the kitchen table.

There is  big container of dried fruit soaking in rum and spices in the pantry.

There is only a few days left till the calendar reads December.

Yep.

Uni is finished.

I’m currently not so patiently waiting for my results. As I’ve mentioned previously, the two subjects I did this past semester were hard.  QUT also ever so kindly scheduled my final exam for 5:30 on a Friday night. It also earns the title of hardest exam I’ve ever done, both in my undergrad and postgrad lives. It was the exam where we all walked out at the very end of the time and looked at each other and just went “mmm, well that was fun”. Still it was the last exam and we celebrated like the good postgrad students we are with cheap bubbly and plastic cups.

We then celebrated again with a long lunch and more expensive bubbly  the following week after T had her last exam.  It was a lovely lunch, there was eight of us who started together two years ago and now we were all finished.  We’ve all gone or are going into very different aspects of the accounting/finance world but we’ve all toiled together over the past semesters.

Since then I’ve enjoyed doing a lot of sweet nothing. It’s been fantastic to no longer be reading text books on the bus to and from work or falling asleep on the aforementioned books. Coming home from work and just kicking back on the patio with a drink and watching the world go by. In saying all that I’ve also done a whole lot of everything else as well. There’s been road trips, cleaning, early family Christmas, shopping, gardening and hanging out with those dear friends who let me go radio silent during the semester. Now the count down is on to graduation and Christmas.

watched Happythankyoumoreplease the other week whilst on sick leave and whilst parts were weird, parts were sad and parts were darn funny. There was this one scene that just about summed up a part of me oh so very well. More so than I think I’ve ever summed it up myself.

Annie: So, what got you into photography?

Sam #2: Oh, I wouldn’t call it photography.

Annie: What would you call it?

Sam #2: I love taking pictures, I guess.

Annie: Okay. Well, why do you take pictures?

Sam #2: Umm.. I don’t know. When I see something I like looking at, I get to keeping looking at it.

That last line, right there. Yep. “When I see something I like looking at, I get to keep looking at it”. That’s why I take pictures. I like how something looks, or the way the light falls on an item. I take a picture and then I get to keep looking at it.

These are three such pictures.

H.