Kiama no-blow-hole?

Preface: Kiama is a city in the Illawarra region of NSW. It's about 2 hours drive towards south of Sydney, and about 30 minutes south of Wollongong. It's supposedly famous for one big one small blowhole near to each other.

Kiama visitor guide 2008 describes it as the famous blow-hole, whilst the Grand Pacific Drive booklet describes it as "the infamous Kiama Blowhole, discovered by George Bass on 6 December 1797."

This is a curious pursuit, how can it be both famous and infamous in two official tourism guides? The latter guide provides a hint: "Most spectacular when the seas run from the south east." Hmmm... That probably means "most probably not spectacular when the seas run from any other direction other than south east." That makes it probably 7/8 times not spectacular.

And this is why it's so infamous -> nothing blow out of it and it looks like an upside-down a**-hole!!!



In sharp contrast to a web guide:
http://www.kiama.com.au/attractions/blowhole2.htm

That means we exhausted 1 chance out of 8, and if we visited 7 more times. We will have a unit probability seeing the blowhole in action!

btw, we are not the only unlucky one, there is a tour group coming all the way from Korea to visit this infamous blow-hole, wondering what is so *famous* with the no-blow-hole inaction (not in action).



Luckily, these lovely creatures served as a bonus for the trip. The anglers are cleaning their fish and throwing the fishy innards, while the pelicans are busy catching their food. The pelican is the local birds with a plague set for it near the visitor center. Flipping through the local newspaper, a news talk about banning the plastic bag for this town, this really show the privilege of the iconic pelican here. So don't be surprised that you can't find a plastic bag in this town in the near future.

Where the Giant Whale migrate!

My first attempt of whale watching was in the States off the Oregon coast, where we climb up a cliff to try spotting whale. Nevertheless, whale not to be seen, just piece of rock shape where we argue hard whether it's whale or rocky island miles away in the Ocean.

Our local friends have been telling us to try whale watching in Sydney, so we went to Dee Why, up to Narrabeen; down to cliff at Watson bay, further to Bondi and Congee to end with disappointments during the Winter-Spring seasons. What? Don't you know there are cruises bringing you off the coastline to search for whales, this comes the enlightenment moment. It's supposed to be even better experience in Port Stephens or Nelson bay probably 2+ hours drive from Sydney. Nevertheless, the evil side of me urge me to be lazy and choose the Cruise just in Sydney.

The vessel first past by Watson bay, where we cross the Lady Bay beach, hmmm..., it's one of the legally naked beach in NSW. Of course that means you can stay naked for as long as you like on that beach. Hehehe... to disappoint you if you are thinking dirty, you will only see tonnes of loosely and fatty bellies, old penises hanging around on that beach. Don't expect more than that mate! A local guy is whispering and giggling with the girls pointing to that beach, a tourist besides me is obviously at lost in why we are so interested in this particular beach. :p


And comes the boring moment of cruising for more than 1/2 hour until we reach about 5km off Bondi beach, Voila! a Humpback whale wagging tail 300 metres away.


There are 1 pod with 3 whales, 1 adult and 2 calves. By regulation, the vessel cannot approach it from behind or block it in front, where it can only *accompanying* the whales 300 metres away from left or right. So we are cruising besides the pod from left all the way from Bondi to Congee. Here's some whale in action, blowing, flipping, etc. enjoying themselves very much!



All of us have been expecting the whale to jump out of water doing stunt act, but the whale are smarter than us than to perform the silly stunt just for us, knowing that it will consume more energy than it can absorb from slowly filtering out prawns as their main food source. Knowing that we are not satisfied (one of the tour member whispering for refund beside me), the guide took out a model humpback and start explaining.


Yeah! You probably see dozens in San Francisco bay, but this is one really crazy and fun seal that can't resist its temptation to show-off its dancing besides our vessel. It's a real bonus to us!


We have been drifting towards south following the whales, this is their migration season to the colder regions that last until probably November, oh, hardworking whales, probably they should invent some air conditioning for themselves to save the trouble of migrating around.

And this is the famous Bondi beach view from 5km off coast. See the wide coastline? No wonder it's so famous!


Want to go whale watching in Sydney, just book from any one of the operators, cost around AUD50-80 per person, it's a lifetime experience. Click my sponsor links besides on the operators if google is smart enuf to detect such advertisements, else just search for Sydney whale watching.

On the way back, I was hanging around at the front of the vessel, following the waves up-and-down, just like our life. You have heard that our life is full of ups-and-downs, but do you know that whenever there is a major up-wave, it will normally follow by a major down-wave. And don't be disappointed with major down-trend, coz the next best up-trend is following right after this! Cheers mate!

Abalone abalone abalone...

Read from some forums that decades ago, local Aussies feed their cat with abalone, wondering what they can do with this kind of sucking creatures. And heard from some older generation friends they used to buy dozens of live abalones home during a visit to Australia.

Nowadays, it's the fengshui turning the other way round as Chinese started to penetrate the Aussie lifestyle. This is what it is now in the Sydney Fish market.



Selling for AUD4.90 per piece is the Greenlip Abalone, and it's frozen, not a fresh lively products. Looks ugly? Yeah, grandma was surprised as well how come the treasured abalone has shell? errr... to spoil your appetite even further, it's similar to a snail in the sea, and the part that we consumed is always sucking to some rocks. It's pretty difficult to shuck-off the flesh from the shell. On the other side of the market, we have live abalone, selling probably AUD40-60 per kg.

Hehe... Not interesting enuf. Here's some that you might have heard, but never got a chance to see, it's the huge live abalone (of coz a different species than the above), in a local Chinese restaurant, where I dare not ask for the price. Hmmm... Don't disturb me, I am summoning it while spelling "Accio abalone..." Yummy yummy.

Yum Cha = Chinese food?

Yum Cha is such a big thing here, as demonstrate below:

1. All the Chinese restaurants here will offer yum cha for lunch in the weekend, where the waiter will cater by pushing a cart around with dim-sum, when you order something from the cart, the waiter will stamp a small, medium, large, or special dish on a card. And we pay based on the items on the card, usually, medium is about 3-5 dollars, large is <10 dollars and special is >10 dollars per item, and we rarely get items categorized as small.

2. In one of the annual parade (Chinese New Year) in one of the Aussie city, the Chinese demonstrate their culture by having yum-cha waitresses parading in their yum-cha customs. (Picture courtesy of a friend)

3. In a carnival, overheard one of the local from Caucasian background asking another to take yum cha, and pointing to a chinese food stall that don't offer yum cha. What he means is he want chinese food, but he thought chinese food = yum cha.

To make things clear, here's a glossary:
Yum cha - drink tea in Cantonese literally, but generally mean enjoying tea with plates of dimsum.
Dim sum - tidbits in cooked/hot version, it can be steamed, fried, stewed, etc. Some common dim sum are bbq pork bao, chicken feet in soya beans, prawn dumpling, siewmai, egg-tart, etc.

3 kind of people, from 1 country, in Sydney.

It is such a metropolitan city that it attract (or subtract?) people from around the world, that we can see distinctive behaviours of different ethnics groups all in one easy place called Sydney. But of special significance is the people from this country, 3 distinct kinds, diverted probably due to different socio-economic background. Please don't feel offended if you are from this group, and no discrimination here, just sharing what I encountered, so future migrant can be careful. And it's not just isolated cases, these were encountered every so often.

1. This group of people think money is their life, and will swear over their dead-body over nicky-picky stuff. But we will only discover it once you have paid for your deposit and monies for stuff. This is how they do it. They gain your trust first, negotiate with you, and left out those details and saying it can be figure out later, and asking for a deposit. They promised lots of things, and never want to enter a written contract, claiming that trust is important. Once it's paid, they will dig out all the nicky-picky stuff and start charging extra for it. They even go to the extend of lying to gain additional monetary advantage. But since you already paid deposit (without contract), you are dealing at the losing end. It's easy to spot these group of people, a) they like to advertise starting with a low fee for services, but left a small (negligible) condition statement claiming extra can be charged due to *circumstances*, and never want to define *circumstances* properly if you ask them; b) if you challenge them, they will open their eyes widely staring at you, and even lying with wide-opened eye, remember one of their *country* ex-president practiced this artfully after being challenged of bribery?

2. This group of people like to speak loudly and even take shouting as talking, with no respect for others. They are more artful than the first group, at least they won't take lying as the option. But they will sell/highlight all the advantages, and covering all the weaknesses. And if you touch on their weaknesses, instead of going into defensive mode, they will talk even louder offensively to cover up, sometimes threatening loud. They are the natural deal-maker in win-lose situation, of coz, they win, you lose; as you will only discover your disadvantage days later, when the deal is grave-solid. It's no surprise that they behave in such a manner as they came from the special business district, and dealmaking is in their blood. They are the majority here, and they dominate the yumcha businesses.

3. Contrary to common believe that this group is untrustworthy, I find this group from the mainland more trustworthy than the above two. Probably the migrant from this group generally have professional background and being well brought-up (else they won't be here). They work hard, long hours, offering extra services at no additional charges, and humble. And they can really make good friends.

Don't believe it? Nevermind, just come to Sydney and live for few months and you will learn these expensive lessons. :)

What is this? Hint: Egg-laying mammal

Here is some guessing work to be done. What is this? It's the type of mammal that lay egg. And when they first sent the specimen of this species to London, the biologist thought that it's a hoax. The biologist thought that they are making fun of them by stitching a beak of a duck to a mammal.

Yes, you guess right, it's the platypus, the Chinese call it 鸭嘴兽, the duck-beaked creature, which is self-explained. It's a native species in Australia. This is taken from the Sydney Aquarium, apparently, the flashlight is turned on accidentally and scared this animal to hell. It should be turned off.

Nighttime Harbour

Nothing to be fancy or guessing about, this is the popular Harbour Bridge, taken at a park near a jetty. In the background is the Sydney Opera House, and on the left just barely in the picture is Luna Park. There are two means of crossing from North Shore to Sydney CBD, one is the bridge, another is the tunnel, which flows underneath the sea somewhere between the bridge and opera house (can you feel that it's there?).

Rental in Sydney.

As highlighted in previous post, the rental market here is squeezed so badly that I need an additional post to illustrate it. If you have friends migrated to Australia in the past, you might heard them planning for a week of find-home trip prior to their migration. Gone are the days for this, it's no longer possible to find a home in Sydney in a week. We can find tonnes of rental properties on realestate.com.au & domain.com.au, but believe it or not, there are probably 10 times more tenant looking for the tenancy than the available properties. On average, it will take a local probably 1 month to find a decent rental. However, for new migrant without past rental history, without a job (yet), and without good local references; the chance of securing a tenancy is very slim. It will probably take 2-3 months for new migrant to get a decent tenancy here.

So what are the choices? Basically, there are 3; 1. shared accommodation, 2. unit/apartment, 3. house. The shared accommodation is probably the easiest, just google on the web, find a unit, contact the owner/subtenant, get some informal agreement, and that's it. But do ask for a tenancy record by means of reference or rental receipt, you will need that to find a proper tenancy later. This is the choice if you don't mind privacy and sharing with others.

Secondly, for a decent rental of unit or house, it's good to suggest going through the proper channel. The agent will handle everything (for a fee), and your tenancy and bond are lodged with office of fair trading. You might be surprised how many investor with tonnes of extra cash (from some countries), that want to do it an informal means, but with that, you are risking your tenancy and might end up not getting a fair treatment from the landlord. I guess some of these are renting informally because they are actually declaring themselves as residential, so as to save the capital gain later when they decided to sell the properties.

Anyway, to apply for rental, you will need these records; driving license, rental records/receipts, employment letter/payslip, bank statement, visa/passport, utilities bills, two local references, etc. Make sure you have all these in-place (so you see, it's almost impossible for a new migrant to have all of these). And it's a requirement that you must view the property first before applying. Go ahead with a viewing session and you will understand what I meant above, if you are not fainted yet after viewing.

Comparison between unit/apartment and house:
- Usually, the tenant is not paying for the water bill in unit/apartment, house is different.
- The tenant pay for electrical/gas.
- The tenant never pay the strata, council, and additional fix costs.
- House is hardly maintainable, you have to handle the waste disposal, garden maintanence, etc.
- Look for secured unit and secured car park, this is essential in Sydney in view of the crime rate if you are coming from safe country like Singapore or Japan. House is generally unsecured.
- If you come from tropical country like Singapore/Malaysia, please avoid the brick house (especially old-style), you will be freezing like hell in winter, or wasting tonnes of energy in heating (it's costly).
- You will pay a bond of 4 weeks normally, and it's an offence if the agent/landlord is not submitting your bond to the office of fair-trading. So your hard-earned money is securely placed in a third party, and the landlord will need the proof for repair, etc. if they ever need to use the bond for repair work, after you move out. Make sure you sign a document for the bond to be placed in the fair trading office, with your tenancy.

In the end of the day, you don't have much choice except to pray harder! See the latest news: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/housing-rents-surge-in-sydney/2008/07/23/1216492541148.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rent-or-buy-families-hit-a-brick-wall/2008/07/24/1216492641610.html

Post me a comment if you need more information.

How's life after 5 months in Sydney

All the earlier post in the blog are very positive and forward looking. We are clocking 5 months now in Sydney and both of us securing a stable job in Sydney, and working life is good and not as stressful in Singapore, even as we both working in the probably the more stressful company/industry. But how's life here?

Of course there are good things downunder, especially in Sydney. But we can only use 3 words to summarize. It's "tough, tough, tough". How tough it is, to keep it short, I will just list it in point form.

1. The rental market here is hell, imagine if you have encountered this, 20-30 groups of people viewing a same unit/apartment for 15-30 minutes. Then probably 10 groups of people applying to rent the same unit at or above the asking price. And the application form asking for all and including your most privacy information. Then to wait wait wait with no news by the agent. Sooner or later, you will get used to all the tricks to *entertain* the agent just to get a decent rental unit. Then start the rental hunting again after 6-12 months later. And forget about buying a property, the bank interest will kill you or you end-up in some far away places with stabbing incident every couple of days. And you spend the monies you save from properties into the petrol.

2. It's a fair system, everyone will say that, only to be taken advantage by all the rich people, especially the rich, early investment migrant. It's a fair system? To hell with it. It's never fair and it's so complicated tweaking here and there to make it look fair, but it will never be.

3. The redtape will kill you, regardless in private/public sector. Just try to apply for the residential phone line and you will know. If you encountered a problem, you will be diverted to here and there and never get the problem solved, for months, just wasting all your mobile phone all time to calling again and again.

4. Don't try to get sick here. Isn't that medicare cover your medical? Hell no, it only cover some basics, and if you do get an accident without any private insurance, you better kill yourself than left suffering in the public hospital for days. Go search smh on Royal North Shore Hospital and you will know what I meant.

5. Crime rate is high here, don't try exploring the great western sydney without a brave attitude, read the news more.

6. If you don't ask anything, you don't get nothing or you get the worst thing you can ever imagine. Only after arguing for hell lots of argument, then you will get a barely *fair* treatment, this is call a *fair* system.

7. Racist, don't tell me you don't know Ozzie is a racist country, try walking late night along some youngster area, you will invite some racist remarks from some local half-drunk youngster.

All in all, still hanging on here, that's the fun part of experiencing life. Tell you more mate next time when I am free. :p

Preparing to move - cleaning flat

We started clearing our stuff. I found that we have had few boxes left unopened in store room since moving to this flat few years ago. I wonder how long will it take for me to clear all of them. But it is like treasures discovery when clearing the boxes one by one. Here is some of our memorable stuff and some to be reluctantly thrown away.

In 'Z' sequence from top-left to bottom-right;
1. First pager about 9-10 years ago, now obsolete;
2. CD case from the NTU's alumni office;
3. NTU 2000 millennium celebration's key chain, the millennium means more than a celebration for us;
4. Uluru's geometrical tools (since secondary school?);
5. Dunno what? Another souvenir?
6 & 7. Some puzzles;
8. Ultra old spectacles;
9. Uluru trying out the ancient spectacles, still workable :p ;
10. Uluru's honours year timetable in NTU;
11. Uluru's society, membership, name, etc... cards, some from a decade ago.