25 Nov 2006, Saturday – Catching up!
Our room rates include breakfast, so we woke up early and looked forward to a “continental breakfast”.
Much to our dismay, our breakfast includes cereals, bread, jam, butter, milk, juice, coffee or tea. There were no bacons, hot dogs, omelette, pan fried eggs etc. Esmond was so disappointed as he was looking forward to filling up on bacon! But I was delighted because it’s been a long time since I’ve had toasted bread with peanut butter! Esmond was calling me ‘nuts’ and ‘cheapo’ for favouring such “poor food”.
After breakfast, I fulfilled my date with my ex-colleague from SG to meet up down under. She had migrated to Sydney shortly after . We had brunch at the Emperor’s Kitchen near Hay Market. It was good to catch up again and we talked the whole morning away.
After that, we went for a walk around the famous Hay Market / Paddy’s Market. Esmond had a ball of a time there and he bought a torch light that’s so expensive, my jaw dropped.
~ Esmond showing off his very “powderful” torch light. He’s extremely happy with his purchase….
Take a wild guess at how much the torch light cost. ….. Clue: This is a 3 watt LED torch light.
What’s your guess?
Ready for the answer…?
It cost him ……… AU$69!
(Jaw drop already? Ha ha…)
To avoid spending more money there, we left the market and headed for the PowerHouse Museum at Ultimo. Prior to that, we grabbed some lunch – Thai food! We had stir fried beef with chilli and basil as well as Pad Thai. It was delicious.
We paid AU$18 for the museum entry as we wanted to see the exhibition on the Great Wall of China. It’s such an irony that the two of us had to come all the way to Sydney to see an exhibition on the Great Wall of China.
It’s a pity that we are not allowed to take photos at this particular section of the museum. They had really nice exhibits too! A lot of ancient stuff, antiques. Vases, tools and weapons (crossbow was invented by the Chinese!), even the emperor’s robe (Emperor Qian Long’s royal gown and battle uniform, the latter which he never wore). We didn’t have a lot of time on our hands so we had to rush through the exhibits. BUT we still have some time for shopping! I bought a “Chairman Mao” watch by stamps. It caught by eye with its brilliant red colour, and it’s not very expensive. It’s only AU$29.95! 
(Note: I didn't buy it because I'm his ardent supporter ok....)
We ventured onto other exhibitions in the museum too.
There was a section on space and how the astronauts live in the zero gravity environment. The poor chaps couldn’t even poo in peace! Since it is zero gravity, all “excretions” will float. Hence, they’ll need to pee into a tube and poo into a “potty” all equipped with a little suction to prevent the ‘useless matter’ from “polluting” the ship!
Of course the Americans must have their signature drink on board, even though they are thousands of miles away from earth. Some clever dude took pity on these guys and came up with .......
"Until special "space cans" like this were developed, soft drinks in space had no fizz. This was because gas and liquid could not separate in weightless conditions. Experimental Coke and Pepsi space cans were first used on the space shuttle in July 1985."
And of course, having successfully landed on the moon, these "tourists" must come back with a souvenier. So, they pinch a rock from the moon.
"This rock was collected from the moon's surface by the Apollo 16 crew in April 1972. It was found on the rim of Plum Crater, 30m north-west of the lunar module's landing site in the Moon's Descartes region. Weighing 89g, this moon fragment is 3.9 billion years old, making it older than more than 99% of Earth's surface rocks. The rock is a breccia, which is composed of mineral fragments cemented together."
Come 5pm, we were chased out of the museum by their staff. Undoutedly, this puts us off as they could have been friendlier. We later found out that they were in a hurry to set up the museum for a Pfizer event.
So we headed back to Sydney's Chinatown. As with all Chinese around the world, "Feng Shui" is very important. Hence...
This 2 centuries old eucalyptus tree was found in Condobolin, near the Lachlan river in NSW, where many Chinese went to "huat chai" during the Gold Rush and later settled alongside the river and grew vegetables for trade. The five Natural Elements of "gold, wood, water, fire and earth" have been incorporated in the design in order to encourage positive energy and good fortune.
On our way back, we had to "plow through a throng of people". It's been a long time since Esmond and I faced such big crowds! The last time was when we were queing up to clear the Malaysian customs! haha... We had no idea what the event was about, but there were full of kids and students.
And after much "squeezing", we felt peckish and settled for takoyaki!
We traced our steps of 4 years back (July 2002 when we first visited Sydney) and walked the whole of George Street. There weren't many major changes but there had definitely been a lot more people and a lot more Asians now. 
We came across this pub, with it's interesting entrance. It's probably telling it's patrons to enter at their own risk and must comply to "hear no evil, see no evil, say no evil" rules, otherwise they'll set the monkeys on them! haha..
A photo was taken of the same junction. The only difference is that it's now packed with a lot more people!
Finally, we've come to the signature shopping centre in Sydney - QVB (Queen Victoria Building). 
QV: Shop here you lousy peasant, or I shall have your head off! 
QVB houses 5 levels of Sydney's best contemporary fashion, food, art, jewellery and antiques amidst a cultural backdrop of unprecedented Romanesque design a.k.a. "high class shopping centre selling branded goods which ordinary people like Esmond and Rach can't afford".
QVB has the world's largest hanging animated clock as well as a Christmas tree spanning 4 levels, decorated with 15,000 Swarovski crystals, 4 semi-trailers worth of decorations whose installation requires forsaking of 3 nights of sleep.
The clock shows 6 scenes of English history, representing the close connection between England and Australia.
There's a second hanging clock in QVB, The Great Australian Clock, which took 4 years to build costing more than $1.5 million. Weighting 4 tonnes and 10 metres tall, the clock tells the story of Australia from the perspective of both Aboriginal and European settlers in extraordinary detail.
This handmade masterpiece includes 33 picture scenes (15 of them animated), 32 clock movements (12 display international times), 33 paintings, 867 light bulbs and 138 hand carved figurines. The dome is coated in 23 carat gold, the doors and numerals and deckles in 23 carat gold leaf.
There's also a time capsule containing a letter from Her Majesty QEII written in 1986. It is to be opened 99 years later (i.e. 2085) with a message to the citizens of Sydney.
Her majesty testing the Lord Mayor's patience...
And as it was already past 6pm, all the shops were closed. It was truly "window shopping", which is good! (Saves us from burning a hole in our pocket!)
"High class toy shop..."
We continued on our way down George Street until we came to....
The two icons of Australia - Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, sitting side by side on Circular Quay. These must be the two most photographed objects in Australia.
With the Sydney CBD in between them...
After a long hard day's walk, we took the train back to Museum station and search for our favourite restaurant - BBQ King! They serve the most delicious roast duck I've ever tasted!
Day 2 ended with a very full tummy and mince beef fried rice "ta-pao"...
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