September 2010 - New York - When in Rome...

People always say, when in New York, you gotta do this and that. Well, I kinda threw that list out the window being my second time in the City and truthfully, I was a little lazy. My first visit 5 years before was filled with activities and sore feet. This time, I just wanted to chill out. My 6 days in the City included:

- visiting the Guggenheim and being amazed at the amount of famous artworks available under one roof;

- walking across the Brooklyn Bridge;

- eating more Mexican than I should've (the restaurant, Mole, in the LES is awesome);

- drinking more pomegranate magaritas than i should (because they do it so well here);

- aiding the economy by shopping like crazy at Woodbury Commons;

- looking cool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where the guys wear skinny jeans, dark beards, curly hair and Wayfarers;

- admiring Brownstones in the Upper East and West Sides;

- eating damn good Cajun ribs at Acme's (with hot sauce!);

- having a 'When Harry Met Sally' met the Reuben sandwich at Katz's Deli orgasmic moment;

- peeking into the many community gardens in the LES;

- spotting Liev Schrieber on 2nd Street;

- buying Apple products at the iconic store on 5th Avenue (this generation's Tiffany's); and

- walking from Midtown to Downtown and back to the LES through Soho, Greenwich, Union Square and the Flatiron district because those NYC blocks didn't seem to look that huge on a tiny map!

Staying in the LES in a non-touristy part of the City is great because I start to feel like i'm part of the neighbourhood and feel like i could really live this crazy city. My favourite moment of this trip was when the local postie greeted me with, "Good morning, Miss Cynthia". At that moment, I almost, almost felt like a true NuYorker.

September 2010 - New York - NuYorkers!

Christine and Joanne are two cool cousins from New York who I met in Pompeii 10 years ago. Since then, I've been to visit them once before in 2005, stayed with Jo in her lovely place in Hoboken (as in Crunch) in Jersey and visited Chris in fashionable Brooklyn and we had pomegranate magaritas and partied it up in some dive bar off Canal St.

I meet up with Chris and Jo, their partners and kids at the Bronx Zoo. We catch a few trains to the Bronx area and my first impression is that there isn't anything sinister about it - although there are a few more projects or housing commission buildings around. It was a record hot day in late September and the zoo was packed with families visiting. The only thing missing was a wading pool and I looked at the polar bears swimming in their icy enclosures with jealousy. It was great to catch up with the NuYorkans - Chris has a lovely little boy called Finn who was fascinated with the tigers and Jo has her little chubby baby, Jackson, who is just so adorable.

Over the next few days, I catch up with both girls for various lunches, dinners and even tea at a twee little place on the Upper West Side called Tea with Alice. We even visited Chris' work, the Sesame Street headquarters, near the Lincoln Centre and get to cuddle up to Grover and hang out with in Oscar's trash can. Pity i didn't get to meet Elmo, who i'm told was off on a busy book signing tour!

After dinner that night with the girls at Rosa Mexicana in the Upper West Side, we stumble on a scene shoot for Gossip Girl! You gotta love New York for celebrity spotting!!

September 2010 - New York - the first 12 hours

New York is easily one of my favourite cities in the world. There's something about this town, some vibe, a pulse, that imbibes it with life and gives it personality. I touched down at JFK and catch a yellow cab into the city. This time, I'm renting a one bedder with Le and Thierry, friends from London, in the trendy Lower East Side of Manhattan, between 1st Avenue and 2nd street., near the famed Katz's Deli.

I love the LES already as my yellow cab drives through the avenues to take me to my destination. It has an edgy cool vibe, crammed with small bars, restaurants and filled with people - even the people look so indescribably NuYorican. Our apartment is on the top floor of a building with iconic fire escapes that hug the facade of the building and lends it character, rather than detract from it. We also have a view of the Empire State building in the distance from the living room window.

I drop my bags and we're off to have sushi near Tompkins Square. I then head off to Rivington St to meet up with my friend, Amanda, who has been living in New York from Sydney for 6 months.

The thing I notice straight away is that the drinks are super strong! Everyone is happy after 2 drinks and jetlag hasn't settled in. We entertain everyone in the bar with our outlandish Aussie accents (except for Thierry who is French) and go bar hopping along Rivington.

When it was time to call it a night, we decide to walk the 7 blocks back to the apartment - obviously alcohol was numbing the pain in our feet! Nevertheless, my first 12 hours since landing in New York have already been memory filled!

September 2010 - Hong Kong

I am on a short visit to Hong Kong for a work trip and what a great city it is - i am so amazed at the number of sky scrappers fighting for space that it seems like every inch of HK island is covered by these steel giants!

Although I visited 5 years ago, the city seems so different when you're there for work. You have to fight the same morning commute as the hundreds that ride the MTR. My office is only 15 mins or 5 stops from Central where I'm staying. I marvel that I don't even have to leave a building in order to get to work and back. Having said this, I look a little forlornly at a tree beyond the glass walls and start to miss the outdoors.

It is also typhoon season and there are ominous signs everywhere optimistically predicting the size of the typhoon that is supposed to hit HK. Unfortunately for me, my very first typhoon blows over HK and choose to harass Macau instead.

I'm distracted by the shops that stay open until 11pm everywhere and my credit card is getting a workout. Fortunately, it's Friday and there are drinks to be had. I have to rush to meet up with some of my dear uni friends who are all movers and shakers in HK's legal scene. I meet up with Martin and Angie, Ann, Mel and Michelle at Alfie's. Alfie's sounds like an English larger pub but, like everything in Central, is a polished and fashionable bar that is set atop the glittery, golden Dunhill store. After a few cocktails, we head out for some food. At my request for good, Cantonese food, my friends opted to take me to Yong Kei's, a Michelin starred Cantonese restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong. The goose is golden there; the century year old eggs are nice and smelly; the pigeon is crunchy and there is also some strange fried milk (go figure).

I spend the Saturday wandering around Central and ride the famous mid-levels escalators from Central to Soho. Being so steep, i gather that everyone must have formidable quad muscles but sore knees! The mid-levels were full of wonderful boutiques and trendy cafes filled with expats having brunch. As I walked down the steep slopes back towards Central, I pass traditional wet markets and these stalls selling little lions and lanterns.

I have a flight to catch home that evening and even if I didn't get to try hiking on the other side of HK island (where there is real greenery), I vow to leave that for my next visit.

August 2010 - Singapore Sling

After months and months of complaining that I never get to travel for work enough, my lovely boss sends me to Singapore! yippee!! I get to visit my friends, eat like there's no tomorrow and shop to save the economy as long as I have a few meetings in between.

I've only ever known Singapore as a land of stop overs. My eldest sister, Vivian, lived there for 15 years and I visited en route to or from home

over the years. As a stop-over city, you can't help but be impressed by the efficiency and the cleanliness. As a mad foodie, I would always leave this stop-over city carrying extra kilos in my belly and my luggage!

This time, I'm visiting friends, who take me to Haji Lane in Little Arab. In many years of visiting this city, I have never visited this cool alley with its Banksy-esque street art and edgy boutiques. We had coffee in a really cool shop which serenades as a mid-century design workshop - coffee was bad, furniture was too amazing! I could've bought the entire shop's stock!

I also visited the impressive new casino - the MSB or some acronym or another. The

re's a cool bar at the top where you have the view of the entire city - tres tres chic!

Judy and Greg - being excellent foodies themselves, took me to most of Singapore's hawker centres where I chowed down on Char Keoy Teow (fried flat rice noodles), wonton

mee (braised egg noodles with slivers of roast pork) and had piece after piece of nonya kueh (Malay steamed desserts).

Notwithstanding the time spent eating, I also managed to snap up Zara's finest :)

April 2010 - Adelaide and Barossa

April and her awesome holidays - it's definitely my favourite month in the calendar! This time, I grab Dee and Julie and head to Adelaide and the Barossa for wine and cheese tasting.

Adelaide is a very pretty town, like a small Melbourne, but without Melbourne's definite worldliness, history or coolness.

We head to Barossa on the first day of the long weekend, stopping off at Torbreck to try a little of that $240 bottle of shiraz, then it's off to visit other boutique wineries, including the crowded Rockford Wines withs its very tasty blends and the 'ye olde' grandness of Seppeltsfield with its 100 year old Para success.

We also make a pitstop at Maggie Beer's famous Pheasant Farm and fight the throngs of geriatric foodies to try some of her delicious produce.

After a full day, we head back to Adelaide feeling quite tippled and traipse out to dinner at a Spanish bar in town. Strangely, we are stared at as we walk in the joint by Adelaide's movers and shakers. It wasn't entirely unfriendly but not friendly as well - you could hear the crickets in the first 15 seconds of our arrival as 30 pairs of eyes viewed us, leading Dee to comment that people in Adelaide had a staring problem. Nevertheless, we have cocktails and tapas and forget the stares and soon head off to join friends at another bar in town, then a club and a

nother bar. Finally, we head back at 3am after having to ask the local constabulary the way home.

Feeling a little seedy but with a steely resolve set by our minimal time here, we nominate a driver and head off to the Adelaide Hills district for more wine tasting. We stop off first at Hahndorff, a little kitschy German town for bratwursts and brunch. This is followed by wineries, the most notable were the rich reds at Bird in Hand and the wonderfully minimalist (and very Sydney) tasting rooms at Shaw & Smith.

Ahhh Adelaide - with more knowledge of shirazs and 5 bottles to

imbibe, I bade the staring city adieu!

Easter April 2010 - Bali

April - and it's travel season again as Easter invites us to manipulate a day off work to gain an extra long holiday! This time i'm off to the Island of the Gods - that's Bali - to meet up with my good friend, Judy, who is flying in from Singapore. I land in Bali on a short Jetstar flight and, leaving the bogans at the baggage claim, I head straight to Ubud, a beautiful mountain town billed as the cultural heartland of Bali.

What a charming place Ubud is. I wake up and smell a mix of jasmine and incense as graceful women carry trays to make the morning offering to the gods. I catch up on gossip with Judy and wander around the markets, eating great food and visiting art galleries. One of the first places we visit is Ibu Oka - the famous 'no frills' eatery serving Bali's best babi guling or roast suckling pig. Here's a picture of me looking very happy at receiving my portion of babi guling. The crackling is so sharp, the meat very spicy (not hot but definitely spiced) and the rice, fragrant and filling.

What a far cry from the madness of Kuta (which I visited more than 10 years ago) with its neon dreariness, Aussie bogans, Bintang beer smells and general sadness. The people in Ubud are laid back and chilled, very friendly and accommodating.

I also have the most amazing spa treatments at a nirvana next to our little hotel, overlooking a rice paddy field. I settle into a routine of wandering around the boutiques, swimming in the tranquil hotel pool, having an afternoon nap and then dinner and drinks before an early night. What a great way to rest up after a hectic time at work.

Not forgetting that Ubud is also the spiritual capital of Bali, I visit the local yoga centre, called Yoga Barn. Our classes take place in a gorgeous, circular thatched building in the middle of a rice paddy field. Maybe it is the warm weather but I feel my asanas are more aligned and my breathing is definitely centred. As I lie in chivasana, I hear the breeze rustling the leaves and the roosters crowing and I smell inevitable afternoon rain in the air. Rolling up my yoga mat, I head back to the hotel, for that well-earnt afternoon nap.

January 2010 - Hakuba Ski Olympics

After the peaceful little Japanese ski town of Nozawa, we headed off to the site of the 1998 winter Olympics, Hakuba, in Nagano. En route, we stopped off to see the famed snow monkeys - who, very sensibly, keep warm by soaking in the hot springs. Hakuba is big and Westernized and we have a plethora of ski fields to choose from. Every day was a bluebird day and we mostly have the runs to ourselves during the week. We skied hard at Hakuba 47 (crowded), Goryu- Toomi (challenging), Happo-One (icy) and even Iwatake (deep powder) and Tsugaike (wide and family friendly). My favourite would have to be Tsugaike, mainly because it was our last day's ski, the weather was unreal and, well, i did my best skiing that day. What an amazing holiday - the heady days of powder, hard skiing from first run to last and the nights starting with a soak in the hot springs to rest weary limbs, followed by bouts of of karaoke, sake and awesome Japanese food. Skiing in Japan rocks and it was so much fun because of the excellent group that we had - Banzai!

January 2010 - Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival

Some clever kid in the pack decided to organise our first ski location to coincide with the Nozawa Onsen fire festival. Nozawa Onsen is situated in the Japanese Alps on the main island of Honshu. The Dosojin or Fire Festival is an ancient Shinto festival where drunk 42year old men sit atop a huge wooden pyre and, using smouldering branches, beat off drunk 25 year old men who try to storm the pyre. Meanwhile, everyone watches the spectacle and drink free sake which is dispatched by drunk wardens. It is bizarre and utterly fun! After a hard day's skiing the perfect powder conditions at Nozawa, we head off to the festival in deep snow. There are cheering crowds, film crews and jeering 42 year olds sloshed atop the pyre. After hours of being thrashed and burnt, the 42 year olds are brought down and the whole pyre is set alight! What results is a huge bonfire, singed eyebrows, chaotic scrambles as bits of smouldering wood comes crashing down. I come out of the festival covered in dirty ash and snow and thinking, "Those crazy Japanese..."!

January 2010 - Japan ski desu-ka?

January - that must mean it's time to start the new year with a big ski trip to Japan! I'm off with my ski buddies to the land of the rising sun to grab some of the finest powder this side of the world. I catch aflight with Sammy, ahead of the pack, with horrendous layovers in Cairns and Brisbane (courtesy of our free Qantas frequent flyer flights). We chug shots of sake throughout our Jetstar flight between playing games of Tetris on Sammy's iPhone.

We land in Narita, bleary eyed and drunk, and check into Narita's finest, the Holiday Inn. Immediately, i knock on the door opposite and whoop in excitement at seeing my mate, Guro Vik, opening the door! Guro is my crazy Norwegian friend - Dr Vik by day, crazy Anna by night!

I collect the other Scandi and we're off to explore Narita by night. First stop is an izakaya - a Japanese pub - for some good Japanese food and more sake. After getting kicked out of that joint, we move to other late night haunts - following the drunken singing of salarymen around the corner. We spy some bright pink neon lighting up a Japanese sign and ventured in to find an entryway dominated by a wall of pigeonholes filled with bottles of XO brandys and room keys. A little, old lady in a kimono immediately rushed towards us

as Guro reached for a bottle of brandy and a key. The little Japanese lady made a huge 'X' sign with her arms and said firmly, "No". We stood in the foyer confused at this reception. I took a closer look at the scene and realised that we were not in an ikazaya but a brothel! Laughing at our folly, we headed into the inky Narita night and stumbled back to the Holiday Inn to call it a night.

Island cocktails and dancing lions

Ahhh...another year, another post. Well, i have to confess that it has been a few months since my last ramble. 2010 was full of fun and travels and i will have to blog in retrospect about the capers I got up to.

Today in 2011 - cycloness in Queensland, storms in Melbourne...and mainly it is hot hot hot in Sydney! To beat the heat and swelter with the best, we're off to Cockatoo Island to check out the Island Bar's cool, industrial charm. Then it's off to Chinatown for more Chinese New Year madness - watching those colourful lions shake their booties to the compelling bass of drums and pieces of lettuce waved in front of them.

Keep tuned for the photos and more posts of today's event.