April 4 2005

It's mm's birthday! mm woke up and bb was next to her, saying happy birthday to her already. nothing is better than that.

after they had breakfast at hotel (and been to the washroom!), they set out for port stephens, headed for Nelson Bay. it's some distance from sydney. bb was driving fast, "occasionally" breaking the speed limit. they got there by about 12:30pm; not bad. booked ticket for 1:30pm trip that's going to last one and a half hour, then went to have fish and chips before they boarded the cruise. it's AUS 19 each. mm thought it's cheap, as she expected it'd be more expensive than that.

as to the fish and chips, mm had sword fish and bb had catch of the day. mm's was more expensive but bb's fish turned out to be more fresh and tasty. mm's fish didn't have the usual sword fish flavour. price was not cheap but modest. bbmm both thought their batter was good. neither of them liked fish and chips in uk. their batter was usually not crispy, oily and rather thick. the aussi did it well. it tasted light and crispy and bbmm enjoyed that.

it was windy and it rained a bit. the sea was rough at times. on the cruise there was a korean tour group plus a few others. the korean were great! they provided excellent entertainment. when there were waves and the boat was tossed up and down, they screamed and laughed, and you can tell they were really enjoying the cruise and were having a good time. it rained a bit when we were on board, although not heavy rain. two korean ladies brought a towel they probably borrowed from the hotel and were covering their heads with it! some of their actions were caught on video. just have to wait a bit to see that as bb would have to upload the photos and video clips onto here. probably for the full first half hour/45 mins bbmm were amused by the roller coaster and the korean tour, and just being together. it was not until the cruise turned back to Nelson Bay that they started to spot some dolphins. well, it's the staff who spotted them and pointed them out. Initially, we only saw them at some distance and there's no way of capturing them in photo or video. later, they saw dolphins at a closer distance but still not as close as you see them on tv and films - that in a warm sunny day they swim next to you or your boat. but we saw quite a few of them, so that's some consolation lah.

after cruise, bbmm walked around there and mm took some photos - here they are. Before they headed back to sydney, they booked hotel for their 4th evening in aussi. mm was particularly fussy and difficult with hotel and that day, but bb was nice and let her off. on their way back to sydney, they stopped by a winery. they thought it would had been closed as it was getting late - in aussi terms, as it was only around 5pm. bb said aussi closed early. when they got there, it's still open and they got lucky. the lady owner served them. she's really nice. she let them try the Reiseling, Chadonnay and Traminer. having tasted the Traminer, mm said it tasted and smelled very much like Gwutzertraminer in Alsace. the lady said yes, that's what it's meant to be, only that the aussi call it Traminer, taking only the latter half of the same word. bbmm were told that whereas the New Zealander call it Gwutzer ie taking the former part of the word. how funny! eventually, bbmm bought 2 bottles of Traminer, but the lady also gave them the Traminer they were having for their enjoyment! the shop was closing, the lady said she likes chadonney best, plus she also has Reisling. just can't finish all of them. how very nice of her. :)

so bb drove all the way back from port stephens to sydney. as said above, it's a long drive and other than the stop at the winery, bb didn't stop at all. mm got worried, but bb insisted on driving mm back to sydney. mm was so worried that at one stage, mm was mad about bb being so stubborn. then bb explained that she insisted because it's mm's birthday and she take mm "home." then mm realised how stupid she'd been and apologised. And bb has a big heart!

bb let mm chose for dinner. mm asked to have thai and left the choice of restaurant to bb. they went to this area in sydney called paddington. yes, paddington, just like in london. they walked around the area, looking for a nice thai but nothing seems appealing. whilst they were walking around, they noticed an Indian restaurant was offering lamb shank. both bbmm liked lamb, and that sounded good. initially they resisted that as they had set their heart to thai. but having looked around, they didn't see anything particularly appealing and eventually they settled for that Indian restaurant only to find that lamb shank was not available that evening - tough luck! they ordered 3 (or was it 4) dishes, 2 of them were vegetables, one of them was lamb, plus two naan. bb had a beer. they enjoyed the food, but not the service. to start with, it's more than apparent that the waiter's trousers had longed needed a wash; the table cloth was not entirely clean; after dinner when mm went to the washroom, on her way there, there was this huge rubbish bin that's unsighting and sick! couldn't remember exactly the issue about the ladies, but it wasn't exactly great experience either. when mm told bb about the rubbish bin, bb said she didn't see it when she went to the ladies after they arrived at the restaurant. yes, admittedly, they were the last table and seems that the restaurant was waiting for them to leave so that they could close for business for the day, but even so, they could not just left that bin there!

ah! there was an issue on that day that must be mentioned, as that sort of ruined bbmm's day. mm came up with the idea of taking a looking at the office of her firm's branch in sydney and similarly, ww firm's office in sydney. not that she's going to go *into* the office but rather, just to have a better picture of where the buildings were. she didnt' bring any of those addresses. so she sent sms to her secretary. it took that secretary a long time to get back to mm and before that, mm got a sms from ww questioning mm's intention of asking for his firm's address! And that's where it all started. mm was furious, very unhappy! she figured out what happened was that her secretary got her sms, then thought mm would be going into ww's office to meet with his boss (as mm's firm has been trying to get business from them) by passing ww, so she tipped off ww and didn't respond to mm's sms! mm was furious because of ww thought mm would be so indiscreet, and because her secretary had *betrayed* her like that! that girl can't be trusted! then, mm had to send sms to ww to explain the intention etc etc and then ww called to apologise etc. the whole thing was just so unnecessary. mm said she could understand from ww's point of view and in fact, he should never had been troubled. it's all her secretary's indiscretion. mm said she'll speak to her secretary when she's back. ww, who is a good friend of her secretary and obviously felt that he had to protect her as she did all that for him, asked mm not to blame her secretary etc. mm actually said to ww that she was disappointed that ww had seen mm in that light - that mm would be that indiscreet; mm had thought ww should know her well enough to know that she won't do something stupid. Anyway, that kind of spoilt mm's birthday.

but good bb won't let that happen lah. she made it up to mm later - they had nice dinner, even taking into account of the above; she took mm to a ride around the city, took her to see those buildings and took pictures with her. mm was happy again.

ah yes, during the day, mm had received sms from her friends wishing her happy birthday. But until around 8pm, mm still hasn't received good wishes from sf, so mm "reminded" him and eventually, she got her message. sf insisted that he didn't forget. mm was so thick skin lah! sf said "what thick skin? only cuteness!" ha haa haaa!

PS Another long entry started yesterday, finished at 11am, April 12, 2005 - yes, mm did it during office hour, as again she has nothing better to do!