In the past two weeks…

I graduated from my web design course (May 18)
More qualifications for me… yay!

I got my hair cut (May 27) *
less hair for me… yay?
(no picture )

My mother made sticky rice dumplings (’zongzi‘) for duanwu/dragon boat festival (May 28/May 5 on lunar calendar)
More food (that I didn’t have to cook) for me…yay!

I spent 6 hours helping my sister move house (May 30)
Total exhaustion for me… not so yay

She was living next door to this:

and understandably, the construction noise was driving her insane.
She moved into a place with a view like this:

Look at the gorgeous Luna Park lit up at night:

Guess you know where I’ll be spending my NYE this year.

* had my really long hairdresser story here but I took it out. It was way too long. The summarized version is that I got my hair cut for free with this coupon, and there were no catches. I only go to the hairdresser once a year and got a year’s worth of hair (5 inches/12.5cm) cut off. The head hairdresser said, “With hair like yours, you don’t need to go to the hairdresser that often.” Wow. I thought that was a huge compliment given a hairdresser would want to get you in as often as possible so that they can make as much money off you. He admitted he wouldn’t say that to everyone as “it’s not good for business” but he said whatever I was doing (ie nothing) just keep doing it!

Met up with my friend from San Francisco (May 31)
Super dooper yay!

So I met up with my friend, whom I met 8 years ago through eBay. Yeah, strange, how things happen. We’ve been in contact ever since. We’ve never even spoken on the phone let alone met up but she was holidaying here in Sydney/Australia so I caught up with her.

She was a very good sport and brought me over some things I had purchased off various American internet stores (that I can’t normally get because they don’t ship to Australia or the shipping cost is prohibitably expensive).

One of the things was this rollermouse by Contour Design which looks like this (it’s not the newer rollermouse pro/free version):

I wrote about my ergonomic set up before… Many months ago (last September in fact) I was at the Medicare office and I noticed that the staff there had this weird looking thing sitting in front of their keyboards. I asked the lady serving me what it was and she said it was a ‘rollermouse’. Knowing that the Australian government is big on ergonomics and all their office setups are pretty ergonomical, I went home and researched this ‘rollermouse’, and then sort of forgot about it.. And then recently when my RSI was flaring up really badly due to the mouse I switched to my Wacom tablet which is great. It totally eliminates any wrist pain or finger strain but the pain is now shifted up to my shoulder.

All along I really wanted this rollermouse but it costs over US$200, then add in shipping costs, convert it to Australian dollars and we’re looking at $400 or something ridiculous. I don’t think so! So I switch back between the Wacom and a regular mouse.

Anyway, so I found a second-hand rollermouse (for much cheaper) and was overjoyed but I had to get my friend to purchase it for me… I finally now have it in my hot little hands (after waiting for her to bring it to me) and I love it except there is quite a bit of a learning curve.

Another thing she brought over for me are these Franco Sarto mary jane shoes.

I’m extremely fussy when it comes to clothing and shoes (actually, probably everything) and due to my designer brain usually start dreaming up things in my head with many many criteria and get disappointed when the thing I want does not exist in shops (especially with such a limited range in Australia) so I have to buy them overseas! I wanted a pair of genuine leather black maryjanes with a smallish non-stiletto heel that does not show toe cleavage, does not cut into your feet, has a roomy toe box, is not plain nor over the top trendy, comfortable, and not horrendously expensive!

I usually buy shoes from Zappos but footnotesonline.com had them for $27 cheaper. Yay!

My friend and I spent all day hanging out in the city or CBD (or downtown) and then she came over to my place. We chatted for ages and it was like we’d known each other in real life for years. We couldn’t stop chatting and we had so much in common that we didn’t about before…

Anyway, all this week I kept having this thought to myself that Sydney is so multi-cultural, and that’s the way I like it. I mean I don’t want it too multi-cultural but if it wasn’t I would feel very strange myself, living here. I kind of really don’t like answering the ‘Where are you from?’ question because it seems I never give people the answer they want to hear. It’s like some people already have a pre-conceived answer in their head when they ask me and when my answer doesn’t match up with theirs they are somewhat disappointed and think I must be lying or exaggerating or something. It especially happens overseas a lot, and with ignorant people who think that everyone living in Australia is white, or that you must be white to be ‘Australian’. And No, I’m not Japanese simply because I have black hair, an Asian face and I’m carrying a camera!

Anyway, so this guy who was cutting my hair came from Turkey. He tells me he’s only been here 1.5 years and I am absolutely gobsmacked because his English is close to perfect. He tells me his story of how he came here and why etc etc and I tell him my story, and it’s always interesting to share stories when others’ are different to yours, and different to the norm. I had similar conversations with people in Shanghai who were always interested in me because I looked like a local yet I didn’t talk or act like one. This hairdresser guy told me when he first came here he couldn’t believe how multi-cultural it was, and how much variety of food there was. At first he found it hard to try other cuisines but now he loves it! (IMHO having so many different cultures’ cuisines on your doorstep is one of the best parts of living in a multi-cultural society!)

The head hairdresser/owner guy… I didn’t ask him but I was sure he was Greek. His name certainly sounded very Greek.

And then there was my sister’s moving crew. Her boyfriend who comes from Germany, and his friend who is Tunisian but grew up in France and is now living in Sydney. Phew! Confused yet?

And so, this morning I’m having these thoughts in my head as I sit on the train on the way to the city to meet my friend and I look across from me and the guy sitting there is dark-skinned, probably African-background but I could be wrong there. And the woman sitting next to me is Chinese. I know because she is reading a Chinese magazine.

My SF friend actually commented that she was surprised to see so many Asians in Sydney and I said to her, “But isn’t San Francisco also full of Asians?” and she said, “Yeah, but I didn’t expect to see it here.” It’s funny because even though I’m obviously Asian I don’t really consider myself that Asian. I wasn’t born in Asia and I didn’t grow up there either. One of my other friends recently taught me a new derogatory term/acronym that I never heard of before.

“Fobies”, which comes from “F.O.B.” which stands for “Fresh off the boat”. Ha. Well, you learn something new every day.

Where am I going with all of this? Actually I’m not really sure but I think it’s funny when I read those statistics that say Australia’s population is 4% Asian. Then these statistics get blasted out to the rest of the world and then people come here (and who would come to Australia and not visit Sydney?!) and get really confused as to why it’s so multi-cultural and not everyone is blond-haired and blue-eyed and looks like they come from Summer Bay. My guess is that Sydney is about 20% Asian, 15% Non-Anglo European or Middle Eastern.

I hope you had a good weekend. Mine was absolutely exhausting but fun-filled.