Yesterday, I spent the entire day with my friend Nadia who’s visiting from Singapore. Nadia and I are ex-colleagues, but in the short 5 months when I worked at the company which she still works at, we became very fast friends. Nadia’s colleague, Cassie, whom I also got to know when I worked at this company prior to coming to Sydney, got on like a house on fire. The three of us have become really good friends and I can always count on them for a good bitching session! haha! (I don’t care what others say, but I think bitching is cathartic & in some ways therapeutic! We all have to do it once in awhile. ;p)
Anyway, we met early at 9:30am at Central station and I brought Nadia to Glebe Market which was a 15min walk away. When we got to Glebe Point Road, I first brought Nadia to one of my favourite cafes called “Stephen Baker”. They serve such lovely cakes, tarts and pastries there. Every single piece is like an artpiece lovingly prepared and exquisitely displayed. Nadia got her coffee fix and a very delicious almond croissant.
After satisfying our stomachs, we went browsing at the stalls in Glebe Market. Many of the stalls were selling clothes, handmade bags and accessories. What caught our eyes the most were the vintage clothes. Several stalls had really cool retro clothes from the 60s & 70s. Nadia couldn’t resist herself, and bought a brown, paisley print, 60s dress for $10!
Soon, it was lunchtime and I HAD to bring Nadia for dimsum! One cannot leave Sydney without going for dimsum at one of the many Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. We stuffed our faces with chive dumplings, Har Gow (prawn dumplings), egg tarts, Feng Zhao (chicken feet), Char Siew Puffs, Steamed Beef Balls and Century Egg porridge.
It was more shopping after lunch and I brought Nadia to Paddington Market. What I like about the stalls there is that most of the people sell handmade stuff. Everything’s very personal and not mass-produced. After Paddington Market, we walked down Oxford Street back towards the city centre, and along the way we popped into the many shops with the lovely clothes and shoes but not so lovely prices. Haha.
We parted ways after reaching the city. I had a great day with Nadia and we’ll probably meet again before she leaves next Sunday. On my way home, instead of taking the train I had to take a bus home ‘cos Sydney’s Cityrail was doing trackwork. AGAIN. They just worked on the NorthShore line 3 weeks ago! Every week, there will be some line that’s being worked on. So they shut down the line, and instead replace trains with buses. I figure that all train drivers in Sydney have to learn how to drive a bus as well. ‘Cos at some point or another, they will be required to drive a bus, seeing how often lines are being shut down on weekends! They tell people to allow for 40minutes of extra travelling time. Argh! It’s terribly annoying and inconvenient for commuters.
I’m NEVER going to complain about Singapore’s public transport ever again!