1. THE WORST ROOM →

    A BLOG ABOUT TRYING TO FIND AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN NEW YORK CITY

    Well this makes me so grateful for my beautiful and affordable room in Perth.

  2. Giant snails in Australia??? →

    So other than giant spiders, venomous snakes and all kinds of deadly creatures, there are now giant snails in Australia as well?

    Weighing up to 1kg, laying up to 1,200 eggs each year, FUCK.

    Source: The Courier-Mail

    (Source: perthnow.com.au)

  3. This past week has been stressful, as my two semester essays were due tonight. But hey, stressful essay-writing needed the company of delicious meals. My sister told me to try cooking chicken with coke (yea, Coca Cola coke), ginger and garlic. And so I did successfully, adding oven-baked fries with peri-peri sauce and rice cooked with creamy corn and mushrooms. I’d say that’s ranked one of the top meals I’ve made myself, and that massive batch of chicken lasted me 3-4 dinners.

    Also tried out some national award-winning pizza close to my workplace. It was as authentic as the pizza I had in Rome and simply mouth-watering.

  4. Moving on from 2012 and on to 2013

    Achievements in 2012:

    • First time visiting and travelling around Europe
    • Completing my first semester of LLM at the University of Edinburgh
    • First time moving away from home and settling into a new country
    • Finding my first job in Australia

    What’s to come in 2013:

    • Starting my new job in mid-January
    • Getting admitted and being a lawyer in WA
    • Graduating with my LLM
    • Surviving my first year away from home!

    Fingers crossed everything goes according to plan and I pass this new year with flying colours.

  5. Happy New Years from Perth!

    Since moving to New Zealand, this was my first Christmas and New Years outside of New Zealand. :) There were so many houses here with amazing Christmas lights but for the past week we’ve had a massive heat wave with temperatures over 40ºC and no breeze at all. My room has been an oven. Luckily, the first day of 2013 is also the last day of this heat wave and now it’s back to decent high 20’s. I would like to see that as a positive sign for a great new year that has just begun.

  6. Leftover pork mince from last time used for a fantastic curry dish. It would probably be more gooey curry-like if I left it cooking for longer but the smell and look of it was taunting me I couldn’t wait. Last night of Earth is curry night!

    Leftover pork mince from last time used for a fantastic curry dish. It would probably be more gooey curry-like if I left it cooking for longer but the smell and look of it was taunting me I couldn’t wait.

    Last night of Earth is curry night!

  7. First attempt at making Taiwanese 肉燥飯 (pork mince rice). So easy, so yum, best topping for plain rice!

    First attempt at making Taiwanese 肉燥飯 (pork mince rice). So easy, so yum, best topping for plain rice!

  8. Dealing with my biggest fear: worms

    How excited I was to come to Perth, where it rarely rains = no worms, hardly any grass = no worms. But it stormed and rained like crazy last night, and this morning there was a worm-like slimy caterpillar creature doing laps in our hallway. Being in the house alone, I was forced to do something about it.

    1. Tried leaving it alone, but was too afraid of it ending up inside my room.

    2. Tried sucking it up with a vacuum cleaner, which had no effect on it at all.

    3. Lots of skipping around, squirming and screaming later, I decided I really had to deal with it.

    4. Put a shoe box over it. Trapped. Could finally have some breakfast.

    5. Took a long break to calm my nerves and think up of battle tactics.

    6. Slid some paper underneath the box, to make sure the darned thing is now off the floor.

    7. Another short break before moving on to the next step.

    8. Pushed paper and box into a plastic bag.

    9. Pushed the bagged paper and box into another plastic bag. Yeh double bagging. NO ESCAPE!

    10. Chucked in the bin.

    Time taken: 1.5 hours and it’s finally gone.

    Yep, this ordeal deserved a blog post.

  9. Amazing weekend - first time seeing koalas, feeding kangaroos and going to the beach in WA! These koalas were the cutest things ever, although they’re very lazy and sleep for 16-20 hours per day. With the way they sleep I was surprised they didn’t just fall off the tree.

    Have heard about how great the beaches around Perth are for so long, and finally got to see for my own eyes this time. 

  10. What you didn’t know about Perth…

    The ants here are three times the size of New Zealand ants.

    And there are no Starbucks.

    Seriously? Which major city in the world doesn’t have Starbucks? The one I moved to. Yep.

    New action plan:

    1. Quit law degree
    2. Open up a Starbucks franchise in Perth CBD
    3. Bathe in $$$