Elsja Down Under

Chilli Lime Poo March 28, 2007

Last night, Andrew and I went to dinner at a restaurant up the road called “Chilli Lime Too” which we have appropriately renamed “Chilli Lime Poo.” Here’s a synapsis of the events of the night. It’s long, but well worth the read. (I know Jen and James will really appreciate this story)

1. Entered restaurant. Really cute place, we were the first ones there.

2. Realized that the menu items were totally different than those on the website and the prices were also higher. We made a decision to stay and eat anyways.

3. We ordered, but before we ordered we asked the waitress if the chicken was white breast meat (because thats all I eat). She said it was, so we placed our order (we were still the only people in the place).

4. 15-20 minutes later we finally got our appetizer. About 20 minutes after that we finally got our 1st dish of 2 that we ordered. (remember, we were the only people in there and it took 40 minutes to get the 1st dish).

5. Started eating and realized it wasn’t white meat chicken (like we asked). We asked the waitress about this and she came back and said “oh yeah it’s a mix of breast and thigh meat.” We reminded her that we only wanted breast meat and asked if the next dish could be white meat only… but AS we were asking this- the second dish came out.

6. Second dish had NO white meat. Andrew called another waiter over and requested that they take it back since we asked for white meat only. He said “you don’t need to make a new one, we’re already full.” We then asked for the bill.

7. Bill came out and both dishes were charged. Andrew called the waiter over and said there must be a mistake. We reminded him that the dish was wrong and we didnt eat it so it should be taken off. This might seem picky but the point is- we ASKED specifically for something and DIDN’T get it.

8. Another waitress came over and simply dropped the bill on the table and said “the bill stands.”

9. Andrew asked to speak to a manager and this tweaked out young white guy came out, he already seemed pissed and agitated before we even started talking to him. He started telling us “too bad, what’s wrong with my chicken? You ate some of it so you have to pay.”

10. Andrew reminded the guy that we got something we DIDN’T ask for and we DIDN’T eat any of it and if he didnt take it off the bill we would walk out.

11. The owner/manager threw the bill at us and said “you threatened to walk out I’m calling the cops.” Andrew told him to go ahead. We were literally LAUGHING at this point.

12. The owner started calling the cops (why?? who knows, at this point we were still sitting there and we never refused to pay, we just wanted that 1 dish removed).

13. Andrew went to talk some sense into him. The guy tried to assure us that the menu on the internet said “white and dark meat chicken is used” – well… A. it doesnt say that, I checked. B. if he wants to start bringing up the online menu I’d be happy to remind him that the menu is TOTALLY different AND the prices are CHEAPER online… so BAD argument dude!! Plus- we ASKED the waitress specifically BEFORE we ordered.

14. At this point I started talking to the customers sitting next to us and they were telling me how they were very unhappy with the place as well and they also planned on telling the manager that they would not be returning.

15. The owner finally let us pay (the bill without the shit dish). Then he told us to get out of his restaurant. Let me just remind you that NEVER ONCE did we yell, make a scene or do anything to warrant him throwing us out.

16. I told the owner I was still drinking my wine that we paid a corkage fee for, so I would leave when I was done. (I wasn’t really still drinking, but i just said that to be a bitch). He told me he would give me a cork so we could leave. This guy was off his rocker. Since we didnt get up right away he picked up the phone again to call the cops. Andrew told him to go right ahead because he knew we did NOTHING wrong and we were NOT making a scene… the manager was.

17. We finally got up to leave and we were chatting to the same customers next to us and the manager told us to stop talking to his customers.

18. Andrew said “I think they are quite happy to talk to us” (which they were).

19. Finally, we left (laughing) and came home with a great story to tell.

Andrew emailed his friend Jo to tell her about the night because he thought she really liked the place. This was her reply:

OMG! No we HATE that place!   Andrew’s sister was reduced to tears there once when we went out for a family dinner. The waitress was bringing out our entree’s really quickly and then taking them away well before we had finished so Kate asked her to slow it down a bit. After that the waitress was soooooo rude to us, particularly Kate. She went to take away one of our entree’s that was well and truly finished and goes ‘are you finished with this one?’ and we were like yep thanx and she went “ARE YOU SURE?!”  Anyway, the restaurant was packed with a function going on in one half and the waitress came up to kate and said ‘do you mind keeping it down, people are complaianing about the noise you’re making. Kate said “What, the noise our table is making?’ and the waitress looked and Kate and said soooo rudely “No, the noise you PERSONALLY are making!” Anyway Kate cried and then went and complained to the chef with her Dad and the waitress stormed out past her and said ‘you are such a bitch!”…….  Aaaah – Chilli Lime Too just has the worst rep!

ARE THESE PEOPLE FOR REAL?? Too bad Andrew’s brother Paul (the DJ) moved to the west coast because if he was still a DJ in Sydney, that restaurant would get BAGGED out on the radio BIG TIME

I’m Alive March 24, 2007

In regards to my last post… particularly the part where I say ” It looks pretty sunny right now so hopefully the weather report was wrong.” – yeah… well, actually the weather report wasn’t wrong.

I have to admit, it was really really fun flying home in a 10 seater plane in the pitch dark. Since I was sitting in the co-pilot seat I had a great view of black out the front window. Basically felt like we were just going to run into something at any time. BAM… we would all be dead. But nope, we didn’t hit anything.  And that was only the begining of the fun.

The only thing better than seeing absolutely NOTHING out the front window of the plane was seeing rain clouds zoom by us at a million miles per hour. When our plane started jumping up and down and swaying left to right, and the clouds zooming by suddlenly were going up and down out the side window- I wasn’t scared at all. Nope. Not AT ALL. The rain pouring down really loud was not scary either. And I didn’t even feel like I was going to barf either… not at all. My hands didnt have red marks from holding on to the seatbelt for dear life. I didn’t close my eyes for half the flight either.

I think my favorite part of the whole flight was when the lady behind us started puking. The sound effects and smell really added to the relaxation of the flight.

The 50km hour per winds during landing…. well those were really relaxing and calm as well.

Such a smooth relaxing flight home. Not bumpy or turbulent or scary.

Ok ok I’m lying. All of the above is false. I was scared for my life, I did feel like I was going to puke and I did have marks on my hands from holding on for dear life. Oh- but the lady barfing… unfortunately that is 100% true.

Luckily my fabulous boyfriend is such a good pilot that we all survived the horrific weather. I was very happy to be on the ground and out of the storms. And out of the experience, I got a free hangover for the rest of the night (and I didn’t even drink).

Other than the death defying flight home- the night was nice. Went to the wine country, had a nice dinner. It was a cool night out and the best part is that Andrew got paid for us to do it all.

Oh, and then we came home and killed 13 mosquitos in Andrew’s room before we went to bed. That was fun too.

 

A Fun Few Days March 23, 2007

The last few days here in Sydney have been really fun We took advantage of the nice weather and Andrew’s days off.

Thursday we went to the Wildlife World and Aquarium down in Darling Harbor. Andrew had free passes which saved us $120, but in all reality, we just wouldnt have gone without the passes. Luckily we did though because i found my new favorite animal. A thorny devil (first I thought it was Horny Devil so you can imagine what I came across when I tried to google him). This was the cutest thing ive ever seen. He was so tiny and he walked funny. You really have to see one in real life to appreciate it. I looked up online to see whether or not you could have these as pets. I think since ALL they eat is ants- (and they can eat thousands)- it probably means I couldnt keep him in a box in my house. I just don’t want that many ants hanging around. Oh well.

Unfortunately, I did see a few animals I DIDN’T like. One being those fabulous Huntsman Spider that I talked about in my last post below. It was probably almost as big as my hand. The guy telling us about the spiders said, “they are venomous… but they don’t kill you. The only reason people die from these spiders is because they crash their cars when they see one run across their windshield.” Great.

The aquarium was pretty cool too. They had thes ENORMOUS sting ray things. seriously they looked AT LEAST 6 feet wide/long. I wouldn’t want to come across one of those in the ocean.

 

Yeseterday was really great too. We went over to Andrew’s friend John’s house. He has an amazing million story house… ok maybe like 5 stories… who knows. Anyways, it’s huge and overlooks the water. Such a nice view. See…

 

 We had ourselves a little BBQ and then headed out on his boat. We went to this little secluded beach which was only about a 10 minute boat ride. The group of us hung out on the sand, drank some beers and got a little tan (or burn in my case). After about an hour we headed back… dropped some of the people off at the house and then went back out so Andrew, John, Mike and John’s friend could wakeboard. I just watched.

Here are a few pics from our day:

 

Tonight should be nice as well. Andrew has to work, but I get to go with him. He is flying some tourists up to the Hunter Valley (wine country) for a scenic tour and then wine tasting and dinner. I get to tag along. Only problem is that Andrew said there are supposed to be thunderstorms right when we take off. That should be quite fun. Flying in clouds and rain in a little plane and listening to thunder while we fly doesn’t sound scary at all. It looks pretty sunny right now so hopefully the weather report was wrong.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Happy 4th Birthday March 19, 2007

Happy Birthday to my sweet little tootse Emma!

March 19th, 2007

I can’t believe you are 4 years old!! I’m missing you on your birthday but I’m thinking of you and I love you.

Happenings March 18, 2007

Here are a few fun, not so fun, scary and gross things that have happened over the last few days here in Australia.

First the Fun:

1. Andrew took me on a date to Wagamamas… yum. Sorry Jen- had to talk about food, but at least you can appreciate Wagamamas!! 

2. Continued the night on Friday with Andrew, Sinead, Paul (andrew’s roommate) and some of Sinead’s friends. We  started off at a bar down by Circular Quay and then after a few drinks we headed to Cargo. By this time the blisters on my feet were in full blown OUCH mode, luckily I brought some flip flops to change into- just in case. The night progressed with some more drinks and more fun… and thanks to Sinead’s “one more drink” request- I went ahead and bought that ONE last drink… you know that one that just pushes you RIGHT over the edge. The one that determines whether or not you wake up feeling fine… or feeling like hell. Yes, that drink.

Thanks for that Sinead!

But, I must say- I was happy to discover a new favorite drink. I’m sure you are all familiar with jager bombs… well, when jager and redbull are just mixed as a drink- this delicious concoction tastes like Smarties. Yum.

Now For the Not so Fun:

1. My hangover Saturday morning. That’s all I really have to say about that.

The Scary/Gross:

1. Saturday night Andrew and I went with some of his friends to a Thai place down in Manly. Just a little hole in the wall type restaurant. Andrew and I had about a 10-15 minute long conversation with his friends Aaron and Alicia about bugs. Roaches in particular. Don’t ask why- but we just got on the subject and didnt stop (this was before we got our food). We shared all the miserable stories we could think of. Then, we managed to change topics- thank God.

Well about half way into dinner, out of the corner of my eye I see something black land on Aaron and he started kinda swatting at something. We all looked at him in fear as he told us it was a giant cockroach looking bug. Of course all the girls proceeded to put our feet up on our chairs since none of us could see where it went. Then, 30 seconds later- we see it…. A GIANT roach bug thing crawling up the wall.

Andrew’s friend Bec started yelling at her boyfriend to move so she could get out her of her chair since it was crawling right behind her. She said she thinks it was the biggest one she had ever seen. Well after a couple of minutes of people scrambling in their chairs and other restaurant-goers kinda staring to see what was going on (and thanking God that they were at a different table) it started to crawl up on the ceiling- now we really started freaking. Aaron tried to hit it and it fell on the ground- after it used its wing like things to fly for a second. Eventually, a waitress killed it. 

To top off the experience, an older man sitting at a table said to me “well, now you know what you’re having for dessert.”

GROSS. it was awful!

 

2. I have been informed that it is very common to find these spiders in your car. I discovered this was common after 2 people shared their stories of finding them on their window- INSIDE- while driving. Andrew later explained that this happens all the time. No thanks!

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One Week Down March 15, 2007

Well I’ve officially been here exactly a week now. I can’t decide if the week went by fast or slow. I think it’s weird to think I’ve been here that long- but it doesn’t seem that it’s gone by too quickly so that’s good. And the best part is that i still have over 2 weeks left. 

Tuesday Andrew worked for Nova, the radio station his brother Paul is a DJ for. They had this outdoor broadcast down at Manly beach. I got to tag along. Basically they had a band come and do a short interview and then play 2 songs. The band was Hinder. Not sure if you know who they are- but if you listen to the radio I’m sure you’ve heard their one hit- “Lips of an Angel” Ok let me reiterate- ONE hit. These guys thought they were the BIGGEST rockstars! HAHA.  I know their song is number one and all but seriously guys- you aren’t big famous rockstars yet. I mean geez- they’re from Oklahoma, most people haven’t even heard of them. Well, I take that back- according to their myspace page 453,313 people have. 

I must say though- they did sound pretty good. I can’t say they are my preferred choice of music- but they are good for the genre that they fit into. I think I may have grew to like them if they didnt have such big egos. It was funny to hear them talk about drinking and partying all the time and meeting hot  girls every night. Oh and the fact that the one guy set himself on fire and then jumped in the bathtub… that was really cool. He said he wants to be on jackass. I say stick to music. 

I thought it was very fitting when the DJ -Jaba asked if any of them were gay. Such a perfect question to ask!

Here’s a short video for you to all enjoy  

Hinder Nova OB

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In addition, it was interesting to see all the freaks and weirdos at Manly. There was the old drunk guy that told the Nova crew that he just got out of jail for murdering his 2 brothers. Not to mention he just robbed a liquor store which was why he had about 5 bottles of alcohol in his backpack. 

There was the fat bearded lady. I’m not joking. This lady was fat and had a beard. Not a few straggly hairs- she was pushing a goatee.  Then there was the other old drunk sufer guy from california who came up and started asking me if I had ANY free stuff to give away. He too was drunk… hanging out with his kid and his friends. His 16 year old kid who was smoking and his hoodlum friends who spent about 5 hours just loitering near the beach. He then proceeded to describe the weirdos at Manly- not realizing he was one of them. 

It was an interesting afternoon. But I got to meet a bunch of cool people from Nova and I had fun- even though Andrew kept thinking I was bored   Š

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G’day From Down Under March 11, 2007

Well my first weekend here in Sydney is over and I have already accomplished all my goals for my trip:

Seeing my boyfriend- check

Eating yummy Thai food- check

Lying in the sun- check

But, I do plan on doing all these things continuously throughout the next 3 weeks as well

Our first weekend was nice. Beautiful weather- sunny and warm. It was perfect for our trip to the beach, a BBQ & for going out at night wearing a dress- haven’t done that in forever!! Saturday we spent a few hours shopping at a mall to find a new duvet -(another extremely large mall that you could totally get lost in- like my last experience here). They even had a store that looked very similar to Crate and Barrel, this made me very happy since I love that place:) It looked so much like C & B that Andrew asked the staff inside if it was a related store. The girl smirked and said no, it’s just similar. I found this very odd since the name of the store was WHEEL AND BARROW…  hmm sounds oddly like CRATE AND BARREL… Strange.

After shopping we spent several hours at Andrew’s friend Tim’s house. Tim is from the U.S. and coincidentally just happened to live in Huntington Beach for several years. We had a good time but we were a little out of our element because I think we were the only couple with no kids. Tim’s mother-in-law made some fabulous rice salad… I can’t even explain it but it was wonderful. I will make every attempt possible to get the recipe so you can all try it.

Later that night, we met up with Andrew’s younger brother Ben and his friends. You see, the drinking age here is 18 and Ben just had his 18th birthday a few weeks ago. Andrew asked if I minded hanging out with a “bunch of 18 year olds” and I said of course not because it was his brother and friends. Well, what i didnt realize is that the club/bar we went to was going to be ALLLLL 18 year olds too. And I guess the 80’s fashion is still in style here because there were girls wearing sweatbands on their heads and other obnoxious, hideous 80’s styles. Luckily not everyone was so out of date… It was $15 bucks to get in!!! Geez… we almost said no way in hell- but then found out drinks were only 3 bucks each so we figured it would even out. Yeah- it probably would have if we stayed long enough to buy a few drinks. The line at the bar was probably 20 minutes long so we only waited in it once…and it was so strange to see a bunch of high-school aged guys and girls ordering alcohol. I just am not used to that since we can’t drink til 21.

Sooo anyways… yesterday Andrew and I went to Balmoral beach for a few hours and then went and saw his mom and his brothers Simon and Ben for a few. We ate some yummy cherry cake that his mom made and drank some tea- which was good but i think it was making me sweat since it was just so hot out. We watched Ben’s skydiving video- it was pretty crazy. Definitely looks fun, but I don’t think I’d ever have the guts to do it.  Then we went to his dads, hung out for a bit and watched the last episode of heroes and ate some dinner.  It was a nice relaxing day- really hot, but nice

Today is gloomy and windy and grey out. I got up this morning with a determination to go running down to Cremorne point (I decided I wont gain 8 lbs on this trip like I did on the last one). I was happy to see it looked kinda cooler out- but then I realized that may not be a good thing since it kinda looked like it was going to rain. Well I took my chances and ran/walked anyways and luckily the rain clouds spared me. Andrew is at work today so I just did some work and ran some errands etc… nothing really too exciting to report- other than the fact that we are getting some more Thai food tonight. YEESSS!

Ok I’ll stop now. I know this is too long for most people to read without getting bored… but I had a whole weekend to report on. I really lag with pictures this trip. I’ve only taken a few so far. Seems like the pictures get less and less with each trip. I guess I can only take photos of the same things so many times before no one really cares anymore

Hope everyone had a nice weekend in the U.S.A

Au Revoir March 7, 2007

I’m off in a few hours. I’m looking forward to seeing my boyfriend, eating yummy Thai food, lying in the sun, and all that other fun stuff I do while I’m in Australia.

Maybe there will be some thunder/lightning storms too since there have been A LOT of those lately… see…

I’m not really looking forward to the 15 hour plane ride, but hopefully they have On Demand movies and I can watch all the Oscar movies that I haven’t seen yet. Then I can take a sleeping pill and snooze with my wonderful cuddly Nap Travel Cuddle Blanket.

I’ll be back in April! Enjoy the month of March without me and I’ll see you all in a few weeks.