Wine Wharf, London Bridge

We went to Wine Wharf for dinner the other weekend. Irene chose this place after searching through her Taste Card (similar to an Entertainment Card) app for restaurants near London Bridge.

On the back wall at the upstairs dining area, Wine Wharf had a blackboard that lists the three things that makes it a good place to go...atmosphere, food and wine. These three things were exactly what we liked about the place.

Inside, the restaurant/bar had very dim lighting and gave a feeling of an old London warehouse converted bar/restaurant. However, its decor gave it a classy touch that is quite apt for its wine focus.

The menu had a nice selection of vegetarian, seafood and meat dishes. We were about to order a starter and main when the desserts caught Irene's eyes and so we changed our mind and decided to have a main and dessert instead. The mains we got were squid ink risotto with calamari, and a roast chicken with roast potatoes and salad. When the mains came, we were delightfully surprised by their size and when we took the first bite, we were delightfully surprised by the taste and how well executed the dishes were. Irene's risotto was cooked to my liking - not mushy and not too hard. As for the chicken, it was very deliciously seasoned and very moist. The potatoes were also very well seasoned and cooked perfectly.


Dessert did not disappoint either. Irene got a chocolate mousse that came in three layers with an ice cream on top. The texture was very smooth and creamy and the taste - delicious. My chocolate chip cheesecake, though did not appear to have any chocolate chip, was perfect for my liking. Its texture was also very smooth and creamy and the blackberry compote on the top balanced the whole dessert out very well.

Finally, the wine. Being a wine bar/restaurant, Wine Wharf has a very extensive wine list with one of the best list of wine by the glass that I've seen. The price for their wines were also very reasonable. Initially, Irene was not going to order a wine but seeing how extensive the wine list was and the reasonableness of the price, she couldn't help but get a glass too. In the end, Irene got a fruity Spanish wine while I got an Argentinian Malbec. Both wines were great - fruit on both the nose and palate, spicy, and well strucutred.

The only one thing that disappointed the evening somewhat, and due in no part to the restaurant, were some unruly kids who broke in wearing Halloween costumes and trick or treating for money. One of the waitress had to grab one by the jumper and drag him out. When she returned, she looked as though she had been hurt around her waist. We later learned that those kids were regular rebels, coming every week to taunt the restaurant! That's London for you!

All in all, a great night, especially with the Taste card giving us a 2 for 1 deal.

A musician wannabe with his Argos bought guitar...

After my dismal attempt at learning to play the piano, and with a lack of a piano to continue my dismal learning, I have decided to pick up a new and slightly more affordable musical instrument - the guitar.

The guitar looks easy enough - just hold down some strings, strum, and out comes music. Or at least that was what I thought before I picked up my brand new guitar and eagerly typed in the website to my free online guitar tuition!

As it turns out, the guitar is much harder than I thought! The dude on my monitor made it look so easy but when I tried, it was as though a screeching monster was trying to come out of the hole in my guitar! And I am now convinced that all good musicians need agile arms and hands - something that I guess I was born without. My big fat fingers can barely keep to a single string, making it almost impossible for me to play any chord without it sounding stiff and ugly.

Nevertheless, after exchanging my hard earned money for this lacquered wood with steel strings, I am determined to master it! As with any instrument, my ultimate goal is to be able to play a song that I can sing to; lets see how I go!

OK, time to go practice some D chord (or was it G?).

Windsor, England, UK

Had a nice day out at Windsor with my lovely wife today. Last time we went, we only stayed for a few hours as we were on a whirlwind tour of south west England; that didn't do Windsor Castle justice so we had long planned to visit again. Plus, our tickets to Windsor Castle allows re-admission for up to a year so why waste it!


The train tickets to Windsor from London were very cheap but we had to travel on the less popular trains that stopped all stops between London Waterloo and Windsor & Eton Riverside. However, at 20 quid for the both of us return, we didn't mind the extend 1.5hr journey time.


One disappointing thing about the Windsor Castle re-admission was that they didn't consider us as having pre-paid tickets and so we had to queue with all the other ticket purchasers. Luckily, the queue this time wasn't as crazy as on our first visit and so we got through relatively quickly.



After getting through the entrance, we pretty much went on the same route as we did last time. As it turned out, the only bit we missed from our last visit was the State Apartments. The State Apartments actually turned out to be quite good and I'm glad that we came back! All the weaponries turned wall decoration looked quite impressive while seeing the King and Queen's bedrooms, study, etc was also quite interesting(for some reason, I found this more interesting than the equivalent in France at Versailles - maybe Versailles was too packed with people?). Another thing that I found interesting in the State Apartments was seeing the rooms where the Queen hold functions, such as where she Knights people and where they dine afterwards.



Following Windsor Castle, we went in search of lunch. Irene wanted to have Sunday Roast (beef) for lunch and so we went in search of a nice pub that offered Sunday Roast at a reasonable price. In the end, we settled for Duchess of Cambridge, where Irene had a roast pork (yes, she changed her mind again) while I had a gammon steak with fried eggs and a glass of French Pinot Noir. The food was quite nice, the wine average, and service poor.




After lunch, we headed to Eton College. On the way, we went past some nice old English streets and came across a small shop where I bought a BB gun!


A tour of Eton cost money and so we ended up having a self guided tour around the exterior of that well known college. In the end, we found ourselves at a park where we strolled around for a while before heading back to town to do some window shopping. Then shortly afterwards, we headed to the train station for a trip back home.


With that, our nice, sunny and (relatively) warm Sunday at Windsor came to an end.

Rasa Sayang, Chinatown, London

After a day out at Portobello Markets, we decided to grab some hotpot ingredients and have hotpot at home. However, while on the way to the Chinese supermarkets in Chinatown, we changed our minds and headed for a Udon Restaurant that we saw previously in Soho.

When we arrived at the restaurant, it was only 5pm and the restaurant wasn't due to open for dinner until 5.30pm. As a result, we decided to go do some shopping for our supper/dessert and on the way, we walked by Rasa Sayang where Irene had another change of mind and so we ended up there for dinner.

We first visited this Rasa Sayang with a friend, Angela, who took us there after deciding against two Japanese restaurants due to their long queues. Irene remembered that visit fondly for the "good food" that she had there and so wanted to go again.



Today we ordered an oyster omelette to share, a nasi lemak and lemon ice tea for Irene, and a beef rendang and cin cau soya milk drink for me. The oyster omelette was really well made and tasted great. Given its price, the amount of oyster was also reasonable. My beef rendang was also really good! The beef was really well made, having absorbed all the flavour.



The only slight let down for the night was the service when they didn't bring us the water that we ordered. It always annoys me when restaurants forget/don't bring the water as it suggests that they don't care about the customer's needs that doesn't resulting in any monetary benefits to them!

Portobello Markets, Notting Hill, London

After toying with the idea last night of visiting Suffolk, we decided that there's just too much to do in Suffolk for a day trip and that it should be left for a more deserving two days over a full weekend. Hence, we decided to go to Portobello Markets at Notting Hill.

Portobello Markets is a popular destination for both tourists and locals alike. When we went earlier in the year on a Sunday, the main street was still quite busy, despite it raining. Today, on a Saturday, the streets were crazy! People literally covered the street and throw in all the street stalls that open on Saturdays, there wasn't much room to move.

However, the popularity of Portobello Markets is not without reason. There's a lot of interesting things being sold, both in shops and on the streets, and a variety of yummy food on offer. Irene and I were lucky to have settled on a stall selling German sausages in a roll. It was quite cheap at 3 quid a roll, and it tasted delicious! We liked it so much (both the taste and the value) that we bought another one on the way back to share.


Apart from the German sausages in a roll, we also shared a frozen yoghurt topped with choc brownies. That too was delicious!


One thing I really like about London is all the interesting food that you can find at every new place you visit!

Candy Cafe, Chinatown, London

Came here for dessert with Irene after dinner at Barshu on Tuesday. This was our second visit to this dessert haunt. It's menu and dessert is better than some of the other ones that we've tried nearby. Given that it was a cold night and we were sitting by an opened window, we both ended up ordering a hot glutinous rice ball with black sesame filling in a coconut milk with sago. I was relatively surprised to find 5 glutinous rice balls in the dessert as these places tend to be stingy and so was quite satisfied with the serving size. The coconut milk with sago barely had any sweetness (did they forget the sugar) but that didn't bother me as it was probably slightly healthier; besides, the glutinous balls were sweet enough anyway. On the whole, an enjoyable dessert on this cold Autumn night!

Barshu Restaurant, Soho, London

Came here for dinner with my lovely wife on Tuesday night. As has been the case lately, I was held back at work and so Irene went and got a table first. It didn't take me long to get to Tottenham Court Road station but then I hurried to Chinatown looking for the place only find, after calling Irene, that I had walked past it (it's not actually in the Chinatown main street but two blocks away).


The interior of the restaurant was modern, relaxing, and gave an authentic Sichuan feeling. By the time I arrived, the dishes were already served (apparently they came just before I did). Irene ordered a ma po tofu (or, according to them, pock-marked old woman's beancurd), a shellfish dish (sliced whelk with green Sichuan pepper), and a dry braised ox foot tendons. The ma po tofu was very spicy, as it should be, but wasn't too exciting given I've had that dish many times before (or maybe the spiciness of the dish was too overpowering that any excitement was evaporated). The other two dishes, the whelk and the tendons, were absolutely delicious! The whelk was a relatively small dish and was probably meant to be a starter dish but having it there throughout the dinner worked well as it became a sort of side dish to nibble on when you wanted a change from the other two dishes. On the other hand, the tendons was a fantastic main dish; serving size was surprisingly large and it was cooked to perfection. Unlike the whelk, which wasn't spicy, the tendons was a little spicy, but not to the extent of the old woman's tofu!

On the whole, it was a great dinner! Irene had long wanted to try this restaurant and what better time to do it than on a cold Autumn's night in London when the temperature was only around 13 degrees Celsius.

Madrid and Toledo, Spain - October 2011

Five months in UK/Europe and we're already bored of visiting major cities. The problem with major cities is that they're all the same; trams, metro, museums, people, etc. Luckily, there's still many treasures throughout Europe to be found, such as Toledo in Spain.


Back when we booked our trip to Madrid, we were a bit sick of visiting major cities. We were a bit museumed out from our visits to Paris and Amsterdam and wanted something different. That was when we found Toledo in our travel guide, and with Toledo being so close to Madrid, we decided to fly to Madrid and spend a day in Toledo and a day in Madrid. That worked out perfectly!


Our flight to Madrid was with EasyJet. The more I fly EasyJet, the more I hate it! I mean, if they're going to implement a no seat reservation policy, the least they can do is enforce a fair and orderly queuing for boarding the plane! But annoyingly, they seem to always turn a blind eye to queue jumpers, leaving the rule abiding passengers losing out - that's Darwinism at it's best for you!


Anyway, enough about EasyJet and back to the trip. The first thing we did on our trip was venture out for a late night/early morning visit to a tapas bar. One of the most popular tapas bar in Mardid is El Tigre and it is conveniently located near our hotel. As the travel guide warned, El Tigre was packed with people and it took a lot of pushing and shoving to get in. Once inside, it also took a lot of pointing and hand gestures to make our orders. When our drinks finally came, we were also delighted to receive our free tapas - a mountain of bread with cheese and jamon and a mountain of baked potato slices with a spicy tomato-ish sauce. Not knowing how much all this cost, I just gave the barman a €20 note and expected a couple of coins in return. What I ended up getting back instead was a €10 note and some coins!!! Unbelievable - all this for less than €9!!!


By the time we went to bed that day, it was almost 2am, which didn't leave much time for sleep as we were due to take the train to Toledo at 9.20am. Although our hotel did not provide breakfast, they did, surprisingly, provide free pastries for their guests and so in the morning, we stuffed down some croissants (and I also had an imitation Krispy Kreme doughnut), before taking another croissant for the train ride.


Toledo is really an amazing place. My impression of Europe has always been brown stone paved roads lined with shabby old brown buildings and sprawled with little brown alleyways; Toledo matched that description perfectly. Apart from visiting the main attractions in Toledo, we also sampled Toledo and Spain's specialties - paella, cured ham, and partridge. To our surprise, paella is an entree in Spain and seeing Spanish people eat a big plate of paella followed by a plate of steak and chips for mains, we couldn't help but wonder how they can still be so fit (yes - Spanish people are really fit)! Maybe it's their weird meal times (1pm to 3.30pm for lunch and 8pm to 10pm for dinner), or their love of tapas, who knows, but whatever it is, it's definitely my ideal lifestyle - all the eating and still have a fit body!


Our second day in Spain was spent in Madrid. We visited Real Madrid's stadium - Santiago Bernabeu - in the morning and then went back to the city for lunch. The restaurant that we wanted to go was fully booked and so we settled for another restaurant nearby that was featured in the travel guide. The attraction of that restaurant was that it offered a lot of authentic Spanish food but I must say, I was a bit disappointed by the food, and even more by the service. Afterwards, we wandered around the city, taking many photos of places like the palace and Plaza Mayor. We then hung around until dinner time and went to a jamon shop for dinner. The shop had several restaurants, a bar, and a jamon shop. We ate at the bar, where we had a jamon and cheese croissant, a jamon and tomato toastie, a beer, and a fanta, all for €1 each. We also ordered a plate of jamon iberico, which cost a little more at €14 a plate.


After a satisfying dinner, we were all set to head home, only to end up stuck in the plane for about an hour before it moved. Why? For no other reason than EasyJet's stupid no seat reservation policy!

Gordon Ramsay's Maze Restaurant, London

Thanks to my lovely wife Irene, who always keeps an eye out for great deals and events, we went to Gordon Ramsay's Maze Restaurant for lunch today. Like L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, we decided to pay Maze a visit because it's part of the London Restaurant Festival and it's the remaining three Michelin star restaurant in London that we have not yet visited.

I've never been a fan of Gordon Ramsay and am disapproving of his on-screen antics; as such, I didn't hold much expectation when visiting his restaurant today. Perhaps it was the lack of expectation but I left the restaurant today a very satisfied person.

We ordered the three course set menu, a bottle of still water, a glass of wine each - a rose for Irene and a Malbec for me - and a coffee. The three courses that Irene ordered were salmon, poussin, and apple and blackberry crumble; I ordered a pressed duck leg, pork belly, and apple and blackberry crumble. Being a three Michelin star restaurant, you'd expect the food to be of a certain quality and Maze definitely lived up to, if not exceeded, the expectation. My main, the pork belly, was excellent! The pork belly was said to have been prepared with Szechuan spices but the spices were probably too subtle to be tasted; nevertheless, the pork belly was still full of flavour and was well accompanied by the apple wedges that came with it.

Most deserving of mention out of all the dishes that we had is the apple and blackberry crumble. Normally Irene and I would order different things so that we can try more dishes but this dish seemed interesting enough for us both to order it. It first caught Irene's attention for being part of the degustation menu (I believe anything on the degustation menu is worthy of ordering as degustation menus usually showcase the better dieshes that the chef has to offer) and judging by its ordinary name, we suspected that there's something more beneath the surface! As it turned out, we were right!

Half way through our meal, two girls took the table next to ours and when they were making their orders, they enquired about the apple and blackberry crumble. That was our first hint that there's something more to the apple and blackberry crumble than the name suggests as when the waitress described it, she described it not as a typical crumble, but rather, a yoghurt mousse with some crumble on top. Then when the crumble finally came, we were delightfully surprised. Typical of many dishes, the waitress put the finishing touch at our table; in this case, it was a blackberry coolio that she poured around the mousse. After the sauce was poured, the dessert emitted a very nice and tasty scent that pulls you to the dessert and makes you want to dig in immediately. Halfway through the mousse, another surprise came in the form of a blackberry sorbet. The sorbet was in the middle of the mousse and hence hidden when the dish first came. But as you dig through the mousse towards the center, you'll eventually hit the ice cold sorbet that gives the dessert a new refreshing touch. A brilliant, exciting, and surprising dessert that is a reflection of the three Michelin stars that the restaurant holds.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the coffee was pathetic, though the complimentary petit fours were pretty good.

Apart from the food, the service is also worthy of a mention. Unlike many restaurants, the wait staff at Maze still take orders with pen and paper (though they each had a nice leather folio that holds the notepad that they write the orders on). Although this is not as fancy as those restaurants where the wait staff shows off their amazing ability to memorize a zillion picky orders, it is at least practical and less prone to error. Thanks in part to this practical side of taking orders, our meals came without issues. Furthermore, the dishes came swiftly and the wait staff were exceptional in serving their patrons, never too late in noticing when their customers are in need of their service.

Another tiny thing worth mentioning are the breads. The breads came in little buckets and one of the bread is like these deep fried dough that Chinese people have with their congee; it was delicious!

On the whole, we thoroughly enjoyed the lunch. The food, service, decor, etc were without fault and we had a thoroughly enjoyable meal! I guess Maze deserves its three Michelin stars but that still doesn't change my view of Gordon Ramsay as a person, apart from the fact that he does know how to cook, or at least know how to hire people who does.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, London

Went to Joel Robuchon's L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon at Covent Gardens for lunch with Irene yesterday. Irene had long wanted to go to one of this phenomenal chef's restaurants and finally made a booking after seeing this restaurant take part in the London Restaurant Festival (similar thing to Sydney's Good Food Month).

As a bit of background, Robuchon was title Chef of the Century by the guide Gault Millau and has a total of 26 Michelin stars among his many restaurants (most of any chef in the world), two of which belongs to London's L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. So given his jaw dropping credentials, did our experience live up to our expectations?

Sadly, the experience was mixed (i.e., some elements of awesomeness and some elements of disappointment). Prior to the day, Irene had received a telephone confirmation followed by an email confirmation - we figured demand for the restaurant was high and they wanted to ensure all those who made bookings were in fact going to turn up - a promising sign of sorts.

The decor of the restaurant was nice, providing an element of classy French feeling that is fitting for a restaurant of this calibre. We were given both an a la carte menu and the set lunch menu and after going through the menus, we decided on the 3 course set menu, a bottle of still water and a glass of red wine. For the three courses, Irene ordered a pollock brandade, paella, and selection of traditional tarts, while I ordered an egg cocotte, confit of duck leg, and almond biscuit with lemon chiboust.

In terms of the food, everything was exceptional and certainly lived up to, if not exceeded, our expectations! However, that was probably where the positive review ends. In terms of service, much was left to be desired. Firstly, the waiter probably got Irene and my order mixed up and only noticed after the mains. Not only that, he also mistook Irene's pollock for a bean soup, which we only realised after we started eating. So in the end, for starters, Irene got my egg cocotte and I got Irene's order, which should have been a pollock but turned out to be a bean soup. Unfortunately, we only found out after we had started eating and given our respective dishes on the table tasted quite nice, we let them get off with it.

As mentioned, they only realised they got our orders around the wrong way after the mains so they gave Irene my duck leg and gave me Irene's paella but this time, the mix up was more obvious so we alerted the waiter before he set down the dishes, in time for him to correct his mistake. Then after the mix up with the menu, and towards the end of our meal, one of the waitress mistakenly poured the rest of our quarter of a bottle of still water for the table next to us, who were confused because they ordered sparkling water and not still. Knowing what had happened, we did not say anything and waited to see if the waitress would correct her mistake for us. Disappointingly, she made no effort to admit her mistake to us and was probably hoping to get away with not giving us the quarter of a bottle of still water that was ours. In the end, we had to ask for our remaining water and when we did, the waitress sheepishly admitted her mistake and brought our a new bottle of water for us.

On the whole, I'd say the food was exceptional but the service was a let down. But given we were there for Robuchon's food, the experience was still well worth it! I'd also mention that another classy element to the experience was that the staff there all spoke in French to each other, adding an element of authenticity to the French cuisine that they served!

Mr Kong, London Chinatown

Like all Chinatowns (I'd imagine), London's Chinatown is full of Chinese restaurants whose main patrons are non Asian tourist and immediately, that should ring alarm bells. As such, we haven't been to many Chinese restaurants in Chinatown since we've been here and Mr Kong is one of the first few that we've been too.

Unlike most of the Chinese restaurants, Mr Kong is hidden in one of the side alleys, albeit a busy one. That gave it a little bit more credibility. We learned of this restaurant through the esteemed recommendation of one of Irene's colleagues, who went so far as saying his partners parent, who are picky eaters, gave Mr Kong their tick of approval. With that recommendation, we decided to try it out.

Unfortunately, I was tied back at work that day and could only leave in time to throw some stuff down my mouth before heading off to Les Miserables. As such, Irene went ahead and ordered the dishes first - a tofu hotpot and a fried rice. As such, the food arrived shortly after I did and we had a quick meal before heading off.

So how did the food stack up? Well, although the ingredients were nice and portions were reasonable, the flavour, to me, tended to be a bit too salty. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the meal, thanks in no small part to the exceptional service and reasonable price. Irene also noticed a few interesting dishes on offer on the menu that aren't available everywhere so already we've been talking about going back for those dishes.

On the whole, a decent meal for the price and probably better than most around the area.

Les Miserables, Queen's Theatre, London

Les Miserables - the longest running musical in the world and equally so by count of how many times Irene has said she wanted to see it. In fact, it has been a decade long desire of hers to see this musical, so how did it stack up?

Well, one word comes immediately to mind - brilliant! Having waited a decade to see this, Irene (and I) didn't mind waiting a couple of months longer so that we can get decent seats (but by no means great seats) and on a decent night (Friday night). That is how crazy this show is, I mean, being the longest running musical, you'd imagine the demand would've died down a bit but no, far from it! And I guess that's an indication of how good this musical is.

Prior to seeing this, we've seen the 25th anniversary concert at a cinema in Sydney, as well as downloaded the soundtracks and listened to the songs, and so had some pretty high expectations. But whatever expectations we had, they were all blown away by Alfie Boe's voice, if nothing else! Boe, as Valjean, was spectacular - a truly great tenor! In fact, listening to the downloaded songs now, Boe was by far better than whoever it is I'm listening to now!

But enough about Boe. Credit for this great show also goes to everyone involved, not least Victor Hugo, who wrote such a great story, and Cameron Mackintosh, who produced the first adaption from the original French version. Although there's an element of romance in the plot, the main story is more sophisticated and explored issues such as the early 19th century French society, human greed, stereotyping, and other human elements that are often the makings of great and meaningful stories. But a great story is only great if it is told well and what we saw tonight was definitely a well told story.

Apart from a great story, great music, and great cast, the production was also superb. I particularly liked the scene where Marius and Cosette were meeting behind the gates of Cosette's home while Eponine was standing outside the gates (during the song "A Heart Full of Love"). That scene was simply a work of art!

All in all, a great musical well deserving of all its praises and customer demand. It exceeded all our expectations, especially Boe, who was superb! In fact, Irene loved it so much that she has already started talking about seeing it again, and I wouldn't mind too.

Chez Gerard, Bishopsgate - 4 October 2011

This was my second visit to this French chain in London. My first visit was for a work event where some consultants shouted our whole team to dinner for letting them earn a bucket load from us (worst still, if my experiences are anything to go by, they were probably trying to squeeze a last dinner out of us before they rolled off). In any case, I was just happy to be there for a free feed. Unfortunately, our relatively large group meant the chefs had some difficulty preparing the meals to their usual standards, as we evident by the over cooked steaks.

This time around, with just Irene and I, they redeemed themselves with a well cooked 2 course each from the Prix Fixe menu. Irene had the Croustillant au brie for starters while I had the Soup du jour - a spicy tomato soup. Both were surprisingly delightful. For mains, we both had the Steak Frites and this time, the steaks were cooked to perfection!

On the whole, it was a nice meal and fitting for the occasion - lunch with my wife on a working day; something we miss dearly from our days in Sydney!

Flemings Grill, Mayfair - 2 October 2011

I had a lovely dinner with my lovely wife and met a lovely fellow compatriot here at Flemings Grill last night. The dinner consisted of cocktails with canapés at the bar, followed by a three course dinner, all for £72 service and water inclusive, thanks to my bargain hunting wife!

Though the atmosphere of the place was quite nice, it was slightly let down by the food. Starters were pretty good - Irene had foie gras with chicken liver parfait while I had smoked salmon. Main was a slight let down. Irene's lamb was flavorsome but slightly overcooked (chewy though pink) while my pork had non crackling skin. Dessert was probably the best of the three courses; Irene's choc brownie had a nice twist while my lemon mousse was like a nice lemon cheesecake.

On the whole, it was a nice night out. Unfortunately, my lack of sleep meant I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I would've liked. A good twist to the night was the compatriot old lady who sat alone next to us for half the evening. Being lonely, she was probably eager to talk to us but didn't do so until the end of her dinner when she presumed that we were a Chinese couple (meaning from China) here on our honeymoon and so went on to say "it's good to be here on our holiday in this ice weather isn't it?". Perhaps we were a little homesick, but it was good to be speaking to another fellow aussie, even though she thought we were, in her words, Chinese.