Our weekend away…

After a very special and memorable anniversary night (hehe ^^;) we started to plan out what we wanted to do during the next two days. I had never been to Sydney to see the sights, I only lived in Newcastle for a couple of years when I was 4 years old. I didn’t really know what it had to offer aside from the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House(duh). I never really expected to have as much fun as I did. On the Saturday, we walked around Sydney harbor and enjoyed the view. The Harbor Bridge is quite an amazing structure if you think about it. It was built decades ago and at such a large scale. They didn’t even have computers back then. The amount of money and time architects and designers used to create and build that bridge would have been mind blowing at the time. You look at our bridges today and you see them as economically-efficient concrete atrocities, that have no character or soul at all; compared to the grand steel structure and splendor of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The opera house too, was quite impressing. Vanessa said that it looks good from afar, but is not as grand as when you go up close, as you can see all of its dirt marks and flaws.

That’s true for a lot of things too, I thought to myself.

You can never really tell anything about a person until you get up close. Their flaws or their qualities may never present themselves to you if you keep yourself away from them. Sometimes when you take a closer look at something, you are very disappointed because it wasn’t what you were expecting at all, and you wished you never went so close to look at it at all. But then there are times when you don’t take a look at it you regret it; because you missed a chance to admire qualities you never thought they might have had. Like the qualities I admire in Vanessa. I know now, much more than ever, that Vanessa has qualities that I never dreamed she would have. That her and I connect and are compatible on so many levels that it scares me to think of losing her. I realize that if I had turned away from her on that pier and said nothing…

It would have been the stupidest mistake I could have made.

After grabbing and using up nearby tourists to take our photos with each other at every landmark, attraction and sight – we decided we’d go to places with more substance, something that we could not only look at and admire, but also enjoy ourselves. One thing of course that was on Vanessa’s mind (and almost always is :P) was FOOD!. How she always compared Melbourne food to Sydney! I thought to myself “How can the food of two neighboring cities be so different in quality??” We had spent a moderate amount of time searching high and low for a certain Japanese restaurant, and were on the verge of giving up. Sydney’s china town was a lot more spread out and larger than I had expected, so finding certain places was going to be a tough task. I had no choice but to show Vanessa the way to china town, and let her take up the scent! Soon, she started recognizing land marks and buildings “Oh I’ve been there…. I’ve bought something there… there’s the atm I used… I’ve eaten there… That place has crappy noodles … Oh! The place with crappy noodles is across the street from…. THERE! I FOUND IT!! ^^” It was a Japanese restauraunt with about 10 chairs inside, but had quite a reputation for having an awesome Katsudon, as Vanessa had reported to me. In my time, I’ve tried a lot of Katsudon from; different stores, different nationality, different price, different country – ive tried a lot. Nothing I’ve had could compare to that Katsudon I had from that corner shop in Sydney. The meat was so tender, it would almost fall out of my chop-stick-grip(and I’m no noob with them either). The rice and egg accompanying it were also amazingly good. The other restaurant we went to for dinner was a Korean place in an alley near china town. I have to say, that Korean food has to be in my number one spot for favorite Asian food. There is so much meat and … well…. Meat! It’s like Asian food catered for the wild barbarians of the west! And the sauces and flavours of the MEAT taste awesome! And the fact that Vanessa was there to share it with me was fun too. Lol. I cant remember how many times she has scrapped half of her barely-eaten meal onto my plate in order to make it look like she has eaten as much as I have. But honestly, who would believe that a slim, asian girl can eat as much as a stocky, tall white guy? Lol. She’s so silly some times, but I never get sick of fighting off her fork/chopstick, trying to ward off her food from invading my plate!

It makes for a very interesting and memorable way to finish off every meal:).

Another thing we did was go shopping. Wait, I don’t really mean WE, I think I bought three t shirts and a jumper my entire time there (it’s a warm ass jumper, it kicks ass. Vanessa looked at it first lol.. DAMN GIRLS AND THEIR SUPERIOR FASHION SENSE!!). Where as Vanessa was buying as much jewelry as her mum and grandma combined!!!... okay well, not THAT much… BUT I BET IT’S PRETTY CLOSE!!! Hehe. We went to the weekend markets and had a good look through their crafts and gift items. They had a lot of pretty things at the first market we went to, but it was also very expensive. Vanessa was dazzled by all the pretty coloured glass and stone jewelry hehe, so she had no choice but to try them all on. And almost at every store, they all said the same thing. Something along the lines of “You should wear bright, funky colours to contrast with your dark hair and fairish skin”. I didn’t believe it at first, but when she tried it on it really suited her a lot. I think I’ll have to remember that one in future in case I buy her any more jewelry hehe. It was fun just walking around with Vanessa holding my hand though. I often found myself just looking at her, rather than the jewelry and knick knacks. She looked really beautiful and happy, that it just made me smile the whole time. I always hoped to make her a happy girl, and I thought I was doing just that. It’s a shame our caricature didn’t convey the same feelings, so id have more things to remember her happiness by. I also got my name written in a funky and colourful writing which is supposed to be like Chinese characters, which I think looks really cool.

With our time ticking by, we really underestimated how much time we had to stay in Sydney. The time flew so quickly that before we knew it, we almost had to go back to Melbourne. We tried things that we never had done before; go to the Chinese gardens and dress up and take photos, went to a bar made COMPLETELY of ice, went paddle-boat riding (I did all the paddling!… LOL!) and went on a night cruise around Sydney. I liked the night cruise a lot. Sure the boat wasn’t luxury, the commentary was a snooze fest and the pictures we took weren’t great. But inside the lower deck it was warm, and Vanessa and I just cuddled for most of the entire trip. My baby even fell asleep in my arms, with her head against my chest ^^. Just having her sleep beside me, gave me one of the best feelings. When she lies on me, it always feels special. Having her trust me so completely and to put herself in my arms is a great feeling. I would never let her go in one of those moments. I never want to let her go. I want to hold her and protect her from anything she’s afraid of, or that desires to harm her. I never want her to feel afraid or scared or alone. I want her to know that she has someone who loves her unconditionally, and will do anything they can to protect them, no matter the cost or sacrifice. But, we had run out of time to be near each other so closely. We had to return back to Melbourne and Vanessa had her parents coming down for her graduation, and after that…. She was leaving.