Hobart RHH

A week after I got back from Melbourne, it was off to Hobart. I've been Tassie before last year on a spontaneous family trip, where I organised a trip for over 10 people, catering 1yo to 90+yo. It was a super short trip from Launceston to Hobart. This time I didn't rent a car since too expensive for just 2 people, and insurance cost a lot, so wasn't able to explore parts of Tassie which I didn't get to do last time, or go out at night and try to catch the Southern Lights (not that I missed any this week according to the fb group).

This was 100% the most relaxing placement ever, where you literally don't need to use your brain, and nothing is marked. Just observing, or doing VAs, IOPs and VFs together as a pair. Only the first day was busy, but Tues-Fri was pretty much finish between 11am-1pm, and then you only see 2-4 patients, and some days you just watch the optom do stuff. Probably not good to have something this chill at the end of the year since it doesn't stimulate your brain. It's nice to relax before internals next week, not that I can relax since I should study up for it but haven't yet...Not looking forward to 9am starts and 8pm finishes.

Some thoughts on Hobart:

- Royal Hobart Hospital has a specialist clinic building where the eye clinic is, it's relatively new and has a nice view from the 11th floor.

- I feel like they have a lot of funding since the iCare probs they use once for each patient, which is $1 a probe...but I guess it's a hospital so must be hygienic 

- Hobart wasn't as 'dead' as I remembered. Maybe because I arrived on the weekend of a large winter festival Dark Mofo. Apparently it's some electronic music festival thing, and shows som really deep/dark stuff around Hobart. I don't really get it, but went stumbled upon a massive food night festival. Saw some other stuff like people playing music 24/7 for 7 days, and they all rotate and you can go into the building to watch. 

- Would recommend MONA. Lots of modern art and stuff they remade from old art. Well did the same thing as a previous artist. Really liked the current exhibition featuring James Turrell stuff with lots of trippy lights. 

- The Airbnb I stayed at was pretty big. Room was bigger than the photos, and host offered to pick me up from nearby hotel so didn't have to drag luggage up a 6m elevated hill, approx 40deg. It was super duper steep, 2x steeper than my street. They even left food in the fridge for us. Kitchen was well equipped with stuff including so many spices, and even a hand held cake mixer lol. Not that I cooked anything fancy for did baking.

- Room like 3x my room at home. I always wondered why people need bedside lamps, then I realised when you have a bigger room, you don't want to trip from closing the main light to go to your bed. Whereas in my room it's so small, I close the light and my bed is just one step away, so you can't trip in the dark.
- Discovered the tv had Netflix on the last night lol.

- Going to miss all the half days.

- Hobart itself is a very chill/relaxing city. 

- It wasn't actually that cold, most days around 10deg, some mornings were 6/7. In NZ, it was mainly 4deg in morning but also went to double temps. Sometimes I find Sydney at 12deg colder, cause of the wind.

- Manage to escape the rain, only started to rain a bit when I was waiting for the bus to go to the airport.
- The traffic lights are the same in Sydney, even the pedestrian button. They change super quickly the flashing red, unlike Melbourne which stays green for a long time. You have to press the button in Hobart even in the tiny CBD, but it changes really quickly. I think Brisbane also uses a different button.
- There are no public transport officers, unlike Melbs where they wait for you outside the free tram zone and police and also check your ticket, and Sydney officers boarding the train/bus is quite common.

- I feel like every time I catch a Jetstar flight, I have to add an extra hour cause of flight delays. I guess Sydney airport is a busy airport, and they probs prioritise Qantas planes.

- Didn't really go out to eat a lot since there's not that much food, and been to fancier places last year. 

- So many food posts to do but ceebs since need to continue planning for travel, oh and also study.

Bowl n Roll

Duck banh mi-$8

 

inside/cross section

If you didn’t know already, duck is one of my favourite proteins. This banh mi was packed with duck and filling. Duck was a bit fatty in places so didn’t eat all the skin. It’s more pricey compared to other pork rolls, but there was a decent serving of meat inside, and the actual roll was quite large I couldn’t finish it. After a bit of time, the soy sauce did soak into the bread and also at the bottom of the roll, but the bread was nice and crunchy. 

Chilli Jam

First time eating in this area, and this place is along a nice strip with other restaurants. It’s pretty big inside with heaps of seating. Came here with BW’s church fam and ordered multiple dishes to share.

Green curry w/ chicken-$16.90

Pad thai w/ chicken-$16.90

Chilli jam sauce: Famous Thai cuisine, roasted cashew nut, assorted vegetables, stir-fried in chilli jam w/ chicken -$16.90

Pad see eiw w/ beef-$17.90

Beef massamum curry-$17.90

Decent pad thai which was flavourful without being too sweet. The pad see ew was already really nice. Green curry not too spicy and nice and creamy, The massaman beef had heaps of chunks of large beef and the sauce was really fragrant. The chill jam chicken and veggie stir fri had a more sweeter sauce so wasn’t overly spicy, but I had to stop after a few pieces. Still need to increase my chilli tolerance. 

Melbourne ACO

A day after I came back from New Zealand, it was off to Melbourne for placement at the Australian College of Optometry (ACO). Lots of flying in and out of airports, but I love planes.

Trust Jetstar to experience 'technical issues'. First time having a plane cancel on me, and freaked cause wasn't sure what to do. In the end, you pretty much wait on hold for 45mins-1hr, then they change you to the next flight. Ended up going on a Qantas flight, which meant I could finish the movie I didn't finish on the flight from NZ to Syd. It was 2hrs later, so if you were actually needing to be somewhere after, then you're screwed. Hence why I don't fly budget airlines for overseas cause do you really want added stress?

Thoughts on ACO:
- Really liked how it was 2 students per supervisor, whilst at uni clinic we have 4-5 students per supervisor, and save so much time.
- There are drops in every room, so you don't have to waste 10mins of your time finding which room the drops are.
- Nice how us UNSW kids were allowed to use the staffroom and had lockers.
- Equipment there is old, but most rooms had the same slit lamp which made it easier to adjust to a diff room.
- They use Apple computers! Although on the last day, I had a super old apple keyboard, unlike the nice thin ones so really had to use some finger muscles.
- Took a while to get used to Optomate, but it's pretty nice recording everything electronically rather than on paper. I think it'll take a while for us to ever use electronic records...
- They have quite a lot of imaging equipment surprisingly.
- Saw some interesting patients with conditions I haven't seen before, and most people here are old so generally have something different to see.
- So many optoms work there, but they sort of dismiss anterior eye stuff if patient's aren't complaining, whereas I feel like our uni is very big on dry eyes/contact lenses.
- Ended up getting a few unsats, one of which I won't be able to make up for it since didn't see enough patients to do that further testing. Guess I'll be getting a supp for that, unless during internals I have patients who have symptoms indicating further testing. So no thanks for all those U's which if I had a diff supervisor would've still passed me.

- Didn't get rained on for 2 weeks, apart from just one night for like 10mins.
- Left a rainy Sydney, then left a rainy Melb when I was on the plane.
- I find that Melbs has more heritage listed buildings compared to Sydney, and more taller apartments/skyscrapers.
- Melb has more cafes with nice and more 'hipster' decor.
- Our apartment was on the 47th floor, quite some nice views from the bedroom. I guess living in an apartment is cozy, with modern furnishings and appliances makes stuff easier. I just think if I live in an apartment, how the hell am I gonna store years of stuff I hoarded...Took us 4 days to figure out how the keypad to come into the apartment worked, and realised there was a dishwasher after the first week...
- Apartment was convenient, and could walk to ACO, but I got a pass for half the trip and just trammed it there.
- Took me 2-3 days to figure out the whole red tram zone thing.
- Feels like Melbs has more interesting museums/galleries compared to Syd.

Managed to visit 26 places to eat whilst in between 8am starts and 6pm finishes. I guess we had a public holiday in between and an arvo where I got to finish earlier, but some days didn't finish until 6:45pm, and then had to walk home. 

Must admit, wasn't really mindblown by any of the cafes. Melbs coffee is good, and definitely have better decor/building. Maybe Humble Ray was my fav cafe? but not by much though. Fav cake was the Yuzu Brownie from The Crux and Co, the Yuzu was so sour, but complemented the cake really well, and the bit of dark choc brownie. 

I really loved Lui Bar as my last stop, just to relax and enjoy the Melbroune views (even if the drink cost more than what I ate). Also liked Cumulus Inc and MoVida, pricier food but worth it. Probs not gonna have time to do reviews for them...hopefully I have time to post on my Insta, but let's be real, I'll post when I'm procrastinating for studying. Maybe I'll blog about all the food after I graduate lol. Special shoutout to BW for coming down to Melbs to visit me on the weekend (and also eaten 6 meals a day). 

List of place I ate at:

Humble Rays

Shujinko

Papa Gino's

Pidapipo

Luxbite

King Castella

Cumulus Inc

The Kettle Black

Dukes Coffee

Higher Ground

Chuckle Park

Little Ramen Bar

The Crux & Co

Auction Rooms

Mork Chocolate

Calia

Lune

White Mojo

Suda

Hopetoun Tea Rooms

Kyo Tea House

MoVida

Operator 25

Brother Baba Budan

Grainstore

Lui Bar

Jamie's Italian Take 3 and 4

The first time I came here for lunch was way back in 2013. Came here again for dinner since they had the $10 pasta special. The wait is definitely long for a Saturday night since they only accept walk ins for the special, but managed to get in after 2ish hours. (Long overdue post, but really don't care haha).

 

Fresh crab spaghetti: Hand-picked Blue Swimmer crab with chilli, fennel, capers, white wine & garlic-$28.50

This dish was quite fragrant as you could smell the crab and sweetness of the sauce. There was also a decent amount of crab and relatively fresh. The sauce was a more thin sauce, but tasted quite healthy and flavourful at the same time. Pasta was cooked al dente.

pasta lift

Primavera ravioli: Buffalo ricotta & black pepper pasta parcels in a lemony butter sauce with peas, mint & pea shoots-$26.50

There were only 6 pieces of ravioli, and was hoping for more filling inside. The sauce had a nice acidity to cut through the richness of the butter and ricotta. Again, pasta was cooked al dente. 

Seafood risotto: Oozy risotto of saffron, garlic & shellfish sauce with squid, prawns, bronze fennel & crispy capers (entree)-$17.50

You could smell more seafood in the risotto, but I guess I would have liked the saffron to be more prominent (again, saffron is pretty much the same cost as gold…). The saffron is more subtle in flavour. Decent amount of seafood for a smaller size risotto, but it is pricier for the size.

Gnocchi genovese: Potato gnocchi, basil pesto, green beans & truffled potatoes, with ricotta & pine nuts-$28

The gnocchi was more on the chewier side, as I normally expect a more fluffy sort of gnocchi. Could have had more pesto flavour, since I love my pine nuts (why do I like expensive food?) I loved the fried bits for a nice crunch. 

New Zealand with OneSight

Currently typing this in Melbourne airport waiting for my delayed plane. Getting to Melbourne was drama in itself, but that's for another post. Good to see people still visit my blog (not that I really care).

So over two weeks ago at end of May, I went to NZ with OneSight. I managed to get a 'scholarship' i.e. all expenses paid trip to visit Rotorua in the North Island to do school screening for kids. I've been to South Island before on a 'budget' trip 4 years ago to Queenstown, so was super excited to visit NZ again for free whilst getting clinical experience. Coincidentally, OneSight is the charity of where I work, so even though I was the 'UNSW Student', I understood all the business talk.

We saw a total of 1223 kids and adults throughout 4 and a bit days! Take into account, normally an optom see between 8-14 patients on average per day. We had a team of 15 of 4 optoms, plus dispensers, store managers, hr staff. It was sooo hectic, and third and fourth day only had about 10mins for lunch. NZ doesn't have Medicare, so people have to pay for their own eye test. Children under 18 have free health care stuff, but most of the time parents ceebs bringing them in. It was amazing giving kids glasses, even if super cheap and not the proper script due to equipment and not a proper setting. You really wonder how they do see with their bad vision. We gave people free glasses and a quick eye test if they failed the screening. Mainly schools from around the area came in, and we set up in a school hall. Apparently this trip was relatively easier since we didn't have to set up and pack each day, and were based in the same place.

There's too much too recount, so as per my usual travel posts, dot points of random thoughts. No time to upload photos either, but I'm sure those who follow me on Snapchat saw stuff from my week.

- Flying into North Island, you have green hills and mountains are less impressive, whilst flying into South Island you see gorgeous snow capped mountains, or just very big and pointy mountains in general. South Island is prettier, but I guess I didn't have time to explore North Island like Hobbiton.
- Auckland airport is quite small.
- Weather wasn't really that cold, maybe 2 deg in morning, max 15 deg during the day, but we had old school heaters inside.
- Rotorua is a 3hr drive from Auckland, and the grass is so green all the way through, it's so lush.
- Improved some clinical skills and how to talk to kids.
- Stayed in a cute motel/apartment with 2 levels, and fit 6 people into it, with separate beds. Only one bathroom though.
- No time for sight seeing or even go to the cbd since everyday was clinic, but they did organise some night activities. Didn't extend my trip since I was going to Melbs two days after I got back.

- NZ kids can sing so well, and harmonise so well. They're taught singing or something as part of their schooling. Most learn Maori as a first language.
- Kids don't wear shoes either, like running in the grass at 8:30am in 5 deg weather, and they are all just barefooted. When we first saw that, we were like, wow, so weird.
- Loved learning about the Maori culture.
- Sunday night was pizza night delivered to our apartment
- Monday night taco night
- Tuesday visiting an old Maori village and geysers (it's called geysir in Iceland lol) and their version of an RSL club. Rotorua is a geothermal village, so underground there's a lot of heat and warm water. Also the town does stink like sulfur/rotten eggs. Just my luck I was sick the whole week, but I guess I smelt less of the sulfur. The village is like small huts, quite interesting, but tbh, doesn't look that comfy.
- Wednesday night went to the skyline buffet and luge. It's the same company as the Queenstown one, but went up there after sunset so was all dark. This time went before sunset to enjoy the view, and had time to go on the luge. The advanced one was shorted but quite fun, since parts of it is quite steep and you sort of fly off the track whilst going down, so cool to have some 'air time'. The views were amazing, with so many glass windows. Everyone was surprised at how much I could eat. Tbh, it's not that much compared to before, but yeah, ate more than some guys lol.
- Thursday night was a cultural night at Tamaki Maori Village. There was a contact who our team leader leased with, and the person who runs the tourist attraction is one of her relatives, so pretty sure we could get a discount. Didn't pay for it since OneSight paid for the Wed buffet and this Village thing. So cool learning about it all and how they used to live. It's cool trying traditional food. It was a really homely buffet, and people were also surprised how I also ate so much two nights in a row.
- Friday morning saw some patients, but then headed to the airport after. Loved looking at all the greenery on the way back.
- We got these really cute pins as a souvenir/memorable thing. They also have us some picture books in Maori about their legends/culture.

Probably more thoughts but writing this after a hectic 2 weeks in Melbourne.

Really amazing experience helping people who can't even access eye care. I guess being overseas makes it even more exciting. Hope to be on another clinic in the future.

Tan Viet Noodle House, Viet Hoa Hot Bread, OneZo

I hardly come to this side of Sydney, so when I do, I try to eat more than one meal here.

Herbal Duck with Noodles-$16.50

I don't know the proper name for this, but I like how they gave a decent serving of duck. The herbal soup wasn't too herbally, no where as herbal as those Chinese medicines. Helped made the duck less dry. The serving was massive, had half the noodles and the other half still fit into a takeaway box.

Crispy chicken

The crispy chicken was indeed crispy. Also a massive serving of rice.

Pork roll-$4.50 and some other roll for free (worth $3.50)

cross section

I've actually been here before but never blogged about it, so blogging here just so I can remember I've tried this place before. This place is considered more expensive compared to other places for $3. Bread could be crispier, but filling was decent, wished there was more pate though.

Got just normal milk tea with pink pearls, 2 for $8 from memory. It didn't have that nice tea fragrant flavour of milk tea, and the pearl texture wasn't really that chewy. Found this milk tea tasted more like milk.

menu

The Rabbit Hole Take 2

Walking past and decided to share a snack with BW. Also they are using the Rewards app, so because I checked in, ended up getting a free tea without intending to. Free things are so good when you're least expecting it.

afternoon tea

Tumeric chai latter-$5.50 (got for free)

love the cuteness of this cup

Good hit of tumeric and milk was frothed well, wish the chai was a bit stronger, since there was mainly just the cinnamon on the side.

Apricot tart-~$6

Can't really remember the price, but I liked how this tart wasn't too sweet even though it used dried fruits. The filling sort of had a cake texture. Pastry was nice and thin and not too crumbly.

Two Sis & Co

I have to admit, I love it when friends let me pick where to eat, since I can also 'tick' off more places on my place to eat (which has long turned to a mental list of place, since if I write them down, I know I'll never be able to complete it then feel sad the list will never be finished). These days I just go to places at the top of my head. This cafe wasn't too busy around lunch time so managed to get a seat quite easily.

food spread

Blue matcha latte-$5

Rose latte-$5

Love the colours and edible flowers on the latte

The blue matcha latte was pretty flavourless and tasted just like milk with fragrant edible flowers. They used butterfly pea powder, which apparently is some sort of superfood plant. The rose latte was super fragrant and smelt like roses, but the flavour was quite subtle as well. Compared the the blue matcha, it was a tad bit more flavourful.

these days, just get random wall paper to make your cafe more 'Instagramable'

French toast: crunchy brioche, fresh berries, nuts, chocolate pearls, mascarpone salted caramel and Persian pashmak-$18.50

I wasn’t really in the mood for french toast, but when it looks pretty and it’s a recommended dish, I gave in and decided to order it. The french toast here is more bready and less fried, so it did taste more like bread, but it was quite soft. I loved the fairy floss on top as it made the dish so pretty, also wasn't too sweet like normal fairly floss. Liked the texture from the nuts and chocolate pearls. It wasn’t overly sweet, since although I like sweet things, for this stuff I do have a tolerance. Couldn’t really taste the salted caramel though.  

Our famous Dukkah eggs: smashed avo, bacon, poached eggs, lemon sukkah and balsamic glaze-$17

Normally I don't order avo toast since I can make it at home, but they recommended this dish, and it also had the word 'famous' in it so I gave in. Didn't really feel like a sandwich or a burger, which is pretty much the majority of the menu, The dukkah could have had more herbs and spices. Bacon wasn't too fatty and eggs cooked well with a runny yolk. The balsamic glaze was more on the sweet side, would have liked a bit more vinegar to cut through the bacon flavour. Adding edible flowers just takes any food presentation a step up.

#yolkporn

Bakehouse Garden and Cheeky Chocolate

First time coming to eat in this part of Sydney. I didn't realise this used to be the old Arnotts factory, but I like how they've tried to keep the old factory walls for the local car park, and walls inside and out for the restaurants here. Came here on a hot Autumn evening for wollamsam, the Korean version of rice paper rolls.

Wollamsam. $22 pp

love the vibrant colours

rice paper roll

It is definitely cheaper to have it at home, but you're essentially paying for someone else to wash, cut and prep all the ingredients for you. There are heaps of veggies to choose from including avocado, and 2 types of meat. It's a decent price for a buffet style restaurant, and it's relatively healthy. I don't think I ate $22 worth of veggies, but at least $4 worth of avo, if one avo is $2.50-$3. I ate heaps of rolls that I forgot how many...Was so full at the end.

Blueberry Cheesecake: white chocolate mousse, green tea sponge, blueberry jelly, yogurt cheesecake-$10.50

It's more expensive than your average piece of cake, for an average cheesecake. It was quite dense even though the cheesecake is only about 1/3 of the height of the slice. Wished there was more acidity from the blueberry jelly to cut through the denseness. It wasn't too sweet luckily. Couldn't taste the green tea at all. The bottom was sort of leaking some moisture, looks like from the sponge but tasted creamy. I like this cafe as it also kept features of the old factory within the walls inside.