Backlog 2 - Precious Metals, and Feasting

Some time ago I nagged BIKSS about being complacent about our relationship. Soon after that he took me out to dinner. It was a prawn head stock claypot hotpot affair that was absolutely delicious. 

(Look away if you're triggered by whole prawns!)

In more news about jewellery and in this case, precious metals, I went to a trader a couple of weeks ago and sold off some silver that I had lying around - a commemorative airline ingot and a Canadian Maple Leaf pure silver coin. Then I picked up a gram of pure gold (as an investment, you know?) but not for myself. I got it as a gift for CG1 cos she's been so spectacular and has never asked for a raise or for an advance or anything of the sort. She'd always gone above and beyond her duties and loved me and mum as if we were her own family. And I was never able to give her a proper "bonus" as it were. 

Anyway, all that walking around the precious metal dealership and feeling like a million bucks (it really was a totally new experience for both BIKSS and myself) with the plush carpets and hushed tones and soothing lights and personal attendant ready to answer every question about ANYTHING did quite a number on our bellies, so we went and continued EATING like millionaires. Beef wellingtons are expensive here. But what the hey. As a good friend of mine likes to say, fake it till you make it! And I suppose sometimes it works out better than you expect! 

That was almost 50 bucks.

Scallops are also not the cheapest thing in where-I-live

Of course we would have a salad!

And since we were spending so much money already, let's just go all the way with a chocolate eclair and this awesome bomb of chocolate decadence!

Of course we couldn't finish all that chocolate so I took some home with me  :)

Right, I'm hoping that by the time you read this I would have gotten my hands on some wellness products that I ordered when I was still at home (last week) and gotten delivered to the hotel where we're staying. They don't ship to where-I-live so I arranged for them to send it to me here. 

I've also hopefully had their product sponsored afternoon tea with BIKSS at the Sofitel Hotel (and I hope it was lovely lol), as well as a Ritz Carlton afternoon tea which looked lovely on the website. 

It's so challenging writing a post to be scheduled in the future talking about something that has happened in the post's past but is yet to happen while I'm actually writing it! It's fabulous. 

Alright then, on with the vacation! 

Self Discovery, Sydney Pics and More Vacation Days Next Month

I am finally seeing a little bit of shift (about 1.5kg) of that hormonal weight I told you about. That is ONE piece of good news. Maybe this IF thing really does work. My appetite has grown smaller, that's for sure.  

The other, is this - for a while now I've had to travel a fair bit to teach a particular student of mine and I've not wanted to stop cos he's just so lovely to teach. But the travel time really just doesn't justify it anymore. I used to teach two brothers, so it was worth the trip. But with the older one finished with his final grade, it's just the younger boy left now. 

And with the aches and pains in my hip and back, I really began to rethink spending 2 hours on public transport each time I go to teach him.  Thankfully I've managed to sort that issue out, as they have agreed to travel to me instead (they have a car, I don't). This frees up an afternoon which I can now spend at the music studio (15 mins away!), much to my school manager's delight as he's been begging for me to come in an additional day each week. There is some adjustment where the fees are concerned (re: the faraway student), but if it means I can sit on my ass in the studio earning an extra 2 hours of fees instead of commuting, then I'm all for it. 

It was only after this was settled that I realised just how much I had been dreading the weekly trips out there. I am suddenly very relieved at not having to travel there anymore. 

I am reminded that  I should do what makes me happy, what works for me, and not feel obligated to do something just because of 1) who the person is that's asking (boss - aside from work-related things, older relative etc.), or because 2) I think I would be disappointing them if I didn't, or even because 3) I offered once before and if I don't say yes again now what would they think? I often default to an OK because not to do so feels like it's "not a nice thing" to do/say/be. 

But people change. And circumstances change. And each situation is never exactly the same as the one before isn't it? And I'm allowed to say no. Or to stop saying yes. Or to say maybe, let me think about it. 

This is a thing I've always struggled with. But at least I'm aware of it, and am reminding myself each time it happens that I have a choice in the matter. 

Just like I have a choice in dining chair covers. And furniture. And bedding. 

It's funny that I am so quick to put my foot down in deciding what I want or don't want when it comes to the more trivial stuff, but am so reticent to stand up to others when it comes to my wants and needs. Anyway, that's where I am today. Still learning. That's always a good thing.

BUT more importantly, pictures! Sydney... here they are. 

The coffee truck in Paddy's Market

When you really want to have an avocado (they're huge! and so delicious.... nom nom) but have no access to a knife or kitchen. 

Jason Donovan in Rocky Horror Show! It was fabulous.

The lone ibis. I think I have a 'Lone Ibis' picture from every single Australia vacation. 

There's always that ONE dude on the sidewalk. 

The Ramses Exhibition at the Australian Museum

 While we were there we poked into the permanent galleries as well - (click on the links to go to the Australian Museum website where you'll find more details on the exhibits and audio guides to other stuff not shown here! It's literally a virtual museum tour over there!)

The skeleton of an Irish Elk  - with antlers spanning three metres it dwarfs all living deer and even moose. It was found perfectly preserved in a peat bog, an oxygen-starved quagmire that mummifies any hapless animals or people who fall in. ~ The Daily Telegraph

Sir Hercules and a Rider

This skeleton of a horse and rider, affectionately known as the ‘Bone Ranger’, is a symbol of the importance of horses and horsemanship to Australian history.... The Bone Ranger’s horse is the skeleton of Sir Hercules, one of Australia’s foundation thoroughbreds.

Demon Duck of Doom! Best nickname ever!

Dromornis planei was a massive bird - 2.5m tall, 300kg! - with a formidable bill. It belonged to a uniquely Australian family of extinct flightless birds, the dromornithids (mihirungs). Because of the close relationship between mihirungs and ducks, Dromornis planei has been nicknamed the 'Demon Duck of Doom'.

Diprotodon

The massive Diprotodon optatum, from the Pleistocene of Australia, was the largest marsupial known and the last of the extinct, herbivorous diprotodontids. Diprotodon was the first fossil mammal named from Australia (Owen 1838) and one of the most well known of the megafauna. It was widespread across Australia when the first indigenous people arrived, co-existing with them for thousands of years before becoming extinct about 25,000 years ago.

And after all that, some sit-down time for our tired bones. We caught the musical & Juliet, and it was way more fun than I expected.

& Juliet is a 2019 coming-of-age jukebox musical featuring the music of Swedish pop songwriter Max Martin, with a book by David West Read. The story focuses on a "what if" scenario, where Juliet does not die at the end of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. ~ Wikipedia

BIKSS listens to the radio A LOT and he recognised almost all the song and dance numbers. I could identify about half! LOL. What can I say, I'm not a listener of pop music. That didn't stop me from enjoying the high energy of it all tho! 

On the way back we walked across Pyrmont Bridge and took in the view of Darling Harbour. Magical. Despite the rain-drizzle-rain-again of the evening, it was possibly the most romantic memory of this trip for me.

The next day we were off to an early start. We had chocolates to buy, supermarkets to visit, malls to roam! But along the way, the best lobster roll I've ever tasted! 

After we had gone and picked up all the chocolates in the world... ok I am obviously exaggerating, but it really seemed like BIKSS had become chocolate-mad all of a sudden, we went for lunch at a Peruvian place we passed on the first night, as BIKSS has always wanted a taste! I don't think he was planning on beef heart tho. I pretty much cajoled him into trying it... I am clearly the more food-adventurous between us.

Next we walked to the maritime museum.  Where there were a lot of other non-maritime things... 

Then it was time to hop onto a ferry to get to the Sydney Opera House!

It was cold, but I always have an ice cream at least ONCE per cold-weather trip. 

This was our once.  It was good too!

Ta-da! The Sydney Opera House at last! 

Badu Gili - meaning ‘water light’ in the language of the traditional owners of Bennelong Point, the Gadigal - is a free daily experience that explores First Nations stories in a spectacular six-minute projection on the Opera House’s eastern Bennelong sails.

Watch the sails illuminate with Badu Gili: Celestial, a new projection celebrating the work and stories of two female First Nations artists from Australia and New Zealand, created in collaboration between the Opera House, Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.  

You can read more about it HERE

After the light show we made our way to the Chinatown street market... where the food was disappointing, and I got cranky at BIKSS and all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed and snuggle. He was trying to feed me. I was too full to eat anything. Stuff was expensive and unappetizing. Ugh. 

I did spot a cute wall of little mahjong tiles making up a picture of a big mahjong "fa" or "huat" tile. That was interesting at least.

We spent our last day in Sydney at The Rocks. Yes we bought more chocolates. 

The Rocky Road Chocolate company makes an awesome nougat version of rocky roads with different flavours. The one I'm most in love with is the White Chocolate Cookies and Cream Rocky Road. Simply divine! I hear it's based in Melbourne so I've asked some friends who live there if they've heard of or seen this brand in the shops, and no one has any idea what it even is! 

I found it on this shopping site but they don't deliver outside of Australia, sadly. I'm trying to get the sister's friend (who is a Melbournite) to order a bunch and bring it in with her the next time she comes for a visit - she has family here so she comes at least twice a year. With any luck I won't have to wait too long!

We had brunch at Pancakes on the Rocks. This was 1/4 of our lunch. There was a huge bowl of salad, some seafood crepes (below), nachos and salsa and cheese... oh it was a HUGE meal!

The rain was a bit annoying but people still came out to enjoy the market. 

I got myself a pair of Mother-of-Pearl earrings in a light purple. Pictured here with some souvenirs from the Bonorong Sanctuary in Tasmania and a bottle of perfume also from the Rocks Market.

And at the end of the trip, my whole suitcase was literally filled only with stuff I BOUGHT! Chocolates, Tim Tams, souvenirs, banana bread(!) and essential oil mists, essential oil sprays and, well, actual bottles of essential oils. My dirty clothes got chucked into another duffel! (Chips were in the Coles paper bag!)

And with that, I shall say adieu. I have been on here too long already. And tomorrow is another day of work. Until the 14th of July. Which is when I run away to KL with BIKSS for another 5-day vacay! Hurray! 

Growth

... is when I tell BIKSS I disapprove of his parenting style and then I get grumpy and he doesn't get grumpy back. And then when he asks me what I wanna get first (we were at the big-ass mart cos I needed some stuff for the trip) I say "A new boyfriend would be nice" and he says "at least wait till after the trip, cos tickets have been paid for!"

And I know we'll be ok. 

It's when he starts to hold me and put his hand around me and I turn to him and say "I know what you're doing, service-recovery-ing, even tho you did nothing wrong and I'm just annoyed cos I disapprove of your choices" and we can laugh about it. 

Growth. Is not letting go just cos someone's in a pissy mood. AKA - me. I'm usually the one in the pissy mood.

It's knowing that being angry at something isn't the same as being angry at someone. That sometimes, it's better to just SAY what it is that's annoying the shit out of me than to try and have that conversation with myself in my brain. 

And I'm glad that even tho I snap at him and rant and grumble, he knows I still love him. And he knows that "controlled distancing" is the way thru the PMS jungle. (He's a pro at it now!)

Have a chip ~

At The Jeweller's

I learnt there's "retail gold" which is the kind we buy when we think of jewellery - white gold, rose gold and yellow gold. And they come most frequently in 18k and 14k, but also in 10k and 9k. 

I learnt there's also a thing called Investment Gold, which can be white, rose or yellow gold if it's 22k (aka 916 gold), or yellow gold if it's 24k (aka 999 gold).  It's just gold that has trade-in value at the jeweller's, from what I understand.

I don't know how the other karats translate to percentages - I suppose one can always google that. But I do know that 22k = 916 gold = 91.6% gold, and 24k = 999 gold = 99.9% gold. 

(Hey, look what I found while googling for pics after writing this post...)

I learnt that the higher the purity, the softer the gold. Which means anything that's holding a stone / diamond / gem etc. (ring, earrings, pendant) will probably NOT be 999 gold. It'll be too soft to hold up the stone. 

(18k White Gold with Diamond Pendant)

I learnt that at my jeweller's I can trade in 916 and 999 gold (see Investment Gold above). But if I wanna sell off all other types of gold (and silver), including any pieces that have gemstones in them, I'll have to go to a pawnshop... and conveniently, my jewellery store has a sister company that is just that. They also have a retail arm that sells a more affordable line of jewellery in addition to the regular buying and selling of one's precious metals, stones, watches etc. And yes, they also deal in secured loans. Exactly like this -

I learnt that if a pearl is genuine (and not synthetic aka plastic) you will be able to rub another pearl against it without damaging it. You'll get some powder / fine dust on the spot that was rubbed but once you clean that off there won't be any scratches or discolouration. 

In addition to all this, I learnt that a gold chain I've had since I was in primary school which I believed was 22k gold, was in fact only 18k. I'm a little shocked by this. The crucifix, tho, is 22k.

I learnt that mum has sapphires and topazes set in white gold, albeit a lowly 9k (or 375 gold).

I learnt that "washing" and "polishing" are very different in the jewellery industry - washing is dunking  in a cleaning solution and jostling the things around. Polishing is also known as plating and the process takes a little bit more doing. There is first a chemical dunk, then they replate the item with whatever metal it was made from - I sent in a pair of mum's diamond earrings and 2 diamond rings, and another 2 of my own diamond rings. That right there already cost me $200, even after he gave me one complimentary polish.

I learnt that it's the wearing of the jewellery that changes its colour, not the keeping of it. So if I replate a piece and never wear it, in 10 years time (my jeweller assures me) it will still look brand new, as if I had just brought it home from the store - shiny, unscratched, and in pristine condition. 

I learnt that if I want a design in white gold but it's only available in yellow gold, I can have it plated at the point of purchase (and at no extra charge because #complimentary). Which is what I am having done on a new link bracelet I acquired today - to hold all my pendants. I'm making a charm bracelet out of pendants that I don't wear anymore. Because #skintags.  I haven't worn a necklace in a very, very long time. If I do wear anything around my neck at all, it's a string of pearls. No chains. No chokers. 

I learnt that the lobster clasps that will be attached to said pendants will also be made of 916 gold and since each one is about half a gram and I'll need 6, I will actually have 3.3 extra grams of resaleable and trade-in-able gold on that bracelet. 

I learnt that this is called a lobster clasp - 

I learnt that 3.3g of gold is pretty costly. About $345 USD. 

I learnt that they can turn stud earrings into dangling hook-type earrings. I got them to convert the garnets (Christmas 2013!) and topazes (mum's) for me for a hundred bucks. Considering they're essentially resetting the pieces in 18K white gold, I suppose it's only fair that I pay for the metal and not just the labour-cost. (He advised against doing the same thing for the sapphires as the stones were a little bit too tiny. I guess I'll just have to wear them as studs... if I wear them at all. But 2 out of 3 ain't bad!)

They'll look something like this - 

I'm also getting a ring knocked back into shape (I've worn that one for so long it's practically an oval now),  having mum's old chain and a pair of earrings polished (yes, that means they'll re-dip it in white gold!) and waiting on that bracelet and 3 of the 6 lobster clasps to be plated (my pendants are mixed colours) and for the claws to get attached so that my pendants can be turned into charms. I'll show you the before and after when I've collected it in 2 weeks' time.

I also learnt that resaleable gold is always handy when you want to buy new gold. I traded in an old chain for $400 dollars to offset the cost of the new bracelet and clasps. Total damage after trade in - a little bit over $850.

And so after spending two afternoons at the jeweller's I've finally sorted out all my old jewellery, figured out all of mum's jewellery, and made wearable all the stuff I want to keep but don't already wear. I've also earmarked pieces for selling to the pawnshop, found a way to rescue the mama's gemstones, and have gotten rid of bits that are essentially worthless. 

I feel very adult. This was the first time I'd ever gone and done jewellery things on my own. EVER. IN MY LIFE. I've only ever shopped for this stuff with mum. 

Yup. I feel like I've gotten there. Adulthood.

Have some paper chips today.... after spending all that money, this is about all I can afford now :)