Something I envy doing, Bikepacking

eBike is my only means of transportation here in Australia, my daily means of transportation going to work, running errands, or when roaming around the area. Nelson bay is a beautiful beachy place with many hills and ascending roads. An ordinary bike will make you push hard to get to your next stop.

These days there are many local tourists, they are basically coming from the city probably from Newcastle or Sydney because the international traveller is not yet allowed to get into Australia. Some of these travellers do travel with their van or caravans or motorhomes as they call it in the US. There are also many bikepacker, bikepacker are the people who is travelling with their bike. I did the same before and I always wanna do it again.  I actually envy those bikepacker. Travelling with bike is cool way of just enjoying the nature.

I don't know this feeling. I never had this before.

Some of my colleagues in Dubai regularly go to the pub to drink after work, I don't go because I don't like the feeling after drinking. I only go when it is a team outing where we go to the house of our colleague, or go to the pub or sometimes on the yacht.  I drink occasionally, I got drunk before and the feeling is not good having headaches, dizzy, and vomiting.  

Last night I join with some of my colleague and their friends on a bbq night. I drink one and a half bottles of beer and all was good.  I got home well and sleep. I wake up roughly 11pm and I was feeling dizzy, with blurry images of things and my mind was randomly thinking of things quick, unable to focus, and uneasy. No headaches or body pain, it was like a bad dream. 

I was not able to come to work because the feeling was still there until 6 o'clock in the morning when I am supposed to start my duty. I can't even focus and unable to dial the number at work, that's when I notice my phone ringing and I got a call from work.  I sleep again and feeling better when I woke up. 

Winter Life in Australian Bay (grocery and activities)

Australia has four seasons and it is exactly the opposite of the season in America, Asia, and Europe. Small parts of Australia do have snow but most parts are just having cold temperatures.

I am day off this time and we help Erickson, the new guy who just moved here in the bay. The apartment he got is not fully furnished that is why he is buying stuff from the neighborhood through Facebook. I am very lucky living in a fully furnished granny flat with very kind landlord. The only thing that I bought in my apartment is the TV because the one that the apartment has is not working very good.

Also in this video, I meet a family who is watching my videos even before they are in the Philipines. We tour Erickson around the bay area.

It really looks like normal here now.

It really looks like normal here now. Shops and restaurants and all other establishments are now open but still with social distancing and some restrictions applied for the safety of everyone. Streets and parks has many people having their picnic and usual family gatherings.



As you can tell we are now back to work but we are actually working with fewer hours than the normal 38 hours a week. This is good because reducing hours gives the opportunity to all employees to have hours of work instead of giving work only to the qualified job keeper.

The daily life of a person living alone, working overseas.

When I arrived in Australia I stayed in a backpacker guesthouse for three days until I found a shared room and live there for a couple of months. That apartment was then visited by the authority and we were informed to find a better place. 

I am now living alone in a granny flat, I love it here because I have the total freedom of not being cautious of everything being in the shared room/apartment. 

I travel to work with my eBike and I have been doing this for almost four years now and it is amazing. Ebike is so good that it can go anywhere that an ordinary person can go. No petrol, no license and it good for your health.

Here in Australia, we live a comfortable life.

 

Ready to eat meal.

I always do my own food quick and egg is one of the quickest food to make. Tuna in a can, noddles, frozen vegetables, frozen meat, fish, fishball, bread are some of the ready to cook the meal I have in my refrigerator. Soy sauce is also a big part of my usual meal preparation. As a kid, I was just eating just rice with a little oil and soy sauce.
We have a new friend, he just moved here. Since he is new here we tour him around some of the tourist spots in the area and then we eat in McDonald and it was my treat.

Rainy winter days Australia

It is raining from time to time here Port Stephen and that is normal during the winter season here in NSW, Australia. When it is raining it is difficult to dry clothes and that is exactly what is happening to me these days. I needed to have my chef jacket and apron to be placed near the heater for me to have a uniform for work.


You know that I travel just on my bike, I always have my rain jacket and rain trousers in my backpack, I am always ready for the rain. I still prefer to ride on my bike wearing my rain suit than waiting for the taxi and pay at least 15 dollars for a 7 minutes ride to work and back home.

Because of this rain, I decided to have my grocery order online. It is not same-day delivery here.  I attempted to have online grocery during my self-isolation but it was available only to old aged people and those with CoVid case isolation.

Forever 29 Birthday.

I received messages from the previous days from the viewers of the vlog, they say they will come to see the place and to see me too. 

It was a long weekend in NSW that is why many people got the opportunity to travel to a regional place like Port Stephen. Our hotel was actually busy considering that is was just a few days after the NSW lifted the travel ban.

This day after work I run to meet first Kuya Ruel and ate Au, and they give me a pair of working shoes. Then I meet the "BisdaOZ family vlog" and they gave me heaps of Filipino products, we had a long chat and good to know their story. Then later on the group of Rigil arrives. It was so good to have a conversation with them and they gave me ube pandesal. They don't know that it is my birthday.

No one knows my birthday except my family and close friends. Some of them don't know my real age because I keep on telling them I am forever 29.

The Good Fishing Man

I am the kind of person that you will always see around without knowing who I am. I am always outside, I am always on my bike biking easy and relax while singing along with the music on my ear. 

I usually stop in a different spot around the bay just looking and enjoying the beautiful view. I sometimes meeting some of my colleague and they're usually just walking around, doing some grocery, and sometimes fishing.

This time I notice a fishing couple who accidentally caught an albatross. They let it go, I was amazed. later on, they called me and I realized that the guy is my colleague, a fellow chef in the restaurant where I am working. Chef Alessandro is a good, responsible fisherman.

Waking up early to see the hardworking aussie

Hardworking people usually wake up early. 

I remember that my parents wake up really early during my childhood.  Our house was just near the rice field and I usually wake up without my parent in the house because they are already planting the rice or harvesting the rice, or doing the usual farming stuff.  They do wake up and work early to avoid the heat of the sun in the midday.

This time I wake up really to see how the hardworking Aussie spends their early morning. Many of them are doing physical activities that is going to benefit their health. I've seen some fisherman, people heading to work and people that are just walking around. Life is beautiful here in Australia.

Officially back to work in Australia.

I am now back to work.

It is so good to come back to work. There are few changes having new kitchen staff, newly painted interior walls, new setup, and new system of breakfast service. Yes, I am doing breakfast service and we are not doing buffet this time instead we are doing a plated breakfast service. This system requires more staff compared to the buffet service that you just need to make things ready, filled up, and let the customer take their own food. This time there must be waiters to serve the food and the kitchen staff needs to be more than two especially when we are doing a hundred pax.

It was a good breakfast service, and as usual we are going home passing through this beautiful view.

Videos that can make our day...Good.

I love singing competition performances especially the auditions and this one of Jamie Archer really made my day.

This video was uploaded in 2009 but I have never seen it before, I see this face for the first time. The video called "auditions turns to a concert" was suggested in youtube. I opened it and seen Jamie Archer. I searched for the whole audition footages and this video comes out.  This guy is confident with the pure talent of a musician even before the audition.



He gets through the audition and got four yeses and based on the youtube recommendations he has more performance videos.







But before watching this video I was already captured by a sad hopeful facebook video of a man whose been in jail since his teenage years and is now trying his best to live a normal life. You'll see the regrets and the hardship he is getting through because of the wrong decision he made before.



This video made me cry because teenage years are really crucial on how is the person gonna be in the future, their decision making is highly influenced by the environment they're living with.



I am lazy to find that video again.

Back to Life in the Bike

Australia particularly New South Wales now lifted the travel ban. It is good news because hotels, restaurants, and other establishments are now open. People are back to work including me soon.

It was a long vacation for me. March 5th when I had my annual leave. I went to Dubai and come back to Australia after 4 days. I was just at home during my annual leave. My plan for bike travel in Tasmania was cancelled because of the travel ban and lockdown due to CoVid 19. 

Middle of March 2020 when lockdown, travel restrictions and other cautionary was announced. It was not very strict compared to other country, people here in Australia do follow the rules and responsible enough.

And now we are almost back to the normal life, except that social distancing is strictly being implemented. I am back to life in my daily bike.

Cheap Toilet Paper

Today is June 1, 2020. The travel ban is lifted today, hotels around New South Wales arte now allowed to open after 2 months of being closed due to CoVid 19.

This vlog is a few days late.
I will be back to work in a few days and will be back to daily bike ride going to work. Will be less cooking vlog in the coming days.

I went to the grocery and I haven't seen the cheap toilet paper that I usually take before the lockdown. The cheapest toilet paper this time is 8 dollars.

This is my first time to buy shumai here, I was not aware that this shumai is very much approved to my Filipino taste. This shumai is half price of 5 dollars with 9-11 pcs of shumai.