[Australia] Dining in Gold Coast

I was in Broadbeach in Gold Coast for just a few days and I had most of my meals at the event I attended so I only got to try a few restaurants while I was there. Among the restaurants I visited, my favorite is Urban Fish Market. I had dinner here on my first night because I felt that since I was in Gold Coast and was right next to the sea, I should enjoy some seafood.

Urban Fish Market

I ordered the Seafood Basket which has NZ Hoki, 2 calamari rings, 2 sea scallops, and 1 prawn cutlet. I thought this was the perfect dish for me because it was a lot of seafood on one plate and I was really hungry. You get to choose how your food gets prepared: grilled, crumbed, or battered. I asked the lady at the counter what she recommended and she said battered so I went with that. My meal was really good! If I ever visit Broadbeach again, I am definitely eating here again.

Seafood Basket at Urban Fish Market

I had dinner alone because my colleague still wasn't hungry because she had a very late lunch at Rumi, a Persian restaurant right next to Urban Fish Market. Her flight arrived in Gold Coast a couple of hours earlier than mine so we met up in Rumi. By the time I got there, she had eaten her meal but she did Baklava for dessert and wanted to share it with me. I thought the Baklava was a bit on the sweet side but it was still good. And the presentation was very fancy!

Baklava at Rumi

Monday night dinner was organized for several event attendees at Sage, which was also in the Surf Parade area and just about a block away from Urban Fish Market and Rumi. I got to meet with some other folks from Southeast Asia, including a few Filipinos who were also attending the event.

Sage Restaurant

We were all asked to pre-order and I selected the Sirloin Steak. It had good flavor but I felt it was overcooked and a bit too tough, an opinion shared by other folks who got the same dish. I think maybe Sage isn't fully equipped to churn out dozens of similar plates at the same time because our group included maybe about 50 people and they served our main dishes at about the same time. Nevertheless, that didn't deter me from fully consuming and still enjoying my steak haha.

Sirloin steak at Sage

What we all loved was a seafood platter that was served before our main courses arrived. I'm not sure what it was but looking at the Sage menu, I guess it might have been the Hotplate. Whatever it was, it was exceptionally good. I guess Gold Coast really does have great seafood.

Seafood platter at Sage

We also had dessert. I selected the lemon meringue dessert and it was delicious.

Lemon meringue at Sage

On our final night, my colleague and another friend had dinner at Harajuku Gyoza Beer Stadium which is just on the outside of Oasis Mall.

Harajuku Gyoza Beer Stadium

We ordered a few different gyoza plates as well as the Popcorn Pork Belly (crispy slow cooked pork belly served with a chili caramel sauce, coriander and pickled red cabbage slaw, sprinkled with red chili and fried garlic).

Pork Belly and Gyoza at Harajuku Gyoza

I didn't have an opportunity to have more Australian-specific items like vegemite or kangaroo. If I get to visit Australia again in the future, maybe I need to try these.

Next: Meriton Suites Broadbeach

[Australia] Business Trip

As I mentioned in my previous post, an international business trip in 2025 was NOT on my bingo card. While I had many of these in my younger years, my last international business trip was back in 2009, a whopping 16 years ago. In fact, I was initially hesitant to go on this trip, but as it turned out, it turned out to be something that will really help me.

Photo op with E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

I attended the 3-day Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo held in Gold Coast. Gartner is the world's leading research and advisory company for IT and they apparently host this event every year. While the main topics and agenda items are geared towards IT, this event actually isn't just for IT professionals and many of the attendees weren't IT.

My first time attending the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo

My goal was to learn as much as I could from the many different sessions over the event's three days and try to figure out how I can apply what I learned to enable our company to do things better. I ended up attending 25 sessions so it was definitely information overload for me haha but thankfully, I did have a whole lot of aha moments. Now that I'm back, I still need to review all my notes, check the available documentation, and rewatch the video recordings to come up with recommendations.

View of Gold Coast from the Symposium venue

A colleague went on this trip with me and she got a lot of tips and tricks from her manager who had been to these events before, including registering the day before the event. Apparently, the registration gets very crowded on the morning of the first day so attendees have an option of registering the day before. Thankfully we did because I was able to have my photo taken with this awesome McLaren at the entrance of the convention center before it was cordoned off the next day. (You could still have your photo taken with it of course, but not as close and with a rope barrier.)

McLaren car on display at the venue

While the great value of this event to me is that I feel I've become a bit more equipped to do my job better, one of the highlights of the event for me was the Xpo Galactica event on the second evening. It was an evening socials event with a sci-fi theme.

Kicking off the Gartner Xpo Galactica evening event

According to our agenda, it would run from 530pm to 730pm. I was initially unsure if I would attend, at least until I saw the description of this event: Get ready “to boldly go where no one has gone before”. Join us for an evening voyage to the final frontier, test your aim in laser tag, snap your photo with E.T. and capture the droids that you have been looking for. Embark on a quest of new intergalactic partnerships over a pitcher of spotchka at the Galactica Bar. Get ready to discover the unknown future rolling towards us while being guided by the force. This will be no ordinary night.

Awesome sci-fi design at the Xpo Galactica event

As soon as I saw that it included a photo op with E.T. the extra terrestrial, I just had to go! Naturally, when I got there, I tried to figure out where and how I could get my picture taken with E.T. I finally saw the photo booth that was recreating the most iconic scene in the film: Elliott in his red hoodie riding a bike with E.T. in the basket carrier. I was so excited that I actually forgot to put the hoodie on to cover my head (see the first photo in this post). I asked if I could fall in line again to have my photo taken, this time with the hoodie on, and they said that was perfectly okay. Here is the final photo (which is now on display at home in a picture frame haha):

This photo is the main reason why I wanted to attend the Xpo Galactica event

I also had many more cool photo ops. There were a lot of Star Wars fans there so I got a photo with Chewbacca, Kylo Ren, and a Storm Trooper.

Chewbacca, Kylo Ren, and a Stormtrooper

I also had my photo taken with R2D2 and BB8.

Star Wars droids R2D2 and BB8

There was also a recreation of Han Solo in carbonite at one of the bars.

Han Solo encased in Carbonite

It wasn't all Star Wars though. I got to see the Men in Black with an alien on a gurney and their neuralyzers...

Men in Black with an alien being autopsied

...and I also saw Terminator.

With the Terminator

Another highlight for me was that I got to listen to Ashleigh Barty, a retired Australian tennis player who was ranked #1 for 121 weeks and won 3 Grand Slam singles titles. As a tennis fan, it was great getting to hear Ashleigh talk about how she set her goals and how she achieved her success as well as how she decided to retire when we was still #1.

Former #1 tennis player Ash Barty was a keynote speaker

Then there was the swag. There are a lot of different booths on the Xpo floor and most (all?) of them give out stuff to people who spend some time talking to them. My favorite thing that I got was a really cute bee stuff toy! I would have probably tried to get more swag but I wasn't prepared for it and I didn't have enough luggage space haha.

My loot from the Gartner IT Xpo/Symposium

There was also overflowing food and drinks, including coffee. In the lounge area where I would normally have my meals, they had this beautiful painting on display. It is named "Durungul Budjerum" which means Calm Spirit and it was created by Aboriginal artist Lann Levigne.

Durungul Budjerum created by Aboriginal artist Lann Levigne

I also got a few free books, including "The Graduate's Guide to Future-Proofing Your Career" by Paul Redmond, who was another keynote speaker. I'm definitely not anywhere near close being a graduate haha but his talk about the multi-generational workforce was very insightful so I am sure his book will share even more great insights. He had a book signing on the third day and it was cool that attendees could get these books for free (as long as you fall in line early enough)!

Signed book from Paul Redmond

I believe that it costs a fortune to participate in this event so I am very thankful to my company for sending me there. Now, I just gotta make sure I can apply as many valuable learnings as I can.

Next: Dining in Gold Coast 

Visiting Australia for the First Time

For the first time in my life, I got to go to Australia.

Gold Coast, Australia

I went there on a business trip actually. To be honest, I never imagined ever going on an international business trip so this took me by surprise. In fact, I was only told a little more than a month before my trip that I had to go to Gold Coast to attend a conference there. While getting a visa to travel to Australia is not as difficult and doesn't take as long as getting one for many other countries, there were some internal company approvals we had to secure before I could travel.

Broadbeach in Gold Coast

The timing of my trip was also not that great. It conflicted with some plans I had, including a reunion that I really didn't want to miss. As such, I couldn't extend my stay by a couple of days to see more of the city, which meant that my trip was really purely business. I didn't really get to do much else.

View of Sydney from the plane

If I had more time, I would've wanted to visit the SkyPoint Observation Deck and maybe even do the SkyPoint Climb Experience. A friend of mine who  has been to Gold Coast also said it would be nice to visit Surfer's Paradise. Alas it was not to be. Thankfully, my hotel - Meriton Suites Broadbeach - was just a couple of blocks away from the beach so I got to see the ocean.

The ocean was just a couple of blocks from my hotel

I took a short stroll along Broadbeach where I saw the Robert Gatenby Boardwalk.

The Robert Gatenby Boardwalk

I was also introduced to Borobi, the blue koala who was the official mascot of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. I later discovered that Borobi means Koala in the Yugambeh language, which is an Australian Aboriginal language. After the 2018 commonwealth games, Borobi has become the official mascot of the Australian Commonwealth Games team and a champion of Australian indigenous languages with the Yugambeh Museum.

Borobi, official mascot of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games

Right next to the beach was The Oasis, a shopping mall that had a Woolworths, a popular supermarket chain in Australia. I ended up going to that Woolworths on my first night and on my last night in Gold Coast. I bought a lot of Tim Tams, especially the flavors that you can't find in Manila, as well as a couple of bags of The Killer Coffee.

The Killer Coffee

There was also a souvenir shop at The Oasis and I decided to get a couple of fridge magnets. I also got a really cute Barney Gumnut and Friends tea set from Ashdene that I gave to my mom. 

Barney Gumnut and Friends tea set

Arguably the most popular Australian animals are kangaroos and koalas which is why most people get souvenirs that feature these creatures. However, my personal favorite is the wombat. When I saw this mug with its really cute wombat design, I just had to have it. Not surprisingly, it is now my favorite mug.

My Ashdene wombat mug

Since I didn't get to do much more while I was in Australia, I just tried to get as many photos as I could, including this one with a turtle statue right next to The Oasis mall.

I also saw several Australian white ibises in the city. In fact, the first one I saw shortly after I arrived.

Australian white ibis

Over the next several posts, I will write about the rest of my experience in Australia, including the conference I attended, the hotel where I stayed, some restaurants I visited, and other experiences I had.

Next: Business Trip

Aperitif Cafe at SM Megamall

A few years ago, whenever I would pass by the cinema area of SM Megamall, I would always see the Aperitif kiosk there. I noticed it because even before I saw it physically for the first time, I would get ads about Aperitif on social media. After passing by the Megamall kiosk a few times, I finally decided to try one of their cookies and I absolutely loved it! So when I discovered that Aperitif now had its own permanent location still on the 3rd floor of SM Megamall where patrons can have a seat and enjoy their food with coffee, I decided to visit. And after my first trip here, I ended up enjoying their sweet treats several more times.

Aperitif Cafe on the 3rd floor of SM Megamall

Before I talk about the food I've tried here, let me first talk about how much I absolutely love their design. The far end of the cafe feels like a very luxurious yet cozy and charming alcove. I am not an expert of different art styles so I don't know if what they have is renaissance, neo-classical, baroque, rococo, or something else. Whatever it is, I love it!

Even the ceiling in the main area is quite stunning.

And the Venus de Milo at the entrance, with the mosaic tiled section of the floor, really adds a wonderful touch.

Now let's get to the food! On my first visit, I had to try their Ooey Gooey Cookie again. It really is good, although its price has increased since I first tried it. (I also have to say, I love how they serve your order on an elegant tray that they leave with you. I always enjoy my order while everything is still neatly placed on the tray.)

Ooey Gooey Cookie

I love donuts and Aperitif as a really fancy selection. The first one I got to try was the Nuts for Nutella. This donut has Nutella filling, Milk Chocolate, Chocolate Chantilly Cream, and a Hazelnut Top. This was dangerously good!

Nuts for Nutella Donut

The Very Berry donut, with its Strawberry Cream, Pink White Chocolate Glaze, Chantilly Cream, and White Chocolate Shard is also very delicious.

Very Berry donut

They also have gelato and I tried one of their gelato flavors in one of my visits here. I can't recall which one I got though (it might have been tiramisu).

Gelato

There are a lot more items on their menu which I want to try. I also saw photos of their ther branches in Metro Manila and they all look really classy and stylish. (I want to visit their BCG branch!) If you want to enjoy delicious baked goods and sweet treats in a lovely setting, Aperitif is the place for me. I am certain that I will be visiting this place (or maybe its other branches) many more times in the future.

Aperitif
https://aperitif.com.ph/
Locations: https://aperitif.com.ph/pages/our-cafes

Jessica Sanchez Wins AGT!

 Jessica Sanchez is the Grand Champion of America's Got Talent! Woohoo!

 

 video uploaded in YouTube by America's Got Talent 

This was such an incredible result. Her incredible audition where she sang Beautiful Things made her a front runner and thankfully, the voting public managed to carry her all the way through. It was a couple of months between her audition, where she was about 6 months pregnant, to the quarterfinals, where she was 8 months pregnant already. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to sing on stage while you are 8-9 months pregnant but Jessica pulled through exceptionally well. Her finale performance - Die with a Smile by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga - was an incredible end to her AGT journey.

video uploaded in YouTube by America's Got Talent 

I've been a fan of Jessica Sanchez since she joined American Idol in 2012 and I really wanted her to win that season. She finished as the runner-up but she wasn't really able to break into music mainstream. Hopefully, winning AGT will allow her to achieve more success in the music industry but even if it doesn't, she did win US$ 1 million. The fact that she will soon give birth and that she had her baby with her each time she stepped on stage and performed will probably make this win even more meaningful.

Congratulations Jessica and I wish you all the best in the future!

Grail Sneaker Care

I've been a customer of Grail Sneaker Care for almost two years now.

I had seen ads of Grail Sneaker Care in the past so when I needed to have two pairs of shoes cleaned in late 2023, I went to their kiosk in Greenbelt 5. It turns out they have a 2-year membership promo. This includes 5 premium deep cleanings and a good discount on any other cleaning you want to have done. I decided to avail of their membership since I was already having two pairs of shoes deep-cleaned and the price of membership is actually lower than five separate deep cleaning services.

Grail Sneaker Care used to have this kiosk in Greenbelt

I availed of their services again after my family and I went to Kenya. My shoes ended up getting really dirty due to the massive amounts of dust during our game drives.

My two-year membership was about to expire and while I had already used up my five premium deep cleans, I decided I wanted to have more of my shoes cleaned using my discount. As it turns out, the Greenbelt 5 kiosk which I went to before was already closed. They have another branch in Podium so I went to their shop on the 4th floor there.

Grail Sneaker Care at Podium

I wanted to maximize my membership before it expired so I had four pairs of shoes cleaned. I also decided to have the soles of one pair of shoes repaired because it already started to get detached. 

If you, like me, don't particularly like washing and cleaning your own shoes yourself, Grail Sneaker Care is a good option. You can look them up on Instagram.

Grail Sneaker Care
https://www.instagram.com/grailsneakercare
+63 917 103 1495