On June 3rd…

2023 seems to be the year of “Moving (On)”

Just got back from 10 days in Tokyo — outstanding stuff with the cuisine and the sights seen; it’ll be like my 5th time in Tokyo – but I’m not overly fussed ,there’s been a lot of changes in the time since I was last there (about 2014).

I’m now in the process of moving over to a new house this weekend, and it’s been extremely cathartic as well as high pressure juggling this while trying to work without being impeded by it.

The new house is about 60 years newer than the other one; so it’s nice to try and fit everything into a nicer “style”. I’m also able to sit down, and gauge exactly what it is I want to take with me. Being a forced “purge” is nice….

Owning the old house means I don’t need to rush the process either, but it’s tempting not to just jump in and buy everything new too >.<

22nd of June…

It’s an opportunity to change things, and grow up a little more.

I funnily, have half a dozen drafts sitting here in the backend, talking about moving and rearranging my stuff within my old house. And I didn’t have a way to articulate them all into a single consolidated post.

Life has a funny way of things – now I’m forced to make that more drastic leap.

This post has been sitting here since June 3rd – I started it the day of moving to the new house. And for the last few weeks – I have slowly been tweaking and adapting my new place to my needs.

Some worries do sit in the back of my mind, but most of all my current room is super clean, and organised 😄 definitely a win!

It’s helped me find some sort of “center” for the time being, and I have a mild gripping terror of going back to my old house to focus on what to throw out, and what to keep 😂

It’s nice though, I moved my main gaming desktop to my new place, and have only the minimum of stationery and possessions.

I have a nice new bed frame, and table that match – and my bed has been changed from a King Single to a Queen sized bed. I used to be a lot more utilitarian in what I had, but comfort and aesthetics are more key nowadays. I’m getting old haha…

Also, I hate IKEA furniture assembly. Wow what a torturous ordeal it’s been building the bed frame, and the work tables I use…

Welcome Maple. I don’t know what type of cat or kitten she is. But she’s 2 years old, and gorgeous. She’s Panko’s big sister.

She’s a tiny kitty, so here’s hoping that she and Panko get along, and he’s gentle 🙂

I’m sure she’ll very quickly establish that she’s in charge, though.

This was probably one of the biggest whirlwind days in recent memory! Strap yourselves in, dear audience – this is a long blog entry with plenty of photos.

My sister Sarah and I headed out to the Rocks, just under the Sydney Harbour Bridge for an awesome lunch of food trucks with tacos and Don Julio Tequila. The food was made by (now) celebrity chef, Roy Choi. He’s famous partly for the Kogi food truck, his contributions to essentially feeding the Marvel Studios crew during their Marvel Cinematic Universe adventures, and his adventures with Jon Favreau in “Chef Show” on Netflix. The movie, “Chef” (also directed by Favreau) was also based loosely around his life.

I know right, the tacos don’t look like much to look at – but somehow, they were amazing. The tortillas were fresh, the recipe clicked together so well, and they were hot and tasty. Definitely impressive, especially considering there were other “great mexican food trucks” there who partnered with Roy on the event, and they served their tacos – side by side, Roy’s food was still trumping theirs. 😲

Despite the wet weather that crept up on us around the start of the event, by the time things were well underway (and PACKED with way too stylish people and hipsters) – the sun came out and everything went smashingly 😂

But by far – this was the highlight of my day 😱

Being able to meet Roy was amazing, we exchanged only small pleasantries and I thanked him for helping me see more of the world of food; he was soon mobbed by at least 30 other people.

If you haven’t seen his show – this is good watching, people: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81288533

Then what happened?

I topped off the day with Korean BBQ with the Snacks gang.

What should have been a night at Mjolnir – a viking pub in Sydney, ended up turning into a visit to our group’s fave Korean BBQ chain – this time instead of being at the CBD, we went to the one in Strathfield.

Lesson learnt – we had a huge group so we had to wait a long long time to get seated. Easily an hour. We did eventually get in though, and they spread us cross two long tables

A fantastic night was had by all. Great food, better company – it was an awesome night to enjoy lots of food and drink 😇

We then had a brief wander around to chill and cool down from the heat of the BBQ, and digest our food a bit.

Plenty of memes were had. A good night all round, and a fantastic day that I’ll look back on for a long time to come.

Tim‘s birthday is on the 13th; however, we were all mostly free this Thursday evening to join him for a nice meal at Outback Steakhouse (North Strathfield) – we were there for company over the food, but it was hearty food, full of grease, and plenty of banter to be had!

Outback Steakhouse has been in my life for quite a while, actually. Despite it’s reputation, it served more as a common meeting point for various crowds of people that walked in and out of my life. When I got my first real job in the Tech Industry (working in marketing!) I planned many a LAN party event here with one of my best mates, Ben (missingo) at this restaurant over many many nights.

Anyway, retrospectives aside; the food hasn’t changed much at all (the prices have though, oof!)

They left too much of the fat cap at the end on, one end of the steak was charred way more than the other end (the fatty end was undercooked) – making the fat render and drench everything in grease, but not in a nice hot way. The steak was left to rest too long so it was almost cold; and the chips had coagulated with their cheese to form a solid brick (you can see in the photo, this is about 60 seconds after the plate was put down in front of me).

Still, I had a really enjoyable night (definitely more the company than the food, as it always has been) and everyone else that attended had a blast too!

It was good to see Marshy, Brad, Brad, Tanj, Amy, Sean, Jimmy, Bec, Mat, Gaetano, and the birthday boy, Tim. Happy Birthday mate.

Went to a quick surprise dinner with my sister, her partner, and an old friend at a classic venue; Korean BBQ Buffet in Chatswood’s Mandarin Centre food court.

It’s a cheap and cheerful place, and actually – they have one of my favourite cuts of meat, the Pork Jowl there – it was plentiful, it was fatty, it was tasty, I loved it.

At $43 per head, all you can eat – they’ve updated the Buffet and BBQ Meat bar that you self serve at. It’s a very homely, simple place. It’s nice and quiet and a good time was had by all, honestly. We only stayed for about an hour, but we DEFINITELY ate our fill. The Hostess was lovely enough to give us a plate of Wagyu cuts which was quite nice (the pork was better!) and I think myself and all the friends from Only Snacks should definitely visit here sooner rather than later!

Would definitely rate the place a 8/10. The food was good, it was acceptable, the company was great; a good dinner! 😂

Every couple of months or so, some of my friends and I have taken to lining up early at about 10-10:30 in the morning at one of the more popular Yum Cha restaurants in the city.

Honestly, it’s always a pretty great feed. Excessive amounts of dim sum, good company, and general shit talking!

Tim managed to try out some chicken feet, loved it 👍

Note to self, I need to bring my diabetes kit with me a lot more consistently when going out with the bois.

Hello.

For the past half decade I’ve burned through my financial resources, time, energy and even health working towards running and building a gaming community. Learning scraps of everything I needed to get by on and then having to relearn things to master them. It’s been one heck of a journey.

This blog is my personal thoughts and feelings only as I build my gaming community; and it’s my way of recording this great adventure.

On March 19th this year, I managed to execute the first BYOC event of our gaming community brand, eLeague.gg – we had spent the past 5 years as Multiplayer United (and still continue to use this name to help other communities) but it came to a head with this new brand, and this new concept.

eSports Gamers

Community Gamers

Quirky Competitions

Incredible Modders

Loads of swag and prizes

It all came together; and as we near the approach of our next event – we face more challenges. Fixing the (hopefully mostly unnoticed) mistakes of the first event, improving our event’s features, and on a personal level of obsession that’s now infamous on our team – our online platform to support the burgeoning community.

As this blog continues, I hope you guys will enjoy the insight, efforts and lengths which the talented people I’m blessed to both work with and call my friends at eLeague.gg go to, in order to deliver an amazing gaming experience in Sydney, Australia.