Since my mum has been itching to get her hands back into the restaurant business after a 7 year hiatus, I opted to take her and my dad to try out one of the top restaurants in Sydney.

I took them to Iceberg Restaurant, situated at the world famous Bondi Beach, it is rated with Two Chef hats from Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food guide. Sadly to say, I do not recommend this restaurant for the food.


The view is all good and all, but for a cloudy Sunday Winter afternoon, there really wasn't much to see. The design of the restaurant was very minimalist, lots of grey and white tones. And the seats were made from Asian inspired bamboo shoots or cheap looking lounge seats.

There wasn't a need to turn the lights on, but from what I saw, the ceiling had rows of bulbs that mimic fake candles... a bit tacky I think.


My soup special arrived, it was Chick Peas with Smoke Ham and other stuff. It was very salty, though, the portion was very big.


My mother wasn't too hungry, so we ordered her one of the day's specials, Soft Shell prawns. It's interesting though, when the waitress was describing it, it sounded so nice. As you can see, it just looks like fried prawns you'd get from super market packets. They're so small!


My dad's main. A whole 500gram Rib Eye steak cooked medium rare. This was the best plate of the day... but really, who can go wrong with steak if cooked right?


I ordered pan fried John Dory. To me, making fish shouldn't be hard at all. But the chef was able to over cook the fish, resulting in the meat being tough. The importance of fish is to cook it to medium, so that the fish's taste will come out and the meat texture is silky smooth. This is why I always prefer to have my fish Asian style.

So overall, I do not recommend Iceberg Restaurant. It is over priced, the view is just blanket of water and the food isn't done well. If my parents were to open a new restaurant, I think getting a Two Chef hat from SMH is a walk in the park. All you need is waiters that remember the menu special and make it sound good.

And as I'm not a drinker, I don't feel a need to talk about the bar area. Since the most important thing to a restaurant is it's food, not the view, not the service. The food should be like a drug, like a happy meal.

Rockpool (fish) on the other hand.... exquisite. And they're a Two Chef hat rated restaurant also.

While going through the usual gaming vids on www.gametrailers.com I found a pretty cool fan film:


Metal Gear Solid: Cold Blooded from TheDuoGroup on Vimeo.

Though, I think that only fans would really understand the full feeling of the short. Done pretty well nevertheless.

If anyone didn't realise, I've been missing for a month.
No, I was not kidnapped or was on flight Oceanic 815....

I have been back in Sydney!


Not many knew I came back. Actually, only 3 friends knew the exact day I was coming back home. Everyone else, I'd be telling that I'd be back in a few months.... that I had to make a short film in HK first.
Then walla, a month ago, I hoped on a plane, took a taxi and scared the buddha out of my grandma when I rang the doorbell and spoke in a menacing tone: "Open the door!"

I surprised my Mother as well as my girl.

Nothing much has really happened since the month I've came home.
I've gotten my old job back at Council, which is great, since I love the flexibility they give me there. They know that being a filmmaker is my fulltime job. I've also gotten a new car, at a price which is good, considering the brand and amount it has driven.

Oh, and I haven't forgotten about my films either. I've been meeting up with Charlie, and working on pre-production of our short films. Mine as about eternal love, titled, Eighteenth Emotion at the moment. Whereas his short is entitled, Sixty third time, which is about a break up.


Ah.... and to make things more exciting, the Telstra Bigpond ClickHere has organised a competition to conincide with the Sydney Film Festival. Film makers are required to shoot a 1 minute short film entirely on mobile phones, but able to edit on a computer. The competition's theme is: "My Town".


Check out two of my films on their website so far:

"Scrab'd"



"Whatever you want to call it".


Hopefully one of them will be picked as the 6 short listed films. And fingers crossed, I can get people to vote for me as audience favourite, or even better, the Judge's Award, which is a trip to the Toronto Film Festival!