Melbourne XMas Trip

Adblock

click here for full album
This is a inpromptu trip. We book our flight and accomodation one week b4 the trip :P
Well….as expected most cheap flights ( jetstar & virgin) were sold out. Qantas is the cheapest now (ironically). And we are left with flight as early as 6am…
And we book a couple of backpacker hostels luckily one replied :D King St backpackers!!!
Well, we were greeted by rainy weather.

i so didn't expect this in summer. the wind was freezing and i have to buy another jacket. my hands crack instantly. once we reach the hostel we had a little nap b4 we start our journey.


Day 1
1.QV market
QV market is so much bigger, spacious, cleaner than Paddy's in Sydney.
had nasi bryani at the food court. visited the pet shop to see some cute little animals.





emo Jacq

the free city circle tram


2.Flinders Lane - the supposedly artsy place but didn't see much artsy stuff. have to walk carefully cuz slippery.....


3. The Shopping Place
Elizabeth St, GPO (general post office but now a shopping centre)
myers and various shopping centre



as light as feather.....:D

poor horsy, have to stand all day and night even in the rain

4.CHinatown at little bourke St
chinatown is a long stretch of organised shops and restaurant. unlike sydney where it's more scattered. chinatown in melbourne has less boutiques but more restaurant than sydney. had jap dinner at yoyogi

at the entrance of chinatown



L watching you change in one of the chinese boutiques

5. Melbourne Central
Met up with john's hk fren, Tony, went to melbourne central to had dessert at Chillipadi (a malaysian owned cafe). was at max brenner at first but they were too cheapskate to on their heater so move to Chillipadi instead.
ordered the blueberry something. it definitely look nicer than it taste........ the cream is not the refreshing fresh cream, make worse by the original sourness of the berries. could hardly finish it.


6. Docklands night view(equivalent of Darling harbour in sydney).
much more spacious, peaceful, less crowded than Darling.

the cutsy artsy sculptures



Day 2
1. Direct Factory Outlet (DFO) juz at the street behind our hostel.
2. Yumcha went to Chinatown the famous Shark Fin House to yumcha with Tony
3. QV went to Queen Victoria Shopping Centre while John and Tony go play snooker
4. Melbourne Cetral and many more that i couldn't name
5. National State Library.


there's this lady giving speech in front of the library. when we finished our shopping she's still there talking...........

we oso saw xmas carols


RMIT is juz around the corner with it's innovative aka ugly deco :P

6. Little Italy at Lygon St
met up with jacq's fren david and went to the little Italy at lygon st to have dinner.


the guy on the left is the benedict lookalike. the guy even sound like benedict...

after than went on to KOKOBLACK to have dessert. ordered the mint mousse something while jacq order the belgium choc mousse. couldn't finish it again. i realise that i have low tolerance for sweet stuff. but it's interesting to see the hot choc harden on top of the ice cream :D


7. Crown Casino
numerous pokey machine. and the gambling table. we saw someone lost 1100 bucks in juz 5 minutes. CRAZY!!!! i can feel the sinful aura....


me with a fake crown at crown city

8. Chadstone Shopping Centre
the shoppin centre was supposed to open till 6am the next day becuz of Xmas. well it's interesting to see pple stayin awake to shop. i can say i have never seen so many pple in a shoppin centre. it's a total frenzy and HAVOC. so damn crowded
i am so turn off by the crowd to shop. can't wait to get out of it. it's always nice to shop with few pple around and the stocks nicely displayed!!


Day 3
1. St Kilda Rd with nice sea view & luna Park


2. Chapel St (equivalent of paddington in sydney with designer hi class shopping but much more longer and more variety) - we only drove pass

3. Richmond (factory outlet) the guys bot their Country Road Wallet for 20 bucks
4. Smith St - sport stuff factory outlet. bot a pair or normal black FILA slippers (7.5)
*all these place are at the Southeastern area of Melbourne CT
5. meet up with AUnt Maria and family at Taylor's lake. my first time meeting them after hearing much stories about them from my parents.
had dinner, chit chat , play cards .etc


"fighting" with Sarah

6. hang out at Tony's place for a while. see him play his SWORD :D

Day 4
1. Great Ocean Road
it's a 8 hours to and fro journey
we stopped by the Lorne Beach, 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and took plenty of pictures
thanks Tony for driving!!! while i kept dozing off at the backseat.



very Wong Ka Wei feel....






me with 4 of the 12 apostles


one of the apostles is goin down soon..........

so many flies bugging!!!!


London Bridge


Loch Ard Gorge


Another magnificent view


very LOST


on our way back.....
2. Korean Restaurant
when back to CT, we then went to the Korean restaurant near QV marketrecommended by Tony to have seafood steamboat and korean pancake.





the residents at king's backpackers exchangin presents

3. Victoria Tower
after that went to Jacq's fren's place at Victoria Tower. the view of the CT from the balcony is splendid. to get a place lidat in sydney the rent can easily doubled (800-900)



thanks to this corolla and her owner who teman us for our melbourne trip :D

4. Stay up Late till next day
after that we stay up at entertainment centre to play pool, DDR, pokey machine..... simply CRAZY lol.... (John won 30 bucks !!!!)
and straight away took our flight back to sydney

Day 5
after napping till afternoon, we headed to CT for Boxing Day. again it's people everyday......
headache....manage to exchange present with Jacq finally.

in conclusion:
what's so good about melbourne
more organised, more peaceful, more spacious, have free city circle tram and free tourist bus, more shopping places and variety

what's so bad about melbourne
the drastic weather..... >_< 4 seasons in one day. well i only experienced one season - winter....

The Rest of my Holiday

The rest are in point form of how I spend my holiday. Surprisingly, I have something to do everyday.

Not so interesting bits.................

-Wake up late, natural wake up!!!! w/o alarm clock. It’s such a luxury >_< -Tryin to plan something, mayb I’ll try to read something, I’ll TRY -Go yx house play piano for a while, before he & sarah left -Badminton -City buy nougat $23 /kg, I bot 2 kg, ask yx to help bring back for me -hang out at bondi with kat, yx, sarah, lil :eat at kamfook - Buy my purplish polyester dress, treat yx his mocha
-Night clubbing at Beach Palace till1am with Imel, yx, Kristen, tom and frens
So hot to club in the summer w/o air con. Juz sweat all over. I so miss the dry ice/aircon in asian club but definitely not the smoke.
-Supposed to buy lindt chocolate at lindt sale and gyming
But teman gary go bondi again (with imel and jacq), as a result gyming delayed
Buy xmas cards, Hop to CT – look at shoes for a while
Turn out lindt chocolate sale was a hoax
-buy groceries
-clean house

More interesting bits....................

FAREWELL IMELDA

-Farewell to Imelda for 1 month well as i'm writing this, she will be back in 2 weeks time, time flies :D

Dinner at noodi noodi with imel at the SPOT. our fav thai place as it's cheap and tasty

Blueberry bagel with cream cheese and chocolate dip at chocolart

Next day : imel, jac n me: Eat at Turkish delight – pide orginal,vegetarian and ham something with all the different dips

Chocolart : the burning incense chocolate - it's quite "in" now. for those of u who don't know wat is it. it's like the incense burner, with candles at the bottom but melted chocolate on top instead. and usually come with metal straw spoon for u.

-Send imel off the next day (Sunday)

Hang out at Jacq’s place for a lil of DOMESTIC TIME!!!!

Make mini cheese cuppie And black bottom cuppies
why the name cuppies
cuz it's supposed to be cup cakes but it turn out smaller and flatter on the metal mould. and looked like cookies instead

cupcake + cookie = cuppies

blendingwaiting....

tada!!!! fresh from oven!

Spaghetti the Jamie Olivier way with spices and lemon zest >o<

Watch hongkie show after that

GYM

I Sign up for unigym 70 bucks for one month. Put my swimming regime on hold till the school reopens.

70 bucks entitle me for unlimited entry to the gym and fitness classes for one month. Will see how it goes and may sign up for another month.

I try out diff fitness classes and these are the ones that I like pilates, body combat, body attack. To regain my stamina, I squeeze in some jogging as well

Finding my attire abit out of the trend. The gals wear tights now (I used to do that in pri school). Well, I can’t now cuz I have saggy ass & short legs so….i ‘ll still have to wear the pyjamas like cotton track pants to camou my minus pt. And no money to invest chic gym wear too.

To my dismay no. 1

I lost my gym card so have to pay 5 bucks for replacement

Dismay no.r 2.

The gym will be closed from 22 dec 07 to 3 jan 08. I RUGI lah!!!!!

But good bah, I can spend the non-gyming times to do some household stuff like blogging. hahha, now i know wat have been stopping me fr blogging, it's gyming!!!!

wow, the fitness class girl instructors remind me of those angmo gurl characters in street fighter like game. TALL, muscular, tone, with long legs. more so when in BODY COMBAT when they wear the wrist protectors and do all the boxing moves. i especially like NATACHIA for her energy & charisma,

REBONDING

I want to rebond my hair as it not only become weird looking It has become unmanageable.

So I did my little recquee trip around for the best rebonding deal

First it’s kingsford

350 for Korean salon

· I would really like to try Korean if not for it’s expensive price cuz heard that their hairdressing is really good.

280 for blue star (nanxing). Strange enuf, I find the hairdresser explaining things to me look like my hairdresser back in hometown.

-then I went to Hurstville (the Chinese pple suburb)

The best deal is 180 with shiseido rebonding chemical (as they promised)

As I heard long ago, shisedo is good stuff. Fren did in msia salon for RM 300+

But according to my mom’s hairdresser fren, the hair dressers out there always bluff u. but wat to do? I’m new here. I don’t know many people to recommend good rebonding deal so have to be adventurous abit loh.

They always say u have to ask the hair dresser to show u the label of the chemical and mix it infront of u.

I will feel insulted if I were the hairdresser thus I’m quite reluctant to do it. Moreover, rebonding is a process of more than 4 hours which means u have to face the insulted hairdresser for that long. NOT GOOD. Well for the benefit of myself, I’ll try to phrase it in a better way to the hair dresser.

Also I would like to do a little hi light for a change. Personally, I like dark purple, but I know chestnut , brown, auburn will suit me most (it’s also the most common colors around for asian gurls). I know it will spoil my hair but I juz wanna give it a lil try and that was why I choose hi light as it’ only involve small part of hair. Mom is tryin to dissuade me from doin that. Shall decide on the day itself.

EASYWAY

Got an interview for the new easyway outlet job around my area

for your information, easyway is a bubbletea franchise with numerous branches in sydney, other brand is virtually non-existent at all.

Happily went for the Easy way interview as I seldom get reply for my application. But the first thing the interviewer did was to dissuade me to take up the job. Potong steam. - _- He gave me a 5 pages recipe to memorise in 2 days. (milk tea, relish tea, shakes, ice blended.etc in dff flavours) the salary for the 1^st month is 8 /hr. 10/hr for the following months.

Wah….i stress again. Somemore, i have to work for Bell’s on the day of quiz. Well, I guess if u see a girl dozing off on the sofa on top floor of bondi, that’s me!!! (no image at all…..)

But after the quiz, I was so relieved and I went back home and pia finish my “ Darker than Black”

But a few days later, I got a call saying that my performance was not satisfactory and I have to attend 2^nd round of quiz. but the day b4 I got a call saying fr my cousin that she’s in Sydney so…..i choose to meet up & teman her and her bf instead of goin for the quiz. Well, it’s not juz about goin for the quiz, I have to be prepared as well………………… temaning my cousin means I have no time to memorise….. actually I was planning to pia on the day itself. Who knows something unexpected juz crop up .

I guess the owner assume that I’m not interested anymore so he didn’t call back.

Mayb I’m half hearted too…………..

The only benefit I got outta it is the recipe as now I know which is the most unhealthy drink and which is the more healthier drink.

Eg. Chocolate shakes

Get a blender and add 150 cc{100cc} (200cc) of hot water

Add 4 [3.5] (4.5) spoons of creamer

Add 2.5[ 2] (3) spoons of chocolate powder

Add …………..caps of fructose

Add…………..scoops of ice cubes

Blended for 15 [10] (20) seconds

Well, I didn’t put all the true values inside. It’s juz an example. Those in [ ] are small, () arelarge. The most front value is for medium size drink

Yaleto Green tea is always my fav but I didn’t know it’s so unhealthy. But heck care….

HANGOUT WITH JACQ

-Go city with Jacq

Kinokuniya, Market City

Sing K – jacq can really sing, esp ah mei’s song!!!! +*+

Walk around in CT
Had dinner at Korean Cya restaurant, love it as always

Hang out at jacq place
See the new lcd SAMSUNG tv (John & Jacq gave me their old tv, YEAH!!!! i have tv to watch d, tho the OZ show is not very impressive)

Play PS3 tennis, Cook seafood udon, Cook fuzhuk yimai, See jacq make red ruby

BIQING & TOBIAS in sydney

Ffk my easyway second round of quiz and went to meet up with biqing and tobias. Met up under the xmas tree at QVB with 15 000 swaroski crystals.

Brought them to Korean steam boat near world sq, after that walk back up north to circulay quay and opera house then the rocks. Then walk back south to darling harbor. Tot my feet gonna break as I’m wearing my boots……. They went on to visit Sydney aquarium so I parted with them. I guess the next time I’ll see them is back in msia. they are getting married on 21 dec 08. Xiao yu getting married on 08 dec 08 too I think. So I have to plan my flight back home and my elective as well so I can attend their weddings. Haa Kinda lookin forward to it…..cuz they are the first few of my mom’s side subgeneration to get married oso meaning that my time is not too faraway…………….

Oh my….i haven had enuf fun. It’s kinda weird to think about marriage and have kids now…………..

click here for full album

they are goin for a road trip fr sydney to melbourne. i'm goin to melb too but by plane. didn't meet them in melb but hope that they have a good time.

Mercy Arms

I signed up with the Mercy Arms Volunteer Program and they have assigned me to this solitary old lady in Little Sisters of Poor near bondi who isn’t very frenly. The first tot I have is……..OH MY I tot I have specifically mention that I’m not a very good communicator and why do u assign me to such a challenging case. Well, I guess u guys have seen those super duper frenly volunteers on tv show who can make wonders. Who can always make pple smile…..who can make pple open their heart to them…..well….i’m such an opposite of that. I mean I can try but I don’t think the outcome will be instant……in summary, i'm not a very SAINT person

She can’t see and likes to stay in her room and listen to radio and listen to those cassette tape books. Seems to me that she doesn’t really like visitors.

First day

I went with mercy arm person in charge. The old lady did not have a dentures and she will need to get them replaced soon.

She’s not very frenly and prompt us to leave even with the person in charge super frenly character. (oh my, can u imagine if it is juz me…..)

The reason they gave is that she’s a very vain person. (Goes to hairdresser every Friday) . so she has been very unhappy becuz she hasn’t had a dentures replaced

2^nd time Mary was at some lecture so I have to go in myself. she’s hostile again. I tot it wld b better as she has her dentures already. But…..i felt I juz hit a wall…. It’s a 15 min of crap. Mayb I was abrupt. anyway I mention my concern to the nurse – mary. She’s very nice and call to reassure me. She was from Msia too long time ago.

3^rd time

Sister Joan Paul (director of the nursing home) prep her for my visit. I was able to talk to her about her plans to for xmas, Her family.etc it’s around 15 minutes of productive time. I felt so much better after that. But I wonder is it becuz she has to give face to sister joan paul or she is in good mood or she has accepted me……let’s hope it’s the later.

She used to like to read, play tennis, make dresses. She has a son who always pay her visit.

She is gonna have xmas lunch at her son’s place. TBC

will see her again after new year.

Bus incident

There’s one day when I took the 400 back home

At the stop at randwick. An old man fell when the bus suddenly braked. Hitting his hip or something. Didn’t really witness the whole event as I was almost dozing off at the back of the bus. Later on the man become unconscious….well he regained it soon after that. The bus driver immed put the bus to a halt. Get all other passengers down . call the ambulance tho the hosptial is less than 400 metres away. Well as a medical student I tot I could do something, so when he was “ unconscious” I try to check for his radial pulse (good pulse, mayb even bounding!!!), ask if he has pain anywhere, is he feeling dizzy. (apparently he hit his hip, not sure about the head). Well he was able to give considerably clear respond. So I’m pretty sure he’s alright at the moment. he was reluctant to go to hospital.

*Haha later on I only realize that I shld have checked his carotid pulse instead………… wat a “successful 4^th year medical student” I am after all the CPR tut and clinical exam prac ………

Once the paramedics arrive, u can see all the pro action goin on. Paramedics do some pro examination and questioning (tho not a complete one but juz screening I guess, at least he looked confident). The old man immediately become very excited and tell the para everything ……….well…..2 theories I have derived. 1 is the man has become more conscious thus more communicable….or he juz change his attitude towards different people. (passengers vs paramedics)

Anyway when I felt that I’m pretty useless at the spot, I left the bus and complete the rest of my journey by bus 11 (my legs)