How's school?

It has been... *counts with fingers*... half a decade since I last stepped into school to study. If any of you are still schooling, please appreciate it and have all the fun you can there because you will miss it when you're done with it I can promise you. 

Be a rebel now or you'll never have the chance to because when you grow up, it's not the things you did which you often regret but the things that you didn't.

I didn't obey all school rules and I've never regretted one single bit doing so.  As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, as long as it makes me happy, why not? I did all I can and I want so I'm proud to say I've had a happy school life :)

My best advice to school-goers is, choose who you befriend with wisely because they are the ones who will reflect most of your life. Real talk. Be yourself and never try to fit in. If they cannot take you for who you are, leave. Don't let others influence and affect your thinking. If you think it's wrong, do not be afraid to repel.  If that costs you friendship, so be it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having no friends, but it's absolutely wrong to let friends take control of your actions. 

I've lived my life being a very reserved person most of the time, I don't and I can't anyway, talk much to people I'm not familiar with. So what? Nothing bad comes out of it... except for the awkward silent moments when you don't know what to say to the new friend.

Ok ok... suddenly become Doctor School Advice pulak lol.

***

On the 2nd day of our road trip we headed towards Philip Island and dropped by a couple of places before arriving at the Penguin Parade. During summer in Melbourne the sun sets at around 9pm, and that's usually the time when the penguins will come onto shores and march towards their burrows.

First stop was the Maru Koala Park.

It may look fun feeding the kangaroos but actually they're quite filthy. Almost every ground has their poop. You see that brown small 'balls' on the floor in the picture? Yup, that's it. And I don't know what's wrong with the kangaroos the way they eat it felt like they haven't eaten for years. Not just this time but every time. And they have 'claws' so I had to make sure my hand was at a suitable height so the kangaroos won't have to reach for it and have their claws scratch me. Eww.

Of course, there're koalas too but all they do is sleep sleep sleep eat and sleep. They're only active at night so nothing much too see during the day. Also because they are soooo fragile (and maybe endangered? I dunno) they're usually kept too far and high within human's reach. We couldn't even cuddle them :( I think need to pay to do so.

That's the bridge to get into Philip Island

@ Churchill Island Heritage Farm

The Seal Rocks, where you need to PAY AUD2 to use the binoculars to see the seals. Unfortunately there weren't any... or maybe there was but I was too kiamsiap to pay to see.

There were penguins even around the place we view the Seal Rocks!

A close shot of it.

Damn hard to get a picture of it ok.

And then we went to the Penguin Parade which there after, photography was disallowed so no pictures of the cute flightless birds parading onto the shores into their burrows.

This was my second time visiting the Penguin Parade. The first was during winter in 2007. We paid for a day tour and because it's winter the sun set at 5-6pm, everything was quite rushed. After the watching the penguins we had to rush back because otherwise it'll be too dark and too late.

I enjoyed it a lot more this time because it's not as cold and we get to do everything at our own pace. We left the house at about 9.30am and we managed to cover 5 places.

I highly suggest renting a car and driving up there. Its far more relaxing and comfortable cos obviously you're traveling with lesser people and they are people you personally know. Of course, you'll miss having a tour guide telling you stories. With GPS and Google Maps, it's not difficult to navigate  around by yourself. We bought the 3 parks pass which includes the Churchill Island Heritage Farm, Koala Conservation Centre and the Penguin Parade, it's obviously more worth it. Just be sure to find out when's the right time to be at the Penguin Parade because the earlier you are, the better seats you get to view the penguins.

Last post of 2010

I am finally back from my 25 days vacation in Melbourne and Gold Coast, Australia. Feels both good and bad. The good? There's always nothing better than being home. Trust me, I miss home every single time I go away. The family, the friends, the convenience. The bad? Work, what else.

The flight home wasn't too good, wasn't quite well-piloted in my opinion.Wasn't too bad either cos I had my newly acquired Bugs Bunny cushion to rest my head and a shoulder to lean on :) Wk's back for a little more than a month before he goes back to Melbourne to start working.

Still not in the mood for work so I shall reminisce on days in Melbourne.

We rented a Toyota Tarago (8 seater van) for 4 days to drive around.  On the first day we drove around the Yarra Valley. First stop was a cherry-picking farm. We paid about AUD7 for entrance and we get to eat and pick all we want! But at the end of the day the amount of cherries taken out will be charged, about AUD10 for a kg.

I like this picture :)

Then we  visited the Domaine Chandon winery.

Swimming in champagne gloop gloop

:)

We went out slightly late and by 5pm everything was closed already so we had to head home after that. We had a delicious dinner at Peko Peko.

Wantan Noodles and Pork Chop Peko Box. Noodle wasn't amazing, the rest of the Peko box meals were. 

Crispy Honey Chicken and Pop Chicken Peko Box

 Wasabi Mayo Prawn and Spring Rolls

 Unagi Fried Rice

Serving's pretty small for the price but the taste was worth it.

***

The year is coming to an end tonight. I can't wait for 2011. If all goes well something amazing's going to happen. Don't wanna jinx it so I won't say anything yet but when the time comes, I promise I'll share. 2010 isn't the best year for me but I believe with enough perseverance, determination and all the positive attitude, things do fall into its right places.

Happy New Year everyone. Have fun but please be safe.

Howdy

Blogging with an eepon(iPhone, wk n I calls it eepon cos it sounds cuter) hrm how do I skip a line like how we press 'enter'? Nvm, hopefully this'll be a short paragraph n the auto-correcting system won't change my words to some nonsense.

Ok, I just found out how to skip a line WTF...

We're leaving gold coast thru a super early flight tmr, this is a quick update cos I wanna see how it's like to blog using an eepon. Pretty cool :)

Ok was trying to upload pics but seems like eepon sucks in that department. So I shall sleep now. Be back soon!

Puffing Billy/Suzuki Night Market

Busy busy busy! Tomorrow we'll be flying to Gold Coast. Yes I am aware that it's Christmas, sounds like a nice day to fly but apparently not in an angmoh country. Shops and most places will be closed, streets will be quite empty. Not sure what we should do when we arrive in the morning tomorrow.

Good news is I heard that there'll be great discounts on Boxing Day which is the day after Christmas? Hopefully.

Now let's go on with what's experienced so far.

Taking the Puffing Billy, which is a steam train or more fondly known to me as the 'choo choo' train :) Nothing to shout about but it was something worth experiencing. To date, I've never actually taken a steam train before.

We're allowed, or maybe I should say encouraged to sit with our legs hanging out of the window. While it's fun, it actually hurts the backside quite a bit after a while. And also, because the window's exposed, you'll get tiny flecks of burnt coal -burnt to generate the steam- flying into your clothes, face, eyes and basically everywhere. Not very serious but not very pleasant either. 

With the super kind and nice conductor :)

There's this yearly thingie called the Suzuki Night Market which started since mid November. It'll be held every Wednesday at Queen Victoria Market till March. Basically you can shop, eat, drink, and be entertained there. There's a huge variety of cuisine from all over the world.

 Mini Dutch Pancakes with butter, sugar and maple syrup.

Sangria

Korean twist potatoes which was such a big hit among the crowd! The queue was crazy.

'Code One' the Victoria Police Band rocking the crowd! Mind you, those are REAL policemen! Do I hear sibeh cool??? They weren't even singing oldies ok, one of the songs performed was Good Charlotte's Like It's Her Birthday and it was pretty good! From what I can tell the policemen are probably 30-50yo.

The crowd just gets more and more massive.

Alright, gotta hit the sack early. Leaving the house at 8 tomorrow.

Have a happy Christmas lovely readers!

And I thought this year would be the plainest.

:)

In case anyone didn't notice, my birthday was 2 days ago. It fell on the exact same day as Wk's convocation, which of course I already knew prior to coming here. I didn't think much before coming here. Like yeah its on the same day the highlight of the day is most likely him and not me and nobody (his family) is going to know it's my birthday, so be it.

Really? Not quite.

On that day, it started out all fine. By the end of the day, I started to feel a little... forgotten. Yes I have gotten lots of wishes on my FB wall, twitter and from 2 ppl personally which btw, thank you all so much for that, it was really lovely. I started to imagine stupid things. Things like if I were to be at home, my family would have bought me a birthday cake and we would all sing the birthday song. I started to think how this year it's going to be the plainest of all birthdays I have ever gone through. Plain and uncelebrated.

No, it's not that I WANTED a birthday cake and a birthday song and everyone wishing me in my face and throw me a party and presents (that would be nice actually :D) but the thought of going through a day without people paying attention to me when it's my birthday... is just weird. I know that sounded damn self-centered and I know people say birthday celebrations are overrated especially when one gets older... but isn't it nice to know that people remember? Isn't it nicer to be treated a little more special on such a day?

After the ceremony, everyone was tired and wanted to stay home and have Dominos delivery. On the way back I joked to Wk that we should put candles on the pizza. He dared me to sing a birthday song myself if he can find candles to do so which of course, I didn't agree to do cos I know that sucker WILL get candles. I can't say I was unhappy or upset or disappointed... but just that tad bit of negativity which I can't quite put my finger at.

During dinner, his dad suddenly wished me happy birthday and gave me a red packet. I was of course speechless and didn't want to accept it but you know how the older people would insist. And then his mom told me she knew about it this morning but almost forgot about it and only got reminded again when she saw 'it'. I asked her what is 'it' that she saw and she turned speechless and awkward lol. I looked at Wk and he smiled and didn't say anything, his dad told me something 'romantic'.

After dinner when I was about to do the dishes, he told me not to and said he'll get it done. And then he took out candles and a cake from the fridge which I did not even notice it being there when I opened the fridge a few times that day to grab stuff.

 Brownie and Passionfruit Chocolate Gateau from Le Petit Gâteau

That morning when he went out for his hair appointment I was still asleep like a dead fish. When he got back he stuffed one macaroon into my mouth and told me it's good and he got it when he went to the city. I don't know why I didn't think much of it as in... why would he go all the way to the city just to get 2 macaroons? *shakes head and smile

And then his brother searched for some birthday song in Youtube, I blew the candle and cut the cakes for everyone. The cake was delectable. It's not the same as what I have imagined and how I have always had my birthdays celebrated, but it's definitely not the plainest :)

That night I was so touched I looked into Wk's eyes and cried.

Hello from Melbourne!

Ok so everyone has been bugging me for updates so here it is!

Ok la not literally everyone but I know some of you lovely readers are missing me already right right riiiiiightt :P

So I'm currently in Melbourne right now and I've accumulated a few pictures of over a week since arriving.

Lunch @ Issus Cafe

The food took quite a while to arrive but atmosphere, service and food were ok. We had a risotto (which Wk's dad said looks like crap and refused to try lol), carbonara penne and some spaghetti which I forgot with what sauce. We wanted to have some French crepes but the place was full. I still haven't tried the said French crepes :( 

 Night scene along Yarra River @ Crown

Fire display/Gas brigades @ Crown

Greek dinner @ Stalactite

Stalactite opens for 24 hours and serves Greek food. It's famous for their dips and giros souvlakis.  There were 6 of us so its not so practical to order too many souvlakis (serving's too big and you don't get to try much) so we had the mixed giro platter of lamb and chicken, Greek salad and mixed dips with pita bread. That way we get to roll our own souvlaki and at the same time try their dips.

@ Docklands

Seafood market @ Springvale

That stuff on the left's fresh and alive abalone! Eww. And yes, the lobsters too.

 GYU TAN DON!!!!!!!!! :))))

Bought this super cute connector ring for AUD15. Expensive but I sibeh loike it :D

The bakeries over here are craaazy. Exaggerated but real!

Luna Park @ St. Kilda - a type of amusement park in Australia. Of course, it's a smaller scale one if compared to the ones in Gold Coast.

@ St. Kilda

I don't know what this place's called cos I know we were around the St. Kilda Beach but from this picture we're it looks more like we're on a pier... or some kinda harbour. But the waters connect to the beach so... I dunno.

Never, ever ever ever wear like this to the beach in Melbourne. If you must, remember to bring a pair of tights and extra sweater/jacket along.

I tell you the weather on the day we were there was a complete bitch. The morning was pretty chilly already I'd say about 15-18 degrees. Then it started to rain heavily when we were at Luna Park. We walked towards the pier area when the rain stopped. The sun came out for a while and it was nice and warm. Only FOR A WHILE. Then it was cold again. When we were walking on the piers the sea breeze was killing me already. And then it started to rain heavily AGAIN! And then after about 20 minutes it stopped but it was still cold. When we reached the end of the pier, the sun was out. It's warm. When we walked towards the beach, it rained AGAIN omfg. And then it stopped. And then the sun came out and it was really really warm where the sun hits, but chilly where it doesn't.

Summer in Melbourne = 4 freaking seasons wth

In the night when we were out for dinner, I wore tights underneath my shorts, and switched from sweater to a thick, winter jacket wtf. 

Ok that's it for the adventure so far. I promise I'll update as often as possible! Love you if you're still reading ~x

11 more to go!

I printed this out and stuck it on the wall in the shop's toilet today.

I hope it doesn't sound rude or mean, cos when I was typing it I was fuming inside thinking about what happened yesterday.

Today I bought my favourite vegetarian mee siam for lunch. Picked some vegetarian char siew too. Mmm...

During breaktime I went to Starbucks wanting to get their card to collect stamps. Last year I managed to collect enough to get their planner (for this year). Doesn't look like the most attractive planner you can find but the built and quality overall is great and the design is sleek so I quite like it. I also bought their planner last year, which I prefer cos it's leatherback.

Today, I saw a mock up of next year's planner (which you can get by collecting enough stamps aka buying enough drinks) and it looked pretty good, looks like it's going to be leather. I hope it's leather because I prefer it to be leather.

So you gotta collect 12 stamps altogether, 2 (or more) of which must be 2 of their Christmas exclusive drinks, the Toffee Nut Latte and Peppermint Mocha, either hot or frappucino, only Grande(regular) or Venti(large) gives you a stamp.

Actually I wanted to try the Peppermint Mocha Frappucino but I changed my mind immediately when I saw the Toffee Nut Latte Frappucino because I remembered exactly a year ago I had it and I loved it! How could I have forgotten how good it tasted! 

This sucker is omfg so nice!!! It's too sweet for my own good but it's too good to resist! I wish they sell the toffee sprinkle, it's so damn addictive!

Why do they have to make something so nice only available around Christmas?! That's too cruel :(

I tell you, 1 stamp on my card is definitely going to be the Peppermint Mocha Frappucino but the 11 other stamps... don't need a rocket scientist to tell you what drinks they're going to be.

At first I was a little disappointed. I thought I wasn't going to make it to 12 stamps cos I thought the collection will end by the end of December and I'll be in Melbourne for almost one month during December so I'll be left with only 2 weeks here now how the heck can I get all 12 stamps in such a short time right. 

Collection started since 9 November and ends on 15 January!

Now that I know it's 15 January that gives me about 4 weeks to fill it up! 

Ok one week about... 3 drinks. WTF that's still alot... time to ring up some coffee buddies.