Tracing back to... pre-Tas

Left Adrian's place and stayed in Urban Central @Southbank. Was a really nice hostel! Washing machine, fully equipped kitchen, toilet, tv, bar, games room, reading room, etc. More info on www.urbancentral.com.au. My 1st batch of room mates: 3 girls 0.0, i wasnt told it was mixed shared! Anyway, nice people: Yuki from Jap who knew almost 0 english but was in Aus for more than 3 months and still goin! Elizabeth from Scotland whos looking for permanent job in Mel. Lastly, a girl who I never got to know nor see since she returned late at night and disappeared the next evening. Wish them all the best in their plans ahead!

Exploring around town was really easy after moving in to the city. Went to the DFO, Crowns casino and the exhibition centre on the first day followed by Queen Vic market and the Mel museum the next. Queen Vic was the cleanest, organized and welcoming wet market I've been to! Aside from harvests (Which were really fresh and cheap) and poultry (in a separate building), they have rows of stalls selling souvs, clothes and other random stuffs. Had fish and chips for lunch at the food hall while leeching on the wifi :) Mel museum was worth my visit because of this particular exhibition where they have a video showing the labour process (baby)! It's more of a sci centre + discovery centre, all in place, fun to spend half a day there.

Saturday full day to Great Ocean Road! And here I say: Whoever's still living and know what's a coastline MUST visit the GOR! The scenery is breathe-taking! 2 days road trip there would be much favored! it's worth revisiting! Anyway, my tour group members was great! With me coming alone, there're 3p from Philippines, 2 ladies and an old couple from Ireland and the HK sisters. I was the youngest hence all the attention and well-treatment :P The guide (damn, I forgot his name) was an awesome chap who can drive and tour-guide at the same time, the whole day! I v-comd him and never see him yawned or sighed even once. Great man! Got back to hostel late night and found a new roommate, names' Glen from UK and I learned that Yuki is leaving for Gold Coast, good for her that she found a jap travel buddy.

Met up with bro and his gf on Sunday at Queen Vic then her aunt drove us to the Essendon DFO. Bought a Ralph lauren polo @$39 and Rivers Jeans @$27! Big sale and thus temptation everywhere! End the day with a dinner with aunt, bro and his gf's aunt and her daughter. 2 more new room mates when I got back to the hostel, Aus kids who were in Mel for some work shadowing thing, Glen and I find them REALLY Irritating: talking about partying, drinking alone in the room and proud to be 'grown up'! Was expecting monday to be a tiring day and indeed it was! Had brunch with bro in the morning and brought them around the city, in search for the pizza shop that aunt mentioned. Broke off from them 2 and head towards St Kilda area, searching for ideas for souvenirs on the way. Farewell to Glen (He's got a campervan with his fren Tom and planning to jus wander off somwer, cheers!) As for myself, Tasmania! By sea!

Cold daooooooo....

Brrrrr... Weather's gettin really chilly in mel. and freaking dry, must drink more waterrr!

Went to Dandenong instead of Warragul on Tues cuz my guess was Warg would be just like any other town. Dandenong was a blend of India, Afgan, Northen China and Turkey. Lots of interesting to see and cheap goods to shop! I got a beanie for just $2! There was a shopping centre as well, very large (3-storey) for a mall in a small town, more like a mini city cuz they have EVERYTHING. Short afternoon lunch visit before I head back and this time I would definitely not screw up the train ride, train was 28mins late though.

It rained from dawn to dusk the next day and I stayed indoors :( Did some ironing to keep my hands warm while watching DVDs. About to set off to stay in the city and Great Ocean Road Tour! Please be kind on me, weather.

Let's go to the City~~~!

After 3 days in Mel, pretty much settled in, except the urban life. It took me 3 days to understand the public transport, eating habits and weather. Visited Pakenham town on Fri to have lunch and do some shopping. A beautiful town that's busier than Garfield, shopping malls and cafes spread near the train station (and the furthest station with metro to the city). Love small towns like these, peaceful and quiet, with everything you need within 1km, they even have horseracing tracks! Here comes the highlight of the day: Was on the Vline back, that darn station crew led me on the wrong train! Since the time of departure matches, I didnt doubt her much. I felt something wrong when the train's not stopping after 15 mins (supposed timing) and it goes on till Dandenong! LoL, it's ehading to the city! Got off and on the other Vline train, it was 4pm and I didn't know if my ticket is valid for peak hours. Then came the owned2x, I actually missed my stop and end up in Longwarry! Here's the problem: they didn't announce the train station (which they did on my 1st ride) and nor do the doors open by themselves, thus I assumed the train stopped for some other reasons (changing tracks, etcs). Sucker... It was rather dark when I finally got off Garfield and walk the 2k plus back home.

Finally, Mel city here I come! Adrian dropped me off at Pakenham :) where I had my 1st metro ride to the city (thanks for his myki card as well). Was a long ride, about an hour 0.0, thats like JE to Changi. Got off at Flinders and visited Fed sq for the tourist info centre and idle around to watch the street perf. Great weather for a walk into the heart of the city. Marveled by the skyscrappers, shops and vehicles, this is the city I'm talking about! Took the "arcade and lanes" route based on a paper guide and finished almost a third of the city centre. Met gugu for dinner at box hill and visited Tzu chi @Melbourne. Most of the volunteers were of my age? some slightly older, uni students. The elders offered me to stay for veggie soup (which was incredibly delicious!) Had a quick chat with people and left for dinner (after being half-full). Gugu thought I would miss home food and brought me to a Malaysian restaurant with mostly... chinese cuisine, wasnt so bad, most chicken rice stalls should be ashamed of themselves when I can find an applaudable plate of chicken rise in a foreign land. Thanks aunt for the ride home, very long 1hour journey on the dark freeway.

Pretty much the same thing happened on Sunday with certain changes. I set off earlier and it was raining when I reached the city. Sat down watching the commuters go with some hot croissant and tea. There was some mother's day walk going on that day, in a rainy weather?I manged to book my GOR trip then off for another walk in the city. Hollan many times and the darn GPS wasn't working but still managed to find my way to the great State library where the famous La Trobe sat. Besides that its all asian muggers, as expected when you visit any library. The chinatown was quite boring, not much happening on a mother's day sunday. The rest of the evening was again with gugu for dinner (at an Italians) where we had a meaningful conversation over religion and philosopy. I got a free ride home again :P really thanked her for that.

I think I'm not gonna bother her again as it'd be taxing on her car petrol and time. Anyways, I lost quite alot of weight too, maybe because the body's going into hibernation mode and used the fats to keep the itself warm :) And the long walks... So far so good in Oz, just hate the cold dry air which gave my nose HELL.

Garfield Walk

The weather's getting chilly these days, it was great to be outdoors with even a faint of sunlight rays. As aunt put it, Melbourne skies always looked cloudy and gloomy at this time of the year but it just wont rain that easily.

Had a long long walk yesterday, 4 hours? 5-6km? Garfield was a nice and peceful town, all quiet, you can even trace a child's cry from the rows of beautiful houses. I visited the bakery for a meat pie and custard tart, $7.20! Of course it had to be tasty! Then went on to the convenience store to see what's on the shelves in this lonely town. I had a pleasant surprise when I got to know that the shopkeeper was from east timor? What are the chances (meeting a chinese or Singaporean is common in AUS) of meeting someone in a faraway place from home, who can converse in 3 different languages that I know of (aside from my family, relatives and some friends) Anyway, bought some Hot Chips (which are thicker & larger Fries) and left with a warmed heart. After walking around the small town for a while, making rounds and turns, deicided to head back from this recce trip. It began to drizzle on the way home and yes I was shivering in the cold until a white lab caught my attention. It just hopped out of one of the bushes and looked at me before darting towards the direction I was heading. Maybe it just wanted to play? (hide & seek) And so it "led" me all the way back to the farm and left after awhile, nice townfolks even the animals were so eager to take you around (I just named the dog Garfield :P).

Very exhausted after the walk, msg'd Adrian about me skipping dinner and off to sleep (its abt 4pm?) Fairly good day of exploration with many things happened, would be better without the rain. Earlier that day, I was mowing grass and doing some simple chores (replacing rat poison and unloading some stuff). Hence I was drained and managed to Zzz in seconds.

Decided to take a break for today, doing some simple household chores and do reasearch on my plans for the next few days. Weekends are coming and I want to visit the main attractions of Melbourne city! Plus, mother's day's coming and I do not want Adrian to fret over entertaining me over mother's day celebration.

Welcome To Melbourne!

Woohoo! Finally! Mel Aus! Touched down 2nd May morning and had a n extremely tiring day because of a couple of reasons.

Spent some time in the airport, around the tourist info booth and finding phone booths to call my aunt (none worked as they don't accept coins, wth right?). End up just skybusing to town and figure out something. Took a walk along Flinders st all the way to Federation sq... with all my luggage (reason) then hop onto the free city tram for 1.5 rounds. Bused to this place called The Pines shopping centre to meet up with aunt to have lunch. After which she drove (thank God!) me around: her house and work place. Lastly to Adrian's house which we took some time to figure out even with the GPS that aunt just bought. It was a vast and beautiful place with some cattles and other animal resisdents (a goat, swallows, wild chickens and spiders). Had a guided tour around the house (including details like where are the spoons and food storage). Had a quick and simple dinner while chatting till lights out. I was exhausted and dozed off after seconds! Did nothing much? Let's trace back abit...

I was on the Emirates flight to Mel the night before where I met this girl, Sam from London who is a lne backpacker and... had a kind of phobia? Don't know if phobia is the word to use but she had horrible past experience flying hence the trauma? Anyway, she sat up all straight, grabbing the front seat and had teary eyes. I can't help but notice her trembling hands holding on to her inhaler while constantly looking around. Even during mid flight terbulance, she would stop whatever she's doing and do mindless clicking on the screen (with shaking hands). We had a chat after she'd calmed down and it surprised me that she's been travelling since Dec 10. Travelling as in no going home, tourist in several countries since DEC 10, thats 5 months with an average of 1 flight trip per months? Given her condition, Respect! Her reason for goin on: meeting strangers and fellow backpackers. I do have to admit I was very nervous about the trip until I met her. I guess this was arranged to motivate myself to "enjoy"my trip. And so.. I end up not having any sleep which brings me back to my first night in Mel. Knock out after staying awake for ~48hours.

Adrian left for work before I woke up this morning. Had some cereals and off to work. Even though its quite chilly in the morning (esp in the suburbs), it becomes a perfect combi when you get yourself under the sun. Raked up the dried leaves, sccop some dung and some cleaning and dumping. Was quite relaxing and I get to plan my day flexibly. Tried to tame the cattles but failed. They weren't shy or afraid of me considering it's my first time with them, almost touched 1 of the cattles but she startled when I opened my palm. It was pretty cool to have them approach me while I just sit there fiddling with my phone.

Awesome days to come I hope, plan to spend the weekends out... erh no, I haven't done any planning, waiting for people to invite me for trips! hah!

Great Departure

It's finally May 1st! Long awaited day is here... Feelings? Both excited and anxious. I just realized its my 1 trip out of Asia (from what I can remember) alone! Busy with packing, planning and researching for this day. Also met up with all my close friends for meals and chats before I leave.

Hope this is going to be what I expected from the month worth of read up. Mum kept annoying me with possible kidnapping cases and health issues. Appreciate it but PLEASE let nothing of such sort happen to me (and all the travelers out there). She also kept bugging about bringing more clothings and supplements. Have to travel light with tight budget as this is a warm up/ test before any other greater adventures in the future.

Just got my new phone btw, a Galaxy SL! Still figuring out how to use it effectively. It's gonna be favourite handheld throughout the trip. Aside from that, its all about instincts and social skills.

Will blog from Mel if possible... Peace

Ipoop'd!

Spend the entire evening clearing out songs that I don't even hear in my Ipod. Songs from Ivan's ipod, XiaoLim's Mac and Boss' HDD, making up a butt load of 50gb songs. My 1gb Hard drive that crashed last June made me realised one can never keep every single thing and not to say for eternal! The most important lesson: Life is about learning to lose and just sucking it up!!!

3 more days to my grand trip... Please let me stay healthy. I was kinda worried cuz it rained this afternoon during my run, stupid Sgweather... 1 moment sun, the next rain like mad.

Post ORD crash ($)

Damit... Spent almost $100+ today

1. NTU Medical Checkup - $28

2. BBQ with BMT friends - $25

3. Kenna summon by Cisco for parking illegally - $70?

Bro suggested to appeal since elections are coming lol? I think I'll just pass and pay obediently since it doesn't cost me any demerit points (even if it does, i think i'll use some1 else's points reserve)

Tiring day mainly because of all the expenditure. Recced NTU with Boss this morning and at the same time complete our medical checkup. NTU seemed big on the map but actually quite small considering that you only visit the non-hall areas. Asked Jeslina (& her friend whom I numpangd) and Shirley about the delicacies in NTU, mostly directed to C1 & C2 which is (according to Boss) the artisans dining area (he expected the $2 meal for peasants). Had Jap and Boss treated me to Xiao Long Bao which is just so so.

Spent the evening with BMT boys at Aloha Changi chalet. If any1've been there, its... like a row of haunted house with bbq pits and a pack of cats, 8 of them in fact. To be honest, the gathering quite dull maybe because we haven't seen each other for a long time. I'd prefer just a bbq or a nights out in town for a get together, economical and time efficient.

Please don't make me spend any more money before my grand trip... Looking forward to it! (not as a peasant)

The return of the ME

After 2 years of national service, I've decided to revive my blog. Deserting it for a long time was intentional as it can save me lots of trouble filtering what to blog about during the 2 years in army (they are actually quite effective in hunting down bloggers who blog about ns life!) However, as a civilian today, my life would be more than seeing green and listening to bullshit!

This log (after nearly 2 years) will be primarily on what I've learnt and choices made over the months. Honestly, NS isn't as bad as many people think, well... maybe that's because I've got a better posting? 2 years of your youth sacrificed: For myself, I gained quite a number of things!

1. A broader social network

They say while serving, you can meet sorts of people from all trades and background. I'd like to thank these people for teaching me the meaning of life and how the world goes round. From the humble high ranking officers, down-to-earth colleagues and loyal delinquents. Can't be for sure if they'll remember me in 10 years time but I wish I could tell them how influential (+ve & -ve) their actions and words are to me! Just hope that they are the group of friends whom I can classify under "worth meeting up for a meal" in the long run. Never know if they might be my neighbor's relative, colleague's son, friend's spouse, etc?

2. How the working society works

This actually come in 2 parts: one of office politics and the other on awareness. I can't believe I'm actually praising the government for giving me 2 years (which is ridiculously long) of pre-work life experience. No worry of being sacked nor the need to compete for promotion since, like what every1 said: serve n Foff! I've seen how people can rise to backstabbing, the harsh reality of having to lose out in work opportunities because of qualifications (yes,the cert society). There's CG+C no 100% by right methods of doing things and every1 in the office knows this! Which brings me to the part on awareness. I've given myself a double confirmation on my own character: peace-loving. I'd say there's no 1 in my office I'd offend or mistreat, it's just my way of staying self-protective. What if one day he got your 把柄 or change to have you as a scapegoat? Despite this, I've learnt to not 'get eaten' and taken advantage of by maintaining a certain level of authority 'aura'.

3. My class 3 driving license!

Monetarily, this is the most fruitful gain! I've saved $1000+ for the little blue card not mentioning the experience on road and knowing my way around (fuel is expensive!)

4. From J to K

There'll be no better morale booster than watching some pretty plastic girls performing catchy songs. Initially I've paid 0 attention to them until that became the only thing that's the only thing on TV 8 to 5 daily. With every1 around me talking about it, it is impossible to just ignore it, hence the outcome. Furthermore, Kpop has taken over Jpop on the most played playlist in my Ipod (in terms of number of singles). Some awesome songs will be added to my piano repertoire in the future!

5. Pick and Drop

I don't know why its so hard to keep an interest alive! How is it possible my time spent on Variety shows > dramas/movies? Tennis and running over basketball? There's no computer game that can consume my attention for more than 2 hours! Nevertheless, I've gained interest in the most awesome things like travelling and teaching!

(6. I learnt that I've an sensitive stomach which can cause heartburns! All happened after my wisdom tooth surgery)

I believe these are the highlights and I'm sure there are more!

Some updates on life: Been pretty busy with trip planning. Since i can't join Shawn and Smurf on their epic journey to Europe, I decided to path out my own mini adventure in Australia. After which its Korea with my ex-colleague/senior. Budgeting, itinerary, contacts and packing list... so many things to think about! But GOSH I LOVE IT! Trust me, its exciting just by thinking and planning for a trip! Also spend some time with friends whom I've hardly been in touch with. Physical training for the overseas trips (need to stamina to run away from danger and strength to work). Last but not least, read read read, filling up my general knowledge vault essential for socializing!

That's all for now! Love myself~!