THE WEEKEND
Well.. did quite alot of things over the weekend. Kevin's friend, Vincent, came to visit from Canberra. Luckily he came at the start of our holidays, so we could entertain him. Anyways... here's what we did.
Day One: Nothing much, I had 2 ssignments due that day, so kevin and vincent had to wait for me. After handing in my assignment, we went to thrifty to pay the car rental, followed by a trip to chadstone to kill time before meeting vincent other friend for dinner. I recommended having steamboat for dinner, the one at lonsdale street. But by the time we reached there, it was last order, so we headed to lygon to have some pasta and pizza then, followed by gelatissimo. The night was pretty much it.
Day two: Woke up early to go thrifty to pick up the car. We rented a Holden Commodore, it's 3.8litres and its damm nice! It had some cool features. Daniel and kareen rented one too and came along with us to ballarat. It was a pretty okie car ride to ballarat. There were five of us in the car (kevin, myself, vincent and his two other friends). The journey was about 1 hr 15 mins. Along the way... there were some nice sceneries, so wasn't all too bored. Reached about noon time at ballarat, had some decent fish and chips, and we headed to soverign hill (gold mine town). Well... i felt it was really ex to enter into the theme park, afterall.. the place wasn't say that fantastic, just really old school and rustic. But oh well.. for the experience, and seeing real gold.. why not. We saw what the 1800s was in australia, seeing the life of the miners and other people living in the gold mine area. There were people acting as the 1800s people, they wore the clothes, spoke like the 1800s people. We saw how miners mine for gold, went into a proper gold mine, watched gold smelting, etc.
But wat i felt was really quite fantastic was the nite show. It is only a sound and light show, but i felt the whole thing was really well done. The sound quality was quite good... it was as if i was watching a ghost play. The only thing was that all of us were really tired. By the time we reached home.. it was 11 ish.
Day three:
Well... we were suppose to wake up early to go church and all. but all of us slept in till abt 11ish am. Kevin and myself were deciding what to do, and where to bring vincent, especially when we had the rented car with us. Vincent wanted to try Melbourne's yum cha (he's quite pro-sydney, so he really wanted to compare and decide which is better). So... we brought him to shark fin's inn along chinatown to try the yum cha. It was not bad.. but i prefer Shark fins house (though it's under the same management). Vincent thought it was comparable with sydney's.
We had decided earlier in the day on where to go after yum cha. So after our really quick and filling lunch, we headed to bendigo, another outskirt in Victoria. This time the journey is longer, nearly 1hr 40 mins to reach bendigo. The scenery this time wasn't as great as ballarat's but it was still decent. By the time we reached bendigo it was already 3.00pm, really not much we could do. But we felt bendigo was a nicer place than ballarat, more things to cover, and it had a gold mine there as well. Anyways, we were recommended to visit the dragon museum. It's a chinese museum commemorating the chinese immigrants and settlers in bendigo. It was comical, coz i do not frequent singapore's chinese garden, and here we were in bendigo visiting the chinese garden attached to the museum. There weren't really alot to see, just some old artifacts, lion dance costumes, chinese furnitures etc in the museum. Right after, we decided to hjave a look at a lake, then the catholic cathedral, then go-kart area, eat ice-cream, and then go back to melbourne. What a trip eh? hehe
Anyways... back in melbourne, it had been planned to visit crown casino. Before that, we had dinner at this really nice small indonesian restaurant around chapel street. We heard so much abt it from other peopl that we decided to give it a try, and I was glad we weren't disappointed. It was really good and cheap. After dinner, headed to casino. Again.. i controlled myself, and played only $10 worth of pokies. Vincent and kevin played rapid roulette and black jack. For rapid roulette, vincent insisted on betting on NUMBER 21, coz that was his lucky number (so he claimed), apparantly it wasn't so for that night. 21 did not even come close to appear. But he was lucky to picked up some winning numbers. Both won a bit at the roulettes. They headed to blackjack... and initially they weren't doing well, so i thought it might be me (the gambling jinx) at work, so i stepped off (that's when i played pokies). But to prevent me frm touching the pokies machine again... i quickly walked back to watch them play. Overall... the whole night.. kevin made some and vincent lost $10 only.
Day four:
Vincent's friend brought him to great ocean road. Kevin and myself relaxed at home. Kevin had some work trainin in the morn.. so gave me the chance to sleep in till as late as i want too. The whole day was just dedicated for NUAING. In the afternoon, we watched the SG IDOL tape that my mum sent. We are really into SG idol now, since we;ve watched almost the everything abt it. I must say.. SG idol isnt as good as AMERICAN AND AUSTRALIAN IDOL, but nevertheless we do have some good talents in it. but the judges really cannot make it. Anyway.... till about evening, vincent called to arrange dinner, this time we wanted to try this really nice THAI restaurant (supposedly the best thai restaurant in melbourne) at richmond. Unfortunately, the place closes on monday, so we detoured and headed to have steamboat instead. The food was so-so.. but this time they had more things compared to last year. After dinner, vincent wanted to go back to casino.. his laast gambling for the trip. We went... i did play pokies, but it was on free credits, ended up winning $5 from it. Heh... Kevina n vincent wanted to follow the routine they had the previous nite, thought it was the winning formula. So they headed back to rapid roulette again. This time.. vincent continued to bet on his no. 21, and it still didn't come out. He was playin a losing battle; he placed $5 on his no and that's it... he was only betting his no. each round. Until he decided to follow kevin and include a $1 bet on colour black. If not I tink that would be the quickest $100 lost. Kevin lost quite a bit too... so they decide to not follow their winning formula and change it by playin pontoon instead. They lost $$ in pontoon too.. so they returned to the blackjack table for some last hope. They were up... but some young couple had to come in and change the whole table game. In the end, vincent lost abt $100 overall, kevin made a bit.
Day five:
This day was dedicated for shopping. We returned the car first, then drove kevin's car to DFO to shop. It was my first time there too... it was rather big, and it had a good variety, but i didn't buy as much as kevin and vincent. We headed to glen waverly for lunch, coz vincent wanted asian food really badly (see how insufficient canberra is?!) It was a pretty good meal.. went to Makan Street, another place recommended by a few to go and try. Headed to smith street right after. Went to the usual.... didnt really buy alot too.. just one adiddas top. Nice vintage top. Vincent bought quite alot of stuff too from smith street. After shopping, we went to meet vincent's two friends for dinner, this time we went back to the thai restaurant (YING THAI) for dinner. The food was good, but the serving was really small. Still.. i would highly recommend this place for a meal. Pad thai is really good, so is the tom yum soup.
After dinner, headed to lygon again to have gelatissimo, vincent wanted to try again. He still preferred sydney's one though. Oh well. how to fight right... too pro sydney already. After that.. it was time for him to head back to canberra. We could see he really didn't want to go back... more so taking the bus ride back.
It was sad for us to see another friend leave, coz that means we're back to boring life. But oh wel.. no complains, it is still a good life.
I will post some pics later on the ballarat trip...
have a good one people.
