Melbourne. Commonwealth Games. Holiday
Finally I have the time to blog about my trip. Actually, it is gng to be a little long but heck, bear with me k.
18 March 2006
Kevin and I started our trip early in the morning, 4.30am to be exact. We roamed ard Changi Airport T2 anxiously awaiting our first return to Melbourne after our studies. Our flight there by Austrian Air was not too bad, it wasn't a full flight and so we had more than even seat space for our 7 hrs flight.
We got out of Melbourne airport without much difficulty, and waited for Jiarong, Rachael and Kelvin to pick us up. We felt we never left Melbourne at all. Everything still looks the same and feels the same. We headed straight to Lygon street for dinner, had my favourite gelato for dessert and ended up in Crown to satisfy some other's gambling habits. We ended our night early and headed to Peter's place (kevin's ex housemate) in Moorabin. Finally met his wife, Melinda too.
19 March 2006
Started the day at Camberwell Market. The place really never change a bit. The same old vendors are still there, just an occasional new ones sprouting around. Luckily for me, I didn't buy much except for a vintage tube dress which cost only $35. Went down town to meet Sarah for Sunday Mass followed by lunch at Mekong. That place still doesn't impress me much though. After lunch, we collected our rented car at Thrifty. By a stroke of good luck or blessing, we were upgraded from a Mitsubishi Lancer to a Mitsubishi 380 at the lancer price. You'll never drive a 3.8l car in Singapore. The car was huge and spacious. Love it! We went to pick Sam, rae and elaine and headed to the new DFO Essendon. It's as big as the Moorabin DFO but i reckon had better outlets. Kevin and I went a little crazy at DFO, we bought quite a no. of things, we had some great buys at FCUK, Gant, Dotti, Industrie, etc. The damaged done for the day was quite bad actually. For dinner, we met up with Kevin's family friends, afterwhich we proceeded to Jiarong's place for a night of Poker. Met Danny that night too.
20 March 2006
Kevin and I headed to Olinda for our 2 days stay at this not too bad Cottage. The lady of the cottage, Helen, was really a nice lady. She single-handedly mainted the place. The cottage was part of an old nunnery. Helen bought this place and renovated it into a b&b with two cottages of each side and she residing in the middle of the two cottages. Her service was impeccable. Making sure we were comfortable. It's always great to head up to Mt. Dandenong. Of coz we had our Pies. Nothing beats the pies up there! Sam, Rae, their friend Elaine, Tarn and her bf Dave joined us for Tea and scones at Miss Marple's Tea Room. Delicious. We ended our night watching our rented DVDs infront of a flaming fireplace.
21 March 2006
Helen made us a really delicious Aussie Brekkie. Afterwhich, we headed to Healsville Sanctuary to see some Australian wildlife. Spent almost the entire afternoon there. Headed back for an early dinner at Credo for some simple aussie meal of fish and chips and pasta before we returned to watch more DVDs.
22 March 2006
Time to return to Melbourne. Met up with Kevin's ex classmates for lunch at Caufield. We headed back to Seng Heng for their fried garlic chicken/pork with rice. Kevin had a tour of the campus again with two new additions, the new IT building and the multi storey carpark. We said our goodbyes and headed to Queen Vic night market. Bought some stuff and had a pretty good australian outback meal of Crocodile, emu, camel and Kangaroo meat. My favourite was the Camel meat, it was pretty tender. At night, we headed to Jiarong's place for Sam's 'SURPRISE' bday party. Our dear friend had to work on his bday, however, he kinda knew abt it when he heard a few of us fussing over the candles and the cake. But nevertheless i'm sure he had a great time. To kick off the birthday for him, we ended up in Crown. Cant' remember if he won $$.
23 March 2006
Woke up late and was almost late for lunch appt with kevin's FSV classmate's at Chapel Street. It was shopping after lunch. I really missed Chapel Street and all it has to offer. Each boutique is just so unique. And Yes, I finally bought something from Greville Street. My damages of the day were a pair of Grab jeans, a pair of Joe's Jeans, 1 mini skirt from an australian designer, and a QBF top. Kevin bought more, he bought a few shirts from several labels Tang and Co carries.
The night was spent at Carilyn and Evangeline's new apartment on Elizabeth Street. It was their housewarming. Jeremy was invited as well and we had a good time meeting new friends and playing pictionary. We went for late night drinks at the Melbourne Supperclub where Tarn's bf works at.
24 March 2006
This day was spent shopping at Bridge road and Smith street. The shopping wasn't that great cept for a few good buys from Adidas, Nike and a couple more shops. By evening, we headed to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre for the Badminton Semi Finals. Because it was more of an Australian games, we didn't quite know whether Singapore made it even to the Semi-finals. Luckily for us, we managed to catch the ladies doubles semi-finals between Singapore and England. Singapore won. The interesting matches were actually from malaysia. They are really world class and as a Malaysian (then) I was proud to see them win Australia. After the games, we met up with Claire and Clifton at Greco's in Crown. It was nice to see them again and catch up. We spent about 3 hours chatting.
25 March 2006
Together with Sarah, Carilyn, Evan, Rachael, Jiarong, Kelvin, Si Tian and Yong Si, we took an hr's drive to Mornington Peninsula to pick strawberries. The place is called Sunny Ridge. It's a small place but the strawberries were really delicious and sweet. I plucked the big ones and kevin plucked the smaller ones. Bought some jams and had the strawberry icecream. Yums. Headed to the beachside for fish & chips. Headed back to Melbourne late afternoon to shop at DFO Moorabin. Again, bought more tops and belts. At night was spent eating at Greasy Joe's at St Kilda. Meal was good, burger was big, but I couldn't finish. The night ended with clubbing at Room 680. I finally after so long danced in Room 680. The place looks like an old warehouse, music was not bad, but the crowd could have been better.
26 March 2006
We went for the Table Tennis finals. We were in time to catch the ladies singles finals (SIN vs SIN). Lin Jiawei looked listless while playing. I could see her frustrations and irritation while playing the game. Zhang Xueling was obviously too good for her. The 7 rounds were exciting, but unfortunately Lin Jiawei didn't looked too happy winning silver. Too bad, better luck next time. The better matches were actually the Men's singles bronze match, between Wales and Nigeria. Obviously, we have not heard these 2 countries being good at table tennis, but these 2 put up a great fight and displayed a great game. The drama that enfolded during the match when Wales was winning really did a drastic turn for the Nigerian. Thanks to his broken bat, he pushed himself and came round to win the entire match. The India vs Australia match was pretty exciting too, of coz with the home crowd supporting the australian, he did put up a good game but still not as good as India.
We met Peter, Pan and Christine for dinner at this steakhouse at Toorak Rd. Not too bad, but as usual it's too much. The rest of the night was spent packing the luggages.
27 March 2006
Our final day to do any last minute shopping. We headed to the city to make final purchases for our family members. I also took this day to do some work for an upcoming event in May. In the evening, we met up with Carilyn, Evan, Sarah, Tarn and Dave for a game of pictionary, followed by dinner at Victoria Street. Left early to meet Sam, Rae, Kelvin, Si Tian to play poker.
28 March 2006.
Last day of the holiday. Did our final packing before heading to the city to return the car. Had lunch at Crown, followed by a last game of poker for Kevin. Arrived at the airport a lil late, the queue was extremely long. Everyone was returning after the commonwealth games. Reached Singapore at 10.45pm. Back to reality.
There you have it. My summary of the 10 days I was in Melbourne. I should be heading back in May again but it would be for work. For Kevin, it could be a while later till he visits the place. Though the visit was pretty tight and tiring, it was nevertheless fruitful and enjoyable. A big shout out to Sam, Kelvin, Jiarong, Rachael, Rae, Carilyn, Sarah, Evan and Tarn for making our trip enjoyable and fun. Thank you for the company and I hope you enjoyed our company too.
