Happiness comes in the form of a Package

My sis is a real sweetheart. Got a package from her in the mail today containing a 1G thumbdrive, stockings for winter and a UOB Lady's supplementary card for me! Speechless. The card even has the msg ' With Love, sis' printed on it. AWW :) I'm uber duper touched.

Miss ya ALL

I was looking through my pictures taken the last few months before I came over to down under and they really brought a smile to my face :) Love you guys! HUGS

@ Cafe del Mar with the dudes. Thanks for accompanying me for hokkien mee at Vivo City foodcourt because I wanted to eat them before I leave SG! haha.

@ NUS. Thanks for making my NUS life so much more bearable and fun! Happy Birthday (again) Tim! :D

@ The Chocolate Factory. Ahh...my oldest friends who watched me grew and who stick by me through the good times and bad times all these years:) MUACKZ

@ the Potong Pasir Dou Hua place. I suddenly can't recall the name. My girls! :)

This is suppose to tell a story. HAHA.

@ NUS Science canteen pink table area. My usual hangout place when I was still a student there.

@ Clark Quay Indonesian Restaurant & Hagandaz. It was a lovely lovely night:)

@ Changi Airport. Thank you all for coming to see me off! It really mean alot to me :)

Kooky in da House 3/3 ~ 8/3

Here's the photos from Charles's visit!

Day 1 Highlights : Grand Prix Festival @ Lygon

Feast your eyes peeps, on these gorgeous Ferraris.

It was an Orgasmic experience to see 60 Ferraris parked in front of u. Whole lot of beauties. Grand prix is being held in Melbourne from 15/3 to 18/3 and being Ferrari's 60th Anniversary, they decided to showcase their babies at Lygon Street for us commoners to drool over. Haha.

The owners of the Ferraris took them for a spin around Lygon and the sound of the engine is like NICE. Wootz. But the highlight of the event was when the F1 test driver took the F1 Ferrari down the street. Talk about burning some rubber!

Us waiting under the sweltering sun for the F1 Ferrari driveby.

The frenzy of photo & video taking that follows when it started. I could hear the sound of the engine startup from like a mile away. And when it zooms past you, the sound could deafen you but it was such an adrenaline rush. I took a video but I have no idea how to upload it here. Pity.

Day 2 Highlights: Queen Vic Market, Chapel Street, Docklands

Queen Victoria Market. My weekly must-go place for my grocery shopping.

Our brunch at the food court.

En route to Chapel Street, South Yarra Station to check out some sneaker shops (Charles is crazy about sneakers. Occupation hazard I think haha) Chapel Street is ze place for some retail therapy and it was my first time there as well!

Shopping in Melbourne is unlike Singapore where you enter a shopping centre and it just links you to more shopping centres. Think Raffles Shopping Centre to CityLink to Suntec to Marina Sq. You can enter Raffles Shopping Centre in broad daylight and lo and behold, the next time you step out, it is night time already. In Melbourne (other than within CBD and Chadston, which btw is the biggest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere), the retail shops are normally on the ground level of a 2 storey shophouse and all the shophouses are lined up on 2 sides of a street. I like it better this way:)

Teabreak! I can't recall the name of this cafe but the cake is heavenly!!!!!!!! One of the BEST I have eaten thus far. I definitely am gonna go back for the cake again:)

It's off to Docklands, Southern Cross Station, for dinner.

Docklands is like a lill habour with waterfront dining and all. Very beautiful place! We saw the Sea Sheperd anchored there and went up to have a chat with the crew. The Sea Sheperd is a vessel that goes around the world sabotaging whaling ships in a bid to stop their whaling activities. Well, to some peeps, it might not seem justifiable to destroy others property for a cause that they believe in (a good cause for that matter), but still mad props to the Sea Sheperd! I think what they are doing is great:)

Day 3 Highlights: Melbourne Aquarium, Koko Black @ Lygon

Melbourne Aquarium! SouthBank.

Sights of the aquarium. I thought the giant crabs were really scary. Ahhhh...I miss diving!

We both thought the aquarium was just alright. A tad small in my opinion but they do have quite a few variety of sea creatures that I have never seen in other aquariums before. I think the Sydney Aquarium was alot better:)

This is the legendary Koko Black!!!!!!!! THE one place that all must visit when you are in Melbourne because they have the best chocolate stuff around. The Fantastic Four will all agree. Haha. Sinful but Divine indulgence.

We were tired and stuffed to the brim but very PLEASED indeed with the food.

Day 4 Highlights: None. Haha. I had school so poor Charles had to entertain himself.....by shopping in the city! I think he spent about 300 bucks by the time I got out of school.

Day 5 Highlights: Fitzroy & Smith Street

Fitzroy & Smith Street are packed with factory outlet stores. Addidas, Nike, Quiksilver etc. The Nike store was cool. There are loads of nice sneakers (designs that I have nvr seen in SG) that are going at below market rates. Too bad the pair that Charles wanted did not come in his size. There's a Crumpler store that allows the customers to customize the design of the bag as well. Very niceee.


Last Day Highlights: Slacking.



I decided that he has to try the italian pancakes here before he leaves so it's back to Queen Vic Market for brunch. The italian pancakes with fresh cream and maple syrup are really quite good:)

To mark the end of his Melbourne visit with a flourish, it's to Max Brennars for some chocolate!




They have these huge tanks at the entrance of the store that is mixing the melted chocolate. Pipes are connected from the tanks to the counter where they dispense the chocolate when needed!!!! Wow.

Alisa came to join us after her school and to say goodbye to Charles as well.

So it's farewell Charles, my first visitor in Down Under.

Finally!

Whee...today is the last of the block practicals for Scientific Skills and Technology! No more weekends in Bundoora :) My last 2 weekends consist of the following routine:

1. Alarm rings at 6.45am (3.45am in SG)
2. Laze ard in bed for a bit
3. Hit the showers
4. Change
5. Pack breakfast and lunch
6. 8 minute walk to tram stop at Bourke St
7. Hop on tram at 8.06am
8. Eat breakfast
9. Snooze
10. Arrival at RMIT bundoora 9.10am
11. 8min walk across the vast carpark to the building
12. 9.30am, lab starts.

All ends well today:) However, it hasn't been such a drag other than the early mornings and nights. I actually enjoy lab work now. Haha..weird huh? Having a nice lab partner doesn't hurt as well. He's the first Italian i know and he has lived in Iceland for 8 yrs. How cool is tt? Basically the postgrad group for biotech is a pretty nice bunch of peeps. Most are international students and 3/4 of them are from India. Another 1/8 are Chinese ( China, HK, Malaysia & Spore--->just me) and the small minority left are Caucasians.

We had a pizza party lunch today after our pract, kindly arranged by our programn coordinator Margaret Deighton.

Huge stacks of Domino's Pizza!!!!!! The lady in blue is Margaret:)

That's me and Sara (one & only Malaysian) while waiting for the rest to finish their pract and start lunch!

Some of us :) The dude in the grey jumper is the lab partner, Claudio. He's doing the same stream as me (Food Science & Tech) and so are the 3 on the right. The girl in the white jacket is Milin and she is from Mauritus!!!! One of my dream dive destinations. Next to her is Bani. I see them around the most cuz we are doing the same courses.

Lovely end to the hard work put in :)