What a HAUL..

Okay, it's Sunday yet again! The past week just flew past like that..working @ Kumon, doing and submitting the last report for the semester (so it's finally and truely hols now!) and some catching up with friends. Had dinner with the housemate on Thursday. This requires special mention because this must be the first time since i got here that we are actually chilling out together, just the two of us! (meaning gf wasn't ard...and doesn't appear within 5min of him being alone) Haha..well, as much as it is a love-hate relationship with my housemate, it was certainly nice just to sit down, have some nice food and dessert, and chat. As most know, i have had a turbulent and very much distraughted relationship/friendship with my housemate for the past 6+ years (has it been tt long???)..and it's a miracle i can still sit down with him without maybe scratching his eyeball out. Haha. Kidding..it was actually quite an enjoyable evening. We talk and crap alot..just like old times..back in VJC where AL, Yiwei, Vegan, housemate and I will hang out after school. Anyways, we met up with Jason, Carmen, Nicky and his gf (Estella) who just came over to Melb for some drinks at Carlton Hotel pub after dessert. The interior of pub is NICE. Very Baroque..think flower motif wallpaper, velvet covered columns, chandeliers... :)

Friday was spent finishing up the darn report and submission. Went to grab some food at Lounge, a restaurant cum bar with Claudio thereafter. It was certainly an INTERESTING experience because i think tt was a gay bar (99.9%). Hilarious. My friend Claudio is also starting to have strange tendencies (too much gym and male instructor). Haha.. we then hopped down to Carlton Hotel pub for another drink after a jug of beer, a humongous bowl of chips and a beef sandwich at Lounge. He totally loved the place, and we polished off another 3 huge mugs of beer. I don't think i have ever drank so much beer before. He kept winning me at 5-10, and i was the one who thought him how to play. Bleah.

I basically lazed the whole Saturday away :) Watched a few DVDs, read some mags, finished my book and it was off to bed.

AND today...

Girls' Day OUT! Meaning shopping & more shopping! :)

First stop: Camberwell Market

All kinds of knick knacks, pre-loved clothes..shoes..bags..at ridiculously cheap prices. Well, almost all at least, if you don't mind pre-owned stuff that is.

Da Models.


Digging through the piles can land you treasures :) We made off with $1 tops, $3 belt, $1 skirts..

Ended our market shopping nicely with a superdog :)

Did you think we are just gonna head back home from there?? Noooo..it's off to Chapel Street :D
A unique and beautiful tree en route..hee

To cut it short, this is what we end up with at Chapel..after barely an hour.

And don't we all agree to that? :P

We had to abort plans to have our teabreak at Laurents..cuz we felt too broke. Haha..

And GRAND total for today: 4 pairs of boots, 2 dresses, 3 skirts, 3 jackets, 3 pairs of earrings, 2 belts, 2 necklaces, 1 bag, 1 bathrobe, countless tops and most importantly, 3 very empty wallets.

and of course, 3 satisfied and poor shoppers who decided this sort of activity can only be done bi-monthly :)

Sunday @ St. Kilda

One thing i love about Melbourne is tt there's such a bustling arts and crafts scene. There's always interesting craft markets, second hand goods markets etc around, especially on Sundays. So..Ellen and I decided to check out St. Kilda's outdoor craft market on Sunday :) BUT the weather decided to turn against us, and it started drizzling on our way there:( Plan B? LUNCH:)

@ Grill'ed, St. Kilda

i love the design of the walls :)

The burgers are so so so good! Ellen, being the vege eater, had Bombay Bliss, an all veg burger with a hint of curry flavour. Me, being the canivore, had Simply Grill'ed, a nice juicy beef patty topped with salad and cheese btw 2 .
soft bread. The burgers are huge and tasty to the max. I feel like having one just writing about it.

A stroll down the streets..

We found this chocolate shop, Cocao, by chance on our way back to the city cuz the tram decided to terminate the journey halfway for some strange reasons. They have such a nice and pretty array of chocs!!!! Ellen bought one and declared that Koko Black is still the best. Haha.

Ellen is leaving Melbourne for good in a few days time, will only be back to attend her graduation in August. Am going to miss you girl!

There goes one more friend in Melbourne :(

Dragon Boat Festival

Legend of the Dragon Boat Festival's Origin

At the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the area we now know as China had fallen into a state of fragmentation and conflict. While the Zhou dynasty had ruled for several centuries, several other states, originally feudal domains, tried to carve out their own kingdoms. The state of Qin would eventually emerge the victor and unify all of China under one rule for the first time in history. Qu Yuan served as minister to the Zhou Emperor. A wise and articulate man, he was loved by the common people. He did much to fight against the rampant corruption that plagued the court-- thereby earning the envy and fear of other officials. Therefore, when he urged the emperor to avoid conflict with the Qin Kingdom, the officials pressured the Emperor to have him removed from service. In exile, he traveled, taught and wrote for several years. Hearing that the Zhou had been defeated by the Qin, he fell into despair and threw himself into the Milou River. His last poem reads:

Many a heavy sigh I have in my despair,Grieving that I was born in such an unlucky time.I yoked a team of jade dragons to a phoenix chariot,And waited for the wind to come,to sour up on my journey

As he was so loved by the people, fishermen rushed out in long boats, beating drums to scare the fish away, and throwing zong zi into the water to feed braver fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body.

I miss my gran's zong zi :( And my mum can't bring them over for me coz of some darn rules... :(

Crazy stuff

Claudio & I got into some crazy stuff with his Mac....(don't laugh)

My personal favourite was the first shot with the humpty dumpty head :)

I said don't laugh already...tsk

More on partying..

Since I was on the topic of partying, here's the usual home crowd, be it Saturday nights at BVLD, Friday nights at Lavish or any random parties :)

BLVD, SouthBank

(Jay, Roxanna, Ollie, Jenson, Myself, Jason)

(Roxanna, Jay, Myself)

SOHO Party @ Long Room

The Boys. (Front: Nicky, Jason, Nelson, Jay. Back: LS, Jenson)

(Loraine, Carmen, LS, Ann, Myself, Yuan)

(Myself, Nelson, Loraine, Carmen, Ann, Nicky)

Friday Night Fever

For the past week, i have been holing up in Kumon office everyday..grading piles and piles of worksheets and then Thursday night at the centre with the kids. Trying to earn more $$ before school starts again haha. Weather down under is getting really chilly as well, i guess WINTER is here to stay for a while. The city was shrouded in fog yesterday, and it was freaking 6 degree celsius when I left work i think, lowest ever since i got here. Weather forecast predicts rain for the next few days...how sad. Wet and cold is not a very good combination :( Well, i certainly hope the weather will clear up when my parents get here! Yes, my parents are coming over in less than 2 weeks!!!!!! :) Am gonna fly down to Sydney to meet up with them and tour for a bit before coming back here to Melbourne together. I have been trying to plan the itinerary and it's giving me a headache but it's real exciting at the same time too haha.

Anyway, finally met up with the trio for some partying last night :) We have all been busy working everyday (except for Claudio who has been busy dong nothing :P) and so haven't had the chance to meet up. Since the girls had work till late at night, Claudio and I met up for dinner first at Taco Bill. It was pretty good! Haven't had Mexican food in a while and their tacos and nachos were yummy :D Gonna go back there to try their desserts, heard it's to die for. I was too full to have desserts by the time I was through with my plate of food. As you can see, I have no photos of my dinner at Taco Bill..which is such a rare thing!! My SD card died on me...:( It just decided to stop functioning out of the blue and all the pictures I had in the card vanished. Will have to wait till my parents come with the new card. Urgh. I feel lost without my camera.

Claudio and I had a pre-drinking cum cards session at my place after dinner while waiting for the girls to come. We got kinda high after all the wine (plus the beer at Taco Bill) and I was laughing so much that I couldnt stop even when Bani called me on the phone. Ah yes, I forgot to mention dear Claudio had a stiff neck, and his head is pertually held at 40 degree hee. So he's behaving like a ol' man and yelping everytime he accidentally turn his head.

We finally left home at 12+ am and headed to Lion Hotel pub for some live music, drinks and dancing :) We were too lazy to walk all the way to Southbank for the clubs there haha..

So, we started off with some shots to get us into the dancing mood. I must say the band playing was pretty good indeed!

On the dance floor. Claudio was showing us his moves (despite his stiff neck). Haha..but according to him this is only 30% (cause of his stiff neck!).

Drinks and more drinks again! We had to choose more potent poisons to get us the kick. Haha. Sambuca (X2) for the kill! Claudio stuck with his beer for the entire night.

The night was crazy with great music, strange people, hilarious dancing and fending off guys. LoL. Some would have loved to be in Claudio's position haha..

Bless the Queen!

Haha..today's the Queen's Birthday so it is a public holiday for everyone here (not tt it makes a difference to us hah). Anyway, I half dragged myself to St Kilda at 11.30am to meet Claudio for a run. He's on a new healthy regime to get himself back into shape.

"i have never been so fat in my life!"

Anyway, that is something i need to do as well, am feeling totally unfit and lumpy. And so we ran from one end of St Kilda beach to the other and walked our way back hee (though the plan was to run back). Okay it was my fault, I was too tired to run back haha so Claudio was nice enuff to stop his run and walk back with me. It's beautiful running (& walkng) along the beach...the sea, the gulls, the sailing boats, the vast sky... :) We realised it was like 1.50pm by the time we were back at St. Kilda (which explains our hunger) so we popped down to the street for lunch. It was bustling at the street, lotsa families were out enjoying the hol and it was nice just basking and soaking in the atmosphere. Had a really gd lunch at this Italian place which i can't quite remember the name, smoked ham, anchovies, mushrooms, olives & mozarrella pizza for me and tomato soup for Claudio (the waiter wanted to put the soup in front of me n pizza for him hah..told u he is on a healthy regime).

Plan for tonight was dinner at Meelin's place! :) Because Claudio was busy lazying and only had time to do nothing, dessert had to be bought (he was supposed to make something for dessert).

So it's off to good ol' reliable Krispy Kreme!

Okay maybe the dude in the picture above may not look very familiar...

Clearer now eh? Dear Claudio has decided to bare it all! Haha...his new look to go with his new regime :)

He's got a whole new attitude to go with it as well...vainer, bitchier and punkier. Hee.

And finally we arrived at Meelin's place @ Clayton after a long ride on and waiting for the train. She's got sucha NICE place!! Big plasma screen + surround system + PSIII + nice big kitchen and the list goes on..

Claudio and Oliver having a go with PSIII.

Steak for dinner!!!!! Juicy and full of E.coli as Claudio said (he's such a nerd)..and of cuz our lovely Chef:)

Gavin, myself, Oliver and Claudio

We were entertaining ourselves and being totally not helpful as dinner was cooking..and of cuz drinking wine hee

Dinner was served! Bon Appetit :) There's Pam with Bani and Claudio, the very happy diners.

Dinner was Fabulous. Thank you Meelin!! And though we were stuffed from dinner, we could always make space for desserts :)

And we decided to play Charades! Haha...we were playing with movie titles...Finding Nemo, Cinderalla Man, The Godfather, Rush Hour, Minority Report, Slap Her, She's French, Air Force One etc etc...hilarious and loads of good fun! :D But conclusion, Meelin and Oliver cannot be in the same team next time! Hee. They are formidable together.


And so the night ended with us running to catch the train so that Bani and Claudio is able to take the last tram back home from city. As cold and wet as the night was, we certainly were in high spirits :D

[Because some new names were mentioned, here's who they are :) Oliver: Meelin's bf and occupant of house as well, Gavin: friend of Meelin, Oliver and Pam and is also from Mauritius, Pam: third occupant of house]

Lazy Sunday

Now that exams are over, I suddenly find myself with a lot of time :) Not that it is not a good thing of cuz haha..

Soo..it was a late morning for me, followed by a long hot shower and finally headed down to Chapel Street for some (window) shopping and basically just chill :D

It was a busy day at Chapel Street, all the shops were having their end of season sale so there were some serious shopping going on.

I had to go back to Laurent since I'm at Chapel (it was one reason why i decided to go to Chapel tdy haha). I've been missing the cakes there!

It's Concorde and hot choc for me. Such exquisite presentation and needless to say, the cake was fantabulous. I sat at the tables outside, a cool breeze was blowing, my music was playing, the book I'm reading is great and the sweets were out of the world. I can't think of a better way to laze my Sunday(s) away :)

FINITO!!!

The coffee that kept me going for the past few days..it's a routine to grab one from the Korean supermarket downstairs before heading to the library. Very preety cans they have don't they? :)

Anywaysssss....exams are finally over!!!!!!!!! (though there is one more pending report to do but lets say it's non-existent at this moment) Haha..our first proper meal in weeks!! It's been a long time...

Lovely weather today to mark the start of our 1.5 months long hols :) We need to plan peeps!!! Road trips and ski trips n what not..and of coz i'll be putting more hours at Kumon to roll in some dough!

And in a flash, one semester has gone by. It's been 4 months here at Down Under for me already but everytime I stepped out and the cold breeze hits me in the face, I still find it so surreal that I'm here, here living a life that I never thought I'll be in. As much as I miss home, I'm totally loving it here.. :) Life is so much more than the lil corners I used to drive myself into before..and I've never felt such sense of happiness and power within myself for a long time as far as I could remember..maybe since RGS days? I believe I'm still the same ol' often crappy, often silent, often kooky siang wei, just a lot stronger and more xiao sa as how AL puts it. I think I'm back in the pilot seat :)