of late..

Okay, i'm still not able to upload any of my numerous pictures of late (to the point that i stop taking pictures so often as well bleah!). I highly suspect my kind neighbour whom I have been leaching from has reached the limit to his/her broadband account (no thanks to me of course). SO, I prob have to wait till the new month before I can start to upload pics again *crosses fingers* Anyway just a short summary to what's been happening down under..

My dear girl Alisa is back form Sinagpore so have been hanging out with her quite a bit this weekend..slacking most of our time away at cafe & home. Got our hair cut by this korean dude and so now my hair is back to it's glory ala NUS times..hahaa...was getting bored with my long hair. Visited a pasta factory with Claudio for our ravioli project as well. Was a very interesting & enriching experience I must say..:) School work is also starting to pile up so I better pull up my socks..Pronto!!

Peace out.

URGH

I have no idea what's wrong with blogspot. I can't seem to upload any pics!!! :(

Friday Lunch

Had our first Food Chemistry lecture with Dr Small today. Haha. What a kooky last name :) He must be the first lecturer I have ever met so far in my entire education life who speaks oooooohhhh sooooooo slowlyyyyy. Seriously. I could doze off just waiting for him to complete one sentence. Well, on a brighter note, you will never miss out anything he says if u are actually awake :)

Anyways I need to bitch about my horrid school admin..because our timetable is so screwed up now. Well, we are required to take 3 essential modules for this semester and these 3 modules are determined by our program coordinator. And guess what...the timetable clashes for 2 of these essential modules. ??!!!?? Just how inefficient/messed up can they get? And their solution for this mess now is to drop a core and choose another elective, leaving the core for next semester. Urgh. We were all looking forward to doing that core this semester. The list of electives we can do this semester is so limited as well, and many of which can't fit into our timetable. Sigh. What a way to start the semester off. But I must say the modules we are doing this semester are very interesting. Of special mention is Food Quality Assurance with Liz Gorzyca. She rocks as a lecturer :) The practicals are gonna be so fun as well..as we are doing product assurance and the product for my group (Claudio & I) is MAP packaged ravioli. We will be making the product from scratch..starting with all the raw materials to the final packaging and recording this entire process along the way as a manual. Whee! Sounds good eh? :) Claudio and I are going to try our hand on ravioli making tomorrow before our first pract next week. Haha..and these will be stored and used on Monday night for our dinner party. Lol. Meelin and Bani are doing microwavable meatballs in some kind of sauce. Totally complementary with our ravioli :D Anyways, we tried out this Japanese restaurant at Melbourne Central today after lecture:

Food was not too bad! But it is not authentic jap food...they kinda fused it with Chinese style. Ahh..I miss the jap food at Cuppage :(

Since the last post..

Okie doks, since the last post, I have been immersing myself in some arty farty stuff and loads of shopping hee.

Friday morning was spent at the lovely State Library strolling through all the art and photos exhibitions. It was my first time inside..and I was going to see the exhibition on FAMOUS, Karin Catt Portraits there. The potraits were great, ranging from Eminem, Elton John and Keira Knightly to Bill Clinton and Dalai Lama. The interior of the library was impressive and extremely beautiful as well. Love it!! This trip to the library was totally inspiring for me haha..

Met up with Claudio after for shopping at Chadstone, the biggest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere! We started on our separate ways upon reaching there (to make the most of our time there lol) and met at Laurent's for a short teabreak before embarking for round 2 of shopping :)

Went back with quite a few big shopping bags! Hee..

A couple of weeks ago, Claudio and I were having a conversation about painting and arts and I mentioned I miss painting so much. It has really been a while since I last did a painting :(Claudio then got this brilliant idea that he will get me all the materials and I, shall paint a picture for his place. And so he did.

So on Saturday, after the highly inspring trip to the library which puts me in an arty mood, I got down to painting. What joy it brought me! The sunlight was streaming in through the huge window in the living room, casting a nice warm glow on the empty canvas...

After some hours...tadah! My first painting in Melbourne:) I'm pretty happy with it. What do you think?

Passed it to Claudio today. He seemed pleased with it :)

We had dinner with Bani as well at this hot pot place at Russell Street.

$19 per person for eat all you can. Not too bad a deal!

We opted for the Yuan Yang and the spicy soup base was really hot! Claudio was the one eating mostly from that part of the pot (and I just got news that his tummy is not reacting very well to all the spice hee).

I'm so totally stuffed now. Urgh. Anyways, school has started again and my first class would be on Wednesday. Modules this semester include Food Chemistry (sounds interesting!), Quality Assurance ( this would be a toughie) and Molecular Cell Biology.

I need to settle down into STUDY mode..

3 HDs pls!?!

Ski Trip!!!! 08/07/07 ~ 09/07/07

The final part of our celebrations..Ski Trip, Lake Mountain Alpine Ski Resort! :D

Claudio = Designated Driver, Me = Designated Navigator ( I'm well trained now!! lol), Bani & Meeline = Happy Passengers.

On our way up to mountain to resort..so pretty!!!

Yayyyyy!!!! We were all really excited!!! :)

Pity we didn't bring our cameras during the skiing..else there would be loads of funny shots! Haha. Skiing is OH SO FUN and such a good workout! All of us were aching so badly by the time we were done..but of cause partly due to all the falls we had. I fell so many dozens time, no thanks to Claudio as well. Grrrr. We had snowball fights, built a lil snowman and basically had tons of fun :) Can't wait to go for another ski trip!

We headed back to our accomodation, Allawah Cottage @ Marysville. Gorgeous place!! Came with a jaccuzi, gas fireplace, heated beds and sumptious breakfast spread. Heavenly :)

Went to visit some wineries at Yarra Valley along the way back the next day and bought a few bottles of wines back. Haha. Chandon Vineyard was especially lovely, not to mention their champagne and wines :)

Oh yes, 9th was results day as well..haha..so we went back to Meelin's place to check our results. I was totally freaked out about seeing my results :( But alas, we all did well :D I have a HD average:) Calls for a celebration eh?!

Off to Koko Black @ Chadstone we go! :)

We did some shopping as well and Claudio and I each bought ourselves a watch to commerate our first results day in Down Under. Haha.

Dinner was at Sofia, Ferntree Gully with Oliver and Gavin. Check out the pasta that was meant for 2 to share:

This winter hols has been great! :) School starts again on the 16th and it'll be back to nerd mode..then exams then finally back to humid ol' Singapore for summer break! Wheeee!

On the 7/07/07

Celebrations continued on the 7th at Carlton Hotel Pub!

We taught Bani how to play Five Ten...hahaa..

We don't know the last 2 dudes in picture. Had to take a pic of them cuz they helped us with ours. Hah. Australians....

Happy Birthday Claudio!

Celebrations for Claudio's birthday started on the 6th (actual day is on the 7th) :)

Pre-drinking at his place!

** Note the retro glasses. Theme was 60's..but he was the only one dressed for the part. Hee...Sorry Clau!

We headed to Sevens after all that wine, rum and champagne to party the rest of the night away! :)

Day 7/Last day in Melbourne

10 days with Mum and Dad went past just like that. There were moments of frustrations, exasperation, irritation...BUT plenty more of laughter, warmth, fun and love :)

Was so sad watching them enter the departure hall and disappear out of sight. Felt a momentary sense of loss and loneliness. I miss my family :(

Thank you dad and mum for taking time off to come and visit me. It meant the world to me :) See ya all soon in Dec!!!!! HUGS.

Day 7 in Melbourne

It rained for the whole day..and we spent the entire day watching Yi Tian Tu Long Ji dvds at home. Haha. We all were so hooked to the show (even my dad!). Met up with Vaughan thereafter for dinner at Jimmy Watson's @ Lygon. Great gourmet pizzas!

Was a funny night :)

Day 6 in Melbourne, Mt. Dandenong.

It's up to the mountain we go today!

Frankly, there's nothing much spectecular at Mt Dandenong except for the view of Melbourne and some quaint lil' towns along the way up. Hah.

Day 5 in Melbourne, Great Ocean Road

Woke up to lovely warm sunshine (thank god) and cool breeze :) Was a beautiful day, just great for the Great Ocean Road! :)

Ok, these places are all so familiar now on my blog..haha..once again, The Arch.

London Bridge

Lookout to Port Campbell Township

Port Campbell

Loch ard the Gorge

Blowhole

Thunder Cave

12 Apostles

Gibson Steps

And that marks the end for our road trip :)

Day 4 in Melbourne, Mornington/Great Ocean Road

We spent the whole of the previous night watching Yi Tian Tu Long Ji dvds..haha..and woke up bright and early for our long day ahead.

Comfort Bay Inn, Rosebud, our accomodation for the previous night.

The Enchanted Maze Garden. It was amazing how they keep the hedges so nicely trimmed and tidy. Very pretty indeed!

Cows galore.

Vineyards. Pity all the vines are bare, but fortunately the cellars aren't. Haha..bought a few bottles back :)

Arthur's Seat.

We drove down towards Sorrento where we boarded a passenger/vehicle ferry which will take us to the Bellarine Peninsular where we will continue our road trip to Great Ocean Road.

My first time on a passenger/vehicle ferry. Very exciting! Haha..

After 45 minutes on the ferry, we arrived at Queenscliff :)

And we drove and we drove (with some pit stops long the way)....and finally after 4 hours, we arrived at our accomodation Daisy Hill Cottage at Port Campbell.

Our cabin accomodation! Love it!

Dinner was fish and chips, my usual whenever I'm at Port Campbell :)