My Aussie Trip: Part 1

19th May 2004, Mat, Mich, Clara & Me boarded SQ237 for Melbourne!...It was a midnight flight, I just remember that Mat and me fell asleep the moment we board the flight as we both suffer from motion sickness!! Had supper at around 1am, I was happily eating my salmon, but poor Mat…he was really stoned, suffering from motion sickness despite the fact that he had medication!...it was really a funny scene, coz I remember him staring at the piece of salmon, looking so lost, while I was there happily munching away!...I looked at him and asked “Mat, why do you keep staring at the fish?”…he just gave me a blur look, lost in his own world and he mumbled some stuff which I could not make out, so I ignored him! Anyway, woke up at around 5am…Clara didn’t sleep the whole night as she was busy watching movies. Guess we were so bored on the plane that we started walking up and down the plane to find a good spot to see the sunrise. Wow! The sight was simply awesome! Immediately, Clara took her video-cam to capture this wonderful sight. Soon after, breakfast was served around 6am. By 8.35am, our plane finally landed in Melbourne!!...Yeah!

The first thing I did when I reach Mel was to call my dad and bf! Coz this is the first time that I’m traveling on my own!...Worst of all, I’m a well-known blur queen who has no sense of direction! So it’s better to give them a call asap to let them know that I’ve arrived safely. But come to think of it, I have Mat and Clara to jagar me, so chances of me getting lost is still quite slim! Haha

Basically we did not do much on our first day of arrival. Checked into our service apartment, Pacific International (PI). Luckily, we heeded Clara’s advice in staying here. It’s 10mins away from school, 5mins away from Hard Rock and 3mins to the Tram stop. Very centralized and easily accessible. All of us did not really sleep well the previous night and was suffering from jet lag. But we were so excited in exploring the new environment that we went out straight after loading our luggage! The first place we went to is to find out where the hell RMIT is located! Mat was our navigator; basically we just followed him, since we are all so bad in directions! Yeah! Finally we arrived at RMIT!!...but it does not look like a campus at all! It is located around shopping malls, whereby the Subway is just beside it! Had Subway sandwich for lunch. Walk around the area after that, and then went to Chinatown. We were all so fascinated by the Asian stuffs they have…oh yes! The name of the shop is Asian Groceries! It really feels like being in Singapore, except the weather! So cold…

The next day was spent on a side trip out to Great Ocean Road! Months prior to the trip, our Mr. Nice Guy, Samuel decided to organize this day tour, since most of us are going there anyway. He did all the liaising with the person and managed to gather 18 people! Guess he’s really quite resourceful. So we had our own bus and tour guide to bring us there. We went to see the 12 apostles, light house and koalas!...As it was during the winter season, it was really freezing like hell when we were there. The drizzling that day made it worst! But it was a really good experience. Mat was the most disappointed one, coz he loves to take photos, but due to the bad weather, he could not take nice pictures and he was quite grumpy for the rest of the evening. We were all dead tired by the time we arrived back in Melbourne at 9.30pm that we slept like pigs the next day!

Besides sightseeing, how can I forget my essential dosage of Shopping Therapy!! The weekend was spent at Vic Market, Smith Street and East Richmond where we buy like nobody’s business! Ok, Clara and I are shopping freaks, or rather Esprit freaks! We nearly bought the entire building! Poor Mat was there helping us to choose the bags and carrying our stuffs! It’s good to have a guy around actually! Ahaha… But I’m not as bad as Miss Clara! She can really buy a lot…and I really mean a lot!!..at times I have to be the devil and stop her from buying, else I really don’t know how she’ll be able to carry all those stuffs back! Vic market was really nice to shop. It is equivalent to the pasar-malam we have in Singapore. But then they do not sell pirated cds or hand-phone accessories and also don’t have ah-bengs to attend to you. They sell mostly clothes, nice jackets, shoes, sourveniors, bags and some other strange stuff. It is really a big opened-air shopping area, but luckily it was winter, so it was nice walking around there. Oh, most importantly, how can I forget my Harley shop!! Went gaga upon finding Harley shop at Elizabeth Street and spent almost $100+ on clothes, magazines, caps etc. Thanks to Miss Clara who accompanied me there, knowing that I would get lost if I were alone! (Really appreciate it gal *muacks*)

Not forgetting our trip to St. Khilda!...People were telling us how delicious the cakes and pastry were and it’s a Die Die Must Try kinda thing! Of course we tried, but it was really disappointing. It was not as fantastic as what people have described it to be. The cake tasted so sweet and the pasty seems like it was left overnight. And it was not cheap as well! I think the fish & chips there taste better! But the view of the sunset from the beach was simply awesome!...We were so excited taking photos that we nearly miss the tram back!

One of my fondest memories in Melbourne would be those days whereby after dismissal from school, Mat, Clara and me will walk down to Safeway supermarket and do our daily marketing. We usually buy quite a lot of food and rubbish in the supermarket. Meat, Vegetables, bread, milk, cereals, chocolates, cookies, juice etc. …We’re pigs, and we’ll usually finish up all the food the very next day!! Hee...so it’s supermarket shopping again the next evening. Besides, the fridge in our apartment is too small to store all the junks that we buy! Hence, supermarket shopping had almost become our daily routine!

Basically, Mat is our main chef while Clara is the assistant chef. I’ll help out in whatever I could from marinating to cutting up the food. I can’t cook well, so I’ll volunteer my services to wash up the dishes, lay out the table and tidying the apartment, which I really enjoyed! Oh…did I leave someone out?... Yes! And that’s Michelle! She’ll TRY and help…but well, I rather she just sit at the dinning table!

Ok, here’s a classic incident I remember!!..As I was bathing, Mat decided to ask her to marinate the chicken meat. She was enthusiastic about it and was bragging to Mat that she always cook at home. When I came out from the bathroom, to Mat’s and my horror, she was using a spoon and trying to marinate and “stir” the meat around! Gosh! We were like, “Hey Mich, do you really know how to cook?” I mean who on earth actually uses a spoon and marinate!!?? At that point of time, I was quite sarcastic and also impatient. I simply told her that she should be using her fingers and not a spoon to marinate. I tried to take over to do it, but she insisted that she wants to help! Sensing that Mat and I were quite pissed, finally she used her fingers. But it was worst! Guess she was afraid to dirty her fingers. You can see her doing it so gently that it really gets on our nerves!! Anyway, that was it! Since then we don’t bother to ask her to help!

Another classic incident…I heard that she was arguing with Mat or Wencai about cooking. I guess it has got something to do with the heat or fire. Apparently, she was also bragging that she cooks at home. The next thing they realized, she was there nagging at them about the fire thingy and told them that “You can’t put oil to the wok; you got to pour water in”!! As I was at Pam’s place doing project at that point of time, I wasn’t there to witness. But according to Mat, all of them i.e. Himself, Wencai and Ivan (if I remember correctly) all burst into laughter until they were all rolling on the floor! Hmm…after I heard about that incident, I was quite doubtful of Mich’s intelligence and ability to cook!!

Back to our life in Melbourne. Our apartment is always filled with visitors. I guess we were lucky to change into a more cosy apartment which is facing the main road. It was very comfortable and less creepy than the initial apartment we were allocated. Mat will always invite people for dinner at our place and he cooks really well!!...(Mat…I miss your Pork Chop!! *Yummy*)…Poor Mike, got “banished” to stay further away from us. He really missed out from the fun we had! Ahaha

Mag’s birthday celebration was another fun time we had in Melbourne. It was a private affair with mostly the people who are close to her. It was a really wild party that night! A full-monty “performed” by the guys. Actually they did not perform; infact they were stripped by all the gals! The whole “act” was filmed down by Clara, and now, it has become our female’s weapon to use against the guys if they were to bully us, or rather, we use that to exploit them at times! ahaha

Won quite a bit of money while in Crown Casino! I’m really bad at card games, so I’m only qualified to play the jackpot! It’s Idiot proof anyway! Ahaha…Basically, it’s a mini SIM when we were there. Every corner we go, we can see our school mates hanging out with their own cliques. Saw Samuel playing roulette with some other school mates. Think he was so excited that he spilled the glass of water on the table! End up they had to switch to another table and Sam was so embarrassed about it! Clara, Mat and I are not really hard-core gamblers. Basically, we just explored the place and to take photos of the beautiful night view of Crown Casino. Oh, and not forgetting the cheap and delicious $2 fish & chips in Crown!...Think that was the cheapest meal we could find in Aussie!

After 2 weeks of fun in Melbourne, we left on Saturday early morning to catch the domestic flight to Sydney! All of us did not really sleep the previous night as we had so many things to pack! Fortunately, I was quite kiasu, I try to pack my stuffs whenever I could. Hence, I was able to get more sleep than Mat and Clara. Upon reaching the airport, we were all so stoned!...We finally meet up with the rest (Mike, Mag, JS and Winnie) at the airport. Sydney…here we come!!