BAck FrOm mELbouRNe...

Yes... I am back from melbourne after 4 days...

day 1: had to wake up early and drive down to anna's house so that i could park there... she found a korean shuttle bus which would take us from her house to the airport which was good but expensive... when we arrived at melbourne... we caught an airport shuttle to the city and from there, found out that they have a free shuttle service which would bring us to the hostel... which was good... when we got to the hostel... it was certainly not what i had expected and seen from the pictures on the website... it was quite eerie looking and there was this really bad smell along the corridor... and the thing was and i learnt my lesson, always bring your own bedsheet and pillowcase if you are staying in hostels... luckily anna brought one so we shared... put our stuff down and went to meet up with suet ming... she brought us around, ate lunch at this jap place and i ordered the unagi don... which was quite reasonably priced and quite nice actually... after that, we caught the free city tram ride around the city... and walked to sofitel, where the conference was held... it was like a half hour walk from the hostel... it did not look that far when i saw it on the map though... thank god i brought walking shoes... and for the past 3 nights, i have been sleeping at 9am sharp... i don't think i have ever slept so early before... and needless to say, i did not have a good sleep every night too...

day 2: conference day 1... it was anna's presentation day so we went early to set things up, and there were quite alot of people at the venue when we arrived... the first day was quite interesting... and the hotel was supposedly one of the higher classed ones, but in my opinion, it was only ok... not like grand looking or anything... oh and when we went there on the first day to check it out... i was telling anna and suet ming that it was so upsetting that everyday we have to walk from our really sadlooking accomodation to the high class stretch where hotels like westin, hyatt and boutique shops like gucci were and then have to walk from the high class place back to our hostel... i was embarrassed every time someone asked where we were staying in... haha... anyway, the lunch was not good, but the morning tea was good, they had brownies for morning tea... and bcos we were quite cheap skate... we decided to gorge on the food served during the welcome reception as our dinner... so we just stood outside the kitchen and waited for them to bring out the trays haha... typical singaporean kiasuism i would say...

day 3: conference day 2... it was my turn to present the poster that day... ohmigod, both shoes which i brought to the conference really hurt my toes and feet so badly, that at the end of the day, i had to change out of them... and they were low heels... anyway, the second day was much more boring... cos on the first day, we have already been to all the different stalls and collected all the freebies like pens!!!, waterbottles, etc... and the food on the second day was worse... so i did not really eat much... and seriously the shoes from URS were killing me... thankfully, the conference ended earlier on the second day, so anna and i decided to put our stuff down and walk around the city... went to look for toys... then went to chinatown... i remembered hearing people say that the food at chinatown is nice but they were all restaurants, so we did not eat there... however, i did find an ice cream place which sells ice cream for $3.90 for 3 scoops... how good is that??!! i have never seen that price ever for 3 scoops of ice cream... i was very excited... walked to the riverside... and i was physically exhausted after walking for like 2 hours... and anna wanted to keep on going... let's just say that i was not feeling too friendly towards her at that point... and we got lost too... so anyway, finally arrived back at our hostel... and i was so tired... and that was the end of the conference... i did not really get questions regarding my study, more like comments...

day 4: we slept in that day... and after that, decided that we had to check in online rather than queue, so we went to look for an internet cafe... after that, went to queen victoria market... and it was packed... there were so many people... and i remembered that i went there before, with mum and pong previously when we joined the tour... there were quite alot of things to see... but i could not buy stuff cos my bag was so full already... and being the cheap skate that we are, we bought the carry on baggage only tickets... so we could not carry more stuff... after that, we were quite tired already but we still had time to spare before going to the airport, so we decided to walk to the city again... then anna suggested going to borders... so i just sat there and read books... while anna went somewhere... seriously, there was so many asians... every where you turn, i could hear people speaking korean and chinese... finally it was time to catch the bus to the airport... when we arrived at the airport, we were quite early, so we had to wait for another 2 hours in the airport... and the flight was delayed for god knows why... and we saw one of our uni lecturers catching the same flight as us...

when we landed in sydney, it was already 10am... and anna's friend came and picked us up... and i know i probably should not complain bcos if it was not for him, we would probably have to catch a cab or a train... but he did not know the way to anna's house, we did not realise that we have to prepay the ticket at the carpark... and he could not remember where he parked... so we were walking around for awhile... and i was carrying my heavy bag all over the place... alamak... by the time we got out of the airport, it was like 1020pm already... and then we got lost on the way to her house, which was like another hour wasted driving in god knows where... so by the time we finally arrived at her house, it was like 1115pm... and poor andrea... being so tired and hot... it was so hot yesterday when we arrived... had to drive home for another half hour... i was exhausted mentally and physically by the time i got back...

and it's back to reality again...