24th dec- xmas eve, it was just lois and I in rehab that day, had our CC and then went to red cherry for am tea, and then was busy sorting out all the gate leaves, and then had pizza for lunch, was the last one to leave work that day at 1500 actually... cos I had to go see the 2 new MRT referrals as well... went to hornsby for dinner and did some grocery shopping...
25th dec- merry xmas, spent most of the day at auntie's house, baking cheesesticks, brownie and cookies, did not turn out very nice though, had the moscato, and then settled down to watch our weekly dose of running man and a rerun of the mummy...
26th dec- boxing day yes!!! finally time to leave for melbourne... got to the airport really early actually, the flight there was mostly ok, thank goodness it was only a 90mins flight... and not many people of the plane... when we finally arrived at melbourne, it was actually quite cool and windy, and we were like uh oh, did not even think to bring a jacket... caught the skybus to southern cross station, and then a free hotel transfer bus to the rydges... we were excited when we found out that we had a room on the top floor on 22nd... the room itself was alright, nothing very special, and of course, I was the suay one who got into the shower, and realised that it was not working properly, so pongie rang reception who were like ok how about we reassign you another room on the 21st floor, and so I had to do a really quick rinse and get out of the shower, repack our stuff and then switch rooms... this time we had a bath instead, but at least the hose was working... so I had another second proper shower... before all this shower drama though, we actually decided to go check out chinatown seeing as how it's just on the street opposite the hotel on little bourke street... it was crowded, of course with asians mostly, did not walk the whole street though, checked out some of the eateries, and decided on this chinese restaurant, and ordered xiao long bao, white bait, and fried rice, the food was actually not bad except for the xiao long bao... the good thing we found out was that the sky was still bright even at like 2100, and that the eateries were still open, how good was that!
27th dec- went to check out the rooftop swimming pool, it was a small one though, and we both did bring our swimming costumes but decided not to swim... so we made our way to breakfast, on the way, we got excited cos we came upon lindt cafe, and they were having a 50% discount off all the xmas goodies, and haigh's as well, so we bought some chocs for ourselves as well as for people... came upon the royal arcade and found one of the cafes on my list, cafe duomo... the food was ok, but really expensive, actually the most expensive out of all our meals there... after that, made our way to federation square and flinders street station, by then it was starting to get really crowded... alot of tourists... went to check out the information centre, bought our bus tour tickets, got some brochures and maps... and waited for the hour free tour of the federation square... we probably stayed for like 10mins and decided to leave and start our bus tour, cos it was so hot standing there, and I saw the bus waiting on the opposite street and decided it's now or never... so we sprinted across and boarded the bus... sat through one circuit, we decided to stop at the place where the eureka skydeck was, had difficulties finding the place actually, but when we finally got there, it was actually quite an isolated location, and it was an office building, and we saw the price and pongie did not want to do it so in the end we just walked around and took pictures, and got back onto the bus... decided to stop by the hotel to drop off the chocs we bought in the am, cos we were worried about them melting in the heat... by the time we were ready to get back out, decided there was no more time to get back onto the bus, so decided to check out the little lanes like little collins street and flinders lane... and found the arcade where they sold the macarons which running man went to, as well as the soup place that running man went to as well... decided to have afternoon tea at chokolait, a cafe which was also on my list... it was tucked into a basement and compared to the other cafes, it was actually quite quiet so we bought a piece of cafe and ice choc drink and had the macarons... and then we were walking back to federation square to check out the sights, and saw many tourists on horses, wanted to try that until we found out the cost, expensive! then made our way to one of the more famous street art lanes, called hosier lane, there were actually alot of people there like us taking pics as well... and then we found this killiney kopitiam cafe near our hotel on bourke street, and decided to stop there for dinner, ordered my kaya toast, chai tau kway, which was really yummy, roti prata which was not and the satay, which were not good...
28th dec- first stop was queen victoria market, it was about a 30mins walk from the hotel, when we got there, not as crowded yet, the place which was I excited most was probably the cooked food deli section, tried this cheese stick thing, which was not that good actually... so the walk around was pretty quick, after that decided to walk to melbourne central shopping centre to catch the free tram city circle tour, when we boarded, it was actually relatively free, and there were seats, the route was pretty much what the bus tour did, but the bus tour had more stops outside of the city... anyway, we did one circuit and by the time we came out of docklands, the tram was PACKED LIKE SARDINES... becos of these parents with kids and prams... there were even staff directing people traffic at federation square stops... it was worse than MRT in singapore during peak hour I think... finally got off the tram back at melbourne central, and had lunch at the food court at schnitz... the burger and chips were actually pretty good... after that we pretty much walked around the city a bit more, had a hard time finding this cafe called 1000 pound, we almost passed it by, and then decided to go cool off for dessert at the lindt cafe of course... disappointingly they did not have the dome available that day... so we just had the waffle and ice choc drink... after that, we decided to return to the hotel for a rest, before going back out for dinner... thought that the cafes at little collins or flinders lane would still be open however, when we got there, most of the cafes were closed or closing, hence we decided to go back to schnitz for dinner, there was actually another one on elizabeth street...
29th dec- last day in melbourne, seriously time flies when you are enjoying... checked out of the hotel and left our stuff at the hotel and made our way through little bourke street towards the japanese massage place... came upon this asian bakery store, and bought some stuff, it was actually quite expensive... anyway, arrived at the massage place and I really liked the decor, it was small, but double storey, was asked to change out of our clothing, and given this top and tie string pants to wear, and then first treatment was a footrub and wash, whilst drinking green tea and given one mochi each to eat... after that, it was an hour massage with clothes on, and then finally, an hour facial... I thought it was really good, and worth the price we paid... pongie did not like it though... unfortunately the good weather that we had the last few days was gone and in came pouring rain and strong winds... the wind was so strong that the rain was pretty much going diagonally and horizontally... and the wind was too strong for pongie's tiny umbrella, hence we pretty much walked under shelters as much as possible without using it... and ended up at killiney again for lunch... and then of course, received a sms informing that our flight schedule has been changed, rang virgin blue up and was told that our flight has been cancelled becos of mechanical error... so we started to panic a little, and was told that it was either the 1700 or 1930 flight... and becos we were unsure of we would make it to the airport by 1700, we decided to go with the 1930 instead... caught the free hotel transfer bus back to southern cross station, and there was actually alot of people there waiting for the skybus as well... waited for awhile, and we were on our way back to the domestic airport... thank goodness we got there on time, and we were able to catch the 1700 flight back to sydney... but at this point, my main worry was the weather outside... and of course, the takeoff and landing, especially the landing was turbulent, I was actually really scared, my heart was pounding and I was almost tearing up, thank goodness it happened when we were almost landing... anyway, got home safe and sound, and we were so lucky that we managed to catch the earlier flight, otherwise we would be beyond exhausted when we got home...
went back to work the next 2 days, nothing very exciting, I just felt like my body was physically there the whole time but my mind was elsewhere... but at least we got to leave at 1600 on new years eve... and stayed up to watch the fireworks... same every year...
1st Jan- Happy New Year, year of the goat... hopefully this year would be a much better year, no terrorist attacks, no plane or ferry tragedies, sport tragedies... went to auntie's house to hang out... watched running man and noah the movie, it was so crap actually... felt like we wasted time and my life, it was ridiculous...
2nd Jan- brought Hyungie in to have the brakes checked and was pretty much told that the squeaking is unavoidable due to dust buildup in the brake pads... urgghhh... maybe it is time to change vehicles... went to parramatta westfield for breakfast at platform 8 cafe... the food there is quite good but had to take my cinammon scroll home cos I was so full after the meal... did some grocery shopping and then came home... went out for dinner with Yin and Elisha at eastwood at Jonga Jip, had barbeque, it was getting crowded when we left, and then went for dessert at Oliver Brown... I was so full after... it was so hot and humid yesterday as well...
can't believe this holiday period is coming to an end... will be having a 1st year student in Jan and then working twice for MAU this month, and then in Feb, family will be visiting... still dunno whether we are still going the Europe thing in April... after all the airplane tragedies and my fear of flying... hmmm, maybe I should just stay put and wait till Aug to go back home instead... Can't believe I am turning 30 this year!!!!
