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Above – Happy on the Big Bus, which was really so much fun and so different from walking.

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My dream cafe looks like this, white and crisp, below:

And life should always be about freedom, like below. I love this pic, so colourful and freeeeeee. =D

Enjoy the weekend baking and crafting

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Revenge of the Mummies

Charlie Chaplin

Yep! That’s Universal Studios Singapore! =)

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And I’ve got to start making my resolutions. I never really do them every year, but this time I must be resolute! A good friend made her first trip to KL, with us bringing her around. I do hope she had a good time, my mum invited her to come back again.

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The last day felt the longest, not because it was boring, but we did alot of things that day, from pretty hotels to Customs House library, to the Harbour Bridge Walk and then rushing to find Xin Yi’s birthday present before the city shops’ awfully early closing time approaches.

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Today we went to Newtown & Glebe.

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Had a walk in Balmain, which is a really nice area, with Yan Ri. Love the shops there!

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We headed to the Paddington markets open every Saturdays. I think this is my most favourite market of all, even though I haven’t been to all of the markets in Sydney.

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I love markets, they’re lively, colourful and very happening. This is where your sights and smells senses are tickled.

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Today we walked along the bays from Watson Bay and intended to finish at Bondi Beach, but we stopped at Diamond Bay.

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Today we went to Bondi Junction for dim sum and then Bronte Beach, one of the prettiest beaches around and, personally, my favourite.

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Nah, I wasn’t bored actually. It’s just that we found a really good ‘jumping platform’ on the Woolloomoolloo area.

In the morning we took a trip to Surry Hills which neither me nor Michelle have been before. But at the recommendation from dear Yan we decided to have a look. According to her the place has quirky shops like the ones spread out along Brunswick Street in Melbourne.

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What do we do now?

Where do we even begin in Sydney?

The moment I stepped out of the airport, it was HOT. Later, I read on the news that that very day was the ”2nd hottest November day on record”, 40.4 Celcius. It felt like I was in a microwave or, try walking in a stuffy carpark on a hot day in KL and you’ll feel the heat searing on your face.

We arrived at my brother’s apartment in Zetland and met his girlfriend. Beautiful apartment!

We freshened up for dinner at In Chan Thai in Kingsford.

And after that, the first thing I could think of is paying a visit to Pancakes on the Rocks, of course. We had ‘The Ultimate”, which was fantastic the second time. I tried it about four years ago and I didn’t have much of an impression of it. For this trip I only had this pancake once. I wish I had tried the foods that I had in Sydney more often (nope, once is not enough, hehe), but there’s not enough time to squeeze in all the goodie foodies in such a short span of time.

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Like a few days before, Melboune was raining on the last day, which made the streets cold, wet and gloomy. I suppose it’s rainy season. We headed to Centre Place for breakfast with Soi at AIX Creperie. It’s a tiny half-shop where we used to have fabulous Peking duck crepes, hazelnut chocolate crepes, Tandoori Chicken crepes and so on. It’s in a tiny tiny lane full of cafes and graffiti art that makes the place the epitome of Melbourne itself. I love Centre Place.

But luck was out for us as the little creperie was closed, so we settled in another cafe at Degraves St. The food was moderate only.

After breakfast we followed Soi to the Melbourne City Library at Little Flinders Lane. This library is cool in that it’s nested in also a small lane and it’s likely that you will never know about it unless you explore deep into the lanes. And once you find it you’ll be amazed at how a little lane like this can accommodate a library plus a cafe inside it. What’s best about it is that membership is free, and it houses magazines, books and dvds/cds. Probably I’ll take libraries into account as a factor for choosing where to stay in the future. =P I love them!

And remember that all this while the city is still wet and cold, already the drizzling has been going on for the whole morning. I guess  this pretty much sums up Melbourne’s weather. It’s also a little reflection of my mood at the time. Or is it the other way around? Melbourne has always been like this, and it gives you this lonely feeling that I can’t shake off.

Not exactly the last impression I want to have of Melbourne but oh well Mother Nature what are you showing us!!!!

And here we go!!!! We were bound for Sydney by noon. =)

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Day 4 was kinda wet and rainy, but HEY, we were still in Melbourne!! Up to Dandenongs we went via train and bus. We took the Belgraves train line and the whole journey took about 2 hours. Lucky we didn’t feel the time dragging (well, at least for me) as we all had some chitter chatter going on.

And once we got off to wait for the bus, it was freezing! But finally we arrived in the charming little village of Sassafras, with the woods surrounding this town. We started off our journey from Flinders Station real early because we want to be sure not to miss the lunch. By noon, Miss Marple’s would be packed and there’s little chance you’ll be getting your seat in for lunch, since Miss Marple’s closes at 4pm (it opens everyday incl. public holidays and weekends, great eh?). It’s real popular for its scones and jams. I tasted its chicken pie and loved it.

After that was a little walk around the town. It wasn’t much to walk about since the whole town consists of maybe 20 shops, but most of them are worth paying a visit. To name a few, among the shops are a Geppetto toy shop, a skin care/candle shop, wool garments shop and a few of other tea rooms similar to Miss Marples, although most tourists and locals come to this town just to try Miss Marples. Probably I’d have a go at other tea rooms the next time I come again. =)

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Today we went to artful Brunswick St. Although I love knick knacks, this time was window shopping time (I’m restraining myself from shopping this time around, erm, this is very well considered a budget trip).

After that, we went to the new DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) near Crown Casino but to me it felt like there was nothing much to buy. Should’ve realized I was on a shooting spree not a shopping spree, hehe.

At dinner time, I met up with Soi (oh, it’s Dr. Kor now!) & JK, with Elaine calling to hear for ‘updates’, =). I miss them as much as I miss those times. We’ll all be separated and, let’s see if the next time all the four of us meet will be for the next five years, as JK said.

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Still slightly traumatized by the jetstar flight, bleary-eyed girls had some gigantic portobello mushrooms (looted from previous night’s supermarket hunt-for-gigantic-local-produce trip) for breakfast before hopping onto a tram outside the hotel and headed for Swanston street around 11am with the intention to locate the visitor’s information booth.

Upon hopping off the tram, an elderly visitor guide volunteer saw us being snappish [Def: Intensely snapping pictures with a Canon D450, f1.8 50mm lens grinning widely from  ear to ear]  around Swanston street and volunteered to take our pics with our “boyfriend” statues.

Having talked to the friendly visitor guide, we proudly gained ourselves directions to the Brighton Beach and a handheld city map before heading towards Degraves Street to meet our first Melbourne bestie. We spent some time on the way exploring the Union graffiti lane and Royal arcade before we reached Degraves Street. Had lunch with Mr. JK at Degraves Espresso Bar during his lunch break, and it was a great location for an afternoon meet-up. We managed to get a comfortable seat inside the cafe (which is a little stuffier than cool air outside) despite the lunchtime rush.

After lunch and a little present hunting around the city, it was time for Brighton Beach!! Due to the Brighton Beach being an impromptu decision made at the visitor information area, both girls braved themselves armed only with their photohunting cameras and upon reaching the beach did dawn upon them that they had NO SPF 30++ (Non-greasy) SUN SCREEN LOTION from BANANA BOAT!!! There were no convenience stores, pharmacies or other sundry shops where we may obtain any immediate sunscreen. The only panic attack was : “AGING SKIN!!”…but then again…waiting around the corner were…PHOTOGRAPHS!! So we decided to just walk on with our unshielded made-in-malaysia’s-humidity bare skins. I would describe the session more like…hanging our skins out to dry in the sun.

It was extremely hot at the beach, with direct sunlight searing at your skin. My hair instantly heat up enough to cook an egg (heard that somewhere). But then, it was the first breath of Melbourne beach and sand!! The excitement of colourful bathing houses was all there  in the happy sunny day. Trekking on the beach path towards the bathing houses (located 1km from the train station), we went down the paved path which we did not know was leading into a wide open sandy area. Sands got into the sandals and it was HOT! Michelle was already “ouch-ing” around at the sands when we both gasped at end of the path that suddenly joined into a wide open area with huge gigantic mounds of brown hairy creatures parked right in front of us!!

CAMELS??!!! At the BEACH? What in the world was going on…Since when did they have camel rides at Brighton beach? Like the elephant rides in Thailand, wouldn’t horses be more of the norm if they were going to have any animals at the beach?! There were six gigantic camels!! They were all rested on the ground, but we could already see the size of them. These were no normal riding camels at tourist locations..they only have one hump and oh they were pretty!!! (can you hear their long eyelashes battering?)

There we met a very sweet and friendly man who invited us to enter the fencing area of the camels and meet Bacci!!!!! A very very very beautiful and friendly you-may-hug-my-head camel!!!.  He told us that he was on a “Thank you expedition” all day way from Darwin to Melbourne on foot for the Royal Children’s hospital for the separation of conjoined twins Trishna and Krishna from Bangladesh. The whole expedition was made on foot, with a pack of camels strictly for carrying pack supplies (not for riding!). After a very happy time with Bacci and a delightful conversation with the man, we innocently thanked him and headed back on our trek to the Brighton Bathing houses. Later on, I took the initiative to find out more on the camel convoy and found out that the kind gentleman was Russel Osborne, which then I realise it was such great honour to have such a heartful man, and such amazing coincidence that we were to chance upon the camel convoy, when they were only to camping there for a couple of days by the beach!

After a crazy snappish session, we were sunburned all over, sandy and dusty! Rushed back to the hotel to get ready for besties meeting in the evening!! ^.^ ladies night out and catch up!! Haha..

Met up with Taswina and Yan, who brought us over to [err..forgot name] Thai Restaurant at Brunswick Street.  Had a wonderful catch-up scrumptious dinner with the ladies, comprising of a Fish cakes for entree,  Seafood Pad Thai, Tom Yum Goong, Red Duck Curry and Stir Fried Fish fillet with vegetables.

Taswina had to go off early after dinner, so we hung out with Yan a little longer. Yan invited us to her home, and we spent some more time chatting and chilling out. Michelle was crazy over Yan’s lamp from a garage sale. She been mentioning it since! Seems like she is determined to ask Yan for a picture of it, which she had failed to obtain that night. During the night before retreating to bed, Taswina came with a surprise message: “Wanna go Dandenongs for Miss Marples on Saturday?”

AAAAAHHHHhhhh “YES!!!” Was the reply!!! At first, only two ladies, we weren’t very sure bout going Dandenongs, plus it used to be a car-trip most of the time, and this time around, none of us were very keen on driving, with the GPS + petrol + insurance below 25 etc. =P But with a prompt from Taswina, it was no longer a doubt going there! Taswina said she’ll do the researching on public transport (giving us an easy holiday =P).

So that was Day 2, a happy day and evening, and an exciting Saturday to look forward to!! Sleeping time finally came, the jetstar-effect still hanging around, sleep was EASY, and GREAT! Zzzzzz..

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