New Hair New Style New Beginning

Hmm... tired and boring, sitting here in my office...nothing better to do. Not exactly as the work load goes up and down like the roller coaster. Its gonna be end of the quarter soon so work should be piling up very very soon when the new quarter comes. It have been very quiet since I came back from Aussie. Maybe b'cos target have been achieved...^_^

Well, I change my hair style from straight to curly and dye it brown color. Hmmm...another new begining for me to change. Lazy......tired.....sleepy....I forget my wallet again today!!!!! Hai...wht is going on with me, man. Getting old symptom back...its call forgetfulness. Ya, i'm old, thanks to the sleepless nite. I think I can see my wrinkle becoming more visible...god i'm getting old so fast. Even my mum look younger for her age!....hai!.....

I"m just not satisfy with a lot of things but too lazy to change for the better. Beh tahan myself!This is killing me slowly, eating up my energy and make me week. I'm always not happy b'cos I'm never satisfy with my life. I don't know y? This sucks! I wan a hug, cuddle and some fun here, ppl...hear me or not i wan to have some fun!

I'm tired....Zzzzzzz. (In the Office)

I Feel Stoopid

I recieved a long email from one of my net friend, asking me to be careful with the online guys. He is a devoted catholic and it was fated that he was to be converted to be a Catholic not a Methodist. He wrote me a long story about his sharing and how he have become a Catholic. It was a heart warming message send to me. HE who we praise and worship create great miracle for us that we did not see it. I'm glad that HE has send me a friend that appreciate and care for me.

I'm flatter by his remark to me as a nice gal and appreciate other but easily hurt by others. Nobody ever take the time to understand me but he did. He read my blog and try to understand me, which NO friend I know ever take the initiative to know me. This make me realise that I have a value and appreciated.

GOD has send me an angel in disguise but I did not realise it. I'm glad and will be more careful in future and more wise. It is ashame that he will not be online again, I will not have my angel talking to me anymore when I'm down. I will have to learn to stand on my own and face the fact that life is complicated with morons.

I will love myself more and pray for the right one to come...don't worry. I will not forget your words of wisdom that you have send to me. ^_^ May good lord be with you always.

Day 9 - Healesville and Home

23 Sept 06

Yep, today is my last day in Melbourne... my uncle change the flight tomidnite for us so that we have extra more time to spend on this very day. ^_^

Early this morning we went visiting the sanctuary again b'cos we missed it 2 days ago...if notwe might have save the alst day for shopping. Well come down to Aussie have to see theKoala and Kangaroo...if not there is nothing different already. Its all the same, the cityand other places that is modern equivalent to the same equation.

It was fun!!! I got to touch the wallaby and take photo with it and reptile..yucks!!There are few shows that we get to watch, such as the Health Centre Presentation where youmay take the animals that is orphan or lost to the centre to been taken care off.Then we when to the reptiles show..snakes..eeyeew..just introduction to Australia common snake and some action to take if see this snakes appear in your backyard. Well its good, cause Aussie is a jungle itself...hahaha.

The best show that I went was Bird of Prey... some action was shown by the eagles and hawk.How they catch their food in the air and crack an emu egg as food. Smart fella...the hawkjust use it beak to pick up stone and crack the egg shell and tada...food is ready to beeaten. Hahaha!! The hawk look so happy and jolly to perform for us, there is an eagle that do not want to go back to its cage...haha

Later, there was a man showing us, how does the boomerang was thrown, and one boomerang of courseit $10 per piece. My cousin bough it and loose it in the park over the fence on the very day...wahahahaha....He cried, poor kid...and I have to try to get it but fail!!! The whole place was lock up andits a club house. Nobody there!

Well, it was a bumping flight home as the weather is not good but at least I'm safe at home now.Feeling sleepy suddenly...damn must be the time different. Its already 10pm in Aussie now...I got to go to work tomorrow...hai..Hate it sometimes!! And some other things as well.=.=

Sign off,
Mimi

Day 8 - The Great Ocean Road

22 Sept 06

G'mate! I cant't believe that I woke up at 6.30am today, that is 4.30am in Malaysia...and it was bright as day. In Malaysia,it is still dark pitch! Unbelieveble! I slept around mitnite the previous nite but manage to get up so early b'cos we goingto the Great ocean Road!! Maybe I'm excited and can't sleep well and it also maybe I was sleeping with my mum as well. haha!

It was a long journey, it took us about 6 hrs to reach the 12 Apostle and there are only 8 of them that is still standingas the other 4 was gone with the erosion... ha! We had out breakfast in Mc D which only serve pancakes and bacon, cheeseburger..they don't even have Big Breakfast! It was about 10.30 then...before that we detour to Weeribee Open Zoo.When we reach there is was like around 9.30am and the tour around the Zoo was 10.30am. Nah...decided not to wait sowe continue out journey to the 12 Apostle.

My uncle took the long journey where there are fantastic view of ocean and hills. On the hills there are farm animals such asthe sheeps, cows and horses grazing the grass. It was so green and fresh but once the wind blow, it might blew you off the groundthe air is so cold and piercing. We stop at one of the town for my uncle to take a nap before continue the journey, so we walk to the beachas it is near the park. There are some ppl surfing and the wave is very high as the current was going strong with the windblowing. The sand was so soft and light, while the sea water was clear, fresh and icy cold.brrr....

On the way we pass Anglesea, Appollo Bay and few towns before reaching the Apostle. It was a very long drive and alongthe way we see lotsa farms and a huge field of yellow flowers. It was the best view I ever seen and not to forget thehouses built on the hills. The grass is really green and pleasant to the eyes, it make you want to run around the hillsand enjoy the scenery. On the hill you may see the Antratica Ocean...hehe. Took some photos along the way....

It was about 2.30pm we reach the Apostle and the sky start to drizzle with the wind blowing so hard. My cap was blown away andluckily I manage to grabed it as it stuck on my hair...hahaha. It was so so so cold as the wind was so so so strong!Today, the whole Melbourne is windy and its tempreture was about 24 degree but it felt like below 10.It only took us half hr to see everything but us took almost half the day to reach there.

At about 7.30n we reach Boxhill for dinner, chinese dinner...the food is always good whenever I go out with my aunt and uncle.hehe!! We had all Aussie Chinese food...hahaha, not bad as, Hmmm...let me think, wht did we had...roasted duck, tau fu,weet and sour fish, pork, vegetable and fried sotong, o yeah...damn lot of food! I had ice-cream after that whilewaiting for my uncle make a second trio back to Boxhill. It is illegal to fetch too many ppl in the car...

Its about 11.13pm now in Aussie...I yet to clean up after the trip but immediately start loading the picture sand write down my thoughts...short memory symtome start to attack me again, as my holiday getting shorter and shorter. Tmr is my last day in Melbourne...:-( no more holiday back to work...1 week so fast past.....Time for me to log off, tmr will go to Healesville Sanctuary again! hehe...

Sign off,
Mimi

Day 7 - Healesville

21 Sept 06

Another day pass and this time I was sleeping soundly in my cousin room..hehe, paiseh only. He had to sleep in the living room, well at least I close the lights for him...wahaha. My uncle came back today, he took us to Healesville to look at the animals,its not a zoo but a sanctuary. Along the way we pass Yarra Valley, this is the place where the wine grapes are grow and once ripe it will be pluck and make into wine. Now is not the season to see the grape growing as it only left stick and few mini leaves growing but it was a beautiful place. Besides that there are farms with sheeps, cows and horses, it was a beautifulsight. I took videos along the way with my aunt voice recorded as she explain to me about the places and the grape farm. It was fun....hahaha and fooling around with me cousin in the car, this one is only 8 years old, o yeah!

Before we start out journey, we stop at Richmond to have lunch...vietnamese lunch again...hahaha, its good. I had the chickenrice...taste and look different but its good. I'm yet to try Mc D and Hungry Jack yet....might not have to the time to dothat cause running out of time already, and I yet to get things that I wanted before leaving Aussie! SAD!!

Along the way, we pass by Lilyvale another small town, before we actually heading to Healesville by the Maroonad Highway.By the time we reach there it was 4pm, and it cost about $22 per person. The place was suppose to close at 5pm but around 4.30the sanctuary will be closed...din get to take photos with the animals today....hai...wasted time and afford only.Any how, I bough some sourvenir home, a Rainbow Lorikeet soft doll with sound as the stomach is press and a bookmark.

As usual, my aunt cooked a fantastic dinner, with biggy prawn and chicken...I need to be a vegetarian when I go back to Penang. Stop eating meat for a month or just dont eat again, only eat my green apple every lunch in the office. I feltspoilt living here and on holiday and eat so much....thinking of playing jackpot now. Between the souvenir here isdamn expensive, spend quite lotsa money here...well convert to RM is almost 1K...hehe.

Bough lotsa chocolates...tmr another day, going to Great Ocean Road, the 12 Apostle...wonder wht else there. It is a 4 hour drive, will be leaving house around 8am in the morning, wonder if I can wake up or not...hai. Was sleepingall the way home just now...another tiring and not fruitful day for me...well at least I was there just that, can't see the animals...hahaha

G'nite Mate!!

Sign off,
Mimi

Day 6 - Melbourne City Food and Souvenir

20 Sept 06

Raise and shine...!!! I was sleeping in the living room, nobody disturb me. I had a good nite sleep...after so many days sleeping with my mum. Finally I decided to sleep in the living room, alone not disturbance and her stupid words just becauseI snore...she do too. Don't know wht is in her head everyday..."fai si"....

Around 2pm we left to the train station, after my cousin took his laptop to the school IT personel to fixed his laptop.Yet I din have any laptop yesterday nite and Loong sms me the next morning in chinese. Damn! he knows pretty wellthat I can't read. (Hey! if you ever read this...dun say that I never reply you, cos I dun know wht heck you send to me)As we leave the house and about to reach the train station, the train was there and we run but it was too late, end upwe have to wait for another 20 mins for another train...hai..

We stop as Flinder Station to go to the Federation Square, then we drop by the Melboure Tourist Information Centreto show him the place, just in case he is going to bring some friends around and get lost. Haha! he is blur alrite, attime but he is a gentlemen..o yes he is only 17..hahaha 10 bloody years younger then me a lot taller then me as well...hahaAfter that, we were at the Yarra River as I wanted to take the nakey picture exibited there. Not sure if I'm allow to post the picture in the blog...lostsa nakey ppl in the picture. The name of the exibition is Above the Earth cool stuff there,I like the photograph taken on the camel in the desert...nice!

Then we start to walk to Flinder Street to get souvenir, I was walking in and out of the souvenir shop in and out but dinbuy any...typical women-la...wht else. Finally I bough 3 pens for $10 and decided to buy the koala and kangaroo soft dollbut did not...hai...We keep on walking until we reach Bourke Street and wait for the City Train to arrive so that we can stop at Spencer Street to get Krispy Kream...really crap men, the shop was yet to open! Well we had Boost Juice thereand my cousin treat me...hehe...

Later, we took the Southen Cross Station to go back to Melbourne Central Station to go to Chinatown. We stop in thatstation and walk to Mekong Restaurant, suppose to be the most famous Vietnamese soup noodle there. The noodle isnot bad and we had spring roll as well, its vegetable spring roll. Hmmm...life is good here, my cousin pay for it.Since I know him for the pass 17 years...this is the first time he treat me...wahahaha...!! For me to treat them, I sure pokai... know why?, there are so many of them, let me see...there will be 10 of us including me.

After makan, we start walking around and end up back to Melbourne Central and went into Coles for some choclates and food.Hehe...as usual la me, buy something back for breakfast or what so ever reason. It was another great dinner I had,dinner everyday is like out of this world!!! I had scallop home made one you know....damn good... yummy!!! My day always end with good food. This is the best part of my holiday and I'm getting fat everyday as well, can see my tummy getting biggerlike pregnant d la...habis, pening, faint!!!

Sign Off,
Mimi

Day 5 - Queen Victoria Centre and Melbourne City Centre (North and West)

19 Sept 06

Yep...another day to the city, but this time we are going up the north side of the town. We are travelling to Queen Victoria Market for some shopping for souvenirs. We stop at The Parliment Station and walk to the market and it was a chilling walk the market is huge and categories in alphabets and divided into art section that is the place where all the wood craving,caricature and other souvenir stalls. There are another section of the huge building for fruits and vegetable and there are rolls of shop lots. The entire area are full of market, there are building for frozen food and meats. Hmm... another section of the area is full of shoplots with goodies shops and others.

There are so many shops around that you may walk the entireday for cheap and good stuff. The whole day I was walking looking souvenirs and bough T-shirt, opal, keychains, magnets and not to forget the boomerang.My mum bough strawberries, T-shirt, wallet for my dad and a leather bag - looks nice.I can't seem to stop buying, and there are so many coats and leather jackets...so cheaps!!! but i din buy any cause M'sia is damn hot to wear them...haha.

As we walk to the fruit section it was about 1pm and they are closing by 2pm. All the fruit starts to sell at the cheaper price and the place start to get noisy. When we were out of the market, we saw a group of farm animals in the cage with kids in it. Its so cute with piglet, calf, sheeps, ducks and chicken....and the kids just love them. I took some of the farm animalwalking up and down the small cage that full of kids...haha - more kids then the animal I guess.

After a long walk in the market, which is super huge, we stop in at a food court for lunch. I had a large plate of vegetable lagzane as there is no chicken avail (ever ate a plate of lagzane $8.00). My aunt and mum had chinese food, well a bit regret for not getting the chinesefood. The lagzane sucks as the taste is flat, not tasty at all...too original, as the food is not flavoured. It was a hugeplate as I was full until late at night, I had my dinner at 10pm...cos the chicken for dinner was not cooked yet. Thanksto my ever genius cousin that went to the supermarket for some so frozen chicken that we have to wait for about more thenan hour to get the dish done. As usual it was a good dinner, with fish, chicken and vegetables with giganto prawn. After eating I can feel that my cholestrol just shoot up the sky...I need exercise!!

Every morning, the air is very cool and refreshing but it gives me a numb nose that it bleed every time I blow my nose...toodry. Having this problem just this few days and I slept in the living room for a better rest. Can't seem to sleep with my mum,din get a good nite sleep. Watch DVD with my cousin until 2 am and I start doing some sudoku before going to bed. Tmr will beanother day to Melbourne City...for food tour, kekeke. This cousin of mine only knows abt going to the best food in MelbourneCity...wahahaha.

Sign off,
Mimi

Day 4 - Melbourne City Centre (South)

18 Sept 06

Oooo yes...! another day in paradise. Nah it was so cold and windy today...went to Coles/ Ivanhoe Mall to buy some CDs before travelling back to the city for more site seeing. Can't find any and its expensive!! I'm having trouble to tranfer my photos and videos to the computer and sending it to my tumbdrive...its all full, over the storage limits!!! I have no choice but to get some CDs to burn and store my videos and photos....damn!!

Well today, I had travel to Flinder Station again to walk around the city. We started walking to Melbourne Information Centreto get some information to the places that we wanted to go. Vonne was the tour guide today...hehe, she brought me and my mumaround the south part of the city. I bough a bag $2.95 to put my jackets as the weather changes from cold to warm and thencold again.

After the information centre, we were walking towards Federation Square and took some photos of the modern building which lead toArt Exibition Centre. There was exibition of photography, which shows all the photos from the sky view. There is one interestingphotos that shows a group of naked ppl lying down for the photographer. Oooo...hot! haha...my mum was looking at itand heard an old lady said "How did they ever get so many ppl to do that"...hahaha. I think I need to go back and get thatphoto with me stading beside it...haha.

The exibition is near the Yarra River, so we when down to the river side and walk along the river to go to Crown Hotel. Alongthe way we reach Southgate that is at the opposite of the river. Near the river we can take the River Cruise around MelbourneCity. There is a lot of sculpture at the Southgate and uniquely modern art and weird looking art along the way to CrownHotel. Me and my mum went into the casino and look around, din get the chance to play. Advise, never go into casion with your mumif you want to try your luck. It will never happen, I cant even get a dollar of jackpot run in the machine...damn! My cousin did not go in as she forget her IC....you have to be 18 to go into the casino. The place is huge and my legache after walking up and down the casino and you can get lost there. There is so many entrance and not to mentionrestaurant and the best food in there...hehe.

Next we went down to Southgate building to have some food...bough pancakes ($7.80) and my mum had fried rice. I shared the pancake with Vonne and she had fries from Nando's...hai... The whole stretch of Southgate is full of artistic scluptureand full of human beings walking up and down the wide pavement. Saw a huge rose made of steel on the flower and stone at the root... wonder wht it suppose to mean. So down the street we walk to St. Kilda Street looking for Queen Victoria Garden...but before we reach the garden, wefound another garden named Alexander Garden and there was a huge star flower bed. Beautifully done!

The Queen Victoria Garden was at the opposite site and we had to walk a long way down to the traffic light just to go overthe other side. This is tiring....but its worthy! There was a man make waterfall, not big but nice and natural in a big pond.The flowers are beautiful...never see such a beautiful flower bed not one but along the walk way in the park. It was refreshingday for me...haha. Flowers and more flowers...

My mum call it a day as her leg is sow from walking...tell me about it..we walk the whole South Melbourne City!! Hahaha...humurous. We reach home about 6 something and as usual...watch some TV and at 7.30pm there is Australia Idol result.Hmm...playing with my little cousin, well he is 19 years younger then me...imagine me fooling around with a kiddo playing tickle, I would have just squashed him...hahaha but love him dearly. Its pass midnite now...wht I really like best is myaunt cooking...I had steam Osyter for dinner...yummy!!! Well life is good here especially when you have good food everyday.

Sign Off,
Mimi

Day 3 - Springvale and Chinatown

17 Sept 06

As the day goes by I slept later and woke up later as well...today it was abt 10pm! No worries cause we are going out later about almost 3pm to meet my cousin in Springvale. Before that, we when to Coles/Ivanhoe Mall to get some chocolates, my mum bough 10 boxes of Tim Tam, tell me about it men!! I bough not much around 5 packets of chocolates and some muffins for brunch...hehe.

My first ride on the train from Ivanhoe to Flinder Station the city loop where all the train will stop there and passenger will change route or train. It really a loop...a huge one too as seen in the map.

The journey was abt 1 hour to reach Springvale from Ivanhoe but we din take that long to wait for the train. Springvale is another suburd that full with Vietnamese ppl and the market is full of them doing business of all trade. My aunt, mum and I was travelling there and had to walk to the market...a huge one and non smelly as in Malaysia...cause it is a dry market selling fruits and grocery stuff like dry spicies and sos. The name ofthe place is Springvale Market Centre, if I'm not wrong...hehe.

While waiting for my cousin (Vonne) to finish her tuition at 5pm, my aunt and mum went to look for some fruits. Then my muwas hungry, so need to look for some food. We were in the market food court and my mum was eating fish and chips, and I ordered a milkshake... learn my lesson well, its suck big time. It was like buying a chocolate milk and shake it...damn, like kena con already, its $3 dollar...!!!stoopid betul but the fish and chips is good. While my mum eating her food I was walking around the market looking for scarf and I found one...brown with white line, is $8 dollar including a hat.

At about 5pm, my cousin reach the market place and we left Springvale to go to Chinatown for dinner. We took the train and stop at The Parliment station, while walking to Chinatown, I took the Parliment house photo as it was just opposite thestation. While walking down the Chinatown road, it start to rain...gosh! It was a long walk before reaching the chinese restaurant and it is in one of the small dark road. The name of the place is Camy Dumpling Restaurant...servingall sort of dumpling from fry to soup...it was o.k to me. The pumpkin cake was fab...we ordered 2 plates as it was tastyand good. The dumpling was not bad as well but it was so big bowl that 6 of us shared 2 bowls of soup dumpling and 1 frieddumpling. O... yes my other 2 cousins came and join us after that in the restaurant, Tjun and Xuen.

After a scrumptious meal, we walk back to Melbourne Central train station and the State Library was there. It looks almost the same as The Parliment and it confuse me, it was at nite then....on the way to the station we stop by Trampoline for ice-cream - gelato... yummy!!! It was cold and we had ice-cream, good leh....^_^ then we reach the station and waited for the big Seiko watch to reach 8pm as it will have performance... 2 kids statue will play trumpet with some brids moving left and right...haha!!I dun know what song was it but I did a video on it....hehe...a short video. While waiting for me there was a tall tower in front of me...Its called the Tower Museum, the building is shone by spotlight with different colors and design, it was awesome I took few photo of it...will get it load here..

The train reach the station after a short wait and all of us when home...it was 8.30pm in Ivanhoe. Another day pass for me before going back home to face my work and uncertainty of my life. Yawn....

Sign Off,
Mimi

Day 2 - Boxhill and Phillip Island

16 Sept 06

The sun was shining into my room, it was not cold but warm ray of sunshine...it wakes me up but its still early. About 9am, my aunt and uncle wanted to go to Boxhill to get some health food for their friend. Some vitamins and so on....So first day, of course want to follow...to see as much as possible the lifesytle and ppl of Melbourne. Boxhill is another suburd that stay by majoriy Vietnamese that speak Australian accent...canggih!

At 9.30am, we left the house and on the way there. The first market I visited...it was like supermarket in Malaysia but here they call it market, there are pork, beef and etc....its like whatever u see in M'sia market. The only different iscleaner, less smell of fresh meat and super modern...just like TESCO the hypermarket. This is different as the bakery and other stuff is in one roof...love the chocolates shop there, yummy! The liquor shop isjust like the grocery shop...go in and get one any time!

One thing that I notice is, everywhere i go there are plenty of churches around in those century old architectual but I saw one that used it to sell pancake...hahaha After that, we when to a Vietnamese shop to have Chicken Noodle and Prawn Paper Rice, Viet style and famous for it. The bowl was so big...lotsa chicken. The noodle came, then they serve the taugeh and mint leave in a different plate, wht I have to do is mixed it with the noodle...not bad, love it! Not to forget the sambal...ooo mouth watering. Yah!

After lunch...about 2.30pm, we start our journey to Phillip Island....its about 2 hrs drive from Ivanhoe. Well my uncle drive like a F1 driver, so along the way i took some pictures in the car and get some video recorded.It was beautiful sight, with the hill on the left and sea on the right....as the sun slowly setting. It was perfect scenery to take some photos for my rememberance. ^_^

We reach the place around 5pm but the sun was still up and bright, before that we stopped at Grantville, it was a beautiful place facing the sea. It was dry and stoney, that makes it unique and took some photos there too. It was a short stop before we leave for the Penguin Parade. We had an early dinner at Cowes before we actually reach the penguin place, had Charcoal Chicken with chips and Pasta (macoroni with tomato sos mixed) - not very tasty...haha not to forget the apple juiceit was good and I'm full.

At 6pm, we all reach the Penguin Parade entrance...it was cool (less then 10 degree C) and dry. My aunt brought extra jacket for each of us and blankets.Thank goodness that she brought extra, not that I did not bring extra jacket but it was not enough!! Sitting facing thebeach waiting for the penguin to walk out of the sea water was freezing. Brrrr..... +,+

As the sun setting...the sky begin to turn dark, then I saw one tiny little creature looks as tall as 33cm at the shore trying toget up from the sea to its nest at the land. Before we reach the beach, we walk pass the nest and it was like holes on the small hills...^_^ it was pretty cute. After that a bunch of them came up and then another and another tiny totty walking upto the beach into there nest. Then we leave the beach to watch them on the land and where they go for their nest. These penguins will stay in the nest for about 3 - 4 days before returning to the land as they need to make babies...ya mating!if not how to increase population...ah! They are the smallest penguin in the world!! Actually from far they looks black and white but actual fact its, they are dark blue. I went super near to one of the penguin and saw it super clear as their fins wassuper small and their feet was super short that makes them walk clumsily. These penguin are not that friendly thou even theylook cute and chubby, they bites!!! Munch!

As usual after the watch, souvenier time...bough lotsa penguins and a soft doll for myself...hahaha

We had a late dinner, the restaurant do now wan to serve us anymore....a chinese restauran in the middle of noway..haha so "ta pau" home. It was good....another day over another nite comes and go. Time flies and I wrote pretty load here tonite cause visiting the penguin is my best time ever ... & it is freezing and wore so much clothes...look like refugee only!! haha!

Sign Off,
Mimi