Melbourne Trip Part I

Okay, my entries for my Melbourne Trip would sound like abstracts from my diary, because I actually did copy. HAHA. So here it goes!

Day 1 (01/12/2005)

On this day, JetStar flew for the first time out of New Zealand into Australia! So, I was one of the first passengers to fly on JetStar from NZ! Yayy. (:


view from the plane window . big Jet Star sticker on my luggage . Jet Star plastic bag . departure times

My dearest Xueqi and HER dearest Jack came to pick me up! As I stepped out of Melbourne Airport, the warm air suddenly attacked me. Within the minute, I had difficulties breathing properly. The air was heavier than usual, and it was much warmer, like fifteen degrees warmer. Probably even more! We took a bus shuttle to a bus terminal before taking yet another shuttle directly to Jack’s place. No, not the restaurant, but Jack’s HOME. Xueqi and Jack helped me put my luggage at his place and I was introduced to his flatmate and also good friend, Andrew. He’s Singaporean too, and it was now that I realized that Melbourne is filled with Singaporeans, so unlike Dunedin. Tsk tsk.

Jack brought us to Crown Casino that night for buffet dinner!

xueqi and i at South Yarra River . funny jack . beeeautiful view .

Upon our arrival, we were invited by a long queue in front of the restaurant. Apparently this restaurant is famous for its food and of course, its reasonable price. While Jack was waiting for a seat, Xueqi and I toured around the building. Damn, there were eye catching, hunger stimulating (wth is that?! Haha!) cakes and pastries displayed outside of cafes, and pretty gowns on mannequins at boutiques. One of the places that we spent quite a bit of time at was Warner Brothers store. The thing about this store was that there were lots of Warner Brothers statues and models displayed outside the store, and all of these were bigger and taller than humans, at least for both Xueqi and I. We took some photos with these cute characters before Jack sent a message telling us that he got a seat for us.


movie billboard? haha . xueqi with hairy man (dunno the name, someone please enlighten me) . xueqi with.. botak man (ya, i dunno his name either) . warner brothers . animaniacs! . me with hairy man . me with botak man . me with powerpuff girl Bubbles . me with hairy man again .

I can’t exactly remember what the name of the restaurant was, but it could seat at least 300 people. There was a range of food there. Italian, Chinese, English cuisines all placed in front of us for tasting. We ate until we only had space for dessert, and Jack surprised Xueqi with a birthday cake! Aww, it was so sweet! Haha!


the sweetest couple . cutesy birthday cake . birthday girl with birthday cake . me xueqi jack . xueqi wishes for..? . siao zhabo-s . jack's uber tall can.. . YUMMY . all's gone! .

After our dinner, we went to have a look in the casino! Wow, I’ve never seen so much lighting and bling blings in one place in my entire life! The place was buzzing with people, both young and old. But as we passed by so many of these tables, I reckoned gambling is so random. It’s either you lose, or you win. It seriously depends merely on your luck. I see people surrendering their chips to the bankers, and continue playing for the sake of winning. If I were them, my heart would go ping pong piang! I doubt I would like to lose that much money in like 10 seconds. No way man.

black jack !

Halfway while walking around the casino, Xueqi suddenly felt like her contact lens on her right eye had rolled to the back of her eye!!! EEEPS! It was real scary, to me at least. She kept rolling her eyes down while pulling her eye lid up at the same time, and I had to look for any traces of the lens. Initially, I was frantic, cos’ I couldn’t see any lens in her eyes. I freaked out, while she was still calm and everything, cos’ this has happened to her before. I looked ever so closely in her eye, hoping to find any little trace of the contact lens. Somehow, at the corner of her eye, I suddenly saw something which looks folded and transparent. I shrieked and told her NOT TO MOVE HER EYE AT ALL. Then I took her fingers to the lens and she got it out. OMGGGGGGGG, I almost died of a heart attack. If she hadn’t gotten it out, she would have to go for an eye operation, which would be really scary. I told her it was her birthday, so nothing was going to go wrong that day. Hehe.

Day 2 (02/12/2005)

It was raining an hour before we left the house for Chadstone Street. Jack was worried that we could not find the place, so he took the train with us to Oakleigh train station, led us to the bus stop before leaving for school.

jack da man and xueqi . train map . parliament station . jack and i .

We could take 802, 804 or 862 to Chadstone Shopping Mall, and within minutes, bus 802 arrived and we boarded it. As usual, we were camera whoring in the bus, but not too much. Haha!

cold and tired xueqi . crazy us . us again . raining . 'macho' me . our smelly feet . ki ki wi wi on qi's bag . my blurred pic . getting all brave .

Jack told us to stop when we saw Coles supermarket, and so we did. We first went into Darryl Lea chocolate store, a store that Jack had introduced to us for it’s delicious chocolates. The mall is GIGANTIC! We spent almost a whole day there, and we didn’t finish shopping! There were only 2 storeys in the shopping mall, so it’s hard to believe how wide the mall is.

Yummy pastries in Melbourne! mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The day passed as quick as it arrived, and we had our dinner at Mekong, a very famous Vietnamese restaurant in Melbourne Central. Stars like Bill Clinton and Jacky Chan have come to this restaurant for their meals, and I must say that their soup is yummy! Price wise was alright, not too expensive. Surprisingly, even though it was a Vietnamese restaurant, it was showing Dae Jang Geum on TV! It somehow reminded me how fast Ben’s family and I managed to finish the whole series of Dae Jang Geum. Damn! I really like the story line, even though it’s so long.

mekong . jack pouring water . candid shot of me speaking to jack . 'president Bill Clinton had 2 bowls. how many can you have...' .


Our favourite hobby - photo whoring

We walked through Melbourne’s very own China town to go back to Jack’s. We went into an Asian grocery, and it was so much bigger than Fu Le back in Dunedin. They’ve got more stuff, and they’ve got KANG KONG!! At that minute, we decided to cook dinner at home the next day. So we got some of the groceries and walked home. Although the rain had stopped, it was still cold. I wondered what the temperature was, as I myself felt chilly as well. I thought whether I had lost my elephant skin that I had brutally trained back in New Zealand. If I did, Ben would definitely be ‘tsk tsk-ing’ me by now, and of course laughing at me for my incapability for standing the cold. Bleah.

Andrew was home when we reached home. He showed me a DVD cover of The Simpsons Season 4 and the cover was so cute! In it there were really cute and funny stuff with Homer and of course, the other Simpsons. We watched a few of the episodes before I felt really drowsy and ‘K.O-ed’ like how Jack said.the DVD cover of HOMER !