Sunday, July 30, 2006

Melbourne Winter Adventure 2006 (Episode 2)

Day 1:

I think I was the first of the lot to wake up. I'm not counting Shieny because she had to be in uni by 9. Poor thing. It's the holidays and she still has to continue with her labs. The life of us Honours students, exciting eh? Haha.. Anyways, it was a sunny day in Melbourne. The guys played some PS2 game and I called my aunt while waiting for Nic to arrive. Yup, when he came, he was like, "Wa! Fuiyoh, shit! This place is nice! Who lives here? Alan's girlfriend? She very rich one ar? Like hotel wei!" Don't know why we didn't think of taking a picture of the lobby. Baka!

The day started with us having lunch at the shop Shaun so badly wanted to go to - the one which serves the Shanghai Noodles. Of course, we had to order the fried dumplings as well. How can we not? And it was during this lunch that I found out Miow loves vinegar. Along the way, we stopped at the State Library of Victoria to have group pics. As I've seen the place before, I couldn't be bothered.


Next up, they (Miow and Nic) couldn't resist taking pics of what they saw in Central, Melbourne Central, that is. In comparison, Melb's Central is a shopping complex as well as a train station - way cooler than Sydney Central. However, credit has to be given to Sydney Central as the network or trains that is there, enormous! Melb Central has nowhere near the amount of tracks we have in Sydney. Oh, but their clock beats ours hands down, seriously.



When the city was more or less covered, we headed to St. Kilda. Thankfully, I still remember how to get there. The sky threatened to pour but we were not about to give up. We were greeted with cold, strong winds and the smell of the ocean. Shaun noted that a nearby statue was a statue of Captain Cook and the 2 boys went ahead to imitate the actions of the drinking card game to snap a pic.


We walked on and I noticed a new addition to the beach. There was a ship, or what's left of it. Read the description and then it made sense. It was put up for the Commonwealth Games in March. No wonder it wasn't there last year.


And this time around, the coffee house was open!


We could now walk onto the other side of the boardway. Last year, it was still under renovation so we couldn't go beyond the yacht docks. And while walking to the coffee house, we had visitors - 2 black, elegant (and fierce-looking) swans.


We found a patch of 'beach' right after the coffee house and we went down. The swans came right up, probably expecting a feast of some sort. Oh well, don't blame them. You know how we humans tend to offer food to animals of any kinds we see out in the wild unless there's a signboard prohibiting us with a hefty fine. One of the swans (the bigger one) came right up to Shaun! Shaun was petrified and quickly stood up. I ran away, too. Bunch of cowards, we are! Haha!

Further down the boardwalk were more descriptions of what the Japanese and Australian governments have been doing in that area. Apparently, it was home to big sea rats and penguins. We kept an eye out for rats and spotted dried starfishes on the rocks. I then heard a bustling sound coming from the rocks and I stepped back, afraid. Shaun and Miow went closer to examine in between the rocks and saw 2 pairs of eyes staring back. Whoopee, we found penguins!

We took the opportunity to take pictures of the sunrays during sunset. We stood there freezing waiting for Nic to get his angle and lighting right. Brr!!




At the end of the day, we took the train back to Clayton, where it will be our 'home' for the rest of our time in Melbourne. It was a long ride and people starting dozing off.


Miow even have video clips, which I will not post for the sake of maintaining Nic's dignity. When he found out Miow was recording him, he was wide awake and resorted to doing silly stuff, much to Audrey's horror!


We were so glad to arrive at Aud's place. I so love the smell of her room. I mean, compared to Alan's room, Aud's room smells sweet. Alan's room was, er, let's say borderline-ish. The boys actually asked for the vacuum to clean his carpet. Lots of 'eeyer!', 'wa!' and 'OMG's. I opened all the windows and had the fan turned on (in the dead of winter, mind you) to help get rid of the odour. Alan, if you're reading this, it's not an insult, ok? Take it as a reminder to clean your room before you let visitors stay.

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