I had stayed up until 3am to watch the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. I will mention here that I watched it in bits and pieces since I was doing my laundry (put the clothes in the washing machine, transfer from the washing machine to the dryer, then collecting the clothes from the dryer) but I did watch enough to know what was going on.
I had booked to go on a trip to Mount Buller (Aus 172) with Yoong Yoong, Jaslyn, Man Yee & Man Yee's brother Wilson. 
We had to meet in the city at 5.45am outside the Evergreen Agency (the agency we made the booking with). So that meant I only got 1 hour's sleep that day...
The bus ride took about 4 hours (6am - 10am). It was like driving up to Genting Highlands / Cameron Highlands. When I saw the landscape outside turn from green to white, I was giddy happy. [lol]
It's really awesome to see the trees outside covered with real natural snow.
This year the winter is cooler than usual and it was very good snow season. This is good since we were going to ski.
You can see the pretty blanket of snow.
Curious would be that the drivers have to put on this chain like thing on just one 0f the tires. It's to help the car tire grab the road if it's snow / ice on the roads.
Even our bus had to stop to put on the chain onto one of the tires.
In the meantime, we were staring out of the window, looking at the pretty pretty snow.
I did sleep a little on the way up. I sat next to this lady that kept coughing.. ~___~ good thing I didn't catch whatever she was having.
There was a slight mist. I like the variety of mood I can take here.. This one shows how tranquil and quiet the photo is..
and this was is rather busy and somehow captures movement. The wind blown tree is frozen in place. Guess it'll have to wait until September / October when spring comes about thaw out.
Oh look... someone left their car out in the snow and it has a thick layer of snow on it...
Gosh, aren't I taking a lot of photos and we're not even up and out in the snow yet? [lol] Trigger happy photographer~!
I guess it's because I never seen real snow. I was really excited about the snow.
It's something about it... the white, the cold, the many shows showing the lovely association with snow...
I guess the biggest association of snow would be White Christmas.
At one point, I was thinking the ground looked like it was covered with sugar / salt instead of snow. [snicker] 
Along that lines, I remembered of the lovely christmas cake that Zie Wei brought to the Genting trip. [hugs Zie Wei] I know you want to be here so I'm taking plenty of photos for you to see.
Anyway, getting out of the bus was like stepping into the freezer. Hmmm.. I guess it only seemed like that because the bus turned on the heater. [grin]
KYAAAAAAAAAA~! Snow. Errrmmm.... holding the snow in your hands is like holding a bowl of ice kacang ice shavings in your hands but here, it doesn't melt and remains powdery-ish. [lol]
The girls paid extra to get these special winter suits (aus35)... I didn't need it since it really wasn't that cold. Plus I was wearing quite thick anyway. One thing I wished I got would be the snow goggles.
The snow season was in Mount Buller starts July and ends at September.
If you're wondering why I'm standing funny... it's the ski boots.. let me tell you. If you have weak knees like I do (my doctor told me that), walking in the ski boots alone for a while would kill you. I didn't know that the ski boots would force you to stand / ski / walk with your knees bent all the time.
Needless to say that everyone else enjoyed and ski so much more than I did. Which is good. [grin]
There were really quite a bit of people that came up, either to do some sightseeing, skiing, snow boarding or toboggan.
We had a 2 hour basic ski lessons. At the very least I know I can ski but I totally can't do the snowplough (stop technique).
Gosh, at the very end of the lesson, my knees were practically screaming (excuse my language) "BLOODY HELL~! PAIN! F*CK, GET OFF AND SIT!" It took all my strength (not to break down into tears) just to remain standing...
Given that we started the class at about 11.30am and ended about 1.30pm, the rest still had 2 hours to ski. 
I enjoyed sitting on the snow and experiencing real snow fall.
These were a few shots I took while sitting on the snow.
[grin] These are my gloves that I put on my ski stick? hmmm... I don't really know what the equipment is called. XD [wiki] ski poles
Everyone was having fun and here I am, stuck on the snow because just standing alone was torture. But it was really good weather since I got to experience fresh real snow fall, clear skies, sunny and cloudy all in the few hours I was there.
One thing about photographing snow though... It's really very bright (yea... so are the people if you realized) All the photos I had to go to photoshop and reduce the highlights / brightness
Coming down was so very much harder than going up. Walking down the staircase carrying ski poles and the skis, knee-bending boots, screaming knees and tired legs. A few times I just wanted to throw myself down the stairs and the hill and roll my way down...
By the time I got my feet out of the boots, my feet and toes were terribly cold and numb. Even walking on my normal shoes, I still found it hard to walk properly...
Now I know. The next time I have the option, I vote to do toboggan or sight seeing. I have done enough skiing to last me a lifetime. 
At least I tried and now know I can ski but I can't stop.. I'll be a terror to others, myself and the trees if I ski. [lol]
We got to the bus at 4pm. I managed to grab my sleep since I only had 1 hour's sleep that day (slept 3 hours going up and the 4 hours coming down).
By the time we got to the city, it was time for dinner. We ate at a thai restaurant named yourthai since we were given discount vouchers for doing the ski booking at that agency. I had Mongolian Chicken Rice. Hahah~! Cheers~!
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