Get Out of Jail Free Card

Yeah... I realised that I'm running a little backwards with my blogpost... School has started and I'm in the full swing of things. That's why I'm sitting down to write as many posts as I can now and disappear for a while I guess.. [lol]

7th August 2008
Met up with Annie to go on a random city tour. Well... not exactly that random seeing that I pinpointed a section of town to explore;
The silly little girl was happy and eager to get out of the house (it was still the holidays) and our first stop was the Old Melbourne Gaol...
There, we paid Aus14 (student price) to explore the jail (gaol is derived from an older language I think)... We went on a watchhouse experience... It's something like a tour of the jailhouse by a sergeant...
except we were treated like prisoners (role-play) and we were "thrown" into the cell and experience "lights-out". The cell was pitch black except for a small ray of light at the door...
Sitting in the darkness for 2 minutes was bad enough... hate to imagine serving a sentence in jail. Each cell does have one toilet but that's about it...
There were plenty of graffiti on the walls and the benches in the cell... Guess it's the artwork of bored people...
Prisoners are not only cooped up in the cells. The photo above is the Woman's exercise area. There's a men's exercise area but they both look about the same...
The tour lasted about 30 minutes (mostly showing the process and procedures of arresting someone and doing "body checks" {they checked the both of our shoes and using a pen, the sergeant checked in between our fingers to see if we smuggled in drugs})
After the tour, we visited the main building where they were more cell blocks...
This building was the men's section... there was a woman's section but it was demolished when they didn't have that much women prisoners.. I guess the term GIRLS are EVIL don't really ring true... hahahha.
The cells weren't very big (as we can see Annie in one of the cells).
In each cell, there were facts, history and information in regards to the Old Melbourne Gaol. This one shows the study if there's scientific evidence of a "criminal mind". Conclusion... the brain of a criminal is the same of that of an "honest" man.
Here's the armour replica that Ned Kelly wore...
In case, you're interested who Ned Kelly is... wiki is a good place to start. Hahaha~! Arr... The photo above shows the gallows.
Gallows = Instrument of execution consisting of a wooden frame from which condemned persons are executed by hanging.
Yup yup. The gallows used to be outside and the public could witness the hanging... [twitch] I can't begin to imagine being at a public execution. [cries]
There were 3 levels of cell blocks in this building... I suppose the Malaysian Jail visit would be similar to this visit...
From the gloomy jail, we headed to our next destination..
for some Italian lunch at "Melbourne's Little Italy"...
[distracted] Awww.... creative used of advertising for crayons, yes?
Oh right, we had lunch at Lygon St.
There were SOOOOOOOOO many restaurants to choose from. We walked past a few good restaurants while we were looking for an ATM for me to punch out money... No $$$ means no food man.. hahha
In the end, we pretty randomly decided to eat at cafe cavallino. Guess we were hungry by the time we got to this restaurant.. hahaha
I ordered a lasagna. Yum~! Lasagna [smiles a garfield smile]
And also a pizza called the Lygon Special which consisted of pineapple, spicy bacon slice, olives, red capsicum, local mushroom and prawns (the prawns were fresh and sweet)
I enjoyed lunch very much. Teehehe~! We ordered enough with a main dish and a side. [grin]
After eating such a scrumptiously heavy lunch, Annie and I walked for a bit...
We past a little square where they were little kids playing...
The square was named ugly square Argyle Square... What a name isn't it? Hehehe...
Anyway, we made our way to the Carlton Gardens and saw the Royal Exhibition Building.
It's pretty awesome to see this building...
And even the big fountain at the side... Think it's not on to save water and stuff...
Compared to Annie and I, those things were huge~! Seriously. Hahah~!
The weather was pretty cool and looking up at the blue sky can only relax yourself...
Of course, add in some pretty blue flowers (honest, it's blue on its own - not photoshop-ed)
I can even see the little moon way above the building. [grin]
Lovely lovely. Clear day. Too bad it's not really open to the public unless there's an event going on in it...
Next to the Royal Exhibition Building was the Melbourne Museum.
The good news is there will be a Melbourne Food Fest (I think that's the name of the event) going on from the 21st August to the 24 August. Teehehe~! May go if I'm a good girl and finish all my work earlier.
All in all, this outing was nice and slightly slow paced than usual (since my legs were still recovering from the badminton I suppose). Annie was super sweet and walked right with me through the whole trip. Not many people will do that... [love and hearts for her] Cheers~!

Badminton & Spicy Food~!

5th August 2008, Tuesday
Gosh, even while I'm writing this 2 days after... my legs are still sore and I'm still pretty bushed. [lol]

Anyway I got an extended invitation from Yoong Yoong to go play badminton with my interior design buddies. (Raymond's pretty excited)
To which I very quickly jumped at the chance to have fun and to get a good workout... (Pauline)
There were the 11 of us, 1 myself 2 yoong yoong 3 pauline 4 (bor) 5 claudia 6 aaron 7 priscilla 8 yong 9 raymond 10 nardo 11 linda
Aaron had booked 2 courts for us {including 8 racquets}... I'll tell you what the price of renting it later... yea... book badminton court equals to money. (aaron & pauline)I know... yikes. Hahah.. Maybe I'm too used to using the free badminton court in the playground. (linda waiting for the serve)
I just remembered busting the racquets last year... What a sight~! A shuttlecock stuck in the racquet. (linda's dramatic return serve pose)
No worries. The racquets we loaned are good quality ones. (Women's singles - Linda and Yoong Yoong) Right... back to the games, the boys were playing harder than the girls {but this is normal} (Men's doubles - raymond + aaron & nardo + yong)

Just a little video for fun~! I tend to take the photos when the people are not moving because I refuse to use flash {don't like to distract people} and my camera isn't that high tech as the SLR at home....

I enjoyed seeing the guys on their toes, competitive and energetic... (raymond & aaron)
we girls are here to play for fun, as you can read from our body language (pauline & claudia)
Anyway, I'll say I'm not great in badminton or anything. Sure, my dad taught me the basics but I never was the active type... but I sure try my best to play as hard as I could that day (linda's strategy move is making you run for her shots)
Since there were the 11 of us, I got to play with different people and managed to analyse their 'best' moves I suppose (Yoong Yoong's strategy move is sudden drop shots)
Sometimes I played girls' singles {with yoong yoong, linda} ... (didn't play against yong but from what I saw, I'd say his strategy move is jump smash shots)
..played mixed singles with the guys {with bor, aaron} (men's doubles... they keep score ok... we girls lazy hahaha~!)..or 2 against 1 {yoong yoong with linda vs me} (not to say bad but we girls are pretty slumber / blur hahah~!)
..and doubles girls (pauline, yoong yoong, linda, claudia. yes, I know including me would be 5 people.. just can't remember the specific people when we played our girls' doubles)
We were playing badminton from 3.30pm to 6.30pm. The funny thing was aaron booked from 3pm to 5pm... We played in the other courts... (since there were the 11 of us and 8 racquets, we rest / laze until the racquets / players become available) [snicker]

One game that aaron introduced to us (it was new to me) was called 'around the world'. The basic rules were
1. try to keep the shuttlecock from touching the ground
2. there can be only be two players in the court (one on either sides)
sounds like normal badminton so far but let me add
3. this game is to be played by multiple players (we played this game with 6 - 8 people)
4. once you hit the shuttlecock, you run to the side and other players takes over (also done on the other side)
5. you let the shuttlecock hit the ground, you're out
hahaha.. do you see the fun and chaos of this game? it is pretty fun.

after the game, those who brought change of clothes went to hit the showers.... and here i was thinking I wouldn't break a sweat. I had a good workout alright~! anyway, the booking of the two courts came up to aus100+ yes folks, the total for 2 courts for 2 hours (though we stayed longer...) [whistles innocently] is about rm300. good thing there were the 11 of us, isn't it?
we were ravenous after the game so we made out way to this szechuan restaurant (where we ate pauline & aaron... hahaha just joking~!)
in case you don't know, szechuan food equals to spicy food. (where linda & bor were our special magic ingredients... XD sorry joking again..)
I don't know if you have done the maths that I was worrying about in my mind (raymond, yong & nardo)
badminton equals to screaming muscles the next day {which was TOTALLY true, though it's still aching after 2 days... [sobs]} (claudia, pauline & aaron)
.. but add also spicy food equals churning and upside down tummy later.... guess I was up to abuse myself. [shrugs] (chilli chopped & fried chicken wings)
This dish happens to be my absolute fav of the night~!
oh... my supposedly "insurance of the night". I had wanted hot chinese tea but the restaurant was super busy and aaron grabbed for me what he could {i believe we had to wait for 40 minutes for seats}
Although we had to wait that long for the table, the food came pretty quickly (added to the photo is thai tong fun {it's the yellow dish} & 2 servings of peanut chilli chicken)Sitting at a round table with the 11 of us... (claudia, pauline & aaron)
..made it feel like it was a nice and funny family dinner (nardo, priscilla & linda) {I miss my family dinners}
I'll point out here that although I can eat spicy.. (added is szechuan style soup with fish & taugeh)
..but I can't eat freaky spicy... (Indian seasoned pork ribs)
The food here was not freaky spicy so I ate to my heart's delight... {no.... I didn't eat all of that by myself... it's just an after shot~!}
What made the evening as fun as it was... (in the shot, aaron & raymond) ..was the great company of these.. (linda & bor)
.. fun, wacky and loving Interior design students~! Hahah (nardo & priscilla)
Hmmmm... on a random note, I'll say that raymond was the MAN of the night... (aaron & raymond) Since he was more or less, the chilli king. While the rest of us had given up full, he was the one that kept on eating... (aaron & raymond)
...to the point that his lips were numb from the chilli. [lol] Don't worry kids, this is just a "poser" shot.. they didn't really eat the chillis. (aaron & raymond)
Thanks for the day out guys. Looking forward to our next outing.. [grin] Cheers~!

The SEME or UKE Quiz

Saw Jess Mok (author's note (a/n):hahah.. have to specify since there are 2 other Jess whom all I know reads my blog from time to time) do this. Pretty eye...

The SEME or UKE Quiz
You scored as The Optimistic UKE

You are the kindest, most sweet, and cutest of all UKE kind. (a/n: you must be joking~!)

This is not really a bad thing, actually it's very good. You may be the lowest level of UKE but you are also the happiest and most adorable. (a/n: i bet some of you must be laughing at this line...)

You are often a fan of things you can snuggle with and cartoons will never grow boring for you. (a/n: this would be true.. the snuggling bit.. hmmm.. if I wasn't sensitive to dust I suppose)

You smile a lot and nothing ever seems to get you down which makes you a great match for the Gentle SEME. (a/n: any Gentle SEME out there?) Be warned, though, my Uke-friend.. rough times await you if a Homicidal SEME lingers too close. (a/n: [looks up homicidal] homicidal = Capable of or conducive to bloodshed. sounds like a happy tree friend...)

You would do well to befriend a Sorrowful UKE as I'm sure your happy-go-lucky attitude will balance out their depression. On my last note I will say that ropes, whips, and chains aren't your fancies even if they are tempting - I'd stick to just the simple stuff if I were you.(a/n: wth is with this random note... no comments.)

New Housemates

Yup yup.. I got myself two new housemates.

The one I'm sharing my bathroom with is Brett. She's an American. Was in the air for 30 hours to get here. She didn't come on a direct flight; had multiple stopovers. She's the eldest of 4, has 1 sister and 2 brothers. Studying International Affairs. Will be here for a term. So far is very enthusiatic and happy-go-lucky but she says it's because she hasn't had sleep yet.. [shrugs]

The other one is Yohanna (called Hanna). She's German. Youngest of three, has 2 sisters. Studying business administration. On an international exchange programme. Will be here for a term. Her English isn't very good but at least I can understand her speech. Carries an English - German dictionary. [grin]

Sounds like it'll be a fun term... XD let's hope we'll stay well together.

Catching Up on Good Times

Oh gosh, I came back from a lovely dinner and heavenly desserts... ^_^
To rewind a bit to today's dinner, this would be Kok Hei. The last time I saw him was when we were doing SAM (year 2003~?!?!?) five years ago. Oh boy, time sure flies, doesn't it?? Though I must say that he looked much more mature from the last time I saw him.
I met him at Oakleigh station at 6pm. Taking 2 limited express trains, the trip there was only 20 minutes. He was working as an accountant here in Melbourne and had to take the bus from his workplace here. We had greek dinner. Yay~! We had Souvlakia(pronounced sue-vlak-yah) lamb Shish-cabob, served on top pita bread, with sliced red onions & chips, sour cream spread and mustard dressing. [lol] That's what I managed to see and taste.. (I totally apologise for the blerk photo, I swear it taste so very much nicer than it looks) [lol]

He ordered an extra side dish of pita and chips which we shared. Dinner came up to aus12.
Then he brought me to an awesome cafe / dessert shop called Niko. The dessert pieces were heavenly... This one was recommended by the staff. Vanilla Slice. Slight honey glaze on the top, custard centre and puff biscuit on the base.
Kok Hei recommmended this to me. Baklava. Delicious~!

Taken from wiki "Baklava or baklawa is a rich, sweet pastry featured in many cuisines of the former Ottoman(Turkey) countries. It is a pastry made of layers of phyllo dough filled with chopped walnuts or pistachios and sweetened with syrup or honey."
And this... I do not know the name since there wasn't a name label for it. On the outside is lightly fried almonds, it's not hard (crunchy) to eat.. it's kind of soft like caramel but not sticky. it's good ^_^
It was really really good. ^_^ It's not so sweet (so you can eat quite a bit of the desserts) but tasteful (they are pretty to look at, especially on display). Dessert was aus6.

I waited with him for his bus... he has to take the bus to go back to Glen Waverly. His bus came at 8.09pm (on time). He has the bus schedule on his phone. To which, I made my way to the train station (it was just across the street from the bus stop)... I had to wait for 30 minutes for the next train, waiting in the cold... By the time I reached home, it was 9.30pm... It took me an hour to get home. [sweatdrop] The express is really express..

However, the food and catching up with a good friend totally outweighs the transport wait and the cold weather. So I'm looking forward to the next trip out. Cheers~!