9 days in Melbourne

If you ask me what did I do in Melbourne, it is all about people and food! Food hunting everyday and I was kinda tired at the last few days and chose to stay at home sometimes when LiYin was out to work.

Walking around in the city with LiYin, KhaiChi and Vera

Chocolateria San Churro

Met up with Eva and Jessica for early breakfast

who are going back to Hong Kong after 4 months of exchange in Newcastle :)

HSC 2006 Melbourne Gathering

at Little Lamb Steamboat, Russel St

F*fu Gathering

Dinner at 渔湘阁, followed by dessert at 天仁茗茶

Late night out at KokoBlack, Lygon St

Chocolate Affogato!

Miss Marples Tea House

with LiYin and PeiNi

I purposely nagged LiYin to bring me there just because of the scones and strawberry jam I heard from the Melbourne people it's so yummy yummy that they can travel so far like 1.5 hours just for that. But we were over bloated of the scones, we ordered 1 serve but it came in 2 serves and I myself finished one whole serve of it, this is so freaking a lot man! Reached my maximum utility satisfaction and it went down a little bit, too much too much. Moderation is good, moderation is good. Lol. Anyway the strawberry is really sooooooo good! :) It's worthy after all.

Full shopping day @ Camberwell Market, Bridge Rd, DFO Spencer St

Spot the cute monkey hp holder?! The only things I bought from Camberwell market! I also bought a Tofu hp holder because I simply didn't know how to make choice between the two. LiYin went for fashion stuffs but I went for this cute stuffs instead! Lol. So cute and adorable!!

Italian lunch at Sophia, Camberwell

Harajuku at Melbourne Central

Passed by this Harajuku shop and immediately hopped in for a Red Bean Custard crepe. LiYin couldn't take it with me anymore, I've been consuming uncountable sweet stuffs and she finally surrendered. :)

Max Brenner for Belgian Waffle

Thumbs up!  *Sluuurrrp*

Walking around Federation Square

Dinner at Rose Garden, Elizabeth St; Dessert at Gelatissimo, Lygon St

With LiYin and Liang on the last night before I left, and LiYin also made us her own invented toasts and cheese with Italian dressing and Cereals-Nutella balls when we reached home. She meant to made us fat, or ...? ;)

At Kelvin's gf's house, Eureka Tower

This place is so glam man! But apparently you will be bored of Melbourne night view if you stay there, the night view seems to be nothing for you after all. But gosh... it's so pretty!

Met up with Shin Hoon at Il Dolce Freddo

Finally I get to try the very recommended ice cream by LiYin after 3 failed attempts which she claimed to be the best ice cream she has ever eaten. It's really goooooood! I miss the green tea flavour ice cream, and the pandan coconut flavour too! Yes I know it's weird for pandan coconut, heh? But it tastes so hometown-ish and I like it! :)

On the last day, LiYin cooked me her signature seafood tomyum soup with kueh tiaw for my lunch, thanks babeh! :) I don't mind to give you my address for you to courier me anytime! Hehehe.

Okay this is the end of my Melbourne post. Phew~~ Manage to squeeze and summarise 9 days in one post although I skip some activities out. Basically this trip to Melbourne is a quite relaxing one without the need to wake up early in the morning or rushing here and there in the city. All I did was wake up at around 9 or 10 and prepared to go out for brunch and hang around in the city, meeting up with friends and food hunting. So relax, so enjoyable! :)

But back to the reality, uni starts today! I only have two days of classes per week, is that something fun or sad? :) Okay, gotta prepare to class! Buh byeee :)

A post dedicated to hippo jie

Khai Chi a.k.a. Hippo Jie has completed her studies in music and returned to KL two days ago, a soon-to-be piano teacher! Congrats, hippo jie. :) Yeah, she's the one that I mentioned before who is doing music degree in solo piano and invited us to the only concert I attended here.

It's roughly 4 months ago that I first met and knew her, a very short intro to the start of our friendship. It was the time when we merely started our planning to NZ and Jim came to ask whether Khai Chi can join us to NZ. The first time I met her in person was in the uni cafeteria but we didn't talk much, she surprised me by finishing one foot long Subway. ;) Soon after that we are so close to each other, she always appears in our house for dinners and steamboats, and whatever activities or functions. 

We celebrated her birthday on May although we just fairly knew, and we even bought her a continental caramel cheesecake which was not up to her taste at all. She likes caramel but she is not a fans of cheesecake. She likes cupcakes but we didn't know that.

Sometimes she's like a big sister to us sharing her theories of life, and sometimes she's just like us bullying and fooling around. She's a very friendly and easygoing person, it feels so comfortable with her.

Her presence brings us laughter and her sunny smile brights up any gathering.

The night before she left we stayed up late with her after dinner. Oh thanks for the dinner hippo jie! :)
Early in the morning on the day she left we sent her off in front of her house. :)

Her very own favourite quotes definitely will be missed. "Ooiii..", "Seriously har...", "你懂我的意思吗?", "Nya-seng你啊!"  This is gonna be an epic of hers. :D

The NZ and Melbourne trip with her definitely strengthens our friendship. A friendship that I truly treasure.

All the best and good luck in everything, Khai Chi! :) See you soon during your convocation!
*Hugs* and miss you, xoxo.

My winter, Christchurch

This is gonna sum up my winter trip in South Island New Zealand!

After 5 days of travel departing from Christchurch on the first day, we were back in Christchurch on the last day and when we reached it was already night time, shops were closed and the city is quiet.

Guess I haven't mentioned our trip started of with a heart attack drama, eih? ;) This is how the story goes. Few of us including me didn't bring along our student visa and the Jetstar person refused to check in for us without visa and the most memorable yet ridiculous phrase I heard from them was, "We only have 10 minutes before the closing time for the check-in. For the four of you without visa we only manage to do one visa for one of you. Now make a decision who is going." That's why some of our friends received our calls at 7am early in the morning asking for help, that's why I woke up my mom at 5am asking for my visa number, that's why we even woke up Karen from Inti UPO asking for any solutions. I know we were crazy but if you were me you would have gone crazy or even crazier than me.  I'm sorry and thank you for those who received my calls early in the morning, I know it ain't fun. :)

The airport-drama prolonged until the very last minute I left Christchurch. Gosh.. an interesting ending for me. I thought my flight from Christchurch to Melbourne was scheduled at 6.50am, in fact it was 6.15am and we only came to realise that when ShihYen mentioned about it. By that time it was nearly 6am and when we rushed to the gate, thank God it wasn't far like it's the very last gate from the hallway, we were the very last persons to go in and the Jetstar air stewardess wasn't friendly with us because we were so late. :S Argh... Sigh. I nearly screwed up but I still couldn't figure out why it was 6.50am stamped in my mind and I was like pretty sure about it. This is so wrong, tsk.

More drama. Reimbursement incurred for the rented cars because we chose to omit the insurance, a huge lesson learned here. Sorry mates.

Within 5 days we have driven through approximately 1700km and more than 24 hours of driving from Christchurch, to Dunedin, to Te Anau, to Milford Sound, to Queenstown and back to Christchurch via Mount Cook. It's a wow to myself too, I didn't realise it was that much until I just calculated it. Wow :)

Proudly present to you my beloved travel buddies with whom the time and memories we cherished together. :)

Love you guys lots, xoxo.

 KhaiChi - Hua - Cien - Mao - Joe - Jim - Siang - Zhi - ShihYen

I feel so blessed and loved ❤❤❤ thank you papa mama.



Photos courtesy of Khai Chi and Siang

My winter, snow and white

❄❄❄ This post is gonna be all about snow ☃☃☃

Aiya, we were still so over-excited all the time although we have been seeing everywhere in white for few days and the journey through the snow mountains should be long enough for us to enjoy since everywhere everything we see is white, so whiteeeee.

And I still feel the excitement looking at the pictures when I'm blogging this. :)

Before we left Queenstown, a centre for adventure tourism, early in the morning after the usual western breakfast which I'm already bored of now. (Yes I know I'm mentioning again and again hehhehe)

Talking about the town of adventure tourism, we only went for jet boating not even skiing due to the time constraint. But one day if I've the chance and I've the money I would go for bungee jump if I'm still as young and as brave as I'm now with the excessive of guts. Buwahahah :D

And so we left Queenstown and headed back to Christchurch.

Although we came across so much of snow scenes, we thought this NZ trip wouldn't be perfect and a bit of regret if we don't experience snowing in real at least for once. Yes we only see the snow which is already on the ground but not snow-ing. Hmm.

We stopped by wherever and whenever we thought it mustn't be a miss to take photos.

Can you feel the Christmas feel? :) I love the Christmas trees!

We watch Christmas-themed movies during Dec and we see fake snowflakes everywhere in malls and restaurants during Dec.

And I'm so in a Christmas feel during July, it's Christmas in July here. :)

Again, it's somewhere we stopped by for tea and pictures again! It's too pretty and we will be sorry to ourselves if we don't snap more photos. :) Poor thing is that my camera wasn't in mood with me in such freezing cold weather and for few times it went on strike. :S

AND IT SNOWED ~~~~~~~~~

It was snowing for real this time! We stopped by along the road immediately with the double-signal on and hopped down from the car for the snoooowwww, the snowing snow. :D :D :D Everyone was jumping for joy, like kid indeed, very kiddo! Another side of human being ;)

For few minutes only it turned to be raining. Lol.. Better than no! :D

This rounds up our NZ trip perfectly with no regrets after all!

It was so cold and the toes were frozen, it was painful :( after the fun. It was so painful that could make me shout just because it was too cold. The trade off for joy that I treasured so much. :)




Photos courtesy of Khai Chi and Siang