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Friday 11 May 2012

First stop - Melbourne!

May 11, 2012 0 Comments
I had the luxury of having Melbourne as my first stop in my little world tour. Shall not talk about virgin experience of first day at work, since it turned out to be pretty unpleasant. I was shaky and terrified and made all the mistakes a normal intelligent human being would never have made. And for some reason, once a mistake has been done, every other mistake seems amplified afterwards. It was quite a nightmare, really.

But all in one, it was a good learning experience and I swore never to make such mistakes ever again.
Thank god, I haven't. :D

But there's something else I'd like to highlight. Which is how my sweetheart stayed with me the night before and helped me as I panicked, realizing I didn't have this, didn't have that. He went around J8 buying my last minute essentials. He also willingly went to the 24-hr supermarket near my place to buy zip-lock bags at close to midnight, simply because I forgot about my LAGs. :(
He was so sweet to wake up at 6am to send me off in a cab downstairs, and stood under an umbrella in the rain to hail a cab and carry my luggage for me.

Plus a surprise good luck card on my first day at work!

-insert big grin-


Okay, enough about the mushy things.

Now more on my first stop - Melbourne, Australia!

This was view from my hotel room. Apparently my friend had an ever better view!




Night view. I like how brightly lit the outside is. I don't know, it just gives me a sense of comfort that the city isn't dead.



Here are some pictures I took while we went out the next day. Pretty scenic pictures because Melbourne is full of interesting, beautiful architecture!

I am so in love with the architecture, really. It's a nice blend of vintage historical feel with the modernity of the city. And I love how nice the pace of the traffic is (both car and human). It's just nice, not too rushed and a tad laid-back.












I was walking around and admiring the beauty of the surroundings and then I saw this on the road.

2 horses! 2 white gorgeous horses with a carriage! On a road in broad daylight.
Now where can you find this? Certainly not on the streets in Singapore.



I looked good and hard.
No prince charming in sight. So I moved on.
keke

Oh, this is taken in front of what I believe to be, Victoria Library. I didn't get a chance to go inside but I'm sure it's a library because I looked at the sign.

What are these birds, pigeons? Pardon me for my ignorance on birds, I really have no idea.

But they certainly remind me of scenes from western films, where people just sat in the park and feeding birds like these. The birds will just come flocking around them and sitting on their shoulders.

So this was a scene in the movies that came true for me.



That's me with my perfect mentor, Krystal!


We had Risotto and I-forgot-what's-the-other-one for lunch in one of the cafes in an alley. It was such a nice place even though it was in the alley. The alley had like a stretch of cafes and every single one of it was filled with people!
On a weekday lunch?!
Kristal told me this was where the Aussies have their lunch at during the lunch break.
And I was so amazed by how un-rushed they were. Nobody was gulping down their food and had time for steaks, chops and chats over coffee.



I also had the first Churros of my life.


After that, we made our way back to the hotel for a quick nap before reporting for work.

I took this picture when Jolene and Krystal were getting their ice-creams.


So I didn't get my ice-cream because I was still suffering from cramps.
The security guard at our hotel casino surprised me why asking me where was my ice-cream when we walked by.
I was surprised by his comment because I didn't expect him to talk to me at all so I answered awkwardly that I didn't want one.

Ok, my point really is... The friendliness of the Australians! Even the cashier at the supermarket greets and talk to you when you are fishing your purse for coins to pay for your grocery.

This is something we don't have and I certainly hope we can cultivate one fine day on this sunny island.

Okay, that's all for Melbourne, my first noob stop for my world tour. :D

More to come, so stay tuned!

I hope I can be dedicated to writing though.