Asia 2011 - Singapore

Singapore - 19th Nov - 24th Nov
Our first destination: Singapore! The tiny land of good food, funny accents, strict immigration and a whole lot of fun!

The first three nights were spent at 5footwayinn, a month old hostel that Amanda found on the internet. I was surprised at what a nice place it was. The rooms were definitely very small, but they provided big lockers under the bunk beds and there were nice facilities in the attic (internet, tv etc.). Wrote a review on tripadvisor on this LINK if you want to know more.

Anyway, it was right outside the Chinatown MRT which was really convenient. Chinatown was pretty ordinary in comparison to other countries, though I enjoyed watching other foreigners get chased by stall sales people all the time. I enjoyed the rest of Singpore's city, it seems a nice place to work and live in. Very clean, not too different from Melbourne (though obviously more Asian elements around). The food is definitely good, but not as cheap as other Asian places. We tried some famous chicken rice at one of the remaining hawker centers in Singapore though, that was yum! We didn't get to experience much else though, because our days were pretty packed with activities.

First up, Singapore Zoo & Night Safari. Definitely very fun! The zoo is based on a no barrier open plain concept, so you can view all the animals without any annoying fences blocking your view. They have a large variety of animals and you can feed a select few (like rhinos!) for 10 SGD each. We started off with a great sunny day, but then later got rained on. Amanda bought a adult poncho which seemed to be made for big big adults cause she was almost tripping in it haha. The Wildlife fights back show was pretty lame, definitely aimed at smaller kids. We missed out on seeing the elephant show cause of the rain. But we still had a good time!

We had a bit of dilemma, as it was still raining near the end of the day: the Night Safari is located right next to the Zoo and they are both quite far from the main city. So we weren't sure if we should stick around for 2 hours if the rain would ruin the whole thing. But we were already there and had bought the ticket, so we decided to go for it and play Mario Kart at the near by KFC until Night Safari started.

It was definitely worth it! The Safari is a bit different to the Zoo, as it is more based on sitting tram and going around the park while someone commentates. You get to see some awesome animals, some of them up close! Sustainability is really promoted here as well, which Amanda was especially pleased about. Although we took the tram a 2nd time and got a really lazy girl who didn't really bother to say much about it (angry Amanda after that...).

Sentosa island was the next day! Universal Studios (US) was our main reason to visit, although there were some smaller attractions to go see. We had heaps of fun going on the rides though! We were very lucky with the lines, because it seemed to be a really quiet day at US. All the rides had meters and meters of queue up room. It literally took us a few minutes to walk from the entrance to the actual ride for the Return of the Mummy attraction!! But it meant that we could go on the Battlestar Galactica rollercosters five times! They were seriously really good! The new Transformer ride was also a blast! We spent all day there and then walked around the island until the Crane show started at night (see above). That was definitely worth staying around for and then we had a nice walk back on the beautiful boardwalk bridge to Singapore island.

We then moved to Marina Bay Sands, the most expensive hotel in our trip. For those who don't know it, it's a five star hotel made up of three hotel towers, with a boat like structure on top. Beautiful views from the SkyDeck and there's an Infinity Pool at the top that is engineered to look like it just flows off the edge to 'infinity'.

It was definitely an experience and I loved it. Amanda called me a snob after our visit, but I loved the VIP treatment. Complimentary this & that, exclusive guest access to the pool, room was massive with an equally massive TV, hotel robes and slippers, it was soooo nice. We spent half a day just exploring, as there is a shopping center and a few other tourist attractions around it, including the original Merlion (symbol of Singapore? Mascot?). Worth the price? I would recommend to do it at least once in your life.

Caught up with my Singaporean buddies I had met on my Europe trip, Sarah & Milton. Delightful couple, so cute together, and so friendly. They made my trip in Europe and made my visit to Singapore as well! They took us out for dinner, had yummy seafood (cereal prawns and chili crab) and then took us for a drink afterwards. This is the only time through out the trip when I may have gotten slightly over my alcohol limit. But everyone had fun and made it back safe. Priceless night!

That's about all the highlights for Singpore. KL & Penang next!

Final 2011 words

So it's been awhile, yes? I've been back from holidays for a few days, slowly returning to the normal routine life in Melbourne as the year 2011 comes to an end. I won't go on a huge reflection, but there a few things I want to end on.

There has been a change in my career path already. My previous post denotes my last working day at Civilex. Well, that has become my last working day for awhile at Civilex. A few days before the end of exams, I received an offer from Humes to be part of their graduate program for 2012. After considering many factors, I decided it was too good of an offer to refuse. So, starting 16th Jan, I will be working at Humes :) more details on them later.

Holiday in Asia was awesome. There were a few rough bumps i.e bad weather, getting tonsillitis, passport getting damaged AGAIN, but amanda & I still had an awesome time. I have put together a few photos for blog posting, so I will be doing that in the next few days.

Christmas was held at the Teoh's again this year, with a few absences due to unforeseen circumstances. However, it was still a solid effort by my mum & dad to host, as the very next day we had another 'boxing day' party with more family friends. Look at the huge leg of ham! We're still eating it..

I am also now looking for small studio apartments to rent, as I need to move closer to the west side, so I don't crash and die on the 1 hour drive on the M1.

Anyway, 2011 will be a memorable year for me. The year I turned 21 and tasted two great steaks in two days. The year of great travels, with Canberra, Europe and Asia having felt my presence, which I think is quite an achievement and still have money haha. It was also the year of easing into my profession while dealing with lots of stress at university. It was the sad ending of my time at the CSC, while graduating from university finally (and without failing a single unit!)!

And I am looking forward to 2012! There are many exciting things going for me and I can't wait to experience them all. Happy New Year everyone, have a safe celebration.

teoh,

late night travel thoughts

So after an exhausting day of exams (two exams in one day really is way too much..), I'm taking a short few days break from studying and looking at travel plans for the upcoming Asia trip. I've been travelling so much the past few years, that I've almost gotten use to the preparation part and actually kinda enjoy sorting everything out.

Looking back at my pre-Europe posts, I remembered I had those five goals of the holiday: 1. decrease anger, 2. decrease employment stress, 3. less worry, more fun, 4. make new friends, 5. new experiences. I never got to reflect on those when I got back (mainly because I've been too lazy to post my Europe adventures STILL). I think in all goals, I more or less succeeded during the trip. It was definitely a relaxing trip, had lots of fun, hardly thought about work/unemployment, made a few good friends and experienced wonderful Europe. What a great trip, hard to believe it was only a few months ago.

The Asia trip ahead is going to be the icing of my year. Everything seems to be concluding well coming the end of November and I'm glad I have this last chance to travel before the year is up. I think I'm going to focus on my career mostly next year and there will be many moving parts to keep me grounded in Australia for a few months at least (moving out, updating all my details as non-student, figuring out fees and covers etc.). So I see this as my last travels for at least a year (but who knows!). And I haven't been back to Malaysia for so long, I feel I should at least stop by and see some relatives.

The above combined with the fact I've always wanted to go to Hong Kong with Amanda makes me excited for this trip. Can't think of a better friend to spend a long holiday with than Amanda and I'm looking forward to all the fun we're going to have.

A part of me is a little nervous, as I've never really been comfortable travelling in Asia. In general, I guess all countries have their dangers (pickpocketers in Europe for example), but Asia just seems the most dodgy of all in my opinion. I also speak a next-to-nothing amount of Chinese (going to hold onto Amanda so much), which just makes my confidence drop so much. But I'm sure it will be OK!

teoh,

leaving the csc

It is with much sadness that I announce my resignation of my position at the CSC....is what I wrote in my resignation letter.

WOOHOO! Haha, well not really. I've decided to quit my three and half year old job due mostly to time issues. Had a huge week (gee it's been awhile since I've updated) involving large amount of uni reports due, construction work, Monash Pharm ball, and CSC shifts and it was just getting a bit too much. Money is not too much of an issue, as my construction job pays pretty well and I am doing 18 hours a week there anyway. Now that I've quit, I have forgotten what it's like to have nights and weekends free.

A rather blurry rotation shot of the CSC.

I will seriously miss the CSC. The job was easy and at times, fun. Mostly due to the amazing people that I've met there and I will hopefully try to maintain some good friendships that have come out of there. They gave me a nice send off, including a nice card and $100 chadstone gift card :) Thanks guys!

In other news, I was given a verbal job offer for full time position at Civilex next year! Yay! I guess I now have to believe that things do work out eventually (I feel a told you so from Tracy coming..). That being said, you also have to allow opportunities to happen (my being nice enough to fix someone's computer :D).

In other other news, me and Amanda have booked most of our accommodations and flights for our asia trip at the end of the year. I'm super excited; I've always wanted to go to Hong Kong with Amanda and now we're finally going to get the chance to go. Our travel plans are Singapore, KL, Penang, Langkawi and Hong Kong.

Even more exciting is that we moved our accommodations around so that we could stay at the Marina Bay Sands for two night! For those who don't know it, it's a 5 star hotel with a ship on top of three separate hotel 'columns'. I've read a few bad reviews about the service though, but hopefully it'll still be an experience !

That's all for now I think...til next time! Hopefully with this extra time I can make more blog post :P (doubt it).

teoh,

Magical musicals

Okay guys, I know I just did a post and the second post may be too much for you to handle, but I implore to my loyal readers, just bear with this unexpected but hopefully pleasant surprise. I was going to include this in my soon-to-be-but-forever-delayed London post, but I simply have to post something about it here.

I saw three musicals while I was in London, which were, in the order that I saw them in: Lion King, Wicked and Phantom of the Opera. Before I get into the actual musicals themselves, I will talk a little about musicals in London.

For those who don't know, London is littered with theatres. It's one of London's biggest revenues and there's a huge industry behind. Not like here, where

TicketTek (boooo) and TicketMaster (boooo) control most of the plays in Melbourne, there are literally dozens of outlets where you can buy tickets for shows. Most of them offer discounted tickets, in which they try and sell last minute tickets or restricted views. Seeing a show almost seems like seeing a movie over there, but no where near as cheap (or should I say 'cheap').

Official tickets range from 60 pounds to as much as 200 pounds. Discounted tickets can get as low as 20 pounds. Pounds = AUS, roughly 1.5x. Now, my opinion on show tickets is this: I hate discounted tickets. You don't know what you're really going to get, because the people sell them really well (or just blatantly lie in your face).

For Wicked, I bought one of these discounted tickets, in which the lady said they were midway, dress circle. For those who don't know, theatres usually go in the order: stalls, dress circle, grand circle, balcony - from ground up. So I thought, middle row, dress circle not bad for 30 pounds. Turns out the theatre for Wicked only has stalls and the dress circle. So I was pretty much up the back, which while it wasn't completely a show breaker, it was still annoying. Now why would you pay so little, and give up enjoyment for a show you obviously want to see (otherwise what are you doing there?). So I like to buy with having mind enjoying show the best way possible. Lion King, me and tracy paid 65 pounds for 2nd row dress circle, and it was awesome.

Anyway, enough about tickets. The shows themselves:

Lion King

Easily the best thing I've ever seen. The costumes themselves are beautiful, the masks that they use to portray the characters that they're playing are magnificent. The music, which we all know and love, is as great as ever and the extra pieces they added in a pretty good too (with a few exceptions in my opinion). The translation from movie to stage is excellent, it really is a different experience but the whole story line is still there. The whole thing is so good, by the end of the first scene, the epic Circle of Life, I was satisfied. 65 pounds well paid for one scene. In short, it was BRILLIANT. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Can't recommend enough. Stampede music and scene was my favourite, so epic.

Wicked

Had slightly distant seats as mentioned above, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this show. I had only very little idea of what it was about, and was really surprised at how much I loved the story. It relates to the behind the scene and is the prequel of the Wizard of Oz. The characters are cute and lovable, the songs are really nice and I've been singing along with them in my car for the past 2 weeks. People like Amanda will really love this show. Also highly recommend (and for the love of theatre, get good seats).

No picture =[

Phantom of the Opera

This one was slightly different in style, and an interesting deviation from the two above. Followed the storyline of the movie (from what I can remember anyway) pretty well and I did enjoy it. However, not sure if opera singing is my thing, cause I don't think I appreciated it as much. The songs in this one was very much more solo style, showing off some good talent. They had some nice special effects too, like fire balls (oooOOoo) and gunshots (everyone jumped, really unexpected). Recommend if you liked the movie and the songs. Theatre was kinda small though, my legs were pretty cramped.

So that's it. If you see a crazy asian boy driving, bopping his head and yelling out gibberish and bashing his wheel in some kinda of stampede pattern, that will be me. Makes the drive to Hopper's Crossing easier though =]

teoh,

In parii

Greetings from Paris! I realized I havent been online for awhile , but I figured this is a good thing. There were a few opportunities to get online but I did want to go out of way to get on. Nice break from dependancy on the Internet. I gave in when my friend offered his iPad for me to use with the hotels free wifi. Pardon any grammar or typos for this post.

It's two days away from the end of the tour. I wont go into too much details, as I'm pretty tired and we're getting up early to go to the Lourve. but it has been really fun. As I type I'm sitting next to my new good friends, Jo and nardia and a singapore couple milton and Sarah, both who remind me of Jason a lot. I'm going to write out and post pictures when i get back to London of what I've been up to. But have been seeing many grand and historical things in Europe, it's amazing.

Mainly just wanting to say im alive and well, no dramas yet. Should be arriving back in London around 6pm on Saturday. Haven't done much shopping so that's what I'll be doing for the four days I'm in London.

Ciao,
Teoh

4 days on tour

this was a photo that was sent from the heineken brewery and is the only photo I can currently access with ease.

so it's day..4? now on the tour. It's such a crazy tour that I don't even count the time passing by days, I count them by the cities I've been. So far I have covered the white dover cliffs of england, pass through france and Belgium, finally arriving at Amsterdam. From there, we went to Rhine Valley, and then onto Munich, where I am currently sitting in a stair well with a borrowed laptop, as the wifi doesn't get to my room.

I've done some wine tasting, beer drinking, sight seeing and sleeping on the coach. I didn't get to get any hashies in Amsterdam unfortunately. I chickened out the first time I saw a coffee shop, and then I didn't get a chance to go again. The Heinikin tour was really good though, I really enjoyed learning about the beer. Wine tasting at the Rhine Valley was quite nice too. Otherwise, it's been really great so far all the things I've seen. Amsterdam has a great bike riding system, something they need in Melbourne city. Rhine Valley is beautiful and now I know a tiny bit more about wine. Walked the same beer halls as Hilter and drank 1L of beer at once, and spent the rest of the city walk a bit tipsy, probably the most tipsy I've ever been with alcohol.

Let me tell you about my fellow tour travelers. A big chunk are Aussie, mostly from Melbourne or Brisbane. One or two Americans, some from Canada, a pair from Singapore. They're all around 21 - late 20's. There are hardly any guys on this tour! There's about 7 of us, 4 having partners, 2 guys traveling together, and me. This means I get a room to myself every hotel so far! Personally, I prefer it that way; I'm picky with my life style.

Now, being one of the few single males, you'd think that's good news for me. Unfortunately, it's much harder to join groups, as most of them are girl groups. Girls tend to stick to each other much harder, so I've had to spread my efforts around a bit. I've managed to make a few friends that I can hang out with on the tour, so all is well in that department. Chances don't look good on the romance side unfortunately.

Anyway, I'm going to try and make more friends. So I'll leave it at that. Just letting my loyal friends that read my blog that I'm alive and well. Haven't lost anything yet, and hopefully it will stay that way.

Again, hope everything is well back home =]

teoh,

whirlwind london

just a keep post, before I need to go pack.

The past few days in London have been pretty fun. I must say, I'm pretty lucky that Tracy was also in London, as I would've not had half the amount of fun I've had with someone to share it with. Not only does it provide motivation, but also helps with picture taking and appreciation of what you're doing.

So I've seen more of local London, eating some pretty good food and drinking some unusual drinks (pimms & green is good smoothies). I've seen more famous landmarks, including the royal parks (got lost in hyde park cause it's that big), buckingham palace, pretty fountains etc. etc. Went to the British museum today, which had so much history, I couldn't keep my attention span long enough to appreciate it all.

The Tube system. I originally thought it was brilliant. Gives quite a bit of access to anywhere in central London, unlike our crappy City loop. Also, the Oyster card works quite well..in terms of performance. However, it's SO EXPENSIVE. I've already eaten through 30 pounds on my oyster card. Sadness.

Saw the LION KING MUSICAL yesterday. And man, it was worth the flight over. It was AWESOME. Brilliant. Best thing I've ever seen. Beautifully done. I can't really describe how good it was. After the first act, with all sorts of animals and the music coming together, I was so satisfied already by the end of Circle of Life.

Anyway, I've been so tired, I decided to take this afternoon off. But now my sister is making me go pack, for my whirlwind tour around Europe!

hope everyone is well back at home.

teoh,

I have arrived

So I have arrived in London OK. No luggage lost, passport still on me, things are still good!

The flight and transit times are death though. I am already cringing at the thought of the return flight. My travels to London was broken into three sections: Melb to Brunei, Brunei to Dubai (which is catchy) and Dubai to London. Each transit was about 7-8 hours. Each.

The first flight was okay, as I had all three seats to myself. It still takes a lot of trial and error to find the best sleeping position though. Dad, I don't know what's so good about these new planes. They may be new, but they're using old entertainment equipment. No touchscreens, just tiny screens couples with the old handsets I remember from Malaysia airlines. The movies are not that recent, although I watched Unknown which was pretty good.

It was easy to know that I was in Brunei when I stepped off the plane (besides the captain telling us we had arrived in Brunei) because the humidity smacked me in the face as soon as I walked off the plane (and into the bus that then drove very slowly to the airport). I bought a magazine and read until it was time to get on another 'new' airplane (which had the exact same old equipment and movies, yay). The second and third part of the flight was pretty hard to take. I sat next to these nice Brits/Indians ladies, who had come back from a jungle trek in Malaysia.

I decided to try and talk to them, made some nice conversation and got some advice about London. One of the sisters was a underground attendant, and rewarded my slightly exaggerated enthusiasm for riding the Tube for the first time with a exclusive Oyster card, which was one of the 25000(?) made to commemorate Prince whatishisname and Kate's marriage. Pity it doesn't work. But apparently I can sell it for 45 quid (which apparently is slang for pounds) on ebay. At this point, I felt like I was in an RPG. Hit X to interact with the character next to you, and some NPCs may reward you with random loot. Yay for my video game training.

Anyway, I arrived at the airport, pretty scared as I had no idea what I was doing. I realised I had not written down Tracey's apartment address, just memorized the station I needed to get to (which was so (not) helpful). I bought a sim card from a VENDING MACHINE??? Did not realise it did not come with any credit and didn't see a convenient way to top up. So I called Tracey on at a payphone, and said to meet me at the station in however long it would take me to get there.

If you're thinking this sounds like a very vague plan, then you are correct. Luckily I managed to get to the station and Tracey was waiting for me and saved me. So now I'm in her apartment (after cooking and cleaning her breakfast!?), typing on her horrible ACER laptop, half deluded with lack of sleep / sleeping in a upright position during my TWENTY FOUR HOURS travel. Like really? People keep saying how it's a small world. LIES. Otherwise I would've arrived YESTERDAY.

Anyway, as you can see, no anger has left me yet. I might grab a nap and then plan with Tracey where we're going to go exploring. Yup.

teoh,

btw, my phone number is 07554615693. For all those who miss me so much. :D

my holiday aims

so, two sleeps away from going to europe and these are my aims for my holiday.

1. decrease amount of anger inside of me.

2. decrease employment related stress

3. forget about worrying and focus on enjoying

4. make some new friends

5. experience as many new things as possible

if I can achieve these five things, this holiday will be a success.

teoh,

unshackle those chains

Okay, so it's been a while. Let's update.

I am currently a free man, finished exams so early that almost none of my friends want to talk to me. That's cool guys, no hard feelings AT ALL (caps for emphasis, not subtle hate). What am I using this free time that would've otherwise been used to stress continuously for multiple exams over the next two weeks? Stressing out about other things of course!

At the current stage of my life, I have come to realise that there will always be something to stress about, plan about, something unknown to come. My carefree university life is rapidly coming to end (at least I hope so anyway) and the next step is into the bigger world of not just the workforce, but boundless opportunities of things to do. Move overseas? Travel overseas? Save for a house? Buy a new car (because I've once again scratched poor SAM on the right side bumper =( )? All of those things are now possible (technically), whereas I'm used to dusting my hands of the final assignment and settling in for some holiday fun.

These fairly mundane thoughts aside, I am actually just working a lot and planning for Europe/Snow. In case I have not mentioned this in the past few blog posts, I am actually leaving for Europe on the 22nd of June for around three weeks, flying back to arrive on the 16th July, and then heading off to the snow for three days on the 18th. Currently, I'm more excited for the snow, most likely cause it's with my close friends and I get to do snowboarding which I've never done before. Though I must say, booking accommodation and transport has been the bane of my life for the past few weeks. To prevent any misfortune on the actual trip however, I will wait until AFTER trip to write my displeasure.

But don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to Europe; I guess I'm getting pre-departure jitters as I usually do. Europe is such a far away country, it's almost more like a concept than a real thing to me. I'm a bit worried about how the tour will be, but I think as long as I'm open minded, I should have a blast. Seeing my sister will also be fun =] and LIOOOOOOON KING!! I've been sore about missing out this musical since I missed the high school excursion in year 9? And now I get to see it in the best place ever (well apparently LA was the best, butlookoverthere!).

Of course, I'm not sure if I'll survive 6 days straight of full time work. I think the greatest motivation of finding a job is so I can quit that place at the end of the year. Yes, the location is great, the job is pretty easy, the money is good, I understand all of that. But you don't understand the frustration, the crap that goes on, the way the place gets to you while you're there. I do not feel respected for my three years of loyalty, I do not feel valued by my employers. Please let me find a job soon. Otherwise I might strangle myself with my headset.

I've seen both X-men First Class and Super 8 since I've finished exams. I won't bother to do a proper review, bar saying that they were both entertaining and not too bad. But I bring it up because neither movie was worth the expensive tickets we paid. In fact, I'm pretty sure no movie will ever be worth the $15 dollar ticket we all pay at the movies now. Food, yes. Oil, yes. Why the heck are movie tickets going up for!? You are driving me into piracy or bankruptcy, either way we all lose. I'm thinking of creating Teoh Cinemas and bringing back old ticket prices and making a fortune. I'll set it up next to our hospital that we're going to make. And I'll sell pies for <$4.

I am sorry for the lack of exciting pictures.

teoh,

To go or not to go!

I am in the midst of planning my July holidays, and it's quite stressful/indecisive. When I found out we actually get four weeks of holidays, and I only had one exam (increasing chances of even more holidays), I was so determine to go over seas. No way I want to spend my last real holiday at home doing the usual, and especially not at work.

So since my sister is on her last year in the UK, I thought it'd be a good time to go to Europe! I haven't been before, and I'm quite eager to experience it. Since I'm not a big traveler, I'm aiming for about just over two weeks. I know it's not as long as most people do it, but I don't like to travel for too long!

Since I'm going alone, I was also thinking of doing a tour, Contiki or TopDeck. They have some nice ones that give me a taste of all over the place for about 12 days, for around 2k. Accommodation is hotels, which is nice and it contains most of the travel fees and some meals/activities. So I'm pretty happy with that.

HOWEVER. Now I'm having a financial crisis. Because flight tickets are ridiculously expensive. I was expecting around 2k, but the cheapest I can find at the moment is 2.6k with Singapore airlines. =_= what the hell. so that's like 4.8k together with the tour, and then +spending money, I'm looking at well over 6k.

I really want to go, but now I'm not sure if it's worth it/can afford it. On top of that, we're also going to the snow that holidays too. Eep.

Decision decisions. And prices only get higher from here on!

teoh,

to the mysterious ACT.

So after much celebrating, I went to Canberra for a few days of chilling with my friends. It was really good to see Sarah, Ellen and Gen again.

I've never been to Canberra (or was too little to remember any of it), and it was a pretty chilled four days there. Just like Adelaide, it's not as boring as people make it to be. It's just not the huge place Melbourne is.

Ellen was a pretty good guide, despite not being use to driving around (everything is so close, everyone bikes about). We went to Black Mountain (a lookout), Na

tional Zoo/Aquarium, the National Gallery, Parliament House and a quick look at the War Memorial.

I actually quite enjoyed Parliament House, imagining all the powerful politicians that walked the same corridors that I did. We also swam in a local river, which was so nice. Brought back memories of the waterhole back in New Zealand. Other times, we just chilled out. It was blistering hot, except for the last night in which we ran through a storm.

I did get introduced to Zambrero, which is basically a Mexican Subway. Choose your filling in a burrito, add salad, guacamole and wrap it all up = yum. Unfortunately, they are not yet in Melbourne (coming soon though) but it's pretty awesome.

Fun times.

Also, this video, despite it being for a commercial, pictures my young dreams of star wars:

teoh,

july trip - radelaide

spent most of the day feeling that emptiness when you travel with friends for so long, and then suddenly they're gone =[ miss my friends already.

so on the 3rd of july, I left for Adelaide, flying solo with Tiger Airways. Tiger has a new check in process, where you can self check in online if you have no check in luggage, which I did. Surprisingly, it went quite smoothly, I was at my boarding gate within 2 minutes of arriving at the terminal 4 (aka the tin shed next to the airport).

I was reunited with an amazing five people at Adelaide: visiting with me was Sarah, looking pretty with straightened and dyed hair, Hao Zhe the magician who we were staying with, Nicolle, Kim and Adrianna. We also met a few of Nicolle's friends who entertained us to no end; Juliet, with a cool nickname Jet, the proper speaking Maria (hilarious accent) and various of Nicolle's boys =]

My first time being in Adelaide, I didn't have much expectations. People had always dubbed it as a hole, but I knew it couldn't be that bad. My first impressions were that it was less fast paced than Melbourne. There were less cars crowding the roads (road limits were mostly 60 zones too), the community felt closer at a bar we went to, no high rise buildings. It was quite nice actually, as a person who does not like crowds. I'd imagine I would feel more comfortable driving into Adelaide city than Melbourne.

Hao Zhe took us to Mt.Lofty, sort of a look out towards Adelaide, and it's very spread out. Reminds me of New Zealand a bit. Cleland Wildlife Park was pretty fun too, feeding kangaroos and wallabies (they're so cute!).

Me and Sarah had the chance to explore the city one day. I think we only went down a few well known streets, and it wasn't anything special, but a nice city to hang out in. That said, I'm not a city person, so I probably wouldn't appreciate the nice things about it anyway. It was definitely smaller than Melbourne, but not in a bad way.

Nicolle took us to the Adelaide Zoo (where we met up with Kim) and Victor Harbor. The Zoo was entertaining, but nothing that much different than any other zoo. Victor Harbor was quite beautiful, I wish I could've gone swimming. We went around Granite Island, which the high light of the day for me was sitting on this huge rock on the edge, close to the ocean. It would've been a favorite hang out spot for me, looking at the waves crash against the shore. Awesome.

Other than that, we hung out at Hao Zhe's and Nicolle's place. Hao Zhe's unit is quite amusing, his room has a hole in the roof where the room light should be and his car matches the unit (emergency brake light doesn't work, engine often dies, 20 km up a hill). Funny moments include (but not limited to) fail to see karate kid (Adelaide get their movies a week later than us), tiger in the bathroom and sarah's tassie devil enthusiasm born.

Absolutely great to catch up with them all in Adelaide. Hope to return there someday soon to visit. Thanks to Nicolle and HaoZhe for showing us around. Also interesting to see their houses and family =]

teoh,

that was heaps good.

phwor, the end to an amazing 11 day holiday !

I'll probably write up a few specific posts about the past week and a half at work when I have time. For now, a few thoughts and feelings.

First feeling, dead tired. I usually take holidays pretty easy, but I've pretty much had something on every day, which is definitely a good thing. No time wasted doing unproductive things on the computer, or sleeping in so late I feel groggy the whole day. But I have absolutely no stamina, and I was pretty eager to have a 3 hour nap this afternoon.

I was also pretty surprised at how well the whole thing turned out, some sort of Mega Catch Up. To think that at New Zealand Airport, I felt like I would never see these guys for years, maybe even fade from memory. But I managed to see so many people this holidays, it was an awesome feeling, cause I missed them heaps.
At first, it was just Sarah coming down to Melbourne, then Genevieve and Ellen headed down too. Then I decided to go visit SA to catch up with HaoZhe, Adrianna, Nicolle and Kim, inviting Sarah to come along. And then Nicolle also decided to head over to Melbourne. Cass also made it down there and caught up with us twice, and Jarryd too.

The one thing I love about these close friends (I no longer think of them as ISV friends), is that they seem to push me to expand myself to places I wouldn't usually go. For example, everyone knows I suck at driving, especially to new places, but we went to quite a few these holidays. They're also different to my usual close group, and I love their different way of thinking (grandma is quite cynical), speech (nicolle has a funny SA accent) and weird little habits (ellen has stiff elbows).

From left to right at the back: Gen, Nicolle, Me, Sarah and Ellen sitting in front. Purposely made to look like a family photo hahaha.

It was fun having them at my house, like a little family. My parents were really good in letting them all stay, and everything went really smoothly. I was a little stressed out, cause I didn't know if they were going to have a fun time with me, but I think it turned out ok! We watched a lot of movies though haha.

Facebook has improved their photo uploader..I managed to upload all 170 photos within a few minutes. Nice.

Events and places we went to follow. Mt.Lofty, Cleland Park, Adelaide Zoo, Victor Harbor, Science Works, Dandenong ranges, Balacava, Movies, Healsville, Lygon street and random fun moments.

teoh,

off on holiday

so 1st July was an awesome kick off to the holidays.

spent some time with a friend in the morning, going around to jells park and knox city. Then had a fight with telstra over our latest bill (which in hindsight seems correct, but still their fault for stuffing up the past ones, confusing me!!) and won, so I got a month of internet free. Then had a big catch up with glenny people, which turned out surprisingly well, despite some last minute organising (=P tim). Watch toy story 3, which I classify as a 'movie worth paying for'.

Awesome day.

Anyway, I'm really lacking sleep, and I'm heading off to Adelaide tomorrow! It came so soon, I haven't even packed yet. So adiós until next thursday. have fun in your HO HO HO HOOOOLIDAYS!!

teoh,