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Melbourne Part 2
posted : Thursday, February 26, 2009
(Long overdue. First part here)
And so we left Phillip Island at around 10 at night. Thursday is probably my sister's biggest day of her life (at the moment). We went out for some shopping and lunch in the morning and afternoon before coming back to prepare. Her ceremony is scheduled at 7pm (or was it 6? cant remember), so we went to her campus earlier since she needed to collect her robes. Ooh. (I need to wait another 3 and a half years, :S)  A building in Monash University, Clayton campus, Melbourne.
So she took us on a tour of the campus and all the time the wind is blowing and I didn't bring my jacket along AND I rolled up my sleeves. So naturally I was freezing...
We registered to have photos taken by photographers who set up booths there. So spend a good half an hour waiting for our turn, and watching the other graduates and the graduates from an earlier session (there are many sessions spread out over one week ++) roaming around looking for friends and so on. Then have a proper family photo taken for the first time in duno-how-many-years (the rest are all informal).
The professional photographer obviosly wasn't the one taking this picture.
Anyway, the ceremony itself was kind of boring, listening to a few speeches (I seriously almost fell asleep) and then waiting for the person you are here for to go up and receive his/her scroll. I tried very hard to snap a picture of the 'historic' moment but then..nevermind, we shall just rely on the pictures taken by the professional photographers. Then after that of course there is a reception and we waited for my sister as she was now part of the crowd who are hunting down friends and taking picture after picture. Ah well. My dad jokingly remarked that he spent so much money just for this scroll?? Lolz. We ended up walking back by ourselves first since she have a long night ahead.
(crap, my memory is failing..dun blame me if the rest of the post is skimpy :P) Friday was spent in Melbourne City!! Have been looking forward to that hehe. I suppose I am a more 'city' person than a 'countryside' person. We took a train to Melbourne Central and exited from this shopping centre, walked around the tall buildings a bit and then stopped for lunch (I think we woke up late or sth). 
Nice Christmas decorations in a shopping mall. The golden balls resemble Ferrero Rocher though.
The sign says it all.
But the main place we visited was Queen Victoria Market. It is sort of like a pasar malam but it was daytime la. Lots of cheap stuff on sale :) Walked around, bought some things, and ventured to the veggie sections. Things there are really fresh wei. So colourful lar.
Ok I seriously cannot remember what else we did that day apart from jalan-jalan-ing in the city, and spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to get to DFO (Direct Factory Outlets) by trams for more SHOPPING. And visited the Chinatown there. Another thing I find weird is that my sister offered to bring me to visit Melbourne Uni but I didnt want to go. Erm..duno why also, but come to think of it maybe I shud have gone. We didnt visit other landmarks like the Federation Square etc, coz I dun think my parents will enjoy it also anyway. So conclusion: makan-makan and jalan-jalan the whole day. Rented a car the next day as we went out of Melbourne City again, this time to Mornington Peninsula. Hehe. Thank god for the GPS system. We drove up to Arthurs Seat (which is actually sort of a mountain with a nice view or the surroundings. Unfortunately most of the attractions there aren't really available at the time we went there, tried to go to the Enchanted Maze Garden but we decided that the entrance fees were probably not worth it in the end. And so we continued on our journey to the Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm. Pictures say it all. :) 
View from Arthurs Seat.
The chairlift was unfortunately not in operation.
Which way??
King Arthur must be really humungous in size..his seat is so wide.
This tower thingy wasnt open either..closed for renovations. (??)
It would have been fun to navigate through the maze...too bad entrance fees are exp.
The strawberry farm. They plant berries, cherries and other stuff too, and make their own ice cream. Yummy!
 
Waiting to be mercilessly plucked by us.
Each person is entitled to 1.5kg of strawberries.
 Some are actually as big as my sister's fist.
And we made it to Peninsula, which doesnt really have much to offer except for the nice beaches. Had a very late lunch and after walking around a bit, we drove back. :S Headed to the electronics store which we bought the GPS device from and returned it (since we had no use for it anymore) and got FULL refund. Whee~~~so convenient. Hahahaha. Had dinner in an overpriced "Malaysian cuisine" restaurant and then drove around the area...basically makan angin la..since there is not much to do anymore and it was our last day liao. Then went back to pack.
Then made our way back home on Sunday. Another long trip and this time I did survived the 7 hours without sleeping. Hahaha. Movies all the way! (Mama Mia was super boring). Right..I think I made an interesting journey sound boring :S But anyway, I kind of like Melbourne as a city. People there are friendly (or is it just S*******eans live in their own world?) as in strangers say "G'day!" to each other on the streets or even when queueing up to pay for your groceries unlike the black face you get from cashiers in some supermarkets. :P I realise the people there rely a lot on integrity - you are responsible for checking whether your train ticket is still valid before you board the train (complicated transport system there, I haven fully understood it either), most supermarkets have a DIY system for paying up and so on. Ppl like us will happily exploit the loopholes (e.g. the GPS device story) but people there dont. So nice right? It is definitely a city I will like to stay in (duno if I still have the chance, big SIGH). Yay, finally completed the report :) |
