zuanqing extraordinaire

Brrr waking up to 5 degree C morning is no joke! I just want to stay in bed under my warm covers all day haha. But feeling wide awake and unable to get to sleep, decided to commence on my next post while I nua around in bed for a while more.

Day 02 of #FAM2906 saw us picking up our rental car and driving to Great Ocean Road! Stopping at Geelong Waterfront along the way.

All aboard!

Jumpshots outside Deakin University

After frolicking around the waterfront for a while, we hit the road again and arrived at GOR in about an hour's time.

the weather was slightly wet - hence we spotted a rainbow! the first of many to come :)

We had a lunch stopover before continuing our way on the road. Had originally wanted to try this cafe called Bottle of Milk but unfortunately it was closed for renovations when we were there! :( Being the hungry travelers we were we just ducked into a decent looking cafe to get out of the rain and fill our rumbling stomachs.

So sorry I forgot to take down the name of the cafe Found it! The place was called Kafe Kaos :) the food was decently good although the choices are quite limited.

braised pork belly burger - my fav of the lot

steak sandwich

lentils soup had a moroccan feel to it and was good for a cold day

can never go wrong with plain chips!

After lunch - time to hit the road again! It's a good thing we have 3 drivers among the group of us including myself to rotate and get some needed rest when necessary. It can be quite tiring focusing on the road for an extended period of time.

gorgeous view of the sea and sky en route

Koala-spotting!

spotted ducks instead

We got off the car at a particular spot when we supposedly were able to spot koalas. However, it proved to be futile as we were walking up so we decided to get back in the car and drive right up to the top instead.

and we (or rather, Huiyu) spotted a few!

500 points to Yu for spotting so many koalas! Haha

It was quite funny cos we were driving slowly, everyone looking out the car windows to see if they could spot any koalas up in the trees. Huiyu has a damn keen eye for spotting them - she spotted the first and thereafter about 2 more of them. The spotting went like this - drive drive drive, suddenly shouts of "Stop stop stop!" in the car and then trying to all spot the koala haha. It was great fun and we spotted one really up close who was eating non-stop! The rest were like all sleeping.

As promised, I'm here to document our 9.5 days together in Oz with my friends and judging from past experiences, I seem to have difficulties carrying through the entire documentation as evident in my posts on Cambodia which happily stopped at Phnom Penh and didn't carry on with the temples visiting in Siem Reap... Go see my Facebook photos lah ok! (If you are my friend on Facebook) haha.

So I have to disclaim first that I think this will be no easy feat and hopefully I can accomplish what I set out to do and if these posts get broken off halfway... Okay okay I will make sure they don't!

On 28 June night my friends happily set off from SG to MEL on Singapore Airlines (how shiok! all I took was lousy Jetstar back to sg :( ) and I had arrived back in Melb just the day before in anticipation of their arrival. They were due to land in the early morning of 29 June (my birthday!) and to make their way to my apartment where they will stow their luggages in my room first before we supposedly head out to Brighton Beach.

Once they landed, they got their SIM card and into a MAXI cab and texted me they were on their way. I was still in bed and thus decided to get up and wash up and start getting ready. They arrive earlier than expected! So my apartment is generally inaccessible to the public and you have to buzz the unit you are visiting and they have to come down and get you if the door is locked.

Buzzer went off at home. My landlord, Mark, went to answer it. He went "hello? hello?" a few times and I ran out of the room and told him "I think they are my friends!" He passed the phone to me and went to the window to take a look - and said "Yeah I can see three of them". I went "hello? hello"" into the phone and no one responded. So I just hung up and went straight downstairs where the group of them were waiting in the rain with their luggages. Hahaha so poor thing.


Our first wefie in the garage of my apartment! Haha. Poor them had to lug their luggages up 3 flights of stairs cos I stay on the top floor and there are no lifts in my apartment. I helped too ok!

wefie in my cosy room!

After depositing all their luggages in my room (which became impossibly cramped after that) we headed off for brunch at a cafe just opposite my place called Hannah. They don't have a website but they are on Facebook.






Some of the yummy food and great coffee we had (seriously it's hard to find bad coffee in Melb; just ask any Melbournite):

Pancakes with bacon and maple syrup

Club sandwich with chicken, egg, bacon, lettuce, tomato, anchovy mayo and parmesan

Potato roesti, poached eggs, bacon, spinach, tarragon hollandaise

Due to the wet weather, we scraped the idea of going to the beach that day and decided to swap that day's itinerary with Thursday. So I equipped all of them with essential travel cards called Myki (available for sale from 7-11! The card costs A$6 each and is non-refundable) and we trooped to the city for their check in to their apartment on a tram.

with Kang and Jo - trammin' our way to the city

wefie outside the guys' apartment at MacKenzie Street

Brought the guys to DFO for some shopping and we walked our way there via Southbank and passing by Crown Casino and South Wharf. Shopping only lasted about an hour as shops closed at 6 pm and we trammed to Swanston from there for a Vietnamese dinner at Mekong.

waiting to be seated outside Mekong

prawn spring rolls

chicken vermicelli

they enjoyed the vietnamese dinner very much!

cam-whoring outside while waiting for the others to pay the bill

desserts at San Churro after dinner!

Midnight flights are always tiring and I think the guys were pooped after a whole day of being out and about. Sent them back to the apartment and made my way home to pack for our road trip to Great Ocean Road the next day!

Whew! It's been a while since my last post here. I see cobwebs everywhere haha. So I've had my first semester of school done and completed. Results came out last week and I am super pleased to announce that I am a …. *drumroll* first class honors student! Haha. Managed to get H1s for all my four subjects - and that's equivalent to first class honors. Never imagined myself to be doing so well but I guess the hard work and effort I've put into attending every single class, always trying to contribute in classes, and the tremendous amount of research I do for all my essays have paid off. Of course I cannot forget about the support and love I received from my beloved friends who have been encouraging me and praying for me unceasingly. So much love there I can't even. x

Happily on winter break now and had a super smashing vacay with my dearest and closest who specially planned a surprise trip to Melbourne for my birthday. Well, it WAS meant to be a surprise till I spoilt it by booking air tix home for the holiday right after they booked their tix to Melbourne. So frantic were they to find out their I was planning to extend my stay in sg that they spilled everything to me when we met up in sg and thus I decided to fly back earlier than planned so that we would all be in Melbs at the same time when they arrive. How sweet are these friends! I feel so supremely blessed and undeserving and I thank God for them and their unconditional love towards me.

That said, we had an awesome 9.5 days together traveling around Melbs, Tassie and ending the trip in Sydney. Since I am on holiday now and super free (been doing nothing but sleep, eat, and marathon-ing Masterchef online - how can a cooking show be so exciting and emotional!?) I have decided to revive this dusty blog with my Oz adventures I had with some of my best friends.

To kick it off, here's a video I compiled of the memorable times we had over the 9.5 days. I hope you enjoy it (whoever you are)!