Nagambie Dragon Boat Festival
It’s been a while since I last blogged. A very good indication of how time flies, and if you don’t make full use of it – it just keeps on going, with, or without you.
I’m a nice toasty brown today, while Mr D is a lovely shade of lobster red. Hehe.
We went for our first Dragon Boat race last Sunday out in Nagambie, a quiet place about 2 hours drive from Melbourne. We left Melbourne at 7′ish, and it was a really hot hot day with temperatures reaching up to 36 C (or more). We spent most of time in the shade, lounging under a nice tree when not out on the boat. It was really hot, but good fun to get back into the boat for a race!
We had cheerleaders! Can you see the letters C Y S M ?
This is my favourite cheerleader. Hehe.
And after a long day out in the sun, here we are! ^_^
Unfortunately, we didn’t bring home any trophies. Came in 2nd place most of the time, but it ain’t 1st is it? ^_^
What a weekend!
Filed under life, photoes, travel | Comments (4)Goodbye Kuala Lumpur, hello again Melbourne!
Goodbye Kuala Lumpur. We shall miss you with all the glorious food, great shopping and wonderful people you. Ten days was so not enough! (We won’t miss the hot and humid weather tho!)
Photo of KL taken from the penthouse at Dan and Em’s apartment in Cheras, KL.
And hello Melbourne! ^_^
Just arrived on Monday after a forever long flight on Air Asia. It’s not exactly the best, but it was cheap and we did arrive safe and sound and EARLY. Malaysian’s don’t stick to speed limits no matter where we are. Even in the skies… (@_@)
Filed under photoes, random, thank u, travel | Comments (4)Weekend at Cheltenham!
We left Fareham last Saturday morning and I navigated our way to Cheltenham via the freeways of UK.
Everything was according to plan, we had a printout of directions from the hotel… up until I realized we had missed the turn-off from the freeway by quite a distance. OOPS.
Weather was a little windy, and everything pretty much looked the same. Our little car kept swaying in the wind! Then… I noticed that the turn-offs were increasing in number, instead of decreasing. It was No 17… and then No 18. And we were supposed to get off at No 16. (>_<)
Fortunately, we had another map which wasn’t really very good, but it did the job. We took the next turning off the freeway, crossed our fingers and toes – and drove off into the little country roads of UK. The target was not to double back, but to take another road that would join up with our original direction.
The countryside was quaint and beautiful… but driving was a little tougher since the roads were tiny and curving. Drove through a couple of very lovely English towns too, thought we were lost for a bit and ended up (luckily!) where I had planned for us to be. Whew!
Tip: If the road looks straight on the map in UK. Do not be deceived. There are a dozens of little so called round-a-bouts everywhere, and straight doesn’t necessarily mean that to take the 12 o’clock turning, or if there even is one!
But we made it in slightly over 2 hours.
And then I went to pick Peggy from the train station! (^_^)/ Hurray! A familiar face! And a Malaysian accent! Really happy to see her. Hehe.
And Cheltenham is a lovely little town, with surprising amount of shops and shopping. (@_@) Of course they have the usual pubs scattered about everywhere. This one is particularly nice looking. We had some drinks here at night, I tried apple cider – it tasted alright.
Weather was a little miserable… it rained. Thus out came, the little pink umbrella!
The roads were all wet.
There were signature bright red English telephone booths!
I mentioned shopping earlier right? This was from Round 2.
The Hare and Minotaur are having a seat along the road. They’re pretty big…
Not so big compared to Peg.
But very big compared to me.
We continued walking around town… and ended up at a lovely park.
See our hats? £2 each, and great to keep your head warm and more importantly, dry! It was drizzling throughout the day.
And the end of the day, took a photo of the Cheltenham shops.
UK.
I’m here… after spending a chunk of my life (approximately 1.2 days) up in the skies. Finally. But it ain’t over… in two weeks time, I have to get back up there to go home. Blek.
But of course, still very shiok at being in the famous Heathrow Airport, London. However, I have to say that the airport was EXTREME-UNIMPRESSIVE. KLIA is 7.3x better looking, but I can’t say if the service was better. To give them credit, the airport was under construction for improvements and it’s really OLD. They should be ready for Olympics in 2012.
Anyway, flying for 22 hours, not including transits plus driving a rental car to our destination was REALLY tiring. There is no other word to describe it, we were EXTREME-EXHAUSTED. Left Melbourne at 7:45pm on Sunday evening… and arrived in London at 10:00pm on Monday night. Thus the approximate of 1.2 days spent in the skies. But it wasn’t over yet. We picked up our rental, and drove/navigated 1.5 hours to Whiteley, Fareham before finally arriving at our destination. Whew.
UK drives by miles. And they drive EXTREME-FAST. Like at 100mph. Our little rented Fiat Punto hit 70mph and it beeped in warning. Coupled with the fact that there were no speed limits, just signboards saying “Average Speed Limit” – we drove at a sensible speed (fastest the car could go!), confused and exhausted. What the heck is “Average Speed Limit” ?
After a good nights sleep, I woke up pretty much refreshed and hungry on Tuesday. And finally, settled in to appreciate being in the beautiful countryside of Hampshire. The skies were blue, the wind was refreshing and surprisingly, it wasn’t too cold. It was… just nice. 
The nightmare of the journey was but a distant memory. I still need to go home anyway, best to forget the bad.
The hotel is really English and rustic. The room is lovely, spacious. Breakfast is delicious, albeit serving the same food everyday so far. The best part is the free broadband. Hurrah!
I’ve started shopping already. Whenever I convert currencies, it’s a pretty big cringe for the Malaysian Ringgit. The Australian Dollar fares better. For your information: £1 = AUD2.25 = RM6.20.
Because we are really nearby a factory outlet ‘village’, we decided to go check it out after getting some work done in the morning. I bought… a Samsonite laptop backpack at £17.99. It was on 70% discount at their factory outlet store. Super cheap bargain. And another two bags, one sling and an overnight bag at £9.99 and £18.99. Couldn’t help it, it was Tokidoki – but not Le Sportsac. Lookalikes, but not pirated. Weird. Quality was alright, but what the heck – it’s my favorite print.
Best part is, I didn’t bring any money with me. I’m saving my per diem – and since food is really affordable in this part of UK, I can use my allowance to shop! Hurrah! I’d like to add that food is even more affordable since I eat mostly entrees, thus lower prices. The portions for mains are TOO HUGE. 
Speaking of food, we went to our office for training today. It’s a short walk. The office is made up of several buildings and situated in a big Business Park. You’d think that a business park which had several dozen offices would have some variety for lunch. But all they have is one little sandwich shop. O’Briens. And after you purchase your sandwich, you can eat it outside at the park with the swans and ducks and see shadows of giant fish in the pond.
Oh, and I finally got to drive again since leaving KL, not in Melbourne – but surprisingly in UK. Hehehe.
Didn’t really take any photos… it’s all been pretty standard scenery, yawn. Nothing much interesting yet!
p/s Good news! We got our apartment! \(^_^)/
Filed under life, travel | Comments (2)How to get to Melbourne Airport not via SkyBus?
The Melbourne Airport Bus (SkyBus) costs AUD16 per person, one-way to the city (Southern Cross Station in Melbourne). It costs AUD26 (RM78) for a return-trip. It’s good if you have plenty of luggage and don’t want to drag them about too many places.
And today, we had to go back to Melbourne Airport, Tullemarine to get customs clearance on our DHL packages. For both of us, a return trip to the airport would cost AUD26 x 2 = AUD52 (RM156). Ouch.
Searching for an alternative, we found some great advice from this site:
City to Melbourne Airport by Public Transport
We had a 10x 2 hour Metcard and one 2 hour Metcard for Zone 2.
Our return trip cost us each AUD8.30 only, instead of AUD26. Good job!
Zone 1 – 2 hour AUD2.80 (Apartment to Flinders to Essendon)
Zone 2 – 2 hour AUD2.70 (Essendon to Airport West Shoppingtown to Melbourne Airport and back)
Zone 1 – 2 hour AUD2.80 (Essendon to Flinders to Apartment)
Our apartment location is really convenient. The tram is less than a minute away. (Hmmm… or perhaps it’s just that all the trams are in convenient locations.)
When you’re not earning income, you get reeaaally particular about how much you spend and how much you can save.
P/S We cleared our personal effects through Australian Customs pretty easily. They didn’t charge us since we didn’t have anything new. Whew! But DHL did charge us AUD49.50 (including GST) for the paperwork. Blek.
Filed under life, travel | Comment (1)Cari-cari Makan di Penang
Ah – Penang. Could it be, an island of fun fun fun to bermakan-makan?
Other than the food, it rained dogs and cats there. Did I mention that I dislike umbrellas. Urgh.
Traffic was… quite congested. And it was the weekend!
We tried so much food… so… much… food.
Photos can be found here. Well, it should be ready… I’m uploading it now. (^_^)
I’m trying to figure out how to blog it. Coming soon I hope!
Filed under food, travel | Comment (1)