Australia was a blast! i prefer melbourne to sydney though..cos it's less city-like and the roads are more straightforward and flat...only there're tons of smokers there like every 7 breaths i take there'll be a whiff of cigarette smoke. so not so good i guess.

Day 1, Christmas - always the most tired and exhausted on the first day..with jetlag and all. they're 3 hours faster. so it was quite a big adjustment...getting up at 6.30am there is like 3.30am here. went to Harbour Bridge and Opera House first. the 2 most duh icons of Sydney.the streets were pratically void of any human presence except us...ghost town. then went to Sydney Aqaurium and Wildlife World. i didnt really pay much attention cos i just wanted to sleep. oh qantas this time was actually quite good: smooth landing and above-average plane food. i mean, i actually ate almost everything. usually plane food sucks. it's better than sia's. anyway there was this giant cylinder of i dunno...grasshoppers or something except they were like cement-white and the whole thing was filled with them. then we went to Blue Mountain and finally the resort. the chinese food there is erm... salt-laden.

Day 2, Boxing day- no we didn't go shopping though i saw on the news the mad rush. they really queue up before the stores open. the day was rather nondescript with the highlight being the walk through Jenolan Cave. it's really cold inside and at one point the guide turned off all the lights and it's equivalent to closing your eyes even though you keep them open. saw all the staglamites and staglatites and limestones and crystals. amazing. our hotel was holiday inn! my sis was obssessed with swiping the room card for the lift to go up cos that's the only card she gets to swipe at her age. rotted in the hotel for a while then went Chinatown. it's REALLY Chinatown cos it was a sea of black-haired heads.

Day 3- this was our free day so what else did we do but shop. Paddy's Market is just round the corner from our hotel and it's HUGE- bugis village x10. did most of my souvenir shopping there. the swimwear there is freaking cheap! but i didnt get haha. basically, we spent the entire day shopping.

Day 4- woke up at frigging 5.45am. we took an internal flight to melbourne. and then we were driven to this church to meet our farm hosts! super exciting! we were hosted by Mr. Keith and Mrs.Ankie De Wit. they drove us to their farm. the countryside is really so vastly different from the city. there's just so much land i bet it'll make the HDB people drool just to look at it. vast, sprawling, expansive greenery and just endless. the roads are all straight and never-ending. i'd love to drive there. plus no traffic lights. uber-shiok. contrary to what i thought, the mainhouse is very tastefully furnished and so English! absolutely lovely...too bad i didnt take any pics of the interior. Keith and Ankie are warm hosts though Keith is the natural entertainer while Ankie is the more reserved and quiet one. they're both really welcoming. and oh my gosh the food Mrs Ankie prepared rocks. we had cream soup with baguette and quiche plus salad for lunch. then for dinner it was raw salmon with cheese on italian bread, topped with olives and pickles (thats appetiser) then thinly-sliced turkey with cranberry sauce, baked potatoes and salad for main and finally wildberries (which they planted themselves) with custard, cream and crushed fruitcake for dessert. man, my mouth is watering. melbourne is freaking freezing!! we almost turned into ice blocks going out to see kangaroos at night. in the day we fed cows and the alpacas. i totally lovelovelove the farmstay. country life is so tempting. sigh.

Day 5- had to leave the farm which was bloody sad. we gathered back at the church which was in this quiet little town called Kyneton. we visited St. Patrick's and gosh the church is absolutely stunning and the interior was beautiful. but people say Europe's churches are tops so maybe if i see them i'll decide to go homeless and sleep inside. i don't know if it's just me or what but when i was in the church there's this sense of inner calm...like i dunno..it just felt like i could sit on the bench for the entire day and it'd be all right even if i didn't go home. ok forget it i'm not explaining this very well. then went to chadstone- the supposed shopping capital of melbourne. some family drama occurred there...don't wanna talk about it but it definitely tainted a good memory of the trip. anyway, we didnt buy much. next we got to Philip island to watch the Penguin Parade! it was freaking freezing again. the winds blowing at the seaside is stronger than the aircon in the exam halls. lots of eager people squeezed their way to the front so we decided to remain at the back and used them as our windbreakers. the penguins were so tiny! i guess i expected something similar to what's on discovery channel. but they're adorable all the same. the way they waded so frantically was amusing in a heart-warming way. by the time we got back to the city it was 12 midnight and everyone was more or less zombified. plus we havent bathed and the temperature was icy. why's melbourne so cold.

Day 6- woke up at 9am and almost missed the buffet breakfast which closed at 9.30. walked across the road to Flinders Street station to get met tickets (equivalent of ez-link) and sat the tram around. went to Victoria Market. that place has everything from fresh meat and seafood to chopping boards to flowers to fruits to souvenirs to clothes. 330 stores if i didn't hear wrong. amazing. we did more shopping haha. my parents wanted to look for this restaurant where my mom waitressed at part-time 20 years ago when she followed my dad to melbourne but we couldn't find it. supposed to be at bourke street but it must've moved. man, if i was made a little earlier i would've been an ABC (australian born chinese). dinner was at a Singaporean restaurant (so says the signboard) and i ordered chicken rice. so duh. not cos i miss the food here or anything but it's just the first dish you'd associate with here. it's not bad. decent.

Day 7- checked out at 10 and walked around the streets near our hotel. melbourne people dress really cool and they take the effort to dress up. like let's say one's really into all things goth they'd go all the way out to be completely gothic in their get-up and this is just for going out... not some special event or function. i know cos for the 3 days there i've seen more than one group of them and unless there's some goth festival going on i don't think they were dressing for any particular function. besides the goths there are many other locals who wear nice clothes. the plane ride home was rougher cos we were seated the 3rd last row from the tail and turbulence was pretty bad but the food is still good. this time the air-stewards and stewardesses are great-looking. no more aged folks with balding heads. i thought one of them looked mighty like nigel barker. but maybe that's cos i wasn't wearing my glasses. anyhow, i actually felt glad to be back home. the sense of familiarity is comforting.