May 21st

Ok, the past 5 days in Melbourne warped through pretty quickly. Here's a low-down on things.

I didn't do much except for conferencing and shopping/window shopping.

A few personal "amusing" memories of Melbourne:

1. Melbournians are very well dressed. I felt like a bogan from the rurals. I addressed this promptly by purchasing some decent clothes on my first hour of arrival.
   
2. Krispy Creme, Beard Papa's, and FedEx Kinkos are a few chains I didn't expect to find in Australia but did. Exciting info, don't you reckon?
   
3. I didn't expect to find Glaceau's "VitaminWater" here too. But Australia has its own version called "NutrientWater". Watch out Glaceau!
   
   
4. Australian coins are very heavy. I despise them.
   

I took very few pictures during the trip because this is my second time in Melbourne. But this time round, I had the chance to explore the city by myself (last time, was with family).

My summary of the various areas in Melbourne. You'll be forever grateful I wrote this, because it's probably the best and shortest guide to Melbourne.

1. Chapel St, Prahran- many nice shops, but not cheap.
   
2. Bridge Rd, Richmond- heaps of shops, and very cheap.
3. Smith St, Collingwood- a smaller version of Bridge Rd with greater emphasis on sports wear.
4. Brunswick St, Fitzroy- groovy cafes, and fantastic gelato, and a shoe mecca. I would hang out here every morning for breakfast if I could.
5. Acland St, St' Kilda- cakes, cakes and more cakes.
   
6. Londsale St, City- It's not really Melbourne's Greek precinct, as some would claim. However, it's famous for two large shopping malls- QV and Melbourne Central.

There. Some useless info for you.

And the few pictures I did take....

Conferencing


Cake shops on Acland


St' Paul's


Greek Pastries on Lonsdale


Flinders Station

May 17th

As you all know, I'm here in Melbourne over the weekend.

I had the pleasure of sitting in one of my WORST flight ever. I woke up at 4:45am, and didn't get to my destination until 6:00pm! (And this is suppose to be a 3.5hr flight).

Everything was well from when I woke up to when I boarded the plane.

There was a bit of fog outside, but there was still some visibility (I've seen worst fog). But before we were just about to push off, Mr. Captain said we were gonna be 20mins late. And every 20mins, we would be another 20mins late....and we were not allowed to go back out into the terminal in case it was our turn to fly next.

So...we stayed in the plane for 4-5hrs....on the tarmac.

At this point, I've not eaten since I woke up. I thought I'd get into Melbourne early and grab something to eat (and there's usually something on the plane to eat too).....so I didn't bother with McDs or BK in the terminal.
Anyway being very hungry, made me very cranky. And hunger, anger, and impatience is not a good mix (don't worry, I bottled this all up inside of me).

We were finally let off the plane to go walk around in our waiting lounge after they thought we weren't gonna fly (pretty useless), but 20 mins later we got called back.

I did not have anything proper to eat until 12:30pm (lunchtime). Everyone on the flight was still hungry after that breakfast-come-lunch, so they decided to give us ice-cream.

There was more waiting at the tarmac when we landed in Melbourne. Apparently, another plane was using our gate.

BUT, I've watched 2 movies, and 1 TV show. 27 dresses and Golden compass- PG of course.
And a travel show called "Intrepid Journeys to Malaysia", where a city girl gets to do all these outdoor-sy stuff.

So I did not hit the shops until 4pm in the afternoon. (I was suppose to start at fucking 11am!)
But once I've made it to the city, pretty boys and pretty clothes galore!