Saturday, December 04, 2004
Day 6 in Melbourne @ 9:57 PM
morn started with another hot bath. juz couldnt get outta there. the moment i got out of the hot shower, i was shivering intensively. brrr!!! started off our day with a trip to Scotch College. the college was HUGE! ppl there were friendly, esp Tim, our guide. he showed us around the 27hectare school! wow. there was the music auditorium building, the arts building, the language building. Longkuan'd love the music block. anyone can juz go to any of the rms and play the piano. somehow in aussie, life is juz abt as hectic, but ppl are so willing to go for various activities and be enthu! i think its the amt of emphasis parents and schools are placing on academics. although academics are impt, the aussies realise dat personal life and having an interest is wat's more impt in learning for life... i realli agree. enjoyed the college. had a old victorian taste but wif beautiful interiors surrounded with lush greenery. Singapore a garden city indeed... Den went for lunch at Shark Fin Restaurant. i didnt spell wrongly. they asked if i wanted " a pork". LOL! haha.the fd was nice and i caught Andrew's eating spree. ate 5 bowls of rice there. felt damn bloated later. we went for a tour at the Chinese Museum in Melbourne's Chinatown and experienced how the Chinese came to Melbourne and the discrimination faced. we also saw the biggest dragon dance dragon in the world there. it stretched for at least 80m! we den went for a city tour. i was running outta batt for cam so i tried to cut down. but i took great fotos. den batt conk out... at the Shrine, the memorial, the heart of melbourne where the best scenery of Melbourne can be seen!!! dammit! was down, but i juz tried to make the best outta it and juz enjoy the grand scenery there. the shrine was beautifully crafted in stone dat looked like marble and the exterior was juz so grand. pity ppl cant hold their marriages there. it'd juz be so inappropriate. anywayz, returned to hotel enterprize for a break b4 going to Holiday inn for dinner. service wasnt so gd, but cant blame em. someone on the other table spun the lazy susan so hard the tea juz poured over. created a great hoo-ha. then, one of my table mates tried asking for chopsticks change coz it smelled like bleach by asking the manager "change chopsticks" x3 (translated fr chinese) gosh... wat an embarrassment. den we went for a city walk from holiday inn to queen vic market. i shall now link our PM's tok yesterday with my experiences in Melbourne.
he toked abt greater architecture being able to create a better ambience in melbourne. i tell u its wrong. its the people and the feelings that matter. compare melbourne to singapore. every damned place in singapore has the boom boom chak and the smoking and the beer. in clarke quay, where u can enjoy a peaceful nite down the quay, u get motherFing pubs down the whole damn quay. in melbourne however, at the Yarra River Quay, ppl noe how to be quiet and enjoy the whole scenery of melbourne. there's no smoking, no music, juz peace. Melbourne knows which place to be quiet and which place not to. the walk down melbourne streets was so peaceful, so spiritually uplifting, so serene. when mrs. ong broke out into carols, it was so much of an enjoyment, like the real meaning of Christmas was already present. then when we reached Myers, the shopping mall, there were crowds enjoying the window shows, not wif noise, but wif appropriate clappings and signals of appreciation. then another peaceful walk b4 we reached the partying at Queen Victoria market. that was where ppl started partying. i can never experience that in Singapore. the climate aint rite, the ppl aint rite, the ambience aint rite even tho the architecture is quite similiar. PM Lee, if u're reading this, i think Singaporeans realli need to have a great mindset change. I wouldnt recommend Singaporeans to go to Melbourne. Y? Coz i'm damn afraid they'd turn havoc outta Yarra river quay and totally spoil melbourne like they have spoilt Singapore's night scenes. pubs and clubbing on every damn place in singapore, even sentosa. now casinoes. wat next?
anyway, at Queen Vic market, my grp had the pleasure of tasting emu, croc and kangaroo meat. it was a unanimous decision that kangaroo meat tasted the best. like beef but more tender and fragrant! yum yum! we took another peaceful walk back to Hotel Enterprize and that nite, i felt realli revitalized, realli refreshed. some feeling i've never felt b4.
Australia is simply paradise.
he left a mark
