Melbourne - Nature

Due to space constraint & the ever-increasing pace of life, Singapore seemed to have lost a lot of her greenery over the years; the farms have gone, the lands are increasingly being reclaimed. Added to that, we just do not have natural sights; we do not have the Nigeria Falls or Grand Canyon in the States & Canada, the Grand Canyon, the Great Wall of China & Forbidden City in China (though manmade but very 壮观), nor the Great Barrier Reef or 12 Apostles in Aussie. Thus I'm always awed by these structures/sights when I see them. Not only that, the vast blue sky, the green pastures & the sea that seems to go on forever... wish we had more of that here...

We almost didn't make it to the 12 Apostles; the parked closed @ 530pm & we were there around 515-520pm! Glad we didn't miss it as the view was magnificent!!! Look:














& I love this pic that Dar took... it's post-card perfect isn't it? :)


Dar was commenting on the numerous parks that can be found in Aussieland; envious was he that the citizens could just lie in the park in the summer soaking in the sun or just take a leisure walk around there. Most of the parks also had BBQ pits which were electric operated & free!!! @ some parks/beaches, they also had playgrounds for the kids, how thoughtful.

Look @ the trees!!! Almost engulfing us heh

This tree behind us have the carvings of the native animals on the trunks & it is supposed to be really really old!


That's Milo before me & the hills behind me! :)

& pics of the blue blue sea & white white clouds!!! The way the sea & the sky blends... lovely lovely!

Surfer Dudes @ Bells Beach (Torquay) & a boat (dar loves taking pics of boats) we saw @ St. Kilda's on e rite...







Took this pic w my handy SE hp... see that little fig @ the bottom corner,
dat's my Dar :)



I especially like this pic which we took whilst on the way to 12 Apostles... look @ the white washes!!!

If only we had places like that... isn't it? *wistful*

Impressive Service

Sleepy has encountered some bad customer service in the past & recently; from the insensitive & clock-wood cx svc staff of the insurance co (cant rem which one haha), the infamous Sony Ericsson incident, the tassle with Citibank; to the inexperienced waitresses @ Que Pasa, the overchatty waitress who interrupted our conversation @ Crystal Jade & the rude LTA hotline officer; some of which are perhaps what we expect, some of which are totally NOT expected from the esteemed organisations. Of course, the company will definitely try to do service recovery (which in the case of LTA they didnt. A guy called me to ask me how was the service & i told him it wasn't good but he never probe more!!! Then what's the point of calling me?) but somehow in some cases, the damage has already been done. 1 of the grouses of customer service staff is that whilst consumers are quick to write in with complaints (I'm 1 of the guilty!), they are very slow in giving compliments to the good service rendered. Over the past 2 months, I've been superbly impressed by the customer service by SQ after not one but 2 incidents with them. Tis was what happened:

Incident 1
Sleepy & Dar have actually booked a tour package to Bali, flying on SQ in late Aug/early Sep last year. However as Dar had to go for an emergency eye op, we had no choice but to cancel the tour. The tour agent, took forever to get back to us regarding our cancellation charges (like almost 6 months down the road!!!) and that was after numerous angry calls to them. The guy in charge actually had the nerve to tell me that he has overlooked our case coz he was celebrating his 30th Wedding Anniversary and was thus away. DUH!!! And despite that, they actually charged us almost $400 for a trip that we did NOT even go! True lah, it was our oversight in not buying travel insurance but still... haiz! So anyways as the travel agent claimed that some of the charges were from the airline, moi then wrote in to SQ to ask for a waiver of the charges. Not only was the gal prompt and efficient in answering my queries (which were a lot as I was trying to find out more details), she even took the liberty to help us to call the agent; but the agent refused to disclose anything. Throughout the emails, she was always very prompt and kept us updated on what she was doing throught... v impressed :)

Incident 2
For our recent trip to Melbourne, we flew on SQ as well as the flight timings were most suitable for Dar's bz schedule :P Have I mentioned that he bought a huge surfboard back from Aussieland? Yep he did & it was q funny when we took the trains (both in Aussie & S'pore) coz it was sooooo long & he was occupying a lot of space haha. Yeah so anyways, as he was bz for the next couple of days, he only opened the board bag to check on his surfboard couple of days later and he found that 1 of the sides of the sideboard has cracked!!! For this trip, having learnt a lesson from the above incident, we did buy travel insurance, so we thought to try to claim from the insurance agent as we did not open up the bag @ the airport so we were afraid that it might be more difficult to claim from the airline. However, the insurance agent told Dar that it might be easier to claim from SQ instead and thus Dar called the baggage claims or something department on late Fri evening (I kept asking Dar how come they r open so late haha!) & Dar said that they were very professional and all; they did not commit to anything, just asked Dar to fill up a form, fax it to them & that an officer will be calling him shortly. That was last Fri. Guess what? Yesterday, Dar received a letter from SQ stating that they would be compensating him for the crack in the surfboard!!! Whopeee!!! We were q surprised coz no one has called Dar wrt the matter & they also didn't like ask him to take a pic of the crack of something... Aren't u impressed? We were!!! The letter was very professionally worded as well! :)

It is no wonder that SQ has such a good reputation internationally. On our flight there, we were also rather surprised that a flight attendant could remember where I was sitting (when I was returning 2 my seat from the toilet) & asked the colleague to let me in2 my seat first before serving the food! So next time, fly SQ... it is definitely & truly a greater way to fly!!!

Melbourne - Vehicle Showcase?

Tis was what greeted us when we arrived in Melbourne:

Unfortunately it was NOT our ride... thnk e interior will b super comfy... *wistful*

& @ St. Kilda Beach, we saw this:

Funky or Gaudy... U decide! But I don't think the owner actually drives it on the road... do u?

Over @ Philip Island, there was some car display show or something & the whole street was lined up w cars!!! (This is only a small stretch) There were also cars which have undergone modifications;

Of coz sleepy didnt recognise any of the car (but we saw some old versions of Nissan something when it was still Nissan's old name) but the car on e rite is q kewl rites? Reminds me of Knight Rider haha.

Dar also saw some other fancy cars that he liked...

Hmm... those were the cars we DIDN'T get to sit on... how about some cars that our butts actually touched?!! Coz we had such a huge group going to the 12 Apostles, Uncle thought of renting a big van to seat everyone. We were q lucky as the van was only booked a couple of days before the long Easter Wkend (in Aussie, they get Mon off 2!!! Lucky peeps!) & the guy said it was the last one left

That's the 12-seater Van Uncle rented from Budget... & dat's us on the rite!!! Uncle was in the driver's seat & Jaz was the one taking the pic which is why both of them are not in the pic. Van looks q big rites, but the seats are actually q small 4 my big butt haha.

4 our own "getaway" to Torquay, we intially booked for a small 1.3l manual Hyundai Getz which would have costs us about AUD50+ per day. Look what we got instead:

Tis Humongous 8-seater MPV for the same price!!! How good is that!!! Dar thinks it may be coz they don't have a Getz @ the branch we went to rent, so rather then drive the car down from another branch, they gave us whatever that had not been rented out. Which was kewl coz Dar intended to buy a surfboard & had actually requested for a car with the racks on top. The car (dun ask me what model, juz know it is a Kia & Dar sez it is not out in Singapore yet) was v nice 2 drive but drank a lot of petrol but the comfort was worth it :) More on Torquay in another posting...

Another... n Yet Another...

Shall not bore (or rather make everyone envious :P) of sleepy's trip in Melbourne for a while... n also because it takes a while to load the pics n sleepy is lazee so have decided to write a random post...

Met up w some ex-colleagues last Fri, supposedly for celebration drinks as Tibetan Nun is finally going to embark on her "secular" life! :p Congrats ya!!! V happy for her and I am sure it will be a happier path for her like those of us who have since left the organisation. Then I found out yesterday that yet another cohort mate will be tendering soon, last day being 30th June... that's 2 in such a short period of time!!! But honestly, counting back, we joined PA in Nov 2001 (correct me if i m wrg huh... old liao...) so for those still in the organisation, it means that they are 5.5 years old!!! That's lg!!! It is actually q an interesting job where you get to meet pp of various walks of life (but who may make ur life miserable), organise events (but ur wkends will be burnt), n meeting your other peers from the other constituencies (but some maybe diff to work w). Ok ok, maybe not such an interesting job, but I guess for most of us, we started off rather enthusiastic about the job, but soon start to get disillusioned as the years went by. I see some of my more capable colleagues/friends in the organisation & sometimes wonder what they are doing there.

However, I must add that it was indeed fun working on some projects. Like we had those GRC projects where we really gotta know each other n friendships were forged. Met up with another group of ex-colleagues on Sat whom we call ourselves the "SE gals". Most of us (sans Sharon... dunno how she joined us... we keep claiming it is coz we pityed her haha!), being the younger colleagues in each office @ that time, were often arrowed to work on GRC projects together. To have younger folks working together was fun as we understood how each other felt & cld bitch to each other about each office's working culture. Though we have all left the organisation (amazing hor!!!) we still keep in touch via MSN, emails and have the occasional meet-ups where we catch up on each other's life as well as the latest gossip fr PA haha.

I have only 1 last thing to add "MANGOJO!!! when will it be ur turn??? :P"

Melbourne - Native Animals... NOT

Despite not getting to see the native animals of Aussieland... we did manage to get a welcome from some other not so native animals :P

there were the sheep who were hopefully not going to slaughterland...

...the seagulls of Southbank...

...the cows on the pastures near 12 Apostles...

...the greedy black swans & its relatives @ Albert Park...

...the cocky Kookabaru @ Mt Dandenong...

n last but definitely not least... MILO!!! He's so smart & cute... & loves playing ball!!! Reminds me of my Nikkie!!! Miss u Milo!!!

Melbourne - Story of the Scones

This little incident took place on the 3rd Day when I was in Melbourne. As u all have probably heard, Dar's aunties/uncles were there as well and they injected much laughter during the 10 days we were there. This has gota be 1 of the funniest incident :)

On the 3rd day of our trip, as we were leaving Mt Dandenong (which wasn't really anything much plus it was a foggy day so we cldn't really see v far!!!) Dar's cousin, Jaz suggested that we eat scones on our way home as there was a place that sold really nice scones. So we told the aunties that we were goin to eat Scones, piled up in the car and drove to the quaint little shop. However, after parking the cars, the aunties didn't really wana eat the scones (i thnk they were more interested to go home to cook dinner!!! haha) but asked us to go ahead whilst they shopped around the shops. Of course we didn't wana do that!!! Jaz was then telling them that the scones were really v nice and then she asked:

Jaz: 你们知道"scones"是什么吗？
Aunty: 知道... JA GONG (corn) 啦!!!

@ this, Jaz, Dar & myself bursted out laughing!!! heh... they r v cute rites??? After Jaz explained to them that "scones" r like cake, they also started laughing & decided to try the "JA GONG" :P





sleepy showing off her yummylicious scones w berries jam & whipped cream...





whilst Dar's mum eyes his scones longingly...



Apparantly, Dar's cousin, Chin makes v delicious scones as well... pity we missed it... maybe next time... Hee...

sLeePy's Back!!!

M back from Melbourne!!! Did anyone miss me? :P Wanted to blogged online but somehow couldn't log in so gave up. Really enjoyed this holiday coz it is 1 of the longer holidays I have taken & THE longest taken w Dar :) Weather was nice & kewl though it was pretty cold @ nite/early mornings & in the 1st few days we were there. Luckily we stayed @ Dar's aunt's place and his cousin was soooo nice & lent me some warm clothings!!! We wanted to go Tasmania but coz it was the Easter holidays, the flights were pretty expensive & we were afraid that there will be no accomodation so we gave up the idea... another time perhaps! :)

It was also a pretty relaxing holiday coz we stayed in Melbourne through out the 10 days... goin to list dwn the places we went to b4 sleepy's memory fails her :P

Day 1 - Arrival in Melbourne @ 9am
- Lunch @ Fed Sq in the pm & a walk down South Bank followed by a quick visit to Crown Casino

Day 2 - Queen Victoria Market in the am
- Stroll around Docklands in the pm

Day 3 - Caribbean Market (opens only on Wed & Sun)
- Picnic @ foot of Mount Dandenong
- Up Mount Dandenong where we saw a Kookabara bird real close
- Scones & Tea @ "Miss Marples Tea room" --> YUMMYLICIOUS!!!
- Dinner w Bunnee @ Bimbos --> pizza was Yummz too!

Day 4 - Shopping @ Bridge Road & some Factory Outlet
--> we wasted soooo much time tryin to get to the places coz we were rather confused by the train lines

Day 5 - Great Ocean Road to the 12 Apostles with short stops @ Geelong, Torquay/Bells Beach & Lorne

Day 6 - Sorrento Pier where we wanted to go dophin-watching but operator was doing maintenance & other timings were not suitable
- St. Kilda Beach

Day 7 - Port Phillip but we didn't see the penquin parade hee
- Albert Park which is the venue for the yearly F1 race

Day 8 - Shopping @ DFO (Chesltan dunno how 2 spell & Bridge Road)
--> Dar's cousins were sooooo nice to bring us there... Thanks Jaz & Geraldine!

Day 9 - Cycling in the am
- Off to Torquay in the pm!!! Whoppeee!!! Best part of the trip 4 both Dar & myself
- Dinner @ Growlers... food was F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C!!! Really liked dat place *grinz*
- Stay over in Torquay where we almost had to spend the nite in the humongous MPV rented hee

Day 10 - Stroll on beaches in the am, followed by surfboard shopping!
- Back to Melbourne in the late pm
- Dinner Treat from Chin & her bf @ Vietnamese Rest... food was q tasty :)

Day 11 - Wanted to go Melbourne Zoo but it was 2 ex & since we only wanted to see the native animals we decided not to go in :(
- Back to Vic Market for Dar's sheepskin & some last min shopping (rather Dar shopped whilst poor sleepy waited in the HOT HOT car as we didn't want 2 pay 4 parking haha!)
- Spent rest of the pm packing & helping to wrap dumplings... q nice leh those I wrapped haha!

Day 12 - More packing in the am
- Home Sweet Home

As always, time seemed to pass too quickly & I kept telling Dar I didn't wana come back hee. Super relaxed holiday and we saved q a bit of $ as we stayed @ Dar's aunt's place. Writing all these down brought back the memories of the 10 days gone by... *wistful*... will post up the pics soon!

Inconsiderate peeps...

How irritating... sleepy has been having encounter with rude pp the past couple of days...

Incident No. 1
Was on the bus the other day alg Orchard Road and wanted to stop @ the stop infront of McDonald's House. When the doors opened, sleepy patiently waited behind the hordes of pp waiting to get down the bus. Who knows, this teenage gal actually pushed sleepy away n wanted 2 get dwn before sleepy!!! Where r her manners??? Her only redemption was that she meekly said "sorry" after sleepy gave her a hard stare :P

Incident No. 2
Was @ Mustafa Centre to change money couple of days ago... and everyone knows how narrow the lanes there are. Again, sleepy was pushed away whilst tagging alg behind Dar... and this was a little gal!!! So what did sleepy do? she juz said "So rude" loudly and walked off...

Incident No. 3
The most infuriating one of all which happened @ the underpass from Orchard MRT towards Wheelock. As sleepy was approaching the staircase just after the Tangs entrance, she noticed this fat lady carry many bags walking towards her path. Who knows the lady cut diagonally across from sleepy and squeezed between the miniscular space between sleepy and the wall!!! sleepy almost toppled over due to her many bags and mainly because of her HUMONGOUS size!!! the lady behind had to hold me to prevent me from falling. And the fatty just simply barged through even though sleep said "EXCUSE ME!!!" loudly!!! I hope she falls down or something n no one helps her! HMMPH!!!

I thnk the government should bring out the Courtesy Lion (remember the slogan... "Courtesy begins w me!" once again! Bah!