31 Jul 2006 : Australia Day 6 Sydney

We had a good sleep. One night was not sufficient to enjoy the large room. PL ate more than usual for breakfast - 2 bowls of cereal, 1 bowl of porridge, bacon and 2 glasses of juices; CC just had bread, bacon, mushroom and coffee.

Not losing any invaluable time, we strolled down the street to explore the "neighbourhood". Till now, we were not quite clear on the street. Market city, many streets, chinese garden, cockle bay and ..... we found the nougat in a shop at Chinatown ! We were wondering why those Australians were not aware of those nougat..... the fact is tourists buy nougat as souvenir but Australians seldom buy them as snack. PL got to try the Harry's pie while waiting at the lobby for the hotel transfer.

At noon, we departed to airport. The afternoon was spent playing in flight game & watching movies.

We touched down at around 8pm. We were supposed to check in the transit hotel but we cleared custom to get our luggage that we ended up in Concorde. We had roti canai & mee goreng as supper. Hmmm... at last, a taste of Malaysian food.

30 Jul 2006 : Australia Day 5 Sydney

We greeted the morning with not-enough-sleep look. PL saw a few red insects crawling on the pillow case. The tissue paper was stained with blood when PL pressed on the insects. We filed a complaint to receptionist after our breakfast.

The journey to blue mountain took about 2 hours. Several stops let us have a few stretches to avoid numb legs : Leura --> Echo Point --> Scenic World --> Govett's Leap --> Koala Park

We bought some rock sugar & nougat in Leura's candy shop, which situated opposite a dentist clinic ! The egg mushroom quiche was so delicious that PL almost left nothing for CC.

Why is the mountain blue in colour ? The reason behind is scientific. The eucalytus forest generates volatile oil. These vapors scatter light that seen in blue color (Raman's spectrum). From far, the mountain looks blue. The day before the blue mountain trip, there was a documentary program on forest fire caused by these vapour during draught.

As per recommended, we bought the valley return ticket to take the train down to the valley & back to the scenic world entrance via cable car. We chose the middle seat for the train ride because PL could not withstand too much shock. The incline railway is the steepest in the world accordingly. It was like standing on the legs when it passed the center of two rock walls. (415m descent will lead you through a cliff side tunnel into ancient rain forest.) We walked along the broadway leading to the cable car station. The broadway was made like an education pathway with the description on the local flora and history of the valley as a coal mine. As we were at the first 3-4 person lined up at the long queue, we had the opportunity to choose the best view of the valley in the cable car. It takes us on a 545 metre ride into (or out of) the World Heritage Listed rainforest of the Jamison valley.

On the way back, a stop at Govett's Leap allowed us to have a last view of Blue Mountain.

The last stop was at Koala Park. This time, all the animals were awoke. Ha.... PL was afraid to touch the wombat initially. After seeing a few people taking photo with this fierce looking animal, she laid her hand on its fury body & say "cheese". Surprisingly, wombat is a close relative of koala.

We were delighted to find that there were many koalas awaiting us at its trees. The worker was feeding a koala with it sitting on the railing that reachable by tourists. Well,,, it seemed to be unhappy when the eucalyptus leaves were removed. We snapped a few photos of those resting on the trees. There was one that wink at the camera flash.... Cute...! Something blinked into PL's brain when she had a close look at the koalas. Stitch (Yeah..Lilo & Stitch) might be a copy of koala.

Kangaroos were everywhere in the park, leaping around.

Other animals such as emu & peakock are of our least interest.

In order to get our collection, we requested the coach driver to drop us somewhere near to Hard Rock Cafe at Crown Street. We hopped off at Hyde Park.

Dinner was Vietnamese noodles again. We were too exhausted to explore any restaurants. We had a shock when we opened the hotel room door. The room was in a mess with the futon was turned over. CC came back from the receptionist with a new room key. Due to the bugs, our room was upgraded to executive suites - 2 rooms, 1 bathroom with jacuzzi & 1 small pantry !

29 Jul 2006 : Australia Day 4 Sydney

We noticed that our time in Sydney was limited. We only had 2-3 hour after we touched to get to the darling habour for the city tour. The hotel transfer was not arranged as smooth as in Melbourne.

PL complained the hotel room was stuffy, not enough air change. Due to limited time, we unpacked and walked to the destination. Yes, walk. We kind of do lots of walking as this is the way to stop at any spot to take photos & grab little items.

We do not have good impression on Sydney. It is too busy for us. And, the roads/streets are confusing.

Quick lunch came with chips, same as most of the western meal in Australia.
Along the route, the couch passed the city, bridge, Rose Bay, Double Bay, ,,,,,,City tour couch stopped at a few spots for photo taking. The Gap portraited a stunning view of Pacific Ocean and heads. The last stop was Bondi Beach. We only had 45 minutes stop there.

We requested driver to drop us off at Circular Quay. The Rocks are famous for its branded boutique. Across the quay, opera house was vivid in view.

We could not make up our mind what to eat for dinner. By the time we still discussed on dinner, we were near to our hotel. We came across a restaurant at first floor along the street. The only entrance was the lift at ground floor. A Korean lady pressed the lift button and invited us. Thus, we followed to take a look. Yeah... we ended up having Korean food. Hmmmm..... delicious...

PL felt uncomfortable with the bed.

28 Jul 2006 : Australia Day 3 Melbourne

This is the last day in Melbourne. We woke up lazily in the morning. Walked down the George St, made a few turns, crossed the La Trobe Flyover ...and reached the Victoria Habour. At 10.30am, the tram has started to operate. We hopped onto the tram & have a final view of the city before preparing for our trip to Philip Island, ,,,,,not forgetting to fill our stomach in Chinatown's SzeChuan Shanghai Style Chinese restaurant with 小笼包,宫保鸡丁面 & 旦旦面....

The couch stopped at Warrook Cattle Farm. We were disappointed to see sleeping wombat & sleeping koala. CC threw a few stones on the wombat but it did not even move ! The animals that awoke were duckling, sheep, kangaroo, turkey and.....swans... Koalas are only awoke during feeding time ! They sleep almost 20 hours per day !

Crossing the bridge leading to Philip Island was a spectacular view of the sunset. We spotted kangaroo (or wallaloo ?) poping their head up among the grass, hopping around and eyeing the vehicles passing by. The road was closed at 5.30 pm to protect wild life.

From far, we could see the tourists sitting in a line, waiting for the penguin to waddle across the beach. We had our light dinner at the food court before going to the beach. After a wait of 15 minutes, the world's smallest penguins were first seen lining up, paddle through the water, trying to cross the beach. But the sea gulls were trying to disturb their movement that the penguins returned back to sea. Finally, a group of tourists gathered at the rail that we noticed the succeed penguins marched towards their sand dune burrows. Photograph taking was forbidden. We actually followed some penguins along the path back to the visitor center. (Penguins at their path, we on the pedestrian path) Luckily, we peeped into one of the san dune burrow displayed in the exhibition hall to find that a "couple" was cuddling at each other.

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant in Cowes.

It was almost 10pm when we were back in hotel.

27 Jul 2006 : Australia Day 2 Melbourne

The day started with a complimentary breakfast from the hotel, typical American buffet breakfast - bacon, scrumbled eggs, potato, cereal, bread, coffee, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, juices...

The APT office is opposite the hotel that we crossed the road & took the queue for the half day city tour. The tour only stopped at Captain Cook's cottage and Royal Botanical Garden/Shrine of Rememberance. We hopped off at Queen Victoria's Market at noon. The impression was Australian Petaling Street.

The fruits were attractive. We bought one box of strawberry and some little items here. And, there was a sugar shop demonstrating how to make rock sugar. The lunch was in the food court - seafood platter with a hot chocolate. The fish was fresh...!

The afternoon was then spent hopping on & off the city circle tram. We actually hopped onto the wrong tram by taking the tour couch driver's word that the city circle tram has a light in the middle front. We realized it was the wrong tram when we saw there was a metlink pay machine in the tram. The city circle tram was maroon in color and can only hop on at the specially marked station with a signboard " city circle tram".

We stopped by at the Hard Rock Cafe at Collin Street to get our collection before relaxing in the Flagstaff Garden.

The 2nd trial for Vietnamese food was a disappointment.

26 Jul 2006 : Australia Day 1 Melbourne

After 7-8 hour flight, we finally touched down. The weather was cool in the morning, with cold breeze. And, both PL & CC were playing with the vapour that generated by blowing the air using mouth.

The flight was not pleasant. We could not sleep well. Thus, the first thing to do after checking in was a good 2 hour sleep to regain our energy. To our horror, the room was not made up. Our small room was upgraded to a one bed suite due to this !

Browsing the map & broucher obtained from airport & hotel, we decided to explore the town on our feet as we were staying in the city center. A walk along the George St led us to Federation Square at the end. The places we stopped by : Federation square, Royal Arcade, some soveunir shops, Southbank, Chinatown, Flinder station, ...........The people were friendly & helpful. A few pedestrians approached us when CC stood at the roadside, reading the map.

" Do you need any help ?"

"Where are you going ?"

" Are you lost ?"

Lunch was at Red Rooster when our feet were reluctant to move...Dinner was near to hotel in a Vietnamese restaurant, MeiKong. Surprisingly, the beef rice noodles were delicious but the pork steak rice was not as tasty as the traditional beef rice noodles. With the photo hanging on the wall, it seemed like many Hong Kong actors/actress visited this shop before.

We slept soundly on that night.....zzZZzz

23 Jul 2006 : Home cook

CC was the chef....

21 Jul 2006 : Progress

19 Jul 2006 : Puzzle

http://www.brl.ntt.co.jp/people/hara/fly.swf

Try it out....

15 Jul 2006 : Vegetable

Today, we bought many varieties of vegetable. The freeze is now packed with vegetables that it is difficult to squeeze in any other food stuff. It has been 2-3 days without vegetable in the freeze.

PL found her noodle for swimming fun. She has been looking for it for quite some time that she has made up her mind that she could not find any in Malaysia. To her surprise, there are those noodles at the swimming corner in Carefour.

14 Jul 2006 : Head butt game

http://www.break.com/index/zidane_head_butt_game.html

11 Jul 2006 : Decision

At last, we decided on the trip.

Applying leaves by adjusting the dates according to flight availability. Still wondering why there are so many people rushing to the same destination.

PL received a gift from her subordinate who is leaving. PL's last advice to her : It is good that you find a suitable job. Good luck & keep in touch. So the next few weeks will be retrain the new personnel while managing the rest of personnel.

Now, started to think what we are going to have for dinner.

09 Jul 2006 : Relief

PL finally could lift down her shoulder.
The newly employed engineer is picking up even with 1 week training. PL drafted out a list of training for the new engineer so that she can backup PL for one of the sections when she is away. And, the boss is back too.

CC kept on mentioning , "Friday is coming, then we have a weekend to relax."

This is the working life.

03 Jul 2006 : Boss is back

PL's boss was back today !

What a funny joke ! But all of us feel relieved. Great that we have a boss now.

02 Jul 2006 : Normal Sunday

Morning
Breakfast
PL's Medical checkup
PL's short meeting in plant
Reading newspaper

Afternoon
Lunch
PL's haircut
CC went to mend the car side light
Grocery shopping
Reading magazines

Evening
Dinner
Internet
TV
ZzZZZzz

01 Jul 2006 : Calm...

An ex-colleague congratulated PL when heard her low performance surbodinate is leaving. And many also mentioned that it is good. Strike for a better candidate. The new engineer is coming in. PL has faith on her due to her own choice.

We went to travel agents to ask on the Aussie trip. The newly explored travel agent gave a better option with their systematic & organized plan.

PL began to feel uncomfortable for long-hour facial now. She requested to have a shorter program for next visit.