I know I'm back to reality when hot air blows at my face, people who dress funny bypass me, and that stinky cheque is not finding its way to my mail box :- (

My first day of reality is very sweet though.



Accompanied Nuo bustling around looking for out-of-stock Japanese Yen before she zaps off to awesome Japan in a few hours' time! We shared much and found many coincidences, like how she just saved the print of the lil' badge I got her on her comp, and sermons about adoption. :O
Awaiting your safe return, and many faith-filled stories :- )



Visited YT at a certain white box
Just think of her when I see cats and whales.
I'm serious about filtering out bad thoughts with whaley earlies leh.



Amaris is on an exciting programme, and very soon her Mandarin will be as awesome as dumplings. I'm awaiting my presents from the States hehehe



Nice .5 hour phone calls and much bravo in Amanda's life, esp with Greece coming up,
I'm sure you'll have a fine Friday lady, fear not!

☝

Here we are, all flying around, bustling about life, and finally getting somewhat on track.
Makes my heart very glad.

The night ended strawberries sweet with a lil' ride on the still-foreign-to-us purple line with Pang, (what are the odds of us meeting in OC on such a fateful day!) and my fav busride.

Reality would be sweeter if I don't have Annex B on my To-Dos ;- (
But Oh Happy Day, Happy Day
~

We went nuts on our last full day in Melbourne. Spent some time in Central and did some last minute shopping, that involves say, 3kg of abalone macadamia nuts.
Poor Joel had to lug them around.

Tried their Jap food, rather interesting, there's vermicelli and peas with teriyaki chicken, tastes very chinese. Anyway this is the scene that happens before every meal, the cameras snapping away.

Had a lil' detour and stopover at Rose St Artists' Market,

Melbourne's craft scene is very encouraging but it's also very much of:

Cruised down Brunswick St and settled our last meal at Little Creatures.

https://www.littlecreatures.com.au/
It was worth that lil' hole in our pocket.

Great place!

They are really a beer brewery place and this is the dining hall they set up in Melbourne.

We had a pipsqueak cider before

Smoked Salmon with......smthg and mustard sauce, very nice la

Pork Belly

Chocolate Creme Brulee.
oooohhh~

❻

Hello!
It's Day Five in Melbourne, and I'm sitting here with Heineken and grinning silly after an awesome day,
sharing our Conference thoughts (finally HAHA)
Will fill up all the days in between, check back "soon" :- )

We went on a touristy tour today to Phillip Island, it was really good.

We started at Moolit conservation park, looking at animals Australia treasures



Dingo.
So charming, this little fella



hello Cong!





Feeding the wallabies was precious to me
We discovered a wallaby with a newborn baby one in its pouch, just.. wow.

>



We went to Koala Conservation Centre but the grey bums were lazing around somewhere, we only saw a few of them.

>

The Churchill heritage farm after that was much joy.



ZY, this is for you



Xin, I thought of you and our kampong life.



One of my favouritest animals^



mehhh





This is what they have at the COOKHOUSE hahaha
(the blocked word is "cheer")





The stop at the Nobbies took my breath away



We saw the light rays coming down, illuminating



Walking on the boardwalk, little us and the huge ocean all around, waves crashing



Today, I realise how it must have been to see Jesus walk on water



and that gives me strength

>

We ended the night seeing little penguins marching home from the tough seas, back into their little burrows for erm, exciting nights.
Couldn't take any photos/videos, so you may wanna check out
http://www.penguins.org.au/
Amazing how the little ones survive in the vast oceans.

We were on a good tour, one man show, he is the tour guide/chauffeur/food person/deejay...
and on the way home he's playing Snow Patrol's You Could be Happy,
made my day complete. ;- )



See you in two days :- )
I'm actually looking forward to being back,
running low on cash, and it's almost getting too tiring to have fun.
Old liao.

❺

We abandoned our plans to visit the 12 apostles (now left with 7?) because driving 3 hours after a long day of snowboarding (for the rest) was no fun, and opted to go for Puffing Billy.

I was not really for the idea at first, I mean puffing billy?!



It's almost like visiting Thomas and Friends...



But thankfully, the ride proved me wrong.
It's rather nice, sticking yr legs out of the steam train (the whole reason why Philo wanted to go so badly hahaha) and going through breathtaking scenes.

I was too happily indulging in the cool air and Narnia-like forests to snap much.





Stopped by for lunch - lots of chicken salt on fries.



Our visit to Dandenong failed, but I guess that gives another reason to re-visit Melbourne soon ;- )



And in the evening, we visited the exhibition we set our hearts out to visit since arrival-
Tim Burton! He gets his name all over the airport..



It's so cute how they change the museum sign for the exhibition.



I had a feather in my hair for such an important occassion.



*gives a sigh of awe*
It is the best exhibition I've seen.
He's so generous, really exhibiting everything, even a lil note he wrote to Johnny Depp about a certain line he can say in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, like his sudden inspiration moment.
I wanted to turn to strangers next to me and go "ISN'T THIS SO MOVING!", but yeh decided to look sane... and just indulge in all the creative synergy.
Never mind that we got a parking ticket because of this (suay people go where also suay)...
Oh Burton you are awesome! :- )
It's almost enough to fly just to catch this!
Can't snap any photos, so imagine rich weird goodness overflowing into glow-in-the-dark lil creature illustrations, walls full of sketches and visual ironies....

*_*

Midweek, Philo and I slept in later while the rest went off to snowboard.
We cruised down Brunswick street and shopped about.



This is the shopfront of Meet Me at Mike's.
They are doing an Envelope Project.



There's always lil' surprises in the shopfronts :- )



Or even on the building facade itself.



And this is a random photo of yummy paper that I cannot afford to crease while bringing back.

☀

When the sun goes down and everything closes,
(It's funny seeing how shops run by Asians will always be opened a lil' later)

I went to the opening of Design:Made:Trade at the Royal Exhibition Building a stroll away from where we stay - on my own. We happened to catch Melbourne at the beginning of the Victoria's Design Festival, oh lucky me.

Uhm, well, I wasn't supposed to take photos, and I normally obey exhibition rules, especially when I respect the exhibitioners. But I paid quite a bit for this, so I might as well share.



Everything is made of Art Paper/cardboard, even that awesome igloo.



Every single booth too



I love this corner especially.
It's interactive and explored fun concepts.
There's the funny guy mass-silkscreening postcards at the corner. He was having so many orders he never stopped hahaha

Never mind I was feeling horribly underdressed and rather out of place for the event, I enjoyed looking at every booth. It's interesting to note the craft and design scene in Melbourne cross rather harmoniously.

I like the feeling of strolling in a foreign city on your own, just taking in everything your eyes capture, even the strange "new" smell
hehe

❸