Last (Melbourne) Supper

cant believe it's happening. me going back home in less than 3 days.

i gathered my besties for dinner, a nice peking duck dinner at Old Kingdom. it was a treat and a memorable night. Thank you for coming out guys.

i just realized how much im going to miss Melbourne and of course you (crazy) lads. :P

Red Emperor

one of the best Peking Duck in Melbourne.

i gotta warn you though, they sell by the slice. so dont get your hopes up or imagine anything like Half a duck or even a whole duck with a student budget. they sell per 2 pieces for AUD$15. ridiculous.

thank God it was DELICIOUS.

OZ outback

A weekend on the outback was a treat for me from me. After finishing three 2500 words essay, i finally got a chance to escape from reality and went to Gippsland. I went to a farm at Sarsfield - Gippsland about 3 hours drive east of Melbourne. The farm was Majella's family farm and it was freakin gorgeous.

I forgot how big exactly the farm was, but it has its own tennis court, small pool for the kids - Majella's niece n nephews, trampoline, swing, two dams, bush, sheeps, flowers farm, grape farm, barn - for shearing and Jell's 21st party venue, lemon tree, advocado tree, a small experimental yard and a million dollar view.











Since Gippslands is pretty much a tourist destination, Majella and Leo - the Dad, took me around the area, I got to see Raymond Island, Paynesville, Lakes Entrance -favourite destination for fishing and Bairnsdale. We had lunch at Fisherman's Wharf and i ordered a really good Calamari while looking out the window and enjoyed the view of the Lake and Raymond Island - which is just across the water. One silly thing was that, if you want to go to Raymond Island, you need to go on a ferry, a ride that last only about 2 minutes because it was so goddamn close and there is no other alternative. The people living at the island doesnt want to built a bridge between Paynesville and Raymond Island, they enjoyed their ferry ride. Silly but unique.






Lakes Entrance





I went to church also that sunday, and was told that the St. Mary's Church at Bairnsdale had the same mural paintings as the one at the Sistine Chapel. It was OK.



It's comforting to realize the fact that i was out in the country but i was still in touch with technology and modern facilities. The comparison becomes clear when i compared Jell's farm to Simpang bage (which is pretty much my family farm up the mountains in North Sumatra). Everything at gippsland or at Jell's farm was modern. There are still flat screen TV, comfy lazy-boy chairs, modern kitchen utilities and modern bathroom.




While Simpang bage is 'Kampung' (village), literally. It has no modern aspects whatsoever, especially when my grandmother decided not to build rooms which made us had to sleep on the living room on the floor. See the concept of a 'rumah bolon' like the ones my family have at simpang bage is that everyone should sleep on the floor and be together. There's nothing modern about it.

This trip got me thinking and planning on renovating that house in Simpang bage. Seriously, the last time i was there, i had fun, though less comfortability in terms of accomodation, but if we can just give a little effort in making that house more comfortable and more modern, I can guarantee you that most of my family would love to go there and visit. It is indeed not far from lovely tourist attractions such as Lake Toba, Tongging and Brastagi.

The creme de la creme was when Jell made us Lamb Roast for dinner. Yeee haaaa.. my first OZ lamb roast. It was delicious, yummy and it is freakin easy to make. A Glass of red Shiraz perfected my dinner. Leo told me that the 2005 Shiraz was voted 2nd best on a competition (somewhere i cant remember). It was impeccable.




One thing i forgot to mentioned earlier. This getaway gave me a picture of what it would be like if my dad was still around. I would see him spending his days fixing and playing with cars, him doing nothing sunday afternoon, probably us having lunch in a fancy resto. I almost shed tears realizing that i had missed all that. But seeing how Jell and her dad's relationship i kinda get the idea and was amused by it.

In conclusion, I had a great time exploring the outback! Thanks Jell.. it was just what i needed.
Mom has requested that we go there when she's in Melbourne. Cant wait.

Dragons vs Crocodiles

Daniel took me to a basketball game. it is said to be a dying sport in OZ, especially Melbourne. cos everyone;s into footy (australian rules football). i seriously dont get that game. trust me, i tried. i figure it would be a good experience for me to go see a real game in OZ, when i say real i mean: professional players, regular seasons, cheerleaders, hot dogs, mascots and a real basketball arena.






The game was between South Dragons and Townsville Crocodiles. the first half was kinda slow for dragons, they were behind by 20 points. geez.. but they managed to catch up on the second half, and lead for about 5 minutes in 3rd quarter and it's head-to-head till the end. Unfortunately, Dragons lost 89-91. those stupid players kept on trying to catch up by doing three point shoot all the time, a waste of time i'd say. they should have just drive-in and try to at least get a foul or dunk the ball in. they were like 6'10 and 6'8. how bad can you be when you are that tall?

The arena was awesome, not the best but it's decent (compared to the ones in Indo). although i must admit, that game was a bit dry in terms of hype and audience. seriously, it was like half empty and probably a game back in high school has more enthusiasm than that. Of course, my high school games doesnt really have sexy dancers slash cheers. i probably shouldnt compare it to NBA, but it made me realize how NBA has really turn basketball into not only sport but also an entertainment.



Luckily, the game got interesting and got me excited, especially in the last 5 minutes of the game. However, the noise, the rave and the ambience does not fulfill my expectation of watching a game in, say, first world country. Well, it is a regular season, and it;s not NBA i guess it's excusable.

Being true to my japanese-tourist disorder, i definitely took picts and bought myself a Jersey of my new Basketball Idol- Joey Ingles. HE saved the day, didnt manage to win it, but he is REALLY good.



might go the another game. next month.

Akhirnya...

Max Brenner's Waffle Chocolate and Strawberries (on the side) with Vanilla Tea.


been craving for this the past three weeks.

Girls Day Out

no, this is not another concert.
6/09/08

this is actually the start of the spring racing carnival. No, it's not sack race, or any other independence-type of races, this is a Horse race. Yes, you dress up (with a fascinator and heels - high heels), you gamble, you drink all day long and you scream at your winnings. Thanks to Jell for organizing and getting all of us tickets.

There were 5 of us going: Jell, Jakub,Me, Phillip (Jell's first cousin), and Justin (Jell's tutor at uni - picture not available).


Since Jell is a member of the Flemington Racecourse, she got us tickets to the indoor viewing - level 4 and 5 Grandstand. So basically we are in level 4 looking over finish line, big screen and members area and we got a bar. One interesting scene is that level 5 has the same feature as level 4 PLUS a stage - live performances, a DJ and a dance floor. very very interesting concept i guess the oz just cant enjoy their day without music and dancing and booze.







the official name for this event is Young Members Cup - Decjuba Girls Day Out. it's at Flemington racecourse. this was just one day out of the whole spring racing season, you got derby day and the Melbourne Cup day coming up. I dont think i will be going to either of those, simply because the whole process of getting a dress and a fascinator for each and every occasion is just too much for me - not to mention the high heels. ouch..

My Fascinator..


The Look..

as you might predict, i couldnt hold on to my high heels for long.. so i went from these..


to these..yeay.. barefooting.
ps: new $7.80 socks from IGA supermarket at spencer street. arent they lovely?

I was ready to soak my feet on warm water with sea salt but the night is young. the races ended about 5ish. so me and the guys decided to go for dinner. It's Polish Pizza and Vodka. I wasnt too sure about the place when i first heard it, but man.. you should really give it a try. The joint is called Renix on Ackland St, St.Kilda.

At dinner, Brad & Jo (newly engaged couple) joined us, also Phil's gf -i think- and Lene-Marie (Jakub's gf). so it's all one BIG happy family having dinner. We started with Nachos and Devil wings for entree which took so long to make and there was only 3 wings on the plate (wtf???). we dug in anyway. The Polish pizza was really good, the others are average.

i didnt really know what's so special about this place until Jakub brought us a round of Polish vodka, which was AWESOME. you really should try it, i doesnt have that bitter-weird after taste, simply a masterpiece. Jakub said it's because in the filtering they got some kind of grass in the middle that takes away the bitter-weird taste.

one polish vodka..

two cheery vodka..

three honey vodka...

four more polish vodka..

and you have majella rambling n calling randomly while trying hard to sit straight.

this is the night i tried more vodka than in my entire life, thanks to Jakub.
ps: more pictures of us at the pizza joint are coming soon, i didnt take out my camera at all at Renix, it was just too intense. :P