Strawberry Farm

I want to sleep now, but yet i feel like quickly putting all my thoughts of today before i forget what i want to say tomorrow, so i guess i better do it now? I went on a school excursion today with huey, sin and peiyi. Though they are not from Monash, i could still book a place for them, it doesn't matter, so thus, my first trip with the Monash Hong Kong Association!

Me and Peiyi at Caulfield waiting for the bus

Us in the bus

The bus was late by about half an hour, and it was drizzling quite heavily, if we knew they were going to be so not on time i would have slacked in bed for a longer time! I wanted to read some book for my assignment on the way there, but as usual, after 2 mins or so i couldn't take it haha, i decided to sleep instead. So after about 1 hour plus we arrived at Sunnyridge Strawberry Farm

The plastic bags are to prevent our shoes from getting dirty

The big land for us to search for our strawberries

I never knew strawberries grew like that, did you?

Plucking the strawberries...

and eating it up!

Leaving for the strawberry shop

I tell you, the guy that took this photo for us was so silly! There was a big sign on top of us that says Sunny Ridge, and duh if we asked him to take a photo for us there, we want the sign right? He took two pictures for us and both had nothing! I regretted not checking back on my camera earlier man, but at least we look nice there la. Haha

Do they look yummy?

I find them a bit over priced though. Its 1 for 2.50 or 5 for 10. But they just looked to pretty and yummy to resist right?Oh but me and huey shared, can you guess which ones are mine?

Again we were off timing, so we had to rush to our next destination not far away. Its called Arthur Seats, i don't know the history behind but we were just shuffled there to take a group pic. The scenery was very beautiful though, something like The Peak in Hong Kong if you been there before.

The beautiful scenery

We stayed there for less then 15mins i think, and next we were supposed to go to Peninsula Beach for our tea break. But it was drizzling quite heavy again and we wanted to stay in the bus to eat but the "niao" lady bus driver didn't allow eating on the bus so we had to brave the rain and walk to a nearby shelter to eat. I guess it was a good thing as well because how often can you do such things right? And there were a lot of people there as well, so it gives you a very camping feeling.

When the weather was clearing up

By the beach

The background of this picture looks a bit scary huh?

The two crazy woman...Auntie Sin! What are you doing with the umbrella?

Sin be good and put the umbrella down...

Finally a picture without the umbrella = )

The two 1986 babies

Cute little huts along the way, i wonder if you can stay in them.

No. 36

That was the last point of our trip. Headed back to Caulfield and went for dinner. Had yummy korean food.

My Yu Gae Jung(don't know how to spell!)

That marks the end of my Sat, hope everyone had a good Sat as well.Goodnight!

Dinner@Feddish

Just came back from a very satisfying meal at Feddish. Its one of the fine dining places that me and Yee Lin decided to go. Again the light was slightly dimed, with timber tables and walls, a perfect place for a anniversary dinner or a couple. Dimly lighted places just always seem to create an atmosphere that is romantic = )

The service there was very good as well- staff were attentive, polite and friendly. Just that the food took a quite long to arrive, but i guess it was worth the wait. Call me "sua ku" or what, but i have never eaten meat this tender before. My medium rare always turned out to be fully cooked and hard, but this time round, it was exactly what i wanted. Yee Lin's Lamb was really good, just that the portion was a bit small. No disgusting strong lamb taste and the meet was tender and juicy with a tinge of bbq taste. And i had my favourite champagne too! I am not a champagne expert but i just like the gassy feeling and sour taste that stays in your mouth after you swallow, makes the dinner perfect.



Yee Lin and me

Trying to take some artistic picture with the champagne

Yee Lin's lamb with smashed pumpkin

My Grilled Kangeroo with mashed potato

Yummy yummy!

Our dessert: Chocolate Brownie with Ice Cream

Trying to finish my champagne before leaving.

Our outfits for the night

While having our meal, we saw a ferries wheel just right outside the place we were eating, and of course we wanted to ride on it. This is my first time going on a ferries ride here in Melbourne, and it feels so different from the Singapore one because it was going pretty fast. You know how the ones in Singapore is like at crawling speed? I was quite scared when it started going up so fast, and i was also worried that it will suddenly just break down and collaspe because its like those ferries wheel that you set up in a Singapore "pasar malam" kinda thing, but since i am here blogging, i didn't die haha.

Before going on the ride

We ended our night after the ferries wheels, went for some gelare ice cream along the way, but this basically marks our first fine dining experience here in Melbourne. Three more to go, and i will be back in Singapore! Haha, tomorrow i will be off to strawberry farm, so see ya!

The Lounge with Liv

I went to "The Lounge" with Livvy today, not a lounge but the name of the place was called "The Lounge". Its something like a bar/restaurant/club, but we didn't go to the clubbin area, that was upstairs. We just wanted some snacks and drinks and some good catching up with each other. The atmostphere was really nice i must say, dim litted, floral wall papers, purple lights and there were real tree branches hanging off the ceiling.


The area we were sitting at


The nicer area up front.

The drinks they had were very interesting too. They had nice names with long descriptions on what feelings the drink will give you. I admire their effort for trying so hard to describe the drinks, so in the end me and Liv ordered a Beez Neez and Fallen Winter(can't remember if i am right) to share.

Livia and me

They actually gave me the wrong drink at first. Think they got confused with Beez Neez and Bees hive(baileys with honey), so i had to call yoke huey up to double confirm whether Beez Neez was beer. She is the drink expert here.

Liv happy with her drink

Me posing with an empty bottle

We orderded some snack thingey, but before i remembered to take a picture of it, everything was gone. Guess i was too hungry to remember, so no pics of food. But tomorrow i will be going to a nice posh(i think) restaurant with Yee Lin for a nice dinner, so there will be definitely more pictures of food, hopefully. So i will end this short entry with another photo like i always do.

P.S: Oh and thanks Liv for sheltering me all the way home. That was really sweet of you. I really appreciate it, not all people will be willing to, thank you!

Pissed!

Argh!!! i just cut a freakin hole in my blouse. And of all areas, it is around the bust area so it is very obvious.


See that little slit?


It looks obvious right?

I hate myself for being so clumsy at times. I was trying to cut off the fur caused by the jacket i was wearing the day before but lo and behold my clumsy hands just snipped off a piece of cloth! I don't know what to do now man, should i buy a exactly same piece( its not super ex), or try stitch up that tiny hole, or just simply throw it away? Argh, i can't believe what i just did, how can i be so clumsy!!!Someone help me, i hate it when this kind of thing happens. Even if this top was like 5 dollars i will also find it a waste of money because i know i didn't even have to waste this 5 dollars in the first place. Irritated with myself = (

Soverign Hill

I felt super tired this morning. Only had 3 hours plus of sleep last night and i had to wake up at 7.45am. You know how sickening the feeling is to not be able to sleep when you know you need to, and when you and trying as well. I lied there for a freakin 4hrs can! But i think its a good thing afterall, cause i will so shagged and will be able to sleep well tonight. Anyways, you guys must be thinking why did i wake up so early for right? I woke up so early cause i had to go to a gold mine = )

Had to catch at V line, which is some kinda train that goes way way out of the city, the whole journey towards the gold mine should take a bout 1.5 hours. But the train is pretty cool, can choose between first class or economy and seats are very comfy.


Yee Lin and me in the train

Wanted to sleep in the train but after talking and yakking, i realised i only had about 45 mins left, might as well not sleep lest i felt even worse having to wake up later on. You know that not enough sleep feeling right? So finally we reached Ballarat station to catch our shuttle.





In the shuttle bus

The shuttle took about 10 mins to get to the actual gold mine, and i must say, Ballarat seems to be a rather small but sophisticated town. It reminds me of England though, with those English looking buildings.



Through the eyes of the driver

Finally we arrive at Soverign Hill Gold mine

Ok some boring stuff. Soverign hill is a real gold mine where people in the 1950s used to work at. Therefore the infrastructure and staff inside the gold mine are dressed in the 1950s era. The machines used and technology also link closely to the 1950s. So you get the idea right? 1950s 1950s 1950s. And we go back into time....



I was so afraid the horse would mistake my hair for hay and eat it haha

The steam engine room that generates power for the machine to crush up stones(Quartz) so that we can find gold inside the stones(Quartz).

At the tinsmith

Getting ready for our gold tour mine, that's supposedly a man dressed in the 50s.



Listening to the briefing before we enter

On our way in...that's Vince by the way

Inside was too dark so i couldn't really take any photos. So we only managed a photo at the exit

Those are not bubbles. I don't know why my stupid cam always create bubble like orbs in dark places. But i still love my cam!

Our 2nd lady guide

After touring the mine, of course we got to see how do they make them become expensive gold bars.

Pouring the molten liquid into the mould

See that orange thing? Its hot molten just taken our from the mould. Can you imagine getting burnt by that thing? I remembered the guy saying if you just left it there to cool on its own, it would take at least 2 hours plus till you can touch it, so they came up with the method of throwing it into water. And almost immediately it became like this...

This is worth 100 over thousand dollars!

With the entrance ticket, came a free horse carriage ride around the city. Pretty worth it right? I thnk to take a horse carriage in the city is like 50 to 100 dollars? Depending how much the horseman wants to charge you; think they will slaughter people whom they think are tourist.

Our horse carriage

Inside of the carriage

The streets of 1950s

These are the stones(quartz) that i was talking about earlier on. In one quartz like that-after smashing them up, you might only be able to find a tiny bit of gold or maybe not even. So even though they may look like nothing, you might strike gold upon finding a rock!

Next i will like to show u a fashion parade. Took pictures with the 1950s folks...

At the candy shop. They are super yummy, and made according the 1950s era methods.

The policeman then

Looks very brokeback mountain haha

I don't know what occupation is this

The sweet old folks

We also had our lunch in the restaurant behind the old folks. They had quite limited food, and only one type of spagatti with olives, pine nuts and i don't know what. Something that i didn't feel like trying, but i was craving for spag so i had to settle for the kids fare, spagatti with simple tomato sauce or something. I tell you, i was so glad i chose that. The price was almost 1/3 of the adult fare, but the portion was just right. I could still order a cola float.

Can't tell my spag is kids fare right?

Us inside the restaurant

After lunch, we just walked around the area and took some random pics.

This was what a fireman in those day will push to the scene of the fire. I think its something like our hose spray now, just that it is a tad heavier.

A coffin car in those day

Some barang barang shop

After this shop, we moved on to our last part of our tour. Also something that i was looking forward to-that was gold panning. We saw many people sitting by the riverside with a plate in hand and moving it in a circling action. Think if you were really lucky enough, you might be able to find some gold dust. There was even a shovel for you to dig deep into the ground.

aiyo, so heavy!

Trying to find some gold

I'm gonna kill you for stealing my gold!

Finally we decided to leave, actually cause we had to catch the shuttle back to the station. Its quite stupid actually, they only have ONE timing for the shuttle. So if we miss it, we won't know how to go back to the station. And another thing was, the mine closed at 5.pm, the train back to the city was at 6pm, so why must the shuttle leave at 3.30??? Thank goodness there was a V line bus that will bring us back to the city at 4, or i am so gonna flip man. Anyway, i am super tired now, hope you enjoyed the tour of the gold mine, night!