I love the blue sky

Sunday, July 26, 2009
Meals In Melbourne

My meals in Melbourne are generally simple. I don't eat out very often because the food portion and price are double the portion and price in Singapore! At least when I cook, I can control how much I eat. And, of course, it's cheaper. :D

Here are some typical dishes I cook in my apartment. Breakfast or brunch is a lot more than what I have in Singapore because it's so cold that I get hungry very easily. This was what I had on one of my first days in Melbourne.

Lunch or dinner varies. If I'm really hungry, I cook pasta. Otherwise, it's usually porridge, glass noodles in soup or even bread again.

So far, I haven't cooked rice since I'm not much of a rice-lover. ;p

Right, all this food talk is making me hungry - again. I think I should go to bed to sleep away my hunger. I've run out of apples to snack on.

jOyZ blogged at 9:42 PM

~~~~~~

Saturday, July 25, 2009
Photo Updates

Here are some photos taken from two friends' Facebook photograph albums. We had dinner at Chapel Street, where there was a long stretch of shops, restaurants and pubs. It's quite a cool place. Oh, I know... I haven't been using my camera conscientiously enough! ;p I shall endeavour to optimise the use of my camera to snapshoot my time in Melbourne. :D

These were taken from my camera: our dinner!

I took a shot of the clock tower at UMelb some time last week.

And here are the terribly delayed photographs of us at the start and end of our ski trip at Mount Buller about two weeks ago - courtesy of another friend. There are a few more floating around in some friends' cameras. I have no idea where...

And from my camera:

This was a 麻辣火锅 lunch we had at Glen Waverly after service on my second Sunday in Melbourne.

Here are some shots of the sights and sounds of Victoria Market during my second visit. There were loads of fresh food!

This was my lunch that day: fantastic fish and chips! :)~

And finally, this was what I had for tea one afternoon when I went exploring the shops at Brunswick with friend. It's a beef pie. :)

jOyZ blogged at 5:55 PM

~~~~~~

Thursday, July 23, 2009
Week Zero

Orientation has begun. So far this week, I've only gone to the campus twice - on Monday and Tuesday - to attend a few talks. Some were useful, some were not. I dozed off during one on library. I guess I should have just gone and surf on the library website on my own.

I'm still awaiting confirmation of my enrolment. I hope the confirmation comes tomorrow morning so that I can go and get my student card and feel a bit more secure that my subject selection has been approved. Patience... patience...

It's almost the end of my 3rd week here in Melbourne. I'm feeling really apprehensive about lessons starting soon. Dear Lord Jesus Christ, please hear my prayers.

jOyZ blogged at 11:56 AM

~~~~~~

Friday, July 17, 2009
My First Ski Experience

The highlight of the week was a ski trip I went with six friends two days ago. It was my first attempt to ski and needless to say I fell down quite a few times.

Donned in ski suit and boots and armed with ski equipment, I'd never felt clumsier! I was already half-dead by the time I managed to buckle up the boots, with some help from Elaine. x_X After that, we had to clamber up the slopes to the ski school. Very painful indeed.

I never went beyond learning how to walk sideways upslope and to stop while sliding down. It took me quite a while to get the hang of side-walking upslope. It was frustrating at first because every time I struggled two steps upwards, I'd slide back another four steps. By the time I struggled to the top of the (very gentle) slope, I felt ready to collapse because my legs were so wobbly from exhaustion. Sliding down wasn't very easy for me, too. I'm convinced I'm the ultimate klutz when it comes to land sports. TCMI - Totally Cannot Make It!

Still, I think I did learn a little bit of skiing and I did have fun on the whole. The company was great, the weather wasn't too bad (it snowed twice for a short while!) and I'm sure I'd burnt lots of calories that afternoon on Mount Buller. That was the first time I'd actually felt hot on a snowy mountain.

It was a pity that we didn't have time to take the lift up to see the whole ski resort. I would have enjoyed snapping shots of the snowy slopes. Hopefully, I can find company and enough vitamin M for another ski trip while I'm in Australia.

Time for hot tea... I'm having a sneezing fit again. :/

jOyZ blogged at 6:02 PM

~~~~~~

Monday, July 13, 2009
Settling In

It's been a while since my last post. Yep, I've left Singapore and am now in Melbourne.

My first week in Melbourne was interesting. The first few days saw me cleaning me up the apartment and getting some home items - electric blanket, quilt, bed linen, toaster, and so on and so forth. I went marketing once at Victoria Market and bought myself some fish, vegetables, fruits, garlic and CHILLI! I went to the bank and opened two accounts. I'm hoping to have some leftover money in the bank one year from now, so that I can keep the account here.

The Internet connection has been giving me a little problem last week, but I think the IT company has solved the problem now. I've not been logged out of the system so far with the new account. :)

I've been chatting/emailing with family and friends via the Internet, so I'm really feeling a little too lazy to type everything out again. ;p Anyway, it's been a cool first week. I met people, ate a lot, slept a lot, watched a lot of TV, walked a lot... oh, and attended church service at Bridge Church in Richmond yesterday. Apparently, it's the church's new name and the whole service started and ended on time. The sermon was about the significance of the new name of the church and how it mirrors God's heartbeat for the world.

God is good and faithful, so on the whole, it's been good for me so far. I'm still trying to get used to the weather. Initially, it was refreshing to experience the cold all the time (in contrast to Singapore's perpetual summer heat). Now, I'm kind of suffering from the cold and dry climate and have been applying heaps of moisturiser to keep my skin from cracking up. I'm downing lots of water too, so that my stomach would be fooled into thinking that it's full and I don't have to eat so much all the time. Heh.

Hopefully, the weeks to come will be fun and good. Though I'm feeling a little apprehensive about studying again after a decade, I hope school will be great. :)

jOyZ blogged at 9:32 AM

~~~~~~