Leaving one by one

we're really lonely in e students' quarters now... e hongkongers finished their elective n left last week to go to new zealand... steve n britta went back to germany yesterday... all 6 of them were like e comedians of the hostel! bringing us lots of fun n laughter... so sad to see them leave...

now in e hostel, there're only 4 of us, preeti and chihiro... bernedetta n ingor r leaving on e 28... but they were never around anyway... they went to cairns for e week i think... things r pretty quiet in e hostel already. too quiet i think...

after this week, ken n fengyi'll be leaving for home... liling n i'll be going to sydney... even quieter liao...

i can't wait to go home... back to my sanctuary... back to reality... back to my dear family n frens...

More Victoria...

spent 3 days seeing more of Victoria... n i conclude Victoria's a really wonderful place to visit! lots of pretty sights n fun things to do! we spent 1 day each at Ballarat, Wilson's Promontory and Mornington Peninsula! they're all a drive away from melbourne!

Ballarat
Ballarat is a town with a strong history of gold mining and it attracted millions of immigrants in hope of finding gold nuggets and striking it rich!

We visited Sovereign Hill... a heritage town kinda place where e shophouses, dusty roads and mines were built and preserved to look like those of the 1850's. it was also like an educational theme park for us to learn about their mining culture n experience their life in e 1850's. Over there, the people were dressed in the costumes of e olden days and they go about doing their daily activities... like kids will be playing with their toys on e streets or ladies will be selling stuff in e shophouses.

e most funny thing was e shophouses were actually functional!! like this sweet shop we went into... it is like those traditional sweet shop we see in e movies with big jars of lollies n sweets in there and old yellow paper stuck onto the jar stating e price. we went in to take a photo and to our surprise, some kids streamed in and bought some sweets from girls wearing bonnets n pretty lace dresses behind e counter! only then we realized, it's a real shop! haha!! so cool right?

then there were e educational tours... we learnt how they made e wheel of a horse carriage from a section of a log! right from scratch... wif huge scary machines with pulley systems! haha! and we went into the mining tunnels n learnt how e miners worked in the past. sweet-making, candle-making, candle-dipping n brass bells-making... saw all of these in action...

the whole place was like a self-sufficient heritage town which was opened for visitors to join in their life n fun! n we absolutely loved it! even fengyi, e self-professed nature lover, named Sovereign Hill as one of his favourite places of interest!

Wilson's Promontory
this place was a disappointment.... partly cos a huge part of the national park was burnt down by a huge fire and had to be closed for reforestation... n also partly cos it was SOOOO far from melbourne, we drove almost 3 hours to get there n din haf enough time to spend there.

we first stopped at Agnes Falls... (everytime i hear e name Agnes, i think of e movie Agnes and HIS brothers... hahaha!) we all thought this would be a really good thing to see, so we made a detour to get to it... coz it's e TALLEST waterfall in Australia, stretching 60m tall altogether! but sigh... it was so pathetic looking tt fengyi calls it the Disappointing Falls. e lookout area only allowed us to see e upper 1/4 of the fall n most of the other parts were blocked by vegetation, rocks, etc... grrr... wasted our time travelling there...

After that, we made our way further into the national park n went for a trek. also another waste of time... we were supposed to be able to see lots of koalas but in e end, we could smell lots of eucalyptus trees but no koalas at all!

luckily Squeaky Beach was fun! otherwise we would've been totally unsatisfied for e day! Squeaky Beach is so named coz it squeaks whenever we walk on it! hahaha! i'm serious... it's coz e sand's damp unlike e silky smooth sand on other beaches. at first we kept wondering why it's called squeaky beach... then when we walked further, we started to realize it. haha! this beach has lots of large n small rocks everywhere n they formed lotsa nice platforms for photo taking . n we tried jumping from one rock to another, climbing up e higher ones and squeezing in between some of the rocks! it was really fun. we saw some lil kids playing hide n seek... perfect place for hide n seek man... albeit kinda freaky esp if ur frens get too well-hidden... n u start feeling maybe u're lost...

Whiskey Bay was another place wif nice rocks n a beach to take photos...

Mornington Peninsula
this place boasts of its 3 fantastic maze gardens... unfortunately we only had time for one. We went to Arthur Seat Maze... it was a beautiful place... like all those enchanted gardens u read about in fairy tales! they had 3 big mazes, some theme gardens (like conifer garden, fragrant garden, christmas garden, etc.), 3 minute mazes (which means u complete e maze in 1 minute), 2 sculpture gardens showing aboriginal sculptures and a baby animal farm!

e first maze we went to was e biggest and e most fun! we were given a task to find 3 buddha statues, 2 small rock gardens and 1 large japanese garden in this maze... so we just walk n walk n walk to find all these things! i think we would've looked really funny if someone takes a video from e bird's eye view. haha!! we split up into 2 teams... me, ken n liling vs fengyi n chihiro... it's really funny coz as we walked, we could hear fengyi n chihiro talking but we dunno how e heck to get to them! n we can walk n walk n keep ending up at the same buddha statue... grr... u can imagine our frustration! now i know how those poor mice feel... anyway, we finally managed to find everything... took photos to prove it too! haha!

e baby animal farm was also super fun!!! e animals there were super tame and suitable for patting n even carrying! i patted a young cow, goat and sheep. e young cow just kept moo-ing at me... and e goat kept chewing n chewing at something... n e sheep just wished i'll bugger off so it can sleep. haha! tt was e closest i've ever gotten to a cow, goat n sheep... so u can imagine how i was squealing with excitement there! there were chicken, duck n goose too... but no way am i touching them... scared i'll be pecked!

After e maze, we went to take a Chairlift which allows a panoramic view over looking Port Phillip n the ocean! it was a suspended CHAIR over e canopies and down from a mountain... like a cable car except we were sitting with our legs dangling and with only a rod across our waist as a safety measure (how safe...). it was pretty cool... not a good activity for e weak-hearted. but i've got no acrophobia, so i was alright... half e time, i was worried tt my shoe'll fall off actually...

Lastly, we went to the Mornington Peninsula National Park which was actually this strip of land jutting out towards e big ocean and this place used to be a fortress against coastal attacks in e World Wars called Fort Nepean! coz it's just a strip of land jutting out, u can imagine when we walked on e path, we haf e ocean on both sides!! it was really beautiful!! e coastal scenery is just fantastic... plus e water's so clear u can see e coral reefs in it!!

n e fortress was very well-preserved, so we could tour e soldier barracks, gun emplacement sites, tunnels, battery observatory posts and engine house! Some parts of the park's actually closed up wif barb wire to prevent visitors from entering, coz apparently it contained unexploded bombs n ammunition. scary huh... dun wanna step on anything funny man...

too bad we spent too lil time there, coz by e time we got there it was already 3... n e park closes at 4.45pm!! (grr... almost everything in australia closes by 5pm... irritating!) but we're still glad we went there... wouldn't miss it for anything! u can't say u've been to mornington peninsula if u din visit Fort Nepean!

Impending Doom

okai... e title's quite an exaggeration... but boohoo... i think i'm getting sick. i can feel it coming... u know e feeling u get when u feel tt ur nose n pharynx are slowly thickening up with mucus n ur head's getting a bit heavier, eyes feeling drowsy, ur throat too dry n sore? argh... they're all signs of impending full-blown sore throat, cough n flu.. for me at least.

darn! serves me right for indulging in tt HUGE box of chips yesterday, not drinking enough water, showering in single-digit temps n not getting enough sleep! boohoo... i want my mommy... (she's always e first person i think of whenever i'm sick. just know tt some home remedy would do e trick, or rather it's more coz of the care n concern from her.)

think i'm gonna hafta pop some anti-histamines n panadol soon... dun want anything to ruin my travelling this weekend man!

P.S. we finally played bridge last nite (this explains e insufficient sleep)... coz Daniel (one of e hongkongers) played wif us!! super fun!!

Tappers

spent e WHOLE morning doing ascitic taps... there were 8 patients to tap altogether... i managed to do 2 successful ones with Mutlu supervising me... n assisted him in e other 6... plus another 2 who needed theirs revised coz they stopped draining fluid halfway (nope! not those tt i tapped! i was good k...haha!).

i think after a while, i was kinda bored with assisting coz everything was very routine. pour iodine into e container, help hold e lignocaine bottle so he can fill his syringe wif it, connect the draining tube to a bag... n it goes on e on for e whole morning. think after a while, u just do n do without even thinking anymore. oh dear... think tt's how things're gonna be like when i'm a HO... hai...

sometimes i get confused with my niche... i always thought i'm a more internal medicine physician as compared to a surgeon... but i think doing procedures n operations is easier than having to think a lot... but after doing e procedure too many times, i get bored wif it... so how huh? i think i better start some serious thinking abt my future... n what i really wanna specialize in... dunno why a sudden urge to actually...

Adam, Scott n Mutlu

Adam, Scott n Mutlu... e 3 guys in my working life right now... (coz my supervisor's away liao!) a pity all of them married... haha! (there goes my eurasian babies plan... haha! kidding...)

Adam, another gastro reg, taught me how to insert a PEG tube at the gastroscopy room on friday! n again, i had some interpretation to do coz e patient was from China. n tt's good, coz i think Adam felt like he was indepted to me n hence he taught me the entire procedure step by step, right to e amt of Marcaine to give, how many cms to nick on e skin... without me even asking!

Scott's (my reg) super nice to me again... as usual. i was standing around e nurses' station reading a patient's file this morning... waiting for ward rounds to start. i was too engrossed n i din even realize Scott n Mutlu left e ward to start ward rounds in e next door ward. then when i was still reading e case notes, Scott came back to where i was, n said "Geraldine... sorry we lost u! u're joining us for ward rounds, r u?" i was stunned speechless... and must've looked tt way too... coz he immediately said "or r u joining julian n michelle (e liver transplant unit team)?" haha... i quickly recovered n said "no no... i'll go with u guys!" cultural shock again...

n i noticed tt e working relationship between a reg n resident medical officer is so unlike tt at home. over here, i sense more of a partnership rather than a superior-subordinate relationship! think there was this patient tt Scott saw during e weekend but Mutlu wasn't on duty... n during ward rounds, Scott updated e history of the patient to Mutlu!! a reg presenting a history to a medical officer!! think in singapore, it's usually e other way round huh? no matter wat, e medical officer is EXPECTED to know ALL e cases in e ward, n not wait for e Reg to present e history to them right? (correct me if i'm wrong, coz this is e impression i get of the system in S'pore)

Footies n Shopaholics!!!

haha... no exciting outdoor adventures this weekend, coz everyone's busy with reports, presentation, etc... (except ME!! yippee!) n we decided to postpone e adelaide trip till e last week! so was in melbourne the whole weekend! but i still enjoyed it all e same!

Australian Football League
went to an AFL match with liling on friday night! it's Australian Rules Football, Melbourne vs Adelaide! SOOOOO FUN!!!! we were totally immersed into e Australian sport culture, screaming n yelling ourselves hoarse for the Melbourne Demons...

okie... maybe i explain some rules of the game first... in Australian Rules Football, there r 11 ppl in a team... 4 poles at each end of a circular field marking out 1 goal post n 2 side posts... they score 6 points if e ball goes into e goal post n only 1 point if it goes into e 2 side posts. They pass the ball either by punching e ball into e air with a fist or by kicking. If e ball is caught in mid-air, e opponents can't tackle the player with e ball n he has a few seconds to aim n kick to someone or e goal. but if e ball touches e ground n someone catches it, he can be tackled so e best is do a quick pass to someone else. If he gets tackled n kena pinned onto e ground, the referee will do a free bounce into e air n both sides can fight for possession.

i find this game much less violent compared to rugby or american football coz there r actually times when they can't be tackled. but then when they do tackle, it's scary, coz they can like grab any part of the body n basically whack e person down. haha!

but oh man! i must say this is really THE national sport in Australia!! the Melbourne Cricket Ground was PACKED!!! with the old, young, males, females... even e lao ah pehs n ah mas were energetic enough to roar with cheers n jeers! amazing! n some of them... e WHOLE family was there to watch... n among e family, they'll be half rooting for melbourne n half rooting for adelaide... n they wear e teams' scarves n beanies which were in e teams' colours... so fun! haha!

haha! liling n i, being our first time there, made some blunders during tt evening! firstly, we waited at the wrong side for e ticketing office to open... it was supposed to open at 5.30 n when it din, we went to ask someone n found tt we can get tickets from e other side!! DIAO... haha! then e next blunder was not knowing wat e game was abt, so we asked this guy next to us how to read e score n many other details abt e game... haha! the biggest blunder tt got e guys around us laffing was asking if the game was over after e 2nd quarter! hahaha!!! can't blame us wat... everyone was like standing up (to go to e loo or get food apparently)...

anyway, when melbourne won (they lost to adelaide last yr n was 2 ranking lower than adelaide), liling n i stood up wif e rest to cheer like mad... haha!!! i haven't cheered like this in a long while... like maybe since R n F 2 yrs ago when we won e presentation... wow!! pretty fun to revive this spirit in me!!

Shopping
I was a mad shopaholic this weekend... just bought n bought n bought... dunno why i haf so many things to buy also... but i was really happeee coz i was buying things for ppl at home, myself! e rest din really buy much souveniers n there i was, hauling all e sweets, nougats, clothes into my huge backpack... i call them my spoils of war... haha! n boy do i haf a BIG bag full every shopping trip!

we basically checked out e Queen Victoria Market one more time, a Camberwell Sunday Market which sells lil knick knacks to raise funds for some rotary club and a stretch of factory outlet stores along Bridge Road!

i also had a chance to get out n haf a lone walk along melbourne city, coz e rest were too tired n wanted to stone in e hostel. so being garang n all set for more adventure, i took e train on my own n walked around e big shopping malls in melbourne city all by myself!! i realized there're so many interesting stuff u can do even when u're alone! in fact, more!!! coz usu when u're with ppl, u'll be busy talking to them n u dun notice stuff around u... so when i was alone, i finally had time to peer out of e window n observe during e train ride... i started spotting weird characters around e streets... stopped to watch this busker play his PIANO in front of a shopping mall (No... i din name my instrument wrongly... it was a wooden, cranky-looking piano in e middle of a walkway with graffiti on it n a smoking old man playing on it!)! interesting huh... din buy anything though so was mainly window shopping!

Work work work

haha... realized i haven't been talking much about e elective posting itself... after a kind reminder from nic... well... i suppose e weekend trips n all e other fun stuff r so much more interesting to tell compared to the mundane stuff during the posting.

anyway, today's ward rounds... e gastro team only had 5 patients!! n 3 of them r discharging... which leaves them with 2 tom... if nobody new comes in (scott n mutlu r crossing their fingers)! we started ward rounds at 8.15 n ended at 8.35... amazing huh! oh... but there's this patient with a rare disease... Glycogen Storage Disease type Ib... knew nuts abt it... think i vaguely rem seeing it in lippincott biochem... haha! never thought i'll come across one in my student years! think it's also rare here... scott (e reg) like had to go back n read up abt it before knowing what to do with e patient. anyway, he came in with nausea, vomitting and abdo pain... non-specific symptoms... so they gave him supportive treatment n despite many investigations, still can't find a cause for his symptoms...

and saw a patient who described 4 episodes of "being unable to form words in her mouth for a few minutes"... what do u think? well, my consultant n i tot it could be transient ischaemic attack affecting the Brocca's speech area... a bit strange presentation coz e rest of her body's fine during those attacks... anyway, she's going for neuro referral...

been joining liling's nephro tutorials which r pretty useful i must say... considering how terrible my nephrology is... and the tutors here r super nice... plus e auzzie students r so vocal! they like just say n ask anything they want and e tutors r all very willing to answer them. during 1 tutorial, the whole grp of 7 ppl din prepare a case to present for tutorial... Dr Kathy, e tutor, not only din get angry but asked them whether they wanna go upstairs n see a case or if there's any queries they wanna clarify. cultural shock... haha!

and spoke to my tutor about writing a report so he can grade me in my evaluation form... but he said i dun hafta write any!!! yippeee! he said i should just enjoy e posting n forget about writing any report! hahaha!! i must've looked shocked when he said tt coz he looked positively amused! n he's gonna go on leave for e next 2 weeks... which means he's gonna like grade n sign my evaluation form by tom... n i'm basically a free bird from then on! hahaha!!

hmm... la di da... what should i do? should i go to Queen Victoria Market? or Collins Street, a HUGE shopping arcade? hahaha!! no la... of course i wun do tt... i'll prob stay around in e wards... coz Scott offered to introduce me to his neurologist fren... so MAYBE i'll get to do some neuro stuff if there're no other students doing tt. i asked Prof Robert Jones (surgeon) if i could go to the OT to observe some ops too... n he, being jovial as usual, agreed! so i'll haf lots to do actually, even though my tutor's away!

P.S. today's 05/05/05... haha!!! cool!!

Sushi Feast

haha! my blog events can't seem to run away from food... i guess food does take a huge part of my life... esp when my motto in life is to live to eat! haha! thanks to good genes from my mom n dad, i can live up to tt motto... so far tt is...

yesterday evening was a special evening! all 14 ppl in the students' quarters... e 2 german couples, 4 hongkongers, preeti, chihiro and 4 of us gathered together to make sushi for dinner! we met up at 5pm to buy the necessary ingredients which included raw salmon, rice, seaweed, prawns, wasabi, soya sauce, crab meat, mayo, tuna, avocado, onions, etc...

then we spent nearly 2 hours preparing all e food! wif chihiro as the chief supervisor of course! it was really fun... coz almost everyone took part in the making of our sushi feast! some cut carrots, some fry e prawns, some mix e crabmeat salad, some slice the salmon fish... the rest who were clueless abt cooking provided photography, guitar n singing entertainment as well as encouragement! haha!!

when we're finally done wif all e ingredients, we each sat down wif a plate of rice, 10 sheets of sandweed and all e prepared fillings in front of us in a HUGE table in e kitchen! (yeah... e kitchen's huge actually.. can fit 14 ppl in a square table) then chihiro taught us how to wrap the stuff up to make a handroll! e germans were having a lot fun... going oohhh n ahhh coz this is like their first time eating sushi... even though they ate some b4, according to them they were never e same as this authentic jap one... haha! thankfully for us singaporeans, those sushi bars we haf r actually quite close to e true blue jap ones...

so we sat around, chitchatting, joking around, wrapping our handrolls... n soon everyone was stuffed... haha!!

i really enjoyed e meal a lot!! it's like we're one big happee family, preparing a meal together n then sitting down to eat it! so fun!! n e food was so awesome n delicious!! not to mention cheap after dividing e cost... coz we only had to pay 7 bucks each to eat till we were bloated!

wish we can do this more often, at least before different grps of ppl leave e hostel... think e germans r leaving 1 week b4 us, e hongkongers too... things'll never be e same without them man...

Tasmania Episode IV - The Return of the Hungry Ghosts

home sweet home to melbourne... caught a 10.30 flight from hobart airport to melbourne...

we all finally had a good bath back in our cosy hostel... no more dark scary bathrooms... no more squashed up room (realized our room in e pickled frog place was smaller than our individual rooms in the student quarters!)... no more single digit temperatures... no more disgusting jeans worn for 4 consecutive days... haha!!

n we were soooo hungry, we cooked ourselves a huge lunch! i had spaghetti with red wine sauce, ken had 2 packets of instant noodles, fengyi had instant noodles n dunno what else, liling actually finished 1 whole packet of instant noodles! haha!

after tt, we went to safeway supermarket... n bought more groceries for dinner... we cooked a really sumptuous dinner... chicken, potato n carrot stew (cooked by me) and cabbage with mushrooms (cooked by liling)! n yummy warm rice (cooked by fengyi)! (ken was e odd job worker, like throwing stuff, getting stuff from downstairs, etc.) n of course, our sweet apples from sorell fruit farm! wahhh!!! ate n ate n ate... like hungry ghosts who have been starving for a year...

Tasmania Episode III - Huon's Trail

we spent the whole day on this trail coz it's a long long trail... even then, we din manage to cover everything we wanted to see... so sad...

Hartz Mountain
unfortunately, we din manage to go up to Hartz Mountain as planned... u'll soon learn why...
we stopped over at a place called Arve Falls... and we thought we knew what to expect when we saw the snow on the ground... but hey! we got more than what we expected man!! we knew it'll be damn cold and so got our coldwear all ready (girls only la... e guys din prepare much cold gear coz they act macho ma!)... then we got outta e car and then suddenly, some white stuff started flying towards us... hitting our faces, our hair... and i raised up my hands to let some of them land on my palms and realized those r FALLING SNOW!!! (pardon my suku-ness but it was my FIRST time seeing falling snow!) i was ecstatic!!! and started jumping up n down, screaming at the top of my voice... "FALLING SNOW! FALLING SNOW! I'M SEEING SNOW!!" hahaha! liling soon joined me upon realization...

but... oh oh... it means the temp must be zero degrees or below... despite becoming frozen, we ran into this walking trail that'll lead us to Arve Falls! all e time, it was snowing on us and we saw how the grass slowly turned from green to spottie whites to totally white! and the rocks also started having white caps on... so pretty!!! and when we walked on the wooden pathway, we get to imprint our footsteps on the layer of snow! we even picked up a bit of snow to taste it... haha!! like ice kachang!! super pure n flaky! liling couldn't resist making some snow ball fight at kenneth n me... haha! SNOW!! can't believe we caught it!

reached the Arve Falls and quickly took a few photos before we froze to death... and ran back to our car! ken was quick to note that our car may not be fitted with e heating device, so e engine may stall if we stay in this cold place for too long, n with the falling snow and strong wind, frosty roads, we're afraid going up e mountain may be too hazardous... so we gave e mountain a miss... after all, we've all been rewarded sumptously with this phenomenal experience... pretty contented!

e problem with having e highlight so early in e day is the rest of e day pales in comparison! haha! after tt, we had a few scenic drives along the huon river and some lookouts n stuff... nothing much liao... wanted to go to e Hastings Caves but must pay admission fees 19.50 plus we reached there only at about 3... a bit wasted if we pay so much n spend only 1 hour there...

we also had to abandon a 4-hr walk to the southern cape bay which is the southern tip of tasmania... closest to antartica... coz it was getting dark n we noticed the roads back din even haf reflectors to guide us along e roads. totally dangerous...

although we couldn't complete a lot of stuff on this trail, we all agreed tt it was still very very worth it!! haha!!

Tasmania Episode II - mountains, market n mt field

we struggled outta bed at 5pm... on our commander's orders... n got dressed in 15 min... (yay... we got more time than u army dudes heh) and drove up Mount Wellington to catch sunrise! It was a rainy morning and the windy roads required a lot of skills man... thanks to fengyi, we got up safely only to find that it was still super dark even though sun has risen coz of the dark clouds. (bummer...) on top of it, e rain and wind was so strong, we felt like we could easily be uprooted the minute we got outta e car. no point taking any photos also coz it was so foggy and we couldn't keep still coz of the rain n wind. thank god we hired a 2 litre car, otherwise i think our car may have been blown away!! haha!

though we din catch sunrise as planned, we still had an experience of a lifetime... freezing in a rain storm on top of a 1240m tall mountain! and there was even snow on the ground!! haha!

After tt, we went back to Pickled Frog for the free breakfast. the kitchen was in a complete mess... and liling swore she could smell rotten food when she opened the fridge! (i din dare to recheck tt) i grabbed a bit of milk, cornflakes n bread and prayed that i wun get food poisoning...

Salamanca Market
i would say this has got to be the highlight of the day... salamanca market is like another flea market tt opens only every saturday, except it is not like any other flea market! it's got lotsa cheap food, beautiful clothing, jams, fudge, bakeries, craft stalls, etc. so i'm really glad we managed to catch it! we bought a lot of stuff there... fudge was apparently a must-try, so i bought 3 sticks... spotted some tasty chilli jam and thought it's kinda special... n my sis especially loves chilli stuff, so maybe she'll finally start having breakfast... e rest also bought things like a beanie hat, gloves, sweater, fruit leathers...

i will never forget this huge Pork n Bacon Hamburger i ate there... topped it up with Hot English Mustard coz tot it sounded interesting... to my horror, it's like wasabi... totally went up my nose when it reached my mouth. hahaha! but the pork n bacon sausage was heavenly... totally sinful but satisfying... and after getting used to e taste of e mustard, i tot the meal was marvelicious! haha! yumyum... want another one leh...

The Rivers Run
this was another long scenic drive along the River Derwent... stopping at interesting attractions along e way... went to the Salmon Pond and enjoyed some fish feeding... discovered that Atlantic Salmon's really stupid (or clever depending on how u see it)... most of e other fish like trouts will immediately gobble up the food tt we throw but these atlantic salmons dun! we waited n waited for them to swim up to the surface to eat but they din! so we got sick of waiting n walked off... only then e activity started n they started gobbling. grrr... maybe they like eating soggy food like i do (with my cornflakes n chips)... (sidetrack: fries r called "chips" here... so when we order KFC, it's upsize the chips n drink... if u say fries, they'll go HUH?)

Mt Field National Park is a huge rainforest with walking trails and scenic waterfalls! we trekked a lot on e 2nd day... to catch these waterfalls - the Russell Falls, Horseshoe Fall and Lady Barron Falls. think we would've enjoyed the trek much better if it din rain e whole day... we had to walk on soggy ground and get our sweater n shoes all wet. not to mention, getting my camera lens wet which made my photos spotty after tt! oh but we get to smell rainy rainforest (really... got smell one!) which was actually very refreshing and woody... nice... and of course i wun grumble since i got to see my favourite sights... waterfalls! yay!

by the time we're done with the trails n waterfalls, it was almost dark... so we had another dark drive back to erm... not exactly home sweet home...

Tasmania Episode I - Off we go!

the past weekend was a phenomenal experience!! we made a trip down to tasmania, the southern most of australia... closest to antartica which means it's super super cold!! haha!

Jetstar flight
our domestic flight was at 6.45, so which means we had to check in at abt 5... coz they had this system abt giving out blue passes to early birds so they can board the plane first n get good seats (free seating mah...). we woke up at like 3 plus to prepare and booked a cab down to the airport! xiong right... like army lydat... what to do... fengyi our commander organized the tasmania trip! haha!

First Step in Tasmania
haha... the hobart airport very lok kok... they dun haf the passageway for passengers to walk... so we hafta like go down the stairs onto the runway and walk into the airport. and when we took our first step, all our first words were "AHHH!!! COLD!!!!" hahaha!! coz it was 9 degrees!! and the wind was wailing away...

we already planned our trip nicely so that we'll cover as much as possible... so we intended to drive along a few tourist trails - the Convict Trail, the Rivers Run and the Huon Trail. one on each day... so it means setting off before dawn everyday and finishing the attractions by dusk and driving back in the dark. this way, we wun waste precious bright times on travelling.

The Convict Trail
the convict trail is so named coz at the end of the trail, we'll arrive at Port Arthur... which is a historic site... it used to house many convicts in there. Unfortunately, the entrance fee and ghost tour combined cost 64 bucks, so we gave it a miss and were quite contented with just taking photos of it from a lookout. It looks really nice... definitely not like a jailhouse... more like holiday chalet. haha!

in this trail, i must say the Sorell Fruit Farm was the highlight! we were given baskets and let loose into rows n rows of strawberry plants, apple trees, raspberry shrubs and pear trees! we can pluck as many as we want... and then pay for them by kg... apples were going for only $1 per kg and strawberries $4 per kg! liling n i were shrieking and squealing with excitement at the thought of picking strawberries and apples! soon we were all squatting down looking for nice big red strawberries and filling our baskets with lots n lots of them!

It was also our first time seeing apple trees!! rows of my favourite Fuji apples, Red Delicious (yup... tt's e name) apples and Matsu green apples! we scouted all over the farm for good ones... liling n ken din even spare the ones on top of the trees... ken carried liling up so she could reach them! haha!! then fengyi couldn't resist trying the apples, so he rubbed a Matsu green apple and took a bite! hahha! u should've seen his face... his eyes grew wide opened... and said "this is F#$&ing good!" (haha... from this trip, i've come to realize tt some guys' vulgar vocab's more extensive than their eng vocab.) we each stole a bite from his apple and totally agreed! n tt geared us up even more to pick n pick n pick!! haha!!

before we knew it, our baskets were full of apples, strawberries and raspberries! and we only paid 16 bucks for them! they prob can last us for more than 1 week... n tt's if we eat them every meal. and we did... we had strawberries for dinner, supper, bedtime snack... haha! so enjoyable to squat in a circle to munch on strawberries the whole evening! and they're like never-ending... coz we had 2 BIG bags full of them! haha!! never eaten so much strawberries in my life... sweet and juicy ones somemore!

then we made our way to a few other attractions along the convict trail... the Old Hobart Model Village, Australia's Oldest Bridge in Richmond town... also caught some amazing rock formations (again...) at the Tasman National Park. saw the Tasman Arch, Devil's Kitchen and the Remarkable Cave. that's e thing with nature... no two rocks look exactly the same... it's like they haf their own set of DNA or something... n i can't seem to get enough of them!! i love all these wonderful carvings of nature!

Pickled Frog Backpackers' Hostel
cheap cheap hostel... which also means a bit dodgy, scary bathrooms with unpredictable hot water supply and dirty kitchen... ok la... give some saving grace... liveable if u dun hiam too much... haha!

we booked a twin bedroom which means the girls get to sleep on a queen-sized bed and e poor guys gotto sleep on the carpetted floor. but it also means it cost us only 138 bucks for 3 nites... with free parking, breakfast provided... pretty good deal...