Byron Bay, NSW

Byron Bay was most definitely on the list of MUST VISIT places in Aussie for me. This idea was strongly enforced & endorsed by Nurnur. I applied for leave off work, bought my tickets and before I knew it, I was in Ballina airport, waiting for my transfer to Byron Bay!

I booked accomodation at The Arts Factory Lodge which is most definitely an amazing place with the most fun backpackers and a lovely hippie environment. I stayed in an all girls dorm with a few English girls and this amazing Dutch girl. We had loads of fun together just bar hopping and lazing on the beach.

Gayats and Geets decided to join me in Byron as it wasn't too far a drive away from Brisbane! We had an absolutely marvelous time together, just like how it used to be when we were kids! Byron had some lovely quaint shops and also some overtly touristy shops. Regardless, we had a blast!

The beaches in Byron are gorgeous and the sunset simply breathtaking. I also made a short trip to Nimbin with a bunch of backpackers. Nimbin is a crazy hippy place with the smell of marijuana in every corner of the street. It's an open secret that marijuana is dealed on the streets of Nimbin pretty openly and it's easy to obtain. It was slightly creepy a place as everyone somehow behaved slightly weird!

Here are some snapshots of the lovely Byron Bay & Nimbin.

Sydney, another beginning.

After my lovely little holiday in Perth, I decided to head on to Sydney. This time I uprooted, left Melbourne and set up base in Sydney. Honestly I was a little skeptical about Sydney. From my last visit, I felt it was too metropolitan, made me feel like I was in Singapore. One of the reasons I decided to move there was to spend time with Prama & family. Especially the little ones, Lakshman and my godchild, Githanjali. I've been really fortunate that they've offered to rent me their lovely guest house.

As soon as I came to Sydney, the job hunt started, I must say it wasn't very easy to find a job here. I was lucky enough to land a job with home furnishing Swedish giant, IKEA. I got a job at the IFS (IKEA Food Services) department. I was trained to work in the little bistro that serves hot dogs, ice cream, donuts and calzones. The work is pretty simple and my colleagues are a rather fun, young bunch. IKEA is a great place to work as they really care for their staff and the benefits are pretty grand.

Thus my journey around New South Wales begins!

Theatre work in Melbourne: Month of Sundays

I read an audition on Star Now about the Australian Centre of Performing Arts (ACOPA)'s Month of Sundays. It's where actors get together and put up plays, gigs, cabarets, songs etc every Sunday of the month. I decided to audition for it.

I was then introduced to other actors who were part of the July Month of Sundays: Heather, Nick, Melanie, Cait, Jacqui, Sarina and our lovely director Maggie. We put together a few sketches in a segment called Pigeonholed. We rehearsed for about one month, every Tuesdays and Sundays. It was a lot of fun and a lot of nerve-wrecking madness! Nevertheless we managed to pull it off and performed to quite a full house every Sunday!

Thanks so much to the cast and crew for making this happen. My first time performing in Australia and you guys made it very memorable!

Theatre work in Melbourne: King of Bangor

Since I was working as a stage manager for Student Body, Dione asked if I was interested in designing set for her next play, King of Bangor. I was very excited and squealed out a big fat YES! Mind you, I've never designed a set before. It's a good thing that the set was minimal (also due to the low budget). So I just played around with whatever I was offered.

The play was a one act play and a theatrical exploration into the creative mind of Stephen King, a world renowned novelist.

It was a fun experience. I did it all by myself, painted and tried to make the set look old and vintage. It was a pretty good first experience of trying to put the set together!

Click here to read about the King of Bangor!

Phillip Island

Phillip Island is home to the cute little Phillip a.k.a Fairy penguins. They're much smaller than the emperor penguins and are grey in colour. What's most exciting in Phillip Island is the penguin parade. Many tourists flock this place during sunset to watch the penguins make their way from the sea back to their little dune burrows. Joel decided we make a little road trip to watch the penguin parade. We left slightly late in the morning and made our trip down to Phillip Island.

On the way, we stopped at the Wildlife Wonderland. It's a little zoo like concept that was started off by this family. I found all these animals apparently native (or maybe not) to Australia. Koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, llamas, ostriches, weird birds, name it and they have it.

The highlight of my trip has got to be feeding the kangaroos, wallabies and petting a koala. I'll have you know the feeding a kangaroo was SCARY! I freaked out, was practically hiding behind Joel. I swear the kangaroo was out to get me, he was clawing at our clothes! NOT at all a pleasant feeling. The koala on the other hand was extremely adorable and let me pet it to my hearts content.

We then made our way to a little fish and chips shop, had lunch, lazed by the beach a little and made it to the penguin parade by sunset. It's very cold there so we were bundled up, all set to watch the penguins. Sadly, there weren't that many penguins that night. Nevertheless, it was fun watching those few penguins turn up and find their way back home.

Theatre work in Melbourne: Student Body

I was fortunate enough to get some theatre work done during my stay in Melbourne. I have been rather actively involved in theatre back in Malaysia and missed it a lot when I got to Aussie. I started checking out various websites online that offered any sort of theatre work & auditions.

I then stumbled upon a little ad looking for someone who could play a role of a Malaysian student. I thought this was a blessing and went ahead by sending an e-mail requesting further information. I then got in touch with Dione, who was directing a play called Student Body, produced by Boobook Theatre. Dione informed me that the role has already been offered to someone else, nevertheless, there was a vacant position for a stage manager. I stepped in and took the role. We have a fun time rehearsing, albeit it being far away in Williamstown which was about 1.5 hrs train commute from Clayton. I didn't mind it that much as I was just really happy to be working in theatre again. We had our show, Student Body at the Union theatre, University of Melbourne 17th to 25th March 2011. It went on fine, not man glitches although I will say, stage managing is probably the toughest theatre job ever!

I had a great cast and crew working alongside each other and we had so much fun!

AFL

Apparently ones trip to Melbourne is never complete if one does not witness an AFL (Australian Football League) match. I was introduced to the AFL by Joel who is a huge supporter of the Essendon Bombers. The Australian Football or footy as it is fondly known is a pretty interesting sport. Melburnians are in love with this sport, so much so it's almost a religion.

So we went for an Essendon Bombers Vs Hawthorn Hawks. Unfortunately, the Bombers lost. Despite that, I had such a great time just soaking up the atmosphere of the match and the thousands of enthusiastic fans supporting their respective teams.

It truly was an unforgettable experience. It did suck me in a little and I started following rest of the matches and scores leading to the finals. Geelong Cats won the AFL 2011 title.

It is a pretty exciting game, catch it if you have the chance!