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!

Perth, WA

After lots of planning, I finally made my way to Perth, Western Australia.

The awesome Edita and her amazing hubby, Jed were kind enough to let me live with them for a while.

There was some drama prior to that. I bought my tickets via Tiger Airways. They had some technical issues and cancelled their flights without informing me. The day before I was supposed to get on my flight, they inform me that they've been grounded and will not be flying out on the said date. I had to make other arrangements and purchase my tickets from Jetstar. This meant I had to leave on a later date and my trip was a shorter trip than intended.

Nevertheless, I had such a great time in Perth. We drove down to lake leschanaultia for a little picnic. It's a very pretty place. It was rather chilly but we managed to soak up whatever sun there was.

The next day Edie and I went into the city and visited the museums and art galleries. One of my favourite things to do in a new city is to visit the galleries & museums. One of the best things in the gallery was Andrew Brook's The Cell. This is where we don the costume provided, enter this huge bubble of a cell and jump around and pretend to be anything we want to be! It was like unleashing two crazy monkeys in one little cell. So much fun!

We then went to Kings Park. It's a huge, lush and beautiful park & it's also pretty special as there was where Edi and Jed had their wedding reception. We hung around there and took a long walk around the gorgeous park.

While in Perth, I met up with Kristin. We went for my first ever Japanese dinner. Surprisingly, I loved it. Kristin sure knows her food really well! We then went for dessert at this super swanky place called Rockpool. I had a giant macaroon! Delicious!

During the weekend, we went to a really cool artsy town called Fremantle, or fondly known as Fremo. Fremo has lovely weekend markets where you can get anything and everything cute and kitschy imaginable! I had a blast at this place where I spent mostly on food!

While still in Fremo, we walked up to the old round house, spent some time looking at the historic site and then retreated to the harbour for some fish and chips where we met up with Jed and Micheal. We then headed to the Little Creatures brewery where I was talked into having my first ever pint of pale ale and I loved it! 7 hours later I was a tipsy, happy person!

The last night there, I finally met up with Kimberly. I haven't seen her in 2 years. It was so much fun just catching up, talking about theatre and fond memories over cake.

Perth is a truly gorgeous place. Thanks so much to Edie and Jed for your kind hospitality. Love you guys! Will try to return to Perth!

Work in Melbourne

I seem to have only posted articles on my travel. Well, to be fair, it is a WORKING holiday after all!

As soon as I landed in Melbourne, I've been looking around for jobs and managed to secure one at AMF Bowling, Clayton which was right behind where I lived. Lucky me!

I worked at the cafe as a cafe attendant. Duties included cooking, cleaning, making coffee and monkeying around with my awesome boss and colleagues. There were some crazy stressful moments but overall, it was such a great place to work at is the staff were all really friendly and fun! I had such a grand time working there that I missed it so much when I left.

Thanks to my lovely AMF family for having me!

Gold Coast, QLD

All that big hoo hah about Gold Coast made me book my tickets to GC. Situated in sunny Queensland, AV and I decided to hit it early summer.

Booked our accommodation at a decent little apartment which was walking distance into town and the beach.

Unfortunately, the beach on surfers paradise wasn't much to shout about. It was definitely clean. I liked that it wasn't too crowded, possibly because of winter. Coming from chilly Melbourne, I thought the weather in GC was super warm!

We bummed at the beach a lot. GC is also pretty popular for it's nightlife. We joined a club hopping crew for a fee of $30. Takes us to 5 clubs and serves free drinks and food. It was pretty fun.

Food and accommodation does get pretty pricey in GC. We then visited Dreamworld, WhiteWater World and Warner Bros Movie world. The rides were amazing. We being adrenaline junkies decided to go on every single roller coaster ride imaginable. I am probably immune to the rush and excitements of roller coasters by now.

In my opinion, GC is a little too over commercialized. Could be because of all the theme parks available. Nevertheless, it was a good trip and fun to get away from work and Melbourne for a bit.