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.

Travel :)

"I am loyal and constant about my love for travel. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby—I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to—I just don't care."

- Elizabeth Gilbert, eat pray love.

ADELAIDE!

I made it to Adelaide from the 14th to the 19th of April. Stayed with Subi. I even scored mighty cheap tickets with Tiger Airways (which is a very unreliable service by the way - shall elaborate on it in another post)!

Adelaide is truly purrrdy! It's very laid back as compared to Melbourne. It has a very small city. Public transport is pretty straightforward with mostly buses running around the suburbs towards the city.

Adelaide has a good feel about it. Very cool artsy stuff dot the city and they have some interesting installation pieces around the main city itself.

I walked about the city on my own and had amazing pancakes at this little pancake place calledthe original pancake kitchen.

The Rundle Mall is probably the most popular landmark in Adelaide city. If you get lost, just get back to Rundle Mall!

Amazingly, the nightlife in Adelaide is pretty exciting! I visited an awesome nightclub calledcasablabla thanks to Daniel. We also did hit a few salsa bars. By the way, men in Adelaide are far more liberal with their compliments!

I met up with Debra who took me to an amazing little cafe for breakfast. It was a good catch up.

Sharanya came down from Exeter, UK and we met up the day before her brother's graduation. She was lovely enough to show me around a bit of Adelaide as she's had the pleasure of schooling there. She took me to Glenelg, which is a lovely place by the sea. It was only one train ride away. and had the most amazing sunset view ever!

We then went for her brother's law graduation the following morning at the university of South Australia.

The next day Jean took me to this cute little kitschy cupcake shop called the aviary where we sat back and had loads of tea!

basically that was my short and sweet trip to Adelaide. Seems like a place I would like to revisit soon! Thanks to Subi for putting me up for those few days!

Kate Nash in concert!

So I went to watch Kate Nash live at Billboard! 18th February 2011! I wouldn't have known if Brana didn't tell me! I love her and I know she'd never come tour in Malaysia. It was worth every dollar! My first ever concert in Aussie and I went alone! Here are some of her awesomeness onstage!