whoops havent updated this in a while. well, have been slacking most of the week. so i didnt really have anything to say. but yesterday, i went back to chapel street to do shopping this time - havent really spent money - >_<


a shot of chapel street. you can see mimco opposite - they sell really nice bags, but i used to think they were cheaper stuff.. tt day i went back i got quite a shock. there was this really chio red bag that was AUD$450. bleah.


and i bought some cosmetics! yay. my foundation had finished, and i wanted to buy the same one from bobbi brown, but i went to kit cosmetics and had fun playing with the skincare products, the foundation and the eye shadow and stuff, and so i ended up buying the jemma kidd creme foundation, which is really nice. bought bronzing powder from MAC as well. happy. ^^


today, being friday night, suiyi and i went out into the city to do a spot of shopping. was quite late when we left the house - and very cold as well, so we were sort of bundled in scarves and coats. =) the hawksburn train station at 6 something. nice eh. on the train we saw many people in same coloured scarves and carrying flags on their way to watch australian rules football - seems like today was the first match of the season. i like leh, but suiyi like not interested in these kind of stuff. haha.


flinders street station with the clocks. there was a huge crowd in front of the station waiting for people, it seems, and there was music and everything as well.


horses on the street. couldnt get a really good shot of them, so i had to enhance it. there were just carriages and the horses were just travelling on the street together with the cars and the trams. kind of cool, actually. haha.


after shopping at target, where i bought a belt, a white shirt and cookie monster undies (hee!).. we went for korean food. very cool restaurant exterior, and very nice atmosphere inside. the waiters all quite seh also. heheh.


korean food always has these kind of small dishes by the side - but i dont really care for kimchi and other sour, pickeled kind of veggies.


miso soup and this really good glass noodle dish drenched in sesame oil. it's really good man. miso soup never tasted this good. funny, the best miso soup i had was in a korean restaurant. i need to feed myself more japanese food then.


and the bbq! i think i can be like a food photographer bah. i take nice food pics! haha. it was good, but i dont like big, really matured taugeh?

its 13 degrees now, coldd, but i like. everyone was in scarves and boots. factory outlet shopping tmr, hees.

velda.

velda downs a foster's.
11:06 PM

sunday = doggie day. haha. or rather, just whippet day. i didnt know [whippet] was a breed of dog until my aunt told me her friend, glenn, owned one. and so today, we woke up early for a long drive down to healesville for sort of like a whippet sports day of sorts, where all whippet owners from around the state of victoria gather to race their dogs and basically make friends. whippets are like smaller versions of greyhounds, so they can run super fast.


this is glenn's dog, wesley. he's a very very quiet puppy, only 7 months old, and a very good boy when it comes to travelling on the road. on the way home, he was so tired out, that he came up to me halfway in the journey and put his head on my lap. how sweet can a dog get?! aww. i fell in love with wesley straight.


at the gathering, we saw six whippet puppies in a playpen. this one came up tome and whined his head off. sweet eh. their eyes are really beautiful.




suiyi and i sort of christened this dog xiao bai, like crayon shin-chan's dog, because he's really white. think he's only half a whippet, his ears are sticking up instead of folded down. but he was so excited to see the other dogs racing that he kept barking at the mechanised rabbit.


traditional aussie barbie~ imagine me saying tt in an australian accent! but there were burgers and sausages. and guys in aprons over the grill. haha!


i managed to get a picture of this whippet here names stella who has a really pretty coat of fur. like branded dog like tt. ^^


a stop at this really cool cafe called [innocent bystander] (they have a wine cellar next door that you can see the barrels of wine) and had flourless chocolate cake with iced chocolate. good cake man. woot!


came home with a blasted headache because i cnt take long car rides, but it was worth it, the trip. anws, managed to get this shot of twilight from suiyi's balcony. beautiful colours. =)

miss u guys, though. hope u all stay happy and healthy eh. more stuff will come up soon. oh yah, by the way, it was daylight savings yesterday so now im officially 2 hours ahead of singapore instead of three. hehe!

velda.

velda downs a foster's.
12:34 AM

had a seriously long day today, so i have a lot of pictures! haha. suiyi and i left the house at 11.30am to meet her friend, phyllis, who is this really nice hong kong girl, and we made our way to city centre. it was freezing at around 11 degrees with the wind blowing in gusts. melbourne weather is sick. it was 37 degrees yesterday!? and so we first went to federation square for brunch.


this is how fed square looks like. contemporary designs stocked full with restaurants and exhibition halls and galleries.


where we were planning to go today: the 12th FINA festival, and the osaka melbourne festival at the docklands.


pancakes pancakes for me! was really sweet, but good... decadent, really. and suiyi had egg omelette, which i stole a bit, and phyllis had eggs florentine (which i stole a bit too). heheh.


then we took tram 48 to the docklands, when we got down, we saw the seven building, as in the tv station. nice design eh. =)) imagine yourself working there. woo!


the osaka melbourne festival was to celebrate the melbourne-osaka yacht race, where 2 sailors in a yacht each race each other to sail from melbourne to osaka in japan. how sick is tt? tts far! haha. the view at the docklands was spectacular, but very colddd.


we wrote tanabata, i dont know tt means the day or the wishes, but by writing your wishes down and tying it on a bamboo tree, it will come true. so i wrote "being happy" in japanese, and suiyi and phyllis copied. hah!


there's phyllis tying her wish on the tree. =) the higher the better, we thought, so suiyi pulled down the highest branch. -_-"


some people also carried the mikoshi, which was a shrine thing. look at left side of photo: shuai japanese guy alert. woot! the one in black hor, dont see wrong. there were dance demonstrations as well, and osakan food. not tt great a festival though, if you arent a japanese freak as i am.


so we went over back to fed square, where mannny manny performances were showing - for free. there were roving performances, and the first act we saw was these three frenchmen on fake horsebacks. very damned cute. especially this guy with the ponytail below. his expression was priceless man.


cute right? i was laughing my ass off. and he raised his eyebrow at me. haha. they were so into character.


then there was a performance about synchronised swimming in the air. they climbed up tall poles and bent back and forth on the poles. quite scary, but very funny.




these three african guys, called the zim boys, were really good. acrobatic feats, balancing, and great humour. fun. and really fit. we saw many many half naked men doing acrobatics and somersaults today, it was scary. half-drooling liao. haha!


this act was funny. these guys were playing normal instrments, but they were gliding in circles on wheels hidden underneath the long black thingies. it was hilarious, but very amusing.


and more naked men at night inside the BMW edge of fed square. really a lot, really. 11.30pm saw the mini theatre-like area turn into a club with DJ mr. scruff (who's what? supposed to be really famous?) but we were too tired. took the tram home. isnt it great trams run till like 12 midnight even?

long day. need sleep. now. nights!

velda.

velda downs a foster's.
4:55 AM

"you dont have to see somebody to know that you love him." - koby abberton

watched [bra boys] with suiyi today at the jam factory, was surprisingly good. it was sort of like a feature docuementary cum movie on the bra boys, a surf tribe from maroubra beach in sydney. it mainly focuses on the lives of the surfers there, and on the abberton brothers. sunny abberton is the write/producer/director of the film, and the story of their life in maroubra is spelled out beautifully in the whole film.

koby made tt quote when he was talking bout his brother, jai, who got hauled up in court for murdering a guy who was a rapist and a murderer. seems like he's a champion surfer, very famous guy. he takes up a lot of screen time in the film, and i did enjoy it. =)


was on msn yesterday and poppy came over to sit next to me and the laptop. super sweet! and she looks like she's staring at the chat window! haha, andy, told you she interested in cao ge lah.


ominous sky. finally after two days of terribly hot weather (i think it hit 37 degrees today) it rained for a short while this evening, and that brought the temperature down to 19 degrees. how crazy can melbourne weather get eh. but tt's good. long itinerary tomorrow. and very exciting. but ill leave tt for tmr's update. ^^

velda.

velda downs a foster's.
1:38 AM

now i finally got a cable to upload my pictures! have been in melbourne for a full 24 hours alr, and the weather has not been good! it was 33 degrees today, and i totally didnt realise anything. it feels exactly like singapore lah! haha. but i heard it will get better by saturday. =) okay, some photos of the trip:


my boarding pass! with mummy in the background. we were sitting in macdonald's and the singapore swim team came in. mum was freakin loud, and she went like, "eh, maybe these two shuai ges will sit next to you!" paisehh..



emo vance and me. haha. very emoo. just before i entered the other side of the airport. nicee eh changi.





the sky outside of the plane changed throughout the whole journey. was next to a really sweet couple. krisworld wasnt as exciting as i expected, so i stuck to my laptop throughout the trip and resorted to napping. >_< the picture above was a shot of adelaide from the plane.




took the skybus from the airport down to the city centre, and then cabbed down to motherwell street, where suiyi lived! see suiyi very act cute. but cute hor!




then we went out to the supermarket, and i thought the red tipped bananas were reallly cute. eco bananas? and a humongous carton of milk. two litres!



walked chapel street and prahran market today. chapel street is this whole street of shops and cafes, and the people on the street and really beautiful. haha. jam factory is like an institution on the street. think i know the street quite well alr, walked it quite a few times today.



popcorn aka poppy aka pop-pop the cat. her eyes are one green, one blue. and she's very sweet! she loves lying on top of my luggage, really.



and then suiyi and i went out to her client's launch party on commercial road, just off chapel street. free flow of drinks, more beautiful ppl, good tapas food.. and funny people like johnny! he's really funny and totally agreed to pose in this picture. if only i had the champagne... i just got a bottle of asahi. wahaha. website. suiyi drew the character many years ago for veronica, who is this reallly pretty boss of the place.



isnt tt nice? MEANY! on a green bike on our way home.



and i couldnt stop eating. had a souvlaki on chapel street. its a greek pita wrap with chicken that has been roasting on a spit for hours, so the chicken is super tender and super good. and i dropped a big piece on the street. (-"-;)

many many pictures just one the first day. =) hehe. hope the weather turns colder.

velda.

velda downs a foster's.
2:21 AM

always had this dream of blogging from the airport. haha! i fulfilled it, i guess. and im taking the same flight as the singapore swim team on their way to FINA championships. sng ju wei, tao li.. hahah. exciting! 1/2 hour before the flight leaves.

im off!

velda.

velda downs a foster's.
12:12 PM

21st March: 2020hrs - Arrival in Melbourne Tullamarine Airport

22nd March: Getting to know the neighbourhood - South Melbourne walk!
Drinks at suiyi's client's studio.

23rd March: Melbourne City Centre - Visitor Centre @ Fed Square
Swanston Street, Bourke Street, Little Bourke Street

24th March: International FLOUR Festival @ Fed Square

25th March: Wicked Sunday @ Fed Square & Festival Weekend @ Birrarung Marr to celebrate Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and 12th FINA World Championships

30th March: Swimming Heats @ Rod Laver Arena - 12th FINA World Championships

4th April: The Jim Henson Company's PUPPET UP! - Uncensored @ the Princess Theatre

*subject to further updates! ^^

velda.

velda downs a foster's.
1:20 AM

flight details:

Departing:
Singapore(SIN) on Wed, 21 Mar 2007, 0955 hrs

Arriving:
Melbourne(MEL) on Wed, 21 Mar 2007, 2020 hrs

Flight:
SQ217 (B777-300) Economy Class 

Seat:
53A (Check-in at Terminal 2) @ 0725 hrs

cnt wait. really.

velda downs a foster's.
8:04 AM