Status: Very Hungry~
Music: Viva La Vida by Coldplay, Sora Uta by Alan and Music Box melody

It's been 1 week since I'm back from Australia, and though I promised that I will update soon, I haven't got all of my pictures back from my uncle. Since I took so many photos, I was worried that the memory card wouldn't last throughout the trip. Luckily, my uncle brought his laptop and I could use his laptop memory space for a while.

Truthfully speaking, I'm still not in the mood at all for writing the entry on Australia. I'm sure it will be long, longer than any of the entries I have written so far. But while waiting for my parents to buy back lunch, I guess I will give a brief update on my life. (it appears that my "lunch" will come at 3-4pm >=< so I guess I will have plenty of time to update.)

Let's see, in the past week, I've been happily catching up the sleep I missed on my holiday. Imagine the gruelling lifestyle of waking up at 7-9am while sleeping at 12-1am everyday, just to fully utilise the days overseas. Well, the only day that I've really slept early, at 7pm was the day of snowboarding.

Some quite facts I've come to the enlightenment after Australia trip:

1. Their standard of living is high.
(I've always known that their SOL is high, but experiencing it made me truly emphatise with the poor there. For comparison sake, a hot dog bun there costs A $ 8.50 and fast food there cost around A $10 ++. The cheapest fast food would be Hungry Jack.)

2. Singapore food is the best!
(Seriously! There is a wider variety and since fast food are so oily and usually deep fried, I've gotten so sick of them, especially the fish and chips. Their steaks/ meat are alright though but they are usually more expensive. Since the Australia trip, I've come to miss Singapore more.)

3. The shops close at 4-5pm, so no late nights shopping for night owls like me.

4. Australia is slow paced and that doesn't necessarily equate to a good thing when you have hungry bears waiting to be served their dinner =S Though I understand that individually cooking a meal shows more sincerity, but when you have 15++ people to feed and not enough manpower/ equipment, this system of cooking is slow.

5. After all that's said, I guess climate in Cairns is much better than Singapore. The temperature in Cairns are comparable to Singapore, but you won't get Australia winds in Singapore.

We stopped over in Sydney and flew to the north of Australia, Cairns. There we spent 2 days 1 night in Cairns. Where activities are concerned, Cairns would be full of it. =)

Day 1 (09/06/09): Flight on Quantas to Sydney, followed by a domestic flight to Cairns the following day

Day 2 (10/06/09) : White water rafting at Baron's river with dinner in an Italian Restaurant (because the place we are staying at is a resort)
This heart thumping ride spears through The Barron Gorge National Park and the World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics. Yupx, the scenery of the surrounding rainforst was stunning! We coursed through rapids like 'Rooster Tail', 'Cheese Churn', 'Hells Gate' and also met the "Mother in law". Subsequently, we were mesmerized by the impossible beauty of the breathtaking lush greenery by the riverside as the Barron River drifts along the splendid mountains and majestic valleys. (Though I was busy regretting not having/ being able to bring my camera along with me to capture the beautiful sights. =< ) Along the trip, we also encountered huge boulders, zigzaged our way through the rocks and cut along the high-rising frothy waves of the water body.

Day 3: Cruising to green Island followed by snorkeling for the first half a day, riding on sky rail, Kuranda train In the Night, it was shopping in town at a shopping centre with dinner at a fast food centre where all the oily food are. (11/06/09)
I guess I will let the pictures paint the trip in the later update. In the midst of the ride on Kuranda train, unfortunately, most of us were asleep. Not surprising, considering how jaded we were. Grabbed some pictures from the net for Kuranda Train below.

Day4 (12/06/09) : Flight to Brisbane, Car Trip to Welcome Horse Riding on the way to Cairns, which ended in a disappointment

Day 5 (13/06/09): Movie World till 2pm (which was boring), followed by shopping at factory outlets for renowned brands (the items are still expensive btw) Dinner at a chinese restaurant with my aunt's aunt and family.

And since Geraldine has gotten tired of listing the days in Australia, she will just sumarise the following days in Australia. Further details will be in following updates, if she is not too lazy to write one. =p

In the following days in Brisbane, they visited dream world and finally their horse riding experience in the mountains on the second last day of Brisbane. In essence, since the first half a day was wasted on Movie World which could have been replaced by Dream world, Geraldine missed out on a shopping experience in Caberra's Market, which only opens on weekends and close at an exceptionally early time (by Singapore's and any other Asia's standard) at 5pm. In Melbourne, the main attraction was snowboarding and shopping in Queen Victoria Market. And so, this concludes the end of gist of Australia trip. =)

PS, I'm currently into the music mentioned above, especially music box melodies. FOr those interested, I would recommend the music box melody in Pandora Heart anime.

Just a little update before I fly off tomorrow. Hahax. I finally finished packing my luggage. ^^v 1n Big, 2 medium and 2 small. O.O||| A lot eh? But we tried to cut down le, at least I tried. Haha. Hopefully the caravan/ whatever vehicle we are renting got enough power to go up MT Buller.
The doctor said it was just muscle cramp/ache. After taking his medicine, the pain was not as bad. So I guess it should be okay ^^ And yupx, I'm sure I will have loads of fun. Ja ne~ Minah...

My right hip hurts. And this happens everytime I wake up and take a step forward. Maybe it's because of my bad sleeping position? It's been happening recently this past week and the pain worsened today. I just hope and pray that it's nothing too serious since a search on the internet gave results from Arthritis to Hip Fractures. I promise, I will drink more milk everyday (though I won't grow any taller =S) just to strengthen my bones. It's off to the doctor later for an examination.

I'm flying off on tuesday and it really doesn't seem to be my day/ week. My time of the month is here. Of all the times that it choose, it had to choose to assail me this week. Why didn't it come last week instead? >=( I'm just praying real hard that it will end on thursday, when I go scuba diving. Otherwise, I will just watch my sisters and cousin from the sidelines while they have a whale of fun, diving. =( I had a wild idea, to drink coconut and maybe, just maybe, it will be so heavy for the first few days and stop earlier. I doubt it works this way though. It's times like this that I lament the fact that I'm a girl. Coupled with the stomach cramps and backache that only I seem to have, and not my sisters. Maybe it's because I don't eat the right food. A guy wouldn't have to worry about things like that. Just to be fair, a guy has their share of problems too.

Not only that, my hip problem now may mean that I can't ride on most of the rides in dreamworld, movie world and wet n' wild. But who cares. Just praying that everything will be okay.

The good news is that my trip may be extended for one more day, or at least one more day in Brisbane. \(^0^)/ If the flight on 20th is full, it means that melbourne will be shorten by one day. =S Praying that someone(at least 8 people) last minute cancel their flight. If that doesn't happen, I won't have time to shop and buy choolates. I've been looking forward to buying and tasting the chocolates. =S And yeah, I know about Melbourne being a hot spot for Swine Flu, so my family are going to take more vitamin and all the necessary precautions. I seriously doubt and hope that none of us gets affected by it, because it will be a pain in the ass, with quarantine and everything.

It's been days since I've updated and for now, I don't feel like writing an in depth description about my one Day Trip in Malaysia. I didn't really enjoy it much, especially the lunch the dinner. It was seafood alright, maybe carcass would be a better word, since it is not fresh at all! It was a first time that I ate such a "expired" FRESH fish and prawns. For dinner, the lobster is so small and the hygiene! Gosh, Singapore's hawker centre is much better or maybe comparable to the hygiene in the "restaurant". For the record, my sister got vomited on the way home. Food poisoning. O_O It seems that everytime we go to Malaysia, one of us(my sisters and I) would come back vomiting. The only thing that made the trip worth it was the firefly viewing at the end, excluding the pungent smell of the diesel. It was like viewing Nature's Christmas Tree, with blue lights blinking randomly on and off. It was so beautiful, and we could see the stars up above. If possible, I would have taken a picture but my camera don't have the option to take the scence in lowlight, much less record it. This is more memorable that the glow worms cave I visited in Malaysia/ New Zealand a couple of years ago, can't remmber which country.

And man, Singapore IS really hot. I wonder if I can survive without aircon in the hostel. Maybe I should opt for aircon rooms in NUS. Still haven't settled the stuff on my hostel yet. =S On another note, I really need to go shopping for the following items:

- A bagpack (for my Australia trip(if I can get it on time) and Hostel)
- A decent water bottle that will not leak
- A jacket that is to my liking
- That shirt that looks like a two piece shirt from Hangten at T1 I think ( I think I have a penchant for two piece shirt)
- That limited edition skirt in FOX sighted while shoppnig with Clarence and Xin Wei
- And shorts while I'm at it, if I do see any that I like.

Heh, I guess that's all. It will cost me a bit and I probably won't buy them after I'm back from Australia considering how much we are going to spend on the activities yet. (the scrooge inside me is acting up again) I finally got Jeans from Giordano since it was on offer. =) Gahh! The shopping I have to make time for and many other things too. I really should start on getting the Hostel first and then reading up on "Designing a wireless network." The history of how communications evolve is really interesting. Makes me wonder what communication would be like in the future. Maybe I should write a book? I have absurd imagination after all. Hahax.

I guess that's all. Better go and pack my stuff and get ready for the trip. Sweaters, Long Johns, WIndbreaker and golves are going into my Luggage. Then it will be swimsuit, shirts, shorts and pants, not forgetting undergarments. Heh.. Jya ne~