Melbourne Trip: 2nd to 15th July '14

Hey my lovelies! :) If you have kept up with my instagram, I was back in Perth on the 15th of July :) If you don't know, well... now you know haha ;)
I was supposed to make a summary post on the 15th, however, I was emotionally unstable due to unforeseen circumstances back then (still is, but that's another story) and also because I got called to work the day after, so ya I've been working everyday since I've come back from my trip... very tiresome *yawwwn* thus explained, my inability to compose and deliver a post to y'all *my apologies* :3 Luckily, I do not have to work tomorrow, but I gotta go to temple for a rehearsal, so it shouldn't be that tiring *I hope not haha*

Hmm... where to start.... let's see... I shall post the brief highlights of each day.. while they're still fresh in my mind haha :)

2nd July: Depart Perth

- reached Melbourne around 7pm
- I believed we were all thinking when we reached there, was like "Nooooo... we lost our 2 hours haha" XD
- picked up from airport and transported to Fo Guang Shan Temple in Yarraville
- tired and hungry but luckily, we were provided dinner.... they were saaah good and VERY filling.
- met dorm-mates: one from Sydney, the other Brisbane and another a New Zealander :)
- felt myself getting sick because from the change of weather, started coughing, it was terrible! At that time, I was like ya I will have time tomorrow to go out and get some cough medicine... nek minnit.

3rd July: tour to 2 places with the interstate crews

Went to:
- William Ricketts Sanctuary - it's such a peaceful and enlightening place, a place full of sculptures!(well 92 to be exact!) I legitly lost counting as I got surrounded by more and more sculptures along the path XD Some reminded me of Greek gods/goddesses hmmm....
- SkyHigh Mount Dandenong - such a breathtaking view! :D

4th July - 7th July: ANZBYC Camp @ Mt Morton Camp & Conference Centre

It was such an amazing conference! Made new friendships and the bond between us perth yads who went, got stronger :) Gotta give a big clap for the Melbourne YADs, they did such brilliant job in organising it! Eventhough the camp has passed, I still got the theme song stuck in head lol :P If your interested, click HERE to check out (click on the second one)!

8th July:

- Brekky at Pie Face :)
- Walked around the city
- Went to Emporium! Mandatory elevator mirror selfies hehe ;)

- Saw street performers busking! They even have a sign showing their facebook, youtube, instagram and itunes account. (made dem links on each social media site, click on it if your interested)
- Went to H&M... ZOMG. I got a tad crazaaay afterwards haha, cos the whole store just overwhelmed me in general, so big! When will it be Perth's turn to get a H&M.... hmmm one will ever dream so haha XD
- Met up with 2 of Perthians who were holidaying in Melbs!
- SELFIES here and there! :P
- Walked to Eureka Skydeck! Such a long walk but the view going forth and back made a worth-ing decision to do so! Here's a SELFIE on the 88th floor! It was really funny cos on one of their television screen, it said if you took a picture and post on instagram, go tag it as #eurekaskydeck. I tagged it... nek minnit. I saw my selfie appeared on their screen hehe... I felt special for a minute haha XD *silly me*
- Dins at Rice Workshop! Their 2 dorrrraaaa matcha soft serve cone was ahhhmazing!

9th July: Mt Buller! (PIC)

First time skiing and see snow haha! X)

10th July:

- Yumchaaa with YAD sydney and some melbournians at Westlake Restaurant in ChinaTown! :)
- DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) South Wharf Round 1: It's pretty much like Harbour Town in Perth, but of course with a more wider range of brands.
- Went to Melbourne Central - had Schnitz! Their chips were to die for!
- Was totally surprised (didn't expect it at all!) by these bunch of lovely friends! PIC 1 and PIC 2 Truly blessed! :)

11th July: My birthday! :)

- birthday brunch at Gogo sushi with the perth crew! (click this PIC to see how many plates we demolished!) We 7 people cleared 75 plates! It was a sushi-train restaurant! And all da sushi plates were so cheeeeeeeeeap! Only $3.50 per plate! Such good deal! Can't find that here! The lady who sat opposite of us, was very surprised that we ate so much.. and more coincidentally, she's also from Perth! Such a small world! She even took a photo of how many plates we demolished hehe ;) Below's the photo she helped us to take, it's just us girls :)

From left to right: Tammie, Me, Grace, Viv

 - karaoke timee! :) Spent 4.5 hours singing our hearts and lungs off haha! We went to PartyWorld, it's located at Melbourne Central.

 - dinner at Your Thai with some of the Sydney-er, New Zealander and 2 melbournian crews! :)

Photo credits to: Grace

- walked around city after dins! Bumped into Mickey and Minnie Mouse hehe, got birthday wishes from dem♥

- departed in our ways, then we perth yads met up with 2 people from perth originally in melbs, had dessert at The Pancake Parlour

Top: from L to R - Grace, Tammie and Me
Bottom: what we 3 girls shared :)

- received a humongous macaron from one of my dearest friends! PIC

12th July:

- brekky at The Pancake Parlour... again haha X) The restaurant reminded me of 'Pancakes at the Carillon' in Perth.
- went to the State Library..... so big!
- went to QV.... it was at the food court area then we got attracted to Tutti Frutti, tried their flavours... and ended up getting them ourselves XD It was quite chilly that day too, but there's always an exception for froyo haha. PIC
- shopped more as we wandered around the city!

13th July:

- brunch at 1000 Pound Bend! We originally wanted to go 'The Hardware Société' as it's a very popular brunch spot in Melbourne, however, by the time we reached there, there was a long pile of people waiting in the line, we were very hungry, thus we skipped it and chose the closest cafe that offered brunch, and that's how we landed at the so-called '1000 Pound Bend'. PIC
- DFO South Wharf Round 2 - SHOPSHOPSHOP! Vans had a 70% sale... holy shmoly, bought a pair of vans for my brah, I was gonna buy a pair for myself but then I was like I had lots of shoes at home, rents gonna kill me if they find out I buy another pair, so I resisted the temptation X) haha luckily it worked!
- Went to Crown for a quick look haha! Pretty cool haha! Didn't end up going to inside of the casino itself as we were in a hurry, but from the outside look, I think it's pretty much similar to the one in Macao!
- Went to '甜品屋 Dessert Story': ordered a tiramisu flower pot! PIC It's really similar to the one in No.4 Blake Street.
- Dins dins at Don Don! It was one of the recommended places suggested from one of my friends. Food there was cheap and good! Worth the price!
- Walked all the way to N2 Extreme Gelato, it was a pretty long walk from city! XP But worth it at the end haha! I ordered choux-choux (pronounced: shoo-shoo) hehe. PIC

14th July:

- brunch at this very cosy and creatively-designed cafe, called "Flipboard Cafe" A definitely must go place if you're travelling to Melbourne! :) What I had: PIC

15th July

And.... that's it! :D Had a fantabulous time there! Truly unforgettable memories! :) It's really crazy actually, to think about it, the friends I've (we've) made during camp, you've grown so close with each other, yet you can see them next year, or maybe not, the following year... it leaves a strange feeling on me... it's almost like the friendship we made during the camp are like penpals, hmm no words can describe this feeling... I probably ain't even making sense right now.. anyways... hope y'all enjoyed reading this! :) There were a lot of pictures I took, still had to sort them out and have yet to post them on facebook, shall do soon!

Next year's ANZBYC is going to be at Brisbane.... hopefully I can make it there to rekindle the friendships I've made this time :)

Overall, this trip was really an "oomph" to my life, as I would consider this as my getaway aka an opportunity to escape reality, where I have absolute nothing to worry about.

Till then, hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! :)

Love,
Velene xoxo

Jan '14 Getaway summary!~

So yes... here comes my getaway summary :) *haha about time I finally finish cleaning up all the photos I took lmao*

Okay... so I left Perth on the 8th of Jan.... perfect timing! This is because at that time, the weather was REALLY boiling and there were bushfires around :O and I was so lucky to escape that! *phew* *not that it affect my suburb... thank god!*

Before I start, I would say that this is probably the most memorable trip I've ever had with my family, filled with positives and sadly, negatives!
Positives are: family bonding time :), ate so much (legitly I've gained a lot.... exercising nearly everyday to shed them eventhough I'm such a lazybum but gotta tone up after all it's summer, can't wear pants to uni cos that be just weirdd T.T), playplayplay hehe and finally, visiting relatives have always been amazing as always!
Negatives (unfortunately so in this trip!) Have never experienced before! Obviously it is clearly pointing out that the society is changing, racism is everywhere!! Eurghhh... the frustration. I for one, grew up here, had never experience discrimination nor racism for real, like I get racist "jokes" from friends but in a very joking way which I'm aware of! So yep the point is, my family and I got freaking discriminated not just once, but TWICE!!!!!! One at KL AND another at Hong Kong. I've never fumed so much. The feelings were horrible. Never again would I want to explode... I for one admit, acted very immaturely aka swearing and shit but I was outta my head (and this one was from KL) while in Hong Kong, I was more calm but I hell did stood up for what I believed in, and to re-think what happened, this is a joyous memory, you guys must think that I'm weird ay, "getting discriminated, yet a joyous memory".. say what haha. Long story short in a very vague way, pretty much my dad made the initial start to rebut their racist remark then I took over cos I thought of a great way to rebut them, and legitly their expressions were shock. speechless. surprised. And in my head, it's like "yep. bitches. you just got owned." XDDDD and we just left from there. This happened in a lineup for The Peak so everyone surrounding may have heard everything and when we leave, I saw some people pointing at them and quietly laughing.... hehe.... score.... victory. Haha okay, I sound a tad mean there~ But they so deserved it for freaking being racist to us at the start.
...............
I legitly wrote a massive rant-paragraph on both racist happenings, then I re-read it again, and somehow it hit me that it's better not to post it out for real. So yep. Not releasing any deets on them. Some of you would have know already cos I did ranted and vented to youse on that day it happened, so sorry for that :X but thankyou for listening and giving opinions though haha XD!

ANYWAYS.

I'm just gonna post the highlights of each stop in this trip. Most of the photos contained my family and I. They weren't that keen to be shown on my blog, not because they're ashamed but they're just you know, they're fine with posting them on facebook but not on a public platform, which I understand perfectly. Because after all this is my hobby. So yes, your lucky if you know me personally, I won't post your name/picture out if you have irritated me x.x Moreover, whenever I want to post pictures of me and my friends/cousins, I have always asked for their permission, yes, I'm so old-fashioned haha but almost 99.99% of the times, they agreed. Haha~ So it made blogging so much easier hehe XD

Let's get the drum rolling, shall we? ;)

First stop: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Purpose: EAT & SHOP

I admit, it was a really short stay here compared to my trips before! BUT regardless, we cramped a LOT of shopping and eating..... legitly all my gainings were just from this stop XD
The places we went:

At Jake's Charbroil Steaks (Starhill Gallery)

- Starhill Gallery - Luxurious mall I've ever seen! WOW. We didn't shop here cos they're so posh and we aint rich nor posh. So we only tried the food here and they're darn good... which was really expected cos they're so high-class!~

- Pavillion: so many branded stores = freaking expensive! So didn't buy much from there. Haha I went straight to Forever 21 (cos perth doesn't have one... why?!), but I only ended up getting a parka for this coming winter x.x The fashion trend is not that great this time~ While for eatery, we do spend a lot of time munching there, cos the food were bloody good and cheap!! XD And omg, also went to Daiso as well, got so many RM5 stuffs, like legitly, why can't perth open up a daiso store too, I'm sure everyone will love it.... sigh... It's like the same with Krispy Kreme doughnuts.... why? It's like here is missing out so much good stuffs haha and we need to catch up with these! XP

- Sungei Wang Plaza: we planned to skip this one out, cos we went there last time, however it took a turn when it was raining and we had to run to the nearest cover heh~ So ya, walked around for a while and just bought some accessories from stalls..

- Berjaya Times Square: Never went here before, so it was my first time! :D And I love it! Cheap shopping like legitly, compared the prices between the clothes here and Pavillion, around similar cloth quality yet one is branded and another isn't, while the branded one for eg cost around RM100 but the non-branded one is like around RM20! So yea, I bought heaps XDD *no regrets* Can't wait to wear them hehe :DD And initially, I was hesitant to buy cos most of them were free sizes, aka asian free size, and I know that majorities don't fit me cos for one, I'm bloody tall and two, I ain't skinny haha~ I found most of what I eyed-on in the "Tiny Taipei" department and they were stalls, so not try-outs. And they were cheap too! Ranged from RM20 to 50.... and that's roughly equivalent to AUD 6.80ish to 17 bucks... can't find it here at all in perth! So ya, I was like yolo haha, took a bet that they'll fit me by approximating the length haha and I ended up buying like 8 clothes from there - 2 tops, 2 skirts, 2 dresses and 2 jumpsuits/rompers. I didn't buy shorts cos they were like short shorts and I have enough of them at home already, not that I want to look anymore sluttier haha and moreover, my mum doesn't really approve of them much either~ :P And OMG. I was so surprised that there is a theme park inside this shopping centre. WOW. First time to ever see that! Insanely amazing!

- Fahrenheit 88: Good shopping here! :D

- Plaza Low Yat: We went here because we need to fix some phone stuffs and we heard it's cheap to repair there as it's an all-electronic-gadgets shopping mall and also my bro wanna check it out too haha! I legitly got like so sick of all these gadgets after going floors upon floors of different technologies :'O Like there's so many people working there, and wherever you go, all these promoters shouting at you in a nice way of course! haha~ The air to breathe is so hard cos everywhere is packed.. not even kidding! And majorities of them are like around my age, like in the 20s and they're dashingly hot haha~ XD "asian-hotness" lmao haha~~

- Lot 10: It's quite old. Only went to H&M and Zara but didn't buy much, cos some were just not worth the price.

Yep, that's it for this stop. 7 shopping centres covered. :D

Second stop: Hong Kong

Purpose: EAT & PLAY & WALK

I was so ecstatic for Hong Kong haha cos it's winter here and I want to ditch the hotness and embrace the cold haha~
We went to quite a lot of places in Hong Kong. Ate a lot too XP Didn't shop much as it was winter there and also because I already bought what I wanted in KL.... so it was just "if-I-see-that-this-is-cute-I'll-get-it" kinda gist~
This time, we ended up only choosing to go to Disneyland and skip out OceanPark. And we ended up going to Disneyland on Monday, thinking that school already started and that people are gonna work so there won't be many people there.... but we were so wrong! There were SO MANY PEOPLE...... I'm not even kidding. Like I would say, 3/4 of them were tourists from china :P Arghhhhhhh.... the frustrations.... but we left before the fireworks! *phew* so tired but so worth it haha~~
Spent a day going to temples! :D
Enough of me typing, check out these:

Favourites of all time! At 澳洲牛奶公司!

Favourite icecreams of all time! These were what we got our hands on! Why can't Perth sell these too? :( But then I'm relieved that we don't cos I would get extra gainings from eating them non stop LMAO.

Happy Hour! Cocktails time! :)

HAHA. If you recognised what I'm laughing at. Give yourself a pat on the back haha~ Ya I'm immature like that XD

Such a brilliant mango cake I've ever tasted and seen! :) And we got this for half the original price at the Mong Kok MTR station and it was quite late so I guess they were having sales? haha~ I forgot what the bakery is called though :X

Third stop: Sandakan, Malaysia

Purpose: EAT & CHILL 

By the time we came here, it was a pretty much cloudy-with-tad-raining-here-and-there week!

Well aren't these turtles cute? :)

My cousin's dog, Pudding, he's so darn fluffy cute! :) Grown so much too!

Had this for brekkie haha~ Tasted great! Can't find this here haha~

UFO TART.... MY FAV!

That's pretty much it~ Hopefully, I did a decent job heh :)
If you people are interested in where I went and/or any question/s about da trip (I'm sure none of you are hehe!) , feel free to drop a message down below or tumblr ask or kik me (username: shemelon)!

Before I end, I'm gonna do a reflection, felt like it's needed and more appropriate to write down my thoughts right in this post.

I have actually learnt a lot from this trip, despite all the shop-eat-fun craze. Initially, I've felt that (actually more like my sixth sense) tells me that this year is going to be different. I still don't know what exactly is going to be different but I now know 2 of them. I don't even know whether they are actually good or bad for me. Something inside tells me that for one of them, it's going to be good for me in the long term run while the second, is like "you've-dissapointed-yourself-so-much-aren't-you-*******??" I don't really want to share it out on a public platform because it's too personal, yet I want to dig some deets out. So sorry in advance, for being vague.

Actually what confirmed me that this year is going to be different, was mainly during my trip to Hong Kong - while visiting temples. They have made me to think a lot, like every angle to each aspect of my life at the moment.

On the same note though, there will be one thing that will be different if I act on it. Meaning if I initiated the change, it's joining the crew of "this-is-going-to-be-a -different-year". This has been on my mind for this entire trip.... incredible, isn't it? Very. I myself also hardly believe it. I just cannot believe for the fact that it's making a big impact in my life right now, at this stage. I originally didn't want to delude myself into it, knowing that if I actually do, it will be hard for me to get out. And now I've actually deluded myself in it. What should I do?
Should I initiate the change or should I just let it flow?
If I initiate it, it probably doesn't even affect the other party. It will mostly affect me because it is I who build up my courage to initiate it and must suffer the consequence/s I've made. However, I do know that if it does come to this, the cause-and-effect will only affect me in a short term run.
On the other hand, if I let it flow, it's going to be tough in the end because I know things have already changed and they seemed to be too hard to go back to where they're used to be... And this is going to affect me in the long term run...

Lots of thinking and I legitly believe I should act on this asap, before uni starts, which is about a month and a bit away~

I think I'm just gonna leave it there~

Love,
Velene xoxo

Oh my...

Just letting y'all know.... I'm back... :'( I shall miss my overseas holidays.... aishhhh... back to this boring place T.T with this intense summery heat.... noooooooo :((

ANYWAYS. Good news for youse all that I'll be back blogging for good LOL :P I shall tidy up all the photos I took during my getaway and shall post a review on them here sometimes this week XD depends really how fast I can get the job done haha XD Tiny confession here.... I took A LOT of photos... oopz..... gone viral lolololol :P so ya, get excited guyss! :) Oh and also, I just make a new label, "getaway".... this will be the label for my upcoming post.. just to make future finding easier hehe X) *labelled this too as getaway cos well...*

And of course, during my time to form an awesome getaway post lol, I will still continue to do my "PERSONAL" posts :) *where I left off before my holidays* I got loads of positive feedback from them... so thankyou so much! Those messages are truly what's keep me going everyday! Love y'all! :)

Ta for now!

Love,
Velene xoxo

OMG!!!!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'M LEAVING THIS AFTERNOON... YAY...... TIME TO GETAWAY FROM DA BORING PERTH LOOOOL N ESCAPE THIS INTENSE SUMMERY HEAT TOO! HAHA XDD

AWWW.... GONNA MISS YA ALL AND BLOGGING TOO! :'( SADLY, I WON'T BE BLOGGING WHILE I'M AWAY. BUT. DON'T WORRY! I SHALL DO A MEGA HOLIDAYS' SUMMARY POST FOR YOU ALL WITH LOADS OF PICTURES :D

Moreover, I may/may not (depends really, whether I get wifi around while travelling) to update my instagram :)

CIAO FOR NOW!

PS. FELT LIKE TYPING IN CAPS TODAY... FOR NO REASON... JUST TOO EXCITED N EAGER HEHEHEHE!!

LOVE,
VELENE XOXOXO

The Getaway summary :) ♥

Twas a great week back to Sandakan! :)

I had so much fun! It felt good to go back there to see relatives... but... the weather... on the other hand... doesn't seem to agree with me.... I had so much nose bleeding. Like. No jokes. So crazy. And they were non-stop too.... even worse. >.< *sigh* I haven't even have nose bleed in yonks!!!
Anyway.... besides that.... the main point of actually going back to Sandakan was to attend my cousin's wedding :) roughly saying, it consisted of:

(a) a banquet dinner at the bride's home;
(b) an actual (formal) dinner (from the bride's) at a restaurant where there were heaps of people and my other cousin of mine, named Nicole (one year younger than me) and I were showing people around where they seat.... ya it was quite fun... except that I have an uncle that was very controllable (both Nicole and I can't even stand him LOL) lol he was lecturing us on how to do this and that properly LOL.

Me camwhoring LOL XD

 (c) then that night, Nicole and I had to sleep-over at the bride's house - we slept at 1am and we had to wake up at 6am lol to prepare everything aka the bride's makeup and dress and our brief makeups since we were 2 of the 6 bridesmaids! And la di da, it followed the typical chinese wedding traditions... XD

(d) photos! :D

bridesmaids (side view)!













bridesmaids and the grooms-maids.. LOL.













the whole lot :P









(e) then finally, it ended with the groom's dinner... at the saame restaurant LOL... thank god... there were some different dishes :P

In between all these, Nicole and I encountered:

- a "weird" boy haha
- 6 perverted groom-maids (as we called it haha since they were the groom's friends and also we were the bridesmaids and they were the opposties so ya haha XD couldn't think of an actual name to called them lol... but is there one though? LOL)

Before the wedding occasions, there were mixtures of our own gangnam styles parodies, pranking on the neighbours, card games aka bullshit, blackjack and heart-attack, "dares" for those who lost in the card games which reminded me..... I was the first one who lost the first game LOL... how noob haha XD and I had to say "Hi!" to a random guy they (aka Nicole, her bro and my bro) picked XD  SO EMBARRO cos he was like "wtf?!" And I was laughing hysterically as well and ya as soon I said hi, I literally was like a superwoman... flied off lol XD so funny haha! So hilarous though and we met him in the wedding couple of times and it was VERY AWKIES since he was staring at me for most of the times (some I found out myself and some Nicole pointed it out to me, she was like, "ooh la la, that guy is looking at u oh.." :P)
THANK GOODNESS I don't think I will ever ever ever see him again haha! :') :P
then ya, the perverted guys - just crazy hilarious moments XD too loong to describe everything here haha but I think you'll get the drift though lol XD


Nicole and I - pics summarised in a collage :) can't wait for her to come to Perth to study hehe XD!
















turles and Pudding! :) ♥♥♥


















That's pretty much it that I can summarise now, took heaps of pictures (so proud... in just one week haha XD), some are in-between! :)

Hope ya all enjoyed reading this haha! :D