Mel - Adel trip 2008

It has been a long long time since I last blogged ya.... Lots had happened since my Aust Open blog. Haz's bday was celebrated and my family came over for the CNY period! Lots of golf during the weekends and then work and EBA (final CA module) project was completed and submitted on 15 Mar 08!

Before I go into details on those stuff that took place during the last 2 months which I did not have the luxury of time to blog, I will jump straight into the week that just passed.... The start of my post-secondment trip around Australia..... Bearing in mind that come July (proposed start of the post-secondment travels), it will be winter and knowing that weather will be cold, miserably and unpredictable then, we decided to travel to the southern parts of Australia first... So, we took the opportunity of the extra-long weekend of the Good Friday and Easter Monday holidays and traveled around Melbourne and Adelaide from 16 Mar - 23 Mar 08.

Let's me do a day-to-day summary of stuff we did! Haha.. It was fun stuff...

16 Mar 08 (Sunday) - F1 Grand Prix (Albert Park)

Flew in from Syd the previous night after submitting my EBA project 2 days in advance... Picked up at the Mel airport by xiao mei, Mich, and off we went to her place where she and Yishan (who flew off to NZ with her family on Sat morning) kindly housed both Haz and I!

Before we made our way to the Grand Prix on Sunday, both of us went to the Mel Visitor Centre to book our day trips to the Great Ocean Road (Thu) and Grampians (Wed). Mon and Tue will be our free and easy days to sightsee and shop around the Melbourne city...

Now to the ING Australian F1 Grand Prix.... Hot hot day! Apparently it was 38 degrees! And the heatwave was unbelievable at the trackside... Applied sunscreen for numerous times and still no help for our burning skin! Our General Admission tix allowed us to walk around the trackside but there were so few sheltered areas! No grandstand seats for us.. And the 'grass' patches are simply just dust! And as you would expected, drinks are sold at a premium.. $5 for a bottle! Counted ourselves lucky that we did not spend x times more on the grandstand tixs as most of them had no shelters too and to sit under that heat, I can't imagine enjoying the race...

Ready to be burnt for the day!

Map of the track-side

Matching colors... It was very stuffy in the covered tent actually!

Nothing beats the actual experience of watching the F1 cars zoomed past you at unbelievably quick speed and deafening sound! The ear plugs we bought came in useful! The safety car was out the very first lap of the race and it came out several more times and in the end, only 7 cars finished the race and considering the temperature on the track, it came as no surprise that the engines and parts of the cars blew up... Scary heat...

The heat got to dear and she nearly had a sunstroke and was so exhausted before the race was over... We ended up going off early so as to beat the crowd and it felt so good to escape the heat! Both of us must have lost quite a bit of weight that day given the amount of perspiration that we had! We got back to Mich's place and had a good wash up (whole body was covered with layers of sunscreen and dirt... imagine..).. Looking forward to the night race in SG in Sep 08!

Think this will be our only time catching a F1 race live (unless we get the most expensive tix) as watching on TV in the comfort of our home is definitely much more exciting! Haha..

Jap cusine for dinner before we went back for Mich to finish up her project while Haz and I visited Crown for some fun..

17 & 18 Mar 08 (Monday & Tuesday)

Shopping and sightseeing days... Free and easy... After hearing about the huge amount of money spent by Max and co when they were in Mel for the Aust Open, both Haz and I were filled with hope that we too could bag ourselves great bargains. We searched through DFO, the various factory outlets along Smith St (Nike, Adidas, Converse, etc..), Queen's Victoria Market, Melbourne Central, the various Arcades and laneway shops in Mel city and bought nothing much... Haha.. maybe we din go to the shops with really good discounts or unlucky to miss out any promotional deals...

But still, we spent about 1+day walking around Melbourne city for shopping and sightseeing activities. Great fun as the weather turned for the better on Tue... Cool breeze and healthy sunshine accompanied our walks. Korean food with Mich on Monday night and special thanks to Joey and Jovi for joining us for dinner on Tue night at a nice Chinese restaurant...

More spacious and tidy than Syd Paddy Market. A must visit shopping place!

Our real traveling starts the very next day.. Haha... Look out for my next post.. Surely will be full of pictures as the weather was great for the rest of our trip in Mel and Adel!