chillipadiness.blogspot.com
The end of one journey, the beginning of another
Thursday 17 July 2008

My MBA journey in Melbourne has finally come to an end.
Melbourne has been a place that I have called home for the past year and I really enjoyed my stay here. It is an experience that cannot be exchange.
I have made plenty of friends and collected countless memories here.
Now, it is time for me to head home. To my family and friends.
I will definitely miss Melbourne deeply.

I started this blog because I wanted to update my family and friends about my life here in Melb.
So, i am still having doubts on whether or not I should continue writing and updating it when I go home.
What does my readers think??

writtern @23:56

Graduation Dinner

Tonight is my last night in Melbourne. I just came home from my graduation dinner. So happy to see most of my classmates for one last time before some of us start heading home, while others carry on their life in Melb.

Half way through dinner, people start moving around to take photos. This is Dr Tim. He's actually one of my fav lecturer. We had a long conversation while others were having their desserts.

With Bev. Will miss her deeply. Such a nice and sweet gal.

Izabela brought her bf along. Oppss, didn't intro myself so i didn't know his name.

Belle came with her partner, Tony. I'll be seeing her in like 3 days time cause she will be coming over to S'pore for hols.

Before Prof Sheldrake left, I quickly grab him for a pic. He's the one standing next to me. I love his lecture to bits.

Arthur Shelley is also another wonderful lecturer and author. I have read one of his book 'The Organisational Zoo'. Very interesting and easy to read.

Time for one last group pic before we leave.

Everyone was dress to the nines. Duke and me. Great guy.


Bank and me. Funny guy throughout the entire dinner.

'Varis' Hilton. Thats what he like to call himself. He's a born entertainer.

Belle got most of the girls together at the end of dinner and we took a group pic. I'm so going to miss Ashley, Celine, Mars and Bev.

writtern @23:10

Sydney Trip
Tuesday 15 July 2008

I just arrived back in Melbourne yesterday night from my 3D2N Sydney trip. On our very first day, we joined a day tour to visit the famous Blue mountain.

Our first destination was to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. Although I had seen most of the Australia native animal like Kangaroo, Koalas etc, I did see some exceptional 'performance'.

In Sydney, tourists are allow to touch Koala (In Victoria, state laws prohibit this). This is was having its usual nap when dar gave it a little pat on the back.

Then, we saw something really amazing. A kangaroo ma ma and her joey in the pouch. Its quite a rare scene and everyone was trying to take a pic of it. In the end, I guess the joey got scared and hid inside the pouch.

This was the exceptional 'performance' that I was talking about. This male kangaroo was flexing and showing us his chest, while peeing at the same time.

Then, he started scratching both his arms and belly. He really entertained whoever was there to watch it.

Then, we saw this really huge crocodile. Really really big.

After leaving the park, we head over to the Blue Mountain. We were given an opportunity to take some pics before we reach its 'peak'.

See the pic below and you can see why they call it the Blue Mountains. Because there are many Eucalyptus trees on the mountain, when its oil evaporate and the contact with the sun and atmosphere will cause this aura of blue around the mountain when you see it from far.

After lunch, we took a ride on the steepest railway. This pic shows the end of the railway, which is the least steep portion. So try imagining those in the middle. But it was very fun!

Here, we can catch a glimpse of the Three Sisters (look at the background and you will see 3 distinctive stones next to one another). Legend has it that there is 3 very beautiful sisters in a particular tribe that got turn into stone by a witch doctor in another tribe.

Next, we arrived at the Sydney Olympic Stadium where they hold the Year 2000 Olympic. The entire place was just enormously huge.

We ended out tour with a river cruise to see the world famous Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. I'm freezing because of the wind (well, still trying to act cute).

DA DA!!! It beautiful. But i personally think that the Opera House does not look as impressive when you see it up close. The bridge was just amazing. You can actually pay 200 bucks to climb it if you are the adventurous type.

I was very very hungry by then. So, we head over to Darling Harbour for some seafood dinner. This restaurant was recommended by Dar's bro. We had a seafood platter for 2. It was very fresh and yummy!!! I love the scallop most.

Dessert was at the Lindt cafe, who sold overprice chocolate and cake. Not really that fantastic anyway.

The next day, we arrived too late at the Sydney Fish Market to catch the daily hustle but we did saw lots of seagulls and pelican eying on the fishes . ahhahahahaha....

We left the fish market for Darling Harbour where we had our dinner last night. It looks slightly different when you compare it to the night view. We took the light rail and change to a monorail before we reached our destination. I wanted to come here again because I want to see the famous Sydney Aquarium, the No.1 visited attraction in Sydney.

As usual, we saw sharks, seals, crabs, octopus, lots and lots of fishes and platypus
There is Dory (actually, the fish is called Blue Tank) and....

Of course there is definitely Nemo!! I find this really amazing. It was the World Youth Day when we were in Sydney so there were catholic youth from all over the world coming to Sydney to attend the session. Naturally, the entire aquarium is packed with tourist from all over the world. But, when everyone crowd around the Nemo's and Dory's tank, and still speaking in different tougues, all of us call the clown fish 'Nemo'.

Before exiting the aquarium, we had to past through a giant glass task that were filled with all sorts of fishes.

After leaving the Sydney Aquarium, we took the monorail again to Chinatown. Pretty much similar to the one we have in Melb.

All in all, I would say i did enjoyed the trip to Sydney but I still prefer Melbourne. Cause i find the people there more rowdy and the service are not as good as what we get to experience in Melbourne.

writtern @16:57

Farewell
Friday 11 July 2008

Time really flies. It's our final paper today and right after that, it was photo frenzy time. Everyone brought their cameras to school and we had so much fun taking photos. It was fun working with Iz and Mars. Great to know both of them.

Elaine from KL. Although i have never work with her before because we are always not in the same timetable, I find her to be a nice and sweet gal.

Belle! What can I say. When i first met her, she was this really loud girl where you can hear her voice even way before you see her. But when I start working with her, she's really great and fun to be with.

I'm so going to miss this 2. Both of them are flying off tomorrow and I'll miss them so much. But i know I will be seeing them pretty soon.

Cute couple. The MBA course was what brought them together. I just love Ashley. Very hardworking but yet knows the right time to have fun.

My Vietnamese classmate. We have one thing in common. We are both bride-to-be!!. She getting married in October.

A group photo with the girls. Well, Boon seems to think he is one of us. Anyway, the photo taking session became a rather emotional farewell for Emily (top extreme right). See her nose and cheeks are all red from all the crying.

It has been a really joyful, stressful (and many other more emotions) for this entire MBA course. There are many people whom I will deeply missed and I really hope to keep in touch with everyone for the many more years to come.

writtern @16:07

Kung Fu Panda
Tuesday 1 July 2008

I finally caught the Kung Fu Panda movie. Just one word to describe it: Awesome!!
I just love all the animation and it was hilarious. And it was also very meaningful as well, unlike most of the animated movies where u had a good laugh and won't remember much of it after you walk out of the theater. Go catch this movie if you have not. Totally worth paying for the ticket.

writtern @16:15