Anyway….updates! 2nd sem is so hectic…I come back knackered almost everyday….and I used to have Fridays off last sem…but this sem we have animal handling pracs on occasional Fridays. They are held at the Gatton campus so we drive down there. So far our group has done horse handling, poultry handling, pig handling (this one was more like a super long tute with observing the demos done cos we weren’t allowed to even go inside to where the pigs were for fear of us spreading swine flu to them) and a visit to the abattoir at Dinmore which is the 3rd largest meat-producing plant in the world. In fact, I just came back from the abattoir visit…and I got quite traumatised, impressed as I was with the hygiene and scale of the whole operation. I mean, there’s an abattoir in Penang that I pass by sometimes and that one looks like a freaking hut >.<

Spring break officially starts tomorrow and I’m going to Sydney woohoo! Heh it is kinda siao actually cos I have prac exams for Digestion and Locomotion after the break .

Aite…gonna pack now….been procrastinating long enough..ermm gonna bring some books there to prepare for the prac exams (maybe?). Flight’s at 5pm tomorrow =)

ps/ being a vet student is soooo very cool….tell me you’re jealous =P

pps/ I think I’m getting fatter….my platypus is such a good cook…and he feeds me big portions lol

ppps/ I love my platypus!!!!! hehe

… accepts all your quirks and randomness

… thinks you are pretty amazing

… cooks for you

… brings you to Ikea just because you suddenly felt like eating Ikea meatballs

… carries your heavy Locomotion and Digestion books for you and when you forget to get them back for classes the following day, brings them back for you that night itself

… doesn’t mind waiting for you

… eats spicy food with you because you love spicy food even though he doesn’t

… walks you back everytime

… takes care of you when you are sick

… carries you despite your protests that you are heavy and puts you on his lap

…tries to restore your faith in relationships

… shaves a lot more frequently because you like clean-shaven guys

… accompanies you to meet someone in the city because he worries about you going back alone at night

And the best part is, I did not even purposely try to find that person =D

The meeting place was Joel’s house. Check out Nellyn’s huge-ass luggage bag…keep in mind that it was only a 2-day-1-night trip haha. I packed super light..didn’t even bring shampoo and toothpaste lol

According to Nellyn this is me ‘possessively holding on to Tina saying ‘My Tina!!!!” but I can assure you that I was not…that’s me cold lol

We piled into 5 cars and drove southward bound. Heh heh want to go to Sydney, anyone?

Reached Byron Bay approximately 2 hours plus later

Our backpackers called Nomads Byron Bay…looks quite castle-like hey?

The lobby…the furniture in the backpackers was funky-modern

Crap…fat arms =/

Room 204 which was the room Jill and I was in. We were separated from Tina, Nellyn, Yen Mii and Li Wen…but it was ok la I guess. Honestly, the place exceeded my expectations haha…this was my first time at a backpackers so I don’t really have any bench mark to compare to..but Becky said that if this was 10 the others would be like 4 lol. Also, the toilets were unisex…but fortunately nothing embarassing happened hehe

Lunch for Day 1- fish and chips from Jimmy’s…recommended by the backpackers staff. It is apparently the nicest fish and chips in Byron Bay but I reckon the best and most worth-it one is Salt & Battery at Hawken Village =D

We headed to the beach after lunch

Joel saw a dude lying down on the grass like this and said ‘This guy’s got the right idea’ and proceeded to lie down like him haha

Check out the lighthouse in the distance =) We went there the following morning to see the sunrise

Our ‘dream guy’ LMAO

Puff-uped seagull

Seagulls lining up to beg for food from the little boy. So guess what…remember my fascination with them at Southbank? Well I’ve changed my mind..cos they are so freaking greedy and they keep fighting for food and I even saw one stealing some stuff from two surfer dudes’ lunch haha. At least they are not as ugly as ibis lol

Kayaking

I love this picture…makes me look artistic hahaha perasan

After that, everyone went to another part of the beach where it was less crowded for activities. I don’t know the name of the beach but I shall call it Dog Beach…you know, like the one in Marley & Me haha

Them playing Captain Ball…I didn’t join in cos if you know me you would know that I’m athletically-challenged. And also, I didn’t bring enough clothes haha. Seriously, now I know how it feels like going to beaches in winter- When I’m under the sun I feel overdressed and when I’m under shades I feel underdressed haha.

Aww…the golden retriever that Tina, Jillian and Nellyn calls ‘Cheryl’ =.= even though he is a boy haha

=)

Another golden! And I don’t know why…but it seems like almost everyone at Dog Beach had that ball thingy lol

Hehe nice huh =D Uhhh…I was NOT stalking whoops

Tina and I memang Siao Char Bors haha

With ‘Cheryl’!

Awwww

Us making ‘Pepper’…This Pepper is Pepper Sand and not Pepper Choong…cos I don’t want my Pepper to be washed away lol.  Anyway…Pepper Sand generated a lot of publicity because random people came to check out what the commotion was about (us screaming cos the tide was getting higher haha) and apparently they liked Pepper Sand cos many of them took pictures of her =D

This has got to be the cutest picture of the day =DDDDDD Real doggy checking out sand doggy hehe

James going ‘build a wall!!! build a wall!!!’ hahaha

And the wall plus drains apparently succeeded =D

Ahh….James falls victim to the ‘toss-in-ocean’ game XD

Them semangat-ly building other animals. Uhmm…of course I didn’t have the patience haha. I mean, even the sand castle I attempted to build with Yen Mii was a disaster lol

Jillian’s bunny

Bye Dog Beach =) How I wish I could bring my Pepper Choong here lol

What did I tell you about the design in the backpackers haha

Barbeque for dinner

Tina and Nellyn playing ping-pong while waiting for the food to be cooked. After that, Nellyn played against James and James played against an Aussie dude who was playing sambil holding a bottle of beer haha. Then James played against another Aussie dude who was younger and looked quite cute and was super holiao. The 4 of us girls couldn’t take our eyes off him XD

After-dinner drinks haha…Smirnoff Ice and Bundaberg rum & cola

Games before we went to sleep hehe. Oh and for the record, we won =D. Fine la it was a nerd game… but still..lol

ps/ a few pictures courtesy of Li Wen..thanks =)

I didn’t really manage to take a lot of pictures that day, especially the ones with the rides.

Dreamworld’s at Gold Coast too and I went with my vet gang. It’s $69 for a daily pass but because we are UQ students it’s $58.65. It really pays to be a UQ student in QLD haha…for example, in cinemas here, UQ students pay the least…even less than high school students or students from other unis here =D

The 3 of us were supposed to meet Tina and her cousin Samuel who is from Melbourne

Jill trying to reach Tina

The Claw! This is the second ride we took…holy crap! It’s one of the top 6 scary rides there

Cyclone which is another one of the top 6 rides

Wipeout which was the first ride we took haha…also a top 6 ride, but it wasn’t really scary, honestly haha

Nellyn’s turn to try to reach Tina lol

After taking Wipeout and The Claw back-to-back, we (namely I) felt dizzy and nauseous so we decided to slow things down a little. We took the train in the park to the wildlife place

Tina and Samuel

Us three…and I look sleepy lol

Murky waters haha and ducks, pelicans, storks etcetc

Can you spot the mandarin duck? and check out the other ducks sleeping curled up in balls =D

Tassie devil with a botak patch on the tail lol

Koalas!!! <3 Sleepy heads they are…they sleep like 22 hours a day or something like that haha

What a precarious position lol

Crocodylus porosus haha nerd mode

Red kangaroos! This is the first time I’ve seen red kangaroos here, you know, those huge ones always depicted in movies and documentaries. Previously, in Australia Zoo and Brisbane Forest Park I had only seen wallabies and the other smaller species of kangaroos

Dingo!

Heh heh imagine the poor dingo waking up to find another dingo’s butt on its face =P

White tiger

Holy crap this must have been the scariest ride in the whole park!!! It’s 39 stories high =O There are 2 rides on that huge-ass pillar, namely the Tower of Terror and the Giant Drop. And I’m very embarassed to say that I chickened out of taking the Giant Drop…. =/ Me!! Who took the Superman ride in Movieworld back-to-back. Oh well, I reckon if Chong Hao and Haziq were there to hype me up I would have taken the Giant Drop lol

But I did take the Tower of Terror ride though, it’s freaking fast and I reckon it looks scarier than it actually is haha. Of all the top 6 scary rides in Dreamworld, the Giant Drop was the only one I didn’t take

*Ohhhh who lives in a pineapple under the sea???* hahaha I like Spongebob…but I can only take small doses of him…I remember falling asleep when watching the movie at Julia’s place lol

Jillian, Nellyn and I took this non-scary, non-chikek ride to chill haha

Remember Chuckie from Rugrats?

Bye Dreamworld haha. I think I won’t be going to any theme parks in a while though, can’t believe we actually covered 4 theme parks in just 1 sem

First stop: Albert St Uniting Church

Only Tina, Jillian and I went there because Nellyn woke up late lol. We didn’t go in because it wasn’t open yet. A pastor (I assume) came out and invited us in but we were paiseh…and this may sound really bad, but we were also afraid that we would be stuck listening to him preaching and not know how to politely excuse ourselves ehe

Brisbane City Hall. This picture taken from the pavement outside Albert St Church

Inside city hall. The stairs lead up to the Lord Mayor’s office hehe

Old-school lift buttons. We were going up the place to take another lift up the clock tower

Old-school telephone booth and the girl who likes to take pictures with every single thing =P

We went up the clock tower on this very old-school lift (no kidding! It’s been around since 1930)

Check out the Albert St Uniting Church =)

The bells

One of the clock faces taken on the way down

The MOB (Museum of Brisbane) is also situated in the city hall (admission is free! in fact, all the touristy places we went to that day did not have admission fees…which is what I love about here hehe)

Scary much? XD

Next, we went to the Anzac Memorial Square (Tina and Jillian had planned the whole itinary for the day). I had been there before but they hadn’t

This flame never goes off

Central station opposite memorial square

Koala House? Haha wonder what they do in there…

Tina and her metallic foxy boyfriend XD

St John’s Cathedral =D My first time going to a really old-school church…you know how most churches nowadays are only normal buildings? Especially in Malaysia. I’m no christian but I really think old buildings are cool haha…uh except haunted ones T.T This church is so old-school that the bishops and other people whose titles I don’t know sorry ehe wear those ceremonial robes during service..that’s what I heard la haha.

St Martin’s House opposite the church. I reckon the bishop or whoever important lives here lol

Me loves this kinda architecture =D There were pews too! Pews!

OMG a real pipe organ!

The cathedral is an Anglican one and even Queen Elizabeth attended service here in 1954! Please excuse my use of ‘!!!!’ haha

Stain glass windows

Crap I am short T.T

Us cloud-gazing while waiting for Tina to go to the toilet haha

View of the cathedral taken from the park where we had lunch prepared by Tina =)

Remember how I always thought that this was City Hall? On account of how the city halls in Batman and other superhero movies always look like this. It’s actually Customs House

See? Haha and it belongs to the all-awesome UQ! I don’t know the purpose of Customs houses though…but there are restaurants and function rooms inside…that’s all I know lol

After that we took city cat from Riverside to Southbank

The Ferarri that so many people were clamouring to take photos with. People! It’s just a Ferarri (muahaha berlagak..haha just kidding) Anyway…I reckon the stretch pink hummer was cooler =D

We went to to Queensland Museum at Southbank. Heh I know it makes us sound so nerdy…going to two museums on the same day. Some people who think they are cool wouldn’t even be caught dead in a museum right? Anyway…let me tell you a little secret…we are boring nerds who are secretly very very very awesome XD

Jill and I doing nerdy stuff ie trying to remember the different types of dog bones we learnt and trying to apply them on dinosaurs >.<

I reckon Queensland Museum is pretty amazing =D Much more interesting stuff compared to MOB. But the cool thing about these two museums is that they change the exhibits, which is more that I can say for the museums back home. Also, I don’t remember….but we have to pay to get into museums in Malaysia hey?

=D I love taking this kinda pictures lately haha

Clouds on fire!

We went to the casino for dinner and Jill treated (or ‘shouted’ as the Aussies say it lol) us on account of our bet that says whoever gets 7(s) for the 1st end of sem exam has to treat the others. And btw if you are wondering (and you probably aren’t haha)…I got a 4 (chun chun pass haha…BIOCHEM what..what more do you expect lol) and 3 6s (distinction! haha telling my parents I got 3 distinctions sounds better than 3 6s)

$10 each for a cake, main course and coffee/ mocha/ hot chocolate/ tea etc because we signed up to become members hahaha. it’s $14 for non-members. WTF would my friends/ family think when they know that I’m a casino member =P

Salmon quiche

Beef carbonade

And after-dinner drinks at Batavia =D

I had chocogatto that I had been craving for days

Lemon Lime and Bitters recommended by your’s truly =D

Mochagatto

On the way back from Southbank to the city to catch the bus back to Indooroopilly (which I waited for 50 minutes on account of it being a Sunday and also it was the already the last bus), saw this different lighting of the casino =D

But first, we went to the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium cos it was nearer to the carpark. Nellyn drove again whee

It was quite small though, only circular. But what I like about the touristy attractions here is that there is no admission fee haha.

Nellyn and Jillian were very semangat and interested. But to Tina and me, everything just seemed really colourful and sparkly and pretty lol

Some famous Russian astrology dude whose name I have forgotten ehe

Next, we went to the Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens. I always thought that there was only one botanical gardens here which is the one in the city but this one is wayyyy huge

Nell and Tina were excited over the dandelions. In fact, they were super excited over many many things that day and kept asking me to take pictures of the posing with those objects of interest haha.

Woo…acrobatic eating!

The orchid and cacti place

LMAO check out the last sentence =O

I don’t know this is the try ‘yang keberapa’ lol cos we kept trying to include everyone in the picture….uhmm this will be a recurring theme throughout the day haha

Not posing

Was probably pointing at this very salah-looking cactus..eww haha

Us carrying the lunch lol

Tropical dome

Most unflattering angle everrrrr…eww

Cool fern leaves

Inside the fern house

Camwhore opportunity haha

Orange tree! My first time seeing an orange tree lol

Lunch time Take 1 failed. We had African sausages (huh? haha but they were nice nonetheless) and mash potatoes and gravy prepared by Tina and Jillian, salad made by Nellyn and chocolate chip cookies and Cadbury Flake bought by me. Heh heh proves who is the laziest of the bunch huh =P

Take yang I don’t know keberapa still fail haha

Japanese Gardens! I love these gateway thingies. Have you been to the Japanese Gardens at Bukit Tinggi? That one smells nicer haha

LMAO this picture made Tina, Jillian and I laugh non-stop XD

Smooth-looks-like-been-sandpapered tree

Bamboo plants that have been vandalised =/

After that we got tired and lazy so we drove up the remaining of the gardens (which was still a large portion of the whole place)

Freedom Wall commemorating the sacrifices of the Australian Armed Corps in World War II

Totem poles! But it smelled really really really bad there, which makes me wonder whether the lake is an effluent pool lol. However, there was still an ang moh couple chillexing/ cuddling/ sun bathing in the vicinity =O

Sounds somewhat morbid, hey? =P

Macro shot of this ‘could possibly be a sakura flower’ plant turned out quite well =D But seriously though, don’t sakuras grow on trees in Japan during spring? Operative words here being trees, Japan and spring haha

Nonetheless we were fascinated =D

Self-timer haha

Edward Cullen wannabe =P

They were also fascinated with this ‘rusty-cave like hole-whose purpose is unknown’ =.= I laughed for a full minute or two when the asked me to snap this picture lol

Us on the Aboriginal Art Trail

No more pictures of the trail because Nellyn and Tina dropped the camera I myself have never dropped before and I was pissed off/ scared I would cry/ scared I would scold someone/ simtia lol. You know how protective I am of my stuff >.< But it’s all good now, because even though my cammie has two small indentations at least the lens wasn’t damaged =)

We still had time so I suggested that we take City Cat to Apollo Road which is the last stop and back again for the view

We waited for the City Cat at Guyatt Park. I am such an artistic stalker =P

Sunset <3

On the way to the city

The bridge connecting the city and Southbank

Kangaroo Point

Story Bridge

Customs House at Riverside that I used to think was City Hall…you know, cos the city halls in Batman etc always look somewhat like this lol

=D

But first…a picture I found in my external hard drive haha

Heh heh heh thinner last time =P

Ok the turkeys lol..uni has quite a lot of them but I took these while on a hiking(?)/ trekking (?)/ aboriginal art trailing(?) trip at Mt Cootha hehe and I’m sorry they look super mediocre compared to the squirrel pictures you took using your keng camera lol

Turkey number 1

Sorry couldn’t get too close ehe…I think this is already zoomed =/ The turkey was scared of me and vice versa haha

*Gobble-gobble* Seriously though, do turkeys make that sound?

Turkey number 2

Haha I wish I could think of funny captions like your squirrel post but I don’t think turkeys are cute ehe. By the way, these are not the edible Christmas/ Thanksgiving type are they???

ps/ better comment =P I stalked them cos you wanted to see them haha

OMG should I go? Whatever entails would be so much more complicated and confusing and possibly heartbreaking but then when it works you feel so happy and contented…kinda like doing algebra, or C++ sighh

Maybe I’m thinking too much about it and the truth is it’s nothing like what I imagine it’s gonna be. It could be just 2 friends going out…yupyup, that’s it

We’ll just see how it goes hey

update: tak jadi cos no more dimsum after 3pm lol