MELBMELBMELB 2017 (The Great Ocean Road! Pt. 1)

Sharing some of my memories and photos of the trip here because whenever I look back on my other trips, I would think 'Eh, this trip was fine. I don't think I did a lot of things but it was ok.'
I always love travelling but it feels like my mind becomes blank after a while??? (Early signs of dementia? Oh no)

In the last few years, the first thing that came into my mind whenever I think of Melbourne is how much I regretted not going to Great Ocean Road back in 2012.  (Not that I had a choice, since I was on a guided tour.)
5 years later, I have a friend in Melb, a driving license and (some) money, I wouldn't miss any chance in the world to go to the very place I've been so obsessed about. I was so excited about going overseas, I booked my flight tickets 4 months and planned the itinerary 2 months in advance. Kekeke!

(9D9N) MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 2017!
11 Nov 17 (Day 0): Flight time!
 
I have been on a few plane rides before this but this is the first time that I was flying alone. Granted, I wasn't going on a solo trip (maybe in the near future), but I don't think I would have survived driving by myself in a foreign country when I don't do much driving in Sg. ʅ（´◔౪◔）ʃ

Lady at security check: Hey, I like your passport cover.

Yea me too. ^^

There's nothing exciting about the flight, but I didn't get much sleep. T.T
There must be some sort of magic about overnight flights because I can usually knock out anywhere, EVERYWHERE. Buses, trains, cars, day flights, you name it, I've slept on it. But night flights? Nooooooooooooo.
I changed about 15 positions but the longest uninterrupted sleep I got was maybe half an hour? The neck pillow I brought didn't help at all. :(

But after a night of torturous sleep, I finally reached kangaroo land!

12 Nov 17 (Day 1): Airport -> Geelong + Anglesea (Great Ocean Road)!
Choo drove the car to the airport to pick me up and we're off to the Great Ocean Road!
The first stop is Freshwater Creek Cakes and the whole reason why we're there is because I googled for good food along GOR and someone said that the passionfruit sponge is great and so it became a must-visit for me.

It's not exactly a tourist attraction, but while we were thinking what things to buy, quite a few locals were there and everyone knows that this place must be good if the locals frequent it so YAAASS a win!

In the end, we bought the passionfruit slice, apple slice and a lamb pie. (The sponge cake is too big for the 2 of us to finish *cries* but it looked SO BEAUTIFUL)

 It all looks so meh, but tastes yum!! (I love the icing of the passionfruit slice. *sniffs*)

THE CAKE! *stares longing*

I solemnly swear that I will bring more friends so I can force them to share this glorious passionfruit sponge one day.

After our morning break(ish?), I got behind the wheel and brought us to Bells Beach in one piece. My lack of driving was pretty evident throughout the whole trip, sometimes it's like I threw my common sense out of the window but let's not talk about it.

Bells Beach!

Bells Beach is supposedly a surfer's heaven, but we didn't get to see any surfers there. Hmm.
According to Choo, it also wasn't because the water was cold because apparently, they have surfing competitions in the winter too. I think those people are quite siao.

I got a bit excited cus it was the first beach that we visited so I went to touch the water, which was alright, not too cold. (I read somewhere previously that the water along GOR is supposed to be cold because it's one of the closer countries to Antarctica? Still not sure if this is true or not, but the water did get colder when we're at Loch Ard Gorge a few days later)

Then, we continued down to McGains for our lunch(ish?), where we shared a cauliflower cake. The café was quite pretty, it was like dining in a garden/greenhouse, depending on where you choose to sit.

This turned out to be a nightmare for me because it tasted so strongly of CHEESE. I'm not a lover of cheese, I do enjoy cheese on my pizza and nacho cheese and some others. But this one is save-me-its-so-smelly-every-time-I-breathe-through-my-nose kinda smelly for me. ಥ_ಥ

I didn't have a terrible meal on this trip but this one takes the cake (haha, cake) as the worst meal for me because of all that cheese.

We arrived at our accommodation (BIG4 Anglesea Holiday Park) after that and I think it set off my high expectations for camping grounds and cabins forever.

The blue sky + the green grass + the cute cabins around

We stayed in a small shipping container, which looks really cute from the outside (other than the fact that a few people thought the same and tried to come in and take a look).
It's actually just beds inside so it was really spacious! There was no air-conditioning so it's too hot to chill inside, but there's a tiny ledge with 2 barstools outside so it's perfect for us. (10/10 would recommend to book for all seasons other than summer, man. You'll cook inside in the summer.)

The row of shower rooms/bathrooms/toilets are also my favourite out of the entire trip even though it's outdoors. It's so clean and nice and big. From outside, it looks like it's the cabins as well. I really regret not taking photos of it for showing off purposes hahahaha.

Inside the container

Outside! (Thanks Choo for the photo)

 Happy Choo

We went out to walk walk and look for a supermarket after exploring the camping ground a bit (they have a playground and even a swimming pool - what!)

Anglesea River

After the river, we drove to the town where they have a IGA (which is like the Coles outside of city areas) and we didn't buy much except for a bottle of garlic aioli and some snacks.
Spotted a takeaway shop selling fish & chips, so we dabao-ed a set to share and we went back to the accommodation to have our dinner.

(Pictureless because fatigue has taken over my brains at this point)
I went to bed super early that night omg, the amount of sleep I had the previous night and the excitement made me crash. Plus the weather turns super cold at night, so I can only hide in the blankets, which was the exact thing I did.

After a break of a month and 10 days, I have decided to come back and write some stuff so my non-existent readers can catch up on my life. And also I'm having this illusion that I have some spare time because it is the holidays.

Things that happened (and that I remembered, with additional help from my phone pictures):
- Capstone (or more commonly known as Final Year Project)
- Did a lot of acroyoga during D3 classes (semi wet grass though D:)
- Capstone
- My birthday
- Visit to help out at a soup kitchen
- Ate at Watami
- Went for a cousin's wedding (and discover some interesting stuff)
- More capstone
- Discovering funny videos (or sounds, rather)
- Super24 (omg omg OMGGGG)
- Loft stay during S24 period
- Mum's birthday (went to eat at brotzeit)
- D3 Camp 2014 (DIVERGENT) :D

CAPSTONE
- Like that lor. Very busy. Busy busy. But our idea was given the green light by client so all's good. :D

ACROYOGA

Some cool stuff that we did because Kay wanted to let us have a break from super-stressful-choreo-aside-from-S24.

Was the photographer for the first week because my wrist was being annoying. But I got to do some stuff in the second week because my wrist was better and it's back stuff. and I like back stuff because I feel like my back is the most flexible (and therefore more daring to show off too).

Third week was just too intense and I didn't care to do much stuff so nah.

BIRTHDAY

Ate at Ichiban the day before with ma family (without the sister because she was in Europe)

 Lighting wasn't good so only got picture of sashimi

Annnnddd on the actual day itself, the VTTs stuffed the table drawer full of snacks and Elysa asked me to go open the drawer "to get her a marker" during a relatively serious discussion about capstone. Then they sang Happy Birthday and I responded by throwing a marker at Elysa.

The hobos bought me a cheesecake and celebrated before S24 prac started. Pearly got me a thick book supposedly full of lame jokes but I haven't got time to read it yet. And the wrapper is so cute hehehe

 Honestly, I am so touched because they didn't have to do anything but they did it anyway. So grateful for these bunch of friendzzzzzz. :')

HELPING OUT AT SOUP KITCHEN

Peeling onions, chopping onions, plucking chilli stalks, chopping veggies. For our YEP post-trip activity where our in-charges totally (abandon us and) didn't appear :( It was pretty interesting to go around and help. And I had this onion soup craving for the next few days because my fingers smell like onions (shout out to all the people who can cut onions thinly)

EATING AT WATAMI

Just eat lor with the sis and the dad. They fought in the car on the way there and I was 90% ready to open the car door and leave ugh. But everything became ok when the food came. Nom nom nom (sucks when sis got dad's strong-headed genes but they think differently so they usually have screaming matches AND IT TOTALLY SUCKED THAT DAY CUS I WAS THE ONLY ONE THERE AND I HAVE TO LISTEN TO ALL THEIR RUBBISH)

 Wasn't too stuffed because it was all shared so I'm actually pretty happy with the meal. MINUS THE PRE-MEAL FIGHTING >:(

COUSIN'S WEDDING

More nom noms. And dressing nice. And awkward chats with relatives. And them not recognising me.

I think it looks like there's filter. But there's not. Hehe

 FUNNY SOUNDS/VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE.

Discovered it during a lecture. Always laughed about 5 minutes straight. Showed it to some people during the camp and we laughed for about 10 mins. HAHAHA

 

 And then we found another one. It's not as funny but we were laughing like crazy so it's damn funny.

SUPER 24

没有话讲。Show picture 就可以了  :')))))))

 I don't know why I'm grabbing Loretta's arm so happily though

Almost didn't join the competition. But I'm sososososososo glad that I gave up searching for a job and joined instead. Training wasn't easy but we did it. Thankful for all the judges' decisions because we actually tie scores on the first round with Major Crew and then on the second round with AON and everyone for working so hard. Thank you thank you thank you.

LOFT STAY

It was damn fun because everyone had their funny moments. Like my "The cold very floor" and "The hotter very water." And gossip sessions. And supermarket shopping. And the less fun part like staying up till 4am to do my assignment.

MAMA'S BIRTHDAY

Was on day 1 of the camp so we went to eat on Sunday instead. Always wanted to try brotzeit and I finally did! (And my siblings were in total amazement because I voluntarily said I wanted beer. But I was thinking heck it, it's a German restaurant so lai lah)

Meet my mum, the alcoholic. Nah, kidding.

And meet the food we ate too.

D3 CAMP 2014 - DIVERGENT

So what else to say. Camp lor. Hahaha. Every year, I hold a different role. Participant, organiser, facilitator. And I got to say the facilitators are the most under-appreciated. They run around everywhere to do things but the freshies don't really see that.

But I got my moment of fame when they wanted to show the bloopers of the video annnddd I was up there. With tiny eyes. Doing weird stuff. :(

But interesting things that happened:

- my selfie skill is very lousy (which helps in my station so that's good)

- Turtle henna

- there is another Shi Ling in D3 now (she won best camper and I'm kinda proud. Like we-have-the-same-name pride)

- too many people snore (including myself)

- I am a Divergent (with 13 other people and the comm so the shirt is kinda only applicable to us MUAHAHA)

- a lot of walking around

- Mark's epic response to Collin when he found that he was a divergent

- the divergents winning the 'war game'

- greaaaaat Day 2 food

- watching Frozen during dinner HAHAHA 

This post is way too long so I'm not gonna check for grammar or spelling errors.

More than 100 Happy Days

Hiiiiiiiiiii, it's been a while yaaaaaaa. Because I've been busy. But my procrastinating self is coming out for a short while because it's time to update a bit before I continue to go back to reality (read up on book sources for masina) so let's talk about something, like the 100 Happy Days project (http://100happydays.com/).

I wanted to join this challenge but the thought of posting something on insta for 100 days consecutively makes it so sian (because I'm so lazy sometimes) and as a person with a not-very-exciting life there is a high chance of repetition so I decided not to and instead, make a mental note when I am happy each day/time.

SO here's a list I complied of super easy things that make me happy, let's include a photo for each point haha:
- When I see Meowna (or pets in general)

(This was sooooooo long ago, when she came not long ago and only stayed downstairs) 

- When I eat nice food (ok this is not super easy but quite)

 

(Waffles. So self-explanatory)

- When I dance (usually makes me happy, like 99.5% of the time)

(See how happy I/everyone look?)

(But actually hor, honestly I thought I was gonna fall so I had to distract myself but cheering then this happened)

- When I hang out with my friends (watching them interact is funny enough already)

(Latest Eggs & Berries outing, missing Chu Yi, Pearly and Wilson)

- When I buy something in a super nice colour. Like this post-it

(It was love at first sight when I saw this colour hahahahaha)

- When my insta has, like a lot of likes

 (Let's face it, we all like to have a lot of likes on the picture we post.)

(50 is my highest so far, which is quite low if you compare to all my popular friends but it makes me sooooooo happy HAHAHA)

- When I get home before night falls, provided that I'm not sick

(Yea, I was half sick when I took this photo)

Ok so there are obviously still things that make me happy but this post would be wayyy too long by the time I'm done so let's move on. It is a great idea to get people to post something that makes their day happy. I'm happy for my friends who had completed 100 days and I have no doubt my friends who are still on this challenge (because they started it later) that they would complete it. 

'But what happens on days when they didn't post a photo??' You wonder. Yea, I wonder too.

Precisely this is another reason why I didn't join the challenge because I know that there would be days when I will be so upset by something that it overshadows the happy thing. Like the time I found out that the BP recital is during capstone implementation weeks and I had to quit because I won't be able to go for the recital. (I found out right before I was going to sleep and felt so bad that I couldn't sleep properly that night) (I think it might be because of that then I fell sick because I felt so terrible for dumping my friends [we were so excited to be able to dance together again] and I was almost falling sick then BAM) 

So that would mean that it's not really 100 happy days but more like 100 - x happy days. x meaning the days you didn't post a photo.

So before you think I'm a miserable person for not joining the challenge because I knew I will fail it, I am doing pretty well just thinking of 'what made me happy today' because of some YouTubers I follow. Bubz always writes in a book called 'Today I am grateful for' in her vlogs and Ingrid said her favourite quote is "Everyday may not be good but there is something good in everyday", which then became my favourite quote too because it does make so much sense. Both of them has made me try to see the good in everyday. I may not see it every single day but yes, most days I see it. (Though it might get harder and harder because all the stress's coming now but I'll try)

For example, if I drop my stuff on the floor and someone helps me to pick it up, it is enough to be grateful for already. If I am able to come home for dinner and see that my mama has cooked my favourite veggies, I am super happy already. (SIMPLE ENOUGH YO)

So why go and be happy for only 100 days (or 100 - x days)? Go be happy for as many days as you can.

P.S. I shared a picture of the quote (that I made hehe) on my insta but deleted it because I felt that I couldn't find the something good in everyday for so many days after I posted it. The good things are coming back again but if something terrible happens again and I lose it for dayyyys, I will delete the quote because I am a selfish human bean. :P (Don't hate me)

P.P.S. Time to read the book sources now hurhurhur

P.P.P.S If you are wondering what is the something good I have today, I actually have a few things!

1. I didn't fall even though I slipped about 5 times while walking down the stairs because it was raining. Same flight of stairs somemore. Terrifying experience. #accomplishment

2. It stopped raining when I reached buona vista so I didn't have to open my umbrella to walk to rochester mall!! Wahaha

3. I didn't really have enough money for lunch but I managed to have enough to buy a cup of bubble tea which is really helpful because I only started getting hungry at 5 plus.

4. Sister is going overseas for 10 days so now THE ROOM IS MINE, MUAHAHAHAHA (she just left the house)

5. I saw Meowna today :D

Taking some time today to do some posting because
1. I haven't posted in a while hahaha
2. I'm not going for class today so got a bit of time
3. Ought to post more before I run out of time in the near future because Year 3.

TADA. So the first week of Y3 just went past like that and then I fell sick on week 2. Like fever and everything. It started with cough then fever then flu then throat infection. And when night comes, I feel like Charmander... Because I keep having fever at night then my hands (and legs) felt really veryyyyyy warm.

But of course, Charmander is a lot cuter than I am, I do have self-awareness ok.

Seriously when I don't go to the doctor, I don't go to the doctor but when I go ah, everything comes. :( Just hoping that was the last visit to the doctor for the rest of Y3. Or forever.


So other than describing my sick days, I felt like setting some goals for Y3 or at least this sem.
1) Plan a damn timetable because I do not have wonderful time management.

2) Survive sem 3.1 trying to force certain people (AND MYSELF!!!) to hand in their work (AND MINE TOO!!!) on time. (2 times already gahhh)

3) Try to go for at least Friday/Saturday classes even when super busy (therefore must achieve goal 1) because dancing is stress relieving.

4) Stay happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy (as much as I can)

(P.S Does anybody wanna buy this for my birthday because it's sho prrrreeeeedddyyy and my birthday is coming bahahahahaha)

5) Go for internship interviews and ace them, stop being so nervous, you stupid Shi Ling. And presentations. And all the pitches. (What on earth my IS have individual pitch too :((((((()

6) GET CUMULATIVE GPA TO 3.2, which means the GPA for this sem must be 3.6704 and above.

Omg I'm so gonna work hard! *sleeps for the rest of the day*

Happy?

Today (I mean, yesterday) was a pretty good day. I don't know why but yes it is.
Woke up feeling very generous so I extended my breakfast buying service to my sister (I rarely buy people breakfast happily, let alone OFFER to buy) but she didn't take it because she had to go out for lunch with her colleagues at 11plus.

List of happy things today:
- THE WEATHER WASN'T SO TERRIBLE
- Official first day of using new phone (YAY)
- The battery lasts pretty long
- Made my lock screen time and date and day slightly more visible by changing the background to light blue
- Actually finished my fishball noodle during breakfast (usually I can't finish the last few mouthfuls because I get sick of the noodle taste)
- Thought today was Thursday so I had to clean the house but nope, I did it yesterday because today is Fridayyyyyy
- Remembering that I don't have classes on Thursday (until I get too busy with capstone, then the free time will be spent there)
- Forgot about self-prac, which starts at 5 so I didn't planned to go out earlier but still reach on time
- Still reach earlier than most people
- Dance lor (today the swag walk reminded me of the cactus-y dance in sec 1/2 because we walked something like that too but with less swag shoulders then HAHAHAHA) (and I don't have much swag)
- Found Cynthia who thought the hype for TFIOS was slightly too overrrrr too
- Hiok :D
- PASSED LEVEL 70 OF JELLY SPLASH AFTER LIKE 5 DAYS LOL (not even gonna try and get 3 stars because passing it is like pure luck)
- Dug through some old photos to post on insta (hehe) and found my all-time favourite extreme unglam picture of my brother (but I'm nice enough to not post it). Unfortunately, my sister doesn't have one (or I wasn't old enough to remember).

I think the worst thing today was just getting spicy nuggets from Old Chang Kee accidentally. Like I didn't even know they sell spicy nuggets????!!!?!?!??!!? But I changed the remaining with Jerald so everything's fine. OH and having sucky potatoes for lunch because they were burnt :((((

All these still don't really justify why I'm SO HAPPY today leh. Now I don't wanna go to sleep because I might wake up and be super duper grumpy but good night. And it seems extremely wordy above so here's a picture that can show how happy I am. (I feel like I might be Tris with the Amity serum injected lol [Insurgent reference])

P.S. Speaking of which, Divergent was like a pretty nice book but Insurgent just goes on and on. Like they run to some place, they are safe. Ten seconds later, the traitors come, then they go away. Then they come again, then they go again. Then they come YET AGAIN, and they go away. But I'm still about halfway through the book so I hope the plot gets better. Might be happy also because not reading Insurgent today might have contributed a little :P

P.P.S. Yesterday (or the day before yesterday) was a little happy too because it took me quite a while to find a shop that has the screen protector for my phone (even though it's a flagship phone, seriously) and I took the bus in a round because I haz concession [Home -> Far East -> Dhoby -> Home] (read: I could have walked but nah). And even though I have like a holiday bucket list which says to sew a laptop sleeve from scratch but I was too lazy and I have no money at the point of time during the two times I was at Spotlight so I ended up buying a Ripples sleeve again~ Like I saw the design on their FB page in the very morning and I was like "that's it man" and I got it in the same day. NO MOAR BAGS BECAUSE I GOT THREE FROM CAMBODIA YA.

And hello, it's been a while since I posted something hehe

Summary of the past week:
- My phone overheated and died :( Lost all my convos on whatsapp even though the chats are still there
- Dance
- More dance
- Read Divergent in about plus minus 2 days.

Yes. Very uneventful except for the books, so let's continue to today.

The reason I chiong finish reading Divergent yesterday because I wanted to finish before watching the movie today. I like to have my own imagination of the story before having a set image (or a whole move) to it. Even though it sucks because I would always prefer the book to the movie but it's ok, having imagination is important. Like how President Snow turned out to be exactly how I pictured, all Santa Claus-y and wearing the shade of colour I pictured him to be wearing too.

Unfortunately, the movie is not quite what I expected. There is a chasm but I thought it was filled with water? The Pit is super bright but I don't think it's supposed to be? They skipped a lot of parts like the super gross Edward-having-knives-in-his-eyes, I understand why it's not included even though I feel like it's crucial but things like Tris having 5 fears shown in the movie when she's supposed to have 6? Jeanine being inside Dauntless at the last part when she's supposed to be at Abnegation? Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? And ohohoh, Christina was supposed to be the one who took the flag because she's taller than Tris and she could reach the flag but in the movie Christina is shorter and Tris took the flag?

I should be less upset because I should have known books confirm provide more details than movies but sigh~
#books4lyfe #nerds

But ok, after the movie we went for Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day :D And it's our second year having FCD so we got a stickerrrr (not the ticket stub) for me, Choo, Ben while the rest got first year cause they weren't with us last year.

Met Dinis and Elysa there, hurhurhur.

And while I was trying to blog, Meowna came in the house and decides to loiter for an hour. Here's a picture

"I'm just gonna chill here, ya. Don't bother about me."

New phone coming tomorrow. Hehehehehe

BACK

I've been back since Sunday but it's ok. Pretty sure there're less than 10 readers anyway.

Never been away from home for this long (2 weeks) and there's so many things I've learned.
These kids may not have many things in their lives, but they appear to be contented (because we should not assume that they ARE, said Nara/Mr Ong/Mr Wong/Ms Jie Yi). So when will I stop thinking about what I don't have and count my blessings instead?

 

Their excitement of having lessons makes me wanna treasure my chance of receiving education because many of them want to learn so much, but they just aren't able to. (It's hard to really like my lessons because I just want to sleep sometimes but still.)

Which brings me to a side note that one day, we went to eat froyo because there's free wifi and we went to update instagram and whatsapp and check out exam results. And I got my highest GPA out of all sem (3.3636!!!!!!) (not cumulative) everrrrrrrrr in poly life. :')))))))))))) Which means my cumulative GPA improved. It's not veryyyyy significant but I achieved my primary goal which is to bring my GPA back to a 3.0 at the very least. Seriously, it teaches that it's damn easy to do/get something negative but making it good/getting the bad out takes soo much effort because overall, I only improve about 0.0896. 2 more sems left, I hope to bring only even highhhheerrrrrrrr.

Ok, honestly there are a lot of learning points, but I'm a little sian to continue already so I'll just post photos.

 HOBOS! And hoborary guest, Glennis

 On ze ox cart then A LOT of kids just climbed onto ours.

 Chick chick chick :D

COWWWWW (ku)

P.S. I think I look like a lobster when wearing a red shirt and tanned. And I'm too lazy to upload more photos because it takes a bit of time so too bad if you aren't my FB friend then :P