wniza

Archive for December, 2011|Monthly archive page

, , , , ,

Where to go in Melbourne

In Melbourne, travel, Uncategorized on December 26, 2011 at 8:52 am

A friend called me recently to ask for recommendations on how to divide his upcoming holiday to Melbourne, Sydney and Gold Coast. I dutifully gave my recommendations (it primarily depends on your main objective for the holiday – if more city, culture, architecture and scenery go to Sydney and Melbourne, if more family entertainment then GC) but it then made me realize how i have never really written a post about my experience in where and when to go in Melbourne. For the benefit of friends and readers who’ve never been, here’s my take on the cosmopolitan city I called home for 1.5 years till recently.

If you only have a couple of days in Melbourne, a recommended itinerary is to begin your day having breakfast and souvenir shopping at Queen Victoria Market (except Mondays and Wednesdays when they’re closed). They have yummy mini-pancakes and oysters (if you’re a fan).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Then spend the day touring the city on the free City Circle tram for tourists (although i think more locals hop on and off as they please to get across the city as it’s free). Melbourne city is easy as it’s shaped like a rectangle and cut into grids, just like Manhattan (my favouritest city in the world – sorry, Melbourne).

Get off at Flinders St and explore the city’s lanes; they’re my favorite thing about Melbourne. My favorite is Central Place; it’s got quirky European-like balconies and cozy cafes where you can drop by for lunch. My only complaint? It’s too short.

Cross over into Block Arcade and Royal Arcade where there’s the delightful Hopetoun tea room, halal Indian food (there’s loads of halal food in Melbourne, you’re bound to find one) and the world’s best hot chocolate at Chokolait. Then head to the shopping haven of the pedestrian mall Bourke St (or Collins St if you’re rich) for some Melbourne shopping. There are also some DFOs at Harbourtown and Essendon if you want cheaper prices.

Complete your day by having dinner and watching the fire show outside Crown Casino. They start out pretty harmless and small and then they do get pretty big so be careful if you’ve got toddlers!

If you have at least one more night and depending on the season, head to Phillip Island (2.5hrs drive south towards the Mornington Peninsula) to watch the penguin parade at sunset. No one is allowed to take pictures so I haven’t got any, but you can google it and see the professionally taken pics yourself. They’re the best touristy activity to do there and a definite must-go for me – seeing all those little penguins emerge from the sea after a day’s fishing and waddling their way home in a group is one of nature’s miracles!

If you have a bit more time, you can drive through the Great Ocean Road and see the beautiful scenery on Twelve Apostles and The Grotto. Stop at Geelong for great pier views, stay the night at Port Campbell and visit Warrnambool if you have time for some whale-watching.

My other favorite spots in the city are St Kilda and Williamstown. Both have spectacular views of the coastline – St Kilda has a great fishing pier to stroll on and penguins to watch at night, while Williamstown has a great park by the marina and has great views of the city.

I have loads of other suggestions and ideas, but here’s a highlight of the rest:

Day trip (or stay overnight at one of the lovely B&Bs) to Mount Dandenong where it’s got charming villages, beautiful parks and a view of Melbourne city on a clear day at the look out point. Eat yummilicious scones (Devonshire tea) at the elusive Miss Marples tearoom – it’s very popular, so go early especially on weekends or public holidays!

Go skiing or tobogganing at one of Melbourne’s ski resorts, such as this one at Lake Mountain.

Try to stay at a gorgeous B&B as part of your accommodation choices. Australia has tip top B&B industry, with ratings and online sites. They treat you really well and give you a delicious English breakfast to start your day.

I have recommendations for Sydney, Brisbane/Gold Coast and Hobart as well, but I think that’s enough for this post (which I am having the time to do since it’s the Xmas long weekend). Maybe I’ll do another post for those cities another time, or if anyone has a specific question feel free to write to me.

Merry Christmas everyone!

, ,

Dealing with couples envy

In baby, family, happiness on December 18, 2011 at 9:54 pm

I’ve written about other things i was envious about before, but this is one topic i think I obsess about sometimes (and I have a feeling I’m not the only one). As i write this i’m semi-watching Giuliana and Bill on E!, the most adorable couple in the world if there is one. It’s funny, me and my sisters and best friend always used to say that Giuliana is so lucky she’s got Bill – after all, how many men do you know in the world who is that good looking, kind, funny, smart, successful and loves his mother and sister to death? And we used to say it’s her dugaan that they are still not blessed with the babies that they’ve dreamed of. And now she’s having surgery for cancer. Kesian dia.

Same case with Siti and her hubby Datuk K. If there’s one couple in Malaysia that everyone secretly wishes they can split up it is probably this one. Although they look so happy together now that you can (kind of) forget the untastely way that they first started dating and wish them well. But still the statement might come up, with someone saying “They’re rich and successful and happy, yet they are still being tested by not yet having kids”.

I wish I don’t really do this, but unfortunately i do – i scrutinize another couple’s happiness and success and try to find out one thing that’s wrong or less desirable about them. Why am i doing this, really? Am i really learning something from their experience and situation or i’m just trying to make myself feel good about my own life? Do other people do this too? I hope so (so that i’m not the only bad one here).

When I feel less satisfied with whatever is happening in my life, I try to remember something i read in a book recently about a man who decides to change his outlook of life and swap his wording around. Instead of saying, for instance, “Oh no, I have to go to work today,” he says “I get to go to work today.” I thought that was pretty inspiring and has been attempting to practice it in my daily life.

For instance, everyone around me knows how i’ve been attempting to conceive baby no.2 for a while now. But i realized that instead of saying “I have to keep trying for no.2″ i instead should say “I get to love my son, my baby no.1″ and be grateful for conceiving my first son, who is just such a good kid and an absolute joy. Instead of saying “I have such a difficult boss”, i now try to say “I get to have a difficult boss who is now teaching me a lot.”

Hopefully, the change in wording will lift my spirits and mood and make me succumb less to the envious feelings whenever i see a couple who is beautiful, rich, happy and successful and have gorgeous kid (s) to boot. After all, i realize, i have that too.

, ,

Be careful what you ask for

In career, happiness, Melbourne on December 4, 2011 at 8:50 am

If you had nothing else to do on this glorious, sunny, shiny, happy Sunday morning, I would invite you to compare my posts in this last 1 year and divide them into two – Melbourne work life and KL work life (hey, why not.) You would see a few underlying differences, such as the reduction in frequency arising from the latter; as well as a lack of more wistful dreaming type of posts.

The simple explanation for this is simply that KL work life is much tougher on a person. Unless you’re working in the government (or a company with an almost-government culture) or in a laid-back family business like my family’s (which I have been the only one so far to abstain from joining) and you can literally live the 9-to-5 schedule, the rest of us in the private sector have to work longer hours, and harder – meaning there’s no time for petty gossip talks, trips to the bank, etc.

Ironically, this is actually something i’ve always wanted all along – to work in a fully professional corporate setting, and with a more ‘realistic’ workforce – i.e. multiple races, and even multi-national at that. So now in my new job (still new since I’ve only started 4 months ago) I completely and utterly got what I asked for. And i am very proud to be associated with the professionalism and hard-working culture of this organization. But as with everything, there are pros and cons.

Primarily, the only con is the loss of free time. There are days that I’m working so hard, I have no time to go down for a complete meal during lunch and have to settle with tapau-ing and eating at my desk. One day this last week, I was completely bogged down with work and meetings that I realized at the end of the day (at almost 10pm) that I had not eaten any meals that day after breakfast. I have been taking my dinner at 11.30pm this last 1 week, after driving home for even longer that is necessarily so at that hour  (damn KL jams).

Hence you will see the impact on my blogging. Whereas in Melbourne, I could blog every day, now I blog every 2 weeks, at best. Before I had wider, more ranging ideas and topics to talk about. Now I have to keep resorting to ‘reporting’ to you what happened in my day or something that I thought of, as I have less time to daydream and fantasize like before. I know, I know, this is a good problem, and in twitter world, a #firstworldproblem, and like I said before, I asked for this. So I’m actually OK with this at the moment, especially as I know I’m learning by the buckets. And that’s the most important thing to come out from work.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 83 other followers