Sovereign Hill

i'm finally back in Bne after 3 weeks spending my holidays in Melbourne. it was one of the best winter trip and i felt so reluctant to leave Melbourne. my sis was the best host ever and she pampered me in so many ways. and i am so blessed to have her. sometimes, i wish i was studying in Melbourne instead and perhaps life would not be that miserable.

on the11th day in Melbourne, we went to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, about an hour drive from the Melbourne City. Sovereign Hill was an old mine town and i personally enjoyed this trip more than my Philip Island trip. we rented a car (Hyundai i20) for our long journey to Ballarat.

the Hyundai i20 and i had the whole back seat to myself.

along the western Highway, on our journey to the Ballarat Town.

and after an hour drive, we finally arrived at Sovereign Hill. and it was freezing cold compared to Melbourne City. and i did the biggest mistake by wearing the Thinnest shirt i had in Melbourne. right now, i am feeling a little hot in Brisbane and I am craving for Melbourne's Weather.

we kicked off our tour around the old mine town by visiting the education center. wrong choice for sure. because it was boring.

and once we entered the real gold mine town, that's when the fun started.
they pretty much retained the landscape of the old town and everything at there such as the mining area, the underground mine, the shops and even the houses.

the homes of the miners. i could never imagine myself working as a miner. it was one of the hardest and most dangerous job. so please appreciate what-ever gold you had.

even the miner's restaurants are pretty old-school style.

the interior of one of the homes. there were other homes that were far worst than this. without the fireplace for instance

fireplace is a MUST in Sovereign Hill because there was no heater around and it was freezing like hell.

the pan-mining area. apparently, you could mine for your own gold and my sis's bf did successfully found one small tiny piece of gold. unfortunately, a person with lack of patience like me will never find one.

no matter how long i sat by the river till my fingers were frozen, spinning my pan and all I ended up with were only stones, sand and rubbish.

the more modern way of mining. well, if you still remember you history, you will remember the different tools used in the mining industry.

the Chinese Site and that's the old Chinese temple.

'Tabib Cina' camp. though i can't read Chinese, i assumed those must be the herbs in each drawers.

trying to be the Physician.

it was really enlightening to experience the old lifestyle that the Chinese had many years back. pretty amazing on how they could survive on such minimal items.

me, totally obsessed with their kitchen. cooking steamed pau!

the other version of fireplace for boiling water and cooking food.

horses, the main form of transport back then.

and we sat the horse carriage. my very first time and it was really saddening to see the horse working so hard to pull the carriage. i was born in Horse year and so i love horses.

next, the town for the bosses and big men.

in an old-school boutique where they displayed their wardrobes. fascinating i shall say.

compared to the old crappy camp we saw earlier, this was the home for the richer ones. totally different and so classical.

the underground mine tour was really amazing. the mine was rather dark,small and musty and I could never understand how those men could stay underground for hours mining for something that was not guaranteed to be found. hard life.

the boiler which supplies the energy to move the mining machine in the underground.

ooo, and i had my very first candle-dipping experience.

and we proudly present to you our rainbow version of candles.

there were more pictures in my sis's iphone and sadly i did not had it. so i guess, that's the end of my Sovereign Hill post. the trip to Sovereign Hill was worthwhile and I had loads of fun experiencing the life of a miner.
anyway, my uni is resuming tomorrow and I know life's gonna be difficult again.
how i wish i could freeze time and stay with my sister forever.

Lucifer

from this innocent looks,



to this hot dashing extraordinary look,



smirks. honestly, there are only few Korean bands that caught my eyes and they have to be real good to be in my liking list. shinee has been my secret band for a long time due to my embarrassment for being a pedophile. anyhow, i enjoy their music to the max. who cares if they are young as long as they entertain me? check out key (the half shave head), my favourite. dear siang, i am sure you will scream your lungs out when you discover who key is.

I don't Regret What I lost.

sometimes it is alright to lose someone in your life because through that, you will only realize that you are actually surrounded by other more awesome people who actually love you eternally apart from your family.

Skiing at Mt Buller

one of the best part of this Melbourne trip is skiing. and i am officialy declaring to the world that i was lousy in skiing. right now, i am still suffering from a big black bruise behind my leg and some friction marks on my cheeks and above my lips for tumbling down the snow hill. i should really considered myself lucky because i was only an inch or less away from hitting the tree.



mount buller was snowing and really foggy that day. and crowded with people too who are mostly pro in skiing. sadly, snow was not as 'pure' as it seemed on TV. it wasn't as soft as cotton like how i always imagined back then when i was a little kid. in reality, snow was just hard frozen water or in simple terms ice.



i tagged along with my sister's friends and thank goodness they ain't really pro in skiing or else i would look like a total noob at there.



it was SNOWING really really heavily!!!!!!. and i was totally enjoying it despite the occasional snow smashing onto your face. trust me it hurt like crazy.



accomplished one of my Must-Do-List before i die : having snow as my bed.



and another Must-Do-List before i die : create my very own Snowman.



and i sacrificed so much for this snowman which included my gloves, beanie, and scarf, i was having frost bite when everyone was taking picture with the snowman. my nose was stoned, my fingers were frozen and my hair was wet from the snowing. dear snowman, you were one of the luckiest snowman on earth!



groupie pic with our self-made snowman!



in the urge of beheading the poor snowman. evil of us.



but we ended up transforming Frosty the Snowman into 'Bengali' the Snowman.



it was freezing cold up there that we started producing vapour whenever we talked. thick smoky vapour i shall say and i was rather amused with it because in Brisbane, we rarely had vapour from our mouth during winter. skiing experience was definitely a blast and I was lucky enough to experience it.

If I Could Remember..

initially, i thought i wanted to blog daily about my Melbourne trip but i am so lost right and i have no idea how long i have been in Melbourne. white flag people, delete off the melbourne (1), (2) and so on sequences. because right now, i am gonna blog whatever stuffs that i could find in my camera that i could still remember.

1) Chocolate San Churros



remember how much i was rambling all way through about the awesome-ness of Melbourne's Desserts? It will not stop there because each day i am entertained with a brand new dessert. feel free to call me the Dessert Queen. and the next favourite dessert in my list would be the churros (Spanish Doughnuts) and choc mint milkshake in San Churros Restaurant in Lygon St.

2) Sofia



sofia restaurant served food that are extremely large in portion and pretty good in taste too. and definitely cheap especially the pastas and seafood platter. the huge 7 stacks of ice-cream with different flavours are worth trying too. but beware because the suckiest flavour i ever tried:- PISTACHIO

3) Brunswick Street @ Quirky Street



brunswick street is apparently famous for its uniqueness and quirkiness in Melbourne, and indeed i could not agree more. shops and cafes at there are really funky and different from the ones you see in city. and so i decided to dress a little quirky to fit into the quirky community.

4) Bimbo : THE Creepiest but Yet the Most Awesome Restaurant



bimbo is a really really really creepy and freaky restaurant that looks utterly old from the outside with the theme revolves around a baby. i can't really describe it here because you just gotta see it to believe it. so do visit Bimbo in Brunswick street for its real quirky ambiance with 4 bucks pizza only. officially the best pizza i eaten so far especially the Belgian chocolate dessert pizza.


that's pretty much what i did in three days excluding all the other minor minor stuffs that i did not mentioned here. anyhow, i decided to create a whole new post for my skiing trip in Mount Buller and day trip to Ballarat @ Soverign Hill. till then, i shall blog more tomorrow as i am finally staying at home the whole day to recharge myself for the last week in Melbourne.

Melbourne In My Eyes (2) & (3)

been in Melbourne for a week ( time flies) and i haven't blog much about it. i was totally drained out these couple of days due to Fifa World Cup. yeah i watched both Germany vs Uruguay and the final match. the worst one was the final match which lasted for nearly 120 minutes and i only slept for two hours before i met with Carolyn in the city. exhausted brain but totally worth it because fabergas and casillas were so amazing in that match. so now i shall do a wrap-up of my second and third day in Melbourne.

Melbourne Day 2 (Lygon Street Shops, Koko Black, Original Lolly Shop and Home)



Melbourne desserts are really amazing. totally top-rated i shall say. i had 8 desserts so far in my 1st week in Melbourne. the first one was in Koko Black, Martini Ice cream. who cares about winter? ice cream is still a must despite the cold weather.



Original Lolly Shop would definitely excite a Lolly fan but unfortunately i am not one. chocolates won all my votes. sorry lolly but you are still a cool shop for sure.



later that night, sis entertained us with her signature dish - spaghetti bolognese of minced turkey. sis has always been a good cook and the dinner was undeniably superb for sure. thanks sis for the great meal!



and i was introduced to the Big Taboo Game. right now, i am totally in love with this amazing game. so gonna get this game for myself or for my friends at least. totally worth playing. no big losers or bankruptcies like in monopoly.

Melbourne Day 3 (Melbourne City @ Shopping, Brunetti, Union Lane, Docklands, Pacific Fair)



there were more pictures about Union Lane in my previous post. a totally awesome lane flooded with beautiful graffiti.



Brunetti is one of my top favourite dessert shops. the desserts and cakes at there were so so so so so good. choc melt tarts totally melted in my tongue with an everlasting lingering taste. Hazelnut praline cake was good too. i desperately need more Brunetti desserts before my return to Brisbane.



spectacular fireworks in Docklands to commemorate Docklands' anniversary. every Friday at 7pm through out the whole winter. worth going and watching the fireworks which lasted for nearly 20 minutes.



Perfection of dish at the Pacific Fair Restaurant- mixed roast ( pork belly, duck, chicken and char siu), water spinach in belacan and dry squid tossed in Five spices. i strongly believe that if i am not a pharmacist, i would most likely end up as a Food Critic. a great one in fact just like Matt Preston. =D


ok people shall continue blogging more about Melbourne in my next posts. stay tune for it.

p/s: sis friends (4 years older than me) are totally wacky and crazy. how can i not love them? totally impossible.