Great time =D

Yesterday was such an adventurous and funny day! One of the best-spent days during this holiday so far =D

Morning:

Went to Clayton for grocery shopping with Ryan and Yun Ying. I guess it was the last time we went grocery shopping this year, coz they are moving to Dandenong and I'm staying back at halls next year. We bought take-away lunch from Clayton BBQ Chicken (wow now only I realised that was only the second time i ate it this year! =.=) then took the 703 bus back to halls.

Noon:

After lunch, we took another bus to Oakleigh to catch the train to reach Southern Cross station (faster route compare to the usual route we take). When we got down from halls, Ryan saw that the bus that we intended to take was already at the junction, so we had to RUN to the bus stop! What an exercise right after lunch =.= Yun Ying was blaming Ryan that we didn't come down earlier because he was eating mango hahaha =P We got on the bus, then after 1 bus stop, the bus stopped for a few minutes at the next bus stop...what an effort to run with our might to catch the bus (the bus driver even teased us) =.= When we reached Oakleigh station, we saw that there was 1 minute left till the train arrived, and we had to RUN again because we heard the train coming!! Another intensive exercise after lunch...luckily we managed to get on the train, otherwise wasted our effort running...

Afternoon:

Reached Southern Cross station at around 1.30pm. Yun Ying found the 'special' free shuttle bus that would take us directly to Harbour Town at Docklands Waterfront City. Yup, our destination - the newly opened Harbour Town, just opened on 27th November 2008! And I have never been to Docklands before, so I'm killing two birds with one stone in a way =P

Harbour Town/Waterfront City - I like their building concept =)

There was something going on stage as there was a crowd...and the first character we saw was Bob the Builder!

The lady was dancing with Bob the Builder

There were many kids around, many of the activities held were targeted at children. We didn't really watch the stage performances coz we wanted to take pictures and look around Harbour Town before the shops closed at 5pm. So we walked around...and we came across a group of ladies giving out free little rugby ball toys and they gave us one ball each =) Wow, so there were freebies as well! I didn't expect that coz I thought there would only be activities after the opening ceremony on 27th November.

Few minutes later Yun Ying spotted people holding large Fitness First beach balls and she said that she would like one. So we searched around for the Fitness First shop but couldn't find it. We continued walking and we reached the area closest to the ferries wheel where there were many cafes and makan shops. One lady gave us a coupon of free coffee each! And we could choose any type of coffee we wanted! Second freebie of the day =P

I took this pic while we were walking towards Cafe Libero

I ordered cappuccino like Yun Ying did (I just couldn't think of what other types of coffee to order given that I'm not an avid coffee drinker...) while Ryan ordered mochaccino (and I forgot there's mochaccino, I thought there's only mocha)

Another lady from Nando's also gave us vouchers!

After enjoying our coffee break, we moved on. Spotted these 2 people dressed up in large colourful costumes! Amazing!

Big fat people? =P

There was another stage performance going on, some young guys performing some kind of hip hop dance. It's also when we spotted our third character of the day...a lady dressed as a butterfly..niceeeee!!!

张开翅膀守护你 =P

There were many shops around too, it's like another shopping district. So yeah we did a little bit of shopping! I bought a dress at $3.40 (crazily cheap price coz it's 3 garments for $10), Yun Ying and I shared the cost (she bought another 2 garments). She also bought a formal-like striped blouse at only $5! And Ryan bought a pair of Jeep shoes with 50% discount! Sale sale SALE =P I wanted to look for a white cap but couldn't find one that suit my taste...

Yun Ying desperately wanted the Fitness First beach ball, but we still didn't see the shop anywhere. There was a counter selling some tickets to some event; she walked up and asked the people there for directions. We went as directed and then we came to the Fitness First...booth! So it was actually a booth and there were so many freebies on the table! One of the guys approached us and said that if we could do push-ups we would get the freebies.

'You do 1 push up, you will get a wrist band; do 5, we give you a beach ball (I can imagine Yun Ying's eyes 发亮 upon hearing this); do 10 and you get a free mp3 player!' WOW sounds like the greatest offer so far! Hehe! But doing the push ups is not easy. It's not done on the flat ground surface...we have to do it on 2 hemisphere-balls (so we were not on stable surface). A challenge to test our strength and balance, eh?

They made it easier for girls by turning the hemisphere ball upside down for the feet

I managed to do 5 push ups (didn't realise it's quite hard) so I got a wrist band and a beach ball. When we got back to the Fitness First booth the second time, I asked the guys if I could challenge a second time. He said yes so I went for it...I was aiming for 10 because I wanted the mp3 player! And yeah I made it! Yay!!

Whee white mp3 player so cool!

I forgot how many times Ryan did (2 challenges) but he got 2 wrist bands, an mp3 player and a gym bag. The beach ball was out of stock and Yun Ying was devastated...so I traded with them and got another wrist band (don't think I'll play with beach ball that often haha). We also got a 1 day free guest pass each =) There was a girl who went to the booth with her grandma and her sister as well, and while she was doing the push ups her grandma cheered on by saying 'Go Becca!' then the girl replied, 'Oh shut up!' hahaha so funny, the whole crowd who was watching her laughed. Not that she was rude, it's actually because she didn't want her grandma distracting her (her grandma looked mischievous too =P). She did 20 push ups and got 2 mp3 players! She asked her grandma whether she wanted one and her grandma sort of like sheepishly nodding implying yes...what a funny scene...'Go Becca!' 'SHUT UP!' =P

We saw our 4th character of the day - a hero like Superman! (sorry yea I don't know what is the name of the character)..there were 2 people wearing the same costume actually, and the guy we took pic with was a funny guy coz he 'crept' behind Yun Ying without her realising (he was so tall and yet he made no noice at all when walking!) haha!

Tall and strong

Santa was there too...our 5th character of the day =)

Ho ho ho

The Fitness First booth was near to where the white christmas tree was...

White Christmas....in summer?

We crossed the road to the harbour. There was a massive church organ-like instrument at the other side of the road...looks so cool! And it's playing nice music..

The mechanism is actually behind, looks kinda complicated

While walking to the harbour, a lady approached us and gave us 3 discount vouchers for sailing! Cool~ We took some pics at the harbour before heading back to Harbour Town...went into a shoe shop, Yun Ying and I ended up buying a pair of footwear each =P Sale again hehe~

Evening:
We took the 6pm shuttle bus back to Southern Cross station. I called Nooi Hoay to find out where they were (4 of them went to Smith Street earlier). (p/s: Ryan and Yun Ying told me to call Nooi Hoay because they said she'll be very happy when people call her phone hehe).

We planned to have dinner with the 4 of them at Chinatown. So we took the tram to Bourke Street and walked towards Chinatown. I was thinking of eating Sichuan because I remembered Ye Chia said Malaysia don't have. We looked around but couldn't find any. We found a restaurant which has some Sichuan dishes but we weren't sure if the food is good. I then called Ye Chia and asked her where is the Sichuan restaurant she went. She said that it's hard to find because it's in the lorong, not along the main road. Arrgghh...

Since the others haven't arrived yet, the 3 of us then continued walking and randomly walked into one lorong....and much to our surprise we found a Sichuan restaurant! However there were too many people inside...还要排队拿号码...wow, must be very good business! We could not wait that long so we went in to the previous restaurant and sat down. We looked through the menu and were discussing for quite some time before we ordered...just then, the 4 of them arrived. We knew that they were Nooi Hoay, Chean Ying and Wen Jun and we thought the 4th person was Chau Wang, but it was Yeu Sheng who turned up! Asked her where Daniel was, she said 在打机....and I thought why 鸡 =.= he was actually gaming with his cousin..

Anyway, we ordered a set meal for 6 people which included entree, 6 main dishes (including soup) and dessert; we ordered an extra dish so altogether 7 dishes! Warning: the following shall make you drool...

Entree: 冷菜 (fish, pickled vegie, bean curd?)

Fried mushrooms





Bean curd seafood soup (actually I only saw crab stick but there were lots of bean curd, yummy)





Sichuan fish




Garlic flavoured pork ribs

Bak choy + mushrooms

Mixed vegie

大千鸡

焖肉

Dessert: 西米露

Group pic thanks to Chean Ying

Okay la here is a pic of you Chean Ying - see her smiling at the sight of food, evidence that it was really yumilicious and satisfying =)

It was a really nice dinner and it only cost us $11 each! Where could you find such a deal, eating so much, such nice food and so many varieties and only spend $11...plus dessert and entree lagi =P

Went back after dinner. We went to Melbourne Central train station to take the train...

In front of the State Library opposite Melbourne Central

One of the Christmas deco - Ferrero Rocher!!

It was so fun chatting and making jokes...it's been a while since I last laughed this much, can laugh non stop for the whole night =D

E.g.:

1) On seeing an advertisement on karaoke:

Chean Ying: Oh open from Monday to Sunday? Hmmm... (counting) eh then ma open 7 days a week lo??

Everyone: LOL!! 还要算啊 =.=

2) 名句 invented by Ryan: 知之为知之，不知为不知，是蜘蛛也。

3) 妮蕙太后：穿‘太厚’、鞋底‘太厚’……还好不是脸皮‘太厚’=P

4) Wen Jun told us these dark jokes: (you have to imagine it)

- What is white and red and sits in a corner? Ans: A baby with razorblade

- What is red and white and sits in 3 corners? Ans: A baby with a chainsaw

- What is blue and wriggles? Ans: A baby in a plastic bag

- What is green and not wriggling? Ans: The baby in a plastic bag after a few days

5) 6) 7) etc... I can't remember already....but they were really good jokes =

But the funniest event of all happened at the end of the day. We were supposed to get off at Huntingdale station...when the train stopped, we got up and went out but the door shut before Chean Ying and Wen Jun could get out! The 5 of us outside stared at both of them inside the train but we thought that the door would open again (usually just continue pressing the button so that the door will open). So Yeu Sheng kept pressing the button from outside while Chean Ying was pressing the button from inside...yet, to our 'horror', the train started moving...and off it went!! All our faces were like :-O SHOCKED!!! The two of them showed the same expression :-O We just stood there speechless for a few seconds before we burst out laughing coz we realised all of us had the same facial expression! LOL Yeu Sheng said, “为什么别人missed了火车我们还可以笑到这样开心……哈哈哈！” So we called them and told them to take the train going to the opposite direction back to Huntingdale...and they came back half an hour later than us because we have to take the 900 bus from Huntingdale to Monash University.

我的free 战利品：

mp3 player, wrist bands, the little rugby ball


And the many other freebies, photos, and great memories =)