There. The whole update about Australia. It's 5 pages long and about 2000 words. Woots.

FLIGHTS
We took a British Airways plane there and Qantas back. It wasn’t all that bad actually. The BA flight showed POTO, which I kept watching on and off. The food was generally quite okay I guess. But Airline food is a good reason not to eat sometimes. Heh. On the flight there, there was this British person sitting behind us and he saw my violin. So he started to ask like “Oh. Whose violin is that? Is she going to perform in Sydney? Where is she performing?” And my wonderful auntie seriously pretended that I was some kind of child prodigy and that I was performing at some high school in Sydney. HURR. What a load or rubbish. And this Brit said he was going to check on the Net for information on my non-existent recital. What’s the best part, you ask.

Brit: So. Is she as good as Vanessa Mae?
My aunt: She’s BETTER.

Someone shoot me, please. Ultimately, I’m only grade3. How good can I be? =X

I didn’t sleep a wink on the BA flight. I have no idea why. I just couldn’t. So I stayed up all night writing in my diary (7 pages!), reading my past entries (which are SO embarrassing), listening to Hilary Hahn (Mendelssohn’s violin concerto in E minor! WOOTS) and watching POTO (think of meeeeee). . The whole time I was thinking about how much I missed everyone back home, like my family, Qi (who was in Germany) and Dawnnie (who was in Penang, if I’m not wrong) and ALL THE CONFERENCERS.

The flight back was also quite boring. I was playing solitaire the whole flight back. Seriously. I never want to play another round of solitaire for a long time. Oh and I managed to catch some sleep. ((: Just a teeny weeny bit though.

THREDBO
Thredbo (the snow place, that is) RAWKED. We were there on the opening night of the winter season so we got to see FIREWORKS. The show lasted SO long. And it was even nicer than NDP fireworks, really. Basically because it was so near to us (we could see where it was launching from) and we had a clear view of everything. It just totally RAWKED.

On the way to Thredbo, Leming-jie was driving for quite a bit. There was a place where the turning was rather sharp and we actually skidded on the road. AND we started spinning in circles. My sum thoughts were: Shit. We’re going to crash into that barrier and die or something.

Obviously, we didn’t.

Leming-jie managed to gain control of the car and we stopped on the dirt/gravel at the side. So much for ‘nothing interesting ever happens in my life’. I take that back.

When we reached there, we walked around in the village. We also rented ‘Freaky Friday’, and I nearly died at the price of the Internet connection ($3 for 15 min). How sad is that man. We also started the fire in our apartment. Then we went downstairs (Auntie Ivy’s apartment) to have dinner. Spaghetti. After we finished eating the kids (Me, kor, Michael, Christine and Leming-jie) went back up.

When we opened the door, THE WHOLE PLACE WAS SO FREAKING SMOKEY. Again, I thought we were going to die of smoke inhalation. So we started running around opening every single window and door we could find. Thankfully, we didn’t die. ^^ And our apartment had a DVD player but it could not be plugged, so we brought the whole player to Auntie Ivy/Uncle Paul’s apartment and watched ‘Freaky Friday’ there. ((: Rocks.

DAY2
We went up to Mount-whatsitname. We had to take a ski lift up and then wanted to trek to the summit. Insane. We eventually didn’t trek to the summit though, but we went to the lookout. It was so COLD (wind chill: -13 deg) and the wind was so strong and against us. Painful journey to the lookout, much less the summit, which was like 10km away. We also went to Friday Flats to look at the man-made snow. Puny patches here and there. Bleargh. We wanted to ski. But we managed to build a snowman, at least. Kor, Christine and I were building the snowman and Michael was throwing snowballs at us. And the whole time he kept going “OI. NOT FAIR. 3 AGAINST 1.” Haha. And Leming-jie cooked dinner for day 2! The kids were supposed to help out but in the end we were watching PD2 so we didn’t help. Hoho. PD2 was super cool. ((: Okey. I shall quote a chunk from my written diary.

I wish I could SMS Na, or anyone for that matter. I hope they’re keeping the conference alive. I miss them. I never thought I’ll say this, since I’m having fun here, but I want to go home.

Everyone. Go ‘Aww” on cue. ((: Haha. And Na should be honoured I mentioned her. Yes Na? ((:

DAY3
We skied the entire day away, seriously. The only time we stopped was for lunch, which was eaten at Friday Flats itself so we didn’t break for long. We had lessons in the morning because all 3 of us forgot how to ski. Haha. We went all the way to the top of the ‘hill’ then skied all the way down. Repeat that about 10 times and that was our whole day. It was FUN. I even managed a teeny weeny jump over a small ramp without falling. Hehe. I fell a fair few times though. And my butt was all sore at the close of the day. ^^ Okeyy. Another quote from my written diary.

I want to CONFERENCE. I’m getting withdrawal symptoms. Haha that sounds funny.

Lame la. ((:

SYDNEY
We were staying at Leming-jie’s house during the whole time. Woots. At least we had internet connection. Like Leming-jie said, I can’t live without my wonderful internet. ((: Haha. The rest will be copied from my Sydney entries and I’ll add a few stuff here and there. We also met Anthony (Leming-jie’s boyfriend) for the first time. Hoho. He’s nice. ((: We went out for dinner at this Chinese restaurant (where Kor and I tested out our Cantonese skills, or the lack of it). Kor told the waiter how many people there were and I told them what tea we wanted. Ha. Lame.

DAY4
WHEE. I'm actually blogging from Sydney, Australia. HEEHEE. I'm at Leming-jiejie's house now. Will be here for the next week so I'll have my daily dose of internet connection.

Hahaha. I actually brought my written diary to Thredbo (the snow place) so I'll only blog about the whole trip when I get back. There's a LOT to type, seriously. I think there's about 10 pages of crap.

Managed to talk to Na and Mich just now. Oh man. A pang of homesickness kind of hit me. Not to mention missing conferences. Anyway, Na said there wasn't any conferencing going on at the moment because everyone's away. POOH.

Okey. I have to go and reply emails now. With love from Australia. (:

DAY5
Today was FUN. Leming-jiejie, kor and I went shopping the whole day. HAHA. 'Twas was fun. We splurged on so much stuff. I got 2 Beethoven Symphony CDs (1, 2 and 9). WHEE. 1&2 was by VP but 9 was by some unknown thing. ARGHH. I bought the wrong one. There was actually one by VP. Pooh. I also got a top and (my favourite) a pair of roxy boardshorts! WHEE. It was rather expensive though. AU$45. WD-55 (better known as my auntie) nearly fainted at the price of the boardshorts.
We also went to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Ooohlala. It's so nice! Maybe I can considering studying there next time. Haha. Provided I actually can get in.

Okey. I have to get off the computer. WD-55 has to work. Pooh. Love from down under. (:

DAY6
RAHHS. No one that I want to talk to is online! POOH. Managed to talk to Na for about 10 minutes this morning? =X Yerps. And she said that John (aka CHUAN EN) was going online about 3 hours later. --; Dawnnie's in Penang. Qi's either still in Germany or just simply not online. I haven't seen Mel online ever since I've been here. Mich's at prefects' camp. RAHH.

Anywayy. Slept in this morning. Heh. Woke up around 1130. Today was rather boring. We ate Greek food for lunch. Rather expensive but nevertheless quite nice. Then we went to Westfield (in Hurstville) to shop. Haah. We actually managed to extort about $200 from WD-55 for shopping. (: But didn't buy much stuff. I bought a Billabong pencil case and 3 Billabong wallets (since they were super nice and super cheap). If Germ doesn't have a wallet yet I'm going to give one for her birthday. Heehee. Kor bought a soccer ball and claims it's EPL standard. Blahh.

I actually have to get so much more presents for everyone back home. Hoho. Shopping is fun. ((:

Apparently mom is thinking of migrating to California. And that when we went to Cali last year it was a holiday-cum-prospective-stayer kind of thing. Eeeeks. I don't know what to think, so I shall not think.

I'll bet Germ's having fun in NZ. Chilton! Hahaha. Abby's in Melbourne! Pooh. I want to see Abby. Apparently Amelia's in Sydney too. But no idea where she is. *shrug*

DAY7
WHEE. I'm super hyper now. WD-55 bought me the oh-so-thick Learn Lightwave 8 book! Oh man. I'm still in deep shock. Not to mention it costs like, $100? OH MAN.

We went to watch Sydney Symphony on day7. They’re really good but rather expensive considering they’re on ‘home ground’. Their repertoire on that day was boring though – Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Ew. The soloist wasn’t that good. A few mistakes here and there. And I didn’t bother to buy a CD so that the soloist could autograph. I’m still pro-SSO and VP. Heehee.

LEMING-JIE'S 21ST
Ah wellys. The pics of Leming-jie's 21st birthday are up on webshots already. I think the 3 brothers (Kristin, Daniel and Brendan) are SUPER CUTEE. And Christine seriously had a huge thing about carrying Bernard (her stuffed dog) everywhere she goes. And sometimes she asks me to carry it, so I look like a 14-year-old weirdo carrying a yellowed stuffed toy around. Splendid.

There was this guy (Christian) who was SUPER anti-social. He's Chinese-Australian (just like Michael and Christine), but he just seemed to carry that I'm-better-than-you attitude kind of thing. Ew. And when we were playing with Bernard he kept rolling his eyes at us. Ugh.

I was with Christine, Michael and kor the whole time because we went to Thredbo together, so we were closer. By the end of the party though, we were with the 3 brothers playing with paper aeroplanes, helium balloons and my camera's self timer. HAHA. Go see the webshots album for more information.

The 3 brothers are Croatian-Australian. How sweet is that. :D All of them are blonde and either blue or brown eyed. ((: Daniel though, is actually pronounced more like 'Danielle', thus making me laugh because I was thinking about the time when Dawnnie and I kept calling Daniel (Foo) Danielle. ((: And Kristin is actually pronounced as Christian, which created a havoc when he introduced himself.

Kristin: Hey I'm Kristin.
Christian: NO WAY. I'm Christian.
Kristin: You're Christian too?
Kor: Yeah yeah okay we have 2 Christians here.

Haha. Cute.

Michael and Christine are actually born in Malaysia but they migrated to Australia 2 years ago. Michael's really smart (he's a year ahead, making him only 1 school year below me but 2 years younger) and he looks a tad bit nerdy. Haha. He's really nice though he likes to bully Christine and Bernard. Haha.

We returned with a bag-full of beef and bacon, as usual. Australian beef rocks. ((: I also bought a lot of souvenirs (which I have yet to give out at this point in time). Oh well. I can’t think of anything else to type about the trip already. I wish it’s the holidays again. Pooh. I hope at the end of the year I can go to NY or VIENNA! <33 can’t wait. Maybe I should go to NY. Vienna is supposedly reserved for either Qi and Dawnnie after As or conferencers after Os. HA. Going with the conferencers will be fun I guess. See Vienna in the eyes of (supposedly) musicians. But going with Qi and Dawnnie is cool too, since we’re going to tour Europe. Haha.

8:21 p.m. on 2005-07-06