Yesterday we went on a cycling excursion to Dights Falls. It’s a 9km cycling trail to the place. The cycling path is really good. Well paved all the way.

There’s even one portion where we cycle along a creek. I couldn’t believe there is such a scenery in the city. It makes you think whether you are still in the city or not.

Very good cycling path all the way

The whole way was so peaceful and serene and occasionally you see joggers jogging by, birds chirping somewhere in the trees, wild flowers growing at the sides…

Any trolls under the bridge?

This is our destination:

Dights Falls. Took us about 45 minutes to reach the destination.

You see the rock carvings in the picture below? It’s the last rock formation from lava flows a long long time ago.

There were 2 “stunt” cyclist there practicing jumping from rock to rock. This guy here wasn’t as good as his friend. I couldn’t capture the other guy fast enough, because he was so fast, like some antelope.

On our way back, we kinda got lost a few times, partly because we were too adventurous. We wanted to try new trails, but ended up turning back and retracing the route.

It’s the middle of spring now in Melbourne. The weather is getting nicer and nicer to cycle in. Anybody interested to join us on our cycling excursions?

So excited I saw snow again!

Last week we had a very unusually cold autumn. And there were reports about snow coming in early on the mountains in Victoria. I was just asking Mathias whether he would like to make a trip up and see snow, because Mathias has never seen snow before. And the very next day, a friend emailed and asked whether we would like to go up Mt Buller to see snow. YES!!!!!!!

On Saturday morning, EARLY morning, we started our journey at 5am (semangat nye…), 3.5 hours drive up to Mt Buller, and thank you Lord, the snow has not melted!

Since we’re up there, might as well try skiing right? I’ve always wanted to try skiing. We were extremely lucky to come on this day. The rentals of the equipment was way cheaper than usual. Even the ski lifts ticket was cheaper than usual.

I was very determined to at least ski properly before I go home. As with learning how to roller skate and roller blade and ice skating, you will never learn without falling. So I had my fair share of falling again and again that day. Thankfully snow is so much softer to fall on compared to hard tar/concrete road.

I am sooooo happy at least I know how to ski a little now… WOO HOO!

Btw, we spent the whole day there from 9am to 4pm, skiing. So after skiing, what else to do… SNOW FIGHT!!!

That was an extremely large ball of snow Mathias was about to throw at me. Lucky he missed.

View of the mountains:

Views around “bandaraya” Mt Buller.

I know I really had an enjoyable time. Really thanks to our friends who thought of the idea and brought us there to experience it.

Us against the backdrop “bandaraya” Mt Buller

On the very next day, I nearly couldn’t get out of bed. I was sore from the tip of my head to the ends of my toes (the things I pay for enjoyment…*rolling eyes*) Joints and muscles which you thought never existed ached. It was so bad I had to take 2 panadols just to be able to walk properly. Funny Mathias was fine. I suppose I’m really that unfit…

Good Friday started with food.

After church service, church offered everybody a hot cross bun.

Then, our cellgroup, went to a cafe opposite our church for brunch.

Then, we went to a place where nearly everybody who gets married here have at least one of their wedding photo taken here:

Brighton Beach Houses

These are bathing boxes that were built in the 40’s for people spending the day on the beach.

They are now heritaged listed and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to own one. What do they put in there? I dont know. Boats?

What else to eat by the beach… fish and chips.

Fresh seadfood anyone?

We found this live jellyfish on the shore. It was still moving. We didn’t dare touch it, because this is a poisonous jellyfish. I think it’s the same type of jellyfish we saw in Dockland, called  Blubber Jellyfish.

After the beach, went to my friend’s house for a rest before dinner.

Mat and I was sitting cross legged on the floor. And this baby just crawled over to Mathias, climbed into the cradle of his legs and sat there. Then after a few seconds, got out, crawled towards me, and did the same thing to me. Good training for Mathias… hehehehe

Everybody say….. AWH…..!

Do you know that Victoria is a Garden City? My uncle was impressed that there are so many gardens and parks around the city.

There’s the main big garden, the Royal Botanic Gardens. I’ve blogged about it before. I realized I forgot to visit one section in this big garden. The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden. In this garden, there’s a vegetable patch. They have all sorts of vegetables, pumpkin, tomato, cucumber, figs, grape vines, pepper, etc…

Me with pumpkin

Then there’s the Queen Victoria Gardens. You can’t miss the big garden clock.

FYI, Victoria was ruled by Queen Victoria, that’s why this state is called Victoria. And there are statues of Queen Victoria in this garden.

And there’s Alexandra Gardens.

There’s the Fitzroy Gardens:

Mat and I went to this garden with a very optimistic feeling about the weather. When we got down the tram, it started to rain. So we got stuck in this indoor garden. And worst of all, we came without a camera. So picture above was taken using Mat’s hp.

These gardens are just one of the few ones in the city of Melbourne. There are many more outside of Melbourne city.

And you won’t feel like a doo dah if you sit on the grass and read newspapers in the middle of the afternoon.

I know I know… I haven’t blogged for ages. I normally blog on Wednesdays because that’s the day I’m free. But for the past few weeks, I got a new job as a tourist guide. Relatives, 7 of them, came to Victoria for a long holiday. I’m only going to talk about the places that I haven’t been to.

If you’re a garden and flower lover, you must go to Cloudehill nursery and gardens. It’s up on Mt Dandenong. I had a funny conversation with my aunties and uncles. I told them that every Victorian knows how to speak at least 1 word of Fuchow. And I said Dandenong in fuchow, my aunties and uncles burst out laughing. “Dandenong” in fuchow means “in the middle”. Ask a Fuchow if you want to know how to pronounce it the fuchow way.

There is an entrance fee that you have to pay. It is a little expensive, but I think if you’re a flower and garden lover, it’s definitely worth it (if not, don’t bother).

Upon entering the entrace, it just brings you to a whole different world. Like you’re in a fairy tale, or secret garden. On the first left turn I took, I just went wow!

And turned to the right, and said out loud… WOW!!!

This garden was advertised by my favourite tv show here “better homes and gardens”. And it was highly recommended by a gardener in that tv show. So since my relatives wanted me to bring them around Mt Dandenong, I decided to take the risk by visiting a place I’ve never been to. I was definitely not dissappointed. Hope my relatives have no complaints

My little niece here (cousin’s daughter), is very very “li hai”! Strapped in the car, fall asleep. Stopped at a destination, wake up… the whole day she did that. From 9am in the morning until 6pm at night. Very very li hai indeed.

And a note to my parents and sisters… she likes me!!!!!!! Ngehehehehe!. Not sure about the next time (in a long time), I get to see her again

Picture below, I thought it was fascinating. Such a small plant, it already has fruits. It’s a ballerina apple tree.

I found out something about this batch of my uncles and aunties. Somehow, they are so fascinated by giant trees. Everywhere I brought them, they want to take a picture with a giant tree, especially those with giant trunks…. go figure.

I really enjoyed touring them around, made my life for the past few weeks very scenic, relaxing but tiring at the same time, if you know what I mean. I was just mesmerized with God’s beautiful creation.

I realized I forgot to blog about our trip to Mornington Peninsula.

The day we went there was a Saturday… and it was probably the worst day to go. Our purpose to go there was to pick cherries, but we ended up picking our noses (you will soon find out at the end of the post).

First of all, there was traffic jam on the highway. Took us an extra hour to reach there. Then, when we reached the cherry farm, it was jam packed with tourists (like us). No where to park, and driving through the jam was another nightmare. So we ended up not getting down to pick cherries. If we were to join the crowd, I think there will be no more cherries to pick.

So we ended up in a strawberry farm nearby.

There too was jam packed with tourists (like us). To pick strawberries, it costs $8 for a punnet. If you don’t want to pick, 3 punnets of strawberries costs $8. So which one do you want? Doesn’t make sense right? You pay to pick 1 punnet of strawberries yourself or you pay others to pick 3 punnets for the same price?

Anyway, I’ve already picked tonnes of strawberries while I was in the UK… pick until got stung by a wasp, and ate and ate until didn’t want to eat strawberries for the next whole year (really! can eat until jelak one you know).

So in the end, just take photo with the strawberry bushes lah.

Smile!

Since we’re there also, might as well try their special dessert of the day.

After the strawberry farm, went to a nearby apple farm as well. Not allowed to pick apples ourselves, so just take photo. Apple also not ripe yet.

Then, finally, went to the beach to have a picnic. That one also another nightmare. There was a Croatian gathering of some sort at the beach. Finding carpark also nightmare. In the end, we parked next to a cemetry, plenty of car park!

After picnic, we made our way up the hill again to Arthurs Seat. Arthurs Seat is 305m above sea level. Up there, you can see part of Mornington Peninsula’s town.

And this tower:

Why is this place called Arthurs Seat you ask. Well… there’s this chair, Arthurs Seat, was positioned on December 1st, 1989, in an effort to maintain tradition. Its two predecessors, both lost in history also accommodated many an important backside.

So there…

Before we had to return the car (as of now, the car has been returned to it’s rightful owner), there were 2 more places that we planned to go. One of them is Werribee Zoo. Someone told me, “You seem to like to go to zoos”. Hmm… I guess I do! HAHAHA…

Werribee Open Range Zoo

The name of the zoo explains it all. It is open ranged, eventhough the animals are still enclosed, but they have a much wider space to roam around. So to travel around the zoo, we were ushered to catch the bus.

This bus is so canggih I tell you… it opens up like a spaceship, but without the sound effects.

I’m not going to show you all the animal pictures, except for this one. For the rest of the animal pictures, go to Mat’s blog.

This 2 rhino…. got spooked… by us all in the bus I think. They were happily grazing and all, then we came rumbling by in the spaceship bus stopped just 2 metres away from them. Then all the sudden, one of them got spooked! It ran back then came running like it was about to charge the bus. Then it ran around and bus driver said we better go off.

The bus ride took 1 hour. Then after that, we went off for a picnic.

So did I enjoy the Werribee Open Range Zoo? Not exactly. There were not many varieties of animals, all the animals on the walking paths were all asleep or lazing around and they were far to far to take pictures unless you bring your zoom lens or something.

The only good thing I would say is that these animals have a very big space to roam around, full stop.

After the zoo, I suggested to take a detour to the Werribee Park just next to the zoo.

Unfortunately, like all other parks in Victoria, you have to pay. This place, you get to see a mansion and picturesque parks with loads of flowers. We’ll leave this for some other time when family or friends who love flowers come visit us.

Next to this “Mansion” entrance, is the rose garden. This one free entry!

All roses! with all the different colours, red, yellow, white, orange, pink, you name it.

I’m not a fan of roses, but I was sniffing at every different red rose I saw, because I remembered sniffing a dark red rose somewhere which had such a perfume that I went WOW.

I was taught that, you don’t say the flower’s smell.  But rather, the flower’s perfume.

This 2 kids couldn’t resist dancing like a bride and groom. They were holding hands and going round and round, and laughing, and trying to sing the bridal march.

Before, I would have never gone and smell the flowers. But after nearly a year of looking the hundred year old lady, I learned to stop, bend down a little and start smelling the flowers! Most of the time, you will get pleasant perfume!

The best perfumed flower that I love so far?….. The lily of the valley.

The Royal Botanic Gardens is located very near the city center. Public transport on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was free, so we took the opportunity. I half expected the trams to be jam packed with people taking this opportunity. Surprisingly, empty. I have been wanting to go to the RBG for so long, but never found the right time to go. So since we have a visitor, no more excuse not to visit. I was feeling excited!

The Shrine of Remembrance is just next to the RBG. I didn’t realize they built such a huge shrine. It was closed on Christmas Day, so we just enjoyed the exterior of it.

Great place for cool poses.

I know this is not appropriate, but we couldn’t resist doing the bollywood pose behind these pillars.

The view of the city from the Shrine of Remembrance:

And there’s this really cool statue of a soldier. He really looks like a manga character….. very very macho!

I would say this Shrine of Remembrance is a must visit in Melbourne. I will surely come again, and plan a picnic in the RBG.

The RBG is just next to the shrine. I had my share of reading maps when we went to Phillip Island. I found out that I’m a pretty good map reader! :>  RBG is a very very big park. So this time, I gave Mathias the opportunity to read the RBG map.

To cut the story short without going in the details:- Not all women are bad map readers!

This place is a really really nice place for a picnic. I need to get myself a picnic mat!

VikTor couldn’t resist the soft green lawn again.

Picture below is me sitting in the herb garden.

And these 2 scientists trying to figure out the sun dial in the herb garden.

We walked a total of 1.5km in the RBG. Extremely tired!

Last Sunday, we decided not to join our cellgroup for lunch after church. Because we know that they will surely choose a chinese restaurant. And Sunday is the only day we eat out, so we thought of trying something more adventurous.

Some of you read that Mathias went to try Greek food right? So he brought me to another Greek restaurant for me to try.

The restaurant is called Stalactites. No, he didn’t bring me to a cave.

Stalactites (man-made), on the ceiling of the restaurant

Mathias told me about the cheese that he ate called Saganaki. Sounds japanese to me. So we ordered that as a starter. Saganaki is grilled kefalograviera cheese.

Saganaki

How did it taste? Extremely extremely extremely extremely exxxttreeeemmmeeellyyyyyyyy

SALTY!

It’s like eating salted eggs, without the yolk of course.

Kalamari Platter

Next, our side dish, Kalamari Platter. It’s just lightly floured and fried kalamari. This dish is soooooo not what we expected. Mat said it’s not even like the one he ate at the other greek restaurant. It’s so soggy and oily.

Fortunately our main dish is nice. We ordered Mixed Souvlaki.

Mixed Souvlaki

It’s basically like a kebab. The meat is very good I think. Grilled lamb and chicken with salad veges wrapped up in some kind of bread. But there’s still something I don’t like about this. The bread is abit too oily.

I suppose this is our first and last visit to Stalactites. It’s not giving me a very good first impression of Greek food. If and only if, there’s another time we come here, I’ll just order the souvlaki.

But there are still many other Greek restaurants to choose from.

Take a look at this restaurant’s claim:

-No MSG-

It was the 2nd time that we’re eating here. Not because the food is superbly nice, but because the group of friends that we’re eating with:

1) Prefers chinese/asian food
2) Family with prams/buggies/babies/kids is king in making the decision on where to eat

Environment ok. Got tv to watch olympics somemore.

Staff… ok lah… 2nd time we’re here, that one guy waiter still has that sour grape attitude.

Space… don’t think there’s enough space for a buggy.

Price: $8-$12

After your orders are taken, they serve you a small bowl of soup.

Just 2 cubes of carrots and 1 cube of turnip

The soup is kind of like a complementary starter. Eventhough they were very “generous” with the contents, the soup was alright. Good flavours.

I ordered myself a cantonese fried noodles with chicken.

Chicken very tender! Good sized portion. Could do with a little more salt, tasted a little bland.

Mat, ordered the Spicy Fried Chicken Ribs……

AGAIN!!!

The first time we came here, Mat ordered this dish. And this 2nd time, I think he forgot what he ordered the last time, and when the food came… he wanted to knock his head on the table.

Why?

The 1st time he ordered it, this dish was absolutely tasteless. I think they even ran out of salt that time.

But fortunately, this 2nd time, the dish had more taste. I think they remembered to stock up on salt. But I liked the crispiness of the chicken batter. Nicely done… but then again, could do with a little more salt.

So how do we know whether this restaurant uses MSG or not?

Easy…

We weren’t thirsty after that meal