This one girl...

Assalamualaikum and good day everybody.

It was around 3 weeks ago that I got a request from a girl saying that she wanted me to write about her, here in this blog. 

I can't say no this time - actually I already went all EHHHHH ? before that. Here you go. A piece of something that I recalled from the past.

When I was in my college doing my IB, there's this one girl who loved to stick together with me. Everywhere I went, she wanted to follow or she would ask me to come along with her. Did I produce too much pheromone or something? I mean she was one of the students' body representatives and I had to follow her to the office, meeting all the staffs for this and that. It was somehow awkward because I just didn't know how to have a conversation with older people. And there she was being all chatty with them.

After that, she kept on saying sorry because she had to drag me along with her business. But that's fine. I had nothing to do in particular - literally. Even though I should be studying, _____________. Please fill in the blank.

I was a netball player back then and this girl was my partner in the court. The one who always backed me up because the opponents were targeting me (thanks to my small build) and thank you for that. When I was injured, she was the one who was so concerned about me. Every morning and night she would put the oilment and bandaged my knee while babbling all along because that's the way she was. She was more worried about me than I did. I was more excited to Google where's the nearest Domino's Pizza and ready to make an order. *grin* Domino's was my Cocaine back then. Even when I was fully recovered, she's still concern about my left knee. Thank you for that.

She told me that I was the one who taught her about Domino's Pizza. Well, I think that I was the sifu for everybody or most of the girls in college about that. And then all these girls spread it to their family members. Haha. They came to me whenever they wanted to order pizza or if they didn't have the coupon. I don't know whether it is a good or a bad thing, but... pizza is love. Pizza makes people happy. 

A&W was my favourite as well. I mean just the Coney Dog and the root beer. I would prefer A&W than KFC, McDonald, etc. I could still vividly remember at the end of my semester 3 in college. It was after the Mathematics examination. I was so so so down because I couldn't answer it well to the point that if I was an anime character, I was all white, shrunken and there was all these black and dark blue aura surrounding me. Not to mention as if my soul was coming out from my mouth. Then this girl with few other girls from my class forced me to go to A&W with them that evening. They even informed the teacher that we're going to come back a little bit later than the curfew that night. Girls, you know who you are. Well, thank you for that.

Every meal time, she will drag me to the dining hall or will tapau the food for me whenever I was too lazy to change my cloth and walk out from my room. She will be the one sitting in front of me, covering me from the boys' side literally and most of the time I had to wait for her to finish her meal because she eat slowly or was I too fast?

While we were in our final semester in college, whenever I was too saturated with studying and would like to take a break, I would go to her room and take her tablet, playing this one game about arranging the wooden blocks... I never knew what's the name though until the battery ran out. I played and played and unlocked so many levels and she was surprised because she always gave up in the first few levels. I think that because I love puzzles and my imagination's quite high. Girl, thank you for that.

There was this one time, you were the only one who brave enough to come and talk to me face to face when everybody else didn't have the guts to tell me directly about it. That's what true friend is. Thank you for pointing out my mistakes.

There was one time as well during BTN, that one night where everybody was scared to even greet me as I emitted this black-don't-come-near-me aura, you're the one who gathered your strength and came to talk to me, apologizing to the point that you were almost crying... or did you cry? You said that you couldn't bear not talking to me. Sheesh girl. If I was a boy in a manga, I will blush and cover my mouth while looking to other direction. Thank you for that.

I was always told by you that you never met someone like me. Whenever you say you would like to go somewhere, nobody will say yes immediately, without pause or giving excuses, just like I did. Back then in college, there are times when we went to T1 especially on Tuesday because the dinner was... ikan Beranang... and we had tom yam and telur dadar instead. Plus, nasi tambah satu. There was always fresh orange bungkus later for supper. Of course, I would love to do that again with you. Thank you for always inviting me.

Before I left Malaysia one year ago, you came to send me off, with all your family members. Even it was just for a while. . I really appreciate that. Thank you once again.

It is already passed 12 midnight in New Zealand now. Well girl, happy 21st birthday and may you have a good one despite having examinations on the same day. *insert all the cliche birthday wishes here* 

Our last picture together on final day of BTN. Take care there. All the best for your exams ! See you when I see you. Oh ya, thank you Nadzurah Hanim for this picture. Teehee.





p/s: sorry with the manga/anime influnced because I still can't get over that Naruto has officially ended.

xoxo,

nadi

Unprepared.

So, I came to read this article about "What happens when your time in Melbourne must finally come to an end". At first, I was like - okay, I'll read it. Why not?

And that was a mistake. A big mistake.

I was taken aback. There's this feeling inside me. I don't know how to describe it but more or less it feels like I feel sad. I am just not prepared to leave Melbourne, yet. I do have one and a half years left for my degree here but hey, the past one and a half years here fly so fast. I am already almost finishing my first semester of my second here in university.

I know that things will never be the same again back home. Changes happen while I'm not there. So do I. Living here changes me, in many ways. Somehow, they become a part of my life. Part of me.

I know that when the time comes, I'll leave Melbourne for good. However, Melbourne will always have a special place in my heart. Ready or not, I know since before coming here, our ending will be a goodbye.

It's devastating to just think about it. But, I should leave without regret. Therefore, I am going to live my life to the fullest here !

Autumn in Brisbane

Hi there,

Sorry for the long wait for a new post from me. I just hate to switch on my laptop. I don't even realize when did this thing start but I do know that staring at bigger screen somehow irritates me. I feel that the radiation from the laptop screen hits me very well and after some time, my eyes will turn red. Honestly, I prefer my phone more.

Soooooooooooooo.......

I would like to apologize for my upcoming lousy writing because I haven't write for a while other than writing a scientific paper for my assignments. Moreover, my mind currently is in the Japanese mode where most of the words in my head now are either Japanese or Malay.

This was my vacation last April. Sheesh. That was half a year ago. Haha. It was during the Autumn/Easter break. There were a lot of Malaysians coming to Melbourne due to MASA (Malaysian Aspiration Summit of Australia) so my housemates and I thought that we should go somewhere rather than staying there and yeap, as planned earlier - we were going to Brisbane to pay Tango, Ira and Farah a visit. It's more like a small reunion of our class. Ahh, Wan also came from Perth and joined us.

We boarded the plane - Tiger Airways as usual and reached Brisbane about an hour later. It was scorching hot that I started to sweat and feel a little bit sick. To make it worse, I left my sunglasses in Melbourne. I could hardly open my eyes. Haha. Exaggeration much but for me, it's not.

Then, those 4 girls fetched us from the airport and we went straight to Gold Coast. The Sea World to be exact. My housemates and I would prefer animals rather than those so-called fun rides. I know you might say that such a waste not going to the Movie World and such but different people have different preferences, no? :)

It took 2 hours to get there from the airport and we reached there around 12 o'clock and yeah, it's lunch time ! Those girls already cooked and packed our lunch because it's really hard to get halal food at the theme park and it's more economical to bring your own food. We were about to have our lunch, the Spongebob Squarepants parade started and there were a lot of bubbles and the characters dancing on the road and decorated cars. I felt that I was living under the sea. Haha. 

The bubble parade !

Are you familiar with these?

After that, we head to the musolla - yeap, they provided a musolla for Muslims to pray. So don't worry if you're planning to come here.

Then we started to explore the park ! There were a lot of animals and few rides. We only rode 2 rides - Jet Rescue and I forgot what's the name for the other one. Jet Rescue was extremely fast and I hurt my neck for the sudden turn. And there was one part I said the syahadah because it was so scary that I thought I might fell off and died. No, I didn't scream because I enjoy the adrenaline rush but I wouldn't want to risk my life with one more ride of that. The second ride was a relax one, even small kids enjoyed that.

Animal shows - a must see when you come here. First, we watched the jet ski show. It was so awesome and  those performers were skilful, very skilful. From the emcee, I got to know that they're expert in that field and even won the competition.

Next, the sea lion show. I really like this one. They were so good in acting and I think I could stay there the whole day watching the show. But it only lasted for 30 minutes for each show. Sea lion being a detective, sounds cool, huh? 

The detectives and the police (>_<)

The next show was the most awaited dolphin show. Guess what, there was a long queue to enter the show arena but it's worth waiting. Dolphins were smart and I really hope that I can swim with them one day. Seriously I did feel a little bit envious with the trainers. Haha.

Well, I found out that one of the trainers was super gorgeous. Haha.

We spent the whole day at the Sea World, well I guess you actually have to spend one whole day at each entertainment park in Gold Coast.

Overly attached classmates

That night, we had BBQ by the river because Wan was going back to Perth the next morning. Well, a whole day spent with my girls - surely we had so much things to tell since we had been apart since July.

The next morning, Wan returned to Perth *cry*

And Farah went to her university field trip.

So, the 5 of us travelled 2 hours by train to get to Beerwah. From the train station, there was a shuttle bus to Australia Zoo. The entrance fee was $47/concession. I know it was expensive but it was the home of the Crocodile Hunter ! It was one of my dream to get there. The documentary show was my childhood and I really looked up to both Steve and Terri.

 Awesome guy, awesome family

And there was a show in the zoo. The arena was called Crocoseum where you can watch the crocodile, birds and.. uhh... do we have otter? But the colourful lorikeets were beautiful. Of course my heart pumped faster watching them feeding the crocodiles - they were reaaaaalllyyyy fast in the water !

The croc show

This zoo was so huge that it even has Africa section xD it was an open range where the animals could run freely, no cages, nope, nothing. Just fences to separate the visitors and the animals. Oh, of course it's safe.

 A.F.R.I.C.A

 Spot some zebras !

And rhinos...

Feeding the giraffe

While waiting for the open-air van to fetch us, we had a surprise visit :)

Meowwww

And it's already time to leave the zoo, plus another 2-hour journey to get back to Brisbane city.

 YOU'VE JUST GOTTA KEEP THE FEELING !

The texture of a crocodile skin - don't mind me. I always have weird facial expression.

That night? Nope, not feeling tired at all. We bought some drinks - bubble milk tea for me and off we went to the city via CityCat. Haha. It was amusing for me. In Brisbane, ferry is one of the public transports because there's this huge river across it - Brisbane river, I supposed? And definitely we did try to imitate the Titanic scene.

At South Bank, we searched for an empty space and drank our drinks while gossiping. Well, not really. It was more to a catch-up session about our life. Aceyceycey. Then, both Tango and Ira acted as the tourist guides and brought us to the river bank and also the man-made beach. Wow.

Brisbane city view from CityCat

 There was a festival around that moment, what was it again? 

 Walking along South Bank

The man-made beach !

It's Friday, 25th April. ANZAC Day. We decided to visit University of Queensland (UQ) in the morning as there will be a parade in the city till 2.00 p.m.. UQ was soooooooooooooooo huge and up until today I still can't imagine how my friends can walk up ad  down the hill not to forget the super hot weather. Phew. Well, how big the uni was, it even has a lake and CityCat station. Unbelievable ! We had our lunch by the lake that day.

 A compulsory picture in UQ

One of the faculty buildings in UQ

Touring UQ

After that, we head to city by... CityCat of course ! Hopped onto a bus which will take us to Mount Coot-tha lookout. From there, we could see the Brisbane city clearly. It was colder up on the mountain (obviously) and a lot of people coming there because it was public holiday.

 Brisbane city view from Mt Coot-tha

And that night was our last night in Brisbane, we decided to do something that we never ever did before. Guess what? Ride a Ferris wheel ! A friend of our friends, Sherry came to join us - eventually she becomes our friend as well :) Thanks to her who bought the tickets for us earlier on. It was a nice ride, Brisbane city was indeed beautiful when lighted with lights at night. But for me, that was once in a lifetime experience. I may not want to ride it again. I always read in Japanese manga which keeps on highlighting about Ferris wheel ride with their loved ones, well, personally, I think that it is not really that fascinating. I prefer standing on CityCat's deck more (///w///)

 The tickets

Sherry caught in action

The Wheel of Brisbane

Our flight was at 6.00 am the next morning. It was a nice trip and I would like to thank my friends who has been hosting us during our visit there. Back to Melbourne, I caught fever. Haha.

That's all from me for now, and Salam Aidil Adha to all Muslim readers :)

lovessssssss,

nadi

Grampians

Assalamualaikum and hi there.

Last February, my housemates and I went to Grampians. It is one of the National Parks in Victoria, Australia. As there are a lot of National Parks in this country and each of them is different from one and another, I could say that Grampians consists of rocky, boulder mountains. Yeah.

We went there by train first, then changed to coach from Ballarat Station to Stawell Station. From Stawell, again we changed to another coach to Halls Gap. And fret not, although we changed our transportation two times, we reached at our destination on time. They really followed their scheduled time as printed on the ticket.

Oh, we bought the V-Line ticket where it's applicable for the train, bus, van and also you can hop on and off the tram and PTV train for free the whole day printed on your ticket due to the Zone 1 + 2.

Since we bought the ticket online, they were sent to our mail box and we felt like getting the train ticket to Hogwarts. Haha. 

Along the journey, the view was completely different from the city - that's for sure. But just imagine you're boarding a train or a bus and travelling with spacious land on your left and right, and there were a lot of haystacks which I never ever saw one before in my hometown ! That's why people travel, to experience new things - which is completely different from their daily life and out of their comfort zones.

 A hotel nearby Ballarat Station

 

 

Know what? Actually we bought the ticket but with WRONG return date. It should be on Sunday but as you can see from the picture - it's Wednesday instead. To make it more interesting, we ONLY realized it few hours before we departed. Of course it was chaotic that morning just to find out what should we do with the wrong ticket. Can we claim our money? Where to buy the new tickets?

Despite all those questions flying around in our head, we still head to our destination. And sprinting in the morning was ain't fun. We arrived at the Southern Cross Train Station and since we had never been there before, we asked a worker there where was the train that we should get on.

"It's just over there. You've got 3 minutes left before it departs. Hurry. Run ! Run!"

KAU INGAT TAK SEMPUT LARI PECUT DENGAN BEG SEMUA TU?

 But it was worth it to pant heavily in the train then you continue your sweet dream like a princess.

Arriving at Stawell, we were worried about our tickets. Then we asked the coach driver, Roy what should we do about that. And he was generous enough to help us, drove the van to a nearby shop - as that was the only V-line dealer in that small town. He helped us to ask about the tickets and he let us to shop some food because according to him, food in Halls Gap were expensive. Then we continued our journey to Halls Gap.

 The coach to Halls Gap

Arriving there, again, he's being kind enough to be our tour guide, " I still have around 15 minutes so I can show you around and then drop you guys at the place you're staying". After a little tour, he dropped us in front of the YHA Eco Grampians Hostel. We placed our bags in the lounge because the receptionist only opens at 5 pm. It was like a cabin in a forest, cosy, small, I like it.

In order not to waste time waiting for the receptionist, we decided to walk to the information centre which was far far away because the current one was under renovation so we had to walk another 3km. It was scorching hot summer day and we arrived there just in time - before it closes at 5.

The officer there gave us a map and told us that the route to Mackenzie Fall was closed due to bush fire and only re-open in spring - after it is naturally recovered. And she suggested us to visit the lake north to the Halls Gap.

On the way back to hostel, of course we wouldn't want to walk under the sun again so we used the trail instead as suggested by Roy. Guess what - encountering wild kangaroos and emus was so much fun.

It was an easy one. Just walk leisurely, you don't have to climb anything. And we could see burnt trees - yes, it was a bushfire there about a week or two before we came.

Delleys Bridge trail. One of the easiest trails.

As the end of the trail near to the hostel, we went straight to check in and rest.

The next morning we decided to rent bicycle because it's easier to move around cycling rather than walking - and save time as well.

Early in the morning we walked to the Halls Gap town just to rent bicycle and guess what? The shop was closed. CLOSED. Just imagine what can you do by walking? So we asked locals if there any other bike rental shop. Yes, it's about 3km away. In desperation, you'll do anything. Yeah, we walked for another 3 kilometers to the opposite side of the path we took just before that !

 Halls Gap town and kookaburra

Alhamdulillah, it was opened ! Every drop or our sweat was worth it. And the rental rate was cheaper rather than the one in the town. It was $30 per day -- and the uncle at the shop was kind enough by saying, "I'll wait till 5 tomorrow". We rent the bike for 31 hours for only $30.

And that uncle also told us to cycle to the north -- "the lake is huge and beautiful ! You must see it." he said.

Uncle at the bicycle shop - picture was taken on the last day there

After that, we would like to go to Halls Gap Zoo but we didn't know where should we head. There's no signboard about it -- at all. So the uncle showed us the junction that we should take which was next to his shop.

It was nice and beautiful weather - cycling under shady trees and orchards along the road, it was breathtaking. Moreover, less cars passed by. After few kilometers cycling and yeah, we're at the Halls Gap Zoo. Hills and mountains forms barrier around it, it was just spectacular. No words I could utter.

On the way to the zoo. Weehuuuu.

Arriving at the zoo :)

The entrance fee for the zoo is $24 for adult and it was huge. It even had giraffe and other savannah animals plus desert animals. But, when we passed through the gate, a herd of deers started to surround us, sparkles in their eyes -- well their eyes are big and sparkling actually -- aiming for pellets that we were holding. Gosh. Tame deers are undeniably greedy. Not only they  seized the food packet from us, they even chased after us that we had to run away. No other option. HAHA.

 I was bullied :'<

Since it's summer, we had long day compared to night time. So went back to the hostel to rest for a while and continued cycling uphill at 3.30 p.m. It really needed a lot of energy and effort to cycle up very steep hill, or mountain should I say and we managed to get to our destination after one solid hour battling with gravity. HAHA.

Lake Bellfield - it's a dam and with such breathtaking view, no wonder people there recommended it to us. I think there's no word perfectly fit to describe the view - subhanallah. Just have a look at these pictures.

Lake Bellfield

 See the water mark?

 

And I'm completely submerged

Oh ya, since it was summer, the water level had decreased very significantly than the water level during winter.

After a while spending our time there, we decided to get back to hostel since it's getting dark. Just make a guess how long did we take to cycle down the mountain?

Just guess.

*

*

*

20 MINUTES !!

We decided to stop at the town to have an ice cream and suddenly we saw a signboard. Okay it was a map actually. Halls Gap map. We read through it and marked the attraction point that we're going to go tomorrow as what we had planned. However, we realized that there were more attractions that we couldn't visit since we only have one day left to tour the place. So, we decided to have a visit after having our ice creams.

We cycled to Botanical Garden since it was quite near and we were attracted to visit Venus Bath since the name was quite interesting. A good way to encourage tourists to have a look at the place, no?

The only way to get to Venus Bath was through Botanical Garden and no vehicles were allowed. The first gate lead to the garden and in the garden there was a second gate which lead to the Venus Bath and other trails. So our short journey started.

Venus Bath is a stream and of course full of potholes but those were only visible if and only if there's no water in the river. Say what, the river WAS dried up. For real. I know it's unusual in Malaysia but not here. While I was in high school, I learned about potholes theoretically in Geography class and wa-lah they're in front of my eyes now.

 Almost dry Venus Bath

Potholes !

And since it's getting dark we decided to get back to hostel. On the way back we saw a lot of kangaroos in a recreation park. A lot of kangaroos. It's like the field was theirs. For your information, kangaroos dislike hot temperature that's why they appeared when it was almost dark.

Wild kangaroos appearing !

The next day we woke up really early and checked out at 8.30 a.m. Right after that we left our bags in the lounge and cycled towards the town and park our bikes near the pool again. So we walked to the Botanical Garden and went through the second gate, heading to the Wonderland trail.

As the name suggested, the trail was indeed full of wonders and challenging at some parts. But as you managed to complete stage by stage, you will be awed with the view. Climbing rocky stones not to forget the steepness - crazy yet satisfying. Summer time, we could see dried stream and waterfall. Just imagine that.

 Early trail to Venus Bath and Wonderland Trail

Dried river

We would love to go to the highest lookout there but unfortunately we had so little time and had to head back to return the bikes. Our journey ended at Wonderland car park - yeah if you do have car and just want to go to the lookout, just drive and park there instead of having 2 hours journey of mountain climbing and jungle walking.

That bridge was actually across a river but the river was dried up

That's a deep pothole !

  

 

Almost at the top

This was the hilarious part. We didn't want to walk back to the town using the trail as we'll take about 2 hours to get there. So we decided to walk by the roadside until we reached the town. We hoped that any car passed by would be very generous to ask us where we were heading and would gladly to drive us to the town. IN YOUR DREAM ! Haha. No, nobody stopped and asked us, at all.

Luckily it was walking down the mountain so it ain't hard and didn't consuming that much energy. After got back to the town, we returned the bicycles and walk back to the hostel, resting in the lounge while waiting for the couch to get home.









The end.

love,

nadi