First Weekend on My Own In Queensland

So, as I have mentioned earlier, this is my first weekend on my own. Believe it or not, I really did a lot of stuff! I experienced Oz night life. Even though there were no usual mamak, teh tarik and the usual weekend football, I really did other sort of activities that is pretty cool.

Let's start my blog with Saturday morning. We went to West End Wet Market. I caught bus 428 (the 'only' bus that passes my house) at 8.15 and took it to Uni. Then, I walked about 800m to Mcquarie St. and went to Manors to meet GT and his housemate, Kimberly. From his house, we walk bout 300m to Gayatt Park and caught the CityCat to West End.


In case you are wondering what's a CityCat, its a little ferry that fetches people along the river. 简单来说，its a water bus. At night, when the city lights are on, the scene is even more breath taking.

From West End, we took bus 919. And its stops us 200m away from the market. But along the way, GT said he will let me try Australian breakfast. Well, in Australia, no harm trying right?

And this is where I went. The Gunshop Cafe. The place was so famous, we had to queue up for a table. I was thinking, it better be good. In Malaysia, every food that has to wait before it's served, IT IS GOOD!

This restaurants have pretty waitresses I have to say. Seriously. One of them happen be Kim friend's housemate. Her colleague pleasantly took our order. The menu was so complex, that I couldn't understand what were they saying. They serve us our coffee first and the cafe latte was awesome. This is definitely better than our Malaysian teh tarik! But don't compare price la, of course.


That's my cafe latte and GT's cappuccino.

After 10 minutes, our breakfast arrived. I was salivating by then. This is my $14.90 breakfast!


My initail reaction is, !@#$!! GT brought me to eat gold?! Two bosh eggs, 2 slices of Italian bread, one semi pickled tomato and bacon and it cost me RM45?? Nearly died. Then I told myself, don't worry. Belum try, belum tau. Sekali try, hari-hari mau! Once I tasted it, you know what? Its really good. Yea, though normal, it really gives you the satisfactory feeling. Plus, in Oz, if you convert, you really have to eat fresh air and sunshine. You really can't find a Nasi Ayam TimKee for $3.50 or chapfan for $4. It just doesn't exist.

Here are some random pics.
This is GT's french toast.


Celebrating our Reunion/Welcome to Oz/Friends Forever...whatever is worth $14.50!


GT and Kimberly, my new friend. She's from Hong Kong. Just add some size to her eyes, she look exactly like Pooi Leng. I even sub-consciously spoke mandarin to her thinking she was Pooi Leng.

After all the hoo hah and ah chi ah cho, paid the bill and head for the market. Because it was raining, the ground was wet, slimy, soft, dirty, black, contaminated. In one word, DISGUSTING! And again I told myself, it better be cheap and worth the trip.


Sorry guys! This is the only shot I took in teh market. I was busy buying stuff and avoiding puddle of water. So didn't have time to do snap. Plus it was raining. So was pretty much busy!


This is me with my groceries. Plenty of stuff to carry! Thinking of my 3 different transport back to home was exorbitant.

Well, I have to say the trip was excited as it is my first time to Australia's wet market. Didn't know they had one. So it was good. But even though it was cheap, I can't buy a lot. Because I only cook for myself and I cant buy a lot. Even if i buy a lot, I can't carry so much with public transport. So unless, you have a car, just spend a little more, go Woolies and shop. It saves you the time and energy. Transportation cost to West End is not cheap either. So at the end of the day, you probably don't save much.

I arrive home about 1.45pm. I store my groceries and play games. Then at 5pm, Ian and Avene appeared in front of my unit. They brought me homemade mamak Maggie goreng and it was delicious as I really miss home food.

Then just 3 minutes after makan, Avene said, come, let's go, we bring you to Southbank. I was, are you serious? Cause its really not a problem here. I'm fine with my Stephen Chow movies and sitcom. They went like 'faster get change!!' Cool man! I weekend is getting great! The song "I Gotta Feeling" by Black Eye Peas was ringing in my head. Awesome!

But after I left, I remembered. @$%#, I left my camera behind! How am I going to take the nice night view of Brisbane city to my fellow friends? I promised them I will take beautiful pictures and post them frequently on my blog. So sorry guys, excitement made me forgot bout camera. But truth being said, I don't like to take picture. This is when I miss duoluogang. They always take picture for me and post them on Facebook frequently. With them around, I'm assured of beautiful and timely pictures of me.

But remember, in Oz, we must learn problem solving and how to settle for second best. So I use my new E63 email phone to take some shots.


This is the night view of Brisbane city from Southbank. In case you wonder, Southbank is opposite Brisbane city. Brisbane river (the one on the picture) flows between them. It's awesome. Southbank park has a long walking trail. I promise in future I will remember to bring along my camera and take more beautiful pictures of the city.



Eye of Brisbane. Its really glamorous, romantic and awesome! But since we have all seen Eye of Malaysia in Taman Tasik Titiwangsa, well, there's nothing much for me to say. But the surrounding area such as the man-made beach was pretty cool and intriguing. Imagine you're sitting on the jetty with your special one, its windy, the wind is blowing towards your face. She lies on your shoulder, you're hugging her. This is how romantic this park can be. Serious.





Wondered how Brisbane night life looks like? Here it is. Their 'yumcha'. Its really cool and crowded.


Again, my backdrop would be Brisbane City. That sums up my Saturday nightlife.





On Sunday, I made my first Breaking of Bread service appearance in Toowong Gospel Hall. The embience was nice and cosy. People were warm and hospitable. Really enjoyed my first week with the saints.

We had lunch. Allister's (one of the elders of Toowong assembly) wife Lizzie made roast lamb. Truth being said, it was one of the best roast I ever tasted! Pheew! It was awesome. I did take some picture of the roast but somehow my E63 didn't save it. Don't know what happen. For dessert, we had Pavlover (don't know how to spell it, but it's somewhere along that line.) Its a light dessert made from egg white and sugar. Apparently its an Australian specialty. It was awesome! I wanted to try the apple crumble. But my stomach had no place. Filled to the brim.


Pavlover with some mixed fruits.

Then, we made another surprise trip to Mount Cootha. Mt. Cootha is a mountain (duh!) which overlooks the whole of Brisbane. All the Australian TV station have their satellite on this mountain. So its pretty high and windy up there.

Panoramic view on the watching tower of Mt. Cootha. Again, nicer at night. But this is just as good because during the day, you can see every building. Wanted to zoom in and show you all where I live. But lens tak cukup power! Even though got camera also can't. I need at least an SLR.


That is me with (from left) Allister, Yoong and Tamara. Our backdrop is the whole of Brisbane. Awesome!

After that, we went back to Alister's place for some tea before heading to Gospel at 4.45pm.

So, this sumed up my first independent weekend in Queensland. I really had a great time and will be looking forward to more adventure.

Cheers.