city sights & festivals!
I think auntie ming picked me up at the right weekend; much happened.
Woke up in serious need of a bath. The third bathroom had a slightly faulty lock (not taking any chances when this is a shared commodity among males & females) and the 2nd bathroom had no hot water tap. So I resorted to the first bathroom which looked quite complete. To my utter horror, when I tried turning on the hot water there was none. So I think I had the quickest coldest bath ever at 9 in the morning. I remember my teeth chattering, I was shivering and thinking “It would be a miracle if I didn’t come down with pneumonia…” but I was just thankful that I managed to get some water to bathe with, you know how it is when they declare drought.
Auntie ming picked me up (she was early! I was abit taken aback, I thought she would be on time) and we went to a little suburb not too far from campus (if you have a car, that is) where she was looking for some shoes. Well they don’t cater for really small sizes so she sadly didn’t get what she wanted. Had bacon+egg+cheese with sourdough for lunch while watching some street performers entertain little kids playing those kids songs like “If you’re happy and you know it” and “It’s a small world”. The street performers were those kind of Mexican performers that come in threes and wore red and wore hats and sung in harmonics.. 2 on guitars and one on the horn and it was quite pleasant to listen to while we had lunch.
After that we headed off to pick up Peter (a friend of hers) and met Qin who’s a 3rd year student from China studying @ Melbourne U. They have a dog (her name sounds like Cokie or Cogie.. I have no idea) and it’s so cute! X3 And off we went to Yarraville where there was a festival going on and Ruby was there with her friends.
The festival in Yarraville was something like a big bazaar where everyone sold alot of different things, from furniture to bbq to sandals to organic food to campaigning for promoting healthier environments by not driving gas guzzlers and not use diesel.. imagine that. Like I said they have a thing for free speech and are not afraid to use it. There was even a jazz band which sounded great at one end of the festival, and another much worse sounding karaoke session on the other end… Even in the suburbs the amount of people there was not an amount to be laughed at; the place was teeming with people, from families to hippies alike. Bought a pair of sandals which were going @ $5 and I was lucky that I had a good guess of my foot size from comparing the sandals to my shoes. No way I’m removing my shoes and socks to try them on, too troublesome.
Had some ice chocolate (chocolate with ice cream! X3) which was great while we saw the police force band in kilts march past. Kilts! @_____@
Tried the macro function of my camera on the various flowers as we passed the houses. There are some really pretty flowers and doors and windows but I thought it’d be awkward to take pictures of houses like a stalker or something XP
Once we picked up Ruby and dropped Peter off we headed back to auntie ming’s place. Tried to take more pictures and use my macro function for fun. I like this function; makes details look important, like the little guys who work backstage to make the play a success. I particularly liked the little candleholders on the piano (which is ancient and needs some tuning) and the dollhouse which was very nicely built and I guess belonged to Ruby when she was younger.
Had my first actual overseas Skype videocall at auntie ming’s place. Saying thus I also helped her install her webcam and had a blast talking to everyone at home.
Ruby’s room is filled with postcards and pictures on huge pieces of cardboard which is I think quite normal for rooms here; I remember Divya’s room having lots of those as well. Like akagami her artistic streak involves a lot of curls and semi-gothic looking people and lots of shading and shadows. And that the current mangas she’s reading are by takahashi rumiko; inuyasha and ranma ½. I inwardly thought, “whoah, old stuff.” But I liked both for awhile until the similarities between both mangas got too obvious.
Dinner was rice + lentils, some salad, yogurt and lamb shank which auntie ming cooked, which tasted great! She kept going that she wasn’t a great cook but that obviously isn’t true! After dinner we decided to watch Howl’s Moving Castle. Well at least Sophie’s right; Howl’s just straightforward. I can’t think of anything else. His looks are generic and can be considered as good-looking I guess… I especially liked the turnip and Calcifer cause they’re so cute! And Markl when he dons the cape XDXD I really like the side characters, they are so much cuter than the main ones! But all in all, Howl’s Moving Castle is nothing more than a love story in an “Alice in Wonderland”-esque dimension. I liked the idea of the door which can lead to different places depending on the color on the pie-chart above the door.
Went out later to Max Brenner’s @ QV. The feeling of proper chocolate going down your throat on a chilly night is the best thing that anyone can possibly experience. Had a “hug” with milk chocolate, Ruby had a suckao (which is… gah I regret not taking my camera along) and auntie ming had a latte (an irony of all ironies… to which Ruby and I went “What?! You’re having latte at a place which sells chocolate?!”) Their printed chocolates are pretty too.. but there’s this one flavour that I don’t think sounds exactly appetizing; chocolate with pepper?! It’s actually pepper and something else, but I forgot what the other was. I love chocolate! Why don’t they have one in KL, I’m sure it’d do great, maybe loads better than Starbucks!
Max Brenner’s…. *hears stomach growl for more smile-inducing chocolate hugs*
I got a proper scare when I realized I couldn’t find my keys… searched high and low…
And I found it on the table where I left it after we came back from Max Brenner’s.
*hears another growl from the stomach and feels like an absolute idiot*
