AEP Perth Trip 24 - 29 NOV '07

Day 1


Flight (to Perth, Australia)


I sat one seat away from the window seat, next to a Sec 2, Caroline. Lunch was quite horrible - some lemony pasta that everyone was too disgusted to finish. I manged to finish watching two movies (only) - Shrek 3 and The Simpsons Movie. The Simpsons Movie was really funny and Shrek 3 was not quite to my liking. As we were descending, the plane kept making really weird lurches and lunges. Every lurch was like a sudden dip downwards that made me feel like my seat was going down faster than my butt could follow. And each time it lurched, all the AEPers were like WHOOOOOO! Hahahaha, it was so funny :D Plus, that plane ride was the first for some girls, and they were pretty terrified.

Raeburns Orchard

After we touched down, collected our luggage and so on, we got on board our coach and was warmly greeted by our friendly tour guide/driver, Trevor. We travelled for nearly an hour to Raeburns Orchard, where we purchased fruits, jams, chocolates and gummies.

70 Pier Street, Aarons Hotel

We settled down in our rooms. The room Pinky, Nisha and I shared was room 212. It was not a very big room but it was comfy (: Later on, we walked to an Indonesian restaurant where we had dinner. & then it was back to our rooms for the night. (the aircon was really, really colddd.)

Day 2

Breakfast

We had breakfast at the cafe in our hotel. It was a huge breakfast though not very appetising but satisfactory - toast bread with jam, honey, and butter that was self-service, as well as two poached eggs, two hashbrowns, ham and bacon which was extremely oily and only the hashbrown was fine. & we were told we would be having that as breakfast each day :O

Fremantle

We visited Monument Hill where we took many pictures and camwhored a lot, Cappuccino Strip which is a street that got its name as all the coffee houses on that street set up tables and chairs along the pavements, Fremantle Markets where we shopped for two hours and the Round House which used to be a prison and was built by ex-convicts. Before visiting the Round House, we had a really excellent Fish & Chips lunch - so crispy and succulent (oily) but still, yumyum (:

Okay, you know what? I'm starting to get a little lazy elaborating on everything. Maybe if I feel like it one day, I'll talk about the rest of this most wonderful trip in detail (: Sorry to disappoint you, faithful readers (if I have any), hahaha (:

PICA (Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts)

AWESOME Art Festival

Chinese Dinner

We drank soooo much water only because we wanted to see who the waitors would listen (to our calls to refill our empty jugs) & laughter during dinner was way too contagious.

Day 3

Kings Park Treetop Walk

UWA (University of Western Australia) - Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery

Chinese Lunch Supermarket

W.A. Art Gallery

Mundaring Art Centre

Day 4

Curtin University workshop Weaving & Felting Welcome Lunch

Dinner oleh oleh supper @ subway

Supermarket - Kinder Bueno & I sneezed on Mrs Zailee (accidentally of course) hahahaha.

Day 5

Curtin University workshop Fabric Print & Embroidery Visit to John Curtin Art Gallery evolution videos

indonesian dinner

Day 6

Caversham Wildlife Park - Kangaroos (JENA!), Koalas & Wombats (BIG BABY!) were too adorable to bear!

Flight (to Singapore) great food! (unlike the flight going there) watched Nancy Drew & episodes and episodes of Simpsons which were funnny!

there's nowhere sweeter than HOME (:

valerie is back from perth

I just returned to Singapore from Perth this evening and am dead beat. Don't even ask me why I'm still up. I have been catching up on everyone's blogs and my eyes are all droopy :( I miss Perth already, though I am pretty sure I'll be back there really soon.

I've got Chinese tuition tomorrow for two hours during the lunch period - what odd timing, when is lunch? That means, I won't be able to wake up at twelve tomorrow :( Well, at least there ain't no training tomorrow. & after tuition I'll be meeting Grace at Toa Payoh Central so that I can collect my band tickets :D And that means I'll have to squeeze in lunch on the way to Toa Payoh.

& I am definitely too sleepy to do a recount of my awesome AEP trip. So that'll be tomorrow (:

Enchanted!

Today's events are as follows (quite uneventful, but whatever): raining

Training

Okay, I guess training was okay... Spent most of it learning dropshot - which up to now, I still cannot do backhand dropshot :( at least I can do forehand (: I just learnt that all this while, my backhand volley's been WRONG :O oh no, oh no! I think I swing my racquet too back or something... Okay training was not thattt bad, considering we didn't have too much physical :) & coach let us off 15 minutes early! (incredible!)

& we were bugged (literally) in training

What bugged us this morning was the BUG ATTACK. Bees, moths, mosquitoes, fleas, ants, whatever bug: You name it, We saw it. During waterbreak, we were slapping our thighs and arms, and stamping on bugs (EW!). & while we were lining up for our drills, we were moving our feet so much, and we looked so on the go mann, when in fact, we were trying to keep those mozzies away. Yes, we were still getting bitten despite those layers of insect repellant on our skin that Ms Chua made us put :(

First row seats not necessarily = neck cramp

Nicole & I had lunch at botanic foodcourt & then went up to my house to bathe. & that's where nicole's hair got stuck in the hairbrush and she was yanking it off her scalp :O but she's fine now, no worries (: And when we checked the seats, the whole cinema was practically booked up except for some seats in the first 3 rows from the screen. & in the end, we ended up getting first row seats, which weren't as bad as I thought they'd be, cause there was a nice seat to lean your head on (;

FreeOfCharge chessy hotdogg!

We were actually on time for the movie! Wow. & it was so cool, we got something from the scratch & win thing. Like I have never won anything at all, usually the: Sorry, you have not won any prize, thank you for participating... But this time it said: you have a *FREE* cheesy hotdog! I thought it was so cool, although it was only a $2 thing :D & we shared it (:

Enchanted

AHHHH. ENCHANTED WAS WONNDERRRFULLL :D:D It's ultra funnnyyy (: especially with Nicole sitting next to you :D she laughed at eveyrthing. Even the not-really-funny parts. HAHAHA, but it was comical. I CAN'T stand that touch of your lips first kiss whatever song. Though, it made everyone laugh, it was driving me nutss. HAHA. & the part when Robert and Giselle were in the park & she started singing her song, and everyone in the park joined in too, and it was like a huge parade! GOSH, and she kept cutting up all the curtains in Robert's house to make her pretty dresses! It was an excellent movie, though not as entertaining as Stardust (:

We possibly got cheated...

I was walking Nicole to the mrt station & then there was this guy who made us donate like ten bucks for some job application whatever thing. SO ANNOYING. & then there was this other lady who asked us to buy her $2 pen. GAH. So we fled to the mrt real quickly. & I finally got Warriors Starlight :D:D plusplus warriors twilight! yay.

enchanted again?

Got home & watched like nearly four hours of tv. haha, can't believe myself. ANDAND, the 7pm show is really nice :D Okay, I think I'll be watching Enchanted with my mom again, tomorrow. Haha, but I don't mind watching it again, yay (: Oh, if the holidays could slow down ...

So organised :D

Wow, reading this entire post, I feel so good about myself, cause it looks so organised - quite well paragraphed with headings for each one (:

Yes! I have plans for the week! Woohoo! It's about time I started really enjoying the holidays! Haha.

Yup, Nicole & I are planning to watch Enchanted! on thursday after training. Going over to my house, bathe & lunch. Then we'll head down to orchard (probably Lido again, or maybe Plaza Sing.) We were trying to check the timings earlier but it's like not shown yet :( It only shows the timings for Wednesday's sneaks.

Gah! I'm having doubts though, about being able to go in the first place. I watched the Beemovie on Saturday & Stardust yesterday. That makes two movies so far, in three days. So if I watch another on thursday, that'd be three movies in six days, which is a little too much :( Okay, in that case, I shall do more words & math, and maybe read my new textbooks? Oh, and pack my luggage. So perhaps there'd be nothing that would keep Dad from saying no :D Goodgoodgood, I feel better now (:

Oh, I think we'll be celebrating Jie's birthday on Friday - dinner, since I'll be going on her birthday, early in the morining. Haha, she was complaining how it was her birthday, and she had to wake up earlyy (to send me off at 7).

&& I started packing last night! Ooh, I love packing :D You have to organise everything and you get to tick a checklist for "to-brings". I love ticking checklists! Come to think of it, I love being organised, though my room tells you I most certainly am not. But anyway, this is all too exciting! (Oopsie... I was supposed to wait for Cheryl before packing but I couldn't resist!)

Nicole Lum, has very helpfully changed my credits to 'The Pooper' and my profile to 'The Sexy Mama'. I would change it right this second, but on second thought, I'd better not - she won't be happy, and I can't afford to make her unhappy after all she's done for me (:

Okay, believe it or not, I'm playing Neopets. Yes, neopets. Goodbye Sims2 and HELLO neopets! Okay, NO! scrape that. I still love Sims2 more. I'm just playing neopets for a change. Okay, I'm just reassuring myself that I'm not one of those people who have turned back to neopets out of desperation. No, I'm not one of them, I refuse! (Sorry Pinkie, I'm afraid I won't be able to give you all my np now :( You got me into THISS!)

Okay, some Bouncy Supreme & then perhaps Icecream Machine? Yay.

toOdles!

STARDUST

Started off the day really late - waking up at a quarter to twelve! Jie & I decided to watch Stardust! (a must see, if you haven't watched it already) at Lido before she had to go for tuition. We were getting pretty late, so Dad offered to send us there (:

We had way way too much popcorn - didn't even finish half of it! (I did say we should have gotten Combo 1!). But the movie was awesome anyway!

[***CAUTION*** There are some parts about the movie below. So if you have not watched Stardust, you may wish to continue reading after the orange section]

Michelle Pfeiffer was ever so cool ;) It was impressive how she could keep becoming older and younger - how her skin wrinkled up like rotten vegetables and a million age spots popped up all over her arms & how her boobs drooped all too suddenly when she used magic. Hahaha!

Captain Shakespeare was funnyyy as well, when he started playing dress-up with all those pink feathery sashes and white, frilly dresses, while his crew was out on the deck fighting, sillyy.

& Yvaine kept glowing when she was with Tristan (awww!).

It was pretty weird how that witch's servant turned out to be not only Una, the princes' long, lost sister, but also Tristan's mother!

The ending was so 'happily ever after' but I liked it to end Cliché, hehe (: I really can't imagine that entire movie put down in words as a book!

After the movie, we took the underpass to Wheelock. I went to Borders like finally. & guess what - Starlight (Warriors: Book 4, second series) was not even in stock! GAHH ><
Yay, but Mum says she'll go with me to Times @ Centrepoint later to get the book, after work (:

Yes, and not forgetting: a big, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy - get on with itt -

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHERYL LIM XY!!

one of the last to turn thirteen, but still, FINALLY :D You see, I remembered! I think I shall get your birthday present from Perth! & you can choose (:

Okay, I shall start getting ready to pack ...

Welcome back, Jie!

Julia Thong Wen May has been MIA for three days and two nights and has finally returned home (from Confirmation Camp). A nice, warm welcome home, Jie! & I did miss you.

Yesyesyes!!! Mum bought that nice nike sweater for mee today at Great World (: YAY. Thank you, thank you, Mum! It's so nice and orangey and nice and soft and nice and warm (and nice) ;D

Dad, Mum, Jie and I went to Funan after lunch to replace that bonkus computer in Jie's room. It'll be delivered on Tuesday, together with that totally unnecessary printer. & that means I'll get the laptop all to my self (as it was supposed to be!) Hahaha.

We were going straight over to Porpor's house, and Dad could watch his Masters Cup Finals there, but Jie said she wanted to go home and sleep. So Dad sent Jie back home, and Mum and I figured we'd be late if we went back home with them. That's why we decided to take a 166 to Porpor's place instead.

& all was just fine ... until it started raining like bananas and watermelons. And Mum and I were thinking: Why didn't we take a cabb?! But it was too late, and we had no other choice.

The rain didn't get any lighter as we alighted at Upper Thomson. There were rollings and bolts of thunder and lightning, which, by the way, were scarrryy :0 And we were (very sad to say) stranded on the bus stop. All we had to do, was cross the road, and we'd be pretty safe already. But each time we wanted to cross at the green man, there'd be this flash of lightning, and we'd change our minds and stay put.

Well, we got kind of... impatient. The rain got a teeny, tiny bit lighter. The moment the green man came on, Mum and I made a dash across the road - Mum holding the Times plastic bag over her head, and me holding my uh, hand over my head.

We dried off at Porpor's house & watched the finals. Not very surprisingly, Federer won David Ferrer easily, with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win. Federer recieved that $1.2 million, plus a really sleek Mercedes, sponsored by (of course) Mercedes. & it was so strange, how this Chinese guy translated the English stuff in Chinese and vice versa.

We had dinner + watched some tv together, and then went back home. I guess today was pretty good, though not very eventful. Not-so-good: I didn't get to go to Borders for the third day in a row. HMPH! Good: I got that pretty, pretty, prettyyy nike jackett ;D

So tomorrow, I plan to start planning our (Cheryl & I) plans for Perth trip. Hehehe. Cheryl & I are supposed to pack togetherr, so that nothing goes wrong in our packing... hahaha. Looking forward to Perth, though I'm rather sick of it... but this time, it's with friends!! - totally different (if you get what I mean... hahaha)

RGP Carnival Day! It was completely different from the previous years - in a good way. There were all these Ezone games like the car game! and the air hockey game!! and that inflated jumpy thing, and the colourful ball room (like the one Ikea used to have). So unfair. Our cip fair was nothing like that, hmph :( All the excitementt :D

So I met up with Annette and Beverly (: Yay, missed you Bev!! (I see you every training, Ann ;D) Bought coupons and tokens (for the games) from Ms Ong, then went to look for Mdm Tng & Mrs Lim. They were both impressed by Bev's "hip & cool" accessories. Hahaha. (Bev was always hip (;)

I lovelovelove air hockeyy! We were like the pro-est, haha, compared to the littler ones. And it was so so short, just the right height for Annette (kidding!). We hung around at the playground enjoying our cool rootbeer floats (little did we know there was a $3 entry fee to the playground. well no one saw us, i think.. haha)

Had some Korean lunch (all three of us sharing that one miserable plate). Changed out of our warm, black class tees, and took a really long time to decide whether to go Bev's house/my house/town. In the end, we finally agreed to take 174 to my place first, and then to town.

Gah, we waited a terribly long time for the bus to come, and when it came, it was WAH! so full. I can't stand all the pushing and shoving and 'excu me! excu me!' from the typical kiasu singaporeans in the bus. It was such a relief to get out! We walked over to Botanic food court and had yummy cheese & mushroom prata (so satisfying!) with curry, of course. Then, over to my house. We decided to catch the 3.05pm Bee Movie at Cineleisure. We were going to book our tickets online but Ann claimed we could get student price tickets.

We took 174 again, and it was really full AGAIN :( Crikey! we were so late already, and dear Ann and Bev were still la-di-dar-di-dar, walking. I was so huangzhang and they just said "Val, it's okay. See, we're so calm!" Hahaha. (Calm meant late..)

We took the lift to level 4 and were lining up (the queue was longg) to buy tickets and food. & when it finally reached our turn, the lady told us there were no student tickets; just the $9.50 one. We looked at our tickets: Level 6.

So we took the escalator up and were walking round and round (all of us were anxious now, we were half an hour late already :0) Where were the theatres?! We approached this guy who worked there and showed him our tickets. And he said "Oh, this one level 6. Must go up one level." And we were thinking "Level 6?! Aren't we on Level 6?" Then, we smart people realised we had only taken one escalator up, and were at Level 5 -.- You must be thinking How stupid can we gett?

Reaching Level 6, we took out our tickets: Theatre 3. We rushed to theatre 3, and not surprisingly, the movie had started. Once again, we fished for our tickets to see what seats we were sitting at. It was all dark but Ann managed to read the faintly printed: K - 20, 21, 22. We followed Ann down the aisle and realised that we were on the other side of row K -.- So we had to walk all the way back and were so distracting (bet everyone wanted to throw popcorn at us).

We finally settled down in our seats. & I just couldn't believe we had to look at our tickets three times before we could get to our seats.

It doesn't pay to be so calm!

Yes, although we were sooo late for the movie, we still had a great time without doubt, like we always do (: We took neos, which turned out disastrously, as we were so unconscious of the time & I didn't finish writing :( Then, we had tea at Subway, before leaving.

Thanks Ann & Bev for this lovely day (: It was well worth spent with you guys (though we would have had plenty more fun if Po and Son had joined us. GAH! Po's family meeting? & Son's 1.30 - 6.30 tuition?! <-- she had got to be kidding.)

& Great, big Spankyou to NicLummie for helping me get a song for my blog (: Craig David forever! And Spanks for putting a chatbox and helping me change all the headings (though I still haven't learnt how to do all this by myself, since you helped me do it all!)

Shanghai Masters Cup: Ferrer thrashed Roddick 6-1, 6-3 :0 --- byebye Roddick :(

I thought we were close at heart;
but it seems we're miles apart.

Hello I'm Lisa here :D Heehee I just helped Valerie Thongalongalong do up her blogskin so I decided to drop by and say hi :)

Hi! :D

Okay Vallo Jello you listen to me ahzzzz, go to TEMPLATE, and look for the part where it says ALL ABOUT ME. Then under there's "Write more about yourself here :)", you can replace this with information about yourself ;) Like your interests and hobbies and school and cca and wtv. Orrrrr, the things you like, LIKE ME! :D Teehee. Or you just write one line -I love Lisa Koh and end it there. Hoho. Okay kidding. Yes, then for your LINKS, in the blogname.blogspot.com part, you replace blogname with the blog url of whoever you want to link, and you put the person who want to link's name in the NAME part :) If you have any other questions...

CALL ME BEEP ME, IF YOU WANNA REACH ME
:D

Hahahaha! Okay okay I'll go now -.- You go girl! Have a happy period! HAHAHAHA ZOMG I'M SO FUNNY I CAN'T STAND MYSELF. Joke joke.

XOXO
LISA WAS HERE :D

New blogskin!

Whooo! Big thank you to Nic Lummie (for helping me find my perfect blogskin :D) and Lisa (for helping me put the blogskin :) and teaching me to link, though I still don't get it)!

Yes, so training today. I guess it was okay - way better than tuesday's, at least. The last physical part - the touch net back paddle & hop, hop, hop sprint thing was funner and better than tuesday's one, haha :)

Rushed back home to shower and grabbed some lunch, and then chinese tuition. I was in quite a bad mood, and lao shi noticed :0 It (my horrible mood) only disappeared when we started talking about pets, especially dogs. And lao shi was so shocked :0 She kept turning her head back and forth to each of us, and putting her hand over her mouth (which was gaping open), and saying "zhen de ah?" Nicole was telling lao shi how female dogs have their period too, and that they wear diapers when they have their period. And lao shi was all, "Har?! Then what about all those stray cats and dogs?" - meaning wouldn't there be blood and stuff all over the void decks of HDBs. Hahaha, lao shi, you really make me laugh :D

new blog (:

Okay, so first things first, I have to thank Lisa & Kelly for giving me inspiration. Yeah, cause if not for you two, I would not have created this blog (: I dedicated my entire afternoon today, to reading your blogs, and am proud to say, I finished reading them! Woohoo, I feel oh so accomplished :D (yes, that's how bored I am at home)

Anyway, I'm trying to get a nice blogskin (and I don't know how), Lisa is supposed to teach me about this blogging stuff, cause I am one lost sheep with this thing. However, she is busy at the moment, patching up a relationship..

I am currently hooked on Warriors - The New Prophecy :) love itt! Okay shoot, it's already 11.30. EKK. I'm waking up at seven for training tomorrow!! Nooooo. That's less than eight hours of beauty sleep. And after that is chinese tuition :( Okay, I'm off to bed now.