Melbourne

So Melbourne, we meet again.

Melbourne Central clock tower

This is my 4th time in Melbourne and my 3rd time staying with Kenneth. He's been an excellent host.

My flight here was long, bumpy and sickening, literally. I was a messy tired heap of migraines and stomach aches when I got off the flight. And the drama started from the moment I stepped into LCCT in KL, with my electronic visa being rejected because I had a new passport, and my luggage being overweight, and my laptop battery failing on me, and WiFi KLIA that didn't allow me to log into the Australian Immigration website. Geezzz...All of which has never happened to me before in my years of flying to and fro...not even the overweight baggage.

But I met many kind souls to help me get through it all, starting with Julie's mum and colleague, which helped me get a visa for free through the phone, followed by Michael, a Scottish traveller who helped me check in 1 backpack (Very interesting dude, who stayed with the Penan for a month and travelled around Malaysia for about 3 months or something), and finally Denning, an Iban/Fuchow Chinese from Kuching who played the ukulele and taught me both how to play the ukulele and speak Iban in our 8-turned-9 hour flight to Melbourne.

Denning and his ukulele

View of the full moon from my seat.

Anyhow, Melbourne has been enjoyable. The weather is a little erratic though. It's 15 degrees today, and I've not a single jacket in my bags. Coz they're all packed away in Auckland.

Potato twisty things from China Town

Aunty Bee Imm and my cousin Kimberly

I have been meeting up with several friends, and meeting up with more today and tomorrow. I even met up with my aunty and my cousin over here. Guess it was a pretty good idea to come for a few days longer. =) Makes my journey back to Auckland slightly more pleasant...hehe...

Melbourne and her arts. :)

I'm very tempted to shop in Melbourne. There are sales EVERYWHERE! But not only do I not have the moolah, I also do not have luggage space. heh.

I am missing my family and friends at home heaps. I've had some pretty heartfelt moments with every one of them this time around, so that makes leaving them very difficult. But I guess the bright side is there are only about 5 months to go before I see them all again. =)