long post from plane (1 day ago)
Ok, so i'm currently on the plane on the way back to good ol melbourne =) sigh, i do miss my little city. Well, technically it's not mine, but it is my home. So what has this month of travel accrued to? Well, frankly i didn't bring back THAT much stuff. My baggage only amounted to 22kgs for my main luggage and perhaps a total of 10kgs i reckon for my backpack and my laptop bag. I probably spent a total of .... maybe 1500 AUD i reckon. I know i definitely spent around 7-800 dollars in Hongkong. And i spent quite a lot in london (u know how london is sigh), considering i didn't do any shopping in Europe.
So, if everyone's asking how's London, i'll have to say this. When people admire London and it's greatness i can understand how they appreciate it. Unfortunately, there is more to London than what others portray of it. London is a city that, despite the hussle and bussle has some things that you wouldn't really know much about. As usual, every city has it's highs and lows and there's always pros and cons. To me, London would be a perfect place to take 1-2 years to go work in. You get to meet a lot of different people due to the tourism industry over there and also the fact that diversity over there seems to already be within their culture. The money would be good and i could survive. What i probably wouldn't like is 1, the weather, 2 the food, 3 the food, 4 the food =p Ok. So everyone's kinda knows that i'm a food person so i wouldn't be able to live there. Anyhow, back to London. The actual city is quite alive i must say. There are places that are open late at night, and there are a lot of famous people who goto london. London, if you're wealthy enough, can be very luxurious. Apart from the aura of prestige in the air due to their monumental historical buildings and other tourist attractions, there is indeed a lot more bums and uneducated people around. This is of course, probably relative to the population over there compared to Melbourne. I don't think i would ever consider London/Europe to have my kids grow up in. I've talked to several teachers who are over there teaching from Australia and they all tell me that the kids are very different from those in Australia. They're scared to go outside and have some fun because they don't like the sun, they talk back to teachers which is unheard of and unacceptable but it seems to be the norm over there and most of the teachers don't have a degree over there. Yes, that's right, teachers who have degrees are highly regarded over there and are sorta overqualified and hence, many teachers over there are from NZ, Aus etc coz degrees are a norm over here. Kids over there don't go out, they apparently according to my friend, stay indoors all weekend. Yes, all weekend. Literally they didn't leave the house and stayed indoors playing playstation all weekend, and they wonder why they're sensitive to the sun.
Ok, so, my itenerary on this trip was: Melb to HK, changeover, HK to London. Stayed in London for 1 week. In that time, i went to all the galleries, all the museums, all the exhibitions, walked around to Harrods, ate different types of food, went to see Les Miserables, took heaps of photos everywhere, caught up with my sis Em, and bummed at home a little sometimes, did some project work for uni. Then, i went to Florence, Italy for 3 days. That was kinda random/exciting. We had no idea where to go, and we spent about half an hour finding our hotel coz no one spoke english hahaha. We ate this awesome tasting gelati. Now, to describe the gelati over there, it's pretty close to gelati in Melbourne but there's a slight difference. There's this richness of taste that's very apparent. Not just being sweet, but flavoursome. I had an awesome cafe latte there at the market too. In Florence, we visited the statue of David and walked around the markets, tried this awesome pizza place, bought little gifts and tasted really nice chocolate, looked at nice hand made leather diaries and stuff, went to a bar and had a few drinks, went to the Uffizi Museum to look at artwork, and went to this restaurant that our hotel suggested for authentic food, and it was absolutely awesome. They had this small dish, bowl, of these sauteed or whatever mushrooms slices, that were flavoured with butter and something or rather, but it was so rich and really slimy/delicious. So Florence is good stuff. I managed to hear this awesome street singer. She was really good. I bought her cd, but the feeling is kinda different listening to her cd and seeing her sing live. Anyhow, the place doesn't have much night life, but there's a lot during the day and is definitely worth going to =) Mind you, only the sales ppl know english, others walking around are kinda clueless =p But don't worry there's quite a lot of tourists and there's heaps of americans, no offense, but the americans were soooo annoying and they were sooo loud.
So after Florence, back to London we went (Em and I). I met her friends that she studies with, and we went to the jazz club, Ronnie Scotts, listened to awesome jazz, spent the next few days packing coz i was going to liverpool. When i got ot liverpool, i was greeted by my other sister Grace and my bro in law. My niece and nephew were getting bigger but still the same nonetheless hahaha. I spent most of my time in liverpool bumming. Coz there's not THAT much to do over there. I was mainly there to visit my sister but i was sick for the first 2 days. Something i ate upset my stomach and yeah i was bedridden for a while. I had to do some of my project stuff whilst i was in liverpool, besides that i caught up with my bro in law, and went to this Beatles thing that showed the whole history of the Beatles. I must say i had no idea about the beatles history but it was really interesting. I also got to deface a coin and imprint this beatles thing on it hehe.
So when i got back to London after a week, i contacted an old friend from church who was there teaching (yep). And we caught up, went to Ronnie Scotts again (coz last time one of the singers i wanted to hear wasn't there), and mind you it's 26 pounds to get in, and drinks and snacks in there aren't that cheap. Anyhow, we had a good time, then she invited me over for dinner the next night and i went, and it was really good, she lives with this other aussie dude and her boyriend, who went back to aus. Hahaha, she intro'd me to her friends and one girl is from qld and she teaches there too, and this other girl is from canada and she teaches there. Another girl is from Melbourne!!! hahah but she doesn't teach but she's also over there working. So, alot of aussies. Anyhow, we went clubbin after dinner and it was sooooo funny =p In London, asians aren't called asians, they're called Orientals. And we were like gettin all hyped up about that (well, Vicky and I). The girl from qld and canada weren't asian so they were like mehhh. Anyhow, we were dancin and all and after a while, vicky was like dancing on the bench near the window or somethin and the windows were frosted and lolz, she sorta started drawing Australia on the window and said "I'm not a noodle flavour" hahahahahhaha =p we were just crackin up, and then the qld chick wrote "Ozzies rule" and we were just goin spaz at the window hahaha =p the night ended in us all going back to Vicky's place and watching ummmm, some aussie comedy, which i still can't remember, but anyhow, it's like really aussie down to earth typa comedy and we ate chicken nuggets and just all laid there until we all fell asleep. The next morning my shirt had all this hair on it from sleeping on the floor rug and the others half went to the rooms half just laid on the couch. Apparently my snoring was the cause of some ppl resorting to sleeping in the rooms hahahah, anyhow so after breakfast, Vicky made us toast with egg and tomato, which was very nice, i bid them farewell, coz they were actually gonna go out that night AGAIN, but i was leaving london the next morning. So that was a bit of fun.
Ok, so in HK i bought heaps of stuff. Firstly, i bought shirts. I bought some cheap ones and i bought some expensive ones. But now, come to think of it, i reckon it's not THAT worth it to buy the expensive ones. Spent heaps on those. Bought some cheapo shoes. Bought a 4gb usb that i tested this time, unlike the stupid 2gb sd card ages ago that didn't work, and the usb this time was faster than my ipod shuffle by like 2.5x so i'm quite happy. And it wasn't expensive. Bought some phone covers and ipod covers for friends. Bought a dvd for a friend. Bought myself some old vcds. Bought 2 bluetooth headsets. One for mum one for me. They don't work that great i must admit, or im gettin jibbed, i'll see what happens when i get to aus. Ummm, ate heaps and heaps of food there. Oh Sam, you would absolutely go crazy for the BBQ pork that i ate over there, it's like to DIE FOR. What else did i buy, hmmmmm, oh i had to fix my phone. Stupid thing went "insert sim card" on me and i couldn't fix it, so i had to pay to fix it. It wasn't expensive but not cheap either, like 30 bux aus. Got a whole heap of suits from my bro in law in HK. Oh, yer, in case you don't know, my 2nd sister Daphne lives in HK, but she's moving to Brisbane soon hehe woohoo =p. Coz yeah, he's quitting soon and they're moving to brisbane to open a coffee/cafe and chilling so he didn't need the suits anymore. So that was pretty awesome. I bought a whole heap of ties and yeah, that's pretty much it. My sister Daphne used quite a lot of money on me >.< Thanks yees. Coz whenever we went out she sorta treated food =p. I also caught up with my sister's friend Steph in HK and we went to watch The Queen with this other guy Alan. That was kinda fun. Then we went to play photo hunt and then went to a bar to have a few drinks =p And then i realised i didn't bring enough money and yeah, steph sorta paid for me, which i need to somehow pay her back for, hahah STEPH, come to Aus =) You too Alan -=) not that they would read this blog.
So, i'm currently like, 3 hours 39 minutes from Melbourne. Just approaching Darwin atm. Anyhow, so i wanted to write this when i have heaps of time, but i'm actually watching a movie atm. I just finished watching Babel and i actually wanted to just write a movie review on it but it turned out to be a recap of my holiday thing. OK, onto Babel.
Babel, was a strange film, but interesting. The explanation they had was 4 stories, interconnected. And at first you kinda wonder how the heck they're connected, but u later find out. There are tragedies and small minor triumphs, the only thing i didn't understand was the very last scene. I might need to read up on it. I would give it a 6.5/10 for this film. Mainly because it was well thought out, the film. The cons are, the fact that they had to use Brad Pit and Cate Blanchett when they didn't need to. It was just one of those "oh there's a big star in my movie, come watch it". Besides that the music was average, nothing to note of, character development slightly lacked depth, but an overall good movie to watch.
The Queen, was somewhat of a different movie. The actors were excellent and i applaud them, in particular the actress who played the Queen and the actor who played Tony Blair. They were fantastic. The story was kinda outrageous though i thought. At first you question whether the movie would be based on the real story or fiction but you soon realise that it's quite fictional. Alot of sucking up to the royal family was done in this film, mainly because they probably needed Buckingham Palace for their film set, so they couldn't have a film that defamated them in any way. I would say it's a 6.5/10 as well. Due to the excellent acting of both persons mentioned and also an educational film that gives you a bit of recollection of historical events, Princess Di etc
Ok, i need to goto the toilet and wake this guy up next to me, which i never thought i'd do, normally i'm the person who gets annoyed at ppl going to the toilet rather than me going myself, and then i'm gonna continue watching Deja Vu and then post this up when i get home, maybe after i do a short review on what i'm watching now, Deja Vu.
Ok, so now i'm like 2 hours away from Melbourne. Ok, so i just watched a movie, Deja Vu, starring Denzel Washington. Man, that guy's too much of a legend =p I love his films coz almost 100% of his films are good. Anyhow, basically this thing's like time travel sorta, kinda interesting, and you think u know everything about time travel movies, but wthis one has a slight twist and it gets u gripped till the last 10 minutes of the movie. The music i must say was good, suited the movie, the actors were very good, although Mr batman, Val Kilmer didn't play much of a role nor was he really needed. Denzel played a good role, but because the movie did not hover around character development as such, he didn't really shine much. No particular flaws to the movie i thought, so overall i'd give it a rating of 7.5 because of the way the movie entranced me from tip to toe, a good watch.
Yawn, i think i'll sleep the rest of the way. But then again, i don't really want to haah, hmmm, i think i drank way too much water tho, i seem to be wanting to goto the toilet quite often, or maybe it's the fact that returning to australia is giving me an anxiety attack and my body can't handle it =p i can't wait to take a shower in my own shower, and be able to sleep on my own bed, organise everything i need for the next day, catch up on mail, and do all that and get duelly organised hopefully =p. In HK because it's so wet, i went a whole week with putting up with using a damp/wet towel after a shower. Not very pleasant nor comforting. Anyhow, they're serving food now but i'm not hungry. I'm gonna sleep it i think =p ok, i think i'll post this when i get home =p w00h00
So, if everyone's asking how's London, i'll have to say this. When people admire London and it's greatness i can understand how they appreciate it. Unfortunately, there is more to London than what others portray of it. London is a city that, despite the hussle and bussle has some things that you wouldn't really know much about. As usual, every city has it's highs and lows and there's always pros and cons. To me, London would be a perfect place to take 1-2 years to go work in. You get to meet a lot of different people due to the tourism industry over there and also the fact that diversity over there seems to already be within their culture. The money would be good and i could survive. What i probably wouldn't like is 1, the weather, 2 the food, 3 the food, 4 the food =p Ok. So everyone's kinda knows that i'm a food person so i wouldn't be able to live there. Anyhow, back to London. The actual city is quite alive i must say. There are places that are open late at night, and there are a lot of famous people who goto london. London, if you're wealthy enough, can be very luxurious. Apart from the aura of prestige in the air due to their monumental historical buildings and other tourist attractions, there is indeed a lot more bums and uneducated people around. This is of course, probably relative to the population over there compared to Melbourne. I don't think i would ever consider London/Europe to have my kids grow up in. I've talked to several teachers who are over there teaching from Australia and they all tell me that the kids are very different from those in Australia. They're scared to go outside and have some fun because they don't like the sun, they talk back to teachers which is unheard of and unacceptable but it seems to be the norm over there and most of the teachers don't have a degree over there. Yes, that's right, teachers who have degrees are highly regarded over there and are sorta overqualified and hence, many teachers over there are from NZ, Aus etc coz degrees are a norm over here. Kids over there don't go out, they apparently according to my friend, stay indoors all weekend. Yes, all weekend. Literally they didn't leave the house and stayed indoors playing playstation all weekend, and they wonder why they're sensitive to the sun.
Ok, so, my itenerary on this trip was: Melb to HK, changeover, HK to London. Stayed in London for 1 week. In that time, i went to all the galleries, all the museums, all the exhibitions, walked around to Harrods, ate different types of food, went to see Les Miserables, took heaps of photos everywhere, caught up with my sis Em, and bummed at home a little sometimes, did some project work for uni. Then, i went to Florence, Italy for 3 days. That was kinda random/exciting. We had no idea where to go, and we spent about half an hour finding our hotel coz no one spoke english hahaha. We ate this awesome tasting gelati. Now, to describe the gelati over there, it's pretty close to gelati in Melbourne but there's a slight difference. There's this richness of taste that's very apparent. Not just being sweet, but flavoursome. I had an awesome cafe latte there at the market too. In Florence, we visited the statue of David and walked around the markets, tried this awesome pizza place, bought little gifts and tasted really nice chocolate, looked at nice hand made leather diaries and stuff, went to a bar and had a few drinks, went to the Uffizi Museum to look at artwork, and went to this restaurant that our hotel suggested for authentic food, and it was absolutely awesome. They had this small dish, bowl, of these sauteed or whatever mushrooms slices, that were flavoured with butter and something or rather, but it was so rich and really slimy/delicious. So Florence is good stuff. I managed to hear this awesome street singer. She was really good. I bought her cd, but the feeling is kinda different listening to her cd and seeing her sing live. Anyhow, the place doesn't have much night life, but there's a lot during the day and is definitely worth going to =) Mind you, only the sales ppl know english, others walking around are kinda clueless =p But don't worry there's quite a lot of tourists and there's heaps of americans, no offense, but the americans were soooo annoying and they were sooo loud.
So after Florence, back to London we went (Em and I). I met her friends that she studies with, and we went to the jazz club, Ronnie Scotts, listened to awesome jazz, spent the next few days packing coz i was going to liverpool. When i got ot liverpool, i was greeted by my other sister Grace and my bro in law. My niece and nephew were getting bigger but still the same nonetheless hahaha. I spent most of my time in liverpool bumming. Coz there's not THAT much to do over there. I was mainly there to visit my sister but i was sick for the first 2 days. Something i ate upset my stomach and yeah i was bedridden for a while. I had to do some of my project stuff whilst i was in liverpool, besides that i caught up with my bro in law, and went to this Beatles thing that showed the whole history of the Beatles. I must say i had no idea about the beatles history but it was really interesting. I also got to deface a coin and imprint this beatles thing on it hehe.
So when i got back to London after a week, i contacted an old friend from church who was there teaching (yep). And we caught up, went to Ronnie Scotts again (coz last time one of the singers i wanted to hear wasn't there), and mind you it's 26 pounds to get in, and drinks and snacks in there aren't that cheap. Anyhow, we had a good time, then she invited me over for dinner the next night and i went, and it was really good, she lives with this other aussie dude and her boyriend, who went back to aus. Hahaha, she intro'd me to her friends and one girl is from qld and she teaches there too, and this other girl is from canada and she teaches there. Another girl is from Melbourne!!! hahah but she doesn't teach but she's also over there working. So, alot of aussies. Anyhow, we went clubbin after dinner and it was sooooo funny =p In London, asians aren't called asians, they're called Orientals. And we were like gettin all hyped up about that (well, Vicky and I). The girl from qld and canada weren't asian so they were like mehhh. Anyhow, we were dancin and all and after a while, vicky was like dancing on the bench near the window or somethin and the windows were frosted and lolz, she sorta started drawing Australia on the window and said "I'm not a noodle flavour" hahahahahhaha =p we were just crackin up, and then the qld chick wrote "Ozzies rule" and we were just goin spaz at the window hahaha =p the night ended in us all going back to Vicky's place and watching ummmm, some aussie comedy, which i still can't remember, but anyhow, it's like really aussie down to earth typa comedy and we ate chicken nuggets and just all laid there until we all fell asleep. The next morning my shirt had all this hair on it from sleeping on the floor rug and the others half went to the rooms half just laid on the couch. Apparently my snoring was the cause of some ppl resorting to sleeping in the rooms hahahah, anyhow so after breakfast, Vicky made us toast with egg and tomato, which was very nice, i bid them farewell, coz they were actually gonna go out that night AGAIN, but i was leaving london the next morning. So that was a bit of fun.
Ok, so in HK i bought heaps of stuff. Firstly, i bought shirts. I bought some cheap ones and i bought some expensive ones. But now, come to think of it, i reckon it's not THAT worth it to buy the expensive ones. Spent heaps on those. Bought some cheapo shoes. Bought a 4gb usb that i tested this time, unlike the stupid 2gb sd card ages ago that didn't work, and the usb this time was faster than my ipod shuffle by like 2.5x so i'm quite happy. And it wasn't expensive. Bought some phone covers and ipod covers for friends. Bought a dvd for a friend. Bought myself some old vcds. Bought 2 bluetooth headsets. One for mum one for me. They don't work that great i must admit, or im gettin jibbed, i'll see what happens when i get to aus. Ummm, ate heaps and heaps of food there. Oh Sam, you would absolutely go crazy for the BBQ pork that i ate over there, it's like to DIE FOR. What else did i buy, hmmmmm, oh i had to fix my phone. Stupid thing went "insert sim card" on me and i couldn't fix it, so i had to pay to fix it. It wasn't expensive but not cheap either, like 30 bux aus. Got a whole heap of suits from my bro in law in HK. Oh, yer, in case you don't know, my 2nd sister Daphne lives in HK, but she's moving to Brisbane soon hehe woohoo =p. Coz yeah, he's quitting soon and they're moving to brisbane to open a coffee/cafe and chilling so he didn't need the suits anymore. So that was pretty awesome. I bought a whole heap of ties and yeah, that's pretty much it. My sister Daphne used quite a lot of money on me >.< Thanks yees. Coz whenever we went out she sorta treated food =p. I also caught up with my sister's friend Steph in HK and we went to watch The Queen with this other guy Alan. That was kinda fun. Then we went to play photo hunt and then went to a bar to have a few drinks =p And then i realised i didn't bring enough money and yeah, steph sorta paid for me, which i need to somehow pay her back for, hahah STEPH, come to Aus =) You too Alan -=) not that they would read this blog.
So, i'm currently like, 3 hours 39 minutes from Melbourne. Just approaching Darwin atm. Anyhow, so i wanted to write this when i have heaps of time, but i'm actually watching a movie atm. I just finished watching Babel and i actually wanted to just write a movie review on it but it turned out to be a recap of my holiday thing. OK, onto Babel.
Babel, was a strange film, but interesting. The explanation they had was 4 stories, interconnected. And at first you kinda wonder how the heck they're connected, but u later find out. There are tragedies and small minor triumphs, the only thing i didn't understand was the very last scene. I might need to read up on it. I would give it a 6.5/10 for this film. Mainly because it was well thought out, the film. The cons are, the fact that they had to use Brad Pit and Cate Blanchett when they didn't need to. It was just one of those "oh there's a big star in my movie, come watch it". Besides that the music was average, nothing to note of, character development slightly lacked depth, but an overall good movie to watch.
The Queen, was somewhat of a different movie. The actors were excellent and i applaud them, in particular the actress who played the Queen and the actor who played Tony Blair. They were fantastic. The story was kinda outrageous though i thought. At first you question whether the movie would be based on the real story or fiction but you soon realise that it's quite fictional. Alot of sucking up to the royal family was done in this film, mainly because they probably needed Buckingham Palace for their film set, so they couldn't have a film that defamated them in any way. I would say it's a 6.5/10 as well. Due to the excellent acting of both persons mentioned and also an educational film that gives you a bit of recollection of historical events, Princess Di etc
Ok, i need to goto the toilet and wake this guy up next to me, which i never thought i'd do, normally i'm the person who gets annoyed at ppl going to the toilet rather than me going myself, and then i'm gonna continue watching Deja Vu and then post this up when i get home, maybe after i do a short review on what i'm watching now, Deja Vu.
Ok, so now i'm like 2 hours away from Melbourne. Ok, so i just watched a movie, Deja Vu, starring Denzel Washington. Man, that guy's too much of a legend =p I love his films coz almost 100% of his films are good. Anyhow, basically this thing's like time travel sorta, kinda interesting, and you think u know everything about time travel movies, but wthis one has a slight twist and it gets u gripped till the last 10 minutes of the movie. The music i must say was good, suited the movie, the actors were very good, although Mr batman, Val Kilmer didn't play much of a role nor was he really needed. Denzel played a good role, but because the movie did not hover around character development as such, he didn't really shine much. No particular flaws to the movie i thought, so overall i'd give it a rating of 7.5 because of the way the movie entranced me from tip to toe, a good watch.
Yawn, i think i'll sleep the rest of the way. But then again, i don't really want to haah, hmmm, i think i drank way too much water tho, i seem to be wanting to goto the toilet quite often, or maybe it's the fact that returning to australia is giving me an anxiety attack and my body can't handle it =p i can't wait to take a shower in my own shower, and be able to sleep on my own bed, organise everything i need for the next day, catch up on mail, and do all that and get duelly organised hopefully =p. In HK because it's so wet, i went a whole week with putting up with using a damp/wet towel after a shower. Not very pleasant nor comforting. Anyhow, they're serving food now but i'm not hungry. I'm gonna sleep it i think =p ok, i think i'll post this when i get home =p w00h00
posted by kAgE at
7:03 PM
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3 comments
