Stand up for Singapore

The Australian newspapers that I came across in my 3 weeks here reports mainly about local news. I could barely find any international news. Amazingly, I saw the word 'Singapore' appear in an entertainment news about a movie starring Joan Chen (Lead actress of Last Emperor) and local (Mediacorp) actor Qi Yu Wu.

But I honestly felt home sick when I saw the Singapore flag appearing right in my face in one of the local advertisement.

Nope, not this one.

Not this one also (Guess a jet fighter is million times faster than a rabbit)

Hacker's mascot?

Ahhh....that familiar crescent moon and 5 stars.

Australia Zoo

We had our longest road trip today, driving up to Sunshine Coast to check out the beaches at Caloundra.

But we first made a detour to visit the Australia Zoo in the morning. As I was driving along Glass House Mountains Road, I realised it has also been named as Steve Irwin Way, after the famous crocodile celebrity Steve Irwin.

At first, we thought we wouldn't be able to cover most if not all parts of the zoo if we wanted to go to the beaches. We had reached the zoo at about 10 am and had lunch at the food court after the animal show. But surprisingly, by the time we left the zoo at about 3 pm, we had actually seen most of the animals.

The Australia Zoo has a huge collection of crocodiles, kangaroos and last but not least, koala bears. I thought I would go gaga over the koalas, but I found another adorable animal - the fat wombat. The animal show at the crocoseum was more educational than entertaining, unlike what I see at the Singapore zoo.

Enough writing, here's some photos to add some colour to this boring blog.

Crikey!

Kangaroo dozing off

Wrestling with a crocCrocoseum

Graham, age 35, Length: 12 Feet, Vital Stats, 38-38-36.

Just another croc

Koala with an attitude

Fat wombat

Downtown Brisbane

Finally the weekend arrives and we can do some exploring in Brisbane!

My colleague and I had arranged to meet up with a few other colleagues for dinner near Brisbane downtown. So we decided to go to the shopping malls in Brisbane in the afternoon.

We wanted to settle lunch first at our favorite Thai restaurant but suay suay, the restaurant was closed for lunch. So bobian we went to next door's Sizzler for the salad bar instead.

Crispy cheese toast@Sizzler

After suppressing my stomach revolution (with soup, salad, pasta, potatoes, ice-cream, etc.), I took the driver seat and embarked on my virgin trip to Brisbane downtown. I missed a couple of turns and after some route re-plan (thanks to my fantastic VC), I reached the destination we were looking for - Myer Center@Elizabeth Street.

Parking is expensive in downtown Brisbane. But some malls, including Meyer Center, offer 10 AUD whole day parking.

We spent some time shopping in Meyer before venturing out to the Queen Street Promenade. Queen Street Promenade is similar to some of the Europe city's pedestrian mall, where there are outdoor eateries in the middle, flanked by shops along both side. It wasn't a big place so we explored the nearby streets.

Brisbane City Hall

Shops close very early in Australia, so by 6 pm we found ourselves loitering along the streets of Brisbane. Faced with the fact that night has fallen (sun set early in winter), we decided to go to our dinner place even though we were still an hour away from the meeting time.

We soon found out that the place - Breakfast Creek Hotel, was less than 10 minutes drive from the city center. The place is not what it is call now, it is no longer a hotel and we didn't come here for breakfast. :-P

The place was already packed with people and we were lucky to find a (free) car park lot.

In Australia, its quite common to have a drink before dinner, which is what we did when we met our colleagues at the bar. We then proceed to our table for dinner. The place we were at is famous for steak, which was what everyone at the table ordered, except me. I was more of a fish person so I went for the Barramundi, and the way it was done wasn't really worth the price tag. After some wine, and more beer, we finally make our way back to the hotel in quiet Ipswich.

To be continued...

Ipswich

Ipswich is a little city located in south east Queensland of Australia. It is some 45 minutes drive from Brisbane. As Queensland's oldest provincial city, Ipswich has more than 6000 heritage-listed sites.

Within the Ipswich CBD, is Ipswich International Hotel, probably the biggest hotel here, with 80 over guest rooms and 8 service apartments.

Ipswich CBD

my room

Food in Australia is expensive, even in this tiny city. A simple lunch, such as a chicken kebab, will set you back by at least 6.50 AUD. A MSG-filled Chinese fried noodle cost 9.50 AUD.

Egg Benedict (14 AUD breakfast)

But good thing about dining in Australia is what you see is what you get - the price on the menu is what you see on the bill. There is no +++ like what Singapore restaurant practice. And tipping is only encourage for excellent service.

Weather is very cooling as it is still winter season. Guess I will miss the weather here when I go back Singapore.

To be continued...

Sudoku@airport

I was on the way to the gate C17 on Sunday to catch my flight when I saw this game been hosted at the transit hall.

I checked my watch - 8.35 pm. My flight was 9.20 pm, so I thought a game wouldn't take too much time....

Little did I know that the game has 3 stage and I got into the final round with a Korean and an Indian contestant. I beat them and won a pen ;-)

I checked my watch again - 8.57 pm. I started running to my gate...