HAWTHORN ROCKS!!

The past Saturday was probably the most important day of the year for most Australians... it's the Grand Final footy match between Hawthorn and Geelong...btw footy is the Australian football which is almost the same as American football except for few differences which i don't know...:P


All Aussies love this... from old to young, men to women, girl to boy...
it's the game that made Australia... so it's a traitor not to like this game...
Most shops have posters or decorations to support their hometown team...

like these few shops in Hawthorn...







Everyone's like wearing the uniform of their favourite team... there's one place where there's a whole field of people wearing the same thing..but too bad i can't take the picture bcos i was in the train..

The match was in the afternoon... and eventually, Hawthorn or also called the Hawks won.. it's the one with the brown and yellow stripes
i think it's the first time Hawthorn won after 17 years... cuz from the news, they made history!!!

Usually, on Saturday nights, there would be QUITE many people in the city... but when it reaches 11 something, everyone starts to go home...

However for this particular Saturday, it's just different due to the game and it's part of the celebration...

i knew it would be a busier Saturday so i took the train to the city at around half past ten...
but i didn't expect it to be so busy.... usually the trains at 10 something would have plenty of seats but for that day...i not only have to stand but have to squeeze in....

and when i reached the city, there were MUCH more people... well, most people were actually going to the bars...for celebration..

Have you seen people queueing up just to get into the bar??? well, i haven't until that saturday... and it's not just only one bar but EVERY bar....Where do all these people come from...i thought Australia has got a population less than Malaysia's...




one of the bars near Swinburne... overcrowded...



one lounge opposite Flinders Street Station... also overcrowded...


another bar opposite Flinders Street... also overcrowded...


plus the people crossing the road...needless to say...


another one next to the river... also packed


Packed...


and this one... i think it's the MOST OVERCROWDED bar i've ever seen... look at how long the queue is... there's still queue outside the picture.... and some more the bar is not a small one... it's quite big...

i bet there would be attendants telling their customers..."TIMES UP!! STOP DANCING AND GET OUT OF THE BAR NOW!!!........NEXT PLEASE......

or

CALLING FOR NUMBER 2058....CALLING FOR NUMBER 2059!!!!

Well, i'm never interested in bars... yet to say "sardine tin" bars.... so i walked around the city taking pictures instead...



this is Flinders Street Station... the major train station in the city...



this is the Art Center of Melbourne... i think...looks like Eifle Tower...


view at one side of the river...


another view at the other side of the river....




isn't this magical...






Taxis...taxis everywhere... this peak hour should only happen a few times in a year... so it would be stupid for taxi drivers not to work at this time...







one building in Federation Square... all the buildings here are built in an artistic way...


and as i walked under the bridge, i saw this man playing playing saxaphone, trying to earn money... but why play here... there're not many people walking past... different people different
thinking..



by the way, Andy Lau is gonna have a concert in Australia... spreading his fame to the Western community....

The soft side of Victoria

it's mid term break for Swinburne Uni in Melbourne... so i stayed overnight at Scott's house again... but this time i didn't just stayed at his house but i actually went to his brother's house (or i should say property) for half a day... the main intention was to do some clearing up since his brother and family has moved to Belgium for 5 months.... it's located at the countryside area....about one hour drive from Scott's house...

the journey there itself was spectacular enough for me... the views were so serene....something very different from Malaysia...


hilly views that shows how large Australia is.... there were not many forest here... mostly plains... it's hard to find forest here except near the river.





can u imagine how beautiful this is.... the whole field is yellow.... first real spring i've experienced.




blue skies and look... there's a line of cloud across the sky...it's not camera defect but actually a real line of cloud...

and so we reached Scott's brother's house.... property i mean....u'll know what i mean as u read further.... it's located on top of the hill i suppose, which makes u able to see the rest of the countryside...








this is taken from somewhere near the house...








this is what i mean... this whole area belongs to Scott's brother...and it's just one side... there's another side with another house which he bought but i din take the picture...



another view of the large piece of land...




they had sheeps too...it's also the first time i saw real sheeps with wool... i tried to get nearer but all ran away...





living something behind like always.... these sheeps didn't drink enough i suppose...


there's a pony too...haha... rather old pony i suppose... it's very slow..


and there goats sun bathing on the soil... they're not dead btw..



and a little bit of the interior of the house...houses here all have kitchens together with their living room... from the outside, the house's not that big but when u go inside, it's so spacy... there're so many rooms inside...

i like the kitchen...modern but classic

Librarians in Swinburne Australia

one thing i like about the swinburne library in Australia is the librarians... they're really helpful and friendly...

unlike the ones in Swinburne Sarawak.... all they know is just SSSSSHHHHHHHH....... or THIS IS A LIBRARY YOU KNOW?? and when we ask one question, we get back one answer...ask another one get back another answer... and even sometimes the answer doesn't help at all...

but here in Swinburne Melbourne, the librarians are really different...
i was doing this assignment about Ayers Rock... i needed information about the composition of the rock and that's a tough piece of information to find... so i thought that maybe there would be lots of them in the online database. but i didn't know how to log in to the database here...

i approached a librarian and asked... she told me the exact thing to do... at the same time she asked me what i was looking for... i told her my topic and she started searching in the database....
unfortunately there were none... so she said, "this kind of information should usually be found in books or encyclopedias"... she didn't stop there... instead, she started searching in the online catalogue and managed to find a book in Melbourne University with the info that i need... i told her i didn't know how to go to that University...

and so, she took a route directory and showed me the exact route to Melbourne University...
i was like "ok... thank you very much".... she didn't stop there but continue searching for more relevant books.... "Maybe there would be some information in the encyclopedia here", she told me and went all the way up to the 4th floor for the encyclopedia...unfortunately, after a while she came down again saying there were nothing....

"perhaps you can give me your email and if i can find any books here i will email you... i don't want to trouble you to go all the way to Melbourne Uni because there might not be the information you want", that's what she said.... which i agreed..

it was already 11pm and she's supposed to be off duty already... i thanked her and apologized for bothering her... and her replies were "it doesn't matter... that's what we as librarians are supposed to do"... in fact...she was smiling all the way when she was helping me... she made a few typing error during the search and actually joked about her mistakes....

and the following day, i received her email and got infos for two books in Swinburne library....these books have got all the information i needed so it really saved me a lot of trouble...

i was wondering whether i would receive this kind of service if i were in the Swinburne Sarawak library... perhaps i'll just get papaya face all the way through... the mentality is that the librarians in Swinburne Sarawak thought their job is just to keep the library quiet, showing their b***hy faces... i wasn't implying all the librarians of course... some of them are OK

helping the students look for books is what librarians are supposed to do... and in fact, we paid library fees....SO really, we must make use of what we paid for.... :P

World Shortest Man

i've found something really interesting in the news... it's the world shortest man





sitting in between the legs of a Russian woman


this man is from China named Pingping....already 20 years and is only 0.7461metres tall....
WOW... really China has just got everything u want to find... from all kinds of things to all kinds of human...Amazing isn't it??

New accomodation

Finally....after living for more than a month in Scott's house, i moved in to another place on the 7th September ... a place much nearer to Swinburne...just 15 minutes walk to Swinburne. it's a three storey apartment

i got a room for myself.. renting from a working adult who works as a casual chef... so basically, it's just me and him in the apartment... sometimes it's just me for the whole place... it means freedom but sometimes it's also loneliness...

the moving in process was the hardest.. imagine having to carry six bags containing my stuff (i din really pack properly) take two trains and then walk for another fifteen minutes.... i nearly gave up while walking so i made myself count 1 2 3 4 while walking...

well, the apartment is kinda clean... fully carpeted which i like... except the kitchen... i dun understand. the owner is a chef himself but he actually put his pet birds in the kitchen... and sometimes, he even let them fly free in the kitchen.... haih... i thought for a chef, the kitchen has to be the cleaness... i dare not use the pots and pans there so i actually bought new ones for myself... luckily i can find the cheap but good ones...also, i had all my foodstuff like canned food or dried ones in my room... in a separate rack...

it's the third day already, it's rather convenient for me now as i can actually wake up half an hour before class again... haha... i'll take some pictures of my accomodation and post it some other time... got Scott's camera but cannot transfer the pics

Coldest winter of the decade in Victoria

can u believe it?? i've never experience winter for more than a month... coming to melbourne is the first time for me to experience winter for more than 30 days... went to china once during winter but it's only for a week...
Winter may be normal to some of u... but what i'm experiencing here is known to be the coldest winter of the decade in Victoria... amazing huh... it's in the news last night... no wonder it's so cold but still haven't reach to snow level.. there're black ice in a few places though...i'm so grateful...

Today is the first day of Spring... the flowers have started to bloom...i hope it will be the best spring of the decade again...haha... it's gonna be a very beautiful city...will try to get the pictures... see u all... : P