Day 12: Boxing Day Shopping!

Boxing day shopping in Melbourne was a great hit! Shoppers swamped the shopping malls as soon as the stores opened. It's so amazing that the stores slashed the prices over 50% for the annual post Christmas sales!

I shopped from 10am right through to 6pm... bought loads of stuffs for my family and friends (supposed to be their Christmas gifts!) Not forgetting a splurge on 2 dresses from Kookai and Ted Baker for myself :)


Shoppers queuing outside this jeans store along Bourke Street to be among the first through the doors as boxing sales began.

Melbourne Day 6: Heading off to Tasmania

Sun setting in along Yarra River.

After almost a week in Melbourne, I will be heading to Tasmania this afternoon. Melbourne is a nice fashion city but the outskirts of Melbourne are more beautiful! I haven't got time to post my pictures (friend's internet access is rather slow) but will definitely do so when I return.

Friend's rented apartment is really convenient as it is just seated beside the city. Lots of shopping malls and eateries. With the Christmas season nearing, the streets are crowded with shoppers. Sales signs are everywhere! Not necessary a good thing though... usually there's no XS sizes :(

Anyway please pray I get to meet wonderful people on the tour and I don't freeze in Tasmania! Heard it tends to be much colder there. I have just checked the weather in Hobart... it's fine maximum 16 degrees!!!

Melbourne Day 5

There wasn't a Mornington Peninsula tour today so I decided to check out other attractions in the city. I visited the quiet Docklands to get a top for Shirley. Managed to catch a glimpse of the Southern Star which was due to open this weekend. Too bad I will be flying off to Tasmania on Friday. Heard there's going to be spectacular fireworks!



Next I headed to Queen Victoria market... wanted to buy nougats for everyone back home but alas! they were all sold out :(



Lastly, I visited the Melbourne Aquarium. This place of attraction was highly recommended by my student but I was rather disappointed. I felt it was nothing compared to Sentosa's Underwater World. The only thing that I like was the penguins! Lovely!

Melbourne Day 4

I joined the Puffing Billy tour today. Saw many colourful birds at the Blue Dandenong ranges when we stopped over for a short morning tea break.



Next was a freezing ride through the forest on the Puffing Billy steam train.



Look at the emission of puffs from the train!



Children asking for a five! Arent they cute?



Lunch was at the Fergusson's Winery, Yarra Valley .



After lunch, we headed to the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary to enjoy the Australian wildlife including wombat, koala, wallaby, dingo, and many others!

Evening time, Shirley brought me to enjoy the beautiful sunset along the Yarra river. Many restaurants and pubs along the river... reminds of our Clarke Quay (without the beautiful skyline of course!)

Melbourne Day 3: Great Ocean Road Tour!

The Great Ocean Road tour started with rain but thankfully the sky cleared and by the time we reached the Twelve Apostles, it's bright and sunny! I took the mini helicopter ride and was rewarded with wonderful skyviews of the coastlines.

The twisted rock formations at the Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge were just breathtaking! Awesome!

Melbourne Day 2

Started my 2nd day in Melbourne city. Visited the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne museum, Royal Exhibition building, Carlton gardens as well as St Patrick's Cathedral ^^

Weather's good. Heard from Shirley that it had been raining for the past week so happy that I have really brought sunshine!


Walking up to the Shrine of Remembrance


The Shrine of Remembrance - Victoria’s largest and most visited war memorial!


Inside the Shrine...


Great architecture of the Melbourne Museum


Glass panels of the museum


How tall are these trees?


The Royal Exhibition building


A row of trees at the Carltons Garden


St Patrick's Cathedral is beautiful! Looking forward to attend the midnight mass on Christmas eve!!!

Away from 13 - 29 Dec

In 3 hours' time I will be over at the airport... Will be off to Melbourne and Tasmania for 2 weeks! My friend says it had been raining and most likely wet weather will continue when I'm there *sobs* let's hope I can bring some sunshine over!

일할 필요가 없어!

Finally! My block leave 12 December - 2 January has arrived! I have not utilized much of my leave this year and my boss is willing to approve my request for 3 weeks of leave.

May this time period passes s--l--o--w-- -- -- -- hee ^^

예언할수없는 뉴스

With the acceleration of job losses worldwide, our company is also not spared of any. Mission Viejo office will be closed and over 140 staff retrenched.

Late afternoon, my MD announced that our company's Bintan trip on 18 December will also be cancelled. Not sure of the reason: was it cashflow or all offices are supposed to remain gloomy over the festive season?

감사하겠습니다...

It always feels good to know you are appreciated by your boss...

Last but by no means least – please be aware that Agnes is taking a very, very well earned vacation from 12 December through to 2 January inclusive – a huge THANK YOU to Agnes for all her hard work this year – a well earned rest “down under” is well deserved. In Agnes’ absence please contact me directly on any marketing matters.

치즈 하세요!

My ex colleagues are captured on national newspaper!
A day of fame ^^

스트로베리 쇼트케이크

So sad... I didn't get a chance to taste the strawberry shortcake which I bought from The Patissier today.

I merely wanted to do an early mini birthday celebration for my sister (since I will be away in Melbourne on her actual birthday). Sigh... I didn't expect my mother to be in a bad mood so it sort of spoilt the celebrative mood. My mother just told my sister to bring the whole cake back home without cutting any! Sobs!

Strawberry shortcake... goodbye....

독감에 또 걸렸다

Flu has been my best companion this year. I'm down with flu again!!! Even getting the flu vaccine doesn't guarantee anything! Let's hope I get well soon before I leave for my holidays!

Irritating China Colleague!!!

I never like working with my colleagues in China. 2 of them in fact...
Today, marketing was suddenly arrowed to do a followup aka telemarketing for a list of 594 prospects within APAC. This project is spearheaded by another division, nothing to do with marketing.

This colleague first diligently wrote to my MD asking him to garner support from the client services team. ' For the prospects, would it be possible to assign some colleague in admin/marketing to do the calls?' Obviously marketing is only me alone...

When I wrote an email asking how are the prospect calls being allocated? This colleague can come back with such an answer:

Thanks for pointing this out. In my email to MD I actually suggest appointing one person to do follow up calls for prospects, as I agree that it might be difficult to allocate them back to the team.

Do you think you can explore this with MD? Can we have someone from S’pore office to spend several hours a day, only to do follow up calls? These calls are pretty straightforward, so it doesn’t take a senior person to do them.

WTF?!!! Why should I be doing this for you when it doesn't involve me in the first place?! I'm just going to ignore this email...