Air Supply Live in Concert

I was very excited when I read that Air Supply was going to perform in Melbourne. The tickets were pretty expensive and I felt I could not afford it. But then, I found a really good deal online and I snapped it up! 

I'm very pleased to know that they are an Australian Band. I grew up listening to their music. I remember listening to most of their songs from the radio and the tunes take me back to memories of being in my childhood home on a weekend.

Me and Joel had a really good time in the concert. They played most, if not all, of their hit songs and I could sing most of them, too! I love that they sound almost the same as their recordings, legit music artists of their generation. I only have a few clips as I wanted to enjoy the moment and also a staff of the convention centre was going around asking not to take videos (?).

Here's one short clip that I got from last night's concert.

Thank you for reading and 'til next blog!

Easter Sunday in Sydney

We went to Sydney last Easter weekend to catch up with friends and get a bag that I left with them back in 2017. On Easter Sunday, me and Joel decided to make full use of our day before our late night flight back to Melbourne. 

After checking out from our hotel, we headed to CBD Storage to leave our luggage. For luggage left until 5pm, the price was $11. But we decided we will get our bag after 5pm, so we paid $24. I saw a Starbucks Coffee place on the way and got my sister a Starbucks tumbler as she loves to collect these. I'm pleased that with my purchase I was given free coffee :)

image from http://gramha.com/explore-hashtag/starbucksaussie

Going around Sydney is very easy with Opal Card. Much like Melbourne's Myki card, I just have to tap on and tap off every time I ride the public transport. On Sundays, it's more cost effective because there is a travel cap of $2.70. This means one can travel all day with train, bus, ferry or light rail and pay no more than $2.70. I believe this makes Sundays a busy day for families wanting to bond and sight see around Sydney. 

With this travel cap in mind, we started our journey from Town Hall Station to Circular Quay Station to see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Getting off the train, we immediately saw the 2 iconic landmarks from beyond. We were really lucky that the weather was really nice that day!

We got off the train platform and was greeted with throngs of people lining up to ride the ferries to neighboring bays and beaches. The lines were really long and the sun was unforgiving. We decided to walk towards the Opera House. It was lined with a lot of food joints and restaurants, there were lots to choose from and the view was amazing!

After filling our hungry stomachs, we headed to see the Opera House up close. Since it was around noon time, there were parts of the steps leading to the Opera House that did not have a crowd. The crowd was concentrated in the shaded area and we were able to get quite a good shot.

Walking back to Circular Quay, we were debating if we should take the bus or the ferry to Watson's Bay and get a bus from there to Bondi. The bus from Circular Quay to Bondi was Bus 333 and we can see it from Stand B. Although the bus is easier because there is not much of a crowd, we opted to line up for the ferry. We wanted to experience the ferry ride and lined up for almost an hour. 

waiting for the ferry. We were first in the queue :)

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The ferry ride was not so bad, it is a different way to travel and we saw the Opera House while cruising through the waters.

We arrived in Watson's Bay after about 25 minutes ferry journey. I've never been to Watson's Bay and it looked cool. Lots of restaurants, nice beach and this gorgeous view.

Our main goal was to head to Bondi beach so we headed to the bus stop and waited for bus 380 to Bondi. 

Finally arrived in Bondi Beach! Time to enjoy the sea, sun and sand :)

getting some sun before winter comes!

I can say we saw a lot of Sydney in one day and our public transport fares could have easily cost us around $20 but because it was a Sunday, we got it cheap. We chose to fly from Sydney to Melbourne on a Sunday night so that we could still rest  and recuperate on Easter Monday at home. Also, we chose to get away from the crowd that is expected to get back to Melbourne after the Easter weekend. 

My goal when I come back to Sydney in the future is to afford the Bridge Climb. Hopefully I can save up for it! Thank you for reading and 'til the next blog!

A Day in Healesville

On a rare Saturday that I am not working, we decided to head to Healesville, Victoria. It is a town 52 km northeast of Melbourne CBD and about an hours drive. It was a long drive but a scenic one. I had fun watching the plains and valleys and wineries along the way.

Our first agenda was to visit a colleague/friend's cafe. She has set this up with her husband who was a chef. We found them at Black Spur Nursery and Cafe. While waiting for our orders, we looked around the nursery. It would have been nice to buy one but there is no space and time to take care of it so we dropped the idea. Finally our orders arrived and it was delish!

Next on our list was to visit Hedgend Maze. I found a Groupon voucher with about $4 discount for this attraction. Regular adult price was $18. Joel always wanted to try a maze and it was the perfect time to try it. We went to Hedgend and just presented our voucher. The attendants then gave each of us a wristband, a map of the place which also contains the things we can do and a pencil.

First we headed off to the mini golf. The last time we had one was months ago and because the last one was my very first one, I lost the game. There were 18 holes on this mini golf and even though Joel had a hole in one, I beat him by 6 points! Haha

The next thing we did was the native maze. I had a lot of fun with this. It's a trust maze and one person has to be blindfolded and another person directs with his voice. I was blind folded first and Joel successfully guided me without running over a bush. Of course, when it was my turn to blurt out the directions, I wasn't as good as him.

The famous hedge maze was next on our list, I felt quite claustrophobic going into it. We had to find a secret message from the encircled letters of a statement made by a famous person. It was difficult and we gave up after finding 7 letters LOL. The maze had parts that are not yet fully grown so some people would cut to them. I also was kind of feeling dizzy from walking within the walls so we headed out of it.

We then headed out to the look out tower wherein we saw how vast the land area was, the top view of the Hedge Maze and we can also see another maze called the Rainbow Maze.

It is a colour pathway with 4 levels of difficulty. Level 1 was easy - The aim was to go from start to end staying on the red pathway.

There were other activities such as Tangled web, Mural Eyespy, Frisbee Golf, Fossil Dig, Lawn Games and etc.

There was also a picnic and BBQ area for family gatherings. It was a productive Saturday for us and we headed back to Melbourne happily. There is another attraction there called the Healesville Sanctuary that we might visit in the future.

Thank you for reading and 'til next blog!

On my Playlist - Now that I have you by The Company

Original Pinoy Music or OPM never fails to make me nostalgic. I don't know why but maybe because it is spoken or sang in our own language which makes me feel more atuned to it. While browsing on youtube, I found The Company singing one of their hits at Kis FM's van. The song entitled Now that I have you made me feel emotional, not because of the words but because of the beauty of the blending and the very soothing voice of the lead singer. Love the song to bits and that is why it is on my current playlist!

Here is the video.. Enjoy!

Courtesy of Youtube

Rottnest Island 2019

I fulfilled my dream of visiting Perth after almost a year of working. Perth was the first city I've been to in Australia and I remembered Perth as awesome. I hoped to visit because I also had one luggage left at a friend's house. Unfortunately, the friend moved to NSW so I just chilled and relaxed while in Perth. Joel hasn't been to Perth before and he came with me this time. He wanted to see the quokkas for himself and so we decided to go to Rottnest Island.
 

From Perth, we took the Fremantle Line towards Fremantle. Although there was an option to catch a ferry from Perth city, we chose this to spend a bit of time walking in Fremantle. We went to Perth Underground at 10am and were amazed that the station was almost empty.

 

The train ride was about 45 minutes and since we were not in a hurry, we went to eat at the Famous Fish and Chips Restaurant in Fremantle while enjoying the beautiful view.

 

We then walked towards B Shed Fremantle and bought our ticket. We chose the SeaLink Rottnest Island Ferry. Not sure if there was a promotion going on but for a return boat trip for us both, we paid a total of $96. The boat trip was at 2pm and we had a lot of time to kill so we went to the Fremantle Markets which was just the opposite building and browsed through their merchandise and had some coffee.
 

When it was time to board the ferry, we were first timers so we chose the open seats at the back of the ferry. We did not know that the seat would expose us to a lot of sea water splashing, we were almost fully wet. We transferred towards the covered seats where more people were. The kids loved and screamed through most part of the ferry trip because of the big waves but me and Joel were dizzy. Finally, we arrived in Rottnest Island after the 30 minute gruelling trip.
 

We saw thousands of bikes in the island, all most probably for rent. However, we did not hire any bikes because, embarrassingly, I do not know how to bike. I was interested to do the Hop On Hop Off Bus but we arrived a little bit late to catch the last bus. So we just decided to walk where our feet would take us.

The first quokka we saw was near the bins. We were so excited and wondered why the people were just passing by it. Joel's parents told us they had difficulty looking for one when they were visiting the island a lot of years ago so we felt super lucky to find one right away.

But, just a few meters from the first one were more quokkas. They were not afraid to be surrounded with a lot of people. They were just minding their own business and eating leaves. I was amazed at how they sleep as well, they just protect their tails and put them under their feet and bow their heads.

Quokkas are said to be the happiest animals on earth. They are the smallest members of the macropods or "big foot" family which includes the kangaroos. They are nocturnal which explains why most are asleep during our visit and they are the only land mammal on Rottnest Island. Anyone caught touching a quokka on Rottnest Island will be fined $300.

People were trying to catch that famous quokka smile. Some were lying on the ground just to get the perfect selfie. I was fortunate to have one :)

There were hundreds that we saw on our short stroll. And we saw one who has clearly hurt himself because one of the fingernail was hanging from the hand. We tried to call the ranger and he said he will come soon but we have not seen him even if we stayed a few minutes just to make sure we can identify the correct quokka. Oh well, we tried our best.

We went to one of the many beaches on the island and spent minutes enjoying the sun before we returned to the port to take another boat ride.

Fortunately, this time, the boat was bigger and there wasn't much bumps.

I loved every minute of our Perth trip. The food was good and the atmosphere was not as rushed as back home. But as with all trips, we had to say goodbye and head off. Perth will always be in my heart.

Thank you for reading and 'til next blog.

TMAG 2019

Forgive me but I'm still reminiscing about my solo back pack trip to Hobart, Tasmania a month ago. On my third day and before I headed back to the airport, I went to TMAG or Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. It was just across the street from the YHA hostel I was staying. I've read that it is one of the best places to go for a museum experience including natural history, art, social, heritage, Antartica and Tasmanian Aboriginal culture. Best of all, entrance was for free except for their featured display.

So, off I went early in the morning.

There were a lot of people waiting to get in as well. It opened at 10 am and since I had a big bag with me, the staff asked me to place it in the lockers available. I had to insert a $2 coin to use the locker but I can get my coin back when I get my bag back.

There were tons of displays and here are just a few that caught my attention.

This is the Thylacine or the Tasmanian Tiger because of its striped back. It is extinct and the last known live animal was captured in 1933 and died in 1936.

A huge chocolate pan.

Different types of chairs. I love how unique the styles are and I remember a famous personality in the Philippines also collected different styles of chairs.

Interesting displays of art.

I love this colorful painting of Australia as Treasure Island.

Interesting stories and details about Antarctica. 

I love visiting museums ever since, all the more when it is free! Perfect time to cap my Hobart trip. Thank you for reading and 'til my next blog.