Greetings From Down Under...

Before I started complaining about my flight to Melbourne, just want to say that I am safe and sound here. I just got the internet connected to my apartment, a single studio apartment, with a bed, a mini kitchen, a study desk and own toilet. It's a cosy environment here, just think of single bed hotel room with a small kitchen and you'll get the picture.

Arrived Melbourne safety at 5am (Singapore Time), 7 am here yesterday. First thing that surprises me was the temperature, like 10 degree Celcius? My flight to Melbourne wasnt a smooth one, had many little unexpected surprises here and there.
1) My parents didnt apply for a visa. Thankfully, we manage to make one last minute. Sin $100.
2) Baggage exceeded the allowed capacity: 65kg, 10 Kg more than the allowance of 55kg.
Cost: Sin $120 and Aus $130
3) My mum's baggage was checked for medicine (she didnt declare it). The medicine was taken for a while to be tested, thankfully, everything was ok and the immigration officer let us through after checking out at Darwin Airport.

Upon arrival, the first thing we did was to take a cab to my new house, in North Melbourne. Reached my apartment at about 8am, and the property manager wasnt there yet, so had to wait for a while till 9am, where someone gave us the key to my room. Went to the room, found out that the pillow is missing, but nevertheless, we left the luggage in my room and go to the nearby cafe for breakfast. The entire day was spent on checking in at our individual accomodation and shopping/ scouting Victoria Market.

Talking about Victoria Market, it's indeed very huge, bigger than the biggest market you can find in Singapore. Some things are dirt cheap, for eg. we manage to get 3 big acovados for just Aus $2. The vegetables look different from the ones in Singapore. Most of them come in big portion, for e.g the BIG red Pepper, and the BIG green pepper. Got an alarm clock, pillow and a security box there. Had lunch at the Victoria Food Court. Man, it's a different concept from Singapore, basically the food court has 4 main stores, with one serving Indian, Italian, Cantonese and I forgot the other food. It's just a walkable distance from my apartment. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant and it was good.

Today, we had a more organised plans in mind, for e.g. the things to settle etc. Set up and Australian bank account and went to Chinatown to do some shopping again. I didnt manage to travel the whole of Chinatown but visited the Target Centre. Went back to Victoria market again to get groceries such as rice, toiletries such as toilet paper, tissue, cooking oil etc. Had my first experience on board a tram. Travelled down Swaston Street till Yarra River.

What can I say about my 2- day stay here? I am just loving each moment here. Hopefully nothing changes it during the 3 to 4 years here. I promise to blog more about my stay in Melbourne.