Port Melbourne and Brunetti (Fri Night, 240807)

PORT MELBOURNE

-sorry, no nice pics of the sea.. it was too dark!

Rex Hunt's D'Lish Fish
Seafood

105 Beach StPort Melbourne 3207

Melway Map Ref: 57 A3

Right after clinic on Fri, we zipped down to Collins Street and transferred to Tram Service 109 all the way to the LAST STOP, before alighting at Port Melbourne. Initially, I anticipated the place to be like our Clarke Quay however, it was rather.. peaceful and serene. It was definitely too cold to sit outdoors by the sea so we sat indoors instead.

Look how happy everyone is (as seen above)... EXCEPT ME:

Boohoo.. I was feeling low that day because of Dr Trung.

Hehe.. My own fault though.

Anyway, we purchased the FisherMan's Basket for AUD34.90.. meant for 4.

But 5 of us had difficulty finishing it! (we added a fish though).

If you're there by yourself, you can get a single fish n chip set for AUD6.90 - first sauce free (subsequently AUD1.30/sauce). I recommend their home made tartare and sweet chillie sauce.

Ambience was fine, much like a fast food restaurant. They had Al-fresco facilities but did not turn on the outdoor heaters. Food was quite good. The place reminded me of Fin (Singapore, Marina Square). Definitely great value for money.

JJ Rating: 3/5 - worth a try lah..!

BRUNETTI

Faraday Street194 - 204 Faraday Street

Carlton Vic 3053Australia

Sunday - Thursday (6am - 11pm)Friday - Saturday (6am - Midnight)

I've heard so much about this place! All the buzz and hype surrounding this cafe has caused reverberations to places as far as... Singapore! (it was featured on a Channel 8 Variety programme) - can someone please add a comment to tell me what show it was?

If you're walking there along Lygon Street, just take a short turn around the corner of Lygon Court..

There you have it.. (*drum rolls in background*)..

WELCOME TO BRUNETTI.

Look at the immense crowd!

Just like our Singaporean Donut craze!
(please ignore Smiley Face girl. I took 3 shots and of all the 3 girls, only Yiwen repeatedly appeared de-focused- Argh!)

Above: Cake selection area. Below: Coffee/Beverage selection area:

Sorry girls.. they ran out of chocolates:

Just Kidding!

Finally! The food has arrived:

Clockwise from left: Mudcake, Choc Oblivion (Choc Souffle w Ice-cream) and Ricotta Nutella.

A cake costs about 5 bucks.. same as the drinks. Pretty reasonably priced!

We also ordered drinks: 1x Iced Choc, Limonata(bottled lemonade) and Strawberry Milkshake. All not photographed individually though.. DOH!

Happy Times @ Brunetti =)

JJ Rating: 5/5 - A definite MUST TRY!

Ok, I have decided.. It was a tough choice but I have made up my mind. Just that day I was wondering if Max or KOKO black is better... well... stop squabbling you two.. make way for Brunetti. The best mix of cakes, drinks and chocolates!

Current ranking purely in terms of food+drinks/taste:

Rank: 1)Brunetti 2)KOKO Black 3)Max Brenners

Sorry Max.. I still love you!

You're still the BEST in Singapore!!!!

( still prefer Singapore's Max's as compared to here. Why don't they serve Maragnan here anyway?)

'Silence' @ Docklands. Featuring: Cow up the Tree

Melbourne Docklands

Cow up the tree

-let's meet by the cow up the tree

A sculpture by John Kelly, in reference to a Portrait of Joshua Smith (an Aussie painter), drawn by William Dobell.

'Silence'

We walked on.. and entered an area known as 'New Quay'. There, we encountered another Urban Art display, known as 'Silence'. Created by Adrian Maurika, officially launched on 13th April 2003 by John Tabart, CEO Docklands Authority and Paul McDonald, Group GM of MAB Corp at New Quay.

Silence is the secret and the holy grail.

Epiphany is the greatest joy.

With an undertow of aum,

Reverberating.

ADRIAN MAURIKS.

Friends, meet Silence. 'Hi Silence!! How's it goin' ?'.

Silence: ...
Silence, meet Yiwen, Jasmine, Rachel and Haona.
Silence: ...

Introducing my friends (a joint production between SDU (Social Development Unit) and World of JJ)... with lotsa cheese!


Yiwen: Singapore, Age *18 Female Status: **Single and Available

Rachel: Singapore, Age: *18, Female ***Attached but Available

HaoNa: Singapore, Age *18, Female ****Attached?.. Available?

Jasmine: Singapore, Age *18, Female *****Single but Unavailable (hehe.. )


Jeremiah: Singapore, Age *18, 'Cai Cai' ('Error Code 412: Gender Undefined)

* Estimated Age within +- 10 SD(Stnd Deviation) at 1% Confidence level
** Only Australians need apply..
*** No offense Ken! Just kidding!
****Huh? Got meh? Oh you mean.. cu.. (hehe..)
***** Current Status: Reserved by... *sniggers*

Silence.

Waterfront City

I'm pretty impressed with their creativity! Using projection spot lights to decorate an otherwise empty and plain square.


We look like Mr Bean who just fallen down into a spot of light.




This was where we initially intended to go: Hot Chocolate.

However, the entire glasshouse was booked by Monash University Female Engineering Students.. *sigh*

So we headed off for Brunetti instead.

My Weekly Routine- Very 'Interesting'

THAT'S IT!

Time to get a life..

Hi Friends and Family. I'm still alive..

and I'll like to keep it that way. Lemme show you how(I do it):

The following photos you see basically sums up my weekly routine.

Waking up to a late saturday morning, we take the free That's Me!bourne shuttle bus to Queen Vic Market. We usually go marketing after 1300hrs. When we first began, we carried with us the Singaporean (Wet) Marketing Mentality: Must go on Sundays, Must go early.

WRONG WRONG WRONG!

'Clinical Pearls' for the Astute Grocery Shopper

(please skip if you don't do marketing)

#1. Firstly, on Sundays, half of the market is closed for tourist shopping! The stalls selling vegetables and fruits, that normally occupy the rear end of the market, are being chased away every sun to make way for nougat and koala bear pushers. These very stalls sell the cheapest fruits and vege because they are located relatively further from the main market.

#2. Secondly, you go early, true, u get the fresher food. But only fresher by a few hours (all meat are refridgerated, indoors)! Going at 1 pm, you get the best deals as stalls start slashing prices by almost 50%!

#3. Thirdly, if you're wondering if it's cheaper to travel by Tram on the AUD2.50 whole-day-all- zone tram ticket, YES. However you can save more money by taking the Free Tourist Shuttle to Queen Vic everyday from 10am to 4pm.

Now I sound like an auntie hehe...

You haven't seen Auntie till you've seen this:

'Brocolli prices are plummeting! Let's buy more!'

Store keeper didnt look too happy when I took this shot.
-We bought too much brocolli?

Next, we leave it to the experts to do their thing:

Mondays to Fridays:

eatstudysleepeatstudyeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleep
And .. we leave it to the expert (in yellow) to do his thing: (Eat lah..)

eatstudysleepeatstudyeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeat

The following scenes are performed by Highly trained professionals. Please do not try to enact these scenes from home. Doing so would put yourself, your family and possibly your dog at risk.. with cheese.

'an additional contribution to the vestibular nerve is from hair cells in the macula acoustica of the utricle and saccule' - *Yawns*

I'm holding 4 different coloured highlighters.

This is a common sight for us. Everyday from Sun to Thurs, mugging till 1am every night! All this just to catch up with our classmates. Ah-ha! Serves you right for returning everything you've learnt to your teachers in poly.

eatstudysleepeatstudyeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleepeatstudysleep That's me, fighting the 'Z Monster' (Zzz.. Get it?)

As usual, Z Monster wins.

In my dreams: Allow me to Stimulate the afferent pathways to the Maxillary (V2) and Mandibullar (V3) Division of ur Trigeminal Nerve.

If you were wondering what my MSN nick (as seen above, in my dreams) means: Trigeminal Nerve = Cranial Nerve 5, the sensory nerve of the Central Nervous System.

It is divided into 3 parts: V1: Ophthalmic Division (which I'm more concerned with) supplies ur upper eyelid, cornea, tear glands etc...

V2 innervates the skin of your Cheek, Upper Lip etc..

V3 innervates your Lower Lip, Anterior 2/3 of the Tongue etc..

Get it? *wink* wink* Oops, did I trigger a neuro-sympathetic response in you?

(If you're a girl, please check mirror now to see if your pupils are bigger than usual)

National Day Celebration 2007 @Velour

NDP Celebration @ Velour

121, Flinders Lane

This event was organised by SSS (Singapore Students' Society). The plan is simple: All UOM (University of Melbourne) Singaporean students were to gather in the (rather) small club, Velour by 2000hrs to watch the Singapore NDP Live Telecast. Yay! Oh so we thought.. the Parade came to us in bits and pieces.. refreshing at a rate of 1fpm (one frame per MIN). We did manage to catch a glimpse of key personnel like MM Lee, SM Goh (with cool looking new specs) and PM Lee.

I met my friend from OCS - Artillery Institute... Daniel Choo! Such a coincidence. It was really a pleasant surprise. He is studying in Swinburne University of Technology [SWINBURNE], about 4 Train stops away from the city center. His friend, a UOM student brought him in.

He informed me of our mutual friend, LTA Joshua, who EXTENDED his ORD to remain in the NDP. He was the Officer giving the command for Artillery 21 gun salute. Unfortunately, we weren't able to catch his performance due to 'technical difficulties' with the streaming.

I also met my ex-polytechnic senior, Dion. Who is now doing foundation year to gain entry into Medicine. (Sorry, no pics of him).

My BFFs, Rachel with Bourbon Coke, Jasmine with..Cranberry Juice. Haona and Me, Vodka Sunrise.

These are our friends. Soi, Xenia?(hope I've got the name right) and Yiwen. We went to KOKO Black with Yiwen 2 weeks before. Soi and Xenia and Medical students *gasps*

As the party progressed, everyone totally ignored the NDP on TV. We had games like.. Best dressed couple. Theme of the day was: DIAMONDS and RUBIES. Everyone was to wear Red and White, with as much bling as possible. Obviously, non of us won as we came straight from school (wearing 'school clothes' see?).. Yes Mum, I've been studying!!

When we entered the club we were each given celebrity names, I'm Justin Timberlake hehe.. so throughout the party, we can approach any girl who is holding on to the name of our respective celebrity's girlfriend. (all girls will carry a corresponding celebrity female name). Thing is.. I don't really know who Justin Timberlake's girlfriend is so I didn't bother looking for his partner.

Our guest STAR: THE MERLION!

Evidently, I have no pics of the Merlion. But he left his 'signature' right there on the floor after the drinking game.. Eeww!!

A scene of the party, dance floor on right of pic.

As you can see, I'm the camera man. So I'm not in most of the pics. When I finally got my own pic taken....

All the girls wanna punch me in the face.

Do I look that bad?

The party was not too bad. After NDP we had MAMBO JUMBO. The club's standard was obviusly not as good as Zouk's. But their bar was pretty nice (looks like my Officer Mess in Khatib Camp haha) and their bartenders are VERY skilled. When you order a drink, they'll use many 'patterns' i.e. Pattern Zui Ga Badminton to impress you. Really gives you the 'WOW' factor!

JJ Rating: 3/5

No smoke machines, 'Mambo night' but very few of our fav Mambo Songs. Lighting was too bright (maybe cause of steps on the dance floor)? Sound quality was mediocre. Few people went up to dance stage. VERY impressive effort on the part of SSS Committee.

My new BFFs!!!

'HOUSE PARTY'

on peel street

This is by far the 'wildest' house party I've ever been to! Think WILD ANIMALS. Yes.. this unique safari - themed party is the first of its kind I've ever attended. There were WILD TRIBAL dance routines (below):

Two young females dancing the traditional hunter-gatherer dance sequence (as seen above). They even had the sacred medicine man, who kindly graced the event:

The traditional tiger headress is earned after enduring 9 months of training and hardship... with cheese. Passing wild animals, like this zebra below also strolled their way into our party..

And this innocent looking giraffe... *yummy*

Look what happens to our new 'friends'... (following pic may be graphic in nature)

BY then, the feast was almost ready!! The tribe female serves up food which was prepared using our newly acquired ingredients!

You want some of this? *wink*

The tribe gathers around the table for the FEAST!

Left to Right: HaoZhen, HaoNa, Jasmine, Rachel

Yummy! What's this meat in my stew..?? ~Don't ask.

Hey hey... look who/what just strolled into our 'party'...

Fresh (Camel) Meat!

-everything with cheese.

The above mentioned event was not as graphic in nature as described. No animals were harmed in the process, except the pig which was slaughtered so that we can have mince pork congee. What we really had was a mini lunch gathering after school at Hao Na'/HaoZhen 's place where we stayed till dinner. Their room mate is a vet and animal lover, hence the wide collection of photos at home. And if u were wondering.. no, we did not consume the camel.

Max Brenner's @ QV, Swanston

Welcome to Max Brenner.

25-27 Red Cape Lane, Level 2, QV Square, 210

Lonsdale Street Melbourne VIC 3000,

Phone Number: +61 3 9663 6000.

I've always loved Max Brenner's chocolate. Listen to his love story and you'll see why..

Max Brenner's vs KOKO Black:

Hmmm... not too sure about which is better. Max Brenner's drinks are cheaper, about AUD4.50 for a hug mug. While here u pay nothing less than AUD5.50 at KOKO Black. Both are equally good, I must say. But I've had strong emotional attachment to Max, the bald guy who started it all for me.

Max and I
Max, the bald guy with the choc. I first heard about Max Brenner's in QV, Swanston. After trying their unique Suckao there, I became an instant convert. Imagine the joy when I discovered that they had opened a branch in Singapore - Esplanade! That place became the regular hang out place for Xiaoping and I. I can definitely relate to Max's story.