Melbourne so far

Hey hows it going? (This is Melbourne/Australia way to say hi/helo/how are you). For this posting Im just going to put up a spoiler on what to expect (not in the mood to blog but feel like typing something)


Looking at the list of eateries that I had gone to in only about 2wk of my time in Melbourne, it is going to create a 'dent in my pocket' as well as adding up much required body weight! So I shall talk a bit about each eateries. BTW all of this are rated as 'Cheap Eats'

1. Manchester Press - Its located at some sort of small lorong/alleyway in city. And mind you that you have to wait quite a while out in the cold for your turn to go inside,as the place is quite small. I had the smoked salmon served on poppy seed bread ($13), pretty generous with the salmon pieces!

2. Kokoro Ramen - This is a ramen shop, and I had the pork belly miso ramen ($15.50). Taste pretty good

3. Hardware society - This is located near Manchester Press. Had the chix breast with err something white (perhaps mashed potato with garlic blend?) ($18)

4. Crazy Wings - $2 per stick of chix wings with different flavours, if you can handle the 'hotness', try 'Crazy Wings' flavour. Other BBQ sticks such as pork belly,chix part,scallops also available

5. Jalan Alor melbourne (dont worry KL jalan alor havent moved yet lol) - After googling for some time, finally found some place that sells pan mee, my favourite mee when i was living in KL. Very pricy by Malaysian standard, but ok by Melbourne standard $10! Taste erm, ok but would be nicer if they had a bowl of soup

6. Rose Garden - 1 of the more popular Malaysian/Chinese food restaurants. Only try the top 10, as sources said the other menus was only ok!

7. IKEA Restaurant - About 40min walk from Monash Clayton, or a 10min bus ride + some walk, is IKEA Springvale. As usual meatball served with mashed (not fries like in Malaysia) $4.25 for 10 meatballs, and you can get free hot drink if you had IKEA Family card which is FREE to apply! Also, 1 of the cheapest makan place around if you dont mind the 40min walk!

Last but not least, if you want Starbucks in Melbourne sadly there are only 3 outlets as there are tons of other cafes selling Italian premium coffees!

Later days folks, this sem is going to be crazey!

p.S. I also wish to convey the message 'Selamat berpuasa,selamat menunaikan ibadah puasa dalam bulan ramadan to all Muslims especially to my friends n people that I know' Semoga ibadat anda semua diterima oleh Allah SWT!

2 RBA Flight Review: KL-Brunei,Brunei-Melbourne

While listening to my favourite radio show, 988 Night since I was living in Sunway 2 years ago, I shall continue to write another blogpost. Albeit the 2 hour time difference, I am still able to listen to the radio show since my 'body clock' is still not very adjusted to sleep according to Melbourne time!

I returned back to Brunei on 30th June, flying with Royal Brunei. The fare was just slightly above Air Asia fare, so it was a very obvious choice. A very quick review on the flight. It seems that cost-cutting is in progress or maybe not, maybe Im unlucky. All Borneo Bulletin copies are snapped up, so I had to settle with a copy of Brunei Times. The meal was pretty nice, Hainanese chix rice complete with the chilli n soya sauce condiments. Not as fragrant as SQ ones, since RBA have this concept of 'Food Fit to fly by' or in easier to understand terms healthy food with less salt. And surprisingly, metal cutlery is back!Oh BTW did I mention that my baggage was overweight by a staggering 17kg so I end up paying more than RM$200!

On the other hand, the flight to Melbourne was not what I had expected from RBA. Perhaps its an overlook due to full flight? I wrote a rather long email to RBA and got a even longer reply from them. The same thing happen again, with all Bulletin copies snapped up! However, the meal was a little less desirable. Luckily, the meal tray was larger with more contents (cheese and cracker). My meal was fried rice with beef was ok. The meal wasnt warm enough and surprisingly or maybe not plastic cutlery is being used. The cabin crew did many rounds to check on the passengers, but since I couldnt open my mouth as they pass, I pressed on the call button instead. Surprisingly, I had to press 2 times to get their attention. When its almost time to descend, some snacks of Oreo and peanut butter biscuits was being offered with a choice of drinks. Next up, the poor lady beside me had to endure with a broken PTV for the whole flight. Surprisingly, the PTV fired up during descend!

If travellers happen to read this RBA is not a bad airline. Its customer engagement thru social network such as Twitter is very good as far as Im concerned. I get many issues settled this way! The crews are attentive and sometimes they can be found always smiling throughout the flight. Lets hope that things would be better for RBA when they get their Dreamliner 787 soon!

Im still not up to the mark

Its 3 minutes past midnight in Melbourne, and here I am writing this blogpost, coz there are simply not much to do at night here.

As I have blogged in my last posting, that I had taken a driving test. The result as you can expect is I FAILED. However, I take it as a good learning experience. Failure will make me strive harder in achieving a reasonable standard to be able to get my P license and drive on the road.

The 1st part of the test is slope. Even before, starting, I already feels that something is 'tak kena'! Initially, I managed to go up the slope up till the required point. And the JPJ lady already give a go ahead to go down the slope. However,since I FORGET to apply the handbrakes when stopping, the car reverses a bit of the mark. And the end of my slope test

The next part was on the road. I did very miserably in this only managed to get the points for the 'pre-driving checks'. It seems that my reaction time is very slow, somemore the car used was a Viva, which I never practiced on before! The test stopped half-way, as the tester feels that I am driving quite dangerously! At the end, I could sense that there is some attempt to get some 'kopi money' from me, and the lady tester called someone who I assume was her boss,whether or not to ask for kopi!

Its still going to be a long journey for me, in my quest of obtaining a license to drive!