People, Friends & Family
Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne
Aug 26th
The Queen Victoria Market (also known as the Queen Vic Markets or simply as the Queen Vic or “Vic Market”) is a major landmark in Melbourne, Australia, and at around seven hectares (17 acres) is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. The Market is significant to Melbourne’s culture and heritage and has been listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The Market is named after Queen Victoria who ruled the British Empire, from 1837 to 1901.
The Queen Victoria Market is the only surviving 19th century market in the Melbourne central business district. There were once three major markets in the Melbourne CBD, but two of them, the Eastern Market and Western Market, both opened before the Queen Victoria, closed in the 1960s. It also forms part of an important collection of surviving Victorian markets which includes the inner suburban Prahran Market and South Melbourne Market.
Source : Wikipedia
During my trip to Melbourne early this month, me and the girlfriend actually visited Queen Victoria Market twice. First time was just to explore the place and on the second time itself, we went there to hunt for souvenirs.
It was actually a huge open-air market with items ranging from raw food materials to clothings to fruits & vegetables and etc. If you are a chef and you love cooking, this would be a heaven to you because you can actually spend your whole day there looking and handpicking what you want.
The reason i said so is because the seafood there were so fresh and the meats are like summoning you to them and even someone like me who don’t fancy cooking would stop from time to time to just check out what have they got to offer.
On top of that, unlike the “Pasar” in Malaysia, Queen Victoria Market is really freaking clean and the smell isn’t that heavy as if you’re near a rubbish dumping site or something like that WHICH IS the case for the markets in Malaysia.
You have got to try this German Sausage there in the Market (I think there’s only one stall selling it if i’m not mistaken) which cost you like around AUD$5. Pretty delicious and juicy with the onions and sauces added together, a perfect breakfast if you ask me because i had it for breakfast the first time i was there! =D
These mini jam donuts were pretty good as well. I’ve read somewhere online that the American Doughnut Kitchen (In the form of mini van when i was there) have been serving the public at Queen Victoria Market for more than 50 years already.
With their hot, sugary jam fillings, this mini van is normally surrounded by people lining up to get their hands on the donuts. I think it’s AUD$1 for 1. Definitely a must try!
This was where we had spend most time seeking for souvenirs and of course stuffs for ourselves to bring back. Clothings, shoes, artsy items, and all sorts of stuffs can be found here and yes it’s still part of Queen Victoria Market!
It’s a beautiful place in fact and if it’s your first time visiting Melbourne, i suggest you visit Queen Victoria Market as it is like an icon for the city already where you can hunt for souvenirs at good deals!
Last but not least, let me show you a video on the place itself. A video i found on Vimeo. Enjoy! =)
Address :
Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne
Corner of Victoria and Elizabeth Streets in the Melbourne CBD
513 Elizabeth Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Trading Hours :
Tue: 6am – 2pm
Thu: 6am – 2pm
Fri: 6am – 5pm
Sat: 6am – 3pm
Sun: 9am – 4pm
(general merchandise to 4pm – weekdays)
CLOSED: Mondays, Wednesdays, Good Friday, Anzac Day, Melbourne Cup Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
Official site of Queen Victoria Market
Follow Queen Victoria Market on Twitter.
MACC – Internal Affairs at PJLA, Jaya One
Aug 26th
Just came back from Jaya One not long ago.
I think i’m crazy. Along with some other crazy peeps like Nigel, Kel Li, David, Hsu Jen, Jamie & Andrew, we bought tickets to our very local Internal Affairs show at PJLA which stands for PJ Live Arts like a month ago before the act.
It was an awesome stand up performance by the 3 Cinabengs, Chi Ho, Jen Han and Douglas Lim from the M.A.C.C – Malaysian Association of Chinese Comedians. Seriously, hands up, legs up, heads up whole body up for them for the effort in creating new jokes which was tailored for Malaysians only, i think.
There were promo videos before the show started that features fellow local comedians and the videos were good enough to make me sit still.
It was altogether a great job with jokes surrounding politics, genders, sex as well as many other random stuffs and as far as i know, tickets were all sold out for all the shows available.
I won’t be revealing anything much from the show but i have to admit something, something which might get me into trouble when i see any BieberHaters.
I actually listened to the whole song of Baby(i) during the show.
No Joke. =X
You have got to see this show yourself if they ever decide to add more shows to the existing list of showtimes, GO GET THE TIX!!
*To those who’re going to watch it in the next few days, enjoy! =D
Awesome Vietnamese Beef Noodles at Mekong, Melbourne
Aug 22nd
Wednesday 11 August 2010
Our very 3rd day there in Melbourne that is. Waking up hunting for lunch under the drizzling rain on the streets of Melbourne. Mekong is one of the many food places recommended by a few friends when i was still planning on this trip.
The place was fully packed with mainly Asians and i could already smell the soup when we enter into Mekong. Only managed to find a place for ourselves beside the wall and ordered what we wanted.
Durian Smoothy – AUD $4.2
Rating – 3/5
Hot tea is available for free at every table and i really recommend you not to order any drinks and just go along with the tea if you’re on a tight budget. However if you want to order drinks, i’ve tried the Durian Smoothy and i think it’s nice. =D
Rice Paper Rolls (Chargrilled Chicken) 2pcs – AUD$4.5
Rating – 2.5/5
Don’t ask me why we ordered this but well i just think that it’s just so so only. With slices of chicken and lettuce with other ingredients, the sauce that goes along with it does not satisfy my stomach. Something is lacking i feel.
Broken Rice with Chargrilled Chicken – AUD $9
Rating – 3/5
This is what the girlfriend ordered and i tried thinking that it was just average. Nothing more i can say about it.
Beef and Beef Balls Noodles – $9.5
Rating 4.5/5
With a strong base of beef bone soup, this is one of the best food I’ve ate in Melbourne. Served with awesome juicy beef meats and beef balls, i couldn’t help but to finish it though the portion was relatively bigger than what i’ve expected! The soup was cooked pretty well and balanced where the meats are really tasty.
The chili there served little purpose though.
Anyways, in my opinion, if you were to visit Mekong in Melbourne, just order the Beef Noodles as i think that the other food available there are just average only, a few online searches would further justify why i said so.
I guess the famous personalities was there just because of that single dish only. Cheers!
Address :
Mekong 湄江牛河屋
Vietnam Original Vietnamese Rice/Noodle/Soups
241 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone (03) 9663 3288
Albert Park, Melbourne
Aug 18th
Albert Park is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south from Melbourne’s central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Port Phillip. At the 2006 Census, Albert Park had a population of 5827.
The suburb is characterised by wide streets, heritage buildings, open air cafes, parks and significant stands of mature exotic trees including Canary Island Date Palm and London Planes.
Since 1996, Albert Park and Lake has been home to the Australian Grand Prix.
Source : Wikipedia
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
It was a rainy morning with no signs of sunny day that me and the girlfriend met up with Abelene and Eugene at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne. We were brought to Queen Victoria Market before heading to this beautiful park, Albert Park.
Though there isn’t any sign of the rain stopping, both me and the girlfriend were still excited and went on with the plan arriving at Albert Park with 2 loft of bread. To “communicate” with the birds!
It all started with a piece of bread by Eugene and one by one, the pigeons, swans, ducks & etc came to get their share of food.
Ya i’m sad like that where i don’t normally interact with the birds around living in Kuala Lumpur. Haha and i did have fun throwing the piece of bread out to attract the birds. We were like kids and the rain didn’t have it’s gloomy effect on us.
It was even funnier when one of the swans gave us a “gift” out of appreciation and the next thing that happen, i place a piece of bread on the awesome “gift” and the swan went on and put it in its mouth and….
Okay i’m evil. Full stop on that part aite!
Thanks to the rain, we didn’t really get to explore the park but just stayed under the umbrella walking just for a while around the area. Well yea maybe that helped in increasing the “romantic-ness” but i would love to go to the park one day again, definitely a sunny day.
Quack Quack!
ShareLG Cookie Monster Party @ Neutral Club feat. Wonder Nuffies
Jul 25th
It’s been quite a while since i last attend a party organised by Nuffnang and i must say it felt pretty weird but familiar at the same time for me. The usual suspects weren’t there and i found myself standing in a whole bunch of unknown faces, and to add on to it, there were monsters round me!!
So yeah, i attended the LG Cookie Monster Party just yesterday at Neutral Club, Kuala Lumpur. Good thing the monsters that were present weren’t harmful and oh they eat using forks and spoons as well. Just like us human beings. Fascinating.
We were served with good food from Modesto’s which is just next door.
As usual, such blogger’s party by Nuffnang will include in some game challenges. The unusual thing was we had SHREK (Kenny Sia) as emcee.
Anyways, the highlight of the event must be the performance by these bunch of girls who called themselves Wonder Nuffies and if you’ve watched the video above, you’ll know that they performed the dance in Nobody by Wonder Girls!!!
L to R : Karen, Angeline, Rina, Jacqkie, Jestina, Fresh, Rachel, Yuen Yee, Sara, Michelle, Linda, Vernice
Best Costumes is one of the most important part of such costume themed parties and well, 10 monsters were called up on stage for the ultimate prize of the night. 5 Males and 5 Females, well i don’t know how they check that which monster is a female or male lah but anyways, below are the best dress individuals!
Sesat-ed Predator and Mummy from Malaysia…
I think they both DIY their costume, crazy semangat!!
Oh well, back to the party…
Hmmm..
One thing i love most about such event is that i could catch up with some long lost friends. In this case, i ended up finding a few familiar faces then.
Karen
Was happy to see friends like Jolyn and Jason(which i didn’t take picture with) that night. Knew them for like erm 2 years already i think. =D
Ok alright, i DID not just take pictures with girls okay, i did take picture with a guy. Yes just one only…
LOL!
In case you don’t know, 6 of Singapore Nuffies came up to Kuala Lumpur to party with the Malaysian bloggers as well and i had quite a chat with Raine, one of the Singapore Nuffies who told me about… Eh why must i tell u?
Raine Chai
Well i did have a good chat with her lah. That’s it.
I think that’s about it, it’s great to see such party happening again after so long. Was secretly wishing that the old faces were there but then well, i can’t be too greedy right?
The performance by Wonder Nuffies was more than enough to entertain and make me smile for the weekend then. =)
*go watch the video above!!
It’s been AGES!
Jul 25th
Since i had such Saturdays, filled with fun, entertainment and valuable fellowships with friends.
Big thanks to Nigel, Kel Li, David, Hsu Jen, Mike, Shannon, The Nuffies, Yoke May, Chin Kent, Yuet Mun and Melissa!
Will update more soon. Nights!
ShareSharing My Friend’s Rainbow
Jul 22nd
I don’t know do you subscribe to any blogs or even use one of the most awesome feature from Google called the Google Reader or not but i do. The thing with it is i subscribe to a whole lot of blogs and i don’t really check all of the feeds in it.
So, It just happened that i checked it out yesterday night only to read a sweet happy post of a friend showing off her ring. YES the ring!!
Well Pamsong is an old friend, Er i guessed i can consider myself an old friend i think hmm and oh yah she’s an old friend, one of the earliest bloggers i met when i became active in Malaysia’s blogosphere.
Tracing back into time, it was actually quite a happening period where i was in this group of bloggers who called themselves DGMB out of fun and it all started from here.
Awesome Happening period we once shared. We even did something evil together. Of course, that’s history.
Well what i want to say is.
This specific bunch of people have been close to my heart in some way all these while and i take them as people who’re important to me. Now that one of us have officially show off her happiness to the public, i just want to take this opportunity to congrats her.
Am really Happy for you Pam. S and P huh? Should have figured it out earlier!! LOL
Anyways anyhow, congratulations again.
*We should all hang out together soon, yeah all DGMB members lolx, before the day Pam officially step into the church in white that is.
