xoxo from Opus!

*teeheee* Do check out my e-jewellery store at http://xoxo_opus.livejournal.com!

Plans to go down under

Accomodation: Base Backpackers (St. Kilda @ Melbourne)
Brand new, designer style backpackers at budget prices.
Brand new for Australia, base St. Kilda is the most modern, state of the art hostel ever built. It features the exclusive Sanctuary, an upmarket girls only level, the urban hip Red Eye Bar for fun times and entertainment, super fast internet access and base travel.
Location: 17 Carlisle St, St Kilda, Melbourne
Room type preferred: Double Bed Private Ensuite ($64.21SGD per night per person) *too bad there's no pictures of the rooms, only descriptions provided*

Places of Attractions:
Melbourne Aquarium
Opening Hours: Open everyday of the year from 9:30am - 6pm.
Price - Adult: $15.50 AUD
Interesting activity: Glass Bottom Boat ($13.50 AUD) Duration of ride: 45 minutes
Departure times: Mon - Fri: 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2:15pm. Sat - Sun: 11am, 12:30pm, 1.15pm, 2pm.
Experience the wonders from a different angle...
Take a behind the scenes tour and glass bottom boat ride over our 2.2 million litre Oceanarium. Get up Close to Sharks, Stingrays, turtles and over 3,000 fish of the Southern Ocean. You will get an indepth educational tour of the 'behind the scenes' action at Melbourne Aquarium and the chance to talk to the divers and marine biologists.

Healesville Sanctuary
Admission Price (No GST on admission): Adults: $22 AUD
Opening hours: Open every day of the year, including Christmas Day and all public holidays, from 9am to 5pm.
When planning a visit to Healesville Sanctuary it is recommended you allow at least 2 hours, or perhaps all day. Refer to Meet-the-Keeper times to help plan your visit. You should arrive at Healesville Sanctuary at least thirty minutes prior to the start of the popular Birds of Prey Flight Presentation. This will allow you adequate time to walk from the entrance to the exhibit area.

Queen Victoria Market
http://www.qvm.com.au/home.php

Direct Factory Outlet (Available in Brisbane & Sydney)
http://www.dfo.com.au

Bourke Street Mall

Note to self: Must eat fish & chips and buy apple strudels and Krispy Kremes!

-more research to be done-

Taste a little piece of French

Met Bern for dinner before I popped over to Shu's 21st birthday bash. Since Shu's birthday venue is at Cafe Domus located at Owen Road, Bern decided to bring me to the French Stall located at Sturdee Road North. :)


The French Stall.

It's a really nice place, with its walls decorated with posters, food reviews and articles regarding the stall.


Me sipping on water


My baby


He keeps me entertained (:


My good subject =D


The last face that porkloin sees before it's devoured.


Yummy porkloin with mushroom sauce. Btw, there's ham and cheese sandwiched in between the slab of juicy meat.


My pan fried dory fillet with mashed potatoes. It's really tasty and I felt full by the time I was almost done with it *beams*


=D

Of course, how can we forget about desserts!? We order the crusty, chocolate-coated profiterole with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce.... *licks lips*




Tuck in tuck in!

I really like the place... =) Reasonably priced, great food and pleasant experience there, I will come back another time when I'm craving for French food x)

Freedom Writers

Set in the 1990s, the film starts with footages of the LA riots, and voice-over of character Eva, a Latino student whose views of the world is shared by her peers, that the streets are a warzone, and that school/ education is futile. Hillary Swank plays Erin Gruwell, who arrives at Wilson High with idealistic and dreamy lesson plans for her uninterested freshmen students made up of various ethnicities in a classroom where hostility and tension lingers in the air.

Erin tries to engage her students with various means, but what really connected her to the students was the circulated picture of how all blacks look like (with thick lips, etc) in class that sparked the heated discussion about race and colour, and the 'Line game' where she found out many of them had their friends killed in everyday fightings. Motivated to make a difference, she presented all of them with journals for them to pen down the killings and trauma that had become a part of their lives, with the condition that: 1) they must write everyday and she will flip through the pages without reading them to ensure that they are writing and 2) if they want her to read it, they will put it into a cupboard that she will lock up.

Facing difficulties in getting funding and support from the school for books (due to a lack of trust for the students) and excursions that will help broaden the students' minds, Erin took on additional jobs for the cash to do so.

Their trip to the Museum of Tolerance made an impact on all the students as they witnessed the attempted eradication of (a group of people) Jews in the Holocaust, and Erin also arranged for survivors of the Holocaust to meet the students to talk about their lives over dinner. Erin gave out "The Diary of Anne Frank" to her students as a way to get into their hearts and minds, a motivation for their journal-writing. When Erin knew how the book made an impact on the students, she changed the assignment of writing a book review to a a letter to Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who hid the Franks, telling her how the book made them feel. The class eventually stopped seeing one another as "people of another ethnicity", but for each other.

This inspiring and touching movie had me in tears at certain parts, and definitely left me wanting to read two books: The Diary of Anne Frank and The Freedom Writers Diary (the actual book that the movie is based on).

Girls' Day Out

Mag & Kelly (:

We both took half day off and spent some time chilling together. Teehee! We initially wanted to go to Skin Revival for facials together, but due to lack of manpower and that the beautician could only do one person at a time, we decided to do it some other time. Mag came to town and we lunched together at this small eating place at Far East Plaza. We had fried fish noodles in piping hot gravy! This is my first time trying it.. The fish tasted really good! After lunch, we made our way down to Exotic Nails (owned by Mag's friend) for our sole-pampering session. :) Decided not to paint any colour so my nails can breathe... They (read: nails) look so good nekkid! =P Mag went for a french pedicure and manicure... Ohh yes, I got a discount too!

After that, we popped over to Starbucks at Wisma..


Caramel frappe with an orange and cranberry muffin... Yums!


Me with my read!


Mag looking happy with her drink


Us! x)

We chilled together till it's time for Mag to meet her colleague for movies and time for me to meet Bern and head down to my uncle's place for dinner.


Bern & I