First online purchase!

I think generally i'm pretty slow to catch onto new trends. i'm the type to sit back, watch other people try it out and then join in. It's just my personal nature.

So I feel excited having purchased my first book online from Amazon.com. It's one of the first things that i have bought from the internet (aside from airline tickets). The book that i got was "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents America: A Citizen's Guide to Democratic Inaction". It was highly recommended to me by some American buddies, Sean and Alison from my China Tour.

Having scoured ebay, amazon, comedy central website, i found the best deal buying a "very good" copy from the amazon marketplace, a place where people/stores sell remainder or secondhand books. The actual price of the book is $9.95 US compared to the $14.95 US . What killed me was the shipping and handling costs as international shipping was $9.95US for a book. I can't wait to get it! I used the same principles as shopping on ebay, looking at the seller ratings, feedbacks, other sales, total amount of sales. I felt more comfortable buying a copy that was $1 more expensive from a retailer that had sold like 9000 books with good feedback as opposed to "brand new seller" that had 0 feedback.


Melbourne: Cafe central

Having spent 3 days on a short visit to melbourne with my boo, i feel like I miss the city and should have spent more time there. My impressions of melbourne are that there are stacks of cafes around with a lot of single men sitting around with their legs crossed, reading newspapers. Ok, maybe that's not the best image to relay but melbourne is a bustling city a lot like sydney. They've got a Chinatown area with lots of fobs (of course), a Greek town area, a little Italy town with heaps of italian restuarnts, and a huge casino - the Crown.

Going away with my girl was a nice and sometimes stressful experience. I had a great time overall even though at times I might not have showed it when words to the effect of "let's go to another shopping street!" were heard. Relationships are give and take, so for every place that she wanted to go to, we then got to one I wanted to go to. I think travelling with someone else makes the experience a lot easier, more fun and more comfortable, especially when you are lost! I'll have to plan another trip seeing how cheap plane tickets are these days and the good time that we had.

I stayed within the City circle area (kinda like Sydney city circle) and there's this cool free tram which goes around the city. On the same street was the Greek Precint. It had this awesome Greek restaurant called Stalactities which was open 24 hours. I went there at 6am on a monday morning and 10pm on sunday night and it was packed out. The speciality is lamb souvlaki, and this baby is tasty and huge. Similar to a kebab but shorter and fatter, with chunks of lamb and tzaziki instead of homous.

The transport in Melbourne is interesting. Intially i got confused as to how it worked, but essenentially you can buy one ticket which covers bus, tram and trains. Quite similar to a Sydney Day tripper and much more convenient than buying everything separately, as is the norm here. A day trip ticket costs $5.90, and will cover as many rides as you would like on bus, trains and trams. So very cool indeed, maybe Mr Costa can pay attention (although nothing beats Hong Kong Octopus card!).

Wat about the tourist sites? I checked out old Melbourne jail, where Ned Kelly was hanged and that was crappy. It just had storyboards inside each of the cells of some of the famous inmates. I was expecting something cool like OZ, with the hacks, the shanks, and Tim McManus but alas no such thing. Interestingly, I bought two pairs of thumbcuffs (little handcuffs which fit on your thumb) which were confiscated by the airport staff. HMMMM.......i can really takeover your planes with toy thumbcuff which can be opened without keys.....yes i really am a terroist and this is my way of imprisoning hostages.......

The Crown Casino was much like Star City, with heaps of shops inside. I ate at the all-you-can eat buffet and this is not highly recommended. It costs $12.50 and seemed more like expensive pizzahut without the pizzas.

Rest in bullet points

You know how if you run out of time in an essay, the teachers always tell you to use bullet points? Well the American Super Bowl has already started, so i'll just jot down the essentials>......

- Lygon Street: A street in Carlton with literally hundreds of Italian Restuarants. A Melbourne Norton St. Ate at the Correta Cafe. Had the correta special pizza but wasn't so special as there was an italian brown hair in there. YUCK!

- Queen Victoria Market: Similar to Paddy's market except its more spacious and open, with less people. There's a cool produce section with nice deli food. Anyone for AFL? I got a hawthorne AFL football which seems exactly like a NRL ball.

- Chapel St: A uber cool fashion area with all the expensive Sydney shops/brands. I couldn't really afford anything from here except from the store Substance coz it was closing down (which by the time of writing may not be there anymore) where I bought a pair of jeans and a denim jacket - $30 each.

- Smith street: fashion outlet street with a Nike Factory (very similar to Auburn's) where I picked up a Leeds Football jersey for $10. I was starving and looking from some good breakfast and found Foo Doos, a mad little cafe which serves breakfast ALL DAY! I had the Foo Doo Breakfast for $12 which had two massive slices of toast, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tomato, sausage and a some nice bacon rashers. It was pretty busy and a favourite with the locals and this kind of Newton feel to it with plenty of posters stuck to the wall.

- Bridge St: A more upmarket fashion outlet area with outlets for Industrie (got three shirts for total of $45), Cotton On, Jeans West, Sports Girl, etc.....Had some very tasty and very huge servings of Japanese Ramen Noodles (about $8.50) at some very busy restaurant which won heaps of cheap eats awards.


Year of the Rooster: Chinese New Year in 3 days

Gung Hey Fat Choi! Sun Nin Fai Lok, Sun Teh Gin Hong! Bo Bo Go Sing!

Translation: Wish you getting rich! lucky new year, have good health, walk one step forward (continually get promoted in your job)!