Outfit of the day Blouse – Vintage store Shorts & Headband – Supre Bag – MNG
Last spring, went over to Canberra to witness the awesomely beautiful Floriade Festival! Floriade festival is basically a flower and entertainment festival held annually in Canberra’s Commonwealth park featuring extensive displays of flowering bulbs with integrated sculptures and other artistic features. Floriade comes from the Latin word floriat, which means to design with flowers.
Each year is celebrated with different themes, which is mostly why visitors like me keep coming back for more. When I first step inside the park, those colorful array of flowers literally went all fangirling over it !!Besides going for the floriade festival, we also drop by the parliament house and had decent lunch there. By night, we already reach back to Sydney (its only 2-3hours away from sydney). What a colorful noon that day was!
I will get back with part 2 of my Brisbane & Gold Coast Trip on the next post ! For now, let me bring you to my short escape one-day trip to Hunter Valley only 2 hours away from Sydney City!
Outfit of the Day Blouse – Beesknees Shorts – Supre Blazer – Beesknees Oxford Shoes – F21 Shawl – Korea
I went over with Unimates clique , trip starts early at 9am sharp and ended approximately on 8pm. Yes, I know how very productive is that?! ( All cost included I paid only $46! Best deal ever 😀 !)
Here’s our itenary for the day trip :
Hunter Valley Cheese Company – Cheese Tasting McGuigans Winery – Wine Tasting McWilliams Mount Pleasant Wines – Winery Tour Gardens Village – Boutique shops and restaurants with landscaped gardens for a picnic lunch Hunter Valley Garden – Ten-themed gardens to be explored ( MY FAVOURITE!!) Mount View – capture the entire vast view of Hunter Valley Wollombi Valley – Antique shops, historical colonial buildings and other attractions
First up, Cheese Tasting. We went over to cheese company and its so interesting to see their cheese making factory! Anyway, they offered 5 types of different types of cheese that I virtually never ate or tasted before. Its freshly produced and there’s also water and crackers offered ( as its bit too salty if you eat them alone like that)
After that we have a short lunch break and I ordered a Pasta of the Day from one of the cafeteria, and boy was it the BEST PASTA I HAVE EVER HAD!! yum!
Wine Tasting and Winery Tour
As most of you know, Hunter Valley is quite well-known for their winery production. If we were to go there during summer season , we will have the privilege to see the whole grape ripe process and everything. Yes, the person in charge basically explained on how the grapes were planted mainly during summer but definitely not winter season. Oh well, we still get to taste those ah-mazing wine and get an indoor factory tour!
Next, we went over to Hunter Valley Garden. My favourite part.They have a whole lot of garden themes (over 10) and Story Book theme is the most unique! Its easily Australia’s biggest and most beautiful garden ever! Just entering the Storybook garden is an experience in itself – through a giant storybook that is being read by topiary giraffes!
Indian-themed garden
Story Book Garden
Everywhere else – other various theme in the garden
Overall, its a fulfilling and very productive trip with the whole unimates clique (I went over together with 27 other people 🙂 )
Winter season in Sydney hasn’t been friendly , we experienced the worst thunderstorm case (wind over 124km/h!) and stuff like that. So for this winter break , we decided to escape for a short get aways to Brisbane & Gold Coast and fair enough the weather there is warm and oh-so sunny!
Day 1
We left Sydney on Monday and can I just say I started the trip with so much drama. Yeah, basically I overslept and miss the baggage drop in time by two minutes , yes you read right TWO MINUTES. The lady in the airport was all ” I’m sorry you have to either switch the flight timing or buy a new ticket” . I end up by a new ticket $300+ to catch the next earliest flight to Brisbane -_- !
Anyway, things could have been worse and I’m all positive thinking throughout the trip so as not to ruin the excitement mood.
Mount Coot-tha
Upon arriving , we bought go-card ( its a card where you tap on and off as you board the bus/ferry/train in queensland). Thenafter, we went to Mount Coot-tha , its located 287 metres above sea level, has the highest peak in Brisbane. Thus, makes it a perfect location for the best view of the whole city lookout scene!
as posted on my instagram @valentiney
Outfit of the day Top – Ally Shorts – Zipia Tights – Etsy Blazer – Beesknees Shades – Raybans
Comfort At My Table – Lunch
We went to this place for our lunch and ohmy, the interior is amazing , it gives you that homely and warmth feeling. The feeling of coming back home and having breakkie type. Really welcoming and great selection of breakfast menu.
Truly seems like local favorite as it was filled even at early noon! We ordered their beef ‘burger’ and a soy chai tea pot
Bunker Coffee – Milton
I know , we are crazy. But Brisbane has so many place for exploration so we didnt just stop there, we went over at this unique Bunker Cafe which located in a garage-like place and a very limited seat. They serve a locally roasted beans from Blackstar Coffee in West End Brisbane so my expectations for a really good strong coffee we’re already peaked before I even walked into Bunker. I ordered regular Flat White and boy was it an enjoyment to sip. Very smooth and special taste blend in with the whole unique environment? YES. YES. YES.
Red Lotus Vietnamese Restaurant
Initially we planned to go to an Italian Restaurant, but since its closed and we’re roaming around Chinatown, we stumbled across this Vietnamese Restaurant which apparently is pretty famous too!
Ordering Beef Pho is a must every time you enter a viet eateries, we also decided to try their lemongrass chicken set as its marked as one of their signature. The Pho is ah-ma-zing! but the chicken is very bland and nothing special. Overall, its still okay for a quickie casual dining, nothing fancy.
Brisbane Arcade
On our way back , we saw this place which resembled very much like Sydney’s QVB building interior!
Paired up my outfit with a thicker blazer and shawl from Zipia & CLICK respectively
Meanwhile,here’s a short clip of us messing around strathfield station – Taken with SocialCam app ( It annoys me somehow I cant embed it directly from socialcam here 😦 ) Anyway, till the next update 🙂
So I finally enrolled in 3114 , thankfully timetable still looking good!
(see, still have my Monday and Fridays off!)
Now that one stressful decision been strike off, next up is results. You know how at the beginning of every semester you seem to be very motivated all of a sudden, you have this ‘resolution’ list came up with full of ‘I will, I will’ but all seemed to be ignored when the semester start. I hope this time is different for me. So a little about me , I’m currently on an internship with vodafone and very happy about that so far , it makes my life more fulfilling with those experience. Though I could not help but to look forward in a bit , so I went on for a job application spree,came up with cover letters and the usual stuff (though there’s silly-but-pretty-serious-accident involved as i send those job application, but ohwell).
Alex Farewell
Alex’s going to UCLA for an exchange studies, so we not gonna see him till next year.
Meanwhile heres a snap of me after the hair color
I will review on a more detailed one on the hair coloring result/process soon!
So basically my exams ended on 18th June , which apparently was the first day of final exam week. Dont get me wrong though , I have had my exams for other subjects weeks before the final exam. I have had good rest , been up all night catching up on The Office (I’m up on season 7 now!).
(The Office’s [B.J Novak as Ryan] “I’m keeping a list of everyone who wrongs me so when I’m back on top, they’ll be sorry.”) The day when I just done with exams, I was really feeling unhappy. I dont know what and why , I just feel unhappy. Well , part of it maybe due to the exam being so mathematically involved, it was supposed to be a marketing exams but they involve slight statistics in it (which I very much dreaded). That being said, that night I saw one of the subjects was 1 mark away from achieving a certain grade. Feeling hopeless, I sent an email to my tutor to ask for the overall mark being up 1 mark. I was really scared, scared that my marks might be lowered instead, scared that it left unreplied etcetera. But hey, theres no harm in trying! Next morning, I woke up feeling much better , got my brain all calmed down. I tried to arrange timetable, only come to one problem; I can’t fixed the subject the ideal way I want. I took spanish on semester 1 and it was extremely fast-paced, weekly test and all that. Its manageable but I just won’t take it to the next level anymore. I wanted to take Chinese , I have background in it. Problem is that I can only take starting from level 1b ( can’t take 1a cause I have used up all the junior level unit study). I know this sound really complex, but I finally came up with actual and alternative plan after much painstaking brainstorm I’ve appointment with the Chinese department for interview to waive the pre-requisite unit set on 23rd July , I’m nervous but for better for worse I have enrolled in my alternative plan now.You know, just as a pre-caution incase I didnt get Chinese (Which my negativity thought is leaning towards now).So here’s a glimpse of timetable I have now : I’m taking 2 Ibus and 2 Mktg subject. Even though theres alot of uncertainty , but i’ve come up with it anyway..Hopefully things went smoothly. Results out by 2 July another thing that freak me out 😦
Road Trip !
This is the aspect that I most look forward to. I’m going for a short trip to Brisbane + Gold Coastwith small company. I dont dread small company, in fact I love it. Sure, misery love company but seriously sometimes it is the company that causes those misery. Anyway, we have bought the accommodation, tickets and even came up with the itennary all planned outWill be blogging on the trip so stay tuned too 😉
Updates on me;
So last month I got a job , really happy on it , mainly because it keeps me busy and lost track of time. In a way, it keeps me away from having train of negative thoughts. Yes, I have been struck with lots of emo feeling this days, I wish I could end it but seriously I couldnt and it annoys the hell out of me . Anyway, I have just dyed my hair with Palty Cream Hair Dye ( Bleach Natural Brown far left) + Liese Bubble Hair Dye (Mocha Orange far right) .
I must say, lesson learnt, I innitially bought Palty Cream dye cause their colours shows up more than the bubble hair dye, but seriously I used up that I bottle with my hair hardly covered. Next time , I will just solely buy bubble hair dye, its quicker, spreads more evenly and all. In case you’re wondering , yes. I very much prefer DIY japanese hair dye than going salon. Most of the time I went salon , the color either didnt show or no difference and because of my length at least I will be charged $300 ! mehh I will post a more detailed one on the before afters soon ( the above pic of mine is taken before the hair dye) Till the next update, have a nice day!
Like the title suggest, socialcam is the new videosharing app which functions just like instagram but it shares video!I liked the idea mainly cause you can now post/upload/share casual video (YT community doesnt really cater to that base). I first created this last year cause many of the popular Instagram user I follow has it and I just want to view their vids , oh yeah I sound like a creepy one..
And to avoid socialcam to send push notifications to your facebook (it’ll broadcast every video you view/likes/comment), I sign up by email and turn the sharing off. Cause trust me, I have seen some of the spam socialcam made on facebook and I think the user wasnt even aware their activity was published like that.
Other than that, its an awesome app and I’m gonna make more of casual videos in the futuree so watch out for it !
People need refresh button in their life at some point of time, I need it badly last week I realised I could have taken Chinese and pull up my WAM, but I dont know wtf is wrong with the past me, it did came across my mind, but I always think its better to take something that i’d never take in uni. But no, at the end of the day grades is all that matters. So I was devastated and desperate to get Chinese when I realised I only have 1 junior credit study left I could take (means I could only take 1B not 1A).I approached the departments and they mentioned about having interview in the week of 20th July, I wasnt content, I was infact really upset to be unable to get confirmation asap. I’m afraid I’ll be enrolled in either higher level of chinese or not being allowed to enrolled in it all (worst-case scenario). But Im all calmed down now, for the time being, im taking spanish and really liking it ( I just dont like the constant tests!) . So wish me luck on these !
Other point, sydney is getting chilly, my outfit post from instagram @valentiney
AND other exciting update! I got my internship approved at vodafone!I must’d say this is really unexpected since…you know, I never really ever felt acceptance without approvals. So I will and should seize this and hopefully all goes well Starting work this coming friday! and have Jayeslee gig after!
Alrighty till next update, have to get STARTED on this 5page reflection paper! wish me luck
I did nothing productive academically this weekend, sucha guilty pleasure..
did I mention? Im chocsoc’s new sub-com!Okay it may sound like a no biggie thing, but seriously im psyc for it !Some pics from last week meeting in wagaya!
Outfit of the day :
(&Im loving how sharp my nose like in 2nd pic #shameless)
Other notes, housemate and me got some awesome godly yummy indo feast meal today!
The martabak is SO DAMN NYAMMYYY! I ate 3 today and keep the rest on freezer,figured out it’d be sinful to eat it all at one go. Plus I couldnt get it everyday, so might as well save it!
And Im contemplating to order from zipia, its $300++ (I know) Im sucha spender RAWRRR I WANT IT THO 😦
1. First presentation : innitially i felt good about it, but thinking back about how our group did the role playing in presentation (we’re doing presentation on an airlines so we said things like ‘cabin crew’ ‘please fastenened your seatbelt’ ) and best one of our member SHAKE the tutor’s table.omg kill me now
2. The second one, one of our member present everything for us but he oversaid the first poster and end up no time talking about 2nd and third poster…..and our tutor said he ‘got lost’ and yeah i dont need to elaborate the rest. Its a Pass/Fail assessment , so hope we made it. Regarding the new member nuisance addition , I guess for now I cant really say much about it since im of no much help to the group either. Plus, i felt the presentation could have been so much better if he’d practise running through it (put more effort)
So thats all for my presentation update, WHAT SORCERY IS THISSSS?
Gonna have spanish online test and got to prepare for upcoming ibus test…oh i hate all of this. I just hope I could get the intern for now!!
Gonna get some sleep now and wake up at 630 to study. im too tired for all this crap and nuisance! End of with picture updates and some pic from huntervalley trip ^^
Pour of valentine ♥ 