Arrival At Sydney

8th July 2007, Sunday

After fretting over the excess baggage, whether would we clear the customs, saying our last goodbyes to our dearest family and friends (thank you all for being there at the airport), fortifying ourselves for the new journey ahead, enjoying the almost 8 hour flight on Singapore Airlines (which was as always a pleasant one...they have the original Mario Bros!), surviving the longest queue I've ever seen at a customs (we took an hour to clear customs!), clearing through one of the strictest custom checks, and finally, finding all our luggages...

We have arrived! Hahaha...

Found the 'limousine' we hired to fetch us from the airport to our apartment and henceforth, began our long day of lugging, lifting, carrying and dragging our luggages. This was just the first of the many...

And we all got excited and tired (me as usual) on the bus...

After some distance, time and U-turns, we finally arrive at our apartment.

Isn't it just BEAUTIFUL? Haha =)

Yeah. This apartment is kind of like the 'tallest' building around. Around our area are the houses, aka landed/private property; the next tallest architecture is probably the train station, which was still shorter than our apartment. Mind you... our apartment is only 4 storeys high. Haha.

The apartment looks nice isn't it? BUT.... to our horror of all horrors... THERE IS NO LIFT!!!! Best of all, our apartment is the last one on the top floor. Now... 4 storeys, no lift, almost 250kg worth of baggage, and only 5 girls... it really meant DISASTER, BACKACHE and MUSCLE ACHES!

After much problem-solving and strategizing... we managed to move in. Yes! The power of 5 females shall never be underestimated. Each luggage up the 4 storeys was like a HUGE achievement for us. I'm so proud that we survived it! Though I must admit that I'm pretty sure all of us suffered quite a strain on our upper limb muscles and some backache...

And so we checked out the apartment and the rooms and settled all the misc stuff...

After taking a short break, settling the misc stuff, getting our keys and lugging our luggages into our respective rooms, we went to explore our neighbourhood and I must say, we were in for a surprise.

Presenting our neighbourhood. Firstly, what you see is actually a SHOPPING CENTRE. Yes.. no kidding. Those few rows of shops around the our area is called a shopping centre. So much for shopping I thought. If this was a shopping centre, I thought I could say goodbye to the heartland malls I've been so used to in Singapore.

Second thing I was really surprised was... is this place like 'dead'? I do know it was a Sunday when we arrived but there was like hardly anyone on the streets! Mind you.. not even at the train station. It was just quiet and really cold (it's winter in Sydney by the way!). Now I learn that Sunday is always 'dead'... Hahaha.

After some exploring, we headed to the noodle place just downstairs our apartment to satisfy our hunger!

Gourmet Noodle House... open 7 days.
Thank goodness for we'll never fear of starving to death!
Haha...

And we all had the same dish... RARE BEEF NOODLES!
Our very first meal in Sydney.

I must say the beef noodles was good. Beef wasn't too rare, soup was thick and slightly spicy (because I added chilli) and the noodles was good too. I love this place!

And after lunch, we decided to head to Auburn (another suburb) for some grocery shopping. According to the note the seniors left us they said the nearest supermarket was at Auburn and was a walkable distance. We also asked for directions from the shop keepers and they told us it was about a short walk.

Guess how long we actually took.... 1 whole hour. YES! One whole hour of walking. Not strolling mind you...

Just look at our such happy faces to finally see a 'tall' building that said 'Auburn Central'. Wow... And so, we began our grocery shopping which was really fun... and I don't know if this is good or bad, but grocery shopping seemed to be the most 'happening' thing in our lives. Haha...

We explored Big W and Woolsworth (aka Woolies) and compared some prices... bought a kettle and food stuff... Tim Tams were at an amazingly cheap price (as compared to Singapore) and Zhen introduced us to Woolie's homebrand blackberry tarts. Tim Tams can never go wrong, no matter which flavour... and the homebrand blackberry tarts...they were GOOD. Most importantly, all cheap too! Seriously going to be FAT when I go back to Singapore. Sadness... Just watch me balloon in the photos I post.. I bet you'll exclaim 'Oh my goodness! You are FAT!'. Sobs.

Us with all our groceries!
Yes... we came prepared with our own grocery bags from Singapore!

Then it was on to preparing our very first home-cooked meal. So while the rest of the 4 of them cooked, I did the cleaning. Yeah... okay, I admit. I'm really more concerned about having clean rooms than satisfying my hunger because I wanted to be able to sleep well after a LONG flight and not having slept more than 4 hours in almost 3 days.

Our first home cooked meal!

It was just a simple meal of stir fried broccoli and vegetable soup. But we were all so happy and satisfied. Later on we learn that anything soupy and steaming from the pot is always good in such cold, cold, cold weather.