September 30, 2008
MacTroopers
Sometimes I really feel privileged to be half-Filipino. Considering that not many Singaporeans have been to the Philippines, i really feel that they are missing quite alot! lol! Cheap and VERY GOOD food, whole range of cheap good quality clothes. There's even Asia's Biggest mall in the Philippines, really can't be compared with Vivocity or Ion Orchard.
[ Alright, so just a random photo of a Clone Trooper in MacDonald's at the Mall of Asia. There were actually 'taking orders' from customers! ]
Posted @ 6:34 pm | 2008 © Sherman Photography
September 26, 2008
Random Random
Just out of fun, thought i share how i actually ease my boredom at home when i really have nothing to do. I'll usually start playing Roller Coaster Tycoon, and i've been playing this for many years already. Good thing i got the newer deluxe version, so there were many add-ons to play with.
Trust me, it gets really addictive when you start playing!
Here are some screenshots of the the parks that i've completed...
 
Posted @ 9:26 pm | 2008 © Sherman Photography
September 22, 2008
Aussie Trip '08: Queensland
WARNING: Photo Intensive! Only suitable for those using Broadband or else you'll probably have to wait really long for them to load. I think even Broadband users will have a problem.
Read this if you're really really free cos it's a long post!
 Our footsteps that we left at Gold Coast Beach, that marks the end of our 2 weeks journey in Australia. Queensland is really a perfect place, nice cool weather with some sunshine, nice campus beside the Brisbane River but the price isn't nice for us to remain over there... [Click to see LOTS of content & pictures]
FIRST DAY @ Brisbane:
Our first stop was at Mt. Coo-tha, a pretty nice mountain top that overlooks the city of Brisbane, as you can see i was actually very happy with the weather, i don't have to wear a 3rd layer of covering and the sky is really really very beautifully blue!   Well because there's a river winding around Brisbane, they actually use ferries like these (CityCat) to commute around, it's much more relaxing as compared to taking a bus or train to the city. There's even a ferry stop at the University of Queensland! How cool is that? It had many bridges to connect the people into City that they even have one that catered for pedestrians only. They call it the Goodwill bridge, so i assume the Govt built it out of good will! That was our only route to go to the City centre from our hotel as well... Long walk though, at least 30mins..
The bridge is also good a place to take awesome sunset shots, even so i also met up with a fellow local photographer who didn't realised that the bridge had a spectacular view of the City! Haha!
2nd DAY:
We had fun on the very next day at Warner Brothers' Movie World, you can see that i wasn't really that happy about it cos i was never a thrill seeker (taking roller coasters) =.= How boring am i? But nah... of course i enjoyed the place!  Honestly i have no idea why they even had the Singapore flay flying at the entrance of the theme park. In the background you can see the Batman Flying Machine (or whatever you call it). The kind of ride that shoots people up in the air?  Well here's a preview of that silly ride, obviously my balls weren't made of steel so i didn't had the courage to hop onto it... In fact, Batman himself made a special appearance himself! Notice how small the Batmobile is? I thought it was much bigger in the movies? (Lame...)  Movie World also had the infamous Superman Returns roller coaster ride, probably one of the craziest ride over there. Notice the gradient of that fall?!  As a typical Asian, how can we not buy something from a place where you'll probably won't return anymore? So i got myself a free Batman Mask from a Batman Fastfood meal. LOL 
The only ride that i actually dared to hop on was the Shrek 4D, hahaha... i don't think it's even classified as a ride.. It was fun though... 
The Next Few Days:
One of the educational highlights of this trip was a visit to University of Queensland (UQ). One of my dream choices of school to study in Australia. The campus is sooooooooooooo beautiful, i actually like how they have masses of grass patches at the Grand Courtyard for students to hangout. But too bad, it'll probably cost my parents a bomb for me to study there!   We even visited the community pharmacies in Brisbane City, i can proudly say that it's so much different as compared to Singapore's Guardian or Watson Pharmacy Chain. The UQ Students were also nice to bring us to the various pharmacies.
This was at Queens Street, the Orchard road of Brisbane City. 
During one of the nights in Brisbane, our class invited our lecturers over to one of our hotel rooms and we had so much fun playing card games and fellowshipping! Really built up the relationship between us, students and the lecturers!
Our last day at Queensland:
We had a trip to Paradise Country, some sort of mini-farm tourist attraction... This time round i managed to see a Koala Bear up close ! They're pretty lazy animals and sleep for about 18 hours a day.. Just like this one over here...  They had a demonstration on shearing a sheep and 2 of our mates (including Mr. Mak) was selected to help out. And this was the out come at the end! LOL Along the way... i managed to steal a shot of myself milking a cow for real! What a great experience... haha The poor chinese dude was selected to hold a leaf in his mouth and get it sliced by a whip! I liked the expression of the 2nd helper on the left, imagine how scary it is to be the one holding the leaf!
A random sheep that got caught into my fisheye! 
Lastly, our last destination in Queensland was at Gold Coast, now i know why everyone talks about the beach over there! It's really magnificent! I honestly have no idea where it'll end! The wind blowing against you with nice cooling sand covering your feet! 0.0 We had dinner after wards at Hardrock Cafe... Our last meal in Australia...    So that marks the end of my well worth 2 weeks journey in Australia.. I totally enjoyed the place, would love to go back some time soon! Come to think of it, i actually miss that place! Cos over there i have no worries of school work or any other commitments back home! Argh!
Posted @ 6:13 pm | 2008 © Sherman Photography
September 18, 2008
Aussie Trip '08: Day 5 @ The Great Ocean Road
WARNING: Photo Intensive! Only suitable for those using Broadband or else you'll probably have to wait really long for them to load. I think even Broadband users will have a problem.
Read this if you're really really free cos it's a long post!
After all the educational visits and such, we can finally call ourselves Tourists as we took a road trip to the Famous Great Ocean Road, one of the greatest wonders in Victoria![Click to see LOTS of content & pictures]DAY 5:
We had to leave the hotel pretty early cos our journey to the Great Ocean Road will take us at least 4+ hours? Very very long bus ride... But one thing to motivate us was a proper lunch waiting for us halfway in the journey. Something i haven't had for 4 days in Melbourne.
Of course when you're in a 4 hour long bus ride, you'll get bored sometimes so i spotted this cool looking car and many others of the same make on the same lane of the freeway. Then typically i had to take a photo of it, for the first time i managed to take a decent 'panning' shot. A bunch of happy classmates (including myself, ha!) jumping for joy after lunch at Apollo Bay, but no this isn't the beach we've traveled so far for... Now finally an official photo of the us at the start of the Great Ocean Road... Along the way, we took a couple of photo-taking pit stops... The next 2 picture below is a duel between me and Jessica, the funny thing is i don't think she knew i took a picture of her in my fisheye! LOL   I had to take more candid shots in my fisheye cos the first roll is about to finish and i must/want/need to use a new roll for what awaits me at the end of the journey...  An official fisheye class photo of us! AH! So finally after a long-winding-nausea-causing ride, we finally arrived at our destination at the 12 Apostles, currently only 8 and a half left.... How sad... I'll just let the pictures do the talking...        Okay, this isn't one of the 12 Apostles but it was called the ____ Gorge or something like that, it's just a 5 mins drive from the Apostles. One think i like about it is we get to go down at sea level over there!  
It's a shame that 2 of lecturers didnt' want to go down to the beach side... 
And to end this post, one last jump at the Great Ocean Road! That marks the end of our 5 days in Melbourne, very nice place.. very cold weather... very expensive to live...
The next post will be on Brisbane... Though we didn't had much fun over there.. but the weather's awesome!
Posted @ 8:26 am | 2008 © Sherman Photography
September 17, 2008
Aussie Trip'08: Day 1 - 4 @ Melbourne
WARNING: Photo Intensive! Only suitable for those using Broadband or else you'll probably have to wait really long for them to load. I think even Broadband users will have a problem.
Read this if you're really really free cos it's a long post!
Some photos are also contributed by my lovely classmates: Jess, Eliza & Cheryl
 Okay this post marks the beginning of more other posts to come about the Australia Trip. I decided to blog about the Aussie trip first before i go on to my Grandma's Birthday. [Click to see LOTS of content & pictures]DAY 1:Arrived in Melbourne at 5am local time, plane ride was okay and it's been a long time since i actually sat on a non-budget airline. Good experience for me.
Of all places, our first stop in Melbourne was at the Crown Casino, supposedly one of the largest in Australia? Surprisingly they're still some people playing at 6am?! 
My first official meal in Australia at Queen Victoria Market (QVM): French Toast with bacon and a cup of Hot Chocolate. A$10 if i'm not wrong, what an amount to spend on the first day. I also bought a 'musical box' not sure how to call it, but it was pretty cool... Another A$10 gone... QVM really have lots of nice stuff to buy cheaper than other outlets i suppose..   One thing i got to mention is that the Fish came along with me and i'm really proud of what it produced throughout the whole trip. Great photos, happy owner! (I also dunno why i looked unglam in all my pictures =.=)
There was more sightseeing during the day (that's even b4 we checked into the hotel). I think this was the St. Patrick's Cathedral. One of the oldest in Melbourne. Pretty cool infrastructure!   I kinda like this place the most, i think it's the Australian War Shrine where they commemorate the soldiers that fought during the World Wars. So happened that day they were rehearsing for the commemoration ceremony.      Other than that, we visited other places like the David Cook's Park and some miscellaneous attractions..  This shot at the Victoria Art Gallery was also the beginning of more jump shots from my class!
So that was the end of Day 1.. Nothing much except for sightseeing and many of us were pretty tired!  DAY 2:
The start of our education part of the trip. We visited Victoria College of Pharmacy or is now known the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science under Monash University. The campus only contain the Faculty so it's pretty small.. they even had some virtual pharmacy practice going on in their classes. I also found out that there were many Asians in the school! o.0A rather random shot in the lecture theatre forming the letter M for Monash!  The mural in the grand hall was pretty huge as well and they were paintings of how medicine evolved over centuries, we took some time to cam-whored a little (i don't think is that little though).      After the campus tour, we visited Compoundia, a different kind of pharmacy as compared to the other community pharmacies. I won't describe more about it but more importantly i had my first cup of beer at this bar. The taste was weird but i managed to stay alive. hahaha  At night we went to recce the Melbourne city and this place we visited called Melbourne Central is like a Wisma Atria cum Plaza Sing cum Wheelock Place in Orchard. For no reason i bought some apples to eat in the hotel... Hmm.. cheap mah!  DAY 3:Again another education trip to another university this time round in RMIT, pretty nice rural campus and the uni maintained the roots of indigenous people of Australia in their campus itself. I would like to emphasize again that though Australia is a pretty nice place to study, the money my parents have to fork out is intensed, no way i'm willing to 'borrow' that much from my parents just for education alone.   I actually took this fisheye shot right after a group photo at RMIT, pretty random but we get good expressions from everyone. LOL  DAY 4:Instead of universities, this time round we visited a Pharmaceutical company (EGO, named after the founder and the founder's dad) that only produced dermatological products. One famous product marketed in Singapore is the Sun Sense sunscreen. 
Right after the visit, it was free & easy for us and a few of us literally spent the whole day walking around Melbourne, i think i almost covered all of the city itself in that one day! 
You can see the city of Melbourne at the background One of the most honourable walking trip was the stadium or place where the 1956 olympics took place. Pretty cool huh?  Being a typical Asian, i also took the FREE city tram ride around Melbourne.  
What's a study trip for without visiting the local library? I actually think this was one of the coolest libraries i've visited. Nice architectural designs mimicking the colonial days...  Lastly, to end this post of the first 4 days in Melbourne/Australia, i had a bowl of beef special noodles in a famous vietnamese restaurant where Bill Clinton ate when he was the POTUS. He ate more than me: 2 big bowls of noodles!
More to come when i'm done resizing for the next post: The Great Ocean Road Trip
Posted @ 11:54 am | 2008 © Sherman Photography
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