It was 11/11/11 when we finally boarded the flight bound for New South Wales, Australia. 11/11/11 11:11 was spent in the clouds, with Emily to my left and Xiao Jie on my right. When we touched down in Australia, it was approximately 11:18. The 20 of us were Metempirical, Sunflower Kitties, Vendetta, Beard Papa, The Bats. There, we were introduced to Rob(ert), our coach driver and Laura, our Singaporean tour guide, later discovered to be the "tour guide with the camera" as quoted by Rob.
More photographs and thoughts under the cut:
Lunch at Red Rooster: Mavis, Jayne and I ordered the kids meal. We later discovered that the kids meal was the right way to go with regards to the portions.
Bottle Brush
Blue Mountains: Skyway across the mountain range/valley. I spotted a Cockatoo
Photo Journal: We had to select eight photographs for the first night's photo journalism task. This photo is one of my favourite shots of the trees at Blue Mountains. These were part of the forest affected by the bush fires. Look at the stark contrast of the colours. What it was meant to be and what it has become
Photo Journal: Here's another photo I chose for the photo journal. This was also affected by the bush fires. Rob said that bush fires usually start when 1) Lightning strikes 2) The trees combust or my least favourite 3) When somebody sets the beautiful forest on fire. Why anybody would do that is completely beyond me. No stopping the fires.
Photo Journal: According to Rob thousands of Australians signed up to be citizen bush fire-fighters. I chose this photo because of its implication of Australians being interconnected.
Photo Journal: Mavis chided me for ruining this cheerful picture. With reference to the bush fire photos, nature, beauty, happiness is short-lived. Fragile.
The Three Sisters: Legend has it that they were turned into rock by their witch doctor father because they fell in love with three of the rival tribe's young men. Very romeo
Blue Mountains: From afar, the mountains look blue because of the oil from the eucalyptus trees, as well as the dust in the air.
Photo Journal: This picture was chosen to be placed next to the What it was meant to be and what it has become shot. The trees are reaching up to grow into what they were meant to be, big, sturdy... Mother Nature's child, only to be burned down by man.
Photo Journal: Simply put, the future is unknown
YHA: Blue Mountains YHA was where we put up for the night.
YHA: Extremely cosy, is it not? Dinner was served in the dining hall, and we all gathered around a long table to enjoy spaghetti with salad and garlic bread. After dinner we got to use the wifi for our photo journalism. The wifi fee was Aus$4 per hour. Bathrooms weren't attached to the room, but we did have one of our own. We shared the corridor with the Sunflower Kitties: Fiona, Audrey, Arinna and Michelle
The Bats
At the YHA that night, and we were told by Rob, we were obviously doing washing the wrong way. Do we all agree that in Singapore majority of us put an appropriate amount of dish-washing liquid/suds to our dishes, scrub them, then rinse them? Well, that is what I have been doing. Anyway, it seems like the right way to do it in Australia, or maybe just YHA, is just to drop some liquid into a sink of hot water, rinse the dishes in those (use a sponge if necessary), then run it under cold water. Rob told us it was the funniest and weirdest things he had ever seen. Well I've seen it, only in places where efficiency is key, but it seems like this is how it has to be done.
Oh well, dish-washing methods on my blog, now that is a first.
Masterpost
Day Two
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