Currumbin Beach, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary & Mermaid Beach

Now if you remember, we had a kitchenette in our hotel room so most of our meals were from either Woolworth's or Cole's. We had these ready-made microwaveable meals one night and they were really good! #HelloooPreservatives haha.

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Brisbane, Queen Street Mall & Night Market at Surfer's Paradise

Thankfully we rented a car so we were able to drive to Brisbane, around an hour or so from Surfer's Paradise. Alf got a GPS system which really helped us a lot in navigating our way.

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WhiteWater World, Dreamworld & Night Market

Gold Coast is literally loaded with lots of fun places to go to - for both the young and the young at heart. Our next stop was WhiteWater World - another water theme park. Not as grand and as crowded as Wet N Wild but still worth a visit. It's just right beside Dreamworld which means you can do both in one day.


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MovieWorld, Hope Island, Wet n Wild & Broadbeach

I can't believe its already December! The year whizzed by just like that. Now I really have to catch up on my backlog haha. 2014 will be another year of travel and new discoveries and I'm really excited! But before that, here is more of our Australia trip in early 2013.

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Carrara Markets, SeaWorld, Marina Mirage, Broadwater Park & SkyPoint

I was more than excited to visit Carrara Markets as I love open-air street markets. Carrara is very similar to Chatuchak market in Bangkok but smaller. They are only open on Saturdays and Sundays. Since the weather was cool, it was much more comfortable to stroll around the market compared to Chatuchak.

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Burleigh Heads, HarbourTown and Surfer's Paradise

I just came back from spending the weekend in Batam, Indonesia. I'll be posting about Batam in a separate blog so watch out for that in the next 6 months or so hahaha. Anyway, I'm working from home today (luckily) so I have 2 laptops in front of me - one for work and my personal laptop haha. I finally get to blog about our memorable Australia trip last April. Tomorrow is a holiday here so hopefully I can catch up on posts.

We rented a car from Hertz and picked it up at the Airport. Luckily, we got a discount from the NATAS travel fair a few months prior to our trip. Alf also got a Harvey Norman voucher from work so we used that to buy the GPS device for driving directions.
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Moving In; Q1 Observation Deck

Finally, I'm back in the blogging world. It's been so hectic the past few weeks. As you know (or don't), I've temporarily stayed at my friends' place for 3 weeks. I finally moved in our new place last Saturday but I haven't fully settled in. Minor things really, but they add up to the stress. REALLY.

My room doesn't have a cable tv point (it's not so bad actually). I don't have a wardrobe (BAD!) so most of my clothes are still in my luggage until my closet is delivered (thank you Ikea for cheap furniture). My bed is so firm (read: Hard) that I had to buy a topper, plus king size sheets since I've never experienced renting a room with a king bed (but yes I'm loving the king bed for a king-sized person like me haha). And some home appliances for household use. Minor things like I said but they add up to the expenses, and my pockets are really burned (BAD!). But I'm just ranting. I'm really happy we finally found a place. I moved in with friends Krizia and Lenin so I should really stop complaining.

Anyway, below are the last batch of pics from my Australian trip - photos from Q1 (meaning Queensland One) - Australia's tallest building. I'm flying to Germany in 3 days (yipee!) and I'm looking forward to visiting Paris for a day on 27th September :-) More importantly, I'm looking forward to spending time with my Mom, Stepdad, Twin Brother, Aunt and Uncle.

Enjoy the pics! :-)

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Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast

It's been a week since I've been staying at my friends' place since our new place is only available on Sept.15. It really helps to have your closest and bestest friends when you really need them :-).

Anyway, back to regular programming. Here's another photo dump from my recent Gold Coast trip and this one is in and around Surfer's Paradise.

Eco-friendly toilet at the airport upon arrival..

 

Look for "Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle" at the arrival area to buy your "Go Card" - for use on public transportation. 

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DreamWorld Theme Park

I miss Dreamworld! Luckily, my highschool classmate Jason and his wife, Jen, were travelling to Gold Coast the same period I was, so we were able to go together. It would have been awkward to scream shriek on the rides alone haha.

Since the day I arrived was Jason and Jen's last full day, I just freshened up at the hotel then we went straight to Dreamworld. Good thing there was a shuttle from their hotel, Chevron Renaissance, to the theme park (AUD 18 each).

This is what I love in other countries that we don't have here in Singapore - long and winding highways...

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Prepping for Gold Coast

Crap, a little over 4 years with this blog and I've maximized the storage for photos. I honestly thought it was unlimited. I was uploading photos and I kept on getting this error message below and was hoping it was a bug. I don't know when blogger decided to start storing my photos in Picasa. Argh.

I had no choice but to purchase additional storage space lest I want to lose this blog. It's not exactly expensive but it's still freaking money that recurs every month and I seriously thought blogger is a free service entirely. Working in a software company myself, I do understand they need to start charging for storage space. BUT STILL. I'm pissed. :-P

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Hiatus

Wow it's been a while. Apologies for the long hiatus. As if anyone cares haha. I've been pretty busy (obviously), mostly with work, renewal of documentation and other stuff. Last May, I renewed my passport since it's up for expiry on December plus I was up for work visa renewal. I got my passport last June (after a month, ugh) and I finally renewed my work visa in end-June.

It was really a relief to have my work visa renewed for another 2 years. Singapore has been very strict lately with the influx of foreign workers. In fact, some of my Filipino friends got their passes either rejected or demoted to the lower type. I can't blame the government though. I just feel grateful I could stay here longer. Towards the end of this year, I plan to apply for Permanent Residency for the 3rd time.

Anyway, it's been 3 months since I started gym and I'm darn happy I've lost 7kg. Slowly but surely. I've been sick though the past few days due to flu and have been giving in to my cravings but I hope to be back on track.

Earlier this month, I was in Manila and Cebu for a short 4 days. The trip was mainly for the Cebu townhouse turnover. Yey! I'm a homeowner! :-P Huge thanks to my Mom really. She has really helped a great deal, not only financially but more importantly by physically going to Cebu to handle all the admin stuff prior to turnover and minor renovations with the townhouse after the turnover. I love you Mom! :-)

I'll be broke for the next 8 years to pay for the monthly amortization haha, unless we get the place rented out. Either way, it's a great investment. I'm happy my mom influenced me to make this investment :-)
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Me, Myself and I

It's so hard to think of a creative title whenever I create posts (in fact, I think I already used the above title). Oh well...

Anyway, there's this new Singaporean budget airline called "Scoot". They are scheduled to start flying in late-June or early-July I think. As an introductory sale, they came up with really crazy promos - as low as $88 to Gold Coast or Sydney (one-way and without taxes I think). I didn't get to catch the $88 sale but I did manage to book a flight today to Gold Coast (last day of sale is today!) at an unbelievably low rate! Really, it's almost the same price as my ticket to HK earlier this month. I haven't been to Australia so I'm uber excited! :-)
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