Melbourne, 2011 (Part I)

Today’s bla: It’s true when they say “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger”. It can potentially save lives sometimes.

I’ve been away to Melbourne for 8 days (26th Nov – 3rd Dec) and they were easily one of the best days I’ve had this year in terms of holidays, fun and friends.

Let’s let the pictures and photos do the talking for this one:

Esther Chin from Melbourne waited for us at the Tullamarine Airport from 8am in the morning until 12pm. There were many groups, mostly Brisbane and we (me, sister, Ruby) happened to be the last one to arrive that morning. She was the greeter - a very sweet and hospitable one.

It was my first visit to Melbourne and my first impression of Melbourne was the weather!!! I will get to more of that later in the post. But Melbourne’s summer now is our Brisbane’s winter. Along with Day-light saving, you get sunlight at 9pm. That messed with our bodies a bit.

Anyways, Sharon Pau was the driver and she drove all of us to Doveton where our backpacker’s place is. We went passed the City and they thought it’d be good to spoil our lunch with some havenly ice-cream.

Not just any ice cream.. but Lygon Street famous Il Dolce Freddo ice cream!!!!!

$5.5 for a scoop; a little pricey but it was so good!!! I had the durian ice-cream and it was the bombdiggity! I also tried Esther’s Ferrero Rocher ice-cream and it was bombdiggity x2!!!

 

We went straight to our comfy rooms @ Doveton Prince Mark Motel. $35 per person per night. Not a bad deal but not the greatest too. We immediately played the game of Asian Big 2 (er da; cho tai di) and had hearty chats while listening to weird catchphrases and lines from random movies.

I think some of the people in the room watched Twilight. What a night that was. We went to bed around 12am Melbourne time (it’s 1 hour faster than Brisbane).

GOOD MORNINK! We were all ready to head out to a nearby local school for the Sunday Service because TMC Melbourne cannot accommodate so many people. And see how everyone is hugging their coats and blazers? It’s ‘Summer’ in Melbourne. –.- I checked and it was 15 degrees!!!! –.-'

The service had about 300 or so people in the congregation and it lasted 3 hours. We had our catered-lunch and off we went to Rawson Village where there’s no reception what-so-ever for Vodafone (suck!). It was 2 hours drive from the school.

I’m placed in team Zephaniah! We Brisbane peeps brought mostly shorts and shirts. I only brought a jean and an overcoat! Not enough!!

Anyways the camp was facilitated and cosy. Not luxurious but completely manageable. Food was meh; but people were awesome! We had 200 campers, coming from all around Australia. Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Tasmania, Sydney etc.

We had 95% Asians and I dare say at least 60% of the campers were Malaysians and so we had quite a number of Wong’s. Malaysian Boleh!

There were a lot of activities lined up during camp. PAW, games, team building, devotion, Bible Study, Seminars, and sleep. This is not the first time I’ve been to a camp of this magnitude but it’s nevertheless hearty and warm being around with all the campers – some if not most I only get the chance to meet up once a year around this time.

Angie Wong from Brisbane, Sherwood.

Team Zephaniah and Malachi!

Team Zephaniah with Esther Chin and Jenn Lau at the back row photobombing!

I met a few interesting people in my group. There’s Tiffany who is Patricia and Sarah’s cousin (small world); there’s Ashtyne who thinks I’m 16 or 17 years old because of how I act, walk and talk; and there’s William who looks a lot like Peter Chao when he had his glasses on. There’s also Stephanie who saw me in TMC in Kuching which makes us quite proud to come from a church that big; and Peter who plays badminton all the time!! Matt’s the cool dude with a giant DSLR and Oscar who’s the youngest in our group who does hip-hop.

Our team flag on the night of World Chant – which happened to be the night where some wanted the traditional all-nighter.

During one of the group discussion!

EMP represent for one of the Praise and Worship sessions!

I think we were discussing about height or color-contacts.. I think it was the former.

Zephaniah and Malachi on last day group picture!

The night where I slept at 4.30am..

Janice was one of the twin sister. They came from Singapore.

Me: So Janice, what are you studying right now?
Janice: I just finished year 12.
Me: I see! What about your sister?
Janice: *looks at the idiot she’s talking to*
Me: OH! Right. Twin sister.. ok ok!

FAIL.com

The last time I met this guy Ian was 2002, when he left for Australia. It’s been almost a decade since we met. We still remember who were the naughty troublemakers ;)

One of the PAW sessions. The seminars were good and motivating. I guess we’ve all heard these sermons or talks before in some point of our life but this 4 days 3 nights experience is to reignite that slow fire in all of us. It is to lift us up again with fellowship and centralised biblical teachings. It’s like a detox process after sometime; it’ll always be good.

The EMP Brisbane gang. Some were missing, I think they went to the toilet.

One of the hearty group discussions after the seminar. We had productive group discussions and that was good. Kudos to everyone who contributed!

On the way to our post-AMYC adventure and fun in Melbourne’s CBD. Stay tune to where more fun comes!!

Godblessusall, JOsh