My flight faced major delays due to severe thunderstorms in Sydney. We had to wait for over two hours, most of which were on the plane so it was incredibly exhausting. Thankfully, the weather in Melbourne was much better. It was pretty cold and windy, it felt nice to get out of the scorching heat :)
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| Leaving behind a stormy Sydney |
After reuniting with the bestie, we went out for dinner to a local Malaysian restaurant close to our home.
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| Sweet and sour prawns with rice |
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| Nasi Lemak |
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| Pineapple fried rice and seafood stir-fry |
I had one whole day to myself before the conference began on Wednesday, and we wanted to make the most out of this.
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| Oh, hello there, new friend! We had breakfast at Myuna Farm which was a few mins from our house. I loved their veggie focacia.
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| Brekkie at Myuna Farm |
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| Veggie focacia ($9) |
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| Sweet treats at Myuna Farm |
Next stop was archery, my bestie has been an archer for sometime now, and we have been wanting to go for a long time. But majority of the archery clubs don’t offer try outs. I loved my first experience of archery, it was initially challenging to get my arrow to go in the right direction. It did not look like a much of a physically demanding sport to me, but it does get quite exhausting after sometime.
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| Archery time :) |
We had lunch at Dosa Bite, it was nice to try proper dosa for the first time but did not like it that much.
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| Dosa Bite |
Last stop for the night was go karting. It was a thrilling experience! Initially, I did not like it because I’m not really into speeding or car racing of any sort. But part of the reason was the freezing wind, my fingers were freezing! The second ride however, was much more enjoyable. Perhaps, I had gotten used to the wind by now and had a better control of what I was doing.
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| Go Karting in Dandenong |
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| Always there to greet us at night |
The next day was conference day. I was living near Dandenong so it was a long commute from home. I caught a bus, train and tram to get to the conference at Albert Park. Last time, I was reluctant to catch the public transport alone, but this time, I felt more comfortable travelling on my own.
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| First day of conference, with a rainbow! |
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| View from the conference hotel |
This conference was quite different to the last one. It was a much bigger conference. There were people from all over the world (every continent except Antartica). They were from a range of professions, including psychologists, medical doctors and nurses. The presentation topics were very broad so it was often difficult to find a session that was fully relevant.
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| Albert Park and Lake |
During my lunch break, I went out to explore Albert Park and Lake which was just across the road.
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| Albert Park |
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| Albert Park and Lake |
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My bestie and I stayed home that night and cooked together for the first time!
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| Grilled salmon and egg salad + ricotta and spinach agnolotti with creamy mushroom sauce |
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| “Can you stop taking photos of me and give me food?” |
Melbourne showed its true form the next day, it was pouring in the morning. We went for dinner after the conference in St Kilda, and was very close to getting drenched!
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| Calamari salad at Bistro Bakini |
On Friday, we went to Dex2rose and did some late night shopping.
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| Dex2rose at Little Bourke Street |
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| Salted caramel and mango sorbet |
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| Obligatory cone shot |
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| Charcoal Chocolate Chip Belgian Wafflles ($17.95) |
We ordered a Belgian waffle and an ice cream. Sad to say, we were very disapointed with the waffle. I had not seen a waffle before that looked so dark. I was wondering why it looked like a ‘tyre’, the flavour of the waffle just wasn’t right. The matcha brought further disappointment because it tasted worse once the matcha was poured. I had seen a lot of matcha being used on Instagram so I was curious to try it. The rainbow meringues were done well. The only thing that made this dish somewhat okay were the ice cream, but there wasn’t enough of it. So we ended up wasting most of the waffle. The waffle was a huge letdown because we travelled for a long time to get there and faced city traffic.
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| Little Bourke Street |
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| Tasmanian salmon + brown rice + Greek salad (~$18) |
Saturday was the last day of the conference and headed home back to Sydney after that.
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| Goodbye furry friend! |
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| En route to airport |
Highlights
1) Although we planned a lot of outdoor plans for us to do, my favourite moments were made in the home. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my bestie rambling about anything and everything!
2) Motivational interviewing workshop at the conference- it made me realise the importance on the collaboration between a patient and counsellor.
3) Salmon and brown rice at Costi’s- this was definitely my kind of takeaway I could eat everyday. It was my bestie’s favourite too, so we ended up eating it twice!
Trip summary
Food
- Local Malaysian Restaurant near Doveton
- Vietnamese Restaurant in Springvale
- Myuna Farm, Doveton
- Dosa Bite, Point Cook
- Dex2rose, Little Bourke St, CBD
- Steve Costi’s Famous Fish, Fountain Gate
- Bistro Bakini, Mantra, St Kilda
Other places
- Pullman Melbourne Albert Park
- Albert Park and Lake, St Kilda
- Le Mans Go Karts, Dandeong South
- Liverpool City Archers, Moorebank
- Westfield Fountain Gate
