Went to Adelaide for an entire week for the annual OCF Convention. This year’s venue was hosted by South Australia, and I stayed on after the 5-night, 4-day camp for AGM, which was another two extra days. Even if I wasn’t on the general committee, and just an observer, it was really an eye-opening experience, just to see the bigger picture that we were all part of. I didn’t take any pictures during the camp itself; most of them are up on FaceBook I think (and oh my goodness, the number of pictures that are up!) I did take a few pictures on Monday, which was the day after AGM ended, when we had a bit of time to sort of explore Adelaide.
Ohhh, the really awesome night sky on the 1st December, the night before I flew off to Adelaide 
Smiling Sky
The sky bestows its blessing upon humanity 
It really feels like it’s smiling at you! It’s really quite a rare event – the star on the left is Venus, I think, and the one on the right is Jupiter (someone correct me if I’m wrong), and this is one of the few times that they come together this close.
Adelaide!
Sunny day in Adelaide
Andrea, Jerica and I bunked at Debra and Sarah’s place for one night (Jerica’s staying for the whole week!) and we went for a lovely breakfast in the morning at Citrus, which was featured on the Breakfast Blog.
The huge “pancake” Yon ordered, which had caramelized banana and other stuff.
PanCAKE
My corn fritter thing. I personally prefer the one at Mart 130, a breakfast place in South Melbourne.
Corn fritter with bacon and mushrooms and slow roasted tomatoes
And Andrea’s poached eggs. I took pictures of their breakfasts as well because they were sitting to my left and right. Haha. I think the others ordered different stuff.
Poached eggs + usual breakfast sides
And a bit more of Adelaide…
Christmas deco in city center
Walking along the streets...
Main shopping area.
It really feels like Perth, except with fewer people, maybe? The city is quite small, and it felt very suburban like (in comparison to Melbourne). It’s a real change from the fast-paced bustling activity of the Melbourne city. What I do like about Adelaide is that the roads are so much wider, and it’s slower and much more relaxed. Very peaceful, and people are friendlier. But I guess that’s always the case when one comes from a big city into a smaller one. Sydney, on the other hand, is much faster than Melbourne, but I have to say that I very much prefer Melbourne.
Anyway, I’m glad to be back in Melbourne. Some people stayed back longer in Adelaide to tour around the few tourist attraction places that’s outside of the city. It’s all very well that I came back when I did – it’s going to be a rather busy week for me as I start packing up to move into my new place next week. Yes, that’s right! We got the apartment on Little Lonsdale!!! Moving out of my current place and moving into the new place together with two new housemates.
Okay, granted it’s not our first choice, but the apartment on Berkeley Street that Dawn, Linda and I really wanted went into a lot of complications, and was eventually taken off the market. (The same thing happened to this other apartment on Bedford Street that we were very keen on as well, with the owner deciding to take it back at the last minute. Grr.) The pictures from the inspection that took place late last month…
Three flights of staircase (!!) to the apartment which is on the top floor.
Living room as viewed from the open kitchen...
The living room from the other end...and yes, the crowd that was there for the inspection!! There's the blue-collared shirted agent.
There were seriously LOTS of people. Linda and I went to view the place; Dawn had something else to do that evening. And all the people that stood around waiting for the agent to come had looks on their faces that I can only label as “desperate”. I think Linda and I had the same looks on our faces. We came prepared with application forms all filled out, to be given to the agent at the first chance we have, and to increase our prospects of getting the place. We weren’t the only ones who did so – a few others came prepared as well. Three-bedroom apartments are not easy to come by, so there were a few familiar faces from previous places that we had viewed.. Hence desperate faces.
Bedroom. All three rooms had built-in wardrobes and were around the same size. This photo does not do justice to the space of the room.
The three flights of staircases elicited a “ohhh noo” response from us, but anyway now that we’re only a contract away from getting the apartment, Linda said that at least “moving all the stuff up the stairs, which is not our problem 
“. Lol. Trueee. Only hope that the movers won’t charge us too much for that!
The bathroom. (There's me in the mirror! )
But frankly, I’m quite relieved. It’s been a real challenge trying to find a 3-bedroom place, especially one that’s within our budget, and in a relatively central position. Little Lonsdale isn’t as close as we hoped for, it’ll probably take me 20 minutes at best to walk to uni. But it’s in the city, so access to shops and supermarkets and stuff is good. Ah well. When the agent called me this morning, asking if I was still interested in the place, I was like, “Yesss, of course!” Wondered if we were first choice applicants, or if others turned it down before he finally contacted me =/ Okay, shall not think that way! The point is, at least we have an accommodation for next year!
That should be enough update. Oh right. For those who are wondering, I’m flying to Singapore on the 29th, staying at Andrea’s place for a few days, just holidaying (shopping!!) and celebrating the transition into 2009 (can you believe it??), before finally heading back to Brunei on the 3rd. And then I’ll be off to KL and Ipoh on the 24th of January for Chinese New Year with the paternal family for a week.
Exam results will be out later this week. Sighh. Not looking forward to it now, which is quite a change of mind from when I finally finished my last exam, in which I was in a “I want my results NOW!” state of mind.
Okay I should stop here before I ramble on. Hopefully I’ll have a more substantial post next time instead of this general sort of updates. Haha.
