The Trip to Mornington Peninsula

On Saturday, Roger took us on a two hour ride to the Mornington Peninsula. This was by far the ultimatum, the toppest of the top, the highlight of our holiday in Melbourne. And it's only day 3.

You see, Melbourne is located inside a bay, which is surrounded by two peninsulas. Mornington is one of them.

Mornington's geographical nature with the rolling hills & the sea somehow made it into a place full of vineyards, wine tasting stations & excellent fine dining restaurants. The place is literally packed with wine lovers (or sometimes refered to as high class Ribena addicts). But as Mornington tends to have lower temperature and hence, grapes that grow well are generally white and those for pinot noir.

We did not exactly plan which vineyard we were heading to but we've heard that the good one to look out for was the award winning Red Hill. So we landed at Red Hill Estate.

No sign of red, but this was Red Hill Estate located at Red Hill.

But since we didn't make a booking, the place was packed like a a high class sardine can & we had to go somewhere else. Fortunately for us, there were plenty other vineyards around.

Aparrently the restaurant had to close off to get ready for a wedding. Imagine that! Vineyard wedding! NEE: Can we get married all over again?

So ignoring what Nee just said, we moved on to Montalto was located just a little further down the road.
This was obviously another award winning place, which seemed to be the norm for the restaurants around here.

Award winning sculpture, probably.

Award winning steps.

Unfortunately for us again, this place was also full, at least on the inside.

We were told that it'd take at least 30 minutes wait, which we knew by then we would have died from starvation. So that wasn't an option for us.


The food served outside were the lighter bready & salady kind. But we wanted heavy solid stuff. I mean we didn't fly all the way from a little town called Kuching for salad & bread.

But the view was breathtakingly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It felt very European-Tuscany.

I'm not a person who can really appreciate wine, but this I can appreciate. I like.

I felt like I wanted to throw my body onto the ground & roll down the hill. And while I was busy contemplating things of the lower-brow nature, Nee was busy wine tasting.

Nee & Roger tried their award winning 2007 Pennon Hill. Gorgeous for one so young. Bouquet was just beautiful with a good body. They had a good selection of olive oil too.

Nee with her very eligible come-get-me bachelor brother Roger Ting.

I don't know who's idea this was, but these artistic sculptures created a very surreal feeling.

It felt very alien, like higher beings actually came down once upon a time & introduced wine to us lowly humans.

I'm sorry to say this but this one particularly reminded me of constipation.

Nee bought these two bottles. Again, I'm sure the Royal Malaysian Customs will happily welcome us home with open arms.

Melbourne Culture on Bourke Street

Melbourne has always been known as one of the best cities to live in. With a population of about 3.8 million, it is a melting pot of diversity, a meeting of different cultures, art & most importantly, to the readers of this blog, food. :)

And one of the busiest streets that you can find, & should go to when you're in Melbourne, would have to be Bourke Street. For the shopping-mad tai-tais, this is the epicenter of their universe.

If you are a pure-blooded tai-tai, it will rock your world.

Nee was rocking. She practically bought the whole Satch clothing line.

And she also bought several culinary weapons at Myers I think and it is only Day2.

I think the Royal Malaysian Customs Department would be very happy to receive us when we come home. The whole place is now decorated in anticipation for the big holiday rush.

These are the trams that run right through the middle of the road, even when people are still walking.
I guess they're just too slow to be able to inflict any injuries to any unsuspecting tai-tais, who would be immortal at a time like this anyway.

This is the place to hang out, with a warm cup of coffee in your hands, let lose, & watch the world go by.

The one thing that I enjoyed the most here were the street performers. This particular one was a wierd mix of all the wrong things in the wrong place.

He's a pure-born & bred Japanese who speaks English with a Japanese twang, sings American blues like an American, in Melbourne. He was singing in 2006 the last time we were here. Now he's also performing in the local bars & pubs & he's also selling his professionally recorded CD album for AUD20.

Very talented, he sings, plays the slide guitar & the harmonica & the bass drum, all at the same time. I gave him a dollar so that it'd make me feel better about taking his picture.

Day 2: The Myers Window Show on Bourke Street

One of the things that we really look forward to each time we come to Melbourne would be the Christmas window displays at the Myers Departmental Store on Bourke Street, the Epicentre of All Shopping in Melbourne. By the way, Myers is now under renovation especially at the Bourke St section, so don't be surprised if certain departments have shrunk.

These displays were not some cheapo styrofoam ones with glitter & shiny paper.

What we're talking about here is the kind of level that you can find in Disneyland, with animated lights & moving parts. It's the state of the art meets technology.

This is the kind of display that really draws you into their world, that makes you really believe that they exist for that moment.

If you show this to the tribes in South America, they'll probably think that they're real & use their blowpipes on Santa & the elves.

These window display shows are usually adapted from books for children.

Two years ago when were here at about the same time, they had one about a wombat who was too fat to be in a Christmas play, and he determinently tried every role and he ended being baby Jesus.

This year, it's about how Santa Really Works. At first I thought OMG someone was actually trying to reveal the non-existence of Santa Clause to Australian kids, that how the whole Santa myth really works was that they actually got their presents from their parents!

But fortunately it wasn't like that at all. The author was just another one of them writers trying to pull another fast one on the Australian kids.

So rest assured, the Australian children's innocence & wild imagination is still safe & protected.