The dreaded last day. Yes, all the fun had to end some time.
After a crazy 2am outing (after an all day drive) Friday night, Saturday morning was a real challenge.
What made getting up worse was I had to wake up at 7am to move the car. Why? Because I did not want to pay the silly Aud$24 parking fee at the hotel for 24 hours of overnight parking.
So I parked the car at Elizabeth Street, and walked back to the hotel on Friday night (or Saturday morning, if you are the anal type). I was told that the Australian Parking Aunties would probably swing by at 7.30am onwards, so I had to wake up early to move my car to another legit parking lot. I only needed an hour more (to have our "great" hotel breakfast before checking out, which we had already eaten three times in the first part of our trip) so it was quite easy to find a nearby lot.
We intended to squeeze in another three to four hours of holiday before our 3pm flight on MAS (cheap and good). So after a hectic breakfast, we checked out, and threw our bags into the Magna's cavernous boot (after our 2 pieces of luggage, still have space for a corpse in there, man). And off to Victoria Market we went, to shop for gifts and buy some livestock (ok, maybe not the last bit, but we certainly smelled the fowl smells).
Hardcore travellers that we were, we could not resist squeezing in one more attraction. So we drove to the Melbourne Museum. Again, we wished we had more time, there was just so much to see. The museum is not like ours, which focuses on just history alone. It covered history, culture, and science as well.
We were taken on a tour by Matthew, who showed us and two other gentlemen, the museum's key highlights. The Bugs Alive tour was on when we were there. We visited the Evolution Gallery, and also got to see the Human Body (got photos of naked people on a wall mural at the Mind and Body area, mmmm, breasts...).
We also saw the Bunjilaka gallery area, the Aboriginal Centre at the museum. I enjoyed this section the most. I got a chance to touch a baby python (felt like a handbag that moves). Ginny moved away, totally terrified at the idea that the snake's handler would even think she was interested.
I was totally blown away by the fact that the museum had a living breathing forest built into the musuem itself. Indoor forest, wow. They even release birds into the area. But the birds are kept from flying away by a similar canopy we use at the Bird Park.
There was a section also in tribute to the Pacific islanders living in Melbourne. They featured the art and culture of the Pacific islands of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. I really liked the full-sized Solomon Islands War Canoe, that our guide said can carry 40 men. It certainly looked like a lean, mean, war machine.
We ended our tour in the Australia Gallery. They have the history of Melbourne and Australia shown here. The floor had the streets of Melbourne city mapped out (so you can walk around the gallery area and say you covered Melbourne in 30 seconds). The most famous exhibit here is the Phar Lap display.
Phar Lap was this famous horse that was a real champion who won many races during the 1930s Depression, and brought hope to many Aussies then. I am sure if we had a horse like this now that kept winning at the Turf Club, a lot of Singaporeans will also have hope.
The replica of Phar Lap at the Melbourne Museum used the actual skin of the original horse. If you think that is creepy, they have his heart preserved at the National Musuem of Australia at Canberra. They say that the heart is larger than a normal horse's, so this was a really gifted horse. I got to look at gifted horse in the mouth.
Phar Lap died under mysterious circumstances after his win at the Agua Caliente Handicap, North America's biggest race, in 1932. Some believed he was poisoned by American gangsters.
We drove to the airport in a hurry after our musuem visit, where I had to drop my wife off with the bags so she could check us in, but not before having to deal with a fierce traffic control lady cop ("you need to move your car from the bus lane NOW!"). I told her I had to help my wife get hold of a trolley (it cost a bloody Aud$3 to rent!) but Big Traffic Lady was not sympathetic. Even when I moved my car away from the bus lane, and to a proper stopping area, she followed me and said I have one minute to move from there.
So I ran back to my car, muttering, and tried to return the rental car. In my hurry to get to the airport, I forgot to top up the petrol, so I had to drive out to the nearby petrol kiosk to avoid paying the silly Aud$1.50 per litre charge that the rental company would charge me to top it up for me. Regular prices are about Aud$1.02 per litre. Even at the petrol kiosk, the farce did not end. The pump cut off after about 20 litres, and so I thought it was full. But when I got into the car and started up, it was not entirely full yet. It was premature cut-off. So I had to pump another 10 litres into it.
Ok, I got the car returned with a full tank, happy to avoid the surcharge. Then I remembered I had to pay for the Citylink toll at the machine before I left (because I used a tolled highway to get to the airport) but the touchscreen terminal was not working. Sigh. Fortunately, I could pay online so I could do it when I got home (they give you three days to pay up after you drive through their ERP-like toll system, not like in Singapore, where you pay up on the spot or kena fine).
When I rejoined the wife, she had just reached the counter. And I checked in with her. We grabbed a quick lunch at the food court (I tried the Aud$8 Australian laksa for a lark), until the board flashed Last Call. When we rushed to Customs, the officer asked us for Boarding Passes, and to our horror, we realised that the counter had not given us our Boarding Passes!
A quick dash back to get our passes, and we cleared customs, getting onto our plane on time. It was only then could we breathe easy.
The MAS service was ok, but I think some of the air stewards and stewardesses have to lose the frolicking in the aisles. I didn't really want to watch the flirting and hand-pulling.
We watched Dodgeball, which was funny as heck, then the wife read her book and I played a Nintendo Vegas game. In the process, I got addicted to the Seven Stud Poker part of the game, and played till the stewardess had to make me stow my TV for the landing at KLIA. Then it was another two hour wait before we got on our shuttle flight to Singapore. Ya ya ya, I know. It is a long way to fly, but cheap tickets, what. What else you want?
Mom picked us up at the airport (bless her soul). When we got home past midnight, the kids were already asleep. We looked forward to seeing their smiles when we could surprise them in the morning. It was going to be Isaac's first birthday on Sunday morning too.
Mom said Faith cried and sulked a lot during the time we were away. Poor thing, she could not tell anyone (no speech) she missed us, but Grandpa and Grandma knew. Fourth Aunt (bless her soul too) who stayed over at our place to keep the kids company, said that many nights, Faith would get up, look around and not see us in bed with her, and cry.
It was good to be home. You do not know how much you can miss your kids until you go away from them.
Treo 650 is coming out from PalmOne. About bloody time. Removable battery, 23mb RAM, faster chip, 320 by 320 resolution and Bluetooth. But still have that silly stubby antenna. So 20th century, man.
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