je m’appelle christiannn

couple of months back i had to pay for an air new zealand flight from melbourne to christchurch. as i was a bit slow in booking it, the direct flights were fully booked. i had to travel via wellington, with a very tight 45 mins connection. kinda like an amazing race you know. And it got increasingly interesting when boarding at melbourne started late and the non-existent tailwind did no help.

after forking out 400 plus for this flight, i definitely expected a much better meal than what is seen below. i was served a lunch consisting of a brownie and a steak and cheese pie. well it was good but come on, i can get this at 7 eleven for less than 10 bucks. the only plus was flying in their brand new A320s, in which i had a whole row to myself. it was several notches above their B737 i was on from the wellington to christchurch sector.

if you think this was bad. the stewardess on the 2nd flight came around with 1.5l mineral water to serve the passengers. that was the only beverage they served on the flight that was packed to the brim. if they can put more into the overhead compartments im sure they would. I was given a boarding pass that says 1A. And i thought I had been upgraded. damn, it was an all economy configuration. they gave out some shortbread after the water service. so thank you and goodbye air new zealand, hope i don’t have to fly you soon.

steve glasson uses it,
kevin kerkow uses it,
kelsey cottrell uses it,
ken chan uses it,
pat lai uses it,
christian huang uses it too!

i think this is one of the most beautiful cities i have visitied. yes its the most expensive city to live in in US, but come on, this place is unbelievable. i shall do a photo entry on this one.

oakland bridge, the bridge i crossed coming from oakland airport, view from embarcadero

union square at night, ain’t it beautiful? shot taken few days before xmas

this tastes better than the one in hong kong, found right in the heart of chinatown SFO, 2nd biggest after New York, US $1.95

downtown union square, taken outside macy’s

fisherman’s wharf, the place where you get your crabs and clam chowders, authentic san francisco

san francisco is built on steep hills, look at the difference in elevation

san francisco’s most famous cable cars, boarding at powell street to fisherman’s wharf

the lobby of my hotel, my mum kept bugging the macanese concierge to sieve out the good and bad of san francisco

the famous gap store at market street, its huge! and tees were as cheap as $5!

there was this singaporean who opened a restaurant at the highest level of Bloomingdale’s shopping centre known as STRAITS, introducing Singaporean food such as Mee Goreng, Fried Kway Teow, Nasi Lemak. It was freaking crowded, and his mee goreng was going at US$18! He is probably filthy rich now. And at the food court level which I ate at, people were queuing for Beard Papa, this one they are slower than us.

One more picture of SFO, this stretch you can find the famous brands such as Burberry, Zara, Bally, Bvlgari etc. At the start of this street is where the famous 5 storeys high Levis Store where I got a pair of jeans for US$28.

Well I have tonnes of pictures from Melbourne and Christchurch as well. But wordpress is running out of space for me to upload pictures. Melbourne was great despite the 40 plus temperature, I watched my first live tennis match, where Federer, Roddick, Haas were all playing. Whats most important was I got to watch the cricket match between England and Australia at the MCG. I was seated at the VIP gallery, where you had to wear a suit and tie to enter. The atmosphere was scintillating, the crowd that day, 78,000. Here are some pictures of it.

i must say i knew nuts about cricket, but philo was there to tell me everything. And after that I understand everything about cricket. Midway through there was a streaker, who ran onto the pitch chasing away birds, needless to say he was captured by security who ran in from all sides of the pitch.

nalbandian serving against safin at the Kooyong Classic, the warm up tournament before Australian Open. I took the train there, passing by Rod Laver Arena and Vodafone Arena. Weather on that day was horrid, I was totally burnt!

one more picture from melbourne. this one i particularly like, right in front of the famous Flinders Street Railway Station. I stayed just opposite this station at the Hotel Rendezvous Melbourne.

I visited the Crown very often in Melbourne but I thoroughly enjoyed this trip. You know, going overseas without parents can be very rewarding. You get to travel on your own and be independent, and it helps you a lot.