Drive out with the sun in your eyes
You wasted my time
It's true, it's true

My god, don't you hold out your hand
I called off my plans
I counted on you, on you

And if you're ever left with any doubt
What you live with and what you'll do without
I'm only sorry that it took so long to figure out

- "Evening Kitchen" by Band of Horses

I am trying to stand on solid ground, but the sand keeps slipping under my feet. No one's playing the blame game, but I'm clutching at straws again.

A home filled with your possessions and mine, except like a pair of shoes yet broken into, I am reminded it no longer means anything. Bare walls, unread books, half-emptied wardrobes, boxes and suitcases.

This just means I am the one leaving, for good. 

- An excerpt from "Jasper Jones" by Craig Silvey

I wasn't expecting to, but I truly, madly, deeply fall in love with Sydney.

The entire CBD is built around water and absolutely breathtaking. I literally gasped when I saw the Sydney Opera House. Photos don't do it any justice, because you just have to be there to experience it for yourself.

Locky joked that I might discover that I have been living in the wrong city all this while, and I must admit harbouring very adulterous thoughts during my 4-day getaway. 

But Melbourne is my home, at least for now. ;) And I am more than happy to be back, because I have an exciting new beginning to look forward to. But more on that later!

Strange but true- I simply woke up one morning and realized I couldn't play Sudoku anymore. I tried samurai sudoku, failed. Then the novice one in The Age, failed. And then the one on E's iPhone, failed. My sudoku mojo had surreptitiously abandoned me, and the numbers that used to make perfect sense and logic to me swirled around in my brain and went poof in a cloud of pink.

It must have been some kind of cosmic foreboding, because everything started going wrong after that.

I don't want to do go into details, nor do I wish to dwell on the negative. Life is all about learning your lessons and moving forward.

I was drowning in paperwork, trying to cut through red tape at every turn. Fingerprint impressions, police checks from three countries, teaching registration, online portfolio, statutory declarations, official documents, and endless phone calls and e-mails. So much for being done with my practicum because the real crunch begins now.

But I think I am in a good place now. I got a part-time job teaching high school maths and science back at the school I taught at over the summer, E and I are making plans for the near future and we are finally going to Sydney! Time to find out if I have been living in the wrong city all these while (according to Locky ;)).

I hope everyone is well. Us and our cameras and our wanderlust and random encounters and late nights in a strange city, I can hardly wait! :)

It's sincere and subjective all over the world
Superficial and true all over the world
Easy and predictable all over the world
Exciting and new to say  I want you
- "All over the world " by The Pet Shop Boys

"Time expands and contracts. When it expands, it's like pitch: it folds people in its arms and holds them forever in its embrace. It doesn't let us go very easily. Sometimes you go back to the place you've just come from, stop and close your eyes, and realize that not a second has passed, and time just leaves you there, stranded, in the darkness."

- An excerpt from Hardboiled by Banana Yoshimoto

The Grampians is made up of stunning sandstone mountain ranges and located about 235 km west of Melbourne. Declared a National Park in 1984, it is a popular getaway for couples, friends, families and visitors to Melbourne.

We arrived on Easter Sunday afternoon without any bookings and were once again very lucky to secure a camping site via the Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre. We only had to register with the staff and paid $15 (if I remember correctly) admin fee for a permit to camp at any of their 11 sites.

I wanted somewhere with shower facilities, so we drove about 30 minutes northwards to the Smith Mill camping ground near Lake Wartook. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the "bush shower" mentioned in the map referred to a bucket on a string. Thank God we were only staying for the night so I  decided to rough it out and skipped my shower.

We visited Lake Wartook and The Balconies and made it to the top of Mount William, the highest peak in the Grampians. We also played Good Samaritan to a young couple who was stranded along the way when their car broke down and I found out in the car that the girl was actually German and had lived in Singapore for 7 years! Talk about random coincidences.

Because I couldn't take a shower and had unwisely packed only knits (assuming that it would be freezing cold), I looked really daggy wearing E's tee shirts that were two sizes too big on me and gross unwashed hair. Charming, I know, and I have the pictures to prove it.


Still, I can't wait to go camping again!

You can view the slideshow of all our photos from The Grampians here!

Before I came to Australia, I imagined it as the Great Outback, with kangaroos aplenty hopping into the sunset. And surfers at the beach going "So where the bloody hell are ya?" or people greeting you "G'day mate!" as you walk past them on the street. 

Of course as I slowly adapt to the Aussie way of life (I feel flattered when people assume that I've been here longer than my 10 months), I've found a lot of the stereotypes to be untrue. I haven't heard anyone use the word "bloody" but I've heard and uttered many "Hey how's it going?"s.

But what really struck me the most is just how massive Australia is- it's about the size of China (or half the size of Russia) and I remember one weekend when E and I drove about 1000 km down the Great Ocean Road to Warrnambool and back, feeling like we've gone to the end of the world but realizing that we've barely moved on the map at all!

Because of the geography and history of the continent, it is also a megadiverse country, containing the majority of the world's species. This is a far cry from the concrete jungle I grew up in, and I love walking down the streets here and admiring the diversity of trees and foliage around me.

I am also endlessly fascinated by the native animals here, some of whom I have never ever heard of until I stepped foot in Australia! We all know the kookaburra, the kangaroo, the platypus, the koala and the wombat, but do you know about the echidna, the lyrebird, the quokka or the dingo?

Our first stop in Ballarat had to to be the Ballarat Wildlife Sanctuary Park because I saw pictures of visitors interacting with the kangaroos on the website and I decided that I had to play tourist at last once.

E and I needed to get away, just the two of us.

Over the long Easter weekend, we decided to pack our bags to go camping. It was so last minute that we didn't plan where we were going to stay or how long we were going to be gone for. I suggested Ballarat for Sovereign Hill and the Wildlife Sanctuary Park, and he wanted to go further to the Grampians.

So we got in the car and onto the Western freeway and drove for about an hour and a half before we got to our first stop.

There is something very liberating about leaving behind the city and driving through the country, where all you can see are fields of green and wide open skies, towering wind generators in the distant hills and the occasional house along the road.

It felt like we could drive on forever.

We were blessed with gorgeous weather and friendly folks and most importantly, each other's company.

In 4 days we must have driven at least 750 km. We fell in love with the kangaroos and echidnas at the Wildlife Sanctuary Park, caught "The Blind Side", spent a whole day at Sovereign Hill, checked out a newly-opened live jazz bar, ate a lot of meat pies, visited the J-Ward Gaol (for the criminally insane) in Ararat, visited the Grampians National Park and climbed to the top of Mount William.

And there is nothing like setting up our tiny tent under the night skies, snuggled together in our sleeping bag.

I was very reluctant to return to reality and face my assignment deadlines, and I think I speak for us both.

Change your heart, look around you
Change your heart, it will astound you
I need your loving like the sunshine
Everyone's gotta learn sometime

On days when your world's spinning out of control and the things you cannot articulate hover above you like a dark, dark cloud and your heart feels like it's about to burst, you stop.

You stop and breathe. Deep.

So give me a word to hold on to. A word that will give me courage and hope, a word that will put everything into perspective.

One step at a time. Everything is going to be okay. 

The southernmost city in the world.

Chang: In January 1997 I finally arrive at the end of the world. This is the southernmost lighthouse in South America. Beyond this is the South Pole.

Suddenly I feel like going home. Even though home is far away, at that moment it feels very close.

I promised Fai to leave his sadness here. I don't know what he said that night. Maybe the recorder broke. I couldn't hear anything on the tape. Just some strange noises, like someone sobbing.

Fai: Before I leave Argentina, I decided to try to see the falls again. 

I lose my way and wander around for a while, but I finally reach Iguazu. I feel very sad. I feel like there should be two of us standing here.

There are movies that just get to you.

It is Saturday night and I am home alone in my pajamas, being extremely boring and marking my students' homework. E has been working all day on his uni assignments and I know better than to impose my presence on him.

At about 9, I get a text message from E asking me what I am up to, and if I am free to chat in a few minutes. I am immediately disappointed, because a silly part of me is hoping he would surprise me by turning up at my door, but I know he has deadlines to meet and live 45 minutes away.

The next thing I know I get another text that says "Come to the door".

I run to the door and squeal with my excitement, throw myself at E and refuse to let go, and he laughs at my reaction.

Afterwards, we drive to the viewing ground in Tullamarine to watch airplanes. Two of them roar and fly right over our heads to unknown destinations, and we recline our car seats and hold hands.