Picnic at Hanging Rock

On one of the weekends, we took a day trip to Hanging Rock National Park, which is just an hours drive from Melbourne. It's near Mt Macedon and the town of the same name. In fact, you'll drive through Mt Macedon to get to Hanging Rock. Alternatively there is a way around it as well.

Entry fee is $10. You enter a large carpark and at the end is a cafe, gift shop and a small museum describing the history of Hanging Rock as well as the story about the missing girls that was popularized by the movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock".

There are several trails but only one that goes up the hill. Its not that high actually, and thus the walk is quite short. Return trip of 1 hour is usually sufficient. The rock was created by volcanic activity long ago and has the appearance of many tall pillars of rock clustered close together.

There is a concrete path that brings you near the summit. Midway the path splits and you have an option to take the rocky steps up. The 2 paths converge anyway, but the rocky path leads you past interesting rock formations including the "Hanging Rock" rock. You would only take the well defined concrete path if you have a wheelchair or pram, or are on your way down and had seen everything already.

At the summit is a nice view of the surrounding plains. Everything is flat except for neighbouring Mt Macedon, which is several km away. We had some tea and nuts at the summit to enjoy and take in the view. It was a bit cold and windy and took shelter behind a rock, but didn't stay long before descending.

At the end of the climb, we retreated to the cafe, which was quite cosy. It was heated with a central fireplace. Had some coffee and scones. Not bad.

Grampians - Dunkeld and Halls Gap

Autumn is here. Weather is getting colder - around 8-18C. Parents were in town and decided to make a trip to Grampians (again). This is probably my fourth time there, but there is always something new there to see.

The Grampians is a mountain range 3.5 hours west of Melbourne. Popular with holiday makers for hiking and rock climbing. Halls Gap is the usual destination and the so-called gateway to the Gramps, but we decided to take the southern route via Dunkeld, spending one night at the Royal Mail Hotel. Stayed at the 2 storey apartment, which was OK. They also have cottages which are 5km away but in a better setting, right in front of Mt Sturgeon. Probably recommend the cottages the next time around.

There are a few walking trails around the small sleepy town. It was very foggy so most of the majestic towering mountains could not be seen (hidden by clouds). Its not that high, probably < 1000m.

Next day we drove up north to Halls Gap and stayed at Grampians Getaway cottages. Shaped like a pyramid, the 2 storey building was quite cosy. Central was the fireplace which kept the place warm, so long as you kept feeding it wood. Wood ran out at around 4am, so it started to get cold around then, but everyone was too sleepy to re-fuel it. It was not so bad as long as you are under the covers. Just outside, there were 20+ kangaroos grazing. They would all jump away in a stampede when approached. Matthew was very amused by them and the other animals on the compound, which was a several hectare farm estate.

We also walked up Mt William (1167m). You can drive up to the carpark and walk the remaining 1.8km (one way). It is a STEEP sealed road all the way to the top. We pushed a pram up, and it was tiring, but achievable. Because of the low-clouds, the view from the summit was absolutely NIL, but we had a good time sipping on tea and eating nuts anyway.

Aussie expressions

For any foreigner in Australia, you will encounter many expressions and words that are uniquely used here or more commonly used here. These could be colloquial or just proper English words that we just don't use (in Singapore). Forget the usually touristy words like 'throw the shrimp on the barbi, mate'; these are the ones that WILL be used in an office:

'Knock knock' - who ever uses 'knock knock' except for "knock knock jokes"? This is used to get the attention of your colleague when go to another cubicle to look for him/her and they are too engrossed in their work to notice you.

Argy bargy - heated discussion, usually over a subject of controversy.

Flesh-out - to put meat on. Means to add substantial content (meat) to existing documents, reports, etc that are still in the 'skeleton' stage.

Flat-out - adjective describing someone fully loaded with work. Imagine someone lying on the floor 'flat out' arms outstretched, due to exhaustion from writing reports. Yeah, you get the idea.

Doco - Document or documentation. Could also refer to documentaries in the context of television.

Matthew's haircut

Matthew's hair is starting to look like a porcupine, so we decided to bring him to the barber.
His hair is a very good example of defying gravity. It just doesn't lie flat on his head, especially the center part. When it was finally his turn on the barber's chair, he started to wail! As if I was sending him to army at the tender young age. Nothing was able to distract his attention from the barber's clipper. After 5 mins of struggle, we knew it was not going to work, so went back

So, I decided to give it a snip, more than a snip actually. I actually had a bit of phobia from the last cut, because it was quite badly done as it was not even at certain parts (it was my first time afterall). However this time, I learnt from the 'Junior League' in Singapore, where they showed children program in front of the kid, while cutting their hair. I brought my laptop into the toilet and played his favourite DVD while I clip away slowly. It was so much better this time. He was 'entertained' and I was much calmer because he wasn't fussing that much.

The only hairstyle I can do is crew cut. So in the end, he looked like a junior recruit ready for BMT! We also saved $11.50 as a result.

First Day of Summer!

Today is the first day of summer. We drove to the bay for a day trip. After an hour drive south down the Mornington Peninsula, Matthew could not take it anymore, so we stopped by Frankston for a pit stop. We went to the nearby pier to take a look. Frankston was the suburb that I stayed at when I was studying at Monash. The pier has changed alot since the last time we went there.

Matthew was like a bird struggling to get out when we reached the beach. He simply LOVES sand. He just ran straight to the beach when we arrived. Lots of powerboats, sails and jetskis in the bay. The Bay is actually quite large and you can't see the opposite shore so it looks more like the sea. Water is very clear and there were a few people in the water. Tempting to go in, but we weren't prepared for water today.


We left for the Red Hill craft market after we convinced Matthew to move on. It was about to close when we reached there, so we will go back there next month. (It only opens on the 1st Saturday of every month).

We headed south further for about 10mins to Arthur Seat. This is a mountain ridge or hill at 300m with a great view of the Bay and Peninsula. Went for a walk around the park. It was quite nice also because it wasn't as crowded as we expected. Lots of BBQ pits and people grilling away. Seems that there were more flies in some areas more than others, and as expected, they would be attracted to cooking. We came across a group of BBQ'ers vigorously defending against flies - 2 x cooks frantically flipping the chickie wings + 3 x fly defenders encircling the pit, with arms waving in a systemic defensive arc-like motion. At least they'll have the appetite to eat when its ready.

After the walk, we headed back to the carpark ate some ice cream to cool us down. It was quite warm, mainly due to the sun, even though the temperature was only 22C. Quite nice actually.

Self soothing

Whenever Matthew hurts himself, he will come running to me and says, "Mummy sayang". I will have to kiss the spot that was hurt to make him feel better. There was this time when we were riding in the car, and he remembered hurting his leg when we went barbeque the other day, and as usual, he asked me to 'sayang' him. However, I was sitting in front and cannot reach him, so I asked him to 'sayang' himself, and guess what, he lifted up his leg and kissed the spot that was hurt!

From then on, he developed his own self soothing technique and if he sees me busy, he will 'help' himself first before running to me. We haven't got a chance to take any picture of him doing that. Watch out for this space and we will upload it whenever we get the chance.

St Kilda beach

Sunny day (20C) at St Kilda Beach. Antarctic winds were quite a chill, and that made it very cold. You'll see Matthew donning his jacket in the last few photos.