Friends in Canberra
One of the reasons why my winter break has been so fun was because college friends came a-visiting! The only disadvantage was that they didn’t all come at the same time hence i ended up visiting the same place thrice in a space of 2 weeks…i must be one of the National Museum’s most ardent fans along with Su Yin by now…we’ve been there 4 times already =p
Let’s see..first were the people from Melbourne - Lin Sin, Chen Quan and their housemate (from Sunway), Sue Lyn. They arrived in Canberra on 29th June from Sydney where they had been having a holiday for a few days and stayed till 2nd July - when we Canberrans were already in Melbourne! Well, a bit of simple logistics solved that problem 
Canberra being the quiet place it is at night, naturally the only place we could go on their first night here was Mooseheads. Cheap drinks and lotsa shouting amongst the loud music - quite fun. Then on 30th June we headed to the National Museum and New Parliament House. Had quite an embarrassing moment at the Parliament - i had to pass the security metal detectors FOUR times! All because of the Eclipse mint container I had in my jacket =S At night we headed to the casino. Didn’t gamble; just stood around watching. The whole daytime of 1st of July was spent shopping in Belconnen and Canberra Centre. Blame it on the lack of buses to certain places on weekends, sighs. Anyway what we lacked in places to go, we certainly made up with lots of fun and laughter as only friends on a holiday can have 
Jessica and her friend Ernest who are both studying in University of Queensland (in Brisbane) arrived from Sydney on 8th July. They stayed till 19th July - ELEVEN days in total! I don’t know how but we actually managed to bring them to different places for the whole of the eleven days. Along the way I discovered that there are actually quite many places to visit in Canberra…a nice surprise indeed. To sum the eleven days, here’s where we went: National Museum (twice), New Parliament House, Old Parliament House, War Memorial, Questacon, Royal Australian Mint, Telstra Tower, Botanical Gardens, Lake Burley Griffin, National Capital Exhibition, National Carillon, Commonwealth Park, Woden, and Deakin. I’m not sure if I’ve left out any though..didn’t go to some of them due to tiredness or simply because I’ve been there before e.g. Questacon (10.50 per entry!).
Anyway both stints as a "Canberra Tour Guide" have been really fun and it’s just great getting together with your college mates once more even if it’s only for a few days. The Sydney people are coming in September coinciding with the Floriade festival so it’s more fun in a few weeks’ time! I’ll sign off with some pics…
Left to Right: Su Yin, Lin Sin, myself, Sue Lyn, Chen Quan, Yuet Ling, Wan Phei. Holding camera- Jason. (At New Parliament House)
Left to Right: Jessica, Jason, Ernest, Su Yin, Myself. (At War Memorial)
July 21st, 2007 at 6:17 am
Wow…4 times..admirable =p
wah..fair and square ah you..one picture of lin sin’s visit and one more for jessica’s =)
Can’t wait for my friends to come in Spring. My turn to catch up then.