To be extremely honest, I’ve never seen/taste/smell/ate Vegemite in my entire life.

Until I came to Australia.

Bardha, Cleefy and I in the kitchen on the night of the challenge

This is how it all began.

One fine day, Konzy and Cleefy decided to ask me a million dollar question.

“Have you tried Vegemite before?”

My answer was an obvious “no”.

However, I’ve heard some pretty horrid stuff about it; that it tasted vile, disgusting and nasty on your tastebuds. Then again, Cleefy insisted I had some, regardless of what I’ve heard.

Allow me to quote him “you haven’t experienced Australia if you leave without Vegemite”.

Looks like a creepy Vegemite ad, no? 😛

He proposed I eat it in front of the camera so that I could always remember the “Australian goodness of Vegemite”. Fair enough. So I decided to take up the challenge of the infamous yucky Vegemite.

Let the camera roll!

One night before we headed out clubbing, Cleefy brought me a jar of Vegemite

& had it wrapped in a cute blue ribbon too! 

I was extremely hesitant after unwrapping it but my mates were pretty persistent.

Fine fine fine. I’ll do it! 

Here’s the short video I made. Enjoy it!

Hahaha. Hope you liked it! So there, my 1st moments with Vegemite, added with laughter, nasty facial contortions and friendship encapsulated in a 6 minute video 🙂

Now, everytime I think of Australia or crave for Vegemite, this video will do the trick!

Ahoy mateys! Arrrr. Vegemite has arrived.

How am I ever gonna forget that?

The next time ANY of you come to Malaysia, I’ll do the exact same thing for yall – not with Vegemite, but with Durians instead. *evil laughter*

Thank you Cleefy bear!

Now that I’ve finished blogging this entire post and editing the VLOG, I’m totally up for some. Only thing that’s stopping me is…. I can’t seem to find my Vegemite.

Who has stolen my jar from me!?  Identify yourself!!

I've always liked the sea/seaside/beach concept of things.

Complemented with awesome music, bass, drinks & crowd, you can never go wrong; which is why I was convinced that Alumbra was my favorite club in Melbourne!

I swear I don't remember painting my nails pink? 

Alumbra's tagline is Music, Life, Culture.

It was pretty apt for a club of its kind, as you will see soon enough.

Located along a harbour, it's no wonder you can see heaps of boats, ships and yachts around

The canopy walkway before we arrived the entrance

Good for rainy days

Okay, so what's with the culture part of the tagline?

I was shocked upon seeing this MASSIVE BUDDHA HEAD inside by the bar

WOW.

Although I doubt this club as anything to do with or affiliated with Buddhism, the concept just blew my mind.

Apart from the bar, there were more statues and heads of Buddha at the main dance floor too.

But it's fairly awkward, no? It's like, the Buddhists would probably think "oh no, Buddha is watching me drink"

Likewise, I'd feel uncomfy if a statue of Jesus was watching me drink and party away.

Get ready for some shots!

There was just an amazing variety of drinks to choose from!

Tim was awesome enough to bring me here!

Thanks heaps 😀

Met some really cool people too. Culture fusion indeed!

Italian guy on my right, Japanese guy on my left. 

Thank you for the fabulous evening, Tim! 

I enjoyed myself.

If you guys happen to be in Melbourne, do remember to make a stop at Alumbra.

You won't miss it! It's by the pier, just follow the sea and it'll lead you here 😀

G'dday 😀

Just so you know, I've not been killed in a bushfire or died of culture shock in Australia 😛

I've actually had so much fun for the past few days and I'm glad I've been adapting well, fit just like a shoe!
 

Ever since I stepped foot on Ozzieland, so much has been happening!

There were so many places to go, so many awesome people I've met, so many pictures I've taken, so many videos I've shot, so many things I've done, so many stuff I've bought 😀

So don't worry! I've got so much things to tell you about and to share with you dear readers 😀 😀
 

It's been a crazy ride so far and have I mentioned how freakin' cold it is? Yeah, it went down to 10 degrees celcius one night.

Tomorrow's the first day of orientation in Monash University, Clayton and I've gotta be up by 7am (4am | Malaysian time) and out the door by 8am… that's insane! LOL All because I wanted to take a morning walk and hop on a tram & Metro buses to get to the campus instead of having someone pick me up.

Silly I know, but ohwells… all for the experience!

I'll promise to update with more stuff tomorrow, aight? But if you wanna stay updated on lotsa pictures, exciting stuff I've done and places I've been so far, it's all up on my Twitter timeline!
 

See you there and goodnight peeps

P/S : I'm still not used to the time difference yet! 🙁 Been sleeping so late Australian time and waking up so early. I gotta get my biological clock going well before it messes up even more
 

Okay so who would've thought I'd succumb to the Jap pop culture.

I'm not referring (how about never?) to the likes of ganguro or lolita, but mild influence that appealed to the kittycat streak in me.

I don't know if this is a guy or a girl. Looks pretty androgynous to me.

Not a single clue where/what anime he's from too

But what hit me was the black cat and his black cat ears.

Long time readers of this blog will jolly well know my penchant to cats

Googling around, I found another one.

Now this one's a cutie. Except that she has pink hair and I have it red.

So just the other day, when I was sent to cover a story in Berjaya Times Square hotel for Comic Fiesta 2010, I was honestly not looking forward to it at all. Come on, Japanese culture? I never really found my affinity in that.

If it's any info, I'm a total zero in Anime, Manga, J-Pop and the like.

But a job is a job, and duty calls So I made my way there one early Saturday morning.

And there I saw people in out-of-this-world hair colors, all extravagantly dressed

Alright. I was in the right place.

Fo shizzle! 😉

Some piccies for your viewing pleasure 😀 😀

One could always use a helping hand in dolling up for a cosplay competition

Characters from Marvel's Batman on stage for a fan performance

Harlequin and the Joker!

Gawdknowswhat anime characters engaging in a swordfight

Gawdknowswho from which anime singing a themesong

Oooh art competition! This guy has so much creative juices, he drew the whole thing!

(Except the NIPS word, which was there by default)

I saw so many people portraying their favorite anime and manga characters… of which I haven't got the slightest idea of who they came dressed up as. For a moment there, I swear I felt as though I've entered a Greek symposium, and all I see are a bunch of Alpha Beta jargon αβγδεζηθ

Who? Where? But pretty awesome porcelain skin you got there, dude 😀

Are you about to wage a paintball fight in the ballroom?

If my instincts don't fail me, I'll take a lucky guess that these characters are from Naruto

Little Red Asian Riding Hood?

I reckon she's probably dressed up as some goddess with supernatural powers

FINALLY something I recognize!

Who wouldn't know the all time favorite Super Mario Bros. ?? 😀 😀

It's a timeless video game. If you don't know, you probably must've had a sad childhood or have been living under a rock, devoid of entertainment. Okay, so I shouldn't have said that. But I just did. hah.

Because coming from me, you may not want to take what I've just mentioned seriously. Yours truly here does not play any video/virtual/online games of any sort. Sad excuse, but I hardly ever have the time. Heck, I don't even know what games are built-in my Blackberry!

Super Mario and Luigi 😀

So anyway, that Saturday morning was something new. Instead of spending the sunny mornings of weekends sleeping till lunchtime, I actually witnessed a very strange yet interesting culture to me. 😀

And also…. hate to say this but…. I succumbed a little to it too.

And I did.

Don't fall off your chair laughing but I honestly didn't know what got into me when I bought this.

You've already saw it in the 1st picture but I repeat.

DO

NOT

LAUGH

Odd, i know.I was wearing this in the car while driving home

But in all honesty, where on earth can you go out decked in those pair of ears without attracting rude stares and whispers?

Only 3 places. Costume parties, roleplay sessions or in your car. Heh.

Clearly, I chose the third option.

If you ask me, I still haven't got around the idea of having 2 fluffy ears sprouting out from the top of my head just yet.

But I still find them pretty damn cute. Looks like it has become a new addition to my costume drawer

Signing off,

TheJessiCAT, in capitals, just for today 😛

 
The 1st thing that greeted me upon entering the premises of so much merrymaking was 2 lovely "German" ladies in Oktoberfest traditional outfits! For those who didn't know, Oktoberfest is one of the most famous events celebrated in Germany, and the world's largest fair 😀 😀
 

Thanks Serge, for sending me all my pics! My camera got busted that night

Somehow, the entire event was themed in blue, luckily I wore a dark turqoise-greenish top
 

Considered, pass lah! 😛  haha
 

Courtesy of G.A.B, I was given lots and lots of drink vouchers to redeem that night. I walked slightly further in and saw the wide array of beers to choose from. 
 

They were Guinness, Tiger, Heineken, Kilkenny, Paulaner and Strongbow!
 

 Obviously not able to finish all of the vouchers all by tonight, I shared my beer coupons to the other gleeful alcoholics – much to their surprise! 😀

Having my ice-cold Kilkenny draft

One of my all-time fave beers!
 

I didn't know exactly why they were so surprised though?

It's always double the fun to share the love ain't it! Hehe
 

Sip sip fellas! 😀
 

I loved the whole atmosphere there! Was practically enthused over all the mingling and exciting activities happening all around me.
 

There was a Yodelling competition, which was hilarious!

And other traditional games played during Oktoberfest in Bavaria, Munich such as Pretzel Toss, Beer Barrel Roll, Beer Stein Dance and the Chicken Dance! 😀 Haha! I tried the Pretzel Toss… didn't know it'll be so difficult tossing a piece of hardened pastry!
 

Getting my Oktoberfest spray-on tattoo!
 

The moment I saw the Tattoo booth I knew affirmatively that I had to get one 😀 Yep, if you've been reading my blog long enough, you'd know that imma huge fan of body art and tattoos.

Was done in a jiffy! It took approximately under 1 minute, for the dude to spray the ink onto my stenciled skin.
 

Now, if only real tattoos were this fast, I wouldn't have endured hours and hours grimacing in pain three times!

Me and a good friend of mine, Haze showing off our new tattoos! 😀
 

Erin, we miss youuuuu! Trio hangout soon kays!?
 

Apart from the tattoo booth, there was also the Caricature booth. Geez, getting caricatures done in malls can cost a bomb! 🙁 Glad there was a booth here, all hand drawn for you for free! 😀 Yippee!
 

I had to wait for my turn, which also took a very short time!

Adjusting my hair before he began to sketch me
 

Hey, have to, right!? 😀 If not, I'd have an ugly picture drawn of me with permanent ugly hair
 

The funny thing was, I kept grinning from ear to ear throughout the entire process…..

Quarter way through!

Holding my grin while watching his artistically deft fingers work some magic!

Oh and randomly, he was using the same calligraphy pen I have 😀
 

Still grinning!
 

However, he only caught sight of me smiling with my mouth closed.

Of ALL the times I grinned like a baboon, he drew me with my mouth shut!

Same onot? I personally don't think it looks like me lor!
 

I think he's too kind, he drew me after plastic surgery or something hahaaha

AND WHAT'S WITH THE TWO-FINGERED LALA PEACE SIGN OMG SOMEONE KEEEEL ME NOW

i NEVER do that!!! T___T
 

But after much whining to yall, I still love it all the same hehe! It's blu-tacked to my memory wall now 🙂
 

The whole lot of us were enjoying the bustling busy atmosphere, watching professionals juggle beer bottles, bands playing German traditional songs on trombones, clarinets, trumpets and drums. I recognized 'The More We Get Together'!
 

Celebrations like these really do bring people together
 

Cheers folks! 😀
 

Remember I shared my coupons with some friends earlier? The saddest part was I didn't have enough coupons left to redeem my Paulaner! *cries* I was quite helpless, staring at the Paulaner draft being poured again and again to many fellow Paulaner fans… and guess what!?
 

Someone was kind enough to offer some love too! What comes around, goes around, eh? 😀
 

ALL IN THE SPIRIT OF OKTOBERFEST

& THE LOVE FOR BEER!

Yummyy German Würstl! (Sausages)
 

Thanks G.A.B for an amayyyyzeeeeng celebration at Sid's Pub 😀 *thumbs up*
 

Enjoyed myself thoroughly!
 

And yeah yeah yeah, I know I've turned slightly crimson red already pfftt.