Happy belated Chinese New Year! I know you all have been waited with baited breath on what THE PLAN was all about... kekeke... Well, without further ado, here is how my life took an about turn -- to happpiness.
On the morning of my second day in Melbourne, I got something to accomplish -- THE PLAN. I know it's not gonna be easy, but hey, someone's gonna do it, why not me!? Earlier on, she mentioned that she likes Haigh's Chocolates (known to be the best in town!), just at the entrance of my hotel. I dunno why my tourgroup was stalling that morning, so I quickly walk in to the store, and STUNNED. What does she like huh? She didn't say!! *big DUH moment* So I just tried my luck and bought 2 kinds of Chocolates, hopefully she'll like it...
After that, I carried on planning my big night, when the unexpected struck: our tour schedule had to be changed becoz the penguins will only come out when it's dark, and during summer, that means 9pm! Since Phillip Island is so remote from town, it'll be about midnight by the time I reached the hotel! My plan was then crumpled into ashes even before it took real shape, like the ashes at the tip of a devotee's joss stick.
The whole tour schedule had to be shifted towards the later part of the day, so the tourguide brought us to the Royal Botanic Garden to enjoy the scenery (more like to kill time...). Well, even though we're a bit 'buay song', the garden was really beautiful! Check out the pics below (not to mention another lame joke :P) :
That's a HUGE bouquet! :)
Hairy bush. :P
After about 1+ hour there, we finally began the tour of that day. First stop: Dandenong. It's a nature mountain range. However, the sky suddenly turned dark and it started pouring! Aiya... why everything not so smooth that day? Made me worry about what would turn out that night...
We stopped by a Parakeet haven somewhere in the forest, and boy, these Parakeets are some brave birds! Just open your palm and put some bird seed (sold nearby. Opportunist Buggers!) in your hand, and you'll be swarmed by them!
Dominated by Parakeets!
Isn't he cute? (I meant me :P)
Although they're cute, we still got some scratches from their claws... Anyway, we made our way to The Puffing Billy steam train and took a ride along the mountain. It's raining so heavily that I didn't take out my camera to take any pics, but it's just a steam train... moreover, my dad took some pics with his camera, so it's ok. :)
Our next stop was the winery. Time for booze! Younger kids were given fruit juice, while the the adults went on with the wine tasting. Really good stuff for the cold weather, and cheap, too! We bought 3 bottles and went out of the building to check out the vineyard. Oh, the roses, THE ROSES...
Lovely rose.
It's as big as my face!
The last item of the day after dinner was to watch the penguins return to their homes at Philip Island. They actually got a stadium-ish spectators stand facing towards the beach for the tourists to wait for the penguins once the day is dark.
While waiting, I was hoping the penguins would just HAUL ASS and get out of the ocean, but they were just having a blast teasing us, emerging from the sea and returning to the sea again. In, out, in, out... Though I was desparate, I realised that walking back to town was not an option, less I wanna let my mom call the local police to get me. However, when the penguins came out, they received an appreciative "Awww...." from the tourists.
They're so cute! Unfortunately, we're not allowed to take photos or videos of them. The rangers were very vigilant, and a couple of Chinese tourists who tried to sneak a shot were told off by the rangers. As we made our way back to our bus, we could still see the penguins moving in the bushes, listening out to the call of their infants...
By the time I'm back in town, it's already 11.30pm. A quick change later, with chocolates in my hand, I embraced the beauty of the night and embarked on the next page of my life -- to her place. A buzz, "Hello", and footsteps. There she was, the woman of my life-to-be. Now, the plan was to get to our usual spot in the park, i give her the chocolates, and say some magic words, then under the starry night sky, she'll be touched and fall into my open arms.... argh, my wishful thinking only lah... but just thinking of that makes me blush liao...
Getting her to the park was the easy part, but everything went south after that. We were at the bench next to the pond, when the sprinklers went on. Apparently the sprinklers were set to go on at night to water the...duh...grass. We had to evacuate ourselves to the tree-lined lanes where there were no sprinklers. However, there were birds in the tree, and we didn't want to get any "heavenly droppings" on our heads (not on my sacred chocolates!) . We made our way to the steps in front of the building. I concluded that it's not the best spot for me to confess, as we braved the curious stares of some innocent passer-bys such as bikers and some skaters. After some time, I buay tahan already, so I went to check on the sprinklers, and bingo! They're stopped! On with the "delayed" plan!
On the bench by THE POND, I picked the milk chocolates and gave them to her. I was holding my breath and checked out her response. Luckily, she responded b4 I ran out of breath, and it's a favourable one (YAY!). I looked up, and there're nothing in the night sky but clouds! One element was missing from the grand design, HOW TO CONFESS!? I must had spent the longest time there stalling to wait for the starry skies to reappear (I saw it there the previous night, so it GOT TO BE STILL THERE!!). And all that while, I was chatting with her, and totally at ease, feeling more and more assured that she's the one for me.
And then, the most unexpected things occured. I got an SMS from a friend who happened to be holidaying in Melb as well (you know who you are ;P) . She SMS me for us to meet for coffee. At that faithful moment, I just turned to Wynne, looked straight at her, and just blurted, "So how? Should I stay or go?" She looked at me, said nothing. I started to reply the SMS, while reading out loud, "With friend now, can't make it. Sorry!" *SEND* Wynne heard it all, and there's a new look emerging from her face, something positive. Her arm moved slightly, and I just grabbed her hand naturally. She said, "Sure ah?" with a slightly shocked face. I said, "Sure." with a rare conviction in my voice. That's it. We both knew that's it. That's the moment. We pieced together the time, day, month, and year and that's our own secret code together, forever. And guess what? The clouds cleared away at that exact moment, and the starry night sky was revealed to us again. Glorious!
I dunno how long we stayed there, but I had to leave eventually. It was like really being gutted alive right there. A quick hug, a whispered goodbye, and I was on my way back, as a changed man! There's now a new purpose in my life!
The time: 4am. The place: my room, Melbourne Australia. The status: merrily, happily ATTACHED!
-- By Jim and Wynne, Happy Blogging together! --
