Bye Singapore, Hello Melbourne

I finally took the courage to book myself on a trip to Melbourne. Mixture of feelings from planning to the trip actually happened. The first pang of loneliness hit me when Dad walked away from the airport and to the carpark. In his mind, he must be thinking "will this pampered daughter of mine take the hardship of doing everything on her own?"

Well, of course I had to be braver than how I feel when I was waving. After that came the excitement of finally going on a trip alone!!

Even though I check-in early (I had to as Qantas changed my flight twice), I still didn't get a window seat, and was squashed between 2 Ang Moh ladies. Everything went as planned until the plane took off.

The hand-carry cabinet started leaking. When the air-steward realised, he gave me a pillow from first-class. Not too bad, as the smaller pillow turned into my cushion towards the final third of my journey. My backside was so numb until I seriously couldn't feel anything.

Stoned, due to the long flight, I still had to be interviewed by the custom officer. Questions like "How long are you going to be here?, residential place while here on holiday, how many times I have been to Melbourne etc etc.

After a long, long, long wait for my luggage to come out, I was finally at the second station. But the lady officer was shocked that I only had a bag, and direct me to Lane 5 to clear my luggage. The two male officers told me they suspected I carried an orange inside my bag. Then I realised it was the container of my moisturiser, but still I had to open my bag and take out the bottle for them to confirm it's not an orange!! Talk about clearing customs!!

When I finally walked into the open air, I was hit by the cold wind. Whow! It totally woke me up. I was freezing!! But I had to endure the freezing temperature to search for the Skybus terminal. A$15 per trip. Not too bad! I didn't succumb to the long queue of taxis there. I was FINALLY here!!