Melbourne Blues

Hi everyone!

you know how it is that everyone comes back from holidays feeling refreshed and happy and wanting to never come back home again?

Well I just came back from melbourne and it was a horrific vacation...

A series of distressing and unhappy incidents happened that made it so and I have come to appreciate the fine familiarity of home and being amongst my own countrymen as well as being in a country that welcomes people of all kinds & all races.

In the beginning, I had heard so much about Melb from Australian Chinese friends who are currently working here and from my cousin who has migrated there. This piqued my curiosity about the city that was voted one of the most livable cities in the world, and egged on by the travel bug in me, I decided to go there for 11 days right after filming LOVE BLOSSOMS...

Now the 1st wave of unpleasant events was awaiting to happen whilst I was extremely excited about my 1st trip to Australia. Though I have always been terribly afraid of the cold and it was winter, ranging from 4'C to 14'c, in Melb, these did nothing to put out my growing fire and thirst to see the metropolitan city and start my exploration.

!st of all, I took the Quantas airline and being Australian owned, naturally many Australians take it and the crew on board were Austalian Caucasians too. Meals were served promtly and I was pleasantly surprised (since I am quite the glutton) that they kept stuffing us with hi-carbo food thru-out the 5 hr flight on transit at Sydney airport. Then I realised it was because we all have to 'store' reserves (think: camel) of hi energy burning food so that we'd function in the wintry city better. So i ate and ate. However, I had a distinct feeling that this steward and stewardess didnt take to me(i was about the only non-caucasian there). They weren't rude or anything, jus, unfriendly and non smiling.

I was seated at the emergency exit area and this being my 1st time on board that airline, I started daydreaming about Melb the moment I placed my butt on the seat. This particular air stewardess came over and flashed a 'smile' at me and said i had to place my hand luggage in the storage area above the seat. I complied, thinking it could be differences in airlines' modus operandi that other airlines allow passengers to put hand luggage beneath the seats, to which she gave a prompt no before i even finished my query to whether could do that.

To my surprise, as I stood up to place the luggage on the overhead storage area, she walked past the other red-haired lady in the same row on the other side, without giving her the 'reminder' she gave me, even though the passenger very obviously had her bag down beside her feet on the floor.

I told myself, dun be too sensitive, she could've missed out on that other lady during her round of checks before take-off...

However, she came back again not long after, getting the my attention and that of the 2 gentlemen seated in front. She'd like to make sure we understood the list of safety instructions for the emergency exit they'd placed on our seat. The blur me was like, oops, must read ah? She gave me a dirty look, raised her tone a few decibels higher (as if announcing to the entire cabin) and said,'oh, she hasn't even read it!! (looks at the men in front n smiles) I'll be back later then.'

My ears turned beetroot at her sarcastic undertones, which brought a few glances from the passengers from the middle row, and I quickly buried my face into the few lines of safety instructions, wanting to finish it quickly lest I hinder her from her other important duties again. =(

Humiliating, u think?
There's more to come man...

(to be continued)