Outdated Updates....

2 Sept 2006, Saturday - Spring is here! (and so are the flowers, pollen and hay fever! haha)

We once again troupe out in cars to Ipswich / Boonah for our Lavendar Farm visit.









9 adults, 1 baby in 4 cars, arrived at our first stop, The Workshops Rail Museum. We had originally allocated 1 hour for this museum, but we didn't expect the museum to be THIS big! It covers a lot of grounds and we are not prepared to pay AU$16.50 per person to speed past everything in the speed of light. Furthermore, they have an upcoming exhibition on 29 Oct where one could actually travel by steam train from Brisbane city to the museum in Ipswich! The only flip side is that we each got to fork out about AU$50 for that ride!





















Giving the museum a miss, we proceeded to The Carmel Lookout. Our first reaction was, "Is this it?".... There wasn't much to see ....





















After some munching, we drove to Mount French for another lookout. The view here is much much better than the previous one... After some photo taking, we "pigged out" at the picnic facilities provided.









And then, we finally arrived at the Kooroomba Lavendar Farm. Out came the cameras again, taking pictures from all angles to capture our visit so that we could look back in the future and say "I was there!"... We had some interesting deserts. Lavendar flavoured tea and ice cream... Is it nice? Well... let's say it's not to everyone's liking.... but it is something different...and you won't get to eat it anywhere else...





















Our last stop - Lake Moogerah. Beautiful scenery with the sun set as its background. The only spoil sport was the heaps and heaps of cow dung all over the place... So we were all walking with our eyes fixed to the ground, avoiding any "booby traps" laid on the ground by the cows. (Moo-moos revenge on humans?)






It was said that behind the range of mountains is the state of New South Wales. This kinda reminds me of the movie "The Sound of Music" where they had to "climb every mountain" to get to their freedom from the Nazis... haha..










薰衣草之行

春天来了！

我们一伙人（总控有9个大人，1 个婴孩），驾驶着4辆车，开始我们一天的薰衣草之行。

首先，我们驾驶了一个钟头的车程到达了The Workshops Rail Museum。 这是一个以火车为主体的博物馆。可是，我们发觉这并非一个小型博物馆。原本我们只设定华一个小时的时间来游玩这个博物馆。可是，见到那地图，我们警觉到那是一个不可能的任务。况且，在10月29日 它们会有一个大型的展会，可让观光客乘搭古老的水汽火车一路从布里斯班城市中心到博物馆。但是，车费和入门费价值不菲，大约每人澳币50元。所以，我们放弃观赏此馆，等到10月底在来。

之后，我们到达了Mt Carmel Lookout 。 原以为我们能够看见美丽的景点，但是当我们到达目的地的时候，我们都很失落的感叹了一生“怎么才这样儿以啊？”

吃了些小吃，我们就赶路到Mt. French。应为这座山来得比上一个根高，跟偏僻，它的景色郊动人多了。放眼一看，似乎可以看到那无止境的澳土。拍了无数张照片，我们那饥饿的肚子，推动着我们的身躯往车子后箱走，取出我们各所准备的食物。

野餐一番后，我们就开往主角薰衣草农场 - Kooroomba Lavender Farm。我们再次的那起各自的照相机，把所看到的景点都捕抓起来，好让我们以后能够随时从温。我们也尝试了薰衣草口味的茶和冰淇淋。冰淇淋好吃吗？它有一种很特别的口味，但是不是每个人都能够接受。

我们最后的地点是Lake Moogerah。它其实是一个水坝。太阳西落的景色实在绝！可是，唯一杀景的是那遍地一堆堆得牛粪！导致我们都“抬不起头”的走。

我们也听说那排山后面就是新南威尔斯州。

玩了一整天之后，我们也开始我们回家的路途。路程遥远，为了娱乐大家，益荣与姚生大唱起张学友的“真情流露”。怎么娱乐全部团员在各自的车呢？他们两位对着对讲机大唱。对这场急性表演，其他队友可是哭笑不得！

吃完晚饭之后，我们的一日之行也开心，圆满的结束了。

The Great Inconvenience....

Apologies for the lack of updates for the past few weeks as I was feeling way under the weather for a whole week (with fever as high as 40 degrees for 3 days!)

As my colleagues would testify, I seldom get sick in SG. and to think that I had to get THIS sick in AU?! (Hopefully, after this ordeal, I will have better luck! haha...)

Now I truly understand why people say that it's better not to get sick in Koala Land. The private health system here is so different from what we have in SG and MY. For one, you may not get to see the doctor if you did not make an appointment beforehand. So imagine how you would feel when you are delirious with fever, shivering and nauseous and the receptionist has the cheek to tell you "I'm sorry, the doctor is all booked out today and he won't be able to see you today. Would you like to make an appointment for tomorrow?"

Fortunately, there's still some practices that allows "impromptu visits", the only condition is that you have to be patient and wait for your turn (which can take up to a little over an hour. However, I found out that even with an appointment you might still have to wait for about 30 - 40 minutes.... sigh....)

After seeing the doctor, you'd think that your ordeal is over and you could head straight home for your bed. But NO, you still need to go get your medicines! And you won't get them from the clinic. You have to drage your sick, aching body to a pharmacy to get your prescription. And if the doctor wants you to do some tests, you'd need to go to a pathology lab too!

This experience had made me realised that most of us take our private health system in SG and even MY for granted. At the very least, they won't make the poor sick souls walk all over for their meds and tests!

Why didn't I go to the public hospitals? Well, because th doctor said that I'd have to be prepared to wait for about 5 - 6 hours! I thought I might as well go home and lie in my own bed rather than to have to sit in the A&E for 5 - 6 hours. However, we found that the 5 - 6 hours meant from waiting in the A&E, to getting seen by the doctor, to getting your tests done, having your shots / IV drips / bandages etc, to observation, to prescription to discharge. It may take a shorter span of time sometimes, depending on your condition and the crowd at the hospital then. Upon learning the truth, I really regretted no admitting myself, at least I won't have to "suffer" for so many days... haha....

最严重的不方便。。。

首先，非常抱歉，应为我有好几个星期没有上网填写我的步洛课。我病了整整一个星期，发高烧（40度哦！）整3 天！

我当时在想，我怎么在新加坡不病，反倒来这里病得比在新加坡还要严重。或数， 熬过这场病，就会有更好的运气来临吧。 （真希望是如此！）

在澳州，看病是一个非常麻烦的事。最大的分别就是看病前要预约！你想象，你已经病的模糊不清了，他们还跟你说应为没有预约，医生今天没有办法见你，请你约明天再来吧。辛好，还是有些诊所让你“叉队”，只不过比蜀要有耐心等。

况且，看医生和那药或做任何测验是两麻子事哦。医生只能帮你打针，诊所并不会开药给你。你必须到一个药方抓药。可怜的病人只好拖着那非常不舒服的身体（和心理!），拿着药单到最靠近的药方买药。

为什么我不去医院呢？应为医生告诉我们去医院必须等个5 – 6 个小时！（不过我们后来才发现，那5- 6 个小时包括了在急诊室等候，医生诊疗，做任何测验，打针，钓水，开药，观察，最后出院。当我们知道真相时，都好后悔没有到医院去。至少，可以少受罪几天！）

这一场病，让我深深的感觉，其实新加坡和马来西亚的私人诊疗系统还要远远的超越澳州。至少，它是“包罗万有”的。