Wow.. the pictures took almost a trillion years to upload! But anyway, like I've said, it was up to Ellie's somewhere near Darlington. It was the most gorgeous gorgeous sight ever, even if the landscaping was only half done by her dad. It was a pity that the sheeps her dad ordered hasn't arrived cos it's gonna be about 50 of them, all with embryos injected in them. That only means one thing, baby lambs! "This is the song that doesn't end, yes it goes on and on my friend..."
Gosh! I love that show!!
Ok. No more sidetracking. It was so nice of El to pick me up (even if it was 9am. FYI, I never ever wake up any earlier than 11am unless I have classes in the morning) and drive me to her place. She made her house sound like it was in shambles and I quote her,
"I live in a hole. Are you sure you wanna come up?"

But of course we all know that it was far from that. Her cottage-like house was located along the dusty gravel roads you drive past on road trips. It was darn exciting to turn into one of the entrances with the "No trespassing" sign, knowing that we will never get into trouble for that. Cheap thrill huh? The last time we trespassed some fruit farm during the road trip cause the bumpy ride was making our bladders burst. That was one funny incident.

So anyway, it took about 45 mins from my place to hers and when I arrived, this greeted me.



It's her dad's favourite plant. She doesn't know this but half the time, I was fretting over how to acknowledge her parents because the ang mohs here don't do "hello uncle, hello aunty!". I might end up sounding even more retarded than I already am. Then I thought of saying "hi mr and missus newman". But that sounded weird too cos it was too... formal?
I ended up saying "Hello!" with a big wide grin. Retard. Then her mom did the whole kiss kiss thing and then I got weirded out again but I guess I'm starting to get used to it.
It was major culture shock. I have more news later on. In any case, her house is HUGE.



Denny Duquette is love, so is El! She's soooo obsessed with Grey's, it's getting unhealthy.



Isn't her house pretty??



Meet Oscar! He's soooo cute for a little dog and jack russells' probably the only little dog that I'll ever find cute. I'm a big dog person. All things small tend to annoy me. Like hamsters, birds, mice, cats, chihuahuas. God, Tinkerbell looks almost like death! Oscar's an exception. Maybe cos he's really intelligent. He kept nipping at my jeans though. That bit was a little annoying.



Told you the land her parents own is big.



Us on the tractor. It was mad fun!



She even has chooks! Apparently they lay 7 eggs everyday. She wanted to give me some to bring home but we got caught up in all the fun that she completely forgot about that. Haha!



There's a creek at the end of this path but we couldn't go check it out cos the crops were overgrown and El's afraid that there might be snakes. Bummer.



This is only a fraction of the motor vehicles she has at home. Her dad was teaching her sister, who's only 16, to drive, using the yellow truck. She hasn't even gotten her L's! Her brother, who's 13, can reverse the tractor better than some guys who can't even pass driving after the upteenth attempt. What a loser.



Awww.. such a sweetheart.



Me attempting to drive the tractor. It was HARD. Having learnt manual driving definitely helped alot but this is definitely alot harder. A little like riding a motorbike. Lucky me, I got the hang of it in less than 10 minutes. x)



Oscar following us.



Her mom wanted her to teach me how to ride the scrambler but it was too heavy and it almost toppled over. I took the easy way out-tractor. I'm such a poser.



Part of the landscaping in progress.



She rides this really well!



Front yard.



Antique MG.



See, posing again.



Me in action.



Backyard.



Random picture on our drive in.



It was a really good experience and I wanna do it all over again. Too bad Kenny didn't wanna join us because I'm pretty sure he would have loved it. You know, it just struck me that we Singaporeans have been living such a sheltered life (as in really really sheltered), that we take everything forgranted. Not many people I know have been to a kelong. And it seems that everyone's only good, not best, at studying and shopping. It's so lame!

I was a little embarrassed when El's mom asked who was paying for the rent and living expenses here because almost every Aussie kid in Uni work part-time and save to pay their parents back for the Uni fees. And mind you, they are doing double degrees with contact hours of like more than 25hrs/week. Even if they don't do part-time jobs, they work during Summer. And here in Singapore, I can't imagine there are people who actually bum around for 3 months, or even 7 months while waiting for A level results. Don't they get bored? You can only do that much of shopping and aren't they ashamed or guilty for spending their parent's money when they have the time to work? At least I can proudly say that while I was working, I paid for my own shopping and expenses. My dad only gave me money to top up my ezylink card. I was embarrassed, and so was her mom.

Coming here has given me alot more exposure as compared to the myopic view I had on things when I was still stuck in Singapore. And this doesn't come with hanging out with asians 24/7, throughout Uni life. Though I must say, some of the angmohs in Uni are rubbish. What with dealing drugs. Now that was a shocker..

Anyways, I was saying how her mom was so open about everything. We were just checking out those crude XXX emails and her mom just stood behind us, telling us which ones were crude and even wanted to add me on her email list. I was further embarrassed but we all had a good laugh. It was just amazing how everyone in her family could talk so openly about sex, boyfriend problems and the likes when here I am, cringing and fidgetting in my seat when Get Real does a documentation on how some young girls are involved in prostitution. Hmmmm..

Well, it was insane fun and I'm gonna invite myself over once her dad gets the whole landscaping thing done up.

It's late. Tomorrow I will pack my house before I leave.