Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Lorne conference 11-14th feb 2010

                         IMG_4761
The 1st conference I attended was in Lorne, Victoria, one of the famous coastal town along the FAMOUS Great Ocean Road. How good is that?? haha. Heard my colleagues praising bout the location. I guessed the most exciting part was, my lab colleagues/postdoc and other colleagues from other labs in the department went to the same conference. While some organize their own accommodation but we had Andrew to help get us a FANCY apartment to stay throughout the conference. All in all, it was an informative and relevant conference, gained new knowledge, saw the “people” whose names I have always read on the scientific journal articles. Most important, we all had heaps fun!!!
IMG_4765 IMG_4766

My first sight of Melbourne city was from air!!!!
IMG_4780



Touched down in Melbourne Tullamarie airport, jesus, YOU GOT TO PAY to use a trolley and it’s 4$!!!
We were all directly transfered on a coach to Lorne after landing.
IMG_4781 IMG_4782 IMG_4784 


I must said I was quite excited to attend this conference, plus its location along the great ocean road make it even more exciting. However, the weather wasn’t great at all throughout the conference. And even though the Great ocean road started somewhere after Geelong, the view from the airport to Lorne wasn’t as pretty as I expected (seen too much of the 12 apostles ad, lol), thanks to the weather too.
IMG_4795
IMG_4796 IMG_4798
IMG_4806
The ride to Lorne was quite twisty, but not too bad. Also, apparently, the more scenic view of the Great ocean road start after Lorne, so it’s fair that I didn’t get to see anything heaps pretty.



Thanks to Andrew for making it so easy for us to quickly settle down in the apartments we rented once we reached Lorne. The apartment was awesome with huge mega plasma, big rooms, with each room comes either a PS3 or xBox or Nintendo Wii!!! How good was that!!!
Went up to the lady’s apartment which one floor above ours, theirs was not as luxurious as ours but have this AWESOME balcony offering vista view of the ocean in front!!!
xiao apartment balcony view

A walk around bit and to the market to stock up bit, then it’s time to attend the conference at mantra resort for the afternoon session and then dinner at a nearby restaurant.
IMG_4813 IMG_4814
 IMG_4817 IMG_4819
 IMG_4825 IMG_4826

And when we were free from the conference at night, we made GOOD USE of the facilities offered, LOL.  Andrew and Phil love playing the Wii which i have only touched for the 1st time while there, LOL.
 IMG_4829 IMG_4832

Other than conference, tried very hard to squeeze out some time during the intervals to tour around the town. The unlucky thing was the weather didn’t improve much on the following days. But the town was quite nice, quite bit, but certainly have some nice cafes to hang out and definitely long stretch of beaches which is why this town if famous among surfers.
 IMG_4833 IMG_4834

One of the most interesting building to see in Lorne :)
IMG_4835

Heaps of surfers preparing to surf!!!
IMG_4839
IMG_4846 IMG_4848 IMG_4850

Clouds hovering above Lorne…
pano3
IMG_4855 IMG_4865

Saw this lady with her 2 cute doggies while walking the lorne piers, really nice dogs to keep u accompany!!!
 IMG_4868 IMG_4869
IMG_4875  IMG_4877
IMG_4876IMG_4878
IMG_4884 IMG_4885
IMG_4886 IMG_4892
IMG_4893 IMG_4894

Was trying to BUY time to try to get to a high vantage point in Queen’s park, have to walk jauh gila considering the amount of time i have for intervals, in the end walked and walked, still not reach the vantage point, turned back and was late for the 1st session talk, lol.
IMG_4896 IMG_4897

But i enjoyed that day’s walk, it was sunnier than the previous days, and saw and snaps some nice photos i like, lol.

Like this one below, the little cottage house looked SO NICE with all the greens around!!!!!
pano5

And this one My favourite photo from Lorne!!!!
IMG_4900


The following day was a sunny day, at least considered quite good, but again with the tight conference schedule, there’s not much free time. Most people went swimming in the pool, play tennis, lawn ball,…etc
IMG_4901 IMG_4904


Dan Thomas ( science genius) was kind enough to borrow a car from his car to bring me and Phil to see the Erskine falls of the Great Otway National park nearby.
IMG_4907 IMG_4913

It was a really tall waterfall as you can judge for yourself from the pics below :) It is a pretty fall, thanks, Dan!!!
IMG_4917 IMG_4919

Man (Phil) VS Nature, LOL.
IMG_4921 IMG_4922
IMG_4928 IMG_4941

Some more photo shooting, was trying to figure out how to capture the rusty old feeling of this house, obviously I failed, lol. Was obsessed a bit with trying to shoot photos like Jenny Sun photography, lol.
 IMG_4946

The interesting hotel design again on a clear weather!!
IMG_4948
pano9

Final day of conference, it’s nice to have chatting with people :)
IMG_4952  IMG_4960

Then it’s Big feast time, lol. The girls organize the purchasing, while the boys did the bbQ!!
IMG_4963 IMG_4964

This time we have everyone from the same department over our place, it’s really a great atmosphere n fun time to hang around these ppl, lol.
IMG_4965 IMG_4967

Mel and Tamara getting excited to go dancing in the resort after dinner!!!!
 IMG_4969 IMG_4970

It’s such a funny yet memorable time watching everyone enjoying and dancing including myself, LOL.
IMG_4971 IMG_4973
 IMG_4977 IMG_4978

That weirdo in blue shirt was quite a scary guy that kept wanting to dance with Xiao, got Xiao scared (even looking back at the pictures still gave me the chills too!!!! )and we all have our chances to dance with Xiao to prevent the guy from getting near Xiao, LOL. Obviously, he have a couple, and was bit drunk, lol. Xiao, u still attracts guys!!! u rocks, lol.
IMG_4996 IMG_4999
 IMG_5001 IMG_5004
 IMG_5011 IMG_5015

Time to go back, Andrew found this strange game, i think was for testing u speaking the truth or lies, lol, but it’s really a strange thingy!!!
IMG_5022 IMG_5023

In the bus, can’t believe Mel was still working hard and got back to reality so fast!!! She was looking at a grant application, while Tamara was holding?? a girl’s magazine!!!! LOL
 IMG_5024 IMG_5025

Must be wondering why i put up this photo and blow it?? actually wanted to show the price of the malaysian food on the display board within the airport!!!

Anyway, if you can’t see, it’s $14.30 for Malaysian chicken curry, omg!!!!
 IMG_5026
IMG_5029

Flying across flat flat land for agriculture or live stocks which cover most of South Australia.
 IMG_5038

Adelaide city view from air!!! Actually looked quite a nice city!!! Back to reality again, LOL.
IMG_5040

1 comment:

  1. Pretty awesome and comprehensive blog Eddie. Great work :)

    ReplyDelete