A quick visit

Aniket visited us today evening casually. He called in the noon to ask if we were free for the evening and dropped in a few hours later. We had a nice time together discussing on various job prospects for graduates like us, sharing which of our seniors have got full-time jobs and exchanging information on our visa applications. Feels good to share as well as to know thoughts and experiences of friends sailing in the same boat of ours!

Thought Calender

My thought calender says this for today:

Its a composition of beautifully written thoughts for each day which we like to flip every morning. Every message conveys a lot of positivity of looking towards life and this variety makes us feel that it should be there rolling everyday and forever!

Yarra Scenic Drive (Route 2)

The second route that we took, was mainly through the Melbourne city. This part of the drive had more of a planned look than the hilly natural landscape of its other half. Beautiful though!

Yarra Scenic Drive (Route 1)

It has been several times that we have drove on the Yarra Scenic Drive in bits and parts, but never covered the route entirely. When we started driving, we realised that we had missed this beautiful drive for two years! 

Its a large winding road which takes you alongside the Yarra river thats all what we had heard of and knew about! Knowing that it was a long distance to be covered, we decided to complete the drive in two parts the first being towards the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne and then towards the city. We started the ride at the Yarra Blvd in Kew and then snaked through different suburbs and residential areas. It turned out more scenic and enjoyable as we passed by serene parks on our way. We also came across old churches and few other old architectural buildings. It was definitely the best bit of the inner city road and a paradise for cyclists, bikers and racers!

Kangaroos

I think we are on a spree of meeting and experiencing a close look at the wildlife in Melbourne since few days! We saw a troop of kangaroos at the Longridge park the other evening.

I recorded a video as it captures the vastness of the land, the surrounding peacefulness, the evening bird calls and a mob of the kangaroos. I observed one peculiar behavorial characteristic of kangoroos that as soon as they see you come in the area nearby, they all just stand still unless you really go close to them. They appear soo sweet with their pointy little ears and their body posture. The feeling is as if you are a star whose is in the limelight amidst them! It was wonderful as always to keep looking at them. 

In the Rainforest!

The Dandenong Ranges is a lush haven of hidden natural beauty with towering forests and misty mountains. As we made our way through the ranges, we were Lilliputians in front of the gigantic 100 meter trees which gave us a feel of sitting in a simulator ride inside some studio!

We entered the Grants Picnic Ground  which is famous for the Cockatoo birds and suplhur crested parrots. These birds come in big numbers on this ground and love to be fed from their visitors. 

We all felt close to nature to see the parrots and the birds left open and everyone was keenly and closely observing their beauty. Praveen and Vishwesh were our 'Bird Men' yesterday!

After spending the afternoon at the park we went to a ganesh temple which was close by. This was the first temple that I saw, that had "the temple look" in Melbourne! Stunning architecture and beautifully decorated idols inside, left us in a thought how they would have planned for it!

The next stop was at the Lilydale lake. We had been there before but visiting a lake in the hot summer has its own beauty! We took a walk alongside the lake and every spot offered a scenic view of the surrounding. 

A trip planned at noon and successfully completed at night same day!

Welcoming 2016!

The night of 31st turned out to be much more exciting than what we thought. We had planned for get-together and invited friends for dinner at our place. Each of them got different variety of snacks and it was fun to catch-up munching the titbits!

Post dinner we all headed off to the city for the new years fireworks. The metros were running packed with commuters travelling from far distances to be a part of the new year celebration amidst the city. It felt vibrant to be there and have a look around before the show began.

Everyone started the final countdown as the clock struck 11.59.50pm! Exactly at the end of it, firecrackers from 7 different locations shooted up in the sky and all were overjoyed to see them. Everyone shouted, jumped, hugged, wished and welcomed each other to 2016! 

It was simply beautiful to see the flashlight firecrackers pop one after the other and we felt we should have had a 360 degree vision to see all at the same time!