Tulip Festival

Ahhh...spring is nearly here. Melbourne always come alive in spring, I think there's something about the weather and sun. People will start wearing colourful clothes, leaving their black and grey jacket at home. There's always so much to do during spring and one of them is the annual Tesselaar Tulip Festival.

This year the festival is going to be open from September 13 until the 10th of October. The location is at Silvan, around 30-40 minutes drive from Melbourne CBD. For the Melway enthusiast, it's at 125 B5.

I went to the one last year and I got to say it's quite gorgeous (if you like flowers). It is even better if you go there with your loved ones. You could get tulip seeds, Dutch craft, Dutch pancake and so much more. There's tour around the 'garden' with a horse and everybody is wearing the Dutch costumes just to give it that Dutch feeling. Just a small tip, don't go to early cause the flowers might not be 'ready' yet.

There's all kinds of activities and entertainment everyday. But there is also special themes days, such as Turkish, Dutch and Irish weekend, Opera in the Tulips, Seniors day, and so on.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for concessions. Children under 16 can enter free if accompanied by parents. However, if you want to save, get 10 or more people together and get a group rate. But you need to PRE-BOOK it online, by phone or mail order. The group rate is $10 per person.

For more information on programmes, bookings and everything else, check out their website at www.tulipfestival.com.au.

picture from www.tulipfestival.com.au

A380 Makes a Move

Everybody knows about the new mega-jumbo plane from Airbus. the Airbus-A380. One word can describe the plane, it is MASSIVE. Even Singapore needs to make another terminal to accommodate the new plane.

If you don't know what I am talking about then you should Google "A380" and you'll find a lot more info about the plane. If you want to check the Wikipedia entry, click here.

There has been a delay in the production of the planes. This made a bit of a trouble for Airbus cause some of the airlines was suing for compensation of the delay. Anyway, the plane is highly anticipated all around the world. A lot of airlines have ordered them to add to their fleet. I believe the airline with the most order is Emirates and Singapore Air is second.

However, the first airline that will fly the plane for public (commercial) is going to be Singapore Airlines aka SIA aka SQ. The plane's first commercial flight will be taking off from Sydney to Singapore in 63 days and you can get in this first flight if you want to because the tickets/seats will be auctioned on eBay, how convenient. For ticket scalpers, you don't have to do any work, SQ has done it all for you. Of course, the purpose of the auction is not income revenue but charity and maybe a bit of media frenzy.

The auction starts in a couple more days, 27th of August 2007 to be exact. The A380 will be flying from Sydney to Singapore on the 25th of October and returning to Sydney the next day. Each journey will be auctioned separately, in other words if you are planning to come back to Sydney, you will need to bid on the other journey.

All 3 classes (new economy, new business and suites) will be available for auction. You can also bid on multiple tickets as a package. To check out the packages, click here. Because the auction is via eBay, you will need an eBay account to participate in the whole bidding process.

If you don't like the auction process, guaranteed seats will be available (I think it's like a Buy It Now kind of thing) but it does come with a premium charge as well.

At this stage, there is no information about the pricing details or how much the auction is going to start. But the FAQ of the auction can be accessed here.

To get more info about this event/auction, click here.

picture from SIA website

New Season on DVD

It's that time of the year again. No, it's not Christmas. It's the end of season for most of the TV series and the time to re-enjoy it at your own pace with DVD boxset release.

I'm quite excited for this season cause I did not watch any of my favourite shows at all. I want to wait until the whole season is complete and I can watch it in one go, especially with 24. That is a show that cannot be interrupted. So if you are waiting on the new season on the DVDs, here are the release dates:

• Heroes Season 1: 5 Sep 2007
• 24 Season 6: 19 Sep 2007
• Prison Break Season 2: 19 Sep 2007
• House Season 3: 19 Sep 2007
  
• Supernatural Season 2: 3 Oct 2007
• Ugly Betty Season 1: 31 Oct 2007
• Grey's Anatomy Season 3: 31 Oct 2007

Dates are for Australian releases.

A Gift From The Sea

There is message in a bottle, and there is LEGO. Confused ? Well you should be. A giant LEGO has been found on a popular beach resort in Dutch. The size you ask ? Have a look at the photo

It's about 2.5 m tall. It was floating in the sea and a stall worker decided to take it out. It was then placed in front of the drinking stall. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility and yes, the hair/hat/top part is still not found.

picture from The Age

No Jaywalking

OK, never jaywalk. Jaywalking is dangerous, everybody knows that.

As an 'incentive' to not jaywalk, this week in Melbourne police are going to patrol the city for jaywalkers. If caught, you can be given a warning or even a fine. I think the fine is $55. So, look where you're going and if the light is red, STOP. Simple.

Free ticket from Connex

If you live in Melbourne and you use public transport, here is some good news for you (sort of). Because of the pain and suffering that you endured during the past month (July) from late trains or canceled ones, Connex is giving a free daily ticket as compensation. Connex did not meet the target performance by half a percent (Ouch!) and as a result must compensate the commuters.

But the free ride only falls to commuters who has a monthly, half-yearly or yearly tickets and nothing else. So, hold on to your tickets to get your free ride.