Goodbye, Walsh St Boys

Very quick post. I’m due to leave in less than 9 hours now, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

I went to the Royal Botanical Gardens again on Friday, but this time with Ethan. This is after both Des and I cut our hair, when I felt renewed and energised again after my haircut.

A black swan along Yarra river.

A large tree at the gardens.

Bright sunshine as usual.

A Rose Pavillion/hut or something.

The Australian forest’s trees.

The lake.

Sun beaming through the forest.

The glasshouse.

I didn’t want to go to the Shrine of Remembrance at first, but Ethan urged me on and we did in the end—didn’t regret it one bit as it was a rather breathtaking place.

The flags blowing in the wind.

The shrine.

Flowers laid by people during the Remembrance Day a couple of days ago, for those killed in wars.

The row of flowers “planted” there—think they may be fake.

A message for the dead:

At the going down of the sun And in the morning We will remember them.

At the balcony area of the shrine.

At the centre of the shrine.

After getting back from the library (yeah, I still go there to use the Internet connection)—I went there after we visited the Shrine of Remembrance, where we hopped on a tram (unlawfully) and I got off at Swanston St while Ethan got off at Lonsdale St to buy meat to cook at Woolworths QV.

Saturday night, as a grand farewell of sorts, we went to Sofia at Camberwell again to eat—the best Italian restaurant in the whole world, completely triumphing the likes of Pizza Uno. Its portions are huge and the prices are very reasonable (if you don’t convert lol). Pictured is the Fritto Misto at $19.80, with “a selection of seafood, calamari, scallops, fish, prawns, and tartare sauce”, which is our absolute favourite.

The Spaghetti Sofia (small $11, large $13.40; we had the large I think), with “chicken fillets, prawns, scallops, capsicum, bacon, and mushrooms with Napoli sauce”. Not too bad.

One of the slices of a pizza we ordered, the Capricciosa (small $8.80, large $13.80), with “tomato, mozzarella cheese, olives, shredded mild salami, and mushrooms”. Delicious. The other small pizza we ordered, the Chicken Hawaiian (not pictured) (small $9.90, large $15.90), with “tomato, cheese, chicken, herb and pineapple” tasted a little odd.. perhaps due to the chicken fillets absolutely covering the entire length of the pizza, which may be a good or a bad thing.

And the gelato at only $6.50!!! It’s hugeee, and among the flavours offered were chocolate, lemon, strawberry, orange, banana, coffee, bacio, pistachio, and hazelnut. We specifically excluded chocolate (because of me lol), and the one brought to us (I think the flavours were randomly dished out ‘cause I’m pretty sure it didn’t include all) had lemon, strawberry, orange, and a pepperminty flavour.

Ethan and Melvin.

Me, Des (both of us with our new haircuts!), Ivan.

The Camberwell train station where we didn’t know how to board the train to Flinders St Station (the one that came was bounded for Alamein), but in the end we found out that it was the second train after.

Ivan with our Walsh St signage which gave birth to the name I gave to our clique of sorts.

Yo yo wassup homies.

Me and Ethan. I thought this was a pretty cool angle snapped by ivan.

My camera was dangling atop a road sign.

Our final time playing cards together.. or so we thought—the usual Big 2 and once we’re bored with it, Heart Attack.

Desmond writing on my scrapbook I made of Australia. It completely reminds me of primary school when we’d have these colourful squiggly books of our own and ask each of our classmates/friends to leave messages, sign them, etc.. I suppose I’m now tapping into that child in me again.

Heart Attack! We finally played Levels 1 to 3 in sequence, and Level 4 (an interval of 3 cards).

Me dishing out cards.

Today on a Sunday, the last day we’d ever spend our time together as a complete group of Walsh St Boys, was spent cooking dinner and eating together (it was mostly Ethan and Desmond who cooked, while I did the dishes)—it was merely simple meals, pork that was a little too salty (too much preserved yellow beans or whatever they are), broccoli and carrots, sausages brought by Ivan, and a microwaved salted fish.

Then after showering, I went over to Ethan to pay up whatever I owed him, and Desmond, who has an exam tomorrow morning but told us he couldn’t understand the past year exam questions he was doing, reluctantly agreed on my urging to play a set of card games for one last time. We went to Ivan’s room and ended up watching the last half of 17 Again starring Zac Efron, and later on after all the waiting, played Big 2 at Ethan’s and Desmond’s “living room” (if you can call it that) for like 3-4 rounds before Ethan has to talk to his family on Skype.

And that was it.

Desmond came over right after that to copy pictures to his hard drive, and we got to talking. And despite all the regular jabs and jibes we throw at each other, I couldn’t help but feel a tad bit sad even though we’d still be meeting up in Brunei this coming January—we talked about keeping in touch when I’m in Melbourne and he in Brunei via MSN or e-mail or Facebook. And then as he left my room, he wished me that I enjoy my trip, and I wished him good luck for his exams tomorrow.

I don’t know how else to sum up or even end this entry. Reading Ethan’s and Desmond’s note to me almost makes me wanna tear up, but boys don’t cry.. right?

As Desmond put it in his message to me, “Come to think of it, I think I only knew you for about 2 months but it feels like forever.”

It didn’t even occur to me that we’ve all only met (except for Ethan, whom I knew longer) for just 2 months…

Pre-trip jitters, emo-ing and all that jazz.. all these aren’t helping me right now. I made new yet very steadfast friends—which I hadn’t expected at all—and at this very moment it seems like I’ll be leaving them for good.

Perhaps our paths may cross again in the future. Perhaps.

I’ll remember my roots, Ethan.

It was nice knowing all of you, who made my short Melbourne stint here the best I have never imagined.

Goodbye, Walsh St Boys. See you guys somewhere, sometime else in this world.