Yesterday I head to the city to collect my Formula 1 tickets and to update my inventory of clothes. I followed Aun Ling, Hwei Sing and two of their friends. There was a scare half way as Aun Ling drove into the back of a Hyundai.. but thank God her car was okay and the other driver was nice enough not to make a big fuss about it. My ride ended at Alfred Hospital, somewhere near the city. The girls went for the classes and my day was just getting started. 
I couldn't ask for a more beautiful morning! The weather has been really hot lately.. but that day was just nice. My plan was to walk through two major parks along the way.. what I thought would be a nice scenic route. My destination - Southern Cross DFO.
(By the way - this entry's mostly about pictures and some of my random crap)
It was a nice walk with a few unexpected things along the way. I forgotten that there was a F1 free practice session in the morning. I realised upon seeing crowds of thousands streaming into Albert Park wearing tshirts, caps and mounting flags of the teams they support. Not that I could've entered anyway. My ticket's only meant for Sunday. I did walk to one of the gates, just to see what it's like.. but U-turned after noticing how pointless it was.. cannot see anything also.
Walking away from Albert Park, along St. Kilda Road, I stumbled upon the Shrine of Remembrance, Australians War memorial. Being a war historian... I just couldn't resist not visiting. My knowledge of the Australian military's sketchy... but I'm sure there's tonz of things there I wouldn't wanna miss out on.
The place itself? Beautiful. A piece of park land dedicated to remember Aussie soldiers who died in all the wars its been involved in. From Empire to Commonwealth (Empire in reference to the British). The shrine itself was officialised by Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II.
".. All men know that this is Holy ground.."
The Flame of War Memorial (Right)
I have to admit that although the history is interesting, it was kinda creepy. The place was a crypt after all. Apparently it contains the names of ALL Australian servicemen from any point of time.
Although I'm not Australian, I did sense some level of patriotism of how the Aussies fought for their Queen and country. Also some sense of attachment. Malaya was part of the Empire too, especially during WWII when we were all fighting to protect the same flag. So we all had something in common.
A case in point, there was a British Flag somewhere below the depths of the shrine. It was last raise in Johor Bahru AFTER Singapore had fallen in defiance of the Japanese. But it has since been removed and protected by British Commonwealth POWs until after the war.
On the left are all the Australian Colours of Battalions, Regiments, Company's and Divisions of various units serving the British Empire.
After strolling around the insides of the Shrine I went to the top of the balcony. The engines of V8 Formula 1 cars were clearly audible where I stood. Didn't actually get to see the cars.. but the sounds of it was already enough to keep me estatic. Will get to have both sights and sounds in another day.
Gee. How can anyone not fall in love with Melbourne? It's so pretty.
Before continueing my march to Spencer Street I bumped into the statue of Sir John Monash. Thanks for an interesting surname from where my university's name is derived from bro!
