Xmas 2007 celebrations part 3 + last post of the 2007

Time really flies... It seems just like yesterday that I left Singapore and went on a uncertain journey to Australia, Sydney for my postgraduate studies. It seems like yesterday when I withheld my tears when I called my beloved Limin inside Changi Airport, while waiting for the departure gate to open. It seems just like hours ago when I felt so depressed that my experiments were failing like avalanches. When the the burden seems so heavy that thoughts of giving up my postgraduate studies were contemplated. And now, nearly a year on, experiments were moving onwards and rays of light could be seen, though I shan't hope or even expect, as Murphy's law always strike when we think or expect things to go smoothly. One year on, and it's the last day of 2007. And so, I'll be taking a 6 weeks break, and going back to Singapore to spend the Chinese New Year. Time really flies... and 4 more months to go and I will be 28... =(

Well.. back to the last of the Xmas 2007 celebrations. This is back dated to the day of Christmas itself. JM and I went over to Adrian's place, which is just opposite our block to have Christmas dinner. Cynthia (Adrian's gf, hope I didn't get the name wrong!) is a real lucky gal, as Adrian is really a great cook!! Been to his place several times for meals liao, and his cooking never fail to impress me! LOL... And so, for Xmas dinner, he prepared Teochew braised duck which is his first attempt! And oh gosh, it's really nice and this is his FIRST attempt!! argh.. I think I will just made a mess of everything if I were to cook it. Had a Xmas log cake as well which is not bad. After that we just sat there and chat for while, as well as Adrian showed us his travel pictures when they went over to New Zealand for like 20 days! Wow... New Zealand are so so nice!! And come to think of it, prolly should use the chance while I'm in Australia to go New Zealand, as the air fare will def be cheaper from here to NZ than from Sg to NZ. I wan to go New Zealand!!! LOL

Well.. finally.. wish all of you a very wonderful and fruitful 2008!! And especially for those 'scientist' like me, loads of luck and may our experiments always work!!!

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Xmas 2007 celebrations part 2

Spent the last 3 days finishing all the 30 episodes of the TVB drama, 楚漢驕雄 ... whoo... never know that I can be this crazy. Anyway, it's quite a ok show, talking about the Chu-Han contention back in the ancient days in China.

Anyway, let me continue my entry on Xmas 2007 celebrations... hmm... so after the Xmas party in Cat's den I was feeling pretty bored with just a tint of emo. After all, it was Xmas eve, and there I was doing nothing and just surfing aimlessly online. Luckily both Cat and Weisheng were online as well, and we ended deciding to go over to Weisheng's place after about 1 hours of discussing on what to do and where to go! Best of it all, Weisheng has a car, and so he drove us to his place which was in the city. Whoo hoo! Never expected his car to be a sport car - not a fanciful one, but nevertheless still a sport car.

So, we reached his place at around 9.30pm. And oh gosh was I hungry - hadn't eaten for the whole day! And so we proceeded on to cook our Moroccan eggplant. The eggplant was meant to be for the Xmas party the night before, but there wasn't enough time to cook it. Which was just as well, since now I can eat 1/3 of the eggplants instead of having to share with so many of them in the party! yeah.. I love eggplants/brinjal!! yum yum... Cat and Weisheng got the recipe off a Xmas cookbook from Coles, and I helped them out in coating the eggplant with flour and bread crumbs etc... quite fun..., while Weisheng was in-charge of doing the frying, and Cat was helping out with whatever she could... as well as constantly nagging at Weisheng for completing her PS game without her when it was supposed to be their game! LOL... poor Weisheng.. LOL...

Our dinner was great - Moroccan eggplant, ham, Weisheng's Shepherd pie, and rounded it off with wine... was pretty full by the end of the day...Kuan called while we were having our dinner, and complained to us that he was very bored as well! LOL... and wanted us to go over to his place with the liquor/wine etc... in the end, Weisheng ended up fetching Kuan and William back to his place. LOL... yeah.. spending Xmas alone is pretty sad, and it's always nice to have a bunch of friends together during festive season.

While Weisheng was fetching them to his place, Cat and I engrossed ourselves with Weisheng's playstation... yeah.. whoo hoo.. if only I have a PlayStation as well... oh well, I can't. I can't afford to waste my money on such stuffs... haiz.. Anyway, 'Need for Speed' was quite a nice game initially, but it was so damn difficult to control the car! Prolly 'cos we started with very powerful cars right from the start without getting familiarized on how to control it... It was quite fun and exciting, initially! 'Burnout' which we subsequently played, was so much more fun and exciting than 'Need for Speed'! Best of all, we don't get sick of the racing game as fast as 'Need for Speed'. What I personally like most about 'burnout' is the cinematographic of car crashes, be it with another car or a building etc... it's so cool!

And guess what? I had both my thumbs injured (and I mean bleeding!)while playing Tekken5! LOL... Tekken5 is those fighting games where 2 players fight as against each other. And I was happily just pressing the buttons on the controller like mad, and only when the game ended did I feel the pain. Then I look down and saw both my thumbs have been cut by the buttons and starting to bleed! LOL... Never know that playing PlayStation, or rather Tekken5 can be so hazardous! lol...tsk tsk tsk...

So basically, the five of us played games throughout the night and only went back home around 7-8am! - what a way to welcome Xmas! And Kuan was so funny on the way back, kept on asking us if he should follow Cat and Weisheng to Melbourne! LOL... in the end, he went along with them. I would've follow them too, if they are going some other place other than Melbourne... as I'll be going to Melbourne with my Limin in about 2 weeks' time! yeah !!!

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Xmas 2007 celebrations part 1

My very first Christmas, to be spent in Australia... and thanks to all my frens, that this Christmas though was spent overseas, was not alone at all. The first of the trilogy of xmas celebration was on the 23rd Dec, where Cat had organised a xmas party at her den. It was a potluck event with gift exchanges etc, and so we were supposed to bring food and a present for exchange. For me, it's pretty simple since I'm pretty much a lazy guy! lol... food - potato, egg and bacon salad from Coles, while present is even much simpler! LOL... a $10 gift cards from Coles! yeah... don't need to waste my time and effort to think of what to buy, and the receiver can use the money to buy whatever they wanted.

So, the party was supposed to start at 7pm, but as expected... people were late and started at around 8.30pm? Think Cat expected this as well, and thus stated the time as 7pm so that by the time the late comers arrived, it will be just nice in terms of timing. LOL... anyway, there were loads of food from turkey by Cat and Weisheng, to Weisheng's shepherd pie, to ham, chicken, fried rice, bee hoon, chicken wings etc etc by the rest of the folks. Heard from Cat and Weisheng that they had tried cooking a chicken using the recipe for turkey, and it was a total flop - somehow the sauce that was supposed to be sipped and taken in by the meat went through the meat, and mix with the herb/stuffing in the chicken and totally wasted the chicken. But surprisingly, their turkey was pretty well done for a first-timer... near perfect I would say, 'cept that some part of the meat are still pretty dry and not succulent enough. Prolly it wasn't meant to be?

After the marvelous food, we just mixed around, gave Khoon a bday surprise and play some games to get to know each other's name etc... pretty stressing as the person who can't said out the name of another will have to finish up a portion of the food e.g. brownie as 'punishment'! lol... And along the way, some people have to leave first as they had work the next morning, and so we proceeded to exchange our present. Well, we had previously tagged our presents with a tag that contains half of a unique xmas song's name, and put another tag with the other half of the name into a box. So, we drew from the box a tag and match it with the pool of presents using the tag... and we were supposed to guess who bought the present as well. Well, I got myself quite a nice pen holder that somehow resembles a canon facing upwards! lol... and well.. didn't really manage to guess who got me the present, and thus ended up eating some chicken as forfeit! Oh well.. I don't mind.. lol.. quite yummy! Ended up that Sherwin was the one who gave me the present!

We spend the rest of the night playing games like mafia... lol.. Mafia is always such a fun game... people will always have lotsa stuffs to discuss about it, about how we play the game etc.. and we had 3 games of mafia excluding the trial run.. and ended up me being one of the mafia thrice. But sadly, mafia lost all 3 games to the civilians! oh well.. it's just a game.. Played throughout the night till 5+ in the morning till when the sun had risen... and subsequently we went our separate ways back home...

Thanks Cat for organising and the invite! Really good to have frens around and having food and fun during xmas... ur xmas party is forever immortalised in my blog! lol...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Everyone!!! Haaavvve a merry christmas from the land downunder... from me to u!!! Have a very fruitful 2008 ahead of you too! =D

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A post about everything

Hmm.. as the title goes, this post is about anything and everything under the sun, that somehow could find a link to each other. First off, finally I'm starting to do my protein crystallisation work today! Yeah!! After months of cloning and purifying one of my many proteins, I'm so happy that things are moving on - at least for this particular protein named TBP! Went to Paul Curmi's biophysics lab this afternoon to set up the crystallisation trial, with the help and guidance from Steve Harrop. Everything just seems so robotic and cool! LOL... I hope I will be able to see some crystals growing when they reopen their lab on the 7th Jan! But might not be lar, since fate always twist me around and enjoy seeing me suffer! oh well...

And yup, it's Christmas soon! And practically the whole university is shutting down! For the school which I'm in, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, the official shut down date is from 24th Dec till 2nd Jan, which is like a week's holiday!! How I wish Singapore's system was the same as well! lol... anyway, I see that most of the labs are already closed since yesterday, and the school was pretty empty today as well - prolly 'cept for the few hardworking souls like me! LOL...

Some random picture time... ok .. let's see.. oh.. obviously this was taken when there was a heavy rain at my place. And this poor bird was trying to seek shelter by my window ledge. Not much of a shelter I reckon, as after all, the rain can come at an angle and drench the poor bird. I wanted to open the window to let the bird fly in.. LOL.. but nah.. the moment I walked past it, it flew off. Oops.. sorry birdie.. didn't mean to chase you off! =)

Now for this picture... hmm.. this was taken on the day when the NYP students were leaving, when we went to Coogee beach to watch sunrise. I took this picture with my Nokia 6288, and sent an MMS to my Limin back in Singapore. But somehow, the MMS was lost in transition. Argh.. waste my money...

A food pic! Yeah! Ok, I know that this looks like worms, but it's actually 'dong fen'! LOL... I added in some dark soy sauce, and so it became brownish and looks like worms! lol.. and I don't eat worms!!

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Astronomical extravaganza

15th Dec 2007 is a very special for me. Not only is it the 4 years 9 months’ anniversary of being together with my dearest Limin, it’s a day where I can finally experience something which I had always wanted in my 27 years of my life. Back when I was much younger, I used to borrowed books from the library. Besides borrow books on dinosaurs, which is my favorite, I love books about astronomy – stars, planets, black holes and what not. I used to borrow this book on the solar system, which had colourful pictures and notes about each member of the solar system. I would try to draw the planets and sun according to the book, and copy down the notes besides the pictures as well – for the sake of keep it since library books are meant to be returned. Till today I still have the drawings at home!


And so on 14th Dec 07, when JM told me that there is a meteor shower on the early morning of 15th Dec 07 (estimated to peak at 3.45am), I was ecstatic! I MSNed and SMSed those friends staying in Australia, telling them the news. Basically, I’m pretty hype up – on the possibility of seeing my very first meteor! According to news, the meteor would be coming from the direction of the constellation Gemini, which is about below Mars at this time of the year. And how to I recognise Mars? Mars was on top of Orion and is naturally orangey-reddish in colour – and so I had no problem finding it since Orion is so easy to locate. And I was running to and fro the balcony in JM’s room every here and then to see if the meteor shower had started, since 11pm! LOL…

Anyway, thanks to Kuan who managed to get a car, Cat and I (as well as Kuan) finally reach Coogee beach to watch the meteor shower. But, this was before I saw a meteor flying pass from JM’s balcony!! Can you imagine the joy!!? I wanted to scream out, but managed to suppress it for fear of disturbing that no noise-scence woman staying below us. Hmm… prolly it was around 2.15am, but I can’t say for sure.


The night view of the sky from Coogee beach was superb and magnificent! As we went up to the cliff, where there was very little light pollution, we could see the stars in the sky very clear. I could even see the Milky Way stretching from the west to the east, towards the horizon where the sky meets the sea. And indeed as the books had mentioned, the Milky Way is full of stars as compared to the rest of the sky – truly a star-awing sight. It is a real pity that I couldn’t take a picture of it, and had to rely on my memory to relive the moments in future. My digital camera just isn’t good enough for the job. =( Throughout the night, I was treated to a sight of at about 20 – 30 meteors. Not much of a meteor shower, but just meteors here and there every few minutes or so – but I’m not complaining. It’s already fortunate enough to be able to view such astronomic sights. And especially for me, I’m totally near hysterical when I saw the first meteor while on the beach. I was like shouting? Or did I jump around as well like a kid? I really can’t remember, but Cat did say that I was like a kid then! LOL. Oh well, how often do you see such heavenly events? I don’t mind acting a little kiddish once in a while. =) And talk about wishing upon a falling star? Don’t even think about it, as the meteor went pass with a blink of an eye! Some were faint, while a couple of them went out with brilliance. We were somehow so busy with pointing out and exclaiming where the meteors was that there just wasn’t enough time to make a wish! LOL… I really hope that I had a camera to capture the moment, and that I will never forget this wonderful night with the heavens.

Following the meteor showers, we stayed on in Coogee to catch the sunrise again. Cat and I had caught the sunrise a week earlier, with the NYP students and gang, but it was a cloudy sunrise. And we had thought that this sunrise after the meteor shower would be cloudy as well. We were wrong. The sun just sneaked up on us right from the sea – a sight that is truly amazing and seldom seen in Singapore. Indeed we were treated to an astronomical extravaganza that morning – meteor watching capped off with a perfect sunrise. And photos of the sunrise to relive my memories forever…

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BABS christmas dinner

Christmas is approaching!! and this year's Christmas mood isn't as strong/festive as the previous years. I miss Christmass in Singapore - having all the Christmas lightings in Orchard, in the shopping mall, and with the 'jungle bells' belling away from the overhead sound systems. Christmas trees, though artificial will be everywhere, with 'Christmas' tagged to almost everywhere e.g. Christmas special in the Swensons etc. And oh, how can I forget breadtalk where they always have special breads for festive seasons! On top of all these, there will be movies related to christmas etc etc... argh... I miss Christmas in Singapore, and I don't like Christmas in Australia.

Our school (BABS) had a christmas dinner yesterday evening, in the Randwick Bowling Club, which Cat and I went, though Weisheng and Sherwin came later. Anyway, we thought it was besides Coles in Randwick, as we know that there is a bowling place situated there. But, it turns out that we had assumed too much and that wasn't the place we were looking for. Luckily, Weisheng and Sherwin were still in the lab, and thus Cat called them up to ask for directions. Ended up have to walk like another 10min before we reached that bowling center. It was located directly opposite Randwick fire station, along cowper street if anyone is interested. And gosh, their 'bowling' isn't like the usual bowling we thought it to be! lol... It's more like those types where the aged will play - though I must say it's as difficult if not even more than the normal bowling!

Anyway, I felt pretty awakward while in the club. As the other two guys weren't there yet, it seems as though Cat and I were the only two asians, and students among like over 50 of the rest, which are teaching staffs and proffessors etc! Felt kinda outta place - as I basically don't know anyone at all! Finally managed to wait till dinner time at around 6.30pm, and it was well worth the wait and the $15 that I paid! And oh, luckily we got to share a table with some teaching staffs as well, and they were pretty nice too. Anyway, the food is simply heavenly!! When they brought out the plate full of lobsters and prawns, I was simply astounded! Each of us get to have a portion of half lobsters! And this was the first time I had eaten a lobster that was so fresh, succulent and yummy! Oh my gosh! and the prawns were simply great too!!

Besides the seafood, there were also side dishes such as potato and vegetable salads, ham and chicken slices etc. But seriously, the star of the show would definitely be the treasure of seafood!! Weisheng and Sherwin nearly missed such delicacy as they came to the dinner late - and no more lobster left! But we managed to keep one lobster for the both of them! lol... oh well, who ask them to come in late? In the end, another table had a lobster leftover, and thus was passed on to them as well. So, they should really count themselves lucky!

The dinner ended with some trivial quizzes, where similar to our group name 'The Clueless' suggested, we were pretty clueless about everything! lol. I think our group was the last amoung the rest. No choice - our group is the only group with students while the rest of the groups were comprised of proffessors and lecturers etc! How to fight?! Anyway, doesn't matter lar. As long as its fun!

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A sad couple of weeks - Part 3

Finally, the last installment of the post 'A sad couple of weeks'. And so, Emily had left for M'sia/Muar since like 2 weeks ago? Hadn't heard from her since, 'cept once in MSN. She's very good at MIA, I reckoned. Wanted to let her know of the chalet arrangements etc and yet she MIA.

Anyway, back to like eh... 2nd Dec 07, where the NYP students were finally going back to Singapore. Hmm..everything started when I went over to Kingsford to meet up with the students, Cat, and Weisheng for dinner on the 1st Dec. Kinda waited till like approximately 8.30pm that they finally confirm the dinner with me?! And by the time I reached the 'Pinangsia' restaurant, it was already closed. And by then, they have yet to reach as well. But, can't be help, as I later learnt that they (excluding Weisheng) had quite a rough day before that. So anyway, we went to another Chinese restaurant for our dinner, which was not that bad.

As usual, somehow I just hate the services of the Chinese restaurants, 'cept for a few of them. Talking about that, I find that the services of a Chinese restaurant in the city to be quite good - it's located in Circular Quay, somewhere near the MacDonald's. Prolly the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown and Kingsford are always flooded with customers e.g. visitors and Asian students respectively that they don't really give a damn to their services. 'There are always customers coming in to replace those who are not happy with us' might be their mentality! Argh... Those situated in the city might have more competition etc and thus services might be better? Sounds logical? hmm... bottom line, I don't like the services in Chinatown and that restaurant in Kingsford. Given a choice I'm not gonna go back again no matter how delicious their food are.

Ok ok.. diverted quite a bit when I talked about food. lol...so after dinner, I took Weisheng's bicycle and ride back home to borrow the weighing scale from JM while the others headed to the student's place in Parade Lodge to help them pack their stuffs. And it was this ride that I encountered a possible crime in action. Oh well, give me creeps every time I think about it. And to think that I had walked along that uni walkway in the middle of the night before, when I had no choice but to take buses that past by Kingsford. Anyway, passed the weighing scale to them... initially they clocked like ~30+ kg per person?! After much repacking, managed to scaled it down to 20+kg.. lol.. why? 'cos part of it is that, we will be helping them to take some of their stuffs back to Singapore when we're going back in Jan 08! LOL.. Anyway, Malcolm's stuffs were like 40kg and yet SIA allowed him to check it his luggage without additional charges as well.

And so, after they have finished with their packing, the whole group of us decided to head down to city, at like... 2+am in the morning?!! And why did we go to the city in such un-holy hours?! Simple - to play games in the arcade! 'Cos apparently, Weisheng has promised Li Qiu that he will catch a softtoy for her, after Malcolm successful 'captured' a stitch and pooh toy for Cat and Chu Ying respectively! LOL.. Weisheng was quite reluctant initially, but had to ultimately cave in to peer pressure! LOL... and so we went to the city. Boy, the city was like full of drunken ang mos etc... chaotic even though there are police vehicle around. prolly all the bars and clubs in the world are kinda like that. Oh well, and Weisheng invest money on Malcolm to get the toy for Li Qiu, claiming that Malcolm is the expert! lol.. I joined in the fun too, played a few times, and aided Malcolm in his quest for Li Qiu's pooh! lol.. finally, managed to get it! lol. We played a couple of more group games e.g. Daytona where all 7 of us were racing against each other... and don't know which bugger caused me my car to flip in the race and ended up out of the contest for the first placing! argh...

Anyway, after the last game, we realised that it was about 3.30am - time for our bus, else we will need to wait for another hour! And so, we practically speed walked and ran to the bus stop at Hyde Park! lol. Phew.. finally managed to board bus 373 to Coogee - just in time for to catch the sunrise in Coogee. We reached coogee at around 4am? and headed towards to the beach, and to the cliffs to catch the sunrise. And it was then that occur to me that the daylight hours in Sydney now is freaking long. The sky started to slowly lit up with tints of orange over the horizon at approximately 4.30am, and the sun rises at around 5.30am. Sun sets at around 8pm, which means that 14.5hours of daylight in a day! Now this is what you call summer! Anyway, the sunrise was stunning, 'cept for the clouds over at the horizon. There are always a few early birds that were kayaking as well - talk about premium seats to watch sunrise!

After the sunrise, we headed back to Kingsford from Coogee, on foot! argh.. too early for bus service! A long, tiring walk. Finally reached Parade Lodge, and took some stuffs to Cat's place as Cat inherited them since the students were leaving. Rested for a while till 9.30am, and subsequently went over to the students' place again as we realised that Charmaine could not make it to drive the students to the airport. As we reached Parade Lodge, we got a shock as the students were already preparing to leave on a taxi to the airport. As the taxi could only seats 4, Weisheng and me had to take bus 400 to the airport. It's quite alright for me, as I can take this opportunity to see how to get to the airport on my own, so that I know what to do, where to go where I'm gonna fetch Limin when she's here on the 9th Jan. Quite a long ride - I would say 30 min ride as the bus when through Eastgarden etc! argh... and finally we reached the Kingsford Smith International Airport!

At the airport - ... can see that the folks are pretty upset, but still putting on a front. Guess those students must be pretty confused as well - at one hand, they can finally return to the comforts of home, but on the other, they had fun and enjoyed themselves while they were here, as well as being independent etc. Everyone was still joyus during our brunch in the Airport (we had Oporto). However, things were rather different when we were at the departure gate. Guys being guys are quite immune and somehow look beyond such parting, I suppose. However for the gals, its quite a different matter. Tears were being held back for them, and at the very last moment - just before they enter the gate, I told Cat to give them a last hug. Somehow, this precipitated into tears as Cat were hugging Chu Ying and Thivyaa. oh well... only thing that can comfort her is that we're going to have a chalet on the 1st and 2nd Feb, and soon we'll all be back in Singapore to party again! LOL...

Phew... finally finally... finished my super duper long post.. Oh, for the rest of the photo, do check out my flickr collections.

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1 more month!

Wow... 1 more month to go, and my darling Limin will be here in Sydney! Yeah!! I have planned our trip since like... 2-3 months ago!! Yeah.. I'm Kiasu and kiasi..lol.. but I like to plan stuffs early if possible so that I can have a peace of mind and not needing to worry about this and that - just needa wait for the day to come, and follow the itinerary and that's it! Yup... I even prep an itinerary for us, during her ~10 days stay in Australia. Basically we'll be going touring around Sydney, and follow by Melbourne and finally back to Sydney for more touring again. Thereafter, we will fly back to Singapore together! Yeah!! Singapore food, here I come!!! Like the polar bears in summer, I'm gonna fatten myself up in this Oz summer back in Singapore too.

And oh, Cat and Chu Ying had took time and effort to plan a chalet at downtown east on the 1st/2nd Feb for the... gang? hmm.. what's the name of the gang?? oh.. I know.. ET-MC-WKLC! LOL.. not much of a group name yeah? Only explanation is that ET took MC from the WKLC radio channel, and so that's why the famous phrase 'ET... go.. home..' LOL.. stupid lar! Anyway, thx Cat and CY!

Wanted to put up part 3 of the 'a sad couple of weeks' series, but a bit lazy to do it.. lol.. so here's a preview pic of it. =)

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A sad couple of weeks - Part 2

Well, this post should be backdated to 29th Nov 07, a Thursday where it all happened. This was the last gathering of the gang before Emily leaves for M'sia over the weekend. There was a lab meeting on the same day as well, from 1pm to 2pm, and subsequently I had some lab stuffs to settle before I can meet up with the rest. And so Cat, CY, and TY, went over to the city first - to Market City to be exact to do some last minute shopping of their own. After all, they will be going back to Singapore a day after Emily depart - a season of departure, November is. How can one not be sad or emotional when you see all your friends going off one after the other?

Anyway, rushed down to Victoria Galleria from uni, only to have to wait for the rest of them as they were still busy doing their shopping! Went over to Kinokuniya (and yes, for those who hasn't been to Sydney - Kinokuniya do exist in Sydney)to browse through their selection of books. However, that was after I went round the building looking for Emily, as I heard that she had reached some time before me. Still, didn't able to find her. So, Kinokuniya in Sydney - hmm... I definitely prefer the kino in Singapore. Not that the kino in Sydney is any bad, but I find that the variety of books etc in Singapore are more than that in Sydney. Then again, maybe it was just me - the locals might find that they like the kino just as it is.

So, after waiting for like half an hour, they finally arrived and off we proceeded to Wagamama on the first floor in the galleria. Ordered myself a Chilli Beef Ramen, which is pretty delicious, except for the portion. I can certainly eat two bowls of it! LOL... but then again, after drink the pork and chicken base soup, my tummy was starting to be filled. Overall, Wagamama is definitely a great place for meals - good atmosphere, zen-like interior, jap-western fusion kinda restaurant. However, it is slightly on the ex side, but I guess the yummy-ness of the food kinda make up for it!

After our dinnch (dinner + lunch), we make our way to Big Echo for our KTV session, after much deliberation! LOL...Initial plan was to go KTV, but suddenly Emily asked if we had still wanna go as it was already over 5pm after our meals. Somehow this question kinda knock everyone off, and started to wonder if we should proceed as planned! Oh well, finally after much discussions (though we always went off track), we reached the KTV and this was to be our final KTV session as a gang before everyone flys off over the weekend. The situation was rather emo at some stage, as we realised that this was the last time we got together, especially with Emily around. Anyway, Emily had to leave early for home to do packing - not to our delight but not much of a choice either. And so thereafter, we sang (or rather they do most of the singing) till around 9.45pm before we were chased out of the room! lol...

Subsequently we headed towards Woolloomoolo for the Harry's Cafe de Wheels. Finally managed to try the world famous tiger pie!! Indeed, two thumbs up for the pie!! I would gladly lift up my toes too if I can do that! lol... It is really really heaven-lious! And so, we sat by the cafe de wheels and eat our pies and started to chit chat quite a while, about Malcolm's character, life, science, and religion etc etc... Quite an enjoyable night I must say. Still, everything had to come to an end, and we headed back to Hyde Park at around 1am in the morning, and reluctantly proceeded home.

Oh.. do check out the related set of photos in my flickr!

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Disturbing crimes

Indeed, having been in Sydney for nearly a year and I had never seen any crimes at all, till last Sunday (2nd Dec). In merely 24hours, two crimes happened, right before my eyes. And luckily, I wasn't the victim.

Case 1:
It was around 12am. I was riding my bicycle (well, it actually belongs to my fren) along the main Uni walkway when I saw a group of people seemingly playing around on the far stretch of the walkway. As the lights were inadequate, I could only see black figures that seems like tugging around - scenes I would expect on a early Sunday morning where folks would prolly be drunk and having fun with each other. But, as I was approaching them, I started to see two black figures seems to be tugging a bag or something that looks like a bag. Having the earlier pre-conceived mindset, I didn't think much about it. And as I proceed even further, all of the black figures except two started to run off in the direction of the Village Green. Again, I didn't think much of it - prolly some drunken fun. As I cycle pass the two that are still on the uni walkway, I realise they were asian girls (and they seems pretty ok). I was puzzled but again the fact that it might be a crime hasn't kick in yet. It was only after quite a distant that those two girls might have been targets of snatch thief occur to me! And till now, I still couldn't be sure if there is really a crime at all. Firstly, I didn't hear anyone shouting for help during the whole process. Secondly, when I ride pass them, they didn't stop me for help as well. But then, if it is not a crime-in-process, then why did those black figures ran away when I was approaching? Should I even report this to the Uni security??

Case 2:
This happened at around 3am in Monday morning. I was doing my stuffs on my laptop at home, and then a loud burglar alarm went off across the street. Thinking that it was another false alarm, I had wanted to ignore it. But somehow, curiosity got the better of me, and I went over to my window to take a look. And I saw a police car parked just outside Gloria Jeans. Hmm.. and it was the first time I saw the police attending to a burglar alarm! Shortly, I saw a policeman and policewoman exit the car, with the policeman entering Gloria Jeans. I saw the policewoman wanting to enter the cafe as well, but don't know for whatever reason(s), she kept walking to and fro the police car, getting something etc. Anyway, the climax of the whole 'show' is about to present itself - the policeman had apparently caught hold of the perpetrator, but as the policeman was about to bring him through the door (with the door glass smashed, the thief put up a struggle. Of course, the policeman tried to grad hold to the guy, but wasn't able to. The thief remove his jacket (which the policeman was grabbing onto during the struggle)and ran away along Waratah Ave! Immediately, both the policeman and policewoman gave chase.. but as expected, the policewoman was lacking behind.. LOL... Come to think of it, I should have video-ed the whole commotion down!

But seriously, why would the thief escape from custody so easily? In Singapore, if a suspect escape from custody e.g. from jail, or from the hands of a police officer, the officer-in-charge is in for a big trouble unless he can justify it's not his/her fault. And I think that the Australian policeman should have handcuffed the guy straight away when they caught him in the cafe - and the suspect wouldn't have gotten away so easily! I wonder if the suspect is caught in the end...

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