Kev's walkabout

Singaporeans, are they?

2008-08-28T21:15:00.001+10:00

For the past few days since the Singapore's women team won the Silver medal in the women's team table tennis event in Olympics 2008, I have been either seeing or hearing comments made against them. Chiefly they were regarding issue of the women's team being not Singaporean, but 'imported' as so coined by one of my friend. Somehow this has somewhat hit on a raw nerve and I get very emotional every time I see or hear a similar comment. Probably because these comments comes from Singaporeans themselves! I would have understand if such comments were to be from non-Singaporeans, but to hear it from Singaporean themselves is really too much for me to bear!

Technically, these women are Singaporean as they have already been given Singaporean citizenship. So, case close on this issue! But then, I'm sure this will only shut the critics' mouth up but never really truly make them realise their flaw in their viewpoints. And so let me tell you a story, though I'm extremely bad at story telling, which I hope will convince the critics to see the light.

"Long long time ago, back in the days of 1965, a new nation was born. Together with her birth, her people was given a new status - as Singaporeans! No matter where her people were born, where her people spend their younger years, or what her people religion or races were, they were all given the title of Singaporeans. And for years, these Singaporeans with roots in many other places 'cept Singapore were pretty much condemned (by her ever so friendly neighbours etc), and Singapore's odds of surviving adolescence was next to nothing. But still, her people worked hard and beat all odds and even propel Singapore's ability beyond her physical size.

And now, 43 years down the road, a group of people of different background e.g. country of birth etc intends to not only make Singapore their home, but to bring sporting glory to Singapore. But, her people shut their doors to these new Singaporeans instead, citing among other reasons, that they are not even born in Singapore to begin with (in order to be considered a Singaporean)."

Moral of the story? Are you going to deny your grandparents or great-grandparents of their Singaporean status because they never grew up in Singapore but in China/India etc instead?

To die trying...

2008-08-25T03:00:00.002+10:00

First off, thanks guys/gals for your comforting words and encouragements for my previous post. Yeah... my work has taken a turn downhill, but I do not, and will not give up. I guess, I just need some place to vent my frustration, anger, disappointment, and all my negative feelings. And as bokjae has mentioned, this is life. Along the way, we are going to meet with lotsa challenges. And as Dr Randy Paush had mentioned in his last lecture of his life (he gave his last lecture knowing that he would die from cancer a few months down the road), "... the brick walls are there not to keep us out, but to let us prove how badly we want things. ". So, I guess if I want it bad enough, and just keep banging on the wall (pun intended), it would one day collapse! And a phrase that he said keeps coming back to me - "...we cannot change the cards that we're dealt, just how we play the hand". A very meaningful phrase, I reckon. If he see through death in such a calm and positive light, what is my little non-life threatening setback compared to his? So, no matter what, I'm going to hang on. I will hang on till the rope snaps, and then at least I can face up to the world and proudly shout, "I tried".

And if anyone is interested in 'The Last Lecture' by Dr Randy Paush, you can catch it in youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo. And being a truly dedicated and caring educator he is, he dedicated his last lecture before his impending death (on 25th July 2008) to inspiring people to pursue their dreams. It is really disheartening to see him passed away at a golden age where he could have contributed so much to the next generation, should he have survived this ordeal. And clearly, there are so many educators out there who cares only for their own fame and benefits that live to a ripe old age. How ironic is this world?

the longest night

2008-08-20T03:45:00.001+10:00

I wish I could write this post in better circumstances, and fact is there were better instances just a couple of days ago. But, everything just went down hill since Monday. What else could it be regarding but my research project?

I see myself as a calm lake. The surface of the lake is so still that you can be blinded by the reflection of the sun from the lake surface. But yet, underneath such deceiving calmness lies the emotional undercurrent so strong that no plants or life can establish a foothold. On the outside, I may appear well, or barely scraping through in handling the constant stresses of a PhD research route, but deep down it's always a constant struggle.

Faith? Faith that everything will come to be alright eventually? How is it possible to have faith when you're being stuck down to the valley floor almost every time you are about to climb out of the dark abyss? It would seems I would have more faith in staying in the dungeon of despair than escaping. Hope? The more you hope for, the harder you fall. I daren't hope. Not even so much as to hope I can graduate.

But yet, as certain as hope and faith slowly slip away from my grasp, a part of me urges me to carry on. But how far can I go on, constantly being abused psychologically by myself? Like holding on to sand particles, the longer and harder I tried to hold on to hope, to faith, I could feel myself slipping away.

I've thought of giving up, throwing in the towel, simply just pack my bags and left. But I just don't have the courage, to face my mentor, to face my friends, and to face myself for being a failure. So how can I be 'honourably discharged' from my research? Accident? Yes, hopefully some sickness or accident would render me a few months or a year's break, and thus it would be perfectly alright to discontinue my research studies. Morbid? I sure am. That is what constant psychological stresses and cowardice left me with.

I wish I can be numb of feelings and emotion towards my research. It is the only way I know of to survive these trying years. No hope, no faith, no expectation and I will have no disappointment, no sorrow, no despair.

A picture paints a thousand words

2008-06-24T22:54:00.005+10:00

And so, let the pictures do their talking!

	Yummy Pizza Hut's pizza!! Of all the places/fast food that I have eaten so far, the pizza from Pizza Hut, Australia is by far the cheapest - A large pizza cost $5.95 and trust me, unless you are a hungry ghost, else by the time you finish the whole pizza, you will be as bloated as a balloon! LOL...

Out of the blue I decided to make myself some porriage for the first time in Australia! What else but seafood porriage for a seafoody person like me?! Fish, crabstick, scallop - heavenly!

	Guess what flower this is?? It's from a veg, but can you guess from which veg??

A surprise present that my dear sent to me - a limited edition golden Thomas the Train!! Yup, I guess I'm still a child at heart! LOL

A cool black & white picture of the moon, overlooking the street below

Home

2008-06-08T04:42:00.002+10:00

It has been an extremely long while since I last write an entry in my blog. Laziness, procrastination, and a book project have been keeping me busy while I’m not at work. And to what do I owe the sudden revival of a blog entry now? ‘Cos I felt a sudden surge of homesickness that course through my arteries and veins, to every cell in my body – the sudden sadness, the sudden overflow of emotions, the sudden longing of returning to a place where I truly belong. The memories, the people, the places, the intangible bonds that intricately link and woven them to me can neither be seen or caught but like gravity – it can be felt no matter where you are and like gravity, we are oblivious to it.

Over the years, I had always long to be overseas – away from Singapore thinking that life would be great in another country. That was then. Probably with age and maturity, and the fact that I’m in another country for almost a year and a half, and another two and a half more years to go, like Newton, I was no longer oblivious to ‘gravity’ anymore. I realize that no matter where I go, as much as I would love to deny it, there is really no place like home – Singapore.

Simply incomprehensible!

2008-05-16T14:53:00.003+10:00

I probably shouldn't be doing this right now - I'm going to make myself to be a very bad person, who is insensitive and un-understanding. But, in a way, that is how I felt as I simply do not comprehend his actions.

'A' has been staying for almost a month. From what I had observed in this month, he doesn't seems to go out to tour around Sydney very often. Prolly once in a while, to bondi or something. It appears that he might have some problems back home, and in some kinda depression. All he does is to coop up at home and plays the guitar, singing his love or rather, gathering strength from his lord. Seriously, this can be done back in Singapore isn't it? And he came all the way here to Sydney just to do this? Unless he is trying to get away from something or someone in Singapore? I have no idea, and I do not intent to be a busybody. If it's a trip to let his feelings recover etc, shouldn't he be better off enjoying his time here with trips etc rather than just staying at home most of the time? What does he hope to achieve? I'll be damn bored if I were him! Like I said, I simply do not comprehend his actions at all!

Then again, it's really none of my business so what am I bitching about? I shouldn't impose my view of the world into him, and so kudos to him, and may he gather enough strength from his lord to help him face the problem that he is trying to avoid back home!

3GB community

2008-05-04T19:34:00.002+10:00

I’m sure many of you folks would love to keep in touch with your friends, especially old friends or those who have moved to some distance away. Besides the usual community portal that is available on the web, you can try out 3GB community too.

3GB community provides a community portal where friends can keep in touch with each other, share photos, join common interest groups, chat, blog, and also hear mp3 hits too. So far about 660 members have joined, and who knows, you might just find your old friends there!

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Jump starting my blog...

2008-05-04T00:15:00.006+10:00

I realised that I have been either very lazy, or very busy lately – both of which doesn’t spell excellent for my blog. Besides attempts to write a couple of posts occasionally, my blog is pretty barren – a stark contrast to how it was a year ago when I just arrived in Sydney. Nowadays, a blog seems to be a chore, no matter how noble its purpose has been. And when I finally settle to come up with a new post, I realised that there seems to be a backlog of stuffs that I need to put in my blog to chronicle the events of the past couple of weeks. This definitely compounds to any inertia that I might have to whip up a post or two. Prolly I should just let some of my pictures do the talking then, to jump start my blog once again.

	Well, this photo was taken in the Sydney Fish Market, overlooking the ANZAC Bridge, on a fine Saturday if I didn't remember wrongly, with Oliver, Cat, Tim, Toni (Tim's wife) and two of Oliver's friends which I had no idea what their names were. Went to savour some delicious succulent prawns, seafood platter, fishes, and who can resist the temptation of oysters? Simply heavenly! Oysters in Australia is so way over ahead of those you get to eat in Singapore e.g. Paris International Restaurant. I could have easily finish half a hundred if it comes cheap! LOL
	A typical weekend scene out the Fish Market, with rows and rows of occupied seats where folks just simply enjoying the good food and the company of the seagulls!
	Grrrr.... Need I say more? (taken from the Fish Market)
	After the Fish Market, we proceed onwards to the Lindt Cafe by the Darling Harbor. Ordered a chocolate milkshake - well, quite choco-ky but other than that, it's still manageable.

Well, some snapshots of my dinner. The big round meatball look-a-like is called a meat rissole. Don't be put off by its size. I find it to be rather delicious!

Therichcom.com

2008-04-21T21:57:00.000+10:00

I guess this post is especially relevant to those who are overseas, away from their home country either for work or especially for studies. From time to time, you would miss home and wish to make a call back home, but one of the obstacles the prevent you from calling back frequently is the cost of such a call. Normally, poor students such as me would make use of calling or phone cards which is much cheaper than using a post-paid mobile. However, there are so many calling cards in the market, and so which calling card is actually the best for you? Which calling card would give you maximum talk time with the lowest cost?

Well, therichcom.com is here to help. It is a web portal that allows one to search for, and compare the available calling cards that best suits your needs e.g. country that you are calling to. In addition, they deliver the calling card details online instantly, once you have made payment and thus save you the hassle of physically buying the card. So if you are interested, do check out their website. However, one issue to note is that the calling cards that are sold in the website are for calls made from United States. So do take note!

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Birthday entry

2008-04-19T23:00:00.002+10:00

28 years ago, I was born. Yes, I’m officially 28 years of age on the 18th Apr. Somehow I just don’t feel enthusiastic about it. Prolly foremost that I don’t celebrate my birthday since young – it hasn’t been a family tradition to celebrate birthday, not if you come from a poor family. The only celebration that I ever had was just to get a cake with Limin, and just cut it and eat it. I am not a big fan of birthday celebration really. I’m afraid of dying… soon I will hit 30, and soon 40 then 50... And then 60 will be followed by 70s and then the next thing I know, I’ll be inside a coffin. Of course, if I’m really inside a coffin, I wouldn’t know and that I wouldn’t allow myself to be in a coffin either. I would rather either donate my body to science, or just cremate my body and pour my ashes somewhere into the wind or ocean, than to take up valuable land space in Singapore and just subject myself to rotting under ground. And I would hate to have all those funeral procession going on for mine as well. In life I hate it when there are funeral procession going on as I find it disturbingly noisy, old fashion, and all the burning of jock sticks and ‘hell papers’ are polluting the air. So, I ask no more than to just cremate me without all these nonsense, since it is impossible to send my lifeless body then up to space isn’t it?

Oh well unknowingly, I’m talking about my death instead of life when I touch on the topic of my birthday. Seriously and truthfully, that is how I see it. We are all alive, so that we may one day die. That is life.

Anyway, it is also one of those days that I would rather spend the day alone, not celebrating it at all, as I see no point in celebrating me getting closer to my impending doom. So, I decided to spend the day doing something which I had in my mind a long time since, and have yet had a chance to do it – feeding the birds e.g. ducks, swans, geese in the Centannial Park. I hope that my gesture will be of a help to these little creatures, to allow them to survive one more day with the food that they had from me – not to say that they are dying of starvation. Just that, I would take my mind off myself to be able to see them feeding away, not having to wonder where to get more food to feed themselves or their family next especially in these cold harsh autumn weather. Speaking of which, some of the birds that I saw and fed had young chicks with them. And what I saw next actually quite stunned me, as I saw the adult bird gave the bread that I fed them with, to feed their chicks. It suddenly don onto me that these creatures are so human-like.

I also met up with a few geese, a white and two grey geese. From what I can tell, it seems that these three geese were the only goose in the park. Anyway, there were quite big, standing somewhere as tall as till my mid-thigh. They seem so gentle. And if you agree with me, then you are wrong! Or at least partially wrong. The grey geese were quite docile, waiting patiently for their share of the bread. But the white goose would be nudging away at my pants with its beak when I was feeding the other two – demanding that I fed it instead. What audacity from a goose! Oh well, I guess it’s the dominant goose of the three?

Overall, I had quite an enjoyable experience in the park, engrossing myself with nature and being able to help these little creatures out, even though that they might not need mine to begin with. One thing for sure – I would love to pay them a visit again.

L.A. Police Gear

2008-04-13T13:43:00.000+10:00

Ever wish to have those cool tactical stuffs that you see the police tactical teams are using? Well, you might just be able to own some of those stuffs. L.A. Police Gear was founded by L.A. police officers, and sells various police gears through their website. So do take a look at their website if you are interested.

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Save the dogs, save lives.

2008-04-12T14:43:00.005+10:00

Seriously, what has this world come to?! I really do not understand at all...

There is this case of a so-called 'artist' that starves a dog, just for the sake of art! Worst still, the Central American Biennial of Art thinks that this is art as well, and invited him to 'perform' again in the Biennial Centroamericana Honduras 2008! What he did was to tie the already starving dog that was caught on the street with a short rope to a wall, and placed a bowl of food in front of the dog, but beyond its reach. Eventually, the dog died of starvation, while 'sacrificing' itself for the sake of art! Murder I say. I seriously couldn't comprehend how this could be art. This is pure cruelty! What has this world come to?? And if you look at the picture to the left, there are actually people 'admiring' the art work of the dying dog, and did nothing to help that poor dog! This is really too much!

Such action must be renounced, and you can join in the petition at this webby: http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/675045.

Save the dogs, save lives.

BadCreditOffer.com

2008-04-04T02:04:00.000+11:00

You have a bad credit, and no lenders are willing to lend you a loan to help you tight over this period. You become even worst in your credit, and the vicious cycle continues. In badcreditoffers.com, they provide a one-stop portal where you can compare services that are willing to lend a helping hand to those with bad credits, e.g. bad credit loans and bad credit credit cards etc. So do take look, and remember to make your payment on time if you take up their services!

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Musicals from Scrub, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

2008-04-03T01:57:00.004+11:00

Yupe! I never knew that some of the best dramas of its time has an entire episode dedicated to being a musical presentation! I was like browsing about for the High School Musical, when I chanced upon the Scrub musical! Simply hilarious! LOL... Especially the 'guy love song'! LOL... You should watch the musical if you are eyeing for a good laugh. =)

And I was surprised that even Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a musical episode as well! LOL... quite interesting to see Buffy singing along as she kill vampires..=D Enjoy!

Betfair.com

2008-03-30T00:44:00.002+11:00

I am sure many of us like to play football, and love to watch football as well. For me, I do occasionally bet on football as well. Mind you, I bet through legal channels! Anyway, from the way I see it, football betting is nothing new. As long as there are two teams playing against each other, bets are on the way.

Well, one way to bet on football is of course to go to the legal betting channels in your country. Another up and coming way is through the internet! I have never tried it before though. Anyway, in betfair.com, they offer betting of football matches from many different leagues, including the ever popular English Premiership. In addition, Betfair allows you to bet right up till the full 90 minutes of the game! And to make the game more exciting, Betfair allows you to bet against other punters and you get to choose your own betting odds! Overall, Betfair claims to provide a fair betting system for everyone.

So, if you are interested in it, do check out their website. And of course, betting is fun if you practice responsible betting. Else, you will loss much more than just your bet. Take heed!

The day of greys and blues...

2008-03-28T01:24:00.004+11:00

Despite finally having a rest day after 23 continuous days of work (including weekends), I'm not happy. Not that I'm a workaholic, but I just felt down. Even though I've been listening to the happy song over and over again throughout the day, I still couldn't help feeling down. Well... this could be due to either of these reasons, or all of them...

1. Feeling frustrated from planning my year end trip when my beloved Limin comes over this year end. Well, not really over the planning, but rather over the fact that we have not much money to spend on the trip and so got to plan carefully. And, the package for Fraser island will be expired come end of March, and they didn't put up the new package for the period starting from Apr 08. So, it's really hard for me to plan... Why plan so early? Well, it's something that I can look forward to amidst my mentally torturous PhD candidature.

2. Anna, our wedding planner, emailed us today saying that the Beaufort resort's villa cannot accommodate more than 30 guest for our ROM solemnization. Beaufort is my first choice for ROM venue... and this news really hit me hard. And I then I thought, I'm not going to have the solemnization inside the house of the villa, but rather at the poolside area. Couldn't that accommodate 50 guests? Why does things never turn out the way I want it? Gotta ask her to check again if the max 30 guest is for inside the house or by the poolside.

3. My housemate, JM, has been quite successful with his PhD candidature. Well, not to say that he didn't have his bad times, but he has finally managed to tide over it. And has thus far published a peer-reviewed article in Science, as well as having the tv crew to film and interview him. And he's going for conference in Paris soon - and he had just went for one in Barcelona last year! Well... not to say that I'm jealous of him or envious. In fact, I'm happy for him that he is finally seeing the light at the end of the PhD tunnel. But his success has somehow contrast out my miserable PhD candidature that I had so far... and I'm beginning to think if I will ever see that light just as what JM is going through now. The light of his success has brought to my attention how dark my PhD tunnel is, and I don't foresee myself seeing that light in my tunnel at all...

With light, darkness lurks.
And in darkness I seek,
for that remote glimpse of hope,
a flickering photon that ushers in the end.
The euphoric end, a paradisic land.
A well worth journey, I reckoned.
But where is my beam of light?
I fear for my blight.
Will I ever see it?

Rapartists.com

2008-03-28T01:15:00.000+11:00

I am not in rap, or hip hop, but I’m sure there are many out there that appreciate it. So for those who likes rap, you might want to check out rapartists.com as they feature a lot of rap artist in their website. And they even have a forum too, which is great especially for rap fans to interact with each other. So, do check it out.

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Happy song!

2008-03-27T12:49:00.003+11:00

It has been a long time since I hear such a happy song!! And all thanks to a fellow blogger, Beverly, who has embedded the song in her website,that I'm able to enjoy such a wonderful, light-hearted, lively song. The title of the song is 'New Soul', by Yael Naim.

I have attached its MTV herein as well... hmm.. somehow, it remains me of some advertisement from Kodak or Fuji! LOL... and wow! her MTV on the youtube has more than 5 million views since Aug 07! Guess it's really popular huh! yeah.. I simply love it. lalalala...lala...I'm a young soul

Oh! Jus realised that this song was actually handpicked as a commerical theme song for MacBook Air! Cool!

Mortgage website

2008-03-27T03:17:00.000+11:00

Mortgage payment nowadays is not easy, with all the increasing inflation rate, and interest rate hikes. Therefore people must definitely be on the look out for the best mortgage deals in town, and upon realizing so, must act fast. According to the website, www.Earth.co.uk, due to competition between mortgage providers, competitive mortgage deals may be pulled at a short notice. Thus, consumers have to be sharp and act fast. The consequence of not doing so might be that you will be so over burdened by your mortgage payments that you become physically ill and that is the worst situation that any one could be in. So to look out for the best deals, do pay earth.co.uk a visit!

Day 3 of the Great Walkabout - Blue Mountains & Featherdale Wildlife Park

2008-03-26T20:05:00.000+11:00

Well, for starters, having learn our lessons in the 2nd day of the Great walkabout, we woke up really early on the 3rd day and waited in front of Gemini Hotel like 10 minutes before the scheduled 6.45am pick-up time. And this time round, we managed to catch the pick-up coach, and it went round and round the city to pick up other passengers as well... After that we alighted at the Star City bus terminal to transfer to a coach that is setting out for the Blue Mountains. Yupe...Blue Mountains here we come!

And so we travelled westwards about 2 hours to a town, Leura, where we were allowed to take coffee breaks/snacks for about half an hour. Well, Leura did look like a sleepy deserted town, but then again we might just be seeing only one side of it. Anyway, there is a candy & choc shop in the Leura strand arcade, which is full of candies and chocolate! LOL... ok ok, of course it has to be full of candies and choc if it is a candy & choc shop huh!? LOL... Bought a packet of candy 'french fries' from the store, together with some chocolates as well... yum yum... Will definitely go back to the store again if I ever go to blue mountain again.

Now comes the part that really made us, as well as the rest of the passengers bewildered with anguish. After leaving Leura and travelled for another 10 minutes we reached the Scenic World, Blue Mountain, and that was where we were supposed to tour the Mountain and had our lunch! For some of the passengers, they just had their snacks/tea 10 minutes ago, and now they have to eat lunch! How could they fill so many food in their stomach? The driver should have known better, and told us that the Scenic World was like 10 minutes drive away and that we'll be having our lunch there. In this way, the passengers wouldn't eat so much during the break, and thus be able to truly enjoy their luncheon by the Blue Mountains. What was the driver even thinking?!

And so there we were in Scenic World. I had originally wanted to take all the 3 rides in the Scenic World to see the Blue Mountains, the skyway, cableway, and the railway. But, Limin was afraid that the queue would be long, and we wouldn't be back to the coach in time and so I had to give up the skyway, which I really wanna to be in! Argh... I'm gonna try the Skyway in future, that is if I ever go back to Blue Mountains.. =( But I must say, the railway is so cool!! It is on an extremely steep slope (in fact the steepest in the world according to the Scenic World) which made the ride seems so roller coaster-ish! Alas the ride only lasted about a minute, and by the time I grab hold tightly to my free-falling bags and overcome the initial shock of having free-falling kinda feeling from the ride, the ride came to a stop... argh... I guess this is something which I will definitely try again the next time round!

So, the Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters. Basically these are the two main attractions - that the mountain ranges has a bluish hue to it, and three sharp peaks on one of the mountains respectively. Well, I personally thought that there is no big deal about the mountain and the three sisters after seeing it from the Scenic World. I mean, no matter how you look, it's just those three peaks. The first minute of your view would be the same as the what you would see, say ten minutes later. So I felt pretty bored of looking at the three sisters after a while..

But the scenic walkway is much more interesting, at least to me. I get to see the lush flora that grows on the mountain, and is quite an eye-opener. For instance, some of the trees have been hit by lightnings before, and one can observed that part of their bark/truck have turned into charcoal. And amazingly, these trees are still surviving despite the lightning strike! In another example, there are these two trees that grows very close to each other since juvenile. Therefore, their trucks are intertwined, and the portion of the bark/truck that touches each other become fused as they grow larger. This is so cool! Never know that such stuffs could happen. And so as you would have gathered by now, I enjoyed the scenic walk much better than the Three Sisters. =)

So, after Blue mountains, our next stop was Govett's Leap. Well, if I'm not wrong, legend has it that this guy called Govett leap over the gorge while on his horse, as he was pursue by the authorities for stolen some stuffs. Well.. who in the world would survive that fall? Well either the legend is fake, or the person died of a horrible death. But I must say that the scenery is amazing.

And finally, we visited the Featherdale Wildlife Park to mark the end of our trip for the day. The wildlife park was great - get to see lots of animals such as kangaroos and wallabies up close, and even get to feed them and pet them too! And of course, the famous kookaburra! And oh man, are those birds big!! Every time I see a picture of them on the web etc I would have thought that there are prolly like the size of a small crow, but I was wrong!! And it even amazes me to see a kookaburra that is albino as well! In fact, not only are the kookaburra albino, there are albino wallabies and peacock as well. Well, I think what they lack is an albino koala bear... LOL...=D Overall, time at the wildlife park was quite enjoyable, though it was pretty rush as we were given only an hour to browse through the park. Would have been much better if we are given at least half an hour more.

Oh well, that's how tours are. You get to see lotsa of attractions in a day, but you don't get to spend quality time in each attractions. And so, these concludes the day 3 of the Great Walkabout!

PS: The koala bears are so smelly!! Yuck!

Best web hosting

2008-03-23T19:14:00.001+11:00

Are you looking for web hosting services because your current host isn’t good enough? Or that there is a lot of server down times, and is making people frustrated of going to your site, be it blogs or business website? Or quite simply, you just want to have your own web host because it is cool to see your name in your web URL address?

Well, this person by the name of kaushal sheth faced the same problem as well. There was a server down incident which basically caused his entire site to be down. And thus, he went about reading and asking around for the best web hosting companies that are available in the market and came up with a 3 web hosting companies which he thought to be the best.

So, if you are looking for good web hosting companies as well, do go over to his site to take a look at his recommendations. You might just find what you need!

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This is just so wrong!

2008-03-23T02:27:00.004+11:00

This article entitled "'Weak' poly students snubbed at NUS open house" really gets me standing on my feet! In particular, when a female lecturer/prof from the Life Science Dept told the poly student that poly students were the weaker ones! OMFG!

Fancy these type of statements came out from an educator's mouth! What is wrong with that lecturer? Foremost, even if that student is somehow weak, or stand little chance in gaining entry into NUS, that is no way to put down a student! It is extremely demoralising and will definitely have a negative impact on the student's passion or interest in pursuing the Life Science discipline. An educator is someone who is passionate about teaching, and dedicated as well - no matter how 'strong' or 'weak' the student is, as long as the student is willing to learn, the student should not be deprived of the chance or being snubbed at for wanting to learn. By simply saying that the student is too weak, is she also saying that weak students shouldn't be allowed further education? They should just give up learning? Isn't this then shadows of discrimination, where only the strong or clever ones are allow access to education? Is these what elitism is all about? Yes, maybe I have sidetracked too far off. It's just after all, a statement made by a NUS Life Science lecturer who know nuts about poly education, and still having that dinosaur mindset that poly graduates are low class students. Prolly she's a dinosaur too ya!?

Secondly, poly students are too weak?! Come on! Even good students i.e. with good O'level results are choosing to go through the poly route and they fare pretty well too! Gone were the days where poly are for weak people with poor O'level results! In fact, poly graduates are much more sought after as compared to a A'Level graduate! How do I know? Well, that is because two different lecturers/prof have actually commented on it - and yes, I was from NUS Life Science! Poly students comes with technical knowledge and practical experiences, something which JC students are so lacking these days! How do I know too? 'cos I was from poly before I went to NUS, and practical lessons are when poly students shines. And she said that poly students are 'weak'? If poly students are 'weak', I don't dare to think how feeble the JC graduates are! Granted that JC graduates are stronger when it comes to theory lessons, but that is by no means showing that poly students are weak! And I personally would like to think of JC and poly education as different niche, and hence how can she compare something so different? How can you compare an apple with an orange, and conclude that the orange is the tastier of the two?

And finally, if the student (a Ms Ong) happens to read this... just apply for the NUS Life Science anyway. No one should stop you from your quest in knowledge, much less a dinosaurian!

Foody post

2008-03-23T02:06:00.006+11:00

Yupe... been a week since my last post. And so, tonight I decided to do a foody post. Went to my digital camera and saw that I had a number of pictures on food (not surprising! LOL), and thus my decision. =)

The pictures include the Heavenly choc truffle ice cream which is simply yummy, my dinner dish - green bean with mince pork, a picture of a beautiful egg yolk, and lastly, for my Limin who's been bugging me to take a picture of my home-made sandwich - tuna chedder cheese sandwich! Enjoy!!

5 years and going...

2008-03-14T21:54:00.007+11:00

Somebody once said to me, that I should get a diamond ring with a small diamond (as small as possible) for my proposal to my girl. And I asked why? And the answer is simply that, as the years go by I can only 'upgrade' that diamond and not downgrade it. Oh well, of course I can downgrade it, but then my girl will then complain against it! Therefore, start out small, and slowly upgrade it, or start out big, and say goodbyes to all your savings sooner than later!

Tomorrow marks the end fifth year, and going into the 6th year of a relationship as a couple for Limin and I. As I'm not by her side most of the time, getting her a present to commemorate this day is really a headache at times. Last anniversary I made a video for her, and she was like crying and crying while watching it...and after watching it as well... LOL... and so what can I get her this year? It has to be something better than last year isn't it? And this is when I truly realise the story of the diamond ring. I can't 'downgrade' my present! And seriously, when it comes to giving presents, I'm totally clueless. Just a good meal will prolly do, if you ask me. But then, that will be too 'cheapo' and 'no heart' isn't it?

And there I was, wondering away as this day gets nearer and nearer, what can I can for Limin, from Australia? or Singapore? or anywhere around the world? And then, I realised that the answer is staring right at me, in facebook! Well, it is actually an advert in facebook. The moment I saw it, I knew there and then that it is the perfect gift for her on this special day.

A book! Not just any book, but one that I am the author of, and has sole copyright of! A book that I actively take part in selection and arrangement of the photographs to be printed on the book, as well as coming out with the written content of the book. In addition, I had to design the cover of the book and layout etc as well. Basically, it's very a book that is designed and authored by me. After which, I just need to sent the whole e-book to the publisher, and the publisher will print and sent it to Singapore for me! And mind you, it's not those poor quality book with brownish soft paper within ok! It is akin to those picture or travel books that you see the library or bookshops! So, for just around $100 Singapore dollars, it's pretty much worth it. Actually, it's the delivery that is costly - about 2-3 times as much as the book itself! Oh well... it's worth it.

And so, I submitted my e-book for ordering on the 6th of March, and waited eagerly for it to be printed and shipped. After checking back at the website every day, refreshing it here and then, they finally shipped it on the 11th March! And so, I was really getting excited by the hour - especially when I chose to use UPS which means that I'm able to track my package from origin to its destination. And so basically, refreshing the UPS tracking website was my favourite activity then! LOL...

And my package basically went from the Eindhoven in Netherlands, to Cologne in Germany, before it finally arrive in Singapore yesterday morning... and was finally delivered yesterday late afternoon...

Limin was like "OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! .... (five minutes later) OMG!.... (ten minutes later) OMG!" when she finally unwrapped the present and saw that it's a book specially made for her! LOL... And as usual, she cried...LOL... well, I'm just glad that she really like the present that I got her. And now, I'm going to be in deep trouble... I can't downgrade for the next year... I have to get something even better than this year's present for next year! OMG, what am I going to do!!! Helppp!!!

Shouldn't we have a World PhD Day to celebrate the resilience of PhD students?

2008-03-12T22:49:00.003+11:00

Yes. Why not? After about 17 years of education which includes 6 years primary, 4 years secondary, 3 years diploma, and 4 years undergraduate studies, I am very much still a student! A PhD student in fact. One as the very name suggest, with Permanent Head Damage. Alright, not really permanent yet, but almost. From all the stress generated from failed experiments, demanding and un-understanding supervisors (luckily mine is still passable), having to constantly worry about thesis deadlines, more failed experiments, not having enough stipend coverage especially for those overseas PhD students, and some more of those experiments that just doesn't seems to work and your very thesis depends on it!

Tell me, how can anyone cope under such duress? Physical torture? None at all. But mental torture? Loads of it. PhD student still manage to graduate at the end of the day, and 'live happily ever after'. Either they are damn lucky to have issues/experiments etc that work for them, or they just endure every bits of failure?!

Resilience, I say. Passion? Passion erodes away exponentially with every failure you 'achieved', and failure in PhD studies are dime a dozen. Commitment? Maybe, but that would mean forcing yourself to go through the whole aching 4 years and enduring every bits of it. Isn't this resilience then? PhD students all over the world has their share of failures, but somehow managed to pick themselves up again. Yet, they fall and tumble, and they pick themselves up again! Break their legs, and you see them crawling their way to finish up their PhD even if it takes them a decade. Resilience...

Shouldn't then there ought to be a day in this calendar of ours, to celebrate the resilience of these PhD students? It is through this very period of their education that their mentality truly matures and strengthened. A coming of age of the mind, through the failures, stress, and unhappiness, and all these wouldn't be possible without resilience. And so I say, lets all celebrate! A toast to all the PhD students out there in the world, a toast on your resilience of being a PhD student braving not only the toxic chemicals but extreme and constant mental duress, and lets all hope we will still be sane enough to graduate at the end of the day.

And so, why shouldn't there be a world PhD day?

2 more kg to go...

2008-03-09T01:32:00.002+11:00

Well.. I wanted to blog about the Syd-Melb trip that Limin and I took about a month ago... but just feel pretty slack and don't feel like doing anything at all. Prolly I've come to a stage where I grown tired of blogging? hmmm...

Anyway, Congrats to the Penang community as their voice have finally been heard - the opposition (DAP) won the state of Penang from the MCA in the election that was held yesterday (or still today by Malaysia's time zone). So, lets hope this change will bring better life to the folks up there.

On another note, I lost 3kg in two weeks!! Woohoo! Yeah... I'm so happy! I was around 65kg just before I left for Singapore, and when I came back to Sydney two weeks ago I weight 70kg! A whooping 5kg net gain while in Singapore! What to do? I was eating alot while I was in Singapore! LOL... And now, I'm around 67kg... two more kilograms to shed till my ideal weight of 65kg... =)

Classy Ritz-Carlton advert

2008-03-02T03:51:00.005+11:00

I chanced upon this approximately 10 minute video advertisement by Ritz-Carlton, and I must say, it is very well produced and classy. Briefly, Sylvie has had a very bad week - break ups, lost luggage, delay flights etc, and at her lowest point, the staffs of Ritz-Carlton went out of their way to make her day brighter. Makes me wanna choose/consider Ritz-Carlton for my solemnization ceremony! See!? Their advertising strategy works!

And oh! Yup... Limin and I will be holding our solemnization ceremony in Sept 09! Yeah.. Can't wait...Any great venue to recommend? =P

Day 2 of the Great Walkabout - Sublime point, Kiama Blowhole & Jervis Bay

2008-02-28T23:53:00.007+11:00

And so, let me relive the days when Limin and I were enjoying ourselves in the second day of the Great Walkabout! Hmm... our plan for that day was to use the hotel pickup provided by APT in Gemini Hotel (which is just opposite our home)at 6.45am. And oh gosh, it was so freaking early but somehow we managed to wake up early and made it to the hotel entrance on time. And guess what? We waited till 6.55am and no coach was in sight! argh... A call to the APT office revealed that the bus had somewhat arrived earlier than expected. Seeing that no one was waiting, the driver drove off after 5 minutes! argh... So, not much of a choice left - we had to take a taxi to the APT office/bus terminal in the Star City to catch our tour coach. Oh well, luckily the tour coach was scheduled to start the tour at 8.30am, leaving us ample time to travel from Randwick to Star City, and have Subway breakkie in Star City... but still.. how can the drive came early and just drove off? We were not even late! Oh well...

Oh just to back track abit, we were on this APT tour (S36) where the highlight of the day was the Jervis Bay Dolphins and the Southern Highlands. So, and there we go - first stop was the Sublime point which is like 415m above sea level. So from there we can see the whole city far away and far beyond the horizon. It's quite a cool and pretty sight, but the longer you look at it, the awe disappears too. LOL... But it feels great to have most of the houses/town under your feet.

Next stop - Kiama blowhole. Well... one word - disappointing. We are expecting it to spray plumes of water high up into the air, but all we see were water that barely made it out of the blowhole! LOL... and if I didn't remember wrongly, the driver cum guide was telling us that the fish & chip in Kiama is one of the best in Sydney! Too bad we couldn't try it then... But we did try some billy tea and ANZAC biscuits though, compliment of APT! And it's so cool to see the driver swirl the whole tin of tea (without lids)! LOL...

And so we proceeded onto our next stop - Jervis Bay for our dolphins! And so we eagerly boarded Tekin III with our lunch coupons to see dolphins!! Lunch which was served on board was great, especially the cheese... yum yum... and so after lunch, we quickly head to the front of the ship hoping to catch a glimpse of the wild Jervis Bay dolphins. 15 minutes past. 30 minutes past. An hour past. Finally we have to head back to the pier, and we didn't even see a single dolphin! It was really disappointing... and as we head our way back, the engine of the ship broke down! Argh... The crew tried to rectify it, but to no avail. And so we (the passengers) waited and waited for it to be fix - and we must have waited for at least 2 hours I reckoned! And ironically, it was during this period of waiting that we saw a couple of dolphins jumping out of the water! Yeah! Finally dolphins at last! LOL... But it sure made us wait for what it felt like eternity!

Eventually, the boat has to inch its way towards the nearest beach and let us off the boat so that we wouldn't be kept behind on whatever schedule that we have for the day. And so, we walked down the metal stairs (it was so painful walking down the stairs!) into the clear pristine water and the sand are so soft and fine! It's definitely unlike anything you see in Singapore or Sentosa!! Sadly, by the time the boat let us alight, it was close to 5pm. It was impossible for the tour to continue as it was supposed to be a day tour. Oh well... it wasn't the driver's or APT's fault... just plain unlucky. Oh well... but it is such unexpected twist of event that make a trip so memorable, isn't it? =)

Jus another entry

2008-02-26T23:22:00.004+11:00

well.. first of all, thanks to those fellow bloggers who left a comment on my previous entry. I'm getting used to living alone in Sydney again - the marvel of time as the perfect medicine to wash away sadness, or for that matter any emotions be it good or bad.

And also, thanks bokjae for the award! I'm totally awesome?! Hahaha.. I really beg to differ. My flaws are way too un-awesome! LOL... but anyway, thanks for the award!

Hmm.. it seems that my blog has reverted back to a PR status of zero! It used to be 4 though. Oh well, guess it's quite expected isn't it? Since there isn't any activity for the pass month. I don't mind having a PR0 blog, just that the amount of PPP opps that I can do is very much limited then. Oh well, these are just bonus cash anyway. I should be happy as long as I get opps anyway. It's not as though I'm relying on PPP for a living!

Hmm.. now, let me see... shall I continue my Great walkabout pictures and commentary? Hmm... maybe in the next post, so stay tune for that.

But now, I shall blog about my dinner today. Yup, hasn't been blogging about the food I ate for dinner for a long long time - which is precisely why my fiancee's grandma commented about when I went back Singapore. So for dinner, I cooked dark sauce marinated pork stirred fried with bean sprouts. LOL.. such a long name yah... but at least it's as tasty as it sounds. And I put the whole dish on top of my rice, to make it look those you get from the 'chi chao' stalls! Haha... and add a big piece of fish cake on it - there you go - $5 please. As if anyone will wanna buy it for $5!

Anyway, saw a rainbow from my place today... let's hope all those who sees it, or this picture will have good luck in the weeks to come! =)

Back in Australia, Sydney with a heavy heart

2008-02-24T10:21:00.004+11:00

Finally after a long hiatus on my blog.. it is going to be reactived in days to come.

I'm back in Sydney, Australia once again. Touched down in the Sydney Airport like 3 hours ago. And I'm feeling terrible the moment I reached home (my Sydney home). Seeing those softtoys left behind by my darling Limin when she came over for holidays a month ago - a catalyst to rows of tears. I really miss her. It's so different without her around. And I guess, me coming over to Australia for my studies is a good thing - made me realise lots, e.g. what's important to me, and helped me grow mentally as well.

Whatever it is, my nose is still feeling sour once in a while, even as I typed this email. Prolly I need to sleep through it to get pass this stage of sadness, and move on...

Web hosting choice

2008-01-29T04:34:00.000+11:00

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Back in Singapore!

2008-01-28T01:57:00.001+11:00

Back in Singapore for a week already! Been quite lazy to do my blog... lol.. Just feel like slacking away and doing nothing.. nothing at all! Furthermore, I have recently gotten myself a PSP lite, and been playing the game - much more reluctant to write my blog..=P

Arghhh! Very lazy.. oh well,.. here are some pictures taken during the first day of our (Limin & I) Great Walkabout in Sydney-Melbourne. Limin arrived on the 9th Jan, where I had plans to bring her to UNSW to take a look at my uni. But...ended up didn't managed to do so due to the lack of time. So, we went ahead to Chinatown and bought some yummy egg tarts, Central Station to look at the trains, Darling Harbor to feed the seagulls, Circular Quay to admire the cruise and Opera House, Sydney Aquarium to awe at the wonders of marine life, and finally to Wagamama for dinner. Overall, quite an enjoyable day... and I finally get to see my Limin once again after so many months!! Yeah!

8 more hours to see my dear!!

2008-01-09T02:48:00.000+11:00

Yeah!!! In another 8 hours, Limin will arrive in Sydney! Yeah!! Finally, I will be able to see her again after so long. We will then tour around Sydney and Melbourne for about 10 days, and thereafter go back to Singapore together! Yeah!! After a year of waiting, this day has finally arrived!!

But lurking behind at the back of my mind is still my experiments etc... 'cos when I comes back to Sydney in late Feb 08, it is going to be a hella of a busy months to follow. Protein purification, crystalisation, characterisation etc etc... lotsa things waiting for me to do... but.. argh.. don't think about it! Let me enjoy my break first!

Spent the past few days watching and finishing 我和疆尸有个约会2. And guess what? I realise that in one of the episodes, Fu Sheng was wearing a shirt with a picture of a dog that looks so much like Bubbles! LOL... never knew bubbles was a star way before she was born! LOL...

Argh.. I'm too excited to do anything else! lol... kept on checking the changi airport website to see if boarding has commenced, or if the plane has taken off etc. And later, I'm gonna check the Sydney airport website to see how long more till the plane touch down etc etc... lol... I'm going crazy!!

password-studio.com

2008-01-08T22:57:00.000+11:00

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First post of 2008

2008-01-04T00:58:00.000+11:00

First post in 2008! And as of now, 5 more days till my dearly Limin arrives in Sydney! Yeahhh!! Argh.. how I wish time flies for now, and crawl when she's here! lol...

Spent my New Year eve and the last couple of days watching a very ancient, classic, but very nice show - 我和疆尸有个约会 (My date with a vampire). Yeah! I saw it when it was first showed in TCS like.. a decade ago?! LOL... and I simply fell in love with it! And now after watching it again after so many years, I can conclusively say that this is one of my favourite HK drama, if not the best!! Just finished the whole 35 episodes in like 3 days, and now I'm moving on to the 2nd installment of the show... whoo hoo! And oh my, I have to say this - Fu Sheng was so cute and adorable in the first installment! lol...

Anyway, due to the super long Xmas/New year holiday, I'm feeling super duper slack to do my lab work! Couple with the fact that I'm going to take my long vacation soon, the inertia is even greater! What can be done in a day or two, I have dragged it till 3-4 days to finish my work..lol... oh well, I must endure for a while longer... and I will be off for my holidays!

Oh! you know what? I emailed Four Seasons Hotel (Sydney) to ask them about the New Year eve package for 2008, and got a hell of a shock when they replied! A decent room would cost like $AUD650 per night which is quite reasonable I guess, given the time of the year. But, the shocker came in that there is a minimum required stay of 4 nights! That will sum up to a total of AUD$2600!!! That's like crazy!!! Argh... yeah, I know Four Seasons is a 5 star hotel.. but AUD$2600 for fireworks over harbour bridge is crazy!!! Should I even be crazy enough to contemplate booking it??

Xmas 2007 celebrations part 3 + last post of the 2007

2007-12-31T21:50:00.000+11:00

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!!!

magnetic-diet.com

2007-12-31T21:43:00.000+11:00

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Xmas 2007 celebrations part 2

2007-12-29T23:19:00.000+11:00

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 !!!

hotel reservations

2007-12-26T19:34:00.000+11:00

Now in this holiday season of Christmas and New Year, I’m sure some of us will be planning for a trip far away. In that case, you might want to check out Hotel Reservations website, as they offer a portal to book hotels, motels, resorts and vacations rentals etc at a competitive price, as well as providing discounts in some instance. So remember to check them out.

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Xmas 2007 celebrations part 1

2007-12-26T02:31:00.000+11:00

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!

2007-12-25T08:56:00.000+11:00

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

keglawyers.com

2007-12-22T17:37:00.000+11:00

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A post about everything

2007-12-22T01:38:00.000+11:00

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!!

webhostingchoice.com

2007-12-20T23:13:00.000+11:00

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Astronomical extravaganza

2007-12-18T23:44:00.000+11:00

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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2007-12-16T02:07:00.000+11:00

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BABS christmas dinner

2007-12-15T17:24:00.000+11:00

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!

Furniturefromhome.com

2007-12-13T22:50:00.000+11:00

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A sad couple of weeks - Part 3

2007-12-11T23:13:00.000+11:00

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.

Instant-hypnosis.com

2007-12-09T16:39:00.000+11:00

I remember seeing a piece of news on Australian channel 7 about hypnosis – where 3 people, each with their own fears etc were put under hypnosis to remove their fears or strengthen their determination etc. A lady had her fear of snakes vanished, while a guy that smoke was repelled by the offer a cigarette, and another fat lady managed to resist the temptation of yummy chocolate! So probably hypnosis might really help one to improve themselves, if they really want it hard enough but do not have the will power to do so.

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1 more month!

2007-12-09T03:16:00.000+11:00

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. =)

Dyson vacuum cleaners

2007-12-05T23:37:00.000+11:00

It is extremely tiring and troublesome to sweep the floor. So, probably having or using a vacuum cleaner is a good idea. All you need to do is to on the piece of equipment, and let it suck the till it drop! LOL. In that case, Dyson vacuum cleaner might just do the trick!

Dyson vacuum cleaners looks sleek, and comes in a few varieties for that extra area in the house that you want to focus on. For instance, the Dyson cleaner DC14 model allows you to clean high places, and no assembly of parts onto the cleaner is required. DC18 model on the other hand, is lightweight and slim, ideal for carrying around. Handheld vacuum cleaners are available as well!

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A sad couple of weeks - Part 2

2007-12-05T02:51:00.000+11:00

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!

Vehicle number plates

2007-12-04T02:39:00.000+11:00

Now, quite often I see vehicle number plates that are very unique and interesting. E.g. I remember there was one which goes ‘IM47KG’! Wouldn’t it be cool and interesting to have your very own personalised number plates as well? In northumbrianumbers.com, you can do exactly that! You can choose your own unique number plates from the massive database, and configure it to suit your liking. What’s more, they will settle the paperwork for you as well! So do check it out.

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Disturbing crimes

2007-12-04T00:21:00.000+11:00

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...

Savebuckets

2007-12-01T01:11:00.000+11:00

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A sad couple of weeks - Part 1

2007-11-30T23:50:00.000+11:00

This couple of weeks has been an eventful, but sad kinda week. Due to the fact that various members of the lab will be heading back to their home country, I haven't been doing much work except hanging out with them and our group of frens. We went for another hotpot session at Emily's place (23rd Nov), and it's much more lively and enjoyable than the previous session - simply because there were more people and thus more fun! We played games like 'Mafia' throughout the night and till 7+ in the morning the next day - a testament of how much fun we had! And of cos, also a testament of how sleepy we eventually were! LOL.

A couple of days later on the 25th Nov, we hang out in the city again. Went to the resturant 'Ichiban Boshi' in the Victoria Gallerie that is beside the QVB. Hmm.. had their rice dishes (karrage cheese curry or something like that) - wasn't as impressive and delicious as I thought it to be. The Ichiban Boshi in Singapore is definitely much better - in terms of food, variety, services, value for money etc. But then again, I heard from the Emily that the Ichiban Boshi in Sydney is famous for its ramen dishes... so prolly I ordered the wrong food. But still, I will rather invest my money on Wagamama instead.

Anyway, after the late lunch we went over to QVB to collect our free Krispy Kreme doughnuts using our printed copies of the Krispy Kreme online voucher (that entitle us to 6 doughnuts per printed copy)! But, the shop ran out of the doughnuts and thus provided us with real Krispy Kreme coupons instead - a 'free six original glazed doughnuts', as well as a 'free six original glazed doughnuts with any purchase' per printed copy of the online voucher! Wow.. imagine getting a dozen doughnuts for next to nothing! But sadly, only 3 of us (including me) have the printed copies to exchange for the coupons. And apparently, Malcolm wanted the coupons so much ('cos he intends to buy a whole load of it back to Singapore) that he ran to a nearby internet cafe and print off like 13 copies of the online voucher? LOL... so in the end, each of us (a total of ~7-8 person) has a coupon each! LOL... talk about Kiasu Singaporeans! After feeling satisfied that we got our doughnut coupons we proceeded to the Opera House area, where the gals (Cat, Emily, Zhi Jun, ChuYing, Thiyvaa) and Malcolm went to see the Australian Idol pre-finale concert. Well, since there are not enough tix for both Weisheng and me, we decided to stick around at a nearby Starbucks till the fireworks at around 9pm? The fireworks were great... only complain - duration of the fireworks was too short!! LOL. Thereafter, went to have our dinner/supper in Chinatown...

Oh! do check out the piz at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tummybear! =)

CashAdvance1500

2007-11-25T02:08:00.000+11:00

Are you current just short of that few thousands of dollars for those favorite household items of yours? Or having an emergency need of cash right now, but am not able to fork out the full amount? Well, cashadvance1500.com might be able to help. It provides Payday loans with the comfort of your own home – just use the internet to fund a personal checking or a savings account.

What is Payday loan? Payday loans are basically an alternative, a good one to be specific, to bouncing checks, avoiding uncomfortable and embarrassing situations where there is a need to borrow money from friends and family. Also, it is a good alternative to sell off personal properties at less than its true value.

So what are the minimum requirements for application? Applicants must be employed for at least 3 consecutive months, earning less than $1000 per month income, and of course to have a valid bank account that is at least 3 months old. So, do remember to check it out.

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'I Believe You' by Low Kay Hwa

2007-11-22T01:34:00.000+11:00

It's been really a long time since I read good and touching stories... and just today, I saw one that can literally make a person cry. Not me though, I'm a guy... lol.. so I'm more resistant to such stuffs, but still I find the it indeed is so well written that it has the ability to move hearts, and induce tears in our fairer species. Written by a well-known Singaporean, Low Kay Hwa, this coming-of-age story titled 'I Believe You' tells of two JC students - Joanna Fong and Jacky Wu where fate has decided to intertwine their lives to bring about hope and love, especially for the self-declared whatever-I-curse-will-come-true Joanna. It's a journey of self discovery, learning to trust, appreciating those around you, and many more for our 'heroine', which is the beauty of the book - it draws you into Joanna's life and as she go through her self discovery process, we the readers would seems to have discover our own self in the process as well. It seems, to me at least, that I am still not doing justice to Low Kay Hwa's 'I Believe You', and so I would strongly urge my readers to look at the trailer. Prolly someday, TCS will create a drama based on this?

"Joanna Fong is the envy of many girls: She studies at a top Junior College, has a girl-next-door look and has good results. However, deep on her heart, she holds a secret: She believes that she has a curse. She believes that every bad thing she said will come true.

Jacky Wu is an ideal price charming: He is good in his studies and has girls waiting to hold his hand. He smiles every few minutes and often cracks jokes. However, he, too, holds a deep secret.

When their paths crossed, an unexpected romantic love story takes place..."

In addition, the first 17 chapters of the story can be read on the official site at http://www.goodybooks.com/ibelieveyou.htm. But as one might have guessed, the last 3 chapters weren't placed online and one will have to buy the book at $9.80 to finish the whole story. Hmm.. I'm tempted to buy... but I have read most of the chapters.. but it's only $10.. and I like the story as well.. hmmm..

In addition to his 'I Believe You', another of his work titled 'Journey' seems to be pretty good too. I have yet to read the chapters that the author had posted online, but judging from the trailer, I think it's going to be a not-to-miss story. And it kinda remind me of my relationship with my mum too... ...

"When I was ten, my mother called me “ah girl” and I had always responded to her. When I was fifteen, my mother called me “ah girl” in front of my classmates and I scolded her. When I was twenty, my mother still called me “ah girl” aloud and I ignored her completely. I know that, from her point of view, no matter how old I am, I will always be the “ah girl” who calls her “mama”.

From my point of view, my mother is just an old woman in the house who lives with me. Her responsibilities are to make breakfast for me in the morning, give me money to spend in the day, do the laundry in the evening and switching off the lights at night. For all those things that she did, she will have the authority to scold me or ground me.

Until one day, she calls me and says, “Ah girl, I’ve got cancer. I may die within the next six months.”

That is when I realize that my mother is more than that."

Kill the termites

2007-11-22T00:49:00.000+11:00

Termites. Yikes! Pesky little creatures that go around chewing up woody portions of your house, making it a hazard to reside in! There is always a danger that my house, or for that matter any house to be infested with termite swarms. So do remember to take precaution, and visit killthetermites.com to learn how to deal with these pesky creatures!

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More Goong and KTV

2007-11-17T00:15:00.001+11:00

Even though I've finished with 宫 for about a week or so, I'm still very much mesmerised by the show, and by the music as well. =) Oh well, I guess that's why the show is so popular and successful. Sadly, I read that there isn't going to be a continuation. Goong S isn't a continuation at all. And even if there really is a continuation come next year, I doubt that the cast will be the same. =( That is because Yoon Eun Hye, the lead female actress had some issues with the management company, and had left the company. Argh... why?? why?? It wouldn't be the same without the original cast! =(

Anyway, I had been slacking for the past few days.. lol.. maybe it's because that the progressive PhD seminar presentation is over, and thus I'm still on my relaxing mood - taking things slow and easy. Argh.. probably it's about time to switch gear. Aja fighting! And it's only 1 month, 3 weeks, and 3 more days till my dear come over to mark the start of the GREAT HOLIDAY! So, I must work hard now! aja aja fighting fighting!

Just last Tuesday, I did something for the first time in my life. I went to for Karaoke! Yeah... I'm a mountain tortoise alright.. lol.. 27 years of age, and never been to a KTV before till now. Oh well, I can't sing, and I can't bear to listen to my voice - so what for go to one? And my friends are mostly not the KTV type either. Couple with all the negative image about KTV being dodgy, being places where trouble brews, all the more I'm not going. But, since last Tuesday (13 Nov) was Cat's birthday, and both Emily and her were like asking to go, and so I relented. And so we went to this 'Big Echo' KTV somewhere near Telstra building besides Hyde Park, after our late lunch at Kura III somewhere near Chinatown. Kura is a Japanese restaurant... hmm.. the price is relatively ok, and the portion is big! After a bowl of Unagi and egg don, my tummy is truly satisfied!

And so the 8 of us (including me) went to the KTV with our tummy full. And the rest, especially Cat the birthday girl, was like happily singing away..lol... me? well... like I say, I couldn't stand hearing my own voice and so I didn't... just sat there listening to their singing, and humming along here and there etc... and probably singing to myself once a while..lol.. pathetic right? haha.. oh well, I know my limits, and I don't wanna embarrass my myself. And so, there I was slipping away the vodka... wrong choice! After 4 hours of vodka, I had to make my way to the toilet to puke! Hahaha.. terrible terrible. Luckily I still know what's going on to some degree, and feeling that the singing etc is really making me sick with the alcohol and such, I stayed in the toilet for almost 2 hours. LOL... puking occasionally! No choice, I don't wanna go back to the room half drunk, and disgrace myself. So, rest in the toilet cubicle for a couple of hours (luckily the cubicle was clean!), then went back to the room feeling much better. Hahaha... that certainly reminds me not to drink so much! Still, come to think of it, wat a disgrace! oh well, all in the name of fun. =)

Went on to sing a couple of songs together with the rest of the folks such as 朋友 etc. They kept on asking me to sing, and it wouldn't really be very nice to reject again and again. And furthermore, the rest are all singing together.. so effectively, they would drown my voice.. great. =)Don't ask me why I hate to hear my voice so much... I just don't know.. I'm not used to it I guess. Every time I hear it, I feel like laughing at myself, and the more I laugh, the more I think my voice is strange and weird, and the more I laugh after that... and so the cycle continues. =)

Finally, everything ends at 1am, and to make this a memorable event for Cat, we (or rather me) came up with an idea to 'sabo' her. We made her tell us 21 cat cartoon characters since it's her 21st bday, and because we know for sure she wouldn't be able to complete it! Wahahaha...(evil laughter). So her forfeit is to act like a lesbian and approach a girl for her phone number! LOL... Evil right?! haha... and she is also quite sporting to accept her forfeit as well. And so, we singled out a Asian girl walking alone on the street (ard 1am already) and asked her to complete her task. Haha.. according to what Cat told us, the girl was quite shock when Cat complimented her, and asking for her number! LOL... who wouldn't, especially if it's from the same gender!? And the 'victim' kept on saying no to Cat's request...lol.. poor girl.. I think the girl will have some kinda trauma rather than Cat.. hahaha.. oh well.. poor girl....

Cheaperthanhotels

2007-11-16T23:12:00.000+11:00

It would really be great if I have loads of money, and probably one of the first things I would do would be to travel! I love to travel… e.g. to Europe. Probably spent a whole month touring the various cities in Europe would be superb! Yeah!

Imagine driving around, touring Europe with my darling, and stopping wherever and whenever we want along the way – to admire sceneries etc… Driving by car around EU nations would of course require a valid license, which I don’t. =( And sometimes it can really get very confusing as well – due to the left and right-handed rule in different countries.

Anyway, some of the cities that I would love to visit and stay for a few days would include London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome etc. In terms of accommodation, I guess I would be looking up hotels in London, hotels in Paris, hotels in Berlin from cheaperthanhotels.co.uk, as they provide relatively cheap hotel rates for cities in the EU and UK.

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宫 and Maya dinner

2007-11-12T00:39:00.000+11:00

Finally finished watch Goong, Princess hours. It's a very nice show, romantic comedy kinda show, and of cos with some bad people plotting against the good guys etc... But then, I think one obvious take home message from watching the show is, there is no absolute good or bad. It is all a matter of perspective. For instance, Hyorin may be perceived as being bad, and coming in between Shin and Chae Kyung, but then, it was Chae Kyung who came in between Shin and Hyorin to be crowned as the crown princess, although somewhat a result of fate... wow.. bottom line, it's all about perspective. But other than being so philosophical, 宫is really a nice show to watch... lotsa funny moments, tears, and moments where you curse and swear like nobody business, and moments where you feel for the characters. On top of the creative storyline of marrying a monarchy constitution to a democratic society like Korea, it explores how a 'Cinderella' might react in such situation as well... definitely not like the bedtime story it ends off with just a phrase 'and they live happily ever after'. It is the events after such Cinderella-based wedding that make it more realistic, and exciting. =)

Anyway, just a bit of a brief update about me for the past couple of days, 8th Nov 07 was Deepavali. And so together with Cat, Emily, Chu Ying, and Thivyaa, we went to this Indian Restaurant in Surry Hills, named Maya. Well, to be exact it's Maya Da Dhaba, as they are apparent two Maya in the same area. In fact, the two Mayas are somewhat opposite each other on the same street. Maya Da Dhaba, as the name stated in the receipt, is a somewhat middle-high class style of Indian restaurant. While the other, Maya Tandoori, serves somewhat more of a street side affair kind of food, and is not a true restaurant per se. Anyway, got quite a shock after ordering the dishes.. Each dishes cost about $13 on average, but the portion is super duper small... just nice for the five of us to have a piece of the meat/veg each! Argh... for me, it was only after eating the onion kulcha (which is absolutely delicious), that I began to fill full! argh.. At the end of the dinner, we were given a cup of port wine, on the house... and port wine is superbly nice! Naturally sweet kind of red wine. Simply love it. Click here to see the pictures!

Carguygarage

2007-11-09T16:35:00.000+11:00

Have you have a lot of stuffs lying around that needs to be kept? For me, I have loads of books and notes lying around… oh well, at car guy garage, they provide storage solutions such as metal garage cabinets, rack and many more to keep your place tidy and yet storing all that you need!

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10 simple questions

2007-11-09T16:12:00.000+11:00

Well... been a hella long time since I last do any tags at all. Was tagged by http://jangbokjae.blogspot.comon this..

1. a movie that made you laugh
eh... Can't remember liao.. oh I know.. Mr. Bean!

2. a book that made you cry
None - I don't cry over books

3. a best friend
hmmm... not really best fren.. but a true fren.

4. a favorite childhood memory
Hmm... Selling jigsaw puzzles with a group of other kids when I was like 5-6?

5. your favorite animal
Dinosaur?

6. your favorite food
Lotsa and lotsa.. especially now I'm in Oz, and can't eat any Sg food!

7. an item of clothing you can't do without
eh... we definitely need to wear clothes one mah isn't it?

8. something you collect
Australian fifty cents coins

9. your favorite store to shop in
eh... none.. i don't really shop

10. your favorite flower
eh... whatever is nice to my eyes..

Nah.. don't think I'll tag anyone.. =) if you feel like it.. just do it!

Cartridge Finder

2007-11-09T14:40:00.000+11:00

Sometimes it really can get very confusing… with so many brands of printers and models, how do I know which printer cartridges are suitable for certain models? However at Cartridge Finder, the website can easily search for you the suitable cartridges from more than thousands of models of printers, fax, and copier. In addition, they will even show you which merchants sells the product online.

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The battle is over!

2007-11-08T01:25:00.001+11:00

Yup! Finally, after weeks of preparation, it all boils down to 30minutes of presentation, and 2 questions form the floor. And that's it! It's over! Yesh.. yeah!! I'm so super duper freaking happy!! It will be another year away before I need to do this sucky progressive PhD seminar presentation again.. oh well, I will worry when then time comes. But right now, I'll need to settle the Annual Review form, and pass it to my boss and the review panels soon... but hey, the worst is over! Yeah.. I'm literally on estacsy down here! But, here I am, being caged in this room rather than going out to have some fun... oh well... but heck... my real fun will begin in 2 months time! Meanwhile, I have to 'add oil'. Aja Aja fighting!!

And lately, I have been nuts about Facebook as well. Yup, as usual, I'm always a step slower than the rest of the population, and have FINALLY joined Facebook. So, do add me into your friends as well if you have facebook! Besides the Facebook craze, am busy watching Goong, Princess hours too! Yeah! Am hot on Korean dramas nowadays. Heard that there is this new series in Singapore, the Goong S - but heard from Emily that it wasn't as nice. Oh well, the first of the series is always the best. On top of this, I've actually been thinking of learning korean as well in the upcoming semester. BUT, it will not sponsored under my scholarship.. argh.. so if I wanna learn it, I will need to sign up for that module and pay like AUD$2000+ for a semester's worth of learning?! Worst still, I would still need to sit for tests etc... Pay money to let myself suffer.. argh.. and I don't think there is a cert or something at the end of the day? Problem just a grade in my transcript? Oh well... I wonder if I can just sit in... but such language class is also so small in numbers... If it's a big class, I can always sit in un-noticed, but in a small class.... oh well... suggestions??

Progressive PhD Seminar Presentation tomorrow!!

2007-11-06T18:37:00.000+11:00

Argh.. help!! My Progressive PhD seminar Presentation is tomorrow (7th Nov) morning! argh... am starting to feel super nervous now... and somehow my slides are always somehow lacking in one way or the other.. and my presentation is always not fluent... even though I had practiced and practiced... I had like 34 slides, and I'm required to present a 30minutes presentation.. and my practiced session takes me 35 minutes... and I was already rushing like mad and it still took me 35minutes to finish everything. In this 35minutes of rushing madness, I simply have no time to pause much... and even if I can't really remember what to say etc, I have to keep talking and talking through it.. argh....

And the worst thing is... I have alot of stuffs .. and all of which are quite important I would say to present! So, to cut down on the slides wouldn't be good... argh.. argh....

Online coupons

2007-11-04T03:41:00.000+11:00

It’s already November, and Halloween has just past, and soon to be follow by Thanksgiving and Christmas! It’s truly a season to be jolly, and enjoyment! And it’s also a season of presents! Now what present would be a good one? Hmm… the fact that I can get great Travelocity deals from Coupon Chief, a well deserved holiday with my dear with Travelocity will be a good idea, especially after slogging for a year in a far away land alone! And now since everyone of use has a present, how can we left out the cute little doggy in the house? Haha.. to get this dog a present is simple enough – just get her some food from PetSmart since she loves to eat! Furthermore, PetSmart coupons are available from CouponChief.com as well. Thanks to online coupons this sure is going to be a joyful season for all!

Feeling Emo...

2007-11-04T02:05:00.000+11:00

As the title goes, m feeling kinda emo right now, or rather the past couple of hours. I think part of the reason was that I had a pretty enjoyable time yesterday over at a friend's place to have steamboat celebration to round off her honors year. It's like those feeling that I always get after a chalet. In the chalet, friends get to chit chat, enjoy each other's company. And when everything ends, which they eventually will, suddenly everything seems so blue, so grey, so alone...

And another reason why I'm feeling that is probably the fact that I'm going to see lotsa people/frens/clicks around me leaving one by one. That's the downside of a 3-4 years PhD I guess. The honors student, or rather should be classified as ex-honors student now, starts her honors pretty much the same period as I started my PhD. And now, she has completed her honors and leaving the lab real soon. And there I am, and will be, seeing batches and batches of students coming and leaving... argh... Facts of life...

Coupled with the fact that I'm now listening to FM93.3 in the middle of the night, listening to all those emo songs, making me even more emo...

AllMyFund.com.au

2007-11-02T04:32:00.000+11:00

Now, for all those folks living and working in Australia, this should be of an interest to you! All My Funds is essentially a financial planning company that specializes only in Superannuation, and has access to all the major retail super funds. So, do check out Allmyfunds to tailor you super to your needs!

This post is proudly brought to you by AllMyFunds.com.au

---Press Release---
SPECIALIST financial planning company All My Funds is applying the discount broker model to Australia’s trillion dollar superannuation industry.

The Queensland-based All My Funds will target the 70 per cent of workers in the 30-45 age groups who are now using retail funds instead of industry funds.

AMF managing director Wayne Robinson said the All My Funds system would effectively transform retail funds into industry funds for AMF clients because the company would return all commissions paid to the client in exchange for a flat annual fee.

``The discount broker model has worked very well in both the sharemarket and the funds management sectors and there is no reason why Australians will not embrace it for their superannuation investments,’’ said Mr Robinson.

“As it stands, a working 30 year old with $50,000 in their super now could lose more than $98,000 from their retail superannuation funds through commissions over their working life.

``We want to change that and also to help people gain the greatest benefit from their retirement savings as possible.’’

Mr Robinson said All My Funds had made the decision to solely concentrate on financial planning issues for the superannuation sector.

``There are a lot of good financial planners operating within Australia but we saw there is not really anybody who is solely specialising in superannuation,’’ he said.

“When you consider the size of the industry, both in terms of investment and the number of participants, it is apparent there is certainly plenty of room for specialist firms in this arena.’’

The three main services that All My Funds will provide clients is:

* An annual subscription service where investors pay an annual fee of $385 and all adviser fees, commissions and trails are rebated to the client
* A consolidation service where AMF on behalf of its clients rolls multiple superannuation accounts into one larger account.
* A 25+ page superannuation checkup report (statement of advice limited to superannuation) for only $275. This will give an overview of a client’s existing superannuation, a comparison with other retail funds, an indication of what their income will be on retirement as a percentage of their current salary and much more.
------

Rise Ozzie dollar, rise!

2007-11-02T03:33:00.000+11:00

To buy or not to buy... hmm.. should I wait longer?? The rising boom in Australian dollar has been a headache for some, but for me, it's kinda good news! I've been wanting to buy the flight tickets from SIA for my Sg to Syd round trip for late Feb next year, and will be paying the tix in AUD$ when I'm ready to purchase it. And with the strengthening of the Ozzie dollar against Singapore dollar, this only means one thing - I'll be paying less in terms of Ozzie dollar for a round-trip tix, that is of course, provided that the ozzie dollar keeps on going up! That is what begs the question - to buy or not to buy. Should I buy the air tix now for AUD$1156.85, or wait, hoping that it will drop below the AUD$1100 level? Rise ozzie dollar, rise!

Hmm... I had been doing a little bit of trival on my own about the exchange rates of ozzie dollar to Singapore dollar, 'cos I will TT money back to Singapore once a while. The exchange rate used to be AUD$1 to SGD$1.2424 back in 29th May 07, as based on DBS rate. And as of now, the rate has rose to AUD$ to SGD$1.3331!A whooping 10 cents increase in 5 months' period! Therefore, for every AUD$1000 being exchanged, I would earn SGD$100 more as compared to exchanging the same amount in May! Wow! Come on Ozzie dollar! Rise! Go ozzie dollar!

Speaking about SIA, SIA has rather cunningly silent about their increase in the air tix cost of the Singapore to Sydney route, ever since they got their world first A380 to fly the Singapore to Sydney route! It used to cost me approximately SGD$1320 for a round trip to Sydney from Singapore about 9 months back, but now it's going to an additional SGD$227! Well, I guess it would be somewhat justifiable if one is taking the world first A380. However, it seems that all the flight rate from Singapore to Sydney has increased, regardless of wheather you are taking Airbus A380 or the Boeing 747! Argh... Why do I have to pay additional when I'm not even taking a A380!?? This is absurb! Oh well, nothing much I can do... just gotta make my money worthwhile and book the A380 flight!

VistaPrint

2007-11-01T14:41:00.000+11:00

Envious that people around you have name cards? And wondering why you do not have a name card when your friends or business partners are giving them their name cards? Or just for the fun of it, you are thinking of getting a name card for yourself, even though you might be a student or a freelancer? Well, VistaPrint might just have the solution for you! In fact, VistaPrint have hundreds of free business cards design for you to choose from! Not enough? For a small sum, you can even try out their premium Business cards as well. Furthermore, printing is free and you only pay for the postage!

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6 more days to power pointing day!

2007-11-01T14:24:00.000+11:00

6 more days to the big day... my progressive PhD seminar on the 7th Nov! Argh.... ever since the practice run on the 25th Oct, I haven't really been touching my slides and practicing... starting to feel like heat and nervousness once again... which might be good. 'Motivate' me start amending my slides and practicing again! Wanted to do it over the weekend, but it looks as though I might need to come in over the weekend to do some lab work. Argh.. I guess I will just take Monday and Tuesday off to stay at home to work through the slides, and Wednesday is either make or break day for me... nervous nervous nervous...

Infomeduse.com

2007-11-01T01:07:00.000+11:00

Are you feeling sick, and want to buy medicine at the comfort of you own home? Or just simply to shy to buy pills that enhance that certain performance? Maybe you could give Infomedusa.com a try, as they provide worldwide shipping and customer support for online purchases of medicines. So save on your pharmacy bills by trying out these generic medicines

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Vids from the Great Walkabout

2007-10-31T23:40:00.000+11:00

Well, below are some of the vids that were taken while at the last resting stop/village, as well as after finishing the Great Walkabout! Pretty much super tired after the whole journey..haha.. but still gotta capture our 'alibi'! Enjoy the vids!

MoneyMagic

2007-10-31T16:10:00.000+11:00

As defined by Wikipedia, mortgage refers to a method of using properties as a security for payment when taking a loan etc. So essentially, it is simply borrowing money using your property as a form of payment in cases where repayment is not possible. Therefore, since you borrow money, the lender will charge you interest, and thus the need to really look hard and in depth into which mortgage type is suitable to get the most out of it, with as little interest as possible.

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Nearly 30km walk in 7.5hrs

2007-10-31T02:35:00.000+11:00

It was certainly a long and tiring walk! Yesterday (28th Oct) was the day of the ‘7 bridges walk’ walk event, where it was sort of a charity event cum promotion for healthy living through walking. And oh gosh, walk we certainly did – a whooping 28km walk around the Sydney harbor region and its neighboring suburbs. And coupled with the cursed up-hills that were ever so steep and down slopes, I would have easily walk about 30km! And why did I want to put myself in such a torturous situation?

Part fun and part greed. Yup, you read correctly. Probably to attract people to take part and donate, the organizers had given out vouchers that allow one-for-one entry to the Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World, and Sydney Tower. Meaning that 2 adults can tour all these places of interest with the price of one! Whoo hoo! That is simply great… my eyes literarily lit up! Haha… well, because my dearly Limin will be visiting me this Jan 08, and thus with those vouchers, it meant that I can save up quite a lot on all these entrance fees! Mind you, each adult ticket to each of this places of interests can easily hit at least AUD$25! And if we tour all the 3 places, it would mean a savings of about $75! Yup, I’m cheapskate. I had seriously wanted to donate $10 or so at the end of my walk, at the very last station. But, somehow I just forgot about it when I’m at the finishing line! Guess I was simply too happy to finish it, as well as too disappointed with the ‘finishing line’ to remember… argh… don’t feel too good taking all these freebies and not giving some back…

Anyway, I met up with Cat and the NYP gals in Circular Quay, and had breakfast at MacDonald’s – my first MacDonald’s breakfast in the Land of Oz… Nothing spectacularly different between those in Sydney and Singapore. We started off our exodus to the land of foodless at 5 minutes to 9am, after collecting more event passbook (with more vouchers!). And so we started off at the Rocks, and headed towards Pyrmont Bridge as our first bridge of the day. Pretty easy walk still, passing by the Fish market and towards the Darling harbor where Pyrmont Bridge is. Took a photo and get our event passbook stamped, and off we go to our second bridge – ANZAC Bridge.

Thereafter we crossed the Iron Cove Bridge, Glasdesville Bridge, Tarban Creek Bridge, and Fig Tree Bridge during the first half of the journey. I must say, the views from some of these bridges are excellent. Not really those out-of-the-world types of scenery, but still it would look exceptionally good on a post card. Anyway, fatigue and pain were starting to kick in for some of the gals by the 3rd to 4th bridge, but for me, I was still feeling alright. Aching from my foot is definite, but nothing too serious that I could’t bear or hindered my progress. But what I absolutely hate is the steep up hills and down slopes that is so frequent throughout the last 2/3 of the journey! Argh...

We had wanted to have our lunch somewhere in Hunters Hill – before Fig Tree Bridge, but we didn’t find any restaurants along the way! Yes, lots of residential area in the suburbs, but no eateries etc. These residents must be filthy rich and drive to city have their meals etc or they just simply cook at home and not eat out, therefore no need of having restaurants around! Land of the foodless! And so, we have to resort to eating the chocolates and biscuits that the gals brought, in the station/village in Lane Cove that is after the Fig Tree Bridge. Bought an ice cream as well, and for a freaking $3.10! Oh well, the weather was hot and ice creams were just the right thing to have!

Continued our journey again at around 2.15pm, and the journey was really killing with up-hills and fatigue at this later stage. Coupled with the need to constantly wave off the relentless flies that keep buzzing around you and landing on your face whenever they can, this last 2 hours of the 7 bridges walk was the toughest. And at long last, after a grueling 7.5hours since the start of our journey, we managed to reach our final bridge and destination – Sydney Harbor Bridge. This would be the second time I cross this bridge, the first being the Sydney Harbor Bridge 75th anniversary celebration where I got to walk on the road of the bridge itself. This time round though, the road weren’t closed, and thus we use the pedestrian walkway by the side of the road instead.

Anyway, the ending was rather disappointing. We got off the Sydney Harbor Bridge at somewhere near Argyle Street, to get our last stamp of the journey. And, well, after a long and tough walk I was expecting some fun, some carnival of some sort or something like that to mark the end of nearly 30km walk. But little did I expect all that greeted me was just a couple of guys seating under a huge umbrella stamping my event passport, and that’s it! No cheers for completing, no carnival, nothing fun – what a let down! And it’s so pathetic that I have to print off my cert of completion online as well. I would have felt better if they would have a ready-made piece of cert, and just write my name on it on the spot and gave it to me!

Haiz… anyway, luckily the dinner was not bad, which kinda make up for the disappointment. As the event passbook came along with a free side dish voucher for Wagamama, we decided to head to Wagamama for our dinner. I ordered a Teriyaki Steak Soba, Shikoku island ice tea, and 2 scoops of ice cream, all for $27.40 in total. The soba was nice, a little salty but is still delicious overall. My only complain on it is that the portion is too small – kinda only half full after finishing it. My Shikoku island ice tea was really very nice and refreshing – absolute vodka splashed with ginger ale and lemon iced tea. Probably the best drink in the house! LOL… Had black sesame and lychee ice cream – yum yum… Overall, it’s a nice meal over at Wagamama with nice restaurant layout etc. A piece of advice though if you decided to visit Wagamama, do not go in the afternoon! That is because that the Wagamama restaurant is a semi-open concept style of restaurant, where there is no wall on the side of the restaurant that is facing the darling harbor. And this is the side that faces the west, which means that the afternoon and setting sun is going shine straight into the restaurant and at you! Therefore, it kinda makes eating in the restaurant and attempting to look out to the nice darling harbor view in the afternoon kinda hard on the eyes. But nonetheless, it’s a restaurant that I would definitely consider going back again!

And after our dinner, we went over to Cockle Bay to grab a seat, chit chat, and enjoy the night view of the Darling Harbor for me, and finally end the long day about an hour later… We went over to Chinatown, wanting to grab the famous pie from Harry de Wheel but it was closing when we got there.. argh… oh well, just have to get it again some other time…

Overall, a fun and eventful day!! =) And oh, do check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/tummybear/sets/72157602761163803 for more pictures of the 7 bridges walk!

Magic loans

2007-10-29T14:21:00.000+11:00

Magic Loans has just launched its new website lately. As the name suggested, it provide services or rather secured home loans to people. What I like about the website are its colour scheme of the webby, and the fact that it has detailed explanations of what each loan the company is providing on the website. And furthermore, there is a loan calculator as well, thereby enables you to calculate your sums with ease.

Basically, Magic Loans provide 3 main loans – Homeowner loans, Consolidation loans, and Secured loans. As there are no obligations, so do check out the website or give them a call if you are in need of such services.

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Finally PR of 4!

2007-10-29T13:54:00.000+11:00

Wow... got quite a shock a few mintues ago when I went over to my blog! I saw that my blog has a PR rank of 4! I was like 'huh!?'. I couldn't believe my eyes! There are a few instances where the PR rank of my blog increased, but when I refreshed my blog, it reverted back to N/A for PR. So, I thought this must have been another of those instances. But look and behold, it still remains as PR of 4! Oh man! I'm so happy! haha... Thx to all the other blogger who have linked to me one way or the other. With this PR rank of 4, I'll be able to do more PPP opps, and earn more money! Yeah! And thx again to all!!

Pro360.com

2007-10-26T14:38:00.000+10:00

Casino - a place where only the rich can go? Probably so when the Integrated Resort is up and running in Singapore, where you have to pay a hefty sum of entrance fees. Or simply feeling bored at home, and don’t wish to go all the way to the Casino which is super far away? Well, now you can bet online, in online casino. At pro360.com, a online casino review website where you can search through the hundreds of online casino and see which suits you most. There are online casino games such as online poker, slots and roulette – basically a lot of casino games which should almost suit everyone’s need.
But that being said, though having a game or two to win some cash is enticing, but please be responsible when playing in such online casino website! Know when to stop, and do not have the mentality that you can always win all those back with just a game! Truth is, you will lose almost all the time! It is responsible gambling that makes it fun and safe! It is only when people have a sense of responsibility where even the most dire game / activities can be fun and rewarding!

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A breather finally

2007-10-26T13:24:00.000+10:00

Finally able to get some breather after a busy week or so... But this is going to be a short lived break! Besides the usual rushing of my experimental work to clear as much as possible before I go back to Singapore in about 2 and a half months time,I had to go for this 2 half-days radiation safety course. But, lets digress a bit, and wow!!! only 2 and a half more months to go! Time sure past by very quickly - I've been in Oz for 8 months! And that is like almost a third of my PhD candidature gone. So fast... so many things to do... so little time...

Anyway, back to the radiation safety course on the 17th and 18th Oct. Yup, there are plans for me to handle radioactive materials for my experiments next year, so gotta know how to handle this hazardous stuffs correctly and safely. Else I'll be the 'radioactive man' in the NBC series HEROES. So I went over to the Library building to attend the course. And, phew! As the room is on the 12th floor, the scenery from the life lobby of 12th floor is simply gorgeous! Never knew that there is such a place to look at the whole lower campus of the university! Not only that, one can see the Randwick racecourse and the skyline of the Sydney city from the lobby! Wow... I don't mind working in such environment, overlooking my dominions! haha

Besides the course, I had also been very busy lately with my annual PhD presentation. Argh... it's going to be on the 7th Nov, but because that my rehearsal/trial presentation falls on the lab meeting day which is on 25th Oct, that means that I have to finish everything, and practice on my own at home before the 25th! Well, I'm someone who isn't very articulated, especially when it comes to oral presentation. So, I need to write a script of what I intend to say in the presentation, and just follow the script and memorize as much as possible. So,... been really busy - amending my slides at the last minute of the practice presentation, rushing to write the script but ended up never finishing it. 'Cos there isn't just enough time to finish the script and practice on my own before the practice run. But, times still turned out ok during the practice. Was quite comfortable at the front of the presentation, as that was the part I had the script written and practiced beforehand. But towards the later part, I guess my nervousness starts to show, and wasn't that confident, and started to fumble abit with what I'm trying to say... argh... practice makes perfect... luckily there is still like about a week to go till 7th Nov. But, one thing - some of the staffs were pretty surprised that I did so much things in this 8 months that I was here! Haha.. that was really a comment that I never expected to hear. A lot?! Nah.. I was still thinking along the line of not doing enough! Oh well... as often said by Ju Yoo Rin in the kdrama'My Girl'- aja aja fighting!

=D yup... I'm hooked on kdrama lately! Haha.. yes yes yes, I'm always half a beat slower than others. When folks were crazy about kdrama I was like 'eh? nice to watch meh? no lar. see how'. And after many beats later, then I start to catch on the craze.. haha.. So, I was after the show 'My Girl' lately, which is a very nice sorta romantic comedy. Highly recommended it, unlike the winter sonata type which I absolutely hate. Quite sad now, cos I've finished with the show.So... just gotta find new kdrama to watch... and I think I will give 'Goong - princess hours' a try.

The power of pointing = powerpoint

2007-10-16T01:42:00.000+10:00

It must have ages since I last updated my blog. Let me see..hmm.. last update was like 8th Oct... which is like exactly a week ago!! Busy has been the word, and stress is what I'm starting to feel. Busy as I'm still trying my best to speed up my work, so that I can go back to Singapore in Jan-Feb in peace. And now there is only like 2 months and 3 weeks left! Haiz... have a feeling that things are definitely not going as planned, and I'm going to have loads of backlog when I come back in late Feb next year. And stress, 'cos my progressive annual review for my PhD is coming up btw 7-9 Nov. Argh.... stress. Have to have my work thus far reviewed by a panel of 3 reviewers, as well as giving a presentation to the reviewers, as well as the lecturers and PhD students in the whole department! Stress with my powerpoint slides now... The power of pointing - the powerpoint! And I will have to give a mock presentation to the lab staffs in two weeks time as well... so many things to do, and yet, my eyesight has failed me. An oversight rather. Never cross my mind that the Rosette strain requires chloramphenicol for selection, besides ampicillin for my own recombinant plasmid. Argh... so grew my cultures on ampicillin only. Though I spent one whole day harvesting the cells, couldn't really use them. =( Hopefully my bacteria glycerol stock has can grow in both ampicillin and chloramphenicol, else I will need to do the whole transformation again! Argh... why? why is it that when you think nothing much can go wrong, and murphy's law have to kick in!?? Numb, Numbed, Numbdened!

Blogs do make Money!!

2007-10-10T14:55:00.000+10:00

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Carguygarage.com

2007-10-08T02:56:00.000+10:00

Hey gals out there! Are you looking for gifts for him, either your boyfriend, husband or you dad? Why not try looking for it at carguygarage.com? At carguygarage.com, there are over 1000 products to make the garage into another room in a house! Well, I do not mind some nice garage cabinet set! Haha.. so do remember to check out the website when looking for gifts for him.

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In lab in the wee hours

2007-10-08T01:16:00.000+10:00

Now is 1.15am Aussie time. And here I am still in this lab, doing my work - running a SDS-PAGE to be exact. Hmmm.. seems as though it would take another 1.5hours before I can go home. Well, hopefully I will be able to finish it and go home before 3am! Actually, I did came in to the lab earlier today, or I should say yesterday, in the afternoon. Did my experiments till around 8pm. But.... haiz.. I thought everything would go well, which I should have known better then to expect something good in an experiment! Anyway, I ran my soluble fractions for my protein expression in SDS-PAGE earlier on... but I didn't see any protein being over expressed at all! Argh... And so, after I reached home, and had my KFC dinner... I can't help but to ponder over it again and again... why? Is there protein expression? Is the protein in the insoluble fraction?! argh... I'm those kinda ppl that can think about some failed experiment throughout the day and night - I simply can't stop until I find out why. And so, here I am... came to lab again at 11.30pm to work on the problem, to troubleshoot it... hopefully the protein is in the insoluble fraction... haiz.. I shouldn't have any hope... no hope no disappointment... no hope, maybe good results will follow... no hope... don't hope...

Responsible gambling

2007-10-06T15:37:00.000+10:00

Well… I always enjoy a game or two of cards etc when it comes to festive season such as Chinese New Year. And especially when it comes to events such as World Cup that is held every four years, betting on my favorite team is sort of one to support my team and hopefully to get some cash in returns too! LOL…

According to bet365.com, they provide a range of online betting services through their online casino, sports betting facility such as soccer betting, interactive games sections as well as a dedicated online poker playing area. Furthermore, they provide a wallet system so that one can enjoy benefits from a wide range of services all in a single account! Of course, security is most important when it comes to money, and thus they have a secure online environment as well.

Enough said, though having a game or two to win some cash is enticing, but responsible gambling is what makes it fun and safe! Meaning that, set a baseline and spend only what is ‘extra’ and never ever use money that is set aside for daily livings etc for such gambling activities! It is only when people have a sense of responsibility where even the most dire game / activities can be fun and rewarding!

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My shirt has arrived!

2007-10-05T03:13:00.001+10:00

Yeah! Finally the shirt I ordered online has arrived today! I had previously order a shirt online last Wed (26 sep 07) from Jorge Cham's PhDcomics webby - a charcoal-coloured shirt that wasn't my first choice. But since the first choice that I wanted has already sold out, and that I find this current shirt that I bought is not that bad either, I decided to purchase this. Costed me US$17.50, and including the US$8.65 USPS first class international shipping fees, that amounts to a total of US$26.15! Wow... An expensive shirt huh! I guess partly it's because that the shirt is made of pure cotton as well. Anyway, since I use the money I earned from Payperpost to pay for this shirt, my heart isn't aching at all! =) Am going to wear that to school tomorrow!

Anyway, while I was home over the past weekend and public holiday Monday, there was this bird that likes to frequent my window ledge. As my desk/room is behind a curtain, the bird didn't see that I was actually watching it! Else I think it would have flew away. But, the bird was kinda noisy sometimes... happily chipping away... argh... maybe I should record down its voice, and play it back to the bird and see its response! Hahaha...

Well, here's a picture of the bird, and a picture of my desk (nothing better to do, so take a pic of my desk! Hahaha)

Coupons chief

2007-10-04T23:07:00.000+10:00

It’s already October, and soon Halloween will come, follow by Thanksgiving and Christmas! It’s truly a season to be jolly, and enjoyment! And it’s also a season of presents! Now what present would be a good one? Hmm… the fact that I can get great Travelocity deals from Coupon Chief, a well deserved holiday with Travelocity will be a good idea! And now since everyone of use has a present, how can we left out the cute little doggy in the house? Haha.. to get this dog a present is simple enough – just get her some food PetFoodDirect since she loves to eat! Furthermore, PetFoodDirect coupons are available from CouponChief.com as well. This sure is going to be a joyful season for all!

Get rich quick?! for real??

2007-10-02T03:29:00.000+10:00

Happened to come across this webby http://www.123easybiz.com/ while blog surfing etc... and hmmm... it is actually based on the Ultimate Wealth Package program that I had came across several times... hmmm... am quite tempted to try it out since I only need to pay $50, and I can do it using the money I earned from PPP. After all, those money from PPP are actually 'extra' money since even if I lost it to the scam it should be quite alright? Hmmm... has anyone actually try it before?

Maybe I'll try it and blog about it to tell people if this is really true! But $50 might be too much also... hmm... anyone wanna take the plunge and share with me to invest in this? We'll split the profits if it is really what it claim to be, else at least wouldn't lost too much money!!

-------------------updates--------------------------

My dear went to help to research on this Ultimate Wealth Program thingy... and apparent it aren't as good as what it claim. People have bought the program, only to find out that they need to folk out more money to invest in Google adwords. Check out this webby for more info http://www.affhelper.com/opinions/ultimate-wealth-package.html Hope this helps to deter people from falling prey to this scam! Thanks dear!

Forced to take a break

2007-10-01T23:36:00.000+10:00

Well, finally I'm forced to take a break after weeks of work without a single day of break. As my primers and reagents aren't here yet, that would mean that I can't do any work at all. So, I spent Sunday and Monday at home - Sunday being a weekend and Monday being Labor's Day in New South Wales/Australia. Hmmm... while I was busy with my work, I always long for a break in between. But now that I have a break finally, I feel bored, listless, nothing to do, just feel that my life is rotting away! Or maybe as people always say, which I believe since I have absolutely no luck in 4D or toto etc, that I have a 劳路命- just gotta work and work and work non-stop. But, maybe as what Cat had said, as long as we have luck in our line of work good enough. Might be quite true, but then if I have the luck to win like a million or two in toto, then I can just quit everything, sit back, and relax for the rest of my life!

Anyway, here are some of the video that I took during my Canberra trip.

HotelReservations.com

2007-10-01T15:38:00.000+10:00

Travel, one of my favorite but the most expensive hobby! But lately I realized that it might not be entirely so. There are numerous online travel website that allows one to book online, bypassing agents/middle man etc, and one get to choose from a whole array of travel services available. Indeed, I’m planning to go over to Cairns come this end of the year, and I should start researching on where to go, cheap hotels to stay etc.

Did a quick search on ‘Cairns’ in HotelReservations.com and out came a whole list of hotels and accommodations for vacation rentals as well! It’s good though that they have vacation rentals, as it is definitely more worth it to rent a whole place than to stay in hotel if one is intending to stay in a place long and with a large group! What’s more, these are internet rates, which mean you get the accommodation at a cheaper rate, up to 70% discount on normal rates!

They also provide a maximum of $100 rebate for booking accommodations with them as well. However, I personally think that it will very troublesome to claim this $100 rebate. Because I would still need to fill out the rebate form and mail it over to the US! And to get $100 rebate I would need to book 12 nights! Else for a normal 3 to 5 days booking, there will only be a rebate of $20-30; definitely not worth the effort to fill up the forms and send it over. But if one is from the US, I guess one would stand to gain!

Besides cheap hotels and vacation rentals, the Hotel Reservation website also offers flight bookings and car rental as well. But I think their rates for flights can be better improved. Nonetheless, Hotelreservations.com would certainly be one of the websites I’ll be looking through when I’m deciding for my accommodations in Cairns!

This post is proudly brought to you by HotelReservations.com

Canberra walkabout - super long post

2007-09-30T01:09:00.000+10:00

Canberra I saw, I heard, and I felt. Whoo hoo! Finally my Canberra trip has materialized and yesterday (28th Sept 2007) was the day! Woke up at about 6am, and left the house with OP, my housemate at around 6.45am. Since the school isn’t populated in such an early morning, I took the opportunity to take some iconic pictures of UNSW to start the day off. And what better icon for UNSW than the previous UNSW law library but currently general UNSW library? And another icon of UNSW would be the quite recent scientia.

Anyway, reached the main gate of UNSW at around 7.10am where the coach arrived just as we did. Jim boarded the bus about 5 minutes later. And within the next 5-10minutes, the bus was nearly full – there must have been like 25-30 people onboard. And finally, my walkabout to Canberra has begun! Yeah! Although I booked the tour through the International Student Service, the tour was conducted by the colourfultrips instead. Well, I quite recommend colourfultrips tour if you happen to be in Sydney, and based on my previous and current experiences, their tours were very good – friendly and knowledgeable tour guides and bus drivers.

Canberra is like more than 300km from Sydney, and so we slowly inched our way to the capital city of Australia. After passing the Botany Bay and suburbs like Campbelltown and travelling along the Hume highway through Australian bush, the tour guide, Debbie pointed out to us that the Wattle trees or also known as Acacia, that is along the divider in the highway is Australia’s National flora. And she also pointed out that Australia is experiencing extreme drought for the past 5 years, which is why the grass and some trees along the highway are all brown! And she further illustrated the extreme drought condition by saying that some areas in Australia hasn’t have rain for 4-5 years! And she carried on commenting that the animals and even little children less than 5 years of age who has never seen rain before were petrified when some rain did manage to fall in that area! LOL… So funny, but so sad too!

After like 1.5 hours into the journey, and before turning into the Federal Highway, we stopped by Goulburn for a 30minutes refreshment break. And the moment I step out of the coach, I was like “Wow!” because the wind was so strong that the jackets in my hands were nearly blown off! And what’s more, one can feel the resistance of the wind if you walk against it! LOL… Anyway, there were like MacDonald’s and Subway in the pit stop, and we (OP, Jim and me) decided to head off to Subway. Well, this was my first time trying out Subway, and it was a rather delicious experience! LOL… Tried their Ham and egg sandwich for just AUD$3.25 – pretty cheap and worth it! Anyway, it appears that each of these little suburbs/towns that specialized in a certain industry tends to build big statues/structures to celebrate their industry! And for Goulburn, their main industry involves sheep! Therefore, they have this big merino just beside Subway. And I’m an Aries… =)

So after our pit stop for our stomach, we branched off from Hume Highway into Federal Highway. And along Federal highway, we came across this vast stretch of flat green pasture where sheep were seen gazing. And it is so huge that this piece of flat green pasture covers one-third of the Australia Capital Territory (ACT)! And just as OP was wondering why there is like no development etc in such a flat piece of land e.g. probably a farm or something, the tour guide and the driver revealed the answer. According to them, this piece of lush flat green gazing pasture for sheep used to be a LAKE!

What!? A Lake!!? Did I hear wrongly?! Apparent it was called Lake George, and the water has receded several years ago due to the drought and thus this huge piece of land become a gazing land! Wow… simply unbelievable! And, the only time when it will be fill up will be during snow falls etc, and only to be evaporated soon enough as the lake is huge and swallow while the weather can be dry with strong winds. But seriously, unbelievable! Oh one question – if it rains or snow, what will happen to the sheep?? I hope they can escape out of the lake in time! LOL.

Anyway, about 45 minutes after Lake George, we crossed into the ACT. Yeah! Ok, for those who have no idea what ACT is, ACT refers to the Australia Capital Territory (sort of like a state), where its city Canberra is located. Specifically, Canberra is located in the Northeastern part of ACT. Anyway, first stop before going into Canberra after crossing into ACT – Mount Ainslie. Mount Ainslie is part of the Canberra Nature Park, and overlooks the whole Canberra city! Wow… the view is magnificent, and Canberra is so small!!! Hmm… probably Orchard Road in Singapore might be longer than Canberra! LOL… The red rectangular road is Anzac Parade which is part of the land axis, as will be mentioned later. And directly beyond the Anzac Parade after the river (water axis) is the old parliament house, followed by the new parliament house. And the jet of water shooting upwards to the sky over to the right of the river is Captain Cook’s memorial, as Captain Cook was the first Europeans to ‘discover’ Australia!

Anyway, Canberra is a city designed by Walter Griffin back in 1911 where an international competition was held to select the best city design. And according to his plan, there is this 3 axis that basically are the pillars of the city – Land, water, and municipal axis. All these 3 axis forms a parliamentary triangle where all the government offices such as the parliaments are located, and the ‘invisible triangle’ converge at Mount Ainslie.

After awing at the smallness of Canberra from Mount Ainslie, we proceeded to the Captain Cook’s memorial jet before walking a minute or two to the Floridae 2007 site. The Captain Cook’s memorial jet is simply just a stream of water that is being shot upwards towards the sky. As the wind are strong, you can see the water being blown away – either that, or that the jet is slightly tilted at an angle to make such an effect! But seriously, it isn’t any big deal – simply just a jet of water. But I guess what is nice is the tranquil lake that the memorial jet is in. And over at the far end, but still on the same side of the lake, there are some school kids rolling down the slope! LOL… Not that they were accidental being pushed down, but they deliberately lie down on the grassy slope and start rolling down! LOL… looks like they were having so much fun! Anyway, there were also some flowering sakura trees along the bank as well – beautiful, but I’m not really a fan of sakura! LOL… But still it’s hard to resist taking photographs of these beautiful flowers!

Soon we headed to the Floridae 2007 site. Wow! There are simply so many flowers!! Red, purple, yellow, white, big, small – flowers every where! Coupled with the afternoon sun, their colours were even more attractive and bright. Simply gorgeous, but the organizers should have put the names of the flowers on the flower beds as well! All throughout the exhibition, I could only recognize tulips, and I kept wondering what the rest of the flowers were! So, you can forget about asking me what the flowers in my pictures are!

Probably you think I’m bragging, but I seriously think that the pictures of the flowers were very nicely taken. I would say they look very professional! LOL… Seriously I didn’t realize that they will turn out so well. After all, I’m an amateur when it comes to photography. Armed with only a digital Casio EX-Z850 camera, I know nuts about lightings etc when it comes to taking pictures. Hmm… which is my favorite picture? Hmm… it’s really very difficult to decide which is my favorite as they are all so well taken! LOL… Hmm… but among all the flowers in Floridae, the one I like most would be the yellow tulip. And… I still cannot choose which of the following picture I like best! Argh… Maybe the yellow tulip picture is the nicest. No, the one with the truck in it is nice as well, having the different colour schemes within the same picture. Hmmm… no… one on the flower buds is very nice too, so that might be my favorite… but wait, I think I prefer the tulip… No… yes…. Argh!!!

But one thing is for sure – the Floridae wasn’t as big as I though it will be! And the flowers were predominantly tulips. Therefore I think it would be nicer to have more varieties as well. And, according to the organizers, their theme was ‘Aussie icons and myth’. So naturally I expected to see flowers arranged into designs of Aussie icons like the opera house etc, but I guess my expectation was too high for them! They have opera house alright. But it is made of clothes with some kind of plants growing on it. Yucks… how disappointing! I really wonder what the organizers were thinking!

So, after spending about an hour and thirty minutes in the floridae, we bided farewell and headed back to our coach. We next proceed to the new parliament house where parliamentary debates are held, and bills are debated. However there was no parliamentary session when we visited, else we would be able to see how the debates are, and see the Prime Minister of Australia live! LOL… To sidetrack a bit, lots of people hate the current primer minister John Howard, and I personally don’t think he will be reelected in the upcoming elections as well. If I’m an Australian, I will definitely not vote for him! LOL… Anyway, the parliamentary guide briefed us on the history of Canberra, Australia’s parliament, and talked about their voting system as well. Thereafter, she brought us to the two houses of the parliament. Parliament in Australia is very different from that of Singapore. In Australia, there is a House of Representative, as well as the Senate. According to the guide, all bills that involves money has to go through the House of Representative, while the Senate deals mostly with non-financial issues e.g. moral issues such as stem cell cloning etc. And in the House of Representative, each member of the house represents a certain number of the electorate, and doesn’t take the area of the land into account. In the Senate however, each state will have equal representation, and the total number of members in the Senate should be as close to halve of the Representative number as possible. In this case, equal representation within the Senate will give states with less popularity an equal voice in the parliament as well. Anyway, we concluded our parliamentary tour by going to the roof of the parliament house. And the view from the roof is spectacular! Initially in the morning, we looked at the parliament houses from Mount Ainslie and in the afternoon we were looking at Mount Ainslie from the roof of the parliament house! LOL… Truly spectacular view…

Next in the itinerary is to look at the different national embassies that were in Canberra. Well, I guess the easiest embassy to recognize would be China embassy! This is because the architectural design of their roof – typical Buddhist temple touch, and having a garden with pavilions and bamboos if I’m not wrong! Singapore’s embassy is well… plain and very governmental style of building… how disappointing!

So, final stop of the day – Australian War Memorial. Our coach reached the War memorial at around 4.05pm if I’m not wrong, and so that leave us less than an hour to browse through the stuffs in the memorial. Well, essentially the Australian War memorial is to commemorate Australians who died during the wars and in particular the two world wars. In fact, there is this ‘tomb of the unknown soldier’ where an unknown Australian soldier lies. But strangely enough, the tomb reminds me of India’s Taj Mahal when looking at it from the outside the tomb! LOL… Anyway, the war memorial also includes exhibitions of WWI and WWII relics, and anything related to that. I was looking through them with interest, but time didn’t permit me to look through everything. By 4.50pm we were asked to leave the exhibition to gather in front of the tomb for the bugle call titled ‘Last Post’. Well, it was an apt way to end our tour to Canberra as well.

Basically, I had fun and the tour was very informative and an eye-opener as well. Awed at the size of Canberra, saw lotsa of flowers, taken hundreds of pictures, learned about Australia parliamentary system, visited the tomb of an unknown soldier – all for a price of only AUD$79. It is definitely money well spent, and most importantly, I enjoyed myself. =) And finally, ended the day with the sight of a full round moon on the way back to Sydney from Canberra, as mid-autumn festival was just a couple of days before the trip – it is always a couple of days after the mid-autumn festival where the moon is the brightest and roundest. Lastly, head on to my online photo album to see all the 130 pictures for the Canberra trip! =)

Dial a flight

2007-09-27T01:07:00.000+10:00

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Dry ice bomb

2007-09-27T00:31:00.000+10:00

Gosh, people might mistake me to be a terrorist with this post! LOL… I am not ok? Even if I am, I would be a terrorist against those freaking terrorist that kills the innocent. Who knows, I might just place a dry ice bomb to scare them off! Anyway, in our lab, the correlation between dry ice and a sudden ‘boom’ is pretty simple and straightforward – someone had made a dry ice bomb! Due to the nature of our work, we require reagents to be delivered to us at cold temperature at -80 degrees Celsius to be exact. And therefore what the vendor/supplier does is to put our enzymes or reagents in a dry ice-filled Styrofoam box for delivery to our lab. And being mischievous people at times, or simply being nuts from all our experimental work, we tend to go crazy. And crazy people do stupid things, which include making dry ice bombs and putting them nearby an unsuspecting victim. And the next thing you know… boom! And the victim will be like: “what the hell?!”. LOL… You know what is the best part? The best part is that the bomb is literally traceless. No one can trace the bomb to you unless the bomber own up – ‘cos the whole bomb would have disintegrated without a trace!

Now, how do I make the dry ice bomb? Hmmm… I don’t think I will disclose any details, as it can be quite dangerous as well. And people might get hurt too! Anyway, HuiFen was like commenting that she has no idea how the bomb was made, or how it works. So, I made one and left it on her table. Of course, I let her know in advance as I wouldn’t want any nasty thing to happen! As my bomb was rather of a low dosage, it takes like a minute or two to explode. Meanwhile, I happen to went over to look at it to see why it hadn’t ‘boom!’… and I saw that it’s going to happen soon! And so I walked away. At this moment Huifen decided to take it up to have a look, and I said “be careful!”.

‘Boooom!’

The dry ice bomb went off.

She was quite shocked when it goes off, but luckily she never really faced the bomb. So, it can get quite dangerous to unsuspecting victims! Anyway, am glad that nothing nasty happen and I was laughing away as well… LOL… I know I’m bad… but she’s really very unlucky! The moment she hold it and it went ka-boom! Not a moment earlier or later! Maybe she can buy 4D already.

Since it has past midnight, I will be going to Canberra tomorrow! Yeah!!!

Ashop Commence shopping cart

2007-09-26T01:12:00.000+10:00

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Good old children's tv program and Food

2007-09-24T00:13:00.000+10:00

Haven’t had a rest day for 3 consecutive weeks already – but yet my work has bounced back to square 1! Sqqquare One! LOL… this reminds me of an ancient children educational show akin to Sesame Street, called Square One. I remember watching the show, but couldn’t really remember what it was all about. But one thing I vividly remember is the slogan: Sssqquareee… One! LOL… Hmm… a search in Wikipedia reveals that it was a television show that teaches children maths, back in 1987 to 1992! Oh gosh, that is like 20 years ago! I am really old, very old, very very old. And you can check out what Square one is all about in this webby. =) And if it rings a bell, it means you are ‘O’ ‘L’ ‘D’! Hahaha…

Speaking of such dinosaur age children educational television program, I remember watching this show called ‘Lamb chop play along’ or something like that… Can’t really remember if that is the exact title, but there is this song that was kinda stuck to the back of my head ever since I saw the program. And the song has this phrase ‘lamb chop play along… ‘and sometimes when I’m bored etc, the tune will inevitably creep up on me! LOL… scary huh… Let me see if I can wiki it out….Oh! Found it! Hahaha… Oh boy, it sure brings back memories… and the ending theme is called ‘The song that never ends’ and I remembered that it literally is a song that goes on and on forever! Haha… check out the video! LOL… My gosh… I really miss the good old children’s television program! Two thumbs up for Lamb chop play along!!

Song that doesn't end...

Lamb chop play along!

Anyway, I have been on a craze with canned peanut soup, and cookies from the October Fifth Bakery (十月初五饼家) lately! The peanut soup is really yummy – the peanuts are soft, and the soup is sweet but not too sweet. And a can of it cost only AUD$1.75! Have been eating it after my dinner as a dessert… yummy yummy. And as I was doing my groceries in Randwick oriental, I came across this very stylish packaging, for cookies. It came across as high ended sorta biscuits (especially since there are French words on the packaging as well), or at least the brand should be quite famous in Macau. But I may be wrong. But anyway, the coconut cookies are nice and crunchy and there are many other varieties to choose from. So, I think my craze with the cookies will go on for quite a while.

Talking about food, I managed to try the ‘Penang Laksa’ that was located in Mathews Arcade in UNSW, on the very last day of it’s operation! The Arcade was to be closed for renovations etc on last Friday, and hearing how Dom was praising it like some heavenly food, Cat, and I decided to give it a try since we haven’t tried it before. Together with other students in the lab like Huifen, and friends like Kuan, we headed down to the Arcade to try it. I ordered a beef laksa, and guess how much it cost? It cost a freaking AUD$7! Gosh… that reminds me of why I never have lunch at all. Having a decent 3 meals a day in Australia would cost a bomb! Anyway, the laksa was quite yummy, and the beef were quite tender too. On top of the beef slices, there were beef balls too… nice… but I don’t think that is really laksa, or least according to the Singaporean standard. It looks and taste more like beef curry noodles to me! At the very minimum, I think Laksa should have a characteristic reddish-based soup (due to the use of chilly oil?). However, this ‘Penang Laksa’ has a brownish kinda soup, sorta like those curry noodles. I have no idea if it is really an authentic piece of Penang culinary, but bottom line – it is a yummy bowl of beef noodles! =)

Anglian Home Improvements

2007-09-18T23:31:00.000+10:00

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Busy busy busy

2007-09-18T03:25:00.000+10:00

Had been rather busy for this couple of weeks, and hadn’t had a rest day at all since like 15 days ago? Yeah, it should be somewhere around there. Why? Because my experiments are proceeding nicely forward (shhh…. Keep it to yourself, else if you let it know that you know it’s working, it will purposely fail!), and that I’m rushing to complete as much as possible before I come back to Singapore come Jan 2008 – I had a schedule to adhere to. Furthermore, Rick said somewhere along the line that it’s up to me if I wanna go back to Singapore during Jan 2008 and he is ok with me taking 6-weeks off my work. BUT, as long as work is being done and is progressing, and ultimately the project/PhD is mine! Argh well… I sense some undercurrent going on, but heck, I will take it as it is on the surface. I hate having to guess the subtle meanings behind a conversation. Furthermore, although I always come into the lab around 11am-1pm, I sacrifice my lunch hours and stayed till 7-8pm at times to do my work, and even come back to the lab over the weekends as well. It is just that he didn’t see it, but still my conscious is clear – in that I work hard and that things weren’t going too well before. It’s not that I don’t want to do my work etc… But anyway, I will continue to work hard and I just hope that they aren’t many hurdles for me to cross, and have at least achieve my targets before going back to Singapore.

Anyway, even if I were to slack, it is ok to do so as according to Jorge Cham! LOL… the power of procrastination can lead to great things! And as he mentioned, procrastination is not equivocal to lazy, but rather taking things at a much slower pace, and thereby allowing yourself to reflect more on a certain problem etc… LOL… Just as Newton is procrastinating under the apple tree and not doing work, he came up with the law of gravity! And, how about Kary Mullis? While procrastinating in his car, cruising along the Pacific Coast Highway, he comes up with the concept of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), now an essential tool in molecular biological work and Kary Mullis was thus awarded the Nobel Prize. So, maybe I should procrastinate as well! LOL… Anyway, the talk by Jorge Cham on last Monday (10th Sept 2007) is really hilarious. Really brings out the worries of a PhD student in a comical way, and yes, we are not alone! Or rather, I am not the only PhD student with problems. And one thing that was mentioned, and I remembered vividly was – successful researchers or Professors weren’t successful because of their work when they were PhD students! They were successful for their work after their PhD candidature! This is really quite true, and it’s so simple that I didn’t realize it! Another point that I remembered was on the stipend that PhD student received in the US a few years back. Generally speaking, a PhD student would only earn $15 more annually if you compared it with a person who works in MacDonald’s instead! LOL… See? We are just poor students! LOL… I really enjoyed that talk, and I bought the whole series (3 books) of PhD comics. Had Jorge Cham autographed on one of the book, and had to wait for the other 2 books to arrive from US… I hope they arrive soon!

Anyway, my little collection of the plant life in Australia! Enjoy! =)

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Argh.. couldn't get Flickr to display the flickr badge here within a post! Anyone knows how to do it?? Or, just go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/tummybear to look through the pictures! ARgh....

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2007-09-17T00:50:00.000+10:00

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