First Week of School is Always So Sian

Didn't have any mood to write anything even though I had plenty of time over the past few days. In fact, I was so sick and tired of watching movies on my laptop yesterday that I went over to Chris's place to get the cookie mix to bake. Ok ok I know using cookie mix is cheating but what other choice do I have? I have no mixer or weighing scales here and I don't have any intention of buying them. After all I'll only be here for 2 years, so why waste the money? I did buy a vegetable chopper for $4 today though. What the hell, it was cheap and I am so sick of chopping onions and garlic manually. The garlic smell stays on your hands for days after and it takes ages to go away. So you'll end up smelling garlic everytime you bring your hands to your face and you wonder whether the people around you can smell it too. How embarrassing if you were in the lecture theatre and people starting moving away from you or holding their breath?

I tried to be healthy this week. I went for a walk with my housemates and Chris on Tuesday and went swimming on Thursday, effectively skipping my tutorial. Now I'll have to make up for that tutorial tomorrow. Surprisingly I did miss swimming and it felt good to be under the water again. However, I found it weird that I seemed to swim much slower than usual. Was it because the water is different here, maybe more dense? Did I gain so much weight that now I move like a slug under the water? Or maybe my long hair is creating too much resistance under the water? Whatever the reason, I found it enormously tiring to pull myself through the water and it felt like I was moving an inch for every stroke. It was good exercise though, my legs were wobbly after I swam 20 laps and I was exhausted. I started getting aches yesterday and it felt good. I have finally done something good for my body. I hope I'll be able to continue swimming and walking at least 3 times a week. With my predictably busy schedule coming up soon, I might just find myself reverting back to the lazy, couch potato me in a few months time and I don't want that to happen. Oh yes, I'll be playing tennis this Friday with Mag!!! I can't wait...I'm really excited. I miss tennis so much...I miss the smell of the balls, the grip of the handle, the vibrations that travel up your arms when the ball hits the sweet spot of the racquet and even the running and sweating. Yes I especially miss the sweating. Back home when we would train so hard that we would be dripping sweat off our noses and our entire T-shirts were soaked...sweating was much more effortless in S'pore. Over here, you really have to go the extra mile just to squeeze a little sweat from your pores. Also, my skin and lips have become extremely dry. I have to moisture everyday and go through the oily feeling where you leave traces of yourself all over the table and computer. Yucks...I hate cleaning away all the oil stains and it gets really troublesome when the oil gets onto small stuff like your wallet or handphone.

On Friday, after school, Chris and I went down to West End to check out a sushi buffet recommended by Mag. The price was average at $12 per person but the food was average. This wasn't the kind of sushi restaurant where they have the moving sushi plates on a belt. Instead you have to stand up and walk to the buffet table to get whatever you wanted. The range of sushi was limited too. I guess when you compare this to Suki Sushi in S'pore, this place really sucks. I miss having free-flow sashimi and unagi. I miss having free-flow lime juice and just sitting there, stretching out your arms to grab a plate.

Chris and I have been more adventurous lately. It can't be helped. After being here for 1 semester, we've become bored of visiting the same old places all the times. Now we want to explore and visit new places and eat different food. Hence, we went down to Milton today to a eatery called Singapura. Obviously, the place sells S'porean food and it was pretty good. I have Hainan chicken rice while Chris ordered Hokkien mee. The chicken rice was good, the rice was fragrant and soft, the chilli was tasty and the chicken was tender. I never thought that I would enjoy it so much considering the fact that we actually can buy chicken rice paste and cook it on our own. Yum....it must be the chilli. The mee was good too, only that they gave really tiny prawns and there was no sambal. I preferred the rice. The prices were not too expensive either, average price was only $7. I wonder how they prepare the sauce they pour over the chicken after cutting it up. That seems to be the key ingredient to make the chicken taste good. Now that I think about it, I also miss claypot chicken rice. This is one of the things I'll be eating when I get back. In fact, I'll probably have a whole list of food to savour once I step off the plane....wahahaha....no worries, I already have friends offering to go food hunting with me. Weirdly enough, they are all guys....ahahhaah.....

Heart Going Be-bop Be-bop

Another sleepless night for me. I tried lying down and forcing myself to sleep but thoughts kept flooding my mind and I feel more awake than ever. I'm worrying, I worry about this semester, I worry about my grades, I worry about my projects, I worry about the seminars I will have to give, I worry about my honours program, I worry about my life. I hate this! I don't usually worry much; like my mum says, I am a happy-go-lucky person. But every once in a while, these burdens come crashing down on me and I feel stressed. I know that these worries will come and go and I may have put them behind me tomorrow. Still, they are a part of me and I will never be rid of them. I miss the young me who never worried about these things. Worrying is part of growing up, part of showing responsibility and taking control of your life. Unfortunately, I wish I could be like Peter Pan and never grow up. Then I wouldn't have all these complicated but necessary thoughts mushing up my brain.

I actually locked myself out today. I thought this would never happen to me but it did. It was mostly due to my forgetfulness and carelessness. Thank god Wan Shi heard me ringing the bell and thank god David (the management guy who lives just opposite me) is back from his holidays and could open my room door for me. Otherwise I could be bunking with Chris or sleeping in the living room tonight. My heart was racing when I stood at the door downstairs and realised with horror that I had left my key in my room and had even instructed Chris to lock my room door for me. What an idiot I am! Guess my perfect record of never forgetting my keys has been broken today. Strike 1 for me!! I just pray that it doesn't happen again. I don't think my heart can take it...hhahahahaha....

First Day of School

I think I've been quite conscientious this week, updating my blog almost every day and sometimes even twice a day. Hmm...today was good. Great, in fact. I usually dread the first day of school because you never know what to expect. New classes, new faces, new buildings, new rooms and new lecturers. Who knows whether you will make any new friends this time or will you become one of those who enter the room, sit there for 50 minutes then leave the room inconspicously? These people are practically invisible and only interact when it's absolutely necessary during the tutorials or practicals. I know, because I have met such people before and I was once like that. Now that I have "come out of my shell", I never want to go back. Seriously, for those who knew me within the past 4 years, you would have never recognised me before these 4 years. I have changed, not entirely, but at least for the better.

Going to class for my 4 new subjects, I look around and see many familiar faces. Some of them I've never talked to before but I recognise them as students from previously lectures or practicals. Some I know casually but it's good to know someone anyway. It makes you feel less lost and alone. I think I really took for granted having the same class and bunch of friends back in poly. At least then, you knew you would meet a friend no matter what.

Well, today, I have 4 new contacts to add into my handphone, email and MSN. 2 of these contacts I had met last semester but I never knew them well. They were "hi-bye" friends but it was good to get to know them better. The other 2, I was kind of forced to get their contacts because they are going to be in my project group for this whole semester. Looks like it'll be an interesting project group because I'm the only girl and these 2 guys, well, they are Taiwanese and I hope they are not the slacker kind. This project is important since the subject is non-examinable and it consists of 70% of the total score. I also met a guy from last semester who has 3 same subjects as me. Guess I'll be seeing a lot of him. He's also in my project group....hahahaha....

Chris is going to change her subjects. So now she'll have 2 same subjects as me. Now I have a good study buddy and someone to disturb during lessons. Whahaha....I'm exhilarated!!!

Back to School

Time flies. School starts tomorrow. I have 3 8 am days but this semester's timetable is more relaxed than last semester's. I only have 18 hours as compared to 21 hours. I dread waking up at 7 plus in the mornings though. It's still winter and winter is expected to end later this year. So if all goes well, I'll be enjoying winter until September. Woohoo!!! That's great. It means that I'll get more cool months and less hot months. Hopefully I'll be able to avoid all the hot months while I'm back in S'pore. The only problem is that I hate waking up and leaving my bed early in the morning to wash up with cold water, drink cold milk and feel the cold air against my skin.

My sister starts uni tomorrow too. Somehow it feels so surreal; like a dream. I can't believe she's such a big girl already. My memory of her are those where she's still a small skinny kid who plays badminton and likes to fight with me. I can't imagine that she is old enough to attend uni and is already moving out to stay in the hostel. I hope she does ok. I wish I could call her and talk to her. Tonight is her first night in the hostel. I wonder if she will feel lonely and homesick because this was how I felt when I first came here. Being all alone in a foreign country, travelling on the plane by myself, going through immigration feeling lost and watching out for the man picking me out, whom I remember vaguely but never really talked to before. Then, going to his house and meeting his family, I had never felt so alone before, especially going to bed in a strange room and feeling awkward moving around the house. Well, she's luckier than I am. She has a roommate whose also our neighbour and we have known her and her brother for 10+ years now. She is still in S'pore and can contact her friends or mummy and daddy any time she wants. She gets to go home every weekend.

I talked to my sister, mum and dad over MSN today. We talked for almost 2 and a half hours but somehow it's still not enough. My dad was eating langsat in front of the webcam and he was telling me how sweet it was. How mean was that? It's bad enough that I miss local food and fruits but tempting me whilst talking to me? I can't wait to go home.

The last night of freedom before school starts. We cooked something new today. Laksa! It was good and there was ice cream and Steph's cheesecake for dessert. Mildred is back and she came up to pass me my stationary. Yay!!! Now I have my note-taking pens and I feel more confident already. I didn't get to talk to her much because the guys were here too. At that moment where everyone was chatting to someone, it felt like a mini-party with lots of socializing going on.

I wonder what this semester has in store for me. I won't have any same classes as Chris. I hope I see some familiar faces in class tomorrow. There's a lot more project work this semester as well. I think I'd better sleep early and wake up early. I still need to get out early to find my lecture rooms.

P.S. My sandfly bites still have not healed. They still itch like crazy, especially at night. I wonder if I'll have to make another appointment at the doctor's?

Tuesday - Driving Test Part 2

We went down to the student centre to get the letter written. Thank goodness the queue wasn't too long. Getting the letter was easy, although the lady did a typo and put me as a student of IT. Hmm, I wonder where she even saw the words Information Technology in my student page. I wanted to get the letter changed but looking at the queue, I guess it wasn't that important. Haha lazy to queue up again. Besides, I only need the letter to prove my address.

We took the bus down to the city, went to the transport centre and took a queue number. Queueing again! This time, there were about 30 numbers in front of us so we decided to go to Big W opposite the centre while waiting. I planned to buy a packet of mini Boost chocolates for my sister but it was sold out. I guess Aussies can be kiasu too. Chris, as usual, grabbed a gossip magazine and couldn't put it down. I went to the food court to check out the food since I hadn't had my lunch. Wow the curry from the Jap stall smelt great. The prices were cheap too but the queue was really long. Another queue!!! We went back to the centre, after finally getting Chris to put down her mag, and it was our turn next. Pretty lucky for us. We went to separate counters, showed our documents and took the test. Sigh, sad for me, I failed!! By just 2 questions!!! Oh well, the questions were tricky. What a bummer, now I have to come back again to retake the test. Chris passed by the way, and she had her photo taken for the card with her brand new shirt. Hao lian lah....hahhaa....

Monday - Driving Test Part 1

Chris and I went down to the city, with every intention of taking the driving theory test but when we took our ticket and waited our turn, the lady at the counter told us that they did not accept bank statements as proof of address. Alamak, what a hassle! Now we had to go back with nothing, go down to school and get them to write a letter confirming our addresses before we could come back and take the test. Mah fan, mah fan, mah fan!!! Since we were already in the city, we decided to catch a movie. Might as well right? So we walked to South Bank to watch House of Wax. Another lame show unfortunately. Having Paris Hilton in the show does not make it better. In fact, she is just a Barbie doll in it. Her most exciting scenes are when she strips down to a pair of red underwear for her boyfriend and when she gets killed. The bad guy throws a stake right through her forehead and then goes to pull out the stake. I was thinking that she looks exactly like a store mannequin in that scene. There were 2 other lame scenes. I'm sorry but I couldn't help laughing at the idiocy of the female lead. She was captured by 1 of the bad guys and he locked her up in the basement. She was tied up on a chair with her mouth sealed shut with superglue and her arms were bound with tape. She managed to pull 1 of her arms free at the same time her brother comes looking for her. Her arm still has a metal bar stuck on due to the tape. So her brother is confronting the bad guy upstairs and he doesn't know that he is bad. She hears her brother talking to the guy so she tries to get his attention. How does this do-do try to attract attention? She finds an opening and sticks her index finger out. She wiggles her finger like a worm hoping that her brother will notice a tiny part of it sticking out of the grate. Too bad for her, the bad guy sees it first and he promptly stands in front of the finger to block it. He manages to convince her brother that his sister wasn't there and when the brother turns away, he bends down, takes a pair of pliers out and cuts off her finger. Wahahaha....I was guessing that he would stomp on her finger but cutting it off was better. Come on, where's her common sense man?? Sticking out your finger especially when you know there's a sadistic killer up there is plain stupid. She could have banged the metal bar on the grate and made some noise instead. Or even better, she could have opened her lips before sticking out her finger and shouting for help (she opened her lips after her finger was cut off). Another stupid scene without a hint of common sense was when the girl's boyfriend got caught by the bad guy and he was turned into a wax statue. The boyfriend was obviously still alive because you could see his eyes moving. A friend comes into the room and realises that his friend has been waxified, hahhahaa....He wants to get his friend out of the wax so he tries pulling the wax off his face. Guess what? His skin comes off with the wax and you get to see the poor guy's muscles and teeth. The friend freaks out and goes on pulling even though it's obviously not helping him and the friend should be running for his life anyway instead of wasting time peeling wax + skin. I know I would. Oh well, maybe the director wanted it this way so that it would extend camera time on the guy's face falling off.

After the movie, we met the other guys outside the cinema and they were going for Sin City. Personally I thought that Sin City didn't seem too interesting. I didn't understand the trailer so I thought it was no big deal. I guess Jessica Alba is 1 of the few attractions the movie has to offer.

Dinner with him at Sizzler's. I gave him a treat. He is graduating already and leaving next week for good. I envy him. He gets to go home. I miss S'pore and M'sia, especially when my mum and dad called me when they were in M'sia in our new house and my dad was telling me about all the new plans he was going to do. He's going to get a pond in the garden just under his bedroom window. He did so many changes to the house, I think I'll probably won't be able to recognise it when I get back. It'll be about 1 year old by then. We're getting a dog too. A male german shepard about 1 plus years old. He's getting it from his friend who breeds german shepards and dobermans. At first the friend wanted to give us the doberman but it scares me and it's not friendly at all. At least the german shepards are more sociable and approachable. I still remember the male getting all excited seeing us come and he came right up to us to greet us. He also gave me a souvenir; a nice muddy paw-print on my white tennis show. Haha...he's sweet. I can't wait to go home to meet him. I love big dogs. Opps, I've digressed too much. Anyway, Sizzler was alright but I didn't enjoy the salad bar. There was nothing there that appealed to me. They didn't even have chicken or mushroom soup. Instead there was minestrone (yucks) and pumpkin (ewww). I only ate some potato, fruits and sticky date pudding. The pudding was superb!!! I've never tried this before and I loved it. I had 3 helpings, haha. My main course was ok; I had barramundi but it seemed a little tough. The mashed potatoes were nice though and I polished bit off even though I was really full. He had steak but medium rare. All the blood put me off. I only eat my steak well done. After dinner, we went back to my place where we chatted for a few hours and then he left. I enjoy talking to him (or is it more like listening to him?). He usually talks and I listen. Oh well, there are friends for talking and friends for listening. I guess, I'm his listening friend.

Sunday - A New Old Computer

I had sent my computer over to the guys' place for reformatting. I was kinda reluctant to do so. After all, I had managed to survive with my virus-infected computer for so long, I was pretty much used to it already. But, these things have to be done, no matter sooner or later. Sigh, so backing up all my files into cds, I lamented the fact that I would lose certain files no matter how well I saved my stuff. Oh well, at least I'll be getting back a computer that gives me less problems. I'm supposed to take my theory test for driving on Monday. No mood to study at all. It's the holidays for god's sake!!!

Saturday - Going Somewhere Different for a Change

Waking up at 7 am on a Saturday, I was going to the Brisbane Market with my housemates, Chris and Mr Tan. The Brisbane Market only opens on Saturday between 6 am to 12 pm. We had passed by the place on our way to Sunnybank on Wednesday and since we hadn't been there before, we decided to take a look. The weird thing about that place is that we had to pay $1 entrance fee. I mean, we are going in there to buy stuff so why did we have to pay money to enter a place where we were going to spend more money? The place looked big when we passed by on the bus but it actually wasn't that big. There were about 5 long aisles. There were many stalls selling plants and I saw these really cute plants with pretty flowers. The colours were beautiful and I couldn't resist buying 2 pots. I bought 1 with bright yellow flowers and another with blue, violet and white flowers. They cost me only $3.50 altogether. Haha, Chris also bought 2 pots and Wan Shi got 1 pot with very pretty orange flowers. Too bad I hate orange but I still can admire her flowers. They mostly sold fruits and veggies at cheap prices. We walked around slowly, checking out the cheap prices. I bought a packet of red chillies, ginger, sweet potatoes and strawberries (chillies and ginger are expensive in stores, I seldom see sweet potatoes and it's almost strawberry season). I also got a cup of fresh orange juice with lots of pulp (orange juice sold here are always pulp-free). We shared a nice plate of big breakfast for $5.50 which included 2 eggs, 2 pieces of bread, bacon, tomato, onions, 1 hashbrown and 1 sausage. It was a nice change to explore Brisbane for once. At least I don't keep going back to the same few places all the time.

Friday - Doctor Visit

I've been munching a packet of chips distractedly wondering why my sweet and sour chips are tasting unusually extra sour. When I came out from my bath, I realised that I bought the wrong flavour. I had bought salt and vinegar instead. I hate salt and vinegar!!! I can't believe I kept eating even though I did wonder why it tasted so weird. I'm going to have to give that packet away. I must have been distracted watching repeated old episodes of The Simpsons. I've been trying to find the episode where Mr Burns sends Smithers away for a vacation and ends up having to learn and do everything himself. I wanted to let Chris hear Mr Burns say, "Ah Hoy Hoy" whenever he picks up the phone. It's different to hear him say that in a chirpy tone when you normally think of Burns as a mean old man.

Now back to last week...

Friday:
We originally planned to drive down to Gold Coast but we hadn't booked a car beforehand. We decided to wake up at 8.30 am and call up the car rental but at 8.30 am, Chris called to tell me that Mr Tan was having a headache. I wasn't feeling too good either. I have been losing sleep for the past 2 nights. I have these bites on my feet and they itch like mad. I keep waking up to scrtach them and I think I got them from standing outside for 1 hour plus chatting on Wednesday. Hence, after the Gold Coast trip was cancelled, I called the school's clinic to make an appointment to see the doctor.

Down at the doctor's, I saw Dr David King and he was really nice. He took my feet up and prodded at them. He said that he wasn't sure if they were insect bites or rashes but they looked a lot more like insect bites. However he said that they weren't mosquito bites and they looked like sandfly bites. Then he went on to tell me all about the life cycle of the mosquito and the sandfly and how they usually are not active during winter because of the cold and stuff. He sat there and talked to me for about 20 minutes even though our appointment was only for 15 minutes. He was great and it was nice that he bothered about me even when my medicine didn't need a prescription. He wrote down some anti-histamine names and anti-itch cream for me to show to the pharmacist. I left the clinic and went down to the school's pharmacy and bought some anti-itch cream for $9.50. The pharmacy here is really cut-throat, all the stuff they sell are overpriced. Anyway the cream didn't help much. My feet still itch but I guess the bites are slowly healing on their own. I counted and I have about 45 bites on both feet. Oh well, I just have to wait it out and in the meantime, try not to scratch if I can.

Updates for the past week - Wednesday - Dim Sum

Once again, I apologise for not updating my blog over the past week. Plenty has happened within the week but I've been both busy and lazy. I also got my computer reformatted over the weekend and now I don't have anymore stupid pop-ups or viruses. I can finally use my task manager (Ctrl Alt Del).

Hmm....I think I'll slowly update my entire week on this blog. It'll take me ages because so many new things have happened. For one, I've become much closer to the guys and my housemates. I've really spent much quality time with them this hols. OK, because I have so much to write, I'll probably take ages to write everything down. I'll start from last Wednesday and work my way slowly up till today. Readers, you may have to come back and check if this post is incomplete.

Wednesday:
I went for dim sum at Sunnybank with my housemates, Tommy, Wan Shi and Steph. We went out pretty early, about 9.30 am. Don't laugh...9.30 am is early for me. When I can afford it, I usually sleep till past noon. Besides, during winter, the mornings are really cold and I never feel like leaving the comfort and warmth of my bed. As expected, the morning air was chilly and the wind made it worse. However it's still nothing compared to Melbourne so I'm not complaining. We took a different route down to Sunnybank, going from Toowong instead of the city. I guess this is a better route because we save a lot more on bus fare. We arrived early at the dim sum restaurant. I heard that Sunnybank is known as "Little Taiwan" in Brisbane and no wonder, you see Chinese faces everywhere and it feels weird to hear different dialects when you walk around. Anyway the dim sum place people spoke mostly Cantonese. A few of the waitresses spoke Mandarin though. At least I had Tommy and Wan Shi who were Cantonese experts, Tommy being a Hong Kie and Wan Shi speaking the language back home. Wow the food was great. I got to eat all my favourites, plus a few new items. Of course, the compulsory dishes for me were chicken feet, pork ribs with black beans, siu mai, har gao and chee chong fun. Steph and Wan Shi kept raving about the egg tarts there. Apparently it was supposed to be great but when the waitress came with the eggs tarts, she only had 3 left and they sold them in sets of 2. So we took 1 set and decided to let Steph and Wan Shi eat first while Tommy and I wait for them to get more. I also learnt that lor mai kai is not the same as lor mai fan. In fact, in Hong Kong, lor mai fan is equivalent to our lor mai kai. Lor mai kai to them is the lotus leaf rice. Sigh, in the end, we were too full to eat any egg tarts so we ended up da-baoing them. Steph went to ask the waitress how much it cost to da-bao and due to her terrible Cantonese, she misheard/misunderstood and thought that each egg tart was only 20 cents. In our excitement, we ordered 10 egg tarts until we found out that actually 1 set of egg tarts cost $3.50. Alamak....!!! Like that is too expensive to da-bao 10! So we asked another waiter to change the order but it was too late. The waitress had already come out with the 10 egg tarts and when we told her that we only wanted 6, she gave us that pissed off-so troublesome-give me extra work to do kind of look but WHATEVER!!! She can't force us to pay for the extra egg tarts. We made a hasty exit after that. Seriously, what is it with these dim sum waitresses??? Most of them have this sulky look as if they were forced to work there and cannot stand interacting with the customers. I'm not just referring to Brisbane. I notice that this is the case for S'pore and Malaysia. Weird isn't it? It's just something I cannot understand.

After brunch, we went out separate ways. Steph and I headed to Yuen's Market to get Asian groceries. The funniest thing is, we both concluded that we didn't have much things to get, but going in, Steph went berserk. Hahaha, it still tickles me when I think about it. She went on a shopping frenzy. I think it's probably because she's never been to this bigger branch of Yuen's and she seldom goes out to buy Asian groceries. She practically bought something from each aisle. Well, it was nice of her to want to cook white fungus dessert for the house. So she bought red dates, rock sugar, lotus nuts and lots of white fungus. She wanted to get much more but the 2 of us couldn't carry any more. Basically, we went in with an empty trolley and came out with an overflowing one. I wanted to pay for my items first but couldn't dig them out from the bottom of the trolley. Also, when we were at the counter, they had this weird veggie placed there. It kind of looks like spring onions, only that the length and width were uniform, it might be garlic shoots?? Anyway she asked me about those and I said I didn't know what they were.So she went, "Oh ok" and popped them into her trolley. Oh my god, I was really stunned by that. I mean, who actually goes and buys an item when they don't even know what it is? I guess only Steph would be so unique. Carrying everything back was a killer. We had about 6 big plastic bags worth of food and only 2 bags were mine. Steph spent about $66 just at Yuen's. Amazing!!!

When we got back home, we realised that Tommy and Wan Shi weren't back yet. They had been out longer than we had. I met a friend's parents downstairs (the girl who's moving next to Chris). They were waiting in the car for their daughter to come home. They didn't have the key and the girl had gone out with her friends. Hmm....not very nice of her to make her parents wait outside in the car. I kept asking if they would like to come up to my place to have a drink and wait for their daughter but they kept insisting that they were fine where they were. Well, I ended up waiting with them and chatting at the same time. We talked for 1 hour plus until it got dark and the girl came back. At least I found out a little more about her and got to know her parents better. They were pretty nice people, quite easy to talk to. Also they did have plenty of questions about living in Campus Lodge and Brisbane. It feels nice to be able to help someone....heh....Of course they did boast a little about the girl passing her driving with only 4 demerit points and on her first try but I guess it's only natural that parents will want to show off their kid's achievements, no matter how small it might be.

After the dim sum, I was much too full to have dinner. I took something light and it was back to my computer for more gaming and movie-watching.

Movies

I've been watching a lot of movies lately. I went to the cinemas to catch War of the Worlds and Fantastic Four. War of the World was pretty crap. I highly advise you NOT to watch it. The show has a lousy plot with a worse ending. Most of the movie features Tom Cruise running away from aliens with his family. The aliens are portrayed as super powerful beings which are unstoppable by any human force but at the end of the show, they die due to the lack of immunity to microorganisms. The show had parts which left me going "Huh??!!" and wondering what those parts had to do with the plot. I don't understand why the aliens were capturing humans and using their blood to make those reddish venous-like stuff on the ground. If the aliens wanted the humans' blood, how come they used their machines to blast the humans instead of capturing them in the beginning of the show? Some things just do not make sense.

Fantastic Four was much better and I enjoyed the action a lot more. Too bad they had to get such an ugly guy to play Jessica Alba's love interest. The show kept a lot to the comics which was good. I wonder if there'll be a sequel to Fantastic Four, just like X-Men. I hope so...Jessica Alba is my new favourite, she's just so gorgeous and she was great in Dark Angel too. Maybe now they'll continue with Dark Angel?

At home, I downloaded and watched the entire season of House. It's a good show and you guys should catch it too. I'm not sure if they have it in S'pore though. I like House's sarcasm and cynical view of human nature and how he insists on not meeting with his patients to treat them. He claims that everyone lies, therefore, talking to the patient would hinder his diagnosis of the illness. In the show, he has been proven right many times when the patient neglected to provide him with an accurate medical history or misled him with lies. Interesting show indeed although some people may find that all the medical terms which are used can get very confusing. But hey...if you watch ER and other hospital-themed shows, this one shouldn't be too difficult for you. You should be able to understand words like hematoma, CSF, lumbar puncture and thrombosis. If you don't, well, it's never too late to start learning.

I watched Unleashed yesterday. This is Jet Li's latest Hollywood movie in case you didn't know. I love it, partly because Jet Li was in it, and partly because I felt that he managed to reveal more acting talent as compared to all the other movies he's made. His movies always seemed to focus more on his fighting skills and you get to see him fight like 50-70% of the movie. However, in Unleashed, I felt that he acted pretty well and got to show his emotions a lot more. Usually, he just acts as a cool guy who fights and wins and does not seem to have any conscience or feelings. This time, he seems more human, more real. Another interesting point to note is that he never does any kissing scenes in his movies. I wonder why...

Will Ferrell's Anchorman is a super lame movie. I can't stand their outfits and mustaches and how they smoke non-stop but I guess this was how it was in the 70's. I didn't find it very amusing or entertaining but somehow, the part where they sing Afternoon Delight is stuck in my head. It's so bad that I actually went to find the lyrics for the song. But I do think that the part where they sing it together is very catching and the tune is actually nice. Go and listen to the song from Anchorman. You might like it too.

I just finished Fight Club. Yeah I know it's an old show but I never got a chance to catch it. I think it was rated RA or something when it came out. Hmm...I can't say that I love it but it does have a fascinating twist at the end of the show. It was something which I totally did not expect. The fight scenes were bloody, brutal and gory and I winced when the camera zoomed into their faces and you could see the impact of the punches. Other than that, the violence was pretty ok. I still can't believe how the show ended. I think I'll be thinking about it tonight.

Holidays

I just came back from a steamboat cum mahjong session. Feeling quite tired but I don't feeling like sleeping. I don't know what I want to do right now. Seems like my holiday life is made up of sleeping, watching movies and shows, reading or playing games. Somehow it feels very meaningless and yet I have been looking forward to this holidays for so long. The grass is always greener on the other side. I told myself that I would go for the theory driving test this hols but I have been postponing it. I only have 2 weeks of holidays left. Better go and buy the theory book to study ASAP otherwise I won't have enough time to qualify for the practical exam. Hopefully taking driving here will be cheaper than taking it back in S'pore. I feel quite lost when browsing through the theory book though. I don't understand many of the terms stated in there and Mag won't be back till the 18th. I need to set my goals and stick to them. No point saying and then procrastinating until I run out of time and before I know it, the holidays are over and it's back to school.

The Western Influences has Blinded Us

What is it about ang mohs that we Asians find so fascinating? I know that they are very different from us in terms of looks and accents. Why do Asians go crazy over blonde hair and their slangs? Of course, I admit that ang mohs do get my attention when I see them on the street. It helps that they stick out immensely in a crowd back home. Perhaps this is one reason why we can't help but stare at them. However, what I don't get is the fact that many Asians actually feel that ang mohs are "superior" to us. Be it liking an ang moh teacher, trying to get the attention of an ang moh at a party or hooking an ang moh partner, it seems that almost everyone wants to show off their connections, however little, to any ang moh. For example, before I came over to Brisbane, I had numerous friends come up and tell me to come back with an ang moh boyfriend. Does this mean that coming back with a Chinese boyfriend is less appealing? Does this mean that having an ang moh boyfriend would raise my status in society? I seriously wonder why this is so. Yet I do not frown upon such thoughts because I was once like that. Yup, previously, ang mohs were like the cherry on top of the cake. They were special, unique, incomparable to anyone else. Having an ang moh boyfriend would mean that your friends would be envious of you, even jealous. I knew friends who would go crazy and ga-ga over an ang moh teacher, even though he was not that good-looking. Now I'm not condemning their actions here but I wish to use their examples to emphasize on my points.

I also wonder why so many teenagers and people from my generation want to have Christian/English names. Ok, you can't blame them if their parents decided on these names and had them put into their birth certificate. But what about the ones who were not given any Christian names at all? A lot of them give themselves Christian names and go by that name from that moment on, totally ignoring the Chinese name that their parents chose for them. I wonder if it's purely because they find people remember Christian names much better than Chinese names or is it because they wish to emulate the ang mohs and what better way to do this than by changing your name to suit them? It's strange but I realised that many of those who give themselves Christian names actually abhor their Chinese names and feel ashamed to use them. They can dislike it so much that they absolutely refuse to acknowledge it and also refuse to let anyone know about it. I find this very sad. What has become of our Chinese values? They seem to be slowly disappearing with our culture, only to be replaced by the Western ways. This is 1 reason why I don't like people asking me if I have a Christian name when I've already introduced myself with my Chinese name.

We are fixated on the Western world and a lot of these influences come from the media. Music, movies and tv are all promoting ang moh culture to us. It's a pity we don't value our own culture enough to hold on to it. We want to become like them, to live like them. But then I ask, does becoming an ang moh make your life better? Does it mean that you will be rich and successful overnight? No, we still have to work hard to reach our goals. Riding on the coattails of the ang mohs will not help us at all. It's weird how S'poreans will look up to ang mohs, no matter their position. I feel that in the working world of S'pore, many employers hold this stigma that ang mohs are superior to the Asians and will prefer to to hire or promote an ang moh, even though there may be a higher qualified Asian available. Is it because they feel that having an ang moh in the company will aid them?

We need to open our eyes and wake up to the fact that ang mohs are not superior to us. Having a one-night stand with one of them does not make you superior to the rest of us. My friend let me read an article written by an ang moh who talked about this. In the article, this guy came from a poor farming state in America and he did not have much education. Yet when he came over to S'pore, he had no lack of girls who threw themselves at him. He was able to have almost any girl he wanted and because of this, he looked down on them. Just because he was white and foreign made him king in this country, even though he held a construction job. I felt disgusted when I read this and I'm sure you would too. Imagine us bowing down to an ang moh who was poorer, less successful and lower educated than us!

I think it's time that we Asians stood up for ourselves and held ourselves with more pride and self-esteem. Being white does not mean you are from a more outstanding race. Please understand that many of these ang mohs are actually not as good as you might think.

My visit to Melbourne and Sydney

I took a 10 day trip down 1 day after my last exam paper. Spent exactly 5 days in Melbourne and 5 days in Sydney. Although I have been to these 2 places before, it was such a long time ago and I can hardly remember what I did during that trip.

In Melbourne, my friend's girlfriend kindly offered to put us up at her place. She is staying in a studio apartment for 1 person so her place was basically just a room with the kitchen, study area and bed all together and a small attached bathroom. It was quite a cosy room but definitely too small for 7 people. We were all crowded and squashed in the place. My friend and his girlfriend shared the bed of course, while Christine and I shared the sofa bed and the 3 guys slept on the floor. Being in someone else's place, it was uncomfortable because we had to watch our behaviour and try to be considerate to the owner. However my friend's girlfriend was a super nice girl and it made things easier. Of course, we did have to sneak in and out of the place and go down to the public bathrooms to shower. Her rent did not include electricity and water unlike my place. Perhaps it was just Melbourne, or maybe because her place was really posh but her rental was really expensive. It cost $910 per month and is much more expensive than mine considering the fact that she still has to pay electricity and water bills on top of the rental. However her place looks like a hotel and they provide a stove, fridge and microwave for each room. Plus they have facilities like a basketball court, swimming pool, pool tables, cable TV, table tennis and a games room. You could even borrow games like Cluedo and Monopoly there. It was practically like a high class chalet. I do think that these facilities are unnecessary and it's not worth paying extra for things which you do not need but who am I to criticise? It does open my eyes more though, seeing that I noticed many of the residents there were Singaporeans. It makes me aware that S'poreans are pretty well-off if they can afford to send their kids overseas and let them stay in expensive apartments. I wonder if these kids understand how lucky they are?

Basically we went for 2 day tours, visiting the 12 apostles (now known as 11 apostles after 1 collapsed yesterday) and took a trip to watch the little penguins (previously called fairy penguins). They were fun but expensive and we actually ended up with the same tour guide for both tours. That was good because our guide was pretty good although he had weird tastes in music. He kept playing these kiddy songs related to wherever we were going. For example, when we visited the koalas, he played a koala song for us.

We also spent a lot of time walking to and fro from our place to the city. It was quite far and I ended up with aching legs and blisters on my right leg. We went for 2 buffets as well, 1 normal lunch buffet and another seafood buffet. The seafood one wasn't very good and it was expensive. I'm not a big fan of seafood so I kept more to the meats and fish. I suppose those who enjoy crabs, prawns and shellfish might have liked it a little more. However, they didn't serve enough prawns (which the rest really enjoyed) and the guys kept complaining about it. After the buffet 1 of them was whining about it and saying that the buffet was a rip-off and our host heard it. I would have been hurt if I were in her position because she was the one who had suggested the buffet. I guess guys need to learn to be more sensitive and have more tact. He could have waited until she was not around before he complained.

I much preferred Sydney to Melbourne. It might be because Sydney reminded me a lot of S'pore, with all the hustle and bustle of people in the city, the many shopping malls in the city and the train stations had the same kind of entrances our MRT has. As you can see, we stuck pretty much to the city for the 5 days. Our motel was near the red light district and was about a 15 minutes walk to the city. Heh, even though our cab driver warned us about the prostitutes and transvestites the red light district was supposed to have, I didn't see any. It might be because we hardly went out at night except to get dinner.

The motel room was wonderful compared to our squashed conditions in Melbourne. There was a queen sized bed and a double-decked bed. Again, in Sydney, we did touristy stuff like visiting the Sydney Opera House, Sydney bridge, Sydney Aquarium, the Sydney observation tower and Bondi Beach. We also took the monorail around and went to the Chinatown there. We went to all 3 of the more popular markets, namely Paddy's Market, Paddington Market and the Rocks Market. Pretty amazing huh? Needless to say, we covered plenty of ground on foot and this time, I ended up with multiple blisters on both feet. It came to a point where I was in pain on every step that I took but being "ti ki" as the guys call me, I managed to keep up with the group.

I was happy to find a bakery similar to those we have back home like Breadtalk and Four Leaves. In fact, the one in Sydney and Melbourne was called Breadtop and they even had those meatfloss buns. Can you believe that they don't have bakeries like this in Brisbane? I miss my ham and mushroom bun from Four Leaves.

Bondi Beach was beautiful and it wasn't too crowded, probably because it was winter. There were people surfing though and we spent our time watching them and just chilling out on the rocks, watching the waves and feeling the seabreeze going against our faces. The view was gorgeous and we took lots of photos. The thing is, we went down to Bondi Beach to try our this restaurant called Hurricane because Crystal highly recommended it. Unfortunately it only opened at 6 pm and we were there at 12 pm. So we had heaps of time to kill and spent the time checking out the shops there. We ended up buying loads of stuff from the Rip Curl shop there because it was having a sale. I bought 3 bags while Chris also got 3 similar bags plus a small wallet. The guys bought sandals and T-shirts. All in all, it was a good sale and we got a good bargain from that shop. Hurricane didn't disappoint us. I shared a plate of ribs and steak with Chris and the serving was quite big. The whole rack of ribs was huge and we only ordered the half rack. The steak was tasty and not too tough while the ribs were tender. Yum yum!!!

I can say that we really overindulged in food for these 10 days. I feel so bloated and unhealthy from eating too much meat and carbos. At least I bought a few oranges to eat. Now that I'm back, I need to start a vegetarian diet....hahahaha....just kidding....I could never turn vegetarian, I like meat too much.

Returned

I'm back from my trip to Melbourne and Sydney. My apologies to those who have been waiting patiently for me to update my blog, heh, now that I'm back, I'll try to write down as much interesting stories as I can. The only problem is, I'm exhausted. The 14 hour train ride back was a killer and has totally drained my energy. Plus I had to do 2 loads of laundry, unpack my bags, vacuum my room and change all the bedsheets. Now I'm tired and I just want to snuggle up in my quilt and go to sleep. Fortunately I managed to get about 5 hours of sleep when I got back home this morning. During the entire train ride, I was unable to find a comfortable position to sleep in. I woke up so many times during the night and once, my whole right leg went numb (which was pretty scary) and I could poke my foot but not feel anything at all. Later on, the same leg cramped up. We did meet a very adorable 6-year old on the train and I was very amused by him trying to fight my friend and my friend doing his best to fend off the attacks. Heh that was so interesting, even the other passengers watched and some woke up just to watch the scene. In the end, the boy was really sweet in going up to my friend and thanking him for playing with him and giving my friend a hug. I think my friend was very touched by this gesture as well.

I did miss home while I was away. I especially missed my bed, with the warm quilt and bolster. I also missed my computer (suffering from withdrawal syndrome!) but it wasn't as bad as missing my bed. It was freezing in Melbourne and I really needed the quilt. I haven't had a good night's sleep in the past 10 days. I think I'll catch up on all the sleep I missed right now. Good night, I'll update you guys on my trip tomorrow.