MaGNesiUm's BLoG

Journey to Cambodia – Journey of Reflections (Part 2)

2007-11-03T19:59:00.000+11:00

Day 3 – Rest & shop

We were all a bit worn-out from the long day yesterday and decided to take it easy on the 3rd day. In the morning, we were watching TV programmes on cable TV and DVDs that we could borrow for free from the guesthouse. A little about the guesthouse that we stayed in at Siem Reap, called Rosy Guesthouse. It’s a small, cosy guesthouse with a very homely feel. At the ground-floor, there’s a pool table, darts board, books and DVDs which guests can use FOC. There’s also a small bar and café. At the 3rd level, there are sofas and hammocks, which overlook the river, where guests can hang out and relax. There are several types of rooms available, from the budget bunk-bed, shared toilet kind of rooms to family suites. We stayed in the family suite. Each suite can take 3 people and comes with air-con, cable TV, DVD player and ensuite bathroom, all for the cost of US$20 per night. The rooms are spacious, clean and the facilities are quite new. I would highly recommend it for budget-conscious travellers who want a comfortable rest-area at night.

In the afternoon, we took a 20 min walk along the river to the Old Market where there are rows and rows of shops selling a wide variety of stuff. From food (cooked and fresh products eg meat, vegetables and fruits) to clothes to souvenirs to books, you can all find them here. We had quite an interesting time bargaining for our products. In the evening, we walked over to the Night Market. The Night Market is very small and very nice compared to the Old Market. All the stalls in the Night Market are in individual hut-like structures. Looks very neat and beautiful but at the same time, too ‘touristy’. I prefer the Old Market where locals and foreigners all crowd together under one roof.

Day 4 – Kbal Spean, Banteay Srei & Floating Village

Kbal Spean is about 50km away from Siem Reap and it takes about 2 hrs by car to arrive. The last 45 mins of the journey is along a dirt path and very bumpy. I have never been more glad that I’m sitting inside an air-con van because the plants along this dirt path were all caked with a thick layer of red-mud (Imagine a ‘clay-dified’ me if I was taking a open-air tuk tuk on this path). After arriving at Kbal Spean, it takes about ½ hr (~1.5km) of uphill trek to reach the destination, which is a spectacularly carved riverbed.

Kbal Spean is an elaborately carved riverbed, set deep in the jungle. It is commonly known as the ‘Valley of 1000 Lingas’ because the ancient Khmers have carved reportedly around 1000 linga images into the exposed stone riverbed. The linga is a simple phallic shape, the symbol of the god Shiva and his powers of creation. They probably served a purification purpose. In addition to the lingas along the riverbed, there are bas-relief carvings in many of the boulders along the stream. The carvings end in a small but pretty waterfall that apparently was once used as a ritual bathing spot by the king. -> Info taken from http://asiaforvisitors.com/cambodia/angkor/angkor-wat/kbal-spean.php

Carvings of Shiva and his mount, Nandi

Carving of Vishnu on the rocks by the upper cascade

Lingas (the round shapes) arranged in formal patterns; aligned to the compass

More lingas. Can see why this place is called the 'Valley of 1000 Lingas' right?

I'm not sure who this carving is depicting but i think it's very gracefully carved

A mini Kbal Spean waterfall

Although it was a long and tiring trip to Kbal Spean, I still think the visit was worthwhile. The combination of the water and the carvings, in the middle of a jungle, gave the whole place a very peaceful, mystical, beautiful and marvellous feel.

Banteay Srei
It took another 45 mins along the bumpy road to get back to Banteay Srei. Banteay Srei is considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian art. A Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva, it is cut from stone of a pinkish hue (the guide we had on the 2nd day told us that when the craftsmen cut the stones from the mountains, they will put aside those that are pink, so imagine the number of mountains that have to be cut before enough pink stones are accumulated to build Banteay Srei). Banteay Srei is one of the smallest sites at Angkor, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in stature. Many of its carvings are 3-D, well-preserved and are the finest seen anywhere on the planet. -> Info taken from Lonely Planet, Cambodia.

Lonely Planet’s description may sound a bit exaggerated but Banteay Srei is really lovely and charming. It’s my personal pet favourite among all the Angkor temples too. There are exquisite carvings on every inch of the temple (except the ground). And the pink stones give the place a very lovely, lady-like and pretty feel. In fact, the name Banteay Srei means ‘Citadel of the Women’ and it is said that it must have been built by women as the elaborate carvings are too fine for the hand of men.

See? I'm not kidding when i say every part of the temple, except the floor, has carvings.

I'm really impressed by the intricate carvings and can just spend a long time looking at the details of the carvings.

In the evening, we visited the Floating Village of Chong Kneas. To get around the floating village, we have to take motor boat. This is a village complete with shops, restaurants, schools, neighbours, hospital, police station and a basketball court (all floating of course). The interesting thing about this floating village is that it moves depending on the season. During the wet monsoon season, the rains overfill the Mekong River, causing the Stung Sap to reverse its flow from Phnom Penh back a hundred km into the Tonle Sap swelling the lake from 3000 sq km to over 13,000 sq km. So, between the wet and dry season, the children may row their boats to school one day only to discover that their school has ‘moved house’ overnight.

A mobile, floating convenience store

The boat-homes

A very cute boy and his mum who was trying to sell a bunch of bananas to us. We just couldn't resist his charming smile. Btw, the "thing" around his neck is a real snake!

Sunset from the boat over the floating village

Reflections from my visit to Angkor Temples:

1. Cambodia is a country with a very glorious past and also a very tragic recent history. I think one important factor that determines the progress of the country is the person taking the leadership. The Angkor temples are the long-standing representations of the good, righteous and caring past Kings of Cambodia while the Killing Fields and the poverty of the people are painful reminders of the cruel, ruthless leader – Pol Pot. Our tour-guide told us that most likely, the craftsmen who built the Angkor temples were not given payment. They probably did it as a show of respect for their religion and King and as a show of gratitude for the ample shelter and food that they were having at that time. Contrast this to the stories of Cambodians who were full of fear and always hungry during the reign of Pol Pot. The importance of having a fair, far-sighted and compassionate leader cannot be more emphasized.

2. The guide told us that the Khmer culture was at its peak during the Angkor era, after that the artistic aspects of Cambodia just keep going downhill. Isn’t this a reflection of impermanence? Nothing can stay constantly at the top no matter how supreme it may be. May sound depressing but actually, not so. Based on the same theory of impermanence, nothing will constantly go downslope as well. There’s always hope and potential for Cambodians to recover and even progress in terms of their artistic capabilities. I’m looking forward to seeing an even more majestic ‘Angkor Wat’ in Cambodia.

Journey to Cambodia – Journey of Reflections (Part 1)

2007-10-29T00:45:00.000+11:00

I just came back from a 9-day backpacking trip in Cambodia. It's my 2nd trip together with my gang from KMS YM. The 1st trip was to Nepal. Thinking back, the Nepal trip was a self and spiritual-discovery journey. This trip to Cambodia is a journey of reflections. A lot of things that I saw and experienced during the trip made me reflect back on my life, on the current situation in Cambodia and other developing countries and compare it to their past glorious history. Of course, the long bus journeys from one place to another gave me lots of spare time to think as well (i sometimes feel that in the midst of my busy, hectic life in Spore, i have deprived myself the time to quietly reflect, think and day-dream.) And i'm inspired to blog my journey after i read a friend's travel blog which i found very informative. So well, here's part 1 of i dunno how many parts. :)

Day 1 – Arrival in Cambodia
Arrive at Phnom Penh and took a 7 hr coach ride to Siem Reap.
The Silkair in-flight magazine describes Phnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia) as the city that is ever-changing, modernizing and looking forward into the future while Siem Reap (the province where the Angkor temples are located) as the city which is guarding the grand past of Cambodia. Siem Reap is seen as the gateway to Cambodia’s spiritual and cultural heartbeat.
Two very contrasting cities existing in the same country, both interesting in its own way.

Street vendors at a stop-point during the bus ride

Day 2 – Tour of the Angkor temples
A brief introduction to the temples of Angkor:
The temples of Angkor, capital of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer empire, are the heart and soul of the Kingdom of Cambodia, a source of inspiration and national pride to all Khmers. The Angkorian period spans more than 600 years from AD 802 to 1432, during which the temples of Angkor were built and the Khmer empire consolidated its position as one of the great powers of SEA (the Khmer empire at its zenith was a vast political, religious and social centre that stretched from modern-day Burma to Vietnam). –> Info taken from Lonely Planet, Cambodia.

The temples of the Angkor area number over 1000, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. In 2007 an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been the largest pre-industrial city in the world with an urban sprawl of 1,150 square miles. –> Info taken from Wikipedia – Angkor.

Left our guesthouse at 5.30am to watch sunrise at Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat is known as the mother of all temples. It was built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. The largest and best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, then Buddhist. The construction of Angkor Wat signifies one of the high-water marks of Khmer civilisation. Today, it has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag.

National flag of the Kingdom of Cambodia

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temples. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the gods in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 km long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and for the numerous Apsaras (heavenly dancers) adorning its walls. –> Info taken from Wikipedia – Angkor Wat.

My 1st hazy view of Angkor Wat at dawn

Watching the sun rise behind the magnificent Angkor Wat

The beautiful carvings that adorn the walls of Angkor Wat

Carving of Apsaras can be seen in many of the Angkor temples

I was awe-struck by my 1st view of this glorious temple. It’s amazing that more than 900 years ago, such an imposing, grand and yet exquisitely carved stone temples can be built. Even up till today, most of the bas-reliefs and decorative flourishes can still be clearly visualized. It is absolutely fascinating and quoting the Silkair magazine, it gives “the optimism that if the ancient Khmers were capable of building such grand temples, Cambodians are capable of doing anything.”

Visited the Great City of Angkor Thom.
- The Bayon (See intro below)
- Jayavarman VII’s royal palace
- Tep Pranam & Preah Palilay (temples which used to house huge Buddhas.)
- Terrace of the Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King (2 huge, gloriously carved terraces which were used as viewing platforms by the king.)

Terrace of the Elephants

Angkor Thom was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire. It was established in the late 12th century by king Jayavarman VII. It covers an area of 9 km², within which are located several monuments from earlier eras as well as those established by Jayavarman and his successors. At the centre of the city is Jayavarman's state temple, the Bayon, with the other major sites clustered around. –> Info taken from Wikipedia – Angkor Thom.

One of the majestic gates at the entrance of Angkor Thom city

The Bayon was built in the late 12th century or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII. It stands at the exact centre of the city of Angkor Thom. The Bayon consists of 3 levels. The 1st two levels are square and adorned with bas-reliefs depicting historical events and the everyday life of Cambodians in the 12th century. The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and massive stone faces on the many towers (originally 54 towers but only 37 remain) which jut out from the 3rd, circular level. –> Info taken from Wikipedia – The Bayon. Each tower supports 2, 3 or most commonly 4 enormous faces of Avalokiteshvara.

One of the bas-relief that depicts the King & his warriors marching out to war

Huge faces of Avalokiteshvara Boddhisattva on the towers of the Bayon

Visited Ta Prohm
One of the most popularly known facts about Ta Prohm is that it is the venue where 'Tomb Raider' by Angelina Jolie was filmed. Much of Ta Prohm is ruined but to me, Ta Prohm is very unique in that it seems like in this place, nature and the man-made structures come together to form a master-piece with a very different feel from the grand Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom. Quoting from Lonely Planet, “There is a poetic cycle to this venerable ruin, with humans first conquering nature to rapidly create and nature once again conquering humans to slowly destroy.”

The merging of nature & man-made structures. I was captivated by these beautiful old trees.

Took a ½ hr hike up to the hilltop temple of Phnom Bakheng to watch sunset.

In the night, went to watch Dr Beat Richner’s cello concert – Beatocello in Concert.

Dr Beat, a soulful & at times, an amusing cellist

Dr Beat (a Swiss) is the director of the 4 Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital in Cambodia. These 4 hospitals provide free medical treatment for Cambodia children; since the families in Cambodia are simply too poor to even make a small contribution towards these medical costs. Dr Beat believes that every child has a right to correct medication unhampered by corruption. All of the staff at Kantha Bopha earn a modest living on which they can get by. By paying the staff a living wage seem to be a successful way of fighting corruption which otherwise is widespread in Cambodia. To this day there have been no thefts at the hospital, no cases of medicine simply vanishing into thin air rather than being administered to the patient in need, no money taken under the table from patients’ families. Most of the funds needed to run the hospital come from well-wishers all over the world, esp Switzerland. In Siem Reap, where one of the hospitals is located, Dr Beat holds his concert every Sat night to raise awareness regarding the plights of the Cambodian children and to raise funds for the hospital.

I greatly admire Dr Beat’s work and was very touched by his concert-cum-presentation. The Kantha Bopha hospital in Siem Reap is a clean and new hospital with modern facilities. It is the hospital’s belief that every child has a right to correct medication. This, in turn, can only be achieved with the assistance of modern and fully functioning equipment, proper and effective medicine, correct and sufficient medical one-way material, all of which has very little indeed to do with luxury and even less with first-class medicine.

Some of the things that Dr Beat said in his presentation struck some cords deep in me and made me ponder and reflect.
1. Many dignities from 1st world countries who visited the hospital and saw the modern facilities commented with disapproval that the equipment and medicine used should be in accordance with the financial situation of the country. Simply put, they believe that only cheap equipment and medicine should be used to treat Cambodian children irregardless of whether these techniques or medicine are effective and have undesirable side effects of not. This is unfair, arrogant and irresponsible thinking and behaviour. Inferior equipment may lead to the wrong diagnosis and inferior care and medication may cause severe side effects (both acute and long term). Is this fair to the patient, especially in this case, an innocent child?

2. In recent months, dengue fever has become an epidemic in Cambodia. Everyday, more than 1000 children are inflicted with dengue fever in Cambodia. Dr Beat made a comparison with the situation in Spore. Once a dengue case happens in Spore, authorities are immediately sent down to the area to track down the mosquitoes in the vicinity. But in Cambodia, nothing is being done about the situation at all although the addresses of the inflicted children have been submitted to the authorities. In contrast, when a single bird-flu case was discovered in Cambodia, the very next day, the press from all over the world came down to report on it. Why??? Because bird-flu has the potential to spread around the world while dengue mosquitoes only have a range of 120metres. What he said made me reflect on 2 things. One is that it’s truly a blessing to be in Spore where there is a protective and efficient government. Two is that humans are really selfish. Our main priority is always ourselves. How many of us care whether hundreds of children are dying from dengue in Cambodia so long as the single bird-flu case is eradicated and the virus will not reach us? I was really ashamed of myself because my ignorance has made me one of the selfish humans.

3. Dr Beat also touched on the topic of corruption in Cambodia and the reason why he is determined to keep the treatment in Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital free of charge. He believes that every child should have equal access to healthcare services regardless of their financial status. He also believes that only with equality will there be true peace.

4. The presentation made me think about how I can help, other than giving a small donation. I figured that the least I can do is to raise awareness among people around me regarding the situation in Cambodia. For more details and to make a donation to the hospital, pls refer to the Dr Beat’s website http://www.beatocello.com/index.html I also bought Dr Beat’s autobiography about his work in Cambodia, so if anyone is interested, can borrow it from me.

Reflections on A Precious Human Rebirth

2007-04-11T20:24:00.000+10:00

Hmm.. Haven't blogged for an extremely long time. Not sure why too, just didn't have the mood to blog although lots happened in my life. Today, i'm on MC at home and just decided to revive this blog with some reflections. Aster requested for a personal reflection abt anything so that she can put it up on the Lotus pillar for Vesak at Orchard this year. I didn't have any idea what to write about when she asked me to. However, in a span of just 2 days, through a conversation with Ven Chuan Guan and after a discussion abt KMS Youth group, a very strong feeling hit me and i knew i just have to write about it.

A Precious Human Rebirth

The Buddha gave this analogy of how very difficult it is to get a human rebirth and to be able to learn the Dharma:
There is a huge vast ocean and in it lives one tortoise that is blind. He is usually at the bottom of the ocean and comes up only once every hundred years. There is a round tube floating on the ocean. What is the chance that this tortoise have, coming up once every hundred years and being blind, to stick its head through this tube? Pretty low since the ocean is so vast. He might be thousands of miles away or only a foot away. But still, it doesn't matter, he missed the tube. So he has to try again after another hundred years.
The way the analogy relates is: the ocean is like the ocean of cyclic existence. The tortoise is like us. Being at the bottom of the ocean is like being born in the unfortunate realms, all the situations where it’s very difficult and there’s much confusion and pain. Coming up once every hundred years is like getting a good rebirth as a human. The round tube is the Buddha's teachings. More often than not, we are blinded by our ignorance and are usually in the unfortunate realms, only coming up to the surface once every hundred years. Putting our head through the round tube of the Buddha’s teachings is like getting a precious human life with the opportunity to learn the Dharma.

The Buddha said in the Dhammapada that “The gift of truth surpasses all gifts”. Recently, through a conversation with a Venerable, I’m once again reminded on how rare and difficult it is to be able to get a precious human rebirth and to have the conditions to receive the precious gift of the Dharma. I view it as a great opportunity to be a Buddhist and I am determined to use the opportunity wisely, get myself together and not waste the valuable, limited time I have in this lifetime. At the same time, I have the deepest gratitude to my parents, for giving me human life and for opening up the doors for me to come in touch with the Dharma, and to all my teachers who patiently and compassionately taught and showed me how to integrate the Dharma into my life.

May all sentient beings have the good conditions to learn the Dharma.

ga2550: Gratitude Expressing Art

2006-04-28T19:44:00.000+10:00

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others."

In our busy daily life, how often have we stopped to think of all the things (esp the little ones) that we should be grateful about? During the period of time that i was working at kmsYM, I learnt about 1 of their past projects called Gratitude Art. I found it very meaningful as it reminds me that there's so many people in my life that i should be grateful to, so many things that i should be grateful about, yet i always neglect them. So if you ask me what i learnt during my internship at YM, 1 of the most important lessons is to be grateful. 知恩报恩。

This year, Gratitude Art is back again. Below is the introduction that i took out of their website.

A friend once mentioned that he is grateful for the quietly dignified ways his father has served the family. Yet each day passes with his continual inaction. He fears he’d miss the chance, but he doesn’t quite know how to say it.
Perhaps some of us may find these words too difficult or too insignificant to be uttered.
However, there is never a gesture too big or too small for our appreciation.
If you have been on the receiving end of a heartfelt thank you, you’d agree that this acknowledgement can mean a lot!

Make the resolution during this Vesak celebration to act! At Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, we have opened a space for the public to express gratitude of all kinds through different forms. You can use photographs, drawings, video clips and a sprinkle of imagination to thank those around you who have in ways big or small left their print, be it is a doting mother, a steadfast friend, an understanding co-worker or your pet, a stranger or mother earth! In your own creative ways, allow your gratitude to speak through these different mediums.

Come and share this moment with other gratitude bearers and be inspired by the myriad of ways ‘thank you’ can be ‘said’!

Do take a look at the website: http://www.gratitude.kmspks.org/

Also, i would like to share a quote that i saw on the ga2550 website which i found very interesting n meaningful.

"Am glad I can be glad…because if not, I cannot be glad!
Am grateful I can be grateful…because if not, I would be an ingrate!"
(posted by Zeph on ga2550)

Indeed, indeed.... My deepest gratitude to my parents and all the people who helped me in any point in my life.

Magnificant Great Ocean Road

2006-04-25T13:56:00.000+10:00

Great Ocean Road is magnificent, gorgeous, beautiful, stunning, lovely… It is indeed (borrowing my friend’s friend description) “nature at its best”. The road itself meanders around the edge of cliffs which faces the Southern Ocean. So, when you travel along the road, you see the cliff walls on one side and the ocean just extends out to nowhere on the other side. Along the way, you can stop by the seaside towns, admire the rolling hills, go for walks in the rainforests and bushes, gawk at the numerous amazing limestone formations, play on the beaches and even take a helicopter ride to get a bird-eye view of the 12 Apostles. It is during this trip that I took my first helicopter ride, climbed my first mountain (the really crawl on all fours kind of climb). The views were just breath-taking. The 3 days-2 nites that I spent on the Great Ocean Road was simply too short. I would love to revisit the place again and for anyone who needs a break, visit Great Ocean Road and be revitalized by the natural, millions of years old yet ever-changing beauty of the place.

The gorgeous ocean that just goes on and on...

Sunset at the 12 Apostles. Enchanting and yet calming.

View of the 12 Apostles from the helicopter

More pictures can be viewed at my online album: http://weimei.shutterfly.com/action/

Some thoughts that I had while I was along the Great Ocean Road:

1. How the Great Ocean Rd was created is mind-boggling. Imagine cutting into the hard limestone cliffs and crafting a 300 km road which hugs the cliffs using simple tools and equipment. I really take my hats off to the people who made this road which made it possible for thousands of people to see and be dazzled by the beauty of the place.

2. Impermance. The stone formations along the ocean are formed over millions of years and they are ever-changing, constantly eroding and forming. That’s nature and this phenomenon hasn’t changed since the beginning of time. Yet, it is precisely due to this constant impermanence (am I making sense??) that makes all the formations so beautiful. Isn’t it the same for life? Due to our attachment to things, we always want things to remain constant. When they don’t we become unhappy. If we can accept the impermanent nature of everything, maybe we’ll find life much happier and beautiful. Haiz… impermanence, impermanence, impermanence…. Need to drum it into my thick skull.

3. Australia is really a very beautiful country with all kinds of natural sights ranging from deserts to mountains to rainforests to temperate forests to volcanoes to oceans and all kinds of rock formations. I’m really fortunate to be given the chance to live here for a year and explore and experience all these beauty that Singapore doesn’t have. Deepest gratitude to all the factors that make it possible for me to be here.

I traveled across 3 states of Australia on this trip. From Sydney in New South Wales to Melbourne in Victoria and then to Adelaide in South Australia. Quite cool rite? That leaves me with only 2 states that I haven’t visit: the Northern territory and Tasmania. Hmm… hope to cover the Northern Territory before I go back to Singapore in July.

Sydney Royal Easter Show

2006-04-09T11:51:00.000+10:00

Went to the Easter show at the Olympic Park. It’s actually a very large scale carnival that spans over the whole Olympic Park. So you can imagine how huge an area it spreads across. (No wonder my aikido class at the Olympic Park has to be stopped for this period of time. There is simply no space for it!)

Things at the show:
1. Lots of shops selling all sorts of things, from toys to sunglasses, to ornaments, to accessories, to services such as fortune telling and tattooing.
2. Animals display (pigs, dogs, rabbits etc) and shows [Unfortunately, I missed this whole animals section]
3. Arts gallery & handicrafts display, including best cake decorations etc
4. Adventure rides. Lots n lots of them to cater to any level of fear factor that you wish to experience.
5. Countless game stalls, most with very attractive soft toys to be won.
6. Multiple food stalls
7. A make-shift fresh-food supermarket
8. Hundreds of different showbags for sale. Things in the showbags vary from food to toys to magazines and accessories to magic tricks.
9. Shows. e.g:
- Rodeo show (which I didn’t enjoy as I found it very cruel to the horses, bulls and riders)
- Beauty pageant (which I can’t really see. The girls are the size of peanuts from the place I was sitting)
- Motorvehicles show (motorbikers and cars ‘storm-riders’ performing jaw-dropping and gravity-defying stunts)
- A enchanting fireworks display (It’s weird that no matter how old I get and how many times I watched fireworks, I never fail to be fascinated by their beauty.)

Overall, I enjoyed going to the show, for several reasons. First, it was my 1st time going to such a huge scale carnival and a long time since I took part in a carnival, so it was a new experience as well as a pleasant refresher experience. Brought back some of my happy childhood memories, especially when we were eating candy-floss. Second, as the carnival was over a couple of weeks and because of the large space it occupies, it’s not crowded. Therefore, the problem of squeezing and pushing and feeling irritated at the end of the day was non-existent. Third, the weather was cool, very conducive for walking. Fourth, I was with a great company of friends.

Here are some pictures taken at the show:

With one of the many showbags stall behind us

i love the colours of the fireworks

Aren't fireworks just beautiful?

Little gals with a huge bucket of candy-floss

Yummy yum yum..

2006-03-22T20:06:00.000+11:00

Menu:
Sat dinner: Honey-lemon chicken with capsicums
Sun breakfast: Bread, cheese, egg, medium dried tomatoes, bacon
Sun dinner: Pasta
Mon dinner: Garlic chilli egg-plant and minced meat
Tue dinner: Roll
Wed dinner: Fried rice with Mongolian stir-fry

And guess what? The food that I have been eating this few days may very likely be the kind of food that the ex-Philippines president used to eat. (Gosh!) This is because David’s mum used to be the caterer for the ex-president. No wonder every dish that David cooks just seems like gourmet’s standard. And yes, I have been helping out in the kitchen in small ways while David cooks (my specialty is finely chopped onion. :p) and at the same time trying to ‘steal’ some of his culinary skills. I haven’t tried out so I’m not sure if my culinary skills improved but I learnt a very important thing from David in the kitchen. He thinks of the dish he wants to cook, visualizes it and spends great effort in cooking and presenting the dish. In short, he puts his heart and soul into cooking. Personally, I believe that this plays a major role in the end-result of the dish. I admit, I don’t put much effort when I cook because to me, cooking as just another must-do thing. That’s probably the reason why my dishes never tasted fantastic. So if you ask me what I gained most out of my crash course of ‘cooking lessons’, it’ll be to learn to enjoy cooking and to put my heart and soul into it if I want to whip up more yummy dishes. I guess the same goes for everything else in life. Lesson of the week (and possibly a lifetime): To do a good job, do it mindfully (concentrate) and learn to take pleasure in doing the task.

In case anyone is wondering, David is NOT a chef. He does marketing. And he just migrated to Australia, that’s why he’s staying at The Manor (the bed and breakfast place I’m staying in Wagga) temporarily. His wife and kids will be joining him in Wagga soon. Aren’t we lucky to be at Wagga (& The Manor) at this time? Any earlier or later, we would have missed him. :) He really brighten up my last week at Wagga with his keen sense of humour and numerous stories.

Jeannie, David and I went to the Wagga Botanical Gardens over the weekend. It was quite a nice place, with a mini zoo, lots of open spaces and huge trees. Below are some photos that we took there:

Jeannie & I

David & I

New neighbour = yummy lunch. :p

2006-03-18T15:37:00.000+11:00

I just had a very filling and delicious lunch. It was the best home-cooked food I ever had since I came to Australia. All thanks to my new neighbour in the place I’m staying in Wagga, David. He just came over yesterday and seeing the unappetizing frozen microwavable dinner that Jeannie and I were having, decided that he’ll cook a proper and good meal for both of us. At first we thought he was just kidding until he came back from the supermarket with lots of food this morning. The preparation and cooking took up almost 3 hours. (I think this may be the longest time I took to prepare any of my meals.) But the end result was more than worth the whole morning of chopping and washing. For the first course, we had soup with shredded chicken, corn, potato, carrots, peas and some spices. The main course consisted of margarine and bacon fried rice with a piece of excellently seasoned chicken covered with a very tasty fresh mushrooms and onion sauce. It was first-rate food, absolutely yummy!

My yummy lunch!

A short intro about the chef. David just came to Wagga from the Philippines. He came as under the skilled professionals’ migration scheme and is in the marketing line. His family runs a catering business in Philippines (that should explain his flair for cooking). He’s a genius in the kitchen and Jeannie and I were impressed by his ability to mix and match the ingredients and spices to whip up a mouth-watering, well-balanced and healthy meal. (David is a health buff, he calculates the amount of fats in the food we ate for us and even recommended us to healthier choices like corn chips dipped in salsa sauce rather than potato chips.) The workings of the world (karma) are just amazing and I’m so glad and grateful to have David who out of the blue, pops out with a few tasty dishes to brighten up the stay at Wagga.

Ok… a bit about my life at Wagga. The weather at Wagga this week is a bit weird. At the beginning of the week, it was cloudy and warm. Then it started raining the whole of Thursday night and from then on, the weather is v cool. On Friday morning, it was cold! I think temperatures dropped to about 12-14 degrees overnight. My attachments are ok, pleasant because of the nice hospital environment and friendly staff but not particularly interesting or exciting. Life here is very quiet with no activities at night. Not many places to visit during the weekends too. In a way, I do enjoy staying here for a short period of time as life here is slow and simple. It has a rather calming effect on the soul. But having stayed in a city most of my life, I think I still prefer my busy life in Singapore. At least for now. But who knows, I may end up choosing a quieter lifestyle when I grow older and get tired of the city.

Seeing Wagga Wagga

2006-03-12T19:56:00.000+11:00

Drivers, look out for the ducks! And we really saw a flock of ducks crossing the road. Too bad i was too slow in getting my camera out to capture the interesting sight.

One of the beautiful architecture of Wagga.

By the pond near our accommodation. The pond is full of water lilies. Lots of greenary in Wagga compared to Sydney.

Close-up view of the beautiful water lilies.

A beach in an inland city??? How is that possible? It turned out to be a 'beach' (with sand) by the river. The width of the river is only about the width of Singapore river.

Happy Birthday to me!

2006-03-10T21:07:00.000+11:00

I had a quiet birthday at Wagga this year. My most quiet birthday in 23 years. But that’s alright, because I had 3 birthday celebrations already before I came to Wagga. 1st was with my ZR friends where we have a once-a-year-celebrate-everyone’s-birthday party. The 2nd one was with Zhen, Xin & Sandy. The 3rd was in Sydney with Sarah & Yiyan. And of cos, on my birthday, I had a “feast” with Jeannie.

Banana-choc cake with Sarah & Yiyan

Jeannie prepared the whole “feast” by herself. We had pumpkin soup, garlic bread, mashed potatoes, lemonade and Milo ice-cream. And I got a chocolate bar, a pretty flower and a surprise present (which I have not received yet) from her. So sweet of my housemate right? Think she was very stressed before my birthday cos she was the only one with me at Wagga and felt she had an obligation to make my day wonderful. And I have to say, I had a great night (minus the fact that I cut my finger). Thanks a lot, Jeannie! I’m so glad I have you.

My birthday feast's chef - Jeannie

Me & my birthday flower. :)

The birthday wishes that I received from all my friends and family made a huge difference too and definitely helped to brighten up my birthday. Isn’t auto-roaming, email and msn the most amazing thing on earth? The physical distance between people just becomes insignificant when you communicate with friends via sms or the internet. It certainly feels good to know that your family and friends still remembers your birthday and cares for you. *basking in happiness* :)

I remember one of my friends saying before that birthdays should be a day of gratitude to our parents for bringing us to this world and for bringing us up. I totally agree. Thanks mummy and papa!!!

To me, birthdays are a celebration of life. It is also a reminder that time is ticking by, prompting us to make good use of our life, to live life to the fullest. That shall be my birthday resolution.

Wagga Wagga

2006-03-10T20:51:00.000+11:00

On the tourist broacher, it introduces Wagga as “the largest inland city in New South Wales”. Hmm… oh well, to me the 土生土长 city girl, Wagga seems more like a quiet country-town. The cbd consists of only 1 main street as far as i know. But the main reason why I chose to come to Wagga for my clinical attachments was so that I can experience the country lifestyle. So yep… I guess I got my wish.

Must start from the beginning and tell how I arrived in Wagga. On a 33-seater plane. My first time on such a mini plane. You can see the propeller of the plane from the window and can see it moving when the plane flies. A bit scary but overall, ok. Well, at least I arrived safely.

The 33-seater plane that we took. Notice the propellor?

I started work at the Riverina Cancer Care Centre already. It's a 35 min walk away from the place i'm staying. Along the way, i will walk past a river with has some greedy geese (that will start quacking for food when they see anyone) and a few rows of houses. Not very exciting... But looking on the bright side, the riverside walk is quite pretty in the morning.

Me with the tall, pretty grass by the river

The place i'm staying at is a very old-fashioned guesthouse. Those with the wooden floor which will creak when you walk on them. Has quite quaint furniture around. Like my room has an antique-like dressing table and bedside lamp. But it's clean and quite comfotable.

Temperatures here range from about 17 deg in the early morning to a height of 35 deg in the afternoon. Very dry. People here are quite friendly. But i think Jeannie and i are probably the very v v v v few asians here. As a result, some people tend to give us a curious 2nd and sometimes even a 3rd look. :) But they are pretty harmless (i hope... )

Well, that's all for now. Shall update again after i see more of this place.

Update on my Life...

2006-03-02T20:29:00.000+11:00

Here's a quick update on what i did during my 3 months of vacation.

1. I was an intern in the Youth Ministry of Kong Meng San Monastery for about 6 weeks. My job there was to learn, anything that i wanted to learn. So i tried doing a little of almost everything that the staff there were doing. From distributing flyers at MRT stations, folding lots of origami boxes and lotuses, shifting chairs, packing staff to setting up booths, managing volunteers, taking part in important (but sometimes boring :p) meetings and organising events like a Countdown party and even a wedding ceremony. And some unexpected things like bringing stray kittens to the vet and selling roses during V-day popped up along the way too. The result of these 6 weeks of internship is heaps of new experiences, lots of fun and laughter, sincere encouragement to believe in myself, a deeper understanding about Buddhism and a great group of new-found friends. I truly enjoyed my time at the Youth Ministry and was quite sad when my internship ended. :( But nvm, shall look forward to volunteering there in future.

My friends and colleagues at kmsYM

2. Met up with lots of my old friends, my DHSCO Zhongruan frens who went through thick & thin with me, my beloved longtime pri school frens, my NYP lecturer & classmates who made my NYP days most memorable, my VJC classmates who have changed but are still as crazy and fun, my aikido frens from all walks of life who i'm so glad to have met, my Buddhist teacher and mentor and my good fren, HL.

The ZR grp's once-a-year birthday celebration at Youya's house

3. Spent some time with my family too, esp during CNY where i had the opportunity to catch up with some of my see-once-a-year relatives. Met my 6 months old nephew for the 1st time too. He's so chubby.

My younger nephew, Nicky

4. Not to forget, had lots of my fav local Singaporean food too. Ate lots of delicious vegetarian food too, provided by the stern but very good chef at KMS.

5. Went to Perth with my mum from 22 Feb to 28 Feb 06. Pls go to my album, http://weimei.shutterfly.com/action/ to see the pictures i took in Perth. It's a beautiful place. Lots of natural sights that we never get to see in S'pore (eg, The Pinnacles, The Wave Rock etc). But the weather there was scorching hot n very dry, esp on the last 3 days where temp reached 36 degrees. Felt like i was being roasted alive.

At the Wave Rock

The Pinnacles

Cape Leeuwin - the place where the Southern & Indian oceans meet

6. Well, that's a summary of what i did during my hols. I'm currently back in Sydney, but will be going to Wagga Wagga for my 3 weeks of clinical placement. Wagga Wagga is an inland town that is between Melbourne and Sydney and is 1+ hours plane ride away from Sydney. Hope it'll be fun there.

New Blog!

2006-03-02T17:16:00.000+11:00

Feels a bit weird blogging after so long. (My fault. i kept procrastinating.) But many of my friends have been asking me about my blog, so i decided to revive it.

I know i said i wanted to change the look of my blog. And i really did search for nice templates and tried my best to edit the html language etc to personalise my blog. The picture that was supposed to be the highlight of my blog was this very cute Forever Friends bear holding a bunch of flowers. Oh well, i shall still put a picture of it in my blog for myself n all of you to admire.

But, (as you may have guessed) after many many unsuccessful tries to adapt the template to my needs and a huge headache, i decided to stick back to the conventional templates provided by Blogger. (My gratitude to Blogger for creating simple templates for html idiots like me.) So there, my blog is back again. With a very simple design. And it's a different design from the one last time, so it's still a new blog. :D

And I decided, to add more colours to it, i shall upload pictures. Hope that compensates. ;p

2005-11-18T00:33:00.000+11:00

I decided to give my blog a new look. Chose a blog skin that i liked liao. But still got all the nitty gritty stuff to change like the font colour, my blog's name etc etc etc.. All involve reading HTML language. Getting a headache n blurry eyes looking at all those HTML stuff... So i decided to leave all these minor stuff till another time to edit. Hehe... So pls forgive me for the v untidy blog. It'll be gorgeous soon. VERY soon, i hope....

Journey to find the real me

2005-10-21T11:44:00.000+10:00

These few weeks has been and will continue to be a whirlpool of presentations, assignments, projects and exams. I feel faint just thinking about them. *world spins in front of my eyes* BUT… I will survive. I must survive, so that I can go back to spore to have my satays, fried kuey tiao, curry fish head, mee soto etc etc etc. I’m salivating just thinking about them. Hehehe…

I just finished writing an essay for one of my modules called Stress and Disability. (Hmm.. actually, I don’t know why it’s called Stress and Disability. It should just be called Disability, because nothing is mentioned about stress at all!) Anyway, we are supposed to use an article about this man call Jim MacLaren and we are supposed to apply all the theories of disability that we learnt to write this essay. The essay was a killer to write and I have many nights of splitting headaches trying to complete it. You would think that I’ll gladly and eagerly throw everything about MacLaren away. However, I’m so inspired by this amazing man that I want to share his story with everyone. I admire his optimism, determination and perseverance. He met with an accident and had his leg amputated at 22, but fought back to become a champion triathlete. At 30, a second accident caused him to become a quadriplegic that is constantly in pain, yet he still manages to lead an independent life and feel blessed through his ordeals. His life story can be found on http://www.jimmaclaren.com/about.php. I find some of the things MacLaren said really thought-provoking.

1. “We are not in charge of what happens to us in this lifetime. We are in charge only of how we perceive what happens to us in this lifetime.”

2. “I started looking around and seeing people everywhere – especially successful middle-class American men – walking around in complete denial, smugly thinking to themselves, I sure am doing a good job running my life here. But I could see now that their sense of control was nothing but a mirage. Safety, entitlement, power – these are all fantasies. We don’t drive our destinies. Not in that way.”

3. “You have only one task as a human being: to know yourself.”

4. “Success can be measured in a multitude of ways. Do we love and are we loved? Now that is truly success! Appreciate the gifts in our lives. They may seem difficult to see....yet they are there.”

It really makes me reflect back on my own life. Aren’t I just like the middle-class American men holding on to a false sense of security? If all the impermanent things are taken away from me, can I deal with it with peace and calmness? Do I know the true, real me?

I should start on the journey of knowing myself and stop living in denial. I must learn to live in the present moment.

2005-10-01T12:12:00.000+10:00

Tulips of my favourite colour

Me at the Floriade. Did i grow fatter? According to some people, i did. *sob sob*

Canberra

2005-10-01T11:28:00.000+10:00

I’m having a 1 week mid-semester break currently. Very fast. Now already in the middle of the sem. Very soon, I’ll be home! YEAH!

Anyway, I just came back from a 2 day-1 nite Canberra tour. Went with 8 other friends. It was a pretty nice trip. Seen & learnt a lot about Australia during the trip.

Canberra is the capital of Australia and it’s a very unique capital. Because it’s a planned capital. It’s designed to be the capital, not developed over time like other capitals of the world. Therefore, it’s v organized and orderly. All the major government offices are there and all the high commissions and embassies are all allocated places at a specific part of Canberra.

I visited the Australia Museum, Parliament House, War Memorial and the Floriade in Canberra. Shall give a brief summary of each.

1. Australia Museum: It’s really huge and different from most museums that I visited before. It’s referred by our guide (who happens to be a very knowledgeable 80+ yr old ex-university professor) as a social museum. And it’s easy to see why. The design of the museum is very modern and lots of high tech stuff are used in the museum. The exhibits in the museum focus a lot on individuals (outstanding and normal people) who help to shape modern Australia. I liked the museum, though we only managed to tour a very small part of it which is a pity.

2. Parliament House: The parliament house that we visited is the new parliament house. It’s not only the place where the nominated senates meet. It also contain a huge ballroom, offices of all the senates and ministers, a gallery of all the important people in Australia history and a exhibition hall which changes exhibitions once in a while. So you should be able to figure out how big the whole ground is.

3. War Memorial: Located at the foot of a hill that is about 1.5km away from the parliament house but directly facing the parliament house. So from the entrance of the parliament house, you can clearly see the war memorial. The reason for this is to constantly remind the members of the parliament the devastations that war will bring to the country and people. I thought this was a really significant arrangement. There’s another gigantic exhibition hall inside the war memorial which stores articles, pictures and stories about all the wars the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) was involved in, which includes the 1st and 2nd world war, the Vietnam and Korea war. Objectively, I should say this is a very informative and well-equipped museum but personally, I don’t really like this place because I feel very sad seeing the pictures of how war inflict sufferings and injuries on people and the senseless loss of lives.

4. The Floriade!!! My favourite part of the trip. The Floriade (flower festival) is actually a display of lots of flowers to celebrate the arrival of spring. The highlight of the display is the fields after fields of tulips (one of my favourite flowers) of different colours. Imagine my joy at seeing so many many many many flowers! Ha…. Absolutely adore the festival.

To see the pictures of my Canberra trip, can visit my online album at http://weimei.shutterfly.com/action/

And to those of you who complained that my weekly blog is becoming a monthly blog, sorry lah. My life here is not really that interesting and I don’t want to end up writing about the same old boring stuff about school, grocery shopping and cooking all the time. And ok ok…. I admit it. I’m lazy too. Hehe…. So I decided to change it from a weekly update to an event/emotion/impulse based kind of update. Apologies to my faithful readers. But oh well, good things are worth waiting for right? :p

2005-09-13T11:33:00.000+10:00

Weekly update again…

1. I’ll be graduating with 1 extra credit point (cp). Haiz…. Sounds good, but actually it’s not. Cos it means I have to do more work than most of my classmates. As if normal work is not hectic enough. *bangs head on the wall* Here’s what happened. We are all supposed to select an elective module out of a list to complete this semester. The module is supposed to be a 3 cp module. However, at the 1st week of the sem, we were told that the module we originally selected was not running and we had to choose another one instead. Fair enough…. My 2 classmates n I decided to choose this module called Stress & Disability. Since it’s in the list of modules for us to choose from and all the other modules in that list are 3 cp, we presumed that we would be doing a 3 cp module too. It was only on Thur that we realized that it was not the case! This module is a 4 cp module!!! *faints* And it was too late to change module as it is already week 5 of the semester. So silly rite? And it wasn’t specifically stated in the list that this module will be a 4 cp module. Learnt a lesson. Never assume. Haiz…. Luckily the module is quite interesting and the lecturer is nice. But the down side is more assignments. Will be busy busy busy…

2. Had weapons training on Thur’s night aikido training. Learnt some Jo techniques. Mainly defending and attacking. Hehe.. and I realize I don’t know how to coordinate my hands, body and legs movements. Felt like they were all going in many different directions at the same time.

3. Had an Australian style lunch time BBQ by the beach on Sat.

4. And, I’M GOING HOME ON 5 DEC!!! Yeah, yeah, yeah!!!!! So so so excited…..

Aikido!

2005-09-02T20:16:00.000+10:00

Some things that I learnt from my 3 sessions of aikido in Sydney:

1. It v nice and comfortable to train in winter. The hall we are using for training is indoors but with windows that can be opened for ventilation. So when the wind blows in, it leaves you feeling cool and when you perspire during training, it dries up very fast. Very 爽！

2. Tatami mats are very nice to train on. Cos they are quite smooth on the surface, thus won’t give you friction burns. And they are firm yet absorb impact very well, so not painful when you fall.

3. Aussies are very ‘onz’ during training. They’ll repeat every movement continuously and at a relatively fast speed. And even when the sensei demonstrates the move, it’s accelerated cos he usually only shows the moves 3 times and tells us to try it already.

4. Locks in Oz are not meant to hurt (or at least so during training). They are meant to just pin the uke down so that he’s unable to attack again.

5. Yi-kyo practiced in Oz is very different from Yi-kyo practiced in Spore. In Oz, yi-kyo does not involve the ‘1st gear’ movement at all. It is just putting one knee on the ribs and the other pushing the forearm of the uke, placing the held arm flat on the ground slightly above the uke’s head and then pressing down on the wrist and elbow of the uke.

6. If someone suddenly grabs you from behind, lift up your forearms so that they are away from the attacker so that the attacker cannot grab you completely and crush your sternum. After that, lead the person to the front or the side of you and throw the person down.

7. No matter how tight the person is grabbing you, once you lower your centre of gravity (CG) the person will either lose his grip or has to fall. Therefore, if nothing else works, lead the uke to the side of you, and then lower your CG so much till you are sprawl flat on the ground. The uke definitely has to fall. Can either do it fast or slowly (like bowing). Both ways works. Tried and tested by me to be v effective. :)

8. The proper way to hold a weapon is really an art. The way to use the weapon to strike someone is an even more difficult to master art. It requires precision as well as grace in holding the weapon and coordinating the footwork. And you really need lots of concentration and practice to be able to follow the person you want to attack no matter in which direction he moves.

9. I can actually lift and drag an ang moh man across the length of the mats with him hanging behind me pretending to want to crush my sternum. All the while maintaining the slightly open forearm position to keep him away from my sternum. (Ok lah, the ang moh is not v big sized. But still.... )

The result of these 3 sessions of training is, a partially broken toe nail, a huge blue-black on one of my shoulders, a slightly pulled leg muscle, but lots of fun and lots of interesting things learnt.

Spring is coming !

2005-08-31T21:08:00.000+10:00

I have been in Australia for slightly more than a month already. I won’t say that time flies in this case probably because my daily routine is quite fixed, so it does get a bit bored sometimes and therefore, time passes quite slowly. But I’m a bit shocked to realize that it’s already week 4 of my school semester. Oh no! Work is starting to pile up now and it’s getting closer to the dates of the dreaded tests and assignment deadlines. This reminds me so much of my busy last semester in NYP. Only this time, I don’t have my beloved friends, Cheryl & Rena, to slack till the very last day then rush to do assignments & projects together at the last minute. Really miss the times when we motivate one another via msn on the very night (or rather early morning) the assignment is due. Now, I only have Jeannie & Junting to ‘chiong’ with.

Last Fri, we had a Spore RTs gathering at the house of one of the RT who has come to Sydney to work. We had a really good time. It was a potluck dinner, so there were lots of different kinds of food, eg. Sushi, salad, prawns, baked chicken and curry chicken. Yum yum… esp the curry chicken. Miss curry chicken back home….. But I guess the fun part was really meeting up with fellow Singaporeans and comparing our experiences in Sydney and talking about old times. It always feels so good and heart-warming to meet up with fellow countrymen when you are abroad.

YEAH! It’s 1 Sept tomorrow! It’s the official date when spring starts. Ha… soon, I can wear my T-shirts and don’t have to bring jackets out anymore. And, FLOWERS & more FLOWERS! The flowers in Australia are quite unique and very beautiful. I love them. Now that spring is here, I’ll get to see more and more flowers bloom. Hehe… well, at least I have something to look forward to.

Hmm… talking abt 1 Sept, it suddenly occur to me I only have 3 more months of school left before I can go back to Spore again. Ha! Can’t wait to see my family n friends and eat Spore food! I miss my Cha Kuey Tiao, hainanese chicken rice, carrot cake, mee siam….. and the list goes on.

Pictures from the zoo

2005-08-21T20:53:00.000+10:00

The Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge view from the zoo

Wombat

Piggy

2005-08-21T17:07:00.000+10:00

Another week has passed again. Well, here are the highlights of the past week.

1. I went to the Taronga Zoo at the northern part of Sydney on fri with some of my RT classmates. Have to take the ferry from Circular Quay to the zoo. The zoo is quite interestingly situated. The whole zoo is on a slope. So from the ferry terminal, we took the sky safari (which is just cable car in normal, boring terms) up to the peak of the slope and entered the zoo from there. Then we walked around the zoo, which runs downwards and around the slope, before going back to the top of the slope again to take the sky safari down to the ferry terminal. The whole zoo is quite big (we took a whole day to explore the zoo and have not finish seeing all the animals by the time we left) and there were a lot of native animals there. Haha.. n I decided, my favourite Australian animal is the wombat. They are so cute and fat. It makes me want to carry them and hug and squeeze them. Unfortunately, the zoo only has 1 animal show running and that’s the bird show. And even then, it lasted only abt 8 mins and the birds didn’t really perform many tricks. So sad… Cos I love watching animals shows. Oh! but at the place where the bird show took place, there was a very magnificent view of Sydney harbour, the Harbour and the Opera House. So if anyone is interested in taking good pictures of both the bridge and the opera house together, the zoo is a good place to visit.

2. I went for my 1st aikido training in Sydney on Sat morning. Wow! They really maximize the training time over here. Training was almost non-stop for the whole 1 and a half hr (except when the sensei was demonstrating). And we did a move where the uke has to run to catch the nage’s hand. The person I did with was quite big sized. He tengkang once, I have to run a very big round to attempt to catch his hand. And it didn’t help that he was a black belt and was turning very fast and intentionally wanted to torture me (in a good-natured way). Hei… Haven ran so much for a long time already. Then we did moves that involves lots of rolls as well. Needless to say, we were rolling non-stop again. Had to be thrown and roll even before I have time to catch my breath from the last roll. Think over the 30 min we were doing those moves, I may have rolled close to 50 times. Weapon training was quite fun too. Learned a lot abt the proper way to hold and raise the boken and move with the boken. Interesting! Overall, despite having many blue-blacks, I enjoyed the training a lot. I intend to go for the Thurs night as well as Sat morn training from now on. Must not be lazy anymore!!! I’m growing fat from all the chips, chocolates, milk and lots of other food here.

3. Went to Paramatta for shopping on Sat afternoon. The shopping centre is huge! Lots of sales going on too (esp winter clearance sales). Haiz.. but me, being not very rich, could only buy 2 tank tops and a light jacket. Hehe… but I’m quite happy. Retail therapy does work…

School starts again tomorrow. Haiz… Why does the weekend always seem to fly past so quickly?

Surprise, surprise!

2005-08-15T00:21:00.000+10:00

I went for my first aikido session in Sydney yesterday morning. It was at the Sydney Olympic Park. I didn’t join in for the session, partly because I have not received my gi from spore and partly cos I wanted to familiarize myself with the Australian style of aikido before I joined in. Hmm… abt aikido 1st, it was quite different from the training sessions in spore. Oz seems to focus a lot on “ki” and meditation, the basic skills for weapon training and they really take their training very seriously by training non stop throughout the whole session. Overall, I found their training session quite interesting but I need to adjust some of my techniques and mindsets to fit their style of training. Can’t wait to start my training. I miss aikido!!!

Here comes the big surprise. I met one of my aikido friend (Lian Jie) from ZQS during the training session on sat. I was shocked beyond words to see her. So shocked till I had to blink a few times before I was sure that I was not seeing things and could call out to her. I mean, never in my life would I expect to meet my fellow classmate in Sydney, not to mention in so ‘ulu’ a place as the dojo. But it was a very pleasant surprise. It’s always v nice and heart-warming to meet fellow Singaporeans in a foreign land, esp if u happen to know the person in spore. It turned out that Lian Jie was in Sydney for business and she wanted to continue her training while she’s in Sydney, so there she was. After the training session, we made plans to meet up on Sunday.

So today, we went out together in the afternoon to Manly beach. I would imagine that the beach is a very nice place to hang out in summer. But now being winter, the place was quite quiet and it was quite cold to walk along the beach. However, we had some fun watching some brave young lads wave surfing in the cold waters. After that, we went to a nice Italian restaurant at The Rocks for dinner. The entrée was very delicious and well made. The pasta was well-done too. Then we went to Pancakes on The Rocks for desert. Had 1 chocolate & 1 butter pancake with 2 scoops of ice cream. The chocolate pancake was yummy. It really melts in the mouth. The butter pancake was normal but went very well with the ice-cream. Lian Jie was very nice and treated me at both places. I had a great day. Good scenery, nice ambience, enjoyable company, fantastic food.

School starts again tomorrow. Hope it’ll be a good week.

Yummy steamboat dinner

2005-08-11T22:58:00.000+10:00

Today was a very enjoyable day. I had a huge steamboat dinner! My landladies treated Jeannie and I as a form of welcome to their place. Had great fun as we were laughing throughout the whole dinner and of course, it was fantastic to get to eat all the yummy yummy food. We went to Burwood & Ashfield to get all the food with Grace today. There were prawns, 3 different kinds of mushrooms, cuttlefish balls, curry-filled balls (which were v delicious btw), meat, vegetables, luncheon meat, crab sticks, etc etc. And the soup base was Ma La soup base. So delicious and cos it’s so cold (these few days have been ultimate cold! Weather report says that the temp tonight will be 0 to -1 deg), it was so nice to crowd around the hot pot. Really feel fortunate to get such good and warm landladies.

By the way, I made the mistake of counting my eggs before they hatch. I have to go to school 4 days a week instead of 3. It’s a long n unhappy story, which I choose to forget, so shall not recount it here. Oh… but I was right about one thing. There are lots n lots of assignments and group project work and exams. Boo hoo hoo…… Uni life is not that fun after all.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

2005-08-08T17:12:00.000+10:00

Started school today. Only have a 2 hr lecture every Monday. Hehe… not too bad. Should not have Monday blues now. And after examining my timetable, I realize that I only have to go to school on 3 days every week. Mon to Wed. So that leaves Thur to Sun free. Hmm.. and let me do some maths here. I go to school 3 days a week. I have 16 weeks of lessons per sem. So that means theoretically, I only go to school 48 days this sem. Haha… sounds cool! I’m starting to like uni life. Just hope there won’t be too much projects, assignments, presentations etc. But I got a feeling there will be. Haiz… maybe I don’t really like uni life so much afterall. BUT, now is only the beginning, so I shall not make judgments so soon. Shall wait and see…

Tomorrow is national day. HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE!!! I miss singing all the national day songs & watching the fireworks. I miss home…

Happenings over the week

2005-08-07T23:54:00.000+10:00

I have really fully settled down in my Aussie apartment. Bought all the necessary things needed to make this place home. Settling in is really a new experience. Before this, I can never imagine the amount of things that I’ll need to buy when I get here. Things like soy sauce, salt & pepper (cooking things), toilet brush, detergents right up to containers for holding the plate washing sponge and powder detergents used to be taken for granted back home cos all these things were always available but now we really had to shop and buy all these absolutely necessary things to make our place fit to be called home. It doesn’t really help that I’m on a tight budget, therefore have to go to several places to look for the best price for all these things before deciding to buy them. As a result, the few days of settling in were really busy n tiring days of walking, more walking and carrying of all the stuff back and more carrying. I really thank my stars that our place is fully furnished with sofa, washing machine, pots and pans etc. Cannot imagine having to buy and move all these back home. But on the positive side, I really believe that my calf muscle and arm muscles will be very much tougher by the time I get back to Spore.

Went to Hunter Valley from Thur to Sat. (Hunter Valley is a place that produces lots & lots of wine) It’s quite pretty there. Very different from Sydney city. Lots of open spaces, fields and vast vineyards there. We stayed in the YHA Wine Country Lodge. Quite comfy & nice. (I highly recommend anyone who wants to go on a budget tour to stay in YHAs. I stayed in 3 YHAs in Aust before already and all of them are very nice and clean. Really value for money.) The tour I joined included a half day tour to wineries and wine tasting. Tasted quite a few wines for the 1st time in my life. Hmmm… Think I dun really fancy wines. Red wine is esp awful. Spicy & piercing to the tongue, palate and throat. Those that I like are the sweet/desert wine. Haha.. But that really defeats the purpose of drinking wine rite? I might as well drink soft drinks. But it was a worthwhile experience. At least I tasted a lot of variety of wines and I know a bit about how they were made and what kind is suited to go with the different cuisines. Had a self-made wood fire pizza for dinner one of the nite at the lodge. Yum yum...

On my last day at Hunter Valley, Jeannie and I visited the Hunter Valley Gardens. It was beautiful! 16 hectares of land with 13 different kinds of garden (eg Oriental, Indian, Italian styles) all in 1 area. My favorite was Storybook Garden where they were many statues of storybook characters with many nice flowers. The whole place is very colourful and pretty. Too bad, it’s winter now. Many flowers are not in bloom, eg the roses. However, Jeannie and I have already made up our minds. We shall visit the place again in summer to see all the flowers in bloom. Can’t wait till summer. Oh… the thing that I shall remember most about my trip to Hunter Valley is the cold weather. It was really much much colder at Hunter Valley than in Sydney. The temp dropped to 3 degrees Celsius at night. During my 3 days at Hunter Valley, my hands and feet were constantly numb with cold. Wearing gloves and socks didn’t help at all. It was so bad till I couldn’t even feel anything with my fingers. They felt like they didn’t belong to me! But other than that, I should say that I really enjoyed Hunter Valley. It was a nice break before school starts.

This morning, it was back to reality again. Back to being an aunty. Walked 50 min to Auburn to buy groceries and other stuff and lugged tones of things back. (bought an enormous cabbage that must have weighed at least 4kg!) Haizz… Tired tired…

And school starts tomorrow! Why is it that I’m already looking forward to the next holidays? Haha…

My home for a year

2005-07-31T00:09:00.000+10:00

We woke up in the morning feeling so excited & happy that we have a proper place to stay from today onwards. A place to call our home.

Grace came to pick us up from our hostel in the morning & once again, we had to lug our tonnes of luggage. I bet our muscle mass grew drastically within these few days. Oh! And just as an aside, I think I’ll really have nice, strong and tough calf muscles by the end of the yr. We have been walking so much ever since we came to Oz. Till now, we have yet to take public transport. It takes 30 mins to walk from my sch to Lidcombe town and another 45 mins to walk from Lidcombe to Auburn. And these few days, we keep coming back and forth these 3 places and in these 3 places. So you can imagine the amount that we walked. I refuse to calculate the distance. (Cos if I calculate, I’ll start to feel my legs aching once again. ;p) And from now on, I’ll have to walk about 40 mins to sch & another 40 mins back from sch everyday. So there! I’m v confident that I’ll have nice, slim and slender legs when I go back to spore. So look out for it, pple!

Actions speak louder than words. Our landladies demonstrated from their actions that they are really helpful pple. After we have shifted our luggage up to the apartment (which happens to be on the 2nd floor, 3 storey up from the garage), and finally managed to catch a breath, Grace once again offered to drive us to Ikea so that we can buy our furniture. So nice of her rite? She even told us that if we start sch at 9am, we can ask Joanne to drive us to sch cos Joanne starts work at 9 too. And if we are in sch till late at night, we can give them a call and ask to pick us up as the way back home from the sch is v long and dark. (For those who are unaware of it, my sch directly faces the biggest & oldest cemetery in New South Wales. So everyday, I see the cemetery as I walk to and fro from school.)

After fixing up the furniture we bought from Ikea and after our mattress is delivered, TA-DA!! Our rooms are nicely and comfortably decorated already. Hmm… let me describe my room. It has carpeted floor. One piece of wall is painted dark blue (BLUE! My fav colour. Haha…) I have my mattress to sleep on, a bedside table which has a blue lamp that I bought from Ikea, a big black study table with a black study lamp and a black chair in my room. My wardrobe spans across the length of my whole room and the exterior is all mirror. (So I can see myself no matter which corner of the room I’m in.)

So glad to have a nice, indoor room to sleep tonight. So happy to be able to find a place to settle in so fast. So thankful for everything.

Finding a place to call home down-under

2005-07-29T23:43:00.000+10:00

Hmm... i realised that i have not updated my blog for a super duper long time. Well, tink i shd try to do it regularly again.

Shall start by updating about what’s happening at my side (down under) now. Jeannie & I found a place to stay already!! Super fast & efficient rite?? Haha…. Actually, we were just v v lucky. The 1st day we reached, when we went to all the real estate agents, none of them have anything v attractive to offer us & we were really afraid we had to pitch tents & sleep on the streets (cos our hostel stay is only up till Sat morn). The 1st day was really super demoralizing & depressing (cold, tired, hungry & facing the prospect of landing on the streets). The 2nd day morn, we decided to try one of the real estate agents again which told us yest that they might have something available for us. However, when we reached there, we were told that the hse we wanted was no longer available. Imagine our disappointment & sianz feeling. Being v desperate, we pleaded with the agent to help us look for something. At this point in time, we noticed that one of the staff in the office keep sneaking looks over at us. When the agent that was attending to us walked away with nothing to offer, this staff came over. She told us that she herself has a 3 room apartment & that she wants to rent out 1 room. When we told her that we wanted 2 rooms, she called her flat mate to discuss n the conclusion was that they only want to rent out 1 room as they want another room as the study room.

Disappointed once again, we left the shop to sit on some cold metal bench that freezed our butts while we ate our breakfast (hot chips!). Halfway thru the chips, we received a call from the lady at the real estate place (Joanne) to inform us that after discussing with her flat mate, they decided to rent us 2 rooms! WOW!!! That was really the best news we heard since we came to Oz. After we finished stuffing chips into our mouths, we went over n she immediately brought us over to view her apartment. BIG SURPRISE !!! Her apartment is really v nice! Very homely, new (only 4 months old), clean, modern & the wonderful part is, Jeannie & my room faces each other at one part of the hse & between us there’s a toilet with bathtub & everything. So it’s like we live in a secluded part of the hse with our own private attached bathroom. The best part is that, the whole place is fully furnished (except for beds). So that saves us the hassle & money of having to go get all the furniture, washing machine, fridge, kettle, rice cooker etc ourselves. Plus, both Joanne & Grace (her flat mate & our soon to be flat mate) are v nice & warm pple. Jeannie & I both fell in love with the 2 of them as well as the apartment once we stepped into the place.

However, being rational girls who refuse to make rash decisions, we decided to try looking for our places b4 we make a decision. So we spent the rest of the day going to many many real estate agents to enquire & we went to 2 hses for viewing. However, both houses didn’t appeal to us much. The 1st one was pretty old n very dirty. The 2nd one is quite quiet and far from sch & shops. Tired of going for any more disappointing hse viewings, we made up our minds to go back to Joanne. At the same time, we went to purchase our mattresses and arranged to have it delivered to our new place the next day.

That night, we signed the landlord-tenant agreement and TA-DA! We have a permanent place to stay for the next 1 yr, with all the comforts of home immediately available to us.

I think both of us are really really lucky to meet Joanne and Grace and to be able to settle down so soon. Thank you to all my family & friends for your blessings and well wishes. I really think it worked wonders.

Ha.. a super long blog rite? to make up for lost time that i didn't blog mah. :P

3 Weeks of Long-Awaited Holidays !

2005-02-27T22:19:00.000+11:00

Finally, finally, after a super tough week, my eagerly looked-forward-to holidays are here!

Hmm...what shall i do in these 3 weeks?

1. Learn diving ! Cool ! Looking forward to seeing the remaining 70% of the world that i can't reach by walking.

2. Continue my driving lessons. I passed my final theory test! so must quick quick learn my to drive so that i can go for my practical test before i leave for Oz. Right now, my process is quite poor. The instructor says i drive in a zig-zag manner. :-(

3. Read a lot of books that i have kept wanting to read but didn't have time to do so during school term.

4. Meet up with friends and spend some time with my family too.

Can't think of anything more to do at the moment. But i'm quite sure things will just appear along the way for me to do one...

Hahaha... best of all, 3 weeks of rest n sufficient sleep!!!

Cheers to 9 years of friendship!

2005-02-21T21:41:00.000+11:00

I had a wonderful time today.

Went to Youya's house for a gathering with my Zhongruan frens. We didn't have a meeting where all of us are present for a very very very long time already. The amazing part is that despite all 5 of us having totally different lifestyles now and the fact that some of us have not talked to the rest in ages, when the 5 of us got together, i find that our group chemistry is still present. I felt totally comfortable with their company.

"True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but not in heart." Cheers to my 5 fellow ZR mates for being my friends for 9 wonderful years and still counting....

Happy Friendship Day!

2005-02-15T06:36:00.000+11:00

Happy Friendship Day to all my friends!!!

Hotel Rwanda

2005-02-08T21:00:00.000+11:00

I went to watch a movie called Hotel Rwanda today. It was very good. Very touching. It really brought out the cruelty of a racial civil war, the despair of the people, the selfishness and nonchalent attitude of the world even when atrocious things are displayed right in front of our faces and yet in the midst of all these terrible things, how 1 man can make a positive difference to the lifes of 1286 people.

It's a very good show and i'll highly recommend it to everyone.

The Menace of Female Beauty

2005-02-05T20:16:00.000+11:00

Some food for thought:

1. "Female power is beauty" so much so that "a woman is rewarded for how she appears and not for what she desires or what she produces".

2. "Being thin sends a visual message to the world... that a woman works hard at being attractive, and is therefore good at her traditional job of being a desirable sexual object, romantic partner and consumer. By being lean, she also conveys the idea that she's disciplined, efficient and in control of herself."

I read these statements in the Women & Desire book. It really made me think a lot. Abt female appearances. Concidentally, L was telling me that he read in a book that says that males are need to be attracted by a female's appearance before he will attempt to get to know her better and that males cannot be persuaded to like a girl if he is not attracted by her looks.

Are females who are physically unattractive forever cursed to be unloved then?

Why is it that even in our supposedly educated & reasonable society, females are still judged by their looks & not by their true capabilities?

Why do modern women (including myself) constantly desire to be thinner?

What do i, as a woman, truly desire then?

All opinions & comments are very welcomed.....

Women & Desire - Beyond Wanting to be Wanted

2005-01-30T11:02:00.000+11:00

Currently, i'm reading a very interesting book called Women & Desire - Beyond Wanting to be Wanted. One of the 1st sentences in the book goes, "women want to be wanted, not to be loved". When i 1st read this sentence, i totally disagree with it. But surprisingly as i read on, i find that i myself actually do fall into this category of women ! The book went on to say that even modern women do not know what we want for ourselves. We are very often under the control of our Masters & we are merely Objects of Desire. Masters refer to many things, except our own desires.

Hmm... it's a very scary thought. I always thought that i'm a master of my own self but after i read this book, i realise that i'm not!!! I'm merely a puppet who does what others desire of me. haiz...

I have not finished reading the book, so can't discuss more abt this at the moment. But i'll make sure i finish reading this book, although it's making me very uncomfortable about my perception of myself. Hopefully, it provides a solution abt how women can be their own masters...

My life currently...

2005-01-29T21:10:00.000+11:00

I have not blogged for a long time, really v long.. ever since i came back from Aussie. The main reason is because i was pretty busy the past few weeks... Basically, busy meeting up with frens whom i have not seen for the past 6 weeks when i was in Oz, with Aikido, with school work, with helping out with the collection of tents & crockery for the tsunami victims in the Maldives, with my driving lessons and with the hustles of daily life.

Hmm... tink i should give a short conclusion to my Aussie experience (although it ended quite long ago). But everything that has a beginning must have an end mah., so here i go... I think overall, i enjoyed my Oz experience. It was really a memorable trip cos it's my 1st trip overseas that span across 6 weeks. In the past, i did go overseas, but it was only for short periods of time and always had everything prearranged with tour groups. But this time, it's totally different. My frens & i had to arrange everything ourselves, from big issues like accommodation to medium size issues like daily transport & food to small issues like when to go to the internet cafe etc... This really taught me to be independent. I'm v glad i had my friends to go through this period of time with me, to help me along & to share the fun & unhappy moments with me. Another thing that i learnt was to appreciate singapore. It was only in Australia that i realise that i have been taking so many things in spore for granted, eg the efficiency of our train system. So this trip to Oz made me cherish all that i'm given in spore. In conclusion, i should say that my clinical attachments to Oz was a v enriching experience. Professionally, i had the opportunity to experience the aussie way of treating patients which i felt greatly inspired me to demonstrate good patient care. Personally, i felt that i grew up a lot in the 6 weeks, in terms of self confidence, independence & also social skills when interacting with others. Lastly, i have lots of wonderful memories of pretty sydney & fun gold coast!

The collection of tents & crockery for the tsunami victims in Maldives is now over. Just to give a short conclusion to the event as well, i shall say it was a very heart-warming experience. It further confirms my belief that humans are kind in nature. i think that tsunami did bring out something good afterall.... it brought out the best in the human spirit - our ability to show compassion and love for our fellow human beings. Think the next proj that i'm going to help out with is the collection of books, toys & stationery for the ophans in areas hit by the tsunami.

School... haha... i have mixed feelings abt this term. On 1 hand, i'm not v excited abt it cos it brings to mind the numerous projects & assignments that i have to do this sem. Yet, on another hand, i love going to school cos it means seeing my frens & having fun with my RT grp. i really love my class lots & now i'm really cherishing the last 3 months of lessons that i'll be having with this crazy, fun-loving grp of pple.

Finally in Gold Coast!

2004-12-21T16:47:00.000+11:00

Yeah!! we are finally in Gold Coast after a 16 hr coach ride, during which i tot my butt will really "open flower". Haiz!!! it was really quite awful. so i'll advice everyone NOT to attempt taking the coach to Brisbane from sydney if anyone is coming in future no matter how poor u r feeling. :p

Hurrah! attachments in sydney is finally over! now it's time to enjoy b4 heading back to school again. The apartment that we are staying in Gold Coast is a backpacker's inn. 2 rooms wif a kitchen n a living room. quite cool! but too bad not facing the sea. in fact. the sea is quite far away. But fortunately, can feel a little of the seabreeze n smell the sea. We r going to all 4 worlds (Movie world, seaworld, dream world & wet & wild) in the next 6 days. Looking forward to the worlds!

Last week in Sydney...

2004-12-14T13:36:00.000+11:00

Time really flies. i'm in my 4th week in aust already.

This week has been quite exciting. i made my 1st visit to the casino in sydney. haha...... it was cool. just like in . but it was quite dumb. 3/4 of the casino filled wif jackpot machines. hai.... brainless game. well, i didn't play aything. cos i can't afford to n oso cos i dunno how to play.

On fri, i went to watch a Broadway musical, Lion King. the story is the same as the cartoon one. but the whole setting, the props used n the whole atmosphere was fantastic. I was captivated for the whole 2 hrs. v v v worth it to watch. n it only cost me $40. n we got v good seats cos v few pple in the theatre that day. lucky us......

One of the Uni of Sydney students brought us to Bondi beach on sunday. the waves were beautiful n huge. but too bad, didnt see any cute hunks...

oh..... i found somethings that are quite cheap in sydney. the cherries n strawberries n grapes. i bought cherries at $0.40 only.... ok. it was not really sweet but it's still cherries. so happy.... shall get more of it to eat.

Another of my weekly updates from Oz

2004-12-07T14:22:00.000+11:00

Work was tiring. i have to stand & walk all day long. even more tiring than working in spore cos in spore, at least i got chair to sit. But i'm really quite inspired by the patient care that the radiation therapists here show. They really treat each patient as an unique individual and tok to each n everyone of them like long-time frens. hmm.... think this is really wat spore hospitals lack. the human touch. but in terms of technology, actually, we r superior to them. oh n during work, i made frens with the uni students n the staff. really enjoyed their company.

Haha.... i tink jeannie n i r fast becoming aunties. On our rostered day off last fri, we went around to Paddy's market in town to do food shopping cos they have the cheapest food there. n then we went to our fren's apartment to do our laundry n wooked. haha... n we become so calculative when it comes to buying food that i feel slightly ashamed of myself. ha..... mum, bet u'll be so proud of me when i come back. i can do marketing leh ! :p

Over the weekend, we went to Blue Mountains, It was beautiful n the mt did really look a bit bluish and the view was magnificient. We stayed there overnite in the YHA and the place was very nice. v cosy, homely n clean although it was only a backpackers' hostel. On sunday we went on a tour around blue mt by ourselves on bushwalks. we walked so much that i tink i have walked enuff to last me for a v v v v v v v long time. Haha... i tink the amt i walk in oz in a day is equivalent to the amt i walk a week in spore. cos everywhere is v far. n there's no buses to take. esp the walk from the train station to my hostel. it's uphill somemore. haha.... so confirm i'll have beautiful calves when i go back to spore.

3rd Greetings from the Land of Oz

2004-11-30T12:42:00.000+11:00

Well so many things to update but so little time.. sigh... well... firstly, weather's back to hot again! we are bracing for the 42 degrees hot weather tomoro and i'm real glad i'm working tomorrow coz at least got air con. heehee...

Btw, to show u all how poor and scrimpy i am in Oz, let me share with u all what we have for meals. we always buy this humongous 89cents loaf of bread from the supremarket here and this can last us for at least 2 breakfasts and sometimes even lunch. for stuffings, we will get chicken ham which is only like less than 50cents per slice. My gal fren n i always share meal and we refuse to allow our meals exceed 5 bucks. Today was the most ultimate, we have lunch at 65cents per person! haha... was from hospital's canteen and we ordered two side dishes for a total of 1.30 bucks. heehee... sometimes, if i'm feeling even more stingy, i'll just get meat pie from the supermarket at only 59 cents and warm it up for dinner. but decided not to eat too much of that cos dunno wat meat it is. They don't write it in the ingredients list. quite scary! so u all can see, i'm really broke n poor here. just to get a few more gifts for evetryone in spore. so when i get back to spore, can u all pls take turns to treat me?

Yesterday we met up with some frens from NCC in spore. it was so great to meet up with pple from singapore... just make the homesickness i'm feeling easier to bear... sigh... i miss singapore's food... char kway teow, mee siam, mee hun kuay, fishhead curry blah blah blah... that's it, i'm gonna golf all this things down the min i get back to singapore heehee...

oh yah.... n oz doesn't seem to hav much veg except potatoes. i miss my green leafy vegetables !!! all of u all must treat me to a big plate of veg when i get back to spore ok? thks in advance. :p

2nd post for DownUnder

2004-11-23T13:10:00.000+11:00

Today i started work at westmead hospital. wow! the roster is real neat! we work 9 days for a forthnight.. which means one week we work from mon to fri then another week it'll be just 4 days... haha cool huh?

And i just remembered something. i'll miss singapore idol!!! but we caught Australian idol finals yest on TV. It was quite a huge event. It's held at the Sydney Opera House and they have lots of fireworks after the results were released. The coolest thing is that we could view the fireworks from the window of our rooms. Oh well, it did look far away n small n everything but nevertheless, it's still quite beautiful.

i know that in my previous post i said that the weather's damn hot. guess what? that nite after we left the internet cafe, we were all so cold. coz it rained and the weather plunged to below 20 degrees... and this lasted till today.. i'm still shivering now.. sigh... erratic weather.. also today after work, we waited like one hour for our train.. crazy huh! n it was super cold... shivering all the way while waiting. i shall NOT complain anymore abt spore's train system when i'm back in spore.

sigh.. i'm already beginning to miss singapore's food.

I'm in Sydney!!!

2004-11-20T16:00:00.000+11:00

i'm finally in Australia! now in internet cafe. The rates are quite ok, 2.50 aus dollars per hour and so the three of us(my classmates) sharing that one hour.

The town i'm staying at, Auburn, is ok... accommodation so-so, nothing luxurious but we got first class treatment,esp for me, heehee.. guess what? i got a so-called attached bathroom and toilet... somemore 6 showers, 4 bathrooms and 5 toilet cubicles... once i open the door, ta da! there's my bathroom! heehee... and btw, we all go to the same toilet, male and females included. Kinky rite?

By the way, Auburn is a turkish town. everywhere on the street i see turks and turkey food.. even took a walk to the mosque.. so guess we have to eat turkish food v often now. n the pizza we had 4 lunch today is humongous. 4 of us had a super dupper hard time finishing it.

The weather's damn hot. n my room got no fan. n no ventilation. so quite stuffy. n the weird thing is the shops around here all dun sell fan one. so want to buy oso cannot. haiz..... but 1 man in a shop offered his shop 2 us cos got aircon. hahaha...

Tomoro we all heading to the city.. YEAH!!! Hope we can go and watch a show at the opera house.

My goal in life

2004-11-15T15:49:00.000+11:00

"When is the best time to do things?

Who are the most important people?

What is the most important thing?

The present moment is the only moment.

The most important person is always the person you are with.

And the most important pursuit is making the person standing at your side happy.

What could be simpler or more important?"

-The Resilient Spirit: Transforming Suffering into Insight & Renewal-

By Polly Young-Eisendrath

I was really struck hard by the simplicity & truth of the above passage. (My breath was literally taken away for a moment when i read this passage on the MRT. Spent the rest of the journey thinking about this sentence after that....)

It all sounds so simple but yet it is so hard to achieve. But i shall try my very best to put it into practice. Making the person i'm with at any moment happy shall be my goal in life from now on.

i have much to learn....

2004-11-14T21:53:00.000+11:00

If one can be so convincing as to say that a black object is white, should i say that the one is smart & i'm stupid cos although i know the thing is black, i can't convince the one otherwise? Or should i just say that it's a matter of perception?

If i should not interfere in the business between 2 parties, does that mean that i should not care about anything that does not involve me? Then does that mean that i should not help other people since their problem doesn't affect & concern me? Does that mean that i just close both eyes to all injustice in the world? Then in that case, how does one explain the concept of interdependence? Where does one draw the line between my business & others' business?

i still have much to learn about life.

A bit troubled...

2004-11-13T00:34:00.000+11:00

Haha.... i managed to figure out how to put in the appropriate paragrahping!!! Feel quite smart. I went to edit the HTML leh.... Imagine! a computer idiot like me actually going to edit some weird, horrible, greek-like HTML language. Actually, have to thank the silly website design project that i had to do for Rad Info. & of course, more importantly the person who taught me some HTML language while helping me do my proj.

Anyway, enough abt my smartness.... Back to the reason y i'm still awake so late at night (which is quite an uncommon thing for me since i'm such a pig as those who know me well can testify). The reason is b'cos i'm quite troubled.

Yesterday was Zhen's 21st bdae. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY! again, Zhen) Was supposed to be a joyous occassion but something unexpected & unpleasant happened. It caused a bit of unhappiness for all the involved parties. And the worse part is, i think i'm the one partly at fault but it ended up that another person has to bear the bulk of the outburst. (To the person, i'm so sorry. :(

Haiz.... But to me now, this matter is over. We were all at fault, except poor, innocent Zhen. All i wish for now is that the relationship between all of us can get back to the way it was previously. Cos i really cherish the funny, easy-going, loving and innocent relationship we share. Really hope to see that all is well before i leave for Sydney.

HELP ! i have a problem with my blog !

2004-11-11T22:18:00.000+11:00

hmm... weird. How come my entry appears as 1 whole big blot of words although i did put in the appropriate paragraphing.... Can anyone offer a solution?

2004-11-11T22:13:00.000+11:00

Haha... my 2nd entry. This time i'm quite sure it'll appear. So i shall write more.

I met YY n HT today for lunch. Though we were just sitting around in Long John n actually went to the NTUC to buy things like chicken & ham after that (a bit aunties-like hor), i had a great time. I didn't realise how much i missed them till we sat down n started talking like in old times. Boy.... i do miss our sec sch CO days so much.

Went to the Geylang bazaar wif Xin, HL & nad in the evening. It was fun too.... So much interesting things to see & lots of great food to eat. & it's my 1st time eating Ramly burger. It was yum yum........ delicious! Too bad Zhen cannot join us. I noe she would have loved eating the Ramly burger too.

Despite the great day i had today, actually, i'm quite mad with 1 person. Hmm... tink a mixture of 60% disappointment, 20% anger, 10% disbelief & 10% sadness will better describe my feelings now. This incident changed my views of this person by quite a fair bit. Till now, i still can't believe that this person actually can really go n do such a insensitive thing. Haiz.... what a letdown.

My 1st entry!!

2004-11-07T10:19:00.000+11:00

Actually i'm just trying out the system. Testing testing 123......

Weekly updates from Aussie

2004-01-07T14:22:00.000+11:00

Work was tiring. i have to stand & walk all day long. even more tiring than working in spore cos in spore, at least i got chair to sit. But i'm really quite inspired by the patient care that the radiation therapists here show. They really treat each patient as an unique individual and talk to each n everyone of them like long-time frens. hmm.... think this is really wat spore hospitals lack. the human touch. but in terms of technology, actually, we r superior to them. oh n during work, i made some good frens with the uni students n the staff. quite enjoyed their company.

Haha.... i tink jeannie n i r fast becoming aunties. On our rostered day off last fri, we went around to Paddy's market in town to do food shopping cos they have the cheapest food there. n then we went to our fren's apartment to do our laundry n cooked. n we become so calculative when it comes to buying food that i feel slightly ashamed of myself. ha..... mum, bet u'll be so proud of me when i come back. i can do marketing leh ! :p

Over the weekend, we went to Blue Mountains, It was beautiful n the montain did really look a bit bluish and the view was magnificient. We stayed there overnite in the YHA and the place was very nice. v cosy, homely n clean although it was only a backpackers' hostel. On sunday we went on a tour around blue mt by ourselves on bushwalks. we walked so much that i tink i have walked enuff to last me for a v v v v v v v long time. Haha... i tink the amt i walk in oz in a day is equivalent to the amt i walk a week in spore. cos everywhere is v far. n there's no buses to take. esp the walk from the train station to my hostel. it's uphill somemore. confirm i'll have beautiful calves when i go back to spore ah!!!