::. edgarmirantz.com .::

Closing down, for now...

2009-12-31T15:22:00.000+11:00

I'm gonna "close" this blog for now. Haven't really been bothered to blog thus far.

Look for me in Facebook and add me instead - you'll get to know what's happening.

www.facebook.com/mirantz

Bye for now!

Internet Radio from MediaCorp's back up.

2009-12-02T10:24:00.003+11:00

Yay! Internet streaming from MediaCorp is back up after almost a year. I can now listen to my favorite YES933 online. =)

MediaCorp radio stations are back on the Internet!
Re-launch of internet radio simulcasts for four radio stations
Singapore, 30 November 2009 -- MediaCorp and the Recording Industry Performance Singapore (RIPS) are pleased to announce the re-launch of internet simulcasts of four MediaCorp free-to-air radio broadcasts, after reaching an agreement permitting such simulcasts.
From 1 December, listeners of four MediaCorp radio stations, namely 987FM, Class 95FM, Lush 99.5FM and Y.E.S. 93.3FM, can hear their “LIVE” radio broadcasts on the Internet, making these stations accessible to larger audiences, and also to listeners who are overseas.
"We are very happy to be able to re-launch our radio stations on the Internet. Many of our listeners have been asking us to bring back our internet radio simulcasts as they had become accustomed to listening to the radio while working on their computers. Singaporeans abroad also want to tune in so that they can keep abreast with what is going on back home," said Florence Lian, Managing Director, Radio, MediaCorp. "With the re-launch of our simulcasts, and being the only Singaporean broadcaster to do so, our stations truly have the widest reach of listeners in Singapore and beyond our shores."
MediaCorp Radio did offer simulcasts of its free-to-air radio broadcasts over the Internet in the past, but following certain changes to the law which made these streams subject to copyright licensing, suspended its internet simulcasts in March 2009.
Barbara Wong, General Manager of RIPS, which administers internet simulcast licenses for the major recording labels in Singapore, said, "RIPS is very pleased to conclude this licensing arrangement with MediaCorp permitting the re-launch of its internet simulcasts. We congratulate MediaCorp on being the first Singaporean radio broadcaster to do so, reaffirming MediaCorp’s leadership in the industry, its willingness to embrace new technologies and to listen to its customers. The record labels we represent are also pleased that the value of their music being made available on the Internet is also now being recognised."
Under the licensing agreement struck between the two parties, MediaCorp will be permitted to re-launch internet simulcasts of four of its radio stations with immediate effect, with the option to increase this to more radio stations in the future. To this, Ms Lian added "Economic conditions will determine our business decisions in this space so we will be studying that closely."

BTW, I've moved. My new postal address is as follows:-

132/416 St Kilda Road

Melbourne

VIC 3004

Cheers!

Peace, Love & Ice Cream (yes, B&J is now being sold in Aussie).

The Barbarian Invasions (2003)

2009-06-22T02:24:00.000+10:00

I watched the movie, The Barbarian Invasions, this evening. It was being screened on Channel One.

Having a difficult time accepting the reality of death and feeling regretful of his past, a man dying of cancer tries to find peace in his last moments. His estranged son, ex-wife, ex-lovers and old friends will all come to him to share his last breath.

It was quite a nice French movie. The son taking time off from work, just to be with his dad - taking care of him and making him feel comfortable. Taking time off as well as risking his life to get heroin to make his dad pain free and comfortable.

I wonder what will happen in future.

Time will tell.

Just a short post for now.

Till then,

Love ya all! =)

Wash your hands!

2009-05-27T22:04:00.005+10:00

Do you still remember the SARS outbreak in 2003? I do. That's because that was the year whereby I was on clinical placements and I was attached to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) when it all happened, being interviewed by Channel News Asia, and being featured in the 4th episode of the prgram, Living with SARS. I've tried searching for the program, to no avail. The only way for me to get a hold of the footage (or rather, the entire edited episode) is to purchase it from MediaCorp, which would cost me a bomb.

During the "SARS period", Phua Chu Kang (PCK) was still very much a Singapore favourite. He did a rap on SARS, which included the lines, Wash your hands, in it.

Now, with Swine (or H1N1), I'm yet again on clinicals, this time round in the Alfred Hospital - one of the 2 major public hospitals in Victoria whereby you'll hear sounds of the helicopter hover above your heads as they transport patients to the emergency department.

Recently, the Wondergirls has been a hit, with their song, Nobody. And the Mr Brown show has adapted it for a Wash Your Hands songs. Enjoy watching and do remember to WASH YOUR HANDS.

Daylesford, Lemon Detox Diet & Clinical Placements

2009-05-17T22:41:00.000+10:00

Not been updating my blog again. Been just too lazy to do so.

The past week just flew by with a wink. Went over to visit Daryl last Saturday and luckily I was in time for my dinner of Fish & Chips. I was there 3 minutes before the closing time. I simply love the fish & chips there as I find it the best I've eaten thus far. The fish is fresh and it doesn't have any fishy smell/taste. I had battered and deep fried the last time round and this time, it was grilled. Even though it was grilled, it was still perfect as it was well-cooked, not overcooked and juicy.

Daryl and I had both brunch and dinner over at Cosy Corner Cafe (which is just beside Daryl's spa) in Hepburn Springs. Love the food over in Cosy Corner as well as it's really nice. Been to the curry night on Wednesdays last time when I visited with Bastian and friends. Can't wait to visit again for the Fish nights on Fridays. Also went for a facial over at Acqua Viva Day Spa and it was lovely.

I started my Lemon Detox Diet on Monday for 7 days. It's known as the Neera Detox Diet in Singapore/Malaysia. At first, I wasn't really confident if I would be able to complete the 7 days as I would have to go 7 days without food. It's the seventh day today. The last day without food. And I'm still feeling perfectly healthy, fine without hunger.

The diet's pretty simple. Just purchase the pack for A$87.95 and everything's good to go. I got mine from the spa as Daryl sells them. Started making my "meals" at Daryl's place on Sunday night and I made a big mess in the kitchen. I need the right tools for the right job and without them, I'll just be making a mess of everything, which was what happened. Water, sweet syrup and lemon juice spilling everywhere and such. We went to Ballarat on Monday and I managed to buy the tools. A fruit juicer (the simple ones for oranges/lemons) and funnel.

Start the day off by drinking a liter of sea salt water. It's made from 1 liter of water with 2 teaspoons of sea salt. Thereafter, feel like a prisioner of war due to the bloatedness. It reminds me of the Japanese Occupation during World War 2 whereby the Japanese soldiers would torture people by making them drink lots of water and then step on their bellies. After an hour ot so, feel like a bottom, or someone who's going for a colonic washout. Run to the toilet for about 3 to 4 times in about an hour or so to perch everything in your digestive tract out. Yes, the sea salt water literally goes right through. On Wednesday morning, I thought that it was just gonna be air at first, but I was utterly wrong as I felt that my pants was kinda wet. Yes. I shitted in my pants! Luckily it was only a small amount and didn't go through it to soil the chair.

Throughout the day, drink at least 2 liters of the drink, which I've named it "lemon tea". To make 2 liters of the "lemon tea", take 140mls of the Mahal Bal syrup, which contains palm and maple syrup - yes, it's sweet and i like it (Would even just eat it it it wasn't expensive), 3.5 lemons (which i use 4 normally) and a few pinches of cayenne pepper (which is just red capsicum or red pepper) and mix it with 1560mls of water. I usually add more water to make it about 3 liters (2 full 1.5 liter bottles) so I can drink more fluids and drink it whenever I feel that I'm gonna get hungry. Because of the natural sugar (Glucose and Fructose, found in the palm and maple syrup), you feel energetic and not hungry.

And every night, make a cup of Senna tea to drink. 1 teaspoon of senna tea leaf and hot water. Senna Tea is a herbal tea, which has an effect of a laxative. So it helps in the elimination process every morning.

I'm starting clinical placements tomorrow at the Alfred Hospital. It's one of the largest public hospitals in Victoria. Even though the distance is far from my house to the hospital, I'm not regretting it, as I think I might be learning lots from this 3 week stint. My roster for this week:-

Monday: 8am to 4.30pm

Tuesday: 7am to 3.30pm

Wednesday: 7am to 3.30pm

Thursday: 1pm to 9.30pm

Friday: 1pm to 9.30pm

Which means that I've to be awake by 6am tomrrow to leave the house at 6.40am to catch the 6.49am tram reaching the hospital by 7.50am and on Tuesday and Wednesday, I've to be awake by 5am! And in order to get at least 7 hours of sleep (which the army taught me), I need to be in bed by 11pm latest tonight, which is 20 mins away.

I've had my meal planned out for this week as I'll be "working" and will only be able to start eating "normally" after Wednesday. This is how it looks like.

Monday

Breakfast: Madal Bal Syrup with Honey and Orange and apple juice

Lunch: Apple juice and Orange

Dinner: Pureed Carrot & Vegetable Soup

Tuesday

Breakfast: Madal Bal Syrup with Honey and Orange and Apple juice

Lunch: Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup and Orange with Apple Juice

Dinner: Carrot & Vegetable Soup with Chicken Noodle Soup

Wednesday

Breakfast: Cornflakes with Milk and Madal Bal Syrup and Orange Juice

Lunch: Chicken Noodle Soup with Orange Juice

Dinner: Carrot & Vegetable Soup with Mashed Potatoes

Thursday

Breakfast: Cereals with Milk and Ovaltine with Honey

Lunch: Beef Korma (Lite & Easy)

Dinner: Tuna Sandwich with Butter, Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter and Coconut Jam

Friday

Breakfast: Cereals with Milk and Ovaltine with Honey

Lunch: Fishermans Pie (Lite & Easy)

Dinner: Tuna Sandwich with Butter, Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter and Coconut Jam

Supper: Chicken Rice or Curry Laksa

The reason why I'm having a heavy lunch on Thursday and Friday and a light dinner is due to the fact that I'll be working on PM shift. And a supper on Friday night as it's gonna be my very first "outside food" meal since "recovering" from the diet, with this friend of mine whom I've got quite close to, even though we've only known each other for about 2 weeks.

Anyway, it's time for me to head to bed soon. Have a great week ahead to one and all.

You're blessed and Cheers!

Ten Commandments

2009-04-28T00:29:00.002+10:00

I was doing quiet time as usual and was looking up on the 10 Commandments. Interestingly, there were 3 different, but almost similar versions, taken from 2 books, Exodus and Deuteronomy. Both are from the NIV versions.

I hope that you'll be reading this all the way till the end and not close this as I've spent lotsa time working on this. Haha...

Exodus 20:2–17	Deuteronomy 5:6–21	Exodus 34:11–27
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before [or besides] me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. 8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 13 "You shall not murder. 14 "You shall not commit adultery. 15 "You shall not steal. 16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."	"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 7 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me. 8 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. 11 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. 12 "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. 16 "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 17 "You shall not murder. 18 "You shall not commit adultery. 19 "You shall not steal. 20 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 21 "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."	11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. [That is, symbols of the goddess Asherah] 14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15 "Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same. 17 "Do not make cast idols. 18 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. 19 "The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. 20 Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. "No one is to appear before me empty-handed. 21 "Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest. 22 "Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. [That is, in the fall] 23 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. 24 I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God. 25 "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning. 26 "Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk." 27 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

Exodus 20:2–17

Deuteronomy 5:6–21

Exodus 34:11–27

2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3 "You shall have no other gods before [or besides] me.

4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

13 "You shall not murder.

14 "You shall not commit adultery.

15 "You shall not steal.

16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

7 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me.

8 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

12 "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

16 "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

17 "You shall not murder.

18 "You shall not commit adultery.

19 "You shall not steal.

20 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

21 "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. [That is, symbols of the goddess Asherah] 14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

15 "Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

17 "Do not make cast idols.

18 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

19 "The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. 20 Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.

"No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

21 "Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

22 "Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. [That is, in the fall] 23 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. 24 I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.

25 "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.

26 "Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.

"Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."

27 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

Also, if you scrutinise the passage carefully, there're actually 15 statements in all and not just 10.

Statements
I am the Lord your God	1
You shall have no other gods before me
You shall not make for yourself an idol
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God	2
Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy	3
Honor your father and mother	4
You shall not murder	5
You shall not commit adultery	6
You shall not steal	7
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor	8
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife	9
You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor	10

So in fact, we have 15 commandments rather than 10.

On a lighter note, I'm not sure if you've seen this, but there are 2 more...

A New Christian Ten Commandments

The 10 Commandments of Common Sense

1.Thou shalt shut thy gob when politely asked, and not drone on endlessly.

2. Thou shalt not use circular arguments, such as "God exists, because the Bible sayeth so, and the Bible is True because it is God's Word."

3. Thou shalt notice when thy audience is bored rigid. See Commandment 1.

4. Thou shalt not use a cop-out such as "God worketh in mysterious ways" when backed into a corner by thine own convoluted logic.

5.Thou shalt use thine own imagination, and not just quote from the Bible all the time.

6.Thou shalt not tell atheists what they believe, nor that thy God loveth them.

7.Thou shalt not get upset by jokes about thy God. He is big enough and old enough to looketh after himself.

8.Thou shalt not define how thy God worketh. Thou canst not know.

9.Thou shalt not state that the Bible is consistent and hath no contradictions. Thou wouldst be a fool to doeth so.

10. Thou shalt not say Grace without also thanking the farmers, truck-drivers and shopkeepers that actually did the work required to get your food to the table.

1. Don’t be seduced by popular culture. It prevents you from thinking for yourself.

2. Don’t fall in love with money. It will make you greedy and shallow.

3. Don’t use destructive language. It hurts others as will well as yourself.

4. Don’t judge other people. Its better to work on your own faults.

5. Don’t let anger get out of control. It can wreak relationships and ruin lives.

6. Keep a positive outlook on life. It's the first step to joy.

7. Bring out the best in other people. It's better to build up than to tear down.

8. Have impeccable integrity. It brings peace of mind and a reputation of honor.

9. Help those in need. It really is better to give than to receive.

10. Do everything in love. It is the only way to find true peace and fulfillment.

Interesting eh???

Anyway, I better go sleep now. Avin from AfA's in town and I'm gonna be a tour guide for a day. Hehe..

Goodnight people and God Bless!

Singapore Dreaming~~~

2009-04-27T00:21:00.002+10:00

Some people dream of better life

Some people dream of pretty wife

Some people dream for bigger car

Some people dream of travelling far

We play mahjong, we buy 4D

What are we really trying to be

We play Toto, we buy Big Sweep

But what we win we never keep

Singapore dreaming, Singapore sleeping

Singapore buying, Singapore trying

Some want their parents have good health

Some want to live with new found wealth

Some want their children go uni

Some scared their children be like me

So why we always pay and pay

Don't want our neighbours say us suey

What for we struggle through it all

We don't want people see us small

Singapore dreaming, Singapore sleeping (wah!)

Singapore buying, Singapore trying

We do our best to score our part

We go Genting we try our luck

Next time no need go so far

Want to win just go IR (arhhhh...)

Singapore dreaming, Singapore sleeping (Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo)

Singapore buying (Yo ar yo ar yo ar yo) , Singapore trying

Singapore dreaming (Yo ar yo ar yo ar yo) , Singapore sleeping (Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo)

Singapore buying (Yo ar yo ar yo ar yo) , Singapore trying (Hoot ah...)

I'm still alive!

2009-04-11T22:59:00.002+10:00

yES Yes, I'm still alive. It's just that I've not been updating my blog and such. No idea why I'm not been having the mood to though.

Nothing much happening in my life except that I've since stepped down as the President of the Singapore Students' Society in La Trobe University and took up the position of Advisor cum Media Manager.

Year 2's killing me and I have 2 assignments due on the 20th of April, and I've not started on any. I'm kinda rushing it now but I feel tired and sleepy whenever I see the question.

It's the 1 week university vacation and out of the 5 days, I'll be attending the Planetshakers Conference 'ONE' for 4 days. I hope that it'll really refresh and inspire me, which I think it will.

Finally attended FOCUS last night. And I think my bond with my urban life over at Planetshakers is closed now as I've been attending, unlike last year.

Bastian, Debbie, AYE and Jason came over to visit me in Melbourne and we had a fun time. Went to Great Ocean Road, Phillip Island as well as Daylesford/Hepburn Springs. Visited Daryl at Daylesford and stayed over at his place. While driving back from GOR, I made a roadkill. Haha...

Visited the Melbourne International Flower and Garden show with Daryl.

Went for lunch at Melvin's place today and test drove his car. He's selling it and it's quite attractive. Haha... Feel like buying it.. Hehe...

That's all for now and I better get back to my essay. I've only doen up the intro paragraph of liek 20 words since? =P

Happy Easter! Don't forget your easter eggs, easter bunnies and hot cross buns.

Love you guys.

Less than a week

2009-02-23T04:33:00.002+11:00

It's less than a week before I return back to Melbourne until April 2011, tentatively.

I've since shipped my electronic keyboard and a 19.5kg box over to Australia.

Tutorial selection opens on the 26th (Thursday) and I hope that I can get the tutes which I want. But I feel that I'll not get it AGAIN and I'm always losing in the game of fastest fingers first.

I'm having a re-farewell gathering cum advanced birthday celebrations on the 26th at ibis hotel.

Bastian and his girlfirend would be joining me on the 4th of March in Melbourne for his 2 week holiday. During that time, they'll be staying at my place.

I plan to have a birthday "reception" on the evening of the 4th itself in my apartment.

Oh wells, that's all for now.

Cya guys!

Shop on Friday@ Coles and help support Victoria’s bushfire victims

2009-02-10T15:35:00.001+11:00

Tuesday 10 February

Shop on Friday and help support Victoria’s bushfire victims

Coles is asking customers to plan their supermarket shop for this Friday (13 Feb), to help raise badly needed funds for the victims of the Victorian bushfires.

Coles, BiLo, Pick N’Pay and Coles Online are donating this Friday’s profits from all stores nationally to the Bushfire Appeal Fund, and hope to raise between two and four million dollars.

Coles Managing Director Ian McLeod said he hoped customers would plan to do their grocery shopping this Friday.

“Our customers often have set days for their supermarket shopping, but we’re asking people to change their habits this week and to do their shopping on Friday, to support this special fundraising event,” Mr McLeod said.

“The more people who support this Friday’s fundraising, the bigger the donation we’ll be able to make.”

Mr McLeod said stores were already preparing for the day.

“There’ll be extra team members working in stores to help manage what we hope will be a very busy day. We’ve also ordered extra stock deliveries into stores.”

Coles is continuing to support ground level relief agencies, providing essentials such as food, water and toiletries. Coles today gave $30,000 to the Salvation Army and the Australian Red Cross to help provide immediate food relief to those affected by the bushfires.

Happy 2009, Happy Lunar New Year & Happy Australia Day

2009-01-27T20:02:00.003+11:00

It's 2009! It's the Year of the Ox and I've been through 2 cycles of the "anaimals" and it's my year again this year, which makes me 24. But wait - my birthday hasn't passed so I'm still 23.

It's the 2nd day of the lunar new year and I've nothing to do. No visitations as usual and went to Vivocity yesterday with my parents to watch the movie, The Wedding Game. It was directed by Ekachai and it was a little disappointing (coming from him). Yes, I do have higher expectations of him.

I'm rotting at home. Meeting my friend later for dinner and just hang out.

I'm looking for someone to go with me to KL as Tiger Airway's having S$29 fares. Haha....

Oh well, that's all for now. Haven't really been motivated to blog these days as you can tell. =P

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2008-12-25T02:03:00.001+11:00

2008 is coming to an end.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Tired.

Hello 2009 soon.

Facebook me to know more and see pictures.

I'm seeing clients again for Hypnotherapy sessions in Singapore.

Back from Great Ocean Road

2008-12-09T02:02:00.000+11:00

Went to Great Ocean Road (GOR) today. Didn't take lotsa photos due to the lack of time. We left Bundoora at 9am and had to leave GOR by 3pm or so as we had to get to box hill to meet the rest of the FOCUS people for dinner. The trip went well and I loved it.

Dinner was fine too and we went to a nearby park thereafter. I watched as the rest played games. And i became a little adventureous by attempting to climb up a lamp-post which i failed badly. I managed to get everyone to play a team-building game of forming a circle to sit on each other's laps and it went great, with everyone sitting for 21 seconds.

Have you ever felt like an outcast? I have. And that feeling's getting into me again. Sometimes, sacrifices are necessary for things to work out. But then again, you can only choose 1 or the other. One can't have both. But I'm fearful. If I choose that one and it backfires, I'll lose that one and the other as well. And if I choose the latter, I'll lose the former, in which, I can't bear to loose at this point in time.

1 more week and this shall end, hopefully. Then, I'll crumble as everything comes to an end for 2.5 months. Or it might just continue - for the better or for the worse.

I pray to God. It's been years now that I've been praying for this. But then, I'm not sure when He'll grant this to me. I'm still waiting and putting my trust in Him. That's because I know that he is :-

My Saviour, He can move the mountains, My God is Mighty to save, He is Mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave.

I pray for God to give me the patience and the strength to pull through this time of waiting and have faith in Him.

Goodnight peeps!

Back from Canberra

2008-12-07T00:52:00.002+11:00

I'm back from Canberra. Really enjoyed myself there. I came back from SPRTE feeling really enriched and refreshed. And I've also made a new friend. =)

Took lots of photos. Will upload them slowly to facebook.

Time for bed. Will blog again soon.

Heading to Great Ocean Road with my new found friend, Joel, and ZY on Monday. Joel's driving.

Off to Canberra

2008-11-29T06:36:00.002+11:00

It's finally the holidays. Ended my clinical attachments of year 1 yesterday and the feeling of saying goodbyes isn't something nice.

I'm using my laptop and my wireless broadband internet, which i brought along, in the waiting area of terminal 4 of melbourne tullamarine airport. Arrived here at 5.30am and the gate only opens at 6.35am. I'm so tired. Didn't catch a wink last night. I'll be heading over to Canberra for a conference. SPRTE - South Pacific Region Training Event. My handheld luggage exceeded by 1.6kgs. Each person's only allowed 7kg of hand carry luggage but mine came up to 8.6kgs.

Anyway, got to go now.

Cya all!

Week after Exams

2008-11-17T21:31:00.000+11:00

It's the holidays for some but not for me. I'm having my clinical attachments now for this week and next over at Fred Combridge House over at Northcote. But before that, let me talk about the weekend.

Went over to Myer Christmas Parade in the city on Saturday morning. It was rather exciting. Something like Chingay back in Singapore, just that there are no seats for people to sit and that it's christmas themed. Almost got myself sunburnt after standing in the sun for almost 1.5 hours as I didn't apply sunblock coz I rushed out of the train for fear that I would be late. I ended up being very early - arrived at 9.20am instead of the 9.45am meetup time. Pictures for the Myer Christmas Parade 2008: Album 1, Album 2 & Album 3.

Met up with the rest thereafter a short walk down the road over at Chill On Ice Bar. We had to wear thick jackets and gloves to keep us warm from the cold. 2 door seperated the "outside" from the "inside". The interior was simply amazing. Everything was made out of ice - the tables, chairs, bar table, statues and cups. It was just like a big fridge literally as it was -6 deg inside. Barely 5 minutes into the "freezer", I was already feeling cold and wanted to get out, but I persisted as I didn't want my money to go to waste. Haha... Went over to Hungry Jacks (aka Burger King) for lunch and we went over to Lygon Street. Sam's birthday was a few days back so it was kinda like a late birthday surprise cum treat for him and since he loves ice cream, what better way to celebrate and give him a treat of ice cream on a hot day! Pictures here.

We headed over to Dudley Street thereafter for a theatre dinner. Went to Witches in Britches and it was fun. Doors opened and you were greated by a witch. And you had to make your way through a dark tunnel before getting to the lounge area for pre-drinks. We made our way then to a big hall with dinner tables with a medium sized stage, which was considered small in size for professional theatre, in the center front of the hall. Dinner was served and after dinner, the play started. I had steak for dinner and it wasn't too impressive, just the average, nor is it too bad as well. The play wasn't too bad as well. It was quite professionally done and the casts were good in using the audiences reactions and responses for the show, however, there was room for improvement. It's quite reasonably priced at $63 for a 3 course meal and a play. You'll be disappoint if you're there for a good meal and/or a professional theatre play. However, it's a real good place to just catch up and mingle with friends and for some entainment. I would suggest going there to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays though. And you get to "sabo" (sabotage) your friends. Pictures for Witches in Britches: Album 1 & Album 2.

Fred Combridge house is a 31 bedded aged care facility in 2 levels. The first level is the kitchen as well as the administrative office, meeting room and tea room. Second level is where the residences live - their rooms, dining hall, TV room and garden. It's a nice place, just that it stinks a little in certain places, something which I've got to get used to fast so life will be much better for me. My clinical instructor is someone new to La Trobe and doesn't really know much about LTU's nursing and she's still in the process of learning, however, I find that she's trying her best to help us and to find out things from us, which is good. The place is understaffed and I think the staffs would be happy these 2 weeks (I hope) as we're there to help them. However, it feels to me that they feel threatened by our presence. Not sure if this is due to the fact that wer're Div 1 students (as they're all Div 2 or PCA's) or some other factors.

Time for me to head to bed now. Very tired even though I didn't do much today. It's morning shift for me tomorrow. Davina and her brother as well as Felicia's coming over to my place for dinner tomorrow night. Am going to cook satay chicken, chicken rice, stir fried vegetables as well as red bean soup.

Goodnight people and God bless.

Post exams

2008-11-16T02:42:00.000+11:00

The exams finally ended. Woohoo~~~~

Went to watch a concert on Friday evening with FOCUS (Fellowship of Overseas Christian University Students) in Vermount by the band Sons of Korah. It was the Myers Christmas Parade on Saturday morning, Chill On Ice Bar in the afternoon and a theatre dinner at Witches in Britches from evening till night. Had a great but tiring day.

Will blog about the events of Saturday again hopefullu by Monday. As for now, it's just a few preview pictures and time for me to get my beauty sleep.

Goodnight peeps!

Plagiarism: An Out-Dated Concept?

2008-11-04T01:16:00.005+11:00

The article below was submitted to the Singapore Nursing Journal for publication. It was my very first essay for university and I had to write on something positive on plagiarism - making it from something wrong to right.

PLAGIARISM: AN OUT-DATED CONCEPT?

TAN CHIH HSUEH, EDGAR
NITEC (Nsg), Cert IV (C.H), Dip (MC)
BNsg Student, La Trobe University
Dip (C.H) Student, Academy of Hypnotic Science

310N/215 Bell Street, Preston, VIC 3072, Australia
+61 433353646, +65 96472689
mail@edgarmirantz.com

Abstract

Plagiarism has been viewed by different people and organizations with different viewpoints. This article shall be looking at the positive and the negative side of this issue, give some examples of what constitutes plagiarism and thereafter, giving a viewpoint on plagiarism. Plagiarism is also an ethical issue. Students continue plagiarising as they think that cheating is acceptable as everyone does it. This is due to the many reasons such as the large number of assignments to be completed. The definition of plagiarism should be modified so that students can use the resources of others simply by giving the credit to whom the resources originated from.

Keywords

Plagiarism, Students, Teachers, Ethics.

Introduction

Plagiarism has been viewed by different people and organizations with different viewpoints (Yeo, 2006), some positive and some negative. Universities view plagiarism as a serious issue (LAS-ESL, 2007) but students still continue doing it (Gaberson, 1997). This article shall be looking at the positive and the negative side of this issue, give some examples of plagiarism and thereafter, giving my point of view on plagiarism.

According to Logue (2004), he defines plagiarism as “…the intentional or unintentional use of another’s work or ideas, published or unpublished, without clearly acknowledging the source of that work or idea”. Rephrasing the text could also be constituted as plagiarism. Simply put, it is a form of cheating and can also be a form of stealing (Vogelsang, 1997). In society today, cheating and/or stealing is a punishable act by law and it is enforced by the law of the country. However, in plagiarism, there is a lack of enforcement and there is no black and white as to what the consequences are. To some, plagiarism is unacceptable as it is the same as making a product which is already patented or using someone else's logo which is already trademarked or an infringement of a copyright. However, plagiarism and the infringement of copyright are two different issues. There are laws governing copyrights and trademarks but there are no laws governing plagiarism (Dames, 2007). To others, plagiarism is common amongst students (Brown, 2002). It is acceptable and happens all the time. For example, I remember when I was in primary school, we would always be lending and borrowing each other's work just for the sake of reading and checking to see if our answers were right. This even happens to me when I was studying in a post-secondary institution. In that case, would this be considered then as plagiarism as everyone would have the same thoughts, ideas and answers? Then there is also an issue on self plagiarism whereby if a person were to use his or her own ideas in an article which was published previously and to use it again in the current article, it would be considered plagiarism (Lowe, 2003). Once the original author has wrote the article and has it published, the copyright together with the article, belongs to the publisher (Griffin, 1991). Permission must be granted from the publisher if the original author wanted to use back the same ideas for his next article.

There are many tools out in the commercial market to detect plagiarism (Cross, 2007). One of them is Turnitin. This company has a database of over 40 million of student assignments (Turnitin), articles and assignments for lecturers to detect if the student has plagiarised in their work. The company profits in their annual turnover as educational insitutations need to pay a licence fee to use this program (Turnitin). However, this issue has upset students as it is a form of violating the student's copyright (Smit, 2005) as it does not pay the students for the use of their work and/or assignment. In the United States, students protested against the use of Turnitin and after collecting signatories for a petition, they submitted it to the administration. Thereafter, the university administration eased the mandate a little by requiring only ninth and tenth grade English and social studies students to use Turnitin (Glod, 2006).

The university views plagiarism seriously and even says that “in very serious situations, will stop your study in university” (LAS-ESL, 2007). Plagiarism is also an ethical issue (Davidhizar, 2002). If one were to do something wrong once, what would the possibility of that person not cheating again? For example, in a clinical setting, a nurse does not have time to take the vitals of the patient at 4pm and uses the vitals from the previous day's 4pm vital sign to chart it, what are the chances that the nurse will not commit this offence again? And would this be considered plagiarism as she had copied the work of someone else? In this situation, it would not only involve the nurse but also a third party. The vital signs for that particular day and the day before could be different. If a client was seriously ill and no vital signs were taken, it would cost the client his life! Plagiarism is also a learning issue. Students are able to get a degree by doing all assignments and passing them. However, to what extent do the students know about their subject and how much knowledge of the subject does the student know by the time they graduate from their course?

The university may be inadvertently be promoting plagiarism. For example, during tutorial groups, students are encouraged to voice out their opinions and the tutor writes down the opinions on the board. Isn't that considered plagiarism since the idea was from someone and it is being used by another? Lecturers are also partly to blame (Larkham and Manns, 2002). Assignment topics and question papers are being repeated from time to time. It is not surprising that students are bored and running out of creativity of what there is to write. If they write something which has been written by other students, he would have considered to have plagiarised even though he did not do it. Even lecturers are not able to agree to what constitutes plagiarism in different situations (East, 2006), how else would students even be able to then know?

However, students still continue plagiarising as they think that cheating is acceptable as everyone does it (Brown, 2002). This is due to the many reasons such as the large number of assignments to be completed, that the assignment topics are considered boring or not relevant and having to quote a certain number of references which means that there are at least a certain number of materials to be read, having to bear in mind that the library only has limited number of resources. In addition to the assignment given, students also have to study for their examinations given that what is covered in the lecture is only merely the surface of the subject. If a student were to spend so much time on assignments and studying, this equates to the student having very little or even no time to relax and enjoy themselves. In cases of students with families who have low income, they would have to work part-time to make ends meet (Larkham and Manns, 2002). Access to the internet is easily available and sometimes, they do not even know that they are plagiarising while in the midst of doing so. The internet is such a powerful medium. It has millions of articles and knowledge of many different viewpoints from people all over the world. Many people in the world plagiarise and most of them gets away without being caught. Logue (2004) notes that in a class of 64 third year diploma and 10 degree students, 50% of diploma and 30% of degree students admitted to both intentionally and unintentionally paraphrasing text in their assignments without acknowledging the source. However, if plagiarism is unchecked, the result could be that no new content would be generated and the level of research papers would be reduced.

In the nursing and medical field, there are so many journals in the profession with more and more articles being published. With this trend, nurses are being encouraged to publish and given the stress to contribute articles. Some may have no choice but to plagiarise in order to get good quality articles. Cronin (2003) believes “that authors often are unaware that they are committing the act of plagiarism. Many never learned the “rules” for professional writing while in school.”

From my point of view, the definition of plagiarism should be modified so that students can use the resources of others simply by giving the credit to whom the resources originated from. It saves time and allows people to be able to express themselves freely. There would always be new problems therefore new solutions would have to be found and discovered. People should use the combination of drawing on the experience of the old, come with new ideas and methods to solve the problems. In this way, the old and the new would compliment each other. People should also be honest with their work. There was once this very good doctor who was well respected in his medical practice, had an academic appointment and enjoyed teaching. After he plagiarised from another publication, all his academic credentials and teaching position was lost. No one recalled about all his good things that he had done. For a period of time, he also lost respect from his fellow colleagues. Now, even when he wants to publish original and good articles, he has difficulty in doing so (Griffin, 1991).

Conclusion

Plagiarism can be good, yet harmful if overused. It helps people to save time and lets them focus on other more important matters. However, if everyone does it, there would be no improvements in life. Therefore, it should only be allowed in certain circumstances and that new findings should be used to complement it. A universal definition to what extent of reproducing other's work would constitute plagiarism is also needed. Institutions needs to draw the line to what constitutes plagiarism and what is not. There should also be instances which plagiarism to a certain limit or circumstances is allowed. These again, should be made known clearly. Students should be educated on plagiarism and be warned of the consequences of this issue.

References

Brown, D. (2002). Cheating must be okay - everybody does it!. Nurse Educator, 27(1), 6-8.

Cronin, S. (2003). The problem of plagiarism. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 22(6), 253-54.

Cross, M. (2007). Policing plagiarism. British Medical Journal, 335(7627), 963-964.

Dames, K. (2007). Understanding plagiarism and how it differs from copyright infringement. Computers in Libraries, 27(6), 24.

Davidhizar R. (2002). Duplicate publication, part 1: consideration of the issues. Nurse Author Ed, 12( 3), 1-4.

East, J. (2006). The problem of plagiarism in academic culture. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 2(2), 16-28.

Gaberson KC. (1997). Academic dishonesty among nursing students. Nurse Forum, 32(3), 14-20.

Glod, M. (2006). Score one for mclean high students. Washington Post. Retrieved 27 March 2008 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301466.html.

Griffin, G. (1991). Don't plagiarize - even yourself!. Postgraduate Medicine, 89(4), 15.

Larkham, P. and Manns, S. (2002). Plagiarism and its treatment in higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 26(4), 339-349.

LAS-ESL. (2007). Plagiarism. Retrieved 24 March 2008 from http://www.latrobe.edu.au/plagiarism/index.html.

Logue, R. (2004). Plagiarism: The internet makes it easy. Nursing Standard, 18(51), 40-44.

Lowe, N. (2003). Publication ethics: copyright and self-plagiarism. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 32(2), 145-146.

Smit, M. (2005). TurnItIn.com - copyright and "fingerprints". Retrieved 31 March 2008 from http://www.mikesmit.com/page.php?id=23.

Turnitin. Reading, writing, research, & originality. [Brochure]. Retrieved 26 March 2008 from http://www.turnitin.com/static/pdf/Turnitin_brochure.pdf.

Turnitin. Pricing – how to buy. Retrieved 26 March 2008 from http://www.turnitin.com/static/price.html.

Vogelsang, J. (1997). Plagiarism - an act of stealing. Journal of Peri Anesthesia Nursing, 12(6), 422-425.

Yeo, S. (2006). Science and engineering students’ beliefs about plagiarism: ‘It’s only an assignment’. Proceedings of the Assessment in Science Teaching and Learning Symposium. The University of Sydney, 139-144.

Last essay for the year / KL Drift; My Special Friend

2008-10-27T23:54:00.000+11:00

I've finally handed in my last essay for the year. Yippie! Stayed up the whole night to work on it.

I decided to take a break today after all the essay writing and watched KL Drift. It was something similar to Tokyo Drift, just that it's in Malay with English subtitles and that it was really very touching. It talks about car racing and the strong bond between brotherhood. No matter what happens, you may reject your *brother* or even insult him, he would still not forsake you and stand by you, to protect you. This movie really moved me and I couldn't hold back my tears any longer and began sniffing away, something not many movies can do to me.

This movie suddenly reminded me of something. It is just like our relationship between our Heavenly Father and us. No matter what we do to reject Him, push Him away, deny Him as our Lord, He is always still there for us. Just like in the movie, He would ask us not to do something but we'll still do it, and when we end up even in the brink of death, somehow or rather, He'll just appear out of nowhere and be there to save us at the last minute.

When things don't go our way, we reject Him. We deny Him. We stop acknowledging him as our Lord and Saviour and we turn away from Him. We don't even want to hear, see or have anything to do with Him. There is nothing He can do about it but to leave us aside and just look at us feeling rejected. He can't make us accept Him if we do not want to. All He does is to hope that we will accept Him again.

During misunderstandings and we think that God is to blame, we scold and even test Him. Then, someone else comes to attack us, in this case, a car driven by an enemy, rushes towards us at a very high speed attempting to knock us down. We do not see the car as we are all too distracted by the things we're too involved in or by someone or something else. However, He sees it and pushes us aside and He gets knocked down instead. He took the place for us. That's how good this friend is to us. Sometimes, even after all these has happened, we still get mad at Him and are not thankful for what He has done for us and am not willing to let the past go. We need to be waken up by others, by having our other close friends who has always been by our side watching, shout at us before we get our senses and thoughts back together.

This special friend is none other than God. He is always there with us and will never forsake us. He took our place and died on the cross for us, for our sins. Have we accepted and opened the door in our hearts to set aside a special place for him? We should and perhaps if you are still uncertain about it, take some time off to reflect what we have done to Him and what He has done for us. I'm sure if the things that we have done for Him and what He has done for us are put onto the weighing scale, it would simply tip to the side of Him doing things for us.

Let's be blessed by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

Have a good week ahead and Cheers!

edgarmirantz.com on 883 Jia FM

2008-10-19T00:05:00.000+11:00

I received a call from 883 Jia FM (A Singapore radio station) on Sunday night. I picked up the phone and was asked about my blog, what I was doing and such. I didn't know that it would be live on air and was caught off-guard. I wasn't even prepared for this and I answered the caller in mandarin which was so very baddd...

Here's the abstract of the interview on 883 Jia FM. Pity I didn't record the second part of it as the DJ said more things about my blog and such after she played the commercial. I should have continued recording it. Oh welll...

Sleep early

2008-10-18T22:30:00.000+11:00

It's a Saturday and I'm heading to bed after this post.

Hosted a couple of my friends in my new apartment and went over to Sophia's over at Bell Street, 15 minutes walk away from my place, for dinner. The portion was huge and I'm still so full now.

It's church tomorrow and it's going to be at Festival Hall. We're meeting at 10am over at Melbourne Central and we'll walk over as a group.

I'm going to cook Tau Suan this coming Tuesday for the Glenn College bible study which will be in my apartment. I hope it won't be a disaster.

Cheers and God Bless!

My new home!

2008-10-15T00:45:00.000+11:00

It's finally a place where I can truely call home. Room 310 North of Rydges Residences. I hosted a dinner last Saturday for 3 of my friends and a tea reception last Sunday for 17 of my mates from uni. I was glad and a lil surprised that all 17 was able fit in. Had dinner with Martin on Sunday as well.

It's the second last week of uni - week 12. Next week would be the last week of uni, followed by a week of swotvac and thereafter, exams. I'll be having my 2 weeks of clinicals in a home for the aged care 10 minutes away from where I live and will be flying to Canberra for a training event for 5 days and back to Melbourne to pack up and perhaps hang around for a couple of days before I fly back to where I belong. (sings the song, Where I Belong by Kit Chan)

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a job back in Singapore for just 2.5 (or 3) months. I'll be flying thereafter to Bangkok, Thailand for a short trip from the 5th to 12th of January 2009. I bought the tickets late last month for just 4 cents one way excluding taxes. Toto, my fellow faculty mate doing podiatry, is from there and has agreed to bring us (me and my friends) around.

Anyway, back to my new home. I'm living in a room/apartment all by myself. The building has 7 stories and I'm on the 3rd floor. Levels 1 to 3 as well as a wing on 4 are residences and the 3 other wings on level 4 to level 7 are hotel rooms. I'm loving where I'm staying as it has a kitchen (well, just 2 stoves and a mini fridge) and toilet right in my room. It also has a very comfortable couch (which my friend who nearly fell asleep on it), a round glass table and a study table - which the room in the room opposite room doesn't have. The room opposite has a nicer view, but it doesn't come with a study table, which I need it for study - duh!

My wireless broadband sux. MSN's been trying to connect for the past 20 minutes but to no avail. I've been disconnected for quite a couple of times from the net as well and I've complained numerous times to the ISP but nothing has been done. I might consider breaking the contract next month (with 5 more month to go).

Oh, I just realised that it's past 12.30am, which means it's past 9.30pm SGT/HKT. I'll go make a call to pL who's now in HK now for an exchange.

Goodnight everyone and God Bless!

Moved.

2008-10-04T02:08:00.001+10:00

I've shifted. My new address with immediate effect is as follows:-

310N/215 Bell Street

Preston, VIC 3072

My contact number is still the same at +61 433353646.

Cheers!

Yawns...

2008-09-11T03:40:00.000+10:00

Nothing much to blog about. Back from Bendigo. Twas fun. Was supposed to blog about it on Tuesday evening but I wrote a few sentences and abdonded it. Will continue with it soon, I hope.

I had 4 hour of lectures today. Nicolaas visited me today. How sweet of him. Dinner was good. In fact, I think Scholaris is a much better caterer than Spotless.

I've to conduct a training on the 22nd in greater victoria. And I've no idea how to get there actually. Taking a cab would be very costly - more than $200 one way. I might have to ask if John is willing to fetch me.

One health sociology essay due next Friday and my hypnotherapy semester 2 starts next friday as well and the hypno assignment's also due on that day - I've not started on it yet. 12 questions of minimum of 250 words for each question. And I'm working on the CU video which has to be done by next week. So many datelines. I need 30 hours a day. My sleep pattern's screwed up.

I've only a 1 hour physiology lecture tomorrow from 3 to 4pm. Would be able to wake up late again tomorrow but then again, I'm not even sure if I'll be able to have an uninterrupted sleep or if I would be able to sleep all the way till late. It's a trip to Richmond and Ikea thereafter. I've to scout for cheap lanterns, mooncakes, candles and snow skin pre-mix, if possible. Mid Autumn Festival is on the 14th and SingSoc's celebrating it on the 20th.

Time for bed. You - the one reading this blog now, is blessed by God. Goodnight.

La Trobe University (Bundoora) Open Day

2008-09-01T01:13:00.002+10:00

It's been a long week. Spent most of my time today with the Division of Nursing and Midwifery in the open day of the university. It's a nice experience and I managed to interact with lotsa locals wanting to find out more about nursing and/or midwifery. Thereafter, I went to church for the third service at 5.15pm with Nicolaas.

He was so nice as to accompany me knowing that I would be attending the service alone. I liked the service today. It's different as there wasn't a sermon. It's the launch of the 3rd service at 10.45am and also the live acoustic album recording at all three services. I stood and sang my lungs and heart out for nearly an hour (or slightly more). The acoustic rendition of reflector was nice. I can't wait for the album to be out, which would be next year, I guess. I would happily say that my voice is in the album. Haha...

Went to Marcus's thereafter. He called me in the morning and he sounded horrid. I was kinda worried as he was having a fever a few days ago, but recovered yesterday. And it was back again today. Bought dinner for him and accompanied him for a little while and I came home. Whilst at the tram stop, I missed a tram and had to wait for 35 minutes just for the next tram and it was cold. Brrr....

It's the Physiology mid-semester exam on Tuesday and one essay's due next Monday. I hope I can do well in both. Oh well, even if I just pass, I would be glad.

I got to know this guy named Zhi Yang about a week ago. He seems to be quite a nice guy. We've been hanging out almost everyday for a week now. I hope things would turn out fine and not become complicated.

Wish me luck in everything. Cheers and goodnight. I am Blessed. You are too!

2 weeks

2008-08-27T23:01:00.002+10:00

It's been almost 2 weeks since I last blogged. I'm just not motivated to, unlike last time. pL's now in Hong Kong for 4 months for an exchange program. He posted the pictures on facebook and it just looks so nice. I wish I could go there one day, either to work or just for a short holiday.

Hypnotherapy lessons has started and I've more assignments due in time to come. The Singapore Students' Society, or also known as SingSoc has been setup in the university and I've be appointed the president of it. I'm going to register the society once I get the bank account opened.

My life has just been rather stale. I'm heading over to Bendigo gtom the 5th to the 7th of September for a weekend homestay program. I'll get to stay in a local's house for a weekend to get the real auzzie experience, which I've more or less gotten when I went over to Davina's place the other time.

Well, I guess it's more of Facebook-ing if you wanna know about my updates as I'm always there. Perhaps, when I get into the mood of blogging again, I shall.

BTW, V's dating this guy, which is much older. I hope that things go well. I don't like seeing people getting hurt.

Ta for now.

National Day Parade & Responsible Serving of Alcohol

2008-08-14T02:23:00.000+10:00

It's been a long time since I've last updated my blog. It's the time when I'm just lazy to write again. It's always the time whereby I'll blog just before I go to bed and there's the time when I just can't be bothered to blog at all. Life has been stagnant, nothing much.

Last Friday night, we went over to the IMAX theatre in Melbourne Musuem to watch Dark Knight. The cinema was nice and the movie was nice too. We took the tram home thereafter and there was 2 persons that puked in the trams. Imagine the stench I had to bear for the 35 minutes of the journey. Nick came as well and he stayed over at my place until Sunday.

I celebrated the birthday of Singapore on Saturday evening. I booked one of the rooms in college, which has a piano, a computer and a projector. We only used the computer and projector though. The fellow Singaporeans came together to celebrate National Day and all of us watched the National Day Parade using the live webcast. It was fun and after the parade, we ate and danced. All thanks to Felicia and the rest of the girls and we did the Hwa Chong mass dance. I wished that we had that back when I was in seconday school. It was so much fun and it brought along all the laughters as well.

It was church on Sunday afternoon. Planetshakers would be starting their third service at 10.30am begining 31st August 2008. There would be also a live album recording on that day itself as well in all 3 serivces. I would very much like to be there so that I can be part of the album.

Attended the Responsible Serving of Alcohol course on Monday and I passed the test. I received the certificate on the next day. Now I can work in any licensed establishment which serves or sells alcohol. That's provided I can get a job in the first place. And because of this course, I wasn't able to attend the Monday Night Training by the LTU Christian Union. Nevertheless, I attended the Glenn College bible study on Tuesday night.

It's the hypnotherapy course on Friday and I'm kinda excited by the thought of it. I'll have to wake up early though, at 7am as I've to catch the 7.56am tram to arrive at Clifton Hill by 8am in order to arrive at Elsternwick by 8.53am as my lesson starts at 9am.

Anyway, it's time to head to bed now, else I won't be able to wake up by 7.45am to have breakfast at 8.15am as my lecture starts at 9am.

Goodnight and God Bless.

New Moon

2008-08-02T03:28:00.000+10:00

The week passed just as it came. Nothing much exciting. I wish I could turn back time. Perhaps, things would be very much different now. I went to Northland last evening and bought 2 more books of Stephenie Meyer, New Moon and Eclipse. Cost me $60. I pre-ordered her 4th book as well, which is due for release on Monday. I started reading the second book today and shortly after starting, I felt emo and hurt. It was a familar feeling, a feeling which I've experienced just not too long ago.

It's Davina's 21st birthday on Saturday. The group of us are heading over to Wangaratta to celebrate it with her. It's the furthest place which I'll be going to ever since my arrival in Australia. Till date, my furthest is still Ballart, 1.5 hours away from Melbourne. Wangaratta is 3 hours away from Melbourne and 1 hour away from NSW.

I should head to bed now. I've to be up in a couple of hours time. Breakie's at 8.15am and we're departing uni at 10am to catch the 12.13pm V/Line train.

Now, I'm tuning in to myiradio online and with the songs which they're playing, I feel so much like just staying up to listen. All the mandarin songs which are being played now, it's just so soothing.

GC BS

2008-07-30T03:23:00.000+10:00

Nothing much for today again. Another boring day. Lectures from 9 to 12 followed by a 3 hour break and another lecture from 3 to 5pm.

Had the Glenn College Bible Study tonight. Studied about Romans. It was good.

Time to sleep. 4 straight hours of lecture tomorrow from noon to 4pm. Argh~~~

Tired.

2008-07-29T00:59:00.000+10:00

Another tiring day. Lecture at 8am followed by two 1 hour tute and an hour of lab session.

Wanted to rest but couldn't. Went for talk and in-depth bible study after dinner, which was organized by the La Trobe Christian Union. Went to the library to watch the videos for this week's health assessment module. It's about 3 videos every week which I've to view.

I'm so damn tired now. So tired that I can't even form a proper sentence properly. Think I should go sleep and yes, I would be now.

Goodnight!

Twilight

2008-07-27T02:09:00.002+10:00

Woke up early and went to Preston market with the rest. Bought pancake premix and I had the urge to eat pancakes ever since Thursday, after I ate 5 pancakes for breakfast. However, due to the change of plans for the day, I didn't get the chance to make them. Went to the city with Shamay and Minyi as Kat, my classmate wanted to have us at her house for hi-tea.

Her house is very nice. Views of the city from the 34th floor is simply amazing. Her rent's $280 per week though and that exclude meals and bills. I'm currently only paying $270 per week inclusive of meals and bills.

Went over to John and Lionel's house later. They have just shifted in so it's still rather empty. They're staying over at St Albuns, over at Zone 2. At least I have an idea what to get for them in future. Haha...

I've been reading the novel by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight. Chris and Faezah has already finished reading her third book and awaiting for her fourth book releasing next Friday. I'm still not even half done with the first book.

It's been a rather depressing day actually. My mood fluctuated throughout the entire day. From normal to good to bad and good to bad again. Right now, it's not that good actually. Oh well, I shall go offline and go wash up, read a little more of the book and go to sleep.

Goodnight.

Boring Lectures

2008-07-23T01:44:00.000+10:00

Second day of the Semester. Nothing much which I can say. As the title for this post says, lectures are boring.

Had bible study at Glenn College and it was a social night tonight. We're going to start on Romans next week. Went to footy sheds thereafter for a while to see what it was like and left after 5 minutes.

Nothing much happening in my life. Just boring. What can I say when you've lessons starting at 8am on Monday and 9am from Tuesday to Friday?

Nitez.

Semester 2 begins

2008-07-22T00:14:00.002+10:00

It's the start of Semester 2. Had my very first lecture of the semester at 8am and it ended an hour later. Didn't really do much for the day but just helping Xuet Ying to move things out from her room to Menzies. Well, another person gone from Glenn, making it 5. The twins, XY, Felicia and Nicholas. Things will not the same anymore.

It's parties almost every night over at Glenn. Started last night with the Back to School party and it's The 80's party tonight. Right now, there's people just shouting and screaming along the corridor. And when I opened my door to brush my teeth just now, someone was making out outside my door. How I wish I was that person making out.

Well, it's the second day of semester 2 tomorrow. And it's 3 hours of lectures starting from 9am with a 3 hour break followed by a 2 hour lecture. Goodnight people.

Daylesford/Hepburn Springs

2008-07-16T03:34:00.000+10:00

I've a feeling that this month will also be not a very good month. On Sunday, I witnessed another car accident happening right in front of my eyes at the junction outside the university. Indeed I was right.

On Monday morning, after I left my house, I had a feeling that something wasn't going to be right. And again I was right. Was supposed to meet ZQ at Southern Cross station at 7.30am as the train would be departing at 7.49am. I arrived at 7.12am and decided to check out which platform the train was departing from and perhaps grab something for breakie. The queue at Hungry Jacks was very long, extending to the exterior of the store and I called ZQ to see if he wanted breakie as well as it was already 7.25am. He picked up the phone sounding as if he was still asleep. He had overslept. He tried rushing over but couldn't make it in time. I didn't panic but was calm and relaxed (well, a litte). Daryl was supposed to pick us up from the bus stop at Daylesford at 9.50am so I smsed him to tell him about the delay. After Ryan came, we went to the V/Line counter to enquire what time the next train was with a connecting bus to Daylesford. It was at 12.45pm. Instead of waiting so long, we bought a ticket to Ballan instead and Daryl picked us from there.

We arrived at 10.10am and Daryl picked us up shortly and we went to his house to unload our belongings. We went for lunch shortly. Went sight-seeing as well as to a bee farm. Bought 2 bottles of honey. Went to a nearby forest and collected dry sticks, logs and pine cones so we could start a fire in the fireplace in Daryl's home. We stopped by the restaraunt and ordered a take away. We had a filling dinner. 2 different types of pasta, 4 fish flakes, 6 scallops, 4 potato cakes and 3 cakes with red wine. The food wasn't really nice compared to the one I very first ate in Daylesford when I came a couple of months before as it was from a different shop. The fish and chips shop which I wanted to buy from was closed on Mondays. Watched an episode of Will and Grace as well as Sex and the City. I called Chris wishing him a happy birthday. It feels good what someone actually thanks you for something which you've given to them. Wheater a not the person appreciates it is another issue altogether. I seriously hope that he appreciates it too. I slept thereafter. 3 persons sqeezing onto a double bed isn't a very good idea. I felt so cramped up that decided to go to the living room to sleep on the couch instead.

I fell asleep after some time but couldn't really sleep well as it was cold. I was wearing my t-shirt with my jumper and a short pants. I had my other hoodie to cover my exposed legs. At times, I would just wake up due to the cold. At about 8am, I went back to the bed as it was cold. Not long after, we had to wake up. We headed to Daryl's spa as he had to prepare it for his clients who had an appointment for that day. We went over to The Convent for brunch. The Convent used to be a former convent and is currently a art gallery, museum and a place used for functions, events and weddings. There is also a penthouse at the top of the building it is available for visitors to stay. I would really love to spend a night in it during my birthday. Perhaps I would next year if I can afford it. Went over to a chocolate factory thereafter. I bought 2 boxes of chocolate, 1 for myself and 1 for Chris, and a packet of milk chocolate powder for making hot chocolate. I guess he would think that the chocolates would be his birthday present but he's in for something more. We headed back to Daryl's day spa. As it was close to 2pm, I went to select my tutorial bookings. To be horror, all the slots which I planned were taken. I've now 2 hours of tutes on Friday. That means, I'm back to having a 5 day week of school. What luck. ZQ and I decided to have a go at the spa. I chose to have a massage and facial done. It was nice! Simply relaxing and soothing. It was time to head back to Melbourne and we thanked Daryl for hosting us and bringing the both of us around.

While on the coach to the railway station, I had an sms from Chris saying that he couldn't make it to the Sovereign Hill trip as it's on a Friday and he had to enroll for university. I was taken back and was a little uncomfortable then. I suggested if it was fine to go on Saturday instead if I could get Sovereign Hill to push back our reservation but sadly he replied that he had to buy books. I was very very disappointed. I had looked forward so much in going to the trip, planned and put so much effort into this trip and now this has happened! I can't blame him for enrollment if that's the only day as his studies is more important. But buying books? I wanted to pass him the chocolates which I bought for him but he didn't want to meet so I decided to pass it to him tomorrow when we meet to go shopping instead.

It's time for sleep soon. I'm really tired and upset. I'm not even sure if the shopping trip will be cancelled again.

I know that V and I will never be together, but I just hope that V will turn its back against me, which I've a feeling that it will. There are so many things that just crosses my mind. Time will tell if I put things into action and how long I can put up with it.

Shopping Bus

2008-07-12T02:55:00.000+10:00

It's just another day of the school holidays. Nothing much happened. Went to Barry's last night and got myself very pissed. Took the last tram home and after I reached home, I didn't even brush my teeth, just changed and knocked off. Couldn't really sleep well though, my head was thumping. Woke up at 10 and went off to LTI office to sign in for my duties. Did morning tea today. Just poured drinks.

Lead the shopping bus to Preston market in the afternoon. No lost sheeps fortunately. Arrived back at uni cat 5pm, rested for a while and Melvin came over to pick me up. We went for dinner at a chinese restaraunt in Preston. The food was quite nice though. Came home and didn't do much. Watched Evan Almighty and the movie was like a modern version of Noah's Ark. It was nice and it somehow touched my heart. One must trust and have faith in Him.

I read V's blog earlier this afternoon. While reading it, images of V expressing and laughing just came flooding into my mind. If V was there, talking to me about those things, the exact way V would express it and be laughing... I miss it. And I realised that V has already brought me much happiness and laughter too. I guess one of the main reasons why I've been rather emo is coz I've not laughed. I'm just hoping and waiting for that day to come again to get my spirits back.

San Churro, not.

2008-07-10T00:33:00.000+10:00

Didn't do very much today. Alarm clock rang at 8.45am and I turned it off (thought I actually snoozed it). My phone beeped at 9.03am and that's when I jumped out of bed as I thought it was only 8.50am. Thanks to my dad for sending me a text message. Took a shower and headed to the LTI office to signin. Walked to the Western Lecture Theatres and started helping with the rest who were already there with setting up of the tables and such. There were lots of students.

It was the interactive campus tour in the afternoon and it was nice. Afternoons during winter is not bad actually as it isn't that cold. It was real foggy when I left home in the morning and it was freezing. After the tour, I came home and someone knocked on the door. It was the handyman and he came to change my light. Now my room's very much brighter and it's now white in color unlike last time where it was slightly yellowish.

Headed over to Southern Cross station by bus and tram and fell asleep in the bus. Guess I was pretty tired. In fact, I'm still rather tired now and I shall go sleep after I finish this blog entry. Bought 3 sets of return tickets. 1 for my trip to Daylesford this coming Monday with Ryan, 1 for my friend's clinical attachments at Seymour starting this coming Monday as well and the last set of return tickets for Chris and myself for our Sovereign Hill trip. I seriously hope that we would enjoy the trip and be happy. Met up with Ivan and his partner. We ate at Your Thai, a Thai restaraunt along Swanston Street. I had pineapple fried rice and it was good! I think this is the first time I tasted such nice fried rice in Melbourne. Hung around for a while and Ryan came along. Passed him his V/Line ticket and all 4 of us hung around over at Starbucks. Chatted for a while and we all left and I headed for home, by bus again. Surprisingly, the bus journey took only 40 minutes when I expected it to take an hour.

Reached home, came online, chatted with friends for a little while and now, here I am, blogging after brushing my teeth and ready for bed. It's another day of being a Welcome Festival host again tomorrow from 9.30am to 1.30pm. Not sure what I'll be doing thereafter. It's Barry's at night.

Love Hurts.

Goodnight people.

untitled

2008-07-09T02:37:00.000+10:00

Woke up at 10.30am and saw that I had an SMS. Read it and the very first instance, my eyes played a trick on me. I thought it was V who smsed me. I thought to myself if one would be so good and kind to SMS me early in the morning. But it wasn't, just as my 7th sense told me. It was just the driving instructor. He asked if I could have a lesson at 11am instead of 12.15pm. I agreed and went to shower immediately. It was a rather cold and wet day today. It's currently 8 deg in Melbourne. The student before me cancelled the lesson so I took the place instead. And since I had nothing to do, no plans at all for the entire day, I asked if I could do a double lesson and my instructor, Gary agreed. I had my lesson from 11am to 12.30pm instead.

After the lesson, Gary dropped me off at Reservoir station. I took a train and headed down to Melbourne Central to meet up with Ryan. We took a bus to Northland and the journey time was about 50 minutes. Walked around Northland and I ate Subway for lunch. Took another bus back to uni and Ryan was on DC the whole time till we left at about 7pm. He was happy then as he had all the items to occupy himself and what he wanted. We left for the city and we had dinner. Subway again. I like Subway. It's healthy, low in fat and oil and has vegetables. I walked Ryan halfway home and I went to meetup with Chris.

I had planned to meet Chris and go over to Southern Cross station to get the V/Line tickets for myself as well as for my fellow faculty mates for their clinicals but Chris had to rush home. He had been grounded by his dad. And since he really couldn't spare going to get the tickets, I left for home as well. Train inpectors are everywhere. They're real scary.

It's the start of Welcome Festival tomorrow for all the new international students. I'll be involved in helping out and will receive A$20 as an allowance for each day of involvement. I've been assigned for all 3 days this week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Will be assisting with the sign-up tables during morning tea and lunch as well as leading a group of students for interactive campus tour which we'll walk around the entire uni. My involvement with La Trobe International (LTI) will then end by about 3pm or so. I'll head over to the city thereafter to get the V/Line tickets as well as meet up with someone hopefully. I can't be left alone for long these days as I'll get all emo again. I need people around me and friends.

Watched 881 again just now. I love it. It just brings out the true culture of the getai's (song stage, or street performances during the lunar 7th month to entertain the spirits) in Singapore and the lives of people. It's so very true. And seeing Noris in the show (even though he's just an extra), just reminds me of him performing back home. Memories.

Oh well, time for bed. I've to be up at like 8.45am? Goodnight people and I hope that tomorrow would be a very much better day.

Shoe Rack

2008-07-08T03:57:00.000+10:00

Woke up, met up with Martin and went to Ikea. Along the way, I called Nicolaas and he joined us as well. I had Fish and Chips, Sweedish Meatballs and Princess Cake from the Ikea restaurant. It was good, as usual. Bought the bulb for my lamp (40 watts this time), a shoe rack and a bedsheet (a color which was a little off white). All these for A$23.90. Went home thereafter.

My night's been pretty boring. Thought I would be able to meet up with someone, but didn't in the end. Surfed around and such. I'll be going over to Daylesford with Ryan on the 14th, returning on the 15th, which is Chris's birthday. Not sure if he's hosting a party or something, but I'm pretty sure he'll be occupied. I wish I could be like that. I'm really thankful for the people and Glenn and my Kingdom. Those at Glenn found out last minute that it was my birthday on the day itself and planned something for me, and waited for me till I got home to surprise me with a slice of cake (which wasn't very much of a surprise). But still, it was really very very thoughful, sweet and nice of them. The kingdom, celebrated it with me last year with Alex giving me a iPod Nano. Was kinda of a surprise as well. I hope I can throw a BIG party when I'm 25 (but sadly, I'll still be in Melbourne). 30 would be too "old" to throw a big party. Well, perhaps I should be like Dick Lee and really throw a big Gala dinner when I'm 40 in Singapore and fly people very important to me in Australia over to celebrate it as well.

Would be going to Sovereign Hill on the 18th and returning on the 19th. Semester starts on the 21st. I seriously hope that nothing would go wrong for the Sovereign Hill trip and that even during the trip, it would go smoothly and such. I've been having dreams, not very good ones actually, about this particular trip, such as having to cancel it and not getting back my deposit, or quarrelling during the trip or disagreeing with each other during the trip. I really hope and wish that I would be able to fully have fun, relax and enjoy myself as well as to spend time, enjoy and treasure each other's company during the trip and not to take it for granted.

Oh well, it's driving lesson tomorrow and nothing much. Another day with nothing to do.

Goodnight peeps!

A walk to remember

2008-07-07T03:21:00.000+10:00

Woke up at about 10.30am, read the sms on my phone, replied and went back to sleep again. The next time I woke up, it was already 3pm.

Decided to take a walk over to Macleod train station today. One of my to-do list is to learn how to walk to/from the train station. Others include buying a pair of jeans, boxers and volleys (shoes), and spending a whole day with V, doing nothing but rotting at home, reading or watching the telly, just enjoying each other's company. Unfortunately, none of these has been fulfilled. After about 1/3 of my journey to the train station, I got lost. I had to backtrack a little. I arrvied the train station and waited for 15 minutes for the train. The frequency for the train on Sundays was 20 minutes. The journey itself took 28 minutes to get to the city. In comparison, the frequency for the tram on Sunday is 12 minutes and the journey to the city's 45 to 50 minutes.

Met up with William and Nicholas. Walked around the city and had dinner over at the Japanese restaraunt at QV mall. Went over to Lygon street for Koko Black thereafter. As usual, I couldn't maange to finish the things I ordered at Koko Black. Headed over to Crown to walk and ended up at the arcade. Played a game of DDR, all thanks to William. I was bad at it. Think I would rather play ParaPara instead. Haha...

I took the train home as I was near the train station and the next train departing was pretty soon, so why not? After arriving back at Macleod station, there was 2 paths and I didn't know which to take, especially when it was so dark. The streets here and so different from back home, more so in the suburbs. In Singapore, everywhere is lighted but in the suburbs here, the street lamps are spread out quite far apart and the lamps are not bright, it seems like those energy saving bulbs sorta. I ended up somewhere else which I didn't know. Walking alone on a cold quiet night and being lost isn't a very good feeling - it's scary. After walking for a little more, I managed to see La Trobe Secondary College. I was a little relieved though. Called the security but they couldn't fetch me from there and asked me to walk a little more to Barnes Way and they could pick me up from there instead. I called Chris hoping that he could help as least by giving me directions, but he wasn't of any help. And to think that he was online. Well, just no effort put in, I guess. I would have at least looked up the map.

Oh well, went over to Martin's for a short while. He had completed his Lego Technics truck and it was very nice, big and heavy. Left his house and went home. It's so nice to be remembered. Was reading pL's blog just now and he mentioned about me. Even though it's not much, just a sentence or so, it meant so much to me.

Time for bed now. I'll be heading over to Ikea tomorrow with Marin. He needs a table while I need a shoe rack. Lunch at Ikea as well. Sweedish meatballs! Hoping that the days, weeks and months ahead would be very much better. V's taking the hazard perception testion tomorrow. Wishing that that V would pass it. I'll be taking it sometime soon as well, I guess. Goodnight peeps!

Puffing Billy, Not

2008-07-06T04:18:00.000+10:00

Past few days hasn't been too good, so I shall not talk about it else I get upset again. I really thank and appreciate V for tolerating me and not giving up on me. I'm really grateful for V.

Woke up at 11am today and had my first ever driving lesson in Australia. It went quite smoothly and the instructor was quite good as well. Perhaps I'll call up a few other instructors and try them to see which is the best. But then again, I won't be having much lessons anyway. John and Lionel was already for me at the carpark by the time I ended my lessons. I drove again, this time in John's car all the way to Clifton Hill. Took a train all the way to Belgrave. The journey was so long that I almost got restless. Luckily I had my book with me and I was reading it most of the journey.

Arrived at Belgrave and it was the Puffing Billy that John wanted to bring me to - the surprise. Puffing Billy is "Australia's favourite steam train" and is about a century old. As we approached the platform, the train pulled in and lots of passangers alighted from the train. There was no more service till the dinner service at 7pm. It was not even 4pm, so we decided to just take some photos and head back instead. Then, the dreadful train journey back to the city again.

Went over to Max's house for a while to rest and went over to North Richmond for dinner at the Vietnamese restaraunt which we went to last week. Had fried rice and it wasn't too bad. Better than the one I ate yesterday at the chinese dumpling shop over at Chinatown with Marcus and Ryan. I ordered the wanton soup as well as it was $3.50. Reasonable, i thought. The wanton soup was the first to arrive. To my surprise, it was only a very very small bowl with a few, at most 5 dumplings! I had expected it to be a bigger bowl with more soup! I felt so deceived and cheated. And it wasn't really very nice, just average. Oh well, once bitten twice shy (I hope I got that phrase right).

Initially, I felt like going over to DT's to watch the drag show in the afternoon. However, after dinner, I just felt like taking a tram back to the city, take a stroll over to the tram 86 stop and take the tram back home. And that was what I did. Arrived home and watched the movie Indiana Jones. It was nice and at times, a little creepy. Wished someone was with me watching it though.

Hoping that tomorrow will be a much better day. I need retail therapy... Oh well, I guess it's time for bed now. It's pretty early now. Goodnight people!

Box Hill & Opium Den

2008-07-03T04:38:00.002+10:00

Lionel stayed over at my place for the night. And I split up my bed. We went to watch Sex and the City the night before. It was a nice movie, but it was a little draggy at times though.

I'm home again. Went to box hill this afternoon and to opium den at night to watch a drag show. Wasn't too bad, but still liked the one back in Singapore. Perhaps it's just the culture, i guess.

Feeling a lil emo again today. Walked Chris to his house and I walked home. Hoping things will be better soon. Will be going to Sovereign Hill on the 18th instead. Sometimes I'm wondering if I'm being fair to V. Sigh...

Goodnight people and I hope the dark clouds will blow over soon.

Food stolen.

2008-06-30T23:13:00.000+10:00

Woke up and headed to the city. It was so cold today. Not because it was cold, but because of the wind. Walked for about 3 hours in the city to different landmarks and places. The final stop was Melbourne Central and after the debriefing, we parted.

Met up with Lionel and we walked around the city aimlessly. Ended up back in Melbourne Central again, and we had Max Brenner's. It's the second time I'm having chocolate in 3 days. That's sinful, but I love it.

I'm still angry and upset over the loss of my food. I ordered online 5 microwave dinner meals costing A$60 in total. I placed them into the fridge on Thursday evening and when I checked the fridge yesterday afternoon, 4 packs were missing and only 1 pack was left! No note was left or anything. And the person didn't only take 1, but 4! I just left a note on the door of the fridge saying, Someone took 4 out of my 5 packs of microwave food! - Edgar. I hope someone would happen.

I might go to Daylesford and Hepburn Springs this weekend instead as I might have to push back the Sovereign Hill trip as something cropped up with Chris. Hopefully everything goes well.

Time for bed. I've the Welcome Festival host training from 9.30am to 4pm. Best of all, it'll be in college at the Davidson room (the one with the piano) so I won't have to brave the wind and walk out of college. Haha... Not sure if lunch would be provided though.. And talking about food, I'm hungry now. Stomach's growling but I've already brushed my teeth.

Koko Black, again + Driving

2008-06-30T00:09:00.000+10:00

Went to the Koko Black over at Lygon Street on Saturday afternoon for tea. Wanted to give Nicolaas a treat, but he ended up treating everyone instead. It was real filling. Left to meet John thereafter in the place where he's staying for the next few nights. Took the tram in the wrong direction and ended up in Domain Interchange instead. Wasted 15 minutes of my time. And it was rather cold. Went to Richmond with his friend, Max for dinner and was joined by Lionel. We had Vietnamese food and it was average. Went over to DT's as there was a drag show. I enjoyed it lots. However, I still prefer the shows back home by Kumar, Noris, Chris and Mistevous. Nevertheless, I shouldn't complain and be contented with what I have. Left DT for the Peel thereafter. It was crowded unlike what I saw the past 2 times I went after Barry's on Thurdays. I got myself almost drunk just after a couple of drinks. Perhaps I was feeling rather tired, that's why.

Stayed over at Max's house. Didn't really sleep and was awake by about 9am. Came home to shower and head out again. John allowed me to drive his car and I did just that. After not driving for such a long time, my hands were all over the steering wheel. However, I still remembered the basics and such. Cooked dinner for the entire house - Max, John, Lionel and myself. Chicken rice with beans sprouts. Jellyfish for appitizer. Watched Big Brother and Rove and headed back home.

Am still feeling rather tired, so I'll just go to bed early. It's another day tomorrow. I'll have to be at the city by 1pm as there's the Welcome Festival hosts training for the city tour component. Well, we'll be given A$20 as allowance during the actual day, so it's not too bad.

V is sick. Caught a cold. And surprisingly, after I woke up this morning, I had been sneezing away as well. I think V spread the cold bug to me, but it had been a couple of days since we last met. Could it be? I hope V recovers fast. I don't like seeing people sick, especially someone whom is very close to me. It's another week with something planned for everyday. Not studies this time round so it's good!

Goodnight people.

Footy match

2008-06-28T04:54:00.000+10:00

The phone rang at 9.30am. I didn't recognise the number so I ignored it. Back to lala-land. At about noon, the phone rang again. The first one was a number which I didn't recognise as well so I ignored it. The second call was from VAC. I answered that called. I was informed that the interview would have to be pushed back to next week as the volunteer coordinator wouldn't be free this week as she just came back from MC.

Went to the city to meet up with the rest of my uni mates. As they were still at the asian grocery shop, I decided to have my brunch instead. Went over to this shop over at King Street and had a burger and a taco. It was nice. Quite liked it so I intend to go back there again some day to try out the other items in their menu. I really thank V for introducting that place to me and guiding me so patiently over the phone from where I was to the shop. Walked over to DFO at Spencer street thereafter and met up with Faezah, XY, PY, Toto, Nicholas and Felicia (from Menzies). Walked around for about slightly more than an hour. I didn't buy anything - which is something good.

We went to watch a footy match over at the Melbourne Criket Ground and Nicolaas joined us together with the 2 jap girls. The admission ticket to the match cost A$20.30. We were not eligible for concessions as we were international students. The entry gantries were very high tech though. You just have to scan the bar code printed on the ticket which was purchased, and the fare gates would let you in. Saves lots of time as well and you get to keep the full ticket as nothing's being torn out from your ticket. We were at the forth level and it really looked scary as that was almost near to teh top of the building. On a brighter note, the place where we sat was actually the winning team, so it was rather cheerful and it actually made my day. In fact, I would say that today would be one of the better days from the rest of the week.

Went straight home after the match. Watched High School Musical 2 on my laptop and it was great. Tears just flowed out from my eyes towards the ending as it was such a nice show and kinda touching. My friend who's signed on for 10 years with the Navy's regretting it now and wishes to break the bond after 5 years. I seriously hope that he'll be very much all right and not mentally affected as my heart really went out to him as we were chatting.

Things and situations can be the same every year or they can be different. It doesn't take much to make a difference. People can make a difference and they can make one's situation different. It all depends if one is willing to open him or herself up and just go along with the flow, like a river. I believe that I can be the change, but again, if the door's closed, nothing can be done and it'll be the same, year after year.

Goodnight!

Husky end-of-exams party

2008-06-27T04:29:00.000+10:00

Woke up, did my laundry and washed my carpet. Was happy with myself.

Nicholas had to babysit his sister, so we decided to meet up another day instead. Supposed to meet William for dinner then but he also bailed out on me. Couldn't be bothered to leave for the city just to go to Marcus's.

I became rather moody and sad again. Watched High School Musical the movie alone. How I wished that there was someone beside me watching with me though. Went to the Eagle's Bar for the Husky party. Didn't know that there was a cover charge of $20, so ended up paying that instead. Had quite a lot of drinks, in fact, I would say, the most number of drinks ever since I came here - coz it was cheap.

This guy came up to chat with me and my friend. We took a photo after his friend suggested it. Damn... Didn't get his contacts from him. Haha...

Cheers. It's time for me to sleep soon. I need to get a life - but how to get it without people is yet another problem. It takes 2 hands to clap.

6 things I fear - Tagged by Nicholas

2008-06-27T03:25:00.002+10:00

You get more than 30, I strongly recommend some counseling
If you get more than 20, you’re paranoid
If you get 10-20, you are normal.
If you get 10 or less, you’re fearless.

I Fear…
[ ] the dark
[ ] staying single forever
[ ] being a parent
[ ] being myself in front of others
[ ] open spaces
[ ] closed spaces
[ ] heights
[ ] dogs
[ ] birds
[ ] fish
[X] spiders
[ ] flowers or other plants
[ ] being touched
[ ] fire
[ ] deep water
[X] snakes
[ ] silk
[ ] the ocean
[ ] failure
[ ] success
[ ] lightning
[X] frogs/toads
[ ] my boyfriends/girlfriends dad
[ ] my boyfriends/girlfriends mom
[X] rats
[ ] jumping from high places
[ ] snow
[ ] rain
[ ] wind
[ ] crossing hanging bridges
[ ] death
[ ] heaven (getting in)
[ ] being robbed/mugged
[ ] falling
[ ] clowns
[ ] dolls
[ ] large crowds of people
[ ] men
[ ] women
[ ] having great responsibilities
[ ] doctors, including dentists
[ ] tornadoes
[ ] hurricanes
[ ] incurable diseases
[ ] sharks
[ ] Friday the 13th
[ ] ghosts
[ ] poverty
[ ] Halloween
[ ] school
[ ] trains
[ ] odd numbers
[ ] even numbers
[x] being alone
[ ]becoming blind
[ ] becoming deaf
[ ] growing up
[X] heavy breathing...in your ear....when you thought no one was behind you.
[ ]creepy noises in the night
[ ] not accomplishing my dreams/goals
[ ] needles
[ ] blood
[ ] dinosaurs
[ ] the welcome mat
[ ] high speed
[ ] throwing up
[ ] falling in love (till a certain extend only)

Post it with the subject :
I Fear __ things

I'm gonna tag

- Dunno yet.

Learner Permit

2008-06-26T05:21:00.001+10:00

Woke up at 7.30am today to have breakfast with Qing and Shan. It's their last day today at Glenn as well and they would be flying back to Singapore for 2 weeks. While they're back, they've agreed to help take the mooncake mould from my parents so that I could make mooncake during the mid-autumn festival. Went back to sleep thereafter and woke up at noon to head for VicRoads over at University Hill, about 10 minutes away from university.

I got lost. Couldn't find VicRoads. I thought it was inside the university hill mall but it wasn't. Luckily I wasn't late. Sat for the online test and I was so happy and surprised when the customer service officer told me that I had scored a score of 97% for the online test! I took a photograph for the permit card and when I posed, she commented that I had such a big smile. I replied, yes, as all my photos looks similar - with my signature big smile exposing my slightly yellow teeth and cheeks. I had earned my Learner Permit, which was valid till 25th of June, 2018. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the expiry date. Who would actually take 10 years just to get from their L's to P's? Well, perhaps some people would. Now, I need not carry my passport around when I need to get a couple of drinks or when I go pubbing or clubbing.

Met up with Melvin thereafter and we went over to Epping Plaza and Westfield. Walked around and he drove me to Mount Cooper. That's inside Bundoora Park and he was surprised that I've never been there before even though it's just a short walk away from the university. The summit's 137 meters above the sea level. And when we arrived at the summit, there was already a car parked there with a couple inside making out. They were making out so passionately that they didn't even notice that we were there. We left less than 5 minutes after as the sun was not in our favour.

Went over to Marcus's house thereafter as he wanted someone to accompany him as he was bored. We went for dinner and I ate fried rice, two nights in a row. Wasn't too bad. At least better than the one I ate last night. Went over to his house and had a short nap thereafter.

I'm just feeling very emo and depressed tonight. It's caused by many factors, which has been building up inside me. I really feel like going back to Singapore. Doubt anyone would ever understand how I feel and such. Drank 5 big gulps of 40% Vodka directly from the bottle and my throat started burning. Until now, it has the buring sensation. Made a mixture of ribena with pepsi and 3 shots of vodka, but couldn't drink after 1 monthful as my throat hurts.

Stayed online to surf the web and checked for airfares back to Singapore. It would cost me about A$1400 if I would to fly home on the 8th and back on the 16th and about A$1000 if I were to fly home on the 12th and back on the 19th.

Just stoned around and such. The tension and pressure's really building up.

Goodnight.

The [not so] Happening

2008-06-25T03:01:00.001+10:00

Woke up at 8am just to have breekie. It's Felicia's very last meal at Glenn. She flew back to Singapore this afternoon and she's already home. Lucky her. Went back to sleep after breekie and woke up close to lunch time to meet up with Melvin. He's a fellow Singaporean and he's leaving for Singapore on Friday to take a short break before coming back to Melbourne and driving up to Canberra to start working.

We went over to a shopping mall over in Chadstone. It was rather big but we managed to cover it within an hour or so. Nothing much special the shopping mall though. Met up with William to watch a movie together with 2 of his other friends. It was only after 20 minutes of advertisments and movie trailers before the movie began. The Happening. Not very happening after all. I was bored from the movie and was glad it ended without a proper ending after 90 minutes. It had a little gore in it and it made me jerk on my seat a couple of times. It also made me scream once which was rather embarassing.

Went for dinner with William and Chris came along after his Japanese class. I was so thankful to Chris for coming over. All along, I felt so much like an outcast as William and his 2 friends were communicating in Bahasa Indonesia most (I would say, 85%) of the time and as my Malay's very poor, I couldn't understand what they were saying. Now I really really know how V feels when I speak to others in Mandarin or in ways or terms that he doesn't understand. For someone like me who understands a little Malay to feel upset, what's more for V who totally doesn't have a slightest idea of what we're saying. I really felt so much comforted when I saw Chris. We walked to the tram stop together with William and I took a tram home together with Chris.

I came home and continued reading the book essential for passing my test tomorrow. I did the practise test online numerous times and at all times, I passed it with a minimum score of 88% and with a highest score of 97%. The last 2 tests I took was 97% as well. I decided to call it a night.

It's Yan Qing and Yan Shan's last meal in Glenn tomorrow. As usual, I'll be having breakfast with them and thereafter, go back to bed. My test for the learners licence's at 1pm and I've no plans thereafter, all thanks to someone whom forgot totally about it until I spoke about it 2 nights ago and that someone was so blur and lost. I had informed that person immediately after I booked the test (about 3 weeks in advance) and that we could go out, shopping or hang around after my test. Apprently, it was forgotten. But then again, the best and closest friend of that someone wants to spend time with that someone, so well, I suppose, I should be more considerate and more forgiving.

The last time I had a change in plans was yesterday, whereby I did something and it caused me to suffered in pain, until now. My legs are still aching from the pain of the cramp I got in the pool yesterday. I hope that whatever that happens tomorrow would not have something negative attached to it.

Oh well, time for bed. Nights people!

Holidays!

2008-06-24T00:11:00.000+10:00

Finally finished my very last paper. Came out of the examination hall at 10am, 45 minutes earlier than the ending time. My holidays started there and then, at 10am on a Monday morning! I went back to sleep as I didn't really have a good sleep the night before. I went to sleep at about midnight but I woke up at about 3am and my brain was thinking about all the anatomical terms and thinking about the exam. I even had a nightmare about it. Part of me felt like waking up to continue studying and the other part of me just wanted to get back to sleep as I was physically very tired. I called V instead we chatted for a little, about 20 minutes. Thereafter, I tried going back to sleep but to no avail. The last time I checked the time was about 5+am and I guess that was the time I fell asleep. Was supposed to wake up at 7.30am but woke up only at 7.45am. I wasn't late.

After my exams, I went to post my friend's DVD at the post office. Wanted to get a birthday card for my friend but the gift shop was closed so I'm getting it tomorrow instead. I went back to bed to sleep but not long after, this lady from Dodo internet called and asked me about my account details informing me about the bills and such. It's such a pain in the neck. I couldn't really sleep thereafter. I was supposed to meet Bell for shopping over at Bridge Street, but changed it to another day instead since her friend would be able to make it then. I had no plans at all and I called up almost everyone whom I know not having an exam asking if they wanted to hang out. Either they had plans or were uncontactable. What a good way to being a holiday. I have a feeling that the holidays wouldn't be a good one afterall since it already had a bad start to it. Finally Martin asked if I wanted to go swimming and I gave in. Swam for near 1.5 hours and I had cramps on my leg, which forced me out of the pool thereafter.

Had dinner and went over to Martin's place. He bought a Lego Techinics set and it really reminded me of the days when I was about the age of 15 when I actually bought an expensive Lego Techinics set, assembled them (which took me about 3 full days and lots of sleep deprivation) and gave them to my friend as his birthday present. Martin was fixing the parts while I was searching for the pieces for him to fix. Did it until my eyes went blur. Imagine searching through 1800 Lego pieces for a small piece.

I'm so tired. I really need sleep. Think I will soon after this. Will go read up on the Road to Solo Driving book which Chris lent me as I'm taking the Learner's test on Wednesday. I really hope I pass it as it costs me S$47 (just for the appointment and test fee as I paid it using my credit card).

Goodnight Peeps!

Just married

2008-06-22T07:49:00.001+10:00

The phone rang at about 10am. I answered it and went back to sleep. The phone rang again at 2.40pm and I decided after answering the phone that it's time that I woke up even though I was still tired. Went over to Northland shopping center to get 2 DVD's for my former classmate of mine. It's for her friend's birthday on the 27th. Will send out the DVD to her on Monday and hopefully she'll be able to receive it on time and give it to her friend before 11.59pm on Thursday. Was famished so I bought a Subway melt in a wrap along with 2 cookies and a bottle of orange juice. Didn't eat it straight away but went to Safeway. In there, I bought so many things, totaling up to A$43. Most of them, or rather, all of them were food products. It's no wonder I'm putting on weight. And oh, did I tell you that I've gained about 6kgs in about 4 months? That's horrid.

I arrived back at about 5pm in Glenn's dining hall and ate my Subway wrap with the company of Nicholas, Shamay and Xuet Ying. Shamay's really strong. She managed to open the bottle of orange juice when Nicholas and I couldn't. Girl power! As I was rather full, I didn't eat the dinner at Glenn but packed it into my lunch box so that I could eat it for another day instead. Was feeling rather bored and went over to V's house as V couldn't figure out what to wear to go out. When I arrived, V had already had it figured out. Therefore, I just spent the time enjoying V's company with nothing to do.

Went over to Chisholm for a movie of Kate & Leopord and Just Married with Nicolaas, Faezah and 2 other Japanese girls. Nicolaas made Tiramisu without liquor in it so that Faezah could also consume it. It tasted nice as well, even without the liquor. I wished V was there though as I knew that V would have enjoyed it. I hope to learn how to make Tiramisu from Nicolaas so that I would be able to make it one day for V and that someone special if they come along, which I do not know when that is.

Went home at about 1am and started studying. Had a 1 hour 18 minutes teleconversation over Skype Out. I couldn't use my homephone to call him as my international calling card had no more talk time in it. But still, spending A$2 for that conversation and to build the bond as well as to catch up with each other is worth it. It's something which cannot be bought. Went back to studying thereafter. And I just realised that it's bright again. How times flies and it's already close to 8am. And to think that I've to be up at about 12.45pm so that I can shower and prepare myself to go to church. I'm meeting Nicholas at 1.30pm at the moat and I hope I wouldn't be late again. Oh my, only 4 hours of sleep for me now... I really need to go sleep!

It's no wonder no one blogs during this period. Checked all my friend's blogs - Nicholas, Xue Ying, Min Yi, Felicia, Shamay, all no updates.

Goodnight people, or rather, Good morning, as it's already so bright.

2 papers down; 1 to go

2008-06-21T05:41:00.000+10:00

Done with 2 papers. I'm left with the Anatomy paper on Monday. I seriously hope that I pass all the papers. I'm confident of passing the Public health paper. However, I have doubts on passing the Physiology paper. The latter's worth 30% of the total marks for the API module. Another 30% of the module's marks would be from the Anatomy paper. And there would be no supplementary exams for those who fails as it weights only 30%. I'm really not sure what would happen if I fail. I know for sure that I'll have to spend the next 6 months doing nothing and retake the modules again in Feb 2009 and continue with my Year 1 Semester 2 in Jul 2009. Whether or not my student visa would be terminated is yet another question mark.

I felt real horrid after my paper. I left for home from the union hall, where the examination was held. I wanted to take a nap but I just couldn't. I was just feeling weighed down and sorrowful. I decided to leave home and be with the company of someone. I just didn't want to be alone. I met up with W for the first time together with V and I could tell that he's a pretty nice guy. Met up with Hansen as well and Anabell was with him. Upon seeing Anabell, I was just so hyped up and my mood totally changed. The unusual side of me, my Singapore side, came up. I was loud and such, at times, even to the extent of being a bitch. I really dunno why. But it's just that I feel that she's someone whom I can really click with and really be myself. Yes, I am someone loud, crazy, bitchy and childish. We're meeting again on Monday after my exam to go over to Bridge Street for some shopping (and to go crazy, of course). She needs a new pair of shoes and as for me, I don't need anything actually.

Went to Barry's with Lulu, Hansen, V and W. W left before we entered as V had to start work early the next morning and was excused. It's was down to the 3 of us. After queuing for a long time, we managed to get in. It was crowded. Think it was the first time I saw Barry's so crowded. I had a drink for the entire night and it was good. In fact, I never like drinking due to the bitter taste of alcohol, but on and off, it's fine with me, I guess. If alcohol wasn't bitter but sweet, I guess I would have gone head over heals with it. Oh wait, I might not. I wouldn't want to do damage to my liver and get myself drunk. I just didn't want to be alone at home at night. I invited Hansen over, but he couldn't as he was already over to his friend's place to bunk over. I asked V instead and V agreed. I went over to V's house to stay over. We had a really long talk and I told V lotsa things. I was real emo last night and told V so many things I would never had told anyone. Thereafter, I felt so much better. I am really thankful and grateful for V. I would say that V is the only person in Australia that I would share everything with and really trust, and I really hope that the trust and faith I have in V would never be broken.

I left V's house about noon. Had canton noodles for lunch and it was nice. Wasted 4 hours and went for a nap. The fire alarm rang sounded again. Fortunately it wasn't from my building but from the block beside me. Barely 45 minutes into my sleep, I was woken up by it. After the firefighters came to reset the alarm, I went back to sleep. Woke up at about 8.30pm. I've missed dinner at Glenn. Decided to just study and such and here I am, blogging, after studying since from about 10pm. I guess it's time to turn in. Am supposed to meet another friend of mine, an ABC (Australian Born Chinese) and we're supposed to go to Knox City Shopping Center. Chris said that it's a very big shopping center, bigger than Northland and Melbourne Central. I'm rather excited but my friend hasn't contacted me as yet. Oh well, think I'll just head down to Northland after I wake up instead. Need to get a DVD for my friend for her friend's birthday, on the 27th of this month, as a present. I hope I can post it on Monday and hopefully, it'll arrive in her mailbox by Thursday (which is the 27th). Still, it'll be late for her friend's birthday. Oh well, no choice.

Time to turn in now. Good morning! =)

Crossroads X3i

2008-06-18T00:42:00.005+10:00

Nothing much for today. Mugged the entire night. Had my "lunch" of 1.5 meat loafs at 3am and went back to study. Had breekie at 7.30am and went to sleep at about 9.30am. Couldn't really sleep as my neighbours and such were making noise, singing and laughing away, as usual. Looked at the clock and it was noon, and it was 2, then 3. Forced myself to wake up at 4pm and went online for a while and mugged a little.

After dinner, I met up with the Australia dealer of Crossroads. I purchased a pair of Crossroads X3i in-ear headphones. It sounded good. The low frequency was so much better than my pair of Shure in-ear headphones. However, the hi-mid frequency wasn't that clearly projected. But, it's worth the money as it costs almost half the price of my Shure headphones. When I first heard the sound quality, I thought that it would cost more than my pair of Shure. Amazing.

Anyway, it's my very first exam paper tomorrow, Public Health A. It's made up of 80 multiple choice questions and all I'll have to do is to shade 80 ovals. I really hope that I'll be able to do well for it. I've a little confidence for this subject. However, I do not have the slightest confidence for the next 2 papers, Physiology on Thursday afternoon and Anatomy next Monday morning. It's my well deserved 3 week holiday thereafter. Boy, am I looking forward to 10.45am on Monday whereby my holiday would officially start. Cooking at Chris's house, meeting up with new people I've met online, trip to Daylesford/Herburn Springs (yea, again), Sovereign Hill and my learner's test. I'm looking forward most to the Sovereign Hill trip though.

Oh well, time to sleep now! Off to bed I go! Nighties people!

Auzzie Airwaves

2008-06-16T05:31:00.000+10:00

Didn't do anything much today. Woke up late and missed the sweet brunch that was in my college mate's unit. Another unproductive day. Studied for a little bit though.

I had an exciting night. As my Joy membership was expiring on the 20th of June, I decided to renew it so I called Joy's office to renew it. After about 10 minutes or so, they called back. I thought my credit card was declined. However, that was not the case. What they did instead was to invite me for an interview on-air on Joy 94.9FM, which I gladly agreed. This is my second time on Australia airwaves and it started at about 2.11am. However, this time round was only for a little less than 10 minutes.

I recorded the radio broadcast onto my mobile phone. The quality isn't that good though and I could be heard talking in the background before being heard clearly on radio as I was inside my room while being interviewed over the phone and my radio's in the room as well.

To listen to the audio recording of the broadcast, click here to download and to save. It's in AMR format therefore it would require Apple QuickTime player or RealNetworks RealPlayer to open it (for both Windows and Mac OS).

This post officially makes this year's post more that last year's post. I made a total of 52 posts last year and this is the 53rd post for this year. I think it's due to the fact that I'm here in Auzzie as well as someone that I've been blogging faithfully almost daily before I go to bed.

Time to sleep. Goodnight!

Chocolate overdose

2008-06-15T01:34:00.007+10:00

Couldn't wake up today. Supposed to be up by 7am, breakfast at 7.30am, tram at 8.07am and reach VAC before 9.30am. Woke up at 7.20am instead, breakfast at 7.40am. While walking to the tram stop, I had a horrid tummy ache when I was near the round-about. That's like 3 minutes away from the tram stop. I had to turn back and really rush to the toilet. Thanks to the cycle smart center and the change/shower rooms and toilets. Luckily I registered for it so my student card was able to open the door for it. That was the nearest toilet I could think of (as the buildings would be locked on a Saturday, I suppose). It was so bad that when I bent over to clean the toilet seat and took off my jeans and while undoing my belt, the entire buckle fell off. My rainbow color belt's ruined! I tried to piece it together but to no avail. Just my luck.

Caught the tram to the city and luckily for me, managed to catch the connecting tram to my destination almost immediately. Arrived late, at about 9.40am and I didn't miss out much as they had only started less than 3 minutes ago. Phew!

Training today was a little more interesting with 4 guest speakers. There was a role play involved on boundaries as well as group discussions on some other topics. Ended 5 minutes early. Went to Marcus's house. Invited him to join Nicholas and me for dinner which he agreed as he was bored. He was supposed to go out with Chris in the afternoon but ended up not leaving his house as Chris bailed out on him. It's been a very long time since I last met Nick. 5 years to be exact - half a decade. The last time was when I was with my very first ex, when I was in year 1 of ITE and before he left to Perth for his studies. Now, he's back to Australia, in Melbourne to work. He has really slimmed down - all thanks to his diet and being able to control his eating habits. I wonder if I'll be able to do that. I doubt so since I'll be staying in Glenn. Perhaps I can start on my Atkins diet when I shift out next year.

We got lost in Carlton while walking to Lygon Street. After nearly half an hour of walking and a call to Marcus, we managed to get to Lygon Street. We actually walked past it and I should have followed my 7th sense (yea, i do not have the 6th sense as I've 6 senses in general with a 7th sense while some others only have 5 senses and a minority with a 6th sense) and not follow Nick. Haha... We had dinner at an Italian restaurant. He has a pizza while I had pasta. They were both so good! Much better than any pizza and pasta I've tasted before in Singapore or here. The money was really well spent. Pity I didn't take a picture of the food though (as well as our neighbour sitting next to our table). Hehe...

Went over to Koko Black for dessert. We both had a ice cream for starters, followed by mousse and a cup of hot chocolate (which was warm, almost room temperature by the time I drank it). It was heavenly and I was so full that I couldn't finish the chocolate mousse and ice cream. This is the very first time which I was having indigestion from chocolate. Overdose and death by chocolate. Even Max Brenner's the other time wasn't that bad. I would seriously go again next time without eating anything for a day and just have chocolate for tea (3 meals in 1 - breakfast, lunch and dinner). And I'm going to bring Chris for it most probably at the Bourke Street outlet. It's currently closed for renovation and it's opening with a bigger shop space, with more seats and a lounge. He might not like it though as it's not as sweet as Max Brenner's but it's worth a try.A new record was set. I took only 50 minutes flat to get from the city to the doorstep of my house. Amazing!

On the way back, something happened, yet again. It was a very small and little incident, yet it really meant a lot. It really hit me hard and invoked thoughts and stirred emotions in me. It made my heart drop, hurt real bad and eyes swell with tears. I almost cried. I wondered if I've really been foolish all these while. I would run or wait for periods in the heavy rain and get myself drenched, or walk or wait in the cold just for that someone, or even my friend. However the someone would not do that same kind of act back for me, even though it's just for a very short period of waiting, much shorter than what I did for them. It really really struck me hard. Am I really that foolish? Perhaps, I have placed so high hopes on people and for some people, my expectations of them are just too high. Or perhaps, for some, I am simply not who I am to them and I'm just treated as another common friend. And perhaps, I'm just another passing friend and taken for granted. And perhaps, yes, I am foolish and naive.

My night, which was very good and sweet from the chocolate and stuffs, was killed and destroyed by a small, simple and meaningful incident. It's the little things.

Done with essay

2008-06-12T02:30:00.002+10:00

As the title says it all, I'm done with my essay. Woohoo~~~

Woke up late again, as usual. This time round, by the cleaner who came knocking on my door. Had lunch of Lagsania, and went over to Chris's house to do up my essay. After completing my essay, I left for home and cooked dinner as I had missed dinner at glenn.

Nothing much today. Has been a rather uneventful day - which is good, to a certain extent.

It's thursday tomorrow - in fact, it is already thursday now. Not sure if I'll be going to Barry's. It depends on whether Marcus has already completed his essay. If he does, we'll go, else i'll just stay at home to study. I wonder if that's a good thing or something bad. My shipment has arrived. Can't wait to open to see what's inside. However, I'm waiting for V to be with me when I open it so I can share with V whatever that's inside. Doubt it will have anything valuable, just some clothes and that's it though. Haha...

Time to sleep. Goodnight!

Narnia

2008-06-11T03:44:00.003+10:00

Didn't do anything much today. Supposed to meet my friend from Brunei for lunch but he didn't turn up. Ended up eating oats instead. As I didn't sleep well, I went back to sleep after the surfing the net for a while. Was woken up by my neighbours as they were screaming and shouting along the corridor. Well, it was about 10 minutes to dinner, so I just got out of bed. Ate dessert at the dining hall, which I just gulped down.

Went over to Northland shopping center to catch a movie. Before that, we had to do some exercise. All the doors were locked and we had no way to get in. After walking for about 10 minutes or so, we arrived at the main entrance and managed to get inside the building. Bought tickets and we were looking for the seat numbers on it and discovered that it was free seating. We went into the cinema 15 minutes early so that we could get the best seats and when we went in, we were the only ones inside. When the movie started, the cinema was rather crowded and I was rather surprised as I thought that no one would watch movies on a weekday and because of many other factors.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was a very nice show and you should go watch it. I teared almost towards the end of the movie as it was very touching and to me, it was very powerful, how God helps and the way He works in our life.

Some truths from the movie:

1. Just because others don't believe or doubt, that should not stop us from going to Him.
2. Don't forget that it was Aslan who defeated the white witch. In this battle, you may plan wisely and bravely, but we all need Aslan's help. The battle is His (Translate Aslan as Christ).
3. It takes faith to see Aslan.
4. The more we grow in our faith, the more Aslan grows bigger.

Return to Narnia
Get Ready for Prince Caspian
May 13, 2008

Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley.

This week, Hollywood is bringing the second book of C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia to the silver screen. And whether you are a parent introducing your kids to Narnia for the first time, or looking for an excuse to recapture the magical wonder of your own childhood, it is a good time to dust off a copy of Prince Caspian. While you will not find the spiritual lessons in Prince Caspian quite as obvious as those you remember from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, you will find plenty of profound truths about the Christian faith-delivered in a way that only the master, C. S. Lewis, could do.

The saga of Prince Caspian unfolds in a world hundreds of years removed from the Narnia of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In this age into which the Pevensie children are suddenly thrust, the evil King Miraz reigns and only a remnant of people actually believe those childish stories of Aslan, the Stone Table, and a time when animals talked.

Like Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter, we enter a world of skepticism that is very much like our own. Let's just say that the best-selling books in Miraz's kingdom could easily have been titled The Aslan Delusion and Aslan Is Not Great. Like our children, young Caspian grows up in an age when most people say, "Who actually believes in Aslan nowadays?"

As in the previous stories of Narnia, a cosmic battle between good and evil continues to rage. But unlike the direct head-to-head conflict between Aslan and the White Witch, the conflict in Prince Caspian is being waged between the followers of the opposing powers. On this cosmic stage, individual faith is tested. Will Prince Caspian believe in the stories of Narnia? Will Lucy follow what she believes to be Aslan?

Here is something with which Christians today can certainly relate. It is one thing to be among the first witnesses who exult in the risen Christ. It is quite another to act out of faith when the stories of His witnesses are so many centuries removed from our world. As Jesus told doubting Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29). This is our world, and this is the world of Caspian, as well.

In this tale, as much as we learn about faith and doubt, there is also much to learn about the nature of Jesus. As Leland Ryken and Marjorie Mead put in the newly released, A Reader's Guide to Caspian, what Aslan is like is the "primary theological question of Prince Caspian." And in it we find several answers that apply to our own Christian walk.

After not seeing Aslan for a long time, when the children are finally reunited, Lewis tells us that the children "felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad."

I do not have time to share all the riches to be gleaned from reading or re-reading Prince Caspian. So whether it is for your own spiritual growth or that of your children's, or simply being prepared to talk about the deeper spiritual themes with a friend, use the impending release of the film as a reason to return to Narnia. I promise, you will be glad you did.

This commentary first aired on April 7, 2008.

Have a good night people. And if you've not watched the movie, go catch it before the run ends.

Cheers!

Writer's Block

2008-06-10T02:45:00.001+10:00

Yet another unproductive day. Woke up late at about noon and missed breekie at the dining hall. Cooked my own breekie cum lunch of oats instead. Did my essay but had the writer's block. Didn't manage to write much. Went surfing on the net and chatting with people on Windows Live Messenger. I just do not like it when I'm unable to sign in with WLM and I've to use the IM software, Pidgin.

Had dinner and managed to at least work on half my essay. I've now about slightly more than half the essay to complete and I can fully concentrate on studying for my 3 exam papers. I'm afraid. I'm very afraid of failing, which the chances of it is very very high.

Was feeling well the whole day, but now that I'm going to sleep, I was hurt. Well, a stab in the heart. Perhaps, I would say, many stabs. Someone's hurt and it's anticipated. This is a game where people gets hurt and I'm always the one in the game. It always is me, never once was it the other player.

Goodnight while I drown myself in blood and cry myself to sleep.

MY NET SUX!

2008-06-07T20:48:00.002+10:00

Argh!!!!! My net's so slow that the pages simply won't load. I've refreshed the pages numerous times and it just simply doesn't load! I've complained to Dodo internet once and they proved to me that there's no problem as download speed's fast - which is true. But non-downloads like transfer speed is slow! What's the use?

Currently listening to the song, Single in Singapore from the Beauty World soundtrack. Memories. I wanna watch a musical here. But it's all so costly.

I'm just feeling emo again. And also a little stressed coz of the essay and exams. Pressure's building.

Went for the first of second volunteer training with the victorian aids council. Was so boring as the information which was taught was already known to me. Difference is that the window period here's 6 to 8 weeks compared to 3 weeks to 3 months back home.

Think i should go sleep early tonight.

Nights ppl!

Wasted (edited)

2008-06-06T19:29:00.003+10:00

The entire day and night was wasted. Woke up late as I slept late. Went to do my laundry, washed all my sheets, including the new ones i bought from ikea. Rushed throughout the day as I was supposed to go to Northland to meet V. Didn't go in the end as V was already leaving when I was done. I didn't even have time to let the laundry and sheets fully dry in the dryer. Some parts of the sheets and laundry was still damp when I took it out. Never mind about that, when I was all ready to leave, the person whom I was waiting for wasn't ready and I waited for another hour.

When we were both ready, we were 30 minutes late from the appointment time. Heck care that. It went on smoothly thereafter.

I had a vegetarian dinner in the city. It was very nice especially the fish dish. It really looked and felt like eating a real fish.

Went pubbing at night. I got to know this guy one year older than me from Jakarta, Indonesia. We chatted and such. He was nice. However, it seems that he's not replying, so I'll just forget it.

Walked all the way home from the city as I wasn't feeling right. I walked even though I was feeling tired and my legs ached. But I guess it was worth it. took me 2.5 hours to walk to uni. Took a bath, had breekie and slept all the way till this evening. Woke up only at 4.45pm when it was turning dark.

I'm just taking it one step at a time for now. Milk has been spilt. There's no point crying over spilt milk. We've to move on with our lives and prevent the milk from spilling over again. Hopefully, lessons are learnt. But unfortunately, some things are easier said than done.

V.

N.B: This post has been edited. The original post contained information which was very private and personal, posted at about 7am, edited at 7.40pm.

S$212.22

2008-06-05T01:52:00.004+10:00

I woke up at 7.30am today and had breakfast. Can't remember when was the last time when I had breakfast, but it wasn't very long ago. Went back to bed to snooze after breekie and woke up only at about 10am. I think time's haunting me as I kept thinking that it's after lunch kinda thing. Took a shower and went over to Marcus's place.

While on the tram, a few stops before the stop I was supposed to alight, 3 tram officers boarded the tram. I didn't even notice it as there were just too many people. I was sitting in front of the door. The tram officer was sitting diagonally across me, checking the ticket of the person in front of him. I wanted to validate my ticket but I couldn't as there was another female officer a few steps in front of the male officer. He flashed his big badge at me. As I was having my ipod turned on and earphones plugged into my ears, I acted as if I didn't see or hear anything. The tram stopped, I took my bag and laptop and dashed for the door behind me. After alighting from the tram, the tram moved off with the tram officers inside. Boy, that was a very close shave. In my mind, I was thinking if I should confess that I didn't have a ticket and should just let the A$162, or S$212.22 (conversation rate as of 0135hrs, 5 June 2008, of A$1 = S$1.31) fly away. Walked all the way to meet Marcus thereafter.

Went to Safeway over at QV Mall, and they were selling instant noddles at 25 cents per packet. I bought 2 packets of 4 flavours each. Went back home (not my home but Marcus's) and did a little of revision on anatomy, on the muscular system. Did a little of my essay as well and I completed the introduction paragraph. Haha... Marcus cooked pasta for lunch and pork for dinner. I cooked Kangaroo fillets for dinner and we had it with porridge. It was rather nice. Chris came over after watching movie with his friend for a little while and we left thereafter.

Called for the security escort to drive me home, but I had to wait for 10 to 15 minutes. I decided to take a walk home instead, which I did. Now, here I am, doing my essay ad blogging at the same time - that's why I'm taking such a long time to write a post. Haha...

I'm wondering where my other half is. It's not easy to get a partner. Money can buy you one, but then again, I wouldn't want to go for that. Who would, unless they're really desperate. Perhaps one day, that person would just appear, I hope. I'm having the thoughts again, of being single and unwanted, when I'm 50 years old. Being a DOM (Dirty Old Man). Gosh! Eeewwww!!!

Nitex people!

Progressive Dinner

2008-06-03T22:47:00.003+10:00

Very unproductive day. Woke up only at about 2pm, cooked lunch of instant noodles with mock chicken and a meat pie. I had bought the meat pie, Woolsworth brand, about 2 month back and had been in the freezer ever since. It didn't taste nice, not cause it's turned bad, but just not nice. Regret buying it. Went to collect my Nursing art and science assignment and I was not very happy with the results as I only scored 26.5/40, which is 66%. Nevertheless, I passed. This weights 40% of the coursework and the other 60% will come from the essay which I just started today, due on the 16th.

We had the combined colleges bible study progressive dinner tonight. It was fun. Went to 3 different houses. One for appetizers, one for the main meal and the final house in Barnes Way for dessert. It was nice. Barnes Way is nice too, as in the home. I really wish that I can get the house next year so that we (the poddies, carroline and me) can shift in. More photos on the Progressive Dinner in Facebook.

Marcus invited me to his house to study tomorrow. Guess I'll sleep early tonight, so I'll be able to wake up early to join the girls for breekie at 7.30am and thereafter head over to his house.

Till my next post,

Be Blessed!

Fortune

2008-06-03T00:37:00.002+10:00

Woke up at about 11am. Didn't go for a morning walk in the end. Took a shower and met V at the post office. Sent the cd over to Aunt Jin. The padded envelope costs only A$1. Postage costs A$3.95 though. Went to the tram stop, took a tram and V went home. Even though we only met for about 15 minutes, it felt nice. Arrived at the meeting with Victorian AIDS Council 15 minutes late. Went on for an hour. Thereafter, I took a tram to the city.

Was told that tram 109 would only take me to victoria parade as there was no electricity thereafter and the trams were affected. A bus would bridge the service from there to kew. Took it to victoria parade but there were no buses to be seen. Even after asking the tram officers, they couldn't give me an answer. Walked for about 15 minutes before I finally saw ikea. I headed straight to the cafe and ordered 15 swedish meatballs, a princess cake and a bottle of orange juice. I was kinda surprised when I found out that ikea closes at 6pm from Sundays to Wednesdays and 7.30pm on Thursdays and Fridays. Back home, it's opened 10am to 10pm daily. Spent a bomb in there. A$165. Bought 2 sets of quilt covers and pillowcases, a mattress pad, night light, a 25w bulb for my existing lamp as my current one's only 7w and a colored bedsheet. Thankfully, after all the shopping, the tram services resumed. Took a tram home and upon reaching home, my floormate informed me that it's Robbie's birthday and they'll be out celebrating.

I put my stuffs down, freshened up, and left in my neighbour's car to north fizroy. Had a cup of hot chocolate. I preferred the one Nicholas made though. Was so much nicer. Came home, made my bed, changed the covers, sheets and put on the mattress pad onto my bed. Now online and blogging.

I'm going to sleep now. And I'm pretty sure that I'll have a good sleep, I hope. Hehe...

Nights peeps!

Homesick

2008-06-02T00:20:00.003+10:00

I'm homesick. I dunno why, but it's just a sudden feeling. And the worse thing is that, no one's answering my phone. My dad's out with his friend and is seems that I've been forgotten, or rather, talking to his friend is more important than me. And it's this friend who's he always with and such. Why can't he just spend a few minutes with me over the phone? And we've not really chatted for long. And my mum's at home, not answering the phone. Her mobile phone's off - which means she's at home. I've called using skype (which shows a private number), my singapore mobile phone (which shows my singapore number) and using my australia mobile phone (which shows +1660). I really wonder why my mum doesn't like to pick up the phone. Even if she's sleeping, she would have been waken up by the constant rings of the phone. And to make things worse, my phone in my room ran out of credit. What luck.

Pardon my sentence structure and spelling for tonight. Am just not in the mood and am just blaring out everything through here. It was the album launch and I bought 2 copies of the cd. One copy for myself and the other for Godma Jingle. I'm going to send it out tomorrow at the post office via airmail so she'll be able to receive it as soon as possible. She means a lot to me as well. Besides being the worship and music ministry director, she's an excellent mum. I really admire her. I miss her. I miss the people back at church (ok la, not really, but just Singapore). I really like the way she brought up her son and daughter. No caning and such. Chris and Nicolaas came over to church together with Nicholas, Leon and me. Am just blasting the cd into my shure earphones plugged into my ears now. I just need loud music to distract me. I'm really thankful and grateful to V. V's really helped me heaps. V's there when I need someone. I really dunno how I can ever repay V's kindness and all that V's done for me. I seriously hope that V's gets a real good partner which will treat V very well. V really deserves a good partner, and not someone just to make use of.

It's SWOTVAC. Studying WithOut Teaching VACation. That's what Chris told me while on the tram to church. Unofficially, it's already the holidays as there's no school at all. No more lessons and such. I'll just have to work on my essay due in 16 days time and study for my exams due in 18 days time.

Oh well, guess I'll try calling home again, and if it can't get through, I'll just give up and go to bed.

Goodnight people.

Boring last Saturday of the month

2008-05-31T23:52:00.002+10:00

Friday was very very unproductive. Went to A Bar Called Barry's over at Collinwood with Chris and Marcus. Was a rather nice place. They don't serve drinks in jugs though, only its cups. And it's only A$7 per cup and it's a full cup. I'm chipping away. *chip cheap cheep* Chris got tipsy and he talked lots. I enjoyed it and I love it when he talks, else I'm always the one talking. Stayed overnight at Marcus's house. Didn't really sleep though. Left Marcus's only at about 9am and that was the time when Marcus went to sleep. He was gaming all the while. Reached home and slept all the way till 2.30pm. Went to Preston market with Faezah, Caroline and Nicolaas. Came back, had dinner and rotted the night away at the health sciences room. Was supposed to be studying, but didn't have the mood to. Ended up Tagging on my blog and watching the movie, Superbad. Was a nice show. Went home to sleep thereafter.

It's been a boring Saturday, well, at least from the time I woke up till after dinner. Woke up only at 12.30pm. Had oats and instant noodles for lunch. Went to the library and rotted there till 5pm, when it closed and we were all chased out of it. Had dinner and went back home. Chris then told me that he'll head over to my place to keep me company, because he'll be heading down to a club tonight and he's meeting his friends at 10.30pm at the tram stop outside the uni. It was really sweet thing for him to do and I felt touched. He could have just left home minutes before, but chose to come spend time with me instead. We had a good time, chatting and such. I really love the time we spend together.

He opened my cupboard to "do" his hair and he saw something moving. It was a cockroach! I almost freaked out! I wonder how long it has been there. I asked him to do something about it, and he just stood there. I called Nicholas thereafter and he came over almost immediately. Armed with newspapers, after moving away my carpet washer and snacks from the floor, while he was staring and "thinking", one of my floormates, Robbie walked past. I asked for his assistance instead. He asked for a container and I gave him the one I used to store my coins in. With a couple of smooth moves, he trapped the roach into the container with the newspaper covering it preventing its escape. As he walked past to dispose of the cockroach, he put it so close to me and I screamed. It was the very first time I screamed in Australia and I think my neighbors would think that I've been raped or assaulted. And I wasn't screaming at the top of my voice as yet. Luckily I didn't, else I wouldn't know how to face my friends in future. The queen in me has been exposed. Gosh!

I seriously hope that there's no roach eggs or more roaches in my cupboard or room. Well, if there are any bugs next time, I'll just head over to Robbie's room to seek help. Went over to Jovita's room thereafter to watch a movie, Sidney White. Was quite a nice movie. Back in my room now and I think I should go sleep pretty soon.

I hope Chris's having a fun time and not get himself dead drunk, which I'm doubtful of. I'm hoping to go to the club one day so that I can experience what it's like to be in a rock club. It's called Boom. Simple and nice name. Like Taboo. I miss Taboo...

It's Sabbath tomorrow. It's the launch of the album, All for Love, by Planetshakers. Chris and Nicolaas would be coming over together with my church buddy, Nicholas and Leon. Am kinda excited, but I have a feeling after speaking to Chris just now that I'll be disappointed.

Oh well, time for bed. Have a good night everyone. Oh yea, Happy June! Half the year has passed and we're 6 months away from year 2009. Time really flies...

Tagged.

2008-05-30T20:53:00.003+10:00

Instructions:

1) Remove 1 question from below, and add in your personal question, make it a total of 10 questions.
2) Write 8 random facts about yourself.
3) Tag 5 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post and notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged.

1. At what age do you wish to marry?

- That depends on when I can find my other half and if we're able to get married.

2. What are you afraid to lose the most?

- Close friends and Myself. (Yes, I've lost myself once.)

3. If you win $1 million, what would you do?

- Donate 1/4 of it to Action for AIDS (Singapore), use the other 1/4 for a holiday for my friend and parents and save the remaining half of it.

4. If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?

- Depends. Mostly Yes after a period of time.

5. What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?

- My other half would be just themself, be faithful, honest and committed.

6. List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you.

- Funny, God-loving, Caring.

7. Which type of person do you hate the most?

- Hate's not in my dictionary. It's too strong a word to use.

8. Which physical part of you are you most satisfied with?

- I am who I am.

9. Which is the type of food you enjoy but most people hate?

- None that I can think of. Oh wait, perhaps, Durians?

10. Do you smoke?

- No.
===
* Where do you come from?
===
8 random facts about me...

(i) Talks a lot.
(ii) Eats a lot.
(iii) Am a pig - loves to sleep.
(iv) Am yawning away & blogging right now when supposed to be mugging.
(v) Jack of all trades, master of none.
(vi) Am short.
(vii) Always online @ home, when not asleep.
(viii) Dunno what to write liao...

5 persons who I'll tag:-

- Chris
- Brian Teo
- Felicia Neo
- Faezah
- Azfar

FCUK Singapore

2008-05-29T01:13:00.002+10:00

Do Malaysians really dislike Singaporeans just because Singapore have sovereignty over Petra Branca (known as Pulau Batu Puteh to Malaysia)? Apparently it seems so, from this particular blog. It's even asking Malaysians to boycott Singapore companies in Malaysia. I wonder if that'll happen. "Today is a sad day for all Malaysians". That was the very first sentence in the very first post in the blog. It's a generalization and a sweeping statement. No evidence was cited in the statement and there were no references.

I have a new email address. It's mail(at)edgarmirantz.com. Easy to remember too.

Nothing much to be said today. It's a 1 lecture tomorrow. A 1 hour tute and 1 hour prac on Friday and it's the end of the Semester 1.

Hoping all's good.

Cheers!

Tired...

2008-05-28T01:08:00.002+10:00

I slept early last night. At midnight to be exact. And i woke up this morning at about 6.45am. Didn't felt like waking up so I continued to stay in bed for another hour and I woke up and went for breakfast. There were oats and cereals today.

Went for tute follow my lecture. Had a API exam briefing. Was rather upset to learn that there'll be no supps for that paper. Therefore, if I fail it, I'll not be able to do my Semester 2 in nursing and will have to repeat the entire module in 2009 and continue with semester 2 year 1 in 2009. That means I'll have to waste more $. One of my visa requirements is for me to pass. I'm not even sure if my visa would be terminate if I fail. I'm scared.

Have you had a time whereby someone very close to you block you on MSN? Well, it just happened to me. Reason being that the someone doesn't want to hurt me with their words. I didn't expect this to happen. And i didn't know why this got me so worked up, angry and upset. A mixture of emotions and feelings. I literally cried and tears rolled down my cheeks. I would rather be hurt by words from verbal diarrhoea then to be blocked.

Oh well, it spoiled my night. I should just go sleep now.

Goodnight people.

My new squeek squeek

2008-05-26T22:44:00.002+10:00

I went over to the "largest" shopping mall in the southern hemisphere today - Chris and his best friend, Cory, brought me there. Westfield Plenty Village over at Mill Park. Not sure how true it is though. It has only 1 level and it seems that the second part of the building has been finished construction yet. I bought a Logitech mouse for $19.95. It's an optical mouse with a cable. Didn't want to buy a bluetooth mouse as it was rather expensive. Cory's quite handsome. One of the nice Auzzies I've seen here actually.

No lectures today. Wasted my time totally. Ate lots. Subway for lunch and Glenn's for dinner, which I had 2 servings at the latter.

Only 2 hours of tutorial (as I'm in the ESL [English as a Second Language] tute) and 1 hour of lecture on maladaptive behavior. It's the end of my day and I'll go home to study. And I nearly forgot, I've my assessment to do for anatomy. Hope it's not as tough as the muscles and bones one though...

I can't wait to get my learner's license so I can start driving around, supervised for at least 120 hours though. I'm intending to make an appointment soon so I can take the learners permit test once my exams ends. It's equivalent to the basic theory test we have back in Singapore. Hopefully I'll be able to get my permit and I can do some driving during the holidays. I can always ask some people, if possible, to let me drive them around. Haha...

Oh well, it's time for bed now. I should have an early night so that I can wake up early tomorrow morning to go for my tute at 10am. The weather is so nice and so cooling that it makes me very tired and sleepy easily. I'm beginning to become a pig. I need lots of sleep and this is very very bad when exams are less than a month away.

Cheers and goodnight people!

Escaping isn't a solution

2008-05-26T01:47:00.004+10:00

I slept for about 16 hours today. Finally went to church after not going for almost a month now. The launch of the album, All for Love, by Planetshakers would be next week. I invited a few of my friends over, including Chris. I really hope Chris can make it though. He always makes my day. Met up with Fredrick and his friend, Jimmy and we went for dinner at Carnegie. We had korean food over at a restaurant called Kimchi. There's one outlet in the city too but the one in the city mainly uses the hot grill thingy. The food was nice and it was a little spicy. We went to Koko Black at Carlton thereafter for Hot Chocolate. It was nice.

It's already week 13 - the last week of lessons for the first semester. I just realised while chatting online with Chris just now that I only have 3 hours of lessons on Tuesday, 3 hours (or 1 hour, tentatively) of lessons of Wednesday and 1 hour of lessons on Thursday. No lectures, practicals or tutorials on Monday and Friday! I'm planning to start studying tomorrow as well as starting on my essay which is due on the 16th.

Some people like to think. And it hurts them either physically or emotionally. There are just issues to be faced. However, escaping and avoiding from these issues are not solutions. The issues would just come back haunting and taunting you time and time again.

Sometimes, I really wonder if I've made the wrong choice in being so open. I've been very open to one particular person. In fact, if that person asks me anything, or even my secrets, I would just confide in that person and would tell that person everything. This might not be very good, as it can be used against me. I would however, in turn, expect the person to be able to share his or her problems with me as well. But the fact is that the person isn't. Perhaps, I'm in somewhere new and this person is my closest friend. In fact, I would say that this person is the closest I've ever got to someone (both in Singapore and Australia), who isn't my partner. And that person is someone who has lived here for all his or her life and I'm not the only person here. It's never easy, but one can always try. But before that, one will have to change their mindset, give themselves the chance to do so and try doing it. If not trying anything and not giving themselves the chance to do so, one would never be able to achieve it. We need to take a step out of our comfort zone. We tend to look at the negative side of things, that when we do so, things may be against us. But, that is always not the case. I took a step out of my comfort zone and made a big decision, by faith, by coming to Australia.

I went to the overseas education agent's office in Singapore. I enquired about the course. It really bothered me. There were so many factors to consider. My friends, my family, my business, the cost and such. I was also never a clever student, barely passing my tests and exams in school. That was the reason why I didn't take my O levels and chose to go to the Institute of Technical Education instead. How I passed my Diploma in Mass Communication's just another miracle. Even till now, I do not even know if I'll be able to pass the 3 papers next month. However, I took a very bold step and a leap of faith. I decided to come to Australia. My parents were shocked. My mum was initially unsupportive but decided to let me come in the end. Cost was a rather big factor as well. Ever since I left Singapore, business hasn't been doing well. I am not from a well-to-do family. My mum resigned to take care of me while I was 14 and my dad's the sole breadwinner of the family. He has since retired and is currently working to past his time at the same company, on a contract basis till the end of August. No one knows if his contract will be renewed. Once the funds of my family's depleted, I would have to fly home immediately. It was another big leap of faith when I signed up for my hypnotherapy course. The moment I stepped on board the plane and settled onto my seat, as the plane took off, I just simply broke down.

I guess it's enough said for tonight. The more I blog, the more upset, troubled and worried I become.

Singlehood

2008-05-24T00:59:00.002+10:00

Singlehood's taking a toil on me. It has its pros and cons. By being single, one would have more time to oneself. In fact, most of my achievements were made when I was single. But then again, I also wasn't attached for long either. When you're single, you wish you were attached and when you're attached, you wish that you were single. Humans are never contented with what we have. The grass is always greener on the other side.

I need someone to love and to be loved. I've been waiting and keeping my options open. Sadly, I've not been meeting up with others as no one has replied. Sometimes, I really wonder if God is forbidding me to go into a relationship and if it's His will for me to be single.

Love hurts - when you're single or if you've just broken up.

Mourning for the Mouse

2008-05-23T16:42:00.004+10:00

I'm still not getting over the death of my beloved wireless bluetooth optical mouse, which has served me faithfully for a little more than 3 months. Until now, I keep reaching to the left of my laptop to reach for the mouse and to realise that it's not working. It has already become an autonomic response (I wonder if autonomic can be used in such a way). Wanted to go to Northland or the city today after my tute at 3pm to get a new mouse. I woke up from my nap only at 3.40pm after the sms from Nicolaas came in (Nicolaas is the dutch guy from Holland, Netherlands). After making a few calls, it was decided that I'll go to Northland tomorrow after our Preston market trip. Hence, I went back to sleep, hoping that I would be able to sleep till dinner time at 6pm.

I woke up about 20 minutes later and decided not to be such a pig and go do my laundry instead. Now, my bedsheets, clothes and such are inside the washing machine and I've nothing to do. I'm not motivated to study for now. I managed to do my readings for the special senses yesterday while I was at V's house. Guess I'll just slowly do my readings and start working on my last assignment for this semester, a 2500 word essay on Monday.

Time really flies. It's already the end of the week, Friday. It's kinda considered like a weekend now. Am going to Martins house later to check out what ingredients he has. He's asking for my assistance to cook Bak Kut Teh (meaning pork ribs tea, however, it just means stewed pork ribs and people last time used to drink it with tea, in hokkien). We'll be making red bean soup with sago as well. I'll try to remember to get gula melakka (brown sugar, in malay) from the market or the asian grocery shop. Hopefully I can find it as gula melakka's really nice if you use it to make soups.

I'm waiting for tomorrow so that I can start making calls and continue to send SMSes from my mobile phone. I upgraded my plan from the $29 cap which lets me use up to $120 to the $49 cap which lets me use up to $230 worth of calls and SMSes. Currently, I've exceeded my limit by so much that I think I'll have to pay about $150 in total for my upcoming bill. Hopefully from next month onwards, I'll not exceed it. In Singapore, I have 2 phones and 2 lines, which I pay about $35 and $28 totaling to $63 per month. Therefore, if i were to upgrade to the $69 cap, which lets me make $500 worth of calls and SMSes, it should be too bad too. Oh well, I'll just see how it goes, but I doubt I'll need to upgrade again. I've been using Skype to send text messages these days as long as I'm home. It's so much cheaper. 1 message costs $0.12 to send on Skype, compared to $0.35 on my mobile. I can send 2 messages and even have a balance of credit!

Everything here is just so expensive. Even the taxi fares. In Singapore, the flagcall's $3. It's $3.20 here. For every 1km of travel in Singapore, it's $0.60 while its $1.53 here. Waiting time: $0.30 per minute or less in Singapore, $0.55 per minute or less here. Midnight surcharge's 50% of cab fare in Singapore but it's only 20% of cab fare here though. Therefore, it's still very much expensive to travel in a cab regardless if it's during the day or at night.

V passed me the driving booklet so I can study it. I'm hoping to go to VicRoads during the holidays in July to get my learner's licence. The test costs $18.10 and the license costs $18.30 and it's valid for a year. That's so much cheaper compared to Singapore, where the vocational license costs $25 for 6 months. After renewing it twice back home, I decided to give it up as it's just too costly to renew it. The cost for the lessons here is about $1 per minute as it costs about $40 for a 40 minute lesson. It's about $69 for a 100 minute lesson ($0.69 per minute). Therefore, the practical lessons is still more expensive here.

Oh well, perhaps I should stop complaining and be satisfied with whatever I have. I'm grateful for all my friends here as well as for V. I really feel so comfortable and love the presence of V whenever V's around. It's been almost a month since we've got to know each other, however, it seems like only yesterday that we met. I really treasure and value the time that we've spent together. I really wonder when I'll get bored of V, but for now, I'm not and am still loving it.

And by the way, my clothes are out from the washing machine already and it's now in the dryer. This goes to show how long I've worked on this post (oh well, I tend to blog and surf other sites at the same time, so yea..). It's dinner time in about 20 minutes. I'm famished, have not eaten anything since 8pm last night.

Cheers and you're Blessed!

the cat ate the mouse.

2008-05-23T00:44:00.002+10:00

I'm sitting on the floor, leaning on V's bed, using it as a backrest. Vs not feeling very well emotionally. I just want to spend time being there for V. One may appear fine on the outside, but deep inside, harm and damage is being done. Internal damage is bad. I hope that I can help heal the damage though.

My bluetooth mouse died. After turning it on, the cursor on the screen just wouldn't move, no matter how many times I moved it, reset it or turning it on and off again. I need a new mouse. And to think that I've only used the mouse less than a year. It's just 3.5 months to be exact. It's by logitech somemore. Gosh...

Goodnight peeps. I'm KISSing (Keeping It Short and Sweet).

Wireless Broadband Sux

2008-05-22T03:05:00.002+10:00

I dislike wireless broadband in Australia. It's just so slow. Not only that, it's expensive. In Singapore, M1 charges $22.40 for 1mbps unlimited usage and $34.65 for 3.6mbps unlimited. I'm paying $50 for 6gb, with speeds up to 384kpbs. Not only that, I'm unable to play games online or make VOIP calls with it.

Supposed to meet Derrick for breakfast before he flies back to Singapore. However, I couldn't wake up. I woke up at 10.59am instead and my lecture was at 11am at the far end of the university. I immediately changed and rushed out of house, wearing only my havaianas, tshirt, berms and jumper, carrying my pencil case and file.

Normally, V would text me. However, I didn't receive any message today. After my lecture, I felt very lost, not knowing my directions and where to do. This is the very first time I felt this way ever since I came over to Australia. Never have I felt this lost before. After walking past V's favorite spot from the first level, I received his text message while walking down the stairs. I just felt so relieved and I almost cried. We had asian food at Ping's Cafe Moat thereafter. It was nice.

Met Fredrick in the evening for a short while and went to Marcus's place. Since he hadn't had his dinner, I bought something for him. Came home, chatted on the phone with pL for almost an hour. I miss him.

Time for bed. Nitez.

Planetshakers Free

2008-05-20T23:31:00.003+10:00

It's been another long day. After going to the tutorial, I found out that the assignment's only due at the end of the day, last submission by 4.30pm. This is what happens when you have 2 tutors from 2 different departments. Attended all my lectures for today. Took a 20 minute nap before dinner and went for the Glenn College bible study thereafter.

We looked at the Last Supper, Pastover and the Covenant. Interesting stuffs. I managed to get the latest album from Planetshakers, Free. After listening to the song, I Need You, all the memories and such came gushing back to me.

I just made V annoyed. I typed something in hokkien (louya) and thereafter the meaning in English. However it didn't get to him fast enough and he got annoyed. Sobs... =( I need to be more conscious next time so that I won't get him annoyed or anything like that again...

It dawned upon me that we have to be very careful whenever we speak or say something. We are so used to speaking in Singlish that we don't even realise that people do not actually understand us. We separate them from us unknowingly. This is a BIG problem. We, myself included, need to really work on this and be more conscious of our surroundings and the people around us. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why the locals do not come and mix around with us the international students - they do not understand us and hence find it difficult to communicate and be with us.

Time to turn in. Goodnight peeps!

I need sleep

2008-05-20T04:33:00.002+10:00

1 more assignment done. 1 more 2500 word essay left, due on the 16th of June followed by exams on the 18th till the 23rd of June. It's the semester break thereafter. I'm still wondering what I should do during the winter break. I should save up and not spend as I've already spent money on my hypnotherapy course. 3 weeks of holidays would just fly by and it's the start of semester 2.

Went over to V's house last night to do my essay. Arrived at about 11.30pm and stayed up all the way till 5.30am. By that time, V was already fast asleep and at times, snoring away. I felt so much like taking my handphone to take a picture but the good me didn't. Woke up at about 8am to continue working on my essay and left the house at about 11am. Even though V wasn't with me, doing the same thing I did and such, I enjoyed V's presence.

I slept at 1pm and woke up at 5.45pm only to realise that it was dark and I had missed by anatomy lecture from 3 to 4pm. Luckily there's Lectopia for me to watch so that I can attend the lecture virtually. The advantages and wonders of technology.

Derrick's going back to Singapore on Wednesday and at almost the same time, Fredrick's touching down. I guess they'll be on the same plane. It's another week of having someone from Singapore to come visit me. For now, I'm planning to meet up with Fredrick in the evening and bring him out for dinner as they're not really sure of Melbourne and they have no friends or relatives here, unlike Derrick as his cousin's studying here.

Time for me to go to bed. Tute's at 10am and that's when I've to submit my assignment to my tutor. It's another long day, with only a 1 hour break and ending only at 4pm.

Ciao!

In the city.

2008-05-18T15:29:00.001+10:00

It has been a rather slack weekend. I've been out since Friday. I woke up early on Friday morning and ate my breakfast of eggs, hot dogs, baked beans and hash browns. Ran all the way to the tram stop (which took me 8 minutes) and managed to catch the tram on time. Took the tram to Clifton Hill to catch the 246 bus to Elsternwick. I had a consultation with the lecturer. She advised me to take the certificate course in Hypnotherapy and gave me advanced credit standing due to my previous studies. I've since paid a deposit and classes will start on the 15th of August. It's once a month from Fridays to Tuesdays for 5 months. And since I might miss the lessons on weekdays, one to one makeup lessons would be given to me. That's rather nice. All books and materials are provided in the course fee. Well, it has to be as I'm paying so much for it.

I went to the immigration office in the city. There were so many people and I had to wait for a little more than an hour just to get a label printed and pasted onto my passport. Now I'm legally able to work for no more than 20 hours per week or full time during my holidays. As a result from the wait, I was late for my physiology tutorial. Couldn't even get into the class as the door was locked (Doors are locked from the inside and it's an auto lock). Didn't want to knock it as there was only 5 minutes left. I went straight to the anatomy wet lab instead. Had the wet lab (it was on the head, so there were heads everywhere). Heads sliced into half, some with the skin even on so you could actually tell how the person looked like. After the lab, went home for a rest and went to the city again.

Was invited to a concert at Waterfront City, Docklands. It's a very nice place with nice housing. Had fish and chips there. A little expensive though. Went to crown thereafter. I wasn't allowed entry into the bars there as I had no valid form of identification. Student passes are not allowed. Ended up at St. Kilda's and we went drinking by the jetty. Boy, it was cold with the wind blowing. Took the last tram back to the city and the nightrider back to uni.

Didn't really have much sleep. Woke up and rushed down to Melbourne Central to meet the rest of the internationals at Max Brenners. It was a really cold day with an average temperature of 10 deg. Just chocolates alone filled my stomach and killed my appetite till about 9pm. Met Derrick thereafter and he passed me my flip flops. It's of a different brand, some Brazilian Pralio brand or something like that. He also passed me my packet of snow skin powder, so that I can make mooncakes! I went home thereafter. Shortly after I went online, Phil msged me asking me to go to his house to spend the night with him drinking. I agreed so I made my way down to the city again. I'm glad I validated my weekend daily met card so I only spent $2.90 on transport for the whole day. As I was already feeling hungry, I decided to grab a quick bite. V was in the city as well so I met up with him and we had Macdonalds. I met up with Phil thereafter. I drank a drink, think it's called Southen something. Forgot already. It was quite nice and not very bitter.

Woke up at about 9am as Phil had to go to work. Working on a Sunday really sux. Haven't had that or a long time already. The last time I really worked on a Sunday, apart from agency nursing was when I was with Changi General Hospital, which was like 4 years ago? Was supposed to meet Derrick, but not sure what time, so I headed over to Mac again, this time for breakfast. They have no Big Breakfast on their menu. All they had were muffins and hotcakes. Even the cup for the tea is much smaller than the one back in Singapore la... =(

It was already 10am, so I decided to call Marcus ask asked him if I could go over to his place. I went up, we chatted and we went to lalaland, him on his queen-sized bed and me on his soft bed. I didn't open it up fully as I was lazy to so I just snoozed on the sofa. Woke up at about 1pm and started surfing. Called Derrick and found out that he wouldn't be able to come to church with me, so I'm now stuck where I am. I can always go home, or just choose to waste my time away here, which of course I've decided on the latter. Not sure what I'll be doing later though. Lulu's still curled up in bed. Perhaps we'll go for lunch even though I'm not hungry. I'm actually having thoughts of cooking now, using whatever available items he has, but if I were to do that, I'll have to wash the dishes in the sink first. I don't even know how long it's been there. And the rice cooker on the floor - I'm not even sure when was the last time he used it. Am so afraid of opening the lid and having the stench. Haha...

V's spending the Sunday studying at home. Not sure if I should go join. What if I go and it disturbs or distracts whatever V's doing? I feel that I'm sitting on the fence. Sometimes, going across the fence into the relationship/partner boundary. I feel nice and not uncomfortable though. However, I'm not sure how V feels. I love the feeling of having V around though.

Oh well, I guess it's time to wake lulu up soon and for him to have his breakfast. Haha...

Ciao! (meaning, run, in Hokkien [a dialect], or a way of saying goodbye)

Derrick's in Melbourne!

2008-05-16T00:21:00.002+10:00

Derrick and his family touched down safely in Melbourne. I was praying to God last night to grant them journey mercy. I'll be meeting him and his family either tomorrow evening or on Saturday. He's going to pass to me what my mum passed to him for me - beret with crest, army cap, my pair of havaianas, FREE by Planetshakers. I bought a very nice poster for him, it's a view from the cockpit of a plane. I hope he likes it.

I saw V today. Of course I felt very much better after seeing V. But the pain still lingers. It's like having a knife stab through your heart. After providing medical attention and taken medication, the wound is still there as fresh as ever and the pain lingers. Are our morals different? I don't see it different, actually. I think my behavior could be attributed to the fact that I'm treating V as someone very very close to me. We're standing on a fence, sometimes, crossing it even.

Shane, my friend commented over Windows Live Messenger that he could tell that I liked V. "You get a cute little grin as soon as you see V and you look happier around V."

Well, I'm not sure how long the grin would last. Only time would be able to tell. I just want the wound to heal quickly. I do not like the pain. Who likes pain?

Time to sleep. I need to be up by 7am as I'll have to be at Elsternwick by 9.30am for a personal consultation. It's for the hypnotherapy class which I'm interested to participate in August. I hope all goes well and I'll be given advance standing so that I would be able to save cost.

Goodnight everyone. Cheers!

Argh!

2008-05-15T00:06:00.002+10:00

My request for an extension to submit my essay from next Tuesday to next Friday has not been granted. It requires valid reasoning, documentation and evidence. Oh well, seems that I'll just have to rush through it now.

Derrick and his family would be touching down tomorrow night. I intend to bring him over to Planetshakers City Church on Sunday for the earth shaking experience. Not sure what his other plans are though. I know he wants to go to Albert Park to see the F1 racing track though. Hopefully I would be able to get him there without any detours. Oh well, I'm only here for 3 months, I'm not expected to know every single bit of Melbourne right?

Urban Life's on Friday. Eileen, the group leader called just now and informed me that we'll be having steam boat for dinner. Yay!

I'm just heart broken now. V smsed saying can't keep doing things with me and it's causing V damage. I just need V to talk. Causing V damage would equate to causing myself damage, now that I'm feeling rather emotionally attached to V. I was doing my assignment what I received that and it kinda spoilt my mood for the night. I really can't bear to hurt V.

Thinking too much can be harmful. I believe that things should just go the way it should be. Prevention is better than cure. But, if we do not even know what the effect is, why should be prevent it? Self control is one of the fruit of the spirit. But sometimes, certain things are just beyond our control. Take a river for example. It flows. It cannot be stopped, else it'll overflow its banks. I always think and take myself as a river.

If I were to control myself, I guess I wouldn't be where I am now. I wouldn't even be as successful now. I would not even be in Australia and just working myself off in a hospital in Singapore. No connections with friends and such. It's scary coming to think of what Ive done and how much and how far I've went. It's time to just let things out and stop controlling ourselves.

Heartbreak. Period.

Another assignment done. 2 more to go.

2008-05-12T23:51:00.001+10:00

It's a Monday! I burned the midnight oil, rushed my 1500 word essay till the wee hours of this morning and I managed to complete it. By the time I slept, it was a few hours before sunrise. I woke up at 9.30am to walk to the nursing reception to submit my assignment, collect my daily dose of newspapers from the agora (that's where all the shops, eateries and people *winks* are...) and went back to bed to catch up on sleep. I'm a real pig. I need lotsa sleep, sometimes up to 10 hours (provided I can find the time to).

Only had 1 hour of lesson today from 3 to 4pm. It was an anatomy lecture about the Eye. Came back and started working on assignments. I've 4 short answer question of 300 words each and a 1500 word essay to write. I've since completed 1 short answer question. 4 more tasks to go.

It's Faezah's birthday tomorrow. I'll be waking up at about 5.45am to go to her house to bake her pancakes for breekie. I really hope I can wake up, judging that I only have less than 5 hours of sleep now.

V's been very nice. Always has. I wonder how long we'll last together like this. The future's uncertain. I love V's presence. Not doing anything. Just sitting by V's side quietly. I find the peace and joy.

Time to go to bed. Goodnight everyone. Wish me luck for my assignments.

Vodka Ribena & Pepsi

2008-05-11T00:55:00.002+10:00

It was 3am and I was in a cab with Marcus and V. We went over to South Yarra, supposed to look for a place where we could chill out. Ended up in a greek cafe instead. We had cookies and cream cake and baileys cake. It was nice, 3 of s couldn't finish it. We bunked over at Marcus's home.

I came home, finished up the first part of my assignment. I'm now left with the second part, which is the tougher part. I've till Monday to finish it as I've to submit it by 10am. Took a 2 hour nap as I was rather tired and went to dinner thereafter.

Went over to the health science resource room in college, supposed to work on the assignment but only managed to complete one sentence. I just didn't have the mood to do anything. V's so lucky, out with friends clubbing and drinking. I wish I was out too. It's been a long while that I've actually been clubbing and/or drinking.

I ended up drinking vodka with ribena and pepsi instead. Now i'm a little high and am listening to fabulous 2008 and blasting the music away. Please don't stop the music~~~ I wanna take you away~~~

Oh well, won't be going to shake the planet tomorrow as I've to be home rushing my essay. Hoping that I can finish it by tomorrow evening as it's note printing night tomorrow and the poddies would be in my room printing notes for the week. It's something which I look forward to, people coming together to interact and have fellowship. I like seeing people getting along with each other. That's why I love seeing V smiling and being happy.

I cherish and treasure the moments we spend together as I do not know how long we'll be like this. Time flies. Everything will be gone in a blink of an eye. I'm trying as hard as I can not to blink. Sadly, all good things must come to an end. I don't want it to end. I want it to be the way it is now, but of course, with a better friendship and with sharing of more stuffs. I do.

You light up my life

2008-05-08T01:38:00.001+10:00

I'm stuck with my assignments still. I really wonder how I can finish it and hand in the 2500 word essay on Monday at 10am. Sigh... I'm unmotivated. Or rather, my motivation's heading at a wrong direction. I'm slacking instead of doing my assignment. Oh well, I AM doing, but I just don't know what to write. I keep typing and backspacing. I just can't get my brain to work properly.

I signed up for a VIP membership for Big Brother. Now i get to watch exclusive videos of BB as well as the live feed of BB. It's kinda interesting to see 15 people of different occupations and background staying in a house for 3 months without contact of the outside world. No internet, no television or radio. Housemates are filmed 24 hours a day and they are to wear their mics at all times. They must also sleep with their mics on. Imagine if they snore real loud.. hehe...

I was listening to 883Jia fm on the netradio when this song was played. You light up my life. And I thought of V. Indeed V has lighted up my life. Always seeing V's happy face always smiling and laughing, never have I once seen a sad face. I've decided to go to V's house tomorrow to do my assignment and perhaps do reading on my text. Hopefully with the change of environment, I'll be more productive. Had a short chat with V today. We'll just take whatever goes our way, be it good or bad. Ultimately someone has to get hurt, either V or me. Nothing much we can do about it. Let's just see where lady luck or fate takes us.

Have a nice night everyone. God Bless!

It's Flying!

2008-05-07T01:42:00.002+10:00

How time flies. It's 3 more days before I'll be here officially for 3 months. So far, what's been achieved? I've got my permission to work pass (well, only half of it as I've not went down to the office to collect it), started Film Five Management in Australia, went on Australia radio and my grades thus far has been rather good. I really wonder what will happen to me in another 3 months time. My exams would end on the 25th of June and that's less than 2 months from now. Thereafter, I shall be rotting in Australia. Hopefully V would be able to accompany me though...

I was watching the video on the announcement of the host city for the first ever Youth Olympics which will be held in 2010 last night and I got homesick. And during the part of the Uniquely Singapore clip, I got more homesick. When the results was announced that Singapore was the winner, I felt so happy - even though I've already known that Singapore won.

My assignment's due on Monday and I'm still not even half-way through it. I guess I'm someone who works a little better under stress. V came for a little while to my room this afternoon after my lessons. As I was rather tired, I just went straight to bed while V used the computer. After a while V left - I was still rather drowsy then, so I just said bye. V didn't have an umbrella and got drenched. My heart sank. What if V fell sick? I would feel so bad then. I've not been missing V these days. I'm just happy and contented to have V as my friend, a close friend. If we do get together, then it'll just be a plus for me.

Time for bed. I only have 2 hours of lecture tomorrow as the last 2 lectures for the day was carried forward to last week. Yay!

Footprints in the Sand

2008-05-06T01:05:00.003+10:00

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one
set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,
"The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you."

Copyright © 1984 Mary Stevenson, from original 1936 text, All rights reserved.

My thigh muscles are aching. Went jogging last evening and again this morning. I forgot that I'm no longer as fit as I was during NS. Now, I intend to jog on Monday and Friday mornings, yoga on Tuesday evenings and swim on Sunday mornings.

I bought 3 posters today. 2 large ones and a small one. All thanks to Martin for asking me to accompany him to the poster sale. One big poster was an art painting of the last supper (the one with Jesus and His 12 disciples) and the other was the footprints poem (which has been reproduced as above). The small poster was the cover picture from the movie Brokeback Mountain. It's now taped on the wall of my room. I'm hoping that it won't fall off anytime soon. The disadvantages of not haivng blu-tac.

I spent most of my night (well, not really long but I found it rather long though) with V. We watched Big Brother on TV in my room together. It was so nice having V around. I love V's presence and all the things that we did together. I hope that we'll just stay like that or progress to something better. I'm not sure if I'm putting myself in danger by trusting in V so much and treating V so much like my partner. I'm just hoping that no one betrays me and such. And after reading the footprints poem, I wish I could be the one carrying V and being with V through all the thick and thins, the most trying, low periods of life and sufferings.

It's time to turn in. Have a goodnight everyone. Remember that Jesus will never forsake anyone. Jesus doesn't care what you've done before, now or forever as long as you have Him in your life.

It's left.

2008-05-04T22:06:00.004+10:00

V's not feeling right, both physically and emotionally. I'm affected by it, emotionally. I'm worried for V. I've no mood for anything now.

Gosh! How can this possibly be? How can I be so easily affected by someone? Sighs...

I hope V will be fine soon.. I'm praying to God for strength and that His hand will be on V and V will just be much better soon.

=|

Pastor Russell Evans @ Northside Church

2008-05-04T15:01:00.004+10:00

I went to Northside Christian Church this morning. Pastor Russell Evans from Planetshakers City Church was the guest speaker today. He spoke about our church's theme for this year, Devoted To Make A Change. During the first service, he spoke about bringing Heaven to Earth and in the second, he preached about us as missionaries of God. The context was the same as what he spoke in Planetshakers City Church, only difference is that he had no powerpoint slides to highlight the key points and that there were lots of examples in everyday life and stories. After listening to the sermons, it really impacted me, seeing the grace of God, how He blesses people using people like us and everyday circumstances.

Decided not to go to Planetshakers City Church today so that I could come home to concentrate on my studies and start my assignments. I had Subway for lunch. It's always the same thing that I have from Subway. A wrap (the only thing which I have to choose is the type of wrap I want, as in the filling), all vegetables, salt & pepper, honey mustard with a drink and 2 cookies. It's been about an hour since I've reached home but yet to start on my assignment. Will be going jogging with Faezah at 4.30pm. Downloaded the latest version of OpenOffice, OpenOffice.org 2.4. I dislike my wireless broadband. Not only is it slow, I'm unable to have VOIP calls as it lags badly, Trevvy takes ages to load and fails to load properly, I can't play MapleStory on it and go googleing on earth with it. Even listening to YES 933 is a problem as it buffers every 5 seconds or so. I can only listen to Power 98 or Jia 883 or use mIRC with it.

I miss SportsmenAsia and New Urban Male (although I don't frequently patronise NUM, only for their Havaianas). I'm looking for shops which are as good as NUM for clothes and such, but I just can't seem to find them. I might go over to South Yarra (Commercial Road/Chapel Street) to look for shops which sells clothes from Ajax63, Priape, Toot, N2N, neo:geo, Unico, xXx, Intense, 10%, 2(x)ist and such. My current pair of Havaianas are giving way. Thankfully Derrick's coming over on the 15th so I can ask him to help me get a pair and bring them to me when he comes.

I like people to be direct with me. I take hints very badly (real, real bad) and like those who are close to me to share their feelings and thoughts with me, be it positive or negative. I like them to help me what they like and dislike and such. I love to hear them saying things from what they are really feeling, what they wish and like and not what I would like to hear. I like people being sincere.

I woke up this morning feeling tired. Now, I'm still tired. I'm a real lazy pig. I've wasted my whole afternoon away. I should start doing my work tonight. After waking up this morning, it dawned to me that I wasn't missing V anymore. It has been for the past 2 days that I woke up wishing that V would be by my side. And while showering, I suddenly had the feeling of loss, that I had lost V. It struck me hard. Losing someone is not a good feeling at all. Reality came back at me. V's still with me. Like I've said earlier, if things don't work out well, we'll just be friends. But for now, I no longer miss V, but just long to see V again in time to come. I really wonder what's the pull that V has on me. I would think that it's the heart, attributes and personality. Physical attributes are secondary - they aren't important in the recognition of humanity I recon.

Oh well, I shall let God and time decide. I walk by faith, each step, I take, I put my trust in You.

Cheers and Blessed Sabbath!

Mixed Feelings

2008-05-02T16:17:00.002+10:00

It's a Friday! I'm waiting for my lecturer to finish marking my very first assignment written for university. It was supposed to be ready for collection by Thursday but the last time I went to check its status as of 4.30pm, it wasn't ready.

There's the Glenn College International's Dinner later. We're going to Mosskito Cafe Bar & Lounge in the city. It's then the PlanetUni Urban Life after the dinner if it isn't too late.

Assignments and essays are driving me nuts. There's so many times which I felt like giving up, withdrawing from uni and the head back to Singapore to work or apply for a business visa and concentrate on film 5 in Australia. I'm so thankful to my friends here for all the support given to me and such.

I got to know V. V's a very nice person with a cute sweet smile. I told lulu about V and he says that V's good-looking. We have been rather close to each other for the past week. Will what people say come true - that I'll come back with an Auzzie? I'm not sure as yet. It can't be denied that feelings for V is slowly growing. It all started when I was bored during lecture and I started smsing people asking them how their day was and I happened to see V on my contact list. Not remembering who V was, I sent it over and V replied. We met and got along quite well with each other. As for now, it's just time to get to know more about the both of us. I'm not sure where this would be heading, but it's progressing very fast. Although I feel that we should give more time, it's easier said than done. Lulu was encouraging me, better chase and pursue my dreams, after such a long time. I felt quite relieved after hearing what he said, but then again, it's all up to V. Right now, I just miss V.

Ta!

PRESS RELEASE: Film Five Management to bring Australia operations from June 2008.

2008-04-30T21:58:00.006+10:00

--- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ---

Film Five Management to bring Australia operations from June 2008.

Film Five Management has reached another milestone today. It received its Certificate of Registration of Business Name on 28 April 2008, pursuant to and subject to the Business Names Act 1962, in Melbourne, Australia from the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria.

Film Five Management in Australia will provide web-media, photography and event planning cum management services. Videography and talent management services would still be managed by the head office in Singapore. All existing clients would still be served by respective account executives in Singapore or UK and will not be affected.

Job openings for the Australia office would be available in a fortnight's time or so. Check back on our website at www.film5.com.au in time to come.

About Film Five Management

Established and based in Singapore as Film Five Productions in year 2000, the company has expanded and is now known as Film Five Management, registered and having an office in the United Kingdom as Film Five Management Limited in 2006. In 2008, the company reached a new milestone by expanding the operations to Melbourne, Australia.

Contact Information

Singapore - Head office
Film Five Management
VBox 888494
Singapore
Telephone: +65 6447 8577
Email: info(at)film5.org

Australia Operations
Film Five Management
c/o. Edgar Mirantz Tan
Glenn College, La Trobe University
Bundoora
VIC 3086
Australia
Telephone: +61 (03)9479 5287
Email: info(at)film5.com.au

New URL's

2008-04-27T03:49:00.002+10:00

My blog can now be assessed via 3 URL's.

edgarmirantz.com
edgarmirantz.net
edgarmirantz.info

Whee!

Time to blog.

2008-04-27T02:56:00.002+10:00

There is a right time for everything. There is a time to be born and a time to cry. There is a time to plant and a time to pull out plants. There is a time to sing, laugh, cry. I wrote this song and put the music to it when I was 11 when I was a student with Agape Center with the help of my mentor with the words from the bible. Till date, i still have the score with me on my table back home. Memories come flooding by when it was performed by my friends for the opening ceremony of the Agape Center.

Then there are the memories of the times while I was serving in church, whereby I would be in church almost everyday when I was 16. More recently, it's the memories of me and the kingdom. I would consider them my family. The fun times that we had and also the not-so-good times that we had. I still remember the night when everyone gathered at the airport to see me off. If not for the rush and hecticness, I guess I would have just cried. In the plane as I looked at the card that they gave me, my eyes swelled and tears rolled down my cheeks.

Now there are memories of Australia. All the wonderful people both asians and the locals and those who accepts me for who I am. God lead me to a wonderful church, Planetshakers City Church.

I got to know this local - A. He's a rather nice guy and stays just 10 minutes away from the university. I just found out that he has a pool in his house. That's so cool. Nicolaas's parents are in town for the fornight. Fazeah and me would be preparing some asian dishes for them on Monday night for dinner. I'm still not sure if I should just ask A to come though.

Till then,

Happy ANZAC Day (which was yesterday actually)!

Debut on Australia's National Community Radio

2008-04-13T23:05:00.002+10:00

I got lost on my way to church today. My internal GPS didn't work. It might be due to the bus making so many turns. I alighted at the wrong stop. 30 minutes later, I landed myself in a train to the city. Went to South Yarra instead to walk around the shopping district.

I made my debut appearance on Australia's national community radio station, JOY 94.9fm. I kinda co-hosted with 2 others in the studio for the Probation program from 6 to 7pm. If everything turns out well, I might continue co-hosting every Sunday.

Oh well, it's end of week 6 and the start of week 7. How time flies.

Hurrah!

Floor Crawling | Pancakes

2008-04-12T23:33:00.002+10:00

Every Thursday night's Bar night over at the Eagle Bar. Most of the time, I wouldn't be joining the rest of the people in college for the bar night. However, this week, they had a floor crawl (going from room to room on the floor). And since there was a slip of paper under my door after I arrived home on Tuesday telling me which group I was assigned to, I just agreed on participating. Our theme was on Pacific Islands. Photos of the 3rd North Floor Crawl are on Facebook. Thanks to Charlie for taking all the lovely pictures.

It was great fun seeing people do all sorts of stuffs and playing games and drinking. Of course the good me didn't drink much. Went to Eagle's Bar thereafter for a while. Heard some clubbing songs and how I wish I was back in Singapore over at Taboo. I miss Taboo and clubbing. Once again, I felt so much like dragging. Whahha...

It's Saturday and I went over to Preston Market as usual. Didn't buy much this time. Nick Chew came over to Preston Market for the first time. He bought himself a grater, a bar of chocolate, drinking cocoa powder and a can of whipped cream - to make for himself hot chocolate with whipped cream and some chocolate flakes on top. That's real nice - really enjoying life to the fullest. I can imagine holding up that cuppa of hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate flakes during winter and sipping it slowly. How lovely.

In the afternoon, we went over to Faezah's place as usual for lunch/tea/dinner. Made pancakes from scratch using plain flour, eggs, sugar and such. As we were using the electric heating pan, it took us so long to get it done. After we finally finished, it was almost dinner time. And now, I'm really sick of pancakes and I doubt I'll eat it for the next one month at least.

It's swimming with Martin tomorrow morning and then to shake the planet in the afternoon. I might be going over to JOY FM's studio in the evening as I have a friend who's volunteering there. He says that as the studio's old, everything is done manually. I'm really curious as to how it's done manually and I would really love to have a look and learn. He's actually also looking for someone to co-host with him, and perhaps I'll see if we can work something out.

Cheers to all!

Almost 2 months...

2008-04-08T23:00:00.003+10:00

It's 2 more days before it's my 2 months in Melbourne. Life here's not as bad. In fact, it's rather good other than the loss of food in Singapore, not-so-good public transport system and the high cost of living. In fact, almost everything here is so expensive.

I've since submitted my first essay on Monday. A 1500 word essay on Plagiarism. I intend to edit it based on the comments of my lecturer and thereafter submit it to the Singapore Nursing Journal for publication thereafter.

I bought a Logitech 2.1 sound system, a portable heater, a lamp from ikea, 14" color television
as well as the antennae. All these cost me a bomb. And at the 1st week of the semester, I bought a Littmann stethoscope for A$120. It comes with a 3 year warranty and hopefully i'll be able to use it till I retire from the profession.

Looking at what lies ahead of me, I'm a little afraid of my future. I'm not sure how I'll fare for all my subjects and such. Will I even be able to pass the first semester? If I don't do well, my student visa would be terminated and I'll have to go back to Singapore. The money which my parents and I have spent would all go to waste and lotsa people would be disappointed.

I'm just trusting and putting my faith in God. Whatever the outcome be, I trust that it's His plan. If I were to stay on with CGH after my NS, I wouldn't be here in the first place. I would have learnt so much about doing business (and expending my company), hypnotherapy and working over at ESH.

It's the 2nd week that I've tried Hatha Yoga and Pilates (combo). It's rather fun and I've been stretching my whole body from head to toe. 2 months to go before I can say that I'm proficient with Yoga and Pilates.

I'm still deciding if I should attend the PlanetUni camp organized by Planetshakers from the 25th to 27th of this month, Friday to Sunday at Philip Island (the place where there're lotsa penguins). Friday's ANZAC day therefore, it's a public holiday. It costs A$155, inclusive of all meals, accommodation and transportation. Oh well, I'll just pray about it.

I'm going rock climbing tomorrow. It's a floor activity (meaning for all those staying on the same floor as me, 3rd North). Wish me luck that my pants won't tear or I won't be able to reach the top or get stuck on top and can't get down. Whahaha...

Till my next post, which I don't know when it'll be,

Cheers!

Love from the land of the Roos,

Edgar MiRaNtZ

Home Phone & New Photos

2008-03-31T17:54:00.002+11:00

I've finally a LAN line. Below are the ways to communicate with me (or even send me surprises).

Home Telephone: +613 94795287
Handphone: +61 433353646
Postal: Glenn College, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC 3086
Email: mirantz(at)gmail.com or ch6tan(at)students.latrobe.edu.au

Went to Williamstown and Boxhill during the week long Easter holidays.

Photos are on Facebook.

I'm not enjoying the cold here. It's been cold the whole week with a low of 9 degrees.

Still chiong-ing my 1500 word essay on Plagiarism.

Ta!

World Pillow Fight Day & Easter

2008-03-22T23:20:00.004+11:00

It's World Pillow Fight Day today. In Melbourne, they had it over at Federation Square and I took part in it. Click on the image to see what's it like. It was fun!

Happy Easter everyone! Was Good Friday yesterday. Easter Sunday/Monday's just tomorrow/day-after and followed by a week of holidays. The university's closed till Tuesday. It's rather quiet over at college as most locals has went back leaving the internationals behind.

Still have lotsa assignments to work on and study.

Time to snooze and thereafter, get ready to shake the planet (PlanetShakers City Church) in the afternoon.

Send off @ Changi Airport T3

2008-03-07T23:30:00.006+11:00

I just received the pictures which Joe helped to take at my send off over at Changi Airport. Joe's my other partner for Film Five. I counted and there were 18 people (2 not in picture) who came from the Kingdom aka 88 thread and in total, inclusive of my parents, relatives, friends and church mates, I had 42 people (again, the 2 weren't in the picture - Dominic Teng and Hazmi) who came to send me off. That's a real big group. To think of it, I feel so lucky and fortunate.

I've decided to signup for Vodaphone's wireless broadband special offer which will give me 5gb of data for A$39, which of course comes with a 2 year contract.

Should you want the send-off pictures, do email me and I'll send them to you.

Cheers!

Net @ home!

2008-03-03T22:09:00.002+11:00

Yay! Finally I've internet connection at home. Home = a small room in college, in a university. It's expensive to use it though, the bandwidth costs 3 auzzie cents per megabyte of data transfer. That equals to A$30 per gigabyte (gb).

I'm rather tired today. Just finished printing all my notes for tomorrow's lecture. I'm going to sleep early tonight, most prob about 15 mins after I blog.

Take care people and Happy Birthday to me. I'm officially 23 years of age in less than 2 hours time (Australian time, on day-light saving). It's rather saddening that no one's going to celebrate it with me. The only thing that's going to comfort me is that lulu's (Marcus) going to cook dinner for me. I actually asked him out for dinner so we could dine out but he says that he's tired of outside food so he'll cook instead. That's so sweet of him.

Goodnight people!

2008-02-27T21:18:00.008+11:00

I'm in the library using the net again. Brought my lappy to the library but it couldn't get connected to the internet. Connected with limited connectivity. Therefore, I resorted to using the pc terminal. It's late at night therefore there aren't many people here and I can use it as long as I like. hehe...

Assignments are coming in and I don't like it. Imagine writing 1000+ words on the topic of plagiarism. Gosh!

Since I'm unable to upload photos into facebook using the pc terminal, I shall do it here.

Enjoy the pictures...

No net @ home but outside the library

2008-02-25T09:40:00.002+11:00

I still have no internet connection at home. I resorted to bringing my laptop to the outside of the library late at night at about 8.30pm when it's all dark and use the free wireless. At home, I've to pay 3 auzzie cents per megabyte of data transfer. That's expensive. Therefore, it would be good to go out to the library to use things like skype and such. And unlike in Singapore, there're no power plugs to be found therefore, I've to rely on my battery, which can only last me for about an hour or so.

It's the third week that I'm in Melbourne now and life has been quite good thus far. It's getting colder day by day. It's now 15 deg outside. I took quite a few pictures, but won't be uploading them so soon, perhaps till tomorrow or so. I'll be posting them into my facebook album so check it there.

My lecture will be at noon, so i'm practically free till then.

=)

No Net Still

2008-02-19T15:53:00.002+11:00

I'm back in the library again.

I enrolled for my course yesterday and I'll only be getting my Statement of Account in about 3 days time. Until then, I've to live without net at home. I'm hoping that once I get my SoA, I'm able to tap into the wireless networks which I detected back home.

To get a connection back home, I'll still have to apply for it and pay $90. :(

I went over to University Mews to check out the apartments. It looks nice and I wouldn't mind shifting there. However, single bedroom units aren't available and only double units are so I'll have to make do with it and be put on the waiting list.

It's Pub-crawling tonight and I'll be going out with my neighbors (over at my building) to various pubs. They have a drinking culture here but I don't really drink - so yea...

Cheers!

Night @ campus

2008-02-14T19:38:00.002+11:00

It's real boring at night without any internet connection. No MSN, no Trevvy, no Facebook and such. The coin-phone at my college is faulty - the coin keeps dropping out after inserting it and to use the mobile phone to call the calling card number is expensive. The only way I can chat to people back in Singapore is to walk all the way out to the "central" of the uni, about 4 minutes walk, to use the phone booths. It's under shelter but it's cold and it gets dark after 8pm. It's unsafe to travel alone in the streets of Melbourne, even it school, it gives me the creeps.

No gay life here. There's a GLB society here and I went to take a look at their unit - the Rainbow Room but it was closed. Guess perhaps it's not the start of the semester yet. I'll go join them as it'll make me feel more with my kind - the queers, i suppose.

I wanna go watch Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert but it's just too expensive.

Sigh...

For a better tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day people...

Cheers!~