Thoughts from a soggy mind - best served Cold

In a blink of an eye I’m 2 weeks into Semester 2. Labs and tutes have started, so it’s now full steam ahead. On the one hand, it’s great that time’s flying cuz it means that the spring break (and after that, summer break- flying HOME!!) is fast approaching but it also means that Mid-Sem exams and assignments will be raining down upon us just as fast. Kinda contradictory, no?

Quite a few things have happened since term started. For one, the wireless connection has degenerated into pure crap. Can hardly get 20 minutes of uninterrupted connection; ditto for msn. And sometimes even when I am on msn, messages I thought I’ve sent turned out to be lost somewhere in cyberspace (read: did not reach intended recipient). One word: frustrating. Been hearing a few conspiracy theories of what actually caused the above; not sure which is true though.

On the bright side of things, there was Mamak Day organised by the MSO yesterday! Went to B&G on Friday night (we went late, actually =p) to help with the preparations. Didn’t help much though, apart from helping to peel off the skin from a mountain of garlic and chopping up some garlic. Anyway, the food was ok and at the very least it had satiated my desire for malaysian food for the next few months. Let’s see…we had maggi goreng, roti canai, dhall, kuih koria (not sure how to spell this), tandoori chicken, teh tarik and cendol! Many thanks to Yeam for helping us to take away some extra maggi and chicken =)

Food!! Cendol’s not in the photo though.

Apart from the food, there’s the people. About 30 people from Ursula Hall went for Mamak Day ;it was quite a sight to see our group lining up for food and subsequently occupying a whole lot of space as we ate. Not to mention that we won nearly all the games too

Hurm..dunno what else to say. It’s been quite a happy week, the crappy connection notwithstanding. See ya guys. Take care and have fun!

One of the reasons why my winter break has been so fun was because college friends came a-visiting! The only disadvantage was that they didn’t all come at the same time hence i ended up visiting the same place thrice in a space of 2 weeks…i must be one of the National Museum’s most ardent fans along with Su Yin by now…we’ve been there 4 times already =p

Let’s see..first were the people from Melbourne - Lin Sin, Chen Quan and their housemate (from Sunway), Sue Lyn. They arrived in Canberra on 29th June from Sydney where they had been having a holiday for a few days and stayed till 2nd July - when we Canberrans were already in Melbourne! Well, a bit of simple logistics solved that problem

Canberra being the quiet place it is at night, naturally the only place we could go on their first night here was Mooseheads. Cheap drinks and lotsa shouting amongst the loud music - quite fun. Then on 30th June we headed to the National Museum and New  Parliament House. Had quite an embarrassing moment at the Parliament - i had to pass the security metal detectors FOUR times! All because of the Eclipse mint container I had in my jacket =S At night we headed to the casino. Didn’t gamble; just stood around watching. The whole daytime of 1st of July was spent shopping in  Belconnen  and Canberra Centre. Blame it on the lack of buses to certain places on weekends, sighs. Anyway what we lacked in places to go, we certainly made up with lots of fun and laughter as only friends on a holiday can have

Jessica and her friend Ernest who are both studying in University of Queensland (in Brisbane) arrived from Sydney  on  8th July. They stayed  till 19th July - ELEVEN days in total! I don’t know how but we actually managed to bring them to different places for the whole of the eleven days. Along the way I discovered that there are actually quite many places to visit in Canberra…a nice surprise indeed. To sum the eleven days, here’s where we went: National Museum (twice), New Parliament House, Old Parliament House, War Memorial, Questacon, Royal Australian Mint, Telstra Tower, Botanical Gardens, Lake Burley Griffin, National Capital Exhibition, National Carillon, Commonwealth Park, Woden, and Deakin. I’m not sure if I’ve left out any though..didn’t go to some of them due to tiredness or simply because I’ve been there before e.g. Questacon (10.50 per entry!).

Anyway both stints as a "Canberra Tour Guide" have been really fun and it’s just great getting together with your college mates once more even if it’s only for a few days. The Sydney people are coming in September coinciding with the Floriade festival so it’s more fun in a few weeks’ time! I’ll sign off with some pics…

Left to Right: Su Yin, Lin Sin, myself, Sue Lyn, Chen Quan, Yuet Ling, Wan Phei. Holding camera- Jason. (At New Parliament House)

Left to Right: Jessica, Jason, Ernest, Su Yin, Myself. (At War Memorial)

Sighs. As I’m typing this i’m counting down to the end of my precious Winter Break. Four weeks of all play and no work will end tonight. Tomorrow, Semester 2 starts at 9am sharp (RSBS Robertson Lecture Theatre - BIOL1009).

Before I get all depressed, I guess it’s worthwhile to remember that I actually had a very good break Let’s see..what did I do? I watched loads of anime (Death Note and Samurai 7), read some manga (Death Note), watched movies off DC (POTC3, V for Vendetta, Blades of Glory, The Prestige, Transformers), watched a movie at the cinema(Harry Potter), played PC games (Pirates! and Halo), did some cooking, went to Melbourne, and brought my friends from Melbourne and Brisbane around Canberra (will blog about this next week).

Did I miss something? Oh yes, i slept A LOT. All of a sudden I’ve discovered the joy of sleeping 10-11 hours daily, hehe. It’s an effective way of killing time and also gives my battered body and brain much needed rest which I just didn’t get enough of during the semester. As crazy as it seems, I actually slept as early as 10.30pm once (yes, during the HOLIDAYS!) and I’ve generally abandoned the habit of sleeping past 12am. Will have to pick it up again though, Semester 2 isn’t going to be any easier.

Apart from the above, the winter break’s been great for many little things as well. They’re all hiding in my brain somewhere which makes it hard to write them all down but they’re there and they’re part of the reason why this break has been fabulous

Moving on to more serious stuff now. Semester 2 will be a step up compared to Sem1 and I hope this break’s prepared me for it. 27 contact hours a week; four 3-hour labs. Will I survive? Well, it’s just four months of hard work and toil. I look up to people like Dexter (34 hours, 6 labs) for motivation =) Contact hours aside, no doubt the material covered will be much more complicated as well. Oh well, I’ll just take it as it comes, no?

That’s all folks. Enjoy your winter break if you’re still having one and to those facing Semester 2 tomorrow, good luck!

p/s: I really shouldn’t be too pessimistic. Spring break is actually just 6 weeks away

Last week was the highlight of my winter break: I went to Melbourne from 2nd to 6th July with Eugene, Su Yin, Wan Phei and Yuet Ling. Yes, I know it’s been quite a while since i got back but thanks to my tiny thumb drive, some of my photos had to seek ‘refuge’ in Su Yin’s thumb drive till yesterday when i had the time to claim them. Hence the delay in writing this post.  Anyways, here’s an abbreviated(?) account of my trip -

Monday 2nd July 2007
Day One of my holiday in Melbourne obviously started with us actually getting there. Duh.  We took an 8-hour bus ride through the night, starting at 12am and finally arriving at Bay 64, Southern Cross Station at Spencer Street in Melbourne at 7.50am. Didn’t exactly sleep all the way throughout the journey but i got sufficient shut-eye nonetheless.
First off was breakfast at McDonald’s. Not exactly the best way to kick start our tour of Melbourne but dim sum restaurants in Chinatown weren’t open yet and we were famished anyway; any food would do at that point. Next we took the tram back to College Square where we were to camp for the next five days. Speaking about trams, they’re quite unique and part of the attraction in Melbourne. I was (and still am) quite terrified at the idea of standing smack in the middle of the road waiting for trams while cars and trams whiz by. Maybe it had to do with having crossed one too many Malaysian roads, lol.
Then we toured around University of Melbourne. The architecture was really impressive! Numerous colonial-age buildings dot the campus landscape and they really give the place a historical feeling. Pity we don’t have such buildings at ANU. Oh well, you can’t have everything.
Next was Melbourne Central where we gaped at a super big clock! Every hour it chimes and out come some mechanical birds and puppets dancing to a tune…cute =) Among other places that we went to include the Victoria Parliament (inaccessible to the public), Victoria State Library ,Fitzroy Garden and Federation Square. All accessible via trams just makes it all so convenient.
At night we toured Lygon Street which is chock-full of Italian restaurants, cafes and gelato shops. Shared a cone with Chun Wah which culminated in some really funny moments =p
Oh, did i mention that the many buildings in Melbourne itself are pretty old and impressive? Took lotsa pics and drank in the sights - lovely.

University of Melbourne. Can’t imagine having a clock tower in a uni.

This is actually a side entrance to a Car Park. Talk about grandeur!

One of the many statues in Melbourne. This one’s outside the State Library. And yes, i’m referring to the gigantic black fella, not the two in winter wear =p

A tram in Melbourne. Notice it runs right in the middle of the road and that’s where ppl wait for trams…Scary..

Tuesday 3rd July 2007
Had the luxury of waking up a bit late today cuz we were headed for the Victoria Market for sightseeing and shopping. Scratched my head a lil at that one. What’s there to see at a market? A lot, apparently. It has to be one of the cleanest markets i’ve ever seen and the sheer number of stalls selling souvenirs is crazy! Row upon row of them! Also, you get crazy prices like 1 dollar for 1 kilo of apples…
Had lunch at UniMelb then headed to the Shrine of Remembrance which commemorates the fallen Australian Soldiers. Sort of War Memorial in Melbourne i guess. Next it was Docklands for the pretty harbour view and also Melbourne’s very own "Harbour Bridge".
At night it was potluck dinner as the Sydney ppl were arriving at the airport that nite. We had lots and lots of food ranging from mashed potatoes and nasi lemak (Kean Leong and Andrew), fried prawn, omelet and dessert (Lin Sin et al), chicken and radish soup (Chun Wah) and vegetable in tom yam (Me, hehe).
We went to Crown Casino just to have a look and maybe try our hand at the slot machines but unfortunately they no longer give out free credits so we just hung around watching. By the time we got out of the casino, lo and behold the last tram had left! So being the helpless people that we were, we trudged our way back to College Square and collapsed on our beds in utter exhaustion. The night view was nice, though.

Victoria Market - Souvenirs Section

Su Yin, Lin Sin, Chun Wah and I at the steps of the Shrine of Remembrance

Can’t remember the name of this bridge but i took like 20 pics of it trying to get the perfect shot so i guess it must go into my blog….=S

Wednesday 4th July 2007
Had to wake up early today as we were heading to the Great Ocean Road on a tour bus under a travel programme called Melbourne on the Move. The trip started at about 8am and we only reached the city at 9.30pm- a full day’s tour. The road was so winding at some parts of the trip that many of us felt nauseous..eww. But the view, if anything, more than made up for it Not to mention that there were 36 Malaysians on the bus!

Ex- Taylorians at Great Ocean Road

Cape Otway

The Twelve Apostles!! Well, part of them, anyway.

Loch Ard Gorge

Thursday 5th July 2007
Another day out on the road- this time we were headed to Philip Island for a spot of penguin-watching! We took up the whole bus- 52 Malaysians and 1 Singaporean. Omg. Made a few stops along the way as well; i’ll let the pics do the talking:

On board the ‘Puffing Billy’ steam engine- leaving the station for Menzies’ Creek

Feeding a kangaroo at Warrook They’re just sooo cute!!

Ex-Taylorians takeoff @ Cape Woolamai =)

The highlight of the day: Watching penguins come home from the sea. We weren’t allowed to take pics of them though (the flash may hurt them it seems)

Apart from the above, we also went to the Koala Conservation Centre to see koalas sleeping on trees and also Nobbies’ Center to watch seals. Pity you had to pay 5 bucks to use the binoculars. Thanks Chun Wah for being so generous and taking pics of the seals thru the binoculars for us Thought of posting a pic of the spectacular sea at Nobbies’ but I just realized i’ve pretty much burnt a hole in many ppl’s uni quota, hehehe.

Friday 6th July 2007
Final day here in Melbourne. Woke up a bit later before heading to Smith Street for a spot of sight seeing and, if possible, shopping. Didn’t actually buy anything of course, but many of the shops were direct factory outlets so the price was actually quite reasonable in many cases. Had dinner at a Thai restaurant and went to Federation Square for one last group photo. Bus departed at 9pm and by 7.30am on Saturday, we were back in Canberra.

Canberrans, Melbournians and Sydneysiders at Federation Square

People ask me which is better: Sydney or Melbourne? I seriously don’t know and to me it doesn’t really matter. I had lots of fun at both these cities and to me, this trip to Melbourne was an eye-opening experience in many aspects. Many thanks to all the Melbourne people who made our stay so enjoyable; we’ll repay your hospitality when you come a-visiting in September

p/s: I think Melbourne and Sydney are great cities to visit and to have fun in, but living in Canberra is still my preference =p