Thoughts from a soggy mind - best served Cold

It’s been a rollercoaster week, that’s for sure. It’s been a week since I came back from my holiday in Sydney and it’s been rather eventful in many small ways.

Well, first off you can’t expect me to start work immediately upon my return from Sydney can you? So i just lazed around for the weekend; sleeping, eating, watching anime (Bleach), surfing the Net, blogging (took me 4 hours!!) and cleaning my less-than-neat room. On Monday I finally started doing some work…i printed out my BIOL1003 assignment, lol. Tuesday was quite productive ’cause i actually finished the assignment and on Wednesday I started working on my CHEM1101 Practical Formal Report. The report took up most of my Thursday and Friday…finally, i finished everything last night =) now for some finishing touches..

The week’s rather eventful in many small ways..i rediscovered the joys of multitasking:  typing chem report + msn-ing + sms-ing + talking on the phone (room landline) all at the same time was fun. Listening to Shimokawa Mikuni’s Alone (Gensomaden Saiyuki ending) and Yui’s Rolling Days (Bleach Opening) helped me de-stress. It’s actually the first time i’ve listened to Alone in more than a year. Hurm…Oh yeah, i went to Questacon as well.  It’s not bad though  10.50aud (concession price) for mostly kiddo-type exhibits isn’t my idea of money well spent. Oh well, i had to go; it’s my physics assignment. But if there’s anything nice about the whole trip, it was the autumn scenery!! Will post them up when i gather more pics

So what’s up next? Well…term 2 of semester 1 starts next monday =( oh well, you can’t have holidays that go on forever. Gotta get back to studies.

All the best folks, enjoy the remainder of your hols and for those who’re already in term 2, enjoy your weekend. Take care!

I’m back from Sydney! Back from a memorable trip full of all that’s sugar and spice After much planning via msn and sms, on monday we finally made our way to Sydney.
Before I go into a detailed account of what happened during the trip, here’s some useful info:

The tourists : Jason, Daryl, Jared, Su Yin, Yuet Ling, Wan Phei and Myself.
The tour guides and/or hosts : Shir Lynn,  Li Cheng, Sze Rhui, Xin Yin, Victor, Chen Ching and Yuen Chiw.

Monday 9th April 2007
Woke up at  5.30am  and left Ursula Hall (Jason, Daryl, Jared and Myself)  at 6.15am for Unilodge to pick up Su Yin, Yuet Ling and Wan Phei before heading off to Jollymont Centre to board our bus to Sydney. We were running a lil late so i was a wee bit worried  about missing the bus (or maybe i’m just a stickler for punctuality) but we made it in time =) The bus trip was rather uneventful cuz only jared, su yin and myself stayed awake throughout…and bless Murrays’ buses for having toilets though i did bang my head in there..the price of being too tall, hehe.

And at 10am…we reached Central Railway Station, we’re in Sydney! Met up with Shirlynn and then we headed for Macquarie University Village which was to be our home for the next 5 days...the first thing i noticed was that Sydney’s hotter than Canberra! Ahh… one of the things i missed the most while in Sydney was the coolness of Canberra but back to the story…

After a 45-minute journey by bus we reached MUV and met our hosts for the first time: Victor, Chen Ching and Yuen Chiw were gracious enough to offer us guys a place to stay…thanks guys! The girls stayed wif Szerhui.

Macquarie University Village

After unpacking and a short rest we headed to Macquarie Centre for lunch. It was already 3pm by the time we reached and being Ursies people who were used to big lunches at 12.30, there were four Very hungry guys searching for lunch! lol. After lunch we headed back to the city for sightseeing. First stop, Queen Victoria Building or in short, QVB. It’s a pretty grand old building with many shops owned by Malaysians and the interior is just amazing.

Queen Victoria Building…looks quite imposing doesn’t it?

The ceiling of QVB…impressive

And then we headed to Chinatown. Very pretty at night..i guess the Asians really have a trick or two when it comes to lighting up their shops. And we met up with the Melbourne people. It was fantastic seeing them again after so long (2 months is quite long to me)! Lots of crapping and how-are-you-now conversations ensued..not to mention posing for pics as well =)

ANU people in Chinatown.. L-R: Me, Daryl, Jason, Su Yin, Wan Phei, Jared, Yuet Ling

What are Melbournians and Canberrans doing at Darling Harbour in Sydney?

Of course, the most important thing on the agenda was to see Opera House and Harbour Bridge! Why else would anyone come to Sydney? So we got the view and the pics too Simply breathtaking!

Harbour Bridge at night

Sydney Opera House…awesome

Then we went to Pancake on the Rocks for some good pancakes (better than Canberra’s, and cheaper too). Had Devils’ Delight (chocolate and strawberries) and Bananarama (the name explains itself right?) .And after that we headed back to MUV while the Melbourne people went back to UNSW (they stayed with Jubee).. Had supper, crapped a lil bit more and then slept…end of a very memorable Day One.

Tuesday 10th April 2007
Day Two was Zoo Day =p We headed to Taronga Zoo by ferry..took some pics along the way of course, but let’s focus on the zoo. From the zoo you can actually get a very good view of the Sydney coastline. The zoo itself is pretty nice though i expected it to be much bigger. Lots of animals to view : Australian wildlife, Asian animals, reptiles, birds, you name it. And i saw a koala, wallaby and platypus in real life for the first time!!!

Mr/Ms Koala just woke up from sleep…how sweet!

You can get Meerkat Manor in Taronga Zoo as well, not just Discovery Channel ;p

Wallabies @ Taronga

In the evening we went to a housewarming party in MUV where we spent time eating to our hearts’ content and chit-chatting with new people we’ve just met. Bedtime followed after that…a long tiring day it was but Day Two was just as Fun.

Wednesday 11th April 2007
Our third day in Sydney had a specific theme to it too: Beaches! Just as well cuz you’d be freaking mad not to go to any beaches when you’re in Sydney.  And yes, I said beachES..we went to two : Bondi Beach and Manly Beach. First up was Bondi Beach by bus. The day was unusually hot and the bus trip was long so almost all of us slept on the way. But it was well worth the journey - Bondi’s gorgeous! The lack of trees to shield us from UV bombardment aside, it’s faultless. Then we had fried Mars Bars for lunch before heading to Manly by ferry. Manly’s different in the sense that it’s a quaint town with a beach; but it’s the ideal place if a quiet getaway is what you’re looking for (the sort of holiday i like ;] ) And depending on how you look at it, there’s loads of seagulls around! I certainly would feel guilty playing beach soccer at Manly…breaking birds’ skulls with a rubber ball isn’t my idea of fun.

Gorgeous Bondi Beach

Posing at Bondi :p

I left my mark at Bondi…i wonder how long it lasted?

Ignore the 3 psychos pointing at empty space…just admire the beautiful sea and sand of Manly Beach in the background.

At night we went to the Macquarie lake to look at stars but unfortunately a great cloud in the sky blotted out everything. Still, it was fun chatting at the lake. We then had instant noodles for supper (again) and slept a bit late cuz the agenda for the next day wouldn’t start till 10.30am..
-End of Day Three-

Thursday 12th April 2007
We woke up quite late on this day (9am+, to be exact) as our destination, Fish Market, wouldn’t be open so early anyway. So again we took a bus ride to the city..A brief walk ensued where I saw people actually cycling in Sydney! It’s very common in Canberra of course but it’s the first time i’ve seen it in the 3 days i’ve been in Sydney. As usual the view was gorgeous; you see yachts and boats bobbing up and down in the clear blue sea with seagulls flying around without a care in the world..get the picture? :) 

We reached the Fish Market at 12-ish, just the right time for lunch. Hehe. And what a lunch we had! Seafood platters don’t even come close to this good back in Malaysia..the fish, squid, oysters, crabsticks, prawns and scallops are simply heavenly. And we actually had to fight and jostle for tables cuz it’s just that good that so many people want to eat there.

The throng of people at the Fish Market is testament to how good the food is

Seafood Platter!!!!

After stuffing ourselves silly at the Fish Market we headed to the National Maritime Museum for a quick tour while we waited for the Melbourne people who were at the Aquarium World. Well..the museum was okay. Haha. Anyways, after that we met up with the Melbournians for the final time before they flew back at 9.30pm that night. So we stood under the sun for nearly an hour, just talking and laughing and taking photos

One final gathering outside the Aquarium World…see you guys in July!

So after all the take-care-yeahs, don’t-be-naughtys and goodbyes we headed to Luna Park by ferry. It was already 6.15pm when we boarded so the sunset was really beautiful…what more when you’re seeing it on the ferry deck and the breeze is blowing against your face. Aww… anyway, when we reached  we realized that Luna Park closes at 6pm! Lols.  BUT it was still unlocked so we went in for a look anyway. And it’s pretty!!

Luna Park

The funny mirror at Luna Park turned us into hobbits =_= 

When we got back the activity for the day still wasn’t finished yet. Met up with Azuan and Hadi who had just came back from Brisbane and then we caught the highlights of Man Utd’s 7-1 demolition of Roma..awesome! At 11.30 it was gathering at Szerhui’s house for some wine, chips, chatting and old TV shows (hehe). And we rounded off a great Day Four with more crapping with Yeam who had got back from Wollongong till 2.45am before tiredness finally took over.

Friday 13th April 2007
The final day of an incredible trip. We shifted our luggage to Shirlynn’s house because Victor’s house was getting inspected that day (yes, we were illegal immigrants for five days). Then it was off to Macquarie Centre for some shopping… Bought tokens for our kind hosts and tour guides and also Shirlynn’s birthday present. And here’s where I failed for the first time. Well, we had nowhere to write the birthday cards etc so we had to make do with the food court..and we got caught by Szerhui, Licheng and Shirlynn! OMG!! Luckily I had already told Szerhui the plan earlier; it’s just that she didn’t expect us to be at the food court, of all places. So she quickly ushered her group away while Licheng cooked up a story about the birthday card and present being my sister’s..Lol.

And our hosts treated us to Krispy Kreme’s Many many thanks gals!

After that we finally said goodbye to MUV, our home for five great days. Took the bus to the city for one final time where we had Korean food for lunch at Seoul-Ria.  The  food was good  but  it wasn’t…well, exquisite. Not the type that’ll  make me go back to  Sydney  just to taste it again, unlike Fish Market’s seafood. But still, it was fun.

Lunch @ Seoul-Ria

The next thing that happened was a funny one. Daryl shaved off his hair! He said his hair was getting long and hard to manage so he decided to shave it all off. So he was alone in the barber shop while 13 of us stood outside and watched =p

Finally, we headed to Central Railway Station where we were to board our bus back to Canberra. Cue for one last round of photo takings, chatting and take-care-all-the-best conversations.

-Farewell Photo-

At last it’s time to board the bus and finally leave Sydney. The trip back to Canberra was uneventful. Most of us slept all the way through while Daryl and I both slept for just the 1st hour. But we were seated separately and outside the windows it was all dark so it was pretty boring. At 9.30pm we reached Jollymont Centre and by 9.50pm, we were back in Ursula Hall.

Thus ended Day Five of our trip.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

This trip to Sydney’s an experience that will last long in my memory. Not only did I see and taste many new things, I also met both old and new friends. If it wasn’t for them this trip wouldn’t be half as fun. I took back many everlasting memories of magical moments that I’ll cherish for many years to come.

I’ll go back to Sydney one day. Definitely. In the mean time, I’ll just bask in all the superb memories of the five great days =)

Many many many thanks to our Great hosts and tour guides : Shirlynn, Licheng, Szerhui, Xinyin, Victor, Chenching and Yuenchiw! Really appreciate your warm hospitality; thanks for making this such a wonderful holiday. We’re looking forward to your visit to Canberra in spring

Yeah..it’s just one of those days when I feel like blogging, compelled to blog if you like, and couldn’t come up with a title. My brain’s pretty blank at the moment…but then again it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Depends on how you see it eh? Less capacity to think could lead to less trouble at times.

I was struck by a sore throat on Saturday morning but didn’t really pay much attention to it. I mean, i did drink more water than usual, the odd packet of green tea or two and stuff like that. Perhaps it was the change in weather that nailed me. Weather in Canberra is crazy. From last Saturday it has been in the region of 13 degrees and sometimes it was as low as 8 or 9…brrr!!

So the sore throat ‘evolved’ into a terrible cough and i’m now the proud owner of 2bottles of cough syrup. Luckily, though, the cough didn’t affect my CHEM1101 mid-sem exam too much. Somehow i managed to cough relatively less and finish the whole paper with time to spare for checking and double-checking =)

Now I find myself in a race against time. Well, a race of sorts, anyway. BIOL1007 lab report on cytoplasmic streaming and  PHYS1001 lab report  are both due on Thursday while PHYS1001 assignment on mass-energy equivalence is due on Monday 9th (via email). The bulk of each of these have to be done by this weekend….Which sort of explains why my brain is empty right now.

And my progress so far? Well, I’m happy to report that the only thing left to do for BIOL1007 is to paraphrase the introduction and draw 2simple diagrams BUT i haven’t done anything beyond searching for sources for the PHYS1001 assignment. Still, with a 600 word limit there’s not much i can write about anyway. As for the helical spring thingy, I’m halfway(?) through i guess…4 more pages or so to write up.

I’m racing against time to recover from the annoying cough as well. Easter’s just 1 week away and I don’t think it’ll be much fun coughing away in Sydney..Hope the cough syrup can work miracles!

Don’t know what else is there to type about.See, my brain’s really not working. Hurm..maybe IB. But that’ll be in the next post.

So take care guys, and all the best for your exams! I know some of you have them by the mountain load…

Last night Ursula Hall held it’s annual International Expo. Aimed at fostering greater understanding and goodwill between students of various nationalities, this was an event which everyone worked hard for since last month.

It wasn’t easy of course. After much planning, last week we went to Dickson to buy most of the groceries needed to cook for the expo. And this week we had fashion show ‘rehersal’ (more like an exercise in comedy, with barney and yeam around), more shopping, banana-stealing and finally cooking at B&G (which finished less than an hour before the Expo!). 

The Expo was held in the Common Room and we had stalls representing Malaysia, Singapore, China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Canada, England, Germany, USA, New Zealand and South Asia (India + Sri Lanka + Bangladesh + Pakistan). Tun Min was the only Burmese so he joined the South Asia contingent while Milan, the only one from Serbia, didn’t bother with stalls altogether and just wore a sign with ‘Serbia’ on his T-shirt… Anyway, it was great fun as we dressed up in traditional costumes and cooked up a storm as well.

The Malaysian stall offered bubur chacha, onde-onde (is this how you spell it?) and pisang goreng. Hence the banana stealing. We took bananas from the dining hall to cut costs, lol. Well..technically it wasn’t stealing cuz everyone’s entitled to as many bananas as they want….=p It was fantastic seeing people’s expressions on their faces when they realised what pisang goreng is: "You fry BANANAS? Cool!" was the general remark I heard.

And other stalls had interesting stuff like writing your name in korean while the chinese offered face-painting.  Add a fashion show to the mix and you’ve got one hell of a night Of course there’s the inevitable clean-up but that’s another story…

So here’s the pics:

Onde-onde in production while bubur chacha’s boiling in the pot..

Shern Ren and I sneak into the pic while Yeam and Charis were too busy serving food =p

The China Stall…face-painting’s going on at the background!

With Eun Hae and Anthony (Korea) and my name in Korean

Tim (Australia) loved the onde-onde so much he took the whole tray!

Our neighbours, the Singaporeans

Left: Tun Min (Myanmar), Centre : Milan Tosic (Serbia) and Right: Me

Koreans @ Ursies

And Malaysians!

So we can all live better in harmony from now on….or can we?

Lol…the last pic was taken in jest. All in all it was a night of fun even though it was a bit tiring. But it was well worth the effort I don’t really know if this expo had helped the Australians understand the international ressies better or vice-versa but by the end of the day we’ve had fun and that’s enough i guess.

Go internationals!

The past week has really been one filled with surprises. On Wednesday night i found myself sitting on my bed (studying) when my thoughts drifted away from Silberberg’s Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change and I thought of how stressed I was just 7 days before that.

Sure, nothing’s changed in terms of how many assignments / lab reports/ exams that I’ll be facing in the next 2 weeks or so. BUT help arrived from the most unlikely sources : Mark (CHEM1101 coordinator) and Guy (PHYS1001 lecturer) decided to postpone the due dates for the lab reports and assignments! Whew…!!

So that means I have more time to settle stuff and actually focus more on my CHEM1101 mid-semester exam which is gonna be held next thursday…Hurm. Can’t really relax, I’ll have to keep working hard. But it does mean that some of the stress is off

And my parents gave me a surprise phone call on Sunday! Aww….i hadn’t had the chance to talk to them since CNY; just e-mails n sms so it was really really nice. And on wednesday night (the same night when I was dreaming, refer to 1st paragraph) i got another phone call, this time i talked to my aunts n uncle n grandma. Ahh…sweet =)

Of course as with all things in life, good surprises must always be accompanied by bad ones. I don’t know why but it’s one of the rare occasions when I asked myself a question and I didn’t quite know how to answer it. Weird, but it doesn’t matter. It has been a kind week and i’m satisfied.

Take care folks!

It seems that my honeymoon period in ANU has come to an (unwanted) end. Sigh. Starting next week loads of assignments of various kinds will be crashing on me like a tidal wave and there’s no escape.

I actually realised that my mood has been fluctuating a lot this past week and more often than not i was my moody self. Maybe it’s just the hormones waging a relentless war against me. Maybe it’s just the unpredictable weather. Whatever it is, I do know that my stress and anger levels peaked on Wednesday and here’s why.

Organising two surprise birthday parties (Jason’s and Daryl’s) in the space of five days isn’t easy. The stress and mental work that come with it are punishing. And on Wednesday night i had just finished a major CHEM1101 prac when I realised that in order to complete Thursday’s BIOL1007 pre-lab (assessed) you had to first attend Workshop 1  to learn some skills. The problem was, Workshop 1’s been postponed to next week due to the hailstorm! So how are you supposed to complete a task that requires skills you’re only learning one week AFTER you’re expected to hand it in? I wonder why they can’t just scrap one prac like CHEM1101. It doesn’t make sense cramming every single prac into an already packed schedule. And there ARE people like me who DO give a damn about every single task given out! I won’t say "To hell with pre-labs, i’ll just do something else"….So maybe  being committed is really just being stupid.

I’m fortunate I have friends who had done the prac on Monday so at least I was better prepared and sort of did it okay…

Anyway, we went to Dickson today to buy ingredients for International Expo next week; Malaysian Stall is gona serve up loads of desserts! There were about four Asian grocery stores plus 5 or 6 Asian restaurants…heavenly And I saw a durian! The biggest I’ve ever seen, even Malaysian ones can’t match up to it at all….

Back to the title of this post : Starting next week i’ll have assignments (PHYS1001, BIOL1003), formal lab reports (CHEM1101, BIOL1007, PHYS1001) and  mid-semester exam (CHEM1101 - 31%) all due at one point or another over the next few weeks. Yes, it’s a headache when all your four subjects are Science subjects.

It ‘only’ means loads of hard work i guess. Not to mention that tomorrow I’ll have to wake up at 4am to help out at B&G for the MSO picnic later in the day..and there’s Ursies Green on Sunday as well. I’m so glad that Monday’s Canberra Day @ public holiday

Oh well…i’ll somehow motivate myself to go on and on as always and bulldoze my way through them all. I’ll just be extra crappy over the next few weeks and snap at the slightest provocation. Then it’s Easter and I’ll be fine =) But i do hope i’ll be fine during the next few weeks all the same.

Last but not least, allow me the pleasure and honour to announce the following news:
1. STPM results have just been released and my beloved school, Saint Anthony’s School Teluk Intan, beat our eternal rivals Horley Methodist School!

2. Good friend and our school’s Godlike student, Mr Low Woei Chyuan attained 5As…one out of only 11 people nationwide! Many Congratulations!!!

I guess that’s all for now. It was fun, ranting without any cohesion or structure just to let off steam

Take care folks, and may you survive the next few weeks.

p/s : Jay Chou and Mario fans, check out this funny website : http://www.tuu.com.tw/qstyle.com.tw/upload/flash/demo.swf
(Courtesy of KarFay)

The biggest event of the year in Canberra has come and gone…I felt a bit weird when we had to sign up for it last week : it’s just a fireworks show right? Only when I reached there did I realize how wrong I was…it’s THE fireworks show…It’s SKYFIRE!! Once again, I’ll just let the pics do the talking -

Check out the number of people crowding Lake Burley Griffin! And a couple decided to have their wedding on the boat as well….sweet =)

Zhong (from China) the Glo-Stick Man…each of us got at least two!

Jason, Milan and I fooling around while Aru (left) and Hui Ling (right) look on suspiciously….

And now the main show!

The event kicked off with a countdown and as we shouted "Zero!" this rocket of a jet roared above us to signal the start of Skyfire. No it didnt explode, i just managed to capture a pic of its tail =p

I actually took loads of pics but the thing with fireworks is that they’re pretty hard to capture on a home-user camera so some didn’t turn out that nice..they look more like seaweeds =p But still…you have to be there to appreciate how pretty it was.

Many thanks to the seniors e.g. Zhong, Jay Shen and some others who went to the lake as early as 4pm to get strategic spots at the lake : we were right in front of the "firing line" and we got the full blast =)

A fantastic show of pyrotechnics. It was over in just 20 minutes but it was well worth it.

Skyfire 2008, i’m waiting for you!

First and Foremost, allow me to wish Mr Ng Liang Pin Jason, ex roommate and current coursemate, hallmate, friend, etc etc a very
Happy Birthday!

Work commenced on his birthday celebrations as early as last Friday and we managed to get some good stuff lined up for him: Let the pics do the talking allright?

Birthday Poster which we put up right opposite Jason’s door so that he wouldn’t miss it =p Got every Malaysian and Singaporean as well as close International friends to sign it

At lunch Tom played ‘Happy Birthday’ on the piano while we all sang for Jason. Apparently this is the 1st time in living memory of Ursula Hall that someone’s had Happy Birthday played on the piano for him/her: Even Keith doesn’t get such treatment! Pity I didnt take any pics though…

All You Can Eat Dim-Sum at Imperial Court Restaurant where we gave Jason a treat!
There were 12 people: Jason (duh!), Anthony, Daryl, Eugene, Jared, Leonard, Myself, Ronnie, Shern Ren, Suyin, Sze Huey, and Yeam…but we actually ate more than what was diplayed ;p
 

Introducing….Jason’s Birthday Cake! Baked by Yeam and Safura; a surprise addition to the menu but it turned out great. I heard a rumour about Yeam buying durians for the dinner but that’s another story…it’s not true anyway!

That’s the Birthday Boy =)

I wouldnt go into the nitty-gritty of how we got all the signatures etc. Ultimately it was good fun and it’s just so nice seeing someone enjoying their birthday. Plus we had some crazy jokes and some really funny moments so it was nice all the way through…

Now the only dilemma is trying to top this off next year for his 21st birthday…..

But for the moment, i’ve gotta get some sleep. It’s been a fun day but tiring all the same; more activities lie in wait tomorrow: Physics prelabs, revisions, meeting with JPA scholars at Bruce Hall and then SkyFire, the biggest fireworks show!

Happy Birthday Jason!

Last night, 8th March 2007 was the Commencement Dinner for Ursula Hall. It was all hyped up even by the 1st week we were here, it was THAT important!

Anyway, to side track a lil, i had one of my worst days yesterday….Mother Nature and Action Bus decided to play a little prank on me while I went to get my bike. Then I got a lab partner from hell for Biol1007 (i think we can still swap partners; I can’t wait). Lab ended at about 5.15 so we had only about 1 hour to prepare for the dinner! It’s times such as these that I’m glad I’m a guy..donning a shirt, a tie and a suit takes up err, 10 minutes? lol.

The dinner started with pre-dinner drinks in the common room just like during the 1st year dinner; a choice of champagne or orange juice. Here I got a valuable lesson from Morgan on Men’s dressing (he’s worked part-time in a shop selling suits for 4 years) : "Never, Always, Sometimes". It refers to the three buttons on  my suit and the regularity  with which I should button them up. Thanks Morgan!

The one part I really didnt like about the dinner was the random seating. Everyone was assigned a table at random so you basically get to sit with strangers or people you don’t know so well. Which isnt much of a problem basically but I do prefer to mingle with my close friends on a night when the best food and wine are served! But yeah..i got table 15 and Dexter for company so it wasn’t that bad =)

The food was great though I had hoped for seafood =p For entree we had smoked chicken strips with honey and greens while the main course was a choice between grilled scotch steak with mushrooms or bacon-wrapped pork…ooh….and dessert was again a choice between chocolate cake with hazelnuts or mango pudding with blueberries…yummy! And we had Turkish delights to round it all up, not to mention the accompanying wine, hehe.

Anyway, there are more important things than food and that’s having a good time with friends! So here are the pics:

We all look about the same but there’s a mixture ofpeople from Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong!

With Milan Tosic @ Diehard ManUtd fan : Born in Serbia, grew up in Canada…strong principled guy who’s funny just by being himself =)

From left: Yeam, Keith Conley (Head of Hall), Eugene, Myself

All in all it was great! Add the fact that the next day (today) is Jason’s birthday and tomorrow’s the SkyFire fireworks show, it’s almost like 3 days of fun, Fun & FUN!!

Tuesday 27th February 2007 will be remembered as one of the weirdest tuesdays i ever had: The Residents’ Committee decided to have a Random Tuesday (basically it just means a trip to the bar) but things got much more random afterwards!

At about 10pm last night, i had just finished doing my laundry and was on the way to jason’s room when i heard the familiar sound of splitter-spatter associated with rain…but wait! It’s much louder! It’s….Hail!!

Haha…at this juncture you’d probably think I’m being a lil paranoid here..it’s just some ice rite? Yeah…it was SOME ice! it went on and on and on; about 30 minutes of icy cold missile attack before the ceiling(well, part of) in block B started leaking and that tripped the smoke detector. Yeah..ironic that it was water that set the fire alarm ringing.

So the SRs went into Emergency Mode and everyone was evacuated into the common room for 45 minutes while the fire brigade checked everything out. I finally got to bed at about 12.30am with my biol1003 pre-reading left untouched =( by then the leaky ceiling had already collapsed and the courtyard flooded with ice. not to mention that it was impossible to get to the laundry room without freezing your feet up to your ankles…what an escape for me!

Just to illustrate my point of how much ice there was, check these out (note: all pics courtesy of Yeam, who went out with other ursies at about 1am to take these exquisite pics =] ):

The rubbish dumpsite at the back of Ursula Hall

Union Court now looks more like a square in Russia!

This was how big the ice cubes(?) were…on average.

We ended up having no classes today….and maybe tomorrow as well! The damage was very bad, it seems…They announced via PA this morning that all classes are cancelled. And i got this from the anu website:

Campus Closure update Wednesday 28 February 2007
28 February, 2007

By Director, Marketing and Communications

The
storm on Tuesday night caused damage to some 70 buildings on the ANU
campus. Damage ranges from relatively minor to extensive.

Students

Owing
to the damage to our teaching spaces, the University will not conduct
lectures, tutorials or laboratory sessions on Wednesday 28 February,
Thursday 1 March or Friday 2 March.

A very limited set of education programs will run, and students should check this webpage from time to time for updates.

It is likely that on-campus access to limited information resources will be restored on Friday 2 March.

ANU
Medical School students: Please check up-to-date information re
teaching program arrangement on Medonline
https://medonline.anu.edu.au/login/login.a
sp

Omg…while on one hand it’s nice to have an unexpected break, i can’t imagine how it’s gonna be when i have to replace 6 hours worth of labs =(

Oh well…in the meantime, i’m just gonna take a short break before i resume my studies…All in all, this was a really RANDOM tuesday!