one hour gone

hello there, i’m now two hours ahead of Singapore! that’s a good thing cos one hour does make a difference. i hate it when the three hours’ time difference obstructs me from chatting online with people.

and like i know i should be calling my dad just to keep him updated on my life (otherwise he’ll nag and nag and nag) but i can only call him late at night. after a day of research articles my brain is reduced to pulp and i can’t stay awake for late night phone conversations. now that it’s daytime, i’m waiting for my cordless phone battery to charge. -_-||

one thing i hate about daylight savings is that i have to go around setting clocks and watches back by one hour. only ally is nice enough to set herself back by one hour, the rest of the gadgets and stuff have zero initiative, bah.

loving korean food

it might be the desperation to consume asian food when i’m here, but it’s over here that i start exploring korean food. with the number of korean immigrants in australia, it’s not difficult to find authentic korean food everywhere. in fact, it’s easier to find korean food than singaporean food in canberra.

there’s this korean grocery store in the town area that sells quite a lot of duh, korean stuff. so once in a while i’ll drop in to stock up on interesting food. mrs. owner of the korean grocery store is extremely cheery. she bounces around the store to rearrange the store and when she stops near you, she greets you with a big smile and a warm “hello! how are you doing?” it feels kinda familiar there cos i hear the korean customers calling out to mr. owner with a “ahdjoosee!” and mrs. owner sending off customers with a sincere “kamsahamnida!” yeah, i admit i’ve been watching too many korean dramas.

back to korean food, last semester i found little boxes of kimchi and spicy dried shrimps. the spicy dried shrimps were terrific but the kimchi was a little disappointing. so i had a bad impression of kimchi, until the house owner had a little dinner gathering and a korean classmate of their daughter’s turned up with fresh, authentic korean kimchi. oh gosh, i fell in love all over again.

the best thing about the korean grocery store is they sell tonnes of instant korean food. instant meaning anything that can be thrown into the microwave or boiling water and ready to serve in less than ten minutes. they have an endless variety of dumplings with different fillings. there were even different types of vegetarian dumplings, can you imagine?

i made another discovery today:

breaded hotdogs!! did i ever mention that i have a soft spot for hotdogs and sausages? piping hot sausages and hotdogs can make me a very happy person. and these breaded hotdogs made a great snack, even though they were grossly overcooked. i supposed the korean instructions were trying to say “microwave on medium for 2 minutes” but i could only recognise the numeral “2″ so i microwaved it on high instead.

oh well, this is gonna be a staple in my freezer anyway! yummy food at affordable prices!

self checkout counters

there’s this carrefour equivalent (minus the fresh food sections) in the town shopping centre which recently introduced the concept of self-checkout counters.

i dropped by two weeks ago to purchase some toiletries and it worked perfectly fine. so i was pretty happy cos it was quick and easy. self-checkout counters were so cool.

today, i went there to get some other stuff. half of the self-checkout counters were down because of dunno-what problems. fortunately it was 11.30am in the morning and most of the population was at work or in school. so i got an empty counter, scanned in the barcode of the pack of paper and waited.

*beep: assistance required. item weight unknown.

so i called out for assistance and the former-cashier had to key in her PIN number and password.

then i placed the pack of paper in the bagging area, which is what they call the metal hooks holding the plastic bags. there must be some kind of lousy sensor in the bagging area which screwed up.

*beep: unidentified item placed in bagging area. please remove item.

so i removed the bloody pack of paper.

*beep: item removed from bagging area. please return item.

so i put the pack of paper back in.

*beep: unidentified item placed in bagging area. please remove item.

and it went on and on till i got fed up. so i called out for assistance again and the lady keyed in the PIN number and password. she was also telling me, “oh, this (pointing) is the bagging area, you just need to place the scanned items in the plastic bags”.

hell, i know that is the bagging area, there are pictures on the screen. do i look stupid? it’s the freaking sensors that went mad!

so there, self-checkout counters may appear cool but damn it, they screw up too much.

STUPIDITY

i. bloody hell. forgot. today. is. skyfire.

i. missed. the. freaking. fireworks. display.

%^$&^%*&%*$^&%#^#$

i flew i slept i am not dead

greetings from down under!

i’m still loving this place lots, with the super fresh air and the great weather. there’s this smell in canberra’s air and it made me happy to be back.

i was a little moody about having to leave everyone in singapore but the moment i landed in australia, the moodiness vanished. that’s despite getting on-and-off sleep (the kind i detest most) on the plane.

when i wasn’t sleeping i was replaying scenes from the 3 month holiday. i have this habit of going back in time, recalling what i was doing 24 hours ago, 2 days ago, a week ago, etc. etc. there’s so many things i did these 3 months i think i really should put up a summary.

am really glad i made it here safely cos things always happen to me. i would have missed the bus from sydney to canberra this morning if i wasn’t so damn kiasu and inquisitive. the bus didn’t stop where it was supposed to but across the road some distance away. thank goodness i walked over to find out if that was my bus or i’d be stranded at sydney airport again.

there was this bout of laughter within me when i opened my eyes sometime towards the end of the bus journey. the grass was simply brown, a definite hint canberra wasn’t far away.

unpacking is like packing, it’s a pain in the ass. but i’m done with it and i’m all ready for the new semester, just that i haven’t gone groceries shopping yet and i need to clear space for this semester’s books and files.

i’m darn tired but i think i’ll survive.

summer blitz

i thought this summer vacation would feel like a long one, being three months long. but it’ll be over in less than two weeks’ time. i’ve been back so long i’m beginning to forget that i have to pack up and leave this place again. it’s not that i’m feeling sad having to return to canberra, it’s just that i’ve enjoyed myself thoroughly and i’m dreading the cold turkey i’ll face when i’m back there.

three months of rushing through the preparations for the brother’s wedding, for the chinese new year celebrations, several different job assignments and meeting up with people. maybe that’s why the three months seem a lot longer than it really was.

it’s a pain being equally happy in both singapore and canberra cos i hate to leave either place. for now, i hate to leave my life here but hey, i’ll be back in july. for good.

these few days i’ve been thinking how cool it would be if i could just stop time when i want to. when i’m out with friends, when i’m just lazing around at home. fast forward the times when i’m unhappy or cranky. pause during the moments when i’m happy and satisfied. skip the parts when i’m pissed.  if only lah.

great, it’s 1am and i’m starving but too lazy to get food from the kitchen and refusing to sleep on an empty stomach. besides, i’ll be in the air this time next week. why waste precious time sleeping?

city of flies

the best thing about cold weather was that flies vanished from canberra. one of the most accurate signals of the beginning of warm weather is the sight of swarming flies. i’m not kidding when i say swarming flies.

it doesn’t matter whether i shower twice a day, especially before stepping out of the house. it doesn’t matter whether my clothes are fresh from laundry. it doesn’t even matter if i spray copious amounts of anti-insects spray before i go out. i suspect what they say about flies being insects and love smelly places are myths.

they’re everywhere - along the streets, on the buses, at the bus stops, anywhere but near rubbish bins. canberra flies seem to have a general preference for disturbing homo sapiens. they don’t go away when people brush them off, they don’t go away when i growl at them.

they’re invincible and there’s nothing we can do to get rid of them.

the capital down under is going to be overtaken by flies soon.

blurred humans

and the point is to…not to let the pictures be clearly seen

this is what happens when a random person from the school office is asked to help take pictures of the class. can’t complain though, at least she was nice enough to leave her desk and take the picture for us. the reason for the tiny pictures is simple: i hate how my hair looked. it didn’t occur to me to make sure my hair looked nice before taking the pictures.

whinings aside, this is my favourite class of the year! i suspect it’s gonna be my favourite class for the entire course duration, i actually enjoyed attending these classes, can you believe it? there’s 13 nationalities in the picture and that’s one of the reasons why the class discussions were so insightful and interesting. of course, that would have been impossible without the fantastic (i mean it!) lecturer, the angmoh in the front.

needless to say, there’s people i didn’t like, have fun guessing who they are! not that anyone can see the picture clearly. -_-||

pitter patter

it’s raining quite heavily. rainy nights are so conducive for sleeping.

oh yes, by the way, i’m three hours ahead of singapore time again, daylight savings has kicked in.

those days

spring weather here makes me feel like i’m in singapore again. the sweltering heat in the afternoons that makes it necessary to have a fan going at full blast.

especially during sunsets when it turns cooler and the birds come alive again before they roost for the night. for some unknown reasons such evenings just remind me of the times when i was a primary school student. school would have just ended and i’d be walking home from school with my mum and bro, along with some neighbours and kids.

those walks became part of my childhood and to date, when i take walks in the evenings, i’d be reminded of those days. when it was so easy to relax and observe everything around me. when school bags were the heaviest things on earth and nothing else would weigh me down like the school bag did. once my mum helped me with the school bag (i swear she insisted), i was free.

now i can take walks without carrying anything but still feel weighed down. i wish i can go for walks around here in the evening, but there’s nowhere to walk to except along the busy main roads. more walks for me when i return to singapore, i think.