Last day at the cross road of life...

This will be my last post at one of the major cross road in life.... perhaps i'll just do a little update on the things i've been doing before I start to cross the threshold into working life

• Mapling (Level 35 Spear Man)
• Working on fitness for IPPT
• Enjoying nature

These are two of the pictures i've taken during a round macritchie reserviour trek...






























Come thursday... it will be a new environment for me... i'll keep you pplz posted then! In the meantime, for those who have already started working, work hard. For those who have not started working, slack hard! =)

Ok sz...as what you requested =)

Sorry pplz.... I didn't take lots of photos with people in it...because...I didn't. whahah....anyhow, these are the few photos we had with people in them during our trip from adelaide to melbourne. So, enjoy!

3am in the morning, with me as the driver, having our first refill at a petrol station. Bought mentos to keep me awake. I didn't stop driving till 7am. That was 7 hours straight, with a little break in the middle....i swear i'll never do this kind of driving again...it's extremely straining both mentally n physically.

Reached the Great Ocean Road at approximately 10am. We all put up a brave smile for the camera despite us having a severe lack of sleep. I guess the only thing that prevented me from falling asleep was the occasional "Drowsy Drivers Die" road signs along the way.

One of the arches as the backdrop...while trying to reach here, I kind of hit a colorful looking bird that flew across the car's path...poor bird...






Our main attraction for the day!








Still struggling to stay awake. In fact, I was driving for a total of 10 hours of the 14 hours we took. No wonder I konked out at the motel in melbourne.....






We went to a farm tour( i forgot the name of the farm, as usual) and managed to feed all the ducks, geese, kangaroos (as you can see here, I was busy stuffing the cup into the kangaroo's mouth :p).

Funnily, the ducks and geese didn't dare come near, it must have overheard me telling my friends the idea of roasting 'em...


Hee hee....cute little meh meh....very "KAwaiieeeeeeee" according to a japanese tourist that was with us during the farm tour.







This is what fog looks like. This is suppose to be a scenic lookout but as you can see here, there's nothing but a greyish hue. This was taken on our way back to adelaide. And it was freezing cold.






MacKenzie Falls! But the waterfall's not really beautiful, it's just...well, a waterfall...







I'll end this with another cute picture of "B" the dog. Notice it's fat ass? haha... he is already tipping into being overweight if he eats somemore...

Sizzling Banana Crumble

We were at Swensen's after watching the Da Vinci Code @ PS yesterday. Well, it was more unique than the one I had at esplanade. When the food came, there was only the crumble and the ice cream sitting in the pan. The waitress subsequently poured what I think was banana sauce and bananas into the hot pan which made it sizzle upon contact.

And boy, did me and Zhangjing gobble it down like nobody's business. Best part of it? It was not sweet at all. And you can get to enjoy it at $9.90, standard price for such class of restaurant.

Never play card games with kids...you will never win

You can never win a game of any kind, so to speak with a hyper-imaginative child. They will find ways to win you with their cunning and twisted imagination. For example,

Jet (points to a monster he just summoned): This is the most powerful monster in the entire deck.

Me: i'll summon a pit so that it will fall into it and be destroyed.

Jet (ingenious look): Cannot! This monster is very big and powerful. The monster cannot fall into the pit. It's too small...

So you see, this argument from an "Uncle" perspective is pointless, hence the kid wins.
And I can go back watching the cartoons on Kids Central.















Ok, I was actually trying to see if I have excellent judgemental skills by trying to get as close to the pillar I can while parking. Well, I have, until the point where I did not realise the pillar is thicker after the green corner you see in this photograph. And that was when Mr Left Mirror meets Ms Pillar. Guess who won? Of cos it's has to be the lady.

Nice wedding gift!

Yeah... N70 does not have macro mode hence the bad pic, but anyhow, i attended a wedding dinner today and this is the wedding gift I got. Nice but I don't think i'll carry a keychain with "Xi" on it...it's just so...strange... haha... anyhow, this wedding dinner was slightly thought provoking as suhua provided some thoughts of her own to set me wondering on issues regarding marriage from a female perspective.

But of course, the rest of the night was filled with other fun-filled activites like eating, tormenting the poor china waitress by staring at her skills in distributing the food (we believed she is a trainee) and looking out for handsome guys and attractive girls =)

Selected pictures from Australia

Philip Island, Melbourne
Sigh, the footprints was suppose to
show but I guess it was too dark and hence
it is not obvious from the picture.

Somewhere in Adelaide
Taken at a place which I really cannot
remember the name of the place. All I remembered
was the cold and freezing winds forcing us to stay no more than 30 seconds outside the car.




12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road
Taken when I had driven non-stop from adelaide en-route to melbourne. I regretted not taking a vertical shot as I was too tired but the composure should be better if I had done so. Regrets Regrets.





Whispering Wall, Adelaide
B the greedy dog was out for a much needed exercise to prevent him from being overweight...that fat ass....







Dunno-What Jetty, Adelaide
Sea gulls in a parade






Philp Island, Melbourne

BBQ-ing in winter

It was an interesting bbq experience, the drinks get colder without ice, the raw food remains cold without fear of rotting and the best part of it was that the bbq pit is a nice cozy place to gather around. But of course, the catch here is that the temperature must be ard. 6 deg celcius. And the clear dark winter sky dotted by the stars was an added bonus.
















Sunset over The Whispering Wall, a dam which was constructured to create a water reserviour. Standing at one end of the dam with someone talking to you over the other end, you can hear him or her as clearly as if he/she was standing just beside you.

Back from Melbourne

This is the first post since I returned from Melbourne last night. Took tons of photos of which I'll post 'em up once I get back to Singapore. But till then, here is a picture of our trusty steed at Philip Island, some 68km away from Melbourne. This "Island" is larger than Singapore and is home to many different sea life, of which penguins is the star attraction there. We had the opportunity to see cute little penguins returning to their homes from the sea after a hard day's work out at sea fishing.















And this, has got to be the most expensive roast duck noodles I had ever eaten. But hey! I'm not complaining, it's worth every single cent of the Aud$7.80 I paid. The noodles weigh probably a ton, the duck meat generous and thick, unlike those you find in our science canteen which serves ducks that probably were anorexic.

The experience was totally good and i'll definately recommend the great ocean road for those who enjoy beautiful scenic places but of course, got to wait till I get back home to post the pictures I took along the Great Ocean road. Till then =)

Our Trusty Steed to Melbourne

Ok, this will be my last post till 4 days later as we will be going up( actually , going right from adelaide is more correct) to Melbourne. Total distance is 800km and we wil be expected to reach Melbourne on Friday afternoon. Can't wait to view the 12 apostles and enjoy the view along the Great Ocean road into Melbourne!

But, this post is not about the trip but the trusty steed that we rented. It's a white Toyota Camry. A 2.4l V6 engine! No VVT-i though, sadly, but the V6 is enough to make up for it. Funny, the Australians have a perchant for huge capacity engined cars and 2.4l is the smallest here compared to Singapore's 2l camry

more cute dog pictures (as requested by cw)

As requested by cw, here are more cute pictures of B. heh... this dog is wayyy overweight (he look like a sausage in the 2nd pic) and loves to eat whatever we eat. As long as there is food, he will wait patiently for it. His greed knew no bounds =) The pictures you see here are only possible with the use of food as a bribe for him to stay still.
















For car fanatics, this, ladies and gentlemen, is the new Mitsubishi 380 VRX. 3.8L Mivec engine, FF . Developed solely for Australia, the 380 represents the last hope for Mitsubishi Australia to keep their presence in down under. Unfortunately, current sales is at a dismayal 14th position but it seems that Mitsubishi Australia can keep their plant for now =)

Of aphrodisiac and a greedy dog

Glenelg beach has a famous shop selling oysters. The shop name is ... erm... I can't remember...I think it's blue oysters or sth...mmm all well...anyway, they serve very very fresh oysters and you can have them al natural, in kilpatrick style or fried, of which we ordered. Even their fish is fresh, unlike those you find in the NUS science canteen... but of course, the price is also unlike those you find in the science canteen(AUD $4 per piece).















This little greedy dog is hiding under our dinner table waiting for us to feed it food. And boy, it sure is patient. He was waiting patiently thoughout the entire dinner and naturally, he got rewarded at the end. Well, it pays to be patient....

Snake Stew...

Yeap.... it is snake stew... kinda fitting to have it during winter. Yeah... it sounds disguisting but actually it taste a little bit like shark fins soup, with vinegar and pepper. Also the snake meat taste had a normal pork meat texture, with a slightly different and sharp flavour. But hey! At least it's good to keep you warm in winter,

In other unrelated news, some guy buying "Ba-chor-mee" kenna arrested because he said "he doesn't want tee-gua when he never say he doesn't want tee-gua". Now the storeholder suing him for damages. Now THIS is disgusting.

Escapade of the Binks

Sunrise over Alice Springs.

One of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen. Before that, the plane I was in was like a tiny speck of white dot, riding a thin line between the earth and the heavens full of stars. Well, until the sun rose, that is.














One of the unfortunate crabs we caught for dinner. But well, at least I didn't played a part in killing 'em, only eating... heh heh.















Nice hot steamboat for the cold weather.... 12 deg on average, and if it rains, it's even colder...which was what happened after we finished eating...

Gateway to Freeedom

ok, this is gonna be a light hearted post. I'm right at the gateway out of Singapore. But....

!@#$^*&%$ never ever eat and drink here, it's daylight robbery!!!! one chicken-mayo sandwich and a cup of tea cost me 5 bucks!! Can eat Mcdonald's liao......duh~

Okay, anyhow, gotta go....

A great man to remember....

Photo src: The Straits Times

The late President of Singapore, Mr Ong Teng Cheong, was(and still is) one of my most respected figurehead of our country. Despite being young and some what neutral(I still am neutral) to politics when he first took office, he had the mysterious charisma that had always held my attention. Voted to the highest post in the Singapore Constitution( I stand corrected) by Singaporeans, he was in every way humble and down to earth and did his duty fearlessly, responsibilty and impartially.

Before being President, Mr Ong was an MP and as an MP, he was a well-liked person with his warm, caring and affirming nature. His genuine care for his people is for all to see. He once said,

"There are so many things to be done. I intend to live every minute of it as fully as I can, and press on with the work, there are so many things to be done."

However, what had me respected him most was his impartiality (which also resulted in fiction within the highest echaleons). By challenging and querying in the way things were supposed to be done in Government, he had shown real and true impartiality despite being groomed from the same ruling political party. His following statement sums up nicely the point I wanted to bring across,

"Some people still ask whether my long previous association with PAP will stop me from acting independently. The answer is no. My loyalty is first and foremost to the people of Singapore; it has always been so and it will always remain so."

No words of gratitude can fully make up for all the sacrifices he had done to help make Singapore a better place to live in. He has my deepest respect for dedicating his life selflessly to people like you and me.

May you watch over Singapore.

Interesting Statistics

What to encourage young people about

Another question in the 2005 Durex survey was about what we should be encouraging our young people to do.

For Singapore,

Abstinence till marriage	24%
Practise safer sex	61%
Regular health check-ups	14%
None of the above	1%

Our Ministries of Health and Education are out on a crusade to press home abstinence, but 61% of Singaporeans think the most needed message to our youth is safer sex.

Unplanned pregnancies

We are in the top league of countries with unplanned pregnancies. To the question "ever had an unplanned pregnancy", Singapore's figures were

At age 16 and below	8%
At age 17 and 18	9%
At age 19 and above	15%

In the age category 16 and below, only China had a figure higher than Singapore, at 17%.

In the 17-18 age group, again only China had a higher figure, at 18%.

In the age category 19 and above, Singapore was in third place. China had 20% and South Africa had 17%.

I have argued elsewhere in Yawning Bread that abstinence campaigns don't work very well; they merely feed moralistic egos.

============================================
Disclaimer: Taken off yawningbread.org

if 61% of Singaporean thinks that teaching our young to practise safer sex, this would imply a shift of mindset from a conservative angle into a more "westernize" perspective on sexual behaviour of us Singaporeans that having sex before marriage is ok. I'm not saying it's not okay, i'm just wondering why i'm not agreeing with the 61% of people surveyed.

Lemme tell you why, 2 reasons

1. Unwanted Pregnancy is a risk, plus you will be essentially killing a life. (we are in top 3 for the most unwanted pregnancy in the WORLD, almost reaching first class)

However, the crux of my reason lies here

2. I believe, rather old fashionly, that the bonding of two person involves more then just physical contact, but rather, consist of both physical contact and an emotional bonding that can only be given to the person whom you truely love. Which naturally, is someone whom you want to be with forever (aka marry). But I don't think many guys see it the way as I do nowadays, for reasons I don't seem to comprehend. Isn't emotional bonding so much more satisfying than physical bonding?

I can't sleep.

I can't sleep. I have two things bothering me.

1. The upcoming elections. (that's all i'm disclosing)
2. Someone commented that Guys are jerks.

I spent the last 10 mins thinking of what to write, and allowing my confused and frustrated mind to calm down a bit. There are many people in this world and different people behave differently. Hence, Guys are jerks are too sweeping a statement. It's as good as saying that since Saddam Hussan is evil, all humans are evil. But are all humans necessarily evil?

I'm very annoyed by such a sweeping statement because I am a guy and I do not believe this is so. I'm not saying all guys are not jerks, I'm just merely annoyed by a sensless and brainless sweeping comment targetted at us guys.

So, before opening your mouth to say that "All guys are jerks", stop and think carefully. If you hold true to this statement, that means it includes your dad. Cool...Happy Father's day can be called Happy Jerk's day. Also, this also directly implies that you are conceived by a jerk. Quite a compliment I say...

unless of course you go, "All guys are jerks, except my dad". But that will make you sound moronic and childish and you would implicate all your friends and best friend's dad as well.
At this point, you would proberbly think "ok, i'll just exclude whoever I can think of that is not a jerk" and before you know it, your friend adds on the list, your friends friends' adds on the list and you finally have a statement that goes

"All guys are jerks, except all guys"

So! I'll end this rant here without much explanations because they are not needed. However, on a serious note:

Human and human interactions are as complicated as we want it to be simple. The only way to see through the chaos is to understand one's heart. Remember, it is the heart that one sees rightly(TLP) Different people have different agenda and one must understand the intention of the person and act accordingly. It is much better than saying sweeping statements to mow each other down.

In other stupid and disillutioned news, Mordor was taken down because they were complacent and decided to tackle the obvious instead of realising they have a pea for a brain. Why do I say they have a pea for a brain? If the entire human army marched right to your doorstep which is outnumbered by your orcs 10:1, don't you even smell a trap? Not one bit? Sitting so high up in the ivory tower must have made Sauron a complete idiot. Maybe he just need glasses.

"Make him blind to all else that moves"

And what a blind idiot he is. And because of that, he is gone. Outdone by two hobbits who knew only of songs and dance, compared to Sauron who had ruled Mordor for eons. So much for having good credentials! So, having experience as a ruler doesn't matter, it's the motive that counts. Sauron was so blinded by power and to crush the human race that he forgot about basic military warfare.

Dumb ass.

PS: I'm not uttering rubbish.

K-boxing

wahaha....finally get to go KTV after sooooooOOooOOOOoooo long....went with cy,cw, hj and ds.... kewl... initially the time given to us was 3 hrs but since no one came, we had an hour extra =)