Friday, October 12, 2007
Today, I've eaten ice cream made in the laboratory! While I was in one of the specialized labs in the lvl 4 Chemistry building, one of the PHD students was mixing milk, cream, sugar and a dose of liquid nitrogen together to get ice cream. It was so cool!! It's taste is quite good actually. We had to hid behind the high cupboards away from the view from outside as we are not suppose to eat in the lab...lolz....
Dreams never come true
4:06 pm
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Now that I'm approaching the end of my 3rd year, I've decided to continue on to do honours. And it's possible due to my supportive parents. I'm thankful to them. While chatting with my mum nowadays, I realized she's turning her approach from just lecturing to advising on certain issues. She's using analogies and examples to get her point across, decreasing confrontal lecturing. So I will tend to listen her and make her feel comforted that I'm taking her words into consideration.
I sometimes mentioned to her that I'm really lucky and grateful that she's able to provide all my needs from clothes, shelter, education and she jokingly replied to me that there's one thing I can repay her. That is by not throwing her into the old folk's home. I will make sure I keep my promise to her.
Dreams never come true
3:46 pm
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Friday, October 05, 2007
Back after 1 week of break! I had so much fun in the Australian University Games in Gold Coast and visited Brisbane for a few days. This year I represented my uni in Kendo. We managed to defend our champion title for the third year and its a really a wonderful experience. Even though I wasn't successful to be rewarded a medal, its still a wonderful time as I've made many friends. During our duration of stay at Gold Coast, we stayed at a YHA in Mariner's Cove, which is really close to Sea World. And its really interesting to see how people interact when they are half drunk. :D They expose their true self which is something that I've never seen during trainings or club gatherings and dinner sessions. Our uni swept most of the events in both Kyu and Dan events. David and Ervin got 2nd and 3rd positions in the Kyu Individuals, Daniel and Maowei in 1st and 3rd positions and finally 1st in Dan team.
The next day after competition on monday 240907, I managed to convinced some people....hmm should I say the girls pull the majority of the lazy guys along for a half day kayaking and snokelling outing!! It has been some time since I've canoed and it brings back fond memories when I think of canoeing. We paddled out towards some outer islands for quick snokelling before we paddle to one of the two islands called North Stradbroke Island which shelter the mainland from the full force of the Pacific Ocean. We abandoned our canoes to go for a short walk to the other side of the island and saw for ourselves the ferocious currents and waves of the Pacific Ocean. Even though its dangerous to enagage in sea sports in that kind of waters, some people still brave the waters and surf. During the walk, we couldn't catch many animals on the island but we spotted tracks left behind by snakes. They are fairly large which is scary.
On wed morning, I packed up my stuff and headed off to Brisbane to meet up my poly friend who's in UQ and have a look in Brisbane. When I was standing outside her house, I thought to myself, wow...her house's amazing. It's a three storey bungalow with eight or nine rooms. Pei e shares this house with 8 others ranging from vast range of nationalities. From outside, its a bungalow and inside, a hostel setting with rooms down a corridor with their own bathrooms but communal kitchen and living room. When I entered Pei e's room, I've never seen a room this big....it can hold 2 double sized queen sized beds, 2 study tables, clothes corner, a bathroom and lots of leg room. As we couldn't do much on wed, we visited a Javanese inspired tea house named as Batavia and sat down and have a tea. The place was decorated with Javanese artfacts and the furniture were mainly rattan. The menu was covered in batik cloth plus the tea came in an elaborate tea set consisting of a tea pot, cup and saucer with spoon, strainer, sweetened water, sugar cubes and a napkin. Besides tea, they offer hot chocholate in giants mugs which is their speciality as well. An ultimate chocolate overload for fanatics. Right after is a movie marathon next door! Woo...A$5.40 per movie for students! Can never get this price in NSW. Ratatouille and Borne Ultimatum, both equally nice and were good entertainment.
Thursday, the six singaporeans including me set off for Byron Bay for snorkelling! I've always wanted to try snorkelling and now was my chance. We had to go on a 3h bus journey from Brisbane to reach the little town. Along the way, we consumed 1 big tupperware of sushi courtesy of Zhiyong. They were really nice :D. When we finally reached, we checked into one of the backpackers inn and immediately sign up for a snorkelling session. We had to wear cumbersome but warm wet suits plus were given a briefing about what we are doing and simple gestures for communicating. We took our goggles and flippers and we were driven to the beach where the speed boat was unloaded. We were on the boat with the divers to the same location, which was Julian Rocks located out at sea. The rocks were distinct and visible from the beach. In the midst of the journey to the rocks, we were fortunate enough to see a whale waving to us with its flippers! It was breathtaking!! While in the water, I spotted some colourful fishes, tiny jellyfishes and small stingray below the surface. I resisted the urge to the touch the jellyfishes and was weary of them floating near me. At times my goggles kept fogging and I couldn't catch a good view. Swimming in the sea and breathing through the mouth was really tiring so I had to hold onto a floatation device for support. Overall, it was really fun!! Hopefully, I have a chance to go Great Barrier Reef and Tioman on more snokelling adventures! After snorkelling, we went shopping and its another 3h journey back to Brisbane where I catch the flight back to Sydney. It was really hectic and crazy on that day. As the bus arrived late in Brisbane and the slow service at the Jap restuarant,Pei e, Jun Xian and myself missed the bus from city to Pei e's house so we ran towards the taxi stand to find a long queue of people. As time was ticking, we had to rushed to the ferry terminal. Upon reaching our desinated stop, we had to walked back to the house to grab my stuff. From there, we had to rush to the bus stop to catch the bus to city. And the bus stop was a distance from the central train station, more running and jogging had to be done as the train comes in 2-3 mins!! Wah....exhausted already...Never in my life have I experience such a rush to catch a flight. I really thank them for helping me to carry my luggage which includes my 8kg bogu bag if not i'll probably never make it back.
Dreams never come true
8:26 pm
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