life in AUSTRALIA(untill now)

Edison Road

the house

my living room
my room


well.. i have not been updating my blog regularly.. i think its obvious.. so i shall just give a summary of the things that have been going on here.

the things i hate about this place:

1. its just freaking damn hot!! dry and hot. and the university campus is big. don't get me wrong. the campus ground is huge. the buildings are not so big. its just that the buildings are far apart. and the uni is in a knoll or some sort. i have to hike up the slope every day. its actually not so bad.(i have found a short cut) but the weather is still torturous.

2. its just too slow and quite. i like the laid back lifestyle here. its a bit more refreshing than the rat race we have back home, but the problem is everything is get done really slow here. to open an account in a bank and to get a ATM card will take more than a week here. it has been two weeks since i have been here. i was accepted for the course with credit exemption months ago. but till yesterday i was not able to enroll in my modules as the system did not recognise me as an Yr two student. i was chasing after them for so long. but the system is so "complex" that it took a while for them to figure out what's wrong. after much walking to building to building... it was sort of settled.

School is officially going to start on 2nd march, Monday. and i still need to be enrolled in two more modules. haiz. they seem fine with it. i am not fully enrolled so i wont get my student ID card. no student ID card means that i have to pay adult fare in the buses which is $4.20. no student ID also means that i cant apply for my health insurance card thingy which is compulsory. haiz. it seems that even though i came quite early, i still have to rush things next week.

3. The other thing that i dont like about this place is the bus service. the bus timetable is not easy to understand. even with the timetable, you would have to wait an average time of half hour. it was a lot frustrating in the beginning. but i am finally giving in and realizing that i just have to get used to it. the time table IS useful, cos the bus timings and operating hours are weird. without the timetable, i might be waiting for a bus which won't be coming. haha.

well... after all that complaining, i probably should tell u guys about the 'fun stuff' i did.


okie. i went to watch slumdog on Thursday. i was actually very moody that day as i was having no luck with the enrollment issues. but i already made plans with people. so i just carried on. it was a good movie. i didnt know that it would be sad. haha. i paid $16 for that movie as i didnt have my student ID, while my frens paid $13. but it was still worth it as that was probably the first thing i did for entertainment in Adelaide. haha.. Wei-Xiang and ben if you have not watched the movie yet you guys probably should. haha..

Every friday there is OCF(overseas Christan fellowship) gathering. you dont actually have to be a Christan to go for their gathering as these gathering are social events and not religious events. my housemate timothy and martus are both Christians. they go for these outing. last week they asked me along, but i didnt feel very comfortable. this week however, the gathering was held in one of the university accommodation and all the frens i made during the orientation was going to go. so i went along.

they prefer me shorter


there were a lot of ppl. ppl whom have known me for long should know that i dont like crowded places. it gives me headache. haha.. it was a bit overwhelming for me, but i slow talked to them. a group at a time.LOL. well, that was the motive of that gathering; to get to know ppl. after that my housemates went to play pool at the uni housing game room. i went along and played the table soccer thingy (fooseball). after that we went to MacDonald's and stayed there till 12.30am. well the '24hr' mac here closes at 12.30am i think.. haha.. well thats all for friday.

today.. slept till 11.30am.. then went for grocery shopping... i also bought a printer.. printing in sch is expensive.. haha.. come back home then realise that they didnt provide computer to printer USB cable.

Tomorrow i am going to Cleavland park. dont know wats that.. i jsut signed up for it cos. if not thru such activities .. i probably wouldnt SEE Australia much...

Quiz Box

Your view on yourself:
Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:
You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.

The seriousness of your love:
You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education
Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:
You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:
You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:
You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Who is your true self:
You like privacy very much because you enjoy spending time with your own thoughts. You like to disappear when you cannot find solutions to your own problems, but you would feel better if you learned to share your thoughts with a person you trust.


check it out at..
http://www.quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx

13th feb D- DAY

Well on the d day morning.. I went to change some more aussie dollars. Hmm.. I didn’t do anything special. Just had favourite dishes for lunch and dinner (which my aunt prepared)

I just stayed at home. My cousins kala and jeeven came to visit me in the evening, they were unable to come to the airport as they had work. They gifted me a fossil watch. Thank you guys!!!

Was talking to my cousin a while and lost track of time, so had to rush to the airport. (That explains why I was slightly late. Sorry guys!!)

I was supposed to meet my army friends at 8.30 to 8.45pm. I came in about 9. pm.

When I reached the airport, I was in for many surprises.

Firstly, when I got there most of my army friends were already waiting there for me. And there were many of them. Thank you Yong Chuan, Bai Gui, Horace, Ginger, Ben Goh, J Loh, Alvin, James, Bryan, and Jie Kai!!!! I was pretty overwhelmed. I didn’t actually expect to see so many of you all. Thanks a lot for coming even though you guys only know me for a year or so, really appreciate it!!! =)

Ben Lim and Jun Wei were already there and were later joined by Wei-Xiang and Mok. Again, I am really glad and thankful that you guys came even though you all had to come all the way from the west and the north side of Singapore, And had schools and all.

Really appreciate it!! :)

And thanks a lot for the card guys, was very thoughtful.

Secondly, I knew that my family member would come even though I asked them not to make a big deal out of it. But I had no idea that so many of them were coming. Here I would like to send my thanks (even though, they would never know that such a blog exist. Haha ) to all my aunts, cousins, nieces and nephew.

Farhana and ida.. Thanks for coming.. It has been quite long since we last met. Haha

Then there were my secondary school friends.. They were supposed to be early.. but.. due to some hiccups.. they came later than expected.. but obviously I am glad that they were there. So thank you guys…thank you Qaiyum and Natasha, Ariff, Elmi and Imran and Alisa :)

Thank you all for the collage and the card!!! Esp. Faj. :)

Elmo, Stalin and angel, thanks for the wireless mouse. Haha =)


SORRY GUYS.. I REALLY WANTED TO PUT PICS IN BUT THE INTERNET IS DAMN SO SUCKY. AND I CANT UPLOAD ANYTHING. HIAZ. I WILL PROBABLY RE POST THIS WITH PIC ONCE I GET MY OWN INTERNET.

8th feb, sunday - dinner with army frens

We met at vivo have steamboat. There was marc phua, tang, wen jie, weng, ah xu, wei xiang, ben lim, jun wei, mark cherry, mok, nagi and myself.

I have not met some of then for a very long time, so I was glad that we able to have dinner together before I fly off to Australia.

Weng was generous enough to pay for all our meals. He was probably trying to buy his way back into platoon 2. lolz..

just kidding.

After our steam boat, some of us had ice cream. After that wen jie, tang, weng, marc phua and ah xu left. The rest of us went to coffee bean to chill.

This is where my friends sprang the surprise on me. They got for me a pen from parker. It was really unexpected. The pen was engraved too. “Always friends” I was really touched by their gesture.

Before even I can recover from my first surprise, they gave me another gift to remember them by. It was a photo frame with a collage of all the photos from our army days to the present. Being a person whom collects and treasures memories, I really liked the photo frame. It was an impressive gift.

Thank u all for the gifts. I really appreciate it guys. And Ben thanks for making the collage. (and telling me about the trivia about bala’s appearance.. or disappearance haha )

Looking forward to meeting you guys again.

Oh .. yah.. after spending a few hours at coffee bean.. we went back home.

7th feb, sat - movie and more..

In the evening went to khazila’s engagement with imran. I was invited and I wasn’t very comfortable going there by myself. So I managed to ‘convince’ imran to follow me to the engagement. Imran and I met at around 5pm, went to the engagement and later we met ariff, faj, elmi, alisa and khai at marina square
( khairil drove so he picked up the rest. Qaiyum came later. )

Once everyone was there, we went to have our dinner at pizza hut. It’s not everyday that we can get faj, kahi and qaiyum to be present on such occasion. So it was pretty fun.

Ariff and Qaiyum manage to have a serious conversation for a while which surprised all of us( I have got this in video, but I am unable to upload the video as the internet connection I am using in Adelaide is very.. very.. slow…haiz.. )

We managed to get a few pictures though..

We may have met to watch movie, but the real highlight of this outing was the arcade.We took turns to play a silly game in the arcade near the cinema. It was a silly game where you and your friend each control a player’s movement in the game.. The objective of the game is to get more point by getting gold or avoiding hazards along the way. You practically push each other out of the way. It was a lot of fun.


(and again haiz.. I have got videos of this which I am unable to upload)


After that something unexpected happen. ‘The angel did the para para’. Haha.. it was funny and very entertaining to watch him do that.(and I have it all on video.) he would have never done that if we were there just by ourselves. Probably having faj, kahi, qaiyum and alisa around helped us in getting him to do that.

Hope we can get him to do that again. LOLz.
After the arcade session, we went to watch the curious case of Benjamin button. It was an interesting movie. I liked it. It was quite long though. 166min.
Elmi was asleep for ¾ of the movie( tskt… tskt… disappointing..) and imran managed to stay awake throughout the movie.(at least thats what he claimed haha ).

After the movie we all went back home. It was quite late already and it looked like it might rain any minute.





Okie. My favourite quite from the movie is "we are meant to lose the people we love. how else are we supposed to know how important they are?" - the curious case of benjamin button"

dinner with poly frens

this sunday, i managed to meet up with some of my poly friends for dinner. it was a last minute thing and initially only eliz was able to make it. in the end quit a few of them made time to meet up with me. thanks gals and guy( must be pam's intimidating messaging style haha..)

so there was pam, eliz, vivyan, peiwen and vincent..
we ate Japanese food as eliz felt like eating jap food, but in the end we ate more authentic Japanese food her. haha.. she ate Japanese curry.

(check out the pics at pam's facebook)

after our dinner we got ourselves dessert at bakerzin.

i am glad that i managed to meet up with them before i fly off. keep in touch k.
hey eliz, thanks for the magnet!!!

CHALLENGE - a leader is one who dares to take the first step, while others hesitate.

ubin trip

Last Friday I went to ubin with my close friends. It was an interesting experience. Well we had known each other for around 10 years or so. We have been to many chalets, bbqs, countless movie and dinner outings and numerous “chill = out” sessions where we would just talk.. and talk.. and talk… well you get the drift. This was the first time we went camping together. All of us have completed our national service. Among the four of us, only imran and I have any outfield experience. Ariff was in police force and elmi was in admin side. Even though our camping trip is not comparable to NS outfield, it was still something different.

For some reason, ariff was really looking forward to It, and was pretty excited when we were doing our shopping. I really wanted an authentic out-field experience, so l brought solid fuels and all. Haha. But in the end we used mini portable stove. imran brought. We met at 12.30pm at changi and after some last minute buys we were off to ubin

Our plan was simple, we would camp out and chill the first day, and then we would go cycling and explore the other parts of ubin the next day.

Once there, we made our way to Nordin beach. I wanted a secluded place, so we bashed deeper along the beach and found a secluded camp site. During high tide, the only way to reach the place was thru bashing. (it made me pretty happy, as it means no disturbance)

We unpacked and settled down. Ariff and imran prepared for fishing.

Elmi and I went around looking for fire wood. After that we cooked our lunch/dinner.. We realised that we brought too much food for one day. As we planned to clear our entire ration by the next day so that we could lighten our load for tomorrow bike ride.

We actually ate a lot. Haha.. I went to explore the surrounding area, was pretty relaxing, then we set the groundsheet by the beach and lay down, waiting for fish to bite ..And snacking, playing cards.

As day light fade away we realised that we don’t have enough firewood…so ariff and I quickly went around finding as many branches we can find.

I started on the campfire while imran was seriously fishing(caught 3 fishes, a crab and a starfish) took a long time for the fire to get going, pretty much all the wood we collect were damp. Luckily I had solid fuel to rely on. Hhaa.. Once we got the fire going.. We were roasting marshmallow.. haha.. Then cooked the fish imm and ariff caught, and then the crab..

That was pretty much it for the day..
We just lay down and talked, then slept.

Our dear friend ariff have problem sleeping at night. Initially he was sleeping beside the shelter, followed by elmi, imran and me. In the middle of the night, he woke up and squeezed in-between imran and I. in the morning he told us that he was not very ‘comfortable’ sleeping at the side anymore. Haha..

Anyway, in the morning we had to clear a lot of food. Imran was our chef. He cooked for us hotdogs, tuna, eggs and his version of smores. (Toasted bread with nutella and softened marshmallow- which was cooked in butter- yum yum)

It wasn’t healthy, but hey that was the last meal in ubin for us.

After packing up, we made our way to the jetty and rent bicycles. We wanted a good one, so we took a while to choose. Then we made way to chek jawa. It wasn’t easy riding up the slope, especially when some slopes were 45 degree. Imran’s bike had problem. The chain kept coming out. He was so pissed. Haha… we eventually we made it to the top.

Check out our ‘shaag..faces’

We were on foot in chek java. We dozed off at one place, walked around the trail (where elmi had his little accident) and climbed the tower to get a birds eye view of the whole place.

After chek java, it was just cycling.. Cycling and cycling. It was so much fun. We just cycled around the whole place.( Then, my gear wire broke and had to change my bicycle. ) we stopped at some places to snap away. Then we tried out the mountain biking trail. It was a lot harder and a lot of fun. If only it was the first think in our agenda we would have had a lot more energy to ride.( some slopes were just too tough and we just pushed our bike.) Later, at about 6pm we made our way to the jetty with sore limbs and very sore butts, but we (not sure about ariff though.) would definitely wanna do that again.

(imm doing a ' matt parkman' haha)

After washing up, we left the place, we had to go back to the reality and start worrying about the every day issues that we managed to escape for two days. Hope we can do it again in November.

finding accommodation

I would be in Adelaide on the 14th feb, 9.10 am. yah.. i know.. i would be all alone on valentine's day/Friendship day, ppl you Don't have to remind me.. haha i don't have someone 'special' to spend the day with so it doesn't matter that much.

okie.. now to the matter of accommodation. i wanted to stay in university hall, since it would be more safer, nearer to the the university and meals provided. i thought it would be the best place, at least until i get to know my surroundings well. The application had deadline( which i was not aware of) i applied on the 2nd or 3rd November. the website said that late application would be entertained later.( duh). sop i waited. they sent me a email stating that they received my application and the status of my application would be seen in the status page. the email contained the link to the page. for a week the link worked. after that they page went missing. one week later the page was still missing, so i emailed them telling them about the problem. two weeks later, still nothing.

so.. i changed my mindset and got prepared to life an independent life. i started scouting for possible landlords and rooms. There were a lot of listings, but not many replied. i really don't know why. i might have sent over 15 emails only 3 replied. of the three, one landlord said that she cant wait till i come over as her room was already available. another one said that she cant say anything until see sees me personally. only one sort of accepted my request and started to provide details. i was grateful, but there were drawbacks. the location was quite far from university. it might take more than 30 minutes to reach the uni. and the rent didn't include Internet fee. well anyway, i had no other choice. so .. i sort of reserved the room.

on 24th jan there was a seminar organized by idp, while i was there i met some other fellow Singaporeans whom would be going to flinders too. two of the guys there asked me whether i
like to find accommodation together. it sounded like a good idea so i agreed. one of the guy went off to Adelaide earlier thus he was able to really check out the place.

last Friday, i received email from the university hall saying that i have been accepted into the university hall. haha.. after waiting for so long i was accepted.

the housing found by the my friend seemed like a much better deal than the university hall.. so i am gonna go with that.. hmmm... but the scary part is.. even though its confirmed.. the place is not 100% secured


(woah.. this is such a boring post.. hehe..)