Work? More work?

Hello everyone. Today I am bringing you to a top secret research facility. I am a technician involved in a research project. This is Block J, School of Advanced Manufacturing & Mechanical Engineering. I go to this block every morning to put my bag down and write my daily report.

It looks so "matured".

The highest floor for the school would probably be the 2nd floor. This goes to show how much land Australia has. Now the following 3 pictures are taken in the office where the researchers do their paper work like reports and data organisation.

That is Kim in the picture. She does not want to pose for it.


Morven initially sat there but now I am taking that space.


The desk in front of the printer is where I initially sat. I have swapped with Morven.

When I come to office, I do not know what to do. Everyone around me are either doctors or PhD students doing their thesis. They all have their own computers and they do the work they have to do but for Morven and myself, we feel lost in the office. Morven swapped places with me because he needs to use the computer to do Microsoft Access. I do not know how to use it and neither does he but he is doing fine now. As for me, I turn on the laptop and do my daily report, once I am done, I turn it off and head to block M.

Block M is where the machinery is located. My fellow technicians' office is also located there. This is what the office looks like. There is a fridge, whiteboard, tea, biscuits, car magazines especially on hot rods and classics, tool boxes, yellow pages and a lot more.

I am the boss.

No, I am not the boss. I am a technician. I aid this man named Patrick in the project. Another guy who sits in the office is Ivan. He is also a technician. Both of them are into hot rods and Ivan is really funny. Patrick is like a father. He is just 1 year older than my old man. He has a lot of experience in machining like welding, cutting and so many more. He teaches me a lot of things as well. I am like the apprentice. I follow him around and watch him as he does the work. No, I do not slack. When he thinks I can do something, he will let me do it and he supervise. So far, he has allowed me to do drilling, bend sawing and grinding. Maybe a few more but I cannot think of it. Other things I did was also to cut fabric and become a tailor for a day. I generate ideas and suggest ways that we can do things. Patrick is really a very nice guy.

Where do we do the work? Our project is under construction in a place called the Mezzanine. The Mezzanine looks like this.

Messy messy.

The place is filled with a lot of things. Old air conditioning systems, prototypes of the project, PVC, wooden rods, lithium chloride, cobwebs and more. The table is where we do most of the work. The light is not turned on. The area is bright because sun light enters the roof through a plastic panel. No worries if a blackout occurs. So everyday is almost the same. Sometimes I get to ride in Patrick's utility truck and go out to DIY warehouses to buy equipment. I get to explore more places as well. It is quite nice working here.

Next up! A race event! Apologies for quite a long wait. :D

Into my stomach

God is good! All the time! All the time! God is good! We survived 10 days! Praise the Lord!

A new pokemon has been registered into my pokedex.

The cheese is peeling off my bread!

I went to the cafeteria one day at 1.30pm and realised that my favourite $6 Chinese box has no more meat to serve! I decided to shift my head towards the burger section. I saw this burger named Beef Schnitzel. Schnitzel sounds interesting, the word looks interesting, interesting pronunciation so it must be an interesting burger. It cost AU$5.50. Its turns out to me like deep fried beef. The beef's exterior has a crispy crust and you see beef in the interior. Look at the burger again. No sauce to go with the vegetables?! In Singapore, we eat burgers with chilli sauce, mayonaise and such but in Australia, they do not do it. I am fine with no sauce because I get to taste it naturally. I was satisfied with the burger and plan to try out the others soon.

I also tried out the Lunch Express at IndoChina. It is a restaurant cum cafe selling asian food. You pay $6.90 and select 3 dishes from 6. Similar to the Chinese box in school. My housemate Ian (Singaporean) said they served big portions. I think it is not too bad. Fried rice, chicken wings and deep fried battered pork.


I also had Chinese boxes for lunch again. They served different dishes so I had to try it. I took pictures of it but I think it is not necessary because you know how it rougly looks like. Lots of sauce! Read the entry on Food glorious food to see the picture if you want to see.

I have decided to eat sandwiches for any meal that I eat at home. It may be boring but I think it is good for me to do so because it is healthy and easy to prepare. I will eat out if I am out. A sample of my sandwich.

Behold the tower of POWAH!

Friday night, I went out to eat subway with my mum. Since she was leaving the next day, we decided to eat out together for the last time until I see her again. We went to Subway! They had a new flavour called Roasted Garlic Peppercorn Steak. Something new so we tried it out.

Yea~

There are a lot of Subways in Adelaide. Eat fresh eat fresh. the price of a 6 inch is an average $5.95 and a foot long is price at an average of $8.95. More expensive than Singapore so the best is to buy a foot and share with someone. Hehe

Just yesterday, the 24th of March, I went out with Morven and Ian for dinner. We went to The Promenade, which is just a 5 minute walk from our house. Ate at IndoChina. I had beef with phat thai. They gave a lot of beef! The portion was bigger than the phat thais served in Singapore. It was indeed satisfying. It cost $12.90. Morven ate beef and mee goreng and Ian ate Chinese style fried rice. The ambience of the place was nice too. It was warm unlike outside.

Lots of meat!


For Morven's dish too!


No beef for Ian.

This is the latest up to date meals that I have eaten in Adelaide. I may have left out a few like Hot Chips which is simply fries. Thank you for reading! I write about my work life in the next issue!

*I made the resolution of the pictures to 640x480. The size of the file has also decreased so uploading is faster and loading is faster. I am taking quite a long time to write out my issues because the internet is rather slow. My apologies.

Closed - Out To Town - Come Back Tomorrow

The night is still young! Not. This is because shops in Australia close early. Their "NTUC" which is called "WOOLWORTHS" closes at 5. Back then, it was not even open on Sundays! People complained and there you have it. It opens from 10 to 5 on Sundays now. People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

I can only go out on the weekends because I work from Monday to Friday. We decided to visit Glenelg first. It is further from the city. There is a tram from the city that will take you straight to Glenelg.

Glenelg is a nice place. The road is filled both sides with shops. The beach is there too. Allow me to show you what it looks like. This is the only road I walked down.

You can always see a big view of the sky because there is nothing above 3 floors!

The tram ends at Glenelg and stops very near the beach.

Figure 1


Figure 2


Figure 3

I was planning to make a panoramic view of the beach but it will not turn out very nice because the left border of Figure 1 does not really match nicely to the right border of Figure 2. Even though there is a slight difference, it still looks ugly. Imagine the panoramic view as you look through Figure 1, 2 and 3. Only combinations 1,2,3 and 3,2,1 will give you the proper view. 2,1,3 or 2,3,1 will not work.

The beach was very windy! Probably due to the sea breeze. The sun was on and off. The waters were definitely cleaner than Singapore for sure but I have yet to see waters so blue and clear you can see the sand below. Tanning in Australia is nice. Hot sun but cool wind. However, there is a high risk of getting skin cancer. We walked down the jetty, enjoying the breeze and taking photos.

There was also a busker drawing a huge crowd with his performance. Birds were also watching his performance.

Bird 1: Will people give me money for doing a wingstand?

I bought a pre-paid card from one of the shops so that I can contact Morven if we are lost. It cost $30 for 6 months. I think it will last me 6 months. Maybe I will not even finish up the $30. Anyway, we left Glenelg at about 2pm and headed back to the city. Next stop, Central Market.

Central Market, as shown at the top right.

The lady in the foreground does have a face. Do not be afraid.

Central Market is similar to our wet markets in Singapore. Food is fresher, it is also cheaper. But it is in the city so Woolworths is my best friend. :) When we arrived there, it was noisy and shops were starting to close. I was thinking, "So fast? Now only like 2.45pm leh. The food stalls also closing!? No!! My lunch!". It turns out that Central Market closes at 3pm on Sundays. We had to find lunch so we went Subway. Everything is the same except here, they ask what cheese do you want and it is free. The 2007 Police and Fire Games are taking place in Adelaide so I saw a lot of participants walking around and eating lunch. We did not browse the place completely but I may do it another time. Next stop, Rundle Mall.

The city has a free shuttle service known as the Bee Line and the bus number is 99B. It loops around the city. While travelling to Rundle Mall, I saw girls lying in the park at Victoria Square sun tanning. Not a common sight in Singapore because everyone goes to the beach to sun tan. Rundle Mall is a busy place. Lots of people! Young and old are there.



I see taller buildings!

Currently the Adelaide International Buskers Festival was its final day here. It took place from 15-18 March. The buskers here are really fantastic. Their performance is worth watching. They have a thick green rope laid out to mark out a barrier to give space for the busker/s to perform. I saw 2 seperate people doing artwork and selling them. 1 was a lady who draws big paintings on the floor and takes pictures of it. Her last finished work was called "Adelisa", a slightly modified "Mona Lisa". Another was a man using spray cans of paint, using a piece of paper to help him flick paint onto the painting. Messy but nice. The way he does the painting is very unique.

Glug glug glug..

Noticed that he has a tube in his mouth? A self made air tank? I think it is. He probably needs it because some paints will cause permanent injury or maybe death. I like his art pieces. At that time, he was painting 2 dolphins jumping out of the water. Nicee. I managed to buy T-shirts from "Target". A shopping mall like Metro and take a look at the next picture.

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8XL?

They are huge! The 3XL size is very comfortable for me. I tried some Quiksilver T-Shirt at Glenelg earlier and it was tight fitting even though the label wrote 2XL! Something wrong. I bought a total of 4 T-shirts. :D I will try to find more because I will not find these Tees in Singapore!

I am finally done. Next issue will be back to food again for my foodiedex has encountered new food. Thank you for reading! :)

Welcome to my crib!

Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong...
South Australia, mountain mama, country roads, take me home..


Voila!

In view a concept looking house. Not just my house, millions of them!


This is my street.

I walk the lonely road, blah blah blah...

As you can see from the 3rd photo, it is very dead. No problem for me. It is not something that I can experience in Singapore. Maybe you can but I do not know where. The area is very sparse, there are still houses under development and many plots of land have been sold. If you go to Google Earth and type 62 The Strand Mawson Lakes 5095, you will see that the area is still sand. It is a newly developed area.

The house is not that big. This is the living room.


Alright, my laptop is featured there and so is my red slippers. Can you pinpoint my room in this picture? :] I currently do not have my own room so I frequently work in the living area. I will work there until tuesday for one of the roommates from Taiwan is shifting out to the city. Morven will then shift upstairs and have his own room. The room is square. "Oh oh oh oh oh! Square rooms. Oh oh oh oh oh! Square Rooms!!" It's from the song "Square Rooms" by Al Corley. Not funny unless you know what I am talking about.

This is where the master chef prepares his low fat, healthy, nutritious and absolutely delicious delicacies!

Ah~ Bonjour mademoiselle.

The house is a house. They also have a washing machine, a bath tub that is not working, a shower, an ironing board and iron, 2 toilet bowls, a back yard to hang clothes.

I think the funniest object in this house is this,

So small!

It is really very small! 15 cm wide only! I do not brush my teeth there for there is another sink in that toilet beside the washing machine which is bigger and harder to miss.

The people staying here are great too. There is a Malaysian girl, a Singaporean boy who is 5 years my senior in BPS and stays in Bishan (amazing!), the landlord's son, the taiwanese guy shifting out, morven, my mother and a very kind lady named Rosemary from Papua New Guinea. Everything is going well. Relationships within roommates are growing too.

Next issue, I am going to cover on my weekend! Do not miss it! :P

Food glorious food!

I have not gone around and tried all the exotic food that Australia has to serve but the food in school serves something very interesting. We will hold on to that for a while.

Every morning, I wake up at 7.45 am. I go for a shower, a brush of teeth and breakfast I prepare. Bowl, low fat milk, Milo cornflakes and then munch crunch grunch krunch away. Then I leave at 8.45 am. I walk to my work place. I will not talk about the work portion. That will come in another entry. Let's continue. My lunch break varies and there is no fixed time to eat. The duration you take to eat can vary too. But I usually eat with my friend at around 12.30 and take up an hour. The first lunch was at the school's only eating place and cafeteria. They served burgers, sandwiches, vegetable burgers, salads, fries, wedges, snacks like sweets, chocolates are sold too but what made my day was this.


Anybody up for some chinese food?


It's gonna be messy.

Yes yes I know it looks disgusting. What you see at the brim is beef with some cream sauce. Sorry it's not chinese food. Below that level is lamb with some reddish sauce which i cannot explain and below that is rice. So it is all smacked into that one container. How you order it? The box simply costs $6. There are 6 dishes in total. You can choose what you want to put in it. If you want pure beef, the cafe worker will fill it up with beef. If you want 6 dishes, why not? You will just get less of everything. It is nice. I think the sauce is the one that I love the most. It is just Oh my~. If you simply order meat, it will be very filling. $6 is expensive but it is nice so I will spend less on dinner and spend more on lunch.

I was very happy as I ordered it not because it looks so good but because I always see actors in movies eating chinese food and they come in this kind of boxes. Everytime I see that I think to myself, "I want to eat in that kind of box too! They make it look so delicious! Ahh~!". So finally my dream was answered. However, the box looks shorter than the original ones. This box has a carrier too.

I didn't know UniSA made sweets!

Mom! School is making me fat!

It is sweet. Raspberry flavoured. I believe it is for their orientation package. Not good for health so no no. Eat a bit can.

I had sausages, vegetable soup and rice for dinner. I cooked the sausages. My mother said it is fresh sausages.

Agree with me and say mmmm~!

That is currrently what I have to offer, next issue will be on my crib so do not miss out! :] Miss you all!

I am 5,834km away from everyone

Sorry I could not update yesterday for blogger was down. I really want to thank everyone for showing their care and concern for me. Thank you very much! :')

Immediatly after I went through the gates of Mordor, we walked directly to the security check. We had to take out our laptops and place them seperately and go through the scanner. Mah fan to the core man. There were many caucasians in the plan. Only saw 1 chinese lady. It has been a long time since I flew in a plane. Long long ago, long long ago. I was very excited! They had monitors in their seats! My first time! Oh boy! However, despite the excitement, I felt depressed leaving the country. But I shan't ponder to much on sadness, I will bring you all the goodness and maybe some badness about Adelaide. First thing I want to talk about is the airplane food.


The coke can is only 250ml! Small and cute! ;]

The pasta was a little crunchy at the sides, but soft in the center. I think its because the sauce could not reach it. Bread and butter was nice. I haven't had real butter since I was a little boy! The vegetables were sour, a bit like achar? And ooohhh~, the desert was great! I do not know what it is called. It had like sugar solution on the top surface of it and and I cannot remember what was the center but all I know it is good. :P Felt a little bloated after the whole meal.

Next I watched,

Abra-kedabra!

It was a bit boring for me. The movie was very dark. Not enough light. The tricks were definitely done by computer. The main lead actor acted in The Italian Job as the bad guy. I forgot his name already. I slept a while after the show and when I woke up, i had something nice again!


breakfast at 3am Singapore time?

You see the cookie at the bottom left? Citrus Lemon. That is another oh my~ snack. Its a lemon butter cookie! It was enjoyable! I should go find some in the supermarkets. I landed at 5 am Singapore time. It was 7.30 in Adelaide. So doing the math, it will be 2.5 hours ahead. Great.

E'nuff said on the flight, next up will be on the food! :] Stay tuned! I miss all of you!!

It's time

The Australian embassy's phone lines are open Mondays to Fridays except Wednesday. And they open 1430-1600h. Very unique. Anyway, Morven and I decided to call on a Wednesday but since the embassy operates like that, we had to try on Thursday. I managed to get through, Morven too. We checked the status and were told that once we bring our itinerary and a bank account with money, we can get our visas. It felt slightly nice to know that there is some progress moving now.

Yesterday, I applied for my exit permit too. The day before yesterday, my dad told me to go call Central Manpower Base (CMPB) and ask if I had to do it, but I answered in the way as if I knew the answer and said, "No need lah.. Really.. It's under school what, and I must come back. Not necessary.". My dad got upset with the way I replied him and walked away. In the end, I said, "I'll call lah, I'll call lah." in a frustrated tone. So yesterday, I called them up and they told me I must apply for it! I felt really bad after how I treated my dad and knowing that I was in the wrong. I apologised to him that night. He said it's okay. I felt better. Thursday, exit permit application went through. Thank God it was fast.

Exit permit done, visa collected, air ticket bought and now packing.

I think I'm almost done. Or am I?

I'm very sad to know that I'm leaving my friends for 5 months. I am going to miss everyone. Sigh.

A new friendly outing

Yes I went on a new friendly outing. Just like The Police Story and The New Police Story. New plot, new dialogue, new posters but the same main actor. Anyway, the scene is located at Prata Cafe. A bit more expensive than The Prata House but their pratas are not deep fried. It has better ambience, perfect for a new story.


The Bad Man


The Good Men

Kiat agained ordered exotic guns. Milk prata, butter prata and a plain. So do you know what milk and butter prata taste like? Exactly like milk and butter prata.
I feel very happy to hold conversations with them. It makes me feel like a kid. But not all the time because we are also young adults who talk about current issues. Hence, we transform intellectually between kid and adult. Kiat left early at 0015h, Justin and I resumed talking about anime. I bought a Split at 7-Eleven and we walked back towards home. Upon 85% completion of my split, tragedy struck!


why~!!!!! I did so much for you yet... yet.. ughhh..

The good man dropped his 15% of Split. He had to leave it behind. There was no other way. It pained his heart but life still goes on.

During the walk back, I had a discussion with Justin about religion. We discussed it all the way to 0315h. It was late and we went back to our bases.

Mind boggling

There are many things on my mind. Everything is in a mess. I cannot type it down so this is all I have to say for today. If you would like to know what I think about, find me! Give me a call or message me or send me an e-mail or smoke signals. Thank you for visiting. Rarr! Funky funky funky! Mooo. Hee hee hee haw! Sigh.

A mini explosion

Once again I was at Suntec but this time not alone. Together with Ali, Mat, Adriel and Yurong, we searched high and low for an eating spot. The task looks simple, but no~, it is stressful. We always must consider many factors before we can all say, "Let's eat here!" Some examples may include, "Nah, don't want here lah. I ate at this place yesterday with my family." or "Eee, the food here is very unhealthy!".

So where did we finally decided to go? Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao and I cannot think of any other longer name to beat that! We queued up, Ali felt tired and sat on the only chair outside the restaurant. Her hands were itchy and she plucked a tangerine from their potted tree! In the end, she did not eat it and threw it into the pot. Tsk tsk.

Now feast your eyes on these!

Oh my~

Alright, surely you know what it is. For those who do not know, it is called xiao long bao. It is, in layman's term, a meat dumpling. Go check the link to see the dimensions and read how it is engineered. However, the main point I want to bring up is not about the dumpling but instead the way you eat the dumpling. This is simply from my experience and you may or may not follow it. Try at your own risk.

Firstly, the xiaolongbaos are served to you and it is very very hot. Most of the time, when a new dish is served, most people will go take a piece. Like they say, "Eat it when it's hot." Many eat it in halves, in thirds or maybe eighths. My way will be to put the whole xiaolongbao into your mouth, squeeze it within and *BOOOOOOM*!!!!!! Immediatly, you will inevitably huff huff and puff puff, shifting the juice from side to side. The juices will be hot enough to make you tear. Then you give a smile and get the same face like this. :')

I must warn you that the juices are hot. Also, do not burst the bag! You need the pressure in there to force the juice out. Maybe you can experiment by waiting a while? Alright, that concludes Eating 101 by Aaron.

The big kid

During the time when I was not ripe enough to learn driving, I had thoughts of making my own 4 wheeled transport which could get me the feel of a car. If you cycle, you will feel the same like riding a motorcycle. The only toy I remember was the one where students had to learn road safety at some place during primary school. You could either walk, cycle, or pedal the carcycle? I wonder if you all know what I am talking about. I was walking in Toys "R" Us today and behold.. it was sitting on the shelf.

It looks just like this.

Indeed it's HOT and FunkY!

I think the one used for the road safety lesson was bigger. Here is another picture of the Super Monaco XLR.

A gear knob!?

Yes it's true! The red lever is a gear shifter! This carcycle has 2 shift positions, neutral and drive. Powered by 1 human power, has a simple chain drive so speed is limited. However, imagine what you can achieve if you modify the gears and it travels faster than a bicycle? The future of all pedal cycles lie within this machine! Does anyone know where to get an adult one? :D

These are some other pictures I took around the place.

Say cheese!! "Woof!"


Penguin 1: Where are we going Pa?
Papa Penguin: I don't know! We must trust God always!