The Power to Drive You.

Sorry folks for the 1 week delay. Internet at home is not very smooth and fast so I tend to blog after work in school. My sincere apologies.

Experience is everywhere. You can give yourself a pleasant experience by eating perhaps. Everyday I take pictures of experiences such as this,

and this,

These experiences is invaluable to me. A learning journey and practice for years to come. Skills such as cutting, slicing, mixing, flipping, beating, food arrangement are honed everyday in the kitchen. The more experience you get at doing something, the better you get.

At first, I made sandwiches for dinner for a whole week. Then I changed to eating rice because the bread will expire if I do not eat within 5 days. The bread package is not the same like Singapore where there are 18 slices inside it. It is the jumbo sized one. It was rather restricting. Chicken drumsticks are the cheapest among all the meat available. I have cooked chicken wings before but not drumsticks. First time, I fried the chicken for 1/2 an hour and turned out it was uncooked! I think I did 3 experiments on chicken drumsticks but it was only on the 4th attempt when I succeeded.

I saw Ian cooked chicken thighs and they looked finger lickin' good. I said, "Wah, looks good man. Cooked or not?" Ian replied, "It better be! I have been cooking it for about 1 hour." The missing ingredient to all these is patience. At 30 minutes, it looks cooked but no. I was impatient and wanted to eat the drumstick as soon as I could. Patience is very essential not only in cooking but in everything. Communication, relationships, driving, eating, drinking, waiting for people, etc. Right now, I can cook cooked chicken! If Ian can cook, so can you! Haha!

More interesting food in Adelaide, probably applies to all Australia as well is this,

One all beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle, onions on a sesame seed bun.

This would have to be the best McDonald's I have ever tasted! They do not have the metal rows that the workers make and slot the bun to await collection. They do it when you order so it is fresh (I do not think so). The moment I sank my teeth into that burger, I was flying among the clouds! The bun was soft and warm, they added generous amounts of special sauce and lots of lettuce! Indeed it's oh my~. Really good! Singapore's McDonald's are not as good because sometimes you recieve the burger that was made maybe 7 minutes ago and it has become a little cold. It was really great. AU$1.95.

2 flavours that I tried in Subway. The bacon and egg roll, and the pizza sub. The bacon and egg roll was going for a limited time only so must try. $5.95 for a foot long. It was yummy!

Look at the egg!! Oooh boy!

Tasted like..... pizza?

Subway is delish! You won't feel as guilty as other fast food outlets. It was nice but did not have as much impact on me like the Son of Mac did. Sorry for making you people drool. It was not intentional.... NOT! Hahaha! :]

Next issh! I don't know yet! Treat it like a mystery story!

The biggest show on wheels!

Yes indeed the biggest show on wheels has stopped by the Adelaide Showgrounds on the 28th March 2007 and left on the 31st of March 2007. We went on the 31st. It cost AU$11 for students. We talked on the tram and got off the wrong stop. We followed the scent of exotic cars and fresh rubber. Nah, we had a map.

Just like all motor shows, you will at least see cars, tires, seats, steering wheels, registration forms and goodie bags. The three of us decided to make our AU$11 worth, we couldn't steal car but we could grab as much goodie bags as we can! We looted posters, a Nissan calendar, some bags, plastic bags, and jelly beans from Suzuki. I will probably say the jelly beans were the best at that time because I was desperately in need of something to eat. Dinner was just too far away.

Singapore's motor show just had cars. I do not remember motorcycles, but they did feature some ancient mercedes benz. The Adelaide Motorshow not only had cars, they had motorcycles, utility vehicles, hot rods, a playground, and an artificial 4WD test track!

Where can you find these in Singapore?

Can the suspensions take it?!

Nissan Pathfinder ready for launch.

The track was simply awesome. It had pot holes, humps, a pile of small stones, big rocks, a 45 degree up and down slope, and another item which I do not know the name of it. We were hesitant and scared to go register for it, wondering if we have to wait for a long time or do we have to pay. When we viewed everything, we headed back to the test track. Found out from the lady at the registration counter that the queue time was dependant on which vehicle. While thinking of what vehicle to hop on, she said, "The Pathfinder currently doesn't have anyone queuing, do you guys want to go for it?" "YEA SURE!! (Hehehe)" I replied. What a great experience. No waiting, enjoy the ride, went round the track twice. Heh. Plus I have most of it on tape. :)

Another interesting thing was this,

100 times more shiok than the arcade driving games!

I really felt like going for it but the queue was just too long. Stomach was hungry. I will play the real thing when I come back.

We had a lot of fun just sitting in cars, talking about cars and also looting the freebies. Ian worked in a car modifications workshop before and has extensive knowledge on cars. All of us like some vehicle or another so there is never ending chatting plus Ian's jokes and style of talking is hilarious.

Chinatown was calling us for dinner. We left the place with happy faces.

The dumb person taking the picture probably shook a bit. Not scolding anyone but it was really another crash dummy taking the picture for us.

Next issh! Back to the essentials of survival! Food! E'nuff said!

The Secret Society

It is very difficult for me to take a picture of my working colleagues posing for shot because all of them are busy. Or maybe I do not have the guts. God helped me one day with a blackout. There was no electricity surging through the whole of UniSA. I did not notice it at all because I was cutting fabric under the power of the sun. The only thing I noticed was the BIG evaporative air conditioning unit (2 stories tall) that was churning a huge amount of sound suddenly lost its voice. I was happy because I could hear my radio more clearly.

I looked downstairs and saw the lights were out. Soon, my supervisor came to visit me. He told me about the situation and everyone in the office is just sitting down, unable to do anything. But I had to continue my cutting! He left after a while. I decided to head back to the office after I finished my cuts. The blackout was yet to be rectified. They were all talking about university and about degrees when I returned to the mother ship. It seemed like everyone was slacking. We digressed into races and countries and suddenly my supervisor wanted to take a group picture with his handphone. HAHA! CHANCE! I said, "Want to use my camera? Then I will send to all of you."

"Welcome to OZzie Tour Agency. We have many guides from all over the world"

2 Singaporeans at the back, front row from left, Chinese, German, Indonesian, Egyptian, Chinese. 3 Australians were not present when the photo was taken. A mix of culture and ways of communication. Fantastic. The Chinese girl is a PhD student. The German girl is on a 6 month exchange programme. Her degree is in between bachelors and masters but it is not called honours. It is the German education system and I did not ask further questions. The Indonesian is my supervisor and he is already a doctor along with the Chinese man. I am not sure about the Egyptian. Fantastic.

We will rob the bank tonight! Questions?

These 2 blokes are technicians who aid in many projects. Ivan is the bloke devising the plan, while Patrick is the attentive subordinate. Ivan makes a lot of comical remarks. Ivan is approachable and helpful as well. However I seldom start small talk with the other technicians. I just laugh at their jokes and their way of talking. There are a lot more working in the building as well. Maybe I will take a picture of the notice board that has the pictures of all the staff. Hehe.

Next issue! Don't miss out! Review on the Adelaide Motor Show! E'nuff said!

A game that Tammy tagged me to do

Sorry folks, This is not part of the usual articles you get at What am I doing? but it seems I have to do it.

Each player of this game starts off by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names.

1) Nothing weird about me. But I do have special things about me.

2) I have a permanent red mark on my arm.

3) I enjoy eating.

4) I laugh and feel happy at some things that people usually find it normal.

5) I am developing an interesting way of walking. While walking, keep 1 arm swinging following the normal timing while the other is at random timing.

6) Everyone is special!

I tag er.. Kathryn, Gerome, Amelia Soh, Tammy, Nikola Tesla, Jamie Oliver

I will be writing the new entry tomorrow!

Something is sizzling!

We are sorry to interupt your daily television schedule to bring you this urgent message.
Blog Entry Generator Aaron said to official editor of What am I doing?, "I am going to interupt the schedule and post something else instead!"

Today, something very interesting took place. I did not pack my lunch because Technical Supervisor Alan Young told Patrick yesterday that there was a barbecue taking place today and I was invited as well. I was having thoughts of beef and sausages, and in large quantities! When lunch time came, I was a little shock because it was not like what I thought it was.

In many cases of barbecues that happen in Singapore, the organiser will buy all the food and the people share the cost. However, it was different for this case. You bring what you want to cook on the barbecue pit. I think it is a good plan to do it this way. It is fair to everyone, there will be no food wastages and you are to blame if you cannot finish.

You supply pit, he supply meat and I eat. Deal?

Gas powered, the pit was long. Look at the space that 4 sausages took up. It can hold up to more than 50 sausages! Tons of space just like Australia! Patrick said he had a piece of beef for me and I thanked him for it. Ivan brought kangaroo meat for lunch. He asked me to try it. It was not bad. The colour is the same as beef but I think it is a bit softer? I do not know. I took 2 slices of bread, placed the beef steak, kangaroo meat and grilled onions on it and ate that for lunch. I did not put any sauce for it because I felt awkward. They only have tomato sauce so I did not mind not having it anyway.


The barbecue took place in the workshop. The sun was shining brightly that afternoon. 7 caucasian technicians and 1 chinese student/technician. Definitely I felt outnumbered and small though big. "What if they do not get my joke? What about Singlish? Nah.. Better not." is what I thought to myself. I just sat there listening to their jokes, the way they spoke and laughed when I understood a joke or felt something was funny. Another thing was, burps were coming out when conversations were taking place. Loud and long, and no "excuse me". If I heard it correctly, someone burped and said yea at the same time as we left 45 minutes later. Incredible!

Now I know I must bring my own meat and bread and sauce whenever barbecues take place. I must get a barbecue pit in the future as well! A long one! And gas powered! Hehe :D

We shall resume the usual schedule on my working colleagues in the next issue of What am I doing? Have a good day mate!

And they are on their way!

Last Sunday, my technician invited us out for a race event! It is at Mallala Race Course. If I am not wrong, it is 80km up North of Adelaide. His name is Patrick. He told us to meet him at Mawson Central at 7.15am. That morning, the wind was blowing cold and hard. The jacket was of little help. My hands felt numb. We were wondering, "Why is he so late? Do not tell me he forgot that he must meet us!". While waiting in the cold, Morven and I saw a man wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts with shoes and socks, taking his dog for a walk. Alas, he came 55 minutes later. I did not comment on his punctuality because he is the driver. Instead, I commented on the weather. He laughed and said, "This is not cold, this is great weather for racing!".

The journey was long. We passed big fields of crops towards 3/4 of the journey. I saw dwarf horses, sheep, horses and cows. They were eating in the sun. The sheep were very cute. Patrick towed his own built car to the track.

He built his own race car?! My goodness!

The body, rims, electrical wiring, lights and many more were done by him. The engine is from Toyota. He also bought the bucket seat. Wonderful piece of engineering. He did some paper work and wrote our names down as pit crew. He had a small problem starting up his engine but he fixed it up very quickly. He brought down his car to be inspected by the scrutineers. I saw so many cars. There were old Porsches, vintage cars from some generation, home built cars and clubmans.

The cars are lining up in the distance for their practice runs.


These 5 race cars are called clubmens.

Patrick went for 2 laps on the practice run and came back to the pit. He felt something was wrong. When he opened the bonnet, the air in the intake manifold built up so much pressure that it force the pressure gauge tube out. He did a quick fix and as he tried starting up his engine, it did not work. The patient did not wake up. Patrick checked the heart. It seems that the head gasket blew. So what does it mean? It means Patrick will not be racing. He was so disappointed. The patient is dead. We pushed him back into the container and went to watch others race instead.


Having a picnic!

So we just watched cars race against the clock. The best lap time wins. At about 1pm, Patrick brought us to a man and we became flag marshalls!

I do not sweep the track.

What we do is to observe the track and the cars. When accidents happen or if there is an obstruction on the road, we raise the flag. We have seen some spin outs, a small accident took place at a corner and at another corner, someone lost his wheel! It flew out while exiting the corner. Very spectacular! We also realised that Daylight Saving Time ended that Sunday at 2am. The time has returned back 1 hour so Morven and I actually waited at 6.15am and Patrick arrived at 7.10am. What goons we were.

It was a bright and sunny day. I got sun burnt after that. I must get a hat soon. Lastly, I really like this car.

Nice~

Next up, my working colleagues! Thank you for reading folks!