HELLO!

First intercontinental skype with the Fiesties after 3 months in Oz, great times <3<3<3! Enjoy your holidays friends and await my return on 4th July!!! Speaking of which, i am really excited about taking the plane along for the very first time in my life then, have to take a domestic flight to Perth for transit first, navigate the confusing terminals (according to M3), get myself to the international terminal then take a flight back to sunny sg. Pressure much!

In response to feedback, I've been taking my sg hp out and about so i can use it as a camera and post more pictures here!

This was taken yesterday, on my way to Sturt campus for my health science workshop. A handful of huge pink breasted parrots nibbling the grass on the oval! They were so calm and unafraid of humans, i didn't want to disturb their peace and didn't approach any closer but still got a few clear shots. There are so many wild parrots where i live, a tree halfway between my house and the medical centre is often filled with chirping parrots, the small colourful variety!


Went exploring the medical centre on Thursday with Liana, during our break, her last name is Van dee Veerdonk, how cool is that? Primarily, I wanted to look for the emergency department, because although i walk past the main entrance of the medical centre, hear the sirens of ambulances rushing into FMC, and hear the roar of medi-helicopters everyday, i have never found out where the transit from transport to emergency department is. I always fear hurting myself one day when i am alone in the house, chopping my finger off or scalding my toes or some terrible accident and rushing to the hospital but not knowing where the emergency department is. So, together Liana and I found the emergency dept, and a little cafe where patients, whom the triage nurse decides can afford to wait, can patronise.


Had Wagon Wheels, a chocolate, marshmallow and jam soft snack which Liana said was highly aussie and treated me too. YUMS!

Joy and Andrew were overseas in Thailand for the past 2 weeks and so i made full use of the backyard. Spent 2 days just basking in the warmth of the sun in the backyard reading Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, bought from Central Market with M3. It gets comfortably warm when the sun is out and slightly chilly when it is blocked by clouds, so i bring a blanket out as well. It gets very quiet and occasionally birds rest on the tree above me, making a rustling sound and some leaves fall on me. Extremely relaxing and tranquilizing way to spend a lazy afternoon.


My lunch of pasta and lettuce in ikan billis soup. Not particularly nice, but the surroundings where i was eating it more than made up for it.


My washed sheets were drying away happily in the sun while i had my lunch and read my book.


Today:

Was awoken twice in the morning, when my plan was to have a nice long uninterrupted sleep till i woke up naturally (i have to wake up at 7.30am from tues to fri, so weekends are for sleeping in).

First Joyce called at 9.30 to say she had a free ticket to Monarto Zoo, it costs $36 for the chartered bus ride there and for the entrance tix. I wanted to go there originally, because Monarto Zoo is 2 hours away from where i stay and having a chartered bus makes things so much easier, it is an open zoo safari concept, and because i just love going to zoos. But with a bio poster presentation coming up, not having done much work last week and this week, and being busy for the previous weekend, i just wanted a day off for myself and hence i didn't get a ticket from the sch office earlier on in the week. So, was extremely tempted to go ahead for the zoo trip since the tix was free but as i had to be there in 15 minutes as the bus was leaving at 9.45, and as my nice warm bed was beckoning, i decided not to go in the end, for the 2nd time.

Was awaken the 2nd time by Paul who came to return my pot, he was so shocked that i was still sleeping, Marg, it's midday!.

It's not the first time a visitor finds himself or herself waking me up, even though it is a perfectly legitimate time of the day to call on someone. Joy has woken me up thrice already, in the most awkward times of the day. Once, in a week, she came at 11am in the morning (when m3 was around) to bring us some freshly baked banana cake and was so apologetic to have woken me up. A few days later, i was having an afternoon nap at 3pm when she came to give me a vase of flowers (see below), and she was so alarmed after realizing i was napping and she woke me up. She must be thinking that i spend all my days sleeping away... She should come at 1am next time, i am guaranteed to be awake! hahaha Nah, i'm trying to sleep early nowadays, before 11pm on school nights.

Spent the rest of the day cleaning the house. First i washed all the dishes in the sink, soaped and cleaned the stove area which was getting quite oily, esp after cooking the mushrooms (see culinary adventures section below). After washing and hanging the clothes outside, i swept the floor twice (so many dustballs!) before i mopped it thrice, once with dishwishing detergent, and twice with water because i was horrified at how slippery the floor had became. Washed and scrubbed the sink, and the sink area, before scrubbing the toilet bowl and washing the toilet floor. Now the whole house looks and feels so clean and comfortable! It smells good too, because i aired the house during the day, previously it smelt rather dank because i had my heater on for most of the time and kept every single window closed because it was cold outside.

Last week (detailed bits of my life, documented so i can remember every moment, just scan though if you wish:)))):

Monday- Watched Iron Man 2 with Paul at Marions. We were there late and ended up having to watch the next movie 40 minutes later. Spent the time at Intensity, an arcade. Arcades in Aus is so EX! The basketball game ($1) lasts for only 30 seconds or so and the score to beat to get a bonus round is so high, i didn't manage to get a free game even though i played a total of 4 times, 2 for each time at the arcade. There are only 3 balls also, so alot of time is spent waiting for the balls to roll down. Played a shooting Zombie game too, and it was $2 per person when we thought it was $2 per game, heaps fun but slightly scary.

Iron Man was great! Enjoyed it thoroughly even though i didn't watch IM1. I just love the technology, when Tony Stark can just wave his arms around and blueprints fly around doing his bidding.

Tues:
Badminton in school with Joyce. Joyce is super good in badminton! I feel so weak when playing with her, just kept moving further away from the net while my shutter lands nearer and nearer to the net... The racket scraped some skin off my wrist as i was holding it too high up and every time i hit something the racket hits my wrist too. Ouch!:S

Thursday:
Went Marions for gift shopping with Melissa and Lucy. Lucy drove us, together with Joyce and Claudia there. After settling on gifts for Michelle and Keishia, the 2 birthday girls, i went clothes shopping myself, while the girls went home. Bought a navy blue jacket from Valley girl for $40, i can't decide whether it was an impulse buy or whether it was a necessity. It's getting cold here and i only have one jacket that keeps me warm (my cardigan does nothing when the wind is strong). But, Lucy was telling me earlier in the day that she has so many jackets for winter, and i will naturally acquire more and more jackets, which probably contributed to the impulsive part of me getting the jacket. Anyhow, i like it and it keeps me warm.

I am so much more at ease when i am outside and alone now. Every weekend i have lunch alone at Marions food court before going grocery shopping at either Coles or Woolworths. Although i still feel weird sitting by myself and eating alone, i feel so independent when i push the shopping trolley through the supermarket and shop for my weekly groceries. It's a very liberating feeling to decide what i want to eat/ want in my house, and to have a wide selection of new brands to choose from as well as knowing that most of what i am getting are necessities.

Friday:
Went BBQ material shopping at Marions with Paul who organised a BBQ at his place on sat. Bought sausages, marshmallows and tomato sauce from Coles, before heading to the Arcade again! Played Daytona this time and i beat him by a whisker. The med gang jokes that i don't have my license/ can't drive (everyone else can drive/have their Ps) and that Daytona and Mario Cart are my cars. -.-

Sat:
Busy day. Went for floorball training in the morning, with Lucy picking me up at FMC and us heading to UniHall Outdoor Court together. Met the rest, Michelle, Stella, Keishia, Melissa and Adeline. Got my stick for $20A, apparently it is a non-competitive stick, for beginners only. The coach, Stella Chia is from sg and is the coach for ACJC, Katong convent and Nanyang poly and she is here for holiday and will give us 2 floorball clinics. I really doubt that we will continue playing/get really good when she leaves, but i agreed to buy the stick anyway because its fun to play it, i can use it in sg too, and most importantly, i feel so much safer in the house with it!

No one here seems to know what Floorball is, Gabby even went to google it after i told her. According to Stella though, internationally, Aus is first in the floorball league and it is a huge sport in all the other parts, esp perth, save for Adelaide.

Crossed the street to Paul's house for a BBQ next with Kathy, Gabby, Robert, Cindy, Johnno, Ramm, Julian. I have been to 2 Aus BBQs so far and in both, sausages are the highlight. Here, the BBQ is usually just an electric stove device(can be used indoors or out) and is simply used to cook all the food(store bought sausages and meat patties) at one go, mended by a person or 2 and then put aside and forgotten. BBQing is quite different than in sg, where normally the BBQ pit is the centre of attention, much effort is needed to start the fire and cooking is a continuous event with a wide variety of food that needs lots of preparation. We ate our sausages in bread and tomato sauce (I used the word Ketchup and Kathy told me i was really American, 'Australians say tomato sauce'!

Nearing evening, went to Keishia's house for a shared birthday celebration between Keishia and Michelle (18th and 20th respectively), driven by Lucy. TY Lucy for driving me around! Keishia's mum cooked so much food!!! I was really contented that night, with an endless flow of good food in front of me and huddling round her campfire.

Sunday:
Went for Bio poster meeting in the library in the morning and skyped with Fiesties in the afternoon!(see above)

This week:
Tuesday:
Played badminton again with Joyce and Phyllis and had dinner after at Joyce and Claudia's. Had dinner at their place on Thursday too, with Rohid. I love going to their house because great dinner+ dessert is always prepared and i don't have to lift a finger to cook/clean after hahahah! But i really dislike getting there and coming back by myself. They stay in Malcolm street which is just a 10 minute walk away, but 10 minutes at night is a very long time when it is eerily silent everywhere, some parts of the road is pitch dark and it is cold at night. I always run there and back with all my might, yes it is that scary!

I guess i felt more free when it was still summer. Then, it got dark at 8.30, and days felt so much longer. Now, it is pitch dark at 5.30, and temperature drops below 10 at night. I draw all my curtains because i fear what i see outside the window and i feel that its very late and i should be winding down for the day even though it might only be 6pm. Sun, i love you please stay in the sky for longer!

Thurs:
Last bio prac for the topic Biological Basis of Life. I have a love-hate relationship with bio prac.

Love, because I do so well in it (Every prac is worth 6%, the first prac was on how to use the library database/harvard referencing system, everyone got full marks because the online test can be done over and over again. I scored 39, 40 and 37 for the subsequent pracs upon 40, which means 24% is over and done with now. The final 6% has not been given back yet. (Feeling that this is too good to be true as i am typing this, but too lazy to confirm by checking the topic manual...))Hate, because it takes a lot of effort for a single prac and it just drains me out for a week.

Thankfully, bio pracs are held once every 2 weeks. Every even week, i have to answer a bio pre-lab quiz online by Tuesday. By Thursday, the day of my prac, I have to complete a one page pre-lab report on the hypothesis and aims of the experiment. On Thursdays are the actual bio prac, and by then I am already suffering from an over dose of bio prac materials, the actual pracs are 3 hours long, after a long day of 4 hours of lectures. It normally stretches on to 3.5 hours, meaning I had a day from 9-5.30, with an hour's break in between. At night, or anytime between Thursday night and Friday 5pm, i have to complete a bio prac report, which is normally 2-3 pages of discussion of results and conclusion, 1 page of referencing + how I improved from the previous report and 1-2 pages of graphs/diagrams/tables to fill in and answer any additional questions. It's nothing like A levels SPA because every prac is different, and in-text referencing are needed, ie I need to read my textbook/ internet pages to get information and paraphrase inside the report. It is not difficult, but highly tiring work as there are so many components to address. I must be doing a fine job of it, though i don't particularly look forward to it.

Anyway, its the end! TY to Patrick and David for making it so much more lively and fun during the 3 hour pracs. Patrick is my bio prac partner, as well as my course mate, while David and Patrick are in my bio poster group. See the Edward Cullen resemblance in Patrick?


(Patrick is flanked by David and I, and I am looking so queer in my lab safety glasses...

Yesterday:
Great day out in the city. I was debating between going for a Med Sci Pub Crawl or shopping with Lucy and Melissa in the city, and decided to go shopping in the end because I'm not from Med Sci, I didn't get the T shirt and didn't know what to wear, my blister from the previous pub crawl hadn't healed fully, and i haven't fully explored Rundle mall.

Met Lucy at my place at 5pm, she drove and parked at my place because parking is a nightmare in the city and is exorbitantly priced. Paul joined us for the trip to the city, and for dinner before he went for the pub crawl. We met Melissa who stays in the city at Chinatown and us 4 went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was so yummy! We had Mongolian Beef, Stir fried beans, Spicy Tofu and rice. Only Paul could use the chopstick correctly amongst us 4, even though he is the only aussie! Lucy and I made him try Bubble Tea, and he disliked the pearls and wished they were chocolate balls instead. Bubble Tea is $4 for a huge cup here! We went shopping at Rundle Mall thereafter, but everything was closing already as it was 9pm.

Melissa then brought us to a dessert shop where we had Chocolate Filth, a rich chocolate cake (Death by Chocolate), with 6 shots of different sauces to pour over. Although I am not a chocolate person, I thoroughly enjoyed the dessert. It was a great experience, sitting at a table by the sidewalk eating chocolate, feeling cold but being warmly dressed, people watching, and eavesdropping on students from Adelaide Uni and Uni SA (their campus is side by side in the city and hence the dessert shop is highly frequented by their students).

On the way to Melissa's place, at the bus stop I met Yi Ling, Table tennis senior from VJ!!! I was sooo surprise when I saw her, as she was the first person that I met in Aus whom I already knew before. She is studying dentistry in Adelaide Uni, 2nd year. I never knew she was in aus, and without this chance meeting, I would never have known I know someone else in Adelaide! Wow, how small is the world!

Random bits:
I tried my first Tim Tam last week and absolutely love it now! I polished off the whole packet in 3 days. The best way to eat it, I've learnt, is to bite off diagonal corners of it and to use it as a straw in hot chocolate or any other chocolate/coffee beverage. The Tim Tam will dissolve after a while and the gooey chocolate biscuit/drink mix is heavenly. YUMS!

Some of the Singaporeans here have reported their 'language used at home' to be Chinese, just so that they are allowed to use a dictionary during our final exams and 15 more minutes for every hour of the exams. They are so delighted over this advantage and have been asking me to do the same so i can 'get more time'. Seriously?! I feel mixed feelings when Aussies tell me my English is superb. Of course i am happy, and i thank them for the compliment but I'll also tell them I've been using the language for all my life. I don't think I need the extra advantage and i don't want it too, i want to be taking exams on even footing with the rest of the student population so that whatever results i get, i know i deserve it.

Lucy(from NZ) got a shock yesterday when she heard from 2 different sources the exact same stereotypes of NZlanders. It was so hilarious! Firstly, NZlanders pronounce 'Fish and Chips' as 'Forsh and Chups' and NZlanders have sex with sheep, because there are so many of them around. A typical jibe at a NZlander is this joke:
Guy A: Are you shearing your sheep?
Guy B: No, get your own.
LOL!!! I didn't get it at first, but it is a play on the word 'shear' and 'share'.

Sg is stereotyped to be a very strict place,if you chew gum you'll be jailed. Aussies are all stereotyped to have have skin cancer. Ahh hilarious stuff!


Big vase of flowers given to be by Joy the day M3 left. She must have thought i would be lonely and wanted to cheer me up, i have such a splendid landlady:))) Joy and Alice, her 5 year old granddaughter, picked these from the front garden, cut off the thorns and arranged them together. The garden is getting more beautiful and colourful by the day as it is less dry now.

Culinary adventures:
After M3 left, i had so much food left over in the fridge which i don't normally deal with ie: Mussels, prawns, chilli. I am more of a sausage/chicken/tuna person when it comes to cooking for myself and i just had to clear my fridge before i stock it with new fresh food.


Last Monday: Mussels fried with chopped chilli, ikan billis and chilli paste from a bottle, garlic, oyster sauce and sesame oil.


After the first success with my mussels, i decided to cook the prawns as well (also so that i don't have the wash the pan twice). Juicy stir fried prawns with tomato sauce, onions, garlic, soy sauce and sugar.

The 2 dishes were so marvelously well cooked that i just had to call the whole neighbourhood over to taste test it, Cindy, Paul, Joyce, Claudia. YUMS! I bet they all see me in a different light now, Marg the Masterchef, muahahah=D


This Thursday: Stir fried mushrooms and (the rest of the mussels) with lettuce, chopped chilli, oyster sauce, chilli paste and soy sauce. Brought it over to Joyce and Claudia's place for dinner together with Rohid. First attempt at cooking mushrooms! I had to keep adding water because the mushrooms kept absorbing the sauces and drying the dish out.


Forgotten when: Chicken drumstick boiled with carrots, onions, garlic and pasta. Amazingly simple to make. I have made this dish thrice so far and it gets better every time.

Alrighty, another long post, I spent today just cleaning the house and blogging, so unproductive! Ciao!