Sunday, February 25, 2007
Just not in the mood of doing anything
Another weekend has gone. We didn't do much things for this weekend as nothing was planned before hand. We went to travel expo at Gold Coast Convention Centre and hoped to get some information on the day trips or some good deal for domestic flight or whatever. However things didn't turn up the way that we anticipated for. Most of them were catered for international travelling and none of the stall exhibited local trips. What a disappointment. In contrast, Wayne was stuck there for quite some times to enquire about his asia trip.
Came across so many special deals on heaps of trip and tour, I wanted so much to travel around the world where I can see different things and feel their cultural, food and etc. It would be such a great experience. But as a student I still cant afford such a big expenses. How sad... Sign...
For instance, the other day I watched a variety show about Food, Food Safari, they showed Mexican Food that day. All kind of chillies that I've never learnt in my life and don't even know their existence, are used by them as a very important ingredient in cooking, like salsa sauce. It's so interesting to learn all these extra knowledge where we cant learn in school or visualise well through reading and only know best through experiencing.
I've no idea how's my life in the future would be, but I wish I could do a trip every year no matter where it is. I believe all the places that I've never been to is new to me and I definitely can learn something new and feel the atmosphere they have it there. How's the people there doing and what is their staple food, fashion and many more...most importantly the custom and cultural carry by the people there. It's sound so interesting!!
Working hard towards the dreams that I hold tightly. Thanks for a friend whom one time reminded me to grab every oppurtunity that I have. I did since then. Criticism from her was useful and help me to envisions my future better. At least I knew what I don't want in my life and sooner or later everything will be shown clearer.
Happy Chinese New year to all there. To myself as well. The first ever CNY without family. It makes me appreciate more on the precious time that I can spend with them.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Last weekend and my CNY
Friday, 16 Feb 07. Went to surfers night market. Heaps of art crafts and funny stuffs overthere. Worth a walk. After a short walk we took our dinner at nearby chinese stall. The price was okie but the taste was so so. I would say the taste like what we have in PGP air con canteen asian cuisine, so much MSG and oil in it!
Stuff that I captured in surfers...
Saturday, 17 Feb 07. This was the date that we planned to go to Currumbin wildlife Sanctury Park. Hmmm...It had been delayed for weeks. At last we went there but It's quite scary at first cos it's drizzling at our place and yet we still heading to our destination which took us 90 mins of bus-train-bus journey to reach. It was such a good weather over there, luckily. phew...
That is a Wildlife park whereby animals e.g kangaroo, koala, birds, wildlife...can be found. Got the chance to touch kangaroo and others, it was quite a great experience. Most importantly was we spent half of the entrance fee to get in the park as we got the coupon from Lucky. Two at the price of one damn good. We always wait for this type of lobang so that we can save more and go to more places. We spent the whole day there and took bus back at 4pm.
We rushed back from the park as we'd appointment with Wayne to go to the drive in theatre. It's another eye opening experience again. Drive in theatre is theatre where you drive in you car to an open space and they show the movie in a massive white screen in front and we tuned on the radio frequency to receive the sound surround for the movie. Sound great isn't it? However the air was too cold that night, I could not stand and hide into the car while everyone still enjoying their movie outside. But I still could catch the movie in the car just that the sound surround was so loud in the car. Can you imagine how loud is it?They switched it on to the almost max volume so that they could listen clearly outside the car. We watched two movies, Ghost Rider and Casino Royale, at the price of $13. It quite cheap though. However, due to the exhausting during the day time, I could not really stay awake for the latter and may be because of the story line as well. Too complicated for me to think at that condition.
Back at home it's already 1230am and It was CNY reunion night and I believe over there would be very lively. I didn't make an effort to call back home as I was so tired and hit my pillow straight away.
Sunday, 18 Feb 07. Today was the first day of CNY and I spent it in Gold Coast without family. We spent our day at my boss's. All the chinese staffs in my company attended the luncheon, cooked by the lady boss. It's got heaps of food to eat just like buffet but lots of them, those deep fried food, had already turned soggy. What a waste. What I enjoyed the most was the chilli crab and black pepper crab. It's the best among all. However, compare with what we've in Tambun, It's still way to reach the standard. It's the freshness issue. Slightly disappointed on that particular issue cuz I perceived crabs from Aus should be in good grade. You know 'tai zap hai' le I wish to try so much. Still they said the crab was still alive before cooked. I was in doubt.
Another big concern of CNY is getting ang pao where we can increase the digit in our acc. Haha...I got 5 ang pao from them. Not bad!! Better than I get 10 in hometown. After lunch, they played poker card. Sg style of black Jack, In between and 3 pokers...so strange to see all the management people to play cards and yet they played with money. It's a little casino there. Overall, Singaporean celebrating their CNY not much difference from us. At least for those 3 main things that mz be present, food, ang pao and gambling.
Tomorrow is wednesday. Time flies, half of the week has gone. It's already my 7th week in Gold Coast. Tomorrow morning I need to drive wayne's ford to the mechanics and he drives his wagon along to fetch us to work.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Spectacular view at Q1observation deck
Friday night, It was a tiring day cuz am lacked of rest on thursday night. After we came back from Broadbea, where we had our dinner. Eileen and Johan, the couple from our company, treated us a very nice dinner. I would say it's something quite luxurious for us in Gold Coast. We even had baby abalone but be frank there would be bunch of people appreciate it more than I do. I love seafood so much but stangely for me abalone is just a normal dish. I really cant understand why chinese love them so much. May be cuz it's sooo expensive....!!!
Overall the dinner was quite okie but the phenomenon was weird. It's quite sensitive to mention here but if I were wayne I'd feel so uncomfortable even the food are nice I won't be able to appreciate them. Too bad... When we reached home, it was already quite late and we didn't discuss our destination tomorrow and hit our pillow exhausively.
Saturday . We woke up at 9 plus and started to discuss where should we go. After a few hours of discussion, we made our desicion to Q1 observation deck at Surfers to catch the spectacular view of Gold Coast. Why did we take a few hours to discuss? The reason was...There are heaps of places to look-see but most of them are outbound area where we can't reach by public transport. It's imposible to ask Wayne to drive us there unless he offered. Also, some of them need to go by day tour where it needs reservations before hand. Worst still, theme parks are all not in our list at the moment cuz we are still waiting for the special. Therefore, after cracking our head and discussing over, we decided to go Q1.
It is claimed as the tallest residential tower in the world. The observation deck is located at 77 storey and 78 is a small theatrette where they play documentary of the history of gold coast. We stayed at the circular deck for 90 minutes and had a crazy photo snap shotting session. The view is awesome. You'll only be able to feel the amzement when you experience it yourself. When I looked at the ocean, the realm of pacific ocean, I felt I'm just a little tiny nut without the ability to gain attention from the world. Anyway, it was a nice trip.
Again, we walked to surfers and ate gelato there. Buy one get one free...good deal! After that, we planned to walk to broadbeach following the shore line but when we were reaching, the weather changed, it's rain, so we had no choice but to turn our direction towards the bus stop. Took bus to nerang railway station and heading back to helensvale. That's our day outside.
It's quite late when we reached home. Therefore, we just cooked 'mee sua' for dinner. Sitting at the dinning table, wayne and us were discussing about his asia trip at the end of the year. I felt so bad for not being able to introduce nice places to visit in Malaysia. Even my hometown where I always pround of my identity as a penangite, I can't bring out the attractiveness. Cuz may be I know those places would not be attractive enough for him. Would he want to visit all the famous temples, Kek Lok si, Sleeping Buddha...snake temple? I really don't know.cuz we have plenty of these. All I know is good food. On top of that, I really dont know where to visit in Pg. Generally, I know Melaka, Kl and Pg are the tourist spots. Haiz...sad...sad. I'm really a bad ambassador for the country.
Sunday. Felicia went to church and wayne went to Mt tamborine to deliver some goods. I'm home alone cuz I chose not to wake up early. haha...
Labels: Aussie, Excursion
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Friendship
Surfing through friends' blogs and I realised to get along well with new friends is not an easy task. May be taurean are too conservative and they like to live in their own way. So I found it difficult. Those who know me well should be able to understand me.
We are created as an unique individual and there are billions of different characteristics and personalities indivitual living in this world. Despite, we still need to rely on each other for surviving. Therefore we'll be meeting heaps of strangers from all walks of life, from young to old, from wealthy to poverty in our daily life and none of them are the same. So...We need to be able to tolerate, be patient and not too calculative. Give-and-take could be a very good terminology to describe but at times we tend to forget.
I feel upset and not contented cuz my best friends are far apart from me. Although I'm living well, having fun and enjoying , I feel something is missing which cannot express through words. Apparently, we need companionship and someone to share our exitement as well as dissapointment. I would say I'm kinda between good and bad. I knew that I'm too greedy but that's my feelings.
Even I knew something had happened miles away and I'm so so down to hear all these crappy stuffs. It's not easy to make friend and know each other well. I definite it as fate and it's the destiny that make us met. I wish we could appreciate what we own and never ever hurt others' feelings as possible as you can. It's not a good feeling.
On that day when I was extremely sorrow and bored, I wrote this crappy poem: (sorry for those who cant read chinese. Apparently my mandirin is much better!hahaz...)...Maybe I should finish the rest of the poem...but no inspiration at the moment.
"志不同道不合。
天之大地之大，道同之人不易寻；
道不合之人遍地皆是。
日复一日，燥气攻心，自寻灭亡。"
Appreciate the friendship right in front of you and me. I believe as long as we treat people well and with whole-heartedly, they will definitely feel our sincerity.
Need to knock off and continue with my works, I have heaps of them.
Apology and thank you ain't too difficult to convey...please do it if you think you need to. Good Day!
Monday, February 5, 2007
Nice dinner
Mood: dangling
Wayne cooked something very nice tonight. He made gourmet quiche and crumbed lamb with patota salad and coleslaw. It was so nice. I think it would cost us 20 bucks to get such a good meal. Hahaz...we are really lucky to stay with him. He is superb cuz the dinner was ready in just 130 hr. I think I would be able to catch up with him forever cos he graduated as a chef. Ha...
I've started on another phase of my IA which I need to use my brain and do some paper works. I keep clicking on my mouse and sitting there for the whole day and yet I feel exhausted. Strange hey...
Nothing much to elaborate on today. Basically it was just a mundane day.
Yesterday. I’ve spent the whole day at home cooking for Sunday lunch and dinner and Monday lunch. We cooked porridge for lunch, those with dried shitake mushroom, dried scallop and dried shrimp and pork, sprinkle a bit of shallots (we called it spring onion there) and garlic oil. Hmmm…I think that’s my style of cooking congee. We had a late lunch as it takes quite a bit of times to cook the porridge. Wayne said this was the first time he ate this type of porridge. Guess what. We ate porridge in the hot summer afternoon. Gees…what a mismatch! We should have just cooked soba noodles with ice cube on it. Hmmm…hope it won’t be too bad anyway. After an hour of our lunch, we started to cook dinner. Hahaz…Yeah we’ve been cooking for the whole day.
I didn’t do much thing, laundry, reading grocery papers from all the supermarkets and looking for good deal. Sounds like ‘obasan’ hei…precisely! Cuz I’ve low budget. The company should have known that the allowance is just enough for us to eat rabbit meal. Hahaz… Should have just told the lady boss, it’s definitely not enough!! I’ll feedback to them and may be it could benefit the next intern.
The night is getting colder after dawn. Not even needed a fan and yet I’m having my long pants on. I guess I’d just die during winter time. I’d just watched “step up”. It was a nice show. I don’t know whether is the story line or the enthusiasm on dance that touched my feelings. It led me to the memories that were hidding somewhere in my mind. I realize I love dancing so much too. However, we tend to forget what we like and what we interested in. we keep doing things that we don’t like and struggling for surviving. What a cruel fact!
Listening to canon in D, it even brought me to somewhere far which I could not reach myself. In reality, sometimes we can’t do things that we like, we can’t follow our own path; we keep following others and eventually we lost our destination. Come to think of it, I’ve been doing nothing for my entire life. I keep asking myself what would my future be. Would I satisfy with the routine work? What should I do to make life more meaningful and better?
I have nothing in my mind. Probably, I’ll be just looking for a stable job after IA and settle down.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Waitangi Day
We went to waitangi Day celebration yesterday. To understand why they celebrate Waitangi Day you may visit
Our main purpose to join the celebration was to eat hangi. Hangi is a NZ moari word for a method of cooking in an outdoor pit oven. It is done in New Zealand as an alternative to the BBQ, but often saved for special occasions due to the large amount of time and preparatory work involved. (Quoted from Wiki).
However due to the overwhelming responses, the first batch which came out at 1230pm was sold out in just a few minutes and the second batch will only ready at 230pm. We could not afford to wait there for such a long time as Wayne needed to visit his mum. Therefore, we decided to give up hangi and went for our grocerry shopping. Three of us were so dissapointed especially Wayne.
The photo below was taken in the tent for stage performances. I watched some of the bands from Waikato U and Moari Dances from some dance groups. The performances were so profesionals especially the dances. Two things I observed from the Moari dance, one, you need to keep long hair, two, you need to have big and firm bum. hahaz...
The photo below was taken at the spit that I went last weekend. There is a 6 stars hotel named Palazzo Versace owned by the designer label Versace. It just beside The Mariners Cove and opposite Sheraton Mirage (5 stars).
Mariners Cove
Behind me is a Shopping centre named Marina Mirage mainly cater for filty rich people.
The summer fruits are very cheap. Peaches, nectarines, plums, mangoes....range of 1.00-1.99/kg or sometimes even lower price. so cheap and so tasty! Yummy.
Friday, February 2, 2007
A little intro to my friends here...
Wayne is the landlord here and is also our company QA staff so he drives us to work everyday. He is an OZ and once a Kiwi with a little bit of asian mind set. The most important thing is he is a good cook. We will take turn to cook dinner cum lunch so there would be chinese and western food rotating. I believe most of the caucasian cant really eat rice everyday neither him. hahaz...But he always cooks better than us. No worries, I'm catching up...my mind is always thinking about food....How to make it better. Firstly i need to know the spices well.
He runs a badminton club in Southport, Gold Coast for more than 10 years. Thursday is the club meeting day. I just went to the badminton session with him. Thank God I still have one day of exercise per week. Just cant imagine how would I be after 4 exerciseless months. Hahaz...I've determined to make it a weekly habit.
Believe it or not, I hit my nose with the stupid racquet. (I know someone would say I'm stupid.) Damn! Almost running down my tears on the spot. Luckily I could control it quite well otherwise I would become big news in the club. Poor thing Felicia not as lucky as I'm. She got cut on her foot just before we leave the house, she was almost in tears also but we girls are tough..muahaha...Hope she could get well soon. Oh ya, Felicia is my coursemate who came here with me for our attachment. Thank God there are two of us. Otherwise I cant visualise the situation. Be frank, I have a little difficulties to understand the OZ accent. Damn! I should have watched more english drama and movie. I regretted not listen to dear, haiz...In Sg, the practise is just like peanut and the accent is totally different.
Anyway, tomorrow is friday. I need to wake up at 6 plus in the morning and my hair still freaking wet. I'm gonna get headache tomorrow. After work, there it starts our fun weekend.
Yo...keep my mood up... oops...it's raining outside. Aus is facing drought. They will appreciate the rain so so so much....
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Carara market & Surfers Paradise
Sat, 20th Jan 2007
Wayne dropped us at Carara market on his way to his dad’s. It’s like a flea market where you can find a lot of stuffs there from food to garment. I found it quite interesting cuz I saw they sell animals' hide eg Koala, Kangoroo and Cow. It’s an eye opener for me. However, it’s hot so we didn’t stay long and heading to Pacific fair which is the biggest shopping centre in Gold Coast. For us, we don’t really feel like shopping. The reasons are the price and also the fashion. I realise Caucasian and Asian actually have different senses in fashion. May be our figure are not meant to be wearing their fashion. It’s not fit at all. May be I could find something better in the future. 
In Surfers paradise, they have shops along the beach. The Ripley’s is one of them. There is this place, Q1 observation deck, which can view the surfers, Broadbeach and Mainbeach in a row. It’s got 70 plus storey!! Hope I could get up there soon and capture the nice view.
