a coot in singapore...and waiting

安静

2007-08-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

只剩下钢琴陪我谈了一天
睡着的大提琴安静的旧旧的

我想你已表现的非常明白
我懂我也知道你没有舍不得

你说你也会难过我不相信
牵着你陪着我也只是曾经
希望他是真的比我还要爱你
我才会逼自己离开

你要我说多难堪我根本不想分开
为什么还要我用微笑来带过
我没有这种天份包容你也接受他
不用担心的太多我会一直好好过
你已经远远离开我也会慢慢走开
为什么我连分开都迁就着你
我真的没有天份安静的没这么快
我会学着放弃你是因为我太爱你

Man walks free after sheep refuses to testify

2007-07-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

A man who was accused of having sex with a sheep has walked free after the animal was unable to testify.

The man, from Haaksbergen, near Utrecht, the Netherlands, was reported to police after a farmer caught him having sex with a sheep.

But the case was thrown out of court as the sheep couldn't take to the stand to testify it didn't want to have sex and had suffered emotional stress.

Under Dutch law, bestiality is not a crime unless it can be proved the animal didn't want to have sex.

'Short of putting the sheep in the dock, at the moment these perverts cannot be prosecuted,' said animal rights campaigner Jos van Huisen.

Minister of Justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin has said he plans to change the law to make bestiality a criminal offence.

via www.metro.co.uk/weird

2nd part of amsteram pics

2007-07-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

2nd part of my amsterdam trip. not really in chronological order. lazy to rearrange.

Rijksmuseum - At Museumplein, took tram 14 there if i recalled correctly. houses 17th and 18th century art, most famous of all is perhaps Rembrandt's greatest painting: The Night Watch. Other impressive buildings are the Milkmaid and The Windmill at Wijk. However the museum is actually under renovation, so only a small section is opened.

Van Gogh Museum also at Museumplein. Came here first before Rijksmuseum. Said to be the "most comprehensive collection in the world of Van Gogh's work". Actually preferred Rijks to here. perhaps dun really like modern art. Some of the more famous paintings housed includes the Sunflowers, The Potato Eaters, The Bridge in the Rain, and Vincent's Bedroom in Arles. Both museums are free entry with the I Amsterdam card.

Concertgebouw. said to be "one of the world's great concert halls", it was built in 1888. pretty old shit but not the oldest buidling around in amsterdam. quite nice looking building but didnt venture there much.

The Anne Frank's statue outside Westerkerk church. Read the Diary of A Young Girl 2 days before i went to amsterdam. basically a story of a jew girl hiding in this secret office annexe in amsterdam during WWII to escape from the Germans. The museum was formed out of the actual hiding place, with the bookcase that hides the entrance and the rooms and etc. Didnt take photos for all such museums though, since photography not allowed. Quite a moving experience, and a must go in amsterdam, unless you are just there for the sex and the drugs.

View of the Westerkerk Tower, Amsterdam's tallest tower apparently. Offers a good vantage point to see Amsterdam city. The climb up the narrow steps of the tower can be pretty scary though. Cant rem how much it costs though.

The long queues to Anne Frank Huis can be seen below. Better to go there first thing in the morning, especially during summer months. opens at 9am, and entrance fee is 7.50 euro.

Unit 263 Prinsengracht - address of the place where the family of Anne Frank hid during WWII

My lucky day, several naked ladies decided to stand magically in air to allow me to take this picture.

View of the Damrak leading to Dam Square. cool place with trams, people and bicycles moving around all the time but yet still so peaceful and scenic.

Multistorey Bicycle Carpark. Goes to show the pple in amsterdam cycle to work and everywhere.

View taken from the Canal Boat Ride

Museum Amstelkring. Actually just a house. listed as one of the top 10 sights, like the ones above. What's so special about this 17th century house is that it has a hidden church (Our Dear Lord in The Attic) in the upper floors. It's a catholic church. Entrance is free with I Amsterdam card.
The church.

This is no doubt the best church i've seen.The Oude Kerk (Old Church), situated near the Red Light District. Huge and grand and old. The oldest monument around amsterdam apparently. rebuilt in the 14th century as a small stone hall church after fire destroyed the original 13th century wooden chapel. Over the years it expanded. The picture above is the Great Organ. A wonderful sight with its eight pairs of bellows, carvings in marbles. Was built in 1724.

Stunning stained glass. Just one of the 6-8 there.

Good place to enjoy a quiet moment. entrance is free with the I Amsterdam card.

KFC - of course i have to try it. Around the World in KFC is completed in stops in Australia (Perth, Brisbane), China (Hangzhou), The Netherlands (Amsterdam), Malaysia (JB, Genting). Cant remember if i had it in Taiwan Taipei. Well, KFC in Australia still the best so far.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, i supposed i should say something here. I initially started this blog to update my friends and family on how i was doing when i was training in perth. The tendency to update died together with my end of training in australia, till the recent spat of incidents i guess. Never imagined some of my friends still visit here, and for the nice comments and encouragement they have dropped here, Thank you. I probably will not say this to u in person, cos it's really gay.

2nd run

2007-07-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

Did my second run cum climb today. Was supposed to be done on sunday but my muscles were still not fully recovered after the thurs run/climb. pathetic man. Anyway i tried looking around the house for a digital watch, n only then i realised i don't have a SINGLE digital watch in the house, not even those cheapo basar malam kinds. no choice had to carry my handphone in my shorts' back pocket then.

Took the same route as per last time, starting off at blk 13 bus stop @ teck whye ave this time. ran to the interjunction of choa chu kang drive and choa chu kang north ave 5, which was my half way point. reached there in 14.5 min, with 2 stops due traffic light. ran back the same route in 15 min. Overall think the distance was 3.5km roughly, and fared slightly better than last time. at least didnt walk dat's the most important thing.

took a 7 min break, to stretch my calf muscles and catch my breath. the same old block, the same number of steps, but this time i decided to start off slow with a climbing pace for the 1st 10 storeys to warm up my thigh muscles (although they were probably warmed up from the run). following the advice of my fren where he did 3 x 12 storeys last week. the next 10 storeys was running pace, although i felt tiredness in my thighs even from normal climbing pace at the 10th storey alreadt. so the running pace this time was noticeably slower than the running pace in the first climb. as usual and as expected, last 5 storeys was a tedious walking pace up, though i did managed to squeeze in a bit of run. Timed myself this time, finishing in 2:53min.

i want to boldly say here i am aiming to finish the vertical marathon in under 10 min. I know dat's a practically impossible target for me to achieve, but if i aim for the stars and dun reach it, at least i will still reach the top of a 73 storey building. just hope nothing cocks up and i can go for the marathon. next run fri/sat hopefully.

On a side note, i'm not angry but i believed that if you are meeting someone at a time u set, and u are not able to make it at that time, then it would be basic courtesy to let the person u r meeting know u'll b late. it's just a sms. i know i will do that.

2007-07-20T00:48:00.000-07:00

《爱很简单》
(I Love You)
作词：娃娃　作曲：陶吉吉
忘了是怎么开始　也许就是对你　有一种感觉
忽然间发现自己　已深深爱上你　真的很简单
爱的地暗天黑都已无所谓　是是非非无法抉择　喔~~
没有后悔为爱日夜去跟随　那个疯狂的人是我　喔~~
I LOVE U 无法不爱你 BABY 说你也爱我
I LOVE U 永远不愿意 BABY 失去你
不可能更快乐　只要能在一起　做什么都可以
虽然　世界变个不停　用最真诚的心　让爱变的简单
I LOVE U 一直在这里　BABY　一直在爱你 Oh ya~
I LOVE U　(yes I do)　永远都不放弃　这爱你的权利
如果你还有一些困惑 Oh No 请贴著我的心倾听
听我说著　爱你 (yes I do) 我爱你

-------------------------------------------
张学友, why didn't you sing this on Sunday...

i feel perky

2007-07-20T00:17:00.000-07:00

My legs feel like jelly, my deltoids still hurt from wednesday, my heart is weary, my brain is almost fried from the information overload and i've been sleeping not earlier than 3am these few nights. No big surprise i was just told that i looked sick? hmmmm. more multi-vit pills time. n less snacks.

on the way to the top

2007-07-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

Just did a run at 10pm around teck whye. I was not surprised i only managed to do 3 km at a pace of maybe 9 or 10, based on the scale of the treadmills. the last time i ran was almost 2 weeks ago. plus i seriously think i have no ligaments in my right knee. Pain always creeps in towards the last few minutes of the run. May need to tell myself mind over matter, especially since the sheares bridge run is looking likely (although we are only doing the 6km fun run). i think it will probably be one of my longest run, at least officially timed.

After the run, decided to challenge myself further by climbing blk 13 of teck whye avenue.Blk 13 is a 25 storey HDB flat and has been right in front of my block since i was born. The last time i did climb up ( or took the lift up) was probably almost 20 yrs ago. I'm doing it this time as a training for this, on the 18th of nov. I figure i wud haf to climb blk 13 continuosly 3 times to feel what it's like doing the real thing. For today, i will only aim to climb it once. I better keep track of my progress here.

1st - 10th storey: strategy: 2 steps at a time, running up the flight of stairs. seems to be working smoothly. no panting yet. met no one on the stairs, which is good

11th - felt first sign of acid burning in thighs. breathing rate increases noticeably

13 - 14th - pace starts slowing down to almost just climbing pace, insisting on 2 steps at a time

16th - left hand started reaching for the railing for support while climbing up. Breathing must be around 140 beats by now. I'm almost forcing my legs up the flight of steps now.

20th - perspiring profusely and heart beating like 160 beats range i guess. Pace: felt like a chao turtle walking

21 - 24th - dying, thighs screaming in pain, almost dizzy like sensation, almost like the feeling at the last 100m of a 400m dash. almost cant catch my breath.

25th - reached the top! feeling: almost better than sex. climb took less than 5 min, with no stops in between. Must improve on the pace, and aim to at least keep the initial momentum going. This time felt fatigue at the 11th floor onwards. Next time aim at the 14th floor. Hmm mabbe i should consider getting a Polar watch n heartbeat monitor. Andrew has lobang.

Warm down time, tricky part walking down the stairs with wobbly legs. need to climb this at least 3 times to feel the equivalent of 73 storeys. Long way to go! next session aim to do it on sunday night

2007-07-17T05:44:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's good after all. a closure. a new beginning. at least this time i know what i have to do. drinking session with the guys did help yesterday.

I've been moody these past few days, and friends' little imperfections have left me pissed. even my parents' have not been spared my sharp retorts. n i feel bad about it.

arghhhhhhhh. i wish i can forget everything.

Amsterdam in 2 days

2007-07-17T02:26:00.000-07:00

Took SQ324 to Amsterdam out of Changi on the 10th of July at 2345 hrs. Airfare was a cheap $97, all taxes. Brother was kind enough to send me there. Definitely wasnt expecting anyone to send me off, since i'll be back on the 14th.

The flight out wasnt crowded, and i did an internet check-in for a seat along the aisle. Didnt even bother opening up the headset package, was still busy reading Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl as well as Eyewitness Travel Top 10 Amsterdam Travel guide, and slept quite well, especially with the eye shades i requested for Mel.

Amsterdam Airport is called Schiphol. Pronounced "she - pole"? It was quite a big airport and initially i was slightly lost, as to where to get the train tickets to take to Amsterdam city centre. Train ride was $3.50 euro plus another $0.50 for tax for a 2nd class seat, which was very comfortable. Ride took 15-20 minutes to reach Centraal Station. So far so good, no big hiccups. Cigarettes (Malboro Menthol Light) was cheap at $3.90 euro, though lighter was at $1.50 euro. Well, better this than taking weed in the many coffeeshops littered around here.

Mel wud only arrive one hour after, so decided to go to the tourist office to get the I Amsterdam card, basically a tourist card that covers free entrance to many museums such as Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh museum, Museum Amstelkring, Amsterdam Historisch Museum, and also unlimited free public transport rides as well as one free canal boat tour ride. Got the 48 hour pass for $43 euro.

After that, i decided to check out the location of the hotel i booked since there was still time and it was only about 300 metres away from Centraal station. After walking around for almost 10 minutes, i realised i had missed it so decided to navigated again, this time closely with the map given in the guide book i had, and it turned out it was really closer than expected, like just 2-3 min walk from the station and 1 min walk from the Damrak, the stretch of road leading to the Dam Square.

The hotel is a 3 star hotel, and for 2 nights, it costs $176 euro. Not a bad deal for its location and price. Since i couldnt check in till 12 noon, i left my luggage in the hotel's storeroom n met mel first. Took a walk around Dam square before moving on...

De Bijenkorf - Amsterdam's best known department store

The National Monument - To commemorate the Dutch killed in WWII

Apparently one of the better hotels in the Dam square

Koninklijk Palace - a 17th Century building built as a town hall initially, now a Royal Palace

Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) - the setting for the coronation of every Dutch Monarch since the 19th century

Madame Tussaud

Jacky Cheung's Concert

2007-07-15T02:19:00.000-07:00

Attended Jacky Cheung's concert last Sunday, and this was my first ever paid concert i attended. J.P came along, while Loon and elaine was seated just 6 seats besides us. The 3 1/2 hr concert was packed with powerful vocals from his ballads, energetic dancing (didn't expect so much of that), and half an hour of 舞台剧.

Some of the songs i could recall were his classics like, 祝福，吻别，一千个伤心的理由 , 心如刀割, 她来听我的演唱会, 我真的受伤了, some Cantonese songs such as 讲你知. I don't understand Cantonese but luckily some songs had lyrics flashed on the giant screens. He also sang songs from other artists such as Sun Yanzi's 天黑黑, Emil chau's 明天我要嫁給你 and Jeff Chang's 爱如潮水.

The encore was expected, with 13 songs, and one 她来听我的演唱会 which wasnt in the song lists in the previous 2 concerts. Guess he was happy that it was finally over. Reports in the papers had said he was crazy shreking and throwing the mike stand but i wudnt believe half of the things being said in those trashy evening papers. He did say that "why not scream? Scream when i feel like it right? After screaming any sadness will be gone and you'll feel better". Naturally i did screamed a lot that night.

Overall it was a very good concert, and definitely worth the $170 i spent.

Go Kart and Surfer's Paradise

2007-06-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

This was one of the last few road trips in Aussie, and we decided to get a Toyota Tarago as our rental car, since there were 8 of us this time round. First stop was the Big Kart Go Kart located along Bruce Highway (close to Australia Zoo). For $42, all 8 of us played non-stop for 30 min. It was definitely worth the money! Initially most of us were a bit hesitant around the corners, with Wilson spinning out of track on his first lap! haha.

Anyway, after that we went to Gold Coast. Along the way, Wee Liang recommended this place called Yatala, famous for its aussie Yatala Pies. Definitely good and worth the stop over. After that the usual walk around Surfer's Paradise, arcade, shoppin etc and dinner at a jap restaurant.
Nothing much interesting, although we did went to a local strip club for a while. It wasnt the LC kind, so not to bad, better than the one i saw in perth. Sorry no photos for that.

Dreamworld visit

2007-05-21T06:19:00.000-07:00

This visit actually occured abt 2 months ago, and it was the first weekend that i arrived in sunshine coast actually. Renting a Hyundai Excel, we drove roughly 150km to Gold Coast to Dreamworld. I've heard about this theme park, and this was my first trip there.
Entrance fee was a whopping $63 but the college had a staff discount which allowed us to enter for $43, if i remembered correctly.

Being a weekend, there was no doubt it was going to b crowded. We got there at 11pm, left at 3pm, and all we did were 5 rides!Luckily the 5 rides we did were the so called Big 5 Thrill Rides, which are the Wipeout, Cyclone, The Claw, Tower of Terror and finally the Giant Drop. Some of the rides, such as Cyclone and Tower of Terror, were disappointing, and definitely not worth the time queuing as it was not thrilling at all.

The Giant Drop was perhaps the most scary ride of all, and is supposedly the world's tallest free falling ride at 120m, although it's still not as scary as some of the landings i did before! The Claw is however, the most fun of all in my opinion, and you should definitely give it a try if you intend to visit the theme park. Try not to go on a weekend though, and if you do intend to go soon, throw some food in for the Big Brother housemates will ya mate?

Giant Drop

Tower of Terror
Roller coaster - Cyclone
Crazy!

Maiden Flight

2007-05-18T08:13:00.001-07:00

I only started actual flying on the Learjet 45 in late May. Before that, we had to undergo several simulator training sessions on emergencies handling and general aircraft handling. The first flight ended without too much drama thankfully, abeit with a few hard landings here and there.

The entire training period here should normally not last more than 70 days. Anything more than that, the company will pay us $30 AUD extra per day in terms of meal allowance. However due to the shortage of instructors here, it's pretty normal for the cadets here to exceed that 70 days, which means ... Ka' Ching! Money rolling in everyday for us while we rot away here! hehe.

Anyway, flying in this plane is much like flying the real deal, except without paying passengers and the aircraft itself being much smaller obviously. In a sense, it does prep us up for training in the commercial jets in the fleet. Well, fotos from that day here..........

45397295760286205820 !!! (swearing in numbers)

2007-05-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

Now i remember one of the reasons why i have not blogged recently. The entire few paragraphs of text i wrote somehow got eaten up by cyberspace when i press the "submit" button. It's for reason such as this dat somehow i havent update my blog in half a yr?
Well pple have reminded me to update this site...

ANyway, for updates, i'm currently in Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, for further advanced jet aircraft training. Weather here is good, definitely better than Perth. Not as cold nor windy. We are staying in a terrace house in a resort 3km away from the airport. Meals are cooked by ourselves but thankfully for me, I've been fortunate enuff to stay with pple here who can cook a good meal.

Some pics taken from the balcony of my room. Will post more pics soon .. hopefully ...

Blog? Wat's that?

2007-05-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

yes i am the devil!

2006-12-02T10:08:00.001-08:00

First saw this thing at littlemissdrinkalot's blog, which i freq read, for its interesting content (although i dunno her at all), and then next at ah boy's blog . So i might as well join in the fun!

You are The Devil

Materiality. Material Force. Material temptation; sometimes obsession

The Devil is often a great card for business success; hard work and ambition.

Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the major arcana, the Devil is not really "Satan" at all, but Pan the half-goat nature god and/or Dionysius. These are gods of pleasure and abandon, of wild behavior and unbridled desires. This is a card about ambitions; it is also synonymous with temptation and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves to get passionate or messy or wild - or ambitious. This, too, is a form of enslavement. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man of money or erotic power, aggressive, controlling, or just persuasive. This is not to say a bad man, but certainly a powerful man who is hard to resist. The important thing is to remember that any chain is freely worn. In most cases, you are enslaved only because you allow it.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Always knew deep down i'm a little devil!

new updates

2006-12-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

just realised i have not updated or visited this site for close to 6 weeks now, guess the initial thrill of bloggin has faded away.

Anyway, back in singapore already for about 3 weeks now. most people have not changed, some pple i have yet the chance to meet up, ie my JC ~~drunk~~ drinking classmates and some of the BP gang guys.

Come to think of it, the 10 months spent in Perth was a very rewarding experience. the solo flights are the things i missed most about perth now... although back then, holding my bladder for close to 3 hours was a nightmare. The weather (not counting some days of summer) was great too. cool and not humid at all, a great recipe for jogs (which i hardly do), sleep-ins till 12 noon! when i'm not flying dat is. of all the 4 seasons, i felt spring was the best, followed by autumn, mainly for the fact it wasnt too hot nor too cold.

My home has definitely changed these past 10mths. Bro got married and moved out, leaving me to inherit his queen-sized bed and his room. still havent got into the mood to tidy up my old room, anyway since no one is stayin there now, its almost like a storeroom.

Next trip out would most probably be Brisbane, maroochydore, for more training, typically 3 mths. A much faster aircraft this time round, i'm really looking forward for the challenge!

First Flight above clouds

2006-10-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

This flight actually took place about 6 weeks ago, but being the first flight into clouds, and my first joy flight (i was backseating a friend's flight), i found it meaningful to take some pictures of the scenery around Perth City and Rottnest Island.

Perth City and Kwinana Freeway

this might be north Fremantle

The western coast of Australia - on the way to Rottnest Island

Rottnest Island - nothing much there, but have to go back there again soon

Albany

2006-09-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

The trip down to Albany, which is located approx. 400 km south of Perth, is perhaps the best navigation flight that we can do here. Besides being the furthest point from our base that we can go to, the one thing different about this visit is that we have to do a stopover at the Albany aerodrome to refuel. And if you arrange your flight to depart with some of my fellow coursemates, it becomes a road trip,being able to talk cock and take pictures in the arrival terminal while we rest.

Albany Aerodrome

Albany Terminal

Typically the trip there takes about 2 hours, saving at least 4-5 hours from a road trip. There's not much to see along the route there, except for the Stirling Ranges, a range of mountains and hills stretching 60km wide west to east, with the highest peak being Bluff Knoll (i'm not bluffing you) at 1095m above mean sea level.

Closer to the city of Albany, towards the coastal side, there is the Western Power Wind Farm, where err, wind is farmed, and is the largest and newest such facility in Australia. Great southerly winds, drive the 12 turbines and generate about 3/4 of the city's electrical usage.

Of course, since Albany is at the most southern tip of Western Australia, facing the Southern Ocean, the coastal part of Albany has quite a view. But i'm informed that there are alot more places to see while on the ground at Albany, such as The Gap, the Two People's Bay and etc.

cant really see much of the city from here

We (Me, "Kilo Hotel" and "Sierra Hotel"), were the second group from our company visiting Albany that day. The previous group had left 1/2 hour before us. After refuelling our aircraft, of course thanks to the kind old man from BP Aviation, we parked our aircrafts in this open space near the terminal, locked up our aircrafts and began our photo-taking session. Landings and takeoffs in Albany were not coordinated by any Air Traffic Controllers, which made it all the more fun.

our formation

"Sierra Hotel" taking off while i was at the holding point

ELMO TMX

2006-09-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Kids nowadays really have it good. I saw this interesting toy featured on www.boingboing.net, and it's the latest version of the tickle-me-Elmo series. Besides being able to luff for no reason, this version of Elmo TMX (short for Tickle Me eXtreme) beats the other pathetic Elmos hands down by being able to roll, fall and stand when 'tickled'.

Released here in Australia on the 19th this month, this toy is already "selling out fast" according to sales assistants in departmental stalls such as K-Mart and Target. I wonder if i should keep this as an investment, to sell it on Ebay for double its retail price when stocks are cleaned out. To see what's so special with this Elmo, take a look at this video i took.

hiding behind Elmo & nope, i'm not lickin his butt!

A crabby meal

2006-09-05T23:40:00.000-07:00

Since Kelvin has completed his training here, we decided to celebrate by pampering ourselves with a meal of snow crab last week. These white creatures have been taunting us to eat them ever since we stepped into chinese restaurants all round Perth. It was Kelvin's last chance to teach them (it) a painful lesson not to sit in their (its) tank, tempting us while we order some usual fare of duck and pork.

The snowy bastard weighed approx 4 1/2 pounds, and was fried with some salted egg york i think. Its meat was of course white, like most crabs, but was exceptionally soft. 5 of us attacked this evil creature with our mouths the moment it was presented to us. Ah it was sweet revenge for the months of mental torture this vile beast subjected us to. I think we finished it within 15 min? mabbe shorter. I had expected it to put up a better fight, but there wasnt really much meat (for 5 hungry guys, and one of them is Kelvin), so i was disappointed my revenge only lasted this short while.

Sensing the creature, in its final moment, had dealt a terrible blow to our pockets, we decided not to ~~kill~~ order its ally, the lobster. So we ordered the usual cheap fare, the combination plate consisting of roast duck, char siew, and roasted pork, the excellent hot plate tofu and the very tasty beansprouts fried with salted fish.

We should have expected at about $30AUD per pound, the snowy white bastard wasnt going to let us go so easily. In the end, revenge on the crab costs us $157, and the total costs for the meal costs us $45 each for 5 pax. I finally understood why almost all the chinese restaurants here have snow crabs, cos it costs so bloody expensive just to have one. Personally, big or small crabs, snow or normal, didnt really matter to me. I would have preferred normal crabs, if i can have several of them, instead of one snow crab. At least now that revenge is out of the way, i am at peace finally, and start having my normal cheap crabs from now on.

Of Margaret River and Augusta

2006-09-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

Late last month, i finally managed to do my Margaret River/ Augusta trip. These two locations are located about 160 nautical miles, about 300km+, from Perth. A road trip would usually take about 3-4 hours just to get there, but thankfully for me, the trip to and fro took me only 3 1/2 hours, although i had to hold my bladder for the entire journey.

This region of Western Australia is famous as a tourist attraction, and also for its wine grapes grown in vineyards located around Margaret River. I havent been to the town of Margaret River before, although we did drove past several vineyards along Margaret River on the way back after diving in Dunsborough.

I guess the brown patch would be how vineyards look like from 2000feet above

The coast of Margaret River - splendid view!

Facing the Indian Ocean

Margret River

More Margaret River

cant remember why i put this picture

Margaret River to the Indian Ocean

This sortie is one of the best sortie available in terms of scenery, tracking along the western coast from Bunbury, to Busselton and then to Margaret River and finally Augusta. I thought the view from Margaret River was great, until i travelled further south about 30nautical miles away to the town of Augusta.

Augusta - Hardy Inlet

Augusta is the nearest settlement to Cape Leeuwin, which on the furthest southwest corner of the Australian continent. Cape Leeuwin's landmark is perhaps its Lighthouse, which has been around since 1895. Now it is a fully automated lighthouse, and is an important navigation station as well as being a weather station.

Cape Leeuwin and its lighthouse

The closest i dare to descend to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, cos i ham-chee i will crash

East of Cape Leeuwin is Flinders Bay, also known as the Bay of Whales. It is said that Humpback whales and Southern Right whales interact socially in this bay on migration from the cold waters of Antartica. Too bad i didnt know about this before i went up for this flight, else i would have at least try to see if i can spot any whales from high up.

Augusta - Flinders Bay

the coastline of Flinders Bay

I guess without this sortie, i would never have the chance to visit this region of Western Australia. Would i want to do this again? Probably not, if i have to pay for the fuel. So this will be my first and last ever air-trip here. And having to hold my bladder for 3 1/2 hours wasnt exactly a comforting thought. Next up, Albany photos!

Of 霍元甲 aka Fearless

2006-09-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Havent been updating this site once again. Guess i'm slowly losing the interest. These few weeks have been interesting, with ups and downs. The "up" sides being travelling to Margaret River and Albany, and enjoying every moment of it, knowing that i will never get to do this ever again. More of this later.

Anyway, today being Movies Tuesday (tickets for $9 instead of $15), my friend and i decided to go catch a movie. Initially i wanted to watch "Miami Vice", which my roomie thought was "Grand Theft Auto" like.... but the timing didnt suit me. So ended up catchin this show called "Fearless" , starring Jet Li, apparently it's a chinese show. Even better, there'll be english subtitles. Not that i dont understand mandarin, just that I like my shows with english subtitles. So even for a chinese show, i would usually glance at the subtitles, especially so for the opening of this show, where a whole paragraph of chinese characters popped out.

I entered the theatre without a clue what the movie's about, not aided by the lack of promotional posters for the show in the cinema. Imagine my worst fears when i entered the theatre to find it completely empty, as if we had boooked the entire cinema for ourselves. Fortunately, or unfortunately, 3 other patrons, who are unsurprisingly chinese as well, entered the cinema slightly later.

Only when the movie started did i realise "Fearless" was 霍元甲! You know, the song where Jay Chou raps dunno what, the only verses heard being "huo huo huo huo huo". I was glad, for i had heard about this movie and wanted to catch it, but didnt have any high hopes for it to be screened here. I'm not going to say anything about the plot, since the movie's quite old (apparently shown in singapore 4 mths ago), though it was only screened here recently. But the movie got me all interested about this character 霍元甲, and i googled him when i got back. I was quite disappointed the movie didnt stick close to the actual facts, although 霍元甲 was nonetheless a hero in the eyes of many chinese at that time, perhaps even now. But i guess, that's the price of entertainment. Fact is hardly as exciting as fiction, and that's why we pay money to watch movies.

Overall it was a good show. After the show i practised my kungfu on my friend, since all chinese know kungfu mah, and it irritated him abit, with him calling me "childish" along the way back. I suspect that he's afraid to confront me directly, since i will be able to kick his arse all the way back to chinatown, with my "迷蹤拳".

Interesting Commercials

2006-07-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share two of the commercials i downloaded via Metacafe, a program some what like Kazaar, which allows you to download video clips and images automatically to your computer.

The first one is quite a pretty old ad. Had actually seen in a few years ago, but decided to post it again, cos i think 1) it's really funny, 2) it has a great punchline, 3) there's great acting by the 3 'actors', presumably Thais.

The next one is a Korean commercial. Well, i dont think i can call it a commercial, its more like a message that it's trying to bring across. Hopefully if you intend to have kids (or already have), you'll let your kids pursue the stuff they are interested in, and not stifle their creativity and imagination! :-)

Navigation

2006-07-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

I've commenced the 2nd part of the training here, which is the visual navigation training phase. Army guys would know it as "topo", short for topography. Of course, being able to do it all alone high up in the sky, enjoying the scenery along the way sure beats those army kind of topo exercises. The features to find while "topo-ing" are usually prominent, such as large towns, airstrips, mountains and lakes.

Rockingham

nice coastal scenery

A typical navigation flight (whether with the instructor or with me alone) usually lasts 3 hours (unless I'm unfortunately lost or even worse, crashed). The preparation for the flight starts the night before the scheduled flight, with the drawing of the track between waypoints to waypoints. The magnetic degrees of the track and the distance between the 2 waypoints are found and written into our flight planning sheet.

cant remember why i take this picture, i think the mountain is supposed to be Mt Solus

Blue skies

On the next day, usually 2 hours before the estimate time of departure of the flight, a copy of the day's weather forecast will be obtained from our operations room. This copy of the weather forecast will tell us the cloud base, the significant weather, the wind direction and strength and other miscellaneous stuff, such as airstrip condition, parachuting activities at some areas etc. With this forecast, we will plan according to the altitude we'll fly at, and obtain a forecasted groundspeed. The groundspeed will allow us to estimate how much fuel we'll need for the flight, and the time we'll reach our destination.

Mt Saddleback, name given for the saddleback shape of the 2 peaks

more mountains, not sure what's the name

Again, our training is divided into flights with the instructor and flights by yourself. Solo flights are the best, as it is almost always a photo taking session for me. Flying by the coast enjoying the scenery almost made this whole thing so unreal. I would never have imagine myself doing this 1 year ago.

Serpentine Reservoir

North Dandalup Reservoir

Lake Cooloongup & Lake Walyungup

Yenyening Lakes

Lake Banksiadale

Instrument Panel: (Top L to R) Airspeed indicator, Artificial Horizon, Altimeter

(Bottom L to R) Turn and Slip Indicator, Directional Gyro Indicator, Vertical Speed Indicator

update in a long long while

2006-07-10T04:58:00.000-07:00

Its been quite a while since i last logged on into Blogger and updated this blog. Perhaps part of me didnt know what to write, or partly I have been busier recently flying and etc.

During this 1 1/2 months, I was lucky enough to be able to fly back to Singapore for my elder brother's wedding banquet, held at Meritius Mandarin on 21st June. 3 days leave wasnt alot, but it was better than nothing. I was expecting I would be able to get a free ride back, but since it was for personal reasons, the company deemed it NECESSARY for me to purchase my own tickets back.

So with just 1 week to go to the expected wedding date, I sourced the net for the cheapest way back. Turns out there's no cheap way, with the cheapest tickets i can find at $900 Aussie dollars. That's like my one month's ~~pay~~ allowance!

Luckily, I came to know that we, as staff of the airline, could use our Concessional ticket entitlement, which on paper looks a great deal with 85% discount of the retail price of a ticket. Plus airport tax and other stuff, the ticket came to about S$520, still much cheaper than the $900 AUD one.

It felt good going back to the place i call home. Nothing much has changed in Singapore (anyway its only half a year since i was gone), although the most significant difference was the humidity. Adapting from cool dry days to hot humid days wasn't easy. Shopping centres were more crowded, roads were more busy. I could feel a significant increase in the tempo of life in Singapore compared to Perth.

When I was in Perth, i wanted to go back to Singapore asap, but while i was back in Singapore for that 3 days, i sort of miss the life in Perth, with its slower pace, friends just conveniently around the corner, and the free food and lodging.

I think i will look back at the days spent in Perth fondly if i do complete my training here, hopefully in another 3-4 months!

Nostalgia

2006-05-24T02:05:00.000-07:00

Suddenly feel so nostalgic, of the life i was experiencing before i became a working ~~adult~~ person. I could still remember the pre-exams days in Uni, trying to catch up with one term's worth of school work in 2-3 weeks, staying till 9pm+ to even 2-3am to mug in school (only when the panic button was pressed and exams were coming), having an enjoying smoke break behind Lecture Theatre 6 with one or two of my buddies. And also days spent in lecture theatres sitting at the last row of LT 7 doing stuff like sleeping/eating breakfast/talking/reading newspaper/more talking, basically everything except trying to get what the hell the lecturer is talking about.

Flash back further, i could remember the mornings during recess and after school in JC, playing street soccer on the basketball court, playin LAN games such as Quake en masse in the classrooms' computers ,skipping morning lessons to enjoy breakfast, how cold the main lecture theatre was during the first lecture of the day, been late for morning assembly, oversleeping on the bus to school etc. Strangely, i don't recall what i studied then, perhaps mainly due to the fact for the first time of my life then, i was actually struggling with school work. That period of time i realised (finally) that i'm not a genius nor am i someone who is hardworking.

Perhaps the best time in school was the time i spent in secondary school? It was always special for anyone during those teenage years; when boys discover girls are not irritating creatures at all; when perhaps for the first time of my life then, i had some accomplishments, some sports and games that i liked; people that i liked and disliked; crushes n relationships;class excursions and outings giving a kind of togetherness or maybe called 'class spirit'?; and oh yes, the dreaded public ~~spanking~~ speaking sessions.

Haizz, school life is good. I miss it.

Swan bells

2006-05-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Swan Bells are a set of eighteen bells hanging in a specially built 82.5m - high tower in Perth, and the site is one of the major tourist attractions here. Built and opened in December 2000 at a staggering cost of $5.5 million to commerate the new millenium, the tower was opened with free admission initally. However with its annual losses as high as $450,000 in 2004-2005, the attraction started charging admission tickets at $6 for an adult ticket. Luckily on every first Tuesday of the month, admission is free. Of course such a chance is not to be wasted right?

some people say the tower looks like a spaceship....

... i think it looks more like a syringe

this part of the tower i think is just for decorative purpose

Of the 18 bells, 12 of them are historic bells from St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London, and dates back to the 14th century. They were recasted in the 16th and 17th century, and recently in 1988. Full bell ringing occurs only on Monday - Tuesday & Thursday from 12:00pm-1:00pm and on weekends from 12:00pm-1:00pm. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my eardrums), i did not get to see/hear the bells rang when i got there.

The one good thing about visiting this tower, especially since it's a free visit, is the unobstructed view of the Swan river and some parts of Perth City. But if you are on holiday here and is tight on budget, and i mean really tight to the extent 6 bucks will probably disrupt your travel plans, i strongly urge you not to go. The nearby Kings Park has a much better view of Perth City and Swan River, and its free all year round.

trying hard to see beyond the windows

the hill on the top right of the picture is Kings Park

view of the swan river

Perth City CBD

Soon Ho, David, Junming and me with Toh being the photographer

The Swan Bells may be a popular tourist attraction, but at the time it was built, the government and the then Premier of Western Australia, Richard Court, received a fair amount of criticism from the locals, who felt it was a wasteful expenditure. Some locals even called the project "Dick's Erection" (Dick is the pet form of the name Richard). Hmm i leave it up to your own imagination.

if one palm tree is lined on each side of the tower, it may really look like one....

Of all things Red

2006-05-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

Boring football post....

Liverpool FC is the new FA Cup champions of 2005-2006 after another gruelling encounter that ended 3-3, going on to penalties. Just what is wrong with this club, can't they for once win a Cup final 1-0 instead of driving me crazy, pulling out my hair for the 2nd year in a row!? hahaa... At this rate, i'll either become bald or die from a heart attack.

The match itself began pretty much like the UEFA Champions League Final last year, ie Liverpool trailing at the break. Not for the first time, did they have to fight back to win this tie. Kudos to West Ham though, if i am a neutral supporter, i would have backed West Ham to win. In a way, they deserved to win this tie but luck was perhaps with liverpool this day. I'm thrilled they won nonetheless. I think i shouted the loudest in the auditorium where we watched the match, whenever they scored. Only this time round, i didnt wake up the entire family like last year or jumped like mad in front of my dad. Shit, if only i had watched this match at home. I would have love to see the expression on my dad's face seeing his son celebrating the victory as if it was purely mine.

Liverpool!!

Cottesloe Beach in Perth

2006-05-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Cottesloe beach which is north of Fremantle, is one of the best beaches to visit in Perth. It's a very popular beach for locals and tourists alike. It's easy to see why, with its sparkling smooth sand (the kind that when you step on it, it's cool and soothing), crystal clear water, the great view of the sea and the babes, and nice grassy patches for a nice lazy read/sunbath.

On one particular sunday, about 8-10 of us went to Cottesloe beach to chill out, suntan and play some beach volleyball. It was perhaps the biggest outing we've had here so far, not counting any dinner outings. Oh i must mention that I'm the proud owner of the beach volleyball, which i was 'forced' into buying for winning in mahjong(then). By the way, the beach volleyball still sits on top of my cupboard, having not seen the sand since that fateful sunday.

It's at Cottesloe beach that i got my first taste of the Indian Ocean, and it was really really cold, even for a hot day in summer. Now that autumn is already here, I've not been to any of the beaches in perth since. Cottesloe beach is more of a "To see and to be seen" beach, with plenty of hunks and babes. There are shophouses and pubs right opposite the beach, and on weekend noons, the pubs there are as equally packed. Other beaches in the area are more renowned for surfing, which a couple of my friends tried too.

I've always wanted to go other beaches here (ie the nude beach), but from what my friend told me, there really isnt anything there. One thing about ang-mohs is that they really don't give a heck about nudity. Even in Cottesloe beach, I was told by a friend that he had seen girls who had taken off their tops to sun tan the bikini line on their backs. And when they were done, they just nonchalantly got up, and put on their tops as if it was perfectly normal. Had this happened in Singapore on one of our beaches, I can guess there would already be videos or photos circulating around the internet with tag lines such as "Tammy ECP" or "Tammy Sentosa" etc. The younger generation here in perth are not so conservative in general. In another instance, my roommate was flashed by a school girl while he was driving around here. Luckily he kept his eyes long enough on the road to carry on driving safely.

Seagull taking a walk on the sand

nice 'view'

Indiana Teahouse

someone told me i looked like a vietnamese ganglord with my aviator shades

do i look like a celebrity?

2006-05-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

Came across this site several weeks back. It allows users to upload a photo of themselves, and to scan for possible celebrity matches. Kind of bo liao fun if you can call it.

I tried my first photo with my blogger display picture, and the results were was thus:

Chester Bennington

This guy is from the punk band Linkin Park and was the closest match at 63%. The next closest one was

Meryl Streep

Looks like this is a sign i need to lose those facial fats...

Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy was next. So far no 'Brat Pig' or Tom Cruise yet...hmmm

Next....

Jim Carrey

Great..First a punk rocker, then next a fat old woman, followed by a crazy doctor who talks to animals and now this wacko. How nice.

~~Not satisfied that i don't look like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt~~ Of course i don't look like that in real life with specs on, so i decided to try again with another photo.

hamsem......

I was confident this time there'll be no stupid celebrities with specs or weirdoes for sure. And what i got was a 60% match .....

Victoria Adams aka Posh Spice

ARGH!!!! I better stop....

never hated the morning more

2006-05-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

As the season starts to gradually change from summer to autumn, the most marked difference one can feel is when waking up early in the morning around 8am. Though not freezing cold, my body hasnt fully adapted to the ambient temperature of around 14 degrees, especially not when getting out from my warm cozy bed.

This past week (and also for the last week), i've been almost waking up around 8-9am (shock!), mostly due to flights being planned in the morning. More often than not, i had to really drag myself out of bed, for if i dont, i run the risk of going late for my flight, and that will really give me a headache to think of an excuse for being late for my training.

Comparing my sleep/wake cycle to the rest of my coursemates, where i often wake up with not a minute to spare before i'm late, i really fear the day that i will run the risk of oversleeping. The feeling is kind of like when you have a major exam in the morning next day, and the night you go to bed, you will feel uneasy/nervous that you will screw up the whole thing by oversleeping. And this 2 weeks, each training is just like a major test/exam and i often found myself waking up several times in the middle of the night just to check the time.

And it's not like I dont set my alarm. In fact i usually will set 2 alarms, but over the years (of sleep-wake 'exercises' honed to perfection during my uni days) i have developed a pretty bad habit (or should i say skill?) of being able to adjust the time to say 5-10 minutes later when the alarm goes off, even in my concussed state. Only on a few occasions as a student in the university, i would badly mixed up the time like setting a totally irrelevant time like 8pm, and thus end up blatantly sleeping in bed, and missing my lectures. Strangly i dont use the snooze function in my mobile phone's alarm clock though. I think it's a bit unreliable. What an irony. Maybe i should consider getting one of the top 10 most annoying alarm clocks

.

I sure hope most of my flights from now on will be in the late morning, or afternoon. I cant imagine if i do make it all the way through the training, having to wake up at anytime from 2am to 6am for flights will probably kill me little by little. And it's true pilots usually suffer from insomnia, due to early waking and transistion from different time zones which badly disrupts the body's circadian rhythm. It really cant be helped at all though. I just hope that by then, i have developed the mental strength to pull myself out of bed promptly when the alarm sounds.

a visit to fremantle's maritime museum

2006-04-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks back, while I was still having the holiday mood here, I suggested to my friends that we visit WA’s Maritime Museum located at Victoria Quay, Fremantle. As the name suggests, the museum houses a collections of boats/yachts as well as telling the stories of WA’s early explorers, trading routes etc, in general the maritime past of Western Australia.

Western Australia Maritime Museum - link

Paying a discounted rate of $8 for the museum entrance(student rate using one of our University metric cards, cause technically we ~~were~~ are still students,right?), we were also given a guided tour of the highlight of this visit, the Oberon class HMAS Ovens Submarine which was docked beside the museum.

Our Australian guide, who incidentally used to stay in Sunset Way, in Clementi, a couple of years back, was very professional and detailed in his tour. Throughout the entire tour, no effort was spared in letting us know the mechanism of how certain elements of the submarine works. I think his name is Gary, and if you do happen to drop by for a visit to the museum & so happened to meet him as the guide for that day, help me commend him for a job well done ya?

Gary did a good job explaining how a submarine sinks and surfaces as we walked along the perimeter of the submarine. The submarine has ballast tanks and auxiliary tanks, that can be alternately filled with water or air to control its buoyancy. To float on the surface, the ballast tanks are filled with air such that the submarine's overall density is less than that of the surrounding water. To dive, the ballast tanks are flooded with water and the air in the ballast tanks is pushed out from the submarine, with air bubbles seen in the starboard and portside of the submarine, like what you see in the movies. When its overall density is greater than the surrounding water, the submarine will have attained a state of negative buoyancy and start to sink. The compressed air available, both for human consumption and surfacing, is maintained aboard the submarine in air flasks. As such, the air is rarely pumped intensively into the ballast tanks, thus decreasing the rate of ascend.

However, sometimes for emergency surface drills or dramatic/showoff effect, the pressurized air is pumped into the ballast tanks at a greater rate such that the submarine will literally pop up onto the surface seemingly out of nowhere. A good periscope lookout and sonar sweep are required to ascertain no boats will be in the area where the submarine will surface, however accidents still occurred in recent history of which the case of the American submarine USS Greeneville which you might recall. In 2001 the USS Greeneville was demostrating to members of the public onboard it an emergency surface drill. Unfortunately when it surfaced, the submarine struck and sank a Japanese ship, killing 9 aboard the ship.

this is how the sonar of a submarine looks like

the bow of the submarine

All this time while listening to Gary’s explanation on the working mechanism of the submarine and accidents that had occured, we were still standing on the docks of the submarine. Personally I was feeling a bit impatiently already, as I can’t wait to ~~play hide-and-seek~~ explore the submarine.

The 90m long HMAS Ovens

at the entrance on top of the submarine

view from bow of submarine

To get into the submarine, we had to climb a flight of stairs, roughly 4 storeys high. The entrance was at the bow of the vessel which was quite narrow, but it was to be expected for a submarine. There wasn’t much room width-wise, even though it was the main deck. The sleeping area was pathetically crammed, with beds line up one on top of another. The captain’s quarter, though much more spacious compared to that of the crew’s, wasn’t very luxurious either, but at least he didn’t have to put up with the snores of his crewmates.

Crew quarters - Economy class

Captain's Cabin - Raffles Class?

Circular hatches separated each section, and we really had to bend down and go over carefully to avoid hitting our heads on the solid bulkhead. In one of the section, there were 16 cylinder diesels, which are used to drive electric motors. The electric -motored meant that the submarine was truly a silent vessel. The Oberon class submarines were considered state of the art conventional subs of its time, despite being based on a late-WWII German hull design. Its dimensions were generally 90m x 8.1m x 5.5m with a top submerged speed of 31km/hr.

i just noticed there's a padding at the top of the circular hatch - probably just in case u whack ur head on the solid bulkhead

Diesel-electric generator room

The control room is where the main operations of a submarine occur. The torpedo guidance system, allows at a single time several torpedoes to be fired and guided on to the desired target.

Torpedoes guidance control

Torpedoes launch hatch

Torpedoes - Mk 48 Torpedo i think

Helm station

The entire experience inside the submarine took about 30-40 minutes, which surprisingly wasn’t too stuffy or hot (probably because the kind folks from the museum installed fans and improved the ventilation system before opening the submarine to public viewing). For just $8, I got to step into a submarine for the first time in my life, with an experienced guide who knows what he’s saying. It was definitely worth every penny.

exit via stern of submarine

more jap stuff

2006-04-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

It's just some balls and levers and stuff, nowhere as spectacular as some dominoes setup, but i'm still completely bowled over by the creativity and precision of these japanese minds. The whole jap lifestyle and culture is so unique, and i hope one of these days i can afford to stay in japan for a few days/weeks to experience it firsthand.

via YouTube

funny jap video (not porn)

2006-04-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

These japanese pple are really one of a kind..dont know if it's really meant to be an instructional video for dirty talking in english or a parody of jap porn. Nonetheless it is still uniquely funny. It contains crude language (but no nudity) though, so if u feel uncomfortable, please don't click play.

Let's all learn english!

via YouTube

the uncertainty n the wait

2006-04-21T04:45:00.000-07:00

After 3 months of waiting, my student license finally arrived about 3 weeks ago, and with that, a real need to be serious in my work also set in. Unfortunately, for the last 2 weeks, work has not been all too well, hence the lack of updates here. The stress that i've talked about earlier, is evident not just within myself, but also within some of my fellow coursemates here. It has been said that this phase of the training is the toughest, what with the limited hours provided for us to grapse the correct landing technique, n the rustiness associated with not flying regularly. Of course, skills differ person to person, instructor to instructor, and i do not shy away from the fact that i have not been as up to standard as some of the other trainees here. N if no further improvement is made to the point where the instructor feels i'm capable to fly on my own, the inevitable will occur, and i can kiss this fantasy life away for good. Its really not a good feeling knowing your career is decided by just a few hours of performance (good or bad), but that is just the way it goes around here. In fact, and i do agree with several comments made by others, most of the time it is just self-induced stress. Confidence is a weird thing; one moment you can feel capable of landing the aircraft, but it just takes a few bad landings for it to be totally erased out of your mind,and back to square one again.

On a positive side, i'm given another chance, like many of my fellow trainees before me, to get it right. I'm sure everyone is capable of getting it sooner or later, it's just a question of whether how soon it'll be. It has to be soon though, dont want to pack my bags too early n go back home without accomplishing anything.

Anyway,things are not that bad (yet). Thankfully, my fellow coursemates have been encouraging each n everyone of us who has not been doing well. It's during such times, that you see people who just 10 months ago were complete strangers, helping each other out. That's the only comfort in this uncertain time for now.....

On a side note, life is not all gloomy or sad. Jokes, games, dinner outings still do occur, though not as frequent as it used to be. The other day, my roommate was just telling us this 欠扁问答题 to us, which he had seen from a taiwanese variety show, n its pretty 欠扁 too! Hopefully the chinese fonts get through, maybe next time i'll try to write a ~~post~~ 作文 entirely in chinese,although it will really suck.

一只白猫不幸掉进了一个又脏又暗的井。一只路过的黑猫把这只白猫救了上来。
白猫对黑猫说了什么？

白猫 : “meowwwww"

***************************************************

两个人同样掉进了一个又脏又暗的井，其中一个不幸死了。死了的那个人叫做“死人”。
活人叫什么？

他叫“救命啊！救命啊！”

Didnt i tell u it's 欠扁?

a visit to aqwa

2006-04-08T06:08:00.000-07:00

The Aquarium of Western Australia, or AQWA, is located in Hilarys Boat Harbour, 20 minutes drive north of Perth City. Just like the Underwater World in Sentosa Singapore, it allows divers to 'dive' in the walkthrough aquarium. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my wallet), the afternoon's "Dive with Sharks" session had only 3 slots available, and my friends had already made plans to try this aquarium dive earlier. It was as well in the end, as I could visit the aquarium and other exhibits while i wait for my friends to finish their dive. Plus i saved $105 (yup that's how much the dive costs, abit pricey isnt it?) and i only had to pay discounted $14 instead of the usual $25 admission price, all thanks to my diving friends.

The AQWA, as the name suggests, is mainly a showcase of the marine life found in the entire western australia coast, which stretches to about 12000 km. The coastline is divided into 5 main distinct regions, namely: The far north coast, the coral coast where Ningaloo Reef is found n definitly the best dive region in WA, the shipwreck coast mainly near Geraldton and Kalbarri, the Perth Coast, and the great southern coast where Busselton, Albany and Esperence are located.

the five distinct coastal regions

The trip to AQWA also meant that i could see some of the marine life that i didnt see when i dived here, or had heard so much about. The blue ring octupus for example, is only about a palm size or less, but it packs one of the most lethal poisions found in the marine world.

if u ever see one while diving, ~~run~~ swim for ur lives!!

Of course, the blue ring octupus is just one of the few exceptions n marvels to b avoided. What you would have difficulty finding out in the open water though, would be the leafy sea dragon, n i was glad that for the first time in my life, i managed to see 3 of them in a water tank before me. The leafy sea dragon, as the name suggests, really resemble a leaf, and only upon closer inspection would u be able to spot its head, mouth and fins.

haa... mythical is just the word to describe it

Relative of the leafy sea dragon, but nowhere as spectacular is the common seahorse. Even the name doesnt sound cool enough compared to a 'dragon', still i will post this picture here, for the subject(this seahorse below) was very obedient enough for me to capture this shot. Oh i must mention that for seahorses, the males give birth to the young, with the females depositing her eggs into the males' pouch. ~~It goes to show that it's not always the males that go depositing their stuff into females....~~

seahorses are fish with bodies covered in bony armour and are not horses, but you know that rite?

The next exhibit would leave you craving for more, and its the gigantic western rock lobsters. These lobsters are one of the most sought after marine animals in WA, n about A$350 million worth of them are harvested each year in Australia. Judging from the size of them, i wouldn't be surprised it's so sought after.

i would very much like to have you n you n you n you ... for dinner

Other marine creatures, such as the moon jelly fish pictured below, are quite a marvellous sight to behold. They sting though but if you had watched one of the episode from F.R.I.E.N.D.S, you would know peeing would relieve the pain, so next time (if) you get stung by a jellyfish, ask your friend to pee on you! It would be a good test of friendship. hahaa

Porcupine fish can inflate themselves into a ball of spines like creature, something like a sea urchin, as a defence mechanism. There's no limit to the number of times they can inflate (n deflate) themselves, however if they are to inflate in the surface, they are likely to ingest air. As such, it would be hard for the fish to deflate, leaving them floating on the surface, ultimately leading to death of the fish. Although cruel to think this, but it does seem comical if a porcupine fish inflates itself on the surface, n find itself unable to deflate, floating around like a ball of spines. I can imagine the poor guy trying to deflate itself in vain. Well, that's a sight only for the comics though.

so cute!

the blackspotted pufferfish and the freckled porcupine fish - cute little fishes

The red firefish, or also known as the butterfly cod and Volitans Lionfish belongs to the family of scorpionfish. They possess stinging spines but still, their beauty and their grace is truely an unique sight.

Lastly, i'll talk about aqwa signature exhibit, the 98-metre long moving walkway aquarium, housing grey nurse sharks, black tip reef sharks, loggerhead turtles, black smooth rays, southern eagle rays, silver trevallies, pink snappers, fiddler ray, giant cods and more.

Well, there's really isnt much to talk about, so i'll just post some more pictures here.

'smiling' for the camera

This black smooth ray is the largest stingray in the aquarium. In fact smooth stingrays are one of the largest rays in the world, and can grow up to 4m and weigh up to 300 plus kg.

huge loggerhead turtle

grey nurse shark - said to be potentially dangerous

one minute before meal

one minute after meal (actually they are not the same shark, think this one's a black tipped reef)

Mr K.K tryin to piss a shark off by blowing bubbles into its asshole

For the aquarium dive, my friends told me it wasnt really worth it for a short 30-40 minutes dive. K.K couldnt manage to take any underwater shots with his camera as the lighting wasnt sufficient n flash light wasnt allowed. They were also not allowed to touch any of the marine animals, well its sort of like in those strip joints, where you can only see, but cannot touch. For me however, i felt it was one of the best tourist attraction one can find here, with the abundance n variety of marine creatures. There's also a marine park where you can see seals entertain you and an outdoor ray pond where a few eagle rays and smooth rays rest. This trip was definitly worth it n i really meant it when i say this.

entertain me please

I'm a Basic Panties Chick !

2006-04-07T10:25:00.003-07:00

Cant help but try this quiz dat i saw in ahfen's blog....

You Are Basic Panties

You are a laid back chick with a real natural beauty.
You can make unwashed hair and minimal make-up super sexy.
Men tend to notice you show the "real you" - and they appreciate it.
And while basic makes boring for some, it looks classic on you.

What Kind of Panties Are You?

Wow i'm impressed with the accuracy of this quiz, it even knew my fav panties color! I always knew i was laid back, but i got to admit, i didnt know basic panties would look classic on me! HAHAaaa.... What panties are you??

the best show i watched in Perth (so far)

2006-04-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

The past 3 months dat i've been in perth, i had watched several shows, mostly all of them on my laptop in my room, n only a couple of new movies in the cinemas, reason being the cheapest cinema tickets r still A$8.50 on a discounted day of the week.

There were a couple of good shows dat i watched such as Saw, Million Dollar Baby n Sin City, pretty decent ones such as The Longest Yard n Simone, and not so good ones such as Jarhead n Shaun of the Dead. However the one that made an impression on me, was the show dat i watched in the cinema today, V For Vendetta.

You probably wud have heard abt this show 3-4 weeks back. ~~Nutella~~ Natalie Portman plays Evey, while Hugo Weaving plays the charismatic ~~villian~~/hero "V". Hugo Weaving if u remember is Agent Smith from the Matrix Trilogy, n he does a fantastic job playin V, who for the entire show, doesnt show his own face at all.

The story is about how a totalitarian government's (Britain in the movie) restrictions,censorship, and iron-hand methods to clamp down on those who disobey the rules n curfews, can lead its people into leaving a live of fear n oppresion, n yet without the courage to speak out for their own freedom. "V" as the anti-hero, seeks to fulfill his own vendetta as well as to inspire the oppressed people to stand out n riot/protest for their own freedom. Along the way, Evey finally understood n was willing to throw her life away for the sake of her ideals. "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people", as "V" says. In a way this show is political, but the Wachowski brothers (of Matrix fame) managed to deliver a well-paced, intelligent thriller along the way.

Of course, besides the interesting plot n dialogue, there's eye candy as well in Natalie Portman. The scene where Natalie Portman catwalks down the street, with Damien Rice's "The Blower's Daughter" as the background music, in the last scene in "Closer", is forever etched in my memory. In simpler language, "Wah CHIO BU!"

will you marry me Miss Natalie Portman???

even if botak still very CHIO

Of course, Miss Natalie Portman is not just a pretty face. She's also a brainy Chio Bu, who graduated from Harvard, majoring in Psychology.N she's good in her work as well, being a talented actress, with her first Oscar nomination and Golden Globe victory for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in "Closer". And she's only 25 this year!

eh how come this movie review has suddenly become a babe review ah???

Busselton Jetty

2006-04-01T06:06:00.000-08:00

On the way home from Dunsborough, me and my friends decided to pop by Busselton to visit the famous Busselton Jetty, the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere at 1841 metres. Wow... dats 1.841km, 184100cm, 1841000mm.... u get the idea. I had initially planned to walk to the end of the jetty and back. For the lazier ones, there's a train service provided for a fee. Cool.. a train with railway tracks on a jetty itself. But being the cheapskate that i'm, i didnt want to pay for a short ride. However i had thought that entry into the wooden jetty would b free, but there was an entry fee (about $3.50?cant remember though) instead. Again, being the cheapskate that i'm, i didnt want to pay money just to walk on some wooden planks for 1.841km. SO i did the next best thing,meaning i stood outside the jetty entrance, and took quite a handful of photos of the jetty, thus allowing me to proclaim that i've been to Busselton Jetty.... ?

Of course, any traveller to any tourist attraction will usually find out something about the place he/she is visiting, which is what i did. After chatting with the locals, digging out historical records, exploring museums and etc, i managed to gather some facts and events regarding this jetty.

The jetty was built as early as 1865, in several stages up to 1962. The jetty stopped operations in 1972. In 1978, Cyclone Alby destroyed the oldest portion of the jetty and devastated the promenade that started directly from the shore to close to the existing gazebo. Government and shire grants, donations, fundraising and a small (but still substantial) entrance fee has enabled the jetty to remain in existence.

One could fish on the jetty, or just take a peaceful n leisurely stroll on the wooden planks. But the Busselton Jetty is more than that! You could also visit the jetty interpretive centre, take the jetty train or visit the underwater observatory. All of these stuff i didnt do, but i did take a lot of photos!

deja vu....

guess who's the poser...

HMAS Swan Wreck Dive at Dunsborough

2006-03-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

Before winter arrives, we decided to proceed with our plan to visit the HMAS Swan wreck at Dunsborough, 3 hours drive south of Perth. The HMAS Swan was a River Class Frigate Destroyer of the Australian Navy. After serving 26 years, it was decommissioned in 1996 and in 1997 it was sunk 2.4km off the South West Coast in 30m of water.

The destroyer HMAS Swan - my first wreck dive!

This being a 300+km road trip, we couldnt possibly rely on our 'fast' and 'furious' non-airconditioned babies to see us there, n therefore we borrowed from the Magna 4 Gang, their bling-bling Mitsubishi Magna, with airconditioning woh...

my turn to take the wheels in the bling-bling Magna

The dive operator Cape Dive, is based in Dunsborough, which means we had to set off at 6am in the morning in order to reach there by 9am. With some difficulty towards the last stage of the drive, we finally made it there, abeit 30 min later than our expected time. Thankfully, the morning's dive had not set off yet, and after paying A$170 (inclusive of all equipment) for the 2 dives , we were on our way to the dive site.

The dive gang outside Cape Dive

As usual, a 10mm wetsuit is a must, although this time round the water was not as cold. Right at the beginning of the dive, we saw a 1.5m creature that we thought was one of the bottom feeding shark the dive master was talkin about earlier, called Wooggogog or something. Till now we still cant confirm whether we were correct, but whatever, as long as its not juz any boring fish rite?

yep its been confirmed by Lawrence, its a kind of shark called spotted wobbegong

...more not so boring shark........

U cant run away from us even when hiding under the wreck

While the visibility wasnt really very good, at least in terms of things to see, n marine life, it was much better than the Rottnest Dive. And as usual, we spent way too much time posing for our cameraman Mr KK but it did take away the boredom when there was nothing to see sometimes.

pose number 1

Pose number 2

unknowingly pose number 3

pose number 4 - the mast behind looks like a skull head in this pic

mast of Swan Wreck

In terms of marine life, other than the thing dat we thought was a shark, there was a huge school of porcupinefish, some filefish, 3 to 4 small rays, most probably black-blotched rays, some batfishes and travellies hiding under the rudder of the ship. In terms of exploring the interior of the wreck, we didnt venture deep into it, as we didnt follow the operator's dive master, and was advised by him that some of the walls of the wreck are old and might juz collaspe.

huge school of porcupinefish

batfish

inside the wreck

I guess this dive would be the last dive i would be doing for now. Any other dive sites are further than this, and as winter approaches, more dive sites would be closed for diving. I'm just glad that at least for this dive, it was much more fun and different from the Rottness Dive. Hopefully i will have more chances to dive in Australia, perhaps Ningaloo Reef or the Great Barrier Reef in future?

Congrats Mr and Mrs Lim

2006-03-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

Today, on the 26th of March 2006, one of my good pal will be united for life with his dearest. Hongyu, while i can only send my blessings far away from perth, i do believe dat u will enjoy a lifetime of happiness with your beautiful wife. Congrats Mr and Mrs Lim!

cow-peh n cow-bu - may little calfs appear soon!

first dive in over a year

2006-03-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

After almost more than 15 months since my last dive (my last dive was near St John's Island in Singapore in Dec 2004), I finally had the chance to go for a leisure dive in the waters of Rottnest Island in Perth. My friends here are avid divers, with one even being a full fledged diving instructor, so i had no worries knowing that i would be safe with him around! haha

The trip itself was a one day dive trip costing $100 for 2 dives, equipment rental not included. Diving here is definitly much more expensive, but since i'm already here, i might as well give it a go. The operator is Perth Diving Academy, with its dive shop in Fremantle. Unfortunately, on the saturday that we got there for the dive, the operator's vessel, Lionfish IV, broke down. Luckily the dive shop is close to where we stay, and we managed to get slots for the next day dive.

The dive itself wasnt as good as what you would find in tropical waters. Visibility wasnt good, and variety of marine life was pathetic. The underwater current surge was pretty strong for the first dive, u haf to fin pretty hard juz to stay at the same spot. Worst of was the temperature of the water, although i didnt really note its exact temperature, but it was cold enuff for me to curse out loud on both occasions dat i jumped into the water. I was already wearin a 10mm wetsuit (the ones we normally wore were 3mm ones), n if i had being stingy n not rent the operator's wetsuit but wore my pathetic 3mm wetsuit, i might really suffer hypothermia underwater!

fully geared n ready to go see.....

... boring fish and ....

... its a filefish! Thanks baoz!

"V" for ~~"Vendetta"~~ "Very Cold"

The effects of not exercising/living a couch potato lifestyle was evident at the end of my 2nd dive, when i had cramps in my calf on surfacing. Luckily Mr K.K towed me back to the boat, sparing me the agony of tryin to fin back to the boat. Thanks again Saviour!

This should be Mor Cave...

After so long, i still havent forgotten the joy i get from diving. I still remember my very first training dive, n the feeling dat u get when u're in another part of the world, somewhere peaceful n beautiful. Sadly, this dive didnt give me dat kind of feeling, but i will be back for more!

Kings Park

2006-03-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

Kings Park is perhaps the most famous of all the parks in perth city, overlooking the Swan River and Perth City itself. It is a popular park to visit for tourists and locals, n besides the great view n variety of flora, it is also a great place to take a peaceful stroll or have a picnic and busk in the great outdoor environment. In other words, it's a perfect cheap place to bring a date! Too bad, my dates for this visit were a couple of guys though..

take fotos muz haf fountain behind, more effect siah

war memorial - Cenotaph

perth city n its beauty

nice sunset, they dun call perth the sunset coast for nothing

beautiful sunset of perth

night view of swan river

Stuff that's different

2006-03-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

1. Burger King is called Hungry Jack's here.

Why the name change? Perhaps the Copyright authority or whatever it's called, doesnt want the other burgers to be ruled by a king ?

2. Shoe sizes here are generally bigger

I meant really BIG.

3. You really have to be specific when you mention that you are going to The Church

The Church in Perth City is actually a pub/disco environment. The last i check a couple of weeks back, there wasnt any priest inside, in fact, there wasnt much people inside. Maybe the clubbers are confused on which church they are supposed to go.

(not so) fast n the furious

2006-03-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

One of the first things we settled upon touchdown here was finding our car pool gang, and subsequently looking around for 2nd hand cars. As there were 5 of us, and 2nd hand cars arent that expensive here (definitly much much cheaper here than S'pore), we decided to get 2 cars.

Introducing...

...

(not so) FAST n the FURIOUS

nope, i didnt name them "Fast" n "Furious" respectively

The light blue (some may say baby blue) car on the left is a '93 (i think) Daihatsu Charade, 1.0 Litre, 2 door coupe, while the other one on the right is a dark blue '92 (again i think it is) Suzuki Swift 1.0 Litre, 2 door coupe. The combined cost per person, including miscellaneous, was roughly $450 per person, which works out to be about slightly over $1.1k each per car. CheEEEeeap ya?

doraemon sticker on the Charade

Both cars have no power steering, which works out fine with me, since my dad's car has none either. But there's no air-conditioning, which is pretty bad on hot summer days. Even with the windows fully wound down, travelling at 80+ km/hr, it can still be a bit warm. Rather than focus on the bad (cant complain too much, $450 for 2 car mah),I have to say these 2 cars are really fuel efficient, n since it's fuel efficient, flooring the accelerator pedal sometimes doesnt seem such a heartache.

There's not much difference between driving here and in singapore since both follow the right-hand drive rule, altough there's no such thing as ERP here. In fact, i find driving here to be less stressful, perhaps due to friendly drivers? Or mabbe driving in their expressways (called freeways here) is much more scenic and thus relaxing?

the car pool gang

my past 2 months here

2006-03-20T06:30:00.000-08:00

It's been already more than 2 months here in Perth, and yet me and my coursemates havent been doing much training here yet. All this time, while waiting for the equivalent of a PDL (Provisional Driving License), which we havent got at this moment of time, we cant do much training, with once a week the norm.

So the first month was spend pretty much settling in, shopping around for stuff, doing duties such as kitchen cleaning and typing of daily training programme. In fact I think this 2 months is the most relaxed period of my time, which i can say applies to my colleagues as well. We usually watch movies on our laptops, occasionally i wud play some mahjong. We'll go to Perth city to an area call Northbridge for Pool/Snooker or for some bubble tea. The normal sleeping time for me is at least 1am plus, n most mornings, well, i dun really know how mornin is like most of the time here, except when i need to do duty or do my weekly training. I know really this life is good now, but i also understand that in a few weeks from now(hopefully), things will change, and stress and uncertainty will become part of life.

On a side note, i was doing a quiz here on what country should i live in, and the results it gave me was as such:

Which country should you REALLY be living in?

Australia

G'day Mate! You're a yokker. A true Aussie. You love the beach and barbies, as well as sport and sex. Life couldn't get any simpler, and thats the way it should be. C'mon Aussie, C'mon!

Crap. All this time i want to get back home asap, n it turns out my home should be here.

G'day Mate! Cheers Mate! Wicked! Cool! Go Aussie Go!

so cuuuute till u buay tahan (updated!!)

2006-03-12T11:20:00.001-08:00

Since my good fren Wanzzz requested more pics here, especially of koalas, I shall oblige by making this the cuuuutest post ever. Cos it so happens i went to a wildlife park north of perth city recently with my colleagues. This wildlife park houses several Australian animals, such as koalas, dingos, tasmania devils, wombats and kangaroos. Best of all, from what we gathered from the travel brochure, we are even allowed to come into close contact with them, and perhaps even feed them. I had to brace the dangers from the bite of a ferocious dingo and llama to bring u this post, so pls appreciate this post and gimme lots of comments!

nah dont worry abt me, this dingo is just yawning

this white llama however DID try to chew off my shirt

It was quite disappointing when we arrived there though. Most of the animals were fast asleep, or hiding inside a log or somewhere away from the glaring 38 degrees sun. And except for some farm animals and kangaroos, the rest of the wildlife were caged up away from the public. We did managed to come into close contact wif the koalas (The Aussies dun call them Koala bears), although we were not allowed to hold them. We were able to touch them on their backs though, while they were fast asleep. Apparently, the guide told us koalas sleep 18 hrs a day, and we have to be quite lucky to catch them awake.

this wombat probably juz woke up from one of its many naps

sleepin 18 hrs a day is juz...a waste of life

even koalas shun me....

This young kangaroo or Joey, was one of the exception. Sleeping doesnt seem to be her favorite activity here.

so cute!!

come on, admit it. she's cute....

Perhaps the best part of the trip was in the kangaroo feeding enclosure, where we freely mingled with and fed the kangaroos. And there were about 20 plus kangaroos, all sleeping/lying on the grass patch, waiting for curious visitors like us to come feed them their lunch. Really good life for these kangaroos here.

where's our food?!

this roo at least made the effort to stand up n come fwd for its meal

weird sleeping pose, but whatever does it for them...

At the end of the day, it was actually quite a fun trip, being able to see the animals synonymous with Australia. Reminds me of the excitement we all experienced when we were kids visiting the zoo for the first time. Maybe if things doesnt work out here, i should consider workin in the Singapore Zoo ya?

Cessna 172R

2006-03-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

The Cessna 172R has a 4 piston engine, driving a 2 blade propeller

Bo Liao-ness #1

2006-03-11T11:41:00.000-08:00

Some interesting links and videos

Richard Simmons on Whose Line is it - Video: Laugh-a-minute clip
Funny Soccer moments - Video: I like the accompanying music
Guess-the-Google - Game: See if you can guess the googled word from the pictures shown
Ketchup - Video: Not suitable for young audience though

my side of the room is a pigsty

2006-03-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

Before i forget, i'll like to thank my good friend Mr Paul Tan, for his help in formating n patiently helpin me do up the layout of this site. Without him, weeks of procrastination would have extended to months or even never. From reading his blog, i got the inspiration to start a blog myself, so you could say he's the founding father of this blog!

The accomodation here is sort of like the hostels of universities in Singapore,except there are no hot young female undergrads here. Hmm, maybe they should train air stewardess here as well. haha. Anyway rooms are twin sharing, with air-condition available 24-7, which u really need during summer.

yup dat's my roomie on the left

In many ways, Bryan my roommate is the perfect roommate for me. Reason being:

He doesnt mind my snoring
He's a late night owl like me
He doesnt wake up early in the morning unless he has to
He doesnt mind the half pigsty environment of the room ie my side of the room
He doesnt fight with me over the Playstation
He doesnt mind me blaring my music from my laptop
He is standing over my shoulder while i am typing the above

Seriously though, i have absolutely no complains in terms of the living conditions here. Bed is comfy, with clean sheets and blanket available twice a week. Floor is carpetted n toilet and showers are just right next to my room. Facilities here includes a gym, a tennis cum basketball court, an auditorium with digital cable offering weekly live EPL n Champs League matches, a snooker room, a library and a common dining area for all of us. Not bad ya?

must take a picture of my bed before it becomes untidy

Oh Germans!

2006-03-11T06:21:00.000-08:00

Funny Video regarding Germans n their use of Engrish

click on this link

my first post

2006-03-11T04:17:00.000-08:00

A big HI to my friends! If u don't already know, i'm in Perth right now for work. It's been 2 months since i left singapore and life's been pretty good here. Weather during the day is super hot, with temperature reaching 36 -38 degrees on some days. Nite time on the other hand, can have temperatures ranging between 16 - 22 degrees plus minus, especially with wind chills, it really makes u juz want to stay in your room. I cant imagine how cold nites here will be when winter comes (in about 3-4 months), with expected temperatures of below 10 degrees. Although still not as cold as alot of places, i'm not one who can really stand cold... given a choice i would rather have a hot climate than one with the 4 seasons..Think i miss home with its sunshine n hot humid days already!