News from Adelaide

2010 update!

2010-02-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

It's the start of the new year and yep, I know. I haven't been updating. But!! I have reasons. First, was busy with work... settling in, going back to a working life pace. Then KLC had a 1GB restriction, which makes it really annoying. Then I had to move cause I can't take the restrictions KLC have anymore... then it was setting up and settling in the new house.. and so, after almost 2 months into the new year, I'm sorta settled back in Adelaide.

Work has been going quite well. Have had great feedback from my colleagues and bosses. Just had my first probationary review and it was all good. :) Not that I'll expect anything else. Let's hope that the next one will be better. Doesn't look too good when your first one is good and your second one is worse... o.O

Love the new place. Situated at East Terrace now. Makes things so much more convenient. I only have to take 1 bus to work, so that works out really good. And the free bus that goes around the city, 99C, stops just outside of our place. That is good, because that means we can go buy lots of stuff from chinatown and take a bus back. =)

Life is great so far. Have the ups and dows, but so far I am enjoying. Now, if only I'll get PR, I won't have to worry so much. But it can take up to 3 years for me to get it. Oh well... I suppose as long as I can continue working, all is good. Only troublesome thing is that I have to apply for a difference visa every time I go out of Australia. Hai.

Will be posting photos in the next few posts!! =) Have had quite a few events... New Year's day, steam boat day and Australia day in January. In Feb... photos of settling in the new apartment, chinese new year, valentine day and planting / gardening. Will upload them soon!!

Locher Christmas Lunch

2009-12-25T17:31:00.001-08:00

Had our Locher Christmas Lunch last week. It was great! Nice to relax with colleagues and to have some fun. My colleagues are the kind that work hard and play hard. hehe. Needless to say, some of them were tipsy by the time I left, which is about 7.30pm. They continued on, but I didn't. There's only so much I can drink and well, I dun really like to go to pubs and clubs. Here are some photos!

One of the tables for us

Champagne. I had 3 glasses on that day... and 1 white wine. heh

Our CEO is the "Santa"!!!

Present from our "Secret Santa"

Main Course: Cod Fish

Appetizer: Rabbit meat & Salad

Dessert: Semi-Freddo

My colleagues

2nd round outside... and then a 3rd round at the Casino. Then I went home. But some of my colleagues continue on!!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T17:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! =) Yeah I know it's been a long time since I last posted but I've been busy! Today is boxing day and I'm in the Uni. Sorting out photos and putting them online. Can't do that nowadays in college because of stupid bandwidth restriction and I'm too lazy to bring all my stuff down to the computer lab. And I am on the way to the city too! Will be watching Sherlock Holmes later. Talking about movies... Avatar 3D (must be 3D!) is a must watch! It's awesome. The CG is great! Storyplot so-so but I got so absorbed into it. So.. watch it! Hope everyone had a good christmas! I had a great one. =) Celebrated Christmas with some friends at KLC. As usual we had a feast. hahahah. Below are some photos from yesterday. =D

Preparing for desert and fruits

James made the cake!
Fish prepared by James

James, Me, Han Ying, Hwee Teng, Zhang Yan

Zhang Yan (behind), James, Me, Hwee Teng, Anya

Food that we prepared! Although not shown here, we had Bak Ku Teh as well. hehehehehhe

Anya made these :)

Photos from Yorke Peninsula...

2009-12-08T00:13:00.000-08:00

I went to Yorke Peninsula with Uwe 2 weekends ago. It was great! The place is beautiful. Only thing was the wind was v v v v strong when we were there and rain was coming on and off which isnt good. But we still enjoyed the trip. And I got to drive for the first time in 2 years... haha... on a long and deserted road somewhere. :P Quite scary! The photos are in reverse order (so starting from the last day and slowly working to the first day)... cause I'm too lazy to sort it and not sure how to make it work. Oh well.. anyway, enjoy the photos!! Oh! and I caught my first fish! :D

Semaphore Beach
A pelican. Yep, it was just sitting there... kinda scary. Wasn't sure whether it will attack me or not...

Someone's crabs! if only they were mine... *drool*

In the middle of nowhere... but nice isnt it?

One of the long straight roads... all you see around you are fields of wheat (I think they are wheat). There's no houses, no equipments... nothing.

The fish that I caught! =D Oven baked it.. mmmhmmm

One of the weirdest sign I've seen. What does it mean?

The photos from here on are at Innes National Park. V beautiful! Too bad the weather isnt that good, but wow. This is the jetty that we were fishing but no luck. :P

Beautiful yeah? :)

It was so windy they had signs like this at the cliff. Initially we wanted to walk to the lighthouse that's at the other end. But we gave up on that cause the wind was simply too strong!

Other parts of Innes National Park

These ants are BIG. Much bigger than those small ones we see at home.

Even though it's not obvious here, that small tiny thing u see crossing the road is an EMU. Yep, saw an EMU quite close. We saw 3 emus on that day! And you have to drive slow in the national park. 40km/hr. Cause u dunno when an emu will appear.

On the way to Innes National Park. Having lunch in the car cause it's too windy to eat outside.

Thought the sign is funny.. quality KILLED MEAT :P

Santa and reindeers outside someone's place :P

Somewhere along the way to Innes National park. Cant remember offhand where these places are :P

My first fish!! At Port Wakefield!! WHEEEEEEEEEEE! It was cold and windy... but I felt great! Hahahahahahahah

The caravan park

A lizard that we saw when we went for a stroll

Cabin room. I was sceptical when Uwe said we can stay at a cabin at the caravan park. But this place is nice! Changed my perception of cabins! It cost $70+ to stay in this cabin, and up to 5 people can stay here. Pretty good deal. And it's clean and have all the facilities u need. A cooking area, dining table, tv and couch.

The cabin and our wonder nice big toyota car.

Sigh

2009-12-01T03:47:00.000-08:00

Stupid KLC have implemented a login for going online. SO STUPID. This further my resolve to move out asap. It's so dumb to have all these restrictions placed on us. Oh well... looks like it is time to move out. The food is ok, and the cleaning etc. are good. Will have to look for new place soon!

Will be putting up some photos v soon! :)

Back in Adelaide!

2009-11-26T06:06:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Adelaide!

Was home for 3 weeks.. fennie's ROM was the main reason I went back home. It was great... feel really good.

Keeping this short since I'm tired.. hahaa...

I started work this week... and omg, feeling a bit swamped >_< But it's a good learning opportunity so it will be good.

Spending the weekend at Yorke Peninsula with Uwe before he leaves for Germany. I'll be going fishing! o.O hahaha... see how it goes...

Ok, off to zzz!

Feeding ducks at the river...

2009-10-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

Went to the river to feed ducks with my bf. Ducklings were so cute!! =) Here are some photos from that day... 3 Oct

Pelican trying to eat the fish. Took a few attempts, but it finally managed in the end.

Ducklings!! And parent duck! :P

Baby swan and family

Ducklings again :)

Greedy ducks going over my foot trying to get to the bread...

Updates

2009-10-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hmm, haven't written anything in a while! Well, I have a reason! I was busy with my thesis. Note: WAS. Haha. It was submitted last Tuesday! =) So yeah I have been free for past week or so. What have I been doing? Watching tv series, anime and reading books and manga. So this is what I've been up to recently...

THESIS
Yes! This is over and done with. Finally. After several months of hard work (and it is hard when you have to chase your supervisor plus trying all sorts of way to get participants) I finally submitted it. So glad it is over... now hopefully will get a good mark out of it. Our thesis is 33% of our marks. Considering that I did pretty well for my coursework and placement, I am positive I pass overall. =) Now just waiting for the confirmation of results, which should be out early December.

WORK
I will be starting work at Locher Human Resources on 23 Nov, after I come back from Singapore. Should be good... and I hope to learn lots from it. Must remind myself at all times though that I LEARN stuff from it. So all the best to me!

Have been doing some casual work at Santos. Not paid much, but the work doesn't require much use of the brain so all's good. They have free coffee, tea and biscuits there though :P

SEMINARS
I attended the first of three seminars today! It was great! And I get accredited in Genesys after the 3 seminars so that is a bonus. Today, I was taught to think of every psychometric assessment as a mini-experiment, since the aim is to get data out of it. Frankly, I have not thought of psychometric assessment this way, and it is a different perception. I mean, think about it... when you are conducting an experiment in your honours, you would want to make sure certain things remain consistent for your participants right? Like the setup of room, instructions etc. to ensure that your results are valid. Interesting way to think of psychometric assessment right? =)

EVENTS
Let's see... where have I been for the past month:
11 Sep - International Food Festival by the Medical school. Was invited by a friend for this event. As it's a food event, lots to eat! and it's $10 for 4 dishes. Pretty awesome. Only thing was there were so many people in that small hall that we felt suffocated.

20 Sep - City to Bay fun walk. Walked 12 km for this event! Went with a few good friends and it was enjoyable. The weather was good, and well, the distance is not a problem when your friends are with you. Did have muscleache after that though

26 Sep - Ying's Birthday. Had great food! about 12 dishes in all =) Will put up photos soon... when I reduce their size. Heh. Coincidentally, 26 Sep is mum's birthday too.

10 Oct - Animania. Friends from Sydney were organising this function so I went to help out. Cosplay wasn't as good as I thought it would be though, so that was disappointing. However, the other events were pretty good. And I get to see how much effort is required to set up and clean up for an event. Brought them (about 20 people!) for hotpot after the event...

Will put up photos soon... after I have sort them out :P

BOOKS
Book I am reading now:
Think! Before it's too late by Edward De Bono
Interesting book (so far) about lateral and creative thinking.

Books I want to read (which I will prolly go sit at Borders and read):
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Have a little faith by Mitch Albom

Books that I have read recently:
Obsidian Prey by Jayne Castle
Black Hills by Nora Roberts
Dark Slayer by Christine Feehan
Knockout by Catherine Coulter
I can see you by Karen Rose
Seven deadly sins by Agatha Christie (collection of stories)

ANIME
Vandread - Rewatched it. Still think it's a great series. haha
Saki - Mahjong anime... well, it's anime and interesting and funny. Japanese mahjong have different rules to the ones we play in Singapore. And the calculation for their winnings is complicated. Check out wikipedia. I think their mahjong players must be very good at maths
Kenichi - Funny, at times irritating, but quite good.
FFVII Advent Childrent - Finally watched it. hehe

THINGS THAT I FIND UNBELIEVABLE
Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. That is just so... unbelievable. When I saw the headlines, my first reaction was... huh? he won? but what did he do? Considering that the nomination ended when he had only been 12 days in office, how could he have won!? This result makes me doubt the credibility of the prize committee. Think about it... Gandhi DID NOT win this, because the committee think that he wasn't worthy of it. Gandhi, who freed so many of his people. Not worthy. And yet, the American president got it... for doing nothing. I was looking at the comments on the news article, and one of them asked: So does this mean that if I SAY I will write a critically acclaimed book, I will win the Pulitzer? Oh well... dunno what the world is going on anymore... but this... this is shocking to me

Disasters happening around. Flood in the Philippines, Tsunami in Samoa, Earthquake in Indonesia... all on the same day. The Earth is angry with us?

Winter is still NOT gone. It's suppose to be SPRING. But but why are we still having 11-16 degrees in Adelaide? Where is spring!? I want the nice weather!! like 20 degrees! Not cold and wet weather. Sob.

THINGS TO DO
Shopping. Yep, need to go buy clothes to bring back. And I need to shop for a dress for Fen's ROM!! Have to buy food stuff too... like choco and wine. Hahahahahah

Renew passport. The thought struck me yesterday... when I renew my sg passport at home... what will happen to my working visa? It's current a label in my current passport... oh well, will sort it out.

Long post... lalalalala.... back to Genesys....

Dateline looming

2009-09-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Havent posted something in a while. Busy? Yeah well yes, but that will be an excuse. Lol. If I wanted to, I could have posted something...

So many things have happened since the last post. I finalised the date that I'll be going home and coming back to Adelaide. Going home on the 29th Oct and leaving SG on 21st Nov, reaching Adelaide 22nd Nov. Why such a short time at home? Because I'm starting work on the 23rd Nov! Yep! I found work =) Will be working as project coordinator.. not really a psy job, but have to start somewhere. And it's related to learning and development, which is loosely connected to psy. In addition, it's income! so that's good. At least that made sure I have some money for the next few months while I apply for PR.

I got my lit review back (AGAIN) and it was filled with lots of comments. Need to work a lot on it... and I'm still working on it. o.O

Submitted draft 1 of the paper to sup last Friday. I hope he had a chance to look through it before the meeting today. We're all in a rush now because thesis is due in 2 weeks time and he's going away for holiday on 5 oct. Must jia you. I'm more concerned now about the lit review though... looking at the comments a lot more work have to be done

And guess what? I'm actually going to be working this week! When I agreed, I totally forgot that thesis is due soon and I have lots of things to be done still for my lit review. So dead now. >_< So now it'll be work in the day, and then lit review and thesis in the night. Looks like this week is going to be a hard hard week. o.O Hard work... + money of course

Created an index for a book with my bf. Omg, it's hard work. But pays well.. but manz, it was hard hard work. >_< We stayed up till 2-3 am to finish it because the dateline was looming... o.O

Went for city to bay walk yesterday! The whole walk was 12km, but after adding the distance to and fro KLC, plus walking to a friend's place, I think we walked about 20km yesterday. My legs are sooooooooo sore now. haha. Had fun though... and it was nice catching up with my friends. =)

Ok, off to work on lit review before meeting with Sup. then going off to work later today! Hope the work won't be too tedious. I still feel exhausted from the walk yesterday...

Whitney Houston - I Look into You

2009-09-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

Whitney Houston has a new album!!! Wheee! She has one of the greatest voice that I have heard and I love her songs (except one). I grew up with her songs, and it's great to know this is her comeback album. I think she hasn't released an album in 7 years, so this should be good =)

*excitement*

Sushi Making Session

2009-09-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

Went for a sushi making session on the 28th August with 2 friends. First time I've made my own sushi and well, it's hard. But we had fun!! My sushi looked like some mega-sushi with so much rice on it. Lol. The good thing is that it actually taste good. But what can you expect, considering the rice + ingredients etc were all prepared for us. Hahahah. We just go there and put the stuff on seaweed and wrap it =P But still, we had fun! =)

Thank you function for Peer Mentors sem 2

2009-08-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight there was a thank you function for peer mentors! It was nice catching up with the rest of the mentors. Haven't seen some of them after the event. I think the peer mentor is a great program! A bit lazy to write... lol, so ending off now. Oh! below is a photo of me getting a certificat from the Pro Vice Chancellor John Taplin! =D

Goals - Exercise and lose weight

2009-08-19T06:32:00.001-07:00

I've gained weight. That is undeniable. So... now I have to lose. And how I'm going to do it is of course via exercise.. (joy).. and control of diet. I'm not going to do the impossible by denying myself chocolate. That WILL NOT work. I will DIE. So, I'm just going to limit the amount I take instead. Goals are supposed to be achievable right? Didn't we all learn not to set impossible goals? So less chocolate. No buying of chocolates... gifts are not counted (people! buy me chocolate! :P) and I'll eat dessert too. Haha.

Now... exercise. I'm going fencing every tuesday. Clearly, that is not enough. So now I'm going to start jogging. Yep, you saw it right, I'm going to jog. Starting from this weekend. Due to placement, I can't jog during weekdays but placement is ending soon, so I will jog during weekdays and weekends.

Lose weight!!! =P

Book: The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford

2009-08-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

I read this book cause Uwe recommended it. It's supposed to help noobs like me understand Economics. Initially, I was sceptical. I mean, I sorta failed econs in JC! so how can I understand? But I still read it... and wow, it is good. It explains terms in economics very clearly, and the terms are illustrated in stories. Very informative!

Economics is about people. Economic growth is about better life for the individual. These are some of the things that I picked up in the book:

Fight scarcity power and corruption
Correct externalities
Try to maximise information
Get the incentives right
Engage with other countries
Embrace markets

I liked the book.. so read it! :P

*goes on to read the next book... 8th Confession by James Patterson*

Not happy!

2009-08-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

We had a blackout today at KLC. Actually, the "we" consists of the people who were staying on the same floor and same side as me, which comes up to 4 people. Naturally, you will turn to the "person-in-charge" when something went wrong right?! So, I went to the President of KLC's student club (whom I DID NOT vote for), who is also the Resident Assistnat, to ask for help. And what did he say???

Him: "Erm, I am not sure what to do about it. I think you'll have to call Felix about this (Felix = master of KLC). Do you have his number?"

Me: "Nope, I do not have his number"

Him: "Hold on, I'll give you his number"

WTH!? He didnt even call on my behalf... he gave me the number to call!? I believe that as the President, as well as the "Resident Assistant", he should be able to help in this kind of situation. However, not only does he NOT help, he's telling me to call!? @#@(#(@*()*(@#@#!@$!%$@%!
What in the world does he do then!? Since he cannot even help in this kind of situation, he should not even be a RA!? Stupid. Humph.

Heng Uwe knows where the key is, if not I'll be in darkness for the rest of the night, or at least until Felix solve it. Bleah.

Peer Mentor Sem 2

2009-08-10T02:16:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to be involved in the Peer Mentor program again in semester 2. Some of the mentors from sem 1 were involved 2! I think this is a great program. I get to meet new friends, and many people from different countries. It's also good for self-development! After being "forced" to help out students by being rostered to the front desk, I now have more confidence in speaking to strangers. Haha. Also, I get to understand the logistics involved in the whole setup. Immense. Other than the "work" part, we have our fun... Went to Glenelge, which is NOT recommended during winter. Very cold and windy! Went for my first footy match! Cool stuff. Hehe. And other social events... If I am able to, I would want to be involved in next year's program too!

Glenelg Beach

At the Welcome Center

Bringing students to the Footy Match at AAMI Stadium

Eating Fest.... at KLC

2009-08-09T01:53:00.000-07:00

My friends and I had a eating feast at KLC before the start of Semester 2. Decided to have good food before we all started getting busy again. There were about 12 of us and there were 10 dishes. And they were all GOOD! No kidding... all great food. My friends can cook! (Yay for me!) And since I can't cook, I help to cut the ingredients and wash dishes. Nice to catch up with friends, sit down and have good food and drinks together. Here are som photos from that day...

See all the food we have! =)

Close up of individual dishes...

Eating Fest.... Hotpot Day!

2009-08-09T01:30:00.000-07:00

Hmm now that the internet seems to have stabilized, I'm putting on the photos for Hotpot day! It was fun! Sophia was kind enough to go get the ingrediants for the hotpot (thank you very much!) as the rest of us were busy that day. Went to Mo's place after placement... prepared the food and then had hotpot. After that we were playing Xbox --> Guitar Hero World Tour! Had my first play at the drum, which I played very badly. It didnt help that one of the "drum" wasn't working. Then we played Wii too! hahahha. So we were at Mo's place from 7 till about 1ish. It was absolutely fantastic!

Hotpot food.. lamb, tofu, golden mushroom, the different kinds of balls, crabstick, chicken liver, lotus, potato, rice cake (really nice!) chicken, chinese cabbage...

Soup base for hotpot. It was actually spicy... but my friends didnt put all the chili in cause I can't take food that is too spicy

Me with all the food! =)

Sophia, Mo, Mo's housemate (sorry, can't remember the name..) and me

The drumset for guitar world tour!

Eating fest.... Dumpling day!

2009-08-09T01:11:00.000-07:00

I've been on an eating festival lately. Lol. First it was a feast at KLC on the 26 July. Yeah, I haven't put photos of that event yet but I will (when the internet stabilize since there are so many nice photos from that event!). Then on the 31 July we had hotpot (=steamboat) at one of my friend's, Mo's, place. Hehe. And yesterday I had dumplings at Sophia's place!

Dumplings.. hmmm *drool* Hahahah. I love it. We made it! Yes! I actually helped to make some of these dumplings. MUHAHAHAH. Impressed? I am... of myself. It was great! I had a great time making it them and of course eating them. Hehehehehheheeh. Here are some photos from dumpling day yesterday! =D

Cooked dumpling... yummy

Taking a break to eat... before continue making more dumplings...

Look at all those delicious dumplings!

Two different kinds of dumplings (see the two different fillings)

Sigh...

2009-07-22T07:21:00.000-07:00

My week hasn't been good. First, I was rushing for the "supposedly to have been completed" literature review on Sunday. Dun ask me why it's not done yet because I dun have an answer for that. So I was doing the lit review until 3am on monday morning... then went to the Welcome Centre at 8.30am. More student then I expected as many of the study abroad students came. So was busy. Went to see Neil at 2pm... and was told my lit review kinda sux. Not in those words, but it was implied. So I was upset of course... went back to KLC, didnt get my IELTS results, so became more upset. And because I didnt have enough sleep, i got more upset. Finally went to sleep...

Tues, got IELTS results. I got a 7.0 for reading and 7.5 for writing. Wasnt as good as I hoped... but am glad that I pass. The test cost about $300! Stil had a headache due to not enough sleep I think...

Wed... met a friend for after dinner drinks... and he said I've gained weight. :( then my bf said I'm heavy. :( I think he's joking but I'm not sure. And I'm told that I should not just ignore that comment cause guys usually try the "softer" approach.

Sigh. Need to lose weight. Need to exercise more and eat less junk food. I MUST. Sigh.

Close-ups of Dishes

2009-07-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

Here are the close up photos of the dishes I had last Sunday! Don't they look yummy!??!?!? =D

The ingredients...

The ingredients at the other side of the counter...

蔬菜炒肉片

My friend made this specially for me cause I dun eat bittergourd. The pork was soooo tender!

苦瓜炒肉片

素什锦
I have no idea what this dish is made up of (other than the obvious carrots and some kind of noodles and green veges) but it tasted sooooooo goooooooooood!

烤鸡翅, 南瓜
The trick to making the chicken wings tender? When it is in the oven, use aluminum foil to cover the chicken. As for the pumpkin, wrap them in aluminum foil and bake them together with the chicken wings. The pumpkins was very soft! and the chicken wings were tender and juicy!

溜肝尖
Yep! We had pig liver! and it's good! =D =D Pig liver is one of my favouritest food... when it's cooked nicely.

清炖鸡汤, with asparagus, mushroom, zhu du, tofu
To ensure that asparagus remains crunchy, add them last. Oh, and the tofu didn't melt because it's one of the hardy ones.

Day 1 of 2nd semester orientation for International Students

2009-07-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

Today is Day 1 of the orientation and boy, it was INTENSE. I arrived at 8.30am, and as I was walking to the Welcome Centre, thought to myself... wow, where are all the people? There's no one here? o.O Met Ben at the Welcome Centre, and helped to bring some documents in for setting it up. By 8.45am, we... were flooded. I dunno where all these people came from!!! o.O Saw one of the gals from KLC and she feedback that she had difficulty finding the Welcome Centre (Yes, it's hidden in some obscure corner of the Uni, and no, it is actually not stated in the signs in the building. Not sure why though). So I got some signs directing students to the Welcome Centre and started putting them up at Union House. The process took longer than I thought. Why? cause I was leading people to the Welcome Centre!! Anyway, that deed got done and all was good. Of course that resulted in more people finding us, which means we got more work. =P

We are expecting about 400+ students in semester 2. (I think... or is it 700?). About 80-85% of them arrived TODAY. Try and imagine that. Can you? If I wasnt there, I couldnt! (Doh, should have taken a photo!!). So the day was intense, with us Peer Mentors running around finding the details for students. Hehe. As always, backdesk was choatic. Everyone seem to know what they are doing but no one knows what everyone else is doing. Ah well. We learn from all these... Mistakes happen. What is important is that we learned from them.

The campus tours were good. Much more structured than last time, and the notes really helped a lot. I hope the students enjoyed it as much as I did!! I helped out with a Faculty of Enginnering tour and this is the first time I went and wander around the Engineering building. It's a maze.... hahaha... so, thanks to the tour, I actually learn some new things today!

Oh! I met my secondary school classmate, Dorothy, today!! =D That was a pleasant surprise. Didn't expect that at all. Will be catching up with her soon... hehehehe.

Now that we have "processed" the bulk of the students, the other days should be much more relaxing (I hope). I won't be in again until Friday... so hope that goes well too. Going for placement tomorrow and I'll be researching quite a bit on training stuff. That should be good... See how it goes.

I'm gonna try my hair now... and sleep... had a huge dinner yesterday, and only managed to sleep at 2.30am. I was too bloated, and can't sleep. :( BUT! the dinner was good! Had fun!! Went to Waite Campus for the first time, and went to Ming's place for dinner. We spend about 2 hrs cooking (ok, I wasnt cooking. They were :P) and wow, it was a FEAST. =D 7 dishes for 4 of us... hehehe. I enjoyed it (Of course!!! it's food! To make it better, it's CHINESE FOOD!). Great! Hope we can do that again soon.

Michael Jackson...

2009-07-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50. Most of us, if not all of us, would know this person. His songs, his dance moves and his music videos have been great... and a part of my life. I love his songs, especially his earlier ones like Thriller, Beat it, Smooth Criminal, Bad, Black or White and You Rock My World. I remember the days when I get excited when he released a new album. Those were the days where I can sing each and every of his songs. My hope to dance like him faded away when I tried dancing on my parents bed, end up falling, and getting a scar at my eyebrow (yes, laugh all you want :P I was what... 5 I think).

His videos were always good, and my favourites are Thriller, Black or White, Smooth Criminal and You Rock my World. I believe his videos inspired future artists on how their videos should be... with group dancing and so on... so yeah...

His dance moves are extraordinary. I can still remember the day I saw his moonwalk. I was like.. what the... what in the world is that!? And had to rewind the tape a few times. This signature move of his is awesome =) I think that's one of the things that go me stuck onto him... wondering what other moves he can have.

So thank you Michael Jackson... for being part of my life.

Reflections on 8th IOP Conference

2009-06-29T07:59:00.000-07:00

Went to Sydney, Manly last week for the 8th IOP Conference. As this was my first conference, I was very excited about it! About 300 delegates were expected... and the program looked very interesting. But, it was not as good as I thought it would be. It's not bad, just not as awesome as I thought it would be. Overall, the keynote speakers and sessions were good. Gained some new knowledge from these sessions, such as team-building exercise do not actually improve team work, but it does provide more role clarity and future directions that organisational psychologists could expand into.

The other sessions were not that great. I had expected at least to gain some concrete knowlege from these sessions. However, quite a fair bit of these sessions were reporting of findings of preliminary research! So it's not even sure whether what they reported could work! >_< Felt like some of the sessions were a waste of my time. Sigh. They need to provide more description on the program next time. Bleah.

I will be typing up the notes that I took from the conference. There are a few computer programs that I want to check out, as well as some journal articles and books. Not too sure whether the slides will be available from the APS website, but I hope so.

Ok, time to sleep! Back to placement tomorrow!!!

Break in Sydney... 8th IOP Conference...

2009-06-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

Went to Sydney for a week. Main aim was to go there for the 8th Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference at Manly, but took additional days to go around Sydney again. Haven't been there for about 4 years now and well, it's still the same. :P Still very busy, lots of people... kinda like Singapore, except something always change in Singapore even if you've been away for a few months. Still, the trip was good. Thanks to Ariel for letting us stay at his place. Really nice of him!! and the hospitality of his parents too. Had a catchup dinner with Jamang too. Here are some photos from the trip!!

Sydney Opera house!

Harbour Bridge (yes, I cant resist taking another one of this)

Darling Harbour at night

Darling Harbour in the day

Ariel's granny flat that we stayed in when we were in Sydney.

Went on a Whale Watching cruise! It was an interesting experience since I've never been on one of these before. :) And really awesome!

On the way out to see to see whales!

Sydney CBD

Whales!!!!

Manly
Manly Wharf at night

Manly Beach

This is a college of tourism I think. Not too sure, but a very cool building. Took us about 30 mins to find this. Hehe.

Photos from the day my laptop went crazy...

2009-06-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know, my laptop went bonkus on me last month. And these are what I see when I on my laptop... imagine yourself in my shoes, and tell me you were not shocked / upset / scared....

Yap, screen was split into 6 smaller screen. Scared me...

See the weird colours? That's what I see when I try to log in... on times that I can actually get that far...

Blue screen of death. I knew when I see this (the hardware error part) that it's not a software problem and I NEED some professional help...

The Lexus and the Olive Tree

2009-06-03T03:12:00.000-07:00

Today I finished reading The Lexus and the Olive Tree, a book by Thomas Friedman. It's an interesting book, and talks about the world going after prosperity and development (the Lexus), and still wanting to retain its own culture, traditions and identity (the Olive Tree). Go read it!! =) Though it was published in 1999, some part of it is still applicable...

After reading this book, I thought to myself... I must do something to preserve my culture... which led me to think... what is my culture? o.O To my horror, I am quite vague on a lot of the cultural stuff and practices that we have!! Need to read up... and actually remember...

On other things... sad to say I have NOT finish my lit review. I dunno what is stopping me from finishing it. Argh. Some one help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Have started placement at Locher. 2nd day and I am swamped o.O should be exciting though and will be learning a lot more new things. So that's good...

Should be watching Angels and Demons this weekend! Am looking forward to it!

Will be going to watch a fencing competition too. Nope, I am not competing. Why? Cause I sux XD

That's all folks!

Diversity won Britain's Got Talent!

2009-05-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

Diversity WON!! WHEE! Yeah! Congratulation to Diversity!! They are one of my favorites! (I liked Flawless and Aidan too :P)

So, after 8 weeks of competition, Britain's Got Talent season 3 came to a close... and Diversity won. *beam* *cheers* *yay* =) So here are my thoughts and opinions on the finalists:

1) Diversity
I remember when I first saw Diversity's performance, I was struck by 1) the great choreography 2) the diversity in the group, in terms of age, race, size 3) their dancing. True, their dance moves are not as technically clean as the other dance group, Flawless, but the choreography was awesome. And they had a "fun" factor to their routine! Really cool! Congrats again!

2) Flawless
During their audition, Simon asked them, "Tell me what's the ambition here" and they answered "Chase the dream, not the competition". I was impressed by that comment and thought it was a great answer. They then wowed me with their dance routine. Truly, their routines were flawless, technique was really good but, they dun touch me as much as Diversity does.

3) Susan Boyle
Over 60 million hits on youtube. Beat that! Susan Boyle was why I stumbled onto Britain's Got Talent. I don't usually follow reality tv shows, but I saw the link to her video on facebook and was thought, "oh well, I'll watch it and see how good BGT is this time round". Her audition was amazing. I must admit though that I was just wow by her audition. It's a feeling of "I can't believe that such a powerful voice can come out of this person". Subsequently, she just doesn't wow me anymore. Maybe it's cause there are other singers in the competition who can sing as well, and some even better, than her? However, she did manage to publicise BGT to the world.

4) Aidan Davis
For a 12 year old who is self-taught, he was very good. His audition performance was cool and his semi-finals was great. I especially like the background special effects and the travellator part. Really good. A pity though that he only had 24 hours to put his finals routine together. It was somewhat disappointing cause it was similar to his semis performance. All in all, he did great.

5) 2 Grand
Granddad and granddaughter duo. Very sweet! I mean, how often do you get to see this! And they did sing well too! Not so much on granddad, but the gal was good. Have a good voice.

6) Stavros Flatley
Father and son duo. Didn't impress me too much except in the audition. That was hilarious. But after that the wow factor just wasn't there anymore.

7) Hollie Steel
Young girl with a great voice. Just not the kind of voice that I like. ^^ When I saw her audition, I wasn't impress with her dancing but when she sang, I was impressed. Didn't wow me anymore after that though...

8) Julian Smith
Frankly, nothing that great to me. It was a saxaphone performance and I have heard many better ones (who are professionals so they should be better!!)

9) Shaheen Jafargholi
Great voice, but again, was impressed for audition only. After that it was just well, normal.

10) Shaun Smith
Same comment as Shaheen Jafargholi

Hmm, I do have a preferance for dance acts to the singing ones eh? Well, dance acts are easier to impress cause they have different routines each time, whereas it is much more difficult to impress with singing. Not as much "wow" factor in that.

Congratulations to all the finalists!! You all did well!!! But there can only be one winner!!!

One other performance that I liked was that of Greg Pritchard. His audition was really funny, but weird. Simon said he's like a dog meowing!! Lol. His performance was totally unexpected and I was like.. what the...

Now I have to get back to my lit review which I am suppose to finish today but that looks very dim right now... >_<

Laptop problems...

2009-05-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

My laptop is giving me problems. And again during this time! Almost the same time period as last year! WTH. >_<>_< Scary... hopefully it'll be ok now...

Have to start lit review TODAY. I MUST....

Focus!!

2009-05-17T16:42:00.000-07:00

So I did some reflections last night and I am not happy with myself at all. Been procrastinating too much, eating too much junk food and gaming and mudding too much. I NEED TO FOCUS.

Sigh. Not too sure why I havent been focusing. I used to be so much more organised. At least when I put something on a timeline, I WILL do it. However, now even though I have it marked on my calender, I havent even start. WHY!? Is it because I know I still have time!? But the thing is, I dun have much left. And frankly, I do not deal well with last minute work. ARGH!! Or is it because I have no confidence in the lit review that I have to write cause I've never written a lit review before? Or that I am quite tired of chasing after my supervisor for comments?

Sigh. Disappointed with myself. I practically wasted my whole weekend. Didnt do much work except flipped through some books that I've been hogging and then deciding that I dun need them. Actually, considering the pattern of my supervisor, I SHOULD PANIC. Cause he takes so long to do something so I must give it to him earlier. Bleah.

Life is full of choices. I must choose now. MUST FOCUS!

Stupidity...

2009-05-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I did something really silly yesterday. My liquid soap has a dispenser and it was running out. So I took from my "storage" supply the bottle of "soap" that i bought and pour it in my dispenser... and then... realised that it's not soap.... it's moisturiser.......................

So now not only do i NOT have my soap... since it's some weird mixture of soap and moisturiser... I dun have moisturiser too! talk about stupidity... ARGH! this will teach me... LOOK ANd PROCESS WHAT IT IS BEFORE USING!

Bleah :P

Things are coming along...

2009-05-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to say that things are kinda coming along for my thesis! Have finally done up the draft survey and will be passing it to my bosses + one consultant to get their opinions on it. After that I'll finalise it and put it online! =) Yeah! My supervisor finally looked through my Ethics application. Will make the relevant changes today and if I'm lucky, I hope to submit it this week so that will give me a 2 weeks window to have it signed. So slow though. Sigh.

In the mean time, I'll work on my lit review, the survey questions, and communicate with APS on how to send this questionnaire out to the members. I'm hoping to run this survey latest mid-june (15 June) and have it running for 3-4 weeks (end 3-10 July). After which I can collate the data and start comparing. Not much time left!!! Must jia you!

It doesn't help that I'm being emotional about things right now, which is affecting my working attitude. Sigh. Ah well, just have to deal with it.

Have a good week!

Cosmic Cube!

2009-05-08T03:42:00.000-07:00

YEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

[english] You say 'create'
[english] (say) Cid 'Holy Cow!! You have done a superb job!!'
Congratulations to Fairanko - she has just created "A Cosmic Cube".
Cid gives you Cosmic Cube.

For those that dunno... that is an item on AP that I'm playing. MUHAHAHAHAHAH. After months of work, I finally got it! YES! now to concentrate on other stuff...

I'm quite close to the 100k qp. I have about 70+k now. Should take long to hit 100k. Once I hit 100k, I'll let my qp show on whois. Hehehehe...

Lalalalalalalalalalaallalalalalal

Yawnz

2009-05-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

I'm up before 7am on this cold (7 degrees!!) Tuesday morning. And online. lol. What made me wake up? Well... what do you think? Cramps. >_<>_< But then, it wasn't particularly bad. Just very uncomfortable for the day. Thank goodness I'm feeling a bit better now. At least I dun feel like a zombie, which is good. And I'm actually looking forward to have some food, so even better. Heh.

Got the feeling yesterday that one of my colleague at work is not happy with me. I wonder why? o.O Maybe it's cause I go in late on Monday mornings cause I have to meet up with Neil? But then, I made up for the lost hours by not taking lunch breaks! As in I didnt go out for lunch. Just get some food to eat in the office so I can still man the phone lines. Humph. His attitude was kinda cold yesterday. Didnt even talk much. What the... well, they have their breaks and 1 hr lunches. Argh. Whatever.

Meeting with Neil yesterday did not go well imo. As I mentioned above, he made changes to my survey again! I sent that to him 2 weeks ago and he only looked at it yesterday! argh. Anyway, have emailed him the revised version so hopefully no more changes from him. And he forgot that I havent got ethics approval yet! wth. He was the one that told me I can't apply for ethics without the survey being set out! argh. Anyway, I have to rush to submit ethics approval before I can proceed with the pilot study for the survey. Need to "add oil"... very slow imo. Still have 5k words lit review!!

Oh! I had hot pot on sunday!! =) Need to sort photos, then I'll post some on. Was celebrating James's birthday.. he's 81. I can't imagine how I'll be like at 81 years old... o.O but hot pot was fun. Hehe. Didnt ate too much, but all in all, quite nice. And interesting.

Will be watching phantom of the opera this sat! whee! I didnt book the tickets, but hopefully the seats will be good...

ok, got to prepare to go for placement....

Updates..

2009-04-30T23:44:00.000-07:00

Well, another update.

At the suggestion of my dear sister, I added a upcoming book list to my blogs. Yes, these are the authors that I follow =) Quite a bit yeah? hehe. I do read other books too, but these are the ones that I really like. One of the best things about the libraries here in Adelaide? No booking fee!!! Heheheh. So when any of these new books are released I'll place a hold at the library and read it. If it's one of the books that I'm fanatic about (e.g. J. D. Robb), I'll go to Borders and read. At the Borders here, they have a cafe. However, the difference between this cafe and the one in SG is that u can bring your book into the cafe to read, without paying it first. Sweet eh? hehe.

Not much been happening lately. Oh, except that I started fencing again and am having muscle aches. haha. But have some events coming up! Celebrating a friend's birthday on sunday... and we decided we're gonna have hotpot. So we'll be buying food stuff tomorrow at Chinatown and have hotpot on Sunday. Exciting!! I like hotpot!!

Going to watch Phantom of the Opera next Sat! I havent seen Phantom in ages! I have a softspot for Phantom as it's the first musical that I've seen and boy, the impact it had on me. It's the musical that made me fell in love with musicals. Hehe. Quite excited about it.

So that's about it... need to do a lot of writing over the weekend. Must get the proposal out and start my lit review. Cannot delay anymore. Feel so slow and slack! A lot of my classmates have already STARTED their experiment! I'm still in preparation state! argh...

Have a good weekend all!

Updates

2009-04-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

So... it's been a while since I last updated. Yes, I've been lazy... haha. =) And it doesnt help that the internet is so unstable. Anyway, will try my best to be more updated! So here's a summary of what happened in April so far:

10th - I officially became attached/in a relationship. =)

12th - Went on a date to Glenelg Beach with my bf. Practically spent the whole entire day there! It was awesome. We had fish and chips for lunch. Had the foresight to buy ketchup before going... if not we'll be spending extra on small portion of ketchup that will not be enough. Beautiful sunset that day too!

14th - Attended a public forum about the economic crisis. Interesting forum that gives me alternative perspectives. Dun trust the news!!

18th - Had hotpot session with 3 friends that I know from the Peer Mentor program. My friend's housemate have guitar world tour!! =D Was playing for a bit.. hahahaha. Interesting that the way they eat hotpot is different from the way we eat hotpot in SG. Back at home, we marinate the meat and drink the soup. In China they dun marinate the meat. And they usually only eat lamb or beef! They use the soup to cook the food, and then dip it in sauce. Interesting =D

19th - Made steam buns with my friends at KLC!! Awesome. Of course I did mostly washing... hahahaha... Oh! and they eat steam buns like we eat xiao long bao! with vinegar!

20th - Settled 3rd placement at Locher!

And that are the more interesting things that happened so far this month =)

Festival on TR

2009-04-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

There's a festival on TR on today! So I logged on, expecting people + excitement + new stuff... but I was sorely disappointed. There were about 20 people logged on. Considering that we get to have 1 alt there, it's more of like 10-15 people instead of 20. The same festival a year ago would have about 100-120 people logged on. What in the world happened?! What happened to the TR that I love? Where's all the people gone?

It seemed like the imms are the ones that's making the whole place go down the drain. For e.g. people are getting banned / punished without a chance to explain their actions. Also, apparently any new ideas and suggestions are not accepted. How is the mud going to improve when there's no input from players? How is the mud going to expand when there's no people on? No new people logging in and the older players leaving? Is this what always happened when someone gets too much power? It's really sad... cause I really like TR. Sigh... not a good thought...

Lazy...

2009-04-08T07:13:00.001-07:00

Well, too lazy to update blog. Lol. There's been lots happening but hmm too lazy. Haha. Just wanna let people who read my blog know that I'm still alive.. and well. Will update soon!

End of the week..

2009-04-02T05:58:00.000-07:00

Another end of the week is approaching... managed to get through placement. For some reason, time seemed to pass really slow today. o.O Oh well, I got through it in the end.

Supposed to go get Gelato with Uwe tomorrow. But plans have changed. We're going to watch the Rugby 7s instead. Why? Cause I got free tickets from Study Adelaide. =) I applied for it but didnt expect to get it. Haha. It was an event that Uwe wanted to go to, but I didn't want to spend the money cause I went to the event last year. Anyway, Rugby 7s tomorrow! (yay! I get to wear the shirt I bought last year!)

A few errands to run tomorrow:
1) Repair my boots. Hopefully can find the place
2) Buy chocolates for easter. I'm not christian, but hey, it's chocolate :P
3) Collect someone's thesis... if it's ready
4) Go to test library to check out some tests
5) See if there's any sale
6) Check out about dry cleaning. Better dry clean my jackets before winter comes...
7) Buy makeup remover. This will be hard, cause I have no idea at all

Lots of things to do tomorrow... gonna go zzz...

TKGSSB Gold with Honours!!! =D

2009-04-01T05:23:00.000-07:00

YES! WE DID IT!! (ok, not we, we, but well, tkgs.. lol. It's still we to me... whatever :P ) TKGSSB GOLD WITH HONOURS! Way to go juniors!!! Kinda amazing that I feel pride and happiness when I was told that TKGSSB got gold with honours... considering that 1) I'm not even in Singapore 2) I dunno these juniors, even though I'm pretty sure I've met them before and 3) I havent even heard them play their competition pice. BUT STILL... I AM HAPPY! =D This just shows how much band is part of my life.... hahahahaa

MUHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA

Message board spoilt :(

2009-03-30T07:42:00.001-07:00

The message board gadget is not working... so sad!! >_< So I've removed it. I'll put something similar soon... if I can figure out how to get it...

Going to sleep now...

Photos from Clipsal 500

2009-03-24T03:47:00.000-07:00

Went to the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercares Adelaide on Saturday with Uwe (pronounced oo-vey). It was an awesome experience!!! Never been to such an event before, so was really excited about it. =) I'm not a huge huge car fan, but went there to experience how a race is like and wow, amazing. Cars were travelling fast (of course!!) and there were lots of people! And cause we bought the general admission tickets, we dun get seats on the stands. Had to stand by the racetrack side... The concert was cool too. Never been to a concert with such a huge stage before :). Music was good... who knows country music can sound so nice eh? Hehe. So here are some photos from that day... Some of the sequence may be wrong.. but too lazy to go sort everything :P

The COOL & EXPENSIVE CARS...

1.4 million car.. Pagani.. *drool*

Ferraris =D

Maserati

Lambogini

Lambogini racecar

I think this car won one of the comp...

The crowd...

Have air show too. An F16 also flew by, nearly deafening me...

The XXXX Angels! (yes, there were lots of guys there)

Me on Harley Davidson motorbikes!

Racecar... that is a formula 3 car

Stunt bike show too

The grandstand. Which we cant enter cause we're general admission only

One of the car got into accident. The safety car came out... and there was only 1 lap left

Racetrack... for a hat. Yes, not joking, that IS A HAT.

Aussie Racing Car. Cute and mini, extremely light! If I remember correctly, the engine is 1.3litres

I think they do bring these cars to race...

At the Entrance

Random race cars

Uwe, from Germany :)

Tents for resting

???

Me with a gun. They are heavy...

Solar Car

Fireworks at night after the concert :)

Lee Kernaghan, one of the biggest star in country music

The crowd at the concert

Big stage huh!!

Procrastinating again...

2009-03-23T05:37:00.000-07:00

I'm at it again. Procrastinating. I dunno which is worse... procrastinating or snacking. Sigh. Here are the things I know I NEED TO DO:
1) Draft survey (due tomorrow!! and I'm still sitting on it with no urgency at all! WTH!)
2) Assignment 1 for stats (due friday)
3) A thesis plan (already overdue imo)
4) Apply jobs (ongoing)
5) Exercise (still haven't start...)

HOW!? someone tell me how to make myself do these thingssssssssssss!! ARGH!!!

It is at times like this I want to kick myself... but even too lazy to do that... hopeless... >_<

>_< >.< >_< >.<

20th March - Nice :)

2009-03-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Saw this view while I was walking back to my room from the dining hall. Thought it's really nice and would like to share with all of u.

Photos from Barossa Valley and Clare Valley

2009-03-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from Barossa Valley and Clare Valley. There's lots more... between Louis and Me, we took approximately 800 photos... lol.. so here are really just SOME... (since I'm too lazy to pick out anymore :P)

View of Barossa Valley from lookout

Photo taken at one of the sculpture in the sculpture park at the lookout

Tasted 15 different boutique wines from the Eden Valley here. A bit more expensive than the usual ones, but they are unique. They are usually not sold in the bottle shops... FYI, boutique wines are produced by small production wineries :)

At one of the wineries...

Seppeltsfield, one of the oldest in Barossa

This is how wine looks like in the barrel... kinda puts u off huh....

Saw people picking the grapes! :) First time I've seen this! (cause I went there when the grapes were gone)

One of the towns we pass by on the way to Clare Valley. Refer to notes from previous post :P

Mining site (refer to previous blog)

View of Clare Valley. Cool huh! Took us a while to get up there though...

Sevenshill winery. The first winey established in Clare Valley.

Close-up of grapes :)

Lookout to Clare Valley

Sun Setting...

Was going to go Glenelg to see the sunset. But couldnt make it. Went to the nearest beach which is Semamphore. Nice beach! I've never been there so it's an eye opener.

The past 5 days...

2009-03-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, been a busy past 5 days for me! Below is a summary of what has been happening. I will put up photos later on. Have a meeting with supervisor on wed and need to prepare for that. Compressing photo is not my main priority now :P

Wed - Met Louis at the city. Louis is my friend from Sydney. He came for a business meeting and decided to visit me too. Haha. Made him rent a car so he can be my driver... :P

Thu - Set off early to the Fleurieu Peninsula which is essentially the south of Adelaide. These are the places we went:

Mt. Lofty - to see the view
Strathalbyn
Milang - Supposed to go another town further up but took a wrong turn and ended here instead.
Lake Alexandrina - Point Stuart. This is a strange lake. It changes colour from different viewpoint! When we first saw it we thought it was a big patch of grass, but it was actually greenish in colour. Then at another point, it appears greyish. We saw it as green, grey, gren-gray, blue, blue-green... o.O Weird
Clayton - Louis nearly sank into the sand... lol
Currency Creek Winery - Stopped by on the way to Goolwa. Not my kind of wine
Ballet Stones Winery - Stopped by on the way to Goolwa. Bought a moscato here. $11!
Goolwa
Hindmarch Island - Not much to see here. Still under development. Reminds me of sentosa with all the houses being built... in 1-2 years time, it will be full of houses. >_<>
Victor Habor - Stopped for a while to use the restroom while Louis took some photos. I've been here 4 times now... doesnt hold much interest anymore.
Waitpinga Beach - Beautiful beach! Very windy though.. lots of people fishing.
Parsons Beach - Seperated from Waitping Beach by a cliff (if u can call it that. Not sure what to call it). Waves are stronger than Waitpinga Beach. Saw some surfers.. even though they r really small.
Blowhole Creek Road - Unable to get to blowhole due 4WD only for the roads. The national park should put a notice at the start of the road that it's for 4WD only!! We had to drive through unsealed road to get there, then paid $6 for a park entrance fee... and we didnt even get to see the blowhole! argh.
Cape Jervis - The place u go to to get to Kangaroo Island. Our aim was to get there and take a photo of kangaroo island. Just to say we've seen KI. But we got there too late... managed to get the dusk light though . Very nice :)

After that, we drove back to KLC. Reach around 10.30pm. Was tired, but fun. Hehe.

Fri - Set off to Barossa Valley and Clare Valley. Winery day for us! Barossa valley is more famous for its red wine while clare valley more for its white wine.

Barossa Valley - Mengler Hill Lookout, Sculpture Park. Great view of Barossa Valley here :) The sculpture park was interesting though I really cant appreciate some of them. I am so NOT a modern art person
Taste Eden Valley - At Anguston. It's a place that represent some boutique wineries. Boutique wineries are those that dun produce a lot. So they r special, unique. Louis and I tasted 15 boutique wines... we had to take a walk after that cause a bit tipsy. But we got over it. Hehe.
Seppeltsfield Winery - One of the biggest name in the Barossa valley. I believe they are quite old too. Had to pay $5 to taste, so we didnt bother with it. Huge place though.
Kapunda - Copper industry here... has an 8m statue commemorating the miners...
Riverton - Old train station
Clare Valley - Riesling timeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Went to the information center to get a map of the wineries. Too many o.O haha. We picked a few that are a bit special...
Knappstein - Produced wheat beer and some of its wine won prizes
Neagles Rock - Its wine won prizes... however, those are not for tasting. >.<
Sevenhill Cellars - The first winery of the region. Went for historical reason. There's a church and underground cellar there.
Kilikanoon Wines - It's 2006 Riesling won best wine in a UK wine competition. Unfortunately not for tasting too...
Spring Gully Lookout - Nice view, but... not of the vineyards...
Neagles Rock Lookout - Great view! and it's of the vineyards! But have to go up a steep path to get to it. Nice though!!!
Semaphore Beach - Plan was to watch sunset at Glenelg. Unfortunately the so-called highway was under roadworks so instead of 100km/hr, we were travelling at 60km/hr. So instead of going to Glenelg, we went to the nearest beach, which is Semaphore Beach. Didnt manage to catch the sunset there (we did catch it along the way and stopped and took some photos), but did catch the dusk light. And it'a my first time there too!!

Went back to KLC after having dinner there... 10+pm again!

Sat - walking around the city to look at it's art and sculptures. Amazing what you dun think about when u see them everyday. There are close to 200 of these around the adelaide city... o.O Thanks to Louis for making me "see" them.

Sun - Spent my sunday doing laundry and working on statistics assignment 2. Now feeling v lazy to go iron... maybe tomorrow or the day after. Feeling tired too... sigh.

And there ends my busy 4 days!! =) hope the new week will be a good one!

Opening of the Fringe Festival 2009!

2009-03-15T02:39:00.000-07:00

This is an older event that I went on 27 Feb, but didn't get to put up any photos. Hence I'm only writing it now.. cause I just got the photos that go with it. The event is the Fringe Festival! For those who dunno, the Adelaide Fringe Festival is Australia's largest arts festival and is well, held in Adelaide. Haha. There's concerts, plays, cabarets etc. The opening parade took over the streets of Adelaide... and I was only in time to see a lot of heads cause soooooooo many people were there! Nonetheless, managed to see some... after much squeezing. After the parade, there was a free concert which I stayed for a while :) Hehe... here are the photos!!

Yes.. Pipe Organ on a pirate ship lookalike with flames... V cool!

There was a main stage where a concert took place. But it was too loud for me >_< Only stayed for a while before I left... was cool though. And the concert went on for a few hours, ending only at 12++am

Trip to McLaren Vale, Aldinga Beach, Hallett Cove & Windy Point

2009-03-08T06:36:00.000-07:00

Went on a trip with a friend today!! We went to McLaren Vale, visited 2 wineries, got lost countless times (my fault mostly cause I couldnt see/find the signboards!), went to Aldinga Beach, had a nice walk, proceeded to Hallett Cove, saw my first sunset (which ended really fast!!), and then went to Windy Point, where there were a group of people playing really loud music. All in all a very nice day! =D

My first view of McLaren Vale at the Information Centre. So happy to see so many leaves!! This is in contrast to Barossa Valley where the grapes were already picked and the vines are mostly bare.

Close up of grapes on vines

Huge bottle of wine at Leconfield... 6litre!

Lunch at the Cheese Cafe. Quite ok food, at least filled me up :)

View of McLaren Vale from d'Arenberg winery

d'Arenberg Cellar Door in the background

Crushed Shiraz grapes at Samuel's Gorge. Yes, that's a winery. I thought it was a Gorge.. scenary place. But nope, it's a winery. The scenery was quite good though ^^

Close-up of Olives! For some reason, I thought olives are from bushes... I dunno why... I mean i keep hearing people say olive tree... lol....

1st look at Aldinga Beach --> Awesome! :) so pretty!

Hallett Cove Conservation park. This is the Sugarloaf. Looks like one?

Sunset at Hallett Cove

Windy Point - Nice night view of Adelaide. If only the people are more considerate. It's irritating to have such loud music... zzzz....

So we reach KLC at about 10pm. Quite a long day, but happy. Didnt do work today though! So have to make up for it tomorrow. Will be finishing up one of the stats assignment tomorrow. Will have to settle ethics stuff tomorrow too. Hard work tomorrow!!!

Hope everyone have a good week! =D

Placement!

2009-03-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

Started my 2nd placement at LHH on Monday. So far, the first 3 days have been great! =) I see the potential of learning lots from there which is good. Not sure why my friend gave such a negative review of the place, but I'll be able to decide better in a few weeks how beneficial the placement is to me.

So far I've done a personality test (15FQ+), a reasoning test (GRT2 - General Reasoning Test Battery) and the Occupational Interest Profile (OIP). Read the reports and had a debrief with one of the senior consultant. The results are very close to who I am! It's surprising to me... cause
well, I was taught about these tests in class. But there's always a layer of skepticism... e.g does it really work? So what if it has been tested to be reliable and valid? I'm not sure it will correctly
reflect my profile.. I could be an exception etc etc. But the results blew me away. Heheheh. I'm a convert now... psychometric tests works!! (Yeah for org psys!!). Have to do other administrative things like running reports, manning the reception, serving drinks, washing dishes, but hey, it is a small office and this is learning how a small office is run. Oh, and the coffee machine is great. Free and good coffee. :D And free hot chocolate too. Muhahahahaha! Very exciting!!

Hopefully things will go well :)

Hmmm...

2009-02-24T16:41:00.000-08:00

Have been thinking quite a bit over the past few days. Yeah, dun be surprised for contrary to popular belief that I only stone :P, I do think sometimes. Haha. I'm not sure where my life is headed! o.O I dunno whether I want to apply for PR in Australia, and then work here for a while, or just go back home to work. After breaking it down, the issue lies in becoming a registered psychologist. The reason why I am studying my masters is because I want to be a registered psychologist. Without being registered, my psy education is quite useless. So... for my life to have some direction, I should find out about getting registered.

And here comes the next problem. Who can I ask about this? For a question that seems easy to answer, it's difficult to find the solution. I cant find an answer on the website! >_< Sigh. More searching I suppose.. and when I'm really out of ideas, I'll email my coordinator (this will be my LAST resort though since I really dun want to bother her).

Placement 2 is starting next week! Hoping to negotiate the work days to 4 days instead of 3. I need to complete 45 days. 3 days per week will take ages to finish. Bleah. Let's hope that negotiation will go well. I still havent figure out how I'm going to work. I could walk, but I think that will take about 40 mins. Bus services arent that reliable too... sigh... *foresee days of early waking up and no more rolling around in bed*

Placement 3 is kinda settled. Need to reconfim in May.

Still havent confirmed whether I'll be going for the Org Psy conference in June. I hope to go though, just to see how things are like. But the expenses... >_<

Part-time job hunting is still going on. Not easy to find a job that has to cater to my requirements. Lol. Argh, cant be too picky... but I really dun want to work at nite in some obscure places! Better to be safe than sorry!

Ok, need to go get some stuff in preparation for work on Monday... zzz... dun like this part...zzz...

More photos from Glenelg Trip!

2009-02-14T17:33:00.000-08:00

Gathering at the University

Us taking over the tram stop

The Peer Mentors that went to Glenelg Beach
Top row: Rebecca, Chelsea, Sophia, Me, Mo
Bottom row: Andy, Sarah, Ella
Hmm, think there's some missing o.O

Me with some new friends striking up a martial arts pose.... lol

The last few people that stayed around to play volleyball ^^
At one time the group was much much bigger than that!

More sunset photos!

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T04:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day!! Went to Glenelg beach with a group of international students today as part of the peer mentoring program. I estimate that about 100 international students turned up for the event. We practically took over the entire tram!! Hehe...

Was a bit disappointed that the event wasnt more well-planned. We took them there and sorta dumped them there. >_< But in the end, one of the peer mentor decided to get the students to play volleyball... managed to get a group, which got overly big for the game at one stage. So that brought about some interaction. I wasnt too keen on volleyball as I've never played that sport. But tried in the end and ended up playing for about 3 hours o.O Now I have some bruises... It was all worth it though cause the sunset was sooooooooooo nice!! =)

Glenelg Beach

One of my new friend, Mo

Sunsetting...

Hope everyone had a great day!!

Happy 元宵节!! (Lantern Festival)

2009-02-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

Today is yuan xiao jie! :) For those who dunno, the Lantern festival, which occurs on the 15th day of the1st Lunar month. It also marks the end of the new year's holidays. My friends and I made tang yuan!! =D and they have chocolate filling!! Yummmy!

I found out today that there's such a thing call yuan xiao. It's kinda like tang yuan but not the same. I have never known abt the existence of yuan xiao before! I'll have to find out v soon. hehe.

Had a new salad today, which tasted surprisingly good. This is the receipt for those interested:
Watermelon cut into small cubes
Mint leaves, finely chopped
Balsamic vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
--> toss them all and u have... a salad. It's actually quite good. hehehe...

Need to sleep now... stats class tomorrow... nite... zzz...

Sunday morning...

2009-02-07T15:48:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up to a cool breeze blowing into my room. Was stunned for a while since it was 40+ degrees again yesterday. Then I remembered that it's supposed to be 10+ to 20+ today. It's really nice!! So I woke up, made myself a cup of milo and planned what to eat for breakfast. Decided on oats (oats needs milk), since the college provides 2 carton of milk and 2 loaves of bread for my floor for Sunday. Went to the kitchen.. and what did I find!? Someone had taken all the milk and bread! Leaving none for the rest of the residents on the 3rd floor! How inconsiderate! Argh. So my breakfast became crackers instead of oats. Sob. Not sure what I'll have for lunch and dinner (was suppose to be bread), but most prolly instant noodles or something.

People in the college seems to becoming worse. Well, at least those on my lvl. Not only do they take away common food, they dun wash their cups and dishes!! It's so terrible in the kitchen! There are so many unwashed dishes and cups that are in the sink. Sigh. Soon we'll see a notice from the cleaners to wash up. Argh.

It's at times like this that I wish I can move out to stay on my own. Being a picky person (yes, I dun deny that I can be picky at times), I would like to stay on my own and not share with people. However, studio apartments are very expensive. >_< It's at least $270 a week! Compared to $230-$250 per week that I currently pays. So that remains a dream...

Have to do lots of readings today.... argh... but at least the weather is good... :)

Mid of Week 2

2009-02-03T22:41:00.000-08:00

Been back about 10 days now. It feels so much longer than that!! Feel like I've never left. Lol.

Managed to ride out the heat wave. Thank goodness it's over for now. Temperature is dropping 1 degree daily. The day is less hotter now and some of the breeze are quite cooling. Cheers! Much cooler at night so I've been sleeping better. Will be sleeping earlier tonight to pay back my sleep debt. =)

Made 2 of my friends angry. Sigh. Seriously, I have no idea why they are upset after I have explained!? This is what happened. I left a note on my potential supervisor's door to ask if I can meet him on 2 Feb, 1pm, since he's away on leave. After class ended at 12.30pm, I went to find him to check if he's free. He was not in the office. As I was leaving that floor, I saw him and two of my friends walking past so I followed them since I wanted to check about the meeting. In his room, he asked if we all wanted to see him about thesis supervision and we said yes. He replied that he won't be able to see us that afternoon as he has many meetings. I wanted to check with him whether one of these meetings was with me, since I left him a note. So I waited for my friends to leave before asking him whether his meeting included me. He said yeah, and started talking to me about possible thesis topics.

I found out the next day that my 2 friends were angry. They thought I was rude as I talked to him alone and close the door. I was like... huh!? I then explained to them about the note... 3 times! As they were too pissed to listen to my explanations. While I was explaining, I started getting pissed. Why do I have to explain so many times?! And why do I have to explain my actions to u!? So after my explanations, they said that they r not angry anymore... yeah right. Today we only said hi and bye. Go figure whether they r still angry or not.

After my explanation, they asked me how long I stayed with the supervisor. I told them 15 mins, since the topic I wanted to do seems to have been taken by someone else. I thought to myself then... why does it matter how long I talked to him!? U gals are meeting him today! There's only 1 day difference!! There's not much things I can get done within 1 day! I didnt tell them that he gave me a new topic to search... as he's interested in updating that topic too. I suppose I was feeling quite unhappy then... like why do I have to report everything ? *mutter*

So yeah, that's been my days since I got back... endured the heat wave, angered 2 of my friends, trying to confirm thesis topic, getting involved in the international students orientation (I was a packer today!), trying to motivate myself to start exercising (fencing club president smsed that practices have resumed), looking for a weekend job and arranging for my 2nd and 3rd placement.

Cool Breeze!!

2009-01-31T19:16:00.000-08:00

I felt a cool breeze yesterday and was literally stunned. I couldn't believe that we could get a cool breeze in this heat wave o.O And was sooooooo happy when the cool wind blew. When I reached KLC (was helping a friend to unpack at her new place), I opened my door so the cool air can flow through. This is the first time since I touch down that I slept more than 5 hours. I woke up feeling really really happy (even though it's getting warm again now). The joy people feel at small things.

It's the Australia Open Men's Tennis finals tonite! Federer vs Nadal! Go Nadal!! I support u!!

The female's finals was great! Serena was awesome! Her power, speed and strokes.... *faints* I was eating pizza while watching her play... great play. There's a reason why she had won 10 grand slam and is No. 1 again. Great job!

Need to revise statistics today before class start again tomorrow....

Hot!!

2009-01-29T01:05:00.000-08:00

It's 43 degrees today. 43. It was 45 yesterday... and the heat wave will continue to Friday. After 2 days of heat, I can't take it anymore. Went to buy a fan yesterday, thinking it will help the situation. But did it!? Not really cause the air is warm. >_< I'm here typing this and sweating in my room. Sob. My parents called and asked me how everything is and I only have 1 thing to say. I'm melting. My dad then told me to buy the cooler thing... which I did think of buying but I didnt cos it cost $100++ compared to the $17 fan that I bought. But my dad reminded me that summer is just STARTING... and the heat could well persist for the next 2 months. That is the decider. So I will go look at it tomorrow! Anything that can help cool me down. I cant even sleep cause it's sooooooo HOT. I think I had 3 hrs sleep yesterday. Terrible.

>_<

Happy "NIU" Year!

2009-01-26T06:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Lunar New Year! It's the year of the Ox! Mooooooooooooooooooooo... hope that this year will be a good one for me!

I spend almost the whole first day on planes and airport. Flights were 9am-3pm to Perth, and then 6pm-10pm to Adelaide. Sounds like a long time, but that's cause of the time difference. The total flight time is about 7.5 hours. Not unbearable if it's a direct flight... but quite tiring on indirect flights. Anyway, I've reach Adelaide and is now preparing to sleep! First day of statistics class tomorrow *shudder in horror*. Then have to go buy toiletries and get all the boxes from friend's room and then unpack *even more horror*. Hopefully I'll get settled down by tomorrow...

OK, gtg zzz. Tired.

First post of 2009!

2009-01-11T05:08:00.000-08:00

It's been ages since I updated. Yap, I know... but it's so nice to be slack at home! Hehe. Of course slack = not updating blog... but then I decided today to write something!

Can't believe how fast time flies. In the blink of an eye, 2009 is here. 2008 has been great... with the ups and downs. I've finished my first year in Adelaide and left 1 more year to go. Made new friends, seemed to have lost some and found some old friends (the wonders of facebook). Learned new and interesting stuff! Had some bad stuff happen, but good stuff too. Did pretty well in my 1st year too! (yeah for myself!!) All in all, not a bad year.

Have been busy meeting up with friends, ex-colleagues and family since I came back. I have ate all the food I want (except nasi lemak and kway chap) and met up with almost everyone that I want (and need) to meet. Still left a few ex-bosses that I havent met but will soon. =) Will take the opportunity to "bai nian" since Chinese New Year is just around the corner. hehe.

2009 Resolutions:
1) Be healthier. Seriously, I NEED to cut down on my junk food intake, especially chocolate. I'm not saying that I will not it. That is impossible and will definitely not happen. So I'm not saying I wont eat, but that I need to reduce. Besides cutting down on junk food, I need to exercise more. Will definitely go for fencing (which reminds me that I better start doing the basic exercises at home before I go back otherwise I will suffer!)... and will probably try a new sport. Archery? Touch rugby? hehe

2) Find a job. Not sure if this is a resolution o.O but it's something that I have to do. Of course I will need a job after graduation!

3) Learn microsoft office 2007. Need to learn how to use this... it looks so different from the older versions >_<

4) Anime Planet goals: Level my Tier 6.5 character to 325, and hopefully get T7. Save 100k qp. Do 300 hits. Finally I managed to get my character to avatar. Been lvling hard lately... wanna get it to 325 asap!!

5) Temporal Rift goals: Increase Jeron's hr to 50k. Not sure how I'm going to do it... but I will o.O Save 20mil qp. Should be able to reach that...

That's all for now! :)

Going home :D

2008-11-04T05:58:00.000-08:00

Going home in 2 days! Busy packing! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :D

USB Found!

2008-10-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

Found my USB! Wheee! Thank goodness psychology students are honest people. I left my USB in the lab on Tues and it's Thurs today. I was very worried yesterday cause I had a lot of information in there. Phew. Feeling very relived now...

Got reprimanded during placement yesterday. My supervisor had asked me to call someone from Monash about something but I haven't done it yet. It is my fault cause i am procrastinating. Well, for people who know me well, U should know that I am not very good at speaking. Sigh. So yes, I have been procrastinating speaking to this person and got reprimanded for it. I dun blame her, just myself. Oh well. Anyway, after the reprimand, I immediately decided on the questions to ask and let my supervisor go through them. So now, I will be speaking to this person on Monday. Wish me luck.

Basically I think my report is done. Will be sending the draft to fennie to vet over the weekend. The only part that is missing is the one from Monash which I will add in after the call on Monday. Hopefully after I get everything done, I will be able to do other stuff and dun have to worry about placement stuff anymore. The draft is still very draft. Still have quite a bit of paraphrasing to do, but the main idea is there. Just glad that I got it out.

Will be going home soon! So excited about it! hehhehehe...

eeek, gtg for class. 9.05am o.O Have a good day!

Happenings recently...

2008-10-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Today is Labour day holiday. :) Nice! have 1 day holiday that I did not know about until last week. Thank goodness someone told me if not I would have rushed off for work this morning.

Still lots of things to do and progress is very slow. Will have to pick up pace if I want to finish stuff on time. I have made a plan and timeline. Must stick to it! So far havent been able to due to som last min changes. Grrr. Oh well, I must stick with it!!! So today I have to finish up draft 1 of HRM, which is mostly there but I see some duplication, CB journal and draft 1 of part 2, and decide on DM. Considering it's 5.30pm now... I am not sure if I can... dang. Looks like a late nite tonite!

DM is still bugging me. I cant settle on a topic which is bad. Humph. More reading to do.

Have been distracted by mud lately cause of some new changes that were implemented. Bleah.

I went on a no-chocolate 5 day bet with myself. Haha. I am amazed I havent died yet. So I ate chocolate yesterday and today. o.O Will start another no-chocolate bet with myself and see how long I can last. I suspect I am becoming addicted to chocoolate, which is not good cause I am gaining weight....

ok, off to do work now!

People should learn to keeo their mouth shut... and I learnt who's a "loudspeaker"

2008-10-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a friend said to me, "hey, I heard about your questions dilemma. So what are you gonna do about it? Asked her any more questions?" My first reaction was... how did he knew about this?! The "question dilemma" is an email exchange between a lecturer and me, where I asked questions about an assignment and she replied that I am rapidly running out of questions I can ask cause the max no. of questions she will respond to for an assignment is 4. I was like.. HUH?! when did this regulation came about? And how come we did not know about this!? and didn't she said during lectures that we can feel free to ask her any questions any time? I was quite pissed with the who situation and complained to a... I wouldnt even say friend. More of an acquaintance who was present. This person... is the "loudspeaker". She met my friend and told him about my dilemma. Sheesh, goodness knows how many other people she has told by now. I hope she has not told the rest of the class, because come to think of it, it is very possible!!! I mean I am unhappy with the lecturer, but I dun want this whole incident to float around the class and eventually find its way back to her! sheesh.

Frankly, people should learn to keep their mouth shut. This is directed not only to Ms. Loud, but also to myself. I should have known better that she will not keep this to herself *roll eyes*. Anyway I learnt. Let's just hope this will not be an "expensive" lesson. Now whenever she ask me how my weekend went, how things are, I must remember to only tell her about mundane stuff, like yeah, it was good, went for a jog (maybe this isnt mundane. Who knows what she will interpret from me going jogging. That i'm getting fat and want to lose weight etc. etc.). I think in the future I'll just keep it to Uni stuff, like I'm doing assignments. But then again, she will jump to the conclusion that I finished my assignment. Last week she made a comment about me finishing Consumer Behaviour when in reality I havent really done much about it. Hmmmm... I think I'll just stick to weather. I dun think there's much u can infer from weather, and not much of a conclusion u can jump to so I think I'll be safe.

Ok, enough ranting. Need to prepare to go work. I need to finish up the report associated with my project. Then maybe I can do other stuff! :) Weekend is coming!!!

To-Do List

2008-09-28T03:08:00.000-07:00

I realised to my horror that I have 5 weeks left to the end of Uni and LOTS to do. Look at the new to-do list that I made up! OMG! How am I going to finish everything!!!! Gasp... not good o.O

Photos from Quiz Night!

2008-09-25T05:16:00.000-07:00

Some photos from Quiz Night!! Still amazed at how enjoyable the night was :)

Drinking at the Uni Staff Club before the event

Us pretty ladies! :)
From beside me: Jane, Linda, Deb

At the library, where the quiz nite was held

Chris, our team leader

Other people from HR... not too sure of their names though >_<
But they are nice! :)

See the food on the table! and the books behind us!
This is my fav place in the library. It's the Reading Room.
Kinda reminded me of Harry Potter :)

Our structure for craft and technology class. Not bad eh?

The winner of the structure comp o.O it was really really high up!

Our price for getting 3rd last in the quiz... a wine stopper

Sunday Mail City-Bay 12km Walk

2008-09-20T20:48:00.001-07:00

Today was the Sunday Mail City-Bay 12km walk/run. Being the no-stamina person, I opted to go for the walk instead. I mean I cant even run 400m... dun talk about 12km run. So I entered together with the OHS people =) We had about 30 people altogether from the Uni. Not a bad crowd. So here are some photos!

About 28k people came for this event...

Komal & Me. I "persuaded" her to go for the event with me... hehe...

My fencing mates.. Rusell, Jo, Kit & BobMy placement boss, Gerald

My placement colleagues, Linda & Deb

Me at the starting line...

3km to go...

Almost there!

1km... that's about half of the group ^^
Quite amazing how we can get this many people to stick together

Us at the finish line! We made it after 2 hrs!

At Glenelg Beach. Gonna go get food and then go home

Some entertainers that we saw along the way...

Some Dressed Up People :)

Quiz Fizz Night

2008-09-19T06:46:00.000-07:00

Today was the Quiz Fizz Night and the theme was Back to School. It's an event that was organized by the social club of the services branch. Initially when I was sent the invite, I wasnt that keen to go. In the end I decided to cause 1) all proceeds donated to charity 2) could get to know my colleagues better 3) never been to a quiz night before and thought it will be fun.

And manz, it was FUN and HILARIOUS!

Firstly, I didnt think too much about dressing up. I mean come on, where am I going to get something to wear!? My school uniform is back in SG! but then today one of my colleague couldnt wear the uniform of another person's, so it was passed on to me. So yeap, in the end, I had to dress up in a high sch uniform. LOL. I thought to myself, no big deal... just wear loh.

Then, my colleagues from the Unit decide that we will dress up after work! but before dinner! So after work at 5pm, we all went to change into our sch uniforms and went to dinner! LOL. The looks people gave us! MUAHAHAHAHA. Hilarious! I havent got the photos, but I will get some soon. Once u see the photos, maybe u can understand why people were stunned. Lol. I mean 4 women, age from 26 to 50+, dressed in uniforms is bound to turn heads. Hahaha.

After dinner, we went to the Staff Club for a drink... and got laughed at again. LOL. Crap, that reminded me I havent paid my boss for my drink... zzz. Oh well, will check with him again.

After the drink we were on the way to the library, where the event was held, when we met our leader... who didnt dressed up! the first thing he said when he saw us was... Oh my f***ing god, I cant believe this... and he put his head into his arm and laughed. HAHA

When we reached the library, people were laughing again lah. But then I can imagine it. If I was sitting at a table waiting for the quiz to start, and see this group of people come in wearing sch uniform, I would laugh too. Haha...

The quiz was quite fun. It's structured as a day class. So we had the following (that I can remember)

2 assignments. One is to work out what things like 24 H in a D (24 hours in a day) mean, and the other assignment is to match mascots to olympics
Maths class, where we had to do some algebra, subtraction, multiplication etc
Geography class, where we were given some really tricky questions. Cant remember much about this though. Haha.
Drama class, where we watch extracts from videos and answer some questions. Quite tricky! they asked things like how many enemy ships did u see, how many beards were hanging at the back etc.
Craft, design and technology, where we were given a stack of newspapers and a roll of tape and had to build a free-standing structure. The tallest one win. Ours didnt win, but it's impressively high.. about 2.16m. =)
History, where we were asked questions about events that happened in... the last 2 days. Quite funny cause all of the answers can be found in the newspaper that we had used to build our structure... people were destroying their structure to find the answers. Lol.

All in all it wasnt too bad. It was $10, but for that we get free flow of beer/wine/soft drinks/water. And each table had a bag of chips, sweets, and quite a bit of light finger food (crackers, dips, ham and sausages). There were also some sandwiches at the front which I had some during our "lunch break". Haha. Oh! and we won the best dressed so all of us got complimentary cinema tickets. Hahahahhahaah. I must say that tonite was very fun. hehehe. I enjoyed it much more that I thought I would have. Hahahahaha

Whee! tomorrow is the weekend! I have group discussions from 11 to 5 I think. zzzz. Then on Sunday is the City to Bay 12km walk. Will prolly take 3 hours? o.O but the Uni paid for it as I'm considered as staff ^^. Part of the Uni's wellbing promotion program. hehe. And I got a free Uni shirt too! :) should be a fun weekend! (and probably tiring too....)

Photos from Royal Adelaide Show

2008-09-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, internet seems to be a bit better today... here are some photos from the show!

Entrance to the Adelaide Showground

Mosiac Winners (the ones with the blue ribbons are first prize)

I believe this is the first prize from the painting category

One of the quilts on show. What I find interesting about this quilt is that it's actually 50 years of the persons life. Every square depicts part of her/his life. There's photos of the person's family, kids, growing up etc. Very nice.

One of the first prize from the Quilt category. Must take them a long time... every different color that you see is a different piece of cloth. o.O imagine the time put into this!

Special and first prize for Embroidery category. Intricate work done here.

First prize for jewelery category.

Forgot what category is this. But these are the eggs...

Apples ^^ Nice design. Heh

My favourite category from the show... the Cake Decorating Category! It's always nice to see how nice they look!!!

Junior Category

Carnival

One of the dog from the dog pavilion. They have show judging for the show. Havent seen this dog before o.O

This dog is the winner of a lot of cateogries. See those cards behind him? 8 Cards. It refuses to look at me. Sob

One of the winners of the cat category :)

Another winner. This cat was really frisky. hehe.

Weird looking duck. There's a patch on top of its head o.O

Coloured chickens... ^^||

Piggies :) These animals are part of the farm experience that they have on the show. It's interesting! and the kids love it.

Showbags! This is the part that everyone love! U buy these bags that are filled with stuff... candies and chocolates for me of course. I remember last time when fen and I went to the Easter Show in Sydney, we went crazy buying showbags. And of course the inflatibles. But I controlled this time... bought only two.

Huge cow. :P Dairy farmer is the sponsor of the fireworks.

Taste SA. Yep, they have a part of the show for u to taste produce of SA. Very nice. Spend quite a bit of my time here tasting

Sunset at the show

And of course, the fireworks!! =D There were a lot of performances before the fireworks, which I wasnt really interested in. And the fireworks nearly didnt go ahead because of the strong winds. Thank goodness the wind became weaker :)

Royal Adelaide Show

2008-09-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

Woot! Went to the Royal Adelaide Show today! =) Was exciting! And I didnt have to pay for the ticket cause I won it. Muhahahaha. Decided to go in the afternoon cause have to stay till about 9++ for the fireworks. Dun think I'll have the energy level to last for the whole day. :P

Unfortunately, unable to upload photos cause of internet... Will try to do them tomorrow... zzzz

Frustration

2008-09-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

Got some bad news today. I can't change my e-ticket online through the STA website! The reply say thay cant access my info. I was like... DUH!? then why did the guy at the STA office tell me to change online then! So stupid! Now I've emailed the person that attended to me when I bought the ticket in SG. I hope he can helps. What Komal said is true. STA sux. They screwed up her ticket back to Hong Kong. Hopefully my problem will be solved soon. If not fen will have to help me change the ticket in SG. Dumb.

Another week is almost gone. Datelines are starting to loom! >_< Not good. I have to do what I plan! Which I dun. Sigh.

Mid-week blues o.O

Cost of America decides...

2008-09-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

I was reading about the American presidential campaign when the cost of it reminded me of a comment that one of my colleagues said. The amount that each of the candidates have to raise is ridiculous. According to opensecrets, the eventual amount that each nominee have to raise to compete is... $500 million. Yes, $500 million. So 2 nominee is $1000 million. Imagine that amount of money. What about candidates that lost? Like Hillary Clinton, who raised $200+ million. It's such a waste of money imo. Can't they simplify their process so that these money can be put into something more worthwhile such as finding a cure for aids?! or they could help the 3rd world countries?! I think with $500 million, u can bail out a lot of these poverty countries. Sheesh. Instead their money is spent on media campaigns slaugtering their opponents... such a waste >_<

Funny... and a bit lame...

2008-09-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable how fast time flies when u r nuaing. Hah. Went to Harbourtown yesterday. Supposed to buy work and go out clothes. Instead I bought socks and some Fila t-shirt and singlets. Haha. It was 50-70% off! I just couldnt resist. Too much of a good deal. Anyway, I will go there again before I come home. Hopefully by then the style would have changed again.

My friend told me of this conversation that took place... for those who dun understand chinese, my apologies. Someone said... "你这样怎么像话呢?" And someone else replied... "像画就应该在墙上" LOL. So lame! But I thought it was really funny. Hehehe. My this friend who replied is weird at times. She goes on and on about something that only she understands. In addition, she dun take into account what other peope say! Quite frustrating at times...

My weekend was unproductive. I did nothing! Except laundry. Haha. I need to do quite a bit of stuff. Top on my list this week:
1) Update resume
2) Send out resume and arrange for placement
3) Settle going home date
4) Assignments
5) Consumber Behaviour test

Frankly, so unmotivated to study for the CB test. It's worth like 10%! And MCQ! and on 10 chapters! but I will still study... have read thru chapter 1 to 7 before though. So just need to refresh my memory.

Congratulations to Jorenia! It's her wedding today! =) I wish I'm in Singapore, then can go and attend. Sob sob....

Hope this week will be good! Must jia a lot of you this week. *chant mantra to self - be productive, be productive*

Feeling Happy...

2008-09-04T02:44:00.001-07:00

I'm feeling happy today... and I'm not really sure why. It's quite a change in feeling as I haven't been feeling that great recently. Maybe it's due to the following reasons:

1) 2 presentations over, left 1 presentation assignment to go for this week (yes, finally)
2) the 2 presentations went well I think. Haven't had any adverse comments yet. Will know in about a week or 2 when feedback from lecturers come in. But then, no point worry about them cause they are oveeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrr!
3) Weekend is coming! Going to Harbourtown to do some shopping. Yes, shopping. Unbelievable that I am going but I really need some summer working clothes. Hopefully I will buy something. o.O
4) Plan to relax on sat and sun. To gain back some energy... hahahah... have some books that I collected from the Library waiting to be read ^^
5) Met with one of the lecturers today. Finally have an idea of what I can do for thesis. Just depends on whether I wanna do it.
6) Know that I will have to think about stuff over the weekend. And why should I be happy? Cause I know I will be more focused with the plan in place. hehehe. Busy weekend ahead
7) Won a pair of tickets to Adelaide Show (see previous post)
8) Weather is finally getting warmer! If only the weather stays this way all the time. Heh.
9) Decided that I will go home first week of Nov. Will settle the flight details next week. Lalalala... looking forward to see Vern, Siew, Val and Doris again. :) We are now in discussion on the food. Haha.
10) Internet seems to be working in KLC now with a new wireless service

Hehe... lots of stuff eh? =) Ok, gonna watch Aussie Idol.. and then it's working on the final assignment for the week!!!

Won a pair of tickets to Royal Adelaide Show!

2008-09-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

Today I got an email from studyadelaide informing me that I won a pair of tickets to the Royal Adelaide Show! Woohoo! Been a while since I won something irl. Then on mud, I won the platslot and got a remove style. Hahahhaha... Maybe this is a sign that good things are coming to me? =)

Gonna go sleep in a bit. Been quite a stressful week. 2 presentations this week (one finished, one tomorrow), and 1 assignment presentation due on friday. Been quite emotional too so that hasn't help things. Once I submit the assignments, I really need to sit down and have a plan on what I am going to do for the rest of the semester and a plan for what I want in the next few years.

Dun like doing such stuff, but I have to...

Friday is coming!!

Looking forward to Nov!

2008-09-01T23:13:00.000-07:00

I'm sooooooooo looking forward to going back home at the end of the year!! =) Have already decided to go back in the 1st week of Nov. Exact date not sure yet cause I havent check when there will be flights. Haha. But definitely before 6 Nov. Why!? Cause Siew, Vern and Val are most probably coming to Singapore from 7 Nov to 10 Nov!! Our group includes Doris too, but she's working in Singapore atm. Yeah! I am soooooooooooooooooooo excited to see them again! =) Havent seent them for ages! I did meet up with Siew when she came to SG for a while... but Val and Vern! Havent seen them since 2005! 3 years! wheeee!!

Well, at least something to look foward too. Hahaha. Keeps me motivated. =)

Hopefully my exam will not clash with when they are here. Yes, I have an exam. It's stupid! But at least it's a take-home exam. I really dun like Consumer Behaviour. It's not that it isnt interesting, cause it is. Just that it's.... Hai. We have 8am classes, where at least 1/4 dun turn up, assignments that require lots of work but only worth a miserly 30% (with the same amount of effort, a psy assignment will probably be worth at least 50%), and we end early! I mean for a 3 hour lecture, u would expect it to end like what, maybe 15 mins, max 30 mins earlier? But no! We end 45 mins earlier! And we're behind in the syllabus! I feel like I dun get much out of the lecture. I dun learn anything from the lecture itself cause he breeze through everything so fast! Everything that I learned comes from the textbook. So dumb. And I go for this stupid class cause 1) he gives some tips for exam and 2) he takes attendence. All in all, dumb.

Ok, gonna continue with assignment. This week is intense! Presentations on wed (15 mins) and thurs (25 mins) and need to submit a presentation assignment (25 mins) on Friday...

Positive behaviour support

2008-08-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had an interesting lecture on positive behaviour support. What I find interesting is that it is so counter-intuitive to what we do in our daily lives. There is a framework for positive behaviour support that is too complicated to be written here. But I am gonna extract some interesting points from the lecture.

Some key features of positive behaviour support:
a) an emphasis on lifestyle change
b) manipulation of ecological and setting events
c) teaching adaptive behaviour
d) minimising the use of punishers (use +ve reinforcement instead)

One important thing to note is that +ve reinforcement is not equal to bribe. Many people confuse the two. Imagine this scenario: you tell a child on Monday, "We will go to MacDonald on Friday if you finish all your work for the week." On tues, "Do you want to go to MacDonald on Friday? You better finish your work then." On Thurs - "Looks like we won't go to MacDonald on Friday will we? Then what happens on Friday? You will bring the child to Mac. See, in this case many people will think that this is positive reinforcement. However it is not. This is a case of bribery.

Remember: Reinforces loses reinforces "status" once it is expected.
(Yes, it may sound simple, but it is actually quite hard to come up with +ve reinforcement at intermittent intervals)

Why do we use punishers?
a) it's part of how our society operates - it's the way we have been shown and taught to solve behaviour problems (think about the things that you do!)
b) the use of punishment actually works and the presenting problem is reduced
e.g. if you do not keep quiet, you will get more work
c) we see others do it
d) more punishment related literature gets published (seriously, compare the number of articles there are on punishment and on rewards)
e) a need to establish control

Problems with using punishment
a) produces negative response (u r a teacher and u keep punishing your students... do u think they will like you??)
b) increase imitation
c) can produce overkill when the person dun understand what they were punished for
d) Increases sneakiness i.e. the person learn to avoid being caught
e.g. if you get caught speeding by the speeding camera... what is your immediate response?
- Immediate response: "crap! why did I speed! so stupid! should have driven slower!", afterwhich u will probably drive below the slow limit... but for how long? How long will this behaviour change last? at most a few weeks? (see! punishment dun work)
- you may then feel guilty cause you have to pay the fine, get demerit points.. (negative response!)
- But the ultimate end behaviour change will be --> in future you will make sure you know where the speed cameras are to avoid being caught!! (increase sneakiness)

Haha, I love that example. It is soooooooooo true!!

Personally, I agree that in the psychology field we are much more focused on the negative rather than the positive. More articles get published when it's -ve than positive. Positive psychology is actually quite a new field.

Before I end off, another interesting point brought up during the lecture is this about parenting. In the past, parents do not give children a lot of choices. They direct their child to do things. No negotiation or choice. However, nowadays a lot of parents want to be friends with their children. What they do now is to let their child have choices (e.g. do you want this or that?). It sounds good huh? That children get to have a choice? But what many parents do not understand is that having to make choices actually burden the child cognitively. And they may not understand the consequence of their choice. Think about it... when you were young, did you get many choices? Or more directives? You turned out alright didn't u? :)

Last day of Olympics...

2008-08-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Finally, it ended. I am now free from the clutches of Olympics fever. Haha. It has been a great 16 days... though I really wish channel 7 had better coverage. But then, beggars can't be choosers... Closing ceremony wasnt as good as I expected though... prolly cause of how spectacular the opening ceremony was. Bye Beijing!

Now will be looking forward to London. Just the idea of going to London in 2012 is tempting enough to make me want to do a PhD there. Lol. I need to seriously think about what I want to do in life. PhD? Work? In Australia? Singapore? Need to think about all these... but before I make all these future plans, I need to make immediate ones, like settling my placements and clearing up the whole load of work that has piled up over the last 16 days. I foresee at least 2 weeks of slogging... sob, no more slacking!

Gonna go sleep... start of another week again...

2nd last day of Olympics...

2008-08-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

It's the 2nd last day of Olympics! Woah. Fast how time flies o.O First... exciting results for the day (that interest me)

Synchronized team swimming - Russians won with perfect 10 scores. Great!
Football - Argentina win Nigeria 1-0
10m Men Diving - Mitcham from Australia won. Yes, he ruined China's chance of sweeping
4x400m - USA won both Men (OR) and Women
Rhythmic Gymnastics - Kanaeva of Russia won (interesting event. v fanciful)
Table Tennis - Ma Lin from China won (Men)
5000m Men - Bekele from Ethiopia won. Yes! He made it a double as he won 10km too!
Women Volleyball - Brazil beat USA for the gold

And now I'm waiting for the Women Basketball... dunno if I'll watch the whole thing though. It's so late now... feel sleepy >_<

The excitement of Olympics...

2008-08-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

What is wrong with the tracks? Women 4x100m.. Jamaica had problem with their baton passing! OMG! DNF! Sheesh. BUT! The guys won! and in World Record style! Woohoo! That was exciting. It's kinda a forgone conclusion that they will win, but the best part is that they won in world record. Hehehehe... am really happy about it. =)

Olympics is ending on Sunday. Finally, I can concentrate. haha. I have been sooooo distracted by it. My work is really piling up... myself to blame ^^ Heh.

Gonna go zzz... tiring day.

4x100m relay Heats... and others

2008-08-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

WOW. That is the word to describe both the Men and Women 4x100m relay heats. Not just cause there's great running, but there's so many did not finish (DNF) and disqualifieds (DQ)!

This is the summary:
Men 4x100m Heat 1
DNF
Nigeria
Poland
South Africa
United States

Men 4x100m Heat 2
DQ
Great Britain
Italy

Women 4x100m Heat 1
DQ
Italy
United States

Women 4x100m Heat 2
DNF
France
Trinidad/Tobago

DQ
Ukraine

Total:
Men - 4 DNF, 2 DQ
Women - 2 DNF, 3 DQ

Can you believe it!? OMG! So many teams out! Top 3 Mens team from Athens 2004 are out. Sheesh. And I was so looking forward to this... Excitement kinda gone now. Conclusion quite obvious.. Jamaica will win both Men and Women UNLESS they DQ or DNF. Unbelievable. To borrow the phrase from the commentator, this is ridiculous... and devastation...

Other results:
Chen Ruolin reclaimed the 10m diving for China
Japan beat USA in the softball finals (yay Japan!)
Brazil beat China in the womens volleyball (sob. So wanted to see US vs China)

Olympics continue...

2008-08-21T01:14:00.000-07:00

Initially, I wanted to blog later. But the chances of me getting connected later on is not high. That is usually the case at night cause lots more people go online than at night and the wireless becomes really unstable.

Usain Bolt did it! He won the 200m in WR! Woohoo! That was exciting. I didnt stay up to watch cause too late. I was so exhausted yesterday when I came home... after a 12hr day at Uni (believe it or not). I crashed at around 10.45pm. Haha. Amazing. Felt so much better today. Anyway, saw the video on Channel 7 online. The gap was wide! Sheesh. That guy can run. Tomorrow's 4x100m relays r going to be exciting. It will be Jamaica vs USA.

Women's 200m and Women's 10m springboard tonite. Oh, and Women's softball. Those are going to be exciting!!!! I support Japan in the softball! Beat the US! :P

Incidentally, USA won their semi-finals volleyball match against Cuba. I'm hoping China will win Brazil, then China can win USA. Hahah. The last time they played was in the Quarterfinals. It was a v exciting match! It was nicknames 'He Ping Da Zhan', after the coaches name. Go China!

Our paddlers got through to the Top 8. Li Jia Wei and Feng Tianwei! Woohoo! Except that Feng Tianwei meets world no. 1 Zhang Yi Ning tonite. BUT! Feng Tianwei has beaten Zhang Yi Ning before... so still can make it. Go Singapore!!!

Been listening to Corrinne May's songs in the afternoon... and yes, I hardly got anything done. Oh well. I'll make it up. Really. Corrinne May's songs are nice! High recommended to anyone and everyone. Her lyrics are meaningful and the tunes are great. =) And she's Singaporean! Woohoo!! :)

More Olympics tonite... Go Singapore! Go China! Go Japan!

Life is full of choices... and Olympics continue!

2008-08-19T06:30:00.001-07:00

Today I made a choice. I made the choice to read a novel, Tribute by Nora Roberts, instead of studying. I know I am supposed to study, but I didn't. Instead, I chose to read. I can come up with lots of reasons... but in the end, it all came down to my choice.

Life is indeed full of choices. There is no such thing as I can't help it, I have to do this, this is the only way etc etc... you get the idea. I have to be responsible for my action cause well, I chose it. Anything that came out that do not reflect myself taking responsibility are just excuses.

I realized that I have made lots of excuses. Haha. It's really time I grow up and well, accept that whatever actions I take, I have a choice in it. No more excuses. Responsibility is the key. I almost made a bad choice last weekend, but thank goodness sanity prevailed. =) I came out of it, I must say, remarkably alright. And I am proud of myself. I made my mistakes, I will live with them, and I will learn from them. =)

Now... I'll have to deal with the consequences of my work piled up due to me watching all the olympics... sob sob... and I can't watch the Men's football semi-finals tonite cause I have 8am class. Sniff. Sad, cause that will be exciting.. Brazil vs Argentina! Go Argentina! Yes, I still support Argentina even though they lose in the preliminary in the 2000 (I think) world cup and I dun really know their players. But Messi is great! Go Argentina!!

China won most of gymnastics medals tonite. I think they swept all the gold for the Mens event. Cool stuff. I have read manga about gymnastics, and havent really appreciated how difficult it is. Now I do. So... re-read manga again? hahaha...

Channel 7 is showing atheletics. Not that I mind it, but I really wanted to see the 3M springboard finals. As it stands now, after dive 5, He Chong from China is leading... way ahead with about 40 points. Think that seals it :) Another gold to China's divers! Woohoo! I have to say, their divers as amazing.. and yes! I am a fan of Guo Jing Jing. I feel absurdly happy when I see her dive well. Haha.

Ok.. I think I will actually try and sleep... at 11.15pm. That's early for me. But tomorrow will be a long day. 8am-11am: Consumer Behaviour. 1pm-5pm: Work placement. 6pm-9pm: Rehabilitation seminar. Dang. Well, I think I'll bring my consumer behaviour textbook with me tomorrow so I can read during that 2 hour break. I'm actually thinking of going for a nice lunch... which means a bit more expensive... but I think should be ok since I dun do that all the time. But what should I eat? Need to find somewhere that's relatively quiet so I can study and can stay there for 2 hours. Hmmm...

Bejing Olympics 2008 continue...

2008-08-18T03:05:00.000-07:00

Today I was with my colleagues from the HR department and we were watching the ending portion of the triathlon. The female athletic that's running in first is Australian.. and guess what? She paused... went to get a FLAG... and continue jogging.. and then actually went to shake spectators' hands... I was like.. huh.. so confident! The comments by my colleagues were funny:
"should not count your chickens till it hatched"
"she could fall and someone can overtake her!"
"anything can happen"
"I wish she will just finish the da** race!"

Haha... although I agree. Anything can happen. Imagine u were in a race for close to 2 hours and u lost it cause u fell while grabbing a flag. That will be terrible!

Liu Xiang didn't run his 110m hurdles today. Sob. Was so looking forward to him in action. Ah well... all the best to his recovery! Hope he recovers from his injury soon and we can see him in action again.

Singapore won silver in table-tennis female team!! :) First medal in 48 years. Yay to our paddlers! Yeah, we din get gold, but hey, this is a situation where silver = gold. Hehe. Hooray!!

Yesterday's 100m female finals was astouding. 3 Jamaicans, 3 Americans and 1 from Bahamas. And what happened? Jamaica sweep the medals... took 1 and 2 (2 people got the same time! that's amazing too!!). How exciting! The americans didnt get a single medal. Wow. The relay will be exciting.

Then the 10000m run. Bekele from Ethiopia... havent lost ANY race before. Won 11 out of 11 so far. Wow =)

Watching Gymnastics now.. men's ring finals... V good. Gold and silver to China! More gymnastics tonite!! =)

The rest of the events that I want to see:
Tue: Men's 3m springboard
Wed: Men's 200m
Thu: Women's 200m
Women's 10m springboard
Fri: Men's and Women's 4x100m
Sat: Men's 10m springboard
Women's Basketball
Sun: Men's Basketball

Looks like I won't get that much work done for this week.. thank goodness Olympics is ending!! If only they showed fencing... that would be perfect. Oh well. Channel 7's coverage is quite disappointing at times. Bleah.

Hmm, wonder if I should go for fencing tomorrow. Kinda losing the drive to go. I dun even go for competition nowadays cause I dun have the equipments to go for competitions. Nowadays I go to play basketball, do footwork, and have lesson. I cant even be bothered to fence with the others. I think I'm escaping from refereeing... haha...

Monday is ending! 4 more days to Friday! :P Monday bluess.... Have a good week ahead everyone!

Bejing Olympics 2008 so far...

2008-08-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the male 100m race... and boy, was it great! It was the most amazing final 100m race I've ever seen. The gap between Usain Bolt and the rest of the field was HUGE (in a 100m race that is)... how could he lead by so much?!? Absolutely amazing. And he didn't even run to his full strength! He relaxed near the end of the race... I am glad I stayed up for the race... really in awe of the speed that he has... wonder what kind of time he will run in the 200m. That will be great too...

Today Grant Hackett lost his 1500m swim. >_< Quite disappointing really, considering he set the new World Record in his heats. I really wanted him to win. Oh well...

Today is the team female table tennis match! Woohoo! How exciting! =) First medal for Singapore in 48 years. Yeah to our female paddlers! All the best!

I've been so distracted by the Olympics that I havent done a lot of the work I'm supposed to do. Sigh. I really should focus more and get things done. If not my work will pile up and I'll have a horrendous time clearing them. But the Olympics is just so distracting! I dun like Channel 7's coverage though. They show a lot of repeats for their representatives and dun show a lot of the live events. I wish they have live feeds on their website... like NBC does. Sigh. Oh well... I should be glad then that at least SBS will be showing table tennis..

4.50pm now... I will do some work before getting distracted by the Olympics again. hehehe.

Foggy Morning...

2008-08-13T00:11:00.000-07:00

A very foggy morning today. Got a shock when I woke up. First thing that came to my mind was... where's the sun?! Did I wake up too early again? And then I looked out and I was like.. where's the building!!! First time I've seen such a foggy day here... Below are some photos that I took:

Took this at the field this morning. What a difference from the normal day!!
(Look below for the photo that I was lying in the field!!)

At the Uni Bridge. Looks eerie eh?

And today I'm watching Olympics again. The female gymnastics team competition is awesome. Kudos to the chinese... I was very impressed with their uneven bars performance. Esp, the last gal (dunno what's her name...). Watching 3M Synchro diving now... good luck China!

Olympics!

2008-08-11T22:51:00.000-07:00

Woot! The Olympics is finally here! :D :D :D I must say I am very excited about the whole thing! I thought the opening ceremony was really spectacular. I especially love the beginning part... the countdown and the drummers. Cool stuff. Next fav part is the tai chi portion. Excellent coordination! And of course the fireworks!! I havent seen any event that has such great fireworks display. Greatooooo!!

I've been watching a lot of Olympics. heh. Swimming has been excellent. Disappointed that the Grant Hackett didnt win his 400m event. I really admire that guy. But he still has his 1500m! All the best to him for that! The female aussies are much better. Great swims by Stephanie Rice, Libby Trickett (not sure about spelling) and Liesel Jones! And of course the surprise win by the Korean... and cheers to China and Japan for winning too! Woohoo!

Diving has been good too... even though I cant watch it live. I absolutely love Guo Jing Jing and Fu Ming Xia. Was so happy that they won their synchronised diving. Hehehehehhehe

More events coming up! Watching male gymnastics now :D (when I should be studying consumer behaviour....)

Happy! :)

2008-08-07T00:47:00.000-07:00

For some unexplained reasons, I am feeling really happy today. I am not sure why, but I am sure that the following contributed to my happiness:
1) It's Friday tomorrow! Whee! Weekend!
2) Olympics start tomorrow! Whee! Weekend! Can watch olympics whole day because channel 7 is broadcasting events!
3) No work today
4) Work placement seem to be going on quite well. I feel like I am actually contributing something.
5) Lunchtime concert at Elderhall. Going to listen to a Jazz trumpeter, Ray Vega, from New York. It's been a while since I've been to a concert, so I'm really excited about it
6) Have an "evil" plan for work tomorrow. Gonna reach there earlier to "ambush" the HR manager for my project for one of my modules... then i have meetings with my supervisor and one of my colleagues. Then lunch time concert... and in the afternoon I'm gonna try and persuade someone to let me do an online course. And then my Friday will be over! Whee!
7) Discussion on Consumber Behaviour tutorial presentation. Get it over and done with and I can concentrate on other stuff
8) Presentation for HRM is slotted to be on the 4th sept. Good, cause I can concentrate on the consumer behaviour presentation

I think I'm happy cause.. I havent done much today. And I felt that the lecture this morning on human resource planning was quite good. Debating on whether to buy a HRM textbook though. The lectures are interesting, but we dun cover much in detail... but the textbooks here are so expensive... oh well...

All the best to the Olympians! Hope Singapore will win gold! (our sailors!!!)

Start of 2nd semester

2008-07-27T06:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, talk about flying times... and erm, inconsistent update. Haha. Realised I havent posted anything new in about 2 months. Sheesh. Not that nothing is happening cause lots have been happening. I mean first, fennie was here. Then Jamang came to visit for a while. And yes I do have photos, just that I havent put them up yet (which reminds me that I have to send them to him...) And then I've been watching lots of movies! Best one I like so far is Mamma Mia. Highly recommended to everyone! Great songs, great singing, nice cast, nice scenary. The Dark Knight was good too. Kinda sad though... I should be watching X Files next!

Of course since there are happy times, there are sad times too. My knee is giving me some problems. Having pain on and off... not too sure what exactly is wrong with it though. Sigh. And well, some things happen that didnt end very well... So I was sad. I should be alright soon... =)

This sem will prove to be interesting. First off, I have to take this marketing subject that requires LOTS of preparation. Sheesh. Not only do we have to read up for lecture (which I do for my psy subjects), we have to prepare written answers to tutorial!? Duh!? And and there's a mid-term quiz!? and worse of all, there's an exam at the end of the sem! This means I cant go home as soon as I hoped! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I have decided that what I'll do is to tell the lecturer I have an internship back in Singapore and want to take the exam early. So stupid.

Hopefully the other subjects will not have exams. Dun like exams and I think they do not test your ability. But I do understand why we need to have... doesnt mean I have to like it.

Work placement have been fine so far. Been working on a handbook... so doing lots of research and reading. The people that I've met so far are nice. =) I even met the HR Director herself! Talk about stressful... hehe...

K, time to sleep. Hope I'll have a great start to Sem 2.

End of week 2

2008-06-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, time really flies. In the blink of an eye, week 2 of my holidays have ended. Unbelievable that I spent 2 weeks nuaing. It's time to stop... (Trying hard. Haha). Enough relaxation for now. :P I'm gonna start to read up on Management Accounting today. Kinda dread it. There's a reason why I'm an arts student... because I dislike maths. Ironically, I'm in the psychology field now, which is actually a Science subject. Even more ironic is that I have to do statistics. And now, because I am in the field of Organizational Psychology, I believe I have to know about basic accounting principles too. How else am I to help a company improve, if whatever suggestions I have will not fit into their budget? Hence, management accounting. Let's hope I survive :P

Photos from when fen is here

2008-06-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos that fen and I took when she's here. She was here from 04 June to 13 June! So nice!! I was soooooooooooo happy. Too bad she couldnt stay longer thought. But I enjoyed my time with her... hope she did too. She had to vet my assignments for me (poor fen) and go with me to my 2nd fencing competition (hope she wasnt bored). Miss you fennie!!

04 JUNE

The day that fen arrived. Went to the city to take a look around and then went to the Botanical Gardens since it was nearby =)

05 JUNE

Went to North Adelaide with Fen after class. Didnt take many photos here...
here's one of the churces in North Adelaide

06 JUNE
Went to Chinatown for lunch before coming back for class

07 JUNE

Went to Cleland Wildlife Park, Mt Lofty Summit and then Hahndorf. I have omitted all the photos on animals since there's too many.

Decided to go the Cleland Wildlife park cause it was foggy in the morning. We wouldn't have been able to see any view. At the park, we met some aggressive ducks that actually attacked us!!

Mt. Lofty Summit. Took us 50 mins to hike from Cleland Wildlife park to here, and it was STEEEP. Poor fennie had to wait for me lots of times while I catch my breathe. I felt really old. Hahhahaah. Incidentally we were the only two people that was walking UP the slope. There were others hiking. But they went the other direction, going DOWN instead. Smart choice.

Can see Adelaide City! :)

From the summit, we proceeded to Hahndorf. Stayed at Inn of the Earth. Not too bad, though lots of rules.

08 JUNE

Left Hahndorf and walked to Brigewater and Aldgate. Took us a while.. more than an hour? We just walk and walk. Wasnt too bad since the company is great (Fennie!!). Then we took a bus to Stirling, and then back to college... where we had a rice dumpling celebration cause it was Duan Wu Jie. :)

Hahndorf - I have more photos on facebook.. lazy :P

Bridgewater Mill

Aldgate. Frankly a v v v v small town. Nothing much!

Stirling

Han Ying made these dumplings *drool*

Zhong zi. Unlike the ones we have at home.. which are much nicer. But we still got to eat some on duan wu jie! :)

Siwei, Xiao Peng and Ling Shen

Han Ying, maker of dumplings

Our food. And yes, my friends cooked all these dishes. They are very good cooks! Not me though... we did contribute Singapore Sling for them to try. Fennie brought them when she came

Start of the food party

End of Food party. People in the photo
Guang Zhe, Chen Long, Wang Yu, Ethan, Siewei, Ling Shen, Han Ying, Feifei, Xiao Peng, Zhang Yan and the one that you see just the hands is Yuan Gong.

09 JUNE
Australia Fencing Federation competition 2. My 2nd competition and I went for a national one. hahah. Was trashed. :P But had fun!!!

Jo, Kit and me

10 JUNE
Went to Central Market again... didnt spend that much time there the other day so decided to go again.

Mmmm lamb... *drool*

11 JUNE
Went for a Barossa Valley Wine tour that covered 3 wineries, the Rocking Horse, Angas Park and Whispering Wall. First time we've been on a wine-tasting tour. Interesting experience. Came to the conclusion that we like sparkling wine, white wine, sweet wine (of course!!) and port.

The World's Largest Rocking Horse

Me on the mini horse. or rather the normal size one. Haha

There were some signs at the rocking horse place. And Singapore is there!

Went to on Angas Park Dried Fruits Factory. Actually just go there to buy some nuts. Hehe.

Barossa Valley!! Wheee!!

Wolf Blass, the first of our wine-tasting winery :)
Wolf Blass has around 550 hectares of vineyards throughout the premium viticulture regions of South Australia. The winery in the Barossa Valley produces around 700,000 cases of wine annually. Wolf Blass Wines are exported to over 80 countries, most notably The United Kingdom, The United States of America, Hong Kong and Japan..

The wines that we tasted at Wolf Blass

Old old vines...

Lemon tree that we saw at our lunch place, Nuriootoa Vine Inn. The 3 course lunch was quite good!

Our next stop is Vine Crest Winery. Have quite a range of award winning wines.

The vines we tasted at Vine Crest Winery

Lookout :)

3rd winery. Barossa Vines Winery

The wines we tasted

Last winery - Kies Family Wines

Some of then grapes were overly sweet. Too much sweetness produced during the heat wave in March (we had about 10 days of over 40 degrees). Here are some of these over-dried grapes.. and they are.. sultanas. o.O

Fennie pondering which wine to try...

For some reason, they had a teapots collection...

Last stop for the day. The Whispering Wall. What's interesting about the whispering wall is that if someone talk at the other end, u can here it at this end. It's true, we tried.

12 JUNE
We went to Harbour Town for shopping. Lots of factory outlets in that place. We spent the entire day shopping! On the way back to KLC, we saw a rainbow =D

13 JUNE
Went to the SA Museum and briefly the Art Gallery. SA Museum have lots of interesting exhibit! And since fen have to leave for the airport to catch her plane, there's only so much we can do

Fen's plane to Sydney

Photos from first fencing competition!

2008-06-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'm in the psychology lab on a Saturday. Unbelivable, but true. Just cause the connection is so much faster and I won't get frustrated trying to add photos online. Hehe. Need to do some research but that's later in the day. :)

Here are some photos taken on my first fencing competition on 25 May 08. Not so many photos taken on this day cause my camera battery went flat...

Me vs Jo. Nice lunge!! :D

Nice artistic photo? :)

Meredith & Me

The four competitors for the women sabre competition. Frances, Me, Meredith and Jo

Bob, Russell & Damien

Wating to bout...

Me in action!

Compulsory Modules

2008-06-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

Today I found out that my friends from China had to take compulsory modules in…. Sports and Politics. I was like "huh?". It seems like they have to take at least 4 modules of sports. Specific sports like soccer, tennis, pool, etc. Not like our PE where the teacher decides what to do. And they had to take compulsory Tai Chi. Amazing huh? And if they dun pass their sports modules, they wont be able to get their bachelor certs. No wonder they are all fit and health conscious!

This made me wonder how that will be received if it is implemented in Singapore. I think chaos will reign. For not only do we have delicate ladies, we have delicate men too. It's a cool system though, but maybe because I'm not in it. Imagine being able to learn new sport events in Uni!!

They also had to take compulsory politics. That's a good thing imo. I have always wondered how my China friends know so much about their history and philosophical sayings (e.g. Confucius, Mao Zedong etc). The compulsory modules explains why. Sometimes when talking to them, I feel depressed that I can't remember much about Singapore history.

This week is the 2nd week of my holidays and... I still haven't done much. Haven't been feeling happy for the past few days... hopefully this stupid mood will pass.

Hava a great week ahead!

Time Flies...

2008-06-20T23:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, time really flies. In the blink of an eye, one week has passed since my first semester officially ended for me. And what have I done? Nothing. Lol. Just been reading, watching TV, watching DVD and game. Can't slack like this anymore! *tries to motivate myself to do something more constructive*

Met up with my 1st placement supervisor on Wednesday. We've decided on the area that I'll be working in. Occupational safety & health. I'll be looking at the physical and non-physical injuries of staff here at the University. Physical injuries - self-explanatory. Non-physical injuries are things like stress, depression etc. The plan now is to look at some case studies and analyse to see if there were better ways of coping better. Not much details, but at least now I have something to read about. =) I've worked out that to fulfil my 45 days requirement, I will have to work at least 1 full day and 3 halfdays to finish at the end of the semester. Will have to negotiate with supervisor about this....

I will put up photos... soon... been lazy.. and still am lazy... :P

Freedom!!!!

2008-06-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a long long time since I last updated. Was very busy with all the assignments that I had. Well, my own fault for not stciking to my work schedule. hehe. Anyway, I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee now! for glorious 6 weeks! Muahahahaha. No assignments, no datelines, nothing to worry about for 6 weeks. YAY! Actually that's not exactly true cause there's a few things I have to figure out. Will relax for a few days first though. hehe...

I have lots of photos to upload but no time now. haha. Will be uploading them asap!

Have a good week ahead!

Procrastination

2008-05-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

Procrastination... the downfall of us all. It's 3 more weeks to end of semester and I have 5 written assignments and 2 presentations to complete. And what am I doing about it? Procrastinating. :( Cant seem to stop myself from procrastinating... why why why?? Sigh... Maybe it's cause I dun really know what I'm doing? Or can it be cause I still have time (I've finished 1, drafted 1, started on 1 so I have a vague idea, havent touch 1 and lecturer havent give the last one to us). I really should get started on it...

Humans are funny. We know that procrastination is bad. Yet we stil do it. We also know that the faster we complete our task, the faster we'll get our freedom to do whatever we want. Yet, we still procrastinate.

Ah... must win this battle with procrastination!!!

Psychology Department's "Big Morning Tea"

2008-04-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Psychology department will be holding a Big Morning Tea on 22 May to raise money for the Cancer Council. This is a country wide event and I'm proud that my Uni's Psy department choose to be part of it. I have two Aunties who have had breast cancer. They overcame it not only due to their own efforts but also because of the medical research that went into it. So people! support cancer research! :)
For those interested, this is the website: http://www.biggestmorningtea.com.au/

I'm sad that I probably wont be able to go for the morning tea cause I have class at that time. However, I am going to contribute some food. Have decided that I'll get a chocolate cake (yum!), some muffins (if they have it at the supermarket when I go that day) and some cookies. A friend of mine commented that I shouldnt bother contributing anything cause I wont even be there to enjoy it. Felt like smacking her... but then decided to leave it alone. She is entitled to her own opinion. But well, I feel good contributing, and who knows, maybe after people at the tea ate the food they'll feel happier and then they will donate more!

I did something really stupid... I thought that the tea session is tomorrow! Yap. That just show how.. blinded I am. So I went to buy cake and muffins today. Only realized my mistake when I reread the email (cause I wanted to check where to pass on the food). Sheesh. Now i'll be sharing the cake and muffins with Komal and her housemate (who stays opposite me). So blur right? Hahaha... but then, thank goodness I found out the mistake today. Imagine how stupid I will look if I had brought everything tomrorow and then find out then that I got the date wrong. Haha... phew. Thank goodness I am spared tat. Hehehehe... just find it soooo funny. Next time I better real emails and dates carefully...

Have a good rest of the week! :)

Reflection on mid-semester break

2008-04-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

The mid-semester break is officially over. Sob. No more slacking. Now it's the beginning of assignments due date. I think I still have 6 written assignments and 2 presentations in the next 6 weeks. And each of the written assignment is 2500 words? Dun even want to think about it now...

Didnt really accomplish as much as I wanted during the break. Did get some things settled (thank goodness!!!), but not everything. Sigh. I really need to learn what my own abilities are and from there how to set realistic targets. I laugh when I looked back at some of the stuff that I targeted to finish. Sheesh. I supposed this is one of the ways you get to learn about yourself. At least I learned something from this...

On a positive note, I finally finished my draft for WAIS. Will read through it after dinner before sending it to my vetter. Haha. Thanks fen :)

Ok, off to dinner! whee! So hungry!

Food Party!

2008-04-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of our mid-semester break. So sad! >_< Classes start again next week! Sob. BUT! There was a good thing that happened today! We had… a food party!  Han Ying came up with the idea, where everyone cooks a dish and bring it for dinner (we dun get dinner provided on Sunday). Nope, for people who are wondering, I didn’t cook. Pls, I dun want to poison someone k. I bought some drinks instead. There were a total of 17 of us and these are what we had:

Xiao Bai Cai + dong ku + dried scallop
Fried potato with vinegar
Fried dry beancurd skin
Spicy chicken dish (not sure how to describe it except it’s REALLY spicy)
Mochi (red bean filling)
Fried egg + seafood
Chicken curry (had potato, onion and carrot in it so healthy )
Pork Leg
Stir-fry mince lamb
Crispy Chicken
Chicken (again, not sure what this dish is called, but it’s kinda soupy, but not too much. And it has a mild taste. I like it)
Spaghetti
Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Mousse
Peach Pie
Whisky
Scotch
Midori
Coke
Sprite

Cool huh? So many stuff. Hehehehe. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos.  If not I can share with you all the wonderful food that we had. But I’m sure we’ll do this again. Hehe. Next time I’ll take photos. Some of the guys were a bit drunk at the end (scotch and whisky are 40% alcohol content) but all in all, it was good.

Present: Yasu, Masayo, Ethan, Wang Yu, Xiao Peng, Long, James, Siwei, Lin Shen, Mark, Han Ying, Mark (? Not sure whether this is his name…), Adam (I think...), Adam’s brother, Gilmert, Feifei & me.

Fencing night! :)

2008-04-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

Today is fencing day!!! Wheeee!! :) I couldnt really make up my mind whether to go or not. Cause I had to go Uni in the morning, and then come home. U know how after u go home u really dun wanna go out? that's how I felt. Anyway, I still went for fencing today. It was a good workout, though I didnt do very well today in the bouts. I got thrashed in the first bout. 6-15. Sigh. I really need to work out more often. My legs get so tired easily. And I think there's something wrong with my grip, cause for the first time, my thumb hurts. Will have to check with the experts next week.

I won the second bout though, but it was really closed. 15-12. A lot of things to work on!!
1) Hold the blade up
2) Extend the arm first before moving the legs
3) Tempo
4) Take small steps
5) Use cutting action, not swiping
6) The fastest action should be:
- when attacking
- riposte is to be faster than parry
7) Do not anticipate
8) Do not take too many steps at the beginning

I get new things to work on every week when I go! Lots of room for improvement... Ahhh!! and I must improve before the competition in June!!!

Glenelg Beach

2008-04-18T04:19:00.000-07:00

Went to Glenelg Beach with Komal today. :) We took the tram!! It was nice! The weather was good (warm enough that I can walk around without my windbreaker!!!), but water quite cold. Still, I enjoyed it. The sea is sooooo clear!! First time I've been to the beach since I arrived. IMO, the area is a bit too commercialised. Dun really have the full "beachy" feeling. Ah well... Komal and I are so spontaneous. We were walking in the town on the way home when we pass by the cinema. Saw that kids movies are $8! We ended up watching a movie - Horton Hears a Who! It's quite funny, and the animation is cool and colourful. After that we went home, and I managed to be in time for dinner! All in all, a good day today.

Below are some photos that I took today! :)

Glenelg Beach

See how clear the water is!!! The dark part is where the seaweeds are...

So bright and sunny! :)

Me & Komal. Komal is my fellow org psy-to-be

Glenelg

The Beach House. See those slides? Those are for people to slide in! So cool huh? Haha. Will probably come again some day with Komal. :)

Glenelg Beach

Tram! Took us about 30 mins to travel from Adelaide City to the beach.

Sunsetting. Waiting for tram to go home