Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Dust and more
My nose is peeling like an orange and I'm coughing up phlegm like how a persian coughs up furballs, and I'm wheezing like a chain smoker after climbing just 4 flights of stairs. All thanks to the stupid stupid dust storms over the weekend. But it's all much better now, I'm glad I didn't get a chest infection like how a number of people here did, gosh they sound like hell. It's as if I storm's perpetually brewing in their chest or something and they can cough up enough phlegm to drown the whole college.
Basically the dust storm hit once on Friday, and again on Saturday. Looks like a sepia-fied picture right? Wrong.. it's ALL DUST. I didn't realise how well the camera captured the dust until I compared it to a picture I took this morning on a clear day. It's amazing!Colour difference so cool right? Thank God I wasn't hanging my laundry out that time! See I hang my clothes! My mudder will be so proud of me. muahhaha.Once again, the dusty dusty brissy. poooi. damn gross. You can literally taste the dust. It moved from the desert up north, down to Brisbane, NSW, Sydey and back up again to us the day after.
On another random note, it's amazing how the sunsets make the muddy river look so awesome. Ain't it gorgeous?
It was awesome seeing and feeling the rugby crowd during one of the games I was there working at. I think my sentence damn jialat. Anyways, ya, it was a game between the Broncos, one of the favourite teams. All I can say is that Australians truly live up to their beer drinking traditional image!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Shinedown!
Have you ever had the luck to come across the song which you always wanted to find out the title and artist of but never got the chance to? (badly constructed sentence) I just had the wonderful fortune of discovering Shinedown, and found that a couple of their songs were songs which I were always trying to find and download but was never able to. It's like striking 4D man... Hahah
There was a little worm crawling over my anatomy practical worksheet that day, it was a really tiny fella, pretty cute. He's now unfortunately deceased because I 'accidentally' squished him after exploiting him in this short video. He was freaking puny la, like a moving comma.
Ok I'm off to see my kid at the kindy!! :D
There was a little worm crawling over my anatomy practical worksheet that day, it was a really tiny fella, pretty cute. He's now unfortunately deceased because I 'accidentally' squished him after exploiting him in this short video. He was freaking puny la, like a moving comma.
Ok I'm off to see my kid at the kindy!! :D
Sunday, September 06, 2009
One hellova week
It's been a craaazy week, and will continue to be for the next couple of days at least. It's amazing how much life changes when you're placed in an environment so different from what you're used to. Life as a foriegn student (yes I'm gonna talk about THAT again) is just so different from that of a local irregardless of where you are.
I managed to find a super part-time casual job! It's basically back to F&B, doing casual events as and when they come (which seems to be pretty frequent with football/rugby/ping pong/whatever ball season that's in right now) After spending more than half a year from hardcore F&B work, I must say that yesterday was the LONGEST 2 hours I've ever spent. I swear my little toe is officially dead. It was exciting, getting to work in a foreign country, because it didn't really feel like a foreign country at all. Firstly, serving ang mohs are the easiest by far. I must say that Aussies are an awesome chilled group of people, unlike us fussy, perpetually complain-y Signaporean customers. Aussies are pretty casual most of the time, and even back in singapore, I really enjoyed serving them amongst all the different foreigners. (french were a pain in the ass most times)
Secondly, all the other waitstaff were foreigners, much like singapore. Only difference was that these people were from Brazil, Africa and and not the sterotypical asian countries we assume. It was pretty interesting listening to their conversation. Finding work for them can be pretty tough, and most of them are cleaners in places such as hostels and such. (We're so used to seeing old ah-mas and ah-peks cleaning our schools and toilets, seeing people who aren't way past their retirement age was something different). Don't you think we have sucky human rights/welfare policies/principles? Many cultures frown upon making someone be at your beck and call 24/7 (maids) and being only paid $250 a month, even more would look on us with disapproval for making an old person do physically demanding tasks for only slightly more than that amount. One thing I must agree with our principal back at St Hilda's, don't think of our school cleaners as cleaners, look at them and think that they are someone's grandma or grandpa.
How did my complain-y whin-y post get turned into one about Welfare? aiyoo..
One thing awesome here is the emphasis they place on worker's welfare and rights. We all need to have a COMPULSARY half hour break, we all have insurance covering any injury, we get paid a whoooping $18/hr.
But one thing I still cannot tahan here is the shitty obscure public transport system. As much as they paid, I ended up taking a cab home for $15 cos the bloody buses/trains/ferries/cable car/helicopters/jets stopped functioning around midnight. Wah lao eh can die la, it's annoying when you're actually pretty near, but just have no way to get there.
(I want to buy a scooter!)
I managed to find a super part-time casual job! It's basically back to F&B, doing casual events as and when they come (which seems to be pretty frequent with football/rugby/ping pong/whatever ball season that's in right now) After spending more than half a year from hardcore F&B work, I must say that yesterday was the LONGEST 2 hours I've ever spent. I swear my little toe is officially dead. It was exciting, getting to work in a foreign country, because it didn't really feel like a foreign country at all. Firstly, serving ang mohs are the easiest by far. I must say that Aussies are an awesome chilled group of people, unlike us fussy, perpetually complain-y Signaporean customers. Aussies are pretty casual most of the time, and even back in singapore, I really enjoyed serving them amongst all the different foreigners. (french were a pain in the ass most times)
Secondly, all the other waitstaff were foreigners, much like singapore. Only difference was that these people were from Brazil, Africa and and not the sterotypical asian countries we assume. It was pretty interesting listening to their conversation. Finding work for them can be pretty tough, and most of them are cleaners in places such as hostels and such. (We're so used to seeing old ah-mas and ah-peks cleaning our schools and toilets, seeing people who aren't way past their retirement age was something different). Don't you think we have sucky human rights/welfare policies/principles? Many cultures frown upon making someone be at your beck and call 24/7 (maids) and being only paid $250 a month, even more would look on us with disapproval for making an old person do physically demanding tasks for only slightly more than that amount. One thing I must agree with our principal back at St Hilda's, don't think of our school cleaners as cleaners, look at them and think that they are someone's grandma or grandpa.
How did my complain-y whin-y post get turned into one about Welfare? aiyoo..
One thing awesome here is the emphasis they place on worker's welfare and rights. We all need to have a COMPULSARY half hour break, we all have insurance covering any injury, we get paid a whoooping $18/hr.
But one thing I still cannot tahan here is the shitty obscure public transport system. As much as they paid, I ended up taking a cab home for $15 cos the bloody buses/trains/ferries/cable car/helicopters/jets stopped functioning around midnight. Wah lao eh can die la, it's annoying when you're actually pretty near, but just have no way to get there.
(I want to buy a scooter!)