Country Life

It has been ages since I've shared anything online, in a blink of an eye the next term has gone past right before my eyes! I really count my blessings each day that I work within Education, especially the fact that I have the flexible option of taking student school holidays off as well without actually taking leave! The work might be hard at times, but effectively I am able to actually not work for 8 weeks a year (or more actually!)

6 months out living in the country, and I wouldn't be honest if I said I loved every bit of it. The social isolation can sometimes be a bit discouraging, especially when people ask "so what do you do on the weekends?" and I say "nothing really, sometimes talk to myself?".

But what surprises me though, is how much I actually love staying out here! For one, here's my massive big house (pictures courtesy of a friend who came down and visited and provided awesome Canon shots):

The Differences in the Country (i.e. regional/rural Australia vs Metropolitan)

 1. Larger Spaces (as if Brisbane isn't spacious enough already)

 

I currently stay in a spacious Queenslander with another girl, it looks dodgy on the outside, and I must admit, it doesn't look spanky on the inside, but I reckon it's WAY better than a number of dodgy places I've seen in Brisbane/Sydney!

This house is probably waaaay older than my mum I'm sure.

And take a good look at my backyard. THAT IS MY BACKYARD. It's the size of 2 HDB 3 bedroom flats I'm sure

 2. Nature is ALWAYS abundant, and photo-worthy scenery is never scarce.

It still amazes me how you can go up to someone and ask, 'So... how large is your property?' and they go without batting an eyelash 'Oh, only 40 acres..." Singaporeans out there - how many of you actually know how big an acre is? Here's some perspective from Google..

1 Acre  = 43,560 sqft = 4046.84 sq m

If you live in a 3 bedroom HDB, that's about 700-900sq feet. A 5 bed room flat according to HDB's website, is about 1,184 sq ft. I CANNOT EVEN COMPREHEND THAT NUMBER.

Yes it has been artificially pinkified, but still, so much green and sooo much space!

 These are the wetlands that are just across from my place, by far one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen! This picture was taken without any funny effects or editing, it is what it is!

The view from my back door any given day during the evenings. Picturesque eh?

What my friends called 'Lord of The Rings' hills when we visited my colleagues property.

3. Drinking Rainwater is normal and BETTER than drinking town water

Now this statement sometimes comes to a shock to not only people back home, but even people who have lived in metropolitan Australia all their lives. I didn't think much of it when I initially came out here, but basically, every house would most likely have a rainwater tank behind their house. These tanks collect rainwater run off from the gutter. They go through a couple of filters here and there, and voila, we drink it. Everyone out here tells me sternly 'DON'T DRINK THE TOWN WATER'. This refers to water that is processed by the towns and comes out from most taps in the toilets and what not.

People have different piping systems depending on how they choose to install them when they build their houses. Some only have tank water going to the toilet, some only have it going to the kitchen, some have it going to every pipe in the house. It's such a different world as to how we just buy ready made houses back home and perhaps, fuss about flooring or tiling. Even if you do build your own house in Singapore, you wouldn't be fussing about town vs tank water as well.

 

 Unfortunately, my tank water is rather dirty. The tank and pipes are so old that rust and some form of fungi often come out of the tap as well. I don't drink my own tank water, rather, I drink the tank water at schools where they have clean and well-maintained tanks. It has become so that I find Brisbane town water rather distasteful! My town water basically smells like a combination of sweat, chlorine and iron/blood. It stains the white ceramic tiles yellow, and causes the metal tap heads and pipes to develop blue rust. (Now go back and think of Secondary school Chemistry as to what element might be bringing about blue reside, haha). also, the town water tastes reallllly bad. Like salty and gluggy.

One thing living out here has also made me is grateful. Grateful that when I do go back to Brisbane for a weekend, I can take a shower with my mouth open and not splutter!

But rain water here is much much cleaner than out in the city, because of pollution and all. Hence it is much more acceptable to drink rainwater in the country as opposed to that in the city.

 4. The Cow Culture is Strong here

 Here are a couple of my neighbours! Many people own properties and farms here. I go to the staff room and listen to teachers talking about how their husbands have to do some work on the fencing in the farm, or that they have to maintain the farm or stuff like that. Most of them aren't farmers or anything like that, they just enjoy having a farm as a hobby!

That fence demarcates the boundary between my neighbour's property and mine

 Even my Speechie supervisor has cows! Just for consumption mainly. She explained how they had a mobile butcher come in for a couple hundred dollars to get meat for them. Basically, you call in a mobile butcher who drives in with a portable cool room, he shoots your cow, drains the blood in the cool room for a couple days, takes the skin/hide whatever you call it, chops it up for you and you pack it away. You then have to dispose of the bones and offcuts yourself. She says they normally burn or bury it. A cow gives her husband and her about a year's supply of beef. I'll have to talk more about cows in another post! I've just learnt so much about them!


There are a lot more things about the country that surprise me everyday, and I'll try and pen them all down to share before I become too complacent and ungrateful for all that's out there for me right now!

Drawing Happiness From Others

When I often scroll through people's status updates, picture uploads, comments and unashamed exclamations of how fantastic/crummy/emo/yummy their lives are, there are always a couple of things that will make me smile to myself like a bemused old grandma looking at her grand kids photos.

One thing that always makes me smile, is when I see someone I know whom I experienced some period of my life with (i.e. secondary school or primary school mates), announcing an engagement. Marriage and weddings are always happy events in my heart, they're full of those 'aweee' moments, and I love seeing that these people I once knew who were once immature kids (like myself), were taking the next step in life and progressing. I find it even more depressing when you are surrounded by depressed people. And seeing other people move forward should only encourage you to move forward too.
 
 What makes me smile even more, is when they announce that they've received a HDB flat (because it's just so darn bloody hard to get a flat in Singapore, I think these guys deserve all the congratulations and celebrations they can get.

Another thing that ALWAYS makes me smile, is when someone I know who has been chasing/courting someone else finally gets attached to the person they've been after! It's almost like watching a real life rom-com (without the rom-com details) don't you think? Where it gets to that ending and you go 'Awwwww....'

I love it even more so when I see young mums, or peers who go on to have kids. Well, actually to be honest that one is a bit of a mixed emotion, we all know why. I see way to many kids with crappy parents at this point of time I don't understand how these adults can be so superficial.


Another thing I feel really happy seeing is people succeeding when our education system had made them out to fail. For instance, that kid who was in the bottom class and who now holds a university degree from an overseas uni. I love seeing the underdogs rise, and love it even more that they are able to fight the stereotypes Singapore may have unknowingly imposed on them. Who cares if it's an overseas degree, it's still a tertiary education.

I think it's mainly seeing people that I have (sort of) grown up with, having seen them as children, or angsty teenagers, or emo adolescents and then now, seeing them grow up and enter the world as adults, ready to take on and care for the next generation.

It's progress that makes me happy. :)

Being Blessed

I must say that God truly has been kind to me. The past month flew past, literally! I hadn't realised that my 'happy meal' photo was actually a month old! It seemed like it was just last week when I prepared and microwave-cooked that meal oh-so-lovingly.

But now that I'm in my new giant Queenslander home out in the country-town-stopover-point with a population of 165, all set up and comfortably working at the desk, the memory of me living out of a suitcase, rotating between literally 7 outfits, not looking at myself in the mirror at all (I had gotten so pro at putting on my foundation without a mirror and occasionally putting on eyeliner with the ipod reflection), has faded to what seems like a distant past. To think that all that was merely 2 weeks ago!

While I tried my hardest not to whinge and whine through the 2 months of homelessness, and to be grateful for all the generosity people showed me in letting me sleep and lodge in their houses, there were a couple points in time where I just got so tired of it and just felt like giving in and renting any apartment. Patience was wearing thin and I began to wonder what exactly God was planning and wanting to do. At these moments I went in my head 'Seriously God!??'

I'm glad he showed me so much patience, and in turn, I'm glad he made me a bit more patient.

Living out here has been humbling, empowering, depressing and enlightening all at the same time. It's times like these where you get to reflect, or realise what and how you actually are.

On a slight digression, Pastor at church spoke about how our generation has to be wary of what we throw up out on the world wide web. Things we post, say, tweet, instagram etc (often enough) cannot be retrieved. But this, I definitely want to put out there for it to stay on the world wide web.

Thank you Mickey for helping me set up and settle in all through last week so caringly and lovingly. Getting the furniture and completing the jobs and errands like a 'house-husband', being my chauffeur and sending and picking me up from work each day and being just a 'whatsapp' away all time. Clearing away all the disgusting cobwebs and doing the laundry almost everyday so that I wouldn't have to during the weekend. And cleaning up that disgusting ancient washing machine and leaving it so pristine that I would actually believe it was new!

Thank you for so selflessly thinking of my welfare and well-being as you went about choosing bits of furniture for the room, and moving them around despite it probably being back breaking, and putting them together with my very girly and puny tool set and not whinging one bit about the calluses or blisters the lousy screwdriver gave you.

For not complaining about the horrible mat we slept on despite your bad back, and accepting my stubborness in taking my time to actually buy a mattress only on the last day you were here, and then for so gung-ho-ly shoving it into your car and bringing it back to the house just so that I could save $20 on delivery (knowing what a stinge I am).

For going to ALL the different asian shops and sussing them out, so that I would feel comforable going back to them after being there before with you, knowing that I would have probably hidden in my little hut for the rest of the year had we not gone to eat there first.

And most of all, for doing all that, despite knowing what our decision was and what our plan was going to be at the end of the week. Despite knowing all that, you still helped me whole heartedly, still loved me so selflessly, that I sometimes can't bear to think of it.

I think this is something you need to be credited for, and that it is something that deserves to remain on the world wide web for all to see till the computer age ends. 

(Not a very glamourous picture I know, but it's a great look of concentration you have there!)

Happy

And that's what I call a happy dinner!

Growing Up

Having spent merely a week as a true working adult (the last time I did I was 19, so that's not officially 'adult' age yet), and so quickly having my first paid public holiday, and then now having a half day/day off because I am unable to access my work place/town due to the flooded roads, I decided to finally sit my bum down after a long 2 months and put up something on the blog.

I remember the time I first started this blog, and would have tonnes of 'aha!' moments where I thought about issues and posts I could write about. Those who have read and followed might notice that this nature of penning my thoughts changed quite a bit and I moved towards more factual or anecdotal posts as opposed to purely opinionated ones. Probably half due to me getting lazy and using pictures to speak, and the other half due to brain proteins denaturing from underuse.

Anyways, long story short, I had been debating internally as to whether I should continue blogging, let's just say due to confidentiality issues. But then I had one of those 'aha' moments on Friday when I got back from Kingaroy and thought, now I should write this down somewhere regardless. (And now, since I'm sitting and waiting unknowingly for the roads to be reopened I thought I should just do it now).


As I was getting into my car for the gazillionth time on Friday to go to a friend's place, I had this sudden thought that ran through my mind,

Gosh, I'm an adult. 

I remember watching a movie not too long ago called by the name of 'Courageous', and one of the men asked his fellow colleagues this question:

When was the moment you knew that you were no longer a boy, but a man?

One said it was when he passed his driving, another said it was when his dad told him he was and so on. That made me really ask myself recently, when did I become an adult? Did I have that moment where I said 'Yes I am' or that sudden sense of pride? I suppose I had always thought of myself as an almost-adult ever since getting on my scooter in 2010 and filling up my own tank with $5 worth of petrol, but I knew I still had much to learn, and that I still would not be taken seriously. 

Is there an age where I would be certain I was an adult? I time where I wouldn't do anything stupid? I suppose as children or youths, we think adults are mature and never make mistakes, when in fact they still do, more often than we think. I remember looking at our teachers with great respect, regardless of their age (except for the dodgy 19 year old relief teachers we got once in a while that were so obviously still children). But now that I'm suddenly on the other side of education, and actually being almost one and the same with teachers, I realise that, they are still like any other young girl out there, still wanting to live their lives, still cracking silly jokes, making silly mistakes or acting young. Our teachers just knew how to conduct themselves when they were in front of us, and probably when they returned to their staff rooms, they had their nail and hair talk, whinge and whine sessions, or gossip about the cute PE teacher or what not. 

What I've decided so far is, it's a gradual process. And for now, despite feeling slightly more like an adult buying insurance, and taking into consideration other financial issues, I feel quite sure that I'm probably not going to feel like a complete adult until I have a child at least. (Even some mums I know now seem very much a child themselves). When does it change? I don't know. When did it, or when will it for you?

Jersey Boys

I caught Jersey Boys with my mum when she came down during September. I hadn't realised that I didn't actually write a review of it despite enjoying the musical IMMENSELY. (I was probably tied up with school work and entertaining my mum).

Jersey Boys tells the story of how Franki Valli and the Four Seasons came to be, following their journey it good ole' dodgy New Jersey. The band was big through the 1960-70s, pretty much around the same time as Elvis I suppose, and eventually disbanded and reunited over several 'dramatic' events. Franki Valli himself is still alive, and played a part in mentoring and giving advice to the different cast members throughout it's production in America as well as other international casts such as the Australian one.

 I first came across Jersey Boys when we visited London in 2010 and saw it advertised in West End. As I was pretty clueless as to who they were or what songs they sang (although my mum was more well versed,), I did a quick google search and immediately fell in love with the musical. I quickly came to realise that I actually knew quite a lot of their hits! (Big Girls Don't Cry, Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Walk Like A Man etc. Unfortunately, we were tight for time and unable to catch the musical over Christmas, hence when I saw that they were touring Australia, I leapt at the chance and actually asked my mum to arrange her travelling dates to BNE according to ticket availability at QPAC!

The musical is fantastically enjoyable if you know their music, and even more so if you're a sentimental who enjoys being brought back in time to the 1970s. The script and character development of each person is great, such that you end up actually feeling connected to them. I was surprised how sad I was when the musical depicted them being disbanded! It made me realise how quickly I had come to love them all as individuals, and as a band.

This is a wordy post, but my main message is targeted to any of you lucky people in Singapore right now...

 GO AND CATCH JERSEY BOYS!!!!

You can get your tickets here, although they are fairly overpriced (I think it's because it's at MBS) but it's a great great great musical to bring your parents to if they were into music of that era (But no point if they don't enjoy music or have no idea who they are though). Even if you did buy a $55 ticket, you would get a nice big overview of everything I reckon. My mum and I sat near the front, but got seats with restricted views by the side (hence at a cheaper price), which resulted in a bit of blockage here and there, but the energy in teh audience was just amazing. I suppose I was probably the youngest person there or the only one born in the 1980s in the audience, but that made it even more enjoyable for me, as I saw people my mum's age livin' it up and having a good time clapping and wriggling their bottoms during the different songs. =))) 

(Can't guarantee if our Singaporean aunties and uncles will do that though, but music transcends all cultures right?)

:) ciao

Sinking In... The End

I think it has finally begun to sink in today.. The fact that I have completed my 4 year tertiary education in Brisbane, and that soon, I will be deemed a responsible adult who's life will no longer revolve around numbers such as 1st year, primary 4, secondary 3 etc, and that in a month or so, I will officially be deemed a Speech Pathologist an no longer a uni student. 

It's exciting yet daunting all the same, I know I'll get there eventually, don't we all?

Graduation dinner with Mark and Siqi

Self-Discovery

Someone told me that self-discovery is very important. And I agree that it definitely is something that is part  of the process of developing yourself, your values, personality and expectations, and through that self-discovery, you hopefully find the best way to handle yourself.

I personally prefer to 'deal with myself' as if I were someone else (as crazy and loopy as it sounds), but hear me out. Let's imagine this scenario: You're a teacher/parent with a troublesome kid - a 5 year old who is throwing a temper tantrum, refusing to take a shower when you want him to and refusing to eat when you want him to. And if you are currently a teacher or parent, you might identify with that feeling of frustration and anger when he just refuses to cooperate. You think in your head: "Why can't you just do what I tell you dammit!??". And this might end up as a push/pull fight, whether physical or not, to see who wins that 'power struggle' of doing what they want to be done.

Often, we get lost and engulfed in that moment. I know I do sometimes. Just becoming telescopic and trying to figure out and get him to get from Point A to B by force. But sometimes, doing so in a forceful manner ends up wasting a lot of time (due to the constant push/pull between the both of you), and causing a lot of unhappiness for both parties. Sometimes if I'm too tired, I end up being trapped in that cycle of pushing and pulling (imagine those 'Yes!' and 'No!' arguements). But sometimes, if I have the energy, I think to myself "hang on.. This is getting no where. Let's just think for a moment why he's behaving this way. What does he actually want?"

And then I take myself out of the situation and just visualise our little squabble as if I were a third person (ala out-of-body experience) and ask myself, how would I deal with this if I were someone else?  I might then try something different, or just step out of the moment for a while to calm down. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. But either ways, at least I become a bit calmer and not burst a blood vessel trying to do something.


So how exactly is this relevant to my point?

This is one of the ways I 'self-discovered' about dealing with myself. Taking myself out of the moment, looking at myself and saying 'hang on, what would this look like to someone else?'  or 'how would someone else deal with this?'. And similarly, it ain't a perfect technique, but it's one of my many coping mechanisms. Probably something I never did when I was younger, especially whilst going through that teenage angsty age (when I read my diaries written then, omgtheshame!

I've discovered a lot more things about myself just over the past 2-3 years, like how I know I'm not a hermit, and can never be one (I used to think I could when I was younger), but I started talking and enjoy it too much to ever go back into recluse. Or how I discovered I'm not actually ready to have children at a very young age (I used to think that you could give me a baby anytime and I'd be fine and dandy, but I discovered that you literally give up your life for your child). But that's all for another time perhaps.


What else have you discovered about yourself?

New Niece

So some of you might already know that my sister had her second little daughter, Ellie about 2 weeks back, and that the first one, our dear Ah Bee (as if Gaby could be any shorter), is turning two on Halloween.

It almost seems as if it were yesterday that all Gaby was was this massive bump causing my sister much distress as stretch marks started forming in 2010.

There's that lil' bugger! just 2 years ago!

And while I was sad that I couldn't be there to feel every hiccup, kick, push and shove through my sister's belly, I got to see her embracing soon-to-be motherhood through Skype and her blog (Whatever would we do without technology!)

 And whilst I was busy studying for Neuroanatomy exams (I think) or fussing about whatever frivolous detail regarding my tertiary education, out popped (one night at around 3am BNE time)

Gaby!!

 

Proud dad holding and showing her off to me during her first week or so back home

She just looked so tiny and rat like! I only managed to go down during her 3rd month over Christmas '11, and even then, she was the tiniest ball of soft, mushy, screaming 'du-lan-ness'. I couldn't see any distinct features in her face yet (apart from her frowns and face cringes when she cried, which seemed rather often), and I completely couldn't imagine how she would look like!

And after two trips down to Zurich, and several skype sessions, (not as much as I had hoped, due to the hectic schedule of mothering), soon, that little rodent-looking ball of soft became....







                               This!

She looked much more like a human with her scruffy, fluffy hair. And I remember that I could not, for the love of me, get enough of her baby scent! I just kept inhaling her nice baby smell every single chance I could. Seriously, if they made baby scents into a perfume, all guys would need to do would be to let girls catch a whiff, and I'd guarantee they would go weak at the knees for sure!

And after some more months of hair growing/hair cuts, our lovely little Bee is now a toddler. (She actually toddles omg!!!)

The 'triplets', it's so scary they look so alike, even their smiles!

And so, I finally got the chance to have a good look at Ellie (now affectionately called 'Ah Lee') just a few nights back when my mum and sister were free enough (And after my thesis was submitted).

My mum tells me she's a complete opposite of Ah Bee, she's a perfect little baby, sleeping and being noiseless during the day, but cranking it up real loud at night (most unfortunately). But still, she's proven to be a really 'easy baby' as said by my sister, and doesn't seem to fuss much. One of the key difficulties with Bee was that she refused to take the pacifier or bottle, hence making it difficult for my sister to leave her side as she demanded only her mum's boob for sustenance.

Thankfully, both mum and grandma have started getting Ellie acquainted with the bottle as much as possible, so that my mum can do some 'surrogating' should my sister not be around. 

Here's the new little rodent in the family! All babies look the same right. Even my mum's wearing the same shirt I reckon

And to prove that Ah Lee was a SUPER sound sleeper during the day, and that nothing could be done to keep her awake in order to make her sleep at night, my mum demonstrated with plentiful prodding, how solid a sleeper Ah Lee was. (She really poke damn hard leh)

 And look, maintaining that same position and facial expression even as she shat herself, and my sister had to change her. She looks like she's fake sleeping or totally doped on skype! But looked ohhh so soft and squishy!!

 And finally deciding to open her eyes to take a peek after my sister wet-wiped her ass a little more.

And then it's OOO WHAT'S THE BRIGHT LIGHTTTT

 And then....






Giving me a quick wave

Before deciding to re-enter that heavily drugged state  (good thing about having 2 girls both born in the same month in a country with 4 seasons, you can use the exact same set of clothes!)

Trust me, with 4 seasons it makes planning and baby-clothes buying SOOO much harder! You can't just buy cheap or sale clothes without first considering what season it would be at that time.

"Save me from Grandma!!!!!"

 And then grandma takes over to show me Ah Lee's facial features


Super cock-eyed photo! I think it was the glare from the computer! I felt so afraid she'd become permenantly cock-eyed cos of me!

The cross-eyed-ness!!

All right she wasn't that cross-eyed, she only looked super cross-eyed because of the reflection from the windows making her whites seem whiter. But I do see some meme potential in Ah Lee's current look, hahahhahaa....


I can't wait to see the both of them!!!

KMart Ice Cream Maker Review

So I was talking to my sister one day, and she mentioned that she was considering purchasing a KitchenAid as it was going on half price up in Zurich (so jealous). For those of you who aren't aware, the KitchenAid can costs close to $1000, and is one of the most AMAZING mixers ever.

 

All right, so truth be told, I've never had the chance to actually use one of these babies. But being the consumer-advertising sucker that I am, just seeing it on Martha Stewart when I was in Singapore, and just hearing about how it makes the perfect meringues just makes me go all weak at my knees.. (sighhhh)

So back to the main point, she began talking about how the different 'attachements' for the KitchenAid were likewise, going on a 50% sale. And she briefly mentioned an ice cream maker one, which was amounting to hundred-ish++ ( I can't remember the figure anymore) dollars. Whatever the amount was, I stopped her mid sentence and said,

 "wait, can't you buy ice cream makers for $20??"

I said this because I was quite certain I had seen KMart selling their ice cream makers for $20 one day. KMart has HEAPS of amazing fun kitchen devices that look amazingly appealing to children, and would make fantastic inexpensive gifts for (poor) friends.

For instance, last year, I bought a dutch pancake maker and donut maker as christmas gifts for friends back home in Singapore who either were the baking/cooking sort, or had kids (and hence, I knew would make most use out of them hopefully!) 




Unfortunately I haven't gotten a chance to ask them how it went, (seeing that the electric plug heads here and back home are different, they might not have actually used them yet.. Fei?)

But I have tasted a sample of the donut maker's goods before when a friend made them. Although they weren't exactly donuts, they were nice, soft, fluffy and pancake-like. (And seeing that there's hardly any oil, probably a healthy fun snack-activity for any kid).

Seeing that I am SO sold on KMart's series of cooking appliances, I went on to purchase the Ice Cream Maker to trial before passing it on or getting one for my sister!

Now believe me, knowing that some ice cream makers cost hundreds of dollars, I had my doubts on this guy. Plus, I could not, for the life of me, find a decent review of this product! (Hence decided to write one for all you out there contemplating the purchase of one)

 

For an in expensive $20, I  proudly brought home my new toy to trial!

Now in all honesty, because the ice cream maker does not have an actual electrical freezer component, do not expect to make and eat your ice cream on the same sitting. And and and... always make sure you have enough freezer space and planning before making ice cream! Unfortunately, this little baby isn't one you can just conveniently whip out and use, as you need to freeze the freezer bowl at least 24 hours prior. ( Hence the need for planning).

Key tip and reminder of using this device: KEEP EVERYTHING AS COLD AS POSSIBLE! This meant keeping the mixture cool before putting it in, freezing the bowls, not doing it in the hot blistering sun etc. 

The ice cream maker is a simple device, it basically churns your cream while it slowly freezes in a cold cold bowl.

A snapshot of my peanut butter and dark chocolate ice cream in the process! Yummmm (it turned out to be way too rich though)

One mega let down is the limited capacity of the device. Overloading it resulted in this big mess, and I had to stop the churning mid way as the ice cream began pushing up on the lid and I was afraid of spoiling the mixer in one day.

As you can see, we were alll prepared to eat it the ice cream once it had finished churning.. Unfortunately, this didn't really happen and we had more of a chocolate-sorbet-soft-serve type ice cream. (Which was still pretty awesome).

Although the cost of ingredients and effort kinda took up as much as one tub of 4L Coles ice cream on sale, the experience was still fun. AND, you get to pick your own flavours! (Like the peanut butter and nutella you see sitting at the edge of the counter!)

I would recommend this anyday if you had a big enough freezer, ate ice cream quite frequently, or my favourite, had kids with perhaps dietary needs and required lactose-free sugar-free everything-free ice cream. It's a fun event, and it feels better eating your own home made ice cream!

Singaporean Humour

With less that 5 days left of official school days, and with the looming deadline of my thesis, what better way to spend time then to....

Start watching stupid videos online right?

ClickNetwork is one of the sites which I frequent in order to get that dose of local humour and entertainment whilst I spend time here down under. Basically, ClickNetwork employs seemingly random locals and produce seemingly random videos of fairly frivolous natures to entertain. They've employed local bloggers such as Xiaxue and Qiuqiu, and even random NTU students to do episodes on fashion.

One of my favourites from ClickNetwork is Don Richmond (assumingly, Mark Richmond's bro - they even look similiar), who does the stupidest things on camera (in a scarily serious manner). The weekly 'Now You Know' videos serve to update me with news highlights which are deemed important by the team at ClickNetwork (fine by me, at lease I get to know something, as opposed to being completely clueless about news).

So I came across this spoof he did of Brad Pitt's Chanel No. 5 ad. Although it's not super fantastic, it still made me laugh!

Wishtrend Review!

I rarely write reviews about my purchases, online or not, namely because I always feel so guilty after any shopping splurge, I try and bury it and hide it within the depths of my memory as soon as I get the goods. But this time, I cannot bear to let something that works so well for me go unpublicised! 

Wishtrend is a korean online shop that specialises in bringing korean skin/hair/face products to the world. Although their website isn't the most appealing, and they do appear rather dodgy at first, I was pleasantly surprised by my experience with them. My closer friends will know that I stinge when it comes to buying stuff online (unless I know for sure it's something that I want and cannot get it in a physical store). Most of my online purchases occur on ebay, where I always indulge in $1-2 necklaces shipped from Hong Kong or China (I really really love ebay Australia, you can get so many more things as opposed to ebay.sg!)

Anyways, Wishtrend was something my sister and I came across when we got our July Bellaboxes when she was in Singapore (I had been sharing my bimbo experiences with her regarding product reviews and such from our local bloggers Xiaxue and Kaykay). Our boxes contained this AMAZING product called the 'Skinmiso Pore Pack'. Basically, it's an elaborate pore pack product (haha alliteration) that removes your black heads and refines your pores in 3 steps, as opposed to the 'quick and easy' one step Biore Porepack we all know.

It sounded unbelievable and dodge at first, but since I had the sample, I tried it, and

HOLY COW MY NOSE BECAME SO BLACKHEAD-LESS!!

I would love to post up tat-glam close up photos of my before and after strawberry nose, but decided against it because (1) no camera (2) don't wish to make you choke and gag in case you are eating. 

My lucky sister hasn't had the trouble bane of blackheads since her pregnancies (foetuses give you AMAZING hair, skin and nails apparently. They are the ultimate hair, skin and face product). So despite me raving about the product, she didn't have much reason to try it. I went to Wishtrend, determined to buy the product, but realised that it would cost about $30 for a set once you included shipping, and immediately retreated to my corner of stingy-ness. 

I soon pushed wishtrend into the deep recesses of my memory, feeling that the prices weren't great, and that they were out to sell a cheap korean product to me for much much more. It wasn't until 3 months later, that I had a HUGE urge to splurge (refer to post: Quarter Life Crisis) not too long ago. I revisited the numerous beauty product sites, which is something I normally do to 'window shop' (just look, no buy). AND THEN...

I found this awesome blogger/youtuber who provided a 'free shipping' discount code for Wishtrend (which amounts to $10). How could I resist right?? So after a lot a lot a lot of procrastination, debates with myself, getting approval from the boyfriend, I went for it and bought myself I bunch of stuff!

It all arrived individually bubble wrapped in the box, which made opening the box WAY WAY funner.

They also threw in heaps of free samples! I received two face masks and 2 sets of Klair's face product sachets (which I haven't been too impressed with, to be honest)






You can still see my scissors in the background which I used to rip the carton box open.

Retail therapy... Ahhhhh...


I seem to be getting more and more addicted to it the closer I get to graduating. It must be that anticipation that I will actually start getting a salary, which isn't too healthy for my pocket actually!

 

One of the products that has actually won me over is this: Skin & Lab Triple Action Essence.  You must be thinking: Skin & Lab?? Seriously? how grammatically wrong can that get?? IT makes NO SENSE. 

But seriously, the stuff smells awesome, and makes me think it works. (psychological effect is still an effect right? haha). As opposed to the Klair's face mist that seemed to give me a slight rash on my face.

So after that, I shared my experience with my sister to see if she would join me in indulging in online shopping (anyways, the free shipping code was to expire at the end of the month). Being a expecting mum and all, she hardly gets time to do frivolous things (conversations would probably mostly be around diapers, potty training, milestones and the works). So she decided she wouldn't buy anything at that point of time. Since she was due (is due) today (ETA: 15 Oct 2012), I decided to get her a little pre-new-baby present (to hide the dark circles that often come with receiving a new baby.

When finalising my purchase with wishtrend, I hit this unexpectedly annoying road block: 

PayPal does not allow Australian residents to ship purchases to Switzerland. 

WTH seriously!??? (This was around 12am in the library and I had spent about an hour deciding which combination of products were best for her) Eh I do research when I buy gifts ok. I e-mailed them and asked if Wishtrend could do anythign about it, and within an hour, this nice Korean person (in his slightly broken English) provided me with a solution and offered to arrange the appropriate shipping with my order despite the restrictions placed by PayPal! What a dear!

She received her products within the stipulated time (sometime last week) with of course, HEAPS OF SAMPLES. (Unfair, she got more samples than me!)

Obvious bias on my part as to which brand I recommend (The Klair's mask was a free gift)










And her free samples = many many many. ( I thought I got a bargain already!)











So brings my long wordy post on Wishtrend to an end! HAHA iPOET

As Delirium Sets In....

I begin to have random lines and statements pop up in my head and float about, as if I'm awake yet dreaming, or dreaming but yet awake. The semi-conscious state is quite interesting when sleep deprived. Motor coordination goes down, fingers type letters that are not what they are supposed to be

Thoughts so disordganised and random you'd think I were high

• I cannot believe I have 15 days left
• Feel like an abosluate bogan wearing thongs and jeans. Horrible horrible image
• Chugging red bull as I ironically, struggle to write my thesis on the effects of taurine (which is found in red bull)
• losing thoughts half way midsentence
• feeling a severe impairment in short term memory abilities as I write about short term memory, working memory, spacital memory whateer memory 
• slurring in my typed words
• cannot wait for tomorrow to end
•  

I Cut My Hair... Not!

It was a rare good hair day, and I decided to play with my hair in a moment of slight delirium. I took this photo intending to send this to Mark and scare him with a story that I had chopped my locks off, but couldn't keep a joke and just told him straight that I was playing with my hair.

As you can see, 4 years on and still proudly donning my favourite T-shirt. I'm still bummed that I cannot find my ultimate favourite red collagiate after graduating (I distinctly remember lending it to someone rather regretfully, knowing that it may not come back, I just can't remember who it was!). But I figured it probably is a fellow ACian as you'd know if an ACJC needing returning if you didn't go to the school right?

I feel SO ancient just thinking about junior college.. Gosh my sister's about to have her second baby for crying out loud! (That makes me a DOUBLE auntie!)

Comprehension Deficit

There are times when I read journal articles, and truly begin to question whether I have a language comprehension deficit.

It's times like this when I feel like someone who has receptive aphasia (a deficit in understanding language), thus allowing me to empathize more when I see or hear of anyone with receptive aphasia and think to myself... "Ahh.... I feel like that sometimes, it's just that they feel like that ALL the time".

The two main language areas: Broca's and Wenicke's

I know sometimes people might not understand how someone can lose their ability to understand spoken or written language after a stroke? How can you possibly lose something which you have spent your entire life using? It's almost as baffling as amnesia right? (Well, at least the selective amnesias we always get to see in melodramas or movies like The Promise/Vow or whatever it was called)

But the next time you meet someone who has had a brain injury, or dementia, or stroke or whatever, think of it as something like this:

Imagine an instance when suddenly, all the people around you are speaking French/Swahili/German or whatever unknown tribal language. You may or may not have a rough idea of that language (e.g. German has similar syntaxt to English), and you might or might not be able to say all the sounds in the language (such as the clicks or trills in some tribal languages). Because more often than not, someone who has had a stroke with impacted language, might also have some difficulties in actually moving their mouths, tongues and teeth and coordinating them to form the word, despite having that word in their head.

What it feels like to have aphasia

Can you imagine the frustration?? Knowing that you were once able to talk and write and understand, and suddenly, it's all a foreign language to you.


I really do feel a bit like that when I read those scienc-ey journal articles on neurotransmitters, brain regions, substrates and what not (Ihavenoideawhatiamsaying)

Peace out

Quarter Life Crisis

I have/had been having a serious case of quarter-life-crises lately. Symptoms include:

- sudden urges to listen to music belonging to the wrong generation (e.g. the likes of one direction, steve mastin etc) in an attempt to make myself feel younger and more 'hipster' as opposed to the typically more 'mature' music I listen too (like, from the 1980s)

- the craving to splurge on a new instrument.. The bass guitar (also entertained the possibliity of a ukuelele, cajon drum, mandolin, but decided they might be a bit impractical)

- the urge to then take music more seriously and forget about my thesis and just spend the days belting out tuneless, wordless songs 

- questioning my abilities and the famous 'WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE??'

- and then following up with 'WHAT HAVE I ACTUALLY BEEN DOING??'

- actually saying 'I DON'T WANT TO BE A SPEECHIE ANYMOREEEE!!' on several occasions when I feel overwhelmed and later contemplating just progressing into trade as that offers more job security and renumeration (rubbish collectors apparently earn up to $100k/annum, and what's the whole hype about dishwashers at Sakae Sushi being offered $3000/mth? *scoffs*). So I might as well just apply for those jobs now

- the horrible urge to just splurge (on anything, moving, not moving, edible, wearable, put-on-able)

- the need to have a pet/something living to fill up my life with some life. Unfortunately my aqua pet that resembled the sea monkeys died after a short lived 4 days. And the wheatgrass I currently grow will soon end up in my tummy. Not too good if you eat your pets hey. Kinda defeats the purpose..

- Toying with the idea of being a free-spirited Hippie and taking on their tree hugging lifestyle and dressing all bohemian and getting dreadlocks in my hair.



I better get out of this chaotic state of mind soon. I don't actually have a lot of time to get it together.

It's been a long time since I ranted on this blog (I try not to, as I think online rants can be rather pointless and annoying to readers), but hey, not many readers, or, don't read if it sesms pointless. OR, if you are sharing my sentiments, YAY YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!!

(Tell me and we can go start a garage band together and sell satay and teh-tarik to get by).

Smile in a while...

Haven't watched a video of a cover that made me smile till my cheeks hurt and my vision gets blurry (as my eyes reduce to half it's normal size when I smile). Heeeee

Singapore vs Aussie: Parenting

This episode of a TV series doesn't say it all, but it definitely says a lot. I started watching the episode with a light heart, laughing and sniggering at all the seemingly absurd strict rules we have in Singapore, and at how Memphis (the girl) put her hand to her chest to say our pledge a pretty hilarious manner. The episode started to get a bit more heart warming near the end, as both teens began to appreciate their parents.

It's definitely not so that all Singaporean parents are that strict, or that all Aussie parents are that laxed. But I really enjoyed seeing the flaws and imperfections existing in both families (and cultures). We might seem extreme in our little asian, authoratitive country, but you have to admit, that you do see results. Yet again, a lot of what we do is 'learnt' behaviour, rather than us thinking for ourselves.

It's a touchy topic, and I would rather not elaborate as much, but just as a little digression, our group of four Singapore speechies were having our group discussion on ethics this evening, and spent a rather long time stuck in a rut over a seemingly simple ethical dilemma, which, at one point, I think all of us agreed that our "one-track-mindedness" that has been well honed through our education system was getting us no where, and that we very much needed the dynamic viewpoints many of our Aussie counterparts had. A lot of times we are quite rigid in our thinking, especially for those of us who have been in science streams. Whereas I've observed quite a number of the Australians having no difficulty thinking outside the box. I've loved every bit of my course and stay here, and I hope to continue to bring the best of both cultures together.

Mr Moon

Some of you might know that a blue moon occured on Friday night. A blue moon simply means that a second full moon occurs within one calender month, and occurs every 2.5 years or so. (And is not actually blue). IT was like any other full moon, bright and amazing, but the following night, was what surprised me more.

Here's a little poem I came up with (half when I was about to go to sleep, and the other half when I sat down to write this post). It's not a fancy, difficult poem, I would say it takes on a style more of that of a children's poem:


Last night as I lay in bed,
With eyelids heavy in my head,
I noticed an unusually bright glow,
Coming from behind my window.

I peeked through my curtains,
Thinking it was the neighbours
Only to be partially blinded,
By a bright rays that just seemed to burst.

I peek through my fingers, and what do I see?
Mr Moon sitting there, shining at me.
"How bright you are tonight," said I to he,
"Just light from the sun, I pass on to thee,"
I open my eyes bravely, no longer needing to peep,
But soon my eyes and mind and drift off, into a deep, soundless sleep.

Although my picture from my lousy Nokia N97 fails to capture the brightness and awesomeness of the moon, this is the best shot I could do. It was like someone had a searchlight shining directly at my room!

Heh heh if I have no job next time I shall go draw illustrations and try to write children's books.

Singapore vs Aussie: Small Talk

One of my main concerns whenever I went out on a clinical prac was always this:

Small Talk (aka Corridor talk)

The worrying idea that you might the awkward silence lasting throughout the entire endless corridor as you lead the client from the waiting room to the clinic room was something so small, yet daunting at the same time when I initially started clinical pracs. 

Over the years I managed to understand the Aussie culture a little bit better and no have no problems chit chatting away (so much so that I forget to start the actual therapy). But something I still have the habit of saying is somethign that has been so inherent and habituated in our Singaporean culture, that is, the classic grandma question of 

'Jiak Ba Bueh?' (which translates from Hokkien to 'Have you eaten already?')

Most of us Singaporeans/Malaysians know just how much we all love and adore our food./meals. I wake up in the morning thinking of what to eat, and my sister would start asking 'What's for dinner ah?' as she munches the remnants of her lunch. (I do that too sometimes!)

It's such a second nature to us, parents would ask their children studying overseas

'Have you been eating well anot?'

 'What did you eat for dinner/breakfast/lunch/tea?' 

'Got enough food anot?'

While my mum was here for a couple of weeks last month, the question or statement she would always say before I left the house for a meeting, work or class would be 'Har... like that then how you eat?? Sure won't get hungry anot? Like that how can? Aiyo how come never eat??' 

Even when our project group mates came over and went for a late evening rehearsal in school, she frowned upon how we would all not eat during the appropriate time (as our meeting lasted from 5pm-8pm, hence missing the official dinner times)

Seeing that my mum feels so strongly about appropriate meal times, I too am one who identifies with the importance of meals. I always end up asking the clients 'Have you had lunch/breakfast?' or 'What did you have for breakfast?' Only to get a fairly blank stare that says 'Huh? Why you ask so random question? Look at how bad the weather is!'

I often had to kick myself in teh foot for asking these food questions and not getting an answer which I hoped for or am used to, namely, an excited recount of whatever food they had eaten. (Most of them tell me they can't rememeber, I bet some of them think I'm testing them)

Here most of the small talk revolves around a few main topics (as I have observed)

1. Weather: there is ALWAYS something to say about the weather, sky, clouds, trees etc.

2. Traffic: who can't complain about bad traffic right? Unless it's such a norm such like in Singapore, where it no longer holds any importance anymore

3. Parking (or the lack thereof): yup, that's the bane of uni students' lives as everyone drives pretty much 

4. How's your day been going?: which is somewhat their version of our 'Jiak Ba Bueh?' as they often don't expect you to answer differently from 'fine, going great, oh yeah, going well' 

I just have to rememebr to stop asking people what they've had for lunch and dinner!!