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!!

The disturbing truth of the current world (some part of it)

This video was just simply appalling, for a moment I say to myself, 'screw boycotting sharks fin, anti-whaling and anti-bear-bile-farming, what are we doing for our own humans who have been so restricted?' I started watching the video not expecting much, thinking it would be just a typically overdramatised, sappy American video. It still is to a certain extent, only that the truth is in the video, and what you see is what it is. Whether or not they lie about the actual ages of children, it is obvious that these people have been stripped of many opportunities.

Finally Some Photos!

I've got my lollipop and that's all that matters...

Finally Blogget has allowed me to upload at least some photos. It's been distorting not only the videos I upload from my computer, but the videos as well. I've yet to figure out if it actually is a problem with my computer or Blogger. 

Either ways, how else to start a blogpost but with such a 'shu nu' picture of Gaby right?? Look she even has such a girly pout! (I bet she was probably just eating something as usual). And about the lollipop, it's serves the purpose as some sort of a 'comfort item'. She merely just wants to hold it and gets terribly upset when there's none available for her to hold (Terribly, terribly cranky!)

So school has been horrid. Just horrid. I can't belive that I detest school so much during my last semester!! I shall keep that rant for another post. 

This one's about what ALLL Singaporeans love.....

 

 FOOD

See this is what happens when I try and upload photos.

 Here's a half shot of the chocolate tarts I made. They don't look as good as they taste unfortunately due to the lack of a camera.

So we finally decided to have a cookout on Tuesday night!! Wan Tan Mee!! Although I personally dislike wan tan mee, I find it to be one of Singapore and Malaysia's iconic dishes, although if you think about it , it's saucy noodles with soggy vegetables, 2 meat balls wrapped in dough, and roast pork.

We had THE WORKS man!!! Nw I'm just gonna post MASSIVE pictures to do the talking. =)

Ok the iphone doesn't take fantastic pictures, but it took the housemate and me enough effort to even remember to take photos. We had both fried wantans and soup wantans (that's not even grammatical). And discovered that 35 wantans was a tad too many for 4 people, hurhur.. 

Wantan soup which I'm proud to say was boiled WITHOUT any chicken stock cube or MSG! Yay me, haha

These were the highlight in my opinion. Crispy springrolls a result of excess wantan filling and insufficient skin!

So everyone kept insisting that Charsiew should be red, but in my mind, my mum's resounding advice about how 'red' charsiew is all colouring and no flavour kept rooted. Well our charsiew was DELICIOUS, hand grilled by my dear Mr Mark Lee, and remember guys, you're supposed to use the collar butt of the pig. Don't laugh people, it's an actual part, which, according to google, is a prepared from the dorsal portion of the Shoulder Square, also known as Pork Scotch! (And I know for a fact that Beef Scotch Fillets are awesome too), so that's what the collar butt is! (it's neither collar nor butt).

The house still feels of wan tan mee with all the grease on the floor, and we have about 30 more frozen wan tans in the freezer, so it's all worth it.

Anyone looking for the recipe, credits to one of my favourite websites,

http://rasamalaysia.com/wonton-noodles-malaysian-wantan-mee-recipe/

Adios!

Education Queensland vs Ministry of Education

Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert in this field or topic, neither have I had much experience in either. The following post is made solely on my own personal observations and experiences throughout my stay in both countries.

Education Queensland, Australia

Ministry of Education, Singapor

So I know it's been ages since I posted, and whilst my video of Gaby is loading on Blogger, I decided that I would finally write about what I had promised to write/focus on, which is, the topic of how the education systems differ in Singapore (MOE), and Queensland, Australia (EdQLD).

Unlike our rather small country Singapore (704 km²), Australia is massive (7,741,220 km²). The continent/country, therefore has to divide itself into it's eight different states/territories to make (I would assume) everything easier to manage. Most of the states have their own adminstrative government, and thus, have their own education systems.

So, here are some of the key differences between our education systems (in case you're thinking of your child's future education)

1. Education is compulsory for Singaporeans aged 6-15. For Queenslanders, it's from 6.5- 16 years of age.

2. In Singapore, kindergartens educate children who are in 'K1-K2', when they are 5-6 years old. In Australia, the term 'kindergarten' refers to the places 3-4 year olds go (much like our Nursery 1-2). This was initially the most confusing point for me when I first came here and expected to see 5-6 year olds in kindy. 5 year olds enter Prep in QLD schools, which refers to the year before Year 1 (Primary 1). This is optional for parents.

Basically, this means that all QLD-ers enter university at 18 years of age, some at 17 (if their birthday is late in the year). Thus resulting in some graduating with a degree at 21years of age. (Only for geniuses in Singapore)

3. Whilst most of our primary-secondary schools are government owned and regulated, about 50% of the high schools (secondary-JC) in QLD are privately owned. These schools tend to charge exhorbitant fees, but guarantee good education for your child. Their fees can average as much as $20,000 per annum. On the flip side, state education is free (but not highly sought after by the more picky parents)

4. I've seen teachers in QLD state schools wear berms and sports shoes for classes once (maybe it was just that male teacher). The rest of us know how strict the dress code for teachers in Singapore is!

5. One of the most interesting school events I've heard of is the 'Under Eights Day', where the school arranges for special events, carnival activities and fun stuff for children who are under 8 attending that school! One mum told me that it was a way to let the 6-8 year olds feel special whilst they were the youngest (and possibly smallest) in schools. For us? I guess we have our 1st October CHILDRENS DAY!! LALALALA

But the Aussie version has face painting, jumping castles and whole works... Whereas we get to stuff ourselves with candy/sugar, and watch teachers perform funny things, haha...

6. THERE IS NO SCHOOL CANTEEN LIKE OURS (Ok this isn't exactly a difference between systems, rather, culture). I might have mentioned before that an observation I made at a state school was that there wasn't the usual massive canteen with 100 benches and tables.

Typical singaporean school canteen

And there weren't the 8-10 stalls like we are accustomed to back in Singapore. Rather, there was a window much like that one in the picture with no signage whatsoever. The Aussie I asked then told me most kids eat their sandwiches on the grass or courtyard as a class with their teachers.

I've also seen the pricelist for a primary school here once, piang eh, sibei expensive.. Cheapest thing was probably the apple for 60cents. No wonder everyone packs meals to school and work!

Note to Singaporeans who are teachers: ENJOY YOUR 50 cent WANTAN MEE WHILE YOU CAN!!


Which brings my post to an end, because I should be fulfilling my last days as a student and doing some uni work instead of writing random things!

:)