Colour my world!

Wedding photos

2011-12-28T22:59:00.000+08:00

>> Perth, November 5th 2011 <<
It was a whirlwind day, but completely fun and with the help of some wonderful good friends... it was also a very relaxed and memorable day. Thank God for the weather... he held the rain at bay for just long enough.

>> Singapore, November 26th 2011 <<
4 days of time spent with my family, and my new husband. Catching up with old friends....Can't ask for anything more!

We've been happily married for 2 months now. And all I can say is that marriage makes the bad things worse, but the good things... much much better :) Andrew is a blessing to me even at his most frustrating!

Shaped!

2011-10-23T13:01:00.001+08:00

I taught my grandpa how to watch youtube and stream channel news asia online. He loves it so much that we got shaped this month!

Chanel rouge

2011-09-23T22:04:00.001+08:00

I feel like an old hollywood movie star! Thank you wenny :) xoxo

Turning 25

2011-09-23T17:13:00.002+08:00

I turn 25 today, and it has been such a beautiful sunshiney day here in Perth. Can't pick a better day to have a birthday! I woke up to several wonderful sms-es from my Daddy, sister, fiance and my Auntie June, got one from Andrew's little sister later in the day (she is such a sweetheart!). Grandpa, Grandma and mummy all gave me angpows :) Mummy says this will be the last angpow she'll give me for my bday :( I get one more at my wedding and one more this coming CNY... then I am all grown up and on my own!! How tragic! Hahhaah it is so funny how such a simple symbolic gesture can be so meaningful! I do feel like my mummy is handing me over to my husband, and she will not be looking after me anymore. But it's ok, I will be looking after her now!!
I think as we all grow older, birthdays tend to be "just another day" and all the more so as life gets busy. We all went out for coffee by Matilda Bay to celebrate Basu's thesis submission. We had a birthday celebration for all the September babies at La gallete on Broadway on Wednesday so I didn't want to steal Basu's thunder. After that it was back to work. I am trying my best to write a paper for a Bioremediation of soils and sediments conference in Bari, Italy next July and the inspiration is lacking! PhD lab work is going well though and the coming months will be very exciting as the results start flowing in and I have to start wrapping up my thesis with lots of writing and publishing to do.
What will come after PhDness?? I don't know... Andrew and I are talking about moving to Europe for a while. Andrew has a school to attend early next year in Melun, France. I have the conference in Italy, plus meeting up with my supervisor in Cranfield, UK hopefully to finish writing my PhD or even do a postdoc. Then Andrew has another school to attend in Abbington, UK, later in the year. But things are still tentative and dependant on many factors... either way we will keep trusting in the Lord to provide and guide us in our decisions.
It is an exciting time for Andrew and I... as we prepare for marriage. I think I keep learning how to be more self-decentred and loving every day. Taking each other into account and working as a team. And I guess God made marriage to be a good, wonderful thing... as long as we keep the focus on God's will and not our own. Pre-marriage preparations with our pastor have been so helpful and the whole process has been trying, but very encouraging. I feel so blessed to be marrying Andrew and to be surrounded by so many good friends and loving family members that are willing to help us with anything we might need.
Wedding planning and is going well :) I decided somewhere along the line that I was not going to bother with colour themes or decorations, and it has been immensely satisfying to just leave it as a simple, friends and family affair. Good company, good food... celebrating the start of our marriage. I can't wait!!
Apartment renovations are taking a little longer than what I would have hoped. The strata regulations are annoying. Renovations are only allowed between 7am-7pm on weekdays, and 7am to 12 noon on Saturdays. It is rather restrictive and it means Andrew only has Saturday mornings to pull out kitchens and tiles and bathrooms etc. I have resigned myself to the fact that we will be moving into an apartment sans kitchen or bathrooms... But I am sure we will be alright. In fact I am almost looking forward to not having to battle freeway traffic everyday, we will be living 5 minutes from the city once we've moved!! And anyway, we have showers at our respective work places and we are surrounded by good takeaway restaurants and fast food joints, plus loving parents and grandparents who will surely pack food for us to bring home every week :)
It is 5pm now... will be heading out for dinner pretty soon. My mummy is taking us out to eat Korean BBQ in East Perth tonight to celebrate her daughter's quarter of a century! yummy yummies :)

Nut harvest

2011-09-01T18:25:00.001+08:00

Macadamia nut harvest season has arrived! Daddy picked a few nuts for us to eat at home. It is such a relief, after so many years... to finally taste the fruit of daddy's hard work. We will roast them and eat them tonight :)

First author! :D

2011-02-25T12:22:00.003+08:00

The development of soil organic matter in restored biodiverse Jarrah forests of South-Western Australia as determined by ASE and GCMS

Andrew's 24th

2011-02-16T14:49:00.005+08:00

We went to Green Head WA for a camping trip to celebrate Andrew's 24th. Amazing fun, great times with good people. I really like his friends. They've known each other since they were in primary school so they act more like brothers. It's wonderful to be around them. Only bad thing was we didn't really catch any fish :( The boys didn't bring a boat so they went out snorkeling and tried to catch them with gidgies (sharp, 3 pronged stick things), and the girls have concluded that the fish are smarter than our boys are. Photos!!

My sister is now living and working up North, so it looks like we will be camping up there more often. It's a good pit stop if we we ever want to go to Exmouth. I do feel a little lonely at home though, with my brother in NS and my sister, no longer in the room next door... But uni and work keeps me busy, and Andrew is very good company.

Meanwhile... Singapore-Beijing-Vietnam photos are uploaded!!

Lunch date

2010-10-19T15:42:00.005+08:00

We went on our first ever lunch date! Which is shocking, considering the fact we've been going out for almost a year and a half now. We've never been on a movie date (just the two of us), and dinner dates... we've had two. The first was our very first date to Mad Monk in Fremantle (which was followed by camping under the stars, the moment I thought to myself... "hey... Andrew and me... it might just work!"). The second was at the Royal in East Perth, just before a climate change debate that we attended together. And since then we have had numerous dinners with friends and family, rushed dinners eaten from takeaway boxes at UWA, countless packets of fish and chips on the grass... but no fancy restaurants or expensive meals. And I actually like the fact that we have never had to do any "romantic" things and yet he still sweeps me off my feet every time. The gestures and presents he comes up with always brings tears of joy to my eyes... yes I actually do cry.

So... I decided on Sunday that we should go on a date. Just because we haven't had much time together lately. Me with study and work... and him exactly the same. It's always family and friends and sometimes... it should be about us. Just us. It was a lovely day, I wore a pretty dress and he actually bothered to do his hair :) We went to Azure in Mt Hawthorn, and had the most wonderfully romantic date. Non stop conversation and laughter, sharing our baguettes and dessert, just relishing each other's company. The dessert was just the most beautiful thing, three creme brulee flavours, each in individual glasses on a platter scattered with strawberries and meringue and rose petals. And it tasted good too! The date was just lovely and it set the mood for a wonderful rest of the day.

The next day I was talking to my supervisor about my date, and he was saying that lunch dates are such a good idea. And I absolutely agree! You are less tired, you have more energy to pay attention to your partner and you don't feel like you have to dress up or spend too much money. Lunch also makes the rest of the day feel happy and sunshiney. And apparently the only thing better than lunch dates, are brunch dates! With breakfast pizzas - eggs, bacon, sausages and cheese on pizza bases. Mmmmmm... I will look for a recipe and make it for Andrew. It's going to be a surprise!

I am happy and well!

2010-09-15T11:49:00.009+08:00

It's been busy so haven't been updating much... but I feel I ought to. Just to let everyone know I am happy and well :)

Click here for photos!

PhD: Progressing nicely now. What a relief! I enjoy working at the Chemcentre, the facilities are pristine and everything so clean and organised. Makes lab work such a pleasure. I like the laid back government vibe... morning teas are essential and lunch breaks are an hour long opportunity to socialise.

Despite all that... it is not easy! It's probably just that the monotony of labwork distracts me from other pressing PhD problems! I am still very stressed and overworked, but I am learning how to manage my time more wisely. We all need wisdom in our lives...

Family: Love them all so much and it was such a joy to be reunited with my brother who came back to visit after his BMT, and my father who showed up at our doorstep unexpectedly. Spot the brother!! hint - he has the most winsome smile :) hahah

Sister and mother are graduating soon and so they are busy job hunting. Sister might be getting a position up near Geraldton. Which is quite a distance away from us, but at least we know she can hop in her car and drive a couple of hours to be with us if she ever needs. Wishing them both the best of luck with their job search, and hopefully they will get jobs that they can serve other people, and will be happy and productive in.

Andrew: Is absolutely wonderful :) Last night I was stressing about some statistics that had to be sorted out for a paper that I am resubmitting. And he made me feel so much better by lending me his copy of "Probability and statistics: For Engineers and Scientists". He quite happily pointed out that it was written for scientists... as well as engineers.

I am getting along well with his family, for which I am very grateful. I hosted and planned his brother's 21st birthday party. Somehow managed to organise a murder mystery night with all his friends despite the fact I had never met any of them before. But it all worked out and I even got a chance to know his brother's girlfriend a bit better that night. It took a lot of interrogation but she caved in the end :)

God: I feel I have been maturing as a Christian in the past 2 years or so... and people I have to thank most include my dearest Joy, Anna and Wenny who have been the greatest encouragement to me. It is such a comfort to know that we are safe and secure in the Lord and we will meet again one day. Even though we hardly see each other now, we have an eternity to be together! Mandy has also been a great sister in Christ and a mentor to look up to. She has shown genuine care and concern for me over the past 2.5 years and she has been the greatest blessing... making sure I stay faithful to God and his will for me. She has also encouraged me to start Christian training to lead and follow up with new Christians, and that has been incredibly helpful to me as well. And most of all, I have God to thank for his grace and his provision in my life. I feel so blessed :)

Social life: Oh... for the want of a free weekend! The weekends have been packed full with all manner of things. Laser tag, city to surf, sister's birthday, wedding, emo themed 22nd birthday, Anthony's murder mystery, end of Ramadan dinner, and church camp... But the thing is that all these events happen to be with some very good friends and I just can't bring myself to say "no". So anyway... Andrew and I have decided to go on an alcohol ban until Dec 1st. Because we had 2 weekends of inebriation in a row and we have learned the hard way that we are not as young as we used to be!

Travel: Might be doing Melbourne in December with Andrew, both inner city and the wineries. It depends on whether he can get leave or not so cross fingers and hope!

Also my daddy has asked me to go back to Singapore a bit earlier so I can be there with him and mummy, plus some other things he might want me to do... so cross fingers and hope for that too!!

I am in need of a very very long, relaxing holiday! Ok... now it's back to work... till next time...

City to surf, and soil science at Rossmoyne

2010-08-30T13:13:00.005+08:00

We did it :) The Tran family siblings and I ran the 12km city to surf on Sunday, and we all survived!

The course was scenic and lots of fun, and I had good company and conversation the whole way with Andrew's little sister while the Andrew and his brother ran ahead of us. Good family fun for a Sunday morning.

I just finished a Soil Science activity with the students at Rossmoyne Senior High School this morning (despite aching thigh muscles!). My head of school at UWA roped me in as "soil science mentor" for Rossmoyne and I was quite happy to help. I like working with kids and teaching people about soil. It was lots of fun, their head of Science at Rossmoyne was very nice, and the students were involved and efficient. I managed to cobble together a presentation last night despite being exhausted from the run, and I even put together sample kits for the kids.

It was really nostalgic to wander around high school again having been away for the past 5 years. I saw some names that I recognised on the "top students" boards so that reminded me how old I am. Even though I graduated from Willetton, I still ended up knowing lots of Rossmoyne kids... and I am probably going to end up marrying one! High school feels... like a different time. A simpler time perhaps :) Bumped into some of the students that I tutor as well and it was nice to see familiar faces around. Anyway... Secondary school teaching is becoming very appealing to me and I might look into doing that when I finish my PhD.

Pretty mitsou cat

2010-08-12T12:32:00.002+08:00

And my beautiful sister too!

Tech savvy

2010-07-26T16:42:00.002+08:00

We taught grandpa how to play flash games, e.g. slots or poker. Then he moved on to mahjong. Now I have showed him how to access all the movies we have downloaded over the years. Here he is watching Kungfu Panda! Love my grandpa!

P.S. I did Jacob's with Andrew over the weekend. Calves are acheing but it's all good :)

Jacob's ladder

2010-07-22T12:02:00.003+08:00

I've always wanted to do Jacob's ladder. It's a staircase of about 200 steps leading up the side of Mount Eliza to King's Park and it is the free Step class of Perth. Everyone seems to go there for their morning exercise, especially to train for marathons or mountain climbing.
I've never done it, although one day I would like to. But today, since I was waiting for my Silica to activate in the furnace, 4 hours at 400 degrees Celsius, I decided to climb stairs before sitting down at my laptop to do some writing. I don't like being sedentary all day. I climbed all 104 steps up the Chemcentre, 4 times up and down. It wasn't much... equivalent of 2 Jacob's ladders, but I managed to break a sweat and get a good workout. It would be so embarassing if anyone saw me running up and down like that!
Anyway why don't more people do it? Climb up and down stairs. It should be a communal office activity. 15 minutes up and down, before morning tea. Good for your heart and good for office bonding!

PhD=Blue

2010-07-19T16:39:00.003+08:00

Hahah so yes... I was feeling a little blue. I am into my second year and the second year blues that every one has warned me about has hit me hard. Honours was hard work, but it felt so productive. One year of stress but one year of exciting results and opportunities. PhDness however has been completely different. One year on and I still feel like I'm barely cracking the surface of it all. The method development has been incredibly difficult. Machines not working, setting up methods that nobody has done before, or trying to come up with the best method given 3 different papers have been published on three different ways to do the same thing. The whole thing has been so exhausting.

Just last week I had a really long day of labwork and no conclusive results, and the months of frustration that had been building up made me quite blue that day. But Andrew was so excited, telling me about all the job opportunities coming his way, travel, promotions, new graduate courses. And I know it's selfish and bad, but I just couldn't feel happy for him. All I could do was be miserable... and I ended up in a big crying heap, venting all the emotional and chemical problems I had been having. But he was lovely as always and ended up convincing me that what I am doing is worth it, and finishing it will be an accomplishment that I will relish. And he gave me suggestions on how to fix some of my analytical problems. From an engineering point of view... not so useful, but amusing nonetheless! At the end of that I had a huge smile on my face, and I am even more in love with my boyfriend than ever :)

Cautionary note: Don't go around doing a PhD for fun. There is no such thing!

My lunch!

2010-07-13T14:59:00.003+08:00

I have been remarkably blessed in the food department recently. I love my grandma so much!! What would I ever do without her? Last night we had a traditional Asian dinner, which is rare because Grandma always has her own take on food. She learned how to cook late in her life and so picked up a lot of western cooking before she picked up Asian cooking. Dinner usually ends up a rather odd mix of fusion - a casserole or crumbed baked fish with rice and Asian stir fry, or Charsiew pork with baked potatoes and potato and leek soup, or rendang and minestrone soup. It's all rather odd but I've grown up loving everything!

So last night grandma went Asian. Rice, asam belly pork (I think it's the layers of fat that makes it so yummy), fermented bean curd (smells terrible but tastes so good), beans in dried shrimp (mmmm Hei bi!), emperor chicken (the herbs come in a packet, it might be cheating, but it tastes good!). Not pictured: Bak Kut Teh... also in a packet but also tasty. Perth has no shortage of instant asian packet foods! I made Laksa from a packet a few months ago and the family didn't complain.

Last night was especially tasty because Andrew and I just came back from another camping/Margaret River trip, and we brought back lots of fudge and 11 bottles of wine. So Rebekah, Cheng, Andrew and I, we finished off the fudge (Smugglers flavoured: Irish cream and rum) and polished off a bottle of Stella Bella's Sauvignon Blanc :) And not to mention, one of the girls at Chemcentre brought boxes of homemade brownies and chocolate cupcakes and I ate so much of that too!

Now I feel very naughty, and I should exercise. I should mention that I cycled to uni last week! About 30km there and back! It was a pleasant ride and I am thinking of doing it again once the rain starts to ease. Need to exercise - I'm doing the 12km city to surf at the end of August!

And another one of my indulgences... Andrew buys me chocolate frequently. Note the half eaten toblerone bar next to my lunch box :) I am soooo spoilt!

I am man. Man make fire!

2010-06-28T16:29:00.007+08:00

Andrew is quite the outdoorsman (despite being an engineer and thus quite the geek as well). He can fix cars broken down on the side of the highway using duct tape and a bicycle repair kit, he can set up a tent and tie all sorts of knots including the mighty dragon bowline, he can fix the irrigation pump system on my farm... and he can make fire!

He bought flint and steel from an outdoor camping store on ebay and he showed me how to make a fire. No matches or lighters, and it is most impressive. Handy and reliable too, more so than matches or lighters. I find it so incredibly attractive, there is just something so primal about a man who can start a fire! And back in the caveman days... once they moved on from wooden bow drills, they were effectively using flints and tinders to start a fire. I don't know if we would survive very long in caveman days... but a least we would have a fire! Andrew taught me how to do it and I mastered it after a few goes.

I am man!! Man make fire :)

Mao Zedong here I come!!

2010-06-24T12:35:00.004+08:00

I know this sounds crazy but I actually like holidaying in China. There is something so raw and appealing about the place despite the loud and pushy locals, filthy toilets, and general tastelessness of the place. It's just got so much character and there is so much of it to explore. So... I'll be going to Beijing early next year! Tickets are all booked and paid for, and we'll be applying for visas very soon. I am very excited, I love history and culture... I can spend hours in a museum, and to me, Beijing is like a very very big and very old museum :)

I can't wait to see the forbidden city, tiananmen square, the great wall, hutongs... I really enjoyed China the last time I was there and having traveled with just me and my sister, I feel quite safe and comfortable there. I am brushing up on my mandarin... again. I am reading the Chinese news and listening to the SBS Mandarin broadcast at least once a day. Our mandarin was passable last year, but I want to be better than passable! I want to get around like a local :) One thing I am worried about is the weather. Beijing winters are nasty and I hate having to pack for cold weather. The bright side is that it won't be peak tourist season and we'll be the only ones there... albeit the only freezing ones there!

It will be an interesting holiday, I'll be travelling with the Tran family and this would be the first time I've traveled with anybody's family other than my own. Big first step! I did stay with Eda's family in Bintulu once, but it wasn't really a holiday, it felt more like a visit to a friend's house. This is going to be an epic holiday. Singapore, Beijing and Vietnam, one month, 7 flights! I am excited and very glad that they asked me to come along. I like spending time with the family and they treat me like family, which I appreciate very much. Looking forward to Christmas 2010 and another China escapade, also looking forward to catching up with my friends in Singapore. I'll be there for 3 days so pencil them in! 25-28 Dec 2010.

I wish my week was as such!

2010-06-21T15:23:00.001+08:00

My office friends took liberties with my whiteboard.

Gingin gravity discovery centre and observatory

2010-05-31T15:42:00.006+08:00

I had an awesome weekend with Andrew. He planned the most amazing date I've probably ever been on in my life. It might even be better than our first date, where we had dinner and then he brought me camping at Jarrahdale under the stars.

It all started with an email on Friday...

The game :O
This will determine if you get to see Pompeii this weekend. Rules are no internet. What am I?
Clue 1: “To go back to a place much simpler” B.R. Simmons
Clue 2: I start of big, then small and then sometimes into nothing at all
Clue 3: Tintin noticed there was something extra in the great bear

Can you guess what it is? The first clue is pretty clever. And he knows I am a huge Tintin fanatic so the last clue was really a giveaway. We had been planning to visit the WA museum to see the pompeii exhibition, ancient relics, body casts, 3D movies... I was so excited! And I was so pleased that I had solved the riddle that I didn't think anymore about it. I didn't even realise that the answer to his riddle was in actual fact a clue for my prize.

So the next day we started driving up North towards the city and then he quite purposefully missed the exit that was heading towards the museum. Then... he asked me to look in the glove box for a street map (even though we both probably knew how to get there without a map anyway). I found a google map printout in the glove box which I brushed aside, intent on finding a street directory, which was not there :( And I was holding the printout in my hand and Andrew said "how do you know that isn't the map?" and I looked down at it and realised he was bringing me to the Gingin gravity discovery centre and observatory! He was kidnapping me! So brilliantly done :)

The gravity centre was a wonderful place to visit with lots to do. Bushwalks, a scale model of our solar sytem, lots of fascinating, fun and well thought out experiments that demonstrated difficult concepts simply, a leaning tower of Gingin where we dropped balloons from, a huge buckyball structure that served as a gallery, with beautiful penrose tiling inside, plus we had an excellent guide (Grant, the astronomer) who immediately picked up that Andrew and I are both science nerds and he made it very informative and relevant for us. The centre is researching gravitational waves first postulated by Einstein on the basis of his theory of relativity. He thought that every object that has mass creates a fluctuation in space-time, distorting gravity and causing a gravitational wave. So these are supposed to exist but they have never been directly detected! It's so trippy! There have been gravity wave detectors made, but none of them have been sensitive enough. Right now, WA scientists are building the world's stillest environment in Gingin to try and detect these gravitational waves, and many UWA physicists are basing their PhDs on this stuff. I'm glad they are doing it, because all of this is way beyond me!

After the gravity centre closed its doors, we waited for the sun to set and we went right next door to the observatory. We were fortunate because the sky was so beautifully clear, not a cloud in the sky! We learned how to identify Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Leo and the Southern Cross in the night sky. We watched the international space station fly over us at precisely 7.23p.m.. Then we took to our telescopes to see Saturn and it's rings (so beautiful I actually cried!), beautiful binary stars, the jewel box in the Southern Cross, the craters on the moon and heaps more. It's amazing what's out there and how very very large a scale it is. The light entering our telescopes was sometimes 1000s of years old and the stars that emitted the light might not even exist anymore. So fascinating. And while we were out there we saw at least 4 shooting stars (the answer to the riddle!), too many wishes for me to make, I am already so happy just as things are. And once we all got too cold to stand out on the viewing deck we were all ushered inside for hot coffees and teas and some really funny and interesting presentations. At the end of the night we all got a little "piece of the galaxy"... a milky way chocolate bar! How appropriate and very sweet :)

What a wonderful day of science and astronomy. If any of you have a free day to spare... make your way up to Gingin! Great fun for the whole family!

Climate Change

2010-05-26T16:41:00.011+08:00

As an environmental scientist I keep getting asked this question. So I thought it would be a good idea to express my thoughts on the issue since it is something I feel strongly about.

This is contentious, I know... but I don't believe that humans and CO2 are causing climate change. This has taken me a while to come to grips with, because all we ever learn about in high school is that global warming and greenhouse gases and all this bad stuff is caused by humans. It's kind of like a religion, such that it's sacrilegious to think otherwise.

As I have grown older and wiser, I have begun to question the alleged "science" of global warming. This is especially so because of my scientific research training at UWA. And the science just doesn't hold up. Climate change is a natural phenomenon that has aways been with us and always will be, we can't change it by anything that we do, and we really just have to learn how to deal.

Despite that, I think we should be cautious about our fossil fuel use, but not simply for reasons of climate change. Pollution is a problem and the smog that envelops some cities daily is unacceptable for human health and quality of life. We also have the responsibility to save some for future generations, because it will take a while for renewable energy sources to become practical. And besides that, there is very little we actually understand about CO2, and there are a myriad different ways it might affect the environment, e.g. acidification of our oceans. I am happy to apply the precautionary principle. We have become extremely spoiled and we have forgotten how to live simply. Small changes that we can make will improve our health and lifestyle. Rather than taking a walk to the shops, we drive. Entertaining kids involves a television and Wii rather than a sandpit or catching fish in drains.

Carbon credits and/or taxes have their place if it will encourage more reasonable rates of consumption, but I don't know how they are actually going to implement it. One semester of Environmental Economics and another in Environmental Law and Policy has made me terribly skeptical :( I'm happy most people are thinking about it and are worrying about long term effects of humans on the environment. And K Rudd's intention are good, but I don't really care either way if the carbon tax goes ahead or not. There are more important things to worry about - ending poverty, provision of clean drinking water and food, political unrest, telling people the gospel...

Anyway, this is not the place to argue about it. Other people have done it very well! Prof Bob Carter from James Cook University, QLD gives a pretty good presentation. If you have 40 minutes to spare, maybe Professor Bob can convince you. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4.

Broome

2010-05-17T23:20:00.011+08:00

We just got back from Broome and it was gorgeous! I never thought I would ever be able to go up North, at least not this early in my life. So thank you, Rio Tinto for the free flight :) We really do appreciate it!

We left for Broome on a Saturday and arrived in time for dinner. While all the other Rio employees got taxis to the famous Cable Beach Club or walked over to the city to stay at the infamous Roebuck Bay Hotel, Andrew and I decided to walk the half hour to Town Beach and stay at the Roebuck Bay Campervan Park. We stopped for fish and chips at Bluey's (so fresh and tasty), and after setting up camp, we went to Matso's brewery and tried every single beer on tap. The highlight was the mango beer, which tasted like a mango cocktail and would be so good on a hot humid summer's day. The runner up would be the chilli beer, just for sheer novelty and the fun factor when we give it to our friends after a really hot curry or mee goreng :)

Early the next morning we walked all the way back to the town centre to get our Broome Broome scooters! We are both still poor students and this was the cheapest reasonable transport we could find. Max speed - 70km/hr but only if there was a tail wind... and going down hill! But still, it was great fun and I'd do it again!

The town of Broome itself is lovely. I love a historic town and Broome is one that is proud of its colourful and rather dark history. We took a walk down Johnny Chi lane, which displayed the strong Japanese influences in its architecture despite being named for a Chinese entrepreneur.

We stopped for lunch at the courthouse markets which runs on weekends. The courthouse building was in fact a cable station, which relayed messages via a cable running from Broome to Singapore, connecting to England, for which the world famous Cable Beach was named.

The markets were a melting pot of foods and flavours. Cuban, Indonesian, Thai.. and good old steak burgers! Here is Andrew chowing down on a Cuban chorizo pizza. It is rather different from traditional Italian wood fired pizza. It is doughy and light textured but with a crispy crust.

We booked ourselves in for a Pearl Luggers tour. Pearling is what made Broome so famous... but at a huge cost. More than 700 Japanese divers lie in the Japanese cemetery in Broome. They gave their lives to support their families in Japan, and in so doing laid the foundation for Broome as it is today. The tour was educational and terribly sobering... the things that humans will do for money! I got the chance to hold a perfect natural pearl, large, spherical, pure white and lustrous... AU$100K. If someone gave me that, I'd probably sell it and use it to pay off our mortgage!

He looks a little too happy for a man in his situation.The gear that the divers wore weighed more than the divers themselves. And they were on average smaller than me! I've only been diving once... and the scuba gear was already heavy as it is. On a much happier note... we got to ride on camels! Andrew was so keen, and he really wanted a soft toy camel.But when he was faced with the real thing he started getting nervous!This is the quintessential Broome postcard photo! Riding camels on the pure white sands of Cable Beach! I took it from the back of my camel!

After camel rides, we drove down to Gantheaume Point. The orange cliff faces were gorgeous examples of sedimentary rock, and the glow of the afternoon sun made them burn red. There is a lonely lighthouse and remnants of the lighthouse keeper's house. There is also a little pool carved in the rock, called Anastasia's pool. The story is a sweet one and you can find it if you google it. There are also dinosaur footprints!

He makes me so happy!! I always feel so special when I'm with him. Like I can be myself, but better. He makes time fly, and every moment with him is blissful. Even the frustrating ones!

After the sunset, we went to the Town Beach Satay Hut for dinner, where unfortunately, all they were serving on a Sunday was Sunday Roast! So we had that... and we also got roped into playing crab races! The atmosphere was fantastic, and the local crowd was so friendly :) People actually recognised us from earlier in the day and they would come up to say hello and ask if we enjoyed ourselves... which we did and we were enjoying ourselves immensely!

We paid $2 for a ticket! It got called and I got to choose a crab... 1 crab out of 8. The prize pool was at $100 for the win! I chose crab number 1... "Bait mobile"! He didn't win the race, but the thrill of being called was exciting enough, and it was for a good cause, the Broome wildlife care and rescue.

After the excitement of crab races, we went back into town to try out the Chinese restaurants. The chef was 5th generation Australian. His father, grandfather, great great grandfather... all born right here in Broome. He spoke English with a broad Australian accent. And yet, he also spoke good Cantonese and his wife was from China. He was so obviously proud of his heritage and his restaurant was unashamedly Hong Kong 70s style. He told us that during the "White Australia" policy he had to wait for 15 years to become a naturalised citizen. How incredibly sad... and yet, he is still here and depite making trips back to Hong Kong frequently, I think he loves it here too much to leave.

We enjoyed the chat and the couple were so confused about where we were from. We both speak English with the Australian accent when required. But I also speak Mandarin and he speaks Cantonese as a first language. We could hear the husband and wife quarelling in the kitchen about where we were from. They were guessing Singapore or Hong Kong. They guessed me right! But Vietnam is always harder to pick unless you know Andrew's last name.

After dinner we went back to Matso's for one last drink of Mango beer, before heading back to our campsite. Camping was an experience in itself, as it always is. What an experience, I didn't want to leave! But as with every good trip... this one had to come to an end :( We needed a shower anyway... we'd had 2 days without a shower or a toothbrush, and 2 days on cold hard dirt floor! Perhaps it was a good time to head back to Perth. Here is Andrew the engineer checking out the revolving cylinder engine from a bombed out airplane at the Broome airport before departure.

We landed back in Perth at 11.30 am on Monday. Just in time for my 1 pm meeting with the head of Science at Rossmoyne Senior High School. I can't wait for my foray into senior high school education! Watch out, year 11 biology students!

Double date

2010-04-28T08:23:00.007+08:00

Rebekah is doing her mixed practice rural vet practical in Busselton, and she needed company because accommodation is expensive here. So we decided to go camping for a week, just me and my sister! While she is at prac, I can write my papers and reports in the beautiful, peaceful surrounds of Busselton.

But it just so happened that she had chosen to go over the ANZAC day long weekend, so the weekend turned into an epic double date :) Such fun! How spoilt are we... having Margaret River literally in our backyard!

First stop, Margaret River chocolate factory. We stole about $5 worth of free chocolate!

Fonti's farm for cheese

Colonial brewery for beer, ribs, buffalo wings... and beer!!

Lots of beer!

Then Howard park/mad fish for wine. (Too much wine apparently!)

We got a little lost...

But somehow stumbled upon this! Knotting Hill Winery, a boutique winery where every single wine was just beyond superb. We left with 6 bottles. Oh my!

Pitch tent and cook dinner! We had lamb chop, steak, sausages, salad. With a Mad Fish Rose and some triple brie! We finished the night off with a game of sequence, chocolate and Tempranillo :)

Early next morning, we went to the Busselton Jetty which is still closed and will be till April 2010, so we were disappointed. But... there was Simmo's! I had white chocolate maltesers.

Bored in busselton, we drove back down to Cowaramup and visited the fudge factory! The boys left us alone in there to go to the bathroom. Bad move. We bought 3 packs of fudge between us. And as of today, 3 days after... we have finished 2 packs :(

Lunch at Cowaramup brewery. The beer is not as refined as Colonial's... more of a manly man's beer, which Andrew and Cheng both enjoyed very much.

That's Cheng with his stout. Very happy man.

After lunch the boys left :( And Rebekah and I had to keep ourselves occupied...

with fudge!!! Not so lonely after all :)

Easter break

2010-04-06T09:18:00.005+08:00

Happy easter everyone :) I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. I sure did! So many things that have been happening and I tried to group it categorically - friends, uni, family... but it was getting too convoluted so I am back to doing "dot point time lines" again.

Friday

Good friday service. So much fun to have a combined three crosses service! I love my Church :)
Vietnamese food lunch with Bec, Cheng and Andrew
Back in uni doing experiments, but I enjoyed it nonetheless... because Andrew came along to do some study while I did lab work and he is very pleasant to have around :)
Singstar with sister, Cheng and Andrew. It is still such a fun game, we never get tired of it, and Andrew still cannot sing.
Scrabble and boggle with the LMC. Team domination (Andrew and I) won thanks to the word "vex" on a triple word score :) But we failed at boggle :(

Saturday

Tutoring and driving lesson in the morning. Ling is driving very well now and I am so proud of him!
Basketball with the LMC at UWA... I am so embarrassingly uncoordinated but it was still heaps of fun and I actually managed to score a couple of shots (perhaps because Ken and Leon were being nice to me... but it's ok I still feel good about myself!)
We had a lovely dinner at Bollywood Indian restaurant off Scarborough Beach Road to celebrate all the April babies' birthdays - Grandpa, Grandma, Daddy and Cheng. Happy birthday to you all :) Food was authentic and really yummy, service was good and it was reasonably priced. But nothing can beat the taste and price of real Indian food in India... I miss it so!
And I must say that I really enjoy spending time with Rebekah, Cheng and Andrew. We all get along so well. We drove to dinner together and got a fantastic cake for the birthday dinner. A sponge cake with profiteroles on top from Divine Desserts. They never disappoint!
We all went home and had a game of Grabble (the really fast Scrabble derivative) and Taboo. Lots of fun, I love all word games. Daddy is very very good at Grabble. Andrew and I are really bad at Taboo. I wanted him to guess "Hawaii" and I asked "Where is Pearl harbour"... and he said Japan!! Argh! But we got better towards the end and it was a close fight.

Sunday

Work on Church website... added comments board on the articles and a forum. Fixed up some pictures.... it took me ages but I am pleased with the results!
Cleaning house, it is coming along nicely and we are aiming to get it out to rent by this week.
I am listening to one of those "Instant Immersion: Learn Spanish" audio things and it is great fun. You can listen to me practice my (embarrassing) Spanish while I scrub the floors and clean the bathrooms.
Church
Get home just in time to give Grandpa and Grandma a kiss and a hug goodbye. They are going to Sabah with their bible study group and I hope they have a wonderful time. Two months away and I will miss them :(

Monday

Qing actually helped out with lab work and halved my analysis time on Easter Monday. Her needle and syringing skills are good and she was so efficient :)
Easter egg hunt! Qing and I were rather upset that we hadn't received any easter eggs this year... so we went to the city to buy some after lab work. We couldn't find Darrel Lea... it was hidden in one of the arcades, so we ended up at target and bought some Cadbury "Old Gold" ones... which are actually not bad and they have curbed the cravings... at least for now!
Rebekah made puff pastry pizzas with leftovers - Kong bak (stewed belly pork), lots of boccacini and mozarella, sun dried tomatoes, asparagus, and spinach and rocket leaves. It was... surprisingly tasty and very satisfying. Kind of fusion gourmet!
Back to cleaning the house. Andrew fired up the diesel lawn mower. He was so impressed with himself, and quite honestly, I was impressed too :) I attacked the lawns with an edger and pruning shears. Now the gardens look spectacular.
It was rather cold last night. I don't like to sleep with clothes on, and I only had my summer sheets and blanket last night. So I woke up at 4am... freezing!! Had to put some clothes on :( Now, I am wearing jeans to uni for the first time in months. About 6 months now I think. Boo for end of summer!

Tuesday

Back to work my friends! Now waiting on Christmas :)

Crazy weather in Perth

2010-03-23T09:25:00.005+08:00

VIDEO: Thunderstorm pounds Perth

Perthnow news

Pictures

This is the kind of thing I always read about in the news about other places. It is quite surreal that it is happening here to us in Perth. Perth is definitely a pretty safe place to be. No earthquakes or major fault lines, no volcanoes or tsunamis. But I guess no place is ever spared from freak events and Perth is no different.

My poor swift car is pretty smashed up. Front windscreen is shattered. Roof, bonnet and front lights are damaged... The insurance companies are going to be very very busy.

I wish I had a camera to document the carnage around Perth, and especially UWA... but I am really tired and can't be bothered. I was stranded at UWA with no way out (couldn't drive car, train lines shut down). Andrew came to save me at about 7pm with his mum's 4WD! Yayness!

The university is in chaos and the school will have lots of things to sort out... I feel sorry for all the people with glasshouse experiments. Months of work ruined in less than 2 hours!

Subject: Closure of plant growth facilities

Hi All,

Please take note of the email below and distribute as appropriate.

FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY, PLEASE DO NOT ENTER ANY PLANT GROWTH FACILITY UNTIL THE FULL EXTENT OF STORM DAMAGE CAN BE ASSESSED.

There is a significant risk of falling glass and electric shock.

All of our office cars have been storm damaged and can not be used until further notice.

Apologies for the people that have booked the vehicles.

But at the end of the day, we are all safe. Broken windscreens, flood damage and power failures can be fixed. I am just thankful that no one has gotten hurt.

Handyman

2010-03-15T15:59:00.001+08:00

We have the keys to the house! We spent Sunday driving back and forth several times, planning what we need to do before we rent it out, and I finally brought my mother to have a look. She is quite excited about it all :)
The house is actually in quite a mess… the previous owner was a “handyman” who tried his best, and he did a lot of work around the house… but he wasn’t a very good handyman at all! He left all sorts of half-finished, badly done jobs all around the house. The painting and skirting in all the rooms, shelving in the pantry and built in robes needs to be redone. Master bedroom has the reticulation system controls installed inside - which is convenient but really weird so it should be hidden or moved outside somehow, and the ceiling fan is so low that it would chop Andrew's hands off if he inadvertently raises his arms. Andrew wants to take down the doors and replace them with sturdy wood ones. The carpets are quite badly stained and really old. The kitchen and bathrooms need renovating as well, and the general layout of the carport/shed is just bad. This would scare most people (like my mother) but this house is exactly what we were looking for!! A huge family home in Willetton that we could get for a reasonable price because it needs lots of fixing!
Despite all of its imperfections, there are lots of good things about it - the fantastic location, huge land area, large family living areas, the evaporative air cooling system is new and works well, the pool is in really good condition, the garden is huge, and the house has lots of character because of all the "personal touches" the previous owner left behind... so the house has a lot of promise. It just needs a bit of work. And there is the shed that Andrew fell in love with. I am looking forward to him spending alot of time in that shed building stuff for our home!
In the meantime, we won't be doing any major renovations. Our aim for the weekend is just to get it to a presentable state so that we can rent it out as soon as possible. That means two coats of white paint for every room in the house, making everything neat, and cleaning out all the junk in the garden. We are hoping to enlist some of our good friends and have a good time with it. Pictures to follow once we've cleaned it up!

Valentine's and birthday updates

2010-03-01T11:22:00.003+08:00

Andrew turned 23 recently, so now he is the same age as me :) I will keep deluding myself...

But anyhow. It was great fun, having Chinese new year, his birthday, and Valentine's day all at the same time.

For Chinese New Year, we had reunion dinner with my Auntie June and Joy's little brother Daniel. The food was super yummy and I loved having all my family around. I also got a record number of ang pows this year. A huge haul thanks to my parents, grandparents, Aunties, Andrew's family, all my tuition kid's parents... a total of 10 ang pows :) Mummy said that for my age, it's really good... and I think that number will only go down from now. And in a couple of years... I'll be giving them out instead of receiving them :(

Valentine's day... we didn't do much. I've made it quite clear that I don't like the commercialism of Christmas or Valentine's day. And though I do love flowers, it is just a waste spending close to a hundred dollars on roses in the middle of summer. He still managed to pull together a lovely present during his lunch break. An art set of all the things in a list I wrote in an old sketch book of mine. Remember Miss Ong's art classes back when we were 14? I wrote down all the things I needed in my art set on the inside of a sketch book and I forgot all about it. Then I passed Andrew the sketch book so he could do some sketching for our house and put all his ideas to paper. Then he thought it was amusing and went ahead to put an art set together for me, which was a lovely gesture. I do miss sketching. It's something I used to enjoy, and I haven't done it in a while. He also made me a little card with a love heart in the front and note inside :)

For his birthday, I made him cake! Mini oreo cheesecakes, probably the only thing I know how to whip up in half an hour. We lit a candle and I sang him a birthday song. His birthday deal however was delayed several times... we've been so busy! I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and I went to his house while he was up North, took his boardies (under the guise that I was taking some of my own stuff that I left at his place) and I formulated a plan. I got him to come over to UWA for a seminar after he finished work on Friday, then I kidnapped him, drove him to the beach, got him changed out of his business shoes, shirt and pants, and into the beautiful warm ocean we went. He was so surprised, he didn't see it coming and he hadn't been to the beach in ages, so it was a very pleasant surprise for him. And what a gorgeous evening, the water was warm and still, like a big bathtub, perfect for a swim, especially after the stuffy humid heat we had been experiencing on Friday. For dinner, I packed sashimi and sushi and Asahi in an esky, so we ate Japanese food on the beach, watched the sun set, got some Gelato after dinner and talked all evening long. He still makes me so happy :)

I am glad he makes me so happy, because uni is a big big pain right now. Experiments are not working and it is most upsetting!! And it's labour day public holiday for everyone except us uni students. Andrew is out on the river skurfing! Boo!! Oh well, I should really get back to work now...

Our first fruits!!

2010-02-22T10:28:00.002+08:00

And we give thanks to the Lord!

Donnybrook gourmet food and wine festival

2010-02-08T11:59:00.005+08:00

We spent the weekend at the 3rd annual Donnybrook gourmet food and wine festival, and we had an awesome time :) The atmosphere was fantastic, kind of like the Royal Show but lighter, brighter, happier and more relaxed. The stalls were full of super yummy goodies that we had the opportunity to taste test... the tastiest sausages, cupcakes, nuts, cheeses (cow and sheep cheese!), apple pies and fruit!

The highlight was the wine! You pay $5 for a wine glass and you can have obligation free tastes all the wines of the region, plus ciders, ports and liquers. So much more convenient than doing a wine tour around Margaret River. It was a whole row of about 15 different wineries on display, and because Andrew was driving, he only had a sip of each. Then he would pass me his wine glass and I would down it all!! Needless to say I was pretty "happy" by lunch time. Best $5 I've ever spent! Plus, you get to keep the collector's edition wine glass with the event name engraved on it! The standard of the wines was excellent. A couple of the Chardonnays were a little dubious, we ended up tipping them out onto the grass. The real winners were the Zinfandel and Tempranillo varieties. Ohh so yummy and the bottles were selling at very good prices! It's suhc a shame that we couldn't jsut buy everything! Grandpa enjoyed the whole thing very much and was adamant that we buy a bottle of Barreccas' white port, a beautifully sweet, smooth, fragrant white port that I can't wait to enjoy over our next big family dinner.

Grandma chose not to sample the wines and instead went on to collect for herself a huge haul of apple pie, apples, pecans, lemon butter, plums and various other things. All this is much to our benefit, we are enjoying the most divine breakfasts in Perth these days :) The apples were super cheap at $2 a kg, and they are so fresh. Most of the apples you buy at the supermarket have a layer of way sprayed on them to make them look shiny. Fresh Donnybrook apples don't have that waxy sheen, but they taste so juicy and sweet, it's good stuff! We also had lunch there, some very good burgers and hot dogs. But we were so full from the food... we to stop by at the Simmo's icecream stall! What a crime!

Besides the food, there was plenty of other things to entertain the whole family. A vintage car show, bouncy castle and face painting, barrel rides, cooking competitions, a jazz band and a gardening show. It felt like such a holiday, I couldn't stop smiling all day!

ABC news report on the event.

When things go wrong

2010-02-03T11:01:00.004+08:00

Nowadays, I'm making frequent trips to the farm, every other week or so. And every trip seems to be an adventure of sorts.

The last two fortnights have been spent fixing the pump that irrigates our entire farm. The pump has been leaking badly, first between the flange and gasket, and this time from the compressed o-ring between the filter. And every time something gives way, it's a trip down to Donnybrook town and shopping at the Farm Services store. Then back to the farm and back to the pump with wrenches in hand. We also noticed that the whole area was orange with iron deposits - the filter leading from the dam to the pump wasn't working at all. So we opened up the filter in the pump shed and it was completely gunky!!! Lots of black rotting algae, and you wouldn't believe it... dead rotting fish! They were pretty big, about 10cm big, and they smelled pretty bad. Smelled like death ... pretty nasty. We had to clean it out with a pressure cleaner and toilet scrub brush.
It looks like the pump system hasn't been very well maintained for months. It just so happens that every time Andrew and I go down to check on it, something else starts to give way. After we fix everything this time, we are going to start a maintenance schedule to keep track of how often we should change things BEFORE everything breaks down. I am learning fluid mechanics, pumps, valves, etc all very quickly!
Besides pumps that constantly break down... We got into a pretty bad car accident, driving back from Donnybrook town to the farm. It was Andrew and me in the car, I was driving, grandparents were safely at the farm waiting for us. We were on gravel road, the front wheel hit a dent in the road and the car started swerving uncontrollably left and right... I managed to control it about 100m down a hill before it crashed into a tree in a ditch. The downhill slope made the car go a lot faster than what I could control. And the fact that it was front wheel drive and automatic didn't help matters either :( So there we were, perched precariously in a car that was about to flip over on its roof. Andrew said he felt the car slip as I jumped out. And thankfully, he left the car safely too, so it doesn't matter, the fact that the car is ruined.

We were most fortunate to have lovely neighbours who witnessed the accident and came down to pull us out with a tractor, and they were nice enough to follow us all the way to the farm to make sure we were safe. And then I have wonderful friends like Leon who went all out to borrow Carl's car and then drive all the way down to Donnybrook to pick me up. I do believe it's God's grace that we are safe and that people came to our aid so readily and quickly. I read in the news that 2 Singaporeans passed away in a gravel road car crash in Adelaide. That could have been us...

Andrew has an awesome picture of the car, crashed into a tree, rear end in the air. And now I am trying to figure out how to get it towed back to Perth. And I have to pay for the excess on the insurance. Arghhhh!!! But it's all ok, I am trying to put it all in perspective and be thankful for how things didn't go too wrong!

Big big news!

2010-01-29T11:30:00.003+08:00

Time has passed so quickly and I've already been back in uni for about three weeks. Busy busy!! I've spent so much time just catching up on the work I've missed, I haven't really had a chance to blog. And in particular, I haven't had a chance to reflect on the awesome holiday. So I printed out the photos the other night and it was truly spectacular. Missing all my friends back home in Singapore already! Especially now that Colin is there too!!
But life in Perth moves on at breakneck speed. There are so many things happening, and everything is big news :) Two weeks ago we broke it to my grandparents that we were looking around for a house, and exactly one week later, we found one! (No... we didn't find it in a week, we've actually been looking for months!!) All our family has gone to have a look (at least all the family that is still in Perth) and everyone likes it. It is not ours yet, the whole process will take a little more than a month, but I have a good feeling about it all. I can't wait to have my parents with me in Perth, I trust them, and they are so wise. So it would be nice to have some guidance and support from them. And I wish Daniel was here with me. It's terrible to think that by the time he finishes with the army... he would have missed it all!! Thank God for email!!
Fingers crossed, that everything will run smoothly!! Please pray for us!!

Vietnam

2010-01-13T13:12:00.003+08:00

Again, I am being lazy :) So excerpts from emails sent to my parents while I was in Vietnam, just to let them know how I was doing.

7 January 2010
Dearest papa and mama,

Finally have a chance to sit down and email! I am being very well looked after in Vietnam. staying at Andrew's mum's relatives in Long Xuyen. His auntie and uncle own a restaurant on the main street and thus we have a constant supply of very good food. They make their own noodles, dim sum and french style bread rolls that are so tasty. Unfortunately we have both come down with some sort of sickness. He had a fever yesterday and I had a slight cold, perhaps due to the heat. It is 35 degrees here with little or no shade... so unlike Singapore. I am beginning to miss the huge shady trees back home.

Some pictures of our trip attached. Andrew and I being all touristy in our Vietnam hats! I will be sure to send more when I am back in Perth.

Much love,

Deb and Andrew 9 January 2010

Hi pa and ma,

I am in Ho Chi Minh now, and it is HUGE! so much like india, when you drive you honk to let others know you are there. We went shopping in Saigon city today and bought really cheap snow jackets. Au$30 Northface Gore-tex!! We also went looking around at cameras and found a Canon G11 for AU$500!! So cheap!!! Andrew and I were so tempted, but we both already have very good cameras. So we very maturely walked away :(

Andrew and I are both feeling better now after lots of vitamin C and rest! Glad you liked the photos :) The girls all covered up in ao dai and vietnamese hats/helmets - thats what they all wear here in vietnam. fully covered from the sun and dust masks because of the constant smog.

Tmrw is our last day of travelling and heading home on the 11th. Will let you all know when I am home safely.

Love,

Deb
11 January 2010
Dear mummy,
Met up with qing and cheng during transit. first thing she did was hug
me, second thing was she said i'm fat. which i am... after being so
well fed in vietnam. andrew has lost his 8-pack and it's now a
one-pack! Missed her so much! And missing all my family back home in Perth too.
waiting to board flight now. will email when i get home to let you
know i'm safe.
Much love,
Deb
12 January 2010
Hi mummy and daddy
Back home safely and reflecting on a wonderful holiday! Very busy, not really relaxing, but quite an experience!
Celebrating xmas, new year and the wedding made singapore very very busy. Catching up with all my friends and family made it hard to leave.
Vietnam was more relaxing (i.e. schedule was less full) but it is not exactly a relaxing place. It's very much like Bangalore, just instead of Indians, lots of vietnamese who really wear those vietnamese hats, and instead of crazy car drivers... lots of crazy scooter drivers! Even the locals fear to cross the road. Andrew's family was very kind to us and made the stay very enjoyable (despite having to sleep on the floor on thin matresses and cold water showers in Saigon!). We are aiming to go back again in Dec and travel North to Dalat and maybe Hanoi :)
better start saving money again for our next holiday!
Lots of love,
Deb

Singapore

2010-01-13T12:11:00.006+08:00

What a holiday!! It was just too awesome!! Singapore was great, I got to catch up with all my relatives - Aunties, Cousins, Grand Uncle. Met up with all my good friends, JAE and respective boyfriends (and husband!), Amos and his Pamy, Evan, CX, Dianne and Ben. How best to describe all that went on?? Well, there is too much to write, so I'll just post up the schedule and I am sure all of you remember how awesome it was.

Thu 24 Dec 2009
08:00 - 09:00 Ling Driving lesson
10:00 - 15:30 Uni :(
19:35 - 24:00 PER-SIN TR717
Fri 25 Dec 2009
10:30 - 12:30 christmas service at christ methodist church
12:30 - 14:30 Christmas lunch with JADE at Katong
15:00 - 17:00 Wedding lunch rehearsal at Peony Jade
19:00 - 22:00 Christmas dinner at Gluttons Bay with Anna, Wenny and boyfriends (So yummy!)
22:00 - late! Butter :)
Sat 26 Dec 2009
12:00 - 15:30 Lunch with Evan & Dianne at Ion (So full!!), afternoon tea with Colin (love the hair! or lack of it!)
19:00 - 22:00 Auntie Irene's house for dinner
Sun 27 Dec 2009
09:00 - 11:30 Sim Lim shopping for cameras. Don't trust the salesmen they are too smooth.
12:00 - 17:00 Aunties, visit Nainai and Yeye and Uncle Steven at Garden of Remembrance
18:00 - 21:00 Visit Orchard with Jiajia (love the crazy high outdoor escalators!)
21:00 - 23:30 Trying again for the camera - Mustafa at night... hahah
Mon 28 Dec 2009
08:30 - 10:30 It's a tradition now! Prata breakfast with Amos and Pamy
13:00 - 15:00 Turtle soup with Uncle Wong Chau (Yummy, but oh so full!)
15:30 - 19:00 Mustafa (again) and Queensway for basketball shoes. $50 Adidas!
Tue 29 Dec 2009
07:00 - 09:30 Ferry to Bintan from Tanah Merah Terminal
Swimming at the beach, Lunch at Indonesian restaurant, Swimming in a pool, Dinner at Kampung Oleh Oleh. What a wonderful getaway! Would do it again!
30 Dec 2009
10:00 - 13:00 Massage at Martha Tillar Day Spa
14:00 - 16:00 Chillin at the beach
16:00 - 19:30 Ferry ride to Sg
Thu 31 Dec 2009
10:00 - 17:00 Science Centre. Disappointing, wasn't the same as I remember it to be :(
22:00 - 24:00 NY eve with Colin and Anna. Standing on the Esplanade bridge, the fireworks were spectacular!
Fri 1 Jan 2010
12:00 - 17:30 ZOO! Fantastic fun and so worth it!! The white tiger exhibit alone is worth the ticket price
18:00 - 20:00 Colin, Dave and Eda. BBQ seafood - I think that got me sick when I reached Vietnam :(
Sat 2 Jan 2010
09:00 - 11:30 Joy's solemnisation at CMC (Such a beautiful bride and I've never seen a happier groom!)
12:00 - 16:00 Joy's wedding lunch at Peony Jade, Clarke Quay
17:30 - 22:30 Post wedding chilling at Blue iguana (Margaritas!), Minds Cafe (Ugly.. Ugly ugly!!)
That's only the surface of all the things Andrew and I did together. The food, the train rides, the long bus rides, the HDB flats and the food!! And you guys, all my good friends, I enjoyed and still cherish every minute I spent with each and every one of you. And a BIG congratulations to Joy!! I am so so happy for you :)
Photos are still with Andrew. I promise to post them up along with this entry later.

Just an update before I leave

2009-12-23T13:03:00.002+08:00

Flying to Singapore tomorrow! I am so excited :) And for so many reasons too!!

Joy and Derek getting married
Being reunited with JADE again
Seeing Colin, Eda and Dave in SIngapore
Meeting all my good friends, Amos, Evan, Dianne... Oldies but goodies!
Meeting my aunties, cousins, and my grand-uncle (who'll bring us out for turtle soup!)
Bintan trip. Oh for the chance to just relax and do absolutely nothing...
Vietnam!!
Traveling with Andrew, our first overseas adventure together and it's a BIG one!

It's been pretty busy here, we went camping at the farm and did a Margaret River winery tour last weekend (which was awesome fun). I've been needing to catch up with my friends here before I leave, and we've been having Christmas parties non-stop all week. I have a list of things to pack, a list of things to finish off in uni, I am reluctant to start on my lab work and I just can't wait to leave it all behind and get on that plane!!

Boggle

2009-12-18T11:29:00.001+08:00

I was doing some Christmas decoration digging (in the deep dark depths of our garage cupboards), and guess what I found?? This is the game my mother and I could spend hours playing. Boggle! As you can see... I was a nerd even in my youth! What a thrill to pull it out again, it looks exactly as it did the last time I saw it, a little yellowed with age and missing the three minute timer, but all still good!

All the siblings and boyfriends gathered round, and it was a fight to the finish! It's amazing that a game we played as children, we can all still enjoy together. It is so addictive. The competitive spirit in all of us made it all the more exciting. I love the concept of a speed word game, more entertaining than scrabble, but just as stimulating. Cheng's palms were sweaty after three rounds :)

Now, I am going to practice online so as to maintain my reign in the family as Boggle queen!

Summer nights in Perth

2009-12-14T10:49:00.002+08:00

Summer nights in Perth = Outdoor cinemas and concerts! The 37 degree day has cooled to a comfortable 24 degrees, the setting sun casts a comfortable glow, the boys throw a football around on the grass while the girls eat chocolate coated strawberries and chat. Then a good picnic dinner with ice cold beers and Rebekah's home-made custard pie for dinner. Perfection :)
On Thursday evening I watched "Departures" at the Somerville Auditorium, UWA. It's such an interesting concept - an auditorium formed by a natural wall of mature pines, it's a lovely setting to enjoy all the international arthouse and quirky films. The movie was most interesting, about a Japanese cellist turned dedicated coffiner, people's attitudes towards death and most of all, life. Highly recommended, very amusing, funny and touching. Totally deserved all the awards and nominations it received. And yes, I did cry :)
Saturday evening was spent at WASO's free annual outdoor concert event, Symphony in the city! I've always loved symphony, chamber music, choral, opera... and I like it even more if it's free :) They played some of my favourites, a whole range of Russian composers including Mussorgsky, Stravinsky (personally he's a bit too new-age for me, but I won't complain), and my most favouritest of them all, Tchaikovsky! There were excerpts from Swan Lake, which made me most happy :) And the big hilight of the night was Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture complete with the Swan Bells and the 7 Field Battery of The Australian Army Reserve Artillery. What a spectacular treat. The encore was the Russian dance and everyone got up to clap and dance to the music. Great fun! Can't wait for Opera in the park!

Checking out

2009-12-11T11:53:00.006+08:00

That's exactly what it feels like now in the labs and in the offices. Mark is on "study leave" so he's been gone for 2 months now and will be gone till January. Suman just got back from a month long holiday, and I think he is still recovering from it. No guidance from anyone lately so sometimes I feel a little lost! And I'll be traveling, so experiments are being put on hold. And I have 3 different Christmas functions to attend next week. SEE postgrads, FNAS, and SEE barbecues and various other things. I feel so... lazy! Especially after months of working so hard, December does feel like a chance to just check out.

25th wedding anniversary

2009-12-06T22:15:00.020+08:00

Mummy and daddy have been married for 25 years! I remarked that 25 years is older than me! And I was quite astonished, until I realised how silly I was. Of course they've been married for longer than I've been around!

Instead of a fancy dinner at a fancy restaurant, we decided to do the proper Australian summer thing... and we had a pool party and barbeque! It was awesome fun! We played pool volleyball, and daddy was killing them! A 50 year old man spiking and serving like a pro! Mummy can't really swim, but she was game enough to jump into the pool and be our mascot, holding onto the floaty noodles :)

Dinner was absolutely wonderful! Grandma went all out and bought scotch fillet, huge green prawns, fresh oysters, and lamb. It went wonderfully with Rebekah's baby rocket and spinach salad, plus lots of ice cold beer and some sparkling wine courtesy of Auntie Alice. We were also happy to have our cousin from New Zealand with us. I haven't seen Jonathan in about 6 years and it was lovely having him around for a few days. Look at him chow down on the steak!

And now, a picture of the happy couple :) Daddy bought her a HUGE 1.2 carat diamond as a surprise... what an anniversary gift! A real big congratulations to my parents for being so in love, even after 25 years. I have so much respect for them, as parents they have done a fantastic job. As husband and wife to each other, they have kept every promise that they made to each other on the wedding altar, all those many years ago. I can only wish them every happiness for the rest of their lives together.

It was just such a lovely weekend. I could really feel the Christmas spirit, it's all about family, and all about love. Mummy and daddy flew off to India early the next morning, and they won't be here to celebrate Christmas in Perth. I'll be in Singapore for Christmas and New Year's, so I guess this really was our "Christmas party" of sorts. It was perfect, good weather, good game of pool volleyball, great food, fantastic company. And to top the night off, some of Rebekah's deliciously sinful triple berry pie!

Photography

2009-12-02T10:50:00.021+08:00

I've loved photography since... I can't remember really! I recall being very young... 7 or 8, and daddy handed me his Minolta Dynax 300si SLR during a trip to the zoo.

My first love, the Minolta Dynax 300si (circa 1990s)

It's probably the simplest SLR I know of, perhaps equivalent to a "point and shoot" SLR. There are 6 programmed subject modes, and no options for manual exposure of any sort. Fortunately there was the option to manual focus! Daddy taught me how to use the manual focus to take pictures of birds because the auto-focus always focused on their wire cages. I've actually seen people with whole rolls of film of unfocused birds! The horror!

As I grew older I started taking daddy's camera off him and volunteered to be family photographer so that he could be in some of the shots. Eventually, he gave me his old SLR when he bought his first digital camera. Now... he is in most of the photos, and I have transitioned to being behind the lens most of the time.

In year 12 I took photography as a non-TEE subject. I'm glad I did that, rather than do the usual Asian thing and take 6 TEE subjects (or worse, the super 6!). Photography really opened up my point of view of what high school should be. Well rounded and fun, yet stimulating and very practical. I learned how to take photos with a really old school, completely analog SLR. We had to meter the exposure, set the ISO manually, focus manually... We had to load our own film onto the film canisters, and then unload and develop them ourselves in a darkroom. Those were such good times, and my photography skills improved drastically with the knowledge that every frame I took had to be somewhat decent. I learned about texture, contrast, composition, darkroom techniques and photoshop. Photography class was such an escape from all my examinable subjects!

At the end of year 12 I bought my first good camera, the Leica digilux 2. For a 17 year old girl getting paid $9.50 an hour at a Chinese takeaway restaurant, that was a huge expense! But it was so very worth it and the camera is still my baby.

The love of my life :) The Leica digilux 2 (circa 2000s)

It is such a beautiful camera, well designed and such a joy to use. I have held many semi-pro DSLRs in my time, but the truth is, my hands are too small and they are too bulky and heavy for me to use all the time. So... a good digital camera with a fantastic lens is well suited for my needs. I love the fact that all the settings are controlled very much like the classic cameras of days past. It's so intuitive and thus, my transition to digital from old school 35mm SLR has been smooth. If you recall my trips to India and China, those pictures were taken with my Leica. (Apologies that I can't put the large files up on blogger, these thumbnails really don't do them any justice!) The colours are vibrant and true to life, aberration is minimal, contrast is good, the lens is fast so I can shoot even in low light without a tripod... so all I really do at the end of the day is crop my pictures!

Another fantastic coincidence is that my good friend Jason, my dearest daddy and my darling Andrew all enjoy photography. Jason and Daddy have Nikons, while Andrew has a Canon. I get to play with all of these, and all the lenses that come with them. Though at the end of the day I still love my Leica best! It's so intuitive compared to the fancy DSLRs... it took me ages to figure out how to change the aperture on Andrew's camera! Last Sunday was great fun, Andrew and I woke up at 5 a.m. to catch the soft morning sunlight and take some pictures. Unfortunately we didn't realise that the sun rises at 4.30 a.m., so we got harsh morning light. But that's cool. I still got a few good shots... a commentary on the interactions of humans in nature and how pretty it can still be... or something deep like that :)

The latest development in my photography love story is this :)

My new toy! The Nikon F3 HP (circa 1980s)

A mint condition Nikon F3 HP! It's such a classic camera, I love it! Daddy bought it on ebay for a couple hundred dollars. It has different priority modes so you can have complete control over your photos, and it can meter and expose your shots for you... how clever! Also, because it isn't digital, the system is extremely simple and thus the body is very compact and fits my small hands! And all of daddy's Nikon lenses are compatible with the body so that amounts to even more fun. It's time to move back to old school 35mm film. I can't wait to load in a roll and get snapping!!

Tuition kids and graduations

2009-11-25T15:38:00.009+08:00

I love my tutoring job, and in the past 5 years or so I've tutored more than 10 students and they are all such fantastic characters. One of them chose to get tutored in year 10 science, even though he didn't plan on doing any TEE subjects in year 11 and 12... just because he had the drive to do well in anything he set himself out to do. One of my girls was really pretty and worked hard, but she had an eating disorder and spent many months out of school and in the hospital, so I was there to help her catch up on what she missed. Another student of mine, one of Rebekah's high school friends, knew what she wanted in life and worked really hard to get it. She is now earning big bucks at Chevron (earning more than me!) and she even has her own assistant at work. Another one just invited me to her 18th birthday party, and she is studying to become a nurse which is just perfect for her.
And over the weekend I took this year's batch of students out to dinner to celebrate the end of exams and it was actually really fun!We all went to Freo for fish and chips. We stopped by at timezone to take those photobooth pictures - I felt like I was in high school again and we finished off with ice-cream at cold rock. I had my favourite chocolate-peanut butter and tim tams mix :)
The kids were very amusing and they made me laugh all night, and they were so amused that they were hanging out with a 23 year old... and the fact that I was acting like I was 17 and I blended right in with them. My tuition kid James wonders when I will ever grow up. And he asked what I was like when I was 17... I'd say I was pretty much the same as I am now! Happy and always positive. I know I've matured and I've grown wiser since then, but that doesn't mean that I should become boring!
And last night, I went to Ling and James' graduation, my two year 12 boys. I've taught Ling since year 10. He started year 8 in 2005 (the year after I graduated in 2004)! I am so old! But it was really nice to go to what might be my last Willetton Senior High School graduation. It felt oh so nostalgic and I can still recall all those good times. It's nice to see that my tuition kids had a really fulfilling high school life and I'm so proud of all of them :) Ling played a really beautiful Piano solo, and James had countless incriminating photos of himself up on the video presentation. We took heaps of photos and I actually had a great time.
I'll be wrapping up my tuition career within the next two years... but I am looking forward to teaching year 11 and year 12 sometime in the future. Maybe finish my PhD, go and work in the real world or start a career in academia, then do a diploma in education and teach! That's been my childhood dream, since I was 10 years old! That would be so much fun :)

Camping... kind of!!

2009-11-16T10:29:00.006+08:00

Don't you love it when things don't go to plan at all? This weekend's camping trip was completely unexpected! Andrew, his friend Reece, his cousin Fu and myself took a drive down to Capel about 3 hours south of Perth, and tried to reach the Ironstone falls campsite on the Capel-Donnybrook Road.
Unfortunately about 95% of the way there, the engine overheated and we pulled up at a playground in Capel town. One of the pipes bringing coolant into the engine had worn out and it was spewing coolant out. Lots of steam and a very hot engine!
Reece and Andrew tried to fix it with super glue and duct tape. 2 hours later, after lots of engine grease, blood and ice cold beers, with a quick band-aid fix and the coolness of night we tried to make it back to Perth. We tried driving back at 70km/h and stopped every 25km to top up the coolant. And after about an hour of driving we stopped by the side of the Old Coast Road, realised it was crazy to go any further and decided to stop for dinner. I cooked up some grilled lamb, while Andrew called all his friends to see who would love us enough to drive 2 hours down to Bunbury in the middle of the night to save us. Dinner was fantastic, the meat was tender and we were all tired so it didn't matter that we had set up camp on a grassy patch next to a major dual carriage highway in the middle of the South-west. We lay on the ground, watching the stars and listening to the cars drive past.During this whole situation there were strange people, mostly high on weed or piss drunk, that stopped to ask if we needed help. I think it's interesting how the normal people just drove right past while the weird ones associated with us... that can't possibly be good.
Just as we finished dinner, one of Andrew's friends, Kyle, who lives in Bunbury, came and towed us to another friend's (Pedro's) house. Pedro was away for the night so we ended up waiting in the car on his front lawn. Reece's brother was driving down to get us, and he was 2 hours away, so we tried to get some sleep in the car. Unfortunately it was getting so claustrophobic and uncomfortable in there - so Reece, Andrew and I pulled out our sleeping bags and fell asleep out on the front lawn of Pedro's house. Fu refused to degrade himself that way and he remained in the car. Despite the extremely strange situation, we all fell asleep and it was surprisingly comfortable. We woke up when our ride came and slept most of the way back. The car was small so we had to leave all our camping gear behind in Bunbury. So we got back to Perth in the middle of the night and had some rest.
The next morning we woke up and tried to get parts to fix the car. The shop guy told us we'll have to get the part from the Subaru dealer, it's not a generic part. So the best Andrew and I could do was drive back down to Bunbury, empty the car of all our stuff and drive back up again. That was alright, it was a lovely day for a drive, and it was nice to just spend 4 hours in a car, enjoying the company and conversation. We were almost back home in Perth when we realised that we didn't have any music on the whole way and we'd spent the whole time talking! He is just fantastic, the way he dealt with the whole situation, trying to fix the car with Reece and then calling all his friends to get us towed to safety in the middle of the night. Even when I lost the google map printout of the address where we left his car (oops!!) we both just went by memory and found it, and he didn't really panic or get upset. I couldn't imagine anyone better to spend the rest of my life with :)
Andrew's daddy and brother will drive back another day during the week to fix the car properly and hopefully we'll have his Liberty back with us in one piece soon. It's been a good car and we hope to make many more exciting camping trips in it... *fingers crossed*!!

This is why I love my sister!

2009-11-12T12:04:00.003+08:00

Macadamia and white chocolate chunk (not chips... chunks!) cookies. Perfectly gooey, super super tasty, and made with love! I told her I've been craving her cookie goodness, and she took some time off from her study yesterday to make me some. I think it's cute how the first thing she did was she took a picture and then emailed it to me while I was at uni.
This is the same sister who makes me pancakes in the morning, walks into my room and waves a piece in front of my nose to wake me up. She knows me wayyy too well!!

The circus comes to Perth!!

2009-11-09T16:35:00.008+08:00

Here we are patiently waiting for Britney!! Woo hoo :) It was such fun and we got really cheap $50 diamond GA standing tickets. Yay student edge!! If you are a student in Perth you have to get a student edge card, it's so worth it since they are now free! I remember back in Year 12 I had to pay for one and I never felt like I got anything out of it... but it seems that 5 years later it's paying me back :)
We had really good views of the stage and Britney was amazing. If you are in Australia right now there is all this hoo ha about her lip syncing and some people who paid $200 for tickets just walked right out of the concert after just three songs. Well, I think that's just silly. They should have stayed because it only got better. And you know she lip syncs, it was never a secret. In fact I'd rather she lip sync than not if she isn't confident of her singing-while-dancing ability. And in the end, the show was spectacular. She sang "Everytime" live and her vocals were strong, she was charming and she smiled, she danced and entertained like a pro. We could see her clearly and she faced us for large parts of the concert, it was so surreal watching her dancing before us and I had a great time! And at the day... you get to see Britney live! She has had such an influence on pop in the past decade. When they played the first 4 notes of "Hit me baby one more time" the crowd screamed. It's as iconic as the "Jaws" music, so instantly recognisable. And I can tell my grand-kids one day that I saw her on stage... kind of like how if my parents saw Barry Manilow. My daddy still talks about that concert and how my father told Barry himself that the concert was "ok". Apparently Mr. Manilow was rather insulted that Daddy didn't heap praise upon him!

I can understand why people left because they couldn't see her. Trust me, from way up at the back she looks like a pin prick. But anyway my advice for any concert at the Burswood Dome is... don't bother with seats. Go for the general admission standing areas because even at the back of the standing area you'll get a better view than at the very front of the seating area. I've watched Justin, B.E.P.s, and Britney from various parts of the dome (I am so commercial pop! How embarrassing!) so that's all I have to say about that! Other than "Go Britney!! :)" I still hope she doesn't crash and burn again.
Mmmm lazy, perfect weekend. It's such a shame that it's Monday already. Can't wait for Friday...

PhD days

2009-11-02T16:25:00.003+08:00

Clockwise from top left:

Preparation of fused beads in a muffle furnace for XRF analysis. i.e. melting soils at 1050 degrees Celsius into glass, and then pouring them out into platinum moulds so they set into discs which are then put into a machine that shoots x-rays through them to determine the major element composition of soils. Different soils form differently coloured glass. It's pretty! But it's really warm next to the furnace.
Margaret always has lovely flowers in a conical flask sitting on her desk.
Spring is here! The view from our 2nd floor lunch room.
My desk. I get a view of the taxonomy garden. On sunny days it's really pleasant and it makes me want to be outside.
My infrared gas analyser. I've been using it for 2 to 3 hours every day for about three weeks... and I can't wait to be rid of it!
Staying in uni till late, I noticed the lights on in the glasshouses and wandered over. These canola plants get light 24 hours! They look kind of eerie, bathed in light even after the sun has set.

Background: My soils from Exmouth!

Three Crosses Church

2009-10-30T11:48:00.004+08:00

I really do love the church that I'm with right now. They stick to the simple truths - studying God's word, focused on God, kindness and love to one another. There is something so encouraging about them as a group and I'm glad to be able to serve in the church.
Right now, me together with Tara, we're webmasters for the Three Crosses Church website! It's taken a lot of work and months of procrastination, but we've finally got round to fixing it. And I love it! It's got bits of me and Tara written all over it. And hence the shameless plug :) Go visit us and hopefully it'll answer some questions about us as a church, and maybe even make you curious as to what Christianity is all about. Especially if you are living in Perth, south of the river, close to the freeway South Street exit, e.g. Winthrop, Willetton, Bullcreek... check out the website, feel free to contact us, and you are welcome to visit, we'd be happy to have you!

Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake and sequinned butterfly masks

2009-10-26T12:05:00.009+08:00

I had an awesome weekend! Mostly because it was just so busy, but everything was good fun and it flew by so quickly.
Friday was spent watching Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake at Burswood!I've watched the Ivanov/Petipa version by the St. Petersburg ballet back in 2004 with my sister, and it was absolutely beautiful... one of my favorite classical ballets. So I was really excited to see a reworking of the classic. Graeme Murphy did a complete overhaul of the plot (A royal love triangle similar to Diana-Charles-Camilla) and the choreography (more contemporary, yet with plenty of references to the original 1895 version which I love!). It was Andrew's first ballet, and he took to it remarkably well, he googled and did his research before the show, and he could even make comments about how the male lead, Adam Bull, was wooden in his acting despite good technique. I agreed completely. Fortunately, Amber Scott was beautiful as Odette, her dancing was lovely. Strong and assured, but her sensitive acting reflected her fragile state of mind. She was a joy to watch. And as usual, Tchaikovsky's beautiful score makes it worth going just to listen to it played live. I could close my eyes and just sink into the music. But fortunately the ballet was beautiful and the storyline moved along so quickly, like a really good movie, that I never once felt the need to take my eyes off the stage.
Saturday night was one of Andrew's friends' 21st birthday parties! I had come straight from uni after doing my analyses and I wasn't wearing anything fancy. He thought it was a casual thing so he wore jeans and knit sweater. Unfortunately, he never checks his facebook and it was only when we went to pick his friends up that we realised that it was a masquerade ball!! You should have seen our faces when we saw them walk out the house, all dressed up in suit and bow tie, ruffly cocktail dress and handmade masks!! We rushed back home to change and grabbed whatever we could find. I borrowed my sister's mask from another party she went to, and he borrowed someone's sequined butterfly mask. Pretty!!

Working on weekends (and failed bao making escapades)

2009-10-19T10:44:00.011+08:00

I never really had much time for myself to begin with, but now, it's getting a little more ridiculous. My microbial respiration experiments have started, and that involves taking CO2 measurements daily for three weeks. The whole process takes about 2 hours or so, and it isn't very long but it's terribly disruptive for my weekends.
Saturday was spent trying to juggle tutoring, squeeze in lab work, buy a cake for Mabes' birthday (Happy birthday Mabes!!), help prepare dinner for her party, rush back to uni (I forgot to turn off the nitrogen!! Argh!), back home and then rush off for my mummy's birthday dinner. She turned 50 on friday!! Happy birthday mummy :)
On Sunday I woke up pretty late - 8 a.m. :) Walked the dog, did some stuff for church, had lunch with Andrew, he followed me to uni and did his assignment while I did my lab work, we went to pick up one of those power tower strength/workout devices, went back home to put device together, I gave his brother and daddy a haircut (accidentally gave his bother a bald patch on the side. oopppss!!), and then finally had half an hour to lie down and take a break. In the evening I went to church, then back home for dinner, and Rebekah and I decided to make Lingyong Bao! We googled a funky recipe and decided... how hard could it possibly be??
Well... It was actually really hard! It was an adventure in its own right. We got started and realised we were short of ONE cup of flour. So we took a drive down to IGA at 8.40 p.m. only to find that the shops were closed. I called Eda, but she didn't have any plain flour. What house doesn't have plain flour!!?? (Except obviously our house... but we were taking steps to rectify the situation!) So we went to Hsian's house and got about 3/4 cups of flour and she topped up the rest with wholemeal plain flour.... very strange but we were desperate. The whole process took ages... about 5 hours from start to finish, and the yeast we used was probably expired. I haven't used it since I made bread about a year ago. In the end our bao bread didn't rise, and we had rather gummy textured, sad looking Lingyong Bao. At least it tasted right.
But now, we feel like such failures as Asian women, not being able to make bao. I have a real respect for the people who make it from scratch... like the lady in Chengdu who sold 6 in a tray for AU$0.60. Can you imagine, we spent 5 hours making 24 failed bao... and even if it were a success, that would have only earned us AU$2.40 if we were in China! Thank goodness I never have to worry about making a livelihood on making bao *fingers crossed* But I have a feeling Rebekah and I might give it another go sometime soon. We refuse to be substandard Asian women, and we will succeed!!

And on a completely different note, I have to mention that I have the best and most wonderful and understanding boyfriend ever :) This weekend has been difficult, with me being so busy and having to put a lot of things before him or "us", and yet he has shown to be very mature, patient and helpful. Life is hard and relationships always require work, but he makes it easier. Somehow everything is right, and I know everything will work out great. I love him :)

The court and the B.E.Ps = awesome weekend!!

2009-10-12T11:00:00.005+08:00

I love my weekends! Friday night was spent with Leon and Aaron, the whole evening just enjoying each other's company. We had Japanese at Taka's with Kim and Ken, then strolled around northbridge, had bubble tea, and ended up at the Court to dance till the place closed. Gotta love that place. There's something so happy about it all, the characters that hang out there are so colourful and the music is always fun. Aaron and Leon are always good dancing company and it's been a while since I've had a chance to go out at night. Not something I'd do all the time, but I enjoy a night of partying and irresponsibility once in a while. After the Court closed, we went to King's park, and sat facing the Narrow's bridge and the river, sharing our deepest darkest secrets.
Saturday night was almost a repeat of Friday, I went with Mabes to the Black Eyed Peas concert and danced there :) The band was really awesome live, they really knew how to work the crowd, and I really love the sound of their new album. Fergie and Will.i.am stole the show and I was quite honestly impressed. I never thought much of Fergie till now. This was Mabes first concert and she really picked a good one. I think she enjoyed it - she was talking about all night after we got home, and on Sunday too... she was still talking about it. This is going to be hard to beat!
I didn't exactly get much rest on Sunday either. I am exhausted!! But it's the start of a new week and plenty of work to do!

My phonebook

2009-10-05T17:09:00.005+08:00

I just noticed something amusing in my "frequently texted numbers" list on my phone today. It's quite amusing and reflects my social life right now.

1. Qing. My sister whom I love! She sleeps in the room right next door to me but we are both so busy, I seldom get a chance to talk to her, so we text each other quite alot.
2. Mandy. Our bible study group leader-ess. A wonderful girl and a great encouragement to me. I hope to love the Lord as much as she does and have a God fearing relationship with Andrew the way she does with her husband.
3. Mabez. Andrew's little sister, 14 years old, tiny for her age, and great fun to be with... Andrew is very protective of her so I'm probably undoing all the good work he's done. And she beat Andrew in the list! How funny :) We're going to watch the Black Eyed Peas concert at Burswood on Saturday and I am so excited!
4. Andrew. Boyfriend makes his obligatory appearance.
5. Mark. PhD supervisor. He was at the top of the list last week... hopefully he'll start moving his way down.
6. Suman. Research Associate working with Mark and myself. Seriously... I should start putting them both on speed dial.
7. Leon. I appreciate all the effort he goes through to keep what's left of the LMC together. And I don't mind heart to heart conversations over McFlurrys (with double oreos) either *hint hint* :)
8. Eda Tiong. Best friend, love her!
9. David. Best friend's boyfriend! Awesome dude. I'm glad we all get along so well. Such a big happy family.
10. Tabitha. I used to teach her in Sunday school, and recently we've been planning a girl's night in for tomorrow night - a FRIENDS marathon and ice cream while she and her sister are having their school holidays. It's something we do together, Rebekah, Tabitha, Tamara and I, every school holidays and it's great to watch them grow. They are so big now!

Before I leave the office for today, a quick filler in of my weekend. My usual tuition, 2km swim, and then we went to the Royal show which was great fun. The Anaconda store had huge bargains. I think we could have bought the whole store. We ended up buying a LED camp light for $35 (huge discount from the original $80 price tag). It's rechargeable and hand crankable in case the charge doesn't last all night, which it should, it's supposed to last 5 hours. And I know it's kind of silly, but this is actually the first thing we've purchased together... and it's a camp light! I love it :) Life is simple now... work hard, play hard, love with all my heart and fill the world with joy! I am in a really good place now... I'm happy :)

A day off :)

2009-10-02T10:02:00.004+08:00

So I did take Thursday off and it was awesome! The very last email I received from Mark was at Thurs 5am Perth time - 10pm where he's at, to confirm receipt of the paper. So now it's fingers crossed and there's nothing I can do about it anymore.

I woke up at about 9am (couldn't sleep anymore) and had a lazy breakfast, then I did a bit of housekeeping and had a lazy lunch. The weather was fine and so I packed my dog up and we went to the dog beach. The beach was pretty mucky looking. Spring time brings up all this dead seaweed onto the seashore so there isn't much pristine sandy beach, just piles and piles, and stacks of dried seaweed. Like bales of hay drying in an open field. But the tide also brought in mounds of seashells, corals and rocks, all kinds, bleached white and worn smooth by the waves, scattered in piles across the beach. I ended up picking up seashells on the seashore while my dog ran along the beach beside me. When I got home I put them in a glass jam jar and now it's sitting prettily on my bookshelf.

The evening was spent at one of Andrew's work "bonding" type dinners at F.A.B in Subiaco. The food was excellent - I had the breakfast burger, like I always do. It's huge and I can only barely finish it, but it has all my favourites, bacon, mushroom, sausage and eggs, so I can never resist. And after a really big dinner we still decided to stop by at Baskin Robbin's and we filled a takeaway tub with 4 flavours of icecream. Macadamia nut and cream at the top, followed by chocolate chip cookie dough, then a pecan chocalatey caramel flavour, and chocolate peanut butter at the bottom. We were trying to create some sort of chocolate journey of sorts... some sort of meaningful artistic statement in an ice cream tub. I felt a little sick at the end, but it was good :)

Finally I'm free!!!

2009-09-30T22:16:00.006+08:00

I just finally finished submitting the EJSS paper I've been working on non-stop for the past two weeks... and it feels sooooo goooood :D

The last three hours have been crazy! Emails between my supervisor and me back and forth. He's in the UK now and hence a ridiculous 7 hour time difference. I've been refreshing my inbox every minute, updating last minute figures - into photoshop, crop, scale, TIF, zip, send... rinse and repeat. Changing bits of my paper and making sure he actually reads the stuff I changed, because he tends to jump to conclusions and always thinks 3 steps ahead. Then he gets all agitated and texts me from England. I have to learn how to think 5 steps ahead so he stops appearing on my phone all the time!!

And now... I might take Thursday off. I'll make mooncakes, walk my dog and watch some TV, and maybe get a chance to really enjoy my birthday!! I haven't had a break since before Mine Closure and that was the beginning of September. And unfortunately it looks like I have plenty still on my to-do list. The PhD needs some much needed attention, conference and paper submissions have left it neglected :(

I'll worry about that on Friday. For now... Gossip Girl and Grey's Anatomy :)

23

2009-09-24T08:56:00.004+08:00

Wow! Can you believe it's been a year already?!! And as usual, a breakdown of my birthday this year.

Celebrated at Hungry Jack's with Whoppers, cheeseburgers, and Peter's icecream cake with the LMC.
Had Turkish Pide dinner with my family and Rebekah made an awesome trifle as my birthday cake. She bought me "The busy woman's slow cooker cookbook" as a birthday present. Can't wait to try out the recipes. The slow cooker is my best friend. You absolutely can't go wrong!
Cousin got me a wallet! A really big one with pockets for everything and all my cards. He also wrote me a post it note with "Happy Birthday" in ten different languages.
Birthday angpow from Grand Auntie Lillian, my Grandparents, and my parents.
Had a nice chat with my daddy. He's in New Delhi, at a meeting but still managed to sneak in a gmail chat with me :)
Birthday email from Andrew - He gave me a riddle as a present and I think I might have solved it... but I'm not really sure... He's going to buy me breakfast on Sunday morning as part of my birthday deal. I am excited!!
Lots of birthday wishes from my Bible study group, and a special birthday poem from Jono. I love it when people write witty poems!
Got home, snuggled up in bed with my favourite "Aaron" pillow, and watched the new season of Gossip Girl!! What an awesome way to end the night. Chuck and Blair are so adorable together :)
Lots of birthday text messages, emails, and facebook messages :) Thanks guys for remembering my special day!

Up!

2009-09-23T09:30:00.006+08:00

Spoilers!! Don't read this unless you've already watched it, because it won't make much sense.

I went to watch Up yesterday and I loved it! I cried three times throughout the movie, and laughed so much, it was beautifully touching and very entertaining.

The first 10 minutes is pure magic. It sets the tone for the film and establishes the main character for the rest of the movie. Every time I watch it again on youtube I cry... And the music!! The score is so evocative of those moments that make it real. His love for his wife Ellie is what drives him and it doesn't seem quite so crazy that he'd tie balloons to his house and fly away. I can really relate to the relationship that Carl and Ellie have, it's so simple and he cares for her so much. And you feel his loss at the end, the emptiness and loneliness he has to experiences when Ellie dies, that really got me. I was sobbing and sniffling while Andrew and Mabes didn't even shed a tear! I am soft like that :)

I loved the message at the end of the film, the symbolism when he empties his house of his material possessions in order to save Russell. Life is so short and it's not about the things you own - we put meaning on these possessions ourselves, and honestly we can live without them. It's the people around you and the relationships you have that matter most. Ellie lives on in Carl's heart forever regardless of the house, and Russell needs Carl more than Carl needs the house to remind him of Ellie. It's a reminder of how easily blinded or side tracked we can become if we work too hard to keep money or things close to us, forsaking the people we should be caring for.

It was a gorgeous story, for adults and kids (might be a little rough on them, the introduction of loss and death etc. so it's definitely PG rated in my opinion), and excellent animation and design by Pixar. The story holds its own without the 3D but it is a special treat to watch it in 3D anyway. It gave me a chance to explain stereoscopic vision and how 3D polarising glasses work to Mabes :) Highly recommended and it's one of my favourite animated movies of all time, up there with "Lion King" and "Wall-E".

And when I grow up, I'm going to name my daughter Ellie :)

Things I loved about Busselton

2009-09-21T08:45:00.010+08:00

Long drives with good company. Eda, David, Leon and Aaron are great fun in the car and they know all the lyrics to Backstreet Boys.
Peaceful quiet in the early mornings. Only Leon, Scott, Brendan and myself are early risers so we had the house to ourselves before 10.30 a.m.
Breakfast! My favourite meal of the day! Leon is breakfast chef :) We had pancakes and crumpets with strawberries, bananas and maple syrup on the first day. Bacon and eggs, baked beans and sausages on day two.
Meal times in general. We all sat around the huge dining table and ate like a family. We passed the salt, had happy dinner conversations, we had people who cooked, and people who cleaned up after. Very functional :)
Country music! Me and Brendan loving Shania Twain :)
Awesome catch phrases while doing archery. Colin: "Sexy!", Carl: "Gayness!"
Boardgames, Timtams, Mamee and beer! Monopoly is the best game ever.
Foozeball. Kim and I make an awesome team. Eda is terrible at Foozeball. David is just mean.
Busselton to Perth in 2 hours via the new Perth-Bunbury Forrest Highway. We got to use it on the day it opened and the roads were brand new, straight and wide and really smooth. The traffic was light because we traveled at night so it was way a great drive. To put it in perspective, it took 3 hours for us to get to Busselton from Perth on the old South Western Highway.
Spending time with the LMC. *Insert romantic music*!!!

On a sad note, Colin has finally left for Singapore for good. Two years without one of my good friends... LMC has entered a new era...

Busselton!

2009-09-20T09:44:00.007+08:00

It's a Sunday morning and I'm in Busselton :) It's pretty surreal, what I've been doing the past few days, living in this crazy party house on the water. It's such an escape and the surrounds are so beautiful. We're only half an hour from Margaret River so we spent yesterday doing archery (lots of fun! I felt like those elves in LOTR), lunch at Colonial Brewery, driving around aimlessly looking for caves (we didn't end up going in because it cost $20, even though we made something like 5 U-turns to get there), and the prerequisite cheese and chocolate factories.

I wonder what it would be like though, if this was your real life. Living in a place like this, maybe you'd start taking everything for granted. Life seems too perfect and easy. Especially now, that I'm saving so hard for a house... a 3 million dollar waterfront property like this is pretty out of my league. Either way, I'm more than content living where I live now, it's simple and cosy, and my family is absolutely functional, loving and happy. That's all I can ask for :)

Leaving for Busselton tonight!

2009-09-18T13:56:00.003+08:00

It is a testament to how overworked I am... that all I really would rather do is have a weekend to stay home and just sleep. I wouldn't say I'm reluctant to go down South, I'm just exhausted and not all too excited.

EJSS paper is due in a little more than a week... I am stressed out!

But anyway I am looking forward to spending some more time with the LMC :) I've been getting a lot of it this week. I had dinner with Leon on Tuesday, he had the mighty Angus and I had my usual McFlurry with double oreos. Wednesday night was Colin's graduation. And now it's Friday and we're all heading down south together. It is rare that we get to spend so much time together. It's a combination of Colin being back and all the August and September birthdays. It's nice... I like it :)

And I don't think I've mentioned... but I'm learning how to ride a motorcycle!! It kind of happened on a whim, when Eda, Kim and David decided to get their learner's permits, I thought... why not? And now I'm learning! It is awesome fun and I'm loving it! My daddy is going to kill me when he finds out.

Conferences, nights out and horses!

2009-09-14T11:24:00.005+08:00

I don't really feel like doing any work today - perhaps a severe case of Monday blues. I've been at the Mine Closure conference for most of last week. It was fun, presenting and interacting with people at an international conference. However, socialising is tiring work, repeating what you do to people many many times and trying to sound interesting, plus being interested in other people's work as well. Also, trying to get out of your comfort zone and approach people more important and more intelligent than yourself can be overwhelming. But it must be done, and I think it does get better with practice.

Thursday - Mine Closure dinner. Spectacular venue at Fremantle Town hall, like those grand ballrooms you see in the movies, excellent food, excellent company. I made friends with lots of people, mostly researchers who work in metallophyte bioremediation. So I might have a postdoc lined up in Brisbane :) Entertainment was fantastic, salsa dancers and capoeira, half naked girls and boys dancing in front of us. Mark truly outdid himself! The audience was most appreciative, but it was a little strange for me to see all these mining execs and leading researchers whip out camera phones to document the nights proceedings.

Friday - A night at Burswood. Colin is back in town so we spent some time at Spice bar and Paddy's to catch up over a few drinks.

Saturday - Eda and Deb's birthday dinner at Hungry Jacks :) We had party hats and ice cream cake. I felt like a child again! Then we went to Eda's to play taboo and Wii resort.

Sunday - Spent the day on an extended double date with Rebekah and Cheng. We went Horseback riding at Ron's riding ranch in Wanneroo, about 20 minutes north of Perth. It was a good place to go because it's cheap ($60 for 2 hours) and we could ride around without a guide through some gorgeous bushland. But the helmets smelled pretty bad and they were sticky (eww!), the saddles were cheap, and the inside of my knees were rubbed raw from the metal. I hope my poor horse Jimmy wasn't too uncomfortable. He was a lazy lazy horse, and he walked so slowly and stopped to eat off the trees at one point, such that I had to dismount, guide him away and get him moving again. Still it was good fun and once my horse got going, he trotted quite happily. It was pretty eventful, I fell off my horse during the trot because the stirrups were too low, so I had to get off again to fix that. I also got whacked in the head with a branch that I didn't see coming. And Andrew's horse, Max, was mean and didn't like horses coming up too close behind it, and it got pretty mean at times, it would turn around and snap at the other horses. So we pushed him to the back and he ended up riding behind all of us. Now, I am aching from waist down - doing a rising trot is like doing a hundred million mini squats, and my body is too old for these things. Fortunately, I'm not a boy, with junk in my trunk :) Andrew put his level of pain at 7/10. After riding we stopped for lunch at Leederville, played basketball at Shelley, and played singstar. Such an eventful day and my body was wrecked at the end of it.

Need sleep and rest, and alone time!

Slava's snowshow

2009-09-04T16:35:00.004+08:00

I remember the day that Andrew called me, all excited, and told me that he had won tickets to Slava's snow show. He had filled out a form in The West Australian, sent it in, his friend's mum heard his name announced on the early morning 6am radio, she called him to let him know, and he called the radio station and won himself tickets for the opening night in Perth! What are the chances??

It was a most fascinating production. It's hard to classify - it's not a circus, no magic, no tricks or stunts, there is no storyline or plot to follow. But it was so whimsical and beautiful. Some of the segments struck a chord with the audience because it was filled with poignant, human moments. Some bits were funny, and some were plain fun (like the intermission with clowns, umbrellas and water bottle showers, and snow bits). But most of it was just really beautiful... glowing balls, the massive blinding snowstorm, and being swathed with metres of diaphanous cotton. And there was something magical about it, how extravagant it was without needing to have to have a plot or achieve anything. It's almost as if Slava wanted to do it... just because... and make it as out there as possible... just because he could.

It is worth going, but if you want to go, make sure you get seats down in the stalls, near the stage so you can interact with the clowns. Slava does get off the stage and go into the crowd at parts, so if you are up in the lounge you wouldn't see a thing. You also wouldn't be able to play with the big bouncy balls and the balloons all end up in the stalls anyway. As you can tell... I was up in the lounge :( The production was good enough to make it worth paying for. But make sure you pay for seats downstairs. At least my seats were free courtesy of Channel 7, but I'd love to watch it again... but with better seats.

Exhausted and acheing

2009-08-31T08:56:00.006+08:00

I've been doing lots of exercise recently. I'm not really sure why, maybe just because it feels so satisfying after. Tuesday was body attack, Thursday was Yoga and Pilates, Saturday was a good long swim, and I did the 4km city to surf on Sunday :) Perth is really an amazing city to run in and the city to surf showcases the best of Perth's lifestyle, laidback city and gorgeous beaches.

I was actually surprised that I covered it easily, and I did enjoy running with all those people. It was good fun and the atmosphere was almost carnival like, with lots of goody bags and free stuff. I never enjoyed running in Singapore and the 2.4km run was my most hated part of P.E. But the weather here is perfect for running, the air is fresh and clean, and it isn't humid so you don't feel like suffocating. So I was absolutely pleased with myself and I am aiming to do the 12km run next year. It'll be good to have something to work towards and keep myslef motivated to stay fit.

Meanwhile, uni is stressful and I am struggling to get everything sorted. Argh!!!! Maybe that's why I am exercising so much. Endorphins are good!

Food

2009-08-26T11:20:00.007+08:00

I've been writing alot about uni lately so I decided to write a more useless post today :)

And since I just finished a packet of Lay's Magic Masala chips, I thought I'd write about food! I love food! And Magic Masala is quite possibly one of my favourite chip flavours, up there with Red Rock Deli's Sweet Chilli and Sour Cream, the Sea salt and Rosemary, and Seasoned Roasted Garlic flavours. It's a shame I can't get in in Perth. I will get daddy to stock up on his next visit from India, I don't know why I like crisps so much, perhaps it's the feeling of deep friedness yet not dripping in oil, the crunchiness and completely artificial flavouring and overbearing saltiness. Yum :)

Other things I love...

Arnott's teevee snacks (especially the malt sticks), because they are designed to be eaten in front of the TV. How awesome is that! I also like the original tim tams, shortbread creams and Nice biscuits.
Morish caramelised macadamia nuts. So addictive.
Pods (Snickers) because they are yummy snickers filling in a crispy shell
Deep fried snickers and feta cheese from the fish and chips shop at Southlands
Anything my sister bakes, brownies, cake, slices, muffins and cupcakes, apple crumble, pies...
Baskin and Robbin's Strawberry cheesecake and the chocolate + peanut butter flavours
McFlurry with a double serving of oreos
Toasted sandwiches - nutella+peanut butter, butter+kaya, butter+vegemite, peanut butter+strawberry jam :)
Peanut and Sesame flavoured Tang Yuan, along with the other deep fried chinese pastry desserts with red bean filling or covered in sugar, and egg tarts
Woolworth's white chocolate mudcake. You can get it at as cheap as $3 or 4 when it's on offer. Awesome value and maybe even as good as the Cheesecake Shop. I actually used to work at the factory that made these mass produced mudcakes so maybe it's a bit of nostalgia as well. Handles hundreds and hundreds of them a day... it's a little weird not even wanting to eat it after you see so many of them. But now, I eat them without hesitation.
Donuts! The jam filled ones you get from the asian bakery at Harbourtown, and of course, original glazed Krispy Kremes.
I am actually surprised to find that I don't like chocolate as much as any of the above. But I do occasionally like a block of Cadbury's or Whitaker's or Cole's brand belgian chocolate. I'm not really fussy when it comes to chocolate. I'll eat white, milk and dark without complaint.

Mmmm :) I indulge myself everytime I go to the gym, walk the dog or swim, so that's at least 5 days out of the week. Hopefully it works out to a neutral calorie balance! *Cross fingers and hope*

Lecturing

2009-08-21T11:16:00.004+08:00

I've always wondered where I would go after I finish my PhD. Most people say there is no point pursuing a PhD unless you want a job in academia. I really don't know if I want to stay as a researcher and academic all my life. I know I have what it takes to go out there and work in the "real world" of big business and MNCs. The money is better and comes a lot faster.

But recently I started lecturing for 2nd year and some professional courses, and I am loving it! Maybe my preferences are starting to swing a little in favour of the university career. I've always enjoyed teaching. I've been tutoring since the first year of uni. But lecturing is a whole new level of fun! The PowerPoint slides and pointers and having the kids raise their hands and ask questions in the middle of class, and then they come to you after the lecture to discuss any points or arguments... It's very satisfying and quite interesting.

Lots of things happening on the uni front. Heaps of opportunities coming my way and I am saying "yes" to everything. Kind of stressed and sometimes I need to stop to remind myself to breathe.

Never give your supervisor your handphone number

2009-08-18T12:49:00.001+08:00

It's a little scary when your supervisors call you more often than your boyfriend and family does, when you find out that you have to re-write a paper from scratch because we have a different target audience for the exact same results, and when you have to give 2 separate 45 min lectures in about 24 hours and your slides aren't ready yet.

Life is crazy but life is good :)

Qing's 21st

2009-08-18T12:38:00.003+08:00

Rebekah celebrated her 21st on Saturday and we had a special birthday dinner on Monday. Happy birthday to my Qingqing! She looked absolutely gorgeous and I am so proud of the woman she has become. We took the opportunity to take a family photograph - we haven't had one since Christmas 2007, and we were fortunate enough to have daddy with us, and the grandparents and cousin and the 2 boyfriends! What are the chances!!?? One big happy family, they are the best thing in my life and I am so blessed to have them all :)

My first field trip demonstration and various other things

2009-08-10T15:56:00.004+08:00

Friday was the Introduction to Geochemistry field trip down to Statham's Quarry, a gorgeous rock quarry up in the Perth hills. It was awesome fun :) Hahaha now that I look back I think I really enjoyed it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I didn't really know what to expect, I only did a little reading of the demonstrator's cheat sheets and I kind of thought it would be like all my other undergraduate field trips - hop onto a bus and magically the bus driver drops you off at your field site. Instead, I got handed a google map printout and the keys to a 12 seater (manual) mini-van filled with 18 year olds. Awesome! I handed the map to the kid next to me, he became my navigator, and we started on our way. It was good fun, I felt like a mummy, making them wear seatbelts and all.

The field work was easy enough, collecting soils from various portions of the soil profile. There were some interesting soils which had weathered in-situ on both sides of a granitic gneiss, in contrast to some red soils weathered from mafic dolerite, plus some organic matter on top. There was also a very well developed lateritic profile, a characteristic WA soil. The students were competent geologists and could name all the relevant rocks and minerals. So my fellow PhD student Talitha and I gave 10 minute crash courses on soils and soil properties as well as sampling strategies and techniques in the field. Most students were interested, paid attention, and asked good qustions so it was extremely satisfying. The close to $40/hour demonstrating pay is extremely satisfying too :)

Nothing to do with field work... but the weekend has been crazy! Friday night after the field trip my weekend involved:

locking myself out of office by accident
calling security with several frantic phone calls
letting myself back in when I realised I wasn't the last one left in the office (how embarrassing!)
tried to drive home but got stuck for 45 minutes on Mount's Bay Road (due to crazy truck oil spill on Narrow's bridge and traffic backed up pass Scarborough Beach Road)
gave up on ever getting home and drove straight to Subiaco for dinner
falling asleep in the restaurant while waiting for my mama and sister. I must have looked so sad in my field gear and dirty fingernails, while mum and Qing were all dressed up :(
excellent dinner and musical!
joined my friends for a pub crawl at 11pm, but I didn't last very long and got home at 2am
exhausted and couldn't be bothered with a shower (even after field trip and pub crawl... ohhh gross!) and went to sleep for a good 10 hours...

Saturday was spent doing absolutely nothing... I had a long hot shower and pampered myself with a mud mask :) Finally sent Colin off on his way to Singapore in the evening :( Picked Tran up from the airport later at night :)

Sunday was spent at UWA open day expounding the wonders and benefits of a career in soil science, environmental management, and land & water management to young, impressionable minds. I do believe in my product :) Soils are fascinating to study and so important to us all for agriculture, biodiversity, forest health, and our general spiritual health and well being. So it was good fun selling the course to anyone who walked by. I met a lot of interesting (and interested) people ranging from year 10s and 11s through to postgrads, and even people from different disciplines (mostly engineers surprisngly enough, who wanted to "green" the engineering school. Engineers and scientists just get along somehow, even though they refuse to admit it!) All in all... an excellent weekend!

More excitement!

2009-08-05T10:13:00.005+08:00

Yayness :D Now that J has accepted, it looks like preparations are in full swing! Not much time really, and I can't wait to be back in Singapore with my girlfriends again, even though I just saw them in May. Picking out dresses, booking and arranging flights, making sure J is emotionally prepared, not too stressed and that she has plenty of support.

I'm also excited about visiting Vietnam with Tran. It's one of those things on our list of "to do"s. Likewise him visiting Singapore... although my great grandma has passed away and he'll never get to meet her, I'd love to show him where I grew up and the place that made me who I am. He surprised me last week and brought me for a drive in the neighbourhood where he grew up... another one of our "to do"s. We had dinner at a local Chinese restaurant that served really yummy KL style Hokkien Mee with pork lard that you can't get anywhere else in Perth. And he showed me his kindergarden and the house he grew up in - a narrow white tiny little house with a chimney and red tiled roof. It's a pretty rough neighbourhood. None of his neighbours graduated from high school, people got into fights and it really isn’t the best place to raise your kids. It was like he was letting me into a piece of his past and it was funny how something so simple can be so special. It's not really what you do but who you do it with I guess :)

This week Tran is on a ski trip in NZ so I am supposed to be free to do things I want to do... but alas my good friend Colin is leaving us to serve his NS and this week is full up with sleepovers, dinners and pub crawls. Absolutely exhausted from not enough sleep and a little too much alcohol :( Last night we stuffed ourselves with fine chocolate, red wine, beer, chocolate vodka (yum!), and choc chip chai tea (of all things!) while playing Bert's family fued the board game. I will miss the company of the group... everyone is slowly leaving us. But Aaron, Leon and I have determined that we will all move back to Perth when we are 50 or 60 and retire here, grow old and die here together. Hahah. Truth is I don't think I'll go anywhere. I like it here and I see a future here. But we'll see, things change all the time!

There are not enough hours in a day :(

2009-07-30T08:18:00.002+08:00

Times have been busy! Busy busy...

Lab work has started and it's pretty much 10 hour days.

0630 Wake up :(

0715 Leave home

0800 Uni, check mail, Milo/tea/coffee+bread/biscuits

0830 Work

1300 Lunch :)

1320 Work

1730 Finish up and go home

1830 Dinner

1900 TV, piano, walk dog, Andrew

2200 Sleep

Things I look forward to in the week

Tuition on Tuesday and Saturday. My tuition kids are so precocious and they amuse me. The money helps too :)

Bible study: Wednesday and Friday plus some other day in the week, so that's about 3 times a week of bible study.

Thursday is cake day in the soils building!

Saturday I swim laps, usually about 1km or so. I love the smell of chlorine.

Church on sunday

Walking Scottie on Tuesdays and Sundays

Actually. There is plenty to look forward to! My days fill up so fast and every week is different. It's making the months pass too quickly :( I need 50 hours in a day and a body that never tires to keep up with all the things I need to do, all the things I WANT to do, and all the relationships I want to maintain.

The word of the Lord... brings me great joy :D

2009-07-24T16:08:00.003+08:00

Another thing that brings me a lot of joy in my life is Bible reading!

Right now I have three readings going on.

Personal daily devotion. I am trying to read the whole bible, every word! I didn't even skip the boring bits :) I've been doing it every day for about a year or so, just one chapter a day. I just finished the old testament, and I am now at Matthew.
Bible stories with Rebekah and Cheng once a week. Cheng became a Christian only in the last few years or so, and thus has missed out on the all important component that every child raised in a Christian family experiences... Sunday School! Rebekah used to teach nursery Sunday School, and I taught the primary school kids, so we are absolutely excited to go through stories like Noah's flood, David and Goliath, Jonah, Jesus walking on water etc. We are training Cheng up for Bible quiz nights (which I love)!!
Colossians with Mandy. She's such an inspirational young woman - serving in Christian Union and she has plans to go to Bible College. Her husband wants to become a pastor, and there is no better good and faithful wife than Mandy to support him through it all. We meet fortnightly on her rostered day off at UWA for coffee and it's nice to talk to someone more mature in the faith than you are. I have plenty to learn. It's also great fun because she is a science nerd (just like me!!) and we both marvel at how people can look at God's creation and not believe.

It is interesting to see how the same themes follow throughout the whole bible - man's sinful nature, God's grace and love for us, his plan for our salvation through Christ, and how we should live our lives every day to please God. I figure the more I read, the more I believe that God is real, and the more I am convinced that he loves us and we should only do what is right by loving him with all our hearts.

I was also reminded today not just to pray for people and any requests they have. We should be like Paul and constantly thank God for the people in our lives, especially if they know God, there is even more to thank God for.

Colossians 1:3-6a
³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— ⁵the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel ⁶that has come to you.

I love what I do!

2009-07-22T14:02:00.004+08:00

Research just makes me so happy, the way things change so quickly, work piles up so fast and interesting things happen all the time.

My honours research on carbon got picked up by the European Journal of Soil Science at a conference in the UK. My supervisor presented my work, there was alot of interest, and the editor invited us to submit a paper for consideration in a special edition of the journal. It's so PhD comics style! How cool :) It's pretty big news for me - it's a top ranking international journal and the special edition is by invitation only. Unfortunately there is a 90% rejection rate for all the papers they receive... so here's wishing me lots of luck! I still have lots of work to do to polish it and get it up to scratch.

Also... I'm looking forward to demonstrating at a geochemistry field trip. I hear the pay is good :) And potentially there is an honours student who is thinking of perhaps doing bioremediation work. If she proceeds... I'll have an honours student to supervise! Another case of cross fingers and hope though. I really really hope!

And I just had an interesting conversation with Prof. Fey, a lovely South African soil scientist. He was really nice, and expressed an interest in my biodegradation work and he's promised to listen to my research proposal at the end of August. I told him I look forward to his feedback. In truth I am absolutely terrified! My worst fear is embarrassing myself by not knowing my stuff in front of people like who spent their lives working on it. I have so much to learn.

And a funny story to finish off. The whole soils building got evacuated into the pouring rain yesterday. All because one of the PhD students left her toast in the toaster and the smoke set off the fire alarm. The fire alarm is hot wired to the fire department, so we got two fire trucks rushed over (they made really good time! less than 5 minutes!) to save us from burnt toast.

Thinking about the future and other things

2009-07-20T11:29:00.004+08:00

Sometimes I can't help but think about the future. There really is so much to look forward to and I am so happy with where my life is right now. And lately, all my friends are getting married or engaged. There is no rush for myself, but it's so exciting to watch all my friends move on to the next stage of their lives, starting a new life with someone they love.

I attended Liz's surprise hen's night last week. It was such awesome fun, with toilet paper wedding dresses, male appendages made out of pink plasticine and lots of champagne. Jessie went all out and hired a limousine to take us into Leederville so it was quite an experience. It felt kind of glamorous and it makes up for the experience at my year 12 school ball where our limo had a flat tire and it was completely not worth it :( But anyway at the end of the day Liz and her fiancee finally got together after their respective hen's and buck's night parties. They were just so happy to see each other and it was touching to see how much they love each other. They'll be absolutely great together!

Yesterday was spent at Whiteman Park for an engagement party. It was a lovely celebration, speeches by the fathers of the bride and groom and more champagne :) The parents were so obviously proud of their children and so happy that their children had grown up. It's going to be tough for the young couple. He's flying out to Saudi Arabia for at least the next 3 to 5 years. But best wishes to them both, I am sure they love each other enough to make it work. Looking forward to the wedding sometime soon when he gets back :)

And also, with J contemplating her own future plans... Let's just say I can't wait to go back to Chengdu again! I really am excited for what the future brings for all of us :D

WA Ballet's Romeo and Juliet

2009-07-15T13:32:00.005+08:00

It was so beautiful! Prokofiev's score, the WA symphony providing the music, the lavish 1930s costumes and sets... and the tragic storyline. A wonderful evening of ballet. I actually cried at the end of the first act after the balcony scene, it was truly uplifting. And then I cried again when the two star crossed lovers took their lives. Those dancers can act!

Anyway, I was surprised some parents took their little 8 year olds to watch R+J. The little girl was asking questions like: Is he dead? Is that real (blood)? And at the end of the ballet the poor girl was so affected she was crying and looked terribly distressed. I don't think it's responsible at all to let a kid witness all that!

But other than that, it was a lovely evening. We finished the day with a tub of cookies and cream ice cream in front of a roaring fire. Perfect :)

Home!

2009-07-14T16:30:00.005+08:00

Back home again... after Sydney, Chengdu, HK... and thousands of dollars which I should be saving!!! It's been good to be home. Well, just a really quick one today.

Lots of deadlines for uni: Reserach proposal, literature review, seminar, and mine closure conference are all due daround this week and the next so it's pretty insane on the work front.

I miss all my friends because I've been travelling so much. Had a catch up with my BP girls on Saturday, Eda on Sunday and Jason on Monday. Now I have to catch hold of Leon, Aaron and Colin.

Going to watch Romeo and Juliet by the WA ballet tonight. It's a 6.30 show so I really should be making a move home now. Need dinner, a shower, and pre show drinks at Carnegies!

Hong Kong!

2009-07-13T11:15:00.005+08:00

Sunday

Goodbye Chengdu! We took an early morning flight from Chengdu and landed in HK at lunch time. We thought it would be a good idea to take the train into the city... It was nuts lugging all our luggage up the stairs and all, the MTR is not disabled people friendly. Probably not a good idea if you have 20+ kg of luggage. And it is quite expensive. We'll take a taxi back to the airport.

We are living at the Citadines hotel on Ashley road. It’s right in the heart of TST and it isn’t far to walk anywhere at all. We walked around the area and found a perfect dim sum restaurant, hidden away on the third floor on Canarvon Road (Ohhh so yummy!!). It was so deja vu because I'd been there 2 years earlier with Hidi at the Pizza hut on the first floor. It brought back all these memories! It was an interesting experience ordering dim sum in HK because even though we know what everything is called... We can't read traditional Chinese, and we were searching so hard for the Hargao and couldn't find it! We ended up asking the waitress to point it out to us. Dimsum was so excellent, now I feel so deprived back home in Perth :(

Did lots of shopping around the area, tried a foot reflexology massage to soothe our tired achy feet, and finished the day off with a cocktail in a coy little bar on Knutsford terrace, watching funny HK "Candid Camera". I think we spent more in one day in HK than 2 weeks in Chengdu! HK is truly capitalism and consumerism at its finest.

Monday

Qing was overwhelmed by the hot humid suffocating HK summer heat – honestly it looked like she was going to die. So we took refuge in the air-conditioned shopping mall at the harbour. It was rows upon rows of expensive designer shops so we didn’t bother browsing. We just sat there enjoying the aircon :)

Later we took a star ferry across to central (so cheap and quite good fun), did a bit of shopping and stumbled across the most awesome cinema experience ever. You can order lunch and get it delivered to you during your movie, the ticket boy collects tickets in a tuxedo, and the restrooms are individual self contained (think airplane), with sink, WC and full length mirrors all in the cubicle. We watched 'Duplicity' with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. They are so good to watch together. And we had fish and chips brought in to us during the movie!

I got myself a haircut at the insistence of my sister. I haven’t had it this short for about 2 years. The hairdresser was skillful and it’s nice to have it short again especially since it takes too long to dry in winter and it gives me headaches sometimes. Before and after!! I kind of like it! It feels light and breezy, and I feel young again.

We met Hidi for dinner at a Vietnamese-french fusion restaurant. As usual, food in HK does not disappoint. It was nice to meet her again after she left Perth about a year ago… I miss my Auntie Hidi! We had dessert (my favourite durian pancake, the kind with thick cream. We then walked down the harbour to take in the spectacular views of HK central at night. So romantic!

Tuesday

We had Char siew and roast duck for lunch! The food here puts Taurus to shame. After lunch we took a pleasant taxi drive along the coast and across the causeway to the airport. HK reminds me so much of Singapore, the roads, city, public housing, condominiums, train… It’s easy to feel at home there and even though I’ve only been there twice, it already has a special place in my heart. It’s been a signal of change and new things to come. I always seem to end up going there at significant times in my life and I can’t wait to go back again.

Chengdu Day 15, 27 June 2009

2009-07-10T11:44:00.007+08:00

It’s time for a bit of restful contemplation. We’ll be leaving China early tomorrow morning and it’s actually kind of sad! We wandered round Chunxi Lu again last night. Now we are travelling by bus like pros :) We were intending to watch a movie but we walked everywhere except where the cinema was… couldn’t find it! (Drove past it later on the taxi ride home but we were too lazy to get out again)... So we ended up shopping and eating. They have Dairy Queen here in Chengdu and the Blizzard with oreos and brownie bits is just too awesome – better than Mcflurry any day, even with a double shot of oreos!

Unfortunately, my sister wasn’t feeling too flash today, probably from the heat of summer and overwork at the Panda centre. So, we are having a quiet one in the hotel room. We went to the pharmacy to stock up on vitamin C tablets and do some last minute shopping. We bought lots and lots of Chinese tea, 竹叶青 (Zhu Ye Qing) (I found out that it isn’t tea made from bamboo leaves, but the plant just looks like bamboo), chrysanthemum teas. It was a lovely shopping experience; the shop keeper invited us to sit down while he made us some tea. He served it to us so gracefully (imagine how inadequate it made us feel as women – we can’t serve tea half as well as he can!), and he told us about the stories behind it, how their names came about, how (green tea in tall glasses, flower teas in the small ones with lids) and when it should be served (e.g. green teas are for summer and flower teas are for winter), that you should wash your cup between green and flower teas, and that bitter teas are cooling for the throat and good for digestion. We sat there for an hour just drinking tea and talking, and we walked out with AU$60 worth of tea, plus we gave him an Australian $5 note as a souvenir because he thought it looked nice. So that was counted as 20 yuan towards the tea, and we wiped out all our RMB on tea. Oh, we also found out that if you have twins, you don’t have to pay a fine in China. But if you decide to have another baby after a first, then yes, you do pay the fine.

We also made one final visit to our favourite bakery. Ohhh I will miss this place so... and hence, the disproportionate amount of "baked goods" photos. The shop man recognises us :) He also has a really lovely cat in the back of the shop, and he makes the bestest freshest 老婆饼 (lao po bing) I've ever tasted. It's better than the one I tried at the HK dimsum place!

Chengdu Day 12, 24 June 2009

2009-07-09T11:42:00.002+08:00

Tuesday evening was rather eventful and interesting. Rebekah told her cab driver that we've been eating noodles everyday because we LOVE noodles and we don't get yummy noodles in Australia. He was shocked and he said we have to eat REAL sichuan food. So he brought her to a restaurant on the way home from the Panda place and she said didn't understand any of it and the stuff on display must have scared her. So my sister told him to just get anything he liked to eat, and we WOULD eat it, regardless of what strange thing he picked out for us. So, he did, and she brought it back to our hotel and we ate it all. Pictures from top to bottom: Duck tongue, chicken feet, duck wings (the safe option so we wouldn't starve... just in case!). My sister ate the chicken feet first - I didn't want to lose in asian-ness so I ate it too (even though my brain was saying NOOOO!!) but once you eat it it's actually not so bad. The duck tongue was like yummy chewy sausages.

After dinner, we went to get our Qipaos from Du Jiejie, they are absolutely gorgeous. They fit so well, the workmanship is first class and they were so cheap! Well worth the money we spent on them. We took pictures in our hotel room and emailed them to daddy and mummy. Daddy said we are "silly girls, but pretty girls" :D

Chengdu Day 10, 22 June 2009

2009-07-08T11:35:00.012+08:00

I think we’ve covered all the prerequisite inner city Chengdu sightseeing over the weekend!

Saturday

· 杜甫草堂. Thatched cottage of dufu, poet of tang dynasty. Beautiful gardens and surrounds and well worth a visit. Lots of photo opportunities!! :)

· Tea house in the gardens next to Qing Yang Gong. Traditional bamboo chairs and peaceful atmosphere.

· 武侯祠. Wuhou Memorial Temple is dedicated to the memory of both Liu Bei (161 - 223), Emperor of the Kingdom of Shu in the Three Kingdoms period (220 - 280), and Zhuge Liang (181 - 234), Prime Minister of the Kingdom. Historical and informative, well maintained and quite lovely to walk around. It connects to Jin Li Jie, so it's a good idea to go in the afternoon and then stay in Jin Li for dinner and watch the lanterns turn on. So pretty!

Sunday

· Jin Sha Archaeological Museum, an insight into the daily lives of a Bronze Age civilisation.

· 人民公园 (Ren Min Gong Yuan) to experience the leisure activities of the Chengdu people. People gather for traditional chinese music, opera singing etc. They aren't paid, they aren't busking, and they just do it because they like it. They also have a lovely teahouse culture because you can just sit there and enjoy the music and the atmosphere. But be warned that the public toilets are pretty bad... hold your breath and wear closed shoes!

· 宽窄巷子 (Kuan Zhai Xiang Zi) another old neighborhood that got a thorough facelift, similar to Jin Li but funkier - it is now a trendy pedestrian alley that fuses beautifully restored traditional architecture with modern and well-appointed restaurants, teahouses, cafes, restaurants and shops. A couple of beers and free popcorn courtesy of Jerry Lee (the very friendly restaurant manager) at the internationally themed beer garden pub. Very cute (and kind of kinky) German and Belgian costumes for the staff.

And just a little spatial aid - I can't stand it when people blog about touristy places and then don't tell me where it is. And mapping it all out really helped me plan what to do for the weekend. But generally... take a cab, tell the cab driver where you want to go, and he'll take you there, usually about AU$2 a ride to almost anywhere within the city!

View Chengdu in a larger map

Chengdu Day 6, 18 June 2009

2009-07-07T11:05:00.004+08:00

Our food expenses appear to be taking a downward trend. Here is how much we spent for dinner per day for the both of us combined. I don’t see it getting any cheaper than this!

Day	Food	¥RMB	$AU
Sunday	Korean BBQ (牛牛福)	98	19.60
Monday	津民火锅	70	14
Tuesday	Minced meat noodles	14	2.80
Wednesday	飘香版面, 清凉牛骨面 (馄饨大王)	11	2.20
Thursday	包子	3	0.60

Chengdu Day 5, 17 June 2009

2009-07-06T11:10:00.004+08:00

I met up with one of my university mates' childhood friends at the Panda breeding Research Centre. My friend is from Wuhan (now studying soils at UWA) and she has a friend who used to go to kindergarden and primary school with her, graduated from the same university in Wuhan, and were neighbours living on the same street for years... and now he happens to be working in Chengdu where Rebekah is doing her Panda practical. What are the chances of meeting someone in China who can show us around?! I love the six degrees theory – I believe it’s true.

He was a really lovely gentleman and he showed us around the whole centre and told us interesting little titbits of information, e.g. showed us the panda whose entire DNA genome they sequenced, the panda who was the runt of twins and always falls sick, a naughty panda that broke its leg after falling from a tree and always picked at its cast. He really loves these animals and spoke so fondly of them. The centre's ultimate aim is to return these pandas to the wild and I hope they succeed.

Other than pandas, there were some poignant moments of discussion. He asked if we had any other siblings, my sister and I told of our little brother. “Three in a family, how fortunate you all are”, he said. And I really didn’t know what to say. He is an only child not by choice, but by circumstance. Something the Chinese government decided was best for the country, and the look on his face and the tone of his voice... it was not really jealousy, but longing. Later that day I sat with my sister at lunch savouring a really good cup of Chinese tea among the lush greenery of the Research centre and had a little chat with her, and I realised how much I appreciated having younger siblings, both Rebekah and Daniel, and how much I loved them. I actually started to cry! I really am the sensitive sort, I cry too easily :(

He also mentioned the two pandas团团 and 员员that the PRC gave Taiwan, and I made a mention of how it was a gesture of goodwill, 好意. And Wang realised that we knew about the tensions between Taiwan and China, and I think he was curious because he started to ask about what we knew about Chinese history. I mentioned Qin Shi Huang (of all people!) and he asked about Mao (specifically!). I said yes, we know him, and Sun Yat Sen, and Deng Xiao Ping, the long march, 5 year plans and great leap forward. He asked what we learned in our school syllabus and I told him straight up that we learned that Mao was a good leader before WWII, but made some terrible decisions after that. Deng was better (other than the Tiananmen incident) because he decided to open China up to foreign trade and investment, what with the black cat and white cat quote and all. After the discussion I think he was amazed that he had actually spoken to foreigners about his own country and its government, almost as if it were a form of rebellion. The look on his face was one of incredulousness. And yet he said he feels that things are slowly changing in China and people can talk more freely. And no... Nobody is going to capture us and imprison the three of us in China for speaking frankly about Mao (At least I hope not!). It was an absolutely fascinating conversation.

He also asked me if I considered myself Australian, or where we would consider ourselves to be from. I was silent for a while in contemplation. Then I told him that I don’t really know. Am I Singaporean, Australian, Chinese? My Parents are 1^st generation Singaporean, I’m 2^nd generation Singaporean. We have Australian passports. And yet, my grandparents were from China, Hainan Dao. At the end of the day, I am a Chinese, 华人, not necessarily 中国人, but my heritage is Chinese and my forefathers were Chinese for countless generations (well a hundred or so actually, we have records!), and I am proud of it. I told him that no matter where I live in the future, Singapore or Australia, my children will also learn how to speak, read and write Chinese. He was impressed and he said with conviction: “很有意思!”

What an interesting day. It is an appropriate time for contemplation about how fortunate I am, to live in a democratic country that believes in freedom of choice, so that I can have my two siblings that I love so much and now, I couldn’t live without. That I lived and grew up in a country that believes in freedom of speech so I could learn unbiased history and make choices for myself and have a clear view of the past so that I can learn from it and look forward to the future. I am thankful that we have the freedom to practise religion and worship who we want wherever we want. I am also thankful that we were made to learn Mandarin in school and that my father never let that slip by without a fight, because now I am in China, having complete conversations with locals in Mandarin. And I am proud to be Chinese, to have a history and culture dating back thousands of years before British or American or Australian history. And I’ve been saying this all week, but I’ll say it again... you’ve gotta love China J

Chengdu Day 4, 16 June 2009

2009-07-03T10:49:00.004+08:00

Today we went to 荷花池 (He Hua Ci) Shopping district for dinner. It’s only a 15 minute walk from our hotel and its cheap food paradise. We had bowls of noodles for 6 yuan (AU$1.20) each, simple, tasty and filling... and for once, not spicy! He Hua Ci is a really interesting, colourful place. We walked past road side food stalls selling things like hot pots on a stick, fried rice, chips covered in chilli powder, deep fried sesame seed dough balls and fruit. There were tattoo artists lining the streets doing tattoos on the spot for as little as 5 yuan (AU$1). Rebekah said its equivalent to catching HIV for a dollar. It’s really unhygienic, and the designs weren’t even nice. There were young punk boys of about 19 with their shirts off, getting tattooed by other equally young looking boys. All with the same “I’m so cool” look on their faces.

(We didn't dare take a picture of the actual tattooing, the people looked scary. But that's their tattoo shop - basically the patterns you can get on display on the floor and you squat by the side of the road to get tattooed)

Another fascinating thing we noticed was the euphemism for “sex shop” – 成人品用. It was so funny and so ambiguous at first, we looked into the shops quite innocently, and it was quite a shock at first. We soon realised there are sex shops all over the area and they are all tiny, dodgy, badly lit and dirty looking, and all of them display the same “成人品用” sign on the outside. Blue with big, bold, white words, so watch out for the sex shops! Besides that, He Hua Ci is also a wholesale shopping district selling clothes, bags, shoes, underwear and other accessories. The quality is cheap and the styles are tacky, but it’s interesting to have a look nonetheless. They also sell pots, pans, teapots and cups and various other houshold items really cheaply and everything can be bargained for. Those are probably more worthwhile. And there are Tibetans selling knives and other voodoo stuffs. Apparently we are living in the dodgy part of town, poorer and less civilised. It’s near the train station where people from different provinces arrive to peddle their wares. I guess that’s the only bad thing so far, but it keeps things interesting!

Chengdu Day 3, 15 June 2009

2009-07-02T12:00:00.006+08:00

The start of our 2 week routine...

6.30am Woke up for breakfast and sent off my little sister in a taxi to the Panda centre. She’s all grown up now, doing placements with research facilities and all! We arranged for a taxi to pick her up everyday from the hotel and send her home in the evenings at a fixed rate of 120yuan a day, or about AU$24. That is such a convenience because as I said earlier... catching a taxi in China is insane.

9am I’m all set up in my hotel room. My laptop is streaming ABC Classic FM and I’m listening to Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35. I have lots of reading and lots of writing to do!

11am I love the Chinese television series! I watch it during my breaks. Right now, on three different channels there are three different period dramas. One set in ancient China kind of like Qin Shi Huang era with the flowing robes and all, one in the late 1950s with qipaos and all, and one set in WWII with communist soldiers fighting some battle somewhere and evil Japanese dudes! The best part is they have mandarin subtitles at the bottom, so that I can read while they talk and learn new words. My Chinese vocabulary is expanding exponentially!

2pm I went to get lunch just now, a simple egg and chives pancakes and egg tart for dessert. Scoured the shops for dental floss because we've run out – but there is no dental floss in China! I went to the pharmacy, convenience store and traditional Chinese medicine shop and I couldn’t find any! But... I walked past a tailor with some really beautiful cheongsams, and I asked how much it was. A really basic one is 200RMB (AU$40) and it went up to 400RMB (AU$80), and they can get it done in a week. I couldn’t help myself; I got one tailored for myself in dark green brocade. I can’t wait to see it for real!! I spent 320RMB (AU$64) and it’s a really good deal for something made to fit. I spent $90 on a cheongsam off the rack in KL L. Bought a pack of playing cards, will be playing gin rummy with my sister tonight!

9.30pm Qing came back from panda prac and it sounds like she had a great time – the pictures prove it! These pandas are so spoilt! I told her about my tailor made qipao, so together we went back down to the shop and she got herself one too, red brocade with dragons on it. Now we both can’t wait for Tuesday so we can go pick it up. We went to 津民火锅 down the road for dinner. 火锅 (Huo guo) is chilli oil over a fire with chilli flakes and whole peppercorns (stalk and all). It is absolutely delicious and you can find it anywhere. I walk past restaurants and smell it, I get so hungry. The heat is intense but it tastes so good, you just keep going back for more. I finished 3 bottles of peanut milk drink to neutralise the spiciness, and my face was still red! The waitress was so adorable, a young girl whose pu tong hua was not so good, and she was trying to guess which Shen(district) we were from. She thought we were from China! It’s comforting to know our mandarin isn’t too far gone. She taught us how to eat huoguo the Sichuan way, add spring onion leaves to sesame oil, add oyster sauce and chopped garlic, mix it up, and dip your cooked meats and fish into it. Yums!! An excellent meal for 70 yuan ($AU14) for the both of us.

I am beginning to really like Chengdu. The locals say that Beijing and Shanghai are a mad rush of people whereas Chengdu is more laidback and relaxed... kind of like Sydney and Melbourne as compared to Perth. I like the lifestyle here, the people are nice and very genuine, and the shops are open till late. The restaurants are super busy at 8pm and it’s not a threatening place to walk around alone, as long as you keep your guard up. Chengdu has got me totally charmed!

Chengdu Day 2, 14 June 2009

2009-07-01T11:18:00.008+08:00

We had a good sleep, the 12 hours of travel yesterday knocked us right out at 10pm. We woke up for breakfast at the hotel, it’s mostly a traditional chinese breakfast and I love it all! I could get sick of eating a continental breakfast everyday... but not this. Fried noodles, porridge, salted eggs, vegetables, freshly made baos and mantous. Another interesting thing is they serve juice warm here. I asked the waiter why the juice was warm – he looked at me weirdly, as if it was the most normal thing to do. It’s quite nice actually and probably healthier than chilled juice.

We explored the area around our hotel. We are staying at the Golden Kirin Hotel 金麒麟饭店, a 4 star business hotel in the north of Chengdu. It’s away from the city, kind of in the suburbs so it’s less clean and much more chaotic. But I guess I’d rather live in the real China, not the touristy areas. There is lots of food everywhere! Noodle shops and bakeries. And it has all the necessaries – a pharmacy, hospital, and it’s close to shopping for clothes and accessories.

In the afternoon we decided to take a bus to 春熙路步行街 (Chunxi Lu), the main pedestrian mall in Chengdu, because catching a cab here is insane. You have to run towards a cab and fight off other people. It’s a dog eat dog world out here, no neat queues of obedient people waiting their turn. However taking a bus was equally insane! We weren’t sure which bus to take so we asked a local lady and they were all trying to help but they couldn’t really understand Mandarin... and we didn’t understand Sichuan dialect so it was extremely funny having the lady screaming at us to take the 55 bus, not the 98, literally pushing us off the bus we were about to board by mistake. (The locals generally avoid you when you approach them. They look at you like you are trying to sell them something or you want to rob them. But as soon as you make it clear you are lost and are trying to find your way in this big city they become very helpful and very nice! Being able to speak mandarin helps, of course.) By some miracle we got off at almost the right stop, walked around quite randomly, and ended up on Chunxi Lu without even realising it. Chunxi Lu is an eye opener, it's like orchard road but BIGGER! It is a bustling city full of life and full of Chinese people, so unlike cities like Sydney, New York or London where it is big but very cosmopolitan and there are people of every size shape and colour. It can get overwhelming and you might feel lost in the crowd, especially if you are Asian yourself! What sets you apart form the other billions of Chinese people around you? The shopping district is organized according to the four directions north, south, east and west, and the two main entrances to the district (where the taxi drops you off) are the north and south Chunxi Lu. Each district is huge in itself and you can spend a whole day exploring each one. Lots of international brands, starbucks, miss sixty, adidas, Isetan etc. There are large shopping malls, kind of like Tangs or Takashimaya, and areas reminiscent of the Bugis markets, Far East Shopping Centre and even the Heeren in Singapore. The atmosphere is nice, it’s clean and relatively civilised compared to the rest of Chengdu, and it is a historic city so well worth a visit.

We stopped at a restaurant and had table BBQ for dinner. There were excellent cuts of meat (beautiful marbling of the fat, and we ate cow tongue!), kim chi and huang gua salad, all for just $9.50 per person. And that’s an expensive meal! Insaneness! You’d never get such good cheap food even in Singapore!

Note to self: Change all the Renminbi you need while you’re in HK or at the Chengdu airport (Though I don’t recall seeing a money changer there). The chance of you finding a money changer, even in the city, is close to nothing. And it’s virtually impossible to find an ATM that accepts foreign cards. Only the Bank of China works, and we were panicking about the money situation until we found that precious ATM.

Chengdu Day 1, 13 June 2009

2009-06-28T17:48:00.008+08:00

I can't believe I'm in China. We almost didn't get here. When we were at the airport trying to get boarding passes the lady asked if we had a visa... and we said no, the flight centre lady said we didn't need one. BUT apparently we did for our Australian passports. BUT our Singapore passports would let us into china. BUT our sg passports were at home. BUT they were about to close check ins in 10 minutes (because we only got to the counter at 11pm and our flight was at 12.05). So you can imagine our panic when the mean boss lady wouldn't even give us a chance to call mum to get our Singapore passports!! I told her we would get them to the airport in 10 minutes, and I called mum anyway... even though the mean lady wasn't even giving us a chance. She basically told us to go home. Thankfully, Mum got to the airport in 15 minutes and we were the last ones in the queue, and we got on our flight to China. (Later we found out from a Singaporean expat working in China that the Chinese government likes to change visa laws at the last minute. At the time of ticket purchase our Australian passports were valid for travel to China but our Singapore ones weren’t. One month later when we were boarding the plane, the reverse was true! Always check the visa conditions one week prior to departure so you can apply for visas as required!)

After the 12 hours of travel we were in 成都, 四川, 中国 (Chengdu, Sichuan, China!!). In the middle of China too! If you look at a map; it’s just crazy how much in China we actually are. No escape now!

Chengdu is a huge, historic city – polluted, busy, and lots of very crazy traffic... kind of like India actually, but full of Chinese. People seem mean and unfriendly and sometimes they scream at you in Sichuan dialect... but they are actually really nice and helpful! Speak slowly in mandarin and they will try to help you. It has a brilliant road network made up of concentric loop roadsaround the city and axial roads radiating out of the city (it apparently only developed recently, the loop roads added as the city developed).

We made a quick trip to the Research base of giant panda breeding, where Rebekah will be doing her vet practicals. It is big, clean, and well maintained. There are lots of really big lazy looking pandas eating bamboo, and lots of really really cute baby pandas. The museum and film displays are educational and interesting.

Meanwhile, everyone we meet is fascinated that we are from Australia and that we can speak Chinese. The taxi driver from the Panda centre asked why our skin colour is the same as the Chinese even though we are from Australia... we said we ARE Chinese... but not “China Chinese”. He looked confused for a while but I think he figured it out soon enough.

In the evening we went to 锦里街, a busy trading street in the southern part of Chengdu with a history stretching back to the Qin Dynasty around two thousand years ago. Recently, a new Jinli Street has been built on the site of the ancient lane. It really is a piece of history and it's a well marketed, well maintained tourist area, with lots of traditional crafts and souvenirs. We stayed there for dinner because there is a street of stalls selling very authentic, cheap and yummy Sichuan cuisine. So far everything is spicy. We tried 麻辣面 (spicy hot pig organ noodle soup) that doesn't just burn; it numbs the lips and tongue. Absolutely awesome stuff. The layer of chilli oil on the surface of the soup coats each noodle strand so there is no escape! 撒尿牛丸 (Beef balls filled with a hot stewing liquid centre, kind of like siao long bao), 各项串烧 (general varied skewered roasts on sticks) beef, pork, chicken, squid, and the best was baby potatoes, roasted, salted, and smothered in chilli oil!

And after all that spice we settled down in starbucks for frappucinos (yes, there is starbucks in china, but no blogger or wikipedia! How do the Chinese cope without it?? So... I am typing all this on MS word so I can copy and paste this into blogger when I get back to my capitalist homeland).

Two weeks absence

2009-06-28T17:43:00.002+08:00

Oooh it's really strange not blogging for so long. I was in China and apparently freedom of expression is not their thing :) So now I'm in Hong Kong and thus I'm back to my writing.

The last time I visited HK was 2007, the 10 year anniversary of the HK handover back to China. That was an interesting trip, lots of soul searching and deciding where my life was meant to turn. And now I'm here again... at yet another crossroads in my life. HK and I have some sort of strange destiny.

Anyway, I'll probably back track in time to my trip in Chengdu... one post at a time...

Multivariate Stats Fun!

2009-06-12T13:27:00.005+08:00

This whole week has been spent attending a statistics masterclass taught by Prof. Pierre Legendre. Considering I only did one stats unit in first year... this has been quite the learning curve! We've been exposed to the most cutting edge stuff in multivariate statistical analysis for spatial ecological data. I would say they squished one semester's worth of learning into a week - 8 hours a day! And the funny thing is that it's very interesting, applicable and I can't wait to try it on my own data.

The R programme we are using is not the most intuitive. Think importing data from text files (notepad!) and inputting commands (reminiscent of DOS!) and hitting return for results. However it provides really simple and effective multi dimensional scaling plots etc, and I can see the benefits of using it over thousand dollar programs like primer. I love anything that's free and open source!

And I just heard a couple of the student presentations. One of them brought all her data, processed it in a week and now she literally has a paper ready. That will be me in three years... hopefully!

P.S. Going to Chengdu tonight!!!! I am so excited!!! :D Pandas!!

Outdoorsy

2009-06-09T10:55:00.002+08:00

Just a quick update before I go back for stats masterclass in 5 minutes. This weekend was crazy!!

Friday night was spent watching "Home", which pushed alot of my engineer friend's buttons. Interesting topic for discussion nonetheless.

Saturday was spent camping in Collie. Cold, wet, no fire... but heaps of fun. We depended on the goodwill of strangers bearing gifts of burning logs, dry wood and fire starters. There is a funny story involving an axe. We borrowed an axe from the neighbouring campers so that we could chop up some kindling, and ended up breaking the axe handle clean into two. It was just too embarrassing to return the broken axe... but they felt so sorry for us they took out their tomahawk and chopped up wood for us and started a roaring fire for us. There is still kindness in this world!

Sunday was spent skurfing! It's a cross between water skiing and surfing, towed behind a boat on a surfboard. Freezing cold in the river. But it was a beautiful, sunny winter's day with a view of the hills in the distance and clear blue skies. It was my first try ever and I got really close to standing up, but never really made it. Body is still in pain two days later, but I can't wait to try again!!

World Environment Day 2009

2009-06-05T15:11:00.004+08:00

Today is World Environment Day :) So I thought I'd spread the love by telling you all to watch "Home", a short film by Yann-Arthus-Bertrand. This french dude who takes aerial shots of the earth in all it's beauty and splendour.

I'm going to watch it tonight, there's a special screening at the UWA law LT. It's been madness trying to get tickets. The first screening at 7pm which coincides with the global release was completely booked out. I got put on a waiting list, and managed to get tickets for the second screening at 7.30pm. I heard that's been fully booked out too. Nothing like being surrounded by like minded enviromentalists :)

Soil Science Journal Club - Like a book club... but geekier!

2009-06-03T13:48:00.004+08:00

If it isn't already extremely obvious, I am a complete nerd and I love anything that involves soils and science in all its guises. I also love cake! So there is nothing I look forward to more than Soil Science Journal Club every month. It's based on the principle of a book club, and someone nominates a journal article which we discuss over lunch and cupcakes.

Today's article was "Jarosite as an indicator of water limited chemical weathering on mars" (Madden et al. 2004). Nothing like a bit of extra-terrestrialness to keep things interesting.

We noted that the authors didn't actually have any samples, they wrote the article based on the fact that Jarosite was found on Mars. They then simulated the weathering conditions using Earth conditions(!!), and magically concluded that there must have been water on Mars... even if only for the briefest amount of time and not very much of it. Still, it was a fascinating discussion because I cannot reconcile the presence of Jarosite without the presence of water... Can you imagine the implications if it does prove that there was water on Mars. Could there possibly have been life on Mars at one point?

And somehow our discussion moved on to other interesting minerals like magnetite and how some sea animals have it in their bodies and they use it to navigate. Apparently humans have it in our brains too. The men in the group couldn't help but mention how they probably have more magnetite in their brains than women do. Which I think is silly because I can read a map without turning it around to face the direction I'm going. Oh the joy of minerals :) I miss having Wenny around, she is one of the few friends I have who can appreciate rocks with me!

Busy busy weekend

2009-06-01T10:54:00.005+08:00

It's been a busy weekend, as usual. But the highlights included swimming on Saturday, and lunch date with some girlfriends on Sunday at Azure, Mt Hawthorn.

Swimming is something I haven't done in at least three years. I don't really know why I stopped... but part of the reason was because my ex-boyfriend didn't like the smell of chlorine on my skin and in my hair. Sometimes the smell would linger for a day or two because these indoor pools don't let the smell escape at all. However, being in a pool and doing laps is something very therapeutic for me, it clears my head of any erroneous thoughts. It helps me focus on important things, e.g. thinking about my thesis in a "bigger picture" kind of way, my 5 year plan and 10 year plan for my life, how I should be treating the people I love and what I should be doing to show them that I care about them. So after three years... I really missed swimming! I was in a pool most of saturday afternoon and I did more than 2km at a really leisurely pace. Unfortunately my body was in so much pain for the next day. That will no longer be the case in a couple of weeks, because I'll try to keep up the swimming.
Lunch at Azure with Jessie and Liz was so fun! It's a really lovely cafe with yummy food. I had a vege burger of sorts and it was excellent. (I am getting very good with my greens nowadays. My grandma would be so proud :) Would you believe I never ate my vegetables except for brocolli, cauliflower and cucumbers. I wouldn't touch anything else!) We had close to three hours of girly chit chat. Would you believe Jessie is building a house now and Liz is getting married in August! I've never been to a hen's night before so this would be my first one. It's really interesting, exciting, and a bit daunting, how everyone is reaching that next stage in their lives. I'm in no rush, I love my life right now... the freedom and control I have over what I do with myself, but I am looking forward to my future and all the possibilities it could hold. Excitedness!!

I am back!!

2009-05-27T11:24:00.006+08:00

And so glad to be back really! Sydney is an awesome city... Vibrant, busy, HUGE and full of iconic landmarks and so quintessentially Australia.

It was a terrible shame that the weather was awful. It rained everyday while we were in Sydney. Despite that we still walked the harbour bridge, toured the opera house, saw all the major attractions and squeezed in some shopping at Paddington.

Som classic moments include watching a concert at the opera house. It was a choral symphonic piece titled "Belshazzar's Feast". Anna and I could only get tickets behind the stage, under the organ and we were quite upset because the brass instrument overpowered the strings and the acoustics were a mess. During the second half we managed to sneak into the stalls and sweet talked the ushers into letting us stay there. It was quite embarrasing because we had to move several times and at one stage we were sitting next to some Opera house executive of sorts. He went on stage to take a bow after the performance, and I wonder what he thought we were doing because it was pretty obvious we didn't have any allocated seats! But... it was so worth it because the experience was quite spectacular from the front! I miss those TKGS days of symphonic band and string ensemble concerts, music is really so much a part of my life.

Other things include:

Taking the ferry to Manly, very choppy waters and rain, but gorgeous views of the Darling harbour and Sydney city at night.
Watching the fireworks under an umbrella with Anna at Cockle Bay. It was Darling Harbour's 21st birthday!
Picnic dinner at Four Points hotel with Anna, Wenny, Watson and Yanni. With views overlooking the harbour at night. Thanks Watson for taking care of us :)
The nightlife at Star Bar, where there was a serious female to male deficit.
The vintage and second hand markets at the Fringe Bar on Oxford Street, it is shopping paradise!!
The beautiful temperate rainforest and fascinating geology of the Blue Mountains
Fresh at Katoomba town for the yummiest home made baked beans, coffees, and ricotta filled hotcakes with sweet sweet butterscotch sauce. Yums!!

And all in all, I had a great time because I was with my bestest girlfriends. I was so sad when one by one... Joy, then Anna, and lastly Wenny left me for Singapore. But maybe Vietnam in 2 years, Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi?? Whenever and wherever, I can't wait!!

Star struck!

2009-05-19T17:12:00.006+08:00

I just met the restoration ecology god - Richard Hobbs! I am seldom in awe of people... I watched Justin Timberlake live and I wasn't that impressed. But today there was a CLR seminar and I went just because I'm part of the group and I know that I am expected to attend. I read the abstract and thought: "Oh yea that's interesting."

“Novel Ecosystems and Alternative Succession and Restoration Pathways”: Starting with a review of the variety of dynamics found in ecosystem development in old fields (abandoned agricultural land) in different parts of the world, I discuss alternative succession pathways and the concepts of alternative states, threshold dynamics and novel ecosystems. The development of novel ecosystems (new combinations of species arising in rapidly changing abiotic conditions) has important implications for conservation and restoration. I provide a conceptual framework for considering these questions and provide illustrative examples from our recent work in Western Australia.

But then during the seminar it suddenly clicked in my head that he was THE Hobbs of "Koch & Hobbs" fame. I was like "OMG it's him!!! I've read all your papers and I've cited you several times in my honours thesis!" And I was actually excited!! I even had a really good question to ask him about minesite rehabilitation (which is not the same as restoration) and whether or not that could be considered a "novel ecosystem" etc. but my supervisor asked it first (my exact question! He just phrased it alot more eloquently and with a bit of jargon too...) and I was quite upset :( I missed my chance to ask Prof Hobbs a question at a seminar! But still, I am happy to have attended the seminar, I seriously should attend seminars less grudgingly. Then again if it's a plant biology/physiology seminar you will most likely never see me there :)

JADE in perth

2009-05-19T08:42:00.006+08:00

And it's been such a busy weekend! I'm exhausted... can't wait to get on that plane to Sydney and get some rest. It's been lovely having the girls around. I've been playing tour guide, bringing them down south and around Perth. But unfortunately for me that means a lot of driving. It's virtually impossible to get around Perth with just public transport.

What a memorable trip :) How often do we all get together like that? Four of us in a tiny little Swift for hours, taking heaps of photos, sleeping in bunk beds. The south-west is beautiful. Clear blue skies and sunshine - sunrises and sunsets... They enjoyed the farm and the produce of the south-west; wine, cheeses and icecream, nuts and grains and fruit, chocolate and more sunshine!! The highlight was when we drove down some random road to a beautiful, rocky surfer's beach to watch the sunset over the ocean like a big glowing ball bobbing in the water.

We had heaps of good food :) Pizza at the Brunswick Junction tavern is my new favourite secret pizza place. And we are all taking turns to cook! I have to say we are all not bad chefs and we can keep ourselves pretty well fed, healthily (lots of greens!) and at a bargain... though we have yet to taste Anna's cooking! Our budgeting is pretty awesome. We only spent about A$100 per person over 4 to 5 days, food, petrol and random indulgences inclusive. And I am loving the good girly company! I actually don't have lots of female friends, besides Eda and my sister. Boys and makeup are suddenly topics of conversation. Mostly boys unfortunately, they can cause us so much heartache and yet we love them so...

In the office early today, got in at 8 am, and I think I like it! The weather is crisp and cold, there is heaps of parking available, and soil science is quiet. Meanwhile, J is in Sydney, and A+E are on a coach tour to the pinnacles, plus koalas and sandboarding. Can't wait for Sydney tonight i'm so excited!! :D

The "Lin Equation" and other musings

2009-05-08T11:50:00.004+08:00

Driving down to the farm this evening. Planting trees tomorrow. Sometimies I wish I could just stay there for a week, a month... a year? I'd love to take over the farm as farm manager one day. Daddy can be primary investor. I'd be employed by my daddy! Hahaha.

Work has been going well, slowly and steadily. Lots of drafts coming back with red ink all over. But any advice is better than no advice. Secured some cash from WP so that makes me happy. Horizon wants in on the project too so that means more samples to play with :) A couple of interesting things came up in discussion, including maybe naming something after me! To be immortalised in science like Schrodinger, or my analytical hero Gavin in the chem building! Unfortunately I think its going to take alot more than just wishing and hoping to get there. Back to work !!

Satisfaction and the tangibility of work

2009-05-04T11:50:00.005+08:00

There is something so satisfying about working on a farm. Despite the callused hands, sunburnt face, blistered feet, acheing back and arms, lots of sweat, thirst and hunger... The work is so tangible and you can see the results of your hours of toil. I see the irrigation lines come up in perfect parallel lines across the landscape and the holes dug for the trees, all spaced just so. And you can watch the sun as it moves across the sky, telling you the time of day. You don't really need a watch. Wake up when the sun rises. Pause for lunch when the sun is directly overhead. Stop work for the day when the daylight is over. And we all sleep at 9 because we are just too exhausted to stay up.

Now back in the office... I am writing a literature review and proposal for a project that I won't start on lab work for at least the next 4 months. And I'm writing up a paper for the work that I did a year ago. Somehow typing away at laptop doesn't quite convey the effort I put into my work, and yet... it is work nonetheless.

So weekdays I use my brain, and on the weekends I'll work with my hands. Both are hard but I enjoy it all :)

An exciting month

2009-05-01T10:45:00.003+08:00

May is here! I was waiting so patiently for it to arrive but somehow, the days always pass so quickly now.

Just a quick update before I leave. Finishing early in the office today, because the whole family is going down to the farm. This week we're putting in irrigation and drippers. Next week we're planting the next lot of trees... and the week after, I'm going down again with my JADE girlfriends! It's all happening way too fast. And Sydney too!

The farm is my happy place, my escape from reality. A place where time seems to stand still for me. The internet and phone line is so crappy we might as well be isolated from the world. No tv, streetlamps, nightlife. Just vast space and stillness... it's good for your soul.

I'm counting down the hours till it's time to go :)

Seminars and soils science societies

2009-04-24T14:40:00.004+08:00

Seminars and conferences are a part of a PhD student's life. It's interesting to learn about your peer's work and it's fun to tell other people what you do. Yesterday evening we had a very interesting seminar by the Dean about organically managed soils. It was a huge success and the lecture theatre was full to bursting and academics were sitting on the steps. It's such a different atmosphere to undergraduate lectures. Instead of young uninterested people who would rather be sleeping or lying on the grass, the room was full of inquisitive minds listening intently and asking really good questions at the end. Such a change and it's so nice to be among these people, to talk to them and learn from them.

We had an annual Soils Science Society AGM after the seminar. It's somthing which Head of School has wanted us students to be involved in for a long time. She talked to me in third year when I was helping out with the UWA open day... now I'm in my PhD and I still haven't joined! I should stop procrastinating and get those application forms filled out. It's an exciting way to get involved, and there is so much opportunity to get high school students to look at soils in a whole new light - perhaps get them interested enough to do a degree in soils :)

I never thought I'd end up studying soils! When I was in year 12 it was between occupational therapy, criminology or environmental science/engineering. I decided I wanted to be an environmentalist - but not the greenpeace protesting type. I wanted to be involved in management and legislation. Unfortunately the only 65-70% scores I ever got in university were for my law and policy and environmental management units... and I was pretty disillusioned with that whole aspect of environmental policy, so that dream went out the window. I decided pure science was the way to go and I was quite happy being a researcher of sorts. Meanwhile, my Chemistry was getting scores of 94 and 97% in first year so I quite happily switched to a chemistry major. With a really strong chemistry background, I decided maybe water quality and provision would be a good idea. I did land and water management as a major and several projects in water provision and quality. It was good fun, but that same unit also introduced me to minesite rehabilitation, which I thought was fascinating because of human dependence on minerals that can lead to destruction of natural environments on vast scales. So I approached the unit coordinator about an honours project and he suggested looking at the development of soil carbon and microbial community structure at a rehabilitated bauxite mine. It suited my interest in chemistry and wanting to save the world, one minesite at a time. One year and a first class honours later, I'm looking at rehabilitating petroleum hydrocarbon polluted soils, and there's nothing else I'd rather be doing :)

Working on a tuesday morning

2009-04-21T11:34:00.008+08:00

We had a girl's night in yesterday :) It was fun, we all cooked - I made stir fry which I haven't done for a while but it turned out quite well :) Connie made her Indonesian style sweet corn soup with secret ingredient of worcestershire sauce. Eda made some salad and cooked rice, Kath brought chicken and Kim brought dessert from the cheesecake shop! We sat around playing Wii and putting on girly makeup (shocking before and after pics!!) and Taboo. We ate cheesecake and mudcake straight from the box, and watched Clueless (such a classic). It was great spending time with just the girls. They are really fun to hang out with, and they can actually play Taboo! I can't stand people who just look at the cards and say one or two words and then expect people to guess it. I can do many things, but I cannot read minds :( Eda, Kath and I lost by one point to the opposing team and it was such a close fight but it was very well played.

Meanwhile... blogging seems to be my distraction from work. Usually after I read two or 3 papers I stop for a while to write. It entertains me and puts things into perspective for 15 minutes or so.

What it's like in the soils building right now:

Someone is doing acid digests and the corridors smell pretty bad, like rotten eggs. I hope they are doing it in a fumehood, and if they are... Why isn't the fumehood working??!
Also they just did testing for the fire alarms. Very noisy.
It's a beautiful day outside, I can see the trees outside my window and the beautiful cloudless sky. The sun is shining and Matilda bay is a 2 minute walk from my office. And yet I am sitting indoors...
I am about 2/3 of the way through my ~100 papers and brain is almost full to bursting with information that I am still trying to process. I figure what's already been done has been done so many times over the past 30 years with no real significant breakthroughs. This can't possibly be it for bioremediation. I'm hoping there is more. Yesterday was quite uncharacteristic of me - no more negativity! We have some ideas that are simple but never tried before and I'm optimistic that this just might work :)

6 weeks into the PhD

2009-04-20T16:12:00.003+08:00

Sometimes I feel like I'm not as smart as other people think I am. That I don't know all the stuff I ought to, that the research I do is inconsequential. And that after all the reading I've done for my literature review, I still won't be able to come up with something awesome enough for my thesis :(

The Beach, my happy place

2009-04-16T15:31:00.004+08:00

Rock Climbing!

2009-04-03T11:42:00.002+08:00

I am in so much pain now, every part of me hurts...

I went rock climbing yesterday at Rockface and it was so much fun! I never knew I could do half the things I did - Climbing up walls that were sloping outwards (not leaning forwards but backwards all the way!), climbing around 90 degree overhangs, reaching up for rocks that I never thought I could reach and pulling my whole body weight with my arms (I hate push ups and I've never actually done a pull up in my life). I guess when it counts, I will push myself as far as my body can go and at the end of the day, even though I was exhausted, it was so extremely satisfying.

All the girls were so impressive - climbing like spiders. I think we put the boys to shame :)

There was a scary moment when I was ready to come down from the top of the wall, and I asked Eda - my belayer, if it was ok for me to let go of the wall. She said ok - I let go of the wall, and then I felt myself freefall to the ground! Thank God there were gymnastics mats on the floor or it could have been nasty. She later said that she thought she had the rope in her hand, but as she let the mechanism go she was like :"Oh shit where's the rope!!??" and she scrambled to find the right end to hold on to, but by then I had already fallen to the floor. It was funny now that I look back, but only because nothing nasty happened - no broken bones or sprains. I am very black and blue all over my legs wherever I hit the wall though :(

Many thanks to David for getting us all together to do this. It is the ultimate team building, trust your friends, believe in yourself, face your fears, push-yourself-beyond-what-you-think-you-can-do kind of activity. I can't wait to do it again, after my body recovers from this pain!

Excitedness!

2009-03-18T15:17:00.003+09:00

I received an email this morning from a certain well respected Australian landscape ecologist over east. He expressed interest in an abstract I submitted about my honours work for a conference in September. It's just so exciting how people are actually reading my work, and that they would find it useful and interesting. This is truly what drives me to slave over my soil samples and impossible looking excel spreadsheets for extended hours for very little remuneration (yes i checked and i did spell it right!)

My sunny, windy, beautiful city of Perth

2009-03-13T10:52:00.006+09:00

Having my friends coming over to Perth to (finally) visit has gotten me thinking about Perth as a tourist destination. It is an unlikely place to visit isn't it? I mean, the eastern states have so much to offer that we don't, a stretch of booming metropolises one after the other. Each with plenty to see and do, culturally diverse and with their own landmarks. The great barrier reef, Crown Casino, the MCG, the opera house and harbour bridge... It is hard to compete :( They even have Krispy kremes and starbucks (yup Perth doesn't have starbucks!)

But I still love Perth!

Our climate is absolutely perfect. 9 months of the year the skies are blue and there isn't a cloud in the sky. And winter is mild and we even get sunny winter days occasionally.
The air is fresh - we get the fresh antarctic sea breeze that removes all the crap from our skies.
The beaches are comparable to the best beaches in the world. I've been to the Whitsundays and yes, it was beautiful but it was inaccessible and ridiculously expensive. The beaches in Perth are free, not as crowded as Bondi, and the waters are so clear you can see your toes even in 4 feet of water.
There are things to look forward to all week: half price movies and waffles on tues, half price cocktails at Carnegie's or the Leederville hotel (more commonly known as the Leedy) on wed, Strutt (Jazz) at Universal bar on Thursday, Anywhere on friday and saturday, and the sunday session at cottesloe beach. Fremantle any day of the week. But nobody looks forward to Mondays. Unless you have an ebay parcel coming for you in the mail or something... which I often do... so I do like Mondays!
The south-west has a large number of endemic plant species, we also have an awesome number of endemic birds and insects. The greenie in me gets so happy :)
Our city is culturally diverse because I know we have the awesomest Italian and Turkish food. And our asian food is good if you know about Broadway and Spencer Village. And I have 9 different countries represented in my one little office!
We have a good cafe culture going on and we do coffee and cake very well (Greens!). I love the atmosphere in all the inner city suburbs - Subiaco, Leederville, Claremont, mount Lawley. They are all different and unique.
We also do wine very well - I love a good Margaret river red. And beer (Little Creatures!)
Perth has become my home, I've made friends here and built up a life for myself that I truly love.
There's plenty more but I should be reading papers and I've been procrastinating. I can't wait for JADE to come visit! Come here and see for yourself :)

Now, a funny story, since we are in an Australian context. Rebekah was stressing about what to name her kids because her boyfriend's last name in "Beh". Try finding a name that sounds good with Beh! Her friends joked that she should name her son "Byron" and her daughter "Matilda". Hahhahah :)

Ok I know it's not funny if you don't get it. I'll explain it when you come visit me.

Quiz nights

2009-03-12T10:23:00.004+09:00

A wonderful Australian tradition that everyone loves is the Quiz Night :)

Carnegie's has one every Tuesday (and there's half price cocktails on Wed so there's always a reason to be there!). I went there last time with a couple of friends and we did so terribly. We were second last. Aaron and I were the only ones who could answer any questions and we had very little help from the rest of the team... I'm never bringing them for quiz night ever again! And the only reason why we didn't come in last was because my sister's team did worse than us.

Last night was quite different. It was Jamie's dad's and sister's birthday. Happy birthday Uncle Alan and Felicia!

We had dinner at the Kardy and it just so happened to be quiz night. I had no idea how competitive Felicia was but she really wanted to win. The first round we were seated quite far at the back so we couldn't hear some questions. Despite that we still did quite well tying for second place with two other tables. Once we finished our meals, we picked up our game, moved to the middle of the room and quite seriously tried to answer all the questions...

What were the 3 highest grossing harry potter films?
What pet did florence nightingale have?
What company did shakespeare have a part in?
At what age in the womb do humans develop fingerprints?
What does ASX and S&P stand for?
What pesticide caused seabirds to lay eggs with brittle shells in the 1970s?
What was the last year Australia played in the World Cup?
What 2 elements make up more than 90% of the earth's atmosphere?
Plus lots of movie and pop culture questions which were awesome fun - Jamie and Aaron knew all the Simpsons questions :)

It was awesome fun because between the four of us we knew practically all the answers. Table 31 in front of us was made up of a couple of elderly gentlemen, another table was middle aged ladies "The Jam tarts", there was also a team of high school kids and their father, and there was us... "The Lee Sharps"! Table 31 thought they had won it because we were watching them answer lots of questions quite confidently, but when they announced that table 31 had gotten 2nd place, we knew we had won and we were so amused! The Jam Tarts ladies were really nice and they congratulated us, and we got a "twenty five-dollars only, $50.00" voucher for a meal at the restaurant. There was a discrepancy on the voucher and I still don't know if we won $25 or $50, but it doesn't really matter. It's all about the fame and glory. Jamie went up to collect the voucher and he gave it to his sister and said "Happy birthday!". Felicia remarked that it was "the best birthday ever" and that she'd keep the voucher as a souvenir :)

Well done to the Quiz Meisters for organising an excellent quiz night. We should go to the Kardy every Wednesday night!