Chapel St.

Charlottes Place

Kwok Hoong, Irene & Me

Kwok Hoong & Me

23 March 2002
It's been a hot day. It made me feel so tired and drowsy. Anyway, I went to the city for dinner just now. My gf and I was supposed to go dinner at this place called Don Don, a well known place serving delicious Japanese food at Swanston St. however, the place isnt open today. Grrr...We then headed to Chinatown to another Japanese restaurant. Sadly, the food wasn't really that good, the miso soup tasted like porridge leftovers and the food wasn't salty enough. Unsatisfied, we headed to this Greek festival where loads of Mediterranean food is sold. We tried this honey ball and this appealing looking pastry. Sadly again, it was at a outrageous prices and the pastries were too sweet! Grrr, all the food was bad today. Anyway, I see bumped into Mei Ling, Soon Loong's girlfriend, one of my good friends. It's the second time I bumped into her in Melbourne and also the first person in bumped in Melbourne (I always have the tendency to bump into people everywhere). The first time i bumped into her in Melbourne was last Jun in the city too. I guess she was quite surprised to see me as she was not informed about my arrival. We had a short chat and then she left in a hurry, well, it's good to see friend around.

Greek festival!

24 March 2002 Sunday
Finally, after months of break from the arcade world, I finally made a comeback. I was at Russell St. just now, where all the arcades are. I managed to beat everyone in sight, h0h0h0. It's been months since I touched the joystick and buttons. Damn, I miss it so much. For your information, I literally spend my childhood in video arcades. I spend 90% of my free time in arcades before I went to Sheffield and also before the fuckup Malaysian government banned it. But after 6 months of imposition, arcades sprung back like mushrooms, thank god! Anyway, for your information, I only play King Of Fighters (KOF for short and I don't like Street fighter or whatever other games) produced by the now defunct major gaming company SNK. The game has been around every since 1994 and they come out with a new version every year. I started playing when they had the 1995 version and I've been playing it ever since. The newest version, King Of Fighters 2001 is no longer produced by SNK due to its liquidation. SNK sold the rights to some Korean company. As usual, I spend hours in arcades, I was at the arcade from 1:30pm to 6pm, uuhh, my muscles hurts, however then, I had to be out from my gf's place due to the fact that her housemate wants the house for herself today (probably due to the fact that she has been gone for 2 days so that my gf and I could have the whole house for ourselves and she expects me to do something in return). Anyway, for dinner, I went to Shanghai Noodles @ Chinatown where they serve cheap Chinese food in big portion *yummy*

Chinatown Alley

Chinatown

25 March 2002 Wednesday
For the umpteenth time, I spend my whole day at the video arcade @ Russell St. I had a great time there. h0h0h0. I bumped into Johan today at the train station, he didn't know I'm here in Melbourne, I guess he was surprised to see me. He told me that he gave away his Siberian huskies and I was like "what????" I've been looking forward to play with his dog! bah. Anyway, for the first time, I cooked Carbonara! Using the recipe my girlfriend gave me, I managed to produce something edible. She said she got the recipe from some Italian chef. tAdaa, here's the recipe!
Cream cheese.
Mozzarella
Bacon
Mushroom
Onions
Pasta
Salt, Pepper and little bit of mustard.
Okay fine, I'm not that descriptive but that's how I cooked it, its just pure estimation. However, it seems that the carbonara didn't really work out. It was too cheesy!

26 March 2002 Tuesday
The Cold Facts
The common cold is an illness caused by a viral infection in the nose and also involved the sinuses, ears and bronchial tubes. Cold symptoms occur as a result of the body's response to the infection.
Antibiotics do not kill viruses
It is not true that taking antibiotics will cure or reduce the severity of a cold.
Unnecessary use of antibiotics makes them less effective when they are needed.
There is no cure for the common cold.
The common cold is universal problem. There are more than 1000 types of cold viruses, which makes immunization impossible. All you can do is let a cold run its course and treat the symptoms as best you can.
Common sense is the best way to treat the common cold.
Drink Up. Drinking plenty of liquids prevents dehydration. Hot honey and lemon drinks are great way to soothe the throat and clean the nasal passages.
Rest. Shifting into lower gear by staying at home is a good idea until you are feeling better.
Eat well . When you are ill, the body loses vital nutrients, and eating correctly will give your body the fuel it needs to fight a cold.
Visit you chemist. Over the counter cold remedies can alleviate some cold symptoms but not cure the illness.
Anyone can catch a cold.
Healthy people are also susceptible to colds not just people with weaken immune system.
Handy hints to avoid catching a cold.
Take preventative measures. Wash your hands, avoiding contact with your eyes and nose and avoid close contact with cold sufferers.
Follow healthy habits. Plenty of rest, drinking lots of fluids and eating well will strengthen your immune system.
Get a flue shot. Although not 100% effective, it dramatically lessens flu's severity. It is wise to consult your doctor if you have symptoms that last for two weeks or more.

27 March 2002
We just cooked curry chicken and seafood. The preparation was poignant, especially when I was dissecting the squid, it was euw euw and euw!! The whole thing was bloody slimy and it has its was eyes gouging out, seems like it died in a horrible death. To make the matter worst, after all the hard work on dissecting the squid, it tasted horrible, uuhh..

28 March 2002 Thursday
Facts on Photography
Polaroid was created by Edwin Herbert Land an American physicist and inventor in 1947. Minox cameras, a small camera measuring 8 x 11mm are invented in a small way to fit in a gentleman's pocket or a lady pouch but was used as spy cameras, as you see in movies.
The word Photography was derived from Greek where photos means light and graphein means to draw.
UrtonArt: History of Photography - http://www.urtonart.com/history/photography.htm
Photography existed even before cameras were invented.
Photography was developed from camera Obscura (Latin for Dark room) was a dark box or room with a hole in one end. If the hole was small enough, an inverted image would be seen on the opposite wall.

29 March 2002
I watched Kate and Leopold @ Crown just now. The movie was great. It was about this poor Duke (Leopold) brought to the 21st century by Kate's ex boyfriend accidentally and then Kate and Leopold met yada yada, and they feel in love. Meg Ryan looks so much older now, her wrinkles are emerging but yet she still looks good! In that show, there was once they were talking about meaning of flowers, how flowers represent something. Here's something I found.
CACTUS Grandeur, warmth
CARNATION Fidelity, love
CARNATION PINK Woman's love
CHRYSANTHEMUM (Chinese) Loveliness and cheerfulness
CHRYSANTHEMUM (red) I love
CHRYSANTHEMUM (white) Truth
CLOVER (four-leafed) Be mine
CLOVER (white) Think of me
DAFFODIL Deceitful, hope, unrequited love, regard
DAHLIA Elegance and dignity, forever thine
DAISY (coloured) Beauty
DAISY (white wild) I will think of it
DAISY Innocence
DANDELION Coquetry, love's oracle
FUCHSIA Confiding love
HEMP Fate
JASMINE (white) Amiability
JASMINE (yellow) Grace and elegance
JASMINE I am too happy
LOTUS Estranged love
MORNING-GLORY Affection, departure
ORCHID You are a belle, you flatter me
ROSE (deep-red) Admiration, bashful, embarrassment
ROSE (pink) Ours must be secret love
ROSE (red) Unity, romantic love
ROSE (white) I am worthy of your love, silence, innocent love
ROSE (yellow) Jealousy, let us forget, love is waning, friendship
Full list goto http://www.usabride.com/wedplan/a_flowers_meaning.html

30 March 2002 Saturday.
I met up with Ben just now. It's been years ever since I met up with him. He has long hair now. We met up to have dinner and had a long chat. It's nice to have him around, he's damn funny and cute. haha.

Me & Ben

31 March 2002 Sunday
HAPPY EASTER! The day where the resurrected Christ walks into the holy city on a donkey.
Facts on Easter
Originally a pagan festival
The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with an uproarious festival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eastre.
The pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ hence the converts made it a Christian celebration.
The Easter Bunny is not a modern invention. The symbol originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit.
The exchange of Easter eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians.
The Queen mother dies. My condolences to the UK monarch.
I finally watched the Oscar winning movie, A Beautiful Mind. The movie, based on a true story about biography of a well known Mathematician John Nash who suffers from paranoid schizophrenic. He once believed he was hunted by Russian authorities and even had an "imaginary roommate" for years. And apparently, his "imaginary roommate" was his best friend, he would cheer him up when he's down and supports every decision he makes. Sadly, he wasn't for real, its all in his mind. My god, imagine that happening to us, everything among us isn't real, its had always been an illusion. Or, imagine that one day, everything we have now is a dream as in we've been dreaming all the while and we wake up from that dream to be a kid again.

1 April 2002
April fool!
As a reasonable human being, I have done my part in socializing today and its been a day of coincidence today. I bumped into Jamie Pang, one of my friend's sisters, I couldn't recognize her at first but after a moment of daze I finally recognized her. Apparently she's here to visit her boyfriend. While at night, I had dinner with couple of my ex A-Levels friends and their friends. well so-called dinner, me, my gf and Ben went to another restaurant to eat and met up with them back after we had our dinner. After our dinner, we went to Lin'Contro @ Swanston St. to have a drink, there we met up with loads of people, familiar faces and new faces. And as I've said a day of coincidence, I met up with one of my ex A-Levels classmates, Stephanie Lua who I haven't seen ever since my A-Levels graduation day. She looks so much different now, grown up I suppose. She's about 3 years younger than me, apparently she's jumped directly to A Levels (obviously due to the fact that she's smart).
I'm might be going to some warehouse sale early in the morning tomorrow (only if could wake up) and probably the museum! Oh I love museums! Anyway, for memories sake, I'll list some names of new people I met today. There's this pretty girl name Nicole who is one of Nick's friends. I think she's quite bimbo-ish probably due to the fact the way she acts. And there's 2 guys name Vin and Dennis who I never spoke a word to but somehow Yean Ping introduced them to me.

2 April 2002-04-03 Tuesday
I'm at Melbourne Uni's library computer lab now. They really have lousy computers. All they could run is just an obsolete version of Netscape and my homepage looks extremely horrible under Netscape. Anyway, I went to some Streetware sale @ a warehouse in Richmond (Richmond is filled with Vietnamese shops, i can say its more like Viet City). The warehouse was filled with loads of rejected branded clothes for a cheapo price. I paid about $25 for a formally $100 tshirt. I glanced through some facts that day and I read an article that says that white chocolate isn't really chocolate. I did some research and it seems that it is not chocolate due to the fact that it is not in accordance with the FDA (Food and Drugs Administration) standard. According to FDA. real chocolate must contain chocolate liquor (the solid that results from finely grinding cacao bean nibs). However, milk chocolate is made when cocoa powder is combined with cocoa butter, sugar, and milk powder. Since cocoa butter is derived from the cocoa bean (which is used to make chocolate), then we can only conclude that real white chocolate is indeed chocolate.
Some facts on chocolate
o White chocolate was first introduced in Switzerland in the years after World War I. o It is more expensive to produce than its darker counterpart because it contains more of the expensive cocoa butter.
o Obrana cacao, the name of the tree that produces chocolate, means "food of the gods."
o In the 19th century, people began adding condensed milk to cocoa to produce milk chocolate. (Cacao refers to the bean or tree; cocoa is a product derived from cacao.)
o The Aztecs used cacao seeds as money.
o The Aztecs sometimes fed their sacrificial victims chocolate beverages to calm them before the sacrifice.
o During World War I chocolate began to be shaped in the form of bars for eating.
o White chocolate contains cocoa butter, but no cocoa solids. Chocolate purists argue that the confection should not be called "chocolate" at all.
o Cacao seeds are traded on the commodities market-under the name "cocoa"-along with pork bellies and soybeans.
o Mexicans today use chocolate as an offering on the Day of the Dead, in the form of molé, a spicy sauce made with chilies and chocolate.
o Foil-wrapped chocolate coins are given to children as Hanukkah "gelt."
o In the United States, chocolate has a place in nearly every holiday celebration: heart-shaped boxes of chocolate for Valentine's Day, chocolate bunnies for Easter, wrapped candies for trick-or-treaters at Halloween, and cups of hot cocoa to warm Christmas carolers.

3 April 2002 Wednesday
Seems like the Israel-Palestine conflict is at its height again. The Israel army is now surrounding and trapping Yasser Arafat in his headquarters in Ramallah. Poor guy, he had to call diplomats and leaders all over the world appealing for help and the only way out for Arafat offered by Israel was a one way ticket out of Palestine. They have already killed dozens of personals in the headquarters. However, seems that there's still humanity in the Israel soldiers, they delivered 66 blocks of cheese, 13 cabs of hummus, 600 pita breads, 23 cans of tuna and 55 cans of sardines, water and medicine to Arafat and personals trapped with him. From what I've read, the military action was triggered by the constant suicide bombers blowing up their so-called pure body in cities of Israel and Arafat failed to (or probably prefers not to) stop them. The bombers are usually members of Islamic extremist groups such as HAMAS and believe that they will be a martyr if they die for Islam by oppressing and eliminating any enemies of Islam. These bombers are targeting not only Israel military personal but also civilians; to them all Israelis are the same.
History of Palestine - http://www.palestinehistory.com/qtime.htm

4 April 2002 Thursday
My girlfriend's place is just next to Chapel Street, a shopping haven. Other than the usual clothes and cafes, they have loads of second hand shops. The stuffs they sell ranges from furniture to antiques. There's this shop we went by today, called Chapel Bazaar. It has a huge range of variety such as toys, furniture, clothes, comics, old electronics, books, golf clubs, etc. I wanted to buy this cheap Swiss army knife but then however, it was broken, no wonder it was so cheap. Oh, they have loads of smoking pipes too. I was wondering whether do they have an ancient opium smoking pipe that was used by the exploited Chinese of the early 21st century. (Opium was introduced to China during 1900s which caused a widespread addiction among the Chinese that subsequently fuckup the whole China). Unfortunately, they don't have it. Grrr
44. 20th Century Fox spends a reported $15 million to produce the comedy movie Freddy Got Fingered, in which Tom Green licks a man's open wound, swings a (fake) newborn baby around his head by the umbilical cord and then severs the cord with his teeth, and fondles the genitalia of both a horse and an elephant. To repeat, it is a "comedy." Taken from http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,38604,00.html?ref=cnet
I remember watching that movie while I was stoned. It was hilarious. haha But when I watched it again when I was sober, it was so bloody stupid. Speaking of stoned, here's what marijuana does to you.
Getting 'stoned' on cannabis makes most users relaxed and talkative.
Heightens the senses, especially when it comes to colours, taste, and music.
Can also leave people feeling tired and lacking energy. May bring on cravings for certain food
"Nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety ... all can be mitigated by marijuana. Although some medications are more effective than marijuana for these problems, they are not equally effective in all patients."
"For patients such as those with AIDS or who are undergoing chemotherapy and who suffer simultaneously from severe pain, nausea, and appetite loss, cannabinoid drugs might offer broad-spectrum relief not found in any other single medication. The data are weaker for muscle spasticity but moderately promising."
It upsets motor coordination, causing unsteady hands, a change in gait, uncontrolled laughter, and a lag between thought and facial expressions. Sexual functions can also be disturbed. Short-term memory deteriorates.
Degree of marijuana addiction is much lower than tobacco and alcohol.

5 April 2002 Friday
I'm going clubbing later!! weeeeeeeee! I've been looking forward for it, cant wait to see the Melbourne Shuffle! (a type of dance where Melbournelites clubbers dance)
My ears are ringing. The club is quite dead today but the dance (Melbourne Shuffle) was just fantastically fabulous. Seems like 90% of the patrons could do Melbourne Shuffle! The club, 'Sirens', is located back of Spencer St. Station and next to Colonial Stadium. And just like any other clubs in Melbourne, there's a dress code, a security check and a long queue. 'Sirens' has a really good security system, probably due to the fact there are loads of brawls, they have 4 to 5 vicious guards dogs that are ready to kill anytime. The dress code prohibits jeans (dark colour jeans are allowed though, I was wearing it) or shorts. And the security check was really embarrassing for me. The security officer had to detain me for a while so that I could remove everything from my pockets and unfortunately I had loads of coins in my pocket which took me quite some time to remove them all. As we enter the club (about 12 o'clock), the club was still dead, Ben bought me a drink (thanks for the drink, fucker!) and we sat down and enjoyed watching the Melbourne Shuffle! 'Sirens', an Asian filled patrons, have 2 rooms, the thumping hard house room and R&B aka CHEESY MUSIC (EUW!) room. However, the R&B rooms was the most popular with patrons, it was bloody pack in that room but the hard house room was pretty dead. After 3 hours of shuffling, we were pretty tired hence made our way back home.

6 April 2002 Saturday
Just like any other weekend time buster, I watched a movie today. Starred by the late singer Aaliyah, the Queen of the Damned was shit. I guess it's probably due to the fact that the movie was reconstructed after her death or it's just purely sulky. The movie is about vampires, vampires, Goths and Queen of vampires. The movie is also too unrealistic. It's just too sulky that I couldn't think of anything to criticize. But with respect, I think Aaliyah looks really good in the movie but her lines was just too short and simple, not even a long conversation (oh, her tits looks pretty small too :P)

7 April 2002 Sunday
I'm down with cold, cough and sore throat. I've been taking loads of medicine ranging from cough syrups to honey mixed water for my sore throat. Right after that, I had took a nap and woke up feeling better :P

8 April 2002 Monday
My girlfriend's housemate is damn calculative, she wants every bill that was charged for the time I'm here to be divided by three! At first, she demanded that I pay about 4 dollars for the dinner that she cook every alternate days. It was fine with me, but the portion is too small for me. At first it was all right with me, but to add salt to the wound, she demanded that the gas, phone and electricity bill to be divided by three! I'm not even gonna stay here for a month! She went on arguing that we could calculate it by days. #$@# Paying for the phone bill is reasonable cause I go online often but the gas bill and electricity bill is too much. She's making as if i have to pay every single kilowatts and volume that I used to bath? That incident was couple of days ago and i'm getting used to the idea of dividing bills and since my girlfriend said she wants to maintain a good relationship with her housemate. I went on thinking, 'well that's alright but as long she doesn't split the toilet roll bill into three'. But during dinner time today, SHE WANTS TO SPLIT THE TOILET ROLL BILL INTO THREE! $#$@$#@
Ben is leaving for Malaysia tomorrow. Take care man! Too bad you can't taste our Bailey's Cheesecake!
We cooked BahKutTeh today. We had mushrooms, meat, eggs and tau pok inside. yummy

April 10 2002 Wednesday.
The Australian Big Brother started 2 days ago. The show Big Brother is about a 12 people, male and female, put together in a house for 3 months, eliminated one by one until there's one left that will win the $250,000 prize. This season seems to be more interesting, there's more nudity involved and all the contestant are good looking.
I had lunch with Hon San and Keong (my girlfriend's friends who I had problem clicking with at first). I bumped into them while I was rushing to the arcade centre for my daily dose of arcade games. We headed straight to Chinatown and had lunch at this place called Dessert house that serves really good food. They have this really nice Japanese pancake where you can have a choice of putting meat, vegetables or something sweet such as whipped cream. Yummy!
We finally finished our Bailey's Cheesecake that we made last week. It was yummy :P
More than 200 people have been hanged in Malaysia since a mandatory death penalty was introduced for convicted drug traffickers in 1975.

11 April 2002 Thursday
I'll be watching The Puppetry of the Penis later tonight. Two guys will be folding their dicks into more than 40 shapes on the stage. And yes, I've paid $20 to see 2 guys playing with their dicks on stage. But apparently these guys are a big hit in Aussie. Every review that I've read gave really good rating about it. Such magnificent performance must not be missed.
I went for my girlfriend's psychology lecture just now. Very interesting. They even play videos during the lecture. aah, That makes me love Melbourne Uni even more. The uni is great, great facility, great designs etc. I was thinking of doing an exchange programme with Melbourne Uni during my third hence I did some research. I just surfed the University's website and found out that it's apparently possible. But then again, it seems like there's a clash between the semester dates. I have a choice of completing a semester during my summer holiday this year and graduate earlier than my friends or complete my 2nd semester for my third year at Melbourne University. Graduating early makes me doubtful about my future, what happens next? When can I apply the Bar examination? Do I need to waste time waiting for any semesters to start? I just mailed my dad and my tutor about it, i hope they could really advise me on this.
Puppetry of the penis was gross but yet amazing. Unbelievable shapes was done to the penis, theirs was damn elastic! The performance was at Melbourne forum, a nicely designed theatre. The show started with a female stand-up comedian who was really good. Her jokes were well equipped with her funny acts. Half an hour later, the 2 magnificent puppeteer draped in robes appeared. And soon, within minutes, they're naked. They started making impossible shapes that any reasonable human being cant do and everyone started laughing. They made shapes of kangaroos, ostrich, Eiffel Tower, hamburger, hotdog, mushroom, etc. I felt uneasy on my balls throughout the whole show, it's like I'm feeling the pain on what they're doing to theirs. euww. Anyway, it was a really good show. I really enjoyed it.
The best shape they ever did was sucking in their penis. It was completely gone! Few seconds later, the thing emerge out slowly while people gasp in disbelieve.

Puppetry of the penis

Those who went for POTP

Homemade Baileys Cheesecake

April 12 2002 Friday
I went for my girlfriend's ex housemate's birthday dinner just now. Jeannette treated us dinner @ Sharkfin house, a posh Chinese restaurant serving authentic Chinese food. We had roasted duck, lobster, beef, scallop and some really expensive seafood. I ate so much that I almost puked. The restaurant has couple of aquarium storing live sea creatures such as lobsters, crab, prawns and abalone. Live abalones are disgusting. It was clinging to the aquarium glass and you can see their flesh sucking on the glass. And some were overlapping each other as if they're sucking each other's flesh out. The dinner ended with birthday cake and fruits. Seems like everyone had a good time.
Melbourne University had a night market organised by some international student society. Just like the International Food Evening we had back in Uni Of Sheffield, but it's gradually smaller. They only have few food stalls and some miscellaneous stalls. There's this stall selling smoothies blended by a bicycle operated blender. I don't know how the blender works but probably it's by the electricity produced by dynamo attached on the bike. My girlfriend and her housemate are having a house warming party tomorrow. We will be having barbecue at a beach. Yeah!
I tried Gelati today. It tasted just like ice-cream. However, they have much more variety. I tried the ferrero crunch, honey crumble, café latte and tiramisu. The ferrero crunch tasted exactly like ferrero roche. The café latte was really good but the tiramisu tasted bad.

Jeanette's Birthday

13 April 2002 Saturday
The house warming function started with everyone gathering in our apartment. We sat down, chatted and had muffins. And soon ,precisely an hour, we headed out by foot and tram and some sat in Rio's car. Our initial plan of having it at the beach was cancelled due to rain and we changed it to Albert Park. Albert Park is also the Melbourne F1 track (it's also a park and it's open to public but not for racing of course). In the middle, there's a lake overrun with ducks, swans and seagulls. We had our barbecue just next to the lake on a sheltered pit. Our lamb, sausages, garlic bread, pancakes and chicken was really really tasty. The chicken was pre marinated and our lamb was marinated by our Chef of the day, Hon San. There were about 11 of us including my girlfriend's friends and her housemate's friends. The party was great, good food, everyone had a great time.
After the barbecue, we headed over to Kwok Hong's place by Rio's car. The remaining ones, about 8 of us, cramped ourselves into the car. In Kwok Hong's place, we had couple of drinking games. Everyone except my girlfriend's bunch (who headed back after the party) was there, and even Kwok Hong's Aussie housemate joined us. I drank so much that I puked few times. I had a dry gin, vodka, a little bit of here and there (mixing alcohol is really bad). I felt like shit in the end of the night but thank god, Rio (an Indonesian studying in RMIT) fetched us back home or otherwise we had to take the tram and train home. After everyone reached their limit, we had a game of truth or dare where you either choose truth or dare, choosing truth requires you to answer a question truthfully and dare requires you to do something that you're ordered to. Loads of secrets and shits were spilled out and since what happens in the apartment stays in the apartment, I shall not mention anything that happened except for my part. There was couple of occasion we had to remove our underwear and hang it somewhere. I had to remove my underwear and hang it outside the window. I was underwear-less the whole night. After couple of rounds, when I chose dare, I had to throw my underwear out from the window. And sadly, it was never to be found, my loyal pair of brown briefs was never to be seen again. About when everyone was too fucked to socialize, Rio fetched us home. We repaid him by inviting him to our apartment and made him a warm milo.

food!

BBQ gang

Rio's backseat

Rio & his underwear

Chow How his underwear

Zyne

Tram!

14 April 2002 Sunday
The day started with dim sum (Chinese breakfast with loads of authentic food) @ Sharkfin’s House with my girlfriend. Lovely.
I bought a Japanese phrasebook from a second hand shop for $5. It has loads of phrases for finding a hotel, shopping, watching Sumo wrestling match, accommodation, food etc. subararashii (wonderful) !
We headed to the interesting Melbourne museum. We were welcome by an 18.7m whale skeleton that was washed dead ashore couple of years back. The thing was so large that it took 8 years for the skeleton to be reconstructed from the time of it’s dead. The museum has plenty of galleries such as The Mind and Body Gallery, Forest Gallery, Australian Gallery and Evolution Gallery. The Mind and Body Gallery has exhibits of preserved human body parts (there’s even an exhibit of human sex organs) , medicine and biotech of Melbourne and a gallery of nude humans of all ages and races. The Evolution Gallery shows the development of life on earth. I’m always fascinated with the design of Trilobites, an ancient hard shell aqua life. I finally see one in real today. They had displays on the Aborigines’ art and hardships, as well as the history of Melbourne in the Australia Gallery. There was even a Neighbours (that sucky tv show) section!! I wrote my name, my girlfriend’s name, and my website on one of the makeshift playgrounds :) The Forest Gallery is just a forest with an owl in the middle of the museum. Nothing interesting. All I did was just eat ice cream there. Another thing that interests me is the exhibition of minerals. They displayed a shelf filled with absolutely beautiful minerals, I took a picture of Rhobochrosite, Carbonate from New South Wales (an oval shaped rock with layers of minerals) and flourite halide from China (a blue coloured rock with white crystals) and also the whole shelf.
After the museum closed, we headed to the IMAX theatre (it’s the biggest in the world) which is just next to the museum. We watched the Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure. The 1 hour movie tells the extraordinary true story of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated 1914-1916 British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. While never accomplishing its goal of the first crossing of the Antarctic continent, this expedition has become a larger-than-life testament to heroism and human endurance. The expedition was filmed by one of the crew members and a few remakes. Sir Shackleton’s ship, Endurance was stuck on the frozen sea at Walles Bay without contact with the outside world. The crew couldn’t bulge the ship but settled on the ship as their home while thinking of a way out. After 300+ days, due to the crushing ice, the ship collapsed. The crew, stranded in the middle of Antarctica, camped on the ice for couple of months but when their provision starts to run out, they had to make their way out back to civilisation. Although, the movie is just only an hour, it’s absolutely touching and brilliant.
We had pizza dinner @ Mark’s Place. Tangy chicken and marinara… yummmmmmy!!

Melbourne Museum

Minerals

Reflections

Whale skeleton

Chinese egg tart

15 April 2002 Monday
I spoke to an Exchange programme officer for University of Melbourne just now and it seems that it’s not possible to do an exchange with the university. Fortunately, I was given an alternative, which is much better, a study abroad programme with them. The study abroad programme is much beneficial. It’s much cheaper and it requires a lower academic requirement. I don’t need to pay Sheffield Uni fees but all I need to do is just pay $7750 ($7750 x 2.05 = RM15887.5) to University of Melbourne for a semester. In comparison of the fees I pay to Sheffield, I pay £7500 a year, which is equivalent to £3750 (£3750 x 5.4 = RM20250) a semester. It’s much cheaper. However, I still have to discuss it with my Uni first.
We cooked honey teriyaki today but it wasn’t that good probably due to the brand we ate. We put in 2 types of mushrooms, chicken and long beans.

Melbourne Uni

Melb. U Clock tower

Melb. U former law department

16 April 2002 Tuesday
I'm leaving Melbourne this Thursday evening. *sob*. The flight back will be a long one, most likely another 30 hours (which includes stopping in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Vienna Airport, London and a bus to Sheffield).
I went for my girlfriend’s Quantities method lecture just now. It was so boring that I feel asleep.
Today, I went for a stroll at a park with my girlfriend. We were supposed to take pictures of the Melbourne Art Tower and the Federation Arch (the controversial arch was criticised heavily due to it’s design, it’s like pick-up-sticks stuck into the arch) before boarding a train back to Windsor (the area where we are staying), however, ended up walking around the park. The large park is divided into few sections and has couple of tourist attraction such as the Shrine Of Remembrance, La Trobe House and The Botanical Garden. The Shrine Of Remembrance Museum is to commemorate those who perished in WWI, WWII and other miscellaneous wars (such as Korean, Malaya, Vietnam, Borneo - seems that all the wars that I mentioned are against the communist). We took loads of pictures around that area, including me clinging on a tree and posing on top of a statue that climbed on (I feel like a monkey today). We wanted to enter the Shrine but as we were about to reach there, an officer was lowering the Australia flag from a poll while the Australia anthem was playing. Apparently it was time to close. bah!

17 April 2002 Wednesday
I’m leaving for Sheffield tomorrow evening *sob* *sob* I’ve been trying to contact Ju Luen (we came here together) since last week but I cant get through his global roaming number. darn!
I finally entered to the Shrine of Remembrance. The shrine, build in 1934, has 3 floors, the crypt, the sanctuary and the balcony. Inside the sanctuary, a simple piece of dark marble (called the Stone Of Remembrance) lies below the floor level on which is carved the words “Greater Love Hath No Man” (The words are taken from the bible). The sanctuary is surrounded by 16 black polished columns that support the dome (made from a 300 million year old material, fossils can be seen on it). At 11 a.m. on November 11 each year (which mark the day where WWI ended), a ray of sunlight strikes through the roof to fall directly on the centre of the Stone of Remembrance. Moreover, a simulation of the event is played every day @ 11AM. We were fortunate to witness the simulated event. The simulation last about a minute (the original duration is about 4 minutes). A ray of light will be crossing the stone and highlights the word “Love” while the national anthem is playing.
http://www.shrine.org.au/
I spend my last night in Melbourne by having a late dinner with my gf and Ben at Yoyogi (a Japanese Restaurant @ Swanston Street). They serve really good salmon sushi and Una Don (Eel rice).
After dinner, we went for a drink @ Lin Contro with some of my ex A-Level coursemates (Irene, Kwok Hong, Yean Peng, Melody and Roaland). It was our last met up session. I guess the next time I’ll see them will be on July when I’m back @ Malaysia during summer. We had a lengthy chat until 11:30PM. It’s been a while since I talked to them, we did loads of catching up. Roaland fetched us back with his new ‘yellow’ Mitsubishi Lancer (even the sterling wheel was yellow). *sigh* I miss my friends.

Art Centre

Art Centre II

Federation Arch

Memorial Shrine

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