Farewell childhood, hello adulthood

With a blink, I’ve reached adulthood. 21 years old is no longer teenager or kid. I am proud to say I am an ADULT now! But sometime my face still looks like an adolescent, because of the stupid pimples... Well anyway, I managed to go through highschool, pre-University course (Cambridge A-Level) and should be able to get my degree soon.

Highschool passed by in cloud nine. Didn’t know and care anything much besides my school-band. I was so into my band that I had practice sessions almost everyday. I remembered that one of my Form teacher told my mom during the Parent Day that I go for band way too much and that might disrupt my studies (for my PMR, forgotten what it is called). Well I am lucky I did well for that public exam and managed to get into Science Stream. In highschool, besides going for tuition classes, all I do was band activities, street soccer, and hang out with bandmates and friends. Those days I was a real computer idiot. Computer wasn’t an important thing in my life, I can live without it.

Then it was A-Level. Met heaps of crazy people, and we called ourselves A-Level Monkey. Our A-Level was 1 year course (others were 11/2 or 2 year course) but we played almost the whole year, until the last minute only we started study. Still remember the barbeque party in Hooi Yee’s house right after our trial exam, which was about 1 month before our real exam. Had the blast of time at that time and with sweet memories that none of us will ever forget!

Finished my A-Level without any As, but enough point to go to a decent university. Hehehe. In the beginning, I didn’t plan to go to Monash University to do my Bachelor of Science (Biotechnology), thinking it is very expensive. Was appealing to my home court for going to New Zealand for Bachelor of Psychology, but lost because the Dad Judge rejected me the appeal. Instead of Otago University in New Zealand, I was given a choice to study in Bangkok University, Thailand… At the end of last court case, I was finally shove to University Tunku Abdul Rahman, and I personally don’t like it there. Why? No high-tech machineries, no good laboratory facilities, no good computer laboratory facilities, and the most important thing; the units that we study are not I want. Electives weren’t electives that you can choose freely from all the faculties. They were set and you need to take it no matter you like it or not.

Can’t take it after 1 semester, and when I heard my sister is not going to RMIT to study, I immediately negotiated with my dad about Monash. There wasn’t a big talk over our home court, and my dad judge passed my appeal with some teeth grinning of my opponent sister.

Monash University is really my correct choice! I got the freedom to choose my electives and good facilities. After all, I did not go away from my public highschool just to be stuck in some kind of Asian-you-must-do-or-die-units in university. I went in Monash with my two friends who later become my best friends. I also met heaps of new friends from all around Malaysia. I was no longer looking forward to go oversea to study but instead was looking forward to graduate with them, until one day; my aunt from Australia came back and generously sponsoring me for my final year of university. I was very confused that time… My family wasn’t the rich one, just enough for me to survive in Malaysia, but to go Australia, I will be giving heaps of burden. That time was directly 1 year ago, around Christmas. Finally I was given a green-light to go Aus to continue my one year study. I can tell my sister wasn’t too happy about this… During 2005-2006 summer holiday, I was working in Seapack Food Pty, which was my internship. Right after my internship, we (the whole family) went for China/Macau/Hong Kong trip. Came back 1 week after my semester started. That semester was my 2^nd year 2^nd semester, trying my best to do good because I will be going over to Aus. The whole semester was in a rush. Rushing to do my applications, my visa, my body check-up, my plane tickets, etc.

Once everything was settle, got the flight date I wanted for, 1^st of July; I rushed back to my hometown, Penang. I only spend 10 days at home, half of the time I was out hunting for good foods, meeting my friends, and just sit at home with my family. The day of my departure, I did not cry a single tear. I thought I will cry like a baby before I leave my family and friends, but I didn’t. Sat in the plane all by myself is a good feeling. Hehe.

Anyway reached Aus, and the next day I was out and about. Went out to find my good friend, Joce, that day was her birthday. Look around this unfamiliar world all by myself. Scared? No way, I done that many times when I went to China all by myself in early 2005. After 1 week in Melbourne, it was time for me to see my campus, Gippsland. When I reach Churchill, the first thing I do was, jaw-dropping. It was so kampong that I can hear cows moo-ing outside my room. There weren’t much of the mall, one supermarket selling groceries and some restaurants. That’s all…

After 2 months of staying in that place, I finally get the heck of it. Wasn’t that bad, I can do all kinds of sports that I cannot do back at home, such as jogging. I met heaps of nice people all around the world and some good local Aussie friend! I organised a Farewell Steamboat Party with my housemates and we had a blast of time over there. I was lucky to be able to move into that house, with less noisy monster! I was also very lucky to be able to see the outside world when I reached adulthood, 21 years old. In the first 2 months, I was counting the days I since I’ve reach Aus. But after October, because of the Final Exam, I stopped counting it and now it is half a year already, since I reached Aus. This half a year, I travelled to all kind of places, Daylesford for spring water, Air Force at Sale, Great Ocean Road, Philip Island, etc etc.

After 1 year of non-stop working, I finally get my 2 weeks holiday (which was the longest in this year, 2006). Going to bid farewell 2006 with more travelling (this time to Adelaide!). Should be back on New Year Eve and wave goodbye to 2006 in Melbourne and wave goodbye to childhood into adulthood! Hoping for the best next year, much of stuffs in front of me and I really need some luck! Just want to be a better person and be all rounder (but not stomach round)!

Food that I had in Melbourne Australia

Lentil As Anything - one of the vegetarian restaurant which you pay according to your guilt!

After coming over here for half a year (can u imagine how time flies?) I’ve tried almost every kind of food that Melbourne’s restaurants offer! Okay let’s list down what food I had. (People please don’t kill me for this entry)

Chinese Foods (of course)

• Dim sums
• sweet and sour pork/chicken
• Peking duck
• China style stirred fried chicken
• Shanghai dumplings
• Etc. etc.

Malaysian Foods

• Nasi Lemak in KL Café, Acland Street, St. Kilda
• Char Kuey Teow
• Mee Goreng

Japanese Foods

• Sushi (only for now)

Vietnamese Foods

• Chargrilled chicken, spring rolls with vermicelli in Mekong Restaurant, Swanston Street
• Spring rolls in Huy Huy Restaurant, Footscray
• Some kind of Fue in Huy Huy Restaurant as well
  

Chargrilled chicken and spring rolls on vermicelli in Mekong Restaurant

Indian Foods

• Murtabak (a bit Malaysian-ish) in Bishmi
• Roti Teluk
• Hare Krishna’s Vegetarian Foods

Aussie Foods

• Fish and Chips
• Roasted Chicken
• Stew Rabbits from The Farmers Arms, Daylesford
• Normally this stuffs. There is no Chicken Chop or something
• If it is really authentic Aus foods, they tasted weird…

Italian Foods

• Gelati/Gelato in Il-dolce Ice cream shop
• Chicken Parmagiana in La Porchetta
• Potato Gnocchi (pronounced as Nee-oo-ki) with mushroom source in La Porchetta
• Uncountable pizzas

Russian Foods

• Chicken Kiev

Greek Foods

• Souvlaki

Turkey Foods

• Kebab

Arabian Foods

• Doro Wot in Awash
• Some foods that I have no idea what they are called.
  

Some mixture of dishes from Awash Arabian Restaurant

Exotic foods for my 21st Birthday! I am a Cantonese, what do you expect?!

Exotic Foods

• Crocodile in Dragon Boat Restaurant, Chinatown
• Emu in Dragon Boat
• Kangaroo (cooked by myself in South8 residential house!)
• Quails in The Farmers Arms, Daylesford
  
  
  
  

how lucky are we

Was watching some series and they were talking about handicap people who have no choice of perfection, because they were born with such features.

Some of my friends, once reached 21, have already started shouting ' I am OLD........' or people started losing their hair and think 'WHY am I so UNLUCKY to have such losing-hair-genes'... No matter how UNLUCKY we were (stepping on shyte, pouring when you do not have a umbrella, pimples bloom, etc.etc), we are not as unlucky as those who could not survive after 6months from birth. Those who are slightly luckier than the blue baby, will face their life with uncountable discrimination...

How good can it be, with a biological clock ran faster than Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell (fastest sprinter) and when he/she is in teen, the face already looked like an old lady/man - Progeria Syndrome...How good can it be, with extra chromosome 21 which causes you to look like a Mongolian and be mentally retarded - Down/Mongolian Syndrome. Someone I know has Down Syndrome. He is the same age as me, but he could never go to normal school, don't ever think of University...Now all he does is sit at home and play around the house. The worse part is that his family members are the one who are being discriminated...That is endless burden to the family members, both from the public and himself...

Having a good, perfect 10 fingers and toes is a bless. Look at those who has Lobster claw Syndrome. How can they type as fast as we could? Asian always complaining they are short, short short. But what about the Dwarf people? They are small size but do you know their organs are the same size as us? Only the bones are small....This means when the organs grow, they will have a hell of a time...Unbearable pain from the inside...

Maybe they have done something wrong in their past life? Not enough good deeds for the uncountable Karma? Maybe Jesus was testing the faith for Him? Maybe Lord Krishna was around? Whether is the God's fault or not, these syndromes are the real test for life. People have yet fully accept the handicaps and discrimination is high in every corner. Having people staring at your hands or face because they are different, is not a good encounters. Some where even orphans, so deformed that the parent just turn them back to the hospital....

Having such a good features with us, what more are we asking for? Please be grateful and don't think and look inside the box. When you are suffering, there were heaps more enduring the unbearable suffers...Be Grateful
Name and relationship are unwritten for privacy and protection. Pictures are not included as well. To know better about those syndromes, please Google them with your perfect hands.

Bushfire!!!!!!!

This time around, Australia is always almost covered by bushfire... This bushfire happen almost every year, until those who stay in the regional place know the tactic of 'shoo-ing' the bushfire away.

One of my friend, Ben (B.Webb from Post grad Science) recently told me how they channel the fire and let the fire go around the house! What a brilliant idea. At first I thought it was impossible, but most of those people in the country do that, by putting off fire around the house. They definitely need to continue doing that non-stop and by looking at my friend's size, I am sure they can do it. He is double my size and about 3 feet taller than me....

Oh Okay. Speaking of bushfire, some people might wonder why this happens everywhere... In Biological Science term, the eucalyptus tree which is only found in Oz has volatile oil which excretes out during summer and due to the oven hot weather, burn is easily ignited. What fascinating about these trees are they have seedling which could only germinate when they were subjected to heat and fire! The studous parent tree basically need to burn to death only to let the offspring out! Touching. Hahaha

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Oh while we were in the story with the name of Ben, let me tell you all something.
There are heaps of Ben in Australia. It is like John in US, the most common name. I know like 4 of them, all in Aus. Although Ben Ho is not an Aussie, but he is in Aus. He is counted in as well. Hehehe. There is two Bens from Science, one Post grad and another is only Under grad (Ben HO/Who?. hehehe). Then there is Ben from Arts and then there is Ben from don't know which faculty but stayed in South3. There is another Ben from some other place and currently crashing over my friend's house. How many Ben is in Aus? I wonder...

Okay enough of crapping, time to watch Nip/Tuck Season4!!!!The story getting so so complicated, I starting to dislike it...........

Tribute

Hurrah

Finally finished renewing my template again!
This time I am more daring and change the whole blog setting with my lousy html knowledge!
Thanks to those who donate 'I might be charged with plagarism' the picture and background. Search high and low for those...Very proud with my new blog!!!!Hehehe

And last but not least need to thanks those who helped me out (finding Photoshop software and remind me of how silly I am, that I can do my title with just Paint...)

There you go, Life Your Life to the Fullest with Melbourne/City Theme!!!!

Cheers
Lex

Crazy Weather

Okay I am going to be short for today. Heaps of things to do, just suddenly I thought of telling you people about this crazy weather of Oz. Now I am freezing cold because the weather is only 11degree. Cold huh?! Wait!!!!!Want to know how 'cold' was yesterday? 44degree in the afternoon...I basically baked inside my room (room temperature around 34degree, and it is oven dry hot). This biggest changes in weather/temperature I ever experienced. 33degree difference.....

Wait wait wait. Yesterday as I've said it was 44 degree in the arvo, what about night? 22degree. That was the biggest changes in a day for me man...Once the sun go down, the oven stops!, and come in the cold air in a seconds......What can I say, Oz, especially Victoria has this say that goes like this 'Don't like the weather? Wait for awhile'. And it is correct. One minute it was pouring, another minute it stops completely and there is sun... It hailed heavily outside and I cannot go out? I waited for 3 more minutes and clear sky with stong sunlight is out. Don't like it? Too sunny? wait again, it will soon drizzle again!Then then, wait again, you might get the wind that is so strong that it feels like it could blow away your roof!

Trying to adapt this weather, and hoping for the best and the night to come. Tomorrow will be the same, the weather forecast said it will be sunny with temperature around 7-22degree...Well better than I need to barenake and oven bake until goldenbrown and ready to eat.

You people might not believe me, saying the weather forecast might be wrong (like Malaysian's), but believe me! I have a thermometer outside my room (at my window) and a thermometer in my room)!!!

Nostalgia - Penang Food

Recently one of my friend (Ms Huiru Lim) went to Penang and took all the Penang good foods pictures.....Drooling now....
What food I missed the most? Okay okay this is the list!

• Wan tan Mee (my number 1!)
• Ookyo (some hokkien drinks with jelly in it)
• Char Kuey Teow
• Char Kuey Kak
• Hokkien Mee (The prawn mee for those outside penang)
• Tai Lok Men (The Hokkien mee for those outside penang)
• Curry Mee
• Mee Goreng (has be to Mamak made)
• HongKong style Chee Cheong Fun
• Lam Mee
• Loh Mee
• Grilled Chicken (siew kay yet, ngo chung yi sek)
• Belacan Chicken (Will hunt for these even after midnight, when my saliva start to overfeel)
• Tambun Pia
• OoChien (Fried Oyster)
• Nasi Lemak
• Belacan Kangkung (over in Oz, Kangkung was sold $8 per kg....means RM24 per kg. Wth...)
• Belacan Fried Rice
• Chicken Cordon Bleu
• Chicken Chop
• Satay
• Char Siew, Siew Yuk
• Loh Bak
• Lok Lok
• Chuu Hu EngChai (Cuttlefish Water Spinach)
• Hainan Chicken Rice
• Bak Kut Teh
• Tu Kah (Deep Fried Pig Leg)
• Dim Sum
• Ambla SumPui (Ambla is fruit)
• Cendol
• Tambun seafoods
• Otak Otak
• Chau Yee Min
• Sa Pou Min/ Nga Pou Min
• Grilled Fish
• Tau Fu Fah
• See Kua Teng
• Ak Bah Muai
• Swatau Lane's Ice Kacang
• Rojak
• Kuey Teow Thing

Drooling Drooling. This is only the Hawker foods

Then of course here come the restaurant foods

• Vietnam Kitchen (something similar to Mekong in Swanston Street, Melb)
• House of Padington (they said it will be having a branch in Queensbay Mall, Penang)
• Kim Gary HongKong Restaurant
• Secret Recipe

Oh Dope, the whole floor is flooded with my drools....Better stop now.

Hopefully can find some pictures and post it here

Malaysia Boleh?

Malaysia Boleh! Is the shout for Malaysian in Malaysia. (means Malaysia can). I in particularly never said such thing out loud and proud...When I use this phrase, my Exclamation mark (!) will be replaced with Question mark (?) and when I talk bad about my own country. Hehehe

What can I say? Malaysian really BOLEH spend their money on useless stuffs, tallest building with empty offices, useless connection of bridges, heaps amount of traffic light in 1 straight road(about 13 of them...can u imagine that?). So where does this money come from? Of course from the petrol they extractedLAH. Overcharging the citizen with petrol, when it should be much more less...

They also very BOLEH in dividing everything racially. Malays should be included in every company in Malaysia and they should be in as high post as possible. WTF? Malays will get financial aids for parenting. WTF? In a public unversity, quota for Malays is 70%, no matter how stupid they are, and with loans. WTF? Malays do not need tax in PizzaHut. WTF?

Where is the Chineses and Indians? Ain't them Malaysian as well? What do they get?
Oooooh they get heaps apparently. They get to pay taxes which in turn goes to the Malays as financial aids. They get to be unemployed and get nothing.

Almost 90% of my chinese friends would not like to go back Malaysia to work. Will they find a job, this is another question. About half of my Malaysian friends in Oz will like to stay back for Oz Permanant Resident and work in Oz. Or they will go Singapore to work.

Maybe after another decades, there might be no more Chinese in Malaysia. Will Malaysia survive with that? I have no idea. Let's wait and see!

Adult/Bloke Magazine

Aus FHM (left) and Malaysia FHM (right). See the difference?)

Well, I guess my blog is starting to be a boring place...So am I...Okay need to change something. Let's talk about something fun (for the guys) and something for the gal to stare and be disgusted (or excited!)

Over here in Oz, people are so open that they could sell Adult magazine legally. Even Bloke/Lad magazine consisted of high degree of nudity! This will never happen in Malaysia. People in Malaysia are just so conservative (or only the Malays) that even FHM which is a bloke magazine will only show gal in sexy clothes. By clothes I mean a skirt/dress/t-shirt & jeans/etc etc. Over here each model in FHM magazine wear only bras and panties/ bikini!
We are quite lucky to have some FHM magazine anyway. Hehehe. Be grateful!!

Adult stuffs are everywhere in Oz or oversea. Adult shop, Adult section for the Video Renting Shop, Adult section for bookshop, etc etc. Guys I know what are you thinking now (your evil grins showed across the screens....) Bare in mind that custom in Malaysian Airport are very strict on that and IF you get caught with those....No idea what is the consequences and don't want to know as well!

Where my future lies?

These few days, I've had some up and down moments. These up and down moments always related to my future. Where will it lies? Well I'm very unpredictable, so is my future UNPREDICTABLE like Australian weather (cited from My Aunt, 2006).

First up moment will be when my supervisor Kirsten Shliephake (or Kirsten only) told me that people in Australian Sustainable Industiral Research Centre (ASIRC) are very impressed with my work and my enthusiasm! She added that if I want to do honours, she can help me find more scholarships from ASIRC as well as other companies!!!!Hurrah!!!!

Then down moment will be when I get my results. It is not a complete down, but I am a bit disappointed with Environmental Microbiology which only get low credit (C)... You need at least high credit (65-69) average to be appointed with honours programme. Hopefully next year they will be more lenient to those wanting to apply for honours.

After a few days of down, I've got a up moment again! This research I am currently doing, might be just an introduction to a possible 1 Year Honours programme (of course I will be the one doing it, because I've started it). Kirsten was saying this Third Year research will be a carrot luring the Transfield Service people in giving us grants in doing the 1 Year research more related to Biodegradation! At the same time, my down is that this research project will be more related to Instrumental Analysis than Microbiology.

No worries, all I need to do is score well for the coming Industrial and Food Microbiology unit, with hopefully enough Distinction for my other units to enable me for Honours Application and enough MONEY for my Honours. But for now, I need to enjoy my summer!!!

PS: You might be wondering, why this idiot suddenly want to take up Honours? The answer is: I am trying to get Aussie PR which need you to study in Oz for at least 2 years.... Why not go back Malaysia? Sorry I am not a patriot and I don't think the Chinese in Malaysia is treated they way they should. But partly will be the money. How much I've spent in Oz, could not covered up if I work in Malaysia.....