stakhui's Xanga

Change of address

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:04:52 GMT

I HAVE CHANGED MY ADDRESS.

MY NEW SITE IS AT BLOGSPOT.

Xanga sucks. Blogspot rocks.

Will cobble for food

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:56:29 GMT

"Work your lazy bum" card

Today is Friday - the day I dread and "siam" whenever possible. It is the day the instructor of Body Attack will make us suffer till the sun don't shine no more.

Thank my lucky stars my shoes got worn out. Bye bye instructor. haha

IT IS NOT AN EXCUSE!! I intended to go, and accept whatever punishment she vents out on me. I even brought my gear along to my office.

"But how can a carpenter work without his saw?"
"How can a chef cook without his wok?"
"How can a journalist write without his pen?"

Adhesive bond

As you can see, the picture clearly illustrates the damage inflicted by the instructor's harsh training week in week out. Imagine if you went barefooted?

All plastered up

I guess it can't be helped. My exercise regime would have to be postponed till next week.

Wait! There's another class tomorrow morning. Bugger.

Weekends ....

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:49:03 GMT

Yeah today is Friday yet again. Recent weekends have been spent loitering around the house. Maybe we'll check out the Thai Festival or the Surry Hills festival.

Ever since I've landed my ass here, I've noticed that there are 20 hours in a day and 6 days in a week. Explains why time goes by so swiftly. "Monday ... Friday ... Monday ... Friday ..."

Recently I had a hard time entering slumberland. No idea why. Last night I had to surf -read-play-watch-chat till 12+ (normally in pigland by 10+) before I managed to hit the sacks. I consider myself a pig who'll black out in mins of meeting the sheets. Why? Maybe there are too much stuff running around in my little head.

Check out these cute babies.

Isn't he adorable?

We were thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to buying him. It's a pure-breed Japanese Spitz for $700. But ....

- Rental contract states clearly, "NO PETS"
- We travel often
- Cost a bomb to board him when we're travelling

Been doing a lot of research of late in preparation for the big day. We'll definitely be getting some stuff on our trip to Thailand & HK. ( 42 days to go yippie! )

Pondering lots about the future too. Where to settle down? Kuching? Singapore? Australia? KL? Each has their pros and cons respectively.

So much to consider .... so little time. It's little wonder I'm insomniac.

Dictionary Page 2

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:43:46 GMT

5. Engender

create, produce, stimulate

"His racial slurs will engender hatred and anger among the community."

6. Epitomize

symbolise, represent

"This meadow epitomizes the beauty of this region."

7. Quintessentially

typically, essentially

"His designs are quintessentially British."

The odd & quirky world

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:18:10 GMT

Female ninjas throwing shurikens

Oh my god. Kawaii desu

The annual ninja festival which is held at the Japanese city of Iga. It attracts 30,000 ninja fans and is renowned for its ninja-inspired dance performances, competitions and opportunities to practise ninja skill...

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I wonder if you can turn the pages by yourself?

World's largest album - measuring 4m X 3m and weighing 1000 kilograms.

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Tiny Jyoti, smallest girl in the world ....

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The 1st Red Bull Flugtag in Sydney. I feel like kicking myself for missing out on this. Truth be told I was left in the dark on this awesome event held last week.

Dictionary Page 1

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:24:38 GMT

Recently I had been reading up blogs and stuff and realize that my command of English good as I assumed.

The way I read, is swift. Enough to get the main information portrayed but insufficient to soak up the "power" words.

Let me give an example.

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Last night, I was invited for drinks by a few expat managers, who were strangely mostly female. They brought me to a club, in a part of this China town I had never seen before. I had no idea why they asked me out, and I expected them to ask me for a favour.

Inside the club, they ordered a bottle of red wine which surprised me because nobody drinks red wine in a club right? Then I got another shock when the waiter proceeded to mix the red wine with a few other mixers to create a concoction of frooty-tooty red wine.

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I get the general idea of the text, but tend to overlook the descriptive sections.

In order to brush up on my English, I will start a "power" dictionary and try to utilize them whenever possible.

1. Vehement

strongly emotional; intense or passionate

"He declared vehemently that he loved his wife, but the peer pressure was just too great."

2. Pseudonym

alias

3. Ubiquitous

ever present, everywhere

"The ones who solicit duit kopi in return for being let off a traffic offence – they are aplenty and ubiquitous."

4. Unperturbed

undisturbed, composed, at ease

"They are the most brazen and unperturbed by public opinion."

Happy Birthday to me ...

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:07:03 GMT

I had to use the calculator to get my age as I'm typing this. Hmmm.... so I'm 26 this year.

Went down to have Japanese Buffet for AUD$25.00 pp.

Coincidentally it was Earth Hour after we finished dinner.

I had expected it to be really dark, with only headlights illuminating the streets. But it was just slightly dimmer than usual. Even my blur as sotong housemate who didn't know about Earth Hour didn't realize the difference in lighting. So did it work?

If it did, the reduction in energy usage would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road - for an hour.

Thanks to my baby for the home made cake.

The next day we had steamboat. Look at all the chillies It was just Medium Hot and we already ended up with sausage lips.

Thanks sis.

Thanks babe.

Equal rights for everyone ...

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:31:03 GMT

including dogs!

So allow dogs into supermarkets!!!

"I have been a good boy. Why doesn't mummy take me into the shops? I want lollies, and a cheese cake"

He was sooooo cute. I assumed it was a "he" because it was too charming and adorable to be a bitch.

"Ali Baba" - kena conned

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:40:51 GMT

This is a true story of a man, driven by ambition, blinded by greed and got himself smacked in the face.

I have been working here for 6 months, and my working hours are quite short. I used to enjoy knocking off early, and heading home to do nothing but laze around. Initially it was truly enjoyable but you tend to start feeling useless after a while, plus recent plannings have required me to present a sizable amount of cash in 14 months time. I can't do magic, nor can I rob a bank, my next best alternative is to get a part time job.

So I started my search through job websites, newspapers and posters at notice boards. Something simple like a cashier/waiter would get me at least $10/hr. 4 hrs a night 5 days a week you do the maths.

I searched high and low, through every possible manner but still turned out empty handed. My main obstacle was my lack, or rather absence of job referees, (those from Singapore aren't accepted). I was on the brink of desperation and in a state of wild delirium even considered putting the name of my current work Manager as my referee.

I was about to give up .... until I saw this ad.

Seriously? AUD$50/hr?

It seemed too good to be true and I just sent in my application for curiousity's sake.

Few days later I got a reply.

I was ecstatic, it seemed legitimate, at least to me because we had a similar coordinator that helped us when we initially arrived in Sydney. The "con" word never crossed my mind.

The only strange part is the fact that his email is from gmail. Even a small company would be using their own domain and refrain from using free mail services such as hotmail, yahoo & gmail. I convinced myself that his company is new and hadn't had time to setup the email services yet.

6-10 students every month *Ka Ching*

Then one week later at work, I received a overseas call from XXX company that asked me to check my email.

Improper english...

"Where got so big female frog everywhere jump?" was my immediate reaction. (Translated from Cantonese proverb)

I immediately checked my bank account, lo and behold there was AUD$2050 starring me back right in the face. "Is this for real?"

I pondered my options, and made up my mind within 5 secs. The AUD$300 sped up the whole process. I sent the money as instructed.

The following day ....

Getting paid twice to meet students on the same flight is like eating 2 bowls of Kolo Mee but paying for 1.

Without a moment's hesitation I was at the Western Union office again.

You know how a young kid would fiddle his new toy? Same goes for me as I kept checking my bank account, thrilled beyond words.

All was jolly and well. Everyone was supposed to live happily ever after. Until that night, when I checked my bank account and was greeted with ....

Wtf?

A call to the bank promptly confirmed my suspicions. My account had been frozen for accepting "stolen money". My mind froze when I heard that phrase.

Long story short. I ended up...

- meeting Constable King from Maroubra Police Station.
- having to cough back the hard earned AUD$600
- explaning to the bank staff
- closing & opening my accounts
- broken soul and no dignity

Come to think of it. The signs were obvious to many but oblivious to me.

- Improper use of English. (He's from Europe, I think they speak French rather than English)
- Gmail account. (New company, have yet to setup mail system)
- Ridiculously good pay ($50/hr, minimum 4hrs per trip + $100 for transport)
- He's in Poland. Why transfer money from Poland-Aus-Poland?

At the end of it all, I'm just glad I didn't lose any money. But the fact remains that ....

*sigh*

Bye Bye

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:14:00 GMT

Last week we had a BBQ luncheon to bid my colleague farewell. As usual we ate, drunk & was merry till 2:00+, that's 1/4 of the work day gone. It's a good thing I'm not an workaholic.

2nd floor open air BBQ area with a decent grass flooring.

They used to associate BBQ with summer, but I beg to differ. To me, BBQ is best done when the weather is turning colder, the indescribable feeling of gaining warmth by putting your hands nearer to the fire.

That way more people will volunteer to cook rather than just stand and wait for food.

There were chicken and lamb skewers, and plenty of hot dogs (they call them BANGERS)

And of course not forgetting plenty of wine ....

and enough beer to feed the thirsty dogs last a year.

Enjoy your retirement Carmel!