Day 1 of Year 5

My very first final year posting: self study!!! I think it's more like an extension of my holidays, which is not good at all. I spent the entire day watching tv, playing games, and writing this post. Its a bit funny to be talking about my Sydney elective again right now but I promised to put up the photos which were taken during that period... so here they are (pics)!!! Once again, the pics were selected from a million photos for your viewing pleasure.

Some of the photos were taken by the girls as my camera ran out of memory. I didn't have the foresight to bring the cable to upload the photos into my laptop as I did not think that I would be taking so many photos. I realised I was wrong on Day 2 when we went to Sydney Opera House - I just kept snapping away...

Just a bit on the girls' nice apartment: it was neat and tidy, carpeted and looked pretty new. The girls tidied up the apartment before we arrived, so I think our dropping by got them really busy. And besides, the spaghetti, salad and brownies which we had were all prepared by them. My job was simple: to buy wine from our secret stash which we chanced upon on one of our many walks in the dark, and to get the roasted chicken from Woolworths (supermarket). As I didn't know anything about wine, I asked some of the ward doctors for "wine which is easy to drink" and that's how I got the names Merlot and Chardonnay. Rose (Ro-seh) was suggested by my friend who is currently working in Paris (she'll be back soon though), so I guess being in an ang-moh country does increase your knowledge about alcohol. We didn't manage to finish all the wine that night (myself, KY, WS and SH were the main drinkers), thus we went back one week later to finish it. This time we bought pizza from Pizza Hut and potato salad from Coles (another supermarket). By the way, among the 3 girls, Ruth enjoyed drinking the most... I was surprised that she did not drink a sip of the left-over wine by herself and that the bottle was left unopened the 2nd time we got there. =p

There are many pictures on the food we ate... everything there tasted really good and the portion was really big as well. Take the ice-cream we had for example. The bowl used to contain the ice cream was roughly the size of the girls' heads! The great tasting food we had daily added much enjoyment to our Sydney experience.

K... that's about it... hopefully I can get some self-studying done tomorrow... although I'm still not sure what to study. Despite this being the 1st day of my final year, I still miss Sydney - I wonder when this holiday mood will finally come to an end...

My laptop

Something is wrong with my laptop. Whenever I put on graphic intensive stuff or when I open many windows, a blue screen appears, and my laptop hangs. It used to occur only occassionally but now, whenever I try to play this MMORPG game called GE, the stupid blue screen appears 5 minutes into the game. Besides this, my cd/dvd drive is not able to read the pictures which Qichang burnt for me (in a dvd), and before you assume that her dvd is spoilt, it is not. It works perfectly fine on my sis's laptop. (Weird thing is my disc drive works fine for cds etc...) Yep, so I am not able to upload those photos yet, not till I get this stupid laptop fixed.

Minutes to Midnight, the new Linkin Park album rocks btw. It has less screaming and more singing... which is a nice change to their style, although I enjoy the screaming too. The more I listen to it, the more I like it, so I'll give it a 9/10.

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day.

My sis and I bought a polo t for him. And we decided to dabao (take away) crab and stingray back home for dinner. We wanted to get the famous black pepper crab from Eng Seng (corner of junction of Still Rd and Joo Chiat), which we tried twice before and it was really good. For those who have not tried it, the black pepper sauce is heavenly! It is thick and you do not see the black pepper... it is ground up nicely... and it tastes a little sweet too. And the crab is huge!!! and juicy, and fresh.

Anyway, there is this crab aunty who has a bad temper there. She talks to you in a nasty, inpatient tone, so you gotta watch out for her. Today, I tried calling them at 5pm but the line was busy. I tried again after a few minutes, but the line was still busy. This went on for around 20 minutes and I finally got thru on my way home from my gf's place. A man answered the phone and this was wat happened:

Man: Hello!!!
Me: : Hey! Can I reserve 2...
Man: Pan Xie Mai Wan le!!!!!!!!!!!! (Crabs are sold out!!!!!!!!)
~Ch-kik (hung up)
Me: Huh?
Me: Hello? Hello?

Conclusion, crab uncle oso nasty.

So I decided to get the famous nai you pan xie (milk butter crab) from Defu Lane, but I couldnt find the tel no. of the restaurant. I parked my car by the side of the road and called my gf, asking her to help me order 2 crabs and a bbq stingray.

From what my gf told me later... this was their conversation:

Man2: Hello?
Gf: Hi... can I order 2 butter crabs?
Man2: Sure... but you can collect it only at 630pm
Gf: Ok... Can I order hung he (bbq stingray in hokkien)
Man2: Huh?! What?
Gf: Can I order stingray?
Man2: Huh?! We don't have stingray! I've never heard of anyone over here selling stingray before!!!! (in chinese)

Conclusion, all crab uncles and aunties are either nasty or sacarstic.

In the end, I had to get my stingray from a coffeeshop near my house. I called them and told them that I'll collect the stingray at 645pm (after I collect the crabs) and they said ok. Everything went smoothly from going home first to bathe, driving to Defu Lane to collect the 2 crabs and man tou (fried buns), and driving to the coffee shop, reaching there at exactly 645pm.

This was what happened there:

Me: Hey, I'm here to collect my stingray.
Auntie: Huh? U ordered mehz?
Me: Er... ya? 645pm?
Auntie went to check some greasy paper stuck to the stall board and yes, my order was there. The girl who answered the call earlier didn't inform any1 else about the order. zzzzzzz... and I had to wait 25 mins for the stingray to be ready.

Final conclusion, today is not a lucky day for me. =0

Bear pics

Some of those who have seen my previous post on Sydney told me that the bear in the room was really cute. We actually took pics of most of the rooms in that B&B place in the Blue Mountain, so here they are. Sorry if the way the pics were grouped together looked like some of the pics in Qichang's blog which I read last night... this is the only way I know how to do it for now, 'till my friend teaches me how to use photoshop. One of the rooms had a bear with a white looking creature in its lap, which I assumed it to be a weird looking rabbit. All the rooms looked really comfy and cosy and warm, like those described in fantasy books, and if anyone is looking for an accommodation and wants to stay in this place, you can email me. I'll give you the contacts for an exchange of a token sum of 5 dollars. =p

Here are some other pics from the place...

The exterior, which looked abit old... but that's where the rustic charm lies...

The entrance...

The dining room with a fireplace...

A candle and a chess set in the common room. The candle is the type that when lit, the wax in the inside will be used up, leaving the picture on the outside intact.


Outside on a foggy day... that was the day when it started to rain. The picture on the right looked as if it had been snowing outside, but nope, no chance of snow so early into winter.

Yep... I'm waiting to get other pics from Qichang's laptop before I can post them up. Seeya!

Sydney - warning: long post ahead (links to pics in the last para)

As many of you would have known, I left home for Sydney on 5th May, and came back just recently on 10th June. Besides having my flight delayed on my way there as well as on the way back, the entire trip was... i cant find the right word... charming.

First of, the weather there was so much better than that warm, humid, walk-5-metres-and-you-sweat kindof climate I've been used to back at home. It got colder throughout the time I was there and I thoroughly loved it. The taxi to my hostel (a mere 20 minute ride) on the very 1st night brought me back by $19 AUD (about $24 SGD)... and it was shared!!! The total cost was $38 AUD, and I'm sure the taxi driver cheated us. When I arrived at the hostel, I was a little disappointed as I was used to staying in a clean place. The hostel looked old, tattered and torn, dim... too bad I forgot to take a pic of that place, but the people running the place were friendly enough, and I guess that made it more tolerable. Anyways, I got used to it after awhile.

I forgot to mention that I went to Sydney for my overseas elective. I was posted to the gastro department of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. My friend, KY, who went with me, was in the respi department. Yes, that meant that on times when the docs were not free to have lunch, I had it alone. Well, I never do that in Singapore - I would rather skip lunch then be seen in the school canteen alone eating. The food in the cafeteria there was kindof bad though, especially the vegetarian noodles, which felt like chewing plastic - bland and hard. Luckily McCafe was nearby and I learnt to enjoy some Deli sandwiches which were available there. Moving away from the lunch topic, 5 other med students went to Sydney, but they applied for a different hospital, so we met up only on weekends and when we were invited for dinner at the apartment which 3 of em are staying in. Yep... apartment. I kindof envied their place, as a couple of weeks into my elective, i started getting bitten by bed bugs. The bites become erythematous (red) and pruritic (itchy)... which was irritating, and that really sucked big time. I tried wrapping myself in the blanket from neck to toe, and that worked initially. After a few days, I assume that the bugs had somehow learnt to wriggle under my cover, as I found new bite marks on my arms and legs.

Anyway, the elective at RPAH was good. The docs were friendly. The conditions seen were not really seen back in sg. On a "good" day, there were 2 UCs and 1 Crohn's... how cool was that?!

I was looking forward to 1st June. That was the day where my mum, sis and gf would come to Sydney for a holiday! (My dad had to stay at home as my grandpa was not feeling well... )Although I didn't mention earlier in this post, I really missed em. Lucky for the invention of the webcam, the wait was better. I was webcamming with my gf almost daily during my elective, and on some days with my family. The day finally arrived, but before I went to the airport to pick them up, I had to check-in to the apartment. The place was near my hostel, so I decided to walk there, which was a horrible decision. I had to drag my million-kg luggage, carry my backpack, and hold on to 3 huge plastic bags of shoes and food up a 90 degree slope along a dark alley to get to the place (it was dark at that time already). I am exaggerating, but it did feel that way. And for the 1st time in the 4 weeks in Sydney, I was drenched in sweat after the 'walk'. I dropped off my barangs in the splendid apartment, and rushed off to the airport via train. When I arrived, I checked the monitor, and it showed that their plane had "Landed".

I was so damn excited. I got a coffee and sat at the cafe in front of the arrival gate and waited... and waited... and waited. Finally, the oh-so-familiar shapes of my family and gf appeared. This was the moment I had been longing for, for so long. I jumped out of my chair and waved. I'm not sure whether I looked like a clown then, but they were all-smiles when they saw me. I hugged them. The feeling then was really wonderful.

Just abit about the holiday... I drove. And I think it was really an achievement as I drove in all kinds of horrible conditions, from strong gales, to heavy lightning storms at night in the last 4 days. Besides, we were really lucky to have left Hunter Valley just before the area became flooded. It really looked like a flood was coming when we were there. Besides that, the trip was great, and we had a great time. We did the bridge climb (up Harbour Bridge), we saw dolphins in Port Stephen (the whale watch was sadly cancelled due to bad weather), we had some great walks in the Blue Mountain, and we had great food all the way. Now, back in humid and warm Sg, I miss Sydney, but well, I guess I'll be back there again some day. Here are some pics which I've taken, and sorry for such a long post. You have finished reading it... good on yer!!! & have a good dai!

My very first try at this stupid thing

Hmm... I dont have much to say actually.

I mean, my power of language sucks, my essay writing skill sucks, my thought processes suck, and so on... so it might be really boring reading my posts. Plus I think im a busy person, so I dont think I'll have much time to add posts (if thats wat u call it) frequently. I'm busy with school (when school starts); I'm busy in love (24/7); I'm busy with games (tft). What got me to start this stupid thing... I dont know. But I guess probably it is cos' I'm bored, and I wanted to do something different. And besides, I might become a famous blogger, like the one guy that talks about our country.

Ok... that wasnt really a great intro, but at least it is a start. And I need to burn a CD for my gf (for those who dont know her, you'll probably see/read more about her in the other posts to come) cos' she said that I'm really free. Which is true. So yep, I'm off to do something else to fill in my time. Seeya laterz...


Regards,
JW (dont think I'll put this "regards" stuff from now on)