UQ Orientation Day!

21 Feb 05 (Monday)

UQ International Students Orientation Day - Look at the 2 bigger insets ... Interesting! (Click on the pic to enlarge)

Katly - a girl who melts my heart...

20 Feb 05 (Sunday)

She really made my day!!!

On the way back to the lodge from Buranda, I met this little girl called Katly on the train. I was on a side seat while shes sitting in front of me with her mum. She was fascinated by my digi camera and I started taking photos of her; her mum will ask her to pose for us too… I will never forget the look on her face when she saw her own face in the preview screen of my camera. She looked at my eyes and giggle innocently while trying to grab my camera… I have not witnessed such innocence for a long time… You are beautiful; always puts on your adorable smile coz it will melt a lot of hearts… Till we meet again… (which is not quite possible… hmmzZz…)

A cosy town called Buranda

20 Feb 05 (Sunday)

A cosy town called Buranda... (Click on the pic to enlarge)

We headed for Buranda after a disappointing visit to Chinatown… We saw on the train map that this station have access to a place called “Stone Corners”. We thought it was some sort of a tourist attraction area; however, when we reach there, we realized that the place around the Buranda station is known as Stone Corner… Arghz… Luckily things weren’t that bad coz there were nice shops in this little town… In addition, we also saw interesting signs such as ‘BLIND PERSONS CROSS HERE’; we wondered how a blind man is going to see the sign… But as I have mention earlier, Aussies are really friendly people; such signs are meant to inform them that if they were to see a blind man down there, they are always ready to lend a helping hand. In addition, it also serve to alert the drivers on the road to slow down… I do not know if my inference is correct but I guess that is the best conjecture I can make.

Boring Chinatown

20 Feb 05 (Sunday)

Vibrant it may look; but Chinatown in Brisbane is just a street no longer than 100 metres... (Click on the pic to enlarge)

Chinatown was really disappointing… I thought Chinatown in Brisbane would be as lively as the one we have in Singapore; but alas, it was only a street no longer than 100 metres. We were told that they have the Flea Market every Sunday but it wasn’t bustling with activities at all. There were some occasional shoppers and there was a big group of Asians practicing Tai Chi with swords near the main pavilion. The only consolation was that I finally manage to see shops selling food stuff that bear resemblance to those we have in Singapore… =)

Ended up in South Port...

19 Feb 05 (Saturday)

A place called South Port ...

We headed for Habour Town after eating our home-made sandwiches in the food court. I bought a cup of cappuccino & it comes along with free 2 doughnuts too! The price was reasonable: AUD 3.10. =) But it is a luxury to me coz I need to save the $ for more important stuff. =). After lunch, we headed for Habour Town to get cheap sunglasses. On our way to Helensvale Train Station via bus, the driver stopped the bus suddenly by the road side; he walked to the ticketing machine where a big black was. Then, he turned around and says: “Drivers going on strike…” and gave us a wry smile. I was stunned… He walked out of the bus with a ticket roll in his hand and crossed over to the other side of the road. Anyone want to guess what happen? He was actually passing the new roll of ticket to the driver of another bus; they must have communicate via hand phone and agreed to stopped along that stretch of road. It is indeed a fantastic display of care and concern Aussies have for one another. The passengers here are also very appreciative of the drivers: most will usually says ‘Thank you’ to the driver when they are alighting. Some went the extra mile and walk up to the front door to express their gratitude & alight thereafter.

Let’s see what we have on Singapore buses:

Buses in Singapore have to be fitted with the artificial acrylic tag that says: XXX is SERVING YOU with a SMILE right in front of the bus. However, it seems to me that this is a way for passengers to identify drivers in case they have any complaints to lodge…

We have a brief encounter with Zoe, a Hong Konger who works in Dream World. She offered to give us a discount when we visit Dreamworld. =) She even gave us her email address… =)

We did not managed to go to Habour Town in the end as we missed the stop and ended up in South Port instead… No sunglasses but I managed to capture a short video clip of a security guard extinguishing a public rubbish bin that was on fire. (I will be setting up a video section in this blog soon…)

Waves @ Pacific Ocean!

19 Feb 05 (Saturday)

Look at the waves @ Broad Beach!!!

Before our arrival at the beach, we played for a while in a large playground that is near the beach. I saw families having their picnics and enjoying their private moments with their loved ones. This is something that Singaporeans seriously lack… Everyone seems to be racing for time in Singapore while the pace in Australia is slower. Australians seems to treasure the family moments a lot… In a certain sense, I do envy the kids here as I never really have family picnics before. This is something I wish my own children will have in future…

Broad Beach is one of the beaches along Gold Coast… It is amazing to have Pacific Ocean spread out right in front of you. The sky was a pure azure with no sign of clouds; the ocean stretches far and wide. One will not see another island in front of him; neither will there be ships and oil tankers moving on the horizon (like in Sentosa)… While some people chose to go surfing on the high waves; some prefer to suntan under the scorching hot sun. The sand is really fine with no tinge of branches. It is important to apply sun screening lotion as there is not a single piece of cloud to screen the UV rays to any extent; in addition, the hole up in the ozone layer up the Australian sky intensify the effects of the UV rays too… Henceforth, it is not surprising that skin cancer is common in Australia…

Journey to Gold Coast

19 Feb 05 (Saturday)

We are going to the beach beach beach !!!

We woke up pretty early in the morning & embark on our journey to Gold Coast! I’ve always heard about from documentaries & travel guides but have never been there personally… The journey briefly goes like this: Indooroopilly Train Station à Roma Street Train Station (change train) à Nerang Train Station à Took a bus to Pacific Fair à Walk to Broad Beach…

Hong Ee saw a handphone on the floor outside Nerang station and started running to the passengers in front to enquire if it belongs to them. When none of the passengers claimed the phone, he took it to the control station… =) Such an act of honesty really tells a lot about a person. I am glad that he’s my one of my fellow SEP (Student Exchange Program, NUS) mates.

18 Feb 05 (Friday)

Experience the serenity @ South Bank

We headed to South Bank at about 5pm to meet up with Jolene, Cindy & her friend, Jasmine. The Flea Market was held there tonight… South Bank was a beautiful place: It has a passage way with artistically winding metal structures blooming with bougainvillea. The man-made river at South Bank was bustling with activities too; families were enjoying themselves in the waters while couples sit on the open grass patches catching up with each others’ lives. Really envious of their kind of lifestyle: more often than not, young couples in Singapore will be working hard on a weekday (overtime in most instances to augment the family income). I will call such a lifestyle seriously lacking in Singapore. Well, the Singapore government did tried by implementing 5-day work week… But I think it just meant compressing all the workload into the 5 days which will ultimately increase the stress level of each individual.

I settled for dinner at the cafeteria nearby; bought a hotdog sandwich. It cost a whopping AUD $4.50 but it was extremely huge… But I manage to finish it as I was really craving for food after such a tiring day. Zhihong & Meifang also joined us at South Bank while I was gobbling my dinner.

When we were on our way back, we alighted a few stops earlier to visit Jasmine’s place at Taringa area. It was a cozy and comfortable place…We really did not feel like leaving her home… Hahaz. I realized that I was suffering from constipation; henceforth, ate 2 apples + 2 peach-look-alike fruit to ingest the fibre I need…All in all, I think I have adapted quite well in Australia..

18 Feb 05 (Friday)

Brisbane City Alive!!! (Click on the pic to enlarge)

As we were walking along one of the passageways in school, we bumped into Meifang & Zhihong (both navy combat officers) and decided that we should go to the City since orientation is postphoned. In addition, there is also a Flea Market on at the South Bank every Friday which will open till late at night. In Brisbane, late night shopping for suburbs shopping malls will be every Thursday while that for city shopping malls will be every Friday.

The city was bustling with activities as one can see from the photo collage. Hungry Jack’s is Aussie’s version of Singapore’s Burger King. Hong Ee and I visited a few shopping malls such as the Myer & the Brisbane Arcade. The cashiers are always friendly and always greet the customer with a “Good Day, How are you?”They remind me of the friendly custom officers at the Brisbane International Airport too. There are no signs of racial discrimination (as yet) as mentioned some of my friends.

I was amazed by the vibrancy of the art of photography here… There are galleries dedicated to individual photographers. They take fantastic photographs; mainly sceneries & panoramas…I guess one reason why photography thrive in a country like Aussie is due to its richness of nature’s wealth like national parks and oceans. On the way, we also saw an aboriginal Australian handcuffed by the cops. I have no idea what crime he has committed but I can see that that he was on the verge of tears (but stayed very composed).

University of Queensland

18 Feb 05 (Friday)

UQ in different perspectives...

I had a good night sleep to make up for the jet lag yesterday (retired to dreamland at approximately 9pm). The day break pretty early in Brisbane; rays of sunlight started pouring into the room slightly after 6 plus in the morning… Hong Ee, Jolene, Cindy & I headed to UQ in the morning for the stipulated compulsory orientation; however, to our dismay, the orientation was postponed to the 21st of Feb. We did not complained as we know that we can do a lot of other stuff as we are in a totally new environment. Before I forget, the bus driver we saw today actually wore a really short pair of shorts to drive the bus; one of the girls commented that it was sexy! Hahaz… Imagine Singapore bus drivers wearing shorts on the bus…

Around Indooroopilly...

18 Feb 05 (Friday)

A pictorial tour around the bus-stop outside Indooroopilly Shopping Mall... (Click on the pic to enlarge)

A Quick Tour!

17 Feb 05 (Thursday)

Day 1 Picture Collage!

Getting fresh with Brisbane

17 Feb 05 (Thursday)

Upon arrival at the arrival hall, Cindy & I headed to the duty-free department store to purchase cigars (Villiger 7) for the lodge owner, Toni. It cost AUD$56.50 for 50 sticks. We were informed by an email a couple of weeks ago to help Toni buy some cigars at the arrival hall. Toni must be a happy man coz he’s able to enjoy cigars at such a cheap rate whole year long… =)

After collection of our luggage & declaration of food products (which the custom officers did not check in the end), we soon met up with the representatives from UQ. Before long, we were soon whizzed off in a little van which is fitted with a trailer (to contain our luggage) at the back. The driver was a friendly man; he gave us a brief introduction of Brisbane before highlighting some of the key characteristics of the Australians in Brisbane. He said that there are a lot of things in Brisbane end with ‘ky’; for instance, “breakfast” will be “Brekky”. Interesting!!!

We were the fourth group of students to be dropped off at our destination. Want to express my gratitude to the driver coz he help me unload my gigantic black lugguage case. After he did that, he turned around and asked me “What have you got in there?”… Hahaz… As I live on the second level, Hong Ee was the honoured one who assisted me in delivering the luggage to the second floor. Thank you, Hong Ee!

Before long, we headed to the Indooroopilly shopping mall which is about a 8-minute walk away. It was a gigantic shopping mall with 4 hypermarts in it, namely Kmart, O’ Target, Woolworth and Myer. It is akin to having 4 Carrefour in one shopping mall! It is amazing. Apart from the hypermarts, the shopping mall is also week equipped with cafes, art galleries, food court and fitness centre etc…

We headed for University of Queensland thereafter to open our bank account and also to have our student card processed. Any Singaporean will be amazed by the time taken for a student card to be made. The process went like this: a portrait photo will be taken with a digital video camera and in about 1 minute, the student card will be ready!!!

Due to the really dry weather here, my lips started becoming dry and uncomfortable. Henceforth, I bought a lip balm to lubricate my lip from O’ Target. Realise that that vitamins in Australia is really cheap. I bought my multi-vitamins (Centrum) from NUH for $33.60 that is, after a 10% discount with Liling, a medical student who showed her matriculation card at the time of purchase. Here, they sell the vitamins at just AUD$21!!!

Experience the flight on SQ 235 visually!

Sending off @ S'pore Changi Airport T2... =)

Day of departure

16 Feb 05 (Wednesday)

Time really flies when one is busy. I started the morning with the purchasing of the demand draft from UOB bank and changing some of the remaining S’pore dollars into Aussie dollars. Mum gave me a few lucky charms; some are mean to be hung on my key while others in my pocket & wallet. Rest assured I will carry them wherever I go in foreign land. It wasn’t long when late afternoon came; that was when Fusheng arrived (I recruited his help to carry the enormous luggage, hahaz). Oh yea, I do owe him a big favour. My god-sis, Madeline arrived at my house soon after his arrival. I am really touched that she actually came down to fetch me to the airport. We had a fast dinner and we were soon on our way to the airport…

I wanted to express my gratitude to all who came down to the airport to send me off. For those who did not came but have asked others to pass the little gifts to me; I would like to say a big THANK YOU to you too. I really appreciate them. Really… =). For those whom I have met up with me or called me in the earlier weeks; I want to say that I am really touched too. And yes, FS, you are right; I am indeed a lucky person. =) Thanks for having confidence in whatever I do

It was my maiden flight; that is, it will be the first time I will be above the cloud in my whole life… If you were to ask me if I am excited; my answer is: YESH!!! I have got no choice but to take Singapore Airlines as my mum thinks that SIA is the safest airline in the world (it is a fact I guess, haha). To make sure that she let me go to Aussie with a piece of mind, SIA was chosen albeit the ticket was slightly more expensive than other airlines. I have thought of taking flights from Emirates too; I can argue that Osama bin Laden will not launch terrorist attacks on its own country’s plane. Haz, that’s just a side thought.=)

Luckily I had Cindy, another fellow SEPian from NUS. She’s a frequent flyer (she is a Kris Flyer); she led me to where the gates were and briefly mentioned on the procedures and stuff. I am still amazed at how do passageway to the entrance of the plane was fitted with such precision. I wonder if it is the job of the pilot or the airport. Anyone knows?

I did not really sleep during the flight as I was busy eating and trying out all the stuff available onboard. I was really lucky to be sitting on a seat number which bore my favourite digits: 33!!! The plane ran on the runway for a considerable amount of time before it took off. Before long, the plane was tilted & the brightly-lit roads out of the window became slanted and soon disappear into nothingness (I am sitting 2 seats away from the window). Cindy also taught me how to loosen the buckle on the safety seat belt as I was trying to figure out where the ledge was. Apart from the occasional turbulence, the whole flight was smooth and enjoyable. As JM had mentioned, I had paid a premium for the flight; I should get the most out of the entire flight. Apart from the 2 packets of the pokers cards I had requested form the air stewardess, I requested for some red wine to go with the main meal too. Ha… I just took a few sips; I did not want to get drunk before I get off the plane. The main meal was great as it even came with Yu2 Sheng1; I did not realize that it was Yu Sheng2 till I tasted peanuts and saw the raw salmon fish as I thought it was salad initially!

Listened to Channel 11 radio channel where Mary from Yes 933 has pre-recorded the entire radio program. It was great but it gets boring when the whole program got repeated again. Watched “Yesterday Once More” onboard, I think the Sammi Cheng in it really resembles P in certain aspects. =) I am fascinated by how much research was done by SIA into the ergonomics of the seats and also the individual lightings for each passenger. No wonders it is one of the best airlines in he world… As the caption on the set of playing cards goes: In this ever changing world, Singapore Girl, you’re a great way to fly… Indeed, SIA is a fantastic airline to fly with… =)

As there were some kids onboard, the journey was pretty noisy with their cries occasionally. That accounts for my insomnia onboard too. As the plane was drawing near its destination, I was able to see the mountain ranges out of the windows (I infer that it should be the Great Dividing Range from the electronic map on my TV screen). It was beautiful; it is only when you are in the sky that one is able to enjoy a view that flying creatures are able to see everyday.

Before long, the plane touched down at the Brisbane International Airport… Despite the lack of sleep, I was pretty awake as I was in a totally new environment… It is the beginning of the process called ADAPTATION… I know it will be an enjoyable stint here in Australia… I will make sure that it will be…

Day before departure

15 Feb 05 (Tuesday)

Yesh! – It was one day before my departure and I have yet to install all the necessary software into my laptop. I do feel a tinge of excitement at the thought that I am leaving for Brisbane the following day; however, I think the element of nostalgia is very much stronger. Being meeting out with friends and catching up for the past 1-2 week; I guess this is human; when one knows that he’s leaving a place for a period of time or for good, they will treasure each and every moment they have with their loved ones.

I met up with Clemmie at CCK MRT station for a brief moment as she got a farewell gift for me. Took a fast photo before I head off to buy some of the things I wan to bring over at Bukit Panjang Plaza. Had a fast lunch at home before I went to the dentist to have my tooth ‘refilled’ again; the amalgam has fallen off a few days back while I was flossing my teeth. Rushed off to King Albert’s Park to meet Huiping; she’s unable to send me off on the next day as she got something really important to attend to. I managed to catch up with each other’s lives for about an hour before we bid farewell to one another. Thank you to all whom I have met up with (apart from Clemmie & Huiping)… I really appreciate the friendships of all of you… I think I am a fortunate guy to have known you all.

Ah Yi came down in the night to help me with the packing – she’s a master in minimizing luggage weight! I am amazed at how she sieved out the unimportant things that will add on to the weight of the luggage considerably. Thank you, Ah Yi!