Monday, February 26, 2007
silence is easy
so far i've left God pretty much out of the pre-season, and now that the season has begun, i see great trials lined up and i start to feel what it's like to be operating on your own. i'm starting to stress a lil. i feel like someone got the genius mixed up with me and accidentally bumped me up 5 grades. i don't understand a single thing the textbooks say, and it does appear that not paying attention in secondary school has a very good chance of coming back to haunt me. and sharon, a singapore girl who attempted human movement but switched to sports studies after a semester, confirmed my suspicions.
she said that the australian STUDENTS really aren't -that- approachable as it seems, like americans are. that's mostly cos that warm fuzzy feeling usually comes from the more mature adults, who have a ready smile and open heart to start conversations and find out more about you. no, the people i'm studyin with happen to be *gasp*, yes fresh out of high school. so apart from kind of knowing and growing up with each other, they're right smack in their teenage years and they have tonnes of teenage things to say to and do with each other, and really won't fall into depression if they don't get to find out about over-the-hill yet shorter-than-them asian from singapore. well that's tongue-in-cheek, but sharon confirmed my feelings to the letter. all these things i write of, she experienced. in her whole term, i think she made one friend there.
Barriers to getting to know australian friends:-
1. aussie accent. tawk like em mate, tawk like em.
2. age gap
3. you don't know if they really wanna talk to you, find you irritating, are just accomodating you till they can find an excuse to dump ya, or woteva. chance are not with most, but ...... when you are 1 vs 2035253, it's easy to get that impression.
let's see, i'll be needin to pray for
1. renewed fervour for the Lord! with Him, all things are possible, especially those that are im.possible on our own
2. boldness to BE the approaching asian dude instead(aww shucks here he comes runnnn away!)
3. discipline to stick to tasks at hand and prioritise, and SLEEP EARLY
4. very very accomodating lecturers and tutors. chances are i'll be bugging them quite a bit
5. miracle hours in a day!
6. more hygienic housemates! HAHA sorry guys, you guys fail my mum's cleanliness test like a gazillion times. you fail mine by just a few thousand times only, so no worries mates. *wink*
7. a God mindset! so it's not 1 vs 2035253, but 2 vs 20352253, me and Jesus! and convertin em over one by one all day.
anyway, THANKS once again to everyone who made it to shoo me off singapore shores, and for the awesome pressies too. *grin* you guys were, are, and always will be da bomb.
one with the girly guys
and the manly girls
get a loada weiliang, he looks like a pig la! oinkoink
paN!cker lost it at 5:57 pm
Saturday, February 24, 2007
shine on you crazy diamond
i woke at 12pm today. not very good. that was after a long time of hearing the -extremely- irritating birds in the background. australia simply has the noisiest birds i've ever come across. and they're substantially bigger as well. their crows are huge. their bush turkeys look like massive chickens, and guess what, they fly. i still need some time to get used to the idea of these huge guys flapping around my backyard so nimbly.
anyway, my saturday in pictures!
a group of us borrowed alvin's car for the day..
to make a trip to IKEA some 20 minutes away at logan..
the place is decently sized..
we bought many things, many many things. personally, i got two lightbulbs. :( before you start laughing your socks off and pointing at your screen, i.e at me, let me just say the study table i wanted to get is temporarily out of stock. i have to try again following week. bllehhhh. but seriously they bought a lot of stuff, much of which will be delivered.
after that, we went to top up gas, seeing as how the fuel gauge was hitting rockbottom soon. as you can see, it takes 3 people to properly top up a car here, one to do the actual work, and two to stand by and observe.
gas here, not cheap. but then again, australia, not cheap!
then headed to yuen's supermart at sunnybank, the famous low price asian suburb! unfortunately, australia is slightly larger than singapore so we had to stop by the side to check out the street directory and find our bearings.
picked up a few groceries(fast becoming a cool thing to do here). the whole place is seriously asian. oh yea, i had a A$3.50 bubble tea; found it hard not to compare it to S$1.20 bt panjang plaza bubble tea, haha!
well that's basically how the day went. ate at this rice and noodle place near toowong for dinner with lemuel and lead tao. had sweet n sour spicy bbq pork noodle, which was ultra sweet, but otherwise decent i guess.
we've got an additional person in the house, jon's the name. and he's a refugee for couple of weeks till he finds accomodation, so hurray for overcrowding! heh, i doubt it's as funny with 5 people vying for one toilet, no shit!
paN!cker lost it at 7:10 pm
Friday, February 23, 2007
wheee!
the nature of me being generous and all, here are some pics for ya guys.
yet another barbie, seriously, i never knew the full extent but these guys are ADDICTED to the stuff. been seeing it -all- week
lem's drums! and misc stuff just lying around during the reshuffling
room before handing over
room after handing over and pushing everything out
my room done after a -leetle- work. as you can tell i lack, namely, a TABLE. so you samaritans out there, ship one over asap. oh, and tiger and duffy wave a cheery HI! to you peeps! they are happy with the new home. duffy loves how it complements the red on him.
LAWN BOWLING FUN
yep today was fun! went with lem to toowong, then indooroopilly in our quest to find furniture. it failed. sigh i still need a study desk! ok, then we CABBED back to our house. you cannot imagine how FAST the meter flies. it FLIES. take a look out the window, meter jumps. like a running tap. NEVER take a cab if you can help it.gosh. lemuel needed to rush back to sort out transport details to sunnybank for the lawn bowling so we cabbed and he paid haha.
we walked to the lakeside bus stop at the far end of campus and met up with the girls there before heading to sunnybank. it took two buses. we had dinner(what else, sausages, onions and bread!) before starting to play. we split into groups and the aunties and uncles instructed us on how to play. basically, there's this white ball which is on the other side of the erm 'pitch'. both teams have equal balls and take turns trying to roll their ball as close to the white ball as possible. after all balls are used up, the closest team wins, and if they have other consecutive balls that are closer than the opposition team's, then bonus points are added. let's just say we had a good game and ended the game 13-1 when a light drizzle began. the twist to the game comes about because the balls actually curl, so you gotta roll it at an angle away from the white ball to have it end up near. that's why it's the bomb the game.
after the game, we suppered at this chinese restaurant somewhere. they serve really authentic dim sum, which was a relief after bad chinese food encounters. had a great time of talking and erm, eating lots of dim sum, like my char siew bao, ohh man. such times as these will be a rarity during semester.
i'll prolly post something err longer when i have the time. or when i make time. some interesting facts i discovered:-
1. only singaporean in human movement studies, prolly one of only 3 or 4 asians
2. only top 15% queenslanders need apply for entry to this course.
3. i'm learning A level bio.
4. you see many stars here, MANY MANY stars. unobstructed view + lack of street lighting helps. God indeed holds the stars in His hand. we art but small small specks compared to our Creator.
and so the learning needs to start, NOW. good night singapore, and may the good times keep on rolling for you.
paN!cker lost it at 11:01 pm
t-i-r-e-d
capital man. its 3am and i am LE TIRED. just shifted into my room kind of, cleaned and swept and vacuumed and cleaned and vacuumed some more and ..... cleaned some more. then shifted in, setup bed, unpack clothes, and that's really it.
as you might have guessed, our household reshuffled today, marcus switching to the master bedroom with ivan(winkwink), lemuel moving into marcus' room, and i into ivan's room. in spite of all the cleaning it still aint as clean as home, but still roughly a thousand times better than the original state it was in. ivan really did put some effort into handing over a decent room to me, haha. there's many photos, videos even of some multi-faith performance in the great court(with some brilliant guitar), and blabla, but did i mention the LE TIRED part?? so i am off!
apparently i am gonna be tackling A level bio. sheesh. so halp me God. so halp me.
paN!cker lost it at 1:16 am
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
and so it is, just like you said it would be
i leave the house in under 2 hrs! and i don't know quite when my next post might be. it's a pretty intense time, when the reality of being away sets in. in 24 hrs, i'll be in a different land, learning new lingo, adjusting to new climes, meeting new people. awesome. but till then, i need to battle nostalgia as the goodbyes are said and the familiar faces fall away into the backdrop.
hoooooooo, i was supposed to finish packing by last week actually, thereby ensuring myself a smooth last few days before flying, but unhealthy doses of procrastination and timewasting tacniques employed by yours truly resulted in the packing and checklist finalised like ... JUST. oh well, at least i finished on time eh.. but then again that was how i treated my studies last time, employing the much acclaimed JIT(just-in-time) method. it's time for a change methinks, so wish me all the best and pray for me!
my table feels so empty now, with everything packed away. the memories are safely locked away in a portable hard disks, a cardboard box, and of course, my mind! heh, wot's good is that i've a support base in brisbane already, staying with my future cell group from Hope Brisbane, and quite a few friends there. hmmm wasn't that why i chose UQ in the first place?
THANK YOU
to EVVEERRRYONE. you know who you are, you who's been brought along by God to impact my life SOMEHOW, at some point in my life. all the gifts and love showered on me won't be forgotten =) especially those who made it to the surprise party, and even those who would have come if not for prior commitments, thanks. the months following my ORD in oct 06 especially have been pretty much insane, only made possible by the crazy people i encountered, both while having fun as much as serving the Lord.
i'll -try- my best not to disappoint everyone, so here i am Lord, take me. :o)
*insert aussie slang for goodbye, here* (i don't know! i'm not there yet)
p.s tiger and duffy follow me, for this sem at least. if you have no idea what i'm talkin bout, nvm. =)
paN!cker lost it at 4:11 pm
Monday, February 12, 2007
lighning!
may you never kenna shan(3) dian(4)! especially england power one like this one. haha ok random pic of the day is done.
today was absoinsanicrazybulous. what happens when you put the camp comm. together for a steamboat? all hell breaks loose. we went to izzy's house today for a sorta thanksgiving cum farewell steamboat dinner which her mum so so so kindly prepared for us, as a sendoff for me! she adamantly refused to accept the money we pooled together to give her. thanks so much aunty, even though you aren't very likely to see this, you are the best, in josco's words. can't really describe it in words but it was just pure joy hanging out with this now-familiar gang of misfits. God has made us all sooo uniquely different that you can't ever really find people with the exact same idiosyncracies. and so it was this unique blend of nonsensical so-called humans that wrecked havoc. details aren't necessary, because at times it was just messy, disgusting even, and above all, good fun. izzy treated us to her power deserts, fruits dipped in mMmMmMmlicious chocolate coating; ohh i could live on just that forever.
Lord, constantly remind me to be delighting in You, and not in the many distractions that fight for my attention. i am indeed surrounded by angels in my midst. blessed am i truly; can't really say i am in any kind of want or need. all i need, God hath provided. remind me never to forget or take for granted those around me, especially those closest to me, who are so often overlooked.
my friend wrote this in a card, and it popped up again at Young Adults on monday.
"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalms 37:4
goodnight.
paN!cker lost it at 12:00 am
Sunday, February 11, 2007
ponder
wow. God's world which iexplore.exe. it's exciting. will the moulding be painful? like squeezing a size 11 into a size 6. whatever shape i come out in, that's the refiner's desired outcome, and so i lean toward the future with expectancy. you may sow in tears, but rest assured the reaping will be joyous.
and well, yes, another thought-provoking picture to mull over. wonder how many more of these i have stashed away. hmmm
paN!cker lost it at 2:38 am
Saturday, February 10, 2007
time
and how little of it we really have. and how much of that little we waste! it just hit me today, that it's the last friday in singapore. a week from now, i'll be in brisbane, chillin' (cus it's colder there .. n stuff). of course, i'll be away only like 4 months, since i'll be a weirdo and come back in winter. there's no turning back the gears that were set in motion now, and it feels sooooo weird. the number one objective is to ace the studies, and along the way learn how to live as an independant.
these last few days, i try to take in all the different sights and sounds of singapore, remembering how my street looks like at night and in the day, remembering how percy(or persie, or percie, or however you perceive it) my block cat, looks and feels and meows pitifully for food since he has lost all hunting sense, the spoilt brat that he is.
in other news, i finally remedied the errant graphics card fan which was causing me much distress. i took it to funan and got the heatsink changed completely. it's now this super big and elaborate aluminium heatsink that kinda fans outwards. it has brought my graphics core down by about 4 degrees compared to the old setup(when it was spinning right anyway) to 56 degrees. playing fifa raises the temp. to like 61 or 62. at least my mind's at rest about the issue of my graphics card spontaneously combusting at 90 degrees when i'm away, which not only would be a fire hazard but quite a mess to clean up as well. i also should mention that that would mean no more using chris' comp to communicate with chris.
and i keep telling myself to sleep early, because it's gonna be important in australia when i have lessons and blabla, but no i'm blogging at 2am, and i wake up so late everyday, between 9-10am, and feel like crap! QT is affected of course, because the day practically kicks off with so many things to get done and i enter the day knowing something is missing. heck, my QT was more consistent when i was working and had to get up early! bleah, i really gotta work at this. but that brings us back to the issue of time again doesn't it. right.
and so saturday beckons, but only because friday has ended. the days move regardless of whether we do or not, and that's just scary! photos make me happy, and by golly i have a tonne of them. i'm tryna decide whether more photos = good or bad. of course they bring back the good ol memories, but on the other hand they do leave you with a great sense of nostalgia and possibly homesickness. however, better to have and not need than to need and not have, in which case you might just shrivel up and die. so photos will tag along with me yay.
there's so much to say about the Awesomest Day Of My Life that i shall leave it for another time when i am a little more settled and prepared for a looooooooooooooooonnnnnnnng post. for now, i leave you with SotongBallOnStik. you know you want some.
paN!cker lost it at 1:51 am
Saturday, February 03, 2007
FOR THE WIN
after a harrowing few days, singapore is on the verge of recapturing the ASEAN Cup, formerly known as the Tiger Cup. it wasn't a very impressive game against malaysia, especially for ehemmm lionel lewis and the play lost a bit of direction towards the end, what with all the pointless clearances by our backline. precious can be forgiven though, with just his one whistler that almost found it's way to the top left of the net.
thailand were a strange opposition on weds. firstly, they weren't their usual threatening self, no tricky backheels or smooth one-twos going on. singapore pretty much matched them throughout the game. maybe it was the absence of big names like kiatisuk senamuang, people who can change games single-handedly. secondly, they were WEEAAK. in the first 15 minutes, most every challenge on them resulted in them going down in "agony". i really don't know. the real victims methinks were the first aid guys who were made to scurry all over the pitch every few minutes with a stretcher in tow that was likely not gonna be used. if that was their delay tactic it was madness, not easy at all to keep up all this play-acting for 90 mintues. singapore produced a moment of brilliance, alam shah converting with a speedy burst from right to left and then a quick turn and low grounder into the net after two deflected attempts saw the ball come to him. it was disappointing for singapore to lose their concentration and allow the thais to split em apart with a through pass that saw lionel lewis rounded cruelly before the ball found its way into the net, silencing the capacity crowd at the national stadium in the process. the highlight of the match, as everyone will agree, will have to be the controversial penalty decision by the referee after alam shah went down in the box, collapsing in a heap on his thai marker, who was adjudged to have pulled him. apparently tele replays show it was a really harsh decision and it shouldn't have been a penalty. the incensed thais then actually stomped off the field at the signal of their coach!! likw WOW. WOWOWOWOWOW. drama mama man... on pitch also can go on strike. everyone was left wondering what the heck was going on for a good 15 minutes, while the very professional thai team had to be coaxed and coerced into playing the what? last 15 minutes of the match. the decision was definitely dubious, but people have scored with their hands before. did you see england walk off the pitch when that happened? nope, professionalism prevailed and they played on. might i add that such decisions are actually part and parcel of the game. sometimes it works for you, sometimes against. that's one factor which makes the sport dynamic! the referee's decisions! and so finally they reluctantly took to the pitch, conceded an excellently taken penalty by mustafic fahrudin, and finished the game on a sour note. goodness knows man, we can only pray for protection for fans and players alike as they travel to thailand for the return leg.
anw, nuff talk, here are some of the tell-tale pictures that erm, tell a tale.
singapore vs malaysia
 singapore anthem  respective lineups  team photo! 
beautiful night for the beautiful game
full-time and nothing between them
singapore converts coolly
singapore converts again, almost exact replica
========================================
singapore vs thailand
team huddle before the game
all ready for kick-off
this was like the 29562th time they went down
84th minute, huh where's everyone! geee i don't know
ohh there they are (15 mins later)
coolly blasted top left shot.
let's pray and hope they'll get their shite together for this coming last 90 minutes! On a sentimental note, i'm glad i managed to catch the last two matches that our dear national stadium is gawna see before being torn down for a spanking new complex. the countless NDPs and matches will be forever etched in mind! :)
paN!cker lost it at 1:57 am
|