ansblob.. puddles of life within and beyond…

It’s another beautiful day… The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the wind is HOWLING! Estimated wind speed today is 35km/h and we’ve got small boat warnings in Canberra today… I had better wear my sweater when I get out to class later..

Speaking of sweaters, I’ve just won a pink sweater off ebay.. Think with shipping it cost me AUD8.50… That’s not too bad considering it’s new.. =0) I can forsee many strange looks and possibly queer ones engulfing the color PINK… Yesh, I do wear pink stuff… I believe not many men (in this case, it’s boys for me) are able to carry the color with musculinity and fortunately, (or unfortunately) I happen to be able to do so without looking gay, pink, queer, ayejay, etc… You get the drift…

I had great fun @ work on Friday… Did some Rhino 3D, Studio Max rendering, Photoshop imposing, etc.. Praise God for this job!

Anyway, my speakers are now blasting Hillsong’s "What the world will never take"… Nice song… A song which should be shouted and because of that, should be only sung in Church when it’s Youth or Wannabe Youth Service.. Our Church sang that yesterday and somehow it sounded strange with the 60s and 70s+ trying to shout yet trying harder to keep their dentures in… =0) Oh ya, thanks Liz for the song.. She has been trying to find the song for me… So here’s the lyrics..

What the World will Never Take

With all I'm holding inside
With all hopes and desires
And all the dreams that I've dreamt

With all I'm hoping to be
And all that the world will bring
And all that fails to compare

You say You want all of me
I wouldnt have it any other way

I've got a Saviour and He's living in me
WHOA

I wana know
I wana know You today

And You're the best thing that has happened to me
And the world will never take
The world will never take You away

No-one could ever take You away

Practice does makes perfect.. Of course then again we’ve got "Nothing’s Perfect".. Anyhow, recently, if you have noticed, I have been sketching and quick rendering alot more… ALOT ALOT more.. I should have done this earlier but have been procrasinating out of fear… Fear of wasting material (1 copic marker costs SGD6 back home and AUD7 here) but most of all, failure.. Anyway, I decided not to be too precious with my stuff and self and got down to it… MY sketches and quick renderings are still not fantastic but what’s fantastic is my improvement and confidence in it. One day (One day) when I post my drawings up you will realize that… Also that I had VERY sucky drawings… =0)

Not too long ago, just 3 nights back, Lenca and myself were calculating the cost for migrating to Aussieland… We came to approx AUD20k to move down under and survive for 3 months without work.. Woah.. that *is* alot of money! In fact for the whole of the next day, whilst working @ the wash, 20k kept ringing in my ears… I’ve got to work like crazy for 1 mth before getting 1k and that doesn’t include expenses.. Think 20k… Think 20 months without food..Gads! Anyway, the next night, the figure went down to about AUD9k.. *phew* I can breathe again…

The design job starts at 1330hrs today.. I have been wasting my time bumming ass, surfing the net since 0830hrs.. I gotta pump up Yagger before that cost it’s in Queanbeyan.. And for those who don’t know (that makes approximately 99.5% of you reading my blog), Queanbeyan is *outside* the Australian Capital Territory, it’s in New South Wales… So I gotta drive interstate for my job.. 28km is the distance one way..  Ain that bad actually.. Kinda excited yet nervous… Dang this oxymoron feeling…

My form study for my furniture design.. Oh, the "man" seating in are parts from my classmate’s chair..

A few of my uglier sketches..

Snnooozzzzzze….

Today, I have finally gone to see the doctor… It was an interesting experience as, it is my first time seeing a doc in aussieland… =0) As expectedly, I can’t find a lot near the clinic on campus (Yes, I drove, I’m sick rite?). Parked somewhere out there and to my dismay, when I reached the centre, there *was* a vacant 2hr lot right in my face… #$%%#$!

Waited in the waiting room after filling up a million and one indemity, disclaimer, I-swear-I’ve-got-health-cover, etc forms… Met Marie there with her boyfriend… Apparently, she is also sick from Gender Bender (Dang you Justin! Yup, that’s the name of the sucker whom bugged us with the flu.. Justin from Hong Kong! =0P ). The other person I met at the waiting room was Tsang, the infamous Vietnamese drag on Campus.. (I’m not homophobic unless that bloody homo is touchy w me). So there… after a short, evenful wait, I saw the doc… He made typical doctor noises like "huuumpph..", "hmmmmmmm", Errrr…", "Ehhh hemmm"… He concluded that I have been bugged with the normal flu, not the whoopping one… Whoopie! Got a 2 days MC but I won’t be taking it, I am determined to be socially irresponsible and educationally responsible…

About being educationally responsible, I didn’t really sleep last night… I had to do 6 concepts for Sunbeam Australia… Finally finished everything this morning, juz before the doc’s visit… Presentation wasn’t as good as I thought would be (I really wonder why; things I see as sh!tty, my lects like and vice versa; it’s the backdated aussie culture I tell you…) Anyway, I was, as always, the most technologically advance in my specs compared to most of my classmate (Most of em being farm kids) . Oh well…

Came home, cooked dinner… Pasta looked soooooooo wrong today… 2 cans of a different brand of peeled tomatoes juz didn’t work.. Oh well, at least it tasted alright.. Actually, it tasted good… I really gotta work on the visual presentation for my cooking.. Here’s a pic..

Anyway, whilst cooking… I received a phone call.. WOOOOHOOOO!!! I’ve got the industrial design job at The Playground People!!!!!!!!!!! Four of us, classmates, were vying for two positions in the company… And I got one!!!! Yayyyyyyyy! Thank you Lord! The extra money will definitely come in useful!

Misc pics… Me after spending AUD8.50 for a bowl of Wanton Mee… Dang thing was soooo bland that I decided to do what Lenca does with tasteless food; add chilli. Two words: Bad move.

Joel and Me @ Church…

Me playing with me Treo in me room.. =0)

Am down with flu now.. Coughing my lungs out, dripping nose, watery eyes, cold-twitching-aching muscles and the works… Have been cutting a few classes for the past few days, social responsibility.. =0) Eddie, Chris and Steve were nice about it.. =0)

Had dinner with Anthony, Sandy and Yong May at the Labor Club last night as we were not feeling too good to cook… (Yes, all of us were sick except Anthony but I think he has just gotten infected by us) It was alright, not too bad actually, a rump steak with boiled veggies and water for AUD6.90… The portion could always be bigger, but my stomach is always expanding.. =0)

We suspect we all got infected during Gender Bender as most of us came home ill.. Think even Taylor’s down.. And that’s only the few of us in our group.. I bet there are more around!

Afterwhich, we went over to Wee Shan’s for her birthday… Talked alittle and headedback home.. Dearies extended her meeting with Leidia so I went to bed without talking to her last night.. I think she called but I’m not entirely sure.. Very whoosy now..

Anyway, am going to work after this.. It’s alright.. I pray that I won’t faint or something.. =0)

The words "Gender Bender" always bring back fond memories of this computer game I used to watch my sister play (Yes, that was the time before I had a computer nor allowed to used her’s) Rex Nebular… It’s this warped game where a male space traveller crash landed in this planet where women had killed all men and had to use this machine, the gender bender, to further their kind.. =0)

Anyway, Gender Bender is an annual event held by the Uni Bar, "Where the guys are pretty and ladies, manly." Nothing transverse about it, it’s just a dress up for kicks… If you guys remembered, I was also there last year, spotting a tudong and kabaya… This year, I decided to clad on a 2 piece.. I was there as a beach babe.. Not a really good time to do it cos the temperature dipped to a freezing of zero degrees… I had to arrive at the bar with my sweater and then toss the fleece aside and let the freakshow begin.

I figured, my dressing for the night won’t be really exciting as I would basically be showing flesh (To the contradiction of my "cover all up" concept last year). With that, I decided to draw (No way I’ll wear one) on a pair of thongs… =0) The rest, as they say, was history… I lost count the number of gurls who came to me and tried to snap my "thong"… Hheheheheh.. Below are a few pictures from last night.. Nothing fancy juz a few people worth showing… Others are juz random people around or the pic was juz horrendous.

T Booth in his "VERY NATURAL BRA" and mock breasts… As the gurls said…

Ansley Jones drawing on his thongs…

Taylor’s makeup artist, Sandy, busy prettying the boy…

Ansley Jones’ makeup artist, Maureen…

Now whose is bigger?

Makeup well done! (Taylor kinda looks like Marge Simpson huh?)

The president of the Malaysian club of UC, Yong May, spotted with 2 drags…

The only other bit of our visible masculinity is our leg fuzz…

Josh, my classmate who thought I was a babe till I spoke…

Some dark frenchman with a white and asian babe in each arms… Multi-cultural I tell you…

And I got groped AGAIN…

And this is the owner of the bra I wore last year.. =0)

Okay, enough of funny pics… Wanted to do my laundry today but remembered I have lent my laundry card to Yong Mei and she hasn’t returned it yet.. With that, I borrowed one from Tina… However, after setting up the jist of it all and got my clothes spinning, I realized there wasn’t enough credits for the dryer! Dang.. I had to hang my clothes outside for 2 hours but in vain.. They are now in my room drying next to the radiator, with my fan blowing…

Here’s a pic of the snow falling… Some have commented that they didn’t see any snow falling in my previous pics and suspected that I doctored those… Thanks for praising my photoshop skills… And yes, there was more snow in UC then ANU… =0)

As usual, below is my food pic… Stir fried veggies with pork cubes… NICE~ One of the nicer foods I have cooked here… alhough, the pork kinda smells here cos they don’t castrate the pigs as they do back home… The hormones then produced, supposedly makes its meat smell.. Another interesting trivia by Ansley Jones!

Whoohoo~ It finally snowed!!!!! Well, the thing is, it is always cold enough for snow in Canberra, but we just don’t have the altitude to have it… The last recorded snow fall was 4 yrs back…

Today was an exception.. Apparently the snow level dropped real low and we’ve got SNOW! I mean, yeah, I have seen snow in my snow trip not too far back… But this time, I am experiencing snow flakes from the sky! Yup, I tried eating em too, catching em with my tongue…

The first fall was at late noon.. But it was really light… Then at about 8pm, it got heavy and we could finally see snow on the ground… I called Yong May and Sandy out, them being the only ones around… We were taking millions of pics… Tina later came to join us… I started gathering snow from the cars around and throwing snowballs! Soooo fun…

All this while with the wish Lenca was here to enjoy this moment with me… =0( I miss you soooooo much dear…

The pressure is really on right now… There’s just so many concerns… There stuff like furniture competition (two of em), exhibitions, toaster/kettle concepts, Mom problem, sis problem, money problem, etc… IS there no end the many worries?

Seriously, it’s until now that I realize the light load of studies here… Hardworking students have to use that bit of time to work for fees and such… This is the difference between the lazy aussies and the better ones… In fact, those who work usually fair abit better in class compared to their counterparts, who spend their other time wasting their lives in alcohol and weed…

International students are a class of their own… Most international students don’t work here.. Most.. The few of us who do, struggle to find that job which pays that little bit extra per hour as we are limited to 20 hrs a week.. The others just bum, hang out, enjoy life as it is…

I’ve never considered myself to come from a poor family.. But looking at the lifestyle of other Singaporeans here, I really wonder… They spend their money with no regards, they can afford not to work.. in other words, there doesn’t seem to be a worry in em.. Yes, they do (as myself) winch on how expensive stuff is here and the measures they are taking to save that bit, but, they still seem to get by pretty nicely…

I know there are people not as financially well off as my family to send me abroad for their studies… But I’m sure I am one of the tighter ones here.. It’s hard to explain how to people… But it is so.. I don’t spend much money myself.. Biggest indulgence now is my car, which takes about AUD30 a tank of gas per forthnight.. Others is generally food… I don’t party unless it’s more or less free.. As like for this year, Gender Bender is free and I don’t drink when I dance..

I think it’s the age, responsibility, egoistic, etc… thingy catching up on me… The need to actually survive on my own.. It’s hard, it’s going to be a REAL uphill struggle but I am getting prepared for it…

With each time I see my mature age classmates in class, I get encouraged. I mean, they ARE mature age aka 30- 50 yrs? Yes, their fees are much cheaper than mine but they still gotta work to pay for that, rent, food, car, etc.. and most are married! And to think they still have the time and energy to attend school..

Oh well…enough ranting right now… Here is a pic of my trunk after Sunday’s shopping… Naturally not all the food in there is mine, but most of them is… =0)

Oh yah… I succeeded in cooking Chilli Clams… It’s like the chilli crab back home, with the crabs replaced with shellfish~ Yummy… Pics to come!

This is so bad… When I was back home, I used be filled with a foot long sub per meal setting… I’ve just had a foot long sub with a medium coke and 2 cookies and an additional mandarin… But I am still hungry! Dang dang…

For this week, I have scuffed down 3 boxes of chocolate muesli bars (12 per box), 3 kg of mandarins, 2 cans of spaghetti, 1/2 kg of french beans, 1/2 kg of rice. 500gms of dried pasta, a handful of mushroom, 4 bags of chips, 5 eggs, in addition to what I’ve just had…

I should be starting my swimming regime soon..

Dang it is getting expensive to feed me.. =0( Oh well, they always say that the brain uses the most calories anyway…

Yes it is… I have been trying to log on and update this for days… But it refuses to log in, until I clear my internet history which is bad cos it means I clear my existing cache in my system which translates into $$$…

Kinda got my concepts for my kettle/toaster already… Am gonna go for a playful form towards a high end market.. Something like Alessi… Chris thinks Sunbeam would want otherwise but after my market research, I am sure I can convince Sunbeam its marketability.

Oh Taylor, IN YOUR FACE… (For all who don’t understand the reason for the pic below, Taylor is Canadian, Helly Hansen is Canadian and he for one doesn’t believe that it could have stuff made in China)

My furniture concept is also up, gonna touch up on it.. I really gotta dream about my paper…

Was redoing the ProE model for my hedgetrimmer, to practise, to make a more accurate one and to create one in Professional Edition. I spent 4 hours last night and it crashed 4 times.. Oh well, I am not fizzed about it.. I have made great progress and I am embracing it… Picture of me whilst rebooting, for the second time…

The stoves were down yesterday… Both of em! The first one was reported in 11 July and they haven’t fixed it yet and the other one died juz last night, before dinner… Crappy aussie admin.. Ressies said we *could* use the kitchen at the RSO.. How convenient… I hate the *efficient* folks at Cooinda Hut.

Have been cooking abit, so here are the pics of the dishes…

Pork sirfried in Chinese Wine 

Wine Pork Pasta

Alrighty, gotta go already… Lawry just called and I am due for work at 10am.. Yayyy!