ansblob.. puddles of life within and beyond…

I have overclocked my 20hrs work limit for the last week.. School has started and as much as I was excited about it, I am somehow feeling that funny feeling.. I’m not emotionally ready for school yet.. I guess work has taken a toil on me..

Anyway, after work on Saturday, Daniel called me and invited me to join him to the Canberra Fair. He had an extra ticket. Though he has already went the day before (he was manning the Ministry of Education booth there), he was nice enough to accompany me as he knows, I haven’t been to one before. Well, we went there after meeting him at his place, cutting a circle in his glass window for his new exhaust fan and late lunch at KFC..

There were stalls, info booths, game stalls.. All in all, it’s somewhat like the expos we have back in Sg when I was little.. Hmmm.. The current big pasar malams we have in big open fields are spawned from the older expo we had, which we had to pay to enter and they always had game stalls and such..

They had show bags aka plastic bags with specfic set prices such as AUD10, AUD15, etc.. with specfic contents to their specific themes aka PowerRangers, Ms Girlfriend, Bob the Builder, etc.. Naturally, I was too cheap to buy any of those..

There were a couple of rides. We took a ride and EXTREME was its name. The thing you see, I do get very excited with things like that, but because of that, many rides are at the end of the day are being put down by me, cos my thrill expectations are often too high.. Dream World only had one ride which thrilled me for the first and second ride.. 3rd onwards was a breeze.. In fact, I reckon the thing which really scared me the most which I can still remember is bungee jumping.. THE thing which really scared me the most in my life which I cannot remember anymore was lead climbing in Bukit Timah.. I couldn’t reach the next anchor and I had to drop 3 meters in a natural setting.. SCARYSHIT man.. Anyway, we took that ride which was like the boomerang back in Sg but had open air swinging cabins.. I was mildly scared when the ride forced me towards the ground as that empty heart feeling.. But after that, it was nothing. NPNT so here’s the pics..

Pics of our tix..

Before ride pic of us..

After ride pic of us.. 

After the ride, we went to the main arena where holden had a presentation of coordinated ute aka pickup driving.. Anway, the pickups aka utes here are not the typical you find back home, these are monster V8s and V10s.. It’s more a cult item here than a business tool..

A pretty blur shot of a four utes coordinated jump..

We had this human cannonball chick from Misourri, USA and finally, as always, fireworks..

See that funny line facing diagonally top right, that’s her coming outta the cannon..

Fireworks.. yawn..

Alright, that was Saturday.. Today, we headed up to Sydney to meet our client, Victa Lawnmowers.. We are designing for them this semester.. Wiso managed to borrow Steve’s Soarer (Read this, 4000cc V8) so we drove up.. There was Sam, Ben, Wiso and myself..

Me, Wiso’s middle finger in Sam’s face and Ben peeking behind..

Beautiful sunrise.. We left at 6am!

Victa Mowers..

V8 power plant.. We only used AUD40 worth of petrol from Canberra to Sydney and back..

Alrighty, gtg now, am gonna start work at Fink tmw.. Woohoo.. Now for the other random pics I took..

Pies from work..

My new AUD4 Lego electric toothbrush..

Stick insect I caught at BP..

Ants attacking the lazy grasshopper at BP..

One of the last few imageries taken at Mobil..

  School has officially started.. Woohoo~ That means I don’t have to work 2/7 anymore.. Well, I wasn’t working 24/7 but approximately 5 1/2 days of work.. THAT is a bore..

And yes, I have replaced my Graphic Design Technology module to a Introduction to Marketing one. Reason being is since I am paying over AUD2000 a subject, I might as well do something more financially worthwhile compared to something I can take back home for SGD100 or just with a Idiot’s handbook..

And so I attended my first non design lecture since my Poly days.. Woooahhh.. Being in the midst of freshies, when you are a fourth year, is SCARY.. All that excited chatter, all that over-dressing, all that I’m kewl and hip and all that I know it all is juz as much as I could take..

The good thing is that I indeed could understand the lecture compared to my peers.. What peers? I’m not a bloody freshie.. HEheheheh.. In fact, I could relate to the business terms used within and actually come out with the design equivalent.. Well, the bad thing is that when Lenca tried to test me this afternoon, I can’t really remember the business terms.. Dang my memory.. =0(

Arrrgh, FRESHIES~ Anyway, my required text is gonna cost me AUD95 and I am planning to get a 2nd hand one from Melbourne.. Someone’s selling it for AUD40..

Today, I got invited for an Overseas Christian Fellowship barbie.. Before that, I decided to drop by Tammett’s to return my shirt.. I spent a min too late and I got a AUD70 fine.. Double dang!

My first and hopefully only fine in the ACT…

The bbq was alright.. A fusion of Australian and somewhat I dunno what.. They had snags and onions, that’s aussie.. Then that was potato patties, eggs (??!!!), bread, etc.. Weird I tell you..

Finally, guys, my parents are not doing too well right now.. Their relationship is on a strain.. Please please do pray for them.. Thanks!

A random pic I took while running..

Saturday was my last day at Tammett’s Car Wash.. I have effectively been working there for 10 months.. In the 10 months, I have learnt all that is there for me to learn except for the driveway shift which didn’t have an opening for me.. I have started with vacuuming the cars, drying off passenger sides, driving off driver’s side, training new staff, detailing, driving on, sending through, putting through, grease monkeying, etc..

It was a good experience with lotsa good people.. Indeed, I had much hollering at and to.. But it was good I’ll miss the place, especially my free car washes.. Pat Franks Senior was nice enough to offer me a place whenever I wanted to return and Laurence, burnt a couple of DVDs for me..

Enough words and here are the pics..

Edward, the guy who always chew his tongue and with a constant fly down problem..

Zoran, a Yugoslavian guy with Australian citizenship..

Steve Ison, the most hardworking and fast working full timer.. Guess who’s the most hardworking and fast working casual? HEeheheh

Pat Franks Senior, the oldest and longest serving staff on board.. He literally does only a lick of work like turn the wheel, open the doors to air the interior, off the faucet, etc.. He’s been there for over 30 yrs..

Simon, the first guy I worked with when I arrived.. The bloke laughs to himself while cleaning the cars.. Weird I tell you..

Matt, a nice guy who is the latest full timer also the slackest.. Well, the spirit is willing but flesh is weak I guess.. Bro in law to Steve Ison..

Pat Franks Junior.. This dude also works at the new servos I’m at.. And guess what? Surprise surprise, he is the grandson of Pat Franks Senior..

Laurence DeKeyzer, my 40+ year old supervisor which I mentioned in this blog eons ago who opened up to me. He offered me a 4WD outdoors trip this coming Autumn when it gets cooler.. =0)

That’s all the pics I’ve taken.. Naturally there’s other people like Crispian (workaholic, former regional manager for Woolies who left that job cos he didn’t want responsibility), Linda (the secretary who was a farm girl and has this bumper stick which reads; A Good Cowgirl Keeps Her Calves Together), Jane (simple sounding as her name, she is a really pleasant girl also at UC), Anthony aka Tony aka Mr Tammett (the boss who is relatively a nice guy who does remembers his employee’s names and is willing to get down and help his staff when needed) and finally, Andy (A mainlander who has gotten his PR, was a slacker but now improving. He confessed that he married his wife, a former Cambodian, cos she was rich..)…

Right, so where am I working now? I am now working at BP MacGregor’s.. The reasons for the switch is that though the pay is like AUD1 less per hour, I was bored at Tammett’s, I get to learn more workshop skills at BP’s, work’s easier, etc.. I will expound more about that but I’ll leave that for another entry..

There’s school today~

It has been a long time since I have last posted… Been really really bz.. But here’s the gist..

One evening, I was out in the yard with Wiso and we were cleaning up his mags as he wanted to respray em white.. I noticed a spider whose web was juz beside me.. Hmm.. He looked familiar I thought.. That red arse and all.. Bloody hell.. That was a huge RED BACK SPIDER.. One bite from that fella and I could be dead in 1/2 hour.. Wiso stomped on him.. That’s number one..

We later when in, cooked ourselves some tea, bummed in at our couch and watched Futurama.. All of the sudden, Wiso grabbed his thong, ran towards the wall and gave it a hard smack.. It was a white tail.. Another very venomous spider in Aussieland.. That’s number two..

After the show, I returned to my room.. Bummed ass and just as I walked out to the kitchen to get a glass of juice, I felt something beneath my bare foot.. Another bloody big spider.. I smacked it before being able to grab a shot proper.. It was a huntsman.. Not that poisonous but it does have a pretty nasty bite.. Oh well.. Thank God he didn’t bite me as I trot on him.. He had a span of at least 9cm.. Woah.. That’s number three.. ALL IN A NIGHT..

One of his legs which got detached..

There he laid, like a rag doll..

Guess, we both kinda freaked out and realized that the border spray around our house is no longer effective and we spent the next 1/2 spraying and reapplying insecticide to all windows and door jams.. Bugger..

Next; there was this night when I was hungry (so what’s new?) and I decided to have a chocolate bar before bed.. I usually have a plastic bag in my room but it so happened that I have just thrown the last one out so I left the wrapper on the carpet, being too lazy to walk out to chuck it.. Woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rustling plastic.. Switched on the light and I found the wrapper under my bed.. AND THEN, I SPOTTED A BLOODY MOUSE! ARRRGHHH…

Anyway, to cut the long story short, we spent the next few days trying to catch the mouse.. And finally, we managed to corner him and I caught him with a lid off our saucepan… Wiso wanted so much to smash him in a bag on the wall.. I couldn’t bring myself to do that.. We agreed to release him down the path.. He was a field mouse, noting the long tail he has.. and man can he jump.. He could jump at least 30 times his height; a house mouse won’t be able to do that… That’s the last we heard of him..

That’s him in our container.. Notice the cling wrap.. It’s there cos he nearly jumped out!

He’s pretty cute eh, I wanted to keep him as a pet but Wiso thought otherwise..

Skipped church this morning… That’s because we were our partying last night.. Wiso, Steve, Adam, Jacki and myself were out in Civic drinking at King O’Malley’s. Wiso got a phonecall from Jules and he was off to work at some pub in Manuka.. That left the four of us.. We pub hopped from LCBM to Mooseheads and back to KingOs.. Reasonable good music, spent only AUD5 for cover.. Drank 3 pints of Coopers and 1 gin tonic but the round never reached me, so I didn’t have to fork out a cent for piss.. Hahahah.. Damn, I’m lucky!

Anyway, back to the skipping of church thingy.. I woke up at 7.30 by the force of habit but I knew if I were to go to church, (I would make it there), I would be nodding (agreeing Pastor naturally) in the service, so I thought otherwise. Stayed home, did my washings, the dishes, brought the trash out, cleared up the baskets in the toilets and showers, washed the toilet, etc..

Would be working at 12pm tmw. Though I was not in the schedule, Laurence called me late yesterday afternoon to tell me I was on; he had made a slot available for me. =0)

Alrighty, would be calling dearies now.. And oh no! School starts in 14 days time! Arrrrrggggh

Yeah, I’m bored.. Worked at the wash today… Told Laurence and Pat that I’ll be leaving em on the 20th of this month.. I had found another job at another petrol service station. It is going to be sad leaving all that friendship and rapport behind but I know I should move on; I am getting real bored of that job and the new one’s is easier and I get to be a supervisor..

The difference is that  BP is a servos.. aka the attendant would fill the gas up for you, wipe the windows, do the tires, etc… It’s somewhat like what you’d expect to see in the 70’s.. Something like Grease.. And also, it’s the last servos in Canberra.. That makes it alittle more special… Besides, I’ve been promised more weekend hours aka more money… =0)

Anyway, at Mobil today, some happy customer bought us Krispy Kreme doughnuts and yes, I indulged.. I had 5 doughnuts.. =0) Spent some time after work to talk to Laurence and also Tony… Both are single men in their 40s.. Among my closer colleagues who share with me their worries of not being able to find the one, etc.. The usual men stuff.. I reckon, I would buy a round on my last day..

After work was reporting time as usual.. Wiso says I call Lenca as often as one would report to his parole officer.. Heheheh.. After that was lunch, 1/2 a kilo of chips (fries) and 2 fish fillets.. Watched "Sabre Tooth Tigers" whilst eating… Had a nap and now am bored.. What to do what to do?

Anyway, here’s a picture of me and the boys (frowning cos none of them are smiling) and a couple of random sketches..