ansblob.. puddles of life within and beyond…

It’s been 3 days since the ultimatum. Here I am facing the computer blogging once again.. I reckon I need to talk to someone about it but somehow don’t have anyone to.

Too often when I sit down and chill with anyone, I’ll end up sharing and advising the other party. So with that, here I am, all alone, having to bear the entire weight on my own. I have committed it to the Lord but it’s still difficult.

I do regard myself relatively successful. I have a career awaiting me when I ORD, I am doing well at my job, I am embarking well to being known and recognized at office. But somehow those are not enough. Am I looking I ask myself. Would there be someone else I ponder. It doesn’t seem so. Everything is a reminder; every bit a memory.

Maybe that saying is true. I guess so, it seems like I am missing something here.. Sigh.. 

Why is it whenever I ride my phantom, people are always playing on the roads?

Why is it whenever I ride my ninny, people are law abiding on the roads?

Bummer!

Wow.. Has it been this long since I last blogged??!

Yes, yes.. Things have happened and circumstances have changed..

Anyhow, am just here to say hi to all, I am still alive, thanks for all your love in a time of difficulty for me.

Truly in His grace by His blood,

Ansley Jones

And here I am outside the house, sitting in the sun, with a Carlton Cold next to me, my notebook on my lap, updating my long neglected blog.. Lotsa things happened in the span of 2 weeks.. So let’s get down to it..

House Party

Unfortunately, the turnout wasn’t too fantastic.. Most of my friends didn’t turn out.. Sadly. In total, approximately 20 did.. 10 were Wiso’s friends whom I also knew, 5 were from class and the other 5 from Church… But the many of us finished approximately 4 cases of beer.. That was alot.. Personally for me, not being a beer drinker, I had about 5 bottles.. That was bad enough for me.. =0) Anyhow, the night ended with us at the Academy dancing.. Good fun. Well.. think I should have mentioned it was supposed to be my birthday party..

Stung by a European Wasp

Yup, I am a Mr. Do Good. Saw this wasp trapped at the showroom window at work.. Decided that I should just help him out by cupping him with my hands and freeing him later.. And he stung me.. Not the smartest thing to do I agrees, but I have handled so so many creepy crawlies in my life and this is the first I’ve got stung or bitten… I’ve handled preying mantis as big as 20cm, rhino beatles 15 cm big, big tarantulas, snakes, etc.. Oh well.. Anyway, I was later told by Wiso, that it was a European wasp and people have died with just a sting.. With that I did some quick research to realize how deadly it was; if stung at the throat or face.. I only got stung on my right pinky.. Pisssff..

Birthday Presents

This year, I’ve only received one.. Swee Fong, a friend at Uni, gave me a bottle of Versace Blue Jeans.. She was one of the few whom I invited for my party, who knew it was supposed to be my birthday.. She didn’t come though; she was in Melbourne. Anyhow, thanks anyway!

Easter Long Weekend

Was working heaps cos Joel and Mark were away.. Nothing more.. Except money.. Heheheheh..

Alrighty, better be going.. Got so much assignments to do.. am so worried.. =0( Please pray for me..

Wiso and myself are having a house party this coming apr 8th.. Whether if you are in Finland, the States, Singapore, Thailand, Brisbane or anywhere, anyone and everyone is invited.. Just Bring Your Own Grog that should be fine.. =0)

It has been a long long long long long long time since I last updated my blog.. Lotsa things happened between then and now.. So let’s see what happened since then…

Katherine’s House Party

Katherine, my former University Village room mate, dropped me a random msn msg one day and invited me to her housewarming.. She mentioned that since I wouldn’t know anyone else but her, that it would be alright to bring a friend along. Along came Wiso.. And with the surest of luck, Wiso met Jess there.. Jess is the ex-gf of Wiso’s best mate, Steve. Together, they got Steve over in a minute. We had karaoke and Vietnamese rolls (The same ones which Kelly taught me when I visited her last winter in Brissy) and beer and tarts and pies and and and.. To cut the long story short, Jess and Steve are back together and all thanks to me.. Cupid’s little help this Ansley Jones I say.

Jess and Steve..

Random people..

Dinner with the High Commissioner of Singapore

And yes, I got invited to his residence for dinner.. The committee members of the Canberra Singapore Club got invited to Eddy and Antonia’s official residence for dinner.. Indeed, it’s no wonder why they are diplomats.. Really nice elderly couple I would say.. I would say especially so as the invite stated "Casual Dress", as Ansley went there in a polo tee, burms and thongs.. Dang! Nobody told me "Casual Dress" was supposed to be "Semi Formal".. Anyhow, Antonia personally walked me thru her collection of Peranakan wares from Batik to books to sandals to everything else.. Dinner was good.. I would say it’s a contemporary fusion.. Maybe even post modern as with everything these days.. Current food which flavors and visuals of reminiscence..

Cannot take pics in the residence so here’s the pic of my place card and invite..

Golden Key Presentation

For the first time in my life, I am getting a recognition for my grades.. Frankly, I have been a grade scraper all my life.. I never really gotten an A or B for anything (Except for English and Science).. And so this award came to me as a surprise… Apparently, I have managed to pull considerably good grades for my 3rd year to be the top 15% of UC.. With that, I got invited to join this academic society, The Golden Key International Honour Society. Amazingly, Wiso also got an invite.. We were amazed as we weren’t best in class.. With a little snooping around.. We found out that the "elite" aka older folks aka teachers pets aka cannot design but can write report people had gotten theirs’ on their first year.. Oh well.. Ain any pics of me receiving the award, Wiso was sitting next to me and they mass distributed the certs… Even the recept after that was sucky.. Oh well.. this will be just another color painted on my resume..

AnS, as swanky as ever.. Shirt tucked out, collar’s up, belt’s sideways and random socks..

Dinner with Swee Fong, Wiso and Catherine

We had dinner at the Belconnen Labor Club. Cheap food with lousy ambiance.. After dinner we headed over to Katherine’s for some more karaoke, eye toy and 2 movies… We watched Crashed and SpaceBalls… Had great fun with the eye toy and naturally killed each others ear drums with our singings…

Me as a character in the eyetoy..

After this round, Wiso admitted "guys should be better in this cos they had practice.."

Katherine shaking that ass..

Swee Fong grooving to the tunes..

Sydney Skydiving Trip

And yes, I headed to Sydney for my skydive trip.. Met and stayed with Pepper and her housemates… Pepper is Janice’s brother’s friend who had recently arrived at Sydney to pursue her degree in Industrial Design.. Ahh.. You see now? Common interest and yet she was game enough to go skydiving with me! HEeheheh.. Anyway, what are you guys thinking?!!! She has 2 other guy housemates, Sean, another ID student in his fourth year and Kim Fai, an Engineering masters student with 2 kids back home.. Indeed they are great friends and company~ Actually, I am kinda missing them right now… Guess it’s the feeling you get when u hang out with other Singaporeans in a foreign land. The common passion for design, fueled by the love for food (as a Singaporean) and even share the local Singapore lingo.. That is something which I do miss, not hanging out with any Singaporeans anymore in UC.. But still, the show must go on.. (not literally dweebs, I’m juz taking a statement outta a Queen’s song with the same title) Anyway, I met up with alot other Singaporeans in this UNSW SSA bar night thingy.. Things were cool but as every tight arsed Singaporeans, the crowd stuck to themselves.. They weren’t sensitive to the others in the bar.. Guess that’s what people do in a herd; stick to themselves.. Please do not get a wrong idea; I had a ball of a time but they are juz not as "fun" loving and open as us Canberrians… Heheheheh.. Also met up with Yew Peng, Chris and the others from the Temasek Club of Sydney. It was nice meeting them as usual.. I reckon, being older, I am starting to enjoy myself more among still older people; that gives me a chance to stone out and let others take control.. Ahhh.. Skydive.. My instructor was from Canberra… My instructor had better camera angles.. My instructor was as fun as me… Heheheh.. I have to admit, I was scared when I jumped outta the plane… But overall, it’s not as scary as the bungee as after sometime, you hit your terminal velocity and all is good; no more "balls in your mouth" as Pinky puts it… Anyway, it was time well spent, and I thank Pepper, Sean and Kim Fai for your hospitality.. =0) Oh, pics of my skydive would be out when I figure how to screen thief a DVD video…

AnS, Pepper and Sean..

Pepper and AnS with our certs..

Sean drunk with beer, AnS drunk from dancing, Pepper drunk being tired..

Holy cow, where did those chicks come from?!!!

Pepper was tickled from the length AnS would go for a shot..

Pepper convincing her strawberry to be sweet..

AnS sucking his strawberry.. Yes, they are the sweetest we have tasted..

Pacman on Oxford St…

Nice, cheap sashimi at Oxford St…

Nice spire with a strange leave growing lamp..

Random kid mucking around a water element at Darling Harbor..

Yours Truly.. Pepper was convinced I should attribute all the attention I was getting from my shades..

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~