Watch it!

moving out

2006-01-01T09:51:00.000+08:00

Ah. I know I know. I'm a lazy ass. I'm going to abandon this blog for the time being - not finding enough time and incentive to write my own boring life. But I'm co-writing another blog, not about my own life this time, here you go:

http://www.grumblesgalore.blogspot.com

Dogs are lucky here

2005-10-27T06:25:00.000+08:00

Actually I've got some things to write about, but they are not about Australian issues, rather they are about my classmates. I'll write when I get more time to spend in this computer lab.

Every day I walk to the bus stop which is quite a nice experience if not under storm weather. Today I met this little dog again sniffing flowers on the streets and hopping and running freely on its own. There are quite a few dogs doing this in the morning and late evening around my residential area. They walk side by side with you and they will stop and sniff the flowers or dig a hole in someone's garden and then run again. So lovely. I mean we never see pet dogs strolling along the streets enjoying themselves on their own in HK. They are all leashed up by their owners, aren' they?

Although life is pretty boring here, I can't deny that Melbourne can make life beautiful. I'm experiencing what's being described in the beginning of a song "What a wonderful world."

A snippet

2005-10-18T15:19:00.000+08:00

Please bear with me. Internet connection is inaccessible at my homestay family. The only chance I can use internet is at the university. Argh.

Often hear people talking about how new and simple a country Australia is. Now I've got a chance to tell my first hand experience. To be honest, their culture isn't distinctive enough to impress foreigners. From my observation over the past 2 weeks they are obsessed with sports and like barbeque very much that they actually have their own "Aussie barbeque" where Australian people grill sausages, seafood and drink beer with their family. I'm going to organise one with my classmates.

Went to the Phillip Island last Saturday and saw penguins about the size of a pigeon. They were gorgeous. Seeing them come swimming from the middle of the sea to the shore was worth all the waiting in cold wind. I think I've seen almost all iconic Australian animals in the trip - Kangaroos, Wombats, Koalas, Snakes, and etc..

It's a shame that I can't upload photos here in the computer centre. As soon as I manage to bring myself to ask my homestay mom for internet connection I will upload them for your enjoyment.

Melbourne

2005-10-14T08:35:00.000+08:00

Here I am in Melbourne now. My homestay family lives in somewhere in the middle of nowhere and I need to do a 25 mins walk every morning under to the nearest bus stop and shopping centre to get some food.

On my arrival day, my homestay mom told me that I could use the bathroom for as long as I like BUT the shower time must be restricted to 5 minutes only. How very nice of her! 5 minutes. I'm thrilled every time she goes out, which means I have autonomy deciding how long I can use the shower for.

Apart from that, everything seems fine so far. The weather has been lovely most of the time. Today the morning temperature is around 14 and sunny. People are very friendly here. Air is fresh; living space abundant.

But, for some reason, most of us are missing HK already.

Crazy

2005-10-03T00:12:00.000+08:00

Some of you have already known that my boyfriend gave me a huge surprise about a few days ago by showing up at my door all of a sudden. When I was wondering why he hadn't replied to my email he was actually right outside my apartment about to press my door bell. Well, he's sleeping in my room at the moment and I still think he's unbelieveably crazy. Anyway. Just now I managed to squeeze some time to wander between blogs and write my own.

I'm leaving for Melbourne tomorrow. I've been told that internet connection is not available at my homestay family so my blog will probably stand idle until I've settled myself in Melbourne and found a computer centre there. I will try to update my life as often as possible.

Thanks for all your farewell messages and sorry for the inconvenience caused to some of you.

A "rewarding" exhibition

2005-09-18T09:57:00.000+08:00

Nobody was going to offer their seat to this old lady on the bus. I guess everybody on board'd been waiting at least 45 minutes for the bus and it wore everybody out. I glanced around. No one moved. My feet were swelling and aching in my high-heels after a few hours' walking. I slightly staggered toward the old lady and offered my seat to her.

(Please stop your big round of applause. I'm not here trying to say how nice a person I am. The interesting part is coming up.)

The old lady's husband thanked me repeatedly until we settled in casual conversations. He turned out to be a painter and was having an exhibition at the City Hall. He invited me. I was quite happy to be invited as I used to be a gallery goer.

So I went yesterday. The paintings were lovely. After Mr.Chan (the old lady's husband) greeted me he led me to a couple of men whom Mr.Chan introduced to me as secondary school principals. Mr.Chan spoke highly of me in front of them and told them I was taking an Education course. One of the principals gave me his contact details and asked me to get in touch with him near the end of my course and he will try to arrange a job for me.

It was very nice of Mr.Chan and the principal. Anyway, it just amazed me that how simple things could be so interestingly interconnected with supposedly serious and important matters in real life, such as job seeking. Ah, they're right in those children stories that good deeds will lead to rewards.

Maturity

2005-09-15T10:12:00.000+08:00

This guy from my class is rather concerned about his own level of maturity. He told me he'd been turned down by a few girls in a row all claiming he was not mature enough. It was fair enough, he's only 23 and he must've been a few years younger when he'd been rejected. Does age really matter a great deal to girls? He asked.

If your knowledge and experience is more than what the girl possesses, then age probably doesn't matter much. But if the scenario is vice versa then it does. It's more about one's knowledge and experience than the actual age one bears. In fact, he's quite up to the standard of a 23 year-old boy at least in my dictionary he is.

Trying to boost his self-esteem I said "you're still young and you should give yourself allowances of taking your time to learn. Don't stretch yourself to the utmost. If you were my age and still unable to engage in any in-depth conversation in anything (Excluding things like video games and gossips) and hadn't got any stands in your own life then you would probably be considered a boring and hollow person. But now you're perfectly fine. What's more if you think you enjoy being simple and boring then just pick those boring girls who enjoy your company and....bla bla bla.... nada nada nada...."

"So you think I'm fine?" He cut in and probed.

"Yes, I do."

"Would you consider going out with a 23 year-old guy, like me??"

"What???????" F%^&(I#X@&*(Y!K@#^&#$*&

I hope she will die soon

2005-09-10T23:08:00.000+08:00

Do you guys/gals watch The OC? The first couple of episodes really got me glued to the telly until the epidsode in which Marissa's parents are getting divorced. Not that I can't bear the nice couple growing apart, it's that mourning- and po-faced Marissa who upsets my stomach big time. Every one in The OC is cute and likeable except Marissa who always pulls a long face and thinks the whole world owe her some fucking thing. She deserves nothing but a kick in the ass and a smack right on the head. Why is it her business when her ex-boyfriend shags her mother? Especially it's her who dumps her ex-boyfriend. And her face, unattractive and kinda weird.

Yes, it's getting boring. I stay because of Summer and Seth and Sandy. Seth's lovely and Summer hot. Summer definitely outshines Marissa, no contest. I will keep watching and hoping that one day Marissa will die.

Weird guy in my class

2005-09-09T19:43:00.000+08:00

There's a weird guy in our class. The other day we took turns to do an impromptu presentation. This weird guy drew out a topic "If you could become invisible for one day, what would you do?". And in the middle of his presentation he asked us to throw in ideas.

One suggested that he would probably stay at home to avoid any accidents that might happen because nobody would know his existence. The weird guy said, "yeah? that's it? I can tell you're a boring person or seriously lacking of imagination." And then another guy cut in and said "If you were invisible then you would have to go around naked so that people on the street won't just see your clothing hanging in the air." The weird guy replied, "Very funny. You think you're funny? You know what I was going to do if I became invisible? I would sneak behind you and pull down your pants to embarrass you. haha." But that was just the SECOND lesson that we had together and we barely knew each other. He had no idea where the line was. I guess he likes watching "The Wizard of Oz" very much and his favourite song must be "If I only had a brain".

Thank god that I haven't been asked to do any group presentation with him so far. I was paired up with the best guy in our class the first day(By best I mean his personality very likely matches with mine most.) He is incredibly gentlemanly and caring that he always helps me with this and that if he happens to be around. Such a nice guy is not easy to come by in HK's universities, right? He came from Canada. Other classmates were friendly too. Quite a couple of girls in class came forward and showed their friendliness to me, I was flattered.

A rather enjoyable school life it's been.

My first day

2005-09-06T21:25:00.000+08:00

My first day at school went fine. The Orientation Day was held in an enormous lecture room. I took a quick glance at the participants, many of the faces were incredibly juvenile that I would have mistaken them for secondary school students if we had stumbled across each other on the street. One of the boys, during the talking, went out of the lecture room to the washroom, I guess. What's so amusing is when he got up from his seat and realised being looked at by many people he stuck out his tongue and squeezed his face like a crumpled washcloth, dashed to the doorwith much haste, slowly pushed the door open into a crack and in a split second sneaked out through it. He came back in sticking his tongue out and in, out and in, which was a ridiculously childish act. I don't mean to be condescending, it was just funny.

photos

2005-09-01T22:38:00.000+08:00

I went to Gibraltar with my boyfriend in January this year. My camera had run out of battery before we set foot on Gibraltar so I had my boyfriend take charge of all the photo taking. But he forgot to send the photos to me and so did I, after having badgered him a few times. Yesterday he suddenly sent me 2 photos taken from/on the big rock. Nice pictures. You can see in the photo on the right Africa (Those heaps of hills on the left hand side). I love Gibraltar.

Grumpy little skinny girl

2005-08-27T12:45:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I visited Chai Wan where I grew up and spent about 20 years in. When the train pushing its way to the platform and the place fostering my childhood jumped into my eyes I had an urge to get on my feet and announced like a soprano "This is my ! my home! my home!lala la". Thrilled. Like a cat walking on a heated tin roof.

5 minutes later I was seated in a noodle stall which had long been my favourite. I was caught by the boss's wife staring at the boss who grew unexpectedly charming over the years.

"Hey, you look familiar to me." She came over and asked friendly.

"Do I? But no surprise I used to be a regular customer."

"Yes, I can tell. Are you the grumpy skinny girl?"

Oh what in the name of Christ do people have such good memory for? Yes. Having spent almost 20 years in the same place didn't get me nothing. I got a reputation of being an awfully grumpy kid always resisting all befriending adults. I hated being told what to eat, play and do since I gained consciousness of my own being. I think I disliked most of the adults around me and they didn't like me much either because many of my relatives had told me again and again that I was a great pain in the ass and that my brother was more lovely and well-behaved and shy. Haha. They might be trying to piss me off but I didn't frigging care. They told me one of my notably annoying acts was that whenever a grown-up came stroking my hair or patting my shoulders I would quickly wipe my hair or my shoulders or wherever touched with a handkerchief and then sulked right in front of that person.

I think I am not unjustly accused. Photos can prove something.

怪癖遊戲 Strange habits?

2005-08-25T20:03:00.000+08:00

What exactly is 怪癖? I have no idea. I take it as a habit other people around you consider strange because without having them around to compare with you wouldn't have known your habits are abnormal. But 5 怪癖 is a bit too much, isn't it? Anybody having more than a couple of REAL 怪癖 should go see a psychiatrist. I think only the first of the below-mentioned could be seen as something close to 怪癖, the rest are more like personal preferences - they wouldn't cause much trouble to my life if I didn't do it or I did it otherwise.

1) All meat served in my home has to be cut into small cubes or slices. I have problem eating big piece of meat, be it beef, pork or chicken. Big chuck of meat on my plate conjures up an image of cannibalism. I will very likely puke if forced to eat a huge medium or less cooked steak. But if it's cut up into small cubes beforehand then I can finish them up OK.

2) My boyfriends are not allowed to shave on weekends. Because I like it.

3) I can't bear the noise of a football being hurled/kicked against a wall. If this is being done repeatedly over maybe 5 minutes or so I will get all cranky then scared and then scream.

4) I like the smell of hospitals. I feel completely at my ease in there.

5) I loathe cigarette butts. Even at the time I smoke, I chuck the butts away as quickly as I can as if they were bombs. Cigarette butts give me creeps.

For old times' sake

2005-08-24T21:00:00.000+08:00

It's been quite a long time since I last spent money on practically useless trinkets. The other day when I walked pass a Japanese toy shop my eyes instantly got glued to the display windows. Their whole glass shelves were embellished with all kinds of food, grocery, furniture, utensils and cutlery, eletronics, and etc. IN MINIATURE. I have a thing for miniature grocery items because my childhood dream jobs were being a cashier or a grocery shop keeper, which had never been made known to my teachers nor my parents. So this little secret forced its way to tickle my heart gently and they also reminded me of my mother - she was a huge fan of this kind of trinket. I surrendered and meekly handed in my money.

A precious lesson

2005-08-19T15:20:00.000+08:00

I've done the pap smear twice and just did the third yesterday at the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong. To conclude my experience, I hate myself for being so adventurous.

The last two tests were done in a hospital and things went fine - doctors friendly,caring and skillful. The first time I was awfully nervous and confessed to the doctor that I had sort of phobia of all kinds of gynaecological tests and I was going to pee in the pants. The doctor smiled and said she would use the smallest speculum which should cause the minimal discomfort. She was right and I felt a cold metal thing inserted to my vagina and 20 seconds later it was done, painless. The second time was much the same.

Yesterday at the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong the woman did the test for me was the receptionist to whom I handed in the form. She was a middle-aged woman, a nurse or a helper or something, definitely not a doctor. I shuddered. Is her eyesight perfect? Her hands steady enough? Well, I had no choice, did I? My heart nearly bounced out of my chest when I was lying on the bed. She inserted the speculum in me OK but when she was trying to turn the screw of the speclum to fix its position her hands were shaky so the speculum was scratching my vagina rather vigorously. I let out a low cry of pain she quickly readjusted her hand and the speculum fixed. Oh, thank god.

I will not go there again no matter how cheap the fee is. I was told, I was told that they will make people bleed and that those private doctors were much better. What was I being so adventurous for? It wasn't a day out in the Ocean Park. Having my vagina prodded and scratched by a middle-aged woman using a metal instrument is not my idea of fun. A precious lesson learned.

My youngest sister

2005-08-11T21:46:00.000+08:00

My blog looks dull without photos on the front page especially when my writing sucks. So here come the photos of my youngest sister.

1)Her favourite toys, the balls, are hanging out there, she wants to help them
2)Finally, she's got them back. Look at her heroic face.
3)Tired from playing the balls and having some snoozes

Abstinence

2005-08-09T22:00:00.000+08:00

Just got back from the Chinese doctor mentioned in Jumbo's blog. When I stuck out my tongue for her diagnosis, she immediately asked if I like eating noodles very much. Definitely Yes. I am seriously advised to cut back on it. She said my unreasonably excessive consumption of noodles and chocolate has messed up my menstrual period badly. Although my period, I reckon, has been doing OK over the past year, I haven't much doubt on what she said as I have a history of gynaecological illness.

Actually at first I had wanted to see her for the 3 acnes I had on my chin (which the doctor said is not a big problem for "hot-base" people like me) but it turned out that what needs an intensive care for is my period. No surprise though. I'll try to cut back on them as much as I can and take all the medication see if I can get some good quality sleep and cleanse my blood a bit.

This doctor is friendly, cheerful and nice. I wrote on my personal details card that I'm a student and then she waived the diagnosis fee. Let me experiment myself on the medication in these few days and then write a brief report here for interested parties' reference.

Cheers! Happy abstinence from noodles and chocolate to me!

A snippet of my love life

2005-08-08T00:55:00.000+08:00

"Come on, come on, tell me what your favourite poems are."

My boyfriend and I were sitting on a big heaps of gigantic rocks facing the dark and silent sea in a cool crispy evening in Taiwan 淡水 one and a half years ago. He got all excited from reading Shakespears' poems to me and wanted to read some more by other poets.

"hmm... When You Are Old by W.B.Yeats." Randomly fumbled in my memory and picked this one out because of its simplicity and delicacy.

In a fraction of a second he smoothly recited it, looking into my eyes intermittently, without a moment's pause:

"When you are old, and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the prilgrim soul in you,
And your sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled,
And paced upon the mountain overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars."

Dumbfounded. I was like being struck by a bolt of lightning and felt my blood racing like a galloping horse and my heart going soft and tickling but my face managed to stay stony to cover up the turbulance happening underneath the skin. I've never been the kind of girls who will fall for sweet talking but that evening has become the most romantic episode in my life although I can be quite sure that my boyfriend remembers nothing much about that evening. That's even better.

I was reading "Poem for the Day" today and found the above-mentioned poem in it. Memories came flowing back flowing back. Endlessly. And I read it over and over again until my eyelids dropped and snoozes overtook me. Dream sweet dream.

Chocolate or shit?

2005-08-07T21:51:00.000+08:00

A friend asked me what being in a long distance relationship is like. I said it's like shite, and I used the term "chocolate of shit flavour", which I learnt from Jumbo to bring the essence of long distance relationship out. People love chocolate but the shit-like taste really freaks one out.

Take a break from prosperity

2005-08-04T21:50:00.000+08:00

Love this Visit Korea website! Hilarious.

I imagine the experience as a tourist in North Korea will be pretty much the same as what George Orwell writes in his 1984, people getting stalked and watched literally everywhere, even your hotel room and the washroom are all camera-embedded and your activity in the room is a live "true man show" on air around the clock, the audience will be your tour guides.

Beautiful Colombians

2005-08-03T00:00:00.000+08:00

Now talking about South America, people there contributed a lot to our unforgettable memory in there. Among the 4 countries I have trotted, Colombians are the most polite and well-mannered people you can ever meet in South America, even in the world, which is quite surprising.

The immigration officers at the airport counters were young and friendly, storekeepers patient and helpful, and the taxi drivers polite and professional. The hotel manager came to apologise and offered to pay for my white top which they bleached into ivory white which actually was hardly noticeable. How can you not be fond of them?

My boyfriend told me that they use very formal and polite Spanish even in everyday life. If you dial a wrong number, Colombians will say "I'm sorry,sir/madam, I'm afraid you've dialed a wrong number. I'm really sorry and I hope you will have a very nice evening. Goodbye." before hanging up.

In spite of the socio-economic upheaval, the people there behave like they're well-educated and cultured, in which case I haven't got a chance to study. In some 50 years ago, Bogota was a cultural hub that pampered countless of writers/poets/journalists (my favourite writer Gabriel Marquez is a Colombian having spent many of his years working as a journalist there). Maybe that's why many people nowadays still carry themselves with the air of a respectable scholar. They dress well, they speak softly and they will nod and smile to you from across a table in restaurants.

It's a pity that such a wonderful country has been plagued by civil wars for several decades. And a recent research reveals that the guerillas and paramilitants kill about 250 Colombians every day. But the wars and poverty didn't wear them down; Colombians are striking to maintain their exquisite lifestyle in the face of adversity.

New search engine - Preview Seek

2005-08-02T13:39:00.000+08:00

I've been playing around with Preview Seek and it performs much better than Google; I like the thubmnails, and the Advance Search function rocks.

far yet close

2005-08-01T19:44:00.000+08:00

My boyfriend took this picture in a slum in Caracas, Venezuela some weeks ago. Only today when I look at it again did I realise it's a Chinese word there on the little girl's jeans.

I do believe you will be able to find at least a few Chinese people in every big city of each country in the world. In Lima, there are about 200,000 Chinese residents which is the biggest Chinese poplutaion in South America. The scale of the China Town is pretty impressive and there's no lack of Chinese restaurants serving up-to-par dim sums and noodles. The thought of being able to devour dim sums relentlessly, after having eaten Peruvian food 3 meals a day for a whole week, thrilled us big time.

What I found truly amazing is I saw Chinese people/food shops even in small cities, well, in fact, I spotted Chinese restaurant in every city that I visited in South America. Can you ever expect to see your fellow countrymen and taste your hometown food in a Chile boder town located at the outer strip of a desert? And in Puno, a tiny Peruvian city next to the lake Titicaca, I was surrounded by excited Cantonese-speaking Chinese in their restaurant, they talked to me in Cantonese and my boyfriend in Spanish. It was a fun conversation.

One time, I was on an airport shuttle bus that takes passengers to different terminals at Paris CDG airport. The bus was fully loaded and I managed to find the only available seat which was occupied by a huge straw bowler hat belonged to the man of next seat. "Excuse me" I said in Spanish as he appeared to be a South American to me with no doubt, but after I seated myself he asked "Where are you from?" in Mandarin. He was such a nice old man. In those five hours we spent in the transit area he told me many things that I needed to take precautions of in South America and offered to buy me drinks and food as if I were a kid. He gave me his address in Dominica and asked me to see him if I would ever go there.

This photo makes my head spin with all the sweet memory brought to me by the Chinese people in South America. Their welcoming smile, their helpfulness, those extra dumplings in our soup and the tea leaves gift packs..... I'm wishing they are having a very wonderful life no matter where they are.

Going to school soon

2005-07-30T20:16:00.000+08:00

This Education course I will be taking later involves an oversea immersion course lasting for 2 months. Just got a letter from HKU asking me to indicate my preferences as to which city and what family I would like to stay in/with during my stay in Australia.

I was sort of taken aback by the word HOMESTAY. What? Wasn't it going to be a dormitory or hostel where I could lock myself up in my own room after school? My problem is I need lots of personal space at home after spending most of the day outside to chill my mind out a bit and read and write. And I normally look like a walking corpse at home, eyes staring blankly and hardly saying anything at all until I get bored with whatever I'm doing and then get back to life and chit-chat with my father and play with my dogs.

OK, stop grumbling and make the best out of the mess. The options for me to choose from are a family with young children/teenager/no children/a single person. Teenagers? no way. They are mostly a bunch of obnoxious people being extremely self-conscious. A couple with no children? Being a light bulb? and be there to hear their moans and screams at night? No.

So I'm left with 2 options: a single person or a family with young children. OK, I'll go for the single person option and in the remarks area I'll write - MUST BE MEN and preferably a 6' tall guy with six-pack.... yum yum... never tried muscular men before. Wondering if sex education is part of the course?

Guess who he is?

2005-07-27T17:39:00.000+08:00

Gregory Rivers, he's much more than what we see in the soapies.