Day Trip to Shenzhen

I've been to Shenzhen previously, in 1995, when I visited Hongkong for the first time. But this day trip to Shenzhen wasn't great cos besides the visit to a public park (free entry), we were taken to jewellery, medicinal and silkworm spun wares at 2 factories and ate at a restaurant which catered for tour groups (you can probably guess the quality of the food - bad).

One highlight from the trip was seeing this older gentleman who was flying over 100 hundred kites tied to a single string and he was slowly releasing them into the air. Phill asked his permission to snap his pics and these are what he took altho you have to be there to see how awesome the kites were fluttering in the air.

(below) Phill in a typical "kawaii" (cute) pose at the public park. He was even approached by a group of young gals who wanted to take his picture and he went up close to them and struck the kawaii pose. They were thoroughly amused!

The traffic situation in Shenzhen is very bad too in the sense that drivers seem to adopt a very selfish and offensive way of driving. They change lanes swiftly even if there is not enough space to do so. You really can't be even a little sleepy driving there but then again, maybe the traffic situation keeps drivers awake.

After we had to take a mandatory photo at "Wonders of the World" (so the tour group could sell our photos in a photo frame and plate later in the day - we only bought the photo frame for S$16!), we were on our way to lunch (which we didn't have our fill cos it wasn't appetising) when I saw this sight on the roads which caused a major traffic jam.

At one of the 2 factories we had to visit, my dad had this poet/ calligrapher compose a poem with all our names and then he wrote the poem (which my dad liked) in calligraphy script. He then went on to teach us some tai-chi moves we had to do everyday for good health.

I hope to go to Shenzhen one day long into the future (when the memory of this trip has faded) for the great shopping and massage I heard about from friends.

The highlight for the day though was meeting my Hongkong friend, Panda, and her friend, Irene, for dinner. I haven't seen Panda since I last visited her in Virginia in 2001, some 6 years ago! It was great to catch up and I look forward to seeing her again, soon!!!

Spectacular HongKong!

It's been a while since our family took a family trip today so I'm really looking to this 5 day trip to Hongkong!!! And even though I've been there thrice before, I still like it enough to want to be there any chance I get. We left early this morning for our 3.5 hour flight to Hongkong - yippeee! While waiting to check in at the airport, we noticed there was an unattended black bag placed under a row of chairs and shortly after, some policemen were alerted to it. They stood around with their guns (whatever the model no. is called) and made sure no-one was in that vicinity. We saw it all from the check-in counters, which was directly opposite the seats. After my mum, brother, his girlfriend, and I went to have our breakfast and came back to the counters, we were told by my dad and Phill that it took the policemen some 30 mins before they worked out the bag was harmless. What if there really was a bomb set to go off in 5 mins? I thought they moved abit too slowly for security's sake.

On arrival, we had to wait a while for others to arrive before the tour agency (it's a free and easy package tour with optional tours thrown in) took us to our hotel. We are staying at Kimberley Hotel (which is a mid-range hotel but I found our room to be rather small) and on arrival, we went to a restaurant opposite the hotel to have lunch. It wasn't bad but nothing to write home about. And it's back to the hotel to have a nap before our city tour tonight.

Phill and I enjoyed the city tour even though we went on most of the sights before, it was good to see it again - Victoria Peak at nite (only saw it once in the day), ferry ride from Hongkong Island to Kowloon (not been on it at night), dinner at a restaurant at Hongkong Island, Avenue of Stars at the Harbour, and the open top bus tour (which was fun!!!).

My husband, the chivalrous one, who was wise enough to take a jumper with him and then gave it to me cos I didn't bring any and boy, was it cold at Victoria Peak. My teeth were chattering!

The view from Victoria Peak. It was difficult to get a good clear shot. Most of my photos were blurry and it was so windy then....

My family on the ferry ride - (L-R) Mum, Cherie (bro's girlfriend), Gary (my brother), Dad and Phill!

View from the Harbour on the Avenue of Stars

Trying to get a quick photo on board the open top bus. It wasn't easy as most photos came out blurry. Phill, Gary, Cherie and I were taking in turns (like a relay run) to take photos. With the wind blowing and messing our hair, it wasn't easy either but boy, was it fun!

A final shot of the streets in Hongkong at night atop the bus before we had to alight and off we went to the ladies and men's markets to shop, shop, shop!

A funny start to Singapore

Phill and I spent a good and cosy Christmas Day with my in-laws. My mum-in-law cooked turkey, pork and ham and it was yummy! It was good to spend time with them and just sit down and talk. And we exchanged presents and that was when I unwrapped my ipod video from Phill! Yeah!!! And I bought him a James Bond DVD set which he was happy about.

Early this morning, Phill and I woke up at 3.45am and left the house at 5am for the flight to Singapore - yippeee! We arrived very early at Melbourne airport, about 7.30pm for our 10.30am flight. There was already a long queue when we were there and we found out it was cos the luggage conveyor belt in the entire airport broke down and luggage had to be loaded onto the plane manually. Being in the holiday mood and having checked in via the internet 2 days ago, we weren't fazed.

We had our breakfast at McDonalds, looked around some shops and boarded the Singapore Airlines plane. It was a pretty uneventful trip except when it came to dessert time and I had the giggles when I realised Phill's ice-cream was so much smaller than mine. And no, we did not ask for another ice-cream cos we were so full from the meal and we were keen to get back to the inflight movies. Singapore, here we come!

Christmas Spirit

My colleagues and I had a Christmas lunch which went for close to 2 hours - Nice! It was a take-it-easy kinda lunch. We spent time talking, ordered some appetisers and hungry me was asking them several times whether they wanted to place an order for lunch, which we did, before a huge group of firefighters (who are fighting fires in our district) arrived for their lunch.

Just prior to lunch, we did our Kris Kringle in the office and I received a nice photo display album from my mystery gifter - Steve! I picked Megan's name (a few weeks ago when we had to work out who we were buying gifts for) and bought her an OPI nail polish which she liked. Thankfully, she liked the colour I picked too. The Kris Kringle worked well cos everyone liked the gifts they received.

And I received a Sheaffer pen from my colleagues as a farewell gift, which I loved! This gift makes it to one of several great gifts I've received. Another memorable farewell gift I have received is the ipod shuffle from my friends and colleagues at the National Arts Council. I was wonderfully surprised. And I'm still using it and love it!

SpellBound!

A documentary "Spellbound" was screened on Australia's SBS earlier this evening and I've always wanted to watch the show ever since I saw the DVD in our local video shop. I just haven't gotten round to renting it.

Phill was really reluctant to watch it but I wanted to cos I enjoy spelling.

It was a great film but then it also showed the kind of pressure the 10-12 year olds were put through 'studying' for the National Spelling Bee held in America each year after they were selected state champion. The filmmaker followed eight children and featured their family background, the involvement of each family in their child's route to the National Spelling Bee.
Interestingly enough, one of the 8 children chosen by the filmmaker eventually went on to become the national champion - Nupur!

It was a fascinating film and the work the kids put in was astounding. And the words they had to spell, most of which I've never heard before, was so difficult, which put me to shame. I really need to brush up on my vocabulary!

But Phill said it's also the luck of the draw cos if you were assigned words you had learnt, then it's easier. It's true cos one of the kids were saying how they didn't know some of the words assigned to other spellers and fortunately, knew the ones assigned to them. But you can see how some of them did try to spell words they hadn't heard before through phonetics and breaking up the words into syllables!

It's definitely a film worth watching again!!!

Looking for directions?

Phill and I saw this koala on an isolated stretch of country road while we were making our way to his principal's house for a meal with his colleagues. It's an annual affair of getting together at a staff member's house and this year was the principal's house. It hasn't been Phill's turn yet but one year I'm sure it'll happen. Anyway, Phill saw the koala first and it was sitting by the side of the road minding its own business and Phill stopped his car so that I could take a picture and then he slowly drove away and as he did, the koala turned its head to look at us - what a cute creature!

Christmas Carols

Phill and I attended "Carols by Candlelight" at the local hospital lawn this evening and he met some of his karate mates. I had to take some photos of the performers and families and kids who turned up at the event.

When it started to get dark, the glow candles that were held up added to the cosy atmosphere. And singing along to the Christmas carols and 'Amazing Grace' put me on a high! I'm ready for Christmas!

Fire! Fire!

My colleague came to work this morning and showed us photos she had taken last night of the bushfires. Quite awesome but scary too. I think the fires were only several kilometres from her place. And I asked if her kids were scared but she said they were sitting on the roof and just saying, "our house is burning down, our house is burning down". Fortunately, the wind was blowing the fires in the opposite direction so she wasn't scared.

What?!

My general manager came to our office today to speak to some of my colleagues but he also took the chance to speak to me first cos I resigned yesterday. We chatted for abit and he had some positive feedback to say about my work but then he said something which made me go, "what?!".

At one point, he said he understood how difficult it was for me to write in a language that wasn't my mother tongue?!

Was he trying to say I didn't write well? My editors haven't mentioned that to me before. Yes, I do make mistakes but they are not mistakes that makes a person goes, "gee, does she even know the language?" (maybe some people might say that after reading my blog and seeing the mistakes splattered throughout - that goes to show one has to read, and re-read their posts...=P)

I told him that English is my dominant language. Then he said, "aren't you billingual?" And I said I am but my English is better than my Mandarin and that I spoke English at home. That's when he said abit defensively, "I've not been to Singapore before".

I was really insulted! But I'm learning to let things like that slide, 'like water off a duck's back', cos I've resigned!

Resignation!

I tendered my resignation letter today!!! Yippeee!

I had discussed with my colleague and he said he preferred if I could tender today so an ad could go in for my replacement in time for the new year, which was fair enough. So, instead of tendering this Friday, I did it today.

An Inconvenient Truth

Phill and I watched "An Inconvenient Truth" at the Mansfield Cinema and both loved it. The facts and truth are so confronting about the way we're damaging our planet, I couldn't quite say "we enjoyed it". It was scary and the "frog in the slow boiling water" in me wanted to dismiss all the facts and said it's all just scare tactics but just looking at the data collected and the effects on the environment around me, I was convinced I needed to do more. What I liked about the film was how clear the scenarios were presented and the fact it ended on a positive note that we all can make a difference.

We've gotta take action today and I'm going to start by calling our electricity company to convert our account to green power so that our electricity is sourced from renewable energy sources, and also learn to put up with the heat or the cold and not use our air-con/ heater too much.

All Smoked Out

This is how our town centre now looks, covered in smoke with the smell of burnt wood hanging in the air.

The bushfires that started last Friday are predicted to get worse this weekend. I have a friend who lives in one of the towns under threat. She is terribly worried for her parents and family.

Some residents have activated their fire plans with most mothers and wives leaving their houses while their husbands and fathers are staying in their homes to defend their property.

At a community briefing Steve and I attended on Wednesday, we were told that it's safer to stay and defend the house because sometimes people attempt to leave and either get caught in the fires or their visibility (affected by the smoke) causes them to crash into trees. The fire officer said more deaths were results of people leaving their property too late. Apparently, the fire front sweeps the house in about 10 minutes and you've gotta step out of the house and stay extinguishing any embers. Of course, the house has to be prepared before the fire front arrives by removing any flammable material and keeping loads of water around and inside the house handy, including wet cloths.

Things and people in town seem changed too. It's as daily life has been muted and everyone is more solemn, knowing some residents amongst us are facing the worst bushfires they have ever seen.

I can't believe it's close to our doorstep. It looks like everything is happening in another world.

IPOD Video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Ipod Video was delivered this afternoon to my office.....*SCREAM*

I sent an email to Phill immediately and he said, "you do know you can't open it until Christmas".

"But can't I just open it to take a look?" I ventured.

"Nope, you'll spoil the surprise."

I can envisage myself staying up late on Christmas Day to download songs from my CDs to my ipod video in time for our flight to Singapore - I can't wait!

What A Great Night!

(front row, L-R) Leanne (Steve's fiancee), Sian and I.

(back row, L-R) Steve, Phill, and Adam (Sian's husband).

Sian, Steve, and I, who reside in the "inner sanctum" of the office decided ages ago to have a Christmas dinner together with our spouses this evening. And we chose Willowlake, which is at Macs Cove, and about 20 minutes drive from Mansfield. The restaurant recently came under new management - a young chef and his fiancee. He has extensive experience abroad and in Australia working with famous chefs (including with Gordon Ramsay) and in reputable restaurants in Melbourne.

For dinner, I had T-bone steak, Phill and Steve had turkey, Leanne (Steve's fiancee) had risotto, and Sian and her husband, Adam, had duck. Sian gave me some of her duck and I reckon hers was the best dish! Duck is usually a tricky dish cos I've tasted duck meat which has been cooked pretty badly it tasted rubbery.

Phill and I had pineapple and banana fritters for dessert. You should have seen our faces when we tasted banana - it's like we were eating an imperial banquet - YUM! We have not had a banana for ages...yup, we're deprived. Because of Cyclone Larry in Queensland early this year, the prices for banana skyrocketed to about $20/kg so we haven't bought bananas since.

I thoroughly enjoyed the night. We were laughing alot of the time. We spoke about our life and our grievances at work and it was nice that our other and better halves were there. Phill looked like he had a great time too. Sian's husband, Adam, was really funny too. But his humour was delivered with a straight face which made me laugh even more. I enjoyed the company very much and am looking forward to our next dinner!

Masters!

I received my acceptance letter from RMIT into my Masters course this morning. I'll be pursuing a Master in Social Science (Planning and Environment) which is relevant to my new job! I was so thrilled! It's 2 wonderful news for the past 2 weeks!

What's not to be deliriously happy about? ;O)

Thank God!

Is this fair?

Phill is a Maths specialist teacher at school and being the nice and good teacher he is, he sometimes likes to share personal stories with his students.

Today, after work, he told me he had told his students about the question we asked each other, a pertinent question most newlywed couples ask themselves.

"What do you want for Christmas?"

I have always said I wanted an ipod video, since last year, and this year, I was really keen on having it. And Phill finally agreed to buy it for me. And I asked him what he wanted and while he was flipping through his military tank modelling magazine, he said he wanted a French tank which costs $30.

So he asked his students, "do you think it's fair that Victoria gets an almost $400 ipod video while I get a $30 tank model?"

All of his students, except 7 of them (they must be on my side!), said it wasn't fair.

Then one student, one of the 7, had this to say:
"But Mr Brown, you're married. It's all about the love!"

I broke down laughing. He was so sweet and really put things into perspective!!! It really is about the love but it's easy for me to say cos I'm getting the more expensive present...hahaha!

Praise The Lord!

I received wonderful news today from a job interview I attended on Tuesday!!! The manager who interviewed me told me that they have given me the job!!!! Arrghhhh! I am deliriously happy! Can it be? I couldn't believe it! This is one of the rare times I am so happy I wanna jump so high I can hit my head on the roof! (Alas, I'm not tall enough but I tried...)

This is the second interview I've attended with the same department and manager. The first interview was for an admin position and I almost made it but was finally beaten by another candidate. I was pretty devastated then cos I really wanted that job and had thought that it was the best one for me. But this job that I've been offered has so many more learning opportunities and prospects. I am so happy! Thank God!

The interview was actually for 2 positions on higher grades than I'm eligible for. But I don't have the relevant qualifications. So the manager did say they can consider employing me on a grade 3 (cos that's my equivalent grade) and train me up to qualify in that profession!!! But if there were 2 strong candidates for the levels they were looking for, he'll call me straightaway to say I'm not successful. But I am! He said after I left the interview room, the other 2 panelists were talking excitedly about me. Considering I don't have the relevant qualifications (but am waiting to hear if I've been accepted for my studies), I am really thankful they took the leap of faith and are employing me!!

I'll be working in the same town where Phill works, some 45 minutes drive from where we live/ rent now.

I haven't received their letter of offer yet. The manager told me to tender my resignation when I received the letter of offer so I'll be waiting... =O)

YEAH!!!!!!

Gerry

A friend of mine, Gerry, recently wrote to me. Incidentally, I have been thinking of her but more so during this week that she wrote to me - what can I say? Great minds think alike. Whenever we remember how we re-established contact, we really thank God for His hand in our friendship.

I knew Gerry from primary school and even though we were classmates, we were not close. She belonged to a different group of friends and she was studious and quiet, I was talkative and not as nice a gal (immature, I think) as I hope I am now.

We met again in junior college and by then, whenever we saw each other, we said hi and all, but that was about it, I think.

Then after I finished my uni studies, I was shopping in Marina Square and to this day I have no idea why, but I went up to her and greeted her enthusiastically and thankfully for me, she was just as excited to see me (a few days ago, I had enthusiastically greeted 2 friends from junior college I saw at Wisma Atria and we were fairly close at school but they gave me an icy reception and a weird look).

From then on, we never lost touch. We may not have spoken to each other for weeks or even months but we never ever lost this friendship. And what is even more precious and remarkable to me is that while we were working after our university studies, one year, we resolved to pray for each other weekly and used to send each other our prayer requests. That really cemented our friendship.

And I can be this obnoxious, irritable person sometimes, but Gerry accepts me nonetheless. And her gentleness and encouragement gives me a different perspective in life. It helps our friendship too that we're pretty crazy over the Japanese food at Tamako (128 Casuarina Road).

Besides Gerry, I have friends from work, school and church (I realise I better not list names cos I seem to leave out someone's name!!! Thank God for the many friends I have!!!) whose friendships I'm thankful for because no matter where we are or how long we haven't spoken, we are never strangers when we meet again.

Mandy Patinkin

Mandy Patinkin

I enjoy watching "Criminal Minds" and am so happy it's now twice a week. Phill didn't watch it with me previously cos there was another show he preferred watching over this. So, we ended up taping Criminal Minds and I didn't have time to watch it all. But in the last few weeks, he actually sat down and watched it with me and enjoyed it. So, no more taping, we watch it now. And for me, I am really happy when Criminal Minds is screening - how tv-crazy am I?!

Mandy Patinkin plays the leading role of Gideon who leads his team of FBI behavioural analysts. The main reason I was first drawn to the show was cos of Mandy but I had no idea where I had seen him from. Then recently, I heard the show "Chicago Hope" and something clicked. He acted in that series (which unfortunately for me didn't run for long) and I had a good feeling about that show. The doctors and nurses were passionate about their patients and I remember feeling all positive and hopeful about the medical profession after every episode.

Criminal Minds is of course darker but I enjoy understanding how they conduct profiling of criminals, serial killers, etc. While they put them into categories, they have to be smart enough to know when a criminal may deviate and fall into another category. I just love it!

Let It Snow!

Crazy but true - it's snowing up in the mountains today (photo of Mt Buller above), in November!!!

We've been going through a terrible drought, an accumulation of the past few years. And some farmers have lost their farms, which they've cultivated for many years. Imagining losing your source of income from a terrible drought. And so, we've been hoping and praying for rain (the condition of the land is so real here). And these two weeks, there has been a healthy dose of rain and we're praying for more.