36 hours in Canberra

Decided to make full use of my term break, and as a result of the failure to go to Gold Coast, i had decided to take up the backup plan going to Canberra for a night. It's pretty much Tom's idea, and so we bought the bus ticket and booked our accomodation in advance.

I woke up at the wee hours of 4.45am on a Monday morning to wash up and get changed for the 6am bus going to Canberra. Frankly, that's pretty early considering i finished my dvd until 1am and went to bed at around 1.30am. Walking to the central station, Tom was there already, wearing as many layers of clothes as he usually does. Boarded on the bus and took off sharp at 6am, with the sun had already risen up and the sun rays beamed directly onto my body.

The journey to Canberra takes around 3 hours in the bus. Lucky enough the coach bus was comfy enough to fail me on my plan of doing some novel readup in the bus when i fell asleep along the journey.

Australia has long known for its breathtaking sceneries. Most of the time when i were awake, i would look out of the window and sunk in the mesmerising scenery of the mother Nature. The notable litte dots on the lawn were the sheeps, yeah they were too far away, so i couldn't really snapped a nice picture.

Tom asked me a question which made me pondered and giggled for a bit.
"do you think the sheeps will die if there isn't anyone to shave off their wool in the summer? i feel kinda hot now by just looking at them. i think they should just stack up together so that the ones down under will survive, let the above ones die!" lol. that's actually true. Will they really die if the wool is not being taken off? help me with this question.

We arrived at Canberra round 9.15am. The whole city is so neat, so organised. Being unlucky on that day itself, the weather was poo. Sizzling hot, and there was so much walking to do. wth.

"did you check online of the places we are going to visit?"Tom asked and immediately got the answer "no" from my guilty look. Well, he didn't know me quite well, i am not that of a planner, sorry. "BE SPONTANEOUS" has always been the motto in my life! hehe.

I spotted a shop selling maps when i got down from the bus. i was blessed, at least i could save up the time walking directionlessly looked for a map shop. After getting the map of Canberra, we decided to look for the bus stop to catch a bus to our hostel.anyway, studying the map wasn't easy at all that i asked a pedestrian for diretion instead.

The mapworld, i worship you from that day onwards.

yeah, the map of Canberra City. actually it's double printed, the other page was the map of the suburban area of Canberra, but it wasn't needed. aha.

see, told ya map study wasn't study. Tom was scratching his head vigorously, well it didn't seem to help eventually. lol.

our destination was our hostel. Unfortunately, the street where our hostel is located wasn't there on the map. wth right??!! So we called up the hostel to ask for direction! it just happened to be at the street across from we were. lol.
this is the road leading up to our hostel. looked pretty nice huh? it felt like the place where some of the koreans drama like 'winter sonata" or "autumn in my heart" was filmed. haha. but seriouly, it's really nice.

phew, we finally made it there, Victor Lodge, haha. it's vey quiet there, so i guessed i would have a good sleep that night.
sorry, the picture is very dark, i forgot to change my exposure on the camera. erm, we shared a room with two other people, and they happened to be two malaysians as well, hehe. what a nice coincidence. so we spoke in malay as they have just come to aus for holidays. Ok, my Malay is "certified", i couldnt really speak malay at all. aw......

After settling down in the hostel and unpacked our luggage, we headed out to the city for lunch. A sudden thought of having McDonald for lunch had occured to me, thus looking for mcdonald was our next mission. Since we were staying off the city, it'd had got no McD in the vicinity. we could only go to the city for just McDonald. so sarcastic.
The fountain. nothing special though, just took some random pictures in the bus. the antishake function in y camera is kinda good, isn't it?


we then went to the Gold Greek Village where all the miniature of buildings are displayed. erm, actually we didn't pay to get in there, lol, just walked around that area and snapped some picture, and bought some souveniers. haha.
aha, it's all about Tom. they even have a TOM'S BAR here. actually, that's just a sighboard, there wasn't any bar existed there. lol.

A short excursion to ANU (australia national univesity) was made after that. Tom had got a friend doing Law in ANU, so we could just meet up with her for dinner and she could show us around before that.
a proof that we were there in ANU. haha.

a nice cafe in ANU itself. a nice cafe is very important to uni students. a cup of hot latte will definitely boost your mind and you can easily focus in your studies.

The quietness and the lack-of-entertainment in Canberra got me thinking that if i were to study in Canberra, i would be so much of a good student, study everyday, go to the library every so often and complete my assignments a week before they are due. lol. However, as the old saying goes "old habit dies hard", i think i would spend more money on the transport to Sydney or some other interesting places whenever there is a short break or worse come to worse once in a fortnight. aha, so the conclusion is, i am relieved i didn't have chosen Canberra in the first place.
Dinner was nice at one of the malaysian restaurant which served definitely good food and the i guess because of the eagerness to fill up our stomach after a long day walk. Asam fish fillet, Sandong chicken and Garlic King prawn. It's not exaggerated to say that the dinner had made our day. lol.

the night in Canberra city centre. This was so much different from Sydney city centre. it's way too quiet that i kept thinking it's 10pm but not 7.45pm. HELP!!!! we couldn't find anything to entertain ourselves. Going back to the hostel seemed to be a wise decision.

Along the way waiting for the bus, a lady asked me for the time. Instinctively and sort of less attentively, i gazed at my watch and told her " eight fifty". Well, after 10 minutes, Tom asked me the time and i told him "8pm". i could sense the shock in his face, and a simple question ensued "and you told the lady?"
"oh shit, it's an hour difference!!! omg, i hope she wasn't going on a date or something that her date would be scapegoat for being "late"!" feeling guilty, but it seemed to be too late.

The night at Victor Lodge was unexpectedly restful. i fell asleep at 10.30pm after the hustle of taking my shower, dried up my hair which obviously didn't take much of a time, and did some reading before i drifted to my dreamland. Woke up at 8am the next morning after ten hours of a contented sleep. The breakfast was provided by Victor Lodge, nothing fancy like bacon and egg or something as what Tom had been expecting. it's just the toast, cereal and orange juice. it definitely put Tom off with such a simple meal. However i was cool with it.

And wth, somebody stole my facewash when i realised that morning i had left it in the shared toilet. sobzzzz. Why would somebody ever want to steal things like facewahs? erm, i had already cut down my luggage by leaving behind the paraphernalia of my facescrub, flipflop and etcetra. and what now?it'd further been cut down when my facewash was stolen!!!!!

After the breakfast, we walked up to the city to catch a bus to the Parliament House. ok, lots of walking again!

ok, my bad, i forgot to adjust the light exposure, again!! i know, i am such a pain!! but bear with me, you still can see the parliament house, can't you?

after the new parliament, we then walked to the next destination, the old parliament house. oh hell, the parliament house thingy was indeed boring, i hope there would be somehting interesting like bunjee jump or sort of things around the parliament house. i would like it to bits. yeah, the old parliament house, it looked pretty new to me anyway.
the bus stop in Canberra. it felt like the mushroom cottage in those fairytales. hehe. so am i the prince?
erm, the only picture we took together the whole trip. still skillful in camwhoring~lol~
so the highlight of the trip, and also the main purpose of the trip -- THE FLORIADE!! lots and lots and lots and lots of flowers as you can tell by the name. aha. i am not a sucker for flowers though. but they are nice indeed.

lots of pictures, but i am damn lazy to upload them all. i think my grandma will definitely like the place, but not me. well, i will love it twenty years later, but not now. i think i am adept enough to take those nice pictures~lol.

Done with the flowers. we were extremely hungry by then. A feast was a must to get on with the rest of the day. erm, we went to a pizza and steak house, recommended by tom's friend. it's really nice, can's miss if you are paying a visit to canberra.

yeah, the woodstock pizza house~~you will be impressed by the food and amazed by the menus. all the pizzas are named after every horoscope. it's a fab idea. for those who are indecisive, you can easily make up your mind by simply choosing your own horoscope. erm, give it a go~~
erm, a chilling drink was definitely on the list. obviously the corona was mine, heineken or some any other beer weren't my thing at all. i know, corona is beer as well, but it isn't so "beer" if you know what i meant.

the pizza we ordered. actually we ordered two medium pizza which made up 16 pieces of them and a medium portion of lasagna. and i had to stuff myself with 9 pieces of pizza as Tom was feeling full by the time he finished the 7th piece of it. erm, time to put on weight. lol.

After the lunch, instead of being energetic, Tom was feeling sleepy. lol. I had to drag him to the war memorial as we still had three hours to kill before boarding on the bus return to Sydney.
yeah, the Australian War Memorial.
the Anzac Parade. well, i know Anzac day, guess it must have something to do with it. aha, cant be bothered!
lol. the unknown soldier.
yeah, malaya is on the list, not malaysia. it's during the world war period anway.

i think he must be tired standing all years through. anyway, he has the nice outfit, so it's worthwhile.
erm, the German something gun. i am not really into history stuff actually. so yeah, not much information you can get from me.

a last drink in Canberra before heading back to Sydney, can't wait to go back to Sydney actually.

So, the Canberra trip ended at 6pm, Tuesday when i boarded on the bus heading back to Sydney. Waved the city goodbye, i could still feel the reluctantness in me despite the boredoom caused in this quiet city. anyway, the interesting is, i have absorbed the geological map of Canberra,the bus route map, and the bus system. so anyone, if you would like to pay a visit to Canberra, i could volunteer to show you around. i am pretty much good at it now. trust me.

i like going on a trip, a trip organized by myself and exploring on my own. no rush, no pressure and you could just go anywhere you want. A conclusion had been drawn after this Canberra trip, it's not a city i will fall in love with, it's just....too quiet, and quite dead actually.

back to the Sydney at 9.30pm, i felt alive. the life here is so much more colourful compared to in Canberra. More traffic, more noises, and more humans on the street even though it's 9 o'clock at night. How things are so different in Sydney, how life is more happening in Sydney and how much i like Sydney and miss Sydney. i think Sydney has now slipped into my mind and has become part of my life.

weight and life

Weight has become an issues worldwide, not only for women but also men, not to mention to teenagers who care about how they look more than anything.

Waiting in the line to take your order in any restaurant, you would have definitely come across this kind of conversation
"This is too much calories to take in for lunch, geez, that's so fattening, i think i will just get salad but without any dressing"

Food has always been a kind of blessings for everyone of us. But nowadays (or actually since long ago) it has become a sin, a must-get-rid-as-much-as-possible kind of thing. i remembered when i was a child, and when everyone around me was still a kid who didn't bother much about how much weight they would put on because of the food they took in, we always talked about junk food or snack -- burger, crisps, fried chicken, french fries and so on, about how yummy they all once were. But now, even though they are still yummy, you will try your hardest to resist the temptation and just put them all aside. How sad huh??

For me, i am still taking in as much food as i want, and sometimes at the thought of putting on weight, i will eat beyond necessity, that is french fries for after breakfast snack, chocolate-rich crepe for teatime. i have never worried about how much fat the food do carry, how fat a person i can be ( only if the food is able to make me fat). i will just eat, eat and eat --and to be honest, i eat more when i am not happy, more junk food in this case. i remembered back in old times, when my mum asked me how did i spend all of pocket money away as she reckoned that's too much to be called pocket money for a teenager who aged only 17 or 18 years old. i gave it a thought, recalled where and how i spent all the money at. As a result, three quarter of the money were spent on food where half of it was spent on junk food or to call it better--snack!! wth.

i was having teatime with my big brother Jorge this arvo. A crepe rich in dark chocolate and a latte were what i was having.
"you should eat more now, eat as much as you want, i was like you when i was young, never got any fatter no matter how much i ate, but once i hit 30, whatever i am eating now will have an effect on my belly" he said.

that's what my mum has always told me, i will only get fatter when i am 30 years old. So the mission now is, get married before 30 while i still have my belly flat. lol.

the aftertoon tea with Jorge led to a lot of conversations. he was in India for work in the past three weeks. We have always known how bad the condition in India is, how packed the city is, and how poverty has always been the big issue there.
"a lot of students relish to come to australia to study, and the first thing they asked me was "i am going to do the PR courses, am i guaranteed to get PR after my degree?"" he said which he then explained to me the PR courses include accounting, hospitality and erm erm ( sorry i forgot the other one). It's clear to me that they just want to move out of their country, they want a better life in aus, and they have always thought of migrating here and what a big change their lifes will go through if they get the PR here.

Actually not only india, but also students from many other countries have always wanted to study abroad, as they always think that the life in western countries like US, UK or Aus is as wonderful as what they have seen in movies. To be honest, i am one of them. But in my case, any country will do for me, as i just want to experiecen different kind of life in different countries. Be it the western countries or Asia Countries.

i have been putting on weight moderately within the six months in Australia. however, the weight of my life experiences and the weight of my knowledge, not academically but socially and mentally, is escalating drastically day by day. I experienced the life i have never experienced before back in malaysia, the independence that i have developed here is clearly a lot more than when i was in KL, and i am embarking on my journey to my own future, in other words, accepting what my future life will be like.

"never forget you have so much spunk" Jorge once told me.

life has been rough for the past two weeks, it felt like a lifetime, and to be honest, i couldnt focus on anything i did, simply because the heartbroken soul was never together. but it is now, afterall i have learned that there are always people sticking up for you around, you will never be alone, and never to feel alone. humans are not meant to live alone.

"dont forget, your big bro is just a phone call away" i have finally felt that i am like a kid, and how the people i have met here meant so much for me. and sometimes words have the most amazing power to move your heart.

a picture taken during the excursion to the south coast. i am so envious of him ( the random guy in the picture), enjoying his life, making the most out of it.

Sperm Donation

i was strolling on the street when the scene of a couple fiddling about with their newborn baby suddenly hit my tears glands. i felt sour in the eyes, and yet touched by what i had seen before me. it's not the thing that normal parents playing around with their babies that rose up the maudlin me, but the old couple who seemed to really cherish their baby which maybe they have gotten it after a long time of struggles, a countless times of hope-shattering failure to conceive, or maybe after the unbearable pains of injections if the baby had been conceived through IVF or some sort of medical methods to help getting the baby. Anyway, they seemed too old to have the baby through a natural way.

A hell of a thought crossed my mind when i made my way to the uni after that. Sperm donation was that bizarre of a thought, considering that i am only 19, which is still reckoned as a baby for most of the people. I doubt that i am of the legal age to do sperm donation as been thought of being not mentally ready to be a biological father. So for a moment, i set the thought aside.

The actual reason that i have had the slightest idea of doing sperm donation was that i wanted to offer my help to those infertile couples as well as having the dramatic storyline in my mind that some day i will bump into a little Shane when i am walking on the street, how amazing it can be. i am well aware that someday i will have to take up the responsibilities of being a biological father, or maybe my own child in the future will be shockingly receiving the news one day that they have a half bro/sis all these years. It's not easy to deal with those things which they have classified them as ethical problems. According to the law, the child will not be told of his biological father until he reaches the age of 18, which i think he is matured enough to know who will have been his parents all these while and the biological father will merely be an exciting thought but not likely to replace the father who has been raising him up.

During the materials lecture, i told Tim about my idea of donating the sperms.

"f*** you! " he wrote it on my handout.
"i am disturbed!" he wrote again when i told him all the stuff.

"it's kinda weird to see all the little shane running on the street" he said it to me when we were walking back to the uni after lunch.

i am wondering why would i ever have this thought! But it just occured to me, not expecting i would really go into it and find out all the details. But to do or not to do is not an easy decision to make, and i dont think i will be doing it as that will really shock the people around me to death.

the thought of bumping into someone who looks like you out of the blue is kinda of scary, yet exciting. isn't it?