Archive - January 2004

Sunday, 1st February, 2004
Another Blog Layout Coming Up...
This blog layout isn't wide enough to put my photos in the photo section, so I have created another blog layout and this one will be gone in a few days. Hopefully, I will stick to my new layout. My new blog layout has a width of 600 pixels so I think it should be alright..

Saturday, 31st January, 2004
2238 - A day without Coffee..
I have been having at least one cup of coffee since I was 10. But today, I decided not to take coffee and see how I would feel. I felt really sleepy throughout the day and I can't look at the computer screen for more than 1 hour. I concluded that I would collapse if I don't have any coffee for two days in a row and realised that I can't survive without a cup of coffee.
Just proves how important coffee is to me..

1300
One Month to go.....But where can I go?
Uni starts on 1st March, which means I have a month left of summer vacation. I really want to go hiking and take photos in the Mt Dandenongs before school starts. I just discovered my interest in hiking during December, when my family friends took me to Tai Tam Country Park in Hong Kong. Its was quite convenient to go hiking in Hong Kong, where public transport exists throughout the island, 7 days a week. But here in Melbourne is not as convenient. Although trains here run 7 days a week, they run every 30 minutes on Sundays and Buses don't even operate on Saturdays and Sundays. Why does public transport in Melbourne suck?

Friday, 30th January, 2004
Stormy Weather
It was cold and cloudy at 5:00 pm yesterday afternoon, when thunder triggered in the skies. I got so excited and grabbed my Canon A70, rushed to the back garden, hoping to take some pictures of lighting. As I walked out to the verandah of our back garden, rain fell heavily and there were only a few flashes of lighting, but I failed to capture pictures of it. I don't know why I like that kind of weather, but I love to hear sounds of heavily rain, pouring down heavily.

Thursday, 29th January, 2004
New Month's Resolutions..
I forgot to write down new year's resolutions last month, as I was still in jet lag from Hong Kong. At the end of each year, I always wrote down new year's resolutions but most of them don't work by the end of January. I still want to write down my resolutions for next month (and for the rest of the year). Here are my new month's (year's) resolutions (I only have 2):

1. To clean my room at least every two weeks (I always failed to do so)
2. To update this site at least once a week
   

Wednesday, 28th January, 2004

18:20
Life has been quite boring for me since I got back from Hong Kong. Partly because I didn't want to spend money and partly because I don't want to wait for hours to get on public transport. All my uni friends are in Hong Kong and I am a bit reluctant to call my friends from Wesley because they are either working or studying if not overseas. I don't want to get a job as I am afraid that it will affect my grades at uni since I want to keep up "relatively" good marks throughout my course (if you don't know me - call me a perfectionist). But fortunately there is games.yahoo.com and I can spend endless hours playing the Bookworm or Avalanche.

Update: New flower pictures in Photo gallery...

Tuesday, 27th, January, 2004
Reverse Parking
Today, I had a driving lesson and I learnt something new this time: Reverse Parking. I thought it was going to be pretty damn hard because there are so many things to watch out for when parking in reverse. When I did it today, I realised it wasn't that difficult, but it was confusing as there are lots of steps involved (4 steps) and so it was hard to remember which step I needed to do next. Luckily, I drive automatic, so there isn't as much stuff to remember.

Monday, 26th January, 2004
Happy Australia Day!
As many Australians know (and others who live in Australia), today marks the 216th Anniversary of the first colonial settlement in Australia. The only thing I like about 26/01 is that today is that it is a public holiday (so, no school and no work). On the other hand, I still wish that Chinese New Year will be made a holiday for Chinese communities as so many people celebrate Chinese New Year (even gweii-los do). Currently, Jewish people can take a day off during Jewish-related festivals (I don't no, but some people from school did), so why can we?

Saturday, 24th January, 2004
Yesterday, I went out for dinner with some friends from my old school. We finished dinner at about 8:30 and I headed off to Flinders Street Station, and was going to take the train home. So, I got to the station at about 8:45 in the evening, and waited for the 9:05 Belgrave train to Camberwell. The trains are already departing at a low frequency Friday nights (and also on a night that is the start of a long weekend and during the Australian open). So, I waited patiently at platform 2 until 9:10 and still: no train. There wasn't any announcements about the 9:05 train to Belgrave. I then checked what was on the monitor and it showed that the next train to Belgrave was at 9:35 pm. Still, no announcements were made about the 9:05 train. I got very frustrated and so I went on the Caulfield train instead to my mum's restaurant. I told myself that I am not going to ride on the train at night time again - I am very annoyed at the public transport system - the low frequency, the poor punctuality, the service - puts Melbourne down. Also the state of the trains - especially those from M>Trains, just makes me vomit. I am not kidding - I am dead serious. No wonder why most people opt to drive instead.

Update: I have put up new photos in the photos section today - most of them are my friends and relatives from Hong Kong. I'm sorry that there aren't any photos from Melbourne yet, but they will be up soon.

Friday, 23rd January, 2004
Finally, I have a photo of me on this website:

And yes, I do look like a 12 year-old kid... (I still think I am)

This was taken at Shek O beach, Hong Kong on Saturday, 27th December, 2003...

 

 

 

 

Thursday, 22nd January, 2004
Happy New Year!
Today is Chinese New Year on the lunar calendar and it is the year of the monkey.. As a tradition, I had a "tuen nin" dinner with my family at my mother's restaurant. We had the usual traditional Chinese dishes yesterday such as the steamed fish and the mushroom, dried oyster and the "Fat choi". Also, we had the traditional red round box with little Chinese goodies inside it. Today, I received some lucky red envelope "lai see" from my parents. This is my favourite bit of the Chinese New Year celebrate because its got money inside.

Wednesday, 21st January, 2004
Drying up..
Melbourne has been on drought for so many years and it is currently on stage 2 water restrictions. While water storages had increased during the spring season, the storages are dropping again to 55.4% due to low rainfall. I think to make (rich) Melburnians save more water, water companies will have to put up the price of water, otherwise the (rich) people will keep using more water than they need.

Tuesday, 20th January, 2004, 22:39
Update: Photos section - I have uploaded the rest of the "best" photos from my Hong Kong trip. Hopefully you will enjoy them. And btw, I am not going to put any actual size images as my free oocities.com hosting only gives me limited web space.

Tuesday, 20th January, 2004
Great Slam of The Year
Yesterday was the first day of the Australian Open. Its happening at Melbourne Park. I rather stay at home to watch the open because I prefer to watch it in a cool room than to watch it in the heat or when its raining. I watched a few matches yesterday, but my favourite show was Andre Agassi versus Todd Larkham. Both players were trying to get the opponent run as much as they can.
At least the women's single isn't going to be dominated by both of the Williams sisters as Serena pulled out of the tournament due to an injury (www.itv.com/news/1410410.html)

Monday, 19th January, 2004
On the Road
Driving can be fun and it can be dangerous. It feels like I am always about to crash into something - whether its a tree or a car - or even a person. Its really scary and its quite hard to control my hands and my foot at the same time. But once I got a bit used to it, it becomes more easier and fun. I feel more freedom when I can drive, because I am not restricted to public transport anymore. I can drive to the beach, the mountains and wherever I like. The downside of driving is that it is easy to speed without feeling it and driving requires a lot of responsibility, patience and judgment. As I don't have any confidence in driving - I would get nowhere. So why do I insist on getting my probationary license? Answer: To shut my parents up (because they have been annoying me since I turned 18) and so I don't always have to rely on others to drive me to places.

Sunday, 18th January 2004

Experimenting Blog Layouts
After surfing on the net for days and looking at the different designs for different weblogs, I realised that I need to redesign my blog. This new blog layout will probably be more interesting than the original one that I had.

Saturday, 17th January, 2004

Aussie Style Barbecue versus Hong Kong style barbecue
Australian style barbecue is very popular at parties and at gatherings - its just putting pieces of meat on a grill plate or on a steel plat, turn the electric gas on and cook until ready to serve. This is a good way to serve guests, but it only makes the chef do all the work while everybody else sits there and chat, so its rather unfair for the chef. However, barbecue in Hong Kong is a bit different in that everybody cooks their own food. The more popular way to cook barbecue in Hong Kong is to attach (or hook) a piece of meat onto a fork-like skewer and slowly cook it over the fire (charcoal is usually the fuel for this and it is laced into the bbq pit). Its actually more difficult to cook it this way, but at least it is more fun for those who like to DIY and more cozier, sitting around the fireplace while cooking and chatting along.

Friday, 16th January, 2004
Distasteful Coffees
As I walked past Gloria Jeans at Chadstone this afternoon, I remembered what the coffees tasted like while I was in Hong Kong. The quality of Coffees in Hong Kong were very poor, especially the ones they had in the Hong Kong style tea houses. They were not only bitter, but also the coffees there wasn't fresh at all (most of those tea houses used Milk powder or canned milk). Even the ones at Starbucks in HK weren't as good. However the milk teas in Hong Kong tasted better than the ones in Melbourne. Anyway, I prefer the coffees and the cafes in Melbourne.

Thursday 15 January, 2004
Limited Webspace on Geocities
Due to the limited webspace on oocities.com (15 MB), only a limited number of photos and thumbnails will be available in the Photos sections.