Rainy days

It has been raining since the start of the week. And beleive it or not, I think we still have water restriction level 3 (no using hose outside the house) here is Brisbane!

Monday, it started to drizzle a little bit but we could still go out without an umbrella and have a good chance of coming back dry. Tuesday, we spent the whole day working at home, it did not rain much and we could go out for a nice afternoon walk. Wednesday, the weather got a bit more serious and decided that sufficient amount of rainfall would be good as it would make student life more exciting and challenging when they have to go to classes. Thursday, yeah, let it pour. It has been raining cats and dogs and my pants (jeans) got considerably wet when I walked to the nearby suburb for lunch with Jo. Well, the two of us only had one umbrella and with the strong wind, it merely fulfils its function of keeping us dry. And to top that off, I think my shoes (old sneakers) might have had small holes as I could feel my slightly damp socks by the time we got back to the office. It is still pouring but at least my pants and socks are getting dry (thanks to the aircon in jo's office which is often at extreme temperature level contrary to the outside environment.

Anyway, I just found this from Tom's blog, a website that can creat a Hiaku from a blog entry. So here is the Haiku composed from my bolg:

different matter
it's going to be tough
for me to 'open

And the word that I use the most often is ....Working!
I think that is really shocking.

Busy eating weekend

Weekend was fabulous but quick. The title has already explained why it was so. =)

On Friday, Jo and I went to my friend's place for a dinner party. I didn't know how many people would be there but definitely didn't expect 15 people there! I'm not so much of a conversation maker in a big group so I felt pretty awkward at the begining. But since everyone was so friendly so it was not too difficult to mix in and we ended up having quite a good chat with a lot of people. There were like 7 countries among 15 people so it was really interesting. I think there were 2 Germans, 2 Americans, 4 Spanish, 4 Australians,1 British, 1 French and 1 Thai which is me, hehee. =D

My friend and her friend made German and Spanish dishes which were all really good. The Spanish food includes Tortilla which is like a thick omelet of potato slices and onions and fried crumbed chicken and boiled eggs which I don't know the name. The German dish is, of course, the famous fried sausage (brastwurst)with sour cabbage (sauerkraut) and mashed potato. In addition, there were also salad and the yummy desserts. We ate a lot but there still were so much food left so we got some sausages and sauerkraut to take back home too. =)

Saturday, I invited Jo's colleaques over to our place for dinner and partially to contribute to my research study as well. =P But food comes first, of course. I was going to clean up a bit but then Lew and Gemma rang me up to invite us to see the unit they bought which is nearby so I went there, poor Jo had to do some stuffs at uni so he couldn't come. Then I went with then to do the shoping, first for the dishwasher for their unit and then the stuffs we need for dinner. We went to Indooroopilly for that which has a very big shopping centre but it took forever to find a park. We came back to my flat at about 2 pm, Lew started making the pastry while I went off to the uni. There was an Indonesian Fair on that day and it happened to be on my way to the campus so I dropped by the food store there and ordered 'mee bakso'. It's a typical Indonesian dish that is made of noodles and meat balls (I assumed it was chiken). I put on some sauces and the chilli which was said to be 'very very hot' by the Indonesian lady that sell the food. I was glad I put only half a teaspoon of that stuff because it was extremely spicy, it made the soup taste much better though (even Jo agreed with me).

After lunch, I started cooking the dinner, that was about 3 pm. The menu included massaman curry with mutton, chicken satay, and sticky pork (I just got a recipe from recipezaar). The cooking wasn't done until 6.30 pm and I managed to add one more dish which is blanched bok choy with ginger soy sauce. I was a bit nervous about the food partly because I wasn't sure of what I was doing and also because most of the people who I invited for the dinner are quite good at and probably know more than me about cooking. Anyway, everyone seems to like the food and we even had a dessert prepared by Lew. It was blood orange tart which was a real treat. Then we sat down and have German schnapps to healp burning down all the food we ate. Hur, such a hard life. =P

Sunday, I did some cleaning and vacuuming since I didn't get to that before having people over for dinner on Saturday. Jo's friend, Shuan, whom he have know from Sydney was coming to our place to catch up and have a BBQ. The plan was T-bone steak on the coal BBQ which we got the idea from the last camping trip at Binna Burra with Micha and Wiebke (Jo's brother and his girlfriend). Jo got garlic bread and fresh corn to go with the steak while Tom made the spinach and pumpkin salad asa supplement. The meal was superb not mentioning the riverview under the warm afternoon sun from our balcony. We also have Tom's friend who dropped by and joined us for the nice afternoon tea as well.

It was such a relax and enjoyable time that makes me realise how lucky I have been. Although I wonder sometimes if it's just the luck or also the attitude of how people live their life...

My adventure in the Great Court

Thursday would have been a typical, unexciting day if I hadn't been to the Great Court. I don't normally go out of the Catalyst Centre except for lunch or tea break. But today is special.

Thanks to my laziness and unwell feeling, I decided to take a walk with Jo to his weekly physical training and dropped by the Great Court in the hope to finish a chapter in a book. The weather is wonderfull with sunshine and warm temperature. I found a spot near a leafless tree (not dead but probably still hibernating) so I sat down and started to read. I think it must have been only a few minutes before there was a voice of a girl next to me saying 'Excuse me'. I looked up and there she was, about a feet away and smiling at me. She looked a bit reluctant at first but then decided to ask if she could talk to me. Hm.. I had no problem, of course, but just wanted to be a little bit difficult so I asked what she would like to talk to me about (although I think I might have already had a rough idea by that time. =P)

Well, she didn't really answer but just said that she would like to talk to people and make new friends. I think it was a bit unsual but I admire her gut of coming to a stranger to start a conversation (and also looking an excuse for not having to read my text book =P) so I invited her to sit down. At the biginning the conversation was just a typical 'where you are from', 'what you do'. I could roughly guess that she is from Singapore since I lived there for three years and quite familiar with the unique style of English that was spoken there.

Then the fun started, she asked about my experience in Australian and my social activities. I think that might have been the point where I was so sure about what it was leading to. I felt a bit bad that I might not fulfil the criteria of her ideal target group since I appear not to have negative experience that make me absolutely hate living here. It was almost the total opposite actually. I told her how I love being here although it is so different from home and I don't have that many friends as I did elsewhere. But then it was more about the quality, not so much of quantity. I had some bad experience with bad people and landlord trying to rip me off but funy enough, they are not Australians but those migrating from other countries. And I always found the way to deal with those things so that bad people didn't have an easy time walking over me, and they actually didn't or rather couldn't. It was tough but that's how life is and I'm glad to experience and get through it.

Well, this lady's experience of coming here must have been quite different. So she started sharing with me how she found the strength to go through all the difficulties through God and how people from her husband's church group really help her out in time of need. It was a nice thing to here and quite interesting how someone belief so strongly in something that she felt the need of sharing it to other people. I admire the good, constructive things that each individual believes. But I guess I would also respect people's decision of choosing what they believe too.

The conversation went on for about an hour. She gave me her email address and contacts. I gave her mine just in case she would like to talk and do other things that not neccessarily have to do with religion. I always like to make new friends and it would be nice if that can happen without any agenda behind it.

So that's my litte adventure outside of my usual habitat (in front of a computer in the office). It wasn't so much about physical action but more about spiritual and mental aspect of my life. It actually gave me a chance to remember and realize the experience, personality and attitudes I have gained that otherwise would have been overlooked. I almost forgot how much I like the way I am, the decision I made, and a lot of silly things I did defying all the strategic guidelines and trends. Even though I am still far away from being an ideal me or a successful, money-making career woman, I really feel proud of it, somehow. I guess that's just what defines me, who I am which makes me where I am! Hehehehe, a bit confusing but that's me! =P

Time flies

It has been a while since my last post. Yes, time flies, especially when you want it to slow down.

I haven't got much done in my research which is supposed to be in the writing up process soon. I did manage to have a focus group for that though but analysing the data and making connection to other part of the the study is a different matter. It's going to be tough for me to do that especially when I'm still confused and unconvinced about the stuffs I'm doing. Hur.....

But anyway, my great achievement during the last two weeks was buying airticket for my parents to come to Australia which is awesome. I've waited for quite a while, almost too late, to do that but still managed to get one of the best deals for them. So, it's going to be super cool, I can't wait for them to get here. =)

Well, it's 5.30 pm, sound like time to go home. I wonder what we are going to have for dinner or 'tea' tonight. Hm....

Enjoyable evening and Pavlova

Yesterday was quite a tiring day for me as I started looking at the tourism statistics of Thailand to contribute to the discussion im my research. I had done some work on that earlier in the year but the bloody thing got updated and now I face an almost totally different set of figures which can potentially force me to 'open another big can of worms' to make sense of them. This is why I don't like numbers!

Well, after bombarding my brain with spreadsheets after spreadsheets, I went home feeling ansolutely exhausted and demoralised. The question of how on earth am I going to finish this research thing in time and still leave some chance for travelling before leaving Australia kept occopying my mind. Although I keep telling myself that I'm going to have to concentrate and work hard, reality often goes against my will. Well, since there are so many details in life that I can't or wouldn't want to let it just pass by, sometimes deciding what comes first is just not quite that easy. =P

Anyway, when I am in that kind of mood (which is quite often), i.e wondering about my existence, stand, or capability of myself in the world, it's helpful to have a nice home to come back to. My nice home is not a big, expensive palace but a cosy place where I feel really comfortable living in it. Yup, I like my two-bedroom flat with a good size kitchen, big living area and a long balcony facing Brisbane River and, of course, my full-of-sense-of-humor housemates very much. =D

We had some interesting and entertaining discussions about what were written in the uni free magazine. After having quite a laugh from the discussion, it's time for Rex, our (or rather my) favorite TV show. We also had some bread with smoked salmon, raw ham (Schinken)and some pate for dinner to go along with the Austrian setting of Rex. Then it's time for desert! I didn't really have anything in mind but we have to use up the cream soon so I went for Pavlova. It's not a bad choice, just that I should have started making it earlier so it would be ready to eat in that evening. Making the mixture didn't take much time, it's the baking that did. Oh well, we just have to save it for breakfast (which we did). =P

But in the end, we did have some Port to replace our desert craving, thanks to Tom. And again, another enjoyable night at our home sweet home. =)

Wedding

Yesterday, I didn't get anything done in terms of work or study but I did manage to bake some brownies and food to bring to a wedding. I started my day late by not getting up until 9 am. Then I wrapped the present for the wedding but not untill after spending about half an hour looking for a ribbon! Then I started thinking about what to make more to bring to the event and came up with brownies. But then I realized that there would be cake so bringing additional sweets might be a bit illogical. I made the brownies anyway which turned out to be a pain since I misjudged the time of the baking.

At about 2 pm, Tom drove with Katharina, Jo and me to the wedding barbeque at Mt. Cootha. The bride and groom were not there yet when we arrived and I was really hungry since I didn't have any breakfast or lunch so I nibbled a bit on the food (and so did a lot of other people). =P It's a simple and relaxing reception. We stayed there until about 6 pm then drove home feeling absolutely exhausted. This is even just by being a guest of the event, I can't imagine how tiring it would be to be the host. So, that was my first wedding through friends that I've ever attended. I guess my social period of this sort of event has just started, how terrible, I mean terrific is that! =P

Antique store

My weekend was pretty packed. Saturday, we had a friend coming to our flat at 9.30 to get boxes for her stuffs as she is moving. Then we had breakfast, the usual yogurt and fruits and specially, home-made Anzac biscuits prepared by Jo. It was simple yet really nice breakfast for Saturday morning. Then Jo, I and Tom took a trip to antique store in Paddington to find a wedding present for Tom's collegue. It was a huge store. I was really surprised at first because the entrance looked quite small but once I walked inside, it was massive! The place must have been a theatre or some kind of hall in the past. I have never had so much fun looking at great variety of things in a store like that before. It was really cool!

In the end we got a set of fish knives and forks that look antique and yet functional. It was chosen by Jo, approved by Tom and polished by me. Yeah, I spent an hour on Sunday night polishing those pices of cutlery until they were all shiny. Jo reckoned I'm a bit crazy but I'm quite proud of it. Hehehe. =p

Friday! Yeh!!

I had a meeting with my supervisor today so I got up early to work on some stuffs to make it look like I have been working hard. =p Well, it went well although in the end I felt like I shouldn't have done so much becasue there is only going to be more and more to do. =S

Anyway, it's Friday and weekend is coming! I can hardly wait to wake up thinking, hey, it's Saturday, I don't have to worry about getting any work done today! Well, not that I have been working full time like people who have a real job and have to get to work before 8 am and can't get out until 5 pm. But it kinda feels the same, even worse when you don't get paid. Or to be precise, you kinda paid money to get yourself into this situation. It's call Research Study. =S

Finally get started!

After a deep philosophical discussion about Blogging with my housemates, I finally have my own blog. Well, I wouldn't have started this if not because I want to pose a comment on a blog of other people. Have to thank my itchy hands. =P
So here it goes.....