hi guys! have u been exercising lately? haha! i just did!

i joined the table tennis club yesterday and played from 7:30-10:30pm..it was really fun! oh ya! monash uni here has its own sports and recreation centre...it boasts of numerous badminton courts, baskedball courts, indoor soccer courts, squash courts, table tennis courts, a gym and an indoor swimming pool...isnt tt great?! this is the 1st campus i study in tt has its own fully equipped sports centre! so must make full use of it!

gotta know chua, wei yun and one more guy from sparring wif them in table tennis last nite..well, i didnt play against chua coz he's too pro for me to play against..haha! after having not played table tennis for more than 4 yrs..i really have lost touch of it...my reflexes are really bad...i cant return smashes and my placing (in terms of standing positions) is really bad...
but at least i can still do my top spin smashes! haha! tt's the only thing i m only good at for now...gotta work on my backhand smashes for now...but overall, i think i did not bad given my circumstances...

then this morning, i played badminton wif rachel, antonius, christian, ian and sophie. we played frm 8am to 10am! yes! 8am!!!! very early..coz tt was the only time a court was available for us to play on...sighz..had to wake up at 7am..but the game was really fun. played singles and doubles...didnt play too well...haha! in terms of my wins and losses..u can guess which outweighed the other...lolx!
finally managed to play against rachel after so long...and as expected, i lost to her 15-2. i said expected coz she plays badminton once a week back in malaysia and is definitely a class above me..if not many more classes above me in terms of skill and deception...she gained most of the points frm net shots..sighz..
one thing i realised in my badminton game today (at least i have the brains to realise this..haha) is tt after i return a long shot from an opponent, i seem to be stuck at tt location. i fail to move back to the middle of the court after returning the shot...as a result, many of my opponents that i played against always give me net shots, causing me to make a futile effort to sprint towards the net from the back of the court in attempt of returning the shuttle...sighz..

and one more flaw i always make is tt i dun make my oponents run enough...this has something to do wif my skill..instead of hitting the shuttle away from the opponent, somehow it keeps going to the opponent. although i try to hit it away from the opponent, most of the return shots always head in the direction of the opponent...darn! anywayz, after doing my analysis today, i think i can win them wif my speed..since most of the opponents are not too fast and r quite tall (except ian...lolx!) so, as much as i move them around the court, i oso have to be quick to return to position to anticipate and recover the next shot...understand? haha!

to summarise wat i wrote for badminton, i aspire to be as good as ian...coz he is tt darn good! haha!

gotta rest my legs now..aching here and there...

we must play more of badminton guys! my racquet will always be ready for u! haha!

the 2nd week of uni has passed. this week was the start of the full timetable...i.e. tutorials and lectures..(1st week no tutorials).

well, everything seems ok overall. remember the stats lecturer whom i mentioned abt his unprepared impromptuness? well, he has made a big improvement this week. he is so much more organised in his lectures now and makes good use of the OHP to conduct his lectures...gone are the days where i will be scratching my head and flipping the notes here and there..haha! frankly speaking, he's quite a unique lecturer in his own way..quite humourous, but 1 must be intellect enuff to understand his humour..haha!

it's only the 1st week of tutorials and both my prac econometrics and micro econ tutors already know my name...darn....too spontaneous in class liaoz...sighz...
prac econometrics tutor kept picking on me since he knew tt i swapped subjects to do the current econometrics subj and oso coz i did matrices b4...sounds funny but it's really becoz of these 2 reasons...when i say 'pick on me' doesnt mean tt he;s making fun of me..just jokes ard wif me here and there..not too bad..i try to joke back at him too..haha!
econs tutor know me coz i answered most of his questions in class. let me explain, for micron econs tut, there's no work to prepare for tut class since everything is done online. so, during tutorials, the tutor will just go thru some stuff related to the topic. so he did maths review yesterday....DIFFERENTIATION! been a long time since i did tt...but luckily i remembered some, so i ans them when no one else could remember the formula/how to solve a prob...

didnt really get to know more new classmates...gotta know some though..but oso not tt close..guess i need more time..ya...i m a shy and conservative guy anywayz...
(hehez...)

yupz, tt sort of sums up the 2nd week of uni...no ups and no downs...just a peaceful week...but 1 thing for sure, classes here are somewat diff frm the way classes r held back in malaysia. lectures r sorta informal to some extent while tutorials are quite engaging among students..ya...quite the type of classes i hope them to be..coolz

take care!

On Sat morning, 14 of us went to Mt. Dandedong, a national reserve park, for some fun. 14 of us constitute the United Nations..haha! malaysians, singaporean, indonesians, china, japan and germany..credits to antonius for organising this trip.
it was very cold on the mountain, due to the strong gusts of winds..it was fun.
proceeded on to have lunch at Cuckoo restaurant not too far down the mountain...buffet lunch! yahooz! had a discount since the boss' daughter knew tt we were students...had the appetizers, main course, pancakes, and desserts...ate till i was very full..haha! been a long time since i had such a good meaL..well, think abt 3 weeks ago..lolx!


Some sceneries:







inside Cuckoo Restaurant


Pancake wif icecream....aussi style!


cake delights...yummy!

a very diff rachel, dun u think so? haha!


an artistic photo..


i love this pic...


8 gals and uli


Antonius, christian, rachel, me, uli and thomas


the 4 posers...me, thomas, christian and uli


Rachel and i (due to camera angle, i look a bit..errz...big...=( )


wat r u laughing at, mates?


do u believe tt they are trying to take a photo of a flower? well, believe it!

my 1st home cooked dinner...tomato chicken..big thanx to my mum for the recipe! sedap!! haha! (p.s. cooked last week, just tt was lazy to post the pic till now..haha! have cooked abt twice, cooking again tonite)


met up with jean and accompany last sun at Coco Black (a chocolate shop). this is wat i ordered...haha! sedap pun!
p.s. the cup of 'chocolate' is not mine..it's jean's. in the photo just to make it nicer..haha

this week was the start of uni. these are the units i m taking this semester: Intermediate microeconomics, Intermediate macroeconomics, Practical Econometrics and Actuarial Statistics.

if you are wondering what actuarial statistics is about, we do things like calculate the probability of you dying and prob of smokers dying...hmmz... tt's just part of it..there's also the pricing of some superannuation policies as well (which requires
to calculate the prob of the policy holder dying at a certain age...haha!)

have attended all the lectures. all i can say tt australian lecturers are really diff frm malaysian lecturers. they speak faster, they dun care abt titles (how we greet them), and they dun read frm lecture slides...a thing tt malaysian lecturers do best... in other words, they know what they are talking about and they know what they are going to say. it all links together..

however, there is this lecturer who is very impromptu. he is my lecturer of prac econometrics and actuarial stats. he only thinks abt wat he's gonna say on the spot. tell u the truth, i like impromptu lectures..but i dun like unprepared impromptu lectures. this lecturer, u can see tt he's unprepared as he is rather disorganised in his lectures, skipping pages here and there, drifting away sometimes. but u know what? he never stops talking. he occassionally pauses to think abt wat to write on the whiteboard (if there's one..or complains tt he cant write when there isnt any).
not too sure if i can handle his lectures. but it's only the 1st week and 1st week is usually the intro to the other topics that will be covered...will see how it goes.. i may like it a lot..but on the other hand..i may hate it a lot..yeaz..mixed feelings.. but then, i shall always keep my mind open (as always..haha)to new methods and things

one more thing tt i hated doing this week was buying books. to all my malaysian frens, books here in aussie r freaking expensive. if a book costs RM75 in malaysia, it is most probably gonna cost AUS$75 here...which is abt RM220...

for the 1st time in Monash, i resorted to buying 2nd hand books. i managed to save around AUS$100 frm just buying 2 second hand books. my microecons text is the one tt i used in malaysia..so my bro will be mailing it to me...actuarial stats require no textbk(thank goodness). must say tt getting the macro textbook was tough. called up abt 6 ppl to ask whether it was still available for sale, only to be told tt it was sold. it was only the 7th guy tt i called tt sold the book to me and also the lowest price among the 7..haha! so it was worth the wait...

digressing....

my room internet connection will have to wait...and i m not too particularly happy abt it. my application is on hold as there are no available ports at the moment..so wait wait wait...with the end no where in sight..sighz... gotta have it asap...esp when one of the units assessments are all online and constitute 40% of the final assessment...and also becoz monash here has a stupid policy of internet quotas...gotta watch my usage or else i gotta pay for exessive use...

well, tt's abt it for this week..no lessons tml since no tuts this week. bb and take care!

Hi guys! Last fri was the Monash Big Day Out, the finale to our orientation week. it was a day filled with fun and laughter and i certainly enjoyed it to the fullest. below are some of the photos i took. enjoy!

St Hilda's Beach (bus drove past the beach only):





Williamstown and port:











Some nice sceneries:






Inside/Outside Melbourne Aquarium











6 years ago, I could not enter...


I finally knew what my dad was doing 6 years ago...haha!


We proceeded on to Monash Caulfied campus for dinner and bushdancing. food and dessert was great! the bushdancing was certainly tiring as we danced many forms of dances for 2.5 hours. i was actually perspiring! too bad no pics for the bushdance as had no opportunity to take any since i was dancing! haha!

a very big thank you to jean. u just saved me $209! let me explain to u guys

i m currently applying for an internet connection. i was under the assumption that i was unable to use the current phoneline in the house as that phone line is currently shared by 2 housemates and they are using dial-up connection. due to my IT stupidity (then..not today), i thought i was unable to use that phoneline. y? coz i thought whenever one of the housemates used the phoneline, i will not be able to access the internet. stupid me...i m subscribing to a broadband connection!

so acting under this false assumption, i called telstra (the phone service provider) to connect the line in my room. a tel no. was issued to me and the technician would come down next monday to activate the line. the charge was $209.

i called jean last nite to talk abt some stuff when somehow we digressed to the internet thingy. she told me tt it was possible to use the current phone line and this fact was ascertained by the computer guy on campus i consulted this morning. all i needed was a filter i called up telstra to cancel my order....NO CHARGES AT ALL! phewz! had the technician come on mon, activate my line and i were to disconnect it later, i would still be charged the $209.

so, thanks to jean again! so all matters resolved, i shall just wait for the email telling me abt the status of my internet application. i reckon all these should be completed in 2 weeks time.

lessons learnt: i now know wat a filter is. jean is a very reliable fren. NEVER MAKE HASTY DECISIONS WITHOUT COMPLETE INFORMATION. esp when such decisions involve a lot of money....haha!

orientation begun day b4 yesterday on mon...programs were all rite..but today's one was the best ..so far..haha!
well, begun with a morning video introducing melbourne's tourist attractions. fiona price then gave us a presentation abt the aussie ppl and culture. she informed us of wat to say and wat not to say. i must say that it may be a little difficult for me when i speak to australians in the future coz wat i always say may be offending to them...i m referring to the concept of "equality" tt australians focus a lot on. fiona said tt it is considered rude to ask "how much is ur car/house" as it is seen to be a comparison of your status and that of the person whom u r talking to. sighz...best way..dun talk to aussies...haha! kidding.

we were then treated to a delight of chocolate morning tea! u guessed it rite..it was chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates. being free, i grabbed a large no. of chocolates and ahppily gobbled them down..haha! interacted with some new ppl..quite coolz

the highlight of the day i would say was the bbq lunch organised by Monash Uni International Student Services (MUISS). It was so much better than the one organised by Monash Student Association (MSA) a few days back. instead of being served bread and sausages by MSA, MUISS provided us with chicken, buns and salad. there was also plenty of food for all, unlike the one by MSA, where they ran out of bread when it was my turn to receive my food...damn the MSA...

at lunch, interacted with a no. of ppl. besides thomas and john, met aaron (the guy doing his phd..refer to previous posts!) and talked again. met melissa and yew lin (as usual, dunno if spelling is correct). mel and lin were also frm monash malaysia...no wonder they looked familiar. well, they recognised me b4 i could recognise them. mel remembered me as the "guy frm malaysia" while lin was gasping in surprise to aaraon saying tt " u r tt singapore guy rite? the damn smart one..." well, it was a compliment to hear the smart comment, but i prefer to keep my profile low? haha! but anywayz, it made my day!!! hahahahaha!

the MUISS had a skit for us and also conducted a lucky draw. i must be very lucky this whole week. last fri, i won a lucky draw price tt was a movie voucher and today, i won the top price! i won a 10day 2 hour daily bus ticket. it's ok if u dun understand. all u need to know tt this ticket is very impt to me as it will save me $26 on transport!!!!!!! transport in aussie is very ex

after the bbq lunch was the tour of monash's sports and recreation centre. it's relatively huge (for a campus) and has many facilities. i admit tt i cant wait to get some frens and start playing some sports...rach, we still have a badminton match u promised to have when we were still in malaysia...can do it here! anywayz, i like the sports facilities a lot..perhaps this is the 1st campus tt i have been to tt has a sports centre...m so proud of being a monash student!

tt's it folks!

Today was freezing cold!!!!!! The cold caused me to shiver while still sleeping on bed! The reason-it was drizziling. And it drizzled for the whole day! Yes..frm morning till evening..think the temp was ard 15 degrees or less..

Jean was kind to invite me to a bbq at her fren’s fren’s place located just a few houses away frm mine. As it was drizzling, the bbq was cancelled and replaced with some hotdogs, bread and grilled bananas for lunch. the seniors cooked for us while we just waited to be fed! Haha! The grilled bananas were really nice. U coat the bananas with honey and cook it in the oven for 10 mins. Too bad there was no ice cream…I m sure it would have tasted much better with ice cream.

While eating, we were entertained by a dvd tt aaron (currently doing his phd) rented frm the library. A show abt ray charles…the blind singer…was rather nice…but the show also portrayed him as promiscuous (spelling something like tt..haha). in other words, the show portrayed the good and bad sides of him. Overall, I liked the movie…

Headed home after the dvd show…was bored…so went to clayton town with john…well, john showed me where to alight at clayton town…he couldn’t accompany me at clayton town coz he was on his way to work…he’s working part time at a charcoal chicken shop…but he will stop working when the sem starts on 18th.

Took pictures of clayton town. Really a cool place to hang out I would say. Could really sense the aussie style. 2 rows of shops down the whole street with the roads in between these 2 rows. All the shops are at most 2 storeyed…so it gives a very different feel. On one hand you have many shops in your sight but on the other, you have a clear view of the sky. Malaysia and Singapore just have too many tall buildings.

Walked ard. Checked prices of stuff across shops. Will be buying cookery utensils next week when I know exactly wat I need once my mum emails me the recipes. Need to buy the lowest priced products (yet cant compromise quality as well) so tt I can minimize my spending. One thing I hate abt settling down in a new environment is the amt of things u have to buy. I have spent so much money to the extent tt I feel a little guilty. Though I hate spending so much money in such a short time, I know it’s essential coz they are necessities! Quite an irony ehz?

tt’s it folks! Byebye!


the intersection between the road and the train tracks

Fri was the ‘unofficial’ 1st day of the orientation. It’s unofficial coz it’s only the starters..main course starts next week..lol

Attended a talk on IT facilities and services with my house mate,john (also in the bachelor of commerce degree…but he’s starting his 1st yr 1st sem). therefore, everything was new to john while everything was old to me..lolx! knew everything that was presented in the talk..sighz…could have slept longer in the morning…

Next was the shopping tour which I had previously signed up for. Had to go for this tour if I were to know my area well and the places where I could shop. By the way, eating is a major prob for me here since the only source of food near my house is the campus. So, need to shop for groceries to cook…yes…C O O K. coming frm a guy who would add water to fry rice…. mum will email me some simple recipes..heez! thanx mum!

1st stop of the day: Clayton Town. Did not alight here. Bus just drove thru. Many many shops tt can cater to the needs of students. Boasts of many services and facilities such as banks, restaurants ( and I do mean many restaraunts), stationery, reading materials, supermarkets and grocery stalls.

2nd stop: Springvale shopping area
Had lunch here. As like clayton town, many supermarkets, grocery stalls and makan places. This area can basically be called “Vietnamtown” (just like Chinatown). Many stalls are owned by Vietnamese and almost all the signs have Vietnamese translations. Coolz…only bought a pair of slippers which I need to keep my foot warm when I walk around in the house.
Met 2 new frens while having lunch. Thomas (biotech course) and micheal (a china guy…another china guy wif an eng name..hmmz…). Thomas lives near me…just one street away frm the place I m staying. Perhaps can go out wif him for some makan sessions in the future…he has 2 gals cooking for him now…lucky him…but not anymore when those 2 girls return to Malaysia 2 weeks later..hahahaha!

3rd stop: Brandon Park Shopping Centre
Didn’t alight. Did not pay attention to this place as it is inaccessible to me. Only students who stay in the hostel have shuttle transport to this place…

4th stop: Glen Waverly Shopping area
Didn’t alight. 2nd major shopping area for monash clayton students. Shopping centre, restaurants, banks and a cinema…quite a happening area…only prob for me: low bus frequency; bus service terminates early…

5th stop: Pinewood shopping area
Didn’t alight. Nothing worth mentioning.

Last stop: Chadstone shopping centre
A 5 hour period of shopping here. Chadstone is themed as the “Fashion Capital” which boasts of 2 levels of intensive shopping experience. Houses various branded stuff…it’s like a Mid Valley megamall (Malaysia) or the Suntec City (Singapore).
As u guessed, stuff are expensive…and many shops are targeted at the females…y? refer to the theme name…”F A S H I O N”…get wat I mean now? Haha!
Walked ard here and there…got lost at times..went to the bowling alley…my brother was rite..bowling is very ex….$9 per game!!!!!! Tt’s abt RM27 per game. In Malaysia, I pay RM2.50 per game…10 times less expensive…
Bought all my necessities here…kettle, food, washing detergents, sponge and some other miscellaneous stuff…yaz…

So after abt 8 hours of tour, finally made our way back to uni at abt 7:45pm…walked home frm there…tt concludes my shopping tour. Will rate the tour 6.5/10

p.s. didn’t take any photos coz I was either lazy to take or there was nothing worth taking..haha! cheers!

weez! i like the view outside my window


the huge built-in cupboard....very convenient


inside the cupboard


my bed...p.s. the F.I.R. poster is mine! not the landlord's!

the entrance to my house


see the gate with the red chair at the corner of the pic? tt's the main door


the long and beautiful walkway leading to my house..


will post my room pics sometime this week..have yet to dl the pics frm my camera into my laptop and save them into my thumbdrive. unable to dl pics frm my cam to this com i m using in the uni com lab..

hope u enjoy!

Day 0, 1;


my family at riltz carlton hotel!


me, jiayi and my bro (elder one!)


sayonara!

1st day in melbourne (dinner prep)


the 3 chefs! haha!


jean in the process of making her delicions brownies!


me holding a plate of jean's baked brownies wif vanilla ice cream on top...ooishi!


our sumptuous chicken rice dinner on my 1st day of arrival!

Day 2: dinner prep at rachel's place where rachel was not ard..hmmzz...


jean cutting some chicken for dinner


jean frying the chicken


tada! jean's and mine dinner on the 2nd day in melbourne!