Update..

Its been awhile since I last updated. The last two weeks have been pretty hectic. I suppose I'm starting to feel uni work piling up. Melbourne looked rather dour over the past weeks, or maybe its just my mood.

Weather here is weird - the norm. Last week was warm, but it's going to be chilly these few days. Where I stay, the weekend brought about more than its fair share of troubles. First was electricity, going on and off throughout the entire weekend. Next was water supply plus the hot water. After 2 months here, Internet isn't installed yet and thats another thing I didn't envision I'd be worrying about. However, it wasn't that bad a weekend for me, cos I was out the whole weekend, wasn't so bengang about it.

On Saturday, went up the Melbourne Observation Deck with some club mates to enjoy sunset. I wouldn't say *take pictures of* sunset. With my (lack of) experience using a film camera, taking pics were a funny activity. I have this horrid feeling the pics are gonna be either horribly under/overexposed. As night falls, the city looks really beautiful. The Rialto offers 360 degree views of the city. Although I've been up there before during the day, at night, the city is visually stunning..the view stretches all the way to Albert Park and the bay..

Church on Sunday was great. I didn't know Mike was a pastor. Even more interesting was the news from HauWei that there's now Planet Shakers City Church Kuala Lumpur! Something I didn't expect..

My house now is just it - a house. It doesn't feel like home, somehow. Or perhaps I'm still too attached to my own room in KL..

A busy weekend.

Have not been blogging that often lately due to lack of Internet access. Finally, after a long wait, I have a phone line at home, albeit a pay phone installed by the admin.

Saturday's weather was really awful. It's probably the worst since I arrived here. It rained the ENTIRE day. Any plans to go gallivanting about in Melb in the afternoon was abandoned when I heard the wind howling through the windows. It just plain rained non-stop, and rather heavy too. Unfortunately I really had to get out of the house. Went to watch AFL footy (Aussie football) at Telstra Dome with PakKei. Totally got wet on the way to the train station. I'm sure I looked a funny sight walking in the rain while holding down my jacket's hood. Umbrellas are useless at times like this..

Hmm about footy. Telstra Dome's quite impressive. We went to watch Melbourne v Sydney. Unusual, at least for me, that fans of both sides were sitting together all round the stadium. At first we were wondering what was this guy doing with 2 different flags, turns out he was holding it for his friend, a Demons (aka Melb) supporter. Very friendly atmosphere, IMO, cos I expected fans of each side to be separated, and be umm, be a bit noisier. I thought Melb was gonna win, cos they haven't lost 2 games in a row this year so far. Game started okay, took us awhile to catch what was going on. But oops, had precious little chance to cheer for Melb. They got thumped by the Swans. Victory was dedicated to their late head trainer, who died last weekend.

Telstra Dome was actually covered, but still, it was terribly cold. We unlucky people were shivering in our seats. By the time we got home, it was straight to a warm drink for me. Sigh, I always complain about the weather back home. But trust me folks, when it gets really cold here, its not that fun either..

On a brighter note, my weekend improved with a trip to the Melbourne Zoo on Sunday. Went all over the zoo with David and Kevin. The others drifted off at the main gate. Melb Zoo is quite recommended. They have many species, though not that many animals of each. Saw pretty much everything ie lions, penguins, porcupines, baboons, elephants, giraffes, zebras etc. I felt quite lonely for some lone animals. The bison, tapir, seal, tiger, leopard, puma etc were all alone in their enclosures. Some were just prowling non-stop, how bored they must be.. Somehow I missed the orang-utans enclosure. I figure I'll see more in Msia anyways..Really grateful weather was great yesterday, sunny with no showers, a 180degree change from Saturday..quite enjoyed my weekend, though it was very tiring. I shall have to remind myself not to be so *touristy* and start concentrating on my studies!

My dog

Oh my gosh. I miss my handsomish dog. I might add, very handsome indeed. Itching to get my hands on a scanner cos I've a picture ( a *can-hold-in-your-hand type of picture) of my ah-boy.

Melbourne is cold these days. Yesterday afternoon it was about 8 degrees. At night, it falls further. The cold air is making my cough worse. I had affirmative confirmation of that thanks to some advice from my housemate, who happens to be a very well-read pastor. To my delight, I have the loan of various magazines/books of diverse issues incl photography, time, science and whatnot. Which actually leads to a big pile-up of *books-to-be-read* when I include all the arch stuff I borrowed. Oops I forgot I actually have to read my textbooks too..

me = sick

No, I'm not sick of anything. I'm sick.

But, being sick is nothing interesting to blog about. Here's something I found interesting - The Water-Babies, by Charles Kingsley. Much to my surprise my campus doesn't seem to have much novels ie fiction. What it has is loads of arch and art and design books (which makes up for it more than enough) plus all the usual, plus literature n some odd classics. My borrowed copy of the Water-babies is a 1944 edn, while another copy of Frost is from that era too. At that time, Monash was still known as Caulfield Institute of Technology (I never knew that!). The books are still in readable (pretty good) condition, a sign that they sure sayang their books more than us back home.

A concise synopsis of the Water-babies: The adventures of Tom, a sooty little chimney sweep with a great longing to be clean, who is stolen by fairies and turned into a water baby.

On a deeper level, this might be viewed as Kingsley's views on social reform. I have a feeling the copy in my hands is an abridged version, which rambles on and on. My copy contains slightly choppy editing of Tom's adventures with trout, salmon, men, fairies, lilies etc..Perhaps a latter edition would be a better choice.

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. - Charles Kingsley