continued..

Day3 Sun- Grampians.
-Awoke 6.40am. Met up with photography club ppl. Took a nice bus to Grampians Natl Park.
-3 hours plus to get there. Midway stopped by Ballarat (more kangaroos and warm coffee! oyah, not makan kangaroo, is kangaroos at park) and also at Halls Gap..
-Lookout 1 : Gorgeous scenery. We were really high up..
-Lookout 2 : More gorgeous scenery. Took some "I'm top of the world" kind of photos. Will post some up if/when I ever get access to a scanner.
- MacKenzie's Falls : After the short but steep walk down, was a little disappointed. Msia's falls are nicer.
-Back and reaaally tired.

Day4 - The Dandenongs..
By now was alittle jaded from frequent travel..Took a ride on the Puffing Billy (next to Belgrave station) to Emerald Lake. Was forewarned that the ride was pretty normal, and yeah, its only the novelty of travelling on an old steam train..Sights were few and far in between.

Emerald Lake..less said the better. It would be a nice place to picnic. Couldn't help but compare it with Taman Jaya (in PJ) 'cept this one's high up in the mountains. They even had those bicycle-boats thingy (I don't know what its called) Maybe it was the weather, drizzling and gloomy..

Visited the William Ricketts Sanctuary too. Quite a small place, dedicated to this man's vision of love between all people. Most of his clay sculptures are set along the little trails that round the sanctuary, almost all aboriginal in theme..

Day 5- City of Melbourne
Walked and walked and walked. Discovered some nice places to go. Coffee, anyone? There's this nice cafe somewhere in the backlanes behind Swanston St. And yummy waffles too! Melb isn't that small when there're many places to rayau, just a matter of will.

Day 6- Tulip Festival
Went to Belgrave station (40 train stations from my place!) found out we missed a bus, so ended up exploring Belgrave town (small-ish). The tulip festival is at Monbulk. Had in my mind a vision of that place as being large (as in tea-plantation kind of size and scale). But it wasn't so..would describe it as being medium sized. Fortunately there was plenty of sunlight, tulips were pretty in the brilliant sunshine..esp the red ones. Personally liked the dark purple ones, but those weren't available for picking..

Life is beautiful.

The past five days were truly enjoyable.
Day 1 Fri - refer to previous post.

Day 2 Saturday - The Impressionists
THE highlight of my days in Melb so far. Early in the morning, found myself queuing outside the NGV Intl. And that was before it opened. Managed to finally visit the exhibition and it was utterly worth it. There're many bombastic words I could use to describe what I saw. The Impressionists has 91 paintings by mainly French artists from the 1870s to 1890s. This exhibition's paintings mostly came from the Musee d'Orsay in France.

There were special ones which gave me goosebumps and tingles in my flesh. Sounds dramatic eh? Simply because I was awestruck at their works. "Amazing" does not adequately describe the quality of those works. Some of the paintings (my faves are further down):

• 8 Monets , including one from his reknowned "Haystacks" series and Gare Saint Lazare (too bad none were from the Water Lilies..)
• 2 Van Gogh incl "Starry night over the Rhone" which was really mesmerizing. One of the main attractions.
• Pierre Auguste Renoir incl Young Woman with a Veil, Madame Georges Charpentier and Claude Monet painting
• Edouard Manet's The Balcony (he had many others)
• Frederic Bazille's Family Reunion - From near it looked really somber and intimidating. The painting was large, measuring at least 5*5 feet. From far, the magnificence of it really shone through.
• Paul Cezanne's incl Apple and Oranges

Plus many more by John Russell, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Puvis de Chanvannes, Sisley, Eva Gonzalez, Henri Fantin-Latour etc..

The ones which captivated me were:

• Edward Degas's "The Orchestra of The Opera". Really that was incredibly stunning. Prints of this work do not give justice to this amazing piece of work. I revisited the painting twice before I left the NGV. There was another Degas piece, but this was my absolute favourite..
• James Tissot's "The Ball". It shows a lady with a beautiful yellow dress with her back to the picture. The detail on the dress, esp the ruffles were unbelievable. Many people were simply admiring his technique. I can never look at prints the same way now.
• Stanislas Lepine's "Montmarte, rue Saint-Vincent". His ultra realistic potrayal of sunlight was a wonder. A simple painting of a narrow street with 3 peasant women. I caught myself doing a double take when I saw the painting, thought it was the lighting giving the sunlight in the painting that realistic effect but I was mistaken, and I wasn't the only one who thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Everyone was simply staring at it and doing a double take. It really was the greatness of his technique and brushwork that made the sunlight so real..
• Poppies - (If not mistaken its by Fantin Latour?) This's another amazing work. As I approached it from the side, I caught myself again. This time, the flowers looked soooo real. It almost looked 3D from where I stood. From near, it was simply amazing (a very overused word in my vocab now)

There're more paintings which struck my fancy but my mind's in slow motion by now, so maybe I'll add them later.. The exhibition was well worth it, and I could imagine what a waste it would have been if I'd miss it. For sure, in the near future, I don't envision having the opportunity to see such stuff in KL...next up - Man Ray! (I'll prob go in the next few weeks)...

Day2 did not end just like that. We truly made use of our Metcard by going to SOoo many places on Sat. Basically Malaysians' lives revolve around food. and more food. Hahha Msians will understand what I'm talking about. We ended taking trams, trains and buses in our endless pursuit of good meals, crisscrossing Zone 1 and Zone 2 on a tiring day..

Day3-5 to be continued....I'm too tired to type now..

Happy Birthday!

A good friend has a special occasion today, so here goes:

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Chr-is

Happy birthday to you!

Wishing you a very grand 22nd birthday (probably belated by the time you read this) and all the best for the future!

This week has been truly hectic for me, finally done with my law and accounting assignments. One more to go! But more important is that hols has started! not that it is long, only a week..and there are tons to catch up on. At least I don't have the ugly prospect of another deadline, ahhh peace and quiet for 10 days..

In an amusing case of Melb customs' zealousness in their task, I have now ended up with halved mooncakes. My sis brought 2 over for me which were a little "special". One had a filling of glutionous rice and green beans (donno how it tastes though, haven't eaten yet) and the customs officer cut it open and kept insisting the green bean was yolk. Sigh..

Took the opportunity to go to the Royal Melb Show today at Showgrounds. For once, I get something on concession price, still 15 bucks though..The place's really interesting, it seemed as if half of Melb's adults took leave to come with their kids. The city was SOOO crowded during the day, there was also a footy parade down the main streets in the morning..

The Show has pretty much everything, ie rides, gamestalls, food, farm/fresh products,agriculture/gardening stuff, arts & crafts, animal displays (horses, cattle, dogs etc) also something which resembles a mix between sheep & llamma (imo) called "alpaca". They have fleece too, like sheep, and we sat in for one of the day's judging. Those animals (adult ones) are pretty large. Standing up, the average one'd almost reach my shoulders. And cattle. Whew, those were huge! looked really big, compared to our teeny Msian cows. Yeah I know they're different, but its just for size comparison. They've got lots of showbags filled with goodies too. Got myself a Willy Wonka one, which came with a large purple Wonka hat. There was also a pig racing & diving contest. Hmm wonder what the SPCA thought of that..? Anyways, it was quite a fun day, although I had to leave by evening. There was also a stall selling more *exotic* food ie buffalo, kangaroo, emu etc. I shared a crocodile sausage =P

Tomorrow...will be a long process to get into an art gallery. Just heard that the queue for the exhibition was 3 hours long. OMG my fault for being so last-minute..

Thinking aloud..

At 12.18am in a cold room by the highway, I attempt to utilize some of the grey matter in my head.

First up and more urgent - BTF 2220. For an assignment of 2000 words, seems as if I actually have too much to cover for the (fairly short) required length. Directors' duties and more Corp Act. So much to consider..? No idea.

Second, and def more interesting than BTF - a question needed to be answered: UK time 2000 = Aus time ?
thats a lag of 10 hours I think, which brings it to..6am here! OMigoodness me. Thats what time I should be up. MU v Liverpool on in oh-so-far-away England. I'll be awake to follow it through Soccernet's Gamecast. I must be mad. Thats life without ESPN for the uninformed readers of my little blog.

Third - Aduh, terlupa pula Mgmt Accounting! Due on Thu, I've unfortunately forgotten about a discussion tomorrow. Which means I can't sleep in and run the risk of being late for it. Hmm might as well not sleep for the day..? The weather here's just plain suited for sleeping in.

Something amusing I learned from AFF2491 Company Reporting:
Q: 2+2 = ?
A: Depends on who you ask.
Normal person(s) - 2+2 = 4
Accountant = What do want it to be?

Thats the reason we take units such as Co. Reporting. =) Another thing which escapes my poor mind's comprehension is - we're learning Australian Accounting Standards now, which will be REPLACED by Intl Accounting Stds from beginning of next year. Which means what I learn will become obsolete even before I graduate. Sigh unfortunately my lecturer insists we have to learn current standards. Awful timing.

But imagine my horror in the beginning of the sem when the unit guide showed a lecture topic as "The Trilogy" At first glance it sounded interesting (cos interesting stuff happens in trilogies ie StarWars, The Lord of the Rings, Matrix etc) but the complete topic heading is actually "The Trilogy - AASB1018, AASB1034, AASB1040" which are all accounting standards. I think I never quite got over that initial shock to my system, which is much more receptive to alternative titles e.g. something like "The Three Masters of Architecture - FrankLloydWright, Le Corbusier and MiesVanDerRohe" (btw the 3masters title is made up). As a result I have only attained limited understanding of such unfathomable titles. But do I really wish to understand all those? Thats a point to ponder. I've been *pondering* for the past 2 years or so. And will continue to ponder for at least the next 10 years. I'm quite sure by now, readers of this post will have gone "what's she talking about?? pondering?" Those who know me over the years will agak-agak know why I'm still pondering over all these, or maybe no.

Humanitarian crisis in Sudan

Take a look at the news, click here. Now the worse humanitarian crisis in the world, resulting in starving refugees/internally displaced people (most of them young children, as usual).

Excerpts:
"..The hellish scene in northern Chad where people are fleeing the vicious but little-publicized war in western Sudan's Darfur region has been called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today."

"a Human Rights Watch report released on Wednesday said armed government forces and Arab militias continued to attack men, rape women and steal livestock in the region."

"Until now, those who didn't have anything else were surviving on the seed of a tree that they would normally feed their goats."

"WESTERN DARFUR, Sudan (CNN) -- Hamdi Ismail is one and a half years old, but weighs only 12 pounds. Other 2- and-3-year-old children at an emergency feeding center weigh as much as the average 3-month-old infant in the United States."

"Refugees in the Darfur camps are victims of the brutal waves of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the government-backed Arab militias against the black African population over the past 18 months."

The crisis apparently has been worsening for the past 15 months. FIFTEEN months. More people have been killed in Darfur than in Iraq or Russia or Jakarta. Yet the world couldn't be more apathetic. As "voice" of the democratic world and sole superpower, where is the US this time around? Since most violent acts recently have been classified as acts of terrorism, the Sudan government condoning this genocide against its own population probably qualifies as well. Question is, what are the UN and US doing about it? Resolutions by the UN seem to have little effect. The deadline for disarmament came and went. So why is there little action in Darfur? At times like this, can't blame the public for their sceptism in the US waging wars on foreign land when there's this immediate crisis in a small African nation and the US's reaction seems to be "can't be bothered". Sadly, it seems to be escalating to be worse than Rwanda. Would it be a different matter is Sudan was an oil-rich country??

Life without the little colour box..

Without the idiot box (aka tv) in my life now, I've resorted to using a combination of the net plus a large dose of imagination to amuse myself.

Well, actually there's a tv downstairs. Which works. Has nice colour. 29 or 31 inch. But unfortunately my sense is attuned to Malaysian tv, be it the dramas or the ads. The ads here are really cringe-inducing, to put it mildly. Their shows - the less said the better.

Even more unfortunate is:. Last season SBS showed one live EPL match per week (is extremely miserable considering that in Msia I get access to minimum 5) and a weekly highlights show. The new season - zilch. Zero. Kosong. Means unless I subscribe to Foxtel, I don't get to watch any EPL matches at all. Aihh the powers of monopolies. Foxtel insisted on SBS paying higher fees for the rights to broadcast that single match and the highlights, which SBS rejected. End result - I have to get online and *watch* the game thru Soccernet's gamecast, which goes "...8th minute Scholes fouls Southgate. Free kick from 30 yards out..9th minute...." which is basically just a live commentary updated by the minute. Have to use my imagination a whole lot. Sigh that is just so SAD.

Another integral part of most chinese-speaking peoples' lives would be the good 'ol tvb/taiwan/chinese dramas. Here, I'm not that deprived. Have borrowed 2 series from my neighbour so far, plus some Taiwanese series from HauWei. Seems that alotof people watch it in Melbourne. In the city, there're video rental shops (not alot) with even ATV series available. But def won't rent when I can download for free..

Melbourne now is so *Asianized*. Food I eat here mostly Asian. People I see in uni also Asian cos my course has more Asians than Australians. Overheard a girl from China early in the semester exclaiming her delight at the number of *ya-zhou ren* (Asians) in the uni. I think there're more international students at my campus than elsewhere.

Of course, there're also lots of Asian groceries around. When one is at Springvale (for the Melbournians, Springvale's at the Cranbourne/Pakenham line, 3 stops after Clayton) it feels as if we're in an Asian country. Even at Victoria market, there're lotsof Asian grocers. One can get almost everything from those Asian groceries. Examples: Msian satay sauce (Yeo's somemore), laksa sauce, coffee from Msia, yee mee which comes from Kepong!, dumplings, all the assorted sauces etc, I even own the same brand of chinese cooking wine my mother uses back home. Basically most Asian food products incl. biscuits, rendang sauce etc are available here.

If one is particularly patriotic and decides to buy *Malaysian-made* products, there's plenty of choice incl snacks, biscuits etc. Of course there's also other stuff from elsewhere ie Thailand, Vietnam, China etc. Stuff like frozen durian also available. Actually fresh durians also for sale, but doesn't smell pungent enough =P Almost everything is available here (thanks to globalisation), but of course price-wise, one can't convert back to local home currency. I happily saw mangosteens at a grocers that day, first look - wah, mangosteens pun ada. Second look - $1.50 each. No third look. Then there were longans - at $17.99 per kg. I went to buy a can of tinned longans instead ;)

So anyone living in Melbourne is guaranteed against suffering acute deprivation of Asian foods. I personally am getting *jelak* of chinese food. Hmm, but dimsum's still okay.

2 of my housemates shifted out early this month, so we don't have to cook really proper meals. But I've found that adding mushrooms (chinese type) to meat/vege seems to work pretty well. That is, if you like the taste of mushrooms. Previously, when we (my housemate and me) said we couldn't cook, we probably meant *haven't tried to cook*, as my housemate agrees. Turns out most stuff we cook is edible. Some are more than edible hehhe. With the mid sem break approaching, will be taking some time to experiment with food. I've tried some soups. Thinking of making laksa one of these days, cos I bought the noodles (the real laksa type!) and the sauce.

About the mid sem break.. now is the most hectic time of my sem, as there's still 2 major assignments due next week. Looking forward to the break, to catch up on all my uni work. At first wasn't planning on going anywhere, but have signed up for a day trip to the Grampians with the photography club here. Thats on Sunday next week, and there's a dinner at the Gryph (uni bar cum cafe) on Fri. Then today heard there's another day trip organised by Monash International. Signed up for that too. At only $15 for a ride on the Puffing Billy (old steam train in the Dandenong Ranges) plus a visit to the William Ricketts Sanctuary and Emerald Lake PLUS lunch, it was just too good to not go. There's also a tulip festival going on too, which I feel like visiting..aihh..where to find time to catch up on my readings??

Shall stop blogging now. Time to return to slogging at my law assignment. I have no idea how I'm going to pass this unit this sem..Sobbbb..

Had a long talk yesterday night with a good friend about things past and present. Always in my mind is this few words from Frost - "...yet knowing how way leads on to way..." If things were as in the past, I wouldn't be here in Melb. Maybe there is a reason for me being here right now. Though I haven't felt it yet.

One can know another, but not often do people open up their hearts and really talk. If you're reading this now (you know who you are), want to say sorry for making you upset yesterday, and really appreciate what you said..

A week past.

The week hasn't been eventful. Life passing by just like that. Same as everyone experiencing uni life, these coupla weeks are the busiest for most of us. If only I could actually get some work done. It just seems to rain and rain and rain here. And it'll continue to rain somemore..

I've been listening to this song. Was heavily aired on radio back home just before I came.

叶子 是不会飞翔的翅膀
翅膀 是落在天上的叶子
天堂 原来应该不是妄想
只是我早已经遗忘
当初怎么开始飞翔

孤单 是一个人的狂欢
狂欢 是一群人的孤单
爱情 原来的开始是陪伴
但我也渐渐地遗忘
当时是怎样有人陪伴

我一个人吃饭 旅行 (到处)走走停停
也一个人看书 弹琴 自己对话谈心
只是心又飘到了哪里
就连自己看也看不清
我想我不仅仅是失去你

Blah-ing..

Been raining non-stop for half a day now..
Worse still, weather forecast shows:

Wed: showers
Thu: showers
Fri: showers
Sat: rain

I'm serious.

The sound of traffic..

My room's noisy. Being next to the highway has its cons. Everyday we can hear the noise of busy traffic. The first week was the worst. But by now we're quite accustomed to all the cars plus sirens of ambulances etc.. Melb has its fair share of crazy people. 2 nights ago, more like morning (3 plus am) there was this crazy fella sitting on the roof of the car waving his shirt while his mate honked non stop. Just wondering whether he'd fall off anot. Nah he didn't.

Its going to be a very busy few weeks with alotof assignments due. Still can't really start doing my work. I think the problem is the *starting* part..

Been catching up on all the news abroad. Was really shocked at what happened in Russia. Acts of terrorism have becomed much too common in recent years. Most days there are suicide bombings reported all over the world. But when these happen to children, it takes terrorism to a new threshold. One really wonders, what goes on in the minds of those terrorists? or maybe their minds cease thinking at those times..

Done!

My blog has a new look, finally!

Oops I was meant to be doing research for my work..
These few days been lugging home thick tomes of text. Cos if I don't borrow them now, in 2 weeks, there'd be none left in the library. Inherent kiasu-ness =) However am still not in proper mentality to start on assignments.

The Herald Sun has tempted me again, with Werribee Open Range Zoo celebrating its 21st birthday over the weekend, I can get in for free till Sunday. Hmm so weird. In the 2 months since I'm here, have been to Melb Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary. How long has it been since I last visited Zoo Negara??

Chances come and go. Decisions are made in an instant. Is there a 2nd chance for many things?

Noting a line from Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" (which at the moment is stuck crudely with masking tape on my wall):

"Yet knowing how way leads on to way..."

I suppose its all about choices.
One choice leads to another.
Chances when not taken, are lost.
2nd chances? Not often do we get them..

Its funny how..

How many people really *use* their hearts in the pursuit of friendship?

Cor - the title of my blog means heart in Latin. Why heart, of all things? I could've kept the original blog title, or changed it into something like *the return of DiDi* or something stupid. It just got me wondering, in all the relationships and friendships out there, how many are superficial in nature? Where people become friends only because of selfish reasons, where there is no love between them, or where there is simply the need to appear to be friends? If that appears to be the case, then it seems so unnecessary and meaningless. Besides, it just seems so sad. But then again, how many people knowingly or unknowingly become part of this meaningless cycle?? Something for me to ponder on..

Many things happened at the house over the weekend. After reminding myself numerous times to be patient, things are all settled by today. However, a solitary stroll at Docklands does help to clear my mind..

On other issues, with God's grace, I've finally gotten my Internet today. This means my blog will be updated much more frequently, plus access to msn/icq! =)

Something else - Today is actually Merdeka Day. I had no class but headed to uni at 6 plus for a bbq organised by the Malaysian Student Society. With outdoor temperature of 7 degrees, it was changed to a dinner indoors instead. It was supposed to start at 7pm, but by 8, I'd lost my patience and left for home simply because half the members weren't there yet. Even the president arrived a half hour late. The event didn't look like starting anytime soon. When it comes to matters of time, Malaysians here seem really keen on continuing the *ahem* proud tradition of being as late as they possibly dare. Punctuality is a always a sore issue. Whenever the issue pops up, probably 8 out of 10 Malaysians will start on "aiyah, Malaysian sense of timing le, its standard". But my point is it SHOULDN'T be. Things will never change when everyone thinks being late is acceptable. And thats probably one of the reasons why Malaysia continues to be champion of the third world. Sadly,we will never be in the same league as 1st world/developed countries when our mentality is far lagging behind theirs.