Someone broke my spoon (and i must add, a very long post today)

Yes, someone in my big ol' house, came upstairs to the pantry, broke my spoon, and left it on the drying rack hidden beneath the other cutlery, hoping I'd never notice it.

Bah!! I'm so annoyed. Over a small spoon. Yupp.

The spoon's the one I use for making/stirring my daily doses of coffee. For the past month or so, I've been consuming more coffee than h2o. For once I left it outside yesterday night and this morning only woke up to find it broken in half. The top half's metal and bottom is something *glassy-looking*, transparent and *does not look easily broken*. I really have no idea how it got broken. It definitely ain't any of the 4 of us staying upstairs. Besides, the other guy who stays on my floor only ever cooks instant noodles (thou he's a cook hahhha).

Weirder still, today my housemate came over my room to use the net for awhile, and when she got back to her room, found it smelling of cigarettes. Strange, and pretty scary. To think there's some stranger walking around the house. Actually we think we know who it could be. A friend of one of my housemate downstairs, who comes over all the time and makes all of us uncomfortable with his behaviour. For the past few nights (as in middle of the night to 4 plus am) there's someone walking up and down the stairs, past my corridor sometimes, to the pantry etc. Used to think it was my housemate till today, when I was talking to them, then realised it was prob that fella again. Sigh..staying in a big house like this, really can't control who comes in and out..

The occupants of the house is now pretty cosmo. Last week, some ppl shifted in, temporarily. So now we have us 4 Malaysians upstairs, downstairs 2 koreans, 2 girls from China, 1 taiwanese and 2 sri lankans. Hmm Msians are prob more safety-conscious/paranoid. We all took the upstairs rooms, cos the windows all have no grilles or locks. Its those old fashioned windows, offering a great view of the outside. Mine's more than 6 feet high..oh wait I have a pic of it..


and a few more pics..


This's part of the interior, main door leading to stairs.


This's the rear of the house.


My desk!

Really need to get a digicam...Without a scanner, its so difficult to post any pics online..

Now that I'm done with my exams (finally!!) there's much to be done in Melbourne. Besides my usual time for dramas, this much free time (at least till I get a job) means I can catch up on my readings! What I mean is, these books I've borrowed from the library but casually left neglected for weeks and weeks.

1. The Enigma Of Anger: Essays On A Sometime Deadly Sin, by Garret Keizer. "A Vermont minister takes on anger as an inescapable, yet paradoxical, part ofhuman life and views the cluster of emotions and associations surrounding it.This literary, thoughtful, and sometimes-funny book will not fail to surprisewith its simple wisdom and keen insight." Click here for a review.
2. The New Asian House, by Robert Powell. Has great pictures, and includes 2 houses in KL (I think both houses are located at Sierramas, more commonly known as Sg Buloh (?)). Click here for a review.
3. The Villas of Palladio, by Giovanni Giaconi. Couldn't resist picking this up. Andrea Palladio was a Renaissance architect and builder. Reknowned for his sixteenth century villas in the Italian Veneto. One of his villas, *Villa Rotonda* was one of the first structures I was introduced to, during my brief association with architecture 2 years ago. This book contains "a collection of exquisite large-format pen-and-ink watercolor renderings of all of Palladio's villas...including a brief description of each villa, samples of artist Giovanni Giaconi's preparatory sketches and Palladio's own woodcuts reproduced for comparison..." Really, this is a gorgeous book. I think I'm prob the only person in Caulfield interested in these stuff, the books seems brand new. Gorg. drawings..Click here for a review.
4. Twentieth-Century Architecture, by Dennis P. Doordan. Mentioned on my previous post. This book's giving me a very good introduction to architecture in most facets of life in the past century. From the lapel - "Dennis Doordan discusses the form, function, materials and technologies of domestic and recreational spaces, workplaces and buildings that reflect the chosen image of the state..." This book's about 300 pages thick, def need more time to digest its contents. Click here for a review.
5. Dream Home, by Mark Wakely. From the back cover - "Dream Home asks what our homes mean to us. But not from the rarefied view of the architect's drafting table nor from the set of the TV renovation show. It takes as its starting point everyday people and their everyday houses. Looking at the way we've made ourselves at home through history and across cultures, Mark Wakely asks many questions: Why do children all over the world draw houses the same way? What's it like to work with an architect on a multi-million dollar house? Why would a family of five choose to live in one room? Can you build a house out of cardboard?..." Click here for its homepage. The site even lets you download the introduction as a pdf file. I was pretty curious, wanting to know why do we all (most) draw houses typically as having 2 windows and a rectangular door, and the roof's usually red. If you ever want to know the answers to these questions, message me =)

Indeed its good to have time to not think about uni life. Being in Melbourne has its pros. When a friend asked my opinion last week as to what one can do in KL, suddenly, I could think of no more than *makan* and shopping. Granted, our malls are our pride and vital signs of our robust economy. But after some thought..what else is there to do if you're in KL? Mamak. Coffee. Movies. Clubbing. ..........

What's there to do in Melbourne now? With time and cash. Plus accessible transport..?

I can think of a few:

• Shopping in the city etc. But I'm not such a big fan of shopping though..
• Browsing in the bookstores. Borders is the equivalent of Kinokuniya. And ppl read much more here, than in Msia. There's some 2nd hand bookshops here too..plus op shops.
• Rayau at the botanic gardens. One of my fave things to do now. (at least its safe here, provided its not raining)
• Visit the galleries! Oh that is such a *must-do* in Melbourne. Just checked out the National Gallery of Victoria site (clickable) and realised the Edvard Munch exhibition is still on. And it'll only cost me $10 (concession) to get into that.. =P

From the NGV site, here's a look at what they have to offer (they offer more than just paintings/drawings/sculptures etc, they've movies, talks, tours etc in conjuction with exhibition themes and also public lecture series):

• Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life "His images of existential dread, anxiety, loneliness and the complex emotions of human sexuality have become icons of our era. Munch developed these great themes during the 1890s in a project he called the Frieze of Life." Prob will go tomorrow, if its not raining too heavily. Wanna see *The Scream* for myself. Hope its in the exhibit. Cost: $15 adult, $10 concession.
• The Power of Ideas: An Introduction to Philosophy "The first in a series of courses centred around philosophy and the beauty and value of art.Philosophy is what we do when we try to think seriously about what is important to us. We look at some of the key ideas and disputes in the history of thinking..."Cost: $20 adult, $15 concession. This Saturday's lecture - "Lock or Kant?" Fascinating stuff.
• 15 Minutes of Fame: 20 Years of Pop Prints. "Pop art emerged as a dynamic force in England and America during the 1960s and 1970s. Artists such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Eduardo Paolozzi and David Hockney were inspired by images from popular culture and the mass-media to create art that engaged directly with the contemporary world in a new and exciting way." Cost: zilch.Its FREE. Will I be seeing some soup cans soon...?
• Crown and Camera: Photographs of Colonial India. Yup this is FREE too.
• Hunters and Collections: Wardrobe of the International Fashion and Textiles Collection. FREE admission. Looks like there's something for everyone. This one's great for fashionistas. Features personal wardrobes of 4 Australians who collected Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren.

So my dear Melburnians, please don't say there's nothing to do in Melbourne. When stuff like these go for free, its well worth taking a look. Doubt we can get it in KL.

There - end of a very long post today. Oh, did I mention the weather? Last week plus this week totalled, we prob only had one lonely sunny day. Its been raining on and on and on....and on.