Jalan Kilang calling

Oh hi there furdelance! Haven't seen u all weekend. How have u been? Juz has been a lazy weekend with lotsa sleep. Last night we went over to Lai & Evelyn's place in sa city for their joint birthdays. The food was so good (thanks to Eve's mum). Neways, were not quite keen for ktv bcoz pockets run dry quick these days, when u r struggling to meet up with where ur bills left u. Well, this is an appetizer to the more bitter world out there. Can expect worse days to come. Eventhough with a executive/professional level job back in Sgp, more commitments will arise. Simple things like paying back to parents the $$ eventhough they never ask for it.

Like tday I made a simple calculation, for my 4.5 years here in Aust, I owe mua parents a dear sum of (undiscounted) 4*12*1000 = $48K++ for living expenses. Once discounted I suspect it could be around 60K. That not inclusive of plane tickets, major purchases, etc... should come to a hefty $70K Present Value. Convert back to ringgit *3 = $210K of good freakking ringgit money. Come to think of it, we'd be much more comfortable wif that money secure in any investment. For those who's not familiar, this amount of money can buy a house the size of Turnbull Avenue, in a an comfortable location in Melaka and rent it n u can expect RM$500 cash cow mooing in each month. Or, conversely, my dad would be most happy to buy a brand new all options Merc or BMW. Well 2 degrees for a Merc. At the end of 5 years, u proly can still sell the Merc for half of what it's worth, which will be RM100K. In retrospect, its a huge wonder if I can save the same amount. Let's back calculate. If I am good enough to save a $SGD1K per month, for 5 years, I would be able to amass arnd $60K sgd, loosly translate to RM150K. Fair enough, that's when I dun spend a lot and make no major purchases or any downpayments for any HDB or house in Malaysisa.

Basically, I owe my ass to mua parents. Perhaps I'll consider working at Jalan Kilang in Melaka, where u-noe-who's do u-noe-whats (Have sum imagination). Oh Furdelance, can u please advise?

Today got work again

Hello furdelance.... we meet again. Just wanna write a short one here. Today I worked in this place in Heatherton, a toiletry product supplier for Myers, David Jones bla bla.. Work was easy, bcoz it just involved, cutting boxes, open boxes, remove product, paste barcode stickers, put them back in, seal the box, then lai next, cutting boxes, open boxes, remove product, past barcode sticker, put them back in, seal the box, lai nexxt.....cutting boxes...

Tonight 4th lesson. Will continue to brush Mr student's F chord. Hey hey hey... I mean the real F chord not the F chordas in "F"king. Nevertheless, if you r familiar with being a beginner guitarist, u'd be cursing and swearing at the F chord as it is the most challenging basic chord to master. So u might as well be calling it the "F"king chord anyways..

Today no long story, although there's this one time... in band camp... neh.. A few questions I would like to ask whoever is reading out there (You, Yes YOU!) how do I add soundclip leh? Also would like to know how to copy and paste while typing this posting. Quite sian right if dun have Copy Cut Paste.... Niamai...

Err... what to eat for dinner? Eat Everything

Looking my behind in the past ah

Ok it's like 5:50 pm and me in the computer lab. Body still sore since yesterday's work. Yesterday's total register: about 80 bux in total. Even during guitar class, I was like lost half the time. Man, and I'm not the student.

Nothing much happened since last entry. Just woke up like 2 hours ago, listened to some music and here I am. Had missed a whole day's worth of sunshine and have not rewash my pile of laundry that I had unwittingly forgotten and left to air dry over the weekend. Paiseh man.

Currently am reading: VCE economics, becoz me want to be very economic.
Learning how to: Draw ppl in the nude. From this book whose nude drawings I imitate
Have to: Call up more recruitment agencies so that can have summore work.
Trying to figure out: Where n what to eat for dinner.
Feeling: Err... can I use the word 'indifferent' here?

As this chapter (Australia) draws to a close, another looms ahead. At the moment the immediate concerns are how to successfully and objectively carry out my relocation back home. Again I can't help but to reminisce and bring myself back to the time when I just came here. Sorry me still dwell on the past. I remember my first night here was frigidly cold, staying in my uncle's house. That was the first time I came to know what's a doona (and how bluddy useful it would be for the years to come), the first time I felt absolute frigidness that wasn't caused by no freakking air-cond, and the first time I felt alone. I remember the first people I met, Alex, Freddy, CH, Ellyne, Pooi Yeng, Sun, Josiah, James, WK, Ngioko during orientation. Everyone's story I also chapchitka and paid personal interest to. The first Kangaroo I met was in Gumbaya Park, the place we went to for Monash Big Day Out. It was also the same day that I'd realised the questionability of ppl studying at Caulfield. Bcoz someone eventually realised that the convoy had left one Caulfield guy behind in the Park on a winter day when sunlight was scarce. I remember that and other things. Imagine how things played out since those days. Stragely then, I never realised that I would play significant roles in planning and organising the three MI orientations to come.

At that time I looked at everything with the same wonder as a child would in a new place. I mean, at 23, I was above it all (Gee, I like to use tis phrase...works everytime as mood starter). Naturally, being mostly the most senior then, ppl had looked to me for decisions. Over the years, I had dwelled in many groups of friends. Not talking about having pockets of friends at any given time whose interests and group behaviour differ. Cronological friends, if I may, mark the periods in time through life. With the uni semiannual semester system, life goes on still when your friends of years leave. I must have sent one or two dozens of good friends off at the airport through the years, bidding goodbyes only to wonder if we'd ever see each other again. It's hard to imagine a friendship forged for years or months suspends in time with a hug or a handshake. Have seen so many pple come and go and now trying a seek out those I'd lost over the years, perhaps to salvage a would-be lost friend. Now at 27, I have already come to terms with this. People, friends, colleagues come and go. Fortunately, we live in a world where email, msn, friendster (my current favourite!) and other internet frillies exist. So, physical farewells could mean doors open to eventhough less intense, nevertheless sustainable virtual friendships over the net. Alleluia!

Don't know if I even make sense at all but I just feel an need to mark the past few years of my life, especially when I will be facing impending feelings of loss of common environment, with some form of encapsulation. Sometimes, first times make the freshest of memories. Also, for early memories at the beginning of a voyage can be more vivid than any in betweens...

Yesterday I reminisced about Caulfield racecourse, today about first months ini Australia. Because me feeling 'indifferent' about anything at the moment, me ain't deriving any other pleasures from writing these other than that of reflections for the past years, where I'd come, what I did, and where I'd be going. Something like looking my behind in the past loh... u knowlah old ppl like me must talk a lot about past experiences one. Damn iya-iya... How about yours? ciao!

Beware, see who's got the last finger now huh?

Today, work came as a surprise. At 9 plus in da morning, d recruitment agency called... said "We've just finished your reference check, there's job at Caulfield Racecourse requiring ppl ASAP. Work is until 4:30 pm." Before I could logically comprehend what time of da day it was (I had only slept for 2 hours b4 that), I agreed to it and promised I would roll there within 45 mins.

So I rushed everything to get there at 10 plus, and reported. The employer is an expo hiring company that had done a major job in the racecourse. Now we have to remove all the partition boards and load them onto an army of trucks. I had several other partners to work with, mostly from the same agency. It was quite a tough job, considering we had to carry boards of all sizes from 1st floor and cantilever it over the midway railings of the staircase (The staircase that we use to access exam halls).

Now what's ironic about working in Caulfied racecourse is that I thought I'd given it the finger with my last Business Systems paper, I think that would be Database. And I'd made some attempt to stay a lil longer then to take in the view, the feel of the racecourse turned exam hall for 3 weeks every semester, twice a year. For freakking four years, since 2000, I'd religiously (rather obligatedly) returned to this place of hourses and punters, to write down my future for 2 or 3 hours each.

I remember... my first paper in Caulfield (In all, I would have taken around 30 written exams at Caulfield), MEC3462 Systems and Control. I remember that I had to take a cab there because I was too late for the shuttle bus. Why? Because I took too long to decide whether I should go for any of my four papers at all that semester. Basically, you can imagine that after two years of work (without academia immersion), coupled by the enormous gap between Diploma and Degree, compounded onto my entry into the hardest semester/subjects in entire Mech eng degree... what are the freakking odds that I would pass anything leh? Besides throughout that semester I was just barely surviving the adaptation of new life (So I have always envied those ppl who had come direct to Deg with their A Levels or SAM). Back to the topic, I got nervous... never slept the night before coz I had procrastinated and succumbed to the call of Borgs (a la Startrek), which this Sri Lankan dude in Farer Halls watched from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. every night. Man what a loser (Me and the Sri Lankan dude)! Neways, 6 a.m. came, 7 a.m. then 8. Paper at 9:30 lor... Wanna know how much I'd studied? Zilch? Just for one subject Zilch? I wished. That semester, I painstakingly went for all four papers, knowing beyond doubt that they were beyond help... was like taking four stabs straight in the asss IN A WEEK! .. and got me 4 freakking N's. What a vigilante.

Today I looked back... with the exception of one MBS paper in 2003, I had never failed another paper, especially in Mech Eng. Because of that week, that eventful week that I had taken four stabs in 7 days that reminded me of the pain of non-action, pain of not studying, and eventual regret of ignorance and the pain of not taking pain at first. More significantly today is.... feels like the racecourse is giving me back the FINGER ooOoo. It's like taunting me, reminding me of those dark days... Oh yearh but before I left... I said "Lancaulah Caulfield". I know, I know, it's proly gonna say it back to me someday. Namai....

Gonna have guitar class again tday. Will teach Mr student Last Kiss. Chords to be used todays, ladies and germs, are none other than the classic "G Em C D" combo. Right now, my back sores hell.