Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Just 2 more weeks left!
We are finally doing well on our experiments and I feel like I learn something. Moreover, I think I'm getting familiar with using some apparatus and machines. I also like our lecturer. He guides us a lot so far though he is busy in school. He's really knowledgeable too. (a dr. after all..) We really need to give him something on our final week.
27th March 2007, Tuesday Night
We went to Draculas, a carabet restaurant. The ticket costs 59 Aussie bucks but it's worth it. You get a free cocktail if you bring their coupon along. The cocktail is unique. (i forgot the name) It's packed in a specially-designed syringe with Draculas logo on it. (kind of a souvenir too)
When we first stepped in, we were kinda freaked out cos' the place was shrouded in a scary atmosphere. Plus, scary music and sounds were played. The workers inside was dressed in really gothic outfits and they had gothic make-ups too. XD The girls especially wore quite revealing outfits.
So, we took this short ghost train ride to the theatre cum dining room. The railway was really dark. They decorated the inside with many scary stuffs like "dead people" and sorts. Then, the final and supposedly scariest thing of the night was this zombie popping out from the wall and making a piercing scream. (adding cold wind into your faces) The hilarous part was Pei Shan's group screaming madly in the front train. AND, they took us at that part with a secret camera and actually screened it in the theatre while we were dining. XD
In the end, it wasn't so scary after all. The performaces were great. A lot of singing and many hilarous skits. (but many dirty jokes). The food was fantastic. One of the waitresses was really funny. She's very energetic and she's very loud person. She intentionally screamed at us sometimes. (acting evil)
Anyway, I ate their chicken dish and tasted a bit of the salmon dish. The salmon was really well done. (fragrant!) The difference from outside dishes is that they are not served in humongous portions so it was not bad. The desert was really "special" cos the chocolate was made into a coffin shape. (eating our own graves) Inside the coffin was cream or something. The chocolate's spicy. O_O
Then, we took a picture with some of the performers and requested for printed portraits which costs 16 Aussie bucks each. There's autograph space at the back and we requested autographs from almost all of the workers. One of the actors was cute. He tried to sign Pei Shan's chinese name (copying directly from her hand) but struggled with the words. He really made a mistake but told her that's your new name. And, the funny waitress signed "I spat in your drink" on mine. XD Overall, it was really enjoyable and we reached home really late. (I didn't even realise it was 11+ when we left the place)
PandaPirate [Hagane no Renkinjutsushi] 9:26 AM
Monday, March 19, 2007
Our experiments produce unsatisfactory results the whole of last week. =( And our lecturer can't seem to figure out the problem. XD
But thanks to that, it's been slack-ish since last Friday. So far, we are already attached to 3 PHD students. The students are really young and they happen to be all Indonesians. All we need to do are observe what they are doing, listen to what they say and take notes. The whole morning's gone and I wonder what we are going to do this afternoon.
Saturday, 17 March 2007
We went to Melbourne Zoo today. I'm glad to be walking to the zoo. The pathways are really green and peaceful. We passed by this neighbourhood and we really like the serenity there. To add on the rosy picture, the neighbourhood's facing this huge piece of grassland. There's benches around and it's really soothing by just siting down and letting the wind breeze by your face. It's really nice. I think there's quite a number of places like this in Melbourne. No wonder many people like to settle down in Australia.
We have a fun time exploring the zoo and snapping away with our cameras. However, my feet hurt after walking for one whole day. They have a great environment. You feel like you are really walking in forests. (Lots of greenery compared to the Singapore zoo) They have some species we don't have in Singapore too. The only problem is most of the animals there were lazing and napping during the hot afternoon while we were there. I captured most of the animals sleeping, ahaha. They actually have red pandas. They actually resemble more like racoons. I didn't get to see their faces as they too were curled up on tree branches, napping away like there's no tomorrow.
Sunday, 18 March 2007
Firstly, we went to Luna Park near St.Hilda area. It's a small theme park and it does not have rollar coasters. (I'm not sure if Escape's bigger. ) A small group of us only took a ride which is called "Scenic Railway". The other stuff are quite ordinary. Actually, there's this prison break thingy which looks fun but we didn't play it. The Scenic Railway has those up and down thrills. It's not the best ride in the world but it's thrilling enough for a person like me who haven't taken such rides for nearly 2 years.
After a short time in Luna Park, we walked down this whole lane of Esplanade Market. This market sells lots of arts stuff. Stuff that is custom-made by the sellers. They have accessories, aroma-therapy products like soaps (Sea, Jasmine, Lemongrass, etc) and essential oils, paintings and etc. They are really beautiful but most are expensive. I only bought scented soaps but they already cost 7 bucks in total. Anis (my room-mate) and I visited this Japanese Calligraphy store whereby this lady will translate your english names/any other words to Kanji. Anis got her name done and it's really nice. I didn't do it cos' I don't know where to hang at home.
Lastly, we went to St. Hilda's beach. I think this is really a perfect place for couples. This place has a very beautiful scenery and it's also one of the must-go places in Melbourne. The sea is very clear and blue, unlike the seas in Singapore. We noticed a very funny thing there - The seagulls seem to have trouble flying in the winds. (unless they are playing around) It's like you see them flying to a direction but for some reason, they get stuck or pushed back. In the process, they make lots of sounds as if they are unhappy to be in this phenomenon. There's a restaurant called "The Beachcombers" near the beach where you can sit down and savour their dishes while viewing the sunset. The food's fantastic and as usual, served in "gigantic" portions. (And expensive) The special-catch-of-the-day dishes are worth a try. The fish is really fresh. They have many catches like salmon, swordfish, tuna and etc.
Another exhuasting yet fun weekend.
PandaPirate [Hagane no Renkinjutsushi] 8:49 AM
Friday, March 09, 2007
After 1 week of stay in Melbourne,
I think the place is very dry. My lips crack a lot and I got sore throat. The weather's pretty unpredictable too. It gets very cool one day (around 16 degrees) and very hot another day. (around 33 degrees)
Setting the weather aside, the city's not bad. The people are generally laid-back. They start work at about 9 and most finish at 5. The city has many nice "ancient" buildings to look at. It has a huge state library which also looks ancient. I haven't explored the insides though. And, Melbourne's pretty cosmopolitan. I see asians almost anywhere. (mostly students, I guess) It's a nice city to live in but the stuff here are mostly expensive. (comparing to Singapore) Unlike Singapore, they have trams as one of the main transportations. (Those buses that run on railways)
RMIT is situated in the city area and is also pretty huge. The establishment bought alot of buildings over, including a former magistrate's building. The school also retains some ancient look and I thought it's kind of nice. The lecturers and lab technicians are friendly and they will help if you have questions. What I don't like is that the computers here block hotmail, yahoo, gmail and sorts.
My attachment so far is quite slack-ish. All of us only started on Monday and my group gets to go home early for the past days. We food students are required to analyse the anti-oxidant abilities of different foods. Then, we need to produce a report by last week. Bleh. All we did so far until Thursday was preparing solutions. However, today, our supervisor-lecturer wasn't around. we were fiddling alot with the solutions and testing absorbance with the spectrophotometer. But, we were getting nowhere and so here I am, surfing internet (and updating blogs) in the computer lab while waiting for the lecturer to reply to our email.
And...
I miss Singapore's food. Our fridge doesn't have enough food and everyone is also lazy to cook after a day of work. I think we are really lacking of balanced meals. XD Going to get more stuff at the market!
I miss my computer.
I miss home.
PandaPirate [Hagane no Renkinjutsushi] 10:39 AM
