Taken from South Perth foreshore. I love this view. :) It's like Hong Kong, minus the romance.

I'm not a believer of the phrase "opposites attract". It is a rule that applies only to magnets and human couples only use it as a lie to get themselves laid. Same goes to friends, how can anyone be friends when you don't have an ounce of similarity?

Imagine my surprise, and then shock, when I found out the actions of one friend. Though after this particular incident I wouldn't use the word "friend" so loosely. Granted, nothing happened to me and I wasn't at all involved but still, you think you know and understand your friends, don't you? That you kinda know what are the boundaries of their behaviours? That you would take it that you guys share the same primary beliefs and values?

Or am I sounding a little old-fashioned?

I used to be quite detached about having friends and maintaining relationships. But I grew older and realised hey, this is it, why go out there and make friends when I already have friends and all I gotta do is maintain them? Isn't it better to have a few close friends than to have many acquaintances? Like already having the man of your dreams but still wanting to go out and play.

My reaction surprised me when I heard about what happened (I'm not going to mention what exactly happened but I think some would know it as the ATM and bastard story) and how much it affected me. I credited it to how friends in a group reflect on each other, so to a certain extent, is there some sort of personal responsibility involved in your friends' actions? Aren't friends supposed to be people you call when you want company or when you want to gossip? I shouldn't have had to shed any headspace worrying about their actions, should I?

I'm just gonna end this post here for now because suddenly I feel like going to sleep. It is 12.30AM afterall.

Today is Chinese New Year! As you can see, the excitement (or lack of) of this special day in the lunar calendar has left me a slight limitation to my vocabulary, so I shall just announce it in a direct fashion: Today is Chinese New Year!

Obviously celebrating in Perth is heaps different. No family and relatives for one, lesser ang pows for another.

Nonetheless! I managed to see something you miserable Singaporeans would not be able to see your short lifetimes. Live firecrackers just 3m in front of my own eyes! How about that? I reckon security in Chinatown would probably be very cautious with all the barricades and stuff (I guess, since I've never been to Chinatown on New Year's Eve to see these things), plus, back home I never felt the need to actively watch those lion dances. But I take what I can get here eh.

Anyhow, Gong Hei Fatt Choy to all Chinese readers! 如意吉祥平安年 好运连连连一年!

P.S. Cellmate: You huat, I huat!

I know they look a bit cramped but maybe they like it that way. Whatever floats their happy boat. ;P


a la Hot Wheels, or something like that. But one would never know if behind the mighty wheels of this mighty mighty truck sits a midget of a woman.

The Singaporean mother and I drank ourselves to a mild stupor last night sharing an '06 chenin blanc. Of course, if you thought about it, esteemed people like ourselves - a well-to-do mother of two and a rational student, that would be me, ahem - probably wouldn't be caught wildly drunk so a "mild stupor" would be apropos.

I am so tired right now I wish I was already retired and am only attempting to enjoying life. Honestly, uni has been tough for the past two semesters. When the uni says you are a full-time student, they mean it seriously, for "full-time" translates into multiple readings, essays, blogs (as assignments, yes), and research that demand your limited attention during after-school hours. It's akin to working 9 to 6, and taking up a part-time job in addition to uni is like working full-time and moonlighting as a prostitute. Except maybe a prostitute does not have to deal with an incompetent boss and slow co-workers. Hmmmm, maybe I should consider a change of career path. :P

One Singaporean mother I met in Perth has, on more than one occasion, expressed her bewilderment of the WA education system. The kids get minimal homework and the school syllabus isn't clearly divided into chapters and topics like the textbooks I grew up with.

Everyday the kids come home and, if they want to, complete a worksheet that just takes up one third an A4 page, consisting questions like telling the time, a maths question, a science question, and maybe a couple of english questions.

Is that enough practice?

I grew up with learning about certain things for a certain period of time, like we would do fractions for two weeks, then multiplication and division for another two weeks and we'd learn all about something during that time. We had like two textbooks per subject (one A version, another B version, for Chinese, one 上, one 下), not to mention heaps of homework to be completed by the next day. Education in Singapore was very clearly structured and inflexible. At least, it was like that when I was in primary school.

But you know the phrase, all roads lead to Rome... anyway?

Well, come uni and there really isn't much difference between students who did primary school in Australia and Singaporean students, or any other international students for that matter.

So there really isn't a need to get worried over whether your kids are getting their necessary education is there? I'm not a parent yet (obviously), but hey, it's not like the average adult is not savvy enough for what life doles out. Does it really matter where you got your primary education?

This subject popped up when I opened my inbox today: "Upgrading to Vista? Think Mac."

You know what? I am thinking Mac. I have been thinking Mac for a bloody long time. The one time I wanted, and could have gotten, an iBook, Apple dropped the iBook line from its online stores and replaced it with the MacBook. I didn't get the MacBook because it was, it still is, more expensive and not as mobile with its wider physical size.

So I got a Dell instead. And Dell is just not that good everything-wise and especially looks-wise. The butt of a MacBook is nicer than the top of my Dell. But it'll have to do for now. I guess the MacBook will have to wait (not for long!).