Manga geek~

What do you expect your first day in uni to be after a week long of good ol' Easter break and sunshine in Adelaide?

A butt-freezing, hungry night class 40 minutes away from home sweet home and a snivelling you with dishevelled hair.

And then stress confronts you with that nasty grin on its face as it dumps piles after piles of assignments on you.

So what do you do?

Cry in despair?

Blame the education system?

Scream at your tutor's face?

Resort to violence and punch yourself?

Luffy: So, what are you doing here?

Zombie 1: rotting

zombie 2: rotting

zombie 3: Yeah, me too

- One Piece

No. You laugh at all of them! Be simple-mindedly optimistic! Dun break too much of a sweat over it! Wear a straw hat and conquer the seas. . . ~

As you can see, I am REALLY influenced by One Piece~

Love the air or carelessness they conduct matters, the stubborn way they protect their principles, the blindness in chasing dreams, the funny way they express their friendship~

So now . .

I wanna be a PIRATE!

“I want MEAT!”

- Luffy, One Piece

Food is a gift from God. Spices are a gift from the devil. Looks like my food was too spicy for you.

- SanJi, One Piece

(This should apply to my beloved housemates who lurve spicy food)

Roronoa Zoro: Was that a bribe?

Luffy: Yup. [walks off]

Roronoa Zoro: Well, at least he's honest.

- One Piece

The seriousness of my commercialization project is really catching up on me. In a good way, I must say. Before this, I was only dealing with research projects, case studies, and so on. But this time, I am really working on a project with established scientists and business personnels. It has only been less than 2 months, but I feel like I have learnt so much. A lot of times, things get a bit intimidating and I get overwhelmed. But somehow, knowing that I am working on a project I am interested in, motivates me to make this project a reality. Or at least contribute to it.

Nankurunaisa.

This is some kinda phrase I learnt some time ago. I think it roughly means that, things will go well in the end so there is no need to worry.

I guess sometimes I am a bit too serious. Signs of aging, perhaps?

Okay, I shall reverse this aging process then!

Roronoa Zoro: I am always serious.

Nami: That's what makes you so stupid

- One Piece.

Although, I realize that life is not all about fun fun fun after 21 years, but I still think that I can inject fun into life. Fun dun always come running to me with open arms. Sometimes I have to drag it all the way from Geelong and tie it together with me!

Oh I really ought to sleep but I got caught up with reading manga/anime quotes, so here's a few!

"It's better to be free on earth than slaves in the heavens"

- Homura, Gensomaden Saiyuki.

"Stand up and walk forward."

- Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist.

"This is my way of being a ninja!"

- Naruto

(How can I miss this!)

"If you use your head, you won't get fat even if you eat sweets."

- L, Death Note

”Don’t talk about my height when I’m in pain...”

- Edward Elric, Full Metal Alchemist.

'"Muichimotsu." Maybe you've heard of it. It teaches us to live without attachment. But is it right to throw everything away to live? I thought I'd gotten this far with my own interpretation of it. Then I realized something. More than anything, I've been bound by "Muichimotsu."' ~Sanzo, Saiyuki.

Raod trip to Adelaide!

For my Easter break, or my Only Break (sad. . . ) I took a short escape to Adelaide - The Festival State! Despite numerous obstacles and let-downs prior to the trip (one of my nice coursemates actually asked me why I chose to go to a 'big hole'), I ended up with an enjoyable trip. No, I should call it a road trip! Ooh, to better describe it - 'The Road Not Taken' road trip by Me, Ray, WenJi~

Why? Cos for some reasons, we always end up taking 'scenic drives' and 'short-cut/ detours'. We have strong navigators onboard! The most extreme scene would be WenJi driving up an almost 60 degrees slope to reach a thin and fragile wooden bridge which finally connected us to a highway (civilization!) around Murray bridge. We saw a lot of 'scenic' cows, hays and dirt tho. I was the navigator, yes.

The first day we arrived, after a butt-pain-staking journey by bus. . . we were ady navigating our way through to Hampstead! Met up with WenJi's friend, Beatrice who spoilt us not only with a place to live, but also home-made cream cheesecakes, apple crumbles and pastas! No rest required, and straight on we attacked Hahndorf - the German village. Went to the Beerenberg strawberry farm and had Kransky for lunch and ice-cream (the start of the 5 day-icecream diet).

As you can see, we weren't just picking strawberries, we were snacking on them along the way. So much that we ended up feeling 'jelak' from strawberries.

We went all the way to Glenelg for some quick soaking under the sun. . .set. But it is liberating to watch the sunset by the beach! By a very clean beach with cute, fat kids running around. Took a few too many pictures of the sunset. But all of them were taken at such random angles that, it failed to look like the progress of one single sunset. But, it is.

Leaving a permanent mark before we left. Going to Adelaide to me, is like, my entry into the wine world. Or introduction into the wine world. For now, I know quite a few things related to wine -

• I dun really like dry wine!
• I prefer red wine!
• When they describe a wine as sweet, it is not necessarily sweet!
• Wines I love: Rosemount 'O' and Platinum from Wolf Blass.

Victor Harbor is a very nice cozy place. Ferris Wheel and stuff are just so cute. . . miniature. . . and wobbly. . . So we ended up going on the Horse Tram instead as seen above. Although it looks cruel, but actually it is machine-operated. See the tram-rails? Loved the scenery there, the sea, the breeze, the waves crashing against the rocks, and the strawberry ice-cream. . .

This must be the most interesting beach we went to. And I bet you must be most excited to read, or visually imagine. . about this.

Well, we didn't unclad for the beach. Cos we wanna protect the pride and namesake of Malaysia. Won't wanna give this stereotype: Malaysians - flabbiness all over.

Northern Lights! Some kinda lighting show near University Adelaide. 5 designs of lighting are projected onto each of 5 old buildings making them seem surreal and colourful. From a splashes of musical notes to scribble-like patterns, it was really impressive and I would have gladly stayed on to watch some more. . . if only it was not that cold that night.

We learnt of a very unique tradition in Adelaide! Crabbing - as in catching crabs! One, almost everyone seems to have a net for crabbing. Two, almost everyone knows how to do it. Three, almost everyone has done it before! We got introduced to it around 8 pm at night. Found a net by 8.30 pm (after almost calling up all contacts in Adelaide). Went home to prepare baits by 9.30 pm. Reached the jetty by 10.30 pm. Started crabbing at 11 pm. Went home empty handed and cold at 2 am. But we made a surprising discoveries that night!

• Baits normally used - chicken bones! (Out of desperation, we mutilated Beatrice's supply of chicken drumsticks. Some of them marinated! WenJi's quote, "The crabs here are quire stupid, such good stuff and they dunno how to appreciate!")
• Baits have to be as smelly as it can get! (Raised a question that nite - can crabs smell!?)
• Beatrice's tutor actually got 100+ crabs once!
• It is a . . . Malaysian-thing. As the crabbing community on that jetty consisted 100% of Malaysians. To the extreme, they had been there for 6 hrs by the time we left and got only 1 crab. Their supply includes sleeping bags, hot water flasks, loads of food. Kinda like a warm refugee camp, or so we felt. U can't say Malaysians are not kiasu after that night!

What is a trip without a bit of self-indulgence? While the others were busy with either driving, navigating, debating over trivial topics and so on, I 'experimented' with my camera. The purpose is concrete of course, for I am the camera-man!

I was not the only one self-portraiting the whole time! Here are some failed versions of me and Ray. (For WenJi, I bet there must be some in her own camera!! Wait till I find out!)

Another few failed pics at the hands of an unskilled cameraman. I dun wanna reveal who he is. But whoever's not in the picture, and was the only male there, shud be him la. . . .

And now, for the STAR of the trip!! Our red hot, baby car~ which sailed us through our Adelaide days, breeze in ur hair and all! And according to Ray, the water squirted from the front of the car is sooooo silent and it spreads out! And the wipers the dun leave any lines on the window! So this was our baby for the whole trip!

And the number 1 most important picture of all!!!
Pictorial evidence of me DRIVING!

Dun give me the 'The Rock' brow slant now. . . .

Mumba! Mumba!

Remember me mentioning about the garden and pets in my house? Well, as usual I know most of you must be expecting it to be a big fat bluff. But think rationally for once, have I ever truly, ever been dishonest with any of u before? Now that you have the answer to that question, I believe you can kick back and read with assurance this post of mine.

Let me first introduce you to our little garden patch.

Now now now!! Before you say something sarcastic, SiewChin (I can imagine things like, "Soil only. . . sweat" and another million things that could come from you. . . ), we do have flowers we intend to put in, erm one way or another, u know!

See. . . Flowers, of all colours, all 5 (FIVE!!) of them. And we got vegetable seeds! I wanted to get some flower seeds but some Fern told me that, it might bloom only by the time I move out. Cher. . . .

The house is sometimes a bit too quiet, so I decided to get a dog just for the fun of it. But, erm, I better use 'although'. Although, the doggy I got is not really hyper, fun or does it do anything at all other than sit quietly all day long. . . (sigh. . . ) but hey, I bet it is cuter that most dogs in this neighbourhood with its forever-smiling-face.

There are times I look at his frozen-smiley-face and wonder if I can squeeze any Botox outta it.

This picture was taken during the Mumba Festival a week or so back. It was quite fun with a lot of arcades, games, soft toys, rides and fireworks. Although soft toys are a major soft spot of females, it was actually the male market which was targetted in this event. All fighting fate (of not winning) and out-witting tricks (of the games) and turning on the tap (as in money), just to impress the females. And when all attempts fail, it will be deemed for 'charity' (to sooth the EGO). The weather was real hot that night (the snowflakes print on my dress can be seriously misleading), so there was a heavy air of sweat mixed with masculine-ego - I could literally smell it.

But of course, regardles of all these, the main theme was to have fun with a bunch of nice people and contribute to charity (girls in effort, guys in financial). Just as every festival is meant to bring cheer and to have a happy ending - everyone, regardless of a night of victory or disappointment, was treated to a round of fireworks. So we lived happily ever after. . .

Now, I might not be a very professional photographer but I managed to capture a very winter-sonata picture of my friend here called Daniel who doesn't look winter-sonata at all! Feel the emotion, the passion and whatever else he expressed - when he was about to sneeze. Hoohoo.

And here is the view from a hill-top from where we viewed the fireworks. It really seemed like a stadium view. One I am bound to see in 2009, with Teru singing his lungs out onstage and me crying my eyes out 100 metres away from him.

Mattresses seem to be multiplying and taking over our Marshall base lately! With a futon spread out in the living room and a sofa bed frame supporting another mattress and another bean bag, two stacked mattresses in each room (2x3 rooms), there is a total of 8 mattresses all over the house!

This here is WenJi's workstation while my workstation is. . . .

. . . in the kitchen! Why are we both so reluctant to be in our rooms? Weeellll, would you have liked being in a small cozy oven? Not even a microwave ok? An oven - as in you are slowly baked to perfection.

In fact it has been so hot here that, I suspect I'm getting minor sunburns on a daily basis. And to all you mean ones out there, even dark people can get sunburn ok? Just to prove how hot it is lately here, I am providing you an image as evidence. . . .

1) Check out the oily nose.

2) Check the flat flat hairline.

3) Check the frown.

4) Check the skin tone - can u imagine how blazed the sun was to make my skin tone this light?

This last part is really quite irrelevant but again. . . this is my blog, I do whatever I want!

Cave-clan

After the grand introduction of my house yesterday, it is time I show you the very humble begining of it. . . and by humble, I really mean it.

The state of the 'un-furnished' house 2 weeks ago.

The very 'state-of-the-art' condition of my house a week ago. Take note of the extremely high tech television set (with an elongated antenna and screwdriver to change channels) and vacuum cleaner (with speaker function) shown here along with Mr Caveman and Ms Cavewoman.

Being the creative Cave-clan, we converted two spare mattresses and a very WenJi bed sheet into a brand NEW SOFA! Here, subject is eating grapes while watching very teeny men play cricket on the extra teeeeny TV.

Since it is late ady, I shall introduce you to the nature-side of our house - the vegetable patch and pets~

Melby Me

All members of the Marshall nest welcomed the Internet last night.

And suddenly, everyone seemed to be so busy with work. . . .

Time to update everyone about my humble (still thin) begining here in Melby~

I have finally settled down in my beloved nest with two other ah ma's who are downing cheese cakes and ordering french fries through Uncle Tan, after a session of soil digging at the backyard. Where am I in the picture? Well, cooking some very currydish which ended up sour (?). Stupid instructions on the packet.

By the way, we just got a new sofa bed, coming in 2 hours' time! Ordered it through phone just to realize there is not enough cash at home. Uncle Tan again la. . .

Lemme show you some non-airbrushed pictures of my nest since the other two mother birds are showering.

This here is my room which receives very very much LOVE from the sun in the evenings. And although it might seem messy, never let your eyes deceive you. Believe your heart, believe in me. My very spacious living room (often used by WenJi to practice her sudden dances). Empty now, but not after tonight! My sofa bed, fiery red sofa bed is coming! But for the time being, we kinda dumped a set of mattress there as a temporary couch. Then there is the old TV we use so often for entertainment. How old is the TV? Hm . . . Dear WenJi brought over her PS1 and dancing-carpet (dun ask me why. . but for exercise apparently) but the ports/ cables for connecting the PS1. . . . could not be found on the TV!

Chinese New Year will be a year-long event in this nest.

There is no reason to call this house unfurnished. In fact, we have so much BASKETS, RUGS and SPICES! Oh, and a rice cooker (canggih stuff) and hotpot-(erm) pot from Malaysia. Who brought it here? Aww. . . . dun make me say it.

This is by far the latest addition into the nest, dining table/ working table as we look on to the green green backyard.

Basically that is it about my house and I am not gonna show you the picture of the front of my nest. I dun want any stalkers, like Steve who might track me down and resume his stalking from Brisbane. I dun wan.