My First Post Card

I got my first personal mail today! Previously, all the mails I received were from the bank and immigration. This card managed to save me from a depressed mood. I had my first practical session today and it was a total disaster. No, I did not set the laboratory on fire. Today's practical was just a computer session on getting results from drawing a best fitted line using data supplied. I think some of you might know this, the y=mx+b line. It was done using Microsoft Excel and I always thought I'm quite proficient in Excel. I was so disappointed with myself. Most of my results were wrong and I end up being the last to leave the lab. That had never happened to me before and I'm going to ensure that it won't happen again. I only have myself to blame for not practising the formulae the night before. Guess I was too confident of myself and lazy.

Thanks Ru (aka Sinn/Sindy) for lifting my spirits today. I expected you to be the first to send me something and you really did not disappoint me. Although it will be nice if you can write slower the next time. I had a bit of difficulty trying to decipher some of your scribblings. Haha...

Everyone, I really wouldn't mind if you try to flood my mail box but there's no obligations. If you need my address, can just get it from either my mum or Ru. Hehe...

On the Way to School

My walk to school usually take around 18 to 25 minutes, depending on the speed I walk. Normally, I will slowly stroll and just take my time to enjoy the wind and scenery. I enjoy walking to school in the mornings. However, the walk from school back to the house always seem longer and more tiring. Weird right?

I pass by this wall of flowers every day and it's quite near my house. It's kind of a light purple so of course I find it very pretty.


Across the road from the flowers will be Guyatt Park. At the end of the park is the river and there's a ferry stop there. We will cross the park and take the ferry to West End market every Saturday morning.

Do need be cheated by this sign. After passing the 'welcome' sign, you'll have to walk at least 5 minutes to reach any teaching buildings. This sign is just across the UQ Information Booth I showed in my earlier entries.

This is UQ's multi-storey carpark. There are a lot of carparks in UQ and usually, the carparks are quite full. That goes to show that cars are really affordable here.

Staying In

I went to Brisbane City for the second time yesterday but I forgot to bring my camera. But don't worry, there will be lots of opportunities to take photos as I'll be going there often on Saturdays. My housemates don't like to shop but I don't mind shopping alone. That way, I can take my own sweet time walking around. If I go with my housemates, I can only go to places that they want to go and have to go back when they want to. Although they did ask me if I want to go into any particular shop but I wouldn't want to make them wait. Back in Singapore, I often shop alone too so it's no problem at all.

We all stayed in the house on Sundays. I mentioned about transportation problems on Sundays right? Unless you can get the timing of the transportation right, if not, it's better to stay in. The waiting time is just not worth it. Sunday is the day we do our household chores. We usually complete it within one hour as there's nothing much to do anyway. Just have to vacuum the floor and mop the kitchen and bathrooms floors. With three person to spilt the load, we finish everything in very little time.

Surprisingly, Sunday is the day when I missed home the most. Previously, I had never missed home when I was alone overseas. In case all of you forgot, this is not the first time I had gone overseas alone. I went to KL a couple of times alone, albeit only for a few days. During the first two weeks here, I had never missed home. I missed everyone though... Instead of wishing myself to be back home, I'll wish everyone were here with me and seeing the same new sights. However, I found myself wishing to be back home in Singapore last Sunday. Maybe it's because I had nothing to do and the house is really too empty. Back home, I can read newspaper or those trashy novels to past my time. Sometimes, my brother and I will claim a sofa each and just nap the whole afternoon away. If my dad had no mahjong session that day, we might go out for grocery shopping or whatever. I remembered my dad and I watching a cooking program about seafood one Sunday. The seafood looked so delicious that I can feel myself salivating. I told my dad that the tv program made me feel like eating seafood and he felt the same way too! We end up going to East Coast Park for seafood dinner that night. My home is so warm and cosy whereas it's so cold and empty here. Then again, I'm dreading the arrival of summer here. I heard it will be hotter than in Singapore and this house has no air-conditioning! Have to go and get a power fan before summer comes.

Actually the home-sickness is not so bad today. Maybe it's because I am slowly getting used to things here and there are lots of things to read now (my lecture notes).

We try to have dessert on Sunday nights and usually, ice-cream is involved. Yes, it's cold here and we still eat ice-cream. Haha... Yesterday, we bought a box of muffin mix powder as it was on discount. We baked half of it just now and used a normal baking tin instead of muffin tin. We end up having a chocolate cake instead of muffins but I like it. I can bake but can't cook so at least I can help in baking.

With cookies and cream ice-cream...

First Week of School

My first week of school is over and I am so tired. I keep asking myself what am I doing here and what was I thinking? Why am I so damn stubborn? I should have just chosen something simple instead of Chemistry.

I was really very traumatised on my first day of school when I realised that I had forgotten the very basic functional groups in Organic Chemistry. Alkanes? Alkenes? Benzenes? Saturated bonds? Unsaturated bonds? To think I've always been interested in Organic Chemistry and claims it's not difficult at all. After that lesson, I had the strong urge to just pack up, go home (the one in Singapore) and forget about everything. Why do I have to insist on having a degree in the first place? I should have just listened to my grandma, aunts and uncles - find a guy, marry him and settle down.

After calming down a bit, I remembered everything. No, I didn't suddenly remember all the functional groups in Organic Chemistry. In fact, I haven't start my revision yet but I'll get to it soon. I remembered why I removed myself from my comfort zone and came all the way across the ocean to a foreign country that is experiencing winter while the rest of the world is having summer. I want a degree so that I can do what I want to do. There are some job opportunities that are open to degree holders and not diplomas. I want to be able to earn more than what I used to earn. And I always tell my aunts and uncles that if I have a higher education, I'll end up with a guy of equivalent or higher qualifications. Haha...

Everybody, don't worry when you see this entry. I should be able to handle these stuff. I'm just whining and letting out my emotions. At the most I'll just start knocking on professors' doors and ask for private tutoring. The lecturers here are quite helpful. They always remind us to let them know if we can't handle anything. It's not all a bed of roses here. I'm not just enjoying life and having fun here. Oh, think I have to warn everyone something. Please do not ever let me hear you say that education system in Australia is really slack and I'm just having fun and enjoying life here. That's so not the truth and if I'm not in the right mood, I might just blow up at you!

7月8日- 机场（2）

Too many photos and I have no idea which to put next. My cutest cousin solved the problem for me. Was talking to her using video calling through MSN and I was telling her I have no idea whose photo to put on next. And of course she said,"Put mine first lah." So, I'm putting hers first. She really made me very touched with her farewell present and 'aeroplane survival kit'. Will upload photos of those things another day. I want to ration all my photos so that there'll be something new everyday.


The Koo Family & I (the boy in the red circle is Bryan Tan). From left, my cutest cousin-Adeline, Beautiful me, my very happening 姑姑who clubs more than I do, my very 'cool/Koo' cousin-James and my '口才很好'的姑丈who always call me '阿诗姐姐'.


My Cutest Cousin with her most Beautiful cousin. Hahaha...

7月8日- 机场（1）

我妈一直吩咐我要记得把机场的照片放上网让大家看。今天没什么新鲜事发生，所以就放一些照片上网吧。我决定不要把照片一次过放到完，慢慢放才会有期待嘛。哈哈。。。

其实今天有事发生- 我房间的电灯坏了，得在客厅用电脑。希望明天能修好！

University of Queensland - St Lucia Campus

This is a bird's eye view of University of Queensland's (UQ) St Lucia Campus, the one I'm studying in right now. Very big right? UQ consists of 3 campus and the other 2 are situated in Ipswich and Gatton. I've never been to these other 2 campus before so I'm not sure what they look like. Maybe will pop in for a tour during the holidays when I have nothing to do. I absolutely hate it when I have a lecture right after the other. Then, I'll have to rush to another building for the next lecture and they are not near one another. Waste of time...

When I first saw this booth in 9th July 2007, I thought I've reached UQ. That was not the case at all. After passing this booth, I'll have to walk for at least another 5 to 10 minutes before I can reach the lecture threatres! So, in accommodation advertisements, when they claim it's only 15 minutes walk to UQ, they actually mean you will reach this booth after a 15 minutes walk. They don't bother telling you about the rest of the path.

Forgan Smith Building - I had my first lecture in this building. If I'm not wrong, this building belongs to the Law faculty. We can have chemistry lectures in other faculties. Maybe that's because Chemistry builing is used mainly for laboratory work and there's not lecture rooms in it. In UQ, all buildings (with the exception of one) have nice names and just by looking at the names, you'll have no idea which faculty it belongs to.

This is the one building which does not has a nice and creative name. Guess what is this building? This is Chemistry building! That's right, this is the building where I'll be for most of the time as all my laboratory practicals will be done inside. And its name is really only 'Chemistry'. If there's a chance, I'll take photos of the labs and upload here.

First Day of School

First day of school today and I'm totally stressed out. In all my 24+ years of life, I've never been so stressed before. After graduating from polytechnic for 5 years, I realised that I've totally forgotten everything I had learnt. So tonight, I had been online searching for information and didn't have much time to write. I will write a longer entry tomorrow about my school and how's everything. I'm going to sleep soon as there's an early lecture tomorrow and I want to try to go earlier to the library to print out my notes.

Good Night! Miss you all!

My Housemates

I know everyone is very curious about my housemates. Even my mum haven't seen their photos before. Initially don't dare to put their photos online in case they are not unhappy. After living together for 2 weeks, kind of know more about them so I think they wouldn't mind. Both of them are 5 years younger than me and had just graduated from Singapore Polytechnic. They are in a different faculty from mine and is studying 'Food Science and Nutrition'. That's why they love cooking. They are really nice and understanding girls and try to make me feel welcome. So, I always just tag along with them where ever they go. Lucky me...


This is Adeline, a very fun-loving and sporty girl but sorry guys, she's attached. We are both the big eater in the house. Both of us are forever hungry and constantly hunting for food. She's always talking and making noises so that the house doesn't get too quiet. I'm so glad for that as to silent houses tend to drive me crazy. The silence and lonliness can get very overbearing sometimes.


This is Jie Ying, without her, there won't be home-cooked food everyday. She can cook and do household chores. And guys, she's still single. Hehe... Please do not ask me to do any match-making. Although my grandma used to be a match-maker, I suck at it. I can try to introduce though.


My dinner tonight - Hainanese Chicken Rice! I'm so damn fortunate but I still miss my mum's cooking...

West End Saturday Market

I never thought I'll say the sentence,"I'm going to market tomorrow morning.". I was never a market go-er. Whenever my mum says she is going to the market the next day, I always tell her that I'll wait for her at home. Now, I wake up early (around 7am) to go to the market every Saturday morning! Saturday back in Singapore is a day when I sleep in and go out in the afternoon for shopping, ktv or movies. Now, Saturday is market and laundry day whereas Sunday is housework day. I'm becoming so domesticated that I feeling like puking. Luckily the market at West End is not a wet market. I can't stand the smell of a wet market. I'm not sure whether my mum remembers but I fainted once when I was little, going to a wet market with my mum. After that, my mum didn't dare to bring me to a wet market anymore. Haha...


That's what the market looks like.


Lunch today was baked pasta cooked by my housemates, of course.


Dinner... I eat home-cooked food everyday. Don't ask me how Australia food is like because I wouldn't know!

Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens

This is a very good place to go if you like plants and the view is spectacular. Can get to see the city view from the look-out and there are benches and tables there for you to picnic. I can't really remember Singapore's Botanic Garden but the one here seems much bigger and with more plants. Remind me to bring you there if you are coming to visit me. Haha...


Japanese Garden


Lavender - Representative of purple flowers (but I prefer purple roses)

Watering the plants (and I thought Brisbane is facing drought?)

You are allowed to go close to the plants and smell them but I didn't go near them. I'm scared of squashing the plants and of course, there might be bugs!

Behind me is Brisbane City!

The rest of the suburbs

At the entrance of the Biotanic Garden

West End

We crossed the river and arrived in West End, the place we went to for our Saturday marketing. Today is a Thursday so the market is not open but we still went there because we want to explore the shops in that area. We wouldn't have a chance to explore on Saturdays as we'll be too busy carrying bags and bags of vegetables. Haha... My housemates were very impressed with West End and were thinking of staying in this area instead when our contract for the current house ends. I hope they are not serious as I have no interest in crossing the river everyday when I have to go to school. Transportation is really expensive, you know.

学校的渡轮码头

学校对面的风景- 白色小桥是让住户停私人船只的地方。

这盘饭花了我$5.80，算是便宜了！

今天的晚餐- 咕噜肉，韭葱，炒豆芽。豆芽好贵！

Indooroopilly

My housemates and I each bought a weekly concession ticket which enables us to take unlimited bus, train and ferry ride for one whole week. Therefore, we decided to make full use of the ticket and we visited a new place everyday. Transportation fee is quite expensive here as well so we might not go out as often when our ticket expires. Minimum transportation fee for adult is AUD$2.30 and for student is AUD$1.20. Be prepared to fork out quite a bit of money if you all are coming to visit me. Heard that taxi fee is quite expensive too. Haha...

Today, we went to another suburb known as Indooroopilly. It's bigger than Toowong village and the shopping mall is almost like a paradise to me. There's a cinema, lots and lots of fashion shops and a discount variety store which sells lots of cheap stuffs. There's even a pet shop which displays many cute little puppies. Although one of my housemates and I adore dogs, it's impossible for us to give into the impulse to buy one as another of my housemate is afraid of it. Furthermore, pets are not allowed in the house I'm living in. We were in the shopping mall till dark (it gets dark at around 5.30pm). After that, we kind of got lost as my housemates were not very sure where the bus-stop is! As for me, I always just follow behind them so I didn't bother to check out which route to take. That's me... I always let other people take care of things. I'll only take charge when there's no one doing anything. Anyway, after asking around, we managed to get to the correct bus-stop and reached home quite late. Had a very late dinner and I'm still hungry. Think I'll just go and grab some things to eat later. I didn't take any photo as there's nothing interesting to shoot so there'll be no nice nice picture in this entry.

Oh yah... Finally saw KFC and McDonald's these two days. McDonald's meals are almost the same price as back in Singapore (if you don't count in the exchange rate) but McNuggets meal is much more expensive here. It cost almost AUD$1 more than the other meals! KFC is much more expensive than in Singapore, with meals costing more than AUD$7!

My mum asks me to upload the photos taken at the airport into this blog. I think I'll do it in another few days time as there is always something new for me to update about the places I've been to.

International Student Orientation & Chinatown!

Had my second day of orientation today. This morning's orientation was for international student and there were many students attending. Big countries like China and USA has 167 and 200+ students respectively in UQ. Guess how many students are from Singapore? 153! Imagine 153 students from the little red dot. Met some singaporean students this morning but my housemates and I didn't join in their activities. We decided to go Chinatown after the orientation.

Chinatown was not as busy today as compared to weekends. Heard from my housemates that there'll be many temporary stalls along the road on Saturdays and it can get very crowded then. The chinese supermarkets sell a lot of asian food stuff and they are generally cheaper than local supermarkets. Local supermarket do not sell my favourite tidbits, Calbee's Hot&Spicy, but the chinese supermarkets did. However, the price is enough to stop me, the Queen of Extravagance, from buying it. It's AUD$3+ per packet! More than twice the amount of Singapore's. Think I can stop thinking of that and start eating other tidbits. Surprisingly, Nabisco's Chicken-in-a-Biscuit is much cheaper here than in Singapore. Think I'll just substitute with that then.








Chinatown's train station - the only station with chinese words on its signboards.

Bread Pudding!

Went to school for my faculty's Orientation today. It was stated that there'll be free lunch provided and so I happily went for it. Felt so cheated when I saw the lunch. There's only many itsy bitsy teeny weeny sandwiches of weird weird flavour! Ate two of the tiny sandwiches and still felt really hungry afterwards. But when I went back to my house, dinner was really good. We had '四神汤', a type of herbal soup cooked with chicken, ma-po tofu and my favourite fried cauliflower. We also made bread pudding for dessert and we ate it with ice-cream! Felt so full and happy after that. I also helped to make the bread pudding! This was the first time I helped out in the kitchen, besides washing dishes.

A Day on the Train and A Trip to the City!

Went on my first train ride today and what an experience! I don't think I'll ever forget today's train trip. I'm not sure about the other areas of Australia but in Brisbane, please try not to go sight-seeing on Sunday using public transport. Each train and bus comes in one hour interval!We were supposed to go visit 'Big Pineapple', a pineapple farm, today. We took a train from our nearest train station, Toowong. After spending more than 3 hours, including travelling and waiting time, we finally reached our destinated train station, Woombye. We didn't go to Big Pineapple in the end as we had totally no inkling of which direction to go! The train back to our place came and we decided to just go back instead. We wouldn't want to miss that train and wait for another hour! Spent another 2 hours on the train back so today was kind of like a train travelling day.

Brisbane's transport system is not as advanced and efficient as Singapore's. For buses, you can either buy your ticket from the bus driver or from a transit office. The bus will end up stopping for quite long if there are many people boarding. That's because many people choose to buy tickets from the bus driver and most of the people are not really sure of the fares they have to pay. Those people do not prepare correct fare so the bus driver will have to give them their change back. That's right, they do give back changes on buses here. It's the same thing for they ferry system so there's usually three staff on board a ferry. One will be the ferry operator, one will be in charge of letting down the board for commuters to board and alight the ferry and the other will be in charge of ticket sales. Sometimes, they can barely finish collecting money for the previous stop's passenger before the ferry arrive at the next stop. As for trains, you do not have to tap your card before you can go through the gates. Here, you can just go into the station without buying tickets. Of course there'll be train officers asking to check your ticket but they do not do it at every stop. If you do not travel far, you wouldn't even get to meet the train officer! It appears that someone did not buy a ticket on the train today and refuse to pay the AUD$150 fine. As a result, our train was held up at Sunshine station as we waited for the police to arrive. I do not understand why they can't just kick that troublesome passenger off the train and wait for the police at the station instead of holding the whole train up?! However, one good thing about their system is that their concession ticket can be used on all three transport. Managed to save a lot of money that way.

On our way back, we alighted a bit earlier and end up in Brisbane City. It's like the Orchard Road and City Hall of Brisbane and I was so excited! Now I know where to go shopping. It was already dark when we arrived and we were kind of in a hurry so I didn't have a chance to take any photos there. Don't worry, I can see myself going there quite frequently. Too bad my housemates don't like to shop but then again, I don't mind shopping alone. Oh yah... We were in a hurry as we want to go Cole's before it close for the day. Cole's is a big supermarket chain in Australia. We bought most of our grocery from Cole's and my housemates are totally obsessed with Cole's. They prefer shopping there then in the City!

First Market and Cinema Experience

Another exciting day today!

Took the first bus at 7am to go the market at West End. The market is only open on Saturday so we have to be early as many people will be going there. We took CityCat, a ferry service, to cross the river and later transfer to a bus. The market is a distance away from the bus-stop and at first, we didn't know where to go as it was our first time there. We saw many people with big bags of grocery coming from the same direction so we concluded that the market must be in that direction. The market is a bit like our 'pasar malam' with many stalls. Wanted to take photos but our hands were full with vegetables and fruits. Will try to take photos of the market next time. We should be going there every Saturday to buy cheap vegetables and fruits.

After marketing, we rushed back to the house to put away our groceries and went back out to catch the ferry to South Bank Cinema for our 'Harry Potter' movie. The movie tickets were actually cheaper than in Singapore but then again, we got student concession so that doesn't really count. They practise free seating in the cinema so we have to queue outside the cinema for around an hour in order to ensure good seats! What a waste of time! I don't think I'll be going to watch movies very frequently while in Australia, unless I managed to find a cinema which operates on pre-booked seating arrangement.

Had a very satisfying dinner at Sizzler. Ordered their salad bar buffet which costs AUD12.95 before 4pm. We actually ordered at 4.20pm but they still charged us the lunch price and we decided to just keep quiet about it. Haha... We ate till 6.30pm and wanted to go to the supermarket, Coles, but it was closed by then. It was already dark and we decided to just go home and shop for the rest of the groceries tomorrow. Seems like I don't have much fate (yuan fen) with Coles as this was the second time the shopping trip was postponed.

My house & Toowong Village

I've just realised that I haven't mention anything about my school and my house.

First, my house...


View from outside


That's my front door


Living room & dining area


Kitchen & my housemate's study desk

I'm staying in a 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom unit. I have a whole bedroom and bathroom to myself whereas my housemates are sharing bedroom and bathroom. This house is actually quite comfortable but I'm still not sure whether to continue renting after the contract is up as it's a bit pricey.

My housemates are actually my juniors from SP. My ex-lecturers introduced us to one another. They are really nice to me. They know how to cook so they end up cooking for me too. To repay them, I do the dishes. Somehow, they got this idea in their mind bout getting me to cook too. Sigh... No choice but to learn a bit or at least be the assistant cook. We joked that one of them is the chef, the other is the assistant cook whereas I'm the kitchen helper. Haha...

Today my housemates took me to the real estate office to sign an application for permission to stay in the house. That's right, I'm kind of like an illegal squatter right now. Finally got to see Toowong Village. It's kind of like Hougang Central with a mall, train station etc. Was so excited when I saw 7-eleven. Heard that there's a McDonald's in the shopping centre so at least I know where to go if I have sudden craving for fries or big breakfast.

I think I'll leave the part of my school to another day. Need to go to bed soon as we have to wake up early tomorrow. Going to the market at 7am!

Finally Can Go Online!

Last night my internet was finally up! Was so excited and kept on talking to many people, almost like a marathon. In the end, I went to sleep at 2am! Woke up at 12pm and didn't go out. Stayed in the house the whole day and managed to put away my luggage. That's a photo of my room before tidying.

3rd Day

Now's my third day in St Lucia. I can't access internet with my laptop so I'm really very bored at my house. I have to walk over to my school, UQ (University of Queensland), everyday so I can check my emails and contact the outside world. Luckily I brought my darling xiao zhu's vcd over so I can watch it at night when I have nothing to do.

Last night was a really exciting night. I managed to kill the big fat cockroach that has been living in my bathroom for the past 2 days. My housemates and I settled on a strategy and armed ourselves with rolled-up newspapers. They swept the cockroach down from the bathroom door onto the floor and I stomped down on the cockroach, wearing my slippers. I have to be the one to kill it as it was in my bathroom and all three of us are scared of cockroaches. Later that night, I found a baby cockroach near my bathroom sink. I killed it too. Now, I'm trying not to think of the rest of the cockroach family that might be hiding somewhere in my bathroom. Damn scary...

After the cockroach episode, my housemates and I tried to connect our wireless internet but failed. I really regret not listening to my baby bro when he tried to get me to learn how to fix my own laptop. I fail to understand why some people actually likes to fix computers?

My Luggage

I mentioned shipping my luggage over right? I changed my mind. Initially, I thought my 28 inch luggage will hit 30kg and I'll have no choice but to ship the rest of my clothes. Then my mum dragged out our dust-covered weighing scale (I didn't even know we had one at home). Turns out the total weight of my 28 inch and 24 inch luggage is around 33kg. Think Qantas won't fine me for a 'mere' 3kg, I hope...

Well, I only have 2 days left to finish packing. Keep having the feeling that there's still a lot of things left to do. But then, I'm a very last minute person. I can only complete my tasks at the last possible minute. I need to get into the mood before I can do something. Don't ask me to do anything before I'm ready. I'll end up making a complete mess. Then I'll be very frustrated. But then again, I also get frustrated easily when I'm rushing my last minute tasks. Anyway, just try to steer clear of me when I'm rushing around. I might either bark or bite. Haha...

紫微斗数

经常在台湾综艺节目听到艺人聊紫微斗数。终于，我领教到了紫微斗数的精准度。我妈带我到牛车水的一间水晶店。为了能让我选最适合我的水晶石，店主帮我算了紫微斗数。

关于我的事都算得挺准的。当然，有提到了我的爱情运。我的桃花年是鸡，狗，鼠或马年。应该会在28或30岁时结婚。老公大我1或3岁，是聪明人（当然啦，不然怎么追到我呢），受高教育，瘦又黑。最好笑的是，我老公的样子长得凶而且职业有用刀！除了医生，法医，卖刀和在巴刹卖肉的外，还有什么职业会用刀呢？

明年就是鼠年了，我会努力的！

Hello!!!

Hello! Testing testing... Haha...

Since some of you already know about this blog, thought I should write something here.

It's now Tuesday night. Will be flying off in less than 5 days. I still don't feel excited or nervous. The only emotion I can feel now is stress... Too many clothes and too little bagguage allowance! Argh.... How am I going to squeeze in 1 year supply of clothes? Think I'll end up shipping most of my clothes over. Easier that way. Hehe...