I got a good reason to be a 'lil bit happy....
If you search for my name on google, my details actually turn up No.1 on the results page!!! Not bad eh....

Gettin up at 7:00am on a sunday morning isn't exactly my thing, but I was asked by Hai to accompany her to Fremantle to do some shoppin. Fremantle, or Freo as its called, known for its fish 'n chips & markets, is the largest metropolitan retail center outside Perth, and something like a twin city to perth. A 45min bus ride got us there...and Hai set out on her shopping spree...

The weather was just perfect with a steady sea breeze blowing and it wasn't long before the streets were bustling with people and the markets were swarming with people. This place I am told is famous for its markets & there is always something happening. There were street performances at every nook and corner, someone singing with his guitar, someone playing the saxophone....I could have spent hours just walking around.

Now females as they are...Hai took ages to decide on what to buy, after over a kazillion consultations with friendz over the phone that is. Anyho, once that was done, we took the time to walk around and just get a feel of the place. Restraunts lined up everywhere, majority of them being Italian, Comedy clubs filling up with people, the smell of strong coffee from the cafe's, the sight of the cranes busy at work in the distant shipyard...it was splendid.

There also happened to be a car show on that day, so we saw some fabulous cars pass by.....american muscle cars...vintage cars....special editions.....and it took me quite a while to realize that it would be nice if I got a couple of pics of the cars. So I really didn't manage to get too many....










In the evening I again found myself in Fremantle, not in the city center, but along side the river. This was in East Fremantle, where the homes & villa's along the river am sure would cost much more than what I pay for my candy!! And not to mention the oh-so-expensive looking boats and yatch's docked in the jetties. I went with my friend to meet up with some other's for an early evening Bar-BQ. The thing in this place is that every park has public Bar-BQ's set up for people to come and use absolutely free of cost...impressive. All in all it was good fun, and I got to meet a whole lota ppl...

If only every sunday was as interesting....

Normal evening. Shut my books. Headed to the loo...needed to clear the lunch and make space for dinner. I sit down comfortably, reading the weeky newsletter (trust me...dat's the best place to catch up on some readin). And then it goes....TWEET TWEET TWEET TWEET TWEET...
....the noise is absolutely deafaning!! I clean up as quicky as I can, pull my pants up and rush out to the corridor...and the place is filled with smoke!! (not that much smoke tho...little less than wat ur imaginin rite now...). But enuf to set off the smoke detectors. I run into my room...pick up my wallet & cell phone (yeah...they're the essentials rite?). I swear I had this tiny inkling to pick up my laptop too...but my common sense got the better of me and I rush out to the kitchen.

And lo! My two flatmates are standing over the stove, one choppin veggies, and other cookin up somethin. I'm like..."wat the hell you guys doin? there's a fire!!". And they go..."relax. it's just smoke. We forgot to switch on the exhaust.."

I'm heading back to the loo. Got some unfinished business.

CRASH!! BANG!! The door flies open. The housing residential assists (RA's) step in...all geared up in protective clothing....screamin "Every One OUT right now!!"
My flatmate goes..."Relax. There's no fire. Plus I gotta finish cooking my dinner"

Needless to say the words that came out from the RA after that weren't exactly pleasant. 20 seconds later we were all grouped up outside in the cold, along with residents from other flats. Less than 2mins later the fire brigade comes in, lights flashing and all dat jazz.

Picture pefect moment. So pull out my phone, and start clickin away. Prob is that cell camera's don't click too well at night. Anyhow, got something out of the commotion. My Malaysian flatmate also got me to click his snap beside the fire truck so that he could give his folks back home a good scare....

Well...after a 20 min wait in the cold, we could finally all go back inside. The alarm was turned off, but still needed to be recoded or somethin. So I'm under order that I can't cook anything till the alarms are fixed. So I'm writing this (and starving) while I wait for the alarm to be reset.

What a night....

And I'm starvin....

I thought I'd introduce everyone to my roomies....gonna be wid them for a long time...so here's a brief bio of each...

First up...the ladies...

• Chen Haiqoing a.k.a Hai : big sis of the house... -- She's the eldest, but looks something like 17... doin her Masters in Economics, and struggling really hard with her English books. That's cuz she's presently doin a Uni English Bridging course to get her English skills up. And it goes without saying that she's the best cook in the house. And I guess she's the only reason that the house stays clean...lol....every minute she gets she's got her apron on and she's wipin some grime and dirt off somewhere...
  
• Gao Ru a.k.a Rugao : she wishes she could cook!! -- I won't mention her about her English speakin skills...cuz there won't me much to write about!! I'm not tryin to be mean here, but it takes repeating a sentence about 3-4 times before she understands it. And she's the only one in the house who can't cook. So she's struck a deal with Hai....She does the washing up, and Hai does the cooking!! As for studies, she's doing her Masters in Education, and already holds a teaching degree in Biology....intellectual types..
  
• Danniel a.k.a Danni : moody...veerryy moody -- Can't pronounce her Chinese name... Yongest amonst all the girls, she's doing her Masters in Accounting. Spends most of her time complaining about her weight (tho she's thinner dan 70% of girls I kno), and about her pimples....sheesh...girls!! And she spends the rest of her time translating her notes into Chinese, studying from it, and then translating it back to English!!! You might wanna keep away from her in the morning's...she's the most cranky then...and you would also wanna keep away when she's got a basketball in her hands...
  

And the dudes...

• Marcus : err...who saw him last? -- Never bothered to ask his Chinese name. He's the happy go lucky types....and makes his presence felt everytime he's at home. Coming from Malaysia, he can cook up a couple of good dishes too. Doin his Masters in Finance & Marketing, he's totally outgoing and lively. Its usually hard to find him at home....let alone his room. Had mentioned about him in my previous post when he left me stranded with my bike on the way to the city....
  
• Victor a.k.a Shyao Way : quiet outside, burning Michael Jackson inside... -- For some reason he loves sipping honey and hot water...He's either in his room all da time, or playin basketball. And when he's in, he locks himself in his room, turns up either Backstreet Boys or Michael Jackson, and sings....err make that screams out to his heart's content. Then he comes out with a subtle look on his face as if he just got up from bed...lol.... His real name is not Shyao Way btw...thats just what the girls call him, which translates to 'Little Flower'...just to tease him...;)
  
• Nigel Kenny Fong Young a.k.a Nigel : confused & paranoid -- The youngest in the house, he's doing his Bachelor's in Electronic & Communication Engineering. He's the only Chinese in the house who can't speak the language, since he's been born and brought up in Mauritius. So he blabbers in French & Creole. Loves to take the opinion of a 100 people (if he had his way) before doing anything. Listens to James Blunt day in and day out...and loves watching Japanese cartoons...even if he doesnt undertsand them...
  
• See Yen Kuang a.k.a Ivan : in smelly hibernation -- He's the most peculiar of all I've ever seen. Till to date no in the house has seen him cook a meal, or eat vegetables. He survives solely on coffee, bread, sausages & tinned fish. Not that he can't cook, its just that he's (apparently) too busy. He's doin his Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering. And its been three months since he got here, but for reasons known only to him, he still lives out of his suitcase. The only time when he comes outa his room is if he wants to catch a bite or go to church....Will hafta find out more about this one...

So there you have it. Thats the whole bunch. I had actually planned to put up their pics too, but the girls are kinda photo shy....and the guys...well...I never bothered about it...
Maybe I'll put it up someday...

Went looking for a ghost yesterday...
Didn't find him (or her)....

I was at the Yanchep National Park yesterday, about 50kms north of Perth. It was sorta an easter sunday picnic, and free food ;). The park was a beautiful place, greenery all around, situated beside a lake, with the ocean not too far away. Anyho...my friends learned that there was a 'haunted house' closeby, and there was actually a path leading up to it. So we got a bit adventerous, and set out after lunch to look for it.

The trail was well marked out in the beginning, and we passed by many fellow trekker's on the way. Then there was a point where the trail split up into two. On the right was the track that circled around the lake and led back to the park. On the left was a narrow trail leading somewhere else. A quick check on the map, and we headed out on the left trail, where the 'haunted house' was supposedly standing. This path was more rocky than the original trail, and not all the level either. At times we kept going up all the way, and then it was downhill again...

We all figured that this track too would eventually circle the lake too....but later it became more obvious that it wasnt to be so. The only conversation that we had was how this 'ghost' died. Was it a he or a she? We concluded in the end that it had to be a 'she'. The thing was that all throughout the way we saw pink ribbons tied up or lying next to the trees. So we kinda thought that maybe a girl was being dragged along the way by her murderer, and her pink ribbon got stuck on the trees (i guess that's what comes from watching too many movies!). Another idea that sprung up was maybe she died of breast cancer, as pink ribbons were also the symbol for breast cancer... And yet thing that was puzzling us was there were two triangular signs pinned up to the trees every 100 meters or so. One was just plain yellow, and another one was blue, with what looked like pug marks or so. We couldn't decipher it. Am sure we'd come up with some weird explanation for that as well, but I dont recollect it now...

We must have been walking for over an hour or so, when we realized that we really weren't getting anywhere. The fact the we just saw two kangaroos hop by us (yeah!! saw alive kangaroos for the first time....), got us thinking that we must be quite deep in the woods. And the lake wasn't in sight anymore! All we could see around us was a huge field, with a lota wild plants growing everywhere. And the pink ribbons, and the triangular signs were still visible couple of meters ahead. Even our cell phones didn't catch any signal anymore!! Now most of us, including me were studying some sorta technical related subject at uni. And the fact that we had no technological tool wit us was kinda freaky...(yeah...we're nerds..i admit it). So what do we do? Keep going ahead? Follow the signs and the ribbons? Get to the 'haunted house'? Or start heading back before it started getting dark.

So on a unanimous decision by all five of us, we decided to head back. It took as another hour to get back, and all along the way we were debating on what we would have found at the 'haunted house'. Anyho...when we got back, we met this lady, who very kindly told us that the trail we had headed out on was 14kms long!!! 14KMS!!! Had ve known that, we would have never set out on that walk!! Damn....

But I promised myself that one day....one day, I'm gonna come back, complete that walk, and actually see the place for myself. And find out if the place actually exists, if the person who died was actually a female, and if she died breast cancer or if she was dragged by her murder though the forest. And when I do, I'll be sure to post it here....
Till then....ponder on....

This post has long been overdue...anyho...

Couple of years back I came across an ad in a local Indian newspaper. On the left was a picture of a newly constructed public toilet. Outside it, on the pavement were four men, standing against the wall, looking to get perfect trajectories on the wall (u kno wat i mean....). And the caption read "...a day in the life of india...". At that point I'd gone in my mind....'yea. It happens only in India'....

Forward about 4 years, and I'm standing inside Perth International Airport, and I gotta take a leak real bad. So I follow the signs, find the toilet, step in and get the shock of my life!! You know (im talkin to the guys here..) how you expect to find some ceramic bowls against the walls so that you can relieve yourself? Well there was none of that here. I was staring at a long flat stainless steel sheet stuck against the wall, with a grille under where water was continuously flowing. for those who can't picture it, take a look here....

Truthfully speakin, I didnt know what to do!! (I mean, I knew what to do...but didnt know how to make use of this 'steel sheet'!). Then comes along some guy, stands in front it, does his thing against the steel thingy, zips back up, looks at me n says...'G'Day Mate'...and b4 I could say anythin, he wuz outa there...
I'm not givin any more details here....

Its been a couple of months since I've been here, and I still can't say I'm used to the idea. My desi brothers back home can actually rejoice the fact that they're 'condemned' system is now modernized....
...Err....Score one for India is it?

The net is quite a big place, and if you hunt in the right places, quite a few interesting things pop up....so here are a couple of sites I think are worth a visit..

• 'Poison Bay: a novel thats very graphic'
  Its a really interesting piece, a novel, and is still a work in progress. Definitely worth a vist. The funny thing about this is that this is actually being written by a friend of mine, who goes by the online alias 'erebus'. I never realized it was written by him, I just stumbled upon it while blog surfing. Guess the net is a small place after all....
• 'PostSecret.com'
  Its been described as '...ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard...). It also happens to be the world's second most popular blog! Its interesting to see how other people think, and makes you realize that you're not the only one with something to hide...Its updated every sunday with fresh posts.
• 'Gullible Info'
  Its just what the title says...gullible info. I dont know if the contents are true facts or not, but it does seem credible. Simply put, its a site which puts up lists of facts a little hard to imagine...