wonderment

The weather’s been utterly crazy as usual. It was flaming hot these past 2 days, so hot that my friends couldn’t sleep even though one stays on the 17th floor and the other on the 13th. [Thanks to the way my room is built and my little white fan, I don't get much outside air, but also less heat.]

When Mike and I dragged our feet back from the Observation Tower to Melbourne Central on Thursday after the City Tour, we were so hot both of us wanted to peel off our jeans and jump into the nearest puddle … pool … swamp … whatever. And it was only 29 degrees!!

I absolutely refused to go out on Friday and stayed home to clean my room and do the laundry … Temperatures were a freaky 36 degrees! I only dared to step out as the sun was setting and a white chocolate ice-blend treat at Max Brenner’s cured the heatstroke from the day before.
Today, I was garang enough to leave the house in a skirt and a singlet without my handy hoodie. Some dark clouds threatened rain but I thought I’ve been here long enough to figure out that black clouds don’t actually mean rain. Or so I thought ….

It was hot, like really really hot. In fact, when WH wanted to meet me to see and maybe take the furniture at Drummond , I seriously didn’t feel like walking all the way back but compared to the inconvenience of putting up notices around school and waiting for people to buy my furniture, I’d rather hike up Swanston. [Why not take the tram? Well, transport in Melbourne is expensive unless you're going to a lot of places within 2 hours, or you just stay really far and have to take the tram. PLUS, international students are left out of concessionary rates unlike the local students ... unfairrr....] Drummond is still within walkable distance.

(Thankfully for all the huffing and puffing up the hill, WH did buy all my furniture, so now I’ve just got to get back my bond money and I officially say bye bye to Drummond.)

Nonetheless, Melbourne wouldn’t be Melbourne if we didn’t have 4 seasons in a day.

After Drummond, I was walking back to Queen Vic Market to meet up with Rupa and Co when the sunny skies were suddenly enveloped by ugly black clouds. A massive wind began howling and you know how stout I am. Well, the wind got so bad that I was actually straining forward to walk. I had to duck behind a pillar to pop on my sunglasses because the wind was blowing the sand into my eyes and stinging my face.

When the gang finally regrouped at Mackers, we ran off trying to get to Rupa’s place before the skies dumped water on us.

We didn’t make it too far before we had to seek shelter at an Internet cafe.

It was like any normal rainstorm until …

We saw HAIL.

In the SUMMER.

HAIL???!!!

Yar hail, bits of ice that hit the ground with a “pop-pop” sound rather than the “plop-plop” of raindrops. Awesome!!

We watched how the ice just kept hitting the ground and melted away … You never get to see this in Singapore.

When the hail stopped and the rain got a little lighter, we grabbed our stuff and ran….

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It rained for quite a while before totally stopping, bringing down the temperature to a wonderful 21 degrees. I got back from Rupa’s place a couple of hours ago when another round of heavy rain started again.

Stirfried mee goreng and some chicken for dinner - it’s nice to have a warm meal and be safe and dry at home.

Lovely end to a randomly perfect day.

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Have you realised how my blog entries are just about food or the weather?

Hope to have more interesting stuff to talk about once school starts.

A week before I came to Melbourne, I had JL, Pris & John over at my house and attempted to cook fried rice, kailan, teriyaki chicken and szechuan soup.

JL will always remember when he asked me where the garlic to fry the kailan was, and I said, “Need garlic ah?”

Or when I didn’t separate the stem from the leaves of the kailan and was going to dump everything in.

Or when the garlic started popping in the overheated oil and I was squealing like a pig.

I was pretty confident I could pull it off, but JL/Pris/John ended up doing the kailan and fried rice for me.

Soooo …. Ruth left for Melbourne wondering if she’d survive on maggi mee in the end …

BUT!
BUT!
BUT!

RUTH ACTUALLY KNOWS HOW TO COOK!

*cue violin* After suffering a huge blow when my dad left for home, I went to VicMart with a couple of friends and basically bought the kitchen sink and more home….

What I didn’t know … was that the fridge was spoilt and by yesterday, my leafy vegetables started getting frost bite ….

And I bought too many tomatoes, onions and potatoes …

And my shelf was filled to overflowing ….

So I decided to get a couple of friends who have been too lazy to cook anything else except Indo mee to help me finish my food and to see if I’m really that bad at cooking …

There are places in Melbourne where you can get cheap groceries and homeland stuff … I usually go to this place called Wing Cheong Food Stuffs, up a little alley along Little Bourke Street, to get all my sauces. VicMart is good for cheese, wines, meats, vege/fruits and butter but other than that you could get better rates at Chinatown or even Safeway/Coles.

One thing though, is that with a fridge that works overtime, it’s hard to buy things like spring onion because they sell in such big bunches and if I were to put them into the fridge 1) they’d get frost bitten 2) I don’t have any more space!!

So anyway, back to my dinner story!

I had Sihan pick up the guys and bring them over to my place which meant that left me more time to do all the preparation work which included cutting all the ingredients, washing the bak choy, boiling the potato, etc…

Once they arrived, everything was prepared and I could begin.

30 minutes later, dinner was served.

From L-R: Bakchoy, mashed potato, beef balls in noodle soup, egg omelette with onions, tomatoes and capsicum.

Probably the only mistakes I made were to 1) cook the omelette too early 2) underestimate the heat of the stove and burnt the first round of garlic while cooking the bakchoy.

Everyone liked dinner enough to finish their food. I’ve got some potato salad left over, but that’s fine. We managed to feed 7 people, including my Taiwanese housemate (taking the picture) whom I found out … is a Christian! Praise God!!

L-R: Michael, Jon, Adrian, Sihan, Pearline

After dinner, we adjourned for coffee where the conversation turned to the topic on laundry. For some strange reason, we had 3 guys and 2 girls comparing the price of each other’s laundry washing and how to wash it. If we’d been in Singapore, I don’t think tonight’s strange conversation would have taken place, or for that matter, we wouldn’t been together at all.

Prior to coming, I always thought it was stupid to hang out with the Singaporeans because you don’t go away from your country to congregate with your countrymen in that new place.

But, I think I’ll change my attitude from now on.

Ordinarily, back in Singapore, I’d find it hard to click with all these new people I’m meeting … like what do I have to do with an ex-bartender from Club MoMo who looks like a super ah beng?

What would I do with an ex-course mate whom I hardly talked to or let alone kept in touch with after we graduated?

What would I do with a secondary school friend who once was close, but our busy lives took us in 2 separate directions?

Nothing really … until God took us all here, dumped us together and made us learn new life lessons from each other.

School starts next Monday so that’ll be another bunch of friends.

More stories then.

I’m settling down quite nicely at Swinnerton. Though I still wonder how wonderful it would’ve been to have 604 Seasons Apartments as my new address, I really couldn’t ask for more at my new place.

Curious how my room looks like now?

Here’s my jolly blue “help me i can’t get up it’s so comfy” beanbag that I sit on while making calls home. It’s my Blue Corner for relaxation where I can read a book, call people, or just dream …

Now my Pink Corner which includes the bed with the brightest pink quilt cover you’ll ever see me have!!

Swinnerton provided us with the bed and desk and a little black bedside table you don’t see in the picture.

And finally … the feature I like the most in the room - the built in wardrobe. Contrary to popular belief, the 42 kg I tried to sneak through customs weren’t made up of clothes. More like books and real necessities … like my earrings. The roller on one of the sliding doors broke and I wasnt’ about to endure the screechy sound each time I had to slide open the door so that’s why you can see all the innards of my wardrobe. You’ll only get to see it once, don’t worry.

The exterior and corridor and all that are on the website.

Apparently, everyone staying here studies at RMIT and are pretty mature and so unlike the noisy mess of a residential college with LOUD first years hecking the rest who need to study, everyone at Swinnerton respects each other’s space. The corridors are usually quiet and bathrooms aren’t occupied for long periods of time.

I’ve been able to host little get togethers and know people from Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan, probably not possible if I had lived with just one other housemate.

So it’s been great! Orientation starts this week … and I’m looking forward to it!

I’m so sleepy now after such a hectic weekend that I’m just going to leave you with some photos of what we did ….

After my dad left on Friday, I bawled my eyes out at the airport and somehow coming back to my room and finding his reading glasses on the floor triggered off another round of tears. All of a sudden, the reality that I’d be away from the people I love for a whole year hit me like the cold Melbourne chill. I positively HAD to find something to do, otherwise I’d be in a silly depressed funk for goodness knows how long.

Thankfully, a friend allowed me to call him that night and cry on the phone … he made me laugh and see the brighter side of things so for that I’m grateful!

Then on Saturday, I met up with Sihan who brought her housemate Lionel(M’sian) and Rupah - an Indian girl she met at enrolment … who in turn brought her friend Dajes. I brought Simon, this Singaporean guy who’s doing his post grad studies.

We spent the WHOLE day out grocery shopping and then having Thai food at East Brunswick and then yet another round of gelare!

Today, I went to try out a church Joanne and Ann recommended to me and it ain’t too bad. Lots of Asians this time round and the service was very different from St Judes (whom Germaine kindly set up an introduction).

After church, I met up with Sihan, Lionel, Rupah, Dajes, Simon (who brought his hostel mate Wang Hua) to buy stuff for an improvised steamboat session.

None of us had a steam boat thing so we ended up at my place, around the stove, cooking, laughing, and basically having a good time.

I’ve just got home … well okay, not quite just, hanging out with Pearline who came by much later.

One lesson I’ve learnt about living alone overseas?

You need a heck lot of friends to support you, not only to help you move house when all you’ve got is your dad and yourself, but to have meals with, to go grocery shopping with, to go for International student activities with, to ask for lobangs for a roof over your head …

Good stuff … looking forward to school … and more friends!

God was really gracious to me … at least He kept me so occupied with new people that I had time to recover from all that missing …

But not that I’ve forgotten you guys totally … I still miss you very much!

I spent the most (apparently) romantic day of the year with my dad …. *awwww*

We had pizza, a good Porterhouse steak, and pumpkin soup at this little old Italian eatery called Toto’s. It’s at the beginning of Lygon, just next to RMIT and there were just families and non-Vday type couples there. He thought we should have gone to a classier restaurant, but when you’re on lygon, any Italian eatery is good. Besides, the rest of Lygon street was chock full with the loveiest, doviest couples you could find in little Italy. Nahh … I want to eat my meal in peace without the goose bumps.

We didn’t stay for dessert, instead, we walked down Lygon all the way to Fed Square, getting icecream along the way and eating it while people tried peddling roses and candies to us.

We walked back from Flinders to my new place and then back to Drummond. I couldn’t blog anything because I was so tired … Went to sleep promptly with the assurance I had a place to stay in, I’m properly enrolled in the right course, and my dad reached Melbourne safely ….

Happy belated V day to one and all! Thanks for the e-card and tulips … hahah well, photos work too!

………….

Earlier today, Pearline, Dad and I went to the night market at Queen Victoria Market … It’s got a fantastic night scene which you should really check out if you’re in Melbourne on a Wednesday night.

Enjoy the Video! I’m going to sleep now. I have to wake early for a learning skills workshop, some enrolment stuff and then I’m going to move! Good night!

Eunice was meeting me at 9am on Little Lonsdale. I managed to shower, check my mail, put on makeup and do QT before tumbling out of the house. Mr Oswald Chambers challenged us to think about what God is saying to us today. I prayed, “Lord please help me hear you.”

Some people say it’s easy to hear God in the quietness of the Australian Outback but I say, it’s not THAT easy.

Honestly, today started out awful. Like outright awful. I’ve really got to get used to taking things easy, but this whole housing thing was driving me up the wall. I nearly cried when none of the properties we looked at were decent at all, I called so many property agents and I couldn’t get anybody and those who called back were rude.

If things couldn’t get worse, I even travelled 30 minutes out of the city to get keys to visit a property in the city and which meant I had to travel back out to return the keys to get my $50 deposit back. I didn’t even bother taking the keys once I realised that flat was totally unfurnished - and for that rate ($170pw) too! Travel out to some quiet suburb twice in a day for nothing? No way!

By noon, hungry, pissed with the entire world, and tired … I get a call from D telling me that WM’s friend’s mother has locked herself in the house and can’t get out. I had no idea how someone can lock herself in the house but since they just got here, there was that possiblity. Too tired to get into a silly argument about who was nearer home to get them out, I trammed home. As I walked back to my house, I saw D’s friend and the auntie walking down the street! It was actually D’s friend who didn’t have the keys to lock the house when he left and the auntie let him out! I hopped around quite angry actually, but D’s friend is this super PR guy who offered to buy me drinks for coming back all the way to get him out. Haha, how to angry with such a guy?

I was quite miserable when I got back to town. Sihan had introed me to her accomodation owner and we were going to see his property at 1pm. No matter what, I was determined to get it.

And I did!

It’s a place behind Queen Vic Market called Swinnerton House. A student accomodation, very much like UniLodge but on a smaller, cosier, less claustrophobic scale. The rooms are actually big. Communal everything, rent’s $165pw, utilities included except the phone and internet. The bad thing is you only have one window facing the corridor and a rather dim white light but that all can be fixed with a little mindset change. (After all the crap I’ve seen, the corridor window and communal living is nothing compared to it.)

So I’m moving on Thursday!! YAY!!

I visited Sihan’s place which is similar, just at another location and got to talk to her other housies ( a guy from Msia and a gal from NZ) over dinner.

It’s going to be interesting meeting people from all over the world … I’m like the only Singaporean there … Yayness!

I went by another friend’s place yesterday to see the room she’s renting out. It’s a swanky new place with a tram stop right in front, a balcony with a view, fully furnished and security to boot. I loved everything about it (including the rent) and was ready to put down the bond and 1 month rent except I wouldn’t pay for it until I knew what was going to happen to my present place.

{{{What’s happening to my present place? I’m not sure really. D went away for the weekend and left his 3 friends to stay in his room. I hope my mother doesn’t read this post because she’ll kill me if she knows that I’m home alone with 3 strangers. Anyway, I know one of them because he’s been staying over all week and he’s friendlier than D. He gave me D’s mobile number to call and when I did, he gave didn’t give me any real answers. Like ??? I’m going to call D tonight to ask for Michael’s number because if he still wants to sell the house and I can move out before Feb 26, with the rent pro-rated, I’m going to do so. }}}

Anyway, I was so sure I was going to get that swanky new place. I prayed to God that He’d give me the house that would be the best for my needs but if He really so wished, to give me this room that I so want. Although it was not mine yet, I was already dreaming about what I’d do to the room.

Well, that was until … my friend SMSed me today and told me someone else already paid up for it and would move in tomorrow. Suddenly, the funky strains of the roadside buskers I’d been listening to got swallowed up by the buzzing silence you only hear in disappointment.

It’s a hard thing to swallow especially when you like something so much. This place is along Swanston St, just a 5 minute roll to Pearline’s and another hop and a skip to RMIT. There’s a room with a fantastic view, a housemate that I can trust and a clean new environment that’s rare for the price and location.

However, a grown up girl doesn’t cry over something that wasn’t meant to be hers. There’s that part of me that believes that if this particular house were to be mine, it’d be mine somehow. I wanted my dad to see it before lopping down more money that I already had done. Besides, I liked Drummond so much I paid for it when I was still in Singapore, but see what happened to it just before I got here?

Oh yes, what happened to the $100p.w house? Mmm… after some consideration, I still want some more options to my housing. Maybe I’ll stay there after all? Who knows?

——————-
So there … It’s my first weekend in Melbourne, so far so good, the food’s been great, I’ve only eaten Western food twice in my entire stay here and once I settle down in my permanent place, I’ll be able to start cooking!
I can’t wait for school to start. Remember I went down to RMIT to check out the lecturers? Apparently, nobody’s back yet from their annual holidays so I’ve got to go down again on Monday. However, I did meet one lecturer who advised me about taking electives within the school. I did consider about taking electives outside the school but she looked straight at me and said, “Why come to the school of Applied Communication if you don’t want to experience all there is here?”

True.

She wasn’t able to assist me in all my other questions about the Com/Bus/Politics major I wanted to take but at least on my electives, she’s pretty much set me on the right road.

HOoo kay, I’ve got to get on out of here. It’s 6pm now but the sun won’t set for another 2 hours.

A birthday shout out to :

Valerie (10 FEB)
Joy (Today)
Joyce (12 FEB)

Happy Birthday! May each and every single day bring you joy and peace. God bless.

I’ve been slow in blogging and I guess that’s what happens when you suddenly have a different twist in lifestyle.

I’m beginning to recognise certain landmarks so I now don’t need a map and neither do I need to go by the same route I’ve been taking. I’m aiming to find all the shortest ways to town (in populated areas, don’t you worry) so that I know how to go home even if I end up in a different place I’m not too familiar with.

The weather has also been utterly fickle - as predicted. What an irony, I know how predictably fickle the weather is. The day I got here was cool and nice but in the evening, temperatures plunged till I had to wrap my shawl around my body and face to keep the wind from freezing them off. My second day was hot hot hot. It was sooooo hot I was sweating while having dinner in one of Lygon’s al fresco steak places. Earlier today, Melbourne woke up to a cold, rainy, windy morning and it stayed 20 degrees cold ever since.

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Later this morning, I’ll be going to check out the Applied Communication department at RMIT. Enrolment’s on Tuesday but I haven’t had the slightest idea how articulating students like me are supposed to choose our majors. Well, I’ll find out how exactly later, but if I’m not wrong, I think I know what I want to take as a major already. For some very odd reason, I’m more inclined towards the Communication, Business and Politics major.

Hahah.

You have to realise, a bunch of my friends have a running joke that I can’t multiply. I once proudly declared … 17×3 = 21. I can’t do accounts to save my life and … I scraped by with a pass on all my business modules in Poly - marketing, public relations, advertising, org comm …

Yes, I’ve got to admit that I’m scared of the area of business. I wouldn’t even touch it with a 1o-foot pole, but after my stint in FEBA, it’s become so apparent that for Christian radio to take off in Singapore, we need to learn how to run a station properly. And for that matter, even if I don’t go back to Christian radio, a business background is going to be quite important anywhere. Of course it’ll be nice to take Cinema studies or Asian studies or Literature & Philosophy - anyone of them will make me look like this really cool artsyfartsy Comms student, but hey, I’m past all that. Right now, my dreams are a little more practical, I want to get past my fears of dealing with the real world of biz-nehsss.

So yes, I’ll also be finding some lecturers to talk to, to see if I really am suited for this major and another area I want to try in this course. A couple of friends raised eyebrows at the sudden change when I said I wanted to go into TV because I’ve been in radio all this while. We don’t have to take TV/Radio again in my course but we have this integrated production project that takes one semester to plan (graded) and one semester to execute (graded). I’m planning to do a TV project.

Well, I guess I can talk like this because I know what I lack and what I need to get to fill up the knowledge gap. I don’t think I would have been so sure if I went straight to study after getting my diploma.

If you’re a student who’s contemplating on further studies but want to make sure that you know exactly what you want to study - go work a year or 2. Try getting exposure jobs within the industry you want to pursue your lifelong goals in, even if it means starting from scratch as an assistant to some small-time manager. At least, it’s a start. In fact, I’d suggest getting a little less salary for a job that allows you to see things (read: small/new/non-profit companies). Come to think of it, my “bao kah liao” experience at the radio station was more valuable than anything I’ve done in school.

————–
The house is still in limbo but a friend who is also coming back to Singapore is asking me to take over her $100p.w lease. It’s one street away from my old place, but the good thing is that there’s a tram stop right in front of the house. It’s this estate-y like place with a lot of Melb Uni students staying there.

I’m presently at Drummond. It’s a nice quaint little place and I quite like it. In fact, if we can come to some kind of agreement with the landlord, I might consider staying on.

Well, we’ll see how it goes later today.

Today is the day.

My first post in Melbourne!

I never knew so many things could happen in one day. It’s nuts I tell you.

While we were still in Singapore
- yes, yes, everyone warned me not to overpack. Don’t bring the kitchen sink. But noooo I didn’t listen. My luggage weighed in at 42kg. I still thought I could get away with having 42kg. I’ve actually heard stories of friends with 50kg worth of luggage managing to get away with it. At the most, I flash a great, charming smile at the counter person, lor.

There were tons of people lining up. Time was running out fast. Finally, it came to our turn at the counter. We prayed and hoped the girl would close one eye to the excess. We weighed in. 15kg over the limit. The counter girl absolutely refused to let us go without paying the fine.

Guess how much?

$sixfreakinghundredareyouseriousdollars.

She told us point blank, “You either repack and queue again or pay the $600″.

So in the middle of Changi Airport, in fullview of all my friends and my father’s friends and people looking on, I repacked.

Maniacally. Frantically. Frustratingly.

My sister helped us re-queue meanwhile …

And by the time my sis was about there, we flew to the counter and weighed in.

We lost 15kg. My final count? 27.5 kg.

Hee hee.

I think I pack better under pressure.

—————

In the plane

—————-

Our first day in Melbourne whizzed by.

Walked into the city from Drummond St and it’s a 30 minute walk from my place to school. I’ve gone to see Daph’s place which is bigger, cheaper and more accessible than Drummond St and is highly likely I’d move there once the landlord comes back with a decision. Have to wait till Dad comes next week.

Other activities today: bought some necessities, food, set up my Aus mobile line, met up with my poly mates for dinner and spent some time playing Uno at Jess’ place. Got home about 12 after Daph sent me home from her place.

An eventful day! So much walking!

Time for bed. It’s nearly 2am. Good night!

It’s time to go.

I weigh in at 42kg *crosses fingers*

See you in a bit.