My Way

After being lost in the jungle of concrete for more than 2 months, I have finally found my way out.

Two months ago, I couldn't find any clue; I have no options, but to try hard to find the way out of it; today, I have found my way out, I have not only 1, but more options than before. I hope that this option I have chosen will be the best for me and hopefully, it is the correct path to guide me to the brighter side of this jungle. Hopefully, this is a more challenging, more exciting one.

After all these days, I have come to a conclusion. In order to survive in this jungle, you need to try hard and work hard. Nobody can help and you are the one who can safe yourself. It is rather a cruel fact but this jungle has gone wild than ever before. The competition is getting stronger. If you are not willing to work hard, there are other people waiting for your position to take over you.

Am I ready to start my new journey? I have two weeks of preparation time and now I am mentally prepared.

The journey, the challenge will begin soon..

Making Decision

For a given item, you can view it from different sides, directions and angles and found that from these different directions you see this item, it has different apperance. For example, the most symbolic building in Sydney- Sydney Opera House. When you view it from far away, it is so beautiful. When you view at it just under its roof, you can see those little little squares that were used to build it up. When you view at it from different direction, its appearance is different.

Sydney Opera House- view from different distances, different direction.

In one society (or maybe I should say in this world), there is one bright and one dark side. On the brighter side, you see rapid development, wealth and happiness; while on the other side, there lies poor, and the victims from the rapid development. You won't be able to see the dark side of the society unless you look at it closely and you view it from different directions. So, don't judge things by looking at it from one direction only.

When it comes to decision making, you might find that each option has its positive and negative points. You might not be able to find something you are looking at on option A but it appeared on option B but option B does not have another factor you want but it presents on option A.

There is nothing 100% perfect in this world. When you were asked to make only one choice from many equally well options (none of them is 100% perfect), how will you make your decisions?

The Virginia Tech Massacre

It was really a tragedy. 33 lives lost in the massacre, including the gunman, in two shootings. The first shooting took place at 7:15am last Monday at West Ambler Johnston Hall where two residents were killed. Police officers were called in and a "suspect" was held. While questioning the "suspect", second shooting was reported. It was later determined that the police officers have caught the wrong person. University authorities have been blamed for its response to the first shooting, which they should have closed down the Universities buildings.

An independent panel has been appointed to investigate the incident.

Virginia's governor, Tim Kaine, said that the investigation was not dedicated to lay blame, but to prevent any such incidents to take place in the future. The six-member panel, leads by the former Virginia police chief Gerald Massengill, consists of security and education officials, as well as psychiatrist. The panel will focus on the mental treatment Cho's has been taken and examined if more could have been done to avert the massacre.

"What were the warning signs? Who was warned? What was done?" Mr. Kaine said these would be the questions to be investigated as reported by BBC News.

In fact, signs and warning have been given out. His English teachers raised concerns over his disturbing writing and behavior to the university authorities and police. However, these have been ignored.

The gunman, Cho, posted a package consisted of photographs and video footage of himself to NBC News in between the shooting. "You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today..." quoted him as saying from one of the video footage as reported by BBC News. His messages also expressed his hatred of wealthy.

Cho and his family moved to USA when he was 8. He was reported to be a "loner". In late 2005, he was declared mentally sick and was ordered to seek outpatient treatment.

Robin Kowalski, a psychologist at Clemson University in South Carolina, claimed that five common factors were identified in the shootings. "The first is an acute rejection episode - such as a break up with a girlfriend - which usually takes place shortly before the killer acts." BBC News online quoted her as saying (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6567143.stm, accessed 21st April 2007). Although it was not certain Cho had experienced actue rejection, in Cho's video, he hinted he believed that there was an on-going of rejection which could be another factor that triggered the shootings, Kowalski analysed as reported by BBC News.


I feel so sorry for the victims and their family. Should there be more love, this incident could have been avoided.

Irrigation Ban in Australia

Since 2006, drought was reported to be one of the biggest problem that Australia is facing. Australia is suffering the worst drought in the history and as a consequences the production of irrigated crops in the Murray-Darling river basin has been affected. On Thursday, the Australian Federal government warned that Irrigation in most places in the country will be banned from mid-May, unless a substantial rainfall in the coming weeks. (BBC News online, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6570589.stm, accessed 20th April 2007)

Drought has not only affected crops plantations in Australia, but also water drinking in major cities. In late January, the premier of the state of Queensland warned that the people of the state "will soon have to start drinking water containing recycled sewage" (BBC News Online, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6308715.stm). Water recycling has been carried out in Singapore and UK to solve the water shortage issue. Nevertheless, water recycling is costly.

Murray-Darling basin, located in the southeastern of Australia, is the country's major food basket. The river provides water supplies for most of the country's irrigated farm. However, due to the recent drought, the river is running on empty.

The Straits Times on 21st April 2007 reported that the irrigation ban in Australia is likely to lead to an increase in the food prices by five-fold within weeks after the water shut off. The water shut-down will affect the crops production in Australia, including fruit, almond, olive, cotton and dairy farmers and lead to a significant impact to its economic. The Prime Minister John Howard said that the drought might cause Australia to import food although that isn't what he wants to see. "We always like to see ourselves as being capable of meeting our own food needs and, in fact, providing the food needs of others..." the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him as saying.

Having say that, is the drought problem mainly caused by the climate change? Although scientists are linking drought problem with the climate change, there isn't any convincing proof. Quoted from Channel News Asia, Wendy Craik, the government's Murray-Darling Basin Commission chief commented that "we'll never prove it's climate change until after the event…".

"You can't say that definitively…" Professor Wayne Meyer from Adelaide University Natural Resources Science told AFP as reported by Channel News Asia.

Similar issue was raised in October last year when Sir Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist in the World Bank warned that global warming could affect global economy, unless drastic action was taken.

The drought in Australia could be possibly caused by climate change. The weather patterns have changed over the years in many places over the world. Professor Meyer said that the South Australia "rainfall patterns appear to have shifted". Australia might be "the first countries in the world to be hit by the hardship of global warming", he told AFP as quoted by Channel News Asia.

Australia exports a wide range of food products overseas. The Straits Times reported that Singapore imports a large amount of meal, seafood, fruits, vegetable, cereal and sauces from Australia. The same products can also be imported from China and South Africa. Nevertheless if human do not take immediate action to prevent further climate changes, drought or any other natural disaster caused by climate changes will become one of the common problems in more places, and as a consequences, the food products will be severely affected. At that time, starvation will be worsened as a consequences of the decreasing in crops products.

While surfing on Channel News Asia website few days ago, I saw a posters "Say No to plastic bag". Plastic bag plays a role in leading to the global warming, but it is not the sole factor. Human activities such as transportation, land reclamation, excessive cities development and many other activities have led to the production of green house gases. While spending millions of dollars in developing its cities, Governments should also pay attention to its countries' public transport system and encourage the use of public transport to decrease the production of carbon dioxide. Humans are always greedy (well, I couldn't deny I am greedy too), with the current space they have, they will never satisfy but try to bring some impact to its environment to seek for more comfortable life that they are already having...

Streamyx Services

Have you ever tried connecting to the internet, but it failed and took you a while to log in? It is very frustrated isn't it?

Well, I keep having this problem with Streamyx lately and I always try to calm down by playing my favorite game 1602 (well, quite an old game I believe) or having a nap. Today, somebody was waiting for me to send in some important documents and I have been trying for an hour to connect, then try on my cousin's account, but it failed. Systematically, (well, I should admit that this is my habit, good or not? I am not sure), I found the Yellow Page in the living room, and made a call to the customer service centre. I was not sure if the problem was from the internet provider or it was because of anything from the user. I better checked carefully with them and adressed this problem which I have faced for long.

I have been wanting to address this problem to find out the cause (to confirm what caused this? is it improper usage or the service breakdown), but never did it. As in the account was not registered under my name. On the other hand, I was not quite confident that this problem will be solved and it might make no different for me to wait than call. After having some previous experiences on calling numbers that was not reachable, I was worrying this might make me more frustrated. Nevertheless, I was going to give it a try.

I should say that the efficiency and the professional attitude of the staff impressed me alot!

After indentifying myself and addressing the issue, the problem was immediately identified and was solved on the spot (the problem was caused by improper log off from the user, that means was me.. erhem..), the whole problem was solved in less than 5 minutes! Thumbs up.

Well, after all, I should admit that the customer services here is not that bad. Oh, ya, I never mentioned that my call was answered once connected. =)

It is the time of the week

It is the time of the week. I know you must be there, doing what we used to be doing at this time of the week.

Yes, it is Friday night grocery shopping. That was something I used to do every Friday night with my friends and buddy. And sometimes, few groups of friends hanging around having dinner at China Town. It was the evening I was always expecting for during my undergraduate in Adelaide. You know how much I missed it!

To all my dear friends in Adelaide, I haven't had the chance to contact any of you for so long. At this time of the week, I know you all must be there, in the city, at the Central Market, doing grocery shopping. I really miss Adelaide so much, where our laughters and tears have been left in the air...

Trip Report- My Australia Trip (Dec 2006)

~~Note: This trip report was also posted on the forum SQTalk.com with some parts edited over the time here at My Wonderland.~~

Last December, I had had the chance to travel around Australia. This trip report has been dragged for too long and now I'm going to share my experiences here.

First stop- Melbourne (Virginblue, flight 538)
Finally, the day came. I flew from Adelaide to Melbourne to meet my family for a trip there. Booked on Virginblue flight 538 on a Happy Hour deal for AUD$59/=.



Flight DJ538 was scheduled for push-back at 07:10 from gate 13

I did an online-check-in as I always hate queuing. After security check, I was at the gate well ahead of boarding. Boarding started at 30 min before flight, very efficient boarding. The flight was ready by 07:00 for 07:10 pushed back from gate 13. The flight was airborne at 07:25 from runway 05.

I was seated on the seat 7F. The flight was not full and the seat beside me was empty. The cabin cleanliness was ok, but the lavatory was not quite clean. There were stains on the toilet bowl. No in-flight entertainment was available on DJ flights. As it's a budget airline, meals have to be paid. The selection was quite limited and the meal serving was quite slow. I had sandwiches and apple juice for my breakfast.

The flight landed at 08:35 local time at Melbourne at gate 7.


My breakfast onboard.


Melbourne Trip
The flight arrived at Terminal 3 at MEL, and I walked to Terminal 2 to meet my family there. They were arriving from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur on Singapore Airlines and Malyasia Airlines. Our airport transfer was ready and we started our tour.

We reached the city at around 10:00am and started our city tour. We were quite amazed by the public transport system here in MEL. According to the tour guide, Melbourne was the first city to use Tram in Australia. Everywhere in the city, you could see the tram lines. The free city circle provided free tour in the city. Onboard the City Circle, detailed information was provided at every stop to introduce what tourist attraction etc is located around the stop.

Victorian Market was another attraction we visited. Here, you could find a variety of vegetable/ fruits sold here. The prices were quite reasonable. Souvenirs could be found here as well.


The Melbourne City. The Flinders St Station. The Federation Square is located opposite it.


The Federation Square. (Picture taken by my cousin, Anling)


We stayed at Batman Hill Hotel, located just opposite the Melbourne Railway/ Coach Terminal. Free newspapers were available in the morning at the reception and free hotdrinks were provided in the room. The Crown Casino, Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre were in the walking distance. Federation Square was just few stop away by tram. Breakfast was provided every morning, however, the same dishes were served every morning.



Strawberry farm. My family members were enjoying picking the strawberry while I was busy taking photo around.



"Please check under your car before driving away". The sign at the carpark of the Penguin Centre at Philips Island.


The trip to Philips Island to watch the return of penguin from the ocean was the most exciting one for this trip. We reached Philips Island in the evening. We walked around the penguin centre and reached the beach just before sunset at 8:30pm (note that this was daylight savings time). Photo taking was strictly prohibited at the penguin centre. At approximately 8:45pm, the first group of penguins were sighted. And everybody became very excited. On our way back to the entrance, we could see the penguins just walked nearby!



Gold mine at Ballarat, Melbourne.


The Sovereign Hill at Ballarat was another attraction we visited. Gold was discovered here in the 1850s. Ballarat is the largest inland city in the State of Victoria. After the closure of Old Sydney Town in January 2003, Sovereign Hill is the only historical theme park in Australia. Stepping into this area, we found ourselves walking in the town of late 19th century. There was an indoor theatre here in the gold mine where we watched the story of a Chinese Gold miner who came to Ballarat at early 1900s.

We were quite amazed by the view at The Twelve Apostles. Located at the Great Ocean Road, they are limestone that formed naturally. Due to the erosion, four has collapsed.


Second stop- Adelaide (Virginblue, flight 549)
After spending 5 days in Melbourne, we left for Adelaide. I booked myself and 11 of my family members on the flight 549 from MEL to ADL on Happy Hour deal for AUD$59.



Waiting for take-off clearance. 3 flights ahead of us and another Qantas 747 on the other end of runway. We were on queue number 5 for take off.


As we were a big group, we couldn't use the kiosk or internet check-in. I apprached one of the Virginblue staffs who organized for the check-in for my group. Check-in was efficient and the wheel chair I requested for my guest was ready when I approached the check-in counter.

The flight was scheduled to depart from gate 7. Boarding started at 16:30 and was pushed back at 17:15 sharp. As one of my guests was having difficulty in walking, we were given priority boarding. I was seated on the seat 4C on this flight.

It was the busiest time at MEL airport. Ahead of us, four other flights were waiting for the take off clearance, and another three behind us. Finally, we were airborne at 17:30.

The flight landed at 18:05 local time on runway 05 at Adelaide, arrived at gate 16. I personally felt that the pilots' skills need to improve as the landing was very unpleasant and made most of my guests feeling dizzy.


Adelaide Trip
We went for a one-day trip at Adelaide Hills in Adelaide. Here, we visited Geoff Wildlife Park, where we had the chance to see and take photo with koala. The wildlife park was quite big with a wide variety of animals.



Melba Chocalate Factory. My second visit. (file picture, taken 3 April 2006)



The German Town- Hahndorf, Adelaide. It was raining when we reached Hahndorf. This was the second time I visited this place. (file picture, taken 3 April 2006)


Melba's Chocalate factory was another place we visited where we bought quite alot of chocalates. A variety of chocalate was made and sold here.

It was a pity that it was raining heavily when we reached the German Town at Hahndorf.

Third stop- Sydney (Qantas, flight 730)
After spending 3 days in Adelaide, we headed Sydney. This was our last stop for our Australia trip.

We were booked on Qantas 730. This was the earliest flight departing Adelaide Airport. We left our hostel at 0430 for the 0600 flight.

Sydney trip was not initally on our itinerary. However, as my family couldn't book on a flight depart from ADL, they made a transit here and took a chance to stop by for 2 days.


The cabin was quite empty.


We arrived at the airport at 05:00. Check-in was fast and efficient. After the security screening, we were waiting at the boarding gate. Boarding started at 05:35. I was seated at 25C but then moved to the empty seat at 24A. The flight was ready at 0550 and pushed back at 05:58 and airborne minutes later from runway 23. The flight was quite empty with only approximately 50% load.

Soon after take off, the breakfast was served. The meal was ok, but the portion was small. The in-flight entertainment was available but it was fitted as one for couple of rows. At approximately 07:35 (Sydney time), the captain voice appeared and informed us that we were making intial descending soon and we would arrive Sydney 20 min before scheduled time. The flight landed at 08:05 at Sydney Terminal 3. It was really a very pleasant flight.



Breakfast onboard QF730.


Sydney Trip
We stayed at PiPacific International Hotel in Sydney. It was quite near to China town.

I would say that the Sydney trip was not the most pleasant one. First of all, I think that some of the public facility such as the public toilet here in Sydney was not quite clean as compare to those in Melbourne and Adelaide. It was quite crowded here as well. And finally, I think that the trip was quite rush due to time limitation here and we were generally not statisfied with the irresponsible driver guide.


The Rock, Sydney.



Sydney Opera House. Photo taken onboard Captain Cook Cruise.



A closer look at the Sydney Opera House.


The first day, we visited The Rock, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower and went on the Captain Cook Cruise where we met a very unhappy incident.

The ticket to Sydney Tower included the OzTrek. Fitted with 180-degree cinema screen, OzTrek brought us on an amazing virtual adventure across Australian cultural, history and geography.

Onboard of Captain Cook Cruise, we were queuing for our lunch when this Korea tour leader led his group and jumped the queue. We were not quite happy with his action and my aunty warned him not to push her. However, instead of stopping to do so, he started to push us, making three of my guests fall down. The incident has been reported to the relavant authorities and I believed and hoped that the appropriate action was taken.

We visited Sydney Fish Market the next morning. Here, you could buy quite a wide range of fresh fish or fish products or order a fresh fish meal here.


Blue Mountain, Sydney


After visiting the Sydney Fish market, we headed Blue Mountain. Blue Mountain was located at approximately 80km West of Sydney. It was saying that this area was created from volcanic eruptions over 170 million years ago. The scenery here was quite nice and it was quite cold here. My heart beat increased when I looked down the extremely steep cliff. The "Three Sister" stone was another scenery here at Blue Mountain with 922, 918 and 906 metres tall respectively. It was saying that Three Sisters from Katoomba tribe had fallen in love with three brothers from Nepean tribe, however, they couldn't get married because of the tribal law. This has triggered a major tribal war as the three brothers used force to capture the three sisters. In order to protect the lives of the three sisters, a witchdoctor from Katoomba tribe turned the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm and he intended to reverse them when the battle was over. However, the witchdoctor was killed in the war. As the witchdoctor was the only person who could reverse the three sisters, they remain as the rocks here as a reminder for generations to come.


The Three Sisters


The Return (Jetstar, flight 610)
It was the end of my Australia trip. I booked on Jetstar JQ610 heading home. My family members have left Sydney airport earlier on Malaysia & Singapore Airlines to Kula Lumpur and Singapore.

I checked out from my room at 11:00. As my airport transfer won't arrive till 11:20, having some time to spare, I spent AUD$1.00/= on the internet kiosk located at the lobby at the hotel. At 11:15, I was called and my airport transfer was at the door. I reached the airport at 11:40am for 13:05 departure. Check-in was slow and took approximately 20 min.

As I had a invitation from Qantas, I visited Qantas lounge at SYD Terminal 2. The choice of food in the lounge was not much but the food was ok. Internet access was available here and I took the chance to check my email my bus-timetable here. Meeting room and shower were also available here.



Lunch bar at the Qantas lounge (SYD, Terminal 2)



Qantas lounge in SYD Terminal 2


Computers, printer and internet access were available here.


I headed the boarding gate after being called for boarding. Boarding has started when I reached the gate and the flight was ready well ahead of scheduled time for pushed back. This flight was quite full. Jetstar now allowed passengers to pre-select their seat while booking online and I have selected seat 10F.

In-flight entertainment was available on request and charged at a low price. As I was pretty tired after the journey, I did not try on its in-flight entertainment. As it's a budget airline, meals have to be paid. I was sleeping throughout the flight and didn't take any meal in-flight.



Arrived in Adelaide.




Gate 16 at ADL. The gate which I departed from and arrived at on most of my flight here in Adelaide since this new airport was opened in late 2005. (file picture, taken 8 Dec 2006).


The flight landed at 14:35 local time at Adelaide at gate 16. The luggage handling was fast and I get my bag within 5 min since I reached the belt.