Chapter two - 2.5; End of week 2, third weekend

It's end of week 2 and my 3rd weekend here arrives! There's nothing fantastic about the weekends here, but I pretty love the fact that no one goes to work and walking to the nearest supermart for some groceries early in the morning is a perfect start for the day. Getting in love with the tranquility, often enough, isn't unusual. (:

And so today went to charmaine's house to have lunch. Together with her mom, they came to pick me up in my school and we headed off. It isn't very far though, reckon about 15min of drive with smooth traffic? And yes, gotta thank them for the invite! Thank you! (well, I did thank them already, not that I am saying it here; how insincere!) Feels like ages since I tasted home-cooked food, and I mean, it was really homely! Makes me miss my ah ma's cooking so badly. What to do? Backside itchy, say want come Perth to study vet, and I really just came over in a blink of an eye.

Oh yes, so today's Coldplay's concert day 2. Initially thought that I'd really go and tickets are still available at $140 free standing, but on second thoughts.. :) There isn't much life here in weekends, and so I'm still doing my research on the freaking haem unit of the haemoglobin molecule for the afternoon, and perhaps catch a game of Liverpool vs Middlesbrough later at the tv room..hehehe.


It wasn't that friendly when I checked my google desktop sidebar on the weather for the night. That cloud with lightning freaks me out. When it rains here... it's so different from singapore. hmm..thunderstorm?! gg..

Time for dinner.. and back to cooking...

(I miss everyone...)

Chapter two - 2.4; Re-inventing Pasta

Joyous Lamb Rib Pasta

- ck's recommendation; 4.2/5

Chapter two - 2.3

In case you've been wondering, this is my room. goodness.. I haven't even send them to my parents yet.

Here..I bought the fan at $9.99. hahaa..

My bed. (with my trusty printer)

In case you've been wondering what's the purple thing I hung on the wall..here it is.

Green towel! yikes. :p

and a small cabinet for clothes and stuff. (ok I kept most clothes in the drawer, not that I only have those)

View outside my window. This is how my flat look like from outside.

Chapter two - 2.2

Oh yes, I bought myself a personal dissecting kit.!





But seriously, it has everything you need to complete a suicide.

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Anyway, kudos to myself! Class ended at 4.30.. went library and bookstore and reach dorm at about 5.30. Was famished. I realised I had the inspiration to whip up something. So I thought of spaghetti with pasta sauce (with random spices added by myself) cooked with pork sausages.

After cooking the spaghetti...still hot.

Spaghetti in my special oriental bowl.

Cooking pork sausages with CK-invented pasta sauce.



Pork-Flavoured Spaghetti. (: - with lots of love



Love is not everything. Must try. *ummp

Will be cooking everyday from now, must improve!!

Chapter two - 2.1

And here he is, a day after 14 February Valentine's Day. His brother wished him "A very happy valentine's day through msn the previous night", and chatted with him for a while. No he isn't kidding about chatting online with his brother, but he did (through dad's account of course). Sent a nice photo of himself saluting, over to Perth through the net.

Having bought a nice Canon Pixma printer for himself @ $64 (with black and colour cartridges included). He was super satisfied! (after endless searching and bugging of shop retailers, asking for specifications and what nots)

Here is it (:





Introducing the Canon Pixma MP240 !


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Later in the day.. before going out to the supermart. Something caught his eye straight away. It was this red..super-reflective can on top the kitchen table.





It sure looked funny enough! His roomie probably put the coke into the freezer in search for a quick cold can, but alas! Roomie probably receive a bad shock when sees that. New design? Pretty cool isn't it.

Chapter two - Marathon Runner

Orientation week isn't always the most fascinating part of a undergraduate's life. At least not for him. True enough, no lectures, no assignments, no labs. The orientation here is so different back at home where he's heard lot's of stories on fright night, crazy games, and outings. No they weren't split into different groups, they're just given a timetable and it's up to them to follow. No they don't have games like that, it's pretty much of following a senior school administrative officer around (together with students from their own faculty), and they introduce different places like the library, the international student centre, the different buildings (eg. Economics and Humanities building, the Veterinary Building (VB).. etc). He only found this out when he's done on administration on thursday, and on friday where he got to know more. He actually practically missed out everything. Orientation doesn't start on the 9th feb. It starts on the 2nd Feb. He doesn't really care because he can only arrive on the 12th.

Two days was all he got to open a bank account, get all the necessary telegraphic transfers details and send them to dad. Get his student card done (24 hours to be ready), get his australian number activated so he doesn't have to waste money on auto-roaming charges. Get his units/modules enrolled (school uploaded the wrong version to his account previously that's why he couldn't get it done back at home), sign up for lectures, tutorials, lab sessions and attend a few introductory lectures in campus. Next he needs to get his smartcard (bus/train concession) done up, then to the bookstore where he tabulates his booklist and buys the textbooks. Two days was again all he got to list out all the reference books he needs and get his dad to send them over (it's expensive to send books over, so he's going to do it once and for all)

On Friday, he went down town with a few students from singapore to get a pillow and hopefully a fan. After getting all that he got to the supermart (a 20min drive's distance away from campus) to get some food items so he can survive the rest of the semester. He doesn't really know what to get, and so he got a bunch of bananas, coffee powder, a bag of sugar, two cans of campbell soup, white bread and peanut butter. Oh yes, and he got his textbooks on friday. Went back dorm and signed up for a internet plan with the student village, went online for a while before reading up on the texts. Studied till about past midnight in his quiet dorm room and fell asleep straight after.




On Saturday morning he met up with this girl who's studying biomedical science yr 3 (exempted from first 2 years) from singapore as well, since she's staying close enough to where his flat is. Met up with the rest of the guys and head to Cottesloe Beach for a BBQ. On the way he just knew more and more friends esp from malaysia and students from other universities. BBQ wasn't exactly great, they just had a sausage bread, that's all enough for everyone to chill by the beach. Before that they were warned of the recent incidents of shark attacks, but everyone just dived into the waters! Lovely beach, soft sand, great sun. Clean beach as well.




After getting back to campus he headed to town again with sebastian (he was the one who sat beside him on the plane to perth, doing 2nd year of econs) to get a printer. He reckon he'd need it urgently for lecture notes and assignments. Library's gonna cost everyone 11 cents per page! Went Belmont Forum's Dick Smith..and then another Dick Smith down the road, before finally getting his Canon Pixma colour printer at $64 (black + colour cartridges included)! He hopes this canon printer of his serves him good for another 6 years though.

Reached dorm at 6 and begin wondering what he should have for dinner.. He doesn't have much to cook..only the cream of mushroom soup looks appealing enough. Took a nap till 7. So now he realised he needs to add milk and water to the can of mushroom soup after (still) having difficulties to finish the whole bowl of it. Drank it with a few pieces of bread, that forms his dinner. He doesn't like it this way. Back at home where dinner's so easily available everywhere (if home's not cooking), till late at night and what nots. Here everyone goes home at 4.30 or 5 in the evening, and he can't possibly get to town after 7pm for the fact that the buses come once every hour and it takes some time to get down, and buses don't run till so late! Probably the last bus comes at 6 or 7pm?

The feeling of screwed is when you've got absolute nothing to cook in dorm, you look at your watch and it says 6pm. There it goes. Lucky for him to have a long long loaf of bread which he can munch on while reading his notes. Life has really changed. Never has he felt so lost, and didn't know what to do before. Room-mates are always out till late and it gets kind of spooky at night alone in an apartment setting. His group of mates went town to club, but he doesn't club. Another mate of his went out with her mom..

And so today's already 14 Feb. Happy valentine's day to you. Twenty-0-nine and he's still a long serving member of the SAA club. Single and available? Just wondering...

With this he sets his target for semester 1:

1. BioStatistics and Statisical Data Analysis - HD
2. Introduction to animal body - HD (will work hard, this is real tough)
3. Chemical Principles - HD
4. Evolution and Revolution - HD


HD - High Distinction (>80%)
D - Distinction (70% - 80%)
C - Credit (60% - 70%)
P - Pass

Bearing in mind how much effort dad put in to bring him through his veterinary undergrad, he swore never to let him down. He reckon he still has a 4 yr old brother growing up and it is going to add on to the financial burden..

Chapter 3 shall go more into details when semester starts and managing the hectic timetable. He should have already been warned, vet study is a marathon.. picking up pace at the start of the marathon is never a downhill task. Next chapter shall say more when he dissects a piglet the week after, followed by a chicken, and a toad, and god knows what else the farm has.

failure is never an option - ck loh

Chapter one.

Murdoch Campus.

So, this is the start. The start of chapter one. This chapter started off by how a twenty-year-old took 3 weeks to gather all the things he needs to pack, and only started trying to arrange things into the luggage 3 days before departure. Tried miserably to organize his room so that it looks more appealing and neat. For a moment he feels satisfied that he's gotten and bought all that he needs, the next he sweared at why he hadn't gotten a soap bar (extra powerpoints) cause he reckon that there'd only be one powerpoint in each room in hostel.

It's true. People say he can never finish packing cause he will always feel that he forgets to bring something along. He thought he could pack his luggage like how he does it with the army duffel bag. He used to do the packing within the night. 25 kilograms. It'd be just a fraction of a survival-kit-for-international-students. Who would have thought he left his running shoes outside the house after finally squeezing all the items into the luggage. And with running shoes in, he remembers he needs to pack in a pair of slippers too. He takes occasional breaks, and plays fifa online 2.

Tomorrow he leaves for Perth, leaving a worried dad behind. And possibly an anxious ah ma. He will visit ah ma tonight and then his sis. It would be a seemingly normal thursday for most of us but the world has entirely changed for him. Giving it a second thought, it is indeed daunting enough. He doesn't know what the future holds for him but if he doesn't take the first step he probably will never know. A chapter too tiny to hold the thousands of self-reflections and thoughts. Even the most bombastic words seemed too plain to elaborate how he saw loved ones around him felt.

Chapter two shall go straight into orientation week, starting semester one and moving into autumn followed by winter. Before that, 11th Feb is finally making it's final march.

smiles for the marathon

Wednesday and it's a week more. I've got things all over my room and I am still finding (yes, still finding) a corner to start packing. I'm still buying certain necessities. On the other hand I have to clear up my ah ma's house's room once and for all. Fast. Was packing all my clothes into bags last sunday when ah ma came in my room and told me something.

She said "aiya, no need pack everything la, next time you come back when you stay here you also need clothes."

sigh. I told her I'd bring clothes from home (and toothbrush), like a form of travel pack if I'd be staying with her a few days. What a pain in the ass to pack. That faithful sunday took me hours to finally tell myself to get down and start folding my clothes into bags. I didn't feel like, so I lied down, took a nap and still didn't want to wake up. and I finally started at about 9.30pm. Left cck at about 11pm after ah ma helped bring my clothes downstairs. She told me many things which I will not forget and I know she will be missed badly.

Did my ORD clearance form yesterday and medical. Made a new pair of specs with kong. (my current pair is scratched bad enough after months and months of outfield, including braving sand storms in NZ) Optician said my degree of both my eyes remained at where it is, and in fact that of my left eye dropped! oh well. by 25. Doesn't quite make a difference, isn't it?

Later in the day wl, wm and gab came to my house. They wanted to check out Kopi. and had a fun time with my brother. oh and things really looked different when you've a 4 and half yrs old kid at home. The room is noisier, full of unexpects and fun at times. It gets to a whole new level when you release a 3-month old puppy running around where you instantly and constantly fears for something that will fall and break, or snapped or broken. I looked at kopi and had a strange feeling running inside me. Mom and Dad gonna move house again in two years' time, I have a funny thought that tells me kopi will not be fine, at all. I knew this all along the day I brough him home. 2 years down and I might see him somewhere else. Maybe in a factory where he will meet new friends, or an adoption home (unlikely). I shudder to think further. But I've no say, will just move on and take a step at a time.

I shall look forward to having a rewarding time and experience in the school of veterinary. Finally I am fulfilling my childhood dreams. (: