brisbane flood

I don’t know about you guys, but coming from safe and sunny Singapore, I never thought I would be embroiled in a natural disaster issue. I always thought I would be safe and have a carefree life (at least when it comes to the weather and environment; minus global warming that is). But alas, here I am, moved to Brisbane, and currently in the midst of a flood disaster. Thus far, 10 people have died (mostly children and women), and about 78 (including whole families) were unaccounted for. There was even what they called an "inland tsunami” (a.k.a. flash flood), which swept through a town (Toowomba), devastating everything in its path. I saw pictures of sofas and carpets floating in the waters out in the open.

I truly hope that this flood thing would pass real soon. And I certainly pray that my house will be spared. At the moment, it doesn’t look too promising though. (See pictures below.) The only consolation is that I live on the second floor. But still. I heard that flood waters will reach a maximum of 5m to 8m high. Dammit! My room is such a goner!

At the moment, I am safe and sound. That is what counts. I am stuck in my friend’s apartment (5 levels up) till the flood waters recede.

Never in my life did I think that I would have left my professional portfolio behind. It had always been my number one priority; or at least my top 3, after my passport and laptop (plus portable hard drives). How stupid of me? All my valuable testimonials from various people and organizations would be gone! The exact same thought that came up in my head when my house was broken into and my laptop and portable hard drive was stolen a while ago: “If only I had stayed on in safe and sunny Singapore”. I think chances of these things happening to me in Singapore would be close to 0%. Oh well… What’s more important is to learn through experience, and experience the experience. Make sense? Haha… Nevermind.

Alright, flood damage pictures as of 11th January 2011.

What a great start to a great year.
FML…

Pictures pictures pictures... Please bear with me, as I took these pictures in a panic, and of course, with my mobile phone.

My House & Street...

My stairway out of the house...

Look at my housemate's cars... Gone! On the right, there is a road sign, just indicates how high the flood water had grown.

My Street... If I hadn't told you this was a street, would you have thought this was a river instead?

Our Hero... Bruneian, Andrian, with his personal motorboat helping us out and evacuating us from the house. He was ferrying us back and forth, to salvage some of our important stuff. He even gave me his number, just in case I needed more help retrieving stuff. Mind you guys, prior to this, we were total strangers. How nice eh???

P/S: The constant war time siren gives me the jitters. And the constant sound of the helicopter flying around makes me think that I am in a war zone or something. Dare I say it's almost like some of the zombie movies i have watched.

P / P / S: Thanks for all the concerned calls and smses. I am safe and fine, for now at least. Haven't had the need to sit on my roof yet. Huge gratitude to those who offered me (and any other strangers) a place to live in. Especially if you are a complete stranger prior to this. That is an extremely selfless gesture. My sincere thanks to these people.

Peggy & Sonny's much awaited "Celebration 321"

The above video was made for my TP best friend's (Peggy) much delayed "Celebration 321" cum wedding dinner event. Too bad I couldn't attend as I was stuck here in Australia.

OMG! Seriously, this short clip took me 2 days, and I reckon more than 100 takes, to make. Gosh! It was harder than I thought. First, I had to tone down on the outgoing-ness of the video. It had to be PG and parents-friendly. Then, I had to think of what to say, and make sure that whatever I said was appropriate for the occasion. (You know how the Chinese hate taboo words and stuff during weddings and other joyous occasions.) And then, I had to make sure that it was at least interesting enough, just so no one would fall asleep while watching the video. (Ummm... I think I failed on the "be interesting" part.) And the worst thing is, I needed to keep what I had to say really short and sweet. People who know me would know how long winded I am, making it a challenge for me. (I bet I can rival full time grandmothers out there.) And then, last but not the least, I needed to make sure that I pronounced certain things correctly. Tongue twisting words are definitely banned man! While filming myself, I kept pronouncing "Peggy" as "Pecky", and "regrettably" as "regratatatatatably" for no good reasons. These were just some of the many funny mistakes I made. I was contemplating doing a "NG" (No Good) video collage of all my mistakes, but decided not to since I didn't have much time. Ok, ok, and also because it was too embarrassing can?! -Faint-

I guess I am probably just very bad at this lah. Haha...

Anyway, this was done for my best friend's big day. And I seriously wish Peggy and Sonny all the best!!! I can't wait to see everyone during CNY next year.

P / S: I cannot fathom why the cover picture of the video is so hideous???!!! I thought maybe because the first image of my speech was horrible, and, thus, serve me right. But when I started viewing the video, I don't see it at all. Grrr... And yes, fucking F.A.T.. Dammit!

message funny

A friend sort of sent me a SMS accidentally without knowing, at 6.48am, on a friggin’ Saturday. I was still enjoying my sleep-in then. Bloody hell!!!

The SMS:
Friend: Shit… Miss bus!
Me: Go Die!!! ASSHOLE…

P / S: The SMS he accidentally sent was a forward from one of my old SMSes to him a LONGGG time ago. I replied and went back to sleep almost immediately.

On MSN, hours later:
Me: Idiot, why you send me a SMS so early on a friggin’ weekend??? Disturb my sleep.
Friend: Got meh???
Me: Yea lah. Asshole!
Friend: Really??? Don’t lie! I didn’t realize.
Me: You could have accidentally sent it. Anyway go check your sent messages folder lah, idiot.
Friend: Must be a ghost that sent u that message. Hahaha…
Me: I wonder which thought is more disturbing; a ghost sending me a SMS, OR, a ghost sitting in your room, spying on you, using your mobile phone, and sending me a message through your mobile phone. Hmmm…
Friend: Fuck you!!!~

Haha… Nice get back??? The reason why he joked about ghosts was because of my bad encounter in my previous house. But I definitely got him back good. Lol…

table tennis after work

The Table Tennis session after work was great!

It has been a LONGGG time since I last laid hands on a Table Tennis bat. Brings back fond memories of the good old army (FDS) days. Haha…

concert dilemma

I'm gonna watch Adam Lambert in concert coming October. So excited!!!

Should I go for Rhianna and Angus & Julia Stone concerts too???

Broke broke broke...

weekend hermit

I have been holing myself up in my room the whole of today because I was so exhausted from work. (Ok, actually I have been doing that for the past couple of weekends.) Goodness gracious! I think it must have been all that walking. I believe I have never walked that much in my life. But, oh well, I will just take it as my daily exercise regime.

On my recent weekends, I have been catching up on Rui En’s Channel 8 dramas via the internet the whole day. Thank God for the internet, else I would have missed out on all her exciting new shows this year. I must say this year is a good one for her, as all 3 of her dramas portrayed a different side of her. This probably just showed how versatile an actress she actually is. I was amazed at how great she was in all her roles, from the naive and happy-go-lucky Yang Xiao Dong (Happy Family; 过好年), to the awfully tragic and depressed Ye Si Qi (With You; 我在你左右), and then moving on to the gung ho and emotionally deep Hu Xiao Man (Unriddle; 最火搭档). I am sure that with these great dramas under her belt, she would definitely be nominated (and might even win) for a Best Actress Award at the next Star Awards Ceremony. -Fingers and toes crossed-

P / S: I am not going to reveal where I am catching up on these dramas, lest MediaCorp (or whoever) puts a stop to it. So not gonna burn my own nest. It is bad enough that Overseas Singaporeans can no longer access xinmsn.com.sg to catch up on local dramas. Thus, I would definitely be utterly devastated if my last resource is pulled off the internet. Anyways, boo to the lack of international access on the website. To think I almost signed up for the now defunct MobTV before I came back to Australia.

P / P / S: I just started on the drama, Unriddle (最火搭档). I shall start becoming a hermit until I finish the whole series. Wahaha…

eta skof chips

My bag of Eta Skof... Yums Cheese & Onion Munchos.

Found this new product, Eta Skof, really interesting.

Just a brief introduction, this is a puffed corn cereal snack, probably made from an extrusion process. The snack comes in various flavours, such as spicy tomato, and cheese and onion; etc. And no, it is not an Australian product. It’s from New Zealand.

Anyway, what’s so interesting about it? Well, turn to the back and read the expiry date.

It says: “Best Before – You starve to death.” And then proceeds to show the actual expiry date.

Evidence... See what I meant??? Cute eh?!

So tongue in cheek! Every different flavour has got their own “best before” message. How nice. I can’t remember the rest, as I only identified with this one I am showing on my blog. It was the most fun out of the lot. Haha…

I like its playful view on an important food label regulation. It just amazes me how much we tend to forget to enjoy ourselves in our lives. Sometimes we really need to loosen up and just breathe and live for the moment.

And yes, the product is quite tasty as well. Not overly salty, yet just enough to tantalize your taste buds. Nice! A tad expensive though; at AUD$2.40 per (100g net) bag. I mean, it is cheap in terms of Australian standards, but not that cheap in terms of it being a new product. I can just imagine how much it would cost in a year’s time. I dare not even think about it! I mean, it is a well known fact that product pricing in Australia consistently increases every 6 months to 1 year.

Oh well, I shall just enjoy my Eta Skof cereal snack for now, and worry about everything else in the future. -Cross fingers-