Floriade

I’ve put up a photo album with pictures of our recent trip to Canberra. My bro was in town for some training and wanted to catch up with one of his mates in Canberra, and it just so happened that we wanted to go to the Floraide. So while Eddie was off doing whatever it was he ended up doing, we spent the day at the show and took a whole bunch of cool photos.

During the drive up and back, we were playing this game where we took the letters of the alphabet and tried to name as many famous people as possible, whose (first) names started with that letter. For example, for “A” you could say Angelina Jolie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Angie Hart, etc. The last person to be able to name a name was declared the winner of the round. Naturally, I was kicking ass. So anyway we were going on for a while, and then we got to “J”, and we went through the usual (Jennifer Lopez, Jacques Cousteau, etc.) and then Jenny let rip most emphatically with “Jack Migger!” Hehe… yeah, she suffers a mild case of spoonerisms.

Back to Floriade then. The weather was fantastic, and they had free entertainment. One of the performances was this weirdo troupe who balanced on wobbly sticks and swayed to and fro to old style music while doing pantomime-type stuff. It was pretty cool to watch, ‘coz they were interacting with the audience quite a lot too, plus the music was cool.

Enjoy the photos.

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Yesterday, my very good friend Benjamin Lee was married to Joanne Low. The ceremony was very nice, and despite threats of showers, the sun shone magnificently throughout the day, with only a brief spate of rain at the reception, during which we were all safely inside the marquee.

Speaking of which, this rather ugly photo of me was taken mid-conversation – I have no idea what I was talking about. Whatever it was, I (right) seem to be rather blase about it, and Tom and Jenni (left) looked a bit concerned. So anyway, feel free to come up with captions and post them in the comments. No prizes, unfortunately, except a rare opportunity to ridicule me in public without fear of retribution.

Hmm.. and no lyrics this time, but I’m pretty sure you know the song I had in mind when I wrote this post (hint: the title might have something to do with it…)

Hooray, I’m musical again!

Today I bought myself a Roland EP-97 Digital Piano, thus ending a very long musical drought. When I was living in Adelaide, there used to be a piano in the house, but after I moved to Sydney, I no longer had access to any musical instruments (not counting my two recorders). There was a brief period towards the end of last year where I was playing on a crusty old upright piano belonging to one of my housemates, but he sold it before I had half a chance to practice a tune. I’ve also borrowed violins for various gigs in church, but had to return them soon after the performance. Its not like I’ve ever owned a violin before anyway, so no great loss there.

Its hard to say why I missed having a piano. I guess I’ll find out soon. Now, to figure out where to put the darned thing…

Go shorty, it’s ya birfday

Yep, today was my birthday. As you probably didn’t notice, its been a while since I last wrote. Between work, and two weeks holiday in Adelaide, and procrastination in general, I just haven’t found the time nor inspiration. In fact, after I finished reading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, I was in a state of catatonia for about a week, having been so completely and utterly blown away by this literary colossus amongst tiny inconsequential book things. It was so great that it has taken away from me any sense at all that I will ever be able to write a great book. In comparison, I feel like my writings are like the vapid dribblings of a nobody. You must read this book (the individual volumes are called Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. I can only hope to achieve near-greatness through emulating him, and one day I might even try…

My obsessions with lyrics continues… the title of this post comes courtesy to you of the poet 50 cent (I used to think the lyrics were “go shorty, it shivers eh? Gonna party like it shivers” – it probably makes more sense if you’ve heard the song…)

Lastly, thanks to all who contributed to my birthday today – through SMS, phone calls and my birthday dinner. All the kind wishes, gifts and good intentions were very much appreciated. If you haven’t gotten me anything yet, its not too late! Cheques should be made out to… hehehe…

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For those of you who are wondering what the heck is up with that stupid Solo poem below, that was just me being very silly and wanting to see what it would look like to post pictures on this page. Pictures are supposed to speak a thousand words, but that one must have been feeling a bit off, ‘coz it could only inspire me to muster together 33 (and one of them isn’t even a whole word).

My life turned upside down!

I’ve finally started making progress on my new years resolution to make my life better. I alluded to this a few posts ago by describing how I was making a change to my sleep patterns. So that the whole world can hold me accountable, here is the crux of my plan. Of course, things that are categorised tend to be easier to understand, so I’ve chosen to stick them under the mantra of “Healthy, wealthy and wise”.

Healthy

Early to bed, early to rise…
This is pretty much the core of my plan. As most of you know, my job involves shift work, that is, start at around 11-12 in the morning, and finishing (supposedly) at 7-8pm. Previously, I would treat it like a regular 9-5 job and get up about an hour before work, and spend more time after work for recreation, not sleeping until 1-2am in the morning. Now, I’m getting up at 8am each morning, because I find that (a) I’m usually more fresh and productive after waking up, and I might as well give my best hours to myself, rather than slaving over a job; and (b) because everything (shops, etc.) are open in the morning, so its much better for shopping, instead of having to stalk the aisles of the late night Coles or Woolies. I’ve also committed to sleeping a little less, meaning that I get more time each day. I don’t think I’ll miss it!

Swim, swim, swim…
I’ve taken up swimming for exercise. I can’t stand going to the gym, and racquet sports (tennis, badminton) that I used to play have become a bit too strenuous for my unfit, unco-ordinated body. I’m starting myself off with once a week, and gradually building up to twice a week or more. At the moment, I’m able to do 1km (20 laps of the Olympic pool) without too much effort. I swim in the mornings before work (before 9am you get an earlybird discount at the Sydney Aquatic Centre) so I don’t want to push myself too hard.

sdrawkcab slaem ym gnitaE
That’s “Eating my meals backwards” (boy, “Eating” backwards looks dangerously like “genitals” Or maybe I just have a filthy mind. hahahaaha). Yep, I’m starting the day with a good, wholesome dinner, and have lunch in the late afternoon and finish the day with a nice breakfast. Why? Well because when you get up in the morning, you need the most energy. A typical Asian meal (like what I pretend I’m making) usually consists of a lot of rice, which is a slow-burning carbohydrate. So eating my big helping of this in the morning helps me to have energy for the day, with lunch and breakfast only being top up meals consisting of nothing more than maybe a sandwich, and fruits. The first day I tried this, I didn’t feel hungry for the entire day, whereas before I used to have to snack right through the day. It could also be my metabolism isn’t used to it yet, so I’ll wait and see what is the long term outcome. Oh, and eating a light meal before bed helps me to sleep too, ‘coz I don’t have as much latent energy.

Wealthy

Actually I don’t have any big plans here. I’m a timid investor and I don’t like risk, so I won’t be investing in shares any time soon. I’m getting quite high interest on my Internet savings accounts and I’m relatively content with that for now and don’t see any additional benefit in investing in a Managed Fund that might only give me a tiny little extra – or even go backwards if the portfolio performs badly or I choose a bad fund.

My goal is to save up a deposit for my own apartment. Most market analysts seem to be predicting a property slump in the next few years, so I hope to be ready to take the most advantage of that.

Wise

My work pretty much takes care of my major training. I did a Project Management course earlier this year, which I thought was quite useful. Later in the year or even next year, I hope to also do Communications and Leadership courses (depending on how the training budget goes!) While I definitely prefer, and have more fun with the technical side of things, I can see that career-wise it’s not going to get me anywhere. So taking on these “soft skills” will ensure that I’m making progress in my job.

As for personal interests and hobbies, I took up piano again briefly last year, since there was a piano in the house where I’m renting a room. Unfortunately, the guy who owns it came back from the US and sold it for a bit of extra cash. I’m not too keen on buying a keyboard, since my room is chock full of stuff as it is without yet another piece of “furniture” to gather the dust.

Earlier this year I finally bit the bullet and signed on for broadband internet at home. Before, I kept telling myself that I didn’t need it since I could access the internet at work already, but it really isn’t the same. I can do all sorts of things now, like redesigning my personal web page (the fruits of which you’re reading now!) As I continue to experiment with it and expand the content, I hope I will pick up some more skills about web design. Its already been a great learning experience just in setting it up!

Wow. And that concludes the longest post since I started writing this blog. If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations! I hope I’ve inspired you enough to make some changes to improve your life too. You can share your successes and discuss them in the comments section below.