Perth Day 1.

(Updated 27th November 2007)

Perth Day 1.-2.20am
Okay, blogging from the plane now. Although it's offline. But ah whatever.
Plane ride was fun! But not as scary as anticipated la, =( I expected some like, weee scary noises or something, but then there was nothing. Sighs.
I think I should type out everything before my laptop battery runs out and I can no longer listen to my music. =/

Okay starting from the morning. Forced myself out of bed at 8am, then changed to PE attire and was about to leave the house when my mother called and
told me there was some problem with a certificate. =X

Then went to school at around 9.30, then practised POP performance with Sec3s till around 12.30, then changed to full u for NPCC.

Woah, training was tiring cause we had 3rd class drills retest, although I already passed. But yea, felt super tired la, like almost wanted to collaspe.
Maybe it's cause too long never drill, or because I didn't eat breakfast and lunch, or because I slept at 2am the day before, or is it a combination of everything?
Felt like fainting, and slight sore throat cause of timing. And my 3rd class drills really all like forgotten le.

Anyways, after that was pre-NRC briefing. Will be missing 1 and a half days cause of this trip, and won't be able to help plan out those things, unless there's
WiFI, in which case you will see this post before 23rd November and see me on MSN. =)

Training ended at around 7, went to Dong Xi Nan Bei after that for a drink. =D Then went home early, changed, then took out all the NP things from my bag and
replaced with Perth Trip things.

Went to Raffles City, bought the Billabong Sweater, then went to Lau Pa Sat and ate Sting Ray, Satay, Rojak, Fried Rice, and Teh Beng. Haha, dam shiok la,
like last time to eat such things for 6 days. Unless we are going to eat Sting Ray, Satay, Rojak, Fried Rice, and Teh Beng in Perth too. =O

Was around 10:15 by the time we ate finish the Sting Ray, Satay, Rojak, Fried Rice, and Teh Beng. Then went to Changi Airport, saw Lenson at Coffee Bean. Haha.

Okay, plane take off was fun! It's like some roller coaster, except don't have the going down part, only the climbing up slope part. =( I expected something with more G's la, but the view of Singapore from the sky is nice man! . And there's thunder flashes every few seconds too. Dam cool. But unphotographable cause too dark le.

My in-flight entertainment system. ;)

And the food all served free man!! Like Wee, just ate 3 Ferrero Rocher's. Okay, I'm sounding like a typical kiasu Singaporean. At least I didn't ask for white wine or something like that right? =D

Breakfast was some egg thing with potatoes and sausage. Supposed to be sausages. But I dunno where the "S" go to. (No I didn't eat it before taking the photo)

Sitting next to Ivan Hui Qing. And I got a window seat! Seat 57K.


There was a very nice sunrise which could be seen from the plane window seat, except it's the other side of the plane and all I could see was some boring old clouds. =( But still very cool for a first time in a plane.

Sunrise-less clouds are boring. But at least I had a window seat. =P

Australian customs was really strict, so we couldn't bring any food or anything under a quarantine list. Haha. I think it's a secret conspiracy to get tourists to spend lots and lots of money on food when in Australia and bring food back to Singapore to advertise to others. XD

Cleared customs successfully, and the guy at the counter was really friendly. Then it was a 4 hour bus trip down to Albany. Stopped for lunch at some rest stop called:"The Hard Work Cafe". No I don't have amazing memorising powers, I just took photos of the sign. Haha.

View Meng acting cute. Haha.

The burger they served for lunch was huge. Along with a can of lemonade and a box of fries.

And I finished everything except the fries, cause I was super full by the time I ate 3 quarters of the burger.


And everyone was busy swatting flies cause there were plenty of them the moment we stepped down from the bus.

Then we boarded the bus again and went to Mount Romance, where there was a Sandalwood Factory. I think Mount Romance is such lousy name. Why not MOUNT UNSTOPPABLE. More scary right

Mount UNSTOPPABLE Romance. ;)

Watched a video presentation on Australian Sandalwood and it's uses. Smelled some of the sandalwood perfumes, sandalwood chippings, and sandalwood itself. Sandalwood to me sounds like sandals made of wood, but it smells nice anyways. And it's super expensive too.

Wasn't really captivating or interesting in retrospect. Maybe because everything else was mostly exhilarating and heart-stopping stuff. =D And we saw a Manta Ray at the Sandalwood Factory!

Mount Manta Ray. Hahahahaha okay I'm being stupid.

Didn't buy anything at the souvenir shop cause I'm a cheapskate. But I went outside and took photos of the long long road.


After the Sandalwood factory, the bus driver, Trevor, took us to Torndirrup National Park to see the Gap and the Natural Bridge. I think the place was awesome! Gondwana! (I actually read the sign okay?)

You'd have to zoom in very close to see what Gondwana means. =D

The view was breathtaking. Cause the wind was very strong and it was hard to breathe. But the view was really nice, me and Lenson like jumped from rock to rock till we reached the edge.

Like super cool? Although Trevor told us people did commit suicide by jumping down. The wind was strong to the point that we had to kneel or crouch to prevent being blown away.

The Natural Bridge, with some yellow unknown stuff below. Limestone?
The Gap, or one side of the Gap. I'm standing/crawling/kneeling on the other side.

Went to Albany Wind Farm after that. Just as windy, maybe windier. Cause it's a wind farm what. XD
The wind fans used to generate electricity were huge and rotated fast enough to slice off your head if you were somehow close enough. Okay I'm sadistic. =D But it's also breath-taking to see things on such an extreme scale. And it's like Geography in real life.


Then me and Lenson went to the toilet which was an awesome 3 in 1 kind.

So cool right? The wheelchair stick-figure is levitating!

Okay. After the awesome wind farm and national park, we took the bus to Metro Inn Albany. There was no Wi-Fi there though, so I didn't blog. But I stayed in the same room as Lenson, Wan and Nicholas Chew. We had about half an hour of free time before dinner at the restaurant there.

So me and Lenson walked around the perimeter of the inn and took photos. Haha. The inn was located at the corner of a main road an a side street, and I think the side street looked really nice.

It's like really straight? And long and winding. But the sunset was quite bright. =(

Then we went for dinner. Forgot to take a picture. But it was pasta with chicken and roasted potatoes.

Looks quite high-class right?

No we didn't drink bottled water, it's just that this photo was taken from that table. =)

After that, the teachers asked if some of us would want to walk down to a nearby supermarket to buy things to eat back in the hotel room. So a few of us went along.

Saw this sign outside the main entrance to the inn. Children drive slowly?

The walk along the main road was really cool. Literally. And it became freezing cool as the Sun set. The houses were all spaced quite far apart and not a single building was 2 levels high. There was a really relaxed atmosphere around la, like not as stressful as Singapore where everyone is rushing? Fewer cars on the road too. And some cars with turbo and those super low rev-ing sounds. Haha.

I think the trees are super funky! Like gigantic broccoli!

And we saw a shattered glass window! Shattered! Okay I'm being random.

We didn't exactly make it to the supermarket cause it was kind of far away, but we went to a convenience store instead. Bought a glass bottle of coke and a double chocolate Kit-Kat Chunky bar. =D

The walk back became increasingly colder, but it was still much warmer than the next few days.

Went back to our room, and watched Ghost Rider with Lenson and Wan. Nick went off to sleep. Haha.

Haven't watched Ghost Rider before. O.o Quite an okay movie la, since it's based on a comic book. Like spiderman and superman and batman and all the other movies based on comic books.

Movie ended at around 12am, so we went out and saw lots and lots of stars in the sky. And we heard the sounds of some huge happening party somewhere far away. Like super nice! Much better than any star gazing in Singapore cause the sky was really clear and it was quite dark.

So we stood around gazing at stars, hearing sounds of laughter every few seconds, and shivering cause of the 18 degree weather. Like: "Bo Jio! Got party never invite! PS us man!"

Went to sleep not soon after. And that ends Perth Day 1. =)

Leaving For Perth.

I will most likely not be blogging for 6 days, unless there is WiFi in Perth, which I doubt so.

I guess this trip is going to be a fresh one, cause of many new experiences?Like this is the first country I've been to overseas excluding Malaysia, first time taking a plane flight, first time sleeping alone in a room with a guy.. ;)

And I feel tired. =/

Ah wells, before I leave, time to go youtube.

=D

Feels like I'm about to go on some super roller coaster ride. XD

New Router.

Linksys Wireless-G WRT54G

Yay! Spent about 3 hours configuring it yesterday. Blee. I don't exactly know a lot about Network stuff, so I spent such a long time trying to type in 'ipconfig' when the actual command was 'ipconfig /all'. Wah waste my time. Spent another hour trying to figure out how to forward ports manually when I realised it was by typing 192.168.1.1 in the browser.

But it's done! End result is 100mbps wired, 11/54mbps wireless.

It's kind of hard to imagine that in 3 days I'll be in Perth already? Like totally unprepared, cause I haven't packed, and I still want to buy a sweater. And I can't imagine facing NRC immediately after the trip.

Past few days were mostly spent meeting up with NP people to discuss for POP. Super tiring things la. But super fun also. Unforgettable discussions. Hahaha.

HIHS Open House 2007.

Okay haven't updated in a long time again. Anyways, didn't do much on Deepavali except sleep. Haha, and I went out for supper with my family at around 10+ at night.

Open House itself was, normal I guess. Very little turnout cause only 2 Primary 6 classes attended. Nothing much to say. =/

Went to Nina's house after that to watch a movie with Chee Sheng, Eugene, Joshua, Hao Xiang, Woei Jiun, Wei Ting and Elaine. Some 19th level of Hell thing. Haha, totally not scary at all. It's about this handphone game that leads people into hell. And who the hell has time to go select what weapon to use through and handphone in hell? =D I think Stephen King's Cell is much scarier.

Then after watching the movie, went back to school. NP training. Was quite okay la, mostly preparation for Sec2s 3rd Class re-Test.

Then went home, didn't go for cell cause Open House was on the next day too.


Woke up at 7 the next day, reached school at 8 then went to a classroom to polish boots. Haha. Then Open House parade for another 3 times.

Ate at LJS for lunch with NP people then went home, changed and went out again.

Went with Lenson to Funan Digital Life Mall. Wanted to buy a Laptop bag, but in the end the bag was too small la. Stupid. But I shall use the bag as a file anyways, and a pillow if I feel like sleeping somewhere. =D Played Halo3 for like 1/2 an hour. Like so fun larr, I wanna play the entire campaign.

Went to Central to search for an ATM. But in the end we couldn't find a POSB/DBS one so we walked back. Ate Pepper Lunch or dinner too. I've never seen a Pepper Lunch in a food court before man.

Reached home at around 10.45.

Perth Trip Hotels.

Okay, since the certificates are finally over! (YESSS!) I decided to take a break for a while and go check out the internet for those hotels/inns/resorts we'll be staying in. Most of the links here lead to travel websites, so use google if you want to find out more.

Metro Inn Albany (17th November)
Summary:

• Air conditioning
• Hairdryer
• Iron and ironing board
• Pay-per-view movies
• Private bathroom / Ensuite
• Radio
• Telephone
• Television

Broadwater Beach Resort (18th November)
Summary:

• Air conditioning
• Balcony / Terrace
• Private bathroom / Ensuite
• Refrigerator
• Tea and coffee making facilities
• Telephone
• Television

Springhill Farm (19th November)
Summary:
I couldn't find a single reference on google except for some farm in Northeast Europe, and I'm really too lazy to go check out other search engines, so yea. I don't think this farm has a website at all. =\

City Stay Apartment Hotel (20-21 November)
Summary:

• Air conditioning
• Full kitchen
• Hairdryer
• Iron & ironing board

I can't say for sure the reliability of these sites and I don't feel like cross-checking. Use at your own risk. =)

Loyalty To The End.

It's a very sad depressing yet meaningful picture below. So, yea. Don't see if you feel particularly happy or something, really.
But it's meaningful. Makes me want to go hug Snowie. Got the picture from an email, so I don't know the real source.

Stupid Certificates.

Okay, I stayed up till 3am to do the certificates and went to sleep at 3.30. Almost couldn't wake up, but I did in the end and went to school. =(

Almost couldn't stay awake at all during lessons. Then after school waited for like an hour for the Elective Geography students to be released. Then Chee Sheng, Woei Jiun, Nina and Hao Xiang came to my house to discuss the video.

Haha, we did discuss the video, to a certain extent. Then we sort of played around with Snowie, the laptop, and a bunch of other stupid things around my room. =D

Then it was time to do those certificates and edit any errors made. There was this like, small 5 cent coin sized patch of pure white which I must have placed there by accident, and the printer picked it up so I had to redo every single certificate again.

GAH. Felt like pulling my hair out then, but then decided against ruining my perfectly healthy, normal, handsome and beautiful hair. =P

Slept at around 1am. Felt even worse than the day before when I woke up.


Went to Lenson's house before school started to get the ODAC board things, when I reached his house, it started raining very heavily. So we ran in the rain. Heehee so fun! Except I was soaked when we reached school la. But the rain woke me up! Like a second acid-based shower in the Morning. =D

School again, fell asleep during Chinese lesson in a sort of sitting position. Like my head was upright but facing down, then I drifted off to sleep every 10 or so minutes until Kenny started shouting: "Minghui don't sleep!" Gah, horrible feeling you know? Like, the feeling where you feel like sleeping but can't and have to force yourself awake.

Then after school, went to celebrate Wei Ting's Birthday. Haha, Happy Birthday Wei Ting! That's like the thousandth time I've said it but ah whatever. Went to Plaza Singapura and caught The Game Plan.
It's a nice show la, but kind of cliched in that the father-daughter kind of movie. It's a football movie so there's a lot of reference to football stuff. But I think The Longest Yard is still the funniest football movie I've seen so far. =D

Denise was like laughing super loud throughout the show, Elaine also, but Denise like can laugh the longest one lor. =X

And I felt like sleeping when watching the movie too. =(


Went back home, then had to do more edits on the certificates. GAH. More of spelling errors though. Slept at 2am cause I had to prepare full uniform for npcc.


Haha, so today was like, eyes-feel-super-heavy-day. But nah, I drank 2 cans of coffee so I have caffeine running in my bloodstream. Wee energetic cause I haven't drunk coffee since last week.

Open House Parade Full Dress Rehearsal. It's weird, I just realised it's called a Full Dress Rehearsal. Why full dress? Does that mean we all wear dresses? Or that we wear half dresses for other rehearsals? Heehee okay I'm being rhetorically stupid.

Then went home immediately after and now I'm trying to finish the draft by midnight. So I guess I will be tired tomorrow, but tomorrow is a holiday so Happy Deepavali Everyone!

RamlY Burger.

Haha okay, there's this Pasar Malam or Night Market near my house, people staying near Punggol should know. =) I didn't actually go, but I asked my sisters who went to buy a Ramly burger for me. =D

It's quite a popular food, but the weird thing is that it can only be found in pasar malams which only last for a week or two. =( And the even weirder thing is that these pasar malams have like 4 or 5 stalls selling ramly burgers.

So must buy whilst you can. =D Heh, someone should set up a franchise.

Cross-section. And different stalls sell different kinds of these burgers too. Original is probably from Malaysia, but it's almost impossible to track la.

AAAA.

You know how my last post said that the "rest of the week" was pretty uneventful?

I TAKE THAT BACK. Now there's millions of things to start doing again. =(


Blah, went to school on Friday as usual. School was bleah, those who had B3 and above for Chinese don't have to go for Chinese lessons for the entire 'November Bridging Program' , so people with C5 like me, (yes I passed! =P) have to attend lessons. And whilst we were all trying to stay awake listening to the Chinese teacher talk, the rest were out eating breakfast at Macdonald's. =\

But it isn't so bad la, haha, cause Kenny in same class as me. =)

English lesson was on parallel structures. Disgusting. I never did understand the whole point of inventing something like parallel structures. You understand, I understand, can liao right?
I think the sole purpose of parallel structures is to make sure people lose marks in English, aside from summary writing and letter writing. Cause I always lose marks because of these three. Haha.

We were released early from Physics lesson cause Mdm Ee had some meeting to attend, so I went to change to npcc full uniform early. School Open House Parade training, but today we really only rehearsed the skit thing. Which is...unique I guess.

Then after training I was reminded by Woei Jiun that the POP invitation card design extended deadline was due today, it was supposed to be 31st October but I didn't read my mail(cause gmail is so much better) and I thought all along the deadline was on Friday.

And I didn't even start on the design yet. =/

It was raining heavily, but since it didn't look like the rain would stop we ran out to Hougang Mall in the rain. Then I took a train home, then ran home in the rain again.

Was like 2.30pm when I reached home, rushed through the design and completed it at around 5pm. Non-stop. Haha, like first time I've ever rushed so fast before. Cool! But I don't ever want to try that again, cause the stress itself is very draining.

Emailed instructors the design, then emailed Chee Sheng and Eugene who gave me the drawings, then rushed out of the house again to Church.

Reached there slightly late. Was so tired that I slept on the train and almost missed the stop. =/

Worship practice. The most fun part of the day in my opinion. Matthew wanted a rock style, so there were 2 electric guitars. Kind of played rhythm and Yu Rong played lead, but we kind of played differently and the distortion was so loud I could feel my ears ringing whenever we paused. Haha, so fun playing around like a rock band. Definitely opens up insight into worship. And I feel like buying an electric guitar all over again. Blah.

Went supper with my father after cell. Kway Chap again. =\ Then reached home at about 11.30pm. Went to sleep almost immediately.


There was campcraft training the next day, but I didn't go. Woke up at 9am instead, then changed into PE attire and went to school for the Perth Trip Briefing.

Briefing was okay, don't exactly feel enthusiastic about it cause of the camp immediately afterwards which will probably drain whatever energy I have left. =( And I've been so busy the past few days that I only just realised that the trip was in 12 days time.

Took an MRT down to Dhoby Ghaut and changed to North-South line, then went all the way to Bukit Gombak Station. Super long journey. Then my mother's colleague fetched me to the country club which leads to the previous post.


But anyways, went to Ikea today with my family. Haha, like I was walking around when a boy with this soccer ball with an Ikea price tag on it ran past me and hit my leg with the ball. It wasn't painful cause it was a soft toy. Haha. Then the mother was like: "See kor kor waiting for you to pass him back his ball. Faster." Then I was like: "Huh?" giving a bewildered look at the mother, then she sort of smiled at me and continued to ask the boy to stop playing with the ball with numerous references to kor kor. Like: "See kor kor looking at you already, faster give him back his ball, don't play already." The boy just ran off. Heehee.

I think the mother has poor parenting skills to resort to using a stranger to scare her child into behaving. Or maybe it's just cause I look scary and the mother wanted a quick and easy way to make her child behave. =\


Now I'm back home blogging. The photographer from my mother's kindergarten didn't do the certificates nicely and now I have to do them. =( Like cropping the photos to 688 times 880 pixels, then resizing it to 350 times 450 pixels, then adding the name of the child, then positioning both the text and the photograph on the Graduation Certificate and finally saving it as an xcf and png. Boring, repetitive and tiring work.

But I'm paid like $1 for every cert and there's 76 certs. And $76 for staying up till 3am isn't that bad you know?

I'll just oversleep or not concentrate on lessons tomorrow. =)

St Clare Kindergarten Graduation & Concert 2007.

Haha, blogging from Home Team NS @ Bukit Batok. Wireless@SG, so fReE iNtErNeTsZ!!111!

The concert is over, I think it's a very nice concert. Haha, and I realised I can't remember a single thing about my Kindergarten Graduation Concert, maybe cause don't have? I can remember a bit about my Nursery Graduation Concert though.

And I sat next to this Primary School kid with a Superman water bottle! He was like making an alphabet sign with his fingers randomly. Like: C! E! H! F! XD

And all the Graduating K2 kids like super cute one lar! but I'm cuter Haha, and some parts were funny cause the kids all got some mix ups, heehee, but they still like so cute even if they make mistakes. =/

And one of the MCs at the beginning was a K2 guy whose Chinese was better than me. =/

Worst part was when the graduation video which I spent hours working on failed to work, some technical mishap. =\ Like one minute I was enjoying myself and watching the concert, next minute I was following my mother up the stage backstage in front of a couple of hundred people. =S Super adrenaline-pumped man. Cause the video didn't appear and I was acting cool walking up the stage with a laptop in my hand. =P

Blee, and for a moment everyone was seeing the laptop on the screen and probably wondering why a 'Kindergarten Graduation Video' was in the same folder as a 'Transformers.xvid'.

Haha, anyways, there were problems with the sound, so in the end the video didn't have sound, but I think it was okay la. And I think the technician didn't expect a teenager to know about AV stuff. XD

And the super cute kids were like asking :"Who is this kor kor?"

Heehee, okay shall not blog anymore cause the laptop's battery is running low.

November Bridging Program.

Okay, I realised I haven't mentioned the fact that holidays have 'officially' started. So what have I been doing this past few days of freedom from authority? Going to school. Cause there's a 'November Bridging Program.'
I think it's just another way of saying 'Extra School Extension For 2 Weeks', but that's just me.

Anyways, I think it's okay la, I mean, where else will I find time to study and revise, if not forced? Heh. It's almost the same as every normal school day except reporting time is 15minutes later and we are released about 1 or 2 hours earlier depending on the day.

And I actually concentrated during Maths lesson. Haha, like I can understand about the formula thing and actually complete the sum! Heh.

And I went around after school too.

Like on Monday, went to Lenson's house to play piano. Haha, I memorised the duet from The Secret, and Denise was like in Lenson's room laughing every few minutes. To herself. Okay she's actually laughing at a TV show on Youtube. But no one else really finds it that funny.

Then waited for Woei Jiun to come, then left Lenson's house, went to Compass Point for dinner. Haha, met up with Stephen too. Then Stephen told this super lame joke.

Stephen: Hey you want to hear a joke?

Minghui: Okay, what?

(Everyone looking at Stephen, Stephen points to Woei Jiun and Denise)

Stephen: She's pretty! HAHA!

Minghui: HAHAHA!!!

Woei Jiun and Denise: OI! Saying who?

Minghui: Both. Haha

Then we laughed non-stop, then after that I said.

Minghui: Eh, want to hear a joke?

Woei Jiun and Denise: You're Handsome!

And we were walking past this guy who said: Haha! Quite true, quite true!

Super sia suay la. Like I kenna suan by someone I don't even know. =/


I realised on Tuesday that it was already 30th October, and the deadline thing for IC registration was 31st.

So I went down to ICA after school on Tuesday with Hao Xiang and Chee Sheng. Good thing I went with them, cause I forgot about the $10 registration fee and didn't have $10 with me. Haha.

Chee Sheng went off early because he had PTM but Hao Xiang stayed...then tricked me into taking the MRT all the way to Pasir Ris and change to bus 3. -.-

So in the end it took about 2 hours before I reached home. Especially waiting for bus 3 which took unnaturally long. =/ But thanks to Chee Sheng and Hao Xiang for pei-ing me la. =D


I think the rest of my week was pretty uneventful, except maybe for the finishing last touches on the Kindergarten Graduation Video, which I think I've spent about 30 hours doing already, that's about $6.50 an hour? Heh.