10 Must Dos with Nana

Recently, I have been living alone in a 1+1 flat, enjoying the spacious apartment, and the personal space with friends far far away in other countries. Therefore, I got a bit narcissistic, haha!

Several days ago, i bought a piece of pumpkin, just wanna to eat pumpkin. Have you ever tried those pumpkin pancakes in Singapore when you go to eat steamboat? I have never tried, because I dare not! I just dare not try. Strangely enough, I want to cook them! So here they are! My second try (The first time wasn't good):




When I was cooking pumpkin pancakes, I was thinking about this topic, "10 things you must do with Nana if you are a good friend of hers". How did i start this thought? I just met a new Singaporean friend here. She said she wanted to eat curry stuff, so I went to the web to see how to cook curry chicken, and am thinking to cook it next time she eat at my place. I'm a quite generous person towards my friends, so I'm willing to do many things for them, and with them. Therefore, a good way to measure how close we are is by looking at how many things we have done together. Fair enough? So, I'm compiling this list of 10 "must-dos".

1. Make a change on her: Yes, I take most food, but only normal food which is acceptable to me. I didn't drink milktea, carrot juice, ice coffee. I didn't take Indian food; I was a computer idiot. But now, everything has changed, and all those changes were caused by my friends. No matter what happens, whether they are still my good friends or not, they have made changes on me, and I won't forget how I got to drink milktea, carrot juice, never. If you haven't made any change to me, start with buying me all sorts of drinks! hahahaha!

2. Make a change for her: You can change her, so she wants to change you too.

3. Try her dumplings: most people know that I'm not a bad cook, and dumplings are my speciality. HAHA.:) But I don't cook very often now, and I cook more for my girlfriends, or special occassions only.

4. Get her to cook a meal you like: HAHA. It looks like everything is food related. Yea, I'm willing to cook some special food for my friends, so if you wanna anything, just let me know, then you will get it soon. (provided that I have time, and all the cooking equipment)

5. Watch drama/movie with her: I'm a very optmistic person, so I'm always very cheerful and happy. However, this person always cries at movies/dramas, especially those emotional Korean dramas or Taiwan ones. It's very funny to watch drama with me, see my tears fall, my eyes get red and puffy, what's funnier, I laugh at myself immediately after the show.

6. Tell her about your trouble: It's very strange that I'm willing to listen to my friends' trouble. Maybe it's because I enjoy helping them out. There's this saying, if there is 1 pain, you split it, we both get 1 half. Yes, I'm willing to share that half.

7. Let her make a joke about you: Nana is very funny, probably you know that.:) So let her make a joke about you, and you will remember that joke forever. Anyway, it's just a white joke, even though it doesn't sound very nice, but no harm was intended! Like "听妈妈的话", 哈哈！

8. Watch her do stupid things: Nana is very good at doing stupid things. For example, when she's walking alone, she would think about some funny stuff, and laugh or pat her head; she always talks to herself, like "加油，Fan Nana！", or "Fan Nana，你真搞笑！", "Fan Nana, 你真是笨死了！" It would be fun to catch any of these.

9. Get a hug! A hug is the closest gesture I could give and accept as a friend, haha! And yea, a hug does calm me down when I'm worried; it's also an expression of care if i give you a hug. But, limited amout only. haha!

10. Get your rumor from her: another good trait about Nana is that, she can originate your rumor! 100% original thoughts, absolutely no copyright issue! haha! Good thing or bad thing, i don't care, but it's very likely to happen! Think about yourselves, how many of you haven't gotten 1 from me? I'll make it up to you! (Again, white lie, no harm intended)

So, of 10 in the list, how many have you gotten/done? As long as there is something, it means you are special to me...

You can always be yourself!

Just finished my third presentation since last Friday, and i just want to say, "you can always be yourself!"

I'm taking this unit, "ASEAN economic history". Professor is an Asian, but looks like from areas around Bangladesh. He has an accent which is difficult to understand; he doesn't know what is presentation, because he normally read out the slides; he knows very limited technology, and couldn't even use PPT in tutorial room. Honestly, i don't like him, and i find all the lessons very boring.

Therefore, our tutorials are boring, too. In tutorials, we are to give presentations on particular topics. Learnt from Professor's presentation, my classmates present in the way he did, read out the handouts, little interaction, what's worse, nobody's listening...

I don't like it, i don't like it that people don't take things seriously; i don't like it that people do things just for the sake of doing it. For my presentation, i did tons of research, through two library resources. I really enjoyed the process of research, and I enjoy the journey of learning new things.

And I'm a Toastmaster, I can't tolerate my presentation to be the same as those of my classmates, i can't. You present your findings to your classmates, and if they are not listening, don't you feel that your effort has been wasted? Therefore, I did beautiful slides, and presented with them during tutorial. During my presentation, I could see that, people are listening, at least paying attention if can't concentrate. And with that, I'm satisfied.

Q&A, nobody asked me questions, so i knew that's because my presentation is either too bad, or too good. And i decided to leave it as it is, it's alright even if it's too bad, i have done my job. Till the end of the class, a classmate told me, "Your presentation was very good!"

Yes, you can always be yourself if you want to. Just be you, the "you" who makes you YOU!

Melbourne part 1

Arrived in Mel on Sunday morning, and stayed for 3 days. My schedule was fully packed, with sightseeing & tours everyday, which is even more tiring than the days at school. But it's good.

Met Jenny who flew from Sydney to travel with me, Qian from UWA, Katie & Xian Hui, whom i knew from E&Y! Suddenly i got so many friends in Melbourne, and I'm so proud of that! I like it that I have friends everywhere.

About Melbourne:
Some people say, "melbourne is like a maze, you can easily get lost." Luckily, i didn't get lost. Indeed, Melbourne is very well designed, which can be seen from the alignment of the buildings, and the direction of the streets. As the second biggest city in Australia, it's "not bad", and with the attraction of Philip Island and Great Ocean Road, many people remember Melbourne.

But I'm lost... I start to get lost about the meaning of traveling. You go to a place, unfamiliar with anything there, no place to live, quality of life declines, and then you walk around, look at the buildings and sightseeings, take some photos... Is that what traveling is all about? What's the meaning of traveling anyway? I'm getting too serious. Anyway, something about Melbourne...

--Philip Island

We went to Philip Island, and saw the smallest penguins in the world, those little lives. I admire them being strong, but also pity their weakness. These little birds, spend all days feeding themselves in the sea. Only after sunset, dare they go back homes which are located on the hills cross the beach. And they have to worry about the soaring eagles when they cross the beach. Their so called "homes" are always at risk, so is their life. Even if that's the case, the so called "nice people" continue to bother them! After sunset, when people are supposed to go home, they come to this island, and they watch these birds. Thousands of people... scaring these little birds.

I'm curious to know, why would human, the so called strongest species, like to do whatever we want? Claiming "protecting other species", but is that really protection? Those lamp-posts never off during night; those view points directly destoried the penguins' path; thousands of people every night, scaring those little birds, making their life more dangeous! Why would human be so selfish? Why would they be so curious, so that they can see everything seeable in the world? Why wouldn't human just let it go, let everything in the nature go with the law?

I don't understand, but if that's more fair towards the other species, i would give up the opportunity to see them, rather than to bother them...