Sizzling beach bums.

Woke up on Sunday morning at the farm, and got a message from some friends. We had plans to celebrate another friend's birthday that evening, and they wanted to go to the beach in the afternoon. Since my place is just beside the beach, I asked them to come over to mine to do the beach-y stuff, thereafter wash up at my place and go for dinner.

 

We got back from the farm at about 11am, my friends were coming at 1pm, sweet! Anyway, here are some of the beach shots.

 

4 beach bums.

 

2 beach bums.

 

Drop that!

The water was warm and nice! It hasn't been this nice and warm since many moons ago. This chubby friend of mine wanted to go into the water, but he did not bring extra underwear. So he devised a plan to wrap a towel around him, take off his shorts, then his underwear, and wear his shorts back on, all in full view of us and everyone who walked by. The wind was making his towel flap everywhere, and my friend said she saw something! Haha. Too bad he did not have any major wardrobe malfunction.

 

We stayed on the beach til about 4pm, then went to my place to wash up. Here's shots taken after everyone's nice and clean, about to leave for dinner.

 

Nice and clean.

 

The magnum look.

 

Kiss me.

 

What's with the plunging neckline.

For dinner, we went to Sizzler, which was just a short drive from my place. The rest of the gang met up with us at the restaurant. It was quite a big group of us, 9 altogether, and we queued for almost 45 mins before getting our table! The selection of mains was rather limited, some of us decided to just go for the salad bar. I ordered a sizzling garlic prawn with some risotto thing that they were promoting as the side. The risotto turned out to be crap! I thought it tasted like baby food, and my friend spat them out after giving it a try. Hehe.

 

Sizzzzzzzzzler.

 

Queuing.

 

Yes, slap her.

 

Birthday girl.

 

Posing with presents.

 

Smiley faces and filled stomachs.

Overall, it was a nice celebration, and I greatly enjoyed the company of such fun and loving friends. The birthday girl presents consist of a $140 pacific fair shopping voucher, earrings and an edible bottle of chocolate champagne, which we all shared. We capped off the weekend with a nice sweet cheesecake for desserts. Thank you for the wonderful weekend!

 

Last week of school! Hooray!

Aussie farm.

Yesterday, I got a glimpse of how it is like to stay on a farm. My housemate and neighbour downstairs invited me to the place they grew up, which is about half an hour away, in New South Wales. The occasion was a going away party for my neighbour's sister, who will be going to Malaysia for training, for 3 months. My housemate and neighbour literally grew up next to each other. Their dads are sugar cane farmers, with huge acres of land infront and behind their houses, which is about 200 metres away from each other. We reached there at about 6pm, with two cartons of beer and a bottle of bundy rum. The party has already started!

 

Sign of things to come?

 

Foyer.

 

Put your hands up!

 

He's mine!

 

Sweet sisters.

 

Happy family.

The party was great! There was great food, aussie barbie with sausages, steak and meat patties, with lots of booze going around. I got to meet and talk with members from both families, their friends and relatives too. My housemate's little brother, 15 years old, and his band were providing entertainment, they are very into punk rock kind of music. There was even a campfire at the side, to keep things nice and warm.

 

Let me touch you.

 

Kiddy band.

 

Fire!

Being a farm, you can pee anywhere you like. And of course, I peed anywhere I like! Haha. Reminds me of my time in the army, peeing anywhere and anyhow, mostly in the bushes though. I took this shot of the house, after I peed, which I feel is very nice. There's the band playing in the middle, and the fire at the side.

 

Colourful ambience.

Then the drunkards took over the mic, neighbour was doing her fire twirling thing too. We continued drinking into the night, gathering around the fire til about 2am, before I went to sleep in a nice tent that they have prepared. The tent was huge, and surprisingly comfy and fantastic! It is definitely the best outfield sleeping experience I've ever had.

 

Housemate and dad.

Drink up!

Massive cleavage.

Twirl twirl.

Beat it!

Are my mammaries comfy?

Group hug, everyone.

The silly things people do when they get high-ish.

 

Scandalous.

Mini fire!

Don't burn your hair!

You want these melons?

The Farm Boys makes a good band name, doesn't it?

Neighbour and mum.

In the morning, I woke up to this.

 

Ball games, anyone?

Cane fields.

Mount Warning.

Fields lined by mountain ranges.

Where I peed last night.

Sugar mill.

Wide open fields of green.

The scenery is simply stunning. There is a sense of peace in the land, and the air is just, special. You never get to see wide open fields in Singapore, no less wide open fields lined by mountains and extinct volcanos. My housemate's family is so hospitable. We had breakfast, made by housemate's mum, and after that her dad took us on a tour around the farm.

 

Housemate's home.

Mum making breakfast.

Mum making more breakfast.

Get off the panda!

Slap that ass.

Morning glory.

Housemate's dad showed us his enormous shed (envy of 99% of Aussie males), where he builds heavy machinery. He also took us out to the cane fields, and showed us his 12 metre long vintage boat (no photos as my camera ran out of battery).

 

Tool shed.

Boat motor.

Big tractors.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself on this farm life experience, and I am truly blessed with great hospitality from both families. Thank you so much for this wonderful experience which I will remember for life. Now, I think I want to be a farmer when I retire.

Reprieve.

It has been a busy couple of weeks lately, presentations, reports and exams came and went, just a short week or so before school officially ends. On Monday, I went to talk to my lecturer about the possibility of taking my exam on the 14th of November earlier. After telling him my reasons, he was very understanding to my cause. He suggests that I can take my paper on the morning of the 12th, thereafter make my way to the airport. I am very grateful to him for his kindness and graciousness, given that he will need to make special arrangements for me to be supervised by someone else during that morning, as he is based in another campus.

 

Today, I went to school to see the course conveynor for another course. Earlier in the semester, we had a report assignment, where we had to analyse a specific tourism industry sector. My tutor failed more than half the class, me included. He first suspected me of plagiarism, for which came out negative after I sent him a soft copy of the assignment to be scanned by the plagiarism software. He did not leave much comments in my report, except that I did not support many of my statements, and that my recommendations did not come from the analysis.

 

Overall, I felt that I have been unfairly assessed, for which I went to have a chat with him. I stated my point that it being an analysis paper, I should be allow to use my own words to analyse the sector, and also showed him instances of statements being referenced. I also showed him evidences where my recommendations were mentioned in the analysis, but he refused to reconsider the report. I am not saying that he is totally in the wrong, I agree with him that the report can be better supported, but given the content of the report, I feel it should not have garnered a fail grade.

 

Saying that, the tutor is not exactly in the running for tutor-of-the-year calibre. Going for his tutorial classes, he's contributions have always been minimal. Instead of giving constructive criticisms, he will prefer to get us into groups to discuss about something, thereafter chatting with a few of the students. There were times when he said certain comments about a certain race, which we felt were rather uncalled for. Never in my four semesters have I experienced such an incompetent (harsh, I know) tutor. To further show his (lack of) competency, he came in drunk to assess one of my friend's presentation last semester.

 

All in all, it is water under the bridge, I have spoken to the conveynor and showed him evidences of my tutor's criticisms, and he feels that my case is justified. He will be re-marking my report personally. Having said that, I harbour no hard feelings towards my tutor, he did what he felt was right, and we discussed about it in a civilized manner. I can understand it can be quite stressful when there are so many assignments to mark in a short span of time, and I bear no grudge towards him.

 

Perhaps these two scenarios are a test of my fighting spirit, before I go out into the working world. It is good to learn that persistence can lead to better things, and that is an imortant lesson in life. Thank you universe for the opportunities. Carpe Diem!

Seize the Day

John Erwin Boak

Do it now and don't tarry lest it be too late
Sometimes it's not wise for the right time to wait
Because your plans could be ruined by fate
If you do it now you would feel really great

Smell the pretty flowers, listen to birds singing so gay
Enjoy the beauty of nature give yourself time to play
Remember on this earth we can't forever stay
So I tell you now is the time, go ahead and seize the day

Nature's wonders.

The past few weeks, our place had a few unlikely intruders. The tree outside my apartment was invaded by this bunch of "kamikaze" birds. My neighbours and I were quite intrigued by the birds initially, as they will charge and swipe at us whenever we are outside the apartment. The swipe can be rather rather un-nerving to the victim, to say the least, but can also be quite funny when you see someone getting swiped. What the bird does is first it will eye you, then it will fly straight towards your head, then at the last possible moment, it will *swish!* change direction, sometimes making contact with your hair.

 

We found it rather corny to be attacked by the birds at our own home, hehe. Little did we know that the birds actually chose the tree outside our block to build a nest. It took them a good few weeks to do up the nest. Meanwhile, we have gotten used to the swiping thing.

 

A few days ago, while at the balcony, I saw the little birdies! They have finally hatched from their eggs, I saw 2 grey furballs in the nest. The papa and mama birds took turns to go out to look for food, while the other stood watch at another branch nearby. 

 

Nest with furballs.

Say ahhh, mummy's come back with food.

 

Off looking for food again.

You have to admire their dedication and effort in taking care of their young. Such is nature's wonders, it really is heartwarming to see. Just goes to show that love is universal, even small animals are capable of unconditional love and attention. The young ones will be most probably be able to fly and leave the nest soon, charting their own lives. I'm sure they will remember how their parents took care of them, and do the same to their young in the future.

 

Whoever said having a bird brain was a bad thing?