man who can't be moved.

2009-12-31T01:48:00.002+08:00

moved to pushurselfdaily.wordpress.com. =)

New place, new toys.

2009-12-11T10:45:00.005+08:00

It's coming to the end of the year. I just moved to a new place. This time it has a garage and allowed me to, according to junxian, have my dream of having a home gym. Thus, planning my finances and saving on what i can save on as well as extra pocket money sponsored by my dad, i decided to invest in some equipment. so join me and feast ur eyes and lick ur lips while u appreciate my little set up which i assure u will grow into something big one day.

one pendlay NexGen HD olympic bar. two economy 15kg bumper plates. a pair of olymic spring collars. one horse stall mat sliced into two nice strips. home gym. done.

p.s. a platform will be added and hopefully more weights as well when i return next year. a few more items will make this home gym a solid one for strength and conditioning as well as Crossfit. perhaps its time to go competitive again. =)

2009-10-28T14:53:00.002+08:00

"Fight Gone Bad"

3 rounds of 5 minutes of work/1 minute of rest

Rowing
Push Press 40kg
Box Jumps
Sumo-Deadlift High Pull
Wall ball 6kg (to the ceiling)

Did not count the reps. Wanted to just destroy myself. But it was quite tough. Think i am going to do this workout quite often. it's one of the better workouts.

2009-10-22T17:45:00.002+08:00

Wednesday's workout

"Fran"

21-15-9

95lbs (42.5kg) Thrusters
Pull-ups

For time.

10:30. Was quite winded. Thought i would have done better. But it's okie. I will work on it. haha.

Today's workout

Shoulder Press 1-1-1-1-1 (max 62.5kg)
Push Press 3-3-3-3-3 (max 62.5kg for 3 reps)
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 (max 62.5kg for 4 reps on the third set)

I couldnt finish it. Something leaked in the lab and the class had to use the gym. so i had to go off. This was harder than the single-rep ones. I somehow couldnt finish the push jerks although it was supposed to be easier.

2009-10-18T11:27:00.001+08:00

Friday's Workout
Deadlift (80%): 3x3 @ 160 kg
Speed deadlift (65%): 3x3 @ 130 kg (120 sec rest b/w sets)
Power shrugs (60% of current): 3x5 @ 105 kg
Stiff-leg deadlift: 3x5 @ 60kg
Bent over row: 3x5 @ 80kg
Underhand (reverse) grip lat pulldown: 3x5 @ 60kg
Arched back good morning: 3x5 @ 25kg

2009-10-15T11:30:00.001+08:00

contemplating a rest day today. haha. will see if my hands are itchy or not.

here's something to make you laugh or get offended in some cases. =)

2009-10-14T16:00:00.003+08:00

No this is not my second workout for the day. just to clarify, the previous workout is for yesterday (13th Oct). I was too stoned to type it out last night. so i did it this morning. Here's today's workout.

Grace

30 Clean-and-Jerks for time.

Time: 8mins:10sec.

Quite happy yet disappointing. Happy that i managed to clear 10 without stopping. Sad that the rest were pretty slow (i.e. single reps near the end).

Went on to do a Deadlift-Burpee workout as well..

5 rounds for time:
5 Deadlifts 100kg
10 Burpees (Jump and clap at the end of the movement)

Only managed two rounds before i decided that that was enough. haha. Will attempt this one again next time. But what they said in the Crossfit movie was true.. The first set of deadlifts are okie. It's the subsequent sets that make u think about your back...

2009-10-14T07:21:00.002+08:00

Brutus

1 hang power snatch, 1 overhead squat, 1 ring dip (substituted with 1 parallel bar dip)
2 hang power snatches, 2 overhead squats, 2 dips
3 hang power snatches, 3 overhead squats, 2 dips
4 hang power snatches, 4 overhead squats, 2 dips
all the way till 10..

run 800m

10 hang power snatches, 10 overhead squats, 2 dips
back down to 1..

for time.

58 mins and a couple of seconds.

Not too bad for finishing within the hour. but perhaps could be slightly faster. haha. closer to an hour of pure work. hahaha. painful.. but i love it. =)

2009-10-10T16:24:00.002+08:00

Deadlift 140kgx3, 160kgx2, 170kg, 180kg, 185kg
Speed Deadlift 145kgx3, 145kgx3, 145kgx3
Hang Clean 40kgx3, 40kgx3, 40kgx3, 50kgx3
Good Mornings 17.5kgx12, 20kgx12, 25kgx10, 30kgx10
Wrist Curls 17.5kgx12, 20kgx10, 25kgx8, 30kgx5

Not too bad that i hit 185kg. But the form wasnt too good. The 180kg one was not too bad in terms of form. haha. so i am officially in the 4-cookie club. =)

2009-10-08T07:19:00.001+08:00

Deadlift

150kgx2, 160kgx2, 170kgx2, 175kgx2, 140kgx3x4

Clean and Jerk

50kg, 60kg, 70kg, 80kg

2009-10-05T14:37:00.003+08:00

Deadlift

100kgx8, 120kgx5, 140kgx3, 160kg, 170kg, 175kg, 180kg(fail), 145kg plus chains x2

Clean and Jerk

40kg-45kg-50kg-60kg-70kg-75kg-80kg-85kg(clean)

Quite disappointed that i failed at 180kg. But will keep trying. A couple more weeks to go. so wish me luck.

2009-10-04T13:12:00.002+08:00

Shoulder Press - Push Press - Push Jerk

40kg-45kg-50kg-55kg-60kg-60kg-60kg

Perform all three exercises at a go. Round is not counted if bar is racked at any point of time.

Got paul to try this for today. Not too bad for a start with the push jerk. Went up to 60kg as well without feeling much discomfort apart from the wrists. But that's normal. Just need more stretching to be done.

2009-10-02T12:14:00.002+08:00

20 rounds of Angie

5 pull-ups
5 push-ups
5 sit-ups
5 squats

For time.

26:20mins.

Cheok joined me as well and finished in 33:40mins. Not bad for a first time and his first full workout! haha. but this workout i felt really needed to be done quick to have better benefits. but all is good! helllll yeaahhhhh!

2009-10-01T16:41:00.002+08:00

As many rounds in 20 mins:

15 Kettlebell Swings (20kg)
15 Squats

7 rounds + 15 swings

Finisher

50 pushups for time

56 seconds. not good enough.

Lower back aching before workout. Lower back aching ever worse after workout. woohooo! haha. legs had an amazing pump.

2009-09-30T09:52:00.003+08:00

Deadlift 3-3-3-3-3

150kg-155kg-155kg-157.5kg-157.5kg

Overhead Squat (OHS) 3-2-1-1

30kg-35kg-40kg-45kg

Not too bad for the deadlift. Grip still failing alittle but slowly getting better. Need to start working on the OHS. Feeling goodddd. haha.

Evening WOD:

6x3min Rowing intervals.

Rest intervals #1,3,5 are 1 min while rest intervals #2,4 are 3 mins.

Quite a painful workout but it felt good.

2009-09-29T17:02:00.002+08:00

"G.I. Jane"

100 reps of burpees/pull-up combination for time.

Finisher

Clean 60kg 3-3-3

Did not do a full G.I. Jane workout as cheok was joining me to try what crossfit is about. So we did 5 alternating sets of 10 reps of the combination. Still quite taxing but felt good. Only thing is the chin-up bar in school is quite irritating as it keeps getting in the way. Also worked on my technique for the clean/power-clean. Trying to go into a deeper front squat position to catch the bar but my feet alignment seems to be too wide. Need some tips from morgan soon.

Possibly another WOD with cheok tml. see if he's game for it. haha. might put videos up one of these days if i get to it. haha.

2009-09-28T14:12:00.002+08:00

just gotten into crossfit.

crossfit: constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity.

did one of the WOD on the main website:

no name (some called it 95lb Humble-Pie =))

95lb Thrusters, 5 reps
95lb Hang Power-Cleans, 7 reps
95lb Sumo-Deadlift High Pulls, 10 reps

for time.

5 rounds + 5 Thrusters + 7 Hang Power-Cleans, 5 Sumo-Deadlift High Pulls.

2009-05-22T19:43:00.001+08:00

ho sua ho sua ho sua! hahaha.

i enjoy looking up youtube to look for such things to cheer up and lighten the mood. haha. enjoy folks!

2009-05-16T13:15:00.002+08:00

been really stressed out with school. hopped onto youtube and found a personal favourtie. after much conversations with cheok about things that cant be mentioned in front of the children, this song reminds me of much of those conversations. haha. so to all of you who are down and out. cheer up. there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

disclaimer. this song doesnt take ur sorrows away. but it brings u to a happpy place for a while. better than nothing right? enjoy!

p.s. this reminds me of my dad because apparently those are the songs in his era. and it brings about memories of him playing his records for me and my sister every sat morning while doing household chores since we were young till now. but that's the ho family for you. =)

2009-05-12T18:58:00.002+08:00

it's been awhile.

what have i been up to?

1. been busy with my attachment to the Melbourne Storm. doing the data analysis for this honours student. practically doing his whole project for him. might just drop it and walk off though it's the Melbourne Storm.

2. had so many assignments that never end. Thought i finished most of them during the easter break. but nooooo.... until now i still have three assignments to worry about. damn it. when will this end. plus i have two weeks (including this) before study week den the exams. damn it.

3. personal challenge. been training pretty hard. despite being sick for awhile, still managed to bang out some good poundages. stuck to the training plan and been seeing abit of improvement. bench is up to 100kg for 1RM, deadlift is 140kg for 2RM and squat is 120kg for 3RM. haha. really pushed myself. so i might hold back abit. but saying that, i dun think i wanna hold back. hahaha.

4. writing up the research proposal for my project next semester. been having regular meetings with morgan to discuss the details and get a good introduction and methods out for ethics. hoping this project works out and becomes something good.

5. driving. learning driving at the moment but i am not too happy with my instructor. have one more lesson tml so i will see how it goes. dun think i will plan another session with him. will just find someone else. just cant stand instructors who cant talk properly to their students. plus he is quite a slob. so it irritates the hell out of me.

so that's all for now. back to more reading and trying to get my research project up and running as soon as i can.

2009-04-09T19:41:00.003+08:00

did max effort bench and deadlift this week..

worked up to a 3x90 bench.. and a 3x135 deadlift.

feeling not too bad. still maintaining my weight without any protein at the moment. ran out of it and waiting for the delivery to come.

on a side note, i am always the one at fault and the one who has the shortcomings. anything i say or do always seems to be wrong. ya. i am always wrong. i am tactless. i like to say bad things. i am bad. cheers to that.

2009-04-05T21:34:00.001+08:00

enjoy. =)

2009-04-04T09:58:00.002+08:00

just did my 1RM this week with morgan.

Squat - 120kg, failed at 125kg

Bench press - 90kg, failed at 92.5kg

Deadlift - 150kg, didnt fail at all because there was no time. morgan had to leave for a meeting.

Not too bad results. As i expected. I predicted that if i could hit 370kg by the middle of the year den i would be able to hit the 450kg by the end. so i supposed it should be 450kg already. apparently i am not pushing myself hard enough for my deadlift. morgan reckons i could lift way more than that. hahaha. we will see. i am pretty happy with the results. bench at 90kg which is way more than i expect. with a bloody wide grip somemore. hahaha. just went through the rules again and realised that i dun need such a wide grip. just that i will have more distance to move the weight. hahaha. oh well.. we will see.. more updates regarding my personal challenge will be up. meanwhile.. it's the mid-sem exams with assignments here and there to submit. but i am just pulling through till good friday den it will be the easter break. nice. cheers guys.

2009-03-27T10:51:00.002+08:00

this week is off week. haha.

lighter loads and higher reps. more on the muscle-building range. haha. pretty afraid of overtraining so i decided to take a break. Plus alot of work to be done in school. so good that i am able to finish most of it.

next week i will officially test my 1rep max. hopefully i do well. hahaha.

2009-03-22T13:50:00.002+08:00

log for this weekkk...

bench - 80kgx3 reps.

deadlift - 100kgx10reps, 120kgx3reps.

squat - 110kgx3+1+1reps, 120kgx1rep.

p.s. wii boxing elicits the highest heart rate response among the games in wii sports.

2009-03-10T19:51:00.002+08:00

a brand new year of studies start..

third year student with many many uncertainties of the future.

this year's subjects are pretty interesting.. i plan to use the blog as a journal of what goes on for each subject.

sports psychology is similar to what i did last semester..

exercise and sports injury management is something like the sports trainer cert with more detail.

advanced exercise physiology is pretty interesting with our own project we have to handle..

ethics is pretty dense but sets us in the right path..

personal challenge is personal challenge. the title speaks for itself.. i decided to do powerlifting and hit a total of 450kg hopefully by the end of the year. self-assessment will be done by mid year to see where i am and the end figure will be modified accordingly.

thus training has started again.. not only to gain strength but to lose my tummy as proposed by my parents.

squatted 5x100kg and 3+1+1x105kg today. more will be posted regarding this. cheers!

2009-01-11T01:40:00.003+08:00

Going back to the corner where I first saw you
Gonna camp in my sleeping bag, I'm not gonna move
Got some words on cardboard got your picture in my hand
Saying, "if you see this girl, can you tell her where I am?"

Some try to hand me money they don't understand
I'm not broke, I'm just a broken-hearted man
I know it makes no sense, but what else can I do?
And how can I move on when I'm still in love with you?

'Cos if one day you wake up and find that you're missing me
And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I could be
Thinking maybe you'd come back here to the place that we'd meet
And you'd see me waiting for you on the corner of the street

So I'm not moving
I'm not moving

Policeman says, "son, you can't stay here"
I said there's someone I'm waiting for if it's a day, a month, a year
Gotta stand my ground even if it rains or snows
If she changes her mind this is the first place she will go

'Cos if one day you wake up and find that you're missing me
And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I could be
Thinking maybe you'd come back here to the place that we'd meet
And you'd see me waiting for you on the corner of the street

So I'm not moving
I'm not moving
I'm not moving
I'm not moving

People talk about the guy
Who's waiting on a girl, oh
There are no holes in his shoes
But a big hole in his world, mmm

Maybe I'll get famous as the man who can't be moved
And maybe you won't mean to but you'll see me on the news
And you'll come running to the corner
'Cos you'll know it's just for you
I'm the man who can't be moved
I'm the man who can't be moved

'Cos if one day you wake up and find that you're missing me
And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I could be
Thinking maybe you'd come back here to the place that we'd meet
And you'd see me waiting for you on the corner of the street

(So I'm not moving) 'Cos if one day you wake up and find that you're missing me
(I'm not moving) And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I could be
(I'm not moving) Thinking maybe you'd come back here to the place that we'd meet
(I'm not moving) And you'd see me waiting for you on the corner of the street

Going back to the corner where I first saw you
Gonna camp in my sleeping bag, I'm not gonna move

2008-12-21T12:36:00.001+08:00

I close my eyes when I get too sad
I think thoughts that I know are bad
Close my eyes and I count to ten
Hope its over when I open them

I want the things that I had before
Like a star wars poster on my bedroom door
I wish I could count to ten
Make everything be wonderful again

Hope my mom and I hope my dad
Will figure out why they get so mad
Hear them scream, I hear them fight
They say bad words that make me wanna cry

Close my eyes when I go to bed
And I dream of angels who make me smile
I feel better when I hear them say
Everything will be wonderful someday

Promises mean everything when youre little
And the worlds so big
I just dont understand how
You can smile with all those tears in your eyes
Tell me everything is wonderful now

Please dont tell me everything is wonderful now

I go to school and I run and play
I tell the kids that its all okay
I laugh aloud so my friends wont know
When the bell rings I just dont wanna go home

Go to my room and I close my eyes
I make believe that I have a new life
I dont believe you when you say
Everything will be wonderful someday

Promises mean everything when youre little
And the world is so big
I just dont understand how
You can smile with all those tears in your eyes
When you tell me everything is wonderful now

No
No, I dont wanna hear you tell me everything is wonderful now
No
No, I dont wanna hear you tell me everything is wonderful now

I dont wanna hear you say
That I will understand someday
No, no, no, no
I dont wanna hear you say
You both have grown in a different way
No, no, no, no
I dont wanna meet your friends
And I dont wanna start over again
I just want my life to be the same
Just like it used to be
Some days I hate everything
I hate everything
Everyone and everything
Please dont tell me everything is wonderful now...

I dont wanna hear you tell me everything is wonderful now.

2008-12-20T20:32:00.003+08:00

somehow, everytime it's the holidays and i come back home.. i wish the holidays din come. Not saying i do not wanna be home with my family and all. but it's the same feelings i get over and over again. being in melbourne gave me time alone. allowed for more wonderful experiences. somehow when i come back to singapore, there isnt an opportunity for us to share such experiences. I do miss my parents. i do miss my sister. i do miss my relatives. but i miss u more when i am home.

2008-12-01T05:50:00.000+08:00

bowling..

white water rafting..

swoop aka big pendulum swing..

possible kayaking and rock climbing..

what more can i ask from a holiday. haha.

2008-10-04T08:51:00.002+08:00

two situations i wanna be in now.

one. sitting at tango's with me loved ones sipping whiskey and talking and laughing the night away.

two. sitting with me close friends over the barbee enjoying the food and sipping our whiskeys till early morning.

notice the common variables? haha.

2008-09-29T14:18:00.001+08:00

i miss you. counting down the days already. =)

2008-09-20T22:33:00.002+08:00

yes. i love to be alone here.

yes. i love to be at fault all the time.

yes. i love the fact that certain things happen and makes the situation so much better.

yes. i love to be wrong.

2008-09-14T15:02:00.000+08:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

2008-08-14T21:35:00.001+08:00

after so long since being here, i finally broke down. gave in and let it out.

2008-06-29T21:37:00.002+08:00

i was once told i look at the ugly side of people.. sometimes i think to myself and say that it's actually quite true. why do i only look at the bad things they do?

den i come up with a reason such as "because they do the bad things in front of my face and never any good comes from it."

more stories about ugly characters coming soon. stay tuned for an interesting read.

2008-06-05T22:03:00.001+08:00

wooooohoooooO!

exams finally over.

now it's down to getting domestic chores done. do laundry, clean the house. and it's also time to eat and grow fat! haha.

7 weeks holiday. let's see how much weight i can put on. =)

2008-05-24T21:47:00.005+08:00

exams stress.

unison of perceptual and sensory sensations watching this. dedication to the sister from korea.

just for laughs. kid of a mma fighter.

for my baby.

2008-02-22T19:48:00.001+08:00

my baby's a graduate! wheee!

p.s. i always knew u could do it. =)

2008-02-18T20:10:00.002+08:00

and school starts again. hehe.

just touched down yesterdae morning. and today i had my first day of school. hehe. school this semester (according to the head of school) is the toughest semester in the whole course. because the three core subjects we are taking this semester are the toughest we got. hehe. on the brighter side of things, i get certified to do relaxation massage after 6 weeks into the semester. and maybe a sports trainer certificate which i intend to do on my own. haha. hope that pulls thru as well. as well as my driving license which i have not gotten till now. haha.

this time, i came back on my own. due to some complications in my baby's studies. but it's alright. it's just a short period of time. and soon we will see each other again. by den hopefully i have put on 10kg as promised. haha. thus, from this time on, my life becomes a monotonous cycle of school, gym and home. haha.

currently, my phone line is suspended so the only way i can call is on skype. but one good thing is.. it's freee! haha. so if you wanna talk to me.. find me on skype. that way we dun have to pay. sometimes i wonder why i would need a phone line now. hahaha.

alright. the summer heat is killing me. so it's back to sitting in front of the fan! will be updating soon again. take care folks.

2008-02-02T11:55:00.000+08:00

the question is...

am i turning australian (like yiqi says it) or is it just that singaporeans are getting uglier and uglier?

since my return to singapore a month ago, i must say that i have been utterly disgusted by the image that singaporeans portray in various public areas. the simple sense of courtesy of saying 'excuse me' or 'sorry' don't mean shit to them. could it be because they feel that they are taken for granted when they are courteous so they just give up being courteous? or could it be in the inner nature of these ppl to be so rude in public in the presence of many of our society's young kids and teens?

a simple trip to NTUC has brought up this LITTLE issue that has been bothering me since i came back. People do not give way to each other. People do not properly request to look at things. People do not kindly ask to be given way to.

this is utterly disgusting and very disgraceful.

another incident involves my simple morning trip to work. missing one bus because of overcrowded-ness is bad enough. about to miss another bus because of the same reason because people are just too lazy to move their ass is worse. being stuck to the tvmobile screen or just being plain selfish not to move in just turns me off and makes me want to make these people suffer. like everyone else, ppl need to get to work on time. so why cant we just think of others when we take a simple bus trip to work? as much as u need to get to work on time, others too need to make it on time. doesnt thinking of others first come as one of the most impt life lessons?

all these have to come out now because it has been stuck in me for damn bloody long. who knows that if i do not let it out. i might even hurt someone one of these days. maybe an arm-bar or a rear-naked choke. yes. i am very angsty. yes i am full of anger. and yes most probably i might have high blood pressure. =)

2008-01-01T17:18:00.000+08:00

being home has its good and bad. cheers all. happy new year.

Gatorade Tri Series!

2007-11-27T11:39:00.000+08:00

shagged.

Road Trippppp!

2007-10-01T20:03:00.000+08:00

ROAD TRIP!

it was the holidays for all of us.. so we decided to take a road trip down to mt dandenong to bring sophia and tim to that area for a food and sight-seeing adventureeee!

the day started off with me and baby getting the car and realising that they shortchanged our fuel. we went back to europcars and demanded that they check and they allowed us to return it 1/8 full.

the ladies of the trip! =)

our little magical guide courtesy of our good friend tim. gave us inspiration on the places of interest and food for our trip.

First Stop: Breakfast at St Kilda's.

tim had to get his GPS map from this place at St Kilda's. So we went to this bakery for breakfast. fresh bread and pasteries were their specialties.

hot from the oven! wad a good way to start off the trip.

apparently, people who stay upstairs just come down to buy breakfast from them. and all they need is just a phone call. haha.

the crossiant that we shared. it was so flakey. just the way i like it.

the cousin had some pastry with raisins in it. looks good too!

Next Stop: Appleseed GPS shop (or whatever it's called)

was just playing around with tim's memory card and made the comparison with my thumb. haha.

there was this cool furniture shop. and it inspired photograph at its best.

how can a road trip not have a photo of filling up the tank with fuel. =)

after the small stop at st kilda's, we went off to caulfield to hand in tim's assignment. then we made our way to the Tulips Farm behind Mt Dandenong at Tesselaar for the Tulips Festival.

Third Stop: Tesselaar Tulips Farm

this is just one small portion of the farm.

"we are a team!" hahaha.

a bigger view of the farm but still not the whole farm.
p.s. the portion that is barricaded is meant for plucking. but u gotta pay. =S

happy happy us! we sure enjoy our road trips. =)

the men of the trip. the protectors of the impreza and the passengers.

awesome shot of my baby smelling the flowersss.. =)

and there were many different colours of tulips! bet u din know. this is the purple one.

there are the pink ones..

there are yellow oness with a stalk of purple standing out. hehe.

not too sure what are these flowers. but they look good too!

trying to be as pretty as we can be. haha.

better view of the farmm. but still considered small. haha.

cool shot! the flowers in this shot are dual coloured. red and yellow. simply amazing.

lavender looking flowers. quite unique.

alittle taste of holland anyone? hehe. =)

and what a farm really neeedss..

three really human-looking scarecrowsss! haha.

as the weekend was the Dutch weekend for the festival...

how can there not be dutch fashion with clogssss? hehe.

this is the gatekeeper of the festival. and the ladies had the honour of a photo with her.

to re-emphasise the ladiessss... =)

beautiful shot of me and babyyyy.. amongst the flowers. =)

and how can such a place not haveeee........

FOOD!

starting with danish pancakessss..

need i say anymoreeee?

so good that sophia had it all over her cameraaa. hahaha.

there were also baked potatoes but we din have them to save spacee.. =P

there is also a recurring theme in the farmm.....

kids plucking and stealing the flowerrrsss. hehe.

the makings of a future criminal. hehe.

time for a few random shotsss..

being tactical in a tulip farm. tim and sophia demonstrate how. haha.

tim here is trying to take on a stallion. haha.. and this stallion actually injured a female horse's knee before this. haha.

think this post is way too long. so this will be part 1. will be back for part 2. not in the mood now to carry on this post. meanwhile.. enjoy what i have. =)

three places in a day!

2007-10-01T17:01:00.000+08:00

three places we went in a day..

camberwell - smith street - royal melbourne show!

never thought anyone could do it? four of us did..

how did we do it?..

we started off at 7am in the morninggg.. haha.

first stop.. camberwell... flea markets.. cheap stuff.. vintage origins.. sunday morning gatherings.. plus good breakfast.. most people would be satisfied for the day with such a morning..

first up.. breakfast at short black.. according to sophia, the eggs here are to die for. well.. when we had it, we had to agreeeee. =)

big breakfast - two sausages, bacon, toast, mushrooms, scrambled eggs, hash browns.

better view of what was on the plate..

vegetarian breakfast for my cousin!

consisting of half an avocado, spinach, tomato, mushrooms, toast, eggs!

babyyy's egg benedict - poached eggs looked heavenly! and the hollandise sauceee.. amazinggg!

after a good breakfast more shopping continued at camberwell sunday flea market..

and tim.. just couldnt resist the presence of digging power..

a german entrenching tool. cost of AUD30. totally made his dayy. couldnt take his hands off it.

and my babyyy bought a hand-made vinyl bag which was cool-bananas! haha.

think my dad will cry if we use his records for making such thingss. haha.

amazingly, i was the only person who din get anything from the flea market though i got tempted by this vintage pentax that came with like 5 lenses. haha. for only AUD75. but in the end i felt that i din need such a camera so i din get it! =)

after camberwell, we made our way to smith street.. cousin wanted a yoga mat.. i wanted breakfast again.. haha. tim wanted to check out the factory outlets.. so there we were..

and at our pit-stop at Foo-Doo's cafe..

i had my breakfast.. this time it's an omelette. with spinach and mushrooms insideee.. served atop two pieces of toast..

of coz the rest did order stuff as well!

hot chocolate for sophia..

cousin was satisfied with her harper's bazaar..

tim had freshly squeezed orange juice while my lady had a strawberry milk shake..

after hanging at smith for a while, we made our way back to my cousin's place.. dropped out things.. and headed back out..

this time, we took a train straight to the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds!

this huge-ass carnival that needed one large plot of land to itself and one train station to its name.

cant u tell how happy we were to be thereeeee!

made me feel like a small kid again and going to parkway to sit on the viking. haha.

our first ride.. dunno what's the name.. din really look that scary.. but actually, all of us were scared stiff. hahaha.

it is like a viking but it spins arounddd.. so u are spinning and going up and down.. not too good for the stomach. haha. and it was our first ride.. hahaha. worst of all, the pads that were supposed to lock us down appeared to be so loose. haha. that's why we were scared stiff. haha.

however, four brave souls moved on and took the ride of their lives. haha.

reliving the childhood days of gentingggg. haha.

just like small kids all over again.

mid-day snack.

corn on a cob anyone?

me and the mrss! =)

mid-day break for a small snack. we din really have dinner actually. haha.

and after playing so many ridess..

we just couldnt help it. haha.

this is for real. after taking this ride that goes at 120km/hr. haha.. not only that, it goes at the same speed backwards after going forward for like 5-10 mins.

me trying my luck at the hammer. haha. they play cheat one. they increase the resistance as well as gave me a heavier hammer.

and we ex-army ppl just cant resist the sight of guns. haha.

to end the day off...

pancakes! but not very good pancakes. haha. the syrup was like colouring. haha. oh well.

at the end we had so much fun! but we din get any showbags coz it was too pricey. but outings like these.. are just classic. fun fun fun all the way! more to come! =)

the special day itselffff...

2007-09-17T19:21:00.000+08:00

diminished lightsss.. fine dining.. moving carriages.. that was how i spent my 22nd birthday..

on the Tramcar Restaurant. =)

here's the menu for this special day of mine..

appetiser
cream, liver and cognac pate crowned with a port wine and juniper jelly.
roasted red capsicum dip served with assorted crisp bread.

entrees
grilled kangaroo loin brushed with lemon myrtle, thyme and honey, served on vegetable and chive frittata with bush tomato chilli jam.

smoked salmon and avocado mousse dressed with baby capers, red onion and tomato. Served with frisee and dill creme friache.

main courses
char grilled breast of chicken seasoned with a sun dried tomato tapenade served with a mediterranean vegetable risotto, salsa verde and shaved parmesan.

prime eye fillet of beef resting on a potato and herb rosti, accompanied by seasonal vegetables. onion marmalade and rich beef jus.

cheeses
selection of australian cheese served with dried muscatel grapes, pear paste, fruit bread and water crackers.

desserts
warm sticky date pudding topped with butterscotch sauce served with cream

chocolate mousse dome served on a sponge wafer with mango coulis

beverages
wines - selected victorian red and white wines

coffee . tea

liquers - port . cognac (v.s.o.p.) . drambule . dom benedictine . cointreau . tia maria.

that sums up the menu for our wonderful dinner at the Tramcar Restaurant.

nowww... some random shots of the night.. =)

good way to start the 22nd year of my life.. =)

p.s. i was not wearing a purple pullover. it's grey. haha.

the day before the big day!

2007-09-11T20:30:00.001+08:00

finally i am updating my blog again! haha. everyone must be wondering.... FINALLY. haha.

before i start on this day, i have decided to make this more of a food blog. with a few random thoughts of the day added in.

alright.. today! the day before the big dayyyy! haha.

we decided to re-visit the italian place that we had when korkor came over. villa romana. always like the ambience.. and the customer service is pretty goodd! we are still very impressed by the place. though it's abit pricy.

we din change our taste much. haha. the last time we had a calzone and spaghetti marinara. today, we had the sameeee.. just that the stuffing in the calzone is different. for those who are not too sure what it is, it is a pizza that is covered up like a curry puff. haha. mum.. it's the pizza version of ur curry puff. the stuff inside is normally what u have on ur pizza. the last time we tried a seafood one.. but this time we tried the italian sausage one.

sorry for the open package. the food was so good that we couldnt help and went straight for it. haha. so when we realised, at least we still had enough for one good shot of the stuffing. haha.

next dish up is the spaghetti.. freshest of ingredients.. seafood all fresh, not marinara mix in the packet kind.

even the sauce in the pasta had a seafood stock tasteee.. it's really rich to that extent. i so enjoy such food. i bet right now my mum is like saying "woah.. really know how to enjoy urself" haha. and i believe even my dad would like this seafood pasta. haha.

me digging in..... and me enjoying the dinnerrrrr! haha.

lastly, dessert... sticky date pudding served warm with vanilla icecreammm...

and of coz such a dinner... needs great company... =)

overall, this is a good start to the celebrations for the big day though i still have school. haha. but still looking forward to it. =)

p.s. my cousin, also studying here in melbourne, actually has the same birthday as mee. haha. i just found out. so happy birthday to her as well. =)

2007-08-12T20:17:00.000+08:00

family!!!

firstly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad who turns 60 with the nation! haha. the man always behind my back supporting me all the way along with my mum! dunno wad to do without the both of u there. think i wont even be here or anywhere. quite turned off when i heard that they werent going anywhere during my dad's birthday just because i am not there! never mind! u all good! wait till i go back! i make sure u all go out for special dinners all the time! hahaha.

anyway, i realised i actually have family here! someone from the ho family. haha. my cousin from my dad's cousin's sideee! went for some national day party and saw sophia ho there! haha. how funny was that! we were like "ohshit! wad are u doing here!" haha. but it was nice to see that we have family around. =)

the party wasnt that fantastic. the buffering for the webcast was the same as the one online. so it was quite laggyy.. and they said we were gonna have a BUFFET with singaporean food. all we had was nasi lemak from nasi lemak house. so much for a buffet. and the crowd.. think the whole place was swamped with scholars or something. only a handful of us who seemed like ppl looking for a fun night to spend our country's 42th birthday.

me and my cousin!

this is tim.. my cousin's housemate. top bloke. haha. just came out of the army.. so he is very on still. haha.

my cousin again!

and this is the group of ppl who most dun look like scholars out of the whole party. haha.

and of cozzz.. how can such a thing not have me and my babyy. =)

and the night ended off with takeaway porridge from supper inn due to the lack of food at the party. for me at least.

the all blacks..

2007-07-31T20:21:00.000+08:00

the reason why my baby bought the jersey for mee..

and why black is one of my favourite colours..

and this is my favouriteee..

holidays over.. everything starts again..

2007-07-23T19:53:00.000+08:00

the holidays are finally over.. and i havent been updating i know. haha.

anyway.. here's a short summary of wad i did during the holidays...

as my housemate left the car for us this holidays, we decided to drive around..

places we visited included:
1. knox city!
2. port melbourne.
3. the glen.
4. st kilda.
5. and many many places with food we all so wanted to eat.

hehe. sorry abit too tired today to type alot.haha.

anyway, school started and today i had my first lesson for swimming/triathlon. it was a killer man. first we had to warm up with 2 laps of backstroke and 2 laps of freestyle. den we did 12 mins non stop of free-style, counting how many laps we hit. i managed to do 8 which is quite good already for me. haha. den after that we did laps with 5 secs intervals between each other with 15 secs rest at the end of each lap. and after that we did dives off the board with sprints for a lap. did about 6 of thosee. and to end off the session, we did 3 laps of backstroke. which killed me man. had bad stitch at the end.

anyway, on the brighter side of thingssss.. this came in today!

my new bike which i bought online!

it is said to be for the budget triathlete! hahaha. sounds like me!

when i first got it from the delivery man, it was quite heavy. haha. in fact the whole package was 15kgs. but the bike itself supposed to be around 10kgs. which is very heavy already for a road bike. but i am just doing it for this half of the year. when i got money den i buy a better one!

i look like a small boy who just opened his christmass present. haha. i enjoy such times. haha. esp when my parents bought me toys last time which i would choose and they would wrap up and put under the christmas tree. but i think i am too old for that. angbaos or cold hard cash works better now! hahaha.

relying on my knowledge of wad i read on their website on how to assemble the bike, i still had to look at the instruction manual coz there were certain parts that seemed dodgy to me. hahaha.

this..

plus..

this..

plus..

this..

gives you....

this!

my new bike! hahaha. but i now only have the bike and nothing else..

need a new helmet.. hahaha. and like those cages for water bottles.. lock and chain.. and perhaps some cycling shoes..

this is the pair i am intending to get. =)

hehe. but all these will cost a bomb. haii.. gotta buy one at a time. =)

but this is the start of a very very tiring semester..

DFO and Korean BBQ

2007-06-26T20:19:00.001+08:00

it's off day today.. so we went off to DFO Essendon! a few things we were looking for.. bedsheetss.. maybe a few clothes. but halfway thru.. i stopped for a snackkk.. hehe. there's this place that had eggs benedict, actually breakfast all-day! anywayyy..

there was this sauce on it. it's hollandise sauce (if thats how u spell it) haha.

den it was more shoppinggg.. bought two hoodies for 30bucks from essential man.

after that, we headed off to boxhill for korean bbq! at first, the place we found on yellow pages was actually the wrong place but it's called boxhill korean bbq as well. haha. but anyway.. in the end we found the right place.. on whitehorse road.. dad and mum, if u see this, u might remember it because we went there before when u came over last time.

here's a closeup of the hot plate with food on it. they serve everything from beef to chicken to chicken ribs.. lean pork.. and fatty pork.. not a large spread of vegetables though. only mushrooms, cucumbers and carrots. onions and garlic to go for flavour.

and the hot plate is wad makes it famous. it's a pig shaped hot plate. couldnt take a entire shot of the pig but the namecard itself shows the hotplate.

both of us are very happy.. coz it's something that we have been looking forward to! hehe.

it's been food galore so far.. hehe. need to work harder at the gym from now onwards. hehe. that's all for now!

char siewwwww!

2007-06-25T21:48:00.000+08:00

went to the gym twice today. once in the morning to do cardio with baby.. 1 hour.. twenty mins on the elliptical machine.. den 20 mins on the stationary bike.. and lastly 20 on the treadmill. the afternoon session was my normal workout session. hopefully this turns out well by the end of the holidays.

and it's char siew night! hehe. waited so long to make our own char siew. bought this bottle of char siew sauce which can be used to marinate meat to make char siew. so missing char siew quite abit, we used a rack of pork ribs and marinated it with the char siew sauce for like almost 2 days! hehe. the whole piece of pork was red when we took it out from the fridge..

den we placed it on a tray and baked it for 20 mins on each side. when we turned it on the other side, we poured the rest of the marinate all over to coat it even more...

another shot of the 'before' picture. hehe. looks good even before baking. smells damn good as well. hehe.

after baking both sides for a total of 40mins, we added some honey on the top and baked it for another 10 minss.

and a close-up shot of the pork!

me cutting the pork.. after letting it rest for like 5-10 minss.. too bad the sauce on the tray burnt out. if not it would make damn good sauce on the char siew itself.

and here you go!!! the final product! lester & lian char siew! made in melbourne! hehe. enjoy folks!

fat bastard!

2007-06-24T20:04:00.000+08:00

wheeee! finally the exams are overrrr! holiday for 1 month. haha. good time to rest and recuperate from the trauma of studying for 1 month. haha. this is to scare my sister abit so that she will study hard when she starts sch in july. but i am sure she will do fine la.

anyway.. to start off our partying for the holidays.. we met up with one of our good friends here in melbourne today who just came back from perth. haha. being treated like a illegal immigrant there, sam decided to bring us for a 'Fat Bastard' at st kilda today. u will understand later why it's called a fat bastard when i post up the pictures. haha. dinner was held at a place in st kilda's called Greasy Joe's. Nice place.. nice atmosphere. good for catching up with friends. so dun talk so much already.. here's the photos..

when u see this.. u will understand why it's called a 'Fat Bastard'. My friend, sam insisted that he needs to have one of these before he flies back home on wednesday.

it's triple beef, triple bacon, triple cheese with mustard and caramelized onions, served with chips but no salad. haha. (triple beef means three beef patties, triple bacon means three layers of bacon, etc.)

baby ordered a Joe's burger.

it's one beef, one chicken, cheese and salad, served with chips. haha.

me and my friend sam with our 'Fat Bastard's. haha.

baby with her Joe's.

sam getting what he wanted finally and being very happy about it. haha.

all the food that we ordered. a total of 7 beef patties on the table. haha.

i managed to finish all the three patties on my plate. sam could only finish 2. haha. but at the end i felt as though i just finished three thick pieces of steak. haha. as for sam's last patty, i 'dabao'-ed it home for lunch or sth tml. haha. it is really a thick patty man. one patty could be the equivalent of a steak. haha.

but at the end of the day.. we were all very satisfiedddd... and it was a good start to my holidays..

that's all for now.. i will update more day by day. meanwhile.. it's time to sit down, chill and watch tv. =)

2007-06-06T11:03:00.001+08:00

i am on the verge of breaking down in this house. it's getting more and more ridiculous by the day.

and for your information.. it's not the exams that's killing me.

it's something more irritating than that. ugh.

2007-06-01T15:27:00.000+08:00

ORD for one year alreadyyyyyy!!!! wooohoooooo!

that's all. haha.

2007-05-30T11:11:00.000+08:00

'in the jungle.. the mighty jungle.. the lion sleeps tonight.....'

it's a jungle out here when u are studying. hehe. i end up studying in the library in school in preparation for my exams due to some irritating reason back at home. dun worry.. it's not my baby.. neither is it my housemate. hehe. those who know u know who la. haha.

oh well.. like my mum said.. treat everything as if it's invisible. haha. and i believe things do happen for a reason. it's quite nice to study in my library actually.. i realised that to make a conducive environment for me to study, i need to have a big empty table and no computer in front of me. if not it's gonna be tough studying. haha.

alright.. i am gonna sneak upstairs now and sit in a quiet corner.. enjoy my lunch.. and start hitting the bookss.. hehe.

peace out.

2007-05-28T18:49:00.000+08:00

dinner two nights agoo....

rosemary pork chops with onion mash and roasted zucchini.. topped with crispy pork skin.

this was my first attempt at this. the meat turned out to be abit too dry. but it was of the right colour and taste. the skin was pretty goooddd.. just needed to roast longer to allow it to crackle more. hehe. and the onion mashhhh... oooooo.. something new which turned out goodd. =)

and for dessertttt.......

peanut butter cupcakesssss with peanut butter icing and chocochips...

this is my baby's masterpiece.. nice ehhhhh.. hehe. all lined up and ready to gooo... into my stomach. muahhahaha. =)

more food will be coming up soonnn.. stay tuneddd!

2007-05-28T15:19:00.000+08:00

helloo and i am backkkkK! with more photosss! haha. this time it's my baby's 21st birthdayyyyyy! hehe. the special day that auntie angie, uncle low and i planned one month before the big dayyyy. hehe. and the surprise (though nearly let out) was kept till the last min! hehe. and it was such a wonderfull dayyyy! hehe. and now here are the shots! enjoyyyy!

this is the birthday girl! who was kept in the dark thinking i was bringing many many of my own friends.. hehe.

and my partners in crimeeee... muahahaha. hhehe.

part of the crowddddd... all the young pplllll! hehe. everyone was young that night. =)

one of my good friendss.. and family friend of the Lows.. zhenghan.. who was visiting from adelaide at that timeee..

and we brought two friends crazy over WOW together. hahhaa. damn funny la. one thin one not so thin. hahaha.

the whole crowd except for the young uncles and aunties.. but it was a bigggg gathering of friends and family afterall.

and at the end of the day.. everyone was satisfied. and i mean satisfied.. hahhaa.

and that's me and my babyyy.. happy birthday babyyy! though this post is abit lateee.. hehe. i love uuuuu! hehe.

p.s. those in attendence other than the birthday girl were.... Uncle Low, Aunty Angie, Aunty Paklan, Uncle Pong Heng, Steph, Sam, Andy, Beatrice, Angeline, Zoe, Seann, Kenn, Sam Chua, Zhenghan, Eric, and me!

Thank you everyone for coming downnnn. it was a successful outing! =)

2007-05-24T13:58:00.000+08:00

alright! this took quite awhile to surface! hahaha. but it's here finally! hahha. korkor's trippppp! hahaha.

it was mainly just getting together, having good foodddd and boozzeeeee. haha. but it's the only time when i drank in aussie. hahaha.

first dinnerrrr.. we went to sofia's... hahaha. coz we were craving for italian foodddd.. and steak for me and kor kor. hahaha.

this is minee.. scallops, prawns and beefffff.. all u can ask for in a dishhh...

and this is korkor's. hahhaa. motherbig steak! the one zhenghan cannot finish. hahaha.

this is baby's pasta.. hahaha. marinara!

this is angeline's pizza! hehe. look at the mushroommmmms!

i did quite well!! managing to finish my steak and seafood and vegetablesss! haha.

but korkor din do that well... but he managed to finish his steakkk still. hahaha.

there was korean food tooooo! hehe.

and this is korean beerrrrr.. haha. which was just normallll... hehe.

wolverine wanna-be...

this is stewed tofu! hot hot hot! but damn shiok! hahaha.

this is the hot plate chicken.. or is it beef... maybe it's chickenn... hahahha..

den we had danish pancakessss.. small small cute cute oneesss. hehe.

and there was also the post office breakfastttt! damn nice sunny-side-ups! and crossiants! with fatty fatty baconnnnn. hehe. and mushroommmmmssss! hehe.

and they can make nice cofffeeee as welll....

the french breakfast settttt again!

after all the foodd.. here's something more normal.. we went to visit vickii as well. that's xinlian's australian mum. hahaha. that's why she calls herself. hahaha. and her sons.. thomas and liammmm.. so cuteeee! and now liam is such a charmerrrr! hehe.

he has blue eyessss! and he is only 2 years oldddd! hehe.

those are the toys we got for themmm.. he enjoys making them falllll and go wheeee! hehe.

he's keeping still for the photo.. too bad we din manage to get him in his rocker stanceeee. hehe.

well.. that more or less sums up korkor's one week trip here. haha. it was good having him here. good fun! well.. hope he gets the intern! den it will be even more funnnnn!!! wooohoooooo! hehe.

2007-05-19T15:49:00.000+08:00

in one week, i managed to...

1. finish my journal assignment due yesterdae..
2. finish my laboratory report on laterality also due yesterdae..
3. finish my research presentation which i completed in an hour thanks to some useless ppl in my group.
4. finish 6 out of 10 of my lecture notes for coaching in prep for my exam next tuesday..
5. finish my micro-coaching write-up due next tuesday with my exam..
6. part of my weight training journal due next thursday.. or is it friday..?

alright. enough of what i have done when i have so much more to go. haha.

sorry folks that it has been so long since i blogged. not updating constantly. always tired. the best excuse for not blogging. or lazy to upload my photos.. another best excuse for not blogging. haha.

it's my ahma's birthday today. happy birthday ah ma. though most likely u wont see or understand this, thank you very much for being part of bringing me up. without u.. i wont be able to speak half-past-six hokkien mixed with chinese and abit of english. without u, i wont be reminded every sunday how naughty i was as a young boy whenever i wanted to run about and u would slap me on my hand. without u i wont have appreciated what's family and how important family is no matter what happens. thank you so much for your love. may u always be smiling like how u are in my heart all the time.

and to those who dunno.. my ah ma has 5 generations so far below her. which means i am a granduncle somewhere to someone. haha. and she has like 10 over great-grandchildren running around her right now during her birthday celebrations. anyway, i called to wish her happy birthday. den i told her to enjoy the dinner tonight. guess wad she said.. in hokkien.. she said i wont be there to enjoy it with her. hehe. so cute right. haha. well.. that's my ahma. what can i say. =)

school has been alright so far. doing pretty alright for my ASSignments. exams are coming up. i wonder how i will fare. for noww.. no more running for me coz i passed my personal fitness unit! wheeee! and for weights training.. it's officially over as well.. but we are still going in for the last session to have a workout. next semster.. it's swimming and triathlon. hahha. how nice is that. they are preparing us for the second semster actually. hahaha. swimming in the winter.. how interestingggg..

alright.. i will post up some photos which i din get the chance to post up the past few weeksss later after dinnerr.. see ya matey!

2007-05-10T09:18:00.000+08:00

"the front squat is a variation of the traditional squat......."

just finished my presentation for my weights training. It was quite alright i guess. maybe being an instructor in bmtc helped me abit with my presentation skills. having to talk in front of my recruits. haha. that's how i treat my audience now.. see them as my recruits. haha. those were the dayyyss...

got back my motor development journal assignment today. i only got a 13 out of 25. kinda disappointed because i thought i put in quite abit of effort into it. but apparently i wasnt answering the question asked. ugh. but this is not gonna put me down. gonna start earlier this time for the next assignment and nail it this time. tim (my only aussie friend) got a 12. but both of us agreed that she's hard on us and being a biatch. haha.

it's wanton tonight! wheeee! will be putting up the photos tonight after dinnerrr.. mum i did u proud! i can go sell wanton mee already. hahaha. but i hope it turns out fine. it's the angmoh version of a wanton using rockling fish (instead of 'sweetpotato' fish). haha. but i hope it turns out fineeee...

alright..resolutions for the rest of the weekkkk...:

1. i have to start on my coaching lectures. start copying them out and studying them.
2. i have to finish up my research methods presentation.
3. i have to start planning on my next journal assignment for motor development.
4. i have to finish up my weights training book and fill up the exercises.

that's enough for this weekk.. counting that there are four days left and i have been really tired this week.

anyway, did u know.....

that the thing that u can attach onto ur crocs is called a jibbit and it was invented by this mom who just wanted to make her daughters' crocs pretty. which ended up becoming a 20milliondollar business.

why didn't i think of that.. damn it.

2007-05-09T20:31:00.000+08:00

we made wantons todayyyyy! according to mum's recipe! hehe. wanton mee tml! wheeee!

p.s. i got hd for my anatomy! woohoooo! and i gotta study for my coaching soon. =S

2007-05-05T11:37:00.000+08:00

sorry guys. havent been updating. been rather busy.

1. had a micro-coaching presentation on tuesday which i singlehanded did the whole powerpoint presentation by myself.

2. just finished an anatomy test on friday. went quite well but hoping for the best. haha.

3. had a couple of assignments to finish up. motor development and research methods.

but there is still much more to be donee.. just cant wait for my exams and i can enjoy my holidays. haha.

2007-04-16T22:08:00.000+08:00

friends friends friends. it's all about friends this easter break! =)

firstly, zhenghan came over from adelaide! haha. so much like a country boy entering the big city! haha. brought him all around to shop and eat! hope u enjoyed urself my friend. it was great having u over. he was also joined by chengkang who came over from sydney! it was like a gathering of platoon three ppl when me, zhenghan, chengkang and darrell yeo met up for a wine tour this holiday. haha. enjoying wine and talking about army stuff which are now memories of the past..

what a small boy can do. =)

2007-04-06T21:15:00.000+08:00

"lester,

hi, how are you! long time no see. i wish that you and xinlian will come back to singapore and play with mi and we can go escape. i wish that i can see you all at melbourne at the end of the year.

from
aaron tay"

simple words of a small boy.. level of honesty and sincerity never ceases to amaze me.. =)

2007-04-05T07:07:00.000+08:00

yeahHhH! the holidays are coming. though one week but still a break.. and i am sure it's gonna be goodddd! hehe. just completed the most intensive week of my school term so far. had a test and the submission of an assignment in just 2 days. haha. but i managed to complete all of it. just handled up my assignment. just a short introduction but i hope it was good enough. been really rusty when it comes to writing essays and all and this time it's no lit essay with flowery language. it's a essay regarding science and stating facts. sheesh. worst part is i gotta research for those facts myself. haha.

anyway, three more days and it's my baby's 21st birthdayyyy. hehe. hope she will enjoy this birthdayyy.. it's gonna be special. haha. many many things planned for uuu. =)

well.. been talking to my folks through email. it's quite a funny thing coz it's the first time. and like my parents send these emails as though they are really talking to me. like how my mom tells me not to drink so much and all. can just imagine her saying that when i read the emails. haha. well.. good to hear that u all are okieee.. do take care of urselves.

school has been good so far. been handling my work pretty well. but i think i need to do some catching up in terms of my notes. haha. well.. at least i know my motor development is more or less done. haha. as for the rest of the subjects.. it's presentations and presentations and presentations. i really wonder how my project work is gonna turn out. i hope i dun get screwed up by the group i am in.

wondering how's everyone doing in singaporee.. ppl in borders.. good friends and all.. ppl like audrey williams.. dunno if she disappear into thin air yet. if u see this.. make sure u are available for prata and kopi at the end of the year. haha. and other good friends all over.. like zhenghan in adelaide.. david in perth.. i wonder when we will be able to meet up all together again.. haha. hopefully not in some jungle in australia. haha. but we should meet while we are here. haha.

alright. i got nothing much to do actually while waiting for my weights training class to begin. so i think i will slack around and surf the net and watch the faces of my fellow aussie course mates crack their heads finishing up their introduction assignment. sometimes it's quite amusing to see them try to keep their calm and cool faces when inside they are all tensed up and gonna explore.

later.

2007-04-02T20:14:00.000+08:00

finally i finished up all my notes on motor development! abit sloppy at the end.. but i think i kinda get the concept of what's going on. haha. it's pretty simple and kinda repeating in each chapter. haha. wonder what kind of questions they can come up with for this subject. haha. with everything repeating. haha. somemore got 80 questions. sheesh.

anyway, the easter break is coming! haha. so exciting! zhenghan is coming! and we are going to bring him around. well.. good to have friends over sometimes. haha. makes home closer to u. haha. plus cooking for them makes me feel like i am cooking for my parents back home. haha. miss making my parents my guinea pigs. but the food i cook is still quite acceptable la. so not so bad. hahaha. well.. here are more photos of my cooking.. back from last weekkk. when sam and eric came overrrr! haha. everyone, esp melissa ho ye lin.. please enjoyyy!

main courseeee.. crispy skin pork with roasted vegetablesss...

cereal prawns prepared by my housemate angelineeee.. yum yum...

bill granger's style mushroomss as sidesss..

and jamie's bloomin' easy vanilla cheesecakee as desserttt! =)

the pork cooked to perfection..

and happy sam and angeline.. watching me carve the foodddd..

that's all folkssss.. =)

2007-03-31T20:29:00.000+08:00

how i wish it was the easter break. haha. well.. studying for my motor development test now. been doing that the past few days. this is what happens when u dun do ur readings and update ur lecture notes often enough. haha. think i am gonna do that from now onwards. haha.

made dinner today. i just realised there are alot of ways to save money cooking good food at the same timeee.. haha. beef bones at $2/kg. haha. buy a kilo of that and u can make wicked beef stew man. hahhaa. buy lamb at $5 a rack.. and pray they forget to count it into ur total amount. that means lamb for freee! haha. all that i cooked today. hehe. some pictures now of today's main courseeeee.. enjoyyyy...

the beef stewwww.. the boneee.. my favouriteeee. haha.

the lamb rackkk which was freee.. tried bill's recipe. but i couldnt rem what was in it. so i just went by judgment. haha.

and me craving the lambbb.. hahhaa. not very professional looking. hehe.

alrighttt.. that's about it for today.. back to the booksss.. and soon it's the holidaysss and baby's birthdayyyy! gotta start looking for something for herrr.. hehe. =)

2007-03-29T13:45:00.000+08:00

damn. i still have 1 lab report and alot of things to study for motor development. computer test coming up with 80 questions. sheesh. hai. plus 2 presentations coming up. sucks to be alone in class. no one wants to do project with u. oh well.

what a disappointment today. i only lifted 7044.5kg for my shoulders and traps total. blasted.

back to the report. later.

2007-03-24T22:23:00.000+08:00

hello everybody. well.. according to my mum and sister, it's my cousin's (gary) ROM today. congrats to him! and all the best! too bad i wont be around for the wedding. oh well.. and i also realised that this is the first time i wont be around for my grandma's birthday. that one i feel sad about. coz i never missed my grandma's birthday in the 22 years of my life. ya.

anyway... here are the long awaited photos for the f1 finals which i went.. enjoyyyyyy...

it seemed like the gates of heaven with the light of God shining in the backdrop. haha. the divine sound of the engines roaring.. haha.

the atmosphere was awesomeeee! the crowd was great! =)

and i am all set to take many many photos! (in the end a total of 499 photos. haha.)

and they are offf! the cars on their warm up laps. best time to take many cars as they are going really slowly. haha.

me and my round friend sam! haha.

me in action!

kimi! race leader throughout the whole race. wad a good run. haha.

the mclaren boys! alonso and lewis hamilton.

aussie's home boy mark webber!

this is felipe chasing fisichella. from 2nd last in the grid to 6th. not bad a run too.

backshot of a car. quite impossible to get.. especially from that spot at that angle.

and when the race was over....

we got onto the trackssss! haha.

sam boy on the track!

i'm touching the sacred ground! oh my goshhhh! haha.

the famous pit lane....

shot of the pit stop of the renault team.

mclaren's pit..

and the number one team.. ferrari!

cars at rest at the end of the race.. that's a toyota. =)

and david coulthard's red bull after the crash. on the wrong side of the car. haha.

den we went off and onto lygon street for dinnerrr.. there they had the ferrari showcase still going on. and hence, with good camera i took more photos! -borat accent- i like!

if only i could have one of those......

vroom vrooommmmmmM!

looks like a toy car ya? ya ya!

something i hope i get to own and ride one day! =)

but at the end of the dayyyy.. we were all happy ppl.. ya ya? =)

that's all folks. =)

2007-03-21T09:10:00.000+08:00

MOOMBA!

here are some photos of the Moomba Water Fest. it was something like a carnival thing with many many games and rides. reminds me of a pasar malam but a games and rides version. hahaha. but they also had stuff like starlight movie and fireworks display.. enjoy.. =)

one of the scary rides.

this was playing techno songs while it moved. haha.

kids were enjoying being stuck in these sticks bundled together. sheesh.

some shots of the wonderful fireworks display that went on for at least 15 mins. haha.

overall.. we were happy.. we had a good time.. =)

2007-03-14T12:09:00.000+08:00

the F word.

F for... FERRARI! haha. they came down to visit me @ lygon street. haha. can u believe it? the whole ferrari team. all the babies of ferrari came down for me for me for meeee! haha. and it's the whole lot of themmmm. haha. u will understand what i meann! =P

here they come!!

wish i could drive one of thoseeee babiesss.

when i say manyy i mean mannnyyyyyyyyy!

a whole parking lot of themmmm. that's like 10 thousand million dollars on lygon. haha.

me with the 'UGLY' ferrari.

old school F1 carrrr!

the rose among the roseeeesss. hehe.

wish i had one of thoseeee..

going going... goneee...

but there will be moreee... this time F1 styleee... coming up soonnnn. haha.

2007-03-14T08:01:00.000+08:00

hello everybody. sorry for the long absence. been really busy slacking off. haha. time to update on certain things. hehe. =)

school has been good so far. lectures are all coming together. we getting more and more into the exercise science stuff than just how to score in assignments and all. have a new friend Tim. he's the only one talking to me as a friend. the others just know me as lester, the international kid. haha. one shitty thing is i gotta run three times a week man. and with collected timing somemore. i know i know.. many of u must be bloody hell this is a crazy course. hehe. but it's meant for crazy ppl like me.

as for everything else at homeeeee, my uncle just passed away recently. it's kinda sad because i cant be there to send him off on his funeral. but at least we all know that he and my auntie can finally be reunited again. his life has been very impactful on all our lives. for me, i always remebered as a young kid that we would go visit him and with his feeble voice, he would never fail to entertain me with either jokes or tricks. growing up now, i sometimes pity him for the kind of son he has. his son has shown me how i shouldnt treat my father or mother for granted. how i should in fact repay them for everything they provide to me as soon as i can. honestly, i dun like this cousin of mine. but afterall he is my cousin. i still gotta treat him as a cousin. i jus pray that my uncle and auntie will be reunited with Him.

somehow, i can imagine what's my dad's reaction if he saw this post of mine. he would say no matter how bad the son, he is still the father's son and the father will still love him. this makes me realise that fathers, especially my dad, are in fact very forgiving but we should never take them for granted. for all the cooking, washing, serving, paying, cleaning which my dad did for me.. thank you dad.

kinda miss my family alot now. 5 weeks since i've been here. the longest i have been away is 2 months. but i had to go back after those 2 months. for this time, i know i still have a long way to go before i go back. so ya. kinda sucks. but no worries, ah pa ah bu. i am studying hard ah. and saving as much money as i can for u. haha. dun have to worry about me here not having enough money. if not enough den i will head to sch for free meals lor. we do have it here! haha. as for my sister, she still irritates me online even when i am already in australia. she just never know when to stop. but that's how brothers and sisters work right? love = irritation. haha. all the best for ur selections. i pray u get what u wan! and u better strive to do well for it okie? secondary school is over. the real studies start now. =)

okie. i think i have updated enough for nowww.. haha. up next will be many many photos over the past 1-2 weeks. =)

2007-03-03T19:15:00.000+08:00

no more familiar faces.. those i see everyday everywhere..

no more familiar voices.. those teaching me broken chinese.. or those midnight supper voices..

no more familiar walks.. those back home.. or those along suntec..

no more familiar smiles.. those of my parents.. those of my sister..

no more familiar buddies.. those frequent members of mr bean & happy daze..

no more familiar nightlife.. those hanging around orchard road at 3am in the morning..

now all the new faces.. those i have never in my life seen before..

now all the new voices.. those with accents who dun understand mine..

now all the new walks.. those to school or to the city.. or those to the tram stop..

now all the new smiles.. those who pity me for being the only international student..

now all the new challenges.. those who test me time and time again..

now i just want all the familiar..
but all i have is the new..
though the trials and all..
all i gotta say.. is thank you i love u..

but i got u.. and that's all i need.. =)

2007-02-27T17:33:00.000+08:00

school din start well. i dun understand a single thing in the lectures. i have no idea what's going on. and i'm the only international student in the course. i guess 'international student' means alien to them. or freak. i dunno. that's what i am getting. that's my impression of them. but why should i be bothering? i just hope everything gets better soon. i really want everything to be alright. i dunno how long more i can take all these. i miss home. =(

2007-02-23T20:15:00.000+08:00

lester wants a road bicycle.

lester wants to join a triathlon club.

lester wants to do many things..

but lester got no money.. haha.

2007-02-20T20:11:00.000+08:00

orientation is finally over! i finally got my student id. haha. apparently i smiled in the picture. but it kinda showed me as a normal looking face. haha. at least i din do my hair up in a mohawk style. haha. oh ya. and in my id, they left out my english name LESTER. so i am known as ho kuok wai only. must be the comma before the name lester in my passport. ugh. anywayy, waiting for my turn to do up my id was such a painful time. the SAME group of ppl which i dun like are in front of me and best of all, one of them just cut in and even had the cheek to say sorry for cutting. cant understand what these ppl from that country think in that bloody brain of theirs. ugh. now i just cant wait for my orientation camp. after that, it's the start of a brand new experience. still wondering what school is gonna be like.. hmm...

so far yet so close... =)

2007-02-18T22:30:00.000+08:00

it's chinese new yearrr.. and i am hereee in the oh-so-hot australia! weather has been crazy man.. i am sweating even more than i ever did in the army. haha. and i have never felt so hot out of the house with already so little clothes on. haha. now i begin to appreciate the wonders of what an air-conditioner can do man. haha. can u believe it? half of melbourne actually blacked out because everyone switched on their air-cons at the same time and there was not enough power circulating the city. haha. think the next apartment i find.. must have air-con. depends la. air here is expensive. and when i say air i mean air-con. aussie lingo. it's the first day of the lunar new year. how do asians celebrate it here? ppl like my good friend zhenghan studies for his test. haha. as for mee.. i do my daily routine of going to the gym. and watching tv after dinner. haha. life here is quite monotonous. haha. except today something really stupid happened all thanks to me. i lost my ring. in the gym. ugh. so frustrated and disappointed with myself. haiii. anywayy.. tml's the start of the orientation for local students and we international students gotta be there as well.. what a waste of time. but one good thing is... i am gonna learn how to surf! during my orientation campppp! how cool is that! haha. so fun. haha. think my course gonna be fun. alrightt.. i will say more about this desert that i am currently in tml while i rest my sweaty body in preparation for tml's waste of time. peace y'all.

2007-02-15T19:58:00.000+08:00

watching family guy noww.. so think i shall upload some photos for yesterdae (valentine's day).

we had a good good dinner last night.. a three course meal..

Valentine's Day Dinner Menu 2007

starter
french onion soup baked with extra cheesee

main course
beef fillet wrapped in pancetta served with panfried potatoes
and baked mushrooms with cheese and sauteed spinach

dessert
soft-centred chocolates cake served with strawberries

and here's all the photos for the wonderful menu..

the wonderful french onion soup prepared by my babyyy.. jamie-oliver-style..

mushrooms with sauteed spinach topped with cheddar cheese and a knob of butter..

the beef wrapped with pancetta and the wonderful panfried potatoes served up with the mushrooms..

the beautiful soft-centred chocolate mousse.. yummmmyyy.. =)

and here's to a wonderful Valentine's Day 2007 with my babyy.. =)

2007-02-12T21:50:00.000+08:00

what a day in school today. first day of my orientation and it has been on such a bad start. firstly, desma, the international students advisor, seemed so unfriendly when i simply asked for the orientation schedule. i dun understand why local students are able to get their schedule online while international students dun even have a shit of information anywhere accessible. ugh. secondly, the rest of the international students (not mentioning from where) disgust me totally with their kiasu attitude and rude behaviour. i was trying to sign up for some workshop and they totally just cut my queue and dun even let me write first when i am the one with the pen. tells alot about the country they are from. how disgusting. lastly, they invited current international students to come talk to us and they got all of them from the same country. and all these students talked about is how their education system back home is different from the australian education system. it was such a total waste of time. at least baby was there with me through the second half of the orientation for today. thank you so much for calming me down thru lunch and throughout the rest of the day. without u i would have killed someone i guess. anyway.. i just cant wait for wed when i finally get down to settling details about my course and all. wish they din have to go thru such a big round and waste all that time trying to disgust me. ugh. hope the coming few days would be better. i hope soo.

2007-02-11T20:46:00.000+08:00

went down to springvale today to do some groceries shopping for the coming week. it was a 40 min train ride down but e food there is so much cheaper than from safeway in the city. =) bought like 4kg of meat and fish for both me and babyy. hehe. after that we came back and packed all the food into portions for ready-cooking. haha. den we went to church for mass.. the oh-so-fast mass which ends in 45 mins. i din even have the time to fall asleep. haha. that's about it for today. i realised that since i came here i havent done much. haha. the day seems to pass so fast and i am just able to complete a task at a time in a day. sheesh. need to step up the tempo soon man!

and it's my first day of school tml. wish me luck! =)

2007-02-10T15:41:00.000+08:00

well done my little sister. keep up the good work. now go enjoy urself before the next phase of ur life begins. dad, mum, xinlian and i are all proud of u. =)

2007-02-10T15:33:00.000+08:00

here are some photos of my new roommmm. enjoy.

2007-02-09T17:29:00.000+08:00

alright. i achieved quite abit today.

i managed to fix up all the new stuff we bought from ikea. 2 tables, 1 wardrobe, 1 drawer.
i managed to be there for my sister as she collected her O Level results. well done!
i manged to unpack both of my luggages and put up all my clothes nicely into my new wardrobe. most of the time that was dad's job when i was home. but now i took over dad. =)
i am gonna cook olive fried pasta now! so i will talk to u all again later! =)

2007-02-09T12:31:00.001+08:00

my new furniture from ikea just came innnn.. wheeee.

2007-02-09T12:22:00.000+08:00

hot hot hot hot hot.

the way to go.

2007-02-08T19:26:00.000+08:00

the way to go is sipping port wine and having pineapple tarts. =)

start and renewal. =)

2007-02-08T17:24:00.000+08:00

this is my third day here in melbourne. third out of many many other days. will be here for the next nine months. it's the start of my education all over again. this time i am doing what i enjoy. and i will be together with someone who means alot to me. however, leaving my parents and my sister back home is really quite a tough thing to do. especially after i have been becoming closer to them these past few months. i was half-hearted about leaving in the first place. but i also decided that i want to get this over and done with so that i could come back and start working and giving back to my parents and sister what they have given me. now i just have to bear with it abit more and hopefully my sister grows up and understands my intentions of what i have been trying to get thru to her.

alright. on a lighter notee. school hasnt started for me. the fact is that in my offer letter it states that i am supposed to enrol in school on the 6th of Feb. however, when i got here on the 6th and called the school, they told me that the enrolment for international students is the start of the international students orientation on the 12th as well. so that gives me about a week or less to pack and prepare for the start of my school. i am quite excited about it. hopefully it turns out to be as fun as i expect it to be. i was looking at the timetable for the various lessons which i will be doing this sem and i was so confused. den babyy just assured me that i will be briefed about it and it will all be fine. =)

lastly, to all my friends, those i couldnt meet up with, i will see u all in nine months time. as for those who came to send me off.. a really big thank you for being there at the airport as it really matters to me. those are the ppl who really stay in times of need. do take care of urselves and those who work too hard, dun work so hard. those who dun work at all.. work harder. haha.

to dad and mum and sis, thank you for supporting me. i will do u all proud and not let u all down. thank you for the sacrifices and i assure u it's no sacrifice in vain. take care of urselves too and do try to enjoy urselves whenever u can. will call u all once in a while. =)

that's all for now. shall tell u all more tml when my new wardrobe and table comes in. wheee!

sorry for the delay gents and ladies!

2006-08-07T09:35:00.000+08:00

hello everybody! haha. guess who's back from melbourne! hehe. been there for 2 months! weather is so good that halfway thru my flight back home i was sweating already! haha. but anyway.. my 2 months in melbourne has been wickedly goodZ! hehe. got to spend so much time with my significant other. hehe. went to the beaches of Gold Coast and Brisbane.. climbed the Harbour Bridge in Sydney.. ate heap lots of seafood in the fish markets.. i have really had the best holiday in my life.. and i am glad i got to spend it with someone so impt to me and so close to my heart. hehe. baby.. these 2 months have been excellent for me. as much as i din wanna go back.. i wish u could come back in sept.. hehe.. anyway.. took like a thousand photos la. haha. if u wan more juicy details abt my holiday.. just wait for me to update more if i get down to it.. will be working soon i guess.. so might been abit occupied. but will try to catch up with most of u before the end of the year before i fly over again for my studies.. and there and then u wont see me for 3 yearsss. haha. okie. peace out!

i am back..

2006-03-16T20:39:00.000+08:00

-owl howls in the background, crickets give out dunno wad sound-

-yawns!- i am back!. hahaha. long long time man. it has almost been a year since i blogged. haha. quite long right? hehe. my life now? quite alright. other than my miserable side in the island that i report to every monday. now not as often because the time has come for me to go! haha. damn glad that i am finally gonna ORD. haha. well.. many must wonder how i have been. well.. nothing much can be said but a few words will do the job. maybe 2 words. f*cked up. yup. but with the few ppl around me to keep me going.. i still pull thru.. ppl like my family.. my mom.. my dad.. my sister.. and most imptly of all.. ah liannnNNN! haha. (sorry baby if u see this -muak!-) many dun recognise me anymore.. many think i change alot. well.. ya i changed alot in deed. due to circumstance due to how i HAD to live my life. better or worse, i am not sure myself actually. it's up to u to decide. i lost touch with everyone since i entered the army.. sch mates.. even my platoon mates when i just enlisted or even my OCS platoon mates. there are the only few that still remember my name. thanks guys it's nice to have u all around. but i also made new friends in the process. yiqi korkor and qingwen jiejie. the two ppl that been with me these few months. keeping the lonely me company whenever they can. thanks and u all gotta know u are damn funky! i and ur mei mei agree on that. :) alright.. this is long enough for now. i will update whoever still comes to my blog further when i feel like it.. need to digest my dinner now before going for a run. peace out.

2005-03-25T18:48:00.000+08:00

woooohooooo. -draws my sword-

ACPC today.. got my sword and my certificate that says that i am an officer from the 3rd day of april 2005. hehe. great feeling.. feel that all these 10 months of training have paid off. it was really a very nice sight tonight.

hearing what wei kiat said during his speech really touched my heart. the 6 guys who were there for him during ex. spade despite his pride.. me, dean, ben, darrell, chester, and one more person. haha.. ya. thinking abt it.. it brings back so many memories. it was the first time we had a good talk with someone who just joined us. and so soon so many days and weeks and months have passed. and now we are going to go our seperate ways.

but it's events like these that bring out the bond among us.. the brotherhood we share.. and the friendship we wont forget. it has been a really honour knowing the bunch of guys in platoon three.. for the ten months. 2nd april may be a day where we get our ranks.. but it's both a happy and sad occasion. happy on the note that we finally got our reward.. sad that we hafta part.

just got our postings today. many got what they wanted. others were shocked or surprised by theirs, not expecting what they were given. others were sent to units by themselves. there was a mixed feeling in every one of our hearts. personally, i tot abt it and wondered if bmt was really what i wanted although i did express interest for it. however, right now we are full of uncertainties. it's the day when we leave for our unit that these doubts will be cleared. hang in there for those who din get what they expected to get. believe in urself and pull urself thru. we did not train so hard just to be disappointed with our postings and give up like that. there is always greener pasture on the other side..

during the ceremony, particularly during the COA's speech, what was stuck in my mind were images of me in my future posting. wondering what it would be like, on the first day and the many subsequent days.in fact, everyday would be like the first day. something new and something to learn as each day passes by. i really wonder what it is like to hold such an appointment.. it is for me to find out in two weeks time..

2005-03-07T19:58:00.000+08:00

i am back again.. my last four weeks of training..

panther this week.. pac next week.. and i end with parade rehearsals.. as the day 2nd April comes nearer.. the reality of me becoming an officer becomes more tangible. somehow, i really wonder about life out of ocs.. on my own.. thinking for myself.. thinking for my own platoon.. that's if i do go to the unit. there's also the other scenerio where i go to msd. haha.

but anyway.. ten months of training have passed so quickly just like that.. the first day when we stepped in and started off with our three week confinement seem like it was only yesterdae.. but by the blink of an eye, we have finished most of our training and we are going to get the black bar on our shoulder.

thinking back on it, it has been quite an achievement.. thinking that we couldnt do most of the training but in the end pulling thru and completing it with the platoon.. we did it. really wonder how is it like to no longer live life in the army without platoon three.. without hearing the words "fall in now" or without being tekan as a platoon along the corrider of platoon 3 of bravo wing.

these will be the times i will miss after my commissioning. it is wad made me to be what i am today. having to go thru my ocs life with bravo platoon 3..

6 more weeks left..

2005-02-19T19:15:00.000+08:00

6 more weeks left. that's less than 2 months. to be accurate, 4 weeks or less of training left before we start our parade rehearsals.

just came back from brunei not long ago. in fact, before chinese new year. i think my wing had the best deal. our lancer training was planned at the right period of time where there was no rain, and there was chinese new year to look forward to. all hail wing comd. haha.

anyway, about lancer training.. it was definitely an experience. not only did we learn more about ourselves, we also saw the true colours of the rest. we started off our lancer trip early in the day.. flying off around 2 in the morning.. reaching brunei at around 4, taking a boat trip all the way to temburong and we hit lakiun camp at around 9. the first person we saw was warren goh. he was the frame warren for our wing. after working with him in brunei, we could tell he was a man of experience. in fact, all the lakiun instructors were.. it was really a pleasure working with them.

we started our lancer training with the admin.. going into the long house where one entire wing slept in and bonded as one entity. other activities that occured before the highlight of our trip was the practice for river crossing as well as the guided navex that we had. the guided navex actually gave us the impression that brunei was an easy place to navigate. however, we were proved wrong..

before going onto that, we also had our infantry training phase. bertayan and chindeep. was the ps for bertayan.. din have much to do except to push everyone up.. hehe. chindeep was a confidence builder for us as we were the only wing in FBO attire to clear the 7 knolls as well as crossing the Apoi before we dropped our field pack off at our FUP. normal people dropped off their field pack after the water crossing. we took it with us all the way across the 7 knolls.

somehow, for that, we were very confident that the load was no problem for us for our jungle confidence course especially for ex. chillbone. so after the infantry training phase, it was time to start our JCC package.

we started it with ex nomad, which was a 3d2n navex. on the first day, we thought we were progessing quite well.. however, when it came to the second day, we realised where we were when we hit our start point. it was quite a setback but we picked up and managed to clear the navex within the given time period..

going back to camp and stuffing ourselves for one day at least, we were prepared to move onto ex chillhermit and chillbone. it would be around 10 days before we would head back to camp when we left that morning. i told myself i could do it and i had to do it within 8 days but the short term goal was to do as much as i could for hermit. to make it short, i managed to complete all my tasks but they were not very good but satisfactory enough. zhenghan called me the duracell rabbit as throughout the five days, i was moving nonstop collecting materials. haha. anyway.. those 5 days were really enriching for me. it taught me that i could actually overcome hunger and still move myself to do as much as i could. it was really a tough time but i managed to pull through. it also brought 6 of us around the area together as we would gather every night to push each other on as well as talk about food. haha.

on the 6th day, we were pulled out from our sites and gathered at the landing pad west of temburong. we were given a resupply of our items and there some rest as well as some food. it was also the place where we were going to find out which start point we were going to for chillbone. somehow, looking at our group, we kinda expected to start from the furthest and indeed we started from lp 250, right at the bottom of the map. the end point was the same for all teams, so we knew we were behind the rest from the start. however, we never gave up and we fought on. we kept pushing and although we only moved less than 2km on the map on the first day, we never gave up. we pushed on north the next day and we managed to actually catch up with the other teams. on the third day, we managed to be the second up mt biang, the highest point of temburong. on the top, we knew that the moment we got down, we just had to cross the river and we would be heading back to camp. so we pushed on and indeed, we made it in time to cross the river that evening. although we were third to cross the river, we actually clocked the fast time for chillbone in the wing because we were the last to fly off in the helicopter with at least 2 hours behind the first to fly off. 29 hours and 5 mins was the time we took to complete and we actually had the toughest route. knowing that, we were very proud of our achievement as well as our team.

getting back to camp, we were smiling all the way as we did manage to finish it within the 3rd day. not many 250 teams were able to finish it within the 3rd day.

with that, it concluded our training in lancer. the rest of the days in lakiun camp were so slack that all we did was to eat and sleep and play. haha. the life of an officer. it was kinda sad to leave the camp as it was really an experience but at the same time, we wanted to get back home coz the trip actually taught me to appreciate my family and loved ones more...

now that i am back.. with the badge and the memories of lancer, i feel different from before the time i left. i dunno how different but there seems to be a change. but it was indeed a life-changing moment especially the 8 days we spent together as the 250 team in the jungles of temburong...

2005-01-04T21:09:00.000+08:00

88 more days..

the days pass and the big day draws closer. 2nd april is the date i am looking forward to. i am trying to appreciate all that is left. hope i get the badge. later.

2004-12-10T11:49:00.000+08:00

taiwan taiwan taiwan. here i am in taiwan and for two weeks already!

been thru hell of alot. haha. let's start with getting here. the plane flight was SQ. reminded me abt going to melbourne. hehe. anyway.. the weather when we first got to the airport didn't seem as cold as we thought it would be. however, it turned out to be rather cold as we stayed longer.

just finished all my training here in taiwan. just waiting for my r&r. hope we get to go to taipei. haha. training has been tough. i feel quite down. i just wanna get back home. i cant wait. hehe.

alright. since my com is up. i shall talk more abt taiwan when i get back. ah bing ge!

2004-11-12T23:26:00.000+08:00

damn it. i am back in camp again..

back in camp for duty.. as well as ippt tml. so sian. i dun wanna take ippt. haha. i cant run. but vincent thinks i can. haha.

but nvm. at least it will keep me away from spending my money, esp now with my debit card cancelled and missing. hopefully i will soon grow out of the habit of spending more with more money that i have. haha.

cant wait to go to roc.. that would mean so many things..
1. i would be able to expect for the first time training without sweating at all.
2. i would be able to tour taiwan (or is it taipei?) for my R&R..
3. coming back home would mean i would be able to spend my 3 days 2 nights stay at rasa sentosa with my beloved girl and have a good break before going back to camp for training.
4. it would mean i will get to spend all my book outs, off-in-lieus, nights off etc. with my baby.. hehe.
5. my baby would be able to drive me around and we get to go anywhere we want. hehe. come on sweetie.. u can get that license. ;)

see.. with so many things that will happen from my return from roc, don't u agree that i would be able to enjoy myself even though training still goes on. haha. hang in there lester. u can make it through this last league. come on baby. u can hang in there with me too. hehe.

anyway.. back to serving my extra on this fine friday. think i got quite a good deal from kenneth. luckily i changed my duty with him. or else it would mean coming back to camp for 3 times in a short span of four days. haha. but it's okie. it's my last extra! hopefully i am careful enough not to get anymore of this short of minor punishment. haha.

oh ya. one more thing. my com is done. so if anyone sees this, i am sorry i cant go online until dunno when. and dunno when is when i finally get my com fixed or get myself a new com. haha. but if i were to get a new com, it would be the ibook or powerbook already. so let's pray for a miracle to happen so that i suddenly become financially able to get myself the new com. hehe.

okie. that's all for now. i will be back later in the afternoon to report my day's happenings.. which wouldnt be much. haha.

2004-10-31T18:13:00.000+08:00

i am back home..

but i feel that i am still in camp.. only in the comfort of my own room with aircon and my own bed. just completed my ops order for ex wolf. still have the blown up to do and the aop for ex jaguar to complete. but i am already so worn out. lack of sleep.. ughh..

i miss my baby so much.. i cant wait to go to roc actually.. though it sounds really tough with all the exercises and the possibility of me holding an exercise appointment. but the idea of 4 days of R&R and flying SQ there and back puts me in the mood to go for the trip. plus the morale booster at the end of the trip when my baby picks me up from the airport. hehe.

haii.. it was a really washed out week for me in camp. ex wolf made me realise that i am the kind of person who cant think properly with a helmet on my head and when i am half dead. how to remain in ocs.. this week also made me realise that i am super dependent on my parents still. went to get some stuff to bring back to camp and i had to depend on my parents to get it for me. but i am glad that i still have my parents here for me. although i don't say it out mom and dad, but i do love u. thank u for taking care of me all these 19 years of my life.

okie. lester is feeling better but he is still tired. so he is gonna sleep. goodnight.

2004-10-26T10:18:00.000+08:00

i am back in camp..

came into camp with many of my civilian problems. still remembered uncle zak telling us back in bmt that we should leave our civilian problems back in camp whenever we book in. but until now.. i havent been able to do that.

at the cadet mess now. have some free time so we are given a break to go to the cadet mess or the gift shop. guess i am gonna end up buying some stuff from the gift shop. haha.

training the next 23 weeks are quite fast actually. haha. looking at the training schedule presented by wing comd today, i must say that everything will pass really fast. now i just hope it passes faster. oh ya. another thing to say about my first day as a pro term cadet is quite interesting. putting on the white pants gives us a totally different image. now i understand why instructors wear white shorts. haha.

oh well.. there are many more days in white pants. actually we will be in green most of the time. haha. i just cant wait to finish all these..

nostalgia..

2004-10-25T08:00:00.000+08:00

went back to school yesterdae. miss the times i spent in school. even openly said that i missed my art project. how gay can that be. sheesh.

things i did this block leave..

zouk (which din turn out as great as i thought it would be. more details can ask me. haha.)
sentosa with the platoon (another wasted day becuz it seemed like it was gonna rain. could only get a slight tan.)
went back to ac for open house. (felt so old seeing all the students. but missed the times i was still in ad2 and in the art room doing my art project.)

lester feels that he kinda wasted his block leave. and it's book-in day today. he feels really sian. and he doesnt seem to want to go back. can somebody come and take him away from here? can somebody give him a new spark in his life?

just found out my junior had some problems in school. kinda made me realise that my problems aint that big. but dun worry my friend. things will turn out fine in the end. i have faith in u.

so much said. well.. i wish to experience some changes. i feel tied up inside. somebody let me breathe..

rebirth..

2004-10-22T16:45:00.000+08:00

finally i got another blog up..

always wanted to start another but din pull the idea thru..

hope i am diligent enough to keep it going this time.