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This is my first schooling day in Perth campus. It was actually a both excited and yet nervous day. I had been dreaming to study in an international campus and now my dreams finally come true. It was indeed a very different experience, challenging but fruitful.
I reached the campus early morning despite that the first class only start at 1400. It always feel good to be at campus early, I had been doing this since I entered Metropolitan College in K.L. the campus is filled with students everywhere. That made me more exciting. Check out these pictures: (From above) Beside the guild, walkway to Curtin Business School, library level 2, Atkinson Forum, walkway to Henderson Court/administration office. The walkway to Henderson Court is extremely packed with people.
This semester is being a crazy semester for me, crazier than all the Malaysian friends I know. The names of the hardcore subjects are Economic Theory 300, International Trade & Banking 305, Strategic Marketing 310 and Global Money & Capital Markets 200.
I took the picture of my Global Money & Capital Markets 200 class. Meet my lecturer Philip O’Hara. I heard that he is a famous book writer for finance institutionist. For his tutorial session though, he gave us a form to fill in our personal details and interests. Then, he wanted us to write our name on a piece of paper with marker pen, hold it below our face like police suspects, and face his video cam to describe ourselves. I wondered whether he was teaching marketing or communication class rather than economics and finance.
I also snapped the beautiful staircase corner of the new Curtin Business School Centre Office.
I had my dinner at the Bookmark Café just on the Level 1 of T.L. Robertson Library. I always like the neat and Ikea-look setup as well as the glass roof. Take your time to appreciate the lady at the left bottom of the picture, she was a gorgeous Indian lady.
The other class was International Trade & Banking. Meet my lecturer Mr. Muru, he introduced himself that he had been working with Royal Bank Of Scotland in Singapore for 20 years. I hate that session, neither because of the subject nor the lecturer. It was the schedule, 1800 to 2030 at evening. I took the picture of the environment as I walk backed at 2000. It was not dark yet because of end of summer, but what about winter? The winter will come somewhere in March! I can’t imagine how to go back through those dark freezing streets.
A note over here for all my beloved family members and friends, as the school had started; I have to put most of the effort into my studies. I may not able write my blog as detailed and long as the old days. But one thing, I will write them daily and update them as soon as possible. Chung Fui, if you’re reading this, then you will know I’m still keeping myself to the blog very much.
As planned, we went to Carousel early morning. The bus system over here is a big headache when comes to weekend. The bus will only come every 2 hours compared to 15 minutes in weekdays. We missed the morning bus therefore we called a taxi. By the way, riding taxi in Perth is not as easy as in Malaysia. You can stop a taxi along the road, all you can do is call the hotline and give them your address.
While on the way to Cannington in the taxi, there was an attention-grabbing billboard. It says, “Want longer lasting sex? Called 1800 xxx xxx”. It was the best joke today. We keep guessing and imagining what kind of goods or services that the company sell.
The biggest disappointment today was when we arrived, we only to discovered that Carousel closed on Sunday. As I commented yesterday, this is totally ridiculous for business. We had no choice but to head on for breakfast nearby. We went to Fast Eddy’s, a restaurant recommended by seniors. Strange enough, the restaurant opened 24 hours and 7 days a week.
As we were waiting for the food, we chat while look around. There was a rare 318i hatchback and a flawless Holden HSV. It’s no joke, just look at the silver HSV in the picture. The car is indeed awesome.
Daniel ordered fish and chips, William ordered a scrambled egg breakfast set and I ordered a steak sandwich. The food comes in big portion as shown in picture. The breakfast was absolutely way beyond full for us. We need to sit and rest for an hour before we continue the journey.
We discovered a fascinating fact during the breakfast. Look closely to the chilli sauce bottle label. It’s Lingham’s Chilli Sauce, made in Malaysia.
There was also this old time cash register beside the payment counter.
While walking at the car park, I spotted another 2 cars. One of them being a classic antique which I don’t even know the manufacturer. Another one was the beautifully designed Italian Alfa Romeo Brera. The blue little car parked 2 lots away from the antique is a Daihatsu Mira Gino a.k.a Perodua Kelisa.
We went back in the afternoon because we planned to do house cleaning and laundry. There cleaning job was not really tough compared to the lonely days when I solo everything. This was also the first time I did laundry in Perth.
The dinner was fried rice. It was a bit weird because the ingredients are western ones. I used hot dogs and capsicums. It was a failure. Due to everyone was hungry; I rushed the rice into the frying pan just right after it was cooked in the rice cooker. Usually people do put the rice in the fridge to cool it down first. At the end, the rice is too soft and sticked together. I will mark this down as a lesson.
Perth is kind of dead city. I felt like the people here are either too lazy or have too much of money at their disposal. In Malaysia, Saturdays and Sundays are actually the most profitable business period for retails and eateries. It’s a common sense to open on these days so you could have better accounting figures in your balance sheet. However, here in Perth, retails and eateries only open until 12 noon and completely closed on Sunday. Basically, you can’t do anything in the weekends, not even shopping and fine-dining.
So, what my housemate and I did today was to walk around Bentley area and campus zone. Of course, I’m the guide. I would say they were pretty lucky to have me as their direct reference. For me, I learnt the area through the hard way during the lonely days, with just a backpack that contained a map and a bottle of water.
This is the picture I took for them before we departed. The location was the junction of Farnham Street and Lawson Road, which is just outside of the block that we stay. The car at the back was Accord Euro, a common road car in Singapore.
This picture was taken on the way to the campus. Check out the background. The outstanding grey building is Curtin Business School 1, which I will spend some time in over this semester. Proudly and also sadly to say, it’s the tallest and ugliest building in the campus.
My property job aftermath bug hit me again. Try to examine the roof structure. It was built out of steel, which I think a lot stronger than common Malaysian house wooden roof structure. I was wondering whether is steel a cheaper material here.
Another rare car spotted, Subaru Liberty. I’m not sure whether the bodykit is original, but it did create an aggressive stance and the kit fit the lines of the car too.
The area-scouting was quite tiring for both my housemate. Daniel (above) slept with his bolster on the bench in kitchen. Yes, I do mean kitchen. William a.k.a Wai Hang (below) was busy toying his new phone. By the way, prepaid packages in Perth are so cheap. I bought a prepaid starter pack for $29.95. After activate the so call ‘Turbocharger’ plan, I have $150 to make phone calls. Calls made to Malaysia Maxis only charged me around 70~80 cents per minute. I paid $30 for $150, not bad at all. As for William, he bought a starter kit with the starter pack and a brand-new-from-the-box Motorola V3. The price was merely $113!
The spaghetti yesterday was a bit too much, we left over a lot. To reduce wastage, as every penny in Australia hurts, I re-cooked the spaghetti into something different for dinner. I just add some red wine and throw everything in. The end result was ‘Spaghetti Goreng Mamak Style’. It tasted quite good and my housemates liked it.
As the scouting mission in Bentley accomplished, we planned to head to Cannington tomorrow. This is the suburb of Perth that I know how to walk around besides Bentley.
Victory! I passed the first stage of the test. It’s 1 step closer to the place that I dream on so much, Shanghai. This is day 8, 22nd of February, the day that marked the end of my lonely path. I had struggle through the previous days physically and mentally, and I made it. If I succeed in Perth, it also means that I’ll probably survive in Shanghai. I like Shanghai, it’s kind of first sight love to a place. Ever since I was there, I always dream that I could buy a million-dollar condo with sky garden terrace beside the Huang-Pu River.
The day started at early morning when I forced myself to wake up despite I always sleep around 2~3 in the morning. I need to clean up the house before my temporary housemate arrive in the evening. The cleaning job took me 2 hours, which includes vacuum the carpet for the whole house, wiping the dusk off the surfaces and tidy up whatever that not suppose to be in their place. I was quite satisfied with the result as I think that it was way cleaner then the time I moved in. I didn’t take the picture of the living room but the picture clearly state how was the bedroom after cleaning.
As experienced by myself last Friday, my temporary housemate probably will arrive at the house after 5. I was eating bread and Coke when I arrived and I don’t want them to feel the same. I decided to cook them a good meal to welcome them. Another reason is partly because they were kind enough to let me temporary lurk at the house. To cook a serious meal, I need to do serious grocery shopping. So, I went to the neighbourhood store IGA again.
The street at the afternoon was not hot although the sunlight was strong. It is also the wind breeze constantly in the afternoon. I thought that I never talked about how good is the pedestrian system in Perth compared to K.L. In this case, I took the following picture to show the pedestrian pavement. In Perth, the pavement only available on one side of the road, at least 2 to 3 metres from the tars. It was a safety measure for the pedestrian. Another thing that impressed me was the attitude of the drivers. The drivers always let the pedestrian crossed the road first before they drive through.
It was going to be a long list to read for the things I bought in IGA. Frozen Pizzas, eggs, pasta sauce, pasta, shredded cheese, red and white onions, mushrooms, sausages, salted butter, tomatoes and capsium. Before I tell the story of first time serious cooking in Perth, I would like to give the credit to my uncle Stanley in Singapore. He used to teach my mum and I how to cook some simple western food during I was small. I still can recall it now.
It took me some time to make pre-cooking preparation. I had to cut them into small pieces so that I could mix them with the pasta sauce. The pasta need to be cool down properly to mix with butter. The reason to apply butter is to avoid the pasta stick together when being served. Most people do think that majority of guys are not good cook. Believe it or not, I did these all by myself.
After 1 and a half hours of cooking, the end product was like this, pasta with Bolognese or carbonara sauce. The Bolognese contained lots of tomatoes and hot dogs slices while the carbonara was vegetarian dish that contained only mushrooms. I haven’t cook for a long time, but I’m glad I’m still able to manage the basics. Actually, I prefer to cook oriental dish than western ones because oriental dishes have more details to play around with.
My temporary housemate, Daniel (left) and Wai Hang (right) finally arrive around 6. Lonely times are gone with their arrival. When they ate the pasta, I kept laughing inside my heart. They said it was delicious, I thought “Oh mine, I haven’t cooked for sometimes. These foods are only considered passable. The Bolognese sauce is not even look like a real Italian Bolognese, and the onions in the Carbonara sauce are overcooked!” Another thing that worth mention was I still able to maintained a clean kitchen and stove after cooking.
The night was fun. Although there were only 3 of us, we played Mahjong. It’s not a simply Mahjong game, we don’t pay money when lose, instead we drink. The drink was dry Chivas, or some may call it ‘pure’. There were only 3 of us so we could barely finish half bottle before we went to bed. Kind of welcome drink session.
At last, I no longer have to live my life in Perth alone. At least, I have someone to talk to or accompany me while doing grocery shopping. With their company, I’m looking forward to explore more parts of Perth. City area, zoo, tourist sites, clubs etc. But still, I have to wait for Daniel’s Supra to arrive so we could have our own vehicle.
On one last word, thanks to Uncle Stanley and Aunt Lena for visiting my blogspot despite the fact that you guys are busy in Singapore with your work and little Samuel. I wonder how you guys spent your university life especially Uncle Stanley who used to graduated from University of Western Australia, Perth. Perhaps someday, we could chill out together, get some fine wines, and share our experiences that separated for 20 years.
Today is the 15th day of Chinese New Year. It’s a loss for me for not able to celebrate this festival with my family. I feel a little upset for this but I keep reminding myself that being in Perth is training for life. I’m going to evolve to another level once I pass the ultimate test. Before I came to Perth, I told my parents that I miss the chicken and special soya sauce made by grandfather when we used to go back to my father’s hometown during festivals. Today, that feeling grow stronger. It’s not just a chicken, it’s a family bond. The feeling grow even stronger when the faulty internet connection doesn’t allow me to have teleconferencing with my family at home.
As I adapt to the life in Perth, new issue arise. The life over here is so relax, it makes you forget what you are being here for. The phone conversation between father and me keep twisting inside my head. He reminded me that Perth is a place for retirement, not a place for me. It feels like I born to be a warrior, to fight for family name and well-being. Perth is like a utopia, it is not going to be my battlefield. Few days of life here had changed me into a person who enjoys life. I seriously felt that this is not going to be a good sign. I feared that it might get worse before I even join the real battle in business field.
The first thing in the day was to apply a Smart Rider card. It’s some sort of Touch n’ Go which able to save cost for student travelling within Perth. It’s eligible for both trains and buses. Again, I found cable display system in the John Curtin Bookshop and Student Central. I’m not sure whether it’s a good market here but this product is definitely not a rare sight in Perth.
I met my friend, Alvin and Sheng Yang in school. After we had done our errant, I followed them to Cannington where the Westfield Carousel Shopping Centre situated. It was first time for me riding a bus in Perth. We took bus 72 and it took us about 15 minutes. As advised by them, I approached the bank in Cannington and tried to open a student account. It ended up the same story that I need an enrolment advice from the office.
Carousel was much bigger that Waterford Village. The carpark is large and I began searching for nice vehicle. I found an SLK and a Chinese-Mantou lookalike Civic Type-R.
The interior of Carousel is prettier than Waterford Village too. It has more variety of shops including boutiques, phone shops, cinema and games. We had Subway-foot-long sandwich for lunch. They were in the big portion again and we can even barely finish it.
I also went to a Malaysian style eatery to grap a box of Nasi Goreng for dinner. I took the picture of how they present the food. It made me feel at home looking at the display.
Sheng Yang also pointed out a shop that sell rare collector’s item. On the top of the display rack I could even found a Colt .45 and Beretta. For those who don’t understand, they’re real pistol!
Alvin and Sheng Yang only arrived back in Perth yesterday after their Chinese New Year holiday. They continued their shopping in Coles Supermarket to get some grocery items. I took the chance to shop with them so they can teach me how to do the grocery shopping properly in Perth.
We went back after shopping. I decided to follow them back to their Cannington house, which I suppose to live if not being offered the temporary shelter in Bentley. On the way to the house, I spotted a black modified Silvia S15 and another white Skyline GTS.
From the picture, it is clearly shown that their house is bigger than the one I’m currently staying. The size is about twice as big as the Bentley house. Most importantly, the living room is covered by marble floor. The room with lighting is Alvin’s room, which I joked to him that the window looks like the one in detention centre. The room in dark is the room that they leave for me. It requires some tidy up job. Another structural difference is the Cannington house has their washing and drying machine in the shared bathroom, unlike Bentley house which had a smaller bathroom and dedicated washing area.
The 2 persons in the picture were Sheng Yang (left) and Alvin (right).
The housing block next to their house is the one I like the most after I had seen so many houses in Perth. It is kind of architectural and modern. I have been told by Alvin that some of the units are open for renting but it contains only 3 rooms.
In the carpack, I spotted a round-butt Hyundai hatch, a convertible MX-5 and a beautiful car covered in blue cloth. It was a black shiny Imprezza with expensive Lowenhart wheels.
While I walked out to the bus stop, 2 cars grapped my attention. One was being the rare BMW 316Ti and another was a 2-doored red Mira a.k.a Perodua Viva.
The fried rice was good although a little expensive. This was the first time I felt like eating in Malaysia. It came with a bull-eye egg, chicken chunks and prawn. The box reminded me of Kung-Po chicken in U.S. movies.
At night, Romeo drove me to his friends’ house in his Colt Turbo Ralliart. I looked around the house to examine whether it is worthy for me to rent. Honestly, the house was not as good as the one I’m staying and I wouldn’t even bother to rent it. But, the final decision has to be made by both Daniel and me. I told them I will be bringing Daniel to view the house when he arrives tomorrow. Besides viewing the house, we had some friendly chat before Romeo drove me home again.
I think that it is still very lucky for me to able to share this festive day with my friends. Perhaps, somewhere around corners of the world, there are people who had to celebrate alone, without anybody beside them who can feel the same as they did.
今日乃华人农历新年元宵节，旭感到很寂寞与无奈。更让旭感到无奈的是无法上线，错过了和家人视讯的机会，让旭无法看见远在家乡的家人。旭感到非常抱歉，尤其是从小宠爱旭的外婆。我想，外婆必定在挂念她在大澳的外孙吃得饱不饱，穿的暖不暖。也让旭感到抱歉的是，旭无法在大日子里亲手上香。
以前，旭无法完全去体会诗人远在他乡思念家人的感受。今天，旭终于感受到了那种思念。旭也在这里跟大家分享这首王维的诗：
独在异乡为异客
每逢佳节倍思亲
遥知兄弟登高处
遍插茱萸少一人
祝 元宵节快乐
爱你们的旭
