Squires Loft

My new favorite restaurant, Squires Loft. Great food, reasonable prices, good services, 10 minute walk from my apartment. Me & Amanda have come up with a great menu: 500g bbq pork ribs entree, porterhouse steak 250g w/ chips & pepper sauce and caesar salad. About 35 - 40 bucks each. Yum!

Had fun going to the block inspection day - long wait though. We managed to get there at 9AM but still had to wait 5 hours to get in. Got some awesome freebies - I kept tricking Channel 9 volunteers into giving me more T-shirts; got five in the end. Got some chump hats too (you'll know what they are if you watch the show). Got to cast in the background with Brad & Lara, whom I shook hands with afterwards wishing them luck with their auction.

Then met up with Mish for dinner catch-up at Squires Loft! Great day.

teoh,

Final 2011 words

So it's been awhile, yes? I've been back from holidays for a few days, slowly returning to the normal routine life in Melbourne as the year 2011 comes to an end. I won't go on a huge reflection, but there a few things I want to end on.

There has been a change in my career path already. My previous post denotes my last working day at Civilex. Well, that has become my last working day for awhile at Civilex. A few days before the end of exams, I received an offer from Humes to be part of their graduate program for 2012. After considering many factors, I decided it was too good of an offer to refuse. So, starting 16th Jan, I will be working at Humes :) more details on them later.

Holiday in Asia was awesome. There were a few rough bumps i.e bad weather, getting tonsillitis, passport getting damaged AGAIN, but amanda & I still had an awesome time. I have put together a few photos for blog posting, so I will be doing that in the next few days.

Christmas was held at the Teoh's again this year, with a few absences due to unforeseen circumstances. However, it was still a solid effort by my mum & dad to host, as the very next day we had another 'boxing day' party with more family friends. Look at the huge leg of ham! We're still eating it..

I am also now looking for small studio apartments to rent, as I need to move closer to the west side, so I don't crash and die on the 1 hour drive on the M1.

Anyway, 2011 will be a memorable year for me. The year I turned 21 and tasted two great steaks in two days. The year of great travels, with Canberra, Europe and Asia having felt my presence, which I think is quite an achievement and still have money haha. It was also the year of easing into my profession while dealing with lots of stress at university. It was the sad ending of my time at the CSC, while graduating from university finally (and without failing a single unit!)!

And I am looking forward to 2012! There are many exciting things going for me and I can't wait to experience them all. Happy New Year everyone, have a safe celebration.

teoh,

VICTORY!

Today is a day of victory! For I was able to win my car insurance liability dispute. Hurrah!

For those who might've not known, a quick summary of events: basically I had turned left into a Coles Express site, to be impact with another car who had gone onto the road shoulder to by pass the line to get to a slip-lane after the Coles Express store. What followed was about $4000 worth of damages for my poor SAM and insurance, while first inclined to not assign liabilities to me, then turned around and said that it was not completely clear and liability was currently sitting with me.

Not to go too deep into the debates and arguments, after about 6 weeks, the claim is finally resolved in my favour. This has been hanging over my head for so long, cause it's $900 excess that I cannot afford at this point after recently quitting the CSC and cutting back on work hours. Not to mention savings for my Asia holiday trip.

What I would like to record are the steps I took to win the argument, so that others may also learn from my Insurance Turnabout episode (I've also been recently playing Phoenix Wright Attorney on NDS emulator hehe OBJECTION!). Basically, here is what I've learnt:

At the scene
It is important to document as much as you can on the scene. Photos are the most valuable things you can get, so hopefully your phone can take photos. Take photos of 1. your car damages 2. other party's damages 3. location, specifically road markings. These photos will most likely only be used as evidence if the case goes to court, which is very unlikely. But they will help you remember the incident and what has happened as weeks go by (and insurance claims can take a very long time!).

Also, obviously take all the other parties details. Name, phone number, licence plate (take a photo too), address and insurer. Be polite and make sure the other is OK. It never hurts to be nice, as most of the arguing will be spent with insurance. Don't spend time arguing about who is right or not, as ultimately that is all decided by insurance. NEVER admit that you are in the wrong, even if you're pretty sure you are. Until you have thoroughly looked at the road situation, you may be in the right.

Witnesses are good to have. In my case, I did not have any, so I'm not too sure how involve they become in drawn out cases, but I'm pretty sure they would be very helpful. Most cars won't stop to help you, so if you know someone saw something, try and flag them down safely and grab their contact details at least.

Obviously if you're car is not drivable, you will need to contact off-road assistance. If people are hurt, I believe you need to call the police and obviously any medical assistance if required. This falls outside of my scope.

Notifying Insurance
From my experience and other's, it best to contact insurance as soon as possible. Get the ball rolling, especially if your car needs repairs. Before you call them, take a few minutes to collect yourself and prepare what your statement will be. The guy I spoke to in this incident was very helpful in phrasing what I want to say. Some insurance people may not be as good.

What is important is that your story matches 1. the evidence/damages and 2. road situation. Remember, the insurance was NOT with you at the time of accident. So while it may be obvious to you, keep in mind that these people may not even drive in your area. Keep it simple and to the facts. They do use Google maps, so have a look yourself before you call.

If you are not sure if you are at fault, another thing you can do to assert your position is call your local police station. They enforce all road rules, do NOT call VicRoads for clarification of road rules/markings. The police will have a traffic department that will confirm whether or not something is legal or not.

In the long run
Never give up. My friend William gave me this piece of advice: Insurance companies are bastards and will 90% try and take your money. Don't feel intimidate or flustered when they call you up to tell you are at liability. Simply ask the reasons why and logically dispute it. Don't get defensive, just point out the facts that you believe makes the other party liable and ask them to explain why this isn't valid.

Insurance companies expect people to dispute when they are at liability. I was told to fill in a mailed traffic diagram to explain what happened, which was good as I was able to more clearly explained what happened. I believe this is what tip the decision in my favour. I described a situation that clearly saw the other party's car leaving off the road, based on the evidence that the speed that the car hit me at (shown by the damages), it couldn't of been directly behind me. As the Coles Express entrance was only just after the single lane, the other party must've left the road and therefore illegally created their own lane. (TAKE THAT!)

Do everything and then forget about it
What I wasn't able to do. Dealing with insurance is stressful and requires a lot of patience. Whenever you are frustrated with the situation, just remember this: What can be done to see that the situation is turned out in your favour? Have you done it? If you have, you cannot do anymore, so forget about it.

This has turned into a very long post, so I will stop there. Goes without saying that I am very relieved and happy =]

teoh,

easter break fun

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you are all having a good long weekend.

I was feeling a little burnt out at the end of last week, so I decided that I would take Friday - Sunday off completely from any university related work. It was a good plan, I feel much better and have been smashing grad applications all day. I think my company count is up to 20's so hopefully one of them will want to hire me.

Amanda's birthday was last Friday, so happy birthday to my best friend (you are now older than me, hah!). It was a good night of old high school friends (+mich) and rounds of classic games of mafia and jin.

Went to Bright on a loooong family drive on the Saturday. 4 hour drives are killers. But I will always remember Bright for the gorgeous fresh air and the nice creek that I was dying to play in.

I'm feeling quite tired of social outings now actually. I'm so ready just to stay at home for the rest of the week. Have quite a bit of uni work to catch up on, so good timing!

teoh,

party all night long

So last weekend was party after party after..nope, actually it was just those two. Cat's & Ann's 21st birthday parties were both on the same day, one after another.

Catherine's was a Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter high class tea party, located at One Tree Hill picnic grounds, a rather clever theme I thought. I was told to wear a touch of 'mad hatter'-ness or wacky, and my family helped my put together this strange costume with a bowler hat and giant gold ribbon as my bowtie. And then no one else dressed up =_= except tim and his polka dot shirt. Grr. Haha, but it was pretty fun.

Cat & Lauren put a lot of effort into setting everything up! It looked beauuutiful! The classy food was delish and the hot tea came in handy as it was quite cold up in the Dandenong ranges. We had a good time! Happy birthday tomorrow Cat!

And then it was on to Ann's birthday. Boy I was stressing out on this one, as I had a rather ambitious project to complete and it was all done rather last minute. I had recruited my brother to help me create a life size cut out of one of Ann's many Korean actor/singer idols, so I could present it to her as her boyfriend! It turned out very well thanks to my brother's high creative talent.

The party was held at Gertrude Hotel in Fitzroy, which was quite a nice venue. I'll be curious to know what the bill was, but it was well staffed and very neat. It was a very nice turn out and I enjoyed the night. Dave used his magical talents to make a fantastic performance with his guitar as usual. I wasn't very happy with my speech at all, but Kim Bum made up for it and saved my ass. Happy birthday Ann.

teoh,

belated wishes

So with all that's going on, I haven't had time to update a few birthday celebrations I've been attending.

First up, Jason Ling! Happy 21st birthday buddy. Even though you didn't have a birthday celebration, you still get a mention, cause you're that cool! Actually, cause you're such a close friend of mine, I do want to say something!

Thanks for your friendship since grade 7, it's been good times all the way. In fact, I cannot recall a time when we've been at odds with each other. That itself kinda tells what kind of friend you are: always supportive! We've shared many good memories together and you've also taught me many things on the way. The best thing about you is that you're the best kind of company anyone could want! It's no wonder you're really popular nowadays. All the best.

Secondly, Marco Kwok! Happy 21st birthday to you good sir. We all went to Langham hotel for lunch buffet, and I was very impressed. The service and presentation were all up to the price, so I was quite happy by the experience. Not somewhere I'll go often though!

Marco, you've been my longest friend to date now (you beat dave by a few months? or a year?)! Even back then you were smart, so I knew you were going to go to elite places in the future. Now look at you, Dr.Kwok! I think the most impressive thing about is how hard you work. Not just study wise though, but life in general. I think back to the quiet timid boy you were in year 7, to now the confident guy who unfortunately still stabs me in the back with sarcasm now and then, and I think of the effort you put in to change yourself for the better. I applaud you and to the result. Good on you. I also put up this terrible photo of you as revenge for all the times you've annoyed me. =]

Next is Willie's and Danny's 21st! Unfortunately I don't have a picture for either of their's, but they were good celebrations to catch up with their 'crew'. Danny's was near Crown Casino, and we had the honour of dining at Willie's family's little restaurant for his! Even though we are quite distant, I'm glad I went and refresh those old friendships. Some people should never be forgotten, and although there were times when it was rough, they were still my first group of friends in high school and included me. Cheers to our friendship! (even though they don't read here =])

And finally, last but not least, Sharon and Grace's birthday! I was quite swamped with work last week, so thankfully Amanda organised something for us to gather up and celebrate these two strong girls birthdays! They went to Zest at Glenny, and I joined later on. Each one I think has had struggles to deal with but has been given some much courage and strength to continue on. I admire both and glad we still all can keep in contact, even though these two girls are the most busiest of the group.

Happy birthday guys!

Whew. And there's more to come. Ann's, Amanda's and Cat's are all in April and quite close together. More fun ahead!

teoh,

to the mysterious ACT.

So after much celebrating, I went to Canberra for a few days of chilling with my friends. It was really good to see Sarah, Ellen and Gen again.

I've never been to Canberra (or was too little to remember any of it), and it was a pretty chilled four days there. Just like Adelaide, it's not as boring as people make it to be. It's just not the huge place Melbourne is.

Ellen was a pretty good guide, despite not being use to driving around (everything is so close, everyone bikes about). We went to Black Mountain (a lookout), Na

tional Zoo/Aquarium, the National Gallery, Parliament House and a quick look at the War Memorial.

I actually quite enjoyed Parliament House, imagining all the powerful politicians that walked the same corridors that I did. We also swam in a local river, which was so nice. Brought back memories of the waterhole back in New Zealand. Other times, we just chilled out. It was blistering hot, except for the last night in which we ran through a storm.

I did get introduced to Zambrero, which is basically a Mexican Subway. Choose your filling in a burrito, add salad, guacamole and wrap it all up = yum. Unfortunately, they are not yet in Melbourne (coming soon though) but it's pretty awesome.

Fun times.

Also, this video, despite it being for a commercial, pictures my young dreams of star wars:

teoh,

twenty one - the man i am

As my twenty first milestone in my life has arrived, I would like to write a little something.

To be honest, the reason I was not keen on celebrating my 21st was because I felt like I did not have much to celebrate. I like to think 21st as a time to celebrate the person's life up to now, and I did not think there was much in mine.

Amanda touched me when she mentioned about accomplishing a lot in my friends around me. It was really nice to know that I had made a positive difference in the people around me and made me feel a lot better about my 21st. Jason and Grace both reminded me of all the strong friendships I had in that room. And I was really surprised by the strongest speech coming from Tim, my past arch-nemesis haha, but really glad. After all, if I've turned my enemy into a really close friend, I can't have done much more. Those improv speeches really made my night. I was not kidding when I said they are half of my life.

Just as my friends mentioned my good character, I must credit a lot of my positive traits to my parents. I have both learnt and inherited my kindness from both of them; my generosity comes from my mother, who always gives to people and never expects much in return; my organising and social skills I must be grateful to my father.

I'd also like to say thanks to my brother and sister. Although my siblings are literally distances away, they have made the effort to come in and celebrate my 21st in their own way.

I really look forward to the my life ahead of me from the point of twenty one. Although I've been warned that it's all downhill, I hope I get to have a fun time rolling down it!

teoh,

the salmat christmas party

Salmat Christmas Party

My company christmas party was last night, at the Jason Coleman's Ministry of Dance venue. Apparently Jason Coleman is some judge on Dancing with the Stars, and he was there, but I didn't take much notice (no offence mr.coleman :3 just not a fan)

This was one of those events where I umm's and err'd about going. I felt like it was going to turn out like clubbing events, and I had already made loose plans with friends. On the other hand, I recently felt like I wasn't so close with my workmates, so I wanted to go and connect with them more; there was also the slightest chance of meeting new people, a wish I always seem to have with these events. However, the environment of the party tended to reflect any attempt of meeting new people as hitting on the opposite sex. So I contented myself with the former reason.

In the end, I decided to go, and my friends were kind enough to accommodate my change of plans (half of it fell through anyway, not enough mah-jong players dammit!). And I was glad I did.

It was a good adventure. For one, I drove into the city, as the place was nowhere near a train station. It was an easy drive, and parking was sweet. The party started off slow as always, bit of standing around and talking and drinking. I almost was tricked into drinking an alcoholic drink, as they gave out ‘slurpees’ but they were clearly not after my first sip >=|

And then we ‘danced’. The girls did anyway. And so did of the smoother guys that ‘had it’. I just bopped around and made a fool of myself. But it was fun and no one made too much fun of me. There was a live band who were quite good, and I enjoyed myself immensely. The night ended at midnight and thank god my friends didn’t go to after party stuff (as I was driver for one of my friends, Lucky), cause my legs were killing me. Fun times!

next post: the forge and the dawn treader!

teoh,

Phillip island

So on the 4th December, we disembarked on our first 'road trip'!

Phillip Island can't really be called a road trip I guess, since it's only one and a half hour drive. But it was the first time our group had gone away on a trip together since gold coast. I was so excited to have pulled off organizing it with amanda. In total, there were 8 of us: me, amanda, tangs x2, david ng, esther, edward, and sharon. We linked up with ling on both days, as he was down there for missionary work.

I think food was the hardest to decide. Buying for 8 people was slightly tough, and I'd like to

make a note here: 3x sausages, 1x meat pattie, 3x chicken wings and salad is a pretty good amount for each person. We did end up having leftovers, but we had a lot of it for breakfast on top of the bacon and eggs we bought. We did have a leftover bag of chicken wings though.

Anyway, we only had rough plans of what to do at Phillip Island, but due to the fact that most people had been to the place, we couldn't decide what to do. In the end, it didn't matter, cause the weather was SOOOO PERFECT. I was so scared that it would rain through out, but boy was I wrong. Even Sunday cleared up, as predicted by David's inner weather instincts.

So we spent both days at the beach. Frisbee, soccer, mucking aroun

d, splashing around. I don't know about the others, but I really enjoyed it. I love the beach, making stuff in the sand, wading in the water. It was awesome.

We also played some games at night: mafia, stupidhead, jenga, and one of jason's friends came over and taught us psychiatrist, in which one person left the room and the group would make up a rule such as: everyone is the person to the left of them. So any questions Julian would ask us, we would answer as if we were the person next to us. It was a loooong game, but entertaining (mostly).

It was also Janice's birthday on Sunday, which made it even more special of a trip. Happy birthday Janice! =] We surprised her with a cake. We failed to light a sparkler for her, lacking matches. We tried using the car cigarette lighter - it doesn't work hahahaha.

Thanks to everyone who came, it was goooood times~!

teoh,

friend hopping

I've had the pleasure of making some new friends in the past few weeks of exam studying. First I started studying with Branavan, who I hadn't had the chance to work with through out the year, which introduced me to his group of friends, who I now enjoy the good company of when I study.

Although it's not the most efficient study group, as we all study different thing, it's a really nice group to hang out with and to have company of. I am grateful that they invited me to their little group during exams.

I should get back into social networking. I used to have 4 or 5 groups during high school I would catch up with. Now it's just my close group and one or two uni groups. Hopefully these holidays will allow me to do this.

On the note of social network, the movie was quite entertaining, though I'm not sure if it's worth seeing in the cinemas. But the way the story was presented was entertaining and drew me in. Interesting little back-story to the popular website most of the world now uses.

I have a pre-interview with a HR rep tomorrow for a potential vacation spot. Wish me luck.

teoh,

the world needs a slap in the face

It took me a long time to motivate myself to write a post. I had a few times when I would open up blogger, but then get distracted with starcraft 2 or just sleep.

Instead of an update post, this is about a tv show I watched on SBS the other day. It's called Insight, and the topic was global warming. They had a professor from harvard trying to pitch global warming to an audience of skeptics. It turned into a somewhat public debate forum.

At first, I was tempted just to switch it off. Having a professor rattle of research jargon to an audience isn't really going to help convince them; he just doesn't have the charisma to influence them positively. On the other hand, the skeptics just didn't seem to want to be convinced either. That just seems the way we are, once we get an idea into our head, it's very hard to change our mindsets. There was this one doctor, who was very aggressive, and even though the professor seem to address it very well, kept just shouting over him going "you're not answering the question!".

But then I realised the whole point wasn't turning people about, but more about getting people's opinions and concerns out there. Some of the skeptics had some very good point, in terms of questioning data and whether small changes would warrant a large economic change. It was good to get the other side's point of view. So it turned out to be an interesting show.

On the topic of global warming however, I still stand by my opinion (see what I mean about stubbornness?) . Global warming is definitely being caused by us; an interesting point someone made is that global warming is actually natural and all we're doing is accelerating it (which is also bad anyway). An economic pricing on it is not going to change people's lifestyle or opinion about it. It'll probably just spark more heated debate and it'll just go down hill from there. What we need is a global disaster which will wake up everyone to it. Even then, people will people argue the cause of the disaster and that it wasn't global warming.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I had a more structured post about this, but I've seemed to have lost it.

On another note, I had fun karaoking with ann and erica yesterday at my house, followed by lots of ice cream. hehe.

teoh

july trip - radelaide

spent most of the day feeling that emptiness when you travel with friends for so long, and then suddenly they're gone =[ miss my friends already.

so on the 3rd of july, I left for Adelaide, flying solo with Tiger Airways. Tiger has a new check in process, where you can self check in online if you have no check in luggage, which I did. Surprisingly, it went quite smoothly, I was at my boarding gate within 2 minutes of arriving at the terminal 4 (aka the tin shed next to the airport).

I was reunited with an amazing five people at Adelaide: visiting with me was Sarah, looking pretty with straightened and dyed hair, Hao Zhe the magician who we were staying with, Nicolle, Kim and Adrianna. We also met a few of Nicolle's friends who entertained us to no end; Juliet, with a cool nickname Jet, the proper speaking Maria (hilarious accent) and various of Nicolle's boys =]

My first time being in Adelaide, I didn't have much expectations. People had always dubbed it as a hole, but I knew it couldn't be that bad. My first impressions were that it was less fast paced than Melbourne. There were less cars crowding the roads (road limits were mostly 60 zones too), the community felt closer at a bar we went to, no high rise buildings. It was quite nice actually, as a person who does not like crowds. I'd imagine I would feel more comfortable driving into Adelaide city than Melbourne.

Hao Zhe took us to Mt.Lofty, sort of a look out towards Adelaide, and it's very spread out. Reminds me of New Zealand a bit. Cleland Wildlife Park was pretty fun too, feeding kangaroos and wallabies (they're so cute!).

Me and Sarah had the chance to explore the city one day. I think we only went down a few well known streets, and it wasn't anything special, but a nice city to hang out in. That said, I'm not a city person, so I probably wouldn't appreciate the nice things about it anyway. It was definitely smaller than Melbourne, but not in a bad way.

Nicolle took us to the Adelaide Zoo (where we met up with Kim) and Victor Harbor. The Zoo was entertaining, but nothing that much different than any other zoo. Victor Harbor was quite beautiful, I wish I could've gone swimming. We went around Granite Island, which the high light of the day for me was sitting on this huge rock on the edge, close to the ocean. It would've been a favorite hang out spot for me, looking at the waves crash against the shore. Awesome.

Other than that, we hung out at Hao Zhe's and Nicolle's place. Hao Zhe's unit is quite amusing, his room has a hole in the roof where the room light should be and his car matches the unit (emergency brake light doesn't work, engine often dies, 20 km up a hill). Funny moments include (but not limited to) fail to see karate kid (Adelaide get their movies a week later than us), tiger in the bathroom and sarah's tassie devil enthusiasm born.

Absolutely great to catch up with them all in Adelaide. Hope to return there someday soon to visit. Thanks to Nicolle and HaoZhe for showing us around. Also interesting to see their houses and family =]

teoh,

that was heaps good.

phwor, the end to an amazing 11 day holiday !

I'll probably write up a few specific posts about the past week and a half at work when I have time. For now, a few thoughts and feelings.

First feeling, dead tired. I usually take holidays pretty easy, but I've pretty much had something on every day, which is definitely a good thing. No time wasted doing unproductive things on the computer, or sleeping in so late I feel groggy the whole day. But I have absolutely no stamina, and I was pretty eager to have a 3 hour nap this afternoon.

I was also pretty surprised at how well the whole thing turned out, some sort of Mega Catch Up. To think that at New Zealand Airport, I felt like I would never see these guys for years, maybe even fade from memory. But I managed to see so many people this holidays, it was an awesome feeling, cause I missed them heaps.
At first, it was just Sarah coming down to Melbourne, then Genevieve and Ellen headed down too. Then I decided to go visit SA to catch up with HaoZhe, Adrianna, Nicolle and Kim, inviting Sarah to come along. And then Nicolle also decided to head over to Melbourne. Cass also made it down there and caught up with us twice, and Jarryd too.

The one thing I love about these close friends (I no longer think of them as ISV friends), is that they seem to push me to expand myself to places I wouldn't usually go. For example, everyone knows I suck at driving, especially to new places, but we went to quite a few these holidays. They're also different to my usual close group, and I love their different way of thinking (grandma is quite cynical), speech (nicolle has a funny SA accent) and weird little habits (ellen has stiff elbows).

From left to right at the back: Gen, Nicolle, Me, Sarah and Ellen sitting in front. Purposely made to look like a family photo hahaha.

It was fun having them at my house, like a little family. My parents were really good in letting them all stay, and everything went really smoothly. I was a little stressed out, cause I didn't know if they were going to have a fun time with me, but I think it turned out ok! We watched a lot of movies though haha.

Facebook has improved their photo uploader..I managed to upload all 170 photos within a few minutes. Nice.

Events and places we went to follow. Mt.Lofty, Cleland Park, Adelaide Zoo, Victor Harbor, Science Works, Dandenong ranges, Balacava, Movies, Healsville, Lygon street and random fun moments.

teoh,

off on holiday

so 1st July was an awesome kick off to the holidays.

spent some time with a friend in the morning, going around to jells park and knox city. Then had a fight with telstra over our latest bill (which in hindsight seems correct, but still their fault for stuffing up the past ones, confusing me!!) and won, so I got a month of internet free. Then had a big catch up with glenny people, which turned out surprisingly well, despite some last minute organising (=P tim). Watch toy story 3, which I classify as a 'movie worth paying for'.

Awesome day.

Anyway, I'm really lacking sleep, and I'm heading off to Adelaide tomorrow! It came so soon, I haven't even packed yet. So adiós until next thursday. have fun in your HO HO HO HOOOOLIDAYS!!

teoh,

macho man

Ever since my sister has left to UK, I never get to eat yummy cupcakes anymore. But my mum still likes to bake, so yesterday I decided to help my mum bake some stuff. We made a lemon meringue pudding and some apple cupcakes. The lemon pudding turned out quite nice, zesty and sour sweet, while the apple pies were a bit overcooked as I soon found out at work. Guess we should've kept an eye on the timer instead of watching masterchef haha.

And then at work, my workmate aunty nicky brought in her daughter's netball skirt to do some sewing. I teased her, which then prompted her to challenge me in a sewing match. After taking awhile to thread the needle, I actually did a decent job of sewing on a patch.

And then I realised I'm baking. And sewing. Some of the most manly chores in the world. Oops.
Haha, but I don't really mind. I figured I should learn how to do some of this stuff anyway. Mum's not going to sew my jeans back together forever. And cooking is always a good skill to have (although whether baking and cooking are the same thing is debatable). Still I wish I did more manly activities. Like gyming. Drinking gallons of alcohol. Beating people up. Yup, that's the life.

In other news, ling, xuan and I had a DDR session at our normal boxhill location. It's been way too long, and predictably sucked. Still, it's been awhile since I've done that much physical work (haha sad) it was pretty enjoyable. Wish my exam wasn't next tuesday, otherwise I would've went again. We gotta lift our game ling. Beat that Monster Battle Course (or whatever it was called).

Studying is a bit slow at the moment. Can't seem to pick up the pace. I'm sure after failing groundwater next week will prod me into action.

Good luck to all those with exams and curses to all those that don't.

teoh,

driving blind

well, it's damn foggy out there at the moment isn't it? Or is it misty? Or cloudy? Interesting question, let's find out!

it all starts off with condensation nuclei which is basically a clump or form of dust, pollutants etc., nasty stuff hanging in the air and cold weather. so when things get really cold, usually around 4 degrees, water vapour in the air start to condensate, like the water on the side of your cold drinks. The water droplets that have condensed around the dusts and pollutants (hence the name nuclei), which is allows it to be visible as fog to us. Or mist. Or clouds? Which one!?

Well apparently, fog is when visibility is reduced to 1 km or less, and mist is when visibility is reduced between 1 km and 2km. Clouds are up in sky people, sorry, just like where your common sense is if you believed that was an option.

Oh yeah, you can also get flash fogs, where certain temperatures allow fog to gather and dissipate really fast. So don't worry, you aren't seeing ghosts. - curious teoh (source: wikipedia)

So yeah, I drove home from work today and it was really foggy. haha.

Sigh, this week has been quite messy. I gotta get my mind into studying mode asap. But it will be a memorable week I think. My head hurts.

My friend Henry Lim makes these awesoooome powerpoint presentation. Just looking at them makes me want to make one. He's got an eye for presentations I tell you. I'm really proud to present our Shang Hai Expo, everyone's all ooo and aaah. I'm half afraid that my presenting is actually not even important. But I still get a kick out of it anyway.

teoh,

the life of luxury

 so I went to see Iron Man 2 again...but this time in gold class! (note my lovely 2MP pictures above) 

I went with my uni friend Linda, who actually works at the doncaster village as a waitress in gold class (free tickets =]). She hadn't been once herself, so when we talked about it, we decided to go. Linda hadn't seen iron man 2 and I didn't particularly mind watching it again. It was actually good, cause I could fully enjoy the experience, while not caring too much about missing out on stuff in the movie. Also, I don't spend too much time with Linda at uni as she's only in one of my classes, so it was fun to hang out.

Gold Class Experience.

As I open the heavy glass doors that lead into this fantasy world fit only for the wealthy, first thought is: I hope I'm dressed ok. I was wearing my 'good' clothes, but nothing fancy. Despite that, I immediately felt out of place. The nice carpet, the dim lighting, the fancy plush couches, the brightly lit bar with shining wine glasses, the uniformed waiters/waitresses; it felt only the red carpet was missing.

Linda had asked me to come half an hour early, which I thought meant we were going to eat first or something. Turns out, you use that time to not only order your food, but decide what time it comes! How bizarre. And yet strangely pleasing. Power over what and when? And since I had already seen iron man, my choc-mint choctop came exactly just before the exciting end =]
The food and drink prices were, of course, through the roof. At first, I saw meals at $10 - $12, and I thought, hey not bad. Then Linda explained that they were actually snack size stuff; 2-3 pieces each. The pizza, which wasn't that great, was $24. Luckily for me, having Linda with me slashed everything by 50%. But for a normal gold class experience, good luck you cheap asians.

And now, for the one thing I would pay $25 bucks for. The chair. Oh my god, the chair! It's so big! Respectful Red. So soft, yet firm enough at the same time; comfortable. Electric relining action (made me feel like iron man to see my legs brrrr up). A nice big compartment on the side for my jacket and things. A little table on the side for my food.
The cinema was quite small; two big chairs made up a 'table'. 4 by 4 of them gave it a capactiy of 32 people (yeah, that's why me engineer, I can maths! (the next tony stark)). Tonight, there were only 6 others in the cinema.

So once the glory of it all wore off, I started criticizing things in my head.

Having waiters come by every now and then was slightly annoying. I would rather it somehow be elevated up through my little table. Cause there weren't many people in the cinema, yeah I didn't notice it as much. But if it was a full house, I could imagine people going up and down delivering stuff. Yeah that could definitely ruin my movie.

Eating and drinking in the dark is not cool. I couldn't tell what I was dipping my fried calamari into, cause I couldn't see. Plus, trying to eat and drink while a movie is on...takes my concentration away from enjoying the movie. Instead I'm trying not to spill stuff on myself. And that takes a lot of effort.

The little call button next to me was too bright. Turn it down yo.

The atmosphere wasn't there. Even with a room of 32 people, I don't think that's enough of a crowd that's usual for a movie. There were some really amusing parts in Iron Man 2, as most of you should know, but I found that Linda and I were the only ones laughing about it. New reactor core tastes like coconut, that's worth at least a room of chuckles.

Linda said many people actually go to gold class...they even have regulars! Crazy. I'm not sure if I would prefer gold class or not. The chair is such a deal breaker. Wish it had one of those sliding tables like on airplanes, and then a decent laptop and oh boy.

Awesome to experience it for the first time. My thanks to Linda for taking me. Also, driving to Doncaster was an experience. It's actually not that far from my house, but took awhile from uni.

teoh,

p.s I am still NOT convinced about how tony makes his new elements. stand by for theory.

night out with the guys

so me and my two uni mates Henry (left) and Long (right) went out around the city on saturday night. Our other friend Wil was sick and also at work and missed out on a fun night. The idea was just to go around to a few pubs and just hang out. Me, being a city noob, was also interested in exploring the city a bit more. Here's a google map of our route, both for anyone interested, and myself to remember:

we met up at (A) melbourne central, and headed out to (B) stalactites, a greek souvlaki restaurant. I had a steak, which was cooked very well (very close to medium-rare as you can get), so overall a nice place. Typical melbourne city restaurant price though ~22 bucks for the meal.

we had slurpies straight after, which turned out to be a horrible idea haha. Headed over to (C) Red Hummingbird, which has a really nice open roof space. I could see a small 21st function there easily. Then off to melbourne central, to some bar I can't recall...had a nice open view of the state library. A quick drop by maccas for some chicken nuggets, and then to a bar called (D) Softbelly. Had some cool retro gametables, and a nice atmosphere. I was surprised to see a fair few asians hanging out at pubs, just drinking socially. Had some Lord of the Fries (well they did, I passed) after as well. I want to try their onion rings next time I go in.

And then of course, ended up at (E) galactic circus to show off some DDR skills lol. After that, was feeling pretty dead and sick. Then we ran for the (F) Flinders station for an 11:05pm train. Got there at 10:59, and then hung around for a minute talking about nothing, and then realised it was a 11:00pm train. GG, missed it. Ended up buying the Age and read for half an hour until the next one came.

GOOD FUN.

On another note, have finally obtained a copy of Mass Effect 2. Always respected Bioware's games, and Mass Effect 1 was damn good. About 2 hours into the game, and I'm already hooked with it. They've made some nice improvements (which I won't bother to list, since no one really cares :D), but most importantly they've reduced the amount of that far off distant motion blur. I think the remains of it might be cause my graphic card isn't up to scratch =[

Speaking of which, trying to bring my 'old' laptop out of retirement for uni. Will not install VLC or anything entertainment wise besides MusicBee (music player). Trying to put windows 7 on it, but it's putting up a fight at the moment..damn you vista.

next: new phone thoughts? ipad thoughts.

teoh,

we're back in hardware mode.

Last week was a nice slow relaxed week. A nice change of pace.

Picked up an extra project for fun, and although it was not worth any marks, I quite enjoyed doing it; mainly cause it involved presenting. Had to do a presentation on Shang Hai Expo 2010, which is quite interesting by itself, and choose a structure to focus on. My friend Henry Lim does some pretty fantastic things with Office and made an awesome powerpoint that made my job really easy. We got invited to present again at a seminar at the end of the semester.

Got to floorwalk newbies at work, man that was more tiring than I expected. They aren't exceptionally good, and I had such high hopes for them, but it's only their first week on the phones, so hopefully they pick it up.
On another topic at the workplace, something big is going down, I can feel it. We've had supervisors leave and shuffle around, and they've been asking shift leaders what they think they can improve and such...something is definitely happening. Stay tuned for more news.

the fantastic adventures of crown continue, although nothing quite spectacular happened. Ann, Erica and me just did the usually catch up, drink (reached five in the Fibonacci rule)  and I played a little bit of blackjack. The flame towers at crown have been cut back to being disappointing. No big flares anymore =[ we're thinking of going somewhere else next time. cya later crown.

Resistance - Muse, is a song that strangely touches me. The chorus depict, to me, the rush of rebellious love, wanting to be with someone despite good reasons not to, having self-doubt creep in, then resolving to erase the whole thing...and then wondering that it could've been right.

saw Iron Man 2 on friday with the uni boys. it was an okay movie, the usual hyped up sequel, but it had some really awesome moments as per usual. Man I love the whole idea of Iron Man. I actually hate the big boss fights at the end, they're really mediocre for me. The best part is the whole process of making Iron Man, being a super engineer. So awesome. The music is pretty dramatic too, listening to some of it now to motivate me to do my own work.

and a nice shout out to QBE Travel Insurance. Got my second cheque back today for a full refund of my replacement passport. Thinking back, QBE was actually very helpful and so easy to deal with. The only thing I can fault them is the waiting period can take awhile, and with no communication, it's a bit hard to know if your claim is actually being processed or not.

qantas on the other hand, can go stuff themselves and their *insert angry frustrate word here* helpdesks. Even I'm more helpful during a crabby mood.

need to have a productive week this week.

teoh,

edit: time for a new layout soon I think.