School, School, School..

I took this picture some time back.. If you are wondering why I bother to stop for a second, decided to grab my camera and take this picture is very simple..

I didnt know I was studying so hard.

Lecture notes on the right, course guide, photocopied textbooks, making my own notes and other chapters on the left. I felt, WOW.

I have to admit I am not studying as hard as I used to, for many many factors, some of which I am still trying to figure out why my pace and concentration is so affected over here.

School is HEAVY. I cant cope with 4 modules. I always feel I am doing 6 undergraduate modules this semester. There are more chapters and much more readings. I am not talking about a few pages per reading, but my readings are going by per chapter. The lecturer uses multiple textbooks, so there's just a lot. It's never-ending.

Mark says I slack a lot, because each time when I say I want to study, I ended up doing something else instead of studying.

I try to, but there's so much to do everyday. I have to hand wash my clothes, my pillow casings, my bed sheets, my towels. I have to cook, I have to vacuum my room and the house. I might not be studying exactly, but least I am doing something useful.

Back to talking about school.

When Dr Fang first wrote a formula on the white board. I was thinking to myself, what the fuck? Really.. It's Marketing, do we need formulae?

Then the next day, Prof Dick wrote a formula on the board again. Why do different Marketing modules have formulae?!?! As I was reading Prof Dick's readings today, there are MORE formulae!! And I do statistics for Marketing - like on consumer behaviour and patterns? determine market potential, share, etc. It's insane!

Alright, I'd get back to studying!

I am in the midst of switching course, from Masters of Commerce to Masters of Marketing. I hold a general business diploma, a general business degree, and now I am doing a general masters in business. I jumped into everything when I was being offered, because I didnt want to miss this intake.. It just hit me one day, that I am doing pure Marketing modules, but I am taking my Masters of Commerce. I could do a double major - Management and Marketing, which is not necessary? Prof Alvin asked why would I want to study whatever I have studied over and over again? Masters of Commerce is more for people who have reach a point in their career, that have no business background, that dont know what a balance sheet is, etc, so they further so they can move on to higher levels in their career. Prof Dick was the one who advised me to do the switch, since I am sure I want to go into Marketing, least for my studies. Also, I feel Masters of Marketing is more 'valuable' than Masters of Commerce because it is more specialized. If I switch to Masters of Marketing, I get exemptions of up to 4 modules, which is one semester. But unfortunately, I am enrolled in Global Marketing Strategy this semester, which I have taken at undergraduate level, there is nothing I can do about it. I either drop the module or take it. But dropping it doesnt make sense since I am not going to get a refund. So I am still kind of struggling with 4 modules.

If I do Masters of Marketing, I can complete it in one year, but I'd have to overload with one module next semester. I cant even cope with 4. 5? That's insane! I can't do it.. so I negotiated with Prof Alvin that I want to do 3 modules next semester and 2 modules the next next. It's like staying for the duration of Masters of Commerce (1.5 years). I know I would have to incur living expenses for the last semester, but I dont wish to compromise my grades in any way. Also, the switch means I get 3 modules exempted, I would have saved about 10k. So I still think its a good deal?

Well, wish me luck then!

Cheers :)

Bell's Cooking - Part 3

Child of Mars is back!!

I've decided to blog today, after visiting a friend's new blog.

Back to my cooking alright? Just bear with it.. because after this post, I am probably going to stop posting about food.. thats till I figured out some new dishes! heh.

The usual mushroom soup, just that this time round, I used pork instead and I added cauliflower, which was probably the reason why the soup was sweet.

I usually pack my meals..

Domino's Pizza. I love the Double Bacon Cheeseburger.
Of course, I bought it la..

Looks good? :)

Green Bean Soup

If you are wondering what this is..

It's the mee sua we eat on our chinese birthdays? I did make an effort to cook red eggs, though the colouring wasnt obvious.. I could have added in more stuffs, but I am contented to have a bowl of mee sua on my birthday! Cheers! :)

Burgers! Mingyi said my cooking and dinner lacks variety.. so here's a more westernized version

This looks good isnt it? It looks like a picture you can find on the menu of a chinese restaurant. Sorry about the presentation. I'd work on it in the future!

Eggs + ??

It's Mapo Tofu. I tried the sauce which I bought from the market. It sucks! Trust me, I dont trust those packaging seasoning anymore! It tasted so weird, I nearly threw the whole plate away. But I didnt want to waste food so..

The Moon, The Stars, The Clouds and The Wind

Just as I was about to give up, I saw some light.
“LIGHT”

10.15pm.
I am sitting on the balcony, enjoying some light from the moon. It just hit me all of a sudden that things are simple. Irregardless of the amount of clouds that passes by throughout the night, the moon still shines. In fact, the clouds were insignificant. It did not, in any way, affect the moon’s ability to shine. To add on to this beautiful picture I am seeing right now, on my left side were the little stars.

I am the moon. I am still who I am, irregardless of the amount of clouds that passes by and the challenges ahead in a new environment. The stars were the little surprises in my life that makes this all perfect.

10.20pm.
I see a huge amount of clouds passing by.

Maybe, right now, there are too many challenges and problems in my life, but it will go away. The wind aids in the process, so that the moon can still shine as brightly as it could.

10.22pm.
The huge clouds passing through resulted in a blurred vision of the moon. But I can still see some light. It’s like a ring surrounding the moon, which is unique and attractive in its own way. Judging from the conditions of the sky, I will get this blurred vision for another 10 minutes or so.

Dear Lovely Jasmine, I am missing you right now. I am sure you would be in love with this view that I am appreciating at the moment. Unfortunately, I am unable to capture this. But I’d like you to know, you’ve been missed. Every single expression of yours and that every single word coming from you, your lovely smile and the hugs you give. You give the best hugs!

10.25pm.
Part of the moon is being covered, while the other part still shines. The clouds are still making its way.

10.28pm
Relating to everything I’ve just mentioned. This view is a little depressing. There’s an enormous amount of clouds in the sky. It seemed like my problems are going to be never-ending.

When was the last time you appreciated the moon, the stars, the clouds and the wind?
I just did.

Bell's Cooking - Part 2

Here's today's dinner. Eggs, Fish fingers and Chicken Mushroom Soup.
If you are wondering why I cooked so much today, it's simply because I am having a long day tomorrow and I didnt have proper lunch today.

Egg wasn't supposed to be there, but after frying my fish fingers, I didnt want to waste the remaining oil, so I decided to fry another egg. heh.

11/03/2009 Dinner

Chicken Mushroom Soup

Oh well, I would consider it a success compared to my previous soup!


Fish Fingers
It's fried. My friend Mark simply uses the microwave to heat them up and eat it?!

Indo-Mee

I didn't know indo mee was supposed to be dry, but I added some fish balls.

It looks like fishball noodles right?

BBQ Sauce Chicken

Could have been better!

Bell's Cooking

I cook 50% and the other 50%, I eat out.
It really depends. I cook on Monday evenings, then I'd have the same thing for Tuesday's Lunch. I dont cook on Tuesday evenings, that's when my lessons end late, so I eat out. Then Wednesday I'd cook Lunch, and have the same thing for dinner. Pretty much routine.. If someone asks me out for a meal, I'd probably go unless I am too tired.

It's really difficult to cook for one person. And if I buy prawns, I'd be stuck with it for a few days. So I have a box of eggs, this explains why I cook them so often. So I cook 2 meals at one shot. I get a bit sick after some time, and the washing is just tiring. It's different from cooking at home. I am living with someone, so you follow their house rules. The way she washes her dishes is so different from mine and she's happy to have a layer of oil on the pots and pans. She's not wrong, it's a cultural thingy. In fact, I think she's right to have a layer of oil, so your pots and pans won't rust. But back in Singapore, I'd make sure it's very clean. Climate, weather makes a difference I guess. After washing, it takes about 5 minutes for the plates to dry? I don't see ants around, even after cooking?

Also, there are many dishes that I want to cook, but can't do so for certain reasons. I want to steam eggs or fishes, but I dont have the mini metal bowls that we use? I can't get it here in Perth. So I can never steam egg till I find something similar? I can't steam fish, unless I invite a few friends over for dinner, if not, it doesn't make sense to do so?

Most of the time, I just use the soy sauce?

This is delicious. I am surprised! I wanted to cook fried rice, but figured out it's too troublesome, so I just added the eggs and prawns on top of it.

I have to say, this is by far, the worse. It's edible of course.

The corn spoilt the whole soup. I put too much corn, it just doesn't taste fantastic.

Eggs again.

But this is slighty different. Did you spot chunks of children?

There are bits of it and I actually added cheese to my eggs! It's nice :)

What should I cook tomorrow?

Bell's Place, Nedlands

I live in this suburb, Nedlands. It's a 10 minutes walk to school.
I live in a lovely apartment which is close to main roads.

From my balcony, you can see Stirling Highway.


This is my living room.

Dining area

Kitchen

My bed.

Yeah, I've brought along my bolster and pillow. I swear it's the best things I've brought over!!

I guess it's pretty obvious most of the things do not belong to me? I just use a small portion of it.

If you notice, I have a double bed and it's like English style. It pisses me off how I have 4 layers underneath me. It's quite torturing having to adjust them every night before bed time? The bed feels like hotel style, that always make me feel like I am on holidays or something. heh.

Best Day in Perth!

I have to say things started off terribly, right from the moment I step foot on this sunny land.

I dont wish to talk about it exactly because it's upsetting how I ended up being homeless, how I managed to figure out everything by myself. I have settled down and I am very very proud of myself for coming so far. The first few days were unbearable, I could not imagine myself going through it again. My parents picture was my main source of motivation. I do not wish to disppoint my family in any way and I will fight this battle and come out of it stronger.

After many days of looking at their pictures, I guess things got a little better?

But today was like the BEST DAY in Perth, so far.. Best in this 2 weeks time, that I decided to publish a post.

Things were so bad, I gave up on this blog. But today is an exception.

So what's so special?

I attended the Oak Tree Launch at Trinity. It's basically volunteering work and they need to recruit volunteers to help them for the next 8 months, 6 hours every week. I have to say, they speak very well and the presentation was impressive, backed with a huge amount of data from different sources.

What hit me very hard, was the speech from the CEO. He mentioned how everyone is equal. I am no different from the less fortunate. I was so inspired by his speech that I really do wish to join his team to create a difference. But in the end, I found the whole thing overly commercialized? But I am surprised to see the amount of people who turned up. I am sure the response is much better than Singapore's.

The pace in Perth is very slow, very laid back.. so instead of finding myself, I tend to get lost. But this launch was like a wake up call for me. Hey Bell, that's where you belong. For some people, music is their life. For me, this is MY LIFE, MY PASSION.

I miss my team, Blessings in a Bag.

I miss Darren keeping quiet and sitting by one corner, just sorting his stuffs. I miss Dan's smiles, I miss the 'energy' from Emily and I miss Arbella's little reactions to soft toys. I miss all of you..

If I fly back to Singapore in June, I should be in time for Camp Rainbow. I've gotten the invitation for committee this year and be-friender. But I guess I can only play a Calefare role this year.

I wish to be back, to enjoy our weekly sortings.

Take care guys!