Under the shade of a coolibah tree

So I've just had a complaint that my last entry wasn't long enough, so...

What I have done for the last few months since Andy's departure:

- Bar hoping, been on quite a few bar hops, Jack, one of the guys I met, is really into the bar scene and has taken a few of us to the strange and interesting places around Melbourne. He seems quite knowledgeable about alcohol in general and I suggested he charge people for a walking tour!

I'd say the most interesting one so far in Berlin Bar. The place is divided to east and west Berlin, and has a bunk bed! Don't try the Wasabi Cocktail though, bad! Manchuria Bar is not bad, it's known for it's Lemon Drop Martini, which at least half the group ordered! Been trying quite a number of different beers too, tried one that tasted like chocolate and another that tasted quite bitter

- Dinners, dinners, dinners! Been to so many I've lost count! In one street, they have a place called Coconut House and a few doors down another one called Coconut House 2, the place is really just one store because the workers just carry food and dishes up and down the street!

There's also an all you can get Yum Cha place called Rainbow restaurant. The place reminds me of Yum Cha in Hong Kong, and it's not too badly priced for all you can eat! They have seafood buffet for Dinner, so might try that at some point.

Aussies seem to have a thing for what they call a Parma, it's a chicken schnitzel with tomato paste, ham and cheese, and is found in every pub. The locals were shocked when I told them we didn't have the parma in the UK!

Oh, and a place called Crazy Wings, which is known for it's super spicy chicken "Crazy Wing" (hence the name) is a challenge! I know I can take spicy, but this is insanely hot, I'm glad we only ordered one of them!

- Tourist stuff, beside going to see the gold rush, I've also been to:

The Old Melbourne Goal, where Ned Kelly (an famous Australian bushranger) was hung

Melbourne Aquarium, penguins were the highlight

Box Hill Japanese festival, lots of Cosplay and food (expensive food until you get till the end of the day and they are trying to clear it all out)

Glow in the dark mini golf, fun but my opponent cheated!

Copacabana, the stage show wasn't bad and the place was packed

1000 steps, there isn't 1000 of them, but still a good workout and the place is amazing. Like walking in the rain forest!

Speed Jet boat in St Kilda, the jump in the the air was the highlight

The Amazing Race Melbourne, we were penalized 60 minutes for being 17 minutes late, otherwise we would have been in the top 20! Got a free postcard and magnet though!

Fireworks, so close you could touch them (figuratively speaking!)

Karaoke, K-Box is the best so far

- Shopping, there is a place called DFO which is like a shopping centre of outlet stores, been to the puma store about 100 times now, and have dragged Linda there because she has a lot of shoes so must shop a lot, might even be able to convince her to get me some new trainers! Need to get some work shoes too, so will probably drag Linda out to that as well, haha.

Also got a suit, brought a voucher for a deals website, so it was a good deal! The lady at the store tried to get me to buy some shirts as well, but I already have a few that I haven't even worn yet. I guess extra sales is where they actually make their money!

- Touch Rugby, been playing almost every Thursday night, we're ok...haha. Got a new pair of football boots so now I can run was fast as I want without slipping on the synthetic grass, good investment, and not badly priced for Nike (from DFO as well!)

- Got a job! Work at a place called Peter Harvey Architects, the people are friendly and the boss is laid back (like a typical Australian, it's great), jobs aren't bad, mixture of commercial and residential, and a big Malaysian job which is coming up should keep us fairly busy. I'm hoping the boss will sponsor me so I can stay in the country once my working holiday visa runs out. I guess my other option is marry an Aussie! (that's probably the harder option! haha) 

In general, life is going great! (which is probably why I've been slack with the updates! haha)

You drive me crazy

Today I drove for the first time in Australia, Linda being the wonderful trusting person she is, let me take a spin in her "Baby" and assured me that she had full cover in here insurance policy, haha. Driving here is like driving in the UK, but less snow and ice! I did a pretty good job at parking as well, but Linda insisted that I fix my parking up! So demanding, but given it was her car, I let it pass (I think she likes to boss me around!)

As for other things I've been up too, went to Bendigo the other week and found gold! Had to buy a $1 bottle to put the gold in, which cost more than the gold I actually found! Ended up buying a small bottle of gold from the gift shop as well.

See the gold? (It's at the very bottom!)

Casino Royale

Thought it was about time I updated my blog. Think the last time was a couple of months ago... About the time the Griffin 'big lad' came over from NZ.
Had a great weekend as it was drinking and more drinking! He dragged me to the casino and we played blackjack... The girls where looking a bit bored at this time watching us and afraid we wouldn't leave. We both staked $50 dollars each and said we leave if we doubled our money! Andy got up to $100 and I got up to $120. We did some other things like go to the footy with my friend Angela. Mostly I made him go to the gym everyday, so much for a holiday for him!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Live forever

It's been a couple of weeks or so since my last post, so I give a summary of what's happened as I cannae remember that much. Probably be a longer post as well!

Looking for jobs, going to the gym, going for dinner with friends. I been to the cinema to see some movies mostly 'chick flicks' i.e. No strings attached, just go with it, as there wasn't anything on at the cinema recently, limitless was good though!

Out to many cheap places to eat, when I say cheap , places between $10 to $20 per person. We usually end up going to the same places, somewhere cheap and cheerful! Yeah we usually end up at the japanese bar at the end of the night! Fast becoming my local pub, but Cho Gao is becoming very popular because of the cheap beer.

Bought a tennis racket to play tennis but still haven't had a game yet. Stopped my boot camp for the time being as no one really seems to interested. At the last one, only one person turned up and see was wearing jeans. How can you do a bootcamp in jeans? Been doing the training runs and going hiking as well. I was coming back from one and saw my tram, which I ran for an tripped splaying myself right in front of the open tram doors. I gathered myself and and proceeded to

Been trying to increase my attendance in the gym, but somedays I canna be arsed really! I really need a decent gym partner! One of the personal trainers was a contestant from big brother, really fit! Q

This month is also the Melbourne comedy festival. One of my friends got free tickets to a show, so I arranged to meet Dan and the others for dinner in the city first as I thought at the town hall. Dan and I met up first and. I contacted my friend who then told me it was in North Melbourne, so we decided just to have dinner I the city first and then caught a team up to the venue. I just glanced at the address and we walked past the past, funny enough there was another show on in the street that was playing at the same time. One of the actors was sitting in the lobby and was surprised to see us, apparently there had been no bookings online and they were having technical difficulties with the sound equipment and were going to cancel the show! So he offered us free tickets to the show tomorrow, even though I think he knew we had the wrong venue! I then got a call from my friend who asked me where we were, it turns out the first venue we past was the right one! My friend Dan decided to escape at this point, he sort of gave me a lame excuse but I know the real reason!! lol

The guys on the circuit weren't that funny in my opinion, except for the Irish guy who was last, maybe cause I am from that part of the world! The show lasted for three hours! I went to the other show with San the other day as no one from the day before wanted to go! It was ok, I wouldn't have paid for it though!

I also had a couple of calls from people about work, one was a woman out in Wantirna who was looking for someone to work part time! Another from a quy who had started his own practice from his house and also a couple from some agents! I we to see the woman in Wantirna first it's about a hours journey on the train and thirty minutes on the bus! Interview was going well, had a bit of banter telling me too much personal information etc. Then she started crying towards the end of the interview. It wasn't like she was sobbing more teary eyed. Needless to say she was only offering. 2days a week and with the amount. Of. Travelling I dare say it wouldn't be worth it. I then met with the other guy the following week,about's 45mins on the tram from my place, he really needed someone so I started to work for him the next day! He is a very relaxed guy, I just turn up whenever I like and just submit my hours at the end of the week. Couple of times he went a bit nuts at me but not harshly! Think he was getting worried that I wouldn't get the work done.

Next instalment I load some photos of what's happened in the past weeks and also what happened when my mate Andy came across from NZ!

Location:Palfreyman St,South Yarra,Australia

Fade Away

Again tonight was another social event, this time with the young professionals. Went to the gym in the afternoon and then headed to the event. Met Dan and we headed there early, so early that no one was there yet. Eventually Linda (our host) arrived and proceeded to confirm our reservation, funny thing was she didn't print the voucher properly so was trying to find it on her iphone whilst everyone started to phone her. the table had only been booked with people with vouchers, Dan managed to sneak onto our table as we where the first people there, so we just waited for more people  since the restaurant was fully booked.. Someone else joined our table without a voucher an took the place of someone that had a voucher, which meant the person was left sitting at another table till we managed to get another table. Dinner took 3 hours and wasn't really worth it in my opinion. Had a beer afterwards and then decided to head home as the place was a bit 'ferral' as Dan put it!

All the love in the world

Today I went for dinner, again we went to the QV and the Mamak restaurant it was ok.
afterwards. Some of us headed to an Irish pub to celebrate St Patricks day!

We have forgottten

Didn't do much today, the usual; get up look for jobs and then go to the Nike training run for kids! Some girl overtook me on the last stretch, I managed to claw it back and over take her and we sprinted to the finished point, where she just beat me, she hi-fived me on a good finish.

Wasn't too please, imagine getting beat by a girl! lol

Later in the evening I was teaching myself Revit for the test and watching TV. I have been reading this, this is the most funniest thing I have read in my life! Sort of reminds me of last weeks email episode!

http://www.27bslash6.com

Jumper

Today I was struggling to get up for my personal training session at the gym at 8am, I am regretting setting it up for this time! Good workout losing strength after the fourth set!

Later in the day I went to see bespoke an architecture recruitment agency, very positive about my UK experience and also my experience in general. Told me it should be easier to place me that graduates! I volunteered myself to do a Revit assessment test to my skill level. After that I went home to have a look at some Revit books.

Semi-charmed life

Today I went on a 20km walking hike to Cape Schanck. By the time (9am) I got to the pickup point for my lift I had eaten about a third of my lunch!

We arrived just after 10.30am at Cape Schanck. Initially the walk was only mean to be14km, but the organiser informed us it would take 3km to get to the starting point!Good 4 -5 hours of walking  followed by a swift pint at the pub afterwards. The only downside is that we got stuck in a bit of traffic on the way back (People retuning from the long weekend - labour day)

Good scenery and company! I upload the photo's late I left my iphone cable in the house!

Just to say I was rather knacked after that!

Beautiful day

Today I hosted the first boot camp. There was a good turnout, 4 people turned up! Half the group just walked and whilst one member ran with me, we only did about 5km but it didn't seem like that. I decided to stop it there as i didn’t want to scare people from coming back. I knew someone would suggest going for food, sort of defeats the purpose of doing the exercise! But hey if it gets more people to join it’s a good thing. I just make sure we don’t release the place of eating till they do the exercise.
I texted one on my friends to ask him where he was as he was meant to turn up and told him that we were having lunch / yum cha. His response was

‘Cool. When is yum cha? I can prob get in the city abt 40mins’

This was part of my response; please remember I was being sarcastic!

‘Well you can’t come if you haven’t been to the boot camp! lol

Later in the day I met up with a couple of friends and we headed to the food festival, by the time I got there it was closing, so we went for cake and ice cream afterwards. I showed my friends the picture from earlier today and one of them said.

'Its good that Say and you are wearing uniforms, your very organised!' 

I found this rather funny! We were wearing similar tops!


The chocokait place on Little Collins Street http://www.chokolait.com.au
Run by a husband and wife team, really friendly and is nice and a relaxing place to unwind

Fireworks

Today.. couldn't be arsed much... I went to the city and meet up with some friends! Afterwards we went to some Japanese restaurant. Then we headed to the Yarra to watch the fireworks at the moomba festival.. my iphone had died that this point so there isn't any photographs. It was nice and after that went to have a pint at the robo bar (Japanese bar)

Some might say - Part 2

This was the response I got back after writing that email!

"How ridicules, have you got nothing better to do with your time Jan than write such a long winded email."

We received the email at dinner, wasn't sure if I should response back, but being egged on by some of the others I decided to! Trying to character assassinate my friend was a bad mistake!

If I was Michael I would have just acknowledged I was wrong and apologised after the first email and it would have been left at that! I didn't response straight away to his email as it is always better to let a couple of days past to see if he would have the balls to do the right thing, but alias he didn't!

"You can't teach someone to care."
- Art Sakaguchi


Also if you reply straight away to someone, you may regret what you have said, better to calm down and be rational about it.

"Speak when you are angry and you'll give the best speech that you will ever regret."
- Lawrence J Peter

Dear Michael, 

Well clearly I use my time efficiently, getting all the facts and making a valid argument, instead of throwing accusations at people with no solid evidence to back up your claims. Maybe you should master the 'Queens English' before learning such a complex language as Mandarin as your spelling is appalling! 

Have you been watching the film 'How to lose friends and alienate people.' because you are doing a very good job at this! 

The reason why I wrote such an email was to explain in detail the purpose of the group.

You obviously have nothing better to do if with you time either, by initiating this conversation with your callous email!

If you are purely looking for a language exchange maybe you should invest in some private lessons!

Yours Truly 

Jan

Sent from my iPhone
 

It has turned out to be rather funny! I even got a couple of emails of encouragement form other members of the group!

"The crisis of yesterday is the joke of tomorrow."
- H G Wells

Dinner was good, Yes it must be true all the girls are scared of eating rice here! A couple of them only had half bowls, I must have had about 2 or 3 bowls of rice so did some of the other guys. I was pretty hungry as I had just been to the gym!

The 'Michael' incident gave us an interesting conversation topic! Michael has now left the group apparently, my intention was never to do this! I just wanted to state the facts to him!

The IOS 4.3 update for the iphone is out! I am downloading it in the library as the internet in my flat still isn't sorted yet. They were meant to come yesterday! Reminds me of Etisalat in the UAE!

Some might say

Got this email a couple of days ago and decided to respond to it today, it wasn't addressed to me personal but I thought I reply anyway.

"why are you sending junk mail to me from this group, is no one interested in language exchange, it seems most the time people just want to promote their friends resturants,  I can't remember the last time I recived infomation about genuine language learning."

Dear Michael,

Thank you for your email, by sending that email you yourself are now sending what you call ‘junk mail’. I'm sorry to hear that you don't agree with how the organisation is run, but our goal is to help the majority of members within this organization.

You must remember although this group is does function as a language exchange group, we believe in promoting Chinese culture as well. If you are just interested in language exchange, you are limiting your expectations from what this group is offering. The aim of organisation is to bring people together that have similar interests.

Learning language isn’t about just sitting and speaking to each other across a table or in a classroom environment, by interacting on different levels it is then when people can really truly experience what Chinese culture is. Since eating is a large part of Chinese culture with different regions specialising in unique cuisine it is only natural for us to experience this. Many of the people joining this group have been or are going to travel to China etc.; do you think they are just going to eat McDonalds in China? I think not!

I can assure you that we don’t promote ‘our friends restaurants'. The fact that you made this assumption offends me; many of our members are professionals or students and have no affiliation with any of these establishments. We are a non profit organisation and do not promote ‘our friends restaurants’. Believe it or not many business deals in China are conducted over the dinner table in China etc. and this is an important part of Chinese culture, which the majority of this group embrace with open arms. Many interesting conversations are also sparked from the dinner table at these meet ups.

Another aspect of Chinese culture is the martial arts and sports. Since the emergent of China as a dominate force in the world of sports. It is only natural for some of our members to take the sports seriously. The competitive streak is abundant in most Asians’ as it is instilled from birth!  Having spoken to many members they were keen to have an organised sporting activity and such as the demand, we have started to organise some events. We know that this might not be everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ but in order to have a successful organisation publicity is the key, hence the email announcements.

There is a setting in meet up that allows you to turn off messages, so if you are worried about receiving junk mail I suggest you change this setting.

A lot of time and effort has been put in by the organisers to host these events; I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for doing a splendid job.

Kind Regards

Jan

Never say never

Today I been in the library brushing up on my Revit skills, I attended a seminar last night, to be honest I was rather bored as it went on for 2 hours. There seems to be a shortage of talented revit designers, now will someone just give me a job! Met an architect who said his firm is looking for people in the next month as they have a couple of big projects that are about to take off so I emailed my CV off to him for him to pass it on to his manager, so fingers crossed on that one!

Day rest from the gym, shoulders are hurting from all the lifting I am doing! I am going to the Nike training run later today! "I train my legs when I run"

Need to find some new tunes to workout to, listening to 'The climb' is good but I need so more power songs! I saw the clip for Limitless, looks like a good film to watch!

'The easiest way to get a healthy body is MARRY one.' I laughed at that one!

Happiness

This post on facebook by my friend Paul reminded of the happy times I had in Abu Dhabi! I am sure he won't mind if I share it! My comments are in the italic pink!

I was thinking today how I miss the call to prayer. It's so exotic and distinctive to the region. I hated those tannoys at first but now I realise they help create that buzz you feel. I still hate those tannoys, well you would if you lived right beside a mosque and got woken up at 4am nearly every day.

"aaaaaaaalahu Akbar!"

It got me thinking about the other things I miss. Things like...

My friends; totally agree
Queueing up twice to buy fruit and veg; I hate that only in Abu Dhabi can they find more complicated ways to do simple things.
Fearing for my life every time I get into a taxi; I hate it when they short change you and don't tell you, it's' the principle if I want to give you a tip I give you a tip, you just don't take it! The funny thing is I knew how to get to more places than some of those drivers!
Hearing the taxi computer warning "Slow down, you are crossing the speed limit" about seven seconds after you get in the taxi; Being a former boy racer and having rolled and written off  my brothers car I understand the importance of road safety and no longer drive that way!
Fresh, hot, Arabic bread; the time we had curry at your place and watched machete, followed by rum and coke!
That night in Dubai; Fuzzy duck, that was a night to remember!
The Indian head wiggle; I only got that once and it was relaxing, my Indian barber in Abu Dhabi made a better job than my Indian barber here in Melbourne and he can't even speak or understand English!
My wrist hurting every Sunday from hitting the volleyball wrong; you must have been playing by yourself as we played on a Saturday! lol
Arabic timekeeping; When Turning up to a meeting half an hour late is the norm and taking phone calls during the meeting... lol
Arif's standard greeting "Hey man, whatsup?!!" I miss that guy, one of my true friends in Abu Dhabi!
Seeing women in Abayas running up the Corniche; I never seen that, just them walking!
Hearing Zombie by the Cranberries several times a night in PJs; I hope the Cranberries are getting the royalties they be rolling in dough by now! lol
Locals looking at me funny like I've just landed from another planet; well I miss the locals and the Filipino population asking me 'Are you Korean?'
Indian workmen in hard-hats and sandals; I don't miss them, it's funny as they do no work but as some as someone important comes on site they start rushing about like mad men and saying look what I done!
Sand; I hate sand!
Those little tiny birds and scrawny cats; I miss Titan!
Getting annoyed when some other hotel guest dared use "my" gym; you should try the 24 hour ghetto workout!
Beijing restaurant; The best Chinese in Abu Dhabi, it was a bit embarrassing when the staff started to recognise us and telling us 'oh your friends are already upstairs'!
Turning down Jan's offer of running on the corniche every single time; Bitch...I liked your excuse...I would, but I would melt!
Jan's Filipino followers; hahhahahaha... you are just jealous of my Korean looks!
The horrible, horrible architecture; True, there is a lot of horrible architecture!
Alaa and his millions of activities; Alaa is pretty relaxed and a cool guy to hang out with and not in your face like some other people I won't mention, just like me!
Jet skiing; never tried that, scared of drowning! :(
Having several showers a day out of pure necessity; I think the most I had was about 4 a day!
Having Arabic TV on in the background for hours and not understanding a single moment of it; I switched channels as soon as anything Arabic came on, although I remember I was engrossed in a Filipino music/variety show at Alona's on Wii night!
Swearing in Mandarin with Yang; I can't remember those words!
Wessam's dancing; we should have taken him to an arcade to test him!
Wessam's sweat; you miss that really, I sure he could bottle it for you and send you some! hahahahaaha
Working the film festival; that was funny apart from the kid that thought he was better than everyone else!
Apartment envy when I was round Sheetal's “flat "; yeah a bit over the top for one person!
Speaking more to my Mum that I do now (good old skype); No one in my family has skype!
Watching people water the walls in the morning; never seen that!
Having to go back to my room to collect my sunglasses when I forgot them (even though it's December); Yeah and also wearing just a t-shirt and shorts in winter, awesome!
Being the whitest person around; I told you to get yourself some fake tan so that you could blend in, but as usual you never listen to my great advice! hahahahahahahaah
Adam the friendliest guy in the world; True and his facebook posts that sometimes don't make much sense, God bless him!
McDonalds big tasty burger; Yeah the big tasty was awesome; it is no wonder all the Arabs are fat! That and there exercise regime, oh we can buy pills to make us lose weight no need to exercise!
Floating in the Arabic Sea; I tried that, I must have heavy bones because I can't float!
Watchings kids trying to catch those tiny fish in the Sea with their lunchboxes (only happened once but made me laugh); missed that!
Robin's daily health tips; How true, when I was living with Robin, she gave me daily health tips and told me what not to eat, I stopped drinking Nescafe as a result! One of the people I miss a lot!
Zoe failing to understand my English - I mutter; that’s funny as your where my translator on many occasions, I don't know why cause I'll been told I don't have an accent, though the Scots I met can pick it up straight away!
Having 100% confidence in Inigo's navigation “skills "; Yeah Inigo and the hiking group, good times! Also his greeting ... hello, hello, hello... Classic!
That Hinglish radio station; I didn't listen to the radio or watch TV out there as it was rather rubbish, pretty much the same in Australia, I just have to find some TVB series to download and watch!
The absolutely unbelievable heat in the summer.... It wasn't that hot, 50 degrees is nothing!

I think I could go on all night but I'll stop for now. I wasn't always sure at the time, but I had the best time out there. Second that mate, I don't think I could have survived that long out there if it wasn't for all the great friends out there!

Some other things I miss:
Hanging out with friends like you and the simple times like when we sat and chatted whilst drinking rum and coke in your hotel room!
Going to Arcadia and Cheers (Filipino bars), where you could see everyone on the dance floor!
Squash, no one seems to play this here, it's too dangerous for them!
Running along the corniche (the beach) and my regular running partners Alexandra, Diane and Jennifer, I would include Aamir and Arif in there but they just became fat and lazy after the first couple of months... lol;
Working Sunday to Thursday!
Using my blackberry, I can't bbm here without a bloody contract! :(
My Filipino followers!
My 'Born To Run AD' group, I am glad Aamir and Robin are still keeping it going.
"It's time to run again Amigos.. carrying on Jans Legacy" Thanks Aamir 

Heads will roll!

When I woke up this morning, my flatmate Michelle was taking ages in the shower and Sebastian was also waitng so I decided to nip to the gym and do some weights. I wanted to see if I could still do an inverted chin up's (a chin up where you put your legs through your arms and then back again) along with my usual chin up set. Still able to manage a couple! Some guy taught me all this crazy shit in Scotland!

Back in Scotland I was doing crazy shit in the gym. i.e. using a stack machine to hang upside down with my arms... I think they took that machine away because of me!

I like this quote, at one point in my life I was at the gym for about 1 to 2 hours 6 to 7 times a week!

'The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.'

Later on in the day, headed doon the toon to watch a movie with firends, saw Dan on the train, trying to get me to have a game of tennis with him! We ate at the Old Kopitiam QV it was ok and then watched the movie 'I am number 4'. Typical Sci fi movie, some of  the girls where a bit jumpy at the scary parts, which bought a smile to my face!

Michelle left a mess in the kitchen the other day for ages, she can't seem to clean plates either!

Your Song

Sunday. I stayed in bed all till about 11am, just so tired and felt like I been hit by a train so I decided to take a rest day from doing any exercise! When I got up I did my laundry, made some pasta and then went window and food shopping. I was browsing in Borders and decided to to buy a book cause it looked rather interested and was ony $5, It's called 'Every Monday Matters', about making a difference!

So in the next couple of days I need to start to organise this fitness activity for the group.

I watched a couple of films 21, how to alienate people and lose friends, kickass and push. I seen 2 of these films before but some of the 300 other films I have don't seem that interesting to me! I started to watch 'When lanes merge' a TVB chinese series it is rather good!

Nature's law

Today I went to the gym in the morning then to the library. Later that day I went to the meetup seemed to be getting postive feedback for the sporting activities so thats good, I'll try to arrange something for next weekend. The meetup was dragging for a bit and I was getting hunger so we then headed to chinatown for dinner, had to nip out and get some cash form the cash machine as I wasn't sure if I had enought. I went to Lonsdale street to the nearest Westpac branch (If you withdraw from an ATM this isn't affilated with your bank they charge you). the greek festival was on so I told the other upon my return and we decided to go there after to get desert.

The food was ok, cheap which is always good, I ate loads of rice, cause I like rice but I am too lazy to cook it at home! I think all asian girls must be scared of getting fat here cause they never seem to eat any rice and never do any exercise! lol

 We went to the the festival, its just another way for the shops to make money to be honest. the desert shop was mobbed when we went past. I been past that shop many of times and it has never been that busy! The shop even had a stall outside their shop! See what I mean!

So we bought our baklava, very sweet and sat outside the state library where it was less busy. after a bit we moved to a bar and had some beers! In my opinion not a very good bar, they didn't sell corona! I had some carton draught instead.

The following quote reminds of some of the antics in grand designs (a UK TV show about building homes, which is on Australia TV), I saw a bit of an episode the other day. The couple instead of getting  a steel plate with holes punched through opted to get a steel plate with holes laser etched into the steel for their walkway! I wouldn't like to think of the cost of that! Some people have more money than sense!

 “If you think of brick, for instance, and you say to brick, 'What do you want brick?' And brick says to you 'I like an arch.' And if you say to brick 'Look, arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete lintol over you. What do you think of that brick?' Brick says:'... I like an arch'” Louis Khan

xx

Looking again for jobs and spoke to a couple of agents. Went to the gym ofr a quick session and then my friend texted me to see what I was up to.We decided to go for a movie after dinner, but she timed it so that we the only film we could watch was 'No strings attached'. Hmmm.... Well I can't really complain as I made her go and watch 127 hours and she was hiding behind her hand for the scary parts! (the bits where he is cutting his arm off).

To be honest the film was quite enjoyable!

The seldom seem kid

I went to the library with Barron on our way down the street he pointed out the dead possum or rat on the telephone wire. He told me it had been there for eight years and it had been mummifed by the sun!

Went for a run with the running group, only 4 people turned up. I ran with a girl called Dianne we ran two laps of the tan after the first lap I wanted to stop as I been running the day before, but she kept on going so I had to as well.

Headed to the gym afterwards for a quick session!

Runaway

Today went for an interview, went well but as always you think to yourself after the interview
 that you could have done better etc! Not stressing about it if it is meant to be it is meant to be it will be!

You should walk barefeet, ground the negative energy!

I also got a free plant as they where giving them away for free outside federation square!

Later in the day I went to the Nike training for the Run for Kids. I moved up one group and  finished 3rd! Runnning with people makes all the difference as there is competition, Nothing in life is worth doing if it is easy!

Bleeding love!

Decided to have a look at this new gym that is just around the corner from me! Got a quick tour and the trainer said I could come and try out the boxercise class for free. So I did some shopping and came back later! It was pretty intensive, skinned two of my knuckles! Walked to the toon and back!

Location:South Yarra,Australia

That's the truth

Today I was another day searching for jobs, one agency called me back, this guy was pretty friendly and not condesecending like most of the other agents I been speaking with!


Later in the day I went to the Nike training run, Again I got the train as I was running late! Went into the imtermediate group, they where going a bit slow for me so I tried to catch up the fast group, then I lost sight of them and got lost, so I managed to find the intermediate group again and finsihed firstish out of that group! Well there was another guy matching me for pace and we fiunished at the same time!

Champion

 Got up early today to go running, couldn't really sleep for some reason, woke up at 4am, then at 6am, and eventually woke up and had some breakfast and then was running late so I got on the train to get to the run, my plan had been to walk or jog up to the meeting place! This was the first time I been on the train and I wasn't sure where it was going to stop!

It was pissing down and I was almost tempted to sms the organiser and tell her I be in my bed, but I knew I was going for yum cha later and I feel guilty so I didn't! Only about half the people turned up the organiser, the guy from Peru and me!

Run started off well, the guy from Peru was keeping pace with me, wasn't sure if I was going to be faster than him. After we reached the half way mark, it was clear that he was a much better runner than me! Ok I got caught at the traffic lights as well, but I was only about 5mins behind him, so I in real time only a couple of minutes, plus I had too much breakfast, which made it hard to run and also I was tired, well that the story I am telling you so you better believe it! When I run in a group I don't like to be beaten, the competitive streak come out in me! Over 10.8km done in less than 55mins, you could see the steam come off us!

Later in the day, we went for yum cha, the manager of the place was a bit rude to us, so no tip for him or his staff, they kept running out of food as well! My friend Say even wrote some very harsh comments on the receipt! We then went for coffee afterwards before heading home!

Someone like you

Went for a run and then pretty much did nothing for the rest of the day except watching the tv, the big bang theory (finding this very addictive) and updating my facebook profile, the about you section, this took me a couple of hours to write!

I am a dynamic fitness hunger figure, often seen scaling rock faces, running half marathons daily! My training by many martial arts masters means I can stop traffic with just a look! I manage time efficiently; who needs sleep, when you have adrenaline!

I have been known to remodel old castles on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I ran out of castles to work on so I am looking for new projects to work on!

On Sundays and Wednesdays, after work in the desert, I used to teach people how to run free of charge! If I was to give up my career as an architect, I would be a world class volleyball or table tennis player by now!

I am travelled; immune to the sun, I am a heat source! I have seen so many horrors, but so many joys as well! I can say I written my name in the snow and as well as the sand! Critics’ worldwide swoon over my great dress sense, my original line of corduroy trousers with my slogan t-shirts! I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket and can finish food shopping in 10 minutes!

I don’t perspire unless I been on convert operations for MI5. I have made extraordinary meals using only eggs and instant noodles. I'm like a vintage whisky, I get better with age. I listen more than I talk because I know the rule of having two ears and one mouth! I am an award winning blogger and a master of one-liners!

The laws of physics do not apply to me; unless I’ve been drinking, this hypothesis needs to be tested on a regular basis! When I was bored, I refurbished an entire 3 bed apartment. I keep getting asked if I am Korean!

I have just discovered the meaning of life ;)

Upside down

Today was another walk, this time about 60 odd people turned up. A great turnout! Walked around the Botantical Gardens and then headed to the Arcadia for the $5 pizza!

I headed straight to the bar to order food, as I knew it would take ages, some of the other people I was with decided to sit down and find a table, they did it upside down!

Just as well as I got my $5 pizza and the rest of my table didn't as they had sold out of most things by the time they put there order in! The look on there faces was priceless, for everything else there is mastercard! (You might not get this joke if your not from the UK, Mastercard did a series of TV ads).

Afterwards we headed to play pool and I showed them how 5 years at university had helped to hone my skills, not before I missed the ball on the first shot, the bouncer came across and cheekly told me he had seen that, this was followed by a round of laughter from everyone!

Born this way

Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese. And there are 5 people in my family, so it must be one of them. It's either my mum or my dad. Or my older brother Big Jan. Or my younger brother David. But I think it's Big Jan. lol


The funny thing is that people call him big Jan when I am actually bigger than him!

Going for another run today! after my 10km walk already. The only problem is that I end up being very hunger!

More

Went out to the other china town in melbourne, in the richmond surburb. My flatmate Barron likes to go the charity shops, actually they are very popular here! ! I acutally bought a laptop bag for 5 dollars as the one I had broken, It was like in brand new condition a promo item I think! (from Optus a mobile phone provider). I then went for a run afterwards as I thought the interations meetup started at 8pm but it had actually started at 6pm, so by the time I got there at 9pm it was nearly finshed but it was good.

All In

Barron, showed me around the area and I bought some food, Did some cooking, Eggplant and Tofu with onion in a sweet chilli sauce with sweet potato mash, here is the result! Joined the local library as well.
went for another run!

My bank card has arrived. I went with Westpac as they don't charge people on a WHV for the first 6 months.

What the hell

Moved into my new place today, my room isn't ready as the guy doesn't leave till next week, but I am staying in my landlords room as he is house sitting. The place isn't great, but the location is good, you are all welcome to come and visit me if you want! lol

He is a bit picky about his tenants as he has started to advertise the other room, but he doesn't want any indians!

Went and bought some groceries and watched some TV and that was about it,

Tie me kangaroo down sport

Had a nightmare trying to get to my friends house as I was meeting her there so we could go Kangaroo spotting. In the end she met me halfway!

So we where late picking up the other guy. the organiser had a bit of fallen out with everyone as we sort of deserted her as we felt that she didnt' know what she was doing, but the walk was good!

After we came back I went for a walk down the town.

My friend Chun-Vun and the other walker we picked up (Raymond)

I'll be there for you

Bored today! So when my friend asked me if I had any plans for tonight and if I wanted to go for dinner or a movie I said yes, we went to an indonesia restaurant and then went to watch 127 hours. I really wanted to see it, she really didn't as it was a bit horrific in some places.

During dinner she got a call from a guy who emailed her yesterday about getting a lift, I think thats why she invited me to come as she thought the guy was a bit strange.

I want you

Today I went for dinner with some friends, had a lot of dumplings! I wanted to to have some decent chinese food, but it's hard to go on your own to a restaurant! It was awesome! One of the girls started a conversation with me saying, I can see you take care of yourself, i.e. very fit, active, going to the gym, big muscles etc! The guy sitting beside me said "Oh you never said anything like that to me before, I take it I am just average!" I thought it was funny!

I ate so much that I felt so full that I had to walk home to walk it off!.

Me, Say and Rowan 

Circle

Another day in Melbourne, not much happening today, usual just looking for work and for a run!

Run

Went to see Barron (A male version of my good friend Robin) to drop off a couple of my bags and to sign the lease and give my deposit for the room. Stayed and chatted for about 4 hours then I ran home. When I was running home some drunk Aussie thought it be funny in front of his mates and started to jog beside me taking his shirt off as well. Well I was like ok then and sprinted off and there was no way he was catching me!

I usually walk 4km and run 10km per day!

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Guided by a voice

Since that conversation with Dave the other day, I am a bit wary of eating instant noodles now, so last night I went and bought some veggies, pak choi, preserved vegetables, beansprouts and some more instant noodles (the ones from Korean are safer apparently!).

I made some pasta with the veggies and used the perserved vegetables a flavouring. It was pretty good, just need to have some hot sauce next time, but I might as well wait till I move next week and then, start cooking more healthly. Made a lot so had some left over which I have for tonight's dinners.

At least I only been to MD's once and that was cause I had a couple of beers, I am not really missing drinking that much! I was tempted again to go to MD's or KFC the other day but I resisted the urge! I stopped drinking coke (Robin please stop drinking coke!!) as well and drink at least 4 bottles of water.

The way I been taught to cook instant noodles was to cook them in water, drain them and then add new water and favouring. This at least would get rid of the waxy coating! So remember this when cooking instant noodles in the future!

Went for a walk afterwards as I couldn't run till the last 20mins anyway as I was too full, came home and watched 'Never Back Down'.