LET THE FORESTS GROW

A book of wine

2008-08-20T10:22:49Z

The first time I met a cask wine was at my cousin's place in Sydney. It was placed neatly next to a few receipe books and looked like a limited edition "classics" written by Charles Dicken. My first thought was: "Hmm, what an interesting book on wine, it has something funny attached at the bottom though....". A few days later, I saw my cousin's husband emptying wine into a glass from an aluminium pack! Question marks floated inside my head. It was not until almost the end of my one week stay did I realised that pack of wine came from within the "book"!

Martin and Siew Cheng gave me one of their "books" to bring back to Brisbane, and my housemates love it. Som people may think cask wines are "cheap" wines, but the quality of some is good, such as the one mentioned here. I guess as long as you finish it by the best-before date, it should be good. We brought one (3L) for A$21 at Gatton, but you can get four at around $16-17 each at Dan Murphy's. Well, the nearest Dan Murphy's is 45 minute-away at Toowoomba. Maybe it's good that we support local business, and A$21 for 3L of good read wine is still better than paying for duty taxes in Singapore.

I took this pix with my hp when I saw the irony, ha ha... a "wine book" on top of a pile of other books. We were joking that evening that we will go home with 2 degrees- one in Applied Science and one in Wine Appreciation. Not entirely true lah, we don't drink ourselves silly like some of the blokes in uni hostels, but half a glass or so every other day after dinner.

Digging perceptions

2008-08-15T13:14:20Z

I have managed to arrange my tutorials and practicals in a way that I don't have to go to uni on Monday and Friday! How clever is that? ;-)

Today, as I do not have classes, I went to help a master student set up her pitfall traps at Minden. Remember the place where I saw people making sausages? The site is somewhere there, about 20 minute-drive away from where I am staying. It's a private property owned by an ex-professor at UQ, and on his huge land, he is trying to achieve a balance between three land uses: residential, commercial (cattle and forestry) and wildlife (remnant patch of vegetation and wildlife corridors). Interesting property, at the top of the hill and so has a beautiful paranomic view of the surrounding fields dotted with remnant pockets of vegetation. This area has been widely cleared for dairy farming in the past, and thus it is not surprising to learn that these remnants contain rare plant species unique to this area.

We started at 10am and work till about 4pm, resting only for about 30 minutes for a quick lunch. The good thing about working in the field here is the low humidity and cooler temperature. I am sure I would not be able to last this long back home. There were six of us, 4 ladies and 2 gentlemens, with another guy joining us after lunch. We finished 18 pitfall traps in all (we need a total of 60!!!!), which are about 50-cm deep and 30cm-wide. Together with another person, I did a total of about 4 pitfalls. That's pretty neat for someone who are not used to physical-demanding work!

My arms are actually aching terribly now! I can still type, but the pain, especially in my left arm muscles somehow, is annoying. The pain is not acute, but what we Chinese will describe as a "sour pain". I had to ask WL for her "Counterpain" ointment. And Mei teased me by reminding me that "ming tian hui geng hao" (tomorrow will be "better")... oh dear... it's so good tomorrow is a non-uni day.

When I first started to dig the ground with the hoe, I really doubted that I would actually be able to do any effective digging. Luckily there was this 'ang mo' lady who have done more such work than me. She was really good! And I was simply shoveling away the loosen soil while she swinged the hoe with what I saw as ease and effectiveness. Of course it was no easy work, but she proved to me that we ladies can do this work too. So I gave the hoe and the damn heavy crow bar a go too. My motto for today has to be "slow and steady".

In Singapore, we rely heavily on our foreign workers to do many of our physically demanding works. Many of us also tend to label such work as not fitting for "educated" people. Worse, I have heard my peers refering to such work as "bangla work" (as many of our foreign contractors are from Bangladesh). They may be saying it jokingly, but we should be aware that such jokes are no longer acceptable in these times. Worst, I have heard a young friend referred the Malays as "those who dig soil" in Hokkien! I am pretty sure she picked that up from her parents, without realising how racist she was being.

I think it is pretty sad that we have taken the contributions by foreign workers for granted and that some of our young people actually think laborious works are menial. t's actually quite refreshing for me to see 'ang mos' doing the "menial" works here- they resurface the road, clean the tables, wash the toilets, drive the rubbish trucks, remove the weeds from public planting areas, etc (I remember someone ever told me how amazed her Ah Ma was when she first saw them during a tour. In her days, 'ang mos' never had to do such things). Some would argue that these 'ang mos' have better wages, but I doubt Singaporeans will apply for these jobs even if money is good. We are concerned with "face" issue and what others will say.

I am sure there are 'ang mos' here who look down upon on their mates who do these important works, maybe I haven't known enough of them, and so I rather like to continue to believe that over here they are more used to treating everyone as equals (some would attribute this trait to their common background as descendants of convicts). And so, when I dig the pitfall traps today, I actually feel rather good. I feel less conscious somehow and simply concentrate on the work. There weren't the usual remarks from a well-meaning but naggy male that goes: "aiya, let me do it lah. The rate you are going, the sun will be rising again, or from some: "let the workers do it, you don't have to do such works". You just do what you can, slow and steady.

Monotremes

2008-08-13T11:44:30Z

This is already the fourth week of the second semester! And the smell of holiday is finally no longer lurking around... it's time to do some serious reading, and I don't mean fiction. Eversince I picked up Chocolat by Joanne Harris from a Salvation Army thrift store in Sydney a month ago, I had read three other novels- I got kind of hooked somehow! Luckily there are not many good titles in the fiction corner of our library, but I manage to pick a thin one today about a story of the "stolen generation" in Australia. Should be interesting.

I know I have ben lazy in posting entries, I can't probably blame it on the winter cold, can I? Temperature can drop to 1 to 2 degrees in the wee hours, but inside the house it is still manageable without a heater, but I will have to wear socks and bedroom slippers and some nights a beanie and gloves!

I wish I can simply Bluetooth the words and image in my mind to the internet..... (no, I have not been reading science fictons). Ok, so what interesting stuffs have happened after the last post....

The fauna survey is defintely one. It's the first time I get up close with native wild animals here like the bandicoot. It was AWESOME (must say it like the Aussies) to peek into the pouch of a female bandicoot at the little babies (they call them pinkies). I saw my first monotreme (mammal that lay eggs)- a echidna, which fell into our pit-fall trap! When released, it started to dig beneath itself and sank steadly into the ground! Quite an amusing sight! I guess this is a way to protect itself from predators by pressing it's vulnerable unprotected belly tight against the ground while exposing its long and sharp spikes.

Now, this photo does look like a decomposing wedge of durian shell right?

The trip up north is pretty good too. It's the first time I backpacked alone, taking the Greyhound and sleeping in dorm beds and I am surprised that I actually enjoyed it very much! Of course there were times that I wished my friends were with me, or that I have another like-minded person whom I can share the joy of seeing really beautiful nature masterpieces, but there are also the freedom to do whatever you like and the peaceful moments you can engage in serendipity with nature. You are also more likely to step out of your comfort zone to do something different and also to talk to people you meet along the way.

I saw the other monotreme in my trip- platypus! Some people I met later told me they are elusive animals, but because I stayed 2 nights at a place near the national park (Eungella National Park), I actually had the opportunity to be at the viewing platform over Broken River on three consecutive evenings, and I saw at least two of them each time. You have to be fairly patient though, my first sighting came about thirty to fourty minutes into the wait. You also have to be observant enough to differentiate the ripples made by them from the many terrapins in the river. The platypus is smaller than what I had imagined, about 30-40 cm in length. They are such a delight to watch.

I can probably easily post more than a dozen of short entries about my trip! But that's it for today ;-) I am getting sleepy now!

Heading up north

2008-06-21T14:43:17Z

Oh dear, there never seems to be a good time to post the things that I wanna share with you guys!

There were the photos that I took for the "typical days" series, my animal handling pracs, the BBQ and drinking session that we just had after the other girls cleared the last paper.... after exam, we actually got ourselves into another busy frenzy- to plan where to go during this one month holidays!

Can't we just don't do anything and stay at home? Well, I suppose we can. Especially after I started to read Paulo Coelho's book again... there's a theme in his recent writings about how people must always have something to do to feel meaningful. When they do not have anything to work on or keep themselves busy, they feel uneasy because they do not know what to do with the void.

I was pretty anxious and somewhat sad before I finalised the trip up north. Guess among a few other things, I was upset about my worry of independent travelling, and the lack of confidence to drive from place to place, which is what I really like to do. Why not travel with my housemates? We get along more or less okay in the house, but I thought we should give one another a break for a while. We can give and take in the house, but I kind of value my travelling, seeing it as a journey for new experience and reflections.

At some points, I have also thought about going for a 10-day vipassana course, to learn how to "do nothing", but I didn't gather enough courage to do it in the end...

Anyway, tomorrow, I will be heading to Dundowran to do a fauna survey with three other uni students. Then on the 26th, I will be at Hervey Bay. I signed up for a tour for Fraser Island, a World Heritage Site. Then I will hop onto Greayhound to Mackay in search for platypus ;-)
My Greyhound ticket allows me to hop on and off from Hervey Bay to Cairns, so I should eventually ends up in Cairns. Hope to visit Daintree National Park.

Cat ganja

2008-06-08T10:37:03Z

Four days to exams!!!!!

Haven't quite read all that I am suuposed to read yet.... times passes so fast. But still, was able to go out for a breather at Brisbane city last Tuesaday- right after finishing the tedious management plan, and also went to Fernvale market early this morning. Brought a lavender plant and a small pot of rosemary.

More pixs later guys- lazy to put them up now ;-P

Am studying the chapter on cat behaviour and come across this paragraph on catnip response. Googled and found this video that depicts this interesting phenomenon very well. Cat ganja, ha ha... and the best thing is, it didn't seem to have any side effects for the cats.

Check it out:

Crazy week ahead

2008-05-23T01:31:37Z

Dear folks,

I have just received my take-home exam questions for Principles of Wildlife Management and we are given a week to work on it. I haven't been catching up with the readings and therefore it's not easy for me to clear the 3 questions that test our understanding of the principles. These questions are framed in such a way so as to test how you are going to manage a wild animal popultion if you are a wildlife manager. It will be interesting to work these questions through. I should be alright.

At the same time, I still need to attend a few more lectures, do an assessable statistic quiz and a management plan on a fictitious national park (worth 30%!). All 3 are due at about the same time and so you can imagine that the week ahead is a bit tough here for me. PLUS the weather has turned colder after the rain last saturday. I have already "upgraded" from doning a normal fleece to my North Face medium-thick fleece.

Good thing is I can now show off the beautiful knitted scarf that Shihui brought for me so long ago in Korea ;-P

So you can skip visiting this blog for a week plus cos I will not be posting.

Wish me luck!

Finally, it happens

2008-05-15T11:33:34Z

I have been a careful driver, because I know that the chances of a new driver getting into an accident is very very high. I did have one or two close shaves, and everytime I did something not very clever behind the wheels, I would remind myself that I must uphold my principle to be a safe and skilful driver.

I had my first accident today. Minor one- no one was hurt. The other car got a shattered indicator light cover, and our old grandfather Mitshibitshi Gallant got a dent at the area just below the boot (dunno what you call that part lah). Basically we both reversed into one another- I was adjusting the car from a badly parked position, and the ah ma (probably in her 70s, she has cool pure white hair) was reversing her car (a nice old 70-ish one but I didn't register the model) to get out of her lot. Her car has a tow bar and its tongue had probably went into the back of our car.

I didn't really know what to do except to ask whether she was alright. This nice petite ah ma actually told me that she was at fault but I told her that I was wrong too. I should have double checked or stopped rolling the car when checking.

This happened at the carpark in front of COLES supermarket- which is the carpark I found most challenging as the others on campus are more spacious. Most Australians like to park head in, which I find easier as well, but whenever I have a chance, I will choose to do a reverse parking. I do so probably because I do find it easier to exit the lot and I want to be able to master it and do it well back home as well. Lots and carpark space are much bigger here, so if I can't even do well here, I will not gain the confidene to drive in Singapore man.

Ironically, the accident happened when I did a head in. The last time I attempted a reverse parking here, I got horned at because I didn't see the car behind me ;-P.

It's always like this, I should have trusted my first instinct. I know I turned too late for this lot, but yet I still turned in and ended up with the left wheels on the border of the lot and the need to reverse and re-position the car.

Anyway folks, don't worry for me, I have definitely learned my lesson today and will be extra careful. I should be thankful that no one is hurt and that the lesson is not an expensive one. No more next time!

Here's a old pix of our "ah gong" MG, taken in March. This pix was taken to commemorate my first parallel parking. Haven't done more than 3 times I think, so need more practice and especially in smaller lots than this!

A more or less typical monday in Sem 1

2008-05-13T13:15:55Z

It seems early this year, but the people who will be coming to join me at UQ here next year were confirmed. Time is moving fast even in this small town, probably because we can never manage to catch up with the stuffs that we are supposed to read... Anyway, it's one of those unproductive nights again, and I shall devote such time this week to do a YK's typical week at UQ on this blog. People coming next year shall get a preview of what's life going to be like.

My Sony Ericsson k800i will assist me in presenting my perspectives to on a typical monday here:

Date: 12 May 2008

My first lesson today is the National Park Management tutorial at 11.00am, but I arrive on campus earlier for a meeting about a presentation that we are going to give in Wildlife Management class later. This arrangement is good as I can come together in a car with the others, who have classes at 8am.

We are running a little late this morning because we didn't sleep well last night. Something happened- a mouse was found running in our house at 2am! I was waken up twice by the commotion and was a little upset that they were making so muh noise. I thought they must be killing spiders again, although I did wonder why they need to be so dramatic this time. Could it be some big interesting insects instead? Anyway, I was too tired to bother and went back to sleep after burying my head between pillows.

I woke up to see the door to the laundry and toilet closed, the gap below stuffed with papers and a chair place before it. A note tagged on the door knob said: Do not open the door. There is a MOUSE inside.

Oh dear... now I understand the reason for the drama. This is not exactly a typical monday afterall... Anyway, I have to get to the sink where my toothbrush is, so I enter by the back door and do a search for the mouse. Coincidentally, I had told the girls yesterday about my experience with handling house mice in my animal handling practical last Friday, and now, we have a mouse in the house!

I search thoroughly and even look into the toilet roll as I know how small a house mouse can be! No mouse. It must have slipped through the back door somehow.

10.47am- heaing for tutorial from the library. Two beautiful rows of Canary Island Date Palm (Phoneix canariensis) under a clear blue sky. Another wonderful morning ( I have forgotten about the mouse).

11.26am- at National Parks Management tutorial. We are having a stakeholder meeting and one of our favourite lecturers here is acting as the head ranger of a fictitious new national park. Each of us have to give a short presentation on our needs and whether there are conflicts with other stakeholders. I am in the team that represents the bird-watchers and we have issues with many of the other groups! These include the 4 X 4 driving club, pastoral owners and tour operators. It is quite a fun session and a good way to learn about the various issues that a national park faces. We will need to address these issues in a management plan that we have to submit by the end of this month. This takes up 30% of our final grade, so it's quite a major assignment.

12.15pm- lunch at Dining Hall. I must be too engrossed in my meal and forget that I have set out to do this post. Will talk about the dining hall next time. A buffett meal here costs A$6.60, so we usually eat here only once a week. Most of the other days, as classes for the other girls are only in the morning, we have lunch back home.

12.56pm- at my hide-out in the library. An hour more to the next lecture, shall do some last minute work on my presentaion script . But half of the time I am sleeping here, guess it's after lunch? This is quite a nice place to snooze though ;-P

14.02pm- This lecturer, Luke Leung reminds me of LTM, especially when he laughs. Today's lecture is a special one as a few 3rd-year students have expressed interests to learn more about the job market for wildlife ecologists. I pick up some useful points on how to articulate your experience to address the criteria set out by the employer, so as to increase your chance of being shortlisetd for interviews.

15.20pm- relaxing after our group has finished presenting. This presentation is the 2nd one out of the 3 assessable tutorial presentations (by peers as well as tutor). There are 3 groups in total and we are all doing the same topic. Thus, by the time the 3rd group is done, we will all be experts on predator-prey interaction. This slide is funny.

4.00pm: Pesentation Over! The feeling of "one more down" is always good.

4.05pm: near Dining Hall. I play "hero" to the rescue for yet another crested pigeon that is attacked by the noisy miners! Mari helps to chased the aggessors away with me. Actually, there are 2 birds- a big one and a small one! The mummy pigeon (I assume) is protecting the young one by shielding it against the pecks of the miners. The small one is really really adorable. "Kawaiiiiiii".

I really think we should cull the noisy miners, but I guess it is going to be complicated. There will be both ecological and social challenges.




18.29pm: 4 women in a small kitchen- it's a wonder that peace and order is still maintained. Curry and tom yum- are we killing ourselves? We have Nik, Janice and YH with us tonight and Janice has managed to convince us to cook tom yum soup even though we have planned to cook curry. This little lass can probably finish the whole pot if we didn't stop her. She starts drinking already when the soup is still cooking...The way she drink soup makes a nurturer like me want to cook soup for her next time.

21.11pm- half-dead as I try to figure out where we have gone wrong in our calculations. We are doing a statistical analysis report for a simple germination experiment that Nik, YH and I have done for Biometrics module. When we still cannot figure out by 11pm, we surrender and decide to clear ur doubts at the tutorial tomorrow.

There was no time to worry about the little mouse at all.

Old Mobil

2008-05-11T06:57:08Z

I must take a photo with this Old Mobil!

A happy day at Minden

2008-05-10T12:16:44Z

We "burnt" quite a few weekends now, either doing or stuggling with assignments or worrying about struggling with assignments, or getting upset over having to struggle or worry about struggling with assignments on weekends...

Anyway, that's only part of the reasons why I was happy this morning when I tagged along to visit a retired professor and his wife at their lovely property at Minden, which is only a 15-minute drive away from Gatton. Another reason is that Mari was going to explore the possibility of doing a research project on the property, and I was sure that I was going to learn a lot of new things today. And I was excited to meet new people too. I was not disappointed. Thanks to the friendly and warm couple, we had a great time this morning.

Before we arrived at the 50-ha property (5 times of Hindhede Nature Park!), we stopped by at their neighbour's place to witness the making of authentic German's sausages. The family is the third generation of German pioneers who arrived in Australia in the 1860s and although they may have lost their mother tongue, some of them had learnt how to make sausages from their parents.

That's one new thing I learnt today- that there is a community of German descendants in this area and after looking up the internet, I realised that some of the towns around here are actually named after cities and towns in German, such as Marburg. And I chanced upon this particularly interesting blog aout German migrants in this area by a writer, which has given me a historical perspective of the area out here.

This family grows pineapples too, just like their grandfathers did. There are also papayas and bananas, but I was told they struggled during the droughts. Oh dear, when I saw the banana plants, I thought of eating Goreng Pisang...

Mari and I stood by to watch with much amusement as the men/boys and a lady went about their work in this tarven-like sheltered area. This scenario in which people coming together to do work and cooking with firewoods in the open, reminds me very much of my kampongs days in my grandparents' house at Jalan Ulu Sembawang. My grandfather was in the business of catering for weddings and funerals and I witnessed much of the food preparation and cooking in open areas at the back of our kampong house when I was small.

Don't you agree with me that this wood shelter has so muh character?

Working out the formula to great sausages delayed the mincing process a bit because some peopl were calculating in pounds and others in kilograms! It was all good fun watching them work together!

The sausage-making brings family members and neighbours together. Apparently, a family contributed the pig while another the cow.

Part of the carcass, after the good portions are removed for the sausages, and the livers go into these boling pots to make liver sausages- minimal wastage to the sacrifices. Another thing I learnt today- the existence of liver sausages.

We had a mincer like the one they were using here too and for a moment, I craved for our traditional yam pudding because my relatives would send steamed yam through such a mincer to render it a smooth texture. The characters at the scene also reminds me of my folks at home! Especially this jolly big man who teased us by passing us the pig's snout (which had been chopped off and not included in the boiling pot so as not to taint the mix with strong odour) and telling us that the other pot was boiling a dog when I asked what was inside there, and a lean lady who looks like she can do a lot of hard chores despite her small built. They reminds me of my uncles and aunties.

Another thing I learnt today- pig's snout is soft to touch. I recalled the other day when the lecturer was talking about pigs, that snouts are like fingers to pigs. We made a few jokes about the pig's snout, which I guess many people will do, given that pigs are one of the most misunderstood creatures in our concious. But I felt a bit bad afterwards and I decided that I will try not to make fun of animals who have to die to give us food. That's not something I learnt exactly today, but part of a development that is occuring in my concious, I guess, after I got to get in touch with animals more in my course.

When we came back later in the afternoon, they were stuffing the minces into the intestinal casings. The minces were mixed with garlic and herbs and according to jolly uncle, marijuana as well. Ha ha ha... I laughed not because the joke was funny but because he is such a jolly good fellow.

Bird fight

2008-05-07T10:30:46Z

Finally done with the last assignment! The feeling was really good when the lady at the printery handed the hardcopy to me, and it was even better when I handed it over to the tutor! I told Mari I felt almost like I have just given birth to a baby... ha ha, ok lah, I was exaggerating, but I had put in quite a bit of effort for this bird assignment- spending time sampling at Lake Apex, reading papers and then churning out a 3500 words report in 3 days (bad time management loh). Cross my fingers that I will be rewarded with good marks!

So today I can afford to "zho bo" for a while... yeah, only for a while. Still have a backlog of readings and 2 statistic tutorials (I am having inertia for statistics again!!!) And next monday, there's a tutorial presentation and I haven't quite made sense of the paper that we are supposed to present yet. Very soon, another major assignment will be due and then there is this take-home exam that I am a bit nervous about. Take-home open book what? Right? Why worry? Because it is a take-home exam, the expectation by the marker is higher lah! It's for Principles of Wildlife Management, and I haven't quite grasped any principles loh!

The other chabos in the house is not having a good time either, they have an assignment due this week and a few other reports or presentations. These days, it's normal to hear any sudden cries or whining sirens from our house, just a way to destress... and don't be surprise to see people in the kitchen at 2 or 3 a.m. I cannot lah, lao liao, the latest was 2 am (to do the bird assignment). I am a morning person I suppose, wake up usually by 7am and I will enjoy some private morning time because the others are all night owls. But these days freaking cold in the morning, around 12-14 degree celsius and it's a bit hard to get out of my sleeping bag.

One of my way of destressing is to go jogging at Lake Apex. Today, again, I become a "hero" for some birds. I saw this group of 30 or so noisy miners, some were clinging on the bark of a tree looking down, while about fifteen or so were on the floor. I was surprised to see many of them because we usually recorded about 6 to 10 individuals here. They seemed to be pecking at something on the ground and I wonder if it could be a carcass, but I had read that they were honeyeaters although they may go for insects and occassionly small reptiles and frogs. Could it then be they were bullying another bird species again? I decided to "kaypoh" because I kind of "buay song" with the behaviour of this bird species. And on closer look, hey! they were indeed bashing another bird!

I couldn't see what species it was, because there were like ten over bird on top of this bird, so that I can only see the lower part of the body. I thought it might be dead already! Anyway, I had to chase these miners away, even if the victim was already dead! It's just disgusting to know that they pecked a bird to death. I know this is nature's rule, but I think I am more acceptable of say a raptor killing a bird, then a group of miners mobbing a lone bird.

Again, I admit I was a bit nervous. They were not big birds, but there were about 30 of them, and I had read about their aggressiveness. Although it is usually displayed towards other birds entering their territories, but hey, you never know! This time, there were more branches and I hold an extra one with leaves on my left hand and raise it up. I guess I was trying to make myself look bigger? Ha ha... where did I learn that from? And of couse, if any of the miners swoop down towards me, I can sweep them away with the branch.

And again, after a few miners flew off, there were one or two that didn't move away when I was just a step away from them. They just freaking tilted their head to the side and look at me! So I did a shoo and finally chase all of them away.

The battered bird was lying on its side with a bloody eye and flustered feathers. I wasn't quite sure what it was. It seem to be another nosiy miner! Surprise surprise, is there like a hierachy here? Yeah, pecking orders! But before I can confirm what bird it was, it got up on its feet and flew off. Well, at least it's still alive.

What a bird drama.

Birds, cows and hares

2008-05-01T14:25:11Z

So many things to share with you but no time! (plus lazy lah!)

I just submitted an assignment that is due tomorrow online, so now, out of the 3 that is sitting in my head for the past 3 weeks, I have only 1 more to go. Only a week to work on... I feel like I am rushing for a train...

This last assignment is about bird sampling project and I have enjoyed doing the samplings at Lake Apex with another girl. This evening, I went jogging at the lake and was surprised to see that the long grass of one of our plots was mowed down! Phew! Luckily it didn't happen during our 3-week long survey period.

We had a few interesting encounters on our plots. The most hilarious one is when a cow appeared out of nowhere! When I heard Mari let out a surprise cry, I looked at the direction where she was looking and saw this larger than life "Golden Retriever" and wondered for a second, without an increase of adrenalin, "Should I run?!" It was about 10m away and the long grass covered part of its legs, so you can't call me stupid for thinking for a second that it is a HUGE dog! The shape of a cow is just not something urban folks like me is familiar with to be able to recognise it at a glance.

The cow looked at us for a while and continued to walk along the path in the park. We both bursted out laughing! We later saw it munching at some tree saplings in a small reforested area. Not a good idea to have a cow in a park, although it is a beautiful cow. I can understand why some people didn't want to eat it.
And during another survey session, a brown hare rushed into our plot, scaring one of our birds away. For a moment, hare and humans were looking at one another, frozen in surprise, and then the hare hopped away in great speed. Again, we bursted out laughing. We were getting a little bored when we did our survey on the second week (we did 20 sessions in total, 10 at each of the 2 small plots), as we were recording noisy miners most of the times, so these little surprises were welcomed.



Talking about this Noisy Miner- they are what I call gangster birds. It's only when we started our survey that we read that they are very territorial and will chase other birds away aggressively. One research on bird species in woodland remnants even avoided selecting sites that have Noisy Miner within them. Anyway, our survey is only for learning purposes, so we didn't change our sites (no other convenient sites to choose already lah).

And this evening, while jogging at Lake Apex, I saw about 4 noisy miners and 3 Australian magpies pecking at a bird that didn't look like any of these 2 "gangster" species. I was a bit wary of approahing the scene, as I have heard from Karen and Weiling about Magpie attacking humans (apparently, an old man in Melbourne or some other Australian city died after being attacked). But how could one ignore such an injustice (lu jian bu ping, must ba dao xiang zhu right? Even if it's for a bird), so I inched forward to take a closer look and saw that the victim was a crested pigeon- a bird that has made me laugh because unlike our common pigeon back in Singapore, this one has a "mohawk" and it makes a silly whistling noise each time it takes off.

When I stepped nearer to the group, less than 1m, a few of the "gangsters" didn't actually move away. They are that fearless of humans compared to other birds. The poor pigeon looked injured, it didn't fly away but just stayed at a spot. Honestly, I was a bit nervous as I was afraid the magpies with their big beaks will attack me. The noisy miners are smaller but their beaks are sharp too. And there wasn't anyone nearby who can come to my rescue should all these birds start to attack me!

Luckily there was a piece of dead wood on the ground so I picked it up and threw it at the other birds and went quickly to pick up the pigeon. I am not goood at handling animals but thanks to the bird ringing training I had a few years ago, I managed to pick the fat bird up firmly and prevent it from struggling. The pigeon is a nice bird to hold, really, because it is fat and soft, ha ha ha.... And as the pigeon was quite quiet and motionless (maybe still in shock?), I "molested" it by spreading one of its wings to admire its beautiful patterns and colours. It has vivid orange eyes too!

Here's two pixs taken from the website of Canberra Ornithologists Group:

I released it further away from the area where the gangsters birds hang out (I know this gang as the area is actually one of our sampling plots). Hopefully the pigeon will do fine because it didn't fly too far away. I couldn't detect any injuries but when I first let it go, it walked a few steps and its head just bent forward to touch the grown while its rump was up.

Strange that I have been encountering bird in crisis. Actually not, the others are all carcasses encountered on campus. One dead raven last Tuesday and two unidentified species last Wednesday. Two of the bodies are in good condition, and I have the urge to collect it, just like we did in our work. So wasted (Zhi Ye Bing....). Made me wonder if they die because they were doing some spraying in the lawn. Or did they die of cold? (Freaking cold on Wed morning, 10 degree celsius).

We finally chuck our cardboard table away!

2008-04-21T11:06:02Z

Today we had a special dinner at home- not because there were any special food, but because we were sitting on chairs and eating on a table!

There was this single-stand round table that was going for A$10 in the old furniture shop managed by St Vincent de Paul (like our Salvation Army's thrift shops). It can't fit into the car boot, but one of the volunteers offered to send it if I pay an extra $2 for it. Great!

Here's how we have been eating for the past 2 months. This pix was taken when we started to use the brown carboard table. It doesn't look as sturdy and clean now.

The cookings look good right? We were blessed to have MH's friend Amy around (she is not in the above pix). She is from Thailand and she was staying with us while waiting for her work visa to be approved. Despite not doing much cooking in the past, she is able to put together quite a few delicious Thai dishes. We even make our own Som Tum (papaya salad)! Not easy to get unripe papayas here though, can only find them in certain wet markets in the city (I just saw a dwarf papaya tree in uni today though. It was full of unripe fruits....).

Amy's creations: Gatton Som Tum and Spaghetti Tom Yum

Will share more about how we try our best to cook asian food with angmo ingredients next time ;-)
t

My home range- Lake Apex

2008-04-19T13:34:41Z

Beautiful Lake Apex is a 10-minute-jog away from our house. The first time I went there, it reminded me of Punggol Park, which was also about 10-minute-jog away from where I used to stay and it also has a big waterbody. They are almost about the same size too.

However, Lake Apex is much more wonderful because it has populations of wild bird species within the park- imagine a mini Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve within Punggol Park- something like that. Or imagine jogging along the path and purple swamp hens keep crossing your path!

When I first saw the birds in Lake Apex, it inspired me to imagine Punggol Park to be like this as well, which is quite an appropriate idea as Sungei Serangoon area used to be where thousands of migratory birds feed and rest before we reclaimed large area of swamps there (and now we are 'killing' the rivers).

Then, I jogged nearer to the area where hundreds of water birds such as ibises, herons, comorants and spoonbills were nesting or congregating and started to smell the birds in the air and see the bird dribbles on the walking path.... I know this vision of a Bird Sanctuary within our housing estate will never be realised. What more with bird flu paranoia.

Already, when we make our streetscape a bit "wilder", such as planting clumps of lemon grass in central dividers, some people think rape cases will incease (*faint*). This is of course an extreme example (but it's true that someone did make these comments, no bluff), but it will be interesting to see how we do the project to make our canals river-like again (seems like every city need to go through this process: river > canal > river?). Anyway, "no fish prawn also good" lah...

Here are more pixs of Lake Apex:

This is the "more park" area of Lake Apex, where a group of fat noisy geese is used to being fed by park visitors. I thought they "belongs" to the park, like our swans in our botanic gardens, and I was wondering where they were one day when I didn't see them. I later learnt they are wild birds. They are non-natives, probably realeased into the wild by some people.

And this Australian white ibis knows it isn't as cute as the geese to attract human food, so it tries to steal some of their food (I still hate them for reducing themselves to eating garbage and left-over food on tables in the city).

Self-propel scooters- a popular play equipment in the park. I tried it once, and no, I didn't break it.

One end of the walking path goes under the lake! I almost jogged right into the water when I was looking at two wood duck with their six little duckling at the same time!

I brought Weiling and Robin to Lake Apex too. Here's one of the proofs (there were many) that they were working and not on holiday.

Tullawallal Circuit

2008-04-17T13:03:01Z

After walking for 12km for the first day, I thought we would be hiking along shorter routes on our second day. I heard Weiling mentioned about 3-km and 5-km trails, then I asked casually, "what's the total distance?" And then she realised we will be walking about the same distance if not more! We had a good laugh at this realisation but we decided to still proceed with the 3 trails we selected earlier, namely Rainforest Circuit (1.2km return), Tullawallal Circuit (5km return) and Gwongoorool Track (6km return).

The Rainforest Circuit was meant to be a short walk in the morning before we checked out at 10am, and then went back to do the Tullawallal Circuit. In retrospect, we could have checked out earlier and just do the Tullawallal Circuit. This is because to get to the start of this circuit, you have to first walk 400m along Rainforest circuit. When you return, you can then choose to walk on the rest of the Rainforest Circuit to get back to the starting point.

If I should bring my parents there one day, I will bring them along the Tullawallal Circuit. It is an easy walk with not many ups and downs. We met a group of people in their 50s or 60s doing the walk too.

The Tullawallal Circuit is worth visiting for an experience of a cool temperate rainforest (the most accessible one in the park) and you will also see a pocket of Antartic Beech (Nothofagus moorei) on the summit. According to the QPWS brochure, this pocket is the northernmost location of this species in Australia.

Nothofagus is an ancient genus because fossil pollens were found in sediments as old as the Late Creatceous (about 75-80 million years ago) (Macquaire University's site). It was thought that the genus was widespread in Australia when the continent was wetter and cooler- about 50 million years ago! At that time, Australia was still part of the Great Southern Land more commonly known as Gondwana.

There are about 40 species (Mount Toma BG's site) of Nothofagus which only occurs in the Southern Hemisphere. Their distribution: in New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia and Chile, adds to the other evidence that these continents or islands were all part of a supercontinent.

Woah, isn't that cool? In fact, it is literally cool at the so called summit (because it doesn't look like one) which is a rocky area surrounded by Antartic Beech. I had to fish out my windbreaker seconds after reaching the area.

According to an interpretive sign (which I think is due for replacement), the trees encircling the rocky site are actually from a single seed. This is possible because the species is known to grow asexually through coppicing. The amazing thing is that the seed began its life 2000 years ago!!!

These photos do not do justice to the beautiful Antartic Beech. You have to be with them to appreciate their beauty. Meditate here and you might be offered a trip down their memory lane to the ancient past!

Commitment

2008-04-17T12:34:31Z

Oh dear, more than a week since last blog and I see that friends have been revisting this site (Thank you Thank you). But my close friends will know lah, certain days in a month better don't go bother YK. Well, blogging really is a commitment (just like everything else I guess) and therefore I am in perpetual admiration of Ria Tan whenever I visited her wild blogs.

I have loads of assignments to do this month, and I have a statistic in-class quiz next Wednesday. However, after 10 random samplings of the periods to investigate when I am most productive, I can reject the null hypothesis at a 5% confidence interval and conclude that I am more productive in the early morning than the rest of the day (and no, I am not spending too much time mugging on statistics).

So I should make time in the night before I sleep to update this blog.
;-)

One of the recommended routes: Lower Bellbird Circuit (12km)

2008-04-06T13:42:48Z

I felt so good to be in the tropical forest again, eventhough it was cooler than usual. The forests of Lamington National Park do remind me of our forests in Singapore and the neighbouring countries.

Look at these pictures; don't you agree they can easily be passed off as BTNR or CCNR? Other than the familiar layered struture of a rainforest, there are also the familiar lianas and epiphytes like Bird's nest fern and Stag horn ferns. Where there are gaps, there are also plants like gingers.

But before long, I knew I was not at the equator after all, especially when I saw the Hoop Pine among other more tropical-like trees. "What's a X'mas tree doing in a tropical rainforest?" Well, it's a sub-tropical forest afterall.

Anyway, I was only "homesick" for a short while because Lamington National Park, which may have comparatively less species per ha than the rainforests of our region, has quite an interesting variety of forest ecosystems. These include the "typical" warm subtropical rainforest, the dry rainforest (which is regarded as an example of the rise of the "dry adapted" flora now widespread in Australia, according to the QPWS brochure), the cool temperate forest with a pocket of Antartic Beech that are one of our remaining links with the ancient forests of Gondwana and sclerophyll forests. That's a lot to offer for an area of about 200 square kilometres.

I almost forget it was part of a World Heritage site. The city people here is very lucky, for this site is relatively accessible and is surprisingly very near to Gold Coast. At cetain sites, you can see the looming skyscrapers near the coast at the horizon.

We started our hike after a lunch of breads and cakes. At first, we wanted to do the 2km Bellbird Lookout, but perhaps we had thought it was too short, or maybe because the entrance we were at is also the one for the 12km Lower Bellbird Circuit; somehow, we decided to do the latter instead. If we can do the 10-km TreeTop Walk back home, this one shouldn't be a problem, so we thought.

The route really seemed to stretch on and on but there isn't a lot of drastic ups and downs except a slightly uphill climb towards the end. Thus we felt the tireness in our calf muscles more than in the thighs during and after the walk. Towards the end, my lower back felt slightly strained too and that's when I become aware, yet again, that strong back muscles are essential for hiking too, especially when I was carrying a not too light backpack.

3.5 to 4 hours into the hike, I had to agree with this sign- this is one of the GREAT WALKS indeed!



But the tiredness is still manageable, and we were rewarded with views of different kinds of plants and birds as we tracked along. It was really cool to be able to recognise that we had entered another area with a different type of plant communities. The hike reminds me of the one we had at Mt. Kinabalu, where you can see a change in plant communities as you reached a certain altitude, except that in Lamington, it's probably the soil factor that causes the change rather than the difference in altitude.

Here's a "Palm Valley": An area dominated by elegant stands of Bangalow/ Piccabeen Palm (Archontophoneix cunninghamiana):



A group of refreshing Cordyline petiolaris:




A wilful arrangement of grass and matching trunks:



Delightful little plants grace this part of the way:



A natural scuplture clothed in bryophytes:



A recently fallen giant (note the way it hasbeen left to balance on the trail):



HUGE TREE! Do you see a face jutting from the trunk??!!!

At the Yagahla Lookout, an ideal spot for a picnic.

Wonderful rock-dwelling orchids!



The Lower Bellbird Circuit (this link gives a good descrption of the route but the distance should be 12km, and if you are like me who stop to look at plants and birds, you probably need at least 5 hours) ends at the road, which was not very ideal, but we got little surprises along the way.

A top-down view from the road of the area we had just walked, which used to be a dairy farm area. Lots of weedy plant species but the open area attracts a variety of birds as well.



Other than the sighting my first macropod (a pandemelon) since I came to Australia, we saw this fat lizard with a snake-like head lying on the tarmac. I have to overcome my initial fear to get closer to it as it really look like a short snake with legs!



This was how close we could get near to it, which prompted us to think that it was injured. But as Robin nudged at it with a stick to get out of the road for its own good, it started to move towards the bush and also showed us its tongue- which was not blue as we thought but pink. So, it's not one of the blue-tongued lizards afterall.

(Anyone can tell me what species is this lizard?)

Conclusion: I don't mind doing this route again, but will have a fuller lunch and bring along better stuff for the picnic point.

Binna Burra Mountain Lodge- Canvas Cabins

2008-04-06T07:22:17Z

Good times always seem to fly passed quicker. This morning, I said goodbye to Weiling and Robin after a short visit to check out the bats at Railway Street and then to Lake Apex. They were here for only less than a week, arriving on Tue afternoon and leaving on Sunday morning.

They arrived on 1st April and while waiting for them to arrive at the domestic airport, we contributed some of our bonus to the Australian economy by shopping at DFO near the airport. DFO is probably one of the big shopping complexes where you can get quite a good bargain if you take time to browse and leave your BF/ Man at home.

The next morning, we drove for almost 3 hours to the really beautiful Lamington National Park. I had an exciting time driving the rented Nissan Tilda, a cute but powerful car, on the winding Binna Burra Road towards our pre-booked accomodation at Binna Burra Lodge. It was my first attempt driving along a narrow, winding and uphill road and like most beginners, as encouraging Weiling said, I drove too close to the left because it seemed that the car had crossed to the oncoming lane.

Anyway, we arrived safely at the Binna Burra Mountain Lodge and after checking in at the reception, we drove for a short while to the canvas cabin area. Weiling had booked one of the cabins earlier on the website. It cost A$75 and is designed to accomodate 2 adults and 2 kids, although there is a folded bed tucked behind the bunk bed.

Yes, do bring your own sleeping beds, and pillows if you can. I was really kiasu, or "kia-kua" rather, I zipped myself in the sleeping bag wearing a baselayer and a fleece of medium thickness.

The interior of the tent looks dirty with the mouldy patches but these can really be ignored as most importantly, the interior doesn't has a musky smell. The "windows" are thick plastic sheets and some of them can be zipped open to let air in through a mesh.

There's a small table with 4 chairs on the small veranda but it was quite cold when we had our "dinner" outside that evening. We didn't want to pay A$38 for the buffett dinner at the Lodge, so we replenished our energy (after hiking for 5 hours with only a light lunch) with breads and Nutella, Mars bar and Ma Mee. From what I gather from the website, the buffett should be good, just that we didn't want to stretch our budget.

If budget is not an issue, we would have stayed at The Lodge, which has really beautiful wooden cabins built in the 1930s.

We like the door to our tent cabin, which is divided into two halves- probably so that you can open the upper half and close the bottom half and prevent the Australian Brush-turkey and possum from coming in to steal your food.

These cabin canvas are built against a slope that is well-landsaped with native plants. Here are a few pictures of other cabins:

There's also a camping site for tents and campervans. We saw this group with a huge tent and they were warming themselves from a mini camp fire and drinking red wine in the early night. Envy. When I took the following picture the next morning, they have already dismantled the huge tent except for this strange but cool outfit behind the while vehicle on the left.



I would defintely visit Lamington National Park again; have to check out the canopy walk at the Green Mountain Section. The only accomodation at that section, however, is only that of luxurious category. I bet it is certainly worth the stay if it is within your budget or if you go there with a group (share cost). And I guess if your purpose is to seek refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city, and to give yourself a threat, it is really a wonderful place to stay for a few days. Good honeymoon stay too!

For me, my purpose is to appreciate and learn more about the forest and wildlife, so if the accomodation is too comfortable, it may seem more inviting than the outside! Already, in our tent cabin, tucked in our snuggly sleeping bags, we didn't want to get out of bed at 6.30am, despite the delightful chorus by an assortment of birds just outside the canvas. We may have missed the Albert's Lyrebird!

But well, the real reason might be because it was 6.30am! And it was cold outside too!

By the time we get out of bed, we only saw turkeys walking around.... and trying to steal our breakfast. So we have monkeys and they have turkeys huh?! !

The other MAN

2008-03-31T07:20:28Z

And how can we forget the other "MAN of our orientation period" here in Gatton, who also happens to be THE MAN of one of the girls here in this house. He was here to help his woman settled in and we kind of benefited as well, ha ha. He helped us in many ways including driving our rented car so that we can go to IKEA to shop for study tables and chairs and also to Moorooka to get a used car; assessing the conditions of the used car and cracking his brain to find the best method to squeeze the IKEA furniture into the boot of the rented car.

Talking about this, it was both an exasperated and amusing experience. Somehow, our estimates were wrong, and we didn't manage to put the 3 study tables that we bought from IKEA into the car. We also have to give up purchasing the 3 study chairs that we have eyed.

While we were struggling at the carpark, we saw 2 guys trying very hard (I can't help but think of the chinese phrase: using all the energy saved for drinking milk) to squeeze a big mattress into the boot of their coupe. They were elated when they finally did it, and we gave them a round of applause.

Later, a couple tried to do the same thing, except that their mattress was a double and the vehicle was a panel van and they didn't manage to squeeze it in. We could empathise with them because at that moment, we had pushed the back seats down and removed the partition between the back seats and the boot in our rented sedan, and were still trying to arrange the heavy boxes into the expanded compartment.

We did this knowing that 2 of us would then have to take a bus back to Brisbane city (IKEA is probably about 45 min-drive from city centre), and then taking the 1.5 hr train-ride to Rosewood, followed by a 45 min-bus ride to our nearest bus-stop (10 min-walk away). Don't forget that buses here are not as regular. In retrospect, I wonder how it will turn out if Jacky didn't agree to pick us up after his work at the Brisbane City Council. Jacky to the rescue again! And yes, we did go up to the store again to grab the 3 chairs and put in Jacky's car.

Must tell you another drama on that day! We turned out from a petrol station into a lane of oncoming traffic!!! Luckily, the approaching cars were quite a distance away, so instead of getting an adrenaline rush, we still have time to laugh and turn back into the station!

What a day that was...

Freakingly cold mornings

2008-03-29T04:17:01Z

These two days, the temperatures of the early mornings were freakingly cold- below 10 degree celsius. Just 2 days ago, the temperatures were still regarded by us as "normal". So is it really true that after a week or so of rain, the weather will "change"? Anyway, just hope that any changes will be gradual.

The coldness here is considered mild in comparison with many other areas of this vast island, but I am still a bit worried about how cold is cold. Don't forget, I am a flower of equatorial origin ;-)

I also wonder how will our A$11 Pandan take the cold. We brought it from the Chinese medical hall in early Feb and Jackie told us he had been looking for it without any luck for the past one year. The plant is growing very slowly, and we probably need to repot it. The initial idea is to plant it straight on the ground, but that means we will not be able to move it indoor should the weather be too cold for it.

Amy, our Thai "cooking teacher" bought for us 2 pots of Sweet Basil.

Almost every moring, I will bring these 3 pots out to bask in the morning sun and if I am at home, I will shift them into the shade in the afternoon.

I think it will be a long wait before we can harvest some pandan to boil some "Cheng Tng".

Greenie froggies

2008-03-28T14:16:44Z

Was just telling Weiling the other day that it's autumn, but it's hot, and then it poured heavily several times these few days. Haven't seen a good rain for a while, and certainly haven't heard the sound of rain beating on metal (the roof) for a long while.

The rain has probably brought out the frogs, and they amused us by sticking themselves on our window pane. They are there because insects were drawn to lights from inside our house, and these bright green (reminds me of Incredible Hulk) froggies happily picked them up with their sticky tongues.

I didn't know which species is this common frog here, but it wasn't difficult to search for it on the internet. This species (Litoria caerulea) is traded as an exotic pets, and I remembered then the comical images of obese smiling green frogs that are often seen on cards.

I reckoned that the specific epithet 'caerulea' means blue; but where is the blue?

Apparently the skin of this species is actually a mixture of blue and green pigments wth a wash of yellow over them (remember those colour experiments in kindergarten?). When the yellow layer eventually fades, the frogs (older ones??) appear blue (University of Michigan website).

(By the way, during my search I chanced upon this pretty neat search site that listed a few good educational resources on frogs- check it out if you are working to help spread the awareness that frogs are in peril!)

When I took these photos, I was a bit apprehensive that they would jumped on me as I was not sure whether the skin is poisonous. It turns out, on the contrary, that the skin secretes certain chemicals that are of medical benefits to us.

Poor green frogs, couldn't have a decent frog life without human exploitations. And these guys here couldn't even have a decent dinner without being flashed by a "bolt of lightning"! Blame it on themselves for being too cute? ;-P

Ribbons of bats

2008-03-26T12:55:12Z

My room is finally bright! Have been trying to get the right light bulb for the past few weeks! It's crazy- so difficult to find a light bulb here that gives out COOL WHITE lights, most of the bulbs available in the shops here are WARM WHITE, which do give out WHITE lights at all loh. I couldn't wok at all under the orange light without feeling dizzy and sleepy after a while.

Now, in this COOL WHITE light, I would like to share with you something cool that happens everyday near our house- The Bat Fly-pass!

Each evening, these beautiful bats will fly from the west in spectacular numbers across or near our house. We have passed by the roost of this colony before, it's about 10-minute run from our house. The roost is surprisingly in quite a disturbed area adjacent to a road and some houses.

There are 4 species of Flying Fox in Australia and this one is probably the Grey-headed Flying Fox. Here's a 'batty' video to share. You will also be able to catch a glimpse of our 'landed property'.

Jacky the MAN

2008-03-25T07:10:24Z

Jacky was THE MAN who helped us a great deal in our initiation from urban workers to rural students. He was like our orientation leader to us. THANK YOU Jacky!

We met up on our first evening here and he decided to cook for us. Wow wow, we were glad to have a proper meal on our first day here man. And on the next day, he prepared laksa for us, using ingredients bought from the one and only Asian grocery store in Gatton town, which is owned by a Thai and Malaysian couple.

I didn’t have to start eating burgers and sandwiches for more than a day before I started to complain about not being able to get a proper and appropriately-priced meal here. Wraps and sandwiches are fine, but they are usually at least A$6 and most often than not about A$8++.

There are only 2 places in the small town of Gatton where you can get Chinese food and Jacky told us one f them CMI, so we didn't patronise it. The price range for things like a big plate of fried rice or a big bowl of noodles here is usually between A$8 to A$12, and most of the time when we had them (2 of us shared one), I made comments like “sugars and salts here are free”, you know what I mean?

Back to THE MAN.

Yep, without him, I don’t think I will get to know Brisbane city and its surroundings relatively well in such a short period. During the first 2 weeks, he brought us to a few places of interests, including Glass House Mountain, Mt. Coot-ta and a wetland reserve. Although it can be tiring and costly (petrol is quite ex here, a full tank about A$62 for a 2000cc car) to ply along the highway between Gatton and Brisbane, we were glad that we can get a better orientation of our little town in relation to the surroundings in this vast land. I will post more about these places next time.

In typical Singaporean style, he also brought us to places where we can get what I call “real food”, such as Chinatown for roasted duck rice, Sunnybank for Veitnamese noodles, Japanese sushi and my beloved Tau Huay (!!!), and Lisson Grove for some decent ‘Zi –cha’ (one of the cooks is a Malaysian who have cooked in Singapore). Argh… writing about them is enough to activate my saliva glands, but these good stuff are at least 1.5 hours-drive away neh….

Next week we will meeting WL2 & R at the airport, then we will head to Sunnybanks for these good stuffs. "Ren!" (endure).

My initial days- arrival

2008-03-24T15:04:13Z

In retrospect of our first few days here now, I feel like I was in another country then. Hee hee, I am indeed feeling very much at home now- in this cozy little room with internet access and a comfortably cool night. It may be a different story though as the autumn progresses and winter arrives.

Tay was right to say that I would feel familiar when I asked him about the feel of the greenery here. In fact, the first tree I saw when I stepped out of Brisbane Airport was not an Eucalyptus but a Caesalpinia ferrea, a tree species native to Brazil that is commonly planted in parks and condominiums in Singapore. The roadside planting also reminded me of our island.

It was raining when we arrived. The Queenslanders had been waiting for this rain for 8 years (although it was too much for some areas)! Jacky told us that when they arrived last year, the grass was brown and the weather was burning hot, so we were lucky to be welcomed by the refreshing green green grass. The grandma who picked us up and drove us from airport to uni (about 100km), however, told us it would have been better if the rain was further inland where the catchment area is, and not in the city area. The catchment, which also supplies our water in Gatton, is currently less than 40% of its capacity. Yes, we are having a drought here, so no hosing down of cars and the lawn. And we are supposed to take showers that are no longer than 4 minutes. So how to monitor that huh? We asked grandma too, and she said something along the line that if everyone is so selfish and care only about themselves, then problems will not be solved; so we should all play our part.

So, my initial impression of this ah-ma was not so bad. And I also learnt from her that statistics has it that those between 17 and 23 caused most of the serious accidents here, mainly from speeding and drink-driving. Little did I know then that this piece of statistics has a part to play in how I was able to get a license to drive here… hee hee hee… Shhhhh, better don’t talk too much about things that are too good to be true least someone steal them away.

But good ah-ma turned into cranky head-mistress when we finally arrived in uni! We had to get down from the car to ask someone about the block that we should head, and she was very strict when I got back on the car without buckling up. “No belts, no move”, she boomed. Then she asked us impatiently the name of the block, when she was the one that replied earlier that she knew how to get there. We didn’t catch the name so we went down to ask someone else again. When we finally get to our hostel, how fast (and strong!) she was in getting our heavy baggages out from the boot! Then, before we were out sight and still struggling with our bags, vroom, she was gone.

Here’s a few pixs of the hostel where LT and I stayed for the first 10 days of our arrival. It was terribly expensive to stay here as they only charged on a weekly basis for temporary accommodation- A$150/ week. We paid A$300 even though we stayed less than 2 weeks. But glad that we don’t have to stay there because I can’t imagine having a smaller home range than what we have now!

Finally, my BLOG!

2008-03-23T06:18:59Z

Finally I am settling down to blog! Ha ha… this is like procrastinating to do my assignments… ;-P

We don’t have classes for the next 2 weeks- one week break one week non-contact week (self-study week), so in between my self-studying, I will try to put up more posts and pixs to share my encounters and experiences since I arrived here.

Self-studying? So’ guai meh’, are you asking? Ha ha… I do need to catch up on a pile of readings and to make sense of statistics, but hopefully I will be able to maintain self-discipline and not either fall asleep, find housework to do, find things to munch or surf the web ;-P

Here's the proof that I am here to study:

So am I really staying at home these 2 weeks? And without a TV? At least half of the 18 Singaporeans here in UQ (mostly doing Horticulture, while a few are doing Wildlife or Vet Science) is going or has gone to Sydney. Honestly, I don’t have the impetus to go anywhere, yet, other than the planned trip to Lamington NP (looking forward! Yeah yeah!) with Weiling and Robin, who will be arriving here on 1^st April. And we will probably check out Australian Zoo, Daisy Hill State Forest (I haven’t seen my first koala!), go shopping or to eat ‘Tau Huay’ (Yum Yum) after our grandfather Mitsibishi Gallant goes for its first servicing.

Honestly, this is quite an ideal place to study, at least for me, and at times (when not struggling with assignments or mathematical concepts), I do feel very “xin fu” (Thanks to those people who made this possible) that I have the opportunity to study full-time again and to be able to do so wholeheartedly without much worries.

There are so many things about nature, in particular animals that I have yet to know, and yet some of these seem so basic to our appreciation and respect of animals that I cringed at the thought that I have just learnt about them, or that most people in the world do not have a clue or give a damn about them. I didn’t know, for instance, that horses need to feed for approximately 15 hours or that if they are kept isolated in a enclosed area, they can go crazy and do stupid repeated movements that are of no functional purposes (so sad!); nor do I know that sows build elaborate nests before they give birth and that sows kept for our consumption are deprived of expressing this natural instinct.

So am I here to learn about conservation and wildlife management (my majors) or to become an animal activist? Ha ha…that’s what I tell the other ladies in the house, that maybe I will become one. But although I am still contradicting myself by continuing to consume meat, I am really glad that I will be learning more about both wild and domestic animals. My next prac for my Animal behaviour module, after the horses, is to observe dairy cows…MOOooooo. Looking forward.