Its cold and freezing. And its not even winter. Ya we are 6 weeks away from winter. Autumn, when you are supposed to see all the dried leaves falling off on sunny days you are experiencing bitter cold winds. Its nice to see the waves though as you can see the tip of the waves being blown away by strong winds and crashing strongly against the rocks. But you got to dress up very warmly for the beach to enjoy that for a few minutes. I wonder how our 1st winter would be then?
Some mountains are already having snowfall. With this weather its not much a help for me to recover from the persistent cough but I have finally bid goodbye to the flu. Its gets dark so fast nowadays. I used to return home in the light after classes. Now Im greeted by pitch dark after I step out of my lecture theatre on Mondays and Tuesdays. Not to mention the winds. But I will grab a hot chocolate and spend some warm time in the library till Krish come and get me.
This night darkness does seem engulfingly different from the nights of Singapore. Singapore is so lighted up even at night. Well this is a big country so they can't have street lights at evry step of the way like the island.
Sometimes I wonder whether this weather is a reflective of my mood or the other way around. Thats me always wondering. Well I know I can't have this mood hovering till winter end. Its all in the mind right?
Tommorrow is my presentation and its on penalties for women who succeed in a male gender typed job positions. Its just 5% but wish me luck as it is my first.
I am so so so tired and frustrated....I have been trying for jobs for so long now! Im so tired. When will anyone reply with an interview at least? This is the longest I have gone without a job ever since I finished poly in 1998. Since Oct 2007 I worked only for 2 months. And that was also in Singapore, one of the worst job scope and environment I ever experienced. Is my education and work experience that useless?
Don't tell me times are bad now. Don't tell me to treasure this free time cos I had enough of treasuring. Don't me to focus on my studies. Don't tell me I maybe looking in the wrong places. Don't even tell me that you would love to trade places with me. I might go mad and bite you to pieces.
In fact don't tell me anything please. Just let me lament and whine. Yes some days are worse than others. So I deserve to complain in my own blog space without any judgements or advice. Arghhhhhhhhh!
I got to share this. I came across this story on a famous mathematician, Gauss. To make long story short, when he was very young the teacher asked the class this question:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = ?
Young Gauss came up in a flash and replied 55. The teacher wondered how he got it so fast. And was even more surprised when she knew how he got it. He found the "normal method" too slow and therefore came up with the following strategy:
1 + 10 = 11
2 + 9 = 11
3 + 8 = 11
4 + 7 = 11
5 + 6 = 11
5 x 11= 55
There were so many other strategies discussed in a book entitled "Productive Thinking" which I stumbled upon accidentally. I personally prefer anything in the world to mathematics. I struggled to cope with that subject in school. But just reading a chapter out of this very old book intrigued me.
Would kids who has no interest in maths like me learn and enjoy it better when they are allowed to come up with their own methods to solve the maths problems? The book also had so many other approaches to ordinary mathematics problems like algebra, area of parallelogram and so on. It looks at methods that diverts away from just applying the formulas and practising over and over again to remember to an exploration outlook. And also how this leads to a better and a creative problem solver later in life.
I don't think its too late for me to pick up 1 or 2 stuff about mathematics right? Might come in handy so I might pick up that book again after my exams.
Feeling low with the flu cloud over me. Yes flu and cough seems to be waiting in the doorstep which steered off me ever since I came here (I had flu almost every month in a year when in Singapore). I can't afford to! Please keep away as I still got my essay and presentation and a quiz to study for. The sleep essay is proving to be a difficult one as the research just keeps on going and going and my brain is like experiencing a standstill. How hard "sleep" can get?
In my latest cooking endeavour I did Shepherd's Pie. Its a dish using potatoes which was a crop that was affordable for the poor and the leftover or unsold mutton or lamb in the 1870s in England. I basically did it as it would be sufficient for 2 days meals. Yes its not really of a pie size. The potatoes are cooked and mashed and spread with a fork on top of the mutton/lamb which is cooked with onions, carrots and celery before. Bake it until you get a golden crust. I did it before but I always did not get the consistency of the potatoes right. This time it was fine ;)
I have been wanting to do kuehdadar as I got a green craving for it (Krish is not a fan of it as it consists coconut) but I think I need to hunt for the coconut and gulamelaka for the filling. Haiz. I miss the malay shop selling all the different kuehs in the morning in bukit batok.
No I am not overloading myself with food or drinks. I am suffering from information overload!!!!!!!!! Theres my uni, theres the housebuying stuff and theres driving which I still suck big time!
Something interesting I read and want to share. There was a study on our biological clock. They kept few subjects in a room where you can't tell whether its day or night. They also kept away all clocks and watches and calendars. The subjects were asked to go about their daily activites at their usual pace. At the end of the study they came up with the conclusion that on average our biological clock takes about 26 hours to go about our daily activities. 2 additional hours.
So what do I know from here? You just can't rush and squeeze everything in a day. You got to leave some for tommorrow. Something that Singaporeans need to know too. The Aussies are good at that.
I got news. I got accepted in a volunteer counselling centre. Its not paid work but I still had to go selection, interview and training which I will start soon. This I hope will help me to see whether I am suitable for this field.
Monday, April 6, 2009
A nice weekend
We had a wonderful Saturday with Krish's friend Mohan and his wife, Vicky and their cute dog, Bheemar. They also migrated from Singapore last year.
It was an hour and a half drive to their place. They have a very nice place. Something that their dog could really run around. After lunch they showed us around to all the nearby suburbs. We also managed to meet Mohan's family. The highlight of the evening was the spicy briyani that we ate. I have been craving for a long time for the Alauddinbriyani. So we decided to have briyani. The 1st 2 shops soldout their briyani (it was a sign). We managed to buy from the 3rd place, an Indian restaurant. It is probably the spiciest briyani I ever had. All of us were on fire. Water from my eyes and nose and my ears got all blocked. It was very nice but really spicy. Only the gents managed finished their briyani.
I regret not taking a pic of Bheemar. Maybe next time. He is a 7 month old Jack Russell and a Pug mixed breed. It has a pug's look and a jack russell's energy. Can't imagine if its the other way round though. He warmed up to us pretty fast especially to Krishna.
We were over at their place till close to 11pm. A pity that Krish had work the next day. On our way back I began to get a nagging pain slightly below my collar bone. It began to get worse and by the time I got home the area was so swollen as though a monster is dying to burst out. Deep heat rub and hot compress didn't work.
It wasn't till the next day when we got to the doctor and took a painkiller it went off. The doc said I probably overworked the muscle. Krish said maybe I laughed too much after a long time. Haha whatever it is hope it doesn't come back.
At the end of the day I knew what we are missing most. Its not the food or shopping or conveniences in Singapore. Its spending hours just yakking about anything under the sun and moon with people whom you are very comfortable with. It does magic to your spirits. I'm sure many will agree.
I can't wait to get a bigger place to have a dog as a companion and have some friends over. Back home, I missed another good friend's wedding last Saturday. And it really saddens to think there will more but then again thats how life works for now. Thank god Im blessed with understanding loved ones. Oh yes from Sunday the clock went an hour back, end of daylight savings. So it will be 2 hrs time difference from Singapore. It will get dark very fast from now on. Alright I got to sleep, oops start I meant on my "Sleep" essay and presentation. Wish I could just sleep for my presentation. Haha.
