I HAVE MOVED.

wake me up when march rolls in

Been back home for two weeks already, but it feels like months. Moolah rapidly running out due to the everyday trips made to Orchard Road. Huge on big brands right now. Must have been greatly influenced by Sis. Girls on paychecks were giving out free hugs the other day along Orchard Road shortly before Christmas. One approached Sis and said, 'Can I give you a hug?' but was promptly rejected and went to mend her broken heart by lamenting to fellow colleagues.

And am currently battling rashes outbreak. So much for doctor's medication, boo =(

And so 2008 has been a year of constant flying (literally, in the air). And another overseas trip is on my calendar for the month of Jan. So not looking forward to it. New year. Family gatherings. Which is sucky, considering there is no family to speak of in the beginning. Unless the equation of family equals to betrayal, bitching and gossiping. Dad refuses to let me remain the hermit crab I am, and so my fate is sealed. Sixteen people. Three Days. I wonder what interesting things will happen. The bitching has already started even before the trip has begun. Too many fragile egos to handle???

Ever since the passing away of both our grandparents, everyone has been trying to keep the tapestry of kinship together, desperately tucking away loosened threads, sewing, mending...but it just keeps getting worse, why don't they give up already? It was Grandma's wish for our family to remain intact even after her passing. And even though that is the excuse hanging on Dad's lips, I know he feels the same way I do. I don't consider putting any efforts, neither am I at all interested in maintaining any sort of relationship. Why should I with aunts who gossip and bitch behind our backs, and show their fake plasticky smiles in front of us. And to consider the things they said behind our backs when Sis and I was in Oz.

Hello, adults? It's time to Grow up please.

Blood is thicker than water? Oh, I so doubt it.

back...

...and it feels like I've never left.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, which I finally got time to read today, 13 days after my 21st =D

Korea - Day 2

Taken near Incheon River

We had spaghetti for lunch, YJ's mum is a really really great cook. Suddenly, YJ and I became very afraid because the both of us had been pigging out at home ever since the morning before, sleeping and eating and sleeping and eating, and doing little else. Not surprising, with the weather hitting as low as minus four degree celsius, all you wanna do is stay at home.

We finally got our arses out of the house and off we go to Incheon's departmental stores. The things there are freaking expensive, but they were having a one-day only 70% sale, which was a steal for the both of us.


YJ's dad drove us to Chinatown for dinner at this high-class restaurant. They had many car valets waiting to serve customers outside once they drive to the front of the restaurant, and hand over their car keys to the valets who would assist them in parking their cars. I had the best bowl of noodles in the world at this restaurant, called Zha Zha Mian, invented by a Korean restaurant a few doors away.



After dinner, YJ's dad drove us to the sea. Incheon (the city where YJ resides in) is a famous port area, so this is the place where goods are being transported.

I had a mini history lesson today about North and South Korea. The conflicts between the two countries first arised because of their ideological differences, largely due to their geograpical locations. N.K is situated near China and Russia, hence they have been greatly influenced by Communist ideals. S.K on the other hand is near Japan, whose values system follow the American model of democracy. N.K remains a very poor and closed nation, which has no interaction with the outside world. Their citizens are heavily brainwashed by the communist government, and they have a very narrow-minded perception of this world as they have little or no knowledge of what is going on outside N.K. They are not even allowed to travel outside the country because it is illegal! Those who attempt to escape by swimming across the sea to China are instantly shot dead if discovered.

passenger on board

I booked a cab for the trip from my apartment to Southern Cross Station. You know how cab drivers always bombard irriated passengers with a hell lot of questions, when all the passengers want are silence? Well, during this trip, the taxi driver (an Indian student) began asking me some questions while stuck in the morning traffic, but I decided to bombard him with questions before it became the other way round, until finally, the taxi driver asked...

TD: So, what course are you doing?
Me: Well, actually, I'm studying journalism.
TD: No wonder you are asking me so many questions!
Me: Hahaha! Because taxi drivers always like to bombard their passengers with a lot of questions, so I thought it would be nice to turn the tables around.
TD: Hahahahahaha...It's nice to finally have someone turn the tables around.
Both: Hahahahahaa...

Singapore, 23:45PM

I really miss living near the Equator. When I left Melbourne, the weather was slightly chilly and I had a jacket on throughout the flight. But, as we got nearer and nearer to Singapore, and when the plane passed through the Equator, it suddenly felt like sauna inside the plane and I even began perspiring.

Seoul, 6.58AM

6 hours away, and the weather is a whole different temperament.

I landed in South Korea this morning at 7.04AM. The temperature was minus 4 degree celsius. 13 hours on the plane in total, good thing I was in transit in Singapore for 7 hours, or else my ass would really hurt. The moment I stepped out of the gates , Yoo Jeong was there waiting, and she greeted me with a huge yawn. We went to Starbucks to have coffee, then proceeded to YJ's house. She suggested taking the subway, even though the bus trip was only half an hour, so we would have a nice scenic view of the river. However, we had to change subway three or four times, each a 10 to 15 minute ride, and a 5 minute walk away from the previous one. And, then, from the station to YJ's house, we had to take a taxi down because the weather was freezing and we had three luggages to carry.

Because YJ's entire family doesn't speak English, and know only a few simple words, each attempted conversation with her mum (because her dad was at work) was a comedy of sorts, and YJ would roar with laughter each time she saw us trying to have a 'conversation'. We had an afternoon nap, and I woke up earlier than YJ, so I went out of the room and her mum was in the kitchen cooking dinner. She began talking to me in Korean, and I had a 'Huh?' expression on my face, so her mum would repeat herself again. In Korean. And, then when I still couldn't understand, she would say the same thing louder again. In Korean. When I told this to YJ, she couldn't stop laughing.

Kimchi is a must-have at every Korean meal, including the rest of the other small servings of traditional Korean dishes. Koreans eat really really little, and their meal servings are really tiny portions. When I came out to have lunch, I looked around the table. YJ's bowl had a few spoonfuls of rice, her brother's was about half full, and mine was filled to the brim with rice! I was very happy. Yay, YJ still remembers that my stomach is a rice bucket! After that, I was like, 'Thanks for remembering that I eat a lot of rice," and YJ laughed. Compare this to Chinese dishes, which are like huge communal bowls, not considering how much rice and refills we go for. No wonder Korean people are so skinny. YJ once said that for someone who eats as much as I do, I am super skinny. Gee, thanks.

At the dining table: See the four small tiny dishes? That is what YJ's family usually has for dinner, and still have many left-overs. Unbelievable. The big dish of dong fen was a special for both me and YJ, who only landed back in Korea one day before my arrival. We also had crab meat soup, which was super super delicious! Fyi, The full bowl of rice is mine.

After lunch, we had a quick nap. We were both dead tired. A small culture shock when I first walked into YJ's room. "Where is your bed?!!" Turns out Korean households do not have any beds, and they laid out their mattresses on the floor when they go to bed, and then fold it up neatly and pack it back to the wardrobe in the morning. YJ's mum prepared layers and layers of thin mattresses and two blankets (including an electrical blanket) for us. After some time, the heat emanating from the blanket woke the both of us up, and YJ was even perspiring. Our pillows were really flat (YJ's mum believes it will bring longer life) bean bags. The floor was so hard, I had trouble sleeping initally. Even YJ had trouble adjusting, given that she spent 9 months in Melbourne sleeping on soft beds. But, when you have accumulated as much sleep debt as the both of us, you wouldn't have much trouble dozing off soon.

I got the second culture shock when I saw the clothes being laid out neatly all over the living room floor. Turns out that Korean households dry their clothes by laying them on the floor! Because beneath their floor are heaters, they make use of the heat to dry their clothes faster.

down the prison gallows

I have interviewed some interesting personalities during the course of my degree, but yet the most unexpected and impromptu interview turned out to be the most eye-opening experience. Sometime back, I did an interview with someone working in the Old Melbourne Jail, which has since closed down and turned into a tourist sight-seeing place, where tours such as ghost trails are being held.

-----

“Enjoy your freedom – while it lasts.” Natalie Carr clicks the metal gates open to release crowds of people into the daylight. The location is Police Watch-house at the Old Melbourne Gaol, and Carr is smartly-attired in a navy blue police outfit, mega-sized black sunglasses, her hair neatly tied in a bun complete with a no-nonsense piercing glare. But, the crowds in question are not prisoners, they are tourists. And, Carr is an actor.

“My job is to play the role of a police, I arrest tourists, give them a charge sheet, process them in the charge area, search them, and then I lock them up in the cells.”

The cells that Carr, a 38-year-old sergeant at the Watch-house is talking about are the very same precinct which, since 1850 housed Victoria’s most hardened criminals. Some of the more high–profile criminals included the notorious bushranger Ned Kelly, Chopper Read, Ronald Joseph Ryan and Jean Lee who were the last man and woman to be judicially executed in Australia. It is the very same watch house where Ryan led a daring escape on 21 April 1960.

Forward to 16 October 2008, and Carr is standing before those very cells, a bunch of keys dangling nosily in her pockets.

“Sometimes, I close cell doors, and turn around, and they have been opened again. That’s strange, because there’s no wind in here. When everyone goes home, and we are locking up, it’s an eerie place.”

She leads me through a sneak peek along the gallows and into the cells of the 19^th century Goal, each of which is a similar replica of the other: four graffiti-scrawled walls, dirty, small and reeking of a morbid stench, with hardly any natural light. The funereal atmosphere of a bad omen hangs around the cells like an albatross.

When Carr is not busy ‘arresting’ people, she works as a singing teacher in Victoria primary schools and performs at The Dog Theatre in Footscray. No doubt, that she remains passionate about her unusual job at the Old Melbourne Gaol, which keeps her on her toes.

“The show changes every time I do it, purely because I have different people in the audience who react differently every time. I have had some people who had claustrophobia or panic attacks, and had to leave. Some children get very upset and cry. We have some school groups coming in, and some of these young people get frightened about being locked up and seeing what it is really like inside.”

And what does she like best about her job?

“It’s something different, only 5 people in the whole state do what I do.”

-----

Afternote:

The prison gallows was a chilling experience, it reeked of the smell of death. I walked through the galleries which since 1841, has seen the hanging of both men and women. These inmates were hanged publicly, such that when the rope that hung around their neck was tightened and the trap door opened, their body was left to dangle in the middle of the other inmates' prison cells. Carr led me through quick peeks in the prison cells, which was completely bare except for a small toilet bowl at the very far end of the corner. There were no windows, and obviously no light, it is not hard to imagine that one can go crazy staying in an enclosed space like this. Although the prison has seen been turned into a touristy area, but as you stroll through the halls of the prison cells, it is as though you can still hear the silent screams of those who once lived and died there.

Brighton Beach

Brighton Beach is a childhood dream come true. Ever since Fann Wong did an 8 Days photoshoot Down Under, I've been wanting to visit those places she did her photoshoots in. Brighton Beach was one of the destinations. So, on a hot summer's day, Hannah and I headed out to Brighton Beach. Good riddance to the winter season!

I took this shot of a jellyfish, because they were everywhere on the beach. Some dead, some alive. I went really really close to get this close-up shot. But, later, I learnt that jellyfish are one of the most dangerous creatures on this earth. Those who were bitten by a jellyfish have suffered the most painful and slow death, that has been described as worse as having a tiger bite half your neck off because the jellyfish's venom will go through every veins in your body slowly before it finally attacks your heart.