New Year's Eve

On the last day of the year, I just wish to give myself a small pat on the back as I have accomplished quite a few targets I have set for myself at the start of the year. For one, I am able to write this journal till now, thus fulfilling one of my new year resolutions set at the first day of this year.

The year 2004 has been an eventful year. A lot of events has happened that affect on personal, social, national and international levels. Unfortunately, most of these events had been bad and sad. Therefore, I want to make a wish that the coming year can be peaceful, prosperous, and caring.

Though I will be wishing everyone a happy new year, I know I won't be really happy due to a couple of things that will be happening on the 1st of January. Then, my alma matars (high school and junior college) will merge into one. The merged entity will carry a new name, a name which I absolutely detest. Singapore's age of having two television stations will come to an end after just 4 short years. MediaWorks will be absorbed by MediaCorp. Just two words: "Merger sucks" :(

Help Tsunami Victims

The result for my final two modules is out. I am given 2 B's, a result much better than I have expected. This effectively brought my C.A.P. score to 3.20 and with that, I met the requirement for graduation. I can now celebrate my attaining of a master's degree.

The massive earthquake (9.0 on the Richter scale) off the island of Sumatra, Indonesia and the tsunamis (tidal waves) subsequently triggered by it have so far claimed almost 70,000 lives. The whole world is now conducting the biggest relief effort ever to help the affected countries and their people. Let's hope that help can reach the victims in time and the death toll can be kept to the minimum by preventing diseases from killing more people.

Anyone who wishes to make a donation to help the people, please refer to here for more information.

Merry Christmas to all!

Sydney, Australia --> Singapore

Touched down at the Changi Airport at 1:15pm. Home sweet home! I wished to thank my aunts here for their sponsoring of my share of the trip. They also paid for the expenses we all incurred during the trip. Thank you very much! Once again, some of the photos of our trip are located here.

Sydney, Australia

This day would be our last day here. We were scheduled to fly back to Singapore in the evening. After checking out of the hotel, we spent the earlier half of the day at the Australia National Maritime Museum. For the later half, my aunts made a final assualt at the supermarket Woolsworth while my cousin and I lingered in Kinokuniya.

When we were preparing ourselves to check-in at the airport, we were informed that our flight was canceled due to a technical fault. How amazing! Now we got to stay in Sydney for another night just like that. Qantas was also wonderful to place us in a very nice hotel near the airport so we could catch the same flight early morning home.

Sydney, Australia

My brother and his girlfriend drove back to Canberra the previous day. Hence it's back to mono-rail, light-rail, and more walking for us. In the morning, we went back to Chinatown and got ourselves some bargains for family and friends back home at Paddy's Market. Then one of my aunts suggested we go to the outskirts of Sydney to a residential area called the Glebe. The place hadn't much to see though we got to see the houses people there lived in. We left shortly after having lunch. For the rest of the afternoon, we were at the Sydney Aquarium and around Darling Harbour.

For photos of our trip, please click here.

Canberra --> Sydney, Australia

On the return trip back to Sydney, we travelled on the coastal road rather than using the freeway to head back directly. By driving along the coastline, we were able to pass through small towns such as Kiama. The view we got to see was fabulous. We stopped at a place called Batemans Bay, about 2hrs out of Canberra. Upon arrival, I was greeted with gifts by the seagulls and pelicans. They shitted on me! What luck. Anyway, Batemans Bay was a scenic place. After lunch, we drove for another 2.5hrs to reach Sydney.

Canberra, Australia

Today, my brother would attend his graduation ceremony in the morning at the Parliament House. He had been studying at the University of Canberra for a year and a half. The main purpose of this trip was to attend his graduation ceremony.

We spent the early part of the night at the Telstra Tower. It was one of Canberra's landmarks though the tower belonged to the telecommunication company Telstra. It was opened to the public for getting a view of the city.

It was the last night we were going to spend in Canberra so we purposely made a trip to the open grounds within my brother's university campus one last time in hope of spotting some kangaroos. We were hoping they would come out in the cool night air and sure enough, my cousin was not disappointed. There were a group of about 9 kangaroos hopping around the carparks and the open ground behind my brother's girlfriend's residence. Finally, my brother's claim on the abundance of kangaroos he got to see during his stay there was proven true. However, wild kangaroos weren't cute. In fact, they were sort of evil-looking, especially at night.

Canberra, Australia

My aunts did a bit more shopping in the morning and early afternoon. I wasn't into shopping much though I managed to pick up a couple of T-shirts. We were at the Australian War Memorial next, viewing the exhibits that reminded people of the atrocities of war. We were in time to catch the closing ceremony of the memorial for the day. For dinner, my brother brought us to the restaurant Hog's Breath and Goodberry's Ice Cream. Hog's Breath is one eating place that I highly recommend that any visitor to Canberra should go.

No kangaroos were spotted today and my little cousin, Joshua (9), was very disappointed. We guessed that they only come out at night.

Sydney --> Canberra, Australia

We took almost 3.5hrs to travel 400+km from Sydney to Canberra, passing through Wollongong where we had a pit-stop. Wollongong could be considered a small town with houses not more than three storeys tall. Too bad we weren't able to take photos of the place as we met with rain once again.

Canberra was still quite chilling despite it being summer. By the time we reached Canberra, it was late afternoon. My brother drove us up Mount Ainslie for a full view of the capital. It was simply beautiful. The city was really tranquil. Then it's off to a walkabout in the night near our motel.

Spotted: One wild kangaroo. Didn't see more today as the weather was considered too warm for the kangaroos to come down from higher grounds.

Sydney, Australia

There was one thing we discovered in Sydney that sort of messed up our senses and that was that the taxis there looked very much like police cars.

Trust me, this is a taxi...

Now this is a police car...

My brother drove all the way up from Canberra to meet us. With a car, we were able to visit the Opera House, The Rock's, and Star City Casino. However, we were unfamiliar with the roads and actually took a wrong turn while heading back to our hotel. We crossed the Harbour Bridge and almost got ourselves lost in northern Sydney. Thus we have a piece of advice (which a guy in our hotel gave us too but we didn't take) for tourists going to Sydney: never drive in the inner city. With its horrible layout of one-way streets and terrible traffic flows, walking was faster than driving at times.

More photos from our trip can be found here.

Sydney, Australia

We took the subway from the Central Station to Circular Quay to catch a glimpse of the Harbour Bridge before walking down Pitt Street to the Sydney Tower for a Sky Tour. From the tower we were able to have a panoramic view of the city.

Before testing out the monorail, we embarked on a walkabout in the uptown area. We took an extended route to the Town Hall by going down the Elizabeth Street besides Hyde Park before making a turn back to the center of the inner city. It was certainly one lo......ng walk. By the time we reached Chinatown after a walk from the monorail station, none of us wanted to go any further. However, there was still the issue of going back to the hotel. We decided to try a third mode of transport, the tram, to go back to the Central Station (not realising that the distance from where we were to the hotel was about the same as the distance between the station and hotel).

Travelling on the sidewalks and three modes of public transport was interesting but no small feat, considering I was in a wheelchair throughout the trip. But Sydney was really a handicapped-friendly city which allowed me great mobility to access the sights. I didn't encounter much difficulty. And by travelling the routes we desired at every turn of the roads enabled us to see more than we expected we could if following a guided tour.

Singapore --> Sydney, Australia

After around 7hrs of flying over 6485km, we reached Sydney at around 6pm. It was raining heavily and we encountered quite a hassle while being transported to our hotel. With all the shops closed and the unfamiliar surroundings in darkness, we dared not venture far from the hotel. The farthest we went was down the street to the only shop that was opened, 7-11. Oh well, the best thing to do was to sleep well for the next day.

Australia, here I come!

Tomorrow I will be flying to Australia for a one-week vacation :)

"Alexander"

I watched the movie "Alexander" yesterday and all I have to say is that it's a disturbing movie about a disturbed man. However, it did nothing to strip away the greatness of one of the greatest conquerors but at the same time not showing the historical importance of him and his conquests. Oliver Stone did not do well enough for this film. This movie is of an average standard that can hardly be compared to films like "Braveheart" and "The Gladiator".