Just got back from Deva and Chong Chyn's double header celebration of their birthdays which were sometime during the past week.


Happy Birthday to them.

The food at Gaylord on Tattersalls Lane in Chinatown wasn't too spectacular. Before I poison your mind, you could have a look at a different perspective of the restaurant in Omega's blog, although that was during a different occasion.

My main complaint about the restaurant was that it was super expensive for the portions that they give.


Look at the size of those bowls! The 18 dollar mixed platter wasn't too bad though. We ended up paying 22 dollars each.

None of the dishes looked enticing enough for me to take a picture of them, but some close ups were taken by Chang Yang while we were experimenting with my camera.


This is a piece of meat from the mixed platter.


I have no idea which dish that was, but I swear that there's a baby lamb somewhere in the picture. Bekkkkkk!


Now because I'm not a person who camwhores, there isn't a single picture with me in it. This here are the girls, just cos they were all sitting on the opposite side. I seriously cannot be bothered getting everybody to pose just to get a picture together.


This is Omega, the owner of the blog of which I recommended you read if you wanted a different and more positive review of the restaurant :) She is happy that she got such a huge piece of cake to herself.

And there wasn't a group picture either. This is the closest I've got to a group picture.


I say that this is an awesome picture as it captures the myriad of human expressions all in one shot. And the expression on Omega's face is priceless. Priceless I tell you!

I always see those pictures they put in brochures when advertising for a particular university and thought they were just getting some students to act out sitting in a park and chatting and having a whale of a time. Well, it seems that I thought wrong.

I've walked past this place so many times before but I've never been in before. On Tuesday night, I got the chance.

Like it says on the sign, its a bowling bar. Which means that they have bowling but its also a bar. That means you can bowl and drink at the same time.


The lighting the have is really cool. Like a spaceship. Only spaceships don't have bowling lanes.

Jon got 179 points. Can you believe that?


The most awesome thing is that they have food. Yum.

Currently listening to Kenny Rogers, The Gambler as I write this.

"You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done."

Week 9 of medicine has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Didn't get much done this week, apart form the fact that I started playing Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, which was partly the cause of me not getting much done this week as well.

As I was on the train going to my second GP visit on Thursday, I couldn't help but notice the numerous graffiti on the walls of buildings from my window. Some of it were your average scribblings on walls, but mostly, I was amazed by the creativeness of the fonts, for lack of a better word, that people draw on the walls. A lot of them looked like they were done by photoshop or with stencils. Also, there were some that were at unreachable places, like the side of a tall bridge, and I had to wonder how people could actually get to those places and draw such awesome fonts.

Went to watch Stomp the Yard yesterday night with Jon, Alex, Sherreen, Eileen, Meisze, and Lindsey yesterday, and I have to say it was quite enjoyable for a show that got a 2.2/10 rating from IMDB. Then I finally got to try the crepes from this place that I've seen for a while already, but just never had the opportunity or reason to try, Ichipan Crepes.



'
I actually ordered a mango crepe, but it wasn't until I finished the whole thing that I realised what I was eating all along was peach and not mango. How unfortunate.

Spent the whole night playing 500 (that's a card game, similar to bridge) with Supa, Jon, and Alex, and I must say I lost magnificently the whole night. Though it was my first time playing, losing still does not feel nice. People say that time flies when you're having fun. Well, I wasn't having fun at all, but time still zoomed past me, and before I knew it, it was 430 in the morning already, and I was still losing. Lol. I suppose I'm not good at risk taking behaviours.

Oh and I just got my badminton racquet back from restringing. While using it, I could almost imagine the endless possibilities in any one particular shot. What I'm trying to say is, I play best with my own racquet.

That's it.

There's a new Asian grocery opposite Melbourne Central, and one of the first Korean/Japanese groceries that I've seen around Melbourne. They also have an alcohol store that sells Bacardi 151 for 75 bucks, which according to Jian Ming and Kachornwut, is a good price.

Anyway, they have some cool stuff as well, like these:




O Heh! LoL.

Why no guava???

Just got back from houseboating in The Murray River in Moama, Echuca this afternoon. A very interesting and different trip, but one that I would say suited me perfectly. My idea of a holiday is to go somewhere and sit in the hotel room, instead of being 'forced' to walk around and go sightseeing, and this trip was perfect for that. We spent most of the day and nights in the houseboat, and could only go on land when we moored by the river side, but usually we moor at some secluded area anyway.

There were no set plans that we must do this or do that, and that was good for me as well. There was one afternoon when my friends decided to explore the Boora Boora Wildlife Reserve - which was basically a huge expanse of land, and you could see animals if you looked hard enough - and I decided to stay on the boat and read my storybook and take an afternoon nap. Apparently they saw kangaroos. ;p

Some of us tried their hand at fishing, albeit unsuccessfully. Some 'seasoned pros' who drove by on their speedboats gave us some advice, like putting some cheese on the bait, and gave us some bigger hooks as well, others even gave us the cheese, and in the end someone actually gave us a whole fish that they caught. The fish ended up on the dinner table.

The houseboat was basically an apartment floating on the river. Four double beds, 4 bathrooms, 3 bed-sofas, 2 refrigerators, a television (with SBS for Champions League hoho), and a washing machine that could not be found (either it wasn't there or it was really well hidden). It also went one step better than an average apartment with a BBQ pit and a jacuzzi on the top deck.

It was not till the last full day of the trip that we actually moored at The Port of Echuca and some of us took a bus to the horse ranch, where 2 of the girls tried horse riding. For the more cowardly of us, we had a go at archery and a mini golf thingy. We had bought enough food with us onto the boat to cook and last us the trip, but we had to make a final trip to Safeway to get the necessary ingredients for our final 2 meals.

Another thing worth mentioning was that when we got on the boat, only 2 out of the 9 of us knew how to play bridge. Jiawei (the only other person that knew how to play bridge) brought 2 decks of cards with him and all of them were just playing Big 2. After learning to play bridge last year in Melaka, I've since decided that Big 2 is just so much less interesting than bridge (or some variant of it), and when I was dragged into playing a Big 2 game with them while on the boat, I got Jiawei to help me teach them how to play bridge.

Taught Carol and Elaine, they got hooked, then got them to pull Chungyew into it as well. James learnt it quite fast, and Ganesh was the next to get into the game. The rest of the free time we had we were playing bridge like there was no tomorrow. On the final night, we got Darren into it, and the last to learn was Francis, a guy from China, who said, "我觉得比Big 2好玩。"

And so we spent the last night playing bridge, and the next morning as well when waiting for the cab, and the bus. Woohoo awesome. I envision a day where bridge will be as popular as Big 2 amongst Asians and maybe whenever we whip out a pack of cards everybody will play bridge.

And that was that.

And some pictures, of course. And then I'm off.

Friday was the start of our Easter Break and together with it, came Weishen (part time student, full time tourist), from Tasmania. Since the only day we could meet up was Sunday, it was only natural that we meet up on Sunday.


This is where we had lunch. A Vietnamese Beef Noodle place down Swanston Street. Nothing very spectacular.

After lunch we took a stroll around Melbourne, and I was trying to get some good pictures but nothing came up.






The funny thing is, this is my 3rd year here, and its his first time here, and we're both looking at Telstra Dome for the first time.


This was taken on the way back. Never realised that the roof of Melbourne Central could be so interesting.


Ooops, wrong picture. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the events of the day. And that's not me eating that. ;p

Its going to be Tuesday tomorrow, and I'm off to the Murray River in Echuca till Friday. Hopefully it'll be a good trip.

Janice's birthday party was on Friday the 6th of April and she wanted a party where everyone dressed to the theme 'Entertainment'.


Now everybody knows I don't like dressing up, but someone I was coerced into doing so by a couple of my friends. ;p

So since I already had a black jacket on, I took our Ormond College formal gown and stole a mask from Supa. Oh and I also stole a mask from 'Audrey Hepburn'.


Well the night passed with me taking some pictures trying to look like I'm 'killing' people.


This guy here proved surprisingly resilient, and evaded my first attempt at him. Before the night was over though, another attempt at assassinating him was made.


Supa really went all out and dressed to be a clown. Unfortunate that there was no award for best costume. Maybe that's why he's so sad.


Here's Bob the Builder and Audrey Hepburn (without the hat, of course).


Finally got him cornered.


Former and current Ormondians. Awesome.

Happy Birthday to you Janice.

So good you can almost see the fat dripping off it.

I'm thinking of quitting...

Quit what? Quit DotA. Quit gaming in general.

Why? Because I'm its all too time consuming and I'd rather spend my time doing other, more constructive things. Because one shouldn't be in his room playing games when his friends are out at the pub socialising and drinking and enjoying themselves. Because other people my age and working already and not spending their time on such childish pursuits.

Its been more than 2 years since I started playing this game. I remember coming to Ormond late and missing Orientation Week. Which meant that I didn't get to know my fellow freshers at Ormond, and they all formed their own group already. All first semester, I kept to myself, only mixing with fellow outcasts and other people who stayed in the same corner.

Towards the end of first semester however, things changed. Some freshers then noticed me going to the internet cafe and they too started playing the game. And from then on, I gained an entry point into the group of friends that I'm in right now. And it was all good.

The game then consumed our lives for the next year or so, and I mean really consumed but then things dropped off a bit, and now its at a respectable amount, and all is good.

However, maybe 2 years is a long time. Maybe I should really stop.

Studies are more important.

Here is a list of my own reasons on why DotA is bad for you.

*Edited 23/4/07: This is an Aprils Fools' Joke. Don't believe anything you read here.

I used to be part of the IMSS in my first year in Melbourne. (I described what was IMSS in my previous blog, here and here.) Of course, I'm now in my 3rd year already and the committee has changed, but the objectives still remain the same.

Along with the society's objectives and goals, there are quite a few other things that has remained constant these 3 years, and one of them is the IMSS Pancake and Champagne Day.

I remember back in first year when Chang Yang and I were struggling to come up with a good poster for the event.


It looks much better in colour here than it did when we photocopied it out into black and white. On hindsight, I think I'd have used a different and more catchy font instead of the boring one that we used.

Anyhow, just yesterday, it was time for this year's Pancake Day.


Unfortunately I couldn't be bothered fighting against the sea of med students to get a pancake for myself.




And here are some of the committee members in action.

I remember that last year, I was behind the bbq pit.

Thankfully, I did not have to help them clear up this year.

;p