Grading Begins
Alright sorry i gotta write this down, but yeah might as well since it still fresh in my head and all. Well today was the first game for "Indian Ocean FC" a team that I organised for the UWA night tournament. We started our first game today against a team called Salah Parking. I was quite confident cos the teams before din look too impressive so I was thinking that we should be able to at least compete with them,win maybe 50-50...
We started off the match well, I missed a shot from dunno how close, hit the keepers face, and then missed a complete sitter moments later. And the opponents managed to put two past us. Alex was doing realli well in keeper, and he saved our ass so many times, but yeah we got hit with a sucker punch, and then later on another one went past us. It was 2-0, but Nata managed to pull one back from us just before half time right after they scored their second goal.
Felt a bit edgy in the second half, but then we managed to equalise, and Alex was doing brilliant to hold all of their shots at bay. The team was good, cos they were competitive and played decent football, like they passed and built up play so all in all it was pretty even.
We then managed to pull another one and was up 3-2, and somehow I began to feel the match turning, and moments later, off a brilliant alex save, he threw the ball long, and I sprinted the length of the pitch (5-a-side pitch, not that long) and knocked the ball in at the other end! 4-2 final score, and all of us were realli happy and noisy after that.We anticipate some tough matches coming up but at least we tried to play and I was happy that everyone was mature about it, as in like cos there were 8 of us and only 5 could play, and Alex didnt get subbed out, so we had to rotate 4 places among 7 ppl. And yeah ppl were mature and stuff, came off when they had to, came on when they were asked and yeah it was realli cool.
All in all it was a good win, we are still in the grading stages, so they just wanna see like how we are relative to the rest of the league. So yeah, prob still got another 10 to 11 matches left in the league, will update everybody about it as we go along here. Alright its late and all i better get going.
Missing all,
Az
Time Flies
Man its been so long since I updated, and in a way I guess its good cos it means that I am getting busy in school. Lots of things to do, and keeping fit has been a large part of things to do for me. Its lucky because as students at SSEH (school of sports exercise and health), its been easier cos we have our own gym and swimming pool which the students can use without charge. I also joined an evening soccer tournament, which I am about to play in about an hours time.
Also, being in school has also meant more friends, and I took Marcus' advice about learning to mix with the locals here. I realise that international students and locals tend to keep apart, and I rem that Marcus told me to be easy going, and dont be extra but at the same time make an effort to say hi and all. So its been good.
My intl mates though are awesome, Alex is great, haha he spends a lot (well more than me), and loves a good party, but most imptly he is a grounded guy, and never puts on airs, and he is always respectful like he doesn't look down on people and such. Ali is a new guy, like my senior by one batch from Oman, and he is also very nice. Shree is a Singapore ex-national netball player/model haha and she is so tall, but she is also very nice and approachable and all. Theres also Meena, a girl from US and India, well she is from india originally, as well as Jamie, a super hardworking dude (like he works 3 jobs everyday and studies full time) from UK. Diamond, or her real full name is Diamantina from Macau, who is very friendly and Muza, from Malawi, who also hangs out with us. Ashamed to say, all these ppl from different countries are like the first friends I have had from that country. So its all cool. Oh yeah and there are ppl like Gemma from NZ and Sverre from Norway, who are my group mates in another module. So I guess social wise its not too bad as well.
But work has been, wow overwhelming, lots and lots of deadlines to meet,in such a short space of time, but I think I am relatively on top of it for now, like try everyday to do a bit instead of rushing at the end like when I was back in Singapore. I remember everyday before a paper, I would be up till 2am, sleep till 4am, then dow ork again until 9am, when I have to head to school. Crazy. But yeah now its like I try and do some work everyday, like at least 2-3 hours everyday, cos I know work will def catch up on me, after week 8 its gonna be just crazy, so gotta make use of this time now to get as much of a headstart as possible.
I took some pictures of school and stuff, just gotta find the time to put it up, hope can get it up soon, but this weekend is full cos got two soccer sessions, one on sat and one on sun with leederville united. But yeah I am looking forward to it realli.
Alright I will stop now, I gotta do some research on swine flu and all, hope to tell you guys more about daily life since school started, soon.
Missing all,
Az
First Day of Lessons
The first day of school has been fulfilling but a bit overwhelming. I have so many things to do, which includes interviews, essays, lit reviews, group pieces and final exams of course.
Morning started with Coaching Psych. with Doc Gordon, he's a realli nice guy, and I went to his office to speak more to him about stuff and all. He actually played for Aberdeen when he was younger, and Fergie actually coached Aberdeen back when he was first starting out. No surprise that during Fergie's reign, they managed to break the deathgrip that Celtic and Rangers had over the Scottish league. But anyways, the class was cosy, and I am doing my group project with an exchange student from Norway, and another girl whom I did not have much of an impression of. But yeah, its quite hard to understand them somewhat, but I will try and work with them. we got time on our side for now so I guess its alright.
The afternoon was spent in the library downloading journals and reading course material. The library is really superb, cos its dedicated to the sciences only, so the stuff there is pretty extensive. Loads of material on sports psyche and nutrition and biomechanics and such. Beautiful. But yeah the library had abundant computer points and comps as well, which was realli fine, and I realise I dont really have to lug my laptop along all the time, since there is such an abundance of computers nearby.
At about two I went for the Exercise and Health Psyche lecture again with Doc Gordon, and a PhD student called Julie presented to us some bacis about sports psyche and such. I am quite lucky that school over the past 3 years gave me a good foundation so most of the stuff was really quite familiar to me. I am doing my groupwork with two americans, a Londoner and a guy from Oman. Haha. Somehow the international kids tend to stick together, I gues its normal at the start.
Thereafter I headed home around 5 to the worst weather ever. Right now the weather is bad and there are like gales outside and stuff. I wonder how it is like in Fremantle which is rite at the coast. But yeah, its really cold and stuff here, and the winds are really bad. Si much so that I decided to just stay indoors. I am supposed to go out and make a call but I think I can't cos really the wind is quite bad. 110km/h according to the reports. Its literally howling.
So yeah school on day one has been good. I am glad that I have a break tomorrow so I can consolidate, study and prepare for Wednesdays classes.
I missed the testimonial match for the first time today.
Missing all,
Az
For Crying out Loud
There are lots of things that a person may feel but I think one of the worst things one can feel is helpless. You do everything you can to ensure that something doesn't happen. but in the end it still happens? What can you do, you cannot wish it didnt happen, because it already did. You cannot reflect about what you could have done better, because you did as much as you possibly can. You look for someone to blame, inclusive of yourself, and you cant even seem to find blame in yourself, although it may not feel better blaming yourself, at least you know you can improve next time.
What the fuck man. My bike wasnt even one month old and now its gone. I parked it at Glendalough Station, at the proper bike rack, between a train station and a bus interchange. The human traffic there was significant. I locked both wheels, yes both wheels of the bike, and I looked at the rest of the bikes on the rack, mine was definitely not the most fancy one around. I went off for two and a half hours in the city and when I came back, it was completely gone. I didn't know what to say and I don't know what to think as well.
I realli dont have luck with vehicles, it was worrying at first, but now its just fucking depressing. (in an effort to blame myself, this is what I have to say)
Out.
Hurt
Today has been one of the worst days since I came here, and you know what the ironic thing is, the problems and worries had to come from Singapore. Setting up and trying to run the club has not been a problem. There are a committed bunch of individuals to help with the cause. The problem lies in trying to communicate with FAS.
Seriously, I have no words, but its a shame that a football-mad country is undone by the people who govern the football. How many failures have you heard of brilliant potential undone by lousy management.
Lets stop with the excuses, lets not say our players are too small, or shit like that, that is God given. Trinidad and Tobago qualified with a population of 3 million. And look at the players from Korea and Japan, are you telling me they are bigger than the likes of Baihakki, Bennett, Precious and company?
We always fault the country and our socio-economic background, saying oh, the people dont prioritise sports much. So? Whose fault is that at the end of the day? The people? No, the fault lies with the lack of belief, and the attitude that simply screams out VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE. Heck if vjsg or even vjc had that kinda attitude we would not be where we are now. If we want things to move, we gotta be brave enough to try, we gotta be willing to break past certain consistencies and try new things. The management is paid money to convince the people of the cause, not to complain and moan about things.
You know i learnt a lot of things from Mr Tan, but one thing he said to me which I will always remember is
to be a problem-solver and not a problem creator.Honestly I am really sad for people who have or had so much hope in local soccer, I am so embarassed that we aimed to actually qualify for the 2010 world cup and had to freaking remove that. But of course nobody talks about such an embarassment.
Bottom line is this, the right tool will never be used properly in the hands of the wrong people. So yeah its a real pity, so for all you soccer fans out there, its understandable for you to put your heart and soul in the likes of the EPL clubs. Its understandable. Its understandable if you wish to stay home and watch EPL instead of being out there watching shit being played in the league. Its understandable.
Just because you are Singaporean, it doesnt mean that you have to be there for the country to support them. Because it hurts. Thats the truth. Someday, I hope things will change, but in the meantime, heed my words, things are not gonna get any better.
So I just wanna wish my best.
To Man U. Say what you want about all these money chasing clubs, but they are doing something right, and we can learn from it.
Out,
Az
First few days in school
The first day of orientation today was a mixture of a lot of things. For me the talks were quite informative, but some of them like those on transport and security and such I kinda switched off because having been here a month
or so, I was quite familiar with what I had to do and all. But it was
understandable why they had to go through such things, some of the students there, as I got to know later, arrived even on the morning itself!
I am generally someone who is not very comfortable with talking, like I will talk if I know you or am in a familiar place. But once I am in a crowd of strangers you should never expect me to say a word, unless I am suppose to take charge, or unless I know everybody has similar interests, such as at the
coaching course the other time.
But yeah anyway, it was an alright first day, today was more of the submission of papers and other stuff, quite short, and tomorrow w
ill be the big one, where we have to decide on the modules and such. Thursday and Friday and the weekend will prob be the last one in a while where I can really slack, but am planning to go cycling with Alex (my US friend whom I met on
facebook) and we will be organising something for all the faculty
international students (more on
that later).
Tomorrow I am also suppose to see the head of my area of interest, sports
pysch, Prof Bob Grove, about my course options and all. There are really so many choices so I have to be careful with what I choose and how I go about doing it, so that I will have the best chance possible of doing well in the coming two years.
I also realised that the orientation for us
postgrads is different, obviously we are not
enthu 20 year
olds who like jumping around and such, most are serious about stuff and want to get a move on things. SO what they did was give us a lot of
opportunities to mingle and such, and luckily having Alex beside me was a blessing, he is a super smooth talker, everything that I am not
lar, and yeah he always introduced me as well, so yeah I got to know more people with his help most definitely.
Which leads me on to our faculty gatherings, where we had to choose our modules with an advisor and stuff. The wait was long so we took the time to know each other, made friends with some girls from
Macau, Japan, Malaysia and Malawi, as well as some guys from Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. There were not many of us to start with so it was pretty easy to talk and mingle, but sadly there were no other
international students from my school, School of Sport, Exercise and Health (
SSEH). Which was quite sad, but
ok lar,
hahah then Alex was the best during the advisory
session, his advisor came to me and asked me what I was doing, so that Alex could do the same modules,
haha. But his specialty though is different than mine, I think he is still in the midst of choosing where else I am pretty clear about what I want to do.
Anyway, we decided that we will probably hang out as a batch before school starts, and
looking at the size of the school it may be quite hard to catch up and all, so me and Alex are gonna discuss on Thursday on what to do. Hopefully we can meet up and chat and all, before we are all cooped up and rushing around.
On a
sidenote before I end, Colby's been sick for coming to two weeks now, coughing, and stuff, and I am quite worried, not if its swine flu or anything
lar, but if he will be alright, cos two weeks to me is pretty long to not clear the system and such, so hope he gets well soon, cos
haha he is a bit quieter nowadays, whereas usually when we watch
tv he will be dishing out his
funny dry sarcastic remarks. Hope he gets well soon.
Lastly, I went for a run today, and ran all the way deep into the park, which was so quiet, save for the occasional duck or swan or goose.
Haha, no snakes so far, despite the
warnings of them. I hope sometimes this semester I can slowly walk and take pictures for you guys.
Alright
thats all for now, big day tomorrow, and hopefully a nice not too fast weekend ahead.
Missing all,
Az
Well, tomorrow's orientation day, and I loook forward to meeting the people at school. Somehow, I feel that I have reached a level of focus that I want in school and education. I feel really eager to start school and to really get into the thick of studying and such. Dunno why, maybe the lack of challenge in the past two months has gotten to me?
Hmm, well anyways I have nothing much to write now, so I will stop here, I am sure I will have much more once things kick off tomorrow.
Missing all,
Az
The past few days have been alright, and I have done much moving around and all, trying to settle stuff, as well as studying. Yes studying, revising my stats, cos I know I will prob encounter lots of it at least in one or more of the modules. Also borrowed this giant psychology textbook from the nearby library so I can read through stuff. I am quite anxious for Orientation to come cos I really want to know the modules I can do, and what my timetable is like, so I can plan my stuff, some interesting jobs have popped up recently, but I cant take any up until I know what I will be doing for the next 4 months or so.
Other than that well I feel good, doing circuit everyday, and trying to cycle for at least half an hour for starters each day, tlaking about that, I need to get a lamp for my bike cos I sometimes cycle at night and such. And its bloody dangerous also, cos the cars cannot see me cos my windbreaker is black as well.
So yeah new windbreaker, and front and back lights. I am contemplating so much bout getting a car, but yeah I cannot just buy it lar, I know when I am cycling home after I am dead tired from school I will regret it, but its ok in the bigger picture its the right thing to do also.
Oh yeah and one last thing, I was choosing pictures to put in my coaching resume and looked through the pictures of the season and such. Wow, I really do miss a lot of things, and made me think about home for like the first time in a long time (like seriously ponder about home lar). Thats why I havent seen the girls' CD yet, cos I dont wanna see it until I am prepared.
Alright thats all for now.
Missing all,
Az
Trip to the Western Australian Museum
Apologies for the late reply, been a bit busier these days, as I have been reising my work and such before school starts in a few days time. Other than that, have been having a bit of a problem trying to upload the pics to my comp cos the bluetooth wasn't working that is , until today. So here's more about my trip to the Western Australian Museum near Northbridge. I decided to head here cos I didn't really have anything to do and cos it was Friday and since I was at the nearby mosque might as well.
Basically the entrance to the museum was free, so you are encouraged to donate, which I did, but yeah if you didn't it was alright as well. This is the front facade of the museum.
When one enters the museum the first thing I noticed was that there were like overhanging corridors in the upper levels, which contained historical displays (small ones) as well as texts and such. I wanted to try and see them, but to no avail. The television screens in this pic btw is a live stream of the many cities around the world, like Paris, NY, London, etc. etc.
This is an original jaw of a shark, I forgot what the name of the shark was, although I know its carnivourus, not too sure if it was the great white though. Shark attacks are not uncommon in Australia.
A close up of the jaw would show that there are actually several rows of teeth, ready to come to the front, should the front row drop out.
This is a skull of a killer whale.
A live-sized model of an aboriginal drawing. Each tribe has its own version of how the world was formed and this picture is an illustration of the artist's tribe's version of it.
An ancient diving suit, super huge, and bulky, I am really not sure how the person stayed dry and warm, but yeah it definitely does the sinking part well, cos its huge and heavy.
This is the remains of a very rare shark called the Megamouth, of which only a few have been caught/sighted around the world. This one here is the only one caught in Australia and is the largest one documented in the world, found right here in Perth.
This is the actual picture of the megamouth, when it was caught. It doesn't really look like a shark, looks kind of like a porpoise of sorts, but witha a shark like body. Very odd.
This was an exhibit of a dentist's clinic in the late 1800s, in Perth. Notice the cheap prices then! Well relatively cheap.
There was a special exhibit about aboriginal life in Australia, and the "stolen generation" of aborigines, who were discriminated against, and had their children taken away in an effort by the colonialists to make them more civilized. It really opened my eyes to how the aborigines were treated in the country and why the hold so much resentment.
The current Government had an official day, where they apologised for the mistreatment of the aborigines by the earlier governments. The notebook at the bottom was written with "sorry" notes from children seen in the picture above it.
Just another of the articles I saw in the exhibition. It was really enlightening yet I felt incredibly sorry for how the aboriginal people, who were the"people of the land" were mistreated and made second class citizens in their own land. I could understand (to a slight extent) how frustrated they feel, just by reading the articles. Really made me reflect a lot on stuff.
Pieces of metorite rocks that landed across Australia.
I took my bike out that day, and cycled to the mosque/museum and back, which took me bout half an hour each way. The good thing about cycling is that you can stop and shoot a pic, especially one as beautiful as this, of the sun setting in the horizon of Lake Monger, which is a mere ten minute walk from my place. Beautiful.
Oh well, there are plenty more things I want to write about, but in a way I am grateful I do not have the time to write such long posts because it means I am getting busier. I will write soon about other stuff. Take care.
Missing all,
Az
Common Ground
Yesterday was spent going to mosque and thereafter heading over to the state museum where I saw quite a lot of interesting stuff, but I will save it for the next post cos I am going out again in a while. So yeah just a short post about what happened the night before (Friday night).
Basically I was on the way to watch the TV, when Colby my housemate decided that he wanted to watch a movie. I only wanted to watch scrubs so I just asked him if he could delay his dvd watch by half an hour. We then began talking about scrubs and such and the episode started. It was an old episode and Colby just stood up and told me he had something, and guess what he came back with!
What a superb find! 24 discs worth of scrubs episodes, and 6 seasons in total, I was really excited cos now at least I know what to do if the tv shows don't interest me during this closing two weeks before school starts. So yeah, it pays to have a housemate who likes to watch dvds and such.
We then began talking about other things, and then we touched upon my favourite show of all, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Haha, well its not really my most favourite shoe (Murder in small town X and Prison Break come to mind as well), but I followed the series from start to end, and I told him how I was such a big fan of SMG that I used to paste a photo of her in my school file! What the heck right, but oh well, I was secondary school then. Colby also spoke enthusiatically about the show, and we spoke about the classic episode which was performed as a musical. Then he went into his room again, and showed me this! (he asked not to be in the pic though)
And thats when I knew.......I was meant to live in this house! Haha, well besides that I think its just cool to have a housemate who shares common ground about things, and yeah I am really glad I got him as a housemate, its been a great experience.
Tonight, its gonna be a dvd night, probably Kill Bill 2.
Missing all,
Az
Cottlestoe and a Bike
Today I headed down to get my bike. I bought it from an Irish guy called Chris Clayton, and I had an interesting talk with him, as he described that he actually was on a 1 year holiday visa here in Oz, and was using the time to earn money, and later to travel. Basically, he had just finished working for six months, and together with his mates was going for a drive around Australia. Basically Perth is just a small spot in Oz, and there are many many places one can go to see many things actually. So perhaps, before I grad I should take the opportunity, get some extra money and move around the whole country.
Anyway back to Chris, and he was realli nice though I felt bad for mistaking him for a Scottish guy, and he kept adding the word "liche" at the end of each sentence, its like how Aussies use mate, and we of cos add a "lah/lar" to almost everything we say.
Anyway his house was beautiful, well the scenery was as I will show you in the pics that I took. It just stared into the ocean. The open expanse of it all realli was something I am not used to. I am used to staring out at east coast and seeing a short beach to the right and left of me, tiny waves and numerous ships dotting the horizon. But here, I saw an empty horizon, prob just a few ships to the left, far, far, away and miles and miles of beaches, just endless, with barely anyone on them (cos winter is like finally setting in).
So yeah I bought my bike for 80 bux, which includes a helmet, a pump and a lock, so I would dare say its a good buy. And I cycled home. The cool thing about Perth is that they allow you to bring your bike onboard the train no matter what size (unlike Singapore). So you can just step in and park your bike beside the door, and then sit down if there is a sit available nearby, if not just lean against your bike.
Halfway through the ride though, I seriously felt like shit, cos I had suddenly cycled realli hard from Chris's place to the station nearby, and I hadn't eaten breakfast. Suddenly felt very faint, and bouts of light headedness followed by heavy headedness. And I kept resting on my knees. I concluded that it was just a reaction of the body to me suddenly subjecting myself to a physical bike ride without preparing. I was sweating cold sweat like hell in the train, I did not even sweat as much when I went for a 5k run the other time.
But anyways, I rested for a while at one of the terminals and continued my ride home, I felt much better, and I even spared some time to help donate to this guy raising funds for the Blind Sport Association of WA.
Anyways I will leave you with a pic of my new ride, as well as the pics of the sea and beach at Cottlestoe, which is quite near to Fremantle. Btw, the biuke was supposed to be 90, but Chris din have 10 bux change for my 2 50 notes, and I had a 20 and a 10, so he just said I'll take it for 80. Haha, will never hapen back home. I took is email and msn and facebook down, now I have a friend in Ireland.
As I was walking with Chris back to his place, so I could adjust the height of the bike seat, I saw something in the distance, you can see it in this pic too. It is the dark blue thing rising in the horizon, so I thought it was like a hill or something although it was too straight.
Unbelievable, it was actually the coast line! Beautiful expanse of ocean and beaches, and look a the waves! I was taking this from maybe 200-300m away. So this is what a real coast looks like, and if u strain your eyes u can see a ship in the horizon. And Chris gets this view everyday!
And this is my new ride, a standard bike, no suspension, no quick release wheels, but better, cos than not so upmarket. Its a good buy I feel, and for the price I got. In Aussie, most new bikes cost in the hundreds, not like the Carrefour ones in Singapore which you can buy for pretty cheap.
Well, thats all for now, tomorrow will be prayers and probably going to spend some time at the library or museum. Then on Saturday will be meeting up with Nelson's sister Judy, who will be taking me round and all.
Missing all,
Az
Thinking it over
Nat left on Tuesday and frankly for me I felt rather empty, cos we had a lot of fun when she was here, going to Freo and all that, I am not sure when I will head there again actually. But we promised each other that if she came again we would make it a point to go for the night tour there.
Other than that, I have been busy doing other things as well, been busy studying the online material as well as doing the assignments online, Cos I am actually registering for a first aid course, which will help me further my coaching over here. I am not really sure if I have to have a cert over here, but I know that having a cert will do me good in any case. The course will be on next week in the City, so yeah looking forward to it. Cos that will more or less be my last week to really be this free and all.
The other thing I am planning to invest in is a bike. Yup, a bicycle, I am meetin up with a guy whose ad i saw online to see if I wanna buy a bike, seems pretty reasonable, at 90 bux, I get a helmet, a pump and a lock as well. But yeah will have to check it out. Thing is my uncle has lent me his car for a week, and I know that he realli wants me to buy the car off him, but I realli think I can't take it, firstly cos I don't really want to have to pay for everything that comes with it. I mean its really convenient to get around with a car here in Aussie, but along with it, theres like things like petrol, parking fees (at school and at home), I think its too much for someone who is trying to survive and live with his needs and not his wants.
So i think bicycle it will be for me, just that I gotta get a light for the bike and a fluorescent vest, cos I will be riding on the roads. Hope to show you guys some pics once I pick it up tomorrow.
Alright, anyways, dats all for now, I am gonna watch prison break. I just had a long chat with my parents about finances and stuff. Its realli tough to see my finances ebbing away, especially the pile that I have been working hard for all this while. But yeah, I guess no point saving and not putting it to good use, so if there is anything I would want to put my finances into, it would have to be my studies and all. Just feels hard but money isn't everything, its just a means to get you to where you wanna be.
Missing all,
Az
