Man @ Work
I just thought that it'd be good to show you guys my work here in Perth. Basically I am employed by the Bank of Queensland Corporate Challenge, and we run competitions for office workers during lunch time in the city.
Its a really cool gig, good pay, great people, and of cos dealing with sport, I mean its perfect. The weather is sometimes a bother as we conduct our actitivites during mid-day but the lack of humidity and the breeze often makes up for it. So here I will leave you with some pictures.
For this season, we are organising volleyball, so yeah the first aprt is setting up the volleyball pitches like so, which includes the nets and the stands.
These are the people whom i work with, the guy in white is Ben, the guy in the white cap is Chris, and the husband (beside the van) and Janice (at the table). So yeah here we finished the nets and courts and doing the rest of the staff.
Aren't our banners the best!
The office workers start streaming in around 12 noon for the first round of matches (we have 3 rounds of 7 concurrent matches).
I love the sight of this, so many ppl taking trouble to come down and play and keep fit during lunch time, something you will never see happening in Singapore.
A superb team in pink, those shirts were actually in commemoration of "cycle to work" day.
Superb. This guy didn't even change out of his business wear and started playing.
And finally, this is the same field after we packed everything in, and me walking out.
Missing all,
Az
Two Things
This post has two things which I wanna highlight about the recent going-ons here in Aussie.
Sending Haiyum Off
First was saying goodbye to my friend Haiyum, who is returning to Singapore for good after 5 years over here in Perth. I only knew him this semester but suffice to say I couldn't have gone thru the semester (so far not too shabbily) without him. There are actually 6 people who are in the postgraduate room, but he is the one who is most frequent in the office, so yeah I would say that he is he closest post-graduate to me, literally and figuratively speaking.
I guess from now on it will be quite lonely in the office, cos most of the time it will probably be just me. Haiyum is actually 36 this year, and I really respect him for taking the hard step to go out to a foreign country and try and upgrade himself. The only other person whom I know did that was my mom, who finished her bachelors at the age of 43, so I am very priveleged to know such people in my life.
He also told me that he was not going to sell-out, and he was alright with a decent paying job as long as it allowed him to do what he loved. An attitude that I respect, and I wonder myself if I can not sell-out as well, cos yeah selling out is a pretty common thing in Singapore, especially if you're taking a generic degree, but anyway, thats another matter.
So yeah I sent him off on Wednesday night at the airport, and I could see he was quite sad because yeah its been his home for the past 5 years so I would understand too. Well at least he is coming back to his wife. Also, he lives near Jaslyn's place which for those of you who know where I live would know is about 5 min drive from my place. So yeah hope I get to meet up with him.
But of course I wil always remember his work ethic, which I feel was a real inspiration to me, so I hope to be able to work hard or as hard when he is not around in this coming semester.
Half MarathonThe other thing that I have been preparing for is doing my first half-marathon run, I'm not aiming for much because I have never finished that distance in my life before, but I would say that if I can come under the 1:45 barrier, I would be proud of myself. I can't say for sure that I have trained very hard. Its hard to train alone most of the time, cos you can't pace anyone, but I have been working consistently over the past 3 months, making sure my core is strong, and also that I cover the mileage consistently each week. I guess the one stumbling block would be the vicious Perth wind, which can really slow you down. Most of the time the headwind picks up on the way back, so you have to take advantage of the tail wind when you feel it behind you.
I will share more when I get back, leave you with some pics of the running route, taken off the internet, cos obviously I won't take any when I am running.
Most of the run (about 19km of it) will be along the Swan River, and the backdrop will be the cityline.
I will then go across a bridge known as the Causeway (duno why I cannot find the picture on the internet, to cross over from the City side to South Perth side (which is where the photo above was taken from, and will start running southwards to the Narrows bridge, which you see below.
This is the second bridge that I will cross, the Narrows bridge, which goes back over the river, so I will run from the left to right, back onto the UWA side and head back to UWA which is towards the top-right of this picture (can't be seen from this pic).
So yeah, alright I shall go now, pack and head to school for prayers. Here's hoping for a smooth run, and the meeting of targets.
Missing all,
Az
Trip to Mandurah (21/11/09)
Alright so here's some pictures from my trip to Mandurah. Basically its the southernmost station on the train line, anything more southerly of that will need independent bus charters, such as Albany, where Colby comes from. But anyways here's a look at the place. Enjoy!
This is the first sight that greets you once u get off the shuttle bus in Mandurah, basically, its kind of an enclave, and condos on the other side.
The river was quite dry, and yeah there were gulls and all on the dried parts closer to the shore.
And of cos the odd small boy walking around as well.
This is the inside or rather the lobby area of the performing arts centre in Mandurah. They were having a free arts exhibition, so I decided to come in and take a look.
Inside the exhibition hall. The paintings were oil paintings of this nearby place called Margaret River.
This, to me was the highlight of the whole trip. Went to this new development, which was kinda modelled after a Venice theme. The houses are to the right, and yes, you can just park your boat at the back of your house and walk up, straight into your home. WATTTTT!!!!!!!!!!
Another view of the houses here, I think you must be filthy rich to live here man.
Another view from just outside a house, imagine walking behind your house and seeing this. Realli, WOW.
Something random at the side of the street. A HUGEE chair, and a terracota soldier replica.
Just a cool art piece in the middle of Mandurah.
Of cos can't go anywhere without a trip to the bach. Look at the sand, beautiful absolutely, miles of this type of fine sand.
Sail boats in the distance.
I can never get sick of the view of an empty horizon, just makes you feel that you are so small in the bigger scheme of things.
Another great view of the beach.
Just a random flag pole, you see the Aussie flag at the top, the Aboriginal flag to its right, and the state flag to the left.
I guess if there is a way to describe the vibe I get from Mandurah, would be like if the boat quay area was changed to a residential area. They had lots of stuff along the river and of cos the shore nearby as well. A relaxing place really, and I had a good time looking at everything there. Plus it was just about 45 min from Perth so wasn't that far as well.
Missing all, and sorry about the hair (vicious wind),
Az
Scarborough Beach
We kinda had a spontaneous barbecue and it was great cos unlike in Singapore, the pits here actually run on gas and electric, so all you have to do is press a button, and the pit starts heating up, realli good, it takes away the fact that you have to walk away from every BBQ in Singapore smelling like a smoke. But then again, wats a BBQ without it? Alright shall leave you with the pics.
As promised here are pictures of Scarborough Beach. Had a great time with my aunty and her family. And I was amazed at the site of long sandy beaches, and most importantly, a clear horizon. Was great.
There are some dunes before the actual beach, and could see the wild rabbits running around these dunes.
And then you come to Scarborough beach, endless stretch of sand. Was a Friday some more but had very little people on the beach, which was great.
Other pictures of the beach. Beautiful.
The sun setting in the distance, it realli sank very fast so I was lucky to get it.
The sun almost going beneath the horizon. The spot on the right is a person doing kite surfing.
Missing all form down under,
Az
P.S. Stay tuned for pictures from my trip to Mandurah.
This is Home (for now)
I haven't posted in a while cos of the lack of time, but no more excuses. I've finally settled down in school, my next thing at hand is the half marathon on Friday, 27th 2009, which will also be the swansong of my Adizeros, which have realli served me faithfully. Anyways, enough talk, I need to put up some pics. Here are some pics of my room and my house!
My room with the stripes, makes my bed look larger than it realli is. But yeah, have a nice view from the window, cos its up on the third floor.
This is another view of my room, with my study table, and also the built in cupboard in the room. Also, got the book shelf for all my soccer books and school stuff.
This is the kitchen, with an oven, an electric stove, toaster, boiler, all equipped, and a nice parquet floor to boot!
Another view of my kitchen, this part looks into the living room, with the fridge, microwave oven as well as the rice cooker. So my little kitchen is pretty well-equipped I feel.
This is the view from the sofa in my place, balcony is to the right, but yeah you can see the Wii, the radio, the TV, tape player, which we use very very frequently to tape stuff, can't believe we're still using it, but it works fine.
This is where I spend most of the day if I am at home, either on the laptop, or using the exercise ball and weights you see on the left of the picture. On the left of the sofa, you can see Colby's DVD collection and then our balcony which looks into the refurbished poon at our place.
Just thought I'd start posting regularly again. I just got back from Scarborough beach so will put those pics up soon and going to Mandurah tomorrow, so more pics to come!
Missing all,
Az
Dont Stop Now
What a tiring day today is, and the thing is it is far from over for me, cos I still have loads of reading to do! Let me start.
I did my 8km in the morning, and during the last part decided to go really fast and.....Hamstring, just felt it go, shit my whole left leg went numb. Hate the feeling, so have to nurse it AND miss soccer a second week in a row, cos I realli dont wanna re-pull the damn thing.Also means I cant do the last run for the week, so will have to just be stuck doing circuit and stuff. Oh well, maybe I should lighten up a bit on the trg, I have committed to making the Half marathon run on Friday 27 November at 3pm, so stay tuned for an entry of my preparation for it!!
Finished up my proposal in the afternoon and went to Uniprint to print. Worse thing is that somehow today super crap the people in front of me were all printing and binding 300-400 page documents!!! So I stood in line for ages, especially cos they had only one person serving all of us. Super super frustrating.
So anyways, Ia ctualyl just woke up from a nap, cos I really felt super tired today. Tomorrow I am still considering about going to school, cos basically I can do what I need to do here, just that need to have the discipline to stay off the laptop and off the bed. I dont mind going to school, but just that its a trip there and back, but I figured out either Sat or Sun I must turn in at school, gotta show some commitment.
I must admit that I am quite tired from everything, and I am glad that I have well effectively 4 more days to go. But I also feel I am tired because I have really given everything. Academically, I am very very happy with myself, cos I have really put in effort, even more so than my Bachelor's. But yeah I guess the motivation is there for me.
Alright I shall leave it at this, I will take a bath and get ready to start on studying.
Missing all,
Az
For this season, we are organising volleyball, so yeah the first aprt is setting up the volleyball pitches like so, which includes the nets and the stands.
These are the people whom i work with, the guy in white is Ben, the guy in the white cap is Chris, and the husband (beside the van) and Janice (at the table). So yeah here we finished the nets and courts and doing the rest of the staff.
Aren't our banners the best!
The office workers start streaming in around 12 noon for the first round of matches (we have 3 rounds of 7 concurrent matches).
A superb team in pink, those shirts were actually in commemoration of "cycle to work" day.
Superb. This guy didn't even change out of his business wear and started playing.
