Happy Leap Day!

Happy Leap Day!

Newcastle

From 2 weeks in Bourke to now when I am in Newcastle.

I seem to be travelling quite a bit this month!

You're always told to drink lots of water when travelling, but what if you can't find a toilet?
Well, on the way to Newcastle, I found this.

A 5 star toilet anyone?

My hotel room is quite nice with a Jap-style sliding door that separates the bedroom from the living. This pic doesn't show it but the bed is still nice, eh?

AND flat screen TV in both rooms!

I'm in heaven...

See that window next to the TV? That is actually a window between the bedroom and bathroom. For people who likes a bit of spice?

Have I mentioned the view from my hotel room?

Now I just need some food. Ordered room service but it hasn't arrive yet and it's already 8.48pm. Not happy!

Jay Chou becomes a teacher at Fudan University

Don't you wish that you are studying in Fudan University??

"Good news for Jay Chou's fans at Shanghai's Fudan University: Whenever your idol is in Shanghai, you will have the chance to meet, or perhaps even talk with him.Fudan University's Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts has named the Taiwan pop king-turned film actor and director as a performing arts guide. This means every time Jay Chou travels to Shanghai, he will sit in on a lecture to exchange ideas with students, a school representative told the local Oriental Morning Post."

Click here for the full article.

New Template

I'm shopping around for a new template. For the moment, this will be my temporary one. =)

Platinum card anyone?

Came home one day and found this letter from American Express.

"One of those credit card applications again", I was thinking to myself.

When I opened it, ooh...there was a platinum card inside. Now when did I apply for one? I don't think I even qualify for a platinum. Upon closer inspection, it said "sample only".

Ha! Nearly tricked. Now, we don't really need a sample PLASTIC to entice us to apply for a credit card. That is such a waste of PLASTIC and only goes to deteriorate our environment even further.

Where did my "sample only" plantinum card ended up? In the bin.....

The long journey home

It took me nearly 6 hours to return from Bourke to Sydney. 3 planes and 3 airports can take its toll on you. I was quite hungry by the time I got home.

Was getting quite used to life in Bourke but one thing that I will not miss will be the insect and bug bites. I am covered from head to toe in them in various parts of my body. Sigh~

Did a bit of the tourist thing while I was there. It's amazing to visit the town that was the centre of all the agriculture and cotton trading in the early 18th century where the only mode of transport was via the Darling River. I was lucky enough to be shown around by an agronomist at one of the farms that the client owns.

We were driven around to see the first lock and weir in Bourke as well as parts of the Darling river. Apparently, when the Darling river was all dried up a year ago, you could even see carcasses of large fishes. Hmmm.....

When we got to check out the water storage for one of the farms, the view was simply breathtaking! It was HUGE!! You could fit at least 20 olympic size swimming pools in just 1 water storage. When it's full, it can last the farm around 18 months. Look at the pic! No, It's not the beach, it's actualy a water reservoir.

Good news, I am extremely happy for the farmers. We got out to take pictures and the wind was really strong, you could see waves.

This was one of the smaller farms owned by the client and it was already extremely large. Just 1 field was 5 times the size of my manager's family farm in England. Yikes! These are corn crops. Apparently, each corn plant only produces 1 corn cob!

Life in perspective

It's a Saturday and I'm still working. Not exactly too great a start for the first week of the Chinese New Year.

It hurts when you put in all this dedication and hard work and it's not appreciated by your managers/ partners. Why waste precious time away like this instead of creating meaningful memories.

I think it's time that I really look at life in perspective and make a change.

Hmm....

Bourke

My job sees me going to unconventional places at times. For the next two weeks, I have been posted at Bourke.

Apparently, Bourke is the quintessential outback of Australia. "If you've never been to Bourke, you've not been to Australia", was what my colleague told me. This place was where all the farming and agriculture started for those voyagers who came to settle here centuries ago.

Travelling here on the first day was quite eventful to say the least! Waking up at 4.30am was definitely not pleasant just to catch a 6.30am flight. As this is a regional area, I ended up on a regional plane (propeller planes).

I was still hungrily waiting to board the plane when the clock on the wall was pointing 6.32am! What?? Finally, half an hour later, we boarded the plane. I didn't really expect a propeller plane! Check out how small it is. Then, we were told to dis-embark as there was something wrong with it and we had to travel all the way back to the boarding area and go through security screening again.

While we put our laptops and bags through the x-ray machine (for the second time) and waiting for it to come out at the other end, an officer approached my colleague and metioned, "Can I please scan you while you're waiting."

Haha...I was laughing! As if we can somehow manage to breach any security when we had already been screened previously and all we did was board and dis-embark the plane. The expression my colleague gave was just priceless! I had to quickly walk away as I was no longer able to control my laughter when he was stopped again after he picked up his bag as the officer needed to scan his bag too!

Anyway, we finally were on our way at 10 past 8 in the morning. All those lost precious hours could have been used for sleeping. sigh~

This was the size of my 2nd and 3rd airplane rides. Propeller again and the size is even smaller than the first one I took.

Finally arrived at Bourke after taking 3 airplane rides and changing in between. Hello to the insects and sting beetles in Bourke as they are just everywhere here.

Yikes..where is my insect repellent!