Sakuran 恶女花魁

I shall not talk much about this movie but its OST since you can easily search about it in Wiki
can you imagine the music being put in a movie about Oiran(the prostitute geisha). supposed to be very traditional and exotic right. just listen to the OST - it's so different that you will never expect it to be in Sakuran. surprisingly, it blended in quite well....in fact, it made the movie better and more exotic .if i'm not wrong it has some latin element inside too. it's the music, currently playin on my laptop now. i realise that human's mind is ever changing, i'm a very good example. i like things that are different but yet not too far away from the norm. the music on top of my playlist is ever changing. Ringo Shiina did a good job!!!

The Clinical Starts Now

Oh my, with much anticipation.... the clinical time is finally here
but the first week of clinicals is really not as wat i was expecting......
i was lethargic and tired becuz i wasn't used to waking up so early to go to ward round.

i am actually abit guilty that i wasn't really involved in the ward.
well...to give myself a little excuse
i slept late+ woke up early+ it's the time of that month + there's some factor of adjustment= lethargy

the consultant surgeon of the cardiothoracic team was not back from holiday. thus the ward was pretty quiet. but i know i shld be more proactive in terms of learning. there's so much more in the ward to learn other than the Operating Theatre but i'm juz too tired.
also reading thru the program guide has stressed me out as well. there is so much to achieve.

when arranged tut was cancelled bcuz some big shot kidney transplant is happening and all registrars and consultants don't wanna miss it. i felt so dumb standing with the rest of the lost med students in the middle of gen surg ward. waiting and asking blindly. and everyone we asked is as lost as we are. gen surg ward is so crowded that i can't wait to get out of it.

hopefully, next week will be better. hoepfully, i will have a clue of where i am heading to.
i shall stop whining here. everyone has their own problem. while mine seems the whole world to me, it may be juz a tiny little biji sand to others.


Change your heart
Look around you
Change your heart
It will astound you
I need your lovin'
Like the sunshine

Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime

Change your heart
Look around you
Change your heart
Will astound you
I need your lovin'
Like the sunshine

Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime

I need your lovin'
Like the sunshine

Everybody's gotta learn sometime X 8

i juz wanna say that whoever i have neglected unknowingly, i'm so sorry. the time when u needed me most, i'm not there for you. i'm so sorry. i'll make up for it.
but at the same time i need some truth and openness here. if you don't open up, i'm not always by your side, how am i supposed to know that you are in trouble.........

i can always be a listener....is that what you prefer?!!!!
i know advice is always hard to take......but that is what i feel is most productive......
but it doesn't seem to register in you...........
i really hope that you shouldn't distant fr all of us just because of one event of misunderstanding....
that's all i have to say for now.

some how i felt hurt when i found out bits and pieces by myself that you did not want to meet me. well...u could have just told me up front instead. well at the same time, i don't wanna hold too much expectation of you as i always advice you to. in fact, there's nothing much i could do about it. it's all up to you...........

Germaine's 23rd Birthday

We surprised germaine at Jujus, a Jap restaurant at Kingscross. it's the first time of me being at the infamous Kingscross. anyways, i became the photographer during the dinner as i realised how important is it to capture the moment for the bday girl. it's also nice to see everyone again after the long holidays.



click here for album

yx, sarah and me bot a cute jap porcelain doll that resembles germaine. (with brown lon ghair and fringe) haha, we didn't know actually there's this secret compartment in the dooll that you can put your secret till germaine told us :P

The Day before Uni started...

lch, yx and me went to the FGS branch of "temple" at Chatswood
fyi: FGS also owned the Nantian Temple at Wollongong (the supposedly biggest temple at South Hemisphere)
i joined their youth group activities, and help them decorate theFo2 Tang2 佛堂 with CNY stuff. problem is we gotta handmade them with color papers.... after much brainstorming, it's surprising how well it turned out to be. well at first i thought the best CNY deco r those that we can buy outside....but from those raw materials we can actually make wonders.

after that we get the nun-incharge to pray for us-med students and doctors for our studies and exam.... the nun was so distracted during her 心经 by the people who volunteered to paint the fo tang cuz the paint was dripping everywhere on the floor. she actually wondered away while still chanting it. actually it's the first time that some one chat for me, a pretty new experience
i think it's sad that buddhism symbolic places have become commercialised overtime. i'm not particularly targeting at any organisation. it's the same everywhere now, even in msia and china.....well....i guess there's no way it's goin to affect my connection with the inspiration from buddha even if i don't pay them donation or buy their joss sticks. but it's juz disappointing how they taint buddhism....
well.....i guess those people need to make a living too >_<

just something to share.......
while i was young....i will juz stand infront of buddha statue, closed my eyes and joined my palms as told by my parents, wishing for something without realising what's the true purpose of it.....i guess many of us are still doin that....but infact if you look closely at the teachings.... they never ask you to wish for something and they never really say that they will grant you something. it's juz that those buddha teachings actually guide you through your difficulties. there's no one big person up there looking after you and granting your wishes. you actually need to work your way through and somehow those different chant that contains the teachings will help you thru.
but another thing that puzzled me is that those chants are in such complicated chinese which some words i have never ever seen in my life. by chanting it 1000 times in a day as some politician may cliam. how is that going to to help you. how are you goin to be enlightened when you don't understand the chant. anyway, i guess there's when unibud talk comes into place. i have never been to any of them....but i wondered whether they do explain the meaning of the chant.

well.... my parents or the older generation have a different understanding of these kind of stuff. i think it's an age thing again. we shall see in my future blog 10-20 years down the road how my views may change.

anyway, my dad actually made a wish infront of the buddha that i can graduate successfully as a doctor. well.....if watever my interpretation is wrong... i'm in deep shit bcuz buddha is not goin to grant my dad's wish. well i guess buddha is kind enough to pardon me for this state that i'm goin thru....:P

after that we went to LCH's fren's place, the wife prepared us some special delicious Bangladeshi savoury!!!

Jewish Museum and MCA

i heard about the Sydney Jewish museum & Museum of Contemporary Art MCA from jacq. finally, i manage to go to the 2 places that i always wanted to go to during the hols on the 15 jan 08. i dated Ping and we headed on to these 2 places

we stayed at the Jewish Museum at Darlinghurst till after lunch and went to have lunch at my usual thai place at Darlinghurst.


it was indeed an eye opener. entrance fee is 7 dollars for student - totally worth it. it is very nicely presented. and we join a guided tour with a holocaust survivor. she spent very little time on the culture and settlement of Jewish people in OZ.

their wedding under the symbolic canopy

the special dinner on one of their special day which i can't remember what it's called
Early Jewish settlement In George St sydney

instead, she talked most about her holocaust experience with the support of the display in the museum. all her most terror moment was in Aushwitz- the Nazi concentration and extermination camp. where one side is the gas chamber another side is factory where the workable people worked in. on arrival, the people were divided into 2 group. one will go to the gas chamber, another will go to work. She mentioned that her biggest mistake is that she didn't hold on to her mom during the division.... and thus her mom went to the gas chamber. every day working, the girls can smell the charred smell of human flesh from the incinerator. well... she's pretty luck otherwise as she reunited with her dad and bro in the end.

one part of the museum that is nicely done is the part about Millions of tears for the Jewish young kids who sufffered from the holocaust- THe Chilren's Memorial. they actually has a glass bowl full of water with droplets of water dropping from the top signifying the millions of tears shed. the colorful boxes contain the pictures of the kids.
during the time, the young, old and the weak (handicapped) were killed unquestionably. leaving the workable ones

the torture camps as red dots all over europe

this trip has definitely enriched me with more historical knowledge which i wasn't really interested during the 2nd decade of my life. surprisingly, i find myself more interested in these on my 3rd decade of life...out of my own pace instead of under the pressure of history textbk and exams. ( i think it's an age thing). at home, i went on to research more about jewish and why the race faced so much hostility since long long time ago. well, i found out that all these is becuz of the biblical teachings ( that's wat i read fr wiki. that jewish pple somehow caused the death of Jesus....thus leading the thousand years of ongoin hatred against jewish from the christian including during the Crusade.

well....i'm not sure about how the bible actually influence people or the people are juz using it as a rightful disguise for their crime...... well...if it's really the bible that affects the pple to commit those act of killing.....i seriously think that it's very sadistic & saddening......for such a sophisticated religion to culture such naive believers......

pardon if any information i stated is wrong...cuz i juz googled them so may have some fallacy.

actually i'm not allowed to take photos in the museum. but i secretly took some. and we were caught red handed by the security guard. while complimenting how nicely done the displays are that we couldn't resist taking photos :P when i ask him why.... then he said it's for security reason....well, then i think it's alright for me to take photos cuz i'm not a terrorist or neonazis or something lidat and i'm definitely not taking photos of the emergency exit and strategic location to place bomb.

the artsy pic at darlingurst i took when waiting for bus to go to circulay quay

the street performance by the aborigines which i found very interesting
the fusion of aborigine instrument and techno music
i have always wanted to post this up.

after that i went on to MCA!!!!- Musuem of Contemporary Art


in fact the weather was so hot that me and Ping bot icecream and sat at the ferry terminal to eat while watching the Mathilda cruise came and went.

again we can't take pics in the MCA & the supervision is really strict. (entrance is FREE!)

the exhibition tat left the deepest impression on me was by Shahzia Sikander- pakistani female artist. her artwork is at the groundfloor main hall -her artwork has the fusion of culture(animal, people), contemporary, girly bits of flowers, butterflies and birds and other detailed stuff such as those complicated pattern which is quite " in" now - that i think i would be really surprised if a man can do that. she actually painted the big wall at the main hall by her self

she oso made those abstract animation(which i can't really appreciate, personally i don't think it's nicely done mayb it's not her forte) as well as a video of her dancing slow contemporary move on her art piece- which captures every visitor's attention.
click here to see snippets at MCA
Shahzia Sikander homepage



Below are the closest i can found that resembles those displayed in MCA

my favorite piece is something like the above two pieces except that it's rounder in shape and more pinkish. i would like to hang it in my house....mayb next time when i became a rich woman i'll go to those art gallery or auction house to hunt for this piece :P

Pleasure Pillars , 2001
Vegetable color, dry pigment, watercolor,
ink and tea on wasli paper
12x10"
Collection of Amitta and Purnendu Chatterjee, New York

another striking one is Julie Rapp- Body Double
who uses her and other women's bodies to create an exhibition depicting her empowerment of being a woman. the most publicised piece which we can see all over sydney's bustop is the one with woman's feet growing out fleshy heels...
Overstepping 2001
MCA website

after that we went to kevin's bday dinner at Ubud restaurant (indonesian cuisine), Maroubra.
the attendee were: kevin, angel (kev's "sis"), john, jacq, imel, me
juz happen on the day, i oso received the postcard fr bro all the way fr bali, tellin me about his adventure in Ubud.
Ubud is a town on Bali island

Happy 2008!!!! The Time of Our Lives

The TIME of our lives is the SLOGAN of this year Sydney New year eve fireworks theme 2007-2008.there's this rotating hourglass lightwork centerpiece in the middle of Sydney Harbour Bridge that will shoot out firework itself. this year, the bridge is the centerpiece with 4 other spots along the river shooting out fireworks. so in total there are 5 spots shooting fireworks. the fireworks lasted 12 minutes. GooD Work. heard that it took them 15 months to plan it, meaning they are now in the middle of preparing for next year's fireworks too. >0<

Part I of the fireworks showed on the TV

Part II

i was at jac's place. while watchin it on the wide screen flat screen lcd tv we oso can watch it fr faraway at the balcony.

i would say the fireworks is the nicest and the most magnificent in the whole OZ and the world and it's oso the nicest i have ever seen in my life. well, i definitely will like to watch it on the spot but then it's so crowded (one million pple crowded in CT, MADness) . some of my frens managed to get a good spot at Mrs Macquarie Pt in the early morning and they stayed there till midnight....that definitely needs a lot of my perserverance. there are 40 vantage points to see the fireworks and many pple were turned down as it's full d. tho at home, we can watch the bird's view of the fireworks from the helicopter being broadcasted on tv. watching on the spot is always different. as i have privileged to experience that in Spore NDP 8 years ago.

i have this dream (juz dream) well...u see if u don't wanna squeeze with the crowd....one way to do it is to get a yacht. mayb have a dinner and champagne with frens then when clock strikes 12, we can watch the fireworks erupt right above us w/o squeezing with other pple on the land. then when we wanna go home....we can juz "drive" the yacht back to a port away fr sydney city (that's prolly where we came from too) dont' need to fight with the crowd for buses and overpriced cab. oso dont risk any random pple attacking u with beer bottle. LOL

another more luxury way is to juz get a place at Woolloomoolo... ( the place beside harbour bridge over the north side of sydney. can juz watch it at my balcony.....hohohohoho

while it's the time of celebration and everyone is so high. there's always controversy: why OZ spent so much money on the fireworks instead of on so many other stuff...

not all the places are as blessed as sydney
some places has terrorist threat so they have to cancel their fireworks. some places rained.... some places are juz too poor to do that....
let me rewind back to what did I do on 31 dec 2007
well i finally finished cleaning my place before we go shopping for the dinner at Coles.
Jac is the Main Chef, in charged of cooking and making the Homemade Gourmet French-Italian Cusine while i'm the chef's assistant (incharge of some cutting and washing :D). after a couple of hours, these were wat we prepared.

Apppetiser

Entree

Main Dishes:

Drinks

no photos of dessert: jellies of different flavour: peaches, mango, red wine. i like the red wine the most. it has the taste of wine w/o the bitterness !!!

while we savoured the well prepared dinner at 9pm, we watched Bourne Ultimatum. after watching the midnight firework, we watched License to Wed.

my New year Day is again another normal day. Again, my visual field is not more than 10metres within my house. i'm such a PIG...

well back to the theme : time of our lives. well....i guess it's the time of my life too....i'm in one of the world most vibrant CT, studying, with a nice place to stay, good frens, good food, good experience, have learnt lots last year. erm...mayb i'm a bit more unfit than last year......and sheepishly i would like to announce i'm still Single....but definitley there are more better years to come, looking forward to it.

PS:I can't imagine the first Chinese TV show i watched on OZ TV is the Hero by Zhang Yi Mou being shown on SBS. it's my first time watchin it tho. plenty of visual effects on the swordmanship and the bright colors and not to forget those "chim" chinese theories that always make the angmo's bewildered....