Scatterbrained.

Oh no oh no oh no oh no

2012-01-27T16:00:00.000+08:00

Just found out that one of the nicest guys from work may have either acute leukemia OR a very serious and exotic viral infection. He has a 7 year old girl and two 3-year old twins that are just adorable. Will find out on Monday, and it's horrible to wait that long. At this stage, I am hoping and begging for an acute, serious, exotic viral infection. Oh please oh please oh please.

He called me this morning, right after I had sent an email asking them all to come celebrate my birthday. I wrote my usual phrase, "Turns out, we all get old(er) and eventually, die. " AARGH.

He first asked about how was my australia day. And then told me his news. Oh no oh no oh no oh no.

I guess one of the things in becoming an adult (?!) is that you face the prospect of death and disease more frequently than you would love to (never). I just hope to wake up Monday and see it was an infection. Oh please oh please oh please.

Australians

2012-01-25T14:06:00.001+08:00

Really have a sense of humor. Or maybe south australians really have a sense of humor. In SA and I think throughout Australia, you can customize the number plates on your car. And of course, while you get the occasional ANDY 032 or whatever, some of those I see are priceless. Sometimes, I even have the phone with me, to take pictures.

You gotta love this one

Well, at least he is not a fan of "The Young and The Restlees"!

Definitely a surprise there!

Guess the race!

A little bit of irony, as queenslanders are considered a bit of rednecks around here

And of course, just in case you forgot what make your car is...

Australians have a sense of humor

2012-01-20T05:08:00.000+08:00

They DO! And it shows in many many places (see my next post), but where it shows unexpectedly is in the name of various products.

Like the diesel ether-based engine starter spray called:

Or the anti-possum spray to be sprayed on various plants (including chilies - this is how i found out about it)

One picture Tuesday

2012-01-17T17:26:00.000+08:00

Just got back from the grampians (trip report to follow). Among many other things, we climbed for 10 hours on Saturday. Felt like this lizard on a rock and totally loved it.

This little bugger spent about two hours with us, before leaving to take care of its own business. Life is good.

Loving it in the grampians

2012-01-14T13:24:00.001+08:00

Decided to take the weekend off and go bouldering in the grampians. This is despite the numerous deadlines and stuff, but I reckoned I needed to get the Motherfucker out of my system. It is amazing that a week and a half has passed and he hasn't said anything to me... Coward!

Anyway, loving it in the grampians! Sent a v2, v3, and 2 v5-s - the grade itself doesn't matter, but the routes were beautiful!

The three second brain

2012-01-11T13:33:00.000+08:00

I can't remember where I shared my new year's (climbing) resolution. Was it here? was it on facebook? Or did I twit it to my three other halves? Or whatsapp with only one of them? Did I talk about the latest book I've read at a dinner party? Or was it on goodreads? Was I able to say something convincing about it or just blab: "it was so cool! by this author whose name I can't remember, let me google him"

When did I have a good, significant, important thought? It was definitely last year, because I've spent this whole year getting over how it started*. And if it was last year, where in god's name did I share it? And what was it?

Have I always been like this? Or is it just stress? Or still shock? (Motherfucker, i am looking at you). More importantly, do I need (another) holiday? Welcome to the new year!

*I am still not over it, Motherfucker. May your balls drop off you like the coward that you are.

PS. T. and I made it to the forums! Motherfucker complained about us! Here's the whole story! (Guess who fatclimber is, hahaha)

One picture Tuesday

2012-01-10T08:33:00.000+08:00

Last night T. wanted to talk to F., to get closure or make up. Although I knew that this was the worst possible thing ever, I drove him to F.'s place. This makes me partly responsible for whatever extra pain T. is going to get from this relationship. Because I am absolutely convinced that, while apparently T.'s love knows no bounds, F. is just a motherfucker. And also, the pain is only going to go up - I should know, I was driven or drove myself many times.

Here's to better things in life.

The irony

2012-01-07T08:18:00.000+08:00

The route that generated all the batshit craziness was called "Sincerity".

Life is much better ...

2012-01-06T08:21:00.003+08:00

Than the movies. Or, "A series of unfortunate events".

I met my colleague (F.) and his partner in the Blue Mountains, to climb. I was incredibly psyched by this trip, because as most people would know, I am a wuss when it comes to leading, and as such I really needed the practice. My colleague's partner (let's call him T.), is a very good climber, at least by my standard (not very high, but still). He also weighs 54 kg and is about 1.75+ meters tall. Hence, he has everything going for him. Damn! F. on the other hand, outweighs him by 28kg, and I guess all those 28 kgs are muscle - you will see soon why I'm talking weights here.

You may remember F. as my new-found beginner climber. I do enjoy introducing people to climbing, and I always say that if somebody long ago took the trouble to show me how to climb, I should do the same for other people. Anyway, F. had everything going for him, being a colleague and very fit and also, from a latin american country - can practice my Spanish!

And so we met on the first of January. We climbed a bit then and everything seemed to be going smoothly. I had my first lead with a very bouldery start. The feeling between the three of us seemed to be quite cool and it looked like we were going to have a blast.

And then we got to the campsite and realized that one of the tents (a 2-person tent), in which I was supposed to sleep, got stolen. And so, suddenly the three of us were sharing a 4 person tent. Not bad, plenty of space, but definitely and invasion from my part on their privacy. Damn!

The second day went by just fine, with all of us, especially F., being a bit more grumpy. The plan was for F. to climb as many routes as possible on the third day, and for T. and I to do a 10 pitch sports climb (FIVE STARS in the guide book, 345 m!!!!!!) on the fourth day, and then leave on the fifth day.

In the third day, we climbed some cracks (I do hate them), and then T. decided he was going to climb this face that only had bolts in it but the bolts had no bolt hangers. Normally nowadays people buy the bolt hangers and put them in, but in times of emergency it always works if you tie a sling with a crab. Anyway, the route was very easy (an australian 13, which is like a 4b, 6a if we count how hard the routes in the blue mountains are) and T. started climbing it. While he was climbing, we were talking cock about how he shouldn't fall in case the bolts are rusty and he will fall on us and die etc. Anyway, he climbs the route and puts a top rope on the anchor (two rings with a chain between them). I lower him down.

F. starts to yell at him that the route was not safe and that T. should not have climbed it etc. I tell him to relax cause T. was safe all the time. At which point he tells me in a very agressive manner to "Shut the fuck up". I move away from the area because I want to give them some space to let it all out. They continue to argue and then F. slaps T. over the head (thank god for helmets). At this point F. starts to pack his stuff up and leaves us with all the gear.
This leaving thing will continue throughout the day. As he is leaving, he tells me that "the trip is over" and that "he will leave stuff at the camp for us".

T. and I are shaken by the whole affair and spend about an hour at the base of the wall. I then clean up the route and we proceed the looong trek to camp. Seven kilometers from the parking lot, and about 2 km from the crag to the parking lot. Full gear on for the both of us, as F. left us everything. After trekking for a while, and almost reaching the gas station that was 5km from camp, F. drives past and asks us if we want to take our laptops from the car. He gives us two options, he literally says: "you have two options, either take them now, or I leave them in the tent". Seeing how stuff got stolen, we decide to take the laptops out of the car.

Eventually we reach camp. He had left everything. Literally T. and I were left to somehow carry 60kg of stuff to Adelaide, 1,300 km from the blue mountains. The stuff he left included a four person tent, stove and pots, clothes, books I had lent him three months earlier and where somehow in the car. He left no food, but we had four granola bars, a bag of banana chips, a small parcel of almonds. I had 28% left on my phone battery. And we had absolutely no idea how to get back to Adelaide.

But we did get back. The next day we packed everything. I still don't know how it fit. It didn't actually fit all, but my backpack was 70l and it could take a lot. Thank god for that.

We still had three extra bags between us, which weighed 3, 6, and 9 respectively. A climber (may he climb 8c!!) offered to drive us to the train station, thus saving us the 5 km trek. From there we took the train to Sydney. We tried to get a train to Adelaide, but for that you need one month prior booking. The guy at the ticket office actually laughed at us: "where do you think you're going?!" In the end we bought a plane ticket for the next day at 6am. We sort of walked around Sydney looking for food. We spent the night in a McDonald's near the airport and arrived in Adelaide yesterday. Our checked-in bags weighed 29 and 27 kg respectively. It is not much if you don't have to carry it, I guess.

I am still incredibly shaken by all this and trying to process it in any way I can - hence this blog post. What I forgot to say is that F. even called T.'s family in the states, to tell them that T. is doing risky dangerous stuff. Imagine, getting a call like that in the middle of the night.

Motherfucker. Sleezeball. Asshole. Bastard..

I have never felt that i will totally erase somebody from my memory, like I feel now.

All iz better

2011-12-26T08:09:00.004+08:00

I don't want to end the week in a negative mood. I am feeling better, thanks to everybody's comments both here and offline. Went for a short run today and! Stuffed my face with some cherries. Here's who I met on my run:

Happiness only real when shared

2011-12-21T17:21:00.001+08:00

Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, died this morning during the Battle of the Five Armies. Or at least he died in my version of "The Hobbit", which I almost finished reading today.

Because you see, I couldn't finish it. Not this morning, at least.

I never cry. Until everything stacks up and then I cry for everything. And usually what sets it off is either a random book (dumbledore's death is memorable) or a movie (Up for example). And if there's nobody there to distract my attention (very easily done, mind you) I cry and I cry and I cry. Today I cry for being alone, for the silence on the campus (everybody's on leave), for my old dog, for dead friends, for dying friends, for missing my family, for the smell of christmas in my grandmother's house, and for missing Marian, and friends.

And since I'm still tired after the US trip, I am still crying. I stopped briefly this morning, and continued during lunch - while talking to Marian- and then really started again at around 5:30 pm. Cried while driving to the climbing gym. And crying now while writing this.

However, this time I must have banged my head or something - or really froze in the grand canyon - because I feel like going to buy myself a pack of cigarettes and take a nice, long, drag out of one. And then light it, and probably faint because of the toxicity. This is the first time I felt like smoking since I missed the Zurich flight in 2008. I feel guilty and also ready to tell myself to suck it up. And also ready to tell myself to LEAVE ME ALONE!

Ah, first world dilemmas! I got myself addicted to cigarettes, and then I quit, and now poor little me is alone and needs some comfort, and wants to smoke again. Boo hoo hoo.

That being said, depression is a bitch, and no matter how many cool and feel-happy things I do, they are worth absolutely nothing if there's nobody (even a blog, or, a dog :) ) to share them with.

The Great Ocean Walk - Part III

2011-12-21T12:29:00.000+08:00

[See part I and part II.]

And last, since there only were three days! This day was the hardest of them all because both the russian mathematician and I split F.'s backpack and carried most of the weight, as his knees were giving in. This day was also the prettiest of them all because we reached the 12 Apostles. But before that, we did some serious trekking with some fantastic views.

And F. could walk better sans the weight, but both the russian mathematician and I were slowing down. We were also taking lots and lots of pictures, and as such we spent a lot of time by ourselves. Bonding, if you must. Turns out, he is very very likeable, although still an idiot. Aren't we all...

This day was the day we could finally see the coast properly.

We stopped frequently and as usual there was some stupid joke or other. Until we found the leeches that is.

Somehow, both me and the russian mathematician were leech magnets. And the leeches were very very determined. Oh, how I hate them! And oh, how difficult they are to take off one's sock, pants, or skin, when they are properly biting. Aargh, most gross! Here's one on his leg:

I butchered this one in particular. (Bloody shots coming!)

I crushed it to death. Ha ha. And then the evidence was all over my shoes.

I had 9 leech bites and the russian mathematician had 7. It was not good. We soon reached the campgrounds, finished our trek and headed into the showers, where the leech bites continued to bleed. Motherfuckers.

This minor inconvenience was soon forgotten because we drove to our final destination, the 12 apostles. We did not trek as initially planned because the russian mathematician had to take a bus and we were running out of time. Without further ado, here they are:

And here we are, like peas in a fucking pod.

The russian mathematician went to Melbourne, and F. and I explored a bit more of the area. After that, we had a fantastic steak (picture not included) and drove for ten hours to Adelaide. This time, with only minor incidents (I puked my sandwich) and no casualties (sandwich excluded).

And as I explore more and more, i realize what a truly beautiful country australia is, and just how lucky I am. Life is good.

Look ma!

2011-12-18T08:52:00.002+08:00

And so, ladies and gentlemen, i give you the grand canyon!

One picture Tuesday

2011-12-13T22:34:00.000+08:00

I'm in Phoenix, Arizona, attending a conference (hence the late tuesday post). There's a good chance that I will go to the Grand Canyon and, more importantly, see snow! While I did have snow this year in the Alps, there is NOTHING like snow for Christmas!

Great Ocean Road - Part II - Shipwreck beach

2011-12-11T14:08:00.000+08:00

Or maybe wreck beach, I really can't remember. But what really matters is how amazingly beautiful that beach was. Especially after that wet day and night. We walked from Ryan's Den to Devil's Kitchen and spent at least an hour on this beach. It was beautiful!!

We walked and talked and gazed and opened our eyes BEEG BEEG and truly loved it. The tide was low and there were these little pot holes filled with water.

There were some anchors on the beach, hence the name.

The sky was overcast but there were occasional moments of bright light.

And then we missed the turn off the beach and reached Devil's Kitchen. There were some abalone poachers there (a family of three, two adults and a kid) and they were very nice in letting us know that we were lost. Good thing they were not nice in hitting us with their diving belt. Devil's kitchen looked really really rough - actually, I was surprised about the names, because australian names are really not that original.

As we were walking up F.'s knee started acting up and we had to take it really really slow (but more about this in the next post).

We reached Devil's Kitchen at around 7pm and put our stuff to dry [again]. This night was much better than the previous one, and we had an early one because we had to get up early the next day.

New Year

2011-12-11T02:22:00.002+08:00

It has been one of those years where you know it was a fantastic year but you can't exactly say why. Wait! It was the year I finally finished my phd, got married and! Moved away to a totally different country, in the far reaches of the universe. The year started with a fantastic climb up Kinabalu and a more ferocious downclimb. Then there was the phd defense and the job interviews and the choice. And then we got married and had a fantastic grad trip and honeymoon with the girls in Europe. And then I moved to the land far far away where I am battling depression and loneliness. I meet fantastic climbers and made new friends. Also, joined a fantastic school with fabulous people, so don't start feeling sorry for me :) life is still good even though sometimes you have to grab her by the shoulders and spit between her eyes.

I am building friendships, some more complicated than others, and exploring the Australian landscape. Climbing, running, and socializing are my weapons against depression and loneliness, and so far, they have worked, although what I really really need is a hug and a cuddle.

In these past six months I have been slowly learning how it is to actually work in a workplace - read: I need to start to censor myself a bit!! I am also learning tons about myself - the bonus of alone time I guess. More importantly, I am discovering slowly what I want to do with myself for the next fifty years or so.

If it feels like I'm rambling, it's because I am. I have this feeling that in this past year life lived me, rather than me live it. Hence the resolutions below. This coming year, I want to*:
1. Read at least a book every 2 weeks
2. Spend quality quality time with both old and new friends. I am slowly coming to two realizations - happiness must be shared & my friends are great!
3. Avoid injury and climb 7a.
4. Finish six foot track marathon safely.
5. Climb mount cook.
6. Spend quality time with Marian, such that we recover from living by ourselves.

*[later edit] and yes, they can all be summed up as: I JUST WANNA HAVE FUN!

One picture Tuesday

2011-12-07T04:33:00.001+08:00

Guess who will get harvested today?

Great Ocean Walk, part I

2011-12-05T07:57:00.000+08:00

The Great Ocean Walk is a hike that goes parallel with the great ocean road. It's a fairly young trek, only six years of age, and F. heard about it by chance from a hiker that we met in the Grampians. It is a 100km walk, but we only had time to do about 50km of it. We started at Johanna Beach, and made our way to Ryan's Den and then Devil's Kitchen, followed by a quick finish at the Twelve Apostles.

I left on this trek thinking that it's going to be a desert, dry trek. I almost did not take my rain jacket and my thermal merinos. It was really a close call because it rained profusely for the first day. It rained so bad that our sleeping bags, our tents, even my clothes got soaked. Fucking joy! We even had a minor river crossing, which sort of brought back memories from New Zealand Dusky Track (Part I, Part II).

And so, it rained. Heavily.

We first started to trek through some hilly, very kangaroo populated region.

After that, we moved into forests populated (supposedly) by echidnas. We didn't see any.

Beautiful (wet) flowers.

I was surprised to see that people gave free water for all.

I was surprised to see that we managed to see the flowers and any signs considering that we could barely see the forest!

After the rolling hills and the wet forest we finally reached the coast. As we reached milanesia beach, we had to cross a little water flow to get to the other side ...

Much to the dismay of various spectators..

The occasional cormoran braced itself before going in again.

And then finally, at Ryan's Den, there was a sheltered dining area that we took for ourselves because well, there weren't any people on the trek what with the rain and all. We immediately put up the sleeping bags for drying but lo and behold, they didn't dry.

After a fretful sleep during the night things did not look fantastic in the morning.

But the rain stopped and we continued walking through an amazing forest.

The views of the coast were really breathtaking, and I had to stop many many times to take photos. I am really considering looking up a waterproof camera casing to prevent tommy from fogging up!

Behold, the first clear picture!

The track is really well maintained, with places to clean up your shoes to prevent diseased plants from spreading from one part of the forest to another.

With little miracles all along the way.

As usual, more photos here.

I went ahead and done it.

2011-12-03T06:31:00.000+08:00

I'm screwed.

Key measurements (in Km)

235m From Explorers Tree to the Start Line which is at 1050m altitude
0.0 Race start location (close to shelter)
1.7 to the bottom of Nellies Glen (down to 725m)
8.066 to the cattle grid at Megalong Valley Rd (570m)
14.36 to the Swing Bridge (not crossed as part of the race)
15.5 to the Jenolan-side of the Coxs River (270m)
18.6 to the drink station at the Fenced Yards
20.0 is right on top of Mini Mini Saddle (740m)
22.5 is halfway and at the creek crossing at the bottom of the Pluviometer hill (only 550m)
26.0 to the Pluviometer (990m)
34.7 to the corner at the start of the Deviation at Black Range Campground (1195m)
37.9 at the Caves Rd crossing (1215m)
45.00 Finish - by the manhole in the road outside Trails Bistro at Caves House (795m)
The course climbs a total of 1,528m and drops a total 1,788m giving a net drop of 260m (it's a downhill course !!)

Us (1) : Kangaroo (0)

2011-12-01T07:11:00.000+08:00

On Friday night, my colleague and his russian mathematician friend drove from Adelaide, Australia to Princetown, Australia, 700+ km away, to do parts of the Great Ocean Walk. It was a loong drive and as expected we ended up driving at night through the Australian outback. I was not driving at that time and it wasn't Snow White that we were driving, but a bigger car, thank heavens for that!

And then my colleague hit a kangaroo. It was a little one, and I had seen it 3.4 microseconds before he hit it, but there you have it, we hit it. We got out of the car and as the guys were checking the car I went to check the kangaroo. It looked dead to me so I returned to tell them that it was dead. My colleague (let's call him F.) went to check on the kangaroo too, because he is anal like that. So F. finds that my initial estimate was wrong and that the kangaroo was in fact, still alive.

So he drags the kangaroo to the car, puts his head under the front wheel and I drive over its head ensuring complete and utter destruction (we didn't check for a joey because it did not occur to us). During all this time, the russian mathematician is crying. Like literally in shock, crying. Wtf.

F. was in no shape to drive, plus it was my turn, so I took over. After that, it was like fucking open season. Still driving at night, still in the outback. Little bunnies crossing the street. Two foxes crossing the street. And then, the greatest kangaroo of them all. BIG BIG. Wanting to cross the street (and hit us) but changing his mind mid-way. Good thing F. and I were opening our eyes BEEG BEEG because otherwise i think we would not be telling this story. Anyway, to give you proof that there are still many many kangaroos out there, here are some shots from the trip.

In the campground:

On the trek:

Off the path:

On the path:

Always watching (I know what you did last summer!)

One picture Tuesday

2011-11-29T15:14:00.000+08:00

Australia is beautiful!

Taking it back

2011-11-28T13:44:00.001+08:00

The first part of the trip was hell. But then it was heaven. Australia is a truly beautiful country and life is good :)

For fuck's sake

2011-11-25T14:42:00.002+08:00

I must definitely be paying for something this weekend. Me, a colleague and his friend were supposed to go to do the great ocean walk. Beautiful beautiful scenery to entice anybody to drive 7fucking hundred kms to walk for three days .

And here is where the problems start. Because you see, while I have known my colleague for let's say, 5 months?, I have just met his friend. And well, let's just say that when we went to an Indian restaurant and he started to make fun of the waiter's accent by imitating him, I suddenly got a feeling that we were not going to get along.

And when he chose to sit in the front of the car although he will not e driving and thus exiled me to the back, I KNEW we would not get along. So now I am exiled in the back of the car, not really hearing the music (front speakers only) and not really hearing the conversation either.

Oh and did I mention that my colleague's friend is Russian?! And a mathematician (therefore insane by my standards?) !? So far, the score for Russians is 2:1where 2 represents the number of Russians I confirmed do not like.

And when said colleague only brought along his gigantic collection of south American music, I KNEW I was paying for something. I guess I will spend the entire trip wondering what the hell I'm paying for.

A coffee mess

2011-11-23T18:00:00.002+08:00

Being alone makes you do stupid things. Such as engulf yourself in work or working out (still has work in it!) because you want to ensure that when you get home you drop dead with tiredness. However, this new found working schedule needs stuff to propel it. Enter my new speed. It's called coffee.

When I reach the office I go and fetch my water of the day and make myself a large cup of coffee, which I keep on my desk in case students drop in. While all the other coffees I drink while they are nice and hot, this cup gets drunk throughout the day and gets fairly cold and yucky. For you see, whenever students come in to see me, I take a sip of that coffee. And that sip helps me get through most of the student questions (that are sometimes, let's face it, more than stupid).

Needless to say, people that have seen my previous office space will know that this one is also, yet another mess. Because, that's the way the world turns. Or the cookie crumbles. Or whatever.

Now. The coffee cup is always sitting right in front of my keyboard such that I can ALWAYS take a sip before turning to face my students. And while I am coding or working I tend to wear headphones and be really really focused on the task. (see where this is going?) And my office walls are fully transparent (we're all like goldfish in a bowl, really) and tend to slide easily. And most staff by now will just come in my office because knocking is useless if I have my headphones on.

And here we go. So far, three of them have managed to freak the hell out of me. Because I am very focused and listening to loud music, the moment they come in and I finally notice them, I tend to freak out, throw the headphones, or the keyboard, or whatever it is that I am doing. And this hits the coffee cup, that spills all over my clothes, my two monitors, my carpet. It has gotten so bad that the office secretary has given me a tea towel for these emergencies, and some of the colleagues approach my office making really loud noises to ensure I don't freak out.

One picture Tuesday

2011-11-22T05:54:00.001+08:00

On Sunday I did my first EVER trail run. Like real trail run, not MacRitchie Reservoir trail run. It was also 16km, and a good candidate for my Friday morning runs! Proof that it was really a trail run can be found below:

Aussie talk

2011-11-18T12:43:00.000+08:00

And here's what I have been able to collect in the past months:

chin wag [talking]
bag of fruit [suit]
keen as mustard [there's a mustard brand called keen]
arvo [afternoon]
sweet as [cool, great]
cheers [thanks, ok, see you, no problem, good bye, hello]
fast like a blue-assed fly [don't ask]
i'm so hungry i could eat the ass of a low flying duck
ugly as a hat full of assholes
face like a bucket of smashed crabs
ugly like a hat full of assholes
meat in the sandwich [when you're stuck between two things]
ugly like a fridge full of bastard assholes
...

30

2011-11-16T10:49:00.001+08:00

Today, Marian is turning 30. As obviously I can't be there, here's 30 reasons why I wish he would live until he's 120:

Reason #1: Smart.

Reason #2: Kind.

Reason #3: Has a sense of humor. Or at least, laughs at my jokes.

Reason #4: Delicious forearms (I have a small fetish with that)

Reason #5: Makes fantastic french fries. His trademark dish, but absolutely delicious.

Reason #6: Has green eyes.

Reason #7: Superpecs! (turns out that as I grow older, I learn to appreciate the benefits of pecs (as opposed to moobs) on a man).

Reason #8: Hyper extension! Cause I can show off his freakishness to other people. Who like this will be less focused on how freakish I am ahha

Reason #9: He no heart mushrooms. Which means there's more for me!

Reason #10: Eats my food for me. Which means that I can try different stuff while he eats the entire portion and prevents me from getting fat.

Reason #11: Only likes durian. As opposed to LOVING it like I do. Again, more for me!

Reason #12: Loves the mountains (should have been reason #1).

Reason #13: Knows how our pro camera works. Whereas I only know how to take pictures.

Reason #14: Is my Objective C genius.

Reason #15: Is good with a screwdriver. He is patient enough to take things apart and put them back together without having spare parts at the end or screaming in frustration.

Reason #16: Does proper, thorough research into what stuff we should buy.

Reason #17: Remembers how many turquoise blouses I have and prevents me from buying yet another one.

Reason #18: Cats love him. Which means I can also get some cat love while around him.

Reason #19: Has a scorpion sting whenever he wants to get mean. Good when turned on other people. NOT on me.

Reason #20: Eats whatever crappy food I cook and always says it's good.

Reason #21: Remembers all the characters in Dune. and Game of Thrones. and Wheel of Time.

Reason #22: Checks our b$nk $ccount and does not get depressed.

Reason #23: Does the dishes. Enuf said.

Reason #24: Has taught me the purge command.

Reason #25: Manages to have a decent conversation with me despite the fact that I change subject every minute.

Reason #26: Has a sekret way of making me laugh by ... Well, it's a sekret. But it always cracks me up.

Reason #27: Can waltz. At least as well as me.

Reason #28: Likes books just as much as me.

Reason #29: You can easily see that he has a bug in his code, because his hair stands up!

Reason #30: SHARES HIS FOOD!

Growing old

2011-11-14T05:41:00.000+08:00

I fucking hate Mondays. Although theoretically Mondays do not mean anything to me since I work most Sundays anyway, there is a difference between the voluntary "holier than thou" coming to work on Sunday and must come to work on Monday. Or else. This results in a blearing of the body and soul every monday morning. This morning I had no excuse. I had slept early (9:30 pm) and did not need to wake up early (6:30 as opposed to 6:15) because I was not planning to have any breakfast.

And so. While at the first traffic light I realized I had forgotten the lunch. After parking at work and starting the work in, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. Hence, no lunch, unless I catch it in the torrens. A short while later, I realized I had no office key nor building card. The building "opens" at 7:30. Until then, you need a card to get to my floor, and you also need a card to get to the staff offices, i.e. my office. PFFT.

Approached the cleaner. She did not speak any English and I think at first she mistook me for a student and told me I can't get in the staff offices. Ten minutes later, she realized what I wanted I think and was kind enough to let me in my office and clean it (one of the first time I felt sorry i am such a slob). Now I'm stuck here without coffee until my co-workers come in (need the card to get into the tea room, PFFT).

A new Grampians trip

2011-11-13T11:59:00.001+08:00

This time around, drove up with a colleague that is recently becoming interested in climbing and bouldering, and who I am preparing to join Marian's gang when he gets here. The first stop of the 440 km drive in is at a Subway 70km from Adelaide.

I did not send anything during this weekend because I was very busy showing him around and trying to find the easy problems (V0, V1) for him to do. However, I did have fun, and for once I had photos of me on the rocks!

I find the red rocks in the grampians to be truly mesmerizing.

First day, we climbed in Andersens, where I tried to send "Riding Shotgun", V6. Turns out, climbing a route full of slopers in the fucking sun is not good. Good photo of me as Hulk's sister, though.

The next day we went up to Loopeys, where i wanted to try another route. Also for a bit of trekking.

Australia being flat as we know, you can see for miles and miles from even the smallest hill.

Trekked a bit IN Hollow Mountain (Australians are not very inventive with their names). I do hate to trek while on a climbing trip, but my colleague wanted, plus I thought it would be useful when other people (HINT! HINT!) come visit.

Turns out, there is a Buddhist colony near the Grampians, in Ballarat.

And off we were back to Adelaide, for another 440km. This and the previous trip with Uncle Pan confirmed me that I can drive non-stop for 340km. After that, I do need a little break.

Sheep really like the shade, and the Australian sun is truly unforgiving.

And my favorite picture of the weekend. I love the texture of the sandstone against the blue blue sky.

As usual, more pics are available for your viewing pleasure here.

One picture Tuesday

2011-11-09T06:57:00.000+08:00

My apologies for taking such a long break from blogging, a LOT has been going on!

Two weeks after I landed in Australia I joined a voluntary program called Scientists in Schools, in which a Scientist (ha, that would be me), and a Teacher team up to make lessons interesting for kids. After a police check and stuff, and two months down the line, I am now partnered up with a good secondary school here in Adelaide.

Yesterday I had my first visit to the school, and I talked about cool examples of math in real life and computer science. In particular, I talked about roller coasters (ha!), GPS triangulation (cool!) and trajectory of a projectile in games (major cool!).

For the last one, I used a simple three little piggies game and a very complex equation (eventually simplified) to get them to apply some maths. Of course, I didn't implement the game, not fully at least, and had Marian deal with the shitty animation part (Objective C, I now heart you! XCode, I still hate you!) I got two of the school's iPads and two of my own and loaded them with the game. We also made a desktop application for them to play with. (Behold my office!)

I spend a lot of time on this (2 nights), especially since I worked only after hours. One time, I left the office at 12 midnight (and spent the next hour in the parking lot texting friends - but more about this later). The fact that I left so late allowed me to see who's living in the tree right opposite the university! A Brush-tailed Possum!

Witness the brush!

It's been six months

2011-11-02T10:39:00.001+08:00

Well not really, five months actually, but I have just finished the 6-month PDR - personal development and review? - meeting.

How has it been so far? It has been fantastic, overwhelming, horrific, lonely, sad and exhilarating at the same time. I've made lots of friends in the process and I absolutely love the people I work with. They are smart and funny and knowledgeable about all sorts of stuff in this universe that I have no idea about. Also, they tolerate me, which I think is fantastic*. The students are not all bad and some of them are really quite worth it.

The climbing community is very close knit and caring. There are two other climbing girls as well as plenty of noobs for Marian to be king over for when he finally manages to join me.

My only current stress (other than that caused by yet another break up i hear about) is
a) how to get some good sleep - the worries have kept me up since friday
b) how to ensure i stay here for longer. Adelaide, I heart you!
c) how fantastic the grampians trip this weekend is going to be.

*Considering that I have not worked in a while (6 years?!) it has been a weird shift. I still can't censor myself though.

A good day for some spice

2011-10-30T15:35:00.001+08:00

This Sunday morning, at 6:30 am, I glanced out the window and I thought I saw something on the chili plant my colleague gave me. I thought there were worms. A closer look told me that there were chilies!

I ran outside in my undies (perfectly safe cause NOBODY is up at that time) and guess what?!

Army people

2011-10-26T14:28:00.000+08:00

Speak in acronyms. And this is all I have to say. Before I had decided not to go to the Grampians this weekend as I am going there next weekend as well. But after spending eons on stupid things, I have decided I need a break, so I am going there this weekend as well! Yay!

I do realize that I am lucky to do this now, while other people (Marian) are struggling with their thesis and more specifically with their advisor (ha! welcome to my hell!). I just wanna say: Your time will come too!!

One picture Tuesday

2011-10-25T16:43:00.002+08:00

It's your birthday tomorrow
And I haven't had time to buy
Any prezzies.
I've been at work for 12 hours
Straight.
Going on 13 now.
But am writing this silly poem
To let you know
That you are my bestie.
And my favourite avian.
Happy birthday dodo bird!!

PS. Prezzies coming next week, so do not despair.

Yesterday

2011-10-23T10:31:00.000+08:00

... was the day I wish I had my pro camera with me instead of the iPhone..

Russian piroshki in the market: with spinach and ricotta (ignore my flaky hand)

The russian piroshki was mae by a grandma surrounded by an army of chinese. Ah well, diversity.

Then, after the market and while walking to school, I noticed this beautiful tree.

Surrounded by these kind of ducks, which apparently make their nests in it.

Spring is over, summer is coming.

Blooming orchids:

Then, after school I went home and cooked some peas!!

To which I added fresh dill. I remember how much I hated dill when I was younger.

An all time low

2011-10-19T17:48:00.000+08:00

I never used to watch movies. I prefer reading a book (any book!) to watching a movie. A movie has to have absolutely fantastic reviews for me to watch it. I guess you could say I prefer my own imagination to any director's imagination.

I never used to have dinner. It would have to be a particular horrific training or a particular bad day for me to have dinner. Or a special event. Like graduation or climbing night with the girls (but even then, low on the carbs).

I never used to skip climbing, even if it was in the olden days when san would not speak to me (to shy to speak to the crazy ang moh) and i would have to climb alone.

Last night, I did not go climbing. I watched two movies ("crazy, stupid, love" and "i now pronounce you chuck and larry", if you must know), while eating dinner - polenta with two types of cheese (cheddar and feta) and sour cream, followed by a big bowl of popcorn, two liquorice pieces, three apples, two pears, and two pieces of chicken breast (sorry ionuca & shuhui, i fell off the wagon).

I know that I am now back to my original self cause I am thinking about what book to read when I get home. Should it be another culture novel? Hm ...

One picture Tuesday

2011-10-18T05:42:00.000+08:00

This picture makes me realize that this year's holiday was one of the most purrfect holidays I have ever had (others include the nepal trip, and Marian's and mine first Thailand climbing trip).

It also makes me realize that we have to do this next year as well. This of course means that Sandra must sacrifice all her sleep-in days in order to take another 2 week holiday at the end of 2012, and that Marian has to find a job that will allow him to take 2 weeks holiday at the end of 2012. I'm sure we can make it, because next year I want us all to go to a) the Grampians, b) Blue Mountains, and c) Uluru! Oh yeah! As well as pick cherries!

A trip to write home about

2011-10-17T14:01:00.000+08:00

This weekend I had a visit from somebody from Singapore. On the spur of the moment and prodded by the local climbers, we just packed our stuff and drove to the Grampians, 424 km away. Now, as I had an important run to do on Sunday, we had to come back on Saturday night. This meant that I drove 600kms, climbed for a whole day, all in 24 hours. Needless to say, I slept like a baby on Saturday night.

Here's a picture of me carrying a fridge, aka the boulder mat.

And another one trying to do something with a roof (now I realize why my neck muscles feel so tense).

Sunday morning found me running the most horrific run in Adelaide so far. We ran to the city dump (not a dump really) and on the STEEP Adelaide hills, for 3 hours. The views are absolutely fantastic, and you can see the Adelaide CBD (our start point) from far far far away. That was the only bad part about this, because seeing the CBD from far far far away only meant that you had to return back to far far far away. But I did a bit of light trail running as well and could sort of justify the binge that followed.

After that, co-workers and I went to eat. And eat we did, going to the Cheesefest! Here is a picture of pure heaven for me (and also the reason why I don't look skinier in those pants ahah)

After that, met friend who had by now woken up and slowly found his way to town. Collapsed in bed by 7pm and slept till 6am. Going back to sleep some more, as I am not young anymore.

New things to worry about

2011-10-12T19:18:00.001+08:00

Years and eons ago when Marian finally started climbing, I had hoped that giving his natural talents (flexibility, forearms, pecs, technique) he would soon start to improve and basically kick my ass. This was my (and ours) previous experience with most of the climbing guys.

When that did not happen - he was obviously less psyched about climbing than me - I resigned myself to being the better climber in the family. Also, I sort of got used to telling other climbers that my husband climbs but he's not as keen as me.

Well, not anymore I'm not! Turns out my noob of a husband has progressed from noob to King of Noobs and now to Almost noob-less, all under the guidance of none other than the dodo bird and the snail. This is amazing because I really tried too but never ever succeeded. I guess that this was the kind of situation where I really was not needed. I do not know what they did - is it the noodles after climbing? Cause I have been eating them as well and they don't make me stronger, just fatter ..,

But that aside, OMG I'm gonna get my ass kicked by him too when he gets here! I need to find myself another noob...

One picture Tuesday

2011-10-11T11:47:00.003+08:00

I do not know if this will increase productivity, but it will sure increase cool factor!!

Swamped

2011-10-06T10:13:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been in Singapore for a while and was to busy hugging Marian and bickering with San and Dodo. It's so good to be back!!! Slowly realizing that this might be the last time I am back for this year, if you don't count the sekret planned escape to desaru for new year's eve (if that happens) And also realizing that next time I am back some of my friends (hur hur) will have to find a place for me to stay (hint hint wink wink) ...

These realizations are also making the small farewells that I already have to make a little bit bitter and a little bit more emotional. There will be a flood of tears when I board QF 82 again on Sunday, I am sure! In the meantime, I finish with something good to think about: one of the best durians I've had in a while (ha!) This Saturday, I will pig out on durians, even if I have to buy them from Giant.

The Grampians!

2011-09-30T17:16:00.001+08:00

I had tons of fun in the Grampians, although I really did not climb that hard. My main point for this trip was a) to investigate the grampians as a possible bouldering, climbing, trekking venue, and b) to ensure that my finger was recovered.

The first point was somewhat successful in that I investigated only the bouldering scene. And boulders are aplenty, from V0s to V9 plenty for everybody to mix and match. The rock is a unforgiving sandstone, with slopers and crimps aplenty.

By the end of the trip I had to tape nearly all my finger tips because they were almost seeping blood. The second point was even more successful. My finger is almost 90% recovered. I do not trust it completely and my left had biceps is about 2cm smaller than my right hand biceps but it did not hurt while I climbed, and that is all that mattered. The hardest that I did was a V4, but I almost succeeded on a V5, on a V6, and on a V7, so there is hope. The guidebook that I had not only had the pictures of the boulders but also their description, a star-based rating, and the lines on the boulder drawn. This is a two-star V3.

The Adelaide boulderers are a close-knit team and I felt very luck that they let me tag along.

I felt extremely safe with them (landing areas also are much cleaner than in Font, I felt) and I never once thought about going too high or topping out, or not committing fully. This is rare for me, as I am always the wuss.

There were beautiful routes for every preference. Dynos:

Overhangs:

Slopey - crimpy

And the camp always had visitors.

All in all, I am definitely going back there again, for sure when dodo comes this year, and next year with san, hint hint wink wink. The full set of phootos is here.

On mentors, father figures, and the rain outside

2011-09-28T16:27:00.000+08:00

My parents divorced when I was three and I only met my father when I was 18. I only met him then because I looked for him and insisted I meet him (at the insistence of my then boyfriend, who thought fathers were important). My father did not look for me, did not want to see me, and not have anything to do with me. His reason (ahem)? He wanted me to look for him, to make sure I wanted to see him and his presence was not forced upon me. Motherfucker.

I am not gonna tear you up with a sad story of a fatherless claudia growing up missing her father and thinking about him many many times. Truth is, I didn't miss him or anything, but I do think that his absence left me with a need for father figures or at least [older male] mentors. Or maybe not and all I am talking is bullshit, consequence of the very gloomy and wet weather outside.

What I want to say is that I do have a sort of life/mountaineering mentor and I do think of him at least once or twice a day, which is more than I think about my own father. While in the grampians, I thought even more about him. Actually, I thought about him everytime I entered the tent I had pitched.

Because you see, I had to pitch the tent at 1:00 am in the morning. Now this only can lead to a series of unfortunate events. Luckily, I didn't pitch the tent near a) the bathroom, nor b) the fire.

But out of the entire VERY flat campsite, I chose the only inclined spot. After slowly sliding the entire night: "on the mat", "off the mat", "back on the mat", "off the mat", "back on the mat", and being able to sleep on only one side (facing uphill) because sleeping on the other side (facing downhill) would land me straight on my nose, I decided the next day that anyway I'm gonna be here for a little time so there is NO POINT in moving the tent. However, everytime I entered the tent and saw that everything in it was slanted to the right, I would hear my mentor scold me: "You should have changed it. Why didn't you change it? I told you to change it. It was a better idea to change it." which is something that he does when one tends to fuck things up (turns out, I fuck things up easily and often).

Problem is, that little voice in my head was right. Turns out, sleeping for three nights in a slanted tent becomes worse and worse as your body gets tired and tired from climbing. Turns out, this may lead to back pain, especially since one is not young anymore.

One picture Tuesday

2011-09-27T16:36:00.001+08:00

You know you've become a chili addict when colleagues bring you this as gift. My new office plant!!!

War of the boobs

2011-09-22T13:26:00.000+08:00

I am going to the Grampians today. To boulder!! I am extremely excited about this, and of course I went and bought a pretty sports bra. I also did this because all my other sports bras were still (ahem) in the laundry basket. So anyway, I walk into this shop.

Me: "Do you have any colourful sports bras?"

She (Looking depreciatively at me): "In your size?! Um, maybe, let me have a look…" So she goes and wonders around the shop, and finally reaches the colourful sport bras.

I pick a color and I say:

Me: "Um, great, I like this one, can I have a S and a M?"

She: "Um, I think I'll give you an XS and S to try and see from there. And she gives me and S which i swear is as big as an XL in Singapore.

She: "Would you like the padded ones?"

Me: "Yes, I have no boobs". Bitch.

I go and try and lo and behold, I am a size S, despite the ginormous back muscles - they look most scary now that all the fat on them is gone (running really makes one skinnier). She won this time. Bitch.

One picture Tuesday

2011-09-20T15:53:00.001+08:00

You know you have a problem with chilli addiction when this picture makes you drool.

I might be getting old

2011-09-20T06:31:00.001+08:00

This was a fun-filled weekend.

Saturday

1. Woke up around 8-ish to go trek Mount Lofty. I have sort of found an outdoor buddy in the person of another new guy here. Too bad he is going away for a month. Mount Lofty turned out to be an ok trek, a bit steep in some places, but not severely steep - they were advertising it as VERY VERY steep but methinks I can easily run on it carrying a backpack.

2. After mount Lofty we went to lunch. I mention it here because lunch was in a coffee shop that also sells furniture, so you can sit on the furniture, eat at the table and then buy it.

3. After lunch we went to boulder. As my finger is finally back from the dead, I bouldered to failure. After 3 hours of bouldering we called it a day. Had a horribly dry throat so went in search of a smoothie. Found the smoothie, drank it. Headed for dinner with some colleagues and then headed home. Arrived 9:30 pm.

Sunday

1. Woke up at 5:15 am to go to the City to Bay 12 km run. I had to get up so early because the run was passing on my street so I had to get out before they closed the road. Race started at 8:00 am. Ran with a colleague, who is now my running buddy. We did 7km in 36 minutes and then slowed down because we had decided to do Bay to City as well. Out of the 34000 people doing the City to Bay, I think we were about the only two idiots doing the full Bay to City as well.

2. Bay to City (another 12km) was not such a great idea because it was by now 10-11 am, we had cooled down after our initial 12 km and we had also had (another) espresso which dried us somemore.

3. After that went to my running buddy's house where his wife cooked an amazing mexican lunch. Relaxed. Enjoyed their two cats.

4. Around 5pm went to see some climbing friends. They had opened a wall in their backyard and wanted to show it around. Turns out, they were pregnant and wanted us all there to celebrate. I BOULDERED for a while.

5. Arrived home at 9:00 pm. Talked to Marian and mom. Had a shower. Fell asleep while chewing. Woke up, threw the slice of bread I was chewing away and went to sleep.

The fact that I fell asleep chewing my food leads me to believe that I do not have as much energy as I used to.

Now that my finger is better ...

2011-09-16T16:02:00.000+08:00

I do a pull-up every time I pass my door. I have just started today but let's just say, that this has decreased the amount of time I spend wondering around the school. And about the benefits of this, I just want to say that without these pull-ups, I would never have discovered the papers ON my bookcase.

Surf chick

2011-09-14T09:15:00.000+08:00

When I was young(er) I had a boyfriend who used to rave about surfing and climbing and sailing with the whales (I kid you not) and stuff like that. This was in a time when I was in Romania and whales and waves were really hard to find :) Nonetheless, the idea of surfing and riding a wave has always fascinated me - to say nothing of the cool surf videos that are all over youtube. So yeah, I've been wanting to surf for about 11 years now. This wish of mine FINALLY came true this weekend.

Verdict? IT'S FUCKING HARD. You have to paddle, and stand up, and watch the waves, and balance and fall properly and watch your head and don't swallow the water and don't panic and AAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!(did i mention that i can't really swim!?) Ah well... My luck was that I had a really really patient teacher. At first he tried to teach me everything, like paddling and turning and stuff. It went well, and I almost stood up, but then I got hit in the head by the board. Afterwards, he decided to push the board (rather than have me paddle), tell me to forget about all the things i have to do, and just stand up and ride.

It was MAGICAL. About 30 milliseconds of magic followed by a very big splash, but still. MAGIC.

The muscle soreness that followed the next day? Absolutely horrible. My right triceps hurt in ways I never thought it would hurt, and my abs were BURNING. Nonetheless, I suppose it gets better with practice, and practice I will.

One picture Tuesday

2011-09-13T16:25:00.000+08:00

More about my weekend tomorrow. For now, I had fantastic homemade breakfasts throughout the weekend. One of them was this: (poached egg, smoked salmon on toast, with spinach and avocado). I actually implemented it today (save the spinach) and it was DELISH! My sekret plan is to prod my chef friend for his breakfast ideas from now on ...

I got attacked ...

2011-09-09T06:39:00.000+08:00

As I was doing my mid-week run this Wednesday around the river Torrens (7km in 36mins woo hoo!) I stopped numerous times to photograph Spring.

There was a family of ducks that was basking in the sunlight, so I dropped to my knees and got VERY close to take pictures. The mamma-duck was quite ok with me taking photos. These are some of them:

After I had taken enough pictures, I stood up, turned around walked for a bit and started to run again, away from them. It was then that the mamma-duck decided that I was a threat and swooped over my head, flapped me twice with her wings and her legs. I was in shock and utterly devastated at this sign of unfriendliness, but the next thing I saw calmed me a bit:

After a couple of kms more I saw a family of swans and their swanlings. Needless to say, I did not get as close this time, because I don't think I would have been left standing had the mamma-swan decided I was a threat as well.

One picture Tuesday

2011-09-06T16:05:00.000+08:00

The Spring edition.

This saturday I went to the Mount Lofty botanical gardens to see the blooming magnolias. Before I got to the magnolias, I got a look at the beautiful camelias and rhododendron.

Rhododendron:

Camelias:

The magnolias!!

My favorite one (love the texture of the leaves!)

If i ever have a garden, i wanna plant a magnolia in it...

URGH!!!!!!!!!!

2011-09-05T14:32:00.000+08:00

URGH!!! And shiver me timbers and ohmygodohmygodtakeitoutofhere!! While i do love all god's creatures and i usually avoid killing them, even if they are bugs, last night i was truly tested. THIS was on one of the living room walls!

I pondered, and i thought, and I didn't know what to do, and I thought some more and decided that it was most probably not poisonous. So I told it that if it does not move AT ALL I will leave it where it was.

Apparently spiders (huntsman spider, i found out today) have a really hard time understanding "AT ALL", so the thing moved. I decided that I won't be able to sleep if I know it was there and MOVING, so I decided to remove it and take it outside.

I used this as my tool, although today I found out that you can use a jar (although that jar implies that you have to get within 30cm of the thing urgh).

I opened the door and used a chair to block the screen door open. I shooed it until it got over the door and then with a quick swoosh dropped it to the floor. It started to scurry to get back in, at which point I think i might have killed it because my broom sweep was not so light and a bit desperate. I still shudder when I think about it scurrying back in. Bastard.

I spent the next minute panting from the adrenaline and afterwards inspecting the chair with a flashlight (it was night) to ensure that the thing was not hiding under the chair (seen too many horror movies). Turns out, they're harmless.

I visited my school!

2011-09-02T06:41:00.000+08:00

Three days after I arrived I registered for the "Scientists in Schools" project, in which a Scientist (that would be me, ha!) partners up with a teacher from a school and they share and do interesting stuff for the benefit of the kids at the school. I thought it was quite a cool idea and I think that I would have appreciated it when i was young (not so sure about now though) ... After three months and a police database check (i kid you not) I was finally approved and got a partnership with a MATHS (!!) prof in some secondary school (can't say the name Google!)

It's gonna be a bit difficult at first because while the math level we are talking about (level 10) is very very very low (they do quadratics! in year 10! ) both the teacher and i are total noobs at this.

Nonetheless, we were thinking about how to make students see that the maths they are learning is applied everywhere in real life. So far, examples we could come up with were: a) gps triangularization and b) angry birds (because of the trajectory and hence the quadratics)

So i ask you, esteemed council, what other examples of quadratics (ax^2 + bx + c = 0) or simple statistics in real life would you have?

A new kind of depression

2011-08-31T11:59:00.000+08:00

When I moved here three months ago, two friends came over to help me with buying a car, renting a place, etc. This was very helpful to me because not only was I clueless in a new country, but, contrary to previous clueless situations, I was clueless and alone. Things were quite rushed for the first week and so I didn't have the time or the energy to feel alone or like I missed my friends or Marian. And then they left.

That hit me pretty bad in terms of loneliness and depression. I know this because immediately after they left I stopped eating and in the following week(s) I lost enough kg (don't know exactly, I don't have a scale) to drop from a size 8-10 to a size 6. Things were better after that because I went to visit said friends and I went to Singapore again. And I started eating. I think of that as stage 1 of my peculiar depression.

I am now entering another stage in which depression, loneliness etc., manifests itself through not wanting to initiate contact with people (they are so far away anyway, so why bother), through eating ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING, sleeping 10-11 hours a night, talking to my goldfish, and by doing copious amounts of online shopping. I find this depression more destructive than the other, because in the former I could at least say that something good (i.e. loss of weight) was coming out of it, the latter is not only depleting my bank account but also adding fat to my thighs. Hopefully it will end soon since I am visiting my friends again, and I will go to singapore at the end of the month. The question remains though, what fresh hell will await me after that?

One picture Tuesday

2011-08-30T10:13:00.002+08:00

The how I spend my weekend edition. I wanted to share this yesterday but! I had forgotten my phone at home, so no pics.

I spent Friday night cooking Eggplant Moussaka, in which I replaced the meat with eggplant and kept the potatoes as dividers.

Saturday was spent doing nothing much, except at night I went to a tango dinner. Here's the crappy photo I took before my phone died.

On Sunday morning I went for a short 10 km run to the beach and back. Stayed on the beach for about twenty minutes to read.

And then I went sort of climbing. I can't climb but i went to bachelor's pad anyway, just to be out and about. The olives are almost done.

And absolutely beautiful flowers! In the wild!

A Normal Wedding - part 2

2011-08-25T13:21:00.001+08:00

In the previous post I had finished off in a lame cliff-hanger, wondering if Marian is going to be able to part with enough money to retrieve me from behind my (very) corpulent aunts. Marian indeed managed to pay enough money for that and we were happily reunited.

After this, all the people attending this part of the wedding settled into a dance. This is where San and Dor started to pin flowers on the guests. This took them a while, but i insisted they not be disturbed to increase their stress levels, haha.(they are in the bottom right corner of the picture)

After that, it was off to some nice places in Caracal to take some photos. Now Caracal has old buildings but very few are renovated, so we went to the theatre. Time to improvise :)

A group picture with chance family and friends - only San and Dor were with me the WHOLE day from dawn till dusk.

And off to church!

This picture is one of my favoritest of the day, because it shows a rare picture of a very focused yet not desperate dodo bird, my father laughing, and our godfather like he always is, musing on some thought or other :)

I will spare you the details of the ceremony, but I do want to say that I was so hungry that I wolfed that biscuit down!

My mom and grandma were getting emotional, and so was I to be honest ...

After that it was all fun and jokes again - with the god parents (I absolutely LOVED my god mother's dress):

And the customary group photo in front of the church where everybody was looking in all directions possible EXCEPT at the camera.

After this it was off to Marian's house where his mother and family had to welcome me in their stead ... will this happen or will i be thrown out?!

One picture Tuesday

2011-08-24T06:23:00.001+08:00

Well, it's still tuesday in some parts of this world, right? RIGHT?! Behold what is left of the cauliflower gratin! It looks much much better in real life and after it's been heated ... The red specs are chili flakes and i will try to take a better picture of it today during lunch haha .. if i remember to bring my phone that is ...

A foodie's problems

2011-08-22T13:05:00.000+08:00

I love food. Actually, if truth be told, ever since I quit smoking 6 years ago, I have been eating non-stop, all the time. If I don't eat, I graze, and if I don't graze I munch on fruits, or snacks, or seeds. And then, short of that, i drink water or coffee or tea.

The problems I am faced with since moving to Australia are purely logistical. While in Singapore, I could just go the canteen at lunchtime and have anything my heart desired. This was within 10 minutes maximum walk of my office and hence I did not have to spend too much time on lunch. Food was cheap, too!! Lunch was my main meal of the day and, not counting the Tom Yam noodles I had on most climbing nights, I did not really eat anything for dinner.

However, it all went downhill since I moved. Firstly, there ain't no canteens here and the food is not cheap! It's not close either, at least not the good kind of food. And so I am introduced to the world of lunchboxes and of preparing my own food.

At first, I tried to have only fruits for lunch. This didn't work out because the only kind of fruit you can get in winter is ... apples, and there's so many green apples (the only ones i like) one can eat. And then, the lack of food makes me VERY grumpy, just as anybody who has ever met me just before breakfast or lunch can attest to. This has a very important consequence since I am meeting students almost every day. And honestly, I want to scold them because they deserve it (99% of the cases), not because I am grumpy because I'm lunchless...

And thus, it looks like i finally will get to hone my cooking skills ... and they really really need honing. As any true geek, I started by downloading a bunch of cookbooks, and i shall be posting here the results of my [probably pathetic] attempts. Tonight: cauliflower gratin.

El Tango

2011-08-20T16:42:00.000+08:00

I am now at lesson seven out of the eight tango lessons and I must say that things have not been as SCARY as I initially thought they would be. True, I don't dance well. This might be because um, I don't practice at all outside the 1-hour class. Probably because I don't have anybody to practice with (hint hint hint). And also true, when my partner (a nice old man that THANK GOD! is in the intermediate class) tells me to "listen to the music" all I can think of (while i nod my head as if i understand him) is "i barely have enough brain to think about what i'm doing".

But all in all, I am learning to FOLLOW, which is something I am truly and utterly not used to. To my shame, I am walking in front even when I don't have the slightest idea where the hell I am going - although this is in most cases due to the fact that the people i am walking with just walk so slow.

Summing it up, this past month i have tried out two new sports. Running in dry weather (I only started running in Singapore) and I joined a running group here (we run every fucking sunday at 7:30 am, for about 20-25km, and every wednesday or so), and Tango.

Still, climbing remains my greatest love.

One picture Tuesday

2011-08-16T10:17:00.003+08:00

It is rare that I post something about computers, but this is absolutely genial.

Kangaroo island, the seal edition

2011-08-15T06:27:00.000+08:00

Another thing that we saw many many instance of on Kangaroo Island were seals. Or more technically accurate, sea lions and New Zealand fur seals. Whatever. Seals! Aplenty!!

First, there was one baby seal hiding in the bushes.

Then we went walking on the beach and look what we found:

Some were resting, in what i call a typical sunday morning picture (not my sunday mornings, as mine are spent running, goddammit!!)

Other seals were in the water, later in the day. Spot the seal!

Or sleeping on the rocks.

Or on the grass

Or under beautiful arches (spot the seals!)

Wherever they were, they were completely undisturbed by our presence

On divorce

2011-08-12T06:23:00.000+08:00

I don't really remember my parent's divorce but I do remember the resentment i felt towards both of them at different stages for letting me live with only one parent. And I do remember the total resentment I felt towards my father when he would decline for fifteen years to see me. Asshole. And I do blame that divorce for my almost chronic fear of commitment which somehow only marian managed to solve. But other than resentment and fear of commitment, I don't remember much.

Today, two of my friends are breaking up and I really think I am the kid in the divorce settlement again. More importantly, it breaks me to be so bloody far away and not be able to help in any way. One of them is good at expressing grief while the other internalizes everything and broods. Both of them reply my messages but there's really nothing much I can do by text. And really not much they can reply either ... How I wish it were the end of september RIGHT NOW or that airlines would give emergency divorce discounts.

That being said, there's always something to smile about. For example, look at this little guy. With that face and those teeth who would date him?!

Kangaroo island, the rainbow edition

2011-08-10T15:38:00.001+08:00

For all of you out there, remember ... There's always a rainbow after the toughest rain.

We saw gazillions of rainbows on Kangaroo Island, so many that we even started ranking them.
Here are photos of some of them.
The first one:

Second one:

Second one with snow white:

Third one, without a pot of gold:

Fourth one, artist's impression:

One picture Tuesday

2011-08-09T15:33:00.000+08:00

We saw so many rainbows on kangaroo island that when we saw this one yesterday morning we both went: "Rainbows. Meh."

A much needed holiday

2011-08-08T10:35:00.000+08:00

To Kangaroo Island (pics to come probably tomorrow), which is only SEVEN times bigger than singapore, and also australia's third largest island. We saw a lot of animals, both alive and dead (roadkill) and had an absolutely fantastic time, all by ourselves! No phone signal, no internet - absolute quietness!

Sadly, two months of loneliness are soon going to start as marian is going back to singapore tomorrow.

Insane car battery hack

2011-08-02T07:31:00.000+08:00

I know this is one picture tuesday but this is too good to miss... Watch the video below.

And now for the truth. Two third-year students at our school actually TRIED THIS!!! Not only did they try it, but they showed up with bandaged hands because of the acid burns. Now this is real, i did not make it up, I saw both of them!!!! And they tried not one, but TWO car batteries because they thought the first one was spoiled. I kid you not.

It's been a while since I laughed so hard.

And then there were nine

2011-08-01T06:54:00.000+08:00

I am happy to report that I've been climbing injury free for 2 years and a half. It's time we start the counters again because last Friday, on a crimpy route on which i was not warmed up properly, i [partially] tore the A2 pulley on my middle finger of my left hand. This is a problem because last time i had partially torn the A2 pulley on the index finger of my right hand, which allowed me to do still do stuff (climbwise) with my right hand while my finger healed.

WELL, NOT ANYMORE, BUSTER!!! Truth be told, it's not as bad as before. The "pop" sound was quite discreet and the pain was much much less than the first tear. Also, as opposed to then, I CAN hold a plastic bag with an apple on that finger, without any pain!

Needless to say, I am fuming. At myself for doing stupid things (I should have rested on that day) and at my bad luck for doing stupid things to me. DAMN IT! Bbye climbing, hello PT! I'm a gonna get me an eight-pack for all the abs i'm a gonna do!

One picture Tuesday

2011-07-26T15:25:00.000+08:00

The baby edition. This Sunday we made a picture contest to determine which one of us was the cutest.

Behold the candidates!

Pissed baby. They say I still retain this glare.

Determined baby.

With the dodo egg baby.

Dodo vs chicken baby - witness the cuteness!

Gap tooth baby - witness the cuteness!

Now I do have photographic evidence of San in a dress but I will not post it here. I am writing this just in case she complains I put up a picture of her on the web. Ha.

Moral of the story? (Most) of us were cute babies. We're not anymore. Haha

A rainy Sunday

2011-07-25T18:18:00.001+08:00

Sadly, I spend all my saturdays at work. This is because a) I have no personal life (ahem) and b) I spend all my saturdays at work (see reason a) ). Regardless, my Saturdays are at work but my Sundays are free!

However, I got tricked into joining a running club, pretty much the way i got trick into joining tango. So every fucking Sunday morning I have to wake up at 6:50 am such that I am at the running group meeting point by 7:30 am or so. And then we proceed to run about 1 - 1.5 - 2 hours regardless of the climate. I say this because two runs ago it was absolutely POURING and we still ran. Goddamnit.

On this Sunday however, i was determined to go walking in the Adelaide hills to air my head and find mother nature. Also, the Three Falls Grand Hike at Morialta Conservation Park boasted numerous wildlife sightings. And so, after running (14k,1:20), I went, regardless of the weather, thankyouverymuch.

And it POURED. And it got me drenched to the bone. The trek was not strenuous at all, despite the advertised "Steep, 4 hours". It was "Very mild, 1:30 min". I did not see any wildlife, most probably because the wildlife was huddled somewhere wondering why the hell would this brightly colored human (yellow gore-tex jacket, remember?) is out in the bloody* rain! Anyway, pictures of the pretty wet scenery follow.

Steep. pfft.

Olive trees!

First fall - not there because of the fog

Second fall (1)

Second fall (2)

Third fall

And a glimpse of the first fall

*everybody uses "bloody" here, with almost everything :)

The problem with bags

2011-07-22T17:44:00.000+08:00

Is that you never have enough of them. "It's like fucking octopuses" Jensen commented out there when it came to his attention that most ladies would have more than 5 bags. And even the most clear-minded lady I know owns at least four bags that I know of, and about at least 7 watches. So there must be something in the chromosomes.

Another problem with bags is that at some point you want a bigger bag. I have gone through all shapes and sizes, but because I tend to carry a lot of stuff (extra clothes, shoes, lunch, fruits, papers, books, notebooks, pens, and one wallet) I find myself buying either large bags or small bags that eventually get stuffed to the maximum.

The problem with large bags is that no matter how large the bag is, at some point it will feel small for what you need to put in it. Most probably because you have not taken the other stuff out first.

This is because another problem with large bags is that they are the black holes of death, where things never come back from. Take for example my new blue bag, it has a Singaporean coin inside, although it (the bag) has never been to singapore!

The problem with a large bag is thus that you will fill it to the brim and then you won't be able to move it. Take for example Boris, the spoilt luggage we had to carry throughout Europe. It was big and sturdy, and so we filled it with practically almost everything. It also had two spoilt rollers, which meant that we had to DRAG it all around Europe. Boris is safely hidden behind Marian in this photo, but you can see how many luggages we had.

Another example would be Boris the Second (or Boris II for short), which is my big red bag. It is so big that I think can fit both sandra and doris at the same time. It is so big that it can fit all my books. And today, Boris the Second, as befit his name, lost a roller out of its four. This was a most inappropriate time for Boris the Second to loose a roller as the two of us where on our way to school from the parking lot. Now the parking lot is about 20 mins walk from the school And it was 7 am in the morning. And I was in a skirt. And it was 1 (ONE!@) degree outside. And Boris the Second was full of books. Books that I was bringing to school to put in my vast (wall-sized) bookcase. Once Boris the Second lost its roller I could no longer pull it so i was left with pushing it ahead while at the same time lifting it a bit to ensure that most weight was on its three healthy rollers. I did make a funny sighting and it was such an exhausting trek that I stopped many many times to curse (my new favorite curse is "Oh, what fresh hell is this?!" It seems that my vulgarities diminish as the shitty-ness increases) and ponder how this would have been much much easier had i not been alone. Or had I waited until marian got here. Or I had waited and done this not immediately after a hard climbing night on Thursday, which gave me a flapper and made my hans extremely raw. Here's Boris the Second very close to our destination.

We arrived after 40 minutes!

And proof that it was indeed fucking cold this morning.

One picture Tuesday

2011-07-19T14:49:00.000+08:00

There is nothing like little morsels of food to remind one of back home. I found a jar of mustard with a romanian label in a foodshop in Adelaide, Australia. That jar of mustard had travelled 14241.27 km.

Rocks and more rocks - bouldering at Bachelor's Pad

2011-07-18T16:39:00.000+08:00

Just when I was really getting depressed about the fact that here, as in Singapore, I am pulling plastic, one of the girls I now climb with suggested that Saturday we go to a place called "Bachelor's pad" and we boulder.

First of all, I was eternally grateful that she asked me to go. ROCKS! Real rocks again! The good thing about this place is that it is easily accesible. That is, if I remember where to park, and if I survive the steep ascent through a forest of olive trees. Yes a forest of olive trees. I wonder how people actually started to eat olives, because raw olives are absolutely dreadful.

If one does survive the ascent, here is what one finds: A cave! Very steep mind you, and with very few problems that yours truly can actually do, but still, a cave!!

The cave is completed with a couch - I do not know who and how dragged that couch up that hill, but god bless their sweet little hearts for doing it! - and several sponge mattresses, which, while not being a very good substitute for crashpads, and giving yours truly goosebumps, will do very well if one wants to go bouldering by oneself. There's even a guidebook with printed photos and drawings of the routes. Purely heaven.

These are my current bouldering companions, from left to right: STRONG! & bigspan, YOUNG & strong, and skinny & FLEXIBLE! I've climbed more (3 sessions, ahem) with STRONG! & bigspan, and skinny & FLEXIBLE! . The young un (19!) is a new addition to the pack. The more girls, the merrier.

The routes are slopey and pinchy. And most of them are on various iterations of roofs. Here's yours truly on one:

And that's where it ends (the routes are short so the possibility of injury on those mats is minimal. I hope)

Now, the other reason why I am consistently dragging my ass out of the house on weekends (rather than staying in and being very, very depressed), is that I am hoping that one of these days I will get to show these places to people that will come visit. So people, come visit!

First tango in Adelaide

2011-07-15T20:43:00.000+08:00

Well, on Wednesday I did something totally not me. I cant remember if i mentioned It here or not, but i only dance when i am slightly drunk, and even then, i have the grace and rhythm of an elephant. On drugs. And i am insulting the pachyderms when I compare them with the way I dance, because there's nothing, but NOTHING worse in this life that somebody could do than watch me dance. And no, our wedding does not count because the dress was long so I could do anything underneath. So on Wednesday I decided to live a little and I went for my first ever tango lesson.

It was one of the worst and one of the greatest experiences of my life. It was horrible because the people in the beginner class were not beginners at all! Motherfuckers! They were the type A personality that does the beginner classes all over again until they are ready to ~~waltz~~ forward ocho into the intermediate class without a hitch. Pffft. And to top it off I had missed the first lesson because I was in Singapore.

I arrived there to find that I needed special shoes to dance such that my feet slide on the floor. I smirked at this but then a kind lady let me borrow a pair of hers. She had more than one with her. I laughed in my mind, but in the end I was glad I had them cause u really have to slide. I danced with two older gentlemen, who were both from the intermediate class but had come earlier to check out the freshies (I have seen this behavior in the climbing gym males so that's how I know). One of them was very kind and did not mind at all when I did imperfect stuff. The other was extremely anal and insisted we repeat stuff until i did it right (and he kept telling me with a stern face "you're doing it wrong." fucker. I hated him and his knitted vest.

It was a very interesting experience because as a female u're expected to FOLLOW THE MALE. And, as opposed to other dances, the male is IMPROVISING and only giving you subtle hints. And thus I know know why the lady in a tango dance is always SO ATTENTIVE of the male. I did not learn much in that first lesson, but there are six left, and hopefully when Marian comes here we can both join. I won't care then if he steps on my toes (apparently it's the lady's fault) and I will trust him enough to LEAN FORWARD, SLIDE BACK!!!

13, I abhor thee!

2011-07-14T06:09:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was a day of many many crappy things.

- firstly, I found out that Marian had sent all of our stuff (haha, like my books, my shoes, ALL the gear - down sleeping bag, boots, ice crampons, ahem) to Australia (that is, to me) without providing the movers with my phone number, although on the form it said that the telephone number was important. Then, to ensure that the $$$ we spent shipping stuff around, he did not complete the form with his address, only for us to see later that the invoice accompanying the receipt has no name at all on it, but the address. It will be a hell of a time giving this to Finance and ensuring that we get the $$$ back, which even if we did, it won't mean a thing since we won't have our things anyway. It is quite frustrating to be so far away and have him incapable of controlling his "form-fobia" just this once. What is it about white squares that turns people into wailing babies really!?!!?

- And while I was fuming about this, Claudia, the other Claudia we went to nepal with, calls me. And she asks how's it going and I start fuming again. And she listens and we talk about it, and when i finally ask why she was calling, she tells me she's had an accident!! Bumped from the rear while she was stopped waiting for a roundabout. And that she's ok but her neck hurts a bit(!?!?!) and her brand new car is bumped both from the rear and the back - there was somebody else stopped in front of her. Hopefully all will be well, she said she was feeling allright, had gone to the doctor to take x-rays, will go there today to have them looked at.

- and then, I went to a tango lesson. (more about this tomorrow) - like the suspense, right?

One picture Tuesday

2011-07-12T15:01:00.003+08:00

I think one of the drawbacks of living alone is well ... feeling alone. Not lonely, mind you, at least not with the advance of interwebs technologies such as twitter, facebook, and, oh, this blog, but alone in the "this silence is killing me kind of way". Alone in the "if it's the weekend, chances are I will speak to nobody" kind of way, or in the "i will speak out loud in the house to kill the silence" kind of way. I found myself speaking out loud last night and asking what shall I have for dinner. That freaked me for a while but I guess you can't have them all - be pretty, smart, skinny, good climber, and SANE - now can you?! Anyway, here's dinner - polenta with bulgarian feta, home-made yoghurt, olives, zacuska, and broccoli. The latter just to save face from all that fat and carbs.

Goldcoast Marathon 2011

2011-07-08T16:38:00.002+08:00

What I really did not expect of this marathon was for it to be totally flat. And mind you, it wasn't, but the teensy tiny uphill sections were really unnoticeable. I entered this marathon hoping and praying for divine intervention to get me to the finish line unharmed, unhurt, and with my dignity intact.

Divine intervention did more than that, and I got to the finish line in a decent time, i.e. 4:05. I am not rejoicing because I felt that i could have done a sub-four marathon, which is what I am sekretly hoping for every time. But I also do not want to sound ungrateful and as such I will not complain. Much.

The longest run i managed to put in for this marathon was 15km. This makes it the worse so far in terms of training and I swear here and now that i won't let this happen again, and I won't enter a marathon without at least a 30km run under my belt. They say that the longest distance you train will be quite easy peasy come race day, at it was like that. I finished 15 km in 1:20 minutes which is a good time considering. One hundred meteres after 15 km my knees bulked and I knew that I was feeling the lack of training beyond that distance.

However, i did not cramp and managed a more than decent 30 km in 2:51 minutes. A sub four marathon was still possible from here, and it was even possible at 35 km (3:20), but that is when my muscles decided to say good bye and cramp up. I did not have any heat rub or smth similar on me so i just had to run through it (stretching would have probably killed me). I spent the next 7 km wobbling to the finish line.

I probably would not have done it without my friends who were there to support me at the finish line, and at 30 and 32 km marks, because I really struggled to look good (and not a pathetic fat wuss) for them. They took some great pictures too! Here's me at 30 km, still looking fresh (before the hell cramps)

And a pro shot:

Information my mother must not get

2011-06-29T12:19:00.002+08:00

[and now I realize .. a good blackmail information for some of you out there]

1. That there is a romanian orthodox church in Adelaide - I will tell her this when she comes visit, but I will probably feign that I have just found out this information.

2. That there is a romanian association in Adelaide. I have registered, but only such that I know what are the places, restaurants, shows, etc., frequented by romanians (and here i am grossly generalizing) such that I totally avoid them.

What is the internet council's views on this? If you're an expat, do you actively avoid meeting your fellow countrymen?

One picture Tuesday

2011-06-28T07:27:00.003+08:00

I love my pocket knife because it got me from this

to this

with only 1 hour and a half of screwing. Ha, that sounded bad.

What I did this Saturday

2011-06-26T11:01:00.004+08:00

1. I love and hate traveling by myself. I love that I can read my book whenever i want to. But i hate that i have nobody to discuss what i see with, nobody to share the food (imagine that, me wanting somebody to share the food!), nobody to discuss the plan, nobody to look at e frigging map while I drive, nobody to bicker at when I get lost.

2. Yesterday I decided to go to McLaren Vale to see some wineries such that when people decide to visit (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!) I can actually take them some places other than work and my favorite central market.

First I went to Willunga to the fresh market, where i bought fresh grapes and apples and bread and cofffee. Then I wanted to go to Port Willunga and got lost. This is what I found when I got lost.

It's winter here, so everything is a bit barren

Eventually i reached my destination and had a fish for brunch. Good fish. No picture:

And soon I reached the wineries:

Some vines still had dried leaves on them

Had lunch overlooking this hill

Thank god for thick books

Shiraz, anyone?

Yallo!

A Normal Wedding - part 1

2011-06-23T16:02:00.004+08:00

Wanted to say "traditional romanian wedding" but it really wasn't all that traditional.

1. Marian and I decided to do the whole thing (civil ceremony, church, reception) in one day, to get it over and done with. First, it was the wedding ceremony. I tried to wear a cheongsam, which is a traditional Chinese dress. I say try because I found that after nepal, my marathon, etc, and with the thesis defense, sampling an enormous amount of food now that i was leaving singapore, etc, I HAD GAINED WEIGHT! So, one week to go before the wedding and I could barely walk in the dress, let alone sit down. Mysterious ballooning of the thighs. Ah well, little did I know that this ballooning was all going to take care of itself during the stressful days before the wedding. I will spare you an account of all the stupid arguments we had, but I will say that I fought with Marian's parents (each at one time), and with my mother, whereas Marian only fought with his parents. He's the wiser of the two of us, indeed.

Anyway, fast-forward to the wedding morning. After being woken up at ungodly hours the previous nights by either Sandra (whose watch was on Singapore time) or various party-mother-fuckers, I woke up this morning at a fantastic 6:30 am! Rushed to the hair dresser with the girls and then back again. Lo and behold, the dress fit!!

We left on time for the mayor's office but while descending the stairs of the hotel, my mother slipped!
And fell headfirst!! Super shocking moment, but thankfully she only had a badly bruised wrist! Whew! Tragic moment averted, this only left us with running to the mayors office, instead of gently strolling.

Of course, Marian was even more late than I was, and everybody was there already. Did I mention that my grandma and my grandpa managed to come?!

It wasn't long before the people responsible for shooing us in had us organized (two in a row) to go in. Next thing we knew, we were in front of the mayor.

You will never guess what I am thinking about. I am thinking that I had not practiced saying "YES" with a strong, convincing voice. And after Marian's sheepish "yeees" (and the mayor's beckoning for him to say it louder), the pressure was on me! I did ok, with only a slight tremor. Here is Marian signing away half his Travian troops to me. HAHAHAHAHHA!

After that it was time to go outside and take lotsa and lotsa pictures. Here are most of my relatives, together with my grandma, grandpa, and three of grandma's sisters and brother. My grandma is almost 80, and my grandpa is 85 - that's why I am harpingso long about that :)

With the girls, of cors:

Now, the wedding photographer made us pose and do all sorts of stuff ... I tried not to tell him to stuff it, and as such I am laughing like a mad woman in most of the photos.

2. After the civil ceremony, the mad rush from hell ensured. Marian had to get ready, with his best man shaving him. They had to then go get the god parents. In the meantime, I had to get ready.

Apple and wine are used as shaving gel, and a biig knife as a razor.

Then, it was off to the god parents. The groom gets a BIG flower in his chest (background: marian took half an hour to pick this one, out of a sample of three flowers).

....
In the meantime, back at the hotel, my grandmother's sisters were preparing a special song for my veiling ceremony. The song was a cover after a traditional song, and included singapore, the girls, marian's folks, them coming all the way from Moldova to Oltenia... it was fantastic. It also made me cry during the veiling.

Now, the veiling. The godmother, in the meantime transported from the previous picture, puts my veil on. My special godmother also got me that BIG red flower, which I totally loved.

I managed not to look like Hulk's sister (Jensen's exact words), and for this, I am happy.

When Marian came to fetch me, somebody else (aka Dodo) was given in return.

Will Marian give up a tremulous existence with me and take up a relatively mild one with dodo?! (although she might risk poisoning or electrocuting him accidentally?!!) Stand by for the next post!

One picture Tuesday

2011-06-21T06:19:00.002+08:00

The pro-pictures are finally up online and a full-of-photos post is soon to follow, but here's a preview:

A sad running story

2011-06-19T16:44:00.002+08:00

The sad benefits of moving from a tropical area to a southern hemisphere temperate area is that, chances are, you'll wear more clothes. My usual running attire has been promoted from tights, sportsbra, singlet to
- stockings
- thicker stockings
- tights
- running shorts on top of tights
- sportsbra
- merinos fleece
- other fleece
- t-shirt
- red balacava.

And yes, I look like a fucking bank robber. This is because on the first running day here I did not wear any scarf or anything to cover my mouth and I totally sandpapered my throat. To the extent that I barely could eat for a weak, to say nothing of running. I am a bit better now, but still have to go for the bank robber look.

Yesterday the predicted weather was "1-2 showers and then we're heading on into the 17s. SEVENTEEENS PEOPLE!" I waited for half a day for the 1-2 showers to come and for the gloomy weather to head into the 17s. As it did not seem to want to go there, but it was also very stable, I headed out. I had to run 30 km and had mistakenly replaced my usual food for these endeavours (powergels) with snickers bars. This turned out to be mistake number two. Mistake number one was wearing the red scarf, which resulted in me panting to increase temperature and humidity of the air that went into the lungs, which resulted in me virtually dying by km 10 - although I hold the steep hill responsible for that as well.

Anyway, by km 10 I was dead and ready to throw in the towel. Of course this was not going to happen, so I plodded away thinking that at this horrible pace it's gonna take me at least two more hours to finish. Alas, heaven heard my silent prayers and rain started to fall. My pace increased and I headed briskly for the nearest bus stop. Of course, after five minutes of waiting there and freezing my ass off, I decided that this was not going to work and i started running in the rain.

[In chamonix, I had bought a rain jacket, that at this point was resting in my office.] Rain here is, of course, like rain everywhere else on this earth. It's cold and wet. As opposed to Singapore, where it's warm and wet.

I continued to run in the rain for five more kms. At some point the rain stopped, thus destroying any hope i had of a good excuse to stop running. Around the 15th km, I stopped again to eat a snickers bar. I think I must've taken a bigger bite than my sore throat could handle because I remember feeling an immense "THIS IS IT!", a short, faint-y like sensation, after which it managed to pass and I wasn't dead. But I was finished with running. I threw the rest of the snickers bar in the trash and proceeded for the bus stop, without absolutely any remorse.

I paid my 4.60 (FOUR DOLLARS SIXTY CENTS) for the bus ticket and sat down and enjoyed the warmth. (yes, buses here are warm when it rains!) Cooked a gigantic pot of chicken soup and enjoyed three bowls of it, after which i went to sleep at 7pm. Slept until 8 am this morning.

Thing is, a long time ago I promised myself i will run a marathon every year. I thank heavens still that my exact words weren't "I will finish a marathon every year", so this means that I don't have to finish the Goldcoast marathon on July 3rd. Right?!? RIGHT?!?!

Touching the sky

2011-06-16T07:06:00.003+08:00

Many times while climbing you feel like you are touching the sky. Whether it is above you or the wind is wooshing under your butt and you look down or behind you and see a big, deadly, valley

or the deep green water

you are definitely close to something much bigger and more important than yourself. Add to that the adrenalin, the sudden pang of your [more] conscious brain that sometimes ~~tells~~ yells at you: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?! Trying to get the both of us killed?!", the never-ending competition with yourself, and the realization that if you really think about it, there's only a small thread and a piece of iron that keeps you from dying, and I knew why people are addicted to climbing. And until this honeymoon/grad trip I thought there was nothing that could equal it for me.

Until the dodo bird insisted that we do paragliding. Tandem of course, which meant that there was another instructor flying with us. There were four of us and two instructors only, which meant that Marian and I went first and the instructors returned for dodo and san. I got the more pro (ha!) instructor, which was also taller and had bigger forearms (queue fetish). He was 43, didn't look a day over 30 and told me that many climbers once they start paragliding climb less and less.

And I could see why. The ultimate silence, the exquisite liberty and control, the wind flapping, the fantastic views.

And the small piece of cloth between you and eternity, the adrenalin - I screamed my lungs out when we did a 360 - and the ultimate thrill when you drive (he let me drive, woo hoo!!), the true MAGIC of it all, are all the ingredients one needs to be addicted to it. If you ever have the chance, go try it! Of the entire Europe trip, these were the best money spent (other than on the cherries)

One picture Tuesday

2011-06-14T11:00:00.002+08:00

One of the reasons why I think I will enjoy Australia (and Adelaide) is the various types of birds I keep seeing everywhere!

My Nemesis

2011-06-13T09:14:00.002+08:00

I am a weak climber. I know it, my fellow climbers know it, hell, everybody that has heard me climb knows it. The bane of my climbing existence are slopers because I do not train them enough, i have a weak wrist and a big bum (working on the first and the third). I am reasonably good at overhangs because I might be weak and fat but I am also ~~strong~~ beefy. I went climbing on Saturday at the gym and I nearly cried because it was crowded (again) and full of kids (again) - note to self: do not go to the gym on weekends. Anyway, after using their bouldering facilities for a while (pathetic, they are), one of the staff invited me to go climbing with them on Sunday. And off I went. Perhaps I should not have done the last two sets of campusing when they told me that.

Anyway, when i got to the climbing crag (Norton Summit, fyi), my grin turned to doubt and was later replaced by sobs of frustration. And here's why:

1. Overhang. About 30-35 degrees. Not much. Not much my ass!

2. Unfamiliar rock - quartz with sandstone (?) - no jugs, no pockets. Slopers (mostly), ledges, pinches, and crimps - Sandra would love it here!

3. Little roofs!

4. Gradewise: one 21, one 23, and the rest from 27 upwards. 21 is 6b.

Result: I top roped! HA!

It's been a week now

2011-06-12T14:34:00.002+08:00

And finally I think I can talk about the farewell without starting to cry. And I know everybody is waiting with bated breaths to know wether I cried or not before I entered the gate.

And the answer to this is ... almost.

I was getting ready to go through the gates. And I was walking in front trying to control the tears that were already filling my eyes. When Daniel, who was walking besides me, sees the tears and says: "Awww... don't cry!" Which of course started them a bit but I managed to control them despite Daniel's insistence "Awww... don't cry!"

And I reach the gate and turn around to hug Sandra and Doris and I see that San is crying already and then of course all floodgates were open and there we were, the three of us, crying like lunatics.

And of course now that the floodgates are open I can't stop at all. And i go through customs and through airport clearance, and through the gates and I am still crying. And of course I have no tissue and the mucus flood from hell is spurting from my nose (yes, I wiped it on my pants thank you very much).

When I got on the plane my first stop was to the bathroom, where I picked up a big wad of tissue paper, because the girls had made a scrapbook for me and I knew I was going to cry. And cry I did, at every single page (pictures to come, once i find the camera cable).

This was despite the romanian couple that was sitting behind me and that was having the FIGHT FROM HELL (in romanian of course). I got to know all the private details of their life, how much they hated and despised their respective families, and how they were new immigrants, going, of all places, to Adelaide. And they fought and fought and screamed and fought and I was sure they were going to get a divorce right there and now because nobody says "death is going to de-flower your mom" (I KID YOU NOT) to somebody else and expect that somebody to be married to them after this?!!?! Right?! And I was caught in the worst of situations because I should have said something the moment i heard them speak romanian and how would it look if I said something now, three hours into their fight? And I was crying (because of the scrapbook) and angry (because of the nasty words they were saying to each other) and as such I devoured Jensen's bak kwa.

My only sweet revenge was when, before landing, I opened up charlene's box of chocolates, turned around and offered them some (in romanian). By now they were happy with each other again but the look of embarrassment (on his face) and surprise (on hers) was priceless.

And the image of sandra crying still brings tears to my eyes because it's not often that her hard shell cracks, least of all in front of so many strangers.

[and i promise, this is one of the last depressing posts]

Oh my, has it been so long?

2011-06-10T06:19:00.005+08:00

Just realized that maybe, just maybe, I haven't been blogging for ages. The reason for this prolonged silence is that yes, I have moved to Adelaide. Initially I wanted to blog when a successful move happened, but sadly I can't do that yet. So, short of everybody declaring me dead or the equivalent, I am blogging now.

In the past eight (EIGHT) oh my god has it been that long?! - days, I have done the following:

- took a plane to Adelaide

- got greeted by the C-C-C-COLD! It's freezing sadly, and it's only 12-14 degrees here. I guess one of the reasons for this horrible C-C-C-COLD is that I have chosen to fill my airplane bag with rope, quickdraws, running shoes, training clothes (climbing pants, running SHORTS ha!) etc. And .... summer clothes. This is because when i looked online, the weather said 20 degrees in Adelaide (must've been a hot day fucking hell)

- met up with Claudia and Bogdan, our Nepal trekking friends, who flew from Goldcoast to help me for a while with settling down.

- went to the climbing gym - the situation is kinda pathetic as the bouldering wall there is flat, but maybe there are more gyms around?! [gotta research this out]

- got myself an australian phone number

- ATE GOOD FOOD (but I am craving my tom yam like madd) - the western food here is quite delicious and not pricy at all (for australian standards, mind you)

- bought a CAR. This is the most significant purchase I have made (other than the 200 den stockings - the stockings I wore for my wedding were 15 den haha) in a while. Also, the most expensive yet. The car is a toyota echo and her name is Snow White. (guess why, pictures are coming up)

- found my office! It has a window!! (pictures coming up)

- got my application rejected! Here you have to apply for a rental property. If the owner/landlord/agent likes you, then you get it. If not, too bad. Good thing i have a car, worse comes to worst, I can sleep in the car!

- it was only after Bogdan and Claudia left, that i have truly started to feel alone and lonely (cue violins). I have trouble sleeping and eating - but this might be because I'm stressed about not finding a house as well - keep your fingers crossed!

Ok, this is it for the updates, will be resuming our normal flow this weekend!

Thoughts on leaving

2011-06-02T10:35:00.003+08:00

I have been alluding to this for a long time now but I guess it is a good time to make an official announcement: on Friday, 3rd of June, I will be leaving Singapore and shifting to Adelaide - yay! aussie pictures coming up!!

Now before I bring out the tissue I want to say that throughout the years I have become VERY, VERY good at leaving. I am capable of leaving my family, dog, mother, grandmother, favorite place in the whole wide universe, turn my back, get on the plane, and not shed a single tear [Other than the violent sobbing in the plane toilet and the occasional roar during movies such as "UP!" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" (yes, when that duck looked into the panda's eyes and said "don't leave, Po!" I was bawling).] While I am so good at leaving, I am not so good at keeping in touch, and thus I have kept very few (2) friends from the olden days.

However, this time is different. Not only am I leaving behind a hoard of friends that have touched me and shaped me in ways I have never thought possible but I am also leaving behind a husband, my two bestest friends (aka the besties, for those big bang theory fans out there), tom yam soup, DURIANS, and last but not least the stuffy and chalky climbing gym. Not only that, but I am going to Adelaide all by myself (issue Celine Dion "All By Myself") to face the world of lecturing alone. And what really scares me is the fact that I have tears in my eyes as I write this, which only means that tomorrow when I will really leave I will be a spectacle of sobs and mucus. Hurray!

So I guess, what I'm trying to say is I'm leaving, but I'm not. Australia is only 8 hours by flight away (hey, compare it to Singapore->Europe!), 2.5 hours time difference ONLY!, there's climbing in the Blue Mountains and New Zealand is fantastic! So if you don't come visit, I will muahhahahahah! (right now I know for sure that I will be back in July and November, yay!)

Techincal helpdesk saga

2011-06-01T13:58:00.004+08:00

I know for sure that there is somebody in this school that will be eternally grateful that I will be leaving soon. And that person is the one that is manning the technical helpdesk here at our NUMBER 12 in the world COMPUTER SCIENCE school. For you see, helpdesk here is run by non-extremely-technical-savvy people that rely on printouts of "next->next" screen to identify/fix problems.

Problem no 1: A while ago the internet connection on my desktop was down. A quick check to other comps in the lab revealed that they were still online, so the problem had to be either with my computer or ... . Anyway, I did all the usual things, restarted everything etc, even went to the trouble to change my mac address to the wildcard we sekretly hold in our lab, but to no avail. So I decide to call the helpdesk with my problem. The lady there, after listening, says: "Go to control panel -> settings " . And I say, I can't go there, it's a Mac. What do you mean it's a mac? Says here it's a windows PC.

And I say "It's a mac!"

She: "Ok. Go to control panel, settings ..."

After going to and fro she decides it's a problem with the fact that I have MacOS and therefore she can't help me. And that I should send her an email (see reason for problem number 1 - WTF?!?!?!!!!!!) with the error (WHAT ERROR!?!). After several more angry calls in which she finally changes her attitude (once realizing that I might be calling from a student lab but I am not only a student FUCKING HELL WAS THAT NECESSARY?!), and during which internet connection fails on all comps in the lab, she finally calls back to say that: "Internet is down. Will be fixed." and she hangs up!

Problem no 2: Today I needed to access an online form to extend something. Of course, I log in, and I find that said link does not work with any browser, neither Firefox, Chrome, Safari. I try a PC as well, in which I only (to my shame) try Firefox.After it does not work, I send email saying it does not work. Prompt reply: "Your browser has issues. Try internet exploder on PC".

Of course, I go try and lo and behold, it does not work! Email back saying it does not work.
Reply:
"Then is either your notebook or PC problem.

Alternatively you may come down to ... to fill in the
eform.
"

Future prodding reveals that if you log-in with a staff account, it works. With student account it does not work - although it's students that are supposed to use that eForm. I send her this revealing bug - probably some authentication since they merged such that login is done with NUS accounts, and also I send her my account with my password.

To which she candidly replies: "Dear ...

You are not supposed to sent your password thru email. The eform ONLY works if a student has both NUSNET and SoC a/c.
" - > lo and behold, EVERYBODY in the lab (yes, I had them try) has both NUSNET and SoC acc!!!!!!

There is steam coming out of my ears at this point!!!

And her last answer:
"Dear ...

I am aware that you are extending your SoC a/c

Please login using your NUSNET staff a/c ... to extend your SoC a/c

Don't worry about other user in the lab, if they have problem they can sent an
email to ...@...

Let's settle your case first.

"

ZOMG.

One picture Tuesday

2011-05-31T11:19:00.002+08:00

And to re-instate the tradition ... First of all, WE ARE BACK TO SINGAPORE! YAY! Actually, I am not happy to be back, I would have spent at least one more month traveling through Europe, but there you have it, we are adults and we have jobs and responsibilities and what not. To cheer me up, here's a picture of Bingo in his wedding attire. I loved the fact that he was still able to participate in every aspect of the wedding.

Yes we did!

2011-05-23T03:22:00.005+08:00

Finally, some pictures are up from the wedding! Not the pro ones (those will take a while and i hope are worth it!) but some to give a brief idea about a romanian wedding, an all-in-all endurance marathon from 6 am on Saturday morning to 6 am on Sunday morning.

First, the hairdo for the civil ceremony:

With my mother before the ceremony:

My grandmother and most of the family from her part came: my grandmother, her two sisters that totally made the show (see more below) They travelled all the way from Bacau to Caracal (500+ km?) in a bus, all SIXTEEN of them, together with my 85-year old grandfather and my 80-year old grandmother. This truly made my day.

They truly made the show, singing, dancing, showing my two Asian maids of honor the various drinks and dance steps... I was really proud of them!

And then we signed - muhahahahah Marian does not know that hell is just beginning!

After that, went to the hairdresser, changed the hairdo, got into the dress with the help of Dor and San:

Looking demure:

With the only two pre-Marian friends that came for the wedding: my highschool friend and my university friend. HOT, HOT, HOT!

At the veiling of the bride, my relatives composed and sang an entire song that included our meeting in singapore, bringing the asian girls for the wedding, and inviting them for the christening of our first child. I CRIED!!! Like tears!!! This is the only time when i cried.

In the church:

Wearing the crown:

Dor holding the candle: and she did not set the church on fire!!

Being welcomed by Marian's mom:

And my dog Bingo (notice the bowtie):

Dancing the whole night (from 9pm until 5 am I KID YOU NOT!)

The unveiling of the bride and wearing a womanly scarf:

And in the end, despite my deep hatred for weddings (and truly loathing being in the limelight), I really enjoyed my family being there, Bingo still being young enough (he's 14!) to enjoy, and San and Dor traveling all the way from Singapore to be there for me. WOO HOO!

No news is good news!

2011-05-18T18:07:00.002+08:00

So, first, Marian and I are married. I am not going to write anything cheesy here so you should relax. What I am going to say is that the wedding party was fantastic and that we danced the whole night - from 9 pm to 4 am -nearly without break. My thighs are killing me now but it was an endurance event worth taking part in.

I loved both my dresses - the civil ceremony and the wedding - and pictures will come soon. More importantly, I did not look like hulk's sister in them. I did not get a chance to stay in Lacu Rosu, but I did go there (and drove the extra five hundred km), just to play with two dogs. One of them, my favorite ever (other than Bingo):

I am blogging now while on the plane to Zurich - we are going to Switzerland first and then France. Pics will be up just as soon as dodo finishes uploading them. Let the honeymoon begin!

Good job, Claudia!

2011-05-12T12:39:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was one of the days when i was truly and utterly myself. I drove from Marian's town of Caracal, to my town, Bucharest, to pick up my two maids of honor, San and Dor. The drive was horrendous because the road was very crowded, with a lot of carts and trucks and all that. Anyway, I managed to reach Bucharest just in time. So I hurry out of the car and into the airport and try to find a spot close to the exit such that Doris can see the bright yellow sign I made for her.

But of course, Romanian customs have to be their anal selves and really give a hearty welcome to everybody that comes in here. The girls were kept for a ginormous amount of time because they didn't know my address... I forgot to give it to them. And so they called me. But because I HAD FORGOTTEN MY PHONE IN THE CAR they could not reach me. And they called and called and called and facebooked marian and i had like ten missed calls when i finally got my phone back. And other people were calling me too cause the girls were bringing stuff for them and yeah, from now on, my phone sleeps with me.

World War III

2011-05-09T14:44:00.000+08:00

I am up to my neck in wedding preparations and I haven't even started yet. Haha. Laugh all you can, but right now, we have all re-united in Marian's town, and are slowly starting preparations for a full-fledged war. We have only started to determine how many drinks to order and already the spirits (haha) are high and the tensions are blooming.

Today we are going to the doctor, the hotel, the restaurant, to buy nuptial flowers and for me for a hair try-out. And I have yet to run a long run, and the two of us have yet to practice the dance again (this is set for in-between today and tomorrow). And if we manage all this (the main argument last night was for example to establish how big the coca-cola bottles that are put on the table should be) without killing ourselves and still talk to each other it will be a massive achievement. Marian in particular gets especially hysterical around 11 pm at night. God help us all :))

A story of squirrels

2011-05-04T12:38:00.002+08:00

An old couple was in the Herastrau park in Bucharest. I think they are there every morning this spring.

They have a number of furry little friends

With whom they have breakfast in the park:

Spring is here!

2011-05-03T12:30:00.002+08:00

I am at home, and spring is here. Albeit a little bit chilly sometimes (read: fucking cold!!!) the blooming flowers are fantastic!

And running dachshunds (albeit old) really make my day :)

Mistakes of the past

2011-04-29T10:46:00.003+08:00

Until now, Qatar airways has got to be THE airline with the worst food I have ever flown - it is even topped by TAROM, the romanian airline. When we boarded our seven hour flight we got a small bread stick as food, and a promise of breakfast six hours later. And this is where the mistakes of the past come to haunt me, because when I booked the ticket I had accidentally left "raw vegetarian" selected in the menu. Afterwards, i went to change it to cooked vegetarian, but turns out that it didn't change. And i got raw vegetarian. Which didn't contain any fruits, suprisingly. And the flight attendant was rude (to everybody), which did even more to sour my mood.

The other options for breakfast were omelette or fried rice. I was somewhat happy with my raw vegetarian as it looked much much better than what my neighbors were having (although they had fruits wtf?)

ALSO, MOST IMPORTANTLY, there was no coffee/tea. And here am I, awake for two hours already and I have not had my coffee. I am slowly turning into a little monster.

Bittersweet - part II

2011-04-28T23:27:00.003+08:00

Today I said goodbye to my supervisor. While he will forever remain my supervisor, the next time I will see me he will no longer be my boss. Sadly, he will not be here for my convocation. Nor for when I leave for Adelaide next month. I chocked again, as when I wanted to thank him during my defense. I think he was troubled too, but whether it was because he will miss me or he was scared that I was going to hug him or kiss him on the cheek or something, I do not know.

For you see, our prof is very very shy. The kind of shy that if he were to suddenly be in the limelight (outside professional limelights) he would be so distressed and shudder as if a cold, slimy snake (no offense to snakes!) would suddenly slither up his back. And by limelight in this case would be if somebody would say, ask him what was the color of his t-shirt yesterday or wether he would like prawns or cuttlefish for dinner.

While we have not been friends (and imagine, i was his golden child! how shy can one be?!), he has been a very good professional mentor to me. I do not know about him, but I know that I will miss him immensely. And in truth, the only reason why I am still considering a career in research (rather than only in teaching) is because I think it would make him proud. I guess that in this respect a part of this Chinese make-your-elders-proud has rubbed on me as well.

Bittersweet

2011-04-26T14:42:00.007+08:00

On Sunday, Marian and I had our singaporean wedding celebration plus a farewell party for me. It was not a very exciting event but! at least we and I got to see everybody that i wanted to see before I left. With a few exceptions that i see everyday and some that couldn't make it. I do not wanna talk about that, nor about my very pretty dress!

Or the very very cute baby!

But I do want to talk about the fantastic guest book that everybody made! I got fun, quirky, cute, sad, bittersweet messages from everybody, and these messages literally bought tears in my eyes. I cried and cried and cried which did not do my face any good as I was still wearing my non-waterproof mascara. And it was 2 am. And I got a headache. Add that to the late time going to sleep and i was a total mess on monday, which explains the lack of posts. See pics below for details.

Chloe was the producer of my whale-signing CD.

Ely made me cry - with the drawings but mostly with the text.

Jensen drew a portrait of the future hahahahha

Jups drew a PERFECT dyno.

Reg, shaoting, felicia, daffy went crazy! (pardon my finger nail, i dig earth for a living)