Sub zero

Freezing cold last week, -3 , -4 and -6 degrees Celsius...

Frozen windscreens....

Misty Morning...












Ice ....

And a nice hot chocolate..

WIF to YEW

Got my rego plate converted from South Australian (SA) to Canberran (ACT).


Canberra has more distinctive seasons as compared to rest of the states. Being located inland and at much higher attitude , the climate is not conditioned by the sea.

Summer is hot and dry with highest temperature around 40 degrees while winter is cold and wet with lowest temperature being -5 degrees. I remember last wednesday morning is around -3 degrees and later in the afternoon, the temperature stablized at 16 degrees.

One thing I loved about Canberra beside the weather is the huge number of parkland and nature parks around. It's a bushwalker , runner, rock climber and mountain bikers' heaven.

Canberra is more widely spreadout compared to other states thus I have to drive approximately 20 km to work and another 20 km back to home everyday. That's around the radius of Adelaide..

Being located close to Sydney around 250 km away meant that I can enjoy the good food especially the Korean, Vietnamese, Turkish and Chinese cuisine.

In fact, Australia is very multicultured country as compared to other. Make up of mainly Greek, Italian, English, Scottish, German, Russian, Ukrainan, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Turkish, Korean, Japanese etc...of course Aussie.... so many to list. In fact, every nationality can be found in Australia.

Hailstorms in Canberra

Canberra has been raining almost everyday since I arrived three weeks ago. However yesterday night, there was a massive storm and quite an awful locations were flooded and covered with hailstones. The worst being in the city central (civil) which was being covered with hailstones (see the photos : courtesy of John Gordon)

Traffic around city is pretty havoc in the morning on my way to work as fire brigade and council were trying their best to clear the 'ice'.

Extracted from yahoo.com.au

Canberra bracing for another storm

Canberra is bracing for a second major storm as it cleans up from a damaging "supercell" storm, which dropped up to one metre of hail and caused chaos in the centre of the capital.

Hailstones as large as golf balls and winds over 50km/h lashed the city for less than 30 minutes on Tuesday night but left trees defoliated and turned nature strips into mud baths.

The Bureau of Meteorology on Wednesday said the storm which hit Canberra was a supercell, the same type of storm responsible for the devastating twisters of Tornado Alley in the US.

"This storm was an ultra-efficient, thermo-dynamic machine," a bureau spokesman said.

"It feeds itself."

The supercell formed about 10pm on Tuesday and about an hour later it hit Civic, the centre of Canberra.

The storm forced the closure of the Australian National University, two high schools, government departments and many roads while it damaged the ACT Magistrates Court and ACT Policing headquarters.

Canberra's main retail centre, The Canberra Centre, was forced to shut its doors as insurers moved in to assess the cost of extensive flooding in the recently redeveloped centre.

"At this stage it is too early to comment on the extent of the damage or the costs associated with it," centre manager Rob Mansfield said.

Bulldozers were called in to clear metre deep ice drifts in Civic as commuters awoke to peak hour horror in a city unused to traffic jams.

Emergency Services Agency (ESA) acting commissioner David Prince said the erratic nature of the storms had created problems.

"It's too early to tell how this storm compares with previous storms in terms of damage and disruption," Mr Prince told reporters.

"The storms have been sporadic and erratic; we're not quite sure where they're going to hit and with what severity."

Mr Prince warned the damage caused meant any storm that hit the city on Wednesday would be particularly difficult to respond to.

"The ESA is warning residents in the areas affected by last night's storm, especially Civic, to be aware of the dangers with extensive flooding and damage throughout the city," Mr Prince said.

"This could present an increased risk to the community if another storm hits this afternoon or tonight as predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology," he said.

A low-level or yellow warning has been issued by the ESA with the bureau spokesman saying there is the chance of more thunderstorms later on Wednesday.

Mr Prince said the State Emergency Service (SES) had responded to 170 calls for help since the storm hit.

"ACT SES volunteers have been working overtime since late last night attending to jobs across the affected area from Civic out to Belconnen."

1400 km from Adelaide to Canberra

Phew .... finally reached Canberra last week, 2 days of driving trip to start my new life in Canberra.

To be working as both hardware and software engineer in local company dealing with Global Positioning System ( GPS ).

I reckon it will be an excellent job experience especially an oversea one to be included in my list.

Weather in Canberra said to be in high 30 degree in summer and -6 degree in winter... A drastic change for me. Can't wait to go back to Mount Kosciuszko for a climb and Sydney for grand feast.

But at this point, I would be spending most of the time to get myself settle down.....

New South Wales to Canberra to Victoria to South Australia.... phew .. Tiring

From Sydney to Canberra to Theobo to Mount Kosciuszko to Queanbeyan to Murray River land..... finally Adelaide in South Australia ... goosh ...

As a one of the bunch of crazy outcast who loved nature .. It's a rare sighting to see my friend Paul and I driving from Sydney to Adelaide, visiting National Parks along the way.

I lost my mobile phone :( sob...

Thank you everyone for your concerns...I managed to calm down and forget about my mobile phone. However, the phone I lost was given to me by my room mate thus it was very heart-breaking for me. I am now waiting for the remaing emails andc calls from my friends to update my contact list. It was my fault to be so careless...

It was an unlucky day on Monday for me, Early in the morining at 7.30 am, I took a bus to the city followed by a train to Mawson Lake and lastly a shuttle bus to the university.

The very moment I reached my department building, I discovered I lost my mobile phone when I wanted to call up my course mates. I went to the technical office immediately to make a phone call to my mobile and it was ringing perfectly but no one picked it up. I believed that I still have the phone on the train because I was 'SMSing' a while ago and not on the shuttle bus because there were people behind me when I alight.

John Wilson, technical officer of School of Electrical and Information Engineering helped me to walk from the university to the bus stop in the rain, and the same time dialling my mobile number. I was so grateful for his kindness.. We did not managed to find the phone.

I dialled the call to the TransAdelaide, operator of the train to lodge a lost enquiry. The guy on the phone was very friendly and told me that he will get back to John once he contacted the driver of the train.

Nothing much that I could do thus I went for my lesson at around 0930 .. I was late for half an hour. Upon finishing the lesson at 1100, I went to see John, hoping to hear some good news. Disappointing, TransAdelaide replied that the phone was not there. I dialled the phone ... at this time the phone was not ringing.. someone had turned it off.. I walked to the train station hoping to find it and in vain..


Steve , my course and project mate suggested that I should immdiately terminated my line. However, I need to search for one of my friend , Arnold to discuss the modern communication assignment results with him. He must cursing me now.. I search the whole university from the library to the cafe but still unable to find him.. I decided to forget about it and hoped that Arnold will understand.

Because my operator was Revelation Telecom situated at Perth, I was unable to get a replacement card instantly and also I was on prepaid plan. Steve accompanied me to the city by train. I asked for my phone at lost and found counter at the train station... none. It was already reaching 1400 hours... and I can't make it back to a practical at 1300 hours.It needed at least hald an hour to go the university and It was not peak hour thus I had to wait for half and hour for the transport if i missed one.

I bought a prepaid card from Vodafone and lodge application for old number porting to the new SIM card. Because it was a third party operator thus I was told that I need at least 2 hours for the whole process.

Steve and I went for a meal , a gratitude from me.

The very moment I reached home, i sent emails to everyone asking them for their contact numbers.

I managed to get a old Nokia 3315 phone and popped in my SIM card and hoping for calls or sms. I received a SMS from Uncle Rajah that his braodband had broke down thus i went to his house at around 1730.. Well... he picked me up of course..

I received long awaiting call from Arnold that he had been trying to contact me the whole day. I apologised and make it up by meeting him in the city at 2030 hours.
Fortunately that we met up because we discovered a number of mistakes in our results.
By the time, i reached home . it was already reaching 0200 in the morining...

I still have a project workshop at 0900 hours and lessons for the whole day....

What an unlucky day....

Post Grampians Bouldering

I am still flat out after the trip ..... I found bouldering exhausting and techanical..... I appreciated the company and fun that I had ....

Overall the trip is fun and the view of the Grampians is magnificant ....

'Beifalllsruf' to Derek , our reowned 'leader' for organising such an 'ausgezeichnet' trip ..... Hail Derek....

Weather man

What's wrong with the weather??? Yesterday it was as warm as an oven ... today ..it is raining ...

Mioralta Rock Climb

What a warm morning to start with .... it was pretty warm last nite....

Gathered at Tower Hotel at Magill before heading to Mioralta Conservation Park ...

Did three different climb .... managed to reach the top at first attempt ... but only struggled to 3/4 on the rest...

Lyndale impressed the group by reaching the top in two of the climbs... I have a lot of catching up to do...

Did some abseiling before heading to the pub .....

It had been a well spent day except for some bruise, cuts and sunburnt...

Il Cielo che Danza (The Dancing sky)

A cool and lovely evening to enjoy the performance, Il Cielo che Danza (The Dancing sky)brought by Compagnia di Valerio Festi (Studio Festi) by Italy...

This is a free opening performance of Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts..


Studio Festi has brought magnificant outdoor performance to Adelaide and, my friends and I are fortunate to witness such a wonderful creation.

The whole performance is a wonderful experience and one has to be there to feel it as it is beyond photographic description.

Unfortunately, the output of our cameras are not very satisfactory thus following photographs are referenced from the organiser website ... [http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au]

[Photo referenced from http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/]

"Munich"

Watched "Munich" by Steven Spielberg yesterday night...
One of my next favourite movies beside "Green Miles"...

The story started in 1972 when 11 Israli athletes were murdered at Munich Olympics..
The Israli authorities sent five men to assassinate the people who were responsible for the killing..

Eric Bana who acted as "Sergeant Norm 'Hoot' Gibson" in "Black Hawk Down" and "Hecter" in "Troy" portrayed as "Avner" a father to be, was sent by the Israli authorities to lead in the assassination.


Daniel Craig .... Steve
Ciarán Hinds .... Carl
Mathieu Kassovitz .... Robert
Hanns Zischler .... Hans
Ayelet Zorer .... Daphna (as Ayelet Zurer)
Geoffrey Rush .... Ephraim
Gila Almagor .... Avner's Mother
Michael Lonsdale .... Papa
Mathieu Amalric .... Louis
Moritz Bleibtreu .... Andreas
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi .... Sylvie
Meret Becker .... Yvonne
Marie-Josée Croze .... Jeanette
Yvan Attal .... Tony - Andreas' Friend

The main ideal which is conveyed to me is not about the sympathism of the victims nor the killers... ( i wonders who are the real victims or killers )...

But it is about act performed in a violent manner don't simply solved any problem...
Instead, more problems are created and worst still, our future generations will suffered due to our selfish act...

Happy Lunar New Year

Wishes all my Chinese pals a Happy Lunar New Year

source from http://www.new-year.co.uk/chinese/history.htm



The origin of the Chinese New Year is itself centuries old - in fact, too old to actually be traced. It is popularly recognised as the Spring Festival and celebrations last 15 days.

Preparations tend to begin a month from the date of the Chinese New Year (similar to a Western Christmas), when people start buying presents, decoration materials, food and clothing. A huge clean-up gets underway days before the New Year, when Chinese houses are cleaned from top to bottom, to sweep away any traces of bad luck, and doors and windowpanes are given a new coat of paint, usually red. The doors and windows are then decorated with paper cuts and couplets with themes such as happiness, wealth and longevity printed on them.

The eve of the New Year is perhaps the most exciting part of the event, as anticipation creeps in. Here, traditions and rituals are very carefully observed in everything from food to clothing. Dinner is usually a feast of seafood and dumplings, signifying different good wishes. Delicacies include prawns, for liveliness and happiness, dried oysters (or ho xi), for all things good, raw fish salad or yu sheng to bring good luck and prosperity, Fai-hai (Angel Hair), an edible hair-like seaweed to bring prosperity, and dumplings boiled in water (Jiaozi) signifying a long-lost good wish for a family. It's usual to wear something red as this colour is meant to ward off evil spirits - but black and white are out, as these are associated with mourning. After dinner, the family sit up for the night playing cards, board games or watching TV programmes dedicated to the occasion. At midnight, the sky is lit up by fireworks.

On the day itself, an ancient custom called Hong Bao, meaning Red Packet, takes place. This involves married couples giving children and unmarried adults money in red envelopes. Then the family begins to say greetings from door to door, first to their relatives and then their neighbours. Like the Western saying "let bygones be bygones," at Chinese New Year, grudges are very easily cast aside.

The end of the New Year is marked by the Festival of Lanterns, which is a celebration with singing, dancing and lantern shows.

Although celebrations of the Chinese New Year vary, the underlying message is one of peace and happiness for family members and friends

Jacob Creek Tour Down Under

The heat is on ..... International riders like Cadel Evans would be taking part ....

Happy Hari Raya Haji .....

Wish all the Muslim a Happy Hari Raya Haji...

Below is the information extract from http://ringtone.mobileklub.com/cgi-bin/app.cgi?m=Web&c=Greetings&cat=Hari_Raya_Haji&AgtID=2401



" Literally translated into English, Hari Raya Haji simply means the 'festival of pilgrimage'. The 5th tenet of Islam requires all Muslims to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime, if they can afford it. Why Mecca? Well, the eminent Prophet Mohammed was born in this Holy Land, where the pilgrims are given the titles of Haji for men and Hajjah for women. Thus for many of our Muslim friends, the pilgrimage, commonly known as the Haj, is probably the most important journey in their lives.


Hari Raya Haji, a festival celebrated by our fellow Muslims on the tenth day of the Zulhijjah month, is a day to commemorate this religious occasion, and to honour pilgrims who’ve completed their Haj to Mecca. It’s a joyous affair, filled with festivities and cheer to welcome the return of the assiduous pilgrims.

This occasion is also named Hari Raya Korban - the festival of sacrifice. Sheep, goats and cows are ritually slaughtered as sacrifices. This is typically done in the mosque, after the morning Thanksgiving prayers are offered. Though not a compulsory religious duty for everyone, it’s considered an obligation for those who can afford it.


Of the meat obtained, one-third is traditionally kept by those who performed the slaughter, while the rest is distributed. The recipients include neighbours, friends and most importantly – the poor and needy. "

Earth change

Read about article by E.N. Vselenskiy, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Academician of the International Academy of Sciences of Nature and Society - Winner of the Vernadsky prize about Change of Pole...

According to him, the earth poles had shifted during past 16 years and the magnetic field induced by north and south poles have reduced quite significantly ....

The shift of poles had caused dramatic events recently, more natural disaster, Birds, being guided by magnetic lines of the Earth in their migrations, do not land where they should and whales, seals and dolphins run aground (in July 2000, in Dagestan 200 thousand seals were lost) etc ..

Global warming has been a hot topic recently especially in Australia where the temperature is much higher now than previous .... Green house emission is said to be one of the culprit ... The size of the glacier on the himalaya region and ice berg at the poles has reduced at quite an alarming rate in past decade....

There is two predictions of the Earth's future .... One hand is earth is going to have ice age and on the other is the earth is going to be dryland similar to Mars...

Whether which prediction will be true , the future don't look bright ahead ....

Mount Compass Bushwalk (trekking)

Met John and Alice to go to Mount Compass, one hour drive from Adelaide ...

Spent 4 hours trekking along part of Heysen trail .... passing through grape vine, cattle, farmland and pine forest ....

Heysen trail which sketched all the way from Parachilna Gorge, part of South Australia's world renowned Flinders Ranges all the way to Cape Jervis at Fleurieu Peninsula.. The total distance is about 1200 km ....
But we only trek 12 km today ..... :P

Luckily the weather was much cooler now ... 23 degrees....

I guessed we finished the trek too late as we wanted to get local produced strawberry .... but it was sold out before we got there .... better luck next time ....



More information on Mount Compass ... please follow the link http://www.alexandrina.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=533

Information on Heysen trail .... http://www.heysentrail.asn.au/

Happy new year ......

Happy new year everyone ....... May 2006 a happy and prosperous one for all ....

What a hot day ...

A freaking hot day .... 42.5 degrees ....

My university vice-chancellor is being voted South Australian of the Year ....

Spent the day surfing the net and watching movies on the PC.....

Got to meet up with friends later for a meal ....

What have i done today ???

Slept till 11 am and got waken up by the neighbour kids playing outside the house .. Instead of scolding them , I smiled at them ... you can the see the happiness and joy in their faces ... playing their worries away ...

Been travelling around the camping stores in Adelaide... desperately searching for a Brazilian army hunting knife which my grandma mistakely thrown away when moving home 2 years ago.... saw quite a number of 'Made in China' imitation ... The one i used to have was bought from Rockhampton in Queensland during exercise Wallaby....
It was unique as it made of surgical steel and never need sharpening ... Had a wire cutting and a saw built in ... I need it for my camping , hiking ,canoeing etc .....

Saw a German AK 47 bayonet in one of the store in the city... Had a saw, wire cutter and best of all able to combine with the scaboard to form a scissor .. but not very strong and will rust as it is made up of mild steel...

Fixed a friend PC ..... hardware is pretty alright but i just hate the software ....

Weather report is 37 degrees today ..... warning for bushfire....

Been attending quite a number of pre and post xmas meals .. eating and drinking my way through ... need to exercise to burn away the calories....

Xmas had passed and New Year is on its way ...

Happy New Year... May 2006 a better one for everyone of us ...

Volunteering ..... Is it worth the effort ???

Everywhere in this world where there is human around .. there's bound to be trouble .... in form of disaster, war ...

Everytime these mishaps happened ... there will be a group of people unselfishly gave up their comfortable life, time with loved ones and volunteered their services to those in need ....

2005 had ended but the unfortunate events still stuck in our mind .....

Bali bombing, tsunamis, Hurricane Katrina....

In these incidents , many aids in form of financial , medical , food came pouring in .... people seen to be more interested in sudden disaster than those which had been existed for decades...

In another part of the world , in Africa which is historican called the Old World.... There are many unrest which are still happening today ....

In Kenya, Sudan , Ethopia , Congo ... civil wars had caused misfortuante for many decades .... it is such an irony that the UN (symbol : Olive branches symbolize peace. The world map depicts the area of concern to the United Nations in achieving its main purpose, peace and security. ) which is set up after the World War II never step in to help instead it is the aid volunteers who sent their ' troops ' in ...

Aid volunteers are being killed (http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46935) while trying to help ....

If the UN and the american cared so much about humanitarian .. why don't they send any troop into sudan, kenya, Congo, Ethopia, Nepal, North Korea... and the best of all , send the B2 bombers to the Golden Triangle to destroy all the poppy plants ( used to make opium and heroin)...

In South australia... the incident of last year Enyre Peninsula bush fire has not been rest... The volunteers of Country Fire Service (CFS) are beening sued for not doing a good job (inadquent equipments etc) ....

The Howard government and Mike Rann state government rather allowed $$ to be spent on the lawsuit against the volunteers than spending them on rebuilding and allocating to the victims of the bushfire....

The Howard government , Rann state government and Australian red cross were not heavily involved till everytime is over....