I miss you, melbourne...i do.

(careful..sentimental blog coming up..pls do not continue if u expect to be entertained)

How many of you have been overseas to study/work?

I spent ...6 years in Melbourne...and i just returned to kl..well not just returned...i came back in august last yr..

the 6 years in melbourne, when i look back, had its ups and downs, the great and the not so great...by the time i left, i was eagerly looking forward to coming back here...and i never thought i'd miss it.. after all..having spent.. a quarter of my life there...i reckoned i'd had quite enough. i went there shortly after celebrating my 17th birthday in kl...and i celebrated every single birthday there for the next 6 yrs. when i got back.. i hit the ground running... did not have time to reflect or do any of that namby pamby stuff...i more or less clinched the job here while i was still in aus, came back, started work, and never looked back. then i switched jobs, which occupied much of my time. i thought i was happy, i thought this was the life i wanted.

i had had enough of the student life...u study.. u work..u get ur PR..yada yada..but in the end, i realized that what would make me happy is to come back to kl.

i thought coming home, working hard, being around my friends, being in malaysia and feeling the malaysianness of things would be all i ever needed.

all that is true. its still true. still, lately, as ive gotten so caught up in work, i've been thinking...is this what life is really all about? wats the problem here?

a) life is REALLY all about working hard if ur after financial success. so if u want to be pretty well off, then, slog ur ass off, there aint no short cut, and put up with it. everyone else is who rich did it the same way. they suffered too. just that we didnt see it happen doesnt mean it didnt happen. they probably sacrificed a lot. u cant have ur cake and eat it too. so, quit whining, and get on with it.

b) life isnt all about working hard. it doesnt have to be. theres other ways to it. life is about enjoying urself, really, taking the time to experience everything around you. YOU ARE ONLY YOUNG ONCE. YOUTH CAN NEVER BE BOUGHT WITH MONEY. remember that.

my time in melbourne really taught me a lot.. dont get me wrong, i had a lot of fun there..maybe im just lazy..not used to working hard... 12 hour days are the norm alredi..just seems that.. when i sit back n go thru the memories of whatever i did back in those days as a student.. (gosh im only 23 right now and im speaking like im 33) .. it feels like it was long ago, and it wasnt long ago. u know? i cant believe that 1 year has passed since i left the place. wow.. theres so much i feel at the moment that i cannot articulate..i think i will just take a little quick walk down memory lane..

Bogong Village..Melbourne, April 2003. Taking a break from tennis/football. In the depths of winter.




Bogong Village..Melbourne, April 2003. Taking a water break by a shallow stream after cycling up and down the rural country farm roads for hours...with nothing but farmland, dried australian shrubs, lambs, sheep, cows, lambs..beautiful.




Bogong Village.. group pic.. I'm in the back right corner with the blue cap..



Ballarat Wildlife Park, Jul 2005. My friend John..the 1 on the left!



Another Kodak moment..



Searching for his balls..



Looks like we went pimping (say pimpin' like russell peters folks!) in Thailand huh..



i want a garden like this next time.



thats the sydney myer building behind the tram.. melbourne uni, folks..



only in australia..





cute. the koalas look like that jap dude from karate kid..




next up...sovereign hill..ok quick history lads n lasses.. when melbourne was first founded.. they discovered gold in this place called sovereign hill..and..a lot of chinese, english, etc etc came from all round the world.. n settled here n started this rich gold mining community.. of course, theres no more gold..but what they did was they reconstructed on the site an exact replica of how the town looked like.. wherever possible they even used original stuff like er the posters n bills n fliers..they hired all these like locals to wear period costumes n walk around n pretend its like back in that era..the shops r fully functional..the blacksmiths place has a real live blacksmith hammering away (girls, sorry, he aint sexy) and the bakers shop actually sells bread.

original flier.



room to let



reconstructed original flier.



bowling alley



real street.



IN MY ROOM (babe.. i miss u..u were small..but u let me mess and use you anyway i liked without complaint.)

drinking n gaming..hip hip, hurray



mirror shots..the alfie look man, the alfie look.



chinese rock band album cover.



steamboat! my style.. i.e...chuck everything in, wait a while, get impatient, fish it out, dont care cooked or wat, swallow only. must have fishballs, sliced beef, noodles, eggs, tomyam paste, vegies, odds n ends, pig ears.. dog tails..saliva mixing..yea baby!



and damn! i miss the chicks too.



Silhouette experiment gone wrong! early dabbles with the camera..years from now when im a famous photographer i will look back on this moment. haha

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ok voyeurs..thats all for the time being..its late im sleepy, and i cant b buggered..gnite yall!