OK, Not ALL kids are NIGHTMARES!!!

...just the ones related to ME! lol

So I met my friend's kid for the first time today...ironically for all my lack of maternal instinct I'm not bad with kids or babies...well not so bad that you could tell I'm completely NOT enamoured with them ;)

Anyway he was a good kid...so calm...truly had the PEACE OF GOD! Wow it was so distinct from the bratty precocious hyperactive disagreeable tantrum kids I've gotten used to witnessing over the last few years...

In any case although it was a pleasant and refreshing surprise to find a kid that was NOT a nightmaare it still didn't make me think I might ever want any of my own one day! I don't really see a real need to proreate my genes...I may be arrogant but not THAT level of arrogant, lol! Maybe if the father was superhot and superintelligent...then MAYBE the world would be done a favour with an extra superintelligent attractive DECENT person, lol, but to be honest I think it's CRUEL to bring children into a society like today...lol got chatting with an old granny at the bus stop about today's terrible society, hahah I am SO in GRANDMA era! We talked about the evils of global warming and electromagnetic pollution that are starting to be obviously manifest...then we also talked about the days we grew up when the world was a little less crazy, when the weather was distinct, when people had manners and weren't glued to their electronics...and she talked about growing up during WWII and lacking and I spoke of growing up a migrant and lacking. Anyway it was a nice resonance...that I never find with people my own age, lol...

Progress...AT LAST!!! :o)

LOL...it is like some ridiculous time here and my weekend is so busy but as a hardcore blogger I HAD to UPDATE ;)

Cos wow so exciting...FINALLY I was able to ACHIEVE...SOMETHING...new!!! woohoo! :D

Can you guess? (If no, read *THE HINT*)

*HINT*...well I can only so far go in a straight line, lol. Any kind of bumps send me careening all over! LOL!!!

So yeah...finally I am on my way to achieving a life long dream, lol, well at least one of many...another two include learning the piano and being conversationally fluent in another language that I get to use...I'm figuring in Oz the only worth learning are a) Mandarin or b) Japanese...considering I much prefer the people and culture of the latter I'm thinking b). But who knows...I have no idea if I will have the time and discipline and commitment or motivation...

So yeah for other WOULD BE WANNABE BIKE RIDERS here is what I learnt in my *breathrough* moment of being able to pedal continuously...

1. YOU SERIOUSLY NEED A BIG WIDE FLAT ROAD. All this time since my dad bought me the bike the few times I tried was in a narrow short driveway with potplants and recycling bins in the way. Until you are fairly good there is NO WAY you can manouevre those kinds of obstacles at low speeds, let alone learn to pedal! So basically yeah that was the main issue...basically as soon as I worked up the guts to try out on the road I was very quickly able to pedal the bike!! (Steering is another story...lol let alone balancing- so far forward momentum is my best friend, oh...along with my...brakes(!!) HAHA

So yeah apart from that exotic earwax effects of Thai food and chatting with 91 year old sailors who fought in the Korean war, it's shaping up to be a very interesting and fun weekend! But more interesting revelations and anecdotes later...

Hope yours is fun too...

Pink Love Hearts and Fluffy Bunnies!!(that's SARCASM.)
*Zhen* the girl who is "like out of Harry Potter"!(apparently)

A Treasure Map!

Wow, even more bizarre adventures...featuring old men...lol!

So anyway an old guy randomly overheard that I was wanting mulberries(so very good for the eyes and blood you see...)

So I ended up with some obscure directions(later well documented in a hand drawn map) to a MULBERRY tree which is so prolific the owners are actually a bit stressed out unable to get rid of enough! So yeah...pretty interesting...I'm going to go to a random address, find this tree, tell the secret "codename" in case I get asked by locals how a random Japanese tourist managed to find this cornucopia...especially in the event that I need to bring out a big pair of loppers cos the random old guy assured me I would be free to take cuttings...let's hope he wasn't lying that his friend owns the tree...and hopefully I don't get resported by the old and curious locals as a curiously suspicious trespasser!

But yes...when one is lucky enough to be gifted a TREASURE MAP, one better at least try to go and claim their TREASURE! lol

Until the next bizarre adventure featuring old men, lol! Hope you have a good weekend :)

Stranger Stories a.k.a The Three Wise Men :)

It’s been an interesting random stranger week… three random strangers started random conversations with me in the past week or so…all OLD OLD MEN, lol…it’s like some kind of conspiracy theory- my mate says it’s cos I am more open to them hence my body language invites them as opposed to others…my theory is that although this may be true, there is some significant “other” factor cos It’s been happening for most of my life – that being that I suspect that really I am a really OLD man masquerading in the guise of a sweet and innocent looking young girl ;)

OLD MAN NO.2

Was a brilliant engineer with THREE degrees and who somehow back in the day had managed to get his training in GERMANY and at MIT- wow that’s a list of impressive credentials…so the way we got talking was that I was sitting on the bus late one night carrying a bag with some of my old scans…the outside of the bag said “MEDICAL IMAGING” he asked me isn’t that just a fancy term for “x-ray”? Yeah, and then he went on to tell me how he used to take X-rays of big huge steel structures…this guy, okay I accidentally caught his eye which may have been why he took the liberty to “chat”.

OLD MAN NO.2

Now this one WAS random! I was hanging around waiting to meet my bday twin to give her an umbrella she left behind while all the rest of the friends had gone ahead to lunch. So anyway, it was windy and I must have coughed but I don’t quite remember…a random voice from the side out of my vision just says “Are you Chinese?” I looked up and it was some old Chinese man. “No I can’t speak Chinese or any asian languages” I said defensively, being so sick of being asked for directions/help just cos I look asian but can’t actually communicate in asian. But I was too hasty to judge this man…he persists some more to keep asking me about my ethnicity…then after he verifies I have Chinese blood and from what region my long lost ancestors hail he says: “Take 4 slices of ginger and honey for your cough”. *what??!* Thinks me and suddenly my interest is perked…ARE YOU A CHINESE MEDICINE PRACTITIONER? I ask. LOL, yup. So anyway a nice conversation then ensues and he gives me his card, pokes out his tongue gesturing for me to poke out mine, take a look with a master’s eye and then proceeds to write a herbal formula for me on in elegant Chinese running characters on the back of his business card…

OLD MAN NO.3

I was doing my usual organic produce shopping and I spied this man carefully choosing PARSNIPS. I watched him carefully trying to identify how he was selecting these, especially cos I had only ever bought and tried cooking parsnip just the week prior and have not yet mastered its inner workings, lol.

So anyway maybe he noticed but did not say anything.

Then later I was carefully eyeing some interesting plant which looked to me like a very cute and stout white radish…I was dying to know what it was but was waiting for someone to be free to ask. So anyway that same man then asks the fruiterer to lop off the sprouts on the top and then he casually remarks to me standing next to him…(again no eye contact)”these are really nice and sweet.” So my curiosity gets the best of me and I end up asking what it is –A TURNIP- and how to cook them…ah, nice intellectual cultured old man(I extrapolate that based on look) who is passionate about fresh produce and can cook. That’s Coolness J

Anyway other more random weird stuff happened this week but I thought having the same theme –the three wise old men-would make for a blog post.

As a random aside I saw a wall hanging that made a good point: To Me perhaps?

“For problems that can be fixed, what is the NEED of worrying?

For problems that can’t be fixed, what is the USE of worrying?”

Thank You, Angels!

wow, the last 24 hours have been...something else!

It started with yesterday afternoon, a man randomly came and knocked directly on my door and came and gave me money to park his car in my garage for a few days...cool money just walked right up to my door, no effort on my part, I didn't even need to give him a key or anything-he could have just parked it in there without even asking let alone paying and I wouldn't have noticed! I wouldn't have taken the money except what with my whole lost key fiasco and needing a camera lens, I thought I could definitely do with the extra cash...

Today, I was out and about and waiting for the locksmith to call me at 230pm as arranged resigning myself to the fact that 5.5 days later the keys were goner. Whaddya know?

Is this Blessed Synchronicity or WHAT?!! At that exact time when the locksmith was supposed to call, I got a call from a woman instead saying she had my keys!!!!

I couldn't believe my "luck"! And the surprising thing is, the locksmith never ever did end up calling! So not only did I avoid having to shell out for a locksmith, I also didn't have to purchase a new set of keys- wooohoooo!

Furthermore, when I went to ring on the old lady's doorbell she wasn't there, I encountered 3 different random old ladies walking around who smiled at me yet somehow I knew which lady had my keys and had no hesitation saying to one...are you the lady that has my keys?!

Bizarre, there is something definitely acting on an inexplicable level of consciousness for me lately!

Apart from that the other happiness or "achievement" for today is that I was able to smile for the first time at a random stranger! This "smiling business" has always been a sore point with me in the past....I just can't do it!

Usually if anybody in the city smiles it will be some dodgy random man so obviously I won't smile back. I've never been able to smile at someone off my own bat before...today I finally smiled at a random stranger....a groundbreaking FIRST! (And I survived- not only that, it was actually quite pleasant!)

I realise the reason I don't smile at people is that nobody in the city inspires me to want to smile at them but today I saw this old white haired man with a wrinkled face but crisp shirt, belt and pants- reminded me of Gepetto in Pinocchio- carrying this HUGE black Nikon camera...obviously this was so cute it made me really smile and he smiled back with twinkly eyes like we shared some secret between the two of us ;)

So that was the last 24 hours...wow, in light of the last 2 days or so...I wonder what tomorrow brings?!!!

And p.s just for the record, the triple numbers just keep coming!

Is that a Compliment?

The plane got delayed so while whiling away the time I got chatting to an Irish mechanic cum cow farmer about obscure films, music and culture (you know as you do with mechanics and farmers from tiny rural towns in the middle of nowhere ;)...

Him to me:

"In Ireland, Chinese doctor types are really crazy but you actually come across really normal."

Cheers...I think that was the first time someone called me normal!

Musings on Travelling Solo

It's pretty interesting as G and I attempt our first extended solo adventures simultaneously at opposite ends of the planet.

Thanks to technology we're able to drop short updates to each other frequently about our (near)daily dodgy situations/experiences...

Conclusion?

It's pretty dangerous travelling alone and being female. Men are very predatory (and desperate).

In any case I'm loving the +ves of rural life ie: the clean air, space, beautiful scenery etc...I've also encountered so many interesting people off the beaten track I would never usually meet - fish slaughterer, toxic waste remover, head monk, sailor, pilot, marine biologist, mime artist^^ to name a few...at the same time I've also come across my fair share of uncouth Neanderthals and seriously inconsiderate, selfish and completely frustrating pea-sized brain idiots and even had to share a room with one...it's summer and this chick turned the heater to maximum because she insisted on wearing a skimpy night gown and refused to use blankets and couldn't interpret the heat gauge on the heater and was too proud to seek assistance...as anti-confrontational as I am, fuelled by the sweat that drenched me and kept me awake at 12am and 2am etc along with the pursuit of common sense and justice fuelled me to let her have it! And when a pissed off person is backed up by rock hard hole proof rational argument, well it's a force to be reckoned with no matter how stubborn and idiotic one insists on being out of habit!

Moron chick aside, for the most part I've impressed myself with the latent ability (which I completely forgot I had) to be completely and seriously social with a wide range of people but I'm kinda of looking forward to getting back to the comfort of my own place, bed, space, bigger town/city conveniences at least for a bit...

oh one other thing, these countryfolk can seriously bake! I have had the most delicious raspberry friand and raspberry and passionfruit cheesecake...Mmmmm!

Tube Tales

okay, so I'm running out of thunder. As other interests consume me and I'm in the home stretch of only a few more days of Sydney to tolerate, I'm actually losing some of my trademark ramble power. And I've been racking my brains trying to think of interesting things to write as part of what I owe HS, Shannon and KB!

So.

Not about Me per se (cos that ain't interesting!) but something quite curious and positively disgusting I did witness for real in real life a couple years back...

I was travelling on a train I can't remember what time it was but it was reasonably empty. There was a mid 40s man in a business suit. After finishing a mobile call he hung up and then proceeded to...

Dig his ear wax out with the antenna(!!) and not stopping at that(!) proceeded to eat that which he had dug off the antenna like a lollipop!....ewwwwwww.

I'm not kidding. That's exactly what happened...I always knew Neanderthals frequented this city!

This has got to be probably THE weirdest thing I've seen a random stranger do ever. In fact it was so weird I submitted it to a film based on people's real life stories on the train: "Tube Tales" but I'm not sure if they used it or not cos I never got to see it!

So...now I've entertained you with my story, feed me...What's the weirdest thing you've ever witnessed a random stranger do?

Play till you can Play no more...

So. Allowing myself complete freedom to just Play has been the latest strategy in my student life saga. I knew drastic action was necessary since my burnt-outedness was actually reaching a crisis point (ie: I, the so far excellent student to date, literally failed a test because I was so past caring I didn't bother studying). So basically the last 2-3 days and nights I've been throwing all sensible regulations out the windowso I could play to my heart's content- allowing myself to DO WHATEVER as I please!

So today, rather than my usual *fascinating but responsible* routine of clean house, study, qigong class, grocery shop, cook dinner, clean up, study, sleep I did ABSOLUTELY none of this!and just spent the morning reading blogs to my heart's content, then leisurely perused a design exhibition, had a really late and leisurely lunch, then ate some really delicious tofu icecream, and trawled wholefood stores for cool products. It was pretty strange actually...somehow omnivore me, the vegan shop lady and the vegan depressed nurse in the shop all got into a really in depth, soul bearing and lengthy conversation on health matters. I'm not sure if I have a knack of getting into fascinating conversations with random strangers or whether it's just the environment of these types of stores! Or perhaps it also has a lot to do with my fascinating field of study/profession... because people are always curious, I love talking about it, and they get all this health advice fee free with the real benefit being that since I am not actually practising they know the advice I'm giving them is completely objective and without ulterior self interested motives!

Anyway in short, I think the "play play" strategy worked :) Now, although I'm really tired(decent hours of sleep got sacrificed for play), I just want to stay in and actually feel like doing work!

NOW I get it. If dealing with a rebel, the most powerful tool you have up your sleeve is to allow them full blown freedom...Mothers Take Note- it's total reverse psychology almost but somehow it really works!!!

P.S Re: Veganism I don't understand why they don't eat organic/free range eggs- since they are unfertilised, no animal is being killled! I don't even see it as animal exploitation since the egg would just sit there, rot away and be wasted anyway where as we humans can derive incredibly nutritious sustenance from it! That's just my personal opinion- I respect your right to differ!