Library of north Melbourne

  Maybe it would be quite difficult to find that this photo was taken at the library of north Melbourne. Actually when I finished the job in Mt. Hotham, I went back to my favorite city, Melbourne, in Australia. The scene was when you sat at one of tables, you would find. It's like outside is amazing weather, but you just sit in the library to leave others alone.

   In order to have the Internet access I had spent more than one month staying in the library.  Besides, there was a variety of magazines and novels which were all my favorite.

  The place where I stayed in Melbourne was really closed to the library, 5-minute walking distance. I always went there in the afternoon when the sun was not notoriously big.  The two-story library was usually filled with a lot of residents and students.

  And if you want to snag souvenirs and postcards, there is a bookshop near the entrance of the library. I always bought cheap books in the shop. It's self reinforcing when you get involved in local community, and library provides a way for you. It not hard to find promotions from the notice board of library and brochures about events held in Melbourne.

  Compared to the libraries in Taiwan, I prefer the library in Australia. The libraries in Australia provide the Internet access and air conditioner. Besides, with modern designs, it creates an excellent aura for those who want to have their time no matter on reading or doing homework.

The album of popular Taiwanese singer
was found in the library of Australia

Flood in Beijing

   In 2010, I had stayed at Beijing for almost two months, though I didn't get used to the life there(maybe it's my first time to leave Taiwan for such a long time). Its traditional historical sites (such as: forbidden city and the Great Wall) and modern skyscrapers totally truly impressed me. No wonder, it has been the capital of China, the biggest economic over the world.

   Sadly, I got to know this news few days from Weibo, the biggest social network in mainland of China. The flood took its toll on more than 30 people and influenced nearly 20000 people's lives. I have a few friends in Beijing and luckily they and their family are still fine.

   I really hope the disaster would past and the authority would take action as soon as possible.

Fried chicken

"Finally I get the fried chicken!"

I, honestly, was extremely excited while having this. Since I came back from Australia, I had sought any chances to re- taste my favorite delicacy, which is always on my list of the most unforgettable Taiwanese food and did successfully. Initially I was invited to watch the newly released movie called Ted. With limited budget I decided to go out for dinner instead of popcorn provided by the theaters. To much my delight, I found the store right outside the theater!

While I was a university student, I always had this as my dinner though it's said "unhealthy food". It's like the fried chicken sold by Mcdonald and KFC. But it is from different part of a chicken and covered by different sauces according to my experience. And they are the factors of whether fried chicken is tasty or not.

According to a Taipei Times’ report in 2011, Taiwanese devour more than 250,000 fried chicken cutlets each day.

If piled atop each other, they would make a chicken cutlet tower 10 times as tall as Taipei 101, the island’s tallest skyscraper at 508 meters. 

Become an uncle

"My sister gets pregnant."

It is an astonishing news for my family, without any expectation. Since I got this news from my mother a few days ago, I almost have not talked to my sister. The most unbelievable/irritating thing is that my sister considers this baby as a solution to the embarrassing situation between her and her boyfriend's family.  What a PITY.

While I was in Australia, she tried to know what I felt if she got pregnant. And I got ballistic not only to this stupid question but the intend meaning behind this question. Beside, I have told her for hundred of times your boyfriend doesn't deserve you to end up being a wife for him(a couple of reasons), but she gets PREGNANT now!  She follows him rather her brother. Most important, she always regards every boyfriend as her future husband and they broke her heart every time. No wonder i got indifferent to her love romance even they are going to be spouses.

All in all, this situation can not be changed. Only my sister realizes we, people surrounding her, are the ones care her, not hold her back. There would come a happy ending.

Unexpected journey

Indeed yesterday was not my day.

My bad luck began from the morning. In the morning I wasted a morning to wait for the delivery just in order to the order. And the responsible guy seem irritated after a couple of calls from me and responded to me reluctantly, which made me quite annoyed.

And in the afternoon I visited a company which my boss asked few days ago. The person I contacted was the general manager of the company. He was quite nice before the delivery of goods. I told to my partner he had been one of friendly managers I've seen while hopping to the car. HOWEVER, while I got the call from the people responsible for the deliver(it was him again), he, the manager got the different attitude to us. A sudden change shocked us, including my partner.

I apologized to him for the mistake caused by my boss, he seemed unsatisfied.

After arriving in the office at nearly 6 o'clock(I usually arrive in home at 6), I found my boss had been at the office. In fact, I got prepared for the talk my boss would do on my way home. No doubt he gave a life long talk for me despite of dinner time.

We, including my partner, got the same conclusion from the talk with our boss that he liked to share randomly in any given talk.

Chishan

Today, without any planning, I went to Chishan/Cishan (旗山) with my coworker called Kai. Chishan, a small town known for its banana in Kaosiung city, is his hometown and he had lived there for more than 30 years since he was born. From our company, it took almost one hour by driving car, which is closer than I expected.

Before Kai's recommendation, Chishan in my impression is merely on the way to Liouguei, a remote district my family often visit .  No delicacy, No fun. However, after meeting him, I always heard that there are so many delicacies in his hometown, and got excited when he told me we were heading to his hometown this morning. Largely because I fond of eating lol.

Chishan's historic building is mainly on Chungshan Rd.(If you know Taiwan well, you will find every city has the road called Chungshan Rd.). When holidays come, it is not difficult to see how famous this historical site would be from the crowded street and bustling vendors.

Here I would like to introduce some famous food in Chishan. If you grab a chance, don't hesitate to try them :)

Ice cream

Juice - According to the logo, it has been selling juice for sixty years. 

Fried meat ball 

Reunion with classmates

Tonight I had a reunion with my classmates of senior high school. I was invited by my best friend who came back from Hsinchu for fixing the computer in the weekend. For the rest of my classmates, indeed, I had not seen them for such a long time since we celebrated his birthday in freshmen life.

Though five years passed, they still look good. One works in a sunglasses factory, the other is earning his master degree in NCKU, a renown university in Taiwan. During the reunion, they shared what they met in their daily life, which were so funny and ridiculous, especially the working welfare.

All in all, meeting with old friends, in the boring day, surprisingly inspires me so much and resonates the previous life with them. Life should be like this way :P.

Australia- Live Sports

Aussies are very passionate about their sport, so why not get out to see a live game?

Rugby
Rugby is really about two things: brutish men and a ball. Add in plenty of pushing and shoving, plus a few tackles, and you've got a pretty rough picture of rugby league and rugby union. There isn't much difference between the two codes so it's just important to remember the teams.\

Football(AFL)
For most people on the east coast, rugby is the big sport but it's closely followed by the Aussie Rules. Sydney has two clubs- the Sydney Swan and new Greater Western Sydney Giants. Most of the games take place at either the Sydney Cricket Ground or ANZ Stadium.

Cricket
The Sydney cricket team, the NSW Blues, play at the Sydney Cricker Ground fairly regularly in Summer. There's also a Sydney Twenty 20 team known as the Sydney Sixers.

Soccer(Football)
For soccer(football) fans, Australia has a league that is rapidly improving in quality. NSW has two teams, Sydney FC and the Newcastle Jets. Sydney play most of their home games at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Basketball
The Sydney Kings are the major basketball team here, playing in the National Basketball League. To catch a few games, head to the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

A horrible night

   Last night must be the most horrible night in my Australia life.

I was woken by my flatmates so many times during sleeping, which made me really mad at all.  At 11pm I felt exhausted so I close my laptop despite the film described about the rock & roll introduced by my french flatmate. I fell asleep immediately.  Time passed secretly. I was woken up by the voice of Brice and Imrand, from French and India respectively. As a result, I found I have slept for more than one hour and obviously became energetic after sleeping.

From their conversation, I found Imrand seemed to bring his girlfriend back to flat, which made me anxious indeed. That meant I was going to have a noisy night not only because they, he and his french girlfriend, would talk a lot as always and afterward have sex on the bottom of bed(He and I share a bunk bed). Few minutes later, he got a call from his girlfriend.

   And my horrible night launched.

At last, I realized I had a headache before hitting the bed again with no reason. So I kept counting sheep, which is useful for me, until fell asleep again. Time passed secretly. Then I was woken up again because of the light turned on by my Imrad. Hence I found he bring his girlfriend back. They always have a talk at the balcony before they sleep. Because his girlfriend is French, and Imrad doesn't speak French at all, so they talk in English, enabling me to know what they talked.

"Damn, why do i learn English and understand what they talked? I want to sleep" A idea came up to my mind. And i choose to count sheeps again and fell asleep again.

Then I was woken by the voice of my text message. It is from my another french flatmate Victor, who works as kitchen hand in Manly.  Manly is a tourist site known for its beach. It takes half a hour from city to Manly by bus and ferry. Victor worked late last night and he needed to catch the night bus. Plus the doorbell of our flat is broken. So he needed someone to open the door for him. And I seek help from me, obviously he didn't know I was sleeping.

Honestly, I really got mad after being woken up several times. But I felt better after I woke up naturally in the following morning. That is the disadvantage of share flat. No matter what, we should take respect of other residents and accept the culture differences. Don't take any thing for granted.

Kent

Jeremy Lin Game Winner @ Toronto Raptors 14/2/12

Jeremy Lin.

He is Jeremy Lin, who recently dominates NBA. Although he can't speak Chinese, his parents are from Taiwan. So many people are arguing what his nationality would be. Despite of this issue, all Taiwanese are crazy about him and follow his performance desperately due to his dazzling performance. :P

NSW Government to overturn uranium ban - ABC Sydney - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

This is a quite strange news.

The governor insisted that is not the case, but even he had trouble separating exploration from mining as he spoke with ABC Sydney this morning.

"We'll introduce to parliament this week, as early as tomorrow, to allow exploration of uranium mining, ah of uranium in New South Wales" he said.

The ban on uranium mining will continue. 

NSW Government to overturn uranium ban - ABC Sydney - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Chinese New Year

Tomorrow is the first day of Chinese year according to the lunar calendar.

And tonight is the new year's eve. In this night, like Christmas eve, we always have dinner with our family and spent the time with family after dinner until midnight.

However, this year I am in Sydney and unable to go back for this big occasion due to the budget.  So, I am going to miss the chance of reunion, making me feel so down. For the past 23 year at this moment, I usually spent time with my family. Due to the weather which is usually cold in the eve, we always had hotpot together in either our house or grandmother's house. After hotpot time, we got the red envelope from our parents and relatives. Red envelope contains money, which is used to suppress or put down the evil spirit, from our parents and relatives, which is such a good time for me. 

Sydneysider!

   I am still in Sydney.

   Most of my friends left Sydney after the world-class famous countdown at harbour bridge, but I still stay at this city. My life here, honestly like the fireworks, although, is short, it impresses me so much and will occupies one part of my memory.

   Currently I work as a commercial cleaner in Sydney. As the boss told me while my first day work, this job may last few weeks to the mid of Jan.. And now is the time, I have to take action to find another job.

   Anything can happen. That is why I like the life here.