Bid Goodbye To Holidays

When the clock ticked at 12am yesterday, it marks the end of my enjoyable holidays. On a whole, I did nothing much during the holidays except wasting time. (Definition of wasting time: Online when I shouldn't, facebooking when I was supposed to search for info, MSN when it was time to study, napping in the afternoon, waking up late as a result of sleeping late)

The second part of this semester began (sound effect: clapping hands): Mundane routines to be followed every week, ie. lectures, tutorials and practicals. -.-

The new Biology lecturer is (wow, too good to be true!) BORING!!! Slides adapted from Campbell, pictures from Campbell, reading at a monotonous voice etc. etc. which definitely makes a perfect lullaby for half of the students. (While another half consists of good students who never sleep in class, haha...) As for me, I'm one of the members of "bad student category". Sad to say, please accept my deepest apology...

My first determination: To sleep early and wake up early
My second determination: Study more
My third determination: Learn to cook more things (Okay, I sounded funny when I suddenly called my mum and asked, "how to cook this ah?")
My fourth determination: To complain less

原来

今天突然心血来潮想炒饭，所以...我炒饭啦！哈哈...

不过...

原来炒饭不容易...

好冷...

这是我驻步Adelaide以来最冷的一次，
一起身就感觉到一股冷风袭上心头。
不是说Adelaide没那么冷的吗？
七度哦，我还以为那是冬天才可能出现的数字；
怎么秋天就迫不及待出现了呢？
看来穿着手套、围巾的日子又来了。
突然好想喝一碗热腾腾的汤，哈哈...
到底什么时候我才能战胜冷冽的寒风，
勇敢地穿短裤走在街上？？
哈哈...

Because It's So Cold

I need to EAT more!!! Hahaha...

Wasting Time

Read on, only if you want to waste your time listening to my craps.

You may expect to see this kind of post when she runs into emptiness as a result of boredom. Instead of staring into the ceiling in a light-deficient state, she decided to surf the world of mystery with interest. Lately, she was exposed to or came across by chance, too many sad stories drawing her nearer and nearer to the conclusion that happiness is equals to impending gloom. (Josephine 2008) Meanwhile, pieces of memories came into her mind, none was exempted.

She realised that as people get to know each other better, they tend to expect more and hence, becoming more demanding. The effect is disastrous when more weaknesses are revealed. Realising the fact that no one is perfect in this world, she still holds on to the belief that she will be able to accept everything thrown to her. She once thought that she can...

Two weeks ago, she was so excited about the holidays; two weeks later, she found herself unwilling to return to the reality. She gains a lot of fat since two months ago as snacking uncontrollably has shown its effect finally. She used to do that when she becomes tensed or stressed. Obviously, she is. Tired of facing the mundane routine she is forced to adhere to, needing badly someone to talk to when she's feeling emo, being enclosed in a small space for such a long time, she desperately needs some fresh air.

Being here, laptop is her life. Although there is internet to link her with the world outside, she still enjoys the moment of silence and peacefulness; no murmur, no whisper, only the sound of the gusting wind outside. May the wind carries away the morning blue in her, cheers!

Te Ying is...

1. Frustrated

2. Pening

3. Feeling stupid

In conclusion, Te Ying is LOST...

Wine Discovery

"If you only ever do one wine trail in Australia you have to make it South Australia's Barossa ... It is quintessential Australia where fine wine mixes with historical ambience, stunning cuisine and friendly laid back Australian hospitality." (Wine New Zealand magazine)

As you can see from above, South Australian is famous for its wine. Personally I'm not a wine lover but this is definitely a chance not to be missed if you are in South Australia --- pay a visit to Barossa Valley!!! Now only I realised that there are actually so many types of wines, Shiraz (I remember this very well as the smell is very very strong), Merlot (which I think is the second strongest after Shiraz)... I couldn't remember their names. I'm not into red wine, I prefer white wines. =)

Barossa wine region comprises of the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley and it is home to some of the oldest Shiraz vineyards in the world. Most interestingly, Barossa heritage vines are free from phylloxera. In fact, all South Australian vines are free from phylloxera!! (I remember the tour guide stressed that many times, I think he is proud of the vines, haha...) Overally, the trip was fantastic except for the winding roads which made almost everyone of us nauseous.

The Barossa trip was an "experience" trip, which was meant for wine dummies like us (there were altogether 15 of us), or perhaps it should be called a wine discovery trip. =P Our first stop was The Big Rocking Horse, which is the biggest rocking horse in the world. There, we visited a toy factory and a small wildlife park. (I'm not sure if it is anyway) Being soooo close to kangaroos, wallabies, ostrich, sheep, peacock etc. made me really excited!!!

After visiting Angas Park Dried Fruits, we started our very first wine tasting adventure at Wolf Blass Winery. I can see several expressions while tasting wines:
"Ewww!!!"
"Wow..."
"Hmm.... Okay lah..."
As for me, the most frequent expression I had was "Eww!!!".

After having our scrumptious lunch at Nuriootpa Vine Inn, we continued our adventure at Vinecrest Winery, Barossa Vines and Kies Family Wines. The second winery was almost the same as the first one, being more commercialised and crowded with visitors. The third one was the place I bought a bottle of wine while the fourth one was a smaller winery, stylishly and traditionally furnished.

Before ending our trip, we visited The whispering Wall, which showed us how wonderful an architecture can be. By whispering at one end of the dam, the one standing at the other end can actually hear what you are saying CLEARLY. Amazing right? So yeah, this was our last stop in the trip.

Some random facts I learned during the wine discovery trip:

To differentiate between vines, vineyard and wines. Haha... (Sorry to say that I barely know about vines, vineyard and wines before this trip.)

South Australia being the driest state in Australia. (I knew that it's dry but I didn't expect it to be the driest.)

There aren't only one type of wine but a variety of them!

Snakes are the major threat to visitors in vineyard.

Vines are harvested by autumn.

A number of people are allergic to alcohol.

AND

most importantly, I was not drunk drinking wines!!! Hahaha...