I went ADEX today

ADEX was such a grand event in 2006
With all the freebies, activities around
I also met most of my dive friends there
Adding to that
Every ADEX reminds me of a very special day
It is also the anniversary day for DarDar & I
The day which we went out together the very first time before we became official at night
Bwah
*shy*

So anyway
ADEX kinda sucks every year since then
It was in Suntec in 2006
Then had it in Thailand in 2007
Then back in Suntec in 2008
But the exhibitors reduced by 50%
Not at all interesting
This year
It's at Keppel Marina
Even smaller!
When Edwin & I entered
We saw boats

still boats
It's boats everywhere & we thought that ADEX was at the other side of the road
So we crossed over & realised that it's inside the hall where we came out

ADEX is right inside the hall at the very damn end!
It's sharing the hall with Boat Asia
No wonder we cant find it!

We walked without enthusiasm, in fact
Nothing interesting

Same exhibitors
I even saw Ivan's dad again, for the 3rd time he's in ADEX
But I was rather attracted to the dive operators in Guam

I wanna go Guam!
It's part of USA
but it's very near & cheap to depart from Hong Kong (around SGD$500 incl. everything)
& the fact that I always return Hong Kong
I must really plan for an extended trip to Guam NO MATTER WHAT soon

So after few rounds
Collected enough magazines to stack hot kettles next to stove (little freebies this year!)
We left for lunch at Republic of Singapore Yacht Club (RYSC)

The last time I came here as 2 weeks ago
When I had my night dives at Raffles Lighthouse
Today
I got to enjoy a meal here!
=)




The place is nice
Always love places next to the sea surrounded with beautiful boats
But I prefer Raffles Marina
The boats there are more luxurious
But less luxurious then those I just saw at Boat Asia
*giggles*

If only I'm damn rich...

& I promise I'll get a yacht club membership when I'm rich!

So that's ADEX this year
I seriously hope that the organisers can do a better job next year
Get more exhibitors
with more freebies!

& thanks Edwin for everything today =)

I'm constantly having headaches at around 2-3pm everyday

Something is telling me it's not right

I almost passed out

I was feeling perfect in the morning
But around afternoon
I felt that my legs were getting numb & weak
Almost cant feel anything
& cold perspiration out of body

I tried to hold on
But I thought I might not take it anymore
So I flagged for a cab for home

The cab driver sped at 110km/hr
Without me telling him to
I guess he could see that I'm almost dying

My lips went pale, I believe
I went breathless too
I tried to breathe harder to compensate for oxygen loss
I felt like vomiting

My head went heavy
My vision went bright & blurred
I closed my eyes
It felt like 15mins for a 5 seconds darkness

When I reached void deck
DarDar came down to fetch me
I couldnt stand properly
I squatted while on the way up in the lift
& collapsed on the sofa immediately

DarDar had to carry me back onto my bed
Where he then fell asleep with me

o_o

It's been long I last felt something like this
I think I seriously need to train my body soon

Looking fit
But not exactly fit

Bleah

I am so fucking pissed
It's like... everyone is taking their bloody time so fucking slowly
That indirectly wasted my time waiting for them

I waited for DarDar's bro for 2 fucking hours to pass me something
which got me totally pissed & almost scolded him when I finally met him
& I also flooded DarDar's sms inbox with the complaints

Next day after I had my Ubin trip
This bloody fucking cab driver took his own sweet time to drive me & my assistant home
A normal trip heading to 2 destinations took only 50mins
THIS FUCKING DRIVER TOOK 1.5 HOURS!!!!!!
Dardar & I almost wanna fuck him
But we didnt wanna be that mean which might risk us getting dumped out of the car in midst of the road
He fucking drove at 60km/hr on the expressway which has a speed liimt of 90km/hr!!!! (some even drove at 110km/hr!)
I SO WANNA KNOCKED HIM OUT & DROVE MYSELF!
& he didnt even asked us which way do we wanna go
& made a big round & we reached at the same point

I WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PISSED!
My total journey was only 41.1km
But he, made us round & round with 51.3km
When he saw the red light from 500m away
He slowed down & put on neutral gear for the car to fucking ROLL for 500m

He was kana horned twice by the car behind
Either dangerous driving or slow pick-up
Whatever it is
I felt that he was trying to cheat my money

I donno if I wanna complain SHB2232F

This kinda driver is so irritating
What do you think cab is for?
To reach a far destination within shortest time
If it can go as slow & as long as that of a bus
WHY WOULD I SPEND 10x THE AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR THAT?!

Chao cheebye
Blood boiled to max
No wonder I had to pop Panadol to reduce my temperature

Argh!

Lately
There has been a mystery case occurring in P. Ubin
& I was involved helping to solve the mystery

Some points were really intriguing
& some points just left people feeling it's damn ridiculous

Now
It's about 60% solved
Remaining 40% will be done by the main character
Which I doubt will be told by him personally

Anyway
This is so 'Kindaichi'
So fun

OH MY DOG!
WHY IS IT YOU, LONDON?!
*spoiler for American's Next Top Model Cycle 12, more spoilers to come...

A beautiful morning

which almost turned into a nightmare 3 hours later

Luckily I was done with my transect survey
The sky suddenly turned grey
& strong wind blew like nobody's business
All the trees were bent at 30deg
& the howling of the wind creeped our spines as we hid in House #1 for shelter

Minutes later
Dense, tiny raindrops fall
So dense that you dont feel like it's raining

The feeling was just weird

The weather is weird too

My left kneecap is swollen
Coz I scrabbed against a huge lump of coral at Raffles Lighthouse on Sunday

Although there's no open wound
Just the top skin got abit scratched
Now it's itchy
& at times painful

I can imagine the toxins & the nano-microorganisms dancing in my wound now

It's been 4 years since I'd inflicted wounds during diving
How careless I am

Last weekend was packed with all my personal activities
Almost gave up on my school stuffs
*opps*
& I felt so guilty about it

DarDar & I returned JB on Good Friday
Took us 3 hours to reach
ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz
The queue at the bus bay was chaotic
& the Cisco officers were so rude that he shouted 'Siam!SIAM!' to the crowd so as to make way for him
I so wanted to lodge a complaint on that ass
Shouldnt they assist in keeping the crowd in order?

I love the Kway Teow Soup so much
That I pestered DarDar to eat that for dinner & supper
It's opened by DarDar's fishing kaki's relative as well
Super big portion
The soup is seafood-sweet
With abalone, oysters, pig liver, lettuces

On Saturday
DarDar's friend came over to JB to eat & shop
Headed to Tesco & Jusco
Had Bak Ku Teh for lunch
& a sumptuous seafood dinner @ Dama market
So damn full
But DarDar & I still headed for wanton mee for supper

>_<

Returned SG on Sunday
& I went for my dive at Raffles Lighthouse
My first time there
& my first time witnessing coral spawning

It's full moon
Every marine creature should be synchronizing their reproductive cycle
But we only managed to see the after-spawn evidence
With eggs settled on the corals


I saw the coral spawn
The whole egg mass drifted to my direction
The eggs were big, around 1cm or so
& they're red
By the time I reached the coral
It's almost 80% spawned
=(

Anyway
I've seen it!

I also had an extremely closed nurse shark encounter
A 1.5m long elasmobranch swam right into my face
Which freaked me out totally
My dive buddy didnt see it
& that shark kept loitering around my feet
*gasps*

Next time I'll try night dive at Tioman/Dayang for coral spawning activities
=)


*more photos here

What is with this UNIQLO outlet?
Why is everyone so excited about it?
So what that today is its official opening?

I went to its website
The clothings are normal
The price is even more expensive than any Giordano tops
& in fact
Giordano too comes out with plain tops of different colours
So what is the big fuss?

Duhz

Today is the day of my brother's convocation
Guess everyone is happy that he'd finally grown up

Bought a female fighting fish to mate with my 2 male fighting fish
& observed their courtship behaviour as well
The winner male
DarDar said that when they fight
They bite each other's lip
My fish are fighting!

I sent Mong Mong's photo in to Pets Magazine last month
& it is out in the March/April issue
See!

My handsome boy >_<

The gloomy sky makes me gloomy
I'm doing nothing but typing this
Sigh

I thought DarDar going to school can give me some quiet moments to do my stuffs without any distraction
But I still fail

So it's not about DarDar
It's me

Oh why am I like this?
Whyyyyyyyyy?

I just cant bring myself to do my presentation slides
& search for journal papers
& do my M&M

Just so many things going on at a time
That I donno where to start
& which to start first

Prioritizing tasks had always been my number 1 skill
But it's hard to prioritize when all tasks require almost soonest attention

Thinking further ahead
I'll be flying out of Singapore for once a month
Never had in my life that I'm traveling this much & this frequent

With loads of things to do
My mind keeps thinking & thinking about it
Till I'm damn too tired

*Sigh*

Need a deeper breath
& a longer sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

My heart pounded vigourously the moment i saw this
I thought:"Oh no..."

I opened the mail
& realised my name isnt there

*phew*

I haven even finish my presentation slides
So much of procrastination
Bah

I cant do this anymore
I must stop watching 'American Next Top Model Cycle 12', ' 學警狙擊', '大冬瓜' already

o_o

I think I'm wasting time
Watching TV when I'm free & feeling tired
I should be sleeping
But I cant get into sleep
I should then be reading up, looking for journal papers
But I surf Facebook

WHAT THE FUCK!

I'm heading Borneo next month
So damn fucking fast
Haven even go train my stamina
Haven go see sinseh for my foot injury
Haven go buy a new 50L backpack

Time seriously zoom
I've yet been confirmed coz school is procrastinating my presentation date
I've yet started on my further studies coz everything is still ding-dong-ing around
& I need to complete by December 2010
Which is next year
& I'm (probably) holding my banquet next year
Heading to London next year
So many things going on!

Time is unmanageable for me now
When things doesnt go my way
It is really wasting most of my time

Sigh
So lost

I found a wild boar's skull today

Does anyone wanna go pitbike riding with me?

Ok I finally slept during a nap just now
I had a dream
That I'm off to Pattaya to attend someone's beach wedding
Went para-skiing
& all sorts of beach activities
I was snapping photos around
& then I saw someone took a photo of me out of a sudden
With super glaring bright flash
Which is accompanied with a super loud roar
I woke up
Saw that the sky was fucking dark
Realised it was the thunder

Coincidence?
Or something else?

Such incidents always happen
Donno was it my spirit fly elsewhere

I remembered last time when young
I saw myself playing this very popular hand-held electronic brick game in my dream
& my Mum woke me up
Told me that the actual hand-held electronic brick game set was on
& 'playing' on its own in its demo stage

Weird

2 nights in a row
Cant sleep
Fuck
My mind is so in a daze
What am I thinking about?

I seriously need rest in my brains

Fuck

Just a day after my dive trip
I cant sleep at all
Kept thinking of how my indoor experiments are gonna work at this rate
When my technicians are not replying my emails
Not updating me with what i requested
& not helping me to get my procedures started!

ARGH!

I have 5 indoor experiments to conduct
& I need to acclimatise my snails before I can work on it!
Now
NO ACCLIMATION TANK!
Still dangling with the paperwork
Which is as easy as digging nostrils

You know how funny these people are?
Technician A is in charge of lab items
Technician B is in charge of funds processing
I already got the quotation from external engineers
Requested them to process for me
Tech A sent email tell me that he is asking that external engineer to change something in the quotation & then the set-up can be done
He also asked me to notify Tech B for the transaction
Ok I wait
Tech B then sent email ask me if it's under my Prof's fund
No, it's not
& I asked her to clarify with Tech A coz he was the one who tell me that I can get my tanks done under their funds
So I wait again

1 fucking bloody week
No one replied me
& Knn
Tech A & Tech B sit beside each other in their lab office
Need so long to get back to me?
& why must Tech A send email to ask me to send email to Tech B?
& why cant Tech B just ask Tech A?

I'm so having a deja vu of stupid office-politic people
Sending emails here & there the whole fucking day
Just to pass the working hours

I only have 1.5 years to complete
& I'm already stressing out already
Because my experiments are not easy, you know!

Just cant sleep....
Back to insomnia
Really what the fuck!

While I couldnt sleep
I was also thinking of this story that this Malay guy told me as we chatted on the ferry back Mersing from P. Dayang
He used to work on P. Sibu for the Sibu Resort
& he was introducing me the surrounding Mersing islands as the ferry sailed past

He told me about P. Pemanggil
How his friend & the family disappeared from the island one day while they returned there to collect bonsai for sale on mainland
No body was found on land nor in sea
But their boats remained
It had been 4 years that they're gone
& this Malay guy was still praying for them

His father who was chatting with me too
Said that there're invisible inhabitants on the islands
Defending their land from outsiders who keep returning to take things from them

The Malay guy then told me about another island which I couldnt catch the name
The same thing happened to his friends
& he told me that P. Pemanggil, that island & P. Aur
Make a Malaysian version of 'Bermuda Triangle' if joined up with an imaginary boundary

*gasp*

He then told me about Pulau Besar
It is the island where the Dutch came over to have their Dutch version of 'The Survivor'
But we never got to watch this on TV

P. Rawa is a private island owned by a pair of lawyer couple
Best place for honeymoon
But prices are high there

Of all my dive trips
This is the only return trip that i didn not sleep throughout the journey
& talked to strangers
But I'm glad they're good strangers
who told me about Malaysia & its islands

I wont mind visiting these other islands in Malaysia
That is if there're people interested to go with me

But before I drift off to these beautiful islands
I better get back & drill myself to my experiments

More frustrating emails to be sent

I'm back from Dayang

This trip isnt that nice from most of my previous trips
Didnt get to see new species
But I managed to see my bumphead parrotfish again
AFTER 4 YEARS!!!


& I also managed to take macro shots of tiny species
like this transparent anemone shrimp
& this triplefin on the rock surface

Christmas tree worms

=)
Was also particularly interested in cleaner wrasse after attending the seminar presented by Baha last Tuesday


Cleaner wrasse dances while it waits for its client
Open water divers doing their skills

My night dive almost turned into a nightmare
I nearly lost my camera during my descent
But luckily I signalled to Edwin & he got it for me
*phew*

Rayner's rock

Classic shot by Marianne
A titan triggerfish passed by behind me
As I happened to look back to check out Marianne

Safety stop

The group
Next dive trip in May @ Tunkul Abdul Rahman Marine Park =)

*More photos of Dayang trip at here & here

Finally a break
After all days rushing for my assignment & additional summary
I'm going diving at Dayang =)

See you guys on Monday

Geez
Kana nominated to do a round-up presentation of the topics for the whole class
One more chore to worry about over the weekend
Which I'm supposed to enjoy & have fun!

So not fun =(

I forgot I have to hand in an assignment due next Tuesday
& I am actually going diving this weekend!
How stupid am I to have forgotten this....

I tried to start working on it
But my brain juice wasnt succulent
Gave up on half-page
& I still have 4.5 pages to go

Supposedly going gym
But apparently
It's just so cozy to sleep during rainy morning

Sigh
I think I'm getting lazy
I am so not disciplined!

This is not me
=(

I'm back home
Finally

Should never try to leave home during school holidays
80% chances of being stuck elsewhere

Watched 'Bride wars'
I cried
Ridiculously

Not coz of the storyline
But something else

Oh well
We'll just see how it goes...

I had an extremely painful headache yesterday
After I reached home from Ubin
& it hurt at every step I walked

My brain-expert friend, Jas, said it could be something affecting the vision or meningitis
Or could probably be dehydration
All 3 points taken

So I slept immediately I reached home from our Pho Hoa dinner at Holland Village
Celebrated Jas' birthday
& I woke up at 8am
All coz of a horrifying nightmare

That was really really fucking scary
So scary that I cried

I'm now waiting for DarDar to wake up
To return JB
Just damn hard to wake him up before alarm clock rings

This week has finally come to the end
Thank Dog

I'm so tired that I collapsed immediately when I reached home yesterday
& slept from 4pm to 530am the next day
But I'm still tired now

This week's data is good
As well as being fun

A good & beautiful morning to greet your day

Sun rays penetrating through the thick cloud

Yet another fallen tree while on way in Chek Jawa

Saw many different species of birds


I love my hornbill shot so much
My first clearest & nearest shot so far
If only I have a DSLR =(

Closest encounter with a fearless fiddler crab
Played with Cookie
While Cookie played with a monitor lizard
Trekked out of Chek Jawa for some exercises
Extremely muddy feet

Whatever it is
I'm gonna have my rest over the weekend, I hope

So much more things to do next week still

Back Hong Kong tentatively on 15th-21st June
& tickets are now soaring mad!

I only slept for 4 hours
I'm so gonna bite people who piss me off any moment

Beware

There're some cock-ups with my experiments now
Which is really frustrating me out of my mind
Losing my patience seriously

I am to detect heartbeat for my snails
& I'd done this in HK
Now that I need a replicate of that set-up here
My technicians cant help coz they dont do engineering stuffs
They only maintain lab equipments (inappropriate designation, i feel)
& my physicists doesnt wanna do for me but want me to do instead even though they know I have no electronics background (what the fucking fuck!)
I insisted them to do one for me so I know how it is
They did
But the set-up doesnt work despite following the exact diagram as given
Worse
They doubt my words if this really works!

HELLO??!?!?!
You think I so big-shot wanna 'diao nan' they all
It's obvious that I being an ecologist know shits about electronics
Since you physicists know electric circuits why cant you be helpful to do for me?
We're colleagues, in a sense, arent we?

If this doesnt work
Cant you help to think if there's anyway to make it work?
You know more than I do, yeah?

I asked the Italian Prof who helped me with it when we met in July
He's too an ecologist
How the fuck can he explain to me when he said that his engineers INDEED followed everything from a given diagram?

So when his circuit & my circuit are the same coz we both followed the same circuit diagram
Why is it that theirs work & mine cant?
& since both are the same
YOU CANNOT DOUBT ME?!
Why would I wanna lie about my own important stuffs?!

I AM SO ANGRY NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

I feel that people in school are damn NOT helpful
It's hopeless here
Getting sick & abandoned

Dont tell me being a PhD must know everything & do everything on their own
Comon
If I know every single fuck, I'm not a PhD geek
I'm a genius!
If I can do everything on my own
I'm not an ecologist
but God

Pray to me, fools!

Oh my dog
I am so nervous
I'm having a presentation for a course module
& I'm already freaking like this
How worse is it gonna be like when I have my confirmation?
The problem here is
Prof even SMS-ed me to tell me to do well
& this had caused my nerves to set fire on its own!

If I hadnt received that
I think I'm better off stress-free

Ah
I'm feel so dead now
But I'd glad that I can still feel my heart pounds (pun intended)

Look what we'd transformed our Huber's beef patty into...

A 'botak' burger look-alike!

We had our own recipe of coz
Salad veggie, white mushrooms, guacamole sauce & mustard sauce
& I did not lie about its thickness!

Left-over minced beef from last night to mix with french fries
Which in Kim Gary HK Cafe in Citysquare JB
They're selling this similar item at RM$5.95
Sorry it's not very presentable

Ah..
Another beefy night

Guess I'm gonna stop eating (so much) meat for this week