New Words

While sitting in the tram on my way home this afternoon, I wondered at how many new things have I come across since arriving in this city two months ago.

Lygon Street = where home is

Swanston Street = where buddies' homes are

Safeway, Aldi, IGA = food supply stores

Brunswick = halal food haven ('coz I normally dine out with buddies and not alone)

BigW, QV = where to buy starting household supplies

Vic Mart = where to buy fresh food like veges and fruits (sometimes at a bargain)

ComBank, ANZ = where allowance will arrive

Tram No. 1 & No. 8 = to city and back home (and everything in between)

oh wait,
Tram = trains powered by electricity, with tracks on roads (together with cars)

Tram No. 19 = to Brunswick

Tram No. 109 = to church

A little bit about school,
Copland (Economics & Commerce) = the building where we have 6 of our 8 Science lectures in a week

Sidney Myer (Asia Centre) Carillo Gantner Theatre = where we have the remaining 2 Science lectures

Elizabeth Murdoch = where we have our 'professionalism' lecture (1 per week)

PBS = our Science subject for this semester. We don't have Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Pathology, Microbiology, etc... we have PBS. Which is Principles of Biomedical Science (for Sem 1), and it's an all-in-one subject

HP = our 'professionalism' subject, to learn how to become a doctor. It's like ToK in IB, and the chit-chat thing in KMB. HP = Health Practice


These words wouldn't have meant a thing to me when I was still in KK.

Anyway, they are now the most basic words to me I think.

That's all for now.

Mengapa Mereka Meninggalkan Pelayanan

A translation from English "Why People Leave Ministry"
...exercising my Malay writing skills again... (guess who wrote the English one?)

Mengapa Mereka Meninggalkan Pelayanan

Ketika mengenangkan sebilangan pemuda pemudi yang seketika dahulu berkobar-kobar untuk Tuhan (sewaktu saya sendiri masih belasan tahun, masih ragu-ragu akan pegangan rohani peribadi) – kenangan akan mereka yang lebih “senior” daripada saya pada masa itu – saya memikirkan kembali mengapa api semarak rohani itu beransur-ansur mati. Telah banyak berlaku situasi pemimpin (rohani) muda-mudi yang jatuh daripada pelayanan gereja, dan para penatua dan pastor gereja sering mengingatkan kita, golongan muda, akan kejadian mengecewakan yang sedemikian. Saya menegaskan bahawa dalam dunia lampau-moden yang kini kita diami, sebab mereka meninggalkan pelayanan ialah...


Try guessing what comes next?

And tell me if you want to read the full article. It's about 2 pages long (1,000 words).

Pix Uploaded

Thanks to Ipin, Budok and Zaini for letting me use their Internet connection.

This is where PlanetShakers City Church meets every Sunday,
3.00 pm and 5.15pm

Trinity College, University of Melbourne

That's a moving fire engine
In Copland Theatre,
Economics and Commerce Building
(Principles of Biomedical Science lecture 2.7 by Graham Parslow)
In front of the (T-shaped) medical building
The streets of Melbourne CBD on a Friday night
On Lygon Street. Windy.
The window-facing study desk in College Square. Self-made breakfast.
South Lawn, University of Melbourne
(I've never seen anything similar in Malaysia)
On the desk again. This is dinner.
Carillo Gantner Theatre,
Sidney Myer Asia Centre
(or, another lecture hall)
Four Malaysians in Brunswick

Why I got a C+ in FM

FM = STPM (Malaysia HSC) Further Mathematics T
...a post to release my weird mixture of feelings: sadness, and disappointment, and gratefulness, and fresh inspiration!

I've expected it (I sensed it coming). And it really did come. FM Paper 1 really pawned me; there's no way I could answer questions I've never practised on before. I do not yet know my grade for the single first paper, but of course it's much lower than C+. And it must be Paper 2 which pulled my grade up a little.

I had to teach myself about three quarter (75%) of the subject material, as I've learned only the other one quarter (Statistics, half of Paper 2). All in under 4 months' time (Aug-Nov).

I had no teacher.

I had no friends taking the same hurdle.

There isn't any comprehensive book on FM. Unlike Bio, Chem, Math and all the other subjects which each has a Pre-University / STPM reference text, which is practically an all-in-one book. There's none for FM. Maybe there aren't many potential buyers, hence no interested authors and publishers. But even if there are buyers (students), there might still be not enough teachers. I bet most secondary-school Math teachers wouldn't want to take the responsibility of teaching FM.

It's freakin' hard.

And yet I managed a C+ (GP 2.33).

I think I deserved it. My Math skill deserves that sort of achievement level. It's not bad for someone who's self-taught. And it's a principal pass (as opposed to sub-fail and fail).

You know what do I tend to overlook? The bright side of life: I've got a solid A in Mathematics T (GP 4.00). Flawless. Praise God!