Suspected of having GERD

Today I went to see Dr Victor (a doctor in University Health and Wellness Center who attends mass at the same church as I do) about my cough again. He was commenting that he'll rather see me in church than to see me at the clinic. Anyway, after asking about my history, he suspects that the cough might be due to GERD.

GERD stands for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. Basically, it has something to do with the gastric. Too much acid. He checked my tummy and told me that I'm having reflux. So it's very likely GERD. Well... Given that I had been having refluxes quite often recently, it should be the case. So time to improve my lifestyle. Less oily food, more veges, take meals more regularly, that means no eating dinner late, drink less coffee, eat smaller meals etc. He also gave me some medication.

I also mentioned that I had some pain in my ear, and after checking my ears, he sent me for syringing of my right ear. The nurse took this HUGE syringe, filled it up with water and pumped the water into my right ear. At the same time, I was holding a kidney dish below my ear to catch the water. The water washed my wax out into the kidney dish. There was slight discomfort, but still bearable. I did feel a bit giddy though. After the nurse was done, I could see quite a lot of brown wax washed into the kidney dish. According to Dr Victor, he has seen worse. Haha.

Seeing doc at UHWC is really cheap for students. Syringing, plus cough medicine, medicine for phlegm (non-standard drug) and medicine for GERD (non-standard drug) cost only $13.35. Actually, I was just paying for the non-standard drugs.

Hopefully my cough gets better. I've been feeling very tired from the cough and it's affecting my daily life.

Wedding Bells Are Ringing

Have I grown so old that wedding bells are ringing around me? It seems so... I can't deny that I'm not young anymore with all these news of people around me getting married. Don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm not happy to hear such news. In fact, I'm happy for those people.

I'm attending a wedding dinner of one of my army mates in March. And Yuan Deng has proposed to Xiao Fen on V-day. CONGRATS TO XIAOFEN AND YUAN DENG!!! Any more weddings coming up? Please let me know in advance. Haha. Hopefully any more weddings to come will only come after August. Because that's when I'll be getting my 1st pay. No work = no money to give ang bao.

Skipped Orientation!

Today was SUPPOSED to be our first day of orientation, but after a couple hours of presentations and lunch, we got too bored and decided to just go exploring Sydney instead. Heh!

First off, we decided to make our way down to Haymarket. Saw St Benedict's Church on the way, which is where I'll be going for mass on Sunday. It's just 5 mins walk from Unilodge.

St Benedict's Church. Don't you love it's Neo-gothic architecture?

After another 20 minutes walk and taking a left at Hay St, we finally found outselves at Market City, which is in the heart of Haymarket. We've always thought tt Haymarket is a flea market, but it turned out that Haymarket is the name the suburb, and Paddy's, which is the flea market there, is not open today. So we decided to take the light rail down to Sydney Fish Market before it closes at 5pm instead.

Market City

The light rail

The Fish Market is only a couple of stops away but it costs $5.70 for a round trip ticket! The one-way ticket cost $4.60, so doesn't make much sense to buy a one-way. I'm missing how cheap public transport is in Singapore now. I'm never complaining about Singapore public transport fares again...

Sydney Fish Market Stop

Sydney Fish Market

This was quite a sight. Lotsa seagulls chasing the guy who's transporting the fish!

The market was closing by the time we got there (4.30pm), so this was the ONLY shop that we managed to go into.

Lotsa gorgeous fresh seafood!

We bought all these stuff for AUD$30! Sashimi, oysters, abalone... The oysters were especially delicious! Never tasted oysters this good before. Really really tasty!

The view from the pier after dinner was great too. That's Anzac Bridge in the background.

Took the light rail back to Haymarket and made our way to Chinatown. Sadly, there wasn't much to see, although it seems like a pretty good place to buy souvenirs. Not sure if it's the cheapest, but it's the best price we've seen so far. Singapore's Chinatown is much more interesting.

Chinatown

After a short walk thru Chinatown, we took the underpass and walked to Darling Harbour, which was just a stone's throw away. On our way, we saw lotsa birds resting at the fountain outside a shopping centre. Sometimes it's just hard to believe that you get such beautiful sights right in the heart of the CBD.

Pacific Black Duck

Silver Gull

Enjoying the evening sun at Darling Harbour

This gull is obviously very well-fed!

By the time we reached Darling Harbour, it was already evening, so we went home shortly after that. Everything here closes by 6pm and it's not very safe to be out after the sun sets!

Anyway, the abalones that we bought at the Fish Market ($4 per piece) turned out to be too hard to be eaten raw, so I brought them home to cook, Chinese style!

Turned out pretty yummy! =)

In Search of Sydney U

I was so tired after unpacking til 3am last night, I slept til 11am before getting up to shower and have brunch. Met Mong Ling after tt at Broadway to buy some groceries and then took a taxi down to her place at Mallett Street, which is just a stone's throw from the Mallett St campus. Basically spent my day exploring the route to the main campus and the Mallett St campus, since I'll be having my orientation at the former and studying at the latter.

The place didn't look half as bad as what pple described, altho it does look much less glam than the main campus.

Sydney is Spiderland! There r lotsa huge webs everywhere (especially in Mong Ling's place, which has been vacant since Nov 07).

Took this photo along the road while walking back from Mong Ling's place, which was approximately 25 mins walk from Unilodge. These spiders are really FAT, but not yet the biggest I've seen.

After walking 20 mins, I arrived at the main campus of Sydney U, which is where our orientation will be held from 20-21 Feb.

The entrance.

The road leading up to the main building.

The sun was so strong that I could hardly open my eyes!

This is the path leading from the campus to Victoria Park.

It's a pretty neat place. Small, but at least it's got a pond and lotsa birds.

After walking around Victoria Park, I went back to Unilodge (just across the road) and cooked dinner.

Had kangaroo sausages with pasta for dinner today. First meal that I cook in Sydney. Kangaroo meat is supposed to be environment-friendly cos kangaroos eats less than cows and sheeps and does not emit methane (a greenhouse gas) like they do. Kangaroo is also high in protein, iron and zinc, and very low in fat. Well, tasted like PIG LIVER! Lol. Will prob eat it again tho, since it's environment-friendly, healthy and CHEAP! This whole box of gourmet sausages cost me just a little over AUD$3.

I'm missing Singapore food already! Bought this at Bi-Lo for AUD$2.47 on offer. Heh.

G'day~!

I'm in Sydney!! I'm missing everyone back at home already, especially my dear. Starting to really appreciate the cost of living back home, cos everything is so expensive here! Just forked out AUD$4.18 for a crate of 12 eggs today! That could have bought me more than 3 dozen eggs back in Singapore... Sighz.


Anyway, a big THANK YOU to those who sent me off, as well as all my well-wishers. Miss you guys lots!

Not in this photo: Zhong Quan and Huimin

Our last photo before I left...

Caught some really cool shots of Aussie from the plane (Adelaide I think)!

Finally we're in Sydney!

The weather was really great when we arrived. Wanna go to the beach!

The Maxi-taxi that took us to Unilodge.

Saw this guy along the way! Is he going to the MEGA SALE?? NO! He's the postman! LOL.

The building that looks like a museum is Unilodge, my home for the next 2-3 months.


My room's really nice and cosy...

...Only AFTER I finished unpacking though! ;P
This is the living area.

My desk...


Bird's eye view from my loft...


My bed and wardrobe's in the loft. =)


And finally, the attached toilet. You can see the spiral staircase in the mirror.

Well, that's all for now! Hopefully I can keep this up and blog thruout my 9 months in Aussie!

She's leaving!

How time flies. Before we know it, Gladys is going to leave Singapore in less than 24 hours! It's quite scary actually. Will I miss her? Of course I will. Luckily she's only going for 9 months and I'm gonna visit her in May/June.

STOP BULLYING EDISON CHEN! 不要在欺负陈冠希了！

Steven Lim is at it again! This time it's about the photos of Edison Chan. Honestly, I personally feel that it's rather embarrassing. I wonder how he gets the courage to do all these stuff.

My Last Week

Well, finally started clearing my leave and in just 1 more week, I'll be in Sydney. Not feeling particularly sad/excited/scared etc. In fact, I'm too darn lazy to start packing. As for my plans for this whole week, I'm already almost fully booked. Better try to squeeze in some time for packing!!!


P.S. Oh yeah, before I forget, Happy Lunar New Year~! It's been more of like a LUNATIC new year for me so far. Too much to do, too little time left! I did manage to win $21 in mahjong today though (Free dinner for 2! Thanks Danny!). ^.^

Happy Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year to whoever is reading this! 恭喜發財

I'm hoping that 2008 in the Lunar year will be a better year for me. And for Gladys. And for all my friends and family. Here's wishing all the best to you!

And is anyone interested in going for blood donation with Gladys and I on Saturday? It's Lunar New Year period, but Gladys and I are probably going for blood donation this coming Saturday in the afternoon. If anyone is interested in going with us, let us know!

Leaving Soon...

Just signed my deed with Singhealth today for the scholarship and all of a sudden, it just hit me that I'm leaving Singapore in just slightly more than 2 weeks. I feel so moody now, missing everyone and everything here even before I'm gone and feeling scared of this new place that I'll be going to for 10 months.

Oh well... Perhaps I'll feel better when I finally receive my visa approval and when David can confirm when he'll be coming to Sydney. Then I can add yet another TickerFactory counter on this blog!