Beyond now

Hola!

Phew time for a break. A break from browsing through the papers, scoping out potential jobs. At the corner of my eye, almost out of view I spy my snowboard lying idly next to my guitar. Is that a layer of dust collecting already? Or maybe its just the plastic cover its in. Oh I do miss Melbourne so. My friends, the snow and the cool climate.

I'm not meant to be stuck at a desk, looking at the computer screen. I was built to be launched out into the great outdoors, conquer the unknown, freeze in the snow, you know? So in the midst of the job hunt, I asked my mom what she'd think if I decided to be a snowboarding instructor. She said, "Sure, if thats what you want." How cool is that?? I'm starting to think that my mom may be a misplaced citizen like me.

But alas, the results of my search wasn't promising. The average cost for an instructor's course lingered around the ₤6000 mark. YES! Six Thousand Pounds! Thats like almost 20 grand in singapore dollars. Of course it includes a season pass good for mountains in Canada (read: WHISTLER BLACKCOOMB), food and lodging for 11 weeks and of course, training and certification exam fees. ₤6000.....Groan.

I guess its kinda like taking a course in uni. I cannot justify asking my parents to pay for it though, they've already provided me with so much, more than I could ask for. I came to a conclusion that maybe I'll work for a couple of years, get sick of the corporate world and by then I would've saved enough to embark on this.....let's call it a sabbatical. Sweeeet.

But then I started thinking and then I realised, what if......what if I was in a stable relationship, or worse, what if I was married? I wouldn't be able to just take off and go. The course itself is 3 months, and if I wanna make use of that certification, I'd be teaching kids how to snowboard in snowfields all over the world. Such is the dilemma of a soon to be 27 year old. Is it now or never?

A life of eternal winters wondering snow fields round the globe, or a life in Singapore with a stable job and maybe my soulmate?

farewell my love

My run here in Australia has ended. I cannot believe how fast 1 month and 3 days can go by so quickly. The time has come where I have to reluctantly pack my bags and drag myself to the airport.

I had a great time though and I'm thankful that I was able to delay my return by 2 weeks. That extra time gave me the opportunity to enjoy some of the best experiences of the holiday. Epic snowboarding trips. New friends made and great relationships established. Great times over food and at beautiful places. The only drawback is that its making my return to Singapore a little harder.

Well, to sum things up, here's what I'm thankful for:

1) First and foremost, I gotta thank God for blessing me with such a great holiday and the chance to have it.

2) The SNOW! That's the main reason why I came back to begin with! OH and the great chance to ride my custom X. I managed to visit all three mountains as planned and each trip was made amazing by the company of people I was with. My riding has improved and I've got heaps of great photos and videos to seal in the memories.

3) The boys at no.20 Lansell Road. Wilfred, Josh and Brian. You guys have been a great bunch to hang out with and I'm glad to have been able to get to know you all better! Thanks for letting me crash there most of my trip and for being so gracious with my needs. I had heaps of fun with you all up in the mountains and in melbourne.

4) Eunice over at Malvern. My other dwelling place. Thanks for letting me stay at your apartment and invading your "warehouse". You've been so sweet and I just wanna thank you for letting me stay for that week or so. I'm glad to see your leather journals and diaries and photoalbums picking up. They're beautiful! everyone should have one. More on that in a later post....

5) Great friends I've made along the way. I'm glad I got the chance to hang out with my uni / engineering friends and then make new friends in the process! By alphabetical order: Alan, a fellow snowboarding fanatic, I hope your butt recovers soon so that you can get some spring boarding done man! Bee, you're a blast to hang out with and I enjoyed getting to know you better this time round. I pray that things will go smooth for you and that you'll be smiling all the time! Randy, you're still as goofy as ever and a great buddy to chill out with. At least we hit falls creek together so the promise to ride together this winter was kept. Ru O, you're a barrel of laughs man. It was fun snowboarding with ya and thanks for the jokes in the long car rides. And last but not least, YEN! We finally meet after passing by each other at various events and probably even in the campus centre. 3 years in Monash and I only get to know you when I'm back here for a holiday. Better late than never I guess. Thanks for being such a sweetie. I really enjoyed hanging out with you and getting to know you better. I hope someday we'll get that hot chocolate under the stars.

6) My amazing church friends. Here's a big shout out to this amazing bunch of people who made my non-snowboarding days in melbourne amazing! Thanks for the dinners and that final farewell at HRC! I had a great time fellowshipping with you all! Buzz me for the pictures ok? I have heaps and heaps. See you all in Singspore soon!

Oh there's so much more to be thankful for but it seems I have to start packing my bags now if I wanna get on that plane back to Singapore. hmmmmmm.......

THANKS FOR THE GREAT HOLIDAY!

blue moon

Anyone looked up into the night sky and saw the blue moon today? I didn't. What I did see was this blue tram ticket and it was in my pocket. Yeap! For the first time in my existance in Australia, I have taken the tram. One of Melbourne's most basic form of public transport, I found myself getting into one after finding myself all alone in the house and needing to get to the city.

Wilfred's reaction kinda summed it up. "How did you go to the city today? HUH? YOU WHAT?" I must confess that the tram ride was quite pleasant, though the tram hardly moved at the speed of light. It was more like taking a slow relaxed stroll. No rush, no stress. It was quite a good way to take in the urban sights and admire the odd architectural gem. It was also a great chance to put my iPod nano to use. I do miss the times when I enjoy my tunes through earphones as I watch faces come and go on public transport.

It also gave me a chance to spend some time with myself. Sitting there I could ponder upon what I wanted to do with my life. What jobs I'd like to try out. What kind of girl I want to date. How I'm gonna draw closer to God. How I should land that heelside 3 when I launch off a jump.... you know? the important things in life. But seriously, I didn't expect to enjoy taking the tram and I'm thinking that maybe I should take the bus or train now and then just for the kick of it. I reckon it would be a good experience too, being on the bus with no specific destination in mind. Just to be along for the ride and see where it leads you. I'd enjoy that. Someone told me thats what sagittariuses do. They wonder around and enjoy life. Sounds good to me.



Till my next post, take deep breaths and enjoy what life serves up!

New friends I got to (s)know.

Greetings friends and passers-by!

Looking at the little window on my watch with the date dial reminds me that I have a week left in Australia. Yes, my snowboarding adventures are drawing to a close. With only 2 more day trips left in the plan, I can safely say that its been a blast. I've also met my goal to visit the 3 main ski resorts in Victoria. Yes! I've conquered Hotham, Fallscreek and Buller all in one season.

The new snowboard is phenomenal. I can ride faster, pop higher and carve harder. Its like riding a magic carpet! Furthermore, being a white board, you can barely see any scratches or marks when dumbass skiers run over your board at the chairlift line. It still looks brand new. Sweeeet.

The weather has been pretty good to me. God has blessed me with pretty good snow for some decent fun. This season's riding has definately stepped up a notch. Amen to that! But the most important point to be raving about has gotta be the great company I've had on this trip and the big bunch of friends I've made through the snow! Thanks for all the smashing fun and awesome memories.

As you can tell from the few photos I've placed around this post, I was with great company and it was a blast. Till my next snow season!

Lima Beans

Hey Y'all! First off, I have to apologise for the recent entries on my blog. I was just looking through it and realised that I've been talking non stop about snowboarding! This must be boring some of you to death! I mean, not everyone has an interest in this topic and yet I keep going on and on about it. Therefore, I have decided to talk about something else in this entry. Something that I'm sure we all hold dear to our hearts. Lima beans.

The Lima bean or butter bean is grown as a vegetable for its mature and immature beans. The small-seeded wild form (Sieva type) is found distributed from Mexico to Argentina, generally below 1600 meters above sea level, while the large-seeded wild form (Lima type) is found distributed in Ecuador and the north of Peru, between 320 and 2030 meters above sea level. The pods are up to 15 cm long. The mature seeds are 1 to 3 cm long and oval to kidney shaped. White seeds are common, but black, red, orange and variously mottled seeds are also known. The immature seeds are uniformly green.

The lima bean is palatable and nutritious both immature as a fresh vegetable and mature as a dry pulse. Dry lima beans require lengthy soaking of about twelve hours and thorough cooking. Both soaking water and cooking water should be discarded to eliminate flatulence-inducing oligosaccharides.

The lima bean is a perennial plant usually cultivated as an annual plant. It prefers warm temperatures, but is tolerant of drought. To plant lima beans properly, the soil temperature needs to be at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit. If the soil is 5 degrees colder than that, mortality in the beans may occur.

Righto. To conclude, great wisdom can be gained from this entry. Therefore, if you wanna induce flatulence, you should ingest the soaking or cooking water thats used to prepare the Lima beans! Sweeeeeet.

snowboarding zombie

MAN! A dumbass SKIER skied straight over my board and stripped my quiksilver sticker off the font off my board! ARGH! Is it so difficult to pretend to be sponsered by quiksilver? Why did you have to ski over my board? There I was minding my own business. Sheesh. Oh well, luckily I have a few more of those stickers. *ahem*

Right, enough ranting. Its just that I get so moody when I'm back in Melbourne waiting for the next snowboard trip. True to my Chinese zodiac sign, the mountain goat in me is one with the mountain. (hmmm is it a mountain goat? or just a regular goat?) Don't get me wrong, I love Melbourne! But I liked it a lot more when I had my own car, my own place, my own space. Relying on people for lodging and transport really gets me down. Sleeping in someone's living room, driving someone else's car, asking my hosts what the plans are for dinner....its just not me. I like to get out there and get things done, when I want and how I want.

Besides, I feel bad getting in the way of the people who are nice enough to put me up. Thanks to Wilfred during my first 10 days here and now Eunice. You guys have been great. I'll be out of your hair soon ok?

Hmmmm, though it kinda contradicts my decision to extend my stay here for 2 more weeks huh? Oh, did I forget to mention that I'll be here till the 24th of August? I decided against returning on the original date on the 10th coz there's still so much snowboarding to be done! Bring it on!!! hmmmm, what was I talking about again?

sore bum but going strong

Hey y'all!

Found some time on my hands so I decided to have a quick little update on this bloggo thing-a-magik. As some of you know, I'm still in Melbourne and getting a fair bit of snowboarding done! The snow conditions have really been picking up and it gets better and better with every ride!

Of course, having better snow conditions also means its much colder too. And nothing beats the cold than taking a break on a cafe on top of the snow covered mountain with a hot chocolate and 2 marshmellows in it. Pure bliss! One thing that's spoiling my enjoyment is my sore bum. It hurts so bad when I sit or move around too much. Its the result of crashing too much when your snowboarding stunts go awry I guess. Its funny though, snowboarding. I love it so much but if you think about it, this is quite a mental, physical and financial test.

You see, the cost of going on a snowboarding holiday is phenomenal. Lodging in the mountain is expensive. Food is expensive. Chair lift tickets are expensive. If you rent gear, its gonna cost a bit too. Now, when all that is said and done, you're finally on the mountain and zipping around, and then you crash. You try to get some air, go for jumps, you crash again. Infact, even beginners who are learning on the baby slopes will soon realise that there is a lot of crashing to be done. And then come the aches and sores and pains the morning after. Epic I tell ya. Now finally, comes the cold bit. After boarding down a run, you gotta take the chairlift back up again. Its during those few minutes where you hit the lowest morale in the whole experience. You're sitting on the chairlift, the wind is blowing at sub zero temperatures and you're struggling to keep warm. The wind and snow pounding at your face and other peeks of exposed skin sends painful cold shivers through you. Its miserable.

Yet, despite all that, Snowboarding rocks I tell ya. The freedom and the speed. Zipping around the mountain. Landing your jumps and tricks. Its an amazing feeling. I hope everyone gets to go at least once in their life and enjoy it! Righto, I better go lie down and rest up so that I can recover in time for my next adventure! 3 more days! wooo hooooooo!