Administratium: More of Them

Yup, yup. Just when I thought, with my exchange in Australia ending, I can finally say goodbye to administratium, I realised that that was such a naive thought. Administratium seems ever pervasive in the Australian climate, and this time it concerns my results.

Nope, they're all quite fine. Passed all my courses, meaning I'll be getting the modular credits in NUS no matter what the grades are. All except for my astrophysics course. I still don't know the grade yet, though I'm pretty certain I'll pass. And the reason why I don't have the grade is because of some... surprise, surprise! Administratium!

To cut the long story short, and then throw away the short part, my official grade for that course is "result pending". Not that it's a problem with me, but I'm more worried about the transferring of credits over to NUS. I'll need to request for a transcript at the ANU office before I leave, but I certainly want to make sure the grade's up there and proper before I have it printed out. If this episode drags on, I may have to leave with a non-final transcript and then, when the grade got sorted out, get my transcript mailed to Singapore. Too much a hassle, too much administratium.

Oh please, oh please. Let this be my final encounter with Australian administratium. Don't be mistaken. I like Australia very much, but I'm quite afraid I'm not used to administratium yet.

On a side note, I have to admit it could've been worse. I have heard from a Singaporean studying here that the administration somehow lost her grades (yes, permanently), resulting in her having to retake the exam months after she has completed the course.

On a second side note, I find that, as compared to NUS, it is easier to secure a higher grade. Maybe the exams/assignments are easier, or perhaps the other students are not as hardworking, or maybe I'm already accustomed to the head-banging studying culture in NUS, but my grades are pretty favourable. In fact, for the two physics courses I've taken, I got high distinctions (roughly equivalent to NUS's A), the highest grade they have.

Best Camoflauge. Ever.

Countdown at Sydney

One of the reasons why I'm staying all the way in Australia till so late is because of the New Year's Eve (NYE) celebrations in Sydney, which promises spectacular fireworks that last seemingly infinitely. However, me being myself, I kinda neglected the detailed planning until now.

So first, quite a change of plan, though not necessarily for the worse. Initially I was thinking of catching a coach to Sydney (one way only costs A$15 if booked early... meaning I would be getting the A$26 ones) and staying over at the YHA hostels over a few days, but all the accommodations are wiped out. Even if I were to go there on NYE afternoon and get the first coach out the next day, I still have to find something to do for the night, which is quite a problem to me since almost all of the night activities available in the city is not my cup of tea.

However, I realised that it might be cheaper to rent a car and drive there with a couple of friends. Furthermore, there will be no worries on what to do that night, for I will be driving back. Of course, then again, most people would already have plans for their NYE, either to work (coz on such holidays the pay is like, what, A$40 an hour?) or have fun. So I may not be able to get the desired maximum number of travellers along with me.

And then now, I've received advice from a friend that if I want the key vantage points like Sydney Opera House, I have to be there very early. Like around noon. The official NYE website is also pretty frank: "You can have a fantastic New Year’s Eve and a front row seat for the fireworks at home." They're quite humourous as well: "Eat well throughout the day and evening, drink plenty of water and limit your alcohol intake to ensure you make it to midnight."

Needless to say, the entire CBD and northern shore will be shut down to traffic. That's fine with me... having to park far away and walk in. So all seems well, but knowing things, something will go wrong somewhere. Hopefully, it doesn't turn out to be too huge a spoiler.

Amazing Marketing Strategy

While in Tasmania, we stumbled across what is perhaps one of the best marketing strategies I've ever seen. It is a bottled water interestingly named as "Another Bloody Water".



Here's what the description on the bottle says:

Since we unceremoniously (some say rudely) barged our way into the overcrowded bottled water market with a good-looking bottle, a smartarse name and a devil may care attitude it has come to our attention that our competitors don't like us*. They think we are taking the piss. That we mock the overly flowery, exaggerated language and the poorly drawn waterfalls and diagrams of volcanos on their labels. They think that we are not taking the serious aquatic science of bottled water... well seriously.

So to quash any future smear campaign and rumour mongering they may come up with, we're going to set the record straight right here. Smart Alec name - yes. Just another water - no.

First up our water is bloody good. Better than most. It comes from a spring, high in the Victorian Alps, which is a bloody long drive from civilisation (see: pollution). The only farms in the area are organic which means no nasty pesticides or any of those other evil poisons end up in the water. In fact we deal with the rampant blackberry problem by setting our deer on them. It's a tough gig for the deer but they seem to like it. And while we're blowing our own trumpet independent Government approved laboratories have done tests and they reckon it's lower in sodium than all other major brands on the Australian market. Did we say it tastes bloody good?

So there you go. Doubting Thomas competitors - cards on the table. Enjoy Another Bloody Water, everyone. And then you're done with that enjoy another Another Bloody Water. And so on.

* We don't actually know if our competitors don't like us. But being 'competitors' we're pretty sure they don't.

I forgot what the price was, but its marketing got me to buy one bottle. Well done!

Security Scare

I was speaking to a resident staying at my hall just yesterday, and he told me of two security-related incidents at the ANU recently. Just last week, a gunman was reported around another hall about 10 minutes walk away, and he only knew about this because he has a friend who works at the office there.

Then, two days ago, he said someone tried to break into the block where I'm staying (which is the block for all residents during summer vacation), in the process of which the two card readers that opens the door were broken off. That explains why there were notices all over telling us to use another side gate which operates using the room keys. The card readers were fixed quickly though.

And it doesn't help that yesterday the Australian Federal Police had some training in the vacated blocks and the unoccupied wing of the kitchen. It was rather ominous that while we were chatting about this on one side of the kitchen, armoured police with rifles and tasers were having mock exercises and passing through the other side.

To be honest, I'm not sure if these events are connected. Or for that matter, if they were true or just rumours blown out of proportion (maybe the supposed gunman was merely someone taking his/her rotten banana for a walk). But considering that the ANU notice of the police training on campus was released only one day before it began, it does add a sinister note to the event (and why on campus, of all other possible locations?). Strangely, there were no reports by local news or releases by the ANU security, which perhaps suggest all these as just rumour-mongering, though it could mean, at a lower probability, that someone is trying to cover things up.

Personally, I've not witnessed anything alarming or worrying. But I think, to be on the safe side, I shall have to take slightly stricter security measures. For example, I should develop the habit of locking my room if I'm leaving it for something longer than using the toilet, especially when I have my laptop sitting innocently inside.

If I could be bothered at all...

A Dilemma

While I was travelling around in Tasmania and now right here in Canberra, the ICT for my platoon is currently ongoing. Of course, I have a deferment for this ICT and thus excused from this training, along with two other platoon mates in a similar situation.

However, my case is slightly different in that I could've returned for the ICT given that my exams end sometime before. This require a serious amount of planning as I've applied the Exit Permit (and thus the deferment) before I left... meaning if I wanted to participate in this ICT I would've arranged my permit to end early. But I applied for a permit till January which freed me from this particular ICT, so in a way the choice is made and there's nothing I can do about it now.

The reason why I applied all the way through to next year, to before the new semester at NUS starts, is because I wanted time to travel around Australia. The air ticket from Singapore to Australia is not cheap, so I thought that since I'm coming here I might as well maximise my time here and visit places all over the country. It would be a waste to fly here just before the ANU semester started and back home right after it ended. That is why I was already here in June, more than a month ahead of my exchange semester.

Nonetheless, I do quite wish I'm now there with my platoon mates in the jungles of Lim Chu Kang. Not that I like army trainings - most of my platoon mates, as far as I know, loathe ICTs - but I get the horrible feeling that I'm sort of deserting my friends, enjoying myself here in Australia while they suffer back in Singapore. Not to mention the trouble shoved onto Shung Yar's plate of arranging a substitute for me, and to Jun Hong for having to do the rebro himself or with someone else. Of course, I'll probably be having a makeup ICT when I go back (with strangers - another reason why I'd be in this ICT), so I'm certainly not escaping the burden of "serving the country", but there is still this irrational nagging thought that bugs me every now and then.

Yet, if now I were back in Singapore for this ICT, I will feel guilty of not making full use of my time here in Australia. Of going back so early. Of missing those travels I would've otherwise taken. I would've thought, "I did have a choice of deferring this ICT, but I didn't."

Thus either choice I make will leave me with regret. Well, at least the choice has already been made. And in any case, I do hope my platoon mates will get through this ICT smoothly and "painlessly".

Back from Tassie

For the past week I've been hopping around the island state of Tasmania with Yao and her friend Lee. Before that we had a short half-day tour of Sydney and a day of canyoning in the Blue Mountains. Since there were three of us, it made more sense to rent a car: a train ticket between Central station and the airport is A$13.80; a train ticket between Central and Katoomba (Blue Mountains) is A$12.40. Multiply these by three and then taking into account return tickets, even the airport and underage surcharge of renting a car at the airport is worth it.

We drove to Katoomba at night and, just like the last time I visited, there was a tremendous fog. I have never gripped the steering wheel so tightly before. Neither have my eyes been opened so wide. Gosh, the drive there really fried my nerves (and I'm the only driver, since Yao's parents accidently brought her license back to Singapore, and Lee forgot to bring his). Visibility was like 100 m and perhaps slightly more, and I still never figured out how those truck drivers can still zoom past us at 100 km/h.

In any case, we reached Katoomba safely and the canyoning trip was superb! It comprises an hour long trek through the forest (led by guides of course) to the canyon, abseil our way down to the bottom, wading through rivers and finally an hour trek back up. Some of the abseil points were pretty challenging, having require us to abseil down a waterfall. It wasn't as tough as it might sound; the only difficulty is the slippery rocks.

Then early next morning we had to drive back to Sydney to catch a flight to Hobart. Despite being the capital city of Tasmania, Hobart is pretty small, very much like Canberra.



The first day there was spent lazing around the CBD area, and we had a nice seafood lunch (which was rather cheap, by the way) at Mures. That was the first time in a long while since I had fresh and good seafood.



The Queen Elizabeth Harbour there presented an excellent view at the evenings, with the yatchs and jetties and warehouse buildings.



But just like Canberra, Hobart fell silent after nightfall, and we pretty much did nothing that night. We had a wonderful Indian dinner at a restaurant called Taj Palace. They served brilliant food and, surprisingly, it was spicy, which suited the chilly weather. Above all, the food tasted authentic. And to our surprise, the owners were Singaporeans.

The next day was a very taxing day of whitewater rafting in Derwent River. We initially wanted to go for Picton River, which was rougher and hence more fun than Derwent, but the prolonged drought which Australia has been suffering for years left the water level too low for rafting, and the rain which came the day before failed to alleviate the situation. Indeed, Derwent was tamer than we had wanted it to be, but we did, along with the guides, some pretty crazy stuff that made it bumpier than it usually is, such as stacking two rafts together.





And needless to say, we were all worn out by the time it ended in the afternoon, and it was a comfortable rest for the evening and night at Adelphi Court YHA in Hobart (which was rather homely).

The following day we rented a car and headed southwards to Tahune Nature Reserve, which featured the Tahune Airwalk, a treetop walk through the rainforest.



Admittedly, it was rather disappointing, and our rather packed schedule left us with too little time to enjoy the sights. There were other trails which we could walk, and I believe they have nice scenery as well, but time is not on our side.



Then we headed down to Hasting Caves just nearby. If I recall correctly, Hasting Caves is one of the oldest caves in the world. And this wasn't a letdown. We managed to catch the last tour just in time, and went through the formidable beauty of the caves. Given the low lighting, it was no surprise that most of the photos turned out poorly, but a few came out rather well.



In the morning the next day we drove up Mt. Wellington, a mountain just behind Hobart and is always visible from many parts of the city. With the peak at 1270 m above sea level, it was madly cold up there, and the wind chill made it particularly bad.



I even had trouble taking photos because my hands were freezing up. In fact, when we reached the summit, there were frost along the corner of a wooden broadwalk, which is quite something considering that we were approaching summer. Nonetheless, it was sure great up there, with the wind and all, and a stunning view of Hobart.



And just before we left, a very fine hail started coming. Coupled with the strong wind, it was nastily painful. Fortunately, the ice pieces were very small.

In the afternoon we had the Bonorong Wildlife Park on our schedule. A 30 min drive from Hobart, it had a diverse collection of native animals such as kangeroos, wallabies, cockatoos, koalas, and my favourite, wombats, and, of course, Tasmanian devils.







As with most wildlife parks, we can feed the kangeroos and wallabies. Despite being so common, they are always the main attractions, and it was evident that these domesticated kangeroos and wallabies were spoilt. When they wanted feeding, they would glance at us and nodded their heads, and we can grab some feed in your hands and they'd messily feast on them. But we have to approach them: they're too lazy to come up to us to take the food.

I kinda wished I could hug one of the wombats they have there, but usually that is not allowed as wombats can get aggressive despite their docile appearance, and their bites can penetrate very deeply.



They also had some animals which weren't so common in other wildlife parks, such as echidnas and tawny frogmouths.





They also had a sulphur-crested cockatoo which could say "hello". That's something new for me, as I've always thought that cockatoos did not have the appropriate vocal cords to imitate human speech.



The next morning we spent a little time at a shopping district called Salamanca Place, before visiting the famous Cadbury Chocolate Factory at noon. We were given a tour around the factory, which was pretty amazing watching the sheer amount of chocolate being manufactured there. Not only that, the whole place smelled heavily of chocolate, which was quite heavenly to us visitors. All in all it was a very great visit; the only regret was not purchasing more chocolate from their shop there, where they sell their products at nearly half the retail price. They also had some exotic and new flavours, such as the Cadbury Old Gold Flake (I don't even see the normal Cadbury Flake in Singapore) and their 70% cocoa Old Gold (which was perfect, in my opinion).

Then we drove hours north to a small town called Bicheno. It was evening by then, which means, especially for a small town, there's nothing much we can do. However, Bicheno featured Fairy Penguins, and we paid for a tour that night to see them. In my opinion, it was better than the Penguin Parade I visited at Phillip Island, as we get to be closer to the penguins here, and we were allowed to take photographs so long as the flash was suppressed.



Since Bicheno is the most eastern town in Tasmania, right by the ocean, it seemed natural that we should watch the sunrise. Though the horizon was partially obscured by clouds, it was nonetheless a beauty when the clouds glowed orange in response to the rising sun. The spot we were at also featured a blowhole, and at times it can shoot up jets quite high up.





Then later, we headed towards the Freycinet Nature Reserve. Following an hour trek through the mountain path, we reached Wineglass Bay Lookout, where we could see the fabulous bay.



It took us nearly another hour to go down, and after a couple of hours there we had to trek all the way back, which wasn't too bad since there was some cool wind and shade from the intense sunlight.

After that we visited a few minor places along the way, but it was pretty much the end of our highly profitable road trip in Tasmania. Personally, being the only driver, I was quite glad that I was not involved in any road kills. The road kills in Tasmania was pretty bad, to be honest, with corpses of Tasmanian devils and possums appearing on the highways quite frequently.

So, now I'm back in Canberra to settle the backlog of administrative stuff piling up like Mt. Wellington.

The Misty Blue Mountains

Over the weekend, I took a train from Sydney's Central Station to Katoomba two hours away, a town in the famous Blue Mountains. Katoomba is a rather small town but clearly tourist-oriented, meant to accommodate visitors to the Blue Mountains.





I arrived on late Friday afternoon and it was slightly misty and raining, so there wasn't much to do. However, the cool air was refreshing after the gradually rising temperatures in Sydney. The temperature hovered in the range of 10°C to 20°C - just cool enough but not too cold for a simple T-shirt!

But the rain wrecked havoc with the weather the following day, and there wasn't much to see due to a ridiculous amount of mist that held on the entire day. Visibility would reach as low as 50 metres, and at best it was around 200 metres.





I walked some of the tracks, and though I couldn't see the supposedly scenic mountain views, the foggy scenes weren't so bad either. It commanded another kind of beauty.







Light rain came again that night, so not unexpectedly, the mist persisted through Sunday morning, though by noon it began to clear. As a result, the breathtaking views of Blue Mountains were exposed.









At certain parts during early afternoon, some of the mist still stayed behind to give a very mystic and unique view.





While it was raining or too misty to walk, or during the night, I would hole myself up in the reading room at the YHA there because they had quite a smart collection of books. Most of my time was spent walking the trails and reading the books, which turned out to be a nice mix of activities, since the trails can be pretty weary (especially the Giant Stairway, which is not called "Giant" for nothing).





In any case, it was a great trip there, but too bad I couldn't stay longer.