Surprise!!! I got the official wedding invitation today from Mayu 🙂 So very excited! The wedding is going to be in Gold Coast. Yay!!!
I feel bad that I am not able to help her with the wedding preparation. It should be fun doing it, I suppose! Planning for a small and intimate wedding is much more fun than "mass wedding", as I call it.
Reading too much tweets and news about the Queensland floods made me realized (again) that Australians are soooooo obsessed with abbreviations! Here are some of them that I came across:
Australian: Aussie
Mosquito: mozzie
Television: Telly
Kangaroo: roo
Barbeque: barbie
Woolworths: woolies (a supermarket chain)
Brisbane: Brizzy
Football: footy
University: Uni
Afternoon: arvo
Sunglasses: sunnies
So what about having a barbie this arvo? LOL. It sounds funny now since it’s been so long that I heard these words appear!
Next week I’ll be hosting a CouchSurfer from Brisbane. I’m so looking forward to it. A little bit of reminiscing about the good old days, perhaps? 🙂
I got it!!! It was on SALE for 140 Euro (600 ringgit) including luggage, LCCT bus ticket, and taxes!
To-Do checklists:
It just happened that I was still registered to the newsletter of the Brisbane‘s Mayor, Campbell Newman. I was practically surprised to read a number of measures and initiatives he had done or was planning to do to raise awareness about the possible flood in Brisbane and to make its residents better prepared for the disaster.
+ Completed and made public local flood studies.
+ Made free flood reports available online for individual properties.
+ Made free flood flag maps available online with comprehensive information relating to flooding.
+ Installed flood warning lights on ‘at risk’ roads.
+ Implemented tough planning controls to prohibit development below the one in 100 year flood mark.
+ Conducted public education campaigns to raise awareness of the risks of suburban flooding in Brisbane.
+ Introduced a free SMS service (Early Warning Network) for Brisbane residents to advise them in advance of bad weather in their local area.
+ Funded a flood buyback scheme to purchase worst affected homes.
+ Investing more than $50m each year to reduce the impacts of flooding including desilting at 100 locations this financial
I mean, come on, Brisbane hasn’t experience any significant flooding since 1974, but they wanted to make sure that this disaster would never repeat again. So as soon as the increase in rainfalls was detected, they took some steps to mitigate flooding.
The approach that he took is EXTREMELY different than that of the governor of Jakarta, who did nothing to prevent the annual infamous Jakarta’s flood from happening. Even so, he blamed the weather for it. Maybe he should learn from Mayor Newman, or even better, the Dutch!!!
After such a tiring day, I found myself looking through the pictures taken when I was in Brisbane, Australia. It was almost three years ago that I finally said farewell. Now I miss it again… I’ll come back, one day! 🙂
This is the apartment I shared with Jenn and Mayu, where we lived for 2 years. It was in this living/dining room that we constantly played poker and Big Two until late at night, watched a Korean drama series for two days non-stop, and had dinner with friends. A lot of memories here!
And of course… having a barbie (which is an Aussie slang for BBQ) at our apartment 🙂
Will and Jenn were posing, just before we watched Miss Saigon. It was the first time for the three of us to watch a musical theater! I love this picture! 😀 Awesome time, great musical 🙂
Exploring museums and having an afternoon walk on the banks of Brisbane River in South Bank with my housemates and Mayu’s mom. It was such a great weather!
This was taken at my farewell dinner in South Bank. I remember I had this farewell a week BEFORE exams, when I didn’t even know whether I would be graduating or not! Hahaha! I had no choice! Good thing that a lot of people showed up. It was one of the best nights!
One of the foods that I really miss? Definitely Nando’s! Well, true, it’s not an Aussie food, but I can’t find it in the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, or even in Indonesia!!! How sad! I have to go all the way to Singapore or Malaysia to eat this! Somebody needs to open a Nando’s branch in Jakarta!!! I’m sure we’ll love it! and… oh… they really should make an EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA HOT Peri-Peri sauce! Hehehe.
One of my favorite pictures. Singapore, Indonesia, India, Taiwan 🙂
Not to miss, the colorful trees (including the purple Jacaranda) around Brisbane during spring. It’s beauuuuuuutifuuuuul! 🙂
Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.
— Kevin Arnold
I was sent an invitation to attend the UQ Centenary Reception in London both via post and email. The event will be held to celebrate the 100 years of UQ. Too bad I can’t attend the event. The idea of applying a UK visa is already too complicated for me. And I won’t be in Europe during that time.
It’s just crazy how much money UQ has spent for these centenary events since the beginning of this year! The reception itself has been held in 12 cities in 9 different countries! It was even held in Jakarta, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok all together. Sadly, I missed all of them and I’ll miss another event again.
Things I miss about UQ:
Happy 100 birthday, UQ!
Damn, I’m proud to be the alumnae of the University of Queensland 🙂
And I miss the delicious pizza at the campus…. 🙁
I recently read news about the government’s plan to impose a 1-hour earlier closing time for pubs and clubs in the state of Queensland. Currently, a lock-out time is 3am (which means people cannot enter entertainment venues after 3am, even though they have been inside before) and shutting time is 5am. The proposed plan aims at reducing the risk of alcohol-fueled violence, which is very common in Queensland by the way. But many young people oppose this plan, of course — and try so hard to stop the government not to impose it.
When I was in Brisbane, I used to live in the center, between the city center and the Fortitude Valley. I remember how unsecured I was to be walking alone at 9pm or even earlier during the weekends (and by the way, Fortitude Valley was the most dangerous place to be in Brisbane at night). People got drunk on the street. Screaming. Laughing. Threw stuff. Fighting. I heard and saw those. It was a scary scene. I loathe to take a night train or night bus because I can smell the alcohol from far away. It’s disgusting! Not to mention to hear those people screaming and swearing! For some reasons, when they got drunk, they became really crazy. And really scary!
How come I’ve never seen the kind of scene in the Netherlands? (Oh I hope I’ll never encounter this!). But still, I sometimes come home at 12am or 2am and I feel okay. I’m always careful, of course; but I’ve never seen such crazy drunk people on the street.
Anyway… after reading the news, I discovered this article titled “A wake-up call to all Australians – not just ‘apathetic’ youth”. I need to cite a number of paragraphs here:
What is staring us in the face is the one thing nobody wants to address – Australia’s drinking culture.
It sounds scary I know, and even worse it’s not an issue reserved purely for the ‘apathetic’ youth. I hate to rain on anyone’s parade but Australia has a drinking problem and it’s about time we took a real hard look at ourselves.
The damage alcohol causes to Australians is all too clear, with 1500 hospital admissions each week and 3,000 deaths per year. Not to mention the increasing public concern of lawless cities spurred on by regular reports of alcohol-related assaults, knifings and glassings. I doubt that a lockout is going to fix these problems, nor will increased police presence. What we’re in need of is a big old shake up.
It’s a scary thing. 1500 hospital admissions each week due to alcohol damage?!?! That’s insane.
Well, I agree with the author; earlier lock-out doesn’t solve the root of the problems. And I bet that violence on the street will likely to increase if the premises are to be shut down earlier. More people will get drunk on the street rather than on the pubs or clubs and that’ll certainly create more problems!
The government runs a survey whether many people would agree on the proposal of earlier lock-out. We’ll see what the end result would be. But I think they won’t make it a go 😀
