Month 1 done.

Tomorrow is the last day of January. I’m not even gonna go down that path anymore. All I can say is: Time, PLEASE SLOW THE FUCK DOWN. There, I’ve said my piece, and now, it’s time to move on.

What have I been doing for the month of January, I hear you ask (ok la, no I don’t hear you guys talking to me at all, I’m just trying to be mengada here)? Well, mostly work. I had a rather somber awakening when I realized it was Chinese New Year and I was, yet again, without ang pows, family, friends and Chor Tai Dee. However that dark cloud quickly dissipated as I'm such a cheery optimist (hah). All in all, Chinese New Year wasn’t too bad on station. Hell, actually, it was pretty awesome! We had rather authentic Chinese cuisine for dinner (courtesy to me, thank you thank you), I had my cheongsam on, there was alcohol – the only thing lacking was the gambling, but then again, I am in no financial state to gamble my money away.


Our assortment of appetizers. Clockwise from right: 5-spice chicken steamed buns, deep-fried pork and prawn wantans, LONG YUK (bak kwa, whatever you wanna call it) and deep-fried pork and prawn mince in plum sauce egg spring rolls (i.e., they were wrapped up in a fried-egg omelette thingo).


What's left of the CNY dinner - the morning after. Roast duck, char siew and siew yoke. Also braise taufu pok with broccoli and mushrooms in oyster sauce (no pictures of that because I was too busy eating on the night itself to bother taking proper photos).

Also, our boating season in Antarctica has well and truly started. The other day, we went to one of the islands not too far from station, and I felt like I was standing on top of the world. No matter how many times I go out in to the field, the scenery never fails to take my breath away. Sometimes I get cocky and say to myself, ‘Aiya, for what go out?? You’ve seen it before, stay indoors only la!’ but then when I DO get out, I’m like ‘Oh my Jesus Christ, this view is amazing!!’ I should really stop being cocky and just appreciate whatever Antarctica throws at me. It’s so beautiful; I really don’t want to leave (ahem)!




Ok la I’m just gonna throw together a bunch of photos even though you’ve probably seen them on Facebook already. I just want to keep reminding myself how lucky I am to be here!

Enter the Dragon

Late night blogging, I have missed you.

It's been awhile since I've laid back in bed, propped up against pillows, head craned at an impossible angle (and one that any decent self-respecting chiropractor will look at with disgust and disapproval) with my laptop lying on my stomach. Just...typing away. It's a nice feeling; a strangely-familiar sensation, like walking down the hallways of your primary school, or, sitting down at a restaurant you frequented as a child a long long time ago, or, hearing the door creak open and seeing your beloved walk in.

Anyway, tonight's post is brought to you by the Foo Fighters live at Hyde Park 2006. But before I go into too much detail, here's a little backstory to fill you in: on station, we have a home theatre system. Most nights are Weekly Theme Nights. For e.g., Monday nights are Stargate SG-1 Nights. Tuesday nights are Disney Cartoon Nights. Today, being a Wednesday, meant that it was Live Music Night. And for this week's Live Music Night, we had the pleasure of watching Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl sing and scream and sweat his heart and soul out to 85 000 screaming adoring fans at, yes, Hyde Park.

As he was belting his tunes out, one particular line stood out and started running circles in my head. It is the last line of All My Life, and it just keeps looping and looping and looping:

Done done on to the next one.

That pretty much sums up my days here on station and how I'm feeling now. Done done on to the next one. I'm ticking each day off as though I'm answering the medical form for my annual Antarctic Medica Checkupl. "Do you suffer from: short-sightedness (no), diabetes (no), heart murmur (no), asthma (no), conjunctivitis (no), shortness of breath (no), herpes (no), AIDS (no), halitosis (no...er, maybe)."

You get the drift.

For the first time, I feel as though I'm running out of time, and yet, each day is done done and I find myself going on to the next one. I mean, Jesus motherloving Christ, it is already THURSDAY! What happened to Monday?? I'll tell you what happened to Monday, it got done and I moved on to the next one, that's what happened.

Here I was, thinking: Gee whiz, Christmas and the New Year celebrations have come and gone - here's to another year! Now, I have something more to worry about - Chinese New Year! Dear God, ANOTHER CHINESE NEW YEAR away from home??? The answer is, unfortunately, yes. However, this year's CNY celebrations on station promises to be a better one, in culinary terms anyway. As of the start of this week, I have made 5kgs worth of Long Yuk or Bak Kwa or, more commonly known as HOMG-What-Is-This-Wondrous-Piece-Of-Sweet-Barbecued-Pork-Before-Me????, wrapped about 200 wontans, rolled a huge pot-full of tong yuen stuffed with peanuts, and there is still more to come! Roast duck, siew yoke AND char siew! Chinese New Year, come to mama.

The sad thing, though, is that, like Christmas and NYE, my 2012 Chinese New Year will most probably come with a bang, and then creep away from me like a thief in the night with no warning at all. All that anticipation, preparation and excitement for approximately 10 hours of fun (assuming that dinner starts at 6.30 pm and that I will eventually go to bed at 4.30 am, after heavy bouts of drinking and merry-making).

Then I'm done done and on to the next one.

2011 Wrap around!

Hello again in the year 2012! My initial plan was to put up 12 photos for the past 12 months, but my procrastinating self got the better of me. There is much to be done: urchins to be killed, seawater to collect, larvae to count, movies to watch, songs to listen to, meals to be eaten, darts to be thrown, jokes to be laughed out loud at...you get the drift.



I can't say that I have much to complain about 2011. It was good to me, as good as it could be anyway. I have to admit that there were a few low-points throughout the year. Most of it were finance-related, but then again, hey...it probably could've been worse. At the end of the day, I'm still here being self-sufficient and not somewhere out on the streets of Sydney prostituting myself, so it's all good.



Perhaps it is a sign of pride, but I loath the idea of having to ask for monetary hand-outs from my parents now that I am actually working, however intermittently and irregularly. Perhaps it is also guilt, because they have paid for my tertiary education and all I have is a piece of paper telling me that I've graduated from a degree, that, at the end of the day, doesn't really repay them (and me) in dividends at all. If I were a lawyer, for e.g., perhaps I would be able to send them off for holidays around SE Asia, or buy dinner once in awhile. But I can't; not right now. But it's still good - I justify my 'unfilialness' (HAH!) by not asking them for any money at all and working out my problems for myself.



Really, I guess it's not too bad - I'm doing something that I love and I'm working in one of the remotest and most inaccessible places in the world. I should be thankful. I AM thankful.



Financial woes aside, 2011 was particularly memorable because I felt like I was rekindling and strengthening old relationships with old friends. I had one of the best holidays in a long time with two friends whom I've known since we were 7 - and all I can say is, I love you guys (eew..). There was so much laughter and giggles and stupid childish fun, something I was missing for a long long time. I believe we got to know each other a lot better, but I guess there's still more to be learnt. Vang Vieng 2012, Baby and Bruce?



In the months of 2011, I also learnt how to release the reins on everything I used to hold on to in the past. It took me awhile to figure it out and actually realise that there is a lot of truth in what someone very dear to me said a very long time ago. That it doesn't matter even if things end; at the end of the day, we should dwell on the good memories and be thankful that we ever had good memories at all (perhaps I am quoting him wrong, but it goes along those same lines). Whatever the right quote is, I was in love with one of the greatest guys ever. However, like all things Life-related, things happened and one day we realised that things just weren't meant to be. We're still best of friends though, and he is still my occasional Chettiar wtf so it's all cool.



Now, I am lucky enough to have found myself another great guy. I don't do this often: write about the people I am seeing, but he is very good, and I feel very thankful and lucky and blessed. I'm old enough now to know not to pour blind faith into every person I give my heart to, but I think, no wait...I hope that this will turn out to be a good thing.



Cheerio!