Skyfire: Canberra 10/03/07

On saturday the 10th of March, the annual fireworks display by lake Burley Griffin was held. This is the event we call Skyfire. It is a beautiful display of fireworks for an entire 20mins. Well, it can be considered a rather big event in Canberra, considering that nothing much interesting happens around here. So every event that can be entertaining will be a big event. It was certainly attended by many people. The estimated figure was about 30,000 people, around 10% of the population of Canberra.

Beautiful evening sky

Me and Yun Jin, my neighbour

Stunning fireworks

Awesome ain't it?

Food Part I: Melbourne

Food is the one of the basic necessities of life. Today's post will be about the food that I've tasted in Melbourne city. Be prepared to pay around A$10 for a decent meal. Food can get expensive anywhere around, so remember to at least check out the menu before you order. Also check out if it's a vegetarian restaurant before you enter. I entered this restaurant with a friend, and we took a seat and checked out the menu. I was wondering why every item on the menu is a mixture of some vegetables until I realised it was a vege restaurant. It was a straight line for the exit after that.

Having a meal at the post Deng cafe at chinatown

The post Deng cafe was one of the first restaurants that I visited after arriving in Melbourne. There are many reasons that make this a restaurant that shouldn't be visted. Initially I was attracted by them having this novelty idea of a communist theme restaurant, and also having two chinese girls dressed in red qi-paos at the entrance enticing customers to enter. Then they had a set meal which seemed like quite reasonable. But the experience didn't turn out that good after all. Well, it didn't affect me much except that the food didn't turn out as delicious, as sufficient and worth the money as it seemed. The main problem in the restaurant was they had a shortage of workers and food couldn't be served quickly, plates couldn't be cleared quickly etc. I saw this couple who waited quite a long while before their orders were taken, and another some time before food was served. While some plates were left on another table for at least half an hour after the customers were long gone. As customers kept streaming in, even one of the girls at the entrance had to act as a waitress. Then there was some problem with another customer demanding her food to be vegetarian when they served her some food which wasn't. The manager talked to her and after some time, I saw the manager lost his cool and just slammed the pot of food onto another table. Then there was some problems with the cashier, someone got a wrong bill. Anyway there was just lots of problem.

Brunetti in Lygon street is good

A latte and some pastries from Brunetti. Just looking at them is delicious enough

Il Doce Freddo is a highly recommended gelato shop along Lygon street

A wide selection of ice-creams

I chose the lychee flavoured gelato and it was YUMMY!

This shark fin house is supposedly the best yum cha spot in Melbourne city. There was a long queue outside the restaurant at half an hour before it opens. It was really good and it costed me A$30. I had to make the most of my time, so I dilly-dallied and spent 1.5hours in there

Daniela Hantuchova: Melbourne 18/01/07

Due to my friend, Weili's request for pictures of Daniela Hantuchova, I have decided to put a few of her pictures up. She was playing at the Australian Open against another player by the name of E. Loit. Sorry but I don't really know who she is. Anyway, on the morning of the match, it was raining, so I had to hide in some sheltered area. There were a number of Australian guys behind me, and apparently they were there for this match due to one of the guys' request, even though Wayne Arthurs of Australia was playing over at the next court. That guy just wanted to catch a glimpse of Daniela. That's how attractive she is. So, here are the pictures. Enjoy.

Daniela vs E. Loit. (I don't know her first name)

Daniela in a cute yellow skirt

I don't know why I have 4 photos of her doing the same pose

Ain't she leggy?

Commencement Dinner: Canberra 08/03/07

On the 8th of March, was our hall's (Ursula Hall) commencement dinner night. It is a semi-formal dinner where the head of hall, the President of the URC committee and other important people will give a speech about the beginning of the year and the direction which our hall is heading. Well....it can be summed up also in another way. It is the first of many occasions where we can dress up nicely, take some (or many many) photos, enjoy good food and drink free wine, followed by a night-out at the local pub. Well there are too many photos to post, so I'll just post a selected few here.

This is John, my floor's SR (Senior Resident)

Me and Leonard, who is from Kuching

Me with the lovely and affable Hannah, who will be performing on the cello

Entertaining everyone with their music are Hannah on the cello, Tim on the piano, and Samantha on the flute

Me and Hanyi, who is doing the same joint degree programme as I am. With the irritating Zhong behind, who tries to spoil most of my pictures

Borat wanted to be part of this picture, with me and Weimin.

Shauna, from Sydney, and I

And finally my favourite picture of the day, no explanation required. The expressions are just classic. From left: Dale, Me, Barney and Eugene.

It's all about the supporters

In any competition, it's very much about the supporters, the spectators, the fans, the crowd whatever you would like to call it. Without them, competitions would just be lifeless events. Think of Italian football after the Sicilian tragedy this year. Many teams were, and some still are, forced to play their football behind closed doors due to security problems. It was such a quiet weekend for Italian football and community. It's all about the supporters.

Fans queuing up to enter the Vodafone Arena in Melbourne Park

Supporters of Ana Ivanovic, from Serbia

Fans waiting for Andy Roddick's autograph

Not that many people turn up for Nikolay Davydenko's autograph though...

Thousands of supporters turn up to catch a glimpse of Maria Sharapova. Notice most of the fans have their gaze and cameras towards Maria, who is on the left, and not too many towards Anastassia Rodionova.

Cute fans are my favourite

Fans who are more interested in getting free Garnier products than watching tennis

Fans getting an autograph from Tommy Robredo. I got one too!

The Berdych Army - Fanatical supporters of Tomas Berdych. They chanted and cheered throughout the entire match, topless.

Thousands turning up for this exciting encounter between Tommy Robredo and Roger Federer

A. Rodd: Melbourne 18/01/07

Due to a special request from my good friend Adeline (How are you Adeline? If you are reading this, email me some time ya?), I will post some pictures of Andy Roddick here. Though I'm not a big fan of him, most people will know I'm a Roger fan, I took quite a number of photos of Andy for the sake of a couple of friends like Adeline and Fen who are big Andy fans. Hope you like them. Roger rules.

On this practice show court, there was a huge crowd of people. As usual, a crowd meant good stuff, so I went over to check it out, camera-in-hand. Without disappointment, another one of the superstars in the tennis world, Andy Roddick.

Brief summary about Andy: He was born in 1982 and became world number 1 in 2003 with the capture of the US Open title. Thereafter, his fortunes dipped and his rankings dropped, while simultaneously, Roger Federer's star kept rising and became world number 1. In the last 14 matches that they played against each other, Andy has won 1 and Roger 13, most recently at this year's Australian Open where he lost 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 to Roger. Andy's current coach is tennis legend Jimmy Connors. For Andy Roddick's official website, checkout: www.andyroddick.com

The many faces of A. Rodd

Andy Roddick at a practice session

Receiving serve

Crowds throng to watch him train, and get autographs afterwards

Lots of hope as his form seemed to improve tremendously after a change of coach to Jimmy Connors

Andy doing a serve. Clockwise from top left picture: In position, toss, coil, serve. The man with the fastest serve in the tournament.

That's Andy Roddick for you fans...

The morning after

Notice of the closure of campus

Unmelted ice in Union Court

Footprints in the deep ice

Among the fields of snow

The next day was a happy day for all as lessons were cancelled throughout the whole campus. We later learnt that the storm caused damages to many buildings, and hence the cancellation of classes. We got a 3 day holiday from wednesday till friday! Suddenly we were comtemplating options for the next few days. Should we take a trip to Sydney? Or should we slack the days away? The latter option was chosen. Yeah, I like...

Checking out the aftermath

At about midnight, when the hailstorm had already died down for some time, I decided to go inspect the extent of the hailstorm in the ANU campus. Gathering a few other guys, we headed out on an exciting excursion of ice-covered ANU.

Well, for a start, there was practically ice everywhere. No more worries for trying to get an ICE cold beer. Not only do they have free beer at the pub, now they have free ICE as well.

Flooded Sullivan's creek. Ice on the road. The group of us staring at the aftermath.

The ground is covered by ice

Pretty legs in the ice. Whoever who leaves it there the longest wins

The exploration party had to eat ice for supper

Tun Min's COOL present for Yeam

Man of the night, Zhong, stuck in the snow, and Barney throws away his slippers to rescue him

Zhong and his foreign employee searching for his lost Billabong slipper in the pile of ice

The exploration party having a light-hearted moment