July 30, 2007
Humility is ...
I love this quote:
Humility is the embarrassment you feel when you tell people how wonderful you are.
- Laurence J. Peter.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 29, 2007
Life is Great
I'm having so much fun recently and enjoying life in London. Never before in my life I feel that life is great, wonderful, amazing, beautiful and most importantly just as it is. Life, as it turned out, is great just the way life is :)
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January 15, 2007
Isn't it Ironic?
Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
Ironic - Alanis Morissette
Never has before I feel the irony of life sneaking up on me when I least expected. What if I travelled half way around the world, only to find what I'm really looking for is back in Sydney?
Posted by vhadiant at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 02, 2007
Good Bye 2006 - Hello 2007
What can I say about 2006? A lot I’d say and one blog post can hardly do 2006 justice. It has been quite a spectacular year. It feels like reliving 1996 – 1997, the year I arrived in Australia, again but in a different point of view and a lot more fun :)
The first half of 2006 I was busy getting my MCSD and preparing to leave the sunny shore of Sydney to London. In this first half of 2006 I had my eyes lasered which my colleagues immediately gave me the “Laser Eye” nickname.
MCSD turned out to be harder than I thought; packing and leaving ended up more complicated than I expected; and the laser eye surgery not as smooth as I wanted. However in the end, they all turned out just all right.
The prelude to the travel was the trip to Melbourne with the crew to watch Australia – Greece friendly. It was good, but also a bit sad in the same time because I think that it will never happen again as everyone is starting to get married and have children on their own (one already did!). The next four months I went travelling to Cambodia, Vietnam, France, Spain, Morocco and Portugal
It was fun, it was crazy, it was hectic, it chaotic, it was educating, it was fulfilling, it was a crash course on art, history, architecture, culture, and it was unexpected. It was an absolute blast.
Arriving in London in early October, I went job hunting mode. It was a little bit of a hard period as I witnessed my Aussie dollar being depleted in a staggeringly terrifying rate. Thankfully I secured a job in exactly 2 weeks time. I was lucky in a way; some of the banks here can take ages from the beginning of contract to start date, but CIBC needed someone fast and here I am.
This is a really good job, I love the work and the people are cool. The working environment is very comfy and the technology architecture is good. Not to mention they are nicely located in London Bridge, from where we sit we have a beautiful sweeping view of the Thames overlooking the City of London.
To close the year, I went to see Chemical Brothers at the Turnmills on NYE. Amazingly with pretty damn similar crew from last year’s NYE.
It has been an amazing year. I hope that 2007 will better 2006. Bring it on!
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December 02, 2006
You me us
Yesterday is the World AIDS Day. For over two decades the silent killer is deadly than ever, and millions are living with HIV. A combination misunderstanding, social taboo surrounding AIDS, third world countries government in denials, and plain ignorance have propelled AIDS to be in track of another epidemic of black plague proportion.
I was first alerted by the scale of AIDS epidemic a few years ago while sitting at my dentist surgery waiting for my turn. Thinking that the epidemic has been contained with a massive campaign of safe sex, a National Geographic series covering the devastation of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa showed me the harsh reality of AIDS in third world countries. South East Asia is also featured in the article. Since then I have kept an eye of this deadly virus, and I has been a heart-wrenching experience to keep reading articles after articles about the spread of AIDS and how little most people know about it. The most harrowing of all is that the spread of AIDS can be stopped by very simple means.
AIDS is real, is here and is killing millions of people every year. Increasing the awareness of AIDS is one of the most crucial steps of stopping the AIDS juggernaut.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 15, 2005
Into the "Classical" crowd
Gatecrasher Classics compilation has all the tracks from the era when I started clubbing. I actually recognise most of the titles, I would probably know the rest when I listen to them. That shows how old have I become :) I would probably recognise 1 track or less if I pick up a recent dance CD.
All big hits from early 2000 are there, Tiesto's Suburban Train, Solar Stone's Seven Cities, William Orbit's String, System F's Out of the Blue, PVF - For an Angel, the list just continues on. Strangely missing is ATB's 9PM. IMO that was the biggest hit that I could still remember dearly. I remembered the days the crowd went wild when the track is on. Whoops now my age really shows ha!
Posted by vhadiant at 10:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 10, 2005
My Wisdom Tooth
I had my Wisdom Tooth removed earlier today. Just one that is, strangely enough the other 3 decided not to come out, maybe they thought that inside is probably better than outside and risking the possibility of being extracted out.
Anyhow, it started when I went to see the good Dr. So (my dentist for the past ... oh I don't know must have been since I came to Australia) a few weeks ago. He gave me that sigh and a head shake. "That Wisdom Tooth must come out" he said. Dang .. that almost gave me a heart attack. What wisdom tooth? I didn't realise I have (err had now) any. "What are you sure? I don't know that I have a wisdom tooth!", "Yes you have one, see it's very small at the back of your 2nd molar on your upper right jaw".
Dr So. has this cool tiny dentist specialist camera (that I think he like it a bit too much) and he always use it liberally to take photo inside my mouth, all the time ciding how bad I am in taking care of my own teeth. Anyway with this he can pretty much take photo from any angle inside your mouth and show it directly to an 15" LCD monitor next to the dental chair. The experience of seeing your own teeth from the inside can be either very horrifying or very exhilarating. I think I fall into the later category. It's like seeing a part of your body that you wouldn't have seen it otherwise. Cool :)
So he showed me a picture of the little Wisdom Tooth. I said little because it was pretty small, clinging by the 2nd molar. He said that the tooth is decaying on the back. It's almost impossible to fix it, and beside, even if he did I wouldn't be able to clean it and it will decay again. It has to come out sooner or later. I can wait until it's getting worse and start giving a toothache or I can get it extracted now. I think sooner it's better than later. He assured me that it will be a very minor surgery and I won't be inconvenience for long.
And so I booked a 1 hour appointment for today. The cute assistant (that has been around since the first time I saw Dr. So many many years ago - older now but still cute) gently reminded me yesterday that I have an appointment today. I think that's because I was 1.5 hours late on my last appointment :) That actually worked because I arrived 10 minutes early today, only to wait for 25 minute because Dr. So is running a bit late. While waiting another assistant showed up, much younger but even cuter. Hmmmmm Dr. So certainly know how to hire people :) Anyway I'm not complaining.
A big dude (with a big voice) came out from the surgery thanking Dr. So for his good work, well I'm next. Hopefully he can continue his good work. Oh what was I thinking, he is a very good doctor and I have no doubt on his ability, but still I never had my tooth extracted before and I was fretting about it.
So the cute assistant motioned me to come in and so I went in to the familiar surgery with the familiar classical music playing in the background. "OK .. let's do this", that's the first thing he said. I was set up in the chair like I have been so many times before. But something interesting came out. As soon as I was set up, the assistant put a piece of cloth on top my face (after taking my glasses of) with a hole for the mouth and the nose. What the? After the cloth came a big sun glasses to keep the cloth in place. I couldn't see a damn thing.
"What's this?" I asked the good doctor. "Oh this is to make you calm down". "So I can't see a thing you mean". "Yes". This is not good, I feel claustrophobic already. And the thought of not being able to see anything while listening to that dreadful sound (yes that super high pitched sound of dentist thingo) make me want to piss on my pants. "Err is necessary? I think I'm more nervous if I can't see anything.". He had to think for a while, maybe he wanted to spare me the horror of the tooth extraction, but no way I'm going to be blindfolded when he pull that tooth out from my jaw. "Oh okay, in that case cut a hole for the eye" he instructed the assistant. Phew .... So she cut a hole in the cloth for my eyes, but she must have thought that I have this huge face that the eye section is waay up in my forehead. "Umm this doesn't help", I said. The situation was very comical, I can't really describe it in words but in the end she did it.
The operation itself was very quick and I only use local anaesthetic. Although he did used quite a fair bit of injection around the tooth section. By the time he made his first incision I didn't feel a thing. It's still pretty scary though, I can feel that he's cutting the side of the gum with a little knife but I'm not feeling any pain. And then he worked with a little hammer and started hitting my tooth. By this time I was really curious about what is it that he was doing exactly, but I know better than to ask :)
After a few minutes came the actually extraction. He had to pull, twist, pull, twist and pull again before the tooth came out. It feels really weird. You can almost feel the root of the tooth wiggling inside your gum. I didn't feel anything on the actual moment of the extraction, which kinda dissapointing. I was expecting a pop or something more dramatic. Suddenly he said, "Yep it's done.". What that was it? "It's done?", "Yep all came out nicely, see" he showed me my tooth. It was really small (and bloody), he showed me the back of the tooth where the decay was. It's kinda cool actually.
After a quick instruction of what I should and should not do (don't brush your teeth tonight, don't eath any hard to chew food, don't use that side), he gave me a 15 points instruction of what I should do printed in a piece of paper. He also prescribed me antibiotics for the next few days. I asked for a pain killer and he adamantly refused, saying that I don't really need it. "Just get Panadol or Nurofen if you have to.". Ah well ... can I have Panadeine I asked? Yes you can have that one if you want.
The entire process turned out to be really quick, I think less than 30 minutes overall. After sorting out the payment I quickly went to the chemist to get my prescription and the Panadeine 15. Yep Panadeine 15, I'm not going to risk sleepless night tonight!
Back at home now I am wondering what happened to my other 3 wisdom teeth, I forgot to ask Dr. So why the other 3 didn't come out. Ah well I should consider myself lucky as Nathan had had all 4 taken out not so long ago.
So now that I have a wisdom tooth taken out, does that mean I'm less wise?
Posted by vhadiant at 10:08 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 20, 2005
Which religion do I fit in?
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You fit in with: Spiritualism Your ideals are mostly spiritual, but in an individualistic way. While spirituality is very important in your life, organized religion itself may not be for you. It is best for you to seek these things on your own terms. 40% spiritual. 60% reason-oriented. |
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| Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com |
Interesting :) I was brought up a Catholic, my position must have moved considerably over the years.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 02, 2005
Another bomb attack in Bali
Just as Bali's tourism is in the recovery mode, another bomb attack struck Bali. The 2002 Bali Bomb pretty much mark Bali as a no-go place for most of the foreign tourist, this last bomb attack pretty much sealed its fate. I doubt that it will ever recover, unless there's a major change in the world's current situation.
I spoke to my Balinese friend a while back, he said that tourism in Bali has somewhat recovered. The decline in foreign tourists have been replaced with a sudden influx of domestic tourists, a sign of a recovering Indonesian economy. However domestic tourists spend less money than foreign tourists with their dollar.
It's really sad that Bali is now forever caught in this whirlpool of madness.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 02, 2005
Terrorism in our backyard
Last night some idiot sent a "suspected biological agent" to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, possibly linked with the recent Schapelle Corby's verdict. How's that going to help Corby? Johnny was right when he said that the embassy attack makes it harder for Corby, although he did stop short from labelling the attack as a terrorism act. Well I don't have the similar restrain as him so I can call it a terrorism attack. People's stupidity is bottomless.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 28, 2005
Corby case, opinion from the expert
I'm a bit sick with the media circus surrounding Corby for the past 2 days. Have they all forgotten far more important and interesting issues like the change in the unfair dismissal law? Or even not a big rugby fan myself, the Waratahs' game tonight is a more intersting read.
The media, sensing a golden opportunity of milking as much money as they can from Corby's case, clobered us with tons of articles, stories, photoes etc. It's hard to pick a number of good, sensible article here.
This one from Tim Lindsey is a really good, well informed and well thought article about Corby:
Sunk by defence team that didn't rise to the challenge...
The prosecution established a prima facie case against her relatively easily. There was no dispute that the cannabis was in her bag when it was opened at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport. Their witness said Corby had admitted it was hers. She denied this - as might be expected, regardless of whether she was guilty or innocent.The Indonesian system has enshrined the presumption of innocence in legislation as a human right, but once a prima facie case is established - that is, the minimum required to establish the elements of the charge - the burden effectively shifts to the defence to counter the prosecution case. This is true of almost all legal systems, including, in most cases, our own. Corby's main problem was that her defence team did not rise well to the challenge of countering the prima facie prosecution case by proving her baggage-handler hypothesis.
...
And this editorial by The Herald is also very good:
Corby verdict the inevitable...
Yet long before the sentence was handed down many concerned Australians had elevated Corby to martyr status. But a martyr to what cause? There are 155 Australians in foreign jails on drugs charges, two facing the death penalty. However, their stories of personal tragedy, stupidity and brazen greed fail to move us, while Corby touches strangers: "If eyes are the windows to the soul, I see a soft kindness shining through," wrote one supporter. Others responded less benignly, turning instead on Indonesia.
...
Enough of this, I'm off surfing.
Posted by vhadiant at 01:06 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
May 19, 2005
How To Kick The Sugar Habit
This is interesting, I saw this at this month Fitness First's newsletter (newsletter ... yes I know it sounds so 90s but hey not everyone uses RSS yet):
How To Kick The Sugar Habit
By Victor Brick (not related to me :)
www.brickbodies.com
If you have a constant craving for sugar. Here's what you can do to kick the habit.
The best way to kick the sugar habit is to switch sweets:
- Instead of drinking soft drinks, drink water with a slice of lemon
- Eat a whole orange first thing every morning to help curb your sugar appetite.
- Eat whole fruit. While fruit contains fructose, it is better than processed sugar.
- Chew sugarless gum. Just like with cigarettes, sometimes it is enough to just have something in your mouth.
- Pour fruit juice in a pitcher and dilute it with water.
- Be careful of dried fruit. Dried fruit has concentrated fructose. However, raisins are a good, healthy dried fruit alternative to sugar.
- Take a good multi-vitamin. There is some research to indicate that a sugar craving, especially a chocolate craving, is due to a niacin or magnesium deficiency.
- Eat a balanced diet of fats, proteins and carbohydrates with every meal. That is the key with every meal.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 15, 2005
On the new job
Well I've been in the new job for a week now, the hardest thing turned out to be waking up at 7 in the morning to be able to get there by 8:30 ugghhh, and it's not the travel time, it takes me about 20 minutes door to door. I take one hour to get ready in the morning, I seriously need to cut down my morning routine.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lovedale Long Lunch 2005
Last Saturday I went to Lovedale Long Lunch 2005, that was my second time up there. The concept is pretty simple, seven wineries on Lovedale, Hunter Valley get together, each invites one respected restaurant to setup shop, have some tables and chairs setup, give complimentary glass of wine for main course and provide entertainment for the crowd. Put all this in the picturesque Hunter Valley and you'll get a successful event. The Long Lunch goes over two days, I think most people just come for the day unless you want to be a total hardcore and visit all seven wineries. We managed to visit five so that's not a bad effort.
There were a lot more people compared to the last time I went there (I think that was the 2001 event), and boy there were surely a lot younger people this time around. Back in 2001 almost all party goers were 50+, the twenty or thirty something were a minority, and they pick the music that suit this crowd (read: boring music). This year it was totally different, I think there's an even 50-50 split between the twenty/thirty something and the 50+ party goers. This make it a lot more interesting since people turned up with costume (one guy dressed as The Phantom … ewww), uniform, red/blue/yellow hair and there was a lot more drunk people hahaha. The dance floor went off in a couple of places, especially where the bands played more modern tunes.
A lot of people hired busses or minivans, that's actually a good idea so everyone can drink and have a good time (in fact this is how we went the first time) and I also saw a couple of limousines – now that's lunching with style! I'm thinking of doing that myself :D We rented a Tarago and Chewy brought his car (Thanks Chewy!), since John doesn't drink he gets to drive the Tarago :) Anyway it was a fun day out, and if you’ve never been to one I definitely recommend it :)
Oh and photos are up.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)
