Rainbow again

Last night, on my way home, it was raining a bit. Then this rainbow thing appeared again in front of me, the only difference was that, this time the size was bigger, wider and clearer. This is the picture of the famous Flinders Station, and the famous tram, and the famous melbourne Rules breaking pedestrian...
and the rainbow as the car moving closer...

notice that the rainbow got a section missing in the air? and then connected again after the missing part? Honestly i havent got a lot of chance to see rainbow like this.
rainbow from another angle up the tram...
up the flinders station...
And lastly, let me introduce you this Hotel, Rendezvous, situated along the Flinders Street. Well, one special about this hotel is that, when I was still catching bus to my office, every morning I will pass by this hotel, about 7.30 7.45am, then often you can see the air stewardess from Singapore airline, standing outside the hotel, smoking in their uniform along the street as they are waiting for their transport to airport. Well, I got no problem with people smoking but then, sometimes when you are in uniform, hallo? I do feel that they looked a bit like a h**k*r…. Anyway, for fan of Singapore Airlines airstewardess, this is a place you can go...
well, its was last day of July, time flew quick yeah....

Melbourne Central- Shot Tower

If you been to the Melbourne Central in Melbourne, you probably have notice this inside the shopping mall. What happened here is, because this tower is listed as heritage building, therefore when they build the mall, they cannot demolish it and therefore they build a steel “cone” that actually cover and protect the whole tower. And then, the amazing part is, the “cone”, is not a small one, it actually reach the height of a 77m, which if you take 3m as a floor, its 25 storey high! Well, you know, in Melbourne, or in Australia, everything is expensive, the labour, the material, the machine, all expensive, but it is just impressive that they willing to spend such money to maintain their heritage. While in Malaysia, where everything is relatively cheaper, people just don’t care about the heritage that much. For example, they just demolished the historic Hoover memorial building in Sibu, next to Masland Church. Well, no doubt, the new design looks pretty good also, but then, sometimes, there are something in life that we should be holding tight while we are moving ahead….

Rainbow

It is winter here in melbourne, it is cold, it is chillingly windy, and it is wet. I met with the rainbow on my way home yesterday on the Flinders street. Rainbow, a lot people likes rainbow, so, share it with you here.


take care of yourself in the winter... for those who are not in winter, take care too.

Mv Doulos

MV Doulos is my dream since i was in form 3 back in 1996. That day, a bunch of Missionary from MV Doulos came to my church to share about God and their ministry. And that was the first time in my life, I told myself, I wanna be a missionary, just like them. But then I never get the chance to see MV Doulos herself as they claim the water level in my hometown is too shallow for her to cruise in. nevertheless, the dream stay, and that motivate me a lot in my growth spiritually.

Year 2000, I broke with my girlfriend for the first time in my life. Being in a new place to study, Kuching, and with an broken heart, life is getting difficult. I ran away from church, escaping all activities in church, because I believe its God who had failed me. Later in the year, a mysterious MIRC friend brought me back to church. I called her mysterious because, as soon as she brought me to the church, she disappeared from the church as well, and she is not really a regular attender of church, so why would she tried hard to bring me back to church? I don’t understand. Plus, I am only close to her on cyber world of MIRC, never met her before in real. Anyway, I was back to the church, and I start to do little things that I never did before and people always tends to forget, the van driver. End of the year, one day a church mate called me, “hey Doulos is here, you wanna go?” Doulos, what a familiar name to me that time, and that name brought back a lot of memory to me. Now, this is the strange thing again, the friend who asked me, though from same church, but then we were not that close then, and according to her, that time they got a seat left in the car and thinking to invite someone and then she think of me so she rang me. Coincident? May be, anyway, that was the first time I board MV Doulos, and on board of Doulos, God reminded me a lot of pictures and dedication from the past. God did speak to me, but I sort of forgot what are the contents now. But one thing for sure, God use some strange incident to bring me back to my dream and strengthen my faith in Him. I partially fulfil my dream by seeing the ship myself and touching her myself. That time, the only thought in my mind, “thank you God”…

And this is not the end of the story. The next year, 2001, MV Doulos was in Kuching again! Now this is another strange thing as according to their schedule around the world, the quickest time they will be back to the same spot will be at least 2 years. But then I happened to see her again for the second time in second years. And this time, on board the ship, is my best friend Imelda. She is my church mate during my time in Subang Jaya, a lovely girl and my spiritual mate. When I left Subang Jaya in 1999, she told me, “one day, if God’s willing, I will go and visit you.” Now, KL to Sarawak, the mean of transport is of course by air. But God bring this mate of mine here by a ship, something that I never expected before. Imelda brought me around the ship and that was my first time actually going into the ship. That time, my heart was moved and as I was standing on the deck, my tears just dropped. I don’t know why, but I guess I began to sense God again, and then I promise God, “I will never leave you again, no matter what will happen in front of me.” That is not an easy promise to keep I assure you, but even I didn’t do it very well until now, but I am still in Him.


Sorry its getting a bit lengthy now, but trust me, I already try to short cut it. So Doulos will be in Australia for the last time before she is discharged in 2010. So, join me and grab your chance to visit the ship for the last time, probably in your life. Come and experience the God together.

my lunch

This is what i have for lunch today, the stuffed pasta, i am not quite sure the exact name tho. Anyway, it looked very similar to wantan to me, wantan cook with pasta white sauce. Anyway, taste good, and price? $6.90 for a large serve and $7,50 for take away. so that take away box cost 60cents huh? the pasta come with a big piece of bread, so, making sure the serve is good enough to get you full...

and the huge ship i saw yesterday is still there...


have a good weekend everyone.....

West Gate Bridge

Today, during lunch time, i need to become a courier boy after i find out that it cost about 200 something just to send a file to Geelong. Anyway, its not too bad, not that far actually, or may be i am used to the distance i guess. okie, on my way back, i took the West Gate Bridge, which is the highest bridge in Melbourne,58m above the water! Very impressive structure and of course it eventually become one of the important landmark in melbourne.

the speed limit is set at 80km/hour, but then, just last month the police announce that due to high amount of inacurate speed photoshoot, they decided to shut down the speed camera on the bridge. so, in the end, as expected, people are obviously travelling more than 80KM/hr.
this is the view of port Melbourne from the bridge. its not very clear i know, and the actual view is much more spectacular than this. Thats why you always have to travel yourself to a place to experience everything yourself, dont just rely on books and pictures... Notice on the right you can see the amazing Spirit of Tamania, the Fastest Ferry in the world. Never been up there before, i guess i must try it one day...
The city view from the bridge
and one thing interesting about this petrol station just as you get off the bridge. Differ from normal petrol station, this petrol station is built with tent-like canvass or what we call sails. So basically just a big piece of canvas, a few support column, a few tie rod, then thats it. Very special and interesting design. when i was in Uni i studied about the design of these sail before, trust me, to design it and calculate is not as easy as it looks...
and just outside my office, there is a huge ship parking at the port there, looks cool as if the ship is park on the road...
another bridge on city link...

Eastlink

For the past few days i was working at my company's pakenham office together with a project manager. Actually this office is very different with the one in Port Melbourne, first of all, this one is smaller. much much smaller, and in the construction office, there are only 2 people in the office. But then, the office building itself is big. So, that makes it look very quiet, and because there are less people there, so basically you got more freedom to do stuff you want. The building still got the Old logo and name of the company, probably thats because its not a major office and noone bother to spend money on it.
On my way home i took the Princes Freeway, its about 48km drive from my home, but luckily most of them are freeway so in the end it only took about 40 minutes.
then i joined into the East link. So, the big difference between a Freeway and a Tollway is that Tollway you need to pay something call Toll (sorry a bit bullshit here, bear with me). So, to collect the toll, the company install these machines alone the tollway. So what you do is to install a device in your car, then when the car past the station the device will beep and then, money will deducted from your account. Note the station actually got two columns one after another, so the first column is fitted with this scanning devices. But if you do not have this device, and you drive past through a station, then there are cameras installed on the second column to take photo of your car and you got 3 days to ring up and pay. Very simple, straight forward, you dont even have to slow your car or anything, just keep driving....Now, just for comparison sake, (thanks Google image)in Malaysia, specially KL, we got this so called Toll also ooo. But then, the difference is, the toll stations are much much bigger, not just two columns, and then, when you are there, you have slow...slow... until you completely stop, then pay your toll, or scan your Touch and go, then keep accelerate again and drive. Now question is, its a highway! why do we have to slow down on a highway while there are a better way to collect toll? Malaysia called herself so called technological country with the world largest MSC, but then? Cant even beat the system in famously technological out dated Australia. Anyway, doesnt matter, i am not living in Malaysia anyway.
Back to East link, along there way there is this art sculture. One thing i like about Australia is that there are a lot of so called art sculture everywhere, which i know alot of people call these art "rubbish". Anyway, just learn to be Australian and learn to appreciate...

Another shot on the toll gate...And on Eastlink, they got these colourful panels installed, which serve as the sound barrier walls, which is a bit interesting, coz normally they just use plain concrete wall for these... And the greatest thing in East link, the tunnel. it should be the longest one in Victoria, not sure about Australia. as you approach the tunnel from Ringwood direction, you got this monument-alike thing standing right in front of the tunnels, with all the flowers pattern. The Actual figure look much impressive than it does in the photo i must say...

the tunnel towards city, is called Melba. i forgot the name for the other direction. So remember to quote the right name in case of emergency.
inside the tunnel... my phone camera start to show its weakness in dark...
Tunnel exit...my phone camera start showing weakness under bright sun as well...
Anyway, East link is the latest major infrastructure developement in Victoria. Well, the toll will not operate until this Sunday, so grab the chance, grab a car and experience the facility yourself. afterall, we paying tax also, for 4 weeks of toll free Highway....

Toilet story

I hope this will not affect your appetite for the next few hour. This is what i will come across every morning in my toilet, a favourite trandmark of my housemate. Well, i am not a very particular person, and i think i am a very flexible person, but then, early in the morning the first thing you go to a toilet and see this yellowish chrysantemun tea in there, that really make me sick. why on earth people doesnt flush after toilet? if you staying together in a house, cant you be considerate a bit?

i ponder this question for a while, and then i come to these conclusion why people doesnt flush their toilet:

1. They are extreme environmentalist who think flushing is not a environmental friendly thing, which doesnt apply here.
2. they are from Ulu Kampung from somewhere and never see a toilet seat before and thus doesnt know the toilet got a flush function. which could be possible here...
3. they got this short term memory lost that they forgot to flush, which, is possible also
   
4. they did it on purpose to show their attitude, which is possible also
5. they are dog, piss and go, dog never flush, which, is possible also
6. last but not least, i call this, "chicken chop kid", which is 100% applicable here!

good nite

Flinders Station

Today, let me share with you what i will see almost everyday on my way home, the Flinders station. This is the train station that i used to come across almost everyday when i was catching the train to work, and now, even i am driving, still i get the chance to see her every day.

To me, Flinders station is a very old and very unique building. Some people said she looks similar to the dunno forgot what Sultan something building just across the merdeka square. Anyway, that show something, both Australia and Malaysia still got the footprints from the British years ago...
Have you ever think of one question when you are looking at building like this? with the so called advance technology, with the so called smarter brain, how come the builder nowadays doesnt build something like this anymore?Probably that explains the saying that people in old time really eat full and nothing to do...
Just some distance behind the old old station, stands the tallest building in Melbourne, the Eureka Tower. Eureka Tower, at the time of its construction, is the World tallest Residential Building. and of course now the record is broken by dunno which kiasu country.
upfront, you can actually see that this Eureka Tower got a funny look. She is very "thin" and very "tall" compare to other skyscraper. the problem with this kind of shape is that, you tends to fall very easily, and thus, the foundation become a very important aspect in this skyscraper. someone told me (forgot who liao and yet to be confirmed if its true) that they did piling up to 100metres during the construction... if it is true, 100m piling in a solid hard ground like melbourne, impressive...

and also, a very beautiful old church just somewhere near swanston street in front of the station. i must say Melbourne is a big city, very modern, very busy, and very fast paced. But then, unlike other big city, she still got plenty of these old old building around, which doesnt match the status at all. But anyway, glad to have these old old building, because people nowadays are not patient enough to build something like this again...and last, the famous Melbourne tram. Melbourne got the biggest tram network in Australia. Well, Question, do you like tram? i dont, to be honest. To me, tram actually make city road so small and crowded, and often, i think tram doesnt get around the places faster than a bus. so, why bother tram while you got a cheaper option on bus? Last time i heard Penang in Malaysia is haunted with traffic jam, and then someone propose to them to build tram in city. I was thinking, with aparently a better attitude in driving in Melbourne, tram already cause that much chaos, well,sometimes, so with the superb skill of driving of fellow Malaysian, in which aparently i guess noone will give way to any tram and keep blocking tram way, i dont think tram can get around any faster also....
sorry for the blurry picture, i was using my phone, again....

Jelly Fishy

Its just another working day at the beach, the forecast says it will be 17 degree today, Sunny, consider beautiful judging that you are in the middle of Winter! So, beautiful sunrise, not so windy, not so cold, beautiful sea, feel like on a vacation. The only thing is that I need to wake up early and start driving all the way down here…
and the sun rises....
As I were doing some work near the water, I spot something cool! A jelly fish! How cute is that! So lucky they are not in China, if not they probably will be ended up in someone’s stomach….

And not just one, but couples more....
and more..........

and more! Looks spectacular! is it the season now or something? imagining you were swimming in the beach here....

even plenty of them on shore....
So, these jelly fish ended up to be my headline in my blog today. Wish you all a good day today today. Be happy....cheers

East Link to Frankston

So, it is Saturday again. Today i slept till midday, consider this a luxury to me as since i start going Geelong, i had to start getting out at 6am in order to reach down there by 7.30am. Anyway, it is good for being able to hide myself in my warm sleeping bed in this cold winter...

Today i decided to travel on East link from the very start to the very end. well it tool me about 30 mins to get to the Frankston beach, which used to be more and one hour drive if i go by the old route. So, you probably will save half of your travel time there, but then East link is a toll way, and return will cost you about 9 dollars something. is it worth it? do your own calculations...

its windy, its cold, its high tide. Just remember that i was at beach everyday this week, and now saturday i am still at the beach... Melbourne is really boring, sometimes...

Geelong in the morning

This morning it was so freezing. Anyway, as usual i need to travel all the way to Geelong again. Well, nothing special, but then somehow i find the morning sun to be lovely, and beautiful. Whats even better, the sun start giving you a feeling of warm, probably psychologically, as i didnt actually go and measure the temperature to confirm this.

Again, i must say the design of this promenade is cool... this is the last one that still exist in Victoria... this one even got a shark proof rail underneath the promenade.

wish you all a good day today....