australia

I think I’ve caught the flu. Or it could be the asbestos and lead fibers
I’ve been breathing in for the past week. I’m relegated to a short life of
mental retardation, doomed to die of lung cancer. Roberts Hall was
opened in 1971, so it’s safe to assume that the walls are built solely with
asbestos (and plenty of manpower) and slathered with some good old lead
based paint to hold it together. There was some work done on my ceiling
one week ago to fix my ceiling light. The electricians replaced the entire
housing and left my carpet strewed with debris of dubious origin. Being
somewhat of a hypochondriac, I find myself waking up with a sore throat,
stuffy sinuses, and significantly reduced mental capabilities. The last
one might be psychosomatic though. =D Anyway, I went to the operations
office today to ask whether the ceilings have asbestos in them. The
receptionist was quite taken aback by my question. Heh.

Me: There is asbestos in the ceilings of Roberts Hall, isn’t there?

Receptionist: (startled) I’m not sure…why would you think that?

Me: (describes my symptoms, both real and imagined =D)

Receptionist: Oh dear, let me get someone better qualified to answer that
question.

(The receptionist goes into the office and
gets the director)

Director: Hello there. How can I help you?

Me: Well, I’m concerned that the Roberts Hall ceilings contain asbestos.
There was some work done on my ceiling which left a lot of dust and debris
and I’ve been having respiratory problems after breathing it in.

Director: (phrasing his words carefully) Well…I’m not familiar with the
architectural aspects of Roberts Hall, but I would think that there isn’t
any asbestos in the structure. What does the dust look like?

Me: It looks like long, thin fibers. It doesn’t seem to break easily.

Director: (guardedly) Oh…hmm…I think that might be the spray on
concrete they use to coat the ceiling. I’ll check and get right back to
you. Do you want to leave a contact number?

Me: (gives my cell phone number)

Director: Thank you. I’ll personally get back to you when I know.

Hmm…that conversation wasn’t reassuring at all. I didn’t think about the
lead issue until later though. I spent the better part of the evening
vacuuming my room and washing my bedsheets. I know that vacuuming will
stir up the particles and that’s more dangerous since it will be easy to
breath it in, but my floor is saturated with that shit anyway and walking
alone will disturb the fibers. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.

I spilled detergent powder in front of my door just after I returned the
vacuum cleaner. Wonderful.

I had a group meeting scheduled today at 2 pm, so I took the 1:40 pm
shuttle. Right as the shuttle was turning into the campus, I got an SMS
telling me that the meeting is cancelled because everything has already
been completed (!). Well, that’s a first. =D Thus, I decided to go to
Store X to shop for Item X. I have to be discrete you see, because Item X
is supposed to be my girlfriend’s birthday present, and she reads my blog.
There is a Store X in Carnegie, so I headed down there to see if they have
Item X in stock. There is a promotion involving Item X where Store X is
selling it at less than half the price of other retail outlets (for a
limited time only). Unfortunately, Store X is Carnegie is out of Item X,
but I was told that the Store X in Glen Waverley might have some in stock.
If you haven’t figured out by now, Store X is a large chain. Now, a
temporary lapse in cognitive thinking made me associate Glen Waverley with
Blackburn. I had dinner at Glen Waverley with a couple of my friends last
Mid-Autumn Festival, and I swore I saw the Blackburn station right in the
middle of Glen Waverley. Anyone with a map of Melbourne will know that
this is rather unlikely as the stations are in fact quite far away.
However, I didn’t know this, so I took a train to Richmond station to
catch a Hillside train back down to Blackburn.

                 
<——————- Carnegie

        
Richmond                     

                 
————————————————————————>  
Blackburn

As you can see in the ASCII map (an overstatement) above, I had to first
travel in the opposite direction from my destination to catch a train to
Blackburn. This is because the trains in Melbourne runs on different lines
so if you want to catch a train to a different line, you need to go to to
a switching station, which can mean backtracking. That trip took nearly an
hour.

Anyway, as I arrived in Blackburn, I started to sense something amiss. One
side of the station exit houses residential estates and the other side is
populated by just a small strip mall. Hmm…I thought. Upon questioning
several passerby’s, I was forced to conclude that Glen Waverley !=
Blackburn. Luckily, I spotted a 703 Blackburn bus pulling into the bus
stop, and boarded it, safe in the knowledge that the 703 bus will pass by
Glen Waverley. Alas. That is not true, as I soon found out. I could take
the 703 back to the halls, but I really wanted to go to Glen Waverley
before Store X closes, so I asked the driver how to best get there. He
advised me to stop at Syndal station and take the train down to Glen
Waverley. A good 2 1/2 hours after I boarded the train in Carnegie, I
finally arrived in Glen Waverley. I hurried to The Glen and rushed into
Store X right before it closed only to find out that…they were out of
Item X too. What a waste of time. At least the store personnel told me
that the Store X’s in Springvale and Ringwood still have a few Item X’s in
their inventory. I will follow it up tomorrow after my tutorials.

On the other hand, I managed to find out that the

Forest Hill Chase Shopping Center [foresthillshoppingcentre.com.au]
has a 10 theatre Hoyts. This is more convenient for me than Chadstone
since the 703 bus passes right outside my halls and goes right to the door
of Forest Hill Chase. Also, I managed to stock up on some Cadbury 250g
bars. 2 for A$5 dollar dazzlers in Coles rule. They usually go for A$3.59
each. Oh, and the new Vanilla Coke is pretty good as well. Tastes like a
vanilla ice cream coke float (or spider or soda or whatever you call it).
Interestingly, it coats the mouth with a rich vanilla taste.

Word of the day: HAMPALANG EH (from Daniel)

Foochow. Adjective. A sarcastic term for someone who acts like he/she
knows everything. Correlates to “Smarty Pants” and “Mr Know-It-All” in
English. See also: HU NO EH, DEI LEI KIAN.

Dragging my feet to hit the streets tonight, to drive along this shit town
lights…

I need a haircut badly. I feel like I’m wearing a furry hat on my head. It
really is that thick and heavy, but unfortunately I don’t have time to get
a haircut until the weekend. The thing is, I need to take a bath after a
haircut coz I cannot stand those short hair bits trying to crawl down my
neck and have their way with my chest and back. Thus, I have to put aside
about 2 hours if I want to get a haircut, and I’ll rather sleep than wake
up early to get a haircut. So, I’ve decided to wait until the weekends
before I get my much needed haircut. I hate the way it pokes into my eyes
and feels all heavy on my head. Hmph.

Link of the day:
The
Quaoar FAQ [caltech.edu] (maintained by one of the co-discoverers)

I just came back from

Rock Kung [eateries.com.au] in Glen Waverley. Had supper with Adrian
and Jun Wei. I saw two other halls ressies there too. It’s the only
Chinese restaurant nearby which is still open in the early morning.
Perfect for supper, except I probably shouldn’t eat so much before going
to sleep. I had spicy pork chop with fried rice. Eating Chinese food
before going to sleep presents another problem – the MSG gives you two
choices:

1. Drink heaps of water and therefore have to get up every 5 minutes to
take a piss or 

2. Don’t drink enough water and wake up with a headache and sore throat.

Decisions, decisions…

I went to the library today and saw that it has grown a new arm. The
extension to the Hargrave library has been completed sometime during the
holidays, I see.

Well, not really lucky, but it was in my shoe for the whole day.

I noticed a slight anomaly in my shoe soles when I stepped out to go to uni today. Upon further
tactile inspection, I found that it has a distinct coin-like feel to it and surmised that it was a
10c coin. For some reason, I never took the time to remove it from my shoe, I just walked around
with the coin inside for the whole day. It felt kinda nice too, a change from the usual feeling.
Heh.

Anyway, my mid-semester holidays is coming up next week. I couldn’t possibly make it to Sydney
or Canberra because I have meetings in the first few days. The final exams comes 3 weeks after the
holidays too, so I probably need to be studying in the holidays. I wonder why it’s called a
mid-semester holiday when it doesn’t come in the middle of the semester. It’s either 3 weeks from
the start of the semester (in the first semester) or 3 weeks from the end of the semester (in the
second semester). Alas. However, I’m planning to go on a short overnight trip somewhere. Currently,
I’m still mulling over whether to go to:

1. Hepburn Springs [mineralsprings.net.au]

It is known as Australia’s spa capital. It would be nice to go for one of those mud wraps and
soak in a natural mineral spa before my finals. There are free hand pumps dispensing the legendary
Hepburn Springs sparking mineral water all over town too.

2. Bonnie Doon [bonniedoon.net]

Waterskiing! Bonnie Doon is a really small town on the way to Mt Buller. It is famous for
waterskiing, but there are other stuff to do like fishing and horse riding.

3. Sovereign Hill [sovereignhill.com.au]

A replica gold rush township in Ballarat. They have a nightly play called Blood on the Southern
Cross which I hear is really good. It’s about the revolt of gold miners against unfair taxes.

Three different places offering three different experiences. Hmm…