Today 18th November

I like to ask you a question… How controlled are you, as a person? Consider if you let the whole world or rather your social circle be the judge, it is of course subjected to a collective opinion. The good news is there is no right or wrong answer as this is not a quantifiable. Even percentage needs to be tag by a qualitative response for the statistics to be meaningful. “Hope” is the notion which a ‘lack-luster’ subject or rather the perception of the subject could adopt. In other words, there is room for improvement. To simplify things, recognizing no right or wrong (NROW) there will be three groups. You can call group one Controlled and group two Uncontrolled and the third group Neutral, recognizing NROW.

Group one- Controlled. You are/appear/think (AAT) your stronger than your peers. You survive social events because of various reasons. It’s totally random and complex to reason for why you are controlled to the other person. One could say that he/she trusted you, that why you are controlled. Another person would hazard a guess because you are someone he/she wants to be. Or even being the same sex. The “true” reason can never be unfolded as opinions formed are subjected to human errors. If you think you are a controlled person, asked yourself: WHY? You had probably been successful in your whole career, love life. You had probably been confident your whole life. You might be the President of a country or had been born a leader or a natural leader. Looking at a shorter term, you have achieved your desire or accomplish something. Or simply think that you are in control of things. Yes you are the today’s winner.

Group two- Uncontrolled. You AAT weaker than your peers or within a group. Again this is totally random and non-exhaustive. It could be anything which makes you feel uncontrolled. Assuming that the recession is not over, many would have lost their jobs. You might think you belong to this group. Or falling out of love that you had all-in into relationship which has failed. You girlfriend could have ran away so you feel uncontrolled. Or you belong to a social class like the “untouchables” of India. Or any reason if there is. People AAT you’re a loser or rather people react in a way that you AAT your loser. Yes, you are a today’s loser. But don’t forget to hope.

At the work place, the Controlled gain to the ranks faster. Their bosses AAT their subordinates are more deserving. The job offered to a controlled is 8 to 5…. Gosh, eight to five is quite long consider you started primary school or grade one in sessions. Now, your “bloody-whole-life” or most part of your days was spent with your colleagues. If you have 10 colleagues that you like, you probably feel quite happy. But if you have only one colleague, he/she is probably the best person in your world, your soul mate or simply someone whom you have admired something about or the Subway Works. The controlled works 8 to 10 pm (optimistic estimate) because they couldn’t finish their work. NROW, they stayed at their work and look into the screen from 8 to 10 hours because their ‘efficiency’ allows. On the side note, if you stared at the screen consistently 14hrs a day (no breaks) for a year, how long it takes for your eyes to go blind? Regardless of asking is their brain working or just plain starring to their LCDs. The Controlled wasted no time, as their ancestors have trained them to do so. In life, you go to the best primary school, top secondary school…university…corporation and earn the biggest pay cheque. Yet there is only one biggest pay cheque in this world. It is true that being in control at work serve you well, because in a recession you would be the last to go. But last to go still means going. Yes, you are today’s survivors. Despite, 100 of people lose their work, 1000 children die from famine the Controlled according to NROW, would not be affected at all for today or maybe longer. Assume NROW, if all the Controlled do not feel affected yet the world is at chaos, how efficient are the controlled? Simulate, we were to elect an AAT uncontrolled person as the president of a country, it doesn’t take a genius to know how badly that country would be run. But will the controlled who were at ease or rather unaffected today feel a bit uneasy. Assume NROW, we know that more ‘efficiency’ could be expected from the Controlled.

end...

The Country Way ... My Adventure

Thanks to Lee Tat and Mikes' Civic and GPS whom made this road trip happened.

I have always hope to be fluent in my language so that I could accurately express a place, a happening or an experience. The reason that I have blog this 'often' its partly due to my language disability and my lack of motivation. Most of the time, University life is just university life... lacks of events or motivation to update. Perhaps an adventure is worthy of an update as true adventure is rare and only to the believers. As for the skeptics, risk-aversed and the lazy folks... adventure comes knocking on your door but only rejected by you.

On an evening of shopping at Harbour town, I picked up a travel magazine at the tourist information centre. The title: "Country" as it suggests laid back style, non-conformist and rural adventures. Immediately, the notion of farm stay comes to my mind. In this magazine, 6 to 8 road trips where recommended. And these adventures covers from 345Km to 680km... giving yourself 2-5days. You could either travel light (just extra set of clothing) or bring along your hiking gears. As for the family man, pick the exclusive farm stay and guided tour. For the budget adventurer, research on places and plan some hiking routes. Oh... remember to bring your own food. Some Lodge provides kitchenette you could cook your noodles. Small towns provide food but national parks are usually quite far from establishments. Restaurants mostly served at pricy range. My pick was the 380km adventure (no. 8- granite, gorges and galleries). It was a 2 day one night trip which covered Southern Downs and Greater Brisbane Country. I did some modification and added Gold Coast to the itineraries.

Highlights-Boonah Shire (Scenic Rim and Mt French), Kooroomba Vineyard, Queen Mary Falls and The Fall Drive, Mt Barney National Park, Rathdowney, Beaudesert, Tamborine Mt and Gold Coast.

Boonah Shire 80Km South east of Brisbane. Its a small town after all...
Boonah Shire Look Out. Very near tourist information centre (Boonah Info).
Mount French lies within Boonah shire...

Koorooba Vineyard. We miss the lavendar season. From Nov to Feb... you would witness a purple field. Great wine though... Kooroomba wines are only sold exclusively here...

On the go... There is no time to waste as the sky gets dark at 5pm...
The Fall Drive...
The stock... Road signs suggests these is a stock tick infested area. If you don't wanna get mad cow diesease, stay in the car... (kidding!)
Queen Mary Fall... At the border of NSW-Queensland...
Calvin Kong's work... 'Powdery' falls
I am 1.8 meters... How tall are you ? Reached early by 3pm, you could have lunch at the fall's cafe.
A typical establishment within vincinity...

Spring Creek Cottage... a really scenic place to stay.
Mount Barney Lodge. Owned by Innes Larkin who 'check' us in personally. Didn't know he was someone until i flipped opened the travel magazine the next day. Actually he didn't really check us in (we didn't get keys)... we check ourselves in as the doors were opened and the lights switched on. When we reached Mt Barney National Park and the Lodge, at 6.30pm it was totally dark. We were quite worried as there was no network coverage... all we had was the 10 years plus Honda Civic and its headlights. Mike's GPS went clueless too...
The fireplace and our difficult 'fire' could be the cold weather. Another experience...Try to start the fire before sun down.
Mount Barney Lodge in isolation adds to it's charm list.

Mount Barney... An extinct Volcano which erupted 24mil years ago. Another charm point... The guys woke up early while the girls are still sleeping...


The Lodge is also a caravan park...
Mt Tambourine... The is the hang gliding site. However, gliding occurs earlier in the day.
Final Destination... The coast, its Calvin's and April's first time at Gold Coast. Oh, it April's last night in Queensland after visiting her sister for two weeks.
From Left: April(Kay Younger Sis), KayN, Jason (Dao You) and Calvin(Photographer).

For this past month... i felt like i really left Singapore, Friends and neglected my girlfriend. Its the exam week so i have a good excuse. Ya... days and nights of studying that i hardly step into my own room. I even miss my dad's and Nuan's calls. An average of weekly talk time with my family of 20 mins and i hardly step out of my college. Maybe i am too serious or i am just plainly stupid or slow but my goal was simple ...straight 7s. Too idealistic ? It all started when i had some Singaporeans floormates and mike who motivated me set this goal. I thought if they could do it, so why not me... Moreover after a round of rejections from my job application, I do not want to fall again. So the result in a few weeks will show...

I am so happy that its over now and its my HOLIDAY. U can call me an obsessive nerd who does nothing but mugging 7-12hrs a day for at least two weeks... but that's me... competition driven and passionate in my subjects. I am the ruler of tutorial rooms and i motivate people to study with me... Ha ha ha...

Now that is my harvest period... i have so many things that i wanna do and be updated at current news and get back a life... till the next study semester starts. As for you, i hope that when i am back we still hang out. Best pals don't need to meet often right ?

"When we part, its the time we grow but when we unite the bond is there that i am still your naughty boy", Li(2008).

Anyway my hair style is now different from the picture which i took before my final exam in a club... Hope this picture provide a good update!

They are my support when i am away from home ... Thanks !