William Chong

(More graduation pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26333&l=5c091&id=579606378)

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Graduation ceremony was excellent – got to really reconnect with lots of different people at uni, and felt very medieval walking around in robes. The great thing about my ceremony was that it included graduands from Architecture, Fine Arts, Planning, Theology, Visual Arts, Music and so on – which made for a spectacularly colourful procession, as well as a reasonably interesting ceremony compared to perhaps 300 BSc names being read out ad nauseum.

We had a family photo in the evening as well – my old boss’s wife is a very adept photographer and she gave me very nice photos afterwards to select from. You can see some of the ones she took here. Still deciding on which ones to purchase, but other than that graduation has come and gone and I’m now back at work.

Which reminds me, I should be working.

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 Was good. Our tent (the white one) didn’t leak, which was pretty good for a $50 trademe no-brand 3-person type. Relaxing drive up to Goat Island, 80-cent ice-creams, pasta cooking, card games under torchlight, good friends.

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Korean plums. Hot bubble milk tea. Blogging at work. Life is a diaspora of edible things and credible thoughts.

On Wednesday I had the misfortune of rolling my ankle while running down a hill searching for the next control. I managed to still lose to Leo, but Jared and Kristy tried out o’teering for the first time, which I think they enjoyed.

Went to Alicia’s birthday bash at Sixth Sense - being sociable, catching up with other people. Rainbow decided she wouldn’t like to be a flight attendant now that she’s been unsuccessful twice. Logan’s at animation school, May’s in her job for the benefits, and Joel wore a half-cowboy hat.

Paperclip was good – just sat around and chatted with Sonny and Dennis. One of the things about working as a writer is that you’re in mostly solitary mode through the week, except for the odd meeting or chat. So scheduling time to see friends and family is still paramount.

My dad came and went this time round. It’s good that we’ve moved on from our previous misunderstandings about his not-so-new relationship with Jennifer, and in any case life just goes on. I think the struggle now is trying to fathom why my mother doesn’t burn in my heart as strongly as before, and whether that’s a good or a bad thing.

2 years on and look where everyone is.

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Kelly O’Connor from the Rational Response Squad once said in a TV debate, “I’d rather go to hell than worship a megalomaniacal tyrant God.”

The last I heard, He took the fall for us – is that so tyrannical?

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Some tidbits:

•  Kim is learning to drive. And pretty well too, I might add – getting the hang of turns and corners and hills and valleys and parking.
• Richard had a blast in Tokyo. I still haven’t seen pictures, so I wonder if it was all a dream, or a conspiracy theory (like those people that believe the Apollo moon landings were fake).
• Haven’t done too much music aside from Saturday classes. Life is quite busy, it’s fair to say I haven’t been able to be totally selfish for awhile. Still deciding if it’s a good or a bad thing in the long-term, but so far so good.
• Having no homework is great. Don’t miss uni life. I can leave my work at the office, and so in the evenings and the weekends I can focus on things at home, catching up with friends, going out to dinner, etc.

Hopefully we can start up a weekly family dinner.

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You know,

I’ve been back in Auckland for two weeks. Settling into the double, no quadruple life as a medical writer, violinist, songwriter, and maitre d’ of the home (at least until Richard returns on the 24th.)

Some highlights:

• Running under an eclipsed sky in Cornwall Park, chasing for the control I need
• The dezoning nature of long summer evenings spent on a congested motorway
• Dinner dates with my sister over gentle Mando-pop
• Reading AJ Jacob’s interesting, thought-provoking Biblical living book (makes you question literalism)
• Friends and family, ebbing and flowing

Anyways, will try to update when I have the time. Not dead! Not dead!

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More silly names in Sydney: Ali Barber, Thai tanic, Thai Foon.

Went to lots of different places in the weekend, despite the rain. Gerald and his registered-partner Karen were kind enough to take me out and about, despite the rain. We changed the temperature by trying our luck with the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney: very, very foggy. I think one of the Three Sisters was visible for about five minutes while we were there. Also had a look at the Sydney Olympic Park, Darling Harbour on a Saturday night (think Auckland Viaduct, except much bigger and a wider selection of Floats, Loaded Hogs and Provedors). Had dinner at a place called Mamak, which served Malaysian food that I have craved for a long time. Price difference aside, if I lived in Sydney this would be a local haunt, nestled snugly in Sydney’s Chinatown area.

You know when I mentioned there were mentally uneasy people around the city? One of them, a short squat man with a backpack and a pair of DJ ‘phones, approached me whilst I was on my lunch break yesterday. The conversation was mostly one-way and made no sense. He was in essence responding to triggers in our discourse and detailing fabricated side-stories as we went along.

“Here, I’m giving you this. It’s a travel magazine, I flew there yesterday. See? That’s a bargain, $400 for 5 nights. Would you dare to that in the picture? I don’t need to jump, I can fly. You have to be careful. Where you from? Vietnam? I went there last week. Working for the Secret Jewish Police, keep it hush. You have to be careful. I tried to tell him he dropped his wallet, and got it for him. Wouldn’t listen to me, they’re all watching you, you see? Look that those two. I’d love to **** it into them, but I bet those black**** are on it, gotta watch out. Where do you work? Yeah, I work round here too. I’m the President of the company there. Those guys work for me. OK, I’m gonna see.”

I’m glad I left my wallet in the office that day, heh.

I’ve just found out our church’s missionary pastor is leaving for the US for 9 months. This is big news in a congregation of say, 10-15 people.

Might meet up with a few Aucklanders here in the next few days. Going indoor climbing with a few colleagues after work today, not long left in this city. Wonder what happens next in Prison Break.

I started the weekend with a swim in the pool. It’s a shared pool between two apartments (ours and the one next door), but it was beautiful and the water was just right. Did the tourist thing and walked all round the city centre, lots of interesting pics of the various landmarks. Did you know that the roof of the Sydney Opera House is all tiling? You only discover this when you get up close. Very expensive shows in there too, most of them will set you back at least $100 if it’s opera. (I’ll leave the BridgeClimb, which was awesome, for another post.)

Also got to see one of Sydney’s many markets, the Paddington Market. Had to go through major gay and lesbian area to get there though. Very unsettling sight when it suddenly hits you why the tavern on the corner is packed, and there are no females in there, lol.  The market itself was pretty good. Lots of clothing-related stuff, some arts and crafts. Most of them too pricey for my limited budget, but very interesting to look at. If you’re wondering what the second picture above this paragraph shows… well those are decorated cakes. YUM.

(On a side note, some Sydney food places have funny names… try some Chinese food at “Wok On Inn”, or have a nice lunch at “Thai Me Up” restaurant. Not joking.)

The internet I’m borrowing is a wireless connection that’s not the best in Sydney apparently. I met up with a close relative of mine (his name is Gerald) – works as an IT manager setting up major hotel logistics and analysis, very well paid in Sydney. Everything here is more expanded: the salaries, the suburbs, the stress levels, the expenses.

I also managed to attend church – it’s a notable comfort that we can worship God no matter where we are in His earthly domain. The pastor here is also called John, he’s somewhat older (in his 60s), and oversaw a pretty efficient service (we went through 5+1 hymns, a Bible reading and a message about Christians and authorities, in Romans 13:1-7, in just over an hour. (John later told me that the mind can only handle as much as the backside, lol).

John and a couple of people from the congregation went from the church (based in Dundas Valley, west of the main centre) to a food court in Parramatta City Centre where a famous local Malaysian stall was. It’s a pretty good travel tip to go with the local wisdom, and I enjoyed the food so much I brought another pack home for a future meal.

YUM.  (I’m pretty sure I have a wider belly. Mm.. crispy pork belly.)

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Enough about me. I wanna hear how *everyone* is doing. TELL ME.

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So I finished a week. After hours work so far has been pretty much zoning out, relaxing – by the time I’ve prepared dinner and taken a shower, it’s usually 9pm and not much time to do anything more than a little bit of a wander.

The news about Sir Ed came to Sydney pretty quickly. That was pretty sad, made me wish I could be in NZ if just for more solidarity. Also they have tourism ads for NZ here (100% Pure New Zealand). Feel a bit homesick pondering these things, but I’ll see how I feel after 2 more weeks.
I’ve also been navigating the Sydney public transport system. Took a train and a bus to get from work out to St. Josephs College near Tarban Creek Reserve. Sydney actually has suburbs! Orienteering is really cool here, their rules are slightly different and make you think more strategically (you choose your own route and get different points for different controls).  Feels like the Amazing Race a little bit, which I’d love to do someday.  Richard and I sometimes joke about it, considering some of the contestants in the Asia Edition really look like fish out of water!

On the way home on the bus, started chatting with a Nirish (Northern Irish, lol) guy called David. He’s been OE’ing and seeing the world for 3 months now on a round-the-world ticket. Amazing stuff, what freedom. But we had some company, which aside from work people is hard to find at the moment (though a relative of mine will be in Sydney on Sunday, so will see what happens from there).

Anyways, if I can navigate properly again, tomorrow I should be able to attend church at a place where John recommended.

But as for today… I’m doing the BridgeClimb.

Take care everyone!

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Incidentally, as a family we couldn’t be more scattered – Tokyo, Sydney, Taipei, Kuching, Auckland.  Hyde Park is quite close by I found – it’s like a smaller version of New York’s Central Park, and is probably a good place for morning runs etc. On the news the Aussies can’t get enough of Nicole Kidman’s pregnancy thing, and

Started work – feel like a comic strip from Dilbert at times, but Sydney is such an interesting place to walk around.  I’d imagine Albany to be cultureless, considering its lack of long history. The building I work in has been standing since the 1850s, which sounds pretty rickety – but I have my own workstation and Cisco IP phone, heh.

Today I’m going to try and navigate Sydney’s bus system to get to an orienteering event. Will see how that goes.

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