A new chapter!

I know I've been slack with the blogging, I've been wanting to blog about my last day at CSIRO and the various presents I recieved from my dear colleagues; but that will have to wait.

About to hit the sack, big day tomorrow; my first day in my new job. Well technically, the next 3 days will only be the national induction which is thankfully held in Melbourne. We'll be put up in one of the hotels in the city, and the bulk of the program will be held at Flemington racecourse. Usually, I really hate these induction/ orientation programs where we sit around, hold hands and sing kumbaya. But I've decided that I'll try to have as much fun as I can, meet as many people as possible and put on my best "happy" face.

Wish me luck!

Updates and photos if I come back in one piece.

Final goodbyes

So today was my second last day at CSIRO, and the farewells (or celebrations for them) have begun. Started today with my supervisor bringing a few of us out to lunch at this place called Moskitto in north Melbourne. It was nice, but we spent too much time looking for a parking lot and ended up extending lunch til way past 2pm.

Then, about 3:30pm it was off to my boss's house for a BBQ; and as usual he over-catered and made us all feel really stuffed. I'm surprised his kids are all so skinny, i would have thought his whole family would be candidates for The Biggest Loser, based on the amount of food they eat!

Tram was kind enough to drive me there and back, so I could have all the drinks I wanted. Brought along my Vintage champagne that I was saving......... yums! We pigged out on BBQ food, had nice desserts and finished off with a few hours of Phase 10 (a very addictive card game). Of course the drinks never stopped flowing throughout this whole fiasco, I really enjoyed myself! I hope i still have space in my stomach, theres going to be a morning tea cakes session tomorrow and a whole bunch of people from other labs are bringing me to Yum Cha lunch at Highpoint. Can't wait!

Yummy BBQ food

The two cooks, Tram and George

On a different note, I hope everyone had a memorable Valentines day. I got (but still waiting for it, i think the courier got lost) the bluetooth set I've always wanted from Maine.... AND, I earned some big time brownie points from Maine by surprising her with this basket of flowers sent to her workplace. Guys.... no matter what she says, "flower person" or not, ALWAYS GO WITH THE FLOWERS.

Check out that grin! Aint she gorgeous?

Lazy Weekend

I've had a real lazy weekend, I've really enjoyed bumming around the house doing absolutely nothing! On saturday night, I caught up with D in Fitzroy, where he brought me to this really cool bar, its like a huge 3rd floor studio converted into a chill-out bar/ lounge. It was great to catch up and exchange snowboarding experiences.

I spent most part of Sunday finishing up episodes 13 and 14 of the hit NBC show Heroes. It is fantastic, I absolutely love it! I don't usually follow these shows religiously but i think I shall make an exception here. I actually watched from episode 1- 12 on friday night... I'm hooked!


Episode 15 comes out in the states on Monday night, which means by Tuesday I should be able to get it off the net. *woohoooo*

Have a great week ahead, I know I will... my last week at CSIRO; it will be sad to leave.

Japan 07

So here are the pics ( small sample from the 192 pics).. finally!

(Touchdown in Narita airport, Tokyo)

(Waiting at Narita the next morning for flight to Sapporo)

(Sapporo airport!!)

(On the bus ride from Haneda to Niseko-check out the snow!)

(this was basically my sleeping/ room attire)

(Adeline and I at Gyu bar, this cool place that has this little "Coke" door you have to crawl through)

(this guy sells the best choco-banana drink in the hippest campervan ever, and he happens to be one of the local Niseko riders sponsored by Arbor snowboards; )

(showing off my new Grenade gloves, which Maine calls very "chi-chi")

(great views all round)

(helmet and board off.. need a break!)

(the night skiing is awesome, and this is one of my fav spots; check out the tree!)

(a fantastic water saving idea, where the water used to flush is first used to wash your hands)

(holding groceries, with Hirafu behind me)

(I wonder which way Adeline went... hmmmm)

(I hate the noodles here, enough said)

(outside our accomodation; Lodge Korropukkuro)

(major calf burn from all the toe-side traversing)

(coming out of the trees)

(about to lose this jump bad)

(a nice little ollie coming down from the steeps)

(me stuck on a ledge in no-man's land, taking a rest before I decide how to get out of this mess)

(cool benches made of snowboards)

(great views with Mt Yotei in the background)

(Me and Emily, one of my fav sales girls from Alpen hotel, cos she actually speaks english!)

(Outside the "Yummys" restaurant, where apparently they have the best pizza in the WORLD- no joke... though it was so popular that we didnt get a chance to try the food; some of the places in teh village are booked out for 2 weeks!)

(waiting at Narita airport for our flight, home sweet home)

Back from Japan.

Just got back from Japan on Sunday after almost 1.5 days of travel; bus rides, plane rides, transit lounges- you would think I travelled to Europe or something.

Japan was absolutely awesome, I was just starstruck by almost everything i saw, and absolute sensory overload. The people, the culture, food, snow, accomodation... everything! I think I almost loved everything about Japan, maybe except for the 100 yen noodle shop in Hirafu... everything else was way beyond my expectations.

Will post pictures soon, when I actually get around to uploading all the pics. I've been raving about Japan to all my colleagues and would recommend all my friends to go there for your next skiiing/ snowboarding holiday. Definitely worth your money and so much cheaper than going to local slopes in Australia.

Its my last 2 weeks at CSIRO, its going to be sad leaving there after so many years, but life must go on. I know the farewell parties are already being planned and I forsee myself getting very wasted.

I'm really glad thta theres only a 3 hour time difference between Melbourne and Singapore. I can't believe I was whinging before bout how the 3 hour gap was hard to deal with. Maine is in Florence for work (well, more holiday i reckon) and the 10 hour time difference is a real bitch. Thankfully shes only there for a week or so, I really admire people who have long distance relationships across the globe; when one is waking up, the other is going to sleep. Hats off to you people, I know I could never do it.

Watch out for the pics, coming soon!

Addicted.

Okay, I really have to stop going to snowboard shops. I went to get my board serviced for my up-coming trip at my 2nd favourite board shop in Melbourne; and got suckered into buying more stuff. Bought a board-lock with retractable cable (dun wanna have my board stolen and ruin my trip) and also picked up some all-temperature wax (not for my legs). *sigh*

When will I learn, I shall stop myself from buying anymore snowboarding stuff; at least not for the next six months :P

GRENADE

Arrgghhh! I was in the city before, and decided to pay a visit to my fav snowboard shop while I was in the area.. what a mistake! Everytime I'm in there I end up buying something, dunno if its the awesome selection of cool stuff or the super friendly staff (or maybe the really really hot brunette working there); today was no exception. Walked away with a new pair of Snowboarding gloves (yes, another pair!) by Grenade. They are really comfy and are somewhat like pipe gloves in that they give heaps of flexibility in the fingers, but are overall thicker than your standard half-pipe gloves (for added warmth). They'vealso got some pretty funky graphics on 'em, which have slowly grown on me.

I'm all ready and pumped for my Japan trip, can't wait, one more week!

note: that hot brunette, probably the hottest ang-moh brunette I've ever seen in Melbourne, but still a distant second to my Maine :)