I'm not talking about age but the temperature here in Sydney. We had >40 degree celsius days the whole of last week which led to me hiding indoors the whole weekend.
The newly acquired juicer came into good use this scorching summer as I made jugs and jugs of ice cold refreshing juices with all the fruits and vegetables I could get my hands on. The latest juicing project involved me hauling a 5kg watermelon back from the supermarket and getting about 3litres of pure juice from it which is sitting in the fridge right now. My favourite combination is what they call the Two and Five Juice at Boost Juice where I used to pay $6 per cup for - carrots, oranges, celery and beetroot (I did away with the apples and occasionally threw in something else such as cucumbers in my modified concoction).
Another drink for quenching the summer thirst that's been appearing a lot in the household lately is this homemade lemon and mint (from my humble herb and vege garden in the balcony that by the way has expanded by 3 more pots!) with lots of ice cubes thrown in.
Now that the heatwave has passed, we are experiencing a sudden dip in temperature to below 20 degree celsius overnight. It's madness. No wonder my lungs are protesting!
in the 40s
crimson skies
I awoke just before 6 this morning to a loud whoop-whoop noise. The apartment block's fire alarm had gone off. I looked out my bedroom window and saw the whole street covered in a red smokey haze. It looked like some raging fires were sweeping across the entire city or something. Residents had to be evacuated from the building.
Above photo was taken with my handy Sony T-5 while I was freezing my ass off outside the apartment building waiting for the fire brigade to arrive. They never came although I heard fire engine sirens and saw a few of them pass by when I walked around to the main road. Several residents called the emergency services number 000 and were informed that the whole of Sydney was assaulted by strong gails and severe dust storms and hundreds of buildings with automatic particle-type fire alarms were set off. The fire brigades were flat out hence they would take some time to attend to our building (they eventually came at around half past 7). I called 000 myself to confirm that this was the reason for the alarm going off and even took the trouble to inspect the entire building by walking its perimeter to ensure there were no visible fires before I went back home with the whoop-whoop noise still going on. You can't really make such life-and-death decisions based on hearsay from others, can you?
Subsequent readings at online news sites revealed that the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning across the entire state of New South Wales because of widespread damaging winds. Severe hail and rain storms hit parts of the state last night, and flash floods and bush fires affected some other regions right up to the Victorian border. (Update: Oh and I just read that Melbourne experienced earthquakes in this period too.)
Right now, at close to 4pm, the dust in the air has more or less cleared, but the wind rages on. Thick films of dust blanketed vehicles parked on the streets. I'm glad mine is under cover in the basement garage.
On the surface, it seems like everything has reverted back to normal from my side of the world, but who knows what/where/who are still suffering from the aftermath or will be affected next.
As for me, the moment I stepped out onto the streets this morning during the evacuation, my eyes had been tearing non stop rendering my vision to almost zero. I had to remove my glasses every few seconds to wipe the tears and that resulted in very tender and swollen eyes now. My already highly weakened lungs and respiratory system cannot take such trauma. The nasal passageway got immensely irritated to the extent every millimeter of skin and flesh leading from the nostrils in to the back of the throat first itched, then hurt because of the body's natural reaction to try to dispel the foreign particles by coughing the guts out. I had to kinda sedate myself with some drowsy meds so as to knock the consciousness out and calm the systems.
Ah... Mother Nature's wrath is finally manifesting itself on the disgusting human race population. Awesome.
Afterthought: I would choose to bear the SG haze over this anytime.
elke
"A super cute five-day-old Francois Langur monkey named Elke is being cared for by Taronga Zoo primate handlers after it's mother rejected the new born." as reported by Yahoo!7 News. Must check out the video below. She's so cute!
classical music helps resolve gang fights?
News of bikie gang fights, drive-by shootings, brawls in public places such as shopping malls were hitting the headlines here in Sydney almost everyday since a bikie's brother (who's not even a bikie gang member) got bludgeoned to death in a Hells Angels vs Comancheros brawl involving up to 20 people at the Sydney Domestic Airport last week.
Latest news is that gangs are flying in reinforcements from both within Australia and overseas and stockpiling weapons and explosives for a showdown under the pretext of some BS peace talks. How exciting... and some people think that these can only happen in movies such as The Young and Dangerous (古惑仔).
I was discussing with Beh Kee how dangerous it is now to go anywhere when you don't even know when you'll get hit by stray bullets or stabbed by accident if you end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. But well, you can never prevent something from happening if it's destined to happen, so why lock ourselves up at home?
So what are the authorities doing to ensure the safety of the innocents such as Zervas (who got killed in Sydney Airport), myself and Beh Kee? Besides the finger-pointings going on among the various departments responsible for public safety and security (makes one wonder what is more important in an emergency situation: doing the right job that is within your official list of reponsibilities or saving lives and preventing the public from getting hurt) and brainstorming sessions to rethink the laws governing bikie gangs (makes one wonder what the government has been doing all this while when the gang fights have been going on for a long time, does it only warrant action when a fatality occurs in a high profile location such as the Airport? Also, is a complete ban the solution?), the police has even gone to the extent of playing classical and easy-listening music in certain places in the hope of detering such troublemakers from gathering and hence cut down the chances of brawls taking place in those places. Like, wow. How ingenious. I'm really curious to find out if this classical music method works.
last night's news...
I couldn't believe it when I saw myself on the news last night! Unbelievable. In case you didn't see it, you can view it here:
http://www.themessagegroup.com.au/last-nights-news.php?title=20081203-Jacqueline-Pak_view.html
:D
starbucks vs gloria jeans
Starbucks Coffee shops closed down at 2pm today for management meeting on the future of stores in Melbourne. Photo by Justin McManus and taken from an article from theage.com.au
Starbucks announced yesterday that they are closing 61 out of 84 outlets here across Australia. That's like 73% of their stores here. They will all be closed by Sunday... that's in 4 days' time. Imagine the number of jobs affected. They're not doing great in the U.S. either as the closure of 600 stores affecting some 12,000 jobs in the U.S. was announced last month. You can read the full article here.
Coincidentally, I had a rather disgusting cup of mocha from Starbucks a few days ago and had wanted to blog-bitch about it but had forgotten to do so (until I was reminded by this article). The mocha kinda tasted like extremely diluted coffee with too much milk. A friend ordered a white chocolate drink and it totally tasted like diluted hot milk. It was so gross I wonder how he managed to finish it.
The barista got all the milk-coffee proportions wrong. We ordered coffee/chocolate drinks with milk, not milk with dashes of coffee/chocolate. That's like a world of difference. One doesn't need to go through an entire barista course to know this.
I must say I was utterly disappointed by that disgusting mocha (or milk?). My coffee experiences with Starbucks in Canada were awesome. Great coffee, fantastic service. I couldn't survive a day without my regular vanilla latte during my approx. one month's stay in Whistler. Can't say the same for what we have here in OZ (and in Singapore too - how can I forget the overpriced and yucky cappuccinos I had).
Having had a week of great mochas from Gloria Jeans prior to this bad Starbucks experience, I was amazed that Starbucks is still surviving here... until I read this article. There's a quote in the article: "In America, Starbucks is a state of mind. In Australia, it was simply another player". I think the reverse is true here.
I'm not sorry that Starbucks is not doing that well. But I feel sorry for all those whose livelihoods will be affected. Even though I don't like that japanese chick who made my super yucky mocha, I don't want her to lose her job. Losing her job is too high a price to pay for making disgusting coffee. Besides, she's rather polite and has a cute smile too. All you people should go visit her at the Starbucks outlet opposite Hyde Park to give her an encouraging pat on the back and tell her, "it's ok, I'm sure you'll find a better job elsewhere, maybe try Gloria Jeans, they'll teach you to make better mochas too."
tsunami in australia
News feature on Yahoo site today: Tsunami is coming to Australia.
"A leading scientist says it's only a matter of time before a tsunami hits Australia. The question is not how likely, but how big?" - Read full article here.
The article seems to suggest that there is currently no tsunami warning system in Australia. OMG.
I am very very scared. Okay who isn't scared right?
I have always thought the worst way to die is by drowning. Having had a few near drown incidents when I was little, I have had this phobia of going into the open sea ever since. Even though I can swim (not too well though), I have never dared venture into waters where my feet don't touch any grounds, even in a swimming pool.
Vin's accident traumatised me quite a fair bit as I kept visualising the last moments. I know I probably shouldn't bring this incident up again, but right now, as I get reminded of it again, I am having these weird feelings and depressing thoughts all rushing at me.
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