还是无间道

disoriented.

怎么每次稍稍离开布城几天，就会想回家呢？竟然有了在三月飞回马后，就赖着再也不回来布城的冲动。。。

那是昨晚踏入房门之前的事。

在房间内的灯亮起的那一刻，还是有了回到家的感觉。。。好矛盾呀。是在一星期的劳顿后，被房间整齐舒适的布置给骗了吧。

今天回公司上班，管理层一份份的工作推过来，脑袋似乎还操作顺利。投入工作后，reverse跳飞机回家的事就像一阵烟一样，被轻易地挥散了。我果然融入hydrexia了吧。。。在办公室厨房里咬着当季盛产的桃子的时候，竟然一面开始在给崭新的hydrexia办公室的布置动歪脑筋了。真会自己surprise自己呀。到昨天还在担心会有一段时间因为沉溺在回忆里，没办法回到工作的现实呢 ^_^

可是呢，还是期盼着三月份的到来。已经braced myself for每次回去或离开时那灵魂被撕裂的感觉。即使这样，还是期盼着。。。

flood assessment

Hydrexia's lab went under... Water fully submerged our prototype cage (therefore cannot be seen in the picture) and up to the roof of the little building behind our lab. It went to about 1m deep in our workshop/lab level. Rumour confirmed, the building is going to be demolished and hence... breath in... no lab. Till we build a new one in YP.

How close our Yeerongpilly office got to being flooded... The flood water was separated only by the street infront of our premise.

Picture taken in Rocklea, on the train ride home from work on Friday 14 Jan. The water had started to recede.

The most shocking pics are of the chemical storage cage where all our waste material were moved to. Both in terms of wot the flood had deposited over there and also of wot it had carried away with it. Not suitable for public eyes XD Nah... just havn't got hold of the pics :P

But I do get this one~ True Aussie spirit ;)

wau bulan membawa ku kepada mu

专以孩子的眼睛看世界，以大马为写作背景的许友彬老师，竟然给英年早逝的伟大导演Yasmin Ahmad写了个追悼的作品呢 ^_^ 还竟然连dikir barat里的wau bulan也搬出来了呢！Dikir barat是以前到处去表演廿四节零鼓时才有幸看到的精彩马来文化。这样的文章是乡愁的氧气，加上最近水灾后人情的升温，和离家快半年堆下的燃料，会燃起熊熊烈火的呀~ ^_^

《河两岸》写的是被河分开的华人农村和马来甘榜，还有那道分开她们的历史、政治和偏见的河。听起来好像是被很严肃、很不可碰触地壳包围着的话题吧？却被老师在四年级的达达的帮助下，轻松清纯地剖开了，浸淫其中呢~

达达和我的轩弟弟一样，是个emo的小孩。有头脑有主见的小孩，都会变emo吧 ^_^ 因为精神上的需求没有被照顾好。因为平常的小孩，没有这方面的需要，所以一般监护人都会忽略了头脑想太多的这一群特别的需求吧。。。

断了线随北风飘到河对岸的wau bulan，带着达达去找莎菲卡。故事就从那里延续下去。

抄两段和大家一起分享吧 :) 给我看着这本书时，一直想着的两个人。

这一段，给轩弟弟。

‘他抓住风筝的纸翼。“给我！”
我拉扯回来。“不给！”
“嘎哧！”
风筝折翼了，骨架断了。
我放开手。
瑞安拿着风筝，眼泪又溢出来。“断了！”
“断了。你不要吗？你不要，我要，我会修理。”
我说谎，其实我不会修理。
瑞安拿着折翼的风筝，哭哭啼啼回家去。
他是一个没有主见的人，他要，因为我要。
我是一个有主见的人，我要，因为我要。
有主见又怎样？我要的东西，总是得不到。
他不要的东西，总是得到。’

这一段给蛔虫Jun-e，还有多少有点家庭困扰的你 :)

‘“那么你以后还会不会去赌博？”
“不赌，不赌。以后收了摊儿，我就回家，在家里，不出去了。我会把钱存起来，把债务还清。老婆，你还没说，到底是谁帮了我这个大忙？”
“是一个你很讨厌的人。”妈妈说。
“可能我对他有误解。”
“不是误解，是偏见。”
“是，是。可能是我有偏见。我会检讨，我会矫正自己的看法。老婆，他到底是谁？”
“她上个星期刚刚给你赶出大门呢！”妈妈说。
“阿华？”爸爸问。
妈妈没说什么。
爸爸挠挠后脑。“我对阿华没有偏见，我知道他是一个好孩子，做事负责任，肯力求上进。我只是……我只是担心他娶一个印度人做老婆。”
“娶印度人做老婆有什么不好？”妈妈问。
“我们是华人，我希望我的后代都说我们的话。”
“他会说华语呀，她也没有说不让他的孩子学华语。”
“我们华人，注重传宗接代。我的孙子，也要姓赵，不要印度姓氏。”
“娶了印度人，孩子是跟着我们的姓吗？”妈妈也不确定。
“是。”姐姐肯定地说：“我们班上有一个同学叫刘启龙，他的妈妈是印度人。”
“他会华语吗？”妈妈问。
“他的华语比我好。他会七种语文。”姐姐说。
“可是……”爸爸还是有话说。“我们要延续香火。我担心我们的列祖列宗没有人拜。”
“不会的。珊蒂说，她可以烧香。”妈妈说。
“以后，生下来的孩子黑不溜秋的。”爸爸还有怨言。
“黑有黑的美。”姐姐插嘴说：“鼻子比较挺，睫毛比较长，混血儿最美了。”
我也有话说。“瑞安也很黑呀，鼻子又扁，不好看。”
妈妈则说：“一个人的皮肤是黑是白，跟他做人，有什么关系吗？”
我觉得妈妈这句话很有意思，值得深思。
爸爸妥协了。“如果阿华坚持要娶她，我也没有办法。不过，如果能够娶华人，还是比较好。”
妈妈说：“帮你解决问题的人不是阿华。”
爸爸问：“那又是谁？”
妈妈说：“阿华的女朋友——珊蒂。”
爸爸愣住了。’

Brisbane flood day 3

Back at work as train back on running. Four others turned up. Two of them have powercut at home. We are the lucky ones.

As the train passed by the stations leading up to YP, receding flood water can still be seen in Salisbury, Rocklea and Moorooka, some 7mins train ride away from our place in Sunnybank. It is unnerving. It is no wonder that train service was suspended between YP to Kingston, a bit south of Sunnybank.

The area around Hydrexia lab in UQ is still closed until Wednesday. Any assessment of damage will have to wait until then. The Chemical waste storage place in UQ also went under. Now the worries are with our waste material drums floating away, threatening environment and human health X_X

2 more turn up :) apparently those in the north are also alright :) the flood missed Matt Greaves' house by a metre ^_^ The three managers MG, JP and my boss Andrew are going to friends' place to help with cleaning and resettling. Dave the seaman had spent the off days touching up his three row boats for incoming clean up jobs near the Moreton bay. Most of them just came in to see if everyone's is alright or need any help, leaving immediately or by lunch time.

An aside story. LL and Rand went to pick up two buddies who were stranded at St. Lucia yesterday. They were without power, without food, car without petrol and had mobile phones with low batts. They bought petrol with them and the two came to our place for some rest and food before moving on to their relative and friend who live further south. Thumbs up!

These are but little stories that happen closest to me, not even a corner of the iceberg of the compassion shown all around Queensland.

Hats off to Queenslanders!

Rebuild :)

again on the flood event

Sipping tea and nipping ginger nut cookies are usually reserved for lazy Sundays. The flood has obviously brought that forward to a Thursday afternoon.

LL drove us to Garden City for groceries, and there were some quite telling scenes, as fresh food were swept by consumers and supplies are not ready to come in.


The basic essentials like bread and milk are all still available tho. We aren't gonna starve just yet ^_^

A few of my colleagues are affected. Matt Greaves was evacuated, Marc was supposed to move to his new place the day it flooded and now the new place is flooded, and Todd couldn't get home for a couple of days but is now believed to found a way back.

Live shots from choppers broadcasted on TV had confirmed that our hydrogen lab and a few machines left with it are well and truly gone.

CTO just msged to let us know that Hydrexia's gonna be open tomorrow but people are to judge if it is safe to travel to work. Guess I will leave it for the Queensland Rail to decide for me. Hope the train service will resume soon.

personal account of the Brisbane flood

It all started to concern me since yesterday morning, when an emergency meeting was held in Hydrexia, responding to an evacuation alert regarding our hydrogen lab in St. Lucia, less than 50m away from the bank of the swelling Brisbane River.

The team rallied and ended up moving about 90% of all the movable items to our Yeerongpilly premise, where little me with minimal muscle mass held station. The harmful waste materials were stored in a chemical waste storage facility in the University of Queensland; hydrogen pressure vessels, prototype systems and heavy unmovable machineries were tied and bolted down. The lab itself was stripped.

When people left on the final run to Yeerongpilly at 1530, the river was lapping at the base of our P4D1 (prototype 4 development 1) and the system cage. Water level had risen 1.5m since then, to a level of 4.5m measured at the city gauge. High tide is coming in around 1430 this afternoon, and the highest level is predicted to be hit by 0400 tomorrow morning, where it is predicted to go to 5.5m, and stay high until Saturday.

Train service was temporarily suspended this morning, leaving me no choice but to call in for leave. CTO Stephanie had duly replied "Stay home!"

A few colleagues might have been evacuated from home or cut off as area surrounding their home flooded last evening.

LL went to work this morning and is sent home by the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital just after lunch. The area around the hospital near the Suncorp Stadium is well and truely flooded.


Milton Road near the XXXX brewery


A prayer to all.

over zealous

Work before and after the Christmas - New Year period has been about occupying myself with self generated work, along side with the occasional tasks or meetings boss might come up with.

Too much paper reading. On topics in reports I'd already submitted. Which wasn't entirely a waste of time as there happened to be an overlooked point which might have significant impacts on our vessel design. The issue had been circulated to the Apps team managers and our CTO under boss' recommendation. Mildly amused by anticipating their reactions~

Then too much web surfing. To prepare myself for the programs coming in the first half of this year. On subjects that might potentially come in handy on those researches, like Expanded Natural Graphite, Thermal Programmed Desorption, mass spectroscopy gas analyzer, random particle packings etc. It might all sound alien, as it was to me two days ago. Though Xuan would have loved this part of my job, as checking up new stuffs on wikipedia is one of his most enjoyed hobbies.

Anyway, leave me like this for much longer and I will be bored to death XD

Can't wait to resume experimenting, and submerging myself in the entanglement of unexplainable data ^_^

germination

4-1-11

5-1-11

:D

明天开工咯~

圣诞长假和家人渡过了忘忧的旅程，回来后三天的静养，精神充沛。涣散的精神在这两天无咖啡因、低卡、低碳、低脂、高蛋白的饮食调理下，再加上今天的5k冲刺和瑜伽课，算是稍微集中了吧 :)

把自己的状态准备得好好的，好像职业球员进入新赛季前的调养啊 ^_^

包着麻油调味鸡胸丁、钮扣蘑菇、罗马番茄和mozzarella cheese melt的奥姆勒~


Year planner里今年上半年的活动已经看起来很可观了呢~放下工作上即将展开的让人兴奋的研究课题不说，撇开生活上各种想尝试的也不说^_^，月历已成了这个样子：
1月：澳网、塔斯马尼亚
2月：农历新年快乐
3月：改换素衣回中原~
4月：复活节假日节目待订
6月：贝多芬第七交响曲布里斯班再现^_^

看来想做的只能放在二月、五月和六月了吧。每次都很巧啊，会碰上当地的交响乐团演奏贝多芬第七，在哥德堡也去听过一次。这次一起奏的还有李斯特的第一钢琴协奏曲，和感情丰富的Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde。为了准备到现场去好好享受，下载听了后，已经爱上李斯特了~ ^-^

今天瑜伽课回家的路上，不禁拿了瑜伽和在马来西亚上的电子风琴课作了比较。结论是，还是电子风琴比较能让我投入的忘记时间，忘记现实吧:) 好想回去学琴哦~ 太奢侈了吧。。。现在一大堆乱七八糟的其他兴趣里面，想把它插进去也得挪一挪时间哟 ^___^ 怎么我就不能好好专一地，就什么都想试。。。 :P

无论如何，明天开工咯~
希望好的开始会带来好的一年，大家也顺顺利利，开开心心的吧 ^_^

happy new year 2011 :)

1-1-11
Mm, an elegant date...
A good day for a new life to begin. Lets keep a growth log for these mint seeds.

快高长大。。。 :)