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Politics
Policies of Von-Nation
*~ Be happy, think positive, SMILE!
*~ Love simply
*~ Live the day like there is no tomorrow
*~ Live without regrets
*~ Dispose of your rubbish carefully
*~ Reduce your usage of plastic shopping bags
*~ Love the world, be charitable
*~ Respect Cross-cultural relationships
*~ Respect same-sex relationships
*~ Be kind to your family, respect ur parents
*~ Enjoy song & dance
*~ Swear till your hearts' content
*~ Love who you are and be satisfied
*~ Eat when u r hungry
*~ Money is not the most important thing
*~ Have faith in something you feel strongly about
*~ Respect all religions
*~ Don't take life so seriously
*~ Give hugs
*~ Have manners! Be polite
*~ Cherish ur group of friends
*~ Don't talk shit, get to the pt
*~ Be passionate about your job
*~ Invest in a good eye cream
*~ Don't waste food
*~ Respect elders
*~ Don't be afraid to have a say!
*~ Love animals

Subject to alteration..
What do you think?
Political correctness
Karen Cheng - This lady must love perth
as much as I do!! Great read, web designer

Ayu - Another nutang bud, luv her
site designs! Sweet person..

Bitch- a "bitch" NOT! Cool Nutang girl!

KOban - NUtang boy who likes ff like me!, from sg too.

ShaShaBoo - she mah home girl..hehe
nutanger too!!

Vera - Frm Atlanta, US, alwiz has
something interesting to say!

JulAngel - Friend from 1st yr uni at Murdoch, Honkie at heart but living in Perth.


Phoid_hearted
- another nutanger...very cool blog, she knows how to write!

Aussie Poida - A work friend, also from Perth. A live journal junkie/nintendo person
Adoption
Count me in
May look fit, but I'm piss ass weak!
Saturday. 5.10.08 10:15 pm
I know a lot of my entries lately have been about the Nintendo Wii, but it is because I don't really have a life outside of my home anymore besides work and the only thing that really entertains F and I is the Wii. No wonder he is buying so many games to keep me locked in the house, hehe...funny how he says we have to save money and not go out to restaurants. BUT he spends on games. I guess for him games will be around for longer, than food that just turns to shit in the the bottom of your toilet bowl.



The latest game he has bought is the Wii Fit. We gave it a try, 'christened' the platform with our bare feet and found out our Wii fitness age. I thought I would go ok..and trust me...standing on that thing was making me nervous! I hopped on and found out my fitness age was 43! Yikes. This was taking into account my balancing ability, centre of gravity, BMI, age, height, weight. It said I had a weak centre of gravity...which I must admit is true. On Friday, I did almost stack it on a flight of stairs in the Perth subway. Plus the game measure the level of fitness, I am in the 'ideal' range but almost falling into 'underweight'.

I knew it, I have never been this skinny in my adult life...after having a baby too it can be quite a shock. Honestly I feel weak, lack of muscles and energy. I have to do something bout it! It is scary cuz I still eat normal and more even...but it is hard to put back the weight. As for F, he is at the other spectrum on overweight, poor baby...he got 26 though, cuz he can balance well...both of us were pretty pissed off! But are determined to reach our fitness goals together! Woot woot! For a bit of fun we placed baby Sofia on there and she got age 21. Haha cuz her centre of gravity wasn't too good, she can't even sit still on the platform and kept on giggling at her Mii. :)

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My other faces
Monday. 5.5.08 10:23 pm
I came across this website over the weekend called The St Andrews Face Transformer. It is so cool, cuz you can upload a picture of your face and find out the different faces you could have if you were e.g. caucasian, baby, west asian etc. Some of the images, I must admit, freaked me out!! For Fernando, it was the 'old' image of me. hahaha.. He's like please don't end up like that! I just have to keep out of the sun that's all. hehe.


The original photo


West-Asian


Older adult


Modligliani


Caucasian

*I will resize the photos later, too late and lazy atm.. hehe.
But enjoy, and try it out yourself!

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Tipsy on the job
Friday. 5.2.08 10:13 pm


This week seemed to go by really slowly for some reason. It must of been cuz I was at investigative training from Wed to Fri and it was 2 1/2 days of full on lecturing and learning how to dig for detail in interviews with non-compliant non-citizens. It was pretty interesting, it beats working at the desk all day that's for sure! I found out a bit about myself...I am so GULLIBLE! I always accept what people say at face value and never challenge their facts. I will make sure from now on I won't be so trusting, especially of clients.

But on the Tuesday and the Friday I had two lunches with the SMU team and the people from Canberra DEEWR at BAR 138, and had a glass of beer and wine. Of course one on each...but still I was drinking during work hours! I didn't think it was a big deal cuz the boss was having some too. But my internally voice made me feel guilty, cuz I have never done this before! Drink and go back to work! I felt like crawling under my desk for a snooze. And I had avoided all contact with any clients until I had composed myself and lost the redness in my face. hehehe. But by the end of the day I had a throbbing headache..no more wine at work again!!

It really is nice though, to get together with the team and have a few drinks and wedges on the side. Like my previous entry was about meeting work friends outside of work...and it definitely has a different 'feel'. A much more open and relaxed nature from everyone.

F also got Mario Kart Wii in the post this week and was playing it almost every day. Like a lil excited boy on Christmas day...hehehe. He wanted me to play with him, but for some reason when he gets "too excited" about one game...I get bored of it and refuse to join in. I tend to enjoy the games that he will never finish...lol! But yeh..it is his dream to make me into a gamer girl...he can keep dreaming haha. :P

Have a great weekend Ya'll! ^_^

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mixing work and play
Saturday. 4.26.08 6:01 pm
mood: relaxed
This is a very old update. It is actually meant for last Saturday when F and I went over to Peter's house, in Clarkson (45 Mins away from us down south) to have a Wii Night. It was really nice of Peter to invite us to his house, I'm sure we will repay the invitation once we get a place of our own. Peter is from work, we used to be in Student Monitoring together but he has moved to the Citizenship section...still it's good to stay in touch with those work friends that I get along with.

It's kinda strange because I don't usually catch up with work friends outside of work. Dunno why the formalities are much more different. I guess I think it would turn out to be awkward when we see each other in our homes and in our casual clothes. But it is just the same. heheHE...I really over analyse these things and wonder whether others feel the same about hanging out with work mates outside??

I used to hang out with Mairin on the weekends, like go out to Freo for lunches. But that has since stopped since I had a baby. I guess people also see you differently when you have a child and a family...because they think that would be your 'life' and nothing else cuz I would be 'too busy' to do other stuff. I would like to catch up with Mairin more on the outside, but I guess it goes the same for my group of friends...we just don't have the same interests anymore. In a way...baby stuff, living costs, etc has become a part of my conversation palatte and my friends find it boring or they cannot contribute. So what should we be talking about?? The damn weather??

But the last week was good, F and I celebrated our 4 years of being together with simple order from Hero's Pizza and then back home to watch Ramsay's. It was quiet, relaxed and low key with great pizza! If you are in Perth, I recommend the Honey Soy Chicken pizza...absolutely mouth watering hehe. Oh man...my addiction for great, tasty, fresh food is just becoming worse...

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Considering a new vocation
Sunday. 4.12.08 10:59 am
Lately I have been quite motivate to cook up a storm and try new recipes in the kitchen. I am not too sure what started this off, maybe it's because I have been watching too much of 'Ramsay's kitchen nightmares' on tv hehehe. Or it could be because I love cooking for the people I love and they give me a lot of encouragement. I like how F enjoys my food and gives me praise when ever something tastes good. Also the fussy eaters in my family, like my brothers hehe. I have also looked into cooking baby food that is tasty and nutritious.

I have even started looking into part time courses at TAFE to do commercial cookery. I can actually see myself as a chef in the kitchen. I think I would be able to remain quite calm and composed. :P My dream is to one day own my own restaurant. Me and my friend Tiff has discussed this before. And we have always thought that one day she will come back to Perth to stay for good and we can open up a 24 hour cafe. But I don't think it will happen in the next 5 years, because with her dad's business back in Indo...looks like she'll be there for a long time!

Last night I made a mushroom, asparagus, smoked ham risotto. I cut back on the parmasan, because it would become too rich. And it tasted amazing! I didn't even have to follow a recipe. I guess it is because I have made risotto my "automatic recipe" I know what a risotto consists of and how it should be made. So I just go by taste and there is no need to follow instructions. hehe.

Here is my recipe, makes for 2:

Ingredients
1 bunch of asparagus chopped into inches
1/2 brown onion diced
1 1/1 tsp garlic
12 button mushrooms sliced
3 slices of smoked ham
1 1/2 cup of aborio rice
1 knob of butter
3 cups chicken stock (1 cube of stock with 3 cups hot water)
3/4 cup of dry white wine
sprinkle of dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Put chopped asparagus in a bowl of water and heat in microwave for 2 mins (til tender but firm). Make stock with one cube and 3 cups boiling water. Melt butter in pan, and toss in onion and garlic and ham on high heat until fragrant. Then put in rice, on medium heat, cover the rice with butter and keep stirring for 2 mins. Then add the wine and mix until all evaporated. Add thyme and stir. Add the first cup of stock to the pan and keep stirring, then add the asparagus. Add the second cup of stock to the pan, still stirring until all the liquid is soaked in, then add the mushrooms. Keep stirring and add ladel by ladel of the last cup, keeping the heat on medium - low until the liquid is absorbed and rice looks soft and opaque. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat.

If you wish you may add freshly grated parmasan cheese and parsley and stir it through. Hope it turns out nice for you guys, if you decide to cook it :D

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Eye-opening
Wednesday. 4.9.08 8:53 pm
Within the past week I have been attending a few training sessions offered at the office and it has really opened my eyes and my mind to empathise with other people, especially clients from a cross cultural background. I did one sess on 'Mental health awareness' and 'Cultural awareness'. Both were very informative and made me realise sometimes it takes a human being to understand another human being, we just have to put ourselves in another's shoes and realise what they are going through.

With mental health, it seems there is so much prejudice in how we perceive 'mentally ill' people. We really do not give much of a second thought, cuz the first thing that pops into our head is 'they are dangerous', 'they need to be in the looney bin', 'they are just weirdos'. But really it is something beyond their control, they feel trapped and helpless in their thoughts and their mind is like a prison. Like people who suffer from depression, anxiety attacks, post traumatic stress, contemplating suicide etc. Being a prisoner of your own thoughts is probably one of the worse situations to be in, your whole world comes crashing down and no one around you understands! It made me think twice about calling anyone 'nuts' or 'crazy'.

It kinda made me realise people who are close to me have also gone through similiar illness like depression. It is such a drain on life, I also felt this post natal. It was like the whole world turned to shit and no one could understand... like no one needed to know you were sad, but you had to deal with it yourself and try not to think too deeply or it would end up falling even deeper in negative thought. In the training session, one story was a lady had post traumatic stress which lead to recurring nightmares of her daughter drowning. This was due to the guilt she felt when she tried to kill herself and her daughter, but only the mother survived. That affected me BIG time! I just could not understand what would drive a person to such an bitter end.

Anyways...I also learnt through 'cultural awareness' when I played a game with my colleagues that it is so hard to be a foreigner in an country where you can't speak the language. I had to tell my group about my weekend, without using words with 'i' or 'u' (my group didn't know I had to do this), they could ask me questions to prompt me though..but thought I was a complete illiterate fool! You should try it...cuz it got me so tongue tied and my brain was just thinking so hard about what words I should use. Very interesting in the end :)

I think everyone should just change their natural 'lenses' to see a more clearer picture of the world without stereotypes and prejudices. Then the world would be such a nice place to live in, and there would be more understanding and peace :)

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