季节的变化

I know I'm gonna seem so sua ku but such things were not part of my syllabus when I attended school. Maybe it's becoz I didn't take Geography for O levels. Or is this even covered by Geography? Seems like astronomy to me. I was curious to know why the seasons are polar opposites between the northern & southern hemispheres. All the years of my life, the only winter I know is from Dec to Jan. I never knew or heard of winter in June & summer in Dec until a friend migrated to Sydney. So I did a search on Yahoo (that's the only search engine I use).

Turns out that our so called north pole is not pointing exactly north in relation to the sun. Earth is tilted by 23.5°. North pole is actually pointing somewhat north east & south pole is actually pointing somewhat south west. This tilt causes north pole in summer to receive 24 hours of sunlight while south pole (which is in winter) to receive none at all. The same happens in reverse. Earth is closer to the sun during summer in the southern hemisphere, causing summer to be harsher compared to summer in the northern hemisphere. Searching for this topic on youtube produces interesting & more comprehensive videos.

What I do know is that it's gonna be a very harsh day today. Sadly, the Bureau of Meteorology is hardly wrong. (Of course they have to be accurate.) So if it says it's a maximum of 39°c today, it will definitely hit 39°c. I've already turned the evaporative air conditioning on minimum coz it works best when it's still somewhat cool. When it gets really hot, it doesn't work even if I turn it to maximum power.

I'm just gonna stay at home & be a hermit. Unfortunately, the library doesn't reopen till the 5th & I've finished reading all the books I've borrowed as of Sunday. Maybe I shall watch more educational videos on youtube.

1st Birthday In Perth

Yesterday marked the 1st birthday spent in Perth. Weather was hot, hot, hot. But we still made a trip to Margaret River Chocolate Factory in Swan Valley. We're not big on wines, especially me, who hardly enjoy any form of alcohol. Hence, the multitude of vineyards & wineries are lost on me. We set off pretty late, at 2 pm. Otherwise we could have visited a few more places like the honey or cheese factory. Besides, truffles don't keep very well in the heat.

Unfortunately, while it was another day of life for me, it was the loss of many in the ill fated Air Asia flight. When I saw the report shared by friends on FB, I could hardly believe my eyes. I thought, "Is this for real? Another 1?" (There're lots of junk on FB & many of these so called deaths are fake.) But alas, it is real & we all know that once a plane has lost contact with the air traffic control, it usually bodes doom.

I thought to my impending travel trips to Sg & back in March. 4 flights in the space of 2 weeks. Will we be able to land safely at our destination every single time? If I die, who will look after Ton Ton? I don't know when my time will be up. But I do believe that everyday that we're alive means there's still a purpose to be fulfilled.

人生无常。不要忘了感恩。要多多珍惜。

We got home from our field trip, I made dinner & had a Panettone that was on sale at half price (coz Christmas was over) as a birthday "cake". Not forgetting to water the lawn which is starting to die again for reasons unknown to me. It can't be due to the lack of water since I'm so diligent with the watering. Of course, Ton Ton had to endure my daily pranks on him as well. So, there ends 28th December, my 31st birthday.

1st Christmas In Perth

This was how we spent our 1st Christmas in Perth. At a dog beach just north of Floreat Beach. You know how much I hated the heat so it took a lot just to get out of the house. I wonder if I've gotten so used to the cooler seasons that I felt 32 degrees, the average temperature in Sg, was unbearable. It is definitely less humid here but when the sun hits the skin, it feels like my skin is going to sizzle & blacken any second now. I chose to leave after 4 pm, knowing that we would arrive at 5ish when the temperatures have dropped somewhat, much to the dismay of hubs. Ton Ton being Ton Ton, was terrified of the water & refused to play like all the other dogs. In fact, he kept a 10 m distance from the shore. If I had appropriate attire & a towel, I would have gone into the water, carrying Ton Ton with me.

A very big difference is how big a festive Christmas is in Australia. I liken it to our CNY where majority of the shops are closed. A lot of people also spent a lot of money fixing up their house with lightings, giant sized Santa Claus & some even put reindeers on their roof. I'm not a Christian so Christmas has always been another public holiday to me. (So is Vesak Day by the way.) Then, there is the Boxing Day & with it, the Boxing Day sale. I don't really have anything I want to buy though.

I did make a pasta bake. Between me & hubs, we polished off two-thirds of it. Guess what happened to the remaining one-third? I went outside to water the lawn as usual. While outside, I heard a thud coming from the house. It sounded like something metal had fallen to the floor. We had this warming rack for the barbie that we didn't fix up since we didn't think we would use it. So I thought that had fallen over. It wouldn't be the 1st time anyway. I wasn't too concerned as hubs was in the living room. A few minutes later, I heard it again. The thought that came to me was, "Oh no! Don't tell me it's the pasta bake!"

I rushed in, hubs was still sitting in front of the computer, oblivious to the fact that Ton Ton had managed to drag the pasta bake in its baking tin to the floor right behind where he was sitting & had eaten chunks out of it. Needless to say, it was unfit for human consumption after that. Ton Ton spent the next few hours lying down right beside the Butsudan, obviously knowing what he had done was wrong. So that concludes my mundane life over the holiday period.

P.S.: I finally finished reading Under The Dome last Sunday. Took me 4 weeks which is a very long time for me. I have finished reading another 3 books by Mary Higgins Clark since then. That's 3 books over 5 days. So yeah, I better stick to my favourite authors.

Jump Start Fitness

39°c today. I felt myself melting away the way a knob of butter melts when you dump it in a hot pan. It's pure luck that I went for my 45 minutes brisk walk at 6.30 am. Any later & I would have been scorched since I didn't know it would be a very hot day.

I received my birthday present from hubs yesterday even if it was 10 days early: a red Fitbit Flex. He wanted to get me an ipad mini but I refused. I have no use for it since it has basically the same functions as my S3 despite it being 2 years old. As it is, we're spending so much time on IT gadgets & I don't need another 1 to waste my precious time on. When the weekly catalogue came in the mail on Wednesday, I knew it was time. I've been eyeing the Fitbit Flex for a while now. It is now on offer for $99 at Dick Smith, down from the original $128. The missing surprise element gave way to something more important: getting something I actually want. It's more practical than asking for a surprise then realised it fell so short of your expectations.

I put it to good use immediately to monitor my sleep pattern last night. It has not left my wrist since then. I find it really good that after inputting my stats like weight, height, age, sex & how much weight i want to lose, it generates information on how much water I have to drink a day & how many calories I should be consuming. It's also a pedometer so I know how far I am from the 10k steps goal each day.

Immediately after arriving home from my walk, I took Ah Ton for a 15 minutes walk as my goal was to get in 1 hour of exercise since walking is nowhere as strenuous as jogging. As much as I needed it, I don't enjoy jogging. I've tried to pick it up so many times over the span of my life but had always given up. Walking is easy. I plan to explore the neighbourhood on foot since my workplace is closed till the 7th Jan.

I saw a house on sale that attracted me for some reasons I can't explain. I couldn't see the inside, I couldn't tell what size it was. Yet I felt strangely attracted to it. When I got home, I searched on realestate.com & there it was. Beautiful 4x2 with quality finishings & a pool. I don't fancy a pool coz I know upkeeping it is a nightmare. But then, neither can I afford the $560k that the owners are asking for it.

I also came across a street where the moment I turned in, I felt instantly uneasy. I can't explain it. The houses on both sides of the street look innocent enough but it just felt so eery. As soon as I turned into the next street, the feeling dissipated.

I downloaded the app for my Fitbit on both my laptop & my S3. Here's my report thus far today. With this toy to give me feedback on my progress, I'm looking forward to hitting my targets everyday.

The Art Of Saving

Occasionally, I'll come across articles either featured or shared by friends on FB on the art of saving. I've read so many that I conclude they offer the same advice. That's exactly my saving habits save for the investment part which is for wealth growth. If we're just talking about purely saving up, there's just 1 rule: spend less or earn more. Some things you just can't save on. Like a 5 minutes job spraying the wasps' nest costing me $60. It's inevitable that when your earnings go up, you increase your quality of life & hence spend more. So earning more isn't necessarily the solution to saving more.

I remember when I 1st joined nursing, my basic pay was $1.5k. Add in the shift allowance, minus the CPF deductions, I bring home between $1.3k to $1.5k. We often have to stay back to finish up the work (not paid) & get 1 day off a week. I hated the days where I had an afternoon shift followed by morning shift. While the afternoon shift ends at 9 pm, I don't exactly leave at that time. So by the time I got home, it would be just before midnight & I have to be at work by 7 am the next day. Perhaps it was the long & irregular hours & the precious 1 day off per week that earning $1.5k a month was sufficient. Of course, I was still living with my parents & the only bills I paid were mobile & internet bills. Some weeks we go for 12 days before a day off. Off on a Monday on week 1 then Sunday on week 2. I hated working in the ward. So I applied, appealed & re-appealed to be transferred to the operating theatre.

Working in theatre means I get $250 theatre allowance. I still got shift allowance as I had to do morning, afternoon & on call. Then, I hated being on call coz I had to work from 11 am to 10 am the next day. More often than not, I had to work throughout the night. That's 23 hours of work. While raking in overtime rates from 11 pm to 7 am, I'm not good with zero sleep. It's a terrible system anyway coz surely we're not safe when we're sleep deprived & we're dealing with human lives here. With the extra income, I probably was bringing home between $1.8k to $1.9k a month. I wondered how did I ever survive on a $1.3k salary.

Fast forward to recent years. I became a Senior Staff Nurse & my basic pay in my last job was $3.3k. Theatre allowance was still $250 despite it being 10 years later. My net pay was slightly below $3k. But I couldn't save at all. Of course, by now, I had to support not just myself but my parents too. By the time I'm done paying bills & living expenses, I can barely save $200 a month. Throw in the debts my parents raked up, that costly divorce & the $20k I didn't manage to recover, I had like $20k in savings despite working for 10 years.

With that money I had, I came to Perth. If you've read my old posts, you will know that very rapidly, the money dwindled down to just barely $6k in the span of 6 weeks. I did envy those younger couples who had it going for them. But I know my path, though a rough 1, is meant to polish me. Becoz I have been there, I have been rock bottom down, I appreciate what I have even more. As the saying goes, compare your present self to your past self, not with someone else.

I work lesser hours than I did in SG, between 20 to 30 hours lesser a week. But I'm netting almost twice my salary in SG. While I have to send $1k back to SG every month, I still manage to save at least $1760 a month. It's so precise coz $1k comes from me & hubs transfers $430 to me every fortnight when he gets his pay for rent (our weekly rent is $430 you see). Whatever money he transfers to me goes into the savings account. I keep tabs on my bank balance & the day before my salary is due to be paid, I take note of the amount left. Once the money is in the next day, I'll transfer $1k plus the balance from the previous day. Building my savings 1 pay day at a time.

I read that someone told Nix as mentioned in his recent post that Australia is at its worst in 39 years. I don't know about job security here. I won't know if either of us will suddenly lose our jobs. But we just have to take it 1 day at a time & never lose sight of our goals. Yes, it's easy for appreciation to fade into contentment, then discontentment when we start taking things for granted. Then we just have to constantly compare what we have now to what we had in the past. Most importantly, the peace that eludes me in SG pays me a visit every now & then. I'll work on it more. Am I wearing rose tinted glasses? Nah, just the glasses of plain old gratitude for things big & small.

"Exciting" Happenings

I've been working late these 2 weeks. But then, I can't really say it's late coz it's considered early compared to when I was still in Sg. Good thing is, when you're knocking off at 6.30 pm, the roads are clear & it's smooth traffic all the way home. Just that by the time I reach home at 7.30 pm, I have just enough time to have dinner, shower, feed Ah Ton & let him out (not necessarily in that order) before I have to rush into bed. So I haven't been reading Under The Dome at all except for 200 odd pages last weekend. That brings me halfway through the book. I'll need to do a renewal this Sat.

Last Friday night, we went to the newly opened Spud Shed in Innaloo. Took 45 mins to drive there (45 mins to drive to anywhere from Ellenbrook it seems). While there're some Supa IGA that opens 24 hours, Spud Shed boasts lower prices. I bought mangoes for 69 cents each, a big bunch of kale for 99 cents, Connoisseur ice cream for $2.99 per box (Coles selling the exact same thing for $7.99). Bananas were $2+ per kg compared to $5 in Coles (now gone down to $4+ per kg). So you get my drift. The Spud Shed in Wanneroo is closer but they're not open 24 hours. I was so excited the moment I stepped into the store. Like setting a kid free in a candy store.

Ton Ton had a bout of diarrhea on Tuesday. I'm not sure what happened. Must be something really strong coz dogs have super acidic stomach & they don't get food poisoning so easily. This must be his 2nd or 3rd time in the 9 years I've had him. He woke me up at 12.40 am yesterday & I knew he had to go. He never wakes me up in the middle of the night unless it was something important. I was in a hurry to let him out so I was freezing out there in just my camisole & shorts. I fixed it with my usual remedy: yoghurt on empty stomach & porridge for meal.

I left newspaper on the floor for him since we were both at work. He had 1 more episode of diarrhea on the newspaper I laid out for him but must have accidentally stepped on it. There were diarrhea paw prints from the kitchen newspaper to the front door newspaper. I think he was trying to wipe his dirty paw on the clean newspaper. Smart boy. No more diarrhea since yesterday afternoon but I'll keep an eye on him.

While going out to water my herb pots, I noticed a wasp flying around the patio. I followed its flight path & saw a nest the size of my palm on the patio's roof. Has it been there for a while? I haven't noticed it despite going out the back to water the lawn everyday. As it was already 7 pm, I have to call pest control tomorrow. It's gonna be another expense. Gosh!

Just about all the "exciting" happenings lately. I'm having a day off tomorrow. Just as well now that we have a wasps problem & I'll be home if they can make it tomorrow. I better not go out the back lest I be stung.

1st Day Of Summer

The 1st day of summer ushered in an unfortunate cockroach who spilled its guts on the pavers out in the patio after I slapped my slipper down on it. HARD. We're also starting to develop a problem that we didn't have during the cooler seasons. A maggoty bin. The lid's always shut so I wonder how the flies manage to get in to lay eggs. High risk trash are now being double bagged. Bin is sprayed with bleach every now & then. Hopefully we'll never have to endure the horror of a bin full of maggots again.

Been manually watering the lawn regularly after work. Reticulation days are Tuesdays & Saturdays. I've taken to setting it on everyday for the back lawn but I still hose the dead patches that the reticulation obviously missed & the grass's starting to grow back. Meanwhile, the rest of the back lawn is now green & lush with the constant supply of water & my fortnightly fertilization. Since I can't leave the front lawn's reticulation on everyday, I'm manually (really manually) watering it with a 9L watering can. It requires 4 refills to cover the whole lawn. Hopefully I can maintain it still with the arrival of summer & its high temperatures. It literally takes 1 day to die but months to green back.

I've given Ton a shave over the weekend in preparation for the weather & he looks completely like an alien. Small body, big head. Actually he doesn't. It's just his beard that makes his head look big. He's not bothered by his appearance & continues going about his day merrily. There's a lot for me to learn from him. :)