The Wannabe Economist

We’re coming back soon. More posts when we’re back. Lack of bandwidth and it won’t be nice to take up much of it since we don’t contribute to the cost at all.

Last night in Sydney for this year.

A few days back i talked about the shark attack at Bondi Beach.

Turns out - it’s nothing more than a lie. Bondi Beach is still safe.

Reminder to side: Don’t panic while waiting for the swell beside the surfers. There’s no shark.

A job opportunity for Singaporean who speaks Korean and Chinese. Must be willing to relocate.

A friend is asking for favor for such a candidate for his family business. If you fit the bill and willing to give this a shot, leave a comment. I will link you up with him.

Dead beaten after bushwalking - the Australian term for hiking. Both of us agreed that bushwalking at Blue Mountain is damn fun, and we concluded that we are strong bushwalkers, after completing a trail that is recommended for strong bushwalker only.

We had a go at another trail, only to discover the full effect of the 1000 stairs down to the valley in the first trail. Fortunately Mrs Chongky retained the sanity between the two of after so much walking (i gotten carried away by the experience - cool air and great view and all, before the fog came in and make the town looks like a ghost town) us and insisted that we give the 900 steps up the hill a miss and opted for the scenic rail instead.

Just realised that the school term starts in the second week of jan this time round. We toyed with the idea of extending the holiday, before giving in to the fact that we’re coming short of cash for that. So yupz, one week to enjoy Singapore before school starts all over again.

And damn Singapore Crumpler, do not buy the stickers from them. They’re given out free here! I worship Crumpler - the Australian Crumpler. Screw that local version. Money sucker!

I’m still alive and kicking.

And yes there was a shark attack very recently at Bondi Beach, which is the only other place you can most likely to locate us, other than in the apartment.

Earlier on, i convinced Mrs Chongky that Bondi Beach is safe because of its past record of no shark attack since 1931 after the shark nets were installed. Now i have to eat my own words.

Just how effective are these shark nets and how safe is it at the beach?

Firstly, despite them not completely keep the sharks out, but having a shark with disrupted swimming pattern coming through into the beach is extremely slim. And what are the odds of them coming past the surfers and coming right up to the swimmers?

(At this point, i’m starting to regret getting the damn fins as well. Given the danger of being eaten alive, i doubt i would ever summon enough courage to go out far enough to use the fins. And not to forget that i had experienced first hand the danger of being noob and trapped in a rip current. And again, that account is exciting enough to warrant a post of its own.)

And secondly, i would love to think that sharks big enough to eat a person with just one bite should not be able to come to chest deep level. Then again, given my limited and noob knowledge of the big waves and the sea, i can only continue to think this way and hit the sea again when the weather clears.

Lastly, the lifeguards are extremely professional, and that idea is definitely comforting while we’re in the water. In fact, despite not seeing them around at the beach (probably in the lifeguard pavillion themselves), they managed to notice the idiots caught in the rip current and came to see if they’re doing well, or not too well.  Once again, it’s first hand account.

It’s not secret that i worship the bondi lifeguards. In fact i’m so going to watch Bondi Rescue when i come back from holiday. Due to limited bandwidth here that is.

I’m glad i didn’t contribute towards the statistics of rescues. Thankful to be alive, and looking forward to more action at the beach.

Holiday here has been great. We have been here for almost 2 weeks. Shopped a lot, chiefly groceries, and clothes and the likes. We are already done with clothes shopping, due to limited budget. Most of the stuff are from the markets, like the “I do my own stunts” for Elsie and Eric’s baby due next year.

Others are mainly from DFO.

I like this place. Nevermind the higher cost of living. Milk is relatively cheaper, and even more readily available. And creamier than any brand of milk back home (i dare say that i have drank every single brand they have at home).

And for the first time in my life, i had REAL cherry.

Mrs Chongky has been cooking a lot. A lot of japanese curry, and a lot of stir fry something with lotsa onion and coriander. We’re doing quite well, in fact. You would be surprised that we eat more at home than out. Pizza hut is relatively cheap as well, with 1 drink and 1 personal pizza at AUS$3, which is around SGD$4. If we didn’t go to town, we almost never fail to have that for snack.

And yes, i admit that we snack a lot. Chips, chocolates, soda, and even more chocolate. Can’t help it when the place is damn cool for summer. Like today it was max 22 degrees, and we visited the beach. As for what exactly do we do at the beach, and how frequently we end up at the beach, that shall be a post on its own.

And of course, we’re not the lifeguard.

 Back to food, we have been to Harry’s de wheel, which is very likely to end up being the only recommended food place on Lonely Planet that we would visit.

The pie tastes as good as it looks, nevermind what Mrs Chongky might say about it. I’m definitely going back for more.

And please don’t tell my mummy that besides the mini crumpler that i didn’t tell her, i bought 2 more mini crumpler, and might be going back to take a look again (don’t tell Mrs Chongky the latter bit).

It’s always better to have a good bag for holidays, isn’t it?

I don’t believe what we just did. Went up, and down again. If the total milage adds up, i would be in NYC now. Yet we didn’t go that far.

Dumbasses.

So after 3 air plane meals, enough mix of different alcohol to get me drunk but not enough to knock me out (and i suffered a night of restlessness), we’re finally here. It’s not yet summer, so it’s still quite cool.

More details later on.

I’m glad i’m finally approaching the end of the disappointing semester. I suck at this making life decision game. Big time. Played too much. Slacked too much. Worried too much.

What happened to the zest over the last few semester?

I’m jetting off. To get away from all these and to rest my soul. May i come back a stronger me. Physically.