I wish I could stay in Australia forever.

... that was just a thought.

My days here in Gold Coast are quiet on most days. We go to work in the morning at around 830am and Wayne drives. The past two weeks I was stationed in the laboratory while Maysan had to help out with production in the factory floor which involved packing bottles, filling sauces, and all things physical. You bet i had the better deal because in the laboratory, i just had to do quantitative tests with lots of idle time in between, while Maysan had to flex some muscles moving big bottles of sauces and this and that. Wayne is in the lab 80% of the time and I spent most of my time talking crap with him, teaching him chinese and microsoft shortcuts, and laughing at him until i tear because his chinese pronounciation is absolutely hopeless and he likes to talk to inanimate objects, the mosquitoes, and himself.

Starting yesterday, however, maysan and I had to swap duties, and I am not laughing now, because now i am stationed in the factory floor, and just today, I spent 5 hours sticking Maggi stickers onto what must have been two thousand pouches, it was just insane. When you do mundane things like that, time passes in a really bizarre way, because things were so regimental and mechanical that my mind was blank most of the time, and my body went into an autopilot mode. Time was slow while i was at it, but when it was over, it was like *poof* five hours was gone just like that, and that was it. i just wasted five hours of my precious life battling with sticky labels and stubborn pouches that refuse to lat flat while being sorted out.

After we come back from work, we normally straightaway get down and dirty in the kitchen and once every 2 days maysan and I get serious migraines racking our brains deciding the dinner menus. Thankfully, every other day, Wayne will cook, and he really is a fabulous cook. The other day when we were talking while eating fish and chips at Labrador, we learnt that he graduated with a degree in chef-ing. I nearly hyperventilated when i heard that, because all along i thought he was probably some geeky food scientist who spend his free time experimenting in the basement of his house developing the next oriental sauce to conquer the Asian market.

Today on the journey back home from work, I asked him what he was going to cook and he said he hadn't given it much thought. Later on when me and maysan sat on the kitchen stools watching him marinade chicken, he said "There is really nothing to watch! Not much preparation today." But after pottering about in the kitchen, peeling potatoes at a speed of 1 potato/10 seconds, occasionally talking to the chickens ("come on, bake!"), his nothing much turned out to look like this:

It was really yum :)

On some nights, i take pleasure in cabbaging on the couch watching TV or grossing myself out watching Fear Factor with Wayne (maysan normally watches taiwanese drama on her laptop!). Some other nights, i get plenty of quiet time in the comfort of my own room spending time with myself.

Yesterday I was just rummaging through my picture folder looking at all the pictures i have taken over the past two years or so (yes, i was that free) and it was mind-boggling to see from my own perspective how much I have changed, both physically and mentally. What i was reminiscing about, deserves a brand new post for another less lazy night.

Ok laa.. I know that i am somewhat too sentimental and a little too nostalgic for my own good at times. Last time Rudy used to be able to muster some sort of interest and patience to listen to all my nostalgic findings, hypothesis or theories whatsoever. But over the past two years, I suppose he has developed some sort of there she goes again mode, which he faithfully turns on whenever i get into my nostalgic yak-yak mood.

Together with some other occurences, I guess this is how i came to be such a private person. My mind is like a giant reservoir where strands of thoughts float along. Most days they mind their own business. Some days they collide and cause sparks of emotions that momentarily disarm me a little and cause me to do a bit of reflection. And that is also why i am really cherishing my time away here in Gold Coast, because here in my own little corner on the other side of the globe from whereever home is supposed to be, I could make believe that every single fragment of my life is in place, exactly how and where i picture them to be. Because there is no need to be accountable to anyone for my thoughts and emotions, no ugly pretentious faces to judge me, no fake smiles, no superficial banters, no obligatory conversations, nothing to make me feel small and inadequate.

Anyway, the day after we reached Gold Coast, Wayne let us tag along to Mt. Tamborine while he did some delivery. The view along the journey up the mountain looked like this:

Ok actually there are more pictures but i am so pissed at blogger because it always screw up my posts.

anyway, here in Gold Coast i'm a bit not used to the roads having so little traffic and having clear blue sky and clouds floating all day long. Would love to post more photos from the past two weeks but blogger's photo uploading function is just crap. Next time! :)

Labels: aussie