Cyclone Helen

'Helen' is here.
We had been placed on alert but that has just been upgraded to a current warning. 'Helen' has decided to change its path and head towards Darwin. You could already feel its fury last night with strong winds and rain leashing out on the window as I tried to sleep.
Should I be concerned? Well, just slightly but my workmates having been through a few are rather panicky right now. Did I mention I havent bought home and contents insurance!

TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 9
DARWINat 11:00 am CST [10:30 am WDT] Friday 4 January 2008



A Cyclone WARNING is current for coastal and island communities from Kalumburuin Western Australia to Cape Hotham in the Northern Territory, including Darwin.

A Cyclone WATCH is current for coastal and island communities from Cape Hothamto Goulburn Island, including the Tiwi Islands.

At 9:30 am CST [9:00 am WDT] TROPICAL CYCLONE Helen CATEGORY 1 was located in the Timor Sea approximately230 kilometres north of Wyndham and320 kilometres west southwest of Darwin and moving northeast at 16 kilometres per hour.

The cyclone is likely to take a more eastward track during today toward the TopEnd of the Northern Territory. The cyclone is expected to cross the coast between Darwin and Port Keats tonightor early tomorrow. GALES with gusts to 100 kilometres per hour could affect coastal and island communities in the north Kimberley and western Top End during today. DESTRUCTIVE WINDS with gusts to 130 kilometres per hour could affect coastal and island communities between Darwin and Port Keats tonight or early tomorrow.

Tales of the past

The main reason for going to Auckland besides attending the conference was actually to visit my Auntie Marcelle. Yes, I've got a French Auntie who lives in New Zealand now. As you would imagine, good food is often the central theme. The last time I was in Auckland, I still recall having one of the best pate I've tasted. Everything else after that seems second best. You know that you're in a truly French restaurant when there's a hundred and one cheese at the deli display; in the wine cellar, other than the price on the wine racks and perhaps a few varieties of grapes which I could work out, the rest of the writings are all in French. Its like being a Caucasian in a Chinese shop only the roles are reversed.

There's one thing I never seem to get tired of hearing whenever I visit. Auntie Marcelle would tell me about how she got sent to New Zealand to work and while riding a bicycle had a freak accident which shattered her pelvis. My Uncle David was at that time her physiotherapy. Need I say more... Then there was the time when Uncle David went to Paris to visit her folks and offered to cook dinner. To this day, those that were still alive at that table remember how a 'little' Chinese man was able to dazzle the French palette by cooking up a feast with few ingredients to work with (just imagine looking for oyster sauce in 1970's Paris).

Auntie Marcelle has also got lots of old photographs stashed away which she has chronologically labelled with little bits of sticker. You can never get tired looking at these pictures and listening to tales of the past. Below: Mum and Dad on the left with my sister (1975)
Below: My mum on the extreme right (1970; way before I was born)
Old pictures of my cousins and Uncle Swee Chan among others.
Hope you get well soon Auntie. Love, Jun

Paths cross once more...

Its hard to come by 'available' funds while working for a not for profit NGO. I had to write to drug companies and reps for a nutrition conference in Auckland and time was not on my side. Fortunately, my boss agreeed to fund my expedition perhaps in recognition of my hard work in securing the recent grant proposal.
This trip has been most fruitful; both with work and the friends I manage to catch up with:
I still remember vividly that Samatha picked me up from the Airport and dumped me at the townhouses. Joyce who was a Singaporean teacher was the second person I came to know and thirdly was Debbie. I was looking for a place to stay at that time and Deb was commenting that I would make a great housemate for her then 'boyfriend'(husband now).

Well, what do you know?? She was right. 4 years down the track as housemates and another 3 years later; Adiemus was having a work conference in Auckland at the same time as well.

Cooked sausages and eggs for breakfast. (And trust me, my diet gets worse down the track as Cat would attest to it).

The clause for my funded trip was that my boss would only fund the conference and the airfares but not my accomodation. As you would imagine, I bunked in with Adiemus in his service apartment.
The Auckland christmas party.

Cyclone Season

The Start of the Wet or Cyclone Season. This is perhaps the hottest time of the year for Darwin (30-35c)with humidity levels at an all time high (pretty much like Singapore). But while the South prepares for Summer and bush fire season, we prepare for any impending cyclone.
Lining the streets now are truckloads of 'rubbish' such as old sofas, TVs, bikes and even a stove top. The rationale for the clean up day by the council is for residents to tidy up their garden, tools and tie down any equipment as they are potential flying missiles/projectile in a cyclone. Obviously some people are taking advantage of it by clearing out their whole garage.
Its perhaps a coincidence as well that a letter from my Superannuation (CPF) indicated that I have not names any beneficiaries. You hardly think of such things in Singapore as we are so 'sheltered' but the last big one was Cyclone Tracy in 1974 which pretty much flatenned Darwin. You just wonder if the next one is due soon with all this global warming and odd weather talk.
Maybe a Will in the process too.... Cat can have my Global Knives, Serene can have my cookery, Kheng (the racer), Mike (Giant MTB).....hmm, I dun have much other possessions to give ; )

Boys Toys: My New Ride

Woohoo... here's my new ride. Got this bike for a dime off one of the triathlete I was looking after.

I once had a conversation with this girl on bikes. She was never a 'rider' and would not understand why her boyfriend would need so many bikes. After getting on a racer herself, she was able to answer her own question. One is for city riding, if it gets stolen you dun really give a damn. The other is for riding off-road when the suspension makes the ride more comfortable. And the last one is for when you wanna go really really fast. I must say that she's a true roady 'convert' now as she's taking part in her first OD triathlon next month and Half Iron later on in the year.



After riding for months on the mountain bike and forever lagging behind. I'm finding myself closing the gap to the front of the pack now. Its a breeze to ride. With long stretches of open road and hardly any traffic or traffice lights, its the perfect backdrop for a roadbike.

Politics and Health

Half of my pay comes from the government, while the other half comes from donations and sales of diabetes related products. We have very little to do anything else other than the day to day running of the clinic. Therefore when election is round the corner and the government is throwing out ridiculous amounts of money, you just got to put your heads together to get a submission in there. Its these little bits of money that helps to upgrade and improve our services.
The process is long and arduous. After the submission, it took 3-4 months before we got to know the outcome. So when a friend who is working in the government sector rings to say congrats you've got the money...so what did you put in for? Urr... cant really remember, but I know its something to do with cooking and exercise, let me check to see what I wrote!


$143K for 4 series of 10 workshops around exercise, nutrition and cooking for diabetic and cardiac clients. There's always small grants around, I've written a few for 1-2k but this is the biggest lot of money I've ever recieved.
Needless to say, I'll be doing the cooking and nutrition session. But hey, they'll be no golden taps here... we are truly poor.

Great Outdoors: Katherine

With the booming economy, the Adelaide to Darwin rail and Tiger Airways spreading it wings around Asia, so too have the tourism numbers increase. Whenever the Dry season approaches the Southerners escape the winter chills to come up to Darwin for its crisp cool weather. But with this Dry Season, I noticed that there was also a large number of Taiwanese backpackers. Here's a group which I got to know. Without the new working/tourist visa and Tiget Airways they would not have contemplated backpacking. A sad fact of a Asian working system is that you can never expect to ask for 6 months leave and still expect your job to be there when you get back. Many of these girls gave up their jobs in order to travel. Good thing for me is that I get a free holiday as well. My contribution: the car (obviously with me in it). This time, we drove to Katherine (3 hours from Darwin) to kayak up the gorge.

Here's Edith Falls our first night campsite. After a short hike you get to a nice big waterfall swimhole..Second day, we drove to Katherine to begin our kayak up the gorges. Katherine has 12-13 gorges (I think). The hardest part was not the kayak rather the carry of the kayaks over the gorges which separates the river... Thats me being sun-smart.

Am sure Sis would love the adventure and so would no 1 and 2. Not sure how I'd get no. 3 over though.

And thats how I busted my watch.