Random stuff about Sydney part 3

Alright, it’s been a few days since I posted anything. This would be some random thoughts again. I really should get a pocketsize notepad to write all my thoughts down any time I noticed/realized something interesting. This is not even 50% of what I got. I am forgetting the other half faster than an eager groom on wedding night. No success!

1) Let’s talk about NBL basketball in the Oceana – nz breakers vs the cairns tapans was on tv the other night. I noticed right away that the game was shot like ice hockey (far away!). *Actually, to do hockey justice, some of the games are shot better than this NBL stuff. Anytime when you can see the upperbowl while watching the game on tv, u know it’s too far. Next chanel was the lakers vs the bucks and I could actually see the players’ last names on the back of their jerseys. NBL uniforms: all the corporate sponsors were on them where the last names are….company/brand names. It’s kinda weird to see, but I guess similar things can be observed in cycling, racing, soccer and other international pro-sports leagues. Perhaps they don’t earn enough in game revenue to pay the players? (Nick, shed some lights would u?)

2) In speaking with my aunt, I learned that there has been a serious problem with illegal immigrants in Australia. The Aussie gov’t can’t really do much about it since these illegals come from all directions onto to Australia. I guess the gov’t couldn’t really build a great wall around the entire continent eh? Some of these illegals come from Indonesia, Malaysia, China ..etc. They usually work at farms or restaurants getting paid 7 or 9 dollars when they should’ve been paid 15 (minimum wage/hour). They work and save up before going home after 3 years where they can pretty much live happily ever after so I am told. Pretty much a Cinderella story.

3) I will be starting my first job in Australia at a meat shop in the suburb tomorrow. The shop is in some small shopping village and is a family owned business. The plaza only has a few stores including a chemist/pharmacy, chiropractor, fruit stand, and a café. I will be helping out with the daily preparations of fresh meats, marinated, and making sausages/rolls. No meat products at the shop are frozen.

It takes about 40 minutes from my aunt’s place to the shop. In order for me to get there, I’d have to take a bus first then a train then another bus ride to the shop costing a total of 14 dollars a day. To my pleasant surprise, the owner has offered to pick me up in the morning from his house on the way to his shop. (the catch is that I gota be up by 6:30am for the ride) Now I just have to worry about getting myself back in the afternoon. Pretty sweet deal. Even when I met up with the owner 3 days ago, he offered to pick me up at the train station. From the train station, it’s about a 3 minutes drive to his shop (noticed that I use the word, shop, a lot? I find that they don’t say store much here, but they say shop a lot. Very English! In addition, the shopping carts are called trolleys here.) Anyways, I will start off at 12 Aus dollars/hour during training then I will move up to 15/hour. Sounds like a lot eh for a “hamburger-helper”, but I find the living expense/standards are higher here than in Vancouver (for example, just see how much it cost me for transportation here). I learned that the average income here is about $60,000 Aus dollars or $53,570 cdn. Not too shabby eh? That’s about $30/hour. College/uni graduates can make about that much 2 years after graduation.

As of now, there’s a Japanese international student working at the shop. He’s in Sydney studying film and making documentary. However, he’s gotta go back to Japan in a month because he’s got a surgery for some kinda disease. It’d cost him over 2000 bucks just to get a consultation here.

4) Watched a movie on tv the other night “Ladies in Lavender”. The setting takes place at a small town England: Cornwall). 2 of the starring actresses are Judi Dench & Maggie smith (notes on a scandal & sister act) 2 old ladies..in their 60’s or 70’s vying for the attentions of a shipwrecked Polish guy named Andrea.

Interesting scenes: A pie with many whole fish in it. Kinda weird eh?
- peeling potatoes…..they were talking in different languages, since either could speak the other’s language. “Potatoes…….spud in one, skins in the other”…...the guy thought the old fat women “look like a potato. In fact, a sack of potatoes.” Then he carved a happy face onto one of the potatoes…..the old women said to him“don’t get artistic now”. I laughed out loud after seeing that scent. Anyways, this reminded me of my time traveling where some of the strangers helped me out for no reason. This guy I met on the train in China bought me a beer and some peanuts. But I was not able to say goodbye to him since I fell asleep and he left the train without waking me up. I wish I had the chance to say goodbye to him.

5) Watched a FIBA game briefly and saw an American player – lynn greer playing for an Italian team. I thought that was pretty cool. I give props to these guys who were stars on their college bball team, but were never able to make it into the nba. Their experience in other parts of the world must have been an interesting experience. Something that the nba guys wouldn’t be able to relate (ie, there’s a world outside of the US and A). During the commercial break, there was an ad for the Aussie Rule Football League draft. I thought it was pretty funny that they take it so seriously here, but I guess that’s like our version of the NFL/NBA/NHL draft.

6) saw Dat Phan’s stand up show again last night on the comedy network(a Vietnamese American comedian) he said that he knew comedy was for him when he was the only Asian who failed math in school. The thing is that when he did fail a math test, all 8 other white guys around him also failed. Hahaha….

thinking to myself..........i def don't live up to the stereotype...........ie. i can drive darn well, but i suck at math. if u thought living up to the stereotype sucks......try being in my boat.......it's even tougher not to live up to it. Because ppl expect me to be good at math and suck at driving........haha (for all the Asians reading my blog…..sorry…that was just for shits and giggles.)

7) I can’t help not to dis the Aussie police uniforms (at least the ones in Sydney). They look like shit…light blue short-sleeve shirts with navy blue pants and army boots on. No hat at all. Actually they look like rent-a-cop/security guards. Even the transit security guards for the trains have better uniforms than they do. That’s sad!

*Oh, I learned from some guy last week that COP stands for Constable on Patrol. Pretty neat. I had no idea that it meant something.

8) I am likng the new addidas nba warm up shirt. Very nice! And what’s up with the Suns scoring 47 pts in the first quarter and 80 by the end of the first half. That’s crazy, son!

9) My cousin who won a car (Suzuki Swift) after entering a contest from buy some Scott toilet paper won something else again yesterday. Earlier this year, she won a year’s supply of instant noodles from the famous Japanese brand, Nissin (although all of the noodles were made in Hong Kong aka the center of the universe according to some.) Anyways, she won a pair of pre-screen tix to this movie directed by Steve Buscemi starring himself and Sienna Miller. The movie was called “Interview”, a tribute/remake to Vincent Van Gogh’s grandnephew’s original (Theo Van Gogh). Theo was killed after he made a short film called “Submission Part 2” by some Islamic extremists (EXTREME!!! Like the white dudes in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle). Anyways, the movie was quite interesting. I don’t think many typical movie goers would enjoy it as much as I did, but I still think it’s worth the full ticket price, as it was done in a pun-filled, yet clever way. Throughout the movie on a number of occasions, tribute to Theo Van Gogh was visible. For example, one of the Katya’s fans’ (Sienna M’s character name onscreen) name was Theodore and this moving company’s name was Van Gogh. I think some of the paintings on the walls inside Katya’s apartment may have been Van Gogh’s, too. Anyways, if one enjoys the Before Sunset/Sunrise series, then he/she would enjoy this one as well because it simply tells a story of a conversation/interaction between 2 people. While the conversation might be nothing out of the ordinary, but nevertheless interesting to observe. Conclusion after seeing the movie: women aren’t to be trusted. Hahaha

10) Played bball with a highschool friend today at the city. Good times. He’s just done his dentistry degree and is planning on finding work in Aus (which isn’t an issue. He’s already got 8 job offers and all he has to do is pick one). As for “Aussie Rule” street basketball, they don’t do 3-pointers here. How gay is that? Everything counts as 1, therefore everybody just crowds up the key. Doesn’t help me since I am tiny. Played with some Indonesians, some mainland Chinese ppl and quite a few Chinese-Canadians. (I could not recall ever played against an Indonesian in Vancouver. I have played against some thai guy, but never Indonesians) Playing for the first time in 3 months, I was thoroughly rusted like a iron pot in the rain. I would like to attribute to my shit performance to turning 26 last weekend. I am an old goat. Mehhhh! Who doesn’t like to take the easy way out?

11) I got really frustrated with some aussie baller on the court today because he kept setting moving picks on me (very retarded like Borat’s retardation brother Beelo!) so i told him off......he said something in some aussie gibberish which i could not understand at all (even more f'ing retarded!) so i said something to the effect that "he was probably a descendant of some criminals". I don’t think he understood that was an insult, perhaps I spoke too clearly for him. I might have to dumb it down and slur (no pun-intended) it next time like how they speak with the back of their mouth here.

(was that "racialist"? ........perhaps a wee bit.)

fucking guy thought i was american. i think i might have to piss on him like r kelly next time.....canadian style.....i will do it with class and elegance. drip drip drip with some of my finest canadian maple syrup on him and give him a wiff of my hersey stains (big ups to chappelle) i think i just officially committed hate-crime by even talking about this. Haha Sorry, that was very aggressive.

peace. i am out like England at the 2007 world rugby championship game vs South Africa. (I think I just dissed the UK…….well, it’s ok…the UK is probably run by little girls, as Borat would suggest)

ps. The Australian Labour Party won the election last night ending the Liberals’ 8 year reign.

I went to a house-warming party for a friend of mine here. He just moved into the Newtown part of the city. Pretty interesting area. Very happening at night. Brought him a bottle of Aussie’s own Cabernet Sauvignon. Met a bunch of different people, both local and from other countries. Most of the ppl were still in university so they were around 20 to 23 years old. Some were from England and others were from Italy. I was the only Canadian and Chinese person. There was an Aussie Indonesian…..pretty cool guy.