Going solo... New South Wales

Going solo... New South Wales

My good friend andre have finally been curfewed for his trip to Sydney... So looks like its all up to me now, lone traveller... It's nothing to be worried about in Sydney, its the Blue Mountains part that i am particularly worried about... walking the natural tracks in the national park.. all around you are trees and grasses... imagine to be out in those forest alone... but hey, after this trip, i will be a more experience traveller...

Gonna take all the great pictures of the city... the trees... the natural environment... waves of excitment... woot~

Think of the good side, it freed up four more days for me... hahaz~ which results in more time to explore the city and absorbed in all the feelings of being abroad... As i type now, my good friend Rennie has just come online... so seldom these days, then his replies will be full of "zzz"

Baked a marble cake today... the cake is huge man... all thanks to this hershey's recipe for it... but its really soft and delicious... i even use real chocolate for the chocolate part... When i was mixing the buttermilk into the butter, sugar flour mixture, it gave off a very sweet smell you get from bread doughs... then when its sitting in the oven... my kitchen must have smelt the best~

Wait till the cOw comeS hom3~~~

Wait till the cOw comeS hom3~~~

After my science paper today, i went to see my section during band. Yayun was on the verge of flaring and the two juniors were like lost sheeps... They can't read notes and play... taking a long time to absorbe wad they see on the score, think of the fingering and play...yes i see some improvements in one of them, thanks to those who help teach her. But they are not pr0gressing fast enough... gosh, 1 hours just to get one cromatic scale in place and not up to the standard of playing as if it flows naturally... The way they play, their fingers look as if its join at the knuckles and no other joints... with the changing of keys, each finger will point out... this is not the way...

Tell them not to press the keys in this manner... 10 times... and we see no results... can't shout or scold at them as it's not right but sometimes... when i see the look on their faces... even screaming into the PA system will not help.. they just look at you with eyes wide open as say they know but after like say 2 mins... they are back to square one... one of them breaths as the notes changes up the scale... it looks like an asthma attack... the other still looks down at the ground, but at least she's lifting her head higher... How??? improvements must go faster... or they will die when SYF comes...

Yayun.. doing as much as she can, but it takes two hands to clap... i noticed that at times, the juniors just wanan get it over and done with, hence the bad performance.. at times they are also not concentrating... their silence is not a good thing...esp. in the saxophone section, where gossips and talking between practising rulz~

Goodness... must find a way...~

So as the news reports

So as the news reports...

Just went to CNA online and read this news report on Gulf carriers... According to the news article, major airlines such as British Airways and other european/american carriers are facing new competition besides that of low-cost, no frills carriers. Emerging airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways and even Etihad ( i've never even heard of it ) are ordering new aircrafts by the billions of dollars. Do they have so many passengers to carry that they need to place orders for so many aircrafts... not small aircrafts like the A320 but long haulers.

First thing that comes to your mind is how do they get the amount of capital to finance such an order? Emirates for one just emerge to be one the world's best and already it has an order for 41 A380 plus some B777 and A350 at a price of 19 billion+... Their fares are not very expensive and still do they hvae such a huge market? Emirates is expanding like there's no tomorrow. Unlike Gulf Air who has seen worst days, only recently did they restructure to improve and results are showing. Currently there are no low-cost, no frills carriers in the gulf region. And the gulf carriers are the replica of Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific in the 1970s...

Emirates service is not a stable one... on some flights you get very attentive cabin crews while on others, its still acceptable. Major carriers like SIA are in stiff competition and with the craze of budget carriers, singapore, cathay and even asiana are going to have a rough ride while gulf carriers are blooming and reaping revenue at the same level of SQ.

One point on the article i find very true is that Emirates are just trying to get customers and now creating markets. They are flying into Auckland via Australian airports such as Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane. Twice daily into Auckland from Sydney, same for Melbourne and once daily from Brisbane... thats five daily into Auckland. The problem is, there's little passenger loads for the tasman flights as the air fares are much higher as compared to Qantas or Air NZ...

Emirates fly seven times or six times daily into Singapore alternating days and three flights head back to Dubai, with two via Colombo. The rest all heads towards Australia, with direct flights to Sydney, Perth and Melbourne non-stop from Dubai... that's a lot of flights...

Gut WreNching FeelinG...

Gut WreNching FeelinG...

Today i had my English Language paper and oh man~ it was nice and sweet... The letter wrting was to write a letter to your uncle living in England... and it was an advantage as i really have an uncle and aunt living in Southampton, England... near the New Forest...

The composition part had two topics which i like but after some planning, i found the one word topic essay on flight discouraging as i would have wrote it in a story form and it would have been long... time constrain... hence i settled with "describe about a large shopping mall in Singapore. Why does it attract so many customers" At first i wanted to use Takashimaya as my main character but wait a minute... its Takashimaya Shopping Center... i included the sights, sound and smell that i shopping mall has.. in this case Tampines Mall~

The physics paper started at 02.00pm and after it ended.. i had this feeling that i will not make it into a JC with my "O" level grades... It just lingers around you like a guardian angel... to make matters worst.. for the past few days i have this terrible headache and it wouldn't go away.. got to endure with it.. it was horrible... imagine the floor swaying when you look up suddenly... must get an early reast today... as if!

Tomorrow is E-maths paper one... not that bad... i have to secure at least at 68/80... I can do it... and i will...

a few more weeks and it will all be over... 3 months to see the results.. in the mean time its work work work then enjoy...