Lost & Found - Part 1

During the term break (some 3 weeks ago), I was working on my assignment in the school's computer lab. I placed my one and only thumbdrive in the USB port to save my assignment. After I completed my assignment, I downloaded audio lectures into my thumbdrive (Fyi: An audio lecture takes <10>30 minutes to download from my laptop back in my hostel). Then, my phone rang. My friend has ended her class and was waiting for me at the other end or school, so I quickly packed up and left.

Two days later, I wanted to proof read my assignment to ensure that no further amendments are needed, only to realise that my only copy of it was in my thumbdrive. Guess what? I came to realise that my thumbdrive's missing! I left it sticking in the school's computer usb port and I totally forgot about its existence (or rather non-existence) until 2 days later. How blur can I be!

Even though I was blaming myself for my carelessness, I managed to find peace and calmness. Sounds odd but it's true. If it were the same me a year or two ago, I would have been panicky and agitated, calling others to rant about my misfortune and vent my frustrations, while frantically trying to search for my thumbdrive. Hmms. Looks like I'm a changed person.

Anyway, on the 40 minutes bus journey to school, thoughts kept running through my head and I concluded that the probability of getting my thumbdrive back is < .10, since I have lost it for more than 48 hours. During that period of time, many people would have gained access to that computer which I left my thumbdrive in and I'm pretty sure one of them would have taken it. Moreover, my thumbdrive does not contain any personal information thus it would have taken the person some effort to trace back to its original owner (me). In short, it's much easier for anyone to take the thumbdrive, delete its content and keep it for personal use than to return it to me. As such, I did not harbour any hopes of seeing my thumbdrive again.

To be honest, it's not so much the cost or value of the thumbdrive that mattered to me. I got the thumbdrive for free when I purchased an external hard disk drive. It was the data inside the thumbdrive which held great significance to me. There were notes (important), assignments (super important) and photos stored in the thumbdrive. (Don't need to speculate. There aren't any photos similar to what Edison Chen had).

Later that evening, as I entered the same computer lab (Baume Infoplace), I glanced through the notice board for any "Lost & Found" notice. All I saw was a "Missing Thumbdrive" notice. Looked like I wasn't the only careless one to make such a silly mistake of leaving my thumbdrive behind. I gave up searching for it and continued to work on the same assignment with my project partner.

In the midst of project discussion, I got bored and decided to check my school email and I saw a new mail titled "USB in Baume Infoplace". I opened my mail and this was what it read:

Hey there,

Just to let you know that your USB has been left in Baume Infoplace. Was checking to see who it belongs to ... realised you are part of the SSA so I'll pass your thumbdrive to abc/xyz if you do not see this email in time.

Yours truly,
JY

Note: Names have been changed and included the initials of my benefactor to maintain privacy.

Oh my goodness! I can't believe how lucky I was. My thumbdrive was picked up by a fellow Singaporean who managed to contact me by looking through my assignments for my student ID (our student ID is used as part of our schools' email address). I looked at the date and realised that he had sent me the email two days ago! Oh gosh. That was the exact same day I 'lost' my thumbdrive!

I replied his email with great excitement (I've no idea why did I feel excited) and this was what I wrote:

Hey JY,

Thank you for helping me to safekeep my USB thumbdrive. That was really nice of you =)

Kindly advise on when (and where) it is convenient for me to pick up the thumbdrive from you. If possible, I'll like to treat you to coffee. Degree, purple pickle or street theatre will be good. I am contactable at 0123456789.

Regards,

Mildred

After replying that email, I was preparing to leave the computer lab when I saw two friends of mine, whom I knew from SSA (SSA = Singapore Student Association. Fyi: SSA is a society/club formed by Singaporeans for Singaporeans in ANU. Coincidentally, the SSA president was my polytechnic IT classmate, Jason. He has since stepped down as he will be graduating and returning to Singapore at the end of this year). We chatted for a short while and I randmonly asked "Have you any idea who is JY?"

My friend, Chel went "I know two people of the same name. Which one are you referring to?"

I thought for a while before saying "To be honest, I have no idea," and went on telling her my story.

She replied "If it's the guy who picked your thumbdrive up from this lab, it's most probably him" and she gazed to this guy sitting two computers behind me. "Do you want me to ask him on your behalf?"

I shook my head and said "Don't want lah. So paiseh."

Just then, that guy walked in our direction and Chel went "Want or not, want or not? I help you ask, okay?

I kept insisting "Don't want, don't want. Really very paiseh!"

Just as that guy was behind me (he was walking in our direction, towards the Gents), Chel went "Did you happen to pick up a thumbdrive?"

That guy glance at everyone in the clique before looking at me. Then, he said "So you are Mildred?"

"Errrms, yes" I replied with a sheepish grin."



Super long post. I logged in 5 times on 5 different ocassions to type up this post. Shall publish this part of the story first before I continue the rest in my next post. Hahas!

Stay tuned, k?

Back To School Again =(

My two weeks term break had ended last Sunday. This is the list of things I had been doing during term break:

• Took a 45 minutes plane ride to Melbourne and stayed there for 5 nights. Satisifed a lot of food cravings, walked a lot of streets, seen a lot of buildings with nice architectural designs, had awesome breakfasts, took a tram for the first time in my life, seen wild penguins (there were oh-so-cute) and met up with a friend whom I haven't seen in 8 years. No thanks to Tiger Airways, I spent a good 4 hours at Melbourne domestic airport rotting away. Yes, my plane got delayed but I guess I shouldn't be complaining cause my friends' flight (which was scheduled to fly the next morning) was cancelled. Will post the pictures on my blog when I upload them onto my lappie. Very busy at the moment, studying and preparing for presentation. (Woops! Sign of slacking too much during the holidays.)

• Attempted to diet because I found myself putting on way too much weight. It didn't help that I got 1kg heavier after returning from Melbourne. I chose to ate lesser during meal times but ended up snacking more. What is this!?!?!?! Guess my body is too used to me eating too much. Gotta take baby steps to slowly reduce my food intake. To think I used to struggle with the huge portion of food given at cafes and restaurants in Australia. Now, I can finish the entire plate by myself, even though I still struggle at times. There is no way I am going to let the food go to waste when it cost a whooping $14 on average for each meal.

• Attempt to lose more weight and stay healthier by joining gym. Chose fitness first for their equipment, environment and facilities. I also get to go for free classes such as yoga, pilates, zumba etc. I actually prefer the classes over working out on the machines. I make an attempt to go for as many classes as possibe because it's fun, interactive and interesting. To be honest, the classes can be more tiring and taxing than running on the threadmill; I feel that fats all over my body are 'burning'. Hahas. I have to highlight the fact that I'm not being spendrift (or atas). If I were to filter in costs like locker and what nots, I am going to pay more for the school gym than Fitness First. On top of that, the showers in my school is haywire; it either scalds me badly with super hot water, or freezes me with super cold water. Worse thing is the school toilet does not have heater. The moment I remove my clothes, I can see goosebumps on my skin (partially because I have low tolerance for cold). Bathing is a challenge. Few plus points about Fitness First in Australia includes lower subscription fees than if I were to sign up in Singapore, free access to any Fitness First across Australia (just in case I relocate), free trainer for three sessions (though they have stupid terms and conditions) and I can use the Fitness First gyms when I'm back in Singapore. Cool right?

• Stayed over at my friend's hostel (Val @ Fenner hall) and had loads of fun. We made pasta from scratch, from mixing the flour to rolling the dough to shaping the pasta. After that, we cooked it in aglio olio style with mushrooms. Boy, it was hard work! I doubt I will be doing it anytime soon. We also baked banana cake in cupcake style and it turned out really well, despite the fact that we didn't get some proportions and ingredients right. We did not have all the ingredients we needed and happily substituted with whatever we thought was good. The cake mixture didn't look right but the cupcakes turned out well. At least much better than we had expected. Thank goodness I stopped Val from throwing away the cake mixture when she thought it was going to be a 'gone case'. Just for your info, we were cooking/baking/having fun from 1am to almost 5am in the morning. Haha. Thanks Val for hosting me and doing crazy stuff with me at insane times even when you're sick. Please recover soon, it's been almost a week! *hugs*

• I deactivated my FaceBook account for various reasons which I do not wish to elaborate on my blog. I will most probably activate it again when I'm back in Singapore, depending on how well adapted I am to a life without facebook. I may just be tempted to facebook again in the following days/weeks or I may get so used to a life without FaceBook, I may never want to activate it again. Oh well, see how it goes.
  

I guess that's all for now. Gotta go prepare for presentation and study for quiz. Shall update when I think of anything else that I have done during the term break. Shall end this post with a picture of myself, just in case you people miss me. I feel so bhb. Hahas!



This picture was taken on mid-autumn festival when I was at Floraide nightfest (I will try to blog about the nightfest soon). I called my granny's place that night because I knew my extended family will be there for dinner. I was so glad to hear their voices, especially Uncle Cal's (though I never told him that).

I even got skyped with my grandparents at night. My granny saw me for the first time since I arrived in Australia and she commented that I look better when I'm fatter. I've no idea if she's speaking the truth or if she's trying to comfort me but I choose to believe the former. Hahas.

Anyway, just in case you guys are wondering, my friends (John + Janelle) and I came to conclude that the moon in Australia is rounder than it is back home in Singapore. Who says 家乡 的月亮 最圆 ?

Day Light Saving

I always feel that 24 hours a day just isn't sufficient for me and to make things worse, I have only 23 hours today!!!!!!! That is due to something called "day light saving". It usually takes place in spring when time is advanced by an hour due to lesser sunlight in the morning and more sunlight in the afternoon.

Think of it as shorter mornings, longer afternoons. So the sky gets brighter at a later time (in the day) and darker at a later time (in the evening). Thus, for safety reasons, the time is brought forward. However, not all parts of Australia observe daylight saving (weird uh) and that there are 3 different time zones in Australia (even weirder). I was quite clueless about daylight saving until googling and reading up on it extensively. I know I sound kinda dumb but back home, 1pm will always be 1pm and 10am will always be 10am. I never had to fret about adjusting the time etc. Anyway, more information about Australia time can be found here.

I think many back home in Singapore will be as confused as I am but to put it simply, Canberra (GMT +10) used to be 2 hours faster than Singapore (GMT +8). However, after 2am today (this is the day & time they chose to begin daylight saving), Canberra will be 3 hours faster than Singapore. Basically, 2am to 3am will pass in a minute (the one minute is spent adjusting the time on my clock. Haha!). Anyway, there are several controversies to daylight savings, with some supporting and others discouraging the use of it. If you are keen to know why, you can read up on it here.