I Love My iPhone!

If I were to lose my handphone now, my life will be turned into a state of chaos. Before you jump into a conclusion that I'm the urban kid who can't live without a smart phone, I gotta state my stand. I never owned a smart phone until a year ago, when I arrived in Australia. I bought an iPhone 4 shortly after I lost my phone (a newly bought, not-so-smart nokia phone) on a bus. I never seem to learn my lesson that by keeping my phone in my pocket, there is a high risk of the phone slipping out without me noticing it but we'll leave that story for another time.


Back to the iPhone 4.

My iPhone 4 is very important to me because

1. It has google map.

Google map on iPhone has saved my life many times, especially when I'm on holidays in other states. I realise there's this thing about Australia; you rarely see big signs on buildings, unless they are owned by really big corporate organisations such as Commonwealth Bank, Ernst and Young, PricewaterCooper House. You get the drift. There were many times I find myself standing in front of a building while I continue to search for it, until I turned on the GPS and google maps function on my iPhone. At times, google map on iPhone beats a GPS system meant for cars (such as Garmin), as the signal is extremely weak for the latter when ya surrounded by buildings in the city. Moreover, google map loads way faster than a GPS system. Sometimes, the GPS system takes a good 5 to 10 minutes 'calculating' the distance and stopping by the road for that long a time isn't the most ideal thing to do.


2. WhatsApp

I have yet to upload to iOS 5, so I'm still relying very much on WhatsApp.

As an international student in Australia, my family/friends are scattered mainly in Australia and Singapore. With WhatsApp, I can communicate with them through sms/mms without paying for international rates. The best thing is, most of my friends own smartphones (be blackberry, iPhone or andriod phones) and whatsapp is compatible with these phones.

3. Torch

I downloaded an appliation to have the flash light turned on so that it can serve the function of a torch light. It may sound a bit ridiculous but this torch function has its live saving moments, such as the time when the entire street experienced a blackout. While my housemates tried to feel their way around the dark, I reached out for my iPhone and tadah, it lighted our entire apartment immediately and we weren't at risk of injuring ourselves by tripping over the furniture and landing hard on the floor. (You have no idea how accident prone I can be.) It didn't have to wait till a blackout to prove its purpose though; I've used it countless times to find small items in my bags and to search for items that I've accidentally dropped in the car.

4. TuneIn Radio

This is, in my opinion, the most awesome application I had downloaded to keep me connected to Singapore. This radio application allows one to get connected to most, if not all radio stations all over the world, from Asia to Europe to United States. Obviously, I preset my favourite stations to those in Singapore, such as Perfect 10, Yes 933, Jia883 and Class95. As my Hi-Fi set has a dock for iPhone/iTouch, I usually turn on the radio application and place my iPhone on the dock. The connection and quality of sound/music is pretty good, even better than the preset radios on my hi-fi set. If I tune in to the radio in the evening, I usually get to hear of road updates and at the back of my mind, I'll go "Jam at CTE during after-office hours, what's new?". So, even though I'm living down under, I'm still pretty updated about the happenings in Singapore, okay? I may be here physically but my heart is back home with my family and friends. Gotta trust me on that.



5. Phone Numbers

At the end of the day, my iPhone still serves the basic function of a handphone. If I were to lose my handphone one day, I highly doubt I can get all the numbers back, especially the Australian numbers. Back in Singapore, I memorised most, if not all of the phone numbers of people who are important to me; from my grandparents' to my sisters' to my friends'. If I don't find your Singapore number familiar at all, it could mean that we rarely contact each other via phone or you've recently changed your number. However, it is almost impossible for me to memorise my friends' australian numbers. Australian phone numbers are way too long. I took a good 2 months to be able to recite my phone number without referring to my handphone. It created quite an awkward two months, as that was when I started to make a lot of new friends and exchanging phone numbers was the norm. This was a common scenario

Friend: Let's exchange numbers.

Me: Sure!

Friend: My number is 04 xx xx xx xx.

Me: Mine is 04 .... erms ... i think it's 12 ... no no no ... erms ... I'm sorry I can't remember ... I needa check it out

*scrambles to check my handphone while new friend stands there in disbelief*

To memorise my own mobile number is a challenge in itself, not to mention memorising my friends'. Hence, if someone were to kidnap me and rob me of my phone before dumping me in some small town, I won't be able to contact any one of my friends as I don't know any of their numbers. That also explains why I'm exceptionally careful with my handphone this time round because I know the price of losing it is too great. Unlike in Singapore, I'm pretty dependent on my handphone since I arrived in Australia, so fingers crossed that it will last me through till the end of my mobile phone contract.

At 1 year 1 months, my iPhone holds the record of being with me/lasting for the longest period of time. None of my mobile phones were with me for more than one year; they either got stolen, misplaced, damaged or drowned. And I'm hoping that by praising myself/my iPhone, I won't be jinxing it. *fingers crossed*

You're my Nightmare

I have no idea what I dreamt of the night before but I woke up this morning swearing in a hokkien vulgarity that I have never sworn before. It took me a while to realise that it was a dream and I need not get agitated. Oddly, I can't remember what exactly happened in the dream. I vaguely remembered who was the one who made me so agitated but I have no idea why. Somehow, this is in sync with the happenings of reality. It comes to show how much this person has been destructing my life, so much that even my sleep time isn't spared.

Seriously.

Of Milk and Alcohol

In the first quarter of this year, milk prices dipped greatly, costing only 1AUD per litre. While that sparked a great debate amongst retailers, farmers, legislators and even union groups, consumers were secretly happy about it. With house brands reducing their prices by a third, milk has never been so affordable. Despite the fact that I'm pretty lactose intolerant, I hopped on to the bandwagon to purchase milk.

However, the milk purchases didn't last long. While my friends finish a carton of 2l milk within a day or two pretty effortlessly, I often find myself struggling to finish it before it expires. (I'm lactose intolerant, remember? I can only drink in small amounts without getting gastric discomfort.) After throwing a few cartons of unfinished milk, I decided that I should stop wasting money and food, or rather milk to be precise. For a couples of months, I hadn't purchase any milk.

That was until last week, when I went grocery shopping with my housemate's boyfriend. He wanted very badly to drink Russian White and hence, he bought a bottle of Absolute Vodka + a bottle of Kahlua while I bought a 3l carton of milk for the cocktail. Guess what? Less than a week after I purchased the milk, it's almost finishing. For the very first time in my household, we will finish a carton of milk before its expiry date, all because we made an addictive concoction out of it. While I drank it for one night, my housemate/s continued to drink for the next few days and voila, we've got an empty milk carton. Oh well, they probably think that they can make up for the negative effects of alcohol by drinking some milk. Haha.

By the way, I really like White Russian and it's really simple to mix.
Do try it!

If ya wondering why everyone else (other than consumers) are kicking a fuss out of the low prices of milk, check out the following links:

The Sydney Morning Herald: Price war could spell the end of fresh milk on supermarket shelves.
ABC News: Dairy farmers worried at supermarket milk price war