My Life Down Under (Australia) January 26, 2007
Posted by curioustan in Travel.add a comment
January 26 is a very important day in Australia. In some way, Im happy to celebrate with the rest of the Australians for this special event despite the fact that Im not an Australian but somehow I had the opportunity to experience the Australian way during my research program at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.
Living for two years in Down Under was a rewarding and memorable experience. I did so many things as a student and an ordinary person in a different environment, quite different from my home country. Having the opportunity to travel around Australia, I visited my friends in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. And within Queensland, I had the chance to visit interesting places in Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba. I was also able to work in a big shopping mall as a cleaner or ‘dakilang janitor’ and it was really a rare opportunity to work at that level of profession, and not to forget my extra job as a ‘newspaper/leaflets’ delivery man. And because of my savings from these jobs, I had the chance to travel in the UK, Sweden and Finland!
For details about Australia Day, visit this link:
http://www.australiaday.gov.au/pages/page3.asp
Oi…Oi…Oi… gooday mate!!!…no worries!!!
Looking back to my roots January 20, 2007
Posted by curioustan in My family.3 comments
This recent post is somewhat motivated by a website developed by a foreigner who happened to visit and live in my hometown, Sibuyan Island, Romblon, Republic of the Philippines. The website contains information written in a foreign language (either German, Dutch or even Danish, Im not sure), but it is not really difficult to browse and navigate the site and find something interesting about the island.
Sibuyan Island is the place where my grandparents decided to live more than 65 years ago. My grandfather originated from Kalibu, Aklan while my grandmother came from Manabo, Abra. Well love will always find its way and two of them met in Manila and eventually decided to settle down in Sibuyan since most of my grandpa’s relatives are already lived there for a while. That’s for my father’s side. On my mother’s side parents, both of them were already residing in the island, a barrio called Taclobo.
Growing up in the island was not easy but it was full of fun, challenges and hardworks, not only for my sibling but particularly for my parents. In my early age, I lived permanently with my father’s parents and during those times, I was able to learn on how my grandparents earned for a living. I had alot of fond memories with my grandpa during his morning work as ‘bangkero’ in catching fish using huge nets along the sea of Panangcalan. While my grandma finds her way to be a domestic wife looking up for my young uncles and aunties; and also she very good in making soft mattress using buri (palm) and pandan leaves.
Once in a while I visit my other grandparents and they were busy plowing, planting and harvesting rice! Especially during summer, I used to join my grandma to climb ‘duhat’ trees! It was really fun searching for sweet rounded purple fruit and my grandma always reminded me not to tell anyone where we could find them!
Sibuyan Island is always close to my heart, not because I was born and lived during my teens,but there is something special the island can offer not only to the people living there but to the rest of the world. I dont want to elaborate this, instead have time to watch this less 20 minutes presentations that Ive got from the website. Watching this video, provided me again a closer look of my hometown - its towering mountain, Mt Guiting-guiting, rivers, waterfalls, birds, beaches, caves, corals, mangroves and endangered species that could only be found in the island! Enjoy watching… welcome to my birthplace…
http://www.sibuyan.info/video/Videos/Sibuyan%20Englisch%20DSL.wmv
For the full details of these video productions, visit the following link:
http://www.sibuyan.info/video/video.htm
But on the other side, there is something fishy going on in the island - the illegal fishing! It is depressing environmental issue that the community is facing today. Watching this clips where the Mayor of San Fernando promoting the protection of Sibuyan’s marine life and forests, I was stunned how dynamite fishing is destroying the island main livelihood.
http://www.sibuyan.info/video/Videos/Doynamite%20DSL.wmv
http://www.sibuyan.info/video/Videos/Philippine%20Marine%20Life%20DSL.wmv
Two years ago, there was a proposal to put-up an open pit mining plant in the island which the community strongly opposed it. Fortunately, the project was under review and Im hoping that this will NOT be approved by the Philippine government. For details visit this site:
http://www.friendster.com/35010105
Maybe someday in my special way of sharing a little contribution back to the place where I was born, I will extend my simple way in protecting the island, where most of the Sibuyanons called it ‘HOME’.
Note: The videos featured here in my personal blog is solely owned by the website (http://www.sibuyan.info) and for details contact the owner with the following details:
Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Perschke
Am Eckland 4, 45481 Mülheim an der Ruhr
Telefon: +49 (208) 48 60 10 oder +49 (208) 466 90 90
Telefax: +49 (208) 48 60 11
E-Mail: stephan@perschke.de
towards REGENERATING my LIFE in 2007 January 19, 2007
Posted by curioustan in Life.add a comment
For the past 40 years of my existence, I did not train myself to have an annual list of New Year’s resolution. I don’t know why I was not expressive enough to come-up my own ‘pledge’ to do better things for the new year and do something ‘new’ that will improve my personality and outlook in life. Fortunately, even without this list, I could proudly say that I am happy and contented for what I have achieved in the past years.
As the saying goes, ‘Life begins at 40!’ So, literally I embarked the journey of life last year and rephrased that saying… ‘There’s better life after 40’. To maintain a simple life in a big family of 10 is not easy. Fortunately, I am successfully enough to have an ordinary living through the love and care of my parents which they raised me and my siblings to be responsible human beings.
REDISCOVERING my own self for 2007 is an initial step to ‘renew’ the invaluable bits and pieces that I have started last year which I grouped into four (4) facets of my human existence as discussed below. Not to forget them, I came up with an acronym: ‘Spimenemophy’ – which constitutes the first 3 letters from SPIritually, MENtally, EMOtionally, and PHYsically and this is a continuing process in the years to come.
***SPIRITUALLY. This is rediscovering my faith and beliefs in God – allowing myself to renew/revive my relationship with the Creator. Frankly, I am not a religious person, but I truly believe that everything that we have now is a gift from God and a way of acknowledging is to return it back to Him by community service. It is a daily struggle to sustain my faith but having a community that I could cling to is much a comfort. With my small prayer group in the university, it is an effective channel for me to bond/unite with others having the same spiritual need and at the same time to reach out with other students. I am not exempted to question our human existence - why there are pain, suffering, war, poverty, discrimination and inequality in the society nowadays. Despite these bad conditions, I am very optimistic that these difficulties and struggles are temporary, and whatever little improvement we have contributed in the present time is not in futile for the generation to come.
HAVING THIS, I THINK IT IS EASIER FOR ME TO ACHIEVE THE REST IN ‘REGENERATING’ MY MENTAL, EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL WELL BEING.
***MENTALLY. This is also a challenging undertaking to achieve by not allowing myself to feel idle, bore and lazy for the whole year. I am quite lucky to have the opportunity to go back to the university and do further research in the field of real estate development. I don’t have any plan before to pursue further studies after I completed my research program in Environmental Engineering in Australia back in 2004. But with the current demand for people who got higher graduate degree programs is attractive, I took the challenge in investing my time and talents to be more competitive professional two years from now.
Being a full time researcher, I need to have more patience and perseverance to be able to meet my deadlines with my supervisors. Honestly, I am currently engaged with a piece of research that I have little knowledge/background and applying a methodology which I have not done it before or no any idea at all. Well, I think that is a valid reason why I want to go back to school after working for almost 17 years. My ultimate goal at the later part of the year as the results of my research is to submit journal and conference papers and to be recognised my contribution in the body of knowledge.
Inspiration is the key factor in regenerating my mental abilities through my hobbies and extra job. Firstly by having the resources to acquire reading materials such as books and magazines are providing me the venue to sharpen my memory, comprehension; to think analytically, and to learn new skills and at the same to improve my writing skills. Secondly, being a member of Dooyoo, it is an effective way to express myself and share my experiences to others thru my reviews. I do hope that I could maintain the frequency reading of 1-2 books per month, and the time to post at least 1 review per week. To date, I can manage to post in the site an average of 5 reviews a month which is equivalent to 1 review per week! It is also my wish to increase my readership and ratings/comments to the rest of the members. So far, my rating speed is only 5-6 reviews per day in the span of 6 months membership (quite low). But believe it or not, my rating speed is higher than some of the respected senior members of Dooyoo (since 2000) which they have an average rating speed of approximately 4 per day.
Thirdly, prior to my registration with Dooyoo, I already created my personal blogs and keep a record of my thoughts (in my poems), insights, and invaluable experiences. Getting feedbacks/testimonials are the main motivations for me to maintain these journals and having new posts in the few months to come could somehow inspire more people to read them. Fourthly, I am still looking forward to getting more interesting photographs during my travels which offer me the chance to be ‘creative’ and to see things differently which is evident through the images taken from my digital camera. It is my ultimate goal this year to visit some exciting places in Europe and Africa. I will try to work it out during the school holiday period to prepare the necessary documents in securing ‘Shingen’ multiple entry visas.
Lastly but not the least is my part time teaching job at the university which gives me additional income. And I am looking forward to be offered extra hours as research demonstrators/tutors to keep my mind working and inspiring more young people to be responsible future engineers/managers.
***EMOTIONALLY. Honestly, I don’t have any difficulty in dealing with people. But I think it goes back to ‘moderation’ by not allowing myself to dwell too much with ‘socialising’ and other extra-curricular activities that will affect my focus in my research. Sometimes, it is tempting to accept invitation from friends to have parties at night or even weekend escapades. Sometimes I can handle those offers but I can not resist saying ‘no, thank you’. I am a very friendly person and I will always go out from my comfort zone to mingle with different people in my workplace or even outside my university circle. It also my nature to dwell on things that you need ‘emotional’ back-up like helping other students in their research, or a colleague that need a hand in searching for valuable reference materials in the library or in the internet. With my little contribution in the prayer group is also helps me feel the sense of ‘belongingness’ and fulfilment to take part in the spiritual growth of every member.
Having access to internet and other telecommunications, this year is quite a busy year in responding email and text messages from abroad especially from my family and friends back home, not to mention my correspondence with people who are valuable in my case study areas for my research.
***PHYSICALLY. This involves maintaining healthy and stress-free living. I am not an athletic person, but I maintain a simple healthy habit for the past years. There are four major things that I do to sustain my energy and stamina: walking, swimming and playing badminton, and having a balanced diet. Last year, I could probably maintain a once a week swimming, but this time I intend to do it at least twice a week especially during summer time. My main health problems are: I am quite receptive to colds due to the rapid change in weather, and my occasional stomach pain due to hyper acidity. I think it is only a matter of reminding me to drink plenty of water and fruit juices, and less of spicy foods (which is difficult to resist). I do hope that this year will offer more possibilities of doing mountain climbing and walking which also allow me to socialise with the rest of the members of community (church). Playing badminton is a little bit conditional in the sense that it is dependent to school terms, and it also falls on Tuesdays where I have the chance to avail the ‘crazy Tuesdays’ discounted movie offer (half price). Nevertheless, I will ensure that I will get sufficient rest and relaxation for the rest of the year (not much as the ‘pig’ does).
***OUTLOOK FOR THE YEAR OF THE PIG (RED)***
I do hope that being a Sagittarian and born in the year of Snake, this year will bring prosperity for my university research and spiritual being. I do believe that any person who has a strong determination to achieve something, at the end of the day he/she will be able to accomplished them with flying colours.
Based from the Chinese zodiac calendar, I will be lucky for this year for having a ‘fire’ element which does compatible for this year’s elements: water and wood. And at the same time, it is a ‘red’ pig so it is also related to the ‘fire’ element.
Regenerating spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically is not simple but it is achievable having a mind, heart and body that capable of doing little things differently for not only his/her own happiness/fulfilment but for the betterment of the community that he/she belong as a whole.
Time Line… January 6, 2007
Posted by curioustan in Poetic Mind.add a comment
This is another poem which I wrote early this morning. Sometimes, it is easy for me to write down my thoughts when Im inspired and looking back for the things that Ive accomplished for the past days. Well, it is something good for the start of the New Year… Time Line tells me my past, present and the future!
Yesterday is always be the past
While today is always be the present
And tomorrow is always be the future
Yesterday is the start of today
While today is the future’s beginning
And tomorrow is the end of today!
The day before today is the past
But the day after yesterday is the present
While the day ahead of today is the future
The past is the good place to visit
But the present is the better place to live
While the future is the best place to go!
