A trip to Canberra

Life in Sydney is a little bit boring, usually I don’t hang out late in weekdays, because we have to get up early next day. Some of my friends even sleep at 10:00 pm here while they usually sleep at 2am in HK.

So I really look forward to weekends, that we have time to explore this city deeply. Visiting museums or going to Sunday markets are also the good choice. Or you can plan a trip outside city.


A few weeks ago, we went to the capital city, Canberra. Unlike Sydney and Melbourne, Canberra does not carry long history background, so not many people would know this city very well.

Why Canberra to be the capital city? There is a little story I heard from my colleague. When Australia had to set up her capital city, New South Wales and Victoria competed to be the capital state strongly, most of the people could not decide which state is better, finally they chose a place between NSW and Victoria, that’s Canberra.

Canberra is a quite city with lovely sunshine, shining silver trees, low-rise house and hundreds of pigeons, most people who live in Canberra are working for the federal government, you can see beautiful new and old parliament houses in Canberra. Unluckily, we did not come in their sitting period, so we can’t see people debating in the chambers.

But instead we met a young British girl in our youth hostel, she has travelled four months from Britain, Africa to Australia, we all felt excited about her journey, how she lived in the middle of Africa. We even teach her to play Chinese card game. That’s a happy cold night in Canberra, but fulfilled with our laughing in the house.

Who looks similar to you?

Has it happened to you? When you firstly meet some new friends, even at the first glance, they are going to tell you ‘oh, you really look alike my friend, xxx..’

Usually I wonder ‘how much do we look alike? ’ ‘Well, you two just like the missing twins!’ they continue to say. ‘ha ha’ what the only thing I can do is laughing. I don’t mind looking similar to your friends, but later they continue to tell me ‘I don’t like her (the one looks similar to me), because…’
Frankly speaking, I don’t wish to know another Me’ s fault, and it’s not fair to apply them to me. I wonder if there are many people look like you, how can people remember which one is the correct ‘Me’, or what do I leave in your mind? A strong personality would help, perhaps.

Risk or safe?

In fact, life in Sydney is quite boring, everyday get up at 7:45 am, then rush to office, usually my colleagues give me lots of work, so I have to stay late to finish my daily stuff. When I arrive home, I have to cook and wash, watch TV, then go to bed, sometimes I have to bring my typing to work at home.

Once I asked my colleague, Leslie ‘I want some excitement in Sydney, can you suggest some places to me to go? ’. Leslie was a flight-attendance in the past ten years, she has been to lots of countries, and I though I chose the right person. ‘Oh, frankly speaking, if you want some excitement, you have to put you in the risk, more dangerousness you get, higher emotion you can reach.’ ‘But you can’t find lots of dangerousness in OZ, that’s why I choose to live here! I like safe and peace’

I don’t know, perhaps our thought would be change frequently according to our age, we dream to have an unusual life in teenagers, but maybe some day, when we grow up, we are satisfied with everyday’s stable work. Then we are all used to be the bored people. Somebody would say it is the true of our life, I am not going to argue with you, but I really want to know how can I escape from this kind of truth.

Working with politicians

Being an internship student in Parliament House is not an easy work, I work with Dr. Gordon Moyes, a member of the legislative council in Sydney. He used to be a member of the Christian Democratic Party, but he had divorced with the party just a month ago before I arrived. Then they have to move to a temporary office, where I don’t have my own computer, and even a desk. Luckily I have brought my own laptop with me, and use a small table for typing.

Most of the legislators would hire two staff, one is the speech writer, and the other would be the secretary. My job duties, of course, would be an assistant with their large workload, so I have to pick up all mails for Dr. Gordon Moyes, post mails, filling, type books, maintain Dr. Moyes’ website, greet guests in some functions as well as sit in the chamber to hear what they are debating for the bills (that’s cool for me!). I enjoy sitting in the chamber, then I can recognize most of the faces of Sydney’s political leaders, how their legislative system operate, how the government deal with the opposite parties. Once I heard the opposition say “excellent rubbish!” to describe the treasury minister during debating, I can’t help to bursting into laughing, you just imagine there is another ‘long hair’ sitting the chamber and biting with the governors, isn’t it funny to watch?

And my supervisor is a very strong and talent young lady, she is graduated from University of Sydney, the Political and Economic major, she can handle lots of things at the same time, surely have to work under high pressure. She is also the speech writer for Gordon, that means she has to catch up the latest news quickly and analyze them deeply. At the first week here, Maria (my supervisor) told me to speak loudly, to be tough and confident! Although I don’t think my voice is too soft, I respect all the advice she gives me. My another colleague, Leslie, is a gentle and elegant lady, she speaks slowly and softly, that’s why I love her so much. It’s easier for me to pick up Leslie’s words rather than Maria’s. But the one I love most in office is our legislator, Dr. Gordon Moyes, a wise old man who talks Bible stories with me a lot. He is very busy, but he still remembered to bring me some postcards from his far way home.

I love working in the Parliament House, although I am always very busy, and have to stay late. The only inconvenience is lack of time for my own writing……

Rainbow outside the plane

Haven’t uploaded my lovely blogger for a month, life without writing makes me empty, it’s better to write more about my journey in Australia.

I flied to Sydney on 16th June, that’s my b-day. To me, the perfect time to escape from Hong Kong is my birthday, it’s not because I don’t like Hong Kong. Instead I love it so much! But I wanna make my birthday especial and memorable.

This summer I would stay in Australia for 2 months, and have an internship in the Parliament House of Sydney, a historical building with lots of art works, you know I love art! So you can imagine how I love this workplace!

On the flight to Sydney I saw a huge rainbow in front of me, that’s amazing! We even flied over it. The first time I saw a rainbow on aeroplane, then I know that, I must have a great journey.

HeyJune

蠔排@西部通道

我有一個酒鬼細佬!

new born baby

正呀!

印度皇后

Illusion

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在等待的過程中，我顯得很缺乏耐性。

一年以後

跟好朋友們玩了一個小遊戲，找來了我們遺下多時的畫板與顏料，畫上最能代表自己的圖案。看到大家的畫工，我們都不禁自嘲大家都是滿有童真的。顏料不夠，原來打算畫的紅唇唯有變作橙唇，眼睛的黑色用原子筆代替。然後分發每人信紙信封，給一年後的自己以及對方寫信。寫好了，連帶剛才畫的小畫板一併抽籤交換保存。相約一年之後，看看彼此的變化。


不是第一次發現快樂並不在乎遊戲的本身，看你遇上什麼樣的人。選擇在某個時候玩曾經玩過的遊戲，時間付予我們一份意義。一個階段的過去，明天將會如何，我們有著大概的期盼，然而每當提及的時候又覺得有點模糊。 即使再模糊，與一年後的自己對話，好讓這一刻的千絲萬縷被記下。

2009.6.3


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我是無法想像竟然有內地的同學說六四中沒有人命的傷忘。

我以後唔會唔記得帶相機!(罰自己寫十次)