The NZ Journals #3 - Games Meet

It is a well know fact that I love video games. So what could be even more interesting than being a gaming hermit in my room? Why, playing with a bunch of friends of course!

5 people = 5 times the fun

Every now and then people would come over and spend some time playing games with me. It doesn't happen all that often, which is too bad, considering how I really enjoyed those moments. It's not always the same bunch but there are some regular faces such as Daichi and Fifi. Then theres those times where I would play with my three housemates but even that is pretty rare. The time I spent most playing with another person is either when I'm playing Halo 3 with my war buddy Kurt or when I'm duking it out 1 on 1 in Dead or Alive 4 with my equally-good-at-games friend Daichi. Fun times indeed.

The Adventures of the Torrens pt 4 - Cleaning Up the Closet

Last time on the Adventures of the Torrens, the all of Blue Team members has assembled for one final showdown with their arch-nemesis, the Evil Red Team.


If the fight is decided from how cool their outfits looks, the Red Team would have easily won. Fortunately, war isn't a beauty contest.


It doesn't take too long to realize that the other members of the Blue Team are more useless than they seem. One might wonder was it worth it to even save them in the first place.


Luckily the captain is alone is enought to take care of business.


The Red Team put on a tough fight but as soon as they realized that their chance of survival was slim, they quickly ran with their tail between their legs.


With memories of the past haunting him, evil thoughts sprang to his mind. What will happen? Find out in the concluding chapter of the Adventures of the Torrens!

The NZ journals #2 - the weather

It's impossible to describe Wellington without mentioning about the bizzare weather here. The name, 'Windy Wellington' describes it all. It doesn't really matter what time of year it is, the wind here will blow you away, but I guess its something you have to experience yourself to comprehend what I am talking about. At one time, I had to hold on to a pole just to avoid myself from being pushed away. In fact, when the wind is blowing at full force from the front, you might not even be able to breath cos your chest is being pushed inwards. For those of you who have and is thinking, "hah, you say that kind of wind is strong?!" All I have to say is apparently you haven't been here long enough to truly feel the wrath of the wind around here. Sometimes when its blowing strong enough you can even here the 'howling' of the wind. Believe me, the sound can be scary at times. Especially when you are alone in the dark in your room.

Rain is pretty frequent here in Welli. I like the rain here because sometimes, the rain drops are so soft that you will hardly get wet even if you're walking in the rain. I did say sometimes though so don't blame me when you try this and find yourself soaking wet. The rain+the wind can usually add up to a very chilly day. Using the umbrella is not a very good idea in Welli unless you want it to fly away or at least end up broken. I HAVE seen some people using it but only very few rare instances. Despite my great intrigue to know what ever happened to them, I simply didn't have to time to follow them and see if their umbrella came to any harm.

Okay! That wraps up this edition of the NZ journals. More coming soon

Can you figure out these riddles?

On my last day of school experience, one of the staffs handed out a piece of paper with the following pictures on it just for fun. I really enjoyed it and so I wanted to share it with others as well. Here's a tip, its not too hard really. You can check for the answers below each picture but I highly recommend trying for yourself before you do so. Have fun :)

answer : seven seas (easy right)




answer : forgive and forget

answer : missing you (TRIMAS KAT ALI G)


answer : uptown


answer : see through blouse (bet you couldn't figure tht out :p)



answer : first aid (all too easy)


answer : west indies (okay, this requires a bit background knowledge so I won't blame you even if you don't know)

answer : six feet under (I think you're starting to get the hang of things by now)


answer : glance behind



answer : tricycle (this one's pretty obvious no)


answer : reading between the lines



answer : crossroads (another easy one)



answer : below zero degrees (come on, you know you're starting to see the pattern now)


answer : neon lights (clever! I like this one)


answer : just between you and me


answer : one in a million


answer : broken promise


answer : touchdown


answer : life starts at 40


answer : jack in a box (easy no)


answer : growing economy (this one's a tough one, the only one of the few I couldnt figure out for myself)


answer : apple pie (one of my favs. i hated maths and totally forgot what those numbers mean :p)

answer : standing ovation (not too bad is it)

answer : making up for lost time (hohoho)

answer : i understand you undertake to undermine my undertaking (the toughest in my opinion. never saw that coming)

So there we have it. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed doing and making them myself (^_^)

The NZ journals #1 - Wellington City

I can hardly believe I've almost finished my 2 year study here in NZ. Academic wise, all thats left for me to do is the final school experience tomorrow, a final exam next thursday and a debriefing shortly after. The days that I'm going to spend here are numbered. In but just 5 weeks, the time will come for me to leave NZ for good. This series of blog entries will be about my stay here for the last 2 years (almost), what I liked about NZ, what I don't like about NZ, and everything in between. That's going to cover a lot of grounds, thus the episodic contents. bear with me people

Wellington city, overlooking the ocean

This first entry will be about Wellington City. Stayed here for a pretty long time I did that I can't help but to like it.

our house is somewhere near that tower in the middle

I'm not actually the kind of guy who likes sight-seeing, so even though I've been here for a long time, there still a large portion of this city that I haven't seen. If I were to write about the whole city, this entry would be endless so here's just some things that I think is interesting about Wellington. I'll let my lovely lady friend do the honour of presenting them (^_^)

soya presents...Cuba St.

Cuba is the shopping district in Wellington CBD. For a mall, its not really awesome to be honest, but I like the lively atmosphere always present there. From time to time you get random people performing even more random acts, from street musicians to the weekly hare krishna march, theres a lot to see in Cuba St. Cuba St. also happens to be the street where my fav shop in Weli is located. Pick a guess, (hint: its somewhere in the picture)

soya presents...te papa national museum

The te papa (lit : our place) national museum is one of the very 1st places that I visited in Weli because we were invited to watch the play 'taming of the shrew' on our second day (or was I third..) of our arrival. Ever since, I've been here for 2 or 3 more times. Like any good museum, the exhibitions changes from time to time and at one time, the museum hosted a Lord of the Rings exhibition which was pretty cool. If you aren't already a fan of museums, this place won't win you over but its worth a look at least once.

back to the future, anyone?

One of the more unique thing about Welli lies at the transportation system. Looking at the picture above, you can see all those cables hanging above road used to power buses. I'm pretty sure they have a similar thing elsewhere but current;y, Weli is the only place I know that use the cable buses. Theres one quirk about the cable-powered buses though - should there be another bus in front of the bus you are riding, there just no way of getting through. On a side note, the cables always remind me of back to the future. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just forget about it.

That's all for today. More entries coming up before I leave this country.

p/s: too busy with school to do the next ch. of the Adventures of the Torrens this week, but maybe at the end of the week...just maybe.

the adventures of the torrens pt. 3 - the journey home

Last time, the Torrens learnt of the Evil Red Team's evil scheme to assault their base. Fearing for the safety of their belongings...er...their comrades, they made haste to the base.

Driving lesson 101 - no matter how in much in a rush you are, safety always comes first. Think about your loved ones.

The road home was a bumpy one, but the captains driving was top notch. They managed to get back to base with everything intact....almost everything.

As they entered the base, they encountered an enemy patrolman. They knew they had to finish this one before he had the chance to call for reinforcments.

Despite not being able to drive, he later figured out that he could just as easily save them on foot, and so he did.

Finally, the team is once again complete. Will they be able to rid the base of the Red Team and save the world? Find out next time.

to be continued again....

credits : this chapter features special guest; ah seng

The Adventures of the Torrens pt. 2 - Payback

Last time, the Torrens Team, Earth's last line of defense againts the Evil Red Team got their ass kicked at the snowy battlefield of Snowbound. This time, they have come once again to set things right. However, something seems amiss for our team....

Even without the rest of the team to watch their back, they tread carefully into enemy territory. In their espionage mission, they also encountered the Ghost (that vehicle thing) which, needless to say, evokes some not-so-pleasant memory...

Operating as a 2-man-team, they had to be even more cautious than ever were.

No matter how cautious you are, it won't mean a thing if you are not ready.

Fortunately for the our heroes, their opponent seems to forgot about that basic rule of combat as well. War doesn't take too kindly for those who aren't ready for it.

Just before finishing off their opponent, he was stupid enough to reveal something sinister...

What a sudden turn of events. Will the Torrens be able to head back to base in time? What of fates of the other 2 rookies who are currently at the base?

To be continued.....(maybe)

I am loving Halo 3

October 2nd, 2200 hours. The Blue Team (callsign: The Torrens) reported for duty in an attempt to thwart the evil Red Team in their effort of world domination. Armed with nothing but our trusty assault rifles and wits, we head to the battlefield.

War is not won by brute force alone. Tactical considerations were imperative to ensure the success of our mission.

However, not everything goes as planned all the time. It also doesn't help that there wasn't a plan to begin with...

Things were looking grim for our platoon but we persevered. In the thick of things, one of our adversaries managed to secure himself a ride. That sneaky little devil!

We were quickly overwhelmed by our enemies' newfound weapon of mass murder.

Clocking at 4.55 minutes, the madness ended quicker than you can make yourself a cup of coffee.

At the end of the battle, we tallied our casualty report. As you might see from the pic above, our squad (blue) was brutally massacred with a 50-13 defeat. In layman's term - we are t3h lamerz. We may have lost the fight, but at least we gained valuable experience (trying to be positve here). Looks like its back to boot camp for the Blue Team

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