Has anybody ever seen this kind of funeral?

It happened in Taiwan yesterday (May 29). Gangster funeral (BBC News) Gangster funeral (Taipeitimes) Gangster's funeral...It sounds quite odd eh...

Anybody pick up the telephone, please~~~?

Suppose that one of my old friends - Guojun (I guess Robert might be his English name...well, I just guess from his Email) - must have finished from his military duty in Taiwan in the end of May, I tried to telephoned him today. We used to be working in the same laboratory when we're studying in graduate school, and we haven't contacted since my graduation, that is, more than 2.5 years. He's such a hard-working guy that I really admire him. He knows many techeniques; for instance, he taught me how to make a "paper-made micro spatula" and I still remember how convenient it was. We usually talk about our experiments and exchange experiences as well as results each other. Unfortunately, for some reasons he didn't have a good life during his grduate school days (neither did I though), and thus got stomach ulcer. Riiiiiiing~~~~ Riiiiiiiiiing~~~~... Nobody answers. I tried many times but it eventually comes out with either no-answer or engagement. I'm sure he hasn't moved as I just sent him card several months ago and he replied me. Mmm...It's odd. I'll try several days later.

Many staffs (and friends) left

I just couldn't believe my ears when Katherine told me that many staffs had left the LI. This afternoon I went to Katherine's office for sorting something out. On the monitor besides us, there was a mail-list with a familiar name on it - Claire Ngwira(?). Claire is my first teacher in the LI when I just came to New Zealand. She is so tall that it could be her trademark. I saw her several months ago but somehow she didn't show up recently. Actually I've wondered for a while why I haven't seen some teachers as well as staffs for a long time. "Is Claire still in this LI?" I asked Katherine. The answer was quite disappointing - she'd left. Not only Claire but many other staffs - Arizio, Colleen, Meg, Deb, Diane and Nancy - have also left. No wonder I coudn't find them either in the LI main building or in the LAIN building in the campus. (Well...actually Deb, as a photographer, showed up in LAIN building 2-3 weeks ago. Diane - now working as a writer - also came to the resource centre several months ago). I can see Katherine was also annoyed with the fact that many of her good friends had left.

Any body wanna eat the spread?

Well, this spread is not that special, except that it's been licked before breakfast by the naughty cat - Charlie (yes, this naughty baby again). Certainly I didn't eat that for breakfast as it made me sick. I know cats would eat everything such as fish, meat, pork, bones and etc., but I never imagined that they'd also eat spread!

The result of "the IELTS accident"

After lunch, Bill asked me if I could meet Mark after 16:00. I said yes. Somehow, Bill looked at me hesitately before asking me. I could see what that would be about. It was 10 to 16:00 when I arrived at LI and Mark was busy, so I had a short chat with Carol (Carol Tebutt, namely Carol the boss) who was in Christina's office (Carol was doing Christina's task because she'd got a broken arm and was unavailable for a while). It didn't last too long as Mark came to me. I was right - Mark was going to talk about the IELTS. At first he asked me as if I had a good weekend. I have to say it was not that good due to the big accident. Then we talked about what had happened last Saturday. Actually I realize that he wanted to help me but absolutely could do nothing about it, so I wasn't that agitated these days. "By the way, you have applied for the fast-result, haven't you?""Yes. So I'll get it this friday...!?" No sooner than finishing my words had I been stunned. Mark took out an envelope and placed it in front of me. It shouldn't be that fast...? "Riiiing~~~~!!" The telephone rang, and Mark picked it up. I thought it was Mark's official business, but soon I realized that I was wrong. "Oh, hi! Yes, he's arrived here right now. Yes, he looks okay. All right, call me 10 miniutes later." Obviously it's from Bill, and no wonder he looked at me in that way when he asked me at lunch time. With Mark's permission, I opened the envelope. Before I exactly saw the marks, my prediction came up to my mind again: speaking= 7, listening=6 or 6.5, reading=6.5 or 7, writing=?? (task1=??, task2=6 ); that is, "to pass or to fail" definitely depends on writing. After I exactly saw the score, I was stunned again. I got 6 in the writing, and also the other 3 parts went approximately the same way as I'd predicted. In other words, I get 6.5 for overall band !! How could it be since I'd failed task1!? According to Mark, I got 5 in task1 and 7 (!) in task2 which worth more than the forth. Now I'm sure I should have got 7 for overall if I hadn't gone to the toilet and had finished task1; but any way, I'm satisfied since I finally make it after 4 times of challenges. I would say thank you to those who have tought me and treated me kindly, including Arizio, Bill, Carol(s), Claire, Colleen, George, Katherine(s), Kylie(s), Mark and Meg. I would especially appreciate Katherine as I shouldn't have passed this time if there weren't her class as well as her advices on introduction and conclusion. (Yes, you're right, Ketherine. It really works well!)

Dialup => Broadband

Having had enough on the slow and automate-cut-off dial up line, the Turners decide to switch onto the broadband (256k). Compared with dial-up, this is much faster. Although it's still slower than the normal broadband (such as 512k/64k and upwards) and also there's packet flow limiting quota (1GB/month...that is, around 100MB for each person since all of us are using Internet), it's still better than nothing. At least we won't have to be annoyed by the automated turn-off and never-ending-redials.

Shockingly big mistake (accident) during the IELTS !!!!!

I really really shouldn't have done that!! Before the test, I was quite confident that I could pass IELTS (Band 6.5) this time. Actually in several self-practice of reading task, I was able to find out the answers of 2 out of 3 tasks' question within 15 minutes. This is my best record. I was sure that the abilities teachers had taught (and trained) me would help me make it. The first test is, as usual, speaking. The examiner was Ellizabeth. Actually I had known her before that, but had never spoken with her. The questions were not that difficult this time (compared with those of my last exam). After the speaking test, although I personally felt that there're some vulnerebilities in my answers, I estimated that it should be 6 or more. The listening part is my Achilles heel. Although I didn't do too bad in my self-test, I still had to be careful on it. Task1, task2, and task3. Not too bad. However, I got stuck in task4. I couldn't see what and where the tapescript was talking about even though I'd skimmed the whole questions before the tapescript started, thus I could just guess and fill in the gaps. I guessed it'd be 6. The reading test has always been a big puzzle game. The heading and True/False/NotGiven questions are usually time consuming (especially T/F/NG one). Some questions were even asking about the structures of aeroplane and I once thought I'd just guess. Fortunately I got some time after answering (and guessing) the whole questions, so I just looked at those strange "structure" questions and tried if I could dig out some answers of them. Indeed, I found some, and thus corrected the answers. No sooner than I just finished correcting the last word had the examiner told us stop writing! Whew... Maybe 6.5 or 7, I suppose. The last part - writing test - was where I had the most confidence of the four parts, and I knew I shouldn't miss it. I tried to calm myself down (I had been in "high tension" due to rescuing the last reading questions at the moment) and also keep myself aware of the following writing tasks. Mark (one of the examiners) said we could go to the toilet if we want (certainly he'd follow us). Unfortunately, I was the one that would like to go to the toilet. I knew I shouldn't waste too much time on it, so I raised my hand and dashed to the toilet with Mark after reading the writing questions. Somehow, I felt I had stayed in the toilet for quite a long time, and I wasn't quite sure how long I had spent on it. So when I finished task2, I asked Mark "do I still have to finish my writing by 16:03? Or do I get extra time on my writing?" Mark didn't say anything but just show me the timer which showed "10:26". What came to my mind was that "I have spent 10 minutes and 26 secends in the toilet, so I have that more time than the others". I didn't (also couldn't) think too much about Mark's meaning because I was totally thinking about the content of my writing task1 at that point, So I wrote the task with the normal (or maybe somewhat slow) speed. Then you may imagine what happen next. Just as I had wrote the 2nd (or 3rd) line on the 2nd page, the timer alarmed and Mark took our answer sheets away, including mine! At first I didn't realize what on earth happened and even thought that Mark might had forgotten how many minutes I still have. Mark told me that I had EXACTLY THE SAME TIME as the other candidates and the "10:26" meant the time we (including me) still had. I was so shocked and stunned for a while at the seat. I was thinking, "why is that !? Is that mean I have to take another IELTS exam 3 months later? What should I do?" Knowing what had happened to me, Mark explained and analyzed the situation: "You still have the chance. The writing test actually largely depends on task2". I certainly know that (because task2 worths twice as much as task1 does). That is, if I did well in task2, I still have a chance to get 6 for the writing even though I didn't finish task1; otherwise there's no chance if I didn't do well in task2 even though I had finished task1. "Did you finish task2?" I did. I wrote 1.5 pages so I suppose there're about 300 words. "How far have you gone in task1?" 1 page and 2-3 lines. But I was just finish writing the topic sentence of the 2nd part of the graph. Roughly 120 words. I was sure that I'd been doing well on the structure, vacab and variation, but I didn't know how it would be assessed if the task wasn't completed, so I guess...3 or 4? "Do you think you've done well in task2?" Could be. I was quite sure I could get 6 in task2 (at least from vacabulary, variation and structure's viewpoint). However, as long as I didn't have the time of checking my grammar, I wasn't really sure if I could approach 7. In other words, "to pass the IELTS or not" really depends on how I did well in task2, and the probability of the result...I suppose 50 and 50? "Then don't worry too much.Don't think too much during the weekend." I would. "But you can do nothing about it now, except waiting." ...I have to say it's true. So, I came home with regretful mind. As I had applied the fast-result, I'll get my mark on the next Friday. ...I really really shouldn't have been to the toilet and also shouldn't have misunderstood what Mark meant !! Otherwise I am quite sure I can get 7 for overall !!! How shocking !!!! What an idiot I am !!!!!

IELTS

Today is IELTS day. Hope I'll pass it this time. Wish me luck!

The new comer and his first day in NZ.

All right. From now on, we've got one more member in the Turner's. As usual, I was waiting the Turner's in the Kmart from 16:00. Finally they showed up with the new comer - Yuuki - at nearly 16:45 (again, as usual). They had been in K-mart and bought a Chitel card (international telephone card) for Yuuki. He comes from Japan and is going to stay in New Zealand for 1 year. As he's been 18 years old, I suppose he's a junior high school (or high school) student. And actually, he said he'd graduate from his high school the next year. That means he should more or less be able to speak English; although there might be some problem with getting accustomed to NZers' special accent at first (I hope I'm right). Having a short introduction (really short; only 2-3 sentences), we went to the central library to apply for Yuuki's library card. After that, we had a dinner at KFC. Unfortunately, there was an argument just when we were walking out the KFC after the meal (mind you, I heard F-word). Not to mention, he was so tired (long time flying and also the jetlag) that he hit the sack right after arriving at home.

Happy "Black Friday" !!

I didn't notice that today is Friday the 13th. Many people believe that it's a bad day, but I don't. In fact, nothing bad has happened by far today. By the way, I'm a bit wondering why "the bus accident" (see my May 10th's diary) happened on Tuesday but not today.

A new comer.

Marivic told me that there will be another homestay student from Japan, and he'll arrive here on this Friday. That means, we'll have one more member from Friday. England + Phillipine + Taiwan + Japan + Animal (?). Mmm...what an international family.

Not a good start of the day.

It has been common knowledge to foreigners that NZ is a safe country. Unfortunately, now I know that it might be not. This morning I got on the bus (7:20 am) to school as usual. The bus stopped at a bus stop, had picked up the customers of the stop and was going to move away (at this point I was reading my book). Suddenly there was a big bang from the other side of the bus. BANG! BANG!! Someone was hitting the window pane violently from the outside. Nobody knew what on earth happened. The third time was so violent that the windowpane was broken! Some glass fragments spreaded out toward us and, needless to say, all of us cried out, "WHAAAAAaaaaaa!!" Lest there should be more trouble with us, the driver accelerated the bus away from the crazy guy. Even at the next bus stop, the driver noticed that the guy was coming toward us and thus just told those new customers, "just get on the bus and don't pay the busfare now please! Hurry up! There's a crazy man following us." Also those who had sit near the broken window warned the new customers not to get too close to the window (and the seats since there'd been some fragments on the seats). Having moved about 2-3 bus stops and also assured that the man didn't follow up, the driver told the customers that they could pay the bus fare now. Whew... Arrive at the transport centre, the driver told a "worker" (or administrater? or might be his boss??) what had happened to us, and the "worker" telephoned somebody else (might be police or the bus company) about the accident. We could see from outside that the window pane was badly dented. I'm not sure what happened after that. What I'm sure now is that NZ is not necessarily as safe as what I've thought.

Opera 8 downloads over 2 million

Just 2 weeks after Opera 8 was released, its download number has exceeded 2 million by now. Rock! Keep going Opera. BTW, according to the "swim" page and Opera CEO Chat, it looks like that Jon (the CEO of Opera) isn't going to take the transatlantic swim into action (at least not in the near future). Well, it's somewhat a pity since I'd been enjoying his journey...