2017 Hello PhD

Its been 6 years since my last post!!

Im surprised to see the blog still exist...I always assumed it got closed for being inactive.

Since Google conquered the internet it seem...I get logged in automatically.

Anyway, what am I doing now?

I have embarked on a new journey...a PhD at the Australian National University, at least half of it.

To sum up, I left MEMC in 2013 to continue my Masters back at Adelaide Uni for a year in Petroleum Engineering. It was a brief one year coursework. It was good to be back in Adelaide but it was different, the people that I knew during my degree were not there and hence it was not the same Adelaide. My nenek also passed away in September 2013, hence, I went straight back to Malaysia on 25th November 2013 as my soul got crushed and I went mental. At least I spent Raya with her before she passed on.

As you may guess, I didn't get any job in the oil and gas industry as the oil price tanked starting 2014 from the high $100/barrel to almost $20/barrel in 2016. Its still bad in 2017 after 3 years.

As opportunities in the industry was not there, and me being me, not wanting to waste my degree and masters doing something weird like song MLM or work at a call center. decided to do a PhD in Geology after hooking up with my ex-supervisor Dr Ralp Kugler at University of Malaya who managed to get me into a dual degree program with the ANU. I will get into more details in my next blogs.


Currently I am in Canberra doing my second half of my PhD and currently waiting for my rock samples to arrive from Malaysia. Its been 3 months since I set foot in Canberra. I though Adelaide was kampung but Canberra is waaaay desolated. 300k population and with a lot of concrete buildings with character and personality and very little things to do for a PhD students with little money. Regardless, I am still grateful to be a student of Australia's no.1 university under a scholarship.

Its not a holiday and there has been problems with my PhD which have caused me to lose sleep at night and motivation. But I'm working to manage them and get a balanced life.

I am also writing this on the last day of Ramadan. I cooked  a Shan rice pilau biryani chicken to makr the last day of Ramadan which was excellent despite not following the instructions 100%. it was a good sign from above, hopefully I get to write something interesting in the coming days.

What has changed about me
-lost 20kg since started working out since September last year.
-Because I lost wright I can now wear clothes with size L..I can finally fit into Uniqlo clothes...
-Have a scuba diving license
-Dunno if it matters, but I have bough an Iphone 5S rather than inheriting old iphones from my mom. It was a on sale!

What hasn't changed
-Still have my Canon 1000D.
-Still Single..by choice
-Very erratic

What I want to do
-Scuba in the Great Barrier Reef...will go alone if I have to
-Travel more to Indonesia and Thailand since these countries have beautiful beaches, Have visited Tioman, Perhentian and Mabul last year...so running out of Malaysian destinations in my bucket list.
-I really need to visit my cousins in Swiss..and their beautiful country/

I will write some new posts once a while...as therapy. To whoever reading this and knows me, thanks for dropping by!!!