June 19th, 2008

"... wants to examine the Kiethstahl crystals..."

i looked up. "But she's an... outsider human isn't she?"

"it can be arranged"

it was said that when a Human enters the labs, something bad would happen. there was a slight feeling of deja-vu, and a few scenes flashed through my head. like a dream passing by, i couldn't remember the details, but i caught on to the overall impression. i saw something really bad.

we made it up the hill in single file, and stopped at the guard house, as the scruffy guards checked through the documentations once again. There were a few flashes of explosion off in the forested hills behind.

"skirmishes broke out on the border this morning." the guard mumbled gruffly, roughly pulling the documents about. as he waved his hands, my eyes were caught by the picture of her face on her form, her wispy blond hair and clear eyes a stark contrast to the squiggly blurred black lines of text.

i could almost hear it; either the guard's unspoken words, or the narrator of the story at hand: "this is a bad time to come."

i wasn't a psychic. i can't look into the future and i don't have visions. i'm a scientist, a researcher, and i need hard facts. and the facts were that today was the examination meeting for the Kiethstahls and its too late to call anything off. i'm just worried and thinking too much because of the old myth.

the labs were in underground caves, to keep the contents safe from the radiation outside. my interest was immediately aroused upon entering the first lecture room, a professor was on the floor, explaining the recent findings on the crystals. but our main focus was in the next room.

quieter and emptier, the laboratory had only seven others. 3 professors examining the crystals at the front, while 4 students sat in the audience rows, watching the examination being projected onto a screen.

les went to join the discussion at the forefront, while i watched on from the door. the crystals sparkled purple on the screen, a luscious purple, marked with little blots of impurities...

"...there are actually blood crystals inside the Kiethstahl..." one of the researchers said excitedly.

"What?" as the three of them huddled around excitedly i suddenly had that sense of deja vu again. the scenes replayed in my head, they were happening word for word-

"...and you can see the blood crystals are actually moving around... coagulating at the surface..."

the blood drained from my face "Get away from there Les-" i screamed just as the front erupted with a splatter of blood amidst the screams of the trio. the crystal was sucking in the blood, i could see the impurities expanding, such huge specks that now i could spot them with my naked eye all the way from the door.

the students watched on in terror, and i quickly screamed at them to leave and inform the next lecture hall. hustling them out the door, i turned to look at lester. he looked unharmed, but one couldn't miss the huge chunk of purple material embedded into his arm.

"i'll... have to quarantine you here."

"sure, i understand. leave me a list sheet so i can record my observations. you can send someone to pick it up from here when its safe."

he sounded positive and chipper, like a scientist happy to be there on ground zero to take notes where no one else could.

i wondered how much of his expressed happiness was false, an act just to give me peace of mind. his words sounded like "i'm going to die, aren't i?" to me.

i closed the heavy door. there was no way to lock it. but i knew him- if he had any control over the matter, he would never open that door, not unless he knew it was absolutely safe to do so. that fact pained me all the more.

i ran over his last words again. and it struck me that i'd not left anything for him at all. i had a sheaf of papers in my bag, and a pen. i wrestled with myself, but in a split second i made my decision, turned and made for the lecture hall.

the three students were still huddled in a corner, the lecturer was still continuing her lecture, the sample of crystals standing innocently in a petri dish behind her.

"Get away from the sample! ...in the next room... need to go up to let the officials know..."

But i knew the odds of surviving. War was going to start above ground, officials had likely known about the situation here and sealed off the labs. I saw the future, and the future was death. I was tempted to return back to where les was, at least to be together until the end.

But i am not a psychic. i'm a scientist, a researcher, and i will not give up without hard facts. and i had a responsibility to survive until the very end, to fulfil my duties of reporting the issue as a witness.

so with a dead but determined heart i trudged up the stairs... 

and i woke up feeling very very depressed, very very apologetic to les and wanting to meet up very very much (>_<)

even now, i still get depressed over my reaction to his last words (in the dream). i never make good decisions in a split second. =becomes depressed again=

a very long time after my previous post and promises... i post again!

sorry i'm late.. i'd been busy sending off resumes everyday (no, still no job)

well, the aussie trip started off in brisbane! june's fren, wally picked us up from the airport, and it was den that we realized that he was actually les' fren from school. talk abt a small world indeed.

we went straight to her house... which was really grand. the entire floor was carpetted with FUR! (furry carpet actually) FUR~~~! it was like a dream house to me. there was a balcony where one can see the small back-garden below, a small kitchen, a basement and garage, and high railings so u can slide under them to plonk onto the stairs below from the living room! and june's room was huge. it could accomodate 2 mattresses on the floor in addition to her bed, and all the mattresses were so soft and bouncy...

the first day was a complete waste for the boys as they slept the majority of it away. while the boys were snoring away, june brought me out to the park to collect pinecones and bully the turkey that always woke yl up in the morning. it was a quiet peaceful day full of good food (pizza from the uni and traditional viet's for dinner) and great hosts.

from the second day on we rented a car (with yl's help) and set off to movie world. the theme park was pretty small, and we sat on almost all the rides twice. at night we tried driving off to some beach down south. coincidentally we arrived at a night market there. we also got a first taste of how expensive it was eating in aussie; we had to walk our legs off to look for food that cost below AUD$5 (SGD6.50). in the end i settled on meat pies while zhao bought subway (THAT's cheaper than in sg). les crashed and burned and slept in the car while we walked around.

the very next day we followed up with a trip to dreamworld. we saw our very first koala bear there! the place was huge, especially compared to movieworld, and the rides were more thrilling. (-_-)

there was the tower of terror, something like our carlsberg tower in sentosa, only 2 times the height, and another ride which scales the same tower, but the car falls back backwards. i didn't dare get on either of them (note that i survived the reverse bungee and everything in movie world)

in the end les and i stuck to the milder rides, spent a lot of time in the wildlife world, and watched the IMAX while zhao ran off to try all the high-intensity rides. and we ended our last ride too late, so that we couldn't make it to our targetted sourvenir shops in time. (T_T)

however the dreamworld guys were smart and had a later closing shop near the entrance which sold the higher-demand goods and i got my koala bear stuffed toy from there. there was something else i wanted but wasn't on sale, but i can't remember what it was now. oh well, i mustn't had wanted it too much than =P

dinner was kebabs and chawanmushi cooked by shun... they were great...! *cries* it made me want to learn cooking too! (i forgot to copy the recipes from her)

on the last day les' sis joined us for the day. we tried going up glass house mountain, and were quite sorely disappointed coz... either we took a wrong route or there wasn't anything to see there.

then we tried going to a macadamia factory but despite directions from all around, we couldn't find it (>_<)

in the end we went straight to sunshine coast for the beaches, and it was worth every second! woo hoo! the sand was fine and white, the ocean was bluee~ and there was a staircase leading from the carpark down to the beach that looked just like the stairway to heaven. it was all wooden and dreamy... and i spotted this 3cm deep meandering surface stream running to the sea, and it had everything a river was supposed to have as according to the geography textbook! the finer deposits and higher banks at the bends, the cut of the water... i was ecstatic.

the evening ended shopping at queen's street and being treated by june to pancake manor. the pancakes were HUGE. gaaah, i don't have the photos!

and the night started.

we tried to drive les' sis back to her lodging at ipswich, this little town near brisbane. after pointing us down several turns, we finally reached the place and went in for a look-see.

the house looked eerie from the outside, tall and foreboding and dark. that seemed especially so after hearing her accounts of her eccentric landlady, who washes cooked rice with water, served vegetables with worms, and named all her dogs the same name.

but the inside was quaint enough, although the room names gave me a very weird vibe. in one wing was "autumn", "winter" and "spring", and in another was "north", "east" and "west" (okay i may get the names mixed up) but regardless, there's always one missing (-__-)

and after we left, we got lost for 2 hours trying to find our way back to the city. the GPS pointed us in wrong directions all the way; there was even once when it brought us through a toll station, through a u-turn, and through the toll station yet again (-___-)

in the end we decided to just ignore it and make our own way home based on the highway road signs. this made the GPS particularly irritating, as it kept insisting that we TURN! NOW! everytime we neared an exit. lol. seriously, technology can never replace humans.

and that's the end of the brisbane trip~! yl's name wasn't mentioned a lot, but he really saved us... giving us discounted tickets for the theme parks, driving us to the airport and to the rental agency, lending us the GPS...

in case you guys are reading this, thank you june, yl, lydia and sw for putting us up in brisbane and helping us get used to travelling in aussie! good luck for ur papers!