Infinite Miracles

We arrived at Perth after 4 hours flight. Once we've checked in, we went straight out for early dinner as all of us were starving like mad. Sadly, the city looked really dead on a Saturday night. We've walked for more than half an hour in the city still couldn't find a place to settle our dinner. So we ended up in a British pub. I nearly couldn't get in because of my look and I left my passport in my bag. Swt. But glad that the person still let me in. Lol.

Next day, I had bioinformatics workshop during the day with another friend at Murdoch University. The presenter was so so so good at explaining bioinformatics. Ahh... Our lives would have been so much better if we had this workshop at the start of Honours. After that, we headed back to the exhibition building to get ourselves registered.

This was my first time attending a conference and I didn't know what to expect, so I just observed as I go. There were many animal health companies had their booths set up throughout the conference. I was surprised when my friend told me there's a Malaysian booth too, so I went there and checked it out. It's set up by the Malaysian Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine (MSPTM). After a can't-go-longer-than-5-minutes chat with the person, all I got to know was they are organising a congress in KL and if I want to know more, I have to go to their website. I was like... err.... ok. @@"

My pretty lanyard. Glad that they printed my full name. If it's only 'Siew Loh' I would be so grumpy everytime I look at it. Lol.

The stage decorations were pretty awesome. Kudos to the designers!

Me with my bright red poster. The blue one beside belongs to my friend. We coincidentally have our posters next to each other. I didn't like this spot or this side of the foyer. There were lesser people passing by this area and the way they arranged the poster numbers and groups was very confusing. Many people had problems searching for a particular poster.You have to find the group first before you look for the poster number, and even locating the group was hard with just a small piece of paper with the group name stuck on a non-conspicuous spot on the board. Swt.

Love this tree kangaroo scratching his body. So cute!

I haven't seen a hyena before. So I must post this up. Lol.

We still managed to walk through half of the zoo and I'd think that Melbourne Zoo is much nicer than Perth Zoo, and bigger too I reckon.

More photos coming up and I shall leave them for the next post. =D

Jane and her red-haired sister. The two girls on the right, Alexis and Jade, are our Honours mates, but in they are in agriculture, and also Jane's housemates. They have a small vegetable garden in the yard. It's really a typical aggies' house. Lol. For your information, aggy is the short form for agricultural science students. Because saying 'agriculture' is way too long and tiring, so Aussies shorten it to just 'ag'. I find it very convenient too. Haha.

After gobbling up the whole pot of bak kut teh, we had to cancel our idea of having dessert. Glad that all of us went for second round. I was so surprised they've got rice bowls, saucers, Asian porcelain spoons, chopsticks and even chopstick holders! I don't think I'll ever need to use a chopstick holder in a house. Lol! So... since they've got saucers, I showed them how to eat bak kut teh with garlic mixed with soy sauce, and they absolutely loved it.

Alexis and Jade are actually twins, or two of the triplets, to be accurate. They showed me their pet rats. Look! So cute!

I let one of them run around my shoulders. It was so ticklish. They are actually more fun to play with than hamsters. Hamsters are too tiny and you can't squeeze them too hard.

It was an awesome dinner, cooked by me. Lol. And I don't have to worry about storing that big pot of soup, which is always the problem when I eat it alone. Now I know, bak kut teh can be anyone's all time favorite. =D

Countryside scenery. The river would come in handy during summer.

A picture of me 'driving' a tractor. Inside is so cool with all the different controls. Feels like if I click a button, it will become a transformer.

Even the tyre is taller than me.

I was so fascinated by everything, even a fireplace. Jane laughed when she saw how attracted I was to the fireplace. Though it's not as big as those chimneys where santa clause can slide down from the roof, it's still the first fireplace I saw in a house. Glad I took this chance to explore a typical Aussie countryside. =D

That's Jane (left) collecting faecal sample from the cow's bump and Tim (right) drenching the cow at the front. Both of them are working on drug resistance, so they often travel to farms to collect samples.

After being forced to swallow a not-so-tasty medicine and feeling ticklish at the asshole at the same time, most calves tried to cough out that medicine once they were released. Just like dogs. Haha.

Jane's first attempt on drenching a smaller calve. It is not an easy task at all. Calves this size already have strength like a mini Incredible Hulk. So it's definitely a guy's job to do the drenching. But she still managed to drench a few tamer ones. Haha. Every calve has its own personality.

How they looked like after drenching.

After sitting, watching and recording data for the whole day, I finally gave it a go on the last few ones. Felt totally awkward to stick my cold fingers into the cow's anus for the first time. It's actually much better than what I've expected. I thought I would have to stuff my whole hand in. Lol! But what you do is just put your index and middle fingers in and tickle the spine. This will make its intestine to contract, and then the poo will come out for you to catch it. Sounds fun right! XD

At the end of the day, we herded the calves back to their paddock in a car. Didn't know you can herd the cows with a car. Lol. By the way, seeing calves galloping and chasing each other was so enjoyable. A city girl like me will always be fascinated by all these sights.

And they say "you are never a qualified parasitologist if you never stuck your hand into a cow's bump before". Well, you can't use that statement on me now. I've already passed it. Haha.