Uni Notices

Last year, someone actually drove a car into the wall of the exam hall, just to disrupt and postpone their exam. Exam week has just passed, and interestingly, the number of bomb-threats apparently increases in the uni around that time of the year. The things people would do to avoid an exam... :) So, the uni sent out this note to all the school offices and labs :

Phone Threat Check List
Remember : Keep Calm. Don?t hang up your telephone. Treat as genuine.

Ask the following questions :
- What is it?
- When is the bomb going to explode? OR When will the substance be released?
- Where did you put it?
- What does it look like?
- When did you put it there?
- How will the bomb explode?
OR How will the substance be released?
- Did you put it there?
- Why did you put it there?

Write down exact wording of threat.
Do not duscuss the threat with other staff
Report call to Chief Warden/Warden/Manager
Follow their instructions
---

Erm... right. If someone wanted to make such a call, do you think they'd answer all those questions? Not likely. And if they did, they'd probably answer it like this...

What is it? It's a bomb
When is the bomb going to explode? Soon
Where did you put it? [name of place]
What does it look like? A bomb?
When did you put it there? [time/day]
How will the bomb explode? It will go 'Boom' ?
Did you put it there? Yes?
Why did you put it there? You might as well ask what their name is, where they are, and how you can find them... Or start a counselling session with them if you're a psychology lecturer...

Fortunately, I don't have any exams, but didn't want to put up this entry earlier, 'cos if anyone left a message similar to this during the exam period, I could get myself into trouble... :) Don't want to give anyone any strange ideas :)

Okay, and I know that bomb threats are a serious matter, so we'll have our laugh here, take note of the advice (it's still useful, that note is now pasted next to the lab phone), keep an eye (and ear) out, and life goes on...



On another note, we received an email from the Biology office on Friday :

Re : Building Isolation for Abestos Removal
The builder wishes to carry out abestos removal THIS SUNDAY.
This means the building will be completely closed from 6.30 am to 6.00 pm.
---

Okay, didn't have any problems with avoiding the labs on Sunday. Gives me an excuse not to come in on the weekend. But the thing that struck me was...

There's abestos in the building ??
Isn't that stuff carcinogenic (cancer-causing) ?!

What ?!

My Fall Comes Before My Drive

Of all the clever things to do last Saturday, I tripped on some stairs, fell, and sprained my right foot on the way back from the townhouses. One week before I was scheduled to take my driving test. You need to press the accelerator and brake with the right foot, so I panicked, how to take the driving test with a sprained foot??

Fortunately, it was not a major sprain, and the foot wasn't very swollen. I'm not a very good patient (I know, I know... :) and in spite of the pain, continued to hobble and limp about, in-between trying to remain chair-bound for the rest of the day. The next day (last Sunday), my foot still hurt in the morning when I limped. However, the pain slowly subsided, and by evening, I could walk about slowly with an occasional slight limp. Not too bad. On Monday, the pain had all but disappeared, except for a slight twinge every time I walked down any stairs. By Tuesday, the pain was totally gone, and I could even hop and skip without any problems. Thank goodness for the quick recovery.

So much for being 'graceful'... maybe I should change my name and start calling myself 'Klutz' instead. I've had my share of 'spectacular' falls the past few years. Like the time I slipped on a puddle while crossing a main road, and skidded across half the road (split-style, across 1.5 lanes, ouch), raking my knee in the process. Came out with a rather badly lacerated knee, but I was fortunate that it happened at night. Therefore, there weren't many cars driving on that road, so I didn't get run-over while stumbling across to the pavement...

Then there was the time I crossed the road to meet some friends, tripped on the road divider, and tumbled literally head over heels across the road. Once again, thank goodness it was night time, and there weren't any other cars driving along that road then. Emerged with nothing more than a bruised knee, bruised elbow, and bruised ego (so mah-lu [embarassing] but we had a good laugh at my expense... :)

This time, I was reminded of how fortunate I was again. Talked to mum that evening, and our conversation went something like this :
Me..... "Oh, mum, guess what? I sprained my foot."
Mum.. "How? What happened? Are you okay or not?"
Me..... "Yeah, I'm okay. I tripped on some stairs and fell."
Mum.. "How far did you fall? A flight of stairs?"
Me..... "No, 2 stairs"
Mum.. "2 flights of stairs?!"
Me..... "No, no, 2 steps..."

Thinking back, I'm thankful I only tripped on the 2nd last step, and not the 2nd step on the flight of stairs. Otherwise, a sprained foot may have been the least of my worries :) A friend of mine also fell down some stairs a few weeks back, and dislocated her shoulder when she landed. So I'm fortunate to escape with only a minor sprain, and at least I landed on my foot, not on my face... :)

Yes, I'm thankful for God's protection, and my foot is alright now. So I took my driving test on Saturday, and I ... passed!

I passed, I passed, I passed!! Woohoo!! :)

No more driving lessons, and no more need to suppress any smiles. Now, I can drive around with a manic grin on my face if I want (of course I wouldn't do that, but I could if I wanted to... :) What have they unleashed onto the road this time?? *diabolical laughter* :)

Counting down...

Two pieces of good news I'm cheering about :

1) The uni is officially closed from 23rd December to 3rd January, which means that I'll have an extra week added to my 4-week annual leave.

2) Flinders international graduations are held on 16th Dec (Fri), which means that I can gatecrash the convocation ceremonies and celebrate with friends who are graduating that day. Yay!

Kathy (my supervisor) has officially approved my leave... So I'll be home from 18th Dec to 15th Jan. Look forward to catching up with everyone back in Singapore! *grin of anticipation*

And...

I'll be home for Christmas *singing* :)

1 more month to go...

Exchanges

Remember when we were little kids, and how we used to exchange marbles, cards, or toys with one another? Even now, we make exchanges everyday in our lives. But how do we make the decision whether or not to exchange something? It's about the value of both items, and which of them we attribute a greater or equal value to. For example...

- You're willing to fork out some money to buy a shirt, because the shirt is of greater value to you than the cash you'd spent.

- You're willing to pay several hundred, or even several thousand dollars to go on a trip overseas, because the experience is worth more to you than the sum of money.

- You're willing to exchange time playing a computer game, to work on an assignment instead. Because your studies or grades matter more to you than the game (right?? :)

- You're willing to give up watching an episode of your favourite program on TV, to catch up with a friend for dinner. Because you value your friendship more than the show.

- You're willing to wake up in the middle of the night to listen and help a friend in need, because your friendship is worth more to you than those hours of sleep.

- You're willing to swallow your pride to apologise to a relative or friend, because your relationship is more important to you than your ego.

- Jesus was willing to lay His life at the cross, because He valued God's will above His own. God was willing to make the exchange, because our lives are worth so much to Him (John 3:16). Mind-blowing...


What do we value? And what are our priorities?
What we value determines our choices, and how we set our priorities. Which also determine our actions and their consequences.
The way we live our lives reflects what we value, and what our priorities are.

So what do we reflect in the way we live our lives?