The Return of The Son of a King

Dear Beautiful People,

I Am Back In Melbourne!
(I Have Been for quite sometime actually but... )

And i'm lovin' it.. :D
Padappap-pap-paaaa....

Love,
Dugong

Farewell Melbourne 2006

Dear Melbourne City,

I have had an awesome year with you. This year has been an incredible learning and maturing experience. Making new friendships and experiencing a whole new culture has added more spice into my journey of life. I am humbled to have made so many meaningful relationships, served a God with a big heart, be served by some amazing people of authority (vice-versa) and experienced a whole new meaning to the word 'family', 'community' and 'growth'.

It's been a great year. A great year.

Now, a toast.... To everyone running this race with me..

Goodbye Melbourne 2006!
Cause the next time i set foot in this sun burned land is in 2007! ><"

Love,
The Dugong

The 6 Happiest Words

There comes a time when a man hears 6 very happy words.
It could be:

1. Honey, i think i am pregnant
2. I have transfered AUD$27000 to you
3. I think Chelsea have been relegated
4. Manchester United wins the Champions League
5. Manchester United wins the Premier League

or

"Hey, you have (John Mayer) tickets to His concert!"
I am finally going to see my 'Hero', 'Sifu' and 'Tai Kor' live in Vodafone Arena
Aaaahhhhhh.......

I am a happy man.. :D
Can't wait to see the look on Chris or Sam's face when they find out!

Love,
The Dugong

Borat: An Essay

I saw ‘Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan’ today with Tjokro Aminoto. Before I go on with my essay, I must set a few facts straight about myself:

1. I do NOT support anti-Semitic statements in any way
2. This Essay is not a promotional tool to encourage one to watch the movie.
3. I am a person who believes in God and I Love Him very much
4. I like getting my hands dirty by being involve in controversial arguments but I believe strongly that each argument eventually falls into only two categories. The Truth and the Lie.

The movie Borat is an incredibly crude, bold and disturbing piece of Guerilla-comedy filmmaking that will either leave you feeling entertained or will cuase you to walk out of the theater. As the saying goes, “Another man’s food is another’s poison”, the same can be applied for Borat. It is definitely not for the weak-hearted or the easily offended. How so? This movie not only exposes ‘taboo’ issues like homosexuality, feminism, anti-Semitism and sex, but rubs salt to the wounds of those negatively reeling from Post 911 attacks, the Iraq war, religion and other controversial issues that even Dave Letterman wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.

Clad with a cheap charcoal grey suit and sporting a thick mustache, Borat’s deep hatred for gypsies, obsession with Pamela Anderson, backwater sexist statements and anti-Semitic character boldly opens a closet full of skeletons. The outrageously funny scenarios are when his prejudices go unchallenged by his American interviewees and as amazing as it sounds, some even happily support it. When Borat walks into a gun shop asking for a recommendation for the ‘best gun to kill a Jew’, the shopkeeper doesn’t flinch or bat an eye lid but recommends a 9mm handgun. An anti-muslim 5 minute rant caught on camera by an American rodeo cowboy and other disturbing insights about the casual prejudices of the average American acts as the films powerful sleigh hammer to conventionality.

Like a spokesperson for everything politically incorrect, Borat breathes genuine originality and brilliant shocks to the reality television landscape filled with weak, mindless, incoherent junk. Baron Cohen who plays Borat is a man of firm Jewish Ethic foundations, happily married and is a forerunner in combating prejudices. Like the Former director of Jewish Public affair Larry Rubin says, “Cohen’s heart is in the right place”. The parts that offended me were the parts that Cohen manipulate truths in order to suit his perception to create further controversy.

In conclusion, whether or not you choose to avoid this film like a plague or happily embrace its stinging satire is up to you. For me, Borat is an unflinching, unrelentingly breathless 88-minute ride that takes you on a crude, gross, rib-tickling exposition of human prejudice.

I've had my say.

Love,
The Dugong

A Dead Kangaroo On My Plate

Hello,

I had the priveledge of picking up Miss Lisa Han from the Airport last week (Sunday). Having roast lamb on a pita bread as a first meal in the beautiful land of melbourne, i do hope she enjoys her visit here in Melbourne. She says she's put on weight, but i honestly think she looks the same. A note to men reading this: Girls always say they put on weight NO matter how skinny they are! =P

Now, on to other things that happen this week.

Last Saturday: We renovated an old homeless feeding shelter. A couple of Urbs people painted, did gardening, sand paper-ing, sweeping, and basically all the other -ings to make the place waaayy better than before! God is amazing and His love for people has rubbed on to all of us. We had a tiring but ultimately gratifying experience renovating the shed. :D We Missed Juni though!

Monday: Went to Great Ocean Road! We drove for hours, walked on the beach, touched the beautiful waves, took some brilliant photos, ate good food, saw the stars and topped it off by watching the sun set from the Twelve Apostles. God is an amazing landscape artist! I will post up some photos in the next post.

Tuesday: Hung out in Smith Street. Bought an Adidas Shoe while my cousin Bought a Nike Cap and a dangerously fierce pair of Hiking Boots from Kathmandu.

Wednesday: Went to the night Market! I love it. I ate Kangaroo Meat!! I ate some Spanish Food and African Food! I ate Dutch Food! Dutch Pancakes! Exotic Corny Dog with weird 'Popiah-like' flour skin! Woot Woot! All in all, its AUD$70.. Waaaaaaa...

Its Been a great 4 days. Its been awesome!! Mind Blowing! As the End of the year approaches, i think it's safe to say this year has been really amazing for me! I'm using lots of '!' marks to show my excitement!

Looking forward to be back in Thailand and Maybe Malaysia!

God Loves ya Mates,
Dugong