Betty, still grounded

When my brother asked me if I want his JR transmitter few weeks ago, I happily agreed. My Betty has not left the ground for maybe more than a year now. I thought it is time she flies again.

Higher expectation leads to greater disappointment. After I successfully bound the transmitter with Betty, I realized that I had selected the wrong model. Model 1 is my brother's Blade 400, whereas my Betty is model 6. I spent the whole afternoon today sorting this out. Somehow the settings kept reverting back to default. I changed the model to number 6, turned off and on the transmitter, and yet model 1 kept showing up in the display every time.

I searched the Internet many times without finding any relevant result. The only similar issue I found was regarding the JR X9303, the predecessor of my brother's X9503. Some people commented that a resistor is burnt inside the transmitter. Well, I am not going to pry it open to check. That would void the warranty.

Betty sitting on top of the transmitter.

In any case, poor Betty is not going to fly anytime soon now. I thought it is time she flies again. I am disappointed.

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A Sudden Turn

When I was looking up on information about the Australia graduate engineers working visa, I found some people on the Internet commenting that it might take several months for the visa to be approved. I was being too optimistic, hoping to fly straight to the country around June or July, after I sat for IELTS and obtained my visa.

If that is the case, I may have several months, if not half a year before I finally fly to Australia. So instead of sitting around and waiting, I sent job applications to some local companies, hopefully to fill my 6-months gap with basic working experience. I didn't really expect much.

Then this afternoon, an email arrived at my inbox. The subject is about an interview of an electrical design engineer position. The sender's name is not local, and I see that her address is from a company called Rutherford Global Power. This is a reply of my random application for a company in Nusajaya. I didn't check its background. It was a random and blind try.

I was about to reply the email when father came home and took me and my brother out for lunch. During lunch, I received a phone call from an unknown number. I didn't look clearly at the number, but I saw it started with the country code +61. My first instinct was that it must be one of my friends using their Singaporean number to call me.

The person on the other side turned out to be a female, with a slang that is definitely not from Malaysia or Singapore. The person introduced herself and explained to me the reason for the phone call. It was the sender this afternoon.

"I noticed from your application that you have studied in Australia before, am I right?"
"Yes, I have."
"So I assume you will not have trouble understanding what I am saying. *chuckle*"

It was a call regarding the interview date and time. She briefed me with the company location and some details on the interview. It was only until after I hung up that I realized the country code +61 is, in fact, Australia.

A quick search on the Internet revealed that Rutherford Global Power is part of a group called Rutherford Group, which is an Australian power/utility company. I wanted to work in Australia, but due to visa requirement, I chose to stay in Malaysia for the time being. I didn't expect to get an offer from an Australian-based company here. It was a very lucky coincidence.

At the time of writing, I am waiting for the interview, set at two days later. I hope the interview goes smoothly and satisfactory.

Day 4: First Outing

It's day number 4 since the day I planted the seeds. All this while, the seeds are put under the roof in the garage. The sunlight they see is from the surrounding area, not direct sunlight. So, on this fourth day, I let them out to bathe in bright and "yummy" afternoon sunlight.

They look happy. Or so I think.

There have been a lot of activities in the pots since day 2. Most of the seeds have sprouted beautifully with two oval leaves. Their stalks are growing taller and taller each day. The instructions on the seed packet state that the flowers need a lot of sunlight to thrive. They recommend something called a flower booster and foliage booster to increase the flower number and speed up the growth respectively. I prefer not to use any artificial nutrients because I want to see how well the seeds thrive in a semi-natural condition.

(N.B.: I called it semi-natural because it involves manual watering, which is, strictly speaking, not natural.)

I also notice something called phototropism. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo to show. What I noticed is that the stalks grew towards the outside of the garage. Basic science taught us that plants tend to grow towards the sunlight, and it is evidently shown in my case. The garage is filled with sunlight from each side, hence by putting the pots on the inner side of the garage, they will grow towards the outside. Now most of my plants are slanted to a direction, which I always frown upon. I want them to grow straight up.

Nature is amazing.

Day 2: Sprouting Gracefully

In the previous post, I said that a weekly update on this subject should be sufficient. Well, I didn't expect to update this after such a short time. On May 17, I woke up to see this.

Snapshot of Day 2

Initially I have an idea of setting a different condition for each pot. I only planted one seed in each pot, except the green pot, which I put in four seeds. Then my father advised me to put in multiple seeds to increase the chance of germination and also increase the amount of dirt. After digging up and planting them many times, I don't specifically remember how many seeds each pot contains anymore, but I know that the green pot still has the most number of seeds. So it is not surprising to see the green pot sprouts first.

Two successful germination

The purple pot is intentionally filled with less dirt to see how the seeds strive in thinner dirt. The other pots doesn't specifically have any special condition, as far as I know.

After closer examination, I saw that the pink pot showed activity as well.

Barely visible activity

The rest doesn't seem to have any changes as of now.
 
From this I learnt that nature is amazing. The seeds are buried under layers of dirt, yet they manage to push through and sprout so gracefully. We as human could certainly learn something from nature: the will to survive no matter what.

Day 0: Placing the Seeds

Couple of weeks ago, I went to a local supermarket with my girlfriend. When we walked to the gardening section, I had a sudden urge to learn the skill. The varieties of pots and seeds piqued me.

My mother can be considered an expert in gardening. Back before we moved, she had already planted a number of fruits. From nangka (jackfruit) to watermelon, mother has tried to plant several produces, although not all are successful. Our new home has a huge yard, giving mother the perfect canvas. There is already some durian trees in the yard, but through my parents' hands, they transformed the mostly dilapidated yard into an orchard. Next to the house, there are tidy rows of pineapples. In the garage, several chilli bushes grows in a tidy column. At the back, there are even more fruits and vegetables which I do not even know we have.

After seeing all these gardening, and the gardening section in the local supermarket, I decided to venture into the field. Eventually it took me couple of weeks to finally start doing.

Yesterday, after renewing my passport, I went to the Giant supermarket near my house. The gardening section is not as big as I expected, but they still offer a selection of pots, watering cans, and seeds. Most of the seeds on display are vegetables such as tomato (well, technically it is a fruit, but let's ignore that), salad, lettuce, cucumber, and the likes. They are also rather cheap at RM2.99 per packet. At the bottom of the display are the flower seeds. I have never heard of all of the flowers on display.

The first one to catch my eye is the purple Delphinium, but after a quick search on the Internet, I found that it has some toxicity. Lacking choices, I picked the Dahlia-Flowered Zinnia, scientific name Zinnia Elegans.

Seed packet

Along the way, I also picked up a colourful stack of small plastic pots. Simply looking at them makes me wanting to grow some flowers!

Some time ago, father brought a pile of dirt and put them in front of the garage. I do not know what is the exact purpose of the dirt pile, but since no one is using it, the chickens and dogs made it their playground. They dug and rolled, and now there is a big crater in the middle where they usually lie in.

The dirt is dark and it looks "nutritious" and fertile. Taking the five colourful pots with me, I created another crater on the pile. Poor chickens, their playground is disturbed!

Colourful pots

The flower seeds are smaller than I expected. They look like dried leaves instead!

Dried leaves or seeds?

Initially I wanted to make a scientific journal to record the flower growth, in a similar way to what my friend did for his science projects; but I do not have a proper notebook to record, and also I am more familiar in typing than writing now. Digital notebook also has the ability to attach photos, which is good.

There was also small watering cans on sale in the supermarket, but I decided to cut down the cost. The 5 pots together with the seeds already cost me RM13. So, time to improvise!

Holes on the cap = instant watering can

I think a weekly update should be sufficient since plants do not grow very fast. I doubt there is anything to talk about in Day 1.

#4: We were Classmates

You were sitting in front of me. We were chatting. We were quite close. How long had it been since we last talked? 10 years? 15 years? I do not remember.

Some years ago, I took the chance to search for you on the social network. It didn't take long to find you. Even after we connected, we never talked. Not even once.

Then about a year ago, I saw your wedding announcement. It was a strange feeling. I didn't feel hurt at all, even though you once were rather important to me, back when we were still young, innocent kids. I guess it was the innocence and naivety that made me thought you were important. Looking back, I have done some foolish things, and it could be the reason you seemingly avoided me. The only reply I ever received from you is a letter back in 2002.

I still remember I joked about this matter with my friend last year. I asked him whether he still remember you, since he used to tease me about it. Over the years, we had grown up; we no longer laugh at each other. Naturally, there was no big reactions from both of us when we talked about this. It was a very casual talk.

And there we were, sitting in front of each other. We talked about your wedding, our life during and after primary school, which was the last time we were classmates. Both of us went on our way after that, and gradually we forgot each other.

I was calm when we talked, which was weird. I was supposed to feel hurt, but I didn't. I didn't feel anything at all, as if you never even existed in my life before. It was like a casual talk with an acquaintance. I guess that over the years, I have learnt to let go. This is called growing up.

I don't specifically remember what we talked. Soon, we had to go on our separate way again. I never see you anymore, because that was the only time I dreamt about you.