now, perth ain't no hill-billy country no more

it's rather incredible. For the first time in its 90 odd year history, the University of Western Australia has produced a nobel laureate. Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, medical researchers at UWA the 2005 medicine award for proving a bacterium, not stress, caused stomach ulcers and gastritis. it's rather amazing how some of the simplest ideas sometimes require the most convoluted proofs, like the idea the John Nash's nobel winning work on game theory which seems rather simple to understand, but would probably probably require a whole lotta grey matter to prove or apply it, though in Barry Marshall's case, he actually went the extra mile to swallow the stomach ulcer causing bacterium just to prove his point.


now that UWA is a university which produced nobel laureates, it's interesting considering the weird antics of some of our medical students. the med sch students here in UWA, are without a doubt among the brightest in WA, with like a entry cutoff to med sch of like 99th percentile or something. yet some of the annecdotes we hear of med students seem to run contrary to that empirical proof haha. simon, our ex-UDU pres and soon-to-be med grad once jumped into a pool during Worlds 2005 at MMU with nothing but his leopard print underwear only to get up and start grooving to the movin'. Hsien, a soon to be psych grad as well, during the river cruise party at Westers, took off his shoes and was all ready to jump into the water and swim back to the shore if not for some timely intervention. and the best i've heard so far, was the one alex told me, though it seems too bizarre to be true. as the 'campus legend' goes, a couple of years back, there was this med sch student. during one of his lab sessions which involves dealing with cadavers, he suddenly decided to have some fun while he's at it, so he went on to amputate the cadaver's penis and sneak it out of the lab. Our young castrator then decided to go down to the Guild Tavern for a drink and as the legend goes, after a couple of drinks, an inspiration hit as he planned a gag worthy of MTV's Jackass. Here's what he did, he took the penis to the toilet, went into the cubicles to do the neccessary arrangements (as u will soon understand) and waited for a couple more people to enter. When there were like two other people at the urinals, he went out to the urinals, and nonchalently took out the amputated penis and pretended to pee. After a while, he dropped the penis onto the floor and started screaming out in pseudo-pain. That freaked the hell out of the other two guys who ran straight out of the toilets. The castrator probably did it for a few more times, cos' eventually, someone who din see the humour and was disgusted by what he was doing (understandably so), reported him to the school authority and the castrator was expelled from Uni. Then again, considering the weird antics Barry Marshall does himself, the uni probably shouldn't have sacked that undergrad 'castrator'. Who knows, he could have been another nobel laureate someday, or at the very least, a really creative comedian.


Both laureates are perth residents and in fact their research labs at the Royal Perth Hospital are just across the road from the place i'm staying. That's one up over the eastern states, suckers! hehe. yet considering how despite accounting more than 1/3 of Australia's land area, and being just one of the two states (the other being NSW) that contributes more money to the Federal system than it draws, culturally and economically speaking, WA seems to have a disproportionately small impact on Australia. The stereotypes of WA from the eastern state ppl it seems are probably that of a 'rural, agricultural-based economy with next to nothing happening'. And in terms of the hip-factor, i would say, the general perception (from foreigners like me at least) are that perth (WA's capital) is probably not exactly a very vibrant meteropolis like Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, though it is probably more fun than Adelaide and certainly much more happening than Hobart, Canberra or Darwin. Especially Canberra, i all i recall from my visit there back in 2000 was that apart from the really empty streets, the huge parliament building, and the fact that they have got really bad chinese food. Well anyway, for perth, there isn't even a HMV, or Starbucks, or Borders anywhere in sight. It's probably not a negative thing i guess, since it offers quite a respite from the globalised commercial homogenity served on a dish back home in singapore. Besides, the cafe with the moving rattan fans in the city serves much better lattes than coffee bean or starbucks. Well to be fair, for a city with a little more than half the population of singapore, comparably Perth probably has a rather decent nightlife with probably at a higher bars/clubs per capita than singapore. for a place which hosts gigs like the recently concluded Godskitchen, the upcoming MOS annual tour, Black-Eye Peas etc, Perth really isn't doing too bad after all.

Well the metropolitan lethargy aside, the tranquility is perhaps the biggest niche Perth has, and personally, i feel Perth is far more deserving of being dubbed the 'Garden City' than Singapore. And ironically, Perth is sometimes referred to as the City of Lights - a title which is somewhat incongruent given the lack of street lighting. It's amazing how during spring now, even those on grass patches on the road dividers have nice little yellow flowers all in bloom. it never fails to brighten my day as i drag my sleepy body to uni, jaywalking across stirling highway and stopping at the divider to admire its beauty. Strolling along Swan River can be quite an enjoyable experience too. And the houses here, boy are they gorgeous, especially those in East Perth. While real estate prices remain bullish, comparably, housing costs still remain very much more affordable than cities like Sydney or Melbourne. All these are probably reasons while Perth is considered argubly an ideal choice for middle-aged or retired folks from either south east asia or the prohibitively expensive eastern states to settle down, while youngsters who fail to see beyond the facade of 'lethargy' shun away from.

Either way, when it's time to go after i graduate, i am certain that i will miss Perth, my adopted home away from home.