The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a mere 10mins walk away from St Marks Lodge. Ignoring the exciting adventures offered by a half-asleep Randwick in the early morning, I trooped dutifully to the campus library almost every morning, enjoying a divine mushroom pie along the way. There is an unkempt horse racing track at the foot of the hill leading up to the entrance gates of the University, and if you were lucky you would bump into the very source of the smell emanating from the stables. Incidentally it was also the first time I saw a horse dog. I didn't know who convinced the dog that it could survive an accidental trample from a stray hoof or two much less boss the horses around, but it must be an extremely well-paying job. Either that or job satisfaction at getting to sniff to its doggy heart's content, bless. There was a no-frills and homely feel to UNSW. The most prominent building from afar is a nondescript edifice with the letters "UNSW" displayed distinctively on one face. Almost every building is coated in monotonous beige, complemented by a more adventurous shade of oaken brown in some cases. There are a seemingly significant proportion of ethnic Chinese students on campus, but while they chose to spend their free periods holed up in the library or chit-chatting on comfortable benches outdoors in air-condition temperatures, the lush lawns were dominated by ang mohs engaged in their most peculiar habit of basking in sunshine wherever the opportunity presented itself. Even if Australian sunlight is supposed to contain an unhealthy level of ultraviolet radiation. Young Singaporean students today are a privileged lot with our national schools' excellent amenities and snazzy architecture from the primary school level up. While I used to sit at a grey decrepit desk coated over with coats and coats of paint in a cunning attempt to conceal its decomposing state and with an underside compartment primarily used to collect dust, and a rocking chair caused inadvertently by four different leg lengths, today school children are able to enjoy the comforts of ergonomically designed furniture and even air-conditioned classrooms in some schools. Even my old primary school has been repainted in a quite-frankly disgusting coat of pink. That's the price to pay for sitting next to an MRT station. Anyway where I least expected it, I found a quaint relic in UNSW that belonged to the age of my old schooling days in a long wooden lecture bench where the desktop and seat were joined together with blatant disregard of the user's comfort level. No nonsensical fold-up trays, just a brazen "sit down or sod off" attitude. I paid particular attention to the notice boards in various common areas on campus, so blissfully left alone to their own devices and disorderliness. There were no cut-out silver letters pasted on a navy blue background reading "Notice Board" or forbidding plastic sliding panels locked in place to prevent students from pasting their personal advertisements on a large rectangular area of cement set against a red-bricked wall. They were practically an entire classified section pasted on a wall. Every piece of junk that could be found in a hostelite's room was on offer --- old textbooks, old textbooks and old textbooks. There were also advertisements for accommodation, tuition, guitars and even second-hand cars. It truly was an absorbing canvas. Sure, we get to do the transactions online in Singapore, but drawing an amusing cartoon by hand beats creating a jpeg file any day. And just for the record, I enjoyed my campus life, thank you very much.
Bondi Beach
Packed by locals and tourists alike, Bondi Beach offers a reinvigorating stroll along her soft velvet sand on top of a splashing good time surfboarding on her untamed waves. True to Bondi's commercial image, transient footprints in the sand are almost impatiently erased either by lapping waves or somebody else's imprints, much in the manner of value-added waiters who clear customers' tables swiftly and efficiently in a not-so-unsubtle hint to broom them out of his busy restaurant's premises to make way for the next wave. Even a subtle dash of humor here is laced with a stark message, courtesy of the New South Wales police's "Thieves go to the beach, too. Keep your belongings safe." sign. Evidently the temptations of the sea is too large a distraction to pay heed to such warnings though, for I spotted a set of car keys hanging from the car door lock on the passenger's side just across the promenade. Among other events, Bondi Beach hosts the 14km "City to Surf" marathon held annually in August, which takes an average of over an hour to complete for seasoned runners.
Maroubra Beach
Longer and much less crowded than Bondi, you can nonetheless still find body-suited surfers clinging onto their surfboards for dear life in one concentrated area in Maroubra Beach. The rest of the 1km beach is not as surfer-friendly, with mysterious rocky cliffs stretching into the distance and angry waves crashing majestically against rocks while blissful grey-winged doves basked contentedly in the sun. Besides hosting a historic rifle range, Maroubra Beach also boasts the peculiarity of being probably the only beach in the world to have a saltwater pool next to the sea. Take a moment to consider how ridiculous that is. Though to be fair the idea is probably to provide a safe first-hand view of powerful waves beating onto the rock formations next to the pool. Given that the beach faces the Great Pacific Ocean, swimmers willing to put up with taunts from ignorant tourists can be rewarded with some pretty spectacular sights from time to time. The rundown look of the nearby shops gives Maroubra the quiet feel of a charming country town, though ironically I stumbled across a police roadblock further up north on the beach before discovering on radio later that a murder case (gunshot to the head) had been discovered there. In the vicinity there are hawks, gecko lizards, whales and dolphins. I don't suppose they had anything to do with it.
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New South Wales was named for a perfectly good reason, but no one knows what it is. Was she intended to outshine her British cousin much in the manner of New York? A new South Wales or a new Wales located in Southern Australia? I sure wish I could fire these questions back at some of my interviewers.
Bondi (pronounced Bond, Die! Note sinister laughter not always appropriate) Beach is undisputedly the most famous beach in Australia and one of the most popular, though truth be told there are more cosy stretches of sand and sea around. Complemented by a promenade, cafes, ice-cream vans, hotels, clubs and even a skating rink, the Australian icon is truly a paradise to any surf dude wannabe. 
Four suburbs south of Bondi lies Maroubra Beach, one of Sydney’s best surfing beaches and where Australia's surfing culture was allegedly born in the 1900's. I liked this place even before I lay eyes on it. According to legend, young Australian men avoided being recruited for the Second World War by spending hours floating on the sea, as you do, while military officers were in the area.