Trinh's

homepage

about me

My name is Trinh (just say "Trin") or Trinhy. I'm 13 now, and I was born in Renmark, in the Riverland of South Australia.

I'm Vietnamese, of Chinese ethnic background, as are many Vietnamese people. I don't speak any Chinese, but we do speak Vietnamese at home. I can only speak it with Mum, because there are very few Vietnamese people up here, and my friends and family have moved interstate :(. However, my Vietnamese culture is very important to me. I hope to go to Viet Nam one day with my Mum and my aunt and uncle and cousins. I would love to meet my relatives and see how beautiful the country is, and be somewhere I belong so much.

However, I'm also very Australian, like all of us: we're all immigrants! Even the Aboriginal people came here from somewhere else. My Mum's family came here for the gold rush in 1851, but I don't think they found much gold, because Mum says she can't waste money. I love Australia and I believe in our laws and freedoms. This is a wonderful country, and we are so lucky compared to so many other people. In Viet Nam life is very hard. A postage stamp costs many months' income.

I have friends from all backgrounds, and I believe that all people should be treated with respect and compassion. Treat me well, and I will be your friend. Push me around, and it won't get you anywhere.

I have had to learn to be strong, because I got cancer four years ago, and had to fight hard for my life. It was a very scary time, I was only 9 and so sick. I am still alive and kicking (especially kicking) but I didn't get well properly, and have been getting sicker again. This is pretty hard to take, especially at my age, when I want to be like anyone else! I can't be at school or with my friends, except very occasionally, and I can't do much at all. I am working very hard on getting better.

The Ronnie Mac cancer clinic at the Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital is a great place, very caring and welcoming. The Hospital itself is amazing, they do their absolute best, you couldn't get better or more loving help, but it is a public hospital, with all the problems they have now. You wouldn't know that from the care you get. The Hospital School is one of my best memories: it was an escape from the horror, a place where I could have fun. I am very grateful to all the people who helped me so much. My doctors try so hard to help me. I am very lucky to have them.

I've also had a lot of fun, thanks to Camp Quality. Camp Quality helps kids all over Australia, who are fighting serious illness. Thanks to them, I have met other kids with cancer, and been able to talk about stuff. I've also done some cool camps, been places I might not have been able to go otherwise. This year will be the coolest: I might actually get to go to the snow! I really hope I will be well enough: I am so excited about it! And I'm looking forward so much to seeing my friends again. My friends here are great, but it's only people who've been through the same stuff who can really understand what it's like. I don't want to tell my 'normal' friends about that stuff, cause they won't understand, and I don't want to seem different. But my Camp Quality friends are the same as me, we fit in together. It's great to have so many friends of all kinds. :)

back to the top

about my family

Hmm... family. Embarrassing hindrance to teenager! Still, they're mine, and I'm used to them...

My step-dad is Pete. He's been looking after me since I was really little. He is a pilot, and will fly anything he gets a chance to fly: planes, gliders, hang-gliders, ultra-lights. He has taken me up flying a few times, even on holidays, but I get sick a bit. The view is incredible! Pete also knows a lot about computers and electronics: he's an engineer. He has set up our home network, which is pretty cool. Pete and I get annoyed with each other a lot nowadays, which Mum tells me is pretty normal at my age. Grrrrr....

My Mum is Clytie. She is interested in everything, and a teacher of many things, so we talk a lot about anything! She has been really sick ever since I was two, so we can't do the stuff together that we would like to do. Mum gets upset about this, but I'm used to it, and we still have fun together, and share stuff. My Mum is always there for me, and that's what matters.

My elder sister is Sian. She is 24, and lives interstate now, so I miss her a lot. It's hard to really know someone when they live far away. She loves art and animals, like me, so we can talk about that. She might be coming to visit soon. She just rang us to say she is going to have a Siberian Husky, which is pretty exciting (and totally unfair: I want one!). She has this quiet, laid-back partner called Shawn: he seems pretty nice. At least he isn't some weirdo :)

My elder brother is Capel. He is 21; he teases me and I tease him back, and he has been living in Renmark for the past year or so, so we got to know each other again. He is so into computers. He is going to do a degree in computing in Adelaide, and lives in a completely unfurnished, falling-down house, with a second-hand couch and his computers. He is always online, helping people to do stuff, and he loves to play complex rpg (rôle-playing games) with people online. He knows a lot about computers (which is something our whole family is really into), and is always learning new stuff. He doesn't impress me. (OK, sometimes...)

I have lots of other relatives: grandma Viv and grandpa Brian here in Renmark, aunties and family friends here, grandma and grandpa Siddall in Queensland (too far away, but I went last year), Nanna and Grandfather in Geelong, Uncle Hayden and Uncle Stephen in Melbourne, Cô Luong and Chú Lân and my cousins Linh and Huy also in Melbourne, I miss them a lot. My godmother, Auntie Isabel, works in Egypt, which I think takes "far away" a bit far! I haven't seen her for years.

Of course, that's only the human beings...

back to the top

about my pets

Our animals are also part of our family. I love animals! I think I would like to work with them, maybe in an animal park or photographing animals in their native habitat, but I don't want to cut them up!

If you look at my first homepage, from when I was 8, you will see the animals we used to have. A couple of them have died, which is really sad, and I miss Sooty so much. He was a really special dog. But, the house is not exactly empty now...

Tsunami is now The Senior Dog. She is a black labrador, and about 11 years old, so she's doing pretty well. She sleeps a fair bit now, but she still loves to go for a w-a-l-k and will chase rabbits! She actually caught one recently, for the first time ever, and was very proud of herself. The vet says she is in good shape, so we hope she will be around for a while yet.

Her teeth are a bit ground down, after a lifetime of chewing roo bones and marrow-bones (leg bones of a steer!), but she really enjoyed this huge knot-bone (made from animal hide) which I found in Adelaide at a discount shop, very cheap! We bought two, and the dogs loved them. :)

Mallee, alias Lukesin Malibu, is also a labrador. He is supposedly very well-bred, but is too big for the show-ring. That is lucky for him, because he gets to live a normal dog's life and be smelly and go in the river, and lucky for us, because he is a loving and fun dog.

He is only 1 year old, but he will never grow up anyway, he is such a puppy, so somehow we have ended up calling him The Wuppy! He loves food, the couch, going places, attention and slobbering on people, in any order. He gets so excited, he sounds like a budgie!

K. P. alias Her Highness, Queen of Cats, is our senior cat. She has been around for many years. She mostly sleeps nowadays, but she doesn't like to miss out on any special treats that is available. She is very small, fluffy like a Persian, and very snooty. She has never forgiven my sister Sian for leaving home years ago, and looks down her nose at everybody. I like making beds for the cats in cosy places, so she is often curled up in one of those, snoozing away.

Ocelot is our younger cat. He is big, greedy and extremely dumb. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to need brains to kill native birds, it's hardwired into him. He is only just too big for a lap, and eats all the time. Dad keeps saying he is just big, but the word is actually FAT. He's like Garfield, he has big stomach bones, or it's water condensation :) He's a bit like a ragdoll cat, you can mess around with him and he doesn't mind, except when you have his back to the ground. I have fun with him sometimes. He eats dogfood whenever he can! This is one weird cat.

back to the top

about our computers

Yes, our computers are part of our family, too! I first used a computer when I was 2. Mum had unpacked it, a Mac LCIII, but had not turned it on or started anything. I had never seen a computer before. She had to go to the toilet, and said to me, just wait there, I'll turn it on and get you into something when I get back.

Well...

I could never resist something with buttons! I don't remember what I did, but Mum said by the time she got back, which would have been only a minute or two, I had turned on the computer, and was happily drawing in ClarisWorks. Macs are like that. They just make sense: you don't need manuals or instructions to do day-to-day stuff.

Elsie (the LCIII) was our first computer in Renmark (Mum had had a Microbee in Adelaide before I was born; she said it was a great little computer; and she used punch-cards at uni back when dinosaurs roamed the earth (now, how would dinosaurs hold punch-cards?)). We next had a Quadra, then Punchy the PowerMac, and similar era Mac laptops. But now we have a family of computers, happily gossiping with each other via Ethernet and with the rest of the world via ADSL. Mum and Dad gave themselves ADSL for Christmas, and haven't wanted to give it back yet. :)

Buster is the hub of our network. He is an old 486, but he runs Linux (Red Hat 9) happily and does a great job as our router, including being our firewall to protect us from a lot of junk on the net. Blue Ethernet cables branch out from him, in the middle of the house, to Fruity the iMac (running Mac OS9) in the sitting room, Goofy the G4 (running Mac OSX) in Mum's room, Mum's laptop Pearl (iBook, OSX) in her bed, Dad's laptop Legada (Red Hat 7.3) wherever he plugs in, Mum's old Powerbook 1400c, Epic (which is now MINE!!) wherever I plug in. Capel doesn't bring his computers over here, but he has a Zaurus PDA (Linux) now; Mum has a Handspring Visor Prism PDA (Palm) which helps her do and remember a lot of stuff, and Dad has just joined the PDA movement by buying an IPAQ (Linux). (Now, when do I get one?? Hmmmm?)

We're just the teeniest bit computer-conscious.

back to the top

about my favourite stuff

I'm interested in lots of things. I love science: I have joined the Double Helix club: the CSIRO send out this great magazine, and have cool competitions, and some really great stuff in their catalogue. They had one issue all about chocolate! (These are people with the right priorities.) I am working my way through the catalogue, asking Mum to buy stuff, because, after all, it's all educational, isn't it? (heh heh)

I love watching animals, insects, learning about how nature works, asking lots of questions, doing experiments, but I do NOT want to cut any animals up! I have some great science CDs.

As for books and films... I love the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and enjoy movies a lot, and...

Well, I'll admit to a tiny, miniscule, almost non-existent interest in the Harry Potter world. I mean, I can take it or leave it, right? WRONG! I am slightly obsessed to HP: I have read the books over and over, I watch the DVDs over and over, I saw the latest movie in Adelaide last week and I am FURIOUS about the divergences from the book, including the fact that they leave Cho Chang out of the story, and Prof. Dumbledore looks evil, and Lupin is mean, they just did it WRONG! I can't stand it when they do that! In between fuming, I even read fan fiction and cruise HP websites... yes, it's that bad. I hear they are starting HP Anonymous groups ... they'll never get me to one! Kicking, screaming, clutching the entire series of books under my arms, the DVDs clenched between my teeth, crouched defensively over the computer, I'll hang on no matter what!

Besides, it's just one of those demure, quiet ladylike hobbies, like pressing flowers, or having wizard's duels with your mother over the internet, when she's in the bed next to you...

I love art. I express my feelings that way, so I draw and paint a lot to relax. I am learning a lot more art skills now I am at high school and have a specialist art teacher. My art teacher has given my some extension work to do while I am too sick to go to school, and that really helps. Mum buys me good art materials, not those brushes which shed hairs, or cheap paints, and I am getting into digital imaging too. It's where my mind is: visual, individual, evolving. I would like to design things.

I would like to play badminton, if I were well enough. My birth-Dad was really good at it, and I think I might be good at it, too. I like it a lot, it feels right. Asian people play badminton a lot, and it suits them. I want to go to Uni, and then I can join a badminton club too. My Mum and brother and sister used to play a lot, and go to tournaments all over the state.

I would still be studying Chidokan Karate, but I am not well enough. It made me very fit, so I survived the cancer, so it would help if I could still do it. I need to find some good karate exercises I can do at home. I don't want to get unfit.

I enjoy lots of kinds of exercise, so I really miss that. I also enjoy drama, and learning all sorts of things. I am a curious person. I love nature shows and science shows on TV, but I also love to laugh myself helpless in front of Funniest Home Videos or Bloopers. Sometimes I think I will burst! :)

I enjoy going to church, and being with my friends there. I have just been confirmed: it was a big day, and meant a lot to me.

back to the top