It's no fun being sick

Geh. Just my luck. I'm going to start off the new year being sick. >:( Had to cancel outing with Louie, Kathy, Jack and Jo today and I can't go to the NYE celebration tomorrow with everyone from uni. *sigh* Usually I can't be bothered to go see the doctor but dad has been nagging so I went with my brother today only to discover that both medical centres in Eastwood are CLOSED until January sometime. Bah.

Christmas was nothing special seeing as we don't celebrate it at home. James my sole 'god-bro' invited me to a Christmas party with him and his uni friends which was rather nice. We ate lunch, played Guitar Hero and Quiz, exchanged presents and played a cool board game called Cranium. God-bro gave me a 'Mummy Girl' voodoo doll which is supposed to "get rid of unwanted love interests and watch over your feelings".

Let's hope it works.

I didn't expect I'd have so much fun hanging out with a whole bunch of people I didn't know –so that was good. Though unfortunately, I managed to progress from a simple sore throat to a fever etc. It was still great though. It was the happiest I've been these past few weeks…

Anyway. My brother bought a 50" HD TV recently and it DOMINATES the living room. My dad doesn't like it cos its too big. So we hafta go back to using our very very old TV (not even flatscreen OMG) arghhh what a waste…

Well, time to have some cough medicine. I hate being sick. I feel so useless not being able to do anything. RAAR.

Return

So. It's been a while now hasn't it? Much has happened too.

What can I say? It's been a whirlwind of a year and only now do I have the time to sit down and gather my thoughts. There's been ups and downs, hopes and disappointments, and I've come away from it all with valuable life lessons and unforgettable memories I'll treasure forver.

"We spend all of our lives goin' out of our minds, looking back to our birth, forward to our demise".

Time is short. Live for the moment. It's been another great year.

Merry Christmas xoxo

H O L I D A Y S !

A quick rundown of how I've been spending my [questionable] well-earned break. =)

• 28.06.08 TSA meeting and then bummed with Louie and Shu in the city eating icecream from Passionflower and chips drowned in Peri-Peri sauce.
• 29.06.08 Packed my bags...
• 30.06.08 - 03.07.08 UNI PEEPS ROAD TRIP TO ANNA BAY!! =D 16 of us went and it was pretty cool. We didn't really do that much, but it was quite relaxing and lotsa fun. ^^v We played Mario Kart and Big Brain Academy Mind Sprint games on Wii, and Naruto on XBox. At night we watched Australia's Got Talent, The World's Got Talent, The Ventriloquist, The Illusionist, State of Origin and Mr. Bean. We hit the beach, went sand boarding, watched the sunrise, and hiked up some small mountain and had a LOT of BBQ. When we ran out of hot water after 6 showers we boiled water in pots and poured it into the bathtub for people to use. And then when we ran out of gas for the BBQ we took our empty tank and swapped it with the one next door. XD
• 04.07.08 Max Brenner meet up, except that we were kinda split up into 2 different groups and Bethany was working the whole time. Bumbo, Weasel, Kathy, Jack, Louie and I bummed at EB, JB and MYER afterwards while the others caught a session of Kung Fu Panda.
• 05.07.08 Present hunting for Dango in the city with Jo and Dodgy Man, except I ended up buying jeans ehehe...
• 06.07.08 Failed dinner for me and Dango... *tear* =(
• 07.07.09 DOTA (yes, I went to play) in Burwood with Baldy, Steven, Subin, Simon, Sheung, Daniel, Michael, David, Dodgy Man, Thien and err I forgot who the last person was...Got presents from Baldy, Michael and Simon aww... XD Afterwards I headed to Helary's place and joined the Stratty gang and ate while they stalk-booked ahaha...
• 08.07.08 Watched Kung Fu Panda with Kathy and Jo at Burwood. Bumped into Bumbo and Louie! =O Plus I finally got to 'meet' Whoosh muahaha... >:]
• 10.07.08 Hot pot at Zhi Wen's house! Also played Mario Kart and Big Brain Academy Mind Sprint on Wii haha
• 11.07.08 LJ DAY! aka Lewis and Jack wo Produce Day. Went to Chatswood with and we got them trying on several shirts, none of which they ended up buying. In the end Louie and Jack got a haircut and we tried the 'Happy 7-11 Day" thing but didn't get free slurpies.

FREEDOM! =D

26.06.08
After the CPR refresher course at uni, Baldy, Jo and I made our way to the city where we obtained free coffee from a big orange tent in the hobo park =) Naturally we went for sticker photos, but we somehow spent too much time at Capitol and missed our session for Get Smart...ahaha...^^"

So we went present hunting for a while then concluded that we wouldn't go watch the movie as I was meeting up with Bumbo and Louie later. Baldy and Jo kept me company on a bench outside World Square as we waited for Louie. It was so cold and windy there but we were too lazy to move ehehe...At some stage a random was trying to cross the road (coming towards us) and was bouncing his basketball across the road trying to look cool when it rebounded off the curb and rolled back the way he came, forcing him to turn around and run after it ahahaha...XD

Louie came eventually so Baldy left while Jo waited with us for the others to come. Jack and Bumbo came but Kathy didn't, so Jo went home after having waited in the cold for her aww... ><"

We went to maccas for a bit then sang at Greenbox Plus for an hour and then had dinner at Star City since Jack wanted to play poker. Finding a table in Star City took forever since there was a high demand. I tried the 'big or small' game thingy with my $10 voucher after I signed up, but I lost... =( While Jack played poker, Bumbo, Louie and I went in search of shots since Louie felt like drinking. Turns out that Star City does not do shots, so we ended up buying and sharing a lemon lime bitter, sex on the beach and some other drink with lime and grass in it...

Anyway, we listened out for the name called for the cash grab but predictably it wasn't any of us. So we sighed, continued drinking and taking photos and then went home. Well, actually only Bumbo and Louie went home. I stayed over at Bumbo's house keke...XD

T'was my first time at Star City heh heh.

27.06.08
Well, we woke up a little late but we still ended up meeting Louie and Jack at Stratty to shop for ingredients. It took us a while to find everything since Woolies had undergone some renovations and we didn't know what type of meat to buy from the selection at the butcher. Anyway we got all the things we needed and then waited at the bus stop talking about things like Louie's P fail, Jack's gastro, and Bumbo's courage fail AHAHAHA...XD

Bus came and we all scabbed off Bumbo's travelten ehehe. When getting off the bus my plastic bag broke and the orange juice fell onto the floor in the aisle causing Bumbo to laugh at me
-_____-"

Arriving at Bumbo's house we alternated between playing Mario Kart on Wii and slowly making the Beef Wellingtons and Creamy Mushroom Soup. It took us forever and we were starving before the Wellingtons were done so we drank some soup first and resorted to eating packets of instant noodles while we waited. ><" When they were done, the Wellingtons tasted pretty good. =)

Having eaten at last we hit the sofa and drank our homemade drinks (sex on the beach) and watched Love Actually. Jack got to see lots of happy time ahaha and Louie kept giving spoilers and then laughing at me when I tried to quote something from the movie to explain to Bumbo bleh...

I didn't recognise Colin Firth at first and was slightly disappointed with his character. No where near as good as Mr Darcy from the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice teehee~ <3

All in all, a pretty good two days post-exams =)

E X A M S

Exam status: 1 down (Thurs), 3 to go (Mon, Tues, Weds)

As you can see I am really into my study for next week. I totally know all my pathologies, projections, and can interpret radiographs flawlessly. Plus I'm really excited about the short answer and extended answer questions that are worth around 40 marks or so. Piece of cake.

Oh yes.

I am so dead. +___+

On a side note, Dot, Denise, Jason and I had dinner at Thai-namite after our study session at the library. I had chicken Pad Kee Mao, and the others had beef Pad Kee Mao, Jungle curry, and some chicken with crab-meat fried rice.

Geh. Okay time to stop bludging...

creeped out

Argh. Had a very creepy few days from the 3rd til the 5th...

Yes. You peeps know what I'm talking about. @_____@"

Sick 1st June

Gah. The first day of Winter and I already succumbed to the cold. I couldn't even go to uni. =S

Double J Bday

30th May: Jo's 19th
Cindy picked me up around 4:30ish and we made our way to *stab stab* Campsie, Cindy being the driver and I the trusty navigator. It took us a little longer than expected to find some parking because the one way streets were REALLY narrow and we kept missing them. Plus it was hard to read the map because of the lack of light...

As we walked toward the station and the shops we bumped into Sai who was also early, so together we bummed around for about an hour until Jo came to fetch us and lead the way to the Korean BBQ place. We talked with Kathy and Katie while she went back and forth fetching people, and we all saw something we didn't need to see...guy sitting on floor with back facing us and jeans that were just a little too low cut... *shudder* =S



Eventually everyone arrived and the next two hours were filled with eating, talking, laughing, eating, taking photos, present opening and more eating. I would've taken more photos but sadly I was stuck on in the middle of the table against the wall and couldn't get out. So instead, my camera circulated around the table. =[

We finally realised that the staff seemed to want us gone so we relocated outside to say our goodbyes and figure out who was doing what. In the end only Kathy, Katie, Lynette and I stayed behind to bum at Jo's bro's place where we decided to play Wii Mario Kart because there wasn't enough time to watch Shutter. Kathy was Yoshi, Katie was Mario, Lynette was Donkey Kong and I played as Toad (naturally, heh). It was really fun, and even though we were all noobs, only Katie and I kept screaming and exclaiming...ehehe... XD

Anyway I got a call from home so I had to go, and Jo was really nice and offered to ask her parents to drive me (plus Lynette cos she was staying over) home. =D


31st May: Jax's 19th
Got to Central pretty early so I took my time walking to Broadway, then checking out the sales until I noticed it was almost 2pm and started heading towards Cotton On just as Louie was on his way out. Good timing. =D

Ate lunch at Tomodachi (yes, no one else came. Kathy was nerding and I didn't know Jack was free the WHOLE DAY omg...I was so nigel afterwards) and the lady sitting at the table adjacent to ours randomly asked us what we had ordered (hot pot and ramen). Louie paid but he still owes me money ehehe...

So Louie went back to work and I went back to window shopping, but got bored of Broadway and slowly made my way to Market City. Man the wind was COLD. =S Finally got to Market City and I still had like, 3ish hours until Bumbo and Jack would get to the city T_____T I slowly browsed through the shops and had to sit down on benches cos my feet got so tired. Some random came up to talk to me and started asking me all these questions, but he was a nice person I guess.

Being nigel for three hours in Market City was not fun especially since I was banning myself from buying anything, so I was compleletly bored out of my mind. Finally Bumbo and Jack came, and THEN I was told that Jack had been free the WHOLE day and omg they should have told me sooner...I didn't have to be nigel the whole day!!! T______T

Anyway, they showed me the present that we got for Jacqueline (a PJ dog) which had a 'sus' part near the tail ahahaha...O.o" Jack and I tried to persuade Reanna to let us go to GJ's but she refused, bleh, so instead we went to EasyWay (where we met up with Louie) before going to Capitol instead to write the card.

Man, the card was so blank. =S

We hurried off to Seoul Ria after that and found that some people had already arrived (but at least we weren't last, yay). There was a couple of people I didn't really know and neither did the others, so we kinda just talked amongst ourselves instead. When we finished dinner and took all our photos we headed to the skill testers in Capitol and bummed around there for a bit. Jack won a tiny dog and Kathy really wanted this set of three dolls but the machine was really hard. =/

They went to line up outside Passionflower afterwards and so Reanna, Jack and I decided to leave because it was already 11pm (I was staying at Bumbo's house, otherwise I would have had to have left a third of the way through dinner =S). Even though we were pretty tired, Bumbo and I still managed to chat until like 3am when we decided we should sleep ehehe... XD

Poem for $20 =O

Gahh...so many exams and assignments and no time to bludge. =[

Today in Radiographic Physics, R.B asked us to write another poem, and this time he gave us an incentive. One of the poems would be randomly selected from the box and the student who wrote it would get $20! How cool is that? xD Obviously I didn't win, but it was pretty cool anyway.

I heard the wierdest thing on the radio yesterday...apparently there's some woman (whose last name means 'Berlin Wall') who has a condition which makes her attracted to inanimate objects. She got married to the Berlin Wall 29 years ago and reckons they've had quite the relationship O___O"

Though apparently now she's become attracted to some random fence... =S

Hmm...I better get back to study now.

A Very Long Day

What was supposed to be just a 'meet-up' turned out to be quite an eventful long day. We organised to meet up in Burwood at 11 but, since public transport sucks, I ended up getting there closer to 11:45...ehhehe ^^" Not my fault since I was waiting at the bus stop since 10:10 and TWO BUS SERVICES DID NOT COME. Then there was trackwork, so services to Burwood were few and far between -but enough about transport woes and on with the more important details.

Not much actually happened to begin with. Baldy, Louie, KTF and I (Bumbo had work and Dango dogged me) ate lunch in the Westfield Foodcourt then we went to watch Indiana Jones (Louie had to go home for his driving lesson) which wasn't too bad. =) The whole 'crystal skull' thing was a little over the top and a bit too far-fetched for my liking (if they wanted to go Sci-Fi I prefer the Stargate version of the crystal skull and the 'giant aliens'), and there were certain scenes reminiscent of The Mummy. They had visual references to the previous Indy movies which I thought was cool, like the whole quicksand-and-snake thing, showing Indy lecturing students, and the statue of Marcus Brody.

Yeah. Good movie. =)

We parted ways after the movie and I caught the Rail Bus to Ashfield to visit Bumbo. Was just about to say hi to her when Louie messaged telling me to wait cos he was coming too. I thought he wanted me to wait so we could go see Bumbo together, but it turns out he thought KTF was there and so didn't want us to leave cos he wanted to see Bumbo's reaction. Oh well.

Louie finally came and we dropped in to see Bumbo who was quitesurprised/confused to see us ahahaha...and Louie was cut cos she kept addressing me mostly lol. We bummed around and waited for her until she finished and were invited to her house to bum some more lol. We didn't stay for long because Louie had dinner waiting at home and Bumbo's family were going out to eat. I was invited to join them and oddly enough Katie's family also went to eat at the same place we were eating. TP and I started speaking like fobs, saying stuff like "You know, me? I know, you." "This one, you know?" ahahaa we must've sounded so retarded...

Bumbo's family is cool. =) [ahaha I just realised NONE of them got Louie's Michael Jackson joke...they all needed to have it explained XD]

I got dropped off at Stratty and I made the mistake of waiting an extra minute for the express train instead of getting onto the all-stops. The express was UBER SLOW (and I froze my butt off because the train carriage was cold) and because of that I missed my bus. I was like, going up the escalator to the bus stop, only to see my bus leave. T_______T Nooo....*spirals into oblivion*

Stoopid buses come hourly after a certain time -plus it was a weekend.

Then, cos Louie said he was going to Max Brenner with relos, I asked if I could join, but they weren't there yet. Louie asked me to try get a table for them so I headed over to the bustling, cramped shop. Geh, waited ages in a line that didn't seem to move while constantly checking if there were any spare tables. I wondered what I should do if I happened to see a spare table -should I leave the line and go hog the table? or should I continue to wait in line? In the end I reasoned that I'd have to stay in line because it'd just be plain dodgy if I hogged a table without ordering anything -not to mention that I'd be sitting by myself. -_____-"

As I neared the counter I realised that I needed to think of something to order. If I bought a drink they might not give me a table number since they could make it on the spot, so I scanned the menu for something more affordable. I couldn't see anything cheap so when it was my turn to order, I pointed to a plate of waffles, strawberries and a chocolate lick that was on the counter waiting to be served, and said "Can I have one of those?" Whew. [Gahhh it cost me $15.05 including 10% surcharge since it was a weekend! ><"]

Then I had a most pleasant experience standing around nigel holding a table number and hovering around the tables waiting for someone to vacate a spot. =S [Once I looked outside to see if there were any outside spots available, and saw an asian woman by herself looking in my direction, waving and smiling. I didn't recognise her so I turned around to see if she was waving to someone behind me but didn't see anyone so I turned back to the woman who was STILL smiling and waving, double-checked to see if she was waving to someone behind me, turned back around and slowly pointed to myself with a confused look -to which she shook her head and I turned around again and FINALLY saw her friend waving back at her and making her way outside to the table. OMG how embarrassing].

Eventually a nice couple offered me their table which I accepted gratefuly. A minute later the couple next to me vacated their seat also so I quickly joined the two tables and sat there looking like a nigel hogging much sought-after tables and seat [luckily I was sitting facing the window and not the line of people waiting to order and find a table O.o"]. Inevitably I was asked by two different people if I needed BOTH tables, and yes, I replied, I did because there were more people coming soon sorry. Felt like such a hog... >___<"

Luckily I didn't have to wait long as Louie and relos came soon after, but after a few minutes half of them decided to leave because they were fed up with waiting (they waited at a different Max Brenner earlier and weren't served, then drove all the way to Parra only to find it similarly crowded). Anyway, food finally came and it was super sweet @_@ and I saw (or rather she saw me) Celine! Very unexpected ehehe... ^^

Louie got owned by his younger cousin who fully snubbed him when he was trying to bag him out and I talked a bit to one of his uncles who has also lived in Canberra. =D Louie made me ask one of the waiteresses if Bethany was working, but apparently she'd already gone home. =( Oh and we were asked TWICE by different waitresses if we had finished eating when it was quite obvious we still had food on our plate. Talk about good business O.o"

Finally finished the waffles and Louie walked me to bus stop and I thought it was really cold -couldn't even keep my finger steady when pointing to the timetable bleh. He kept laughing at me but was kind enough to lend me his jacket. Bus came on time for once and then I was on my way home [it was kinda strange when I got off the bus because none of the streetlights were on O.o" ].

So yeaaah. Quite the eventful day. ^_________^ v

Shutter -___-"

Yesterday after submitting portfolio; eating with Dory, Jack and Carl at Ichiban Boshi; fixing Carl's phone; and shopping at Cotton On, we saw Shutter and IT WAS CRAAAAP.

Carl was hiding behind her jacket and was pretty scared and Louie had his hoodie up and full covered his face with his hands ahaha...pretty funny. It was soo not scary, and yes while I do look like I'm scared, it's just a natural instinct to cover most of my face, so that in the event that I AM scared I can quickly hide.

Most scary bit? Hmm..not so much scary as it was freaky, but it'd either have to be the part when he was in the darkroom and Megumi was humming and caressing his neck (except he thought it was his wife), or the part when he was in the darkroom developing the photo and Megumi appeared in the picture and the chemicals splashed onto his face. O.o"

Afterwards Baldy opted to go Capitol to try his luck at the skill tester machines (and omg he ended up winning so many O.o") while we met up with Mandy and her boyfriend (can't remember his name...oops...was it Kevin??) and re-visited Cotton On then bummed in Market City Galaxy World.

I BEAT LEWIS IN BASKETBALL! muhaha...XD

We split up afterwards and Jo and TP joined us for dinner at B,B,Q City (yes, it does have commas). We had to wait ages for a table but eventually got to order Korean Rice Cake Hot Pot and err...some beef soup thingy...

It was yummm ^____^v

There were two tv screens playing Korean mvs, one on the wall behind Jo and Baldy, and another on the wall diagonally to the right. At one point I was discussing the Korean mv playing on the screen with Baldy and Jo (who could see the one diagonally behind me), and after Jo said something Louie exclaimed incredulously, "How do YOU know?!" AHAHAAHA he sounded so amazed me and Jo cracked up so much... XD

Had to leave around 9:30ish to meet my brother at Railway Square then bused it back to where he parked his car at work and drove home.

FREE YOGHURT!

For the second day in a row I got free Dairy Farmer's yoghurt from Parra on the way home! =)

Good stuff -even more so since it was free. Heh. XD

What Happens in Vegas

After Oral Viva yesterday (geh, just my luck to have gotten that lady as my examiner...), and finishing up the Physics assignment with Jo, we headed out to Burwood. Fi drove and the first thing we did was grab some food from the food court to smuggle into the cinemas =) [Parking was interesting too, but I shall make no comment seeing as I don't even have my P's yet.. T___T ]

We watched 'What Happens in Vegas' because we'd missed the sessions for 21 and Shutter. It was actually better than I had initially expected and the good thing was that the cinema was completely empty (except for one guy who came in a little later) so we laughed and talked as loudly as we liked~ xD [though the poor guy must've suffered through the whole movie listening to us laughing... ^^"]

One of my favourite parts was when Cameron Diaz was demonstrating how to put the toilet seat down. Dressed in her nice work clothes she held the toilet seat up with a pair of tongs and lifted it up and down saying "Look, it goes up....and it goes down" aahaha so hilarious man~ along with other bits too. XD

Jo couldn't stay for the whole movie due to work commitments and afterwards Fi went home and Michael had to go to work too. I wasn't nigel though cos Carl had come to find me. =) We walked around Westfield for a bit before Louie joined us and we headed to Bello's. They decided to shout me cos I was feeling emo after the Oral Viva~ aww they're such good buddies ehehe ^_______^

As usual we chatted about a lot of random things and laughed a lot (especially Carl, but that's normal haha) so by the time I got on the bus to Parra I was feeling quite cheered up and not so emo anymore. =)

So, in summary:

• Stoopid examiner
• Stoopid assignment
• Hilarious movie
• Great friends

Oh, and I am so not catching the bus from Burwood anymore.
Bleh. -____-"

Press Play~

Yay, I've now got music on my blog! =)

hmm~

Random things about today:

• FINISHED SPSS!! v^_______________^v
• Parliament House is now 20 years old. =O
• Reading FOB English is difficult...
• Free SMS is cool~
• Assignments are G-Y-A, GAY -___-"
• John Hoon <3
• Green tea =)
• TubThumping XD

Stuck in my head...

No reason, but these random lyrics are just stuck in my head. Guess I've been listening to a mix of old stuff and new stuff these days...

"will- you- beeee... unmistakable?"
"come give me red roses with yourrr baaare haaands"
"inconsolable"
"我该如何才能羸得, 你对我微笑的脸, 甜言蜜语应该跟着谁学, 只要地球不毁灭, 我就继续等待你, 到永远还很久时间"
"you're always walking awaaaay (walking awaay)"
"we spend all of our lives, goin' out of our minds, lookin' back to our birth, forward to our demise, even scientists say everything is just light; not created, destroyed; but eternally bright"
"du, du hast, du hast mish"
"all this time you were pretending, so much for my happy ending"
"至少还有我..."
"사랑해, And I love you-"
"i wanna feel the raaain"
"in pieces, in piiieeceess"
"I couldn't take it anymore so I went back to the sea..."

De-stressing 2nd May

Started off the day with a cervical cancer shot before heading off to TownHall with Kyoya. Louie came from JB to join us in waiting for Jo (who was half an hour late =P). Upon Jo's arrival we set off for Norita and played a few rounds of Tumbling Monkeys until around 3ish. I barely got any monkeys muhaha...^^v Tumbling Monkeys lost its initial challenge after the first two games and afterwards we were pretty much playing simply for the sake of playing. When we got really bored of it we started pegging the monkeys at each other when the staff weren't looking hehehe...

Afterwards we headed to Capitol but Jo had to leave =( I shouted Carl and Louie purikura [because I lost that stoopid bet -___-" geh...] and then we went to Greenbox Plus.

Al finally shouted me K, yay~!! XD keke...

Kathy came around the end of K and we went to eat Korean BBQ at City Potcha. It was kinda expensive and the service wasn't really that great but the food was good and I don't know about everyone else but I enjoyed it. It was my first Korean BBQ experience! =)

When we'd eaten our fill we wandered over to Passionflower and carefully analysed each item on the menu, trying to get our money's worth and being the cheap, tight-ass asian uni students that we were:

Louie: OMG! The pancakes here are so cheap! 2 stacks for $7!
Me: No...look they have 4 stacks for $10!
Louie: Oh how about this one? 3 stacks with one scoop of ice-cream for $12
Us: Oooh.... *scanning the rest of the menu for even cheaper items*
Louie: Or how about the...
Me & Louie: *both point to the picture on our respective menus* CHOCOLATE!
Kathy: Jinx! *looks at the Chocolate description* It's only got one scoop of ice-cream...
Louie: Ok then how about this one? *points*
(pause)
Kathy and Carl: Tha'ts not ice-cream! THAT'S CREAM!! *pointing accusingly at the blob of cream in the picture next to the single scoop of ice-cream*
Louie: *looks at it closely* Oh.

Ahh...I'll never forget that. It was such a classic tight-ass asian moment ahahaha....XD

Anyway Carl's uni friends came to join us and waited for us to finish eating because they wanted to go to Maloney's and see Carl get drunk ahahhaa. While they chatted about plans for their friend's birthday, Kathy, Louie, Kyoya and I continued eating and started our own conversation.

I still reckon that the guy at Passionflower had Sasuke-like hair. =P

At Maloney's, Carl got an expensive but interesting-looking purple drink which had 4 or 5 different things in it. Louie broke his self-imposed "no drinking" record. =O Kathy and Kyoya declined to drink and I was prov so Al shouted me a B52. It burnt my throat and I started coughing so I had to put it down when I'd only drunk half the shot...ehehehe....but yeaaah when I recovered I finished the rest of the shot and hoped not too many people had seen my noob-ness. ^^" Louie accused me of ruining it though because I'd failed to knock it back all in one go.

Afterwards I had to leave and meet up with my brother who was still in the city and getting ready to leave so Kathy, Kyoya and Louie decided to leave as well. While I waited for my bro, Louie bought Kathy her lollipops and some random lady came up to us and asked us if we were Chinese or Korean. O.o"

My brother finally came and I waved back at the others as we ran for the bus.

Quite an enjoyable day. =)

Deception!

Thursday May 1st
Watched Deception with Jo after uni and it was pretty good (except for certain explicit scenes...O.o"). The plot was quite interesting and it kinda remined me of something else I've seen, but I still can't think of what it is. =S

They could have done so much more with the storyline instead of showing all those scenes -__-"

I was kinda disappointed when they didn't follow up the thing with the kevlar and the tennis racquet. The bit with the old asian lady in the hotel was funny: She was slowly handpicking cubes of ice from the ice bin in the hallway as if she were picking individual pieces of fruit at a market. Then, when asked by the main character if she needed help, she stopped, turned around, glared at him and said slowly in English I can manage thankyou, before turning back around to finish her selection of ice cubes.

Soo random. XD

Taronga Zoo!

Friday 25th
When I got to Circular Quay I bumped into ShiShan who was also early and we didn't have to wander around too long before we spotted Sheung and Andy. Fi and David came late and the weather looked pretty gloomy, but we decided to head off to the zoo anyway.
It was a pretty fun day and we saw practically all the animals and even watched a seal training show- though I was satisfied after I saw the penguins. =)
One of the seals was really cute, on the trainer's cue: These animals need to watch out for their natural predators... the seal started swimming in circles, leaving only one flipper above the water. XD
At one point Fi was attempting to take a photo of an emu, but it started defecating so I said Fi, you scared it! She didn't get it until afterwards *sigh* ahahaha...
After we left the zoo ShiShan went home and we met up with Jo for dinner at a Burmese place in Stratty (I also got to satify my fortnight-long craving for Korean rice cakes XD).

Prom Night

Watched Prom Night with Jo, Baldy and Michael on Thursday 24th after uni and it was VERY disappointing. Waste of time and money. =( The stalker guy was pretty freaky, but it wasn't really that scary and most parts were quite predictable. The funniest moments were probably:

1. When it was all silent in the cinema and the girls sitting a couple of rows behind us suddenly squealed in fright, LOL
2. Baldy constantly saying "stab, stab".

So yeah, pretty crap movie.

Blog Break

Taking a bit of a break from studying to blog a little~

I've finally gotten around to listening to S.H.E Play [yes, I know it's not that new anymore…leave me alone! ><"] and it's not bad, there's quite a few good songs. ^^

Apparently Jay Chou wrote the song 借口 for S.H.E [which would explain why there are so many references to his songs]. The mv for it is pretty interesting too, there's some random guy pretending to be Jay Chou ahahaha.

Anyway exams and assignments are coming up soon.*sigh* I've given up watching anime and dramas for a while –it's time to buckle down and STUUUDY!! [Now, if only R.B had better lecture notes -___-"]

My sister got a baby budgie from her friends for her birthday! For the moment it is still nameless and its gender is undetermined. O.o" Nevertheless it is a cute little thing which, for the most part, is pretty quiet and motionless. Seriously, if you didn't look at it closely you'd think it was a fake bird the way it assumes a stance and doesn't move. =/

It's a little more lively when it's noisy and it likes to sit on the swing and swing sideways. Interestingly enough it uses its head to 'push' itself on the swing. It's a very odd sight to say the least. O.o"

Oh, and on a side note I am sick.

=[

>>emo day<<

Monday was Pon and Zhi Emo Day! Physics was more like a tutorial instead of a proper lecture so we ended up taking more photos than actually doing work ahaha...

Pon and Zhi emos under the desks...

Pon and Zhi emos against the wall...
Group of emos and not so-emo emos...

So extra...

Helped out at the TSA Harbour Cruise Stall at Main campus on Friday from 11-12ish. Handed out flyers with Andy along the walkway and we tested out our marketing skills. I finished handing out all my flyers before Andy did, but then again he had more than me to begin with ahaha...At some point Al joined us and helped us hand out a couple of flyers and we had a few competitions to see who could hand out their flyers the quickest.

When we had no more flyers we said our farewells to the rest of the TSA committee members present and went to join Reanna and her group for lunch to celebrate a birthday for their friend Sherman. We caught the bus into Townhall and headed over to Ichiban Boshi only to find there weren't enough tables -if we ate there we would have to split up into three groups. So we left and tried Full House which, true to its name, was completely full. Someone noticed there was a booking under someone called Marilyn, and I joked that we could pretend I made the booking and go "You spelt the name wrong, it's Mary Lin, not Marilyn."

Having no reason to linger in the restraunt we left and discussed where we should go. Eventually we decided on Seoul Ria since it always has plenty of space and Sherman preferred to eat either Korean or Japanese. After we'd eaten, cut the cake and they had taken photos to their heart's content we all went our separate ways. Some people had to rush back to uni for lectures, some had work, others wanted to go shopping and some just went home.

On the other hand Lewis, Andy and I decided to go K. =D

For some odd reason we were given a really huge room even though there was only three of us -not that we complained. We sang for 2 hours and continued to sing for an additional 14mins even after our time was up ehehe... It was fun though and we were pretty surprised it took so long for them to kick us out.

Longest record so far muhaha...XD

Finished the Naruto Fillers!

Yup. That's right. I totally wasted my time watching the last arc of the Naruto fillers instead of doing my work. =S

Ahh why do I succumb to procrastination so easily?! ><"

Free sushi and Nice Bus Drivers

Rocked up to uni early today and saw two fire engines parked inside Gate 2. Not quite sure why they were there, but I suspect something may have happened down at JDV because all the workers were sitting outside.

Went with Jennifer to JDV during common lunch to join the line to redeem our Campus Rewards vouchers for a free sushi roll and bottle of water. We both chose salmon sushi which tasted horrible -the rice was soggy, the seaweed was soggy and the salmon wasn't very fresh.

The rest of the day at uni was pretty average, BACH was boring and Rad Prac finished early. As always Lynette, Jennifer and I wrote stories to pass the time during lecture.

STORY 1:
Dango sat down and a million voices cried out in pain. She had sat on
[insert insect] a giant cockroach. Mary was so hungry she thought it was a
[insert food] cheesecake. They moved onto something a bit more kinky, this was a
[insert food item] pickled ginger. Dango secretly took a photo of
[insert name] Sheung. Andy was jealous of the relationship between Sai and Sheung. He wanted him back so badly he even
[insert action] kickboxed. Andy was watching on the sideline. He then planned to
[insert action] stalk
[insert name] John (lecturer). He was blabbing on about the C-spine. Lyn was keenly paying attention, not because she thought it was interesting, but because she secretly believed that he was Santa.
Because of this she...was totally bored in the lecture
she was attending the afterparty celebrating Jo kun's achievement in
[sport] lawn bowls. Mary was practising for the future where she'd play lawn bowls 24/7 with her significant other
[insert male name] Michael. Lynette in the meanwhile was sitting in the lecture with the story looking at the others wondering why they were taking so long with the next line.
Silly silly Lynette. Lynette was so silly that she mistook Andy for
[insert male name] Daniel the Olympic powerwalker. He got mistaken as an illegal immigrant and got shipped back to
[place] Townhall.

When we had all finished for the day, Denise, Lynette and I decided to walk to Lidcombe since it didn't seem like the bus was coming. We got past the TAFE when we spotted the bus coming on its way to uni, causing us to start exclaiming and waving our arms to the driver. The driver stopped to let off a few passengers and was kind enough to wait for us to cross the road and hop on before taking us back to uni where we picked up other students wanting to go to the station. We gave the bus driver a tip and he honked the horn at us after we got off the bus ahahaha...

Once at the station we immediately set off in search of food. Lynette bought Korean sushi and I bought cheese and bacon bread. =)

We got to kickboxing at around 6:30pm, and by then it was quite dark and gloomy outside. Today's session wasn't so bad, it was less intense compared to other weeks but my shoulders are sore now and I kind of died during the last few excercises.

I'll sleep well tonight. xD

One Missed Call

Recorded it on TV and watched it with my sister the other day -turned out to be confusing and not scary at all. Essentially what happens is this (without giving away any spoilers):

1. Your mobile rings -seems normal right? WRONG. Instead of your normal ringtone there's this creepy little tune that gives you a sense of impending doom.
2. For some reason you either didn't reach your mobile in time or you didn't dare to answer it. In any case you now have one missed call.
3. What do you do when you get a missed call? You check it. Yes. You are then informed by your voice mail that the call was from your own number, 72 hours into the future. The following message is a recording of what is going to happen in 72 hours -what you're going to say or hear before the ghost gets you.
4. You deal with the message in your own way, whether it be skepticism or paranoia, but in the end everything plays out just as in the missed call.
5. The ghost selects a number from your contact list, dials that number and the cycle continues.

The idea is kinda freaky but the movie wasn't scary and the ending was just confusing. The newspaper gave it 3 stars, I think I'd give it 2 at most. =/

Bludging in Lectures

Jennifer, Lynette and I were bored during Rad Prac so we decided to channel our boredom into something creative -yes, we wrote stories. xD If you don't know what kind of story I mean, it was one of those ones where you write a sentence, fold it over and let the next person continue the sentence. So anyway, here they are, unaltered in all their random glory (although I fixed a few spelling mistakes I didn't correct the tense).

Key: Me, Lynette, Jennifer

STORY ONE:
Jo kun needed to go to the toilet but the line was too long so instead she resorted to crouching down behind a
[insert object] pink polka dot underpants. Dango thought this was extrememly sexy, so sexy that she
[insert action] hugging Sheung just to feel his tank arm. Mary got jealous on the side, her ears were fuming with smoke and eyes were angry looking.
[new sentence] Dango was feeling hungry so she rummaged around in the bin and found a half-eaten
[insert food] dog food. Mary thought it was so delicious she went back for
[insert number] 20016 of serves.
Mary had a little lamb...but there were too many ethics involved and Jo kun was so confused she decided to seek advice from her secret love
[insert name] Steven. Mary was so turned on that she started to
belly dance. She liked to shake her booty like a salt shaker.

STORY TWO:
Dango had an unusual habit of staring for hours at
[insert name] Sheung. Mary was checking him out on
[insert place] Mary's house. It was all very exciting and
[insert name] Andy decided to bake a chocolate cake just for
[insert name] Andy Ip. Andy finally realised that he had a rival for Sheung's love so he decided to win him back by
[insert action] jump up and down. The glee could not escape his face but alas he knew his time was up,
[new sentence] Jo kun woke up late and came into the lecture
[insert action] picked her nose, wiped it in a book, then returned it to the library. Unfortunately Mary had reserved this book next. She saw this and was
[insert emotion] happy and sad at the same time. How could this be possible?
How? The only answer: because Jo kun stinks and Dango is lame.

March

Soo... here's a brief rundown of what I did during the month of March (lacking a lot of detail unfortunately but I don't have time to write about each and every event as a new blog entry):

• 06/03: Michael's Birthday + Mono Reunion! Our last lecture was cancelled so around 20 or so of us headed to the city at around 11 to celebrate Michael's birthday. We ate lunch at Sussex Thai before getting three rooms at Greenbox Plus for 2 hours. Karaoke was pretty fun because you could run over to the other rooms and see what they were singing if you didn't like or know the song that was playing in your room ehehe... Afterwards I met up with my Mono peeps (who I haven't seen in YONKS) at Starbar for dinner (I dragged Lewis and Reanna with me haha).
• 07/03: Visit to Usyd! Met up with Angel and Lewis outside Fisher before checking out Blackburn and bumming at Broadway. Angel, Reanna and I crashed Bethany and Lewis's linguistics lecture which was heaps interesting! "You're missing out on a great spoon" Ahahaha...XD The tables there are the perfect height for you to rest your head on and sleep -wish we had them at Cumbo haha. For lunch, Angel, Lewis, Reanna and I trekked over to Thai Times Nine, and we invented a singing game to pass the time. After Reanna left for work and Lewis went to his lesson, Angel and I bumped into Waisze and we went for coffee at GJs then took purikura. Heh.
• 14/03 - 16/03 TSA Vision Valley Camp! Met up with Jennifer and Andy on the train and we were one of the first people to arrive at Hornsby station. The bus ride to the camp site didn't take too long and we had dinner before performing our play. It was based on Harry Potter and I was given the role of...Quirrell. -___-" I couldn't even remember my lines properly so I had to improvise on the spot. I shared room 19 with Jennifer and Angela and we made several references to the "fourth" person in the room in an attempt to freak each other out. The next day we had Wacky Olympics and then Andy, Jeffery, David, Angela, Peter and I sat around playing Spoons for around an hour while the teams practised their skits. That night seven of us crashed room 20 and told ghost stories before eventually falling alseep in the early hours of the morning. The next day we had dodgeball and a big waterfight before we had lunch and left.
• 18.03.08 First Kickboxing lesson! 'Nuff said.
• 21.03.08 Basketball! Tina picked Mario, Shu and I up and we alternated between playing Donkey and 2 vs 2 for roughly 2 hours. It drizzled slightly but none of us minded.
• 22.03.08 A Thousand Spices! Randomly bumped into Teresa and Aditi at different times and places. Went shopping with Denise in Parra from 1-5pm. We met up with Lynette after she finished work and then headed off to Homebush to eat with 11 other people from uni at A Thousand Spices. There was a whole table of Singaporeans, and the rest of us sat at the "multicultural table" which was dominated by the Sri Lankans, Indians etc. The cheese nan and buter chicken were delicious and I attempted to copy everyone else by eating with my hands. First time I've tried Indian food properly. =)
• 24.03.08 Royal Easter Show! Went job hunting in Parra with Reanna and Lewis and ate lunch before bumming around MYER until Andy showed up. We ate at Hungry Jacks and regretted it because our burgers were literally SWIMMING in mayo. It just oozed out and dripped onto the table which wasn't too good for our appetites. When we couldn't eat anymore we met Theresa at Lidcombe and made our way to the Easter Show. Once we got there, the first thing we did was find the toilets ahaha... We walked around the place and eventually decided to go on some rides! We went on the Crazy Rollercoaster and some Worm thing. The rollercoaster ride was REALLY good -it spun and tilted and swerved in the rain. xD Geh, I saw the biggest Kermit ever hanging up as one of the prizes! Throughout the course of the night I tried three times to try and win a Kermit of some form but failed. The first time I got a bear which I named "Overflow" haha =P. On the second attempt we won a pack of giant playing cards which we persuaded the girl to exchange for a skinny pig which we called Lewis. On the third and final attempt I didn't win anything. T___T
• 26.03.08 Long Reef Beach! Dot was kind enough to drive Denise, Zhi Wen and I there. While Denise and I took photos and mucked around in the back, Zhi Wen navigated and Dot drove. There were around 25 of us from uni and another 10 or so people from Baulko who didn't really mingle with us. Jennifer, Denise, Fi and I ventured out into the waves and held hands to support each other (we weren't really between the flags ahahha). Afterwards we crowded around the stoves volunteering to be guniea pigs in the quality control process. The task was long and we were all very careful and meticulous with our sampling. In the end it was widely accepted that the meat was ready and we took some over to the table where everyone else was sitting. xD We also played beach volleyball with a human net and a soccer ball.
• 27.03.08 Easter Wii! Bummed at Bumbo's house with Kathy, Lewis, Weasel and Jack. The day consisted of Wii, DS battles and random games at the park. As always it was another fun filled day: TP stuck a "OWNED" label on Lewis' forehead; we took group photos; TP and Weasel forced me to eat wasabi beans; we ate lunch with rabbids yelling in the background; and I stayed over for the night. ^^
• 28.03.08 Bumming in the City! We woke up a little late (oops) and so poor Waisze had to wait half an hour for us at Strathfield before we headed off to eat lunch at Poporo in Market City. Afterwards we dawdled for a bit before gettng KEEKI from 85^oC which we smuggled into Greenbox Plus ehehe... We had a lot of fun and set ourselves the task of finding a song that Waisze knew how to sing: "Ok, you HAVE to know this one" "Omg everyone knows this one" "This one, this one!" When our time was up we ventured into Fujiya (yay~) where Helary joined us for dinner. The food was gooooooood~ hehehe
• 29.03.08 James comes to visit! Haha my "godbro" finally found the time to come visit me after so long yay~ The day was spent watching episodes of Stargate SG1 on dvd and combining our efforts to make a delicious and filling lunch xD

Ahh...yeaaah that's about everything I did in March in a nutshell. ^^

Thien's Farewell (March 1st)

Uhh I can't remember exactly what happened anymore but basically I met up with Andy and when we got to Granville we had just missed our connecting train. The next train was in 30mins so we chatted about this and that and exchanged interesting stories about our clinical experience.

When we arrived at Cabramatta we looked around for people we knew and finally spotted them at one of the station exits. We joined them and chatted while we waited for Sai to arrive as Kim and Jennifer would come a bit later. Once Sai came we headed out to catch the bus to Thien's house but Sai and I were given a lift by one of the other girls. ^^

Fi, Simon, Cheng Dong and Steven were already there and after most people arrived we ate lunch. It was really good, there were so many yummy dishes to choose from we all just pigged out haha. Some of us started to sing karaoke, play Wii or other console games while the rest of us opted to play Ugly Dolls, Articulate!, Apples to Apples, the Bean-growing game and Zeus on the Loose. I think I did pretty well in most of the games ahahaha...


A few of us had to leave early but the majority stayed for dinner and it was pretty cool. We joined all the little tables together into one long row and sat in tiny chairs eating our delicious steamy bowls of Pho. Kinda felt like a little restaurant haha.

All in all it was a great day. =)

Last Day of Clinicals

Friday 29th of February was my last day of clinical. It was pretty sad because I didn't really wanna go back to uni and do assignments and exams. Plus I had come to enjoy the atmosphere of the department and the company of the people in it.

Anyway, my last day of clnical happened to coincide with the last day for two other staff members (granted they were only going on extended leave and not leaving permanently) so we had a HUGE morning tea to celebrate. I bought in some biscuits and a chocolate chill cake I'd made the night before. There was so much to eat~ xD

I took random photos with everyone, observed some Nuclear Med and CT and, of course, did my fair share of HSAs. All in all, it was a great experience. At the end of the day when I went into the tearoom to gather my things I found everyone already waiting for me. The woman from Nuclear Med gave a speech of how they would miss me and hoped that I would do well in my future studies.

I'll miss them.

Once I got back to my Auntie's house I double-checked to make sure I had everything and then went to have a quick dinner before giving my Auntie and Uncle some Thankyou presents and then heading off to the Jolimont Centre. Alan came to see me off and Jia sent her apologies for not being able to make it.

The coach ride was quiet and my seat number was 8D -I'm always allocated the window seat, how cool is that? xD Anyway no-one sat next to me so I took up both seats and had a nap. The night sky was so clear I couldn't stop staring at the stars for ages.

My brother and sister came to pick me up once I got to Central and we drove home. It was great being back home with my family and even better sleeping in my own bed again.

Heh.

Rockclimbing!

Yesterday my uncle drove me out to the ANU to meet up with Alan, who then took me with him to go indoor rockclimbing. When we got there Alan's two friends Simon and Micah were already there waiting for us. I paid my $14 and had to take a crash course in belaying since I haven't been rockclimbing in YONKS, like, not since camp at primary school. It was pretty easy, and the main things to remember were:

• Always cloth to metal
• Keep hands in lockdown position
• Watch your climber
• Two-handed pull up, out and down
• Hands away from you

Pretty easy stuff. The woman nodded and was satisfied with my technique, gave me a belay pass and then we were off. I let Alan go first so I could practice my belaying while Micah and Simon watched me to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong. I soon realised that it was almost a continuous cycle, pull up, out and down, pull up, out and down. As I struggled to keep pace with Alan and take up all the slack, Simon commented that belaying in itself is like a workout. I totally agree. @___@

In total I climbed eight times, and only had a break after the 5th one which was the hardest one I tried. There was a barrel-like sructure which jutted out of the wall half-way up, and it was so HARD. I could feel the strain on my aching muscles, and at first I was stuck underneath the barrel so I was just hanging there trying to figure out how to get over it. Eventually I figured out a route and pushing off my feet I quickly grabbed the next rock, heaved myself up to get another foothold, then pushed off again until I made it over the barrel.

Meanwhile Alan had been giving me encouragement and was trying to give me advice, but most of the time I couldn't really hear what he was saying... =/

Afterwards I clung to the wall and rested for a bit as I looked above and tried to figure out how I would make it up. I managed to get three quarters of the way up the wall but got stuck because I had moved up too slow and so didn't have enough strength in my arms to pull myself up to get a higher foothold. I was stuck there for a while,trying to pull myself up and missing the next rock, or trying to push off my feet but not getting enough force to move up. Sometimes I would lose my foothold and just be dangling by my hands (thank goodness Alan is good at belaying ahaha...). My arms were starting to cramp and my leg was shaking, I was losing so much energy and strength through all the failed attempts so I decided to try one last time to pull myself up with all my remaining might. I stretched my arm out and reached the rock but failed to find a suitable handhold before gravity kicked in and I slipped back down.

By now Alan was telling me to come down and take a break so I nodded in resignation and he lowered me back to the ground, saying: "That was pretty impressive for a beginner! You did well, not many beginners can make it over that barrel on their first try."

Needless to say, I was quite pleased and proud of my efforts -I even had a skinned elbow to show for it. Though I was slightly disappointed I hadn't managed to make it all the way to the top.

We sat outside in the cool evening breeze and Alan handed me my bottle. Alan had to help me open my bottle because my hands were so red and blistered that trying to grip onto the lid and twist was simply too painful. I gratefully gulped down my water and regretted not having bought more with me as my throat was still parched. Simon and Micah joined us for a break and asked how I was finding it. They then told us how Simon had just attempted the green course with 'The Wedge'. Basically, half-way up the wall you get to a point where there are no more green rocks, and so you have to wedge your arm into this gap between two triangles which stick out and then (somehow) boost yourself up (using the wedge), OVER the triangles and grab onto the next rock. Alan demonstrated it to me afterwards at my insistence and it looked crazy. =S

Another course I tried was one that used depressions and holes in the wall rather than rocks. Even though I managed to complete that one I found it very difficult because I was wearing my Converse so I couldn't fit my foot into most of the holes. O.o" The last one I did was climb the flexible steel ladder (I tried to climb the rope but it was too hard). The ladder is tougher than it looks, being a ladder it looks deceptively easy and simple, but once you start climbing it you realise how much it shakes and it's hard to balance. With Alan's help I discovered the trick is to keep your body straight and grabbing the bars from behind also help keep the ladder steady.

Alan was really pro, he did the barrel one HANDS ONLY! =O

Afterwards we decided to call it a day and head back (we'd climbed for around 90-120mins). Alan drove me to Belconnen so I could get Hungry Jacks for dinner and while we were waiting in line he got a ziplock bag from his car and filled it with ice from the drink dispenser. The ice felt soo good~ but my hands started to sting after a while so we took it in turns to hold it ahahaha...

Then Alan drove me home, and we saw an extremely localised storm. There were huge flashed of lightnight behind a concentrated group of stormclouds. It looked pretty cool. At first we had thought it was fireworks from the Canberra Show, but after we spotted the lightning we discarded that theory. Apparently it's a rare phenomenon that only occurs once every 20 years. The interesting thing is that while there was lots of lightning, we didn't hear any thunder or experience any rain.

Apparently it's been storming/hailing in Sydney.

A Day out in Civic (Saturday 23rd)

Woke up quite late, but just in time to receive a message from my sister who informed me that she had arrived in Canberra with her friend. I called her up and we organised to meet up at Woden Plaza in the afternoon (after she'd visited a few od her friends) where we'd catch a bus into Civic. My auntie gave me a lift to Woden on her way to pick up two ANU students and go join a free platypus-spotting evening at Tidbinbilla.

I arrived at the bus interchange at 4pm and messaged Shu to come meet me there. She arrived shortly and luckily there was already a bus picking up passengers. It was my third time on a bus (ACTION bus) in Canberra. Teehee XD

I've noticed that the newer buses are orange and green, instead of blue and orange like the original ones. The new ones also have a bike rack out in front which is a pretty cool idea since it saves space in the bus and keeps the inside of the bus cleaner. Oh and the new ones have blue lighting in the front section of the bus near the driver. I'm not quite sure why it's there, unless it functions as those UV lights they have in some toilets to prevent people from being able to find their veins and inject themselves. O.o"

It didn't take long to reach our destination and as soon as we got off the bus I made a beeline for the Jolimont Centre to book my ticket back to Sydney. There was a bit of confusion when I asked for a ticket on the 7:30 coach and was surprised when the girl answered there was no service avaliable at that time. She thought I intended to catch a coach in the morning and so offered alternatives -the 6:30 and the 7:45 which would reach Central at 9:45 and 12:15 respectively. The matter was resolved when I finally realised she was talking about morning services when she said "Your coach will depart from here at 6:30am..." "Ah!" I interrupted "I meant PM sorry..." Then she apologised and confirmed that there was indeed a 7:30 service departing in the evening. Poor girl, she was clearly exhausted. =/

Having purchased my ticket we set out for the Pancake Parlour ahahaha...We both decided to get a Swiss Mountain Malt (with Malt) and wondered which flavour to get. [Who in their right mind would get a Swiss Mountain Malt without Malt? Wouldn't it be called a Swiss Mountain in that case?? O.o"] I inquired about the 'Blue Heaven' flavoured Swiss Mountain Malt, but the waiter said that it was basically a blue sugary syrup which he heard customers say tasted like washing powder. O.o" I ended up choosing chocolate and Shu opted for vanilla. It was soo good~but it set us back $8.90 each. =S

While we sipped on our cool beverages we decided to have a quick game of chess on the raised platform. As fate would have it. I was white and Shu was black. I've never played as black against her and likewise she's never played as white against me. The both of us hadn't played chess in YEARS and I always lost to her when I was little (I was like less than 10) so I never had a chance to develop a strategy. Neither of us were playing seriously because we were both hungry, but she still ended up beating me anyway. Actually, I was the one who realised the 'check' was actually a 'checkmate'. I was so sad...the next turn I could've 'checked'!!! >_<

Well, at least I managed to capture 4 pawns -_-"

Conceeding defeat I heaved a sigh as we reset the pieces and paid for our drinks before heading off to eat dinner. I suggested Woodstock since Alan had told me that they served 'Zodiac pizzas' (basically pizzas with zodiac arrangements on them or something) which I thought sounded interesting. We had a look at the menu and I quickly scanned the zodiac section and read the following words: Cancer – Vegetarian: Mushrooms, olives, capsicum, tomato base, cheese.

"Wth? Why is Cancer a vegetarian pizza?!" I cried in dismay. Shu wasn't too impressed with hers either, Aries: Anchovies, olives, mushrooms, tomato base, cheese. We had a look at the other zodiac pizzas to see if they were all crap or if it was just ours. Some were pretty simple, others were ok, but we couldn't understand why Sagittarius was so special. Sagittarius: Four Different Tastes ¼ Capricorn, ¼ Woodstock, ¼ virgo, ¼ capsicum & oregano.

Favouritism much?? -_-"

Disappointed, I suggested we get the Pizza Supreme instead. Shu wanted to try some steak but wasn't hungry enough and neither was I. The pizza was soo salty, some bits were a bit burnt and they were also stingy with the topping. The pizza originally cost $13, and even though the guy only charged us $12 it was so not worth it.

Not quite content with our dinner we decided to return to the Pancake Parlour for dessert ehehehe...XD We ordered a Jewish Blintz which was the only other exotic crepe on the menu (Russian Blintz was the other one) and regretted it. It had a wierd taste to it, I think the combination of cream and cinnamon was too strong =S We both agreed something sweet and cold was needed to get the odd taste out of our mouths and hence we set off in search of such a thing.

In the end we dropped into Tasuke and ordered a Red Bean icecream. The inside is pretty tiny and most of the two-seater tables were either filled or reserved so we were directed to the big table which seats 6-12 people. O.o" The fact that we were only ordering one thing, to share between the two of us no less, made us feel kinda cheap. We also ordered Unagi sushi though~

They took so long to prepare our food that by the time our icecream came we no longer had the wierd aftertaste of the crepe in our mouths -which kinda defeated the whole purpose of getting icecream in the first place. Bleh. The icrecream and the sushi were good though, it seemed pretty authentic tasting and the staff were real Japs! =O

By then it was around 7:30pm and Shu had to leave to meet up with her friend so I gave her a big hug and said I'd see her at home next Friday. =)

Luckily I didn't have to wait long for a bus and it was around 7:55pm when I arrived in Woden. With nothing except my phone, my mp3, the bus timetable and $1.50 left on me I decided to get some much-needed excercise and walk home (a good 4.2km). Seeing as how the sun was only just beginning to set and how the weather was pretty good (not too sunny with a nice cool breeze!) I was pretty happy with my decision. Though I soon realised that thongs and walking on prickly, dry tufts of grass don't mix. =/
I managed to make it to Mawson shops just as the last rays of sunlight faded. I called my Uncle and told him I was currently at Mawson and intended to walk home since Aunty hadn't returned and hence couldn't come pick me up. Not that I minded, the breeze was cool and refreshing and I had my mp3 to keep me occupied. Uncle was a little concerned though, and cautioned me to only walk where there was lots of light and to be alert, so I back-tracked to the main road instead of cutting through the dark streets lined with appartments.

He called me at regular intervals just to check where I was and to make sure I was safe and hadn't gotten lost or mugged. I felt kinda bad for making him worry so I assured him I was fine and did my best to walk faster. By the time I made it onto our street I began to relax and enjoy the walk (though I was still doing my best to walk quickly in the dim light of the few street lights). The walk up the street still took a good 15mins (it's the longest street in the suburb) and I hummed to the Jay Chou songs on my mp3 while constantly gazing up at the Milky Way.

As I passed the small petrol station on the street I called uncle and told him my whereabouts. It took me around another 8mins to get home. The lights were on and I didn't bring my keys with me so I rang the doorbell. After waiting a few moments I rang the doorbell again, thinking that my uncle might not have heard it the first time. When I still sensed no activity within the house I called the home phone and heard it ring until the answering machine picked up. Slightly worried by now I tried again, hoping that nothing had happened.

Walking around the side of the house I couldn't see him in any of the rooms. I let myself in the side gate and walked carefully in the dark around the house to where the torch and spare keys were kept. I remembered my auntie telling me that if was ever locked out that I could use the keys to access the remote control for the garage inside Alan's granny flat. So, armed with the torch and keys I unlocked the back door and searched for the remote control. I found what I guessed to be the remote control by the front door of the flat, but I wasn't sure since there were so many other devices that looked like doorbells or remote controls. @__@

As I was debating whether I should push the button, I heard footsteps and the side-gate creak open. Without thinking I went to investigate who the intruder was and found to my relief that it was my uncle. I unlocked the door and joined him outside and he marveled at the fact that he had completely missed me on the street.

Yes. Unbeknownst to me my uncle had decided to set out to meet me down the street without informing me. He also used the footpath on the opposite side of the road of the house. With these factors, not to mention the lack of light outside or the wide roads, I wasn't surprised that we didn't see each other. He waved away my attempts to apologise for making him worry as we let ourselves into the house and simply said that as long as I was safe, he was happy. Still felt bad though. =/

It was such a perfect night for star-gazing and a late night walk -the streets were peaceful, the breeze was cool but not too chilly, the sky was clear, the stars were bright and the only sound that could be heard was the gentle rustling of leaves in the wind. My only regret is that I couldn't stay out longer and didn't have anywhere to go except home. *sigh*

Though I thoroughly enjoyed every step of the way =)

Night out with Alan (and Jia)

On Friday I went out for dinner with Alan and Jia at the Pancake Parlour in Civic. It's quite a cool place and the furnishings just ooze with that old English style: large, wooden-lattice type ceiling fans; wooden floors; cute little cosy booths; pictures in the style of Alice and Wonderland on the walls and in the menu; clusters of round yellow lamps; the Mirror of Mirth and the big chessboard with two simple wooden throne-like chairs on a raised platform.

After several minutes of agonising decision-making over which tantalising selection I should pick I chose the Russian Blintz -a crepe that basically tasted like a cheesecake and came with a generous scoop of vanilla icecream. My initial reaction to its yumminess manifested itself as a small delighted squeal. It was quite literally an eye-opener. XD
I sampled the Crumbled Fish Fillet that Alan and Jia ordered, and it was pretty good as well. Not as good as mine though hehehe...

After we had finished eating and devoured every morsel we left to get dessert from Gelatissimo. Jia got a single scoop in a cup whereas Alan and I opted for a double scoop in a cone. Alan got Creme Caramel with Macadamia and Caramel, and I got Creme Caramel with Veronese Chocolate. Geh. Too much over-indulgence can't be good. ^^"

We walked back to Alan's car and dropped Jia off at their place since she decided not to come out with us sightseeing. The smell of smoke was in the air and we could hear fire crackling but we couldn't see anything major so we concluded someone must be having a small bonfire in their backyard.

Alan then drove me to Mt. Ainsle to see the lights. It was incredibly breaktaking. I made a few poor attempts to capture the view but firstly my camera (which actually belongs to my brother) couldn't zoom in very far, I had no tripod to rest the camera on (hence the picture came out blurry due to being on night mode), and it doesn't have much memory space. =/ It was quite chilly so we didn't linger for long and plus Alan mentioned that it was common make-out place. O.o"

Luckily we didn't see anyone. It was mostly just other people taking photos of the view as well haha.

We drove off and stopped over at the War Memorial along the way to take a quick snapshot before resuming our course to Red Hill. As we neared the base of Red Hill, Alan said he wanted to try flooring it all the way up and asked if I minded, to which I replied no. He's a pretty safe driver and there wasn't many people on the road anyway ahaha...

Soo we sped up the hill with Alan asking if it was alright or not and then explaining that essentially you want to suddenly accelerate so that the CDs fly out (which I found quite amusing)... and then I didn't quite catch/understand the rest. He said something about his wheels not being good enough to handle turns quickly and then something about feeling the Gs. But yeah. I felt them at the start hehehe. It was fun~ =D

At the top we couldn't see much so we reasoned that I should try come back out later during the day or next time with a better camera. As Alan was driving back to Auntie's house we passed through Hughes along the same route my mum used to drive me to school at Garran after dropping my brother off at Melrose and my sister off at Deakin. I mentioned this to Alan who then offered to take me to see my primary school. So we did. =)

It was so nostalgic! I walked/ran around the whole school exclaiming when I found something new or something I remembered. As I revisited my childhood I couldn't help smiling and laughing or stop the joyful school pride bubbling up inside of me. At one point where I was racing down the front of the school to the pavement I had to bite my lip from bursting into the school song:

Standing in a lovely valley
'Neath the skies of blue,
Shines the Primary School of Garran
Clear for all to view.

Lift the chorus, speed it onward
Ever loyal be.
Listen as we sing its motto
Versatility.
Ah, good times. =)

Anyway I couldn't get over the fact that now the seniors have TWO sets of cool play equipment (one of the is like a ROPE CLIMB!!), TWO soccer fields and that they replaced the tambark under the equipment in the playground areas with a spongy green mat of what I call crappy safety-grass. Whatever happened to good old tambark? Are kids so fragile these days that when they fall off the equipment they must land on something soft? Kids these days obviously have a low pain threshold. Bleh. I couldn't get over the crappy safety-grass for ages. Neither could Alan ahahaha. I could probably rant on and on about crappy safety-grass but I probably shouldn't ehehe...

A big disappointment was The Wall -a structure that looks like a 'T' from above and we used to play nukemball with. It wasn't in very good shape, some idiots had sprayed graffiti all over it and either smashed or stolen almost all the tiles (the tiles were made by students the year the wall was erected). I tried to find the one my sister made but it was gone. =(

Then we trekked over to the far end of the school to see The Rocks. Sadly they had gotten rid of some of the gumtrees and it appears that they got rid of Big Rock and only left Small Rock. So sad...=(
By then I had run out of memory space (geh) and so with nothing I could do about it we headed home. So now I've decided that next time I come up to Canberra I HAVE have a decent camera with lots of memory space and visit the following places:

• Mt. Ainsle
• My old houses (Kambah and Fadden)
• My primary schools (Garran and Fadden)

And of course if there's time I'd like to go to:

• Tidbinbilla
• Corrin Forest
• Pine Island
• Bateman's Bay
• Questacon
• The Carillion
• Commonwealth Park/Floriade

Not necessarily in that order though. It'd be really cool if I could take all the familiar routes: the routes my mum used to drive me to take me to places (e.g. school, shops) or the walks I used to go on with my parents. I'd really like to do that someday -even if only for sentimental value. =)

Man, this makes me feel so old. Like one of those stereotypical elder figures who say with a misty look in their eye, "Back in my time when..."

Oh well, it's good to reminisce about the past sometimes. XD

I think Canberra will always hold a special place in my heart. It's where I grew up and spent a very happy and carefree childhood. I have a lot of good memories and I'll always want to come back and visit the old stomping grounds or see the sights. I could ramble on and on for ages but I won't~

For all those who dare to look down on Canberra I only have one thing to say to you:

Beware.

Orlando Furioso

On Wednesday (20th) my auntie took me with her to the Optus Theatre at the CSIRO Discovery centre to watch a screening of Orlando Furioso -an epic poem adapted to opera by Vivaldi. At first I had thought, it would be a good opportunity to experience and broaden my knowledge of sophisticated arts and 'High Culture' since I had never seen any kind of opera before.

If you ignore the fact that I was the ONLY young person there, and that I was totally ignorant of the many aspects of opera that made you appreciate it, and that sometimes it didn't have subtitles, and that the "sleepy after dinner" feeling was kicking in, then yeah, I suppose it was alright. The costume and set design weren't bad and most of the time I could figure out what was going on -and there were even some funny parts. The funny parts were made even more amusing because of the fact that they were singing opera haha.

Though I must admit during the intermission I was quite relieved to find they had supplied 5 different types of complimentary coffee. In fact I was so relieved that I burnt my tongue. Meanwhile my auntie got involved in a discussion about the operan -none of which I understood except for something about the opera being performed in the Baroque (is that spelt right?) style, and that it was rare to hear a 'something-tenor'.

The old lady sitting next to me was quite impressed with my attentiveness throughout the screening and said, "You're doing quite well to tolerate this." Aww... =)

From what I gather, the opera was filled with sorcery, Gods, plotting, cross-dressing, a mix of good and bad singing, and at some point almost every character accused their lover of being unfaithful. This is mainly because the sorceress kept using her magic to charm every good-looking guy she saw. Though of course in the end she was overthrown and everything worked out fine.

In conclusion, always check the age group of those in attendance before you go see opera.