<< Hourglass Melodies >>

Closure

2009-12-21T14:42:00.000+11:00

Finally. =]

Painting and waiting

2009-06-02T14:16:00.004+10:00

Took me two calls to be able to make it through the line and now I'm waiting for them to ring me back. It's always so troublesome calling up to confirm clinical placement. =/

In the meantime I finally finished off Shadowfax. Can't be bothered spending anymore time on it gahhh...My next piece is going to be experimental. Should be quite interesting to see how it turns out haha.

Some lyrics stuck in my head:

By the light of the moon she rubs her eyes

Sits down on the bed and starts to cry

And there's something less about her.

And I don't know what I'm supposed to do

So I sit down and I cry too

But don't let her see.

Badgers and the Super friends

2009-05-31T11:52:00.003+10:00

Badger:
Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, MUSHROOM, MUSHROOM! Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, MUSHROOM, MUSHROOM!

Superfriends:
Aquaman: What are you doing?! It's a crime! It's a crime!!
Filipino woman: (monkey humping her leg) I'm sorry aquaman! I'm just cooking a fish! I'm SORRYYY!!

ahahaha Otousan showed me these! The Superman, Batman and Aquaman parts are the funniest in the Superfriends video xD

Uni group found out about my blog =O

2009-05-31T11:15:00.005+10:00

Sorry folks, there's nothing interesting to see/read here. Move along. =P

I realised that I haven't blogged in a while haha...hmm Finished exams! Only one week to play before clinicals *sigh* ><"

In other news, am still haunted by the photo of a friend in what appeared appeared to be a tight, extended boob tube thingy. Not so bad you say? WELL IT WAS A GUY. @____@

*ahem*

Moving on: dead baby jokes are terrible, am watching Angel season 3 (yaaay), getting to sleep in (yay again), and may possibly try to paint something this week. =]

What Sarah Said

2009-02-03T12:43:00.002+11:00

Such an awesome song. Love everything about it. Even makes me feel so sad to the point that I cry sometimes... ><"

And it came to me then
That every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU
That reeked of piss and 409

And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself
That I'd already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD
Took you a little farther away from me
Away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend
On a faulty camera in our minds

But I knew that you were a truth
I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground
As the TV entertained itself'

Cause there's no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous paces bracing for bad news
Then the nurse comes around
And everyone lifts their head

But I'm thinking of what Sarah said
That "love is watching someone die"

So who's going to watch you die?

So who's going to watch you die?

So who's going to watch you die?

Must. Get. Out.

2009-01-31T17:34:00.006+11:00

So. Bored. Nothing to do at home. Too hot to go outside. Finished watching HIMYM season 3 and don't feel like watching anything asian right now. So sick of playing games and there is nothing interesting to read. Perhaps I should look up recipes and then cook all day? Hmm. =S

Stay at home = boring, hot
Go out = have fun, spend money

TV and internet keep me sane at night. Music keeps me sane during the day.

How depressing. Good thing beach house is coming up soon otherwise I might go nuts being at home all day doing nothing... @____@

Bleh. I hate summer.

Feeling Good

2009-01-15T22:31:00.002+11:00

Something stuck in my head:

"Stars when you shine
You know how I feel
Scent of the pine
You know how I feel
Yeah freedom is mine
And I know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me

And I'm feeling good"

Good song.

Wombeyan Caves

2009-01-03T22:23:00.005+11:00

Had a day-trip with my family out to Wombeyan Caves yesterday. It was really fun and the drive from Mittagong along the unsealed road was pretty cool and scenic. The scenery was beautiful and me and my sister spammed the cameras with whatever we saw outside the window. When we eventually arrived, we had a picnic in the rest area which would've been a lot better if there were no flies. It was quite funny actually, all the waving above the food to keep the flies at bay... xD

Afterwards, my dad opted to stay behind so my siblings and I made our way to the Information centre to pay for the token to enter the cave and get a map. The ranger told us we could hike for 30mins to get to a small cave called the Tinted cave then walk back to the Figtree cave to do our self-guided tour. It sounded simple so we agreed to try it out.

If any of us had realised just how much bushwalking was involved we would've brought sunscreen and hats, so instead we copied other bushwalkers and put jackets on our heads ahahaha. It was so hot and sunny!! =S

[Rarrr...it's been a while now and I forgot what I was gonna write. Yes, I know, lame. -____-" ]

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T21:17:00.000+11:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
And it feels like Summer again. I'm feeling a lot better today but I think it'll still be another couple of days before I am back at full health.

2008 was a good year, and looking back there's nothing I would've changed. I hope this year will be even better, that I'll have even more great memories of times with friends and family, and start being more independent and hopefully become more mature. I aim to get off my ass and start doing things I've been putting off and, of course, achieve good marks at uni. Most of all though, I want to continue to improve myself in all aspects so I be a better daughter, a better sister and a better friend.

Additional goals to achieve:
+ cut back on spending
+ learn to cook
+ improve my Chinese

Yup. It's mostly general and I haven't really put anything too specific but hey I'm turning 21 this year, I'm sure I will have more resolutions after my birthday.

Ok that's sorted. In other news we came home last night from a quick trip to the shops (it was my turn to buy munchies) only to be greeted with the sight of a HUGE cockroach sitting on the top of our front door. Gaaaaahhh it was so not good.

Made a request of my brother to deal with it but despite his attempts it scurried away under the door into the house and hid behind the piano.

Z-O-M-G

Luckily it emerged later during the night and my brother managed to catch it.

It's no fun being sick

2008-12-30T13:58:00.003+11:00

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

2008-12-20T22:24:00.003+11:00

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 !

2008-07-13T10:58:00.003+10:00

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

2008-06-27T20:33:00.003+10:00

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

2008-06-20T23:06:00.003+10:00

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

2008-06-08T11:46:00.002+10:00

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

2008-06-08T11:36:00.002+10:00

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

Double J Bday

2008-06-03T18:50:00.006+10:00

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

2008-05-28T18:05:00.003+10:00

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

2008-05-25T14:59:00.005+10:00

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 -___-"

2008-05-24T23:48:00.003+10:00

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!

2008-05-20T16:57:00.003+10:00

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

2008-05-17T19:17:00.002+10:00

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~

2008-05-11T20:07:00.001+10:00

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

hmm~

2008-05-09T23:24:00.003+10:00

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...

2008-05-09T14:35:00.002+10:00

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

2008-05-03T13:47:00.002+10:00

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!

2008-05-03T13:34:00.002+10:00

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!

2008-05-03T12:21:00.002+10:00

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

2008-05-03T12:13:00.002+10:00

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:

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

So yeah, pretty crap movie.

Blog Break

2008-04-20T17:11:00.004+10:00

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<<

2008-04-16T22:30:00.007+10:00

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...

2008-04-16T22:07:00.002+10:00

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!

2008-04-09T23:43:00.003+10:00

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

2008-04-08T23:00:00.005+10:00

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

2008-04-07T19:42:00.002+10:00

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):

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.
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.
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.
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.
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

2008-04-07T19:08:00.002+10:00

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

2008-04-03T16:55:00.006+11:00

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)

2008-03-20T16:37:00.004+11:00

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

2008-03-20T15:57:00.002+11:00

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!

2008-02-27T19:58:00.012+11:00

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)

2008-02-24T23:22:00.014+11:00

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)

2008-02-24T18:08:00.011+11:00

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

2008-02-24T17:02:00.006+11:00

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.

Radiography Jokes

2008-02-21T20:15:00.004+11:00

Random stuff I found~

You know you're a Radiographer when...

You wash your hands before you go to the bathroom
You've ever had a patient with a nose ring, brow ring and 12 earrings say, "I'm afraid of needles!"
You have to leave the patient's room before you begin to laugh uncontrollably
You believe a roll of tape can fix any problem
You know beauty is not only skin deep....great trabeculation, nice odontoid!
The question of the day is to B.E. or not to B.E.
You know that a hard beam tight collimation equals adequate penetration
You know what "pop the film" means
You have more white cardboard than you need
You give somebody a hug, and feel for their iliac crest
You make comments like "the costophrenic angles are not showing when chest x-rays are shown on tv or movies.
When you watch ER, Nip Tuck, Scrubs, Etc. you look at the viewing box in the room and know that the PA CXR is hanging upside down, along with the lateral c-spine, and the patient is in the ER because she is having a baby.Then if you say to yourself and everyone in the room, who don't care because they aren’t in the medical field, those x-rays aren’t hanging right, and that is a major HIPAA violation!!!
You know the answer to: "But my left side does not hurt, just the right side of my chest hurts, why are you taking a picture of the left?"

Funny Valentine's Day/Singles Awareness Day Poems

2008-02-18T22:47:00.005+11:00

[Got this in an email. Some are better than others -namely the last one and the fourth last one haha. ]

A local newspaper ran a competition asking for a poem with the most romantic first line, but the least romantic second line. Here are some of the entries they received:

Love may be beautiful, love may be bliss/But I only slept with you because I was p * ssed.
I thought that I could love no other/Until, that is, I met your brother
Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you. /But the roses are wilting, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty, and so is your head.
Of loving beauty you float with grace /If only you could hide your face
Kind, intelligent, loving, and hot /This describes everything you are not
I want to feel your sweet embrace /But don't take that paper bag off of your face
I love your smile, your face, and your eyes- /Damn, I'm good at telling lies!
My darling, my lover, my beautiful wife: /Marrying you has screwed up my life
I see your face when I am dreaming /That's why I always wake up screaming
My love you take my breath away /What have you stepped in to smell this way?
My feelings for you no words can tell /Except for maybe 'go to hell'
What inspired this amorous rhyme? /Two parts vodka, one part lime....

Weekend in Sydney 15th-17th

2008-02-18T21:28:00.026+11:00

All I remember on Friday (err..15th of Feb?) during clinical was that I was in a really good mood and the day seemed to go by quickly. Andrew, Mei and I made origami when there was nothing to do and we mucked around a lot [omg sometimes the staff call me Mei instead of Mary -_-" It's like "Oh hey Mei, uh, Mei-ry"]. I also learnt some of the abbreviations used in the workplace and found this site with a whole list of them. Here's a random selection:

TRO - Time ran out
TFTB - Too Fat To Breathe
SHA - Ship His Ass (when patients refuse to be discharged).
RT - Room Temperature (dead)
PITA - Pain in the ass
Peek and Shriek - open a patient surgically, discover an incurable condition, and close the incision immediately
LOL - Little Old Lady
Hammer - local anesthetic
Code Yellow - urinary incontinence emergency
45C - patient is one chromosome short of a full set (thick)
Thank You For This Interesting Consult - this is complete b*llsh*t
YMRASU - Your Medical Records Are Screwed Up
FLK - Funny Looking Kid
WWI - Walking while intoxicated (and fell over)
VIP - Very intoxicated person
VBT - Very Bad Thing
UPF - Un-Passed Fart (gaseous distended abdomen)
Urban Outdoorsman - Homeless person
Two beers - the number of beers every patient involved in an alcohol-related automobile accident claims to have drunk before the accident.

Anyway, my auntie picked me up after work and I hastily packed and ate a light dinner before Celine came to pick me up at 6pm. Half-way we stopped over at McDonalds and had something to eat. It was so cold outside...><

When she dropped me off it was around 10pm and I chatted with my dad and sister, organised some of my things and hopped online. My brother called and told me not to go to sleep before he got home ehehe...

Had the best sleep in AGES! Nothing beats one's own bed XD

Then the next morning my brother came in and woke me up. *sigh* Some things never change...

Met up with Angel in Parra at 11:30am and we quickly visited Lynette and Bethany at work. Unfortunately both were too busy for us to chat to, but at least we got to see them. Both looked very pro haha =) After realising we'd be late we called and smsed around to apologise. We also rang Royce who totally forgot. Gah, and he didn't even know who I was at first! -_-"

Soo Angel and I were the last to arrive at Central where Kathy, Lewis, Justina, Justina's cousin, Stephanie and William had been waiting ahaha oops... But yay! Got to see everyone again after so long keke~ Was really glad peeps still came even though I organised it kinda late and didn't have enough time to plan the outing properly...^^"

And of course, I was glad to see him. Heh. He was sporting a nice new haircut too! XD [I've missed you~ keke].

Anyway we stopped over at the Greyhound coach terminal, so I could get a ticket for Sunday, before heading off to Poporo in Market City. While deciding whether we were hungry or not someone (possibly Kathy?) noticed the CNY Performance dancers on ground level were REALLY, REALLY OLD. O.o" We couldn't tell until they looked up at us and we spotted their wrinkles and tell-tale signs of age. Bad sight. Yet kind of funny because we were wondering why on earth they were performing instead of the typical younger chinese dancing girls...

Not all of us were hungry, so while one end of the table ordered delicious looking goodies and drinks, the rest of us on the other end sat around talking and drinking cups of water. [For the record, your story was NOT scary Lewis. The only reason I lost was because you shouted so loudly and suddenly it made me jump!! Bleh -____-"]

Headed over to Galaxy World for a bit, and while the others waited in line to play Deal or No Deal, William and I had a quick go at the bball game. ^^ I think the mode we selected was "continuous", which meant that the net would move backwards or forwards depending on whether you were getting them in or not. I won, but only cos at some point William disappeared, then returned a moment later with more basketballs ahahaha... It was fun though ^^ [Were you even trying? =P ]

We returned just in time to see the people who were playing Deal or No Deal win 200 tickets. =O Then it was our go, and despite having 8 people, none of us could keep track of the cases. In the end Lewis picked a random case and started playing. Interestingly, all the cases Lewis chose to open had high amounts in them whereas the ones Kathy picked had lower values ahahaha...

We were down to the last two cases with possibilities being 2 and 3 tickets...the bank offered 2 tickets but without hesitating Lewis hit the No Deal button and the case he'd chosen was opened...

Inside was 2 tickets. -___-"

Anyway, we headed off to Greenbox Plus for two hours of karaoke plus a free drink. They didn't have enough bottles of Mount Franklin so some of us ended up with room temperature bottles. Poor Stephanie was given the bottle that had been in the display case, but luckily she managed to persuade the guy to give her a fresher one...ahaha. One of the songs wouldn't play when selected, and we spent a couple of minutes trying to work out why before we asked the guy to come check it out. He didn't know why it wasn't working either, so all we did was end up wasting our precious K time. Though, at the end, Justina managed to talk them into giving us an extra 5 mins. ^^ [Yay~ good work Justina! =D]

We met up with Jennifer and Andy who were waiting for us on the couch (looking bored and slightly tired) just outside the elevators then headed off to Capitol for sticker photos! Machine was quite crowded so we didn't get to move around a lot, and the pics were miniscule.

Still lotsa fun though. ^^v

Using Andy's money, Lewis managed to win a male turtle plushie for me and the matching female turtle plushie for William keke~ XD [omg Andy I can't believe you said "I should have centred higher." It's too early for your study-related jokes!]. It was around this time when Stephanie, Justina and her cousin had to leave, and with nothing to do for another hour and a half we decided to go K2 ehehehe...Reanna also came to join us (too bad she wasn't wearing her work clothes ahahaha). Since I'd promised, William chose the song "Perfect Interaction" and we got up and danced. Or rather, William danced and tried to show me how to dance, and I just did my best to copy whatever he was doing ahaha... [Next time go slower! I can't keep up trying to copy your movements... ^^"]

Afterwards we went to eat at Chat Thai (instead of Pancakes on the Rocks) where Lewis had kindly booked a table for 10 people. While waiting for a table I first played chopsticks with Jennifer, then "A, B, C, D" with her and Lewis. William had to leave just as we were being shown to our table. =(

I sat at the head of the table ahaha and what we ordered included Pad Siew, Green Curry, Red Curry, Emerald Duck and Fried Rice. Andy's fried rice came first, and it contained huge pieces of red chillies in it which he and Lewis decided to eat. Don't know why they did it, but it looked like utter torture, so I was like "Eat the lettuce! Eat the cucumber!" Seeing them eating the chillies reminded me of this clip on youtube. Dinner was good, a little bit on the spicy side though.

We would have played "A, B, C, D" for longer (by now it was me, Jennifer, Andy, Reanna and Lewis playing) but there were people lining up for tables and so we left for icecream -at Passionflower! I shared with Jennifer and we got a scoop of durian icecream and a scoop of lychee rose petal icecream in a cup. =) Then, somehow Jennifer decided that if Lewis ate a SCOOP of our durian icecream he wouldn't have to owe me K or 40 cents. I never agreed to those terms!! Ahh! >.<

So Lewis was trying to get some of the durian icecream while I was trying to prevent him and somehow he managed to grab Will (the turtle ehehe) off me. So Lewis was clutching Will in one hand and trying to get icecream with the other, while I was holding the icecream with one hand, and trying to get Will back with the other. Meanwhile, Jennifer just kept eating the icecream.

Now that I think about it, we must've looked like retards...O.o"

To conclude, I got Will back and Lewis didn't get any icecream muhaha... XD

While we were eating our icecream we found out that David needed help carrying some stuff from K2 to Townhall and since Andy had offered to help we all decided to lend a hand (we were going in the same direction anyway). Though in the end they only needed Andy's help. =/ Soo the rest of us walked back to Townhall just in time for Kathy and Jennifer to run for their train. The rest of us had 29mins until our train so we went into Woolies and bought stuff.

It was really funny listening to Reanna and Lewis laughing like retards the entire time, and Lewis showed us his "Finger" routine, which was basically him holding his index finger up with this expression on his face saying "Finger" in this really funny voice.

Also, while in Woolies I managed to prove the existence of Cocoa powder muhaha...

When we got back to the station we'd missed our train, but luckily we didn't have to wait long for the next one. Once we got on the train we chatted about various things and then I had a game of Slaps with Lewis. Omg..I seriously need to practise more -__-" [Stop assuming you're going first Lewis!! Gah!! @___@]

At Strathfield we parted ways, Angel went to get the train to Parra and Lewis went to get a train to Burwood. Reanna's mum was already waiting for us so we quickly hurried over and got into the car. Arriving at Bumbo's house I got to work and Reanna and TP helped me occasionally [Bumbo -remember "silently ___"? ahahaha XD] Aww and Mimi came to say 'hi' to me hehe. [Thanks Baldy for the call! ^^].

We slept late and I think I was the first to get up. Anyway, Reanna and her family were going out and they were able to give me a lift so when I finished getting ready I played with Mimi who came over to me and made these wierd sounds. O.o" TP drove us and she's not bad -omg makes me depressed. -_-"

We arrived in the city and William's train had been delayed so Reanna and her family insisted I join them while I waited. Reanna's dad is funny~ [Know what I'm talking about Bumbo?? *wink wink nudge nudge* ahahaha].

I spent the rest of the day with William in the city until I had to catch my coach. XD

[Yes, I'm leaving out a whole lot of detail. Think about it though. If I elaborated more, you peeps might start to feel lightbulb just reading it. See? I'm being so thoughtful ehehe...]

Soo I sat in seat 3D (window seat yay!) and left Sydney at approx. 4pm. The trip was pretty uneventful: I drifted in and out of sleep and the person next to me either read her book quietly or sent text messages. About an hour into our journey the driver put on The Longest Yard, which kept everyone entertained for most of the way. Surprisingly we arrived at the Jolimont Centre in Canberra at 7:30pm so I had to wait around for half an hour before my uncle came to pick me up.

And that concludes the events of my trip up to Sydney. =)

The other days...

2008-02-18T21:25:00.001+11:00

"Guards, report!"
"Uhh..there is nothing to report."

Youtube funnies

2008-02-18T20:22:00.004+11:00

Water Trap
Japanese Sumo Prank
Darth Vader vs. Japanese Police
They're Takling the Hobbits to Isengard!

Tuesday~

2008-02-13T20:49:00.004+11:00

Besides the whole doctor CXR and palpating patient, Tuesday was actually quite eventful.

In the morning it suddenly started POURING and Lauren (friend from work) and I shared her umbrella [Hmm...I wonder why I don't have an umbrella? *cough cough*] and walk in the rain to work from her car. My jacket got drenched and I was kinda wet and felt a little sick in the morning, but by the afternoon I was feeling better. =)

After lunch it was soo draggy. All of us Rads were walking around aimlessly, constantly checking the box for something...ANYTHING to do. We would've killed to have a whole bus-load of HSAs at that time. Lauren and I were so bored we cleaned the rooms, refilled the gowns, checked to make sure the change rooms had no used gowns in them and got more red envelopes.

We were so bored that by the time we had the last appointment for the day in screening, the doctor took one look at my face and said,
"You look terminally bored." [Ack! >.<" Since then I have resolved to be more enthusiastic whenever he's around]. Anyway that last appointment was really boring too..the doctor had to inject some local and steroids into the patient's knee and he kept putting the needle in in the wrong spot. Poor patient kept letting out short cries of pain. O.o"

Lauren gave me a lift home and I literally only had time to change before I had to head out with my Auntie and Uncle to go to the Chinese Embassy for the Chinese New Year Celebrations. We met up with the two ANU students Lauren (a different one) and the guy (he has no english name and I dunno how to spell his Chinese name >.<" ). Afterwards we split up, Auntie and Uncle went to chat with all the people they recognised and so the two ANU students and I went to exchange our coupons for dinner ^^ We all picked the one with rice, pieces of chicken and asparagus. The chicken was so chili man..

When we'd eaten our fill we browsed the stalls and amused ourselves by taking random photos. After we'd taken enough photos we watched the performances from off the side near backstage and were blinded by the lights. @_@

Us three~ Lauren insisted I try the hat on

2 Doctors and Palpating Patients

2008-02-13T20:18:00.002+11:00

Sunday was bludgy, so I didn't really bother writing up a blog ahahaha...but anyway, not much happened from Sunday til Tuesday except two doctors and a palpating patient.

During the course of Monday and Tuesday I had to do a CXR for two doctors. I had just done a whole stack of HSA CXR (they only need the PA and no lateral) so I forgot about doing a lateral for the first doctor and was going to go check the film when he commented,
"Oh, so you're not going to do a lateral?". I froze in mid-stride and hastily replied,
"Uhmm actually yes I'm going to do that now..."

For the second doctor I remembered to do a lateral, but before I could open my mouth he said,
"Oh yes, so you'll go and check those films now?" [Gah...]

So, that's the two doctors, and now for the palpating patient.

I had been positioning this woman for her shoulder, telling her to shuffle a bit to her left etc., when she suddenly turned around and started firmly palpating MY shoulder and telling me where the pain was. O.o" It was so sudden that the PDY girl and I were both startled.

Fool's Gold and Concrete

2008-02-10T09:27:00.000+11:00

Yesterday my auntie returned!! We all went to pick her up at 5pm from the Jolimont Centre and she was wearing a large, warm jacket because she had just come back from Taiwan. On the other hand I was cold because the wind was quite chilly and I didn't bring many warm clothes down with me [having not properly been back in Canberra for so long I'd forgotten how cold it can get. Bleh].

Sarah came by at 6pm and we shared a bowl of wedges [it cost $9!! @___@] from Babar Cafe and Bar [yes, it was named after the cartoon elephant!] before we made our way over to the cinema to watch Fool's Gold. It was an average movie with a few laughs, a typical storyline and 'miraculous' events. By miraculous, I refer to those situations where things always seem to turn out fine, even when the odds are HIGHLY unlikely. For example in one scene, the main character HAPPENED to find an ancient sword while underwater taking apart a dynamite grid, when one of the charges is accidentally set off, sending him flying up several metres into the air and causing him to land ON HIS BACK on the roof of the neighbouring vessel. Meanwhile, he manages to throw the sword and it lands point-down on their boat right between the overly cutesy and attention-seeking girl's legs. -_-"

Some quotes [probably not exact wording but oh well~ haha]
+Gemma: *acting clueless* Oh! So what are they looking for?
+Tess: *unimpressed with her behaviour* Do you seriously not know the answer to that question?
+Gemma: *eyes widen and she makes some odd choking sounds of protest before stomping off*

+Finn: *running through a quick check*...flaps, engine, altitude -check!
+Tess: *surprised* How do you know all of this stuff?
+Finn: *grinning* Playstation 2!
+Tess: ...

+Gemma: *trying to rebel* I'm going to cut myself off from you! I don't want anything from you anymore! Except for food...and clothes and and transportation! I'm serious!
+Gemma's Dad: *calmly* Yes, and that's what scares me.

Anyway, after the movie we went to eat concrete hehehe... I chose Butternut with a chocolate custard base and it was pretty good! ^^ Sarah made her own concrete with a chocolate base, chocolate syrup and two toppings. When they were handed to us and we sat down I couldn't resist turning mine upside down and witnessing what the concrete was famed for -defying gravity. XD muhaha...

...and the rest of the week

2008-02-09T13:56:00.000+11:00

Didn't really do anything too interesting this week..

Tuesday: Morning tea for Mei's accreditation and I watched a HSG from the side (so I didn't really see anything that horrific).
Wednesday: Opted to stay at home finishing off my SICA reports instead of going out for dinner.
Thursday: CHINESE NEW YEAR! Went out for dinner with uncle, Alan, Jia and 2 ANU students instead of attending the farewell dinner for Fleur and Ann. We also had a morning tea at work for Linda's birthday.

Friday was a pretty good day. We had a very large morning tea consisting of 3 cakes (2 from Michel's, one made by Lauren), pizza bread, an assortment of crackers and dip, Mei's rice rolls and Ryan's brownies to farewell the chief radiographer. After the table was all set up it looked really good, and when you had time you could go grab something to eat. There was a sign underneath the brownies which read: "ATTENTION: Tony. Ryan cooked these" Ahahaha so funny man~ XD

After work I bummed around Westfield with Lauren and at some point we headed into Harvey Norman to test the massage chairs hehehe~ I couldn't stop laughing cos it felt so wierd, people must've thought I was strange or something ahahaha. We weren't the only ones testing them out though, there was actually an old guy sitting in one of them who fell asleep. O.o"

Those massage chairs were awesome! Especially the Zero Gravity one by Sanyo which was priced at $9999 muhaha... ^^v We took it in turns to try that one and we were both like "omg...our feet have been reborn" ahahaha. Apparently when Lauren was trying it out a couple walked into the store and commented to her "Nice way to end a working week!" and then as they were leaving they saw me trying it out and they jokingly said "OMG they're still there!" to which Lauren replied "you should try it out!" XD

A little while later after we left the store Lauren got picked up so I wandered into the library and managed to obtain a temporary library card. They have a wide range of anime on dvd so I might check it out next time. Heh. Unfortunately by having a temporary library card I'm classified as a restricted borrower so I can only borrow 2 items at once. =S

Library closed at 7pm so I bummed around Westfield until 7:30pm when I met up with Alan, Jia, and Alan's friends Carl and Melissa. Had dinner before heading to Melissa and Carl's place in Garran for Munchkin: Bites! We played cards up to explain the rules easier, but as time went by it was obvious we weren't going to finish the game anytime soon. Carl stole Melissa's "Funky hairdo" and tree and I stole Melissa's "Perfect hair" muhaha... Anyway it was a VERY LONG AND INTENSE game with lots of back-stabbing and stalemates which lasted an hour and a half before we decided the next person to obtain a level would win.

Another Monday

2008-02-04T18:00:00.000+11:00

Chief radiographer filled out my mid-clinical assessment today and I'm pretty happy with what she gave me muhaha... XD The CSU student called in sick today so I got to do a bit more -did around 10 competencies today, yay! =D I finally saw my first elbow and arthrogram. The arthrogram was interesting to watch I suppose, but you don't really do much except set everything up for the doctor. Also got to see lateral airways today which looks cool, it's in the same room as the OPG machine and Mei taught me how to use it. Pretty simple stuff. Heh. XD

Ugh. Eating an apple that is crunchy on one side and powdery on the other. =S

Clinical is really killing my imagination. In the past week I have had at least two dreams relating to clinical: the first was about one of the PDY girls trying to teach me a technique to x-ray three patients at once, and the second was about me getting an early mark. Looks like I simply want to get clinical over and done with as quick as possible -not that I needed my subconscious to tell me that... -___-"

Gah it's cold right now. It's been raining on and off for the past few days.

Sleepover! XD

2008-02-03T17:32:00.000+11:00

Sarah dropped by after work at around 5:30pm to pick me up and I went to her house for a sleep over. We watched Stardust while we waited for dinner and it's pretty good, I liked the plot -it wasn't too cliche, the character development was good, and the acting wasn't bad either. They managed to pull off fairly typical and predictable roles in a way that didn't make you roll your eyes. There was this bit where Tristan got turned into this adorable little mouse and we were fully like aww...XD. He looks much better after his haircut haha. Overall it was a pretty good movie. =)

Dinner was great, and we had quite a lot to talk about haha. I was really full though so I didn't get to try the homemade coleslaw or salad. Looked really good as well. =[

After dinner we watched Ultraviolet, a Mila Jovovich (or whatever her name is) sci-fi movie set in the future about vampires and humans or something. I kinda got the overall plot but there were times when I was just totally confused. It was a pretty bad movie, and some of the ideas were a little far-fetched. Oh and the fight scenes were just too overly-done. =S

To restore our faith in Mila Jovovich's acting abilities and prevent ourselves from associating her with bad movies (such a disappointment after The Fifth Element!!), we decided to watch Resident Evil. Not bad for a zombie movie. Felt so sorry for Matt though..=S The laser room kinda reminded me of a similar scene in Cube, where there is a hidden razor-sharp metal mesh thing which swings down and slices the person into tiny bits.

By then it was 12:30 but we "had" to watch Resident Evil: Apocalyse to satisfy our curiosity. Heh. Definitely wasn't as good as the first one (when are they ever?). Ended up finishing our movie marathon at 2am XD

Throughout this whole time, Sarah's big, fat puppy was either gnawing on his bone and burping, sleeping and snoring really loudly, sitting on my foot or lying across my lap. He wouldn't lie peacefully on my lap either, if I stopped patting him for a moment he'd jump up and pester me. Her two cats on the other hand, came and went as they pleased.

In the morning Sarah dropped me off on her way to work and I bummed around before my uncle and I went out for lunch at a place in Forest with Alan, Jia and an ANU student called Lauren. Afterwards we all headed back and played some Donkey Kongo before Alan, Jia and Lauren left.

Got an unexpected call from a uni friend this afternoon but didn't recognise his voice at first, and for a VERY, VERY brief moment I thought it was someone else.

Someone I miss.

Small Bowels and Nuclear Med

2008-02-01T20:24:00.000+11:00

Watched a small bowel series with Shanna this morning which wasn't very interesting. Patient drunk two cups of barium sulfate stuff and another cup of water. When the barium had almost finished spreading she had to drink two liquids, which apparently combine in her bowels to give her gas, so as to inflate the bowels so the doctor can see better. Usually patients aren't allowed to use the bathroom because their bladder drops down after it's been emptied, making it harder to include on the film.

Soo... that means they gotta hold it in. Unless the doctor is lenient.

Shanna told me about another procedure, the small bowel enema I think, which involves putting a tube up the patient's rectum and pumping their bowels full of gas after they've had their barium. The prescence of gas in the patient's bowels gives them the sensation like they need to go to the toilet.

Gas pumped into bowels + elderly patient = expelling of gas. Bad combo. =S

And apparently sometimes the force is so great that small white flecks of barium fly out too. It's not an airtight tube afterall.

I went to Nuclear Med in the afternoon to observe a lumbosacral spine on a radioactive patient. This was after I had assisted with the projections in the Screening room. As the procedure was being performed (took 20mins for the machine to rotate 360 degrees around the patient and pick up enough radiation to create an image), the nuclear med lady called a colleague and chatted away on the phone while I tried my best not to fall asleep. I had two microsleeps before I forced myself to stare at random signs and posters around the room and read them.

Watched some more Goong (Yul time! hahaha). Ugh..I don't like Shin. Don't like ballerina girl either. Bleh. Why can't things ever work out for Yul..? >_<

Oh, and for all you people who read this,

"Pinch and a punch for the first day of the month and no returns". =P

Loving 4 Day Weeks

2008-01-31T17:48:00.000+11:00

Today was mostly just chests and feet again. I did one hip and observed a facial bone projection done by the chief radiographer. She completed all three projections in the time it takes me to do a normal chest! O.o" Pretty impressive! The patient for one of the feet I had to do was a beefy guy who had extremely SWEATY SOCKS. I had to move his foot to position it and it was like...totally damp! Eww...=S When I finished the procedure I washed my hands immediately with the antibacterial handwash.

It's a little awkward sometimes when we're all just standing around and chatting -especially when the other people are talking about get-togethers after work for farewell parties and what not. There's going to be a farewell party for the chief radiographer in two weeks, and as much as I wouldn't mind going (since she's been really nice to me and I have nothing to do). I haven't been invited by anyone yet. =/

At lunch we shared stories about close encounters with spiders and other pests. Apparently there's this huge tree in Kambah near the shops which practically RAINS spiders. Then there were also tales of how some woman got bitten by a white-tail and had to get her leg amputated, and how some grown man felt an itch on the side of his neck and screamed when he saw it was a huge spider.

Another one of the receptionists told us of how she spent her childhood in Queensland tormenting and killing cane toads. She also used to play cricket and football with them. Once her father chucked his still-lit cigarette on the ground, and she picked it up and shoved it in a cane toad's mouth. Apparently it just kept on inhaling, and inhaling, until it inevitably exploded! =O

It stormed last night. The wind was cool and refreshing. We opened all the windows to let the wind into the house and even though the rain pelted down the feeling was so calm and relaxing. Ahh...I've missed this kind of feeling. XD I also managed to get in touch with my friend's mother yesterday. My friend had gone out so I chatted with her mother and she invited me over on Saturday for tea and also said I could sleepover. I was touched that she was so open and inviting, and happy that she remembers me. =)

Hmm. Uncle has gone out fishing with his friends, so I'm dining by myself tonight.

Frozen lasagne from Woolies. Yay.

Early Day

2008-01-30T17:17:00.000+11:00

Stumbled out of bed this morning after getting roughly 4 hours of sleep and once again my lack of sleep was clearly evident. I hit my leg on the desk and almost applied facial wash to my toothbrush. O.o" Though the most embarrassing thing to happen today was when I was doing a foot x-ray. I had been positioning the patient's foot and gently rotating it, while apologising for any pain, when I straightened up and hit my head on the x-ray tube. This elicited a cry from the patient: "Oh goodness! Are you alright there?"

Today was nothing but chests and feet. The CSU student kept coming down to General when he was supposed to be in Screening, which meant he kept taking stuff I was supposed to do. Bleh. The other radiographers found it annoying and also unfair for me so the chief radiographer talked to him about it. Hopefully I'll be able to do more now. ^^

For the first time ever I got let off before 5:05pm! The chief radiographer let me go at 3:50pm with the PDY girl who was kind enough to give me a lift home. =) She accidentally took the long way around but it was alright~ I found out that she's thinking of getting either a dirt bike or another horse haha. She's really nice and is always willing to help me out. This morning when there was a lull I practised positioning for a shoulder series on her. Over here they do FIVE shots. O.o" The fifth one is a soft tissue one which I reckon is kinda pointless -it's just an extra dose of radiation that the patient doesn't need. They don't follow the ALARA principle *tsk tsk* ahahaha...

I called Sarah today but she wasn't home and I think she's changed her mobile number T_T Anyway I shall get in touch with her later tonight and hopefully we'll get to meet up sometime during the next few weeks. She's been a really, really good friend of mine ever since playschool hehe~ haven't seen her in ages!! XD

Today is a very sad day you know? *sigh* Haven't seen him in a week, can't see or talk to him for at least two weeks, and I wasn't able to see him off. Stoopid clinical! Argh! >_<

Missing him already. =(

Quiet Day

2008-01-29T18:19:00.000+11:00

Not much happened today either:

I observed a small bowel enema which involved the patient drinking two cups of a barium sulfate mixture. Looked like liquid chalk. Eww... =S
A school leaver came for the day to check things out because she had been accepted into Charles Sturt but wasn't sure if it was something she'd be interested in.
The resident doctor for today also gave me 'homework' to research the different types of ways to view the small bowel.

Yeah...that's about it. =/

Public Holiday =)

2008-01-29T17:58:00.000+11:00

Nothing really happened on Monday besides discovering that you could see things on my auntie's webcam during the day. Had quite a lot of fun with that haha. XD

Oh, and I found this big spider sitting on the floor in 'my' room as I was about to go to sleep. We stared at each other without moving a muscle, for who knows how long, as I thought of ways to get rid of it. Eventually got the bin and put a new plastic bag in before placing it upside-down on top of the spider.

It was dead in the morning. I don't know how. O.o"

SUNDAY~

2008-01-28T13:11:00.000+11:00

My day was quite simple and mundane: I slept in again (yay!), had brunch, did my laundry, went grocery shopping with my uncle and ate hot pies for lunch. At around 3pm uncle went with two of his friends to go fishing at Cotter Dam -one of his friends managed to catch two fish! =O

Meanwhile I bludged around online and tried Donkey Kongo and Star Wars Lego. Donkey Kongo is so addictive... it's a good stress reliever ahahaha. Especially if you feel like hitting someone or something. XD

Alan and Jia picked me up at 7pm and we met up with uncle and his two friends for dinner at the Iron Chef place again. It was pretty empty but the food was good! =]

Meh, that's about all I can think of. Totally bludgy day ahahaha.

Australia Day

2008-01-27T18:16:00.000+11:00

A tad late, but anyway:

My Country

The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze…

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea Mackellar

SATURDAY! =D

2008-01-27T11:12:00.000+11:00

Yay, I slept in until 9:30am~ Only ended up getting 6 hours of sleep though ahaha... xD My lack of sleep was clearly evident when I sat up and hit my head on the top bunk and then hit my hand a few seconds later. After breakfast Uncle and I went to his office at the ANU to wait for Alan and Jia to come around and pick me up. We passed by Commonwealth Park and it seemed like there were a lot of people there for the Australia Day events.

Alan and Jia came by at 10:40am and we drove to CANCUN which was at Exhibition Park In Canberra (EPIC). As we drove around looking for a parking space Alan spotted a Computer Fair, which only meant double the amount of geeks. I'd like to make a note here that it was mainly Alan and Jia who wanted to go to CANCUN -I was just tagging along because I had nothing better to do -_-"

Anyway, CANCUN is basically this once a year games convention where people come from interstate to buy, browse and sell games and the like. There were a whole lot of really, really cheap Final Fantasy models, (set of 5 plus a duplicate model for $60 or a set of 3 for $30) which Jia went crazy buying. She ended up buying two sets of 6 (they were different, but she now has two duplicates) for $100 and got another model for free! It was a pretty good deal, but since I haven't seen FF and don't know anything about it I didn't get anything. I did end up getting a Domo kun shirt though ahahaha...

Alan purchased Munchkin Cthulu, Munchkin Bites and some other game before heading over to the Warhammer corner to greet his friend who was entering a competition for Best Painted Army or something like that. Apparently he's won quite a few awards before, and I guess his models were quite well painted but meh, I'm not into that kinda stuff. There were also all these tables set out where people would just take out a game and start playing. What was even scarier was that Warhammer had an entire corner for people who wanted to battle each other. There was even a Warhammer competition! O.o"

CANCUN really draws out a whole bunch of geeks into the open. There were people dressed up, and some guy in the carpark was trying to look cool by wearing a huge trenchcoat underneath the big glaring sun. =/ At one point Alan said the other stall was selling [insert game name] for cheaper, and the guy serving him looked over his shoulder to the other guy running the stall and said "Hey, Phil's selling it for $40, do we give it to him?"

They all know each other. O.o"

Afterwards Alan took me to see the indoor rockclimbing centre before we headed to Belconnen for lunch and shopping~ =) I ate Ali Baba while Alan and Jia shared a fish and salad. Alan and Jia sat opposite each other and I sat next to Jia trying to mind my own business. -_-"

Had a look at the pet shop (the puppies and kittens were so cute!) and then went shopping muhaha. I feel sorry for Alan because all he wanted to do was go to Dymocks and check out GAME, so he ended up having to wait for both Jia and I as we shopped. I did my best to be quick though and I'm quite happy with my purchases. Heh. XD

Then I crashed at Alan and Jia's place for a couple of hours. I played Munchkin: Impossible, Super Munchkin, Munchkin Cthulu and Munchkin Bites! with Alan and won ahahaha...we were playing nicely though. I had a go at Donkey Kongo and Star Wars Lego on the Gamecube which was pretty fun. Donkey Kongo is essentially the same as Taiko Drums except you use bongos and you also have to clap (but you can cheat by simply tapping the sides of the drum hehe). I really like the selection of songs on Donkey Kongo, they're classic oldies but goldies like Louie Louie, 99 Red Balloons, All The Small Things etc.

For dinner we got pizza and chicken wings and watched the first Pirates movie, because it's the only one worth watching. I only watched the other two for Johnny Depp -Capt'n Jack is the best! =) Anyway I got home at around 11:30pm and Alan help me set up the Gamecube downstairs so I can play it if I'm bored ahaha.

All in all it was a pretty good day, despite the fact that I was lightbulb for the whole day. >_<"

Day Five

2008-01-25T18:39:00.000+11:00

Today was a pretty quiet day, which was good because my feet hurt and I'm so tired. The only interesting thing I got to do today was a hand and finger projection for a MVA patient who had foreign body query. Also had a Korean girl and a Japanese girl come for CXR and both were really pretty and drama-stereotype ahaha... I've generally found that HSA people are all in their early 20's. Sometimes we have a flick through their passports if we have time, and it's interesting to see how much they've travelled. xD

Besides that I did the normal OPGs and chests and cleaned the rooms down because I had absolutely nothing to do. I watched the chief radiographer do a CT scan on a patient and then watch her do some reconstruction on the computer. It was so boring. I had to stand up while I was observing, and because my feet hurt and I was really sleepy I kinda swayed a bit and almost lost my balance. O.o"

It was the last day for one of the radiologists at our department, so we had a morning tea for her. The chief radiographer bought this delicious creation called a Jaffa Bomb along with an assortment of crackers and dip. The base of the cake was really nice -it was exactly like the shell of a Ferrero Rocher!! xD Minus the bits of nut on the outside though haha.

Heard some interesting stories from some of the radiographers and office ladies during lunch. One lady said that when she was still in uni, she and 4 of her friends rented a place in Harris Park which came down to about $40 each. Apparently the first time they walked in they noticed the carpet crunched under their feet. Turns out they were cockroach eggs. Eww... =S

Saw a group of people all dressed up with the Australian Flag heading off towards the celebrations this evening. I think there's supposed to be fireworks or something, and apparently The Veronicas are going to be performing at a free concert outside Old Parliament House. Not sure if that's today or tommorow though haha.

I realised that I can chuck my mp3 in the computer and listen to it. Haha...err don't ask why I didn't think of doing that before. I have 5hours and 43mins worth of Jay Chou songs and the Goong OST...hopefully I won't get too sick of it anytime soon... ^^" Though at the moment I'm like, worshiping Jay Chou haha. It's saved me from listening to ABC Classic FM all day (my uncle always listens to it and plays it all over the house, and I had no music of my own to listen to). ><

So far I have listened to my favourites 晴天 and 七里香~ =]

Yay long weekend! I get to sleep in tommorow at long last!!! XD

Day Four

2008-01-24T18:40:00.000+11:00

Couldn't wake up this morning. Dead tired. xD I was getting picked up at 8:00am so I hurriedly brushed my teeth, changed, ate my breakfast and packed my bag. Again I started off the morning going over my rejects with the chief radiographer. Turns out that some of my rejects were actually passable and that my supervisor at the time was just being too picky. Bleh. =S

Did some more OPGs, HSA CXRs and observed some interesting things like a cervical spine and lumbar spine. Both had to be redone several times to open up the joint spaces. Looks hard, but one of the radiographers said that next time I should have a go at positioning the patient. =O I am getting pro at CXRs haha...and I'm getting better at coning too muhaha xD

Sometime during the day the CSU student showed me and the PDY girl his technique of doing a CXR. He sounded so pro man! I wonder what impression I give patients. Definitely can't be as pro as him... >.<

Hmm... I'm starting to realise how disadvantaged I am because I'm short. Several times I've had patients who are way taller than me and I can barely see what I'm doing. It's even worse when I get tall patients for OPGs because I have to reach up and tighten the forehead clamp. Geh, and today I had to carry a full length lead apron all the way from screening to the OPG room on a patient's request. It was so long and heavy I almost tripped over it. -_-"

Heard from a radiographer called Mei that apparently there is this type of Japanese soap which makes you slimmer. She says it costs $70 and she's already starting to slim down. O.o" We were guessing that it probably absorbs the water and oil out of your skin of something like that haha...

I missed out on a barium meal today. =(

Day Three

2008-01-24T18:17:00.000+11:00

Was picked up at 8:15am and did some reject analysis with the Chief Radiographer in the doctor's office haha. xD Also participated in Infection Control (cleaning rooms after use) and some Quality Control which involved putting cleaners through the processor in Screening (apparently the films have been coming out brownish-grey -not that I can tell the difference). So hopefully I can use two of these activities for my SCIA! Yay!=D

I took a great bilateral hip shot [muhaha] and observed some scoliosis projections which looked quite tricky. Oh and I also did a whole lot of HSA CXRs. I think I'm getting the hang of it. Heh.

During my lunch break I went to the library to print off my competency sheets which I had forgotten to bring with me >.< Also picked up the bus timetable so I can get to clinical myself if for some reason I am unable to get a lift.

Slept at 1:30am. xD

Day Two

2008-01-23T21:27:00.000+11:00

Got picked up at 8:10am by a radiographer and got to NCDI by 8:30am. The chief radiographer signed my objectives off for me and apologised for the mess that was yesterday hehe. I turned out to be the only student there for the day which was pretty good because I ended up learning quite a lot of things. Took a few HSAs, ankles and observed some shoulders and OPGs.

Made quite a few mistakes though:
1) I accidentally put regular film in an extremity cassette. As a result we had to re-take the shot.
2) I didn't close the darkroom door properly, so it creaked open when the film was half-way through and fogged up the picture.
3) I put a film through that was slightly bent, which then jammed the machine. The chief radiographer had to come and dismantle the machine until she found my film. >.<
4) I accidentally labelled the film wrongly when we took a CXR for a father and son together.
5) I forgot to label the film.

*sigh* =[

Went to Westfield for lunch again and decided to eat at Hungry Jacks. I had no appetite though and the smell of the food somehow just put me off. =S After eating half-heartedly, I dropped into Cotton On and bought a much-needed long sleeve top. Yay! =)

In the afternoon it was pretty much the same as in the morning: observing, assisting and occasionally completeing the procedure by myself. We also had quite a few Asians come in for HSAs. Once I was doing a CXR for a Korean guy who kept quietly laughing at me... =( Anyway I also got to do another OPG and watch one of the PDYs perform a calibrated ball OPG. It involved trying to coreectly position a paddlepop stick with a calibrated ball stuck on the end between the patient's gums.

Looked like great fun.

Was pretty tired when I got home. Took a shower, had dinner then hopped on msn until it was time to sleep. Noo study... xD

And so it Begins...

2008-01-21T20:44:00.000+11:00

Somehow I awoke a few minutes before my alarm clock was set to go at 7am. Realising how I had underestimated Canberran weather, I put on a jacket and trudged to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Changed and feeling hungry, I ventured upstairs where uncle had already set out everything for brekkie.

Celine came to pick me up at around 8:10am and she drove us to our placement at National Capital Diagnostic Imaging Corinna Chambers. The place is quite interesting, it's a very compact little place which has a lot of facilities. After being briefly shown around I was told to observe some mammography followed by some ultrasound. It was not quite what I had been expecting to start the day off with. A real eye opener...O.o"

Afterwards I had a look at some DEXAs and OPGs, both of which I had never seen before and were pretty interesting. Oh, and at my placement, they use FILM. No CR or DR system. >.<>

+"Can you see the notch here on the edge of the film?"
+"Err..no?"
+*takes my hand* "Here can you feel it with your fingers?"
+*blindly feeling for the notch* "Ah! Yes."
+"Ok, now the other way to tell if the film is in the correct way, is to look to see which side is facing up. If you look closely you'll see that one side is purple and the other side is black"
+"Err..they both look black to me..." ^^"

As you can see, I made quite the impression.

After a few hours of alternating between observing procedures and standing around doing nothing, it was lunch time. Celine and I decided to head to the Eatery in Westfield, and as we walked through the shopping centre, I began to recognise the shops and the layout.

+"Hey! I know where we are now!"
+"Yeah, it hasn't really changed much."

Celine went to get something healthy to eat while I immediately chose to get something from... *drumroll*

KINGSLEY'S! Unbelievable Value, Awesome Chips! Heh.

When our hour lunch break was up we headed back for some more observation of procedures and standing around. There were some small improvements though, such as being asked to put the film through or go fetch the patient from the waiting room. All in all, I didn't really end up doing that much the whole day, and I felt I was more in the way than anything else. =S

At around 5:10pm one of the radiographers (who shall remain annoymous just in case), drove me home to my aunt's house. After finding and greeting my uncle I had a shower just in time for dinner.

Oh, by the way. have I mentioned that neither my uncle or I can cook? It's very sad. And so is the tale of our dinner of which I will not write about. -_-"

After dinner I hopped online again and chatted for a while before logging off, supposedly to "study". In the end, I spent at least an hour talking on the phone (Oops!). Though in my opinion, it was an hour well spent.

Hehehe... xD

A Trip Down Memory Lane...

2008-01-21T18:23:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I got up at 6am and did some last-minute packing and checking to make sure I had everything. Satisfied, I went to wake my brother up and at 7:40am we left home. The drive was smooth with almost no traffic and we listened to various Eurovision and Jay Chou songs. I complained of the stuffiness inside the car which prompted my brother to turn around and say with a grin, "GM is suffering."

We arrived at Central at 8:15am and went down to the coach terminal to check in and wait until they let us start boarding the coach. Shortly after William arrived and we all greeted each other, my brother and sister decided to leave. I think they just wanted to go home and couldn't be bothered waiting around with me now that I had company. Bleh. -_-

But, then again, I did get to spend some quality time with the only person who came to see me off. Keke~ xD

The Journey ["couldn't resist mate"] was quite uneventful and I managed to get an hour or so of shut-eye. After leaving Central at 9:00am we stopped over to pick up passengers from the International Airport and Liverpool. I sat in the aisle next to a Korean guy who was sitting in my original window seat..grr.. There was a whole group of the Koreans and I suspect that they were all uni students here in Australia for a vacation. I also tried reading up on Femur projections but for some strange reason that didn't really work out...ahaha...

On the way I got a few text messages from people and was feeling very loved and missed hehe. I also remembered to open Bumbo's card and had to stop myself squealing in delight when I saw the "HOT pic" muhaha... I started to recognise the surroundings once we got up to "Lake George" which has actually dried up over the years and is now just grassland with patches of water and wild sheep. O.o"

Arrived at the Jolimont Centre in Canberra a few minutes before 1pm and did not have to wait long before I saw two familiar-looking people walking towards me hand-in-hand...it was Alan and his wife Jia! Gave Alan a big hug and said hello to Jia before we made our way to Alan's car. Later I found out that he had accidentally scratched a bit of paint off his car which was going to cost around $800 to repair...eeek! ><"

As we drove to my Aunty's place I couldn't help gawking at all the changes and excitedly pointing out the places I remembered. We arrived at my Aunty's house and was welcomed by my uncle who showed me where I would be sleeping, what I could use etc. Then all four of us went for lunch at "Iron Chef" in Mawson before dropping into Woolies and picking up some supplies for me. We then headed back to my Aunty's house and dropped off a few things before Alan, Jia and I were off again.

We drove by my old house in Fadden and I was overcome with nostalgia and almost felt like crying. Just seeing my old house again brought back a lot of wonderful memories and mixed feelings of happiness and sadness. Just telling Lynette about it later on msn made me start tearing. And no, I am not emotional, I am just easily moved. Heh.

We went to Hoyts at Woden Plaza to see "Cloverfield". Not a movie I was keen on seeing, but since my cousin insisted on shouting us and even asked a friend to come, I had no choice.

Ugh. It was the worst movie EVER!! +_+

When it started it was a hand held camera and I thought to myself, "Don't tell me the whole movie is going to be like this...". But indeed it was. -_- I started feeling dizzy after the first few minutes. For the entire length of the movie you could not see anything unless the camera stopped moving, which was only when it 'landed' sideways on the ground facing a pile of rubble.

Afterwards we parted ways with Alan's friend and went to crash at the place he and Jia are renting in Downer. I had a go at Guitar Hero 2 and I must say I prefer Taiko drums on DS ahahaha...Anyway. then we went to pick my uncle up from the ANU and we went for dinner at the small Chinese place in Dickson which kinda goes underground and has the Great Wall of China painted on one of its walls. That brought back some memories too -being there again. *sigh*

Oh yeah. nearly forgot. Since uncle knows the manager of the place we got complimentary Prawn Toast. O.o" Everyone was surprised that I've NEVER heard of it before but it tasted pretty good haha.

After dinner Alan dropped uncle and I off at the ANU where uncle had parked his car and then we drove home in the cold Canberran evening rain. I really miss that -driving at night in Canberra in the rain~ ^^

Once we got home I hopped online (YAY!) and chatted with peeps (aww felt so loved again hehe) before wearily tumbling into bed at around 12am. I feel so happy being back here in Canberra again, and being here makes me realised just how much I've missed it. I honestly don't know how many times I've said 'Thankyou" in the past 24hours.