my stories to a perfect pirouette

The one with the birthdays

2011-03-21T22:02:00.007+11:00

Officially the worst blogger ever. period

I have not even looked at this page for months, let alone update it with words and pictures to keep everyone happy.

You know they say that your life changes the moment they call your name. Loud and proud, walking up the stage, grinning your teeth out; you try not to slip and fall before grabbing that most important piece of paper from his/her hand; your passport to the next realm.

Then, your life is officially. over.

For the next 30 years, it's going to be 9 to 6 day weeks, 20 days of annual leave a year, and the very few public holidays we have here in Australia. I'm not complaining about my job. In all honestly, I love my job. I just wish we had three day weekends once a month, longer lunch hours and maybe a bonus twice a year. That should do it.

I've been insane busy with work since I got back from my super-awesome three week holiday back home. I no longer have the privilege of going back for three months. It has now been cut down to three weeks. I did an insane amount of shopping, had nasi kandar ever other day and drank teh tarik every morning for breakkie. That should last me for the next 11 months.

I'll be going to Sydney in two weeks for an event so I'll remember to take pictures to post em up... But till then, this should be enough to tell everyone that I'm alive and well.

Till the next one,

Stay well, eat your fruits and party like a rockstar!

Just as I was about to sign off, I remembered something important.

Ee, remember how you said I've never wished you happy birthday here??

Happy Birthday EE!!! 24! ha.ha.ha

Another one of my besties turned 24 too.

Then (it took me alot of courage to post this up)

Happy Birthday Angela!! Hope you had a blast!

Spring Carnival: Derby Day

2010-10-31T12:32:00.008+11:00

It's the Spring Racing Carnival season here and the entire Melbourne has dolled up for the season. Fascinators and hats can be seen in all the window displays in the city.

As part of a work function, I went to the races for the first time yesterday. AAMI Derby Day to be exact. This race day has a traditional black and white theme; more classic than colourful. I spent hours over the past weekend looking for a fascinator from Myer. There were thousands to choose from. I didn't want one that was too big and getting a hat was wayyy too expensive (they cost around 250-300 dollars).

Days before Derby Day, all everyone could talk about was the terrible weather that was about to hit Melbourne. "One months rain in 24 hours" That is A LOT of rain for Melbourne in one day. Considering that the races is an outdoor event, the bosses made sure that Vitality got geared up for the day. They made sure there were enough marquees to cover our booked lots at the races. Considering what we were going to be dressed in, it would be terrible if we were drenched in our stilettos.

The first race started at 11 on a Saturday morning. It was meant to rain the night before and all Saturday morning. When I woke up, I looked out the window and realized it wasn't raining. I thought to myself, wishing that there might be a chance the weather would be better than what we expected. We are in Melbourne after all. We made it to the races by train and got to our lots just as it started to drizzle. An hour later, the rain started to pour. Not just rain but heavy 'Malaysia-like' rain. Such a terrible day for the races. By the afternoon, the temperature dropped and the ladies started to take their coats out of the car. Even the suits were not enough for the men.

Nonetheless, it was a great day. Rain and all. Everyone had plenty to drink and after a few glasses of champagne, wine, beer and food, the rain did not bother us much anymore.

I managed to take some pictures.

The Marketing Team

See what the rain did...

Some of the boys

After plenty of drinks on the train home

Yours truly

Till the next one,
Have a great 'Movember', boys start sprouting your moustaches!

Just a spoonful of sugar

2010-09-26T22:55:00.003+10:00

I just got back from Her Majesty's Theatre where I watched Mary Poppins The Musical.
It was AWESOME!!

Will update soon enough...

Till the next one,
Have a great week ahead. I know Mondays are always the best!

Doing it just like the boys...

2010-09-04T12:50:00.014+10:00

Just like the boys at home, I finally did it.
I think I had just as much fun as the boys did, being very careful at first, making sure I don't spill anything and eventually make a mess. You know how messy boys can get when they're so into something.

It has become a thing of the past since everything evolved, becoming so high-tech. It's no longer practical to do models the old-fashion way, from scratch, starting slow and picking up the speed as you go. It used to be known as a skill. People ask each other "Are you good with your models?" and they proudly reply "Of course, I've been doing them for years. I do one every two weeks or so".

Model making has evolved to a stage people spend more time in front of the computer doing 3D ones with a mouse. But seriously, how much fun can you have with a mouse and keys? Hell, it's much quicker but I don't think that one gets the satisfaction one gets when it comes to doing the actual thing from scratch.

Since there were scraps lying around on the dinner table, I decided to work on my own little project. I tried to be creative since I only had leftovers.

It takes a lot of patience. If you rush it, you've got to start cutting the pieces all over again.

Behold, my masterpiece.

A side view of what I spent one and a half hours on.

my roof with a gutter so the rainwater will flow out to the sides

That's panels which block the harsh Melbourne winds. It's an outdoor space inside minus the wind.

Obviously I'm not as good as they boys. They've got so much experience. Here's my boy's model.

Now that I've completed my first ever one, I have dreams for better ones. What I want to create next is an outdoor space where events can be held. I've already give it quite a bit of thought, how I want the columns to be, for it to have a roof so that people don't get wet if it rains since Melbourne seems to be raining quite a lot these days. I'll post pictures if I am able to finish it.

Till the next one,
Have a great Sunday because Monday is just around the corner.

the-work-post

2010-08-29T15:36:00.005+10:00

I remember the last time I spent this much time on my blog. It was way back when I used to (constantly) procrastinate my uni assignments, journal readings and thesis research. After 16 years of schooling, I don't think I have changed much. I've learned a lot but old habits die hard. I still try my best-est to come up with considerable good quality work although I've always managed to take the longest time possible to finish them. It's just a skill that I have. One that I'm obviously not willing to give up.

Not even now. When I'm working.

It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Not as sunny as I want it to but thankfully not as cold as the past week. After a Malaysian char koay teow lunch at this place called "Gurney Drive" (I-kid-you-not) down the street from my place, I'm sitting in front of fatboy's PC (with two screens, which allows me to play Restaurant City while typing this entry) with a hot mug of tea, only because I'm warming myself up after having an ice-cream. For the first time since I started working, I brought work home over the weekend; not because I wanted to, because I had to.

You think I'm careless because I'm young and forgetful and irresponsible. That's not true. Other people leave stuff to the last minute too and it really annoys me when I've got to pick up the pieces and rush all because "THEY FORGOT". Yea, you forgetting means me having to bring work home over the weekend. dumbo. I don't really give a shit if you forget your own work and have to stay back half an hour. I've got a life too (even if I want to iron my clothes on a Sunday afternoon with my brand new iron).

I've got to get back to work. The advertising artwork is due tomorrow and I've got some editing to do. I'm just trying to get as much done and I'll ask hunlin to help me when he gets back home from uni. That's just the few benefits of dating an architect-to-be nerd.

Till the next one,
Have a great week ahead!

It's all about the money

2010-08-28T23:34:00.004+10:00

I think this place deserves another entry. It has been two weeks since my last weekend shopping craze. I bought an iron and clothes. I promised myself I'd stay away from shops last week, and thankfully I managed to. I only spent money on food over the last weekend; a dimsum lunch and desserts in the city.

Unfortunately, my bank balance dropped AGAIN over the past couple of days. I spend 1500 dollars on air tickets! My three week leave got approved last week and I finally got my ticket back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year. I'll be back on the 23rd of January, for three whole weeks. I'm really looking forward to that; although before that I'll be busy with Australian Open since my company is the official sunscreen supplier for that event. If the camera comes my way, I'll remember to wave to say hi to everyone at home. dodgy, I know. I also bought tickets for my mom and grandma to visit me in July next year. I managed to get dirt cheap tickets. $600 dollars for TWO RETURN tickets. Was that a bargain or what? Of course it wasn't Singapore Airlines or Emirates. It was Air Asia.

I realised that once I'm around the city, I tend to spend money quickly AND easily. We bought mooncakes this weekend, a box of four for $44.50. I know that's expensive, but I was rather fussy. I wanted low sugar, white lotus with 2 yolk. I mean, we only eat mooncakes once a year. No harm spending a little more on something that will taste much better.

Oh well, I'm getting paid this Tuesday. Lets hope I manage to save more this month.

Till the next one,
Happy Merdeka Malaysia!
No parties this year, I've gotta work the following day.

Super Steam, Super Glide

2010-08-08T17:06:00.007+10:00

There's a sale going on in Myer and I got the catalogue in my mailbox over the week.
Now that I'm staying on my own, household purchases are my responsibility. Unfortunately, some part of my spending money goes to things like frying pans, woks and whatnot.

Now that I'm working (in an office and not teaching at uni anymore), I've got to make sure that my clothes look presentable and not creased. I cannot be meeting people and have crumpled clothes. We already have a smart casual attire (we can wear jeans all we want) and the least we can do is to make sure our clothes look presentable. I think that creased clothes look very unprofessional.

On that note, I got an IRON. A Philips one, mind you.
Yes, I'm getting all domesticated here.
But the iron I got is uber cool.

Power with precision, this steam iron apparently has continuous steam for better crease removal, so the iron does more work and I do less. There's this drip-stop systems so the water doesn't leak out from the bottom. It allows for vertical steam and there's a 100g/min steam boost to remove stubborn creases easily. Damn canggih rite?

I know I don't need an awesome iron because I only do my ironing once a week, but I'd like the chore to be fun and easy, instead of having to iron my clothes for a whole hour because it won't remove the crease from the wash. I also wanted to get a better quality iron because I didn't want to spend $30 on a 'no brand' iron, which doesn't work as well and goes faulty in a year. Investing on this better one which will "fingers crossed" last for years is obviously a better option.

Check out my super cool iron here.

I have yet to try it because my clothes are still in the dryer but I'm already very excited about trying it out. I know it sounds pathetic that I'm writing about irons now when just two years back, I wouldn't have ever thought about spending this much money on an iron. Oh, the iron costs 89 dollars btw.

Till the next one,
I think I need to start spending less. And you should too!

Clean-up

2010-08-01T21:08:00.006+10:00

It was my last weekend before the boys get back. Peace and quiet, clean bathroom and clean apartment. I'm going to miss it.

I did a bit of cleaning up over the weekend. I rearranged everything on my makeup table. It looks much neater now.

Unfortunately, the weekend is over and Monday is here again.

Till the next one,
Have a great week ahead!

Lalalala... lalalala...

2010-07-27T19:32:00.004+10:00

I had to get it. It was on Sale.

Look who I brought home today...

He was abit scared to get out of the bag

Say hello to Elmo. He's from Sesame Street. He used to stay with Big Bird (so wrong), Grover, Cookie Monster and his other furry friends.

He loves to sing his 'Elmo's Song' which I find amusing.

He's suitable for humans 12 months and above

He's soft and cuddly!

And he's moved to my place...

Till the next one,
Watch an episode of Sesame Street. It'll bring back memories.

A Winter Break

2010-07-25T12:52:00.007+10:00

As I walk out the gate with the cold winds gushing at my face, I know I'm not on first class. I've got to carry my bag, walk out with everyone else in the cold and up the stairway onto the plane. Clearly not Singapore Airlines or Emirates. It was Jetstar.

I was on a business trip to Gold Coast during the week and the weather there was awesome. A few hours after touchdown, I realised that they don't experience much of the winter at all. The skies are sunny and clear. The breeze is what you feel when you're on a holiday. Seriously, how do people get any work done at the Gold Coast? Almost everyone you see over there is on a holiday of some sort. People wearing shorts in the middle of winter with their sunnies on all day. Unfortunately, it was too short of a trip. Three days were obviously not enough and coming back to a rainy night in Melbourne was a bit of a bummer.

This was my first business trip with the company. I was quite excited about it because it was our first sales meeting of the financial year. We've got Territory Managers all around the country and I have only met up with the Victoria guys. It was my chance to finally meet the others, putting a face to the names and the voices I've been talking to for the past 4 months. It was a good trip. We stayed and had our meeting at the Crown Plaza on Surfers Paradise, the best place along the Gold Coast. The team worked hard and played hard. The meeting started at 9 in the morning after breakfast and went through until 5pm with lunch and tea breaks in between. The nights were fun as well. The best part about the company that I work with, they love karaoke. What a relief. I am in the right company. I love what I do, I enjoy working with the people in the office and I enjoy the karaoke sessions with them!!

Unfortunately, I went shopping again over the weekend.
There was a 10% off all cosmetics, perfumes and bath and body products at Myers on Saturday. So after a dim sum brunch, I got this new baby

Say hello to Essence by Narciso Rodriguez. It is not strong neither does it have any flowery scent. It has this fresh 'just-out-of-the-shower' scent which I love.

I also got two new reads from Borders. 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Bronte and a recommended 'Love in the Time of Cholera' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The best part about the purchase is that I didn't have to spend heaps on them. Penguin Books started publishing the best books for everyone to enjoy at an awesome low price of $9.99 including GST! Where else can you get a read that's the same price as lunch? I'll update how the book goes soon enough.

One last thing.
The biggest toy sale is on now in Melbourne. All toys are marked down at Target and I have my eye on something furry, red, soft and cuddly. I know I'm too old for toys now but I can't help it. I really wanted to get it over the weekend but decided against it. I think I'll get it sometime this week. Stay tuned for pictures. I know you're going to love it as much as I will!!

Till the next one,
Have a great week ahead!

Musical Boys

2010-07-17T10:52:00.005+10:00

Good morning Melbourne...

I just had my morning dose of music...
I have to say I have this thing for boys with instruments and great voices.
My. heart. will. melt.

Have a listen to this...real talent on stage

and off stage

great voices, talent, good looking boys... need I even say more??

Till the next one,
Have a great weekend!!

23 and counting

2010-07-14T20:39:00.006+10:00

It has been three quick months since I started my career. Yes, career. Not a part-time job at a cafe or a bookstore. Not a casual tutor at uni teaching marketing to first year students (though that paid my very very well, much more (per hour) than what I am earning now. Though at uni, I only work seven hours a week including an hour for consultation where students are meant to come and ask for help if they've got any problems with the subject or keeping up with what I'm teaching in class.

With my job now, I pay much more tax (shitloads), I get paid once a month (instead of every fortnight) which makes me budget my expenses better BUT I enjoy it because everyday is different and I'm constantly faced with new tasks and troubles. With that said, I still LOVE my weekends and count the days before the next one comes around!

With the job, comes the rewards. It's good because I get paid at the end of every month. I no longer have to worry about semester holidays or any other holidays where I don't teach at uni. I have more to spend now than before and I'm not so worried about the bills and rent every month. I've also managed to start saving up and still have some leftover to spend on things that I like. I've recently bought Mary Poppins The Musical tickets and I cannot wait until September. It was all sold out and the best tickets I could get were for a Sunday evening one.

How can you forget Julie Andrews with her umbrella singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"!

or the Banks children who seem so fascinated by everything

Also, it has been a while since I've had time for this blog and birthday wishes.

Judy turns 23 tomorrow. Happy Birthday dear! Have an awesome one! Hope you enjoyed your trip to India

Just before I go, here's my favourite lines from my favourite TV series.

How you doing?
"Joey Tribbiani- Friends"

Legendary!
"Barney Stinson- How I Met Your Mother"

and my absolute favourite.....

Abso-fucking-lutely!!!
"Mr Big- Sex and The City"

Till the next one,
Watch an episode of Friends for some laughter!

I think I'm F-A-*...oh, nevermind

2010-07-12T19:48:00.004+10:00

Winter is never nice to me. She (definitely more like a bitch than an ass) is like this enemy waiting to strike at the right times. She pulls my hair, she claws my face and she throws dessert straight at my mouth, forcing me to open and swallow. She's like the high school bitch that you're afraid off but there's nothing you can do about it. She makes the rules and you just have to play by it. No questions asked.

Apart from the fact that it is very very cold in winter here, Melbourne's cold temperatures have done me no good whatsoever. My hair becomes terribly dry (at the ends) and I have to resort to using better shampoo and conditioner. I've got to apply leave-in conditioner before I blowdry my hair and use a serum thereafter. A lot of work. Don't even get me started on how bad my heels are, how dry my skin has become and how sickening it is to have blemishes on my face!! But all that ramblings are meant for another post.

This is my third year here in Melbourne and during this time of the year (May-September), I won't fit my jeans. Yes, I put on weight even though it doesn't seem like I do. I'm human too okay. Somehow, in some magical way, I get hungry very (and I mean VERY) quickly after my meals and tend to eat more often and larger portions each time. I think it is the cold weather that makes me hungry quickly. Or maybe it's just that time of the year. Whatever it is, it makes me one hell of a hungry person. My colleagues at office thinks that I eat the most food in the entire company.

When I first arrived in Melbourne, I could barely finish a serve of anything. If I ordered a plate of fried rice, I'd only manage to eat half of it and have to pack the other half to bring home for lunch the next day. There was no way I'd be able to finish the food. After sufficient training, I've managed to 'level-up' and now I can say that I eat SO MUCH MORE than before. I could barely finish a small size of Vietnamese beef noodles in March 2008 but during winter, I order a medium! Enough said.

Since the boys are away, I've just been cooking for myself and I can finally measure how much food I consume. I realised that 3 cups of rice lasts for four meals. I don't know if that's what an average person eats, but DAMN I think that's A LOT for one person.

Unfortunately, I "don't have any right to complain about my weight/size" since I'm relatively smaller and thinner than most people at my office, or most people in general. I've got light bones and obviously a smaller built compared to other people but that does not mean that I can't put on weight or get fatter based on the proportion of my body. Based on my Body Mass Index, I'm a little underweight for my height. I blame the bones. But then again, I've been like that since primary school or as far as I can remember. I don't stick my finger down my throat after meals because I honestly like the feeling of having food in my tummy. It makes me happy. I indulge in the occasional treat; ice-cream, chips, waffles and chocolates but I feel guilty after that, much more; now that I've gone back to dancing.

I'm just a normal girl (I think) and I love food. As much as I think I need to make sure I eat enough so I don't faint during the day or so the Melbourne winds don't blow me away; I think I need to cut down on my food portions. Probably eat more during lunch and have a smaller meal over dinner. Have more fruits during the day so I get the vitamins and at least I snack on something healthy. Most importantly, I think I need to cut down on ice-creams. I just bought two boxes of ice-creams on the way back from work today because I finished my previous box over the weekend. If my ballet teacher found out that I'm eating an ice-cream a day, I doubt she'll be keeping her comments to herself when I can't stand on my demi-point or balance when do my ballet steps.

Did I mention that I'm in lurrrrveeeee with the maccas ORGE PREMIUM CHICKEN BURGER? For a limited time only, it comes with chicken, salads and red onion rings and my fav, pesto mayo!! The meal comes with a Frozen Fanta Ogre Freeze in Green Apple Flavour and the World's Favourite Fries!

Oh well, one can only try.

Till the next one,
Have an ice-cream; it'll put a smile on your face!

he loves me. he loves me not

2010-07-10T15:51:00.006+10:00

I was on the way back from work on Friday when it hit me. This is how it is and this is how it will always be. Flowers are meant to make women happy. Seriously. You might be telling yourself right now, "I'm not the flower-kind-of girl" or "I don't need flowers to make me happy. My boyfriend never gets me flowers and I'm totally fine with that". I used to tell myself that all the time too. I am not the kind of girl who demands flowers. Heck, sometimes I even think that flowers are a waste of money. You spend so much on them, they make you happy for now and after a week, they whitter and die. You either hang them to dry or chuck them into your bin and throw them out the next day. I'd rather get a gift that will last me months.

If you see a guy with flowers back home in Malaysia, you'd stare at him, thinking that he's so cheesy, getting his girlfriend flowers for their special date or something (and obviously if you're a guy, wonder where his balls went). At the same time, you'd feel jealous, because somewhere in the world, a girl is going to be very very happy when she see him and the flowers. She's sure to say "The flowers are beautiful, thanks, but you didn't have to get me flowers, you know that right?". They always say that BUT they ALWAYS want the flowers.
TRUST ME.

Over the past week, on the way back from work, I've seen so many men (I'd like to call them men because they're such gentlemen) with flowers. I've only received flowers (I'm counting right now) five times in my life (i think) and each time, they've made me really happy. The smell of the flowers when I walk in the front door makes the day so much better. So every time I see a guy with flowers, it brings a smile to my face, knowing that whether he's doing it because he screwed up before, or just because he wants to get her flowers, he's going to make someone else smile too.

Things that have been making me smile? Lately? Shopping. And I haven't even been buying clothes, just make-up and other stuff. There was a 20% discount at Pulse Pharmacy a few weeks ago because of the end of financial year and that specific Pulse near my office sold the L'Occitane range. I took advantage of it and just bought stuff.
Here's what I got:

Since the weather is so dry here, my heels have gone from bad to worse. I don't wear shoes much (closed shoes with socks I mean) and that makes my heels crack terribly. Now that I've gone back to dancing and ballet, I need to make sure that my heels are not dry as cracked heels hurt, making it harder to dance. I use this after my shower, when the hot water has soften the skin on my heels. I exfoliate in a circular motion and rinse off after. I put my Body Shop foot lotion to lock in the moisture immediately after showering and wear socks to keep it in. I've seen an improvement and I'm not saying that the L'Occitane product works like magic. It's the whole process; exfoliating, scrubbing and remembering to put the lotion right after.
Ee introduced me to this product last year. When she came to visit me in Melbourne, she gave me a bar and told me to try it. She said it clears pimples on the back. After I tried it, I fell in love with it. It feels so gentle and it does help the pimples. You can see the difference within days. However, since I have very very dry skin and I'm in Melbourne, I try not to use this soap everyday. I also have to put a lot of body lotion after showering.

I also got myself hand cream. I do a lot of housework here. Sad ain't it? I have to cook and at times, do the dishes. I wash my hands in warm water during winter and they dry up so easily. I think a good hand cream is really important. You don't want to have ugly, dry looking skin at such a young age, do you? Invest in a hand cream that's good. Trust me.

If that's not enough stuff, I also got more Dermalogica products for my face. I started using dermalogica a year ago. They're all fragrance free and I have to say, they're quite the stuff! Ever since I came to Melbourne, the weather has not been good to my face. I have better complexion back home but when I'm here, I get red blemishes. Dermalogica helped me clear the blemishes and improve my skin. It's still not perfect and I get the pimples and blemishes back at times, but it's been better than the others that I've tried.

Here's what I bought last week from ZIPT on Collins Street,Melbourne.
Now that I'm working full time, I use makeup on a daily basis. Obviously after a long day, removing the make-up off your face is very important. You don't want to go to sleep with makeup still clogging your pores and destroying your skin. Most cleansers now work as both a makeup remover and a cleanser. I don't believe in that. I don't think that washing your face with your cleanser twice will get rid of all the product you put on your face in the morning plus the dust and dirt that comes together on it during the day. I've always believed in using a good makeup remover and after I finished my previous Clinique 'Take The Day Off Cleansing Milk", I decided to buy the Dermalogica Precleanse. I've tried samples of it before and it works wonders in removing makeup. It's a lightweight Olive and Apricot Kernel-based cleansing oil and you only need 3-4 drops for your entire face. On a dry face, massage it over the face and eyes to dissolve the surface oil and dirt. After that, wet your fingertips and continue to massage your face. The oil will turn into a milky white emulsion and you can also see the colour of your makeup come off with it. Rinse with warm water after and follow with your cleanser.
This is a daily microfoliant. It's a Rice-based enzyme powder that can be used daily, as stated. However, after previous experience, I've never used exfoliants on a daily basis. I think our face needs a rest and we can't put too much pressure on it. The skin layers on my face are very thin and because of that I'm supposed to very gentle. Using only a little bit and a few drops of water, it becomes a creamy paste and you can massage it onto your face and rinse off later.

It is only the 10th of July and I've been spending so much money on face, body and makeup. I really need to start saving more and spending less, but sometimes, beauty buys are a MUST for girls. I've also been inspired by Yvonne's blog, Belle Demoiselle. I met her in Melbourne three years back and she and a friend set up this beauty blog to write about things that make girls happy, makeup, skincare and everything beautiful. Honestly, reading about makeup and beauty buys make you want to go to your nearest departmental store to check out the product.

Till the next one,
Stay beautiful and buy a bunch of flowers for your room!

Subway = BAD

2010-07-08T22:11:00.003+10:00

I had subway for dinner tonight and I have to say that I haven't had a sub in a long time.
I got off the train from Flinders Station, crossed the road towards the tram stop. Just as I was crossing, the lights caught my eye. SUBWAY! My brains started to tell me stories "meatball with marinara sauce, red onions.." can someone spell Y-U-M-M-Y??

Nothings wrong with eating a sub. Actually, it's much healthier than having a quarter pounder from maccas or 2-minute instant maggie noodles. They advertise Subway extensively; freshly baked bread daily, fresh salads, bla bla bla.

But honestly, I love having my sub with meatball marinara but having it straight after my class is such a BAD BAD BAD idea. I just started dance classes again. After six-long years. Ballet Class to be exact and let me tell you, I'm lousy at it now. I can point and stuff, but my french vocabulary, terrible. I can barely remember the French terms anymore. On the first class, I had to look around before I could do the barre steps. Seriously, you can't just stop after six years and expect things to be good. It's like a relationship. You have to invest heavily in it, put in alot (and I mean ALOT) of effort, be discipline, watch your diet (probably avoiding fast food of any kind) and practice practice practice.

I loved my ballet. I still love it so very much. After six years, I long to dance as I used to before. Every single time I watch a dance movie, a musical or "So You Think You Can Dance" on TV, I miss it. I miss the graceful steps. I miss my technique. I miss the way I feel when I dance. I was good at it, much better than I am now.

So I decided to take up ballet classes once again. I searched online for a school and I found Elance Adult Ballet School. It's a 15-20 minute walk from my office. I went to buy ballet attire. My ballet shoes, leotard and pink thighs. I was ready. Mentally but after my first class, not physically obviously. But I'm determined to get back to ballet for good. I've signed up for a term (12 weeks) and PAID shit loads for it. I'm ready to get my body back in shape (which means not having an ice-cream every night after dinner, probably try to cut down to twice a week), do some stomach exercises at home a couple times a week and do some stretching every other day, to hopefully be more flexible again.

It's not easy and trust me, it's effing frustrating to be in a class knowing that you were much better before and really suck right now, but I'm determined to be a better dance by the end of this term. Fingers crossed.

Till the next one,
Stay healthy, eat your fruits and get some exercise!

Picture Perfect

2010-06-14T21:19:00.004+10:00

Pictures paint a thousand words.
You see how happy or sad a person is. Whether they force a smile for the camera or a wide smile while saying 'cheeseee', you can tell with just a mere photograph.

Just before my long weekend ends, I shall recap what happened over the past few days.
I've been at home, without many plans other than to get well and recover. Had a sore throat on Thursday but I'm all better now *fingers crossed*
I get back to work again tomorrow, for what I'm glad to say, a very short week. Tuesday to Friday and the weekend would be here again!

I went for a walk in the city just this afternoon, just for some fresh air. It's winter now and the air's as fresh and cold as it can get. I eventually ended up at Big W (a Tesco/Giant-like place that sells everything for a good price) and started looking around at the books section. It's EOFYS now (End-of-financial-year-sale) and EVERYTHING is on sale. Books, clothes, electrical goods, you name it, it's on sale. Wandering around, I noticed that most of the books were on a 35% sale. Whoo-pee-dee-dooo! I started picking some up and after about 15 minutes, ended up at the checkout with four books and $68 dollars poorer.

I walked to the State Library, hoping to be able to start reading my book inside, came to realize that the library was closed, thanks to the public holiday. Sitting outside the library in the 14degree weather, I pulled out the book from the bag and started reading. It would have been the perfect evening had it not gotten dark so early. After about an hour, I left the park and went to Woolworths to get groceries for dinner. Got a bunch of flowers and grabbed a Free* copy of some cookbook at the counter after paying the guy at the cashier. I thought it was the free monthly magazine that Woolies did. But when I came back and flipped through the book, I realized the cover wrote "Free when you buy participating magazines, RRP $4.45". Shit. I have the cookbook thing with me but I didn't buy any other participating magazines. Did I STEAL the mini-cookbook??? But thinking back, when I took that book off the counter, the guy didn't even say anything. He just smiled at me and asked me to have a nice day! He probably thought it was a freebie too. So not entirely my fault.

oh well, just before I wrap it all up, here are some photos that should have been up ages ago. It's taking ages to upload the photos, so here's just a few of them. Will work on it another day.

I miss my mom and sister so much already.

Till the next one,
Give your loved ones a call to say hie and that you love them!

Long weekend

2010-06-13T09:17:00.003+10:00

Winter is obviously here in Melbourne. With a minimum of 3-4degrees and a maximum of 15, you know you'd need a jumper or two when you leave the house. If you don't have the heater on inside, you'd need a jumper and might I suggest, sweatpants to keep you comfy?

I'm not a huge fan of the cold. I don't mind it, but I don't particularly love it. The worse part about winter is having to wake up early in the morning and heading to work. Seriously, its freezing cold at 6.30 in the morning and the only thing that makes it better is the crazy hot shower I jump into. Walking to the tram stop to get to work sucks when the wind is blowing directly at your face and all you breathe out is fog fog and fog.

The WORST part of winter is the flu season. Everyone gets sick over winter. I don't know if it's the cold or if the germs have nowhere to run to. People start coughing, sneezing and some even cough their lungs out on the train. Imagine the germs. Some have a rating of 6 cps (coughs per second) and 6 is a big number.

Talking about getting sick, majority of the people in my office is, do I even need to say it? SICK. Some have been coughing for weeks, some sneezing every other minute and some are just plain sick. We all got a flu jab about a month ago, when we all got our health check. But that didn't stop the germs from attacking them. I've been trying to stay healthy. Getting sick over the winter sucks. And the cold obviously makes it worse. But as of Thursday, my body gave in. I fell sick. Had a bad bad bad sore throat, so bad that I woke up at night, having difficulty sleeping. I went to work on Thursday feeling like crap. Sore throat got worse. Started to get a sniffy nose. Shit. I'm officially sick. And being at the office doesn't help with all the germs circulating the entire place. I obviously needed a break. So I decided to take Friday off, to rest at home and to get better. I obviously needed the day off, considering the fact that I slept for 13 hours that night, from 8.30pm to 9.30 the next morning. Talk about catching up on sleep.

The best part of all is that Melbourne has a long weekend. Monday's a public holiday because it's the Queen's Birthday. So since I took Friday off to rest, I've got an uber-long weekend to rest. Four days to be exact. I'm getting better, been getting tons of sleep during the day AND night. Fingers crossed that I've managed to build up enough immunity to fight away the germs at the office.

Till the next one,
Rest up and try not to fall sick in winter!

A Graduate's Update

2010-05-30T11:11:00.008+10:00

Firstly, I sincerely apologize for the lack of posts. I've been so very busy with the new job, my graduation ceremony, my mom and sister's visit that I barely have time to catch up on my tv series, let alone update this place with pictures and what-not. Nonetheless, there's no excuse, so this is gonna be an all-in-one post.

It's been two months since I started my new job. Wonderful working environment, friendly colleagues, and good location. I've managed to pick up most of the things that I need to work on, and I've been busy, which is a good thing. The days pass faster and the weekend comes around quickly. I'm not saying that I don't like my job. It's great. I get to do what I want to, mostly in the field that I studied. Market research, competitor analysis, new product development. On top of that, it deals with food, healthy food to be precise, so I'll never go hungry at work. There's always fruits in the fruit bowl at the receptionist's desk, bars (protein, wholegrain with fruits) and chocolates in the marketing room and birthday cakes every other month when someone celebrates their birthday. Despite how fun work is, everyone looks forward to weekends. Best part of all, not having to wake up early!

In other news, I'm finally a graduate. 19th May 2010. My 30 seconds of fame. She read out my name. Walked onto the stage. Accepted the piece of paper. Walked off. Done. Four years of studying for that. I know, so cliche rite? We all study for ages, literally, since we were four and all we look forward to is that 30 seconds where we receive our piece of paper. Heck, people even print their own pieces of paper now, some even get them over the internet for a couple of hundred dollars. Nonetheless, I'm very grateful of my piece of paper. The sleepless nights, the countless research readings and finally, the 150 page research paper that came to be. Thinking back at the year that was, I knew I could have done so much more to that paper, but now I know, that moving forward, if I do have a chance to do another long-ass piece, I'd work like hell. But until that day comes, I'm happy going to work and getting the pay cheque at the end of the month. For now, nothing beats spending money and being independent!

I also managed to get tickets to see FAME The Musical which was in Melbourne for 8 weeks. I brought my mom and sis to watch it too and it was quite good. Not as great as the one I saw 8 years ago in KL, but for an Australian production, it was good. Produced by the same guy who did Wicked The Musical, John Frost did a good job and Kelly Abbey choreographed amazing dance steps for the entire musical. I'm a fan of these things, so I'm quite happy with it. Next up in line, Marry Poppins, The Musical. They are running out of tickets, so I'm trying to get the best seats I can get. And that's in October.

And the best part of the past month, my mom and sister's visit to Melbourne! It was the best week ever, coming back from work and having family at home. Mom's cooking was awesome, soups and stews. She even made extra food for me for the week so I wouldn't have to do much cooking after she left. I planned a whole list of tourist attractions for them to visit, but obviously, thanks to the late nights and even later mornings, they only managed to visit a couple. We managed to catch the Titanic Exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. That was a good one, bringing us back a hundred years to the time where the ship was built and reminding us how she set sailed and never arrived at her destination. They made the exhibition a little exciting by giving each of us a passenger card. We'd have a description of the person who boarded the Titanic, who they boarded with and the reason why they went on that ship. At the end of the exhibition, there was a board with all the names of the passengers, who survived and who didn't. My mom and sister had passengers from first class and I was from a second class cabin, and to our surprise, all three of us survived the tragic incident (but then again, we were all women passengers, so we had a higher chance of surviving!).

Mom and Jess also managed to visit a couple of other places, Melbourne Aquarium, Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne Museum, DFO South Wharf for the usual shopping, Shrine of Remembrance, Eureka Skydeck88 and the Edge Experience. They came to see where I work and said hie to some of my colleagues.

It was a week that went way too quickly and I can't wait till they visit me again.

(I typed this entry about two weeks ago,only posting it up today. I know, stale news again.)

Until the next one with more pictures,
Stay warm as winter's here!

Easter Sunday Feast!

2010-04-04T20:39:00.010+10:00

I mentioned that I'd update more often and I'm keeping to my word (so far). Today is Easter Sunday and we've got a feast planned for the weekend. Yesterday, Thong (my housemate) made vietnamese dinner. We had vietnamese pancakes, beef salad and prawns. All vietnamese by a vietnamese. And it was yummy.

And today, it was my turn.
So, I made tacos, cauliflower gratin and Caramel Apples. Sounds yummy ey? IT IS :)

For the tacos, we just bought the mix, beef, taco shells and taco sauce. I chopped onions, tomatoes, lettuce and cabbage for the toppings.

After that, I fried 500grams of minced beef in a pan. Once it starts to brown, I added 3/4 cups of water and the seasoning mix for tacos. Fried for a further 10 minutes and it's done. Looks something like this.

We bought a couple of sauces too. Sour cream, nachos sauce and taco sauce.

For nachos, I laid it on a baking tray, sprinkled tasty cheese on top and popped it into the oven to bake and melt the cheese. This is how it ended up.

Moving along, I made Cauliflower gratin cause I thought we'd needed some veges after so much meat. So I bought one large cauliflower and broke it up into bite size florets. Then I boiled it in water for a couple off minutes till it cooks. I transferred it out into a bowl of iced water to cool it completely. Then I let it dry.

Melted butter into a saucepan, whisked flour into it and cooked it over medium heat, stirring.

It becomes this thick dry mixture. I remove it from the heat and then gradually whisk in milk until it becomes smooth. I stir it over low heat till it bubbles and thickens. Then I put in a cup of tasty cheese until it melts and becomes very smooth. I add a little salt and pepper to season.

I put the cauliflower into a baking dish and then I drizzle the sauce evenly over the cauliflower. I sprinkle tasty cheese over and bake for 15-20 minutes.

After baking, this is what cauliflower gratin looks like. Yummy.

The best part of making a meal: Dessert. Sweet, tasty, yummy.

I got 6 apples which were cut into wedges. I put sugar into the saucepan and the sir it until it dissolves. This one was really tricky. I have never made caramelised apples before. So I didn't know how it should look like. After the sugar dissolved and became pale golden, I took it away from the heat. I think I was supposed to let it cool a little but I poured in the thickened cream immediately. It just spoiled everything. My caramel hardened and got stuck at the bottom of the saucepan. Terrible. I was like whattttttttttt? Shitttttttttttt!!! Determined to make it work, I put that into the sink and started a new one. This time, it had to get it right. Because I only had enough cream to make a second one. I dissolved the sugar and everything went well. Then after I took it away from the heat, I made sure I poured in the cream carefully. Very slowly. Little by little. And it worked! Thank goodness. After that, it was easy. Add vanilla extract, cinnamon stick and apples. Cook until apples are tender.

After that, I let it cool while we were having dinner. To make it superbly yummy, make sure you have ice-cream and chocolate shavings.

It was a really good easter feast. After this weekend, it's all work for me. Here are more pictures.

the chef and her work!

Till the next massive cookout,
I hope ya'll had a great Easter too =)

p/s: I gained an hour today cause daylight saving ended. I'm now two hours ahead from home.

Happy Easter everyone!!!

2010-04-03T23:04:00.006+11:00

Two more days and I start my new job as a Marketing Assistant at Vitality Brands! Wohoo... Can't wait. Very very very excited about it, but nervous too. I mean, my first actual full-time job after a million years of studying.

Since my only responsibilities now are working,working and erm... working, I've decided to try as many recipes as I can from the recipe books that I bought from Malaysia. I have more time on my hands to cook, so I'm gonna try a new thing every week. The reason: I watched Julie and Julia two weeks ago. So inspired. So last week, I tried a fish dish called 'Fish with Coconut and Spices'. I bought fish fillets from the market and had everything else at home. One mistake I made was that I got fillets which were too thick. But it turned out quite alright. Was abit too hungry and ate immediately after I finished cooking, so no pictures.

Just last week, I made 'Chinese beef and asparagus with oyster sauce'. Super easy, super fast and super yummy. This one, I managed to snap a picture.

I know it doesn't look that great, but it was nice. Good enough to eat!

On Thursday was my last day teaching at uni. Kinda sad that I was leaving uni for good. No more tutoring. No more fun times. No more working twice a week. But while I was going to the office to hand in my hours of work form, I saw this on the wall. It brought a huge SMILE to my face!
CLICK on the picture to see what the fuss is all about.

I was sooooooooooooooo happy. Wheeeee! My name on the wall at uni. Hahahaha. I know la. show off. But still. It's an achievement. And I'm very proud of it =D

The boys are watching football and it looks kinda interesting. Heard it's a good match. Will go take a shower and watch the match while painting my nails.
Will update more about my new job/life real soon.

Till the next one,
Happy Easter everyone! Enjoy your easter egg!

Jean's Graduation!!

2010-03-30T21:52:00.003+11:00

Jean's back in Malaysia and she posted up her graduation pictures on her fb.
I just had to steal it and re-post it here, cause she looks great in a graduation gown.

Her hood was a bright yellow. and her graduation bear had the same coloured hood too!

jean in her new hair-do, yellow hood and me with a bad-hair-day

definitely deserves a thumbs-up!

jean, vicky and unidentified friend. (i don't know her)

Looking at her graduation pictures, I can't wait till my ceremony. It's on the 19th of May. Another month an a half to go. But so so so so excited about it. Mom and sis are coming too!! Looking at the pictures, I must note down to get a haircut before my graduation..

Till the next one,
Have a good week cause easter's around the corner.
Whee to public holidays (cause I start work in exactly 6 days!)

TGIF

2010-03-26T14:48:00.003+11:00

I'm not technically enjoying it now, (about it being a friday) but I know come april, I'd be loving my Fridays cause it's a sign that the weekend is near!
Time flies and it's a Friday again.
Updates for the week:

Jean graduated! Wheee... On Thursday at 10am at Union Hall, Bundoora (sounds like a wedding announcement). I wish I could have been in the hall to see her receive her scroll, but I HAD to teach/work. But we got a couple of pictures together before the ceremony and I'll post em up as soon as I get them from her.

In more not-so-exciting news, Jean's leaving for Malaysia this afternoon. She's on her way to the airport now for her flight at 5pm later. I wish she didn't have to go back. Melbourne feels different without her around. Nevertheless, fingers crossed that she'll be back here in July.

Just a couple more updates about my new job:
I start on the 6th of April, after the long Easter weekend. Working hours: 8.30-5.30 with an hour of lunch in between. That's not too bad. But come winter, it'll be freezing at 7 in the morning when I have to leave for work. I'm so very very excited about the new job. There's loads to do and loads to learn there so I'm really looking forward to it. The job AND the money of course.

Since I'm not technically working full-time yet (I only teach at uni twice a week), I've been trying to keep up with my "tv-freak' label. Since last year, I haven't had time to watch the tv shows that I used to. One Tree Hill, Gossip Girls, Grey's Anatomy and Friends (again) just to name a few. So since I have some time on my hands, I've decided that I better start watching now or I'd be seasons behind everyone else. Since DVDs are only a dollar on Tuesdays (movie days), I've been renting movies and the all-time-fav Gossip Girls and How I Met Your Mother.
I know I watch alot of tv, but hey, life's short and when you've got extra time on your hands, there's no harm in watching a couple hours of tv. =D

Just in case you think I watch too much tv and I'll become stupid/dumb sooner than you think, I still read. Just finished an old book "Just Friends" by Robyn Sisman. Starting on 'Can you hear the nightbird call' by Anita Rau Badami in a bit. Any suggestions for a good book?

Till the next one,
Have a fun/exciting weekend out
and have a safe flight jean. will miss you.

Updated: Now up and running

2010-03-24T10:26:00.002+11:00

Hi everyone. Sorry about the lack of updates. I never seem to have time to update when I'm back in Malaysia for holidays. I don't know if it's the weather or what. But now I'm back in Melbourne, just in case you didn't know. Got back here the first week of March. As usual, the 'parting' moment was hard. It's always hard to leave home, knowing that it'll be a long time before I'm back there again. I was home sick for the next couple of days. Missed home, my mom sis and grandma, and home cooked food. But all's good now. I've settle back into the Melbourne lifestyle and gotten used to doing all the chores again. ugh.

Since I got back, I've been busy busy busy. Applying for my Graduate Visa just right before my student visa expires. I've also been applying for jobs like crazy. I'm on seek.com everyday looking for something that I'd like to do everyday for the next year. That was HARD. There are so many jobs available, but barely any that would suit me. It was either something I wasn't interested in, or something totally out of my field. The transition period between completing studies and getting a job is really stressful. And mind you, I'm not the only one who thinks so. Eeling's looking for a job herself too. And we talk about wanting 'this and that job' sooooo much.

Thankfully I've got great news! I was offered a job that I really really really really want. After three interviews, I start after Easter holidays. I'm so excited about it. I'm finally EMPLOYED. No longer having to worry about paying the rent and utilities. It's such a relieve. So I've got another week to relax and of course teach at uni and I'll start my new job! Wheee!!!

I'll update soon. With more interesting news. Fingers crossed.

Till then,
be happy for me! haha. I'm EMPLOYED!!
and have a good week ya'll

Big foot

2009-12-07T10:52:00.004+11:00

I'm waiting for pictures from hunlin's camera/laptop before I can properly update about eeling's trip here in Melbourne. Which reminds me, I haven't even updated about my Sydney trip.. which was wonderful!

I was going through my pictures and I found these.
Hunlin and I needed new flip flops for summer cause our old ones gave up on us already. And we didn't really need em over winter. So we went to Jety Surf on Bourke Street Mall to get ourselves a pair of Havaianas flipflop each. I got a brown one, the same colour like the one I had before cause I think brown suits me. He got a black one with green lining. He likes green all of a sudden.

After deciding on our colours and sizes, we went to the counter to pay. They packed up both our pairs and handed us THIS.

Apparently, we get one free for every purchase of two pairs of Havaianas. We asked for a green one but yellow was all they had left.

Since they didn't have a bag big enough to fit this thingy, I had to carry it all the way back to our place. It was a 15 minute walk back, so you can imagine the stares we had. But it was all good. It was a hot and sunny day then, so it was kinda alright looking like that on the streets of Melbourne.

It was a huge flip flop.
comparable to the height of our fan
definitely not my size.

There were also some photos of 'Olivia helps with Christmas' by Myers on Bourke Street Mall too. It's this thing that Myers put up every year over Christmas, with a short story and moving thing-ys.
The picture is really dark because we were there at night. If you're planning to check it out in the day, its really difficult to take photos thanks to the crowd.

Olivia the Pig is trying to help with Christmas .

Till the next one,
enjoy the rest of the week

Just a quick update

2009-12-05T12:51:00.007+11:00

Ee Ling was here for over a week and she left for Malaysia yesterday.
I have to say, time flies. It's crazy. It's so quick that you don't even realise.
But it has been a great week. My apartment here has been crazy but so much fun. Jean came over to stay on Friday too!

We've been going all around Melbourne. Shopping, visiting places, and all that tourist-y stuff. We even rented a car to drive all the way to Great Ocean Road. It was a SIX hour drive there! OMG. We drove all the way there to look at a couple of 'batu-s'. But then again, it's about the journey, not the destination. Here's a couple of photos for now. Will upload more pictures next time.

federation square

great ocean road

our x-trail

posers

australia on collins

can you see me??

st. kilda beach on a really hot day

After ee left last night, we went to watch 2012 for only 10 dollars! Wheee.. Member tickets. Small cinema though, without the extreme screen and sound. But it was still quite a good movie. I wouldn't say it was great, but it was a good one.

Need to go out for lunch now. I'm starving after finishing my chores for the day. It's my turn for bathroom duty =(

Till the next one,
I hope melbourne stays cool and windy like this for a long long time.....

an update of this and that

2009-11-27T17:47:00.006+11:00

I've been meaning to update a while ago.
But then I haven't had enough time. After handing in my thesis, we left for Sydney for a week.
We got back after a week and hunlin's friend visited from Tasmania. Been busy the entire week and the day he left, eeling arrived in Melbourne.

On top of that, I had exam scripts to mark. Tons of em. Almost went crazy. But it's all done now. So there's time for updates and everything else.

It's ee's second day in Melbourne only but we've covered quite some ground. Went around the city yesterday, all the way to Federation Square, to DFO after that, to a sexpo after (hehehe, we got student tickets for that! haha. believe it or not!) and to crown at night. So much walking, that by the end of the day, we were so exhausted, all we wanted to do was to shower and take a good nights rest.

It's been a month since I mentioned about my gift in the mail. Well, I've got pictures of it and pictures by it. Hahaha.
Here's what I got...

behold.. a Paul-Smith Lomography Fish Eye Camera. wheeee...
it's very old-school. it uses film so we've gotta go to a camera shop to get 35mm film for it.
But the pictures that we took using it is soooo cool. one thing we've gotta keep in mind is that we've gotta really go close up to the subjects when taking photos. or else, the effect of the lense isn't that obvious.

front view of it.
the lense sticks out and it isn't removable. and it's a limited edition one too! wheee...

here are some photos that we took using the fish-eye lense camera

sand boarding by the beach in sydney. it was sooooooooo fun but it was burning hot under the sun. and the climb up before we can sandboard down is a killer!

we went to this reptile farm too in sydney where there were animals roaming freely around the park. we were given this small bag of food (some kinda cereal) to feed the animals. this looks more like me sniffing the kanga's butt. but it's ok. they were sooooooo cute, adorable, soft and cuddly!

the effect of the lense:standing in front of a lighthouse. the shot wasn't close enough. hence, the lack of the fish-eye effect.

us in Rhodes Shopping Mall in Sydney.
finally, my new facebook profile picture. It's in Sydney and the harbor bridge is somewhere behind.

Till the next one,
wait up for more holiday pictures... wheeeee...

two days and counting....

2009-11-23T15:25:00.002+11:00

ee's coming on wednesday!!
can't wait. can't wait. can't wait.
we've been planning this trip since forever. she bought her ticket earlier this year and we've been counting the months.

and november is finally here.

will update again real soon with my sydney trip and more pictures.

Till the next one,
I've got final exam papers to mark...

abso-effing-lutely hawt

2009-11-10T16:27:00.007+11:00

VERY DELAYED POST. sorry

Melbourne has DONE it AGAIN!
This place is well-known for its extreme weather. You can leave the house in the morning with a jacket cause it's 12 degrees with winds outside. By noon, if you've still got your jacket on, you're ridiculous cause the sun is effing hot and giving you a headache. Then, once the sun is gone, you might need to head home to grab your jacket again if you're going out for dinner cause the cold winds might just come back for a quick visit. And trust me, if you're in a nice summer-y top and a short skirt and the cold winds come along, you'd wish so hard that you had just brought out a sweater instead of having to pay for the stupid cab ride home. That's melbourne weather for you.

And summer just came early. I think.
I remember this time last year, it was still kinda cool with nice winds. It's only the start of november for goodness sake. I even recall that when I went back last year (11 nov), it hailed two days after for two days in a row!!
But now the melbourne weather is INSANE! The sun is sooooooooooo hot it eats into your skin if you're walking under it. Without any kind of shade, you'd wish you had a container that provides you with portable air conditioning when you're out. Ok, probably a car would do the trick. but not everyone prints notes. The heat is INSANE! It feels like back home in Malaysia where everyone rushes into a mall (gurney) to get out of the heat and into some 'free' air conditioning. You need sun-block over your face and your body (we just went to get some from priceline!) or you'd come back home looking like a burnt cookie!

Just a week ago, I told yvonne that she might probably need to bring a scarf on her sydney/melbourne trip cause the nights were 12-14 degrees. Guess her scarf will just sit inside her luggage now since she might even need to walk around in a bikini if possible.

In such weather, it's really important to hydrate and rehydrate yourself to make sure you don't just fall flat on your face in the middle of melbourne. Without enough fluids, fainting might be the next thing to avoid. I haven't been having enough sleep for the past weeks cause of my thesis and I probably haven't been hydrating myself enough either. I had a nose-bleed yesterday, TWICE! Scary okay.. But I had juice this morning with breakfast and bought more juice home too. I've been trying to have as much water as I can to make sure I don't have another nose-bleed. It's embarrassing and irritating to have to position your head in a way that it doesn't flow out/bleed even more. Oh well, it's all better now..

apart from that, all's well here in the city of melbourne. the thesis is completed. the semester is over. and the holidays are here. towards the end of the thesis, I took over the entire dinner table for my work. Obviously, my own study table couldn't handle the pressure.

yea. that's SOME of the journals that I had to read to complete my thesis. There were loads more. On a chair on the left and right of the table!!

But enough of nerdy updates and more of the fun stuff.

My housemate left for Vietnam today so we decided to go out for dinner yesterday before he left. Like a mini-farewell dinner. We planned to go have indian somewhere along lygon but in the midst of all the stress and handing up assignments, we totally forgot that most restaurants close on Mondays! We changed plans and decided to have peking duck but that was closed too. We walked all the way to Bourke Street to have dinner at Postal Lane but THAT was closed too! We walked along Collins to try this underground place but that WAS CLOSED TOO!! It was about 9.30 by then and we were hungry. On our way back to Swanston St, we passed by this Japanese place and decided to give it a try. We walked in and they had teppanyaki. Whee. Yummy. I haven't had someone cooking infront of my face in a while and serving it straight onto my plate while I waited. We shared orders of chicken, beef and seafood. Each set came with veges, rice and miso soup. It was expensive, $50 for each person. But Collins Street wat... wadaya expect?

anyways, here are some photos.

i look really really tired cause i havent had good sleep in two weeks. stayed up all night two nights in a row. that's our housemate, thong

that's a sauce on the left, the veges which I've finished in the middle, and some kinda japanese soy sauce on the right

the veges with seaweed. was really yummy.

the chef, who's working part time there. cause he's a student too!

and that's hunlin waiting patiently for dinner

I don't have that many photos cause I was supposed to update this before I left melbourne for sydney. I was rushing, with lotsa errands to run and packing to do so only managed to upload a couple. Sorry for the very delayed post.

I'm having an awesome time here in sydney now. Hunlin's sister and her bf are awesome hosts. We've been going on day trips and stuff. I finally went to see the Sydney Opera House.Will update with pictures when I get back to Melbourne this wednesday. btw, I got burned :(

Till the next one,
see you back in melbourne!

The last hours

2009-11-05T10:15:00.004+11:00

The past weeks have been hectic. There has been so much work to do. Without any extra time on my hands, I've been eating out for the past month, every single day:lunch and dinner. I haven't had much healthy food, barely did any exercise and my work station is filled with papers, notes, books, journal articles, tables, regression analysis, correlations and what-not.

After having only about six hours of sleep every night for the past two weeks or so, it's down to this day. Twenty-four hours till I have to print my thesis. I still have so much to do. So much more to write, so much polishing up and proof-reading. I've survived the entire semester. It's just another day. I can't wait! But this last fight is going to be a hard one. A one that I will never forget.

Till the next one,
Wish me luck and I'll catch up with the world on friday!

ps: It's michelle's birthday today! Happy Birthday babe! It's been ages since I last saw you. I hope you're doing great in perth. I will call you soon to catch up. I miss the times we had in Nilai. Pathetic but priceless. Without you and rengga, Nilai would have been a disaster. Have a blast on this special day of yours! mwahhh

pps: to yvonne, have a safe flight to sydney! Can't wait till you get here. While you're in the plane on your eight hour journey to sydney, I'll be staring at my laptop, typing away and working my ass off!

2009-10-31T17:44:00.002+11:00

It's the last day of october so I thought I'd add in another entry before the month is over.
Today's halloween. Happy Halloween!! Hope ya'll had fun parties last night. Dressing up looking like witches, angels, zombies and what-not.

Sadly, I didn't celebrate halloween. Didn't have time to go get a costume or check out where the happening parties are. All because I'm stuck with my thesis.
It's due THIS friday, the 6th of November! Once I've printed two copies and handed them in to the office, I'm officially done with my research and my honours year. I can't wait for it to be over. It has been a tough and tiring year. I did not have any official holidays (but I did take some of my own!) and I've been reading, typing, writing, reading again and tutoring all semester.

So, just a short one to say that 'I'm still alive' and expect entries only after the 6th.

Owh! Owh! Remember the 'thingy' that was coming in the post? It arrived about half an hour after I posted the last entry. It's sooo kewlll and I lurv it sooo much! I haven't had time to take pictures of 'it' yet but I will after my thesis is done.

Hints of what it is:

clue 1 (this is the exact clue he gave me)

clue 2:

Till the next one,
Wish me luck for the next six days!

tellme:tellme:tellme

2009-10-26T15:58:00.005+11:00

i can't concentrate. My thesis is due in less than two weeks and I've gotta hand it in next friday by 2pm.

i can't sit still cause i'm waiting for THE guy. he's supposed to be coming today, or maybe tomorrow morning with a package. (i just found out today!) I don't know the contents but i'm itching to find out. my butt can't sit still on my chair. I keep going out to the balcony to see if he's here....

hunlin got me something but he won't say a word about it.
he gave me hints which i obviously can't decipher.
he drew me a small clue which doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

so till my fed-ex guy comes, I'll just have to get back to working on my thesis. I have to see my supervisor tomorrow at 9.30am. ugh!

till the next one,
icantwait.icantwait.icantwait.bellpleasering

Need a wash?

2009-10-22T15:39:00.006+11:00

We bought a new device yesterday on our way back from dinner. I was supposed to only get some bread and smoked salmon to make breakfast from ALDI but we came across this very cool device. At first I thought it was a waste of money. We've survived two years here without it, why did we need it all of a sudden. But then, after looking at the box and reading what was written on it, I gave in. But I said "I'm not paying for it!!" It was $29.90 for that stupid thing (almost RM100) and if we were going to use it just once, why waste the money. Then he came about saying how useful this device would be. It could ... bla bla bla..... and bla bla bla... and bla bla bla.

I ended up paying for everything, my groceries and the stupid thinga-ma-jig.

And behold, this is what we got.
The cheap-o, no-brand mini steam cleaner from ALDI
okla. the brand's Lumina and it comes with a 1-year warranty. so it wasn't too bad. but you get what I mean...

versatile cleaner somemore. we can clean everything.

this is how it looks like. looks like the 'bug spray thingy'

and behold, the steam-cleaner staff. he's so happy with the purchase he fixed it up and used it the minute we got home!

a couple of things in our room needed a good wash. and they weren't looking forward to it.

we lined them all on the floor and the only fella who 'got away' was lamby. We got it from our recent trip to New Zealand so he's new. That's the only thing that saved him from the steam cleaner

First up, KORI the KOALA

He really looked miserable there. I wanted to save him but hunlin insisted he get a wash. or he goes off the bed and onto the shelf.

It started with less steam just in case he wasn't used to the heat. you know how fussy koalas are

and then it became worse....kori almost poop-ed in his fur

'gluey the giraffe' and 'miri the monkey' were just staring in fear wondering how bad theirs would be =(

they all had their individual washes and then a group one.

both on the back side

and on the front. lamby just stared from the bed going wheeeeeee...

mario was the worst. he was so dusty and dirty he got extra washes.

i wonder if the steam made him fuzzy

but at the end of the day, all of them got to sleep in the bed!

Till the next one,
go give your loved ones a wash!

my first time

2009-10-16T11:53:00.009+11:00

I live with two architects in the house. Lately, I have been extremely frustrated with my assignments and decided that I should give myself a break. My life is all about reading journal articles over and over, gathering information and all that boring stuff. Don't get me wrong. It can be interesting at times, cause I learn alot in the process. But months of this can get rather frustrating.

But what an architecture student does all the time is sooo different from what I do. They model stuff, they design facades, they draw sections and landscapes and renders so that it all looks like what we see in the adverts. It sounds interesting but I'm sure it gets boring after a while.

Since I was up early this morning, I decided that I'd give some archi drawings a try. I mean, how hard can it be? I see the two boys work on it everyday with lines and stuff. So with a little help from my personal tutor during my first ever AUTOCAD class, I managed to come up with my very own 'section' of a Penguin's Burrow. All in a matter of 10 minutes. wheee....

and this is what it looks like...

click on photos to see em in full size.

obviously it's nothing compared to what architects draw. they'd think that mine's just a piece of paper with stupid lines. But for a first timer, i think it looks rather convincing that it's a penguin's burrow.

oh, by the way, a section is a 'cut-through' of a building. It reveals the vertical spaces within a building (all from an architect's point of view. so geeky rite? hahaha)

I've got a format of a proper section but it's in pdf format. when i get one that i can post up, you'll see how much work my architect-to-be puts in for his projects and designs

till the next one,
it's back to typing and reading, spss and all that other boring stuff

snooze like a lamb-y

2009-10-15T18:35:00.005+11:00

this is what i feel like doing now...

i wonder what dreams this little lamb's having... probably a field full of green grass....

when pigs dive....

when tracy learns to milk a cow for 'fresh' milk...

till the next one,
show your pet some love

the extra me

2009-10-15T14:47:00.003+11:00

I've been sooo busy lately that I barely have time for anything. I wake up, have breakfast while 'harvesting my plants' on fb and start working on my thesis. It's due in a couple of weeks and time's really moving fast. It's just zooming by and before I know it, I'll be handing it up, yvonne will be in melbourne, I'll be going to sydney for a week and after I get back, eeling will be in melb for her getaway holiday.... wheeeee!
The only 'rest' time I have is when I have my meals, take a nice warm shower, waste time on fb and entries like this and at night when I go to bed and try to get a good nights rest. It's just another few weeks to go and I'll be done so I'm trying to work as hard as I can.

I took the night off yesterday after a whole day of tutoring at uni to watch a movie. We decided on Surrogates since we've been watching comedy/chick flicks lately (we went to watch couples retreat last week). I know it came out ages ago..

Even though the movie wasn't action packed and all, I liked it cause it was different. It was sooooo futuristic with all the surrogates taking over the world. Everyone had surrogates. Noone did anything for themselves anymore. You just lie down, use your brains and your surrogate did everything for you. Your surrogate can even rape another person for the fun of it! You could look fugly in real life, noone would give a damn cause your surrogate would have the boobs and perfect skin that you've always wanted. I won't spoil the fun if you haven't watched it but if you want something different, it's a nice watch.

if you had a surrogate, this is how you would control it. be it him or her. always dreamed of having boobies, your surrogate can.

cause your surrogate is living the life for you, it's out and about all day. and we all know that nothing lasts forever. not even machines. so if they're low on battery, they've got chargers all around the city in case you need that 'quick charge'. coffee won't work for gadgets you see...

human or surrogate. go figure.

after watching surrogates, i think i need an extra me. I wouldn't mind one if it could do some work for me while I get my extra rest... Imagine my surrogate taking the bus to uni and tutoring my classes. haha...maybe not...

miles away, joa turned 22. Wheeee... almost everyone is old now

happy birthday joa!! hope you had a blast! from the pictures in fb, looks like you did! miss you loads!

till the next one,
it's time to get back to my thesis...

Hail baybehh hail...

2009-10-11T16:15:00.006+11:00

I've been in Melboure for almost two years now. And I haven't seen it hail once. Nope. Not even a 30 second hail. So retarded rite? Apparently it's small pieces of ice that feels like stones and according to some, it feels like the sky's about to fall. Something like how chicken little went "the sky is falling! the sky is falling!

I check the weather forecast everyday to see if there's a possibility of hail in the coming days. There was supposed to be hail last Wednesday. It was cold, there was rain and wind but no friggin hail. It's raining now, on a gloomy Sunday but no hail either. It's supposed to have showers the next couple of days so fingers crossed that it'll hail and I can go out to the balcony to feel it in my hands!

In more 'exciting' news, my thesis is taking all of my time. Every single bit of it. It's even driving me crazy. I wake up, have breakfast and stare at my beauuuuutiful new HP laptop. Then I have lunch while watching Friends on tv and then back to my HP laptop. Then dinner with 'Friends' again and back to work. This happens every single day. Oh well, another few weeks to go and I'll be done. After that, I'll be going to Sydney for a week and ee will be here for a holiday! wheee...

I've also got addicted to this new tv series thanks to Joane. It's called Flash Forward and it's awesome!!! So much better than heroes and all that. It just started 3 weeks ago and with only three episodes, it's already soooo exciting. As a tv series addict, I'd suggest you go check it out. It's tracy-approved and definitely not a gossip-girl-like series.

I've gotta get back to my work now. But here are a few pictures that we took from the Royal Melbourne Show two weeks ago. We went last year but I insisted on going again this year. I missed the animals.

the entrance via the main road. that's if you took the tram to the showgrounds.

we saw lambs and everything in mini-size at the NAB Nursery.

even the kids there looked as cute as the animals...

i found a lamb that didn't mind the cuddles...

it was also fine with some kisses... xoxo

he found a chicken

and he was chasing after this chicken
We managed to milk a cow too but I don't have the pictures with me. Wasn't as difficult as it seems. It's more like hold and squeeeeeze.. hahaha

showbag heaven!! wheeeeee....i just love getting gifts for my cousins...

something for everyone...

after we came home, this is how my place looked like. messed up with all the showbags.

got all these for my cousins back home...A gossip girl, diva, handy mandy and Wall-E showbag...Got two for myself too. They were filled with my fav magazines and other goodies. I wonder how they're gonna fit into my luggage...

Till the next one,
spring is hereee.. time for em heels to come outta the boxes!

ps: you know how melbourne's weather is insane? The rain is gone and the sun is out. That's four seasons in a day for you.

The lost hour and the new love...

2009-10-05T11:07:00.008+11:00

Daylight saving started yesterday. And I'm not liking it one bit.
This means that I'm now three hours ahead of Malaysia time.
This also means that I've lost an hour of thesis/sleeping time.

You'd think that one hour wouldn't feel like anything. What's one hour? Some people (I mean me) just waste an hour doing nothing, procrastinating, and doing the usual whatnot.
But one hour does make a lot of difference. Somehow it feels like I lost 3 hours instead of that mere 60 minutes. But then again, I gained an hour when daylight saving ended about 6 months back. So I'm just giving that hour back. We can't take what's not ours rite?

The mid-semester week ended yesterday. It's good in way that I'd be working and will be getting paid this week. What sucks is that I've gotta wake up early this Wednesday to get to uni by 9.45am cause my consultation hours start at 10 sharp. Since I live quite a distance from uni, I've always got to allocate time to travel. I 'could' have chosen to stay in a suburb closer to my uni or even on campus but I decided against it. One reason is that I've stayed on campus all my Nilai-jungle life so I'd like to experience living in the city, close to everything. It's so much easier to do grocery shopping cause Woolworths/Coles is just a 10 minute walk from my place. Heck, I even live opposite Victoria Market which is opened 5 days a week. I can practically get fresh veggies anytime I want.

anywhooo....My ride to uni is something like this:
I walk to the tram stop about 3 minutes away from my place. I take the tram from Victoria/Elizabeth Street to Bourke St.. From there, I swap trams and take a different one, to Russel/Bourke St., two stops away. Just next to the tram stop is my bus stop. That's where I take the bus to La Trobe University, Bundoora campus. My bus ride to uni takes around 40 minutes to an hour depending on traffic, peak/non-peak hour and passengers. It uses the freeway so it's much faster than taking the other buses or the tram.
So, if my class starts at 10, I've gotta leave my place at 8.35am to make sure I'm at the bus stop by 8.50 to take the 8.55bus. If I miss that one, the next bus comes in another half an hour. I'd be late for class and sitting at the bus stop with Melbourne's winds blowing at your face ain't something I'd recommend. So, for people who complain about having to wake up for class or walk that five minutes if you're staying on campus, well, I'm glad you're not in my shoes. Then again, I asked for it. I chose to stay in the city. I chose to stay an hour away from uni by public transport. So I can't really complain about the choices I've made, can I?

owh owh. I've got news.
I've been complaining about my laptop for months now. I've had my HP Entertainment Notebook PC for almost 4 years now and it's starting to decide to take its own rest once in a while. And hell, it shows it's tantrum a lot. My laptop's been hanging and programs seldom function. I've formatted my laptop at least 8 times this year and it obviously isn't getting any better. And on Friday, it decided to say, "you've had your time with me. You need a new one for your thesis. It's too much work for me. Go now, I'll be fine". I decided I couldn't wait any longer. With only 20 days left until my thesis was due, I couldn't let me laptop hold me down! Heck, i couldn't even send stuff to the printer for printing. So i went to the city on Saturday and made up my mind that I'd get a new one. A one that I'd like. A one that would last me a good five years. I went to a couple of places which did 100-200 dollars off on a couple of laptops.

Thankfully JB hi-fi had a weekend sale. All laptops and PCs had 10% off their already discounted prices. So, for this laptop that would have cost me $1499, I paid $1199.10.

check out my HP Pavilion Entertainment PC dv6-1246tx

It has all the specs that I've always wanted.
Intel Centrino processor, 4 GB ram, 500GB harddisk space, huge-ass wide screen... You can check out the website for more details. I wouldn't want to sound too geeky. I also got an upgrade to the new Windows 7 which is coming out really soon. and I'm just starting to get used to the Vista since my old one was using Microsoft XP. sooooo behind time.

the bag it came in. it's whats on the inside that counts!

the beautiful box inside... and that's not the best part yet...

my new love....it's not just a picture. it's real

the computer is personal again. remember those ads?

dv6 laptops comes with the number pad on the right side. didn't really like it at first but i realised how handy it is...

of course it has to come with altec lansing speakers. all hp and compaq laptops do.

look at the touchpad. it's all shiny and reflective. you can see the post-it notes on my wall.

it also comes with a built-in webcam so i don't have to keep bringing my logitech one around anymore.

see, even the plastic cover thingy is still on. can't bear to take it off yet. I love the design. and the HP logo on the front lights up when its turned on. Had to take this at an angle cause it reflects everything! I was lazy to move it from my table cause I have all my cables connected

and of course, the geeky information which took up my entire months salary!

I can now send my print jobs to my printer and it does the job superbly well. I don't have to worry about my laptop hanging while I'm typing my thesis and going all panic-y about whether I lost my work or not. I can have all my journal articles opened and my laptop won't slow down or give me signs that I'm being too hard on it. All in all, it's been an awesome 2 days so far and I'm looking forward to many more days and years.

Right now, my place looks like a mess. All my journal articles are everywhere. I have tons of books from the library. and my desk is like an accountants one when they do their auditing!

i have books and books and group assignments which I've marked on the dinner table

i've got journal articles both filed up and scattered around

of course there's also models like this around since I'm living with two architects-to-be

the only are that looks clean is the tv area. our place looks more like a student apartment.

I have to say that ....

I think my laptop made up for the hour that I lost thanks to the start of daylight saving.
I've gotta get back to my thesis work now. I have no excuses to procrastinate.

Till the next one,
I'm loving it...

It's friday night!!

2009-10-02T23:31:00.004+10:00

It's friday night and I'm at home..

it's October already! owhmygawddowhmygawdd!!!
Meaning that my thesis is almost due.

I'm stuck at home marking assignments for my tutorial.
Apart from working on my thesis

And listening to this...

and this...

i think they're really good...

Till the next one,
hello october.. please be nice to me *wink*

Sky high killers

2009-09-29T15:34:00.005+10:00

I've figured out why it is so difficult to walk around Melbourne with heels. Any type of heel, be it 3 inches or your killer 4 inch stilettos. I've been here for almost two years now and I think I've transformed from loving the 'three-inch-killer-heels" to the 'ballet-flats-freak'.

When I first got here, I brought a couple of my favourite heels including my four-inch peep-toe black heels. I'm a girl-y girl and all gals love their make-up, bags and shoes. We melt when we pass a shoe-shop. We go ga-ga when we walk in and see the killer heels on display. And our hearts melt even more when we try them on, telling ourselves that we need just this extra pair for that 'special occasion' to go with 'that' outfit. Just like the girls in Sex and the City, women all around the world spend heaps on shoes even if they already have boxes sitting at home waiting to be worn for an afternoon out with the girls.

my first pair of three inch heels

No girl will ever have enough shoes to go with their outfits and because of that, the 'shoe business' will never have to worry. Despite the weather or the distance, we always have the 'no pain, no gain' concept and that the price to pay to look stunning in a pair of bright red 4-inch stilettos is that your feet WOULD hurt at the end of the day. No doubt about that.

my first pair of 4-inch heels

I think that heels do make a huge difference when it comes to appearance. Wearing something that lifts you up even by a mere 2-inches gives you that edge over others. Also, it makes you look more 'presentable' as compared to walking in the room with a pair of flip-flops or ballet flats. But throughout this year, I've left my beautiful heels in their boxes by the shoe rack and only take them out for special occasions.

My reasons start with excuses.

Firstly, in Melbourne, one does more walking than anything else. And since I don't have a car, I walk heaps more. Getting from one place to another in the city does not take hours so walking is just an easier option. And cheaper too. Which explains why I don't wear my heels all that often anymore. A ‘one-hour’ walk in the city could easily turn to 3-4 hours and by then, my feet would be killing me. And that would obviously spoil the day. So, to make things much easier, wearing a pair of ballet flats would solve all the problems. I’d be able to walk for ‘for-ever’ and I won’t be complaining about my feet. I’d also be able to run towards the tram stop to catch that tram if I needed to and the pair of ballet flats would gloriously do the trick.

Honestly, I think the main reason why people do not wear heels as often as they want to is obviously not because the heels hurt them. If that was the case, no one would have 4-inch heels anymore. I think it’s because of Melbourne’s ups-and-downs. And with that, I mean slopes. Unlike many other places, the city isn’t built on flat land. To get to Federation Square from Melbourne University is a downhill walk. It’s not very steep but it’s downhill alright. The thing is that if it is just one hill/slope thingy that I’ve gotta face, that’s quite alright. The fact is that the whole of Melbourne city is like that. Before you know it, you’re walking uphill again. And then down. And trust me, that is not an easy thing to do if you’re 4-inches taller than you really are. It takes a lot of practice and skill, throwing in abit of knee-bending and stability control.

Sometimes when I’m in the city and I look around me, I really do wonder how these women take it. They’re walking FAST and trust me, their heels aren’t Manolo Blahniks.

But then again, I guess that’s the price women pay to look inches taller than they are in a pair of smokin-hawt heels.

in other news....

jean's 22 today!

nope, she's not that young kid anymore...

Happy birthday jean!!! hope you had a blast!

Till the next one,
may we all stay young and beautifulll.... wheeeee

Remember my name....

2009-09-25T15:37:00.007+10:00

I've been a fan of dance, music and musicals all my life.
When I was way younger, my grandfather (miss you loads kung kung) and I used to sing songs together, dance around the living room and pretend that we were part of some famous musical.

At the age of 5, I learned my favourite songs and remember them till today.
Songs from My Fair Lady and Phantom of the Opera used to play on the cassette player all afternoon while I do my colouring and while my grandfather took his afternoon nap.

He was a great musician (though he never took any classes before) could play the piano by ear, guitar and some traditional chinese instrument (I have no idea what it's called). He used to love to sing and have the music blast out from his speakers all afternoon when he read the paper. I remember my poh-poh screaming at him, asking him to turn the volume down. She said she needed her peace, and so did he, with his music.

He was the best kung-kung I could ever ask for. He was always there for every St. Christopers concert I was in. Whether I was just talking about my artwork or singing a song with the entire class, he was always there with his huge video camera recording every single moment. When my mom was busy working, he used to fetch me for my ballet lessons. He said I could not miss one lesson cause mom paid a lot of money for it and that I wouldn't be the best dancer in the world if I missed a lesson or two. He would fetch me all the way there and while I was in my one-hour class, he would be outside reading the papers or mostly taking his afternoon nap. After class, he would ask me if remembered my dance steps, made any mistakes or dance beautifully. I'd laugh and say that I tried my best.

taken from my old xanga blog cause all my pictures are back in kl

When I was 12, he had to go. He fell sick from a common cold and it got worse within days. He got admitted on Thursday night and left us on Sunday morning. Even until today, I miss him dearly. I promised that I would do well in life, make him proud of me and be the best person I can possibly be. I studied hard and aced my exams. I went for every single dance class without fail and though I wanted to give up and stop many times, I remembered how much hard work I've put in and how he would want me to keep dancing, I kept my promise. I finished my Grade 8 Ballet RAD examinations when I was 15 and achieved Honours every year. Took classes after that but decided to take a break from dance since I was dancing since I was four.

Every single time I watch a musical or see a dance inspired movie, I wish I never stopped my ballet classes. I miss the times where I could just dance my heart out because in the dance class, I knew I aced every single step, every single pirouette, every grand jete and every bar exercise that we used to do to warm up for the class, or more like to get our steps precise.

I think that dance is beautiful and graceful. You'd probably think that ballerinas look stupid in a leotard, thighs and their hair tied up neatly in a bun. But from a first point of view, it's the best feeling ever. I feel that every single time I go for class. Whether I remembered the steps or not. Whether I warmed up before or did my stomach exercises at home. Standing at the 'bar' with everyone just reminds me of the best times.

Which is why I'm sooooooooo excited about FAME THE MOVIE!

I watched the musical when it came to Kuala Lumpur years back. I was so excited that I was going to watch a dance musical. At 15, FAME blew me away. The steps were so precise. Their turn-outs were perfect. And their lines stretched out all the way. They had so much enthusiasm when they were dancing up on the stage that it made me wish I had attended a school of performing arts instead of St. George's Girls' School =(

My dream was always to be part of a musical or to teach ballet when I grew up. To show them how much fun it is to dance and to perform your best. I've blogged about dance movies before in my old blog and I can do it over and over again without running outta things to say.

and now... FAME is out in the cinemas.
I'm going to watch it tonight and I'm already itching to go. My butt can't sit still on my chair and my brains are only thinking about the songs and the dance steps. I'm watching the trailer over and over again and lets just say, if I don't watch it tonight, I doubt I'd be able to sleep.

Fame is out in the cinemas here in Melbourne so catch it if you're a fan of dance and music. Even before watching the movie, I can assure you that it is NOT some kinda 'high school musical' movie. Yes, it will have the dances and singing and music, but it's better than that. WAY BETTER.

until now, in my fourth year of studies completing my honours degree in Bachelor of Business, Marketing, I'd still give anything to attend a performing arts school to fulfill my dance dream. Anything!

Till the next one,
remember my name... FAME!

UPDATED:
Honestly, I'm disappointed with the movie. It was not what I expected. Probably I had too high expectations for it, but if you asked another dancer to watch it, they'd say the same thing too. They didn't portray enough talent throughout the movie and it was more acting than anything else. Also, for a movie like this, it was way too short to fit in dances of different genres and that was what let it down. Centre Stage is still on the top of my list and lets say that it's gonna stay there for a while till something better comes along. I'm surprised how the musical was wayyy better than the movie... =(

Back to Reality...

2009-09-17T10:54:00.007+10:00

I'm back from my six day trip to beautiful New Zealand.
The country is magnificent with mountains covered with snow and breathtaking scenery.
I went to see Edoras, where the Lord of the Rings movie was filmed and climbed to the top with winds blowing at 60km/h.
Relaxed in thermal pools at about 30-40 degrees with views of snowy mountains.
Fed a one-week-old baby lamb milk from a bottle because its mother decided to abandon her.
Experienced a different type of 'traffic-jam' thanks to sheep trying to cross the road.
Drove across rivers in a 4WD.
Went jetboating, visited the kiwis, took part in a Maori cultural dance and had loads of delicious meals throughout the 6 days there.

We touched down in Melbourne at 5.10pm on Tuesday and for the first time ever, got out from the airport at 5.35pm! There was only one person in front of us at the immigration, our bags came out just in time and they only looked through our 'wood' souveniers and shoes at the customs. In no time, we were done and outside the airport getting a cab back to our place in the city.

I've been busy ever since I got back and still lack of sleep.
I had to tutor all day Wednesday so I only got six hours of sleep before I had to wake up again.
I think my clock is still programmed to Christchurch time (which is two hours ahead of Melbourne) because I woke up at 6am this morning!!! (8am NZ time)

Will update soon enough with proper pictures..

going into the plane

on the way to Edoras (also known as Mount Sunday)

against a perfect backdrop

sheep crossing

Edoras/Mount Sunday

Exactly like the picture... only better

they have beautiful parks
and that goes out to the Pacific Ocean
we had to visit their museum
and take photos
with everything
i took part in a Maori cultural dance
and so did he!

we saw this in a restaurant where we had lunch

and the pig there was staying safe from the swine flu

more pictures next time.

Till the next one,
it's back to work :(

Going AWAY on a HOLIDAY...

2009-09-09T20:24:00.002+10:00

I'll be away for the next six days...
because.... I'm going to New Zealand!!! wheeeee!!!!

can't wait.
am so excited.
still packing cause I can't decide what to bring

and I've gotta wake up at 4.30 tomorrow morning cause we're leaving for the airport at 6 friggin eh-em!

till the next one....
show some 'kiwi' love....

La La La La... Elmo's Song

2009-09-04T13:07:00.003+10:00

In the midst of stress and lack of sleep, music heals the soul and calms me down.
Not your everyday Boom Boom Pow!! or poookerrrr faceeee.....

I grew up watching Sesame Street and I used to watch it everyday on tv. I even watched Big Bird goes to China!
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need your SESAME STREET 101 class here.

If you're an expert, I'm sure you know Big Bird, Snuffy, Cookie Monster, besties Bert and Ernie with their rubber duckie, skinny Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Zoe and my all time favourite ELMO!!!

Elmo's the cutest of all... and he always refers to himself as Elmo. He has this cute giggle and he's all red, soft and fuzzy. And he sings a song that will put a smile on your face despite how bad your day has been.

So here's your dose of Elmo's music...

Guess who likes elmo too??

Till the next one,
Sesame Street rawks!

Ethics Approved

2009-09-03T17:40:00.003+10:00

After months of worrying about my ethics application for my research project, it finally got APPROVED THIS AFTERNOON!

What a relief!
I submitted the application months ago and it came back a couple of times.
Each time, there were several changes which needed to be made. It was either the 'wording of the sentences' were not appropriate or they needed more clarification about my research, how I was going to acquire participants and such.
They even made some comments asking me to change some parts of my questionnaire design, stating that the questions were either repetitive or that some questions would cause 'distress' to the participants.

Changed the application a whole lotta times and printed like a million times to show my supervisor. Used up shitloads of ink throughout the way and rephrased my sentences over and over again.

But thankfully, it's now approved by the Ethics Committee (the faculty ethics committee, not the actual one, that one is currently still pending), and I can finally start sending out my surveys and questionnaires.

I'm setting up my survey on www.surveymonkey.com which is an online survey tool which enables me to prepare my questionnaires online and gives me my data in the gibberish format that only the SPSS program would understand. Then SPSS will do the analysing for me and from there, I'd get my results for my research project.

Fingers crossed that the University's Human Ethics Committee approves my project and does not withdraw or alter it in any way. That would be like helping me dig my grave. Did i mention that my thesis is due on the 23rd of October???

That's in less than 50 days!
And I've still got my introduction, literature review chapter, the methodology chapter, results chapter, discussion chapter and managerial implications and conclusions! gosh =(

If you're an international student currently studying in Australia, do let me know. because I NEED YOU for my research. well, need your help if you're willing to participate.

Till the next one,
wish me luck...i need it...

Standing at the edge!

2009-08-31T10:58:00.005+10:00

Yesterday was Melbourne Day and it was one hell of a tiring day.
We were out for almost 14 hours yesterday from 9am in the morning.

Will blog more about the entire day in another post but I have to say that the most exciting thing about yesterday was the Eureka Skydeck 88.

We have been wanting to see Melbourne from a different view ever since last year but somehow we never managed to. We went there once but it was after 9.30pm (last entry time) and talked about it later on but never made a trip there.

Since there was the 2 for 1 Melbourne Day promotion, we decided that we should go. We wouldn't want to pay full price for the event and if we didn't go yesterday, we'd never go for it.
After such a long tiring day, we stopped to have dinner at Ghin Khao on Swanston Street and rushed to Southbank for our Eureka experience. We didn't want to be late and we wanted to have ample time up there.

Admission for the Skydeck 88 (obviously on the 88th floor) was $11 (concession price and 2for1 promo). This admission allows you to take the lift up to the 88th floor where the view is absolutely breathtaking. Walking on the streets of Melbourne on a daily basis, you never realise how beautiful the city is from the top.

Eureka Skydeck 88 is the Southern Hemisphere's highest viewing platform!
So you can only imagine the view.
From the top, landmarks like the Shrine of Remembrance, Flinders Street Station, The Arts Centre, Federation Square and everything else lights up so beautifully.
The city looks so calm and serene at night and it is more lit up that what I expected it to be.

At the top, there's a bar which sells snacks, hot and cold drinks and a small selection of beer and wine. So, a visit to the top would be an ideal place for the perfect date. With the one you love/want to impress accompanied by the best view of Melbourne.

The best part about the experience is the EDGE experience.

This is the world's only edge experience where you're in a glass cube which projects out from the building with you in it, at 300 metres above the ground.

Confused?
A few pictures will do the trick.

The Edge is that small tiny box there that juts out from the building.
It's this glass cube in which you can stand in and look at the city right under your feet.

The best part about it is the fact that you don't walk out into that glass cube. They first make us wear this blue shoe protection thing-ies so that any dirt from our shoes do not scratch the glass that we're about to stand on. We then go into another room where we've gotta leave all our belongings inside the shelves provided. No mobile phones, cameras etc are allowed in the glass cube. Then, we enter the cube (which feels just like a small room) with another 5 people or so. The skydeck crew says "Are you ready?" and we feel the space around us start to move. With sound effects from the speaker, that small cube thingy starts moving outwards, out from the building until the entire glass cube is projected 3 metres out the building and we're suspended 300 metres above ground level.

So, wherever you look, whether it's to the left, right, top or bottom, all you see is the magnificent view of Melbourne. Of course, if you're scared of heights, you wouldn't be loving the view so much. But for those who don't care about how high you are from the ground, walking around in the glass cube and looking down at the city under your feet feels spectacular.

After a few minutes, its picture taking time. Since we're not allowed to bring any of our personal belongings in, there's a camera inside the cube itself. Each group takes their turn, standing at the end of the glass cube while everyone else stands on the other end of the cube, making sure they don't get included in the photo. It would be almost impossible to take a photo using our own cameras at night because you'd need a super good SLR camera with a tripod to make sure that you get the view, your faces and it doesn't go blurry.

After the photo taking session, we get to walk around the cube for a few more minutes and then the glass cube starts moving back into the building where it's safe for those who have a terrible fear of heights. There was this older couple who went for the EDGE together with us. And she was so scared of heights, when the glass cube projected out of the building, she was grabbing hold of the railing and she only dared to step on the steel parts of the cube, staying clear from the glass panels!

That's how much the glass cube comes out from the building.

The experience is awesome, something that cannot be explained and it's worth every dollar paid. The EDGE experience is a separate admission compared to the Eureka Skydeck 88. Tickets to the EDGE can be purchased once you arrive at the 88th floor of the building.

Edge Admission Costs:
Additional to Skydeck Admission

Adult:	$12.00
Child: (4 to 16 years)	$8.00
Concession:	$10.00
Family: (2 Adults & 2 Children)	$29.00
Family: (1 Adult & 2 Children)	$19.00
Extra Child	$6.00

And there wasn't a 2for1 promo for this so we paid $20 to have Melbourne at our feet for about 5 minutes.
After that wonderful experience, it's time to pay more money for the pictures that were taken in the EDGE cube. That's the only way we can get photos for it.
Each picture costs $15 and for an additional print, it's $10 each.

The thing about this place is that there are two different spectacular views of the city, day and night. And the only way to get both the experiences is by arriving at the Skydeck at about 5pm ish. Then you'd be able to see the city both with natural light, witness the sunset 88 floors up and see how the magnificent city of Melbourne turns on its lights to welcome the night.

All in all, we paid $11 for the admission into Eureka Skydeck, $20 for the EDGE experience and $15 for the photo of us in the EDGE cube.
But the magnificent view and the experience, definitely priceless.

Till the next one,
Happy Birthday Malaysia!

Melbourne Day

2009-08-29T18:09:00.003+10:00

It's Melbourne Day tomorrow and there's loads happening in the city of Melbourne.
According to the Melb Day booklet next to me now, the 30th of August in 1835 is the day where "a handful of intrepid pioneers landed on the north bank of the Yarra and looked on the vast expanse of land that dawrfed them".

Melbourne Day here basically celebrates the founding of the city that houses millions of aussies, migrants and international students. The day also acknowledges the city's importance as meeting place for traditional owners: the Kulin nation including the Wurundjeri, Boonerwrung, Taungurong, Djajawarrung and Wathaurung people (i never ever knew that those words even existed!).

As the Lord Major of Melbourne Robert Doyle writes, "it's a day to honour Melbourne's unique character: just as early settlers pulled together to build a dream, our community continues to strive for inclusiveness with a spirit of enterprise."

In simpler words, it's honouring all the interesting sights in Melb and also giving us free/discounted entry to loads of city attractions.

Awesomenesss.....

Meaning, we can visit places which I've always wanted to for free or by getting a 2 for 1 entry!
How great is that?

That also means that the city will be PACKED with people from all over.
PACKED.
The free city circle tram would be jammed up like sardines in a tin can.
The streets would be filled with aussies/visitors/international students/residents with a melboure day booklet in hand trying to figure out how many attractions they can fit in a day.
Crossing out the sights which are least important and making sure that they make it for the ones on the top of their list.

You can only imagine what I've done! hahaha..
I have almost everything planned for tomorrow! How can I not rite?

I've listed down the places that I want to visit tomorrow.

They include the Melbourne Aquarium ( I love aquariums, fishies and I have yet to see a penguin),

Melbourne's Tall Ship (where there's free entry and a free tour available),

Cooks' Cottage (one of Melbourne's oldest landmark with free guided tours, games and fun activities),

Chinese Museum (I'm chinese so I've gotta check out a chinese museum at least rite? See what they have to say about us or if everything I know about being chinese is all made up!),

the Hellenic Museum (which explores the legacy of the Greek immigrant experience),

the Melbourne City Cruises (still considering this actually)

the Melbourne Golden Mine Guided Walk

the Eureka Skydek 88 (where i can be at the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere).

Melbourne 360: Melbourne Observation Deck at Rialto

I've written down in my handy notebook the address of these places, opening hours, prices and also how we need to get there (whether by trams or by foot).

The only thing left is deciding which attraction to go first, where to have lunch in between and how many I can fit into the day because everything closes at 5pm and last entry for most places is at 4.30pm.

According to the weather forecast, it's going to be a cloudy day tomorrow. There might be a chance of thunderstorms and small hail early in the morning. They also said something about scattered showers. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't rain tomorrow or it'll suck having to walk around melbourne city with an umbrella trying to get to the next destination as quickly as possible. i realised that I should go to the aquarium in the morning since it's indoors so I don't have to be in the rain!

I've gotta charge my camera and get a good nights rest tonight to make sure I'm all charged up for tomorrow's tourist mode!
Going to watch Pelham 123 later at 9.10pm...

Till the next one,
Happy 174th birthday Melbourne!!!

Hello August

2009-08-20T15:52:00.009+10:00

It's been quite a while since I last blabbered here.
Loads have been going on and I've been rather busy.

The start of August was good.
I watched GI Joe and My Sister's Keeper in a matter of three days.
I had jean over for dinner where we had delicious dishes and dessert courtesy of jean.

Other than the boring uni stuff, assignments and tv series, Sabrina and her bf came to Melbourne for holiday!!
She was here for about 10 days which gave us all an excuse to meet up.
Somehow, i've come to realise that we georgians only meet up when a visitor's in town. Other than that, we're always caught up with our own busy lives, whether it's uni, assignments or work.

Annie-hauu,
we decided to have dinner together at a Korean place on Victoria Street.
and man was it heaps of fun and laughter.
We caught up with one another, reminiscence about the old times and laughed about the stupid things we did when were kids, years back.

We were only 13 when we met each other in high school, had our teenage drama, graduated at 17 and went our separate ways.
Now at 22 (or 21 turning 22), we're graduating from university with a degree and stepping into a whole new world once again. Oh how we've grown.

But when put together, SGGS girls always manage to have a good time.
Not to mention, make loads of noise.
I was silly enough not to bring my camera on that day but here are some photos courtesy of kelene from her facebook.

It was cheryl's birthday two days later (15 August) so we got her a cake to remind her that she's not getting any younger!

when there's cake... well, there's us doing what we do best!

more group photos....

our share of cake for the night

randomness...

and finally, a decent group picture....

that's all for now. will post up more photos if I manage to get them from either sabrina or jean.
sabz: hope you had loads of fun here in melb!

till the next one,
georgians ruleeeeee!!! muahahhahahaaa

Sweet little lies...

2009-07-31T12:46:00.004+10:00

I was watching Chasing Liberty last night.

It's one of my favourite shows ( apart from the notebook) which I love watching over and over again. Of course it's a chick flick... duhhh

Most people would say that Mandy Moore isn't really good at what she does.
She's not an awesome singer neither is she an actress that wins academy awards and stuff.
But somehow, I love shows with her in it.
Like in "A Walk To Remember" and "Because I Said So"

and did you see how cute that guy is???

who doesn't love a guy in sneakers...
and with that accent he has... to die for

Anyways, about halfway through the movie, there's these few lines which always seem to catch my attention every single time I watch it. I've written an entry about it years ago but thought I'd do it again.

Here goes...

"Telling the truth isn't always good and lying isn't always bad.
If telling the truth makes someone feel bad, then lying could be good
Good things can come from lying and bad things can come from telling the truth
Although sometimes, telling only part of the truth is just the same as telling a lie..."

Go figure...

Till the next one,
have a great weekend

Music=Life

2009-07-25T20:25:00.003+10:00

It's 8.26 pm now and I've officially done NOTHING productive the entire day (other than cooking chicken rice for lunch)

Waking up late makes my productivity level suck big time.
I have HOWEVER been watching heaps of youtube videos thanks to eeling.
She asked me to check out this acoustic guitarist on youtube which sounds really good.

but i found someone BETTER. muahahhaha
This 20 year old fella (somewhere on the other side of the globe) sings really well
too bad he's only twenty.
He plays the piano and sings like there's no tomorrow.

Oh, did i mention he plays DISNEY songs too???
and I love disney songssssss

Feels like i'm back in my younger teen years where we used to fall for boy-bands like westlife and 911. *staring into space*

Go check him out at http://www.youtube.com/user/ilajil
and waste about an hour or so checkin out the videos...

Till the next one,
let the music heal your soul....

Back on track ... almost

2009-07-23T21:19:00.008+10:00

and so the holidays are over and everyone's getting back on track.
the semester has begun, people are back from their winter holidays and students are complaining about having to wake up early again. morning classes, don't they suck big time?

I took my own winter break as well.
I didn't technically have a break since I was supposed to be working hard on my thesis, but you know me. I NEED my break. After the entire semester of deadlines, presentations, essays and research proposals; I'd go insane if I didn't take a few days off.

I took about a week off and it was really good not having to worry about any work at all during that short period of time.
Sleeping in, skipping breakfast (not recommended, very unhealthy), lunch, dinner and then supper.
Oh, and i watch heaps of movies over the past two weeks.
Renting DVDs on Tuesdays are dirt cheap, $1 for a dvd
So, over the past two weeks it's been :
X-Men 2
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
American History X (awesome one. go watch it if you haven't)
Jumper
The Insider
The Lake House
Sex and the City
Serendipity
Definitely, Maybe
Must Love Dogs
Harold and Kumar
Waterworld
Ghost
Laws of Attraction

I know they're really old ones but it's nice to watch them over again with a hot cuppa tea and my favourite timtams.

Over the weekend, we tried to enjoy our holidays as much as we could. We went to Brunswick Street to have a good lunch at some cafe, went to Harbour Town Shopping Centre at Waterfront City, Docklands (where the boys bought new games for the PS2) and watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Friday.

We also went to Williamstown, a place where everything seemed so peaceful and calm.
It's about a 20 minute train ride away from the city and when you're there, you leave all your worries behind in the city. There's also a Sunday market by the Pier which as usual sells stuff that we don't necessarily need. We had dinner there before we left, at this Thai restaurant called Siam Orchid.

But this week, the boys are back to school.
They've got everything ready, except themselves.
Who's ever ready to go back to school?

So it's time I get back to work as well.
I went to uni this morning to see my supervisor regarding my ethics application.
And it did not go too well. I had wayyyyy too much information on the application form (which apparently was a huge no-no) and had loads to amend cause they wouldn't approve it.
Also, I had a bit of problem with my sampling method and methodology.
Terrible start which gave me no motivation whatsoever to boost the new semester.
Nevertheless, I've got the weekend to get it all together and hand it in again on Tuesday.

On the other hand, at least a bit of good news came along.
I've been wanting to get a part-time job which would help me money-wise but not take up too much of my time either. Last semester, I was working at a bookstore selling university textbooks. But the downside of that place was that it only needed more staff during the 'peak periods'; meaning at the start of the semester where all the uni students would be needing their books for the new sem. After the first month of the new semester, business is slow (since everyone's got their books already) and he doesn't really need us to go to the shop to help anymore.

I wanted to tutor at uni last semester but the tutoring classes clashed with my own units.
But this sem, I've managed to get some tutoring hours at uni for a first year unit, Foundations of Marketing. wohoo..kinda excited about it. Apart from the fact that it would make all my studying for the past three years worthwhile, tutoring pays much better compared to any other job. Of course, I'd need to set aside some time to prepare for the tutes. But then again, who's complaining.. Will be greeting the students at Tuesday's lecture and tutes start the following week. Wish me luck!

Hopefully everything will be smooth-sailing from now till the end of the semester.

Till the next one,
say goodbye to your winter holidays and welcome back to reality!
hugs to all..

Stubborn Nutella

2009-07-21T01:13:00.006+10:00

I've been craving for desserts lately, churros, chocolate, creme brulee...
I had pancakes the other day at a cafe at Williamstown, strawberry pancakes I might add, and it was TERRIBLE. So soggy and 'not cooked' on the inside and burnt on the outside :(

So, I decided to make myself some crepes tonight and it finally satisfied my cravings.
Managed to make six pieces of crepes, so we all got two pieces each, two for myself, hunlin and my housemate, thong.

Since I didn't have strawberries or fruits that would go well with crepes, I had to resort to the only two things that would go well with crepes. Honey and nutella

I bought my first bottle of nutella two weeks ago cause I felt like having chocoalatt-ie spreads
It goes really well with crepes but hell, its stubborn

So damn difficult to spread it.
And i've gotta be so nice and gentle or my thin piece of crepe would tear

Even though it looks messy and kinda 'disgusting', it tastes good okayyy..
The boys (hunlin and housemate thong) preferred it with nutella but I still like the classic honey topping

Will update soon enough about my day out to Williamstown.

Till the next one,
have a sweet crepe

p/s: Happy Belated Birthday Judy! Sorry the post is a little late. Hope you had an awesome one

mwisss you loadsssss

Missed Maccas

2009-07-10T10:51:00.011+10:00

When I first got here, I had no clue what everyone were talking about when they kept using this weird word which I've never heard of before in their sentences."

"Maccas" (pronounced: mac-curse) hahaha

At first it was "Let's go to maccas"
So I guessed it was some place.

Then it was, "Let's have some maccas for lunch mate"
Second guess, food!! muahahahahaha

So obviously, with the help of google, which i might have to add, never lets us down, I goggled "maccas"
I didn't even think it would come up. I mean, what kinda word/slang thing is that?

And I'm guessing it DOES exist

And of course, what else would it be, other than the famous McDonald's.

I was thinking to myself. It's odd how one thing/franchise/whatever-you-wanna-call-it is known all around the world as the same thing (Fast food) but every country HAS to come up with something to make it 'their own'.

We Malaysians back home call it Mc-D (pronounced: mac-dee)
At least that sounds much like the original one.

But how does one come up with Maccas???
And make the entire country use it instead of the 'old-fashioned' McDonald's???
cangih-ness

imagine one day, Kentucky Fried Chicken might be known as 'Chikiee' or something

anyhowwwwww....
I've been wanting/craving to have maccas breakfast for weeks now.
I've never had it much back home in malaysia cause my mom dislikes the idea of fast food/burgers/fries and such. So we don't really get the chance to have mcD unless it's a McFlurry ice-cream.
Just this year, I've been starting to really enjoy the maccas breakfast that they serve.
Especially the sausage egg mcmuffin. yummie!~
And the set comes with a hash brown and a cuppa tea/coffee/juice/softdrink.
Cost for maccas breakfast : $5.45 (i think)

One thing about the breakfast menu is that they start friggin early at like 6am and serves it all morning till 10.30am where the menu switches to the usual one.
10.30 doesn't seem that early for them to stop serving breakkie but when we're students who sleep in, it's no surprise that we can't make it in time.
We've missed the breakfast menu about three times now but just a few minutes.
We wake up at 10, realise we've only got half an hour left, wash up and rush out the door. It used to be a 5-10 minute walk to the nearest maccas and by the time we reach there, they've changed it to the usual menu. The worst one was when we were already lining up. There were about three people in front of us. And two of them got their breakkie. When we reached the cashier, they said they've stopped serving breakfast!!!!!! what the??

So last night, we decided to have our breakkie at maccas and I set my phone alarm to 9.30am to make sure we have sufficient time make it there.
Hell, maccas is now just accross the road from my place since I'm not stayin at my old place anymore.
AS USUAL, the alarm goes off and the snooze button goes into action. It's a 10 minute snooze.
It goes of AGAIN and I snooze it AGAIN.
By the time I actually get up, it's 10.10am! SHIT. Breakfast stops at 10.30! I wake hunlin up and rush to the bathroom to wash up. No time for a shower. I'll miss my hash browns! When I get back to the room, (time check 10.20: we can still make it) he's still snoring, obviously in deep sleep.

THERE GOES MY BREAKFAST!@!@!@!@!@!

thanks to that, I've gotta resort to home-cooked scrambled eggs and nescafe

till the next one,
have breakfast in the mornings and stay healthy!

Snatch and RUN

2009-07-08T16:06:00.006+10:00

It was around 4pm or so yesterday when hunlin and I were at QV in Melbourne. We were about to get something to eat/drink/munch at the food court but decided against it and decided to go to Starbucks instead to get a cuppa caramel macchiato.

We took the escalator up and stopped outside Max Brenner to watch the kids ice-skate in the small rink that they created for the winter. Large, thin pieces of ice were laid down at an open area which allowed people to rent (very blunt) skates to skate while their family members watched from the side, attempting to teach them how to keep their balance, snapping photos as they glide across the ice and happily clapping when their child/friend finally manages to skate without having to constantly hold onto the sides or another friend.

QV was packed yesterday and it was quite a cold and windy day too. People were packed both inside and outside of Max Brenner catching up with a warm cuppa hot chocolate.

As we were about to leave QV, we heard loud screams from this girl about 20 metres behind us. We turned back to see what was going on and then we saw this guy run past us very very quickly. What immediately came to mind was this idea that"there they go again, young teenagers trying to play around, one making fun of another and then running off".

We didn't think much of it and just tried to see if we could spot who the immature young teenagers were.

Then we heard another loud scream again. This time, we could make out what she was say. At the top of her voice in a very Korean accent, she screamed "SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!"

It took us about 3-5 seconds to actually make out what she was saying with the very thick Korean accent that she had.
And then it struck me.
Her bag/purse got snatched by the guy who just ran past us just about 10 seconds ago.

A snatch theft happened just before our eyes.
He ran just past us.
And we didn't do anything about it.
We thought it was just a joke.
He ran past us too quickly.
We didn't even think of sticking our legs out to make him trip and fall on his face!

Then, the 'screaming girl' ran past us, pointing ahead indicating that THAT guy just snatched from her. Behind her was her other friend who was running after them.
The moment that girl screamed "somebody help me" over and over again, this guy who was at Max Brenner having coffee got off his seat and ran after the thief.
Damn was he fast!
He ran past the girl like the incredibles kid.
He didn't look back and kept running after that ass-of-a-fella that snatched whatever it was from that girl.

We, as the busy-body-people that we all naturally are, tried to see if we could keep up with the commotion that was going on.
But hell were they fast.

By the time we got out of QV area and headed to the traffic light, we saw across the street, both the girls, and the good samaritan and a few others.
I'm guessing that they caught the guy, got back their stuff and let that bastard go his way.
The girls had a relieved "thanks for helping us" look and the 'we-just-got-snatched" look had began to fade away.

What was he thinking?
That he could get away on the streets of Melbourne?
In broad daylight on Swanston Street?
No way in hell would he have escaped with her stuff.

That's one good thing about the City of Melbourne.
Even though there's always drunk people on the streets at night thanks to the 'extreme binge drinking problem' that they have here, there are and will always be people who are kind enough to help another stranger in times of distress.

There wasn't just one guy who stood up and ran after the thief.
If I recall well enough, there were at least three people (guys of course) who took the initiative to help.
Even though Melbourne is not free of crime, it's a relief knowing that people will stand up for another.

Halfway around the world,
Michael 'The King of Pop' Jackson's memorial took place the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, CA.
The time where thousands of friends, families and fans gathered to pay tribute to the legend. To acknowledge the great impact he brought to the world. Demolishing the barrier between colours, nations and bringing people together as one.

The memorial service was live at 2.45am Melbourne Time this morning so I only watched the repeat at 11am. Mariah Carey, Usher, Stevie Wonder and many others sang songs to remember him by. Other friends and family like Kenny Ortega, Martin Luther King III and Brooke Shields took the stage with words about MJ that touched the world.

Jermaine Jackson (MJ's brother) took the stage to sing MJ's favourite song, Smile.
It's clear that MJ will always be remembered, even though he's not here anymore.

Till the next one,
Stay safe from the snatch thefts and goodbye MJ

p/s: I finally went to watch 'The Proposal' yesterday. 10 dollar tickets. Hilariously funny. Chick flick. Go watch it soon!

Hullo July

2009-07-02T17:17:00.003+10:00

With a blink of an eye, its JULY!
It's scary how time flies by just like that.

While everyone is already on their winter break, I'm struggling through the week with my research proposal. Eff-ing irritating.
I'm hardly progressing but I've gotta pick up the speed soon enough or I won't pull this one through.

Tuesday was two days ago and I WAS supposed to go to the movies to catch The Proposal. Tuesday nights are movie nights and all shows are only 10 dollars. Adults, kids, students, senior citizens, others; whichever category you fit into.
Since I stay in the city and it's only about a 10 minute walk to the cinema from my place, we take for granted that if we leave at say 8.45 pm, we'll get there in time to buy the tickets, line up for some snacks/drinks to catch the 9 o'clock movie. Especially since the movies here start about 10-15 minutes later than the stated time. Hell, transformers started half an hour later than time time it should have!

Without bothering about getting tickets, we had dinner while watching Masterchef on tv at 7 - 7.30 and then "Talkin' bout your generation" until 8.30. Then, we got changed and left the place to Melb Central to get our tickets for The Proposal at 9pm. When we got there, everything was SOLD OUT! Like everything except Terminator (which I've watched already) and New York. Didn't know what New York was about so we decided against watching it, just in case it was a waste of money and there goes 20 dollars.

We ended up heading to the DVD shop nearby our place to rent some dvds. Since it was Tuesdays, all DVDs were only a dollar each! Except the new release ones. So we managed to get 5 movies for only 5 bucks! 15 dollars cheaper than the movies. Of course you don't have surround sound system la. Australia (the movie) which has been out for ages was available. And yes, I have yet to watch that one. And it turned out to be quite alright. Not awesome or breath-taking neither was it long and boring. A good watch I'd say.

And now, two days later, I'm forced to focus on my research proposal once again.
Haven't done much since Monday and I'm starting to worry.
But since I am (and always have been) awesome at procrastinating, this is somewhat normal.

Till the next one,
happie winter holidays to all

Transformers: AWESOME!

2009-06-29T00:15:00.004+10:00

hullo people...

I'm updating so often now since my exams are over.
I wanna try to make it a point that I update this place as often as possible instead of leaving it to rot just like that.

I've been bumming around the entire weekend.
Finished my last paper on thursday and have done nothing productive since.
I think I need a well-deserved break since I've been slogging my ass off for the past month or so.
Other than the fact that on the 1st of June, I was moving from my old place to the one I'm currently at. So that was a whole lotta rush and stress.

Now that the weekend has come and gone, I've gotta start my research proposal tomorrow. Actually since it's past midnight now, guess I'm working on it later on in the day.
The proposal is due on the 6th of July. Which is the following monday!
So I've got exactly a week for that.
hope it all goes well and I don't slack of halfway through the week and have to pull off late nights over the next weekend.

But, the best thing this week is that I went to watch Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen on Saturday night.
and DAMN, WAS IT GOOD!
actually it was GREAT!
Paid an extra dollar each to watch it in the Xtreme screen cinema at Hoyts, Melbourne Central. There are a few different cinemas there.
There's the usual high-class, 'atas' Directors Suite which I think is meant for a luxurious night out mainly because the seats costs a whooping 35 dollars per ticket! That converts back to about almost 90 ringgit for a movie that lasts about 2 hours-ish. Absolutely ridiculous! Haven't had a chance to try that yet but then agan, I think I'd feel my heart shatter if 35 dollars was spent just on a movie.

Then, there's the Half Pipe, which I personally enjoy the most. It's really cool cause there are only very few seats in the small cinema. Actually, they're not seats. They're bean bags! They have deluxe beanbags and tickets are bought in a pair. It's like watching a movie at home, lying down on your couch with your feet up, just that you pay much more, have a bigger screen, way better sound system and cuddle up on a beanbag next to your someone special. Prices for each halfpipe ticket costs 37 dollars per beanbag of two so it's still kinda affordable.

And the screen where they try earning an extra dollar from each ticket is the XtremeScreen. Apparently it's entertainment at its BIGGEST and LOUDEST! They're really smart cause they have all the latest movies at the XtremeScreen cinemas. And they claim "With 10,000 watts driving a state of the art Dolby 8 Channel surround EX sound system and a massive screen, you’ll be blown away!". I don't see anyone coming out blown away also lar. Oh, and tickets are $15.50 for a student. I think its $17 for an adult.

Okay, I'm getting carried away. (zero spoilers)
Transformers was AWESOME!!!! The storyline was quite interesting but what makes the movie great is the scenes and how cute the gadgets are! I mean, you have to admit that they really look cute transforming from a truck to Optimus Prime.
And bumblebee having to use lines from movies to express his feelings. Classic!
My favourite has got to be Bumblebee but the twins are really funny as well.
And transformers wouldn't be the same without Megan Fox and her sex appeal. Somehow (even though I agree she's kinda hawt), they make her character look a little to extreme. How is it that someone looks so perfect with nicely blown hair with natural curls all the time? And then she's always dressed so nicely! How can rite?? But then again, without her, the boys wouldn't go 'oooooooooo' when her character comes up and it'll just be another movie with gadgets and stuff.

The cinema was FULL even though the movie came out on Wednesday.
The movie definitely wayyyyyyy better than what I expected it to be.
I came out from the cinema going "wowwww, that was a good one" and so did a whole lot more happy people.
If you have yet to catch it, you have to. Take two hours-ish off your hectic schedule and make your way to catch it as sooooon as you can. And if you have XtremeScreen or some cinema with extra effects, make sure you get tickets for that one.

I'm waiting for Tuesday (movie nights here in Melb) to watch The Proposal since tickets are only 10 dollars. Wheeeeeee
Oh, and I can't wait for harry potter too!

Till the next one,
have a good week ahead

King of Pop

2009-06-27T13:42:00.003+10:00

although everyone in the world would have blogged about this already AND even though i'm a day late, it's better late than never.

I was up in my room yesterday with the radio tuned to the ABC classical music channel. I was trying to give my day a peaceful start; classical music, warmth under the quilt with a book to pass the time. It was almost noon and I refused to get out of bed to face the day, thus the bumming around. Then, it was 12 noon and as usual, it was time for news. Having been in bed since, I knew nothing about whatever was going on in the world. I realised that without the internet, telly or newspapers, we would not have a clue about what goes on just outside our four walls let alone what happens around the world.

The first thing they said that midday news was that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson has recently passed on that morning. I was shocked. I put my book down that second itself and turned up the volume on my radio/clock thingy on my bedside table. They cannot be serious rite? THE michael jackson wor. But they can't make stories on air rite?

Even though the music industry has evolved tremendously ever since the MJ days to Pooooker Face and pop stars kissing girls and liking them, the king of pop will always be remembered for his Grammy award winning songs.

Making as much of a difference just like Elvis Presley (he did marry his daughter, the beautiful Lisa Marie Presley though), Michael Jackson started out just with The Jackson 5 and is now and will forever be known for his popular music like Thriller, Scream, Beat It, You are not alone and my all time favourite, Heal the world. Even though I grew up going crazy about N'sync, 911, the backstreet boys and Britney spears (at one time), Michael Jackson played a huge role when I was much younger. Before I got influenced by the celebrity craze with the new and up-coming stars, there was always a michael jackson song playing at home on a cassette tape or a CD.

What struck me the most when I was young about this all time favourite singer is that he's an African American but he does not look like one at all. With all the changes that he's made to himself, it was hard to relate him to Jackson 5 or Janet Jackson. So when they reported on the radio news that he's the first African American entertainer, it was hard to believe that he came so far from what he was to what he has become.

He's had problems along the way (which celebrity doesn't) and a lot of controversy with children. But the most successful entertainer managed to pull through all this and was going to have a come-back tour in England for his fans. My mom actually went to see one of his concerts way back when his tour stopped by Malaysia. And after that, all she could talk about for days was his moonwalk, his entrance to begin the concert, how he sang all this songs beautifully and what a great entertainer he was. He had such an impact on my mom, imagine what he's brought to the world.

Passing away at the mere age of 50, Michael Jackson's songs will always be in our hearts even in the years to come. I've had my fair share of MJ's influence in my life and I'm sure you had yours too. I even danced to one of his songs in high school for some guides gathering event and made a huge embarrassing mistake by starting my step one count before I should have. Making mattes worse was that that mistake was captured on camera!! Even so, I will always have many memories singing along with his songs at home or in the shower. Or just trying to do the triller dance like Jennifer Garner in '13 going on 30'.

Till the next one,
RIP, King of Pop

Exams : DONE

2009-06-25T13:35:00.009+10:00

I've finally finished all my written exams for the year. whee..
Actually, for good.
Nope, I don't have any final exams for the second semester of this year.
Cause after this, the only thing I've got to worry about is my research proposal, ethics application, shitloads of literature reading, my methodology for my thesis and finally completing my thesis which would mark the end of the honours year.

All of that ends end of October, which means I have about four months for all of that.
Seems like it's alot of time, but trust me, it isn't.
Reading literature could take weeks, probably a few months to get all the information that I'd need to complete the entire thing.

Since exams are over, I can finally watch tv without feeling guilty.
I still lurveeeeee my tv series and everything else just as much as I did years back.
And I still try to keep up with whatever series that they air here on aussie tv.
Like on Thursdays, there's masterchef australia at 7pm, rules of engagement from 7.30-8.30.
Then grey's anatomy at 8.30-9.30 and my all-time favourite, PRIVATE PRACTICE at 9.30

Ahhh... how tv series can make one person so happy!!

ohya, I've finally transfered the pictures I took at Dralion three weeks ago.
We weren't allowed to take any photos in the tent so only managed to get photos around and outside the hugeeeeeeeee tent.

took this during the 20 minute interval. It was freezing cold outside with really strong winds.
It blew down my popcorn which i left on the chair, leaving me with only half left :(
the huge poster, which i blocked.ugh. the photographer didn't even ask me to budge a little so i they could get the entire banner too

just a few more pictures which we managed to take before the intermission ended
found an old group photo of my mini-family while transfering the pictures.from the left, there's gluey the giraffe, miri the monkey and kori the koala. the turtle looking one was a friends' which came to visit!

till the next one,
my love to all the soft-toys around the world!

Almost there....

2009-06-23T20:45:00.005+10:00

Three down and two more to go.

I finished my Leadership in Organisations paper just a few hours back and it was a real relief!
I'm finally done with all my essay-writing final papers.
Phew!

But I'm not entirely done with everything yet.
I've still got an SPSS analysis test on Thursday morning.
It's this program that I need to use to analyse the data that I collect from my surveys for my thesis.
And it has loads to do with complicating bla-berish stuff like factor analysis, R squared, significance value and all of that stuff.
Very complicating. I've been through abit of this when I did my intermediate statistics back in Nilai two years ago but then I've totally forgot everything.
So, it's like learning it all anew again.

I've been having difficulty sleeping for the past few nights.
Only managed to get about 11 hours of sleep since Saturday.
And that my friends, is not enough sleep for me.
I need like 8 hours of sleep on a daily basis and I'm starting to worry if I've got insomnia.
I feel really tired but when I head to bed, I just can't fall asleep. I just lie there and before I know it, it's been three to four hours that I've been wasting and not being able to get proper rest.
It's really irritating; not getting sufficient sleep and all.
Especially when its the exam season and I need all the sleep that I can get to concentrate on my readings during day.

Other that, hun lin's friends, Joseph and Sylvia from Tassie came down to Melbourne to visit us.
We stayed at their place when we visited tassie last winter holidays and we went around to visit places and such.
They came down on Saturday evening and will be here untill Thursday morning (the day I finish my papers) :(
I haven't really been a good host to them thanks to the exam stress and lack of sleep. All I've been doing is just studying and studying. Thankfully, hunlin's done with his exams and is able to bring them around. I promise I'll be a better host the next time you guys are around!

Am gonna try to get a little sleep if I can...

Till the next one,
have a good night's rest and sweet dreams!!

A fresh start

2009-06-18T23:44:00.005+10:00

hello everybody..

i'm trying to give this blog a new life again.
the last time I was here, it was years ago.
and now, a few of my friends are blogging too.
and they're using blogger as well.
so thought i might as well come back and see what this place has to offer.

surprisingly, its rather good.
it's quite easy to set it up and posting entries are simple as well.

I had a paper on wednesday afternoon at 2pm and it was my Relationship Marketing paper.
Lasted for two hours which went by like a flash.
But at least that's over.
Now, I've gotta worry about my next paper which is next tuesday. Leadership in Organisations is what it's called.
Sounds simple but there's quite abit to read for that. Journal articles as usual.
But hopefully it'll be a smooth paper.

I took a break yesterday and today.
it was actually supposed to only be one day but I slept all afternoon today.
Didn't do anything much.
Didn't do any studying whatsoever.
Was in the city walking around and such yesterday, came back home, had a nice nap and then a movie.

Watched Terminator: Salvation.
I don't recall watching the first few ones but oh well, I've gotta start somewhere rite?
It was a really good movie.
It's funny how they keep making movies where the computers/machines/devices take over the world. Where humans no longer have any control over them and that we've gotta fight for our life to survive.
It makes me wonder if that would ever happen to us one day.
We rely so much on technology nowadays, without it for a day is like without water or food.
oh well, until that day comes, we might as well make full use of the available technology to play restaurant city, update our blogs and keep in contact with our friends and family halfway around the world.
I can't wait to watch transformers though. I reckon that would be a good one as well!

Till the next one,
keep the blogs updated and have a great weekend

2006-03-30T12:00:00.000+11:00

I have to stand
I cannot fall
I have to live my life like someone tall
I cannot let
My life just drown
I cannot let the past just pull me down
I have to live my life and I can't frown
No matter how the journey comes along
I've to believe that I can reach for it
I can... cause I'm strong

Telling the truth and telling a lie...

2006-03-30T11:28:00.000+11:00

Telling the truth isn't always good and lying isn't always bad.
If telling the truth makes someone feel bad, then lying could be good
Good things can come from lying and bad things can come from telling the truth
Although sometimes, telling only part of the truth is just the same as telling a lie...

2006-03-01T15:15:00.000+11:00

Life has not been treating me too good the past few days. Neither has it been improving. Can someone give me the difinition of understand? or understanding? College life is hectic and there are just somethings that's making it even worse. Not gonna be giving any details cause it's just gonna make the blog a sad miserable one. Classes as usual today. Had editorial board meeting and the first dance meeting. Dinner and here i am now. My brains aren't working too well tonight. I had better stop before I start saying something i dont wanna say here though i wish i could.

Goodbye weekend, Hello Monday

2006-02-28T12:57:00.000+11:00

Its Monday once again... My favorite day of the week...(that's so not true). I already have Monday blues and to spice things up, I have a full class on Monday. Did I mention FULL? (definition of FULL : Eng, 8-10; Econs, 10-12; Accounts, 1-3; IT, 3-5) So ppl, don't you dare say you have a full day class unless you have a timetable like mine, which only gives us time to breathe during lunch hour ( how'd you expect us to breathe when the canteen is packed with humans?) - ignore the replacement of people with humans, its just something odd about me.

Nevertheless, it was a usual Monday.
1. The snooze button on my alarm clock has to work extra hard.
2. The usual rushing when i realize that I've got only 20 mins left to wash up, shower and get to class
3. Walking into class at 8.10 with 'Morning miss, sorry I'm late
4. It's Monday morning miss. ( when my lecturer Ms suba asks where everyone else is)

It's true. It is a Monday morning. Although students are supposed to be full of energy and ready for the lesson after a weekend of relaxing, this monday routine happens in every college in the world. (and im not kidding)

One interesting thing about today is that i nearly lost RM70, not in cash form but in book form. As usual, we bring loads of books to class(thanks to our hectic schedule). And like always, we leave them in class during our break cause we use the exact same class back again after lunch at 3pm. T307 is like the class owned by AF2. we have nearly 70% of our classes there (its just an estimated figure). When we returned to the classroom at 3pm, jeng jeng jeng.... we couldnt't find our books. My IT book which costs RM70, my english booklet and michelle's econs book which costs a whole 110 ringgit. You can start imagining the looks on our faces when we couldn't find our books on the chair at the back of the class where we left it. Our smiles just dropped into a frown. It was as though the fairies dancing in our mind just danced straight into a brick wall. We went round the college looking for the cleaners who cleared T block to see if they had cleard our books and put it aside. We went to the lost and found where we got 'ahem' lets just leave that out. Its not that we were 'that' dumb to leave our books there. Stop blaming us for every single small tiny mistake we make. You dont expect us to carry our books all the way to the canteen and back to T307 for our next class. It's heavy, if you didnt know. After a whole scavanger hunt around NIC, we gave up, returned to our class and kinda started to think if we were 'that' dumb to leave our books in the class. As they say, there's always a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. This pot of gold finally appeared when we found out that a friend, who thought we accidentaly left our books in the classroom was so extremely kind enough to take it for us. I guess the day was not that bad after all.(it would've been if we didnt find our books).

2006-02-27T17:05:00.000+11:00

Things happen when you least expect it.. Maybe it's time to start expecting things to happen so you'll learn to accept it. First, accept it. Second, get used to it. Third, get immune to it. And after that, i guess its just another thing in life that is bound to happen rather often. Guys will always be guys and vice versa. Its a fact of life that will never ever change. I repeat, NEVER EVER. Did i stress on Never? Odd blog you will say. You can say that again. Wasn't supposed to be a blog but didn't know what to do with my..er.. do i call it anger? Sounds a little too drastic. Nevertheless, this is what blogs are for arent they? or have i got the wrong definition of it. Im starting to type senseless stuff. I had better stop.

A Step Closer to Stardom!

2006-02-27T07:58:00.000+11:00

It was just another Sunday morning here in NIC... i woke up only to find that it was barely 9am. Of course i went back to bed hoping to get more rest. Its only during weekends that i get to sleep in cause of my hectic timetable which gives me no choice but to wake up at 7am every morning for class. As i was just going back to sleep, and hopefully back to a nice dream, my phone rang. Arrghh... who is it now? To my surprise, it was my uncles from kl who decided to come down to nilai to bring me lunch. Wohoo...!!! Not so bad of a phone call after all. After a while, mom called... I expected the usual phone conversations with here but today was a totally different one. She called not just to say hie but to tell me i was in the papers!~ What? The Star? What for? That definitely gave me a shock. It was an article about the Valentines Dinner i attended recently in La Trobe Restaurant here in my college. Imagine my mom telling me, 'Trace, you're a star' hehehe... doesnt sound too right, does it? Dad agreed to send me the clipping of that article so that i could see for myself how 'stardom' was like! Just seconds after i was done 'feeling like a star' with my mom, the phone rang once more. This time it was Roshan! my buddy from penang who is now in kl studin called me to tell me how much of a drama queen i was thanks to that article in the papers. Acting like a journalist, he 'interviewed' me about that night and started a whole issue of me being the new drama queen and he promoting it to his whole BNN (short for Bob News Network-his so-called network for uninteresting publicity that only interests him) After a whole 12 minutes, the drama between Roshan and I finally ended. Phew. We could actually go on and on about he being a drama king and me being the drama queen. Sounds dumb doesn't it? The next phone call of 'stardom' came from my uncle's who were on their way down to nilai to visit their 'favorite' niece (by the way, that's self claimed.. hehe) 'Someone's in the papers lo... And in colour too' hehhe.... My uncle's arrived at about 12 and brought lunch, magazines, grapes(yummy) and breakfast for tomorrow... As i sit here ending my blog for the day and eating my lunch, this day has indeed had a very interesting start!

Sudden Return!~

2006-02-25T06:45:00.000+11:00

Suprised by the sudden return? So am i. Its been months since i came back here or even read blogs. Nothing was really interesting, thus explains my inexistance in the world of blogging. Why the sudden return you may ask. It was insperation. I was inspired. Inspired by a very interesting blog that caught my eye. As i am extremely busy in the busy college life of mine, i decided that now is a perfect time to update my blog. You see, im now in the second floor of my college resource centre. Anyone from NIC would know that im in the computer lab for a class. Don't get me wrong. I'm not sleeping in class, neither am i not paying attention. The usual routine for lab classes is that you just do exactly what you're asked to do, that is according to the papers that you collect from the mac centre. When you're done, all you have to do is shout for 'MISS' and she'll come running with her paper to check on you. Not running exactly, but more like interested if you can finish it yourself. If you need help, just do the exact thing. She'll be at your place just with a small 'MISS . Today's lab is more boring that usual. Does it sound very negative? Boring as in she's telling us what to type in, instead of the usual copying from the papers. So while she's writing what we need to type on the whiteboard (she ain't moving that fast.. if she was, i wouldn't be blogging would i?) , Im here at my place blogging for the first time after a very very long time. There's loads I wana blog, to make my life more interesting, cause believe it or not, it is kinda interesting here with the very many college activities that's really keeping me busy; apart from the mid terms, assestments and of course weekly economic tutorials from Ms. Chiam. (but really, its for our own good. at least she gives us something to ensure we get what she's saying in the very early morning lecture on tuesdays). Other than that, my life here is not bad. Time passes really fast and lab class is done already! Wohoo. As i sit here typing my last few words, everyone else is already gathering their books to leave the class. Guess i should be leaving now too cause its lunch time!~ wohooo.. my favourite time of the day!~

2005-03-27T17:55:00.000+10:00

hey hey ppl.. im back.. to update my blog!~itz gona be a two in one blog today.. and it begins with Friday, 25 March 2005. Itz Good Friday and angela is supposed to be back for the weekend..Yey!! She came back around 4 in the evening and we talked on the fon.. yap yap yap..gossip gossip gossip.. and talk talk talk about her camp.. Camp can be really fun but it definately has its pros and cons.. and the cons are WAAYY more most of the time.. anyway.. the plan for the day.. meet up for dinner with sggs bafoons.. (angela, eeling, jean, leeju, leeann, audrey, and of course not forgettin me!~) then to a movie and then... drum roll pls... CO... hehe.. Met up at gurney for dinner at 8pm.. ( jean, ju and i only cuz angela had to go to church) and of all places.. we actually went to FISH AND CO.. imagine that.. audrey came after a while and of all things she sang to us the National Service song that they had to sing everyday.. ( Wira, wirawati bla bla bla.. i'll pass for now cuz im gona have to sing it for three months when im there)... After a while...the FOOD finally arrived!! Yummy.. there were prawns, fish, sotong, some orange colour rice which tasted nice.. ( in short.. we ordered a seafood platter.. there.. no more explanations needed)

Angela came after a while.. but she was really exhausted.. we could tell.. (what do you expect? sleep after 12 every night, wake up at 5 in the morning.. that's like 5 hrs earlier than me! and she marches and has activities the whole day while people like me go to the office to work and come back and glue my eyes to the tv or the comp)... Ee and ky came after a while and the gossiping continued till about 11..
Left for CO.. but the stupid thing about that place is that itz 21 and above.. arrghh.. i hate that so much... Let me list out something for ya...
What I like about CO
1. the place is HAPPENING...
2. Its always packed and that's actually the best part of it
3. They have nice songs (even though they always repeat them)

What I HATE about CO
1. 21 and above..( and i look 15 even though im gona be 18 in May!!)
2. They have started to check everyone's ICs...( and im not even 18 yet! imagine that!)
3. Im still thinking of No 3 even though i thought i had more 'What i hate about co' compared
to 'what i like about co'

anyways, because of the frequent raid n bla bla bla.. we went to glo that night..my first time to glo.. comments.. itz alot smaller compared to CO.. not so happening.. choice of songs... not that good...Even so, leeju, leeann and i did manage to make the best outta it..
Left glo at about 3 and back to evergreen to shower, clean up and smell fresh and free frm smoke! We were kinda rushing like crazy gals cuz leeju had to be home before 5am and i had to catch a bus to nilai at 5.30am...

March, 26
Slept in the bus like a pig even though the other passengers (mostly noisy pests) we screaming and talking so VERY loudly...(i can assure you they were WAY louder than me when i can't sleep!) Was on my way to Nilai to see a college.. Nilai International College..Went around the campus and dorms.. The campus is really nice and clean.. away frm entertainment and all..( mom says itz good as i can pay full attention on my studies instead of worring if i missed out on the latest movies and all those ...) 4 years there is gona be a long time.. Hope time passes fast... Oh ya, talking about the campus.. everything there is nice.. the place is really big.. clean.. EXCEPT the DORMS.. itz in a kinda bad condition.. bathrooms are ewww... but guess that's gona be my home starting Sept 2005... (oh.. no more weekly visits to gurney anymore and no more gossiping on the hse fon for me..sigh..)

anyway.. im gona stop here de.. im tired, sleepy and exhausted... so till my next blog, or watever you call it, take care ppl....

a visit to some jungle in bukit mertajam!! but it was FUN!~

2005-03-21T16:30:00.000+11:00

angela woke me up this morning.. at 10am.. ok.. itz not that early but i still didnt have enough sleep.. anyway.. itz angela's bday today... so leeju, leeann and i decided to pay her a visit..so we got her a cake (it was some orange chocolate cake... which tasted kinda nice.. yummy.. but started to melt by the time we got there!) and bought her some mcD... she requested fast food.. Her camp was like in some jungle.. somewhere out there... (maybe beneath the pale blue sky at nite laa.. hehe).. We kinda surprised her with the cake and all...
i went on a tour.. to her room.. 20 ppl (or shall i say WIRAWATIs) in a room.. a celing fan for four beds.. one misarable ironing board.. and four showers and 6 toilets..suddenly i dont wana go for NS dee...anyways.. itz REALLY HOT there.. u cannot imagine till you are actually there yourself.... the heat can cook an egg... (im gona try doing that the next time i visit angela again..) we were there till about 3 something... oh yea.. the most important thing...therez this guy.. some guy la.. at angela's camp.. who according to jaryn and angela looks like wang li hom.. (i dono who this chinese fella is.. tink he is some singer or something.. ok.. i know.. im weird.. im not into chinese singers or actors..) anyway.. we singles (leeju, leeann and i) were like dying to meet this so-called VERY CUTE guy... but we never got to see him.. guess he was in his dorm with his friends or sumting.. imagine.. angela, jaryn and all are already goin crazy just lookin at him.. they say his 'look' gives them 'insperation' every morning... (now you know why i was dying to meet him also?? hehe..) ok.. now im starting to sound weird.. i know.. ok.. i guess i'll stop here today..cause im starting to sound weird... i'll add something interesting tomorrow.. if i can...

2005-03-20T18:50:00.000+11:00

Since my life is so boring.. and i have nothing better to do... i've decided to start writing blogs..im new to this so i really have no idea how this goes.. all i know is that i write whatever i feel like writing and all my friends are SUPPOSED to read it and give comments.. So... tmr im gona go visit angela at NS... gona surprise her with a bday cake... yey!! hehe.. havent seen angela in a week.. omg.. how fast time flies..i definately hope three months will pass fast also.. cuz im gona go for NS myself.. gona miss everything here in penang.. my friends.. my bed.. my hse.. good penang food..what else?? ooo.. u noe what else.. hehe...