an update of this and that

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...

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!

Need a wash?

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!

The lost hour and the new love...

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...