Sunday, October 30, 2005

Its Disturbing

Last night was the scariest night I experienced in my house. Its the first time I actually know of people engaging in "one night stand". I think I've been too sheltered my whole life, the people I hang out and mix with are all "good" guys and gals who arent so open-minded about such matters. I'm not saying there's any wrong with having "one night stands", its just disturbing to know that your friends are doing it. Actually I wouldnt know that they're doing it if not for their loud moans. I'm not kidding. When I was walking along the corridor to the bathroom, I could hear the "AHs" and the heavy panting echoing through the hallway. I think I'm just not culturally adapted to this place. Maybe its perfectly fine to them in expressing themselves in such a way, but I'm just not OK with it. Escaped to Mike's place shortly after, couldnt take it...

Went grocery shopping on Friday night as per normal. Promised Karen that I'll bring my camera along and take pictures of my grocery night out. BUT, forgot to bring my camera in the end. Sorry Karen! Wait one more week for the pics k? Nothing special to report, bought stuff to cook wanton mee coz I'm craving for it. Very proud of myself coz Dawn and I actually managed to cook wanton mee that tasted yummy. Reminded me of the wanton mee back in Singapore. So gonna go back and binge on hawker food! Can't wait to sink my teeth into prata, crystal jade dim sum, hor fun, chicken rice, duck rice... I'm salivating just thinking of the food. Not that aussie dont have these food here, its just that they're freaking expensive here. Would you pay $3.50 for a piece of plain prata with curry? Yeah, explains my craving. Think I'm gonna put on alotta weight after going back to Singapore..

Was supposed to go play volleyball today, but overslept at Mike's place. Plus daylight saving started today, so I lost one hour of sleep. Annoying... Nvm, there's frisbee tmr, think I run harder tmr night to burn off the excess calories. Heh heh... time to prepare dinner... Note to ah hu: you better learn how to cook... the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! haha..

Thursday, October 27, 2005

-Bliss-

I know its cliché to use this word, but that's exactly how I'm feeling right now. Mike and I are officially seeing each other. I think things between us developed very quickly, some may even say its too fast, too rushed. But I've never felt so happy in a very long time. It feels really good to know that someone cares so much for you, is genuinely interested in knowing you and your friends, tries to solve problems for you and knowing that someone will be there when you need support.

Its my third serious relationship and I hope that things will work out for us. We were just talking about parents last night and he actually said he's looking forward to meet my mum. He's not sure if my mum will like him, but he's still gonna try to get my mum to like him coz it'll make things easier for me. I'm so touched. We've only got together for less than a week, but he's already thinking of meeting the parents. Goes to show that he's here for the long haul. Don't know what the future lies ahead coz there's so much stuff that we've gotta work out (like culturally, distance, what happens if he has to go back to US?!), just hoping for the best.

Now for updates on what I've been up to this week! Basically, coz there's so many assignments due and exams are just around the corner, I havent been going out much. Spent monday working on one of my assignments at the medical centre from 4pm till 9pm, the security chased us out coz we're not "medical" students. How annoying, not medical students means we can't use the facilities at the medical centre? Isnt it part of Uni too? We pay so much school fees to get chased out of the place? Grrrr

Tuesday: Watched a movie, THE MAN with Mike and his friends. The movie was really funny, had a good laugh. Things between me and his friends werent as awkward as the first time, still trying to open up and talk to his friends more. I know he really enjoys their company, so I'll try to make an extra effort the talk to them.

Wednesday: Skipped classes to stay home & do housework (how auntie can I get?) Hate my dirty housemate coz even though she did her part of the housework, its so slipshod that I have to re-do it for her. Not Happy. Tried to do more work after doing housework, but was too tired and fell asleep on the couch. My other housemates were so amused that I fell asleep on the couch that they kept teasing & laughing at me. Went for frisbee in the evening. Enjoyed the session coz I had a good run, Kisey said I improved alot and that my throws were much better than before *YAY*, but I pulled my groin muscle. After frisbee, Mike and I went for dinner/supper at the pizza place. On our way back, as my groin muscle was hurting so badly, Mike "piggied" me up the slope on our way back. So sweet.....

Thursday: Got back results for my nutrition presentation for last week. My group topped the class (there were only 3 groups) with 80%. Quite happy with our achievement, but thought we could have done better though. Decided to skip soccer coz my groin muscle was still aching. Decided to update my blog to share with everyone my happiness..................

Going to meet Mike later for dinner. YAY!

p/s: Will put up more pics the next time, some people said I should show more pics of my activities. So I'm gonna bring my camera out tomorrow when I grocery shop. Hope no one thinks I'm nuts. haha

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Yet another busy week

They say time flies when you're having fun, how true. Its almost the last week of school, in another two more weeks, uni is gonna break for exams. Its kinda freaking me out coz I've got 1 term paper, 1 essay, 2 assignments and 1 reading response due. And I need to complete all these before I can even think of starting my revision. Think all these work is gonna keep me really busy these few weeks. But, me being the me, I'll still be on top of things, at least I hope... =P

This week has been pretty much the same as the previous weeks except that I didnt go for frisbee and soccer. The weather hasnt been too good this week and its been raining non stop. No point getting myself all drenched exercising and end up so tired and beat that I've got no energy left to do my work. Went for volleyball on Tuesday though, didnt play well, in fact kind of injured my back and shoulder again. Those old injuries I suffered from playing volleyball all these years. All coz I forgot to warm up. Shows how important warm up routines are.. to all those sports people (namely ah hu) remember to warm up properly!

Shiling's gone back home already. So glad she made the decision to go home, she sounded so excited to see her boyfriend again. The power of Love is unbelievable. Hope she recovers real quick! Its kinda troublesome to cook for one again. Without my cooking partner, I now have to cook like 3 to 4 times a week. That's alot of work - cutting up the vegies, cooking the food itself and the cleaning up. It takes me at least one hour to do all that. One thing thou, my culinary skills did improve ever since I came here.. yay!

Went grocery shopping with the gals on Friday night again, together with Mike and Haoxiang. So weird to have so many people trying to buy stuff at the same time, its really quite inefficient. I think we spent at least a couple of hours at the central market. But then I think I shouldnt be complaining coz I'm the one who can't seem to make up my mind on what foods I wanna buy. Like "should I get salmon or just white fish? Hmm, should I get prawns as well? Hmm, or chicken?" Gosh, I sound like an auntie!!!

Was craving for wanton mee last week, but didnt get to buy the stuff needed to prepare it. Too lazy to prepare it myself this week, so Dawn offered to prepare the stuff for me. So sweet! So glad that I've got so many people who care about me here. =)

Monday, October 17, 2005

Embarassing Night

Last night the nutrition girls threw a farewell party for Shiling. Everyone brought a lil something to contribute to the dinner, like the usual pot luck. So fun, I love dinners like that, so many different dishes, so many different cooking styles. I ate alot, and drank alot. Yikes...

One of the gals made some herbal chicken and flavoured it with ginger wine. Since there was an entire bottle of ginger wine left over, we gals mixed the wine with sprite and coke and it tasted really good. Tasted something like some ginger beer I tried back home. Anyways, the gals started to play Indian poker, and the stakes were the left over ginger wine (did I mention that its 13% alcohol?). I had the worst luck of them all and gulped down at least one third of the bottle of ginger wine. That really killed me. After the game I was almost gone, I was radiating so much heat that even the gal sitting beside me could feel it... Anyways, I was in quite a bad state, and the other gals couldnt see me home coz they werent very sober to begin with. In the end, Shiling called Mike to send me home. YIKES... There goes my "good girl" image...

He walked me home, in fact, he walked me to my bedroom, got me a glass of water and left. I think it was quite sweet of him to made sure I was snug in bed before leaving. Quite touched, but cant get over the embarassment!!! Anway he called the next day (today) to check if I was alright *SO SWEET*...

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Blue

Not a very good week for me, the week didn't start off too good with the lousy Tuesday date. Soccer on Thursday wasn't good either. I think I was still recovering from the strenuous exercise on Wednesday night so I couldnt really run as fast and play as well. Which was kind of frustrating coz I felt like a vase jogging in the field, and I hate that kind of feeling.

Got back an assignment on Thursday as well, not good. I only got 46.5/60, which is a really lousy grade. Shiling scored full marks for it, and Dawn probably scored well too. The assignment wasn't even difficult to begin with, so annoyed with myself. I hate the marking scheme here, the model answers they give don't even answer the questions they ask. Its like copying everything from the lecture notes and not applying it to answer the questions, and it seems like the markers aren't even sure what they're looking for. Karen says next time I should just copy everything from the lecture notes to answer the questions, which is really against my principles coz I don't like not answering the questions (like to the point), but it seems like I don't really have a choice.

Woke up on Friday with a sore shoulder. Don't know what I did to cause it but its really hurting, I cant even reach behind to scratch my back. The pain extended to Saturday, not happy... In fact I think I'm feeling kinda grumpy and there's no place where I can vent my frustration. Can't bear to snap at my friends for stuff that they're not even responsible for, so I'm just bottling everything inside.. typing it out doesnt seem to help much.

Time to find something else to make myself feel better... Chocolates....

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

I need to learn to be a little more patient...

Everything In Its Time - Corrinne May

Sometimes I wonder what lies ahead
How long till my hunger is fed
They say it's hard to make it in this part of town
So many people on this merry-go-round

Some folks try astrology
Some turn to crystal balls
To find an answer,
To get through it all
I just fall on my knees and I try to pray
In the silence I can hear Him say

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign
Everything in its time

I often feel like I'm two steps behind
Somebody must have moved that finish line
There are a thousand reasons
Why I should give up
But I'm stubborn in the things I believe

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign

'cause maybe there's another plan
One I still can't see
A little surprise, like your love in my life
Funny how time changes how we see

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign
Everything in its time
Everything in its time

My Week Thus Far...

Updates and more updates!

Sunday's volleyball game was pretty good, I didnt know why I was feeling so hyperactive. I was skipping, hopping and jumping around for no apparent reason, anyway since I was being the "bubbly" me, I reached for every single ball that came at me and actually played quite well! Previously got 2 very good ang moh players who were initially quite hostile were actually quite impressed that someone puny like me could actually play... So yay!

I watched the movie 40 year old virgin with Mike and his 2 friends. The show was good, had some really hilarious jokes. I liked the show, its a good show to watch if you wanna relax and laugh things out. Although the show was good, the night wasnt too good. The 2 friends that Mike brought along were actually a couple, so it felt like a double date to me. And I'm so annoyed at myself coz I didnt really try hard enough to want to know his 2 friends. I didnt create small talk with his friends and since the 3 of them were joking and laughing about some joke from another party, I just sat there quietly in my own corner and ate my food in silence. I felt like a vase, used just for display, to look good and nothing else. On the way back, they were again laughing and joking, this time about the movie that we've just watched. Problem is, they're joking and laughing about the movie, making references to another movie which I have never watched. So, again, just sitting in silence. I don't blame them for not including me in their conversation, just annoyed with myself. Eversince I came here I've been hiding in my own little shell, not daring to speak up for fear of being laughed at. Sometimes its the language that I feel I'm not too confident in, othertimes I'm just afraid that people will judge me when I make silly comments (which I sometimes do when I'm in my crappy mood). So yup, I've been a lousy date for the night, I think if I was a guy and I went out with such a gal, I think I'll not go out with her ever again...

Wednesday... Hung around with Dawn & Shiling at the community centre for a couple of hours after class. Shiling was craving for cakes (think its PMS) so we decided to bring her there to satisfy her cravings. We had 2 cakes (white chocolate mudcake & caramel mudcake), one chocolate brownie and a plate of potato wedges. YUM, sinful food = great tasting food. Heh heh... I thought the cakes tasted pretty good, but maybe they've been sitting in the fridge for sometime so can taste that its not that fresh. But still, the sheer taste of chocs and cake itself makes up for the lack of freshness. Shiling told us today that she's going back to SGP on the coming Wednesday. Glad that the school approved her application to go back, hope she gets more quality rest back home and come back and start the new semester with a bang!

After hanging out at the community centre and all that sinful food, I decided I needa work off those excess calories. Frisbee was the solution and I had a great time there! Initially I thought I would feel weird and left out coz Shiling and some of my newbie friends werent going, but somehow things werent as bad as I thought it would be. The people at frisbee were really nice to me and patiently taught me some of the techniques/strategies of the game. Towards the end of the training, the people there got kinda crazy and started doing crazy stuff like taking off their shorts, quite entertaining thou.. heh heh =P I think I played quite well today. *happy* Joe (the captain of the team) invited me to join the summer league, quite interested in playing but I think I cant cope with so much activities going on. Plus I gotta do well to stay here, so I told him that I'll join them after the exams. Hope I didnt sound like a geek...

Okay, bedtime, cant wait for soccer tmr, I needa work off my excess energy and the frustrations building up inside me!

Saturday, October 08, 2005

My Weekend

Time to update everyone on my exciting weekend... well, not exactly very exciting.. just doing same ol' stuff...

Thursday: Soccer! Bad day for me at soccer coz I was so accident prone. First, at the start of the game an idiot tripped me and I fell hard. My hands were red as I was trying to break the fall. Next, a skinny girl elbowed me on my nose and hit me on my arm. Finally, a bloke kicked the soccer ball straight into my face. What a good way to end the game. I didnt suffer any serious injury, which is good, don't wanna end up with a broken nose... so un-glam!

Friday: Gals night out! Well, not exactly all gals, Mike came along as well... Selina brought us to this cafe in the suburb called SPATS. The food there wasnt too bad, but I thought their dessert was good, very pretty and colourful and of coz very yummy! One thing though, the food there was quite pricey and the portions were kinda small, so not really value for money. But then the cafe was quite nicely decorated, guess we're paying for the ambience... And as usual, we took an hour to get there, the place is actually only 5 bus stops from the city. So taking an hour to get there is really madness. We had to walk 6 blocks from the bus stop we got off to the cafe, and I feel that the food we had isnt worth the walk in the freezing cold.. but oh well, just another experience..

Saturday: Grocery shopping and Visit Lam day. Went to the city twice on the same day. Went to get some groceries at Central Market, which isnt exactly the most interesting thing to do... Anyway poor Lam sprained his ankle, so I went to his college to visit him and we had dinner at this Thai restaurant near his place. The food was good! Much better than the one we had on Friday.. hur hur.. I think I just miss eating Asian food. I used to detest eating those nonya kuehs, but just now at the Thai restaurant I ate some "sticky rice" dessert that tasted like nonya kueh and I actually finished it... amazing.. makes me crave for more Asian food.. I wanna eat roti prata, wantan mee, seafood horfan, hainanese chicken rice, nasi lemak...

*SIGH*

Hopefully tomorrow's volleyball session will be fun...

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Another Entry

I realised I've been blogging alot recently, can't help it, I'm bored and yet I don't feel like doing work, which I seriously should coz my term papers are gonna be due real soon. Anyway I can't be doing work all the time right? Need to destress, do something that doesn't require much thinking... so I blog! Hur hur.. excuses for myself...

Some updates on whats going on in my life since Monday's Glenelg trip. Tuesday was quite eventful. Went to catch a movie after school with Mike coz Tuesday is cheap movies day. Ok, maybe not that cheap, its $7.50 per ticket, and normally its $10 for concession. So I save $2.50! Yay! The movie we watched was Sky High, its a kiddy movie about these bunch of high schoolers with supernatural power trying to save the community of people with supernatural powers. Sounds weird, but that's basically what the plot is about. Its pretty good, had quite a few good jokes and silly actions, conclusion? Brainless movie thats good for relaxation of the mind.

Had a deal with Mike on Tuesday, he said he's too lazy to cook, I don't mind cooking, I just hate the cleaning up associated with it. So we made a deal, I'll cook and he'll wash up. Which isnt a bad deal coz he did a great job with the dishes, my plates were so clean I can hear the squeaks when I rub my fingers on it! He even cleaned up the sink for me. Wow... I didn't know cleaning the sink was part of the package.. hur hur..

Oh and something funny happened when we were going to Marion for the movies.
Mike: Does this bus go to Marion Centre?
Driver: This bus goes to Flinders University.
Mike: Erm, ok, but does this bus go to Marion Centre?
Driver: This bus goes to Flinders Uni.
Mike: Does this bus go to Marion Centre eventually?
Driver: Yes, but after it stops at Flinders, it'll wait for a while there then go to Marion Centre.
Lady onlooker: *Animated Hand Actions* This bus, takes very long to get to Marion, take another bus
Mike: *Embarassed* I don't need translation, I just needed to know if the bus goes to Marion.
Lady: Oh, you should take another bus.

Obviously the bus driver didn't answer his question... I wonder who doesnt understand english here... and the lady was maybe too kind, its funny how those ang mohs think we can't speak english for nuts...

And today was a really long day for me. Had classes at 9am, which means I had to wake up at 730. GAWD.. It seems like I havent had enough sleep for the past few days. My eye bags were so huge I look like a panda. Anyway I'm really tired today coz I had this 3 hour lecture that's super boring. And the lack of sleep the past few days did not help. I was trying so hard not to doze off in class. YAWNZ.. And poor Shiling dragged herself to class coz she didnt wanna miss out too much. Seeing her exerting so much effort in trying to walk makes me sad. Luckily on the way back there's this super nice security uncle who drove us right to her door step, otherwise I can't image how many hours she's gonna take to limp back.

Sigh, tired, hungry but gotta do work...

Monday, October 03, 2005

Bad day at Glenelg

The gals and I went to Glenelg today, thought it would be fun chilling out in the sun and enjoying the magnificent sea breeze. Everything's good until we started to make our way back home. I still can't believe we took 2 hours to get back from Glenelg coz it normally takes 30 mins to travel back. We tried to make our way back at 6.45, but somehow the stupid tram was not scheduled to stop at the station we were at, so we had to walk 2 stations to take the tram. And when we finally reached the station, we couldnt board the next tram coz this man was assaulting this woman and the tram had to stop to wait for the police to come. Then when we finally boarded the tram, we were told that the tram doesnt stop at every single stop and we had to wait for the next tram. When we finally got off the tram to take a bus, we waited for 30 mins to realize that the stupid bus doesnt stop at the bus stop we were at. So basically we spent 2 hours in the cold waiting for nothing. In the end we had to take a cab back. The cab journey itself was like only 10 mins, but the cab fare was 18 bucks... Goshhhhh I hate the mass transport system here...

Overall verdict of Glenelg outing today: Bad, weather too cold to bask in the sun and stupid journey home was way too long.

After Shiling's incident I've learnt not to take things for granted. The ability to walk, the freedom associated, the privacy and alone time, everything in life is not "li suo dang ran"

Sigh... I hope she can go back to SGP where her family is.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Lost In Thought

It is one of those days when I've got loads of stuff going through my head and I need to organise my thoughts into sentences that people can comprehend.

First of all, Happy Childeren's Day to all the inner child in us. There's this McDonald's advertisement that is showing here which I found quite interesting but my girl friends found absolutely disgusting. The advertisement shows children coming out of adults from their tummies as if there was a door at their rib cage. Then these children that climbed out of the adult went to McDonald's for food. Well, the gist of this advertisement was to convey the message that there's an inner child in everyone of us. The slogan of the ad was something like "Come to McDonald's and discover something new everyday". Doesnt the ad sound innovative? My girl friends were totally grossed out by the scene where children start climbing out of the adults' stomach. It sounds gross, but seriously, it doesnt look gross at all. Just image a child climbing out of a door, no blood whatsoeva, I don't understand those girls... Anyway, Happy Children's Day!!!

Shiling came back from Brisbane last night on a wheelchair. Apparently she tore her ACL (anterior crusade? ligament) during the Uni games and it was a bad tear. ACL is quite common among female athletes and its quite a tricky injury cos there's pretty much nothing the doctor can do to fix the problem. The doc can only prescribe painkillers to help ease the pain, but Shiling's allergy to them and so she can't take any painkillers. Her threshold for pain amazes me. I remember back in J2 when Lixuan tore the ACLs in both her legs she was going through pure torture as well. But lucky for her painkillers was there to help ease the pain. For Shiling, I can't imagine the pain she's suffering. Shiling wants to go back to SGP for treatment ASAP, and I understand why she's longing to go back. When you're sick/injured, you'll naturally want to be with your family and loved ones simply cos the comfort you get just by seeing them can ease the pain a million times. Its a long wkend here coz Monday is a public holiday so she can only get the procedures done earliest by Tuesday and hopefully she can get back by this week. I hope the school allows her to go back, afterall ACL is a very common injury among athletes, I wonder if that's a valid reason to return home.

I feel like crap ever since I learnt about her injury. Everyone's fussing over her and treating her like some baby. "Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Do you wanna sit? Do you need me to stay over and accompany you?......." Its not that I'm not sympathetic about her situation, I just feel that 6 girls fussing over 1 girl isnt the most effective way of looking after her. All the girls offered to stay over to accompany her and when I didnt offer to do so, they looked at me as if I was some unfeeling person. When I didn't fuss over her and just sat there quietly doing whatever I thought was most appropriate, they gave me those stares again. I don't know if I'm being over sensitive but I can feel that they are judging me. Its not that I don't care about her, I do, and I know she doesn't want people to treat her like she's handicapped. And when I don't act all girly with her doesn't mean I'm not sympathetic. I'm just not a girly person and I can't help it. My understanding of Shiling is that she's a very strong and independent girl, treating her like a handicap is the last thing she needs. What I worry most is whether she can play sports at a competitive level. Coz from what I learnt from Lixuan's incident was that if she does not go for the surgery, she won't be able to play competively anymore. And if she does opt for surgery, she won't be able to walk/run for 6 months? Either way the reality of this injury is gonna be harsh on her. I feel sad for her coz losing the ability to play competitive sports is gonna affect her alot.

And Lam wasn't at all helpful when he called last night. I told him about Shiling and he gave me a whole load of crap on ACL. I know abit about it too coz I'm a sports person too, oh well, he did give some helpful advice, but I doubt Shiling will heed any of those advice given. Anyhow, thanks Lam. Don't mean to offend you in any way. Just need to vent my frustration.

According to Amanda (the frisbee gal who came back with Shiling) many people were injured during the Uni games. Shane broke his rib or something, but he continued to play and the next day he injured his knee. The adrenaline rush does all sorts of weird things to people. Luckily everyone else suffered only small injuries like bruises and scratches. I hope Mike didn't suffer too much injuries.