Your One & Only Wallflwr

Thrifting

2012-02-19T05:34:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

I hope you've all had a pleasant week, the weather has been mixed lately huh! Just the other day it was raining cats and dogs (well in my area) but today was scorching hot! I admit that I cannot keep up with mother nature in Burn City -___-"

Now I'm not much of a fan of Valentine's Day, personally I think it's a load of crap and that it's all about consumerism. Therefore I never really invested any time or effort into it and I don't expect to receive anything either. However the other day (Monday), I received an unexpected delivery. It went a bit like this:

Deliveryman: Hi, is there an Alison here?

Me: ..Yeah, that's me.

Deliveryman: These are for you!

Me: What the f-- *deliveryman hands over a huge bouquet of red roses* Uh.. Oh wow. Um, thanks.

*Deliveryman laughs at my reaction*: No worries, have a good one!

My heart rate increased by about 50% (nah I don't know, I'm just saying haha) when he handed me the flowers because I wasn't expecting it at all. It caught me off guard well and I generally don't like surprises, so I was confused more than I was happy with receiving flowers. I literally stood in the kitchen holding the flowers and stared at it for a good two minutes before I decided to read the card attached. It had no name, only an initial..... Well thank you, secret admirer! It's the first time I've ever received anything like this, so I was really flattered to see how much effort was put into it :)

They know I love Phineas & Ferb too, especially Perry. How cute!

Valentine's Day came around and I heard someone knocking on the front door yet again. As I was walking to the door, I was hoping it was the postman dropping off one of my orders from eBay, but I was greeted with yet another rose. This time my reaction was less stunned, but nonetheless surprised. I thanked the deliveryman and immediately read the card. It had the same initial, so I assumed it was from the same person. Hmm... Someone must really admire me. And yes I know I just stated the fact that V-Day is nothing but consumerism, but it made me feel really appreciated, since I've never experienced this.

Moving on, I finally found the time to relax and play some Uncharted! I didn't realise how far into the game I had gone when I played it while I was in the US when I bought it, so it took me a few days to get where I was, even though I was only probably 30-40 minutes into the game... I've been playing it more often within the last few days, but for some reason I'm not as excited to get back into it as I had anticipated.. I suppose it might take a while longer, I'm just gonna have to be patient about it.

A post by me isn't a post without mentioning my food adventures. I recently went to this desserts place in the west side and lately, I've been feeling as though I should be more open about trying new things, so I decided to order a blueberry shake. This is without a doubt, the best blueberry shake I've ever had. I mean, I don't usually order shakes due to my lactose intolerance hence the reluctant attitude towards trying new things but it wasn't too sweet or artificially flavoured, just right.

I recently caught up with one of my high school friends, we met up at the same desserts place and to my surprise, he brought along my best friend. We talked about the usual things - what's been going on in our lives, school/work etc. He had a dilemma, so B (my best friend) and I were arguing over whose perspective was more appropriate since J (my friend) asked the both of us for advice on how to handle the situation. It was hilarious, J bluntly told B, "man, even she's more of a bro than you are!", which made me laugh so hard because it's true... LOL just kidding. But seriously.

I was able to finally see K (my best girl friend) after I'd say... 3-4 months..? It's because the last time we had dinner together was a while before my trip to the US and while I was there, she went overseas too and only came back about two weeks ago. We had so much to catch up on, we were at the restaurant for almost two hours! It was really good seeing her and being able to talk to her after so long, we talk about the most ridiculous things sometimes, haha.

So anyone who knows me well would know that I am completely in love with SHINee and U-Kiss, two K-pop male groups. She bought me an official SHINee calendar while she was in South Korea and I fangirled so much just from unwrapping the packaging! Thank you, bebz :3

So as I mentioned earlier about how I'm more accepting to change, I have decided to get rid of a lot of things. Clothes, papers, items around my room.. Since I'm turning 20 this year, I feel as though I should be more mature and responsible. For some reason, an urge to change my appearance overcame me and I felt compelled to follow through, so I organised my drawers and closet yesterday, making sure I took out the clothes I no longer felt the desire to wear and donated it to charity (there's a picture of how much I threw away later on in the post, hahaha). I came across one of my school shirts from year 12/my senior year of high school and this message in particular is from B. I remember my last year of high school was when we became friends since we were in the same homeroom. Who knew we'd end up being best friends for the past three years! It made me realise how quick time flies past you, especially when you randomly come across things like this to remember the past by.

Lastly, today A, C, C and I were planning to go thrifting, starting at the Sunday market in Camberwell and then going to a number of thrift stores and op-shops. The market starts really early and Camberwell is a fair distance away from where most of us live, so we have no choice but to wake up early. Unfortunately we didn't up going, but I decided to arrange a last-minute outing because I didn't want to waste my day. We ended up going to Savers in our area in the afternoon. Okay, so my first time going to the same Savers store was not pleasant at all - I remember it smelling really funny and it was dirty and I haven't been there since. But since I've had the urge to revamp my style, it kind of beckoned me to go... o__o Fortunately, I left the store with a few items! I really wasn't sure whether I would be able to find anything upon entering the store and only had so much hope but I'm really happy with my purchases!

Basic thick black cardigan - $4.99

We did a few laps of the store and I lugged around this shopping basket, like the ones you see in supermarkets but it had wheels and an extended handle. It was exactly like those wagons you used to pull around with your toys in them when you were younger, HAHA. I should've had a photo taken, A said he should get it for my birthday since I had so much fun pulling it around. As soon as I saw this cardi, I knew I had to buy it. Why? Because of the buttons. I really like how it's such a basic clothing item, but the buttons have a lot of detail. The gold pattern reminds me of the Fred Perry logo (click to see it).

For some time now I've been interested in collared/button shirts, especially emphasising on the collar and customising it with studs, sequins and other textures. I'm sure you've all seen or heard of the DIY collar trend. The four of us kept on going back to the mens' collared shirts section (half of the visits were because of me, haha) and I managed to find this checkered button down, which also reminds me of Fred Perry (my brother has a similar shirt, I'll be sure not to wear it on a day where he does too unless it was unplanned). It's pretty big (sz large), but I can always wear it as outerwear (without buttoning it up) or to add more layers/variety to my outfit since a lot of the things I currently wear are basic and contains little patterns/prints, so I'm able to mix and match my outfits with ease.

I'm also into baggy jumpers, ones where you can just throw on and pair it with some thick stockings or skinny jeans but at the same time keeps you warm.. I'm not really into layering all the time in winter, I have those days where I wanna wear just a top and pants and still be warm, cos it gets tiring whenever you have to put your jacket on and take it off while you're out. This is a men's jumper but it's a good size, I mean it covers my butt so I can wear it with thick stockings without worrying that my jumper is too short to be worn with "non-pants", haha. It's pretty heavy though and hand-washing it was such a challenge. You know how clothes are heavier when it's in water? It took me a while to wring the jumper cos it was REALLY heavy :-(

Red/blue checkered collared shirt - $3.99

Navy knit jumper - $15.99

This is a red (not pink or any variation of red/pink) blouse which was the first item I picked up. I really like this top, it has a collar, it's a button down and as you can tell, the buttons are concealed and the sleeves are bell-shaped but is contrasted by the tight cuff. It had shoulder pads but I decided to get rid of them cos it looked awkward on me. Plus I think it looks better without the pads. I'm normally a size 10 in tops (trying to bring it down to 8 since I wanna get skinnier), but this one's a size 12 though I bought it anyway. I mean it's a bit bigger that what I normally prefer but I'm okay with the slightly extra arm room, at least it's not two sizes bigger.

Red/white checkered collared blouse - $7.99

I also bought a re-useable/environmentally friendly bag for 69 cents (lulz) which came to a total of $32.65. Four tops and a bag for under $35, you can't go wrong with that! I'm incredibly content w/ today's trip, it's my first time actually thrifting and I gotta admit, I really enjoyed it! I might have to visit other stores more often, seeing as though I don't have a job *cry*. I showed my mum the things I bought and bragged about how cheap everything was, to which she replied, "whatever. You only went to the store because you're poor and you have no money, that's why you can't spoil yourself with designer brands or more expensive clothes". I jokingly argued back, telling her that that wasn't the case... But it's true, there's a lot of things I want to buy but cannot afford, like these $100 black leather wedged boots.. She knows me too well. *hangs head in shame*

I hand-washed everything four times, I'm just really conscious about hygiene :/ Hopefully the weather will cool down enough so that I can make new outfits out of these items, I'll definitely show you guys once I'm given the chance :D I'm really excited to finally make use of my Lookbook, which is most likely where I'll be posting pictures of my outfits and style. So please be sure to check that out every now and then once I get it going :-)

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant but sat outside because the three of us were craving cafe sua da (Vietnamese coffee). It was nice being able to spend time with friends in a much smaller group, the conversation is more "convenient" because everyone talks about the same thing, whereas whenever we hung out with everyone, people broke off into small groups and the whole table would've had 3-4 different conversations at the one time.

We all parted and I came home just in time for dinner with mum. It was the perfect way to end a hot summer's Sunday with Thai hot pot and a beer. This is the only way we're able to bond apart from shopping (since she always complains how I'm too expensive for my own good, but that's another story..) - over beer. We're both similar in the sense that we have very short tempers, so beer is the only way we can get along... I'm not even joking. It makes us less tense, so today's dinner was really pleasant :-) I know I made boycotting alcohol a new year's resolution but this rare occasion of mother-daughter quality time was an exception, okay?!

She laughed when I told her to "cheers" with me for the photo. I told her how adorable she looked after taking it and she had this huge grin on her face :-)

Uh.. sorry about the lengthy post, I've just been in a really good mood this whole week! It's definitely been a while since I've been this genuinely happy.

I hope you all have a good week, stay safe and take care!

Down By The Pier

2012-02-12T04:14:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

A lack of a photo of myself this post, I've been running on very little sleep so my skin isn't handling it all too well and my dark circles are very prominent, I'm surprised no-one's asked if I've been punched in the face because they are that bad.

On a very good note, I'm finally done with summer school! I actually finished classes last Friday, but I had one more assignment to do which was due only two days ago. And I only realised about a few days ago that this has got to be the shortest summer break I've ever had, despite it stretching over almost 4 months, only because of my trip to the US and it's winter over there, having to sit through 5 weeks of summer school, leaving me only 2 weeks and a bit to enjoy what's left of summer. Although the weather hasn't been representing the season very well, which makes it even less enjoyable!

I've stayed up on so many nights this week because of my second major paper for summer school and now my skin is really taking a toll from it :( I just wanted to get it over and done with and pretty much raced through the entire thing in one sitting. Never again... Okay most likely, since this is my last year of college. It's been a while since I spent time in the main square at school, so before class I decided to get a chai latte and a slice of banana bread for brekky. Simple things like these put me in a good mood almost instantly, which makes me appreciate life a little more.

Later that day, a few of my friends and I headed out to take photos of the city scape. It's been a while since we did this and the slightly warm, breezy weather just made the outing all the more worthwhile. We went to Costco's top parking level before relocating to the piers at Docklands, where we sat, talked and enjoyed the great weather.

Source: nardvrnza.tumblr.com

A & I went to Heirloom on Bourke St for dinner on the weekend, it's a Japanese/French fusion cuisine. We both ordered the degustation for $85. I was inspired by some of the elements of their interior design, but other parts of the restaurant had so many textures, it became more complicated every time I looked at it. I have no idea what some of the dishes were called, I just tried looking it up on their web site but it's got a different menu displayed. Overall, I'd rate it 7/10. The sashimi was quite good, though it wasn't the best I've tasted so far. I liked the tuna more than the salmon, which is super duper rare cos I think salmon triumphs every other fish.

Some of the dishes were really oily, like the chicken and gyoza (pork dumplings). I had a hard time eating it cos it just felt like biting into a sponge soaked in oil :/ Despite the slight disappointment, the dessert was out of this world. I believe it was a raspberry chocolate custard parfait on a bed of chocolate "soil" (looks like it too) with coffee caramel. I looooved all the textures combined, I would definitely go back just for this dessert. But at a price of $231 between 2 people considering the quality of some dishes, I would say it wasn't worth it..........

I had my grandpa's (dad's dad) death anniversary, which always means a huge family gathering at my uncle's house! My cousin wasn't there when I arrived which was a first but her little sister was so I spent most of the day with her. Though she was too distracted by my iPad and didn't talk to me for a while, rookie mistake bringing that out :(

Ever since I rearranged my bed, my room has been pretty neat but it got out of control the other night when I realised a floordrobe (most of your wardrobe on the floor) was beginning to grow so I immediately cleaned my room since I don't like clutter. I went out of the room before a bit but soon heard a lot of things falling in my room. I couldn't even open the door when I went to check what it was since everything blocked the path! I don't even know how my shoe boxes fell down, it made more of a mess :(

I ordered a case off eBay for my phone back in January since I threw out the old one cos it was really scratched. I'm very happy, considering it was only $8 but it took quite a while to be delivered. Won't be ordering anything from China ever again.

I had a bento box made just for me! There were also tempura prawns, miso soup and hot matcha green tea served on the side for me. It doesn't look like much but I was really full after eating it!

I went to school to hand in my assignment and headed for the city to meet with Broseph and a few other friends over coffee. I hadn't seen Broseph in so so so long, it was really nice seeing him again after a month and a bit. We had a bit of time to kill before meeting with the others so we went to Melbourne Central to do a bit of window shopping. I found this amazing royal navy blue(?) dress with two different textures by Alice In The Eve (I think..) but they didn't have it in my size :( I would've probably bought it right then and there. Shame, might have to hunt it down next time! It must've been freebie Fridays, we were receiving sample products left, right and centre! It was pretty funny. We soon met with the rest and settled for Max Brenner. I was in the mood for a change from my usual order of white choc chai, so I had my very first cappuccino. Verdict? I don't like it. Haha

Some of us stayed out til sunset and bought a few things for a get together over the weekend, I think some Melbourne sunsets are nice, but they can't compare with the ones back in the OC. Sunsets make me miss my home away from home :(

I also bought a few new China Glaze polishes. I'm certain I've said this before, but CG > OPI. I can't get enough of the colours that CG has, along with their formula. The one in the middle is "Lubu Heels" (reminds me of Louboutins) which has a semi-opaque base with red glitter and the other one is "Thunderbird". It reminds me of a velvet red, me loves it ♡

Finally, I went to a friend's house yesterday for a get together. Everyone from SIFK was there plus a few more of Furry Gorillas' (one of my his nicknames) friends, including Ellen! We were both told that the other had a strong tolerance for alcohol, but I didn't drink as much as expected last night (mainly cos of my resolution not to drink as much) which was a shame cos it would've been interesting to see who could hold their alcohol better, haha. Ah there's always next time I suppose! I decided to make cupcakes - red velvet & vanilla. I'm not much of a person to bake and sample their own cooking, I had faith in myself that they were at least edible. But those who ate it at the party loved it! That made me happy :>

Like I said, I'm not much of a drinker nowadays but I really like this drink - it's a strawberry & lime cider. Highly recommended if you like a bit of sweetness.

Hope you are all well and that you're enjoying the last few weeks of your break before school (sorry I just had to). I know I'll definitely be trying my best to make the most out of the next two weeks! Stay safe and take care :)

The End of a Beginning

2012-02-02T04:15:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,

Can you believe I wore my Scoodie (scarf x hoodie) out on a summer's night? -____- The weather has been topsy turvy lately, it was so windy the other night that I felt the need to grab my scarf!

I haven't been up to much within the past week.. I finally finished my report on wee Monday morning though! I shot through the rest of my essay, which was roughly 1000+ words on Sunday night because I told myself I had to get it done by the end of the weekend no matter what comes up.. Though I'm not sure if it's a really good method in getting work done, but hey it hasn't given me a bad grade so far considering how many essays I've written (well the majority of the paper) in one sitting.. I shouldn't be speaking too soon though, this one is worth 40% :\ *knocks on wood*

It's my last day of class for summer school tomorrow! I'm excited that it's finally over and done with, though I still have until next Friday to hand in both of my papers. Screw that, I'm submitting this one first thing tomorrow and jump for joy that it's finally out of the way. I'm meant to be studying for my last quiz tomorrow, but I'd rather blog for you guys instead :> Sadly enough, that means I only have the rest of this month to really make the most of my super long summer break. I don't wanna go back to school, I'm actually more worried than excited about this year, even though I'm scheduled to graduate at the end of this year (fingers crossed that I won't have to repeat a subject).

I went to TGIF & Topshop on Chapel St for the first time the other day. I had a mango peach lemonade & a mushroom onion Swiss burger. The patty was a bit dry but it was still delicious. As for the drink, it was really nice! I was going to order an alcoholic beverage just to see what it'd taste like but I wasn't too keen on drinking at midday.

There were a few things that I liked in Topshop but I don't think it was worth the price. Plus their range was limited. I'd rather shop with them online, a lot of the things I liked weren't even in my size. I was pretty disappointed. I hate when something gets hyped up and you decide to check it out but it turns out to be a bust!

I had a staff party last Friday and was allowed to bring 2 friends. We only stayed for 2 hours before leaving, there were a lot of people I was not familiar with and everyone was in their own booth at the lounge, so it felt a bit like high school and how each group is exclusive. We relocated to Passionflower because I wanted to get ice-cream since it was a warm night. I felt like mixing things up so I decided to go with 2 waffles w/ green tea & Thai milk tea ice-cream instead of the usual 'Double Happiness'.

It is such a shame that I'm lactose intolerant... While I was in the US, I really wanted to try a Thai milk tea beverage (I still do!) but I can't consume a lot of milk or else I'll get really sick and barf. I'm okay with other dairy products like ice-cream and cheese though, which is a bit odd. It makes me really sad that the only way I can enjoy Thai milk tea is in ice-cream form, which was very satisfying but I don't think it's the same as actually drinking it.

I was incredibly excited to pick Mum up from the airport on Sunday, it's been 2 months since we've seen each other (she left for Vietnam while I was still in America and I came home while she was still over there). As soon as we got home from the airport, I koala bear-hugged the life out of her! Of course, the first thing she said after we hugged was, "omg why are you so fat!" ... Asian mums.

As she was unpacking, she gave me two red pockets for the new year - one from her and one from my grandpa, which I didn't expect. It's not much in our currency, but I found it to be very thoughtful that he gave his remaining money to all of his grandchildren before passing away. I'm definitely going to buy a frame for it.

Later on Sunday, I met up with three of my cousins at the new year festival in Footscray. I'd say it's been a good 5-6 years since the last time we were together in the one place (most likely another's cousin's wedding), so it was really good catching up them. I haven't seen or spoken to one of them and when I noticed her braces, I asked her when she got them. She replied with, "we haven't seen each other in so long, I actually got them over a year ago!" Wowow! That made me realise how fast time flies by.

My younger cousin dragged me to go on this particular ride but I can't remember the name. Anyway there are 8 seats - 4 on each end and basically it just spins around like a windmill. We went on first and only a few moments later, we were held up at the top of the ride for a good 2-3 mins while they were filling the other 4 seats on the other end of the ride. It was a really exhilarating experience, being so high up from the ground without any ropes or harnesses apart from being in a seat (with the overhead barrier of course) and what made it even better despite the horrendous thought of being about 40-50m in the air was the cityscape of Melbourne at night. We were situated at the right angle, it was a perfect lineup with the horizon. The only thought I had at the time was how much I wished I had my camera so that I could take a few photos, but that soon disappeared when the ride started and we went freefalling (but not really) backwards.

So if you've been a follower of my blog for a while, you might remember how I mentioned my attempt to fold 1000 paper cranes. Welp, it's been a year and I'm still folding them. I don't have much time left until the deadline but I'm pretty proud that I've stuck with it even though it would've taken me only a few months to complete it had I been more focused.

A few of the gang were kicking back at Zeke's house and called me over, so I went (the same night where I wore a Scoodie out lolll). We watched a bit of Russell Peters' 'Green Card' show as well as that Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas special but I lost interest in it quickly, I guess it's cos I haven't seen any of the H&K movies.

Papito recently bought a planner and it's very motivational and goal-oriented in the sense that there are parts of the planner where you can jot down a list of goals, some inspirational quotes and neat stuff like that. This captured my attention within the blink of an eye, I think it applies to me greatly since I tend to put off things more than I should e.g. making use of my YouTube account and posting covers..... Hahahahah.

Lastly, I've been going to the temple more often with mum lately to pray for grandpa as well as myself and my family. Apparently my zodiac is going to have a year full of bad luck this year and praying helps to alleviate some of that bad luck & karma. She finally brought me back a grey robe after nagging her to get me one for about 8-9 years, haha. I'm not sure if I believe in praying in order to lessen my bad luck (if I have any at all), but I enjoy going to the temple. It helps me clear my mind a lot, I get lost in the environment almost too easily. It's a very calming place. I felt really lazy today, so I didn't bother changing my pants to go to the temple. It's not like anyone would see them anyway since I have to wear another pair; it's part of the set (grey robe + pants).

YEAH I WEAR PJS ALL DAY ERRDAY, AND WHAT

Aaaaaand as mentioned in the last post, I finally made a video of our day trip to the farm from last Thursday. I spent last night editing it, from 2am to 8am. I didn't even notice 5am go by, it's like that whole hour was skipped and went straight to 6am! I get too immersed whenever I edit a video.. And I had only an hour of sleep, I pretty much crashed halfway through a prayer today. I hope no-one saw me nodding off, how embarrassing -____- Hope you enjoy the video (be sure to watch it in 720p), take care and be safe!

Chased By Marsh Flies

2012-01-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

I recently took a day trip to a friend's farm on Australia Day with some of my friends. There were eight of us and we took two cars on an hour long drive in the scorching heat.

A few weeks earlier, one of us suggested to make a time capsule. So we did. The eight of us plus a couple of others that couldn't attend wrote letters to ourselves; I think it's safe to say that most of us wrote about future ambitions, goals and the like. We didn't tell each other what we wrote though, things like these shouldn't be shared because it'll influence your thoughts and how you perceive things. Which isn't a bad thing, but sometimes you need to think for yourself and judge life based on your values and experiences.

I vaguely remember the things I wrote, but if anything it was more of a desperate cry of hope and luck for future events haha. We buried it at the farm because B's dad will most likely still own it in 5 years time (the duration of our time capsule), plus it was a good experience to venture outside of the urban area since this was my first time going to the farm.

We stored all of our letters in a glass jar, including a roll of undeveloped film full of photos that we took as a group just before burying the jar underneath a tree. I'm interested as to what'll happen over the next 5 years, since some of us are graduating university this year whereas others are heading back to university and the rest are working.

I can't see myself doing anything other than living in America over the next 5 years, but that's not to say I'll be moving this year or anything. I've just always liked the thought of growing as an adolescent in a city other than Melbourne. Sure I love Melbourne and it's an amazing city with a pleasant environment and diverse culture, I just don't see myself living in Melbourne for the rest of my life... More like living in different countries and moving around every few years or so. I see myself traveling a lot because I like change. But I didn't include the aspect of traveling in my letter, just because I don't know where I'll end up in 2017 so I didn't want to influence my thoughts on it.

We spent the whole day at the farm, just taking some time away from our urban-orientated lives and appreciating nature. We briefly went to Hanging Rock but I have mild asthma, so I couldn't get to the top to see the view but we stopped halfway and we were pretty high up anyway.

Got back to the farm only to be greeted with an amazing sunset. The wheat fields had a breathtaking gradient from the sunlight so a few of us who had our cameras handy took a few shots. We were then chased by a mutant marsh fly, it was so disgusting! Apparently they can bite, I was constantly paranoid because I wore shorts. I wonder what B's dad thought of us - a bunch of 20-something year olds running around in circles in a paddock screaming at the top of our lungs and flailing our arms around like lunatics...

We started a bonfire and stayed til 11pm. Since there were hardly any lights around us, we were able to see a heap of stars. The sky looked amazing. I didn't take any photos though, my lens wasn't suitable for it. Stargazing reminded me of Vietnam, there isn't much light pollution where I live over there (it's about a 5-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh city and is kind of like the slums in Final Fantasy 7, haha) so the night sky is full of stars. It was really milky in a particular area too, I'm not sure if it was part of the Milky Way but it definitely reminded me of the sky in Zanarkand in Final Fantasy 10.

Some of us also saw moving specks of light from time to time and I argued that they were traveling too slow for it to be shooting stars. But then it didn't have any blinking lights like you would see on an airplane, so we ruled that out too. By then we were all convinced we saw a UFO, it was traveling across the sky at a very quick rate and suddenly disappeared about 30 seconds afterwards. It couldn't have been a meteor/comet because they burn out quickly.. Don't they? *cue X-Files tune*

I joked around by saying that a glowing Mr Burns would soon come out from the woods after we saw the light disappear, but it was pretty dark around us and I hate open places and the dark so I actually scared myself. I'm so silly.

Let's hope for the best for the next 5 years. I'm really interested to see how the choices, mistakes, opportunities, people, perspectives, opinions, values and experiences that I'll encounter will affect my life and where I'll be then.

P.S. I have a lot of footage from that day but I'm currently busy with summer school, so I won't be able to edit it until around the 10th of February. But I'll post up the video once it's done :)

Hot Hot Heat

2012-01-24T06:01:00.000-08:00

Hiya!

So I'm sticking to one of my resolutions, which is updating this blog more often. Even though I don't have much to say on most occasions, it's nice to give a recount of my uneventful life... haha.

This past week was busier than usual, since it was the lead up to the Chinese new year! So first of all, I'd like to say happy lunar new year, I wish you have a lot of prosperity, luck and happiness this year :)

So last Thursday a few of my friends and I headed down to St. Kilda for the night market event that was happening. We met up with two other friends, one of them being Ellen! Not sure if you guys follow her too, but she has a blog of her own, which is here. It was my first time meeting her in person and being properly introduced despite following her blog for quite a while, so it was a bit nerve-racking for me. We didn't get to talk much which was a shame, but I have a hard time socialising with people when I first meet them since I'm kind of socially awkward and shy... I try my best to steer away from being shy and timid, but it's definitely a challenge in trying to break out of my comfort zone. Hopefully we'll have another opportunity to converse next time :-)

There was this waffle stand at the night market, one of the guys working told me that their waffles are different from other places because they're dough-based instead of using batter to make their waffles. They also gave out free taste tests of their waffles, I tried the blueberry waffle but decided to go for a chocolate glazed one instead. It was incredibly airy & fluffy, I enjoyed it a lot! You should check out their FB page, they have a store down in Altona but I've yet to go.

We then headed to the beach nearby to enjoy the breeze but it soon got cold so we relocated to Oriental Tea House on Chapel St.

Creeper status: >9000

This was intentional. I really love my new lens and the bokeh it produces.

A few of us have Tumblr and spotted this post in particular regarding the use of phones at the table. You can read more about it here and you should defs try it too! Time goes by a lot faster than you think and your conversations are more worthwhile. 

I've been eating nothing but feasts for the past few days since it was new year's recently. My auntie cooked up a feast the other day in celebration of the new year, there was waaaay too much food but I was in heaven!

My friends and I also went down to the local temple for the festival on new year's eve. It's kind of a tradition for me to bring in the new year at this temple, I used to go every year with my mum. It wasn't the same since she wasn't here to spend it with us. But she's coming back this Saturday, yippee!

The other day I woke up to this.. I've realised that I wake up with bruises but now I'm getting scratches too?! What do I do in my sleep!?!!??!

So for the lead up to the new year, I spent my weekend cleaning my house from top to bottom.. It wore me out good since the weather was insanely hot too! I love spring/summer cleaning though, gives me a chance to clear my head. Though I can't say much for my brother, I usually put my music on full blast and I don't think he's a big fan of trance... Haha. I hate cleaning at the same time cos when I was cleaning my window, a spider the size of a gambling chip dangled down onto my window ledge. I tried shooing it but was scared at the same time cos it was huge! In the end, I managed to get it off my ledge and it ran away. I couldn't take a photo to show you but it was pretty freaking big.

So on new year's day, you're meant to wear new clothes. It's better if you wear red and gold too, since those are the colours used to represent luck and wealth. This was what I wore on the day, this year better bring me a lot of good luck and wealth! I also visited my grandma, she gave my cousin a red envelope but she didn't give me one... I'm hoping she forgot but at the same time I saw it coming. I'm not that old though :<

Lastly, I attended a baptism during the week. It was in Reservoir, which is near my university/college so it was pretty easy to get to. I've never been to a baptism so I felt underdressed since I got there early but a few of my friends wore casual attire too so I didn't feel out of place. It was a pleasant ceremony, Tyler slept throughout his own baptism! Fail.

Even without heels, I'm still the tallest girl! Is it wrong for me to wish to be taller?

Tyler & Alannah

I'm hoping to finish my paper by the end of this week, since I have another paper to do.. So I'm most likely spending the rest of my week cooped up in my home like I have been for the past 3 weeks :( I guess it's not so bad since the weather is still hot. Hope you guys have a good week, take care and be safe!

2012 Resolutions

2012-01-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

We constantly tell ourselves that we want to do this or give up that, pick up a hobby or learn how to be more focused/determined/motivated for something.

But it's not enough. You need to take action, you need to get up out of your seat and tell yourself, hey, today is going to be the day where I take the first step to changing something in my life and achieve goals in order to bring myself happiness.

For me, I wouldn't say wisdom comes with age. The way I see it is that I've just learned how to open my mind up to realise a lot more and think about things that I probably had only one particular view about (excuse the poor grammar).

You grow as a person based on your experiences, attitude, beliefs and values, which may change over time but it's not like you expect things to stay constant for the rest of your life. I've had experiences and faced situations where it has put me in this particular place to be more open-minded, to consider what others have to say and try to see things from their point of view.

Anyways that's enough pondering for me, this post is nothing important but just thought I'd share with you my resolutions for this year... Moreso to remind myself. I hope to accomplish all of them. Yes, some of them are insanely cliché/generic/whatever you want to call it, but it's still a resolution.

Spend more time with family.
Save money, not spend. You have a lot to look forward to; Italy, Thailand/Vietnam, USA, lenses for your SLR/art supplies.
Improve on your photography skills and start setting projects for yourself or for others. Learn how to take photos and to edit.
Put more effort into your Flickr (photos), Wordpress (writing) & Lookbook (fashion) accounts as well as this blog. You didn't create them just for it to sit there and be left unattended.
Take better care of your body/health: lose weight (at least 8kg), change your diet and cut out junk food (no soda, instant noodles, chips, reduce sodium intake).
Moderate intake of alcohol (only on special occasions e.g. birthdays), strictly no binge-drinking.
No more changes (perm, colouring) to your hair with the exception of haircuts.
Put more effort into your last year of university (achieve at least a B average for all of my subjects). You've only got about 10 months to prove to yourself that you will get a lot out of this course. You can't allow yourself to look back on it and think negative thoughts about anything throughout your college life.
If you see an opportunity or something that captures your interest, take it. Who knows what it might bring for you.
Be more selfless. People are selfish one way or another but there's always others who have it worse than you, so help them out before you help yourself.
Don't beat yourself up if something doesn't turn out the way you wanted it to. Learn to accept it and try to find something positive out of it. Open your mind to possible solutions rather than focusing on the consequence(s) or undesirable outcome. Don't ever bring yourself down to the point of where you were 2 years ago.
Develop a network to assist yourself in finding out your strengths and weaknesses and what you want to do as a career (short-term and/or long-term).
Opt to do read or create art rather than spending your free time on the internet/my laptop.
Look for inspiration in everything possible and be constantly inspired so that you won't get stuck in a rut. Write down your thoughts or take a photo when you discover a source of inspiration.
Bite your tongue before you speak: less complaining, less swearing, less negativity/pessimism. Leave the past behind you and look forward rather than looking back.
Forgive and forget, there is no point in holding a grudge. You will inevitably come across disappointment, but that doesn't mean you won't face contentment either.

So yeah, that's pretty much the core of my resolutions. It's a lot, I know. It's going to take a lot of perseverance and self-discipline if I want to achieve all of that, but that's what setting a resolution is all about, right?

Life isn't about taking the easy way, it's a challenge and you're always going to have to deal with obstacles no matter how easy or hard they are. They're always going to be there and you just have to eventually learn how to deal with it, how to accept things that cannot be changed and not to lose that willpower. Ever.

Motivation

2012-01-16T05:56:00.000-08:00

Hi guys!

How are we all? How's 2012 treating you? It's been a real drag for me, to be honest. I thought to myself several times that it might be a year of bad luck for me, nothing was going right at all and I felt really flustered from it. But things have cleared up to say the least, hopefully I won't have too much on my plate for a while.

Since I won't be doing another Project365 this year (apparently it's a leap year, I've yet to view a calendar to check), I'm still happy to upload a few photos here and there from time to time just to make my blog less of just chunks and chunks of text. I haven't really thought about how often I'll be blogging this year seeing as though I'm not expected to show you my week in photos.. So maybe every 2 weeks? Or whenever I have to say something, I guess. It feels weird dropping this routine (which I hardly followed), Project365 felt a lot longer than a year!

Well, I'm currently doing one subject for summer school - you might have remembered me mentioning something about not enrolling in one of my subjects back in the first semester of my 2nd year (wait.. I'm not sure I even blogged about it).. But I'll recap the sitch here anyway. Long story short, this particular unit was wedged in between my subjects for 3rd year (I enrolled online via my student portal) so I missed it and ended up not enrolling in it. It's a core subject too, so I freaked out when I talked to a few friends during the first few weeks of last year and realised what had happened. Luckily, it was offered for summer school so I signed up as soon as enrolment started up towards the end of last year. Phew!

I actually prefer to do subjects within a shorter period of time e.g. summer school. This subject requires a lot of reading & writing but I like the fast-paced environment, plus it doesn't have a final exam but I wouldn't think it'd be hard anyway cos there isn't much content. It's just a subject to develop your writing & analysis skills in terms of reports, essays and the like. I was meant to spend today working on my assignments but as usual, I got sidetracked and spent the day doing things that I actually enjoy doing, haha.

One thing I noticed after getting back from my trip was that my nails are growing a lot faster, I'm not too sure why. I decided to give it a lot of attention and pampered it a lot!

Watching the second Pokemon movie while doing my nails - biwinning!

China Glaze's 'Turned Up Turquoise' - a matte nail polish. The shade varies depending on the lighting too, how cool is that?!

I recently went to one of the many street festivals that lead up to the Chinese New Year. One thing I love most about these festivals is this:

Mango on a stick with chili salt. It's probably the only thing I eat! Oh my gosh my mouth is watering just looking at this. I can't wait to go to the next one :-)

I also visited this little munchkin (my friend's child), he's grown sooooo much! The last time I saw him was when he was only a week old back in October. I don't have many younger cousins with a significant age gap, so I never really learnt how to carry an infant. I've only dealt with 2-3 year old toddlers, usually when they can walk on their own. I mean I've seen my family members do it but because I've never carried a baby myself, I always refused whenever they offered me to hold their baby, haha. He's so easy going though, he isn't afraid of strangers so I was able to carry him for a while. He smiled whenever I did, it was hilarious! And oh my goodness, just look at those cheeks! I'm a huge sucker for cheeks, I could pinch them all day~~

I went to the beach late at night a while ago cos I had a lot on my mind and the evening weather was pleasant. I'm not sure why I went to the beach, but it was definitely relaxing despite there were a fair amount of people there too. It just felt nice to sit there and feel the breeze on my skin. Unfortunately I lost my dear Burt's Bees in Mango Butter, so I went out to buy a different one after my ortho app.

Speaking of which, I hope I get these train tracks off soon -_____- My ortho keeps on pushing back the process of getting them taken off. He always compliments on how well I keep my teeth squeaky clean. Friendly ortho is friendly, but damn you're doing a fair job at milking my dad's wallet dry! Hopefully my next appointment will be the last check up before actually getting them taken off!!! >:(

I made myself a bento for lunch since I had school the next day. Had leftovers for a late night dinner, I was so full x__x

Personally I think China Glaze is better than OPI. Their formula applies better than OPI and for me it only takes about 2 coats for it to be opaque!

One of my *unofficial* new year's resolutions for 2012 is to be more organised. It's my last year of uni/college and I really need to stay on top of everything as much as I can. I bought myself an A5 planner because I am anticipating a lot of things to happen this year. Plus it gives me a chance to be more organised than I already am. I haven't had a diary/planner this thick since high school!

So on Friday night, I went clubbing. I'm not much of a person to go to events like these but a friend got me into promoting so it was mandatory for me to be there. Surprisingly I had a REALLY good time! It was a bit disappointing that only a few of my friends came but nonetheless I had loads of fun. I had about 6 drinks and sobered up within a couple of hours which wasn't as fun but I'd rather that than ending up hugging the toilet bowl..

Panty Droppas performing

Finally discovered a drink that I won't get sick of ever - Alizé & lemonade :)

Lately I've been hanging out with A a lot. He's been there for me for the past 2 weeks when I had it really rough. I just felt like total crap day after day.. He cheered me up by taking me out for ice-cream the other day - it was coconut, green tea, black sesame & mango in that order. It was my first time trying black sesame ice-cream and I really liked it! The coconut - ehhh not so much. Couldn't go wrong with green tea and the mango just tasted like pineapple & custard apple mixed together. It was incredibly tangy and not mango-y...

And he got me an iPad as a way of cheering me up. I feel so guilty.

I recently caught up with one of my good friends - let's call him Daughter. It was a spontaneous outing, but it was really pleasant seeing him after so long. We talked about a lot of things and exchanged gifts... Well, I wasn't expecting him to get a gift but it looked like this:

Pretty dodgy looking with all the ripped paper and cardboard, but I found it to be a nice, homemade touch. I liked the pun though, he's full of them. I opened it up to see something that I would never have expected ANYONE to get me, even myself! Only because I mentioned it once on my Tumblr ages ago. It was a Marc Johns book, called "H is for Holy Crap". It's just a book full of his illustrations/text and I absolutely love it! Here's a few illustrations:

Source

I'm really grateful to have him, he's an interesting character. You should show him some love and check out his blog, but warning: he's pretty witty!

I downloaded seasons 1 & 2 of Adventure Time & Regular Show. I love the Regular Show, maybe slightly more than Adventure Time :x Can't believe I'm still watching Cartoon Network after what, 9 years since I first got into it? Cartoon Network, you still got it!

Anyway this year is about change and being motivated, determined and inspired. I wanted to try something new apart from hanging onto my old hobbies of taking photos and playing the guitar, both of which I'm not as good as I'd like to be but perseverance is the key. I decided to pick up filming, I was exposed to it when I helped out for a small production late last year while I was over in the US, so I chose to make new year's eve as my first tester project. I filmed bits and pieces of my friends spending the end of the year and emphasised greatly on the music - I chose Kondor because they produce mellow and relaxing instrumentals, which I think is more powerful than songs with vocals. I wanted to display the atmosphere of that night and I believe those two songs reflect it well.

Let me know what you think of it! I'd appreciate some feedback seeing how it's my first time filming and editing by myself (which I had so much fun doing despite it being tedious every now and then) without really grasping any theory.. But until next time, take care, be safe and for the Melburnians, stay hydrated and keep cool! It's gonna be a hoooot week :(

Unfinished Business

2012-01-11T04:28:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

FIRST & FOREMOST = I APOLOGISE FOR THE LACK OF POSTING ON TIME ONCE AGAIN. I'll explain everything as this post progresses, once again I truly thank you all for being patient with me. I've got A LOT to cover in this post; you have all been warned!

I feel so cool right now because I’m writing this post on the flight home.. to Melbourne! I feel like I’m in a movie where you see the main character furiously typing away and the only source of light is from their laptop screen, since it’s lights out in the cabin. For some reason it makes me feel important and that I have a deadline to complete thispost to cater to an audience, like a well-known author. I’m surprised there aren’t many people heading to Melbourne.. But then again it was Christmas Day when I left, a lot of people would be at home with family. It kind of sucks howI had to spend part of Christmas on a plane though.. It’s okay, I don’t mind. I'm used to traveling by myself now, I find it to be quite comforting.

Yep, I’m heading home a week earlier than scheduled. The reason why I had to leave early is because my grandpa in Vietnam is quite ill atm and both of my parents are already there so I decided to cut my trip short and meet up with them. It’s been about 5 years since I last went to Vietnam and saw my grandpa. I’ve been worried for the past week or so since he goes in and out of being stable in terms of health.

I’m pretty bummed for leaving though. I’ve met a lot of people on this trip and have had so much fun. I can’t imagine how much fun I would’ve had within next week; my cousin and I planned to go up north to San Francisco and San Jose as well as going to see ATB for NYE with my friends.

Though that’s not to say I’m not excited to come home. I didn’t get homesick until halfway through my trip, when I spoke to mum on the phone. Whenever I hear her voice I can’t help but choke up. It hits way too close to home! We talked about the thought of flying over to Vietnam ASAP to see my grandpa. I originally intended to finish my trip completely, come home and then figure something out because I thought summer school commenced as soon as I got home. But it turns out it doesn’t start until the end of the first week of January, so I decided to cut my trip short and flyhome so that I can go to Vietnam for about a week.

Compared to my last trip to the US, it was more fun this time round. Although the main reason why I decided to come backinstead of waiting til I turned 21 as originally planned didn’t work out, I’m glad I visited home away from home anyway. I met a lot of people and did a lot of things that I probably normally wouldn’t even think of doing, likespontaneously going up to San Diego for a day to take photos, haha. I’m not much of a spontaneous person – I like being organized and following a schedule but I’d say about 60-70% of the things I did were impulsive. Which isn’t always abad thing, it’s given me a lot of memories to look back on and laugh at.

I'll go ahead with finishing off my Project365 photos despite incorrectly counting the remaining days... Sorry :/

Day 352 - Sometimes my cousin & I would get really hungry at night (we're talking about 11pm-12am here) so we would go for late night food runs. In-N-Out ftw!

Day 353 - I thought I should finally tackle Christmas shopping, so I attempted to get most of it done within a day. Sadly that wasn't the case, but check out these baby TOMS shoes. Aren't they just so adorable?

Day 354 - I was invited to go to what I thought was just a lounge, but it turned out to be for someone's birthday. I didn't have much of an expectation because I've never been to a club over here since I thought all of them were 21+ but this one in particular was 18+ and I'm not one to go clubbing very often back home. To say the least, there were teenagers grinding on each other and even dry humping at one point everywhere that I turned. It was hilarious but kind of disgusting at the same time. The music was surprisingly good though. I wasn't dressed for it because I thought it was more of a lounge but it felt like a club.

Day 355 - I went to my cousin's girlfriend's 24th birthday at her house. Oh my goodness, her house was like one of those grand, BAMF mansions that celebrities have, it was BIIIIG! She has her own swimming pool, pond, tennis court AND one of those fancy ass driveways - all that was missing was a fountain at the front. It was so overwhelming, I mean even the bathroom was luxurious! The crowd was a bit older for me, but I had fun nonetheless. Almost everyone drank there, though it didn't turn out too great for my cousin. I gave him so much shit cos I could hang (slang for "to handle your alcohol") better than him, BAHAHA. Gg.

Day 356 - A few of my friends and I decided to go and see Sherlock Holmes 2 at a nearby cinema. I love Robert Downey Jr. so I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, especially the cinematography e.g. when they were running in the woods. Their prices are so cheap ;_____;

Day 357 - Cricket, J & D decided to spontaneously go up to San Diego for a few hours to take photos after we all miserably failed to wake up in time to go to some town at the end of the freeway. We went to Balboa Park and trekked up this crazy slanted hill with logs for steps. I was really terrified I would slip and fall cos it felt like the hill was on a 70º angle, it was scary! Plus I had my camera in my hands so that made me freak out even more. We stopped by some place in town at a Chinese place called "Chop Suey". There was hardly anyone around, even though it was only 6-7pm at the time. Felt like a ghost town..

Day 358 - My cousins & their boyfriends & I went to Disneyland! ..On a Monday! Which was strange at first, but then it made sense cos they didn't expect it to be crowded. WRONG. All the kids were still on their winter break, so it was insanely packed! We went on a few rides but the waits for some rides were just plain ridiculous. In the end, I bought a few souvenirs for friends and we stayed to watch the fireworks. So magical :)

Woo Phineas & Ferb, my fav Disney show!

HUGE Christmas tree that changed colours. The presents at the bottom were a good 1.2m tall!

Main Street

Le magical castle

Fireworks!

I wanted to go on Splash Mountain before we left since I didn't go the last time we went to D'Land. They made me sit at the front and apparently the last drop before the ride ended was about 50ft high, so it was more than just a splash. My lap, right leg, right foot & bum were completely soaked but funnily enough it wasn't from that last drop. I felt the water trickle down into my sock, it was so gross. I was so cold from the waist down but it was totally worth it. Thank goodness it was late at night or else people would've been able to see my super wet jeans, haha.

Day 359 - My friend J really wanted to take me to this sushi restaurant since it's one of my fav foods to try out this roll in particular which is called the "Refreshing Roll", though he wasn't able to when I first flew over because of work. He finally had a day off and took me out for dinner. Being the biggest case of epic fail that he is, he accidentally drove to the one that was the farthest from us (there's two locations). Luckily enough, they were still open. I ordered another roll - the "Halloween", which (from memory) had salmon, avocado, tempura, spicy mayo.. or something like that. I also ordered salmon sashimi and came to the conclusion that I should stop ordering it unless I'm a restaurant that's right next to the ocean. It was definitely frozen, not fresh... The "Refreshing Roll" was refreshing indeed! Each piece had a bite sized wedge of lime on it, the taste was definitely unique. It was a lovely dinner because we conversed about a lot of things that I wouldn't usually discuss, like social conditioning and female/male empowerment. We definitely had a lot of interesting topics covered.

Day 360 - I was determined to get all of my Christmas shopping done today, so my cousin had a day-off and was kind enough to take me out. We went to 3 places in total, my feet and arms were ready to fall off by the time we were done with the 3rd location. We're about 5 years apart and were really close when we were younger but the distance made us drift apart but we were able to bond very quickly despite not keeping in contact for so many years. He treats me like his baby sister, overprotective and interrogative and all -____- But I'm grateful for the weird distant-but-not-so-distant bond that we have, haha. I offered to pay for dinner as a way of thanking him for spending his day off to help me run my errands. Love you, Bi!

I only had Jamba Juice twice during this trip :( I ordered Pomegranate Paradise, it was so refreshing & tangy!


Another failed attempt at getting all of my shopping done. This batch of Christmas gift cost me about $500, my poor wallet!

I should work for a department store in the gift wrapping area. BAWSS. LOL JK I got bored and mucked around.

Day 361 - Cricket & I hung out again, we went to some beach at night. If there's one thing you should know about me, is that I absolutely hate the beach. We didn't walk on the sand (thank goodness) so we bought food - I had a corn dog for the first time! It tasted.. weird. The batter was so sweet! We talked about a lot more interesting topics and I introduced him to a few of my favourite classical & jazz songs.

Day 362 - J took me to Five Guys Burger Joint cos apparently the burgers there are amazing. My cousin was working so he gave us freebies. I have this habit of squashing my burger flat before eating it, but this burger was still big even after I squashed it! I enjoyed it but not so much the fries, it was a bit dry.

Day 363 - Christmas Eve! My cousins took me to her friend's Christmas party, where they played White Elephant. Basically you have a limit of say, $50 and you buy whatever you want, you all draw numbers and then choose a present like it's a lucky dip because everything is wrapped up so you can't tell who bought what. My cousins and I were counted as one person and they let me choose. I got a huuuge bottle of Grey Goose! But then someone "stole" my present off me.. :(

Then I went to another Christmas party which was more of a kb/drink-up and saw a few friends. It was a hilllllarious night, one of those "you had to be there" moments!

A friend was feeling a bit down and wanted a distraction so we went to Avec, which is a nightclub. Mind you, it was past 12am which meant it was officially Christmas Day... Surprisingly, there were a lot of people despite it being like 1-2 in the morning. Going to a club on Christmas, who does that?! *looks around* Hey, I had no choice okay. I was giving my friend support! It was so dead and once again, I was not dressed for it - I had a red festive dress (the very first photo in this post), black stockings and TOMS. LOL. There were a lot of creepers just watching those who were dancing along the edges of the dancefloor... So gross.

Day 364 - Merrrrry Christmas! I had a lot of things to do today so it was rush rush rush. A few nights ago I decided to change my ticket to depart a week earlier than scheduled due to my grandpa's condition in order to catch a flight to Vietnam to be with him since it was too complicated to leave from the US to go to Vietnam. My auntie made hot pot for dinner and it was delicious! There wasn't much left to do except to kb and open presents. My cousins gave me this huge ass present and as soon as they gave it to me, I knew exactly what it was. They managed to take back the bottle of Grey Goose! I was so happy! Definitely saving that for my 21st birthday woo!

I said my final goodbyes to my family and a few friends who dropped by before Cricket took me to the airport. We had a lot of time to kill so I decided to buy a few things for Papito and my dad. I waited at the boarding gate for a while and I'm pretty disappointed how LAX doesn't have free wi-fi... Luckily I thought ahead and bought 2 magazines before heading there. Jumped on the plane and said my final goodbye to the US as the plane was taking off :(

Day 365 - Since you lose a whole day when you travel from the US back to Australia, I decided to squeeze these photos in here. V Aus has yet to have wi-fi on their planes but I'm so excited already! Call me weird, but I genuinely enjoy airplane food... I don't get what's so bad about it :s I mean it doesn't taste THAT bad.

MAN that salad (top left corner) was SO GOOD.

I was assigned an aisle seat but I prefer window seats, so I asked to be switched. But when I boarded the plane it was so empty! All of the passengers who had an aisle seat had the WHOLE aisle to themselves. I felt so stupid.

Sunrise!

I watched a bit of Midnight in Paris and Contagion. Contagion scared me, because I'm a real hygiene freak!

About an hr away from Melbourne!

Well this is awkward.. But the next 4 photos covered the 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th.

27/12 - I wanted to give everyone their presents ASAP. I stopped over at my cousin's house and had a nice catch up with her and her mum. They really make me feel at home, especially when my mum is away. I love how family can comfort you so easily. Her younger sister wanted me to paint her nails with the nail polish that I got her older sister, she's a brat but she's so adorable!

28/12 - A & I went to dinner. We had stonegrill at a Japanese restaurant. Basically they bring out a really hot stone with your food on it and it cooks as you eat it. Interesting concept, we had the wagyu beef steak w/ assorted vegies. I was a really messy eater when I was younger but I'm pretty clean now... Though I dropped two pieces of steak onto the floor. Oops... We then headed to Passionflower where I ordered my favourite - Double Happiness!

29/12 - SIFK had another meeting at our second meet-up spot, where Papito gave me a present as a thank-you gift for getting him a Christmas gift. It was a clear tea pot & 3 different green teas, which is like one of the greatest gifts I could ever receive because I looooooove tea, especially green tea! I also received a KK present from B, which was a bottle of Rekordelig (I've never had it up until the other night when I opened it) & a pair of lovely Swarovski crystal earrings.

30/12 - I went to a friend's BBQ for a bit and he didn't put out an Esky to keep the drinks cool, so everyone asked him where it was. Not sure if he was playing dumb or if he seriously didn't know, but he went into the house and brought out this blue bucket and asked, "is this an Esky?" It was such a good laugh!

31/12 - I spent NYE with SIFK in an apartment right next to Docklands. We had mad drinks and ended up dnm'ing like we always do. I decided to record bits and pieces of the night and attempt at my first short film/video but that's still in progress so I'll just use one of my good mate's photos.

Source

Now that THAT's out of the way... Phew! It took me almost a whole day to write this, jeepers. As expected, I spent a heap of money.Although it wasn’t as much as I anticipated, which surprised me because Ithought I would’ve been beyond uncontrollable every time I went shopping. Looking back, I kind of wish I spent more.. It really gets to you when you know you have a limit as to how much you can bring back as checked baggage.. Nonetheless, I'm really looking forward to coming back in two years when I'm actually of legal age! I felt really silly being underage again, since it's 18 years old over here but oh well! Law is law.

Okay, now onto my explanation. The reason why I didn't post for a while was because I had a lot on my hands. After finding out grandpa's condition got worse even though it meant he just got weaker, it really hit me and I couldn't stop crying. Which led me to changing my flight date. I really wanted to fly to Vietnam ASAP, so I had a talk w/ my mum, dad and even a few aunties who were in Vietnam at the time and my auntie was kind enough to take me to a travel agent to discuss some issues and see if I could fly from the US. There was a lot of paperwork to be done and other issues that couldn't have been dealt in time, so I decided not to buy the ticket. I then called up V Aus to change my ticket cos I was advised that going home first then flying over to Vietnam would be a lot easier in terms of paperwork. I flew out on Christmas Day in the US and got back to Melbourne on the 27th.

With the help of my brother & my friend A, we all furiously searched for the cheapest return flights to Vietnam however since it was near the end of the year/2012, prices went up by at least $500. We were determined to eventually find something, but had no such luck.
Unfortunately, I couldn't make it in time and grandpa passed away on the morning of the 28th, which was the day after I landed home. It didn't hit me when I saw all of the texts from my cousins, brother and even the phone call from my auntie. I guess it was because I already accepted the fact that he didn't have much time left when I called him in the US and talked to him, heard the pain in his voice and found out that he became much weaker. All I could think of was how much of a waste to come back home early because in the end, I didn't go to Vietnam AND I missed out on seeing ATB for NYE in the US (I was meant to leave on new year's day).

Although this trip was meant to be a breather for me, like something to get my mind off things and just to relax and enjoy every moment of it, there were a lot of obstacles. My long distance relationship ended on a very harsh note, my grandpa passed away, I didn't go to Vietnam... There was a lot of negativity within the last two weeks of my trip.. It was inevitable but I just really wished things didn't turn out the way it did. I've learnt to accept it and it took me a while to absorb everything in, but you always hope for the better of the worst. Plus since 2011 ended on a bad note, lately I've been feeling as though 2012 started off on a bad note as well. I've run into a few not-so-nice situations and I always try to tell myself to stay positive but sometimes it's more comforting being apathetic. I guess I've grown too used to it, I need to break out of that shell this year.

On a brighter note, 2012 is finally here and to be honest, I really don't think the world is going to end. I'm just going to treat it like any other year and live every day as it is. However I've got a lot of things planned for this year, such as graduating university (HALLELUJAH, FINALLY!), going to Italy for my cousin's wedding in June-July, going to Thailand and maybe Vietnam with SIFK & then meeting up with Cricket & J (hopefully), going on my green P's in mid-March and perhaps getting my own car (yippee!) and so much more! I'm so excited for this year!
But that's enough for this post, I'm so sorry for overwhelming you with SO much information. I hope you understand where I'm coming from, I tried my best to write as much as I could in order to shorten the delay but it was just madness within the last few days of my trip. Even though it was cut short, I'm really thankful for everything and everyone who created a lot of memories for me, especially my wonderful family and my friends, even the ones that I've only just recently met. I can't wait to go back and see you all again :) Cheers to 2011, bring on 2012.

Day trip to Sydney

2012-01-02T02:32:00.000-08:00

As I promised a while ago, I would write up a recount of my 24-hour or sotrip to Sydney. The reason why I went to Sydney was for the 2011 K-Pop Fest.Most of my friends who planned to go to Sydney (either to get away from homefor a while, for the concert and both) already headed up there, so it was justCarmen and I that went together.

Our flight was around 7:30, so we both woke up around 5am. I went out thenight before and didn’t get home until 1, so I was incredibly tired since I hadto stay up to pack for a while too.. I really gotta stop pushing myself to stayup and sleep crazy irregular hours.. We went to the Tiger Airways terminalwhich is separate from the main domestic terminals and boy, was it packed!Which made things disorganised, we thought we were boarding the plane to Sydneybut turns out they were using the same gate for passengers to go to Brisbane-____-

I slept for a bit on the plane but I’m quite certain a flight attendantlaughed at me because half of my body was hanging off the foldable tray (I hadan aisle seat) when she walked past… Talk about embarrassing. It was only anhour long flight and we didn’t have much trouble getting to the hotel since wetook a taxi there.

We got to the hotel but SIFK were already eating the complimentary breakfastso we ventured out to find a cafe. The city area was nothing like Melbourne, wesearched high and low in an attempt to find something similar to Degraves Stwhere there's a bunch of cafes but we had absolutely no luck! The nearest onewe could find was probably 3-4 blocks from our hotel. Goodness me! I was in themood for a big breakfast after the short but dreadful quest to find a placethat served breakfast but I haven't had pancakes in so long so I ordered thatinstead.

SIFK then went to Darling Harbour via train and we went to Guylian ChocolateBar, where B & I shared the ice-cream tasting platter. Starting from thetop left and going clockwise: pistachio, white choc & raspberry, pralineand 65% cocoa. My favourite was praline, it was rich but very smooth andrefreshing compared to the 65%, which had a not so nice aftertaste..

It was a glorious day so we went sightseeing. Though it got too hot so Iended up buying a pair of distressed denim shorts and wore it to the concertsince it was cool and breezy at night.

HAHA DTF drinks - it actually stands for Din Tai Fung

We had average seats. It was pretty much the middle section since there wasanother section behind my friends and I as well as the floor area aka the VIParea. To my surprise, my favourite group opened the show – SHINee! I was sohyped up, I couldn’t stop fangirling and my eyes turned all starry! Minholooked so wonderful ;____; To be honest, all of the acts were amazing! I’msurprised how hard working each group is, I’m not too sure about this but Iassumed every group, if not most performed their songs live. There were heapsof stage effects like fancy lights, fireworks and sparks! I would’ve loved tobe in the VIP area for all of that but it didn’t seemed like it was worth it…Only because a lot of people had these huge signs that they held up, I wouldn’twant to be standing behind a person who held an A2 piece of cardboard all nightlong. Not surprisingly, TVXQ/DBSK closed the show. Changmin is such a hottie..

It was chaos after the concert, I was so flustered just sitting in thetrain. There were soooo many people all crammed into a carriage, at one point Ifelt claustrophobic! P & C wanted to get food so I ended up going back tothe hotel myself. I was greeted by the others who didn’t go to the concert andsome of them were slightly buzzed from drinking alcohol. I hadn’t eatenanything for a while so I was not down to drink but I had a shot anyway to showsome spirit. Watching them drink and dnm (deep and meaningful conversations –it’s when you get serious and discuss mainly relationships) over the silliestthings was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and heard! Most of usstayed up talking and a few of us set alarms to wake up at 4 since we plannedto leave the hotel at 6 as our flights were around 7am.

Drunko! Look at his leg on the bed, I'm guessing Fox was trying to get comfy.

For some reason none of the alarms went off so C came barging into our roomand woke all of us up… at 6am! I can’t really remember what happened duringthat half hour since it was just an adrenaline rush to pack up all of ourbelongings, check out and catch a taxi to the airport. Most of the boysexperienced pretty bad hangovers, so the taxi ride was a nightmare for themsince we told him to step on the pedal and get all of us there ASAP.

Since C and I caught a different flight, unfortunately our flight home wasin a different terminal. So we legged it to the other side of the airport withonly 10-15 mins to spare until boarding time and to our surprise, we were ableto make it on time! We were out of breath and pretty much crashed hardcore onthe plane ride home.

My friend picked the both of us up from Melbourne Airport and I think I gothome around 8-9am. I just fell back onto my bed and didn’t wake up until lateafternoon. It was well worth it.. Not really. I was so sleep deprived over thatweekend, I hope I won’t have to experience it ever again. But that was prettymuch my day trip to Sydney. It was really nice to get away from home eventhough I only went for a day. I think the dnm session that I had with myfriends brought us a little closer and definitely gave all of us memoriesthat’ll be hard to forget.

Food Waterfall

2011-12-12T00:26:00.001-08:00

Hi hi hi hi.

I've got a lot to get through tonight, so I'll try to be as organised as possible and section each part accordingly so that I won't sound confusing.

My illness has gotten better. It was a slow process because gastro usually lasts for at least a week so I was still vomiting almost the entire week last week. It made me sad because I ate all of these incredibly delicious foods (even if they were unhealthy) and I don't know, I felt as though it was just a complete waste. I mean, I might as well not eat at all.. But moving on..

This whole week I didn't go out much in terms of sightseeing, I did a heck of a lot of shopping though. I went to South Coast Plaza and blew an easy $200+ in one trip. The bad thing is that I'm planning to go back, since I saw a few items that I really want to get since almost everything is cheap over here, even some designer brands! I honestly considered buying a $90 Gucci silicone iPhone cover because

1) it has a nice design

2) I thought it was cheap (looking back, I must've been high or on some sort of hallucinating drug) and

3) I'm on vacay! There's that unspoken rule of going cray and overindulging yourself in every way possible!

I'm definitely buying a new wallet (Michael Kors) and a small two-card wallet from Coach. Ahhh I can't wait! Plus I have to start shopping for Christmas, ahhh it's gonna be so stressful :(

Speaking of stress, my hair was completely ruined in under a week! I'm not sure whether it's cos I didn't use hair colour treatment on the day that I landed or if it's the water here since they most likely have chemicals and minerals different to back home but it turned into a nasty brass colour :( So I decided to cut most of the red off and dyed it a dark brown since I want to try and grow out my hair, like fully! Natural from root to end. It's definitely going to take a verrrrry long time to achieve that but I'm willing to wait.

I've planned to go up north to San Diego, San Jose & San Francisco and I'm incredibly excited! I haven't been up to norCal (northern Cali) yet and I heard that the people there are friendlier than down here in soCal (southern Cali).. Plus the scenery is better. I can't wait to see what's in store when I go up there! Speaking of attitudes, I've had a lot of opportunities meeting new people. One of my new friends agreed on how the people up in norCal are friendlier. He said, "yeah, it's true. We people in the OC are bitches and stuck up", hahaha.

Anyway I'll go ahead with the photos, I've also included a stack of extra photos towards the end!

Day 345 - This is my cousin's pug, Uni. She is playful but really naughty, she chewed on my slippers cos it has ear flaps (my slippers resemble a dog.. or bear, I'm not too sure)!

Day 346 - J took me to get some Tastea (their tea runs are equivalent to coffee runs/going to kb at a cafe back home) and I laughed so hard upon seeing this amazing parking job. Asian driving is universal!

My cousin and I went on a Mexican food run at like 12 at night and I had a chicken fajita cos I was curious after seeing that Family Guy ep with the scene where Peter orders 6000 chicken fajitas LOL. It was pretty much just shredded chicken and tomato sauce.... It wasn't bad but I guess I just expected more than just those ingredients.

Day 346 - Since my hair didn't go according to plan, I decided to chop most of it off and dye it back to a dark colour. My hair feels healthier now and like I mentioned before, I want to grow my hair out so this colour looks as though it's my natural hair colour anyway. I made friends with the hairdresser cos he's my cousin's good friend and hairdresser too, he's into K-Pop too! It hurts to see my hair so short though, he just went ahead and chopped a good 15cm of my hair off. I've gotten used to it but I can still remember that huge lock of my hair on the floor :( Plus, A didn't like it when I dip dyed my hair, so I did this for him even though he doesn't believe it. Jerk!

J took me to another tea store, it was more of a smoothie/cold beverage place but they focus their drinks around tea which is a pretty cool concept. I met a decent amount of people, even one of the owners of the store who came out and talked to us about how he set up the business, how it works and what their goals were. I found it to be an interesting discussion because it's basically what I'm studying in school and I was able to see all of the theory in marketing the business and their products and all that boring stuff. J (another person) and a few other friends came down from LA to hang out too but I was the only girl there, but I'm used to it. A came down from LA with J, it was coincidental how we were wearing the same shoes and beanie! You can't really see mine but they've got a hint of teal, his pair contrasts mine. We're kind of like a Sadie Hawkins couple, hehe. He told me that the dance is mainly about couples dress up in matching outfits or something alike.

Day 347 - The weather over here is more tasteful in my opinion. Despite it being winter, the sun is usually out the entire day without any clouds in the sky so it feels like a warm day with a light breeze. I sat in the patio to have some alone time and soaked up some vitamin D whilst painting my nails :)

Later that night a few of my friends and I headed up to LA to meet with everyone else and we went to the LA Art Walk, which spread across a few blocks. It was basically going into different art galleries that were scattered across the area and seeing different artists and their artworks. There was this one photographer that I really like, his name is Garret Suhrie. I'll put a link to his website here. People like him really inspire me to learn more about photography and to continue doing it, it's definitely going to be one of my resolutions for next year.

They took me to Diddy Riese. I ordered a choc chip x white choc & macadamia nut with strawberry cheesecake chunk ice-cream for only $1.50! It was so sickening though, I felt bloated :x

Day 348 - The sunsets over here are so rewarding to the eye. It's a different sunset in terms of the colours, gradients and cloud formation every day!

I could shop at this F21 forever. It was twice as big as the Zara store on Bourke St ;_____;

I had dinner with my cousin & her bf at this restaurant called BJ's (yeah I know, I laughed too). I thought these pieces of art were pretty cool!

My friends and I went to a bar after dinner. We had pre-drinks at one of his friend's house and I had to take his shots for him since he drove but we later on hopped in a car with another driver. Since I still had gastro, it didn't sit in my stomach very well, so when we got to the venue, I needed to barf. I'm all about class, so I threw up on the side of a parking lot from two levels above. It was pretty much a food waterfall, hence the title of my post. All I could think of at the time was, what a waste of a dinner, the club sandwich I ordered was delicious! LOL. Aaaand that was my downfall for the night, I didn't have a good time until after when we went to a tea lounge to recover.

Day 349 - I had a 1st birthday costume party to go to with my cousins. They dressed up as Sophia Grace & Rosie and I went as Nicki Minaj LOLOL. I just watched the video again and realised she had a blue x blonde wig on, not blonde x pink like in her Super Bass MV.

Here's the video:

Day 350 - I had to wake up early (like 4am early) to meet J in LA at 6am, as he invited me to help him out with a production he's currently working on. I was a director of photography assistant for the day and saw how everything worked behind the scenes of a film. It was a cool experience and I'm really grateful for having the opportunity, thanks J!

Look at the to-go Starbucks coffee box, how cool!

Some shots of the film set

Day 351 - The boys took me to a neighbourhood that's known for its extravagant Christmas lights and decorations. It looked like a rich neighbourhood from all of the double storey houses in the area. It was my first time seeing something like this so I was like a kid in a candy store. Almost every house was decked out, it was so cool!

That's it for this week's photos. I just noticed the number of days left of my project and it doesn't add up because I started on the 1st of January... I must've messed up and excessively added photos somewhere. Oopsie, sorry! But until next time, take care and stay safe! :)

P.S. I spoke with Dad a few days ago and he told me that my new birth certificate arrived in the mail. I'm now officially known as Alison T T Nguyen! The reason why I wanted to change my name was because I've always wanted an English name. It took me about 12 years to think of a name since I wanted something different and not as common. It was also because it'd be easier for me to deal with paperwork since Tran wasn't my actual first name anyway, hahaha. My parents put my middle name first because that's how it is arranged when you say it in Vietnamese, similar to a Korean person's name [surname, middle name, first name].

Bugged

2011-12-04T23:50:00.001-08:00

Hiya,

I just realised before adding photos to this post that it is currently Monday back home... What I meant in the previous post was that I would update on Sunday according to the time here.. But then again it's almost 1am on Monday right now, so I failed either way haha.

So as I mentioned in the last post, I am currently in the United States! I left Melbourne at midday on Tuesday and arrived in LA on the same day. The plane ride was okay, I had a window seat towards the end of the plane and had 2 guys sit next to me and it was so awkward getting out of my seat to go to the restroom. I hate it when that happens! Surprisingly, the weather has been amazing! I forgot how consistent Californian weather is, I guess I'm too used to the weather back home like that funny commercial where it was something along the lines of "Melbourne in 30 seconds - jacket on, jacket off, hook turns, rain, shine, rain etc" haha. It's constantly sunny throughout the day here, so it doesn't really feel like winter (to me), more of a light breeze and there's not a cloud in the sky! I just can't get over it and their sunsets!

I haven't been anywhere in particular yet, I'm aching to go to South Coast (it's like their version of Chaddy back home, but... a lot bigger) but I've been buying a lot of stuff from Forever21 for the past few days. It's just so easily accessible, has a wide variety of items and is quite cheap! I'm also planning to go up north to San Francisco and San Jose since I've never been and I heard the scenery is breathtaking, Universal Studios, Disneyland (a must!) and Rodeo Drive. I really can't wait but ugh I just hate how it gets so dark so soon. It's a pretty drastic adjustment from seeing the sun set at like 9pm.

Day 339 - Woke up to see a pretty epic sunrise. The clouds remind of that SNES game (argh I forgot what it's called, will get back to you!), I decided to listen to some jazz while looking out at this. One thing I'll say is that you HAVE to listen to jazz whilst on a plane, it's quite the experience.

Day 340 - My aunt and uncle took me out to eat pho... At like 11am! I also ordered one of my favourite drinks - iced lemon w/ sugar.

Day 341 - Went up to LA to a friend's apartment. We have the same SLR (Canon 60D) and he's got a lot of equipment, so he taught me a few things about taking photos and even let me use his equipment. It's mighty morphin' time for Xavier!

Day 342 - My cousins and I went to eat vegetarian Thai hot pot for dinner. This has got to be the best strawberry smoothie I've tasted!

Day 343 - I decided to buy Uncharted 1 & 2 before playing Uncharted 3. Good thing the store had pre-owned copies of 1 & 2 which were only $25! So cheap! The gameplay and even some of the sound effects remind me of LA Noire. Definitely not produced by the same company though (I think).

Day 344 - I went to eat Chinese food with another aunt and uncle this morning and felt incredibly nauseated. I think I caught a stomach bug and I chundered everything :( I bought some Alka-Seltzer to try and ease the nausea, but it tastes like crap and makes me wanna chunder up even more! Why am I even taking this on my vacation, this is the worst!

Lastly, I'll leave you with a few photos that I as well as some of my friends have taken over the past week. Until next Sunday, take care and enjoy!

Done and Dusted

2011-11-27T16:10:00.001-08:00

Hello hello!

Long time no talk, how are we all? Ahh it feels incredibly satisfying to finally finish for the year! I dreaded my exam timetable so much because I was the very last person in my group of friends to finish exams, which was only last week on the 23rd. I apologise for saying that I'd update as soon as I would be done with exams but oh my gosh the 6 days leading up to my trip to America were so jam packed, I could only make a draft of this blog post since it'd cover about 3 weeks of content.

I feel as though I did okay for all of my exams. I only had 3 since one of my subjects had a take home exam. My results will be released on the 14th of December via email, so until then I won't be worrying too much about it. I'm set that I passed everything but you can never be too sure..

I haven't been working all too much, even though they've been calling me almost every second day! I had to reject a lot of shifts since they're mostly night/graveyard shifts and I was still studying for my exams, despite them being a week apart with each other. I've only worked twice and it's not too bad, the staff there are all incredibly friendly and helpful! It makes the shift go by a little faster and they're very welcoming so I felt comfortable and not as intimidated as I anticipated. I've learnt bits and pieces on how to make coffee and I definitely have to work on pouring the milk and knowing the coffee:foam/froth ratio as well as stirring it right so that I can get some sort of design out of the milk & coffee. I remember one time when I was starting out I just scooped a huge lump of froth into the cup and left it like that LOL oopsie.. But you can only learn so much per shift, I'm excited to see what else I'll be learning because even though it's a really fast-paced environment, everyone around you is willing to drop whatever they're doing and help you so that you won't get it wrong or make silly mistakes which I really appreciate.

Anyway I'm currently in the United States right now! But I'll only be blogging til Monday the 28th of November, I'll leave the start of my trip for the next post and then fix it so that it'll end on a Sunday like my previous posts.

Oh! I also went to Sydney in the middle of my exam period too for the K-Pop concert! I went with half of SIFK but flew in on the morning of the concert with C, whereas the rest of SIFK flew in the day before. But we all went home roughly the same time the day after. I'll talk more about that later. Oooooookay, onto the photos!

Day 311 (skipped out on days 308-310 cos of study) - Oh gosh I don't even remember who I had this coffee with... I think it may have been at Seared with Papito. Sounds about right but I've completely forgotten what happened on this day... This is what happens when you put blogging off for an entire month! :(

Day 312 - (I was busy studying for my exams, no photos for the 30-31/11, sorry :( ) - I met with J & P at Max Brenner for a catch up session. J & I shared a plate of Belgian waffles while P had an iced coconut/choc beverage (I think). It's been so long since I've seen them both and it definitely pleasant to talk to them! We don't get to see each other often, plus it's nice to see people outside of your main group of friends. The weather was suitable for waffles and a white choc chai too, which is what I usually order here at MB.

Day 313 - Decided to buy a new SLR off eBay even though I was iffy about it since some sellers are scammers but I was so stoked when I received the parcel! I didn't have much of a chance to play around with it cos of exams but I'm definitely keen on making short films!

Day 314 - My brother and I went to one of Noam Chomsky's public lectures at the Melbourne Convention Centre. We then relocated to Teppansan on Russell St and had beef okonomiyaki, fish in garlic butter and sashimi. Sashimi has got to be one of my all-time fav foods!

Day 316 - I cannot at all recall where I was going when I took this picture.... :s

Day 317 - I was called to work a shift from 3-11pm but I finish at about.. 9pm since it was on a Monday and it was pretty dead. I forgot that I had the car since I'm used to taking the train to work so it was a bit daunting going home late at night..

Day 318 - I've been trying to eat healthier so I resorted to having steamed broccoli as a snack. Studying for exams threw my appetite way off, on some days I'd only eat one meal, or even nothing at all -____-

Day 319 - Had a catch up w/ P & B, it was lovely seeing them. We're all pretty busy nowadays cos of exams and work but we had so much to talk about and it's always entertaining being around these two.

Day 320 - Steamed some dumplings. Pair it with soy sauce & Srirachi dipping sauce and you're in heaven!

Day 321 - The moonlight was really nice, but the cloud in front of it looked like a huge UFO cos it was wide and thin :/

Day 322 - Today was Remembrance Day, a friend of mine gave me his red poppy badge since I gave him a box of homemade chocolate truffles as a get well gift :)

Day 323 - Had a huuuuuuge spring clean up of my room. Noone was at home so I had to move my bed by myself :( Worked up a massive sweat and was in a bit of pain from it! But at least now I can dolphin dive on my bed without hitting my arm against the wall!

Day 324 - Flew out to Sydney with C! I'll talk about the Sydney trip in another post but this is what I had for breakfast. It took us forever to find a cafe though, ugh!

Day 325 - A took me out to get macarons. I ordered a hot chocolate and it was pretty much like drinking chocolate syrup. It was so rich and thick, bleghhhh >_____< I ordered passionfruit, rose and pistachio macarons.

Day 326 - I got pretty sick, woke up with the most sore and dry throat! It was so awful. I finished that pack of Difflam lozenges in a day, haha.

Day 327 - Caught up with a friend that I haven't seen in almost a year. We had a pretty bad falling out earlier in the year and it took me a lot to muster up the courage to approach the situation. It went really well surprisingly, I mean you have a bit of hope in you but at the same time you need to be realistic. We're on good terms now and I'm really glad that I took like, a leap of faith. Haha.

Day 328 - Went to HP with a few of the boys cos they wanted to shop for their outfits for a clubbing event that happened later in the day. I had 4 chicken thigh pieces and fries. Yummy :)

Day 329 - Had a catch up with 2 of my high school girlfriends. I haven't seen one of them since we all graduated, oh my gosh it was just like old times! I loooove chicken parma, I could eat like 2... if I wanted to. Hahahahaha I've got a huge appetite!

Day 332 (Full crammed for my last exam on days 330 & 331!) - A secret admirer made a special late night delivery for me since I was up and furiously cramming for my last exam. I usually don't eat fried rice on a regular basis but when I do, maaaaaaaan that really hit the spot!

Day 333 - A took me to the night market as a reward for completing my exams! We ate European pastry, Spanish c____ (I forgot what it was called), Dutch pancakes and my favourite dish - chicken sekuwa. I think it's a Nepalese dish, defs try it if you go! We got the pancakes to see what the hype was about, our batch was still raw on the inside o___o I'm not too sure if it was meant to be like that, but it was disgusting how we could still taste the batter...

Day 334 - I hosted a BBQ at home and invited everyone from SIFK as it was strictly SIFK. It would've been the last time we'd be together as a group before people would work and I'd fly over to the States. It was really fun and relaxing at the same time, cos it gave the group a chance to see each other since we're all pretty much busy with our own thing and stuff.. K got me a small gift which was a pair of chocolate shoes! So sweet of her :')

Day 335 - I finally went ahead with dip dyeing my hair! If you remember one of my previous posts, I mentioned how I wanted to dye it a cobalt/electric blue. But I already had brown hair and cobalt doesn't really complement brown so I just retouched my roots and teamed it with red! It turned out to be quite nice but I didn't treat it with colour-lock conditioner so now it's turned into a really nasty brass colour :(((((((

Day 336 - My ASOS haul FINALLY came in after going through the hugest muck up! This is like the 3rd time I've had problems with them and their delivery service >:( I am in loooove with these boots but they're a bit hard to maneuver when driving since they're a high cut and it isn't worn out just yet. Reminds me of what a character would wear in Final Fantasy, no?

Day 337 - Went to do a short radio course with SYN with a fellow blogger, whom I mentioned earlier in another post. It was an interesting experience! I can't wait to come home and start doing shows. I'll probably be a host on the K-Pop segment, haha. Typical!

Day 338 - I went to the Registry since I'm planning to change my name. The process was a bit longer than expected because I assumed my birth cert would've been in the tube that all of the similar documents were in so I didn't bother checking it. I opened it when the man who served me at the office asked for it, but it wasn't there so I had the weekend to chase it up. Dad came home from overseas the day before I left for the US, and I asked him to help me find it. Thank goodness he found it! I knew he would, ah he's a total lifesaver. Anyway I immediately rushed to the Registry before it'd close and great success! I've already submitted my form but I won't say what my new name will be until I get my updated birth cert :>

Quick Update

2011-11-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Sorry I didn't post last Sunday. Just a heads up I won't be posting anything until after I'm done with my exams, which will be on the 23rd. I've got a jam-packed schedule up until I leave for the US, so I probably won't be able to update til a bit after the 23rd.

I'll still be updating my Tumblr & Twitter since they're easier to update compared to my blog, so head on over there if you like.

You can ask me stuff on Formspring too.

Take care!

P.S. So much sh*t is gonna hit the fan... Uh oh.

Reverting To The Days

2011-10-30T06:34:00.000-07:00

Ohai. It's been a while since I last styled my hair like this (half up/half down), probably back in year 8? Wowee, time flies. And yes those are Pokémon posters behind me, I should try and find the remaining generations in between those two..

Each week feels -- excuse me while I switch my iTunes from Justin Bieber's 'Mistletoe' for some jazz to help my train of thought -- As I was saying, each week feels more dreadful, most likely because I have exams coming up and the fact that I won't be done til the 23rd (some of my friends are already done if not finishing this week! How unfair!). Plus that really dreadful thought of not being able to fly out for another 29 days.. Huuu~ That makes me quite sad. Nonetheless, I know this month will go by in the blink of an eye, seeing as though there's only two days left until it's November.

I finished classes for the year (yippee!) on Wednesday although technically I was supposed to finish on Thursday. I wasn't able to make Thursday's lecture because of *drum roll* an induction for another job! If you've been a follower of my blog since last year (props to you, my blog is boring as shit sometimes and I apologise for the lack of content), you might recall that I went for an interview at Crown Casino in hoping to get the food and beverage attendant position. Since I started working at this agency, they've been able to secure me the same job.. at Crown too! The only difference is that I'm working as a casual/temporary/contractor. Oh, and I work for the agency, not Crown itself.

I was able to see the Mahogany and Teak rooms for the first time since you have to be a member to have access to those rooms. The induction did make me feel nervous and incredibly intimidated because not only does Crown expect 6-star quality and customer service, but so do the guests (obviously) and I felt pressured because although I have experience, I felt as though I didn't have enough compared to the other people in the group.. I also heard people can get really rowdy in those premium rooms, so I really don't know how I'd be able to handle a customer complaint or something of the like.. I just hope that nothing turns out bad. I'd really like to get the most out of this job!

The weather's been pretty bad in Melbourne lately, I'm not too fond of it. It's meant to be spring, for goodness sake! I was contemplating taking a photo while it was pouring, but the composition would've turned out weird from the angle I would've shot it from.

Speaking of which, I mustered up the courage and bought something off eBay for the first time ever. Now for a first-timer you would think I'd buy something small and of a low price, but I actually bought a Canon 60D, which anyone should know is not cheap at all. However it was $600-$800 less than the retail price and my brother told me from a young age that if I ever got into eBay, make sure to always always always check the seller's feedback and star rating. I've been sitting on purchasing this camera for almost a month and I've read the feedback of different sellers and have compared & contrasted them too. I even noted in my planner a cut-off date if I were to buy the 60D! I really hope I don't get scammed from this purchase because if I do, I would've just lost a lot of money (a lot) and I'd never use eBay again because I'm using this purchase as a 'make-or-break' kind of perception. If all goes well, I should get the camera mid-week this week.

Last but not least, I've got exams coming up as previously mentioned. I've been writing up notes for my first exam all day and I've been getting these awful migraines. They've returned and it couldn't have come at a worst time.. A lot of things seem to be returning.... Feels weird. I'm not too sure whether or not I'll have time to blog at the end of each week after this post but I will definitely try my best.

Oh and on a completely unrelated note, I really hope Qantas sorts their shit out ASAP. I forgot they were having issues for a while now and I recently bought my ticket to Sydney for the upcoming K-Pop concert. I feel so silly for overlooking such an issue. It drained my poor Gucci wallet dry so I'm really not keen on forking out another $150 just to get another flight with another airline but I don't wanna sit on it either. Goddamnit why can't you just resolve it already, UGH. Such an inconvenience to SO MANY PEOPLE.

Day 301 - I've decided to revert to my old ways of eating. I was a pescetarian for a while (another fact about me mentioned in a previous post) and I always feel groggy after winter, plus I feel the need to get back into shape so I finally drew up a plan. Plus I Skyped with my cousin from the US, she told me as soon as the video loaded that I've gotten chubby! Ahhhh I hate getting out of winter :(

Day 302 - I made a tuna & mushroom pasta bake for dinner. It was my first time making this dish and it wasn't bad!

Day 303 - I decided to check out this Japanese discount store in the CBD. I ended up buying a small bento box & a pair of chopsticks for a total of $7! Not bad. But umm.... Are these meant to be finger gloves but without the palm bit? I was confused and amused at the same time.

Day 304 - After spotting a Prada leopard print bag in the Mahogany room at Crown, I jumped onto their website. I have no idea why that bag captured my attention.. I'm not a big fan of patterns. However I stumbled across another bag and it was a totally love at first sight moment. It was €1,240 and when I went to convert it to Australian dollars, I broke down just a little bit. Someday.... you will be mine. (Yeah I took a photo of my MacBook screen, haha talk about being cheap)

Day 305 - Mum knows I restrict myself from certain foods from time to time but mums are mums, so she wanted to treat me and got me pho. She wanted to make sure I wasn't starving myself or anything, eating it was pretty much a test to see if I had an appetite or not. Haha oh how I love my mum.

Day 306 - Dad took me to Costco because I've never been since it opened! Well, not to the one here anyway. I went to one back in 2009 over in the US but oh my goodness, it was so chaotic. There were people and even more shopping trolleys everywhere! It wasn't anything like I experienced in the States.. I saw a few people with two shopping trolleys filled to the brim! Gosh do people go crazy. I think that they think they're saving heaps of money by buying in bulk, but when it comes to food... That stuff goes off pretty quickly so... This is all we bought between the two of us, hahahaha

Day 307 - Since it's been really cold lately, I feel as if I've gone back in time to July and the harsh winter that we had. I'm a bit of a dork cos I love tucking my pants into my socks and I don't see anything wrong with it at all...

Except a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses came by (again.. They've been trying to hunt me down and talk to me for a few weeks now) and I hid half of my body behind the front door in hoping they wouldn't see my feet, but I'm quite certain the guy saw them cos I noticed how he regularly looked down. I've greeted people in my pjs, with a toothbrush in my mouth, with my hair wrapped up in a towel but this was probably the most embarrassing cos the guy looks like he's my age if not a couple of years older. I kind of wish they didn't come by so often, I feel uncomfortable when people I don't know try to approach me while I'm at home, especially if they wanna sit down and talk to me. My home is something I don't like sharing with people, even my friends.

But yeah, that was my past week. Halloween is tom-- today, but I hardly celebrate it. I thought to myself last night that if only someone out there dressed up as Fran from Final Fantasy 12 and actually pulled it off, I'd applause them forever. I reckon she is smokin', haha. But I'm sure I'm not alone on the thought of thinking fictional characters can be attractive. She's probably one of my favourites in terms of character design - her costume is quite revealing, but to me it's incredibly aesthetically appealing from all the intricate details in her armor. And oh my gosh, if only I had a ponytail that thick.. I'd fall in love with my hair. Though I don't know how she's able to run everywhere in those heels..

Aaaaanyway, I should be going to bed now. Hope you have a good week! And best of luck for everyone and your exams!

Cookin' Sum Cheez

2011-10-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

Heeeeeeeeeeeey.

Feels like it's been a while, but it's only been a week.. I guess time goes by a bit slower, especially when you're looking forward to a lot of things that sadly won't come round til the end of the year.... :(

Just the same old same old for me - school. I finished my last paper for the rest of the year, thank goodness! Now I've only got exams to worry about... Great :( This semester has definitely been less stressful in terms of the work load compared to others however I can't help but feel as though it's the most disorganised semester I've experienced so far. Not so much on my part (okay who am I kidding, I basically completed 2x 2000-word essays almost overnight, but at least I got 27/30 for one of them! #winning), but mainly with my Law subject... The lecturer is also my tutor and lately, I feel as though they've been slacking off because my last 2 tutes were cancelled without notice cos they went through the homework in the lecture, which I thought was incredibly unfair...

Moving on.. (I know I complain a lot, but that's just me..) Um yeah, other than school, I really haven't been up to much to be honest. My social life is hanging by a thread cos I only hang out with SIFK nowadays.

The next best thing to school was being able to work at the Cox Plate, which was held on Saturday (yesterday). Apparently it didn't rain much at home, but it poured like craaaazy at the Moonee Valley racecourse! It was raining a bit when I got there at about 9am and continued til I'd say.... 2pm? It was just an on and off thing, until it reached 6pm - just before the big race feat. Black Caviar, who was supposedly THE horse (to win or something..) I'm not too keen on horse racing and who to look out for. The only horse I will ever be interested in is Makybe Diva cos
1) it's a BAMF name
2) it was #12 (my favourite number) and
3) I chose that horse to win when it ran in its first race and it came first! Imagine how much money I could've won... Ahhh. But yeah, a huge ass storm cloud appeared out of nowhere and it felt like it was gonna flood the marquee I was working in. I worked down by the lawn area, it seriously felt like an earthquake every time the horses raced past! I can't even imagine how bad it would be whenever they fall over and trample over the jockeys because they're powerful as f*ck... :(

I clocked off at about 6:30pm or so... Meaning I was on site for almost 10 hours! Ugh... My workplace told me not to park so near, so I parked about a 10 min walk away. The rain got heavier JUST as I finished my shift and I was drenched within a minute of walking back to my car to go home. It was really humid as well yet cold at the same time cos of the rain, I felt really dirty. The streets even smelt and felt like Saigon - really dirty! Don't know what's up with that.... :/ But hey, at the end of the day, I had fun and it's not so bad when you think about it - the gig paid me $29/hr.

I KNOW RIGHT?!?!?!?!

But oh my, you would NOT believe HOW MUCH FOOD was thrown away. I was assigned to serve food (I wish I was placed to do bar work.. had a hunch my supervisor played favourites with the other girl I was working with) and when I brought a full platter of desserts back to the kitchen, I asked one of the kitchen hands "So... do I throw all of this away?" And he must've thought I was joking so he laughed and enthusiastically said, "Yes!!" I instantly turned into the "Okay guy" meme. For those you aren't familiar with him:

So I went over to the bin with utter sadness at the thought of throwing untouched food away.. I threw the food away. My heart broke. I could've eaten it.

To wrap it up, this week will be my last week for the semester/year before I go on SWOTVAC and my first exam will be on the 9th. I'm not feeling too panicked yet, but I will soon enough. Can't wait. It's exactly 1 month until I finish my last exam. Let's just hope time flies.... Really quickly. Oh and I should get a move on with some short stories... Will let you know when I post some stuff up :)

Day 294 - Here's to hoping this'll give me good results. So far, my nails look good! My skin - I've got a few skin conditions so I can't really see any results just yet and my hair... My hair is just dead from all the dyeing haha.

Day 295 - I LOVE IT when the sky is like this - cloudless with a gradient! Melbourne's been having a few hot days, ay!

Day 296 - I recently bought new earrings after eyeing these and thought to myself, oh my goodness I have to have it (kudos to you if you know that reference!) And oh sup, Ryan Higa ;) What do you think of my feather earrings??

Day 297 - I recently downloaded Tiny Tower after a friend recommended it to me. I love this game! It's so addictive and fun! Oh s'goin on, Miss Statue of Liberty.. Wait.. Is that a guy? Cool beard, bro.

Day 298 - Just... smh..........

Day 299 - Just one of those days when it's slightly sunny in the direction that you're heading home and when you look into your rear view mirror, the other side of town is just engulfed by a BAMF'in dark storm cloud.

Aaaaaand this was me, fresh from the rain. Excuse the horrid facial expression and incredibly rosy cheeks (my cheeks tend to turn really red whenever I "heat" up... I like to think of it as overheating, haha) But you can see some raindrops at the bottom of my chin. I felt SO gross.

Day 300 (65 more days til the end of the year ahh!) - Had dinner with a close friend. I ordered a penne Pollo e Funghi (mushroom w/ chicken in a creamy sauce). The waiter wrote down something else so it was the wrong dish at first. Had to send it back and at least 5 waiters came up to me and apologised as well as telling it'd be about another 5 mins til my dish would be out. Even the manager came out to apologise! Wow, talk about attending to your customer huh? At least they notified me! Some restaurants won't even tell you if the food was delayed or anything like that til you asked them.

Yeaaaaaaah I know I'm a bit late jumping on the Instagram bandwagon. I just don't like getting into stuff when it's really hyped up. I'm the type to check it out either beforehand or afterwards.

That's about it for this week. Stay safe and smile! :)

Oh, and you guys HAVE to check this guy's channel out. I could not stop laughing before, to the point where my sides hurt like mad but I couldn't stop! Some other ones that I like are - "penis", "Givenchy", "coccyx" and "macaron". Srsly, check it out, you will not be disappointed!

Unfit

2011-10-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

Hello!

What is up?! Feels like it's been a while since I last blogged for some reason, though my week wasn't as productive so I guess time felt slower than usual.

I only have 2 weeks of school left and I'm dreading it yet am excited at the same time. It means that I'll be done with school for the year (not including exams *sad face) however it'll be a month until I fly out to the US. It feels sooo far away but I know with worrying about exams and what-not, it'll go by quick.

It feels weird waking up on Sunday and Monday mornings without having to get ready for work.. A friend asked me if I missed my workplace the other day and truthfully, I don't regret quitting at all. It did pay well for a part-time job however I couldn't afford to juggle work & school, plus some of the customers could get so nasty and incredibly abusive. I mean, it took me... 3 or so years to finally admit that I missed high school!

In other news, the weather's been good lately. It was incredibly warm and almost too hot for me to handle the other day. I told my boyfriend how it got really warm and he called me weird for thinking 24 degrees Celsius/75 degrees Fahrenheit was hot (they had some mid-30 degrees C days earlier in the week), but I told it was such a sudden change from the day before and if I remember correctly, it was pretty cold... Having said that, I still prefer summer over winter but autumn over summer. I just can't handle going to bed with super cold toes, I hate it! Though summer causes trouble since I heat up really easily and it's evident cos my cheeks go REALLY red. I don't think my body can maintain homeostasis as well as everyone else, or rather the average person :(

I also met a fellow blogger (his blog is here) and mutual friend during the week! We both signed up to do a course for a radio station and our course takes place in late November (right before my trip!) which is another thing to look forward to!!

Day 287 - I haven't had an avocado smoothie(?) in such a long time! I wouldn't call it a smoothie since I only mashed it up and added condensed milk so it's got some texture, but I don't know what else to call it..

Day 288 - Got a last minute text about a surprise birthday for a close friend. We managed to surprise him again (we did it for the last 2 years). I haven't used my Instax in a while so I decided to bring it along and take a few shots :)

Day 289 - Went to a fabric store with Fox (that's not his real name btw) as he needed a backdrop for his photoshoots. He's one of the most indecisive people I've come across, it was hilarious just watching him decide which material to choose.

Day 290 - A very close friend finally decided to come out from his hermit shell and we caught up over a chocolate beverage. I haven't seen him in a good 2 weeks but I just gave him so much shit for being such a sook. Ugh, my ears and head after having to put up with him!

Day 291 - I decided to arrange something for the group and one of my friends since it was his birthday a month ago and none of them (including me) forgot to give him birthday wishes on his actual birthday (I said it a few days after... It still counts ok!). We went out for fried chicken and beer in the CBD and got to sit outside, which was incredibly relaxing because the weather was amazing. It wasn't too hot nor too cold and the sun took its time to set which made the sky turn into a blend of various pinks, reds, oranges, yellows and blues.

One of the people in the group is the birthday boy's "soulmate", so he bought him a cake. The chocolate plate says "Happy birthday soulmate, Love SIFK". It was a green tea mousse cake, which is his favourite.. Or rather a cake that he likes since it's not sickeningly sweet. When I brought the cake over to him, he told me, "you remembered!". It made me feel appreciated :) Of course I would remember, he's someone that's hard to forget but I didn't say that out loud.

Came home and tried a green tea mochi.. I expected the taste to be different but ehhh it's not something I'd eat again.

Day 292 - Went to Highpoint to run some errands and bought a birthday present for a friend whose party I went to later in the day. I bought her a Pandora bracelet and 2 charms - one with the letter "T" (not shown here since the shop assistant wrapped it separately) and a really nice emerald four leaf clover.

Day 293 - Went for a morning jog. I STRUGGLED SO MUCH. I had no problem running last time but I developed a shortness of breath which I thought would turn into an asthma attack.. I haven't had any breathing difficulties since the 4th grade but dang.. My thighs and calves ache too. Ah, I think I should just stick to swimming..

Fox giving D a little trim above his nape since his hair's getting too long. He was too shy to face us. So adorable, haha.

The twin sisters navigating around in a small, playful shoot. We want to see how many notes she can get on Tumblr just from wearing popular brands e.g. Supreme, Vans that flood pretty much everyone's dash on Tumblr. Ugh, the thought of it makes me facepalm so badly.. We're so silly.

On a concluding note, I checked my stats from my last blog post and I only had 3 views!

WH-WHAAAAT?!

I thought to myself for a while and I think it's cos I changed my URL.. But then I changed it in the post before this one, so I guess it's just that I don't have as many readers anymore.... *sits in corner with my back facing the world*

Until next week, take care and smile :)

P.S. I recently created a WordPress, I need to tweak my page a bit before sharing it with you guys. Basically I made one to store my short stories since I'm feeling motivated to get back into writing. I haven't attempted to write anything since.... year 11? It's been a long time, but I've got a few ideas. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze a few stories here and there whenever I have time during this busy, busy period!

A Tornado Flew Around My Room

2011-10-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

Hi.

This week has been quiet for me. Since work is now out of the way, I have more time to focus on my studies, which wasn't the case at all. I've pretty much been lazing around because I'm too lazy to do anything else. I should be more productive, the year is coming to an end pretty quickly and there's some things I really wanna get done before it passes before my eyes, such as:

Doing some covers and putting my YouTube account to use (I know I've said this like for a whole year now but my motivation levels fluctuate like crazy)
Buy a Canon 60D before I fly over to the States
Jot down some ideas for short films
Get better at playing the guitar (acoustic) and work on my singing skills
Get fit again and lose at least 5 kilos. Really need to slim down before I fly over
Get back into writing. One of my close friends recently started posting his short stories which can be found here
Save as much money as possible

Yeah it's a small list for now, but things will undoubtedly add on later.. I've also got a casual job thing as a food & beverage attendant for one of the days in the string of events for the upcoming racing carnival - the Cox Plate. It's towards the end of October and I'm pretty sure I'm just doing basic F&B tasks like serving food, cleaning up and serving wine. For some reason I thought that I had to actually open up wine bottles in front of the guests before serving them but I forgot to ask that at the induction, so fingers crossed I won't have to do that/the wine bottles will have a screw-top lid instead of a cork because it'd probably take me a while to get it open -_____- I was meant to take a photo of the view from the front office of the company too (I had the induction last Wednesday) - their office is on the 40th floor of a building and the view was amazing. I couldn't believe my eyes, you could see to the edge of Richmond and beyond (what's that, eastside? South? Bah, I don't know..) The weather wasn't that great though, it was quite gloomy that day.. But it was still a pretty darn good view.

Just checked my blog to see if I've mentioned anything that I thought I have yet to mention and realised the ads are already on my page! Woooohoo, I'm excited to see how much I can make! I'm puzzled as to why I didn't know about this Adsense thing any earlier, I would've signed up a long, long time ago, since I've been blogging for a good 3 years or so.

Lastly, I've signed up to attend an info session night for this local radio station called SYN Radio. It's next Thursday and I'll try to sneak a photo or two but it was quite bizarre as to how I was motivated to sign up. I occasionally tune in on Tuesday nights (cos that's when their K-Pop show is on) but I was too late and ended up catching the J-Pop show instead, which I thought was pretty decent. But what made me cringe was how awkward the hosts got at several parts of the show.. I was like, wow.. This is kinda bad to listen to.. And I started discussing the thought of signing up with a few other bloggers via Twitter and one's signed up, though I'm not sure about the second blogger.. It'd be pretty cool if we had a show together, though it's pretty awkward talking about it since we've never met (well, I haven't met neither of them but they do know each other personally, haha). I'm pretty amused at the thought of being a radio host, since I'm somewhat awkward and shy, but I think I'll manage since you wouldn't be able to see my face :B

Day 280 - My limbs were in so much pain the morning after the ball. It took me a minute to walk from the bathroom to the desk in the hotel room which was probably no more than 20 steps. I felt fine (I don't think I've ever experienced a hangover) but my appetite was long gone. The fun part of my day was that I had to go to school to submit my assignment at school. Unfortunately I didn't bring a pair of comfy shoes so I had to go back home then to school. I felt so... drained :( But otw back from school I came across this (see below). It amazes me how detailed it is! I loooove street art! I wish I could draw/paint.

Day 281 - No photo... Nothing captured my interest.

Day 282 - Caught up with one of my friends, who made me wait about 40 minutes. I saw another friend while I was waiting for my friend who was running late and he kept me company which was kind of him but he had to go. My friend felt really bad, so he treated me to ice-cream. Woohoo! Double happiness @ Passionflower, my all time favourite. I was keen to try another concoction but I seldom change, especially if I'm very familiar with something and I like it a lot. So I just stuck with this dessert, as always..

Day 283 - I went to support my friends at futsal after not going for a few weeks prior because of school & work commitments. Not many other friends went which was a bummer. But it was a close game, it was tied until one of my friends scored within the last 3 seconds of the game!

Day 284 - I was feeling hungry so I decided to buy a pizza. I went on their website to find a phone number but I totally forgot that you could place your order online, so I decided to try it out. It was my first time placing an order online so it was quite new and exciting for me.... I sound like a sad case. I ordered a chicken + feta pizza, which was okay.. I got over it quickly cos I ordered the stuffed crust and the cheese in the crust was similar to the Stringers(?) cheese (that dancing stick of cheese with a cape.. I think) that we all would've eaten at least once back in primary school. Oh and I didn't finish the entire pizza, I admit I can eat a lot but goodness, that's just too much!

Day 285 - My dad and I went to an auctions place to check out cars, he promised he'd buy me my first car! :D To my surprise, there were actually a lot more Toyota Priuses(?) that I anticipated however there weren't many cars other than that that I liked.. I did see a few Subaru Liberties (which I know a close friend really likes and wants) and I thought of buying it just to piss him off, hahaha. But I gotta admit, the interior in the Liberty is quite nice. I suppose it's either a Toyota Prius or Subaru Liberty or possibly a Honda Civic Hybrid for me.. Is that too much for a first car? I honestly don't know, perhaps it's cos not many cars appeal to me. I'm pretty picky..

Just a few cars in and my dad spotted this beautiful thing of a car - a Honda Civic Type R. I REALLY want this car. It was definitely love at first sight! The design, the interior, how slick it is, just everything (sorry for the awful photo, I was trying not to be too obvious in taking a photo of it cos a security guard was lingering nearby). But with Type Rs I realised that they're only manual transmission (well the ones I've seen so far), however I did see that the Honda Civic Si has auto transmission. But they go about $34k? I'm not sure how much they are second hand but I would assume they're still pricey since it was released not too long ago. Sadly I didn't go for manual when I went for my probationary license so this car is useless to me, but I'm determined to drive manual by the time I turn 21 (my backup plan).

Day 286 - No photo, lazy Sunday. I stayed indoors..

Well that's it for this week, sorry I slacked off and missed two days of photos. I just really want this semester to be over, sit my exams and hopefully pass all subjects and board my plane to the US. I really need to get away *holds forehead in distress*

Take care and see you next Sunday!

P.S. R.I.P Steve Jobs. I've seen a lot of stuff about how you were apparently a real jerk or cocky or whatever, but I didn't see any of that.. Many thanks to you, you've changed so many lives for the better, including mine!

P.P.S. Been listening to Frank Ocean's 'Thinking About You' one too many times... Contemplating doing a cover, but it's challenging trying to find a comfortable vocal range, I think my voice is too low for it :(
P.P.P.S. I've changed my blog post layout and limited it to 1 post per page, since I can get quite lengthy in each post. Hope this is easier for your eyes, heh.

I'm gettin' paperrr

2011-10-04T05:46:00.000-07:00

Howdy!

The past week was quite busy for me, despite it being my mid-semester break (which technically wasn't even in the middle of the semester) but I'm glad that week has come and gone.

I finally finished my dreaded Law assignment. I had a lot of trouble wrapping my head around it but it only took me 2-3 days to complete it which wasn't as bad as it first seemed but it still gave me a lot of stress! Having said that, it pretty much took up my entire week when I was meant to be on break and relax and sleep in :(

I also worked my last shift on Sunday. It was so dead when I walked into the office, only about 6 or 7 other people were there and the office generally holds up to 72 agents, so you could imagine how empty it was! So empty I bet we could've fit not one but TWO tumbleweeds! And as soon as I entered the office, one of my friends started talking about shelving. Now for all the kids who don't know what "shelving" is, it's basically sticking drugs up your butt and taking it that way. Apparently it hits you three times harder, or so I heard from that odd conversation. It disgusted yet amused me greatly, and made me think of how I won't be able to hear such vulgar conversations anymore. Part of me wishes I was still there but part of me doesn't because I still have school to worry about and tbh I am so sick of having customers give me attitude and yelling at me when I didn't do anything wrong. Some people are just incredibly mean I guess.

On another note, I finally signed up with Adsense! I decided to apply it for myself even though I knew some of my friends already had ads placed on their blogs. It took me a while but I finally figured out how to navigate myself around and hopefully I'll be able to make some $ since I recently quit my job :( So fingers crossed!

Day 273 - I read a friend's status on FB about Melb Central station having TVs at the train platforms and I thought she meant that they replaced those TVs that display the schedules and could probably kill someone if they dropped, but then I turned around to see this blinding light. WHY? There is NO need for this. How about you improve on the infrastructure of the City Loop instead?

Day 274 - I got bored so I made some scones since I haven't had them in a while. They were delicious!

Day 275 - I caught up with two girlfriends from high school. We ate at a corner cafe on Degraves St where I had a big breakfast. It's so nice being able to talk about things with them that I wouldn't usually mention when I'm with a guy friend, especially with boys and fashion, haha.

It poured like craaaaaaazy afterwards! Andy took me and a few others home by car and it fogged up and smelt of wet dog in seconds! Bleghhh! I got so freaked out by the sudden thunder and lightning too. They're some of my worst fears :'(

Day 276 - Took up the entire dining table to work on my Law assignment. At least my Minho mug gave me a bit of motivation :(

Day 277 - Took my cousin to the Tic Tic II Tour. Apparently the meet and greet was held BEFORE the show but I didn't realise as I assumed meet and greets are meant to happen AFTER the show, since that's what happened for both Boombox events. So we got there like 1hr30mins after the M&G started and they were like "oh no, VIP is over... BUT I guess we can bring you backstage. Hurry, there's no time!" And oh my gosh. I was there for Just Kidding Films but Bart & Joe weren't backstage, I saw Wesley just casually sitting and watching us walk in but I didn't ask for a photo with him. My first photo was with Joseph Vincent but tbh I've never really listened to him so it was kinda awkward hahaha. BUT THEN.. VICTOR KIM WALKED IN AND I DIED FOR A SECOND AND CAME BACK TO LIFE. He was so immaculate, we took group shots with half of Poreotics, JRA, Brian Puspos and Yomamma crew but then the guy who let us in was like "okay guys, you have to go now". I soon said, "WAIT! Um.... is it okay if I get a photo with Victor Kim?" and he said yes and inside I was like

So he came over and he HUGGED me! I always thought he was taller for some reason but then again apparently a lot of people are usually shorter in real life than expected.. He was so friendly, but I was still bummed that Bart & Joe weren't around. It was a pretty cool experience being able to go backstage, so mad thanks to the guy who let me have that exclusive opportunity! I've finally decided to be more productive and actually start making song covers and uploading them onto YouTube. Yes, I too, am hungry for that minute slice of fame too. :(

Just Kidding Films

Brian Puspos & The ArchiTEKS

Yomamma Crew

Victor Kim ahhhhhhhhhh <3

JRA

JRA & Brian Puspos (didn't know of him until the night before when I watched his vid with The ArchiTEKS HAHA but he isn't bad at singing.. Homeboy is talented)

Poreotics (wasn't into them when I first found out about them but now I can distinguish who is who! Not bad I'll say!)

Day 278 - Winded down with a close friend since we've both been caught up in so many things, it was hard to find some time to catch up. We talked about relationships cos that's something we usually don't do very often since we're both awkward people. Max Brenner's white choc chai beverage has such a weird/complex taste, but I always order it.

Day 279 - The big day finally came - AA Ball 2011! It was held at the Crown Palladium and I had high expectations for it since last year's event went off with a huge bang and I really had a good time! However it was so disorganised this year which disappointed me and most likely others greatly. They wouldn't even let two of my friends in because they ran out of wristbands and they had to wait til they were restocked. Smh, management fail. The food wasn't that great either. I think this had an orange/honey mustard sauce on top, it was too sweet so it did not complement the chicken which was so darn dry. The only thing that I enjoyed on this plate was the roasted pumpkin in the far top right corner.

We had profiteroles for dessert and it had no flavour. All I could taste was the caramel on the plate.

Not many photos were taken throughout the night as we danced for a bit (Like A G6 and some other songs were played twice, smh again). I saw a lot of mullet dresses (short in the front, long in the back), some of which were quite nice but others were a disaster. I'm kind of glad I went with something completely different, but mullet dresses aren't my style anyway.

Haha, what a head. We didn't go together like as a date but we decided to match anyway.

Wombat! It's not actually his name btw.. I totally forgot he was attending AA so when he tapped me on the shoulder as I walked past, I was so surprised to see him!

We left the event early because we were all in the mood to drink after a not-so-fun night and weren't sure if there were any liquor stores open. My feet were hurting at this point so it was quite a pain walking around the CBD looking for a store that was still open at 11pm but we found one! We bought a bottle of Southern Comfort, tequila and Grey Goose and played Kings Cup (first time for me!) and Pyramid. For some reason I have the worst luck whenever it comes to drinking games. The last time I played Pyramid, I struck the top of the pyramid which added up to 21 sips.. of beer. I also struck the last King out of like... 10 cards that were left on the table, but thank goodness there wasn't much in the cup or else I probably would've passed out. I don't know how many shots I took but to my surprise I was able to remember the entire night!

Anyway I am incredibly tired, I almost fell asleep in class today and I have never slept in class! So I'll probably just hit the hay after posting this. Hope you're all well! Take care :)

P.S. I changed my URL! It's no longer fagbot.blogspot.com. I thought I'd change it since I use "wallflwr" for every other social networking thingymaboby. Back then you couldn't change your URL if memory serves me correctly but I'm so glad I was able to change it now!