winter hols

finally it dawned upon me that i still have a blog somewhere in here. yea as val realised, i always stop blogging when im in singapore (haha). i was thinking why and finally realise probably because i have lesser time to be alone and to be thinking and reflecting about stuff when im here. everyday's so fast paced and there seem to always have stuff to fill my mind and time with. and one month is almost over, just like that. i need to start preparing myself mentally for both school and melbourne now that the departure date is drawing so close.

hols have been great so far, other than the weather thats giving me random headaches, excessive perspiration and steaming my facial pores ever bigger. aside from that all's well. and i am still not joggingggg alamaks i am so gonna turn into an obsolete runner. haven been jogging for 1 and a half year and the record's still building. :S

i actually wana blog about some issues, but well decide its too heavy and dull. i'll just keep it to myself for now. gonna read twilight now :)

home is...

morning comes around and i cant wait to see my sunny island
in its glorious greenery whether rain or shine its still beautiful

bright lights shine on the streets at night guiding me closer to home
to a place where i know i'll be safe and warm where i belong

friends and family by my side seeing me through as i grow and learn
everyday's experience bitter sweet or sour its still wonderful



home is not feeling second class, home is not feeling intrusion

home is listening to familar accents, home is being around familiar people

home is friends and family

home is chicken rice, bah chor mee, roti prata, wonton mee

home is melting under the sun

home is Yishun Ave * Blk 6** #1*-***

home is SINGAPORE!


i love you singapore! see you in 12 hours time :)

H1N1

allow me to say housework is really the most physically demanding job around the house goodness my entire body is like aching all over.

just spent the entire night cleaning up the kitchen, toilet and a pile of laundry before heading home tmr. seriously, its a job i will only want to do once per semester. im willing to live with the dirtiness as long as i dun have to do cleaning again haha.

and i also just did my packing tonight, everything so last minute lah. wonder why but i still dun really have the i-am-going-home-tmr feel now. and wasnt really as excited as last semester about going home, probably because of swine flu i guess. sigh was really quite annoyed with the fact that the people are so laid back and un-alert here while singapore is being so overly alert and a tad-bit paranoid. they should seriously switch roles lah.

now everybody is so scared of people returning from melbourne like we are all infectious walking viruses. thanks to the constant media publicity yea. "must quarantine for 7 days hor" yea i know where this is coming from and understand the reason behind this, but it makes me feel like im not really welcomed home in a way. so should we all just stay back in melbourne then.

swine flu is not like sars, where when you come to close contact with a sars patient you'll get infected. its like a flu where you'll get it only when your immune system happen to be not that strong during the period of time. like how you'll get a flu from time to time. it may only lead to death if the patient has other illnesses and complications. for a normal person, you can recover from swine even without medication.

im not saying swine is not a big deal because it actually can be if nobody does anything about it (like melbourne! pissed off) and it continues to spread on eventually reaching people who have other illnesses leading to complications. but i feel it shouldnt be treated like SARS where its seen as a deadly and super contagious virus where everybody will die from getting infected.

maybe the media should inform people more about the virus and stop scaring everyone off leading them to think of H1N1 as being another SARS virus. of course im impressed with the singapore authorities for being once again so efficient, probably without those measures the figures could have escalated by so much more. but the attention we are getting is too much. i dont like it at all.

whatever it is i am still happy to be able to go home, i'll wear a mask, okay 2 masks on the way back yea. and will self quarantine for 2 days to be safe. 7 days is really abit too over.

when the hibernation ends

woooo la la la~~~ woooo la la la~~~ (no dont stop me from dancing with the music) woooo la la la~~~ woooo la la la~~~

omg omg omg can you believe that its over!!!! wooo la la la~~~ wooo la la la~~~ teleport me to hawaii now and let me dance with the coconut trees!

phew the last four weeks really really really felt like four thousand years not exaggerating at all. im like ticking the days off everyday this month, wondering how time could pass this slow, and yet this fast.

and as always i did not finish the paper today it was crazy lah how could anyone finish that paper in 2 hours not possible. haven met someone who finished the entire paper yet. din do like 6+8 marks? out of all my four papers i only finished jap, and only feel confident for jap, which ironically i dedicated the least time to preparing for it. overall the papers are relatively okay, like i wasnt stunned by any questions in any of the papers, just tedious, and super time-and-hand-muscles-consuming. i think my left arm and hand muscles grew by almost one time, further strengthening my image of a muscle woman yea. :)

oh wells but nothing could dampen my spirits today! i was sooooo happy that everything is finally over and behind me, that i wouldnt need to gobble textbooks every day and night day and night day and night day and night. i am a freeeeeeeeee little chirpy bird nowwww!

blabbered like i haven talked in one thousand years tonight i think its true yea, that women need to talk alot (cant remember the figures from the email) haha or is it just me. okay fine nvm i dun care i just want to talk and talk, blabber and blabber and be a freeeeeeeee little chirpy bird! heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.

im loving every second of the after exams period! no pain no gain yea. without hibernating you wouldn't know how to appreciate the goodness of being back under the sun or back to the world where everyone lives. im lovin it! (nope not providing free advertising for the big M)

and i really love melbourne! love the fact that its home to sucha wide variety of cuisines. :) i've been craving korean for a really long time, to the extent the first thing i feel like doing when i reach singapore is to have korean food. and then tonight we had korean for dinner! but the main point is that it was good! omg duno if it was authentic korean but i should think so? had barbeque meat, kind of like seoul garden? where you have to barbeque pieces of meat on a stove-like thing. it was so awesome lah! ten thumbs up (wait do i have ten thumbs? no only two okay two thumbs up) or maybe because i was craving for korean?! haha. and those free flow of side dishes like kimchi, baked potato, beansprouts and this seaweed thing that tasted like coleslaw but crunchier, omg heavenly. it didnt help to satisfy my cravings though, kind of increased my craves for more korean! :D

as if dinner wasnt good enough, dessert at Greco's was out of the world! we had a fruit tart and banana cake and didnt know simple pastries like a fruit tart and banana cake could taste so good. it's like the best fruit tart and banana cake we've ever eaten (no exaggeration here, quality assured by all of us)! the fruits were really fresh and crunchy, there're like grape, strawberry, peach and kiwi on it. everything from the tart crust to the cream (do you call it cream im not sure) to the fruits are absolutely delicious. you could just dig into the cream and eat it on its own and dont feel disgusted by it. as for banana cake, well the cake was really thick with flavour and there were chunky bite-sized bananas in between the cake layers, and the cream was flavoured with a light tinge of hazelnut i think, perfect combi for a banana cake! at least the whole thing won't taste too banana-ish.
gosh i realise i can be a food critic already lah haha. anyone wants me to try out their dishes? ;)

so what is the best therapy for overworking? i would say food and retail therapy worked best for me. haha! excuses to over indulge excessively and buy things only lah.

continuing tonight's good food journey we'll be having HK dim sum tomorrow! haha! now you know why i say i love melbourne being the home to so many different kinds of cuisine. :) i think im having more dim sum here than i've had in singapore lah. but really really want to have it, especially after watching masterchef australia on sunday night, they went hong kong to learn how to make dim sum! haha! how cool is that.

lucky me i saved quite abit this month by cooking in most of the time, saving quite a bit to allow for the food and retail therapy which is going to start soon yea. haha!

to harry potter, well i would be glad to do anything other than staying around with my texts! i think i need to start cleaning up my apartment? which is in a much worse state than you've seen last sem haha! oppps. and hmmm, maybe go jogging and feel healthy? read a book? watch some shows? i duno! so much on the list i duno which to start. anything other than studying! heees.

ohhhhhh another thing before i end off, so you think you can, dance dance dance dance US is backkkkkkkkkk! gosh i totally loved last season's one lah, and looking forward to seeing more routines this season. and finally, i can watch with a peace of mind, without feeling guilty, unproductive and bad about spending time watching tv. well im gonna spend all my free nights watching random tv shows all i want i dont care and make it all up for the guilty-ness of watching tv last few weeks!

i like this idea of having lotsa free time to rot away and feeling good about it. ;)

almost there

I AM ALMOST THERE!!! HAHA! :)))))))))))))

this moment, been looking forward to for so long, its here!!! haha! woohoo~ i finished three papers yea, almost there, almost! :)

so much's going on in the brain, so much's going on in heart, so much's going on in the body, so much so i just felt like stoning till the world turn stone!

goodness how can anyone survive marketing and management majors there's so much to read so much to disintegrate so much to memorise so much write!

i thought marketing was bad enough yesterday, until today's management paper, poof! its terrible! like media channel has maximum capacity, my hand has a maximum writing capacity too yea! i can only write this much within a minute! haven written as much since A's economics paper and the sourness in the hand! my goodness cant get that degree of sourness even by pouring lemon juice on it! my handwriting was barely legible, especially marketing. i din even had time to phrase my sentences and points properly. all i remembered was start writing since they said start and only stopped when they said stop. i had so many points in my head bursting to jump onto the paper but my hands cant cope with the speed of thought! if only we could type our answers! 2H totally felt like 2 minutes (okay maybe im being a little exaggerating but the idea is there) arhhh sucks. both the marketing and management papers werent hard for me, pretty sure if i managed to write everything i had in mind i would do quite well. :SSSSS there goes my H1 :(

and yea preparation for marketing is daunting because its everywhere! like i cant even watch a program in peace without linking the advertisements to advertising theories they're based on. and operations management, its a constant refresh of memory for points even when im not studying. all in all both subjects are so physically and emotionally draining! and now im so so so so so so so (cant stress enough) glad that its over!

japanese was okay :) had sucha a long day today i was turning stony at the end of jap paper. oh yea i had marketing paper yesterday afternoon, management this morning and jap in the afternoon. that explains why im so stressed out before and so happy and relieved now yea. hooo what kind of exam time table is this. can die man. of course now im feeling damn shiok but before that~~~~~

had to stock up large amount of coffee and set 3 alarms haha oh and i have a friend who has exam clash as well, so we had to stay in the exam venue for the entire day, since 9am till 4.15pm when our second paper end. and i was telling her how i had to drink coffee and set 3 alarms to survive these 2 days and to our amuse she did the same thing too! haha! lotsa caffeine, 1 handphone alarm, 1 bedside alarm clock, 1 alarm clock at the dining table (so we had to get up walk over to switch off) set at different intervals. she had one more human alarm though, she asked her mum to call her haha damn bad that would only be 5am in sing! i was so scared i couldnt wake up i even scrolled up the curtain before i slept yesterday night for sunlight to shine in so i wouldnt continue sleeping like a dead log when the alarms go off.

:))

last econs paper next monday to being a free little chirpy bird! heeees.

changes in life

this is definitely a very wrong time to be here now but my mind is bursting with thoughts i just had to come do this post.

as i was studying marketing, here's one definition of one of the concepts. Learning: learning refers to changes in our thought processes and behaviour caused by information and experience.

changes occur within us so subtly we may not even notice or realise the change when it happened, but somehow bit by bit, through the different exposures and experiences in life, we are changing.

looking at the album done up by xiuhui, 'the times we shared, the times we missed' and thinking back, the changes that took place within me in the last one and a half years suddenly just became obvious to me. cant quite really come up with something concrete about how and in what way i've changed, in a way, i just know i had changed.

then we were in high school, so young, so energised, so ambitious. dreaming about making something big happen. dreaming about leaving a legend when we leave. even though we had so much on our list everyday, even though it means we only will have a few hours of sleep everyday, we were still so passionate about doing what we were determined to do, and along the way supporting each other as some tripped and fall.

thinking back i kinda envied those days. even though i felt like a walking zombie walking into the school gate every morning (it really felt like i was floating instead of walking then!), at least i had a fire burning inside my heart to keep me going. at least i knew someone will be supporting me if i really fall. at least i knew at the end of the day everything will be worth it when we can finally say we lived our dream. we are not 'all talk no actions!" we created a memory which can last us a life time. a memory of a group of us during high school, trying to be the best we can be instead of simply wasting our youth and energy fooling around, sitting around in the cafe, letting precious moments pass by and not doing anything.

you know sometimes when people look back into their past they would say, "if only i had done this..", "if only i could be...", "if only i can turn the clock around...", now looking back at mine i wouldnt say any of those things. because i knew if i were to go back to that period of time again, i would do just the same thing as i had done. ahh, feeling nostalgic.

where is the fire that was burning inside me just 2 years ago? where is the passion about living life to the fullest now?

coming to melbourne exposed me to a wide variety of people, and they are so different from the group i knew back home. to put it in a nice way, the people i met here are individuals, to put it in a not-so-nice way, they are cold and self-conscious. cold doesnt mean unfriendly you know. we will still ask how each other are, we can still talk when we see each other, but you can feel that the relationship is not concrete, its not something you can build on. you know the relationship will end as you leave the class/school. its kinda, plastic. plastic convo, plastic reactions, plastic face. is this part of growing up? is this part of adult life? that people closes up and are not as simple to get along with as they ages? or is it just here?

so sometimes during moments before i fall asleep, i'll think back to our odac days, with a smile of course, about how simple we were then, working towards a common goal. and the friendships, relationships forged, they were so real.

and i also recalled the feeling of adrenaline rush whenever we're implementing our major activites, not forgetting the biggest adrenaline rush i've experienced when i was the ic for SS teambuilding. in a way thinking back, it felt quite shiok. not the being ic part of course, its the adrenaline rush. haha. and after recalling everything, i'll wonder if anybody thinks back about odac like i do now. if people still remember this part of the journey we went through together while they create new ones with their uni friends. and also thinking if the reason i kept thinking about the past is because im not creating new memories now. and these thoughts kept floating in my mind until i fall asleep.

and then here comes xiuhui's emo post about odac. writing just about the exact same thoughts i've had in my mind all this while. quoting her, "maybe to some of you.odac was nv that impt to u.or maybe some of you have forgotten.maybe momentarily distracted.or maybe.just maybe IM the one who has not moved on."

you know in the past, it was minqi whose thoughts i always coincide with. like when i go read her blog, i will find that she's thinking about the same thing as i am. and will be so, i cant seem to find an appropriate word to describe this feeling, the feeling that someone is with you, someone is thinking about something you've been thinking of, some sort of assurance, some sort of happiness, and some sort of excitement. a combination of all these i guess. and i thought this kind of coincidence would too fade off as we have less in common. until xiuhui's post on this, it brought back this kind of feeling once again. the combination of happiness, assurance and excitement.

"please don't let us die off.I miss you guys."

thank you xiuhui, for the post, for the album, for not forgetting us, while in the midst of making new friends and creating new memories with your uni friends. leng leng ah! :)

are we monkeys?

arhhhhhhhhhhhhhh to hell the exam stress. exams should be scrapped!!!! :SSSS

was having a quick dinner (of leftover pasta from yesterday) just now and watched a half hour show called 'the zoo'. it basically films what the zoo keepers are doing at the zoo and shows the daily operations of a wildlife hospital. part of the show today showed the keepers taking care of a baby monkey being deserted by its mother.

wonder why but the more i looked at monkeys, the more i think we humans look like them! i was thinking, probably we could just be a different species of monkeys, and over the years evolved to become what we are today.

i know there's this model and theory on this by some scientist already but you cant confirm yea.

so are we monkeys?

hmmm...

p.s it has been raining every day and night for this past week, adding on to the bleakness of this gloomy winter. i haven seen sunshine in awhile...

*wrap myself with blanket*

back to the book

the cooking journey

haissssss

no feel, no feel at all to study. HOWWWW

tried cooking char siew pork today and hmm, the steps seem easy, like there're only 2 steps involve, but i mess it up! may look easy to cook yea, but its not. i burnt it cause the fire was too big, but i already put lowest fire alreadysssssssss. :(
since last sem when i first tried cooking cauliflower, i've never burnt any of my food until this. ultimate sianness. and it was too salty, cause i put too much seasoning.

we tried making chinese dumplings last friday and made chicken rice yesterday. firstly the dumplings, :S. can only use this face to describe. damn sian, despite all our efforts in making everything from scratch, the skin's too thick and the filling's rather tasteless. not enough seasoning i guess.

oh and i tried making corn soup too. hmm corn and potato soup. surprisely it turn out to be great! :)) just that i cant chop the corn cob, damn hard. in the end the whole thing as in the whole corn cob just had to go into the soup as it is.

chicken rice was okay. :)

okay can you sense my lowness now?

i am going low low low low low low~~

while i was cooking just now i was thinking, if 20 30 years later i would recall myself cooking char siew pork or whatever dishes for the first time in my life, then what i will remember is whatever im doing now.

as :S as cooking can get, i think if i've never come over, i would probably still not know how to cook dishes other than maggi and egg.

hmm

and i think im starting to like this place a little more each day.. the crazily unstable hot and cold weather (cause you're hot and you're cold~ you're yes and you're no~ you're in and you're out~ you're up and you're down~), the strong wind that drive your hair all over, the days which start getting dark at 5, the romantic balding autumn trees with yellow droppy leaves and so much more...

and i like this semester at school. i like the subjects im taking now - marketing :) i like my classmates in tutorials. i even enjoyed those assignments, though at the point when i was doing i was quite grumpy and angsty (yea referring to my previous post haha). :)

this sem had been very hectic, busy, but fun and fulfilling at the same time. arhh really dont want it to end. because end of semester means exams. but then again, end of exams means singapore.

end of sem = exams
exams = singapore

if only end of sem = singapore (its mathematically right!), i would really look forward to the end of semester then.

one litre of tears

exactly one month since my last post. :)

i finally finished the biggest assignment i've had so far, a 3000 words managing operations report. so this is what i've been doing for the entire weekend, friday saturday sunday. -.- totally stressed out over it. and what 3000 word limit, always set a limit and dun follow, exclude this exclude that. in the end include everything my entire report has like 3800 words. neways whatever it is im done with it.

had jap listening test today haha, can die. totally can see 3D question marks popping out of my head. i think im so gonna fail.

and there's still marketing report and econs essay before im done with assignments.. hais ultimate sian-ness. if this is boring you, its boring me too! i also dun want to blog about studies!!! :(

for the first time in my life i cried so much yesterday. and if i were to collect them in a pail, i think i'll get one litre of tears. haha. if you read on you'll be like chey. haha.

yes i watched one litre of tears yesterday after finishing my operations report. wanted to take a break and dilute my brain abit after all those nonsense. when choosing which show to watch, i chose a jap show to make myself feel better, hmm at least its a form of listening practice too k! ha and in the end what a terrible mistake i've made.

totally cannot stop watching! immediately from epi 1 cry all the way to epi 11. haha so lousy. to think before this i always laugh at people who cry while watching shows. but really! this kinda illness + family ties show, i cannot resist. haha. in the end wake up this morning, erms afternoon, got puffy and swollen eyes. my eyes are already very small k! dun make it any smaller.

btw its getting really cold here. think winter has arrive early. there's one night the temperature suddenly drop to 2.9 degrees. coldest night in 56 years. im like freezing everyday, especially the few minutes when you off the tap but body's still wet after showering. woah. dun even want to think about it.

and im sick yet again. sianssssss (heehee i like to put lotsa sssssssss). flu only lah, not swine flu. haha. yesterday while watching the show im still wondering if my block nose is because of the show or because im sick. hmm probably because im sick. haha!

oh and and and, i booked my air ticket already. :) will be going back on 28 june sunday, and returning on 28 july monday. one month exactly. just got the exam timetable today and i have 2 papers in one day! siao liaoss! 22 june being the last day of exams. wait for me 28 june! heehee :)

updates

haha i almost forgot that i have a blog! totally no feel to blog these few weeks. anyways life has been pretty much the same, revolving around school, tutorials, test and hell, assignments!!! siansss. this sem has been rather hectic so far, and according to plan, it will be even more hectic with jap speaking, listening tests, major assignments for all other subjects. but luckily that's after easter break.

week 5's finished and after this coming week 6, it'll be easter break for a week!! :)) yayyyys i love holidays! :)) my parents and sister will be visiting bala at brisbane this easter break and i'll be joining them there too from tuesday to sunday!! hees i cant wait! 11 days more. :)

sidenote/ what the heck my neighbour's having a party at his house now which is irritating me more and more. get a club will you. crazy ass blasting the whole building with those clubbing music. its 12.15am already okay!

anyways, i also duno what to update about. blogging is getting more and more meaningless, like im blogging for the sake of blogging. or maybe its just my neighbour. make me lose all the feel i have.

went bridge road today for a shopping spreeeee!! haha so exciting. they've got lotsa good buys there i think. sales and good bargains. one thing though, the shops closes too early, by 5.30pm everywhere's closed! :( so sad can only walk past those window front and look inside longingly. definitely gonna revisit that place again. hees.

oh i remember what i wanted to blog about already! haha hope its not boring you, but i want to talk about the weather!! last few weeks had been so sunny and hot here that i've secretly longed for the weather to turn cold. especially yesterday night, it was 28degrees. i know 28 sounds like an okay weather but duno why it feels so hot here, like even hotter than normal singapore's 28degrees. anyways~~ yea was just secretly hoping cause i dun want it to be too cold either haha. in the end today immediately turn damn cold. its was like raining sheeps and cows (cats and dogs). or rather its not a rain, its a storm!!

and i got splashed on the pavement while waiting to cross the road after school. imagine the pool of water by the roadside. after that i decided to walk to my friend's place to meet up with her before setting off to bridge road together, and at first it was still like drizzling, within minutes the rain turned into a storm goodness! half of my body got wet within that few minutes of walk. like i could squeeze out water off my top after that. to think that i was using umbrella. really terrible. and i don't bother jumping to avoid pools of water on the ground anymore because that's mission impossible. i just waddled my way through (quack quack).

there's this night market thingy in school tonight too organised by the overseas student society. like a big pasar malam selling international food. there's curry puff, roti prata, beancurd, nasi lemak, satay, glutinous rice and much much more, too much to name all. hee and we took lotsa jumpshots in school tonight. along one romantic corridor/paveway we've always liked. probably our favourite spot or place in school. really very nice. nice ambience. :)

and im happyyyy now (:D happy must smile) after the retail and chocolate therapy. haha. im recharged and ready to chiong my tutorials and econs essay this weekend already. good luck to me. :)

ps. yoohoo the party has stopped! finally... :)

pps.

oh i wana share something interesting!! almost forgot about it because it happened like 2 weeks ago.

one fine sunny and cloudless thursday i was on my way to school at around 12plus close to 1. i stepped out of my house and started walking to school, at first i just looked around as i walk and saw in the sky, 2 patches, hmm should i say patches, or 2 clouds which had a really interesting cloud shape. they're in a shape of J and O. its very obvious because the sky was luminous blue and there're totally no clouds in the sky. yea as i said it was a cloudless day. i found it weird but didnt give it much thought as i was running late. so i stepped up and turn into the next street where my school was. and the next time i look up into the sky again, there were more of those weird shaped clouds. it became J-O-J-O M-A-R-R

and at that moment i couldnt believe my eyes. SOMEONE WAS PROPOSING IN THE SKY! damn romantic cannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. omg and rich!!! what the heck. haha. everybody on swanston st just stopped by and looked. haha. it was a funny sight cause normally in the day that street is always quite busy. and that day i happen to not have my camera with me!!! if not can take a photo of it lah. i guess full msg was jojo marry me. i looked closely again and saw a small white jet piping smoke, writing the message in the sky. when i was looking it was in the midst of writing Y. haha. damn cool lah. wonder if jojo said yes. :)