`Its You I live for everyday

2012-01-17T01:51:00.002+11:00

"For everything there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven;
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away old stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew,
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace." -Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

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"... a time to break down, and a time to build up"

This is it, I'm ready to move on. Goodbye you.

2011-03-02T20:20:00.002+11:00

Dreamt of you just now. You came down to surprise me for my birthday. And gave me a present. I was really happy, you know that? Even if it was during my sleep. When I woke up I still had a lingering of that happiness. Then reality sunk in and it was gone. It made me realise that maybe, subconsciously, I still want you. Even though I try to tell myself to let go. Why is it so hard?

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If I could have just one wish, could it be you?

2011-02-24T04:44:00.002+11:00

In less than 24 hours' time I'll be on the plane, heading back to Melbourne to start my second year as a university student. Currently still trying to pack and its proving to be as nightmarish as all the past times.

It struck me though, as I was turning my room upside down, that this is how us students studying abroad live. We're constantly packing and unpacking our belongings, travelling back and forth our homes in different countries. Then I start to wonder, where exactly is my real 'home'? I guess you'd say that its where your friends and family are, or where you grew up. But then again, during the time that we're studying abroad, most of the time is spent in the country we're studying in. So would 'home' be considered the place where you spend most of your time in? Or can one have two places to call home? Singapore/Melbourne. Which is it?

Well, its back to packing for me. But I thank God for the nice long break in Singapore that just flew past right before me, for giving me the chance to meet up with friends and spend time with family.

May 2011 bring wonderful discoveries, awesome experiences and kick-ass academic results (heh heh)!

xoxo

2011-02-12T01:44:00.004+11:00

Found a blog post that talks about some happy memories of growing up in the 90's.. Click here to read it. You won't regret it. (:

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Sitting, waiting, wishing.

2011-02-10T01:10:00.003+11:00

I cried.

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Seeing you last night made me realise how much you mean to me. I almost forgot what it felt like to be with you, and it brought back those feelings that had been suppressed all this while. It struck me that I really don't want to lose you, that my feelings for you haven't changed one bit. I guess the finality of your leaving made it so unbearable, so I cried. And I've come to the decision that my feelings won't ever change.

2011-02-08T02:29:00.000+11:00

One.

2011-02-06T02:44:00.001+11:00

Counting down the days.
There're only three left.

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I tell myself: what do I have to lose? Then I think about everything and realise that maybe I really do have some at stake.

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The harder I try the more it backfires on me.

2011-01-31T02:38:00.002+11:00

My great grandmother passed away last Wednesday on 26 January. She was 96 and I guess you could say that she was finally called home to be with the Lord. Been attending the wake at Harum over the past couple of nights, and it was pretty comforting and heartwarming to see all the family reuniting together for support. It was nice to see everyone again, especially since I wasn't around last year for CNY and that, apart from Lao Ma's annual birthday dinner (which come to think of it, its been three years since I last attended it), that's the only time in the year when I get to see my mum's side of the family. Its nice to see that all my grand aunts are still as jovial and crazy as ever, and it was awesome to catch up with Sam and Pei Ling again.

I wasn't close to my great grandmother at all, and like I said, the only times in a year when I'd see her would be during CNY and at her birthday dinner. But it was during those times when I did that she'd always hold my hand tightly and say two words to me whenever I saw her, and that was "Very pretty" in Hokkien. Obviously, as a young child, and as someone who can only manage English fluently, I had to get my grand aunts to translate what she said, but I remember being very happy and pleased whenever I heard her say that to me. After that I'd run off and play with my brother and cousins, but she'd always sit there quietly observing the family around her. I guess you could say that she was a staple figure in my mum's side of the family, someone who was always there and seemed to live forever. God really blessed her with such a long life, and a healthy one at that. Its also because of her that the whole Koh family is so close. Everyone coming together to visit her and catch up with one another. I guess its a gift that she left with all of us. And even though I didn't really know her, looking back now I'm truly thankful for her. I just hope that the family will still remain as close, and that we'll all continue her legacy and meet up consistently with everyone.

So goodbye, Lao Ma. I'll really miss you. But I know you're having a ball of a time up there in Heaven with your husband, God, Jesus and the angels. Thanks for everything you've given us, and till we meet again, I love you.

xoxo

2011-01-05T21:46:00.014+11:00

If its one thing that 2010 taught me, its that freedom really does taste sweet. That kind of sweetness that once you're used to it, you don't ever wanna go back to that level of blandness that came before. I think its because of the time I've spent living abroad in Melbourne. I had nobody around to control my life, to set curfews or to nag. In an obvious way, its awesome because I could run my life with minimal restrictions from my parents. But I guess it was so sweet and enticing that I'm so used to it now. My life in Singapore just totally suffocates me.

But anyway, 2010 was a fantastically ass-whoopingly awesome year for me. I enjoyed it so much that I think I'll elaborate on the main highlights below.. (:

University
I finally embarked on my real journey in studying abroad. I don't count foundation as much, since it felt like I was taking the easy way into university.. Ha. So yeah, my real journey - university life. I must say, when I first started Year 1, it was a whole new experience to me. Wasn't used to how the classes were run (tutorials and lectures) and how you can go to class late and nobody gives a whoot. HAHA ok well, its all really independent-based learning, and the tutors don't spoonfeed you at all! So different from what I'm used to in Singapore where the teachers basically give you whatever info you need to know. Over in university its like, you need to know this, so go to the library and do your own research. Oh, and we call our tutors by their first names too, so that was a big hurdle for me to cross. Felt so rude calling them by their first names! But I guess since I was studying in an angmo country, I gotta do what the Romans do.

Chisholm
Chisholm was also a great milestone in my life overseas so far. Moving out of the sheltered life in Glenn and into the more mature Chisholm certainly made me realise the importance of being able to fend for yourself. In other words, cook. Haha yeah you could say that by making the move to Chisholm I threw myself into the deep end of the pool because I never really cooked much prior to that. Apart from Home Econs in my Lower Secondary school days (I still remember my awesome-tasting but shitty-looking mee goreng that I made hahaha) and occasionally helping my aunt stir fried rice in a wok, I didn't cook. But I discovered that I fortunately was not one of those people who, despite being thrown into the deep pool, still cannot cook even if their lives depended on it. I still remember my first meal cooked in Chisholm - stir fried bok choy in oyster sauce, tamagoyaki and the bestest tasting stir fried beef in oyster sauce. Haha call it beginner's luck, but at least I didn't burn anything! And being in-charge of cooking meals for not only me, but for Tine, Gen and Polly made me realies the importance of a chef. HAHA idk if that made sense but whatever. I did have fun cooking for them and trying out new things (:

I'm pretty happy I moved to Chisholm, anyway. Its more homely and welcoming than how Glenn felt when I stayed there. I guess its mainly because there are so much more locals in Glenn, and they're not exactly the friendliest bunch. Over at Chisholm, the internationals to locals ratio was probably like what, 5:1? But even so, the locals in Chisholm were so much friendlier. Also, the people in Chisholm were mostly slightly older than those at Glenn, so that made the environment in Chisholm more mature. People knew how to party and drink too, but everyone did it pretty much more responsibly than at Glenn.

I think the best part about Chisholm was getting to meeting so many new friends. And I was blessed with the most awesome floormates one could ever have. Though I guess we were pretty much a bunch of mis-matched people, but put together we rocked 12C. (: Paolo with his ability to fix whatever computer problem you have (and also produce whatever movie/TV show you want), CJ and his random pranks on everyone, Clo stabbing at her potato kids (LOL), Steven forever being a loser (hahahaha), Shelby and her Asian jokes whenever she's had one drink too many and Christelle being perpetually bubbly and bouncy and radiating happiness. Really had fun with those guys. And I miss them so much! ): But I thank God I had the opportunity to live with them. (:

SingSoc
Joined the SingSoc exco committee for 2010 and took on the role as social representative! Saw me organising outings, events and sending out e-mails to the members. Learnt how to use Google Documents and create forms too, which is something pretty cool, I must say. (: Anyway this was my first stint as part of an exco, so it was a nice new experience. I really had a lot of fun working with the other excos, and I'm sure we're all really proud of our achievements, however unrecognised, as a team. And hopefully we've done enough to leave behind a legacy (lol) of awesomeness in SingSoc!

I do realise that social rep is pretty much quite an enjoyable job for me hehee (:

Road trip to the Gramps
In the mid-semester break of Semester 2, Tine, Gen, Lynal and I went up to the Grampians for a 4D3N road trip. Tine, Lynal and I initially planned to go to Sydney, but since Tine's mum didn't allow for it, we settled on the Gramps instead and Gen tagged along. I can't remember why I didn't do a post on this trip, but let's just say that it was simply amazing and something I will never ever forget. From long drives and chats in the car, going on whatever hikes we could squeeze into each day, horseback riding, restaurant hunting, star gazing and cam-whoring in the middle of a pitch-black country road, prancing around fairy flower fields, basking in God's creation, and basically just enjoying each others' awesome company. I really miss those times, when we could be so carefree and happy out there in the middle of nature. Plus it was my first ever road trip. (: Thank you God for the amazing experience!

God
Another highlight of 2010 was that I think my spiritually dry period somewhat ended. Or at least it began to not look so bleak (what horrible grammar, omg). Though it happened in the second half of the year, I guess its better than nothing. Due to some people, I suddenly realised the importance of living a Godly life and walking close to Him. And I felt that I had to set an example, and that fueled me with the drive to want to do something about my situation. So that kinda led me to make the move to change church, to attend FOCUS again (after what, a year?) and to read the Bible and pray more. My prayer for 2011 is that my wak with God will not falter, and that He will use me in ways that I never perceived possible.

you
And then there's you. I wouldn't say I'd ever regret meeting you. I've never really been so close to anyone, and even though its only been a short period of time, there's always that longing to be with you. We fight all the time: I get angry, you get annoyed, and so many times I wanted to give up. But I tell myself that there's more to this than our grievance, there's the little random moments when you make me so happy and vice versa. When you hold me and make me feel like I can take on anything the world throws my way. I really don't know what the future holds, especially when it concerns the two of us. And even though I want it to happen this way, I doubt it will. But I just thank God for blessing me with the chance to have shared some really special moments with you. ilu.

2010-12-23T15:51:00.002+11:00

I just want a normal healthy relationship. Is that too much to ask?

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My happiness is fleeting.

2010-12-21T21:14:00.002+11:00

Finally met up yesterday. (:

Spent the time cleaning his room, and getting used to each other's presence again. One and a half months later I still feel the same. (: If only I had more freedom..

iloveyou.

2010-12-12T23:49:00.002+11:00

First day in Bangkok's coming to a close. Spent the whole day walking and shopping, and I'm happy because I got quite a few accessories for myself, and three shirts. Pretty much too dead to do anything else now. Waiting for Fang to be done with the shower, and Brian and Puay to come over so we can play Monopoly Deal together. Then gonna crash and sleep my troubles away.

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What's this missing from my life?

Oh wait, its just you.

2010-12-12T04:33:00.003+11:00

Its raining outside now. I want to run out and cry. And let the waters from heaven wash away my tears and troubles.

Oh Lord, give me strength.

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Heading off to Bangkok in a couple of hours' time with Brian, Puay and Jingfang. I hope the trip's a good one. I need something to distract me.

xoxo

2010-12-08T20:39:00.003+11:00

I wish it wasn't so hard. I wish it could be normal and happy, how it should really be. But we can't last a week or two without you getting angry at me. I'm getting tired. Its draining, and runs me down. And I'm starting to hate it.

Why? Why can't you just be more understanding?

All I want is to love and be loved in return. After all, isn't that the best thing that could happen?

2010-11-23T02:23:00.002+11:00

Okay I know I totally suck at maintaining my blog.. My fault for being uninspired and unmotivated to talk about my everyday life. Actually no, I think I was just being plain lazy, which is what I am all the time. So yeah haha kudos to me.

Anyway its been a week since I got back to Singapore for my summer break from Melbourne.. Finally got through my first year in university, with all its ups and downs. But that's a different story and I'll save it for the mandatory pre(or post)-New Year post.

Even though I came back in July, it feels as if I haven't been back since last year. Singapore's changed so much, I've changed so much. Weather's still as shitty as I remember, with the heat and humidity. I swear its so suffocating, I feel like I'm gonna die from an asthma attack every time I breathe. Though no, I don't suffer from asthma. Makes me miss Melbourne even more! Which leads me to the point of why I miss Melbourne like hell and not so for Singapore. True, Singapore is where my family and most of my friends are. True, its where I grew up. But after experiencing truly what life in Melbourne is - after a year and a half - its struck me how much I've come to love the lifestyle in Melbourne. The easiness of everything: people, the pace of life. People are less judging there, or so I feel. Everyone's free to have their own unique style, and you can walk down the street without having people stare at you and give you the look-over. Neither does that make you a nobody. You get to see so many different styles that having your own just makes you part of the tapestry of characters that make up Melbourne. And everyone's just so friendly! If you'd exclude the occasional racist.. But that's not very often unless you're out in the further suburbs. So yeah, the people are just so easy-going and nice to talk to. Everyone says hi to you when you walk in shops, and asks how you are. Even though it may just be an automatic phrase that everyone says, and even if they don't really care how your day is, this simple gesture just lifts your spirits and causes you to at least smile back (unless you're super unfriendly tsk). And I think prolonged exposure makes you an overall happier person in public. Another thing I love is how everyone says thank you to the bus driver whenever they alight. Another simple gesture that not only builds courtesy, but also forms a bond between commuter and driver. Even though the drivers may change, it just makes everyone's manners generally more pleasant. Now every time I alight from an SBS bus here I automatically turn to say thank you to the driver but then I catch myself before my fellow Singaporeans label me as a weirdo. Sad, isn't it?

Though I may have mentioned how studying abroad opens your eyes to the things in Singapore that have been taken for granted, I've come to realise how, on the other hand, it also makes you aware of the areas that need vast improvement in our country. I guess its like a buy-1-get-1-free thing.. But then again no country is perfect, and neither is Singapore nor is Melbourne. So I guess its up to you to decide which country's lifestyle and character best suits you. Though choosing a country other than Singapore is mighty hard. Just think of all the cheap good food that you'll be sacrificing! Give and take, I guess. Haha.

Well okay, enough on Singapore/Melbourne differences. On to my life! Since I've been back, I've met up with some friends, gone out discovering Orchard with Tine (yes, I can hardly recognise the place now), eaten like a shameless pig, and baked in the heat. Started work at my uncle's eye clinic today, and I realise that its the third year in a row that I've worked there. And I've seen it grow to have four locations now! Gotta earn money to finance myself during my time in Singapore.. Hurr so many things to buy!! And I'm going to BKK in December too. Gotta savesavesave if I wanna buy clothes to give my wardrobe its much-needed boost! And to buy a new compact camera since I killed my faithful Canon Ixus 60 while playing mini golf at the Grampians during my epic roadtrip with Tine, Gen and Lynal.. Haha good, good times.

Alrighty then. Will update another time about my life in Melbourne. Really hope I don't slack off and let my blog rot again.

Cheerios!
xoxo

2010-10-25T00:31:00.001+11:00

If I walk would you run
If I stop would you come
If I say you're the one
Would you believe me
If I ask you to stay
Would you show me the way
Tell me what to say
So you don't leave me

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The best thing I can do now is to try.

2010-09-02T12:01:00.003+10:00

When life hands you lemons, throw them back and say, "I WANT ORANGES, DAMMIT."

So yeah, I'm just gonna throw back whatever lemons that life is throwing at me right now. Not gonna change my mind, neither am I gonna try to be understanding. Call me a bitch but whatever. I still want you to be happy, but not this way. Too awkward, too weird. Don't try to understand my view, anyway. You're too caught up in the rush to see it. Though sadly, it seems like you're the only one who can't. But whatever, not like it'll change anything and I don't want to be the reason why things don't work out.

I'll just wait and see. Just wait.

And I'll be here if you need anything.

xoxo

2010-08-18T17:31:00.004+10:00

Sunsets.

The one part of the day where the sky is thrown into an array of vivid colours and sings in praise to the Creator. Well, apart from sunrises but I prefer sunsets because its not at an unearthly hour and it signals rest. (: After coming to Melbourne, I've had the wonderful opportunity of experiencing gorgeous sunsets from the simple view of my window against my school's backdrop. It isn't the most beautiful backdrops for a sunset to be viewed from, but the sunsets in itself are so breathtaking that nothing else matters anymore. As I'm typing this, the world outside my window is singing gold and blue, and the remaining sunrays are shining on the leaves of the tree by my window, casting them with a pretty golden sheen. The wind is blowing, and golden-lined clouds waft across the blue-grey sky. Birds chirp and get ready for bed, and I'm nice and warm in my room with the presence of God surrounding me. What more can I ask for? (:

Terribly sorry for neglecting my poor blog, anyway. Got really lazy and uninspired to write anything. Wanted to keep track of my 2 week break in Singapore with pictures and all, but as usual I was caught up with activities and stuff. But going back to Singapore was totally worth it, even if it was just for a measly two weeks. And although I didn't manage to catch up with some of my friends which was a bummer, I did do the things that I wanted to do (apart from eating chilli crab boo) and spent quite a bit of time with my maternal grandparents who ever-so-kindly sponsored my trip back. (:

School has been pretty alright I guess.. Semester 1 came and went so fast that its scary how year 1 in university is coming to an end. Thank God for bringing me through the first half of the year anyway. He blessed me with awesome friends, and relatively decent grades for my exams. Phew. Hahaha and now as I enter the middle of week 4 of semester 2, I just hope that He will continue to guide me as I learn to be a better physiotherapist. May He bless me with wisdom and discipline too! Really need the latter, especially haha I cannot afford to slack off the way I did in semester 1. /:

One of the highlights of semester 2 is that Sab's joined me in Melbourne! Initially was supposed to do foundation at Trinity, but now she's in Melbourne University doing some mass comm course. Whichever the case I'm just glad that we're finally in the same country with no more time difference. (: And although its been more than a month since she came, sometimes I just can't believe that we're no longer in different countries and it makes me very happy. (: There's something very warming and reassuring about having your best friend close by even though you may not see her a lot. Love you Sabs. (:

Anywayzz its time I go continue my research for my SDH essay on eggs and cholesterol.. And my group is killing me I wish they would take me initiative in things ugh. Shouldn't have taken my semester 1 group for granted! We totally rocked last semester haha ohwellllll. Hopefully I won't let my poor blog rot off again. Haha alrighty.

Cheerios
xoxo

2010-05-04T15:30:00.008+10:00

Gotta love it when I'm at home and the weather outside's about to storm. Love the crisp coolness of the air, the strong blowing winds and the fact that I'll be safe and dry when the onset of rain comes because I have a shelter over my head. I guess thats what everyone wishes for, isn't it? To have this sense of security in life that they'll be safe from whatever storms that come in their lives. And as Christians I'm really glad that we have the assurance of God as a perpetual shelter over our lives, that He will provide a safe hiding place no matter what comes. Even though sometimes we might be caught in the storm, at least we have God to back us up and give us strength to pull through. And of course, to dry and warm us up once the storm passes. So thank you, God, for giving me that peace in my heart. (:

Goodness me I don't even know why I'm so contemplative now. Haha and yes, its about to storm right now and as I looked out my window a few minutes ago, I felt the usual sense of happiness when its about to rain. Then I realised that I'm only happy when it rains because I'm indoors and safe. And the fact that I'm just less than a meter away from the window which separates me from the raging elements made me appreciate the shelter that I have. Which then lead me to think in a less literal sense and out came my little paragraph above. Haha thanks for speaking to me God! :D

(OMG THE WIND IS SUPER STRONG ITS SO SCARYY)

Anyways, I'd like to wish Gen, Celestine and Celesther a very happy belated birthday!! It was their birthday yesterday and for the twins, I wish I was there to celebrate with them. Never mind girls, I can make up for my absence when I go back in July. (:

As for Gen.. Well, I cooked omu rice for her birthday dinner because I couldn't think of anything else haha. And omg making omu rice is much harder than it looks! Wrapping the rice in the omelette is like *@$& annoying, and I just didn't have to guts to flip the whole thing into the plate. Ended up messing up two out of the four portions that I made, but luckily one was salvageable. Then we watched White Chicks on TV while eating, and then surprised Gen with little chocolate lava cakes! She liked them, but it was too sweet for my liking. At 12am, some of the Glennies and Chisholmites surprised Gen in our kitchen with a cake they bought, and silly Gen actually cried! Haha guess she totally didn't expect it. Then Tine, Polly and I snuck out to Tine's kitchen to ice another chocolate cake that we baked for Gen and brought it up to surprise her yet again! And our cake was absolutely fantastic, which was a huge surprise because we thought it was going to be a flop since we didn't have a cake mixer and as a result our batter was reeeeally lumpy. D: But I guess beginner's luck was on our side haha. After everyone left, the three of us rushed back down to Tine's kitchen to cook and assemble a bento box lunch for Gen to bring to school. It was like 1 plus in the morning at this time haha. So we rushed around, had lotsa fun, and produced the most adorable bento box I have ever made. Which doesn't say much since it was my first lol. Anyways there was tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette), Japanese potato salad, sausages and onigiri (rice cakes) with tuna filling. The onigiri was difficult to shape as well! But maybe because ours were mini onigiri.. I'd like to think that, haha. By the time we were done, it was 3am and luckily Gen was still awake so our final surprise was a success! Gen looked really happy so I was a really glad. (: Hope it was yummy! :D

With the stupid PHW essay out of the way, school at the most is more manageable. Its still stressful, but slightly better. Though we have like so many projects to do and then there's the stupid HBA test to study for next week. Grr, I wish it would all just stop. But ohwell, gotta press on. Like I said, I've got God to support me so I should totally persevere.

Yay, its finally raining! Don't you just love it. :D

But before I go, here are some of the things that we made for Gen! As well as the birthday girl (:

OMU RICE :D

Chocolate lava cake and birthday chocolate cake :D

Birthday girl! (:

The assembled bento box!

2010-04-28T00:58:00.002+10:00

Okay I'm supposed to be working on my 1500-word PHW essay on the concepts of health right now, but I'm so annoyed that I have to take a breather and come here to say this:

I SWEAR I AM UP TO HERE WITH ESSAYS AND ASSIGNMENTS FROM SCHOOL. I absolutely cannot wait for the day that I can relax without feeling guilty/stressed about work to come. And the earliest would be when my mid-year exams end.. in end June. But then I'd have Auslan in July for a week and I am so foreseeing massive stress for that as well.

Sigh, can't wait for July to come and I can go back to Singapore for two weeks of release and familiarity.

Students should totally be given awards of recognition to applaud their efforts and prowess at crapping when it comes to their university essays. It takes a hell lotta skill.

2010-04-10T22:51:00.003+10:00

School resumes in a day's time, sigh. I hate it how time passes so fast ): The one week break that I had was extremely enjoyable, thankfully. Apart from my not doing any work/revision at all, and that I spent soooo much money during this break!

So this is a brief summary of my week of pure slacking..
Monday: Watched Clash of the Titans, and it wasn't too bad.. Liked the action, but there could've been much more to it. And learnt that Bryan is a freak because he likes Paris Hilton. (Eww)

Tuesday: It was Wan Mun's 20th birthday so we all surprised her at Docklands and went ice-skating at the rink there! It was half priced that night, so the queue was bloody long but we all endured the wait. I wouldn't exactly say that I like ice-skating, because I just suck at it, but I did enjoy my time slipping and sliding like a fool on the ice with Celestine and the gang. After the ice-skating we went back to the Rec Room at Glenn and sang Wan Mun the birthday song and let her cut her cake.

Wednesday: Day of supposed studying became day of slacking. Woke up at 1 (or maybe 2) pm and pitter pattered around, watched shows, cooked dinner and everything else that didn't result in me reading my notes. And I think it was this night that the dinner I cooked was absolutely heavenly. I made the usual rice and veggies, and fried luncheon meat, and stir fried chicken thigh pieces with onion slices. Sounds really simple but it was delish :D Also, I made egg drop soup with seaweed and it was a smashing success hahaha I absolutely LOVED IT. :D Celestine and I had a fantastic time gobbling everything up and almost didn't leave any for Gen haha. Let some of my other friends drink my soup, and they all loved it too! (:

Thursday: Celestine cooked brunch for Gen and I over at her kitchen and surprisngly didn't burn down the place! I'm so proud of her. (: She made bacon and scrabled eggs, yum! Haha then we three went down to Docklands to SHOP. :D And boy, shop we did. Ended up spending at least $100 on clothes haha shitzz. But the good thing is that I really like the clothes I bought :DD Sadly we only had time to go to two shops (Cotton On and Factorie) but considering the fact that we spent about two hours in each, I guess we did pretty much scour those two shops well enough (: After shopping we met up with Jia Lin in the city and had Indonesian food for dinner at Es Teller along Swanston Street. Dinner was positively lovely, despite the food being a little salty and peppery. But I also had Yeo's chinchao and that was awesome enough to make my day complete, along with my belachan nasi goreng :DD Then we went to Starbucks for post-dinner drinks (green tea frapp!!) and had fun gossiping and making grand plans for Singsoc. Hahaha bloody funny.

Friday: IDH meeting with my group in the morning, but went late because I came down with the flu. First felt a little off on Thursday, but didn't think it was much. Anyway after the meeting Brian and Sara came over from the city and I brought them to Northland. I don't think they had fun though, because they didn't really look around much. Have a feeling they came only because I kept bugging Brian previously to go visit me in Bundoora. But whatever. Left soon after for Smith Street and did some window shopping. Brian saw an Addidas shoe that he wanted to get, so we're going back there tomorrow to get it after church. I was dead by then, and thankfully our planned meeting with Bryan and Derniese to watch How to Train a Dragon was cancelled so we went back to CS. Had an extremely simple dinner, chatted with Sara and Zhiyen, then went to sleep.

Saturday (today): Had Pancake Parlour for brekkie with Brian, Sara, Zhiyen and Adrienne! Massive spamming of food. Then went climbing at Lactic Factory.. The chicken wasn't there today though, wonder what happened to it. But anyway there was a big black dog named Max there today, so it totally made up for the missing pet chicken. Haha its awefully friendly too, kept coming to me and other climbers for pats. And I couldn't get enough of patting Max! He was just too adorable. Made me miss Kiera even more though ): Anyway I climbed moderately today, nothing spectacular.. Thankfully none of my fingers tore, though the skin was close to. After that.. Went back to Smith to try and get Brian's shoes but the shop had just closed by the time we reached. Sian. Though we did meet Nat there! So coincidental haha he and his friends had just stepped out of the closing shop when we arrived. Came back home, had spaghetti carbonara with the sauce that my mum made last time and watched Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. Josh Duhamel is soooo hot hehee! :DD And Bradley Cooper too! Haha two of my favourite actors <33 Along with Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman <33

Tomorrow: Going to church (no idea which one) with Brian and then heading back home after lunch. I seriously need to try and cram some revision before school resumes on Monday. And also, I need to get rest. Being sick (especially with the flu) sucks TTM.

Anyway as a side note, I am currently extremely pissed at/annoyed with/disappointed with my brother right now. Sometimes I really don't know if I'm appreciated at all, and if he sees my presence as a nuisance. I'd much rather prefer not to think that way, but from the way I see things now, I sadly think it is. It really sucks too, when even now at this age I still look up to him so much. Sometimes I wish I didn't anymore, but I can't change the way I am. And its the little spats that I have with him (this time over my using his bloody laptop) that make it seem that he really doesn't want me around. But whatever. Blood runs thicker than water, and nothing can change that. Stuff it.

Please pray that God heals me quick! Because like I said, having the flu and a cough totally kills your mood. And also that my voice comes back to me! Blahh.

And lastly, congratulations to all my friends who just POP-ed from BMT!! Awesomely proud of you guys, and I hope that you get posted whatever place you want to be posted to! (:

P.S. RACHIETAN IS GOING BACK IN JULY!! Touching down at 4.10pm on 10 July on SQ 238, and will be back for two weeks! SO DON'T PLAN ANYTHING DURING THAT TIME BECAUSE YOU'RE GONNA BE SPENDING IT WITH ME!! Hahaha can't wait, I miss everyone back home! (: (:

Okay ta!

2010-04-04T23:13:00.002+10:00

HAPPY EASTER SUNDAY EVERYONE! Rejoice for Christ has risen :D

Today was pretty much an awesome day, because I went back to Northside for Easter service in the morning. Celestine and Su-yen came along for the first time too! Anyway I felt so happy to be back at Northside, and I've realised that its kind of the church that I'm happy to settle down in. I don't know why but I just feel really happy worshipping in that church, and the congregation are all so cheery, welcoming and sincere. I guess after church-hopping quite and visiting quite a few churches since my brother and my new friends came, I've seen how other churches operate and how they all differ/are similar to each other. And right now I think its safe to say that I've found the church that I'm happy with. Bonus point about Northside is that its so near La Trobe too! Only seven tram stops away, and I can even get away without paying for the ride. :D But that aside, the only peeve is that whenever I go to visit Brian in the city on alternate weekends I won't be able to attend service. Though its better than nothing I guess. With that, I hope that Northside will nurture me and help me grow in my walk with God!

Bridge Church's Make It Personal camp was disappointing, to say the least. It really wasn't what I expected it to be. Don't get me wrong though, I had fun and all, but it just wasn't fulfilling. And dare I say, it was a waste of the AUD$120 that I paid. Anyway, I actually returned from camp more troubled than enlightened, and though I'm troubled with a few issues, its good in a way because I get to clear out stuff while questioning things. Three quarters of the camp was spent as free time, and the remaining quarter was the usual praise+worship and sermon bit. The games we played were retarded and uncivilised, and I got many a bruise from tackling guys from other teams. Heck, the games weren't even tied back to Biblical themes! Well, the four sermons that were preached at the camp were pretty good, especially those from the first speaker Kerrin. I absolutely love his sense of humour and the way he tells his stories about his nephews. Bloody hilarious. Wish I could hear him preach more. Anyway I probably based this camp on my experiences with the camps that I'm used to in Singapore, where there's much more bonding and activities organised and the itinerary is much more packed. And I've concluded that I prefer Singapore's camps to camps like these. Ahwell.

Apart from the disappointment of the camp, I had fun hanging out with Celestine, Michelle and Su-yen. Got to know Mich and Su-yen better, and made a few new friends too. The new friendships weren't as ideal as I wished it to be (due to the fact that they already had their own group of friends and there wasn't much time to get to know them more), but they were all mostly nice and funny people. Spent quite a bit of time by the beach that was right next to our campsite, and it was positively lovely. The sand was sooo fine and smooth, and the water was so clear! Felt like I was at an upgraded private Bintan beach haha. On the last night the four of us went down to the beach and lay on the sand and star-gazed and had girl heart-to-heart talk! Learnt lotsa stuff about everyone too (; When it was time to leave on Saturday I was more happy than sad, actually. I kinda wanted to get home but didn't want to leave the beach at the same time. But I guess all (relatively) good things must come to an end.

Typing this from Spas' room in CS.. Went to her aunt's place for dinner just now with Brian. Had laksa, popiah and kuey pai ti! It was all awesome, especially the laksa haha. Played table tennis after dinner (yeah, her relatives are rich and have a basement with a table tennis table), ended up laughing for 15 minutes straight with Spas, then had nonya kueh for dessert. Hahaha it was a fantastic time. Really thank Wendy's relative for being so nice and allowing us to have dinner with them. (:

Alright that's about it! Just trying my best not to leave my blog to rot again. Gonna hit the sack now, and hopefully tomorrow won't be such a bore since its a post-Easter public holiday. Ta!

2010-04-01T13:59:00.001+11:00

RACHIETAN IS OFF TO CAMP!

I hope God speaks to me and inspires me at camp, really need to get out of this really long dry season. And may He bless my time there too! Looking forward to making new friends and strengthening already existing ones. (:

Bridge Church: Make It Personal 2010

YAYYY :D

2010-03-25T17:25:00.001+11:00

Omg, I spelt 'spelt' as 'spelled'. Even more epic fail.

2010-03-25T13:34:00.000+11:00

Today was spelled as: EPIC FAIL. ):

2010-03-23T23:21:00.004+11:00

If its one thing I hate about myself, its that I'm such a huge procrastinator. Kept telling myself to update my already extremely neglected blog, but no, I was too lazy to do so. And so right now when I'm supposed to be studying, I've decided to try and revive my rotting blog. How predictable, Rachel.

Anyway from where I left off (which was a verrrrrrry long time ago), having my parents over with Brian was totally awesome! Really missed all of them so much, and we managed to spend a lot of time together even though they were staying in Brian's College Square (CS) apartment in the city. I went down and stayed a couple of nights, only returning to La Trobe whenever I had to. So yeah, I brought them around the city, and helped Brian orientate himself and settle in. We didn't manage to go to many places this time round though, largely due to the fact that Brian and I had our respective orientations in school to attend (I skipped most of mine, though). But the few highlights would be the discovery of the free bouldering walls at Burnley Wharf and the trip to Sunnyridge Strawberry Farm. Sounds like nothing much, but throw in lots of good food in between and that basically made up our little adventure of two weeks as a family. (:

First family picture! And first homemade dinner at CS (:

First Skype with BB! <3

Brian at his faculty building!

Burnley Wharf!

Wall 1 of 3 at Burnley

Being the retards we are.

Sign says it all

Mum and Brian picking stawberries!

The work of our labour :D

Chef Brian learning the tricks of the trade

Lindt's heavenly macarons! Ordered two but I gobbled up the first one :P

Lastly, I think this picture is too cute :DD

Yeap, that pretty much was a reeeally short summary (both in words and pictures) of the two weeks when my parents came with Brian! Fantastic time, especially when I could do/eat things that I wouldn't have had the finances to do so without my parents! Haha but that aside it was really good to spend time with my family again. After being away for so long, a little family bonding really lifts the spirits. And it really changes your perspective on life when you have the assurance that your parents are there (in the same country). But now that they've gone back to little ol' Singapore, I've adjusted back to my independent survival mode. Ah well, good things have to come to an end anyway. I'm just glad they came! (:

And in case you're wondering, my brother has settled down in Melbourne pretty well too. Many thanks to ME, I think. Haha okay kidding. But having Wendy as his flatmate also helped heaps! And they're both getting along extremely well as flatmates, to my surprise. I'm just pretty happy that God's been so good to Brian in helping him adapt to life here too! And very proud of him that he's adjusted so quick and smoothly. (:

School, unfortunately, has started for me. After been through approximately three weeks, all I can say about university life here is that its seriously stressful, busy, tiring, and ANNOYING. Okay maybe not tiring because I only have 15 contact hours of class per week, but the amount of work/info that we're expected to complete/learn is insane! There's so much reading to do, so much research to conduct! And there's absolutely no spoonfeeding here at all. ): Which sucks in a way because I'm so used to being told that to do and all. But I guess it helps me to be more independent in learning! Though I have a looooong way to go. ): But I think its crazy here because the facilitators and lectures don't even tell us what to do, and if they do, they speak to us as if we're already familiar with it. Which is stupid because nobody has a clue whats going on! But I can't complain la, I feel I just need to buck up in terms of being on the ball and INDEPENDENT. See, there's that bloody I word again. I'm starting to hate it! Hahaha my laziness showing again.

Other than the stress and annoyance of uni work, I'm slowly getting used to life as a university student. Thank God for giving me nice teammates for all of my workshops too. Even in HBA where I'm the only Asian in my team, my other teammates are quite friendly and include me in their discussions. Though its hard to talk to them, because I speak so fast and slowing down my speech totally makes me a boring person. Haha. Initially I was quite intimidated being surrounded by so many angmohs (too used to the internationality of my Foundation class lol), it was pretty scary. But now I've more or less gotten used to it.. Still intimidated sometimes but I'm working on it! Hopefully I'll get more confident as time goes by.

Okay, my 19th birthday wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Although it was an average day, my dorm friends were nice enough to celebrate with me in Chisholm's Art Centre. Surprisingly the other Year 1s in my batch had organised a little something for me too! I didn't expect that, because I'm not that close to them.. But they got two muffins and made a card for me (which I think is awesomely cute). So the Year 1s celebrated with me, before my old dorm friends had their turn. I was quite touched la, everybody was present (even the Glennies!!) and I got a few presents from them too! A nice green quilt cover set for my bed ('cause I though it was a waste of money to buy my own), an adorable stuffed dog (I named him Mango :D) and a garment hanger for my perpetually over-crammed wardrobe.

I'm too lazy to put up the pictures that were taken at the little 'party', but here are some:

With my fellow batch mates (:

My Glennies!! Aw man, I miss you guys so much ):

My bed with the new quilt cover, Mango and Saru (:

Just wanna thank all you guys for always being to nice to me!! And going through all the trouble to organise the little gathering. I love you all!! (: (: And also to the following people for wishing me through the various mediums..

Through Facebook: Phoebe, Celestine Ong, Kai Yin, Kerry, Rai, Shirley, Ona, Jeremy, Ben (sister), Peiqi, Esther, Qimin, Suba, Rach Ong, Sharon, Amie, Alvana, Jason Long, Boon Kiak, Ana, Jillian, Luong, Terry, Marissa, Stephen, Stephanie, Linette, Jolyn, Tiff, Suemay, Miang Lin, Taihong, Jonathan, Lionel, Timothy, Metas, Eunice, Amanda, Raveen, Melissa Tay, Mark, Winnie, Seon, Alyaa, Ali, Singyee, Xuetying, Lynette, Gloria, Su-ann, Ethel, Chloe, Sheng, Gift, Michelle Leow, Priya, Leo, Faith, Ashley, Paulina, Phoebe, Junhong, Wei Ren, Julyn, Wingsze, Yongern, Bryan Kuek, Miss Liu, Minyi, Adi, Jek-kai, Joee, Naves, Jocelyn, Justyn, Ann-marie, Mingwei, Kenny, Heydi, Manprit, Meryl, Hengtiong, Nita, BB, Pok Hua, Yangyang, Sarah, Peiling, Christabel, Pat, Alvin, Ivan, Ben Choy, Seba, Justin Chew, Jasmine, Mohammad, Nicola, Jerome, Emily, Engkiat and Tinee!

Through phone: Brian,SPASS, Jialin, Michelle Hui, Daph, Jerilyn, Mum and Dad and Kiera (from Singapore!), Shuxia, Koko, Spassss, Danielle, Max and Shawn.

And via Skype: PUAYHOON and SABS!

Love you guys, all of you! (:

Ohyeah, I also survived a major hailstorm a few weeks ago in Melbourne too! It was truly scary, the hailstorms were the size of ice cubes! Never in my life over here have I seen such huge hail stones. And Brian, Bryan (his friend) and I got caught in the middle of it, tried taking shelter under the tram stop outside CS but still got hit by the hail, and resorted to boarding a tram to seek shelter. We were drenched, cold and pathetic. ): After the rain (and hail) subsided we had to cross the flooded road to board another tram, and Brian's slipper floated away and he had to chase after it! And all this while I was wondering why he was running in another direction LOL. But anyway though at that time it was suuuper scary, I think it was quite a fun and cool experience! Haha especially when the storm made international news. Ah, the perks of living overseas. (:

Okay, I should seriously stop now. Need to start sleeping early! Can't wait for Saturday's trip to Philip Island with the ISA! Yay. Haha okay MATTA NE! (:

2010-03-03T01:58:00.001+11:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO old old ME

):

```

I really really really miss you all. Spending my birthday overseas for the first time sucks TTM (so far) because my birthday is a day that I appreciate the presence of my friends and family even more and I'm sort of lacking in that right now. I have my Melbourne friends, but its not, and never will be, the same.

Ohwell, I'm just trying to keep my spirits up and optimistic. Maybe when I wake up later in the day I'll feel better. Hopefully. One thing that is making me happy now is that the picture in my Locoroco calendar in the side bar for my birthday month is a cute fat Locoroco! Its so cute and happy. (: And yeah, my brother and Puay wished me, and I skyped with Sab.. Better than nothing I suppose.

Its gonna be an average day.

2010-02-16T01:02:00.002+11:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Hope you guys got lotsa angpaos, ate lotsa food, and had lotsa fun! (:

Thankfully the past few days haven't been a continuation of my rot-fest.. All thanks to going down to the International College to bug the receptionist if my offer letter was ready. And for the record, it's still not. Went to Northland, Preston and basically just hung out quite a bit with the HK girls. And while I think I spent a little too much money on I have no idea what really, it was a nice change from rotting. At least we all spent time together and enjoyed ourselves.

Went to the city on Saturday with San on a little tour of some places of interest as part of Chisholm's orientation program for the new internationals. And I got to know two sweet Japanese girls.. Masami and Kaho. They're such cute people, always laughing at me and San haha. Ended up leaving the group after lunch because we weren't interested in the rest of the itinerary though. HAHA but it was sooo worth it because I saw 白马王子 outside QV! I was walking out and he walked right past me. Omg I was so excited lol. But I think he's leaving soon, so I wish him bon voyage!

Reunion dinner with the girls on Saturday night too! Went to a restaurant at Boxhill, which is like a Chinese community over here in Melbourne. And after that we roamed the streets because there were many stalls set up selling Chinese food and what not. While it wasn't much, it was pretty nice seeing everyone having a good time. And yes, I had a wonderful time (:

Church yesterday was pretty fun, the three Northside campuses all congregated at the Bundoora location and we celebrated some special event (I can't remember what its called). After service there was free lunch, and I kinda helped out with Kico and Kaman. It was quite enjoyable! Meeting the church people and they're all so nice and friendly. After that we all went to Eva's house to make carrot cake. Ended up chopping the chinese sausages and then the girls more or less did the rest.. And Eva tried to salvage my sad fringe. Yeah, I tried trimming my bangs before the dinner on Saturday and I think I kinda screwed it up, so Eva tried to save it. Although it doesn't look any better, she claims it is. Ahwell, lesson learnt: I'll never trust myself to cut my hair again. Ever. But that horrible incident aside, the carrot cake was absolutely fab when it was done.. Tasted almost exactly like what you find in restaurants! Though I thought the raddish taste was quite strong, but that was probably just me. Then Kaman made her curry fishballs that we all love, and we had veggies for dinner too. Altogether, it was an awesome way to spend Chinese New Year. (:

Today was the start of the Welcome Festival for the international students in La Trobe, and I went because I had nothing better to do. Like I predicted, it was basically a waste of time for me since I already know the school and how things work, but I figured falling asleep in the WLT was better than rotting in my room. Anyway I finally met Celestine and her parents, and kinda brought them to get Celestine her Aussie number. Had to go rest in my room due to bloody cramps that almost literally killed me, but thank God I felt better after the nap I took. Then Celestine and her mum came to see my room, and then they all brought me out for dinner! Such nice people (: (: Brought them to Jade Kingdom and I saw Nicki working there.. Haha so damn funny she is. But well I had fun eating out and talking to Celestine and her parents. It was such a pity that we lost contact after she left KKMC, though! And to think we were such good friends last time.. But well I guess God is giving us a second chance at building up our friendship again. And with His grace we will be close friends! (:

Another nice thing that happened today was Kaman moving into Chisholm! She finally got a reply from the Residential office and she got a room in Tower 9, which is the tower that my window faces. And its really near so it's convenient to get to it. That lucky bugger got the bigger room too, I'm so jealous. And her floormates are so nice.. Got one cute Japanese guy too, SIGH ): Almost ended up teaching him Chinese today (wth?) but he had to go somewhere. Hopefully I get a chance to know him better I guess? HAHA but whatever la, I can always ask Masami and Kaho to introduce me to their guy friends TEEHEE. (:

Well, right now as I'm typing this Brian and my parents are on the plane heading here! May God bless them with a safe and good flight. I'm so eggcited that I'm finally gonna have my brother with me in Melbourne, yet at the same time I'm quite sad for BB in Singapore.. ): I really hope that she's alright, and that God will keep her strong during her period of getting used to not having Brian around.. And I hope that her studies don't get affected! Aw man I can't imagine having to send my other half (not that I have one) overseas.. Must be really hard to see him go. ): But BB if you're reading this take heart that God is really with you okay! You will survive (: And anyway, its only about seven more months till you see Brian again! :DD

Hmhmm, I guess I should be going to sleep now.. By the time I wake up tomorrow Brian and my parents would have landed! Yay :D Oh, and my vegetarian diet ends tomorrow! Double yay! :DD

Peace outtt (:

2010-02-10T15:46:00.003+11:00

Word of the Month:
bored 1 |bôrd|
adjective
feeling weary because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one's current activity : she got bored with staring out of the window | they would hang around all day, bored stiff.

Hahaha don't ask me why I did that. I'm just too bored. Heck, I'm even bored of using the word bored, omg how stupid is that. I NEED TO DO SOMETHINGGGGG.

No, watching shows on my computer or sleeping or watching TV doesn't count as 'doing something'.

I'm still waiting for my university offer letter to arrive in the mail.. Honestly, if its one thing that I absolutely loathe about Aussies, it would be the speed at which they do things. Its been more than a week and I still haven't gotten the letter. And the Welcome Festival for international students starts next Monday. Not that it will be of any use to me, but still! I wish Aussies could work faster and more efficiently, seriously. I think I would've gotten the letter much faster if I had gone to collect it from the Health Science faculty in the main campus myself. Bloody snails.

Well, the most exciting thing that I did so far this week was meeting Cammie in the city yesterday for tea. She brought me to the Lindt chocolate cafe on Collins Street, and we had macarons and ice chocolate. Omg the macarons there are absolutely sublime. If you think that the macarons that Canele in Singapore serves are good, wait till you try those at Lindt. They're not too sweet and the almond meringue is light and literally melts in your mouth. Although the price doesn't exactly look very nice.. But I guess its the price to pay for the quality and joy that eating Lindt's macarons brings. Cammie had a vanilla flavoured macaron while I ordered the strawberry flavoured one. The strawberry macaron was simply fantastic.. And within the ganache filling were real strawberry seeds and when you chewed on it, it was like chewing real strawberries. Ahhh it was soooo good!! Didn't take any pictures of the ones that we had, but I'll definitely take some and show you guys the next time I go. There are in total 12 flavours, and I just wish that I could afford to get all of them at one go haha. Macarons totally make me happy. :DD

But apart from the heavenly macarons, catching up with Cammie was great too. Its amazing how God has placed the both of us in each others lives again after being apart for so many years! And to think we were best friends in Primary 1 and 2, before she left Singapore. And Cammie has such great memory.. Had a good laugh over memories of our quirky Speech and Drama (omg I couldn't even remember that we had S&D in primary school) teacher Mr Dominic Quah, 杨老师's terror-inducing methods of teaching, pretty Mrs Nonis, and the then principal Mrs Sim. Hahaha it was good to relive those times. (: And sometimes I think its really important that you keep in touch once in awhile with your old old friends from many years ago. This way you won't forget your past, what shaped you and the experiences that you went through. Yesyes, its important, and I truly thank God for Cammie. And her family's awesome too, though I didn't see them yesterday. Never mind, we're meeting next week anyway when my parents and Brian come up. Yayism! (:

Okay I think I'll go to watch some episodes of How I Met Your Mother. And I wish that the producers of Gossip Girl would stop taking a break and quickly release the next episode of Season 3!! Haha okay whatever.

Can't wait for everyone to come back!! Ta. (:

2010-02-03T21:47:00.010+11:00

Hello, world. Rachietan's back from Nevernever Land.

Well, let's start with the most important:

I AM GONNA BE A PHYSIOTHERAPIST!! Yesyes, I got my results back yesterday and look! God has blessed me with all A's again! I am so grateful to Him, because I really don't think I deserve such fantastic marks. But well, looks like my studying, praying and believing paid off. I still can't believe that I actually made it, that I managed to meet the requirements to study Physiotherapy in the university. Its really unbelievable, because all my life I never thought that I would succeed in something, especially studying but with God's grace I totally did it!

Right now I'm just really happy that my coming here to Melbourne has not been in vain, and that I didn't waste my parents' money. The stress that I wouldn't be able to perform up to their expectations (yes, typical Asian paranoia) was really bearing down on me, and that sucked because I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to get into physio and my parents' sending me here would be a waste of precious money. But well I guess I did beat the odds and pull through it! Even though it was only eight months, it was definitely a long journey.

Ironically I scored the highest in chemistry, out of all the other subjects. And to think I hated chemistry and seriously had no idea what was going on most of the time. Haha so yeah, God really answered my prayers! I'm pretty sad to say goodbye to chemistry actually.. But well, I'm just glad that I managed to finish off on a good note. (: As for math.. Well, its good to say sayonara to business math. I don't ever want to see it again. Ever. Hahaha yes, its that bad and I hate it. But again, I only have God to thank for getting an A because I thought I'd get a B.

Anyway, to celebrate my God-given marks and getting into physio, I am going vegetarian for two weeks as part of a promise to God. I had told God that I would make a sacrifice to Him and be vegetarian for two weeks to give Him His due praise and thanks. And I figured that its really nothing anyway, compared to what He's done for me all this while. So yeah, today is the second day of my two weeks. While getting groceries yesterday, I actually felt really happy and proud that I am able to glorify God this way, no matter how small and insignificant it may seem. I mean, hey I'm actually making a sacrifice to Him! Not once have I ever done something like this for Him before. Sure, I may have thanked Him through prayer and stuff, but I think this time its different. I really have no idea how to put forth how I feel right now, but I am really enjoying it right now. Even though I do crave for meat hahaha but that's just the devil tempting me. And for the record, Rachietan will NOT give in to temptation and will see the two weeks through!

Hallelujah, praise the Lord. (:

Well, ever since the exams ended I haven't been up to much. Most of the time has been spent rotting in my room, watching shows and engaging in a craft project. But since the project has been completed, I've been left with nothing else but my shows to keep me busy. I did go out on Sunday though, in the morning to St. Kilda market and in the evening to Federation Square to watch a live screening of the Australian Open Men's Final. And I must say, that was an awesome experience. Next up on my list is to get tickets to the Rod Laver Arena and watch my favourite players in person! :D

I am seriously dying of boredom now. I want to go out and do something badly but I have no idea what to do because everything here is so bloody expensive and far away. Its times like this that I wish I was in Singapore, the land of cheap and good food, and affordable movie tickets. SIANZZZZ!

Gonna be moving out of my current room in Tower 10 into my permanent room in Tower 12 on Friday.. God has answered my prayers once again and I will be living on the same floor as some of my friends from Glenn! Hopefully Kakak will be assigned to the room next to mine, and that Gen will be near by too! I do hope that I don't get the small room though.. Those are pathetically puny. But sigh, this means having to pack my stuff once again. DOUBLE SIANZZZZ!

This Friday/Saturday also marks the start of a new phase in some of my friends' lives too! Because they will finally be enlisting into army. Hahaha, I am so eggcited for them!! I do hope that God blesses them with many good friends, friends who are decent and who will prove to be a pillar of strength and support for each other. So to Edmond, Kenny, Anthony, Jason, Lewis, Dudley, Dong Zheng and whoever else is enlisting on those days, may God be with you guys and I will be praying for you! Have fun guys (:

Alright. I'm too lazy to carry on now. Hahaha ta!

2010-01-29T18:50:00.000+11:00

How can I move on when I still can't bring myself to let go of the past?

Why am I so stupid.

2010-01-26T14:35:00.002+11:00

Here's an awesome video of Marlow and Frances Cowan playing an impromptu piano piece:

And the story behind their performance and talking about their God-given talents:

I swear, they are absolutely fantastic. Its incredible how they are able to go out and provide entertainment even at their age! Gotta love their energy and the joy they bring to others, its so inspiring and refreshing. And their humour is so cute! I hope God blesses me to be like them when I'm old (:

"God gave us talents, and the purpose of these talents is we're supposed to use it. We happen to have the talent of music and humour, and so you put them together and whatever we can do, then we'll make life more enjoyable for others while we're doing it. But as we're doing it we're constantly feeling we're praising the Lord - that's the reason we're doing this. He tells in the Good Book that you praise the Lord by bells and cymbals, or joyful noise. Make a joyful noise! And so that's basically what we're here for." - Frances Cowan

2010-01-23T00:50:00.009+11:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SABRINA KWANG SHU MING!

Look how much we've seen each other through! From an ugly duckling to beautiful swan. (: I love you much my dear! We've been through so much and it only goes to show how awesome a pair we make. (:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DADDY TOO!

I love him to bits he's like the bestest dad God could ever bless me with! Ahhh wish I could celebrate with him, miss him so much! But never mind, I can see him in February when he comes with my mum and Brian. :D

2010-01-21T23:12:00.003+11:00

Hello everyone. My exams are starting tomorrow, with Academic Study Skills (a.k.a. English) as my first paper, followed by Chemistry, Math and then Biology next week. And on Thursday I will finally be free. But I just want to ask that if you're reading this, please spare a little minute or so and pray for me because this exam is pretty much the equivalent of A levels in my life (minus the insane stress that my friends back in Singapore went through).

May God bless me and guide me through the papers, and may He give me the confidence to answer the questions. With this I leave the rest in His hands.

2010-01-17T11:32:00.004+11:00

Its my first morning back in Melbourne, and I just woke up from a record-breaking 14 hour sleep. NAISE.

Coming over this time I thought would be easier for me, that I won't miss everyone as much, but I guess I was wrong. I think its probably because I'm all alone now, without my Glenn friends to distract me. So yeah, the whole flight back I was pretty down and sian, hardly slept and hardly ate anything. Flight landed, went through the motion of clearing customs and getting my luggage. Found my taxi, took off for 'home'. Got home, lugged up my bloody heavy bags, dumped everything in my room and sat on my bed. Then left to get groceries. TIRED SIA.

It feels even more surreal to be back here in Melbourne after just a three week break in Singapore.. And kept going through my head was this thought of, "Sian, I'm back here again." Which is pretty true. But it made me realise how I saw my time here in Melbourne. I guess I was actually pretty strong last year, because I'm actually feeling more down and affected now than last year. OMIGOD, talk about slow reaction.

I know I have to continue to be strong and stop mulling over it, but y'know sometimes you just feel like not doing anything, curl up on your bed and sleep the feeling off? That's exactly how I feel now, although I kinda just got out of bed (lol). I have absolutely no heart to start mugging for my exams that start in five freaking days' time (though I know I really should). But I keep telling myself to be strong for the next week plus, get the damned exams over and then I can hide from the world if I still feel like it.

Since when did Rachietan hide from the world? Beats me. But thats what I want to do now. Hide from the world and pretend I'm back in sunny Singapore with my family and friends.

That's all I have for now. Gotta really be serious about mugging. Maybe I'll post later at night, about my time in Singapore since I totally neglected my blog then.

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Looks like its back to haunting Facebook, MSN and Skype for me, and checking my blog for you. Haha.

2010-01-06T03:20:00.001+11:00

"Sometimes you have to be strong for yourself. You have to know that you are a good person and a good friend. What is meant to be will end up good and what is not won’t. Relationships are worth fighting for, but sometimes you can’t be the only one fighting. At times, people need to fight for you. If they don’t, you must move on and realise what you gave them was more than they were willing to give you. Hopefully, people realize great things when they come around and don’t lose something real. Always fight, until you can’t anymore, and then be fought for.”

2010-01-01T07:02:00.002+11:00

Happy new year everyone! 2009's but a distant memory now. Passes by so quick, sad but part of life. Time passes too fast when you're grown up. Wonder if 2010 will pass just as fast as 2009 did, or even quicker.

Sorry haven't been updating, been really busy meeting up with friends and studying. Off to KL in three hours' time (and I'm still packing) for four days, back on January 4. After that its ten days before I go back to Melbourne. Too little time, too many things to do.

Ta for now, anyway.

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New life, new love, new year

2009-12-22T14:13:00.002+11:00

RACHIETAN IS BAAAACK!

Its my third day back in Singapore, and I've been too lazy to post anything. But since I'm supposed to be studying now I guess I'll do a quick one here. Its only normal, isn't it? That we procrastinate whenever we're not supposed to. Hahah.

The flight back was pretty smooth for me, apart from the fact that I was quite bored during the 7-hour flight, and my ass got really sore from sitting. Managed to watch UP and Gokusen The Movie. UP is so cute la, I really like the dog Dug. I think the producers did a great job in scripting Dug's part! Because if we could hear what dogs think and say I think it would be exactly how Dug was portrayed. But anyway, I was so happy when the plane touched down in Singapore and I was grinning to myself in my seat haha. Surprisingly immigration was empty when I reached, and thanks to Singapore's ultra fun thumb-print reading machines for citizens I cleared immigration immediately. Got my luggage from the belt and went through the gates!

First people I saw were Fang, Tiff and Hengtiong. And they made banners that read, "WELCOME BACK RACHEL" and held it up for me as I walked towards them. Hahha damn cute lah! Then I saw my family and Shawn, Tine and Turtle came too!! I was so happy to see so many of my friends again (: After talking to everyone (except Shawn haha) for awhile, my family and I headed to MAS AYU to have supper!! Mee goreng pattaya, yay! Haha then we dropped Puay back at home and I went to see her new puppy Flex. Omg Flex is so cute la. Haha going to play with him tomorrow! :D

First full day back was on Sunday, and Brian and I met up with Puay and Stella to have prata brekkie near church before heading there for contemporary service. It felt good to be back in KKMC man! After being away for so long. Though I gave up following the sermon as usual, I enjoyed sitting in the familiar surroundings and being in God's presence. So many of my old church friends came too!! All of them were there, actually.. Shawn, Jason, Andrew, Gloria, Joce, Ann-marie and Wendy. I really missed all of them! Had the famous $2 laksa for lunch that's near church before going to Plaza Sing to watch Avatar. Ended up not being able to get any tickets, and resulted in rotting for about three hours. Then we went to the outdoor atrium to support KKMC's choir who was caroling on the stage as part of CCIS. I think the performance was lovely, and God was good because it didn't rain and many people stopped to listen to the songs and the message being read. And I must say, I really like this year's CCIS decorations at Plaza Sing! From the sculptures of the nativity scene, the three kings and the sign post that has like "Nativity Square", "Bethlehem Lane" on it, it was a good way to reach out to the public about the real meaning of Christmas. Headed to my grandparents' place for dinner after that, and had fun catching up with my little cousins and family. (:

Finally went climbing for the first time yesterday in school! I must say, SR has changed quite a bit form the last time I was there.. New coats of paint on the walls, some weird water fountain sculpture thingy, the terrace among others. But SR still feels the same and it felt good to be back. The J1s had training, but managed to boulder because they were mostly at the speed wall. Alvin, Suemay and Adriel came too, so they set routes for us. Though it was pretty depressing that I suck to bad at climbing now (after not climbing for six months), it was really good to be climbing again and getting annoyed at myself for not being able to complete routes. Haha. Hengtiong, Fang, Rai and I met Tiff after climbing and ate lunch at Kovan, then we went to Taka to stalk Edmond who was working at G2000. Haha he looks so funny dressed smartly and attending to customers. I wanted to laugh so hard. But we left him to it, met Kenny and went to Starbucks to sit and talk cock. Omg it was hilarious la, laughing and talking nonsense haha. Almost had a bitch fight with this group of fat old ahlian bitches who tried to take a table that I was already at but in the end they stomped off because I refused to budge and basically stared them down. What retards I tell you, trying to take a table that already has someone standing over it. Haha whatever, I won. (Y)

And today! Rocmoc picnic under the stars at East Coast Park later! Fang's coming over first, I'll bake brownies, then we'll head off to meet the rest at Parkway. Omg I'm so eggcited haha I miss everyone! May God bless our time together and give us good weather please!!!

Okay better go do some work now, before Fang comes. Ta! <3

2009-12-15T12:35:00.002+11:00

With just four days left till I finally go back to Singapore, the anticipation that I'm feeling with absolutely immense. And its hard to express it all by cheering with your other friends who're leaving on the same day as you, because shouting, "FOUR MORE DAYS, WHOO!" doesn't exactly justify how I really feel. And I'm always left with a lot more excitement bubbling within me to contain. Like this -> OMGOMGOMGOMGI'MLEAVINGINFOURDAYS'TIMEHAHAHASHIETICAN'TWAITTTT!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDDD

And I've come to the realisation that everyone has a little countdown of their own, no matter how big an event it is or not. Counting down the days till I go home is one, and even looking forward to an outing or whatever is a countdown in some way or another. And there's always a main countdown in everyone's lives, out of the other little not-as-significant countdowns.. I wonder what countdown's in your life now? (:

Math test today! Thank God for Eva making me study yesterday and Eugene who came over to tutor me because he was bored. I finally know understand how to do the linear inequation problem sums and yay I got full marks for today's test! As well as last week's test which I hardly studied for (as usual). Haha and so that marks the end of topic tests for the rest of this week! Of course there are more tests when I get back in January, but WHO CARESSSS haha its time to concentrate on packing and GOING HOMEEEEEE. :D

Off to Northland with Eugene soon! Gotta get presents and souvenirs for people, ugh. So many things to buy, but so little money in my bank. HOWHOWHOWHOWWWW. ): And Melbourne is in serious need of places that sell cheap, cute things for presents i.e. like Asian markets. Why can't there be an equivalent of HongKong's Mongkok or Bangkok's Chatuchat? ): But ohwell I guess this hones my skills as a shopper then.. Since I have to choose presents more wisely HAHA wth. But anyway if you're reading this and I don't get back anything for you, it doesn't mean that I don't care about you okay!! It just means that I really don't have enough money. Haha so I do apologise. (:

Saturday's outing with Chris was awesome, to say the least. She came over at 8 in the morning, cam whored in my room by herself while I showered, then I took her on a quick tour of the campus while walking to the tram stop. Met Alexis there and we headed to South Melbourne Market. SMM turned out to be relatively expensive for us though, so we didn't buy anything save for a packet of heavenly-smelling coffee for my dad. I was pretty disappointed because I was hoping to buy presents there, but ohwell. Then we went back to the city and Chris went crazy at Supre. Practically had to drag her away and we went to Chadstone. Then Chris went crazy at the Valleygirl outlet there and bought like what, four tops? Hahaha yeah. I got a tie-dye print vest which was really nice! Chris got one for herself too (: Walked around and chatted.. Really enjoyed my time with her. I had forgotten how fun it was to be with her and made me reminisce about the times when we used to be so close and all. I guess times change and people drift apart, but I'm just happy and thankful that we still keep in touch once in awhile and its really comforting to know that we're still more or less the same. (: Apart from the fact that Chris is so bloody-hell skinny now! But she's still my Chrissy-poo, and will always be. (: Anyway after shopping her uncle came in a mini van to pick us up, and lo and behold her whole gene gang came along too! Her parents, brothers, cousins were all in the van haha omg it was like meeting the family man lol. I was so happy to see her parents again, though! I really missed them!! They're so awesomely funny la hahaha. And omg her brotherssss. Jeremiah is so big and handsome now! And Samuel, omg. He got even cuter and yeah, is more handsome too. Goshh I really miss themmmm. The last time I saw them was like what, two years ago? So gotta meet up with them when I get back in Singapore.

Okie dokes, gotta scram now! Pray that my shopping trip will be fruitful!

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Makes me wonder: should I or should I not? /:

2009-12-15T01:23:00.002+11:00

Who the hell cooks a meal at 1am in the morning?! And makes glutinous rice balls at 12am?! Wtf la, I'm so fed up with that stupid woman. Absolutely no sense of consideration nor common sense. Thank goodness there's only four days left to endure her shit.

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Yes, you read correctly: FOUR DAYS LEFT!

2009-12-05T16:41:00.008+11:00

Yay, the weekend's here, and I finally got some rest! Woke up at 1pm today hahah and spent the whole afternoon preparing for a presentation on Monday. Stupid OP, it better turn out well lol. But I guess with such a fun topic like rock climbing, it can't really get that bad, right? :D

Which reminds me, I totally HATE my Academic Study Skills teacher whose name does not deserve to be mentioned. But basically she's a total BITCH and hag who doesn't have any patience whatsoever and who always seems to be PMSing although I'm sure she's way past any reproductive age. Locking me and two other classmates out of class just because we went to the toilet and someone's presentation had resumed is just plain downright mean, and she probably thought that it would be rude to walk in halfway. However I have to say, that she had walked out of class during another group's presentation without a word, which is even more rude if you ask me. And she was the one who gave us permission to leave anyway. But anyway I decided that it was the last straw so I started stomping around on the wooden floor outside the classroom HAHA. According to Kico inside it was pretty loud, but I don't giva shit anymore. I made up my mind to give her shit from now until the end of this bloody foundation course. She doesn't deserve my respect, or the respect of everyone else, for that matter.

Anyway I forgot to say that in school on Tuesday I had my first dissecting lab practical! After waiting since Secondary 3 to do dissections, I finally got my opportunity! So we cut up kidneys, brains and worms.. And it was so fun. :D It wasn't as smelly as I thought it'd be (flash back to the day that Mrs Chaiw showed us a sheep's heart in Cedar and it stunk to high heavens) though at times when you got too near you'd catch a whiff of the stuff. Sadly though, I've concluded that Racheltan isn't exactly a good dissector because my hands are just too damn clumsy and un-delicate. Whereas Eva on the other hand, has like some God-given talent of dissecting things. Haha yeah, so I kinda left most of the cutting up to her, except the brain which I did. :D So here are some pictures!

The kidney is so cute la! And when cut across laterally it looks like a heart. <3

BRAIN.

WORMM.

So anyway, the excursion to some water recycling plant on Wednesday was really fun! It was nice to have a break from school and go out to see the countryside. Got up early in the morning to prepare sandwiches for our picnic at the plant, and then went to school! The plant is located in Weribee, which is about an hour's drive from our school so we all piled into a bus and took off. Settled down for our lunch once we got there, and everyone loved my sandwiches, yay! :D Though they were really easy to make, I don't know why everyone raved about them. Haha and we had apple pies for dessert, courtesy of Kico and Kaman! Which were delicious. (: Went inside the discovery centre and looked at the different displays, played some recycling game and then embarked on a tour of the area where the water is processed. Learnt quite a bit on the tour, and the place is huge man! Like dunno-how-many thousands of hectres. Crazy-ass huge. I think its like the world's largest water recycling plant. Got to see many birds too, like black swans and their chicks, Australian pelicans and ducks. Then we went to this part which opened out into the Pacific Ocean and took pictures. Really nice day it was! Thank God for the good weather. (:

Sandwich-making in process

Food, food, glorious food!

One of the many processing ponds

Life in Chisholm has been pretty smooth-sailing for me so far.. I'm getting more or less used to it already. (: Especially the cooking part! Omg cooking is SO FUN. Made stir fried beef in oyster sauce with onions, spring onions and garlic for my first proper meal. Omgg it was simply fantastic haha. Don't mean to brag but it was really good!! Even the girls in school kept stealing my food. :D Then for my second cooking meal I made fried rice with ham and egg. Again, it was nice. :D Made quite a big batch, so it lasted me for about two days. Wonder what I'll make for dinner tonight though.. Just wish I had more space in the fridge! So I can buy more ingredients and cook a wider range of things. But anyway, ever since moving into Chisholm I've felt more independent and grown-up. I think its because Chisholm isn't as sheltered as Glenn, and the people here are older and therefore more responsible? Not sure about everyone else's responsibility in the kitchen though, considering how everyone's pots and pans are always left in the sink. But yeah, the feel is different in Chisholm, and I kinda like it. Though of course I do miss the prepared meals in Glenn (even though they taste like shit), the bigger rooms and bigger toilets. But I guess you gotta make-do with whatever situation you get, right? And besides, Glenn was too comfy already, and I don't want to be spoilt by all its little luxuries.

Since Puay the Pig doesn't believe that I can actually cook good food, here are some photos to PROVE HER WRONG.

LOOKIT THAT! :D

DELISHHH

FRIED RICEEE

My neighbour from Glenn and current neighbour, Pri and I :D

And, of course, my room in Chisholm:

2009-12-02T00:17:00.002+11:00

I have finally survived the Great Exodus from Glenn into Chisholm and am spending my first night in Chisholm! The move was pretty smooth, much thanks going out to Alexis who was an incredible help and guide. Without her I would've gotten lost and died along the way or something haha. And also to my friends who came to help me - Eva, San, Stephen, Ali, Vanessa and Sharon. Everyone was a great help. But of course, not forgetting the most important person, God! It was purely through His grace that such lovely friends came to my assistance during my time of need. I am so truly grateful to Him.

Well after managing to lug/drag/carry/hoist/whatver Jeri and my stuff from Glenn into my new room in Chisholm, Alexis and I has a very satisfying lunch at Ping's Cafe before heading to Northland to get some groceries. Digressed a little and bought a cute portable iPod speaker from this shit-ass awesome stationery shop that I never did notice before. Came back, and started to unpack and organise my room. Omigod it was like a nightmare to me, trying to fit everything into the limited space. But again, all thanks to God, I managed to sort things out and my room doesn't look like it was hit by a tornado or something. I'm quite happy with the result.

It'll take me awhile to fully get used to Chisholm life though.. Especially the cooking part. And jostling for fridge and freezer space. But heck, I've already marked my territory all over the kitchen and people better respect that. Hahaha.

Excursion to some water recycling plant tomorrow! YAY NO SCHOOL. :D Haha but gotta get up early tomorrow to make sandwiches for the girls and I for out picnic lunch during the excursion. I hope I don't screw up my first proper Chisholm meal!

Anywayss I'm gonna ta for now. I need my beauty sleep.

LOVE YOU RAI! Glad you liked your card. :DD

2009-12-01T01:45:00.006+11:00

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY RAI!! <3

I love you so much dear! Hope you have a good one. (: And hope you like my surprise! :D

Guess its goodbye, Glenn! Thanks for being to awesome to me during my 6 months there. Really enjoyed every single moment. (: But well, its time to welcome Chisholm life! Yay, cooking here I come!

The Great Exodus. 1/12/2009.

2009-11-26T21:04:00.002+11:00

Sometimes I wish I felt more my age. Wish I dressed more my age, wish I did things like others my age. After reading some of my friends' blogs, I feel so kiddy now.

But I guess that's what makes me me, right?

That aside, dorm life without most of my friends has been nothing but boring and even more monotonous. Been spending more time with Momma, Kerry, Sharon and Ana now, especially at dinner, but I still miss everyone else who's left.

After starting to pack my stuff into boxes, I realised that I have actually acquired quite a bit of nonsense. And I'm pretty worried that I won't have any space in my Chisholm room after I shift over Jeri and my stuff. Shucks, I shouldn't have opened my big mouth and volunteered my room. I'M AN IDIOT. But anyway I gotta move next Tuesday, and thankfully I only have school until 1pm. So after class I gotta rush back and start the long, taxing and arduous task of moving dorm. God bless my soul.

Stress stress and more stress ahead of me! Math test tomorrow, Biology test and oral presentation next week, and Chemistry test the week after. All I can say is that I can't wait for all this shit to be over and done with.

Ta for now I guess.

2009-11-20T19:22:00.010+11:00

I think I've just hit the lowest point in my time in Melbourne. Started this week, with my dorm friends finally leaving one by one. Amanda and Daphne left on Monday, Qimin on Wednesday, Jeri yesterday and Lingchi and Gen today. Which leaves me with no one else in the clique that I'm close to save for Momma. Its really sad to see everyone leave, especially when they're all going back home while you're stuck here for another month. So yeah, I started getting pretty down ever since Amanda and Daphne left. Dinner was never the same, with empty seats and less conversation. Kinda realised that I took everyone's presence for granted, I think. Because its like only after they've left that I realised how much I valued their presence and energy. But I guess that's just human, isn't it? Taking things for granted and only valuing it after its gone. But anyway, today was pretty much the worse day, with Gen and Lingchi leaving.. Said bye to Gen before I left for school, because her flight was at 5pm. When I got back from school though, Lingchi was still around and I was quite happy that I still had one last dinner with her. But then her plans changed and her aunt decided to pick her for dinner and so there went our last meal in Glenn together. ): Was kinda bummed and sad, but couldn't do anything about it. Tried not to show my sadness when I said bye to Lingchi, but I really felt it inside.. You know that feeling of being left behind and feeling so down that you just don't want to do anything but hide in your room? Yeah that's how I felt. Although Momma was still with me (which I am highly thankful for), I was still down. Went to dinner.. Felt even worse. Its like my other half is missing. Which, in a way, is true because Kakak and I pretty much did everything together in Glenn. And ogling at eyecandies by myself is no fun at all. ): Sigh. I really miss Kakak already! ): And everyone else too.. Time passed so fast here, feels like just yesterday that I just moved in and Kakak popped by with the rest to say hi to me. And now their school year is over and everyone's gone home.

Really sucks to be all alone now. ): Miss you Kakak! ):

But like I said, I'm really thankful that I still have Momma and others like Ana, Kerry, Sharon etc. here in Glenn.. At least I wouldn't have to lonerise completely during mealtimes. And then there's Alexis too, who is so amazingly smart and knowledgeable haha. I thank God for her because I think He's placed her in my life to help bring me through this tough time, especially next week when I have to move to Chisholm. Alexis is moving too, and she's going to try and get a car so that we can move easily. And since she's been here for like four years already, she pretty much is familiar with Chisholm and everything, so I can depend on her when I move. Really hope I get a room next to her over the summer!

Never in my life has a month felt like eternity to me.. Not until now. But I was thinking that its about time I went through a 'tough time' by myself.. I mean, I consider myself extremely blessed for having God put people like Gen and Jeri in my life to welcome me when I first came, and a wonderful neighbour like Lingchi to give me someone to hang around with. Because of them and the other fantastic people I met in Glenn, my transition to life here was very smooth-sailing. Others weren't so fortunate, like Lingchi. Poor thing came here by herself, find her way to La Trobe from the airport and move into Glenn by herself. And she had to make friends pretty much from scratch, while I was introduced by those whom I already knew. So yeah I think its high time I go through some loneliness and solitude.

Anyway moving on, school is still stressful and annoying.. And I think I'm getting quite sick and tired of it. Which I don't think is a good thing, because I still have a month left before I go home for the Christmas break. And then there's next January when I gotta come back for my exams. So I pretty much have quite some time left in the dear FSDP course, and I gotta strengthen myself up if I want to survive. School today kinda sucked though. Got really pissed off at some classmates of mine who apparently don't really know when to draw the line between teasing and hurting someone. Basically when one of them found out that he beat me in our last Biology test (he got 100 farking percent), he was like damn happy and told everyone.. And he kept saying to me that he had told me he'd get full marks and beat me. I wasn't feeling happy already, so I just "Mm-ed" and "Ahh-ed" my way through, but he kept going on and on and told my other classmates who, to no help at all, started shouting that he got full marks to me. Which of course, totally ticked me off. So in the end I just ignored them. Then my other friend realised that she got higher than me for our math test and openly expressed her happiness upon beating me. And yeah, that got me even more annoyed. So now you kinda see why I'm starting to get tired of school? Because its only making me feel stupider and more unimportant than I already feel. Ah stuff it. No point brooding too long.

Time I bucked up and show those shits who they're trifling with.

Thank God my English teacher approved my oral presentation topic on rock climbing! I somehow managed to turn it into an academic topic haha. So anyway Kico and I are going to present on "Rock climbing: Boon to Mankind, Bane to Environment?" Cleverly thought of by me. :D Dear Kico helped with the research and I typed out the report.. And I must say, I'm quite proud of the outcome! Pity the report doesn't really count for much in the grading, most weightage is on the presentation itself. But at least the foundation is there for us. :D Hopefully we'll be able to make a great presentation and impress our teacher. Yea, rock climbing FTW! (:

Went to Simpson Lawn last night to play with some left over sparklers from Lingchi's birthday.. Had much fun taking photos and fooling around. (: Like I said just now, I'm really gonna miss everyone. ):

Hahah ah bengs

How I love them so! <3

Mandatory jump shots

Shindu-adugennn!

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2009-11-19T01:02:00.001+11:00

Thanks Pris. Really miss having you to talk to. (:

2009-11-13T22:35:00.005+11:00

Been pretty stressed out lately! And its been all due to school and tests. I think its also because everyone in my dorm is stressed from studying for their exams too, and I suppose their stress has probably rubbed off on me. But I guess its good in a way, since the stress is making me become really paranoid and more studious than I normally am. Especially today! I actually did my Independent Study Journal for Academic Study Skills (a.k.a. English) which I never did properly last time. Can't believe I spent like almost two hours on it! Supposed to devote three hours every week to it, but I find it so useless and a waste of time that I don't touch until its due for submission. So I guess Rachietan is really changing! And I kinda like it. Just wish that my subjects in school would be easier to understand so make things better for me. Stupid Chemistry I hate it!! My nightmare in JC has finally come back to haunt me. Sigh-

Got back my mid-semester report yesterday, and although my scores are pretty good so far, I'm quite disappointed in my Biology grade even though it's a B. Guess I asked for it since I didn't really put in much effort for the first test. And my 79% in the second test wasn't enough to pull the average to an A. And I think this is one of the reasons why I'm feeling the stress to improve and change the errs of my ways. Finally, my wake-up call has arrived. Need to pull up the averages of my tests for all my subjects, so that I can increase my chances of getting an A next year. I guess I'm feeling pretty serious about all this now because I've realised that I absolutely cannot afford to screw up because if I do and I don't get into my uni course next year, then well, my life is doomed. I already threw away my JC option, and now I'm overseas studying I just can't fail can I? So therefore.. Study, Rachel, study!

The weather for the past two days has been pretty nice, I must say. After almost a whole week of scorching sun and soaring temperatures that saw Melbourne hotter than Singapore, yesterday's cool temperatures of high twenties was a nice reprieve. Today, however, was totally fantastically awesome. Not too hot, nor was it too cold. The evening was just perfect, and Lingchi and I ate outside the dining hall under the sky. Breeze blew, birds chirped and the food was good. I was in a good mood. :D After dinner, I brought Ranielle out to the courtyard to do some work while Lingchi watched her show. The evening was so nice that I really wished that I had my family there with me so that I could share that moment with them.. Wanted to Skype but my parents were at a function so I couldn't. ): Ohwell I guess there'll always be another day, God-willing. (: Mama came to join us and we all had a nice time basking in God's wonderfully-made day. (:

View of part of the courtyard from where I was sitting

Today was To Write Love On Her Arms Day! Its a day where people write the word "Love" on their arms, however big they want, to prove to someone in need that there are people around that care for them. Its a cause by To Write Love On Her Arms, a non-profit organisation, that started in the States in '06 by a group of friends rallying around another friend who had fallen on hard times with drugs and self-harm. For anyone suffering depression, anxiety, addiction, self harm or suicide, TWLOHA is there to support them and show them the services available to get them through hard times. Anyway! Mama, Kakak and I wrote "Love" on our arms and enjoyed ourselves while enjoying the evening.

Discovered a rock climbing wall tucked away in a corner of the wings of my school campus' Sports Centre on Wednesday and Gen, Jeri, Lingchi when I went through the back door of the swimming pool to see some friends. Ecstatic as I was though, the wall was in bad shape. To start of it wasn't a proper climbing wall, it was more of a few tiles scattered on a brick wall. Looked more like a commercial wall for non-climbers than a real wall. But I told myself, "Better than nothing, at least there're tiles.." Upon closer inspection, however, it was confirmed that the wall was crying out to be maintained. It looked like it hasn't been touched in years, with the tiles all covered in cobwebs. It was pretty disgusting. And it was probably true, that the wall hasn't undergone maintenance in a long time. I felt so sad for the wall! Actually that area has a lot of potential to be an awesome bouldering gym, but I have no idea how to put that idea forth to the Sports Centre. But anyway, I've been going to climb for the past two days, even though the wall's so messed up. Did some endurance drills on whatever little tiles that I can hold and use. Because its a high wall, I'm limited to the really low tiles, and I daren't go higher because there're no crash mats. So yeah, its quite a pathetic site but I guess its better than nothing, at least I can get back some of my movements (albeit really limited) and strength on the wall.

The part of the wall that I climb on.. It's much worse than it looks here.

Other half of the wall with even worse tiles (some GLUED to the wall)

Lastly, the GCE A Levels have started! I just want to say to all my friends back home in Singapore running their final leg of the race all the best and may God be with them! I'm so proud of them, because they've all survived thus far. Its something that I really admire and respect, because heck, I didn't even make it past the quarter mark hahah. But that aside, yeah. I hope everyone's coping well and not going crazy with the stress! Of course, my stress here can't possibly be compared to that of those taking the A levels now. Heard that the first few papers were really hard though, but I hope that doesn't get everyone down and out, continue to keep your chin up guys! I'm here supporting you guys all the way. And before you know it, the nightmare will be over! And you'll have absolute FREEDOM. :D And as a bonus, I'll be coming back! So look forward to it. :D

Can't wait for Christabel to come over in December with her family too!!!!

2009-11-07T02:34:00.004+11:00

As much as a B.F.F. can make you go W.T.F., there's no denying we'd all be a little less rich without them.

2009-11-06T20:10:00.004+11:00

Thank God its Friday! Never really realised why everyone likes saying this.. But recently I've found myself to be extremely happy and thankful whenever Friday comes around and I'm done with school for the week. So yeah, TGIF! Time to let my brain rest.

Biology test was pretty easy today too, with only 43 MCQ and no open-ended questions. Yes, tests in my school (or rather, by my teachers) are really so funny in a ZOMG-why-did-I-even-bother-to-study-so-hard way. Though I'm still happy that I mugged my ass off last night, albeit a little last minute (though I did start a few days earlier). Makes me feel better about myself. So I guess studying is actually quite fun! When you know what you're doing, that is. Maybe I'll go do some work later instead of slacking. Then at 12am its Bloody Monday time with Lingchi. :D

Spotted: Rachietan watching Gossip Girl! Can't believe I'm actually watching it after strongly detesting it haha. And its actually quite nice omgg! What's wrong with me!

```
Lately I've been reminiscing about the past.. I have no idea why though, I thought all those feelings were behind me. Back then I wondered if I could hold on and keep up feelings for you even abroad, and I daren't commit on my part. I told myself to move on, leave my options open. With time, all wounds heal. Mine did, but somehow the feelings remained and I wasn't fully aware of it. Either that, or I just didn't want to admit it. And I realised that all I was doing was trying to suppress those feelings. After all, I wanted to start anew in a new place. You once told me that going abroad is good because no one knows who you are, neither do they know your past - perfect opportunity to start on a clean slate. Though while its true that nobody knows who you are etc., there's still you, the very person you are. In other words, you can't exactly escape from yourself. And I know deep inside that I still haven't fully let go of you. Not just yet, anyway.

I wonder how you could change almost 180˚ after going to your new school. Its such a drastic change that I can't bring myself to say that I actually know you. The you I once know is now but of a distant memory etched in my mind, ready to be forgotten as time passes. I've said this once and I'll say it again though, I still don't like that new you. Although you'd probably say that you very much prefer the new you because he's 'stronger' as a person. Or something like that. I'm not used to it though. Maybe because I had a deeper connection with the old you, the you I used to know. But who'm I to say such things? Its not like I have a say over who you are and who you become. Deep inside though perhaps that little bit of what remains of the old you, the you I think I fell in love with, still exists and is a part of who you are. I believe its still there, maybe that's why I have yet to let go.

I'm just being unrealistic anyway, aren't I?

You know how most people believe that feelings will change after awhile and you can move on? I'm not sure if that applies to me. Its been about 10 months and I still pretty much feel the same way, share the same thoughts as what I did before I left. 10 months is really long, even I'm surprised at myself. So maybe it is possible to hold on. There're so many reasons as to why I still have feelings, but they're so many that I can't say. But remember how you used to say that after I'm done with university here and if we still have feelings, we'll give it a shot? I might probably be able to do that on my part. I'm sure its much different on your part anyway. Love is really hard, isn't it? Really takes two hands to clap. Wonder how you feel though, if you knew all this.

Initially the promise that we'd remain the good friends we were and keep in contact fooled me into being happy and content and thinking that I was over you. But now that we don't talk anymore - you busy with your assignments and I with school - its dawned on me that it was pretty much an empty and passing promise, something to make me happy and shut up perhaps? Can't help but think its that way. I know its impossible to keep hoping that I still mean something to you, but sometimes I just wish that you could keep your promise of keeping in contact and maintaining our friendship. I think I've played my part already. Have yet to see you do yours. Squeezing in 30minutes for a quick chat before a meeting doesn't count when I was the one who initiated it and after that you don't bother making further contact anymore.

Just when I thought that it was over, I realised that I'm still a fool.

2009-11-02T20:30:00.003+11:00

Happy November 2009 everyone. Just a month and 17 days left till I'm back in Singapore. Lingchi and the others have just three weeks to go. SIANZZZ I don't want to be left alone. ): And now everyone's all busy mugging for their exams and so there's no one to accompany me in slacking. HAHA wth ignore that sentence I sounded like some selfish kid. But really, it kinda sucks when your academic schedule is so different from everyone else's. Especially when everyone's going back home a whole month before you do.

Weekend was a total slack-fest for me. Glenn's D-Day on Saturday, which started at 6am in the morning and ended at 1am on Sunday morning. Apparently at 6am sharp speakers in the courtyard woke everyone up by blasting porno sounds of a woman having sex. Thankfully because my room isn't facing the courtyard (and also because I'm a really heavy sleeper), I was spared from the moaning and groaning sounds that gave Gen the fright of her life. Lingchi and I didn't plan on attending D-Day because the tickets were a waste of $40, which included a singlet and beer holder. Figured that $40 for just a singlet and holder would be a huge waste of money since we don't drink that much. Accompanied Gen at 3pm to collect her singlet though, and while waiting the warden saw that we weren't wearing the singlet and ordered some RA to get singlets for us. And after waiting about an hour (yeah the stupid RA kept forgetting), we got our singlets. I wanted to laugh out loud because I didn't even pay anything hahaha. Nobody checked for tickets anyway, so Lingchi and I practically gate crashed the whole event unnoticed. Saw somebody get uber drunk and even weirder and act like a kid. It was amusing yet disgusting at the same time. Whatever. Sat around in the courtyard watching all the angmohs drink alcohol like nobody's business and enjoyed the live music that Custom Kings (I think they rock!) entertained us. Then Daphne, Lingchi and I went to sit in the portable jacuzzi that was hired to seek refuge from the heat of the day. Turns out that it was possibly the best thing we did for the day because Lingchi's 黑马王子 and Back-up came into our jacuzzi awhile after! The ultimate thing was, Back-up totally sat next to me. Plus, because the jacuzzi was so crowded, we had to squeeze and we were literally shoulder-to-shoulder, arm-to-arm, leg-to-leg. I seriously died and went to heaven, I swear. Hahahaha shit man just thinking of it makes me giggle to myself like an insane twit. But ZOMGG I still can't believe I struck lottery okay! TEEHEE. :D 黑马王子 initially was a person away from Lingchi, and after that guy left he moved in to make space. And then it was Lingchi's turn to join me in heaven. Hahaha and Giraffe (aka Hugh Jackman), Daphne's new eyecandy, came too and he kept shoving his feet in Daphne's face because he was just too damn tall. And somehow or another Daphne wasn't grossed out by that and joined Lingchi and I in heaven too. But omg I think I was the best HAHAHAH. Sorry Lingchi, Daph. I'm just biased. :DD

Celebrated Jialin's birthday at Chisholm at night, and had some drinks. Got really red but wasn't drunk haha. Damn, I hate turning red whenever I drink, totally sucks. But had fun at Chisholm even though I don't know the people that well. Played the drums too! Youngmin-oppa is like some kick-ass drummer and he's my inspiration to work towards next year. Haha Lingchi and I are gonna haunt the music room in Chisholm every single night next year. :D

Work's piling up slowly bit by bit now.. Its getting quite annoying. Especially for math, with a bloody test almost every week. And its especially worse because I don't know wth the chapters are about, and the relevance it has to what I want to do next year. I hate stats. Stats is stupid, and a bloody waste of my time. I mean like, wth cares about trends and drawing a 3-point median regression line or whatever its called? ARGHH. And how in the world did I get 27.5/30 for my balanced essay? Wts man even my Vietnamese classmate got 29/30. I so did NOT just lose to someone to whom English is a second language and whose command of English is obviously (much) worse than mine. I'm not gloating though, I'm just miffed that I wasn't marked fairly. What Pris said was true I guess. Sian la.

SWOTVAC has started. But it seems there's no supper in the dining hall. Sigh, I want supper! I just need something else to get my mind off my stupid work.

Okay I should go now. Don't even know why I'm blogging when I've got tests to study for. Whateverrrr.

2009-10-30T23:06:00.008+11:00

Okay back from a hiatus! Was too lazy to update about anything, but I realised that my blog's starting to rot (which is never a good sign) and I actually have quite a bit to write about. So let's start from last week!

Studying's been pretty much still non-existant as usual, although I've been trying very hard (along with Lingchi) to try and get our brains to work. Especially important that Lingchi gets her brain working because her end-of-year exams are in two weeks' time. Haha but so far, she's been spending more time sleeping than studying. Tsk, even worse than me lol. As for me, I've been pretty much scraping through classes and tests. Incredibly, despite (and I admit it) not really studying for my tests, I've been getting A's for them so far. Except for the first biology test which I totally didn't study for and got 70%. ): But what am I complaining about, I should thank God that I got those relatively good scores despite being the slacker that I am and not studying. Gotta start fulfilling my Rachietan-must-mug-in-Semester2 promises man.. Haha.

But anyways, last week was kinda busy for me! To start off there was 1st North's Awards Night on Wednesday. Basically it was my dorm floor's party where awards are given out to people for things that they're known for etc. As mentioned in the previous post, the theme was Horseradish (i.e. bad taste) and we all had to dress badly I guess. Haha with help from Momma (Winnie) and Lingchi, I managed to come up with something really atrocious to wear. Lingchi looked like some Malay warrior while Momma looked like a lumber jack haha. The night was pretty fun I guess, even though I was kind of bored since I hardly knew anyone. But some of my floormates spoke to me, and there was Lingchi to talk to anyway. Besides, just watching the angmohs and their amusing antics was good enough to amuse us. The awards given out were really funny too! There was like Slut Award, Kitchen Sink Award, Mad Snake Award and Deep Shit Award among others. I won the Giggle Award. Apparently because I'm giggling all the time. -.- Had no idea I giggled though.. Thought it was only real laughing. It was so embarrassing anyway! Like a bruise to my pride lol. Giggling is for girly girls man. Ew. But nonetheless it was nice. (: Lingchi won the Volleyball Award for her obvious (and awe-inspiring) volleyball skills while Momma won the Pensioner Award for being the oldest 1st Northian HAHA.

Lingchi, Katrina and I

Me and Tahlia <3 (I think she's really sweet!)

With her boyfriend Chuck

Our awards!

World's best RAs - Courta and Blacky :D

Next up was Lingchi's surprise birthday party on Saturday night! Had planned it all out in my head the week before and I was really excited about it. The plan was to go to someone's room at around 10 plus at night with Lingchi to watch a movie, while everyone else sneaked into her room to decorate it. The movie ended after midnight, so Lingchi and I went back to our rooms and everyone hiding in her room surprised her when she opened her door.

Everyone helping out

End product

The decoration gang!

With the birthday girl (:

Birthday girl and her door (:

Stage 2 of the surprise was blindfolding her and leading her outside into the courtyard to surprise her with her birthday cake. Used sparklers as candles and it was really pretty!! (: Surprisingly nobody complained about our noise though. Haha.

It was her first time playing with sparklers too!

The third and last surprise was making Lingchi go back into the dorm to search and collect 18 of our birthday wishes to her that were scattered around 1st North. I think it was a wonderful idea by Daphne. (:

Instructions for the birthday girl

Hahaha cheeky Lingchi trying to take a picture that's not hers

Part of Gen, Jeri, Joee and my present to Lingchi (we let the others sign it)

With her stash of presents (:

Hope you enjoyed that night Kakak! <3

Sun tanned under the sun for the first time here on Lingchi's birthday the next day.. Did some studying done as well. It was quite cloudy and windy that day, but thankfully the sun did come out occasionally. Sun tanning on the Simpson Lawn totally rocks anyway, especially on a Sunday when there's no one around in school. The sun was so nice and warm and I felt so nice and fuzzy. :D Fed some ducks, ran around the field, played some volleyball and did stupid things with Lingchi and Joee. Will probably do that again on Sunday. :D

It was Glenn College's Valedictory Dinner on Wednesday. It was held in the dining hall and the dress code was semi-formal. The dinner was not bad, I guess. Had lamb knuckle (I think) which was better that I thought it would be, while Lingchi and some breaded chicken dish which was nice too! It was during the dinner I realised that I would actually kinda miss Glenn quite a bit.. I guess I'll miss the daily interactions with friends during meal times, the interactions with the canteen staff (especially Cheryl and Chris) and secretly ogling at eyecandy during meal times. But ohwell, I still think its time to 'grow up' a little more and start cooking my own meals.

Chris! :D

With the warden, Mr Bret Slade (damn cool name horr)

Neighboursss <3

That's all for the events that have happened over the past week for so! Took sooo many pictures! Haha gosh. I'm so glad that digital cameras were invented, seriously. Can't imagine taking 100 over photos every time I go out or stuff like that.

Oh, I lost my biology textbook too. ): Only realised it on Monday night when I was packing my bag for Tuesday's class. It wasn't in my room, and on Tuesday when I went to school, I couldn't find it either. So I have absolutely no freaking idea where the hell it disappeared to. I'm still sad over the loss, even though I've already gotten a replacement book from Boonkiak. But its the sentimental value (lame, I know) and the notes that I scribbled inside that makes my heart damn tia to lose the book. SIGHH. ): I'd rather lose it now than later, though. Not as many chapters' worth of notes gone so its not that bad. I'm just praying for a miracle that somehow or another I'll find my book again! However slim the chances of that happening, I'll just keep praying.

Its D-Day tomorrow.. The day of partying and drinking and going crazy. For the angmohs, that is. Its going to be literally one whole day of partying outside in the courtyard and everywhere in Glenn. D-Day starts at 6am and ends like super damn duper late. I'm so anticipating not to be able to get any peace tomorrow, sigh. Tickets are at $40, which includes a singlet, beer holder, lunch and dinner. But there's no way I'll pay $40 just for that because its not like I'm gonna drink or anything. Though I wanna play on the bouncy castle.. Never mind! I'll be a good girl tomorrow and STUDY for my tests next week. (bullshit) Haha!

TGIF.

2009-10-20T00:15:00.003+11:00

Currently in Lingchi's room trying to study right now because I've finally come to the realisation that I absolutely cannot study in my room. Now then I realise that? I hear you say. Yes yes I know I'm really slow. But at least I now know so I can do something about it. Sigh, maybe I need to get myself a little table to put in Lingchi's room so I can study and do work properly. Now I have to settle with sitting on my ass and using my knee as a prop for my books. Better than nothing I suppose! At least I get stuff done I guess.

I want to play volleyball right now!! Ever since my gym membership has expired, Lingchi, Gen and I have been going out to the courtyard before dinner to play volleyball. And under Lingchi's ever-so-patient guidance, I'm proud to say that Gen and I are slowly improving from a volleyball-retard level to decency. And I'm kinda getting hooked onto volleyball! Really want to go for trainings haha if only La Trobe had a volleyball club though. Maybe I'll go join the badminton team next year or something. Gonna get fat again without gym access anymore, sigh. ):

Ahhh this week is one heckuva stressful week for me. Test on Wednesday, then its my dorm floor's Awards Night on Thursday. Theme is Horse Raddish (i.e. bad taste) and I have absolutely no idea what to wear. I'm kinda dreading it though, because I'm pretty anti-social on my floor. And I haven't exactly gone for any of the floor meetings so far (oops) so yeah, I hardly know anyone. So its gonna be me and Lingchi lonersiing in one corner of the Rec Room come Thursday night haha shit man so pathetic. Hopefully with Winnie with us we won't feel that awkward. Just gotta figure out what the hell to wear to a Horse Raddish themed event! UGHH.

Chemistry test on Wednesday! Omg I'm so scared, no idea why. Think its because my sub-teacher for the first three weeks totally sucks at teaching and therefore I was left kinda clueless about the first chapter for Semester 2. How lovely. Thankfully my proper teacher is ten times better but I gotta find a way to salvage my first chapter, ughh! Damn you chemistry, the bane of my school life!

Really hope that we all manage to get rooms in the same tower and on the same floor in Chisholm next year!! Can't wait to cook meals for ourselves. :DD

Talking to my brother on MSN now! Its totally making my day. (: (:

2009-10-18T21:43:00.004+11:00

The monotony of life here has struck me yet again. And this time, its slightly worse because I've already begun to count down the days (or rather months) left till December 18/19 comes and I fly back to Singapore for my study break. When you're looking forward to something really badly, time just passes too damn slowly and seriously man, how you wish life had a fast-forward button. I want to fast-forward past school and boring lessons, past saying goodbye to my dorm friends when they're done with exams and gone home, past having to move to Chisholm for the summer break all by myself, and past enduring a month in Chisholm all by myself. So much to dread before my turn to go back comes! SIANZPUAHH.

Skyped with my brother and Puay the Pig after such a long time last night! Almost Skyped for an hour too. Ah gee, how I miss them so. ): Seriously can't wait to go back and hang out with them again! And not forgetting climbing with them at Yishun! Ughh I miss that place to bits too. And Yishun has gotten themselves a kitten who is apparently friends with a python (hmm). The kitten is seriously so adorable I can't wait to go back and play with it. Only hope that by the time I go back, it hasn't lost its cuteness. Wonder what's up with climbers (or climbing gyms) and cats. Since Climb Asia also has a cat. Haha.

Finished what was left of our durians with Lingchi and Gen outside the dorm because we were scared that the angmohs would throw us out or something. It was like a self-exilation on ourselves lol. But it was fun, sitting outside at one of the benches eating durians and trying not to let the smell spread any further. One of Gen and Lingchi's angmoh friends came along wondering what we were doing outside and then he smelt our durians and ran away mortified at the smell AHAHAH. He was like, "Why do you guys put yourselves through that!" Ah well, his loss lol.

Anyway, this is really random but I think Paradise's Addictions Chocolate Chip Cookies are like one of the best I've ever had. Totally love the amount of chocolate chips that are in each cookie! Great for a late night snack. Just wish that I had a cup of milk to go with them though.. ):

2009-10-17T18:09:00.001+11:00

onetwochic has just updated with a special necklace and shoes update! Click on the link at the sidebar to check it out, the things are really cute! <3

2009-10-14T00:48:00.005+11:00


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Yeah, that's what we do when we're bored. /:

2009-10-13T13:37:00.002+11:00

While walking through my dorm's courtyard I looked up and saw a kookaburra sitting in a tree. And I smiled.

School must be getting to me, to make me smile when I see a kookaburra. Or maybe they're just too cute not to smile whenever I see one. Hmm.

Waiting for SOO LING CHI to get back from class to have lunch together! I'm positively starving. HURRY UP AND COME BACK YOU BAKAYARO!

I want a pair of Sanuk Capri/Ibiza slippers!! I could stare at the Sanuk logo forever and ever, its just too cute!

2009-10-11T17:20:00.001+11:00

ZOMGG I THINK I HAVE A COLD. D:

2009-10-11T02:52:00.002+11:00

Met up with Shu Xia and Ming Wei from SR just now in the city! Had dinner with them at Lygon Street at a nice little Italian restaurant that wasn't crowded but served good pizza. It was awesome catching up with them.. Though we didn't exactly know each other before this.. The only reason why we came together is because Shu Xia and I are both in Melbourne studying, and Ming Wei's coming to Aussie when his army ends in two years' time. But its quite cool how we all really cliqued and talked as if we were long lost pals from years ago haha. So we shared two medium pizzas between us, but i have a feeling Mingwei didn't have enough to eat haha. But we went for gelato ice cream at Freddo's and each had a cup of ice cream. It was goood. :D Though my sore throat isn't going to get any better, sigh. ): The total time that we spent chatting was possibly two hours or more, since we met at about 7.30pm and we parted at around 11.10pm? Amazing, huh. And man did I miss talking at my normal speed with them! Because in school I have to talk slower to my friends otherwise nobody will understand what I'm saying because I speak too fast for them. Haha really miss my normal talking speed! (:

Chatting with them two made me miss SR even more than I already do.. What I would give just to be able to attend that school with my friends as a J1 again. Words can't express how much I miss everyone back there. And now they're all busy preparing for their A's, which makes me envious that they've all gotten that far, but more proud of them all for reaching the last leg. Oh, and on the bus on the way to the city, I saw this guy on the street that looked a splitting image of Lew! Like seriously, I really thought it was Lew okay.. The only difference was that the guy was slightly taller. But other than that, everything else was the same! Face, skin colour, hair. Gosh Lew! I miss you so much too! ):

Gen and I went down to RMIT in the city last night to get durians with her friends from Chisholm - Eugene (Papa Bear), Jia Lin and Jason. After sampling Jason's box of durians Gen and I ended up getting a box (apart from the two we ordered for the Glennies) and finishing it between the two of us. It was really good, sweet and lovely! I don't usually eat a lot of durians, but omg I totally whacked it last night! Maybe its because I'm away from home thats why I found the durians really tasty, haha. Well anyway, I now have a damn sore throat which is hurting and annoying the shit out of me. That plus the three ulcers that were already residing in my mouth before my durian spam. Ohwell. I figured it'd be worth risking getting even heatier for the durians. Just gotta tahan now lor. ):

Shit its 3am now and I'm still trying to figure out how to send a video that I made for my grandmother's birthday party tomorrow. Wanted to surprise her but now the internet is annoying me. Shitshitshit I'm gonna be a zombie at brunch tomorrow. ROAR.

2009-10-01T23:39:00.009+10:00

It's things like this that never fail to bring a smile to my face and give me the strength to carry on.

Love you Fang. (:

2009-09-30T21:19:00.008+10:00

Bring it on, baybeh!!

School has resumed, and semester 2 has begun. The first two days of school went by smoothly I guess, thankfully I haven't reached the clueless I-don't-know-what-the-teacher's-talking-about stage yet. There are a few new students in my class, still haven't gotten used to it though. I kinda miss my old classmates, for some reason. Though I didn't exactly enjoy the noise that the guys produced, but at least they kind of made the class a little more lively. Now its only four guys left in my class; the rest are either repeating or have been moved to the Business class for reasons unknown. At least I still have Kico, Kaman, Eva and Thao with me.. Kico has yet to come back from HK, and I really do miss her craziness haha.

Aunty Florence is going back to Singapore tomorrow for good. I'm going to miss her. ): And then Pris is leaving next Friday, and I'm going to miss her even more. ): As much as I'm happy that she did well enough in the exams to get into university, part of me wishes that she wasn't going back. But I guess its about time that she went back to Singapore. After all she came nearly half a year earlier than me. Well I just can't thank God enough for putting her and Aunty Florence in my life when I came to Melbourne. Without them both I really wouldn't have had such an easy time settling down. I wouldn't have had the chance to eat such wholesome home cooked food, I wouldn't have found CrossCulture and Aunty Mary's home group. I'm not exactly sure if I'll continue to go to home group or CC though - although I've been going ever since I came, it was because I had Pris with me. I don't exactly have that attachment to CC nor home group so far either. Maybe I'll go to Wendy's church to have a look-see. Leaving my options open. Just hope that I won't backslide even further in my faith. I've been backsliding too much already. That aside, Pris if you're reading this, I HATE YOU FOR LEAVING ME and I love you lots. (: Don't worry, it's going to be even more soppier nearing the day you leave!

Anyways! My end-of-semester break was totally awesome. Kind of tiring, actually, because I went out almost every day. Let's see, stay over at Spas' on Monday night was rather interesting. Cooked dinner for her at 11pm and ate at 12am. Haha it was damn late and we were damn full. Next day.. Went to the Royal Melbourne Show! Spas got us in for free because she had volunteered at some wildlife rescue booth the day before. It was my first time going to an amusement park, and I must say it was a good experience. The grounds were totally awesome - the place was so big! And it was so colourful too! All the rides, game stalls and party bags! Gosh I totally love the atmosphere. Well the first ride that we went on was like some swing-like bench and it lifted us in the air and started rotating. And while it rotated the benches attached to the machine would swing around in the air. WAHH DAMN SCARY OKAY I had images of our bench disconnecting and crashing to the ground. I was positively freaking out and swearing at the top of my lungs. And it was my first ever theme park ride too! ): Stupid Wen. It looked pretty harmless from the ground though. But once the bloody machine ascended upupUP I wanted to die. Next ride was called Break Dance and it was my absolute ultimate favourite. Basically the machine rotated (on the ground) and swung our carriages here and there. It was rather violent but omg damn fun. Wen and I couldn't stop laughing. Last ride that I took was a mini roller coaster called Crazy Coaster that had really sharp bends. It was pretty fun, though the classic roller coaster drops gave me a few swearing moments. Didn't go for any more rides after that, wanted to save my money haha. The rides were all so expensive, each was at least AUD$6. So Wen and I explored the show grounds and saw horses, farm animals, dogs running that agility SOC-like thingy. Mighty cool. Didn't get to see the racing and diving pigs but it was alright.

The next day I went to the city for dimsum lunch with Pris, Kaman, Phoebe and Eva to celebrate Kaman's birthday. Omg the HK girls are damn ownage when it comes to ordering dimsum dishes haha they're damnnn kiasu! It was quite embarrassing the way they stared down the dimsum carts, but at the same time it was really amusing. After lunch I went to QV to get my new phone! Signed up with the mobile service provider 3 and got a free phone that came with my plan. Its the Nokia E63 and looks like a BlackBerry. I'm slowing getting used to the functions (still peeved that the calendar's anniversary function doesn't keep track of the years so I can't save people's ages with their birthdays) and the QWERTY keypad. Thankfully my fat thumbs are able to maneuver smoothly on the keypad too. The girls went to Melbourne Museum, but I went back to Glenn because I wanted to go to the gym with Lingchi. Been gymming well so far! Must.. lose.. fats!

Rotted in my room the whole of Thursday, lol. Then went back to the Royal Melbourne Show on Friday with Gen, Pris, Kaman and Phoebe. Managed to get concession entrance fees at AUD$18 haha. The weather was positively shit, though. It was drizzling the whole time we were there, and because we can't possibly bring umbrellas on the rides, we all got wet. Sat on Break Dance and Crazy Coaster again, then Phoebe, Kaman and Gen went to take this insanely crazy scary ride while Pris and I held their bags. Haha no guts. After that we managed to catch the racing and diving pigs show and it was damn cute seriously! Didn't know pigs can race HAHA. Walked around the different pavilions and my favourite was the art and craft display. Totally amazing, the art pieces that were on display.

Then omg Monday! The second highlight of my break. I finally made it to Cliffhanger!! This time Gen and I went with some others from Glenn, and our journey to Cliffhanger was so much smoother than our first attempt. I guess in Australia to get to a place, you need two trips. The first to get lost and find out what not to do, and the second to finally reach the destination. Haha but anyway, apart from some crazy woman on the bus who started shouting and claiming to the bus driver that I had taken a picture of her (which I hadn't) and that there should be a law against people like me, our journey was good.

I can't tell you how accomplished I felt when we entered Cliffhanger. I felt so overwhelmed that I wanted to jump up and down and hug the walls. Ended up climbing a bit of the high wall (woah!) but couldn't tahan anymore and went to boulder by myself after awhile. The boulder cave is pretty cool! Looks as cool as it did on the website. Though it was much smaller than I expected.. And the pre-set routes were kind of hard. The ceiling was really low too, so there wasn't much room for me to set routes that didn't require overhangs which I obviously am unable to do. Plus the boulder cave had no heater, and my shoes were positively eating my poor feet. See la, I hate it when I've been on such a long climbing hiatus and my feet stop getting used to my climbing shoes. Well after climbing we left and met the rest of our Glennies in the city go have Korean BBQ dinner! Let's just say that dinner was.. pretty eventful. Firstly the place was damn crowded because of the 50% offer off BBQ items it had on Mondays and so service was terrible. So we kept asking the staff for things and I think we made them even more stressed. Then finally after our food came, we kept asking for more kimchi because we had eaten it all while waiting for the food. In the end the manager gave us like a whole tray of kimchi to shut us up HAHA. We ate so much that when stacked up, the plates formed a leaning tower of kimchi plates. And to end the day, Vanessa accidentally hit the table and everything came crashing down. Truly truly embarrassing. I think the restaurant has put up notices that ban us from ever going back again lol. But anyway, because everyone had so much kimchi to eat (I totally spammed it), we all went high and Jeri and I started dancing that Mastercard dance while waiting for the bus to come. Lovely day it was haha.

How I wish there was a boulder wall in my school for me to use.. Should never have taken SR's wall for granted. Yishun's boulder gym too! Sigh, climbing without my climbing kakees (i.e. Puay the pig, Alvin and Brian) totally sucks. ):

Wonder if anyone is willing to go to Lactic Factory next?

So yeah, that's all that happened since my last post. Gonna be a tiring day in school tomorrow - 9am to 5pm. Hope I don't die during class from boredom.

I want to go home, so damn much.

2009-09-24T22:18:00.004+10:00

I still can't believe I got all A's for my Semester 1 exam.

It was purely through God's grace that I got such a good results. Because I wouldn't say that I deserve those scores. Okay maybe I did study on my part, but most of the time I was procrastinating. And especially for chemistry and physics, totally didn't expect to get an A for those. I'm quite proud of myself, I guess, but I still won't admit that I actually am able to score well for exams. Because Semester 1 was peanuts since the topics taught were all rather basic and easy. Semester 2 is the real hurdle that I have to cross, the big final race. And I've got to buck up my attitude and mug like a mad woman for the next three months. Then its my one month study break and Singapore here I come. But after that will be my final exam and before you know it, it'll all be over. So yeah, I really don't have time to slack off like I did in Semester 1. I need to give it my all and show those damn people in the Health Science department that making the insane COP for physiotherapy (at least 80%) is nothing but a piece of cake for me.

I've done it once, and I will do it again.

PHYSIOTHERAPY HERE I COME!

2009-09-22T03:47:00.002+10:00

I wonder why its so hard to find good friends. Friends that you can share all your secrets and thoughts with, and friends that are of the same wave-length as you are. And its so easy to think that you're on the same wave-length as somebody, but actually you're not. And it sucks when you realise it and suddenly it all dawns upon you that you still by yourself.

Is it so hard to be sure of what you want to do? To stay humble and sensible and strong? Or maybe its just me, maybe I'm just blessed that I'm like that. I'm not bragging though, I'm just stating the facts. Really pity some people, who just wander around changing their minds with no definite goal set.

Thank you God.

2009-09-20T20:48:00.003+10:00

Happy birthday Spas and Yusin the frog! Hope you enjoyed yourselves today! May God continue to bless you and keep you as you grow in His ways. (: (:

Kico's birthday celebration was a blast! Baking the cake at Phoebe's place was awesome fun too.. And we had a little tour on foot of her neighbourhood. I reeeeally love the neighbourhood man! Its so quiet and lovely, and all the houses are so nice and new! Totally love the architecture of the houses here. Ended up reaching the karaoke place at 7pm because some of us forgot to bring our passports along so we had to go back and get it. Went to the karaoke lounge in Melbourne Central and paid through our wallets for a medium-sized room. It was $288 for the room with about $100+ worth of food and drinks. But the food was pure crap and like ten times over-priced. I learnt that night that HK people are absolute rockers when it comes to karaoke. They're total ownage I tell you! Kaman, Kico and Phoebe totally let loose haha you should've seen them sing. They're damn pro! Made Pris and I feel like noobs. It was my first time at a karaoke though, and it was really fun. After I got used to it, Pris and I sang the english songs while the HK girls did the Cantonese ones. Managed successfully to persuade the karaoke staff to let us bring in Kico's cake and we surprised Kico. Hope she enjoyed herself as much as I did! Pris and I ended up leaving early because she wasn't feeling well, but because of that we could sleep earlier.

Rushed to the city the next day with Pris and her aunt to have dimsum lunch! But it started to drizzle pretty heavily after we were done and in the end I got wet because my jacket didn't have a hood. Luckily we caught the Rydges shuttle bus back, and I had a warm shower to freshen up. After that Pris and I went back to Glenn to dump our things before heading out again to the tram stop to go for Unicare's bi-weekly free dinner. It was still raining then, and the wind was really strong and in the end, my umbrella was of little use and we still got wet. The bloody tram took so long to come that the both of us gave up and went to Mackers to have dinner instead. It was a pretty pathetic sight though, the two of us, looking like two drenched idiots, sitting in a corner eating dinner. Thankfully the rained had stopped by the time we were done, and we took the campus security bus back to Glenn. Went over to Boonkiak's room in Chisholm and played bridge and daidi with him and Eugene. Then went back and crashed.

Been going to the gym for the past three days! Finally decided to sign up for the one month gym and pool pass after my dad gave me the OK to use the money. I must say that I really missed going to the gym! Think the last time I had a proper gym workout was in Cedar for my badminton trainings.. Ah how I miss doing all those sets of weights and all. And the feeling of aching muscles that scream out cold-blooded murder the day after each session! Gosh I miss that! And now its all come back to me since I've been hitting the gym everyday to make my money's worth. Kinda sad that the gym closed early today, because its a Sunday. And to think that I had run 15 minutes without feeling tired at all! Suckssss ): And I didn't get to do any push-ups nor plank exercises because there wasn't time. Today just had to be my good day, sigh. Ohwell! I still have other times. Hopefully by the time my month is up I'll be able to run at least 5km without wanting to collapse and die - just like how I was last year. よしゃ! Racheltan is determined.

En Masse VII took place last night! It was the annual ISA International Ball and the theme was Tribal Masquerade. Went with my dorm friends and borrowed a dress from Daphne. She was sweet enough to make a mask for me too! It was lovely, I totally love it but I can't seem to find it now. )': SORRY DAPHNE!! But anyway, had my nails done the night before by Daphne and Amanda, make-up done by Qimin, and hair done by Amanda. Those three can totally set up a make-over shop I tell you, they absolutely rock haha. Made me feel really useless as a girl though. Considering how I'm so clueless when it comes to girly stuff like make-up and all. We all trooped over to Eagle Bar under umbrellas because it was drizzling (again) but luckily it wasn't too heavy. Basically the ball was kinda boring though, but we entertained ourselves by taking pictures. Food was total crap and portions were tiny and that made the $35 that we paid for each ticket kinda a waste of money. But nonetheless, I did have fun with my friends taking photos and being stupid. Haha and I survived the night in a dress! So proud of myself HAHA. So anyway here are some pictures! The rest are on FB, as usual.

There's only three more months till I'm back in Singapore! Time passes so fast!! Was talking to Lingchi about the differences between some dishes in Singapore and KL, and we Googled some pictures to see the differences. And because of that, I saw so many pictures of all the local fare in Singapore and omg I was sooo home foodsick! If there's such a term.. Haha and that made me reeeeally excited to go back. Stupid Lingchi kept reminding me that she's only got two months while I have three though. Hate you! Haha. SR's prom is on the 5th of December, a day before Brian's birthday. Pity I won't be back by then, but from what I've heard, it seems like hardly anyone's interested in going. Wonder why.. I'd be so excited! But I guess its also better for me, since I won't be able to gate crash and see everyone in their prom outfits. OMG THAT WAS SO SELFISH OF ME. But can't help it can I? I've missed out on just too much back home already.

Staying over at Spas' place tomorrow night! Gonna cook her a belated birthday dinner. (: (: Wonder what I'll cook though, gotta look through some recipes later for some ideas. Then on Tuesday its off to the Royal Melbourne Fair with her! Gahh, so excited, I can't wait! :D :D

2009-09-16T11:55:00.002+10:00

WHOO EXAMS ARE OVER! TIME TO BRING ON THE SLACK WHOOHOO!

Came back from my biology paper about half an hour ago.. Finished it an hour before the time was up. Haha it was pretty easy I guess. Think I'll get an A. :D Not sure about physics and chemistry though, I kinda bullshitted my way through the papers haha damn. Oh well. Whatever will be will be. For now, I'll just concentrate on doing what I do best - slacking my ass off.

Meeting the girls in school later to go to Phoebe's house to bake Kico's birthday cake! I hope it's a success. Even though we're using Betty Crocker's instant cake mix with which you absolutely cannot possibly go wrong. Then after Eva's IT paper is up we'll meet back in school to head to the city for to go to K-Box! Racheltan's first experience in a karaoke. Hahaha so exiciting. I think we're going to Crowne Hotel after that or something.. Stephen said something about gambling HAHA. But I won't gamble, I love my money too much to waste it like that. But yeah, looking forward for later! :D

Tomorrow, its Preston with Gen. Accompanying her to get a mask for the ISA ball on Saturday night. Theme's either tribal (traditional) or masquerade with face paint. We're all going with the latter, not sure if anyone's gonna apply face paint though haha. I've ended up borrowing a dress from Daphne thats really pretty. And never in my life would I expect to wear a dress like that. So I'm pretty proud of myself that I don't look like a freak in it, and that I actually have the guts to wear it. And Daphne ever to kindly made a mask for me as well! Ahh she's so good at arts and craft, so envious!! I owe her a lot man. Miss doing crafts back at home..

Semester 2 is going to start reeeeally soon. I don't think I'm exactly looking forward to it, due to all the 'horror' stories that Pris has told me about how hard the subjects are. And I'm really not sure if I can get all As for my final exam next year.. I'm even not confident of an A for biology in Semester 2 because the topics tested are those that i absolutely hate - genetics etc. I'M SCREWEDDDD ): ): I really want to do physiotherapy! And then specialise in animal phystiotherapy next time. I think it'll be so cool la. I guess once Semester 2 commences Racheltan really has to snap out of her Official Slacker status.

I CAN AND I WILL GET INTO PHYSIOTHERAPY. So there.

2009-09-13T20:33:00.004+10:00

I am so absolutely freaking bored that I just want to scream and tear down the walls of my room.

I'm sick of studying. Although I haven't exactly done that much of studying that would justify my saying this.. But yeah, I'm just plain downright sick and tired of it all. Thankfully there's only three more days of exams to endure.

Feel bad complaining about studies and exams, though. Because this is nothing compared to what my friends back in Singapore are going through right now, with their prelims and preparations for the A's.. But I guess everyone has a right to complain, right? Just not too much I guess. Somehow I think my tolerance for studies has lessened since starting school over here. Its probably because the stress level over here isn't as much as what Singapore's education system gives. Which is bad, if you ask me, because I survive under stress. If everything's too senang I'll be senang as well and totally slack my life away.

I wonder why I'm just so damn inclined to procrastinate and not do what I'm supposed to do, especially when it come to studying. I never thought that I have a short attention span, but ever since I came here and tried to study, I found that my mind keeps drifting to something else and I find myself doing something other than studying. Never was like this back home in Singapore.

Somehow, for some reason, I've been feeling really really blah lately. Mostly due to the fact that I have exams and that I've been studying (or at least trying to). But partly I think its also because my life has been so monotonous for the past few weeks. I haven't been to Rydges in ages, because I want to concentrate at home. And I haven't been to home group nor church either. I'm getting that weird feeling that my world over here in Melbourne is really small - its like limited to my dorm, my school, the main campus, Rydges and maybe Melbourne Central or Northland. Which really isn't much, because I dare not explore further. Feels like I'm living in a little bubble over here, and its starting to get suffocating and taxing to go through the motion over and over again.

Living abroad is starting to take its toll on me, I think. I find myself pining for all things Singapore and home more often lately. I think its because Lingchi has been telling me about her plans to fly back to Malaysia and that her packing has already started. And so I feel even more ughh because I have a whole month after she leaves. But then again, I shouldn't really be complaining because she's been here months before I came, so she should rightfully go home earlier. But sigh, can't help thinking about home and missing everyone.

Be strong, Rach! Life's a bitch, but I'm the Ultimate Bitch so.. I should own it, right?

What a weird analogy.

Is $51 for a month's unlimited access to the gym and pool worth it? I wonder.

2009-09-12T23:44:00.002+10:00

Spring has finally sprung! Today had a record high of 30 degrees Celsius which saw me prancing around in a singlet and my FBTs.

Lingchi and I walked to Mackers to get lunch, and we were complaining of the heat the whole way out. It wasn't 30 degrees then, but since we weren't used to the heat, we found it kinda blah. Thankfully the wind was really strong so we didn't feel that hot. I can't fathom experiencing summer here though! 20+ degrees and I'm already complaining.. Can you imagine how bad it'll be at 30+, 40 degrees?? Shit man, so screwed. See this is what winter does to you. It rids you of your tolerance for hot weather and makes you a wimp. I'm Singaporean, man! Tahan-ing heat should be my second nature! But spending three months bundled up in layers against the blistering cold apparently erases those 18 years of heat tolerance I so painstakingly built up.

Its currently 21 degrees outside, my heater is switched to fan mode (but isn't helping) and I want to break down the walls to get the wind outside. Where's the cold?! ):

Totally gonna start my journey to getting skin cancer man, now that its hotter. Dunno how the angmohs can bear to lie on the grass and sun tan when the sun is so damn strong. But I do wanna tan one day. Just not as much as they do, its insane.

I find it really amusing that Leng thinks that I'm damn mugger now. Do I sound like that? Maybe its because I keep mentioning studying and exams in my posts. But that doesn't mean that I've become a nerd ever since I came here okay! Rest assured that the Ultimate Slacker named Rachel Tan that you know is still the same old Ultimate Slacker. Don't worry, a leopard can't change its spots.

No idea if I did my English paper well on Thursday. Was kinda distracted by something, so I kinda rushed through my summary, paragraph writing and comprehension after spending one and a half hours writing a mediocre essay. Or at least that's how I feel about my essay. Sigh, hope the teacher marking likes my writing la. In the end I finished an hour before the time was up and I left to go home and rest. Was really quite drained.

I absolutely can't wait till December comes and I can fly back home. Although its only for a really short month, I'll be so glad to be home. I know the time will pass extremely fast once I touch down in Singapore, but well, its all worth it I guess. But from now till then, I have three more months of enduring school. Wonder how I'll survive once everyone goes back in November.. Since university ends before my study break starts. Lingchi's leaving one whole month before I'm done! Which would totally leave me bored to death with no more neighbour to bug. Then Gen and Jerilyn would probably be leaving soon after too. Well at least I'll have Sheng here so I'm not alone. Haha. But yeah, three months and counting!!

Okay, time to sleep! Hope I can see my 白马王子 tomorrow at brekkie.. Haven't seen him for so long already! ): Teehee, he's so cute. :D

2009-09-09T09:03:00.002+10:00

Happy 3rd Anniversary to Brian and Puay the Pig!! May God continue to bless the two of you! So happy for you guys, keep it up! ♥♥

Sigh okay, exams start tomorrow. First paper's Academic Study Skills a.k.a. English and I haven't prepared. Not that I ever do prepare myself for English exmas anyway but yeah. Off to the library later (waiting for Gen now) to study the whole day, then I guess I'll look through my points for English after dinner tonight. Hopefully I won't screw up tomorrow with a mindblank or something. That would be absolutely shit.

Finished with Physics! Or at least I've finished with the notes, with the exclusion of Electricity because I bring myself to look at that God-forsaken topic. Gonna do Chemistry today, hopefully I don't fall asleep doing it.

Why the hell am I talking about my subjects? How boring.

Alright I'm off. Hope I can go for a run later, if weather permits.

Love you Brian, love you Puay! (: (:

2009-09-01T22:31:00.014+10:00

Spring is here! I think today's the first day of spring or something. Okay maybe the second, since its a Tuesday. Feels funny to say that spring is here! Since I've spent all my life in uni-season Singapore up until now.. I'm quite excited, wonder how the flowers will bloom. :D :D Photo ops gallore!

Anyways, my box finally, finally FINALLY arrived!! After waiting for like, two months. Thank God it arrived safely I was so worried that the ship carrying it would suffer the same unfortunate fate as Titanic. It was damn heavy anyway! Luckily Gen came with me to help. We looked like retards trying to lug the stupid thing back to my room. Some workers were laughing at us too. Damnn. Well okay so I kinda ripped apart the box once we got to my room. And was greeted by lots of things! Mainly my summer clothes from back home and foolscap paper from Popular! Ahh Popular paper, gosh. How I miss it haha. But the highlight of the contents in the box was my climbing gear! It was actually the first thing that I dug in for. And when I found it, omg how I hugged the (smelly) shoe bag! Took out my chalk bag, my finger tape and shoes. And my brand new laser pointer is still working! I know this sounds damn disgusting but I smelt my stinky shoes haha and omgg I missed that smelly climbing gym smell!! Seemed like millions of years ago when I last smelt that smell. Can't blame me okay!! I really really really missed my climbing gear. Its been what, four months since I last saw them? And that was when I was still in Singapore. Damn long ago! So yeah. If you were in my position you'd probably smell them too HAHAHA.

Sab's farewell presents weren't in the box, when they were supposed to be. Turns out that my (stupid) brother was supposed to pass them to my mum to include but he didn't, and my parents were too busy with work to go bug him about it. And because of that, Sab's presents are still somewhere in my house, waiting to be sent over to me. Sorry Sab. And I can't tell you how much I want to receive your presents.

Here are the pictures of the box anyway! I was so excited that I took a few haha.

See for yourself how freaking long it took.

Gen with my box (:

Singpost really knows how to torture. ):

Pris and my Jansport bags came too!! Mine's on the left, totally <3 it. Thanks Brian!! (:

And finally, my climbing gear!! <3 <3

Aww will you just look at it. Isn't it just so lovely? Haha okay sorry I can't help but keep staring at them now that they're finally (and actually) here with me again after so long. :P

Let's see.. A couple of us headed off to Mackers last Thursday because I was craving for McFlurry and the rest wanted to eat too. So the little group of us set off at like what, 10pm at night? Haha walked through the campus and I think we were reeeally noisy and all, but who cares there was nobody to make us shut up. :D

Gen, Lingchi and I (ignore my face haha)

The rest!

:D

Wore my school uniform again today! This time I wore it to school. Pris, Phoebe and Wingsze and Stella (Pris' classmates) all got their parents to send over their uniforms so we all wore ours to school today. Haha it was really funny, because my classmates were all ogling at my uniform. Everyone liked it too! Made me even more proud to be a Cedarian. (: (: My Middle Eastern classmate couldn't believe that I was wearing a tie. Apparently to them girls don't ever wear ties. Ah well. The pictures that I took with everyone aren't with me, but I did take some on my camera.

With Pris and Phoebe

Pris and Eva

Kaman and I slacking during physics class haha

Kaman, Eva and I with our math teacher Jim

Fooling around with the whiteboard and marker

Kazuma, me, Kaman and Eva! Eva's monkey on the board is so cuuute haha.

Well okay, I think I'm done for today! Its Lingchi's lengzai's birthday tomorrow, and he happens to be my music player at times. We're gonna like write a birthday wish and stick it to his door tomorrow morning hahahah. Its Lingchi's idea though, totally not mine. If only my lengzai stayed in the same wing and floor as me. Can you imagine if he was the one right opposite my room and not Lingchi's?? Life would be much better. But never mind, I'll contend myself to seeing him at brekkie and dinner.

HEHEE, HE'S TOO CUTE LAHH! xD

P.S. I think its damn funny that for my restaurant in Restaurant City I've employed Puay to be my cleaner. And look what she's doing in the screenshot! Cleaning toilets. HAHAHA SORRY PUAY <3

2009-09-01T04:48:00.003+10:00

Omgg. Fell asleep while studying. And whatthehell lookit the time! Shitzz. (Whatthehell am I doing blogging anyway?)

Never mind, brain's fried now. Need to sleep!

P.S. Happy 20th Birthday Andrew Tan Jian Ming you laojiao.

P.S.S. Happy Teachers' Day too, to all you teachers out there... Haha.

2009-08-30T11:31:00.004+10:00

I HATE Melbourne's transport system. Absolutely hate it, dislike it, loathe it despise it, and all the other words that describe a strong dislike.

Because of the damned transport system, Gen and I were unable to climb yesterday. Let's see, I shall trace the events that led up to us not being able to climb. Caught the 12pm 250 bus to the city, and then took a train to Footscray station. Then we sat down in some courtyard to eat our packed lunch among pigeons and seagulls while waiting for bus 414 to come. When it finally came, we boarded and took off with high hopes to Cliffhanger. In the end, however, we kinda alighted at a few stops before the supposed one, and had no other bus to take because there were no more buses that served during that hour. Before we realised that we were at the wrong stop though, we walked around this area full of factories and warehouses by ourselves trying to find the place. Come to think of it, it was pretty dangerous for us haha. But yeah so Gen called Cliffhanger and we realised that we were at the wrong place. Bloody hell, I think we got 'lost' partly because the website's instructions were so vague too. So with a heavy heart we caught the next bus back to Footscray.

So yeah, thats basically the story of how Gen and I didn't manage to climb. Back at Footscray though, we decided to explore the area and discovered many things! Firstly it has a big Vietnamese community. Everywhere I saw Vietnamese shops and restaurants! I felt like I was back at Ho Chi Minh again haha. And while desperately looking for a toilet, we chanced upon this 'shopping mall' (which was more of a sheltered area for shops) thronging with Vietnamese. Went in and found out that the place was like some market, with veggies, fruits and meat being sold. Omg it was sooo crowded! But had a really nice feel to it - very homely. Kinda reminded me of the wet markets back home.. So yeah, after running to the toilet there, we bought some pancakes which tasted wonderful, and ended up buying 4 back to share with our dorm friends. Then we further explored, bought some groceries, and BUBBLE TEA before starting the long journey back to Glenn. Reached home at about 7 plus, had a hurried dinner in the dining hall before going back to our rooms.

Well, I'm still a bit sore that I wasn't able to climb yesterday, but I guess at least now Gen and I know what not to do on our next journey to Cliffhanger. I wonder when the next one will be.. Maybe after my exams during my 2 week break. And by then my climbing gear would've (hopefully) arrived! I miss my shoes and chalk bag!! And my brand new laser pointer that has yet to be used. I can't believe it, its been almost 4 months since I last saw my climbing gear! Man, I really hope it comes soon.

And yeah, that's what Melbourne's transport system is like here. The buses here come at intervals of roughly 20 minutes or so, and sometimes they don't even operate during a certain time. Its especially worse on weekends, when some bus services don't even operate at all. But if they do, they come like twice in an hour if you're lucky, and the last bus is at like what, 4 something? It's really crap. Trains and trams aren't that bad, but they still could be better. I miss Singapore's public transport, I miss it so damn much! Don't take it for granted, people. And don't complain that the fares are expensive because honestly, they're bloody cheap compared to the fares I have to pay over here.

But anyway, it was La Trobe Open Day today! Just got back from exploring the campus grounds, looking at the stalls set up and all. And had a free lunch of hotdogs! Glenn was giving out free hotdogs haha so Gen, Jerilyn and I went to kope. It was nice. Had strawberry jam-filled donuts too. Yum.

Okay so now its back to hitting the books! Stop procrastinating, Rachel. Its not good.

2009-08-29T11:20:00.008+10:00

Rachietan's going to climb!

I'M GOING TO CLIMBB!!

And I'm off, whoohoo! :DD :DD :DD :DD

2009-08-29T00:54:00.003+10:00

しあわせです！！ (:

Its so late right now but I really want to say this: I'm so. damn. super. happy!! Because I was finally chatting with that stupid woman Dan over MSN just now! And it was for quite some time. We finally had our long over-due catch up session. Could be longer and more productive, but I guess its better than nothing! And now that she has a mini notebook to herself, we can hopefully have more of these catching up sessions. More regularly at that, too.

Anyway it felt really awesome to be chatting with her again, even though it was just over MSN.. I really really miss her so much, and I realised that I'm really out-dated in terms of her life! Like studies, family and <3

Went jogging with Lingchi yesterday! We jogged around the campus grounds. Initially had the grand plan to cover two rounds of the campus, but half way through the first round we were on the verge of getting cardiac arrests and decided to call it quits. Oh gosh, the feeling totally sucks like absolute shit. Being unfit and having your stamina even worse than it has ever been. And to think that I could run 10km without feeling like you're going to drop dead to the ground like a dead fly and die. I don't even think we covered 2km yesterday lah! UGHH I HATE BEING UNFIT!! And now my thighs hurt so much!! Though I really miss that feeling of the accumulation of lactic acid in my muscles. Kinda makes me feel more of the sportswoman that I used to be, and less of a big slob of lard that I am now. Hopefully Lingchi and I will have enough discipline to go running every Thursday from now on.. I want to get my stamina back to where it was last year.

Anyway, RACHELTAN IS GOING CLIMBING TOMORROW!!! I so cannot believe it. After being stagnant and dead for near 4 months, I am finally going to live again. Going to Cliffhanger with Gen! It'll just be the two of us because the rest in the dorm don't want to go. But never mind at least I have Gen and she has me. (: I seriously cannot express in words how excited I am to finally go climbing again. Although I don't have my climbing gear (they're still being sent over) with me, at least I can touch some tiles and yeah, climb! Omgomgomg I'm so really eggcited! Can't wait. :DD

Lastly, while sitting at the dining hall with my dorm mates after dinner, some freaking guy (probably a really childish and bored angmoh) threw freaking rock of some sort at one of the windows of the dining hall and broke it. And because we were sitting at the table nearest to the window, some of the glass shards fell onto my friend. Thank God she wasn't cut or anything. And the sound of breaking glass was so damn loud that I got a shock. It was quite scary, actually.. Gen saw the culprit on a bike, so he probably managed to escape by the time the warden and security guard arrive. Anyway, I think such behaviour is just plain downright childish and imbecilic! I mean like that guy who did it was probably in his twenties, since we're in a university! And he's doing such moronic things like this. Reflects such dim intellect of that poor sod, actually. Funny thing is that he probably doesn't realise it. My friends were wondering why on earth someone would want to do something like that. First probability was that that bugger was a freaking racist. After all, it was just us, the international students, in the dining hall at that time. Second reason would be that the culprit really dislikes Glenn College for reasons unknown. Or maybe he is just a damn troublemaker wanting to vandalise and damage property and ruin the university's imagine right before our Open Day on Sunday. Whichever the case though, they're all just as lame and unjustifiable if you ask me. I just thank God that I've been blessed with a sensible, mature and reasonable mind.

WHY THE HELL IS THERE A PICTURE OF ME IN SR'S HALL AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW!

2009-08-25T21:23:00.008+10:00

Semester 1 exams are up in 2 weeks' time. And here I am blogging about nothing in particular, Facebooking, downloading songs and everything else I can think of besides studying. What the shit am I doing! Don't have much motivation to study anything, except for biology. That has always been the case though, me having only the willingness to do biology and nothing else.

I especially don't have the motivation to study chemistry, partly because I dislike my teacher and that the way the syllabus is taught is so haphazard and all over the place that I really can't stand it. Its so bad that when my teacher teaches everything sounds new to me when in actual fact, I've learnt it before and I was able to comprehend the concepts. Then there's physics. I really like my teacher but its getting to the point where my mind's beginning to blank out and refuse to try and figure the concepts out. English is still a waste of time and ink, but I can't do anything about that. I've been getting mostly As for all my tests though, and I also think that its one of the reasons why I can't be bothered that much to mug now. Which is really bad, because I really need to revise! I keep telling myself that but I always end up procrastinating.

I wonder why its so easy to procrastinate than to get down to studying. I wonder why God made things that way.. That its easier to fall into doing something that shouldn't be done while the thing that you're supposed to be doing is more difficult. I guess its just like sinning. But maybe thats what makes life more meaningful. It wouldn't be very accomplishing if all the good things in life were obtained or done easily.

I'm kind of stuck at a cross road now.. Can't decide if I should drop physics or chemistry in Semester 2. I keep hearing that chemistry in Semester 2 is really hard and all, and that makes me want to drop chemistry even more. But if that's the case, I'd be taking Semester 2 physics. Considering the fact that I've never taken physics in my entire school life (ignoring General Science in lower secondary), I'm not exactly full of confidence over continuing physics. Although physics over here is at a much simpler level as compared to Singapore's standard.. I have absolutely no idea what to choose. And I gotta chose wisely! Because I need to get As for all my subjects in order to get into my physiotherapy course next year. Sigh, I hate crossroads.

Maybe God's telling me that its time to get back on track with Him. I've strayed, and the feeling sucks.

"[God] gives you hope where others see defeat, energy when others are exhausted, wisdom when others are confused, and courage when others are fearful."

Amen to that.

Prelims have started for my friends back home.. Makes me gape at how time has flown - it seems like just yesterday that we were mugging (or at least I was trying to) for our promos. And now, they're almost at the end of the JC race. I can't believe it, its going to be over for them soon. I feel so proud of them for making it so far! Its things like this that makes me wish I was back in Singapore giving them moral support and encouragement. Its just different doing it over MSN or Skype. People tend not to take you that seriously. Plus being there in person is so much nicer. I feel more sincere too.

The one thing about being abroad that I absolutely hate is the feeling of detachment from family and friends back home. The obvious reason is that I'm no longer in Singapore to constantly meet up and see them, and neither can I have long chats on the phone with friends like I used to. There's always MSN, Skype and Facebook but like I said, its all different and there's always that barrier of some sort separating us. Nothing's the same. Though I am extremely thankful that there are so many mediums that we can use to remain in contact. And thank God Skype is free. I will die if I had to pay for it which would leave me no way of having video chats without paying. So thank God for Skype. Also, I have absolutely no idea of whats happening in my sunny little island of Singapore. I do know that Ramadan has just started for the Muslims (which made me reminisce about last year when Rai and I would be studying and I'd hide under the table whenever I wanted to drink water so she wouldn't be tempted), and that the Ghost Month is here. But if it weren't for my friends who mentioned it to me, I wouldn't have realised. See, I'm so cut-off from the world!! I miss reading newspapers. I miss being in the know-how.

And Rai? If you're reading this, I'm thinking of you all the time during this time of fasting for you! Especially the fond memories we had last year while mugging for promos. Really miss bugging you whenever it was time to bukak puasar! And I remember asking you how to spell it too, right? Haha love you and miss you loads luv. <3

Anyway, Pris showed me this website that compares Western and Asian cultures. Take a look at it, its really true! And quite funny at that.

Looking forward to school everyday because of some people. Really brightens up my day. (: And I've discovered the wonders of a new Japanese band! Totally love GReeeeN's songs, they're so upbeat and catchy. Should learn to sing them, so I can sing along whenever my classmate sings them. Hahaha (:

Ah okay whatever I've wasted enough time typing this out. Ta for now!

Slogan of Climb On 2009:
If you have never climbed, you've never breathed. If you have never bouldered, you've never lived.

Amen to that too.

2009-08-11T20:55:00.005+10:00

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE! (:

Attended the National Day celebration organised by Singsoc on Sunday at the Davidson room, Pris and I went dressed in red/white! We were one of the very few to go in the proper colour scheme haha. And we had the crescent and five stars stuck onto our shirts as well, courtesy of little ol' me. (: Felt like a primary school teacher cutting out things for an arts and craft lesson lol. Dinner was from some Singaporean restaurant! Had no idea there were Singaporean restaurants here.. All I've seen so far that serve the closest to Singapore food are HK and Malaysian ones. Food wasn't fantastic, though. I think it was because it wasn't hot. But still, it was better than nothing. There was teh tarik and bandung too! Went straight for the teh tarik because the night before I dreamt of it haha. So God answered my craving. (:

This year's NDP was really great! Not sure if its because I kinda miss Singapore and all.. That aside, I truly think it was much better than other years' anyway! It was different.. Not filled with the usual cliche crap. Just when I have to be away. ): Never mind, at least I got to watch it. Anyway, while watching the NDP, I was really really proud of Singapore. Like how we've come so far despite all the odds. I know, I sound super corny and stuff, but if you think about it, its really true! Especially since the days when we had just gotten independent.

Being abroad really changes your perspective on things. When you're away from the comfort of home, the familiarity of the surroundings, culture and people, even the slightest reminder of home hits you I guess. I've definitely become more patriotic than ever, after spending just 2 months plus away. I've never felt so patriotic before, and only when you're living overseas will you feel that way too. I wonder if that feeling will fade away once I go back, though. Who knows..

And you know how people always say that they want to migrate next time and settle down in some angmoh land? My take on that is that my kids are so going to grow up in Singapore. Unless, of course, the country is Japan haha but its not angmoh land. Yeah, so after experiencing life and culture here in Melbourne, I've come to realise that I want my kids to grow up experiencing the same kind of fun and retardedness that I went through when I was schooling. The shit that kids experience here is nothing but booze, booze, booze. Where's the fun in that? Although I don't exactly like Singapore's education system, but for the fun, craziness and retardedness, I'll put my kids through the stress haha. Besides, growing up in an Asian country really sets the foundation of the child's morals and character. People here hardly really have any respect for their elders. Or at least some of the youths that I know don't. And the saddest thing is that they're 100% Asian too, just 'born and bred' in Australia. I've asked myself many times if I would rather be in their position, being brought up in an angmoh land with a nice accent. And my answer each time is no, I do not. I'm happy to be a true blue Singaporean (an atas one at that, according to FB haha).

That aside, I'm glad that Singapore's flag is easy to draw/make! And because of that I have fond memories of drawing and colouring the flag back in my Primary school days. Haha sounds damn dumb right. But can you imagine asking little kids to draw their country's flag thats almost crazy-impossible to draw?

The American flag - so many stars and stripes the poor kid will die from going cross-eyed! Not that I have anything against the US flag, though.

Cambodia's flag - I can't fathom trying to draw that castle in the middle!

Australia - Not that simple either, though I really like that the Southern Cross is on their flag. Just realised it a few days back.

So yeah, I think drawing your country's flag should be part of a kid's childhood. One crescent, five stars. Haha yeah.

Okay, so here are some photos from the celebration:

May God grant me with more tolerance to bear people that annoy me.

Thank God for blessing me with good upbringing. I'm not spoilt (I like to think so), I'm not that rude to my elders, I don't spend money lavishly, I have good manners, good interpersonal skills and I'm pretty grounded in who I am.

2009-08-08T01:57:00.002+10:00

Okay this is just some random redundant post but..

Racheltan made Japanese omelette today! At Pris' place haha. Felt hungry so that woman was nice enough to volunteer to make me instant mee goreng, and then she went on to ask if I wanted sunny side up. Then the wonderful idea of making Japanese omelette popped into my mind! I think it's because of Yasuko to Kenji that I'm watching now. So anyway I checked the recipe on the internet, and I attempted at it! Suprisingly it tasted pretty good, nice and sweet haha.

Looks pretty gross here but hey, it was my first try! And it really wasn't that bad, really. :D

Looking through the website where I got the recipe from, I have the ultimate urge to cook again, and in my mind all the grand plans of deciding what to cook next year where flying around my head. I CAN'T WAIT AHHH!! Going to like buy bento boxes from Daiso come year end when I go back, one for Brian, one for Pris and one for myself! I am so going to like make bento lunches for all of us to bring to school, including onigiri, tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) and (maybe) sushi, if I can be bothered to make it haha. Lovely grand plans, eh? (: (:

Okay Pris and I tried to take a photo to put up here, but we both looked like pontianaks in the photos so we gave up. HAHA such losers we are.

STUDY TOMOMRROW! Yay.

2009-08-07T00:16:00.008+10:00

Blow wind blow!

It's been super windy the past few days! And I absolutely love it! Apart from my hair being blown everywhere and that it becomes a huge mess everytime I step out of my dorm, that is. But yeah, its been lovely. Hasn't been that cold either, I've been able to wear my green jacket so far, without freezing my ass off. No more heavy black overcoat! Though I do miss wearing it sometimes..

Biology test was easy today! Luckily I guessed the correct answer to one of the questions.. Hopefully I'll get 90% if not full marks lol. :D

Played volleyball after school with Lingchi and Sharon! The Sports Centre courts were booked for some fencing class so we ended up playing on Simpson Lawn. It was really nice, though.. And surprisingly I didn't embarass myself that badly as I had expected to! Ignoring the time taken to warm up though lol. Stupid ball was so hard anyway! My fore arms hurt like absolute hell now. And my left arm is bruised.

Looks as if I have some cancer of the blood right! Ew.

Anyway, here are some photos of the Mt. Buller trip:

Welcome to Mt. Buller! (:

Gen, Sharon, Lingchi and I in the tobogganing park

Neighbours! Bakayaro and Bakasaru (: It was snowing then too!

And one of Kico's baptism..

Lastly, a random picture of one of my take aways from dinner for lunch. Mine and Lingchi's masterpiece (I arranged the artwork, Lingchi just dumped the ingredients in).

Learnt a super corny pick-up line from Gen last night! It goes like this: わたしはきみをすき、でもきみもすき。 And its supposed to mean something like, "I like egg, but I like you too." Its a play on the Japanese word きみ, which means both egg and you. Not sure if both are written like that though, but whatever haha. I think its damn funny!

Yay, Northland with Pris and Phoebe tomorrow after school! Then its Rydges for the next 2 nights whee! Feels like I haven't been to Rydges in so long, though it's only been about a week or so. Haha. Then its study on Saturday, home group in the evening, and Rydges again! Then church on Sunday, hopefully lunch with Cammie and Aunty Mary, then back to Glenn with Pris and NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATIONS!! Hahaha omg, so eggciting, can't wait!

2009-08-05T00:52:00.003+10:00

Currently on a personal mission to learn Japanese as much as I can right now. Largely due to the fact of my Japanese classmate who's been teaching me almost everyday during class breaks. For starters, I'm familiarising myself with the hiragana chart, and I can proudly say that I recognise the character あ by myself without having to refer to the chart. HAHA wth you loser, I hear you say. Its hard okay!! So many words and they all kind of look the same somehow or another okay.. And after hiragana its katakana. Then after that its kanji which comprises of old chinese characters. Thus begins Racheltan's long and slow journey towards upgrading my status from Japanese-retard to something more decent.

Found out from Gen I can take Japanese as one of my elective subjects next year in univeristy.. That's what she's doing now, and omg my dream is finally going to come true. I'm going to get proper japanese lessons!! よしゃ！ I hope that spells yosha (yes!).. Haha. Hopefully I'll be able to get permission to learn Japanese. :DD

This week's chemistry test is over! Think I didn't do that badly.. Though I didn't exactly study for it lol. My last weekend was packed to the brim with activities. Went to Mt. Buller on Saturday for a day trip with my dorm and school friends.. It was super fun. Ended up tobogganing with Gen, Lingchi and Sharon and played in the snow. Made a really hideous snow monster (it was too ugly to be called a snow man), had snow ball fights and took many photos! Will put some up another time.

Sunday was Kico's baptism at her church, so Pris and I didn't go to CrossCulture. I was really glad I went for Kico's baptism anyway.. I felt the Holy Spirit there that day. Started during worship because I felt slightly overwhelmed and teared a little. Then during the baptism when Kico was waiting for her turn, I saw the faces of the other people who were being baptised and I was even more overwhelmed by the sheer sincerity and humility on their faces as they surrendered their lives to God. It was truly humbling. And when it was Kico's turn, I felt so proud of her for taking that step of faith. I just hope that I will be able to set a good example for her to follow as a fellow sister in Christ.

Another biology test on Thursday! Been mugging all night long although the topics tested are things that I did last year and in Cedar. Seems like biology is still the only subject that I'm willing to study so diligently for. Hmm.

Going to die for physics soon. Newtons Law just annoys me. But Mr Watts is staying cute so for that I will try to maintain a positive attitude towards physics. Haha wth right.

Singapore's birthday in 4 days' time!! Can't wait because Singsoc (the Singapore Student Society I think) from my university is organising a celebration party in one of the function rooms in Glenn and Pris and I are going! They'll be screening the NDP and we'll even get the goody bags!! YAY! Heard from Pris that this year's NDP is nice, so I'm really looking forward to it. Being abroad makes you more patriotic, for some reason. I'm really proud to be a Singaporean here.. Haha and never before have I been so excited for National Day to come, and I'm not even getting a day off! Lols.

Still waiting for the box from my parents to arrive.. Its taking eons to come. But for the cheapest postage price, the box was sent via ship (-.-) and will take approximately 5 weeks to reach. It hasn't been 5 weeks yet, but I keep hoping that a miracle will happen and it will reach earlier. Ms Liu's package came today though! She sent over last year's Yangshuo pictures from her camera and the videos that some of the groups made. Looked through them just now, and it brought back so much memories, sigh. Really miss SR, miss the people, the building, the food. Really looking forward to December when I can go back for a visit.

I need to climb!!

2009-07-27T01:19:00.003+10:00

Just got back from the first party of Glenn's second round of O-week (short for Orientation Week). There's one party every night for this week. The angmohs really know how to enjoy themselves man. It was Back 2 School today, so everyone went in their school uniforms. I wore my old Cedar uniform. Felt really great wearing it again, and I really missed those good old days of blue and grey. Before we went to the party though, we were busy cam-whoring in my room. Ana, Sharon, Gen, Jerilyn, Vanessa. Had much fun. I didn't enjoy myself at all at the party though.. Music was really loud, lights were flashing, people dancing drunk everywhere. To cut the long story short, it wasn't my scene at all and so I felt really uncomfortable. But I put on a facade and pretended that I was enjoying myself. At least I was with my friends though, that was one consolation I had. And I got to see the crazy angmohs drunk and insane.. Making out, dancing like freaks and stuff like that. Ahwell.

I'm quite glad I went for the party, though. Even though I didn't have fun. Because from the experience I found out things about myself and confirmed things that I already knew. The clubbing and partying scene (as I already suspected) really isn't my scene. I don't belong there. Its just not me. I felt really horrible wearing the facade just now, it sucked. I don't understand why people would enjoy drinking, getting intoxicated and losing their sanity. Watching the angmohs making out with each other and being so loose, I felt so put off. It was so degrading, really. The dancing part I can understand a little. Its quite fun I guess, dancing to the music. But how they do it for hours on end is beyond me - I got bored after 15 minutes. . . Maybe its because I can't dance even if my life depended on it but still! Its all a waste of time, if you ask me. I know there are tonnes of people who would beg to differ but thats how I feel. I'd much rather be somewhere decent with my friends talking and enjoying each other's company. The dancing, drunkenness and all? Nah. Not for me.

So now I have this headache and my head spins whenever I stand up. I didn't even have a drop of alcohol though. Its probably the noise and stress that I had at the party. Another reason why I'm not ever going to party again. Sucks.

I'm thankful that I'm sure of what makes me me and nothing else. I'm thankful that I'm sure of who I am, and that I'm not someone who's so insecure that she'll be changed by the world. I'm still a little insecure, but that's at the surface. Deep down inside I'm confident of my identity and really, I think that's something that I am truly truly thankful to God for.

Anyway! Met up with Spas yesterday, finally! Walked around the city for the whole afternoon trying to look for boots to buy. In the end we bought some clothes from Jeanswest and accessories from Diva. Really good deals we got! My two tops from Jeanswest were at 2 for $40, and the accessories from Diva were going at 3 for $10. Spent a lot of money during the weekend though, so I'm feeling really awful and guilty now. S: Church today with Pris! Had lunch at a Chinese restaurant and had some kungpao chicken dish which was really nice! Then we walked around too before heading back.

I'm really glad that my dorm mates are mostly back from their holidays! Gen and Jerilyn are back from Singapore and LingChi is back from wherever she went! Haha. Dinner felt normal again - with everyone sitting together, talking and laughing our heads off. I missed those dinners so much when everyone was gone! No more take aways! Yay (:

Okay shit school's at 9am tomorrow and its currently 2am now. I'm so screwed up but whatever.

2009-07-21T22:34:00.003+10:00

Life has been really monotonous lately.. Nothing interesting has happened. And therefore I haven't had the inspiration to blog. I mean, it'll just be me repeating the same things over again I guess.. School, dorm, school, dorm. Not worth the mention right? Sian.

But I'm dying of absolute boredom right now, and so to salvage myself, I shall post. On what, I have no idea. Let's see.. I'm much better now, only left with a little cough that doesn't really annoy me that much. Feels good to be normal again.. The cough was really getting on my nerves.

Stayed over on Friday and Saturday at Rydges, and because Pris' aunt was sick with some kind of stomach flu, Pris and I had to go to Safeway nearby to get ingredients for dinner. Ended up getting pre-cooked roasted chicken because we couldn't decide what to cook. Went back and made steamed egg (like chawanmushi), rice, long beans and cabbage in bean sauce and corn. Simple as it was, the food turned out really good! The corn was really sweet and lovely, and we of course had the roast chicken as well. I was so happy after that. Because I finally had my first cooking session in Australia and it was really yummy. (: I can't wait for next year when I can experiment in the kitchen! I need to master wielding then kitchen knife, man. I wanna learn how to cut veggies expertly haha.

Dear Wen is in Melbourne already! She reached on Saturday. Wasn't able to meet her after church on Sunday though, because my cell group was in charge of serving church lunch and I had to help. So I'm probably going to meet her either tomorrow or on Saturday. Church lunch was really fun anyway! Uncle TC made his hainanese chicken rice and it was a massive hit. I had a plate myself, and it was pretty good. I prefer Ivy's though, but its better than nothing. (: Had another cup of bubble tea too! This time I tried green milk tea. It passed again! I'm quite happy 'cause I found my bubble tea shop to patronise haha. And with a cup at $3, its cheaper than other bubble tea stalls. I'll pretend I didn't hear you scream that "Siao why bubble tea so expensive!" because this is, unfortunately, Australia.

Due to the fact that there's no such thing as eyebrow threading over here, and that eyebrow plucking services are super overpriced, I have resorted to learning how to thread my own eyebrows. Tried it for the first time just now, and surprisingly I didn't ruin my eyebrows haha. Its actually not as hard as it seems.. Just gotta keep practicing and soon I'll be able to shape my eyebrows confidently. Right now I'm too scared to actually shape it, lest I accidentally rip off one whole row of hair that wasn't supposed to be removed. So I've contented myself with dealing with the stray hairs. Did my upper lip as well. Yay, I don't have to waste my money going to pluck my eyebrows, I can do it myself now! :D My first beauty maintenance skill I learnt during my life in Australia. Wonder what the next one would be!

My dad has finally mailed off a box of things that was meant to be sent weeks ago. I wonder how long it'll take to reach here. Hope it doesn't get lost in transition or something though.. My beloved climbing gear is all inside! Along with Sab's farewell present to me that I never managed to get from her before I left. Latest update on the box's progress on Speedpost's website was on 18/7 and it read 'Processing at Sorting Centre'. Wherever that is. I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait!!

Shopping at Northland with Pris on Friday! Cannot wait too! Gonna get myself another pair of boots because my (cheap) Cotton On boots has little holes in them already. I knew they weren't that good.. But they did serve me well in the first month! Though come to think of it, one month is a pretty short period of time. . . Haha whatever, I'm getting better quality boots that will survive longer. I want to get myself a nice jacket too.. My black overcoat is going to die really soon at the rate that I'm wearing it. Haha maybe a biker jacket would be nice. (:

Okay I think I've wasted enough of my time typing all this out.. Think I shall sleep soon. Its about time I slept early for once haha I suck man. And, after finishing two tests today, I think I deserve the rest. (:

Every night I pray for a miracle for you.

P.S. Happy belated 18th Birthday Ben! (: (:

2009-07-13T23:57:00.003+10:00

I'm sick!! And it totally sucks. ):

Started off with a cough on Friday.. Then yesterday I had a temperature and wanted to die. I think it was because I didn't give myself proper rest over the weekend.. Had Aunty Mary's cell group on Saturday night, then weekly stay over at Rydges with Pris, then church the next day, lunch in the city before heading back. Then Pris came to stay over at Glenn and that's when I died. Somehow ended up being persuaded by that stupid girl to order Dominos Pizza for dinner and watched the HK drama until 12. Then blew up the inflatable bed that Pris brought and I ended up sleeping on it. Didn't sleep until 1am, though, because we were talking and talking haha damn funny. Even though I felt like dying, I had a lot of fun! Got my mind off my illness anyway.

Then today! Didn't go to school.. Went to see a doctor in the afternoon and weirdly enough he said I didn't have a fever. So he just gave me cough syrup and sent me off. -.- Apparently I've got some kind of virus, thats why I didn't get any antibiotics. My thermometer keeps telling me that I have a fever, though.. So I'm not sure if its spoilt or not. Gotta get a new one in case.. But anyway, I got a MC for today and tomorrow, so I'll be sleeping through tomorrow as well! I need the rest. (:

Being sick when you're abroad by yourself really sucks, if you ask me. There's no one to look after you, you gotta fend for yourself. I really missed home and my parents, man! And I had such a craving for plain porridge with minced pork, pickles and omelette. My mum always makes Ivy cook that whenever I'm sick. AHHH THIS STINKS. It was worse just now when Sheryl dropped by to pass me dinner from the dining hall.. The beehoon was so salty that my cough is never going to get better. ARGH I WANT TO SCREAM! I'm starting to be unable to tahan the food here already.. Its so salty and unhealthy that I just want to puke it all out. Sigh, I sound so homesick. /: But I just want to move out of Glenn, into Rydges and cook for myself. Then I can make porridge and omelette and feel better. Sian. ):

Okay homesick rant is over. I love Brian Tan Boon Keng!! (Although he's an idiot) Because he got the Jansport bag that I wanted for me!! Within like, 2 days?? Omg talk about bloody efficient haha. And he got Pris' one as well!! So my mum is going to ship them over to me :D Yay, I have a new backpack! Oh, and my old Cedar uniform is coming over as well! Because Glenn is holding a whole week of parties during O-week (Orientation week for the July intake of uni students), and one of the parties' themes is Back 2 School! So we have to wear our uniforms haha yay I'm so eggcitied!! :DD I sound like a freaking party animal, omg. Actually I'm not really looking forward to O-week because of all the massive partying that's going to take place, but I'm just excited for Back 2 School haha. So fun!

Gonna sleep now! May God heal me soon. (:

2009-07-09T12:15:00.002+10:00

It's been a month since I've moved into Glenn and started living on my own! Omg time really flies! Dorm life is so-so I guess.. No big deal. But I do like the freedom, privacy and convenience living on campus brings. Haha.

Okay I should be in school now but I woke up late so I skipped mentor class. Biology prac assessment later in the main campus, so I figured going to school would be a waste of time since Glenn is already in main campus. No point walking all the way to the International College then walking back, right? Haha so here I am, sitting in my room doing research for my english essay on whaling. -.-

Made myself a bowl of my favourite kimchi noodles!! It's a small present to myself for surviving a month living by myself. :D Ahh, it reminds me of home. (: But kimchi noodles without egg is just not the same! Too lazy to buy eggs anyway. Haha.

My best bud has enlisted in the army today!! Omg, I'm so proud of him.. He's probably in Tekong right now, making new friends and getting his head SHAVED HAHA YEAHMAN! Can't wait for him to book out so I can talk to him again.. (: Hope he survives though ahaha!

2009-07-07T23:46:00.003+10:00

Phew. Finished two tests today - chemistry and physics. Totally screwed physics up because I forgot how to draw the rays for a lens, and so I think I lost about 20 marks? Dammit I was so pissed at myself. Other than that the other questions were very easy.. Same for chemistry. Worried myself out for nothing actually haha.

I'm actually quite happy! Biology finally makes sense to me now.. Wonder if its the teacher.. I really like Phil! And his pronunciation of the word 'molecule'. Damn cute. (: I look forward to biology lessons now! Hopefully the trauma of all the Ultimate grades that I got in JC will ease off. I really want to be able to be confident in my studies. Thats a feeling that I haven't felt for most of my education years. And since God has granted me a second chance, I mustn't let Him down.

The weekend was super fun for me! Went to Northland with Pris, Sheryl, Boonkiak, Melvyn and Eugene to (finally) watch Transformers 2! Omg it was awesome, especially when 21 Guns was played. I absolutely love that song. (: (: Then I stayed overnight at Rydges where Pris stays! Served as a recce of the place too, since Brian, Puay and I are most probably going to stay there next year.. :D Pris brought me to the Chill Bar and we had a glass of Jack Daniel mixed with Diet Coke each. Stayed there for quite long talking about everything under the sun and laughing our heads off. Then this weird guy tried to chat us up and we were positively freaked out. He even said I had a very nice smile (WTS). Thankfully he didn't stay long and left with his friend if not I'd probably have had to resort to kicking him HAHA.

Took the train to church on Sunday with Pris.. After church we took the tram back to Glenn to get a change of clothes for me because I was staying for the night again then headed back to Rydges. Tried to study and do work while waiting for Wimbledon to start.. And when it was time, we went down to the Chill Bar again for a drink. Funnily, we were the only idiots in the bar watching the match. The few people who were in the bar weren't interested at all! Weird aussies yo. After awhile we moved to the pantry but this group of middle eastern guys nearby were talking so damn loudly we ended up migrating to the gym and staying there. Didn't manage to finish watching the match because it was really late.. Only lasted to the 4th set. But anyway I was greeted the next morning with the lovely news that my hero had won (:

Federer won Wimbledon!! Its his 15th Grand Slam title hahaha I'M SO PROUD OF HIM!! ♥ ♥ Poor Roddick though.. I think he played spectacularly well. Glad to see that he's still staying cute. :D

While showing Pris Sab's photos on Facebook, I suddenly missed Sab a lot. It was like this overwhelming feeling.. And I was temporarily sad. ): I really miss that stupid girl man! Her stupid jokes and faces.. But at least we Skype frequently. (: So I've been getting my regular doses of Sabrina Kwang nonsense HAHA. And I was looking through my photos and I really miss all my other friends as well.. Fang, Rai and Tiff, the guys, Shawn, Puay, Alvin, Stella, Leng and the list goes on.. It gets rather lonely here sometimes.. And its during those times that I miss everyone back home even more. Ohwell. At least I'm managing to survive. And I guess this is part and parcel of living abroad. Well you win some, lose some.

Tomorrow's a short day at school! Then after that it's our weekly lunch with Pris. (: Her aunt's making fried rice for me, yay! I don't have to resort to buying the (lousy) food at the Agora haha. I really thank God for putting her and Aunty Florence in my life. (: (Pris are you touched! haha)

2009-07-01T00:00:00.003+10:00

Happy 1 month anniversary to me!!

It's exactly a month since I came to Melbourne! Like omg, I've been away for so long already!! ): And soon, it'll be a month since I moved into my dorm and started living by myself. Woahh, time really flies.

Seems like such a long time ago when I was still in Singapore.. And now it feels like I've been here for ages! Spas is coming in three weeks' time, I cannot wait!! Then I can stay over at her place, cook, bake, and go to church too! Of course, we'll go to Cross Culture with Pris. (: I will be counting down the days, Spas! And don't worry, I've saved loads of space on my FB account for our pictures. :D

I can't wait for next year to come!! Can't believe I'm saying this, but yeah, I really can't wait. Firstly I can (and hopefully) start on my journey to becoming a physiotherapist. I seriously dying from anticipation! Secondly, I can move in to Rydges with Brian and Puay!! AHHHHAHA! :DD Yeah, Brian will be joining me in Melbourne next year to study at University of Melbourne.. Puay applied for La Trobe (omgg :D) and she's still waiting for them to get back to her. Praying very hard that she gets a place!! Then all to be left is for me to do well in Foundation, get all A's (don't ask me how I'm gonna do that), and secure myself a place in the Bachelor of Health Sciences and Master of Physiotherapy Practice course. Yay! (: (:

I currently hate MSN because due to some circumstances I was forced to change my password, and now I can't seem to log in. Plus I forgot my secret answer to the security question so I can't retrieve my password. So yeah, I was fuming just now until Melvyn found a form for me to fill in and send to the people at MSN. Waiting for them to get back to me, omg please pray! ): I'm very thankful for COB, Nightwish and Dragonforce for keeping me company on iTunes to relieve my angst. Such an effective way. (:

2009-06-28T00:38:00.003+10:00

I know its damn late over here and I should be going to sleep because I need to wake up early for church tomorrow, but I just have to tell you guys this.

There was a campus-wide blackout just now that lasted almost an hour! Damn funny. I was using Ranielle when suddenly everything went off. I was wondering why Ranielle was still on, then i realised that she was running on battery (haha okay sorry that as redundant). So I saw in the darkness for 5 minutes to see if the lights would come back on, and when nothing happened, I groped around for my torch and went outside. Saw my two neighbours and wondered where the hell everyone else was. So weird, it was only the three of us walking around outside. We saw no one else except one of our RAs (residential assistant). Crossed over to the South Wing and found more friends. Then we all sat along a corridor and waited for the power to come back on. Time passed and still nothing happened. . . So we waited and waited. When the lights finally came back on, everyone went back to their rooms. I looked at the clock and realised it was about 50minutes after the lights died. Amazing.

I think the funniest thing was that my neighbour from India was complaining and complaining about how backwards Australia is in terms of their technology. She kept saying stuff like, "I used to think that Australia would be better, but I come here and ohmygod India is so much more advanced! That's it, God is telling me to go to America." (Yeah, she's got a scholarship to go to the US to further her studies next year ._.) Hahaha damn funny la even the Singaporeans weren't complaining as much as her! Totally amusing.

Okay I need to sleep now or I'm going to make Aunty Mary and Uncle CT wait for me in the morning again. Ta!

2009-06-25T21:14:00.009+10:00

Ahh today was such a perfect day. Started off waking up at 10am because school only started at 11, and I skipped brekkie in the process. No big loss anyway, since today was cold breakfast haha. After mentor class we had break and so Kico, Eva, Kaman (the HK girls), Sheryl, Thao and I went to the main campus to get some stuff. Then Sheryl ad Thao walked back to the International College for their advanced math class while the HK girls and I went to the Biological Sciences building for our bio prac.

After bio prac we braved the rain and went back to the International College to sign up for our free Guild membership, and then ended up sitting at a table in the canteen talking and crapping away. The girls are so damn funny, seriously. Haha and I learnt some cantonese words haha! Like kai. Means crazy, according to the girls. Laughed so much with them I wanted to die. Lol.

While sitting at the table after some time I happened to look out the window and saw this streak of colour in the sky. Took me awhile to realise that it was a rainbow! So I got up and rushed out the building to get a better view of it. Somehow the girls weren't that interested so I was by myself.

And lo and behold, I was greeted by a sight of a full, perfect rainbow. It was seriously splashed right across the sky in a myriad of colours, and I was just standing there staring at it in awe. The next best thing was, the colour of the rainbow just kept getting more and more vivid! Like seriously, it was so vivid that I could count the 7 colours easily! Never in my life have I seen a perfect rainbow, and not only that, a rainbow with such vibrant colours. Its like, the epitome of all rainbows. Then I noticed another rainbow behind the first one! But it wasn't as bright as the first one. The rainbow was so apt too! Because my physics teacher was telling us how rainbows are formed (total internal reflection off water droplets) and that if a second one were to appear, it wouldn't be as bright. Haha that lesson came alive. (: After awhile Sheryl, Thao, Kico and Eva came out and we took some pictures using the lousy 2 megapixel camera on my phone. Of all days for me to decide not to bring my Canon. SO WASTED RIGHT. ): But yeah, we had fun fooling around under the rainbow. (:

Standing there looking at the rainbow, I couldn't help but feel so honoured that I was able to share that special moment with God. Seeing a rainbow always reminds me of the promise that He made to Noah that never again will He flood the whole earth, and I always feel at ease haha. I also kept marveling at the sheer beauty of the rainbow.. The perfect arch across the sky with the vivd spectrum of colours splashed on the canvas of blue. (so poetic right! kekeke) Well yeah, its really a very humbling experience, especially when the rainbow is full-force right out there in your face. Its really different from the rainbows I've seen so far, this one was THE best. When people started streaming out and noticing the rainbow, it was actually a very nice feeling too, seeing everyone admire God handiwork. I felt so proud of God. (:

This is just one corner of the rainbow

Can't really see the rainbow, but look carefully and you'll see how perfect the arch was! Sorry camera not wide enough to capture the full thing.

With Sheryl and Thao, and Eva and Kico (:

2009-06-24T23:51:00.005+10:00

G'day mates (:

Life has been pretty boring so far, nothing exciting has happened to me. I don't know it that's a good thing or a bad thing, though. School is still boring the crap out of me, especially during Math and English. Can't be helped, I guess. Just gotta bear with it. The syllabus for bio and chem are slowly moving into things that I learnt in JC, so I've been paying attention during class and making sure that I don't nod off to sleep.

Starting to like my classmates more and more! Especially the HK girls, they're really so darn cute. Kico's crazy, Kaman is hilarious and Eva is sweet. Gonna go for bio prac with them tomorrow! Thao the Viet girl is getting cuter by the day too, I swear. She's so cute.

FOCUS on Friday night was a nice experience, I must say. It was held in someone's house near school, and dinner was provided! As well as supper after everything. Met many lovely people too.. Because FOCUS is a Bible study group for international students, everyone was mostly Chinese etc. but yeah, they were all nice people. There were a few angmohs too though. Definitely going back this week. (:

Played badminton with my dorm friends on Saturday morning at the (very expensive and con money) Sports Centre right next to Glenn. Ended up partnering Sheng to spar doubles with these two Chinese fellows who happened to be in the court next to us. And I realised that I really miss playing badminton. Really rusty now, though, but still can hit decently and smash! I miss smashing. Haha I love my smashes. (: Okok sorry ego moment's over.

Then Sunday! Priscilla brought me to her church in the city. It's called Cross Culture and as the name suggests, there are quite a number of foreigners who attend it. A lovely aunty from the church and her hubby picked me from Glenn and drove to the church. So I save time and money traveling to and fro. Met Pris in church and went for service. I'm really glad to say that I enjoyed the service very much! And during worship I was very moved. I guess I can say that I found a church to attend during my time here. Lovely place. After service we went for dimsum with some other Singaporean aunties and uncles! I think the restaurant was somewhere in Chinatown.. And the food was not bad, really. Quite authentic and the food tasted normal. Pris then brought me to walk around the city.. Went to Office Works (like Popular) and I got a file that cost $5.40. Damn ex but bopian I needed a file for school quite urgently. And people, if you're planning to come overseas (or Australia for that matter) to study, please bring enough foolscap paper to last you. Because foolscap paper quality here sucks to the core. After that experience in Office Works I realised that I took Popular back home for granted. Sounds stupid, right? But I'm serious. Popular really rocks. It seriously has everything that you need as stationery. Office Works just has mainly office things. Sigh, one more thing to add to the list of things I miss from Singapore. ):

Pris introduced me to this Indonesian shop that sells Asian products, much like the one in Preston market. And naturally I went crazy seeing all the familiar brands and items.. And I couldn't manage to hold back and bought blueberry tea from Pokka (OMG RIGHT??), Tao Kae Noi seaweed, and.. Wang Wang!! OMG HAHA YAY. This Sunday I am so going to buy Pokka's ice lemon tea. The only brand of ice lemon tea they have here is Lipton and weirdly for some reason, it tastes like crap. Hence I've been drinking mostly fizzy drinks whenever I eat out, which is so not healthy. ):

School ended early today, at 1pm! So Pris, Sheryl and I decided to go to the Agora in the main campus to take away lunch and we ended up eating at the garden-courtyard thingy at Glenn. The weather was absolutely beautiful! The sun was shining and I even felt a little hot and wanted to take off my jacket. It was really fun. Then we walked Pris back to school because she still had lessons.

A few of my dorm friends baked Cookie Monster cupcakes on Monday and gave one to me. So sweet right?? I'm not even that close to them. And it was so cute I couldn't bring myself to eat it. It was not bad, really! Makes me itch to bake again. If only the stupid kitchenette on my floor had an oven and wasn't so grossly dirty. Ah well. Can't be too spoilt can I?

2009-06-19T14:37:00.001+10:00

Omg it's currently 16 degrees outside, and I'm sitting here in my room in a racer back and FBTs with the window open and not feeling one bit cold.

I LOVE THIS WEATHER.

2009-06-18T22:53:00.003+10:00

Gawd, I've been just too lazy to update.

Anyway, quick update about my life: I'm starting to love it here! Weather's been awesome this past week, not too cold like last week which was freezing. I even dared to venture out wearing two layers under my overcoat from the usual four layers. Don't laugh la, it was really quite cold! Or maybe my threshold for cold really sucks. :/ Though I'd like to think that I'm getting more used to the cold.

School has been alright I guess. Pretty damn boring, though. All the things that are being taught are elementary things that I learnt millions of years ago. Take Essential Math for example. We've done decimal places, significant figures, rounding off, approximation and percentage. I was laughing at the sums. I learnt all that in Primary school, man! Then there's Chemistry. First few lessons were on the three states of matter and their properties. Omg, Secondary 1 work. We just did an experiment on paper chromatography this week. How intriguing. . . Academic Study Skills is English, and for the first lesson we learnt how to write paragraphs. My friends and I were dying from boredom. Physics is fine, not as bad because I've never taken it before as a pure science. So the things I'm learning are relatively new, but very basic and easy (so far). Hope it doesn't get much harder.. Biology was boring for awhile too, but I'm paying attention because I need to refresh my memory on the properties of water, carbohydrates, lipids and proteins.

Dorm food is so-so.. Not too bad, but not fantastic either. Most of the time it looks better than it tastes. Basically you get to choose from four main courses every night, then there's rice, soup, bread, veggies like carrots, potatoes and salad greens at the side for us to help ourselves. And there's dessert too, usually a cake of some sort. But it normally isn't worth the calories, so I stay away from it. Besides, the canteen people pile sooo much food on my plate I don't have space for anything else other than my dish. Sure way to fats-ville. ): Breakfast is slightly better.. Hot breakfast is served every alternate morning, and consists of bacon, eggs, tomatoes, oats and hashbrowns. Cold breakfast is available everyday, which is stuff like cereal, yoghurt, bread and fruits. And everyone eats so much at breakfast man! The first breakfast I had bacon, eggs and oats, and I could hardly finish it. My friend had that and two slices of bread and a bowl of oats. I gawked. So now I'm learning to eat more at breakfast (though I'm still not a breakfast person) and have progressed to hot breakfast and a slice of bread on hot breakfast days, and cereal and two slices of bread on cold breakfast days! Not bad lor, for my standards.

I really do thank God for sending me so many lovely friends in my dorm.. Only made one Aussie friend so far, though. The Australians in my dorm aren't all that friendly. Like when I moved in, nobody came to welcome me. Only my Malaysian neighbour and her group of friends popped by to say hi (those sweet things). But luckily I had a few contacts of Singaporeans who stay in my dorm as well, and they helped me settle in. So the people I hang out with at meal times and whenever we're free and bored are mostly Asians, with a few exceptions from Mexico, Mauritius, Bangladesh and Iran. School-wise.. I go to school with Sheryl, another Singaporean girl in my dorm and we're in the same class. My class has so many middle eastern people though! ): One Japanese (but I'm scared of him, damn), two Chinese, three Vietnamese, dunno-how-many Saudi Arabians, one from Kuwait, Oman, Emirates, Sri Lanka, three Hong Kong-ers, one from Turkey/Poland and I think that's all. Sheryl and I are the only Singaporeans. Becoming relatively close to two of the Vietnamese, one guy one girl. And the guy is very cute. (: (: Looks a splitting imagine of one SR canoeist in my year that Dan and I found cute too. Teehee! And the girl is very endearing too. (: The Hong Kong-ers are very friendly too, extremely funny as well. And because of them, I am determined to learn a decent amount of Cantonese before I return to Singapore for a visit. LEI HOU MA? :D

Mmm let's see what else is there to talk about.. The university campus is really nice! Right outside the main entrance of my dorm is a river, which has ducks and all sorts of birds swimming around in it. Occasionally you'll see a family of four swans (or geese) swimming or walking around. Then the birds here are crazy! There are wild cockatoos everywhere, these pink and grey pigeons, huge black ravens (ten times scarier than our crows in Singapore), some cute finch (or at least I think its a finch), parrot/lory-looking colourful birds, magpies, and a crested pigeon that has this tuff of black feathers that stick out from its head like a spike. Damn cute. Its like a bird park here man. Then I saw a possum in a tree yesterday, as well as a big KOOKABURRA sitting in a tree that was right smack in the middle of some buildings! Best of all, there's a wild life sanctuary in the university. Have yet to go there, but I heard its really nice. Apart from the river, there're two big ponds in my school as well, maybe there are more but I'm not sure. But yeah, that's good enough! And plenty of grass spots that are perfect to lounge on on a nice sunny day to study or zone out.

Happy to say that I'm settling down relatively well so far.. Getting used to the rhythm of things and all. But I still miss Singapore a lot, especially the food. Family and friends as well. Thank God for Skype, though. Been Skyping with my parents and some friends almost every night, and its really good enough for the time being. At least I can see them and they can see me. Although we can't physically touch each other, its better than nothing, really. Wonder when the real home-sickness will kick in, though. Been told it takes about three months I think? Then it hits you. Omgg I don't want. ):

Lazy to put up pictures, but they're on Facebook anyway. Badminton this Saturday with dorm mates, finally! Can't wait. :D :D Then I think Sheryl and I are going to Northland to do some grocery shopping, hopefully! Yay! (:

Happy June Holidays everyone! Enjoy the remaining week or so. (: (:

2009-06-08T23:34:00.002+10:00

HEY EVERYONE (: Guess what, I'm typing this from my dorm! Moved in yesterday, and so far its alright I guess.. Contrary to what I said in an earlier post, my dorm room is pretty darn big! Bigger than that picture that my dad had showed me. So I'm quite happy with my room. And its on the ground floor, so I don't have to climb the stairs HAHA. Actually I really do kinda like my room! Haha its quite cosy. (:

Okay its my first day of school tomorrow, omg! Pray for me!! But I want to thank God for sending me friends in the dorm already. And one of them is a fellow foundation student who wants to take a Health Science undergraduate course after we're done. OMG I'm so blessed! Praise be to God ahaha goshh.

Stupid weather I HATE YOU.

Thank God for heaters. Amen.

2009-06-05T19:42:00.005+10:00

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY TO DANIELLE ONG XIN HONG!! I'm sorry I can't be there to celebrate it with you, but I really really wish I could! Miss you like hell baby, hope you enjoyed your special day! (:

Greetings from Melbourne! Yeap, Rachie Tan made it here safe and sound. I do apologise for not updating soon enough, the hotels here charge crazy prices for internet connection. Which saw my parents and I trooping down to the McDonald’s to exploit the free wifi. Thank God for Macs haha. Kept getting kicked out at 11pm every night though, because their Macs here aren’t all 24/7.

But anyway! Where shall I start, I have so many things to say! Okay maybe I’ll start at the point before I left. Saturday. I could hardly close my luggage, thank goodness for my parents’ luggage if not I wouldn’t have been able to bring all my clothes. Threw some things out because we were over the maximum weight limit. So much for trying to pack light.. :/ Piled into my relatives’ cars and we all took off (pretty behind schedule) for the airport. Went to the food court at the basement for dinner.

Ended up not being able to have anything to eat because some of my friends had reached and were at the food court too. So I went from table to table entertaining them. Felt like a wedding lah! Haha damn stupid. But it was nice, seeing my friends again. Oh yes, the best thing was that my phone was dying! So I kept rejecting calls if not my phone would completely die. Sorry if yours was one of them! And even better, I realised that I had forgotten to pack my charger! Wonderful haha. Luckily my dad and I use the same type of phone charger so I was saved. When everyone proceeded to migrate up to the departure level, I stayed back to accompany the guys. Stupid Lew ate so damn slow and talked too damn much he wasted so much time. Wanted to kill him. Haha and Ben came! Freaking idiot haven’t seen him in ages. (:

By the time stupid Lew had finished his dinner and we went upstairs, mygawd a whole horde of people were waiting for me. It was like some huge mass of people! There were too many that I kept running from group to group saying hi and trying to talk. But I couldn’t really spend much time with everyone, because there was hardly any time left before I had to leave. So again, I’m really sorry if you went to the airport but I hardly spoke to you. I didn’t mean it, really! ): Worst of all, I only managed to take photos with a few of my friends. Managed to take with my family, though, they were easier to assemble lol. Then, it was time for me to move on to the departure gate. Everyone walked in one big mass and it was like the great exodus out of Egypt HAHAHA. Strangers kept staring. Dunno-who said I was like some celebrity LOL! Damn embarrassed. Said hurried goodbyes to everyone, hugged here and there and went through the glass doors!

Incredibly, I didn’t cry. I think it was because I was too flustered with all the people around me. Which I am thankful for, because it distracted me from being sad. Wasn’t used to all the attention though.

But anyway this is a big shoutout to everyone who sacrificed their precious time to go down to Changi that night to see me off. Family, Puay, Alvin, Stella, Jing Fang, Rai, Tiff, Mel Tay, Ben, Anthony, Lew, Dudley, Jason, Jerome, Keith, Kenny, Edmond, Heng Tiong, Emeline, Justyn, Faith, Ying Hock, Ian, Kaye, Shawn, Lynette, Steph, Seon, Swee Leng, Felicia, Huiling, Max, Peiqi, Geor and Sarah Ho. And not forgetting my lovelies who missed seeing me at the very last minute: SABRINA KWANG, Wendy and Christabel. Haha they made an epic dash to the gate only to see me (quote Sab) “give a big wave and disappear like some star like that”. HAHAHA damn drama I remember seeing Sab jumping up and down in front of the guards waving my present and shouting at me. I think that’s all who went that night, yeah. And special thanks to Jason Long who specially popped by my place the night before to wish me bon voyage and to give me a present because he had duty the next day. Ahhhh he’s too nice. Haha everyone’s too nice! And thanks for the presents everyone!

I’m really sad to leave you all. ):

I love book that the girls gave me.. That book of retarded photos. Tine and Turtle's CD cover touched me so much too! And my cousin Sarah’s album of old (and embarrassing) photos! Made me cry, omg. Geor’s notebook (since when were you so cool, huh, Panda??) got me crying too, along with Leng’s stupid letter. Haha I looked like a freak sobbing away to myself on the plane. Luckily I had the window seat. Some were too big so Brian took them home, but those I could carry I brought with me.

Okay enough on that. Now, let’s talk about MELBOURNE! My home city for the next four years. Melbourne city didn’t really make an impact on me mainly because my dad made me do all the navigation and stuff by myself so I was too stressed to soak in the sights. But first impression: COLD. Its winter here, and although its not snowing, its really kinda cold. I immediately thought of Yangshuo and felt sad. ): Haha. The people are really friendly and courteous.. And when they say Melbourne has a lot of Asians, Melbourne HAS a lot of Asians. They’re everywhere! First few days were spent walking around, setting up my bank account, getting a local number, exploring. And walking in Melbourne is seriously addictive. Plus, you don’t sweat! I haven’t perspired once since I came here. Whoohoo, goodbye hot humid weather! :D Food servings are humongous. I can hardly finish half a helping. Prices are not bad, depends on where you go. And food quality’s quite good. But I’m so gonna put on weight, ugh. ):

First few days were spent in the city centre exploring the place and doing some admin stuff for me. I love the hotel we were at, its heating was awesome and the shower was fantastic warm. Haha and I'm proud to say that I'm more confident of navigating with a map now, all thanks to my dad forcing me to do the navigation. And after many many days of trying to understand how Melbourne's Metcard (equivalent of Singapore's EZ-link card) works on trams, I finally understood! Thanks to Mingwei who had to bear with my stupid questions haha. Pity I wasn't able to meet up with him before he went back to Singapore though. ): But yeah, so I took the tram and trains in the city! Quite fun,but I prefer taking trams.

Found a really cool climbing gym near that hotel called Hard Rock. Though it only has high walls it looks really awesome! Made me itch to go climb again. But I can't because firstly, I didn't bring my climbing gear with me (luggage was too heavy) and secondly, I wanna climb with Puay, Brian and Alvin again. ): ): I hope there's a climbing gym near my school, though. With bouldering facilities too. Or even better! I hope my school has one in the premises. :D

Met up with quite a few people over here too.. Namely my long-lost primary school best friend Cammie! She left Singapore when she was just nine, and the last time I saw her was at least six years ago. Caught up with her family too, and I only have God to thank because they're such a blessing to me! Wonderful Christian family and all. They're terribly hospitable too, especially Aunty Mary. Ah pity my school's quite far from their place. But better than nothing I guess!

Moved out of the city yesterday to a motel right next to my university, but the motel really sucks in comparison to Ibis hotel in the city. Beggars can't be choosers, though. At least we found a place. And thank God for the heated blankets because the bathroom is absolutely freezing.

Finally saw La Trobe for the first time yesterday! My parents and I went on an impromptu exploration that started off with my dorm, then my school. Then today the person in-charge of accommodation was kind enough to bring us around the dorm and part of the uni properly. I really like the university! And its got a river/creek right outside my dorm (omg like Yangshuo, right?!) that has swans and ducks swimming in it! My school's outside the main campus of the university, though, but the 15 minute walk is lovely nonetheless. The international college looks kinda cui, though, but the university is nice. Haven't been able to see my dorm room yet, only until I move in on Sunday. But something tells me I'll take some time to get used to dorm-life. Keep picturing stuff in the show Greek haha! See la Lew, all your fault.

Ahhh I love Aussies they're all so nice. A guy just struck up a conversation with my mum while waiting for his daughter who was in the toilet. He happened to see our New Zealand pictures on her screensaver and couldn't stop gushing about how nice they were. Haha. Then when his daughter came out and they walked off, he told her about how "that lady has really nice pictures of horses and dolphins..." Ahhh so cute. <3

Look out for pictures, soon! If I can be bothered. Haha.

2009-05-30T18:27:00.002+10:00

4 and a half hours to go

I can't believe I'm counting down in mere hours now! GAHHH I can't believe it omgg. ): Up until last night everything still felt so surreal.. But I'm starting to come to terms with reality now.

I'm still not too sure of my feelings right now.. Sad, excited, nervous, uncertain etc. It's all one big jumble of emotions. Makes me feel so messy. But I guess its normal, right? Although the only emotion that Wen is showing is pure excitement about joining me in Melbourne come July. Wish I could be like her.

There are so many things that are left undone still.. Like going swimming with Sab, or taking pictures of the different blocks in school with Dan. Guess I'll just have to leave it to when I come back to visit, hopefully in December. And there are so many friends that I wasn't able to meet up with too. Especially Pok Hua, El, Celestine and Celesther, Andrew etc. Sorry if you're one of them, its just that my schedule was too damn packed. And one tip if you're going abroad to study: start your farewell outings waay in advance.

```

Incredibly, I feel strong enough to move on now. We really should've talked things out before everything got beyond our control. But what's done is done, and as much as I would like to turn back time to relive the past, I can't. So I guess its time to move on, to get on with my life. Most importantly, I think I can be truly happy again. Like I once was a long time ago. I miss that old me.

Time will tell, I guess. And if its meant to be, its meant to be. What I just said doesn't mean that I'm totally giving up, and neither does it mean that I won't remain open to other options. We'll see how it turns out. But either way I'm going to give it my best shot at restoring our friendship, and I wish you'd do the same.

It'll be so awesome, don't you think? (:

```

Ahh guess I can leave with no regrets now. Thank God. Last night was good. Even though I slept at 6 in the morning because I was talking to some people and trying to finish up my packing at the same time. Yeah, it was good.

Well, I guess its time to say goodbye everyone. Gonna miss everyone of you! If you're reading this and I know you, you'll be missed, trust me.

Alright. Time to prepare my tissues. Praying that I won't cry like hell later. :/

Look forward to the next post! 'Cause it'll be from.. Melbourne! WHOOHOO! (:

2009-05-26T03:12:00.014+10:00

4 days to go

Ohh my goodness me I've only four measly days left! I can't believe it. Feels so so surreal. Ohwell! Packing is proving to be an irritant and a major room-messer. My room's a total mess now because I have been throwing everything everywhere. Haha man it sucks.

Well the past week has been filled to the brim with farewell outings with friends from everywhere.. Started off with going to the Bird Park with Shawn last Tuesday. The last time I had gone there was easily almost six years ago for my primary school friend's birthday outing during Halloween season. The place is pretty much the same, though. I can even remember some exhibits. I guess my favourite was the Lorry Loft where we could get up-close and personal with the lorries in the enclosure. The lorries would perch on your arm and drink from the little tupperware filled with some sweet water meant for the birds. It was pretty scary, though, because the lorries would all flock over to you and squabble with each other for a drink. But after awhile they'd behave themselves. I made a lorry friend who I called George! It kept perching on my shoulder like some pirate's parrot. So cute. Shawn was an absolute thick-skinned idiot who went around asking people to help us take photos. I was so embarrassed haha.

Met up with the girls on Friday to celebrate Jingfang's birthday in advance since she had no papers on that day.. Went to watch Night at the Museum 2 at The Cathay. I really like the $6 student discounted ticket - it totally agrees with my wallet. But the snacks that we bought were a total rip-off. Night at the Museum 2 was pretty funny! Laughed quite a bit. But I think the first one is funnier. I remember laughing harder and more. Haha but nonetheless it was a good watch. Spent some time at Long John's chatting and catching up with each other's lives, then Tiff had to leave and I went to meet my Secondary 4 clique. Unfortunately only four of us turned up (the rest had stuff on) but we survived. Was really great seeing them again! Especially that Eunice Yip Xin Yi. And it was a pleasant surprise finding out that piece of news from her. I wish her all the best. (:

Went climbing with Puay and Brian on Saturday finally! Brian's officer friend came along for the first time too. I think his name was Nathaniel or something. Turns out that he was Ann Marie's classmate in CJ last time! Such a small world. Had fun climbing after so long! And thankfully my blisters didn't bother me. Although taking off and putting on my shoes was quite troublesome. Had lunch at the food court then went to watch Night at the Museum 2 (again). Brian paid for my ticket so I didn't mind watching it again. :D Oh before the movie I totally owned my brother in some hunting game at the arcade. It was pretty funny. After the show I went down to Bugis for steamboat dinner with my badminton teammates! Mr Goh came along too, but Mr Wee had something on so he couldn't make it. ): Sab, Yu Sin, Huiyan, Sweeleng, Sarah Ho and Geor also came. It felt so great to be with them again.. And I certainly felt younger with all of them. Made me relive my secondary school days. We all had a good laugh talking about trainings and stuff! Especially the stories of how we used to slack during training but hide it from Mr Goh. Pictures are with Mr Goh, I must remember to get them from him.

Sunday.. Wished Jingfang and Jason a very happy birthday before meeting Puay and heading to church. It was my last Sunday in church! So sad. Reached there in time for one or two songs during worship too. Then during announcements the church leaders led the church in praying for me and I guess it was nice. Went home with Brian and Puay after lunch and took photos for Puay's new collection for onetwochic. It was pretty fun, modeling alongside Puay. Haha new experience. And I must say, modeling is not easy! You need a lot of self-esteem to look good in the pictures. Anyway, her new collection is awesome stuff. They're all hand-sewn by her mother! I'm currently her mum's biggest fan haha. And the workmanship is really good. I hope they sell well! Lovely basics that are great for school or a day out with friends. Check it out! (: (:

Then it was a tiny church farewell at a pub called Clinic at Clarke Quay! My first time going to a pub legally haha. Though I must say I don't think this sort of thing is really my kind of thing. Besides, the costs of the drinks are so damn expensive that I call it daylight robbery. But whattheheck, its just a one-off thing so who cares. Everyone was nice enough to treat me, so I didn't have to fork out any money. Thanks guys! (: Ordered a Sex on the Drip which was pretty cute.. I think it was just Sex on the Beach served in those IV bags along with an IV drip to drink it from. You put the drip in your mouth and roll down the stopper and the drink flows right into your mouth. Quite ingenious. And it cost a bomb for a bag that was only about half full. $50, omg! Haha I sound like a freaking cheapo. The guys got a house drink thingy that was a mixture of Coke and some alcohol.. I kinda liked that one. Though the alcohol content in it was probably considered non-existant. Drank two glasses and some how managed to turn a little red. Gotta work on my alcohol tolerance.

And no, we weren't drunk.

Then today! My last BSF lesson. I was pretty sad about it.. Kinda grew to enjoy attending the BSF lessons so far.. And I really regret not joining earlier. But I really thank God for blessing me with the opportunity to be able to attend a few lessons before I left. I realised today that I will actually miss my class. Although we don't talk to each other and attendance is only at most seven of us per week, I've actually grown comfortable with the familiar faces that I see each week. And my two CLs Mr Tan and Mr Lim.. Gosh, I'll miss them too! They are so passionate about teaching the Word, and they're so learned too. I really respect them and their God-given wisdom and knowledge. It was at the end of the lesson when Mr Tan announced that it was my last lesson and when Mr Lim prayed over me that I realised that I will miss everyone. I even made a friend after all this lol. One of the girls in my class couldn't stop asking me questions. I was pretty amused. Ohwell, I'll never be in the same class as them again, but I really really am grateful to God for this wonderful experience.

...and finally! I met up with Manprit my lovely fellow anty wanty after BSF for supper. It's been eons since I last saw her! Glad to know that we're both still the same whacky, crazy, insane, retarded ants that we were back in the good old days of Cedar. (: I miss those mornings when we'd go to school together and laugh non-stop on the journey to school. Love her to bits, gonna miss her so much!

2009-05-15T13:32:00.004+10:00

15 days to go

```

I am glad to say that I've started packing already! I just threw in a few pullovers and jackets into the luggage, actually. Heck, I'll just count that as packing. I feel as if I'm going on a holiday, omg.

You know, sometimes, I wish I wasn't so simple-minded. I wish I could express my thoughts into words properly. Whenever I try, though, I find myself at a loss for words. Which really annoys me, because I feel so stupid and dumb. I really envy people who write so well too.. Like their thoughts just come out so well put. Whereas mine are so straight forward and awkward sounding. But I guess that's what makes me who I am. Simple-minded me. Sab told me that simple-mindedness is good because you don't read so much into things. Which is true, in a way. But still doesn't change the fact that I feel dumb. ):

Especially when it comes to ~~you~~.

You'd never imagine how much guts it took me to bring that up with you again. Let alone initiate it. And, well, your reply just goes to show that firstly, you don't give a shit about making an effort. Secondly, excuses have now become your best friend when it comes to me. If you think that those pathetic lame-ass excuses would fool me, think again. I may be simple-minded but I am not an idiot. I realised something, though. It has always been up to you about everything. You decided we should wait, I agreed. You decided to pulverise our relationship, I couldn't do anything about it. And now what, I have to wait for you to get back to me about this? See, it's me waiting for your decision again. You, you, you. It has always been that way. And I think it's also because I'm too damn simple-minded to think the way you do. The way you're able to 'justify' your actions with your insanely 'deep' reasoning. Seriously, it just screws up my head and I can't think properly. Makes me doubt myself. And I feel like a child next to you. And that's not healthy, is it? So maybe it's a good thing things didn't work out. I don't know, I really don't.

Did I just say that?

Why Waiting is Really Trusting
By Daniel Darling

Nobody hates waiting more than I do. At Wal-mart, I use the self-checkout, because there is usually no line. Unless, of course, I commit the unpardonable crime of putting the bread on the wrong plastic bag and the machine begins yelling at me. Then, of course, I have to wait for the human to come over and fix the machine.

At the post office, I hate waiting an hour to mail a package. So I usually use the automated box that allows me to send anything slightly smaller than an elephant.

I especially don’t like sitting in traffic in the Chicago suburbs, where I believe they widen the roads once every 76 years. So I have a better chance of seeing Haley’s Comet than getting into the turn lane on my local highways. Nice.

So you can understand that I have an especially tough time waiting on God. He just doesn’t seem to fit His plans into my rushed, hurried, panicked world. And in reading the Scriptures, I’ve learned that He hasn’t changed.

In fact, almost all of the great men in the Bible had to wait. Some agonizingly long. Let’s look at three examples.

Your Prince is Ready
Though Moses grew up in the house of Pharoah and was groomed to be the next in line for the throne, I believe he saw all of this as God raising him up to deliver his people, Israel. His mother probably had something to do with that.

As the years passed and Moses looked from the window of his stately palace and saw the oppression of his brethren, he grew more and more impatient. Finally, he acted on impulse and killed an Egyptian taskmaster.

So that meant 40 years in the wilderness. Here God’s people were suffering and their future deliverer is leading sheep in the backside of the desert. Yet God wasn’t delaying. He wasn’t stalling. He wasn’t anxious.

Finally, when Moses was broken and humble enough to be used as an instrument by God, God sent the 80-year old prince-turned-shepherd back to Egypt.

But do you see what is happening? The headlines wouldn't read, "Prince leads coup. Prince leads revolt. Prince overtakes Pharaoh." No, it wouldn't be about Moses anymore. It would be about God. How about, "God Miraculously Delivers His People"?

Dreams of Greatness
As a young man, God spoke to Joseph through dreams. In these dreams, Joseph was leading and his brothers and even world leaders were bowing at his feet. Kind of heady stuff for a teenager, don’t you think? And it didn’t play too well with his brothers.

But Joseph knew God was calling him to a special place. A place of impact and leadership and power.

So that’s why Joseph was probably stunned and shocked when he found himself in the bottom of a pit, praying his brothers wouldn’t kill him. Or when he found himself sold into a strange country, Egypt. Or when he was thrust into prison on rape charges.

Didn’t seem like those dreams were panning out too well, did it? Didn’t seem like God was working out His plan?

Oh, but God was working out his plan. And Joseph, while he didn’t know a lot, He knew He could trust God.

Running for King
Okay, so this prophet comes to his house, dumps some oil on his head, and then whispers in his ear, “Oh by the way, you’re going to be Israel’s next king.” But then it was back to the shepherd’s fields, back to being the forgotten son and brother, back to obscurity.

David was anointed king as a teenager, but he waited 14 long years to assume the throne. And those 14 years were hard years. He was Israel’s next king, but there was his madman, Saul, who was determined to see David dead and buried.

If you read the psalms you can experience David’s angst. He scratched his head in wonder, “Why is God allowing Saul to do this?” “Why doesn’t God just move Saul out of the way?”

But again, like Moses, like Joseph, David had to learn to trust God. And waiting, is trusting. David had to be broken, humble, and read to lead God’s people.

Do you see a pattern developing here? God often gives his people a dream, a desire, a calling and then puts them through a period of waiting.

It is in this waiting where your real courage and character are forged. It is in this period of uncertainty that you’re life takes on a whole new dimension. You learn how to trust God. You learn to lean on God. You learn what’s important and what’s not important.

So if you’re like me and you really hate to wait, know that waiting is trusting.

Thanks, Sab, for sharing this article with me. Really opened my eyes to a different set of things. I realise that I've been so damn myopic. And I have been leaning on the wrong things.

I need to stop waiting on you and start waiting on God.

```

Someone Else's Story - Lea Salonga

Long ago in someone else's lifetime
Someone with my name who looked a lot like me
Came to know a man and made a promise
He only had to say
And that's where she would be
Lately although the feelings run just as deep
The promise she made has grown impossible to keep
And yet I wish it wasn't so
Will he miss me if I go?

In a way it's someone else's story
I don't see myself as taking part at all
Yesterday a girl that I was fond of
Finally could see the writing on the wall
Sadly she realized she'd left him behind
And sadder than that she knew he wouldn't even mind
And though there's nothing left to say
Would he listen if I stay?

It's all very well to say you fool it's now or never
I could be choosing
No choices whatsoever

I could be in someone else's story
In someone else's life
And he could be in mine
I don't see a reason to be lonely
I could take my chances further down the line
And if that girl I knew should ask my advice
Oh I wouldn't hesitate she needn't ask me twice
Go now
I'd tell her that for free

Trouble is, the girl is me
The story is, the girl is me

2009-05-13T13:43:00.009+10:00

17 days to go

```

OMG seventeen days left! Okay relax, take a deep breath. Seriously, I have so little time left in Singapore! And planning outings with friends has given me nothing but a headache. Stupid MYEs.. Ruining all my plans! I think my last two sets of weekends have been booked up already. UGH that means I don't even know if I have time for my school mates. OMG OMG OMG I WANT TO CRY. ):

And packing! Ugh, packing is nonsense. No idea where to start! Which reminds me, I gotta go to the post office to get some boxes to dump my stuff in. JC lecture notes, my soft toys (haha) and books. Oh and I need to print out photos of everyone! So I can stick them up in my room. (:

Oh yeah, I saw a 3-D picture of my dorm room last night.. It's pretty big I guess, but somehow it reminded me of a prison cell. ): I think it was because the bed looked so.. prison-y. Haha well. Maybe because they didn't put a comforter over the bed before taking the photo. Oh! And I learnt a new Aussie slang word today. The word is doona. It's slang for a comforter. And thus commences my journey of learning Aussie slang words. Hahaha, oh man.

Brian's flown off to Brunei! Sent him off at the airport this morning. Thankfully he'll be back on Saturday, yay! Didn't really spend much time with him after he got back from Taiwan though.. He was pretty busy doing his own thing. ): Oh well. I wish he left his PSP behind, though. So I can play Locoroco HAHA! Okay kidding I just want him back ASAP.

Made a nice desktop wallpaper for Ranielle yesterday using some photo editing software called Pixelmator. It's like Photoshop. I kind of suck at editing photos.. But I think I did a pretty neat job at my first collage. (: (: I gotta go find more of these things they call 'brushes' to download. They're so nice! Haha. (:

I HAVE A SUDDEN URGE TO CLIMB! And bake cookies and cream cupcakes. Hahaha weird combination.

Going back to school later to visit! I can't wait - it's been so long since I last went back! I think it was when, the start of April? Omg that's long! Dan and I are going to fulfill our promise of going around the school to take pictures of all the different blocks. (:

~~Time cannot erase a feeling so strong.~~

```

Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough

Now I don't wanna lose you
I don't wanna use you
Just to have somebody by my side

I don't wanna hate you
I don't wanna take you
But I don't wanna be the one to cry

That don't really matter to anyone anymore
But like a fool I keep losing my place
I keep seeing you walk through that door

But there's a danger in loving somebody too much
And it's sad when you know it's your heart you can't trust
There's a reason why people don't stay where they are
Baby sometimes love just ain't enough

I could never change you
I don't wanna blame you
Baby you don't have to take the fall
Yes I may have hurt you
But I did not desert you
Maybe I just wanna have it all

It makes a sound like thunder
It makes me feel like the rain
And like a fool who will never see the truth
I keep thinking something's gonna change

But there's a danger in loving somebody too much
And it's sad when you know it's your heart you can't trust
There's a reason why people don't stay where they are
Baby sometimes love just ain't enough

And there's no way home
When it's late at night and you're all alone
Are there things that you wanted to say
Do you feel me beside you in your bed
There beside you where I used to lay

And there's a danger in loving somebody too much
And it's sad when you know it's your heart they can't touch
There's a reason why people don't stay who they are
'Cause baby sometimes love just ain't enough

Baby sometimes love
It just ain't enough

2009-05-10T00:37:00.003+10:00

21 days to go

Okay dears. It's confirmed.

Rachietan finally has her departure date! Details are as such:
Date:Saturday 30 May
Time:9PM
Flight no.: SQ 227
Terminal: T3

Yep, there it is, folks. Please leave a tag on my board so that I know who has already taken note of it! Helps so that I don't tell people who already know. Haha wth, I sound as if I'm some important shit.

As you can tell, God has been kind and granted me the opportunity to leave in style. I'm flying SIA (yay) and it's at T3 (double yay)! My favourite terminal since its so spanking new and big. So I won't have a teary farewell in the Budget Terminal as I originally feared. God is good! Ahaha. (:

Climbed with Danielle and Dud today. My fingers are alright, thank God! (: But for some reason my right knee hurts a bit when I walk. I must be getting old. ):

Pokay that's all for now.

2009-05-08T01:03:00.008+10:00

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part

```

It has suddenly dawned upon me that I've only got 20+ days left in Singapore.
Good gravy.

Just got back from dinner with Jingfang! I think Plaza Sing has become our usual haunt for dinners. Since its convenient for the both of us haha. Ended up eating at KFC because we two had some cravings for it. Unhealthy, yes I know. But a craving's a craving! Gotta satisfy it. (: Walked around after that and went to Food Republic for ice kachang dessert. Then we realised that we should have eaten there instead, so that I can eat local fare. Which made sense, since I've got such a short period of time left in Singapore. In other words, I've got such a short period of time left to eat my favourite local food! Omg omg. ): Haha well. I guess I'll just have to stick to eating local food everytime I go out then. (:

My brother's finally back from Taiwan for three long weeks. My parents and I were crazy enough to stay up till two in the morning and go pick him from the airport. I think it was a fun experience. Always liked seeing Singapore asleep, there's this very serene touch to everything you look at. The car park was surprisingly pretty crowded at such an unearthly hour, but I guess everyone's excited to see their loved one again. I was happy in the car on the way back.. Finally we were all together again. Even if it was just for that short ride back, I felt whole. I guess being the 'only kid' in the house for the past year or so hasn't been that great to me. I still wish my brother had more time at home. Weekends are just too short. I think fetching someone from the airport reminds me of Meng's Kitchen and the mee pok. Because everytime I go pick someone up from Changi, I always crave for Meng's. Especially if it's at night, haha. Gosh, I think I should just make it a tradition now. I definitely would want to eat Meng's first thing whenever I get back from Australia on visits! Haha what a freak I am.

While waiting for my brother to get his luggage from the belt, this family were wearing masks and were escorted out by airport personnel escorting them. My parents kinda went crazy when they spotted them.. They were like telling me to get away from the group (even though we were separated by that glass door. All I did was to roll my eyes and continue waiting for my brother. But thinking back, with this stupid swine flu spreading around.. Where do we draw the line between paranoia and being safe? A friend of mine recently passed a comment saying that the government is being too paranoid in handling the swine flu situation, with everywhere taking all those safety precautions. However it didn't exactly strike me as paranoia.. In fact I kind of think the government's handling everything pretty well. But then again I guess it's up to individuals to decide if its playing safe or going overboard. Ohwell. We'll never know, will we?

Oh yeah, news just got around that my brother has to go back to Brunei next week because they need him as the safety officer for some live firing exercise that's being conducted there. Thankfully it's just for a few days. But I can't help but feel angry that they keep sending him off.. And this time it's on such a short notification! It's time like this that makes me think that the way things are run in the army is really haphazard.

I'm finding work-free life really.. Well, free. Haha yeah I've got absolutely nothing to do at home! Apart from starting to pack for Australia, but I can't exactly bring myself to. Okay fine actually the main thing is that I don't really know where to start lol. Well actually there's also studying, but my usual procrastinating self is getting the better of me. ): I really hate myself. But anyway, the past two days has seen me finish two library books. I think it's a record. And I think it's a clear indication of how bored I am at home. Ahhh well. I just love Tess Gerritsen's books. (: (:

Sigh, so much to do in so little time. It really sucks to the max that there's mid-years in two week's time for the J2s. Which only leaves me with two measly days after their mid-years end to have farewell stuff. I seriously have no idea how I'm going to manage it all. ):

Nothing really lasts forever, does it?

```

If only we could turn back time

2009-05-03T02:50:00.003+10:00

I think life has been boring lately! Either that or the things that I've been up to aren't exactly blog-worthy stuff. But to entertain myself and waste time, I'll type some out either way.

Sab and I went to watch the rugby match at SA on Tuesday.. It was SA vs AC. Quite cool, 'cause they're rugby arch enemies. So yeah, after work I met Sab and crashed SA. Felt like an idiot, though, because I was the only one in outside clothes. Everyone else was in school uniforms. I should've borrowed Sab's or something. Okay the match was pretty cool, I guess, also since it was my first live rugby match. From my very limited knowledge of rugby, I think the AC team is better in terms of skill.. But SA won in the end. First time in my life that I actually rooted against AC, wow. It was fun, anyway.. Sab and I had a great time people-watching too. Oh, and I discovered that my long lost junior from primary school is in SA too! Didn't get to say hi, though, because she was having training. Pity.

Had dinner with Jing Fang after the rugby match at Mahattan Fish Market at Plaza Sing because she wanted to use her $5 coupon that expired on that day.. Haha the food's pretty good, and it's cheaper than Fish & Co.! I think we spent.. What, two hours in the restaurant? Talking and eating and talking. Haha my legs were stiff when we got up to leave. And, for some reason, people avoided the tables next to us. I think we were too noisy. . . But whatever, at least we had more privacy. Haha! Miss her already man. Can't wait for our next MFM meal. Haha yes, we were given yet another $5 coupon to use. We're such suckers for their marketing ploy.

Finally stopped work on Thursday! OMG RACHELTAN IS FREE FROM THE SHACKLES OF WORK! Haha yep, like finally, ugh. But I kinda miss my colleagues, though. Especially Jasmine, Michelle and Dr. Mathily. ):

Okay let's see. The next most interesting thing was climbing with Puay yesterday. Haha yeah, climbing with that dope is usually the highlight of my week. Anyway it started off innocently enough with us having lunch and taking the bus from the interchange because we were lazy. Then things developed and I tore my right middle finger which was a bloody mess by the time I realised I was injured. And to think I did a couple more climbs before noticing it. Can you imagine all the dirt and chalk that got in?? EW! Okay so I got it clean, put a plaster over it and Puay proceeded to mummify it with her tape. Later, I discovered a tear on my left middle finger. And boy was it huge. But I just taped over it 'cause I couldn't be bothered to go clean it up. Two climbs later I tore my left ring finger. HAHA like wth right? Puay almost died from laughing at me. I got so annoyed that I ended up taping all my fingers so that I won't tear anything else. And looked like an idiot. Haha I felt like some poser la, with all my fingers taped up. Thankfully I didn't have anymore injuries, but couldn't really climb much after that due to my fingers being rendered useless. Showering was an absolute bitch, needless to say. Thankfully its better now.

I hope my fingers heal soon! I have limited opportunities left to climb in Singapore! So I can't afford to miss out on anything.

Oh yeah, before I forget, HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY TO CELESTINE AND CELESTHER! Had awesome fun with them last night during our sleepover.. I think watching Bloody Monday is the ultimate sleepover activity HAHA. Miura Haruma is LOVE! Hehee. :D

Church tomorrow! With Sabster, yay! It'll be my last Holy Communion, though. Argh, so sad. ):

Brian's coming back in two day's time! OMG I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT!!

Lastly, I really hope this AWARE nonsense finishes soon. I think it's damn stupid, damn childish, and damn pointless.

2009-04-27T01:53:00.000+10:00

Sigh.

2009-04-21T01:38:00.002+10:00

Today was my first BSF lesson of the year. I must say that I enjoyed my time there more than I did at last year's. Maybe because the class was quieter so I didn't feel so intimidated. Quite looking forward to next week's session. And I actually felt a tang of pity that I wouldn't be able to continue because I'll be leaving. My CL's pretty cute too, in a funny way. Especially the way he pronounces words with 'R' in them. Like 'pray' becomes 'pway'. My dad says he's very learned too, and his lessons are usually very solid. Good, I can get as much wisdom as I can from him about God's word in the coming few weeks.

If I asked you what your idea of an ideal life would be, what would you say? A life without any complications, with no hardship, no illnesses nor troubles.. I guess that's the first and maybe only thing that people would come up with. In other words, an easy life. I regretfully admit that I thought of that too when my CL posed that question during BSF. But what he said afterwards made me think harder, deeper. Having an easy life, one without trials or tribulations, doesn't necessarily equate to having a meaningful life. It's pretty pointless anyway. If you do nothing but eat, sleep and be happy, so what? What's the point of all that when you've got nothing to look forward to in the end of everything? But when God comes into the equation, everything changes. The difficulties of life suddenly become a stepping stone for us to the real ideal life. I guess when God is in our lives, the most ideal life could even be one riddled with problems and trials. He puts us to the tests, but still provides for us. Which makes everything bearable. And ideal. After all, we can be assured that He'll be there to give us the sustenance that we need. So don't pray for an easy life. Pray for the ideal one that God has planned for you.

Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide.

Last night was an emotional rollercoaster ride for me. One big heckuva ride. Thank God I'm feeling better now. Guess BSF really helps.

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Someday, somehow
Gonna make it all right, but not right now
I know you're wondering when

Thing is, are you really? Why the hell did you let me listen to that. Now it's gotten me thinking, wondering. And hoping even more. I want more signs if its true. More concrete signs. Then maybe I can be happy again.

2009-04-11T20:21:00.002+10:00

Happy post-Good Friday everyone! Service yesterday was alright I guess.. Not much struck me during the sermon though. Only the points that Jesus suffered because of us, with us, and for us. Which is pretty much quite self-explanatory. Only that I didn't realise that whenever we sin Jesus still suffers. Quite thought provoking.

For some reason last night, I felt quite empty. Actually I've been feeling pretty empty spiritually this year already, but last night it was quite bad. So I read my Bible for a while and felt slightly better after reading a chapter of Genesis. Felt like God was trying to tell me something about the creation story that I never thought of before. Quite enlightening. And I've decided that I'm going to change the err of my ways and make a conscious effort to stop my backsliding and stay on track with God. Every night I will read a chapter from the Bible and reflect upon the Word, no matter how "I-don't get-it-at-all" it may be. And I will not fall asleep before I finish saying my prayers. With God's help I'll be a better, stronger, wiser person.

This year's Easter Sunday's going to be a tad sad for me with my brother gone to Taiwan.. He's leaving tonight for about three weeks. Ohwell. I'm pretty much bummed up about it. Especially with my days left in Singapore so limited. I've started counting down in weeks already.

I realised I had forgotten to post this in my previous post so here it is now: I really miss my old class of 1S27. Well, at least the stupid crazy people whom I hung out with. Seeing them on Thursday just made me realise how much I had missed being in their company. Especially Peiqi! I haven't seen her since last year I think! That's a crazy long time ago. So glad she made it back to SR on Thursday. It was great being with everyone again. (:

```

Went blog-hopping just now and stumbled upon this story.. Give it a read, I think it's very meaningful.

The Story of the Four Candles

The Four Candles burned slowly.
Their ambiance was so soft you could hear them speak...

The first candle said, "I am Peace, but these days, nobody wants to keep me lit."
Then Peace's flame slowly diminished and went out completely.

The second candle said, "I am Faith, but these days, I am no longer indispensable."
Then Faith's flame slowly diminished and went out completely.

Sadly the third candle spoke, "I am Love and I haven't the strength to stay lit any longer."
"People put me aside and don't understand my importance.
They even forget to love those who are nearest to them."
And waiting no longer, Love went out completely.

Suddenly...
A child entered the room and saw the three candles no longer burning.

The child began to cry,
"Why are you not burning? You are supposed to stay lit until the end."

Then the Fourth Candle spoke gently to the little boy,
"Don't be afraid, for I am Hope, and while I still burn,
we can re-light the other candles."

With shining eyes, the child took the Candle of Hope
and lit the other three candles.

Never let the Flame of Hope go out.
With Hope in your life, no matter how bad things may be,
Peace, Faith and Love may shine brightly once again

With hope in the Lord, everything will fall into place I guess. With hope and trust.

~~I'll be using this as my foundation to hold on. Even if it may seem blind and foolish.~~