Graduate!

OMGOMGOMG

I CAN GRADUATE!

EDITED the D, dies of embarassment, thank you. orz.

*spazspazspaz*

The results were released online today. My last hurdle, the 2 electives which I have opted to take in Melbourne is cleared. XD

I wouldn't say my results were excellent because they weren't. Not the least. Let's just say, my overall performance was so-so. Enough to graduate but not with honors or any of the sort.

These whole 4 and half years were long but enjoyable. I met some really nice friends on the way. Mini me wasn't active in any activities, so I enjoyed most while doing group assignments, because I don't make friends easily, and though these assignments, I have met friends. Because I'm prone to joining any group which asks me first, I have met different people.

The lecturers were mostly nice, some boring, some garang and ganas. =P In the block of building that I have called my college for 4 years, it was small but cosy environment. In the lifespan of 4 years, I've been there, the management board has changed twice. Once acquired by Inti Universal Holdings Berhad in 2004 and the second time, Inti Universal was offered a takeover by Laureate Education Inc in 2007.

I am glad to have chosen what I did. Even though, I now realise what an extremely 'Asian' course it was. When you're introduced to others and the topic of what I'm studying pops up, the word 'Accounting', will be met with a 'Ah~'. It's a stereotypical Asian course thing. =P

My parents have provided for me financially all these time. They, who never got a chance to do their tertiery education wanted both of us to have the necessary to survive in life. They who did not impose strict expectations on me, even when I failed. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, my mum and dad. *hearts*

Of course, the first person I called was my father and mother!

Now, I'm off to pack for an overnight stay at a college friend's, because we're going on a day trip early morning to Mount Buller where I can get to experience my first ever SNOW. *O* It is a bit costly, with all the hiring of the appropriate snow attire, but it's a once in a lifetime for me.

If I haven't told you yet (or I might have), I will be back on the 26th July. My tickets all settled, but er....have yet to pack. orz. Let's hang out when I get back nyaaaaaa?

My graduation ceremony will be held back home in September.

This is but the first step in starting my working life. I'm hoping to be able to find a job, with the lack of experience I have and start gaining some much needed exposure from there. >.<;; Wish me luck nya? =3 In the accounting career, having a degree is not enough, there is the need for further studies, I'll make a decision later on, I suppose. One small step at a time eh? I keep saying 4 and half years because, I took a year of pre-university education (University Foundation Program) and 3 and half years of my course. (pssst....half, because I had to repeat...orz). My incoherent spazzing and rambling will stop here. XD Take care and see you soon!

Remembering..

Say a little prayer for Mr Guna and his family, for he has moved on.

May he rest in peace.

Let's recap!

Had the sudden impulse to reread my old blog posts just now. =3

It's still surprising to me, that this place is still up and running, I wouldn't have believed that I'd be able to keep a blog for whut....almost 2 year? Wowzers.

And how jumbled and disorganised all my posts seem to be and the amount of grammar mistakes I fail to correct *coughignoredcough*. =P I learnt a valuable lesson, I'm no literary genius. XD

So thank you for bearing with my little blog all this while. The fact that I still have readers makes it worthwhile to keep on blogging.

At the very least, at least this gets updated once a month. That's a huge plus for me. *bounces* I've move from using customised layouts to making my own special *coughfangirlingcough* one, sankyuuuuuuuu, Aya-cchi! Added a playlist (not used often), and a slideshow as my own eyecandy. Ahahaha! XD

Any feedbacks to give or advice to share, dears?

PS: I heard that Mr Guna's unconscious, and in coma after falling from the ceiling or roof or somewhere. Do spare a little time on a prayer for him. He may not have been the best of teachers, as we know it, but he's a father and a decent person. Details are hazy, I only managed to grasp a hazy picture of the situation but apparently, it's really serious. Somewhere along the lines of relying on life support machines. D:

Trio Triumphs...over the weather

I owe updates again, I know~

Short summary of past few weeks. Xian came down from Sydney with her friends, and sorta dumped them to hang out with Teen, and me, and occasionally HLin. There were circumstances as to why she dumped them, but let's not go into that, shall we? XD

We had a blast catching up on everything and everyone. We also went stark mad. Picnicking in the winter and walking along the super breezy windy beach. All the more memorable, I'd say.

The day she arrived, Teen (and HLin) still had exams, so it was only little old me, who went down to meet her. Didn't do much, but tagged along her friends for the day. She was also kinda like a walking zombie, since it was only an hour after her exams which she hopped on a 10 train to get to Melbourne. orz, dear. Blame the organiser who wanted to meet his gf.

Skipped the next day and stayed home. =P By day three, Teen had finished everything, and we all meet up for lunch, with her friends, and hung out. We went to St Kilda's beach, which was quite small stretch of beach, but pretty all the same. It was a Sunday, so lucky us, there was a sort of market where they'd sell all sorts of crafts and self made jewelery and stuffs. Did a bit of shopping and saw a lot of doggies on walks. =3 As we chatted on an on, we decided to go for a picnic. I hadn't been on one yet and we thought it'd be fun!

St Kilda's beach

So on Monday, I had this *coughbrilliantcough* idea to make chocolate chip cookies to bring along, and of course, made the plans haywire, because one, it took me longer than expected, and two, burnt a batch of cookies. orz. We were suppose to meet up at Teen's to go shopping and make sandwiches, but they both did everything by the time I arrived. *crawls into a hole*

It's winter now, and as expected pretty cold, and being a Monday, most people are either busy with work or exams. The Royal Botanical Gardens was quite quiet, which made it all the better. Which looking for the perfect spot to sit down, and view the lake, we came across some creepy army of birds. Literally.

Our initial picnic spot DD:

Me: Where should I put the blanket?
Teen and Xian: Let's picnic by the lake.
*starts taking out the blanket from the plastic cover*
*rustle rustle*

*BIRDS POPPED UP THEIR HEADS AND MOVED TOWARDS MEEEEEEEEE*

All three: O_____________O
Xian: Do that again.
Me: What? Make noises with the plastic? *does anyway*

*BIRDS MOVED CLOSER AGAIN*

Teen: *runs off*
Me: UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DDDDDDDD:
Xian: Do that again, I wanna record it on my camera
Me: But they're MOVING TOWARDS MEEEEEEEE...*orzorzorz*

That's basically the scenario. Xian, you should have told me, your camera doesn't have sound, because mine does. ;o; BIRDS ISH GREEDY YO!

What's left of our food...after we ate them. =P

So we had to switch plans to picnic somewhere furtherrrrrrrrr from the lake. Once we did, we tucked in and had an awesome thing chatting.

After which, we cleared up, went for a little camwhoring as we walked around. I finally figured how to use the timer option. wheeeeee~

We also decided to head back to catch a movie, the part 2 of Narnia, Prince Caspian. *did not read the books nor watched part 2 but well~* We had to head home to pick up Teen's younger sister along the way and had dinner at her place, since the cinema was very near her place anyway. Thank youuuuuuuuu, Teen, your family is awesome. XD

I sorta had a little problem, because the movie ended a tad too late, and well, plus the time it takes me to travel home, which is about an hour, it's not that safe on the train. Almost got into trouble with my aunt, but she's really nice about it, after I did get a little reminder. orz. I totally forgot to call her about it until it was evening. I called up my cousin brother, and asked if I could hitch a ride, if he's working late. He's super nice btw. XD

I skipped the next day, where they both meet HLin, who's just finished his papers. i ended up home a bit late, and my aunt was in bed already, so I didn't get to ask her about using her car to get to the train station. I've been sharing her car to get around.

That night...

*phone beeps*
Teen: Where do you plan to go tomorrow?
Me: I thought you guys met up and discuss about it today...
*phone beeps*
Xian: So, where are we going tomorrow?
Me: ORZ

Anyway, I did a bit of searching online and decided to go to Williamstown, an old port which almost became the capital of Victoria or something. The other option I came up was a tad too far to get too.

I didn't however had any idea which train stop we needed to get off at. And so it happened, we stopped at really nice stretch of beach. Took off our shoes and ran barefooted for a while. XD

Before the wind got worse!

Camwhoreeeeeeeeeeeee XD

As we walked down, it became apparent that the town which we were heading for was.....quite far off and the wind became more violent as we walked. It came to the point, we were walking against the wind, quite desperately. ;o; It was cold, and with no proper maps, I was in major trouble, as it was my idea in the first place. We asked for directions, and were told to walk onnnnnnnnnnnn ahead.

......wooookay.

After like what seemed like forever to us, we reached the town center. The information center lady told us, 'oh, you came by that way. I would have told you to go there if you had came here first. That's where our history is told on both plagues and landmarks'.

Oh.

Xian: Lucky, we took a photo at that place. I thought it did looked like some sort of landmark even though, it was horribly windy.

We went for lunch at 3 different restaurants. We had 2 crepes at the first. A fisherman's basket at the second. And I wanted dessert at that shop which looked delicious! So we shared a french vanilla slice.

Goat's Cheese and Ham crepe

Chocolate Banana crepe

Fisherman's Basket

French Vanilla Slice


Yes, I need to go on a diet....soon....sometime...later *hides*

And did sightseeing at the little quaint shops which sells all sorts of little trinkets. Also, it was much warmer to stay inside shops than be outside where the wind was still blowing fiercely. D: Our initial plan, to catch a ferry ride back to the city was cancelled.

We went back to Teen's to grab lunch and wait for HLin. Xian had asked her friends about a nice jazz club, since we wanted to try for the experience of it. As it would end late, I had asked for a sleepover at Teen's place.

We had another windy walk to the jazz club, which looked like a dodgy little place, in some back alley in the city street, but was surprisingly a comfy small spot, where the main attraction was a live jazz band playing for a small entrance fee. Being the kepoh ppl we were, we decided to share a bottle of white wine, and ended up only drinking about half of it. We're not drinkers apparently, and it also made Xian a little sick (might have also been the wind we went through earlier that day).

Xian followed us back to Teen's place, and I glad she did, since she wasn't feeling that well. We convinced her that it was quite near to the station where her morning train would be departing from.

We woke up on time, and dilly dallying around almost made us miss her train. in midst of waiting for the tram to the train station, she forgot to take her sandwich.orz. Teen offered to go back upstairs to get it for her, and er....we made the decision to hop on the tram when it arrived, after we realised we were running late, and her friends had called her. So sorryyyyyyy, Teen. >.< We barely made it to the train with 3 minutes to spare. Giri giri!

So there you have it. My long long.....summary. XD

Oldies

I'm learning that old is gold. XD

What on earth am I referring to? Movies, actually. More accurately, the TCM channel on Foxtel, the equivalent of our Astro back home. (links leads to wiki pages)

I've been pleasantly surprised at the elaborate costumes and detailed settings used in the old films. Or it's probably because I've always loved the old English, Victorian settings. There's something about those gorgeous gowns, with velvet and ruffles and lace, or the breathtaking landscape gardens, a reminder of the old princess-y dreams. <3

Being old films, there is a larger amount of realness to be found in the films, as it accurately reflects the period of time.

So anyways, the two which I've watched so far was a 1940's Pride and Prejudice and 1958's Gigi (musical). Speaking of which, yes, I just realised that Pride and Prejudice has a much later adaptation in 2005, but ah, malaslar. =P I've seen the Xanadu (musical) 1980, the film which spawned the popular song, Xanadu, sung by the lead female, who also happens to be Olivia Newton-John
Now that I loved the film, I might consider looking up the book. Ah, I phail at not having to have read the popular book.

This post reminded me of another post I did, Anne, anyone? A real favourite of mine, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. To which I might add, I did eventually managed to download all the 3 movies and marathoned it. =3

This post is pointless. XD

When it's all over

Gah! I know I owe updates and stuffs, but it was towards the super peak end of semester period. University students should know the drill, assignments dateslines horror rush!

orz

Every semester it happens. And every semester, I procastinate.

But it's all done, and as I'm typing, just finished my one and only exam for the semester. The other elective I took had no final examinations, but had a huge ass 50% marks allocated for my last assignment, so that was a huge task to finish.

I found it refreshing that the examinations here are done simultaneously in huge batches numbering up to about 300-400 students. Because back home, the exams are done according to subjects. Meaning, in the exam hall, there was other exams courses other than the one I was taking, all happening at the same time. Probably saves having too many invigilators all over the place.

Explains why I had to take a 15 minute tram from the Southern Cross Station in the city to the Melbourne Aquatic Center. I was racking my brains over why was my exams not held in the university itself. I so phail.

On a side note, my parents did manage to make it down here, for about 9 days, they're arrived on Monday night. I missed them so so so much. <3

Which also resulted in having my cousin brother evicted from his queen sized bed to the study for the time being, since my room has only a single sized bed. Eeps? XD He's really nice about it though.

The one thing that's been bugging me was the amount of medication they bought along. Dad's been having a bit of problems with his ear and mum with her pack of pills. Dear dad seriously needs to go for a professional consultation regarding his feet, the bottom of his foot has been hurting quite a bit, and he's limping a bit as well. I'll remember to bug him about it when he goes back.

My aunt's been a dear, and took a couple of days off to teman my parents around, while I got stuck studying for my paper. I'll join them tomorrow for a bus tour to the Great Ocean Road. wheeeeeeee!

Yes, my dog's been sent to the pet shop for the week and will probably mourn our absence for the whole week. Anyone passing by my house, help keep an eye on it, please? Sankkkkkkkkyu!

Ah, this sounds more like a diary than a blog entry. But then, I've been treating my blog like a diary of my life anyways. Can't be bother to keep an actual diary where I have to actually write things down. hahaha XD

Oh, I'll be back end of July. Anything my dear readers want me to get for them? =P

White??

I may not be physically in Malaysia, but I do try a bit to keep up with the news going around and all. I'm probably a bit late to comment on this, but hey, I got swamped with tests and ASSignments and all. XD

The whole white blouse school uniform is sexy thing IRKS me a lot.

From here

HELLO, WE'RE USING IT TO SEDUCE MEN??????

What a lot of CRAP.

I'll always remember this quote I heard while watching Oprah, it was a talk on sexual abuse that were experienced when the victims were young.

"...even if you're around nude at the age of 10, they are adults who should know better than to touch kids"

And btw, rape still happens in a lot of Middle Eastern countries where most of the woman population walk around fully covered, and it's worst over there because those poor women are unable to defence for themselves thanks to utterly horrible laws which do not offer enough protection to prosecute the criminals.

After all, it's not like we're naked underneath, we have enough common sense to wear lingerie or a camisole underneath. Pls lar.

Men who are drawn to commit sexual crimes based on white blouse are animals, thank you. Any individual for that matter, who goes around committing sexual abuse are the same. On second thought, they're beneath animals. It would be an insult put them on the same level with animals.

It is entirely unfair to blame schoolgirls, just because some people can't keep their blardy hands to themselves.

Bakefest yo!

In between posting Grampians ONE and cream puffs, there was a massive bakefest!

DDDDD:

My cousin's gf, M came around to use the oven to bake her mum, some banana almond muffins for Mother's Day, and well, my aunt who was going to bake (and teach me btw) chocolate chip cookies the next day, decided, what the heck, since everything is out, she'll just bake along.

So then, there was batches muffins and chocolate chip cookies all baking merrily in the oven by the end of like 4-5 hours. M who's a total darling and is a superb cook (my lucky cousin, nyaa? =P) said, she'd teach me to make a batch of muffins since we had extra ingredients left over and told me to pick a recipe from her cupcakes recipe book.

And in between finishing the batch of chocolate chip cookies, there was my first ever batch of banana chocolate chip muffins (snagged my aunt's remainder of the choco chips to snuck in). *is happy happy*

My aunt decided, ah well, might as well bake another batch of choco chip cookies, enough to give some away and still have leftovers, popped off to the nearby supermarket to get more ingredients while I was mixing my batter for the muffins.

So yea, we ended up with a LOT of chocolate chip cookies and a dozen of muffins.

My banana chocolate chip muffins =3

Chocolate chip cookies!

Cream Puffs, but not quite with cream....?

A thousand apologies for leaving this blog inactive after that last depressing post. I've learnt to accept and understand the situation, because there's nothing much I can do about it, but shower both my parents with all my love. You dears have been really really great with all the messages, thank you very very much for them.

I still miss home, but I'll be home soon so that's something not too far in the future. Plus, my dad will finally be able to come over to Melbourne (all of us has done so but him) for a week hols, right before I'm due to be back, so I'll be able to meet them (hopefully mum will be able to accompany him along)

I have been having a lot of fun, and meet some really nice friends, mostly friends of my cousin, but he's been awesome to have me tagging along, so yups. And, I'm determined to enjoy the best I can on this short trip, so I've been eating lots too. Let's not go into the fact that I've gain weight, I'll worry about that when I get back. orz

Now, there's way a lot of back posting to be done, but urghhh...thinking about it gives me the migraines, so I'll just start from the lastest, ya? XD

I made cream puffs!
(well, it's a cream puff recipe but I skipped the cream part because I didn't quite get it, and went with a lemon custard filling recipe instead =3)

Andandand, I'm happy it turned out delicious. >o<

Oh, if you're wondering what bought about baking this? I blame it totally on the new Zettai Kareshi live action/drama.

Originated from a Yuu Watase shoujo manga (yes I've read it ages back), the drama is has similar plot but quite a bit of the storyline were altered as well.

This drama involves cream puffs, so 'nuff said. =P





I kinda wrecked my aunt's kitchen in the process btw. Probably gave my uncle a shock when he came back early from work and saw the mess. eeps? XD

Grampians Part THREE!

Oh remember the rain? It totally made the ground like EXTRA icy cold. Needless to say, we had an extremely hard time trying to get some much needed sleep.

"I wore close to 5 fleece jackets/hoodies and 2 pairs of socks."

And it did NOT work at all.

Really now, I think I shivered half the night away. All three of us was super duper cold.

orzorzorz

Oh, have I told you that our campsite happens to be on the hilly side? Which of course made it even colder to bear.

Morning couldn't have come soon enough, and boy, were we soooooooo glad the sun came out all bright and sunny. >o<

Lookies at our SUPERB spacious tent!
*coughthat'smeinbluecough*

After breakfast and dismantling our tent, we head to the meeting point for our last hike. I'm really surprised the tent made it through 2 nights without collapsing, because we build it using only torchlights in pitch black. hahaha XD

Stop number SIX: Mount William Carpark to Summit

Mt William is the highest peak of the Grampians. Supposedly you were able to drive all the way to the top of the summit ages back, but now it's closed, and you're forced to walk on tar roads all way up. Okay, not the way, only the bit towards the peaklar. =P

moar walking kyaaaaaaa!~

The view at the top!

Another one for the view~!

After that, we headed back to Hall's Gap for pizza, before beginning our 3 hours journey home to Melbourne and waved goodbye to our new friends.

Before you go, where's the wildlife in a National Park? Let me assure you that there are certainly animals there. We've seen wild emu and wallabies or kangaroo (whichever ones, both look similar to me <.<) Plus, we had a lot of *coughkangaroo/wallabypoocough* in the camping site itself, and even woke up to breakfast with 2 wallabies hanging around, minding their own business. Not to mentioned one had a near-death experience for running out onto the road and slipped, which was good it slipped or else, we would have *GASPS* murdered it!

Wallaby?

See that little sharp pointy tip? That's Mt William, we drove up and walked the rest of the way. =3

It was easily recognisable because Mt William had some sort of communications tower at the top.

On the way back, we ran into a potentially major problem.

"Situation:
P: I want a drink, can we stop to get my beer from the back?
L (who was driving): Sure."

*stops car at the side of the road*

The car refused to start after that. O.O

It was a lucky thing he brought along the little gadget to jump start the car, without having to manually use someone else's car to jump start.

The photo that was taken as P went to retrieve her beer. I really liked the colours in this one. <3

And that, my dears was the whole story. Lame and boring and long and horridly incoherent, but I really wanted to write down all the details to remember the awesome adventure I had. =P

I had sore thighs for days thanks to all the walking/hiking we did.

What I did to myself on Day one. I R SMART!

"I didn't even know, until I saw blood on my camera strap. orz""

PS: If you're wondering why I didn't put up more pictures of me, it's errr....I don't quite like to put photos of myself in public, anyone can access blogspotmar. But if you wanna see more, buzz me on msn or something, and I'll upload more on photobucket for you dears to see, ya? XD

Grampians Part TWO

Oh goodness, it was so cold at night.

Sleeping in a sleeping bag is fine with me, but I woke up several times thanks to the cold. *freezes* I wasn't the only one with this problem, P had the same problem. At one point, we woke up to search our bags for socks, but it was still icy cold.

And it was raining when we woke up, so we kinda ended up later than we intended to. Most surrounding campers were already up and gone, or is cooking. haha! We decided to cook breakfast, pack lunch and cook some stew for dinner. Because the night before we came back super late, and being a proper camping site means it was pitch black. Dinner was okay, since we ended up at a restaurant down in Halls Gap with the other 3 who then set off home.

We came back and figured the inital tent which we had set up earlier, meant for 3 person was a tad.....small. orz. And had then proceeded to set up a larger 6 person tent in the darkness. We r so smart. To not have the tent collapse in the middle of the night was lucky nyaaaaaa!

We had scramble eggs for breakfast and made some tomato beef stew for dinner! Packed some tuna sandwiches the night before.

Stop number THREE: Wonderland Car Park to The Pinnacle

This was seemed like a never ending trail to me. D: So longggggggggggg. It honestly took us way longer than the estimated duration. And if you think it was hard, there were many other older folks or even young kids we saw, as we made our way upwards. The view is spectacular as we hike upwards.

That is until, the dark gloomy clouds sets in, just as we reached the mountain top. No, I'm not kidding. We had the wonderful luck of being totally drenched in the rain, plus super cold winds, just as we finally made it up there. The trail have a lot of rocks and we figured it was slippery plus, we were tired after all that walking, so heck, we decided to have lunch, while being rained upon. Awesome! XD

The three of us, must have looked like a pathetic drenched bunch who were having lunch facing a big slab of rock. Hey, the rock was blocking the wind and we were pretty desperate for shelter.

All in all, we took almost 4-5 hours, inclusive of our long lunch break (and our various camwhoring sessions), before we figured, the rain wasn't going to stop anytime soon, and made our way slowly downwards.

Less than a quarter way up...D:

Halfway there........;o;

We made it! *wind blows and rain showers upon us*

Wet wet wet and slippery yo!

And, would you believe it, by the time we reached back where the car was parked, the rain had stopped and we were partially dried. orz

Stop number FOUR: Grand Canyon

If The Pinnacle was climbing uphill, the Grand Canyon was going downwards. We made a little extra walking downhill, since it was at the same spot.

Jalan-jalan lagilor

Stop number FIVE: Hollow Mountain

This must be the bestest one we did. It wasn't much of a hiking but what was called rock scrambling. As in literally going on all fours to climb upon huge rocks.

This one got us two girls, whining all the way upwards. L, had been there before and knew which rocks to scramble on. He takes all the credit in helping us both scramble the rocks. Really scary to me, because you can see that if you slip, you'll fall downwards onto more rocks below. DDDDD:

L: *points upwards* See that rock, we're going to climb up there!
P & me: *looks and groans* NO WAYYYYYYYYYY!You can't be serious. That looks really high and dangerous.
L: Nopes, I'm serious. No worries, you'll thank me once you reached up there.
Me: If we ever get up there... O.O

I was really glad we decided to wear gloves because it was getting a bit cold, because that protected us from the bruises, which I'm pretty sure we would have gotten from all the rock scrambling we did. And I erm...tore my aunt's pair of gloves which she loaned me. Oops? XD

But then, it was a fantastic experience because this trail wasn't particularly well known to most tourists, unlike when we hiked up The Pinnacle, we only met a handful of other hikers.

By the time we reached the top, the view was spectacular. And guess what? It started raining again. orz. And we had to make our way back down quickly, because it was getting dark, and having to scramble upon rocks in the dark didn't seem appealing in any way.

*scramble scramble*

The view on Hollow Mountain

Full credits goes to L, for having to haul both us girls up the rocks. Literally dragged us upwards and tolerate a lot of whining on the way. XD P discovered that sliding downwards was more easier and *coughsafercough*, in which I made up my mind to follow her.

By the time we reached the car, it was getting really dark, so we were grateful to be able to reached the base in time.

Oh waitttttt.....we're thoroughly soak, and is drenched in sweat. And, the campsite has NO showers, remember?

orzorzorz

It turns out a friend of P was also arriving at the Grampians with his friends that evening. They had chosen to camp at the base of Hall's Gap, at the caravan camping area. That place provides for showers. So we kinda pleaded with them for the usage of their keys to use the shower facilities.

I can't tell you how good the hot shower was.

Heavenly~

We also agreed to meet the next day to walk up another trail. Our last trail and their first one. XD

After that long day, we headed back to the campsite for some nice stew and turned in for the night. More prepared for the cold, P and I decided to wear 2 pairs of socks and an assorted hoodies and fleece.

Grampians! Part ONE

(25th-27th April 2008)

So I was once again tagging along my cousin, for dinner. It's some Szechuan food which actually involves a lot of MSG and chili and chili oil, not exactly healthy in my opinion, but then the place was full of students, so it has to be good, I suppose.

But having a fish dish practically drowning in a pot of chili oil is a bit orzing.

Must be the kick of having burnt your tastebuds, that's appealing? D: I lasted by eating more rice and trying not to drink water until I finish. I hate that bloat-y feeling you get when drinking too much water, since once you start drinking, it somewhat taste even hotter. Xd

Not the point, but anyway, in the midst of torturing my tastebuds, a friend turned to me and asked if I was joining them to the Grampians for camping. To which another friend supplied more info, and mentioned that my cousin wasn't going(he had something else on), but I was welcome to join. (I actually agreed without even knowing where or what the Grampians were or who else was going....hahaha XD)

It was weird but interesting to tag along, because in the process, I meet a lot of different people, mostly connected through friends of friends, of that sort. All of them seemed like really nice people. I'm probably the baby, or I did feel like one. they were mostly young adults, Asian and now working in Melbourne.

Weird, in the sense, that I barely knew these people. One of them happens to be a close friend of my cousin's, so it explains how my aunt probably allowed me to go along.

On the day itself, I found out that only 3 of the 6 who were going, were actually camping, the other 3 had only popped in for a day trip. Like ehhhhhhhhh? Maji de?

Out of the three of us, the 2 girls, (which include mini me) were totally newbie campers, so the one lone guy, L had to prepare and teach us everything. XD

Grampians National Park
(click on links to read more or simply see the pictures)

Day one started late, but we managed to reached there in the end. It was like a 3 hours drive. O.O But the scenery was lovely, it's like plain blue skies and brown/green land, ever flowing. Having been around mostly Melbourne and the suburbs, I truly understand how large Victoria was. (Melbourne is a city in the state of Victoria). That must be where all the farming takes place, because I saw a lot of cows, horses and flocks of sheep (yes..sheep >.>) grazing throughout our drive there.

Apparently, the Grampians is like a circle of mountains, so the only way to enter is through this gap in the mountains, ie, the Halls Gap. So mostly, Halls Gap becomes like the base for the Grampians, because the bulk of shops and restaurants were on that area. It's like a small community, where you can find cabins and caravans, and all the luxury accommodations there. For tourists, the information center was open for any queries as well.

Did I say camping? yes we really did the actual camping with a tent. XD

I find it really amazing that even with proper camping, they'll provide certain camping grounds, so you're encouraged to stay within that area and not go around wrecking the nature. Proper camping sites are carefully marked on the map and has toilets. Toilets that does not come with a flush, but hey there's enough toilet paper, and a big tank of rainwater to wash your hands. Not quite the convenience we're used to, but then again, it's adequate for proper hygiene, so I'm not complaining. Not until, I realised there's no showers! O.O And we were going to be there for 3 days and 2 nights.

Our chosen camping ground took about 15 minutes to get to from Halls Gap, and you'd think it's isolated, but hey, that was a long weekend, (it was Anzac Day that Friday, so there was a lot of campers as well. So the 6 of us pitched the tent and hopped off to the trails.

Now, what do we do there besides camping? Hiking of course.
Hiking is a form of walking, undertaken with the specific purpose of exploring and enjoying the scenery (from wiki)

The brochures have several marked trails, those are carefully maintained, with proper steps and marked arrows. It's categorised into easy, medium and hard, depending on the geographical location and duration of the trails. Besides that, there's also trails which you can get from online, which are not marked, mostly for the more adventurous. So, you're basically allowed to venture ALL over the National Park.

Awesome nyaaaaaaaaa?

So like I said, we started out late, and with the other 3 only there for the day, we decided to take it easy on day one and pick short and simple ones to go for, before it gets pitch black.

Stop number ONE: McKenzie Falls (the one hour one)


Stop number TWO: Reed Lookout/The Balconies

McKenzie Falls

Reed Lookout/The Balconies

On the way up the Reed Lookout (spot the mini meeeee?)

Btw, I learnt an important tip, climbing upwards first and then downwards should be the way to go. Not like with the Falls, where we had to go downs before climbing back up really kills your thighs. orz

To be continued....soon?

*crawls into hole and hides*


PS:

Oh, did I mention it? You guys pressured me to update. XD And when I was complaining to Ann, she replied for me. XD

I quote

'.......at least put up "sheepy is busy hiding in a hole stalking JE boys. she stuffed the opening as well. which could only mean one thing. have a nice day!"'

Private

THIS IS A VERY VERY VERY PRIVATE ENTRY, I'D APPRECIATE IT IF IT'S KEPT HERE AND HERE ALONE

I cried, I really did.

I couldn't help it, the day after I arrived, GuMa taught me how to use the phonecard and housephone to call home. The moment I hear my parent's voice, I just teared up.

Everyone's been really nice here, I get to live with the people I know and get home cooked food, even my own room.

But I really miss my parents, my bug dog and my messy room.

I wrote an e-mail to mum this morning and when the reply came back, I cried again while reading it. It reminded me of how I left my mum who's sick back home, my dad who's all stressed up and my lonely dog who's alone all day since my bro's away in the hostel.

It's probably a good thing that everyone here is working and I get the house to myself for now since my sem hasn't started, I get some privacy to sob over.

It's only been a week...uwaaaaa

It was just about a month back when we learnt that mum has PD. She's been complaining about her movements having to slow down and being somewhat clumsier, so we went for a medical checkup. The thing is there's no definite test for PD, so it's only by eliminating other possible diseases, that we conclude if it is PD.

The doctor precribed her some meds for PD, and the thing is that she responds to it. That's quite a hard pill for the family to digest. He even recommended that we get a book on PD which is written by a local doctor. In it, we learnt that mum has a lot of the possible symptoms.

PD is a degenerative disease, remember One Litre? Yes, I'm not kidding. It's sorta a similar thing.

No one on both sides of her family has ever had PD, it's not a hereditary thing, so why on earth does my sweet dear hardworking mum has it?

Dear God, please watch over my family back home for me.

Throughout that one month, my dear dad was so thoroughoutly stressed out. With my mum trying out acupuncture and traditional chinese meds, my last minute uni confirmation, and my bro going back and forth from uni. To add on, my maternal gramma got admitted to the hospital for an emergency operation just days before CNY, so we had to visit her regularly.

Gramma was in the ICU then she got transferred to a normal ward and discharged days later.

And to top it off, I left my family whom I really really want to be with to support them.

I don't even know why am I crying buckets while typing this entry.

I...I just want someone to spare a moment and pray for my mum, please.

Arrival

Ahem, the obligatory I've arrived post.

*coughsi'maloneinthehousesinceeveryone'sworkingcough*

First off, thanks for the lovely safe trip and keep in touch messages. XD I'm sorry if I've missed replying to some of you but I really do appreciate your messages ya? And no worries about not-being-able-to-send-me-off, it's only 6 months (plus or minus) lar, I'll feel a bit paiseh to have people sending me off. hahaha XD

My family and my grandpa and aunt sent me off btw. So you see, it's all fine. XD

We erm...kinda arrived a tad to early, the lady behind the counter had to call to ask for the check in list on the system to be opened. We probably got a bit traumatised by the long queue we saw a few months back when my cousin went back to Australia. Lol~

Better late than sorry? Yea, right, we spent the next 2 hours chatting over in KFC's, which is btw, a bit further opposite the famous McD's, a tad hidden.

The flight was fully booked, as expected, since it's super peak season. I'm pretty sure a lot were students, they were in groups and lugging big bags plus laptop bags.

I asked for an aisle seat so that I could have easy access to ask for water and all. This nice couple sat next to me, and the boyfriend? (iunno) was right next to me, and we chatted up a bit. As it turns out they were on their way back to Melbourne.

Oh, Nick ar, don't worry about not knowing what to do. There were LOADS of in-flight movies/tv shows/documentary/radio/games. I would recommend that you sleep before getting on the plane if you want to enjoy everything to the fullest. hahaha XD

I watched Mr Magorium's Emporium, the magical toystore thing, it was really cute, and had to finish it before I could start attempting to sleep. orz. Resulting in my sleeping like about 1am......and only managed about 2 hours before the flight attendants switched on the lights to serve BREAKFAST?

orz. Yes, breakfast at 3am, according to my yet-to-be-adjusted Malaysia time watch.

Oh and whatever you choose, please do not pick the beef for dinner, mine was rock hard...and uneatable. Airline food is urgh....cold and dry. But there's ice cream? Only one, but it'll do. XD Luckily, I had KFC earlier on.

Anyway, we reached on time, but the queue for the passport check was LONG. So was the baggage check queue. There were probably a lot of flights which landed the same time, I suppose.

My aunt and cousin were already waiting for me when I came out, so yeps. XD

I'm the first one to see their new house, yes they've moved....further away from the city. orz. But my aunt works in the city and she takes the train, since the train station's quite nearby.

Not too bad, I get my own room, and mostly free run of the house for the time being since everyone's working. GuMa took the day off yesterday to show me around a bit, and I get to meet my cousin's gf, whom everyone back home was kepoh-ing about. =P

I even get reasonably fast connection speeds...and according to my cousin, about 20gbs of downloads, since he doesn't use it much. I can even use MU, since it's a different country, wooo~ The ONLY thing...I lack SPACE.

wryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Btw, the plugpoints are a bit different from back home, but GuMa's got a one of those multiple type of plugpoint things, and it fits for my laptop's adapter.

The weather reminds me of Genting a bit. It's slightly cold in the morning, hot but still windy in the afternoon, and gets a bit colder at night. Quite nice weather for the time being since it hasn't gone over to the extremes on both the cold and hot sides.....yet.

I haven't gotten my prepaid mobile yet, but I did get a phonecard which is what GuMa uses to phone home. It only works for landlines though. You can buy about 10 dollars worth on the card and it'll give you about 800 minutes of talktime on the phone. Different cards will have different connections or different months which the amount lasts up to.

Since GuMa lives in a fairly new suburbs, it can be quite hard to get around without a car, but I'll probably get to learn my way around by driving. (I've gotten my international driving licence....XD) Because she's going back for a visit in March, and I'll get to use her car. My cousin and uncle has their own car too.

What else? Erm...I like the design of their houses over here. There's a lot of in-build cupboards to store things and clothes. And pretty flowers if one is an avid gardener, since the weather's really nice to grow things. I've finally seen fresh herbs in pots....like those I always see on Discovery food and travel. hahaha XD

That's it so far?

Oh, if you ever wanna catch me online, try adding 3 hours to the time back home. That'll be the time over here. Exactly 3 hours difference.

I'll probably be on about 8-10pm over here or 11am-5pm.

I would be awake later at nights, but it wouldn't be nice to wake up so late here, I suppose. XD

Does anyone have Teen's number? I've been trying to catch her on msn.....TEEEEEEEEEENNNNNN.

Mintos had graduated?

Congrats on your graduation, honey. <3

And thank you for inviting us, that's me and Reiki over to your Batch's exhibition launch.

All the artwork and graphics are amazing. We spend an hour oogling and starring at them. Yours was fanatastic too! *wants the pancake one*

IM-ing is not a good idea, since Reiki didn't receive the message and only got it at 5pm, because I'm mean and wants to drag someone to teman me along. =P Mwahaha! XD Arigatou na!

She just finished her internship and so ended up going with me. Mintos had on a pink hair wig. O.O Cuteeeeeeee <3

*rings*
Me: Hello, Mintossssss, we're here!
M: Eh? Where are you?
Me: At the front.
M: Do you spot someone in pink hair?
Me: *looks around* Yatta! PINK. Reiki, she's there!! *drags*

Reiki and I were suppose to have dinner together, but since we were late (she had prayers) and it wasn't very good manners to be so late, we decided to go for the exhibition first.

And ended up late for dinner, the restaurants were closing....NANDE. orzorzorz. Just when we had the sudden craving for fish and chips.

I swear, we're going to get them....somehow....Friday perhaps?

So instead of F&C we got A&W. >.> 24 hours.

Alamak >.>

PS: I promised we'd do a double blog on this, since yours was done way earlier, here's my late one. XD
PSS: Reiki's up on >> Have a Mintos

Christmas !

I have this beautiful layout of purty purty boys and it's barely updated....orz. Howlar do you expect me to keep a fangirling blog at the same time....? *dies*

Remember the trip I mentioned, it happened Christmas Eve morning. My aunt, grandpa, mum, bro and me. Yeps, the 5 of us. Quite the odd group, but it works nevertheless. Dad was stuck with work and well, stay home to feed the dog.

I find it hilarious that mum's spending the Christmas with her in-law and sis-in-law, which dad spends his with mum's side of the family. An aunt had invited the whole family over for dinner, and dad took it up, since well, he knows everyone there anyway, and there's home cooked meal. XD

It was a long drive down, in which we were entertained by YehYeh's stories. Seriously, he should write a book or something, he's had a really colourful life, and some of which are *coughnotverynicecough* things.

He once worked in the police station, in the fingerprint dept?
Played goalkeeper for the police while he was there?
Had....various....*coughfightscough*
Helped my gramma's siblings to find jobs.
Fishing in various places with his buddies....who are now, well...are gone to the higher above. orz
Torn all his photographs of them since there wasn't a point, he's the only one left.

orz much?

Ah well, it keep me interested, I love stories and he definitely has a knack of telling them, like me mum.

So then we reached.

It was a lovely place full of old, shady trees; properly lit street lights; superbly accurate and timely train service; and proper pedestrian walkways. We M'sians should learn a thing or two from them. Like seriously. -.-

Everyone walks and takes the underground trains there, that explains why everyone is so healthy. But then again, I wouldn't mind walking if there were shady trees everywhere with proper broad walkpaths. And a train every 5 mins, fully air-conned, I might add, since our trains have super crappy air-conditioning. orz

One thing is, everything moves fast there. The people, heck, even the escalators in the train stations. And there's shopping malls everywhere. O.O So far, all the stations we've stopped at were like underneath a shopping mall, you barely have to sweat.

And if you wonder about how seemingly desolated S'pore looks, it's probably because the bulk of the population is underground. XD And I am amazed at how disable friendly everything is. I've seen so many people on wheelchairs going about their business, and you rarely see those here, because our country has yet to make it easy for them to venture out.

We spent day one randomly walking around since it was quite late, and grabbed dinner. Then we took the train down to Orchard Road to see the famed roads lit up with lights for the Xmas season. It was packed....with people....XD But really nice, we didn't walked the whole stretch because it was farrrrrrrrrr. I suppose it would have been way better to be there on Christmas day itself, but we didn't quite fancy the crowd much.


Pretty lights for the festive celebrations


Day 2 started with a walk to the marketplace for breakfast. Grandpa reckons it's further than his usual morning walk routine. We took the backalleys to avoid the main roads, a lot of S'poreans use them, and they're quite clean.

Later, we took a train down to Clark Quay where a lot of tall office buildings were, and the station is like smack underneath a grassy garden, a short walk onwards will bring you to a lake. There's a row of restaurants which boast of seafood with a price for the view of the lake. O.O



The evening view, note that we walked 180 degrees. O.O


We had dinner and when it was night, the night view was lovely, I think some of the buildings leave certain levels lit up and it become quite a view to see.



Night version *O*
(a lot of photos I took turned out crappy, except for some precious few)

Day 3, we took another train down to Sentosa Island. Had a cable car ride and saw the Underwater World. There are certainly many more other things to see, but the queue and prices are a killer. No bluff.


There's this tank full of starfishes, stingrays and some species of fish....and they encourage you to touch it, so we did. =P



My seahorse shot is...blurry....orz




Jellyfish! It's all puffy like clouds and just floats...


Day 4, we went to Bugis Junction. Did some slight shopping and walked around. There was this water feature in the middle of the conjoining malls, and little kiddos would dive right in and play around. XD



Little kiddos are sooooooooo cute, yes?


Day 5, we went home. XD

It was an awesome experience, I've never been to S'pore before despite it being so near to M'sia. The last time, both my family and my uncle's plus my aunt went, I was away in US with YehYeh and MaMa. I was a lucky 11 year old. <3

Plus we played a lot of *coughgim/jim/gym?cough*. Card game. Enuff' said. I should probably mentioned both my bro and me and another cousin of mine were taught how to play by *cough2auntsplusgrandpacough* when we were....back in primary school. orz?

It was a memorable time for us, and probably more for grandpa, he mentioned how this would probably be his last trip down to Singapore. Gramma would have tagged along, but she can't walk as well as she used to. So I'm amazed as how YehYeh managed to do all that walking and keep up with us. Even I was complaining a bit, since lazy me does no exercise in my usual routines.

My cousin would come down to KL for the school hols and mum and dad would dump us at gramma's for the weekdays since they were working. So we hung out a lot, with my aunts (one who doesn't work and another who lives there) plus my grandparents lor. XD

That's it for my Chrismas. XD How did yours go?

CF and SPCA

Back posting again.....<.<

So, there was this weekend (15th and 16th Dec) where I attended Comic Fiesta with my bro. Or more like dragged him along to teman me, since I'm not allowed to go down to KL alone. It was seriously packed. There was this group of boys and a girl, whom were on the same KTM, and ended up at CF....and we both somehow kept bumping into them all around Times Square later on....orz. The queue at the monorail was longggggg.....

And since we started our journey quite late, we ended up there in the afternoon as well. I don't think I quite enjoyed it as much as I did last year. probably because it was so crowded. I did see Val and her sis, her sis and her friend opened a booth, and she helped out as well. And thanks to Nick and Ann, we tumpang-ed them to get our tickets. hahahaha XD

Mintos in her Himawari cosplay was amazing. *O* So pretty!~ The wigs, candle, dress, ribbons. uwaaaaaaaaaa~

But then again, I did thought that the tickets were a bit too expensive, maybe the rent was expensive as well? Quite a waste since we both didn't spend much time in it. Too many ppl, it was hard to ask for photos, but the costumes were really great to watch. XD


Then, on Sun, Hping and I kepoh-ed and tagged along the St John's trip to SPCA. To start off, it took me a while to get use to the stench. orz

~ If you ever want a pet, adopt one, there's kitties and doggies ~

There was several enclosed areas for mostly dogs, puppies, vaccinated-and-ready-for-homes doggies, kitties and so. There was a few dogs whom I suppose given special privilege to prowl around freely, which took the group only a while to warm up to them and started patting and sayang-ing them. =3

~ One of the lucky few....err....Spot? *shrugs* ~

We were given gloves and asked to start helping the volunteers/staffs to clean their cages. *coughIstoodaroundandwatchedforawhilecough* Until one of the staff beckoned 4 ppl to help out in another area, in which I dragged Hping off to join JC and CH. It was the kitties corner. It was a wayyyyyyyyyy smaller area. But then we got to clean cages on mums-to-be and new born kittens. Sooooooooo cuteeeeeeeee.

Midway, CH thought it was a good idea to take the kittens (3 or 4 sleeping together) and mama kitty out to clean the cage. Both JC and I went nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

'If you take them out, we won't be able to catch them if they start to run around'

And yeah....mama kitty went off to hide. Under the cages, in tight corners. We seriously panicked for a while. But then, that was why it's caged all around with gates. All around the cats area were several dog enclosures.

Soooooo....when mama kitty thought it was a brilliant idea to climb the bars up to the corner to avoid....errr...mostly JC trying to catch her (she started growling at us, and we were afraid of being scratched...=P and well, he had kitties before), she was noticed by the surrounding dogs in their respective enclosures.

Chaos.

The barking and frantic mewing. orz

JC had to pry her claws off the bar, and somehow managed to put her back into her cage. O.O tabik!

There was one cage we didn't dare to clean, the kitty was prowling madly at her cage.....DD:

The other were mostly quite sweet, and allowed us a pat or two. And just stared as we cleaned their cages. Kittens are adorable. <3 I forgot to drag Ann to photograph the kitties....orz Then, we mostly hung around, patting several dogs which was vaccinated and up for adoption. There was one, Lucy, which was really sweet, she allowed anyone of us to touch her. And pat her we all did. XD

~ This is Lucy, a real sweetheart ~

Some of them had this really sad doggone eyes, I hope they get good homes soon.

~ The I-just-got-shoved-into -a-bath-and-jabbed-in-the-butt-look ~

~ Puppies corner, kawaii nyaaaaaaaa ~

After that, there was dog feeding time, oh wows. They would cook up this HUGE pot of rice and chicken, and just dish them out. Each dog gets a bowl each, and it amounts to a lot. The members ran around to help out.

~ *chompchompchomps* ~

Some dogs were quite greedy, and if they happen to be sharing cages, they would end up having 2 bowls. orz

~ Here's where to look, if you ever lose your darlings ~

[s]I would post up piccies, but er.....Ann took them, so it's not mine to post.[/s]She gave permission, yays! Sankyuuuuuuu~

XD hahaha, in case you're wondering, yes I did see her both days. =3

All in all, it was a good experience to learn.

Happy 2008!~

This happens to be my symbolic 100th post, but there's nothing symbolic to talk about. XD

Happy New Year, dears!~

To celebrate my New Year, ayane-chan has so kindly made me, my very own customised KAT-TUN layout. Sugoiiiiiiii na~ Thank you so much =3

This also means, there's possible fangirling posts yet to come. I've avoided making a post so far, because once I start, it's going to be super long winded. Mwahaha~ So beware!

There's also a new selection of songs on my playlist, check them out nyaa? XD It's hard to narrow down to only 9 songs, but they're all really nice to listen to. <3

May the 2008 bring us overwhelming happiness and career advancement.