Stupid Things I've done over the past 60 hours

1) Fell off my chair (very gracefully) while getting up from it (Thank God for carpets).

2) Inserted my ATM card into a slot beneath the actual ATM slot, and embarrassingly got it stuck inside.

3)Missed my tut cos I cannot find it.

4) The best is yet to be. I hope I don't do anything dumber than all this.

Mings if the swine flu thingi gets outta hand I'll be back in Singapore for a longer period from 30/6-21/7. OR if it gets TOO outta hand then I'll be stuck here in Brisbane and I'll cry everyday!

Love ya!

Up and down like a horses in a carousel, that's how my mood changes.

I've effectively had a million fluctuations just in one day. sucks. bleacgh.

Lunch was awesome though! The rice today was actually FLUFFY and correctly cooked! *Gasp!*

2 more months, and it feels like forever at this point of time.

The Break is OVER

This week has been by far the most interesting, amazing, exhausting and hilarious week I've had ever. Nat and Liheng were down in Brisbane for 1.5 weeks, and it was really great having a part of home come down to visit. It was funny how our group of maybe 3-4 people slowly expanded with each night, such that by the end of the week we were sitting at tables with 10 people. I was telling Nat that when you're overseas, the amount of links and networks you draw up are pretty incredible, such that pretty soon you know everyone. Anyways, playing tourguide for a week is no joke, and I'm really glad we all enjoyed ourselves.

Ok picure time, because my brain is still slightly fuzzy from the after effects of all the events.

That's us at this awesome cafe called 3 Monkeys! I shan't elaborate more about finding the cafe, it was so embarrassing. After this photo we had 4 more people join us, and ended up with a kind of pseudo-wedding-dinner table setting. That was pretty interesting because we started as a table of 2 groups of strangers and were friends by the end of the night.

Brisbane city by night taken from the City Cat (which, ironically, is a boat)

And duh, Brisbane city in the day. Don't you love those Simpson clouds?? Awesome right? But the weather throughout the week was retarded. When we decided to go to Movieworld on Monday it rained like Siyi's unstoppable leaking tap. Resulting in Nat and my shoes turning into mini canoes of water and very smelly, wet, wrinkled feet. After that day, it no longer rained. Siao one.

Movie World shot in front of Superman! I think I probably posted something similar last year in Sep considering what an awesome ride this is. Nothing can beat Superman Escape. Honestly promise confirm plus chop. And that's the bunch of us with an adrenaline-high pose after the ride. We wanted to go on one more time but, as I said before, the stupid rain just flooded in like nobody's business.

I'm impressed with my own photography skills man. Haha. Nah, how bad can a shot of a giant ferris wheel be? It's their version of our Flyer, just 3 times faster and slightly smaller. Looks awesome in the skyline though.

And Cons passed me paintings that are just SOOOOO gorgeous!!! I just fell 10 times happier everytime I look on them on my wall. Don't you think they look really zen and classy now that I stuck them on this way? Heh.. I suck at decorating rooms, can't stick stuff on walls properly for nuts, so I was really surprised they turned out looking great on my very very bare walls. Everyone loves the paintings Cons!! Thank you!

Guess what??? More colours!!! NAt and I went slightly deranged at the sight of coloured scrapbook paper and embellishments, we split the 'goods' cos I'll be preparing for my sister's scrapbook for the end of this year! Yay can't wait! :D:D

And I apologise but that's about as may words I can come up with. (Head still buzzing)

It's my mid semester break!!!

Suddenly time is on my hands (ignoring the shitload of work I have to do before term starts again)

I watched 10 Things I Hate About You for the gazillionth time!

:D

I feel extremely volatile.

5 minutes ago I felt like I wanted the world to end and I just wanted to eat myself. After an hour of talking cock and laughter therapy with a couple of girls, I feel like I'm ready to take on the world and the rest of its shit!

Thank God for them, and once again I'm amazed at how polar I can be sometimes, scares me. oooooooooo000o0ooo0o0o0

I went toiletry shopping today!! :D:D What made it more awesome was that when I told this to a couple of people they actually shared my joy with me, how sweet is that. There's nothing suckier than being happy/excited and telling someone only to have them stare blankly at you or think you're crazy.

Can't wait for this Sunday!!!! Gleams!!!

:D

Awesome!!!

I have a new favourite word... Awesome!! (Said with the jockish drawl)

It's raining now, which is sooo awesome because it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when other people out at school are freezing their leg hairs off and having their umbrellas blown in their faces. (I was in that sad predicament about an hour ago when I ended lecture) But now I'm safe, warm and comfy in my room with no sun in my room. Which, once again, is AweSOmme!!

Haha. Excuse my slight madness, no I'm not high on drugs or beer or goon or whatever shit they ingest. Just that this morning was pretty good cos the hostel baked croissants for breakfast! My eyes lit up with delight like a 2 year old getting chocolates because International House(IH) makes fantastic croissants and hadn't done so for ages. I'd been craving for the Fantastic Croissants for weeks now! I told a couple of people sitting with me that I was so happy to have croissants that I felt like I was back home in singapore. Not because they tasted like the ones in Singapore(which suck) but because I was so happy it was as good as me being back home. Can understand?

It was really funny when one of the Austrailian guys we were sitting with said he really had trouble understanding us when we spoke really fast and with no intonation, as we Singaporeans like to do. Even if we do speak with our regular levels of intonation, it still isn't quite like how they intonate. I find it really interesting doing Speech in Australia because speech/language problems don't just arise from being hit in the head too hard or have short tongues etc but also from learning English as a second language. Cultural background is quite a major issue when it comes to Speech. (I see a potential honours thesis coming from here. )

Anyways, here're a couple of pictures since I decided to do a mid-week update because of the AwEsomme weather. :D

The multi-coloured tangyuan we made last week! I think they would've tasted much better without colouring. But they did look really cute though. My Aussie floormate who ate some said, and I quote, 'It's like nothing I've ever eaten before! It was just.. weird! But nice.' Another guy called it fluffy in his mouth. I reckon it didn't go down too well with him. haha.

And this is how it looks like when it's raining, I just took this picture from my table like 4 minutes ago. As you can see everyone draws their curtains except me.

Awesomme... doood.. ahhyuk ahyuk!

Guess who I met?

No, I didn't meet Hugh Jackman, that hunky chunky Austrailian (sadly). But I did meet someone from our shss days, something I never thought would happen. I met Ms Sharon Teo! Remember that super nice and hype relief PE teacher we had? Aka Aaron Teo's sister. Aiping she remembers you! haha. I was describing which batch I was from and I told her, the one with Aiping. Immediately she went, 'oh ya, Aiping and gang, all the netballers one' Haha. At least she didn't say, ' Oh ya, Aiping the gila one.' heh heh!

It was so nice to see her and talking to her was the easiest thing ever, it was as if I was talking to someone I knew for ages. Honestly sometimes I can get pretty worn down and frustrated here, because all my close friends are so far away and as easy as it is to call/sms/msn, there're still it's limitations. It doesn't help that most of you guys sleep late and I sleep really early, so it just widens our time zone difference by another 2 hours, haha. I appreciate having people here I know, and knowing more people as well, but sometimes everyday seems like a social event. Yesterday I was telling Siyi that I didn't feel like socialising by going out for dinner with a group of people we knew, and that I would rather either go back home or go out with Aaron and his Ipswich gang. This may seem contradictory - isn't that still considered socialising? But the difference I guess was the fact that I've know Aaron for relatively long, and hanging out with him doesn't constitute 'socialising', because you don't socialise with friends, you socialise to make friends. Well that's how I felt but shhh don't tell anyone. Haha.

Sometimes weekends are such a pain in the ass because the day is long and you're obliged to stay in and do work and not get distracted, which of course I do a lot. I ended up watch Wild Child instead of reading up on Language Disorders in Children. Gah. Watching movies are so unhealthy. Anyways allow me to take movie orders. It takes me like 2 minutes to download one movie. Feel free to throw suggestions and requests at me. =)

Anyways it's 8am and I need to go collect my laundry.

Miss you guys as always!! ( Nat I just realised that Easter break week is gonna be REALLY quite bad for Aaron and I cos of assignments, there're days that I might just force you to sit down and read so that I study, haha. So bring entertainment in case ok! Or we can buy craft stuff and you can do it in my room.) Love ya!

Lazy Sunday

Sunday's just get lazier and lazier by the week, somehow it always seems to be scorching on Sunday afternoons, thus naturally inducing everyone to sleep after lunch. Today Aaron (the one who has the mnost trouble staying awake in church) and I concluded that we've officially swapped positions - and I'm the one with the sleep issues now.

All right I promised Feifei pictures of UQ! Honestly, they're quite disappointing because I just walked as far as the Law building before getting to lazy and going back for dinner at 530. Yes dinner is at 530 everyday because the staff want to go home. So behold! The pictures!


I would consider this the front of the school, though it's essentially the back of the building, (at least to me) But generally the layout and architechture of the school is centralised around this building (Which happens to be the LOR[law] Building) This is also known as building 1 of the 70+ buildings in UQ, which means it was the first to be built. The sandstone walls are gorgeous aren't they?

And surprise surprise, a corridoor!

And this is the back/front of the Lor Building, aka Forgan Smith.

Apart from a whole bunch of libraries which UQ boasts about CONSTANTLY, we also have a bunch of museums (which nat shall explore with me when she comes) And outside the Art Museum lies this artpiece known as: Happy Ending.

Haha, cute right? Makes my day whenever I pass it.

I must say that despite the heat, Brisbane has the lovliest skies in the evening and mornings. This is Twilight (Edward!) haha. My hostel lies beyond beyond that building, which I have no idea is what anyways.
Cute picture time! Siyi and I attempted to make muffins with limited measuring devices and appliances. They turned out looking/tasting like huat kueh due to my bad agaration and Siyi's decision to buy brown sugar instead of white. This one accidentally turned out a baby. It's an 'accident', geddi? geddit? hurhur.....

Since we're on the topic of faces, I rammed my leg into the bus chair that day and ended up with this horrible scratch :( Pouts. Even the wound is pouting la!

Haha, have a good week everyone. The days pass so darn fast. I'm starting my clinic observations this Wednesday at the hospital! :D Speech students go for clinical placements the earliest, damn cool la.

OK! OK!

Thousand apologies~ *Shakes head* no photos this time. I am still yet to take nice photos of the campus. I'm so sorry. I is suck.

BUt I've done so much fun stuff this week!!

For one, I went for Fencing class! It was achy and a demonstration of my horrible hand-eye coordination, plus I had a grossly small mask so my chin was shoved up my nose, but other than that, it was fun fulfilling my childhood dream of holding a not-very-sharp-and-pointy object at a guy in white and attempting to look cool and swa. (Failed miserably though, but at least in my head I felt like I was cool)

Second amazing thing was I went for Salsa class which was, quote my sister,

'better than Nachos'

geddit? Now you know where my sense of humour comes from ya? Haha. All right people when I get back I'm gonna go salsa clubbing!! Although all I know how to do now is step backward and forward and twirl in rhythm. I strongly encourage couples to take up Salsa, or individuals for that matter (though our Singaporean guys may not be as spontatneos and good at being partners) I realised that you can really tell a good partner especially in a dance like Salsa, according to the teachers, they call it a male ego-tistical-domineering dance. Basically the girls don't do much initiating and just follow the lead of the male like any other social dance. The guy who stays below me was an awesome Salser (my own rubbish term) Aiping Jerome! Please go learn salsa leh, you'll love it!

Thirdly I got lifted today during cheerleading! NO I haven't joined cheerleading, but we had a half day Health Sciences combined thingi organised for all the students in Health Science/Medicine etc so that we can network and get to know more people in the service. Quite a good attempt by the Uni I must say. It definitely did introduce me to more people. Well anyways, the thing was they made us do teamworky stuff like learn cheerleading moves and coming up with raps/rhymes. It so happened that I was in a group of 4 with 3 other relatively bigger angmohs, so naturally, even though I'm larger than all the puny stick thin girls in Singapore and all of Asia, I Was actually the one to be lifted and carried!

My goodness I felt like David Copperfield levitating at the edge of the Titanic man. Freaking cool, (Now I'm beginning to love this place because of the relativity) However I do wish the small tiny asians will stop spoiling market and making me look huge. HAha.

I very unclear picture of a spot on the campus where I was sitting down and nuahing at one day with Siyi and Lor friends. Ok promise promise this sunday I take nice nice photo

And my floormate/neighbour all dressed up as a Leprochon for St Patrick's Day one evening. It's another excuse to drink booze la.

Haha. Miss bubble tea!!!!

Sorry I haven't done this week's update!! Promise tomorrow!! Promise!!

The end of Week One! (Only!?)

It's the end of the first week of Uni, however it seems WAY longer than that considering pre-O week and O week. I've been here almost 3 weeks! And it still pretty much just feels like JC, only thing is that this time JC is further. But apart from that I've been calling my mum and she's been calling me pretty often, So I don't feel that disconnected after all. Few things I thoroughly miss:

BUBBLE TEA WHICH COST BELOW $2.
Cheesy Channel 8 Dramas with the horrible acting and cliche storylines
Being able to use the internet without worrying about bloody quotas
Being able to use my mobile without worrying about the credit left inside (I loathe prepaid)
Being able to nuah on a my sofa/bed not worrying whether it's dirty
Calling my friends and seeing them whenever and wherever, not in a place that's miles away
Flat ground. Stupid gah-ments seem to enjoy building tertiary institutions on hills. Look at NUS and UQ, I bet they pakat and decide that it's cheaper not to level out the land.
Drinks which don't cost as much as a meal in Singapore. Miniumum pricing here seems to be $3 for drinks and chocolates

Anyways, pictures! I have yet to take pictures of the campus. I keep forgetting to bring out the camera when I go out! Hence, today's pictures are mainly about.... my room and other miscellaneous things. heh heh...

As many of you know Australia's an extremely environmental and strongly encourage different sorts of sustainabilty programmes, and boy does this rub off. Instead of buying a pencil holder for $2....

Tadah!

Proudly constructed from a biscuit box and miserably decorated.
And since I forgot to bring a mousepad and it seems extremely ludicrous to actually purchase one, I made one in the effort to not spoil the very handy wireless mouse my sister gave me. I even talk to it when I'm lonely

Siyi and I were looking throught the classifieds yesterday as we were almost bored to tears on a weekend. I must say that the newspapers are the most hilarious and economical entertainment ever. I shall buy the newspapers every weekend, look at the stuff they sell/give away!!

I'm trying to convince Siyi to keep a pet chicken.

While she was looking and itching to buy a piano, look at the antiques we came across. (SHe may actually buy one of those if she gets desperate)

And it's not onl us Singaporeans who make silly spelling errors. Haha. (then again maybe it's a chink trying to sell the Larva Lamp)

And that's about it people!! I've already finshed using my 500MB quota, and it's only 8 March. Wth. I had fun matching stupidly printed clothes that I have one boring night in preperation of a costume. It was some superheros party, I was tempted to wear this and call myself the fashion police. HAHA

Love you guys!

Weekly update!

We had the most horrific, terrible, massively messy ragging last night. When the Aussies say 'Get messy', I've learnt that they REALLY mean messy. I thought we'd just be getting probably flour, water, eggs, mud at the most right?

Wrong.

Basically we had to go around in groups last night for station games, which, according to hostel 'tradition' and seniors, is supposed to be one hellova fun night, the funnest and dirtiest ever. The seniors were DAMN Smart to avoid the games and hover around watching us get messy man. There was one station where you had to cover as much body area as possible of a person with food colouring mixed with sunscreen lotion. Let's just say I looked like the Hulk's twin sister last night. My toes and fingernails are still freakin green la! And I think my pores are all so clogged with food colouring that I'll be bursting green pimples a few days from now.

At one stage we were floured, egged, watered, soapified, and some had beer, gunkified. And there was this HORRIBLE HORRIBLE green gunk we had to eat, I gulped down a cup (more like chewed and swallowed) only to learn later that it had spit in it too. FREAK. There was pasta, every single type of sauce in the kitchen, nuts, pieces of fruit, a whole lot more other crap which I can't think off, and it was green. The thing now is, the whole hostel smells of pasta puke, and it doesn't look like it's gonna be raining any time soon!

I miss reading the newspapers and watching TV! And $1.20 bubble tea! It costs at least $3.50 a cup here, and it's not even guaranteed to be nice!! wth!!

School's starting! omgomgomgomgomg. And it's STILL bloody hot. I'm steaming in my room, thank goodness I don't get any direct sun.

A bad panoramic picture of the view from Mount Cootha, kind of like our Mount Faber but way way colder.

Finally!!

It's a Sunday night down under and, as I promised, I'll update the blog. I realised today that keeping in touch and updating people is much much harder than I thought, cos sometimes you end up repeating yourself a minimum of 3 times(depending on how many good friends you have) and yet you feel bad if you do not reply individual emails because these people have put aside time for you. Plus as I've told many people, I have a sickening 400MB internet data quota, which in layman's terms is suckyly little and ngiao. I've decided to Skype people a maximum of once a week, and if I can afford it then more =) And I shall update the blog every weekend (cos that's the only time I reckon I'd have)

Pictures!!! The storage space in hostel is SUPERB (better than IKEA) and I so neat. I realised I need FBTs, I only brought 2 pairs sleeping shorts, 2 pairs of sleeping long pants. but now, since it's pretty hot, I GOT NOT ENOUGH SHORTS! Wah piang.


The first photo I took when I was there. I'm very slow with taking pictures and updating. My camera has taken less than 20 photos in the past 7 days in Brisbane. so sad.

See the picture I put up in the previous post? That's a picture of my desk before the printer came in. I just got a superb laser printer for $95, and they gave me half price of the toner! So I got it for $54!! SO cheap!! Can make the fella in Sydney juealous, muhaha) I'm having so much fun printing from my cute monster printer.

And my 2 most precious things!! Guitar+bolster=Bliss

(Yes that lump there is my baby bolster)

And what's my photo update without one of some -8 legged creature! Spider!!

And the hostel comm sneakily put up my namecard when I wasn't looking. Yes, ang mohs now officially know me as Diane. Long story behind the name. But the important/funny thing here is what's BeLow my name. It's damn funny. My mum's super paranoid, she's constantly reminding me to cover up that sticker with something as soon as I can!

Love you guys!! :D And I'm perfectly straight. =)

my room.

ah!!1 sorry no time to upload!!

Suddenly...

I'm going to miss every one :(

Chiochio was such a chio today, talking cock (literally) with her pulled me out of my abyss of pissed-ful-ness. Seeing her kuku, I mean pretty face made me feel like slapping myself a little less.

I shall advertise the wonderful miraculous works of the Chio herself. Epitome of self-love, haha.

I can't possibly mention everyone I'm gonna miss here, it would be highly impossible and risky like MI4.

=( Pouts....

I miss our MRT system already!! Well I don't miss the sardine crowd, but our public transport is the ultimate (at least to me). I'm gonna miss the funky-smelling 106 which has been my staple bus of 2008. They should give me loyalty card.

I know I'm gonna miss our kopitiam's and food courts with cheap and good food. And miss the funny sights of table chope-ing tissue packets.

10 Days Till Lift Off!

These couple of days, I've been suddenly finding myself stressed and thinking: Holy crap, I'm about to fly off to a foreign land and start a whole new chapter of my life on my own. Holy Crap!! Wth was I thinking when I decided to do so?!

But then again I don't regret m decision one bit, well at least up to this point where I'm in the comfortable-est position of having m laundry done for me, dustbins being emptied and groceries being replenished. It's like having a genie around you without even realising until you suddenly find that you're on your own.

I suppose it won't be that bad, hopefully.

Anyways, in my pre-departure-shopping-excitement on Tuesday, I begged my mummy to buy me an alarm clock! It's freaking cute (and dangerously easy for me to squish and therefore oversleep all my classes)

But it's soooo mini and cute! But it ticks daaamn loudly, as f it were some grandfather's clock.I had 4 guitars in the house this morning!! ( And will continue to do so until the weekend) Meet the Stringless Classical, Piece of Metal Junk, Nat's brother's soon-to-be-wife, and My Baby. (From left to right)

SHOUTOUT: I'm selling the classical and electric because I don't want them to rot as I spend the next 4 years overseas, yes I'm finally parting with them. Anyone wants a spare guitar at home? Selling the classical for $30, the electric for $60. I'm seriously just trying to get rid of them before I leave or my mum will scream. So prices are negotiable. And yes, I'll be restringing the classical before I sell them.

So please PLEASE help me look around for any friends/family/animals who want to have a guitar around the house but aren't quite willing to spend more than 50 bucks. The classical is pretty good, much better than many chunks of wood you'd get for not less than 50. And the electric isn't that trashy either, it's an Aria, action a bit high but still pretty decent for beginners.

And I baked muffins today! The row of muffins with the funny symbols were a work of my sisters, she calls them vulgar muffins. Get it? Hahha...

Wah piang wey!!!

Looking at the magical pop-out-of-hat bunny helps me forget the fact that I just stupidly screwed the camera SD card upside down and have just lost the photos taken during the class bbq/dinner/whatever. (I'll post that video another time)

and I had the only copy of the group photo!

and it sucks that I feel like a complete bimbo complaining about digital shots lost to the world of technology, because, they are after all, just photos. But I was looking forward to FINALLY uploading pictures for people onto Facebook, especially when I'm probably not gonna see these people till June of the end of the year, I feel sooo bad because...

I've failed as a Facebook user. =(

Can't even upload pictures properly.shit man. I should get a geeky computer programmer boyfriend and a proper computer education.

13 days to departure! Holy crap!!!

I have a hole in my ear!

My New Year Resolution!

I met Chio and the Manly Man (previously known as Fairy xiangwei) last weekend to offer makeover 'advice' for the Manly Man and unwittingly discovered a new year resolution I'd like to have.

I want to have a year of 'Firsts'.

This was stupidly inspired by a lion dance, the first time I'd ever stood in the crowd and pushed with the aunties to watch an entire lion dance act, Jumping on podiums included. I had never watched a lion dance so upclose before, especially one with the full electronic-moving-podiums works. And there were no irritating da tou wa wa (Big headed dolls) to annoy and scare the wits out of me.

The lion dance was so fascinating, I think I want to go all over Singapore now watching lion dances! (The lion backside so man one WorXxXxxx) Haha. I admire their endurance to keep their backs perpetually bent for 90 degrees as they follow the other dancer around, rising up occasionally only to carry the other guy on their legs, so man lor.

Lion Dancing should be part of the new NS regime! (You never know, it might work as a new type of warfare as well-Distraction)

We went to visit Oily's mum at the hospital, and boy is she a ray of sunshine! Despite all the shit she's plocked right smack in the middle of, she's extremely hospitable (even in the hospital), chatty, funny and sweet. What a doll =)