Waiting for my Jet Plane!

We're here at the Amsterdam Schipole (Airport) 6 hours before our 1.5 hour flight to Zurich because the tourbus could only drop us off at this time.

Oh wait, yes, I've been MIA because my mum and I have spent the last 10 days in Be-ne-lux, which apparently stands for Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg.

I think my ultimate favourite was Netherlands without a doubt. It's small, modern, full of weed and prostitution... Nah I'm kidding, that's not why I liked it (but weed and prostitutes were pretty obvious only in the red light districts). It's such an accessible town, small and compact. With awesome road plans. Everyone got around on bikes, I even saw people dating on bikes. Some girls were so dolled up (I suppose they were going clubbing), and they rode bikes! How cool is that?

More updates soon once I get back to my sister's place where I can sit down and enjoy uploading posts, blogging, reading journal articles... (as if).

For now, I only have 10 minutes of internet left before the airport decides to charge me 10euros per half an hour. They sure know how to make money.

As our tourguide said, the Dutch are famous for doing one thing: Making money.

"We sell sand to the people in Egypt, and ice to the people in Iceland" - my tourguide

~Adios!

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

 Once again I will be relocating in the month of July, which brings about a huge array of feelings; excitement of getting a new place to call home once again, yet the sadness of leaving a place I've already settled in and a housemate whom I've lived with for longer than anyone (apart from family) and gone through many nights of nonsense talk, heart to heart talks, baking binges, exploratory cooking sessions, and sometimes, mindless chasing around the house on wheely chairs (we never grow up).


I've always loved the book 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven' by Mitch Albom. It's one of my all time favourite books because it allows you to think back and reflect upon the people in your life without actually explicitly asking you to do so.


Here's a brief summary of the book for the people who don't know it: This guy dies right, and when he's in heaven , he meets someone who he thinks is a complete stranger. But then soon realises that this particular character and him have once crossed paths long ago, and something simple that the character had done had actually had a huge impact on his life even though he didn't realise it. And so he goes on toe meet 4 other people who have unknown to the man, actually had great influence on his life.


This makes me think, who would the 5 people I meet in heaven be? (If I would in the first place, of course).


I think Siyi (my current hosuemate) would be one of them. For one, because of her, my entire family now knows the joys of eating leek, which is something none of us ever dreamt of buying! And I now put potato chips in the fridge sometimes because they taste better chilled (go and try if you haven't, they actually do taste way better!).

We unknowingly pick up a lot of habits and views from the people around us, absorbing this like a sponge. I'm sure many of us know how advertisers prey on the accessibility of the human mind using all their subliminal messages to get what they want from consumers who so willingly fall into their trap. And I suppose sometimes it's this malleability and adaptability which allows us all to survive in the social world. Some may call it giving in to peer pressure, others may call it the 'herd mentality' when they're trying to prove that they're all different and unique from the rest of the world. But really, I call it subconscious survival.  

Tuesday's Paper

I realised something slightly funny on my Stats paper on Tuesday. This was the exam that provided quite a number of 'firsts' for me.

1) This was the first paper since JC that I've actually had to bring in a calculator and use it for something other than simple mathematics (i.e. I had many many decimal places, but that's it)

2) I sat behind a big, hulking guy (who hadn't taken a shower I presume, since it was a cold 8am paper). Which is quite funny, because when he sat down, I suddenly realised that I've never ever sat behind a guy during an exam before.

As many of you would now, my course now proudly has 74 females and 1 male. (And I'm proud to say he's Singaporean and has surviveed!!) haha. Sometimes, I do wonder if Speech Pathology is a sexist occupation. You know how women are constantly complaining about making their way into the corporate world and how it's such a sexist world yadah yadah yadah, well, one day, I think guys are gonna speak up and complain about how Speech pathology is a sexist field and that how it's insanely difficult for them to get it.. Haha....

Yeah right.. one  day.

That'll be the day that bananas are given the status of abalone. Did you know that bananas are $12/kg here in Brisbane now due to the floods/cyclones in December and early this year? Let me put that into context, that price basically means that a single average sized banana is gonna cost you $2. $2 for a bananana????

Which is why my banana craving has never been stronger and I'm therefore asking my mum to bring in 3 or 4 bananas into the airport when I stopover in Singapore while waiting for her to join me in the airport to fly to Zurich. And I'm already dreaming about the banana kueh from Bengewang Solo...

Oooooo... nanaa,.....

Sometimes I look at the bananas the kids at the kindy have and can't help but just stare longingly at them... WAhhhh... And some of them don't even like bananas, what a waste of $2 on them! (Darn, should've grown my own bananna tree somewhere last year!)

1cm x 1cm Origami Crane

 After having spent most of Swotvac web surfing, blog surfing and peeping at the lives of others, I came to one realisation. 

I have no niche to talk about, show off or share with the world.

Sure I can play decent guitar without killing a cat, I think I can play a tune on the cello (but possibly break glass), I can write coherently and grammatically with somewhat complexly embedded sentences which require slightly higher level parsing sometimes at times, I can bake things that aren't going to kill people by hitting them, and I might be able to draw some cute cartoon-ish things on cue, I might be able to draw stupid designs on nails every once in a while

BUT...

I'm not insanely good at any of those items! 

Well, at least not insanely good enough such that it surpassess (in my opinion), 1.5 standard deviations from the mean! In other words, 

I AM AVERAGE AT EVERYTHING

So, I thought to myself. People have baking blogs with perfect little muffins, and drawing blogs (such as my secondary school friend Esther, which you have to check out), and people have blogs just about ANYTHING. So I thought maybe, just maybe, I could find such an obscure skill that no one has yet discovered... And immediately I thought..

Mini Origami!

I treasure the nimbleness of my fingers (hey, they maybe fat, but they're dexterious!) And recalled how I used to love making mini everythings when I was a kid. Mini plasticine models, tiny cows made of blu-tack, little drawings (kind of), and of course, mini origami. (well, just a couple of times). And here's the result from last night: 

Hello! So I embarked on my quest of folding an origami paper crane by a 1cm x 1cm paper. (After an afternoon dwadle preparing with the stats paper the next day). I took the liberty of

The final crane about the size of half my nail.

There it is in my by-then-sweaty palms

The process starts off easy of course, with simply quatering the size of the paper. And it's not yet so thick. This slowly gets harder (obviously) as the paper gets folded over and over and over and over.

This is probably the hardest step to get to, folding in the tiny corners to get the perfect little wings.

The end product! I think I had a harder time balancing it on my nail and actually capturing a proper macro shot of it. Days I wish I had a proper DSLR!!

So ended the 15minute fight with the paper and camera.

Adios!

Decoding Women

 As much as I'd sometimes like to think of myself as an atypical female, I'm still very much guilty of many of the 'stereotypical utterances' of a woman which are never what they seem. (And I'm sure that Mark can vouch for that too).

1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they're right & you'll need to shut up. This one I use quite a bit, but my version would be 'ok la, anything la'

2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this'll mean half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the football before helping around the house.

3) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don’t do it!

4) A Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you're an idiot & she wonders why she is wasting her time standing here arguing with you about nothing. (Refer quickly to No 9 for the meaning of nothing.)
Well I wouldn't exactly say it meant you're an idiot (well for some people it might)

5) That’s Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. It means she wants to think long & hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

6) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you’re welcome. I want to add a clause here - This is true, unless she says ‘Thanks a lot’, which is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. (Do not say ‘you’re welcome’ - that will bring on No. 7).

7) Whatever: A woman’s way of saying; “F*** You!”

8) Dont worry, I've got it: Another dangerous statement. This'll be something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is doing it herself now. This will later result in a man asking ‘What’s wrong?’ For the woman’s response, refer to No. 4.

9) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. It means something & you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with 'nothing' usually end in “Fine”.

The Inate Singaporean in Me...

 So let me first begin this post by saying that I know that in this face-paced age where almost everything is either instant or immediate (e.g. internet banking, online deliveries, super duper fast MRTs etc.), I understand how everyone is very much driven by convenience (and the seeing the immediate effect of things). Therefore, if you would like to comment on anything but can't be bothered because of the tedious detail-filling-on format of Blogger, I do  have a Chatter box!

So do please comment to make me feel lurved and as if there are people reading whatever nonsense I write on whatever random topics I decide to =)

Back to what I was supposed to talk about, this post is about how fantastic it feels getting free samples and what not from amazing websites such as this. 

Let's face it, what else can turn a crappy day into a less-crappy one except trudging home to open your mailbox to find....

Free samples!!

^v^

As some prominent female bloggers would say,"Free samples is loves!'' (Don't ask me how that is in anyway grammatical or sensible, they have a gazillion readers and therefore can come up with whatever taglines they want and still be popular... so there!)

 That's just some of the many items I've gotten from Ozbargain this year, ranging from gourmet tea samples, diapers and baby cereal to lipbalm, jewellary and various hair products. Last year my collection mainly comprised of detergent and clothing disinfectant (stuff you put into the washing machine along with dtergent so that you get rid of other yucky stuff apparently), so this year's grabs have been pretty fantastic considering utility level and variety! 

The stuff on the right is what I'll be bringing down to Zurich for my sister/Gaby, mainly diapers, cereal and yes, materity lingerie (HAHA to my sister!)

This piece came in a couple weeks ago and is my ultimate favourite, it came from stylecloset that gives a piece to anyone who 'likes' their Facebook wall or registers. I don't care if 45,395 other girls have the same necklace and know I got it for free, It's PREETTTYYYY

And it came in that lovely pink chiffon-esqe bag too! So much for a free gift right??

 And you would be surprised at how cheapo and kiasu the Aussies are too!  (Aww, we Singaporeans aren't that special after all!). Many actually come up with computer programmes to autofill websites to get shitloads of free stuff. Basically, the more tech-savvy ones have programmes which automatically fill in fake data into the sites to get 100 free samples delivered to their address under different fake email addresses. 

Speaking of tech-savvy people, I actually managed to make my blog look nicer! This paragraph initially consisted of me asking someone to help me, but I went off and attempted on my own and managed to change it thanks to Blogger's very very idiot-proof template changer! =)

Asking me to manipulate html is akin to asking a dyslexic to manipulate sounds in a word (haha, Speechie joke.. ok geek moment).

Adios!

If I Quit school now....

My favourite penguins!

 I'd want to become a nail artist and come up with the silliest, stupidiest nails.

Working on miniature objects, whether it's building one, drawing one or folding one (I once folded a crane with a 1cmx1cm paper) ((Which now gives me a new idea to distract myself from study)).

Here's the 2011 collection of silly/not-so-silly nails I've done here in Brisbane! They aren't much actually, which is quite a pity, I wish I'd done more, just so that I can build up my portfoilio in case I fail and drop out of uni at any one time.

Either that, or by the time I get to start my own speech therapy clinic I'd already have the option of providing 'additional' services while mums wait for their kids in therapy (and then I'll hire a therapist to actually give the therapy while I paint Mum's nails)

After one penguin got chipped in half, I replaced him with a fishy...

And embarked on drawing him more fishy friends! (The last one's a seahorse)

 

Which I added a crab to this morning after the final penguin decided to have it's head chipped off.

 And here are some of the earlier 'classier' looking ones I had during the semester when I had to go for weekly clinics (and therefore keep my nails tame).

And of course, Minions!

And the ultimate favourite ladybugs (or as the kid at the kindy says, 'Baibeebug')

These bumblebees were probably the ugliest ever, haha.. it was one of the first few attempts in the year

Which concludes my nail-picture post =)

I'm gonna see Gaby in 2 weeks!! :D:D

What drives you?

I'm someone who needs to know what the general direction of purpose something has before embarking on something with a peace of mind. For instance, I find it thoroughly unsettling to drive following solely the directions of a GPS without first (and frequently) looking at the overall route the GPS is taking me. Perhaps it is my lack of faith and trust in all things technological in particular, but I simply HAVE to know which highway or which route the GPS is taking me so that I can anticipate turns or what nots. 

But I think it's not just a matter of knowing what route it is so that I don't get lost or so that I know I'm not wasting petrol, I feel that I carry this general attitude of having to know what the general direction or end goal is for anything I do, whether it be courses I study in school, or even my religious development (ie. how church or bible studies might be guiding my walk with God).

Yesterday's bible study session with the wife of the pastor gave me one of those 'nirvana' moments which I often use (quite loosely actually) when describing any moment of sudden enlightment I achieve when I'm doing something or studying (sometimes known to be the 'Aha! Moment')

Something that has always bothered me as a Christian was how vastly different the practices, principles, emphases, worship styles or even preaching methods are amongst the different denominations. How can one religion which supposes the worship of 1 God have so many vastly different ways of doing things? And as much as I could draw the obvious differences between the charismatic and non-charasmatic churches (such as mine), I could never quite lay a finger on what my current church was aiming for it's members to 'learn'. 

Last night, Faith (the Wife-of Pastor) told us that as much as many churches emphasise what we should be doing/behaving as chrisitians, this church actually emphasizes what God has already done for us, and all that fantastic fancy-shmansy stuff He's done eons ago that we're enjoying now. And by doing this, they're actually attempting to instill such a attitude of thanksgiving in the people such that they naturally want to change their behaviour out of an attitude of gratefulness etc. 

When I heard this, I couldn't help but go 'OHHHhhhhhhh.. that makes SO much sense now!'

And what made this 'Aha!' moment so 'aha-ish' was that it linked in so beautifully with what I'd been learning in school about general cognitive processes used by people. (I love it when I can actually apply what I'm learning in school to outside the classroom, come on, I'm not jsut paying $30K a year to take an exam and throw what I've learnt away!)

As what we often encounter with various Speech and language interventions, they often either adopt a 'top-down' or 'bottom-up' approach. The method of teaching which the church has in this case, would thus be a bottom-up process in my opinion, aiming to change our attitudes and underlying principles, in order to generate a desired behaviour. 

Which I thought was way way more brilliant than any scare-tactics, guilt-tactics or salesman-tactics some churches might actually be using. 

Well, at least I feel that it would most probably result in the longest lasting effects (In therapy terms now, =)

=))

Mistakes

Have you ever felt as if the world decided that it was time to let all your mistakes bite you back in the ass?

It's the day the piercing which your mum told you not to get gets infected and septic, threatening to pull your ear down along with it.

It's the moment your mobile phone drops into the toilet bowl as you pee after your mum said 'don't put it in your back pocket'

It's the day the speeding ticket arrives in your name after the GPS had already warned you that speeding cameras were in taht area

It's the day that someone confronts you about something awful you said about them behind their back while lying to their face

It's the day your boyfriend or girlfriend confronts you about the time you cheated on them though you thought no one was watching

It's the time your teacher decides to spot check your workbook which you hadn't filled in in weeks thinking she would never check

It's the moment you see that parking ticket flapping at your windscreen wiper when you come back from a 15min stop at the shops with a huge 'NO STOPPING' sign.

It's the time you fart in a lift, thinking it's going to be a silent one but it actually rips and the people around you actually get a shock

It's when you get diarrhoea after eating food you knew was too spicy for you

(Pretty much all the examples are not from real life experience bute purely made up.. but..)

For me:

It's when you drop your wallet in a cinema theatre because you didn't have a bag to put it in even though your mum has told you countless times NOT to do that because you will precisely lose it. Which I have finally done after countless lucky near-losses of wallets/handphones.

I sure was a dumbass to carry my wallet, mobile and keys without a bag. And even though I was, my mum was so awesome as to not even mention or even have a tinge of the 'I-told-you-so' tone, and so sympathetically simply advised me on what I should do about the lost licenses. I have the awesomest mom (she did the same when I left my handphone in a taxi in KL and when I dropped a sim card in Amsterdam and raked up a $400 bill because the person who picked it up used it)

I'm beginning to contemplate insurance for losing items. Is that even available?

On a positive note, one mistake that didn't bite me in the ass was when I parked at Southbanlk today to run to the cinema in a metered area, and the parking warden soooo nicely let my off when I told him I had lost my wallet and had no money to pay and that I had to run to the cinema. He was so sweet and empathetic, I wanted to just hug him and cry out all my frustrations. Brisbane City Council does have it's good points at times =)

Baking Binge

 After a hard week of churning word for the 50% assignment which almost turned many of us mad (see below for example of how close I was to insanity), I decided that I needed a well-deserved weekend off that would allow me to fulfill my baking craving and recharge myself before SWOTVAC (aka study break).

I proceeded to begin my Wattleseed Cream Biscuit baking the next day!! The last round, they turned out too big and way too sweet, so I altered the recipe a little to make them smaller and look more like the picture here.











 They turned out yummy!! And when I finished, siyi came back and decided to embark on her 'Cookie Monster Cookie' baking for her cell group that evening which I stuck around to help (because I just didn't want to do anything else productive)

All ready in their Bengawang Solo box for peeper..

The Cookie Monster Cookies looked amazingly adorable!!! They were hellova pain to do though, Siyi and I have never concenterated so hard on anything before. I think we both literally had our tongue sticking out while she put on th eblue hairy cream for the monster and I drew his eyes on. They were incredibly sweet though, but friggin cute.

Next holiday activity (besides study): Durian pufs =)

Independence = Loneliness?

 The mist last Monday when I drove back from Gatton. Scary eh?

As I sit here attempting to pound out the last couple of pages of my final essay, I feel dreadfully alone. Why? perhaps it's that inner needy person within me finally starting to whine.

I've always prided myself with being an independent girl, one who isn't bothered with eating alone, or watching a movie alone, or walking around shopping alone, I find my alone time very refreshing and rejunvinating in some sense. It's a time where I don't have to smile if I don't want to, don't need to come up with trivial banter if my jaw is too tired too, no need to compromise my time, tastes or preferences to anyone if I don't wish to etc. In short, I enjoy being selfish sometimes and simply not having to share myself or my time with anyone else.

I consider something such as that somesort of a skill, a survival skill. Being able to do that means that if ever I start developing a pungent BO and nobody in the world (not even the bush turkeys) are willing to 'friend' me or come within 1m of me, it means I'm not gonna keel over and die of a shattered, abandoned, lonely heart. It means I would be able to say 'I don't give a shit,' and continue sipping my bubble tea as I walk down Queen Street on my own (which actually, was what I did today while waiting for reports to be printed).

So what's the problem then? The problem is, by getting so comfortable with being by yourself, you sometimes end up recluding and just not bothering to interact anymore. I mean, I haven't gotten to that extent, but the thing with human interaction and any form of relationship building is this:

It takes 2 hands to clap, and it takes effort to build relationships. Even if it's with a bloody rock.

And if you understand how much that 'effort' actually makes, especially when trying to break into asian cliques (particularly the Singaporean cliques), you'd understand that if you just sat back and waited for people to talk to you and ask you to join their group, you can wait till kingdom come.

Unless of course you're very attractive/hot/good-looking, (because humans are inherently superficial whether you like it or not, and naturally respond better to good-looking people, I'm not kidding) but let's save that for another day, it's too ugly a post post (ironically)

So here I am, attempting to focus my thoughts on my essay and the poor semantic deficits of Mr CC instead of looking around the internet for more useless things that make me feel even more alone.

(I actually youtubed 'Brain Concentration Music', and it actually kinda works!)

~Adios

By the ways, pictures! Ladybird nails for the last week of clinic! (albeit knowing how unproffesional they are)

On days like these...

I love my life =))

See, what did I tell you about the flying emotions of females?

I think a very cute demonstration of how our emotions can be like pendulums would be the short scene in Disney's 'Tangled' where Rapunzel battled with her new-found freedom and guilty conscience:




One of the most enjoyable scenes in the movie in my opinion! =)

I think countries could utilise women in new warfare, train women in the army, and when they're about to launch an attack or defend etc, have some fancy chemical released to induce all their periods at the same time, plus, make their living conditions as hot, humid and unbearable as possible 2 days before the war and then release the massive compounded pms-ing females onto unexpecting enemies.
Oooooo... idea...

Heh heh heh

3 papadams, 2 cream biscuits and coffee, and i still don't feel content. Eating definitely doesn't help ease mental dissatisfaction!

Why are girls such slaves to their hormones and emotions? It's not fair.

I HATE ASSIGNMENTS!!! ARGHHHHHH


They make me feel stupid, incompetent, ignorant and just plain frustrated.

Basically they show the true ability of my cognitive and linguistic capabilites, which ain't high enough apparently.

=((((((

I hope I get one of my favourite classes to look after tomorrow, and I hope I get to see my favourite kids.

Decisions decisions

For the splittest second and the shortest moment today in church, I found myself toying with the idea of possibly returning to Singapore to work when I graduate.

Hmmm.. I wonder why hey?

But the thought of crowded trains, icky humidity, masses of 'dulan' faces and my sister not being there for the next couple of years knocked me back to reality.

Maybe I'm still disillusioned by the seemingly worriless life as a student here in Brisbane, perhaps the real reality will hit me then.

Grease Review!

Mark and I went to watch a Saturday Matinee of Harvest Theatre's Grease at QPAC last week. (some form of a birthday celebration for him)

For those of you who aren't aware, Harvest Theatre is a production group that produced last year's Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. They'll also be putting on Jesus Christ Superstar in about a couple of month's time (however I really dislike that musical and shall not be wasting any money on that)

Last year's production of Joseph was splendid, which was why I really had my hopes up for Grease. Unfortunately, it was quite a letdown and I felt that my $50 ticket was not quite worth that value. Here were the up and downsides:

1) The lead's vocals were a little weak, with him seemingly being more interested in his supposedly 'sexy' gait rather than his actully singing voice. His female co-star Sandy was pretty good though

2) The sets were brilliant, and the lighting was so so. Music was quite all right, nothing fantastic but nothing ear-shattering

3) The biggest letdown was the sound system. I seriously felt that the soundman was either (a) hungover, (b) half asleep, or (c) a 15 year old. Mics weren't turned on and off on time, the balance of voices was really really off, with the balance shifted too much to the treble and the backup singers and music often covered up the lead vocals, resulting in songs sounding literally lyric-less. I've read another review that mentioned the same problem and reckon that it wasn't only for the one we watched. (I think the soundman was really really bad)

4) The costumes were pretty decent, however I do wish that the guys were jeans that didn't look exactly the same, it seemed pretty obvious that they were all bought from the same place, and weren't exactly as snugly fitting as the original Danny Zuko's (John Travolta)

5) They did add some spice and fun to this production, which was probably the highlight. Many of the non-lead singers were fantastic, my personal favourite was 'Go Back to High School' where they adopted a very black, diva/gospel delivery. It was absoluitely brilliant! They should have made it the pre-interval song, because their version of 'Hopelessly devoted to you' was somehow lacking in some musical sense and ended rather suddenly and awkwardly, resulting in a number of stunned faces in the audience when the lights came on for the interval.


So those are my thoughts on Grease by Harvest Rain Theatre. Will be catching Ignatians' version of Rent next week with Mark at the Schonell Theatre! Tickets are only $35 for concession! So even if it were a let down I think it should be ok =)

Wong Fu Productions

Have you ever heard of Wong Fu Productions?


Wong Fu Productions is an independant filmaking company based in California, USA. Comprising of 3 Asian Americans Philip Wang, Ted Fu and Wesley Chan, these 3 young men have made themselves not only massive on Youtube, but have also had their works featured at a number of national and international film festivals, including the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. ( Now I just stole that last line from Wiki, which brings up another point, they've actually been Wiki-fied)

I personally love the insight Philip Wang has when he makes his films. If you have a look at their website (both on youtube as well as the main website), you'll see just what a wide array and variety of short films they've made. From the arty-farty-no-words-or-actors-just-music films, to the downright jackass-ish ones where Phillip provides endless 'advice' on how to get the girl, as well as many Vlogs.



I personally found their recent feature 'short film' to be beautifully, well, I won't say it's beautiful, that's just too vague, more like, poignantly written and executed. Sometimes I'm still amazed that a guy could come up with such insight (not to sound sexist), but we know how femalse are supposedly more in-tuned with or feelings (yadayadayada), but I reckon I wouldn't have been able to organise the progress of a relationship that clearly, accurately and poetically.

Acting might not be the best point of their productions ( I must admit they've had their share of not-so-talented-people), and the script sometimes can be a little.. iff-y, but filmography and cinematography I find to be amazing. (For stuff being shot on a DSLR, it makes it look so easy).

If you do have time, have a look at this film: These Four Walls (one of the arty-farty-no-words-no-actors film by Wesley)

http://wongfuproductions.com/WFvideos/2011/01/these-four-walls/

And then take a look at the video on how the 'special effects' were made. It made me realise the ingenuity and creativity film-makers (in general) need to possess (and most likely do). Sometimes I wish I was even half as blessed with their talent!

This week, I mainly felt that WongFu has served to be my source of comfort and entertainment all-in-one just because of the variety which they offer. (They even design and sell their own T-shirts). Girls, if you're ever feeling all emo-y and need a video to go all sappy on, go to WongFu. If you need a cheering up or a brain break from studying, go to WongFu. If you're tired and sick of life, GO AND SLEEP LA.

Non-clinical Observation Skils

As I made a stilly decision to eat very sour greek yoghurt for lunch yesterday afternoon, I ended up with a very sore tummy and a headache and fever. (The greek yoghurt was so sour, I couldn't really tell if it was all right)

And thus, here I am at home when I was supposed to go to work, with the feeling of having been punched in the stomach, browsing youtube videos before I get to some study.

This morning, I came across this fairly interesting video from a friend off youtube: ( I'm a web idiot and don't know how to do a proper embedded video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSGGLKx9w0

Have a quick watch so that you'll get whatever I say later on.

Having spent 2.5 years in uni doing Speech has taught me more about silent observations and picking out things from people as they speak (or behave). Well, I used to do it anyways even before I actually came to do speech, but now I can actually form more concrete conclusions about behaviours I observe rather than just say: oh... that guy talks like he has SPS (small-penis-syndrome) [Something my sister and I use to describe guys who talk big to make up for something else that lacks.]

Anyways, back to this little boy Brian, from watching a couple of his videos, I picked out a few things that I thought were interesting/stood out:

1) He glides consistantly on all his 'l's. Which, in layman's terms, basically means that all the 'l's in his words become 'y', i.e. 'like' becomes 'yike', 'election' becomes 'eyections' and so on, which actually should be a process that would've resolved at 6 years of age. It's not a huge problem with him, but it does affect his intelligibility quite a bit sometimes and you need to take a doubletake on what he's saying. Seeing that he really has the potential to become a public speaker in the future, I really suggest that he gets s Speech Therapist to help him resolve that!

2) He seems to have slight Aussie accent on a few of the words 'beans' and 'no', but it's a very transient and subtle thing (perhaps his parents or himself have had some formal education down under?)

3) Well to do family/ very educated parents: His dad bought him FIVE Moleskin notebooks. BIG A4 Moleskin notebooks. I think that says enough. And the fact that he's actually following the elections at this age says something about what his parents educate him about, which is excellent. I wish I had such awareness when I was 12, actually, I wish I had such awareness at this age.

Conclusion: I think he's a GEPer. For those of you who don't know, GEP stands for the Gifted Education Programme in Singapore where kids are picked out at the age of 10 or so to form special classes where they cover extensive grounds of content and have much more stumulating ways of teaching and are thus, labelled as being 'Gifted'.

(The irony of this is that, we actually have places in Singapore that run tuition classes that promise to get your kid into the 'Gifted Programme'. How can you teach a child to be gifted? Isn't being gifted a gift? (Now the word gift just looks and sounds weird)

Post Assignment Post

After finishing a semi-massive assignment yesterday after several nights of lost sleep (which I seldom do and is now taking a toll on my very much, older and not so healthy mind and body.) I decided to spend a night doing absolutely brainless and bimbotic things; i.e.,

1) Watching Tangled online, which, I feel is a pretty decent Disney movie (Funny in a typically Disney style and not a Pixar/Dreamworks way, know what I mean?)

2) Painted my nails!
So this was actually from a week before during the Easter holiday (so that I wouldn't look like a fool), because after I wiped them off, I painted...

MINIONS!!!

All right, so I forgot the glasses and the blue jumpsuit was actually from blue glittery nail polish, so they kind of just look like yellow things wearing aprons.

Anyways, I've decided to upkeep my blog and post at least once or twice a week. After being inspired by all the journal articles on developing literacy and reading ability in a child, I've concluded that...

Good writing only comes with practice.

Henceforth, I wiill READ AND WRITE MORE.

And I promise to limit my use of horrendous pai tia Singlish to 1 sentence per post. (Which will probably be hard to achieve seeing that the Singaporean blood is SO ingrained in me).

Stay tuned for more! =))

(I will do my best to make my posts interesting and intelligent, hurhur.. highly doubt it)

The Trip of The Mudder down Underr

The holidays are officially ending in 2 days and my huge horrigible assignment is still barely half done! I shouldn't be blogging, but I need a brain breakbefore proceeding with 'critically evaluating literature regarding current intervention techniques'. Sigh, this is the first time I feel so incompetent as a 3rd year speech pathology student, I suddenly feel like I'm a Year 1 because I'm just at my wits end at what to do with this 'kid'.

On a lighter/happier/sadder note,

1) Mum was here for the week!
2) She just left this afternoon and should be landing in about 15 minutes in Changi
3) Mickey's coming back home tomorrow morning!

It felt awesome being able to reverse roles and drive my mum around for a week, cook slightly miserable meals for her and pay for meals and buy her groceries, (although I still let her do my laundry a couple of times and mostly left the dishes to her, heh heh), it made me feel like I really lived here and am ready to settle. (Which reminds me, I need to service my car and top up petrol asap)

We didn't get to do much this week because of the overhanging burden of knowing that my assignment is due in a week caused us to stay in some days in order for me to attempt work on my essay. I didn't manage to get much done even though my mum was around although ironically, most kids would work hard if mum was 'supervising' them (remember how some of them do when we're in primary school?). Initially I thought her being around would make me concientious, but I ended up being more distracted by the Sudokus she was completing and ended up doing online Sudoku to escape the bane of the essay.

So what did we do over Easter then besides Sudoku and cooking and laundry?


1) Clean kitchen: typical bored-mother syndrome was to clean the kitchen and make it look all neat and tidy when she got stuck with doing her sudoku and didn't want to exercise brain anymore.


2) Visit Mount Tambourine with family friends for a 1.5 hour drive, and 20 minute walk, and 2 hour lepak-ing/eating session after seeing the puniest waterfall ever. (I bet that waterfall is man-made for tourist purposes).
This is was also where we saw the cutest dog begging for food from his front yard as we stood next to the the house by the road eating corned beef sandwiches. The poor little thing kept whining and giving us the (literally) puppy-eyed look!
3) Skyping with Gaby and my sister!! With proper internet connection here as opposed to my mum's too-slow mobile internet connection back in Singapore, we could get good skype time with my sister and Ah Bee! She's growing sooo fast now and can sit on her own. She could even verbalise 'replies' during the skype conversation, pretty funny, haha...
4) Reading her new buy! A biography on Tony Curtis (I have no idea who), apparently a really hot actor during her time (and Marilyn Monroe's boyfriend for a bit) which she got for a steal of just $10 at a mall.

5) Which of course, brings me to the main activity which we completed through the holidays... Shopping! Actually more of what I did, my mum's past the stage of buying work clothes now that she's retired, and got rather sleepy and tired quickly between shops. At least she bought a t-shirt from Jayjays! Haha...

Pity I didn't get many pictures though, I wish I did!

Which brings me to the end of this post as I return to the horrigiblest essay.

EEyerrrr