Things that make me smile...=)

I'm sure I've had this as a title before, it's just that I'm a strong believer of sharing your happiness and joys instead of imposing any emo-ness and bit*hcomplaints to the world who can't be bothered listening to you whine.

I'm sure we all have that song that makes us smile uncontrollably, that feel good  or shiok song that calsm you and make the corners of your lips raise and your mood lighten and you go all 'ahhhh...'

The song above currently has that effect on me, yeah, it does sound pretty much like bubblegum pop, but hey, it makes my endorphines run! =)

And you know what else makes me happy and high?? Smelling nice things like my Dove soap! I spent a good 10 minutes hopping around with the bottle like Gollum and his ring. (I think my housemate and her friend thought I was siao, I think the fumes got to me la)

Hehe... The simple pleasures of life; why don't you start with your 5 senses and just see what makes your day? That can make a crappy day all better =)

( I know I sound like some uber positive-happy-high-brainless-bunny now, I think the redbull is kicking in.. hurhurhur...) seeing that I've read the limited research on Red Bull and the impact it has on mental performance, I'm sure it's having an effect on me right now. If only I could be as verbose as I am now on this blog as in my lit review. haha..

Skilled Laborour

Several weeks ago on one of those lazy nights where I frist got my internet connected, I stumbled across Xiaxue's videos on clicknetwork.com, and came across a hilarious video of her baby sitting. Well, it wasn't hilarious per se, more of a mix between shock and amusement. 

You may watch the video at the following link: (I am unable to embed a video from clicknetwork

http://www.clicknetwork.tv/watch.aspx?c=1&p=8&v=462

As many of you know, I'm not exactly the person with the best fashion sense, neither am I the kind who knows how to 'dress up' even if the occasion calls for it. I'm pretty much a T-shirt-and-jeans kinda girl, and have progressed steadily from super-oversized-ugly-t-shirt-and-berms to fitted-t-shirts-and-jeans-with-occasional-dresses. As plastic or superficial as it may seem, I sometimes do envy girls who are able to use 87 different substances to accentuate their features. 

Random example of pretty girly dolled up girl

It's like an art, I suppose that's why they're called make-up artists yes?

People like Kaykay and Xiaxue even make livings out of their looks (especially xiaxue with her video tutorials on how to gigantify your eyes), which is pretty awesome if you think about it, show people how to do something you like (and are good at), and get paid for it! And it's not exactly laborious either.

So when I saw videos of them babysitting (Kaykay and Paul Twohill had another experience here), I gaped for a while. I have never seen people SO awkward around kids before! Watch for yourself and see, gosh I felt bad for the poor kids!

But in this process, I discovered my skill: Diaper Changing/Kid Minding!! Actually I think I'm better with babies, they can be easily distracted and entertained with stupid things like how huge your mouth is whereas a toddler would just run around and ignore you.

So I have a skill!! YAY

But models get $50/hr and babysitters get $15/hr... Hmmm Oh well, at least I know if I have a kid I won't freak out!

I Am Human...

Sometimes Mark tells me I think I'm wonderwoman because I like to keep myself constantly busy with work and studies and other frivolous matters which fill up my time (lest I become too complacent with too much free time and therefore waste it). But many things I do remind myself that I am merely human, and a rather blur and stupid one at times...

Stupid things done just over the past 7 days:

1) Drove my car to school, and walked home with Jerrine and completely forgetting that I'd parked it in school.

2) Spent a good 5-10 minutes searching for the cover of my blender in the different kitchen cabinets, getting all worked up, only to realise that it was already in the blender.

3) Walked right smack, hard on to our glass door... But that I blame my unbearable hunger that caused me to attempt to rush through the door to get to the fridge asap... Not one of my finest moments I must say. I think Mark was on the verge of whatsapping everyone my moment of genius

And all within 7 days, haiyoo..

What stupid things have you done??

To to to... Toowoomba!

We just got our postings for our 6 week placement in October! And I'm ecstatic to say that I've been given my first choice of completing my 6 weeks at the local hopital in Toowoomba! (Yes, there's a name funnier than Toowong). For all you non-Queenslanders/Brisbanites, Toowoomba is regional town 194km away from the city of Brisbane. Technically, it is not Brisbane. (I grappled with that fact for a while in my first year, because I thought EVERYTHING was Brisbane, yes, silly me)

I've attached a picture of the google map for the benefit of everyone so that you can get a sense of how blardy big Australia is.. Or how blardy small Singapore is.

Actually, I think this picture does an even better job. One fo the lecturers had put up a picture of a map similar to this to demonstrate the need for the development of Telerehab, which is basically the deliverying of different types of therapy via internet programmes similar to Skype. Because Australia is so vast and some the state and level of development really can differ greatly from region to region, many therapists choose to stay in Metropolitan areas such as Brisbane, Sydney and what not (I mean, who wouldn't right?) So researchers find ways to try and provide healthcare services to all the little kampungs (small small towns) out there in order to benefit as many as possible.

Toowoomba is one such kampung that has now turned into one of the bigger, more 'happening' town centres in the region. When people talk about places in Queensland, it's Brisbane, Townsville, Caines, Toowoomba etc. It's probably not massively huge, but I've heard it's pretty bustling (compared to the little swa deng  Gatton which Mark is in) I've conveniently marked Mark (haha, pun unintended) on the google maps map to show how far he is from civilisation on any given day. Poor guy only has ONE asian fried noodle stall to eat from!! (which therefore means he's now pretty chummy with the guy and can get discounts when he buys noodles and fried rice, haha.. perks of a small town).

Gosh do I digress or what? I'm just so excited, to be able to work in a (slightly) less metropolitan hospital setting, and staying in nurses quarters, which I'm clueless about. All I know is, in a month's time, I'll be of to to to to toowoombaaa!!

HEHEHE *excited mad laughter*

adios~

Terrification

I've just spent today at a one day course on 'Practical Stuttering Techniques for the School-Aged Child' organised by Pearson in the city given by J. Scott Yaruss, the co-author of the OASES forms used in evaluating the functional impacts stuttering can have on a person.

Fear, phobias and anxiety are always issues which come up whenever the topic of stuttering comes to mind. It's instinctive, even to the lay person that a stutterer does so especially when he is anxious, afraid or scared. This is completely true of course, and is often one of the key issues we as therapists must inform the client. Do not let the fear of stuttering control you, because that is exactly what makes you stutter even more.

When Dr Yaruss started on the topic on his arachnaphobia and how these children basically experience that level of anxiety all the time, I began to recall the times when I was still of a single-digit age, and when I was in a (fairly traditional) Chinese primary school. I remembered being petrified of every single Chinese language teacher before the age of 9. I would never EVER dream of asking to go to the toilet during chinese classes, and would almost always do my homework until I was Primary 3 (I think...)

One key experience I remember was when the class was walking down the stairs in pairs for the flag lowering ceremony at the end of the day, and our Chinese teacher told the 2 children at the front to stop walking while she caught up; but they didn't. So she reprimanded them (not too badly actually, I think she yanked the girl's ear slightly, but it sure freaked the hell outta me cos I was just behind them), and promptly told them to swap with me and my partner.

For that 2 flight of stairs, I swear I was as nervous as hell! Man I don't even get so nervous giving presentations now! Why was I so petrified? It wasn't that she was a tyrannical teacher or anything like that, I was just afraid that I wouldn't understand her when she said 'stop' in mandarin and end up overshooting and being reprimanded as being 'disobedient', when actually, I just don't understand. Thankfully, none of that happened and I got to the parade square nice, safe and without peeing myself.

Many times as children we're so petrified of adults. I knew I was afraid of all the chinese teachers because I couldn't understand shit. What ever they'd say, I probably only got half the message (and then whoever was around me would have to explain again). The fear of speaking chinese was even greater! I was just so shy with speaking mandarin actually.

When I think back now, I'm so glad I'm over that stage of being afraid of people. It's not a very good fear to have I reckon =P Lesson for today?

Make sure my kids are friggin' bilingual and don't have to go through the same horrible feeling of inadequateness as I did!

 Gaby better start on her chinese lessons soon!! (I'm going to make sure her first chinese words are 'ah yee'!

The Lack of IT

Due to the recent move and hustle and bustle of getting back to school and work, there hasn't been much time for updates. Not only that, there hasn't been any INTERNET for updates. As I probably whine and whinge about this every time I move house in Brisbane (which is 3 times so far), we have yet to have our internet connected. While this is nicely saving us about $15/week without internet, it still makes us feel like we haven't quite settled in yet. Not to mention the horrible amount of research we should  be doing for our honours projects this semester.

I honestly can't wait to really get started on my project. It's on Taurine and how it might enhance/affect word learning (yes, geek at heart.). Taurine is an amino-acid found in things like Red Bull, Formula milk and such, which is believed to enhance attention, cognition and all that sorts. I've not yet actually come across any journal article that explicitly states so though, however I have only been researching for a grand total of maybe.... half an hour?

So a quick update of life..

Life's been great =) Had a great birthday, been playing nice traditional games such as Uno Attack and Munchkins thanks to my lack of internet and technology in the house (i.e. TV). Which is good actually. televisions reduce our sociability I find. Everyone tends to just end up sitting around and nuahing when we could all be talking and interacting instead.

Not having the internet at my fingertips has also meant that I spend more time sleeping, getting 8 or more hours of sleep a day is a luxury I know will soon cease (once the internet kicks in and the assignment writing starts). So I'm gonna treasure that sleep!!

=))