J'aime L'Francaise....

Location: How5!, Clayton
Time: 1:18am

Buahahha.. I just realised that I forgot to mention about something awesome that happened yesterday.

Ok, there's this new friend I made. Name's Lucien (aka Lucy) and he's a proud Singaporean...

LoL, Ironic.

Anyways, he is this psychology student majoring in criminology and stuff. He took this French class and invited me to crash his class today~

So yea, I hopped on the bandwagon without a second thought.

Was... ok. quite enlightening.

Enlightened about the fact that... I DON'T KNOW the language at all.

All I know is Manger = eat, Boire = drink.

Hmm... and that made me feel so happy =P

Anyways, Librairie = bookstore, College = Secondary School, Crayon = Pencil... etc.

This... is confusing.

Damn u hot french guys and their hot accent =)

HIMYM...

Location: How5!, Clayton.

My dear dear friends told me something really outa the world yesterday when we were watching How I Met Your Mother.

Apparently... Neil Patrick Harris...

...is

...GAY.


SINCE WHEN?!!

Totally rocked the already unstable reality that I know of...

... Darn you Chieh Ai and Kane.


p/s: I just realised that Neil Patrick Harris's bday's 2 days' before mine. Why are all talented people's bday in June =P

Not my day today.

Location: How5!, Clayton.

Today... is not my day...

classes sucked.

found out that 3 ass clash on the same day, also known as 20 april, 2009..

and the worst part was that


I lost my precious black starbucks tumbler...




... =(

The Dawn of Uni.

Location: How5!, Clayton.

So, tomorrow (or today, aussie time) will be my (sorta) first day in my old new Uni!

Excited of course, but a little anxious about the workload that I'll have to shoulder due to my incompetence in sem 2, 2008.

Us in The Arthouse = )

Let's hope 2009 will be a better year for me =)

It's been 18 days since I first reached Melbourne on the 11 Feb, and things have been pretty easy... Call it a vacation if you may, however, every good thing must come to the end, so they say.

Us in Roxanne Parlour

All the parties, spontaneous trips, gatherings, hanging outs, shopping trips, foosballing, and the occasional air hockeying, basketballing, footying (I played for the first time today!) must all take a backseat.

Us on St. Kilda beach!

The weather's crazy man, but I think I'm beginning to get used to the idea of staying here for atleast a year. It can get as hot as KL on any given sunny afternoon but get as cold as Genting after a rain at night. and the wind. THE WIND... I totally felt that dude who wrote that comment about Monash Clayton, saying "Why is it always so windy in Monash Clayton?"

- Trip to Luna Park! -

Of course I know that the wind doesn't only blow in Clayton but still needed some getting used to. For instance like wearing long pants/jeans almost all the time, grabbing a jacket before leaving the room and stuff... It's worse when the radiator/heater in my room doesn't work.

So, this is my final year.

- Sze Jia and her new purchase from DFO -

Final year of not needing to support myself financially, before stepping out into the big big multi-faceted world.

Can I really make the most of the experience in this uni without compromising my studies?

Trip to Melbourne Zoo!

Based on my track records, I'm never good in juggling tasks though I'm prone to end up in situations like that.

Anyways, these 18 days had been fun!

I got to know some new friends and reintroduced to some old friends.

Trip to Melbourne Zoo too~!

On the OLD pile, there are people like Victoria (yup! that very Vicky from SJ156~), Sarah, See Mun, Sue Anne, Jack, Aric, Ignatius, Zax, Chieh Ai, Sze Jia, Karina, Joyce, Wai Chien, Christin (from Ipoh, yay!) to name a few...

-Our winnings after poker night of 'O' Week by Howitt Hall!-
"Lifetime supply of Lipton Ice Tea"

In the NEW pile however, there's too many to spell them all out.

Maybe it's coz everyone in the halls (aka hostels) are not staying home, we all like being around people... Well, most of us anyway.

-Our spontaneous trip to the city to meet cmun!-

So far, 'O' Week's been pretty interesting! We had like pajamas party, poker night, movie night etc, all alcohol filled fun nights enjoying loud music from the 21 century. Songs like Hot n Cold, Let It Rock (which is still stuck in my head... lol... just couldn't get enough of it... =P) and Poker Face were played over and over again for the past week in different halls, different functions, for the same reason =)

Anyways, here are some random pics~

... chill out session in my room...

Trip to Fed Square.

Location: How5!, Clayton.

I finally changed from 502 to 520!! Bye bye glaring evening sun...

ANyhoo, we attended this BBQ thingy organized by the comm for 'O' Week *free meal!*.

It was around 9pm when boredom bored action.

Karina: "wanna go to st. Kilda"

Sze Jia: "!!!"

Jun: "Sure?"

K: "yup!"

alright, st. Kilda takes too long to reach. After careful consideration & planning (which took less than 15 minutes in total) we ended up eating spanish donuts and drinking latte in Fed Square moments later.

Reach Huntingdale by 12:30am... Missed the last bus and had to walk back...

Spontaneous trips are always fun =)

First Post in Melb!

Location: Dorm, How5!, Clayton

LoL, i'm still trying to be a little vague about my dorm... my 2 day old dorm =)


So, the weather's great, the people's great... the only thing i'm waiting to be great is my studies... which is rather slim, unlike my figure.

being a little expressive, too much of Will and Grace. (if anyone has season 1 and season 7, lend me plzzz)


Money's tight, havent got a bank account, can't eat too much gelato, pizzas and those really delicious FOOOD here... Can't shop... that DFO's really tempting from the outside =(

And I miss him already... How could you NOT?

Took this b4 I left home,
he can't wait to leap outa my embrace... =(

Him being so cute and all...


gona update soon, Clayton's way too big... for me... for now anyway.

Countdown: 6 More Days to Go.

Location: in my room, Ipoh.

LoL, I just couldn't sleep after running/jogging/walking/dragging-moi-arse for 25 minutes...

on the treadmill...

that bro and i bought for dad on his bday...

using his subcard =)


Anyways, I enjoy running when no one's around in the living room... coz no one's there to complain about the fan not being on, no one there to shoot their judgmental gaze at the way/speed that I'm running... OK, it's partly becoz I'm a little (very) self-conscious that I enjoy running when no one's around.

So, after this run, I was supposed to be really tired and stuff (judging by past experiences), I wasn't. Then I checked out the date and realised that it's 4 feb already!

WTH? HOW did I get here... SO FAST?

I'll be taking off in f-ing 6 days?! This is totally surreal...

Which made me look back to recollect the things that I've done over the past 3 months... and realized that I didn't do much.

Coming back to the new years, this year's angpow collection's definitely thicker than last years'... in fact, it has reached an all time high, though technically the cny's still not over yet. I feel so bad when everyone's giving me these big angpows bidding me off to Australia and stuff... wishing me all the best and hopefully I'll come back to Malaysia next year being a lesser screw up.

A year's not that long anyway. Plus, I know that I'll grow to like that place like I fell in love with Sunway.. well, more off the hostel (sun-u residence). But knowing that home's just a little more than 2 hours' away is much more of a consolation... letting me feel that if I were to screw up anything, home's just a stone throw's away. So what if i exaggerated a little over there.

Compare to Aust-M'sia, KL-Ipoh seemed like five and a half steps away.

nevertheless, I'm totally thrilled yet freaking out on the inside... just like when the roller coaster reached the higheest point of a highest diving point ever and you heard the wheels ticked, knowing very well what's coming next after that special tick.

Well, to enjoy the thrill and spills, I will STILL need to sit and hang on on the ride, in order to accept the experience with open arms...

Anyway, I just thought of a freaking long list of things to do before I'm confined to the territorial borders down south for the next year... omg omg.. so much things yet so little
time...

p/s: we're going to HQ in KL tomorrow for Pesta Angpow... another day spent on the family...

Happy Chinese New Year~

Location: Daddy's hometown, Teluk Intan (TA, coz it used to be called Teluk Anson and people here never really gotten over it.), Perak.

I would like to first point out that mommy's pc's internet browser's font is freakishly small. Hell that woman has the eyesight of my 70 year old grandma but having a pc with freakishly small font for a browser... women...

Anyhoo, as known by thousands and thousands (i'm not sure of the amount of the 'WHOLE Chinese population') of Chinese all over the world... It's the first day of Chinese aka Lunar New Year~ (but we normally call it cny. If it's lunar new year, it'll be lny... then it wouldn't be cny anymore... hmm.. having a lame moment there...)

Although we stayed in Ipoh practically all our lives, we (speaking for bro and I) never once spend the first day of Chinese new year in Ipoh.

SO what's different this year?

As we're carrying out the tradition of coming back to daddy's hometown to spend cny like we did for the past 25 years (obviously I'm speaking about my family), the answer is... Not Much has changed.

... except that that's a McD Drive Thru in TA now~

Frankly, I can never understand WHY TA can even be considered as a city as of April 2004 (thanks wikipedia =). I thought cities need to have enough people in it to even be considered as one... hehe... being rather mean here.

Here's what NOT written in wikipedia.

Teluk Intan is famous for its local and very abundant residents, the mosquitoes. They're huge, hungry and especially attracted to me.

Teluk Intan is also known for its dirt-filled, not free flowing water in the longkangs aka ditches surrounding the city. That's where their 'residents' meet, greet and mate on a daily basis.

It's been like this since the middle ages I pressume...

Teluk Intan is also well-known for its very very low water pressure... and that's why I took forever in the bath room, unlike what some sources (lame arse bro) claimed that its due to my incompetence.

In Teluk Intan, there used to be this really kick-arse malay mamak store infront of the now San Shau Ye Chee Cheung Fun Shop (which is the best TA Chee Cheung Fun in the city) and Hotel-G. The row of mamaks serve the BEST Pourri, period. (I just made up that word, don't know the exact spelling mahh...)

It's something made using flour and grilled... not grilled... like heated up using a pan like stove with some oil... looked like a small little heat packet. But instead of having liquids in it, it's filled with air. So there you have it, flour with air. delicious!

In Teluk Intan, there used to be a really famous Nasi Lemak stall near Antek Avenue's Shi Jian Dian (in English it literally means Time Shop). But nowadays that auntie's kids' all grown up and she retired... DARN kids, they always grow up so fast =P

Funny that I googled it and no relevant hits came up... so I'm going to paraphrase it in different ways, so that the next person who googles it won't come out disappointed.

"Shi Jian Dian" in Teluk Intan; Teluk Intan's "Shi Jian Dian"... yea, my imagination's running pretty dry lately.

--- latest updates --- Mommy daddy and bro's snoozing happily coz 9am in MY house would've been like a ghost town, except Pipi... who has a feet fetish or something... always licking, biting, chewing, playing with his front legs...

Erm... too much info again...

To me, TA is more of a necessary place to stop by every year just so we can tick that off my family's to-do list. I'm not saying that it's a chore coz by not coming back here, it doesn't feel like chinese new year to me. Plus, we're not that close with daddy's family as we're staying about an hour and a half away... Besides, their family members had too much history that we don't know, hence, unable to understand the social/power relation between them.

I guess that's what makes a place special... Not the material stuff but the people living in it that defines it. And Food... Don't know why that I keep contradicting myself...

So, it's almost 9 am now, the kids are about to wake up and we're gona receive a big fat ang pow first thing in the morning from our parents~ buaahahahhaha!!! Nothing feels more cny than receiving a huge red ang pow from the beloved human beings first thing in the morning.

Then off we go! Visiting the same few houses that we have been going for... for years before I can even remember... =)

WHY?!!!

Location: living room, @ home.

I just finished reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's version of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button moments ago and man... It's more disappointing than the time I realized Lance Bass is gay.

I was waiting to unfold this GREAT love story word by word but little did I know that this book was such a let down.

It's no doubt that David Fincher's version of the story is way, WAY better, deeper, more complex and multi-dimensional, and ofcourse, more Hollywood friendly.

Haiz, back again in my search for a good book about earth-rawkingly romantic stories... Any recommendations here?

Sucker for Epic Love Stories...

Location: my room, @home.

erm... i know it's a little late but...

HAPPY NEW YEAR~~~

lol... jz been slacking around and couldn't bring my lazy arse to write something meaningful to commemorate the memorable day that is the beginning of 2009.

For one, i think it's a cliche to be doing what everyone around the globe is doing at the same, but again, I'm breathing and wearing clothes... so much for individuality there.

So, I just watched the movie that everyone's buzzing about,The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, adaption from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel by the same name.

Atleast E! entertainment is... =)

I'm lucky enough to acquire the longer version, that is the (close to) 3 hours version. I assume that the commercial version (the ones shown in cinemas) would come to around 2 or 2 and a half hours.

This movie, unlike many other adaptations, made me wanna read the book coz it's so nicely done though it was quite dull at the beginning of the story. I guess it was because the director was trying to introduce the character and MAKE you fall in love with the weird wrinkly older (and more innocent) version of Brad Pitt.

In short, I really enjoyed this movie and started tearing up during the last half an hour of the movie... Partly because I'm (deep, DEEP down...) a romantic and a sucker for epic love stories (like The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger)... they kinda serves as a reminder that true, out the the world EPIC love do exist... somewhere... somehow...

I'm not a conventional idealist but I do believe in miracles...

Postage from Beijing (3)

Location: mommy and daddy's room, JinQiao International Gardens, Beijing.

This is the 4th day of our trip and the last day that we'll be staying in this very apartment-ish, homely *so-called* five star hotel, coz we'll be moving on to Tian Jing tomorrow.

This means that my future in continueing to blog with this awesome free internet connection and individual pc for the rest of the trip from Beijing is bleak. From what I heard, Tian Jing's kinda like a suburb compared to Beijing. Plus, we'll be putting up in a 4 star hotel there.

hate to sound like a spoilt brat, but... only 4 star?

lol~ actually i don't mind if the hotel's like 2 star or no star, as long as there's a clean bed, regardless the size (minus the unfriendly bedmites), clean and functionable toilet with water heater (it's impossible to stay there without a water heater seeing that it's freaking WINTER here...). And ofcourse, free internet connection and free use of PC will definitely be a plus~

Anyhoo, reports on today... The cool mongolian cuisine restaurant (that's RMB 200+/pax, that I ranted yesterday actually has a name) *duh!* Tenggeli tala was really wonderful! Even though there was a line of perfomance prepared for the customers, we focused more on the food that's served. All those muttons, beef, seafood and stuff... TOTALLY DELICIOUS!

Everything on the shelves were free... even the redwine. Mom and dad opened a bottle of redwine and shared it with all other group members. Before this, Xiao Jia told us about this bottled Apple Snyder thing cost about RMB 30++/bottle and we totally gobbled everything down in a flash. All in all, imagine having steamboat buffet in YUEN (near Sunway Pyramid) and everyone's eating and snatching things... not a very pleasant sight to behold.

So, what's on tomorrow's programme u say...

We'll be going to the famous 全聚德 (Quan Ju De) which, is famous for their Peking Duck.. If you guys didn't know, Beijing used to be called Peking. so... Finally~~ after being here for 3 days already! Not sure which outlet that we'll be going to, I know that I'll enjoy eating Peking Duck. The first time I had i was in Singapore, and there's a reason that it's still called Peking duck sold in Singapore and not Singapore duck.

Anywaysss... needa sleep now. Hope Tian Jing's gona be as fun!

Postage from Beijing (2)

Location: XinQiao Apartment Hotel, Beijing.

Woohoo~~ Back from the Great Wall... It's totally intimidating to actually climbed the stairs that so many climbed so many years before my arrival.

Anyway, mom told us that tomorrow's a very special day... In Mandarin we call "guo dong", which celebrates the day that marks a month from Chinese New Year. In M'sia we normally eat tang yuan that my grams (coz we're too lazy to wake up at 10 in the morning and get our arses to Gram's place to help out...) make for us but in China, it's different. They eat jiao zhi aka dumpling to celebrate this auspicious occasion.

So, back to the wall... I can sum the whole breath-taking experience in 3 words: "intimidating", "Freezing" and "Tiring". The view was magnificent up there... Seriously, I'm really glad that I put in such effort in my cardio 'workout' before coming to China... When we were climbing up the stairs, the temperature at that time's around -10 degrees Celsius, it certainly felt lower than that when the wind blows.

After a few hundred steps, it all boils down to a person's will power to walk up the stairs. The weird thing was, it was colder at the foot of the Great Wall compare to being a few hundred steps up. It's probably due to the wind and all... I cannot even begin to imagine how the Chinese soldiers manage to stay sane guarding the wall of Great Wall.

and yeshhh, proud to say that I pee-ed in The Great Wall =P LoL, not like the people did in Epic Movie but there's this toilet way WAY up along the wall and I Pee-ed in it, regardless the weather, which was freezing btw, I took off my pants and pee-ed. Hmm... which makes me wonder if any couple ever hooked up on top of the great wall before...

lol, ok... back to reality. It did snow yesterday, just not in Beijing where we are right now. There were visible ice lacing the stairs of the Great Wall. Moreover, Xiao Jia (our tourist guide) told us that it's snowing heavily in Tian Jing or Cheng Du yesterday... The places are also included in our itenary by the way.

It would certainly be a shame if we suffered this horribly dry and spine-chillingly cold weather and not be able to see real life snow flakes. Then I'll make snow angel and gross bro out~~

Anyhoooo, Xiao Jia said the the temperature's gona be higher tomorrow as they extimate it to be -12 to 0 degrees Celsius, which is slightly warmer than today. Besides, we will be checking out this posh Mongolian restaurant tomorrow, which, according to Xiao Jia, is totally expensive and very cultural too. It cost about RMB 200++/pax (which is about RM100++/pax), and that reminded bro about Jogoya.

Darn Jogoya, for being so expensive but so tantalizingly delicious...

Owhh wait, did I mention that I bought something? (at the expense of dad ofcourse =P) I bought a gorgeous leather-ish (probably PVC) hand bag, 2 sweaters (which will come in handy next year in uni) and a knitted jacket, which cost only RM25!!! I saw some similar ones in TimeSquare with pigpig that day... they cost atleast RM 40 - RM 60 per piece.

There's this one thing... Man, I lurve bargainning... acting all innocent and since my family members are very good actors/actresses... It was easier.

And ofcourse, it's especially fun to shop when it's not me who's footing the bill =)

Postage from Beijing (1)

Location: JinQiao International Garden... Yup... in Beijing~

This is so cool... I mean literally. The Weather here's FREEZING. Weather forecast mentioned that today's weather is around -6 to 3 degrees Celsius. That's not the worst part. The tourist guide, xiao jia (third pronunciation) told us just now that tomorrow's temperature's gona be between -10~ish to -3 degrees Celsius.

-3 degrees Celsius, which is supposedly the highest estimated temperature for tomorrow is freaking colder than my refrigerator at home.

First thing's first, YESHHH, I'm in Beijing now with my family... in this little 5 star apartment =) The bus took off from Ipoh at 6pm and reached KLIA at around 10pm. The plane started the journey at around 12:40am and safely touched down in Beijing Capital International Airport at 6:33am.

This was my first time boarding MAS's air bus but i'm not sure that I like it. Prefer B787 =P The service's not that good and to make matters worse... there's NO CUTE AIR STEWARDS!

Joke aside, i was really surprised seeing that MAS used to have this high standards that earned them their reputation. Darn competition!!

Anyhoo, I finally went to the Forbidden City! Our group's really lucky coz we get to actually go into the Forbidden City. According to mom & dad, they didn't get to do that when they visited Beijing a few years back but only hang around in Tian An Men Square.

Hmm, so what if I've forgotten the whole commotion about the Tian An Men Square protest thing and that led to an international embargo towards China and that I've mistaken Chairman Mao Tze Tong to Deng Xiao Ping... (my bro's using that stare of his, trying to kill this idiotic me with his deadly gaze now). I've never felt so NON-Chinese in my entire life... walking among all these bona fide chinese, from China.

Then, I HAD to ask the question that's been bugging me since March 2006 in SAM economic class, when Mrs Goh taught us about MNC...

Where IS that allegedly controversial Starbucks that caused havocs among the locals and strained the not-so-smooth relationship between the US and China?

ANd yup, I knew the exact location~

Me... happy =)

So, heard we're conquering the Great Wall tomorrow... Wish us Luck~


p/s: Xiao Jia also told us that it MIGHT snow tonight... just might...

*I'm dreaming of a white Christmas~*

Which Hall is the Fairest of them All?

Location: The Towers...

So, i'm blogging again. Twice today.. which is a record, i think.

ANyhoooo... this is more like a cry for help, a SOS.

Deakin Hall

Now the pattern seems to indicate that things are slowly going on the right track, after the whole commotion about bro's visa, and my late, VERY late arrival of the acceptance letter... Since Mrs Cheah (dad's ex-colleague back in the days) came to the rescue, I actually think that I have a higher chance ending up studying in Australia in two months' time (Wow, 2 months' today, we WILL be in Australia.... Scary...).

Howitt Hall

So, the tickets were booked for the four of us, application form submitted and rechecked by Mrs Chead, the arrival of the 2009 Offer for Accommodation - Halls of Residence email certainly gave me a strong boost of confidence in actualizing this plan.

Roberts Hall

Anyways, I have problem picking out which hall to spend my next 4-5 months in.

Farrer Hall

There's Deakin Hall, Farrier Hall, Howitt Hall, Richardson Hall, Roberts Hall, South East Flats and Normanby House... Don't think i'm interested in the flats and the house though, plus, I'm offered a single room =) The thing is, all the halls looked equally attractive on their respective websites (duhh...) don't know which to choose...

Richardson Hall

Victoria (one of the SJ156-er) is going to Clayton too *hurray* so she suggested Richardson or Roberts... I think.

So... what should I do??

p/s: Farrer Hall looked like a pretty happening hall~

Teeth (2007)

Location: The Towers.

Yessssh~ back in the Towers.. AGAIN~ I really really really MISSSSS this room.

Ok, for those who watched Teeth (2007) it's totally confusing. SO, it's a horror film. It's not only a horror movie, it's a sci-fi film too due to the mythical teeth in the vagina thing. BUT imdb.com added this movie in the comedy genre too. what's so farny about a va-jay-jay that bites?

well, to me, it might be written by some guy who's afraid of getting into 3rd base with girls or something and created this whole ba-jing-ko horror movie.

OR, it might just created some sick feminists who's so into abstinence and wrote this story to scare little girls into NOT having sex until you met the right person.. or scaring little boys into NOT having sex coz you never know who's hooha is guarded by this deadly chastity belt. And Yes, never to bet with your bros about having sex with a gal... it might bring fatal consequences.

Or, it's just one of those urban myths regarding those nuclear plant stories... like genetic mutations and all... IT might just be a campaign against the government to stop using nuclear power plants.. or something...

On way or another, this movie is pointless... Why did i watch it you ask? coz i'm too free that's why... wonder how it got nominated in the Sundance Festival, Geraldmer Flm Fest and Gotham Award, whatever that is.

*snoooze*....

Off I go... to conquer.. i mean.. watch another lame moviee!!!