Mid Autumn Festival~

Ah, the moon was round~ on a beautiful saturday night. haha.

Singsoc @ LTU organised a Mid Autumn Festival + Hari Raya Puasa celebration. We had some foreign friends (note: non-sg) join in.. so it started with some vids introducing both festivals.

Not much on Puasa, just some cookies. There were mooncakes which were of course, the highlight of many for MAF. Tried a few flavours like durian, white lotus, red bean...etc.

There were a few activities like taboo, quizzes on the videos and don't forget the lyrics singapore version, also we got to taste some foods and guess their ingredients.. all the while accumulating points in teams.

Min and Mandy

Joee and Sheng

Guess what....?

We won!! HA. that's us receiving our prize..

Faezah, Xuet Ying and our team. (2 members left earlier)

Our goodie bags + distributed prize of sugar crackers, mamee noodles and "Xiang Bings" (literally translated to fragrant biscuits)

Happy happy of course! Especially the Lees... speaking of them...

Min and Joee.. doing up our lanterns

Unglam to the max, but only one of me with lantern. :P

We had sparklers with our goodie bags!

The end of the night, we hung our lanterns on the tiny tree outside college. Whee~ Lantern tree.

Us with Amie and Beatrice.

Twas a pretty good night (:

Oh! The international sweaters are here.. they are actually pretty good.

A bunch of us taking photo together. very blurry tho. The sweater is custom-made to each of us...

has our names on it ^^ or nicknames. Shall post another photo of mine soon.

Down.. again.

Booohoo! Today is the worst day to feel sick. Gahhh.

Not very surprising though. I had two nights (or mornings) that I slept at 4am.. last week. and I drank. Then, 2ams and 3ams with get togethers, work and heading out to eat. Not to mention, daylight savings is over (or now on, can't figure out which), and we lost an hour of sleep as a result... sleep debt is baddddd!

To my sg friends~ My time diff with u is now 3 hours, not 2. ): makes chatting a little harder. cos i need to stay up later to see some of u.. in fact, was really tired yesterday skyping with parents. I was also uber frustrated with the booking of my SG flight tickets and using my brains to research storage, book my jetstar flight..etc. arghhh. I just growled and turned everything off. went right off to bed, angry. :S (i also felt the onset of illness..)

True enough, I woke up to a not-so-healthy self. ):

Which is horrid cos I wanted to go gym for everyday of this week starting today. Now it seems like I shouldn't... rahh!! I do need to not waste my money and make full use of my last week.. not to mention, i've been eating lots the past week thanks to the hols! i even went out with joee and min yesterday for korean bbq --" and i thought i could work it off.. CRAP. my only hope is to get fully well soon!

Also sad cos i could've had a very interesting tutorial at my cinema class today. They watched "House of flying daggers" and I wanted to go watch the screening to see if it was in Mandarin, but alas. I couldn't get myself out of bed. Too tired mentally and physically to go to lecture and tut later too. sigh. I was looking forward to tut. wanted to see what the others had to say abt the movie. and i wanted back my first assignment.. will book an appt with Rolando this week hopefully..

That's it. I'm drinking up and heading to bed. zzzzzz

interesting thought. n a msg to someone..

Correct me if I'm wrong, but most guys seem to start having that bodily alarm to procreate when they're about to reach 30. I hear guys here (Aus) are like that. Well, at least they wouldn't consider it when they're younger. And guys back in SG too? At least those who are currently in the 28-32 age range.. I think?

Gege recently tweeted that her ex-classmate got married. That'd make him.. 22? 23 at most? Very young indeed. And i have a few 23-24 yo friends who are getting married/ are married, and some with kids! This is not the case for my older friends at 28-32.. I believe this is the cohort effect we learnt last semester in IDH (sth like psych)... every batch/ generational range/ cohort basically, will experience similar things, e.g. influence in tastes due to events that occur, stuff they were exposed to..etc. Obviously, this "batch" is not fixed in stone, where you fall into depends on your company and environment as well.

so anyways, back to my point. I think, from my own tiny sample grp and questionable observation skills, the late 70s - early80s babies seem to be the ones marrying late and hence having kids much later as well. the early-mid80s are bucking that trend and starting families early. Not sure about us late 80s yet, i think half-half? So when I thought from the kids' point of view, I realise that at every year, the parents of these kids would all be either really young or really old, with just a handful who lie between. If you asked around right now, most parents of your friends would probably be about the same age as your own, especially if you're the same ranking with ur siblings (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd..etc child.). So having this parental age gap, i'm pretty sure that'd also change how each kid experiences his/her childhood... also thus moulding different character and traits. (older parents may stay at home more, kids are less exposed to outdoors or less active or less social?) My dad said himself that having kids young is good cos you'll still have the energy to play with them, run around, bring them out and all that.  He was admittedly not THAT young when he had me, but good thing he was still pretty active..

Just thought it was interesting how the younger people (23-25yo) I know back home have seem to just surpassed their seniors (28-30) in terms of a stage in life, perhaps a lesson in maturity too? The young ones are the one who are already married, and are parents. They've got more responsibility now, but that means they'd not have to slog till such an old age. They've also been elevated to become an "older" batch, as parents of the 2000's kids. Whereas the older ones would be parents of 2010's kids. lol. Kinda weird to me.
How do the older ones feel looking at the young ones with families of their own? o.O shrugs!

All that blabbering done though, I don't know where I stand. My initial plans was to start a family young, having a small age gap with kids seem to mean being closer to them? Ehh... but I don't think that's gonna happen now lol ^^* What with me being here in Aus... when I eventually get back, I think eventually I'd be 30 within the blink of an eye and still single and no kids and shit. by then i'd be too "bahh" to be bothered to even "search" anymore. haha. life's choices and their effects. fun.

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Dear Boo,

I read the latest msg u left me, happy you're doing well and picking up from the start. I think that'd do you lots of good. Although it's almost time to make those big decisions, just wondering if you've made yours? No longer in a position to really probe, and I don't really want to.. sadly.

Anyway, I read the lyrics you helped co-wrote recently. They're nice, touching.. and true? Very nice display of linguistic prowess as well. I just gotta smile and think about the fond memories each time I hear from you, yet know truly that I don't feel the same anymore. I realise I just changed almost overnight. Yet another song I thought would suit what I feel..

No Surprise - Daughtry
I've practiced this for hours, gone round and round

And now I think that I've got it all down
And as I say it louder I love how it sounds
Cause I'm not taking the easy way out
Not wrapping this in ribbons
Shouldn't have to give a reason why

It's no surprise I won't be here tomorrow
I can't believe that I stayed till today
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we'll find this was no surprise

It came out like a river once I let it out
When I thought that I wouldn't know how
Held onto it forever just pushing it down
Felt so good to let go of it now
Not wrapping this in ribbons
Shouldn't have to give a reason why

It's no surprise I won't be here tomorrow
I can't believe that I stayed till today
There's nothing here in this heart left to borrow
There's nothing here in this soul left to say
Don't be surprised when we hate this tomorrow
God know we tried to find an easier way
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we'll find this was no surprise

Our favorite place we used to go
The warm embrace that no one knows
The loving look that's left your eyes
That's why this comes as no, as no surprise

If I could see the future and how this plays out
I bet it's better than where we are now
But after going through this, it's easier to see the reason why

It's no surprise I won't be here tomorrow
I can't believe that I stayed till today
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we'll find this was no surprise

The kiss goodnight, it comes with me
Both wrong and right, our memories
The whispering before we sleep, just one more thing that you can't keep
Our favorite place we used to go
The warm embrace that no one knows
The loving look that's left your eyes
But I know in time we'll find this was no surprise

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I always find the songs I choose to describe us now are quite.. cold. And i think this song is best, cos indeed it was surprising then. Maybe even a little for myself. But u know.. it wouldn't have lasted after all that happened.. But I have to admit, these songs never give you enough credit. Despite all the hurt at the end, we did have wonderful times. Perhaps you're also the only one who has ever loved me... You respected me too.. and cherished me.. at some point at least. I gotta thank you. I guess at least with you, I can say I've never felt like I'm being played...
Well, I guess if i'm really being played now, it's really my just desert? haha.
 
Wishing only the best for you...
daph

A smashing start to holidays.

And so the holidays started... Saturday was a smashing opening I suppose :P Me, Ana and Amanda went to the city to get our fix of Harajuku crepes. Yummy!! Then we shopped around and finally had dinner. Let's do the chronological thing!

Me on the bus..

Happy just listening to my music with my pretty earphones :P

Really in a mood to camwhore. These lenses are Geo Angel Blues (if anyone's curious..)

First stop, melbourne central... and it was almost straight to Harajuku crepes! We were soo hungry, haven't had our lunch. Their menu was so drool-worthy that we sat inside and had 2 each! It was also raining and freezing outside, so we hardly wanted to leave!! I had the chicken pizza crepe (savoury) and the Cold Custard and ice cream crepe (cold). Besides the savoury and cold crepes, there are also hot sweet ones and deluxe (think cheesecakes/brownies stuffed inside) ones!

Us happily having our crepes!

My chicken pizza crepe

Cold custard and ice cream crepe

After crepe lunch, we went off to shop around melbourne central. then went to little bourke to find a crumpler specialty shop, where Amanda bought a bag for her bro. I never really took to Crumplers, what with almost every other person donning one back home. But I saw this photo album sititng at the counter and flipped through it... some super cool designs there! The sales guy then told me they were custom made!! That really interested me, gee!! If i ever got a crumpler, I'd definitely get one that is unique to myself. Preferably designed by me too.. ooh yay! The guy gave us a tiny box of crumpler matches before we left, really really tiny! (length's about the diameter of 10c in SG and 5c in AUS) But they work, and we were warned not to burn ourselves lol. cute!

Continued wandering, walking.. and went into Target. We kinda went into a swimsuit frenzy, those at ripcurl, billabong and sea folly were too exp. Haha. The designs were not as nice, but more budget-friendly of course. And I really just wanted practical swimsuit for me to swim in.. figured I wanna swim too!(on top of gym) :D Got a tankini (like finally!) and swim shorts. The other 2 were way too picky so they didn't manage to get anything. We then headed off towards the restaurant that we thought had hotpot (our initial plans!) to meet with Jeri, Vanessa, Gen, Sharon. Alas, there wasn't hotpot there and we walked off to china town to find and nope, no luck. In the end, we just went into a Chinese restaurant selling Hunan(if i'm not wrong) dishes, it was pretty good :D

After dinner, went off to the Asian mart to do some shopping. Whee, happy!

My haul! Vitasoy, Poifull jellybeans, Amond paste, bean biscuit sticks, Tao Kae Noi seaweed snack and Nissin Instant Ramen. w00t!!

Happy to find all these yummy food that i haven't had in a while. Hope the almond paste is any good.. haha. Bought the vitasoy for the days I can't be bothered to eat Glenn breakfast. Reminds me of the early days at IFP riverwalk where I'll grab vitasoy or milo to drink for breakfast everyday. heh. Also reminds me of gege :D

Oh yes, before I end the part on Saturday,gotta show u the crazy fashion I showed off in the city today. Wore my bambi tunic as seen in above photos with ... GOLD LEGGINGS!

Blingbling! Some Asian guys were like staring and pointing on the streets. how rude.

Lol, James saw my tights before I left and was like all "Those are AWESOME TIGHTS!! Never seen anyone wearing golden tights! Where'd u get them? They're golden!!!" Funny as. I thought they actually looked pretty good. So nayy to all u haters.

Yupyup, sunday was a break for me. A bunch of them went to Royal Melbourne show, it's really like a big fun fair with rides and also lots of animals on display.. Too bad I missed it ): What i REALLY missed tho, is the $10 croc deals!! WHAT ON EARTH?! Min bought a pair of crocs slippers(thongs) at just $10!! I rmb gf's croc slippers are so comfy, and I'd have definitely bought them if I saw them. but i didn't go...gah.

And then Monday.. I went to Footscray with Gen, Jerilyn, Rachel, Kerry, Sharon to do rock climbing! w00ts!! I don't have any photos, gotta grab some from the others when they finally upload it lol. (could take a while..) Happy cos I managed to reach one peak at least.  A lot of the walls were so hard! I get stuck halfway and don't know how to get up anymore haha. Managed to get up to certain heights at least. But there were so many walls there, it was fun (:  My forearm is seriously cramping now tho, not fun at all. And apparently I also banged my knees many many times. Resulting in this...

Horrid horrid bruised knees. gah. Check out the left one!

Well, living with the pain right now. Hope it all goes well soon, so i can resume my gym :S Ache ache ache! Also, climbing shoes are such bitches!! I chose to hire them cos they somehow make it easier to climb, compressing the feet and forcing ur toes to point. But it got so bad after climbing a few walls, I thought my 2nd toe on each foot was going to break. I remember thinking "What on earth is a podiatrist like me doing to my own feet?!" Pretty sure it's BAD... no, beyond BAD for the feet. And i was thinking we should totally extend our services to climbing gyms and climbers next time. -nods-

After hours of climbing, went to a Korean-Chinese restaurant on Victoria rd (Haan Guuk Guan). Bbq meat at half price on Mondays!! Super awesome. We ended up with a really cheap meal.. about $8 each for the rest? And $12 for me cos i shared a Dau Bhuk Gee (spicy rice cake) with ana and kerry. still cheap tho, for the amount of food we had. The waiter was seriously impressed, or should i say horrified by how much we could eat. Cos we finished what looked like an over-order. And we also grabbed lots and lots of side dishes (free refills), i won't be surprised if it was like 40+ plates of them.. he thought we wouldn't finish but we did!! he was mumbling "how did u finish?!?" when he collected the plates lol! amazing.. :P

Very satisfying meal, and we all had plans to return, but we're afraid we might be banned :S Ahhh. Korean food FTW! :D I shall leave my Japanese food urge to Singapore. cos i haven't found good ones here yet hah. Shall sign off now~ workworkwork time!

action-packed singapore. geee.

It's F1 Fever in Singapore.. and here I am starting a boooorrrrrinnggg week of hols in melbourne. LOL! I wasn't aware that many stars were in Sg for F1 too!

I knew Lindsay Lohan was gonna be in Singapore, hosting F1 concerts was it? That was thanks to Melv's tweets. And then, I went to look @ LiLo's tweets and realised that Gwen Stefani, Beyonce and Black Eyed Peas were there too!? That's quite a bunch of acts i'd like to catch.. did these things ever happen before I came here? haha. damn!!

I mean, all these acts at once? o.O I'm afraid that perhaps I was just lazy and ill-informed when I WAS actually in Sg? haha. shrugs. I miss Sg.. and all the ppl. but somehow i'm not really in that much of a rush to go back.. Everybody's gonna be gone real soon. Most are leaving shortly after exams. Obviously, I will be delaying since I'm touring Gold coast before coming back... Will miss my Aus friends, my intl friends.. next year will be different yea? i think so.. definitely not the same floormates anymore. As for my intl friends.. hopefully it'll still feel the same when we see each other again.

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Speaking of floormates, my floor's got to be the most exciting ever. After the laundry saga... comes the toilet saga!! *surprise* this one's really EWWWW. and seriously, who the fuck did it?! One of the toilets.. the one closest to the wing entrance.. somebody actually shat (read: shit) on the floor?! like, right next to the toilet bowl in the first cubicle (only 2 cubicles). WTF?!!? yea i saw it. sheesh!! and then, Curt was being all creative and "sealed" the toilet with toilet paper (think a big X)and pasted a sign saying "warning: biohazard" and another saying "Do not enter unless you want to pick shit off the floor" LOL!!! It was further "sealed" entirely with newspapers, but that was torn off by his morning...

It's amazing what happens around here.. and we've been spamming messages on facebook trying to get the culprit to just remove it. but nope.. I just pity the cleaning lady. She must go crazy when she sees it!! Glad this toilet's actually the furthest from me! Phew~

being a fangirl/ holiday plans/ ISA ball/ Wet lab session

Are you a fan of Hugh Jackman? You should be! Haha. Random question, I know.. Min posted a video of Hugh and Daniel (Henney) on a Korean variety show (Gold Miss is coming). It was part 2 of a series of 4 videos, and I went to watch the entire clip, and found part 3 to be my favourite :P

NOT for the faint-hearted obviously, I argued it was crazy to put both Daniel and Hugh in one film, are they trying to make girls hyperventilate?? lol. Anyway, I love this vid because the Korean girl Bong Sun is such a funny character, I love how she dares to put herself out there and you gotta admit, those are some smoooooth dance moves!

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did lol. I also happened to watch Hugh Jackman's opening number when he hosted the Oscars, that was awesome too! How not to love him?! And to think I am now residing in his home country, I can't help but imagine how he must've grown up and the culture he was brought up in. Perhaps Syd and Melb are slightly different, but still, essentially Australian. I can't help but also look around to see if I've missed seeing any potential Hughs around me lol. *shrugs* i'll never know.

Adding to Hugh fangirl mode, I've also been having a bout of beatlemania in my room, watching two of their films "Hard Days Night" and "Help!". Geez. the boys are all really cute. I love Ringo!! Ahem. Their soundtracks are all provided by themselves of course, so I got to hear my songs. Still mostly love songs though, gonna venture into their later works which I read are darker. No surprise, since it should correspond with the dynamics and mood of the band as they matured, especially leading on to their breakup. 

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The draft exam timetable is out, 13th Nov is my last day. that's really early. And Jia's probably coming to visit me. Make that HE IS. unless he procrastinates and somehow is not coming anymore. lol. in which case, he'd get slaughtered by me when i get back to sg. (after all that researching on flights and accomodation in syd and gold coast!!) Yea, he'll probably come a few days after my exams end and we'll be going to Gold coast, sydney and also bring him around Melbourne before heading back home. Need time to pack too.. phew~ what a load of mess in my mind right now. Wanna settle this by tmr, including my flight tix for home and back. This travel snob (me) is gonna fly SQ again. I insist.

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The ISA ball went pretty alright! It was nice to have so many friends together at a ball. As usual, it was fun dressing up and helping others doll up too (: Altho that resulted in quite a mess, since my room was the centre of activity again. XP After loads of dress and shoes-swapping and fitting, we finally decided on our outfits. Helped a few girls with makeup and hair.

The food wasn't fantastic, but the company made up for it. And I managed to get quite a few good pics of myself, happy!

The menu

The best presented dish. Dessert: Chocolate mousse!

5 daph(c) masked ladies. (i.e. masks made by me lol)

Without mask. Rachel, Daphne, Qimin, Ling Chi, Amanda.

Unfortunately we do not have a full table photo.

Qimin and me.

Me and Mandy~

Right, Center, Left. :D Me, Sheng, Ana.

Gf and I~ One of my fav photos!! love!

For more glamorous and gorgeous ppl, please check out my photo album on facebook lol. the link is meant to be public, so tell me if it doesn't work for you.

Lastly, I just gotta be vain and post 2 more photos of myself :P

Towards end of night..

Love my nails and accessories! Like how I put it together? :D

The Anna Sui Rouge Ring is from Mag jie~

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Oh yea, had my first wet lab session yesterday. Meaning seeing cadavers, mostly cut to see the spinal cord. Was a little creepy obviously, it'd be quite scary finding it natural the first time... The smell was alright for me, just.. the idea and the first sight, got me a little wobbly in the legs. We took it slow though, so I did not get to see any heads, I think that'd reallly freak me out, not to mention completely destroying my appetite. In fact, my appetite was slightly disturbed yesterday. Just any form of meat seemed.. too familiar.

Thinking how these people agreed to donate their bodies for the sake of our study like that, that's really quite something. How many people would?! They get my respect, cos what do they get out of it anyway? Rather selfless.. and.. I just feel like we ought to always treat these preserved cadavers with dignity somehow. Alright, better not relive this memory too much before dinner again..

my recent masterpieces.

very proud to present to you all my latest pieces of artwork.. heh. hear hear!! :D

The story starts here... the international student association (ISA) in La Trobe is having a ball this Saturday at the eagle bar. 5-course meal and free flow drinks for $35. And a night of fun with all my international friends! (of course, we'll get to meet new ppl too) But yes, i expect it'll be fun! A whole bunch of us Glennies are going! So, lets take a close look at the ticket..

Doubt you can read the fine words well, but yes.. the last line sums it up, it's a tribal masquerade!! Well, it's not compulsory for tribal, but i think i'll take a stab at being tribal :D and obviously, we need a mask!!

Amanda and I ventured out to Northland 2 days ago to find our mask. But couldn't find one! Well, we found this shop that sold these really elaborate and beautiful masks but they were like.. $30?! It was pretty steep.. Earlier I'd also wanted to get this headband from diva that had feather features, but it was pricey and it dawned on me i could just get a plain headband and DIY myself :P So i said "i wonder if we can get feathers..." And amanda had a brilliant idea that there was a craft shop nearby. We hopped in and there were packs of turkey feathers lol. and lots of crafty stuff.. so we bought our materials..

All the materials used.

The plain mask, most important.

Coloured honeycomb mesh (suggested by Amanda, which was totally inspiring!) and tape.

Red, gold, silver round sequins and silver diamond sequins!

Turkey feathers in white, pen knife, scissors and craft glue.

I somehow could imagine what colours to use.. but no concrete plans. The colours and style is very me. a bit bling and glam lol :P I'm so happy with how they turned out, just let the creative juices flow... impressed! wahaha. Well, my virgin masquerade! Of course, u'd like to go in a big way :P So anyways, in the last 2 nights, i've churned out 4 masks! I went according to their outfits.. and there's one for me, amanda, qimin and rachel. One left to do, that's for ling gf.. gave one plain mask to ana to let her do her thing haha. since i got rachel and ling to go, and didn't tell them it's a masquerade, decided to do for them wahaha. i was also admittedly quite addicted and curious what else could come out of me.. whee~

My first creation! Qimin's. Super glam, assymetrical design.

Right eye.

Left eye ++

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Cool Blue theme for Amanda.

Closeup.

Feather feature.

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Mine! Really hard to work with the feathers.

Lots of obtrusive stalks to hide. haha.

Mine's like the plainest, but very feathery.

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Did this last night. Went with red but not overly so, since Rachel'll be wearing my red dress. Minimised on the mesh. (:

Yep, that's it! Comments please? :D Waiting for Ling to decide what to wear, then i'll do hers. can't wait! Gonna trademark all my masks. wahaha.