of such essence

i had a stalker day

the forecast for saturday was beautiful. or so BOM said.
but as usual, they got it wrong.

- enter sadface here -

after having a very lazy morning (by which i mean waking up at 1pm), i decided to further feed my desire to procrastinate studying by going out for a shopping walk with rach.

first stop: get our FAME tickets!! it was funny because we actually pre-bought our tickets online, but had to bring a print out to the box office so we could pick the actual show and seats. we left the house, and it wasn't until we were halfway down campbell st that we realized that we forgot to bring the print out with us! being technologically optimistic, albeit feeling very very lazy, i convinced rach to not walk home saying, "nah - don't worry!! just use your iphone!! they've gotta accept that!" but no.

we got to the box office a few minutes later and the chick was kind enough to tell us that we had to bring actual hard-copies of the vouchers. so after a good two minutes of discussion to see if the walk back was worth it, off we went, walking back up the 'hill' to grab the papers.

half way back, a terribly asian internet cafe caught my eye. at that moment, i decided it'd be worth paying however much it cost to print it out, so long as i didn't have to walk all the way back home again! so we did this. and you know what? that internet cafe rocks! they give you five free minutes and their net is super super fast! the added bonus was that if you managed to finish what you needed to do in the first five minutes, you could print anything for 15c per sheet. so. it paid off. 60c later and miles and miles saved of walking (=p), we were back at the box office choosing our seats.

mission accomplished.

the afternoon got more interesting as it went by.

after doing our shopping (i picked up a new pair of havaianas! yay!), we walked outside and it was absolutely pouring down with rain. again, me being lazy and having been incredibly impractical about my outfit for the day (i chose to wear a dress... of all things), i managed to convince rach that taking the 555 was a much smarter choice than walking all the way home in the rain.

30 minutes (i still shake my fist at sydney buses), one phone call and two eavesdropped conversations later, we got on the crowded bus to get home. but this is when the annoying moment hit. okay, so i'm not always huge on etiquette. but the one thing i have learned that i am very serious about: bus etiquette and elderly people. this is one rule that people just should NOT break!

given the rain, there were heaps of people waiting and it was a big rush to get on. shortly after us, an ah-mah got on, carrying a number of heavy looking enviro bags overflowing with groceries and produce. she had to have been at least 70 or 75. so you know how on every bus, there are two front seats and then six of those priority seats going along the side of the bus? well, on the left priority seats, there was one young girl (17-18ish) carrying st. john ambulance stuff, with a middle-aged couple seated next to her. on the right priority seat, there were 3 middle aged men. granted there were a few people standing in the way, but this granny was forced to stand, managing her bags, wedged between people, with no able-bodied person offering to give her a seat! but the real cheese-off were these two who had squished themselves onto the front seat.

obviously, this photo was taken after the granny had gotten off the bus. but when she was still on (and STANDING... WITH her heavy bags), she was right next to these two - and they fully ignored her! i could swear that when the granny accidentally bumped into the dude, he just turned, gave her a look, then with a shake of his head, went back to flirting with his girl.

man that was annoying.

i was going on and on about it on the bus to rach, with us coming to the conclusion that these two were most likely not from here. a few minutes later we get to central and these two get off. rach and i get off shortly after and start walking home. as we do, we passed a couple of shops along elizabeth street. and guess who we see! the smoochy couple, stopping at a laundromat (who offer a bag storage facility for $3 per luggage bag/day), to collect their bags!

i have one word plus a shake of my head.

tourists. =.=

more from the sing-off

okay. after an hour of you-tubing, i now feel the need to post like 10 more clips here.

but, i'll settle for this one.

their rhythmic layering in ABC is... just. wow.

i feel that i should also mention that they're from san juan, puerto rico. the accent of the 'i'll be there' soloist makes it complete. =p

the sing-off.

hosted by nick lachey. (shawn stockman's a judge on it!!)

the ENTIRE thing is a capella.

see here: NOTA (2009 winners) singing Down.

they're crazy and amazing.

problem free philosophy

today = last day of classes.

it's amazing. it was said multiple times today alone, but seriously? where has this year gone! i could swear that only a week ago, i was packing up crazy amounts of boxes in my room back home, trying to make copious notes and lists of things that i was leaving behind. now we're nine months down the track, and i'm still left with lots of lists and lots of boxes.

in terms of today's activities, in addition to getting freaked out by last classes and past exam papers, both of which served as solid reminders of how much work i HAVE NOT done during semester, the downside of today was that it also bore some not so good news.

at the same time, while not so good news is just that: not so good, the positive part is that it's always accompanied by warranted procrastination!

after refusing to go home, i ended up train-ing it over to rach's office in north sydney, where she put me to work pummelling everything i was feeling into getting these goodie bags sorted for a technology expo that's happening next week. in total there were around 800 bags? intense!! as we left, there were stacked bags everywhere, all over the office!

note: the hello panda fuel.

the second great thing about not so good news is: shouting. and by this i mean. rach was sweet: she bought me dinner. =p

for now, bad news or not. the reality is that exams start in seven days. which means. necessary end of procrastination and. even more necessary end of getting caught up in thoughts that i should leave alone for now.

so you know what? i've decided to reconcile two themes:
(1) phil 4:6 - be anxious for nothing; and
(2) hakuna matata. =D

trends

i am surely guilty of repetitious behaviour.

every exam period, without fail, i end up watching a season of gilmore girls. until this is done, studying can't start.

12 days until the first exam.

guess i should be glad i'm on disc 6. =)

little gifts.

leaving off from last time, i said that all i've got left are questions.

since then, i've come to the conclusion that questions are most definitely a good thing. i need to question progress, achievements, goals, attitudes, faith. why? because therein lies the potential to grow.

due to my 'mood' this week, my music playlist turned out being a heck of a lot more somber than usual. but for some reason, this song was at the top of the list. eventually, i just deleted everything else and hit 'repeat'.

after listening to it about 15 times, i looked up the lyrics and realized that this says something that's actually really, very true. here goes:

I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them...

it's true. it might all have been in one day's work, but i'm glad to know now that my 'worst curse' has officially been absolved: i actually DO know what i'm thankful for.

aren't you glad? 'coz now i can be all smiles. again. =)

and lastly, just a side note: although i often think it's wrong for boys to be able to sing so high, sam and nick. they do it so well, don't they?

my mind is a jungle

last night, prior to clean up, i had 1.4GB left on my 200GB mac hard drive.

my pet peeve: having no space on my hard drive.

but. i realise that my mind is a jungle.

here's an example of how my thought process have been recently. just to demonstrate this psychosis.

START
(1) obviously, if i have no free space left on my hard drive, i must be accumulating lots of junk.
(2) i then realise that i'm evidently technologically incompetent because i can never figure out how to properly diagnose the proper way to delete things on a mac coz when i delete stuff, it hardly changes the hard drive stats.
(3) the thought of junk then makes me think of my room and all the unnecessarily unpacked boxes i have.
(4) then, gosh. how much stuff have i left in perth!! i should really bring more stuff over.
(5) but where to put everything!
(6) the lack of PHYSICAL storage space in my room now. need to buy a new cupboard.
(7) oh my goodness i'm never buying IKEA furniture again coz it's so dodgy.
(8) i'm annoyed that i get annoyed every morning when i yet again, realise that one cupboard door doesn't close and that my drawers can't take all my clothes because otherwise they'll break.
(9) i still think i don't have enough clothes over here.
(10) i should really go shopping. especially for work clothes.
(11) wow i saw a really nice bag in mimco the other day. it was on sale from $480 to $200. my heart broke when i left it in the store.
(12) i haven't actually bought my annual bag this year. surprise surprise.
(13) the ted baker range was weirdly bad this season.
(14) i started carrying my pink canvas ted baker to uni because my other uni bag broke.
(15) man it's sad that i forgot to stop by a zinc in singapore to restock [on bags].
(16) i forgot to buy a bag. but i did buy shoes. =D.
END

okay i know 16 is a weird number to end on. but quite literally, that's where my thought process ended. i went from... not enough space on my hard drive, ending up at buying shoes in singapore. leaps and bounds.

it's probably because i'm tired and my mind keeps jumping around radically. but. bob [the "neighbourhood" cat who loves to sit on our front porch for days on end, even though we still don't know whether he has an owner yet, but assume he does because he's pretty and clean and looks very well fed] randomly came in to the house the other day [as he does] and let me take photos of him as photographic evidence that he exists. he expressed exactly what i think i should be feeling.

for those of you who haven't met bob yet. now you have.

too much fun

i can't believe break is over.

the past two weeks flew by. i did no uni work (yay!). and now i feel like an absolute time waster (boo!).

yesterday was EPIC fun. a bunch of us got together to celebrate (belatedly), two friends' birthdays. combine awesome food (wooooot to karaage!!) and great company with a blank wall, projector and guitar hero... that sounds to me like an awesome way to spend an afternoon. or.... a whole day.

BUT! yesterday also marked the first time going to the fish markets! i officially love that place now! and given how close it is to home, i am foreseeing a heck of an increase in the amount of seafood that's going to be cooked in our kitchen. i am all smiles for the sashimi too. though, the live crabs and marrons still freak me out terribly.

yum yum yum.

and the CAKE. wow. sumani did an awesome job.

how amazing are those strawberry flowers!! the only one thing to deplore, is that someone had to ruin the moment by breaking into song, singing 'strawberry kisses'.

one word: scarrage.

but now. i think. enough play. time to start getting head down bum up into all this uni work!! =p or at least, to merit by trying.

travels

one thing to add to the list of why i love living in sydney is being able to drive elsewhere. i realize that this is quite contradictory in the sense that people usually move to sydney to experience city-life itself. but for me, with a love for scenic drives and day-trips to outer country towns and all, being able to get out of the city to a small town within two hours is a big big bonus.

i suppose you could do this from perth too, but having grown up there takes the fun out of it!

anyhow! rach and i now have a thing about using our saturdays as road-trip days. it's been great! i keep telling myself that i need to put together a list of surrounding areas/towns that i want to travel to before the year's end.

wollongong: 3rd july

this roadtrip was entirely spontaneous. woke up in the morning and decided to jump in the car and drive. half way there, we saw a sign saying 'grand pacific drive' and thought... "why not?"

well, as it turns out, one reason for us to hesitate should've been the lack of petrol in our car. YET. we were quite ignorant and didn't realize just how low we were until we were so far in the national park that it didn't make sense to turn around. and with our mobiles out of reception for a lot of the time, we had our fingers crossed SO hard that we would pass a petrol station. after passing 2 ancient and closed stations, we finally got to one, just in time. =p let's just say that that experience taught us two things: (1) running out of petrol can potentially be a really exciting way to liven up a road-trip; but more importantly and perhaps more wisely, (2) you should always check petrol levels in your car PRIOR to entering a deserted national park.

despite gunning for a petrol station and missing half of the scenic stops along the way, we still managed to pull over a few times to take in the scenery. i gotta admit, i'm in love with bald hill and sea cliff bridge.

beautiful. just beautiful.

canberra: 13th august

from the extremely weird toll booth to the tent embassy in front of old parliament house, canberra really was all that i thought it was going to be. i'm glad we got a chance to do a tour of the parliament museum - but my only wish would've been to have gotten the chance to do it when i was a lot younger. after learning that most nsw kids get to tour there during primary school at some point, i feel like wa kids really missed out! =p

the trip to canberra also gave us the chance to catch up with our cousin, sherman! this was pretty awesome, seeing that we haven't actually seen each other in around 5 years? go figure. everyone's moving to australia now!

the big yay from the trip, was that we got to see the high court! the sadness factor kicked in when we realized that they were both closed and under construction. those two things don't make for a very picturesque opportunity.

home food

mum's worried that we don't eat right over here. so i started taking photos to testify otherwise.

with the kitchen renovations over and done with, of course we couldn't let the new oven go to waste! as a result (and of serious cravings too), there's been lots of baking.