I got this pic off this a blog that was big on optical illusions. Somehow I can't seem to find the link to the site at the moment, but I'll post it up once I do. Interesting no? Suddenly he doesn't look all too saintly no more. Be afraid, very veeery afraid.

Daylight savings starting tomorrow... with people reminding me left and right about it, there's no way I can not remember to set my clock one hour forward. Makes me wonder though, it's supposed to start at 2 am tomorrow morning, as in it's supposed to be changed to 3 am. My computer's time is supposed to automatically adjust the time by itself. So if I leave my laptop on through the whole night, would I see it go from 1.59 am to 3 am?? Stupid question, but I'm still curious nontheless.

And my sense of direction/ memory is certainly lousy. Trying to remember the name of the motel that mum and sibs stayed at last time up in Upper Ricc, but after trawling around the yellow pages and looking up the maps, I can't say for sure which one it was. Nana will have to choose one I guess :P



HX music practice is going well. Next Thursday's rehearsal and then the performance on Friday, and then we'll be done for the year! Oh, and the lunch together on the Saturday following. Not to forget! I must remember to make a booking asap too *scribbles furiously in diary*! Apparently song titles don't always lend themselves well to translation. Tao Hua Xiang (Village of the Peach Blossoms) translates into Kampung Bunga Pic -_-" - sounds wrong to me somehow... But it's all going good, and now with a bass guitar playing the cello part, the songs are complete, beautiful. *sigh of contentment*

Came across this today at http://www.poetry.com. I've always thought this was *just* some little nursey rhyme (and I didn't know nursery rhymes had authors... as in besides the usual anon. as the author haha), or at least I heard it a looong time ago when nana still read to us bedtime stories... to think it's listed as one of the 100 Greatest Poems Ever Written by the site! LOL!


The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose. '

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

~ Edward Lear (1812-1888)

Image from http://www.igimages.co.uk

Was dealing with justice in our PDS lecture today. How does one ration health care? And we were given an exercise to do during that lecture. Essentially we were supposed to imagine ourselves as members of the board of a DHB facing some serious financial problems and would have to decide which services that would have to be cut, and also be able to give reasons for them. There was the neonatal intensive care unit, anti-smoking education for school children, helicopter rescue service, cataract operations, hospice, CADS, appearance surgery unit, A and E, patient's services, and management to think about. Practically everyone agreed on cutting funds for the management, appearance surgery unit and anti-smoking education for school children. The hospice was a fav for cuts amongst a lot of people, though I thought that was one where there should be not cuts. I thought it cruel to cut funds to it though, even though it's not going to save lives (most of the others that were given the definitely no cuts options were essentially those that would save lives), it would mean a lot of people would have to spend their last days in... pain? That would be a sucky way to go... :(

And apparently there are two primary values relating to justice here. Need and benefit. Both, the lecturers made out, were morally empty on their own. How does one decide whose need is greater? And is it better to have one healthy person or many healthy persons? The answer to that last question seems obvious, but the lecturer gave this analogy - Chuck is healthy, and has seven friends who are in need of organs to save their lives or they'll die soon, AND they each need different organs, all of which Chuck would be able to provide, and once they get the organs they require they'll be perfectly healthy again. So, to maximise benefit, does one kill Chuck and donate his organs to his friends? It's a disgusting thought, but a lot like the one where a Pharm friend of mine related to me -- do you pull the lever to change the tracks so that the train that is coming would not run over your close friend, sending the people in the train to their deaths as the train derails? Or do you let your friend get crushed to mush, and spare the hundreds of train passengers? Hard decisions to make here.

The ethics tutorial was next. More of these sort of questions that take us around in circles, questions to which we know we'll never have the right answer for. Lifeboat will take 8 people, and you've got 17 potential survivors. Who would you choose to take? An interesting thing that came out was that practically everyone scratched out Toni, the drug addict first. Are we right in judging who gets to live based on their lifestyles? I mean, yes, there's no point saving people, giving value to their lives, if they don't even value it themselves in the first place. But when I think of it, it sounds very judgemental of us to do so. And tossing a die to randomly choose people so that we don't appear to be assigning value to peoples' lives may sound like an easy way out, but when one is going to have to live on an uninhabited island with the other 7 people with small hope of being rescued anytime soon, it doesn't seem very practical either...

4 more Renal Physiol lectures to 'look forward' to... *note my sarcasm* I mean, he knows his stuff, sure, but there's no point if the way you present it in such a way that you lose your students along the way :( I'm struggling to keep awake... HELP!

Got my reference letter and certificate at last for the mentoring programme. Yipee!

LOL, was given this link by a friend http://www.newssocket.com/features/article/231/ Yes, it's a really interesting read indeed :P

Path tute finished early today as usual, which was a good thing. The last photo specimen they gave was that of an anus, a very .... sad and painful looking anus of a suferer of Crohn's. Golly, never did I thought that fistulas could open up onto the surface of the skin. And after that comment by the tutor, about some kid from a previous session mistaking it for a mouth (well, it did look elongated I suppose... but nevertheless!!), it was just so hard to not laugh.

As for the physiol case wrap-up this time, the facilitator was Mr.I've-no-idea-what-his-name-is... picture to the left. It's fairly IN-accurate this time. LOL! Despite Q pointing out the finer details of his hair (or rather the lack of) and wrinkles, and so on *shrug* Rather lousy photo I'll admit but without a photo editor and a *ahem* better (?) camera... *hint hint* :P He's really funny though... and his rendition of how an evil H.Pylori bacterium would sound like chuckling away as it 'swam' into the deep dark recesses of some unfortunate's stomach was absolutely hilarious!

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
~ Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens] (1835-1910)

If all pulled in one direction, the world would keel over.
~ Yiddish proverb

Pwned the Cal test as I promised to yesterday. Well, kinda. I didn't get any marks out of the last question though and that was the only question I lost marks on. Yay! Should have paid a little more attention to my Physiol notes. Ah well, as least that's the end of someone trying to rub it in ;)

Shouldn't have bothered to do those questions for the Pharm tute since they gave us 20 whole minutes (!! goodness, weren't we supposed to finish it before anyway?) at the start to do them. It kind of defeats the purpose of giving us the handouts a whole week earlier then -_-" But at least I understood fully what was being discussed later. Which is I guess a payoff good as any for that work I did the whole night yesterday!

Fringe festival was surprisingly good. Was small, casual and interesting. Even though many of the performers pulled out last minute and in the end having only 6 performances tonight. SL and I did that duet item thingy. And there was a 'fight' by two knights in armour, an interactive medieval dance, a chi-gong thingy which I didn't really get, songs by the Cantores choir (hmmm... I might consider joining next year) and a belly dance by an Egyptian girl which I must say was (besides that medieval dance item) the one I enjoyed most. And any one keen on going to the Afro cultural night thingy? It's only 5 bucks and it seems really interesting. Next Saturday night :P ....

Called home yesterday. Nothing much said. Just basically reconfirming all that I've already known since a long time ago. Stuff that when one thinks of it carefully, would be thankful for and yet cannot but help feel a little creeped out by it all the same. LOL!

Nothing much today. Started class pretty late in the day again, so much of the morning was spent looking through stuff for SI4. My overconfidence tripped me up however in the Cal test today. Grrr... I'll make sure I pass tomorrow!

Practiced that piece by Bach today. This version seems harder than the one I played some years back. Or maybe it's the effect of having fingers so badly rusted from the lack of practice. Either way, it's not helping. Not that it's going to stop me from getting it as perfect as possible for next week cos I'm so not going to sing. Ha!

And yes, apparently a fuhrer cannot say that she cannot fail. Simply because by saying that, one is already admitting that one is failing to fail... Does that make sense? -\(o.O)/- *what sort of twisted logic is that?* *one of a kind, one that only a mad mad little kiddy can come up with*

Got the soundtrack to this today. Listening to it at the moment. So far it seems promising, though it's the music sounds a little haunting.

Well, our little performance today was not too bad. I thought we did pretty well, and I'm personally happy that we didn't do that swaying thingy that the rest were so keen on simply because everyone forgot about it when it came to the real thing in the end. LOL!

Had lunch at the Esplanade. Turns out that was the Italian restaurant that B was talking about. Was quite nice. The pizzas were quite interesting, though the choices were a little limited. The carbonara was quite good, not too heavy as I had expected. Just the right amount of creaminess ^_^

Forgot my keys again... -_-" darn, i seem to be forgetting things a lot lately... was shut out, so took a little trip down to the library until the rest came back and were around to let me in. This WILL be the last time I forget my keys again. Lesson learnt ;P

Life can be as beautiful as you imagine it to be, you just have to believe...

Practice was good today, but unfortunate that one of our songs was rejected simply because it was done last year. We'll have to find a replacement song soon then. Or just make do with one. *shrug* Still not sure. Will have a look through what others songs we can give them. I'm pretty glad that this will be the last performance of the year...

And I understand why Q says Korea House is the best of all the Korean restaurants in Dunedin at last. Went there for dinner today and had some sort of casserole thingy. They didn't really said it was a spicy thing in the menu, but I was really surprised and happy (eh, happy? I meant overjoyed!) when the casserole turned out to be really hot! They even threw on the chilli and you could see the little flakes on it... something you don't see often in this little countryside. Delish is the only reply I have. Poor T found the heat 'borderline' and nearly overdosed on the water. Pervert that I am enjoyed my 'torture' tremendously, LOL!

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it. ~ William James

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact. ~ William James

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. ~ Emily Dickinson

Lab first thing today. Was a few minutes late, but not that it mattered... seems like it's becoming a class trend to be late, be it lectures or tutorials or labs... well, not everyone indulges in it but it somehow has become something acceptable. Not that I plan to be late again! We worked ultra slowly through the stuff today, and wasn't even finish by the time Pep started his feedback. After was a tute, nothing to do with cystic fibrosis it turned out but more on diarrhoea. By the time the facilitator handed out the test results, everyone had already started shutting down. Only thing that alleviated our boredom for a moment was the sight of a few jets doing some exercises in the sky... then back to being bored. The guy sitting opposite even fell asleep... certainly did nothing to help keep me from feeling sleepy! Clinical demonstration afterwards. They brought in an 8 year old this time. Was really a sweet little thing. Or at least seemed so from afar LOL! Such a wee little thing that he was practically swimming in the one-seater couch they gave him.

Handed in my lifestyle project report today. And then skipped over to NW for fun. Note to self: remember to do shopping tomorrow. Running low on some stuff.

Choir practice after. Pianist didn't turn up, again! *grumbles* I had to 'sit in', I wonder how we are going to coordinate properly this Sunday... hmm... *fingers crossed* Was made to wear a hanbok for the practice today. No idea why though, since Q and S certainly neglected to bring along theirs! It's a little short for me, but *shrug* beggars can't be choosers I guess. It's pretty but not the best thing to put on when one has to walk up and down stairs! Nearly tripped and fell over a few times :S

And I think I have fallen down into the abyss now. I give up trying to resist. No point living if one is not willing to see what life has to offer. To hell with what others think or say. Since they practically assume it now. Hopefully I don't come to regret it later.

http://www.johnnies-seiten.de/fotogalerie

Probably not the appropriate photo to post anymore, since it's coming to spring now. Noticed for the first time today that the cherry tree outside the dent building has started covering itself in green again, instead of just those delicate white flowers which I've gotten so used to. And all this can only mean one thing -- warmer days are ahead! And that means summer break can't be all that far away too! Yipee!

Three lectures today. Was pretty boring. First two was about the health care system here. Not boring, as in content boring. Not what I would call particularly exciting, but it's just something so distant in the context of my life at the moment that I can't help but drift off into my daydreams again. Oops! Should I even be telling you guys this?!

Did some practice today for this Saturday. Doing piece #8. Not that hard, just that the arpeggios-like parts does require me to pay attention when I'm playing. Considering how I'm the type that actually need to be in the mood to practice/ play, this means I can be a bit inconsistent I guess? Not that I can afford to be so come Friday. Haha! Sigh, and I really want my own piano... *sniffles* I'm sick of browsing all those catalogues and drooling and lusting over those pianos I can't have at the moment... but until I do settle down more or less in a place, not one of these crummy flats, that's one plan I'll have to put on hold *screams in frustration*

And the big shots wanted us to wear white today in support of UN's Peace Day. But considering how ***** it is, I just couldn't bring myself to wear white. Not on Thursday too! Of all days. Thursday should be for wearing black. Thursdays in Black: Demanding a world without rape and violence in our community, remember?! Not that I wore black today anyway. LOL! I will in future! Meanwhile, here a photo/ phrase from the campaign that I've always liked *no, I'm not morbid, it's just so simple and it hits the nail right on the head, so how can I not like it?*

http://www.students.org.nz/index.php?page=thursdaysinblack

Pretty busy morning... physiol lab was 'interesting' in a disgusting (??) sort of way. We got, or rather, were made, to play with bits of rabbit ileum. I couldn't really bring myself to stick the needle into it (and I noticed that the rabbit mesenteric arteries were still bright red... wow! They should just let us study rabbits, instead of those preserved stuff :P) so my lab partner had to do it. Not that she minded. She was giggling as she stuck the bit of intestine, going 'poor bunny' as she threaded it with the cotton :S Eeeps!

Nothing much else to report today I'm afraid. Got the double whammy for the physiol case this time... at least it's not the one requiring me to do graphs :P and spent some time up at Celeb Squares to do a lil' recharging though hunger pangs forced me to abandon it halfway through...

And I've finally got the OST to Corpse Bride! Yippee! I'm trying to get Amarantine but sadly, without much success. And I'm still looking for Wondrous Love. Can't seem to find it anywhere. And the CD shop at Meridian said they'll have to ship it, and after converting it from US dollars, it's gonna cost me pretty much $50... darn it... why did I have to lose mine! Speaking of which, I overheard (not that I meant to! He spoke loud enough in the library to wake up the dead) a guy saying "When you lose something, you usually don't know where it is anymore". Duh. Otherwise it cannot be counted as lost. LOL!

2nd part of the progress test today. Not much difference from the 1st part yesterday. Blur as ever as to what the questions are asking about. Don't get how Greg could say that those were his fav exams. Sure, you can't study for it, but I rather sit a test where I at least have some idea what's going on! Kartagener's disease and Goodpasture's something and Penicillin and Tetanus and Gonoreal blah blah popping up here and there randomly... nothing I know about for sure... makes me feel so small... :( *shakes head* LOL! Well, we'll see how I went when the results get back... hopefully it'll be within the class average again... or above *fingers crossed -- fat chance!* Haha!

Clock by Rusiko Beraia

Love the colour.

Nothing much as usual. Did some work for metabolism in the morning and then the CAL test earlier this evening. Passed but not as well as I had hoped. Nitrogen excretion nearly got me.

Was rather windy today and got a bit cold towards the evening. Did a grammar check on Q's essay, not that I'm an expert neways, LOL! Had dinner with them at Seoul afterwards. I had no idea that the soft beancurd was also called jelly tofu and could be used in soups/ stews! Was really good though. And apparently dooboojiggae means 'army stew'. Apparently army food aren't meant to be posh, though it does taste quite good :P. I should learn to start carrying my camera around with me. The stew looked so good, steaming and all. It would have made a pretty picture :D! Must get a better camera later this year.. hm...

Was planning to skip choir practice today but absentees forced me to stay... a LOT longer than I had planned to. Lost hours = less work done. Sigh... after next week's combined service, I really am gonna stop going.

Weather hasn't been kind lately. Today it was sunny, warm even when it wasn't windy. When the wind blew, it really was chilling to the bone. And it rained. At least it didn't hail as predicted earlier in the week. Nice spring day I must say. LOL!

Nothing much else today. This is the second day I've bumped into Yangdali. Somehow seeing him always made me feel uneasy. Same goes for Ra. I don't really care what others say *oh, it's just that he's got a naughty face... rriiiiggght* but rather he stays far away. Ever since he made that comment *what da heck was he thinking anyway?? stupid, trying to make enemies of friends or something?* I've disliked him.

And herb pasta sauce with beans rock! So that's dinner next week sorted :D

No idea where I got this picture from anymore...

Nothing much today. Practice went well. That international student rep and his friend dropped by wanting to join us today. I'm not sure what his real intentions are, but he better not be trying to use us, or I'll chop off his head. LOL! And Br's dad bought some pastries for us today. It was really nice of him. Br said it was for the nice performance on Saturday ^_^! It makes me think of those times after our piano practical exams where Nana would take us out for shaved ice at that funny little Chinese-style pavillion... I always thought that it was somewhat dilapidated, what with grass starting to grow from the roof and the floor being uneven and cracked and all, but not that it minded at all... Sigh, I miss those good times... it makes all that stress all the more worth it. I wonder if that place is still open? It's been ages since my last exam and when I last been around Kch.

And I've no idea what I am or what I want... but I know I'm no sheep. Never was and never will.

Azuzephre's Pon and Zi

SO CUTE! *gushes*

More here http://azuzephre.net/gallery/

Today's Integrative Day topic was Bulimia. The guest speaker they invited today gave rather conflicting ideas. X said it wasn't about weight, but then before that she talked about how in the hospital, the reward-punishment system they used was rather ineffective for her as it 'advertised' how much weight she would have put on since admission. I'm confused alright. The main message I got today though was to treat all patients as individuals. She was saying how put off she was when her nurse said to her something along the lines of "I know how to treat you, I've read all the relevant textbooks". Someone could sure use a couple of Communication tutorials...

There was a plenary session afterwards, and it was a rather boring one. I can't believe how computer-illiterate my lecturers are. *Just click the damn Restart Later button for heaven's sake!* After much ado, the lecturers got onto talking about their slides in turns. The psychiatrist guy seemed really bored throughout most of that hour and somehow his looks were so... funny? Maybe it's his thinning hair... maybe it's his medieval moustache-beard combo... but I just couldn't resist drawing this sketch of him. And then it clicked. He looked just like one of those old textbook pictures of King Henry VIII.

And here's a picture of the old bugger for you to compare. I've no idea if he suffers from male pattern baldness of course. LOL! Perhaps if he puts on a little more weight, then I think they would look all the more alike.

Wait, I did pay attention during the session though. There was this question directed at our ethicist for the day - "Why is it ok to force feed an anorexic but not starve obese people or force them to lose weight?". That stumped the guy. He shrugged and then said that he thought that it might be the way we've been 'taught' or trained to think that starving someone is wrong and so on... not very convincing. I wonder though, why bother forcing the obese guy to lose weight? He's not gonna die anytime soon from his obesity. By soon, I mean as in almost immediately. The anorexic could die anytime soon. I've heard of people dying of anorexia before, and seeing pictures of anorexics is enough to make me want to force feed them too!

Choir practice again today. My afternoon practice at the Practice Room turned out to be for naught. But then again I rather sing, but I wish they would put me back into my original group. I can't be held accountable for whatever my voice does during it's attempt to hit those high notes... *cringe* And cough isn't getting much better. Singing does irritate it somewhat... where's that bottle of codein when you want it??

With that final push, in front of those potential chattering monkeys, one can expect nothing less than wildfire. Alas, I'm falling into that terrifying pit of unknowns, or have I already hit the bottom? Is there a way out of the blackness that clouds my eyes?

Do the faces we see everyday truly reflect the person within? How do we know that what we see isn't just a temporary facade put on for our benefit? Do we even know ourselves? My brain has two personalities, two voices, and they can't seem to agree... Having to change from one skin to another is weird when one thinks of it, not to mention tiring at times...

From http://foodcraft.blogspot.com/

I've never liked that big yellow bird, but somehow, seeing his friends preparing to feast on him is a little traumatising... Look how happy Bert is! A rarity indeed!

Nothing much today. Went through the service and then skipped the choir practice and ran with T to St. Paul's for the concert Cothram Foirfe Sings Cole Porter and also to watch SL and B perform Meditation de Thais. They pulled it off quite well, and the audience liked it so it's thumbs up :D! The choir Cothram Foirfe was the main performers of the day with a total of 11 items. Of all the songs they sang I liked Ose Shalom the best. The last few items were presented one after another without much of a stop in between and all the singers dressed up in the 70-80s (?) style, and the movements were well choreographed and coordinated, very interesting indeed.

Feeling a little bloated at the moment, on my account of having taken 4-5 cups of liquid today! I don't understand how people can take any more water than that in a day. If my memory serves me well, I do remember one of them physiol lecturers saying the stimulus to take water is thirst. Why then are they people who drink water simply because they have nothing better to do/ because they feel like it/ because it's there?! -\(o.0)/- *throw hands up in defeat*

I had no idea how much one word can hurt people... so much that it scares me. But how hurting someone resulted in me getting hurt makes me all the more scared. I don't want to go through what some friends go through... I'm a stubborn thing, a scared confused stubborn thing...

And somejpw stretching my right calf these few mornings always result in some serious painful cramps... must ask nana bout that I s'pose

Music night was not too bad... didn't get as many people as I had hoped but we broke even. People who I thought would come did not... so much for their empty promises. I'm bitterly disappointed. But the whole thing turned out so much more better than I had thought it would be. Our three performances turned out terrific, I'm so proud *wipes a tear*! And someone will be executed for making impromtu changes to the closing speech LOL

You'll never get to Heaven if you're scared of getting high -- Kylie Minogue (Red-Blooded Woman)

Nothing much today. Weather pretty crappy, with it being rainy and all. I've been really naughty today, forcing people to do things for me. First I pressure C into coming along to help this Saturday, and then next pushing T into doing the speech. Yes, I'm so evil I should grow a pair of horns right now...

Finished The River of Night's Dreaming by Karl Edward Wagner now. I'm not entirely sure if I understood the story is correctly, too elusive for my dull mind it seems. But I like the way he writes though, it's quite beautiful:

Then, with thirty voices swelling a chorus to the screams of rubber and steel, the bus plunged over the edge. Halfway down it struck glancingly against the limestone face, shearing off wheels amidst a shower of glass and bits of metal, its plunge unchecked. Another carom, and the bus began to break apart, tearing open before its final impact onto the wave-frothed jumble of boulders far below. Water and sound surged upward into the night, as metal crumpled and split open, scattering bits of humanity like seeds flung from a bursting melon.

Memories of her past faded - she had always heard that a drowning victim's life flashes before her, but she could scarcely remember any fragment of her life before they shut her away. Perhaps that memory would return when at last her straining muscles failed, and the water closed over her face in an unrelinquished kiss.

Cassilda. I tell you, I am lost! Utterly lost!
Camilla (terrified herself). You have seen the King...?
Cassilda. And he has taken from me the power to direct or to escape my dreams.

Came across this picture of a Moeraki boulder in my laptop. I think nanny took it a few years back? I like how them boulders crack open right in the middle... they remind me of an egg cracked open and the insides scooped out :P

Well, practice today wasn't too bad. I think B won't be disappointed after all, and In Moments Like These is coming along beautifully. We've made a few changed to it, and it sounds loads better now, though I've really got to work on those strings of mine. Why have they suddenly chosen to sound all crackly and odd? I must start cleaning it tomorrow.

And yes, my ID has certainly gone missing. Where can it be? Darn, no idea how much a replacement would cost, probably not cheap. And $20 airtime credit gone in less than a month. Some darning is in order I think!

Fun Fun Fun! http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/Death in Sakkara is surprisingly good I must say. The front bit seemed rather like a bunch of PDS stuff, and I must say the telegram stumped me. The rest was not too bad, though Hafiz and his cups really got me frustrated. My eyes aren't fast enough I guess. LOL! Ending was vastly different from what I thought it would be, perhaps a bit of a let down but overall, the game was really enjoyable *grin*

Photo by Dan Bush (Hale Bopp in the Morning Sky)

Practice from 2 to 4 today. In Moments Like These is not too bad. I'll have to figure out a way to tell Br sooner or later that it'll have to be B playing it during the performance. I don't want to be mean, but for something where our reputation is at stake, I guess we can't take any chances... Winter is coming along fine. S suddenly changed her mind and decided to take up the viola part which I guess, is all for the best, better than if she kept at the cello part anyway.

The last few posters have been put up now. It's probably a little late for it, but I guess it's better than nothing. The tickets have been cut out too... *gasp* The cutter isn't really user friendly, so I can't say the tickets look too flash LOL! Good thing we're doing it through door sales then :P

And B is such a sweet thing, I swear, if she were here I could have hugged her. She just makes me want to melt at times...

My lack of foresight has resulted in me falling into a trap... I let my defences down and now I find I'm sinking deeper and deeper... Do I just give in or should I still bother trying to crawl out? I don't know what I should or want to do >.<

Nothing much today. Did a little work in the library today... and while doing so, the other half of my brain entertained itself by working out a 'route' from the 3rd to 2nd floor of M. Lib. All one would have to do is jump off/over the cement barrier onto the ledge, and from there hop onto the top of one of the bookshelves, and crawl all the way down. *grin* Yeah, I know, I'm brilliant LOL! Or as T suggested, jump onto one of the lamps and then slide downwards onto the bookshelves below. It would work, but it involves the risk of getting electrocuted, and also assumes that one would be light enough to not cause the wires to give way of course... Yes, we'll make really good heal profs in the future...

And I watched Princess Mononoke again. It's been so long since I've last watched it with May. Watching it all over today again makes me feel a little homesick to tell the truth, but it's nice to see something familiar, even if it's just on the screen.

I guess I should not be asked to make a choice, especially if one knows how fickle-minded I am. To do so and then burn me for not making my mind up fast enough is to ask for trouble, but oh, it's starting to get harder to keep my cool. Give me a break, there's only so much a human *yes, I'm human, duh* can take before cracks start to show...

Music night posters are out now, and a few have been put up around campus. Tickets have yet to be cut out, but it's no hurry I guess. And hopefully I'll get those Gold nomination forms filled out by tonight, then it'll be all done :D !

Can't remember where I got this cartoon from, but I thought it kinda cute. Haha, good thing this doesn't happen that often, or I believe a good part of our population might have to go around looking... *ahem* odd :P

True to my word, the alarm clock was placed a good 2m or so away from my bedside today, and I ended up waking an hour earlier than I had planned to. It was only when I was about to head off to the library when I realised that the mobile was displaying a time that was impossibly early. Only then did I realise that I must have somehow mistakenly set my clock one hour faster the night before! :S *slaps forehead*

And I guess I need to work harder on my fickle-mindedness... not to mention my tendency to procrastinate at every chance I get... at least I'm working on the former. Resisting every chance I have to turn back is certainly not easy! But I guess it's better than to waste my time thinking of what-ifs or should-Is... LOL

Dinner was at Q's today. I really love omani's cooking. D was the other chef of the night too, lol! Him and his favourite pork. It's the first time I've had pork belly cooked this way. I've never seen pork sold this way at the butcher's before back home... no wonder Q had to get it all the way from Chch. And afterwards, what else but casino at M. Hill again? LOL! Jackpot team managed to snorkel and not dive to deeply. Afterwards for the other rounds, with the help of his yellow Doh cards, D demonstrated his D power. And how I got the yellow Doh card, but T ended up getting the real D instead. A wonder that our laughter didn't just wake up everyone within the area!

Music Night is coming up soon too. A little too soon perhaps, but fingers crossed, it'll all go well.

Photo by Kenny Sia

I must remember to never put my alarm clock by my bedside.
I must remember to never put my alarm clock by my bedside.
I must remember to never put my alarm clock by my bedside.
[x100]

Sigh, would have gotten up at 10am if I hadn't put it next to me. I ended up getting out of bed at 11am, which meant I had to rush to change, clean and have breakfast and then run all the way down to Knox... only to find that I'm still early -_-" I guess I shouldn't have told myself to go slow when playing the accompaniment to S's solo, because she nearly ran out of breath through the long notes. Good thing I decided to not accompany her on the mic, since my voice isn't all that flash at the moment *cough cough croak* :P .. and lunch was lovely today - ommani was the chef today, so I guess it's a given. LOL! It doesn't mean that the others are lousy cooks though, so don't shoot!! :P

And yes, dinner at Q's has been postponed to Monday, since the meat parcels ommani ordered from Christchurch arrived astoundingly late *one of them badly squashed too -_-"* I suppose I should also learn to put what I learn into use, I mean sharing postive feelings (from the group session with PA today)... but I don't really think I like the idea of barging into the choir practice in the room next to ours and bleating out how much I love their singing and how amazing I think their conductor is (and yes, I mean it.. their singing sounds heavenly and the conductor actually conducts and tinkles out the accompaniment on the piano at the same time!).. that's just weird :S!

By the way, here's some bits off the notes from the group session that I thought was meaningful:

1. If you feel it, say it. Even if you are not articulate, say it anyway.
2. Do not wait for the ideal time, because it never comes. You may have to make sneak attacks sometimes where you just grab someone and say, "You are doing a great job" or "I love you" or "You are important to me." If you are waiting for the time to be right, that time will never come.
3. Be very specific in your encouragement. The more specific you can be, the more meaningful the encouragement is.
4. Do not exaggerate with false praise or empty flattery. "A flattering mouth works ruin"
5. If you cannot say it because you just are not a verbal person, write it. If you are uncomfortable putting your feelings into spoken words, write them down and slip somebody a note. However you choose to do it. the key is to be sure to express what you feel.
   

Hmm.. nothing much else to report here now... Sunday isn't exactly the most exciting day of the week, though truth be told it's not all that bad either, since I usually spend the day with friends though :D!

Was totally dead as a log until 12pm today. So 'dead' that I didn't even hear a message from a friend coming in at 10am -_-". Not that I should be heaping blame on my poor abused brain seeing how I forced it to stay awake until the wee hours in the morning... today LOL!

Anyways, the day was pretty much half over by the time I woke up. Did the laundry *a week's worth of laundry but surprisingly it was just one full load today :) !*, then went online for a little while, and did some stuff here and there and in between which I can't recall for the life of me, until it was about 3pm when I set off for Central.

Printed out the scores for tomorrow *whew, or S's gonna really have my hide! kekeke* and while waiting for my phone to recharge, I did a few pages of my readings. Wasn't exactly boring stuff but I guess I just wasn't in the mood for it -- couldn't wait to just head home and be happily bored again. And yes, they certainly have upgraded Central somewhat. They've replaced not just the railings for the stairs, they've also replaced the old wooden tabletops *covered with rather *ahem* interesting scribblings ;P* with jet black plasticky tables... plasticky simply because I've no idea what they actually are, but who cares, they look cool, and make me wish all the more that MLib would do the same. Spending more time in Central sounds good to me!

For the first time in a long while I left my down jacket at home, and good thing I did *it's warm again today! reporting this bit always make me feel so good!* considering the space left in my bag after my scores went in... Practice was really much better today, we ran through most of the pieces we intended to, though I must say more practice is urgently needed!

And apparently the piano at Evison has been moved, and the 'replacement' one in the storage room is certainly the best of all the pianos provided around here as I found out when I decided to stay back to continue working on my current project. I guess that would be the room I'll be booking in future :P!

The steamboat dinner at CL's was lovely. The 'wok' died on us halfway, but thanks to Z's innovation, a rice cooker did just as well. LOL! And we had a taste at last of his specialty -- curry! I must say that it tasted a lot like what one would get at the hawkers back home too... golly, I wish I could cook like that too...

After we played two rounds of Go-stop/ Godori, a korean traditional card game (for those of you interested in finding out more, here's a site with pictures of the cards used in the game http://www.pagat.com/fishing/gostop.html). Took me some time to pick it up, but once I got the hang of it, I could barely help myself from getting addicted to it. We kept scores, and the game itself is pretty unpredictable, and our scores kept on fluctuating up and down, and the goal we set - 50, took us a few hours to reach; we stayed up to 5 am playing those two rounds! Goodness, and by the time I got home and took a quick shower, I was no longer feeling tired or sleepy. And right now as I type this I can actually hear the birds singing outside... it's already 6.30 am!!