The skate curry is finished at last. The remaining skate was pan-fried and eaten up. Turns out I'm not the only one who likes burnt bits of protein :P! I was a little apprehensive about the curry gravy though, but when I tasted it again after puppy had microwaved it up, it turned out fine. Not much of that horrid powdery feeling to it. Though puppy hadn't reckoned on the extreme heat of the curry and looked thoroughly tortured after the first couple of spoonfuls. Heh heh.

Weather was good as well today. A welcomed relief from the gloomy weather of the past few days. Too good to be wasted, so puppy, worm and I decided that a walk would be the best way to use the time in between after-lunch to about 3pm. The gardens were looking their usual. We passed the azaleas section today as well, and I was hoping it would be blooming. What am I thinking, when we are coming just heading towards winter? Lol. Dropped by the aviary as well. Lots of parrots in all shapes, sizes and colours there. Other birds as well but not as exciting. The blue and yellow parrot (the name I forget) was I think the prettiest of them all. There was a peacock, but even though it's always good fun to spot one, I think it's a bit too fancy for my taste :P There was a parrot who said hello as well, though only after we had moved on to the nextdoor cage -_-"' A couple of friendly keas came up close to the wire netting to look at us. I wonder though, as they stare at us with quizzical eyes, do they think they they are looking at us from within a cage, or do we appear as the caged ones to them? I wouldn't be very happy having to spend my days in a cage, but they don't seem to mind. Or maybe they do, I just don't see them often enough to know...

After that it was a 45 minute walk back home to get the dough for the pizza started. Would have been shorter claimed puppy, but then I lack the long legs necessary for the fast speed. Not that it mattered, since dinner was pretty much on time. I followed the recipe, and let the yeast froth a little with the sugar water first, even though common sense told me that instant yeast was called instant for a good reason. Not that it mattered, since we didn't wait for the full 15 minutes lol. The recipe yielded a rather dry dough that was certainly too hard to knead. I had to add quite a bit of water just to get it just right, and a little more than the amount of oil asked for. The amount of topping we put on it was phenomenal! A mini mountain is the only way to describe it when we chucked it into the oven. I'm surprised at the short time required to bake it, but I guess the reason is the high temperature it was baked at. Surprised and extremely happy is all that I can say about the crust today. It was just nice and crispy/ crunchy, but not hard, and could hold up the topping quite well. *ahhh* All it lacked was perhaps a bit of salt I think, and mozarella cheese. Cheddar does not work as well in terms of texture. Too bad I only had oregano flakes though, ground oregano would have been better I think. I could barely smell it after it was baked. But I'm satisfied overall, and we all agreed we beat Poppa's. Homemade is still best... in terms of satisfaction... and so much less greasy as well ^^! But oh, if only I had mozarella... mm... cheese....

p/s don't mind me blowing my own horn here... this is the mood I end up in when I am pretty happy with the results... No pics here, it was all gobbled up before the thought of a photo came to me... despite the camera being in the kitchen all the time lol!

Woke up rather early today... by worm's standards anyway for a Sunday. I woke up only slightly earlier to get the laundry going and to get the pancake batter done. I was hoping to make really thick pancakes, American style. No maple syrup in my pantry unfortunately. But then I think the batter could be slightly thicker. But then I can't make it really big either or there wouldn't be enough around. So in the end puppy and I agreed to water it down to make thinner but bigger pancakes. Should have let the batter rest actually, but I couldn't be bothered. I wake up hungry everyday :P!

Just as well we lacked an ID card for worm then, since I certainly wasn't in the mood for ping pong. We ended up strolling around the clearance shop and that craft shop (?) next to it, both of which were having closing down sales. I saw this lovely carving of a cockerel. I'm thinking and thinking still. Would my 20 be justified? I'll continue pondering meanwhile and I hope no one snaps it up lol (or do I??). The $2 shop got a visit from us three as well, though there wasn't really anything there to buy. Unless one counts the cute porcelain bowls. But then our flat has more than enough dishes and bowls than we need :( so the cute porcelain bowls in the shop will stay.

And thanks to puppy for the pizzas at Poppa's. Worm took the short cut out and choose an option that would let her have everything minus seafood. And puppy ended up getting the seafood option lol. Both were quite nice. Though I must say I'm still no lover of shellfish. The taste may be masked by other toppings, but the smell and texture is still there. Just as well my parents are not in the seafood industry then ^^ After that a short trip to the chip shop down the road. I couldn't remember how big the 2 dollar bag was anymore. Goes to show how often I get that when I eat out (I'll say it's a good thing then haha!). Even more scary then the greasy smell lingering in the air threatening to make me smell icky is the size of the bag of chips a boy walked out the shop with. It was big, no, humongous... I lie... it was of gargantuan proportions. Upon asking, it turned out that was a five dollar order he had placed. I guess that must be part of the family's lunch then. I can't imagine any kid finishing that alone. The heck, I can barely finish the two dollar bag on some days!

Afterwards, we trotted over to the museum for a look at their Big Ice exhibition. It was fairly interesting, but that is partly due to my lack of interest in antartic exploration. The most interesting thing I thought were the stuffed animal exhibits that formed part of the showcase. Not to forget the cute little whale embryo as well. How the hell that got that I'll never know. The hello dolly exhibit was much better. Worm still thinks that those dolls are creepy, but the point of these dolls IS to appear life-like. Goodness, the basic ones along G-street retail for about 300 bucks normally, which I thought was already rather dear (but understandable of course), but I'm certainly grossly uninformed. There was a clip as well of a collectible doll auction in Ackld where some dolls went for 7000+ :O! But they are really oh so pretty, with their well formed eyebrows and dainty painted eyes, and oh my gawd, are those creases painted along on their crimson lips as well that I see?! So detailed, so exquisite! Right, I should stop my rambling on those dolls here.

The museum also hosts some curiosities that set worm laughing... laughter that later infected the rest of us as well. Greek statues are interesting *nods head* lol. And the statue of Aphrodite was beautiful, but are arms not beautiful enough to be included in the sculpture? I thought arms were one of the parts of human anatomy that were most intriguing and beautiful...

Shopping for pizza stuff afterwards as well. Mood wasn't so good, what with my heel starting to act up again, and worm not paying attention and making the process all the more painful. But then the promise of fun tomorrow more than makes up for it. And making me happier still was the fact that the skate wings are salvageable! Pan-frying them made them so much better, to the point of being yummy. Worm wouldn't touch them still, for fear of a repeat of tummy upset. Her loss then ^^ I guess I'll just chuck out the stupid sauce and pan-fry the remains tomorrow. Muahahahaha!

Played badmindton this morning, the first time since... primary six?? And that's like almost a decade ago now. I can still remember playing out in our garden back home in Kuching, without a net. A shuttlecock and our little racquets that grew more and more worn out with use was all we used. There wasn't even a set size to our little 'cour't. Always in the cool of the evening, without heed of the roar of the cars passing by the street outside, never caring about keeping score. All that mattered was to get the shuttlecock and making sure it kept clear of the big muddy ditch outside. How annoyed we would get when one of us sent it plunging to the bottom of the ditch, and how would have to net it out and then with much grimacing and wincing, wash it white again. It was either Sh's or worm's idea to do it this morning, and so an early start to the day it was, even before it was properly light outside. A surprise visit from puppy, a short walk down to pick up Sh, and a 20 minute walk to unipol saw us waiting outside unipol for a good ten minutes at least.

I don't remember ever being good at starting off the game, but frustratingly, I couldn't get the shuttlecock airborne properly even this morning, not until a few dozen tries. Can I still call myself Malaysian I wonder?? Even more interestingly was the fact that I wasn't the only one remember the good smash in the face with a racquet by worm, she did as well. Never had she mentioned it, that's is, up till now, that I thought everyone had forgotten. Lol. Hmm... can I put the blame on her now that my nose isn't as high as I want it to be? *naughty grin*

Afterwards was a trip with worm to the farmers market. Got more noodles and tofu. Turns out 'pa mien' in Heng hua actually means fresh noodles (a little wisdom shared by Sh). I guess that's why when grandma told me that could make that and described the process to me, I had thought it sounded just too simple. Shouldn't somthing with an exotic name be hard to be make and be all complicated??! Mmmm... should I try and have a go making it I wonder?

Baking session turned out well for Cl. Her brownie tasted great and very cake-like, though I'm not sure why the brownie wasn't brown or chocolatey at all. But then I'm not complaining, peanut butter beats chocolate for me anytime anyways. Hehe... she's making the cake for me?? :P And why, oh why didn't my souffle turn out right? *cries**weeps**moans* I followed the recipe exactly! Everything I make which usually needs rising usually just flops back down after they exit the oven door... excepting breads which usually stay up. Darn. Shall try again one day... when I have the courage to face the possibility of another failure. *sniffles*

Dinner was fun, even though the meat dish was waay too salty for my liking. Though I must devise better torture methods in future for interrogation. Interesting new concept. Torture over dinner. Some poison that brings agonising pain with an antidote that only I have? Then perhaps more secrets can be obtained...

Weather is looking rather miserable today, and to add to that, the thought that I nearly killed my worm with bouts of vomitting and diarhoea yesterday night. I guess I underestimated the punch that my powdered chilli is capable of delivering and dropped in waaay too much into the curry I was trying to make. I didn't really find it good [I wonder if it makes it to so-so level even :( ] and poor Sh and worm still managed to down quite a bit (*thanks guys!*). The diarrhoea part I was kinda expecting it, but not to the extent of vomitting. I've better moderate my chilli use in future :( before I actually start killing people.

I wonder how one goes about restricting access to certain posts but not the whole blog? Can't seem to find the control button for it anywhere under settings or posting at all somehow. So how do people do it??

Watched 300 today. Plenty of gushing/ oozing blood and fierce battle cries throughout to keep both puppy and worm happy. Storyline was good, with its theme of honour and pride and of love for family and country. Did make me wonder as well. Was the queen justified trading 'herself'', and in doing so, go against the one or more of the important codes that make up the foundations of her country and people, in hopes to not just save her husband, but also her country? Best part I think was the filming though. Slowed down in the right parts to make it all the more intense, the captivating voice and storytelling of the narrator, and the colour as well. Now... if only I could get my camera to do that, I'd quit m-school right now, hah to those big shots. I'm dreaming. If only remains as if only's.

After that it was lunch at Korea House. Q and Cl couldn't make it for that either, so it was still puppy, worm, Sh and I. Turns out that the jelly tofu soup isn't too spicy for Sh, but poor puppy was finding the heat of the bbq pork he ordered a little too much :P! After yesterday, worm took the safe route but I doubt if it was anything really Korean though. At least she saw what I meant when I said jelly tofu soup is lovely. Though it probably goes to show how lousy I am at cooking then *waah*

From there, it was a non-stop play time of uno, go-stop, poker, and scum. And loads and loads of junk food. I don't want to think what went down me. This holiday is turning out to be really unhealthy so far. I'm going to turn into a real moon soon. Help! Should I even insult worm by wishing it was my turn to be sick now?? :P

If We Hold On Together

Don't lose your way
With each passing day
You've come so far
Don't throw it away
Live believing
Dreams are for weaving
Wonders are waiting to start
Live your story
Faith, hope & glory
Hold to the truth in your heart

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
Where clouds roll by
For you and I

Souls in the wind
Must learn how to bend
Seek out a star
Hold on to the end
Valley, mountain
There is a fountain
Washes our tears all away
Words are swaying
Someone is praying
Please let us come home to stay

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
Where clouds roll by
For you and I

When we are out there in the dark
We'll dream about the sun
In the dark we'll feel the light
Warm our hearts, everyone

If we hold on together
I know our dreams will never die
Dreams see us through to forever
As high as souls can fly
The clouds roll by
For you and I

Burj al-Arab, Jumeirah beach

Just as well we had our little trip yesterday. True to the weather forecast, it rained buckets throughout late morning to afternoon. Perfect day for sleeping it all through, but unfortunately I'm not the sort who can sleep till afternoon. I tried this morning, but got up in the end because I was getting rather bored. Had some more of the (unsweetened) muesli this morning. Should I ever be bothered doing it again, I'm making sure cinnamon is part of the mix. LOL. I wonder where do people get dried apple bits here? Without it being coated with more sugar and being overly expensive? Hmm... Hm...

Despite the weather being determined wet, wormy and I decided that kachama would be the worth in the walk in the rain (one umbrella between us LOL!) to Countdown and NW for the ingredients. Ginger from countdown of course (puppy alerted me to their having restocked on it at last. I found out later it can be gotten slightly cheaper at NW but in rather large quantities... it'd probably mould over before I finished yikes!), and garlic from NW, and some others. One mighty heavy-laden walk back in the rain it was. Wormy is convinced my thighs must be made of muscles. She didn't take up my offer of proding it to prove it otherwise though. *grin* At least there's something to look forwards to tonight despite the miserable weather. Food is always good for cheering up people/ situations... though sometimes I'm not sure if it's all that good a way to ward depression. *laughs*

Hum Hum Hum *hugs* Love ya all!

Tiny pine cone from my walk at the botanical gardens with puppy on monday afternoon. Just love their 'petalled' look ^^ There were still some as well stuck on the trees that look just like the dried ones, except for the fact that were still ... soft and squishy :P Passed by some toadstools. For some reason or other we started talking about the reason behind their name, and I was saying they could be stools for toads, and then puppy said (what I thought he said at least) yeah, they're toad's stools, where stools meant seats, which was practically the same as what I said. It took me some time before I realised he was talking about stools as in poo -_-"' Lol. Gardens was still pretty with some flowers still out, and saw lots of aloe species in the african themed part of the garden. The cherry tree walk still had it's beautiful grassy green patch in the middle. The cherry trees are looking rather sad, leaves wilting making them looking rather stunted and forlorn. Not very impressive despite the explanatory sign saying that every year the cherry (why do I keep on typing it as cheery?!) trees grow bigger and more impressive... hmm...

Purple lantern flowers from the little plant at the side of the path to my house. Photo might be a little overexposed, since the purpley bits are supposed to be of a richer deeper hue and bright cheery pink for the outer petals, instead of this pale shy looking pink. Love how I managed to get teh background a little blur ^^!

Toadstool, not from the botanical gardens, but one we found along the path while walking back from the signal hill lookout. Went there for the family expedition today, instead of having it on wednesday as planned before (forecast was for rain in the afternoon... so it better rain tomorrow afternoon!). Problem was wormy said she wouldn't arrive until late morning, about eleven. So the planned meet-up at the link was set for half-past. Only that she failed to arrive at that time, no thanks to unplanned for hp calls and meetings by the driver, but at least he sent her straight to the house safe and sound, and she was welcomed warmly by Chyikee. Lol, she arrived just as puppy and I got to the link, so it was a mad dash back to get her.

Thinking innocently that it would take us 40 minutes to get to the signal hill lookout (since puppy's flatmates did it in that time), we set out happily towards the north. Only problem was we didn't factor in the fact that his flatmates were loads fitter than us, and we reached our destination at past two. What was supposedly a 40 minute walk took us two hours I think? Weather was really warm today, which in itself was a good thing, except that after walking for ages, us five girls were certainly starting to wilt. Just as well the thought that we had walked so far already just made us go on. No point abandoning it halfway when we had been through so much... *ahem* torture?? Haha. We did ask for it after all. And so we climbed... up and up and up... and up... and up... some more. Puppy went on ahead to see how much farther it was and probably spent a good deal of time waiting for the rest of us to slowly arrive lol. And this is the view from signal hill. Too bad it was cloudy when I took the picture. Blue skies would make this scene worthy of any gallery... and I was there to see it ^^

The picnic lunch we shared was well worth the pain and sweat though. The food was nice, but the peaceful surroundings, the knowledge that we had 'earned' our lunch, the feeling of togetherness made it all the better. We probably brought along too much food but surprisingly we finished most of it in the end, so it was a whole bunch of bloated kiddies sitting out on the field at the top of signal hill today. Ooh, and we saw a little brown rabbit there too! ... which probably explains the pellets scattered around the field lol! And it was games afterwards. Without our cards, we had to think up games. So it was mafia (no idea what the actual name is, some killing by winking game it was), a number game, and Q's 'pabo' game. It's been a long time we've all laughed ourselves windless I think *grin* Some picture taking afterwards as a group as well... *double grins* And took this picture on the way down (we took the bus back down to town as it was getting late and our feet were really sore). See the cow/ bull at the bottom corner at the left!

The easter bunny is from Cl's for 'my room decorative piece' and I. Lol. What a mouthful that title is! Cl was asking me if it was chomped on already but can one do that? Not when it has that cheerful face and innocent bunny look! It was during a small gathering last Friday for dinner that she passed it to me. What started out as plans for a trip out to the beach in the evening turned into an indoor dinner thing with games after. I'm not sure if I just happen to be suggestible, but after all that ... *loss for words*... about feng shui, I'm starting to wonder if it actually works and what it actually is. Can an arrow just change how things work out? Or is it all just in the mind?? What about luck and chance? I'm pretty sure skill alone cannot account for getting 5 'guangs' in a go-stop game! Nor can I think of anything that can explain beating puppy at poker and go-stop this morning, especially not when I know practically nuts about poker compared to him! Hmm... Hmm...

Couldn't get up this morning either to join Sh for her morning walk. And the verdict for the weather this morning from puppy and Sh are so very different. Frigid said one, just nice said the other. I shall judge myself tomorrow morning then when I go out with Sh again at 7.30 tomorrow morning. We'll see if someone really had padding problems or was it just very high brown fat content on another's part.

Walked two hours today too. Was intending to walk out to pak 'n' save today actually, simply because I hadn't been there in a long while *wonder when they have their specials on bananas... hum*. We ended up walking waaay past it and all the way to KFC where true to Sh's word (rather than his own) puppy ended up feeding us some LOL. Not sure if the walk would undo the chocolate that went down me though.

Keeping fingers crossed that the weather will be fabulous come Wednesday. That would make torturing our little visiting worm very easy.

Had kimbap today, courtesy of omani. Yummy. I could have this everyday, for every meal I think. This is the only type of 'sushi'-like seaweed roll that I like. At last I've found someone who thinks alike as well. Like Doh (his name really is Doh!), I do think the Jap version is rather bland, and having it with soy sauce and wasabi just to make it tasty is like cheating somewhat. Not to mention wasabi tastes like crap to me. But kimbap. It's like a 180 degree turn. It has a more intense flavour from the sweet and salty meat and pickles in it. Smells nicer somehow as well. Not that one can say otherwise, omani is the demi-god of cooking. Mmmm.... I want some for breakfast... *drools*

She never thought that lighting could make a big difference. Never again does she want to appear in bright white light, but deep down she knows she's just deceiving herself. Perhaps now she knows how the beast of her childhood felt like, knowing why it chose to stay in seclusion. Her heart bleeds but amongst the blood and tears, there's always hope. An active hope. That one day she may emerge from this dark memory of pain laughing triumphantly. With the love and encouragement from the people around her, she knows she will.

This is gold and just had to record this down :P

Me: Do you want an apple?

T: No.
Me: Why?

T: We (his flat of 6) had just bought a lot of apples at the market this morning remember?

Me: And so? Do you have them with you right now?

T: No...

Someone needs to get a bit more sleep I reckon. Heh heh. It's so -_-"' to the point of it being funny LOL.

And two Cal tests to beat before the start of the holidays. Might do the SI one first. Brain and behaviour depending on wether or not I can finish looking through the stuff that I should, which *ahem* I have not yet started upon.

Went to Uni Mart today with Sh, T, Q and omani. It's this new Korean shop that has just opened up in, of all places, North Dunedin. Don't know how often I would drop by there, seeing as it's quite a distance from where I am. In their advertisement, they advertised as selling korean, japanese, and chinese stuff. Though from what I can see, it's mostly Korean stuff, with a few items that were chinese and some Jap stuff. Not that it's all that bad, since the other two Asian shops that I know of and are reasonably close to where I am sell very little Korean stuff. To my great delight, they had sunflower seeds. Not those rubbish ones at the supermarket that are already shelled, but the proper ones that require cracking. Some people just don't know how to appreciate that -_-"', and just had to ask "why do you want the shells for? do you eat the shells?" No, I don't, but it contributes to part of the fun of eating sunflower seeds.

No practice for HX today. Don't know how long it's gonna stay alive either. Though I've a feeling I'm not the only one getting a bit tired of it now. Not sure if that's actually a good thing or no. Darn, not to mention I still haven't gotten my er hu back from the girl I lent it to last year. Darn. Darn I say, because I'll have to answer to mum and dad later, not because I actually want to play it anyway. Out of the whole of last year, I don't think I've handled it any more than 10 times??? :O!

You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realise that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all... Our memory is our coherance, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing... ~Luis Bunuel

KYOB lab was rather longwinded today. The tutor was good, very clear and certainly knew his stuff, but having to go through the hearing threshold tests and what not was boring. The test was meant to be done in peace and quiet (duh!) but all the time I could hear the people walking along the corridors, the people above, the cars outside and my own breathing... I demand retesting, since the results clearly show that my hearing is terrible. But then again, sitting there waiting for some sound waves to make an assault on my eardrum and pressing the response button isn't exactly stimulating. I was struggling to keep awake and appear interested to be honest, though I doubt the tutor noticed, which was just as well LOL!

Been to see the doctor as well. She didn't give a diagnosis but she recommended I never use Health Basics moisturisers ever again, and said to give up on the body wash as well. Right, so what am I to do with the extra bottle I have sitting in my room now? T_T Afterwards, it was a trot to the pharmacy for the hydrocortisone and alpha keri lotion and the sedative antihistamine, the last to make sure I don't wake up in the middle of the night with the itch. Losartadine hasn't been helping much at all, I still itch day and night *scratch scratch*. Sh, Q and T have had a hard time keeping an eye out for my naughty disobedient fingers, slapping them should they start trying to dig through my now red fiery skin... thanks to the poor dears. Hopefully it'll all settle down and I'll mercifully be struck down with amnesia selective for this incident... hold on, make that everyone that saw anything of my rashes as well then ^^ *evil laugh*

Can't seem to add a picture today, so you'll just have to be satisfied with my blah-ings :P

Dropped by student health today. Upon reaching the front desk I told the receptionist that I wanted to see a doctor, or preferably a dermatologist. With her unchanged straight expression, she replied that would I prefer to be referred to the sexual health clinic instead? *huh?* Laughing (why I can't say, I should have been offended rather now that I think of it LOL) I said no, just a doctor for my allergic rash. And without an apology and still with her straight unchanged facial expression, she said I can book you in for a Thursday appointment or would you rather have a nurse see you and decide if you require an earlier appointment. Foolishly thinking that I might pass as a person dying from DIT (someone added this while my back was turned) I said yes, sign me up for a 30 minute wait please. Miss Nurse wasn't convinced and booked me in for a thursday lunchtime appointment. NO!!! I could be dead from my scratching by then, or septicaemia due to bacteraemia secondary to my scratch wounds, or I could have darkened my future prospects by not being to stay awake in class from all my nightly itching episodes. LOL. Sh and Nat weren't impressed with puppy when they heard it... had he been flirting and therefore bringing home STDs? :O

Haven't been writing back to grandma in ages. Wonder if I should tell her about my 'abstinence' from rice. Funny how I haven't developed cravings for it yet. Partly because an even better option is there - corn. Haha. That, along with peanut butter and bread/ hot cross buns and other stuff to fill me up to the brim is basically what I call my usual dinner at the moment. I wonder how healthy that is?? After I'm done with the corn we shall see if rice works with peanut butter then. Everything seems to work well with it so I don't see why not. Kekekeke. Do I boil the rice in peanut butter stock? Or do I mix it in after the rice is cooked? Hmm Hmmm..... at least I know that I have a guinea pig handy to try it out on. Heh heh.

Followed Sh to her rehearsal thingy yesterday for some production that the Otago Chinese Association or other that they were planning to have. Apparently it's been going on for 59 years, and according to an un-named source, if you're a chinese here you should know about it. Riiight, I've asked around and no one seems to have ever heard of it. No wonder he was complaining about the poor response from uni students. Smart *raises left eyebrow*. And a rather sad waste of time as well. The whole thing took up one and a half hours of our time. It's not much and I wouldn't care, if they hadn't wasted it by making us wait for nothing, just for a bunch of people to turn up late and because they hadn't taken into account how big Sh's instrument was. *Raises other eyebrow*. You invited Sh to play, and knows what instrument she plays and yet have no idea how big it is? You've got to be kidding me.

The dream scene they had wasn't too bad, but it was too brief to say much about how the entire play will turn out to be. Sh's piece did add to the surrealism of the scene I must say. How often do you get a spiderman wannabe and weirdo basketball player stuck in slow mo and your regular Mr Moir look-alike angmoh teacher doing qi gong in your dream?? Never in my life probably. I get normal stuff like man-eating octupi that burst out from museum aquariums, and about flying to escape punishment for not doing my homework. Yup, poster girl for normalcy ^^\/. And I got to see firsthand how blind love is. A young girl from some city in Peking is some old balding angmoh's 'bini'. Sure, love is blind, but someone old enough to be your grandpa? All wrinkly and white haired (soon to be no-hair too!)?! That's not surprising yet. The only reason I actually noticed them was because she spoke to him in Chinese with that Peking accent, and then he answered, in perfect Chinese (and with the Peking accent too)! *jaw drops* But then that's still not gonna make me give an ah pek a second look. Not unless he's some dying Mr. Moneybags ready to leave everything to me in his will. As if.

And the opthalmology tute was something great today. We got to play around with the direct opthalmoscopes. That was the fun part. It took me quite a while before I figured out how to actually see the retinal blood vessels. Interesting, fun but not that easy. And we were promised that as fourth years, if we were still in Dud, we would start off doing those sort of stuff first day in the opthalmology department ^^ The second part of the tute was just basically looking at the first one third of the eye. It wasn't as fun since it's not really hands-on, but still just as interesting. We looked at the irises of blue and brown/ black eyes first and then moved on to look at the cornea and lens. I get why the optometrist running that part of the tute said that he made up his mind to be what he is now just because of his first time looking down the instrument (can't remember it's name at all unfortunately :S!). Too bad I'm already halfway through my present course though or I would seriously consider jumping over to the other side.

Rash is still just as bad. Why did I ever slather on that nasty lotion? My skin itches ever so much, to the point that it's irritating me lots and looking at the affected sites just make me feel somewhat depressed. Arrgh! I want, no, I NEED to smack something. Darn. Plan to dose up on loratadine and see if it works. Or a visit to student health shall be in order. Zip.

SI tute today was about Alzheimer's/ dementia. Suffice to say that when the tutor put on the video of a woman in her fifties in the last stages of it, everyone went awfully silent and judging by the look on their faces, they probably had the same sinking sick churning feeling in their heart and gut. We've all been leading really sheltered lives it seems. It's so wrong to see a mother feeding her adult daughter, it's wrong to not be able to enjoy your old age doing the things you love best, it's wrong to have to watch a loved one go like that... it's just so cold and cruel.

Was filling up my bottle in the area below the medical library when I saw this:

"A real friend is the one who walks out when the rest of them walk out" :O!

Whoever typed that up and posted it up on the board must have been mentally confused or something, either that or they are certainly not much of a friend.

Though there was one that was really nice:

"Everyone smiles in the same language"

And Snow White, fearing that her stepmum might actually best her in the race to be the fairest, attempted to feed her stepmum with a poisoned pear. But being poor, she only could poison part of the pear. Hence the patterned skin.

Will her stepmum fall for it? Will her stepmum be killed by the pear?!

Now you know why Snow White looks so devilish in those Disney cartoons.... this is the part Disney forgot to add in, in hopes that it would make the moral of the story clearer to all the gullible kiddies.

Internet is up and running at last! After the long agonizing wait, I'm now connected... muahahaha, no need to pop down to uni just to get my needed high. I've been liberated from my 'techno famine' ^^

Same old here. Getting addicted to peanut butter all over again. I've got a whole week's worth of 'curry' in the fridge and I'm pretty sure it's slowly growing mould in there. It hasn't been touched at all, abandoned in favour of peanut butter sandwiches. Perhaps I should just cut my shopping list to just peanut butter and bread and cheese and live off those three things. Wonder how long it'll be before I actually die from boredom. LOL.

Talking about cheese, someone.. SOMEONE... refused my peanut butter cheese toasted sandwich today -_-.... Grrrr... wasting my effort.... wasting MY effort into making them!!!! SOMEONE who is reading this has better quake in terror and learn from his mistakes, or there shan't be many more lectures or tutorials that he'll ever attend.

And everyone, say congrats to the worm http://neeyung89.spaces.live.com/?owner=1 ! Hurrah, straight A1s ^^ (I'm overlooking the Chinese paper of course, no offence, since I never did it either lol, and means nothing to me kekeke!)!

I've uploaded the pictures of the brioche I made. I didn't exactly have a the sort of cake tin the recipe asked for so they've all been baked in little soup bowls and turned out like this. Can't say I'm much of a photographer lol.

Broadband is still not yet up in the flat. But it should be by next week. I'm still typing this out from one of the e-stops at Central. Could have done it of course at med lib but I'm feeling bloated, so the extra (yeah right, 2 minutes hardly!) exercise would do me good perhaps *chuckles* Think well-covered, as that crazy Maori gp they called in to give us a lecture last week liked to put it.

Got the bond back at last. Though I'm seriously disappointed at what we got. Half gone. That's a whopping 75 bucks mind you. 75! There's lots I could do with 75. That's about 2-3 weeks worth of groceries in there. Or almost a week's worth of rent. Or 8 take-out pizzas. Or... or... or... *sigh* The new tenants claimed we didn't clean it out properly (which I swear we did!), and said we even left a dead rat under the cooker stove. What the heck?! How would I know if it died over there during the summer hols? I wouldn't be there to clean it up of course. But then even with all the shouting and grumbling from my flatmates when I relayed it all back to them, they really couldn't be bothered fighting for it anymore. To tell the truth, neither do I, despite it being that much. I hate haggling and for an extra 75 I might just make myself more enemies than I would care for I guess. And yes, I'm trying to comfort myself here LOL. At least it's something that I needn't worry about now.

Getting only 30 bucks a week now, the rest would have to come from the loan. Borrowed life, for without dough I'll probably starve to death. I better look carefully at the financial implications then if I want to do that extra research year. There's still living costs to consider, something that I totally forgot about. And talking to L yesterday (funny I should meet him at Apsara, and that Camellia should be working there as well!), made me realise that I can't actually spend all my life studying. I wouldn't mind of course, but it not only makes for sad story-telling, and also I'll need income to kick out the big bad D word asap. Arrgh.

My pomelo has gotten an email account at last. Will see how long it takes for him to reply me back this time hehe. Got two bags of pears from the Farmer's market yesterday as well. 2 kgs per bag at $2.50. And though they lack the crunch of the ya pears we get back home, they are still very nice and sweet. And soft isn't too bad a texture anyway. Perfect for a person who likes baby food LOLOL.

Love ya all, and missing pomelo, worm and the two old chickens lots *muaks*!

No pics for today. I'm updating from one of the e-stops at central :( ... been a long while since the last post but just wanted to let you know I'm not dead in this little far-flung country, yet LOL! Flat hasn't got it's Internet connection yet unfortunately, and Chyi's signed us up with some obscure company that I've never heard off (yet was present all this while on my never-used eftpos card :S, but heck, I've never used it man, how would I know it was there?!) called Whoosh under their unlimited broadband plan, strings attached of course. Don't really care, as long as I can do my once-weekly skyping.

The three other ladies are in the flat already. I'm beginning to miss having the flat all to myself. For one I can control at least what happens around there. I don't want to have to keep on coming back and then finding that the hot water tap in the bathroom has been left to run all night until there's only cool water left. Twice already, and I don't want to know what sort of hole that's gonna burn in my pockets. Whoever you are, if you are reading this, you know what to do! Notes on the fridge as well.

Nat's birthday was on Monday of this week. Was rather out of ideas what to get for her, and bookworm that she is, she can have more books to chomp on. Just as well puppy helped out with the choosing. Funny how Sh and I reached for the same little book at the same time as well. Hmm... dare I venture with the comment that great minds think alike? *grins*

Q's birthday was a blast. Ambushed her place at midnight with the cheesecake we got off Govrnors. Who would have thought that they would make such great cakes? And that they open well into the night? At least it makes things simpler. Will put up a picture of it soon as well. Omani cooked the birthday dinner that night as well. *jaw drops, drool drips out* This woman is something in the kitchen I tell you, you've just got to envy Q's dad for getting her... though I doubt if she would want to go out with me anyways lol! Not only does she do Korean, she makes fusion seem a piece of cake as well! *claps in admiration*

Chap Goh Mei today. Will be heading over to Cl's for steamboat later in the day. Meat all prepared and marinated yesterday and so has the glutinous rice balls. Only thing left is to get the veggies done but that can be taken care of easily at Cl's place. Haha, and I'll finally get to see how the house is like after the clean-up they did.

Brain dissections twice so far. I'm not sure if it's just my sense of smell is going wacky or something, but during the first one, I'm absolutely certain I smelt something that was exactly like the black vinegar that people like to chuck into those shark-fin soups. Thinking about it now makes me want to gag, especially when I've never liked it all that much in the first place. There's also the ever 'omnipresent' melted margarine smell as usual, and I'm very surprised at how... juicy the dissection was. It wasn't necrotic of course, just plenty of clear juice, unlike that from the body. And there's this sickening crunching sort of sound when you pry the top of the skull off the head.... think the thigh bone being crunched off or wrenched out of its socket when you eat your chicken thigh at KFC... ugh! And golly, someone had just to tell me that the brain had the consistency of tofu, not that it wasn't at the back of my mind since the first second I stuck out my finger and poked at it. Worse still, the path text book just have to mention the same thing as well... it'll be ages before I want to chomp on some tofu now. Though once I've finished up the meat in the fridge, I'll want to see how long I can survive on eggs and tofu and all the other veggie protein I can find before I start craving for meat again. But then that's still some time away....

Rostered for the special hymn today. Gaah.... there seems to be no escape. I don't want to take the other option that I can think of though, just being absent like some people. But then going still is kinda going against ... my essence (?) .... It's all and fine to think that it's just a bunch of songs and words that I'm singing or listening to, but in the end singing and listening to stuff like that without meaning them is equal to wasting my time and others as well, not to mention it's not being fair on my senses. Music is made to be loved, enjoyed and to create genuine emotion as well. *grimace* Not to mention I haven't been doing much about practising as well. Shame on me. I've been fooling about a bit much for the past few days. Will need to get a bit more serious soon.

HX is not really up and running yet. SL is supposedly to take care of the admin side of things this year.... but then to tell the truth I'm not up for it this year. Practising and performing perhaps, but nothing fancy. I can't handle the stress for another year, too much burnt last year and I'm still feeling sick from it. Stress levels bumped up everytime I think about it, not to mention the prospect of having to sing in front of people later today doesn't actually do wonders for my graying strands.

Miss you all back home, and hugs to the little 'pombelo'... dooshi dooshi kwee~!