Hot days are over

So orientation started for my Normanby House (note its the only house around and its at the far northeast corner of monash campus whilst the rest of the halls are closer in), and supposed we should be feeling a little left out, I did not. On the contrary, I kinda liked it here more than anywhere else. Guess when you like something deep down, nothing could convince you otherwise.

We had a little bit more asians here in this house, maybe thats why we're more united as a house. Heard from all my other friends in the halls, they didnt even join anything in the hall. Well for my case, we had dinner and some games on Saturday night where we get to meet tons and tons of people. Then yesterday was Scavenger Hunt where we tour around Melbourne City and complete objectives. It was pretty fun walking around. Had mexican dinner yesterday and had more games. Broke my slipper because I was too excited playing a game but its alright, I still had fun. We even had a Slurpee machine in our common room. It was pretty good, most people actually chose to hang around in the common room for a long while after we finished our games. Maybe its the Slurpee, I don't know.

I did have a certain wish last time in my wishlist, that is - how cool would it be if my toilet was air-conditioned ( well I was being greedy after getting a fan last time for my house in Msia ), so here am I, fished out my wish out of the wishing well. However, even the shower room is cold. They're somewhat in the same room and the weather is really cold. Guess I'll just deal with the shower haha. Well at least I FINALLY understood how people did not shower for 3 days straight. I'm closing to that stage =)

Today was at a staggering 11 degree Celsius, and it had been cold since yesterday night. First time using the heater which is not very effective, I guess I just have to leave it on 24/7 if I want my room to be warm. Yeah, walked to campus for some faculty orientation and I left early because its really useless, and the walk is SO cold. To quote one of the resident adviser, a local which was escorting us to our venue, "winter is way worse". Haha, I guess I have a lot to look forward to huh! Oh, and sorry to those which I've mentioned wrongly, Melbourne is actually almost near the southeastern tip of the Australia continent. Explains why it could be so cold. I'm guessing winter should be around 3 or 4 degrees. 

=)

Kangaroo Land

This is bad. I've been lazy to blog. However there is so many things to talk about. Long entry incoming!

Lets start with packing. Packing sure isnt easy, and of course the biggest headache was my bolsters. This is when vacuum packing comes into play. Vacuum packing, a man-made marvel. Truly. It shrunk my bolsters into no thicker than 4 nicely folded t-shirts stacked together. Checking into the airport was a little panicky, because I knew i am going to exceed the weight limit. Turns out I was right, it weighed 46.6kg (with only 40kg baggage allowed for the flight). Thank goodness my family member were smart enough to suggest that I have another friend with luggage much less than 40kg to queue behind me. Simply put it, we'll cheat the baggage allowance by summing both our luggage weight together instead of individually. Mark has 29kg, which put us together at 75.6kg which is less than 80kg (assuming two passenger). The flight attendant was of course reluctant to do so, but I insisted and sorta requested her to foresee this minor obstruction. It went through. I was extremely delighted that the fact that I dont have to remove anything.

We had our transit at Changi Airport in Singapore and I get to eat my awesome burger king. No matter how bad they taste, I'll still convince myself that they are good. After which we boarded the 7 hours flight. The flight is comfortable, with a screen in front of every seat, offering a WIDE range of movies, games etc. So I watched Life As We Know It, featuring Katherine Heigel and Josh Duhanmel, and LOTS of bejeweled. After touch down in Melbourne, came my nightmare.

So I was told that 3-in-1 beverage are disallowed in Australia due to the fact that 3-in-1 contains diary products (for instance, milk). So I decided to be considerate cautious and declare my goods. So the other 5 of my friends were allowed through (though they brought at most only instant noodles and no diary products) and I got sent away to declare my goods.  Sucks big time. So i queue and proceed to declare my goods. Well the officers did not treat me very badly, in fact they were pretty nice chaps. So I left my 3-in-1 coffees and Milo behind. Meh. Went out and meet up with the rest of my friends and wait for the airport receptionist signal to board the bus. It was a pretty long wait, an hour or so at least. Not to mention after we took our leave we had to turn back because there are more people to pick up at the airport. MUCH more. The bus aisle was FULLY loaded with *clears throat* Indonesian luggage. Imagine us trying to get out of the bus for its first stop. Horrible.

So we checked in at the office, and its a horrible long walk from the office to our house by going through all the various halls and whatnot (however we do found out a VERY direct and short path on the outside road which is significantly faster. I felt stupefied ). So Normanby House, which is where I resides, is apparently the furthest corner in Monash campus. So yeah climbed 2 stairs up with all my luggage and checked into my room.

NICE!

Actually, They dont look as good really but I don't know, maybe its pride, I just loved my room. Its cozy to me. The hallway may appeared a little bit long and creepy but its fine. Luckily my room is not facing sunrise or sunset because it can be a tad hot because the room is not air-conditioned neither is there a fan, the window only open for a very small area. Also, my room is pretty near to the washroom and not near to the point where you could hear the door shuts every time.

The first day was hectic. We checked into the room, created a bank account and also applied for a phone at the same time. Finished at about 5-6pm and I was completely drained of energy. Had dinner at the residential cafeteria and slept with a stomach full of rice and beef because I'm just so tired. Of course, the main attraction of the day is still my iPhone4. Furthermore I am considering whether to jailbreak it or not. geez.

After which, over the course of 3 days, we've visited Chadston Shopping Centres, Ikea, Melbourne city and Glen Waverly. Of course Glen Waverly is my Chinatown. Yes you've heard it, its Chinatown by my heart. There I found the Malaysia favorite 3-in-1 Milo Fuzz and also Old Town White Coffee. Oh gosh and all the CHEAP Malaysian groceries. That was today and it made my day. Totally.

Overall I felt pretty comfortable around, except for the first day only where my lips were darker in red colour than the Nescafe advertisement and more swollen than Angelina Jolie's. Weather is cooling for the first day we've arrived in Melbourne, then its been hot in the afternoon  for the next two days and started raining every evening since yesterday. One interesting thing is even with ample scorching sunlight, the breezes are still very cooling. 

Overall rating: 9/10. I love it here, as well, not forgetting my home country and all the food of course =)

Chinese New Year

Ever visit someone's house and welcomed by mountain full of different cookies? From spring rolls with chicken floss fillings to pandan biscuits that melt the instance its inside your mouth. The best of all is that you only realized you have eaten a whole lot of them when either they ran out in numbers, or someone reminds you of it.

Thats Chinese New Year for you. Gong Xi Fa Chai =)

( in fact I WAS eating nonstop until it suddenly struck me that its already 1am and I've eaten way too much cookies. hence the inspiration for this entry. )

All eyes on me

Well, the past few days have been fun, although I felt a great sense of responsibility to do a thorough body clean-up after that. That means drinking a lot of water and having really plain meals. Well thanks to those irresistible alcohols. Damn they are good.

Sunday the Jan 30th was pretty hectic for me, somewhat a reminder as to how hard our parents work as well. I was called by my parents to help out with the shop on Sunday because two of the staffs take leave on Sunday whilst the other staff rests on Thurs. I think. Counting me in that'd be the 4 of us in the shop that Sunday, and you can take my word that we are still somewhat short of 1 staff to be able to serve all the customers promptly and keep them occupied. Just some little insight into the situation, I reached at 1.30pm and only gets to sit down at 4.30 for my lunch. Other than this one old hag over the phone that pissed me to the core, I was feeling alright for the most. Yeah it was busy but it'd felt good because I know we're earning money. 

Had crabs and mantis prawn for dinner. Have not eaten crabs for a long time and had a sudden craving for it since I'm leaving for Australia soon. In addition to that, it is also in lieu of my sister-boyfriend's belated and my dad's birthday. Well I'd thought it was done for the day and there came Janelle sms-ing me asking when will I get to YewJin's house for his birthday bash. To be honest I've completely forgotten about it and although I may feel a little tired but a promise's a promise, so I rushed there regardless. That was a wise decision =)

Gosh! The alcohols! Black Label and V.S.O.P, thats like heaven or what? To top it off not many people were into drinking ( which to a large extent I was convinced by none other than my own observation that they actually could not drink as well as I =P ) so yeah I pretty much were hogging the Black Label especially. I'm sorry for also not paying for my share of Black Label, and I only realized that when I'm tipsy and were already too high to do anything about it. YJ's dad is a pretty cool lad, even suggested Vitagen as mixer for the Black Label which turned out to be pretty darn nice. 

Love all the crackle and laughs, and met tons of new people and also pissed two girls off because I was tipsy already and were picking on something silly she happened to have it slipped out of her lips...for couple of times. Oh wells, I was hoping to give you a nice toast ( which I was actually raising my glass at you for a good while ) and intend to give you a salute as an apology when you're going around bidding farewell, but I guess you were too pissed to even establish eye contact with me. Yes I'm at fault, but don't go hoping that I'd carry the blame entirely, I cant be pleasing everyone and if thats who you are then I'd pass at befriending with you. Oh wells, I still had fun for 95% of the night because...I'm suppose to have fun? =)

Last night I joined sara bren and many others for more V.S.O.P. at sara's place. Chat/drink untill 6 in the morning, had McDonalds fo breakfast and part our ways. Gotta say I love the company a lot. 

Life's good?  =)

World

Forget what happened earlier, I really dont know what happened.

All I can say is all the possible nightmares that couldve happen, happened. I lost my way, and I have never felt so helpless and traumatized before, it was until the point I really feel like pulling over at the road and just call for help because I really could barely move forward. I lost my way for nearly an hour.

Also all the comfort I needed was not there because...I don't know, I am never going to get any in my life? Its just going to be another silent struggle again even though I felt really traumatized earlier and I really could break down if there was indeed someone there for me. 

Only I could hold myself together, because time and time again people around me just couldn't be of even a little help...even you.

ALL IN!

Its 2 or 3 more weeks until my departure to Australia and I'm glad to say I'm prepared for it emotionally (meanwhile lets put aside preparation in terms of materials). Long holidays are good sometimes, yes i do mention it may be a tad boring but deep down I never took this holiday as boring to myself. I took it as a good time to rest and get myself ready in terms of emotions for whats coming up for me.

A good time to look at what I've done for the past year and also look forward to whats coming to my life. So here I am, all ready to embrace all the obstacles again because they make my life meaningful, because it'll be just like what everyone will be going through and although you may call it a boring and normal life, I'm glad to be able to enjoy a normal life.

Likewise I am going to miss my old home. Firstly is because I'm moving to Australia to study aboard, another is my family is moving to a condominium regardless. I somewhat always felt a great sense of attachment to my home, like I moved in when I'm a newborn and lived here ever since. If this house has a soul, I'd say its in sync with me for sure. Probably going to record every corner of my house and all the things that have happened. 

Feels good somewhat to keep moving forward. Look forward to my new hostel, my new environment, my new swimming pool in the campus, my new lifestyle, and of course my new phone =)

If I hadn't known enough, I'd say you're all mines. The first thing I'll get - probably the most superb calender organizer app around. One enough to let me note down every single present and oncoming activity in a very tidy and organized fashion with categorizing-capability. 

So glad I have the courage in the past to be able to drop everything behind just to find myself back so I could catch a breather, and live life like I do now with high spirits.

7th

Yeap the same day for the 22nd time in my life. However this time I took this birthday to a brand new level.

No birthday cake for the day. 

Actually not really, I had my birthday cake the next day with my family day since my mom's birthday falls on the 9th so might as well celebrate together. This time round my birthday I went to Mist club in Bangsar.

Now heres the best part. We left for the club pretty late, like 10.15 or so from subang. Well we had GPS and still lost our way, lets not get into the details shall we. Then we stopped by a petrol station where one of our friend, Boon were refilling his fuel tank for his car, whilst the GPS was passed to George who is in my car. So Boon actually went into the counter in the petrol station and inquired about the location of the club. I mean, might as well give it a shot when we're so hopeless.

Miracles do happen. So a stranger overheard his conversation and approached him, offering us help by leading us the way there. Not to mention he claimed that he is an ambassador there. I mean c'mon, what are the odds? The probability of such cases is as good as when all the planets in our Milky Way allign in a straight line. So we followed him either way while George is tweaking the GPS. The discussion concerning the stranger's kindness was pretty funny tho. I'd thought I would have to sell my ass to him in exchange for that kindness.

Well George did eventually found the location of the club and we were actually en route, according to the GPS. 中国报 was all I see when we were signaled to start looking for parking. Like seriously? We're going to a newspaper factory? Oh little did we know, Mist is just right within all those factories. Funny.

I dont know but I really do think its really my birthday and things really work MY way that day. Mist were fully booked and we were looking to open a bottle for the night. Guess what? He gave up one of his table for us, on one condition - we have to wait for his friends to come to agree with that. Nice. Again lets not forget the clock hadnt struck 12 yet so my magic still works. One of his female friends actually turned to us after a long wait, and offered us to go in first. 

There, all the magic that couldve happened, had happened. Can you imagine what'd happen otherwise? Either we couldnt find our way there, or we end up there like idiots not being able to enter the club. Thanks a bunch to the kind hearted man, and God for making all this happen haha. Its really too much of a coincidence, and it would be such a letdown if I cant enter because I really wanted to. We had fun afterwards in the club, obviously. 

Mist is actually ranked the best club for 2010. To top it off, age requirement is 23. =)

Oh, not to forget I also had some down-to-earth dinner with my university mates at Marche at TheCurve. That son of a bitch restaurant cost me RM60+ for my dinner. On the 8th I dined in at SilverSpoon at Menjalara with my family. Overall a very fulfilling birthday! =)

Just some pics for the restaurant dishes. Most of them are really delicious.

Chicken Parmigiana

Salmon Fillet

Stuff Mushroom

Chicken Ceaser Salad

Pepper Lamb Chop

The Chicken Parmigiana is really good. Like SERIOUS good. Gotta feel hungry looking at this pics, so, Lester signing off and heading to bed. Laters.