not quite d.day

Let me set the scene...

semester 1 and semester 2 subjects are interchangable ~ this past semester, i've been doing MEDI3011 (chronic diseases) and MEDI3012 (subspecialties). the faculty went to revamp the course for next year so now, the 2 subjects i've just done are being changed. now they have MEDI3015 (professional practice) and MEDI3016 (clinical sciences - the meshing of the 2 subjects i just did this semester).

now here's the quandry..
i failed MEDI3011 but passed MEDI3012. means i gotta redo the one i failed... but!! MEDI3011 doesn't exist next year anymore. it's been replaced with the new subject MEDI3016. means i gotta enrol in that new subject. that's all well so far.. until u get to exam. because they've fused the 2 subjects into 1 for next year, it means that the exams will also be a fusion and so i need to sit for that new exam. means that i have to friggin resit for an exam when i've already passed the subject just because the faculty screwed up this year and changed the course back to the old one for next year. now tell me, how is that fair...

was gonna write more but im too tired.. mentally, physically and what the heck, throw in spiritually too. in short, i've decided to enrol next semester in one of the 4th year subjects i was originally gonna do anyway with this 3rd year subject i need to redo. it makes things less hard to accept but it doesnt change the fact that i'll still be one semester behind. it also doesn't change the fact that i'll be at a different graduation ceremony from my circle of gal pals. that is gonna be a bitch, as N put it. also means that the pressure's on to pass because over here, we don't have the 3 -strikes-you're-out rule. they're stingy. it's 2 strikes and you're out. right now, i've used up one strike even tho i've technically passed 3/4 of the friggin 3rd year for cryin out loud. grr.

monday the thirteenth

a whirlwind of a past 2 weeks or so...

• mei & her cousin came and went ~ gallavanted to the hunter valley and nelson bay, went horse riding thru the bush and sand dunes (that was amazing.. it always is even tho it's usually the same trail. funny how real bad memories are automatically blocked out. like the hordes of flies. think: black bumpy blanket.. )

random nature shots @ the ocean baths and the obelisk

• finally devoured The Da Vinci Code ~ was a good read, well written and obviously thoroughly researched but it didn't live up to the hype. or maybe the experience was slightly tarnished because of the hype... *shrug* personally, i think that people nowadays aren't exposed to the good books we were exposed to, growing up in the good ole 80s. harry potter's a huge scream nowadays.. yes, it's well written but what's the big deal. judy blume was just as good. roald dahl was in the league above. the chronicles of narnia were just as captivating. and who could forget those choose-your-own-adventure books? witch of blackbird pond. a wrinkle in time. nancy drew and the hardy boys. JRR Tolkein's hobbit series BEFORE the movies came out. (why is it that people seem to like jumping bandwagons? Mrs Squire was reading us a chapter a day at lunch from The Hobbit in friggin fourth grade, yet it wasn't a huge deal back then. it was just a great adventure story until nearly a decade later when the LOTR movies came out and suddenly, everyone had to have a copy of any work of Tolkein be it in vcd, dvd, hard cover or deluxe edition forms) even interstellar pig could easily outshine the kiddie books today. i could rant on and on about the various volumes that deserved the limelight more than the books ranked as "bestsellers" in this day and age but i can't be stuffed.. will just sit back, shake my head and sigh at the poor deprieved youth of this decade.
• moved rooms ~ upgraded, as someone so nicely put it. scattered remnants still remain scattered in my new room. the room still reeks of "just moved!" ... either that or "just burgled!"
• packed for taiwan ~ almost there. still doing the annual x'mas/return-home-with-presents-for-everyone thing. it's a pain to do shopping of any sort nowadays. it's chaos everywhere. road rage everywhere. people push, shove and glare more. people suddenly lose tempers and values alike in the middle of traffic jams or when they glimpse an empty parking spot despite 2 other cars signalling for it. a 60 year old man got pummeled to death yesterday afternoon in sydney due to road rage. talk about the holiday spirit, geez. this one seems evil.
• results out at 2pm ~ got only 4 hours of sleep despite trying to sleep. queasy knots in stomach. feel like puking. thought i'd faint in the shower. can't concentrate on anything. don't feel like doing anything. i even forgot to wish T and A good luck for their exams today! [note to self] gotta remember to do that for their next one. shows how well i think i'll do eh? *sigh*
  

friggin' telemarketers!!

and to think that i was complainin of nothing to blog about just a few hours ago!

she calls up, does the usual routine about asking if it's ok that the call is monitored yada yada yada and then plunges into her sales pitch of what's the best plan for me. so i listened at first and went that's nice, but no thank you. i'll stick to my current plan.

and then she got argumentative!

she was like, what's wrong with this current plan? im like umm.. nothing, i'm happy with my old plan and i dont want to change. so she starts her sales pitch of "that's what i'm telling you! there's nothing different about this new plan except you get 60 free sms and better rates" but frankly, at this point, i was ready to hang up on her and not change plans for the hell of it. so i listen to her sales pitch again. she must've repeated the thing 3 times before i relented and said thank you, i'll think about it.

what is there to think about? you mean you don't want to change plans now? she demands.

MY GAWD LADY! i froze out of sheer stupefication that she was still harping on the subject. trust me when i say that it took a hella lot of self control from screaming at her over the phone. i wanted to hang up on her but that felt too rude and i kept reminding myself that she's only doing her job.. she's only doing her job...

when i finally managed to wind down the convo, she had the gall to ask me if i wanted her to call me back next week after i thought it over. i was like.. for the last time lady, i already told you that I WILL THINK ABOUT IT AND GO TO A VODAFONE DEALER IF I DECIDE TO CHANGE PLANS. i think that if you were in the room with me at that point, you would've seen me twitching from the frustration.

13 minutes 53 seconds of my life wasted.

tis been a while since i last was here ~ apologies all around to the dedicated people (who prolly amount to less than 5) who do come back here, be it out of interest or boredom! a crazy 2 weeks or more have passed.. everything seems such a cinch on hindsight ~ how frustrating!

should've done study groups all year
should've read kumar & clarke
should've read up on geriatric medicine
shouldn't have done all these past papers, what a waste of time!
should've started on my notes earlier
should've moved out in our winter break
shouldn't have gone shopping @ ebay
should've spent more time with friends
shouldn't have spent all that time with friends
should've known the answer to that mcq
should've known it was ankylosing spondylosis! ARGHH

*sigh*

ah well, it's come and gone. nothing more i can do but wait to check results on blackboard on dec 13. *cross fingers and hugs a forest* in the meantime, i've been getting a taste of what it's like to bum. odd feeling really... i kinda scared myself a few days ago when i was just sittin here and saw the remote control on my desk. had a mental blank and took me literally a few seconds to figure out what it was and if you were here, you would've seen the lightbulb light up over my head with a *kaching!* as i realized that there was a big black box suspended from the wall in my room and that tvs still exist.

glad im gonna be busy again soon.. had a taste of it on saturday at T's 21st. twas a blast and was nice to be able to have some people skills albeit the alcohol.. or mebbe because of the alcohol

moving to a new dorm room. upgrading, as CK called it M's gonna be arriving soon with her cousin and that'll be a whole week of fun and catchup to look forward to *wheeee* and then i gotta pack for a pre-flight trip to syd with A before zooming off to taiwan. hopefully i can sneak in a trip to sg during the short 3 week stint so i can finaaaalllly see most of the class back there!

ooo getting excited already! and then there's x'mas. oh no, it's not about anything religious ~ god forbid! it's about the after-x'mas sales and the 75% discounts nowadays. it's about giving a better present than last year. it's about getting a better present than last year. it's about the latest goss as all the nosy parkers of the clan gather together to discuss your future and/or husband. have i mentioned that i like the modern x'mas?

where did they buy their liscence from?

so true A, so true... this would be the 2nd.. or 3rd moron today displaying their driving prowess. lucky me. i caught them all during my total time or 2 hrs on the road all day. idiot boy with his souped up mitsubishi mirage sped around weaving in and outta traffic. idiot man in his white camry decides to slowly drift towards the sidewalk doing about 40kph. oh and yesterday, this idiot car turns into my lane from a side street from the right as both me and the car behind me were happily zoomin down a knoll... ok.. so i tap my brakes. what does idiot car do?! GRIND TO A FRIGGING STANDSTILL. here's the catch.. idiot car flicks on the left indicator and just sits there waiting for 2 more cars to pass on the left lane so that it can get in there too. bloody nice of you to hold up the entire right lane mister!

anyway, back to the main story...
idiot woman shouldn't get a whole entry to herself but i'll indulge her.. and myself. what the hell is with this driving?!



wasn't like she had a huge gap to squeeeeze her oh-so-small falcon in between the car ahead of me and me. there was a split second when time slowed down and i was staring into her eyes as she sat dumbfounded behind her steering wheel as i shot daggers at her with my eyes. lady, if u wanted insurance, go claim it off someone else. geez.

happy all hallow's eve ~

· · ·

carrying on my little yearly tradition of pumpkin etching, be it pumpkins, apples.. and apparently eggplants now... i spent this afternoon thinkin up some faces. pumpkins were pathetic this year. they were way too small, way too flat and were way too little to choose from. shouldn't be complaining tho. at least woolies has some sort of pumpkin this year. i had to make do with apples last year and cut out black construction paper witches' hats for them apple-heads. anyway, here's what my eggplant turned out to look like. 'cuse his grotty teeth. he doesn't have his own toothbrush. hmmmm...what's mr. eggplant up to....

bz terrorizing the tiny pumpkin tots... AHHHHHHHH!

don't scare yourself this halloween *wink*

· · ·

we're a clinical cause of blood pressure! according to the BMJ...

A new study has shown that the presence of a medical student can increase blood pressure when measured in general practice.

BMJ 2004;329:998 (30 October)

thanks C for sharing the article with us ~

magpies are evul!

been telling everyone just that.. for the past 4 years and nobody's believed me til they've experienced an attack first-hand. and then they scream in terror. hmph.

well here's more proof on how nasty these viscously territorial birdbrains can be ~

Man fights for life after magpie attack
By Geraldine Mitchell
October 27, 2004

A MAN who crashed his bicycle after a magpie attacked him was fighting for his life in a Gippsland hospital yesterday.

He was taken to the Latrobe Regional Hospital with serious head injuries and later flown to the Alfred where he was in a critical but stable condition last night.

Police said the man fell off his bike while crossing Tom's Bridge north of Morwell about 9am.

The man, 51, told paramedics he had lost control of his bike after a magpie attacked him.

Last year, a Mildura man, 74, died after a magpie attack in which he received a serious eye injury.

Magpies swoop in spring to protect their chicks and territory, according to the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

To prevent attacks, the department suggests travelling in a group or avoiding the area. Cyclists are also urged to dismount and walk past a swoop area.

Herald Sun

nothing left..

a snippet from a budding author who decided to share part of his book...
found this, of all places, at the tibian forums of amera ~

dedicated to J.

Sitting on a cliff readying myself for the jump.

After three.

One.

Two.

Thr…

Oh, I’m sorry. Let me rewind a little and explain myself before I go.

Ah, my darling girl. Eight years together. We had gone and chosen our rings a week before, it was defiantly time to do the deed. It had been a long time coming. We had been through so much together. The rings arrived in the shop a week later, and I had to go pick them up. Everyday I received excited texts and phone calls from my significant other. Bless her. She was so excited. Of course, I was too. This was the girl I loved, and I couldn’t wish for a better person to spend the rest of my life with.

Ah, my darling girl.

The day I picked the rings up she split up with me. I wont go into details. Two days later she was moving in with another man. No explanation. Just like that. I had to figure it all out for myself.

And when I asked:

‘Are you seeing someone else?’

All I got back was:

‘Yes I am.’

Ow.

Eight years down the drain. I had no idea. Two weeks later, a good friend of mine died at a very young age.

Ow Ow Ow.

Which takes us back to the cliff edge on a warm, Spring day.

‘Three!’

I am writing this with a broken nose, four broken ribs, a broken leg, a fractured collarbone, two broken arms, one eye, a bruised banana, and a three legged dog called Jeremy.

Only joking.

Seriously, there’s more to life than jumping off a cliff. That’s the problem with jumping off cliffs, you only tend to get to do it once. There’s a lot more sounds to experience than ‘Bounce bounce splat’. There’s a lot more feelings to experience than the last ever one. There’s a lot more love to experience than the one you just lost. It’s strange. When you lose all hope, your mind is free to be how it should.

‘I don’t care about those bills, because I wont be here.’

‘I don’t care about losing a friend, because I wont be here.’

‘I don’t care about fear, because I wont be here.’

‘I don’t care about losing her, because I wont be here.’

And then everything that you have ever worried about disappears.

whoosh!

And it was at that moment, at number three, that I realised. Everything that concerns me only does so because of the way I perceive it. What does it matter if you have lost everything? You could always be dead, and then you wouldn’t care anyway.

I think

And don’t get me wrong, it really did hurt. But I’ve come to realise that life is too precious to dwell on the past. If you are still alive, the future can be an exciting prospect if you look at it that way. Out of darkness comes a light, and my light was the realisation that I, and only I, am the sole creator of everything that I will ever be. I could have blamed my other half for leaving me. I could have blamed my friend for dieing, but at the end of it all I can only blame myself for dealing with it badly. And it is our perceptions on life that cause us to act and behave in the ways that we do. Life isn’t biased; life doesn’t deal us bad hands. Only we can do that, and how we look at things pretty much determines our destiny.

I learnt the greatest lesson that day, and I have to thank everything bad that happened to me for it. Strange isn’t it?

doh!

1991: John Hunter Hospital received its first patients
~ Hunter History Highlight

The evening news has been repeating the snippet over and over on various local channels ~ the traffic accident we witnessed yesterday blocked the only road going into the John Hunter, thereby sealing off the only ambulance entrance to the hospital (who was the bright spark that decided to build a hospital with only one road leading in and outta it?! while we're onto blaming people here, who was the genius that implemented paid parking at club med?! grr), the #2 most popular hospital interns signed up to vie for, the fastest/largest regional hospital in the state. Talk about planning skills...

It took them 13 years to decide that something must be done. AFTER a semitrailer effectively plugged up the entrance. but nooooo, that wasn't the hoo-haa. it's ok that private folk aren't able to access the hospital, it's ok if the pregnant lady goes into labor cuz she can't reach the hospital, it's ok that little tommy can't get his tummy looked at and has to throw up in his mommy's car cuz she doesn't drive a big enough car with noisy sirens and flashy lights. the fuss was about how ambulances couldn't reach the emergency dept... but now they're throwing around possible solutions. *proceeds to roll eyes ...all the way to the hospital*

on a lighter note ~

happy bdae dear di! hope you had a blast!

it wasn't meant to be a gym day

cold, grey and drizzly was how it started. perfect welcome to the sexuality counselling tutorial at john hunter.. bleah. S picked up me and A, ha a terrible time changing lanes b4 the roundabout and finally made it to the right lane after a lot of complaining and staring - both by the 3 of us and by other drivers. just b4 the roundabout, S decided to do the free parking... meant he needed to get back to the lane we had just fought to get out of about a minute b4. anyway, we get a spot, cross the river of cars and got to the middle of the roundabout. we were standing in the middle of the traffic merry-go-round, looking for a gap to dash across when this happened...
('cuse the lousy sketch. teaches me to bring my camera with me at all times...)



after checking to see that the lady of the squished + dragged car was ok, after all the amagad!s and omigawd!s, after realizing there was nothing we could do.. we trudged to tutorial. wondered if we would've gotten away with not turning up if we practiced our counselling skills on the poor lady, who had burst into tears by the time we reached the other curb...somehow, i doubt so. started the day with a bang eh...

anyway, onto the wasn't-meant-to-be-a-gym-day bit... forgot to fish my wallet out from the gym bag from yesterday. 2nd time in a week i've lined up in anticipation to buy stuff, only to be horrified that i was wallet-less. my brain cells were only supposed to start dying when i hit 25. whoever did research on that forgot to include me in their sample group... anyway, thank goodness for cold soggy spring rolls from dinner last nite. first of the junk gobbled for the day...that lasted me til close to 1pm and i had to borrow moolah off S... her $20 got me cinnamon toast, rolos and lifesavers with more than $15 to spare ok, so that was the second meal of junk i gobbled down... and now...? A had an extra black forest cake from the cheesecake shop sittin in her kitchen from her dad's bdae so S, K and i got a third each. *pats tummy and burps* thought it'd be a better idea to get the picture when there was actually some cake left rather than show u a piece of foil with crumbs...



yes. that's all in there. in one sitting. go me

i'll deal with the extra rolls of spare tires on my tummy later ~

the 4400

just finished watching it... the 6-part mini series than ran as a two-part 3-hr shabang over here on the ten network. must admit, it wasn't bad... except for the hype!

with half an hour more to go, i could see it coming. i kept going.. please no, please no... it ended, leaving me neither with awe, nor with horror, or with a new perspective...but with one incredulous reverberating THAT'S IT?!?! c'mon, that's reaally all there is to it?!

[rant]
what about collier? what did he have up his sleeve? what's with the baby... sure he/she/it's gonna be "special" but in what way besides having gravitational fx on trees... and what about mya? if she's clairovoyant, why couldn't she see her own future? and while we're on this topic, why can't the rest of the clairovoyants, astrologers and such see the future and all pitch in for a nobel peace prize or help greenpeace save the world? why baldwin, of all the people in the world, why was tom the only one responsible for helping the 4400... why was kyle supposed to be the channel used to speak to oh-so-special tom, and not.. .his wife let's say? if the smarter, more evolved people of the future were picking ppl off left right and center w/o anyone noticing, why did they bungle kyle's abduction attempt. couldn't they have waited til he was alone or zapped up BOTH of them since shawn was so keen on being involved? funny how tom and diana seem to be the only field agents in the whole organization and funny how they had time to personally show up at each "event"... how coincidental that they were given just enough time to settle each "event" before the next one happened..
[/rant]

i know it's not fair to whine about it becuase they only had 6 hours to set the scene and unravel the plot.. it IS a mini series after all and it would've gotten boring exploring the daily lives of each of the 4400 returned... but geez!!! we come from the future, we picked these people to save the human race in the future. so what... now that they've figured out how to travel back in time and teleport people in a way, they might as well make the most of it and pick a few more from nearby decades?

so much hype... such great ads on tv... so much like Signs or The Village in terms of the letdown factor.. grrrrr. i feel cheated. admittedly, i probably would've spent those 6 hours eating, sleeping, online and doing very little work but it would've beat sitting in a chair staring at some cathode rays flickering the rainbow at me.

current mood:

*swooooooon*

just one word, that's all i need to say... MacGyver
DUHnanananananaaaa nananaah nananaaananananaaNAnuh!

MacGyverisms... here's a snippet from a webby chock full of them. they have every single episode there... i think ~

Episode Tricks
----------------------------------------------------------
001 PILOT
Disarmed missle with a paperclip
Matches & rope got rifle to shoot itself
Smashed pistol barrel to use as rocket thruster
Kicked grate to test for hidden laser
Lit cigarette with hidden laser
Smoked cigarette to find hidden laser
Used binocular eyepiece to catch laser beam
Aimed laser beam at source to "kill" it
Knotted fire hose to build up water pressure
Used said hose to lift steel beam
Tested heat on door with a stick (it caught fire)
Milk Chocolate candy stops sulphuric acid leak
Used shirt to filter gases
Sodium metal & cold capsule explosive
Flipped lights in morse code

awwwww my hero!
such a blast from the past ~

>:(

hello?

heelllloo...

look here, i told you before and i'm telling you again...you're creeping me out. don't try to contact me again. i've reported you to security and they are monitoring my calls. if you call back again, i won't hesitate to bring this matter to the police as harrassment and neither will security. do you understand?
*click*

grrrrr

not quite a full circle

little did i know there'd be strings attached when i first fell in love with this song from dawson's creek. here's the perfect song from J's point of view. well, from what i understand.. correct me if i'm wrong.

THE DRIFTER - David Poe

You took me like a drifter takes a friend
I'll never be that honest again
Never seems like much is going to change
Then your world comes crashing down

Your friends accommodate your darker phase
Then you find it's been 100 days
When's the last time you remember feeling safe?
You're surrounded by assassins in this place
But you wanted to be here and I'm amazed

If I appear in every story that you tell, that you tell
How can you say that I don't wish you well?
Wasn't I the one who caught you when you fell, when you fell?
How can you say that I don't I treat you well?
When I'm ringing out your name like a bell, like a bell
How can you say that I don't wish you well?
I wish you well.

Get that lonely feeling at the door
Even though you left this place before
'Cause the truth is you won't care anymore
Till your world comes crashing down again.

I appear in every story that you tell, that you tell
How can you say that I don't wish you well?
Wasn't I the one who caught you when you fell, when you fell?
How can you say that I don't I treat you well?
When I'm ringing out your name like a bell, like a bell
How can you say that I don't wish you well?
I wish you well
I wish you well

flower parade

and here come the pix ~
thanks to the power of paint shop pro and a canon powershot...*drumroll*



had fun cropping and pasting that.. okie, here come the swans. omg they were incredibly cute for some insane reason. swan lake with swan herd (gaggle? flock? what's the collective word for swans?) right behind them. got me so excited i stepped right into a puddle of mud. thought it was poo at first. yes, i've stepped in poo so i noe what that feels like *shudders* anyway, here're the swans... aren't they quaint?



everything was great 'cept we forgot to stop by the floriade shop, vote for the best scarecrow (i saw that pink starfish from spongbob as a scarecrow, forgot to snap a pic tho!) or realize that the various flowerbeds had themes such as "tropical fish" or "stormy weather".. oops. next year.. next year...
speaking of weather.. the skies cleared long enough for us to stroll through and get in and outta the vietnamese restaurant for lunch before deciding to drizzle a bit! here's the proof :)



at the end of the day tho, i was a very happy amy tho many a stranger might've thought me a tad nuts getting up close and personal with the flowers, contorting myself in various positions to get the best shot, randomly squatting so that T could take pix of me (such egomaniac eh, i noe. don't need you to tell me too)....
okie, gotta get some sleep. nitey nite from the floriade...

*snips out pix with tulips*
i wish!!! now i want my own garden and my jimmy baaaaacck

home!

it's soooooooo good to be home!!!!

don't get me wrong... the trip down to canberra was awesome. i'm just tired of sitting...the 3-hour train ride to sydney at 6.20am, mad dash to shop (none of the shops were open at 9.30! hmph) and find the krispy kreme shop in torrential rain, hopping onto the greyhound bus for another butt-numbing 3-hour-15-min ride to canberra with some tone-deaf but very vocally unabashed 4-year old kid who whined out her songs... (yes, i realize this was written by someone who is determined to be a pediatrician... so sue me for being human.)

right now, it's 1 awwwww meeting with MJ @ Canberra Centre, 1 yummy dinner feast with T's family, several doggy barks, licks + kisses, 1 night's worth of good sleep @ T's, 1 trip to the Floriade (definitely more about THAT after my digicam batteries recharge. they konked out on me halfway thru downloading pix... charge! faster dammit faster!), 1 3-hour ride up to Sydney with plenty of stories, 1 more mad dash to krispy kreme's, several donuts, 1 2-hour ride back to newie and several phone calls later....

i'm pooped but not as pooped as i expected to be...
i think it's them donuts...

early mooncakes ~ way too early..

had a fairly eventful day ~ not that i'm complaining. morning was great. afternoon was great. evening was great i suppose if i like the paiseh feeling (that means "embarrassed" in hokkien)

morning ~

went to the gym: could do the arm raising machine thingie.. finally!! killed my calf and got stitches on the treadmill but it felt good. having songs i could wail to in my head helped to keep me running

saw a shark's tale: that movie gets 2 thumbs up and my right pinky too! can't even start to describe it.. it was incredibly cute right from the scene where they show u it was a dreamworks production and there was a lot of subtle jokes and references throughout the whole show. not to mention that the characters looked exactly like the people who supplied their voices, 'cept in fish form. lino the shark even has a mole like robert di niro...

browsed through the computer fair: quick once-over. they don't seem to have as many gadgets and accessories as i remember them to have... the guy also took my $3.50 and never gave me back a dollar in change. i assumed entry fees increased til i asked.. AFTER he put the coins in the cash box. slow me. go me.

afternoon ~

shopped at woolies: hungry = bad time to shop but i managed to implement some self control. only thing i got that wasn't really necessary was that snickers bar that was on sale telling me to eat it.

worked on nugget at home and whipped up some scrambled eggs ... *slurp*

evening ~

decided to pay a quick visit to the mooncake festival gathering thingie organized by the singapore students' association (or the ssa for short) maaaaalu-land, here i come! (malu's singlish for paiseh and you should already know what paiseh means or else it means u were just skimming thru the earlier bits of this post... tsk!!) in 2 short hours..

went there with S and J and turns out, we didn't noe anyone there. or at least i didn't. we got to the Cellar, greeted and told we were welcome to join but it'd be nice if we could bring a dish. #1.

we had no idea this was how things worked. didn't say so on the poster and i guess we all didn't read it carefully enough to call up whoever was in charge before trudging up empty handed... sigh. so we went to woolies to grab a couple tubs of ice cream b4 heading back. made ourselves as comfy as one can be at a gathering of people from the same country who all know each other knowing fully well that we weren't singaporeans. wasn't that hard... we settled in to watch a s'porean-produced movie about these 2 siblings who were really poor. was an interesting movie and was nice to pick out familiar faces among the cast. an announcement about the programme for the rest of the night was made in the middle of the movie and that sparked off incidents #2 and #3...

we were supposed to get food at the buffet. then they'd unpause the movie and we'd finish watching it. then a break for announcements etc. then movie #2. then mooncakes. well the whole point of us 3 being there was cuz of the mooncakes (yes, im a glutton. oink.) tho the whole "expand the social circle" thing was a bonus. we didnt wanna stay so long so S was the spokesperson and asked if we could have our mooncakes first, we had to leave early. the poor poor organizers...should've seen the look on their faces. #2.

they scurried off to do some yabbering and gesturing and it was sooo paiseh cuz it's like we imposed ourselves on their hospitality. they finally came back and said they could only afford 1 mooncake to share between the 3 of us. tuff luck for us.. getting any at this point was a bonus. so anyway, we got shooed to go get some dinner and i wasnt hungry. S approached the same dude with very good intentions and asked if they had any vego stuff #3. noooooo i don't want to turn into this annoying imposing chick that's causing them trouble. argh stop! "nonono, dont listen to her! im not hungry, i just want a drink, really." i spluttered out.

some time passed w/o any incident til someone took out his digicam and started snapping pix. then he took a pic of the three of us girls... individually. is he gonna post our mugshots up on their website so everyone else can be warned about some of our atrocious requests? i thought it'd be oh so smart of me to offer to take his picture as a sort of get-back...

me: ummmm what about i take a picture for u.. u've been taking a pictures of all these people and you've got no shots of yourself... (as i get drowned out)
him: do you even know my name???
me: huh?! umm.. no. (what the hell does that hafta do with me taking a pix for u?!)
him: what is my name? you don't even know my name and you want to take a picture with me?!
me: *turns pink.* nonononoo omg noooo! i wanted to know if i could take a picture OF you because u've been taking a pictures of all these people and you've got no shots of yourself...
him: *already pulling up a chair* ok come come.. smile!
me: nonono....i wanted to know if i could take a picture OF you because u've been taking a pictures of all these people and you've got no shots of yourself...
him: ohh... nevermind, it's ok. come come, take picture. group shot
me: but but...
*say cheeeeeeeese! camera goes click*

...and that was #4.
as the movie came to a close, the president announced the prizes for best dish of the nite etc. we had planned to leave after the movie but thought it'd be rude so we decided to stay til they finished the speeches. guess what was planned for right after.... mooncakes! so we DID stay long enough to get mooncakes without needing to ask for them in advance. we said bye pretty fast after that and zoomed out... #5. 5 oopsies. in one night. ouch.

memories from the 90's

was archiving old pictures and came across this one... i would've been in 7th grade, making me 12...wow. that was me 11 years ago. still... that doesn't excuse the "let's hide half her face with hair" fashion...
MY GAWD.. look at those bangs!!! think this was a carry-over of 80's fashion...eeeesh!

*snips pix*

loved my school uniform .. thought it was the prettiest one i've had, ever. guess the rjc uniform would come close as a 2nd runner-up. then again, i've only had 4 uniforms...i think. brownies and girl scouts don't count.. i hated those! the sash.. the furry thingies that went with the green girl scout socks.. eew.

ooh yeah, that's our old home in the san fernando valley.. miss it a lot

2nd ooh yeah ~ it's been the first time since then that my hair's been that long, straight and shiny and went i went for a trim on monday, the hairdresser chopped it all off. now it rests just below my shoulders. all of it. *wails.. then grrrr*

spouting wreckage

bright and sunny again! what a difference 12 hours makes.

uni's been shut down due to damages. roofs have collapsed at teds and other uni buildings. 5 rooms have apparently been leaking at bara (that was the perfect test of waterproofing!). mud and grime everywhere.123mm of rain fell in newcastle while 5mm fell in the catchment area in sydney. rain god must've liked barry, our hailman. cleanup began at midnite last nite apparently and is still going on. jesmond's buzzing with activity cuz it seems like the whole world's decided that this would be a great time to go shopping...

this was seen off nobby's beach yesterday tho...

full story can be obtained from the daily telegraph

let it hail! let it hail! let it hail!

apologies for sounding like an incoherent maniac right now but wow.. i wish there was a little blackbox inplanted in my head that i can open, take out the memory card and upload to share!

the forecast for today: thunderstorms.
went to the gym this morning and it was a tad muggy with overcast skies and stray beams of sunlight streaming through, like that picturesque scene of calm right before a hurricane hits.

day passed uneventfully... til dinner! anj, ting and i went out to hog's breath @ beaumont st. and were thoroughly enjoying ourselves when anj was like "HOLY! is that RAIN?" ...referring to the whoooosh whooooosh coming from outside. oh yeaaaah.. and not just rain mind you. we were about 50m from home after splashing through puddles along the way that sounded like my alloys were grinding against the curb... and there were all these lights blinking as we turned the corner and descended a knoll. uh-oh! that innocent little dip in the road had transformed into a mini roaring rapids that had managed to swallow a poor little white car of some unknown make.. the thing was half submerged and the distraught owner was pacing back and forth with a very confused tow truck on one side of the river while a couple of cars had already started to pile up on the other side. what a sight! we had to u-turn around, i learnt to use my horn this time so the tow truck wouldn't reverse into me and sped off into the misty foggy night. it was so surreal... and twas my first time driving in such conditions. not that i was scared but i was more worried because of the fact that i had 2 other passengers in the car with me.

noticed the hail as we managed to navigate safely through the mishmash of back roads and emerged at the traffic lights. well i think ting noticed it... "heeey... is that ice on the ground?" the same thought whizzed through both our heads - hope there aren't dents in the car panels peeeeease.

meanwhile, anj was having a blast...

anj: snow! wheeeeeee
anj: snow! wheeeeeee
amy: but the poor car! gawd please don't hail!
anj: hail! wheeeeeee
ting: aw i hope my car's ok
anj: hail! wheeeeeeeee
amy: noooooo... the poor car!
anj: hail! wheeeeeeeee
anj: snow! wheeeeeeee
anj: hail! wheeeeeeeee
anj: hail! wheeeeeeeee
amy: i swear i'll slap you if u say that one more time
(don't get the wrong idea.. anj cares plenty about the well-being of my car. blame the adrenalin and the endorphins)

got back home, had a quick squiz at ting's car and it was fine except for a layer of hail on it. promptly forgot about the rain, the thunder and the multi-pronged forks of lightning when we saw the "snow"-covered ground in the parking lot and went snappy happy. walked into dorms and was greeted by people already in the midst of snowball fights and such.
went and grabbed my camera (i knew i should've recharged the batteries today!!)


a very blurry bara tho you can see the hail still falling ~

thought it was cute when stacy commented that we now know for sure that bara rooms are indeed occupied, what a great way to get normally anti-social people to mingle!

here are a few of the results after running around grinning like an idiot with the rest of the people living at bara.


snow! another bara shot ~

ting spotted people making a snowman across the courtyard so we trotted over to get a photo of it before trying a hand at making our own snowman named barry...

weather's calmed down a bit but there's still the occassional rumble or howling to be heard. i've too calmed down from the initial rush and hype. wiped the idiotic grin off my face, camera no longer in hand, stopped saying hi to random strangers and asking them if they were the ones i heard screaming earlier on. no, no alcohol was involved.. ting and anj have gone back to their rooms. all's now normal and well and 'twas [like] the night before Christmas, when all through the house; Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. ZZzzzzzz ~

old and hardened? or just disillusioned...

got sent a link from one of my gors thru icq outta the blue...
hadn't talked to him in months, if not years.

the little icq window croaked rrriiibbitt and up popped this message:

You have a received a URL request.
URL: http://www26.brinkster.com/dreamgalaxy/tears_in_my_heart.html
URL's description: sWeet loVe sToRY :~~(

now usually, i don't click on fowarded url links. especially wHen ThEy ArE TyPed LIkE tHis. this time was different.. i think it was cuz i was curious about the combination of "sweet" and the sad face, curious to see how sad and tragic this sob love story could be. i'm morbid eh?

well after reading the essay, i did feel a little sinking feeling in my heart. i don't know how true this story is but it's very plausible. most likely, the news that a girl, a pretty girl to boot, has contracted this life-threatening disease and has passed away would have whizzed through the grapevines. especially since i was in my first year of jc the year titanic opened in singapore. would've been someone in either my year or the year above and news eventually floats around despite having sources at different schools. SOOOOooo.. i'm not dissing the credibility of the story because if this was a true story, i'm really sorry to hear of the bittersweet ending and i can't even begin to imagine what her friends and family would've gone through during those dark days of grief. so i treaded carefully... i asked my gor where he got the link from, half hoping he wouldn't say it was a true story of someone he knew or was close with. was relieved to hear he got it from a fren and he hoped it wasn't true too. [ah, so he's at least as far removed from the protagonists of the story as me.]

yet, with a wry smirk directed at myself, i found little lightbulbs flashing at the back of my mind in the midst of getting comfy in a sad + emphathetic mood when slorr mentioned that she had erysipelas. there on after, the nagging question of "what is that disease??" bugged me as i squizzed thru the rest of the story. "is it contagious? what are the clinical signs and symptoms? wonder if there's a cure? where'd she get it from? how'd she get it?" shut up u med freak! i tell myself..i knew fully well that she wasn't gonna make it about a minute into reading and that the saddest bit that's meant to be the tear-jerker was yet to come yet i remained slightly cynical til my mind was put to rest of what erysipelas consisted of when i did a google search. bless dear google, what would i do without it!

what i found gave me more doubts about the amount of truth in the story.

• classical symptoms include butterfly rash [check. she had that] spreading across the bridge of the nose [uh-oh. she had it at the back of her neck. mebbe she had a rare form of it] that progresses rapidly without treatment [*mad rapid clinking of retired math brain cells trying to figure out the timeline of the story* 2 months since first meeting but she knew beforehand because she was already talking weird. she passed away at most, 5 months later. now, this disease presents with an angry rash that hurts, gives u fever aches and pains. i think it's a reasonable assumption to make that she would've sought medical advice within a week of the rash/symptoms not subsiding, no?].

• 70 - 80% of rashes occur @ lower body, 5 - 20% of rashes occur @ face one site reports...[her's was at her neck and spread to her face tho. mebbe it's a rare form. mebbe its's a rare form]

• prognosis is excellent [mebbe it's a rare form. mebbe it's a rare form]

• more common in females for some unknown reason [check. she's female]

• not common in asia [mebbe it's a fluke.. mebbe it's a rare form]

i'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing... or if i can even label it in such black and white terms. this referring to that constant desire to be shown proof, shown evidence, to constantly question and analyze ...i kinda miss it when things could be taken at face value and one wasn't called naive or gullible. *shrug* mebbe i've got it all wrong but learning to distrust seems to be an integral part of growing up. maybe not distrust per se.. being more discerning perhaps would be a better word? and to think, there are all these little kiddies who can't wait to be grown up... been there, done that. i'm haven't even started taking my first step into the real world and i'm already tired ...

i forgot.. -.-

i had something to say.. really! i had... but try as i may, i can't remember what it was

© marybeth13@webshots

blame it on that dog in "as good as it gets"!! they were showing it on tv, i was channel-flicking... he's so qooooooote! i just stood there and awwwwww-ed my head off. it's a good thing i've got my own room so there's nobody around to give me weird stares ~ this doggie's not verdell from the movie (played by jill) but is a brussels griffon just like her. i did a google search and found this pic at webshots community...
now c'mon..say awwwwwwww with me

when 320mb/day becomes too little

woke up this morning with anj's call saying she went over her daily download quota...
it used to be unlimited access. then the uni noticed that internet usage took up too much of their expenses so they implemented a 1G daily quota that wasn't that bad to live with. 3 years later, due to various reasons... lack of funding included i bet (explains why they're pushing for full-fee paying local students for certain courses)... they've snuck in with a 320mb download quota per day. thanks for the advance notice...

[rant]
well technically, 320mb is still a lot for someone who does the occasional surfing online... but what about those people with auto-refreshing webpages, instant messengers, mirc downloaders and mp3 hogs?! funny how the university encourages people to go online. they've made most student services online, they've converted the basement of the library into a huge computer lab/net cafe (that still has people lining up to use any computer at one of the 15+ workstations with about 5 comps each at any given time), they put up huge powerpoint lectures, make us check for course announcements online blahblahblah. yet they go ahead and cap our internet usage... go figure. and that's only talking about "sanctioned" or "proper" internet use... with the new quota, there goes web-camming (not like it works with anything besides yahoo due to the freakin firewall the uni's put up that blocks most things), movie/mp3 downloads (they silently acknowledge the use of kazaa, bearshare etc by pretending they don't know on-campus residents use it), uploading random whims... and what about those ppl who surf for porn? oooo bet they're complaining..!
[/rant]

on the other hand, 320mb/day aint that bad... not that i have any concept of how many webpage loads, emails, uploads and downloads that consists of but taking your average mp3 to be ~5mbs... my daily quota could get me 60+ songs. hmm, i could live with that it's more of the principle of the matter rather than the actual quota number that's my issue tho. the hypocrisy...we want to help our students. let's go cut corners on resources they use and build useless buildings and speedbumps around campus and purchase extravagantly expensive software that forces us to restructure our whole university heirarchy because oops! we forgot we're not american.
current mood.

laughing.stock

surprise visitor
Originally uploaded by æ.

don't be deceived by all that fluffy cuteness.. this kookaburra is one hella noisy bird that sounds nothing like a laugh...

*snip*
really tho.. this is just a test for flickr-to-blogger uploads :p