back home!

finally home after 3 weeks of holiday paradiso.

flight home took 8 hours, watched 4 movies throughout: the queen, miss potter, paris je'taime, the pursuit of happyness.

ate many meals on board and kept getting hungry still, thong thinks i'm a monster. i think my appetite has expanded yet even more in aussie cos the servings there are so huge? nothing can satisfy my bottomless pit of a stomach anymore:

5pm-stewed beef with potato slices and pumpkins, crackers and bread with cheese (which tasted awfully good), mango and passionfruit ice-cream was served soon after, and a hot mug of chocolate with marshmallow soon after that. and i was screaming in hunger within half hour. why are plane servings so small?? 7pm-baked pasta with tomatoes. not to my liking but gobbled up anyway. plate of fruits. cadbury chocolate bar. more drinks.

and hungry again by 9pm.

din get the window seat this time to watch the lands and skies beneath us slide past. isn't it a wonder how the plane can transport us from places to places so efficiently? one moment i'm in melbourne, next i'm beside mummy. it never cease to amaze me. and this is my tenth flight in the past 3 years! was just counting the other day and was surprised there were ten. but 4 were from this trip la.

mummy and bro (surprise surprise) came to pick us up. bro just got his new car and i swear mum was so paranoid throughout the trip. kept telling him to drive carefully, go slower, stop at the traffic light blah blah blah. and when i talked bout my trip she asked me to shhhh cos my bro needs to concentrate. ?!! she's on a panic high. not looking forward to anymore rides on my bro's car with mum around.

anyway i caught a bad cold from the last day in melbourne. thought we were just going shopping so i only wore a tank top with a thin cardigan and thin sweater. boy what a huge mistake. we went to port phillip bay in the end and the wind was howling in our faces. both of us were freezing. wish we could stay longer cos it was such a pretty and serene place. but time was limited and we had to get to other places to shop. the shops close at like 5pm?

and now i'm not only having a cold but a sorethroat too. boohooo. cos of too much chocolate and nuts eating over there. and the lack of water la. i hate drinking their tap water. the warm water is cloudy. and i hate drinking cold water. so each day i drink less than half of my small nalgene bottle. hee but i'm getting ok la.. just got a very weird flu-voice and i keep sleeping, which really isn't peculiar of me is it.. hee.

anyway me and thong got thru the airport securities fine.. no checks no nothing. yippee! no taxes on our wines! but our friends who flew one day ahead of us weren't so lucky. they were actually stopped on their way to exit, which is really kinda rare, and asked to declare their alcohol. luckily they only had to pay the tax and not get fined for tax evasion or something. heehee.

cousin just flew to sydney for work for one week. asked me last week if i might postpone my flight and go for a free stay in sydney to accompany her. sighh wish i could just postpone my flight la.. stay for one more week.. not in a hostel but at the four points sheraton! which we kept passing by in sydney and i think even popped in to use the posh toilet once? hehe. she has views of the beautiful darling harbour sia. now she's alone there and she's bored cos seriously, aussie's not the place to be when u're alone as it's quite a ghost town after 5 or 6pm.

now i'm back home and sweating. heh okies the heat isn't that bad. though i miss the cool weather it is indeed troublesome to have to wear layers of clothing and bring jackets out and stuff. at least back home i can wear singlets everyday. heh good consolation.

many stuff coming up so i gotta nurse myself back to bubbly health! grandpa's bday, cousin's wedding, catching up with friends and relatives.. to pass prezzies and stuff. sigh i'm nice la, each time i go overseas i nv fail to buy something for them even though this time i promised myself i'm not gonna spend too much time shopping for them. hee not that i bought lotsa stuff la.. in fact really budget stuff that we bought. heee can't blame la, we're backpackers leh.

and of cos, job-hunting. gosh now this is back to plague me. it's at the back of my mind actually but now i'm having some trouble trying to bring it back to the front. holiday-hangover. still no signs of any employer wanting me. rather, i haven't really applied to any. the issue is not so much of wanting a job soon. the issue is more of, i still dunno wat i wanna do.

the two friends who travelled with us are working in credit-suisse. so throughout the trip they kept urging me to send them my resume cos their dept is looking for pple. u guys know i'm not a bank person right?? they assured me that anyone can pick up the skills in their dept, and they're open to arts pple like myself. and besides, after hearing them talk bout the current renumeration, gosh can't say i'm not tempted. and imptly too, their dept sounds like nice pple and no politics watsoever.. and if i do indeed get the job in the end, my friends will get $5K reward.

so i sent in my resume yesterday to my friends as they told me to.. w/o knowing wat job i'm even applying for (only rough idea).. din do any research watsoever. sick la so resting whole day. hehe. i guess from there my friends would forward to relevant pple.

then guess wat?? i just received a phone call today from the bank.. the speaker is an ang moh and i dunno wat his slang was, but watever it is i can't really make out what he was saying most of the time. and he gave me a mini phone interview.

gosh i was totally, utterly unprepared. stuff bout banking and finance has always disinterested me, and i know nuts how to answer his qns, or even understand what he was saying. stupid accent + banking language left me clueless and struggling for words to hold the conversation. not to mention talking in my stupid squeaky flu-voice i'm now left with. how do u speak intelligently when u can't even make out the words the interviewer is saying? u can't keep asking him to repeat right? it's not the usual english angmoh slang, that i can still manage i guess, but this is some weird mixture of probably european + dunno what accent. i thought it sounds abit indianish. but nope definitely not. and i think indianish i can catch too. i got a feeling this ang moh isn't from my friends' dept. and he got a name of the position that i "applied" for, and i dun even know of it.

arghhhhh. how i screwed it up la. horrible start. probably i shouldn't even try out sectors i'm not so interested in. thought i shld just try it out since i know pple there. maybe i shld steer clear of banks.

sigh. community sectors, hard to get in. need to be committed, tough. psychology, impossible to get in. no second upper hons. fullstop. private sectors, dunno how to get in. not so interested, competitive, but great money.

how now brown cow.

hi from melbourne!

okiees... i'm officially the holder of a second lower hons degree.

heh no surprises there. though it would have been great if a miracle had worked my way... heh.

sad? yeaaa abit. my grades had been hard earned (most of the time la, at least). it's a lil' sad when 4+3.8+4.4+4.25+4.125+4+3.75 and then add one 3 and u get a 3.91.

okie shall stop harping on it yea.. those of u who know wat i'm talking about..

regrets?? yeahhh definitely. there's no such thing as no regrets, unless u have truly tried ur best.

and for me, nope, i haven't tried my best. at least for certain stuff i haven't. really.. so yeah. i do have my deep regrets, and from these regrets i shall take away a precious lesson and learn stuff like how to better do things in future. hmm, it's better than having no regrets and thus giving myself an excuse to get away from it and thinking i've put in everything, then not learning from the lesson at all.

hahhaa but i shall not be harsh on myself and give myself a pat on the back too.. i survived!! i've officially graduated!! yay.

okieee.. checking results in melbourne halfway thru ur grad trip must be fun stuff huh.. *eeps*

anyways, here i am in melbourne, and my trip is drawing to an end. boooohoo. all these thoughts of results all over again, thoughts of job-hunting are all coming back in bits already. brrr.

shopping has been disappointing.. din do much shopping in gc, brisbane, sydney or canberra.. thought that i could come to melbourne, renowned for its shopping, and go on a spree or something.. but, 2 trips down to bridge road, which is a sales paradise, and i din buy a single thing!!

okies, the stuff can get really cheap and discounted. but the cheap stuff are really ugly, and the nice stuff are expensive and just like what singapore has.. but in aussie dollar which is bigger la... all the stuff here look just like those in topshop.. so, no point buying stuff that singapore has right..

and there's not a single bikini in sight! i'm sorry ceci. :(
gold coast has some.. cos it's a surfers paradise afterall.. but they're expensive and branded sia... and then in the rest of the cities.. no chance la. it's autumn-winter now, and all the stores are selling thick fur coats and knits... zzz..

everything's so expensive here in aussie... food, transport, clothes... even water! a bottle of water costs more than beer.. so all the backpackers are drinking tap water.. hmm and a train ride of like 1 or 2 stops can cost 5 ,6 bucks in aud. we're running v low on cash.. and even exchanging currency is expensive... like the other day we exchanged 200sgd for only 148 aud... wth..

so far i've only bought a pair of jeans, a shawl, slippers, coin pouch, an ugly bag that i wanna sell now, hmm and some biscuits and nuts which are really expensive... the nuts i mean... brr...

anyways sorry if i haven't been replying emails and smses... but thanks for all the well wishes and greetings! read my updates here yea.. and i'll be back in s'pore soon! by mon night.

trip so far... i think each city gives a very different feeling. i like the first half of my trip, cos it's more relaxing, not so rush and tiring.. but the second half is good too.. in terms of experiencing really great stuff and seeing, trying many things for once. i've been to mountains, travelled thru valleys, went to wineries, gone to the great ocean road, took a helicopter, gone for our own road trip, seen dolphins, penguins, koalas and roos up close, like really close. seen lil' baby joey in a roo's pouch today too! pretty exciting... but gotta bear with the rushing, getting up early, packing and rushing to different cities, getting acquainted with all the different transport systems in each city, reading maps, walking within the city to save money... blah blah.. i've stayed in 5 cities and 6 hostels so far!! tiring but i'm such a fit girl now.. heh.. carrying my backpack and hand-carry nike bag all over... *smug*

hehe.. fun fun... it's all gonna end soon tho.. bleah. tmr's sorta my last full day here.. and we're going to shop!! hopefully i can get some stuff.. but i gotta get some cash first.. sigh.

the weather here's alright.. within the cities it's fine.. but melbourne is colder.. need a thick warm coat at night. but travel outta the city into the country and suburbs, then it gets freezing.. like at hunter valley, katoomba, great ocean road, phillip island and stuff.. need thick coat + few layers inside + scarf + gloves at times.. yea even for thong.. heh..

ooh by the way, does anyone know whether we can bring wine back to singapore? do we need to declare and pay taxes at the singapore airport or something? and can we still buy more alcohol at the dfs? sighh the 4 of us bought like 11 bottles of wine and we're now thinking of how to bring these loots back.. hard to pack sia.. please let me know if ya happen to have a clue yea... just drop an email or something.. heh.. will come online tmr night.

okies.. it's pretty late here. gonna catch some sleep to get more shopping tmr.. hopefully..

nites world. and cyaa reaaaally soon.

helloooo

imagine taking a cool breezy fifteen minutes walk from where you stay.. u walk through a beautiful garden, past flaming red maple trees, old oak trees of a hundred years, ancient churches, fountains and statues, with nice plains of soft grass all around.. at the end of the walk u come round a bend, and the spectacular opera house looms right in front of u, and the huge sydney harbour bridge spreads out just behind the opera house.

that was where i was staying in sydney!

throughout australia what i love is all those nice greeneries, nature and quaint buildings around. i have no qualms about lying on the grass.. so lush and soft.. not to mention without all those mud and mosquitoes that our homeland offers. hee.

and the weather's so cooling! natural air-con sia. i haven't sweat for days. hehe. a tad cold in some areas though.. that's when we had to pull out all the warm thermals and thick coats.

i'd so far been to gold coast, brisbane and sydney. i love brisbane city and the river that runs through it. each day we take the river ferry, which is just one of their public transports, to get to places round the city.. cool sia. like taking bus except it's much better and more beautiful sights along the river.

sydney is beaauutifuuul. will always miss the sights of the opera house and the harbour bridge during evening time when the sun sets. sydney's pretty much a harbour city. there are like harbours and ports all around.. the yachts, ships and boats are all soo pretty. and yeah, the water's blue.

the past few days in sydney had been quite a blast for us. we rented a car, and in our hyundai sonata we drove up to the blue mountains where we stayed a night, and then to hunter valley the next day. the boys were just raring to go.. crazy guys.. thong drove like up to 140km/h on the freeway??! i was just yelling at him on the way to slow down, watch the limit!! hehe. think the whole idea of it just sounds totally freeee.. yeaa it's actually pretty nice to drive along at our own time and space, minus the danger aspect. anyway so interesting.. we had to watch out for wildlife crossing the roads at certain areas.. lest a kangaroo suddenly hops out or something.. heh.. and yeaa.. that night a cute lil wombat and a fox crossed our path.

hmm the place we stayed at the blue mountains was pretty nice. in the lil town of Katoomba. it wasn't actually cold up in the mountains but it was cold in katoomba! and coldest in hunter valley i think.. brrr. but anyway hunter valley is a nice place with a hundred over wineyards and we visiteda couple of wineries, bought many bottles of wine and now we're wondering how to bring back those loots to s'pore.

yesterday we went to port stephens to watch dolphins on a cruiser. there were like dozens of dolphins following in front of us! super cute and friendly animals.. kept leaping out of the water and everyone goes whoaaa each time they did that. nice to see them so up close sia.. like 1 metre right in front of us? but we all got sunburnt on the cruiser.. though it's pretty cold, wind slapping on the face and all that, the sun was still shining through and mr australia sun is pretty fierce indeed.

oh and i finally got to see and cuddle a koala!!! i tell u, they're super cute sia!!! they just hug the tree branch to sleep all day! apparently they sleep bout 20 hours a day cos they need all that rest to digest the eucalyptus leaves.. cute animal.. and when u cuddle them, they're so tame like a lil baby and just cling on to u and let u stroke them and stuff.. i love!!! *muacks*

now i'm in the dead town of canberra, which explains why i'm able to blog such a long post. absolutely nothing to do here at night sia.. luckily it's just a stopover on the way to melbourne. oh anyway i'm supposed to pay like 1Aud for 7mins of internet in this hostel which is freakin expensive. but know what? after we paid 2 bucks and the 14 mins were up, we realised the internet wasn't cut off so we just continued using till now.. hmm like one hour already.

hmm okie it's gettin late (and cold) here and i gotta be up early tmr. canberra's blardy cold! need like 4 layers to keep me warm now. plus gloves.

alrighty shall update again soon.. hopefully i can use this "free" terminal again tmr night.. hee... ciaos!

hi from GC!

yeaa that's gold coast! everyone calls it gc here. hehe.

i love the weather here!!! it's like aircon temperature throughout the day.

the other day we were suntanning on the beach.. everyone's in bikini.. so i was in my bikini and beach shorts too.. and it was so great to be lying on the sand suntanning except that there's no sweat this time! heh yea the sun's pretty strong though u can't feel any heat. can u believe it??

so we both fell asleep on the beach.. shiok.. cept that after a couple of hours at bout 4pm it started getting like really cold and windy.. and i was freezing in the bikini. sheesh.

and we went to movieworld today.. freakin AUD64 but guess wat? thong passed off as his friend tim who's staying in queensland cos it costs only AUD42 for locals.. apparently all asians look the same to them.. the lady at the counter din really look or anything..

we're now staying at this nice hostel with hannah and jason as our roommates.. they're brits and they've been travelling for bout half a year?? and they'll be in aussie for 3 months.. yeaa so our trip 20 days.. like peanuts to them. anyway they're pretty nice n friendly and we're gonna watch a free movie together tmr! plus the night market.

okies.. gc is a pretty relaxing place.. nothing much to do except for the beach n strolling around.. eating fast food the whole day.. good to relax before our schedule runs really tight when we get to sydney n melbourne.. may hit the pubs tmr since it's our last night here..

alrighty.. gotta go.. it's bout midnight here though it's 10pm in s'pore! i'm getting used to the timing here already.. get tired at the end of each day easily after spending the whole day out..

shld be blogging quite abit cos internet access seems pretty available around aussie.. ciaos!!

off to the land of oz!

wheee i'm flying off in a few hours time so thought i'd say bye before i go.

anyway just some thoughts bout the past few days. it's been totally hectic for me n thong for the past 3 days.. lotsa packing, unpacking, packing again, moving, buying and rushing everywhere!!

my room's a huge mess now, it looks like a bazaar or something. filled with all the crap i moved back from hall, plus all the stuff i'm gonna bring for the trip all strewn around. it's sooo messy la, took pics of it n i'm gonna blog bout it someday cos it's so unbelievable.

and no i'm not done with packing yet. :(

so sianz of doing it sia. so utterly many things to bring and wat's more it's cold there gotta bring all the warm clothes and stuff.. can't fit everything into a backpack!! headache sia.

i feel really bad that cos of all the rushing and busyness i've been so stressed up that i'd been mean to my loved ones. sighh. stuff like being impatient or snapping at them or saying mean things.. u know how it is that u dun really mean it but it's just at that moment when u're all stressed and hard up for time u get irritated and impatient.. esp to thong and mummy, sigh i feel so sorry. but they know how i'm like la.. hehe and i know they dun harbour ill feelings.

i'm just so glad that my family and relatives r all so happy and excited for me.. all the well wishes and stuff.. made me feel worse how i get so self-centred when i'm busy. like how grandma called last night while i was packing n i din feel like talking to her.. but i still did reluctantly.. and turns out that she just wanted to come over today and give me money for the trip.. and to send me off.. and wish me a happy trip and everything... i've never been close to her but i'm now so really touched by all that concern..

and how my cousin also wanted to talk to me last night and i just wanted to watch desperate housewives.. turned out i missed half an hour of the show but gained so much more.. all her nagging concern and how she went to shanghai and bought me a woollen top for aussie.. how could i so conveniently forget all these when i want free time for myself..

how mummy kept nagging outta concern but i just tried to shoo her off.. hehe.. but sometimes she worries too much la.. made me bring soooo many warm clothes now i can't fit anything else. heee. she wanted to send us off at the airport but i told her not to.. i'm just afraid she'll be tired to rush down from work.. and gotta go home alone from the airport after that.. long journey home.. but i thought bout it later and realised how disappointed she must be when i told her not to go.. so this morning i woke up to catch her before work and told her to send me off.. hehe..

sighh.. all these things.. u dun mean to be bad towards ur loved ones.. but it's just at those moments when things are said and done and u dun even realise it.. it's only at the end of the day when u lie in the bed and think back to reflect that u realise u've been wrong.. i felt so sad for who i've been these few days and i just want so much to improve myself and be a better person.. i feel that i have so much love from the pple in my life but yet sometimes i'm blind to that and take them for granted.. i treasure them and everything but i just dun wanna be so impatient and harsh to them when i'm stressed.. i really need to control myself. yeah big project to work on.

oh well why am i suddenly blogging about all these stuff.. my emotions have carried me too far.. guess it's the idea of leaving home and the country for so long.. making my family worried and happy for me at the same time.. i just wish i'm bringing everyone along but yet this is a different kind of trip. haha okies shan't think too much.

anyway so, i'll be away from the 8th to 28th may so pls dun call me up yea but sms if there's anything urgent! doubt there'll be?

okie..i'm flying off to the land of shopping, sunshine, beaches (except it's wintertime) and koala bears!! wish me a happy trip and buy lotsa cheap bikinis back!

tata guys. :)

smells like freedom

alrighty so i've graduated. *beams*

not as overwhelming a feeling as i'd imagined it'd be, no shouts of "bi ye le!!!!!" outside the exam venue like some bugger did last year, but a deep heave of relief and sweep of amazement would definitely suffice yea.

16 years! blink of an eye isn't it. i'm just amazed at how i managed to survive the entire educational system and am still kicking well today. especially since yours truly is someone whose parents get called up at home by the primary school teachers saying how poorly i'm doing, whose vice principal spoke to a few times about dropping subjects in sec school, failed thru countless exams and tests throughout her sec sch and jc days, made teachers sigh and sigh, blah blah blah. there were so many times that i could have just been chopped off by the system. lol. i hated studying and everything, wrote curses to my parents in my assessments books, let them read and tore them up.

thankfully i always wake up at those major exams and pulled thru somehow.

so there, here's a good reason to be relieved and perhaps, a little room to be proud of myself for struggling my way thru eh. *beams again* thankful for the congratulations calls and msgs from loved ones.

well officially i'm shedding my identity as a student! feels funny cos i've had that identity all my life. u know, being a student, u just have to be accountable to yourself, pace ur own studying and stuff, get to take naps in the day, skip lessons when u just feel like it. life's not gonna be so simple from now on. gotta start learning how to be responsible not just to myself, be much more disciplined and stuff. being a student can be such a bitch sometimes, but i just oh-so-know that those years would be one of the best memories in life i'd look back to.

heehee anyway after the paper today the form of celebration took the form of watching spiderman 3 and eating my fav cold soba and ebi tempura at akashi jap restaurant! *slurps la.. the restaurant gives u cash voucher each time u eat there, and the value is 30% of how much u spent. we used our $18 voucher from the last time and got another voucher again. so shiok. good biz tactic to keep the customers coming. we went at 8+ almost 9pm and it was still so crowded with pple. and everyone was using their vouchers hehe. super shiok la the food.

and spiderman 3, i thought i'm just going for a normal, blockbuster movie and din expect it to be such a tear-jerker this time round. spoilt the eye makeup that i specially put today in earnest after weeks of no makeup fun. hehe. lotsa themes in the show which struck a chord, or many chords. hmm perhaps will blog a lil bout it one day.

okie now i've lotsa stuff to do:

-move out of hall, try not to feel nostalgic
-dental appointment yet again
-buy things i need for the trip
-attempt to squeeze all my stuff into the backpack
-adjust my sleeping clock else i'd be a panda strolling thru aussie streets
-pack up feelings

i wanna blog abit bout hall, but i'm not sure how exactly to go about it. too many feelings inside me i think. last night here.. trying to relish every moment but i'm feeling like a zombie now. yeaa i slept at 5am and woke up at 8am yet again.

think the least i can do is go walk around hall for the last time now. blog bout it later.

tata.

random rants

sigh. i hate the fever. the drowsy and burning-head feeling. can't study anything in.

must be too many late nights' sleep and waking up too early in the morn. slept at 5+ last night and woke up at 8am for exam. yest slept at 5 too and woke up at 9am. sheesh i'm at the peak of fatigue.

and now i'm bugged by something else too!

stupid thong's fault. i was eating my lunch quietly in front of him and his mum (second time meeting, both times quite scary..) when the boy went to tell his mum that the 2 of us r going to aussie. as in, just the 2 of us. so when i was hearing this i almost choked but of cos couldn't show any big reaction la, must maintain good impression (if any).

so why am i affected by this? simply cos, it's not very nice to let my bf's mum know that i'm going on holiday with her son alone within a few weeks of her knowing of my presence, and wat's more, getting this piece of info while i'm right in front of her, second time meeting somemore. like wat will she think of me?? she doesn't even know we've been together for years.

and secondly, it's probably no big deal if she's ok with it. but thing is, she had nothing short of a big reaction upon knowing it!! right in front of me! scolded the boy (while i'm eating my rice by the side).. nagging at him not to do anything foolish blah blah blah. oh gosh. wat paisehness for me. i felt like i'm loose or something.

and lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we're not even going alone for chrissake (ok only for like the first 5 days we'll be "alone", but we're gonna meet friends there and stay in a 8 bunk room??)! if we're indeed going alone, then perhaps there's nothing to say cos it's the truth and we shouldn't hide the truth. but if we're not going alone, and now she thinks we are, then yes, i have a problem with that! (u may be asking why we din explain. he actually did, but apparently only the initial piece of "only 2 of us are going" went in and nothing else could negate that)

bleh. so yeah, it's soooo the boy's fault for telling a silly untruth. brrr. i must explain that his mum's the very very conservative, dun allow gfs type. sighhh. she just called thong and nagged at him for going to aussie with me. how am i ever gonna face her again. *sobs* do i see some dark days ahead.

monday is chicken wing day

how nice it is when u get to eat ur fav food twice in a day.

received a sweet sms from char when i woke up saying that she's going to buy me mcwings from macs but really, she's just 'finding an excuse to see me' (in her words). awwww. heee and within minutes char really drove down with the mcwings. (this gal knows how much i love wings.. hehe been loving them since a toddler i think.)

almost got her into trouble when campus security came and he was sooo anal and idiotic. he was on the point of booking char even though she explained nicely that she's driving off now. brrr.

it's sweet when u know heartfelt friends take the effort to brighten up ur day with little things, esp during this gloomy exam period. thanks dear!! hope u'd enjoy my fav baby star too.

and we had another last today: last chicken wing supper at uncle vincent's. boohooo.

so we bought 6 wings in the hope that we won't forget the taste so soon. hahaha. actually the standard has deteriorated. but well. wings are wings.

pic of our very last monday-night-uncle-vincent wings:

boohoo.
anyway, good luck to all still having their exams/going to have theirs. ceci, dun think i've forgotten bout u though we've not caught up for so long.. hehe. do take lotsa care and study hard k. miss u dear.