Movie in the Making

I had a very fun dinner at the Green Tea House in Fruit Grove. It took a bit of time and navigation to get there but as usual, our bunch were the noisiest in the whole place. We can't help it; it's just in our nature to be rowdy and laugh like mad women when we're together. We made crappy jokes, came up with new ideas for our video-making and of course, teased each other endlessly. Speaking about the video-making, it's like our new game; our new passion. It started off with a documentary about dimples and how we were debating the cause of dimples. Mantou decided to film it down and tadah!!! Our first video!!!!! With a few odds and ends tossed into the clip; it was damn hilarious. It will be something I will watch every now and then and laugh to myself. This isn't my first experience with video-making. Somehow, I've always been at the end of the camera when Chris is holding it. She's made a few lame videos of me and she just loves showing them off to our friends. Not that I really mind; I think my self-conciousness had decreased drastically since I came to Australia and I am more daring these days. Skin is definitely getting thicker and thicker. Anyway, we made yet another video regarding exercise. Watching it, I can't believe it's really us on the screen. I'm glad that this group goes all out and is not shy when it comes to doing stupid stuff. Tonight, it was MTV night. Yes, the 5 of us actually sang and danced to two songs and I can tell you, I laughed so much that I think I've burned all the calories from my dinner. I can't wait till Mantou edits them and we get to see the final results. I won't upload these videos for all to see. They are not meant for a stranger's eyes. Ask me if you want to see them and I'll decide if I can send them to you or not.


Waiting for food...hungry, hungry, hungry, cold, cold, cold...



Playing with the spring roll because it's so smelly. I took one bite and didn't want to eat anymore.

A Battery Story

My calculator battery died on me about a month ago. I didn't think much of it since I only used it to count how much Chris owed me for groceries and vice versa. This week however, I needed a scientific calculator to do some analysis for my experiments. I required the log and 10^ functions. I could have done this in the lab but I was quite tired that day and wanted to get home as soon as possible. So I brought "homework" home that night. When I got home, I was lazy and only got to starting my work at 11 pm. I went to borrow a calculator from Steph and she said that hers was quite old and had some problems with the screen but I just wanted to use it quick and go to sleep. So I took it into my room and started keying in my figures when I realised that her calculator didn't have the bracket function which I needed or the equation would be wrong. I went back to her room and returned it to her. Next I decided to try Tommy's. I knocked on his door and asked if I could borrow his but also checking first whether his calculator had all the functions I wanted. When he said yes, I took it from him and it was not a scientific calculator. This was a more pro one with much more buttons and it was heavy. I couldn't find the "ON" button so I asked him how to turn it on. He gave me a "like that also dunno" look and pressed "ON" for me. Then I looked up at the screen and it had some previously stored memory there so I asked him how to remove that from the screen. This time he gave me the same look together with a roll of his eyes. Coming from Tommy, this is really unusual!!! He normally is quite patient. I guess he thought I was really dumb, hahhaaha... Happy with the calculator, I brought it into the room and tried working with it. But I still had problems. I didn't know how to key in 10^ and it wouldn't let me delete some stuff. I was quite annoyed by all these problems so I decided to return the calculator and bring the work into the lab the next day and use a NORMAL calculator. As I was returning Tommy his calculator, Wan Shi must have heard and taken pity on me. She passed me her NORMAL scientific calculator and I was left shaking my head. I went around borrowing calculators from each of my housemates only to have to return them one by one just because I couldn't or didn't know how to use them and because my own calculator's batteries were gone. What a night!!!

A few updates

After a few days of pondering, I have decided to move out of Campus Lodge. Yes, I did tell Millie and Steph initially that I would move out with them. But when the time came to put down "yes" or "no" on the agreement form for Semester 2, I really wanted to say "yes". I was so comfortable and used to my room and home after 1 and 1/2 years of staying here. I was afraid to leave this wonderful place; a place I always looked forward to coming back to after a hard day of work. I was afraid that I wouldn't like my new place as much as this one if I moved. I was afraid to leave my comfort zone. Then again, if I stayed, I would be mostly on my own since Chris would be leaving in July and Steph and Millie were definitely moving. So I was left with a choice: stay on in my comfort zone alone or move out to a new place and new experience with friends? I was torn...

I talked to my parents and my sister. My sister felt that I should stay on and save myself the trouble. My dad said stay and my mum said move if I wanted to experience something different. I guess they also felt that it was pointless to give myself so much trouble since I only have 6 more months in Brisbane. I agreed; I should have moved out at the beginning of this year. So I made a decision to stay on. After all, it wasn't as if I would never see Steph and Millie again. We would meet up and have dinner together, I was sure of it.

I told them my choice and they respected it. Steph didn't say much but Millie approached me later on to try and convince me otherwise. I told her that I would think about it. I talked to M that night and he said that I should move if I wanted a new experience. This had been told to me so many times already. So I went to work the next day and wrecked my brain. I kept comparing the pros and cons of moving and staying. I made a final decision. I picked up the phone and called the Campus Lodge office. I asked if it would be ok if I changed my mind now. The lady said no and told me to send her an email confirming my decision. I immediately got onto Outlook and sent it to her. I was moving out. I felt relieved but sad at the same time. It was going to be hard for me to say goodbye to my familiar place and housemates. In the end, the experience was too tempting. I decided that I was here to learn as much as I could. Staying on wouldn't teach me anything new but moving out would. At least I could say that I knew what it was like to be more independent. At least I would know how it was like to stay with friends. At least....

A few nights ago, 2 girls called Wan Shi and asked if they could come and take a look at my room. Tommy was going to move into Steph's room after she left and they were hoping that their friends who were currently staying downstairs would be able to move up into Unit 7. So these girls came and I showed them my room like a housing agent, pointing out the pros of staying in my room. But at the same time, my heart was hurting. I wasn't enjoying the thought of this girl moving her stuff into my room, sleeping in my bed and using my wardrobe. It was selfish and possessive but I couldn't help it. I was quite miserable after that.

Still I look forward to the house-hunting and having the chance to stay with these girls. It will be fun, no doubt. I just hope that no conflicts will arise because we are staying together.

Buddha's Birthday

I went to the celebration for Vesak Day at South Bank last Sunday. This is quite belated but I've been too lazy to update my blog. I didn't think this celebration would be very "wow" but I went since Steph wanted some friends to accompany her. In the end, we had fun and I met a new, cute friend although he might have been a little left out since we three tend to get a little crazy when we're together. I saw some Asian teens doing street dance and that was really cool. You could tell that they had been practising for this since it wasn't some impromptu thing. It was fun to watch them enjoy their dance and that made you enjoy it better. Some moves were awesome like the break dancing performed by some of the guys. This group went on non-stop for 30 minutes and I really enjoyed the entire performance. Mil and I shared a popiah since we were so excited when we saw them. There was a guy who was making the skins right at the spot. It's a pity the filing wasn't authentic. It was full of lettuce and some vegetarian stuff. No turnips in sight!! I bought a packet of kueh for $2 as well and it was pretty good. Definitely cheaper than the ones I got at the Malaysian night last year and the glutinous rice Mil and Steph bought for dinner was yummy. The friend who was there with us seemed quite quiet. He didn't talk much and it was hard to get to know him like that. Anyway, it wasn't too important. I was there to have fun and check out how the Buddhists in Brisbane celebrated Vesak Day.


See my new specs and shorter fringe??

The new friend...

Managed to catch a dragon dance, martial arts display and lion dance at the stadium. The organisers were really rude though and it spoilt the whole experience. This was quite awful as they were mostly Chinese. How embarrassing to see other Chinese behaving so horribly.

Some tribal group playing musical instruments although we thought they looked more like Red Indians and were quite out-of-place at this Buddhist festival.

A calligraphy display drawn by the man in this picture. The word is supposed to be "long" or dragon but personally, the guy could have been drawing some rubbish and we wouldn't have know the difference. There was a lady explaining that the Chinese people thought that they were the descendants of dragons and that only the emperor in those days was allowed to wear yellow since it was considered the colour of royalty. It's all very "cheat ang-moh" stuff but perhaps it was good to have someone explain this concept to them.