Totally Brennifying

Signs of aging maturity

2010-06-24T00:01:00.000+10:00

1. You'd rather stay in than go out, or have friends over, rather than drive out to some crowded mall for dinner.
2. Weekends used to be spent wandering around shopping malls, but you prefer to stay in, cuddle and do house chores these days. It actually gives you a sense of accomplishment.
3. You can cook. Not just Maggi mee, but actual dishes. And you help your mother out in the kitchen.
4. You get excited about setting up a new bank account so you can manage your own finances and transactions.
5. You feel proud that you can treat your parents to meals, and not just using saved up money that they gave you, but money you earned with your own time and hard work.
6. You have a ton of bills to pay and to contribute towards - utilities, mobile phone, petrol... You don't want your parents to pay for that much anymore, because it's your own responsibility now. No more frantic calls to dad from the mall, asking Dad, can I please buy (insert item here) on the credit card please?; you just charge it to his card, but you pay him back the following month.
7. You meet your client(s) and have to stop yourself from calling them Aunty/Uncle, because they are now Mrs/Mr ___. You have to be professional, you're an employee now, not a student anymore!
8. When you first started work, you used to feel excited because it was a new phase in life, but now you dread the long hours. You have become one of those people who preach to others, Make sure you enjoy your student years, because it will probably be the best time of your life.
9. You go back to your primary/high school alma mater to watch a school production, and see your ex-teachers and they ask you when you are going to get married, and you can actually answer maybe soon, in fact, that's my boyfriend just over there and not get mocked. You also realize that some of those teachers have known you since you were a 6 year old crybaby. You actually feel incredibly nostalgic (I went to the same school for 11 years). (Btw, Cempaka School's Box Office Production this year, Beauty & the Beast was good! I was pleasantly surprised and impressed! Now why wasn't I that talented when I was a teen...?)
10. You've been in a relationship that has lasted over the duration of 2 World Cups already.
11. You met your boyfriend when you were still a teenager. (I was 16, he was 21; and now I'm going to be 23 this year (What?!!), and he'll be.. Well, you do the math.)
12. You constantly look back and wonder where ALL the years went and feel nostalgic about it. (Yeah yeah I know I'm not really that old though, but it does feel like time is flying way too fast for me to catch up with!)

Wow I really do love making lists. I could go on and on and on but for this blog's sake I should stop.

Update

2010-06-18T00:47:00.001+10:00

Had a check up today. It is the medication making me cranky woot! So I can be a bitch without actually being a bitch, if that makes any sense...? It was pretty funny; I spoke to my doctor about my mood swings, and also about the muscle cramps that I've been experiencing, and she said ok, that's good, now it's time to reduce your dosage lol. She also said it's a good sign that I've been gaining weight (although in my mind I was thinking FML I've gained like 5kgs since starting treatment, I've got a good mind to get off the medication. I kid, I kid.).

She also told me about some patients who would get incredibly impatient and pace up and down her office while waiting for their appointment, to the extent of scaring other patients also waiting. Good thing it's nowhere near that extreme with me, I don't think anyone would want to put up with me otherwise, let alone Wazir! :P

Emo

2010-06-16T21:33:00.001+10:00

I don't want to be this grump anymore. Lately, I find myself blowing up at people (namely Wazir and my family) for no real reason; I get really agigated, only to realize 10 minutes later that it really wasn't a big deal, or that it was my fault anyway.

I wonder if it's the medication making me irritated, or if it's the built-up frustration of having to compromise to live with others again.

Or maybe I'm just a bitch, although I don't want to admit it.

Birthdays

2010-05-11T18:45:00.004+10:00

I think birthdays are a fascinating thing. I may not be the girl who organizes the most extravagant birthday parties, or the one who is the life of the party (actually I'm the one who mostly has a quiet birthday with him and the family), but I do make an effort to be aware of when everyone's birthday is.

A week ago, I had to pick my sister up at the Bangsar LRT and I was early and she was a little late, so I ended up hanging around Bangsar Village, just waiting for time to pass. I have to admit that at first I was pretty pissed off but after a while I actually learned to value the time I had to myself; I mean, how often do I wander around on my own these days?

And I found myself wandering around the bookstore MPH, a shop that I used to roam around all the time when I was a teenager. Shopping? What did I care about that; all I wanted to do was swing by a bookstore. So I'm wondering around the store, looking for a book to purchase so that I can sit on a bench somewhere while waiting for my sister to arrive, and I find this compilation by Haruki Murakami called Birthday Stories.

So I get to the payment counter and the moment I hand over my credit card to pay for my purchase, my sister calls to say she has arrived. -.- FML I wasted so much time just picking out a book that I had no time to read it.

But I digress. The book is great. The short stories are perfect for someone like me who has a pretty short attention span, and I think all the stories are interesting in their own way. Some are just strange, some are morbid, some are lighter. It's not about how happy and fluffy and perfect birthdays are, but instead about the darkness and reality and how it differs from person to person. I haven't finished the book yet, but I have to say, I am definitely enjoying it. And this is the only other book I've actually read in years (apart from all of Sophie Kinsella's books) so that really says something!

Writing about birthdays has gotten me thinking; can I be 21 again pretty please?

Paycheck Number One

2010-03-31T01:20:00.010+11:00

Today, I received my first full paycheck ever, marking my first whole month of work, and being an adult. Sure I've worked before but it doesn't really count, since they were all part time work.

Work has been quite good, being a small company I get more responsibility and learn more on the job. But it also means less colleagues; I have 4 at the moment but 1 is leaving soon, and they all appear to be somewhat quiet people, although I reckon they are opening up a bit more to me. I wouldn't call myself a huge talker but in the office I think I am beginning to be known for that. -.- I guess I'll give it a bit more time.. ;)

Again, another backdated post I never got around to posting. -.- Shit I'm terrible at blogging.

Enlightened

2010-03-30T00:32:00.000+11:00

A couple of weeks ago I discovered some bad news - I've been having pains for a year now and I always thought it was just me being unfit, but it turned out to be a bit more serious than that after all.

It basically started about a year ago in Melbourne when I complained of a rapid, pounding heartbeat and I was having a little bit of difficulty breathing every now and then. I mostly thought it was due to the stuffy stairwell at the house, and my housemates' smoking. But I did get it checked out by a doctor as advised by Wazir, and she did an ECG, thinking it was a heart problem, and although my heart rate was a bit fast, she said it seemed normal, and that was that.

Ever since I came back to Malaysia, I found that the palpitations were just getting worse, so I figured I would get it checked out one more time, and the moment my GP looked at me she said it was thyroid, and sure enough a blood test confirmed that. I was totally freaking out, like what the hell is thyroid anyway? How did my neck swell up for a year without me noticing it at all (I suppose I'm not that vain after all lol)? I saw a specialist next week and I'm currently on medication, although it hasn't been long enough for me to see effects yet.

But I feel pretty enlightened to know what it is finally, to get an answer to the uncomfortableness that I have been experiencing for so long. I get hot flashes all the time (sweat like mad also.. gross!), get headaches because my heart pounds so hard I can feel it everywhere, and have a bit of trouble sleeping at night.

And everyone has been incredibly supportive so I am very lucky indeed.

2010-02-22T22:26:00.003+11:00

I miss Melbourne!

Nearly there..

2010-02-05T17:39:00.002+11:00

I've been home for more than a month now, and have since accomplished two of my resolutions for the year. I finished my portfolio a month ago, had an interview with an ex-lecturer of mine from Cenfad, and he offered me a job, which I will begin just after the CNY break.

A few of my favourite pictures from graduation:

Haidar's father was kind enough to take studio pictures for my family for free.. The pictures turned out great!

Shah and Haidar also took pictures for me. :)

Mel, Farah and I. 2+ years of friendship, hard work, stress, lunches and dinners. I miss you girlies!

Disappointed

2010-01-05T16:29:00.000+11:00

Note: This is an old entry I never got around to posting, so I'm backdating it.

They say Malaysians complain a lot, but why wouldn't we when there is so much to complain about here?

Two days ago I went to Malaysian Cargo to pick up my shipment which I sent over from Melbourne last week. It took 3 bloody hours to pick everything up because of the inefficiency they showed us. First you go to one point and pick up an entry pass, then you have to enter the barricaded area, then pick up some documents, then get them verified, then pay the storage fees, then pick up the boxes, pick up a customs form, pay RM22.24 for some guy to enter the form details into the computer, then take the documents to some officer, then the boxes to customs for a check, then back to the previous officer so he can stamp them, then go to the first checkpoint to return the entry passes, then only could we leave. Imagine this, there were no other people picking up shipments and we were the only ones there, yet it took us 3 hours. How inefficient is that?

Yesterday I went for lunch with dad in KL, and after that we went to the public library for 2 minutes to enquire about library membership for my younger brother. I was wearing a skirt that fell about an inch above my knees and was told my the young lady at the counter, "Miss, next time you come here, please wear long pants." Now, look. I know that if I were working, or if I went to a government office, I would wear appropriate clothing, but this is a library. And a kids' library at that. It's not a big deal - I could wear long pants, but I don't think it is absolutely necessary to do so in this case. I don't think it concerns them what I wear, really. (Sidenote: also, do Malaysians not realize how HOT it is in this country? It is hot, humid and sticky - how do people wear long pants here??)

And above all, I've only been home for 4 days now and I can already see the display of biasness here - I see how Uncle Frank is treated nicely at service desks (because he's caucasian - sure it works to our advantage but how terrible is that?), and how people are extra friendly to Wazir (simply because he's Malay), but whenever I need to speak to someone about something they are less than helpful. Sure, I can send Wazir to run my errands and let him do all the speaking all the time but should I have to resort to that to get the service that I require?

Home & Happy New Year

2010-01-02T14:41:00.006+11:00

Note: This is an old entry I never got around to posting, so I'm backdating it.

I'm home! Just got back a few hours before the new year.

Here are some of my resolutions this year:
1. Firstly, finish my portfolio within the next 1.5 weeks. A portfolio in design is a compilation of your work, which you would bring with you to an interview, to represent yourself and to explain your work.
2. To get a job. Be patient, humble, eager to learn. Expand my knowledge in design.
3. Be brave. Coming back to Malaysia is a whole new experience. I was very shy before, and when I went to Melbourne I had to be brave and do things on my own for myself, but now that I'm back it's difficult when people here are not as helpful and friendly. So I have to be brave and stand up for myself. Plus driving here is terrible! Have to have the courage to drive.

List time

2009-12-30T16:33:00.001+11:00

I don't know if it's something I've ever displayed here on my blog before but I have a penchant for making lists. Maybe there's a part of me that wants to be Rory Gilmore-esque haha.

With just a day til I leave Melbourne for good I am beginning to feel nostalgic so here so here's a pro con list of things I will and will not miss.

Things I will miss:
1. The city. After living here for 3 years I'm so sick of it but will miss it all the same.
2. Internet speeds. About 10 min or less to download a 40 minute tv show. Awesome.
3. Great public transport. Ridiculous rates but of course I will miss the convenience of the trams, trains and buses. (I've only ever taken a bus twice though)
4. Shopping -- Forever New (my absolute favourite shop), Sportsgirl, Dotti, Bardot, Country Road, Witchery etc. All too expensive but worth it during a sale. Oh and JB Hifi, EB Games... Oh and not to forget super convenient online shopping -- eBay and tons of other websites that ship to Australia for affordable prices. (well, affordable compared to Malaysia at least)
5. 4 real seasons. While I hate summer here, I will really really miss autumn, it was my favouritest season ever lol.
6. Independence. Granted I get a lot of this at home already, but here I have more 'me' time. Or 'me and Wazir' time haha. My family is very needy and clingy and merajuky but I guess that's what you get with mostly girls.

Things I will not miss:
1. Being homesick.
2. Hardly any free Internet anywhere, not even at starbucks or the airport.
3. The accents. Well, I will and won't miss it. I've come to understand it quite well after 3 years and have even picked up a few words myself, but gosh there are a ton of pretentious Asians aren't there? Geez. 1 year here and they're Aus-trai-lian.

Looks like there's more that I will miss. For now, goodbye Melbourne, thanks for the good times, I'll be back again sometime, I know it. I'll miss you!

Graduated

2009-12-19T00:29:00.000+11:00

I have graduated!!! And with honours that I somehow didn't even know about! Score.

More later, so busy - parents are here, just got back from the Great Ocean Road, been packing hectically, trying to sell off furniture, and jetting to Sydney in 2 days. Plus I've had my phone and internet access cancelled so getting online is quite difficult these days!

Index 09

2009-11-26T14:23:00.001+11:00

It's finally over -- my term at RMIT. After my presentations last week it still wasn't over yet because the graduate class had to put on an exhibition to show people our work, so for one week we slaved at the warehouse, cleaning, painting, building stud walls and partitions; to get the space ready.

Although tiring I really did think it was a fitting end to the semester. I got to work with my classmates, built timber stud walls, something I always learned about only in theory, and it's not like I had anything to do after the semester anyway.

Here's a few pictures from Index 09 (Interior Design Exhibiion 2009). I regret not staying longer to take more pictures (I only stayed about an hour), but it was hot and sweaty, and my cousin from Wellington had just arrived at the airport so we went to pick him up. Plus Brynna was getting bored.

Me and the girls - Mel and Farah, they arrived one semester after me but we get along so well. Loves. Don't know what I'm doing in this picture, I think I didn't anticipate the double flash.

Mel, Jono the Index chairman, and I.

Takako, Maisarah, Mel (another Mel hehe) and I. All such lovely girls. Mai and I were classmates way back from Cenfad.

Mel, me, Benji and Mai.

Me with my work. My panels were stuck on a plastic sheet which was hung on a beam. It made the work wrinkle quite a fair bit, but it was still quite a good location.

Oh and my friend just sent me this link yesterday, check it out.. http://blog.artsthread.com/?p=1059 My work is featured, all the way at the end.. :) I mean sure they featured about 1/3 of the class but it was still a really pleasant surprise. :) Thanks Artsthread.

Ps. I'm uploading this from my phone - hope the pictures turn out alright.

Looking forward

2009-11-11T23:26:00.003+11:00

Brynna will be here in 1 hour! Looking forward to nice dinners, a clean house, sisterly talk and lots more.

The moral of the story is...

2009-11-11T02:58:00.001+11:00

I haven't written in a few days because I have been pretty overwhelmed.

Firstly, I finished my course last Thursday. The moment I finished my speech, and the critique and Q&A session ended, I felt a sense of relief, confusion, and exhiliration.

I had some good comments, and a few questionable ones too, but all in all I think it was good. But when I went home, and the more I thought about it, all I could remember were the questions I was asked and the little issues. But it's always like that, the more you think the more you syche yourself out of it. But anyhoo, I am so happy to be finished!!!! I have worked so hard towards this.

Not the best picture, but there's me, my long panel, and 4 out of the 7 people on the critique panel.

And Friday night I found myself chilling out with Mel and Shah, and some classmates phoned us to let us know they were at Seven, so Mel and I went there to meet them.

As jakun as this may sound, I have not been clubbing before. Seriously. But I guess it's because I know it's not really my thing, and Wazir and I got together when I was pretty young and he doesn't like clubbing so I somehow never went. Plus I reckon I spent too much time as a teenager at bars, ages ago. Wazir and I are very much antisocial homebodies here in Melbourne who love spending time with each other and close friends, lol.

Anyway. I did the stupidest thing. I don't even know how to phrase it so it doesn't sound stupid because it is absolutely dumb. Basically Mel and I took a cab to the club, and I left my passport in the cab. As usual, when I got out of the cab I checked my belongings. Phone, check. Purse, check. I peeped into the cab window to double check that nothing was left behind. Then he drove off. And I looked in my bag and thought... Passport.. Shit, where is my passport? It was in a black leather case so i totally missed it sitting on the back seat of the cab. And the ironic thing? They didn't even check for ID when I entered the club. They just stamped me and let me in. KNNCCB.

We didn't know the cab number, the driver's name, or even what cab company it was, so we phoned the 2 major cab companies in Melbourne, lodged a missing item report, and was given a reference number and was told to call back every half hour or so to check if any of the drivers had responded to the message that they sent out to every cab driver. And it seriously did not help that the club was so bloody packed and noisy, and we had to make the phone calls out at the smoking area which was loud and smelly. And damn Seven is such an Asian club! Now I'm not being racist because obviously I'm Asian myself, but it's just really overwhelming. I did not like it at all. And I was totally dazed and freaking out about my passport.

I stayed at the club for about an hour plus, I suppose there wasn't much to do but wait at this point, but after more than an hour I still couldn't get it off my mind, and since the cab companies had not heard anything back yet, I decided not to heed my friends' advise to get drunk, and I left the club, took another cab back to the city (and I made sure I didn't leave anything behind this time!), and my housemates and I went to the nearest 24 hour police station to make a report.

At this point I was freaking out because I had come home to check the immigration website and since there is not Malaysian Consulate in Melbourne, the nearest one is Canberra. And to make things worse, they only renew passports in Canberra, but they don't replace lost passports; instead they give you emergency travel papers to go home to Malaysia to get it done. But of course I don't want to go back to Malaysia now! I only have less than 2 months before I intend to go home!

So we made a missing item report at the police station, and I was told that as long as I had the report with me I was not an illegal immigrant lol. They said they would contact me if anyone turned my passport in. And by the way, I have to say, Australian police are incredibly helpful and friendly. It was 4am and the officer who helped me was so nice.

At 5.30am I was about to go to sleep but was still lying in bed tossing and turning thinking about how stupid I was.. So I phoned the cab companies again. The operator at Silvertop Cabs was so helpful, he even checked their records to pinpoint particular drivers and tried to contact them. But he said that he didn't think it was his company, because the routes were a little bit different from what I described. Still, he spent a good 20 or so minutes trying to help me out.

Then I phoned 13 Cabs, and I was soooooooooooooo relieved when she told me to hold, instead of the other times when other operators just said, nope, they hadn't gotten any response. Then she came back and informed me that the driver had turned my passport in at the Box Hill Police Station. She even went the extra mile to give me the address and search for the phone number. I don't think I have ever been so relieved and thankful in my life.

I find that I have this tendency to, pardon my French, fuck things up everytime I'm happy and I'm looking forward to something. This time, I was happy to finish my course, and my sister was going to arrive in Melbourne to visit in 6 days. And I lost my passport. 2 years ago, I was going home for my 3 month long summer break in 15 hours, and I managed to hurt my back doing something stupid (it's really stupid and embarrassing so I won't reveal it atm).

Anyway.... About 5 hours later I woke up and searched for directions to go to the police station and I discovered it was frickin far and would take me ages and I would probably get lost on the way, knowing myself and my terrible sense of direction. So I phoned Su Jin and Lohon and they drove me way out there and I got my passport back!! Thanks so much to the two of them. I don't know what I would have done otherwise.

So the moral of the story is.. Always check when you get out of a cab (seriously I've always known this and I did check but I still missed it. Damn tulan.), and the Australian police are very helpful, and so are the cab operators and drivers (this does vary though from person to person - I spoke to a few nice ones and a few ok ones).

Damn this is a long entry. Sorry, I just had so much to say.

!!!

2009-11-05T01:04:00.002+11:00

Oh my god it's tomorrow!!! Less than 24 hours to go!! My heart is pounding just thinking about it. But I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

Wish me luck!!

The last one

2009-11-03T22:41:00.000+11:00

Thursday is the day.. 40 minutes will decide if the work I have been doing all year has been worthwhile.. I have 20 minutes to talk, followed by a 20 minute critique/feedback session.

I've been working on my speech for the past few days, and it's a bit hard to speak for so long, but so far I think I can manage about 17-18 minutes and that's long enough la.

The presentations have been running from the 29th, and go til the 6th, on Friday. To be honest it's been a bit depressing getting calls from friends everyday telling me how relieved they are to be done with university, when I am still awaiting my turn, but it's ok, of course I am happy for them, and in just a few days I can join them. :)

Please wish me luck! I am so nervous but excited! But it's going to be great. It will. I am optimistic. Actually it comes in waves - one moment I'm anxious and nervous as hell, the next I'm calm and ready to get over it.

Happy Birthday dear sister

2009-11-02T22:21:00.001+11:00

Happy 15th Birthday Brynna! I hope you had a great party over the weekend and enjoyed the gifts.

Love you lots and can't wait til you get here next week. Can't believe I have not seen you in 10.5 months! :) We are going to have so much fun. :)

My iPhone

2009-10-31T04:06:00.003+11:00

I've always thought I didn't like touchscreen mobile phones. The screen is too big; I will scratch it somehow and it will get oily. What if I drop the phone? What if the screen loses sensitivity, and there are no buttons as a back up? So I wrote them off.

About three to four months ago, my housemate got an iPhone 3G, and I fell in love! Everyday I sneaked into his room and messed around with his phone; I played Waterslide, TapTap, took pictures, surfed the internet and tons of other stuff. Super tak malu.

Two months ago when my birthday was approaching I asked my parents for an iPhone. It took a while of negotiating, but in the end we all paid one third each (actually I put in a bit less than one third, from birthday money I had saved up), and seriously, even though the phone has its flaws, I can seriously say I think it is one of the best, fun, yet professional phones in the market now.

While I'm no expert, the touch screen is super amazing. The sensitivity is great, I can't believe the amount of things I can do with it. I never really thought that a phone could only function with one physical button but the touch screen makes it possible.

Wifi is great, I love surfing the net from bed when my laptop is switched off, and checking the weather every morning with just a click. One gripe is that somehow my phone will not connect to a network automatically when it's not broadcasting, even though I have already saved the network configuration. I read online that some people have this problem and some don't, apparently it's kind of random...?

The app store is a bit annoying but it's easy enough to use. Oh, but I hate iTunes. It's so annoying and slow, and so is the app store on my phone. But the amount of applications and games available are overwhelming, you can keep track of your finances, shopping lists, to do lists.. There is even an application for a level (which has come in handy when I hung some stuff on my wall), and lots of random stuff. Some apps are seriously useless and some are pretty good. There are a ton of great games too, but if you play too much the battery starts to run out pretty quickly.

I even invested in a case that set me back quite a fair bit, the iSkin Solo FX, in red (actually I wanted blue but it was not in stock anywhere :( ) But I like red anyway, and this case is amazing! I think it looks great, and gives the phone great protection.

Anyway omg I'm so longwinded. When I started this post I basically wanted to say how I was so wrong when I thought I didn't like touchscreens and iPhones; I always thought they were such Mac fanboy things. I love my phone like crazy now, and although I am not an Apple fan, I love their iPods and now iPhones. I was thinking that I would get myself a Blackberry next year when I went home and started work, but here I am using an iPhone. Maybe I'm a little late jumping on the bandwagon, but I admit I was wrong.

Images from apple.com and iskin.com

Horoscopes

2009-10-26T05:37:00.001+11:00

Do you believe in horoscopes?

A few years ago I signed up for horoscopes to be delivered to my email daily, but it's to my hotmail address, which I don't check regularly anymore. I've moved to gmail.

Anyway I checked it not long ago; and this is what my horoscope has been telling me for the past few days:

Tuesday, 20 Oct
Your internal discipline is generally quite strong -- which is a good thing, as you need to make use if it today! Something big is brewing, and you may have to push yourself hard to take care of it.

This is the day last week when I went out to buy materials to make a model. It took me a whole week to decide whether I wanted to make a model for my presentation next week, and I finally decided to do it. So I bought the stuff, went home, and got started.

Wednesday, 21 Oct
Now is the time for risk-taking -- but knowing you, you've looked at all the angles beforehand! Jump in and make the most of it, but remember that there's no such thing as perfect certainty.

Wednesday was day 2 of model making. I was still optimistic although the model was pretty massive in size and was starting to look a bit sketchy.

Saturday, 24 Oct
Don't be so hard on yourself! If you're regretting something that happened recently, the best you can do is to pick yourself up and try a different approach. Self-criticism isn't useful right now.

Today was the day I started regretting making a model. I started wondering if it was worth my time finishing the model, or if I should just scrap it altogether. But I had already put 2 and a half days of work into it by this stage, so I chugged on. I kept telling myself that when it was finished it would look better.

Sunday, 25 Oct
Show your friends that you're on their side today -- and make sure that everyone can see that you're doing so. It's a good time for obvious gestures and experiments with social issues.

By this time I had finished my model and had moved on to working on my presentation panels. A friend had issues with her computer so she came over to use mine.

I just find it somewhat freaky that horoscopes tend to have some truth in them. Sure I know that they're written in a way that is very broad, that can be applied to many contexts, but somehow can be rather accurate.

Try it out sometime; who knows, it may be true for you too. I subscribe to the one at Astrology. :)

So close..!

2009-10-25T00:38:00.002+11:00

2 days til I print my panels
4 days til the submission
12 days til my turn to present (yes I'm on the 2nd last day knnccb)
19 days til Brynna arrives in Melbourne
20 days til the opening of Index Exhibition (click)
1.5 months til the rest of my family gets here
Less than 2 months til graduation
2+ months til I'm going home

So close.

8 days

2009-10-20T05:00:00.001+11:00

8 days to go til submission! I can't wait to get this over and done with.

I am so anxious for the list of presentation times to be released. There's about 40+ students, and about 8 people present in a day so it will take about 5-6 days to finish all the presentations.

And with my luck, it will be according to alphabetical order, and being a Yap, my slot will be on the last day.. -.- But who knows, hopefully it will be more random this time.. Last semester when I was still waiting for my turn to present one of my classmates had already finished on the first day and had gone home for holidays! -.- I'm damn suay right.

Nearly there...

2009-10-17T05:12:00.000+11:00

I think the Interior Design program at RMIT is incredibly hard and challenging. I don't know if it's because I'm a lightweight and, maybe I'm not meant for this field, I don't know. But what I can say is I've been working my ass off in this course, harder than I think I've had to work for a lot of things.

And I don't think it's just me; I see my friends and classmates struggling, unsure of what we're doing week after week, and even now, 2 weeks before submission, we are still plodding along taking it bit by bit.

But I've learnt a lot in my 3 years here. I've gotten really good with AutoCAD (I believe, at least from knowing nothing about it before!), and with my technical skills, which is something that I lacked incredibly in college. I can flip open a Francis DK Ching book and know exactly where everything is, and understand the details, which, 4 years ago, was still puzzling. I know standard measurements by heart. I've learnt about sustainable systems, which is something I will be taking home with me for sure.

And I've also had enough of people thinking that interior design is interior decorating, because it simply is not. It's much more than that, it's so difficult to explain, and too muhc to get into... but it is very closely related to architecture, and it's not fluffing pillows and picking paint colours.

In 3 weeks, I will no longer be an interior design student (if everything goes as planned lol. No, I shouldn't say that, choi!), I will be an interior designer. (Actually, I think I was already a qualified interior designer with my diploma, but never mind. I will be a better interior designer now.)

So if you're a student looking to pursue a bachelor's degree in interior design and you're looking for a challenge, sure, go and enrol at RMIT. It'll be hard, there'll be times you will curse and pull your hair out, there will be many sleepless nights, many frustrating moments with the printers and plotters, lots of money spent on materials and printing; but it will be worth it when you come out the other end.

Okay enough rambling. I have a section and roof plan to finish drawing.

Happy birthday little Brandon!

2009-10-16T05:05:00.011+11:00

I'm back from my uncle's house; Mel came over two days ago and helped me lug my luggage home in the rain, which was really sweet of her.

Yesterday was the last batch of presentations for our interims, so I went to have a look; after all, this is the last time I will sit through presentations - the next time I'm at a presentation, I will be waiting my turn and when that is done that's it! I am very excited about going home next year.

I've been having trouble sleeping lately - the day goes by so fast and everytime the night comes I'm super awake. Actually not just lately, it's been nearly a month now; ever since Wazir went home more than 3 weeks ago, I have been sleeping between 6-9am everyday, and I typically wake up at around 1-4pm or so. And for the past few weeks when I had classes, I was sleeping for only about 2 hours, then going to class, then coming back to nap.

I've also always been a day worker, not a night worker. I usually don't do any work past 10pm, it's just not condusive for me, although I know a lot of people work better at night. So for the past week I haven't done much work, needless to say. I've been to the pharmacy and they gave me some valerian vitamins which is supposed to cure insomnia but I don't think it has helped particularly... :(

Anyway.. Today is Brandon's birthday too, that little one is turning 3 today. I feel so bad for missing all 3 of the birthdays he's ever had but it's ok, da jie will be home next year ok? I don't want to miss any more moments. I miss my family. :(

Here's the cheeky boy a year ago after stuffing his face with doughnuts. This picture puts a smile on my face everytime.

And this is Wazir, Brynna, Brandon and I at my grandmother's house for Chinese New Year in January. I did not get to talk to Wazir very much because Brandon insisted on dragging Wazir everywhere he went.

Happy 3rd Birthday Brandon! Next year da jie will plan a party for you ok? Love and miss you lots!!

At my uncle's house

2009-10-13T04:52:00.002+11:00

Here I am, at my uncle's house for a couple of nights. He's in New Zealand for a week or so, so I'm here to look after the place/hang out here because it's much more awesome than my own place. Seriously. There's an awesome view overlooking Crown and the Yarra. It's really beautiful and the house is great. As a student, using the 42" tv instead of my 15.4" laptop is a privilege, lol.

Shah and I even lugged my laundry here so I can save $10 dollars at my place. Do you know it costs me $3 to use the washer for only 24 minutes, and $1 for 15 minutes for the dryer at my place? It's ridiculous, and everytime Wazir and I do our laundry we spend about $17 or more in $1 coins. What a rip off.

I received some reasonable good feedback from my presentation and I've been pretty lazy ever since. I find it's the hardest to work after a presentation. Good feedback and I slack. Bad feedback I'm demotivated. It's never satisfying enough because there's always more work to do, more that could be added to make the project better.

Going to bake chocolate chip cookies tomorrow, the dough's already in the fridge and I'm going to pop it into the oven tomorrow. Thought I would do something for my uncle for letting me stay at his place and use his stuff. Plus everyone loves cookies and I do bake some great ones if I say so myself! :P I use this recipe I found online and I will put it sometime because it's really great. :)

Spoke to my old housemates Lynn and LY online earlier tonight and I miss them so much!!! We really had a good thing going on. Love you guys lots! I could not have asked for better housemates.

...I just realized how much I love the semi colon.

2009-10-11T02:50:00.002+11:00

Looking back, I think Cenfad was one of the best times of my life. Well, of course I loved being a kid and being spoiled crazy by my parents; getting Polly Pockets and Barbie Dolls all the time and scolding my maid til she cried even though I was only 5 years old (I was horribly terribly spoiled and I'm so glad I am not that person anymore). Form 4&5 at Cempaka was great too; failing Physics and Chemistry for midsems and midterms when I had never failed anything in my life, and finally after great teachers, extra classes and tuitions I managed to rise above it. But my 11 years at Cempaka is a different story. :)

And now I am in Australia, I've been here for nearly 3 years and still I long to go back to those old times. Sure, the people there appear to be snobbish and stuck up, artsy fartsy people tend to do that; but the people at Cenfad were nice. Great friends, great tutors, laidback environment, and I learned so much there.

I learned that I was a spoiled private school kid, who could hardly understand a conversation in Malay even though I had studied the language for 10 years; that I could love someone so much more than I loved my ex; that I could make models and that I was a pretty good presenter, even though I was terrified of public speaking at school; that I could speak up and not be shy even though I was the most shy person before; that I was just a child even though I thought I was mature then.

I modelled a garment for the 2005 Icon Show exhibition because my classmate had to pull out. I was the worst model ever (short, all 5 feet 0 inches of me, and I think I was doing well until the actual walk when I got terrified seeing all the cameras flashing and all the people!). I made friends with people who were incredibly different from my usual friends (but of course I love you all still!), learned to speak Malay rather fluently if I say so myself. I was the baby of the bunch yet I landed the oldest guy for my boyfriend.

And a week ago, on the 4th of October, I realized that we have been together for 5 and a half years. (Can you believe that our first date was on 040404? Damn suay date right!) What an achievement. And I will forever be grateful to Cenfad for bringing me to Wazir - I don't think we would have crossed paths otherwise. We're of different ages, different habits, different lifestyles, different neighbourhoods.

Thanks Wazir for still standing by and loving me even though I whine and complain; even though (part of) my family is the most clingy and needy family ever (all girls ma); even though we are miles apart because of my decision to study overseas, and for coming to Australia even though it wasn't within your plan; for giving me support always even though I am the emo-est crybaby. I can go on forever but I won't... Lol.

I love you. :)

Just before we left for the airport.

New layout! .. Again

2009-10-10T20:34:00.001+11:00

I'm not going to lie, I miss him so much. :(

I had a final presentation for my elective two days ago, and yesterday an interim presentation for my studio, so now I have about 3 weeks to edit and finalize everything, and then I'm done with university!

But it was such a blow when I finished my presentations and came home alone - Wazir and I usually go out and celebrate but this time here I am Skyping with him and watching SYTYCD with the cat on the bed. -.- Am I becoming a boring old cat lady...?

Funny thing - I thought when Wazir is not around I would be saving money; but I seem to spend just as much. I buy take out more often because it's too troublesome to cook for just myself, and my phone bills are getting ridiculous.

Thanks Nuffnang!

2009-09-29T23:00:00.000+10:00

Last week the day before Wazir left I was expecting 2 things from the post office - a parcel from Baci Boutique and a letter from dad. I went to the post office to pick the items up to discover one parcel and one medium sized box! We were both like.. wtf? I was really surprised to find that the box was a welcome package from Nuffnang - with tons of great freebies. Let's see, I totally should've done an unboxing but I was too excited to open all my parcels so yea.. Lol. There was a tin of tuna, some Redken samples, a $10 voucher I can use at either Myer/Coles/some other places if I'm not mistaken, and some instant sauce. All useful stuff. (Damn I just went to Coles yesterday and I forgot about the voucher....)

Anyway I just wanted to say thanks to Nuffnang, it was a brilliant surprise I did not expect at all. Turns out the letter from dad arrived a couple of days later.

It's been a exactly a week since I saw him at the airport...

Better

2009-09-29T03:57:00.002+10:00

I'm doing better.

Today I went out on my own for the first time since Wazir left. I know it sounds emo but yea that's me I'm sentimental... -.- Two days ago while I was Cadding my mouse malfunctioned. And btw I have 3 mice in the house, one malfunctioned last week, one only works on limited surfaces and the last one died.

My gracious uncle came over and lent me his canggih mouse but it somehow refuses to work on my computer desk, but it works when I try it on the floor or bed! And somehow the clickwheel is really smooth, instead of clicking bit by bit if you know what I mean, so I keep zooming in and out like crazy on Cad. So today I went to look for a mouse, and considering my luck with mice you can imagine how paranoid I was! I went to Big W, Officeworks, Harvey Norman, Dick Smith and JB Hifi. All that trouble to look for a mouse. And the SAs could not tell me whether their mice's scroll wheel was smooth or clicked, lol. It was so frustrating! And it didn't help that this tv adapter that I bought at Big W kept beeping at every store I went! (Oh my uncle gave me a HDTV USB thingamajig that lets me watch television on HD on my laptop, and my housemates helped set me up and it's awesome! The Go! channel is great, lots of American tv plus it records too so it's tons better than the regular tv we have in the house :) )

It took me more than an hour just to find a mouse. And in the end I settled with one of the cheapest I could find (which mind you, was not cheap at all!) - a wired Logitech mouse, which cost me $28AUD (sigh), and thank goodness when I got home and tested it out it the wheel clicks. Lol. :)

So that was nice. $28 spent somewhat well at least. Oh yea I just remembered that I spent another $16 buying some vitamins to help me sleep - it's been hard falling asleep these days; damn bed and room is too big for just me. Oh and btw I have not taken them today obviously (it's 4am now) - I was watching a movie with my housemates so of course I didn't want to fall asleep halfway lol. Plus I'm waiting for Wazir to get back from his parent's house in JB so we can Skype!

Lonely.

2009-09-23T01:41:00.001+10:00

He's gone home already.. :( Miss you dear.

Why

2009-09-20T04:25:00.002+10:00

You're still here but I miss you already. Oh the anxiety.

Selamat Hari Raya!

Just 1 week.

2009-09-15T18:08:00.003+10:00

Exactly a week from now we will be getting ready to go the airport. Will I ever be ready? Following next week, 6 weeks to go before I am free. I can't wait to go home next year. It's been too long.

090909

2009-09-09T21:04:00.000+10:00

Firstly, I felt like posting to commemorate this moment. Today I turn 22 and it may well be my last birthday in Australia, but most importantly it fell on 090909 which I feel is a rather special date. :) I can't believe it's already been 10 years since the little kid in me was so excited about 090999 and here we are now. Anyway I guess I also wanted to say how grateful I am to everyone for thinking of me even for just a short while today and for their well wishes. :)

I know I haven't updated in a while but I think it's time to resurrect this blog. At least, I will try. :) I know I've been a little MIA lately, I just couldn't keep up with blogging, and now there's facebook and Twitter too lol.

I've been busy this year - I wrote a design thesis last semester and am now working on my final thesis design project. There's only less than 2 months to go before I am finished with my course and I'm really excited! :) Basically my project is about redesigning student housing to make them more comfortable and personal to live in. But it's a bit of a long story.

The downside is that Wazir has graduated and he will be leaving Australia in 2 weeks so I will be on my own for 1.5 months until my sister comes to visit. (haha I don't mean him graduating is sad but him leaving is!) So here we go LDR! But it's ok, 3 months apart isn't that long, we've gone through worse. :)

Thanks again guys! :)

About Me

2009-09-09T09:09:00.018+10:00

So here's the truth: I never quite know what to write whenever I'm asked to describe myself. Do I list all the typical 'about me' facts, like ticking them off a form, or do I tell you the most random, 'interesting' things, like my strange habits? And who am I anyway, apart from being a daughter, a sister, a girlfriend, a friend, and an employee?

But I'll give it a shot anyway.

I'm an interior designer who has somewhat recently entered the workforce, having graduated from the Royal Melbourne University of Technology (RMIT) last December. Upon graduation, I found myself making the hard decision to reurn home to Malaysia, which is something I didn't think I would do, after living in Melbourne for 3 years. But family and love trumps everything, so I made that decision and I'm back.

It has been exciting being back home, and also frustrating sometimes too, and this blog basically documents my musings and rantings. It's changed from when I first started this blog; then it was a portal for me to keep in touch with my friends; it was a time when high school had ended, and everyone moved on to college and university all over the world.

I may not be a regular updater, but I do try.

One day...

2009-03-28T12:01:00.000+11:00

..I will design and live in a home like this. This is the YTL house in Damansara Heights.

When I saw this image, I instantly thought of Ross Lovegrove's DNA stair, no?:

While frankly speaking I'm not a fan of the overall exterior shape of the house, I like the interior. Is very me -- clean, white, modern. And I do like timber louvres. How does one afford to live in such a gigantuous house (it has nine bedrooms, two family rooms, a family kitchen and a private dining area, a family library, a game room, a study, a public reception area, a formal dining room, a ballroom, chapel, 21 bathrooms, a swimming pool, two guest suites plus indoor private and guest parking) in Damansara Heights anyway? Damnnn. One day, someday.

Sources: http://www.thecoolhunter.net/architecture/YTL-Residence-Kuala-Lumpur/ and http://www.interiordesign.net/article/CA6631096.html

And half a year later...

2009-03-08T02:37:00.002+11:00

Here I am, prompted to come back and visit my own blog after months of neglection, by emails informing me of spam comments. -.-

Frankly I don't even know who reads this anymore -- this blog used to serve as a portal for me to keep in touch with my friends, after being separated because of studies, and I suppose it did function that way at the time. It really is getting harder and harder to keep in touch with people as time goes by.

I will however try to keep this running, simply because I find it hard to shut it down, and perhaps it will document a different chapter in my life.

I am now in my final year in uni in Melbourne and admittedly it is getting tougher and tougher. 4 months of summer break and holidaying in KL, KT and Bali makes it hard to get back in the mood for studies; what a spoiled brat I am. I'm looking forward to finishing this year of uni and graduating at the end of the year! :) Gosh time flies really.

I'll try to keep this updated... :)

Twenty One

2008-09-11T14:05:00.003+10:00

So yet again it's been a while since I myself have been at my blog. I wonder why I trawl design and fashion blogs every week but somehow keep forgetting about my own.

Anyway. Yes. Twentyone! 090908. I had an awesome birthday. Well, an awesome birthday weekend, in fact! Guess what?

l-r; me, wazir, my aunt from sydney, MUM, and my cousin lynn!

So it was a great surprise. It was sooo great to see mum after more than half a year, and my aunt and cousin being here was a huge surprise too. And Wazir knew about it all along! I'm surprised he managed to keep it from me. My whole weekend was shopping, dining, walking around.. I wish mum could've stayed longer but she had to get back to work.

The facebook messages are rather overwhelming so I hope you all don't hold it against me if I don't reply every single message, but I do appreciate the thought so much. Thanks to all who remembered, I really am touched. No doubt it's getting harder for some of us to keep in touch, being in different countries; it sucks not being able to celebrate with all of you as per usual, but all the same thanks for the text/online messages/cards/phone calls. :)

Anyway mum's gone home now, in fact she had to leave on my birthday; and now it's back to uni and work, for the next 2 months at least.. Then I'm going home! :)

Housemates and neighbours; family.
l-r; fred, wazir, me, lin, loy yang, lynn, ken, and naughtyjack.

my love.

Gosh photos sure are tiny on this new layout eh?

2008-08-04T23:10:00.000+10:00

I'm missing home. Now obviously I've been missing home this entire year but somehow it's just been hitting me harder since this semester started.

I'm really finding it hard to motivate myself -- I didn't get into all my first choices for my classes; plus I'm somehow feeling really unsure of myself. Everytime I'm faced with an assignment I feel so blank - I don't know how to tackle/present it. Why la am I so blank.

Have also caught the flu bug that has been going round. Came down with a fever last week, then I got a sorethroat and a cold, started coughing, and today I lost my voice. -.- Wazir's got the fever too.

Oh my god why am I so depressing. -.-

2008-07-28T19:22:00.001+10:00

Wazir is back!! (Actually, it's been a week already, haha.)

And class has started (it's been a week too), so it's back to work.. -.- Feeling damn lazy.

2008-07-12T21:35:00.002+10:00

It's been a bit of a boring holiday.. My housemates have disappeared one by one. First Fred left for HK, then Wazir for KL, then Lynn for Penang.. And tonight Loy Yang's staying at his aunt's place. So it's just me and Chee Hoe. Luckily LY's coming back tomorrow..

It's a good thing Wazir left his tv and ps2 with me, so I can play Crash Team Racing and the Simpsons. Wtf I'm such a kid. But hey at least I've been staying home, thus preventing myself from spending money. I just paid off my bills and filed my receipts etc, and I discovered that I spent waaaayyy too much in June. Thus, trying out a mini shopping ban. I say mini because I know I won't exactly be very strict on myself, lol. But it's ok. I still have my part time job anyway.

I cut my hair almost 2 weeks ago. I have bangs now.. -.- I couldn't decide if I wanted to keep it long/have side swept bangs/straight bangs so I told her to do whatever she thought was right.. And well..

You can call me Brenda lala..

Hahaha. It was shorter when I first got it cut and I wasn't sure if I liked it but it's grown longer since and I reckon I like it better now.. Although it's a pain in the ass to style since I don't have pin straight hair and when I don't blowdry/straighten them they tend to curl in different directions.. -.- Damn sohai looking.

Wazir is coming back on Friday!!! :D :D :D

Done.

2008-07-07T05:20:00.000+10:00

This is what happens when I can't sleep.

What do you think?

First foray into ebay

2008-07-06T15:11:00.002+10:00

I can't believe I've only just discovered how simple it can be to use ebay. Which really, is a terrible, terrible thing.

It all began when I saw a pair of shoes that I absolutely loved on Rumi of Fashion Toast's feet -- that blue Nine West pair.. So after scouring countless NW stores in Melbourne, my mum checking out KL, and Wazir's mum checking out Dubai to no avail, I resorted to searching online. And everyone was sold out.. And somehow I found it on ebay.. And that was it.

So a week later, they arrived..

Kanal
They're really pretty, but much the blue is much more glimmery than it looks in the picture.

And I saw these cheap so I couldn't help myself too.. -.-

Tobago

To be honest I haven't been buying as many shoes as I usually do this year.. Before these couple I've only bought 2 these year.. So I was feeling pretty proud of myself but that's pretty much gone out the window now..

New targets ::

Zanja

Newtime

I just can't decide whether I like these better in black or brown. -.- Leaning toward the black though. Unfortch I've been unable to find this pair anyway.. Well not on any website that delivers to Australia, and not even on ebay.

I think I have a wedge/NW problem. Help!

2008-06-24T18:56:00.001+10:00

I miss him already.

Emotional fool, that's me.

2008-06-22T19:37:00.000+10:00

So the holidays are unofficially here (I say unofficial since I still have my portfolio to hand in next Friday), but somehow I'm not feeling too hyped.

This semester has been insane. I've spent sooo much money on my projects -- I've never spent this much in one semester before. But all in all I'm satisfied with the work I've produced, so it should be worth it.

Wazir leaves for Malaysia in two days, and since my presentation ended and preparing for the exhibition, it's been a crazy whirlwind of shopping for things for him to take home, gifts, and packing. Plus, we somehow thought that his flight was a day later than it actually is, thus I lost one day once we figured it out. -.-

Feeling sad that he's leaving, although it's only for 3 weeks -- spending 4 months with nearly every waking moment together has spoiled me. I think the longest time we spent apart was those 3 days when I went camping, lol. Well sad as I am, I guess it should be good to have some time to myself. I have lots of cleaning, filing and organizing to do, which I somehow keep putting off. -.-

Tomorrow!!

2008-06-17T21:10:00.000+10:00

My final studio presentation is tomorrow.

Wazir found a white hair on my head a couple of days ago.

Thanks, RMIT.

It's a terrifying moment

2008-05-05T02:08:00.001+10:00

Mid-semester assessment was last Thursday. I totally fumbled. So many things I should have said that I forgot to say. So much work wasted and unexplained. I really need to brush up my concept. I think that's always the toughest part. I think the best comment I received was that my drawings, boards and model were great, but what good is that if I can't figure out the design concept?

Sigh. Feeling kind of stuck at the moment, don't know how to progress. It's depressing.

"I'm always scared that I'm not going to know what to do; it's a terrifying moment." Frank Gehry, from Sketches of Frank Gehry.

6 weeks til the semester ends; I don't know if I'm estatic or terrified.

I miss home. :(

Seriously..

2008-04-12T01:07:00.001+10:00

According to myepisodes.com (which is basically my tv guide, thanks Yen!), I've spent 1 month, 2 weeks, 16 days and 50 minutes watching tv series so far. 0.0

Holy shit.

Anyway.. I have been sooo sooo busy! That's why I've been so shite at maintaining this blog. -.- I've got classes 3 days a week, and I work 2 days a week (well, 1 full day and 1 half day). But yea. And the rest of my time is spent doing my homework.

It's ironic -- now I have money but no time to shop. Previously I had so much time to shop and no money. -.-

You probably won't believe this, but last week I went camping last week, for my studio class. 20 of us went camping in the suburbs. I slept in a tent for 2 nights, peed in a little hut thing and didn't bathe for 2 days. Seriously. Anyway, pictures to follow later cos I'm too lazy to resize my photos at the moment, but I do have proof that I did go camping! :P

edited

Oscar, Lynda, Farah and I; cooking.

Yin, and the same 3 girls. :)

Dinner. Huge crowd.

Everyone by the campfire. It was cold. -.-

Farah's and my camp! We decided to pitch it directly next to 3 boys' tent so we'd feel safe, lol.

And the toilet hut!

Backdated pics.

2008-03-10T01:19:00.001+11:00

Today has been an interesting day. Politicswise, I'm sure as every Malaysian already knows about; and others too. Here's to change. Anyway. Went to Footscray Market with Wazir, Shah and Hieda, and it was a hot, hot day so we ended up going to the beach to have fish and chips. :) Very relaxing indeed.

Finally got around to organizing my photos, so here are some superly backdated pictures from Hong Kong ::

The castle.

Lion King Show! That was pretty awesome, I thought.

Brynna and I near the Tarzan's treehouse thing.

Castle at night. So pretty. There were fireworks too later that night.

Even the train to Disneyland was Disneyland themed -- Mickey windows, Mickey handlebars, and Disney statuettes.

Lan Kwai Fong, New Year's Eve. Massive crowds. Freaky mannequin perched on the decor.

Dolphin show at Ocean Park.

Cable car.

And just a couple more from CNY ::

I miss you so much Brynna!! Really hope you can come visit this year.
Gosh I can't believe my sister has gotten so big already. I was away for a year and next thing I knew she's just a couple of cms shorter than me, and nearly my clothes size, though much fitter than I am. And also an awesome anime artist.

Mummy I miss you too! :( I miss the talks the most. And watching our tv shows together.

And how could I forget Brandon? I was so happy the other night; I phoned home and spoke with dad and ah yi and they passed Brandon the phone and he actually called me 'jie jie' and I thought that was really sweet. I can't wait til I see him next because he'll probably be talking already by then. Ahh I miss my dad and ah yi and everyone..

Brynna, dad, ah yi and Brandon. :)

Anyway. I have been made resident master of the building that I live in, which means that I help out a little bit with events and I help students who lock themselves out. I also might be able to get some hours in to work in the admin office, so I think its a good thing. Part of me wants to actually get a job, but part of me worries that I will not be able to cope with studies as well as working. But I think that I will not know, until I try. :)

Uni :: Year 3 Sem 1.

2008-03-04T01:30:00.000+11:00

Sunday :: Went to Ikea, bought some storage solution stuff. Arranged shoes, accessories, toiletries, handbags in compartments. Organized drawers. Attempted to rearrange furniture but decided I liked it better the way it originally was. Filed bank statements, invoices, receipts. Cleared (very messy) desk.

Monday :: Discovered that I got into all my first choices -- for my studio, and my two electives. Pleasantly surprised; hopefully I've made the right choices. Organised stationery. Refilled pens and pencils. Took blades and rulers out of storage boxes for first time since the last semester. Got out new sketchbook. Set alarm for 8.30am.

So. Class starts tomorrow. I'm nervous, but oh well. Bring it on. Wish me luck!

Been back in Melbourne for two weeks now, but haha, it took me that long to update. It's really been busy, since we had to look for a place for Wazir, and he had orientation, etc.. Well he's started class last week and since then it's been a lot of lazing around for me. :) But no more now. :(

Missing home and family very much. :'( 3 months of indulgence was too long.

One.

2008-02-13T04:16:00.000+11:00

Leaving is hard. Just finished packing my 20kg bag -- taking all my clothes off their hangers and folding/rolling them up made me sad. Going to dad's for the last time. Saying goodbye to stepmom, brother, and house.. Ugh I'm such a sap. Going to miss Brynna and my mum so much too.

Slightly over one more day in KL. Got my teeth checked already, and my hair cut. A little annoyed at the moment cos I wanted to eat nasi lemak before I leave but I have a sore throat. :(

Finally did something about my weight gain over the weekend -- went swimming on Saturday and to the gym on Sunday. Going to the gym makes me feel like a fool cos I have to take direction from my 13 year old sister who's been gymming for the past year. -.-

It's kind of funny that I've been spending so little time online in Malaysia, except to download my tv shows, and do some random surfing/bloghopping. I spend nearly all of my time in Melbourne online; but I guess that's because when I'm there I have nothing else to do when I'm not doing coursework.

Time to sleep! I have a busy day ahead..

Happy CNY

2008-02-08T02:38:00.000+11:00

One week to go. Next week at this time I will be in Melbourne.

Gong Xi Fa Cai all!

1+1 week(s).

2008-01-31T17:16:00.000+11:00

It's been a boring, internetless week as my laptop is currently being held hostage at the service center til it gets its LCD screen changed. My warranty ends mid this year so I decided to take it for servicing and fix all the little things -- minor or major. So for now I have to make do with my sister's desktop; which is incidently great for watching videos on, with its 24" screen. Damn.

Had a pretty good week -- managed to finally meet up with Mae and Wern for dinner which was awesome.. It's been ages since we've had time to sit down and chat like the old times, gossip, reminisce and just talk, lol. Plus I got a surprise phone call from none other than Yew Sun and Yen in Manchester which was great. :) Aww I miss you guys so much.

Just a week til Chinese New Year, and two weeks til Valentine's, which is the day I leave for Melbourne. Feeling a little sad about leaving, but you know, it gets better; this being my third time leaving home.

And... I have news. Good news. Great news, actually!

This time, I won't be going to Melbourne alone... Wazir is coming with me!!! So it's definitely going to be a more fun and interesting year. I'm totally psyched. :) It's only been confirmed a week or so ago, so yea, it's going to be great. :)

On a sidenote, this is a bit belated, but anyhow, RIP Heath Ledger, and also to Nian Ning & the other lives lost in the bus crash. I didn't know her, but I was greatly saddened reading all the articles; so if you do too, go to http://buscrashnomore.blogspot.com/ and sign the petition.

Welcome 2008.

2008-01-16T17:30:00.000+11:00

I've been lazy again. I got back from HK on like, the 2nd of Jan; but haven't gotten around to updating, lol. Anyway, Happy New Year all!! :)

Hong Kong was good, apart from the busy streets and well, tbh people can be pretty rude there. -.- But the shopping was good. I've always wanted to go to H&M and as I expected, I totally loved it!! Lol. Disneyland was great too. Obvs, it's much smaller than others, but still.. Disneylands are always magical -- makes me feel like a little kid again. :) Ocean Park was a bit meh, but I guess we picked a wrong time to go; during the year end holidays and all. It was so packed. Will edit later with photos. :)

So.. Looking back and reflecting upon 2007..

It was definitely a trying year for me; but I am pretty proud of myself, because it was a year where I learned a lot.

1. My grades are much better now than they ever were in Cenfad, and I'm focusing a lot more on my studies.
2. I've learned to live more independently; clean up after myself, pay my own bills, cook and shop for my own groceries, etc.
3. Wazir and I survived a year of LDR, and we're still going on as strong as ever.
4. I have great housemates and I've made some good friends in Melbourne.

Some basic resolutions for 2008:

1. No more snacking after ~~10pm~~ ~~10.30pm~~ 11pm.
2. Save more money.
3. Clean up room and toss stuff I don't need so it will be easier for mum to move my stuff when she moves house when I'm not around later in the year. (I've actually started on this.. Cleared out my wardrobe and gave my sister a lot of my clothes and donated quite an amount too.)
4. Actually get around to learning StudioMax. I've always wanted to be better at 3D rendering.
5. Lose the kgs I've gained on my holiday. -.- Damn the good food.

There must be more, but these are just at the top of my head.

Off.

2007-12-28T03:14:00.000+11:00

I'm off to HK for a few days.. Here's wishing all of you a Happy New Year. :)

Merry Christmas

2007-12-26T01:52:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas!!

And Happy Birthday to dear daddy. :)

Happy holidays

2007-12-23T06:38:00.001+11:00

I have officially finished clearing my giant boxes of stuff at my dad's house.

It's really sad saying goodbye officially to the old house -- walking into the empty, stuffy house, with nothing left in it but old sofas and built in furniture. Obviously I don't remember moving into that house 18 years ago but it's going to be weird to not live there anymore. Everytime I enter my old, pink, girly room I feel like the little kid I used to be, there are too many memories surrounding that place. So moving away is a good thing too.

Brandon has grown into one of the cutest babies ever! He's walking and kind of talking now and it's absolutely adorable.

Brandon doing one of his favourite things -- driving. Pay attention to the road!

Anyway, some pictures from Wazir's birthday -- it was really fun! It was his first birthday since his mum and brother moved back to KL so I finally got to meet his mum -- kind of funny, after us being together for close to 4 years already. We had dinner with my family and drinks after with his. Dear, I'm so glad that everything has been going so well, and that you are considered a part of this family.

Brynna, me, Wazir and Uncle Jakob. 25 years young! Dear god, Wazir, you don't look 25 at all.

I've been so busy lately with my Christmas shopping and all. And today, I am done. No more buying gifts, no more wrapping. Just 2 days to Christmas!!

Monster attacking our (little) Christmas tree! I love Christmas. It's also my dad's birthday.

Family photo.

As much as I love being home, I do miss my Melbourne family. Lynn, I hope you're having fun in Korea (hehe winter!!), and LY, happy working! Hahaha.. Miss you guys! Honestly, I'm not really looking forward to going back to Melb in Feb, but thanks to you guys life there is so much more fun. Good housemates really do make a difference. :)

LY, me and Lynn. Sometime early in the year.

The most ever (and only) emo picture of us. So emo that it would make LY proud.

I love you Wazir. ;)

Happy Birthday Wazir!

2007-12-10T02:28:00.000+11:00

Happy birthday dear.

Will update later. :)

...

2007-12-07T18:48:00.000+11:00

Wow getting online has been particularly difficult lately. I hardly get to use internet at mum's as everytime I'm home my laptop is held hostage -- everyone wants to watch videos off my laptop. -.- Dad's place doesn't have a phone line installed yet so we're making do with maxis wireless broadband. That makes 4 computers and one wireless modem. You do the math.

Moving on

2007-11-29T00:40:00.002+11:00

I need to start my Christmas shopping. Dad doesn't celebrate Christmas, but it's his birthday so he gets a gift. And since it's Christmas, I buy gifts for his side of the family too. Mum is really into the whole Christmas thing -- we put up a tree, line the gifts under it, make Christmas wishlists.. It's fun and stressful! I have yet to buy anyone anything -- I desperately need to go shopping.

Last week I was at my dad's all week, it was totally tiring. He moved houses a couple of months ago but there was still a lot of things to be moved from my old room -- apparently even though I'm not around they waited for me to get back and do it myself -.-. Looking through all my old things I felt a strong sense of nostalgia. I never quite understood how spoiled I was when I was a kid, til I saw how many toys I had. So many giant boxes full of random toys, storybooks and magazines. I think there were nearly 10 huge ass boxes or so of just my stuff, and my room really isn't that big! Plus as you all know I'm a total sucker for hoarding things, so you can imagine how much shit I had held on to all these years. Suffice to say, Brandon will not be needing to buy any new toys or storybooks for the next like, 5 years? Damn I was some spoiled kid.

It's funny cos when mum moved out of our old house I took a lot of only present-day stuff, but I left behind so many things from my past; in my pink and white kiddy bedroom that I'd lived in since I was like 4? Everytime I went back to my dad's it was like I was little me again, surrounded by my bubblegum furniture, stuffed toys, childrens' books and other random toys. It was sad throwing and donating so much of it away but it was liberating in a sense. I'd held on to so many things for no reason -- simply because I'm sentimental, but so many of my things had aged without me even realizing it. My toys were all stained, my books yellow.. I'd even held on to my exercise books from my nursery days. I had flashcards from when I learned to read, books from when I learned to write; it was amazing. But it's all mostly gone now anyway. Time to move on.

I received my results for the recent semester online on Monday; and while I am satisfied, a part of me can't help but be disappointed. My grades were maintained but were more borderline this time. Oh well. It's still alright and I'm really thankful for that. I was so mentally exhausted this semester.

Drama.

2007-11-14T18:38:00.000+11:00

Coming home was so berdrama.

Long (and embarrassing) story short, I kind of fell and hurt my back on Thursday night. And my flight was Friday afternoon. -.- It was so bad that I couldn't move/get up for more than an hour -- confined to my bed, with Nick and Loy Yang at my beck and call (for which I am totally grateful; thank you so much guys).

Got really worried so the following morning we woke up early and they took me to the RMIT doc, who informed me that it was basically just a muscle spasm thing and that I should be alright given time and care, but he gave me painkillers and some other meds since I was travelling.

So yea. Thought it would be alright, but I really wasn't able to lift any luggage whatsoever, so again the two guys, plus my neighbour Jack helped to drag all my luggage down the stairs; but I was worried about lugging the bags around in the airport too -- I couldn't even lift the bags onto a trolley on my own! Luckily I met this girl Siew Ching on the shuttle on the way to the airport, and she happened to be on the same flight; what a coincidence right? So we queued to check in together (the line was horribly looong but we met this nice uncle who invited us to queue with him, which I felt horrible about, but the line was really really really long!).

Anyway. Checking in was alright, although SC's bag was horribly overweight so she stuffed some things in my bag; and I felt really bad for having her to help me with my bags throughout the whole journey. -.- I hate feeling helpless but at that moment I really couldn't do it on my own. But on the bright side, I made a new friend!! I guess things happen for a reason, when you least expect it. Anyways my back is much better now -- it still aches but I can get around and do stuff fine now. :)

So. Being home has been great, but to be honest, pretty boring. I really don't have that many friends left in KL -- everyone's in Australia, UK, or somewhere else in the world! :P And the friends that I do have here are all working; so this leaves me super busy on weekends and super jobless on weekdays. I've really been bumming around and cleaning the house; maybe I will get a part time job soon. The fact that to get around in KL I'd need a car is also a factor, since I don't have a car anymore; so for now I am confined to my house and err Plaza Mont'Kiara and Desa Sri Hartamas. When it's not raining -.-. The rain has been a huge damper really. It's been raining like crazyyyyy, I haven't seen rain this heavy in ages, lol!

It felt good unpacking my bags -- taking every single thing out and putting things back into my closet; when I came back for winter break it was only for 2+ weeks so I didn't unpack properly. But now that I will be back for 3+ months, I could unpack and settle back in, and it feels good. It was nice to see my dad's new house too -- things look really good, there is so much more space for the ever expanding family. Mum might be moving soon too, and I went to the showhouse and the place looks great too. So much has changed since I've been away, I don't know where to begin.

Brynna has been away diving in Bali all week, so she's the only one I haven't seen yet.. And she gets back tonight!! :) Excitedness. She is going to yak my ear off, but it's ok. I haven't had to deal with her all year already, lol! Brandon is huge now, he's so much more active and friendly. I haven't had much time with him yet because my dad is away and again, I don't have a car to go visit whenever I like. It was great to see mum, dad, Wazir and Ah Yi again.. :) I've missed home.

Internet is super slow here!!!! I am 3 days behind on my downloads, since it takes like an hour to 3 hours to download a 40 min show in Melb, whilst it takes a day or two here. :( Sob sob. Hurry up Heroes! Prison Break! How I Met Your Mother! Desperate Housewives! So that I can start downloading Gossip Girl..... Wtf I am so addicted but it totally keeps me sane.

Wow super long post. Oh.. It turns out that my old phone number, the one that I've been using before I left for Melbourne, has not expired, so if you all still have that number, call me on that. Or msn/facebook me, really.

Oh yes, and good luck to all those still in Australia, having exams. :)

I love you Wazir. <3

Home

2007-11-12T04:07:00.000+11:00

Sweet home

Over.

2007-11-04T00:28:00.000+11:00

So over.

I love you Wazir. <3

Stupidity

2007-10-25T01:47:00.000+10:00

I was working on one of my final models on Monday, and was cutting some cardboard on the floor; whilst referring to my autocad drawing on the laptop. I had just cut a long strip of board when I realized that the cord of my mouse was under it and I'd sliced it in half. -.- Dumb arse.

I am done with classes for this year! I just had my last studio tutorial yesterday and am on my own til the final critique next Friday. So.. I'm going to be at home all week just getting stuff done. Meh. Wish me luck!

I hate menstruating.

I love you Wazir. <3

Checklist

2007-10-21T14:41:00.000+10:00

1. ~~Make amendments to video for final hand-up.~~

2. Studio
♥ ~~Plans X 4~~
♥ ~~Sections X 2/3~~
♥ ~~Elevations X 2/3~~
♥ ~~Details X 5/6~~
♥ ~~Make 1:50 model of ramp~~
♥ ~~Design slides~~
♥ ~~Print out A3 posters~~
♥ ~~Get through presentation without nervous breakdown.~~

3. Shop! Buy things to take home. Oh, and screw the 14th, I'm going home on the 9th. :) Can't wait for the 2nd to be over.

I love you Wazir. <3

Sad realization

2007-10-15T13:30:00.000+10:00

We ran out of rice on Friday night, and we only realized it on Friday night. -.-

Forgot about it over the weekend, or was too busy with work; so Saturday night we had to beg and borrow rice from our next door neighbours. Sunday night it was the neighbours downstairs.

Ah, student life. Damn sad.

I love you Wazir. <3

Happy Raya :)

2007-10-14T21:34:00.000+10:00

Selamat Hari Raya ya'll.

I had a relatively good weekend; went to Essendon DFO and bought some gifts to take home. Lol, I've got a month to go but am already buying things! Talk about being desperately excited! But yes, one month to go is pretty soon.

Dammit internet, roll over so I can start downloading. I've been depriving myself of downloads for the past week due to low internet quota. -.-

Something I haven't done for a while -- painted nail art. Here's a pic of my mingy toes. -.- It's a pink & black french.

I love you Wazir. <3

Time

2007-10-07T19:16:00.000+10:00

5 days til the peer review for digital video.
10 days til the history essay is due.
12 days til the final review for digital video.
26 days til my final presentation for studio.
33 days til the portfolio is due.
38 days til I go home.

I don't know if I want time to go faster or slower.

I love you Wazir. <3

I am boring.

2007-09-30T01:55:00.000+10:00

I am getting horribly bad at maintaining this blog. But honestly, what is there to write?

Dear all, today I woke up at noon and cooked lunch. Then I spent 4 hours sitting on the floor, working on my model; that by the time I was done my back ached. Then I helped to cook dinner/set the table and after dinner I spent 5 hours talking to Wazir before I slept.

-.- Damn lame right? But really. Life at the moment is rather meh -- but I try to get by everyday by just telling myself that I'm here to study, and my coursework comes first.. And my final presentation is in just a month!! [I don't know whether to be happy it'll be over soon or panic because it's too soon and there's lots of work ahead of me this month. -.-]

I had a one week break this week but it's nearly over, and I got a reasonable amount of work done. Hasn't been that much fun though. -.- Oh wells. Oh but I managed to do some shopping and also meet up with Sabrina. :)

And so I shall supplement this otherwise boring post with a couple of rather recent pictures.

We went to the tulip farm last weekend.

[click to expand/collapse]

It was the Dutch weekend.

Temporary housemate Jirawat just went back to Thailand..

Lohon's birthday. I have terrible posture. -.-

Family photo.

An older one back from Kiat's birthday.

[+/-]

It feels good to be able to download new tv series. My nights were getting boring. :) With Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars cancelled, this brings my weekly shows down to 1012: Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Prison Break, House, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, My Name is Earl, Ugly Betty, American Dad, Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, and Family Guy. Shit. I'm more addicted than I thought I was. 0.0

I love you Wazir. <3

Wazir

2007-09-17T21:37:00.001+10:00

I miss you so much. :(

Love you dear. <3

Week 10

2007-09-16T21:29:00.000+10:00

So, yeah. Pictures. Not very flattering, however, considering the err, circumstances.

Before.

Assam laksa yum yum.

Process.

Family photo. Eww we all look gross, lol.

After.
l-r; standing :: wern yii, su jin, denise, weng kiat, hazman, eugene, ralph, elieen, wei xuan, me, ken, lynn, jackchi, loy yang.
below :: lohon, hubert, jackkim

Cake :)

We couldn't find the smaller knife. -.-

This week has been so blah. Everyone's on holiday for 2 weeks now but RMIT's holiday starts only next week, and lasts for only 1 week. -.- I'm exhausted. Been working on the same projects continuously since the semester began.. So sien.

I love you Wazir. <3

Happy Birthday me!

2007-09-10T16:21:00.000+10:00

Funny thing happened yesterday -- I woke up at 9.09am, then fell back asleep. Well normally it wouldn't be weird but considering that it was the 9th of September; I woke up at 9.09am on 09/09. :)

My flatmates, neighbours and friends threw me an awesome party on the eve of my birthday! I was under the impression that we were just having our usual weekly dinners with our usual bunch of friends, but I knew that there would be a cake too; since Loy Yang asked me what cake I wanted a week ago, lol. I thought it was going to be a fairly casual thing anyways, so when they all said that we were going to the nearby park to hang out, I didn't expect a cake; and a massive foodfight!! I won't go into specifics now, but I'll put up pictures later when I get them.

Plus there was a cheesecake waiting back at the house when we were done. It was pretty awesome. The food fight carried on and the house was left in quite a mess. -.- Lol. Thanks everyone, for coming, planning, and everything. :) And to Lynn, Loy Yang, Lohon (Wah so many Ls) and Jack for the lovely gifts. I feel special. :) I love you all muches.

The rest of my birthday was spent at one of my favourite places -- DFO. Lol. I went shopping alone, for some me time, since everyone was busy studying for exams anyway. It's nice to have a good reason to buy myself stuff. :)

And I spent all night talking to my dearest Wazir. <33

Anyways, thanks everyone for all the lovely wishes. I didn't think that I'd be getting that many wishes this year, because I'm in Australia now -- new address, new phone number -- it's hard to keep in touch. But Facebook and Friendster does really help in that sense. :)

Stressball

2007-09-08T00:11:00.000+10:00

1. I am a stressball. It just hit me today. I've been keeping myself so calm for the first 8 weeks of this semester and today I suddenly feel overwhelmed. I feel like crying.

2. ID Updates ::
♥ Mid semester for design studio was Tuesday. My group didn't win the competition, although I am told we were close. We are now to design and detail the winning group's masterplan. No more groupwork; all individual work now. :(
♥ Digital video is getting tougher. Have to come up with a concept that concerns interior design/architectural concerns/ideas and start filming.
♥ History/Theory class is time consuming as usual. Reading excerpts, model making, and essay writing. The essay worries me.

3. I seem to have a knack for losing track of dates and wishing people happy birthday a day late. -.- I feel like a horrible friend.

4. I just got voIP installed. Now I have a local Malaysian landline phone number that you can call from Malaysia for local Telekom rates. If anyone wants the number, let me know.

5. It is spring now, here in Melbourne.

6. I am nearly 20. Come this Sunday I am no more a teenager. I'm sad that I won't be able to celebrate with the usual dinner with mum, sis, boyf, grandma, aunt & Jakob; and the separate lunch/dinner with dad, sis, Ah Yi and Brandon. :( But I have new friends here to celebrate with. :) [Well, when mum was here we went out for dinner on her birthday and had champagne and toasted to both our birthdays. :) Double celebration.]

7. I need to calm down.

Merdeka!

2007-09-01T22:36:00.000+10:00

Happy Merdeka, Malaysia.

No, I did not go for any celebrations this year, simply because I think it's just weird to celebrate and count down Merdeka by going clubbing and drinking the night away; and I didn't go for any of those Malaysian society organized dinners because my mum was in Melbourne and we went out for a nice quiet dinner together.

But I do miss the fireworks and counting down. Last year's Merdeka was pretty special to me -- barbequing at Cenfad, watching the KLCC fireworks from the ramp, and singing Negaraku at midnight; with some great friends. It was brilliant. Oh, how I miss home.

Mum has just left for the airport; we had a great week together, and now I'm left feeling a little bit empty, with a gap to fill, but I know I will get over it soon. Everytime she comes it gets easier to say goodbye, and I know I'm lucky enough to even have her here. We went out for a nice dinner on Wednesday to celebrate her birthday. :) And my upcoming birthday too. Hehe.

Mid semester presentations/assignments are all happening/due this week and next week, and so far everything's been going rather smoothly. I think I've been planning my time much better now. Or maybe it's because so far I've had quite a number of group work, so I have to push myself to get the work done so I don't compromise the entire group too.

I haven't been online in a week; I have so much downloading and random surfing to do!! Hehe. The internet in the hotel was extremely expensive, it was so ridiculous. What rubbish. I think it was like 28 dollars for like just a couple of hours or less.. I can't remember. But it was ridiculous.

And so, now it is time to go back to life once more -- throwing myself back into my course work. Cooking and cleaning. Chatting with mum and dad over the phone. Skyping with Wazir. I might give myself a break tonight, seeing as it's already 10.30pm. I seem to have this limit, where I can only do work until late evening or so, then after that my brain just shuts off and tells me it's time to rest. So I always finish my work by evening. I don't see how some people can do work all night and not sleep -- I guess it's just not the way I work. I always plan ahead because last minute work scares me -- I need a backup plan just in case anything goes wrong. I'm super paranoid, heh.

Week 6

2007-08-22T19:18:00.000+10:00

I'm getting better at managing my time - or so I think.

I'm finally back on track -- last weekend I sat down and finally finished off the assignments from week 1 and week 2 that I missed when I was still in KL. So now I'm pretty much at where I should be and I'm feeling pretty accomplished. Next week is week 7, or mid semester, so it feels good to get everything under control. I've been back in Melbourne for a month now, but it feels like so much longer. November 14 come quick! :)

I happened to view this page on Internet Explorer a few days ago and it looks fine apart from the fact that there are no breaks in my paragraphs as there are in Firefox. -.-

Just 1900 words to go for my history essay! Blergh.

My mum is coming again this Sunday. I know, I know. You guys are probably thinking I'm such a spoiled brat - I came to Melbourne in February, my mum visited in April, dad in May, mum again in June, I went back in July and now it's August and mum will be here again. But really, all of mum's visits have been business trips. I'm just a lucky girl. :)

Feathers!

2007-08-13T21:59:00.000+10:00

Video shooting turned out to be incredibly fun! The objective was to find a site and give it a new angle; a new feel. Explore the site.

So we found this alley which was pretty windy, and bought duck feather pillows, cut them open and tossed the feathers all around, taping at multiple angles. Hell, I haven't been looking forward to this class because of obvious reasons - I don't know shit about handling a professional camera // media stuff. But throwing the feathers around really brought a huge level of fun to it; although I'm feeling a bit bad about messing up the entire alley. :P It was a huge mess when we left.

It's now that time of the month again - when I become an emotional, crying mess. :(

Some pictures from when I went home ::

Little Brandon. :) He's grown so big since I left in February. Unfortch, a few moments after I took this shot, he fell off and burst into tears. :( Oh, the guilt.

My darling sister and brother. I miss you two so so much.

Sun Sun! He came over to see me the day before I left. :)

Geng2 Cenfad. :P l-r, clockwise;Stacy, Joe, Danial, Azzura, Shazni, Tasha, Wazir and me in the middle. :)

Tash and I. Super mata sepet.

Wazir. <3 What was up with my eyes that day?

I haven't taken a picture of myself in ages. This was taken just to send to Wazir. :)

Picture Album 2007

2007-08-11T02:41:00.000+10:00

Oh God.

I seem to be on a virus attacking frenzy of some sort. A couple of weeks ago it was a trojan; yesterday it was some stupid MSN virus called Pictur Album 2007. Thank god the latter was pretty harmless -- all it seemed to do was screw up MSN Messenger. I managed to download a patch and get rid of the virus, but it seemed to keep relapsing every now and then, lol. Finally I uninstalled and reinstalled MSN and it seems ot be fine now. Hopefully.

So, if you happen to receive, or you already received some stupid message from me on MSN, please don't accept it; unless you are in need of some virus induced excitement. And if you got affected, message me for the patch.

Uni work has been incredibly hectic. Classes run so long that I find myself too tired to do anything by the time I get home. :/ In fact I'm always lethargic in class too. I can't seem to motivate myself; all I do is sit around and complain. -.- I need to get off my ass and do more work. How la how la.. Why is my brain shutting down so much?

I've got 3 classes on my plate this semester -- ID Studio, which is called Fermenting Spaces, which is err about fermenting spaces, if that makes any sense to you; Electric Eye, which is about Digital Video, and I've got to shoot videos and edit them and attempt being all artsy fartsy; and History/Theory which involves lotssss of reading abstract, philosophical, deep, confusing articles and essay writing.. It's insane. I find myself so busy every week, even though I have Mondays and Thursdays off. Luckily I've got group work for Studio [temporarily] and Digital Video.

Going [video] shooting later on today! I'll be the girl lugging this heavy ass professional camera in this huge silver case around Melbourne city.

Back.

2007-07-31T17:00:00.000+10:00

I'm back in Melbourne. Arrived early last Thursday, and it's been pretty hectic since -- catching up on all the missed assignments. I'm pretty much up to speed now except for my history assignment, I think.

This semester I've got lots of morning classes, as opposed to the evening classes I used to have, so no more sleeping in for me. :( It kind of sucks because most of my housemates have morning classes too and there's always no more hot water left when it comes to my turn in the shower! :'(

Oh, I got a trojan last Saturday night, and Norton really wasn't much help. Norton's only useful with small little bugs, but whenever it's a major virus, it never seems to be able to do anything. -.- Why do I bother paying for Norton, really?!

Anyway, so I had to reformat the computer in the middle of the night.. I couldn't sleep without fixing the comp, lol. And I had to redo an assignment but it's all good now; apart from the 5-6 GB of videos that I lost. But earlier that day, I had just burned 20+ GB of videos, so I was lucky.

And I've finished reading Harry Potter! I've never been a huge fan or anything, but it is pretty sad to see it come to an end.

I'm still missing home a lot, but yeah 3 and a half months really isn't that long. In a way, I'm rather looking forward to this semester, and finishing it off. :)

Leaving on a jetplane.

2007-07-24T01:56:00.000+10:00

So with a heavy heart, I have to drag my ass back to Melbourne tomorrow night. I have to say that I'm not looking forward to the flight [I've just discovered how much I despise flying], and lugging my bags up the stairs, and unpacking. Going back to uni and starting classes [well, classes have started a week ago already :/], cooking and cleaning -- meh.

Classes have always been stressful for me, I feel; maybe because sometimes I'm not sure if this is the right course for me. I don't know if my course mates feel the same, but really, I find the work extremely stressful. Even though I received good grades last semester, my confidence is still low and I keep doubting myself. I push myself so much and I worry too much.

Coming back to KL has been fun, but it's difficult to tear myself away from home once more. I knew it would be hard to leave again, which is why I wasn't sure if I wanted to come back this winter break. But hey, now I get to be back in KL twice this year instead of once, right?

So now I look forward to coming back in 3-4 months. :) Bloody hell I hope this semester goes well.

Sigh.

2007-07-18T14:07:00.000+10:00

Oh shit. I've been so lazy with this blog.

Anyway I've been back in KL for one and a half weeks. I got my friend Shah in Melbourne to ballot for my classes, which just started yesterday. :/ Feeling slightly guilty about missing a week of classes, but I guess I'll just have to catch up when I get back. :(

Which is why I'm so not looking forward to going back. It's been great being back here at home -- seeing my family and Wazir again.. Some friends - Sun, Jolene, Trish's 21st! Cenfad friends... etc. I've put on nearly 4 kg even though I've only been back for such a short while! There's too much good food here! Being away made me appreciate the food more, lol.

Exactly one week til I have to go to Melbourne again. Nooooooooo I don't want to go anymore... :(

Big news.

2007-07-04T17:54:00.000+10:00

Holidays have been pretty good. Last week I saw Kiat, Sam, Sean and Dharen, as you can tell from the comment left in my cbox. =P And Lay In was in Melbourne so I met up with her a few times; we went on a tour to Yarra Valley and Puffing Billy, etc.. And I just saw Mae, Wern, Dharen and Sam earlier today. Oh, and I finally went to the Chadstone mall last weekend!

Anyways. I'm blabbering. But I've got big news!!

Wait for it.. [omg I'm watching too much How I Met Your Mother]

I'm going back to KL tomorrow night!!! I know it's totally last minute and all but mum surprised me with it and I'm coming back tomorrow night, but I couldn't get a flight back so I'm missing a week of class. So yes. I'm going home. :)

I can't wait to see Wazir, Brynna and Brandon! And the rest of the family. :) And all you UK people.. :)

Annoyed.

2007-06-27T14:49:00.000+10:00

Uncle Jakob joined mum and I in Melbourne on Saturday, and the two of them just left yesterday afternoon. To be honest, I'm still emo-ing but I'm feeling noticeably better, compared to the last few times mum // dad left. It feels sad that I'm back to being alone here, but at the same time it feels nice to have my own alone time again. However, it being holidays means I just sit in my room and watch videos all day. :P

Yen is leaving tonight for London -- Yen, don't worry too much. :) You'll be fine! :) Have a great flight and we'll definitely talk again soon. Your internet connection should be better there so we can Skype properly, lol! By the time you read this you'll be in London. :)

I really don't like winter. Layering is so meh -- having to drag a coat or jacket around everywhere I go.. I despise it. I miss wearing just a tee and skirt with summer shoes. I haven't worn a skirt in ages because it's too cold, even with tights. Just 2 more months of cold weather to go!

Last week there was an exhibition for the 2nd and 3rd year Interior Design students at RMIT.. So yeah.. As I mentioned, I went there and put up my work and brought some models there and stuff.. And today I went back to pick them up, to find that they had shipped everything from the exhibition space to RMIT.. So I went to RMIT to find that some of my models were missing.. I seem to be on some sort of a model-going-missing strike. This has already happened to me once in Cenfad, when the cleaners threw away a couple of my models by accident.. It's not like I really need the models but I did put work into them..

Missing you.

2007-06-22T13:26:00.000+10:00

According to imood.com, my mood has not changed since May 24, 2005. I have been loyal ever since, and today, I am feeling accomplished. =P Don't get me wrong though, of course I'm still loyal to Wazir. :)

The long distance relationship has been going very well; much better than I anticipated. Sure, its tough being apart, but with callcards and msn and skype it does make it easier. It's difficult when I'm stressed out and I just need him to comfort me; it's tough when I just want a big hug and cuddle. I miss him very very much, and it frustrates me that I can't be with him physically; and I am very jealous of those lucky people whose other halves are studying with them in the same city, or those who get to fly back home every holiday. :'( Damn you lucky people. :P

The afterparty of Icon Show 2006. Gosh. One year has gone in the blink of an eye. I still recall sitting in Cenfad's ID studio, putting together our presentation boards; pinning up our work for the exhibition.. And one year later I'm doing the exact same thing at RMIT, but you're not here with me.

I love you.

Omg I miss my room too -- my bed and my bright walls. My fold-out desk and my closet. I don't have enough storage space in my room in Melbourne. :( I miss my home, I miss having a damn sofa to lounge on.

The last time I saw him. :(

Forgive me if you've seen most of these pictures before - Wazir and I really aren't picture taking people. It's been about 3 years yet I probably only have 10+ pictures of us together, lol. But that's just us, I guess.

On a side note, I have been reliving Gilmore Girls by downloading old episodes. I'm already halfway through season 3.

Hectic.

2007-06-20T15:10:00.000+10:00

Been staying with my mum in her hotel ever since she arrived, thus have not had much access to the internet in days; but last night we subscribed to the internet for 24 hours so I've got a few more hours to go. :)

Things have been pretty hectic even though my presentation ended last week because:
♥ The 2nd & 3rd year interior exhibitions opened last night, and I had to help set up.
♥ I have to present my work again tomorrow night to the industry people as a thank you for letting us work with them for the 1 week work experience, and for all the Saturday workshops.
♥ I have to submit a portfolio report thingy about my project on Friday.

Gah.

My housemate, Lynn has gone back to Penang. :( Lynn I miss you! Leaving me with Loy Yang and Chee Hoe, and I don't doubt that both of them will be Dotaing and WOWing most of the holidays. :P Lol.

Father's Day was on Sunday.. Happy Father's Day, dad! :) It's rather ironic that dad was here on Mother's Day and vice versa.

I received my new boots -- Ah Yi's sister in UK ordered them off asos.com for me and brought them back to KL, and mum brought them for me.

I don't know if you all heard about the shootings that happened in Melbourne on Monday, but you can read about it on news.com.au. It was rather terrifying, knowing that something like this happened in the city that I was currently in. My thoughts go out to the family of the deceased and the other two who were injured. It was really a sad, scary day. It reminded me of the Virginia Tech shootings; and I felt vulnerable, being in a foreign country - it feels unsafe being away from home sometimes.

Relief

2007-06-15T17:54:00.000+10:00

Done with final presentation!

Went rather well, I think.

:)

Will celebrate when mum arrives. :)

Mondays

2007-06-11T23:08:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow I'm going to the printer to get my presentation boards and drawings printed. I was originally budgeting to print on Wednesday, but turns out I finished my work a day earlier. It's kind of strange that in Australia, all the printing shops only print pdf formats. They charge more if its a jpg or any other format. What difference does it make, really? You send the file from the computer station to the printer, and it prints. -.-

Anyway, here are some pictures from when dad and Ah Yi were here. :)

Us

Bondi beach. :)

Queen Victoria Building.

Sydney Opera House.

Leonard French ceiling at NGV. This is in Melbourne though. :)

Oh, and just for fun ::

I just noticed that I've been posting every Monday lately. What a coincidence!

I kind of miss my Wordpress blog.. Seng Yip, faster get your blog up! ;P

11 days.

2007-06-04T16:22:00.000+10:00

It's been pretty intense and busy these few weeks. Just 11 days to go for final presentation. I can't wait for it to be over. I just received an email from my lecturers saying that the presentations go from 9.00am til 5.30pm, and my slot is at 5.00pm. -.- I hate being last, it just gets me more nervous than ever. But I'm last because my last name starts with a Y. But why?? My first name starts with a B!! I've always liked presenting second or third.

But anyway. I still have lots to do. I've been working on my drawings, but this being my first semester and all, I'm still a bit unsure of the expectations. Honestly, my technical drawings have never been very good, and back at Cenfad, we used Vectorworks; whereas in RMIT they use AutoCad, so I'm still adjusting to the changes. I have yet to start my 3D as well, but Wazir will be helping me out.

Exam week sucks. My housemates and I agreed that we'd be too busy/lazy to cook this week, therefore, on Saturday we cooked a giant pot of pasta and that's going to be our lunch and dinner this week. It's been two days and I'm already feeling sick -- will definitely have to alternate pasta with Maggi, Indomee, bagels and toast.

But I can't wait for the final presentation to be over and done with, because 2 days after the presentation mum is coming to Melbourne. I know, again.. :) She'll be working at the client's office but we still get to spend time together in the evenings/nights. So I'm working hard now so that I can enjoy later. Work in order to achieve play. That's the concept of my design project too. :) I haven't even been shopping for a while, since dad and ah yi were here.

Oh wells. Time to get back to Cad. :(

Placement

2007-05-28T18:21:00.000+10:00

Today I started my work placement, as part of my studio. Some of you may know that I've had really few credit hours -- all other studios have 9 credit hours a week, whilst I had 6 in the first half of the sem, and now I only have 3. Well, sometimes 6 when the lecturers feel we're not doing work. :P But less credit hours or not, the workload is still the same. :/

But anyway. The reason my credit hours are so little is because I had 4 Saturday classes -- visits to 4 different design offices; and now I have to work for a week. And work, as I found today, is basically them giving me a computer and me doing my own work on AutoCad/Photoshop. Hah. I could do that at home, but being around people working does make me feel like doing work I guess. No videos to distract me; no bed to lie on. No MSN to chat with Wazir. :(

The flipside is that the office is rather far from my place though. I think it's like 7-8 blocks? Not too sure, but it takes me about 35-40 minutes to walk there. I took a super long lunch break today because it took me 35 minutes to get home, then an hour and a half to cook and eat, then another 35 minutes to walk back. Damn stupid right? All because I want to save money on tram and food. But the people at the office don't mind. When asked if I could leave for lunch, they said sure, I'm my own boss.

My poor feet are aching now.

Picture this

2007-05-27T23:28:00.000+10:00

Today I went to Eckersly's, this stationery shop selling materials to buy foamcore. It's more expensive than the shop I usually go to, but hell, its a Sunday and it was the only shop open. $5 more expensive is a lot but when you're desperate, you're desperate.

Anyway. So I bought this A0 sheet of foamcore board, and just as I stepped out of the shop, the wind blows. Really strongly. The board almost immediately bends nearly into half. At that point, I'm so shocked I didn't even know what to do. I could barely walk and hold the board down, so I just pushed the board against the wall and leaned against it. Then the wind died down and I walked along, for a few metres, before I had to do it again.

And that was how I got the foamcore home. People were staring, it was sooo not funny. The worst part was crossing the roads, because the wind is so much stronger at the intersections.

I'm so damn traumatised. I'm not going out to buy materials alone again.

Back to life.

2007-05-23T01:38:00.000+10:00

Dad and Ah Yi have gone back -- everytime anyone visits then leaves I always get sad and emo. It sucks having 10 whole days of being busy and having familiar people to talk to and go out with, then back to being alone again. But it's for the better; I have so much work to do these few weeks. When people visit me I tend to put aside work. Final presentation is on the 15th of June!! :( Wish me luck!

Goodbye GG :'(

2007-05-17T01:05:00.000+10:00

Dad and Ah Yi are here in Melbourne to visit -- everything's been so rushed. We went to Sydney last weekend and it was a huge whirlwind. My cousin drove us around and I managed to meet up with Shen, Jun and Mae so it was great. :) It's been really nice having dad and Ah Yi here -- I don't feel so lonely. I missed them a lot.. And Brandon too! I looked at some recent photos and videos and he's really grown! He'll be walking soon enough, and I regret that I can't be there for these precious moments. I'll put up pictures soon.

I just watched the last ever episode of Gilmore Girls... :( Sad. I didn't think I was that attached to this show.. But I've been watching it for 7 years now, and it feels like I'm losing a friend. No more Lorelai and Rory on Tuesdays (well, Wednesdays; Tuesdays is USA time). :( Downloading the show was a part of my weekly routine. I didn't feel much when the OC was cancelled, but GG meant so much more to me. :'( Sad sad sad.

Speaking of GG, it was Mother's Day over the weekend. I phoned my mum and she was surprised. :) Happy Mother's Day, mum. :) I love my mum. I'm not going to go all sentimental and stuff here, but you guys should know how much she means to me.

Meltdown

2007-05-05T21:46:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I sort of had a meltdown. It was pretty bad -- I'd been working on this idea for slightly more than a week, for my studio; but when I took it to class the lecturer said she prefered my original idea and told me to work on something else. And it made sense -- I'd gone off track and the new design was pretty boring anyway.

But when I got home and tried sketching and making models, I just couldn't envision what I wanted, because the model I had made was in a weird shape and had slanted planes and whatnot. I just couldn't think, and the more I tried to think, the worse I felt. I tried taking time off and doing other things, but my mind just kept going back to the model and it just felt like shit, lol. I thought about it for so long until I just burst into tears.

I don't know if this is something to do with it being that time of the month, or me being away from home, or whatever, but it was awful. I cried and phoned Wazir and my mum and cried even more. I finally got fed up with myself and forced myself to sleep early, at 12.30am! [I've been sleeping at like 5am everyday lately.]

But anyway. I woke up this morning feeling better and I talked my design over with Wazir, and I've started making a new model and it looks alright so far. I just.. I felt so weak yesterday; it was weird. I just couldn't control my emotions and I felt so alone. I guess I still have to get used to me being on my own here in Melbourne, and frankly, I finished my coursework at Cenfad a year ago, so I need to get my rhythm back after being on holiday for quite a while.

Man, this is bad. I haven't been blogging in ages and when I come back all I can do is whine and feel depressed. :P Anyway... Hope you all have a great weekend. :)

Week 9.

2007-05-04T01:15:00.000+10:00

Oh my god.

I had such a light and easy first half of the semester that I became so lazy. And the workload is getting heavier. I know, I know, most of you would say I don't have much to complain about, seeing as I originally had 12 contact hours a week for the first half, and now I have 9 contact hours a week! But really, the work is getting more, time is passing quickly, and deadlines are getting nearer. And I'm just out of ideas. Plus, I have to do a week of work experience.

I don't know. Sometimes its not that I don't have ideas -- I do, but I don't have the confidence in myself to just sit down and sketch, make models, or whatever. I miss having Wazir or my classmates, next to me, to discuss things, ask for opinions, and share ideas. I sit here in my dining room, trying to make my model, but no one in the house understands what I'm doing so I obviously can't ask for opinions.

I know I complain about my course all the time, but I really do miss having an actual syllabus. Having some guide to follow; some textbook to pluck answers out of. But I certainly don't miss exams. Presentations are incredibly nerve-wrecking but 30 minutes of that is better than 3 hours sitting in an exam hall or whatnot.

I currently have 3 classes: Studio, History/Theory (which is a first year class that I have to take. And it's an extreme bore, with site visits, and lots and lots of readings and essays.), and Modelling (which can be fun but too time consuming). I'm currently stuck on my studio work and have had a couple of sleepless nights just thinking about it.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that it's already the ninth week into my course. I've been in Melbourne for 3 months now. I suppose you could say it hasn't been that bad. I'm getting used to it, but I wouldn't say I love it, because it will never be home. Sometimes life gets boring here -- cooking the same things week after week, going to the same places... I know that back in KL I did the same ol' things too, but I was surrounded by people and places I love and it just made a whole big difference.

Just 6 and a half months before I go home! I can't wait.

It feels weird posting in Blogger after nearly a year away. I miss having previews in its proper layout.

On the bright side... Dad and Ah Yi are coming in exactly a week!

Back!

2007-05-01T16:04:00.000+10:00

Wow. It's been a nearly a year since I lost this blog. Well, Yen informed me that this site was open and by chance, I tried to get it back and I did! No more spammers on http://chooiwen.blogspot.com. Finally.

To those of you who do check back on my blog rather regularly, I'm sorry for taking you guys on this wild goose chase -- the hosting on Seng Yip's site, http://www.xen0s.org expired and we will be moving to a new domain soon. I'll keep you updated and linked, promise.

There is so much to say, but I don't know where to start. I'm still fixing my template at the moment so I guess I'll continue blogging here for now, until the new domain is up.. :)

You have got to be kidding me.

2006-06-27T13:41:00.000+10:00

Okay, so I haven't actually made any announcements yet, but I was thinking of moving to a new site, hosted by Seng Yip, at http://chooiwen.xen0s.org soon. But I haven't gotten the hang of WordPress and didn't feel comfortable moving, so I was mostly experimenting with the layout, and exporting my archives to that site.

So I read some tutorials, and changed the hosting of chooiwen.blogspot.com to ftp and whatnot, and managed to export my archives to the new site, although they don't seem to work right now.

But my blogspot seemed to be fine, so I just left it at that and went to Perhentian, and told myself that I'd figure it out when I got back.

And now that I'm back, I go to my blogspot and am greeted by a huge header saying Yes, Paul! I want to be Happy and Healthy. Teach me Secrets of Living a Healthy, Happy and Exciting Life! What the fuck?

Damn. I didn't know that by hosting my blogspot on ftp it meant that I'd be giving up my blogspot.com address. And someone took it so fast? Fuckety.

Erm, til I figure this out, I suppose I will be blogging at http://chooiwen.xen0s.org. Or I might just give up altogether. Blogging is so frustrating sometimes. Dammit.

PS> Can anyone help me sort out my archives and comments? They don't seem to be working although I think I did everything right.

My latest pedicure.

2006-06-19T22:01:00.000+10:00

Because I am going to the beach on Thursday!

Photo overload.

2006-06-15T05:30:00.000+10:00

Gosh. I haven't really blogged in so long that I've gotten all lazy.

Wazir and I just got back from Singapore yesterday morning, was there for almost a week, staying with my uncle and aunt. Had a great time with Wazir, but the sale was incredibly disappointing. Great Singapore Sale, my arse! Zara, Topshop, Forever21, and etc were all normally priced, except for the "bargain rack" which only has all the odd sizes anyways. The only places which seemed to be really on sale were Tangs, Isetan and Takashimaya.. Departmental stores, I suppose. Also, I read that there was a 50% discount on the 1GB Ipod Nano for tourists, so I was planning to get it, but it turns out that they're only giving out 7 a day, and people line up outside the store from 7am, when the store opens at 11am..! Insaneness.

So.. I got quite some money from mum to shop in Singapore as a graduation gift, but I didn't get to buy as much as I'd have liked with it. But you know, Wazir was with me and we had fun spending lots of time together, so it was worth it. :)

Anyway, I thought I'd put up some old pictures, from 27th May -- Cenfad's Icon Show, which is this exhibition that the students put up annually. This year was my last time participating, as I am done with my coursework -- just 3 more months of internship, then I get my diploma. I start my internship next month, with one of my lecturers. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to starting work already, but I guess it's got to happen some time or other. The sooner I get it done, the better, right?

This was my exhibition corner.

Some of my presentation boards.

The graduating class with some lecturers, in the interior design gallery.
l-r :: Anthony, Anwar, Danial, Natasha, Sarah, Stacy, Me, Maisarah, Adela.

Group photo.
l-r :: Joe, Wazir, Danial, Anthony, Sarah, Me, Stacy, Maisarah, Natasha.

Me, with my super high heels which gave me blisters. :( And I was still the shortest of the lot.

Wedding dress designed by Yenny from the fashion department. Damn, I want this dress.

This does not require a caption.

You Cempakans won't believe who I met at the Icon Show -- Datin Frieda, Dr Rizal, his brother Farid [I think], and this other woman [I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten her name. 2 and a half years away from school and already I've forgotten.] They were real nice; they came to look at my work and asked about my project and stuff, but I forgot to take pictures. :/ Apparently they were looking for broadcast arts graduates for some project. Meeting them kind of made me miss school, a little bit.

Oh, Wazir and I took Brynna to the zoo a few weeks back as well ::

We got there in time for the elephant show -- they were sooo adorable!

Oh so pretty.

This bear was so effing cute. He/she was just lying around, but when we approached, he proceeded to splash around in the little pond then walk towards us.

I have more pictures, but lots of them are either boring, or are of the snakes because Brynna has a strange liking for reptiles. Which really grosses me out. I can't even bring myself to rotate and crop the pictures of the reptiles. >.<

I was looking through my old passport before I went to Singapore, and found some old pictures of me. Here, have a laugh ::

Little Brenny.

PS :: Oh, oh! And Happy Belated Birthday to Mae, whose birthday fell on 06/06/06 this year!! ;) I hope it was great. Much love. <333

Away

2006-06-07T21:31:00.000+10:00

I just got the laptop back the day before yesterday, and since then, I've been in a frenzy reinstalling programs, plug-ins, and etc. But all is well now, and I am happy.

Also, I'm going off to Singapore in an hour or so. Will be back in a few days, so.. check back next week! Have a great weekend. =)

OH MY GOD

2006-05-30T18:32:00.000+10:00

I know you all probably expect me to start blogging more, since I just finished college, but again, there is a valid explanation for why I haven't been updating.

My laptop crashed. Apparently my stupid Windows XP crashed, so I tried using the Acer Recovery cd to format the first partition [or something like that la.. haha.], but it wouldn't work and I still couldn't access Windows. I took my laptop to the Service Centre in KLCC, and they couldn't even access my D drive to back up my data and etc, so I had to send it to the main service centre in Subang. They said they'll try to back up my hard drive, but if all fails, then they'll just replace the entire thing. Screw Windows. That's almost 50GBs of applications and data gone. Thank God I back up my college files once a week into my external drive, so at least most of it is still there.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I just sent the laptop to the service centre and I haven't been able to use it for about a week already. I'm expecting it back on Friday.

I didn't think I could live that long without the computer, so I borrowed my stepmom's NEC laptop. The problem is that it's super small and the keyboard is so tiny that I keep making typos.

There is so much to say, and lots of pictures to post, especially those of the Icon Show 2006, which is this exhibition Cenfad holds every year. So.. I'll try to update soon. This laptop doesn't have wireless internet so I'll just wait til I get my laptop back. *crosses fingers that the data can be saved* I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that I'll have to reinstall and redownload everything, although it was extremely frustrating at first.

-2 days // Free

2006-05-21T14:44:00.000+10:00

Wow. I find it hard to believe that I haven't updated in 17 days. See, I told you guys I'd be really busy!

The past few weeks flew by real quick, though. Basically, my classmates and I rushed like mad to finish our assignments, to make it in time for Friday's deadline. Rushed like mad = going to our studio in Cenfad every day from morning til early in the morning or so, and even sleeping over in the studio some days. The studio became like our second home for the last couple of weeks.

This is our studio. It is everything it looks like -- dirty, messy, dusty, smoky, etc. Pictures are blur because Wazir unknowingly took them with my camera while it was still on the magnification mode.

Stacy and Joe.

Me helping Iddin with his work.

I have lots of pictures from the presentation but I'm not bothered to do resizing at the moment. =P Anyway, I'm free now!!! Well.. Not exactly. I've got one report due Tuesday and another due Friday, but I've finished one. So, one more report to go for me, and I'm done with college. Can you believe it? 2 and a half years flew by way too quickly. Now, I've got to find an internship somewhere. Meh.

It's only been two days since the presentation, but already I'm starting to feel extremely bored and restless. The sudden lack of work and worry feels weird, but I'm not complaining. =) The whole class met up at the Coffee Hut last night and it was nice -- everyone looked so refreshed and happy, now that the tough part of the semester is over. We're now planning a trip to Perhentian together, before we go off to university and whatnot.

One more thing before I forget; yesterday was Yen's birthday, and I'd just like to give her a lil shoutout :: Happy 18th, dear. You're one of my oldest friends and still are one of the closest. I'm sorry I couldn't make any plans for the past week, but I promise we'll definitely do something this week.

Here's to our friendship.

I know this isn't a brilliant picture of the two of us, but I couldn't find that many. Which means that we should take more. =)

15 more days.

2006-05-04T14:30:00.000+10:00

Time for some pictures.

I think stress does horrible things to us. That, and Saturday morning classes at Cenfad. Behold.

Apparently, Danial + mustache = Mr Muchacho.

Stacy. And her thin, curly mustache. Hahaha.

Yesterday was Danial's 21st birthday, so Tasha planned him a surprise party. We met up at Green Lotus and waited like an hour for Danial to arrive. Unfortch, the surprise was slightly ruined because D recognized Joe's car parked outside the restaurant. :/ Meh.

Stacy and me.

Mai getting a kiss from the birthday boy. Took forever to convince him to do so, but the good picture was worth it. ;)

Birthday cake was huge.

l-r :: Aizat, Iddin, Joe, Wazir. Muka bangang. But what's new? Hahah.

Us, together.

It was a fun night. I was really really tired, though. Didn't get that much sleep the night before, and had a morning class as well. There were about 15 of us but we didn't bother taking any group photos. The Thai food was good and reasonably priced. Good food + good company = fun. It's still pretty hard to believe that soon we'll graduate and this is our last month hanging out together. I've gotten so used to my classmates and their silly antics. =P

I hate being on prepaid. I just checked my balance -- I thought I had like, RM 10 left, but turns out it's RM 0.42. Wtf. Thank God I even bothered to check. But it's late now, so will have to wait til tomorrow to get my credit from dad.