Arhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The frustration. of knowing I have loads to do. But why is my mind seemingly enveloped in a time warp of its own?!

strive for constant improvement i tell myself. sometimes tiredness and other assorted feelings take over. FEEL less i know i should, as feelings are flighty wispy thingies that go away in a spur of the moment.

Something to inspire me?
Something to encourage me?

经过一番的鸡同鸭讲 哈哈 终于弄个明白了。多谢!

^_^ my "guessing" skills have been tested lately. those in the "know" will know what I mean..

on something else.. realised alotof people hardly "know" me, even professed good friends. Besides our usual general chatter that is, besides the "hello how're you? what've you been up to?" and other mundane matters.. reminder to self - less idle chatter's gooood.

Watched Star Wars - in an empty cinema

Yes this is another one of those StarWars related posts.. but I'm SOOOOO happpy! to be able to say that the ROTS was better than the 1st two. The absence of Jar Jar Binks probably upped my enjoyment by 90%, though he did appear in the end..

Watched it in Chadstone today, impromptu decision. They've got more than a dozen sessions daily, but was really surprised at the ahem lack of interested viewers. In PJ/KL when blockbuster movies come out there're usually queues stretching on and on and on.

Here, no queue. No need to book. Straight to the counter. Not that the mall was empty of any crowds, prob just the Aussies in their usual laid back manner aren't exactly rushing to watch the movie. Hoyts here's pretty comfy, but the absence of audience was kinda striking..certainly not what I'd expect from a StarWars screening.

Empty cinema - meaning 90%+ empty. Prob less than 20 others temaning us. The credits rolled, but the lack of atmosphere was slightly disappointing (no cheering/clapping/roaring of any sort). Its prob just me being the fanatic I am. But pai-seh to do anything le, so just sat there quietly..

Abit blah due to a dodgy audio system, for a coupla minutes in the beginning, in the very first battle/fight scenes, the system went MUTE. Wey I wait a few years for this and not for the system to go kaput!!!

Some thoughts on it:

Muchhh better than the first two (yes i know i'm repeating this).

Looks less CG than the previous 2, everything looks more realistic, not too polished a look. I really prefer this over a "plasticky" feel..

Links up well with Ep 4: A New Hope.

Some don't really understand Anakin going over to the dark side, but if referring back to the previous 2 films, he's never really been contented with the role of the Jedi in the Republic. Adding to his visions of Padme's death (Yoda's said before - always in motion is the future) so can't really say everything's because of Padme. He's not trusted by those in the council, feels betrayed by them bla bla bla

Padme and Anakin's scenes, omigosh the dialogue's still kinda cheesy.. fortunately not the central theme in this show. But found it amusing that they interpersed the PadmeAnakin scenes between one battle and the next. Switching back and forth and back again..

No JarJarBinks!!

Kashyyyk was different to what I imagined it to be. If you're an avid a fan as I am, you'd have read the novels eg the Thrawn trilogy (Heir to the Empire etc) and there's a very different Kashyyyk there. The limited few scenes of Kashyyyk in the movie showed the ground, which in all the novels is an "unknown" (think dark and mysterious) world as the Wookiees live high above the trees, without ever going to ground (in fact they've never seen the ground or what's beneath the vast trees cities/villages)

Hayden Christensen in Ep 2 so-so.. in Ep 3. wahsay.. ~* damn like him now. muahahha

Shall be watching it again soon =)

Cheap flights / YAA meeting..

In the last few days I've settled some stuff that needed to be done.

Air ticket - check.
accomodation - check.

hehe.. going to have a short break next month after my finals (reminding myself again and again that its less than 2 weeks away) and will be offfff! Not going anywhere fancy though I did wish I could.. not following any tour either, no point cos don't foresee any problems travelling by ourselves..

cheap flights! yupp it cost only about half of my original budget =) Flying is cheaper in Aus than rail / coach thanks to Virgin/Qantas/Jetstar. The first sector wasn't that cheap, but Gold Coast to Sydney cost me a mere $28 (incl all taxes/surcharges etc) and Sydney back to Melb $49!! Unbelievable rates. The $28 flight was a fluke cos an hour earlier (b4 booking) there were only $121 seats.

Made some of my bookings thru Flight Centre and was surprised when the rates for each flight's actually cheaper by another $2 cos we paid cash. Turns out the online rate's for credit card pmts. Muahah made us quite happy (albeit also very extremely broke after paying for everything else)

Today, somehow before 12am I'm already quite tired. Dropped by the city to settle Sydney's accomodation, had some nice ramen at Ajoshi (I seem to having that an awful lot lately) then went to Clayton for the YAA meeting. Took a lil less than 3 hours and we only got home at 9pm plus - in the rain (unexpected hence got quite wet le)..

Looks like the YAA meeting's gonna be held in Clayton weekly, initially thought it was in the city which was more convenient than Clayton.. there were around 20 of us, plus 5 mentors. Had a briefing, did some brainstorming, settled on our company name and threw some ideas around for our product choice. Have to prepare for next week's meeting (do some research for my idea)..

Next semester's gonna be hectic (prob as bad as this sem) cos the program involves alotof commitment and effort. Made clear to us - 2 days' leave available (meaning a max absenteeism from TWO meetings over the next 6 months or so) which I'll use up in an instant (when go off for trip). whoops that means no being absent in the 2nd sem...

Also got the guide to our weekly programs, 24 weeks worth - 4 modules involving Foundations, Establishment, Consolidation and improvement and finally Liquidation! It REALLY is a REAL company established, real products, real money. We're not talking monopoly money here. Share certificates will be issued to those who buy shares in the company, each share $2 only =P (my friends in Melb pleeassse sokong abit later ya?!) and hopefully at year end there're dividends to be paid! Last year's team did very well, won at the State and National level returning profits of 600%! So if you'd bought a $2 share, you'd have gotten back $12. Amazing really, what they achieved..

Really really need to "up" my level of time management cos the program's not taking any breaks even through the exam period. My first paper (and probably the most difficult one) starts 6th June! Previous ability to so-call-perform-under-stress most likely won't work this semester..

Been abit lazy to blog lately. I should probably rephrase. Been abit lazy to "do anything at all" lately. After the busyyyy assignment period, I've just sortof lapsed into a stupor. Not a drunken one, more of a lazy bummer kind. Questions people have been asking me lately - most popular is "eh why don't see you online lately? very busy meh?" which makes me think - "er I was online very often ar?"..

Just chilled for a week, metup with some people, walked in the gardens, ate some cake, lunched at Chocolate Buddha (which I wanted to blog about but got caught up in laziness) blah blah blah..

Some sunshiney news - an old friend is in town! Hehe he suddenly called me yesterday, hopefully we'll lunch together sometime this week..

oh.. I still haven't watched StarWars. This is so weird. Me - an absolute StarWars fanatic - yet to watch the show. Saw the poster again today and yay! its drawn by Drew Struzan, my fave Star Wars artist who does all the movie posters and most of the book covers..now where can I get my hands on one of Drew's works...

FA Cup Winners..? continuation of a torrid Manchester Utd season

First, Congratulations to Arsenal for winning the 2005 FA Cup.

No dispute, they won in the end. This's a case where only the results mattered, not what happened in the 2 hours before.

3 hours plus ago, I BOUNDED down the stairs after hearing 'bout SBS's live telecast of the FA Cup Final. So excited I was, at the thought of watching my first match in months. I'm a Manchester Utd fan you see, for the past 7 years.

As the match began, both sides were missing a few regulars. My fave - Giggs, started on the bench. My other fave - Scholes started the game, with Keane (holding midfielder) etc etc etc. The pace started to pick up only at the half hour mark.

Somehow, messrs Rooney, Van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo, Scholesy etc contrived to miss a significant number of chances throughout the 2 hours. Manchester Utd practically dominated the 2 hours of play. Whenever Arsenal had possession, all they seemed to do was pass the ball around the park. For the uninformed, the match went into extra time (two 15-minute halves for those clueless about football). The match then went on to penalties - the first time ever that the FA Cup Final's decided this way.

Needless to say, Arsenal won. Scholesy's shot got saved. Heartbreak for all. Including me. Ferdinand was disconsolate. So am I. Having not watched football (NOT FOOTY) for sooooo long, I was practically dyingggg for them to score.

Come on comeon comeon we urged (XiMin and me).

I was on the edge of my seat. He - what seat? for he was on his feet

At the end, as oft stated, football's a cruel game. If we went on whether Arsenal deserved to win, it was more a case of Manchester Utd (please DON'T call them M-a-n Utd BTW) losing the Cup, than Arsenal winning it (look at the match statistics from Soccernet - it should be published in a half hour). MU's 11 corners v. Arsenal's measly 1. Shots on target 23 (i think) v. Arsenal's 5. Of course, dominance of a game does not guarantee victory. But in this instance (in a final) there're no second chances. By not taking so many of their opportunities, success on penalties are far-fetched. Unless the keeper's name is Schmeichel.

3.30am and I'm rueing whats left of a torrid season. Being left out of most of the action (Aussie public tv DOES NOT show a single English Premiership match in the entire season and I've no Foxtel -- meaning NO live telecasts for poor me) is bad enough.

The takeover of my beloved club by an insensitive American (Malcolm Glazer again for the uninformed) who has never been to Manchester nor watched a single football match is worse. The fact that he's sending the club into sky high debt-ridden status from their previous solvent status (see Shareholders Utd for more info) makes it look even more.. what shall I say.. disgraceful? disgusting? (add your own adjective).. planning to give the gaffer a transfer fund of 100million pounds over 5 years is laughable. That brings us on par with Wigan Athletics transfer kitty. He prob had no idea how much Rooney alone costs.

Bah.. black is the colour of the day. To mourn the takeover of the club by Malcolm Glazer. Which I think is definitely much/wayyy worse for Manchester Utd's future than today's loss of the FA Cup is going to be.

YAA Business Skills Program..

Finally got the email from YAA (Young Achievement Australia). Thought the program was starting already, but no email came.. BUT today checked my mail and found this waiting for me

"CONGRATULATIONS! You have been accepted into Young Achievement Australia's Business Skills program!"

Hmm..I seem to have been allocated into a group with people I know, from other campuses. The program will run till end of October. Hopefully next semester's schedule won't clash with it, and of course, am really keen to get involved and get some useful practical experience..

What it involves:
"Each Business Skills program consists of 15-25 participants who are guided by mentors and comprehensive program manuals. These participants will experience all of the stages of a concentrated business cycle and take responsibility for all essential business processes. "

"Throughout the program participants tackle typical issues and challenges that confront commercial operations and develop enterprise skills such as decision making, negotiating, risk taking, creativity, communication and teamwork.

Participants also participate in special events including a Trade Expo and Management Skills Seminars and Workshops. The program completes on October 31 each year and culminates with Regional, State and National Awards events. "

;P Its not exclusively for Aussie students.

Foooodd..

The past few days have been good to me. Slept to my heart's content, good food, nice weather..

Saturday lunched with my housemate, had - prawn and chicken mango curry w/rice. No mango (pureed I'd expect) & not spicy at all, abit bland but then this's Aus..

Sunday..
^someone spent 3 hours "boiling" soup with herbs, chicken, mushrooms etc..
^another someone made soup with "tree ears", pig blood, meat etc. Luckily not the first time I'd seen pigs blood, usually vietnamese beef noodles contain it. (Of course I don't eat the blood le, really gross when think bout it)
^beneficiary of all that = me!

Today..
^someone made "lian-au" dessert with some stuffing
^another someone offered some soup - white lobak, meat etc..
^finally i have time to cook.. kari ikan (the fish was flounder I think) and kai-lan.

darn i feel so spoiled now. =P

and its time to wake up earlier and go for runs in the morning. If this goes on it'll be no surprise if my mother doesn't recognise me when I'm back yr end. oh dear.

Reminiescing- East Coast road trip (part i)

Finally! finished up my bucketload of assignments. It seemed like a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away (hehehhe) that I've managed to get a good night's sleep. Hooray - sleep deprived Diana is no more (Yoda, anyone?)

Anyways, blogsurfing lately has brought me to a few people's postings on their trips eg TienSoon and JasonMumbles. Which makes me think some.. about past road trips which I miss terribly now, and which I've never blogged on before (bcos I didn't own a blog then). So for old time's sake...

Year - 2003
Time - sometime in April
Mates - LiKai (our very reliable/adventurous/good sense of direction/ "add own adjective" driver), Samuel ("he who loves his tv"), Jocelyn and Aik Ming. With the exception of myself, all from MMU.

Trip destinations: KL - Kuantan - Kijal (Terengganu) - Kuala Terengganu - Tasik Kenyir - Kota Bharu - Penang - KL (8d/7n)

Distance covered: approximately 2000km.

Usually when we're on road trips, unless it coincides with the school holidays, we don't book accomodation in advance. Same on this trip. Having been on previous trips with LK and Sam and always making it back in one piece, this time around, just told my parents - "going on road trip, prob for 5 days" (but of course, that was just a "probably") hehe

A lot of people would be unused to our way of travelling, but having concrete plans for trips can often be ruined due to changes in weather etc.. Some parents are the sort who'd want to know "where're you going to stay every night, at which town, where you all going, when coming back etc etc etc". But if you travel with us, the answer'll be "er not sure la".. However, this time around, I DID bring a map (map of Peninsula).. =)

Day 1:
Set out from PJ, rather late if I remember correctly. By mid afternoon, passed the Karak Highway, lunched at Temerloh. Reached Kuantan by 4 plus and headed to the Teluk Chempedak beach. Initially wanted to stay at Cherating but it was kinda late so we ended up staying at this small hotel (don't remember the name) opposite the state mosque. Newly refurbished, and it cost us a measly RM80 a night (cheapest room I've ever stayed in)..

Day 2:
Since we were at the East Coast, how can we miss witnessing sunrise?? So off we went, in the early morning, to Teluk Chempedak again. Glorious sunrise it was.. and of course, loads of photos.. Alotof people say the Teluk Chempedak area's haunted, but I haven't "felt" anything amiss at the various times we were there..

Stopped by the Cherating beach (about half hour from town), lunched there and also dropped by Club Med Cherating to take a look at their beach. There's a turtle sanctuary next to it, but unfortunately - no turtles. "boh-liao". (personal opinion - with the amount of turtle eggs being collected to be sold, its of no surprise the turtles don't come back to nest anymore).

Following the coastal road along the East coast is very enjoyable. Picturesque with gorgeous views of the sea and sky (depending on time of the year) is what you get, all the way up north.. We next stopped by at Awana Kijal.

Funny incident - since we didn't make bookings in advance, we called up the Awana office in KL to try to book for that night. They told us "you must book at least one day in advance" so we couldn't make a reservation. But thought "oh well since we're passing by the place, might as well stop by and take a look inside".

We went in, and for curiosity's sake, asked them whether they had a room available. There're LOTS of empty rooms. It was going to cost RM 250 a night, which we thought was okay (its five-star so price's ok). So we decided to stay one night there. Just when I took my wallet out to pay, the receptionist said "Oh, if you don't want breakfast for 2, the room's RM 150" Whaddaya think?? Of course don't want breakfast la! This teaches us a lesson - walk-in rates are sometimes cheaper than if you book ahead.

But really, I'd recommend Awana Kijal for people travelling up the East Coast. Its very near the Pahang-T'ganu border. Has awesome views (get a room in the centre facing the sea, so when you walk in, you'll go wowww) and great facilities plus its own private stretch of beach. It was unfortunate we couldn't stay another night.. but hopefully there's a next time!

Day 3:
Early morning, woke up to catch sunrise again. This time we wanted to take photos of the sunrise with the Kerteh (Petronas) petroleum refineries in the background. A very pretty sight, light reflecting onto metal structures.. Along the way back to the hotel, stopped by this public beach called Pantai Kemasik which is just off the road, between Kerteh and Kijal. A quite stretch of beach, pounding waves and some nice rocky formations (more photo opps hehe).. there's some stalls there selling breakfast as well.

Usually we're on the road in the afternoons, due to road conditions etc (no lights means probability of missing roadsigns're higher), overtaking's more dangerous etc.. so in the afternoon we continued on to Kuala Terengganu, continuously stopping by the roadside to take pictures of scenic kampung life and also the emerald green/blue sea..



An photo of a photo taken then (currently pasted on my wall). Who says Msia has no blue skies?? Go to Terengganu and you'll see more than enough...


Reaching Kuala Terengganu, someone brought us to a little-known beach (unknown to tourists that is) just before the bridge entering the town, Pantai Chendering i think (goes thru a stretch of kampung road which looks like its heading nowhere).. That beach - even nicer than Langkawi's Pantai Cenang imho. We all enjoyed some quiet time there, with long walks, feeling the ocean lapping at our feets (OMIGOSH i SOOO miss that now sobbbb)...

Erm due to us failing to make any plans beforehand, we almost ended up with no accomodation for the night. It wasn't the school hols, but we had not planned on some political party's convention being held in town. Most hotels (and there weren't many) were full. Fortunately we got the last room in Seri Malaysia. Oh well there's always the option of sleeping in the car =)

Day 4:
Nasi dagang! (yupp we were introduced to Terengganu's specialty for breakfast). After that was travelling on to Kuala Berang and Tasik Kenyir, Malaysia's largest man-made lake. This time we DID make arrangements. Nah not that crazy to wait till we get to the lake to find accomodation. This time, we were gonna stay at Musang Kenyir Resort, at the north end of the lake. They had a boatman meet us at the jetty. Journey in took about an hour. Price was reasonable (very), considering it was all-inclusive of meals/boat transportation/activities/guide etc. I think it was only RM 230 or RM 260 all in, for 3 days 2 nights.

Accomodation was on a floating structure. Room's nothing fancy, looks more like a hostel than a resort, electricity only at night (when the generator's on la) with no access to the outside world. Being out of touch with the world for 3 days - WONDERFUL. Really, I often think people're way-too attached to their mobiles/ connectivity / electronic devices.

Days 4 & 5:
Activities included visiting 3 waterfalls. One of which we had to trek abit. Being the ONLY visitors at the resort at that time basically meant we had full access to the guides etc. The pakcik who led us to the waterfall conveniently forget to mention that the trek (only one hour la) was over a slippery trail up a hill and then down, clambering over big boulders and some "swimming". My friends usually know I'm not such a big "nature" person. The idea of swimming across pools of dark water and where I can't see the "bottom"/depth of the water gives me dark thoughts. But what to do? it was either I went across or get left behind.. so across I went.. but up till now I still don't like the idea of getting into water with "unknown" things lurking beneath the surface..

Besides waterfalls, the rest went canoeing in their free time, we all did some fishing (catch and release le), filled ourselves up with good food, feed the many fishes in the lake with sodden musty bread and had lengthy conversations with the owner at night.. Entertainment there - a karaoke set was basically all we had.

While we were there, funny thing was witnessing them trying to install Astro - futile exercise it was. I was watching on with great interest, since on the 2nd night there, there was going to be a MUtd-Real Madrid Champions League clash. After 3 days of trying to get a satellite signal and involving much boat-rowing and the connecting of wires and more exasperation, the boss gave up i think. poof - no match for me to watch of course..

Before we left, they told us they spotted wild elephants at one of the small islands nearby. True enough, there was a herd of 'em. First time I'd seen wild elephants, but we daren't go too near. Only got some photos from a distance out.

Many "first-time-experiences" there.. the many leeches which freaked me out (city girl I am. no leeches please), masses of cacing-cacing which resembles a very large plate of slimy spaghetti, swimming with the fishes (yes they loveeee eating banana skins)...seeing tongkat ali "harvested" from the wild..

Day 6:
Left Kenyir after breakfast, headed up the road to the Kenyir dam. View's again - awesome. It looks like the sea, stretching as far as the eye can see. Widely contrasting, on one side of the dam its like the sea, and on the other its just another narrow river.

After that we decided to head to Kota Bharu (no point turning back and spending hours and hours thru the Kuantan-KL "highway" to get back).

Erm I realise by now the post's stretching on and on and on. So I'll leave the rest for part (ii)..

# I've been thinking how fast time passes by while I'm here in Melb.. abit reluctant to be leaving so soon. But thinking abt what I left behind in Msia's indeed makes me miss our beautiful beaches, good food and lazy nights with nary a worrying thought..

Not contented.

Usually I'm a contented person, at least this year I am. But today, me = not con-ten-ted.

*note - below is a rant by a permanently sleep-deficient person who's on the verge of losing her temper with whoever's the next person who gets on her nerves.

I go through life usually, wondering why others are not contented and in the process they make themselves unhappy or dissatisfied with what life has offered them. To be easily contented is a fast route to happiness, or so I think.

"比上不足，比下有余" (a chinese phrase meaning something to the effect of "having less than the more fortunate/ better-off people and more then the less fortunate / worse-off people"..) is what my mother always said. I didn't agree with what she said then, as I told her, why compare with people who have less, why not compare with those who have more? But of course as the years passed I knew what she meant. When I talk about comparing, I don't just mean material things eg wealth/cash etc.

I'm generally contented, materially that is. More than satisfied with what I have (being in uni, having healthy family, roof over all our heads etc). But otherwise, of late, I've been feeling deficient in some aspects of life. No, not sleep-deficient (that phase is yet to pass). Ever get the feeling where your life consists of valleys and peaks and you feel things going downwards? To be at a point in time where one looks back and realises that we have failed to achieve more, to get more out of precious (and short) life? There's so much I want to do, yet so little time, and ay, precious little resources. When the time comes for us to pass this world by, what can we reflect on a lifetime gone? What sort of mark do we leave behind on other people's lives? Incredible friendships, special relationships? or more like a wisp of smoke, disappearing quickly and leaving no mark?

Alot of questions, but few answers.

These few days have just been filled with depressing thoughts, prob thats why I'm left pondering over stupid questions with no immediate answers. Just completed another assignment, due tomorrow and then its on to the next one. After a full day of sitting in front of harsh lighting (ceiling light not fixed yet), with the prospect of another full night up being occupied with work, its enough to make anyone depressed. Having weird lonely dreams when I get to sleep is spooking me as well (yes i get quirky lonely dreams)..

To add to this baddd week -

Had heated conversations with the admin people (all fellow M'sians) over the (super-lagging) internet and for the first time in a long long time, felt like losing my temper. I'm usually described by most friends as "calm" BTW. Conclusion - for the foreseeable future till forever actually, I'll be getting Internet speeds probably worse than dial-up. I paid to get broadband, and they're certainly unable to offer that to me.

Its NOT MY fault they're splitting the line to SO MANY people. Basically what they're doing now is restricting how we use the Internet. WEI we're paying to get the service. As to how we choose to use it is of no concern to them. Its like having you paying your ISP to have them tell you - "you all can't use so much la, for normal surfing the speed's enough", which is essentially what they're telling me.

The guy in charge of Internet explained the technical details of usage etc to me, which I fully comprehend. Although I'm not so proficient in tech stuff, at least I'm not dim-witted. I understand of course there's not enough speed going around for everyone if everyone is a heavy user. My point about the whole thing was - if you split the line between WAY too many people, there's definitely not enough "cake" to go around, even for normal surfing like checking mail and downloading notes. Splitting the users into 2 lines will definitely improve things, at least a little. You overload the number of people using a single line then definitely the connection will hang. He started on the (hardware/installation) cost of getting another line, aggravating me further. Our concern is to get a well-functioning line. We PAY THEM for supposingly-faster internet bcos they didn't allow each of us to apply for our own phone lines. If initially they didn't plan properly for the number of users, are we to blame?

The ISP they chose aren't helping things as well. He did a testing of the max speed possible with the best equipment he had, and the max amount he got was a bare 60%. Thats plain pathetic. Theoretically he said the line can support X number of users but in REALITY the connection's maxed out at 60% (and thats at best speed).

So a simple calculation they should actually do is divide X number of users by that same proportion to get an accurate idea of how many users the line can support!! He further explains due to my and some others using 802.11b (wireless protocol), we're gonna be each getting 10-20kbps at best.???

The conversation ended with me feeling abit incredulous with their way of doing things. No foreseeable improvements, unless I shift elsewhere. But its not feasible to get another line when I've only one semester left here. Catch-22 situation.

Photos - Royal Botanic Gardens..

One of my favourite places in Melbourne is the Royal Botanic Gardens. Beautifully maintained, opens throughout the year and more important - its very convenient location, is what draws me there (quote "the Royal Botanic Gardens is 400 metres from the Central Business District") which means its actually within walking distance.

Whenever I'm feeling abit off, or having a tough week, I'll just head there. Get some fresh air, look at the varieties of birds there / those green stuff they have and voila! rejuvenated.

How to get there? Easy (I really wished we had something like this back home).. Make your way to Flinders St station first.


Flinders St station - one of the most photographed icons of Melbourne by tourists eager to show "I've been to Melbourne and here's proof of that"


Catch any trams heading up to St Kilda Road, get off at Domain Interchange, where you'll see the magnificent Shrine Of Remembrance (its a war memorial FYI) at your left.


The Shrine of Remembrance (note: not the view you see when you get off the tram), a rather hastily taken shot when I was leaving the gardens.


Clamber up the lil' slope, walk across the great lawns of the Shrine, cross the road and there you are - main entrance (no pic) of the Royal Botanic Gardens.


Colourful mosaic.. they now have a newly established Children's Garden.


On the way to my fave spot (facing the main lake near the TeaRooms), we have to take a short walk..





What happened to its leaves?? a weird sight, when all around is greenery and its the only plant there without any sort of colour / signs of life..



One of my fave trees in the Garden - love the overhanging branches and how the light filters through the leaves..






Couldn't help myself - quaint-looking tree imo


And finally, to do what we went to do - lie on our backs facing the vast expanse of clear blue sky. Do nothing, think about nothing (at least, on my part). Actually that day was sort-of a belated birthday "thingy" where my friend suggested instead of going to a restaurant, we'd go for a picnic in the Gardens! ~hugs^~


A lazzzyy afternoon



In the distance the raised flag of the Governer's residence means he's home (at least thats what the Aussies told me last time I was there)



Oh and how can we forget the pesky seagulls?! Always on the watch for food scraps..


A lazy relaxing afternoon it was, and I felt I deserved that (wey I went straight after a Sat morning discussion).. But good times don't last long. As I'm typing this, so many things're tumbly-tipsy-turvy (my own made-up phrase).

Internet connection's screwed. Been getting less than 1% utilisation of my so called 11 mbps line (shared with others). Complaining to the admin person doesn't help, she says she doesn't know whats wrong either. Its worse than dial up most times, and when I'm doing some serious research it makes me wanna tear out my hair!!

My comp's infected with Trojan Vundo B, which refuses to go away. Norton is annoying me. It detects the virus, but can't get rid of it. Using the Symantec removal tool for this trojan is not working either. Worse thing is I'm in the midst of a hectic assignment schedule. I can still blog, though. Just the comp hangs alot more, CPU usage hits the roof, annoying popups and the like..

Poof - the ceiling light just rosak. No choice but continue with my work in the room cos outside its coldddd...

Sigh.. back to my Intl Accounting research..

'Twas my birthday..pictures..

T'was my birthday on the 6th. Amusingly everyone seemed to think I was buried under a mountain of work that day ;) but I wasn't la, at least not till night. After last year's non-event and the really tiring past few days, this year I decided to go out jalan abit, get some fresh air..

Basically a different experience this year, being abroad and all.. Far from some (in terms of distance), near to some people in my life. Received some VERY unexpected greetings from a few people (K.W. if you ever read this, thanks..). Some (greetings) which I expected to receive did not materialize, slightly disappointing. I'm not the sort to value material items (eg gifts), so a call or an sms would've made my day. Oh well you get some you lose some..

The week's weather was rather gloomy but luckily, Friday was a glorious day! Met the rest at Flinders and made our way to Crown, initially wanted to go for buffet but lunched at Greco's instead..On the way there, we saw this -


How cool is this?? Its the Victorian Police Band, getting all ready to perform Mama Mia!


Had no time to linger, no idea why they were there on that occasion.. Lunched at Greco's, on the ground level of Crown Complex. No pics of the mains (too busy eating le)..


Cindy, HauWei, SiewWeng and me.. (high school buddies) hmm with everyone so busy this sem we've hardly met up..


MinHui and me.. very glad she could lunch with us..

Greco's has lots of very-tempting cakes, some of which we tried (yes oh yes i know how baddd it is to have a large chunk of cake right after lunch).. here's some of what we tried..


Coffee Tiramisu cake



Rocky Road, served warm with fresh cream, ice cream and drizzled with hot chocolate sauce..



Hazelnut Meringue (which looks alot better in real, than in this rather dismal picture)


After the longgg lunch, decided to take a walk along the Yarra River..


View of Yarra River from bridge opposite Flinders St station



You know its fine weather when there're scenes like these.. laid back Aussie lifestyle..






Sunset by the Yarra..




Couldn't stay long to catch the full sunset though.. Enjoyed my day (time) but the night was an altogether different matter.. had to stay up till almost 6am (uni work le, what else) and then trudge dreamily to uni a few hours later for a group discussion.

Saturday - a tiring albeit fulfilling day. Pictures up later! Am typing this with a strained neck and aching back, all for a good reason.. Andy Warhol woohoooo!! =P

Random thoughts..StarWars..

Star Wars is everywhere. I see it in the supermarket. Yoda stares at me menacingly from a mountain high of Coco Pops boxes. Its the subject of every other bloggers' post (general only la). Its in my inbox - someone's selling StarWars t-shirts online. Their merchandise is everywhere.

Surprising thing this time around is - I'm quite immune from the StarWars frenzy. A "Star Wars freak" since 13years old, this is news indeed. I'd get quite excited just hearing the StarWars soundtrack (erm I still do BTW). I'll diligently drop by MPH or Kinokuniya to get the latest Star Wars novels (there're at least 50 of them by now, the storyline stretches to the days of Han Solo and Princess Leia's kids FYI).

But this time around. I've not even prepared for the premiere of the movie - ROTS. By this I mean I haven't gotten around to scrambling tickets for the first show in town (which is definitely sold out by now). Abit jaded from all the work piling up this week. When the special edition of Star Wars: A New Hope was released in 1997, I remember bugging the people at TGV (no online booking back then) to let me get tickets for the very first show. I suppose all the people who went for that were fanatics as well, cos when the theme track started and the StarWars words rolled across the screen, EVERYONE got off their seats and gave roaring cheers and claps. OMG the atmosphere was tingling. Not what we expect of a Malaysian cinematic experience eh? At the end of the show with the credits rolling we did the same again. Applause, for a very fine movie.

But are expectations too high for the final movie in the instalment? Frankly, the first 2 were so-so imo. JarJarBinks - enough said. Darn not sure if he's still going to be in the new one.. hmm I'll find out when I get to watch it..

On other stuff..

I'm so sick of being busy. In my years in uni this time's definitely the busiest ever. Next sem will be much better, prob bcos I stupidly took all the remaining core units this sem instead of splitting it up. Aih..

Want to take pictures of the falling leaves, prob a trip to the Botanic Gardens soon. But looking at how things are going, by the time I get to go, the leaves all gone 'dy. Sudah takde la. Oh, it finally feels like autumn now. Cool breezes, the trees going thru their "makeovers".. darkness falling early..

Have to stay up again tonight. Predictions of this week being busiest are so so true. Have no idea how I'm going to finish next week's stuff. But after next week its MERDEKA! can go yamcha. can meetup with friend (an old friend just came to Melb ayy), can go rayau (someone said bring me go kai-kai don't forget ya!) AND can lie down on the grass and enjoy an aussie autumn.. =P oops shouldn't be so happy yet. There's still a ton of stuff to go thru...

Back to a long long night.. with only HK radio to keep me company..

Packaging ala Melb style

Got this awhile back last month. At that time, still had the luxury to take silly pics, like these..


Instead of stuffing it into a bag of sorts, they took their time packaging it ever so nicely.. (erm it looks distorted cos I squashed it partially)



Lookey! it even comes with lil' feathers. Pink - to go with my blog layout.



Voila - unwrapped to show a quirky scarf. The red and pink stuff are "flowers", supposedly..

Going..going..gone. (friendship i mean)

Was blogsurfing the other day and dropped by kimberlycun's blog. It was just a few lines at the end of her post but something struck a chord in me. How same, the feeling is.

A great friendship reduced to nothingness. How weird that it happens - just like that. There's no apparent reason, just suddenly - nothing. Unexpected, yes. There's no apparent problem, heck definitely its not because of distance. I don't know, and looking at how occupied my mind is with other things these days, I don't think I really want to know. Will this person suddenly appear in my life again one day? Maybe people think no communication at all for months at a time is fine. But thats not my way. 9 years worth - down the drain it goes.

Early birthday

Not my birthday - yet. But had a mini-celebration with some mates a coupla days ago. Hmm I think they meant for this to replace last year's erm..lack of one..thanks guys!

It was a dark and stormy night... (okay-le, it wasn't that stormy. Was one of Melbourne's rainy nights), put a coupla mates together, plus good food and some niceee wine (only for me and K.L. only though cos the rest don't really drink..).. what you get is this:


Bah Kut Teh (chockful of stuff - spare ribs/shiitake/tau-pok/garlic etc)



How can we not have yau-char-kue with bah kut teh =)



WaiKuin and Di



MunYee and Di



This has to go on record as the longest time taken ever to prepare a cake (by the time they finished with the positioning of the candles and take the required shots, the cake was half melting 'dy hahh)



Pretty shimmery candlelight..