Weekend is here = stay at home clean up and do homework. Gonna do some major photo blogging here to update for the past 2 weeks. Hope blogger is able to take that much content. Firstly it has been freezing as usual but temperatures are going to the extreme. Coldest overnight was 2.9 degrees while up in the hills, was as low as -4. Wonder how my friend stays there. Yesterday morning on my way to the swimming academy around 7.30, i was walking when i realised i was breathing out smoke. I was blowing out through my mouth while walking haha. Pretty fun and that's how cold it is.

I was taking photos of my backyard when I spotted something moving in between the heavy leaf fall. I knew it was a stray and I was crossing my fingers it was a pup so that I can secretly bring it home but it was a kitten. 2 tiny kittens who took opportunity of the warm sun. They were playing in between the leaves and I only managed to get one shot of one of them before they sprinted off like rabbits. Apparently their home is under a house behind my backyard. The way they run or rather hop is so freaking cute.

was outside to take this backyard shot

found this little bloke

heavy leaf fall

kitten's home

Been busy painting 4 variations of a photo I took. Hard to paint at night because of the dryness. Supposed to use these for a poster and we're given 4 hours to do it until the teacher said we could hand in on monday instead. 4 hours is too short.

4 shoes

Everyone's having food in their photo blogs and I cannot resist sharing my latest newfound favourite. A cafe Zeren and I went to near my place. Quince Cafe. Many people go there for their cakes and muffins and I love to share good food.

Raspberry & Chocolate chip muffin and it's huge!

Roasted eggplant & chicken braschetta with garlic sauce. Extremely delicious!

on our way back...

I went back there again yesterday and bought myself a blueberry & choc chip muffin. Looks like I'm gonna be a loyal patron there. My newfound haven. *silly smile*

Last wednesday was another cold and late class and I came home to find
him making ...

this spread who also made

this on the following night...

It was nice to have a home cook meal on a wednesday night. Usually I declare wed night as subway or lean cuisine night. Too tired to cook and all I care is rubbing my hands in front of the heater. But it was nice change for a wednesday. *smiles silly again*

Anyway, we experimented a new pasta dish ...
there's terriyaki sauce in it and it's not bad. Really!

Last friday we were at the botanical gardens. I haven't been there and zeren was excited about it so we went together after class. Let zeren feed the ducks with my marshmellow from my hot chocolate. Ducks had a funny reaction to it so ...

they got away from him

And there were bamboos where people carved their names on them so we joined in using the scapel i had haha.

our names

was trying to warm up my hands

one of my favourite shots :D

has this local eating off my plate right in front of me. Aussies aren't shy!

Pictures from Gleneg on my birthday.

back at the marina

not really a sunset. It was only 2+ in the afternoon

Climbed huge boulders to get this view

in the tram ride home

Other pictures...

my favourite poster in hahndorf. Always tempted to buy it but always shifted that thought.

pups at harris scarfe in rundle mall

German plum cake at hahndorf. Yums!

That's all...hope you're bored by now. Have a great weekend! Zeren: I went cold turkey today. I skipped my friday hot chocolate haha!

Today is the day where all of us have been talking about. Drawing nudes. We were all waiting outside and talking. And this lady was behind us with her cup of coffee and she is the model. Actually I felt pretty normal until she came out in the robe. Jacintha was hiding her face, Renee and I had our heads turned to the wall. When all of us turned around, she was already naked on the table. And it wasn't so bad actually. Cos we're girls and we know what the body will be like. She definitely has the perfect body for drawing. Few flaws but it'll work. Seriously it's hard to draw in the beginning cos I'm bad at drawing with pencils. I'm better with conte, pastels, charcoal but not pencils. Plus the teacher created this exercise where all of us don't have enough time to finish one proper drawing. Grr. And next week, we'll be gettng a male model. Man, that is so... I don't know how i'll react. Cover my face even more I guess. Renee was saying, the first naked guy you see is a stranger. Haha. God bless me next tuesday.

What did I do for my birthday? Hmm. Definitely had the best birthday present ever to go with it. The night before, I was so stoned and went to bed early. I think I stayed in one position and when I woke up in the morning, I kicked something really hard and fell on the ground. Zeren and I jumped up and I realised i had kicked his birthday present on the floor. Oops! He had left it there when I was sleeping. Thankfully there's nothing breakable. Phew! Went to Gleneg and had lunch at Oyster's Bar. Gleneg was so crowded because it was also mother's day. Oyster Bar is fantastic. Really really nice seafood at a great price! Followed by ice cream in the cold lol. Everyone was having ice cream so why not join in the fun! At night, came down with the flu. How great is that to the end of my birthday? Oh well, here are some pics of my presents. Thanks guys! And my drawings of today's class.

from zeren

from my uni mates

cds from mom and dad

cards from grandma, grandaunt and sis

presents from poly mates

collage of my face of what things i like

lying down

sitting up

Best 9 days in adelaide

Haven't been updating my blog because i had a very special birthday present. Zeren. He came over to spend my birthday with me. Called me on a tuesday night and said he was flying over on thursday night. I was frantic in finishing my homework in 2 days. Got my teacher to let me off early on friday morning. She's a hopeless romantic so that true story in fetching boyfriend from airport worked too well that she started asking questions about him. But the priceless moment for seeing him for the first time in 3 months is ... undescribable. Someone familiar. Someone I can show my new life here and share with.

Spent 9 days together here but I will go in detail in the next entry. He just left for singapore yesterday morning and things aren't the same. Silence in the house is too intense and everything seemed all too empty. Didn't think it would be this hard and harsh. Didn't think it would take that long to get over. Fortunately, zeren did call to check up on me and he knew what I have been doing since I got home. Hearing his voice did make me feel better and I'm slowly slipping back into routine. Very slow process that I can't wait for school. It'll definitely pull me back. I need the distraction.

Here are the some of the pictures during his time here. Will put up more pics in the next entry. Thank God for class tomorrow and homework. I looked like crap for the past two days and I sure need the cheering up from the girls.

Autumn leaves outside someone's house at Hahndorf

me with zeren

feeding the ducks with marshmellow

Botanical Gardens

I've been watching the news pretty closely about the miners of Beaconsfield. I've been drawn by the story and the determination. Feels like you're living in the movie but it's real. My classmates are like what the heck but I find it's something really remarkable.

Starting from anzac day where there was a cave-in, 3 miners were trapped. Their colleagues spent days and nights digging for them and a few days later, they found one of the bodies, Larry. He didn't make it. It was there everyone weren't too sure for the other two. But they kept digging. A few days later, they had found them alive. They were trapped in the 1.2m cage and rescuers were communicating to them through microphones. Another digging had to be done. It was a really tough dig because of the hard rocks. Some had to be blast, some had to be chipped. The deadline prolonged because of the unexpected rocks. During that time, they had food, even ipods containing foo fighters music. When Dave Grohl of Foo fighters heard of it, he invited them for a beer and 2 tickets to the concert anywhere in the world when they came up. (Yes I'm really envious). Only yesterday morning, the cage came up and the two men walked out without problems. It was really emotional watching it on live tv. If they had the music to go with it, it would have been a thumbs up movie but this was real. Joy turned to sadness when the funeral of their friend, Larry took place on that same day in the afternoon. Truly inspiring and hoping for another hero to get well soon. A little girl called sophie who suffered burns 2 years ago just got knocked down by a car a few days ago. She's in a coma.

Back to reality. I have received wonderful news that I know that for the rest of the week, I'm gonna be beaming like some idiot. I'm just can't believe the news. I'm rushing to finish up my homework.

Speaking of homework, my eyes are hurting alittle from the picture taking in the bathroom. We're supposed to draw ourselves with dramatic lighting in the dark like horror movies. I can't draw in the dark so stuck to taking pictures in front of the mirror with a torch shining from the side of my face or the famous beneath lighting. *plays dracula music* This morning I was squinting to find the angles of the kitchen I wanted to take pictures of. Had to do perspective drawing. Things we gotta do for all these. But I'm so looking forward to the photography class that is coming up real soon. I'm gonna save up to get that 35mm manual camera. I know we can borrow from school but it'll be cool to experiment on your own and use the school lab's red room to develop your own pictures. Yippey!

Yesterday's drawing class was funny. We had to draw each other's portrait through a grid which we paste on an easel. All of us turn out cartoony and Camilla and Renee was like 'oh you have angelina jolie's lips!' I was like...anything but that. I have been aware of my lips which reminded how last time as a kid, i'll try to suck them in cos I hated them. Until now, unconsiously I still bite my lip once in a while. Becoming a habit but yeah. After that we had to cut up pictures of ourselves and pictures from the magazine and put together our 'alter-ego'. It was really fun cos I was more for how ugly I can make the collage. Really fun class and I was surprised my teacher was pushing me to get a distinction in drawing. I was like what? Told her that I'll try but I'm already improving cos I've never been a drawer. Tattoo drawing isn't life drawing by the way. She was surprised but still continued to push me and kept showing me examples. I'll try my best and I can't believe in 2 weeks time, we are gonna draw the nudes. Oh God please help me for those 2 sessions in those weeks. Please let me get that spot where I can only draw the butt and not the front. Please!

Plus unconsiously I wore my adidas jacket (black with white stripes on the arms) and my black and white scarf. It did look like I was some fan of some sport club but I thought I give it a go. I asked my friend if the colours were of some sports club and they said yeah. Collingwood and it's not in Adelaide. It's footy season and I will not wear that again until after the season is over. I don't wanna get beaten up just in case especially when I did see a Crows fan walking in the opposite direction at Rundle.

Later! Homework time!

Camilla put make up on me :/

My 'beautiful' side. Reckon I'll get lots of dates with this look. Haha!

Tomorrow will be the exactly three months that I have been here. Feels like I've been here longer than that. Then again, I've yet to experience the winter. Already suffering the autumn cold. Progress from 2 to 3 layers.

I'm happy to announce celine dion has returned to India! I came back home on monday and met his dad outside the hallway. He was spacing out and looked all depressed. Greeted each other and just when I opened my door, he started the conversation. Bleah. So I joined in and he was telling me his son and wife had gone back to India. For a holiday? I asked. His wife is expecting and she's gone back to have her baby so they'll be there for one year. The corners of my mouth was twitching to go up but I cover up with the 'oh sorry to hear that'look. Talked for a while and finally I pop back into my place where I shouted silently 'yes! yes!' and punched my fists into the air and started dancing. PEACE IS NOW MINE! So for the past few days, the sound of peace is the most beautiful sound ever. So pure, so delicate but yet exerts calmness into the neighbourhood of Knox Court. Now I can draw again!

Despite the regained peace, celine dion's dad has done something else. Everyday another indian neighbour would come over and spend time with him, worse of all smoking. So I make sure I spray my air freshener at my door so that they can hear it. They smoke outside my door and it's coming in!! So they bring their smoking inside their house and the strong amount of smoke still seeps through. Wonder what are they doing in the house ...smoking tons of pot?

If anyone is wondering about my nick on msn, yes it's because of my birthday. First birthday in an unknown territory without the company of my friends and family. Worse of all it's the same day as mother's day. So the commercials goes on and on about mother's day and without fail, display the date itself. 'Say thanks to your mom' or 'do something special for your mom'. Gee...say thanks to claire and do something special for her instead. Pardon me, my sadistic ways have returned in full force or greater. But amuses me one way or the other. Of course it would be lovely to celebrate with my friends here but hey, i don't want their moms thinking their friend is more important than them. No worries...still hunting down for the two blokes ben and jerry.

On the lighter side or rather painful side, since thursday night, i've been getting sharp pains through the side of my stomach. Like some muscle tightening or being pulled. Took a pill of evening primrose and pain disappears. Next morning after breakfast, pain floats back in and on my way to school, it amplifies. Thankfully I brought panadol extra to school. Pain subsided a little but nausea and faintness kicked in. Wanted to head to the cafe to get a hot chocolate but reckon I might not make it to my destination. Waited for camilla to arrive first. Hot chocolate did work but pounding in my head was notorious. Kept shaking it off with the pain as i went home and went out again to get my groceries. Tolerated the pain silently till i got home. Slipped into bed and slept till dinner. After that, what was left was just the throbbing in the head. Luckily, i woke up feeling brand new.

Since next week is AGI conference, classes are going to be alittle slack so decided to do my own drawings, not homework. Anyway, here are some of my work and other stuff. First three pics are my black and whites. Only in class my teacher mentioned we should try to reposition them in class to practise getting animals out of it. As I sat right at the back of the 'zoo' window where my teacher sits, i managed to see my mark and I'm happy. *grins* If you guys can see more animals in the first 3, do let me know. Have a great weekend!

a growling terrier

camel with a hole in his hump

giraffe or kangaroo?

one of the leaves i collected. it was pure yellow.

my favourite classy leaf





my matrix spoon

my new trench

the window i lean all the time

reflecting

the russian twins! anna and i were debating who was who. Pretty fun actually.

Aren't they a cute couple?