Listening: 'Shine On' by Van Halen

I haven’t been able to update my blog due to my keenness and curiosity to find out what happens in shows that I’ve missed out and been catching on the L word bug. Thus, I have used up the 15GB ‘Unlimited’ per month just by watching 3 seasons of the L word. Still have no idea why they call it unlimited when they only allow me 15GB. If I go over the 15GB, my internet will slow down. Well, it’s a little bit faster than dial up. Ben is nice enough to ask his friend to burn a copy of season 4. Thanks Ben!

Quick updates with what happened. As you can see it’ll take ages for me to load up photos. I went surfing again with Nick and Suzy. Suzy let me do something which I haven’t done in a year. Met up with friends and went shopping for summer school. I would love to curse Mike Rann over the property taxes which are influencing the rent increase here in SA but I should be lucky that I even have a place to stay.

Summer school starts next Monday and it will be on for half the day every day for the next two weeks. Awesome but expensive materials. I have an obsession of wearing my sunnies now. Yes to protect my eyes, but somehow I like the idea of being hidden by something. And thanks Freya for scoring me an interview with your work place. Only have to hope for the best. Next time, more detailed updates with pictures once this month is over!! More Dvds for me at the mean time (& excited with Blue Crush on tv tonight) and Happy Australian Day! Cheers!

Listening: 'Over and out' by Foo Fighters

It's cold and dreary where everyone is huddled up in a circle. Not for warmth but to crowd around this huge lump under this bricked pavement. A long, huge lump and we all know it's a body underneath it all. I held my camera as I lean against the fence, filming the scene. Then again, it's not such a good idea. The dogs were jumping and barking behind the fence. But I know they weren't barking at me. My sister stood on the foot of the lump. People start lifting bricks off the pavement till this man, with tremendous strength, lifted a huge bunch of bricks off, revealing the body. Everyone backed off but I couldn't seem to take a shot of the body. The man who pulled off the bricks was in shock that he was walking backwards into me. Then my sister shouts 'his ribs have been ripped out of his body!' I turned to look at the decomposed body and I knew he was being murdered. The dogs barked even louder and I felt myself collapsing as I was being pushed and suddenly I got so scared. Like everything within me has been ripped out of my body just like that dead man...

No, this isn't a story I'm working on. It's one of the nightmares I had. A kind which I haven't had since I was a little girl. Where you feel so vulnerable and helpless and you can't do anything and fear only fills that emptiness in you. The kind which you will run to your parents room and hide between them. But I'm all grown up and never had this kind of nightmares in ages. My eyes shot open and was panicking. It seemed like I didn't want to close my eyes again cos that image of the scene was still fresh. Thinking about it, I know where this place is. After telling my suspicions to zeren, the next day, that fence was pushed down. It can't be pushed down even by the wind. It's held down by huge grey bricks. Simply impossible. Fishy eh?

Truth is, for more than a week after I recovered from my flu, I haven't been able to sleep. This nightmare only happened 3 nights ago. I've dreamt of murderers I've seen. Running down the stairs, being chased, seeing familiar faces, being murdered myself. See, I'm so used to these dreams that I don't call them nightmares anymore. I've got the weird case of insomnia. Can't fall asleep and hours later when I do, I dream...alot. When it comes to waking up, I can't drag myself out of bed. Too hard. I've been trying different things to tire myself or make myself feel relaxed. My only last resort is looking at this 10% off newspaper cutting offer, this massage therapist is offering. I'm still experimenting but last night I slept much better though still dreamt.

I finally unpacked my luggage yesterday, cleaned up the house, tidy up stuff. Today, I changed my quilt cover, did some laundry, and had to be a handyman too. My cupboard door just fell when I opened the door. Damn carpenter screwed the nail into the wrong hole. No wonder it can't close properly for weeks. Now it closes nicely. So far I have three dogs who keeps me company. First two are strays - Danny and Sarah. Then they had 3 puppies. 5 is of course, too much to handle so I had to give Marvin and Mary away but only kept Macy. Now Macy is all grown up and 3 big dogs in the house. No worries mom. They're not real dogs though I wished they were. My sister's boyfriend gave Sims 2 Pets as a christmas present cos he thought it'll keep me company and occupied. Nice of him. Speaking of which, I'm lucky my sister and I live in different states. My parents will know why. *cringes* Bleah, I want a rat.

Hopefully that firebug gets caught. Setting 19 fires in the past week is not funny and entertaining.

Alright, here are some photos for this week.

My attempt at garlic fish with baby spinach (not grass!!) It's not manhattan fish market good but it's good enough for me. Quite tasty I reckon.

Suzy's christmas present - sunnies. She knew I broke one in her car. Oops!

Meet Danny, Macy and Sarah Critters

And here are the photos I took when I met up with some of my high school mates on Christmas day in Macs.

Jingyue, me, Mandy & Ailian

With jingyue

With manda, my 2-day twin.

With Ailian

Jingyue tells a secret over the phone

Jingyue's christmas present. She baked these goodies!

Comparing sg and aus coins. Singapore coins are so tiny!

Our Nokia series. Jingyue's, Manda's, Mine & Ailian. Irony how the 2 day twins have the same phone eh?

Funny faces

Manda and Ailian are sad...

on the other hand...me and jingyue fight it out

My fave photo of all of us. Miss ya girls!

Everyone can do their bit to help because you have the power.



If everyone cared - Nickelback

7 January is the day i will aim for to start anew. Meaning, going back to what I was doing before I came back to Singapore. Get back to routines and by then I should be well enough. Most businesses and people get back to work on January 8 but I will officially start mine on a sunday! No more feeling crappy at home!

Firstly I just received a letter from my real estate to renew another year to live in this place of mine. At the same time, they increased my rent again! I was thinking like a singaporean. Thinking of sending them a new year's gift. A pig's head. Just because property prices are increasing and mine is such a tiny property, and fact being I am a international student in your foreign land, doesn't give you right to keep increasing the rent! Oh I can't fight that cos they sent along a set of rights they had. Many thoughts and ideas ran through my head but I'll keep this content healthy for now.

Since it's been so hot that I carry the fan with me wherever I go. No, not those compact fans you keep in your bags. It's the standing fan which I carry to my study when I'm using the computer. When I'm watching tv, it comes along. When I'm sleeping, it comes along too. It's been so hot! And now WA is having Isobelle. You know, SA can use an Isobelle too. We could sure do the cool changes and the water since I don't know...we seem to be the only state left where no rain has touched yet? I usually take a shower before I go out to the supermarket but I decided against it today and go out and sweat it all out in this cloudy 36 degree day. And now that my rent has increased, I better make full use of my bathtub and soak in cold water. What a welcome relief it was! I think that's the fourth time I've used my bathtub. Other than that, I'm a shower girl. I needed to cool down bad.

Thanks to Sharifah for giving me the link to catch up on my shows. I was feeling crappy and watching Gilmore girls seem to cheer me up. My dad can't stand the show cos the women speak so fast but it does wonders to cheer me up. It's something I can't explain. :)

Anyway, I met up with Suzy for breakfast yesterday. I have been in aus for quite some time but I didn't let anyone here know that I'm back yet. Keeping it low and only told Suzy and Freya that I was back 3 days ago. So we had breakfast at Quince. Beautiful meal and I will never eat a small snack before coming here for breakfast. Thanks Suzy for the christmas present - new sunnies!

My french toast with Bacon

Suzy's pancakes with berries. Yum!

Now, the photos during the annual family christmas dinner. Have a great weekend! (except my real estate)

Oh christmas tree...oh christmas tree

The food

Dad opens a bottle of Champagne that zeren brought

Grandma, Grandma and Grandaunt

A toast!

Everyone enjoying their meal

Bottle of red wine I bought during the Adelaide show. Thank God it survived the trip!

Me and sis

Bleah!

Suddenly we got scared haha

My crazy aunt and sis

She attacks!

A game of Karom, match between brother and sister

My aunt becomes desperate

Game between zeren and my mom

Family photo

The old ladies enjoyed themselves ... after some wine

Oh christmas tree...oh christmas tree....

My favourite present this yr. Thanks zeren for the drawing and 'Honeymoon with my brother'!

Happy new year! Welcome 2007!

What thy decide to bring everyone this year? i thee for one reckon I am cursed by the 'first' in Adelaide. On my first birthday here, I fell sick with the flu. Luckily Zeren was around. Then came my first new year, fell sick with the flu again but with more avengence. Wonder why thy first christmas shall bring in years to come?

Ok, cut the shakespeare crap. I caught the bug from Dad on the day I left singapore, caught the cold on board the plane, then got everything else when I arrived in adelaide. Till now, my bag is still not officially unpack. I slept for more than 14 hours on the day I arrived and I'm still sleeping 3,4 times a day now. I feel bad when my family calls me on the phone when I'm in bed. Either I tell them I'll call them back cos I'm sleeping or I actually find the energy to get up and talk to them. Seriously, I sleep way way way too much. And I hate to open my mouth when the usual friendly strangers go 'hi' or 'morning'. I know I sound like a cartoon when I ordered a subway takeaway for dinner tonight. Ears blocked, trying not to cough while the girl is making my sandwich. Bleah. What a way to start the year.

Yup, I went back to Singapore and it was humid! I developed what Dad calls 'Singapore curls'. They're natural, not fake just to clear this up. *holds both hands up* And it was the first time I've seen rain in ages. After spending some time in singapore, I really think Johor and Adelaide should sign a treaty to share the water. Cos we need it over here! Dad's joke about me shipping back the clouds to Adelaide has actually gone wrong. You see, they shipped to the wrong place. Melbourne. Though there was a drought there, now the heavy rains are causing everywhere to flood. Darn DHL.

Haha...don't get me going about the SIA people again. Seriously the flight home to Adelaide was so much better than me flying to Singapore. Everything was going good until when I was leaving the plane. I got the snotty, arrogant treatment from one of the stewardess. Saying thank you to each passenger but hey! Singaporean! Fuck off! Australian! Thank you for flying SIA! Seriously, SIA service to their own people sucks. But since you guys were cheaper, I'll have to bear with your clones!

And to think I'll come back to a cooler climate. I was so wrong. It's even hotter here in Adelaide and we need the rain! Please! Gonna be 40 degrees again soon. Bleah. And Stewie and Abby are nowhere to be found. Either they have attempted to locate me in Singapore but ended up they loved the wet weather there or they are way smarter than us humans and decide to stay in water all day long. So I hope they're doing fine and hope to see them soon. I miss you guys!

It was wonderful to see some friends and family during my time in Singapore. It was really wonderful to see Zeren cos it seems that we only get to see each other in person like twice a year. It always seems like a dream when we're next to each other physically cos we keep seeing each other in that little box on our computer screens. And then my crazy aunt from finland came back. Yes she is still crazy. And I like to see how she communicates with my maternal grandma. Deserves to be on youtube. And I got a video. Haha! Then came meeting up with friends. It's really hard to meet up with a big group of friends. It's so hard that next time I'm gonna plot some strategy into it. You'll see but it's great to see them.

I think the weirdest was when I had to see Zeren off at the airport on boxing day, then a few hours later, my sis was flying off. Then the day I left, hours before me, my aunt was flying off to Finland, then finally my turn! I'll soon hate the airport! Haha! Sad departures.

It still amazes me how I met those that I haven't met up during my time here, at the airport. First it was Eunice who was taking a flight out to Korea for a holiday on the same night as me. Then a group of poly friends who came to see me off which I deeply appreciate. I never expected anyone to come to the airport cos one by one, people started to back out and not come at all but I really appreciate the effort and you guys, thank you and I'll see ya soon!!

Ok here are the photos for the last few days. Will post a series. Haha, finally i posted the rest of the surf photos to my instructor. Woo! So chill out and happy new year again! *sniffs* *coughs*

On the plane to singapore, overlooking the northern territory in australia

Caught up with Marcus and shih han in our poly gathering

Sis flew home to brisbane hours after Zeren

Being at the airport twice in a day was weird

Saw my aunt off first

Met up with Eunice who's on her way to her Winter Sonata. She was dressed for it.

Finally met up with Steph who is still crazy but i was shocked to see her at the airport

Siti chilling out

Ke ying prank calling the guy behind...kidding!

Sharifah playing with her camera

Most unexpected person was Nick!

Group shot before I departed

Sunrise from up above on my flight back to Adelaide

Sunrise

Flying over the clouds