catching up...

its been a week since i blogged. i miss writing. the same familiar blogging feeling came over me when i logged in yday. yep, yday. imagine it took me since yday to type tis post... a long overdue post.

sunday, 15 may 2005

10am - had an appointment with my hairstylist, joyce, at blue star kingsford. if i havent mention it before, kingsford is the suburb i live. joyce had recently (tis week actually) switched working to another salon. a salon (name which she had no idea. i dont know how she got the job. :P) at westfield bondi junction. she's new thus hasnt been allocated a off day. for now, she's only free on sunday (which is why i didnt do my hair on thursday i first planned) since tis is the day the salon is closed. i felt really bad that i robbed her of her sleep. besides, she had to rush off to teach some hairstylist wannabes straight after she was done with me. the total damage was $1XX. not revealing the actual amount for i know i'm gonna get a earful from my brother. met up with other half & my parents at chinatown once i was done with my haircut + color + highlight. they were too hungry to wait for me to have yum cha as planned and so they had some congee first. again! hahaa... they seem to like congee. heard it was too salty. not that i like to complain, things here are really too salty for our taste.... mine, my parents' and probably most singaporeans'. would normally cut through darling harbour from chinatown to get to the sydney fish market but i decided not to do that today. doubt my parents can survive the walk. took the tram instead. we had the usuals... raw oysters (must be pacific oysters!!!), oysters with bacons/ cheese, scallops, optopus, lobsters. no sashimi since i had insider info that its not fresh. no ill intent here. it was windy and pretty chilly (my parents claimed that). i dont deny since we sat alfresco. all indoor seats were taken. after a hearty seafood feast, we took the tram and alighted at star casino. i was denied entry cos i was wearing thongs. i sat and waited while my parents and other half went in. not a problem with me since i dont fancy gambling or rather dont feel the loss of a looksee. i did get bored after 15 mins of waiting and listening to "zeeeee-zaaaaa" music on my mobile. the reception was damn bad. seafood feast left me thirsty and dehydrated so i trottted my way to the nearest convenience store for a bottle of mineral water. soon after, i got a call from other half that they were out of the casino and so we met up outside the convenience store for a long walk around pyrmont. it has everything.... park, playground, bbq area, sea view, habour view. ideal for family as well as pak-tor-ing couples. the weather has been cold, balmy and gloomy since pa & ma's arrival yday. they surely did bring with them the wet weather from singapore. a nice welcome gift for the drought suffering australia. we headed home since it was getting dark and all of us weary and cold. dinner was settled at home. ma cooked, with a lil help from me. :P havent had lady fingers for ages. nice nice. after dinner, ma brought out the goodies she brought from singapore. pineapple tarts (a pity i told her to bring jus a small container cos i wasnt sure if homemade pastries were allowed), 4 copies of 8days and i-weekly each, pinky's graduation gift for me and lotsa thefaceshop masks i've been longing for. browsed through a copy of 8days before going to bed with a smile on my face. it should be before 10:30 that we all turned in. we were all beat.

gigantic optopus for sale

monday, 16 may 2005
spent the entire day in uni snapping away. correction. jus for half a day. the other half was spent in the city. yes yes, in my graduation gown! obviously, i put it on only when we got to the city, the opera house to be exact. not that many photos were taken anyway, since autumn nites fall by 5pm (or a quarter past 5). whats more, it was raining. double bummer. was pretty pissed with the graduation gowning staff when i collected my gown in the morning. no standing here. only graduate beyond tis line. tis cannot, that cannot. why so many rules to follow??? jus dont get it. i know they have work to do but ease it, can?!!! >:(

to be frank, i wasnt keen in taking pics. it was more of following a tradition, pple do, i also do. yes, i can be different and have my way of not taking any but what if i regret when i grow old? then how? human beings are made tis way. we regret things we did and things we havent done. we had "fake" laksa for lunch before proceeding to the city. first, back home to charge the camera battery which was running low. no money to buy spare battery lah. i never had spare battery, whether its for camera or mobile. dont want to go all the way to the city to find ourselves left with jus 10mins of battery life. i was really consious taking pics in my gown. it was meant to be killing 2 birds with 1 stone. showing my pa & ma around while i took my pics in my gown. i hope i manage to convince u guys that i'm not being narcissistic or m full of myself. haha. it was again a cold and wet day. the rain came down on us while we were rounding up our picture taking at the opera house. again, it was already dark and the shops closed, we head back. too late and hungry to be preparing dinner, we filled our stomachs at kingsford chinese. a restaurant with "dao" service but they serve nice dishes at reasonable prices. i figured i got my no-talk-while-eating gene from my parents. dinner was swift. next thing we knew, we were at home, all bathed, glued to the goggle box, watching who wants to be a millionaire. bedtime got earlier and earlier. we were all exhausted from the walk. i remember seeing 9:30 on my radio clock before i hit the hay.


tuesday, 17 may 2005
tis is THE DAY. i cant wait for it to be over. i'm not that all excited abt it. no big hooha. if my parents werent here, i could have opt for my testamur through the post. though i must admit i'm proud that i got the courage to take the plunge, switching from food science to doing medical science. its not easy for someone without much biology background. tis is what i reckon. however, with self-determination and spiritual support, the impossible can become a reality.

not used to a few hundreds (probably more) pair of eyes scrutinizing u as u walk up the stage receiving your testamur, it can be nerve wrecking. i almost forgot the sequence (1. shake with right hand 2. receive testamur with left hand 3. tip the cap with the right hand) or i shld say i forgot to smile. for when i saw myself in the dvd at the dvd booth in scientia leighton hall, i was unlike all graduates beaming with pride but instead with a stiff and awkward expression. i wish i can destroy the dvd or edit out my part. how come no one warn me of tis???? was instructed to return my gown 2 hours after the ceremony but i didnt. it was a huge turnout today. clancy auditorium was jam packed and the photography queue at scientia leighton hall was incredibly long. i had to wait till the crowd dispersed before my boss had time to photograph me. actually, i'd prefer any other photographer except him cos we were exceptionally awkward. i'm closer to jann than my boss. i'm sure everyone graduating today was swearing and cursing. it was a huge group graduating today so why cant the weather pang-chang us? give us some sunshine, for jus 1 hour will do. lucky for me, i had some pics taken yday. fled home after returning the gown and got back my 100 bucks deposit. cooked some noodles for a late lunch and then went to eastgardens (without other half. he was coming down with a cold so we urged him to sleep in). brought pa & ma to see the kitties and doggies i've a penchant for. ma wasnt impressed for she's scared of them. their smell didnt quite sit well with her too. next was grocery shopping at coles. ma and i sure can walk though we may be tired but not pa. i'm certain he's thinking how women can walk and not feel tired. well, the answer to that is, we do feel tired, but only after we're done with shopping. hehe. we bought ingredients for steamboat dinner. we added jus a small packet of chicken stock for the soup base with most of it jus water. i called it healthy and nutritious but ma called it plain and almost tasteless. no prize for correct guess. it was another early nite for all of us, after catching survivor. we're a family of telly junkie.

wednesday, 18 may 2005
was scheduled for training at kinokuniya in the city, from 2 to 3pm. fried bee hoon for brunch before heading to the city. left ma & pa to jalan jalan on their own while other half and i went for the 1 hour training. we met up with them after that and they were still brooding over a mobile phone episode they had before we left them. *sigh*. when parents quarrel, did they ever realise that they place their kids in a difficult position? u cant comment on anything lest one of them accuse u of siding.

we walked and walked and ended up at chinatown. were at east ocean say half past 3. yum cha should have been over, still, we tried our luck. good thing is they let us in. we sat amidst a sea of empty tables. we were the only ones!!! so cool. jus had to tell the waitress what we want and we had everything come to us at once. i'm a proclaimed halal but i dig their char siew pau. no fats and no porky smell. talking abt porky. my lao dou (chinese for father) at quintiles (where i worked before) questioned why do women complain beef beefy, fish fishy, chicken chickeny and pork porky?? he argued, beef gotto be beefy. can beef be fishy? he has a point but we're talking abt the degree of beefiness here and how much we can handle. the finale to our yum cha session was the mango pudding. paddys market wasnt opened today so we have nowhere to kill time but to shop around the shophouses in chinatown. popped in a nougat shop and ma bought green tea flavored ones though she didnt plan to buy any. she still has those that i bought her when i went back in summer 2003. pa bought macadamia nuts. men are a nutty lot. i suggested going to min sok chon for some real korean cuisine, for dinner. well, pa & ma will always say okay. they trust their lil girl. lil cos i'm short. HA! i ordered kimchi and pork soup with rice for pa cos he doesnt eat beef. nope, he's no devout buddhist but simply avoiding beef for fear of mad cow disease. okay, i dont blame him for chickening out since US cover up several cases of the disease. read fast food nation by eric schlosser if u havent. ma is okay with beef, jus like me. the bus stop to get home was a stone's throw away from min sok chon. pa & i were hiding behind the bus stop's glass panel to stay away from the chilly wind. dont know what was up with ma. think she was angry with pa still. i felt so caught in between when such situation arise.

thursday, 19 may 2005
saw from the weather channel on the internet that there'll be occasional showers and seeing it for myself that the sky was indeed less cloudy than the other days, i grabbed the chance to bring my parents to bondi beach. how could they leave sydney without stepping foot on the long stretch of sandy beach?! pa & ma simply love it. the beach opens out to the ocean, the sand are fine and soft and many waves come at one go. they were very enthralled by it all. pa like it so much that he took his time strolling along the beach. other half has to go to do work so we headed back to bondi junction. he took 400 back home to get changed while pa & ma & i had lunch at hungry jacks (equivalent to burger king). their first fast food meal here in sydney. after lunch was the search for the apple cutter. it cuts an apple into 8 slices and leaving out the core. a very handy kitchen tool. apple lovers like my pa would appreciate it. we bought 2. one for ma to bring home and one for me. in the end, i gave mine to ma so that ma can give the brand new one to her market kaki. told her to buy more she refused. see lah, now mine is gone. :P bumped into joyce, my stylist, at woolsworth while buying meat for kiam png (read png as in pierre png). i meant to show them where i stayed when i first came to sydney and then the one at balfour road. seeing them so tired, i dropped the idea. took bus 400 directly home. ma & i spent like 2 hours cooking kiam png. my rice cooker was too small so we used my housemate's. maybe we were too greedy to cook 5 cups of rice in a 6 cups rice cooker (though i thought there shouldnt be a problem) or maybe my housemate's fuzzy logic rice cooker is no more fuzzy and thus the rice werent cooked. we had to steam the rice batch by batch. though it was time comsuming but glad it was edible eventually. we had the house all to ourselves since my housemate had to travel to thailand to attend to some urgent family matters. he was so nice to send me a sms to congratulate me on my graduation. to reciprocate, i send him a bon voyage sms. :P

friday, 20 may 2005
i get questions abt how i feel now that i've graduated. well, seriously, nothing. its really jus a paper. the idea to study is for the sake of the knowledge. to know stuff so that i can be more confident at work, to take on more responsibilites. if i've the cash, i'll surely carry on studying. learning is a livelong process, its like rowing upstream, not to advance is to drop back.

had to work today so cant bring pa & ma around. instead of them going somewhere, they chose to springclean the house!!! its not spring yet!!! :P me & my poor sense of humour. anyway, pa wiped the balcony windows while ma did the laundry. glad work finished earlier than usual. got home at 5:30. was contemplating bringing pa & ma to regent hotel for $5 steak or fish & chips. after much deciding, we brought them to in-chan for thai food. we ordered bbq beef salad, thai duck curry, tom yum soup, stir fry thai style pork. had white wine to go with it though we were having red meat but it also seem like white wine goes better with curry and stuff. i was alil light-headed after jus 2 sips. what a failure!!! i must train to hold my liquor better. at the bottleshop, pa bought 2 bottle of wines to bring back to singapore. 1 white and 1 red. bubble wrapped the wines for pa before we all went to bed. planned to wake up early to go to coles to get chocolates for my chocoholic brother. it all started when ma called home in the evening after dinner and was stumped when my brother asked if they bought him any chocolate. IGA express downstairs didnt have a good range so i decided to go to coles in the morning since it open its doors at 6am.


saturday, 21 may 2005
alarm rang twice before i finally crawled out of my makeshift bed (pa & ma took over our bed). other half accompanied me to the coles at pacific square at maroubra. i quite like that place. spacious and quiet. bought tons of chocolates that can keep my brother happy for a while. also bought some more macadamia nuts for my pa & ma. we were back home in a jiffy. pa was quite surprised when we got back. after a last minute check, we left the house at a quarter past 8. took photos of my pa & ma in front of hotel de la harbourne and then hailed a cab from the main road. it was a fast ride to the airport. less than 20 mins. after checking in their luggage, we sat at the food court cum viewing mall while having some sushi rolls. they had the best coffee at the airport which i stayed away from, of course. we also took them to the alfresco viewing mall. there, we saw alot of planes taking off and landing, including flight SQ231 which they arrived in last saturday. i dont know whats on everyone's mind but i know i'm trying hard not to be too emotional and break down at the departure gate. good Lord, there's not a tear shed. took a couple more pics before we bade farewell.

on our way to the bus stop, we stopped by krispy kreme. havent had one since i finished uni. bought a box of 4, in different flavours. ma called from pa's mobile when we were on the bus back home. woah, so fast miss me already. :P

we're back to eating our instant noodles now that pa & ma left. had noodles and then concussed in bed. was soooo tired. other half left for his casual job while i snoozed till 2ish, then went back to sleep again. it was abt close to 9pm when ma missed call me and i called her back. they jus got home and it was raining. haha, i told them it was sunny here the entire day. the rain seems to follow them.

hehe, i went to bed without bathing. :P i was still so tired. *yawn* lucky thing i bathed in the morning.

sunday, 22 may 2005
slept till it was 10:30am. did woke up a couple of times before that but my eyes jus wont open. my back was hurting too. maybe my body wasnt used to sleeping on nice comfy mattress again. it does feels funny without my parents ard the house though my ma's scent still lingers. even going downstairs to buy groceries without them feels different.

i finally got my bedroom slippers for tis winter. i spotted it free with new woman magazine when other half was buying his last star wars pin with the daily telegraph. peter alexander.... he's good with his PJs and sleepwear. had dinner while watching my restaurant rules (melbourne is out, leaving sydney and adelaide in the finals) and also typing tis lenghty and overdue post every now and then. gonna call pinky and my ma after tis then head to bed. need to catch up on my sleep.