CooL cHriStMaS...

got roped in by michelle to do some charity gift wrapping thing at borders last week... so it was just me and prisy wearing the christmas hat thing sitting there asking the customers who passed by after paying whether they would like some gift wrapping done if they make a small donation... and at first it started out slow, nobody wants any gift wrapping, but then after like an hour or so... people started coming to wrap their books, cds, and calendars... and before this, i have never had to wrap so many things before, so needless to say, i did a really crappy job, i was expecting the customer to tell me to stop wrapping most of the time... well, no one did thank god, but i figured that's bcos they are not paying much to get their gifts wrapped and it's for charity... well... not sure if i would do it again next year... I would not want myself to wrap my gifts...

worked over the weekend and on christmas eve... was expecting to see crowds of people queuing up, but surprisingly it was pretty quiet other than a few long queues once in a while... i guess people are waiting for later when the prices of the fresh food get marked down...

prisy and i went karaoke on christmas day... the city was pretty quiet as compared to normal even though chinatown was open... but we did not hang around, we sang and then went straight home... had bbq for dinner that day... the weather has been not too hot actually which was good, cos that meant that the flies stayed away... watched movies after... ghost rider, stardust, ratatouille... i actually thought ratatouille was nicer than stardust... but i definitely do not want so many rats cooking my food... that's just wrong...

Ho... Ho... HO...

last week was really shitty... i am really hating the placement right now... all bcos of my big mouth and now my whole christmas break is ruined... and i got the email saying that my ethics did not get approved... another thing to worry about... now i have to wait till february before the ethics commitee meet up again... no big plans for christmas... we dun even celebrate it anyway... to me it's just like any other public holiday... still remember back when i was in singapore... during christmas we would drive to orchard and then walk down orchard road... just strolling and taking in the festive atmosphere and the decorations... but these recent years we have not been doing that anymore...
and i went back to the hair salon last week to recurl my hair cos the curls did not even last for a week, so they agreed to do it again for me free... and it's now a week and my hair is back to straight again... how annoying...
anyway... merry christmas everyone... hope your christmas is better than mine...

OnE WeEk tO XmAs...

last week was uncle's birthday so we went to this cinema called the Ritz at randwick... it was quite an old cinema and the movie we watched was Beowulf... other than the movie having really good graphics, i do not recommend anyone going to watch the movie... no plot and no storyline... oh well... after that, we drove to broadway to this german restaurant called Una's... and most of the menu was chicken schnitzel... i got the crispy fried one which was quite nice and quite a big portion... prisy got the same one but with some spicy sauce spread over the chicken, and i think that made the chicken less crispy after awhile and they put alot of the sauce...

worked over the weekend... nothing much happening except i am working on christmas and new year's eve... which will definitely be crowded and something i did not do last year... i still cannot get over the fact that if not for the placement... i would be in singapore already... the one good thing is that the weather has not been too hot lately and hopefully it does not get hotter and the flies stay far far away...

placement is starting to suck... cos 1) this placement requires me to talk alot, communicate and try to engage the clients into conversations and it is quite hard for me cos i am not a natural talker and i can't seem to relate to the stuff that seemed to interest them... 2) they smoke ALLthe time... in fact, that's what they do most of the time... every day i come home feeling so smelly and i am breathing in so much second hand smoke, it's really bad... 3) and I have no idea what the lit review thing requires us to do and apparently it's very difficult to look for related articles on the databases... and today was the halfway assessment and the feedback i got was not that great... so to sum it all up... i am not enjoying the placement at the moment...

and anna told me she got ethics approval... another thing for me to worry abt...

HAirY exPeriENCe...

went to this japanese salon in the city to curl my hair... i showed the lady there a picture of the type of curls i wanted and said okay... she said digital perm will last longer than normal perm so i thought i will give it a try... so i sat there not knowing what to expect... she trimmed my hair alittle and then gave it a rinse, and then put some gel thing on my hair... then put glad wrap over my hair and i had to sit under the hot circular thing for like 15 minutes... then after she removed the glad wrap... rinse my hair again... and then used alot of rollers to curl my hair... and then after putting the rollers, she put like this white cloth thing on each roller and a stick thing into each roller... and then she brought over this machine, and attached the electrodes onto the rollers... i looked like a freak... so i sat there for a good half an hour... and the whole time my head was hurting from the heat... it was really hot... and i kept fidgeting till one of the hairdressers there came over and asked me if i was alright... it was actually quite painful... and then this other hairdresser came and applied some liquid onto my hair and allowed it to drip onto a bowl resting on my shoulders... and he did it twice, and i have to sit there and wait again for another 20 minutes... and then finally, he removed the rollers from my hair and i felt so relieved... the rollers were really quite heavy... then went for another rinse again... sat back down again and waited for like 20 minutes before she came and blow dry my hair... i was quite happy when i came out of the salon...

however, when i decided to go curl my hair... i should have done my research first cos i did not know that there was so much maintenance to keep the curls and now... the curls are almost gone... ahhh... what should i do... and then i looked up on the internet and realised that after washing my hair, i have to twirl it and blowdry it at the same time to maintain the curls... which i did not know... and you also have to use products... which i dun really want to... and you dun comb your hair... so now... i am trying to keep the curls whatever that is left... alamak help...

Went to curl my hair on saturday with prisy in the city in a japanese salon... really expensive but I thought I should do something different with my hair after having straight hair since forever... after curling my hair, realised that I did not consider the consequences of having to maintain the curls...

And this was the result of the hailstorm that we had last sunday... can you see the smashed window and the hailstones on the carpet??!! it was really scary... I never ever want to go through that experience again...

SCArEd liKE hELL...

ohmigod... yesterday was one of the most scariest days of my life... i was about to leave for work and everyone else was out when it started raining really heavily... and then minutes later... i heard loud banging on the roof... and i thought oh it's hailing... so i went to the window to check it out, and to my utter disbelief and horror, the size of the hail was like a tennis ball... and it was coming down really fast, the rain started raining even more heavily... and the hail started hitting on the windows... and a few seconds later... i heard crashing... when i went into the living room where the sound was coming from... the windows were smashed and glass were all over the place, hailstones were coming into the room... and there was a huge gaping hole in the window... i was so scared, i was actually shaking when i called uncle... and i hid in the laundry room... i did not dare to go into the living room... after awhile, i decided to go check it out... the hail stopped but rain was still coming down... there was nothing i could do except try to prevent the carpet from being soaked... and the whole area was covered with hailstones the size of tennis balls... i started picking the stones and pieces of broken glass up and wait for uncle and auntie to come home...

it was really bad and it has never happened before... apparently it only happened in certain areas, ours including... our neighbours' windows and cars were damaged as well... i was so glad that i did not leave for work early like I originally planned to... otherwise I cannot imagine what would happen...

PP4...

first week of placement... survived... some of the things that i realised after the first week at macquarie hospital... it is quite different from my other placements... 1) in my previous placements, i only have one supervisor and most of the time, i just followed him/her wherever and do whatever they tell me to do... this time, bcos we have one supervisor but he is shared among the four of us... and although it is considered a hospital placement, but it is actually a half clinical work and half lit review placement... and we are required to visit other mental health community settings as well... like yesterday, we have to make our own way all the way to this mental health place called pioneer clubhouse... in manly... and it was pouring... and when we got there, the person in charge actually asked if i could go pull out a bunch of lettuce for her in the garden and wash the toilets... i was so surprised... i just looked at her... thinking to myself... did i really just heard what i thought??!! insane... in the end, someone else did the plucking of the lettuce and i had to go wash the toilets... ahhh annoying... i really hate it when they ask us to go travel to all these other places and what if i dun have a car??!! it's so stupid... and another task that we had to do was pretend we had schizophrenia and catch a bus to collect some stuff at centrelink... and we have to act like we are hearing voices, laughing by ourselves, and acting suspiciously... but cos it was pouring that day, the other student and I decided to drive there... and our supervisor found out and wants us to redo it... so freaking annoying...
sometimes i wish this was just a straightforward placement... without having to do all the extra stuff... and we only have access to two computers... but there are 4 of us... anyway, everything is not going so smoothly at the moment... hopefully, things will become better in the coming weeks...

NOt tiLL jAn...

it's finally confirmed... i will be doing the placement in dec till jan... and i have to pay for changing the dates... sigh... well i guess it can't be helped... hopefully this placement will be worth it...

went to the city to meet up with melissa and suet ming... well... melissa still the same... and i haven't seen suet ming since nyp... but she is still the same as i remembered... what a coindence that we both know melissa... we went to eat at my fav spicy beef place and after that, brought them to walk along george street... they were saying how the transport is very expensive here so they did not want to catch a train to other places... so we just walked around the city... then took a monorail... and who knew it would be so crowded... we waited for two monorails before deciding to get onto one and we still had to stand... and it went so fast... melissa and i were saying shouldn't monorails be slower so that people can enjoy the views?? suet ming almost fell... and then we went to lindt cafe and i got to drink the iced chocolate... cos they did not accept eftpos for purchases under 1o bucks, i almost could not drink my iced choc... thank god i had some spare coins in my other purse... sat and talked for awhile... glad to hear that people who were in the same class as me in nyp were doing well... and alot of them went to melbourne and perth to do the degree conversion... i really think we should have a class gathering for the OTs of class 2007...

LAtEr...

the first week of holiday was quite boring... went to uni to finish up the ethics proposal and worked on the article... then went to amelia's house, ate pizza and watched movies... and she lent me a few hongkong shows to watch... went to ikea to get a bookshelf... i actually quite like it... now i have a proper plpace to put all my barang barang instead of putting them in boxes... however, it is still not enought to store all my stuff... i seriously have too much stuff... and uni placement coordinator called yesterday... i got selected for the placement in macquarie hospital... so i will not be going back to singapore till jan... well... i am alittle upset but i want to get the placement over and done with so i will not have to worry abt it next year...

WHaT shOuLd I do?

the monday after exams... starting to feel bored already... i could think of many things to do... but it's so hot that i dun feel like stepping out of the house to do anything... and at the end of the day, i just felt like i wasted an entire day...

the gathering last thursday at my place was fun... and i hoped everyone had fun as well... ate the korean ricecakes that anna so kindly volunteered to cook and the fried rice that joanne's dad cooked... and then watched movies and just chill out... after that, jessica and the rest stayed over at my place, and they started their movie marathon, not wanting to sleep for the entire night... i wanted to join them, but i was so sleepy already... in the end, they continued watching and i went to bed... and when i came down the next morning, found them sleeping in front of the tv... haha should have taken a picture of them... it was a nice way to round up the year...

now, i still have the ethics proposal to hand in and the ottp article to finish... went to mel's house last friday to do the article and anna did not show up for like an hour... we were supposed to meet at 10 but when it was 11, she still did not show up, we started calling her mobile, her house, even tried the library, and they did not allow us to make a PA call for her... i was starting to get worried... in the end, she showed up at ard 1130... what happened was yochi decided to change the venue and smsed anna to tell her... but anna did not check her phone so she went to library and waited for 2hours and the silly girl forgot her phone... and she decided to try mel's house when none of us showed up in the library... she was really upset when she saw us at mel's house... i felt so bad...

and now, got an email from the placement coordinator that they have a mental health placement coming up in dec-jan... and i really want to do it cos if i can get the placement over and done with, i dun have to worry abt it next year and can concentrate on the honours project... but then i have to change my flight and i dunno if i have to pay or not... and family back home would not be too happy...

THe eND...

Finally!!! year 3 semester 2 exams are over!!! this semester was the shittiest so far... tomorrow is the ottp presentation and after that, instead of being able to properly enjoy our well-deserved holidays, we have to work on the journal article still... and the funny thing was... after the exam today, there was no sense of relief that the exams are finally over... maybe bcos i know i did not study hard enough for the exams... and so the worry begins for the day when the results come out... but for now, i am going to enjoy myself first... starting from tomorrow, we are gathering at our house for the end-of year cum early christmas 'party'... hopefully, everything goes well and everyone enjoys themselves...

yup, the COP exam still sucked even though i studied so hard for it... this semester's exam is just getting better and better... i hate this!!!

It's RAininG AgAiN...

today is the first exam... maladaptive... and the research proposal is also due today... felt really relieved when i finished and handed in the proposal... it is taking up so much time... and maladaptive today was not good at all... i think i did not study properly cos i know i have so many mistakes in the mcq section... hopefully my presentation will help pull my marks up... i have a really bad feeling about maladaptive, human occupations and COP assignments...

auntie and uncle left for singapore last week... wished that i am the one going back as well, not stuck here cramming for the exams... watched bridge to terabithia on saturday with prisy and michelle... the movie was definitely not what i imagined it to be... i thought it was a fantasy movie like narnia... but it turned completely out of what i expected... and it was seriously storming that night as well... could hear the rain pounding on the roof and lightning and thunder... and it is really rare for the weather here to hear thunder and see lightning... and these few days are going to be really cold and raining... almost like winter... haha... i am in my fleecy as i am typing this...

this coming thursday is cognitive exam... no mcqs and all short answer questions... oh man... no chance to tikkam even... either you know or you dun... i am going to work harder for this and applied physiology... cos maladaptive really sucked...

STuvAC...

Stuvac week... almost coming to an end... this semester's stuvac has got to be the most boring and worst ones... have been going to uni almost everyday... assignments and group project stuff... and next week is the start of the exams... three papers this time, two next week and one the following week... this whole weekend will be spent cramming for the stupid maladaptive exam... which is totally ridiculous cos how are we supposed to memorise the whole freaking textbook??!!

bought a sunshade for my car... and the funny thing is... i bought a blue one but when uncle helped me to insert the sticky thing on, he put it on the silver side... so the blue side is facing the inside... haha...

and on the weekend, amelia lent me this hongkong series which was 40 episodes long... and guess what... once i started the show... i couldn't stop so stayed up till like 4am on both sat and sun nights... shit man... this is all amelia's fault...

ExHauSteD...

These past 2 weeks have got to be one of the worst weeks ever... HO and COP were really difficult, and OTTP was also taking up alot of time cos we are going to the school to present next tuesday... and today, got back the presentation marks for HO and it was not good... i really hope the report will be better and hopefully pull me up to a credit at least...

and it has also been raining these past few days... and bcos the garage was damaged, bcos of the incident, auris had to be parked outside in the rain... and it rained so heavily today... i had to go to surry hills for the meeting with our industry parter and it was not funny at all... i hate rainy days...

the next few weeks leading up to the exams are going to be worse, although i think it's already really bad at the moment... this semester really sucks...

attended the fourth year honours students presentations today... one of the students who presented had the same supervisor as me and during the presentation, i was thinking to myself, some of the things that she mentioned sounded familiar, cos apparently our supervisor has been telling us to use the same studies... but I dun want my research to be similar to someone else's work... i want it to be different and unique... isn't that the whole point of doing honours?? and also one of the guest speakers was this really experienced OT who I worked with before when I was on pract at Westmead Hospital... what she talked about was really inspiring... she spoke about her experiences and how she became what she is now... and I realised that I want to be someone like her... although I dun really like doing research work, but I know that I am better at research than at clinical work... so if an opportunity comes in future allowing me to do both research work and clinical work, I will grab it with both hands...

WHerE's mY HOLidAY??

These few weeks before stuvac was really stressful... HO assignment was due, the presentation did not go too well cos the questions that she asked made me realise that I was not specific enough in the report... COP assignment is not going well... cos apparently he said that we have to find the assessments and complete them based on what we see in the film... and that there are other conditions that the character was suffering from... research proposal due date was postponed till the monday of exams... so good and bad...
anyway, in summary, this whole semester sucked!!!

Went to watch movie with prisy... resident evil 3... we both thought it was not as scary as the first one... i totally agree... as prisy said, maybe cos i did not expect the show to be so scary for the first one... i still vividly remembered going to watch it with Fran and Joanne from SAJC... it was soo scary... my legs were shaking when i tried to stand after the movie ended... anyway, went to visit the school to sit in on one of their class... it brought back memories of me learning coordinates and gradients and intervals... i already forgot half of the stuff that the teacher was teaching... it was really bad... and becos the school was for immigrants, it was really different from schools that i have seen... the kids were speaking in non-english half the time and the teacher was trying to teach them maths in english...

and finally, i am not going to korea anymore... argghh... I NEED A HOLIDAY!!!

STrEsseD oUT...

these past few days have been very stressful... assignments are all due in the coming weeks and i am so confused as well... it has come to a point where i can be doing one thing and the next minute, i have no idea which assignment I am actually researching for... and I dun even know what I am doing half the time... and this semester, I think I have read more journals than I have ever read in my entire life... read until my eyes cross... and exams are coming next month... and this semester, i have 3 exams but heaps of assignments...

basically that's it... just assignments and more assignments... dun really feel like blogging as well but i thought oh well just write something cos my blog has not been updated for awhile...
and oh yeah, will be going back to singapore in dec and possibly going to korea for a week... looking forward to the holidays... i really need a break!!!

OFF tO tHe beAch...

Last friday, it was joanne's birthday, so she decided to celebrate her bithday at manly beach... when i got there, the place was packed... it was so crowded that i think the whole world is there and all of them are going to manly... the queue for the tickets were so long... and the ferry was full, so we had to wait for the next one...

when we finally got there... we went to buy our food and found a place to sit near the beach... i ate fish and chips... which wasn't very nice... and cos i was not planning to go play in the water, i was wearing a skirt... but anna's son justin also came that day and he was pestering anna to go into the water... so in the end, i went with him... it was beautiful... the beach was nice and the water was really cool... and the day was really nice as well... it was hot but windy... and then the rest came to join us at the beach... stayed there for awhile... then we headed back to circular quay... the ferry ride back was horrible, cos halfway through, the ferry lost an engine and the ferry was rocking all the way back... felt really nauseous... when we arrived, i got a headache already... then we headed to the lindt cafe at darling harbour... ordered my fav milk iced chocolate... oh it was soo good... i felt better immediately...

after that, we decided to head home... and i went to pitt st to get prisy's gift voucher... after that, yochi and i caught a train back... and i took the train to eastwood to wait for prisy and the rest cos we are having dinner for prisy's birthday... we finally decided on a korean place after walking back and forth still undecided on which place to try... was a korean place called minto... the food was not bad, but i still preferred the one at ceci's...

worked through the weekend... but this weekend was a long weekend cos monday was labour day... so even though i had work at night and there are like 4 assignments due... i decided to go with prisy and michelle to the beach... this time to bondi... it was so hot and the beach was packed as well... stayed there for awhile and i think after spending so much time in the sun on both friday and monday, i got tanned... but only on my arms... my legs are still 'pasty-looking'... damn it... tried the fried ice cream that they were selling at one of the shops and it sucked... yuck...

UNmoTivAtEd...

it's already day 4 of the one week break... nothing much except went to surry hills with yochi and the rest to meet our industry partner for OTTP, and then after met up with amelia and karen for dinner and karaoke... and as usual, they were late, and poor andrea had to hang around market city, and i forgot to bring my jacket... ate my fav spicy beef and karen had her mussel soup thing... went to try kmix instead of the usual big echo... i still prefer big echo, cos the seats at kmix are very dodgy... anyway, the only good thing was they had the 'que yang' song... big echo dun have... sang till ard 1030pm and amelia gave karen a lift home, and wanted to give me a lift but i said no... i dun want her to travel all the way to dural and back cos it was quite late already...

stayed at home on tuesday, trying to finish the HO assignment... went to eat lunch with prisy and mahsa, but at the same time it was to film the thing for HO again... did not go too well, i really hate doing this... like it's hard cos i felt like i was hindering their work and they thought i was a joke... the person-in-charge was so condescending towards me... it was so not funny... anyway, i really dun care already i will just use what i have... sometimes this is what i hate about this course... having to go out and do stuff...

anway, prisy and i watched galaxy quest that night... it was really funny, in a 'simple' kind of way... watching it allowed me to destress cos it was so stupid funny... and something else made me angry that day... was supposed to go somewhere and spend the night... but they told me at the last minute that they wanted to finish their stuff, and i even had my stuff packed... well, dun think i am going to do it next time... and it was not until i called then i found out... thanks guys...

drove to uni using the silverwater road yesterday... followed the directions that uncle gave and got to uni without getting lost... spent the whole day doing research for the assignment... and my interview for qualitative... really dun feel like doing the assignments... i am so not motivated...

LOsT...

The day I got lost... it was one scary experience... i was driving to uni using the silverwater route... and somehow, i was driving along when I realised that i am not supposed to be where i was, cos the surroundings did not look familiar, that's when i went oh shit... i had no idea where i was and so, i just drove blindly, decided to turn into a small street so that i could pull over and call uncle... but the street that i pulled into had no parking and so i panicked and just drove up onto someone else's driveway and stopped... and i nearly hit someone as well while changing lanes cos i did not know where i was going... i was so scared... almost wanted to cry... called uncle and it was no use cos i did not know where i was... in the end, i got out and asked for directions from this guy who was coming out of his car... he told me how to get back onto silverwater road... so i followed his directions but did not see the bridge that he was telling about, instead i saw a sign that said eastwood so i thought ok, let's just go to eastwood and hopefully end up at epping, which was a place i am familiar with... and then somehow, i ended up on silverwater road and got to uni... thank god... it was really scary... it was an experience i never want to have again in the near future...

next week is the mid semester break... which really is not much of a break, with HO, COP, qualitative, honours stuff and OTTP to complete during that short period of one week... so unless i stay at home every day and have no life, i definitely will not be able to do all those stuff...

WeEk 9...

Last thursday, went to the city for karaoke with prisy, michelle and her high school friend who came to visit from singapore... we initially wanted to eat something nice at darling harbour but by the time we met up with michelle and sharon, it was so late already... so we ended up eating dessert at Lindt's... their iced milk chocolate drink is the best... after that... we went for three hours of karaoke and i was surprised that even though it was a thursday, the place was quite crowded and it was so late as well... luckily we called earlier to book a room... and so we sang till 12 midnight, and i was so sleepy... and we got home only at 1am...


bought my why why love dvd at eastwood... haha... cannot wait already... i quite liked the show even though the ending was not too good... other than that, nothing exciting happened... uni assignments are piling up and next week's the one week mid semester break... the HO assignment is killing me... it's like due in 3 weeks time and i still dunno who I can do the workplace assessment on...

went to watch the bourne ultimatum with prisy at castle towers... the movie was not bad, except i think bcos we sat too near too the screen, we had to look up and the cameraman filming was really shaky the entire movie, and as a result, i got such a bad headache and i felt like throwing up throughout the movie... in the middle of the movie, it got so bad that prisy and I moved to the seats at the back... I felt better but the nausea was still there and when i got home, prisy forced me to eat two panadol and i went straight to bed... slept for an hour and when michelle came to wake me... i felt much better, had a shower and ate cake cos it was auntie's birthday... btw we saw the trailer for resident evil 3... it looked good man... but scary... bourne ultimatum was good but still preferred the first one...

FiRSt tiMe...

I finally drove the car by myself last Tuesday... drove from our house to yochi's house... i was quite scared at first cos i have not driven by myself ever... but it turned out alright... parked along the street at uni... and one day at uni was enough to make the car dirty and dusty all over... yuck...

michelle's friend came over to visit from singapore... and we had a nice dinner last night, she bought wine for us and it was really nice... after that, we watched the holiday... the show is really nice and funny... did not have high expectations but it turned out to be better than i expected... really funny though... and prisy and michelle kept going on and on the whole time about how cute jude law was...

today drove to uni as well... and bcos we finished late today, when I dropped yochi at her house, i was reversing out of her driveway when the car went over the kerb and hit the kerb... i had a really bad scare... and yochi and i were like trying to look to see if anything was damaged but it was so dark, we could not see anything... but I could feel the front part coming out... i was so worried the whole way home... when i got home, uncle told me that the front plastic part of the car came out but somehow, uncle managed to fix it... thank god... Auris is only 7 days old, he can't have any damage so early...

AuRiS...

yesterday was the apec public holiday... in the morning, prisy and I drove around the estate and she taught me how to park... it was really difficult as I simply could not visualise which direction I should turn the wheel... and after I drove with uncle auntie and prisy to uni via the other silverwater route... tried to do a parallel parking at uni but it was super difficult so I think I would rather not risk it and just pay money to park inside uni... after that, we stopped by strathfield to have lunch at ceci's... then went to rhodes ikea and ohmigod... there were so many people, it's like as if the whole of sydney decided to come to ikea... it was so crowded... went to look for my bookshelf... but did not find a suitable one in the end... then we stopped by macquarie shopping centre... the only thing that was not good yesterday was that it was raining the whole day and my poor Auris is wet and dirty...

when we got home... uncle showed me how to give Auris a clean and I cleaned the floormats... definitely hard work to have a car... but i did not regret getting this car... it's been a really good car... hopefully the weather becomes better otherwise I will have to keep cleaning the car...

A drEAm cOmE tRuE...

Today is quite a momentous occasion for me... cos 6 september is the day i finally got my car... i really really like it... it's definitely my dream car... but i have to say that getting a car is not an easy feat... i have definitely learnt a lesson from this and with owning a car, comes great responsibilty and my pocket has a huge gaping hole... all my hard earned savings these past 3 years have been spent on the car... and i am still only paying not even half of what the car cost...
now i have to learn how to park with this car and i have decided that I am going to call my car Auris... i actually found out that this name was the model name for this car model in the other parts of the world but australia apparently bought the rights to keep the model name as corolla... so from now onwards, Auris and I will have to get to know each other and build up our trust in each other...

And finally, a very big thank you to uncle, auntie, prisy and michelle... and papa, mum and pong... without all of you, i would not have gotten this far... and if you asked at the beginning at the year if i would envision myself owning a car, i would not have even dreamed/thought of it...

RAndOm raMbLiNgs...

did not go to uni today... to stay home and study for the applied physiology lecture tomorrow... sian man... stoning almost half the time, and studying for this really can put me to sleep... dun even know what is going on and i am just sort of memorising the stuff without really understanding it...

watched fantastic four rise of the silver surfer last saturday... it was alright, i thought the first one was better though, and what's up with jessica alba's blond hairstyle?? was watching ocean's 13 but my eyes were really closing so went to sleep after the first 15 minutes of the show... haha when pong was here, when we were watching charlie and the chocolate factory, i slept through half the show too...

this year, zhen zhen and the rest gave me a chocolate drink set and amelia and karen got me a chocolate factory... i think they noticed that i love chocolates haha... i guess this year was better then the previous years cos i have more people celebrating with me... and prisy's family treated me to meat and wine co... and it was really expensive... and pong exchanged her nice sony ericsson phone with me... haha...

drove home from uni yesterday with amelia... now i just have to familiarise myself with the route to uni and be confident enough to drive by myself... and i am counting down to the day when I finally can drive my car... quite excited actually...

VisiT fRoM siNgApoRE...

it has been a week since my dad and sis came and went... although they only came to visit for a week, i was really glad that they came and i had a great time... brought them to lots of places and ate alot... the only thing that i dun like was that i had to go to uni and could not spend more time with them... we went to manly, to karaoke, to paramatta, and ate all my fav foods... and of course not forgetting my birthday lunch last friday... at auburn rsl again... remember we went there the first year i came over and it was also my birthday lunch... the food there was quite nice and all of us got to sit and talk at the long table... buffet-style... the only troublesome thing abt the rsl is that you have to be a member to get in and they dun accept student ID... really annoying...

anyway, another momentous moment that happened over last weekend was... i bought a car... finally... have not gotten the car but i still cannot believe that i bought a car... and it's the 2007 toyota corolla, dark blue colour... it's going to be so awesome... but buying a car was really not an easy thing for me... dun really want to go into details here, but just want to say that i have learnt a lesson from the whole experience... you have to really know what you want and what you are getting so that you dun get cheated by the car dealer... on the flipside, having a car brings other problems as well... hopefully everything will work out okay...

and last thursday i had the maladaptive presentation... which i thought went okay except maybe we should have evaluated the treatment options more instead of just listing them... next week is applied physiology exam and the HO assignment is really giving me a headache... where am I going to find people for me to do on?

3 MOrE daYS To GO...

Have been watching quite a few shows, movies actually these few days... saw Happily never after, the cartoon and it was quite funny actually... like they were turning all the fairytales upside down... and then i also saw Die hard 4... have never seen a die hard movie at all before... but the latest one was quite action-packed and was quite a good show... although bruce willis never seem to die even when he fell from a moving car or when there were explosions... and maggie Q was in the movie... she's really pretty i think... she has been in a few big budget hollywood movies... which is really good... and then i saw the movie Next with Nicolas Cage... it's alright, not as interesting as National Treasure... and the ending was quite anti-climatic... also saw The Illusionist with Edward Norton... it was alright, although the ending was quite clever... the movie was quite slow moving though...

and on saturday, went to look at toyota and hyundai cars... did not get to go on test drives... going to wait for papa to come and go test drive with me... the salesman that we spoke to at pennant hills toyota was so rude... he probably figured that we were not really serious in buying a car from him on that day... i think i will either get the yaris or the corolla... cos all the people i talked to advised me that toyota is the most reliable brand, and the parts are cheaper as well...

and then yesterday, stayed up till 3am to finish watching why why love... apparently the vcd is out in singapore and this really kind person uploaded it onto veoh... i was so disappointed with the way the show went in the last 2 episodes... spoilers ahead...

it went from a funny and cute show to a sad one... cos he got some strange illness and was going to die... and bcos he did not want to make jiadi upset, he decided to give her up and pretended to be mean to her and offered her to his brother... very melodramatic... i just don't understand why all the taiwanese shows all started out to be really good and the producers had to ruin the whole show with shitty endings... anyway, now i dun have to wait every week to watch the show... haha... mike he is still so cute... rainie as well...

AnDReA's bAck...

felt like i have not been blogging for awhile... nothing much happening... latest updates... 1) uni stuff has been piling up as the days go by but what's new... i should already be used to it by now and it's like week 4 of semester 2... 2) amelia's been teaching how to do perpendicular parking whenever we have breaks in between lectures... still not very consistent, and i really think i have some visuospatial deficits cos for the life of me, i always get confused abt which direction i should turn the wheel if i get too close or too wide to the car... 3) went karaoke after uni yesterday with karen and amelia... and we only got to the city at like 7pm, sang till 10pm and bcos it was so late already, i slept over at karen's house... i have itching to go karaoke since ages ago but nobody have time to go with me but finally got to go yesterday... and it was good... ate KFC and sang till our hearts' content... 4) next week papa and pong are coming over to visit... yay! but only for a week and i have a presentation that week as well... but i am really looking forward to them coming... and the birthday gathering as well on friday... now that realreal and the others are here, it would definitely be more fun and rowdy!!! and lastly hopefully it will be good weather every day from next week onwards...

REd Ps... Here I cOmE...

Today the 8th August 2007 is really my lucky day... I am soooo relieved it is as if a big load has been lifted off my shoulder... why... cos I finally PASSED my driving test this morning after two failed attempts... and it must be bcos i have taken it a few times i was not that nervous today, rather it was mr akbarian who was nervous for me... and when we went on the practice drive before the test this morning, he brought me to this new stretch of road where it had this really unusual road marking, like a triangular island and he taught me how to drive onto that road... and suai suai really the tester brought me to that stretch of road... and i was like thank god mr akbarian taught me how to drive on that road otherwise it would be another fail attempt...
anyway, i really have to thank mr akbarian, who has been very patient and a very good teacher all this while... and i finally got my red Ps... now the next step would be to look for a car... and save money... this has got to be one of the best days ever...

and I am still thinking of stuff that we could do for my birthday... bowling? karaoke? eat? beach/picnic? party?

PRessURe x 10000000...

the end of week 2 of semester 2 of year 3... and i can already feel the pressure starting to build... from all the uni stuff, honours stuff, driving and from work... the thing i dun like abt this semester is that we have to go out into the community to do 'fieldwork'... which meant that i have to somehow find 'lobangs' where i can carry out my assignments... which is a problem bcos i have no idea where to find these places or people... and then researching for articles for my honours topic is taking up so much time... and i can't even find any relevant articles... and that day anna and i were just saying how there was just too much stuff already to be done for the main subjects... and there is just no time for us to do our research stuff... and anna said she is thinking of quitting honours... i am also thinking abt it... but i know mummy and papa will be disappointed if i quit... i know they probably will say up to me... but i know they wanted me to do it... and i thought i caould challenge myself by taking this initially... but as the weeks progress, i kept thinking to myself maybe this is too much of a challenge already and i am not coping as well as i should... my time management skills suck...

and then today, at work, nandar asked me if i wanted to be on a contract basis instead of a casual... and apparently alot of people are already on a contract... even the new people... whereas i only got offered after like two years... felt alittle upset... and the hours that she was offering me was not really good for me either, and i asked her what would happen if i want to reamin a casual, she was like i can't afford to give you so many hours as before, which meant that i probably would not get work on sundays... and uncle and auntie asked me to consider transferring to the woolies at dural, which is closer to where we live... went there once and the store is of course not as new as ours at thornleigh... and also more dirty... i dun really want to transfer there...

and then there's driving... when the hell will i pass the stupid test??!! argghh...

on a happier note, zhenzhen and the others invited me to their house for steamboat on friday... their apartment is quite big though... their balcony is huge... actually brought dvds thinking that we can watch, but being the dumb dumb that i am, i left them in the locker in school and i only remembered it when we were already halfway to their house... we ate and talked and laughed... alot actually... well i dun think some people would want me to put the content of what we talked abt here... haha... finally, the thought of the day was, looks can really be deceiving...

UNbeLieVAble bOrEdOm...

first week of uni... firstly, very excited and happy that zhenzhen and guys are all here attending uni with me... it still feels quite weird... secondly, the timetable this semester really sucks... we have so long breaks in between lectures... the longest break is like six hours... and the worst thing is lidcombe being a hole in the ground, we can't even go anywhere... and that's why at times like this having a car would be handy... up till now, the subjects i dun really enjoy is applied physiology and qualitative research... totally dun understand what the lecturer was talking abt during the applied physiology lectures... was just copying the notes... and qualitative was so boring... there were only eight students enrolled, and six of them have already got their degrees and are doing further studies... so it was quite weird cos they were also much older and they were talking abt the projects that they were working on... and the worse thing was we have to buy the textbook... which i dun really want to... i have not found out the price yet but it is going to be quite expensive... and i probably would not be using it in future... but then i dun really want to go talk to the lecturer cos the lecturer is quite fierce...

and then on tuesday, went out with zhenzhen and the rest to parramatta to watch harry potter... and bcos we wanted to catch the earlier show, and we missed the train at lidcombe, we had to catch a train back down to strathfield and had to run like hell to catch the express to parramatta... and they were saying how it was so stressful that we had to always run to catch the train... which was true cos usually if we miss a train, we have to wait ages for the next one... and when we arrived at parramatta, they were hungry but the shops in the food court were mostly closed, so in the end, they had to eat sushi... i actually thought the movie was quite good, like obviously alot of stuff had to be cut, but it was all quite good... quite scary at times... but i have to say that the special effects were better in transformers...

got to uni early on monday morning and decided to watch huan huan ai at the computer lab and used up all my free internet cache just watching two parts... i was like shit... and last week's episode was so short... i really can't wait anymore... really want to know the ending...

LOSER...

andrea is officially a LOSER!!! cos it's her second time failing the driving test... very upsetting... i dunno why i just cannot pass the test... and this time it's not bcos of the reverse parking... i actually got the required mark to pass but i did a fail item... cos what happened was... i was driving along this small street and there was this other L-plater doing the reverse parking so i went around the car and i did not go back onto my side of the road and just kept on driving... mr akbarian was also quite upset and i was like how many times must I take the test before i pass and get my red Ps??? arghhh... well... i can't really stop now, just have to keep trying till i pass the test...

and tomorrow is the start of semester 2... sian man... at least i am quite looking forward to this semester cos there will be more pple i know... but the timetable for this semester is really shitty and like i have long breaks in between but i still end quite late on some days... and i start at 9am every day except for thurs...

and i am still waiting IMpatiently every week for the episode of huan huan ai to be shown... WHY did i start watching the show now??!! i really hate this kind of waiting...

ALL toGeThEr agAiN...

last friday, went to lidcombe to meet up with zhenzhen and the rest... till now i still can't believe that they are really here in sydney ready to start uni with me for a year... time passed so quickly... waited ages for them to open their bank account... and guess who i saw??!! yunde from my primary school!! I was like ohmigod, i know you but i can't remember your name... haha... and she also recognised me... apparently she was doing physio at nyp before but i seriously dun remember seeing her when i was there... so anyway, i was really surprised to see her and she still looked the same as i remembered... and she cracked me up when she told me how zhenzhen and the rest told yunde that they were going to meet their friend from OT who's studying here (that's me) and she saw me and was like... pls lor, i know her leh... i know her longer than you guys... haha... and then the bank was filled with all the singaporean bridging course students from OT and PT... apparently, there were 5 from OT, 6 from PT and 8 from MRS... and i was like, oh man, the campus next semester will be full of singaporeans and singlish-speaking pple... haha including me... can't wait...

after that, we went to strathfield to eat with prisy... back at ceci again... and bcos we had such a big group, the evil witch kept staring at our table and hurrying us to leave... like we have not even finished the food and they already coming to start clearing the table... but the food was really good though... i am glad the guys liked the food... took some photos on the train and at strathfield... then edlyn and her housemate came to join us after...

work was quite shitty on sat... it was so busy for some reason and i think the new supervisor also did not plan the rosters properly... the pple just kept coming and whenever i looked up, the queue was neverending... and if i need to get like a barcode or the supervisor's numbers, he would be like give the item to the customer for free... even expensive meats... and prisy was the second person to tell me to consider transferring to the woolies at dural... i dun really want to cos who knows the pple there are friendly and nice or not and what the store is like... and prisy and i have been on a hana kimi marathon these few nights... and i hate to repeat myself but the ending sucks!

MORe thAn mEEtS ThE Eye...

went to watch transformers on tuesday... heard that the movie was really good from everyone who had seen it... and it was really good actually... the main character was funny, the main lead actress was so hot and the visual effects were really cool... i would give the movie 8/10...

and these past two days, prisy and i have been marathoning the korean series called my love patzzi... it is actually a very old show... saw it before on tv back in singapore... the show was ok, and i still think jang nara is very cute... although she was alittle annoying in the show sometimes... and what i really dun like abt korean guys is that they always smoke in the shows... why do they have to smoke all the time...

and then yesterday... i went to kino in the city to read my books... bought my next in death book and my hana kimi dvd... and it was cheaper than i expected... $18 for the whole show... so i was quite happy... after that, met up with prisy, did some shopping around central... went to eat at this japanese place that prisy recommended... the food not bad and the price was also reasonable... and then we went for karaoke for an hour... now waiting for my huan huan ai dvd to be out... i think this show is nicer than devil beside you and mike he's hairstyle is cooler as well... haha

A LiTTLe NOstALgia...

i am feeling better since last week... i am going to learn from my mistakes and make damn sure i dun make the same mistakes again in the next driving test... and i am taking driving lessons again...

did not do much for the past two weeks of holidays... did some journal article readings... watched the new taiwan series why why love... it is quite nice although it feels alot similar to devil beside you... and i have again fallen into the trap of starting the show without waiting for it to finish airing... and i bought a cupboard thinking it would be able to store all my files and notes... but it turned out not being able to fit the files in... and i had to return it... and prisy and i actually spent like two hours assembling it and then realising that the files would not be able to fit in... so in the end, we returned the cupboard fully assembled and the store said they will use it as their display model... i am actually not really in any hurry to get a bookshelf... so we'll see how it goes... and work was pretty boring as usual... have not seen the new supervisor yet... and nandar is not quitting apparently, she just went to do some exchange work at other woolies branches for a few weeks and she will be back...

yesterday went to do some grocery shopping with auntie... and when we went into this chinese shop, i saw the nissin cup noodles... and it reminded me of the times in crescent when we used to walk over to the petrol station and sit at the church and eat cup noodles after school... and fran always used to drink the soup and the rest of us nagging at her not to cos it's full of msg and her hair will fall out... haha... really miss those times... but everything has changed since...

So DUMB!!!!

today is a very sad day... failed my driving test... why??? bcos i could not do the reverse parking... i hit the kerb the first time and i panicked, tried to correct it and tried to do it a second time, but after 4 manoeuvres, the tester told me to forget it and drive on... so bcos of the reverse parking, i got 6 crosses, and i hit the kerb when i was doing the 3 point turn... and i did not see the car turning in front of me and was about to go... so all in all, i had 8 crosses, and failed the test... i was really upset cos i did not do the reverse parking properly... and then after, the tester asked me to pull over and i did not do it cos i thought the gaps between the cars were too narrow, and he was like, 'what are you doing? you just missed 4 gaps back there!!' and it did not help that the tester's attitude was horrible, he was so mean and so fierce during the test...
but i am just so upset that i did not do the reverse parking properly after all the practice that we did... and it was the same damn car as well when we did the reverse parking before the test... and i could see that mr akbarian was also quite upset that i did not pass the test... i am so stupid... dun even want to think about getting a car now... i just want to pass the damn test... So stupid!!!!

I'M boREd...

1st of july already... so fast... it has already been a month of winter... now really glad that clinicals are finally over and i dun have to do clinicals till at the end of the year hopefully if i can get one...

last friday went back to uni for debriefing... saw mostly everyone and uni felt strangely unfamiliar... cos i have not been back for awhile... everyone looked the same and it was good being able to catch up with the gang... the debriefing was as usual took ages... handed in the portfolio... met up with my honours supervisor... who told me that i should get started on looking for articles and thinking of my topic during the hols... then after the gang went to burwood to eat lunch... we were starving by the time we got there cos we had to wait for one another... and amelia could not drive cos she got her Ls... so yochi drove instead... we just sat and ate and talked for almost two hours at burwood foodcourt... and amelia will be doing a rural placement at Dubbo starting next week for two weeks... and she will be staying there so hopefully all goes well for her...

work was pretty boring... nothing much happening except i heard that our service manager is going on a long break and nobody knows if she will be coming back... so in the meantime, we will be having a new service manager... and hopefully he/she would be a nice person... otherwise our lives would all be hell...

MoVeD...

Yes, I have finally moved... to the new house in dural... the house is quite similar to the old one but abit bigger... and it was sooo tiring on sat, sun and mon... my arms were aching like crazy... we still had to go to the old house on mon to clean it... and now we have started to paint the rooms upstairs, the wardrobes... and the place downstairs is still a mess... dunno when we will be able to unpack everything... there are also plans to paint the walls downstairs... and i have not been able to access the internet till today... well my room is smaller than the one i had before, and the walls are purple... and i have to share a toilet with prisy and michelle now unlike before...

on tuesday... prisy and me went to attend my certificate ceremony in the main campus... and it would have been great if it had not been pouring and cold... i was so nervous not bcos i am going up on stage to receive the certificate but bcos i am wearing heels and i have to get up and down the stairs... the incident when i nearly tripped and fell when i was in sec 4 was still vivid in my mind... but luckily, everything went alright and after the ceremony, we went to eat my fav spicy beef...

have also been trying to work on my portfolio which is due tomorrow... and i have been waiting day after day for my evaluation form to be mailed... and when yesterday the postman came and left, and i still dun have the evaluation, i decided to call my supervisor... and guess what, he has not posted it to me despite me telling him on friday that he has to post it to me by this friday... i was so pissed... so annoying... and i also got my semester 2 timetable... and it looked bad... like i start at 9am from mon-wed, end late on wed and i have an elective which ends at 8pm on mondays... all the signs are telling me that i really need a car... so everything depends on me passing my test next thurs... i really need all the good luck i can get...

and i am now on holidays till next month... but nothing really exciting has happened yet cos i am still stuck in the house...

COLd & miSERabLe...

It has been raining the whole week again... which was definitely not good cos we had to go to the new house and start cleaning and patching up all the holes... cos the previous owners used so many nails on the walls... it was like holes everywhere, and they were like huge nails... we had to lay plastic on the carpet, wash the walls, pull out the nails, and they also stuck some glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the ceiling which was so freaking difficult to peel off... on the first day there, stayed till like 1130pm and by the time we got home, i was so exhausted, and my legs were aching from all the squatting and standing... and i was so sleepy the next day at clinicals... it was not a good time for me... and it did not help that it was raining in the mornings too... and i hate to catch the trains when it's raining cos the trains get delayed and it's wet everywhere...

other than that, i have two more days left for clinicals... which is good cos i will have a month of holiday... booked my driving test for the 5th july... hopefully i will pass the test... nothing much except we have to go to the new place to clean and paint every night this week... but i got to 'take leave' for today and tomorrow night... still cannot believe i am moving house both over here and back home... it's really hard work

LOnG wEEkeNd...

it was raining the whole weekend, from friday all the way till sunday... but guess what, on monday when we were planning to go to the city... the sun came out again and was shining so brightly, not a single cloud in the sky... it was a really beautiful day...

went to macquarie shopping centre first in the morning cos michelle wanted to see something there, then prisy and I drove to the city... we had trouble finding cheap parking cos it was a public holiday and they charged more for parking... in the end, we decided to park near chinatown and it cost $15... then we walked to world square, i bought the sweet bread from the bakery, continued our journey to dymocks along george street to collect michelle's book... then we walked around pitt street till michelle came and met up with us... walked back down to chinatown cos michelle and prisy wanted to eat at market city and i wanted to eat my fav spicy beef... so we had to split up cos it was at sussex centre... and i went into the dvd shop there and i actually found the dvd for the jap series, my teacher is a gangster... both parts 1 and 2... but it was so expensive... $50 for both series... really tempted to buy, but did not get it in the end... i will wait till the price drops or something...

ate my spicy beef finally... and i should not have eaten that bread cos it made me so full after eating the beef and i could not finish the rice... anyway, walked back down to meet up with them at market city... walked ard there for abit cos they were still eating... then the three of us made our way back up to town hall again where big echo was... yessss... karaoke time... the only time when andrea feels alive... haha... wendy came to join us for karaoke too... sang till ard 930pm and then we drove home...

and it's back to reality again... clinicals for another two more weeks... and then we are moving... and then i am taking my driving test... wish me luck for my presentation tomorrow!

NoN-stOP RAin...

Week 5 of clinical... went out to lunch on thurs with some of the OT as a farewell lunch for the three students who were leaving... the food was not bad except that it was raining... and it has been raining almost nonstop since thurs... i have never seen this much rain since i came here... and the rain has been causing places to flood and ships are stranded... pple died... alamak...
and it was raining when i got friday off and went driving... cannot even see anything and after i came back, i was locked out cos auntie and uncle went out and i forgot my key... so there i stood outside, shivering while waiting for them...

and then on friday night, prisy, michelle and i went out to dinner at pancakes on the rocks with toufic and diana's sister, who came for holidays from singapore... i could not finish my pancakes cos i was so full and choc-ed out... it would have been a nice night out if it had not been raining... and we had to walk to and from the place back to the car... and my stupid umbrella got quite badly damaged by the strong wind... it flipped the other way twice... and everyone's so cold and wet... i was freezing cos i wore sandals and my feet were soaked... and when we got home, prisy suggested that we should stay up abit more cos it was rare that the three of us are home at the same time... so we stayed up till 33o am playing "Da Lao Er"... how sad... and needless to say... the next day at work... i was yawning all the way and my head was pounding...

and what happened yesterday was... cos i went for driving, and when i got mr akbarian to drop me off at work, the carpark at work was not opened and i thought i dun have to work cos the whole place looked dark... so i thought must be power failure... but when we drove past the supermarket... all the shops were closed except woolies... it was still bright and pple were inside doing their groceries... i was like sian man... i was excited there for a minute thinking i did not have to work... it was power failure and the surrounding houses and streets were affected but woolies got their own power generator... and mon is a public holiday and we are planning to go to the city, so hopefully it will not be raining so heavily...

A YEaR fOR moViNg...

this year is definitely a year of moving for me... we are moving both over here and back in singapore... over here, we are moving this month, to a further suburb called dural... it's going to be really inconvenient to go anywhere in future, cos there is no nearby train station... and back in singapore, we are also moving at the end of the year, to somewhere near kovan mrt station... and i am really upset about the fact that i will not be able to be there to look at the place i called home for the last 15 years for the last time... and it will not be as convenient as the place we are living in now either...

3 more weeks to go before clinicals end... now i am having a headache bcos i still have not thought of a topic for my presentation... and i want to do it asap cos we will be moving and i will not have any time to prepare... but i just dunno what to present on... i dun want it to be boring either... any suggestions anyone??

WiNtER is FiNaLLy Here...

placement last week was really sucky cos matt was off sick for the whole week and i had to follow the other OTs... and towards the end of the week, i was ready to give up OT, bcos nobody told me that i had to write so much stuff just for one initial interview... and whenever i write once, they checked it over and i had to rewrite it... i was so freaking sick of writing by the end of last week, it was so not funny...

other than placement, nothing much happening... work was as usual... a long weekend is coming up next week and i have already taken a day off from placement on the friday, so i will have an extended weekend... and i am really itching to go karaoke... but nobody can go with me... everybody's at placement and prisy's working weekends and i also usually work weekends... but i really want to go karaoke and eat my spicy beef...

driving is also going well... learning some techniques to make sure that my reverse parking is consistent... and i am going to take the driving test hopefully in the first week of july... really hoping that i will pass the test and then i can start looking around for a car... that's why i am trying to work as much as i can now...

and this month, so many pple's birthday... but unable to celebrate with them on the actual days... Huimin, Piyo, Zhenzhen, Mel, Karen and pong... Happy Birthday!!!!

FReeZiNg... Brr...

second week of clinicals... well mostly initials again, and if it's a straight forward initial, matt usually get me to do it on my own... which was good cos i dun get so nervous anymore... a few home visits... and got to observe in on splint making... definitely not easy, cos you have to hold the pen perpendicularly to the paper and i have trouble doing that... have to present on the topic of motor neurone disease next week... so have to start preparing for it...

driving... almost have 40 hours already... but still quite unsafe driving cos i almost hit another car last tuesday when i was trying to change lanes and i did not see the other car in my blind spot... both mr akbarian and I got a bad scare... reverse parking and three point turns still not good yet... especially doing reverse parking on top of a hill...

been watching the japanese series called gokusen... both I and II... very funny, but the plots were very similar, and the students in part II are much cuter than in part I... pong asked me to watch the show a few times already... but i haven't got the time till now... and i got hooked... but also quite lame in certain parts like when the teacher always appear when they are fighting and there's this heroic music playing in the background... highly recommended... although it's a pretty old show like the first part came out in 2002 and the second one came out in 2005... and there's this really cute guy in the show... called hayami mokomichi... haha...

NoT thAT cOLD yET...

last weekend was one of the most tiring weekends ever... worked ten hours on both days and my feet were killing me... and bcos it's mother's day too, there were so few people in the shop and it was sooo boring... the only highlight of my day was the fact that i saw isabel!!! i was so surprised to see her... apparently she heard my voice and i was actually cleaning the registers and i heard someone call me... i turned around and there she was... was really glad to see her actually... cos we did not get to say goodbye properly on our last day at northcott... and too bad i could not talk to her longer cos there were customers waiting and she also had to leave already... yeah that was probably the most exciting thing that happened last weekend... called home and wished mummy happy mother's day... informed them that i am thinking of getting a car and they were like dun get a second hand car... blah blah blah...

then on wed... received a letter from uni saying that i got a scholarship of $5000... yay... gave myself a good pat on the back for working hard last year and although i really hated the group work that we did last year... they actually came back with good marks, which probably helped... and i have to attend this ceremony to receive my certificate next month... it will be held in the main campus in the castle... it would be nice if it was actually my graduation... isn't it...

we're really moving next month... so auntie and uncle are starting to pack all their stuff... looking at some furnitures cos apparently the house that we are moving into has two living rooms... the headache that i am having is after i move, i dunno how i am going to go and come back from uni... transport's really going to be a problem...

WiNtEr's CoMiNg...

Auntie and Uncle came back from singapore on sunday... called home and found out that pong is working friday, saturday and sunday and she started school at nyp two weeks ago, so I am quite worried she might not be able to cope... but she said she can still cope at the moment, so we'll see how... if things get too stressful, she would be better off not working... cos I know I get quite stressed sometimes working and studying... and also kept encouraging her to go swimming in the pool at nyp... it's so big and nice and clean... dun waste the opportunity to use the pool since it's there anyways...

this week is the first week of clinical placement 3B... at westmead hospital for 7 weeks... and luckily it is quite near to the station, like it's within walking distance... and i have been assigned to a male supervisor in the neurology/neurosurgery ward... it is quite boring actually, cos for the past few days, all i have been doing is initial interviews and writing the progress notes... and i have only been to one home visit so far... it's pretty challenging, but i wish there's more that i could learn... do different stuff... maybe more interesting stuff will come up in the coming weeks hopefully... but the thing about working in a hospital setting is that i dunno abt other wards, but at our ward, some of the patients have cameras cos they are in danger of getting a seizure... what happened was if the alarm sounds, that means that the patient is having a seizure, and you will see the nurses and doctors sprinting into the room... the first time it happened, i was like what the hell is going on... but after realising what it meant, it was quite an eye-opener...

other than going to clinicals every day from monday to friday, i have no life at all... cos by the time i arrive home, i am so tired already... and i sleep really early every day now... becoming like an old woman... oh and btw, we are moving house next month... to a new suburb called dural... very very inconvenient cos there is no train station nearby...

oh and btw, Happy Birthday Huimin!!!

IN frOnT oF mY LapTop All dAy...

been watching this japanese series called my boss my hero this past two days... the show is very funny but at the same time, quite sad and meaningful too... and it's kind of different from the typical lovey-dovey series... it's a story abt this gangster whose father is the leader of the triad but he is quite bad in his studies before and all he is good at is fighting, drinking and all the 'bad' stuff... so his father told him that if he wants to be the next leader of the triad, he has to go back to school... and so the show is abt his school life and how after attending the high school, he realised that there are alot of things that he can learn... very touching sometimes also... anyway, i would give it a 7.5, highly recommended show... haha...

the whole of last week has been spent on watching series, and there was this japanese series called Ichi Rittoru no Namida (1 litre of tears)... and the show is about this 15 year old girl who found out that she has this incurable illness called spinocerebellar degeneration... this disease is fatal, first affecting her legs, so she can't walk, then her hands, so she can't write, and then she can't talk and swallow and it's like she's just lying on the bed waiting to die... and the show is abt her battle with the illness and how she did not give up... the show was sooo sad... i think i really cried so much that it is really worth 1 litres of tears... and it was based on a true story... although the show is really sad, i still highly recommend it to everyone... a very meaningful show...

and the last week of my break before i start on another block of placement was spent watching hongkong serials... went back to uni on friday for the placement briefing... same old boring stuff... we were supposed to celebrate angela's belated birthday but did not in the end, cos we did not manage to get a cake for her... so we postponed to after the placement and then we'll celebrate angela, mel and karen's birthday altogether...

Amelia's birthday dinner at eastwood...

PiCtUrEs FroM EasTer RoAdtrip...

At kangaroo valley... look at all the cows...

kangaroo valley... so pretty...

Isn't the scenery beautiful??!! Taken when we were doing the bridge walk...

How huge is the cliff??!!

Taken at a chinese temple at Wollongong...

RaiNiNg heAviLy...

monday was the last day of placement at northcott... went out for lunch with the two teams, MFS and PSOS... had thai food... the food was only okay not that great... and they were really nice to treat us too... after that, we did our final evaluation and tidied up the stuff and I was off... said goodbye to everyone and wished them luck in their future... and hopefully we might be able to work together next time... now I have two weeks break before starting the next placement at westmead hospital...

last saturday, i finally got my new woolies uniform, after being in white for so long, it felt weird being in green... and the uniform was quite uncomfortable actually... still working during the weekends, nothing much happening at work...

driving... i have officially clocked 30 hours of driving now... drove to the airport and back today... very long journey and it was raining quite heavily along the way too... on the way back, i was feeling quite sleepy already... but if things go well, i should be able to get my red Ps by july... and i am trying to save money to buy a small car now...