GooDBYe, 2015!

Xmas eve- work was so boring, I pretty much only saw like 2 patients but we had a really sumptuous breakfast, did the whole cheers and selfie thing, and even got to go home at 1330... had pizza for dinner, and then drove to chatswood mandarin to watch the chinese movie Mojin... it was ok... had to pay more cos it is in 3D format...

Xmas day- pretty much was a sloth the whole day, did some cleaning though... read my books and OMG, I found another really excellent website where I found some books which I thought I would never be able to read, was pretty excited about this...

Boxing day- went to eastwood initially wanting to eat the fried chicken but the people running the restaurant was pretty rude cos they saw us waiting outside but still continued to pretend they did not see us... so we decided to boycott that restaurant and went to the one outside aldi instead... and then did some grocery shopping after... bought us a new printer... it was on special, and was cheaper than the original one we had... bargain!

27th Dec- roadtrip to Bowral! high expectations, cos I have always wanted to stay at the Gibraltar hotel... went for lunch at Rashays, but did not realise they would have surcharge... oh well... then drove to bowral, did a quick detour to this famous pastry shop, OMG the whole town was pretty crowded that day... the pastry was pretty small... it was jam packed with people inside, and there was no labelling what the little cakes were, so people were spending time asking what is what... including me... decided to buy this caramel slice and choc mousse cake, when I exited the shop, the queue was already heading towards the road, yup, crazy! the mousse cake was nice, but did not like the caramel slice... we finally arrived at the hotel, the room was really nice, we had 2 separate queen beds to ourselves, and the room was a good size... the onyl complaint I had was the really flat pillow... SOOOO much better than Peppers... boycotting that one... went to check out the sights around, and the weather was so nice that day... and then went for our massage included in the package... it was definitely NOT relaxing, cos the masseuse applied quite a bit of pressure especially at my back and legs... but it was nice, and we both agreed that they have changed their layout... after that, went back to the room, showered (btw, the shower was so nice, just the type I like, with the high pressure hose), and then returned to my reading, SBS was showing the running man episode in Brisbane... so watched that for abit... 

28th Dec- went for the complimentary breakfast but unfortunately, whether it was becos it was so crowded or it's usually like that, the food was only ok, not that fantastic... was disappointed with the breakfast... checked out, and then drove back home... slept for awhile once we got home... and now back to reality ie 2 days back at work... sian...

圣诞节快点到。。。

rehab christmas dinner was much better than the department one... the food was better, especially the chicken skewers and the garlic sauce, the only thing is they don't indicate what meat is those rolls, so I barely touched them... and then after dinner, Dr Chu treated all of us to ice cream and we sat and chatted for awhile... Shelby was EVERYWHERE, climbing, running, throwing food... poor Kara could not even sit still and eat her dinner properly... and in the end, she had to leave early... and then Sharon Wong, Kim, Deanna and I decided to go play laser tag just across the parking lot, and it was at a discounted price as well for 2 games... the first game we had to join with a bigger group, but the second game we got to play amongst ourselves, and it was really fun but tiring... it was good night all in all... 

saturday... went to chatswood westfield to check out the new asian themed foodcourt, and becos we got there early, the stalls were not ready yet, and in the end, only the malaysian stall food was nice... everything else was not very appetizing... and then went to buy ben and jerrys ice cream in preparation for the christmas weekend... it was scorching hot that day!

sunday... worked in the morning, got to go home and change and then it was room escape at parapark... we managed to escape with about 13 minutes left on the clock, but I did not feel the thrill as compared to the ones at the enigma room or the escape hunt one... after that, went to eat at the shanghai place at eastwood cos michelle wanted to eat the dumplings... ended up waiting for approx 20 mins before we had a seat, and it was PACKED... and not to mention, scorching hot, and all 7 of us had to squeeze into the booth... it was not pleasant... the food was not fantastic... not worth waiting that long really... after that, got persuaded into hanging out at prisy's and of course, played the candy game again... seriously, we have wasted HOURS of our lives playing that game... 

3 more days to Christmas, 6 more days to our roadtrip, and approx 6 more weeks to going home! michelle and I decided that we are going to split the bill for an overnight stay at the Marina Bay Sands hotel... yay!

FASt fOrwaRD...

department xmas dinner this year was held at river canyon at parramatta, OMG! it was BAD!, the food was crap, and still have to queue so long, and the performance was so sleazy and unsynchronized and cringeworthy... can't believe I wasted $60 on that! the only good thing about the whole night was the good company I had, had lots of laughs with Nhung, Fang, Krusha and Rhia... and got to visit Rhia's house prior to the dinner as well... 

Celebrated Uncle's birthday at Palsaik, the food was only ok, actually, maybe we had really high expectations of the place, cos Prisy kept saying how good it was... Michelle is back for holidays for the next 3 weeks... so went to badminton with Prisy and Michelle that weekend, and she was really LOUD and embarrassing... but it was good session that day actually... and then played my ticket to ride game, finally, someone willing to play the game with me... but becos I have not played it for so long, the rules had to be reviewed again... and played Wii and watched the korean movie The Masquerade again... it was such a GOOD movie, and I cried again at the last scene with the bodyguard... 

had our department xmas lunch today... it was chicken, chips, some salad and desserts... the chicken did not look very appetising, hence only ate chips and dessert... Kara was my secret santa and I only knew becos I was the only one who did not receive a present and Kara was like... your PRESENT definitely was in the pile... haha! in the end, she got me a mist fan as well as desk fan, but did not realise that the desk fan needed a power supply... but that's ok, I left the mist fan on my table at work, and brought home the desk fan to use at home... Shelby is so cute, but can't imagine having to watch her 24/7, cos she goes and climbs everywhere... Deanna was my recipient so gave her the Japanese mug set, bought her some tea towels and a bar of soap... 

Looking forward to the room escape game this sunday, and then our roadtrip again to Bowral... finally we get to stay at the Gibraltar!!! it better be awesome! very high expectations indeed... hopefully the weather will be cool and sunny that day!

HANd hYgiENe...

Learnt another lesson this weekend... WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE EATING!!!

sooo... met up with Reem at Newington for Japanese on Friday after work, food was ok... nothing fantastic, despite how she was raving about it... after dinner, she invited me over to her house, it was pretty messy, and she had dogs and one of them would not stop barking the entire time I was there... she also had a garden full of vegetables, fruits and herbs which she planted, and so we had a tour around, then she released her dogs out the cage, and we sat and watched the movie Antman... which was also only ok... and she was burning this incense smelling thing which was giving me a headache... and before the movie started, she passed me a huge bowl of popcorn, and I just started taking some to eat without thinking to wash my hands, and was like, ok... this is pretty tasteless and gross, definitely not going to be able to eat this... so I had to say to Reem no thanks... and then by the time I finished the movie, it was pretty late, and by the time I got home, I was exhausted...

the next day, I had the splinting workshop at work... my tummy started to feel not so good the night before, so I ate some Norit and went to bed, and by like lunch time, my tummy started cramping intermittently, and was feeling nauseous, and by the time the workshop ended, I was like so sorry Nhung, don't think we can go out for afternoon tea like we planned, got into Hyungie, ate more Norit, and it did not help that it was boiling hot that day as well... made it to Rosehill before having to pull over becos the cramping and nausea was worsening... I really thought I was going to throw up in Hyungie... so I slept for abit hoping to tide it over so I can continue driving... thank goodness... the feeling of nausea improved, made it home finally and crawled into bed... did not even have dinner that night, woke up briefly to shower, and went back to bed...

this morning, the nausea has gone but still getting intermittent cramping in the tummy... but still managed to go play badminton with the girls and had lunch, and watched the last hunger games in the movie... thank goodness I am off work tomorrow... 

NO one to blame except myself for my stupidity... hopefully no one else got infected by me... yikes!

anyway, work-wise... found out that Gemma will be heading over to Geri-rehab from next year onwards, so who knows who will be covering until the new grad starts, and whilst I am away in Feb 2016...

COUNtDoWN to XmAs StartS...

sooo... did I mention that I am obsessed over the show 我的少女时代... yup, obsessed to the point that we went to the movies again to watch the movie over the weekend, and I illegally recorded some of the good parts on my phone, and watching them over and over, and the song 小幸运 is still on repeat mode on the phone to and from work... definitely going to purchase the dvd when it comes out...

anyway, met up with yochi and the girls over the weekend, had lunch at petaling street and then had this green tea ice cream after, but not very nice, then we shopped around for awhile and then pongie and I went for karaoke whilst waiting for the movie to start... the theatre was pretty packed actually but luckily we decided to wait for the later session and got good seats which meant that I could record parts of the movie... 

work-wise, all I can say, I am the WORST student supervisor ever! forgot all about my student on day 2 of placement, and then its her last week already and I did not even think to organise some sort of farewell until Rhia reminded me today, and I even had a mental blank then, I am the WORST! I think I am just not focusing really... just going through the motions these few weeks until the xmas break comes along and when my holidays finally comes around... 

there are a few farewells, baby shower, lunches and dinners coming up in the next few weeks leading up to xmas... no specific plans over xmas and new year yet, I think the plan is to be a sloth really... other than that, just back to reading my online books... and did I mention that yochi is having another baby boy???

小幸运。。。

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sQSXwdtxlY

OK, I am officially obsessed over this movie that pongie and I decided last minute to watch last saturday, cos it happened to be the only mandarin movie showing at hoyts mandarin centre... OMG! it is the best movie of the year for me, as well as best song of the year!!! it is sooo very good, 9/10, the only thing was the ending, it was pretty open ended and I did not really feel the chemistry between chen qiao en and yan cheng xu... I have been watching the movie on repeat despite the very poor quality, as well as listening to the song which Hebe sang on repeat every day to and from work... that's pretty much my life right now...

work-wise, it's only day 3 into my aged care rotation and I am already missing my MRT so badly... not the patients, but the team... and the freedom and flexibility I had in MRT... especially ADOs and leave... dunno how I am going to survive in aged care for a whole year... although, today, whilst seeing a patient, I was almost tearing up, seeing and hearing that she was so debilitated by her condition that she could not go buy underwear, and then seeing her cry, and then the elderly lady next to her started crying as well... and then seeing and hearing the 2 elderly patients hug each other knowing that they probably may never see other again... I was almost starting to cry along with them... there are going to be many changes in the upcoming months in terms of staffing...

HOpe mY baTTeriEs stay aliVE unTil XMas breAK...

workwise, more movement in the office again, Laura returned as a casual in aged care part-time... Gemma got the temporary position in geri-rehab, rumors are that Nicole will be back in aged care in Jan 2016 for 6 weeks and then going off again for another year of maternity leave... don't get me started on the unfairness of this whole situation... Bec's going off on maternity leave soon... and Krusha is pregnant... and my rehab farewell has come and gone today... went out to panthers for my farewell dinner, most of the people whom I worked with previously all came, and we had a great time... it was good to hear feedback and compliments from different staff members... and we really had a good and open chat about the whole rehab and MRT permanent funding situation... received some presents as well... which was really nice... I am definitely going to miss MRT and the people, despite the challenges along the way as well as frustrations... Can't say that I am looking forward to going to aged care though... We'll see... christmas parties coming up, both department and rehab as well as the department xmas lunch...

Otherwise, nothing very much happening... rewatching some old movies, reading my books... looking forward to the Xmas and New Year holidays for a bit of battery charging, and then our holiday back home in Feb 2016...

DonE & dUsTeD...

YES! finished this semester... done and dusted... just waiting for final results now with the assignments, so far, so good actually... decided to enrol for one module per semester next year and see what happens... 

went for our little roadtrip to bowral on thurs... pouring with rain, traffic was horrendous, took us almost 2 hours to get there, tried this scottish arms pub at bowral and decided it was a once-off thing... the spa at Milton Park was really nice, but getting there was not very road-friendly, and especially not when its raining... we were both anticipating a similar nice experience at Peppers this time, but was sorely disappointed, both with the room, and the breakfast... so I provided them with very constructive feedback and hopefully they will be receptive and actually do something about it... definitely not going back there again unless they improve...

nothing very much happening, except my rotation into aged care, my farewell from rehab, xmas, the only exciting thing to look forward to is our trip back home in Feb 2016...

为什么。。。

urrghhh... another interview for a permanent fulltime position as a rehab senior at Woy Woy hospital and I stuffed it up! at this rate, I will probably retire at Nepean Hospital... can't believe it... I always go, oh man, I should have said this and that AFTER the damn interview... I am just really annoyed at myself... and irritated that how come other people seem to find jobs so easily and for me it seems so difficult...

anyway, work-wise, rotations is definitely happening on 23 Nov, and of course, I forgot that I had agreed to taking a student and now I have study leave for 2 days on the first week of placement and then rotating into aged care, hence Michelle Rhia and I decided that the student will keep the caseload and Rhia will assist with supervision for the last 2 weeks of placement... caseload wise... still the same, did the inservice on our QI project with Dr Chu and Kara on Friday just to wrap this project up before I rotate... 

really not looking forward to doing the last few assignments for uni... the bright side is that with all my initial plans changed, I decided to be a little dodgy, and booked our post-uni roadtrip to Bowral during my 2 days of study leave... 

Really starting to enjoy these weekend badminton days, cos we get to exercise and then go eat yummy food after, and then watch Running Man and then play candy game... yup, we are STILL playing the candy game and wasting hours of our lives away... 

Xmas is coming up soon, and no plans yet for the holiday period, nowhere really to go, cos everywhere is either closed or too expensive... probably sloth at home... 

oh and did I mention that Jo is pregnant! OMG!

I JiNxEd MySELf...

ok, this post is purely for me to debrief and vent... had a really shitty day today with a particular pt and his family member... basically, they were not happy with my proposed home mods plans, called it simply stupid and saying stuff like not knowing what I am doing... and pretty much got yelled at today... really looking forward to getting this all situation and mess sorted and get this pt transferred out... of course of all the rehab facilities he is going to, it has to be the one closest to me, and home... S.H.I.T! this is a complete and utter nightmare :( literally... really hoping that everything will be over soon and in a good way...

played badminton on the weekend for the first time after sooo very long... it was actually quite fun, although it was freaking hot... my skills were not as rusty as I thought they would be... but the downside was that my arms and legs were sooo very sore for the next 3 days... pretty sure we will be going again but maybe not every week... even sitting on the toilet seat was painful... that was how very bad it was...

StreSSfuL TiMes AheAD...

forgot to mention in my last blog that I celebrated my 5th year anniversary at Nepean Hospital on 20th September 2015... OMG, can't believe it's been 5 years already, and driving approx 3 hours every day to and from work... and hyungie's odometer passed 100 000 km today... say goodbye to ever being able to resell hyungie in the future...

anyway, many farewells coming up in the next few weeks, drama at rehab last week as well, so now they have pulled michelle and charmaine over to help nhung, wonder for how long... and dunno if this is going to be good or bad news, but Rhia got the position for the rotations program, which means that she will be coming into MRT next... who knows when this is going to happen with all the drama happening now... and aged care will be short of staff when I rotate as well, brilliant :( 

My Feb leave had better be approved, otherwise...

good news is... I get to handover some of my things to do for the 2 N1G patients to Michelle... it was actually good that I got to sit down and have a chat with Dr Chu the other day, just to get a perspective about where MRT is heading in the future... anyway, there is nothing much I can do at this stage except to plod along and go with the flow of things... and Dr Chu seems to be pleased about the way I have been working in MRT, so that was good to hear as well... 

celebrated prisy and christine's 30th on the weekend, drove out to the city, sang karaoke, ate korean fried chicken which was really yummy btw, and had lindt for dessert... and then went back to her place to watch star trek 2... all in all not a bad day despite the rain... and then went out with them for dinner again on monday at hog's breath... i think we had it once at newcastle a really long time ago... the food was not too bad actually...

anyway, happy 3rd anniversary to us moving to our home at Waitara today! the landscape both interior and exterior have changed quite abit since we moved in... 

Nothing really much to look forward to except finishing up this semester and hopefully taking some time off for another roadtrip, pending the weather... urrghhh... summer is definitely heading our way...

FuLL oF ComPLaiNts...

brief update...

work wise... found out that more people are now leaving, namely Alex for a year, Lisa, Amy, Frances, and Bec on maternity leave... and maybe more as well... also, the interviews for the rotations ended on Friday, and is now looking very likely that we will be rotating in Nov 2015 now... this is going to be interesting for all involved... work still is very busy, juggling 2 major mods down in 1G and patients on MRT... and having to work on my uni assignments at the same time... 

a tiny piece of good news in relation to uni is that I got back my results for my 1st essential tools assignment, and got Distinction... Yay! I was very excited despite not really knowing what I was doing and not knowing if I was actually on the right track... still, the whole confidence interval and p values continue to baffle and stress me out... now cross my fingers and toes hoping that all my assignments will be equally good... decided that I would only do one module per semester from next year cos 2 modules per semester is very draining... but that means that I will take 4 years to complete this degree... urgghh... 

otherwise, nothing really much happening... nothing really to look forward to, becos of all these work and uni stuff and rotations stuff hanging over my head... got really annoyed with Elisha yesterday for cancelling on me last minute, and disappointed I guess, of a loss in this friendship... rewatched huanzhu 1 and 2, liu xing hua yuan 1 and xian jian the last few weeks... gosh, you have no idea how much I cried in the last episode for xian jian, it was freaking ridiculous :( 

planning to start catching up on my in death books now that the new one is already out... but it's really hard when I still have uni stuff hanging over my head, so can't fully relax and read properly... urrghh... why did I decide to do this again??!! I must be out of my mind!

HAppY 30Th...

so recap of my birthday celebrations!

22 Aug 2015- work celebrations part 1 outside of work... room escape was sooo fun! but the puzzles were more difficult that the one at Enigma Room... after that, went for drinks at Lindt cos it was sooo hot that day... and then Rennie suggested that we go on this ferris wheel... korean bbq dinner was very disappointing :( don't think the rest likes the food either... definitely don't mind going back to the room escape and play the other room!

23 Aug 2015- had lunch with prisy et al at Bondi Pizza at Top Ryde... it was ok, the dessert was probably the best part of the lunch though... found out that there was a Schnitz there as well, tried it in Melbourne last year and it was not bad... 

24 Aug 2015- day off... don't think we did much actually that day... can't really remember except that papa broke the vacuum cleaner hose and we had to send it in for replacement...

26 August 2015- Happy 30th! got a really pleasant surprise when I walked into work becos there was balloons all over my desk, and number 30 confetti and a sign that says happy birthday... multiple birthday songs were sang as well... went for morning tea with the team, pizza lunch was alittle stressful cos it was running late and people were getting antsy... and I baked both my infamous flourless chocolate cake and pandan cake... got good feedback about the flourless chocolate cake, not sure about the pandan cake... went out for korean dinner at the hornsby korean restaurant... the food there is actually really nice and so much better than O Bal Tan... was also touched by all the birthday wishes on Facebook, even from people who are not on my friends list... 

28 August 2015- went to auntie's house for laksa dinner... yummy! Christine and prisy bought me lots of expensive chocolatey stuff from Royce and Max Brenner's... 

29 August 2015- bye bye papa! went to karen's new house for hotpot dinner... it is a townhouse, but don't really like the setup of the place... and the food was not that great either... another round of birthday song was sang... amelia's son is quite cute, and yochi announced that she is pregnant again. Congrats! 

30 August 2015- worked the MAU shift that day... the downside is... having to finish up the assignment throughout my birthday celebrations week was annoying... oh well, I am really hoping that I know what I am doing and that I get great marks... 

3 Sept (Wed)- mid week informal celebrations just with pongie at home, opened one of the wines which we bought from hunter valley, cheese and she bought me the really expensive chocolate mud cake from Pattisons... 

other than that, still working through my uni work pretty much every night... still watching masterchef... watched mission impossible at the movies whilst papa was here... nothing really much to look forward to atm... found out that Gavin's coming back to work for the next 3 months and then he is off to travelling again... how nice to be young and with no responsibilities... and also found out that elisha and lisa have resigned... and that the rotations program ad finally was advertised but we are all predicting that it will be a slow process... and Frances is planning to resign once she gets offered a new position as well... krusha finished up her fulltime position today and kara is starting 3 days from next week... workload wise, it has been pretty hectic, trying to juggle both MRT and 1G patients...

生病了。。。

noted a tiny error in the date of the commencement of my Masters degree modules... it should be 20 July not August. Small good news in relation to this is that I was successful in my STEP application for funding of $7500 for this financial year... so now that the degree has commenced, my nights both weekdays and weekends are pretty much working on my online postings, reading the never-ending journals (I think I have approx 100 articles waiting to be read atm and counting)... maybe that's why I have been sick with a cold for the last 2 weeks... got better after the first week but now it's back again... and I have been off sick for like 2 days already in the last 2 weeks... 

anyway, my birthday month yay! it would be alot better if I am NOT sick with the cold and not studying pretty much every night... anyway... what do u do... 8 August 2015- went to play our second attempt at room escape at Enigma room and it was SO much better than the one at Kingsford... the puzzles were really creative and we successfully got out with about 1.5 mins to spare... after that, went to Marga's new place to play Wii... we better be careful, becos it is looking like we are getting hooked to another 'ghost-catcher' game in addition to the candy game... 9 August- HAppy National Day Singapore! did not watch the parade live cos pongie and I were at the Hunter Valley... beautiful day... went to try this new dessert bar called Sabor at the Hunter, got overexcited at all the choices and ordered 4 different desserts to try, and we were so sick after, the mousse was not the best and we did not even finish the food in the end... went to a few wineries, bought some wine and pongie's cheese, and of course, went for our spa massage, it was really nice... the only thing that would make it better would be that they had separate showers, cos it was not the easiest to shower with only one hose and 2 people, and a time limit... but the place was BEAUTIFUL... would not mind going back to the spa again... and accommodation was also pretty nice... and we saw kangaroos as well... breakfast was abit disappointing this time, becos it was not packaged and we decided to save some money... 10 August- day off... unpacked, and watched the replay of the parade... 

anyway... nothing much exciting, other than Papa coming for the next 2 weeks... until the 22 August for the work celebration and then my actual birthday at work... we are ordering pizza for lunch... and then hopefully the dinner at Karen's is still going ahead... the only thing is that throughout my special month, I have to keep working on the assignments due at the end of the month and in Sept... :(

COUnt DowN to NatiONaL DaY...

I know that I have not really done any postings recently, but that's bcos there really wasn't alot to talk about for the last few weeks... Masterchef finally ended yesterday, and we were all glad that Billie won, the Heston's dessert which they had to do was seriously difficult and challenging... anyway, we are now rewatching old episodes of Masterchef, yup, that's how addicted we are to the show :)

health wise, not good, my teeth has finally healed, so back to full diet for a while now, cyst thing, no more antibiotics, and I have not needed to apply the cream for the last few days... and it does look like it is healing slowly... thank goodness, God knows how much I spent on bandages, creams and antibiotics for this... pongie now has a new problem of high insulin levels and now have to start taking medications... crap... I always tell myself we have to control our crap intake, but really hard to resist :(

work wise... some changes in acute, aged care and rehab teams... Kate is back from maternity leave, highly unlikely that Laura is coming back, and Kara will be coming back in Sept for 3 days/week... no idea what is happening to our rotations program, we were told that community TACP is definitely on the cards, but who knows when this is actually going to happen... 

birthday plans wise... so far only 10 people confirmed coming along to my birthday event on 22 Aug... room escape and korean BBQ... also, prisy and gang got us hooked onto this WII game of candy mania... we played till like 2300 the other day... we also decided to go play room escape in the city on 8 Aug... and pongie and I have just confirmed that we are going on a hunter valley roadtrip on 9 Aug, and yes, we did not really want to go on  National Day but papa may be coming to visit around my birthday dates, so we did not want to risk not going, so yes, really looking forward to this nice little break and massage... and the plan for my actual birthday is pizza for lunch at work... and going to Karen's new house for dinner on 29 Aug, tentatively at this stage... so definitely looking forward to the month of Aug...

which now brings me to...yes... the start of my Masters degree, yes, started on 20 Aug, no exams but there are a few assignments, and weekly postings to do... hopefully I will do well this semester, still no word on funding yet...

It'S So GOOd to SEe yoU WinTER...

so it now has been 2 weeks since I returned to work, wisdom teeth wise... still have 2 holes on both right and left side of my mouth... and food keeps getting stuck in them, which is annoying, cos I have to clean my teeth out after every meal... cyst wise... yup, it is still ongoing, still having to take antibiotics and apply cream and change dressings every day... anyway, during the 2 weeks I was off work, I was pretty much on an In Death marathon and now we are hooked on Masterchef...

work wise... sort of busy at times, some changes, so we have been told that Sam the new grad will be covering the 3 days for probably the next 6 months, not the option I would have preferred... changes also in the acute and aged care teams... the new grad rotation happened, and Grace resigned... so now the situation is that acute team has pretty much a full team and aged care is short on staff... still no word on our TACP rotation yet... 

Damn, we did not get the national day parade tickets, so I have decided not to go back in August and wait until maybe Feb next year instead... Well, the thing I am looking forward to now is starting on my studies, and my 30th birthday celebrations... It will be EPIC!!

一波未平， 一波再起。。。

oh man, one problem after another... so finally had my 4 wisdom teeth removed on MOnday, and it is very sore, the worse thing is the fact that I still am not able to chew food, and I am constantly surrounded by food that I am craving to eat... so for the past 5 days, it has been soups, porridge, milkshakes, and ice cream and milo for meals... and as if this is not enough, I developed this infection on my sebaceous cyst thing which has been there for the last 2 years without any issues, dunno if it is becos of the bites I had, or the fluvax which I got last week, anyway, it became really red and swollen, and so painful all of a sudden, and now on top of the pain in my mouth, I now have constant pain in my right tummy area, the GP had to give me a local anaesthetic yesterday and made a cut through it to release the crap in it, and I have to spend more money on antibiotics, cream and dressings... Jesus... I simply cannot catch a break... so now I am on regular painkillers, anitibiotics, mouthwashes on top of not being able to eat proper foods... this is a joke... 

anyway, I am hoping that the pain starts improving otherwise there is no way I can go back to work like this on tues...

BAck to UsuaL RouTinE...

so anyway, been back at work for 2 weeks now, work was so very busy for the last 1.5 weeks actually, I was told that they had 10 pts consistently whilst I was away, and the acute team had to cover quite alot as well... found out that Owen and Lauren have resigned... and that Nat's permanent 2 days position have been approved, but that there will be no replacement once Lauren leaves... and now that we have a new registrar, she is so clueless, and everything is all over the place, which goes to say none of us in the team are happy atm... we have 2 new staff members in the dept, both Asians... and I am sharing a student with Jo in June... and I have also enrolled in 2 units in the masters program... also, got asked to attend interview for the STEP program which I applied for like ages ago... sounds like it's only funding for the next financial year only though... attending the Backstreet Boys concert with Yin and other PTs tomorrow night, so that should be interesting... 

oh and did I also mention that besides my wisdom tooth issues, I was bitten by God knows what when I was in Brussels, and I was so worried that it was chicken pox that I went to the GP the day we arrived home... so anyway, she prescribed me with anti-histamine and gave me cream to apply, but although it is not as itchy as before, it is still itchy at times... and people are telling me it does not look like bedbugs, so who knows... 

anyway, took sick leave today cos I had to go see the eye specialist which cost me a fortune, and then the oral surgeon who recommended that I remove all 4 wisdom teeth, and just found out that I am only covered very minimally on BUPA, which meant that I am having to fork out thousands of dollars for this surgery under general anaesthetics again... just declare me bankrupt already! need to start cutting down on unnecessary expenses... and also, I was told that I would not be receiving funding for the bariatric course so no, I am not going then, seeing as how I have to pay for so many things... so nothing really much to look forward except this surgery coming up which I will take a week off for, and then student placement, and oh, we have put in our ballots for NDP tix, so I am still hoping to go back even for 2 weeks to attend the NDP celebration...

HeLLO EuROpe and LondON...

4 April 2015- Goodbye Sydney and Hello brief stopover in Singapore to see nainai and uncle jeffrey, and of course, pick up mum and papa. Also had my long awaited fishball noodles... and then it was time to board the very long 13 hour flight to Rome :(

5 April 2015- Hello raining Rome! the immigration officers did not even bother to look at us before stamping our passports haha... it was pouring with rain when we walked out of the terminal and boarded an express bus to the city where our booked accomodation was located... good thing was the accomodation was only across the road from the bus stop, bad thing was we had no umbrellas and heaps of luggages... and we could not check in until later, so we had to deposit our luggages and roam the train terminal to pass time... the accomodation which we had was let's say, not the best and not somewhere I would stay again... despite the pouring rain, we decided to catch a train to visit the Colosseum, and when we got there, despite the rain, it was also quite crowded and there were queues... unbelievable... so we decided to just take some pictures and explored the surroundings before going back to the accomodation place and having our first italian dinner... which of course included pasta and pizza... we pretty much had margherita pizzas most of the time we ate... cos none of the other selections appealed... 

6 April 2015- decided to go check out the Colosseum again, and of course, the queues were even longer cos the weather changed for the better... pongie and I decided to skip the queues and pay more to get into the Colossuem, it was probably one of my favourites tourist attraction out of all the places we went to... I thought the money was well spent... it was just mind-blowing how these Romans in the past thought of ways to build the structure and use it for so many purposes in the past... and after that, the tour also included the Roman Forum, but pongie and I were quite tired already and hungry after the actual tour that we skipped the free and easy walk through the actual forum... which was pretty disappointing cos it was again another piece of history which was hard to fathom how those people did it... 

7 April 2015- today's itinerary is the Vatican City and also this fantasy themed neighbourhood which I found when I was doing some research... Again, there were queues everywhere at the Vatican City, and we decided not to pay more to skip the queues, so we pretty much just hung out and snapped pics outside, which is very pretty I have to say... we had alot of difficulties finding our way to this neighbourhood though, and people in Italy in general I find are not very friendly... we were lucky to have found a lady who spoke English and she directed us to the bus stop which we needed to get off... I was disappointed when we got there though, cos there were not many things to see as opposed to what I saw on the article...

8 April 2015- caught the train from Rome to Florence today, and I was really glad that our accomodation is much better than the one in Rome... and Florence is really pretty, it has got both history and great views... we checked out the town centre, and located this marketplace where they cook the woodfired pizzas on the spot... it was really yummy! but of course, there were queues again to get into the churches, so we did not go into any... 

9 April 2015- decided to catch a local bus to this hilltop area where the views across the city were amazing... and then we had quite a hard time locating this place called Palazzo Pitti, and when we actually found it, it turned out to be nothing that fantastic anyway... but I bought a leather handbag, and papa bought a leather belt in Florence, cos apparently, Florence is the origin of leather goods... so they were meant to be authentic leather... 

10 April 2015- caught a train from Florence to Mestre/Venice... Mestre is a really small and quiet town and becos we wanted to save money of course, papa decided that we should stay in this asian run motel... and again it is not somewhere I would stay again, but the good things were that it was cheap, they were very accomodating to our needs, and friendly... and so we caught the local bus to and from Venice... when we arrived in Venice, I was not exactly impressed, there was a smell, and again, the crowds... but the buildings in the city were quite amazing especially in San Marco Piazza... the shitty thing was I was sooo looking forward to sitting a gondola, but found out that it cost 80 euros each, we decided not to... and papa said that it was no longer authentic anymore... we got lost on our way out, and it was getting dark, and papa kept walking and refusing to ask people...

11 April 2015- day trip to verona via train... and of course, got off at the wrong station, cos we found out later that there were two different stations which began with the name Verona... so we ended up randomly taking a bus and not having enough coins to pay the driver, hence having to alight, and walking the entire way to the city centre, which thankfully, was not that far, maybe a 20mins walk... but once we got there, the place we had lunch was quite nice, the food was pretty good, and we had margherita pizza again of course, what else... visited Juliet's castle and balcony, and just hung around the town...

12 April 2015- another day in Venice, but only to have lunch and dessert at Magnum! that was probably one the main highlights of Venice actually... we also got to eat chinese food at Mestre... reasonable, one restaurant was better than the other though... the fried noodles was really nice, so much so that we ordered 2!

13 April 2015- left Venice and caught an Easyjet flight to London Luton airport... it was very small plane, and we had to queue for such a long time at the counter to be checked in... urgghh... not impressed... and then had to queue again at London Luton immigration counter... and then my first real annoyance on the trip when the stupid and inefficient and non customer friendly airport transfer service stuffed up and I got soo annoyed with the driver... and he dared to ask for more money... yeah keep right on dreaming buddy :( anyway, by the time we actually got to Kings Cross station and found an accomodation place, which btw, it again not somewhere I would choose to stay again... it was night time, so we had burger king for dinner and toured the Kings Cross and St Pancras stations...

14 April 2015- London city tour, visited Buckingham Palace of course, it was a long walk down to the actual palace, Trafalgar square, and decided to go check out our Airbnb accomodation place... and did I also mention that this was my second annoyance of the trip... it was so frustrating to register for Airbnb, urgghh... and we got lost again finding the place... we walked sooo much... and parts of Paddington were full of Middle Eastern people, yeah not a very nice place... when we finally located the place, it was actually on a quiet street and quite pretty townhouses... 

15 April 2015- caught the Eurostar from London St PAncras International to Brussels Midi... disappointed by the quality of the train... and it was not cheap at all... the third disappointment was when we stepped out of the train station, and all you see are black people hanging around the hotel strip along the station... my first thought was great, this was so not what I thought of when I think of Brussels and Belgium... anyway, found an accomodation place which had the biggest room we had for the 4 of us so far... but run by Middle Eastern people... anyway, did I also mention that I simply can never sleep with both pongie and papa in the same room, becos I pretty much get awoken by their loud snores practically every night, and I highly suspect that was why my wisdom tooth flared up later during the trip, even the dentist mentioned it could be a result of food intake and stress levels... anyway, decided to walk to the main city centre, which was again very uncomfortable cos the whole stretch of road was filled with black people and them running shops... and it was a long walk, like 30mins... once we actually got the main city centre though, it was like in a completely different world, like I am back in a European country again, that's how crazy it was... 

16 April 2015- decided to do a hop on and off bus trip... which I thought was money well spent again, cos we did get to see other parts of Brussels, like the Atomium, the parliamentarium, the palaces, churches...

17 April 2015- we actually wanted to see if we could return to London a day earlier but once we found out how much more we had to pay to change the dates, papa suggested going to visit another city rather than staying in Brussels, so we were asking around to find out where else we could go visit as a day trip... and I was lucky to have met this young lady whom suggested we visit Brugge... this was probably one of the best decisions we made, cos Brugge was so pretty, less crowded, and it actually had the European feel to it still... and we got to try a horse ride around the town centre... and we had a really nice lunch in a very nice place too... but my first waffle experience was a disappointment... I was actually seriously considering staying there for one night... but was outvoted... anyway, I would definitely visit there again if the opportunity arises... and I learnt that they speak Flemish in Brugge, which I have never heard of before... 

18 April 2015- another day spent in Brussels... today was basically spending lots of money on chocolates as gifts and for our own consumption... we spent quite ALOT of money on chocolates actually... and visiting the really ridiculous highly hyped up Manneken Pis... which I really did not see what the fuss was about...and we caught the Eurostar back to London in the afternoon... and this day was when my whole wisdom tooth drama is about to unfold... it was gradually building up already a few days before, but that night was horrendous, could not sleep becos of the pain and the snorings... it was a nightmare, and I woke up in the middle night, looked up google to find an emergency dentist... unfortunately it was not 24/7 as advertised on their website... but they got back to me the next day and I booked a dental appt on MOnday...

19 April 2015- OMG, we almost died moving our luggages from Kings Cross, catching a train to Paddington and then hauling our luggages up and down the steps in the train station at Paddington... met up papa's nephew at Chinatown for lunch, OMG, the food was so good, especially the sweet and sour fish... expensive but good... so much better than the asian food here in Sydney... we also visited the M&Ms store there... after lunch, we caught a train to visit the Arcelormittal Orbit, which was a really different structure, but did not pay to go in though... and after that, we thought we would visit the famous London Bridge finally, and found out then that London Bridge is actually a suburb and the famous bridge that we all call 'London Bridge' is actually 'Tower Bridge'. So misleading... so in the end, we did not get to see it that day cos we were all quite tired from all the walking... 

20 April 2015- YAY Harry Potter studios tour! It was expensive, but money well spent I think despite the crowds... took ALOT of pictures and bought some souvenirs, bought a Time Turner keychain for myself, pongie bought a Marauder's MAp mug and we bought Christine a Hermione Granger keychain... unfortunately I then had to go see the dentist cos the pain was stopping me from opening my mouth to eat, chew and the left side of my throat is inflamed... got to the dental clinic... and the dentist pretty much said I need to have the tooth removed ASAP. She gave me a local anaesthetic, and then cleaned the stuff out, and chipped away some of the tooth cos it was causing an ulcer... and she prescribed me with antibiotics to tide me over until I can see a surgeon... and guess how much I paid for the consultation, freaking 200 pounds... and the antibiotics cost 18 pounds... I am so broke... thankfully NRMA travel insurance assured me that these would be covered...

21 April 2015- we also decided to join this Stonehenge/Windsor Castle/Bath day tour... it was very long day and journey though... Windsor Castle tour was quite rushed though, and it also happened to be the Queen's birthday that day too... it was crowded with both tourists and kids though... Stonehenge was alright, it was quite clever how they thought of making money of this historical monument... they built the visitor's centre approx 5 mins away and blocked off the stones from public, so everyone pretty much have to pay for the shuttle buses to ferry you to and from the stones... Bath was pretty, a small town, we visited the Roman Baths of course, also drank the spring water, which tasted really gross btw... 

22 April 2015- decided to go visit Wembley stadium, but did not pay to join the stadium tour, also visited the nearby outlet shopping centre, where we found a lindt shop which was having an easter sale, so of course we bought more chocolates... after that, took a train to Tower Bridge, finally, and hung around the place... I think we went back to Chinatown again for lunch actually, but lunch that day was not as good... 

23 April 2015- decided to go visit Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and then hung around the Natural History Museum that day... it was huge... and admissions to all museums were free, so of course, there were huge crowds as well... had lunch again at Chinatown, and actually found a cinnamon roll shop near M&Ms store... 

24 April 2015- oh and did I mention that even though our Airbnb accomodation is really expensive and there was a lot of stress registering for it initially, the place was actually really nice and comfortable... anyway, last day of our trip and in London, we kind of ran out of places to visit, so pongie and I decided to go visit the Science Museum... and then meet up with mum and papa for lunch in a local pub... thinking that it may be cheaper... definitely not, and the fish and chips were not great as well... so anway, it was time to catch the Heathrow Express to Heathrow Airport... and it was self check in system... and btw, the Heathrow Express train was probably the best out of all the other trains we sat on other than the one we got coming back from Verona... so anyway, I was definitely not impressed by this particular terminal... the toilets do not flush, there was limited food choices, and shopping options... and the flight was very delayed as well... and there was turbulence for like 30mins continuously... not impressed... I did watch 4 movies in total during all those flying... first one was crap, the white haired witch movie with Fan Bingbing... 2nd was Con artistes korean movie with Kim WooBin, that was good... 3rd was a chinese movie called brotherhood of swords, with Zhang Zheng, and that was good as well, and finally, an action one by Donnie Yen...

25 April 2015- another brief stopover in Singapore, had iced lemon tea, chicken rice, fishball noodles, and chai tau kway shared between pongie and I... met up with nainai, uncle jeffrey and auntie evelyn... pongie and I then boarded the flight back to Sydney... and there was some turbulence as well despite the plane being an A380...

26 April 2015- back in Sydney... glad that the weather was good that day as well, despite the storm that happened in the last few days... we were so lucky to have missed that, and had really great weather during our trip actually... Despite having to skip Paris, we were also quite lucky to have visited other really beautiful places... so I am hoping that this is a sign that we might have another chance to visit Europe again! Home Sweet Home, despite liking being on holidays and not having to work, I still missed my bed and bolster... and of course, back to work on Monday :(

谢谢您， 李光耀先生。。。

23 March 2015... Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed away, and Singapore is in a week of mourning... I acknowledge that he has done alot to help build a strong foundation for the country and ensure that Singaporeans have a good education, housing, clean water and live in a 'safe' environment... a pity that he was not able to last until the 50th birthday this year in August... 

Other than that, I did enrol in the Master of Clinical Rehabilitation but was given the Neurological option instead, thought this might be a sign, so I decided to stick with it... took a while to plan my timetable, and yet to formally enrol cos I am still hesitant if I can really do this... and I found out that there is no funding scheme which I could access, which means that I would have to pay for everything myself... pretty much the same situation as when I did the undergrad studies... did not get the job at Hunters Hill, but after attending the interview, I decided that the job is not for me... so looks like I am going to be stuck at Nepean for a while longer... although, Karen mentioned that there may be hope for TACP rotation to be included in our program, but still in negotiation process, so it will be interesting to see what happens... also, Frances finally returned to the team... and I think Frances, Nat and myself are frustrated as to what is actually happening to the service... nobody seems to know for sure if the service is still able to run after the next financial year... 

other than that, nothing much happening, still counting down to our Europe holidays, I just hope that our trip will be a smooth one, what with all the terrorist attacks, plane crashes etc...

SeMi LiFE ChaNGiNg DeCiSiONS...

and so my family came and went... spent 2 weeks over chinese new year with them, and it was really good that Michelle could join us as well... drove to banksia for our usual lebanese zatta bread detour, then to temple, and then decided to have a picnic at bald hill lookout rather than driving further to Kiama... and then after that we went to try chef's gallery at macquarie, it was packed, had to wait a really long time, but I actually liked the food, despite it being quite expensive... also went to check out this lunar festival thing happening at The Star... the food was quite expensive though, and then after that, went to check out the terracotta warriors light up, it was really crowded and my camera can't really take good pictures at night anyway... and on chinese new year day, went over to auntie's for lo hei and dinner... other than that, nothing very exciting happened... got to eat curry puffs, pandan cake, and famous amos cookies... oh and spent quite alot of time researching on our Europe trip, and realised how expensive the trip is going to be...  so we are definitely NOT going for my football match :(

since they left, been going back to my online books again of course, and applied for a 4 days/week rehab job at Hunters Hill private, so we'll see what happens... applied for 2 courses this month, and maybe another one in may... and... finally decided to do a masters degree in clinical rehabilitation this year... the only thing is having the money to pay for the course... trying to apply for funding through work and maybe through this government HECS program... anyway, still awaiting for confirmation about whether I am eligible... and if I am, then the course will commence in July... I hope I am ready for this... hmmm, I am sure I will regret it sometime, when I have to do uni stuff and work as well... I just hope that I made the right decision...

other than that, really looking forward to our trip in April, that's all I am looking forward to at this stage... not even planning what's happening after April...

AH NioNg...

so went for the farewell dinner at this jap restaurant at chinatown, pretty nice, but I was alittle taken aback when I realised it was a sitting on the floor style, and I was wearing a dress, thank goodness, the dress is loose and long, otherwise... mostly PTs attended, and of course, they were the louder bunch, Deb, Lisa, Bonita and myself were the non-PTs there, did not really like the food, thought we will be ordering for ourselves, turned out it was more tapas style, and there was this chicken popcorn looking dish that was highly puke-inducing, even now just thinking about it, turns me off any sort of chicken dish... appears Yin is quite the popular person in the PT department, people kept egging her on to try difference alcohol drinks and teasing her... did not stay for very long, and was watching the asian cup finals on the tv in there as well... anyway, my leaving was a little of a blur actually, and actually got a hug from you know who, but seeing as how much you know who drank that night, probably was drunk by then... 

asian cup finals, Australia vs Korea... WOW, this match was definitely not boring even till the last minute, cos everyone would have thought Australia have won the game, up until the last minute, a very late goal was scored by KOrea, bringing the match into extra time, and in the end, Australia played well and won... would have preferred Korea to win, but hey, I thought they played well too, and sometimes it's just luck, and being at the right place and at the right time... 

so, the family will be visiting next week, and michelle is also coming back for a visit, still thinking if I should go watch the Chelsea vs Man Utd match happening in London in April when we are there, still trying to get over the fact that the cheapest ticket is like AUD$500... need to also start planning our itinerary for the trip...

PR can stand for public relations, or... PErmAneNT ResiDENcy!

work-wise, the day is finally here for both Rachel and Kevin to leave... went out as a team for thai lunch today, don't like the food, except for this honey chilli fried chicken, and decided to go for their farewell dinner on saturday at chinatown this sat... a few others from OT are also going... hopefully I don't feel extra, and not planning to stay too long anyway... Rheem will be starting next week for the next 6 months, dunno who our new 3 day PT will be at this stage, and our AHA is finally starting in the second week of Feb, so hopefully this time, there will be no last minute changes like last time... and Frances hopefully will be coming back to us... and then hopefully when we actually have a full team, we will feel less threatened by having N2G getting rehab beds... 

otherwise, the great big news of the day is PONGIE FINALLY GOT HER PR!!!! one big load off our shoulders actually, and no more stressing about having to go back to singapore... of course, our 'internal issues' are still ongoing, maybe this time it will be the final straw... now pongie just have to focus on getting a job, and getting her healthcare, driving licence stuff sorted... 

Looks like 2015 is not starting off to a great start actually... despite having already confirmed going to Europe in April! oh well, no use stressing about these things, just do what I can...

十周年。。。 时间渐渐地流失。。。

OMG... today began as any other day to get by, until after dinner today, when pongie asked me, what day did I arrive in Sydney, I said 20th Jan 2005, and then it hit me, OMG, its been exactly 10 years since I have been in Australia today... wow, I have been writing the damn date today multiple times at work, and it did not even occur to me the significance of the date... I still can't get over how of all the days pongie could ask the question, she happened to ask today, is that scary or what??!! no big celebration or anything today, maybe just eat ice cream, and then maybe buy something nice when we go over to auntie's on the weekend...

anyway, have applied for leave in april, so at this stage we are 80% confirmed going to destination Europe! Yes, planning to visit Rome, Venice, Florence, Belgium, Switzerland, Paris and Dubai... too bad I could only take 3 weeks of leave, cos I am definitely planning to go back home in August this year for national day as well as for my 30th...

ok, work-wise update, Rhia's contract got extended for a year, Dasha is definitely leaving in March, dunno if Ivy is coming back, found out that Nicole is on a 2 year maternity leave, Andrew resigned, Rachel and Kevin have resigned as well... new staff members, Rebecca senior in aged care, Michelle student educator and senior in acute... and the office is getting a makeover at the end of the month, so it should be interesting to see what happens then... still no new job openings at this stage, so still stuck at Nepean for the foreseeable future at least... MRT seems to be moving in a boring direction, dunno if it's just the time of the year, or becos we are short of staff, but I have a feeling it's not a good direction that I want to be going... and Nat also agreed... so we'll see what happens... 

other than that, still reading my online books, I count my lucky stars that I found this free website, but the downside is that they do not have latest books and sometimes, I can't find books which I really want to find... but hey, I am definitely not complaining...

MAkiNg FacES...

ok I just want to write a quick blog to say that I am STILL on a reading marathon and this one book that I have just finished reading is so meaningful and inspiring and touching, that I actually cried twice when reading the book... I don't think that has ever happened to me whilst reading a book. Dunno that it's a book that I will re-read but it's definitely a book that I will remember for a long time... and it's called Making Faces by Amy Harmon...

YEar of THe GoAT...

24th dec- xmas eve, it was just lois and I in rehab that day, had our CC and then went to red cherry for am tea, and then was busy sorting out all the gate leaves, and then had pizza for lunch, was the last one to leave work that day at 1500 actually... cos I had to go see the 2 new MRT referrals as well... went to hornsby for dinner and did some grocery shopping...

25th dec- merry xmas, spent most of the day at auntie's house, baking cheesesticks, brownie and cookies, did not turn out very nice though, had the moscato, and then settled down to watch our weekly dose of running man and a rerun of the mummy... 

26th dec- boxing day yes!!! finally time to leave for melbourne... got to the airport really early actually, the flight there was mostly ok, thank goodness it was only a 90mins flight... and not many people of the plane... when we finally arrived at melbourne, it was actually quite cool and windy, and we were like uh oh, did not even think to bring a jacket... caught the skybus to southern cross station, and then a free hotel transfer bus to the rydges... we were excited when we found out that we had a room on the top floor on 22nd... the room itself was alright, nothing very special, and of course, I was the suay one who got into the shower, and realised that it was not working properly, so pongie rang reception who were like ok how about we reassign you another room on the 21st floor, and so I had to do a really quick rinse and get out of the shower, repack our stuff and then switch rooms... this time we had a bath instead, but at least the hose was working... so I had another second proper shower... before all this shower drama though, we actually decided to go check out chinatown seeing as how it's just on the street opposite the hotel on little bourke street... it was crowded, of course with asians mostly, did not walk the whole street though, checked out some of the eateries, and decided on this chinese restaurant, and ordered xiao long bao, white bait, and fried rice, the food was actually not bad except for the xiao long bao... the good thing we found out was that the sky was still bright even at like 2100, and that the eateries were still open, how good was that!

27th dec- went to check out the rooftop swimming pool, it was a small one though, and we both did bring our swimming costumes but decided not to swim... so we made our way to breakfast, on the way, we got excited cos we came upon lindt cafe, and they were having a 50% discount off all the xmas goodies, and haigh's as well, so we bought some chocs for ourselves as well as for people... came upon the royal arcade and found one of the cafes on my list, cafe duomo... the food was ok, but really expensive, actually the most expensive out of all our meals there... after that, made our way to federation square and flinders street station, by then it was starting to get really crowded... alot of tourists... went to check out the information centre, bought our bus tour tickets, got some brochures and maps... and waited for the hour free tour of the federation square... we probably stayed for like 10mins and decided to leave and start our bus tour, cos it was so hot standing there, and I saw the bus waiting on the opposite street and decided it's now or never... so we sprinted across and boarded the bus... sat through one circuit, we decided to stop at the place where the eureka skydeck was, had difficulties finding the place actually, but when we finally got there, it was actually quite an isolated location, and it was an office building, and we saw the price and pongie did not want to do it so in the end we just walked around and took pictures, and got back onto the bus... decided to stop by the hotel to drop off the chocs we bought in the am, cos we were worried about them melting in the heat... by the time we were ready to get back out, decided there was no more time to get back onto the bus, so decided to check out the little lanes like little collins street and flinders lane... and found the arcade where they sold the macarons which running man went to, as well as the soup place that running man went to as well... decided to have afternoon tea at chokolait, a cafe which was also on my list... it was tucked into a basement and compared to the other cafes, it was actually quite quiet so we bought a piece of cafe and ice choc drink and had the macarons... and then we were walking back to federation square to check out the sights, and saw many tourists on horses, wanted to try that until we found out the cost, expensive! then made our way to one of the more famous street art lanes, called hosier lane, there were actually alot of people there like us taking pics as well... and then we found this killiney kopitiam cafe near our hotel on bourke street, and decided to stop there for dinner, ordered my kaya toast, chai tau kway, which was really yummy, roti prata which was not and the satay, which were not good... 

28th dec- first stop was queen victoria market, it was about a 30mins walk from the hotel, when we got there, not as crowded yet, the place which was I excited most was probably the cooked food deli section, tried this cheese stick thing, which was not that good actually... so the walk around was pretty quick, after that decided to walk to melbourne central shopping centre to catch the free tram city circle tour, when we boarded, it was actually relatively free, and there were seats, the route was pretty much what the bus tour did, but the bus tour had more stops outside of the city... anyway, we did one circuit and by the time we came out of docklands, the tram was PACKED LIKE SARDINES... becos of these parents with kids and prams... there were even staff directing people traffic at federation square stops... it was worse than MRT in singapore during peak hour I think... finally got off the tram back at melbourne central, and had lunch at the food court at schnitz... the burger and chips were actually pretty good... after that we pretty much walked around the city a bit more, had a hard time finding this cafe called 1000 pound, we almost passed it by, and then decided to go cool off for dessert at the lindt cafe of course... disappointingly they did not have the dome available that day... so we just had the waffle and ice choc drink... after that, we decided to return to the hotel for a rest, before going back out for dinner... thought that the cafes at little collins or flinders lane would still be open however, when we got there, most of the cafes were closed or closing, hence we decided to go back to schnitz for dinner, there was actually another one on elizabeth street... 

29th dec- last day in melbourne, seriously time flies when you are enjoying... checked out of the hotel and left our stuff at the hotel and made our way through little bourke street towards the japanese massage place... came upon this asian bakery store, and bought some stuff, it was actually quite expensive... anyway, arrived at the massage place and I really liked the decor, it was small, but double storey, was asked to change out of our clothing, and given this top and tie string pants to wear, and then first treatment was a footrub and wash, whilst drinking green tea and given one mochi each to eat... after that, it was an hour massage with clothes on, and then finally, an hour facial... I thought it was really good, and worth the price we paid... pongie did not like it though... unfortunately the good weather that we had the last few days was gone and in came pouring rain and strong winds... the wind was so strong that the rain was pretty much going diagonally and horizontally... and the wind was too strong for pongie's tiny umbrella, hence we pretty much walked under shelters as much as possible without using it... and ended up at killiney again for lunch... and then of course, received a sms informing that our flight schedule has been changed, rang virgin blue up and was told that our flight has been cancelled becos of mechanical error... so we started to panic a little, and was told that it was either the 1700 or 1930 flight... and becos we were unsure of we would make it to the airport by 1700, we decided to go with the 1930 instead... caught the free hotel transfer bus back to southern cross station, and there was actually alot of people there waiting for the skybus as well... waited for awhile, and we were on our way back to the domestic airport... thank goodness we got there on time, and we were able to catch the 1700 flight back to sydney... but at this point, my main worry was the weather outside... and of course, the takeoff and landing, especially the landing was turbulent, I was actually really scared, my heart was pounding and I was almost tearing up, thank goodness it happened when we were almost landing... anyway, got home safe and sound, and we were so lucky that we managed to catch the earlier flight, otherwise we would be beyond exhausted when we got home... 

went back to work the next 2 days, nothing very exciting, I just felt like my body was physically there the whole time but my mind was elsewhere... but at least we got to leave at 1600 on new years eve... and stayed up to watch the fireworks... same every year...

1st Jan- Happy New Year, year of the goat... hopefully this year would be a much better year, no terrorist attacks, no plane or ferry tragedies, sport tragedies... went to auntie's house to hang out... watched running man and noah the movie, it was so crap actually... felt like we wasted time and my life, it was ridiculous...

2nd Jan- brought Hyungie in to have the brakes checked and was pretty much told that the squeaking is unavoidable due to dust buildup in the brake pads... urgghhh... maybe it is time to change vehicles... went to parramatta westfield for breakfast at platform 8 cafe... the food there is quite good but had to take my cinammon scroll home cos I was so full after the meal... did some grocery shopping and then came home... went out for dinner with Yin and Elisha at eastwood at Jonga Jip, had barbeque, it was getting crowded when we left, and then went for dessert at Oliver Brown... I was so full after... it was so hot and humid yesterday as well...

can't believe this holiday period is coming to an end... will be having a 1st year student in Jan and then working twice for MAU this month, and then in Feb, family will be visiting... still dunno whether we are still going the Europe thing in April... after all the airplane tragedies and my fear of flying... hmmm, maybe I should just stay put and wait till Aug to go back home instead... Can't believe I am turning 30 this year!!!!