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...