EVentFuL Week...

zhenzhen and chunyi came to sleep over that day cos they were planning to go to the central coast the next day... so they came and met me at woolies and went back home together... watched miss potter with them... on hindsight, i never would have dreamed that they would actually be here in woolies... it's just really weird... and on tuesday, i went to sleep over at their place cos it was quite late after dinner so stayed over for a night... it was nice, just hanging out, having dinner, catching up with them, cos they are going back soon and i have not really seen them since uni started... had wraps and pumpkin soup for dinner and bavarian for dessert... i was so full that night...

went to uni on thursday... planning to organise a farewell party for them sometime in june... saw some people whom i have not seen or spoken to for awhile... and i am still waiting for ethics to get back to me... and in the meantime, i am planning to invest in a good gps... i think it would really make my life easier...

it was the anzac day holiday on friday but i was not rostered for work... so prisy and i initially planned to go to the city for karaoke after facial... so we went for an early morning facial and we found out that alot of the road in the city were closed for the anzac day march, so thank god we checked before going... so in the end, we went to strathfield for lunch... hmm... ceci's korean food... and it was raining quite heavily that day... a nice day to stay in and have some hot and spicy food... the facial lady actually recommended a new korean place at epping where she said that the food is not bad... but too bad it was closed that day... so in the end, after lunch, we just went back home... watched this new anime that prisy recommended... and we went for dinner... supposed to be a surprise dinner for one of my uncle and auntie's friends... the food was not too bad actually... the only thing was the steak... it is just my luck... of all the steaks, mine was the really bloody one. it was dripping with blood... i was so grossed out but i did not want to appear wasteful, so i just tried to ignore the blood and shoved it down... and we stayed at their place till quite late... i was really tired by then and cold...

RAiniNg All dAY...

nothing much happening this week... but it has been raining practically every day... and the weather is becoming cold as each day passed... did my pilot interview a few days ago, and i thought it went quite well... and I am not that pressured anymore... before, i was quite pressured cos everyone else has already started data collection... so hopefully, I can start the real interviews soon... still stuck trying to write the lit review... it is really hard... cos everytime, i have a different idea of what i think the focus of the research study is... and i keep changing the stuff i write...
anyway, i shall quit whining about this boring stuff...

bought a new external hard drive... was not planning to buy one, but after the advice and horror stories i heard from others, about losing their documents, i decided to invest in one... just for backup in case...

and i finally finished watching the anime... thank god... it's out of my system now...

ANime mAraThON...

went to the new shopping mall which just opened a few months ago at rouse hill... it's different from the usual malls in that it's open and not enclosed within air conditioned surroundings... and the drive there is quite scenic if you are driving during the day... cos you will get to see lots of nice mansions with huge spread of land... and if you are lucky that day, you can even see a few cows and horses along the way... sigh some of the houses there are really nice... with nice lawns... but maintenance will be a nightmare, but they probably are rich enough to hire professionals to do the job...

and these past few days, after prisy's constant nagging to watch another anime, we decided upon this really old (according to her) anime called fushigi yugi... and now... I am so addicted to the show it's not funny... and if you are a female, you can't not like tamahome, one of the anime characters... i have not read of anyone who does not like him... but the lead female anime character can be really annoying sometimes... and the guys in the anime all happened to like her... even though she is so annoying sometimes... but i have to say, i liked the show even though i have not finished the show and I read that it was going to be a sad ending... and i blame this all on prisy... she keeps asking me to watch these animes and then i get hooked on them and i can't concentrate on my work... prisy, it's all your fault!

AUtuMn's HeRe...

it's been sian these past few days... nothing really happening... but for the past few days before thursday... I have been having some pretty freaky nightmares and after waking up from the nightmares, it was so hard for me to go back to sleep... and i suspect the dreams are bcos of the presentation that I was preparing for on thursday... and it's really weird cos they seemed so real like they actually will happen... touch wood man... but I slept really well last night after the presentation which led me to confirm that these creepy dreams were a result of the stress over the presentation...

did not do anything much, except working on my lit review... helping out with anna's lifting project... and watching this new anime that prisy introduced... called last exile... it was quite boring initially but after the first 2 episodes, it got quite interesting... and when we finally finished the anime today, and prisy was like... see i told you it was good...

and autumn's finally here... temp these days are like around 20 degrees and it's going to rain the whole of next week... miserable... you won't catch me anywhere outside unless I have to... haha...

PRos & cOns...

let's see... my easter weekend... was spent working... thurs, easter sat and monday... the rest went on a drive and picnic on mon but i decided to work that day cos got extra pay, and guess what, i worked 10 hours that day and i was absolutely exhausted that day, physically and mentally... and i slacked around on fri and sun... cos it was raining and it's the holidays, so i decided to give myself a few days off...

i have been thinking about my honours project these few days... whether i have made the right decision on doing it... well... the pros is that it really depends on my own motivation, i only have to depend on myself to get the work done as opposed to having to work with people in a group for groupwork... which i know most of the electives this year require... the cons are that sometimes it can get really frustrating and lonely... cos no one really knows what you are doing and most of the time, it's just hours and hours of mundane reading, in front of the computer... till my eyes start to water... and sometimes i am just staring into the screen without really processing what the article is saying...

watched a few movies this and last week... working on my lit review during the day and watching movies at night...
the kingdom was not bad, i would say 6/10, quite boring initially and the action only started late in the movie...
perfume... never heard of it... but prisy said her friends who watched it said it was quite good, so we decided to try watching... the lead character is quite scary... but other than the weird aspect of the movie, it rated a 6/10 on andrea's movie scale...
zodiac... ohmigod... pls dun waste your time... i cannot believe i wasted 2 precious hours of sleep on this dumb and boring show... and the fact that it has jake gyllenhal and mark ruffalo made it even worse... such good actors acting in this stupid movie...
tristan and isolde... apparently it's like romeo and juliet but i thought r&j was more sad... but the show is not bad... 6.5/10
juno... was quite reluctant to watch it when prisy asked me to watch... but it turned out to be quite good actually... the lead actress really sounded and acted like sarah sidle on csi... and jennifer garner was in the movie... i would give it a 7/10...

nothing much happened except i am still working on the lit review... and my presentation... tomorrow is the start of the easter holidays... for a week... no plans... and it was so busy at woolies today... for some reason, i was down for a shift today and it was so busy that we only closed at 10 past... we did not even have time to clean so we had to stay back to clean and stuff... and sat will be the same situation cos we are also closing early...

went out for lunch with yochi and the rest in the city... the plan initially was to go somewhere nice in the city like pancakes... but then they decided that they did not want to eat there so we ended up eating in this irish pub which has set lunch at $6... the food was okay... and after that, we went for dessert at macdonald's... just sat and talked... do some catching up... we made plans for the next outing to be at pancakes and the dress code has to be formal... hopefully more people can come...

UNproDucTiVe...

second week of uni... was quite unproductive cos my granduncle and aunite came to visit for a week... and cos my grandauntie loves to watch korean shows so i introduced her to my name is kim sam soon... and soon after, all of us became addicted again to the show... and we went out for dinner almost every night... which was good...

work was okay, nothing much changed... the store in dural had a makeover and it looked much neater and clean... wonder when our store will also get a makeover... well easter is next week, no plans at the moment yet but i will have a week long break... but I have to prepare for my presentation after easter, so what a bummer!

CRappY...

the first day of 4th year semester one was one of the worst days ever... left home at 715am and only got to uni at 830am... a journey that usually only takes me 45 mins took an hour and a half that day... so i was walking to class when i saw through the window that the class was full... there were no empty seats at all... and i did not want to disrupt the class when i was so late... so i told myself ok i will go to the main campus to collect my student card...

so I walked to the station to save my 80cents... caught a train to the main campus and when I got there... the guy said my student card is at lidcombe... I was like you are joking, I did not receive any email saying to collect my card at uni... so I had no choice but to catch a train back to lidcombe and walk back to uni... I was so freaking hot and sweaty by the time I arrived at uni... and then have to queue at student central to collect my card... I was so pissed by the time I could finally sit down and rest... definitely my worst day ever... i hate my uni...

and on thurs... my timetable showed the wrong classroom and I was like looking all over the place and calling people for the right classroom... when I finally got there, the table was full and I was like 15 min late... and we had to do a presentation on our projects... and when I finally got the paper... there was only one slot left and I was the first one to present... how shitty can my first week of uni be...

ENd oF hoLidAyS...

the last week of my stay in singapore... met up with the family, went bowling with the cousins, met up with friends... went karaoke and ate some of my fav stuff... too bad I still did not get to eat my ben and jerry's... played mahjong... haha...

on the flight back to sydney... the person sitting in front of me was so freaking inconsiderate and rude... he pushed his chair all the way back and I was still eating... and how was I supposed to watch the screen if the screen is right in front of my eyes?!!? so I asked him politely to bring his chair forward abit, he mumbled something but brought his chair forward alittle... everything was ok for awhile and then he did it again... and I asked him again to bring his chair forward... and you know what he said?? he refused to and was mumbling something as if it was my problem... stupid man... what an ass... ruined my whole flight...

and when we arrived in sydney... and stepped out of the airport... it was so cold that it was not funny... when we finally got home, after unpacking, all of us went to bed...

The miniature version of the colisseum in fisherman's wharf...

At the foodcourt in the venetian macao...

The gondola rides...

HK trip Day 5 & 6...

today is the day trip to macau... and the annoying thing is it was raining that day... we caught the turbojet to macau... which took like an hour and during the turbojet trip... there was this 3 really stupid women who kept talking the whole freaking way... and here I was trying to sleep and these 3 people kept talking... i was really tempted to turn back and give each of them a slap...

our first stop is fishermen's wharf... when we got there, it was so deserted... it was supposed to be a theme park but bcos it was raining, everything was closed... i was really annoyed... so we had no choice but to head to the Sands casino... the air in macau was really smoky... the air there was even worse than HK... nothing much, it's like a hotel and casino all in one... after that, we caught the shuttle bus to the venetian macao... ohmigod... it has got to be one of the nicest hotel and casino i have seen... besides the fullerton hotel... the foodcourt was nice, the decor of the place was nice, the toilets were nice, and they had the gondola rides... but it was so expensive... so we just walked around the place and took alot of pics...

after that, we went to mongkok to shop... and it was so crowded... and smoky... walked the markets... bought a bag for my sis... nothing much after... had mcdonald's for supper after...

Day 6... our last day in HK, we had to check out at noon so we were packing in the morning... after that, we went to harbour city for lunch and hung around till 4pm... on the way back, we caught the wrong bus back to the hotel... and we had to walk all the way back from the ferry terminal to the hotel...

The really huge buddha statue at Lantau island...

The tram that goes up the peak...

the HK night scene...

Can you spot the spider and the dragonfly?

the symphony of lights...

the really huge and yummy candyfloss...

the roadside food stall... looked very unappetizing...

the trams that run around the place... does it not like the harry potter
bus??

and those are real roses...

HK trip Day 4...

In the morning, we took a ferry to lantau island to see the huge buddha statue... it was a really long journey and after alighting from the ferry, we still had to catch a bus to the statue... the bus journey was like 45 mins... when we finally arrived... there were alot of people there... we saw alot of people climbing the steps up to the buddha... after resting and going to the necessary stops, we all made our way up the stairs... it was quite tiring but the view from the top made it all worth it... it was really nice... we also paid to eat the vegetarian lunch there...

by the time we arrived back at central pier, it was like almost 5pm... we decided to catch the bus to the peak, even though it was quite late already... when we alighted from the bus, there was a long queue at the ticket counter to go up the peak... the tram trip was really cool... the tram goes up the mountain at a 45 degree angle all the way to the peak... at the peak, the view was really breathtaking... and I thought we went at the right time, cos we saw the sun setting... and then although it was freezing, we stayed up there to catch the night scene of HK... and more people came up to 'chope' spots as that day was the lunar eclipse... after that, we decided not to wait so that we could catch the ferry to watch the symphony of lights... we had to queue again to catch the tram back down... and the tram was so crowded that michelle and I had to stand... and going down was really scary... cos it was quite steep...

HK trip Day 3...

we were supposed to go to shenzhen today, but michelle was sick... so in the end, we headed to causeway bay to shop... bought alot of food there and a new bag... and although stuff were on sale there, it was still quite expensive... stuff like the winter wear, gloves and scarves...

after that, we decided to go to see the symphony of lights at tsim sha tsui... we had to walk quite a distance cos the place was undergoing construction and we could not find the way to the harbourfront... when we finally got there, we missed like the first 5 mins of the show and the show only lasted 15 mins... was quite upset... there were quite a few people there watching as well... after that, I walked along the avenue of stars... took pictures and also got to eat my candy floss...

A small miniature version of the Eiffel tower...

At Central Pier where we caught the ferry to cheng chau island...

Look at how polluted and foggy HK is...

Cheng chau island...

HK trip Day 2...

Today's itinery was a day trip to cheng chau island...
we had to catch a train to central and then walk to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry to the island... although the journey was only 45 mins, i almost wanted to throw up cos the ferry kept moving sideways, up and down... i had to sit at the window and look out although it was really cold outside...

finally we arrived at the island... and it was quite a small one... lots of fishing boats and bicycles... we walked to the temple and then along the main street... it was still quite early so there were not many people about... we decided not to have lunch there cos the shops looked quite unhygienic... prisy found the 'er duo' biscuit that we used to eat when we were small... so we bought 2 packets of those and had them on the journey back... we caught a faster ferry for the journey back to HK island, and although it was not swaying as bad as the one before, I still felt nauseous the entire time...

we then headed to tsim sha tsui... wanted to eat at this place called knutsford place... but when we finally found the place, we did not really like the food so we settled for one of the nearby cafes and had noodles...

met up with michelle for dinner... we had steamboat at one of the restaurants near our hotel... it was one of the worst meals i have had for the entire trip... i think i am just not suited to eat the food in HK... anyway, after dinner, we went back to the night market again and this time, i bought some little souvenirs and a really cute red furry slipper for wear during winter...

At the dim sum restaurant...


The wishing tree... under 'rehab' (read sign)

HK trip Day 1...

We arrived at HK airport around 11am... it was quite chilly when we got down from the plane cos we had to catch a bus from the plane to the airport, unlike in s'pore, where we had the tunnel thing that led directly into the airport... and caught a bus to the hotel in kowloon... we had quite a difficult time locating the hotel and when we finally saw it, it was a quite a disappointment... it was one of those 3-star hotels and the room that they allocated us was really small... the only good thing about the hotel was probably its location cos the transport was quite convenient... and the first thing I noticed was the amount of pollution in the air... it was really bad and the whole place looked smoggy... plus, the people in HK smoked alot... males and females... it was really difficult to breathe...

after depositing our luggage, we went for lunch in this dim sum restaurant near the hotel... the food was only okay... was really disappointed in their 'xiao long bao'... i still think that the ones in lau par sat was better... and we had alot of difficulties deciphering the menu cos the chinese characters were really hard to read...

after lunch, we split up... prisy's group went to shop at mongkok while my group headed for the famous wishing tree... the journey there took about an hour and a half... when we finally arrived there... to my greatest disappointment... the tree did not look like what I had expected... and the worst thing was... bcos the tree was too old and about to fall... they blocked off the area and we could not throw the yellow paper thing that I always saw people do on HK dramas... instead... we had to just hang the yellow paper on the board next to the tree... and the tree also looked reaaly different from what it looked like on tv... i initially thought that we had come to the wrong place but the locals there confirmed that it was the tree that I was looking for... i was quite upset... we also went to visit the temple nearby... cos it said on the itinery that that temple was quite famous as well...

after that, we caught a bus and a train to 'sha tin'... there was a really nice shopping mall there... we hung around there... btw, everywhere was really crowded... we had claypot rice for dinner that day at a stall opposite our hotel... it was not bad, but expensive... and then after that, prisy, mum and I went to the temple st night market... this was where our bargaining skills would come in handy... did not get anything that night though...