post- XmAs...

a recap on what i did over for christmas this year... worked on christmas eve and i was also closing... it was really quiet when i started around 6pm but it got quite busy around 8pm and i was working straight through... so needless to say, i was really tired by the time i got home... and currently, prisy and i are watching two animes... one called kenshin and we also decided to recap get backers again... and that afternoon, we watched journey to the centre of the earth... it was ok, not as bad as the reviews i read...

christmas day... we went on a roadtrip to blue mountains... it was really quiet on the roads that day... when we arrived at katoomba town, we saw this sign saying free xmas lunch... so of course, being kiasu singaporeans, we decided to have a stopover and check it out... it turned out to be free lunch organised by the local christian community for people who either have nobody to celebrate christmas with or people who were poor... so we felt really bad being there, but it was too late, in the end, we decided to quickly eat and make our exit... so by the time we arrived at the blue mountains it was like noon... and ohmigod... the place was packed with tourists, it was like everyone also decided to come to the blue mountains all at the same time... and it was mostly asians... michelle managed to persuade me to try the giant steps trail down one of the three sisters rocks... i should not have listened to her... the steps were so narrow and it was really steep and on top of that, it was so crowded... and not all the steps had rails on both sides... it was really scary... coming up the steps was the worst part... it got so hot by then... i gave up after going down maybe six flights of steps... that's it... if i kept going, i would not have the strength to climb back up... so prisy and michelle went further while i slowly made my way back up... oh man, it was really horrible... never again... my muscles are still aching till now...

boxing day... i decided to check out DFO bcos i really need decent work shoes for when i start work next week... so prisy and i drove down to homebush and when we took the exit to DFO... there was this long queue of cars going into dfo... i was like, you are shitting me!!! the whole world again decided to go to dfo to check out the sales... so in the end, after much difficulty getting into the parking we managed to get a spot but it was outside... the whole place was packed full of people, again mostly asians... seriously... and to illustrate how packed it was... the oroton shop had to close the shutters cos there were too many people in the shop, and so people had to queue up outside the shop to wait for their turn into the shop... it was crazy... in the end, i really did not have any mood to shop bcos it was giving me a headache, so i ended up with no shoes but a pair of work pants... and when we were backing out of the carlot when this car wanted to park, so the driver came down and told us to go back into the lot so they could park first, so ok we went back into the lot, then the car beside us was backing out too... so in the end, the car beside us went out first, and the stupid driver was gesturing to me to move further forwards, so he has enough space to reverse out, but there is only so much i can move forward without hitting the car in front of me... so in the end, the stupid drive got really impatient and started gesturing and scolding me... i was sooo annoyed and upset with the whole thing... and it did not help that it was hot that day too... never again will i go out on boxing day... it was just ridiculous and not worth it...

圣诞节快乐。。。

last friday was the last day of placement and officially i have completed the degree course... so now i am on a two week holiday before i join the working class... no more early days, and self-declared holidays... not much happening these past few days, still trying to look for a pair of black shoes to wear to work... what am i going to wear when i start work... headache... watched jumper that day, my advice is, don't bother watching the show and wasting time... the story has no plot at all and the main characters can't act... but i thought the chronicles of narnia prince caspian was pretty good, although the fight scenes were better in part 1 and alot of the battle scenes in part 2 looked like it was copied from lord of the rings... also, i started watching this jap drama called nodame cantabile... the show is ok, occasionally quite funny but i expected something nicer, judging from the reviews and the recommendations the show got...

two more days before christmas is here... it's always boring when there is a public holiday here, especially christmas, cos all shops are closed, everywhere is quiet... boring... this year i am only working on christmas eve night, and we are closed on both christmas day and boxing day... and i was not rostered on new year's day... damn... an opportunity wasted to earn more money... seriously i am really considering if i want to continue at woolies... i am so over working there and being the "cleaning" lady...

黑暗。。。

yesterday was one of the darkest days of my life... got back the results for my thesis and i did alot worse than i thought... i was very upset, and what made it worse was reading through the examiner's reports, the criticism from one of the reports was so harsh, i got even more upset... i really felt like crying but i was still in the hospital, so i was trying to hold the tears in till i got into auris... i was really upset that i did so badly... after 1.5 years of hard work, i certainly did not expect this kind of marks, and i told myself that i would not be attending grad in april, cos i dun want to be the last one going up onstage among the people doing honours, and also knowing that anna did well somehow made it worse, so i told auntie that if she called, tell her i am not at home... after crying for most of the night, i was much calmer today, although i was still feeling upset about the results, and i still did not print the feedback from the examiners yet... and i don't think i will be publishing the research, cos it was crap anyway, according to the reports from the examiners... still, i have decided that i will attend grad bcos i know that my family would want me to... i kept thinking of alot of "ifs"... if i did not do honours and just get a pass, i think it would be better rather than now having to endure the humiliation of being announced as second class in front of everybody... if i had a better supervisor...

and also something happened during placement yesterday which added to me feeling like crap... i was so worried that mu supervisor will fail me bcos of that incident but i don't think she will, judging from today... so now i tried to avoid similar incidents from happening, and just wishing that friday will come sooner...

WeT wEt WEt...

i survived the end of the second week of placement... whew... seriously i think i did more reading than more clinical work... it was really boring... anyway, can't wait to finish placement although i think i will miss my supervisor and the staff at the unit cos they are all very nice... but mental health is just for me... met up with piyo and her parents last wed for dinner at ceci's haha again... however, bcos they had a buffet lunch before they were still full, so in the end, i think they did not really enjoy the food... but it was nice to see piyo again, have not seen her for awhile, not even when i was back in singapore earlier... she looked the same but i think she looked slimmer... after dinner, we did not really do much cos it was raining... it has been raining for the past few days... and today was so heavy, it was raining practically from morning till night... but apparently it's going to be hot again starting tomorrow, the weather here is really whacked... i don't mind it being cold, just not hot... and not raining when i am outside...

went to see yochi yesterday to show her the grad gown, cos she is thinking of getting one made in indo rather than rent one here... so we just did some catching up cos we probably would not be seeing each other for awhile... and today, went for a haircut at this korean place at west ryde... i like the place there, the only thing is that they speak little english, so it was very difficult to tell them what i wanted... and the price is quite reasonable... oh and anna got her honours results back already and as expected she did really well, and now i am stressing out abt it, although i know that there is no use worrying abt it, cos there is nothing i can do abt it now... just have to wait till next mon or tues before i know the results... really crossing my fingers and toes...

SUmmER is hErE... cRaP...

it is the second day of placement... dunno whether is it bcos i am so used to waking up early and working for a full day that at the end of the day, i have a headache, and it does not help that it is so hot everyday now as well... placement is ok, not really looking forward to going to macquarie, but the good thing is my supervisor is nice and good, and one of the things i dun like other than the fact that the people there are always smoking as usual, is that i got assigned to this patient whose behaviour is quite sexually inappropriate, so i am so wary of any interactions with him, and it does not help that he is still so young... just hoping that this placement will pass quickly and everything will go well...

and i forgot to mention something important, well at least to me, my grad ceremony has been confirmed to be on 3 april friday... it seems so far away now... but i really hope that everything will go smoothly for me, and the honours results will be coming back to me soon, really crossing my fingers for this one...

for the past few days, i have been watching this korean drama called iljimae, with lee junki... ok, anna was the one who recommended to me before but i was actually hesitating of whether to watch it, bcos i did not really like him in my girl, too sissy... but i have to say after watching the drama, my opinion of him did change... his acting was really good in the drama and i definitely recommend it to people who enjoy korean dramas, personally i would rate the drama 8/10... but i have to warn you, the drama is very sad... but i still highly recommend it...

不想去。。。

the peeling-of-skin-under-the-shoe mystery has finally been solved... what happened was i got this black shoe from URS previously when i went back to s'pore and after wearing it for less than 5 times, the bottom layer of the shoe started peeling off like how a snake skin peels off... it was damn gross... and i did not know why it was like this, so i showed it to prisy hoping that she would know what to do, and she was like what the hell??!! i have never seen shoes like this before... yeah, me too... so anyway and then yesterday i showed the shoe to michelle and she was like oh it's like this, the shoes sold in singapore all have a layer of plastic stuck to it and you can peel it off if you want to or if not, just wait for it to come off... and prisy and i were both like ohhhh... thank god nothing weird was happening to my shoe... and i only wore it less than 10 times... seriously i think my feet are unsuitable for heels... heels and i are just not meant to be...

went to the city for lunch and bowling with yochi and joanne... bowling was quite fun but very short... the place we went to was glow in the dark and bcos we went in the afternoon, there was not many people... after that we decided to go have some dessert... we wanted to go to lindt since we were already at darling harbour, but we ended up eating waffles at andersen's... which was not bad actually... the waffles were fresh and we just sat and chatted... dunno if we would these opportunities once all us started working next year...

wed... went to my new workplace to meet up with the manager and the team... there were 5 team members excluding me... 3 OTs (plus me next year, so 4), 1 PT and 1 exercise physiologist... they were all really nice and funny i guess... i was given the opportunity to sit and ask them some questions... hopefully i will be able to work well with them as a team and adjust well to working life starting next year...

the thing bugging me now is the damn PR thing... and now that i think abt it, it's all uni's fault... if they hadn't wanted me to do another few weeks of placement now, i would have already completed everything and can start applying for PR... so now have to wait till jan before i can really do anything... and work kind of wants me to get it before my student visa expired in march... what a pain...

and today, met up with chunyi and amber... chunyi apparently came to attend her grad ceremony... too bad the rest of them were unable to come, otherwise it would good to catch up with them... but it was still nice to catch up with her and her new job... hearing her talk abt her job in singapore made me really hesitating abt going back to work... cos according to her and alot of other people, the work demands and the environment are very different... chunyi is apparently working from 8am-9pm every day... i was like ohmigod, that's more than 12 hours a day... that's crazy... and she also said that it is quite important to know how to speak the dialects like cantonese and hokkien... i was like oh crap... how am i going to work there then?

and btw, it was such a shitty day to be out of the house... it was pouring outside today and traffic was horrendous... it took me more than an hour to get to strathfield which is usually like a half hour drive... by the time i got there, and i was like half an hour late too... i was going into road rage mode... being stuck in traffic is definitely not funny...

YES!!!

you know there is this chinese saying which went something like good things will come after bad things... well you know how i had to fork out $12 for parking bcos of my stupidity on thurs, and guess what, on fri, after going for another interview at alexandria, i received a call from re-start consulting saying that they decided to offer me the position... i was so glad bcos this was my first choice and although alexandria was my second choice to date, it is really too far, it took us an hour and a half to get there on fri morning... i really have to thank my lucky stars... so i will be going there next week to discuss the contract and then i will officially have a job starting jan next year... although jan seems abit far away now, i still can't decide if i am excited or abit apprehensive about working in this area... no more sleep-ins... no more flexibility where i can do whatever i want and no more having to go uni, no exams... seems like there are more cons than pros...

and another week more till i have the clinical placement at macquarie... sian, thinking abt what happened the last time i was there makes me not look forward to the placement... hopefully, all will go well during the three weeks and the weeks will fly past in no time... and then break for another 2 weeks before i officially join the working class... and also in the meantime, waiting to hear back abt the honours results... really crossing my fingers as well... still deciding if i am going to continue working at woolies on the weekends... recently, they have severely cut my shifts and when i go to work, i am mostly on cleaning and returns duty which i hate...

anyway, all in all, i am reall glad that i got the place that i wanted... hopefully, i will do well in this area, although to be honest, it's not the area i wanted to go into as a first job... and also, for some weird reason, although i know that i should used to it already, the weather is really crazy here, it's like summer now, and it was so hot on friday and now, it is sooo cold, the wind was blowing so strongly the whole day... i am like wearing my winter gear again and with socks even now... ridiculous...although i must say that i prefer this weather to being hot... at least there are no flies...

STupiDiTy...

guess what i have been doing for the past 5 days?? reading... i was literally sitting on my bed reading the twilight series which prisy introduced for the past 5 days, doing nothing else, except eat and sleep... the story was ok, it's just that i got hooked onto the series and can't wait to find out the ending... if you have not already heard of the twilight series, which is apparently really popular, it is actually talking about the forbidden love between a vampire and a human... and in between the stuff that happened... totally fictitional but the story was not bad actually... which explained the 5 days of obsession for me... at last, today i finally finished the series and got it out of my system... thank god...

i am so upset at myself today, at my own stupidity... what happened was, i had an interview today at parramatta, so i decided to park at westfield... so it is free for the first 3 hours of parking... so after the interview, i went to have lunch and bcos it was still early, i thought ok i will go have a browse at borders... and before i know it, i was sitting there reading a book which i have been wanting to read for awhile... and it did not even occur to me that my parking has limited time, until it was too late and while i was about 3/4 of the book, it finally occurred to me that i was like an hour over the parking limit... i quickly put the book down, disappointed that i could not finish it, and went to check the parking machine... and ohmigod... i had to pay $12 ??!! for going over the free parking limit... i was so upset with myself... seriously, how could i forget??!! and so $12 went down the drain just like that... i could have done so much stuff with the money instead... another lesson learnt... i could not help but imagine what would happened if i totally forgot and i would have to end up paying like so much more... arrghh...

went karaoke yesterday with prisy and her friend who lived in the city... we were not actually planning to go or anything but bcos michelle invited some of her colleagues over for dinner and prisy and i thought we should just go out so we don't have to entertain or something... and i also got to eat my fav spicy beef... this time instead of going to big echo, we went to this other place called redbox cos there was no rooms available at big echo... the place was ok, but the toilet was so small that you literally have to squeeze yourself into the cubicle... now that i think abt it, i was not as excited as i used to be when i am going karaoke... or should i say not as enthusiastic as before... dunno why? maybe bcos i dun really have that many songs to sing now or the novelty is starting to wear off??

oh and i also went to rent the korean series called delightful girl choonhyang... apparently it's quite good according to the reviews and bcos of this series, they decided to produce my girl... after watching it, i did not think it was as nice or as funny as some of the reviews mentioned... still though my girl was funnier... cos this series had not much plot going on except the love story and nothing else... at least my girl had the secret of pretending to be the grand daughter besides the love story going on...

很难决择。。。

i actually got offered a job today and I turned it down... you must be thinking is she insane??!! well... ok, what happened today was i went for another job interview today, and it has to be one of the most grilling and tedious interviews i have ever been to, bcos not only did they ask me about my assignment on occ rehab last semester, they also asked me abt my clinical placements, challenging situations, and even asked me to write why i think it is of benefit to all stakeholders involved that an injured worker returns to work... i was like are you serious... so in the end, i just wrote crap... and the thing was... i got the feeling that they actually are considering me for the position and i also really liked the package that they offered, so hopefully i am crossing my fingers that i get offered this position...

and so after this interview, i got a phone call from the company from burwood offering me a position but the catch was they wanted me to accept the position by today and if i accept the position, i would start monday... and i was like shit of all the times, they had to call after i finished the interview at lewisham, which made me hesitant about accepting this position at burwood cos i really liked the place at lewisham and also, the company did not give me time to read the contract and time to consider... and that was why i turned down the position... cos prisy was right, if they really were sincere abt offering me the position, why can't they give me a few days to consider, rather than pressuring me to accept or reject by today...

so anyway, i am really hoping that i get offered the position at lewisham, although it's quite far, but i liked the training that they mentioned and the people seemed nice too... so hopefully, the decision to turn down this position at burwood would not come back and bite me on the a**

超sian...

nothing much to blog about recently, life has been pretty boring... was rewatching fated to love you with prisy and auntie... seriously, this has got to be my fav show cos no matter how many times i have seen it, i still am not sick of the show... isn't it funny when i was still working on my thesis, i kept thinking of the million things i am going to be doing when i finish... and now, i am sooo bored, cos i finished watching all the shows amelia lent and nothing much to do now except applying for jobs and going for interviews... till dec comes and my placement starts... help... i need some entertainment!

好不容易。。。

FINALLY!!! 1.5 years of my life spent on the thesis is over today unofficially... felt a sense of relief today when I brought it to the bindery... the past two days have been particularly exhausting...

yesterday... went to uni early in the morning to meet up with my supervisor, for the final proofreading... and after have to go to st ives to play with the boy... i have to admit that I was not really in the mood to play with him cos my mind was filled with doing the thesis... and he kept wanting to play the same thing over and over again... so i had to keep repeating the same thing over and over... and after that, had to rush down to epping for the interview for this occ rehab position... ok... i have to admit that i was like bullshitting my way throughout the interview cos i don't even know if i want to work in occ rehab... anyway, let's see how it goes... apparently if i am shortlisted they will call me for a second interview... and then after that, go home had a quick dinner and off to woolies for work... seriously I dunno what possessed me to agree to work that stupid three hour shift... i think i must have been feeling guilty cos they kept giving me 3 hours shift and i had already told them that if they want to give me a 3 hour shift, then don't bother, so what happened last week was i told them that i was not going to go for that shift that day... wasting my time and petrol travelling up and down... so at the end of the day, when i came back from work, i was sooo tired, both mentally and physically, and then i still had to work on my thesis...

and i had to wake up at 630am this morning... bcos i want to quickly go through once more the thesis and print it off... and then go down to the printery before noon... but... of course, things did not go so smoothly... i was at uni till like 2pm and only got to the bindery at 230pm... and btw, it was freaking hot today, 36 degrees! and it was blowing hot wind the whole day... ohmigod, just stepping out into the heat gave me a headache... anyway, now that the thesis is pretty much done, the next thing to worry abt is the placement... the coordinator is have difficulties finding a site for me cos it's the end of the year and everyone's off for the holidays... damn... i should not have believed them when they told me that i could do my placement after i complete my thesis... now i just have to wait for them to find a site for me and probably in the meantime... look for jobs, but the thing is, i can't work in hospitals, so the only places to look are occ rehab providers...

well... anyway, i think i deserved a pat on the shoulder for myself, cos i have done my best for the thesis and whatever the results, i know that i have done my best, although of course, i will be crossing my fingers for a honours first degree...

终于。。。辛苦了。。。

today is officially the last day of uni for me, after 4 very long years of studying and uni... although i know that i still have my thesis to do and placement after that, I really still can't believe that we actually survived uni... haven't really reflected back on these past 4 years, but one thing i know for sure was that... i am glad that i decided to do OT, although at the moment, I am still unsure of which practice area I am passionate abt, but going into OT was a good choice made...

yesterday was the debriefing session, and that was when i was reunited with everyone, it has been a long time since i saw everybody on campus, nothing exciting went on yesterday but today was the conference, in the morning, we had some industry presentations, and then it was the presentation where all honours students were required to present, and i suay suay ganna the last one... to be honest, i was actually alittle disappointed that not many people turned up for my presentation cos most people went to the other presentation on paeds instead... but then again, i told myself that it was better this way, cos then i would be less nervous, but i can also honestly admit that i was pretty nervous... towards the end of the presentation, i was already losing track of what i was actually saying, and bcos i had enlisted the help of mel, yochi and anna to read the quotes out for me, there was a moment when i almost could not remember who i asked to read what and after the presentation, both yochi and anna actually said that they could tell that i forgot too... thank god i said the correct name, otherwise, it would really embarrasing... and ok, i was alittle disappointed that i did not get the top three prizes for presentation, but i was happy for the three girls who got it, they deserved it cos i know that all of us doing honours worked really hard... otherwise, i am glad that we had this opportunity to catch up with everyone, and after that, we also went out for dinner at... you guessed it... ceci's... haha... funny how we always seemed to end up there...

during dinner, we were just reminiscing about past times and laughing, and just hanging out... not having to worry abt assignments or exams or due dates... not that i did not think abt my thesis, but i had fun... and also knowing that i won't be seeing these guys for awhile, probably at grad next year cos most of them were going back home for the holidays... finally, i would end with... I still can't believe that 4 years of uni was over... it all seemed like so long ago yet at the same time, like yesterday... well, back to reality i guess, back to working on my thesis, and trying to finish it by next fri so that i can them binded and submit them... and then hopefully get a placement asap... i still dare not claim that i am an OT now, cos i still feel like after 4 years of studying, i still don't know what OT is abt... hmmm...

will post my reflections on the past 4 years of uni soon...

2 more weeks to go before I finally hand in the thesis... once again, i am going to use my blog to b***** abt stuff... of course, no thanks to my supervisor, who really sometimes i feel like she is not helping me at all and she is the last minute kind of person... and i am now so very sick of my topic, i am going to be really glad once it's done, and then it's time to worry abt the results for a month... during which I have to go do the placement which I really dread... why do i have to do a mental health placement?? it's just not for me... i would rather do anything but... and next week is the presentation on my honours topic... thanks to annie, all of us who are honours have to present... and of course, i have to be the last one presenting... don't think anybody will come really...
anyway, enough complaining... haven't been doing much really... did not feel like going out during all this time cos I tend to get this guilty feeling of knowing that i have the thesis to work on, so why am i still going out? but what i did do was watch shows... haha...

went to the movies last week to watch eagle eye... not bad actually, better than what i expected, similar to i robot... but if such things happened in real life, it would be really scary though... and went to amelia' s house that day, haven't seen her for ages already, and karen came over as well, she fried the soft-shell crab... and i tried it, it was ok, it did not have the crabby taste as i expected, but again, it was very salty and i did not really like the after taste it left in my mouth after eating a few... and of course, i came back with HK dramas... i really tried to not watch the shows, but in the end, willpower lost and i started Moonlight Resonance... hmm... finished 40 episodes in 2 days... i still can't decide if Heart or greed 1 or 2 was better... i still preferred the pairing of moses chan and linda chung rather than her and raymond lam... and i did not really like the character played by moses chan...
and yesterday night, we watched step up 2... it was actually better than i expected... and prisy and i agreed that it was much better than step up 1... the dance moves were really cool... i would highly recommend anybody, especially if you like hip hop and dance movies, to watch

LAst LonG wEEkeNd...

michelle's friend diana came for holiday here... so on sunday, toufic, diana and steve came over to hang out and we watched get smart... it was an ok movie, abit funny, but on friday and saturday, we watched RV with robin williams, and it was hilarious, it was one of those stupid funny shows... but i like stupid funny, and the one on sat, was dodgeball with vince vaugn and ben stiller, did not think too much abt the show initially, but it was actually quite funny... and bcos it was the long weekend... we initially decided to go to the beach if the weather was good... cos it was raining from fri till sun... in the end, it rained on monday too... so we changed to driving up to the hunter valley...

which reminded me of the time when silvana and i drove up there to visit the hunter valley gardens... though we did not go to any winery then... but yesterday, we visited 5 wineries altogether... and had alot of wine... i was actually feeling abit lightheaded after the fourth one... we went to the adina, de bortoli, tempus two, mcguigan and tintilla... i think i enjoyed the mcguigan winery the most cos the lady there was very friendly and you just point to the wine you want to sample and she will bring it out for you... in terms of the exterior... tempus two wins hands down in my opinion... bcos it was newly built, the structure is very modern looking and very commercialised... unlike some of the older wineries... besides wines, we also had cheese sampling... which i did not really enjoy cos the cheese were not to my taste... the weather started out drizzling but soon became hot in the afternoon and then back to cold again in the evening...
we then drove down to terrigal, thinking to get some fish and chips but in the end, did not bcos there was surcharge cos of the public holiday and guess what we had for dinner... Mcdonalds haha... my fav... and we had kfc for lunch... i bought a bottle of red wine, but i don't think i will drink it... maybe when there is a special occasion... and that was the end of the long weekend of the year...

went for a job interview today at rosebery, the company was called reepod, it is an occ rehab provider... i had quite a difficult time finding the place, and bcos i was not familiar with the place, i decided to catch public transport... and it really affirmed my belief that the transport system here suck... the train got delayed again at eastwood for like 20 min and an hour journey became 2 hours and i had to change trains 3 times... and then at central... as i was abt to board the bus, this lady was behind me and she was smoking... and i looked back at her and she was like... what are you looking at... i was actually quite worried there so i just ignored her... thinking she would not really do anything to me cos there were so many people on the bus... thank god she did not get on the bus... i actually had images of her poking her cigarette butt into my back or something... it was quite scary...anyway... the interview was quite informal and i was not nervous at all, which was good... but we will wait and see if i got the position...

冒冷汗。。。

yesterday had one of the biggest scares of my life... my computer crashed and it was not even my fault... what happened was this windows update came and i thought ok i am going to update it like i always do, when there is a new update notification... and then for some reason, the whole system crashed and i could not get into windows... and i did not even back up my stuff since last week... so i got really panicked, thank god uncle was here to fix it and he had to re-install everything for me again, and i lost all the programs which i downloaded, but luckily, i had the external hard disk to back up all my stuff, otherwise i really will go kill myself... cos my honours stuff will all be gone... so thank god for the advice which annie gave at the beginning of the year to back up all my stuff, and thank god i bought the hard drive...

therefore, lessons learnt- 1) ALWAYS back up your impt stuff... 2) be CAUTIOUS when they tell you that you have a windows update especially the one where they tell you to upgrade to windows xp service pack 3... who knew that you have to disable your anitvirus program before starting the update? anyway... i have definitely learnt my lesson, i will be more careful from now on...
so the advice of the day is... BACKUP, BACKUP, and BACKUP!
oh and can you believe its' the 1st of october already??!! crap...

ThE moNoTONY...

haven't been blogging much lately cos there is nothing significant to blog on these days... still working on my thesis... when will this monotony and torture end??!! hopefully if everything goes well, on the 6th nov... when i hand in my thesis... and my supervisor is not helping at all, like seriously it is really my bad luck to have her as my supervisor... borrowed some dvds last week to watch... first up was street fighters with keanu reeves... it was ok, but abit disturbing cos the show depicted the corruption in the police force and the character which keanu reeves played realised that his closest friends and colleagues were the ones who were setting him up and trying to kill him... and then after that, we watched gone baby gone... not bad actually, better than i thought, and it was very thought-provoking, prisy and i initially thought that the show will turn out to be another zodiac... but luckily, it was much better...

other than that, we went for dinner at ceci's becos it was prisy's birthday so she gave us a treat and we had to wait like half an hour before there were seats... but i guess the food kind of made up for the wait... i thought that the food was definitely worth the wait though...

recently took up this casual job working with the boy with autism... had my first session with him and i seriously doubt if i have the patience and the expertise to work with him... cos it was definitely difficult on that first session... hopefully, he will get used to me slowly and i can think of something to engage him... i keep expecting the mum to tell me that there is no need for me to come anymore... and it is getting hotter everyday... ohmigod...

快要结束了。。。

5 more weeks to go before the thesis is due... can't believe i spent 1.5 years working on this thing... i am actually so sick and tired of looking at my work now it's not funny... i just want to get it over and done with... and when everyone is busy enjoying their hols or looking for work, poor me have to endure another 4 weeks of placement... and in an area which i don't enjoy... seriously, my life cannot be any more exciting... and then yesterday was the last tut class for honours... and as i sat there listening to annie talk about due dates, i am starting to regret taking up the work with the kid with autism... even though it's only 2 days a week, but i don't know if i did the right thing by taking up this work at this crucial time... anyway, we have to see how it goes, and i keep thinking how am i going to explain to the mum when i have to go on the placement later...

anyway... went to the movies to watch hellboy 2... not bad, but i thought the first one was nicer... this one was not as scary... watched taken as well, makes me kind of wary about going to europe... if such things really happened... but i am still determined to go work in the UK... and now that auntie and uncle are back, things are back to normal again i guess... although i kind of missed the brief period of freedom now... it is freaking hot outside btw...

BAck FrOm mELbouRNe...

Yes... I am back from melbourne after 4 days...

day 1: had to wake up early and drive down to anna's house so that i could park there... she found a korean shuttle bus which would take us from her house to the airport which was good but expensive... when we arrived at melbourne... we caught an airport shuttle to the city and from there, found out that they have a free shuttle service which would bring us to the hostel... which was good... when we got to the hostel... it was certainly not what i had expected and seen from the pictures on the website... it was quite eerie looking and there was this really bad smell along the corridor... and the thing was and i learnt my lesson, always bring your own bedsheet and pillowcase if you are staying in hostels... luckily anna brought one so we shared... put our stuff down and went to meet up with suet ming... she brought us around, ate lunch at this jap place and i ordered the unagi don... which was quite reasonably priced and quite nice actually... after that, we caught the free city tram ride around the city... and walked to sofitel, where the conference was held... it was like a half hour walk from the hostel... it did not look that far when i saw it on the map though... thank god i brought walking shoes... and for the past 3 nights, i have been sleeping at 9am sharp... i don't think i have ever slept so early before... and needless to say, i did not have a good sleep every night too...

day 2: conference day 1... it was anna's presentation day so we went early to set things up, and there were quite alot of people at the venue when we arrived... the first day was quite interesting... and the hotel was supposedly one of the higher classed ones, but in my opinion, it was only ok... not like grand looking or anything... oh and when we went there on the first day to check it out... i was telling anna and suet ming that it was so upsetting that everyday we have to walk from our really sadlooking accomodation to the high class stretch where hotels like westin, hyatt and boutique shops like gucci were and then have to walk from the high class place back to our hostel... i was embarrassed every time someone asked where we were staying in... haha... anyway, the lunch was not good, but the morning tea was good, they had brownies for morning tea... and bcos we were quite cheap skate... we decided to gorge on the food served during the welcome reception as our dinner... so we just stood outside the kitchen and waited for them to bring out the trays haha... typical singaporean kiasuism i would say...

day 3: conference day 2... it was my turn to present the poster that day... ohmigod, both shoes which i brought to the conference really hurt my toes and feet so badly, that at the end of the day, i had to change out of them... and they were low heels... anyway, the second day was much more boring... cos on the first day, we have already been to all the different stalls and collected all the freebies like pens!!!, waterbottles, etc... and the food on the second day was worse... so i did not really eat much... and seriously the shoes from URS were killing me... thankfully, the conference ended earlier on the second day, so anna and i decided to put our stuff down and walk around the city... went to look for toys... then went to chinatown... i remembered hearing people say that the food at chinatown is nice but they were all restaurants, so we did not eat there... however, i did find an ice cream place which sells ice cream for $3.90 for 3 scoops... how good is that??!! i have never seen that price ever for 3 scoops of ice cream... i was very excited... walked to the riverside... and i was physically exhausted after walking for like 2 hours... and anna wanted to keep on going... let's just say that i was not feeling too friendly towards her at that point... and we got lost too... so anyway, finally arrived back at our hostel... and i was so tired... and that was the end of the conference... i did not really get questions regarding my study, more like comments...

day 4: we slept in that day... and after that, decided that we had to check in online rather than queue, so we went to look for an internet cafe... after that, went to queen victoria market... and it was packed... there were so many people... and i remembered that i went there before, with mum and pong previously when we joined the tour... there were quite alot of things to see... but i could not buy stuff cos my bag was so full already... and being the cheap skate that we are, we bought the carry on baggage only tickets... so we could not carry more stuff... after that, we were quite tired already but we still had time to spare before going to the airport, so we decided to walk to the city again... then anna suggested going to borders... so i just sat there and read books... while anna went somewhere... seriously, there was so many asians... every where you turn, i could hear people speaking korean and chinese... finally it was time to catch the bus to the airport... when we arrived at the airport, we were quite early, so we had to wait for another 2 hours in the airport... and the flight was delayed for god knows why... and we saw one of our uni lecturers catching the same flight as us...

when we landed in sydney, it was already 10am... and anna's friend came and picked us up... and i know i probably should not complain bcos if it was not for him, we would probably have to catch a cab or a train... but he did not know the way to anna's house, we did not realise that we have to prepay the ticket at the carpark... and he could not remember where he parked... so we were walking around for awhile... and i was carrying my heavy bag all over the place... alamak... by the time we got out of the airport, it was like 1020pm already... and then we got lost on the way to her house, which was like another hour wasted driving in god knows where... so by the time we finally arrived at her house, it was like 1115pm... and poor andrea... being so tired and hot... it was so hot yesterday when we arrived... had to drive home for another half hour... i was exhausted mentally and physically by the time i got back...

and it's back to reality again...

OT AUstralia coNfeReNce...

6 SEpt was Auris's birthday... but of course, it had to rain like shit... and the shitty thing was... i dunno what possessed me to go for this paeds interview at St Ives... to work with this boy who has autism... but dunno whether I got the position yet... actually now that I think abt it, I am still half hearted about this position... but let's see how things go... can't believe I am flying to melbourne this wed already... it felt like so far away when i submitted the abstract at the beginning of the year... hopefully everything goes well at the conference... and i get to meet and interact with people... unlike the WFOT, when i went alone and I know nobody there... so hopefully people are interested in my study and i get to meet authors whose work i am using for my study...

2 more months to go before the thesis is due... can't believe i have spent 1.5 years working on it and the finishing line is in 2 months' time... and anna has almost finished hers... seriously she is making me stressed... which is good and bad i guess... cos i really procrastinate ALOT... Jiayou (x3)... not long to go...

Suay man...

today is one of my most 'suay' and embarrasing days... bcos guess what, bcos today was rubbish collection day so the bin was outside and this morning, i went to throw the rubbish, so i went out in my pyjamas, threw the rubbish in the bin, and walked back to the house, and to my horror, the door was LOCKED!!!! i was so horrified that it did not even register at first that I have been locked out of the house bcos of my stupidity, i must have unconsciously and out of habit turned the lock when i went out and closed the door, without even thinking abt it... i started to panic, thinking this could not be happening, i have nothing on me, no phone, i am in my pyjamas, and i can't remember anyone's number... i really started to panic badly... ran to the neighbour across from us hoping that they would let me use their internet and phone to find prisy's work number, but no one was in... then went to the one on the left of us, and thank god someone was at home, the neighbour was really nice... he let me use the computer to find prisy's work number and his phone to call her... and i was soooo embarrassed... the whole time i was sitting there, thinking what an idiot i was... so finally prisy was able to come home and open the door for me... and i was like thinking thank god she works nearby, otherwise i am so dead... and i was walking around in my pyjamas... it was really a shitty morning for me... i still cannot believe my stupidity...

LESSON LEARNT: ALWAYS BRING THE KEY WHENEVER I AM OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!