I got mugged.

SO, for those of you who follow my tweets (yes i’ve succumbed to twitter too, just so i have ONE more thing to do every day now, yay) you would’ve heard about my little drama story.

I got mugged.

Yep.

The story goes like this. I was walking home from work, at 9 pm. Yes, I have a car now, but I have been doing a lot of driving and very little walking and I kinda missed the moment of solitude I get when I meander round and up the hill to my house. Plus, I’m all about saving petrol and burning some calories.

So I walked. Two guys approached me from the opposite direction, but being in Auckland where everyone smiles and greets you on the street, I smiled and greeted them. And they greeted back. I carried on walking through them (they both stepped aside so I walk through the center). Now, coming from Malaysia where snatch theft is not uncommon, I had always been alert while walking, and especially when dark, I have trained my ears to just listen out to change in steps or whatever. I pretty much have thought of the possibility of passersby turning around and grabbing me. And...Guess. What. Happened.

No more had I stepped forward 3 steps after they passed me by, did I hear a shuffling of footsteps coming towards me from behind. And in a split second there was a big force tugging my hair from behind.

“Gimme the bag” Thief 1 said with a low, hush but intimidating voice. To which I responded with a loud “HEY!”

Let me just hit pause at this moment because as fast as the it took place, maybe 15-20 seconds, a billion emotions were running through my head at this point.

My very first thought was “They’ve got me. YELL!” But I couldn’t. I was SHAKING.
Second thought, “Save your handphone! Throw a punch , grab your bag and RUN!”. But I couldn’t, because I was TERRIFIED.
Third thought, “Shit, I think they’re gonna hurt me!”

Play. Thief 1 was still going “Gimme the bag NOW” a little louder but still rather hush. I actually said “Ok ok!!” and slipped my hands back and allowed them to grab my bag. And then, I RAN. Like the wind. I heard car doors slamming and a car speeding away but I had this sudden panic attack that they may be driving towards me to KNOCK ME DOWN. Afraid to look back, I just sprinted even harder. Almost reaching Aunty Jane’s (which really was just about 20m away) I looked back and realised their car was in the opposite direction. All I saw was that it was silver/white and it was a low sportscar-ish thing.

Trembling, I rang the doorbell at Aunty Jane’s, rattled my fist on their door and tried really hard to maintain my composure.

Uncle CK came to the door and I went “Hi, um...um..sorry...um...i just got mugged and...they just went off...and we need to go chase them...and they got my stuff and...omg...omg...i...um...” and it went on like that with Uncle CK ushering me into his home, but I was reluctant to because I really wanted to jump into another car and HUNT THEM DOWN. Next thing I know I was sobbing profusely in the sofa next to Aunty Jane, still shaking like crazy. I think it was only after a couple of minutes did I realise that there were about 10 other people in the room, Aunty Jane must’ve been having a dinner function in her house. One of them rang the police. Uncle CK and some of the other men, drove out and when they came back they had my bag pack, empty of course, and my pencil case with all my stationery all over the place. They had found it about 300m round the corner.

After this it was exactly like u see on TV, except that the police took an hour to come. I gave them a second to second narration of what happened, described the two guys, and even had my photo taken.

Shaken, and extremely unsettled, I found my fear subsiding but the anger in me rising. A million should have’s started to come up. I should’ve just bolted, they would’ve lost grip of my bag and I would still have my stuff. I should’ve screamed louder and maybe someone would come out and help me. I should’ve THROWN A FEW PUNCHES. But nah...I know that what I did was probably the best thing.

I finally got home to a bunch of very worried flatmates (coz I told them about it) at close to midnight. I showered and jumped into bed. Oh and I talked to mum and dad about it. I had an exam the next morning at 8.30, and I had just lost ALL my notes. This is where lady luck had BETTER work.

I couldn’t sleep obviously.

The next morning, I had a crappy exam. The irony of it was it was Sport Psychology and it was all about physical activity as a stress coping mechanism and how exercise can increase the rapid fight or flight response and how it increases recovery of it too. Bah. I felt like crap. I was exhausted and still extremely upset about losing all my stuff.
I went around the entire day getting new bank cards, a new wallet, a new handphone, new student ID and all that stuff. Before I went back home, I drove along the street to look for more of my stuff and sure enough I found my water bottle, my food container, my car keys…all scattered along the road.

When I got home, my housemates went “WHERE HAVE U BEEN?” Apparently, Aunty Jane had been desperately trying to get me, because my parents were desperately trying to get me, and because some guy named Calvin was desperately trying to get me, because some other guy named Matt was desperately trying to get me too! Whoa!

To cut the long story short. Calvin had found my handphone in his car which was broken into on the same night. He called the last called in number which was my dad, at 8 am NZ time which is 4 am Malaysian time. Matt had found my keys with my thumbdrive on it, and had gotten my number from a file saved on my thumbdrive, and called it. Calvin who still had my handphone picked up the phone, and told Matt that he wasn’t a girl named Karen and that he was trying to get in touch with me too because he had my handphone! At this point I think I had just stirred up quite a bit of action around the Saint Johns, Glen Innes and Meadowbank suburbs in Auckland. Which probably doesn’t happen very often.

So there was a little more involvement of the Police force, but to put it simply, the police were pretty useless, I got my phone and my keys back by myself in the end. Oh and then, the police rang me, after putting me on hold and transferring me here and there for ages, to tell me someone had handed in my driver’s license….I KNOW!

So pretty much those pathetic muggers got nothing out of me. HA! But they caused quite a lot of anxiety. And that is not good. *shakes head*

It’s been a bizarre past 3 days. I’m exhausted from all the drama. And still a little shaken. And extremely paranoid now.

playlist

I have the most jiwang playlist. Period. And it's ironic because I get most of these songs from you. And as of late, you are the main cause of my jiwangness.

I'm blogging because I'm lazy to study. I really think I should, but i can't be bothered. I've read through some stuff this afternoon. To me, studying once a day is good enough. But the voice at the back of my head is telling me I've still got heaps to cover and my mid term is in 2 days. Sometimes I think I'm such a superhero. Sigh.

Back to my playlist. I have a playlist which I have been listening to every single free minute of every single day. And ever since I found out that the internet plan this house is on has a 2GB limit, I have stopped downloading music. And for that reason, I am utterly sick of the songs in my playlist. Majority of which are given by you. It's got your style written all over it.

Listening to my playlist day after day after day makes me miss you. And when I miss you I feel a tad depressed. And when I feel a tad depressed I fail to do some of the things I had planned to do for the day. And really, the only way to remedy that is if I manage to talk to you that day. But seeing how communication is a major problem between us, talking doesn't happen very often. hmm...talking doesn't happen. period. and so I am a tad depressed most of the time. And I miss you like every single day too.

See my problem?

But my flatmates are awesome. They help me miss you less every day. But what I really want is for the day I miss you just as much as you miss me, to come.

Because I think that will be the day I am depression-free.

Retail therapy. That's my excuse.

After my chaotic Saturday at work, I decided today shall be my chillax day. So, Erin and I went to do a bit of shopping. I brought Shrek (yes it has a name!) out and he was an absolute darling. =) No more smoke, ran like a winner. =) He's getting a new gasket put in on Tuesday. So that would hopefully fix the leaking.

We went to the James & August warehouse sale. I think James & August is a kiwi brand. I bought some knickers. Then I brought her to Dressmart, and I, once again, fell prey to the crazy clearance sales.

I bought a dress and a top from Glassons and almost bought a polo t from Cotton On. But I decided against it. Enough shopping for the next few months I reckon.

Then it was lunch from the Meadowbank bakery where i bought the yummiest smoked salmon bagel ever. I need to learn the art of making awesome sandwiches. My sandwiches always taste cheap, and boring. Sigh..

I should model my new buys and post photos up, but I'm too lazy to move right now. It's 10.30 pm. I'm feeling sleepy. I'm just waiting it out till it's a slightly later/cooler time to sleep.

heh.

splish splash

I just had the worst day at work. I was refilling the water dispenser. I went out to continue my *ahem* chat with someone special on the computer, and guess what? I completely forgot about the water. Next thing I know, a member comes to the reception and says "You've got water coming out from one of your rooms". Oh boy.

I had left the water running for about 15 minutes and the entire room was flooded. And this was the staff room. With laptops, and stereos and other electronics in it. I absolutely freaked out. I stopped the tap, grabbed every towel I could find in the gym and tried desperately to soak up everything from the carpets. I shut down every electrical appliance. I contacted the owner. She didn't seem too pleased.

What seemed like 10 minutes after that 2 mall security guards appeared at the front of our gym. The hallway beneath us is leaking. OH BOY.

I was desperately trying to clean everything up. Then the owner appears. And she goes OH MY GOD. I'm screwed.

More mopping. More wiping. More cleaning. Turned every heater on. Rushed around the gym like a mad woman trying to attend to clients and conducted a circuit class and an abs class and ran around a bit more and cleaned some more, and mopped some more, lifted stuff, rearranged desks, cupboards, chairs, stereos. CHAOS.

On the brighter side, work went by extremely quickly today. And the owner wasn't really pissed in the end. She was quite nice to me. Now I just feel extremely guilty.

And exhausted.

Moral of the story. Long Distance Relationships cause more harm than good. Trust me.

the little engine that could...not

*edit* Added photo of My Mean Green Running Machine=)

So, let me see. Whoa it's been a few days since i last blogged. Well, it wasn't because I didn't have exciting enough things to write about. Quite the contrary actually. Have been quite busy throughout the weekend with many many highs and one low.

Let's start off with good stuff. My flatmates and I finally managed to make our Chocolate Boutique flat outing come true. The cool thing about my flatmates is that we've got this massive calendar sitting on the dining table which we pen down just about everything that goes on with us (including couple anniversaries :P) and sometimes, in fact quite often, we fix specific flat outings. And it's been really fun! So the Chocolate Boutique has been shifted around quite a number of times, but hey! We finally made it there, all 5 of us, on Saturday. =)

Me with my Steamed Chocolate Pudding and Iced Mocha

The bunch of us

Then it was Yin's Big Two-Five birthday party, where I contributed an oreo cheesecake and played some rock La Bamba on guitar hero. That was fun too. I think when I'm earning enough money, I will buy the Guitar Hero set.Yin, the birthday girl

And on Sunday...*jeng jeng jengggg*....I went with Navin and Ahmed to The Ellerslie Car Fair and...yup, u guessed it...bought one. I wasn't expecting to make a purchase so soon honestly. But the moment I laid eyes on the little green thing, I fell in love! =) It was adorable, it was cheap, and when we took it for a spin it ran perfectly. I walked on to check out other cars but after seeing that one, every other car seemed dull, boring, expensive, normal. So I went back to that little green thing.
It's a Suzuki Alto 1985 model. Yeah, it's older than me. But it apparently has only ran 69,000 km. The car was in great condition, barely any dents/scratches, no leakages, everything works, it seemed like the perfect choice! So after Navin and Ahmed both spent sometime checking it out, shaking it about, revving the engine, lifting bonnets and kicking tires and what not, I started to bargain with the dealer. We got it down from $1195 to $900. Not bad I'd say. =)

Happy with my purchase, and even happier that the car comes the next day, I went all excited.

Today, I went to collect it. I signed the papers, shook hands with the dealer again, and got into my little green thing. I was happily driving it back home, feeling like I had bought my very first car with my own money, and then something went wrong.

Clouds of white smoke started coming out of my bonnet and I was in the middle of a very busy crossroad. The white smoke conitnued to escape. When I stopped at the next lights, the driver in front came down and told me to stop at the next gas station. I was a little worried, but I was consciously checking the temperature level and it wasn't going up real high so I decided to just head home first. I had to go to work anyway.

When I got home, I rung the dealer up and told him about it, but he thought I had driven with the choke pulled out. I didn't. Anyway, disappointed but still excited over my new toy, I took it to work. After work, I took it to the city to see Navin, Ahmed and Ben. And when they all gave their 2 cents engineer's talk, my heart sank deeper n deeper. I couldn't quite grasp what they were saying, but all I know is there's apparently a leakage somewhere and I'm burning engine oil.

Right now, I feel a bit sad, not because I think my car's was a rotten buy, but because I had trusted the seller quite a lot, and maybe I was naive and he was being cunning, but I really thought he was being very honest. I didnt find him the least bit shrewed at all. He came across as someone who was genuine and honest. Sigh..

Anyway, I'm bringing the car back to him the next time I'm free. I'm hoping he can do something about it. I hope everything will turn out good. I still really really like the car.

one of those posts

It is 7.35 pm. I've just had dinner. Pretty good dinner I must say. I had skinned and de-boned 2 chicken drumsticks, sliced them up and marinated it with lemon juice, pepper and salt. I then proceeded to boil the pasta. Then i chopped up some garlic, and stir fried the chicken with the garlic. For sauce, I beat 2 eggs with 2 spoonfuls of sour cream, and half a cup of soymilk.

And I ate my dinner with relish. Because it was unexpectedly good. Like seriously. I had a little more than the half portion I had planned to take. So I'm left with a small portion for tomorrow.

And now I'm here. I've always had a free night, where i don't work. But i don't know how come I feel like I've been working for the past few days non-stop. And tonight I feel extremely free. It's a nice change.

I just had really long random conversations with some friends online. They're all amusing and intriguing. I feel myself understanding myself, my life, a little better as i go on talking to them.

Tonight's one of those "whatever" nights. And i'm enjoying it. =)

There goes one weekend. It was a fun-filled one though. Hmm...a filled one at least. half of it was fun. I had work from 8-4 on both Sat and Sun and it just took away my entire weekend. It's a good thing Monday's off for me. So I'm taking this opportunity to sleep in (but i woke up at 7.15 anyways), and to skip running (it's really windy outside, and I've got Bootcamp class tonight anyways), and to lounge around in my pj's the whole day. =) Sometimes I think my flatmates are envious of me, because I'm the only undergrad in this whole house. 1's doing PG Diploma, 1's doing Masters, and 1's doing a PhD. And they're all 22 and 23 year olds. Crazy huh? Who said Asians were the crazy nerdy geeky studious ones? haha...

Anyway, the non-working bit of my weekend was spent having good Peking Duck with Hensen and friends. It was really awesome. I don't remember having such good Peking Duck before in my life.Then yesterday night, my flatmates and I decided to make Tandoori Vegetable soup. Just because I had Tandoori paste. It was pretty delicious, aye. I really loved it. We ate it with baguettes. yum.

After that I went to the Flying Moa for Lily's farewell. I spent most of the night chatting with Lily's family. Haha...i felt so grown up, drinking tap beer and talking about the economy. But it was good, the place is quite nice. And I kept wondering whether my farewell would be quite as "felt" as her. Sure I say this now, because I'm dying to go home and be with my family and friends. And maybe a part of me would feel sad leaving Auckland another 2 years down the road. Or maybe not. Because this just isn't home. Doesn't seem like there's much to miss here. For now at least. *shrug*

bargain hunting at its best

click image for full size

i'm bored.

Kiasuism

I can't believe I have my flight back to Auckland in February 2010 sussed out. I haven't even flown home yet! But when you play the kiasu game, you just gotta get them quick before they sell out. I am flying Air Asia to Melbourne from KL. Then Virgin Blue to Auckland from Melbourne. My flights are both so amazingly cheap, though.

But, really, I don't want to be thinking about coming back here, when I haven't even finished thinking about going home this summer. I have so many things I wanna do when I get back, it's a teeny weeny bit dampening that I have a concrete deadline now.

On a happier note, I finally sussed out my student visa as well! The requirement for a renewal is that I have NZ$5 grand in my account. I had my dad sent me some cash to make the number, but because I went to Aussie, and I took part in some races, and i bought a text book and all those stuff, I kinda struggled to keep the balance at 5 grand. So for about a month I have been trying really hard to cut back on my spending just to accumulate my pay and make the number. And now that I've got my bank statement printed and stamped and sent my application on its way, I feel a lot more free to spend. *phew*.
As a celebratory gesture, I bought myself a $15 knit jacket (which was $45 before discount mind you) and I bought my flatmates a tray of chocolate muffins from Foodtown. Simply because they've been awesome. =)

Tragic

It saddens me to learn of the news on a fellow young runner's death at the annual Adidas King of the Road race last weekend. I received a text from Lyn this afternoon saying that her friend's brother took part in the 22km race on Sunday, collapsed from dehydration, and then later on went missing. The police search and rescue team found him the subsequent day, dead. I really don't know how to respond to this except to feel a deep sense of loss. I don't know him, but he was young, born 1987 according to his IC number, and he was a runner in my hometown. And to lose a young runner, who chose the healthy lifestyle, and took part in the 22km run, is really tragic.

While sudden death due to cardiac arrest happens, it doesn't happen very frequently to runners and most definitely not to youths under 25.

To Gary Leon Robert, may you rest in peace. To Gary's family and loved ones, my deepest condolences. I am extremely sorry for your loss.

To read more, go to mStar or runwitme's blog.

Best $20 I've Spent All Year

Yesterday Ruth, Erin and I went to The Food Show in Auckland. It. Was. Awesome. I had never seen so much variety of delicious food before! Like seriously. It beats even hotel buffets. Well, it's a lot cheaper, that's why. =)
I paid $20 for it, and at first I thought that was quite a lot considering all we get were free samples and you still had to buy the food. I just thought it was another experience to put under my belt in Auckland. If there weren't much to shout about, I just won't go next year. *shrug*

So we went in, bright and early, at 10 am when the doors opened. Boy, where there a LOT of food and wine! It was amazingly delicious. The first bite of sausage I had was pure heaven. And then the wine. And then the tea. And then the chocolates. And within the first hour, I was already a pretty happy girl. We went to watch the Donna Hay No Time To Cook cook show and it made me want to cook! (and have kids to cook for). By the 2nd hour I had already figured my $20 was worth it.
Then Ruth said "Ok, shall we move on to the next hall?". There was another hall? Here's a picture of the floor plan. It turned out, Hall One was the smallest hall out of 3! Oh, boy. I think that moment of realisation completely made my week!
So we ventured into hall 2, arms linked, with Ruth as our Navigator and Captain of our Plan of Attack. And the first stall I saw in Hall 2 was this. 42 Below Vodka. Ah...$20 very very well spent. *giggles with glee*And so it went on. There were biscuits with the widest selection of dips and pesto you can think of. Cheese from all over the world. Goat cheese too. NZ Natural ice cream, absolutely FREE. Big, generous chunks of Rocky Road chocolate. More wine. More vodka and irish cream. Most delicious hot chocolate ever. Even more smoking hot sausages. Barbecued lamb. Amazingly tasty Indian cuisine. Superb pasta. Even mussels!
There's no saying how happy I was. =) I was absolutely stuffed. With free samples! I was floating by the end of it. Probably from all the alcohol. But really, I have made a promise to myself to do The Food Show again next year. And the year after if I am still here.
At 5.15, when we finally decided we cannot stuff anything more down our throats, we finally left the show. And we left as 3 very very happy, very very blissful girls.

*grins big and wide*

For more photos, click here.