The not so secret welcome back party

My friends here threw me a secret welcome back party. It was very sweet of them, but they had to tell me about it earlier on to make sure I went. haha...but still, it was a sweet gesture, and I am quite surprised at how many people showed up!

It definitely made my day..=)



We had Vietnamese food, went bowling, then had bubble tea. I think that's pretty awesome considering how rarely Aucklanders hop from one place to another (that isn't a bar) in a single night. So, granted I was quite happy last night. =)

There is a Jazz & Blues Festival tonight down the road, but it's $20 to go in. I'm torn between going because it's my last semester here and not going coz it's $20! To go or not to go??

Back in Auckland

It's ridonkulous how fast time flies. It really feels like just a couple of days ago I was counting down the days till I finished my finals last year. An entire summer has passed by now, and I'm back in NZ again.

My summer holidays weren't exactly epic. If I were to be blatantly direct, I'd say it was the loneliest summer I've had in the past few years. But there were good times. I have amazing friends, I really do. And I truly appreciated being around family this time. It really helped things heal a lot faster.

So now here I sit, in the last place I will be living in here in Auckland. I have one last semester ahead of me, which begins this coming Monday. I have 16 weeks to study 5 subjects and be examined on them. And then I will throw my hands up in the air, and rejoice for surviving everything I have been through to tag this degree to my name. =)

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger right? =)

Melbourne

So Melbourne, we meet again.

Melbourne Central clock tower

This is my 4th time in Melbourne and my 3rd time staying with Kenneth. He's been an excellent host.

My flight here was long, bumpy and sickening, literally. I was a messy tired heap of migraines and stomach aches when I got off the flight. And the drama started from the moment I stepped into LCCT in KL, with my electronic visa being rejected because I had a new passport, and my luggage being overweight, and my laptop battery failing on me, and WiFi KLIA that didn't allow me to log into the Australian Immigration website. Geezzz...All of which has never happened to me before in my years of flying to and fro...not even the overweight baggage.

But I met many kind souls to help me get through it all, starting with Julie's mum and colleague, which helped me get a visa for free through the phone, followed by Michael, a Scottish traveller who helped me check in 1 backpack (Very interesting dude, who stayed with the Penan for a month and travelled around Malaysia for about 3 months or something), and finally Denning, an Iban/Fuchow Chinese from Kuching who played the ukulele and taught me both how to play the ukulele and speak Iban in our 8-turned-9 hour flight to Melbourne.

Denning and his ukulele

View of the full moon from my seat.

Anyhow, Melbourne has been enjoyable. The weather is a little erratic though. It's 15 degrees today, and I've not a single jacket in my bags. Coz they're all packed away in Auckland.

Potato twisty things from China Town

Aunty Bee Imm and my cousin Kimberly

I have been meeting up with several friends, and meeting up with more today and tomorrow. I even met up with my aunty and my cousin over here. Guess it was a pretty good idea to come for a few days longer. =) Makes my journey back to Auckland slightly more pleasant...hehe...

Melbourne and her arts. :)

I'm very tempted to shop in Melbourne. There are sales EVERYWHERE! But not only do I not have the moolah, I also do not have luggage space. heh.

I am missing my family and friends at home heaps. I've had some pretty heartfelt moments with every one of them this time around, so that makes leaving them very difficult. But I guess the bright side is there are only about 5 months to go before I see them all again. =)

Vee Day.

4 years ago, under the moonlit sky, with the view of the KL Tower above our heads, a bunch of us sipped cocktails at Luna Bar, perfectly happy to be single on Valentine's Day. We had a good night that day, just hanging out, and laughing the night away.But underneath my toothy grin, and joyful laughter, I honestly wished that that would be the last Valentine's I'd be spending as a single. I had always loved the idea of celebrating a proper Valentine's, with a proper boyfriend, with flowers and dinner and just a romantic evening altogether. So when I met a handsome guy 8 months later that year, I knew my life would be a lot different. February 14th meant a whole lot more after that. I had a great time being somebody's girlfriend on Valentine's Day, no more lame feel-good excuses like "singles have more fun anyway", or "i'm single and ready to mingle!", or "Valentine's Day is also for celebrating love for family and friends" (because, let's face it, there's Mother's Day and Father's Day for that sorta thing). I felt genuinely loved and so I was really happy. It was a pretty good feeling. =)

Today, after 3 years of happy Valentines, I'm back to being single on Valentine's Day. And truth be told, I was kinda dreading today. I dreaded it because I knew that my best friends will be waking up to texts from their boyfriends that will make them smile, I knew that I'd go out and be ambushed by people selling roses, and restaurants promoting Valentines packages, I knew that I'd start reminiscing on the past 3 years' Valentines with excruciating detail, and I knew that if it were up to me, I'd be planning something nice for today.

But when today finally came, it wasn't too bad. Sure I did all of the above to a certain extent. Sure I hated myself for a fraction of time for coming up with those lame feel-good excuses again. But right now I think I went through it pretty well. I survived.

I hope all of you enjoyed yourself today. To those who had a special someone to share it with, I hope you appreciated all that he/she has done for you, and had an amazing time. To all other singles, I trust you had a good time (we always manage to in the end), but I wish that you (and I) would celebrate Valentine's with someone special next year. =)

Busy body.

I've been going out a LOT lately. It's all because I'm flying off soon, and suddenly there is all these "one more time before you fly off" dinners and lunches and teas (because I ran out of dinner and lunch slots) to carry out with friends. Different groups of friends.

It's all very flattering, and extremely enjoyable having so many plans, and sharing so many great moments with all my friends. But the downside of it is the big hole in my pocket, the hectic schedule, leaving me very little time with my family, the tiredness, the lack of sleep, the aching back and aching foot (yes just one), the influx of food consumption, and the inability to save money!

I'm feeling worn out every night, and I fall asleep almost the instant my head hits the pillow. And the next thing I know my alarm rings at 4.45 am and it's time to go to work again. That's it. No dreams. I just sleep like a log.

I'm feeling happy though. That's what holidays are for. =)

Geronimo!

I haven't been able to come up with anything to blog about in the past few weeks. I keep opening up my Blogger Dashboard, clicking on New Post, and then just staring at the little line in the text box, watching it blink.

It's not that nothing much has been happening to me. I've actually been out and about with lots of friends to meet and food to eat. And I've had interesting people in my life and interesting things happening too. But I've lost my interest in taking photos. I guess.

And with no photos, I find there isn't much point to blog about something. I don't think my words are eye catching enough to hold my reader's attention. heh.

But anyways, some updates!

It's Chinese New Year! And though it isn't really my favourite celebration of the year, the festivities sure help lift my mood a little. I've been on an eating spree, putting many many many sinful things into my mouth. And for some reason I am not even afraid that I haven't gone for a run since last Thursday. I'm on a holiday!!

I did a photoshoot about 2 weeks ago. Jason asked if I'd like to model for his friend who was opening an online boutique, as he was the photographer. I thought, sure. Why not. My only worry was that I would be too big for some of these China made Free Size dresses. Turned out I was, in my opinion, a little too big for some of the tanks and dresses, but they seem to think I took good shots, so hooray for big, broad, muscly shoulders! =)This is my favourite shot. =)
I cleaned up a cabinet in my room to chuck it away and put a new one in. In the process, inevitably I found a chest full of childhood treasures. Letters, birthday cards, little notes, diaries, report cards...you name it. It just makes me think how when I was in high school, my entire world revolved around high school. The friends, the things we learn, life's simple lessons...it all came from within the compound of school.

Of course I unearthed some more ex boyfriend things, which tugged a couple of heart strings, but I was cool enough to put them gently into The Box. My friends say I shouldn't throw them away. Because one day I'll look back at them and find it all very funny. I hope so. =)

Old Spice

Old Spice - Scent Vacation - (2011) :60

:D

To know that you feel the same, is like a three fold utopian dream. You do something to me, that I can’t explain. So would I be out of line, if I said, I miss you.

Incubus.