Sunday morning.

8.25 am. I'm happily chewing my Vogel's honey crumbed cereal. I got up at about 5 in the morning, hearing the drunken laughter of my flatmates as they stagger home from a night out in town. I'd lain in bed a little longer, just to catch a little more sleep. I drifted in and out of sleep, watching the sun rise in intermittently through my half closed eyelids. At 7.30 am my alarm rang, and I finally got out of bed. On the way to the bathroom, I saw her room door ajar, and she was sleeping, still clothed in her party dress, and in full make up. She heard, and opened her eyes, so I said "Hey, I heard u coming back. How was it?" In reply, she murmured in a slur "wegothomeat5....". I said "Ok, go to sleep, then". And she nodded and fell back to sleep, while I closed her door for her, just smiling to myself. Thank God I had not followed them out last night.

8.32 am. Cereal bowl's empty now. I caught a waft of a fragrance off my sweatshirt. His fragrance. He came over last night. Just to chat and have ice cream with me. I was already in my pyjama pants. It was nice, hanging out as friends. I think he's very nice when he's just a friend. He stayed for about an hour, had 3 scoops of ice cream, then hugged me and left. But his fragrance lingered on. And it was strangely comforting.

8.36 am. I need to cook dinner tonight for the French. I'm cooking chicken curry and chapati. Then, I'm baking chocolate cheesecake for dessert. I know, I rock ;) I need to get more ingredients though.

8.40 am. I commented on a photo of a friend of yours on Facebook. She replied, so I replied her this morning. Then it struck me that it was probably going to show up in your feed, if you do notice it. That made me worry for about a nanosecond. And then I figured you probably wouldn't be the least bit affected. Still, I wonder how you're doing.

8.43 am. I should get off.

People you meet along the way.

In life, (this is where I start to sound like I have lived a 100 years), we meet a lot of people along the way. For some of us, this is one of life's simple pleasures, for others, they beg to differ. To me, I've always kinda belonged to the first group. I enjoy meeting new faces, and talking about new things, and building friendships with people I find interesting. I am not a complete Barney the Dinosaur, where I actively go right up to someone and go "Hey! I'm Karen, and you are?" with a big grin plastered on my face. But I generally have no difficulty starting a conversation with a stranger if I felt compelled to.

Which is why I love being a personal trainer so much. I have met and formed some pretty neat friendships with some of my clients over here that I almost never ever dread going to work. And if i did, it was probably due to the fact that I've an assignment due soon or an exam to study for which I know could use the time I am at work, but in all honesty, I'd really much rather be at work than anywhere else in that situation.

So, the point of my extremely long winded and pathetic attempt at being philosophical introduction is, Nancy Hala. Nancy is one of my PT clients. She is one of the nicest, kindest, sweetest ladies I have ever met in my life. Seeing her again every time I come back from my Summer Break is usually the highlight of my being back to work. I started training her when I started working for Configure way back in July 2008. I saw her every week, and when she's not training one-on-one with me, she'd join my Fierce Fit classes, or my circuit classes. When I was training her, we work hard, but we share a lot of things with each other too. And I've seen her progress over the years. I've seen her shed the weight she wanted to lose, and saw the new clothes she bought for herself, and now she just looks amazing! She's basically glowing every time I see her now, it's so rewarding for me =)

This was back in 2008. When I get a picture with her now I will put it up.

And I just found out today, that she is moving to Australia. She's moving in June, because of a new job. And even though I am also leaving for good after her, just the thought of how our chapter is coming to an end kinda saddens me. I am very very pleased to have met Nancy. :) Definitely one of those I will truly miss when we bid farewell.

Halfway through, but nonethericher.

Week 6 of the Semester ended, and I am now at the start of my mid-term break. So yes, halfway through!

I've had quite a week. Busy with uni work as usual, but school aside, I encountered some events which gave me reason to think a little more. I think I try to lead a life that I think sounds cool and carefree, but in reality, I am quite rigid in my perceptions and I often find myself going back to what I find is comfortable and close to home. But, in saying that, saying goodbye to someone is never easy. And although it was brief and short-lived, I wouldn't say they were completely moments sans emotion. I guess for me, there are always strings attached.

I went out last night with the flatmates, hoping to re-enact the events of the Irish Pub night I had 2 weeks ago, because that was pretty fun. But it took all of the big bright flash of a hidden speed camera on the way to town to dampen my spirits for the next few hours. Everything didn't seem as fun after that. I thought the singer was pretty average, and the energy levels weren't quite there. I thought the pint I had tasted boring. I thought the crowd were kinda creepy, with a strange Italian man dancing with his mobile phone in his hand and secretly snapping photos of us behind him without realising his phone has a flash. I thought I heard "500 Miles" been sung 4 times last night. And overall, I just wasn't feeling it. To top it off, when I got back to the car, there was another ticket sitting on my wipers, for a parking fine, for "failing to produce evidence of parking payment". Sigh. Survival tip in Auckland city. ALWAYS CHECK THE PARKING METERS. And blimmin' 60 kph down the hill is speeding, to them.My car's a Toyota btw.
But there's an upside to my week! =) I joined Girls On Top, a running group which does 2 hour runs every second Thursday night. Last Thursday saw me running up through knee high grass, and bush whacking through forest reserves and everything at night! It was cold, and pretty brutal, but I loved it! Yesterday, I took part in a women's tri relay with Rozelle and Erin and we came in 1st place! And I was the fastest girl on the run! woohoo! And this morning, despite last night, I got up and went for a training session with Stan the army man. And it was epic! I think if I kept this up, I'm gonna be a lean mean machine soon!

Team Configure!

I'm not sure how I'm going to spend my 2 week break, aside from finishing my 2 lab reports, 1 math assignment, and study for 2 mid term exams coming up after the break. Oh and continuing my data processing for biomechanics in the lab. and working the extra hours at the gym. But I think I shall begin with chillaxing today. El cheapo. No money to go out anymore. =\

Wistful.

I'm sitting on my bed with my laptop on my lap. It feels good to be able to do this. I got my laptop a new China made battery, so now it can be charged up and will last for about 3 hours without me having to plug it in again. :D

I've had a crazy week last week. But it ended pretty well with the Tongariro Crossing to cap it off. If there's anything I truly love it would be hiking through mountains. I was completely at ease when I was doing the hike. It's like I left all my troubles behind in Auckland, and I went there feeling light as a feather.Today was full on. I left the house at 8 am, came back briefly at 12 for lunch, then I had to go off again, and I didn't get back till after 8 pm from work. Here's what I had for lunch. :) English spinach stirfried with garlic, and a chives omelette. Greens were from Lily's garden.
So right now I'm just bumming. Because my brain's fried, and I'm feeling rather wistful. I know it's my last semester, and I am very close to the light at the end of the tunnel. I know that I've only got 6 more academic weeks till I complete my degree. I know I can do this. But oh my God, I am so so so sick of it. I am so tired of everything! I long for the day I finish SO BADLY. There's still so much work to do! Yes the end is near, but there are still so many hurdles to cross, so many hills to climb!

If this were a spin class, I'm at the second last track, the one before the BIG POWER TRACK.
If this were a marathon, I'm doing my final 10 k in Kuala Lumpur, with that silly detour at the end of the race.

I. will. get. there.

Procrastinate some more!

I never learn. Have I ever told you I never learn?

Perhaps it is because I don't want to.

It is 1.5 hours past the time I'd like to be in bed by. I have submitted 1 Medsci lab report, tidied up 1 Sportsci logbook, submitted 1 Math assignment, and is 50% through 1 Exercise Physiology lab report due on Friday. Oh, and I have a Math mid term test tomorrow, which I honestly don't think I'm going to study for. And I need to see my supervisor on Friday morning. And I have a lab tomorrow morning. And I have a FULL ON day tomorrow ALL the way till 7.30 pm thanks to stupid Math test. AND I still need to pack for Tongariro which I am leaving for at 6.30 pm on Friday.

Oh, and I'm going out for dinner tomorrow night.

Sweet. I know I could've avoided ALL of this if I had only managed my time properly. BUT. Like I said. I never learn. I have tried countless of times to sit down and start my reports sooner but something. always. gets. in. my. way.

hm.

It's so easy to forget I'm a student

I have been having a lot of fun these days in Auckland. I really let myself go out and hang loose these days, which is both thrilling and worrying.

I swear it is so easy to forget I am a student. I have been doing like 40 hour weeks at uni, and that is excluding the reports, assignments, readings, and exams I have to do outside of class times. Plus I still work. Plus I have a much more interesting social life this year. So once again I am gonna say, I really do not have enough hours in a day!

But since I am already procrastinating as I am typing this right now, let me just recount my weekend.

I worked on Saturday, like I do every Saturday. I took a spin class with one of my own compilations. Erin and Elise tried it out for 20 minutes, then they had to go, but they said they liked it! I have regular participants in my spin classes now, which is extremely motivating. I feel sooooo good being at the front of the studio, looking at my members busting their butts off. :D

At night I decided to join my flatmates for a night out in town! I don't usually do this. And you all know about me and night time joints in town. We don't go very well. But I've been a lot more open to a lot more things since I've been back here, adopting the whole this-is-my-last-few-months-in-new-zealand spirit. (once again, I don't know whether that's a good thing or not). So I drove the girls out to O'Hagans, an Irish pub on the Viaduct. And you know what I completely enjoyed myself. I think live classic rock + no smoke + older age group (late 20s, early 30s) + awesome beer makes going out uber fun. Malaysia should definitely start banning smoking in bars.We went into 2 Irish pubs last night, and I met some pretty interesting people. I met a gorgeous Argentinian man, who spoke very enchanting Spanish. haha...and I met a nice Kiwi bloke who gave me a bouquet of plastic roses. And I met a funny Irish man who became kinda creepy when he came to close to me. But yeah, I danced very freely, in my jeans and jersey, and flat shoes. I sang along to all the songs because I knew every word of it, and I danced! =) Really, Malaysia should also start having more live music bars. With no smoke. And good beer.

When we wanted to go back to the car, one of my friends somehow chatted up one of these Night Riders (they cycle a rickshaw to bring u to your car/apartment in the city) and got him to take us all to my car. That crazy bunny (He had bunny ears) didn't want to bring us all the way to my car, but stopped us midway. I made him get off the bike, where I took over and rode all of us a block down to my car. HAHA, that was my moment of the night, I reckon. Then I drove my 2 very drunk flatmates home at close to 2 am. It was hilarious! I think watching drunk people are quite funny. =)I woke up at 7 am this morning, feeling buzzed and ready to go. So I ran down to Waiatarua Reserve and ran illegally in the 1st Run Auckland race. I did a pretty good time too! I think from now on I will have beer the night before any race. Preferably Belgian/Irish beer. =)

And I had brunch with some friends after the run. Which was really good too.

So yes, life has been pretty blissful. Save the fact that I now have to take on 2 lab reports and review some Math lectures. *boo*

Owell. 8 more weeks of class. 2 more weeks of exams. Yes, I can!