<body scroll="auto">

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

It's amazing what small gestures can do to make a bad day turn out all right. :)

11:35 PM


Saturday, July 21, 2007

I decided to try using word to type this blog entry, so it will probably end up as one gigantic paragraph. Hehe. Anyway, shu just called me and she got Harry Potter! I will be the third person to read it because xf called it before I did. Ah well, I can’t wait to read what happens. It’s so exciting! I remember one day when shu and I were back in Singapore, we camped at borders for about an hour reading a book speculating about what would happen in the 7th book. Apparently some bookstore in the US started distributing it, and they got sued by JK Rowling. This is so exiciting! :D After watching Order of the Phoenix, I became even more excited! I loved the movie.. I thought that the directing was really well done.

I just came back from the gym! I ran 4km on the treadmill. I realised I run slower on the treadmill. It took me more than half an hour to complete that 4km. Normally it takes me about 20 minutes to run 3km around school. I guess it’s better to train slowly. I want to run the Standard Chartered Marathon at the end of the year. Well, the 10km route anyway. The 42km will probably give me cardiac arrest or heart failure or something. But I feel really good now! I exercised and all the endorphins have been released. Hurhur.

I just got through week 1! It’s been a week since I came back to Melbourne, although I feel like I’ve been back for an eternity. It’s strange. The semester just started and I already feel tired. I think it’s because after the crazy mugging for the exam (which was completely useless..) and the disgusting 3 hour paper, we didn’t exactly get a break after that. I guess this is the life of a med student. When I watch Grey’s Anatomy (which I LOVE) I see how hectic it is, and I guess it’s hard for a reason.

Shopping at Brandon Park was fun. I love grocery shopping! And I love Brandon park. There are so many nice shops, in particular bakeries, with so many different kinds of breads.. I think tonight when I go to Chaddy, I’ll go buy some bread for breakfast tomorrow. Ooh so exciting. :D


2:19 PM


Thursday, July 19, 2007

I'm so proud of myself: I just spent the last half an hour trying to fix my msn messenger and it works now! It has given me countless headaches, and everything is ok now!

I'm so sleepy, and I went to play badminton today. Ok those 2 statements didn't link at all. Flight of thought - 2 statements have little or no link. hurhur I'm applying what I've learnt. I'm so sleepy and hungry. This weather is really bad for the diet. But I had a carton of yoplait strawberry yogurt, which is absolutely fantastic and it's 96 calories. I feel like eating one more, but dinner is in 2 hours, so I'll resist. I shall concentrate on my pcl first. What a pain.

I don't know why I'm blogging now. I feel so groggy. I think I should go take a nap. Speaking of sleep, I've been having lots of dreams about home and the people at home. When I wake up, I think about them and feel all these waves of nostalgia. I miss them. I'm really looking forward to December!

Ok I shall go and do my work now. I just need to finish this PCL. :) whee~

4:29 PM


Monday, July 16, 2007

Here I am back in Melbourne. I miss home. I miss my family, friends, church. On Thursday night, Nic came over and we had such a nice talk. I really really miss nic. :( I wish I could stay longer so that we could go for nice long walks around the estate and talk and complain and reminesce, however it's spelt. I love Nic mucho mucho. She left at around 1230 and I felt so sad that we couldn't talk for longer. Nic, I miss you!

Friday was such a crazy day! In the morning, I met Novella and Tzes for breakfast at RJ. After that I went to Ee Gret's house and we were looking at photos from the time when mom was young. They were really nice photos. She gave me a durian puff from Goodwood Park hotel, which was absolutely fantastic. After that we went home and I got ready to leave, packing my notes, stuffing some other clothes into my luggage.

I was supposed to meet shu at 545 but at 545 I was still on Jalan Kayu road. So I called her, and asked her whether she was at the airport yet. Then she said no, so I told her I just left my house and she said, "me too!"

I want to give a big hug to my dears, px, hy, paula, shun, osh, paulee, shawn, greg, cheryl, ash, john and alex. Sorry if I forgot anyone! :( thanks for coming to see me off. It was really nice to see all your wonderful faces and I just want to say I love you guys. We ended up loitering around the check-in counter because it was too late for me to go eat dinner. So mom bought me some bengawan solo cake and I ate that for dinner inside the glass doors. Leaving the second time wasn't any easier. shu was having dinner with her family, so I went in alone and just started crying when I got in. An Min called me then and I cried more. I miss home.

Then shu came and we went into the plane and ended up next to this fat guy, who fell asleep before the plane even took off. We felt bad in waking him up, so we didn't really go to the toilet much during the 6-7 hour flight. The food wasn't too bad though. They served ice cream! The PA system was kind of messed up though. When the pilot was making announcements, it kept on coming in little spurts, which was really alarming. The turbulence was absolutely disastrous as well. I think for a good 1 hour or 2, the plane was doing all these stunts of rocking and dipping through the sky. Shu and I smartly decided to go to the toilet together (we didn't want to have to wake the guy up twice) during the turbulence. Walking to the toilet was so difficult. We kept on crashing into the seats while walking. It was like walking in a sampan in the middle of a storm. There was one empty toilet and shu said I could go in first. The handle was loose and when I depressed it and pulled the door towards myself, the handle on the other side fell off. We just started at the handle, and at that moment, the air hostess came and tried to fix it. She then said that maybe it would have been a better idea to not use that particular toilet. When I was in the toilet, I had to hold on to the sink to keep my balance the whole time. When I got out of the toilet, I almost crashed into shu.

Watched Goblet of Fire on the plane. Cedric Diggory is so handsome. :) thanks to Kaihan and Ernest for picking us up from the airport! :D The weekend was highly uneventful. I spent a significant part of Saturday sleeping. Then yesterday I tried to cram a bit more. Went to church and came back and tried to cram some more and then gave up.

I'm so proud of myself; I managed to wake up at 7 this morning. I think it's a feat, considering it's 5am in Singapore. Went for the first lecture, met my new pcl group, and had the worst exam of my entire life. Yes, the exam was absolutely disastrous. Actually disastrous doesn't even begin to describe how bad it was. At least it's over. and I can resume.. heh. studying other stuff for this semester. woohoo.

So here I am in my room listening to the Goo Goo Dolls, which is an awesome group, and waiting for dinner to come. I have no food in my room! I desperately need to go grocery shopping tomorrow! I already have this gigantic list of stuff that I need to buy.

I will blog about archdiocese youth day later. I just need to vent my frustration about today's exam and about how much I miss home.

5:37 PM


Monday, July 02, 2007

It has been a while since I last updated. I can't believe July is already here and that I'll be going back to Melbourne in 12 days. Feel quite sad about that, but I need to finish my first year!

Nothing much has happened recently. My life has just been revolving around this "nice" stack of notes sitting on my table; all because some pansies didn't think that the faculty was adhering to university policy by not giving us 7 days or more to study for the exam. In retrospect, maybe it was a blessing in disguise, since I probably would have failed that exam if it was on the same day.

The biggest (and most insulting) thing that happened to me was when I went out with shu for a mini shopping trip. We were walking along Orchard minding our own business, when all of a sudden, this lady approached the 2 of us and asked us to help her do a survey. We both thought it was a harmless survey, and hence agreed to do it. This is the dialogue that ensued:

Lady: What is your name?
Me: Iris.
Lady: Ok and what is your age?
Me: 20.
Lady: Ok and what is your height?
Me: -alarm bells start going off in my head- 161cm
Lady: Ok that's nice. Follow me please.
-Lady leads me over to this area with what appears to be electronic weighing scales along the side of the pavement-
Me: -wild gestures- no no no no no
Lady: Please help me, I mean you've already finished half of it!
Me: -after a long pause- ok fine

Of course it didn't help that I had just finished lunch AND that I didn't crap in about 2 days. So she takes my weight and some other random information pops up on the display and she writes all the values down onto some paper and goes through it with me and gives me advice on how I should manage my weight and diet.

Lady: You see, your weight is **kg. The ideal weight for you is 47kg. That would be normal. What was the lightest that you have been?
Me: -feeling slightly insulted and thinking how malnourished and emaciated I would look at 47kg- 50kg.
Lady: Ah and so what do you normally eat?
Me: Rice.
Lady: Oh that's not good! You should cut down on rice. You know a normal rice bowl? Eat half that bowl and eat more fruits and vegetables. Like that, you should be able to go down to 47kg.
Me: -thinking that that is absolutely impossible- ah ok.
Lady: and I see that you're sharing ice cream with your friend. Try to cut down on that kind of stuff too. It's all very fattening and not good for you. Once in a while is ok.
Me: -getting more irritated- ah, yes. ok.
Lady: and the percentage of water in your body is quite low. How much do you drink a day?
Me: about a litre only I think
Lady: ah that's not enough. Drink more water, then you can eat less also. How often do you go to the toilet?
Me: (I wonder what that had to do with anything) -this is excess information-

So yes, she continues to advise me and what I should do, constantly not-so-subtly hinting that I should do this and that, and I would be well on my way to achieving my "ideal" weight of 47 kg. and the punchline:

Lady: -looks at me closely- I see that you have a lot of pimples on your face. Are they new or have they been there for a while?
Me: -feeling extremely annoyed- depends on which ones you're looking at. Some are marks, some are new.
Lady: Ah I see. Hm. You should drink more water. How about your hormones? Is your period coming soon?

I was so annoyed by this point in time. I told her and she started showing me pictures of herself when she was younger and 7 kilos heavier with many pimples on her face, and she started to promote some organisation to me (I can't remember the name) and was telling me what a miracle it was. Then she showed me some slimming shake that she was taking and started telling me about how effective it was and whether I wanted to try it out. My memory is clouded by my irritation. I think this company really has do something about its employees' PR skills.

I was having a conversation with Paulee one night about people's looks and he asked me whether I ever got sick of my own image, since I see it every single day. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Why would I be sick of my own image?
Paulee: Well, you see it every single day and every time you look into the mirror. Wouldn't you get tired of it?
Me: No. Would you?
Paulee: Think about it, you will be sick of your own image because you get so tired of seeing the same person over and over again. Eventually, the only people who would think that you are good-looking are other people. Hence we can only draw one conclusion.
Me: What conclusion is that?
Paulee: That it doesn't really matter what you think about yourself. It's what other people think of you that is important.
-stunned silence from me-
Me: I feel sorry for your children.
Paulee: Why would you say that? Doesn't it make sense?
Me: Think about it. Think about all that you have learned in the past 20 years.

So I proceeded to explain why his theory was completely warped and he realised it after some time. It was quite a hilarious moment though.

I need to upload photos, but I'll do that another day, quite soon before I go back! For now, back to mugging mugging. Take care and God bless.

12:14 AM