african night

firstly i have to say that day light saving starts. and for the first time in my life i am experiencing something like that. in fact pior to today i never knew that people actually tune their clocks on day light saving day. we never needed to do it at the equator. imagine in 24 hours you can have a totally different time. New Zealand is officially 5 hours ahead of singapore rather than the 4 hours less than 24 hours ago.

and the funniest thing is that it is 7 oclock and the sky is still so bright. usually at this time it would have been really dark alr. no wonder summer has longer daylight hours. all thanks to the earth turning around the sun and the day light saving phenomenon. it was so funny coz we are having one less hour of sleep/work. there is actually a 23 hour day. so we can say that not everyone has the same amount of time in a day.

anyway. last night we went for african night.

and the first thing i saw when i was walking towards the auditorium building was that there were fire breathers standing outside. then it made me think. is fire breathing an african thing? i have no clue actually. and those firebreathers are not african looking. in fact i think they look kiwi. they had people juggling three fire sticks, and waving a long stick with fire on both ends. and i think idea of firebreathing dragons were taken from fire breathing circus acts.



i tried to take photos so many times but since my camera is the old sch kind with really crappy night vision, all i got was dark looking photos with no people in them. i only managed to get one decent shot. and it was the final shot of the fashion show.
i love the african costumes. they are so pretty and colorful. africa really is a very colorful place. it is really like what you see on tv where the politicians wear. so pretty.



and then there is the introductions of all the places with all the nice photos. i have always wanted to go to south africa and now i still want to go south africa. such a beautiful place to miss. ok... for once in my life i can going to sacrifise my safety and go to africa one fine day to see the safaris and the beaches.

and they had other things like african dances and belly dancing. and man they shook really hard man. it reminded me of our dinner at wellington during our road trip. now shireen wants to learn samba or belly dancing.

and the best thing of the day is that i finished my soil report this afternoon. i never knew how to do reports. for one i (being an arts student) cannot be concises and to the point. we pad an essay too much. i have overshot by 200 words but i am not going to care. in fact all i want is a C. but i am so happy i manage to crap up some words.

so now i am left with a reading log to do and after which ill be on my journey to wanaka and queens and milford

my tanner days

thanks to face book i have one again found pictures of myself. and this time it is my tanner days. when i compare then to now i think i am white beyond hope at this moment of my life. in fact i think i have never been so white before. i think when i get back everyone is just going to comment on how white i am alr.

all i want now is a short getaway to somewhere i am just sit there on the beach, not get skin cancer and tan myself back to original color. doesnt fiji or cook island sound like a good place. where the sun meets the sea and coconut trees. to a place where it is warm all year round.

or mayb a trip to bintan or langkawi or bali when i get back. i need to get some sun shining on me man. need to revert back. RON!!! LETS GO BINTAN!

and i like these photos coz they really make me happy just looking at it. like as if that was one part of my life that was such a long time ago although it was just yesteryear. i miss that hair though. and it looks so nice to have a team of totally black people taking photos coz for the first time in my life i dont look so white. cedar team and SA team always had fair people and group photos dont look as nice.





all i had to say is that handball is an experience

please go watch this

it is so funny i dont know where to begin. and i loved it so much.

yumcha

lunch date for the week. as usual we are the three muskerters again coz our dearest shireen and johnson pangseh us. or rather... me. AGAIN. strutting into golden harvest for timsum. when was the last time you had timsum shanny asks herself. well... i cant even remember. and this is the only restraunt with decent timsum (according to some people).

you must always eat out of hall one meal a week. it makes life so much more fun. timsum was a total of 11 NZD for each person. and for the first time after a long long time they have chilii. chinese style chilli oil. it says on the sign "very hot chilli" and i wanted to stuff that sign down their throat when i actually tasted it. i dont eat chilli and that is nowhere near "VERY HOT" in fact i could stuff the whole thing down my throat without drinking any water. NZ chilli has no kick man. to thnk that they charge 2 NZD for wastage of a plate of chilli

hello???? your chilli is not worth anything if it is not spicy.

you'll even have to pay me 2 NZD to eat the chilli for you ar. but it was nice to eat something decently chinese after such a long time without it. and even better with a cup of hot chinese tea. yummmmm. doesnt the timsum look yumm? well. it was not that great but considering my high standards of food.... hmmmm..

one of those two guys in the photo is still wearing the shirt he wore out to jazz night at a pub from last night. guess who?




look what i found further south? tulips man. yes those are actually tulips and i am not in holland. it another sign that it is spring!!!!!!!!!!!! and the red tulips look so pretty i couldnt resist crossing the road and taking a photo of it. and with the weather so nice and warm. 11 degC felt more like 18 with the sun up.

i love spring. other than the horrible weather at the beginning of the week, this weekend looks so much better on weather forecast. no more 7 degC day temp. but in comes the 14 degC plus lots of sun. time to bring out my spf alr. NZ sun can kill coz the ozone hole is just above.

i simply love this pic



put a group of people in a bar and they just sit around and do almost nothing at all except bobbing their heads to the music. and getting hit on by "gays". Actually it was just dias and eugene being hit on by this random guy (and i dont think it he was gay). so weird. i swear he looked drunk but when he spoke to us later he was totally sober.

bav even said it was funny how the can be so drunk even though they were not. and there were in rons words "alot of bookies"

there is always time to watch old men blow their trumpets or watching long haired cowboys and math lecturers strut their music. it is nice to hear people play live once in a while. plus i think the pubs with live bands here are very cosy and nicely decorated. too bad i cant drink.

ps: none of the drinks there were mine. me and poor bav got bottles shoved into the photo with us.




yesterday night unicol had a party at monkey bar themed "how offensive can you get" or something like that. me being NOT the party type did not go and guess what? during dinner i saw people in cowboy suits. a girl wrapped in a towel in bathroom slippers and even a random guy in his underwear and a single just walking out of hall. people here dress up for parties man.

apparently cross dressing is popular. you can see one whole bunch of girls on the street and amoung those leopard print tights there is this "woman" with really broad shoulders. and here is one of my friend. actually after him dress this way i kinda want to rethink if i am his friend (kidding) but anyway. check this out man.

our dear requeeb has a bra on and has boobs plus a yellow dress, pink stockings and a blond wig.



and while walking over to robert burns pub to watch old men play trumplets i saw this. a group of 5 girls all wearing the same sewed on "dress", if you look closely around you. there are many weird people out there with really weird perception of party. i think singapore should have more themed parties. i guess it would make our night scene better

i cant believed i look like that

i found a random photos of myself in JC. all thanks to facebook and cheryls random uploading of photos. i realised that i have not seen her for the longest time. and there i suddenly found myself looking at myself. it felt like that was a whole different era to me. and it was so long time ago i actually dont really remember having long hair ever. and i look so young. so young i feel so old now.

that photo was taken in J2. that was a good 3 years ago.

now that i look back. SA really had a nice canteen. i really enjoyed my canteening days there eating fishball noodles and rotten to boot chicken rice. wow. and not forgetting playin frisbee barefooted on the smelly muddly field



that was the time i had braces on too. and those were the times i was still nice and tanned all bodied looking absolutely fabulous in SA uniform. i loved that uniform. i looked so sweet and innocent. now i think i look like a monster.

happy mid autumn festival people

may changEr live a long and fruitful life in the moon with her little rabbit. actually i think that it is a very stupid story to tell your kids. firstly, no one lives on the moon. and secondly who on earth can fly to the moon with her rabbit. just i have got to say that the chinese have one hell of an imagination in ancient times. apart from the flying kungfu and magical dragons they actually have story about our little mr changEr and her rabbit.

the story goes like this:

The time of this story is around 2170 B.C. The earth once had ten suns circling over it, each took its turn to illuminate to the earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved by a strong and tyrannical archer Hou Yi. He succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he didn't shoot down the moon.

to think that the same time the greeks were marching around greece and rome in the short skirts, they never noticed that the earth had 10 suns. the greeks are actually smart people. and besides i wonder if Zeus ever met whoever that chinese jade emperor is at that time. they would have been the best of friends. Zeus is well known for his adultery, ever wondered what if he went to serduce one of the chinese deities. wouldnt they have the weirdest offsprings? the chinese myth world already have enough mosters like the yaoguai and the huli jins.

since they have greek myth classes they should have chinese legands. than you will study about the monkey god or the celestal sea god. or baby that grew out from a pumkin on a wall. or maybe the ever famous one about the cowherd and the girl weaver. come to think of it i actually remembered that sch really did teach us some of these stories. after taking classic i am suddenly so interested in myths.

but anyway. we had a tiny gathering to celebrate our very own little singaporean festival. and yes... you can buy mooncakes from dunedin. the only down point is that it cost ONLY about 6-7 NZD a piece. we had just one mooncake to celebrate this mid "autumn festival" just that it is more like MID SPRING here.




and the place sells bubble tea too. just that each cup costs only 5 NZD. you guys better thank god that the bubble burst in singapore. and that now you are only paying like 1 - 1.50 for a cup. 5 bucks for tea is so no worth it.



here is shireen singing us all a happy birthday song version of the festival. bav joined in and they clapped hands too.

happy mid autumn festival to us (X2)

and i think the pic looks artistic too. well done shanny with your crappy handphone camera. and i miss all the snowskin varieties of mooncakes. plus the funny singaporean inventions of the durian or chicken floss or green tea types.



too bad we did not carry lanterns. no lanterns to carry here other than dias's oil lamp. anyway. have anyone ever wondered what is the point of carrying lanterns. does it have another deeper significance other than beautifying the festival and also to create fun for the kids when they do eventually burn them up. and the use of candles to line the playground floor. i ever seen one at macritchie reservior before and a couple lited up one of the pavillions and it looked so beautiful from far.

and this year i have no pamelos too

well... time to get back to do my readings on heracles and his incredible birth and history. every one knew that hercules had a twin brother. did you know that hecules is the only mortal hero that doesnt have a grave? cool right? all the other heros like achilles, hector, jason, perseus all had graves somewhere on earth. but poor hercules is the only hero without a grave. and he appeared in many art totally naked.

test on thu... have to study

mrs henderson presents

just a random post full of blabberings and randomness

for a start. i woke up at 1.30pm today. totally missed lunch. and totally skipped classes. i am so not going to do so well in soils coz whatever organic chem that is going on in lecture is definitly no where in my head. esp since i have already missed more than half the lectures since i started school. and the funniest thing is that i thought it was 11 until i saw the alarm clock. god i think i am really sleeping too much recently. this really have to stop. i really have to start going for morning classes.

NEED TO GO!
and i have a feeling that ill miss morning classes again tmr.

and we had another fire alarm just now. the weather recently has been so cold of 8 degC in the middle of the day. it is just like augest. when it was still winter. and i have the deputy master walking staight into my room to check my smoke detector.

i have been thinking. i am going to buy the mrs henderson presents soundtrack when i get back to singapore if i actually remember. i tell you the songs are so good. i have been playing the last part of the dvd for the on repeat for the last 4 hours. just fast forwarding to all the song parts only. it is so good. i never thought ill come back after less than 24 hours just to hear the songs again and again.

this is like rent all over again. i remember that time the first time i laid my eyes upon the rent dvd. i watched it so many times i could remember the songs. so moulin rouge.

this is some scene of the musical sections. aint it so pretty with all the stage costumes and world war 2 scenes and images. with the pre WW2 dresses and red lipsticks and bonnets and corsets and hats and everything else in between. the more i hear these songs the more i love this movie for its music. please just do yourself a favor and rent the dvd



and i just found out will young has his first acting stint in this movie. and for the first time i was watching this i was wondering how come there is this really gay version of robbie williams on screen and yet it is to thin and unhairy for it to be mr williams. and with that super gay voice and overly makeup-ed face. anyone could have thought he was gay. but then again i think that is he role as bertie in the movie.

to think that after selling so many million of copies of music he actually got to go into the movies after winning UK's pop idol. not bad for a guy that looks so gay and sounds equally gay. but i think you really have to watch it for yourself. the songs are all really SO SO GOOD. shit i think i am borned in the wrong era. but then again i am a total sucker for broadway

this is a picture of his overly makeup-ed face. dont you think he looks a teeni bit like robbie williams. i attached a photo of them both for your comparison. other than the darker hair and thinner eye brows they do look very much alike. i really dont know why i keep thinking that bertie in mrs henderson presents looks like mr william.



and this is the song title "girl in the little green hat" it is like the cutest and catchest song i have ever heard. and the lyrics are simply so cute. i have been trying so hard to find a clip of it off youtube but our dear youtube decided to attain to al copyright laws and have deleted every possible clip of what i would deam as good shit like this. ill try to search summore. or mayb ill upload my own version.

There's a lake in the park
There's a house by the lake
There's a girl in the house in the park by the lake
And the girl in the house by the lake in the park
Is the girl in the little green hat

And tonight after eight
That's when I've got a date
When the moon's riding high and the stars light the sky
With the girl in the house by the lake in the park
The girl in the little green hat

There no water in the lake
No roof upon the house
No treesies in the park at all
But I'll wait beside the lake
I'll be welcome at the house
I'll meet her by the garden wall

There's a ship on the lake
There's a sailor on the shore
There's a girl in his arms, she's the girl I adore
So goodbye to the house by the lake in the park
And the girl in the little green hat

There's a storm on the lake
There's a ship in the storm
There's a girl on the ship in the storm on the lake
And the girl on the lake on the ship in the storm
Is the girl in the little green hat

As the ship starts to dip
She is losing her grip
Every dip makes a tip, not the girl, but the ship
But the girl on the ship has the pip from the trip
The girl in the little green hat

She's been sailing quite enough
She's been clinging to the rails
She's dying to be home once more
'Cause the lake is rather rough
And the girl is rather pale
She's glad to get her feet on shore

Ah, she gave up the ship
And the captain and his men
Bought a complimentary ticket to my arms once again
Now I'm back in the park at the house by the lake
With the girl in the little green hat

and what is nice is that i think the lead young actress kelly reillly is really pretty, just like a pin up girl of the 50s. i love this pin up girl image. it is so easy to see why pin up were so popular at that time in history. the blondness plus that very VERY red lipstick what more is pinup burlesque man. dita van teese type of people sure would get many eyes opened at that time.

to think that the two female leads are in one of my all time fav movies pride and prejudice. as lady cathrine and caroline blingey. why do i like these shows and movies of not-modern eras so much? i have always really wondered why. do i secretly wished i was living in the past? or maybe it is the result of too many trashy romance novels. but then again i have never read a war time romance. mayb i should.

rest day of the week

well. i have had better rest days the entire week but that was together with a huge amount of procrastination. today is the first day of the week that i have nothing out of my 10 things to do planned. coz i finished my essay last night and that means to call for a break today.

so bored today i watch "mrs henderson presents" and i actually did like that show. historical and also semi musical. and it has pretty good music. nice early 1900 broadway music. reminds me of the record player we had at wanganui. not like "hairspray" i watch last night with katie in michelles room. that one was one total piece of crap in a bigger pile of shit. at least mrs henderson presents is based on true life story and it is also semi war story without any blood. besides. there is a fair amount of very naked girls. and that mrs henderson is one very good british actress. i love all the roles she have played in too.

while i was watching it. i drew this on my file. i think it is so nice. and a nice pictorial reminder too. i wish i could bring it back to singapore but i think ill just throw it away with many other things i own before i go back. and yup. that is my philo essay underneath



i love the fonting. din know i could write that out so nicely.

it has been raining non stop for two days now. the sky is dark and gloomy and the weather is colder than usual. and this crappy weather is going to last for another week or so coz the frontal winds is coming near the coast. but thinking on the very bright side, there is going to be warmer weather coming the week after. funny how by learning geog's climatology, i can actually explain the weather there. is geog useful or what man?

and i am so thinking of doing my post grad now. i guess what is left is for me to find a university that will take me in with my really crappy grades and one which has something for ron too. post grad sounds like a very nice idea aye.

i have a classics test on thursday. going to be tested on aphrodite, dionysus, myths on deaths, orheus, eleusinisn mysteries and heracles. then i have to start doing my final soils report by monday and my reading log by the following thu,. great aint it. the most busy week i am going to be having since i arrived on SEP. but the good thing is that i am going to be rewarding myself with a trip to queenstown for white water rafting. YAY

picnic on the grass

how many times in your singaporean life have you ever sat on grass and not get your pants muddy or full of ants? think hard about your answer to this question. with the grass cover in singapore you can never have a decent picnic on grass unless you are sitting in the middle of the golf course. then if you were sitting in the middle of the gold course you would have been run over by either gold balls or golf buggies.

this is my virgin sit on grass (or so what gen said) since i have arrived in NZ and this is possibly the only decent grass picnic i have in my entire life. and sitting on picnic mats do not count thanks to me and my amazing planning skills i manage to get four people sitting on the grass in the middle of the afternoon in the botanical gardens eating lunch of sushi and pizza. am i amazing or what? thanks to me, 3 other people have the experience of sitting on grass and having lunch with me in the gardens surrounded by seagulls and their shits.

come to think of it. why dont i remember seeing any ants in NZ. is it so cold their little bodies cant take the cold?

i mean the kiwis do it on campus all the time. they are happy just to find a patch of grass to sit and eat their lunch or read their books. i would love to do that one day in sch. mayb just by the clock tower and read a book.

the weather could have been better, (it was less than 13 degC before i left my room) but i guess it wasnt that bad anyway. still manage to sit there without freezing our butts off like when we were having dinner at waitomo in the middle of the dark cold freezingly windy night. that is another story to tell you when i feel nice and warm.

well. here is us and our food. not bad for a successful lunch-on-grass lunch. apart from really green grass we also had really cute daisys everywhere and little kids chasing ducks and seagulls. this is such a new activity we singaporeans are doing it is best to document it with photos.



our dear rat dint know that it is dangerous leaving his camera in my hands. well. here is what happened to it when he was not looking. hahah. shit. now i think everyone knows never to put cameras in my hands coz there is an almost clicking that goes one after that. but now that i think of it, i should have put on some makeup before i actually photowhored.



the grass is so nice we might as well take some photos to prove that i really sat on it. and mayb even laid on it for a long time. the grass is so comfy i can just lie there the entire day. and the view was so nice we had to stop to admire it. nope. it happens that we were just sitting there and not knowing johnson started taking photos of us. anyway, shireen started getting up and chasing seagulls. and we started cartwheeling.

i think the seagulls are hungry coz the totally formed a circle around us and our food. and our dear shireen spent a good amount of time trying to communicate with them. i think she wants to mate with them. but then again, she might have been telling the "she"gulls to mate with the guys. can you actually imagine what a eugene-gull or a johnson-gull cross marriage would be like? ill pity their offsprings.



this is peter pan.

apparently our dear johnson wanted to give me facial at the gardens with the garden's fountain water. like what the hell.

and for better action and more excitement, please go read shireens blog, she had a car crashed outside her kitchen. and she even have really cool photos to go along with it.



great. now i have to start doing my essay. i have been attempting to start doing it since monday but i guess i was not inspired in anyway. now i have like 48 hours left to make a decent piece out of my un-understandable readings and try to form out a 2000 word essay on "are possible worlds abstract or concrete" like how the hell is anyone susposed to do something like that. can someone please remind me NEVER TO DO ANY PHILO MODULES EVER AGAIN. i wonder all the time why did i take this paper.

UniCol in spring

pretty aint it? and it was taken with my phone's camera

sweet little pink cherry blossoms. too bad they are starting to fall off their trees now. the ground around campus is littered with little white and pink petels. so sad that they have to fall off. i wished they could stay like this forever. i love flowers. plus the little dafoldils all over the front yard of hall are in full bloom.

know how daffoldils are always talked about in story books. well. they really are pretty. too bad singapore dont have flowers like these

you are the photo on my wall.
i love that smile.
those eyes.
those rosy cheeks.
those lips.

baby i miss you.
i cant to be back

hey. look what you are doing again? just look at yourself, you are a financial mess. and here you are back on george street shopping again. you just bought shoes the other day and here you are back in the very same zone buying yourself a top and jewelery.

and you dont even use jewelery. what the hell did you even buy that for? it is not funny spending 30 bucks like that on a school day. it is not even shopping day yet and you are spending so much. you were supposed to only go to champions and help ron find something and then here you are stopping by at almost every other shop on the way back.

and you still want to buy a bikini. that will be another 30 dollars. God knows what else you are thinking of buying? stop thinking of what to buy and do your work. it might be cheap but your work is more important

speaking of work. you have not even started reading any philo stuff! how are you going to hand in your essay on monday if you continue to do things at this rate? you are not even to graduate from NUS.

waking up at stupid oclock

you know you want to murder people when you are forced to wake in the middle of the night at stupid oclock. you planned to wake up for morning lessons at 10 but someone simply have to set off the alarm at STUPID OCLOCK. and the best thing is that the alarm was set off twice in a single sleep cycle. well... that screwed off my plan for the whole day. great aint it?

WHAT THE HELL 2(twice) leh.

the smoke alarm is a fantastic and ingenius invention, but cant people actually make it work and only react to smoke? it is afterall called a "SMOKE" alarm. not a "DEODERANT" or "HAIRSPRAY" alarm. why does the damn alarm work and maked 500 people wake up from their beds by detecting the random droplets of whatever in the air particles. no wonder johnson hated his smoke detector so much. now i know why. the unicol's firealarm is just stupid.

and who ever that set the two alarms off should really pray and go to church. coz they have 500 people cursing them. it is so in the middle of the night that it is not even funny. you see people walking down in their pajamas and wrapped in their comforters just because who ever who set off the damn thing is stupid enought to make the alarm go off in the middle of a cold windy night.

i was so sleepy i slamed the fire exit door on my fingers on the second time. and fire exit doors are big and heavy. my poor finger. (baby kiss it for me)

and the second was simply so much a waste of time the fire engine din not even bother to come. and some people din even bother to wake up to go down. i should have been that wise and pretended not to hear the damn alarm ringing outside my door. so not funny. the first time was at 6 in the freeking morning. i slept only at 2 plus almost 3 and i actually planned to wake up at 945 for class. and then never did anyone know that the stupid alarm is going to make my sleep into a nap. a freeking 3 hour nap.

i only got back to sleep past 7 coz i remembered i could hear the clock tower bells go off 7 times. then the second off went off at 9. like what the hell right? i barely slept and the damn alarm goes off again. so by 9 in only had 5 hours of sleep. so had to miss my 10-12 to sleep in.

the funniest thing is that i see people in jeans at 6 am in the morning. does that mean that people actually sleep in their jeans? or mayb they had on boxers and had to pull on a pair of jeans. and there are people with the cutest feet warmer bedroom slippers and the cutest mickey mouse or cheey pajamas. it was like a night time fashion parade.

when work becomes not work

i was a good girl this morning. i forced myself to wake up just to go for class. i really FORCED myself to get out of bed. at 950 in the morning i pulled myself out of bed to be in time for the 10 oclock class. and the whole time i was in class today all i wanted to do was sleep. you should have seen my eyes in class. toothpicks required

but i continued to be a good girl in the afternoon. went to the com lab and did my lab report. i realised that i complain about my lab reports here. firstly, they take up too much time EVERYWEEK and secondly, my first time doing a decent report since i started out with education system. lab reports makes you do stats test and so many times i calculated the results wrongly and have to start over again. and that i assure you takes up PLENTLY of time.

well... i went to the library to find books for my philo essay and do my readings for urban. essay topic for philo? "do i exsist in many possible worlds, or just in the actual world?" well... the thing about philo is that you will never get an answer. so how on earth is anyone actually able to write a paper on if they actually exsist? the thing is that philosophers are old men who have nothing much to do and think too much. sometimes i wonder why i actually took this paper.

anyway, i can totally write an essay on how the library is a social place. in NZ the library is not a place where the nerds go to. in fact i think it is a place where couples go and people who like to study in the sunlight. i actually think that the lib can be a romantic place. with the nice long glass windows and the tress outside there is always a place for everything.

this is my fav place in the lib. coz you can see the trees from there. and the sun comes in. NUS should totally rebuild the whole damn lib building man. and make it nice and cheery.



i actually saw a couple frenching at a corner this afternoon. corner of a library. can you imagine if couples made out blatently in NUS central lib? it is just so gross seeing people sucking face in public in asia, but somehow seeing it in NZ is ok. i want my ron!!!!!!

and now that it is night. i have no mood to read the books that i have borrowed. i never have anymood for anything at night. the room's lightings make my eyes so tired and all i want to do is to lie down and sleep. i never get any work done in my room. but i dont want to leave it coz it is nice and warm in here, where the wind dont blow and the computer is always on so i can talk to the people who matter. it is so hard to weather the cold when you know you are comfortable in your zone. where you will never get work done but you cant help it.

i need divine intervention. please someone help me put my eyes on my notes and readings and my finger on my pen. i really need the miracle.

you are supposed to be doing your work. do you actually know how much work you have to do here? everything is piling up so high if you dont start doing them how you are going to spend the rest of your exchange in regret and sadness. you should have the work now play later mentality but apparently your very dense mind totally skipped that thought huh.

not only did you not do any work you can find time to go shopping for shoes and do damage to your pockets. you should stop spending money already and besides there is no much space for you to bring your purchases back to singapore. please get the idea that you have no money left in your head. $1500 is not going to last you the rest of your exchange if you keep spending it like that.

i know the black and white skeltons are so damn cute. and that the last time you bought shoes was a very long time ago but that does not justify your right to buy shoes here. i mean you already have 20 pairs of shoes in hall and another 15 at home. so why on earth do you need more. huh?

and besides you know how well shoes like that give you blisters. and other than that they are not going to last with your heavily raining with sweat feet.

and you still have the time to go have coffee with your geog classmates.



and you must limit yourself to only one cup of coffee and one dinner out a week. stop going out so much. you have no money left already if you do. you need to exercise. the use of the gym is free so please use it during your free time. besides you have the following to do

1. philo essay on possible worlds
2. jap essay on you have not decided yet
3. soils final report
4. soil lab due tmr
5. classic test to study for
6. urban reading log to start reading
7. fieldstudy on queenstown water rafting
8. review on taieri gorge rainway
9. horseriding pratical
and
10. a summery of south island

you need to get to work! shanny i mean it. if you dont start doing any of that now you will never even graduate by the end of the year. so stop doing all the useless things like bloggin or watching movies.

everyday workings of the lazy mind

i am going to sink in into the cafe culture. when the weather gets warmer you just want to have a nice sit down with people in a nice comfy place with something to drink on hand. and i am not talking about clubs. i hate clubs. cafes do just the thing.

today cafe is "everday gourmet". this is like the cafe nearest to school and apparently they have really nice and really yummy hot chocolate for 3.50 each. today i had raspberry frost hot chocolate and it is amazing. dias had european black, bav had caramel and eug had i cant even remember. the raspberry smelt so good that i kept smelling the cup even after i was dont with it.

it is so nice to go into this cafe thingy. i shall start visiting cafe after cafes once a week for the rest of my time here. ill make it a point to try all the different cafes around town. it seems like every cafe has its own unique taste. i wonder if 2 weeks is enough to try everything.



just too bad that i am struggling with my last lab report. funny how the calculations will never add up no matter what. i have been to the com lab like 3 times in two days and i still have to go back tomorrow coz i forgot to tabulate the Mann-Whitney test for my results. damn.

anyway. the highlight for the day is ice skating disco night. imagine skating in darkness with disco lights. too bad there were so many kids screeching in my ears. and there were people so good you wish they never ever showed you how to do spins and skate backwards. and the funniest thing is that i think i totally forgot how to skate. the last time i did this was more than 4 years ago in the begining of j1. too bad skating in singapore is so expensive.

if it was cheap i could be twirling on my skates already.

the only thing i did today was fall. cool eh. and with all the kids who know how to go fast but dont know how to stop you cant help but wonder what will happen to your fingers then you fall. imgine them being sliced off by some little boys skates.

pardon the bad photos. blame it on the hp camera. no flash too bad.

to everyone out there

SHANNY IS COMING BACK IN EXACTLY 2 MONTHS

im hiting down on changi airport on the 14 november at 10.30pm if everything goes right. i have already changed my ticket. i cant wait to be back. starting to imagine welcomes and hellos from everyone.

the other day i was imaging seeing dinah again. i could see myself screaming "D.I.N.AAAAAA" at the top of my voice over the lobby and then running into each other arms and giving her a good hug. will the freshies get us all mixed up again? they used to be quite confuse over us some time back. i wonder if they new batch will. but that will mean that ill have to get a tan first. too white too resemble dinah now

then yesterday when i was in the shower i imagining my first sight of ron at the airport. im kinda lucky that my parents are only coming back from vietnam the day after i come back. so i can spend some time with my baby.

hai... then there is seeing the bitch, and mala, and the dictator, van and everyone in hall again. i like to have that feeling that the secretly popular (i wish to think i am) shanny has mysterously reappeared like a genie. the freshies will be like "ohhhhh so you are shanny" and i hope i will be getting this. so you people in hall better add me to your conversations and make me popular before i can enjoy the fruit of my popularity.

who am i kidding? why would anyone put me in their conversations.

then i thought to myself. the next one month is going to be hard. but one that month is over there is only left for counting down to the day im back in singapore. counting down. mayb i should put a countdown timer on my blog. everyone on exchange does that. i think,

to the person living in B405

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALAHAYATI

you are one year older
doesnt mean you can be naughty.

my mom sent me an email

to say that my house television exploded.
like what the hell.
the tvs in my house seems to like going up in smoke
might explains how much tv we watch.

apparently they bought a new 42" LCD.
SO DAMN FUNNY!

spring on campus

it is so pretty to have flowers blooming all over. currently there are tress full of white flowers all over campus. and the pink cherry blossoms (yes the sakura ones) outside hall is started to flower already. ill wait for them to fully bloom before ill take a photo of it.

but yay. the trees are no longer bare anymore. there is beauty in botak trees and there is even more beauty if flowering ones. i wished the bushes outside my window has blossoms but no, they are just normal shrubs and potted plants.

this is taken on my way back from st davids during lunch and i couldnt resis but to stop and pretend to use my phone in the direction of the clocktower. thank god he invited the camera phone. if i had brought my camera it would have been a much nicer photo. and if you look closely you can actually see people sitting on the grass under the nice white blossoms.



the is near the archway bridge. the willows plus white blossoms. two different colors growing in total harmony. with the river running though the middle of it. so damn pretty. and the walkway is just under the blossoms you feel like you are in some fairy tale land.

i just keep imagining all the flowers dropping on the ground in this really big pool of white flowers and me lying in the middle of it. wouldnt that be nice?

i wished singapore had 4 seasons. an in winter spring summer and autumn. no hot, hot and dry, hot and wet and wet. then instead of getting mud and cow grass you can have carpet grass whole year round. and everything will look so pretty.

a meeting with the rat

went for the 730 movie on "cheap" tuesday night. only cost 9.50 to watch the movie on the cheapest day. if not the normal price can be anything from 12 to 14 bucks. imagine payin anything more than 10 to watch a movie.

disney is such a genius. pure smart people with the best imagination work there. how can people make rats look so cute you wished you could hug them? i mean rats usually look so bad they need plastic surgery and a massive clean up. the rat is just so cute. so nice and furry. and the movie made me laugh so much. i m so getting the file from michelle and watching it again.

the rat's brother looked so cute it reminded me of ron. if only i had a nice fat softtoy of that rat to hug. and to think that me and ron watched this at almost the same time. just in different place.

why do i always find myself enjoying cartoons so much in the theater? i have seen so many cartoons in the movie theater i cant even begin to recite them all.


the funniest thing is that johnson messaged this to everyone

"hello homies e rat will be struttin its stuff over at hoyts at 730 tonight but we need to be there earlier coz we cant book e tics online so whee remember your date with the rat which is just a tad less cute than me ahem"

WTH talk about no shame.

i think i have been a good girl today. went to the library to do my readings. and i actually like the place so much i might just go back and stay there to study once in a while. so nice and bright and with large glass windows so big you can see everything going on outside. and with philo, jap and soils essays to do i think i need more time to be in the lib to de my bloody research.

i hate it when sch starts piling up on you. suddenly you cant breathe and every moment you think about work. and my computer is so slow now i feel like trashing it. either that or ill need to upgrade my ram to 1gb. shit. more money again. i hope this com can last till end of sem.

another sappy movie

i am supposed to be doing my reading log (or so i thought i planned to do) and i end up watching dvd after dvd. and this time around after watching the ever gorgeous johnny depp in chocolat, i am back on the laptop watching another dvd "heartful of love" and through a good half of it i was tearing and tearing non-stop in my room i felt so embrassed i had to close my usually open curtains and door. i cannot let my neighbours know i suck so much at watching movies.

another movie that make me cry. sometimes i think that watching a movie all by yourself in the privacy of your own room heightens the emotional element of a movie. somehow you are more willing to cry and let out your emotions. funny how i thought this show would be a typical japanese love story. but it is more thought provacating than that. a movie about life and death and regrets.

apparently this movie made me think quite a bit.

like what in your past would you do differently if you could?
or what if you suddenly found out someone you loved have 3 months left to live?
or what if you found out you were already dead all along?
or what would you do if you found yourself back in time staring at yourself?

We all have our regrets, but what if you found yourself back in the moment you most regret. how much do you regret a moment you want to change it forever? and can you bring yourself to make that change? was there ever something you wish you said to some one who have died? or an action you never wished you have done?

when i think of my life and all the things i have done, suddenly everything seems like it is so simple. i always wished i did study harder for major exams like my Os or my As, but yet at the same time these are such minor regrets. some people out there would have struggled with LIFE. and what kind of life is studying? seriously singaporeans need to do a major reflection on their lifestyles. why cant we just live simply.

funny how japanese can come up with scripts like this. pseudo timespace travel romance shit and although it is not the best movies you have ever seen on tv it is still beautiful in a way.

it is 11.30 pm now and my day has been as "productive" as shireens. well done shanny

girls... is your life boring and dull?

get a life, watch a johnny depp film.
he is arguably the best actor on the face of the earth.
easily knocking brad pitt off my list of hot men in hollywood.

so hot
so hot
so hot
so hot
so hot

god i smile to myself just watching him on screen. and to think he is so slightly less than my mothers age. all johnny depp films are so damn good. and this one? puts chocolate and johnny depp in the same screen. how much more can you get?



i think this movie is so my type of movie, along the same line of movies like big fish and cider house rules. i actually learnt an important thing in this movie, it made me think about temptation and the importence of not denying the joys of your life. how a single person can make a big difference in the world, even if it starts from a small village.

so damn hot
what more can i say?

i have made a resolution to watch all johnny depp movies on big screen. i cant believe i actually did miss this movie. but then again when it came out 7 years ago, i did not know how to appreciate charamatic men like johnny depp. gorgeously and devilishly handsome johnny depp.

i guess when you grow older you start to appreciate strong features in men who never looked old. men that looked gorgous on screen in every damn character they do. johnny depp is a god send to my world. even men like brad pitt dont age so charasmatically. and i mean for a guy that is almost 45 years old, he is sure looking gorgeous. you dont need six packs and boyish looks. all you need is a johnny depp

to my little boy:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARLING

it is not the best birthday you could have
but at least this year you have one more someone that loves you more than all your birthdays before.
i know i am not there in arms reach,
but im coming back soon.
and ill make it up to you.
so dont be so sad k?

miss you loads

500 words to go

i promised myself that i am not going to be bloggin this weekend until i finish my essay but since i am so smart in churing out 1500 plus words already last night in 4 hours i think i should be rewarding myself by blogging. i really did not expect to be able to come up with so many words in a matter of 4 hours.

woke up yesterday morning to a bright and sunny morning where the temperature was nice, warm and comfortable. and i had to go to the classic department research room to gather information for my little piece of crappy essay which is worth a whole 20%. the weather was so nice and with spring blossoms blossoming all over campus, i suddenly had the realisation that this campus is so pretty with the cherry blossoms bloming every 10 meters. and best of all are the people sitting on the grass.

you know when you watch tv and you see amercian university students or UK university students happily sitting on the grass during break time with a book or their lunch and you wonder to yourself what the hell is wrong with singapore? then you realised that singapore's grass are the worse looking mutation of grass on earth and the soil has been through the evolution of mankind to produce a shit smell. and plus the horrid weather that rains so heavily day to day that your grass eventually dissppears and gives way to mud.

but here every seems possible. winter is slowly going away and the signs of spring is in the air. you cant smell the flowers but the sight of them makes the world seem totally different. though i still feel that sitting in the sun in this time of the year is still quite cold. but ill do love to try it one nice and fine day when the weather is warmer and the grass is greenery.

i need to find another place to study other than my room. being in the basement doesnt help the sun from coming through the windows. and to make it worse im not on the sunny side.

i went over to this really nice cafe we found by the octagon for coffee. this little shop is like the most interesting concept of cafes that you can find. and i simply love it for the way everything is randomly placed. i only wished that it is nearer to school where i dont have to walk 20 mins to chill. will take photos of it the next time i am there.

i think mommy will love the place for its jams and cakes.

Road Trip Day 10 : Wellington to Dunedin

2nd Sept 2007 Sunday
Distance traveled >771km

for a start let me announce to the rest of the world that i just lived up to my name of "efficient blogger". i just spent a whole 3 days (Mon, Tue, Wed) bloggin 10 days worth of activities and also sorting out an almost 10 gig MB file of photos. amazing aint i. even my ability surprises myself. if only i was this efficient in magically creating word count for my essays and assignments. i just cant go on with my term essays (one due on monday) until i get everything blogged and sorted out. blame it on the bloggin gene that sits in my DNA. this gene is actually a burden to my existence.

sorry for the lack of photos for day 10. there was really not much to photo. but back to the road trip.

last day back and day 10 actually is just a traveling day. we took the ferry from wellington back to picton and traveled back "home" to dunedin while stopping by at kaikora, chirstchurch and random stops in between.

kaikora is one really beautiful town. it is the place to go if you want to go whale watching. but we are not doing that this trip. just made a short stop over for lunch. nice yummy fatty pork belly to sooth my mouth. it always feels good eating something that contains so much fats.

kaikora beach is not white sand or black sanded. it is actually a gravel beach. it surprises me how i can visit so many different formations of beaches in 10 days. and having really nice sunny weather, the beach looks even better.



we made a short stop at glen's place for an hour or two and had "jap" dinner.

i only reached back in unicol at 2 am in the morning after at full 12 hour plus drive down south. i felt so foriegn in my own hall. it felt like i have never lived here even for a moment. and the slow realisation that sch starts on monday is a kill joy. actually most of us have already declared monday a holiday. we were all going to sleep in and not attend class. than again. not like it made a difference to my schduele already. i perpetually miss half my classes here anyway.

today is thurdays and for the last 3 days it seems somewhat like a mini dream to me. there is simply no mood for classes (although i was surpise i found myself going for morning classes on tues) i miss the road trip feeling and the constant company of the funniest bunch of people you can travel with. imagin being stuck to them 24/10. and even knowing each other to the extent of recognising who snores at night.

everything suddenly seems like a total blur to me like as if the road trip was a distant past. and the amazing thing it that although we traveled more than 3700km there was not much time to feel tired. we intially thought that it was going to be a very rushed trip but in reality it was no where near rushed.

ok shanny. now that you have finish the blogging for road trip you should start your classic essay. you NEED TO DO IT BY SUNDAY NIGHT

Road Trip Day 9 : New Plymouth to Wellington

1st Sept 2007 Saturday
Distance traveled >356km

off to the volcano we go. this is NZ own volcano mountain. mount taranaki, off the west of the north island. if volcanos look this good i wouldnt mind standing near it while it erupts. it is 2518m high and this volcanic mountain is one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world. because of its resemblance to mount fuji, this taranaki volcano is the backdrop for the tom cruise movie "The Last Samurai". to think that tom cruise step on these lands before i did. (not like i do like him or anything)

but i really have to say that it look great. esp on photos

we did a 2.5 hour trek in less than 2 hours. it says 2 hours on the board but we walked another 20 mins worth of trek to the view point. and this trek goes half way up the mountain with steep steps of undergrowth and tree roots. we actually walked that fast UPSLOPE i was so tired by the time i came to the top. it was a 1 hour 40 min fast hike to the view point and coming down more than twice as fast. WTH.

this is the veronica loop track. i think i have never seen so much undergrowth before. i couldnt even admire the trees and the "skyline" coz you simply have to watch were you are going. one wrong move and you are in a pile of mud or totally tripped over the bushes or bulging tree roots.



the long tired walk up to the top was really worth it. taranaki rains alot and we manage to climb through the not so good weather to the top where the cloud cleared a little.

as usual we got ahead with stupid stuff again.



do a maori imitation. though not a very good one at that.



after that it was a long way down to wellington the city of the very strong winds. it feel like the stretch from archway past richerson to lib in like the WHOLE of wellington. and amazingly, i love this city. for once i actually see people on the streets at night. and shops are very open past 5pm at about 8 when we were there walking around.



we ended up at a morrocian restraunt for our last spurge of a meal. nice herbs and potatoes with kababs for me and a dose of belly dancing. belly dancin we all got involved in. after that a good round of ice cream.



it is dawned on me that a whole 10 days of road trip is coming to a total end. i really did enjoyed it loads.