Lair of Flying Green Song Rabbits

The gruesome day of attending uni tomorrow will mark the final class for the entire year. No more school in 2009! Midori has an exam tomorrow though, and of course the upcoming month means lots of studying for uni students as well as those doing the HSC this year (such as Porkie, poor Porkie, I feel your pain).

I have several things I want to do before I get on the plane on the 30th. Yes, it has been decided a long while ago that I will be jetting off to Albuquerque via Los Angeles.

First of all I want to be able to enjoy all the good times that Summer encompasses. These include water(gun/balloon) fights, Christmas BBQ and beaching at Bondi. How am I going to do all of that when everyone has exams and are studying :(

My uni friends are organising a beach trip sometime soon and I'll probably be going. That's one down!

I always want to explore the culinary world this break. I dream of wafting aromas, a heating oven and hungry hungry tummies. I want to make food and have people eat it! And I also want to do this with a friend. Say Midori, why don't I hang around your house cooking strange and exotic food that your siblings can eat, hey hey? Thinking about the food that will be involved is making me extremely hungry and I just had dinner.

So would anyone like to volunteer their house and wallet - for the ingredients - and invite me over since I have nothing to do until 30 November? If not, I'll be spending a lot of time visiting Maria and her new "Romeo". Hehehe.

Nothing going on in the land of Grongbit.

Just assignments and studying for exams.

Also known as really adorable things and ways to procrastinate and laugh your head off. Courtesy of MyLifeisAverage.

While I am still young and immature...

Today, I woke up after spending the night at my girlfriends house for the first time and went downstairs to find her. Not only did we stay up until 3 in the morning playing Monopoly in a blanket tent that covered her whole bedroom, I found her in the kitchen making me green, chocolate chip, dinosaur shaped pancakes. Luckiest man alive? I think so. MLIA

Today, I had to bring in a creepy porcelain doll for a school drama project. At lunch, me and my friends hid around a corner and made the doll peer around whenever anyone came along the hallway. We got a dozen girly screams and one kid fainted. I go to an all boys school. MLIA

Today my brother told me he leaves the house with two wallets, his real wallet and a decoy wallet with old empty gift cards, so that if he ever gets held up, he can just give the guy the empty one. My brother is 14 and just bloody brilliant. MLIA

Today, My boyfriend and I were talking about costumes for halloween. He suggested he could dress up as a dragon and I as a princess. And he would keep me captive. We settled on me being the dragon and him being the princess. MLIA

Today I decided to mess with the operators of a text question answering service. I texted, "Where can I hide the bodies?" They texted back, "Find the closest river, wait until nightfall." MLIA

Today, I just remembered how during my freshman year, me and and my friend were successfully able to convince his girlfriend that me with glasses and me without glasses were completely different people. One day, I walked by her without glasses and said hi and she said "Hi, Joe!" I walked around the building, put a new shirt and glasses on and walked by her again and she said, "Hey Blake!" and asked me where I was going. I told her that I was looking for Joe. She proceeded to point me in the direction I had just came from, and that I had just missed him. MLIA.

Today, my friend changed her name in my phone to Luna Lovegood. When I was at Target she called me and my harry potter ringtone went off. A little girl next to me saw the name and said is it really her? I said yes. MLIA



When I am out of university...

Today I attended a party for three of my friends (turning 23, 24, and 26.) The party concluded not with drinking or clubbing, but rather with a massive, 3 hour game of hide-and-seek. It was the most fun I've had in months. MLIA

Today I was sitting at a red light and a car pulled up next to me. Their music was up really loud and kind of getting on my nerves. As I sat there listening, I realized it was 'The Imperial March.' I looked over to see Darth Vader staring me down from the passenger seat. We stared at each other, I in awe, for about 20 seconds until the light changed. The car sped away as Darth held a red lightsaber out the window. I must find these people. MLIA.

Today my room mate was gone for today. I decided to look in his bottom drawer which he has always been very secretive about. I found a single issue of a dirt magazine covering a drawer full of nerf guns. At the very bottom was a note demanding a nerf war with anyone who opened this drawer. I'm preparing a full scale attack. MLIA

A few days ago, I had my appendix removed. When I woke up from the surgery, I kept my eyes closed until the nurse came into the room. When she did, I yelled "BOO!" She then proceeded to have the most epic fake heart attack I have ever seen in my whole life. Touche nurse, touche. MLIA.



Being a cool mum with cool kids...

Today, my dad set up a wildlife camera to capture the deer that come to our apple trees. As he slept, my mom, sister and I dressed up (respectively) as a dinosaur with a neon green mohawk, the cat in the hat, and a leopard wearing it's spots as a toga. We stalked around our backyard for twenty minutes posing as the -alternative- wildlife my dad has being waiting to see, he's in for a surprise. MLIA

Today, my 6 year-old daughter was asking me questions about Santa Claus at dinner. My 13 year-old daughter was getting annoyed with all the dumb questions and simply told her younger sister that Santa didn't exist. Instead of being aghast and upset, my younger daughter just said, "Yea but neither does Edward Cullen!" My older daughter left the dinner table and I think its easy to say who won tonight.

Today I was sitting outside of Starbucks. A teenage girl walked by wearing a T-shirt reading "Bite Me. (Vampires Only)." I then see a nine-year-old girl walk up to this teenager, bite her arm, and say "Harry Potter pwns," and then walk away. Her mother then told her, "Good job, sweetie." MLIA

Today, I asked my teacher when we were getting our Biology tests back because I was really anxious to see what I got. She proceeded to tell me It won't be for a while because her and her husband are in an intense Mario kart competition and she doesn't have time. I can deal with that. MLIA.

Today, I had to drive my little brother to school since he missed the bus. On his excuse slip, instead of a normal excuse, I wrote, "Please excuse Ethan's tardiness. He was busy fighting dragons. You'll be pleased to know he was victorious." They not only accepted this excuse, but they completely dismissed his tardy punishment. MLIA

Today when I logged into facebook, I was excited to see that I had 20 new pictures tagged of me. Turns out they were all pictures of me my dad had photoshopped. Now anyone visiting my facebook page can see that I have wresseled bears, hunted in Africa, climbed mount everest, been to Narnia, and fought in the civil war. MLIA

Today, my school celebrates Halloween dress-up early. I came to school dressed up as Pikachu. Half-way through English class, something hit me really hard in the back in the head. I looked down to see what it was. It was a miniature pokeball. I looked around to see who had thrown it. It was my professor, he was dressed as Ash Ketchum. MLIA


Being a cool granny...

Today I was helping an elderly man pick out a new laptop at the electronics store that I work at. When I asked what he would primarily use it for, he answered "to watch kung fu in HD and play WOW." He restored my faith in senior citizens. MLIA

Today I learned that my grandma used to beat up boys 5 years older than her in grade school with her metal lunch box. I always wondered why Grandpa never argues back. MLIA

Today my grandpa held out his fist for a fist bump, when I went to fist bump him he yelled "JELLYFISH!" and pulled his hand away in jellyfish fashion. I love him. MLIA

Today was my birthday. My grandma gave me a book called "The Zombie Survival Guide", complete with a toy gun, plastic axe and plastic sword, a flashlight shaped like a hippo, and an emergency chocolate bar. I always knew she was the cool relative. MLIA

My grandparents were in town this past week when the awkward subject of teen pregnancy/abortion came up. The table fell silent, then my 92 year old Great Grandmother stuck out her hands and said: "AWKWARD TURTLE!" I suddenly have a new respect for old people. MLIA.



I wish I had such a great sense of humour and quick wit.

So....

My birthday was over a week ago but it's taken me this long to acknowledge (not quite) that I am a year older.

The following will contain too many yet not enough photos of last Thursday and too many words. Read when in need of procrastination material!



Some photos of people in attendance:







Yum yums lots of food all over the table. I sat in middle ish with most of the boys on my right eating hot pot and the girls/some late arrivers on my left ordering various dishes.

Me, Simon, S and her brother sat eating Korean bbq.

After it was icecream time!

Marweechi and namweechi left without telling me cuz I walked too far ahead and they had to go =(.

Vvn and ray left after entering the ice cream place for a while.


Picture before vvn leaves.


Minglez.


The boy's icecream table. I got a pic of shu!


Shu notices camera lol.


Opening presents: scarf that Josh gave me =) It's nice and warm and I wore it the other day.


Happy birthday bear from Jeff. Very cute =)


Um present from steven (simon?), shu and I think one other person... A bunch of puzzles....


Another puzzle.... (minglez had the choice of what to buy)


Opening this cool Parker pen which somehow has magical (gravity?) powers. It can tell what colour you want.... amazing... from Jie and minglez


Sorbet icecream!


Josh pointing to some icecream picture to take....


The guy's massive rainbow icecream.... MASSIVE


End blob of it... Some of the flavours were surprising.... and really gross....


Girls eating icecream =)


My eyebrows are too thin and short >.>


Jie putting 20 on the tiny cake minglez bought.


S laughing at something XD


and some other form of expression.


Minglez showing everyone her big boobs and Jie staring!!!
Josh: I can't look away!!! (at the photo)


Upset that I turn 20 so 2 sounds better lol.


Happy happy!


Yays!!

I'm so glad so many people showed up for me. I felt so loved that day =)

Turning any age always scared me cuz as a pre-teen my biggest fear was death. I was so horrified and couldn't accept the concept of not existing anymore when I die, that every year I turn older all I can think about is how many years until the next major event of my life.

The next major event seems to be getting married on my chart. Evidence being my mum telling me if I date someone I gotta show her cuz she's a good judge of character and that when she was my age +1 my mum was married and at my age +2 she was pregnant with me or something along those scary lines that I prefer to forget....

A part of me has that dream of a perfect wedding married to someone I've dated for years yet when it all comes down to it I do wanna marry before 30 (before my parents have a heart attack and try to sell me away wtf) yet I just turned 20 and am no where near ready for a long term relationship!!!

The past year of my life has been so full of ups and downs. I remember at one point thinking the 18th and 19th year after my birth were my happiest yet.

The year I turned 19....
I went back to China and learnt a lot more about my family and had a greater appreciation to them. I realised my grandma was getting more and more frail and that I should cherish her more. I discovered remedies for my monolid lol.

I went on my first 'real' holiday to Beijing and understood the meaning of freezing and crap hotel food.

First semester uni I finally got my first insight into nutrition studies and the shittiness that is pharmaoclogy and renewed my hatred for MBLG.

What the hell I did in my semester break I can't really remember just that I spent a lot of time working and going out.

In fact I spent a lot of time with my ex-bf. For a significant portion of my 19th year I spent it with him. I don't think that by breaking up I can suddenly deny that I had some bloody good times.

He introduced me to so many new things out there and we shared some great experiences eating out and having fun together. And as meeting many other friends became more and more difficult with distance, work commitments, uni etc my life seemed to slowly revolve around him.

It was inevitably somewhere along the line that we would part, just merely the point of putting a date on the matter. I am glad though cuz I realised maybe I am not ready to commit fully to anyone. Perhaps I had deluded myself into thinking that with the increasing length of relationship, but he was not the one. I am happy now, meeting people completely different from him and being in a sort of limbo.

Finding out that I had impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) rocked my world. I was alone to deal with it myself as my parents like every other Asian never talks about issues and most other friends were busy. I had freshly been dumped and feeling alone with no one to talk to (sucks).

Eventually I took the route of telling anyone who I ate lunch with thinking if I said it aloud enough times it'll sink it. But I just got tired. Telling everyone and watching their reaction didn't fill in that void of confusion, going against it did not either and neither did looks of pity and consolation. Nothing seemed to offer the comfort I thought it would. In the end I guess.... well there is no end to it.

Getting my 1st real job as a tutor was definitely a defining moment. It was the first job I found all by myself, obtained all by myself and was paid by someone I didn't know or was related to. God i was so nervous on my first day but now i have relaxed into the role. I have such wonderful students but also met a few hard to deal ones. I don't think teaching is the job for me afterall (bloody annoying kids). But it gave me such rewards when I felt the students liked me, understood what I taught or said the cutest things to me.

My mum says I am more mature now than when I left high school. I think I'm just seeing more grey areas in life where once I thought I was so committed to a certain opinion. Along with that though is a reversal in some areas that were more grey having turned more black and white. Sometimes I find myself being more discriminatory and judgmental than I normally would have before and it scares me a little.

This is the first year where I'm afraid I wont make it studies wise to the next year and to honours. I have always set the bar above average but right now being so lost in a major subject I will be doing next year does not sit well in me. The difficulty of nutrition now and the competitiveness of the students scare me into thinking 'what if I don't get a credit average?' I have always assumed I will have enough motivation to make it all the way through so I've never had a back up plan... what if I don't make it and end up doing a bachelor of science... what am I gonna do then??? Shit. Esp since my neurophysiology lecturer said your brain's hardwired and won't change much after 20. Is screwed.

I'm at a point now where I want to meet more interesting people, date casually, find work experience, study harder, connect more with family and shop more lol.

I hope my 20th is filled with more ups than downs and with plenty more years to come.

I want to thank everyone who's made the 19th year of my life so memorable and filled with joy and a special thanks especially to those who showed up on Thursday night. I had such fun finally able to catch up with so many of you at once!!

Muahaha now for the rest of you young 19ers!

Say...



I killed someone
I knowingly drove someone to suicide
I watched someone get hurt before me without raising a finger to help
I laughed at others' pain
I betray others
I believed that I was greater than any of you
I tell nothing but lies
I show only a carefully crafted facade to the world
I rob people of the things most precious to them
I see everyone around me as a potential enemy
I selfishly take from others without ever returning a thing
I trust no one
I only befriend others so I can use them later
I refuse to ever change
I was insane -



Would you still be my friend?

I've waited as long as I can but I should be blogging about this occasion, since I started. It needs to be finished and then archived into the library of past experiences once and for all.

Basically, GET OVER IT SERENA.

So, my bellas, I give you the last few days.

I spent one of those days bringing N to see our famous Bondi Beach. It was a warm day, but not a very good day for swimming. I didn't manage to pack my swimsuit so all we did was looking, walk on the beach and breathe in the lovely salty, fresh air.







Unfortunately we didn't stay long because the clouds started rolling in and it suddenly got pretty cold.

But not before I convinced him to eat a FRIED MARS BAR :D

Oh, calories and saturated fats galore!

That evening we went back to the City and I wanted to eat ginseng chicken soup and I was a bit sniffly, need me some warm, chicken broth! I can't believe I forgot the name of the Korean restaurant. It's the one underneath Fullhouse, behind The Galeries Victoria on Pitt St. I can't seem to find it on Google Maps, but anyway. It's tucked away in a corner.

But when we arrived they told us that they had no more ginseng chicken soup! That put me in a bad mood because that was the sole reason I wanted to eat there :(

Instead we had a plate of teriyaki chicken (ripoff man...) and some other soup with flour noodles in a clear broth. Little did I know that it was seafood broth and there were a lot of octopus bits in it.







By this time of the week Kebu had come home from the US of A and it was time that he met my "significant other". We all went out for lunch aka breakfast in my case, the things N does for me seriously...which was to be at Market City.

Kebubu and Butterfly cheesu!




Maria arrived late since she had just finished uni, but was on her way. She made it in time for food. Sorry guys but the food was crap. N was such a sport saying that he liked it but trust me he liiieeeessss ;D




It even looked kinda...I'll stop talking.

After lunch we walked around a bit then decided to go karaoke. Except...B wanted to go to a specific place but didn't really know where it was. After looking around we found out it was just off the corner of the hotel N was staying at lol.

And we karaoked like typical Asians for several hours until our voices were hoarse and dying and we couldn't stand hearing Kebu and B bellow an epic version of Phantom of the Opera.

Did you leave before hearing that, Marweechi? If you did, lucky you LOL.

We should do it again sometime LOLOL.


Next day was a trip to the other beach, Manly Beach, mostly because it requires a ferry to get there and more ferry rides is always a good thing. Another reason was because I rarely ever go to Manly and have never been to the beach there. Our original plan was to rent 2 canoes but when we got there the shop was closed! Whhhyyyy!! I was so bummed out.

This was what I had for breakfast, Ajisen Ramen in Chinatown near McDonalds!




Looking at it makes me hungry.

Not wanting me to be upset, N suggested we go to the beach and just look around, maybe have a picnic in the sand or something. So that's kinda what we did.





OMG there were so many cockatoos in the grass it was insane! I managed to sneak up real close and snap a few pictures before they all took off. I managed to get a pic of them mid flight and it was so beautiful and awesome. Highlight of the day.








While walking around the tiny shopping district in Manly I got a roll at one of the deli's.

And holy crap this was one hell of a roll.

They offered boccocini cheese balls!! I LOVE BOCCOCINI!




NOM NOM NOM.

I was very reluctant to share with Mr. N.

Also got some baklava (I've had better, see Granville Station).




And we sat in the sand and ate good food in each other's company.

Since it was Friday night I remember that the Friday markets were on in Chinatown although I don't know when it started. It was late afternoon but by the time we walked from Circular Quay to Chiantown (yes, seriously, N likes to walk) all the stalls were open and the crowds were thick and hungry.

It was funny getting snippets of conversations from people who have NO idea what the foods were, and wondering if it tasted nice. How dare thee question the yummiliciousness of takoyaki and BBQ pork sheets dripping with honey!!

Mmmm so good...

We had a bowl of super spicy and hot seafood balls and a large container of salt and pepper squid which went to waste because I didn't like it much.

And we also bought a box of DRAGON BEARD CANDY OMGAH. I LURVE dragon beard candddyyyy!!!

Everytime I see it I buy it. I bought some in Korea too :D

And surprisingly, N loved them too!




We went back and bought another box to take home with us :D This time we caught the free shuttle.

Then, surprisingly, we managed to fit a cup of gelato and a few lychees (his first time, this was such an educational vacation for him) then it was bedtime.

One more post to go, saving the best for last.

EDIT: More photos added!

A few weeks ago Midori, Joshu and I went out to eat dinner because we haven't been to the gym together for ages.

Mostly because Josh wanted to sue the gym for misinformation...and I was too lazy to claim my free months.

We went to eat at Midtown Cafe because the food there isn't too bad and the price is pretty good too.

These pictures have been sitting in my camera for a few weeks, uhh sorry guys.

I met M in front of QVB and she mentioned that they had a display of Queen Victoria's costumes in the movie The Young Victoria. We went upstairs to take a look and snap photos.



















And then when it was time to meet with Josh we left aha. Short walk across Town Hall.






Josh being all camera shy, awww. Table 15!

Actually the exact table Mr. N and I sat on before >_>






Weird candids.




Cheesy herb bread with extra Parmasen cheese as a starter.




A penne with more Parmasen cheese on top. A very good dish for the cheap price of $15-18 I think lol.




A vegetarian fettucini for Midori who was on a vegetarian diet that week.






Josh very kindly cut up the cheesey bread but then Midori yelled at him and said he has to cut it into three portions because there's three of us! So he did. Good doggie AHAHAHA :D




Josh's um um, beef casserole thing. A daily special that came with a dessert which I don't have a photo of. It was a very thick, sweet, gooey chocolate cake that was yummy but oh soooo sweet overload...

If anyone forgot where it is, it's the little pretty cafe next to KFC and Greater Union on George St, 2min walk from TH.

Altogether a very nice yet frugal dinner.