like when i first moved in alone

sigh. it's a funny feeling, that. when i entered my apartment and there was nobody.
that dreadful feeling like when i first moved in to stay alone.
mummy went back to singapore this afternoon.

it's been a good one week i suppose. it went by so quickly though!
in one week i've had 3 days of conference, a couple of assignment meetings, gone to help cook at a non-profit organisation, gone to camberwell, a lavendar farm, aimee's place, and 2 days of shopping (one was purely just to get stuff for caleb). not to mention, quite a few meals with both d and mummy. anw, mummy and i went to madame sou sou's today. level of satisfaction was pretty low though. i remembered it to be really good.

just about 2 more months and i'll be back in singapore. the thought of it is slightly scary for some reason. the last break back home was dreadfully long and aimless. i need to think of stuff to do that dont revolve around eating something, or drinking something. surely there's a greater reason to meet up with someone than.. to eat or drink, right?

the frustration

i dont wanna marry a workaholic.
even if that means i get 12 prada bags a year (which totally dosen't interest me).
i dont think i'll be able to build much of a relationship with one.

out in the country and the fluffy hearts

i've been busy with so many things and my days have been so packed!
wednesday was spent travelling to and from the country cause aims and family invited me and mummy over for lunch.
they're the most hospitable family i know.

aimee took us to see wild kangaroos after lunch, and we also went up to the lavendar farm to have a look. the lady who runs the place (jane) told us to feel free to walk around and pick the different types of lavenders they have. mummy went high smelling those purple things. seriously.

i did work with wenyi on thursday morning before the 1+1=? seminar. accounting is. so. tedious.

mummy cooked a pretty good meal that night. haha. eh, must be encouraging right? fortunately dong came over for dinner so we were able to finish up all the food. muahaha. no luh. the food was really really not bad! better than my cooking by a mile. the only thing that dong had to dapau was the fish that i cooked. haha!

cooking in FARESHARE on friday morning was really good! our cellgroup linked up with this organization that rescues food and cooks it for various welfare organisation. it was good fun helping out in the kitchen. we made over 800 quiches that morning!

but more than the fun and new experience, it was a good time to engage in good conversation. the best part of being able to work with FS was that it's really got me excited about this rescuing food thing. rah. what can i say. i can say a lot. but im just a tad too lazy and tired to elaborate.

marry who!

the arrival of the mother

i had a really good day. haha very happening one.
dong and i went to pick mummy up from the airport early this morning and we went for breakfast after dropping our stuff off at my place (and returning debs' car).
we went to babka's YUUUMMM! i looove the crossiants there. and their chai latte. yumyumyumyumyum.

by the time we walked back it was almost 1 and i had to leave to meet my assignment group. we had a productive time of discussion before i rushed off to arrow for the relationship seminar.

i was pretty excitied about the seminar because tim's someone who really challengs a lot of the perspectives i have on things, and mindsets that many people have. true enough, i think i learnt a few good things today. happy!

mummy tried cooking dinner for the both of us tonight.
well, she kinda cheated because i had leftover chicken from ltc retreat so i just tossed them in the toaster to grill. she just had to cook vegetables.
super amusing.
she bought bok choy and was desperately hoping that they were not the bitter-tasting veg. they were pretty big, and she didn't think of chopping them up into smaller pieces. anyway, cut the long story short, i taught her how to cook vegetables. funny eh.

thriving

i crashed for 15 hours when i got home yesterday. i spent friday night at kensington turning the dusty garage into daryl's room with su-ann,kyle and dong.

haha mummy laughed and told us we were crazy. haha it was good fun. by the time we finished it was past 1.30am in the morning. his room's so pretty eh? i can't wait to watch the video footage of his reaction when he opened the garage door to drive in yesterday.

the weekend at LTC retreat in kimgarra was refreshing in a very different way. i enjoyed it, and not because it was fun. it was inspiring. i'm really blessed to have found fellowship in OCF. really really blessed.

that's my cellgroup! :)

it tastes.....

i managed to wake up before 10 again today. yay for me!
im not usually this happy about waking up early, but now that i feel like i need extra study time, being able to see more of the morning sun gives me extra energy!
(no i'm not cramming or stressing over my studies. i hope i wont have to! oooh i hope i have good time management over the next 2 weeks of midterm break)

this week went by in a blur. i only sorta remember studying more than usual, and waking up at 3 plus in the morning to make breakfast for a few friends before they started fasting. oh. yes. and meeting up with jack and john. monday seems so far away now.

i cooked dinner! muahahaha... chicken with spices, and spinach. hmm.. it tasted very much like the pervious time i cooked chicken with almost the same few spices, just less spicy. i'm really happy about it though. it was surprisingly edible. (definitely much more edible than the last time i cooked chicken which left me soooooo discouraged. ) to top it all off, i made myself a cup of soy chai latte! yum! totally comfort food.

speaking of that, i should get more hup seng crackers for ltc retreat. i just texted hugo to ask him if there woul be milo at retreat and he said YES!!! yay! can have milo time.

haha excuse me. im just letting my thoughts turn into words on this blog post, not much of a filter today so i'm guessing most of this post wouldn't be what i'd call "exciting" but hey, who cares? i like how exciting my little life here is!

cant wait for tmr's sabotage. muaaahahahah.....

morning call and midnight ride

"Oh my goodness i can't believe it's 9.14am and i am sitting here doing my work with elisa."
yeah i couldn't believe it either. dong was up before the noon sun for once. he insisted that i blog about it (i was going to anyway). haha. he called me at 7.35 this morning to tell me he'd be here at 9!

anyway, we did rather hardcore studying till 12 plus afterwhich he left to meet DW. i met j allen for lunch and we kinda did nothing for 1and a half hours before i headed for my accounting lecture.

costa's got quite a character. after sitting in a few of his lectures, i concluded that he's greek (he reminded me instantly of mary zafirakis). he confirmed it today. haha. he ended today's lecture showing us family photos, telling us he's the happiest happiest happiest person any of us would ever see in the week because he's been blessed with a wonderful family. it was so heart-warming to see how contented and proud he was of his family. i'd really love to talk to him one day.

i followed wenyi home after accounting becuase i was quite drained and i just wanted to study and not be alone. i've gotta say she's a really good host. haha the type who will make you feel at home by being super chin-chye. we were gonna share her single bed. oh and she cooked chicken with chinese mushrooms! i really like home cooked food. i hardly ever ever ever get it. even back in singapore. (*nudges mummy)

so i was studying from dinner till about 11 plus and we were planning to sleep at 12. then dong called and found out that i was at wenyi's place with no change of clothes or toothbrush or anything for sleepover purposes

a couple of minutes later he called me back and said that he was gonna pick me up in daryl's car.

so im home now! <3

just makes you wanna cry

i kinda cried myself to sleep last night at amy (teh)'s place.
The Notebook was soooooo touching!
*sobs. after that we watched A Walk to Remember.
sigh. these movies play with my emotions like crazy i tell you.

anyway, alyssa, wenyi, xin yun and i went to amy's after ltc to have a girls' night. the train ride to glen waverly was pretty bearable - maybe because when i take the train, i'm usually on it for more than an hour. i don't take the train a lot though. we cooked curry and baked chocolate cheesecake which was YUUUM! happiness.

i came back early this morning in time for 11.15 service at crossculture which dong couldn't wake up for (sigh) then rushed off for lunchw iththe dance team from life*ex, then rushed off for life101, then headed home but saw a whole bunch of ocfers on the way home and went for dinner withthem.

quite tired, but a well spent weekend. gonna study tmr and catch up with jack.
gnite world.

macroview

Our macroeconomics lecturer showed us a news article today on Papua new Guinea's economic growth taking a toll on the structures of the tribal communities, and how many children are left "unparented" because adults move to the more industrialised parts to look for work, leaving them behind. His point was that behind all the graphs and statistics that we see, we're dealing with people's lives.

i remember him clearly making that exact same point on how macroeconomics is about people's lives at the very first lecture.

it just made me really happy to know that he isn't just a lecturer passionate about the keynesian model and GDP growth, but he's someone who still remembers the macroperspective AND reminds us of it.

i had a really good talk with N, and i think he was quite surprised.

some may think i'm being really dreamy and idealistic and hopeful and whathaveyou. i guess to a certian extent i am - i need someone to push me or guide me as to what to do with these dreamy ideas! howhowhowhowhow...

woops! heh heh heh.

E: drink this
D:what’s inside?
E: honey and water
(he drinks a bit of it)
E: nice?
D: mm-hmm
E: REALLY??? Let me try it!
(i take a sip)
E: mm.. ok. Finish it k? It’s healthy! :D
D: ok! As long as it’s not APPLE CIDER VINEGAR! This is so much better than apple cider vinegar!
*couple of minutes on how he doesn't like apple cider vinegar and will never drink it*
E: .... i.... put apple cider vinegar in it.

haha. should have seen his face.

it is like a catching game but not really

i successfully cooked myself some dinner tonight. rice with mushrooms and this green leafy veg that i don't know the name of. plus oyster sauce. HAH!

i think i might go back to singapore with an extra 5 kg or sthg. i dont want to exercise to lose weight though. it's so celebrity-centred.

the break in

dong got the keys to my apartment on saturday cause i was gonna be out the whole day and he was gonna wait to have dinner with me. SO, guess what he did.

i came back and noticed that my apartment was more spacious! haha AND.. my bathroom was so cleeeeeen! hahahaha. yay can marry him already. AHAHA. kidding. sorry sorry - cannot joke about this kinda thing.

i had a pretty busy weekend which is really motivating me to study this coming week. daniel's leaving melbourne tmr! we had dinner at stalactites as a cell today. everyone was there except jon lee who popped by while we were waiting for seats at max brenners. i'm really surprised, glad and encouraged by how dan feels the same kinda sadness he felt when he left singapore even though he's only been in melboure for 6 weeks. must have really been a good 6 weeks for him. :) i must also say that it was because daniel was committed to coming every friday night and tuesday afternoon even though he started out being unsure of whether or not he would be coming back to ocf for the second time after his first night. what can i say - im glad he took the initiative and was willing to take a chance on this group of average-not-very-happening-looking group of uni students.

today's father's day in australia. daddy's birthday was on tuesday and i wrote him a card so i didn't call back or anything today. i did a father's day dance item in church which was choreographed by nicole. eh heh. it's funny - this love hate relationship i have with dancing. one moment i really feel like dancing and moving my body (EVEN THOUGH I DON"T HAVE THE GROOOOVE!) and the next i just wanna run away from anything dance-related.

i spoke to p today because i found her sitting alone. i remembered what penny said about looking out for people who are alone when everyone else is in their own group of friends. you never really quite notice these people. sometimes you'd rather not take notice of them because then you wont have to talk to them and feel uncomfortable taking that initiative. anyway, p and i had an interesting time of sharing. haha. yeah i'd certainly like to talk to her again.

i also had a very interesting convo with g, even though it was short. talked about his ambition, his passion. i really wanna talk to him about this more!!

uhm OH! RATANA replied my email! happy. she's over in singapore from cambodia till monday and it's been about a year since i last heard from her. i met her in COSI in cambodia when i went over with other youth from church a few years back. well - i actually first met her when i was 13.

the thought of him being rather annoying had stuck with me for quite some time. i kept telling myself that he was on a TOTALLY different frequency and i'd never ever be able to have a proper conversation with him, or see him to be a really WOW-type person. but HEY,surprise surprise. i (encouraged by melissa after i told her my struggle) made the decision to intentionally sit with him and make myself talk to him. and i think that really changed my view of him. it really makes a difference when you look out for the good in a person. i felt that my perception of him really changed. not because he said or did anything spectacular, but i guess it was some kind of a breakthrough for me - to START to see him for the beautiful creation that he is. i emphasize on start because i daren't say that he looks completely beautiful to me yet. to be able to see the beauty in someone is amazing.

mel came over to my place when we reached cs ad we talked till 12.45. really intense coversation too. wow. today's been one really colourful day. thank you God!

this is quality

once again, bible study with the cellgroup was pretty good.
before we knew it, it was 12.15 - past midnight after we finished BS and praying for daniel.
dan fang's been here in melbourne for only 6 weeks.
on tueday during prayer meeting, we each shared and prayed about out dreams and goals.
daniel shared about how he's always wanted to do actuarial studies since really young because his relative exposed him to it and his interest grew.
he ended up doing science at melbourne uni - for 6 weeks.
on tuesday itself, he suddenly got an acceptance letter from manchester university in the UK for actuarial studies!
so he's leaving melboure on moday.

pretty crazy stuff eh?
i was really encouraged today when he told us how much God has used ocf to impact his life. i'm very sure that over the past 6 weeks he's been learning more about God than he'd have expected to learn. he was sharing that before he came to melboure, he didn't even know what a cellgroup was. good stuff. i'm excited for him. such a surprising turn of events. he really shocked all of us in the cellgroup when he set us an email durig the week telling us he was leaving melbourne.

i'm really happy for the relationships formed.

gnite world.

clown

ys: haiyo why you like to talk to me. i talk so much rubbish later i screw up your life how?
e: you think i'll let you screw up my life meh??

:D

:)

"but being the elisa you are, i guess nothing's really too weird for you. you always did weird stuff back then anyway."

haha.





deciding to let go of the macroeconomics assignment is really quite a relief. not that it stressed me out or anything, i just felt like i was spendig way too much time on it thinking of whether my asnwer is sufficiently complete when i've probably got most of the required points already. a couple of people i study with are fretting over it causing me to doubt my answers. BUT i've hit the "submit assignment" button - YAY!

dad's birthday was yesterday. i called him but i didn't wish him. lol i called him to tell him about my hi-fi set which couldn't be fixed. i popped a card into the mail on monday though. it'll probably not reach till.. thursday or friday?

wayne called on monday but our conversation was cut short by his mom/sisters. it was good talking though. haha. he's like the only one from singapore who calls me so randomly!