And the world's worst friend award goes to... ME.

So the bitch has a conscience after all.

Despite the random and somewhat unpredictable night I ended up having tonight, deep down I just couldn't properly enjoy myself. All the 'jokes' made cut me real deep and it was like having my worst thoughts and fears come to life.

The question that still puzzles me is why it happened and how I let it happen. It doesn't make any sense and it's seriously not like me.

Whatever it is, at least I know this: I am my own worst enemy.

Baby I'm getting better...

The title of today's blog serves 2 purposes:
1. To highlight that I'm actually recovering from my minor illness [Frick on a stick, I'm sick for the third time this year... it's a record!!!]
2. To let the world know that the new and improved me is back and better than ever!!!

So the title of today's blog [as are a lotta my blog titles] comes from a song by Gyroscope. Unlike the song, I don't owe my change in outlook to a single person in particular, but a few people who've put a lotta things into perspective for me. And for that, I'd like to say a few brief thank yous.

+ Thanks for being my kindred spirit. It's freakishly cool knowing that there's actually people out there who just get me and who I can just get.

+ Thanks for reminding me that it's OK to be emotionally vulnerable and that there's always a positive way of looking at a seemingly negative situation.

+ Thanks for not letting time ruin what an awesome bond we have.

+ Thanks for always saving me from myself and knowing the right things to say.

+ Thanks for just being you. It's good to know that some things don't ever change after all this time we've known each other.

+ Thanks for being a breath of fresh air and expanding my horizons. It's great to know that there are people out there who do live outside the square.

+ Thanks for listening and for looking out for me. We may not always see eye to eye about everything, but knowing you care and take time out for me is always appreciated.

On a related note, thanks to the encouragement of family and friends plus a bit of self-motivation, I've been trying to get my life re-sorted. I've already started by cleaning up my closet and bathroom [still got the lounge and bedroom to go] and trying to take regular walks. Once my financial situation is back on track, I can get around to sorting my money-related things like debts and finally saving up for a trip at the end of the year!! Don't worry, I have it all written down on my to-do list for the rest of 2010 =)

Would like to babble on some more but my attention span in writing blogs seems to get shorter and shorter at the years go by. I'll leave my dear readers with a recommended movie: 500 Days of Summer!!! Probably one of the best movies I've seen in a while and quite a frontrunner as one of my fave films. Highly recommended for those who want a movie outta the ordinary and want a movie that actually speaks to reality and to the heart. Watch it!!! Do ittttttttttt *shakes fist*

THE HOLIDAY MADNESS!!!

So I'm into Week 2 of my holiday and I have to say so far, it's been HELLA AWESOME!! In the span of nearly 2 weeks, I've done the following [in no particular order]:

1. Gone clubbing [and in the midst of it, watched the Brazil-Portugal game]

Check me out... I'm a nerd!! And I'm drinking!!! *shock horror*

2. Watched 'Shrek 4' and 'Toy Story 3' in 3D. Feel like such a kid again.
3. I've drank chai tea [TWICE!!] at 3 Monkeys. Love love love that place.
4. Bought tickets to Owl City. It's not 'til November so I'm gonna cry if I end up having an exam that night.
5. Finally went to a football game and sat right at the 50m line. Great view and great atmosphere!! Would've been better if Broncos won though =( Stupid last min try!!!!!!!!!!!
6. Went to Ron Mueck and even got to check out parts of the Art Gallery. Love getting my art on.

Being tourists outside GOMA... love it!

7. Have watched more sports than you can poke a stick at. World Cup, rugby league, Wimbledon, you name it, I've probably watched it.
8. Caught up with a fair few of my friends.

Still so much to look forward to. Things are looking up for me!!

What will REALLY make my holiday is:
~ if Argentina win their game tonight. GO ARGENTINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~ if I get my special exam on the 21st July.
~ if I can get my finances back on track.
~ if I get the marks I want on Wednesday.
~ if I can get my room clean. Like CLEAN.
~ if something unexpected happens. In a good way of course. Could do with a good twist of fate.

I'm on such a high right now. Might be 'cause I'm cranking 'Fireflies' by Owl City on repeat.

Sick of being sick...

I have an essay due on Monday.
Word limit: 1500-2000.
Number of words written: 0.
Screwed much?

Doesn't help that I'm sick as well. So convenient that I haven't been sick at all this year and as soon as I do, it's at a time when I really need to be well *sighs* Just gotta suck it up, build a bridge and get over it.

On the upside, I've been spending some quality time with some quality friends lately. My dearest CC came up for a visit over Easter and it was good to see her lovely face again. The Skype session was also a blast!! Can't wait to see you again my dear =) Also went to Anne's farewell over the weekend and I was glad I got to go 'cause I always seem to miss out on her other celebratory gatherings like her 21st and her graduation. I'm gonna miss you so much when you leave though =(

More fun times to come. About to head to my Japan group reunion for ramen ^__^ Hopefully that and a mah jong session will get me motivated to smash this assignment [in a good way].

10 things you probably don't need to know... [but I'm letting you know anyway hehe]

Just a few random notes for this blog...

1. To Taiki: The time you were in Brissy came and went by so quickly!!! I hope you had a blast while you were here 'cause I certainly had fun =) I'm missing you already... but never fear, I'll see you again in Japan in a matter of months... more fun times to be had w00t w00t


2. IT'S WEEK 4 OF UNI AND I'VE DONE ABSOLUTELY NO STUDY SO FAR... WTF?????????????

3. Mah jong is the new poker. All the cool kids are doing it hehe

4. I'm 22 in less than a month. 26 days to be exact. Not quite sure if the 'responsibility' and 'maturity' has kicked in yet... probably 'cause I'm celebrating my b'day a million times this year =P

5. I'm no longer a mini golfing virgin!!! Came 2nd outta 4 people too... total beginner's luck!!!

6. Torn between catching up on movies, TV series, Asian dramas or study...

7. Been sleeping at ridiculous hours lately. I went to bed at 4:30am twice in the last week and the other nites I've been up way past 1-2am. It's gotta stop!!!

8. 15 more days of winter. You know what that means? SPRING WILL BE WITH US SOON ^__^

9. I have so many weird cravings right now: sushi from Top Sushi, chicken katsu don, a good banana smoothie, Max Brenner waffles, as well as an urge to play pool, sing karaoke and play mah jong.

10. I gotta feeling... that this week's gonna be a good, good week =) I know it's copied from a song but I feel it in my bones. I'm gonna make this a really productive week!!! Catch up on study, go to all my classes, clean out my wardrobe for spring, catch up with a few friends I haven't seen in a while... I can do it!!!

My life in pictures for the past month REMIX

You guys have been the greatest company!! These pics are only a glimmer of the fun times I've had in the past few weeks and I have my friends to thank =) Love you all *hugglez*

OMG... NEW LAYOUT!!!

It's been a long time in the making... I've finally gotten off my ass and revamped my blog!!! I kinda got sick of my very emo-looking blog and even though I reckon it really reflected my mood over the past year, I'm building a bridge and getting over it all =) So hopefully, we'll be seeing some happy, happy, joy, joy blogs from me in the future hehe

Long-time followers of my blog would've also noticed that I'm actually using capital letters, full stops and proper punctuation and spelling for once. What's up with that? Well, I figured since I'm a fifth year uni student, I should probably start sounding more professional, even in my blogs but of course, that won't stop me from using the occasional emoticon and 'hehe' you guys have all come to know and love =)

So what's been happening in my life lately? Not much to report sadly. I was swamped with doing clerkship applications and other uni crap last week so I was pretty anti-social. I'm pretty sure my clerkship applications could've been done better if I had an extra day to do them but meh, we'll see what happens. 1 rejection down, 4 to go...

This week has been a bit more social for me. I had my monthly catchup with my sis at uni on Tuesday, had sushi and went shopping with Kev followed by a great seafood platter dinner with Chi, Jason and Cam on Wednesday, then played poker with Ketty and Khang last night. Now that it's holidays, it'll be less socialising, more studying =( Stupid mid-sem exams... you ruined my holiday!!! I could've been camping right now but noooooooooooo, instead I'm stuck at home typing notes and re-listening to boring lectures *sighs*

This wasn't a particularly interesting blog this time around but I promise I'll make it better next time! This is a sneak-peek of what's to come:
1. My [hopefully] upcoming Sydney trip
2. My Easter holiday adventures [if I have any]
3. My footy tipping
4. Whatever other random stuff comes up =P

What I like about you =)

i was reading through a friend's note on Facebook today and what he'd done was write up a list of things he liked about his friends and he made them guess which comment referred to whom... i thought it was a pretty cool idea... so what i've done is tagged everyone who i've made comments about and u gotta guess which one refers to u... but to make things a bit more interesting, i've written more than 1 comment for some of u guys... there's 21 who've been tagged and 25 comments... happy guessing =)

for those of u reading this on my blog, the list of pplz tagged r on Facebook hehe if u guess it right, u'll get a hug or something... and the feeling of being right =) if u do wanna guess, just leave a comment and i'll let u know if u're right on MSN or in person... gotta keep everybody else guessing muahahahaha

1. I like that you're so silly, yet also so serious when you have to be
2. I like that you make the most random, unexpected remarks, whether they're serious or funny
3. I like how you're always thinking and searching for deeper meaning in your life
4. I like the fact that you always want to keep in touch somehow
5. I like your subtle, yet unique way of being such a caring person
6. I like that you're so different from my initial expectations
7. I like the way you're always looking out for those you really care about
8. I like that you're always finding ways of making our bond that much stronger
9. I like how you're so passionate about the important things in your life
10. I like that you can be so quietly reflective on everything in your life
11. I like how you're always up for anything, no matter how random it is or who it's with
12. I like that you wear your heart on your sleeve
13. I like your ability to make anything random the funniest thing I've ever heard
14. I like how you have so much ambition in life, whether small or big
15. I like that our personalities have always been so in sync
16. I like the way you poke fun at everything and everyone
17. I like that you can be such a softie despite your tough exterior
18. I like that you always eventually find time to talk to me for hours on end
19. I like the way you can be easygoing, but also assertive
20. I like how you seem to know absolutely everything about everything
21. I like the way you're so driven and determined with everything you do
22. I like how you always offer an alternative point of view that I'd never consider otherwise
23. I like that you're so much more than what meets the eye
24. I like the way you make your mark with people, whether they know you or not
25. I like how your smile and joy seems to be contagious with whoever you're with

The Melb trip 30/1 - 2/2

for those of u who didn't know, i went to Melb with CC and Ketty for 5 days just recently and the trip was absolutely awesome!! i did pretty much everything i wanted to do there and had so much fun in the process =) i reckon after this trip, i either wanna make regular trips to Melb or i may even live there one day... we'll see what my plans r after uni hehe here were the highlights:

[N.B. i did the non-touristy thing and didn't take a whole lotta photos while i was there so pics here r courtesy of CC and Ketty =)]

DAY ONE ~ the heatwave begins, bumming at the City, lovely Lygon St dinner, tipsy karaoke

got to the airport around 8:30am [i'm rarely ever awake at this time hehe] and met up with CC for our flight at 9:05am... entertained myself on the plane by doing all the Sudoku puzzles in the Virgin magazine and reading 'Twilight' while CC flicked through all the cable channels on TV... arrived at around 12ish and waited around the airport for an hr waiting for Ketty's flight to get to Melb... hooray!! our Melb trip has begun =)

my travel companions for the next 5 days ^_^

after Skybussing it to the hotel, we checked in at our hotel, the 'Victoria Hotel', and after settling in, we walked around the City for groceries and lunch... also stopped at Melb Central and all those other famous landmarks like Flinders St and Fed Square for photos... i tell u now, walking around the City in Melb isn't that bad on a normal day but when it's 43 degrees out, doing anything seems so much more tiring...

The 'Victoria Hotel' on Little Collins St... not the best hotel around but it's definitely a place of convenience, flavoured Calpis [cow piss] XD, really trippy Wii tennis at Melb Central

for dinner, we headed to Lygon St by tram... after walking most, if not all, of Lygon St, we settled at this place called 'La Spaghetteria' where we scored free drinks and ate some pretty divine food... what ruined it for us was the extreme heat, which kinda put us off properly enjoying the meal =( i'll have to go back there sometime and eat the lasagne again... it was actually really nice!!

the restaurant we ate at and a photo of us while we were inside the restaurant

after feeling a bit put off dessert, we headed back to the City to do the typical azn activities: take sticker photos, go to a somewhat dodgy arcade and sing karaoke for hrs and hrs... while Ketty was off in la la land playing Tekken BR, me and CC were trying to beat each other at basketball and at Puzzle Bobble... good entertainment hehe then headed to 'Hollywood Karaoke' for karaoke... took a while to get the hang of the touch screen machine but we managed to sing ourselves silly with the help of fried chicken and Long Island Iced Tea hehe

inside our karaoke room, the Long Island Iced Tea: the reason for many of our random song choices and silliness and a post-drinking shot of us [guess who drank the most? *hint: she's on the left hehe*]

DAY TWO ~ the heatwave continues, DFO, Max Brenner goodness, bumming at the City, clubbing antics

the day didn't start all that well considering i slept in the clothes i was in the nite b4 so i was up at around 7-8am and i think i woke CC up in the process so we were up chatting until Ketty woke up... then headed to DFO [the walk from the tram stop to DFO was excruciating in the heat!!!] for some shopping and lunch... was too lazy to do any walking once we were outside and for some reason, public transport was free that day so we trained it back to Melb Central to play some games at 'Barcode' and do a little more shopping... the games at 'Barcode' sucked so we shopped at Valley Girl to find CC a top to wear clubbing... and she found one!!

free travel w00t w00t, with CC at Southern Cross train station and playing epic fail foosball with Ketty at Barcode

then it was off to Max Brenner to try some of the awesome drinks... and it didn't disappoint!! my drink [i think it was the milk chocolate frappe] came in the cutest cup, CC's waffles were divine and Ketty got the funniest case of brainfreeze hehe i'll have to come to Max Brenner when it's winter so i can try their hot drinks and/or the fondue ^_^

my drink [it had a hole for the straw and 'Drink Me' on the other side hehe], CC's yummy waffles and the place we got to experience all that =)

the nite time consisted of dinner at Gogo Sushi, followed by more games at the 'arcade' [i put the ' 's there 'cause it seriously doesn't look like an arcade... more like a shop with games in it] and clubbing at Eve... i have to say now, i wasn't completely used to the daylight savings so eating dinner while it was still broad daylight still seemed like a new concept to me hehe dinner was good, gaming was good, the longest 'short walk' to Eve wasn't so good!! after what seemed like forever, we FINALLY got to Eve and the guy who was supposed to take us there ended up ditching us at the entrance >_<" so here we were, at a club with a guy we'd only met for 20 mins... but the nite turned out to be pretty fun... the club had great music, great drinks and i had great company =) thanks to Steve who paid for the majority of our drinks and for putting up with all of us all nite hehe

CC and me at the 'arcade', drinking one of the many drinks that nite, CC and Steve being typical azns, Ketty and me during one of my many sitting sessions, the 3 of us b4 the tiredness set in

DAY THREE ~ the day i spent nearly 14 hrs in the same place... where else but CROWN =)

for those who know me well, one of the main reasons i wanted to go to Melb was to play poker at Crown... and boy, did i play it a lot during my time there hehe Day 3 was mainly a 'do our own thing' day so after waking up at 11ish, i walked to Crown after grabbing a quick bite to eat at Maccas... then it was a quick lap of the casino b4 settling at the poker tables... won $25 [would've been $26 if i hadn't lost my $1 chip hehe] b4 heading to Sante for dinner with CC, Ketty and Steve

went to Galactic Circus for half the nite and played a wide variety of games including DDR [Supernova 2 and Extreme], Deal or No Deal, Basketball, some weird monkey game and Para Para!! oh, how i have missed Para Para... i'm happy to announce that my skills at that game haven't lost their touch... too much hehe after seeing CC and Steve off, me and Ketty headed back to our respective games... Ketty to roulette and DDR and me to poker hehe took a break around 2am to head back to the hotel to get the key [still can't believe they only gave us ONE set of keys between the 3 of us >_<"] so we could head back to Crown again and let CC sleep... walking around the City at 2am isn't that bad in Melb... me and Ketty managed to walk to the 'arcade' and Crown from our hotel without any trouble except for the random pplz who kept saying weird stuff like 'i know u!! i know u!!' in a failed azn accent... Ketty played some more Tekken BR and i ended up playing poker for another 1ish hrs and left after 2 guys at my table were picking fights with each other

presenting the coolest place in Melb hehe, reliving a high school pasttime of mine [b4 evil Replay took it away =(], with CC at Galactic Circus

DAY FOUR ~ Chadstone adventure, fine dining at Meat and Wine Co, more karaoke, more late nite poker

after sleeping at 6am, me and Ketty were way too tired to head out to Chadstone with CC at 9am so we headed out at 11am instead 'cause we were gonna get kicked out by housekeeping hehe once we got there, we ate brunch at Nando's with CC and Hieuie... after checking out most of the shopping centre, me and Ketty headed to Intencity to check out the DDR machine... it was pretty cool but so hard to read!!

it's not clear but the sign does say 'Chadstone' hehe

bussed and trained it back to the City then headed back to the hotel to play Taboo with CC while Ketty went to play more Tekken BR... then checked out the places around Meat and Wine Co and had a brief D&M with CC about the future... had a scrumptious dinner at Meat and Wine Co with CC, Ketty, Hieuie, Katy, Serinna, Tommy and Linda b4 heading to Kbox in the City for karaoke... after singing there for 2ish hrs, it was back to Crown for me and Ketty hehe yeah i know, i can't get enough of the place hehe but after that poker session, i decided it wasn't the best idea to play poker at 3ish in the morning with drunk, angry players and soccer supporters [turns out i was playing poker at the same time the Liverpool v Chelsea game was on hehe]

with CC during our D&M session, the girls try and be sexy hehe, the Melb crew who took us out: Tommy, Linda, Hieuie, Katy and Serinna, with CC, Serinna and Katy during karaoke

DAY FIVE ~ awesome yum cha in Chinatown, Fat jeans shopping, poker yet again, last min shopping

after sleeping again at 6am, i was pretty dead tired by the time i had to check outta the hotel... started the day by heading to Chinatown for some yum cha... OMG, it was good!! we went to this place called 'Westlake' and it happened to be a good place for me to learn my Canto hehe then headed to GPO where me and CC went jeans shopping at Fat and we both successfully found a pair of jeans!! i had to pay $100 more for my pair though =( afterwards, we headed to Crown again to play more games at Galactic Circus b4 i went back to the poker room for another poker session =) so proud of myself... all up, i managed to win over $400 ^_^

managed to drag Ketty off electronic poker [she's soooo gonna be playing this again next time she's at Crown XD] to do all my little errands b4 leaving which included buying cupcakes from Little Cupcakes, buy DVDs for my Dad and buy azn cakes and buns for my Mum and Dad... managed to do all this in a little under an hr w00t w00t

CC and Ketty on the big purse, shopping at GPO, one of the best places to buy jeans and CC's box of Little Cupcakes

not much to tell after this... we went to the airport [where i got randomly body searched >_<"] and said our goodbyes to Melb =(