Sunday, February 26, 2006

some photos...

so, i've posted some photos. unfortunately, they didn't come out in the order that i put them. so, go figure them out yourself - pick between Meeting Audra for Waffles of My Brother's 21st with Family.
Wow, those titles sound like those pieces of art in a gallery. Anyway.
I have basically set myself up. I found a new light in my room last night - where did it come from?!?! Haha. oh well.
Got OTH soundtracks - they're really good :)
Jamie Cullum IS coming to melbourne, 12th april at the Palais Theatre, which I will prob. go see. Everybody is moving back today........had most people on my corridor by yesterday but college is def. gonna be pumping!
Anyway, I'm off.....catchas round!

The cake my aunt made for my brother - how nice :) Posted by Picasa

My brother and his cake (His 21st) Posted by Picasa

Audra & Me  Posted by Picasa

dad, ernest & li (with crab!) Posted by Picasa

Yummm....waffles...! Posted by Picasa

Audra, satisfied with Gelare waflles :) Posted by Picasa

Thursday, February 23, 2006

in melbourne

so, i hardly got any sleep the night before my flight - the max i was going to get was 3 hrs anyway. yeah, good luck. anyway, i did manage some shut-eye on the plane. the flight attendants were really cool. There has got to be some minimum attractiveness test for virgin blue flight attendants. seriously. they are all hot.

there were these french rowers on the plane too. even though i didn't understand what they were saying, it still sounded romantic. for all i know, they could have been saying i don't know what. oh well.

so, met mel at airport. was so excited.

moved into 1J. my room is dark, due to the lack of a lamp in my room. and my college isn't even giving me one. which sucks. the main light is very dim, it's YELLOW (so you know, you can't see much anyway....urgh) apart from that, it's incredibly messy, because my stuff is strewn everywhere. i def. like my room from last year much better - i actually have some hang-age space. pity about this year. urgh

went to uni, bumped into about 6 friends, which was exciting :) stayed and talked for WAYY too long, but you know how that happens. oh well..

there are freshers all over college. i think i'm still personally quite scared, but i'll get over it soon enough, i hope. except their shirts are sooo much cooler than ours. it's ok. i'll get over that soon enough too..

anyway, it must be really bad for my eyes to be doing this in such poor lighting. i must really move to the library to do some work. i gotta go to uni tomorrow to hopefully sort out the rest of my timetable etc. and go shopping so that my eyes don't frazzle.

i should get some sleep soon. after a shower, of course, to test them out!

right..i'm off. hope all is good :)

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

it is so hot!

for real.
i am dying in the heat. especially upstairs, which does not have air conditioning. My parents should have thought about this before they built the house.

liza, thanx for that comment :P haha. it wasn't a big PAR-TAY!!!

anyway.....
i leave for melbourne on thursday morning....yeah, dead early...like, 6am flight. not good.
so i am frantically trying to complete everything i set out to do this summer. and to pack/clean room/find all my lost items. and watch everything i can for this semester. For example, i only have 12 more episodes of scrubs, season 2 to go. pretty impressive, i say, having already watched season one as well. this is in less than a week, mind you...
i don't think i'm ready to go back to uni yet.....i was two weeks ago, but i'm starting to enjoy home and having nothing to do so much. i just got used to everything, and how comfortable it is. although i should get pumped for 2nd year.

i'm really freaked out. i saw some of those fresher mugshots. they look heaps old. or at least heaps taller than me (not that it's hard...) 2nd year, hey..? i was surfing around on QI (due to mel's reccomendation, thank you!) and saw all those things that made 1st year so awesome. then i was daunted at the prospect of going back. also because i keep myself up at night worrying and stressing about all those things i have to do when i get back to melbourne....so many things to do, so little time (ok, 4 days, but that is not much time at all when you have so many things to do/so many things to buy/so many things to sort out/so many people to see etc.)

i unfortunately haven't caught up with all my friends at home. for that, i apologise. it is partially my fault for being such a lazy bum and not using my summer holidays all that well. i hope to be in touch with you more this year. you should all come and visit me anyway :)

so, time to put aside my inhibitions about going back, and start getting pumped, because the year is what i make it. so here's to making it yet another fabulous year, one to remember and one full of fun, laughs, memories and great friends.

to all my friends, i love you all; physical distance does not and should not break the friendship. i look forward to seeing some of you soon, i'm sad to leave some of you, and to those i haven't seen for a while, i hope it will be soon.... :)

xoxo

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

How strange...

Okay, so I wrote a few days ago that it was stinking hot. And Perth pulls a Melbourne on me....and it RAINED today. It's actually cool. For real. What happened to this summer?

Anyway, I met up with Audra yesterday......Audra is a GAP student from Westover, at St Mary's. It was really awesome.....we hadn't seen each other for about 3 years and reminisced over half-price waffles :) I will put photos up hopefully next week or soon-ish. It made me all sad though, because I remember how much I miss my Stova friends and how beautiful that place was! We had a great time catching up :)

Then today, I met up with an old school teacher, who is off next week to HK to go teach! We chatted for a long time, caught up on what was happening in our lives and each other's.

Yep, catching up makes one remember times gone by.

[Nysh, not all a hot summer! And sorry I haven't got back on ur facebook wall.....we should catch up when you're back for the 'summer'!]

And so, looking forward...............
Can't wait to get back to Melbourne...it should be fantastic!!! :) (Ok, except for maybe the work..!) I'm glad I'm going back a few days early, although those four days are already filled up with soooo much catching up to do! If I haven't gotten in touch with you about meeting up, pls send me an email....otherwise it will totally pass me by.

[Gina&Mags, what do u think of rach's suggestion.....friday day instead...? That could work....but that would mean installment 4!]

And it is my brother's 21st party on saturday night. Okay, so it's not a part-ay per se, but rather...a gathering. It should be exciting...I'm supposed to be baking some culinary delights, but we'll see about how delightful they are..... :S

and....update!!!! To all my friends with blogs, that is your key word for this week! :)
See some of you real soon, others, keep in touch.....(email me your email or something like that!)

ciao! xoxo

Monday, February 13, 2006

It stinks.

Yep, it stinks. Because it's really hot and humid today. And I'm not at work, which means I can't take advantage of air-conditioning. My family has this policy of telling me that it's a waste for only one person to be in the house at one time, so it's not very efficient to switch the air-conditioning on. I understand the point, but it's SOOO HOT!!!

Anyway.....
"Walk the Line" was awesome. Phoenix & Witherspoon can really sing, and their acting was very convincing. And it wasn't one of those typical romantic comedies (however much I like them!) but it was a touching story. Tyler Hilton was an awesome Elvis...I mean, I don't like Elvis all that much, but it was really amusing - and he could sing :) The hair just was the icing on the cake! After that, my friend and I had food, talking for and hour and a half. We came home, talked for another two hours. Yep, I don't think I could ever stop with her! Haha.

Oh!!! And I have my drivers lisence! I'm on my P's now, haven't got the actual card YET, but will sometime this week or next week, so that shall be my ID! :) (finally!) All I'm hoping now is that the photo isn't bad! The day after I passed, I went for my firstt drive by myself to visit a friend who had just gotten her wisdom teeth out. Seriously, this is the season for wisdom teeth removal through surgical operation. I counted how many friends were told that they had to have them out this holidays, or had them out over the holidays and it came to about 8 or 9 people! We should form a society!

Anyway.......it's gotten to that time in my holidays (usually 2 or so weeks before I have to head back) where I realise "Oh my gosh! I haven't caught up with (insert multiple names here)!" and where I have to rush to organise my social engagements as such! So, I have to catch up with so many people I haven't seen AT ALL these holidays!!!! And, I must say that it's been nice to hear from some people I haven't heard from in ages - most from school (both primary and secondary) as well as reminisce on old times!

Anyway, I should be off....CIAO! xoxo

Thursday, February 09, 2006

A recurring theme...

Yeah, I finished work. Like, the job was supposed to take two days, but it's over in 1.5 days. I keep getting told by mum to "Work slower" (translated to "be less efficient!") but fast is the only way I know how to do it! It's a pity, because my pay is based on how many hours I do. Oh well.

Checking in on my driving status: I've finished my 25 hrs of supervised driving (I've actually done 27!) and I think I'm going to take my test tomorrow. It's this silly Hazard Perception Test, where I have to watch this simulation on a screen and click when it is safe to complete a task, such as turn, overtake, slow down etc. It's incredibly unrealistic, because as soon as you click, the video stops. Now, in real life, as you'd no doubt be aware of, when one drives and turns/overtakes/slows down etc, one completes the manouvere in a gradual manner - the world around the driver does not stop. Now tell me how unrealistic that is!

And other exciting news in my life...

I have been writing emails to a whole heap of old friends and stuff, and it's exciting to get replies! Like from the German exchange student who came to our music class in Yr 12 - what an AWESOME clarinet player! Pity I was such a bad emailler!
Or like the two girls from Westover who are in Australia for a GAP year - one of them is at St Mary's and I'm meeting up with her soon-ish! The other is in Bathurst, but hopefully I'll be able to go to Sydney, or she'll come down to Melbourne!

There are girls from St Mary's heading to Melbourne next year - one is heading to Medley Hall (she's taking Music-voice, at the Con), there are two who are studying Law/Commerce at Melbourne as well: one is living with her sister in an apartment, and one is at St Hilda's (should be interested for her...! I called the college some not-so-endearing terms...!) Even so, it's quite exciting to be building quite a cohort of Old Girls up in Melbourne, especially nice because it's girls within what, 4 years of each other? It's cool.

Anyway, I'm off to go home now......I definitely think I deserve a sleep-in tomorrow; it's the first day in about 3 weeks that I haven't gone to work, so that should be good. Going to catch 'Walk the Line' tomorrow night...should be good! (Ok, Tyler Hilton is in it as Elvis. I actually don't like Elvis all that much. And that - Tyler Hilton - is not why I'm seeing the movie. The lead actors got Golden Globes. It must mean it's good. And the movie is about music. And I like Reese Witherspoon. And I'm interested in their singing, on film. But, I'll see how good the music from the film is - determines whether or not I buy the soundtrack, as Mel tells me, Tyler Hilton has 2 songs on there.....!!)

Right...
Adios!
Ciao!
Sayonara!

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

more work...

so, i have officially run out of work at this job. AGAIN. that's ok. i managed to finish all this data entry, then had to go online to find all these articles, you know from journals and stuff. nice to know that the stuff i learn at uni isn't going to complete waste, you know....i managed to navigate JSTOR, Ingenta and other article search engines, it was quite nice to know that i knew how to do all this!

and so, i've just got this new job. it's only for like, 2 days, but that's ok. typing work and more data entry. so, pretty boring as well, but i'm ok at it, so it should go ok. plus, i just keep thinking about what work i'm doing and how much i'm getting paid...hopefully i'll be paid casual rate so that i get 23% extra... :P you know, no holiday or leave pay etc. ok
i should be off, get some lunch, then start this new job!

Monday, February 06, 2006

reminiscing...

Kudos to wen for this...i thought it was interesting!


10 years ago: I was in Year 4. I went on my first school camp to Rottnest Island. I sang in the Junior School Choir and we got our incredibly starched uniforms! Year 4 was a great year... we had Kinder Surprise swap days, the fazes of yo-yos and collector cards from chip packets were oh-so-cool. Oh, and the Kinder man came to our school and we all got free toys :)

8 years ago:I was in year 6. I listened to all groups of violin students playing the same song (arranged by our teacher!) of varying quality every Wednesday. We got elected for council positions at school. I remember our class only had about 3 of us (the other class got the majority of the positions! Lucky they mixed up the classes in yr 7!)

6 years ago: I started high school at St Mary's. It was scary, considering I knew about 2 people there (who weren't even really close friends.) Luckily St Mary's turned out well! I remember my first day, meeting a girl who was in most of my classes, who conveniently had her locker above mine. I remember her helping me getting my combination lock open! I met lots of new people, some who became close friends, some I haven't kept in contact with...

4 years ago: Right in the middle of my high school career. This was one of the best years of my life. I headed to the USA, to go on exchange to Westover School, Middlebury CT. There I met some of the most amazing people I have ever known. I lived in boarding school, which was an experience that I had readily dismissed at St Mary's and one that I will cherish for a long time. I visited the country where anything and everything happens, went to some of the most amazing tourist destinations (of my life so far..! It's not yet over though...!) I made some amazing friends, some of which I hold dear to my heart to this day.

2 years ago: Year 12 was the most amazing year at school. (All things considered). There was the Ball (yay!!), the power of the back seat of the bus, so many meetings to go to, so many people to see, so many things to do, concerts which were always followed by "That was our last (insert concert here) concert forever!", valedictory, oh, and the TEE exams. Ergh. It was an amazing year - I made so many more friends in year 12, did so much extra-curricular stuff I wonder how I even made it through school!

1 year ago: What a new beginning after tough decisions were made. Finally a year to really spread my wings...it was time to pack up shop and move across the country! I settled comfortably into uni life, had the most amazing first year - met so many new people, made so many new friends, hardly explored what the amazing city has to offer, had so many fun times laughing, eating, getting dressed up, talking till the wee hours of the morning. It only gives me so much to look forward to this year...!

Yesterday: Had lunch with my cuz. Not that you know, having spent the last one-and-a-half days with her was enough..!

5 songs I know all the words to: (only 5???)

1. Ok, I know this is cheating, but I will anyway.....a number of Switchfoot songs. There are definitely more than 5. And a number of songs that other people have done that are Switchfoot songs (eg. Only Hope) and a few songs that Switchfoot man Jon Foreman have done (eg. Someday We'll Know, originally a New Radicals song)

2. St Mary's school hymn. You would too if you'd gone there for 5 years. And had to learn it in choir to make sure you didn't make a fool of yourself in front of the rest of the school. Ditto reason especially as prefects had to sit on stage.....!

3. People Get Ready. Plus harmonies. Because that's the only real way to do it :)

4. When the Stars Go Blue - Ryan Adams. or the Tyler Hilton & Bethany Joy Lenz version. Next idea coming right up...

5. A Quiet Place - Take 6. You would know it too it you'd have done it for your Aural exam.

There isn't enough space for more. It could go on for a while. Like Gavin De Graw's "I Don't Want To Be". From watching too many episodes of One Tree Hill. Or some Idea of North songs. With harmonies. Because they are too cool. 'Blackbird', originally by The Beatles. But the Sarah McLachlan version, with guitar. Now that's what I'm talking about! Or some MercyMe. Or 'Hallelujah', originally Leonard Cohen, but Rufus Wainwright does it nicely :) (I'm not a huge Jeff Buckley fan...). Or some Sinatra tunes. And other jazz stuff.

Yep, I love my music....I'm moving on now....

3 favourite toys: 1. Harry, my green teddy. You def. don't know me if you haven't met him at least once! :P 2. My laptop. Ok, so not a 'toy' unless you're thinking executive, but you know, it is imperative to my survival now! 3. Sure, my phone. Although it's kinda the sim card that's the main item. As long as the phone battery works...!

3 people I tag: Tag? What does that mean? Write bogger comments for?

erm, tom, xing, well, on facebook....hannah, zoe, liza, annie, pam, iris. ok, i'll shut up now.....

DONE!! :P

Thursday, February 02, 2006

did you know?

1. nat, are you back yet? if so, give me a ring. so you can tell me ALL about it!

ok, although that's not the point of this email. whatever.
anyway, in my new-found obsession, i emailled tyler hilton & his management team. AND THEY REPLIED!!! what other celebrity does that? and it wasn't a generic one.

it went something like this:
ME - I really enjoyed the OTH dvd. It was awesome to watch all the extras with the music and stuff. Is tyler going to come to australia any time soon?

THEM - Hi Gladys
Glad you enjoyed the DVD. I thought they did a nice job with the music extras on it and included Tyler so much in it. We have gotten lots of requests to come to Australia. I'm sure that's something that will have to happen in the near future. Tyler is currently working on the next CD so he will resume touring in the spring and summer. Keep and eye on the websites for tour updates and hopefully we'll see you soon. Mgmt

CHECK IT OUT!!!! yep, a REAL reply. i was so chuffed.
so, the other day, i met up a friend for lunch at work (the uni....) and continued surfing the net due to lack of work! so, there was no 'back to work' that day. although i have now been dumped with a LOT more!

ok, because i am obsessed. i have to find the OTH soundtrack. it exists, on Maverick Records. keep your eyes out for me! As well as a few tyler hilton CDs, The Tracks Of & EP. you can listen to some songs on his website. Yep, i'm officially obsessed.

Oh!!! And everybody go and join www.facebook.com
Because it is cool. If u go to melbourne, put your school as melbourne, if you're at uwa, put it as that and whatever else, wherever else you go! it's largely an american thing, but there are a number of other schools that are on it. it's really cool. :) i can show you it if you like, give me a shout! it lets you put your profile on there, pictures, keep in contact with other friends on facebook and stuff. and a wall, where people write stuff. that is my highlight.
except for when i find a long lost friend.

serious. apart from all my westover buddies :) i have found a few more friends on there! of mention is this guy i went to primary school with. yep, it's like, 6 years!!!! and my dad met his dad AGES ago who said they were moving to the USA coz of some job and then i saw (this guy) doing the SATs as well (although i wasn't 100% sure so i didn't want to make a fool of myself and ask "Do I know you???"). then i looked him up and TA-DA!!! there he was!!! it was exciting, because i haven't really talked to many people from primary school for AGES. so it was exciting. we are def. going to have to meet up when he gets back to perth in the middle of the year! So, that is my exciting news for the week. it made me all happy! :D hehe.

ok, moving on...
i should get back to work.

although i should tell you that the Pirates of the Carribean soundtrack is awesome. and i think i want to be a film composer. add that to the list of things i'd like to be, including a Violin maker (after studying in Cremona!), a fighter pilot, an F1 driver, a chocolatier. Etc. those things being my goal if you know, uni doesn't work out or anything...!

ciao!