of fabulosity and chocolate facials

ever since i'm back, i have been feeding myself on a steady diet of Astro cable TV that is like chicken soup for the soul.
and i am in love with this reality TV show, Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane.

and oh my goodness, the things the rich and famous do.

she has this Blackberry blinged out with diamonds and pretty pink crystals.
she shops for an LA mansion using a helicopter.
she has this convertible custom made with her initials in gold.

everything has to be "Fabulosity" with that lady.

and the way she treats her two daughters who are just aged 4 and 6, it's oh my goodness again!

they get frequent chocolate facials and cupcake manicures and pedicures. (hello, why would a kid get facials? they don't even have pimples!)
instead of shopping at a good ole Toys R Us, they go straight to the source itself, Mattel factory to shop for never-before-seen, not-on-the-market toys.

and oh, did i mention that the kids have their own clothing label, in conjuction with their mum's label, Baby Phat??

so, when Christmas comes, i wonder what they ask Santa for? world peace?

of the white Christmas and undance-able beats

One thing that i have not had yet is a white white Christmas complete with a roaring fireplace and hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and a dog curled up next to me.

even if i did stay back in Melbourne for the holidays, it would still not be a white Christmas. it would be super hot and full of flies. so much for the holiday spirit...

so we had our annual Christmas Eve dinner at the usual swanky place yesterday night, complete with bubbly.

and being the usual party-starved animal that i am, i made a deal that i had to just try the night life scene in JB.

so armed with BodyShop's silver glitter eyeliner and heels, i dragged my still underage brother and two way-overaged parents to the clubs.

so first stop was this club that had people talking about like it was the hottest spot in town.
but boy, was it an exaggeration.
the DJ was spinning out-of-beats house-like music. I like house music, no doubt. but that music was un-dance-able.
and dancing? oh man, there wasn't even a decent dancefloor.
the place was just full of small tables with people standing around it, sipping their beers.

excuse me, but where is the dancing swaying sweaty bodies full of pumped adrenaline and alcohol and the latest beats in the industry?

i am so heading back to Melbourne for my party fix.
maybe I'll even settle for Singapore.

so my date for that day must have read my blogpost.

he brought me to Coffee Club and asked what my order was.
and he called the waiter and gave him both our orders.

it's a small thing, I know.
but hey, i like it.
and he never did that before. *smiles*

of gingerpeople and the food processor

I'm currently trying to prove my worth at baking. And since it is nearing Christmas, decided that i just had to make some gingerbread men with cute little gumdrop buttons and chocolate chip eyes!! so ala Gingy the gingerbreadman from Shrek, don't you think?



"Do you know the muffinman??" -Gingy from Shrek 1

"Not the gumdrop button!!" - Gingy from Shrek 2



but so far, i have many batches of Gingy-lookalikes that are headless or limbless and sometimes even both.

the darn cookie dough just wouldn't stay glued to each other during the baking process!!
*&%$#@!


but I am going to make a perfect one with gumdrop buttons and choc chip eyes even if i have to finish all the flour in my house!!

it's just right on top of my list of things to do before you die.


and I promised to make a Chuck and a Chickles!!

those are the names of my yet-to-be-perfect gingerbreadman and gingerbreadwoman.


Day 1 of gingerbreadman-making is officially a failure. shall continue tomorrow.


but in the meantime, mum made this successful, perfect Apricot Crumble (and i helped made the heavenly apricot puree in the middle).

so she had the bragging rights at the dinner table today, what with my batches of gingerpeople being headless and limbless.


so she went, "In every woman's kitchen, you must have a food processor." this being said due to the fact that the apricot crumble was made using the food processor only and not even a cake mixer.


so after a while, my cheeky monkey of a brother went, "So what about a man's kitchen?" this being said due to the fact that my brother is a good cook.


and my dad went, "Well, in a man's kitchen, you need a woman AND a food processor!" with that smug look on his face.


this being said due to the fact that my dad says the darndest things and i still love him.

of chivalry and feminism

i am a self-confessed romantic
who is in love with chivalry and the perfect lazy Sunday afternoon and the perfect whirlwind Friday city night tour complete with dazzling haute cuisine.

and

i am a self-indulgent realist
who is intoxicated with the sense of independence and the picture of equality between the sexes, essentially, the portrait of feminism.


so begs the question:
when the dinner tab comes, do I go dutch at it or
do I let my date pick it up?

i do love a sense of being pampered and that I am worth the trouble and effort.
after all, it comes with the territory of female-ness.


but my sufffragette predecessors have not come all this way and marched for the voting rights of women for nothing. we work our arses off to be acknowledged by the world, and mainly our male counterparts. and i do hold on to that. i do want to be the epitome of female courage and wit and talent.

but sometimes, it's just good for the soul, nay, the female soul to let the male be the one in the driver's seat,
to swoon over flowers and gifts,
to let the male smile across the table and decide on your main meal,
to let him smile again at the end of the meal and say, 'Let me.',
to have him demand protectively that you let him escort you to the rock concert,
to open doors and pull out chairs for you,
to let him buy little trinkets for you occasionally,
to let him pamper you with surprises.


after all, we are worth the trouble, efforts, thoughts, moolah because we know it, we are equal counterparts.

of the pearl white-ness and material happiness

Mel is very happy now.

just a few months ago, i spilled green tea on my lappy and poof! it shortcircuited and died-ed on me. being clumsy me, it was hardly surprising.

so after 2 whole months of non-lappyness, i traded the old spoiled one in and got another brand new one instead!! yayness.

and yes, it's still a Toshiba lappy.
and yes, it's not in the "pearly white" that i expected (the brochure said PEARLY WHITE, but it looked hardly like the ethereal pearl-white I imagined)
and yes, it's not the pinko VAIO that i wanted for so so so long
and yes, on the outside, it looked like a toy keyboard with its OFF WHITE-ness.

but hey, it is STILL a lappy.
and a darn good one at that.

and hey, it has Windows Vista. and boy, are the graphics uber pretty!!

and i just installed my MSN which is awesome so i can talk to *you* whenever i want to.

i am contented now.

but if only, just only, it could turn into a pink VAIO, then i can die happy.

of Toys R Us and my shopping spree

instead of earning money, i have been doing quite the opposite.

my shopping spree yielded some fabulicious stuffs:
1. a Tamagotchi!! (it's ben sooo long but when i saw that pretty blue console in Toys R Us, i just had to have it. so with my brother, i bought one and it was so adorable. but the little voice in my head sings out that it is just going to be one of Mel's famous phases. but the child in me squashes the said voice with one of those colourful toy hammers that squeaks. so there, little voice!~!!)

2. a Deal or No Deal electronic game: now this was a bargain, again at Toys R Us!! it can play up to 4 players and it is utterly addictive with suspenseful music and lit-up scoreboards. how cool is that?! dad and mum are surprisingly hooked on it. and just last night, we had a few rounds, the four of us.

3. the Disney Pixar edition of Monopoly: when i saw the playing pieces (there were like Buzz, Lightning McQueen, Sulley and Boo and even Remy!!) and everything was Disney Pixar related. and i absolutely swoon at the baby JackJack Chance card!! there was no talking myself out of buying it. I HAD TO HAVE IT, being a self-respecting Disney AND Pixar fan.

Toys R Us made a huge load of money from suckers like me and my brother, i must say.

And i didn't even get clothes. i just got toys and toys.

it was uber fulfilling.

of stubborn ideals and my train of thought

"... I don't want to judge you but you brought it upon yourself,
I've said that it's fine with me,
but you know girls lie,
so we won't seem so vulnerable, Kitty,
we all want to be strong women that those suffragettes campaign for,
but yet, in time, it hurts, Kitty, it hurts,
and i just want it to stop..."

- The Suffragette's Daughter by Lincoln March -

thoughtful piece that transcends the ages and centuries.

until now, girls say something and mean something else all totally different, all for the sense of in control-ness that we want to feel, or perhaps fool ourselves into feeling. and also for the spirit of independence and self-reliance that the feminist movement has called for. after all, aren't we women the products of the 21st century where equality is present? but we still hang on steadfastly, stubbornly, foolishly, idiotically to the ideals of heroism and honesty.

you have to read what i just read and feel what i just feel to understand this train of thoughts that i have been fooling myself with.

of non-existent job offers and books

Jobs i have applied for: 3 (2 cinema jobs and 1 Watsons temp job)
Job offers till date: 0

Jobs my brother has applied for: 2
Job offers till date: 1
Job he is currently working: barista at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

and my brother wasn't really even looking.
he just walked past CBTL and went, "what the heck... it looks cool alright" and he went in and came out with a freaking job.
just like that.

the unfairness of it all...
i am so destined to work, sleep and die at the hospital and nowhere else.
working at other places, however temporary, is inconceivable.

but the bright lining is that i get to catch up on my reading which is awesome, being the geek that i am. (am currently on A Spot Of Bother, having finished Infidel and The Kite Runner ~~ and on the hunt for the book version of Constantine)

and i cruised the malls of JB and have found nothing to my liking. i am in need of real retail therapy. anyone?


Aussie food that i miss: 2 (pasta and gelato- the hotness of Msian weather!)
& Polarchunk too...~~

of SWOT VAC and instantaneous gratification

SWOT VAC has officially started with one whole week of anti-socialness and skyhigh notes to be done. the last 400 metres to the finish line.

and the finish line means i am done with 1/6 of my meddie career! it does feel like it passed in an instant, with all my wonderful friends around me with their crazy antics. it's quite impossible to enjoy myself with them around.

but heck, must hold the champangne glasses and the celebratory 'pop' of alcohol. EXAMS are due in a week's time and i'm not even near it yet.

of the not-drunk-at-all Qi and KitKats

i am tired about memorising the many cycles that happens in the body.
it just goes round and round and round till there's no tomorrow.
but if there's no tomorrow, then the cycles will not go on, since we are going to be dead ey??

....

omg, i can't believe that i'm actually blogging about the citric acid cycle and all the crap that biochem forced down my throat...

i must be deranged and rabid-ranting from all the stuff that i will probably not use in clinics.

i should stop typing ridiculous posts and go for a bath.

yes, i will do just that.

and i need volumes of KitKat please, anyone?

i'm obsesssed with them now. screw the nutritional index on the wrapper.

Mel is not a happy Mel without KitKats.

but on a happier note, happy birthday to Qi who is finally legal and is one heck of a drinker. you put the shots down like there's no tomorrow girl!! Chian already officially invited you to join the club, what more can you ask for?? heck, i'm not even IN the club. and i don't think i can be, due to the fact that my ancestors are Chinese and do not have a whole lot of alcohol dehydrogenase in their genes that will break alcohol down. genes do determine most of the stuff we do and say ey? anyways, happy 18, Qi!! you're legal so don't do the things that i won't do ya?? hugs.

of frozen cheesecakes and Polarchunk

PolarChunk loves oreo cheesecakes and he just can't get enough of it that it's hilarious.
and he not only loves the cheesecake that i make, but he wants it to be frozen like a freaking hard block of ice cream sandwich, instead of the soft fluffy melt-in-your-mouth type.

sigh, the ridiculous things that i put up with.

oh and did i tell you that PolarChunk is obsessed with Lemon Lime & Bitter too??

of dimsum and rude waiters

silly me brought the camera out and forgot to take photos of today's yumcha session with Xin Nee, Jia Hong and Yi Yu (one fish!!). darn it.

and we had such a lovely lovely time, laughing about how i constantly use Yi Yu as the rubbish bin for all unfinished dimsums and the fact that the staff at Chinese restaurants in Melb are unbelievably rude to us!! and we all happen to have the same ancestors!!

for all that rude waiter know, my ancestor in China might have helped his ancestor out in times of trouble and saved his neck from mountains of debts and from the loan sharks' chopping block!!

oh well, other than that bitchy moment aside, it was all oh-so-great!! the girls were wonderful as usual and we had our greedy moments of the week, gulping down whole dimsums, resurfacing for air and gossip.

and then on to Melb Central where the girls had to get something for a 21st birthday party. and surprise surprise, we ended up at Diva, the one-stop shop for a Mother Day's pressie, a best friend's birthday pressie, a colleague's farewell gift. you can get anything for anyone for any occasion in it, i swear. it's a girl's accesories heaven, i tell you. and seeing as i'm in need of retail theraphy, i immediately jumped on the sales wagon and went into shopping la-la land and came out with loads for only 22 bucks!! awesome stuffs i got!!

after all, brightly coloured trinkets are my thing.
that and great friends who make you eat that last morsel of dimsum but take it away as soon as you gag on the taste of parsley in it.

of Oreo cheesecakes and the cooking goddess in my life

Jenna is legal from yesterday onwards. so happy birthday, Jenna!! and so to commemorate this milestone of limitless opportunities and responsibilities, i decided to bake a Oreo Non-Bake Cheesecake!! what else to show the TLC and spread it around ey??

and Phey Yee dearest wants the recipe so here you go, girl:

1 package Oreo cookies, divided
1/4 cup butter, melted
4 packages Philadelphia Cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 container Cool Whip Topping, thawed

1. Line a 9x13 inch pan with foil extending over sides of pan.
2. Coarsely chop 15 of the cookies; set aside.
3. Finely crush remaining cookies; mix with butter. Press firmly onto bottom of prepared pan. (but to add more oomph or flavor or the missing ingredient that chefs always talk about, i put a layer of blueberries! cooking is all about improvisation in the right amounts)
4. Refrigerate while preparing filling.
5. Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl with mixer on medium until well blended. (seeing as i had no mixer, Kelvin and me took turns to hand-stir the miture till soft. now i have well-defined biceps!!)
6. Gently stir in whipped topping and chopped cookies.
7. Spoon over crust; cover.
8. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

and voila!! a really awesome cheesecake that requires no baking and no burnt crusts and no half-cooked insides. and i remember this recipe was first given to me by my best friend, Sheau Shiuh and she was a kitchen goddess at that time and still is i suspect. she can do the most amazing things with normal everyday ingredients. and when we were neighbours (we used to live around teh corner from each other until her dad cruelly moved them to a much further suburb.), her mum used to cook this Hakka delicacy which had green tea and all sorts of yummy veggies in it and i would always go over and have second and third helpings. until this day, i love that dish and try to eat it at hawker centres but it will never taste the same as her mum's.

and when i went over, she would just let me in and i would find my way around the house, beaching myself on the couch. and we used to have sleepovers even though i could very well go back to my house which was less than a few steps away to sleep. and she used to have this very flat pillow of hers that she would let me sleep on and which i found difficult to sleep on on the 1st night but after that, it became MY pilow. until this day, i think she stil has it.

and the extra special bond was the fact that we born on the same day, in the same ward, same hospital and delivered by the same doctor. only she was older than me by 2 hours. and her mum remembered seeing my mum being wheeled into the ward taht she was in 19 years ago. and we used to think that i was the older twin until years later, we whipped out our birth certs and lo and behold, i became the younger twin and the always-blur her remembered the wrong time of birth!! and she became my older sister. but i think i was the protective one, i was the outspoken one. so anyone who bullied her faced my wrath. but she was the gentle one, the calm one, so she kept me in check, not letting me go overboard with my gung-ho instincts.

she's doing her STPM now and she's busy as ever and she has grown so much more and i am proud of her. even though we've probably had our own different group of friends now, she will always be part of my life and she will always be the older twin and my non-biological sister.

of Yahoo! Food and meatloafs

i'm in the architecture library now, getting some work done on the computer.
the brownless feels soo much more at home for me~~ proves that i indeed transcend into the medical nerd mold.

but having said that, mel's newest phase is surfing the Yahoo sites for yummylicious recipes!a a truly weird addiction. people have their caffeine fix, movie fix and i have my looking-at-yummylicious-recipes fix. it's enough to refresh my brain after a bout of serious a-nerding.
and and and...
i get to improve my culinary skills!!

okay, maybe it's different on thw website and when doing it. but hey, i can get the basics down pat!!

Yahoo!Food recipes that are currently on Mel's faves-and-can't-wait-to-try-out list:
1. chicken noodle soup (i always dreamt of making the perfect broth for those cold sick-ly days...comes with the territory of being a meddie)
2. Oreos Philadelphia non baked cheesecake (will be trying this out for Jenna's birthday this weekend and is absolutely baking-oven-free and takes half hour to prepare!! awesome, ain't it??)
3. toffee choc chip cookies
4. the eggplant minced beaf lasagne
5. apple dumplings
6. the various salad dressings
7. italian minestrone soup
8. MEATLOAF!! (i have always had a fascination with meatloafs and growing up in an Asian and meatloaf-free environment makes me crave it even more!! but without an oven in my apartment, it is a lost cause indeed. and the fact that it is crucified as the unhealthy food of the American culture makes me desire it even more!! forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest. and i have even heard that unscrupulous restauranteurs even put innards and mystery meat in it instead of lean mince!!)
9. a perfectly cooked steak

of Ballarat and the trip that was...

seeing as how i have to catch America's Next Top Model finale in 30 minutes and am reading about the liver at the same time, shall make this a picture post with the least bit of explanations.
so, 1 week of holidays did not allow any mega excursions or road trips that i am dying to have. instead, me, PJ, Kelvin and Jenna packed our overnight bags for a small wee trip to Ballarat.

PJ's signature look for the trip: pimp-ey whenever surrounded by girls

the guys with the bottle of sparkling wine we finished which had no effect on my rationale which was really surprising, given the low low low tolerance for alcohol i have.. still, a yummy drink!!
the three med amigos who went a-wandering to Ballarat with 3 changes of clothings in their bags

always wanted to try the kissy kissy pose but in this case, didn't work out well... proves that I can never the camwhore type...

and Kelvin woke up the next morning feeling a chill in the air despite being in his Mr Lazy jammies and decided to do some gymnastics to warm up..

Jenna and me having a girly moment together..

okay, we had a few girly moments together...

and the guys too have their bonding moment over games of English Bagatelle....

and they too needed their vanity moment...

and nolstalgia sets in complete with black and white photos and emo poses as the trip comes to an end and as we look down the path of uni starting again...and one last back glance at the trip that was Ballarat....

of Sunday night rituals and old-fashioned arcade games...

oooh, can i just say that the Gold Class Cinema in Crown is just to-die-for??!! they have these cool seats that u can recline into this flat bed and they even give u pillows and blankies if you are cold. and get this, u can order food and drinks all from your seat. awesome stuff!!

and today, i suddenly realize that i have been suppressing my inner child for way way way way too long. i have deprived her of ice creams, lollies, stuffed animals, arcade games and basically just spontaneity. so when we got to Crown's arcade games centre, it was like my childhood once again.

when i was a kid, back in the past, every Sunday, dad used to bring me and my brother to the Arcade Game Centre in Plaza Pelangi on 5th floor and he would give us 10 dollars worth of tokens to play as we wish. and let me tell you that this was the time my brother enjoy the most, before there were playstations and Xboxes. it was plain old arcade games. and boy, was that fun!! dad would just accompany us on our little rounds, acting like a kid again. i think that was always his excuse of going all 5-year-old on us. and we would diligently and painstakingly collect all the tickets that we won from those smarmy games designed to cheat little kids' money, hoping one day that we would be the proud owner of some really cool present that we saw in the store exhange window. until now, i never did remember whether we changed anything for those bundles of tickets we won. i only remembered til this very day what games me, my brother, my dad and my mum would play.

the basketball one with hoops higher than my dad....
the game with the scary girl where you had to knock out all her teeth with balls....
the Daytona racing game where my dad always challenged my brother to it and thrashed him at it. i remember that was when dad taught my brother everything he knew about the gear shifts to thrash any opponent in Daytona.... and in return, in some vicious cycle, my brother thrashed me....
the flat table game like ping pong....
those cheesy shooting zombies games that my brother loves....

it was always our family's Sunday night ritual after dinner.



recalling all these brings bittersweet tears.

MUD and HEELS do not mix

so Med Ball is coming up and contradictory to societal beliefs that meddies are not party animals, this Med Ball boasts a private train to the venue and then two more private trains from the said venue to the after party at this cool club in Melb, GPO!!

but there is the shadow of debate on whether the venue for the ball is a cool thing because of some grand idea, we are having it in the middle of a race course, the Flemington Racecourse.

yes, it's the place where they race horses and they take bets and where the latest equine flu took place.

geez. of all places to choose, they chose a freaking racecourse.

so where are we gonna sit, mister and missus smarty pants who came out with this brilliant idea??

on the field?? in the mud??

in my freaking high heels that i still haven't mastered on solid concrete ground, let alone soft squishy mud...

and hello?? even though it says SPRING in Melb on the calendar, it is NOT spring on my calendar and thermostat!! it drops to freaking 12 degress at night!! and in the middle of the racecourse with no solid concrete walls around me, it will be the Artic Circle all over again.

and call me a romanticist (is there such a word?? ergo realist), but i imagine a ball to be ala Cinderella's... soft lights, tinkling china, hush of voices, music, WARMTH, SOLID SAFE GROUND FOR HEELS.....

but hey, i shall not spoil the romantic notion that is the Med Ball. i shall soldier on with whatever perceptions i have and arrive at the racecourse with a shimmering facade, and pray that my heels do not go quick-sand on me and leave me floundering armpit-high in mud.

of Andrew's curiosity and spider pigs

i just love The Half Pipe, don't you?

the comfy squishy beanbags and the Mcker's fries were oh-so-good...
and Homer Simpson was just so stupidly funny.

*...spider pig, spider pig, does whatever a spider pig does. can he swing from a web? no, he can't, he's a pig. look out, it's spider pig..."

and then on to dinner at Garage with the meds for Andrew's pre-birthday dinner. Happy early 18th birthday, dude!! you so need to come up with a list of things to do since you are L-E-G-A-L. me and Frida will take care of it once you are done. but like Frida says, anything other than the live female anatomy is in the limits of what we can do for you. just keep that in mind when you write the list. we so drew the lines of limits for you already, birthday boy.

hope you enjoyed the Blackforest Gateau that we bought you ya? coz me and Kelvin had a debate in the middle of the Crown Bakery on what to get you. but too bad taro cake was sooo not on our list. next year, that'll be your birthday cake alright? and for heaven's sake, do not go around being a curious cat alright? you just spoil all the good surprises that were meant for you!!

of wimps and alcohol

this week's PBL is enough to put me off alcohol for the rest of my life. well, not really. but still, makes me wanna think twice about that vodka shot that i'll down the next time i club.

alcohol causes cirrhosis
alcohol causes hepatitis (bet you didn't know that)
and makes your liver go all funny shape on you and when you're dead and they do a post mortem on you and dig out your liver, it will be so shrunken like a starving minute little pathetic thing taht you wonder from up above why the heck in the first place did you drink that extra can of light beer??!!

but still the alcohol industry makes damn a lot of money from that transient high that you get from downing a bottle of Bacardi and for some, the sense of cool-ness, in-crowd-ness you get from just nonchalantly holding that said bottle in a club, all in the name of blending in.

but heck, this PBL is not going to reform me into some wheatgrass-drinking, alcohol-abstaining saint coz i'm a teenager, for goodness sake. it is not good for my mental well-being and my growing up. call it a balanced diet with the presence of small amounts of alcohol.

after all, what am i gonna drink in clubs?? wheatgrass juice?? apple juice??
i'll look like a wimp.

happy 19th, jinsern!! hope u had a great time with us being the chefs and serving u food all the time and all the cute little cupcakes that *she* made... better say thank you real real nice ya??
but anyways, we all love u, hence the full-blown party that we had.
getting smoked out with BBQ sausages smell is sooo not my scent but still, it was great to hangout with the albert house girls once again, just like old times, pre-med-school-ish, which frankly, was so refreshing. you just digress back to where everything was just all about uncle andrew's dinners and midnight indo mee sessions. and trinity studies was just that, trinity studies, nothing much to moan and groan about, muss out my hair about.

but oh well, we all have to grow up, thus happy growing up, dude!! enjoy every second of it... it totally rocks ur socks when you suddenly find yourself old and grey...

p.s. it hurts when you yell like that...

of cravings and osmosis

oh geez... my head is reeling from all the citric acid cycle metabolites that i'm inhaling like nobody's business...

it's not amusing at all.

this tues exam will be terrible, i predict.

everyone else says so.

i shall not be any different.

on a different note, my internet is back online and i am freaking happy, except that it is very much dampened by the fact that the exam is sucking my soul out.

it's only 30 MCQ questions.

that's the darndest part of it all.

p.s. i hava a sudden craving to eat something spicy!! so utterly weird. must be the super cold weather. i have a craving to wear shorts and skirts and short sleeves and thongs and go out dancing in the sunshine with my sunnies on. but melb's sucky weather stops my fantasy in its tracks with a screeching halt. and i have a sudden craving to hop on to the train and stop at every stop on the track and get down and take pretty pictures and explore the place on foot. and i have a craving too of getting a dog, preferably a Golden Retriever. i miss the presence of a dog. and goodness knows how many years before i actually settle down in one place after years and years of studying and travelling to get the company of a dog. but i do want one soo soo soo much.

but most of all, i crave the ability to be able to absorb knowledge thru osmosis. that way, i can sleep on my med textbook and wake up the next morning with everything in my brain due to the info concentration gradient. blah..

goodness knows it but i want the Polaroid One600 Ultra!!

and the funky red lomocam of my dreams!!

call it my obsession...

tenners anyone??

the freaaaaaaking internet connection at College Square totally "rocks"!!

sense the sarcasm oozing out.

ditto my lecture notes, PBL notes, journal articles, blogging, emails, everything!!
hence, i'm stuck jostling for a space at the computer cubicles in the biomed library, typing on some creaky keyboard.
~~blaaaah~~

anyways, today's Shaleen's big 2-0!!
happy birthday girl!!
sorry but u are officially kicked out of the tenner's club... we're pushing you over the line to the twennies' club just down the road from here. but hey, you still have the honourary membership that you once had.
heck, someone's not getting any younger eh?? lol.
but still, enjoy your birthday at Dracula's tonight alright? we'll allllll be there with bells a-ringing and fancy dresses.

anyone going gothic tonight??
the dress code says smart casual or gothic even though it was a freaking theme restaurant. went to the adelaide branch of it and it was great!! i still remembered the cabaret show they put on about sperms and ovums swimming to each other which was roaring good fun and the dessert of choc coffins.
but no way am i wearing my own version of smart casual. med school said smart casual for clinicals and i have to end up wearing collared G2000 shirts and black pants. so bo-o-o-o-oring!!
i don't have the guts to wear funky looking shirts for clinicals for fear of being kicked out.
but hey, one consolation that i am breaking the conventional standards of a respectable-looking doctor is the tattoo i have on my top of left ankle!!
bet none of the patients noticed that!! and thank goodness for that!! otherwise i doubt they would even let me feel their happy little livers!!

but i digress from my tattoo....

once again, happy sweet 2oth, shaleen!! you totally deserve the BEST birthday!!

XOXO Mel who is still in the tenners' club till next Spril which she totally dreads

of livers and cannabis

this shall be a certain milestone of sorts for a medical student

today at approximately 1115 hours, i did my first gastrointestinal physical examination on a REAL LIVE patient. i seriously touched (in medical terms, it's called palpate) the abdomen of this male patient.

AND i got to feel the liver!!

how cool is that??!!

it's cool coz for months, i have just been learning and observing the physical examination part. but now, i get to do it M-Y-S-E-L-F!!

and get this: the male patient that i examined was a CANNABIS USER!! a real drug addict dude!! maybe it's not exactly the coolest drug to get addicted to, unlike heroin or other heavy duty stuff. but hey, it's still illegal recreational drugs man!!

and not to mention, the guy was seriously cool about the whole thing. when we were practising taking his contextual history, the first thing he said was "Oh yeah, before i came in [to the hospital], i drank lots of alcohol and was doing cannabis...." i was like seriously unprepared and my mind was screaming "WHAT THE...??" you could imagine how huge my eyes went. *POPS*

and the doctor went like "yeah, okay, moving on from there, tell us about your abdominal pain..." totally cool, and taking it in his stride.

hmm... and because of patient-doctor confidentiality, the doctor can't tell the authorities about his illegal drug use.... and i'm only allowed to talk about it without using his name or any identifying characteristics.

and i got to feel his liver!! you can totally feel it with your fingers if you palpate deep enough and you ask the patient to inhale deeply and if you are at the right place, you can feel the liver do a quick in-step to avoid your fingers pressing into it!! it's seriously cute man!!

i'm so gonna practice on any unsuspecting friends that come by my room and that i can catch hold of!! *evil grins*

i get to see if their livers are healthy happy smiling little livers!!

the greater good

i still remember concluding after one Health Practice lecture months ago about how doctors are not only healers, but they are so much more, more specifically ethicist.

and embarking on med school has truly humbled me.

i used to think that i'm pretty informed about various issues around the world in the past and present. i love reading and used to think that i'm a pretty well-read individual. i love autobiographies and reading these gems of people's lives sensitize my soul to the sufferings, joys and experiences of the authors.

but just today, i was doing some reading on Aboriginal Health for my tute tomorrow morning. and suddenly, i realise that hey, i'm not that well-read after all!! after studying in Australia for the past year, i have yet to understand the Aboriginal history of Australia.

i have just went on with my study life, oblivious to the social conditions of the foreign environment that i am in, consumed by the various EAP assignments and dramas that i had to pass up!!

i am ashamed to admit that yes, i am most probably ignorant of the social climate and history that Australia has.

as i read about the various injustices that the Aboriginals had to suffer at the hands of the white colonisers, i realise that the same bloddy thing happened all around the world too!!

colonisation for the sake of the "greater good" of the people....

war for the sake of the "greater good" of people...

hold on a second, didn't Hitler proclaim that before he sent millions of Jews to the gas chambers??

of all the topics in the world...

a girl can never have too much yum-chaing, gossiping and retail therapy with friends.
(neither can a girl have too many shoes, Chiann!!)


so, sue me for having fun on a Sunday and for cruising the shops till afternoon!

but hey, a girl just wanna have some fun man!


especially if fun included Sha, Janice, Chiann and Jacq

and Dragon Boat's yumcha session

and no-holds barred gossip session

and retail therapy at Supre and Valleygirl and Ozmosis



it's been ages since i last bought a tee and gossiped about pepper sprays and female genital mutilation --

(how yumcha can bring out this topic is still a mystery to me. but what can i say, when we girls get together, we do talk both frivalous AND serious world-changing afflictions. for further info on FGM or commonly known as female circumcision, check wikipedia or rather read a book for a change. try Waris Dirie's Desert Flower and Desert Children. even though Waris brought this topic to light and has since championed a few reforms, it's still quite rampant in the African regions and you will never believe the hellish experience some of the girls have to go through. imagine removing the clitoris and then sewing up the vagina until only a drop of urine can pass through at one time. and then imagine doing the operation on a rock, with unsterilised equipments, without anaesthesia, by an medically-unexperienced village healer of sorts. and then imagine the post op care including being wrapped up in a coccoon of sorts and left to your own healing devices with only minimum bandages and sustanence. urinating is a pain, having sex is no longer pleasurable. in fact, it is just excruciating. all for the price of supposed benefit of the circumcised girl. total utter nonsense is what i say.)


sometimes, it makes me angry at how some regions of the world are still living in the shadow of illiteracy and indifference and misinterpretion. i'm sure they do not choose to be uneducated (at least i hope they do not) but it's still no excuse for the things they do to their young girls.


yet there are regions in this world that has too much information on their hands. too much info and money to do as they please and to use that knowledge for "the greater good of mankind" is also not an excuse to commit the atrocities that are present in this society.


at times like this, i feel the shallowness and somewhat idiocy of being happy about my red and black cups and the fluorescent pink tee i bought from Supre when due to FGM, girls my age are squatting over flies-infested hole-in-the-floor-makeshift-toilets crying silently in pain with every drop of urine that falls noiselessly to the murky waste below.

it makes me sick.

the statement of the day

"hmm....just 5 more minutes..." turns out once again into an hour...

i so can't believe it...

but it still makes me smile....

*hearts* Mel

ramblings

emotions are wonderful little buggers to have.
you feel the euphoria
you feel the joy
you feel the ants-in-the-pants anticipation
all that wonderful jazz

and it makes you feel utterly and uncontrollably human.
you feel the despair
you feel the hopelessness
you feel the pulling-your-hair-out frustration

it's so beautiful that it makes me cry even.


*Listening to The Sweetest Sounds from Rodger and Hammerstien's musical version of Cinderella. i love books, so naturally i love fairytales. i love that imagination that runs wild whenever you start a bedtime story that ends with a "happily ever after". i have a confession to make that will ultimately label me a nerd for the rest of my life and that is i love making up stories in my head when i was a kid and i still do in fact, at the height of 19 years old. i have a mindful of stories about ogres and giants and pigs that fly to Foodie Wonderland. i like to see where my imagination takes me and more often than not, my stories that i tell myself to sleep often last a few nights and seem never ending until in a fit of boredom of the old characters and anticipation of meeting the new characters, i would just hastily tie up the old one with a "and they lived happily ever after".

it's my form of dreaming. reality is sometimes suffocating you see, even for a 9 year old girl.

cups

the smallest things are really quite sufficient to make me happy...

*smiles*

i just treated myself to two new cups today when i passed by House, this shop on Lygon selling household stuff!!

since i drink green tea every night, cups are just a very important detail of my life....

the nicest cup make my green tea taste doubly better

and the dodgiest ones just make it all taste so yucky

and one of them is bright red and white... (yes, Rach, i DO love red and white!! traffic lights!!)

and one of them is black and white....

and together they make such a nice vibrant addition to my otherwise dull and cluttered study desk....

nothing like looking at my two new cups to make me feel happy... and it makes my purse quite happy too!! the cups were cheap,only $1.95 each!!

more motivation to hit the books, i must say...

strange thing how cups can make my day...

*stares at my cups dreamily*

MSN can draw??

it's funny how you can find the smallest thing to be happy and in my case, amazed about and can't gushing on and on about...

i found out some time ago that MSN messenger supports both the function of typing and drawing manually!!

and you get the most fun from drawing stuff using the latter function!!

proof of the above statement:
PJ was using MY LAPPY on MY MSN, chatting with Kelvin and they both had a whopping good time with the drawing function.

first, they drew airplanes and the V Line train that PJ had to take to get to Geelong.

then, they started writing "LOL"s in super big script to outdo each other (like that was fun...)

then, they had fun drawing me as a stick figure with totally ugly hairstyles as though i'm a cavewoman who has never seen a comb in her life... (puh-leese!! i'm a girl who loves places importance on looks ok??)

then they had fun saying random stuff like "PJ LIKES METLINK!!" due to the 2-hour-long ride taht he has to endure to get to Geelong Hospital for his clinicals on wednesday afternoon.

all i can say is
SERVES YOU RIGHT, PJ FOR MESSING WITH MY HAIR IN THE FIRST PLACE!!

*laughs out loud*

and i bet u dreamt of trains and trams and the Kew girl that night!! and slept walk all the way to Geelong that night but managed to get back to our 9am lecture the next day on time!!

but those two dudes did cheer my day up.... that i have to give them credit....
all thanks to MSN and its function to draw AND type....

the little wonders that dominate our lives....

VEAL, BEEF, DEER etc

so to celebrate the end of week 2 horrible lectures and equally horrible PBL, i decided to do a bit of therapeutic cooking.

yes, cooking IS therapeutic, good for the med soul... just like a cup of warm nourishing soup...

so i decided to use my crockpot and cook this Southern Beef Stew recipe that i got from the internet...

and so happily and full of hope, i went to Safeway and proceeded to buy the ingredients that my kitchen lacked.

and lo and behold, at the meat section, to my delight, i found meat at low prices. sure, they might not be fresh enough. but, hey, i'm going to cook it on that day itself. so what the heck, i happily took one of them, forgetting to check the label as i assumed that red meat=beef or mutton...

and the freaking label says VEAL... and the english pro that i am, thought it was some form of cow, like a baby cow or maybe just some part of the cow, liek its stomach or tender underbelly which i was inclined to believe at that time...

so i paid the freaking LOW PRICE and went home happily yet again...

and HAPPILY AGAIN, i peeled the carrots, celery and whatever that it needs and proceeded to slow cook the whole thing.

and when i checked on it after 3 hours, there's this weird smell coming out from it... and i just assumed it was the thyme that i put in that had this weird smell.

so happily, i served it to Kelvin and the first bite i took.... the conversation went thus:


Me: EWWW. this tastes weird.

Kelvin: (being the gentleman he was) no lah, it smells good. i could smell it from the study table lah. can eat one.

Me: NOOO. i don't think it's supposed to taste THIS weird... (makes a sad face)

Kelvin: (took one slurp of the soup) Oh my! (that's his signature exclaimation) this IS weird. what did you put it??

Me: See, i told you so.... (happiness dissipating already) i just put in carrots, celery and potatoes and thyme.... and veal...

Kelvin: (started laughing LOUDLY) my dear, veal is deer meat...

Me: really?? NOOOOO, veal is beef!!

Kelvin: NOOOO, IT'S DEER MEAT!!!

and thus ends this conversation....

the next day, i Answers.com the word veal.... and this is what i got:

Veal is the meat of a baby calf!! which means its cow!!! or rather young beef!!

so there!!

but the question remains: why the heck did my beef stew turned out to be soooo darn gross??!!

Condolences...

and there there was a sms that told me everything and yet nothing.

it's kinda ironic how life throws you a pebble and you just fall right down dazed with a bruise on your knee and you just sit there, gazing at nothing with the outward signs of bleeding and the pain in your heart.

it's so not what i expected.

it's so not what i wished for.

and it's certainly not what i would want for my dear friend.

it's not even something that you would wish upon your bitterest of enemies for goodness sake.

darn it all...

my books are opened and nothing is going in. it's just the realization of it all occupying every cell in my body....

All i can say and want to say to her right beside her, holding her hand is...

I'm sorry for everything that happened....
Words can't even express how sorry I am for everything.
There's this lump of sadness weighing me down
and also, regret for not being able to see him for the last time.
and now, i'm back in Melbourne and he has passed on to a better place.
and how I wish I just said "Hi" to him "How good it is to see you again!"
and most of all, how I wish I could have met up with her before i came back
how I wish we could be together once again, everything like normal.

Now, everything will be different.
But I know she will be strong.
She always was.
and always will be.
And she has her family around her
Her friends
God

I still remember vaguely the few times that I did see him and talk to him, he was always the smiley one, always laughing, pretty much the mold from where you were made from. my first impression of him was he was very much like Mr Santa Claus, minus the tummy and white beard, but with a full head of white hair, definitely warm and friendly.

I pray that you'll be alright, my dear. I know you will be strong for your sake and those that depend on you. But in times that you are not, just look beside you and we'll be there, with chocs, hankies, flowers, shoulders to cry on, anything you need. we'll do anything for you. I know I will for the wonderful girl that you are and will be.

And he will be proud of you and everything that you are and will be.

And he'll live on in your heart and ours always.


XOXO Mel who is heartbroken

i just realised something when i was checking my clinical placements for this semester. (ended up at Western Hospital in Footscray.. yummylicious viet rice noodles, here i come!)

i realised that i have a thing for trains and trams in Melbourne...

weird kinda affinity for something that moves....

i like to look out the windows and watch the world literally pass by in a whirl of colours.

wondering where those people in that cute little brownstone are heading, whether they are a family and whether they are happy...

or maybe even that cute little boy that i saw that one time waving to me with his fat little fists on his father's shoulders as the train passed by. i wonder if he like trains like me, if he is going to be a doctor like me, if he loves the whirl of colours at the window like me....

i just love the whoooosh of train...

super uber fun....

Random recipe

Creamy Crockpot Chicken:

2 breast fillets
1 can of Cream of Chicken
1/4 cup of cooking wine
mushrooms

Put that all into a crockpot on HIGH until chicken gets tender. Scoop out the gravy and put it in a pot to simmer. Also add:

8oz of sour cream

Then heat the gravy and serve while hot with the chicken.

Voila!

Easy peasy dish for students. Serves 4 too i might add so ration according to appetite and number of dinner partners.

and most of all, it's fuss-free! no hassle chopping up, cooking, frying... just plain healthy stewing.

and did you notice that there's no oil involved??!! did you?? did you?? healthy, oil-free food for the brain... lots of proteins.

for the vegemaniac, just put in celery and carrots to stew with the chicken and add brocolli in the pot with the gravy.

omg, i sound like freaking Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson...


p.s. i did try this recipe so it totally rocks! and so little dirty dishes to clean afterwards....the mark of a good student-ey dish for the uninitiated.

due to the effects of Week 1 lectures and PBL...

Listening to: Heaven by DJ Sammy

Finishing up: my PBL for tomorrow

Ingesting: nothing (after having lectures on obesity and nutrition, it's no wonder i'm half scared to death about the things i put into my mouth, all the while thinking "is this low in GI?", "is this going to increase my BMI?" .. it's so frustrating that it's not funny)

Thinking: about morbidly obese males who might have pseudo-micropenis (due to the fat pad on their scrotums) and pseudo-gynaecomastia (abnormal glandular breast development) and morbidly obese females who might have polycystic ovarian syndrome.

omg.... i sound intelligent for once...

i'm so having nightmares about saturated fats chasing me with fat-clobbered fists and fat-dripping teeth....

anyone up for ROund 2??

it's the start of a new semester in the life of Mel the workin'-it meddie...

it's just Monday but it's worth 1 PBl tutorial and 2 lectures...

talk about workin' it...

and the whole uni is quiet except for the frantic shuffling or some may say the purposeful striding of meddies of all years.

we are the only insane ones back for round 2... can practically hear the "ding ding ding" bell of ROUND 2....

even dents are still on their sweet sweet holidays but we are back and the timetable is hitting us with a vengeance complete with the Club of Harsh Reality.

but look at it this way, people, i'm 1/12 my way through med school...

not so bad for a girl who once dreamt of becoming part of Doctors Without Borders...

i remain optimistic.


and so my fairytale starts again... *smiles*

I'M A BIG GIRL!!

*ROAR*

I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!!


lol, yea right... who am i kidding??!!

insomnia setting in...
must be the episode of Incredible Tales that i watched on Channel 5....
and for goodness sake, it was not THAT scary...
i think....

another few more days before Melbourne, here i come...
2nd Semester bearing down on me...
and already the timetable is looking oh-so-scary....
what the heck...
another 5.5 years to go....

feeling quite out of sorts now...
must be again, the insomnia setting in...
shall count sheep now..
or i could just count the hours i'm going to waste on getting the anatomy of the chest right....
or i could HAVE brought back my teddy dog, Jay from Melbourne where he's been very lonely and cold...
or i could warm up hot milk...
or i could read the book on my bedside table...

or i could just list the ways i could put myself to sleep...

you're leaving on jetplane as i'm typing this... never was one for geography but i think you'll be over the ocean now...

just say that you'll take care of yourself...

XOXO Mel

shoes phase

a girl can never have too many shoes.

neither can a girl can have too many phases.

at least both the above statements apply to me.

coz the whole have-as-many-shoes-as-you-can phase has hit me and hit me real darn hard.

so just in under half hour in singapore, i bought 3 pairs of shoes.
one from Ipanema.
two from Far East Plaza.

one pair of simple sandals. very Amazonian goddess
oen pair of black high heel wedges that are gorgeous
one pair of white low heel pumps

but i still want more.
on my wish list: black Converse sneaks, red high heeled pumps, the most perfect flats ever made and whatever that catches my fancy...

the pearl of the orient

so for some mother-daughter bonding time, me and mum went to Hong Kong, the pearl of the orient (was it really called that? i remembered learning this in primary school...) for some h serious girl downtime namely shopping and eating, two of the things that are certified aphrodisiacs. but i digress...

and the VERY first thing that i noticed when i touched down was HK people do everything in excess, most expecially length or height wise. check out the above picture and just look at how many towering buildings HK city has!! each building including flats are at least a devastating scary 30 storeys high!! i counted!! and the buses there are also stretched out in height wise, all of them are double deckers!! how cool is that?? it's like their country motto "Height is gooood!!"

and the city area was crazy chocked full of people and cars, like good ole Malaysia or Singapore. but somehow, it felt steamier in HK. i was perpetually swathed in a sheen of sweat and goodness knows how many baths i had in just one day. and the shopping was not so bad but the freaking travel bouchure forget to mention that by "a shopping paradise", it meant that HK is good for travellers with a good sizeable amount of dough!! sure, the streets were full of every brand name imaginable. Paris Hilton would be in heaven there. Gucci, Prada, Guess, Ferragamo and French brands i can barely pronounce, let alone spell. heck, i am a girl that appreciates brands and the money and human effort gone into producing a handmade calfskin Chloe bag with 24k gold plates but i think i would be able to appreciate it more and stop gawking at the windows and actually go in and buy something from the smugly-attired sales person in there with perfect straight white teeth.

but that isn't to say that i didn't have fun on the trip. hey, i don't go for shopping when i travel man! i did go all the way to Victoria's Peak and went for the HK's Madame Tussaud's Wax Musuem. and boy, was that fun! and here are the pics to show that.

oooh, everyone's favourite villain that.. Hitler...

Rembrandt and me. was quite surprised to see this great European artist in the HK wax Musuem
Pablo Picasso, the very master himself in the...err, wax.... he looked incredibly lifelike Albert Einstein and his famous groundbreaking formulae...ooh just love his white shock-like hair
the iconic Miss Marilyn Monroe and the legendary airvent scene. and on my side, the wind was blowing up too and my skirt almost flew up. thank goodness though....
was hoping that i could be the girl silhoette in the background but it was not meant to be, Mr Bond...

my fave action hero of all time, Indiana Jones. i'm in love with Temple of Doom!! but in this, he just looks disporpotionate!!oooh, i just absolutely love his brooding looks... yums...
Wacko Jacko pre-baby-dangling-and-child-molestation... why oh why did you do the skin grafting, Mr Jackson??!!and this was on the Avenue of Stars, HK version of Hollywood Walk of Fame. i don't watch many HK movies, so Stephan Chow's star was the only one i took picture with...

and now the complaints and gripes that i had on this trip. no trip is ever perfect with a few whines and complaints here and there. and the major gripe i have is that the HK people haven't been exactly educated on manners. but i do like to stress that these are the people that i met in the city and not the HK friends that i have in trinity or in Melb Uni. heck, my HK friends are sooo much nicer that when i went to HK, i was utterly shocked at the sometimes-uncivilised behaviors of the people there. the taxi drivers that i met were uber rude in their words to their countrymen and even to us tourists and they were also money-hungry. maybe it was the fact that we are tourists, but we are Chinese tourists hailing from the lands of Malaysia and not white and posh Brit-speaking. but oh well, even though so, it sort of made the trip less enjoyable especially for me, a non-Canto speaking Chinese. i would just be standing there smiling dumbly while the hawker might be cursing my family in Canto to my ignorance.

so i have decided to MASTER Canto and learn to curse in Canto in 7 different ways before i go back to Hong Kong, the pearl of the Orient.

schsh-kool....

it's been almost ages since i stepped foot in the M'sian education system. and today, me and Aichen minus Ju Li who was still fast asleep decided to go back to both Foon Yew 2 and SSI to see the guys and the teachers.

and Oh. My. Gosh.

it was just crazy being back there.

SSI's changed so darn much that i feel like i'm stepping into an alternate universe.

fell like such a visitor.

and boy, did i feel so outsider-ish with my red Wonder Woman shirt and my jeans from all the brown-uniformed-clad students.

but heck, i was so happy to see all of my former classmates that it was not funny at all.

they changed

i changed

everyone changed

everything changed

even the freaking audio visual room changed too

it was like an epitome that nothing stays the same, for better or worse...

of rom-coms and ill-conceived notions...

true to my female-ness, i have spent my 19 years watching romantic comedies starring the irisdiscent smile of Meg Ryan and whoever that played the guy who caught her eye... and boy, can i name my favourite rom-coms in under 10 seconds!

You've Got Mail...
(this has remain my absolute favourite. maybe it's the fact that Meg played a shopkeeper in The Bookshop Around The Corner, an absolutely delish piece of heaven on earth filled with the Storybook Lady and lots of quaint children's books)

Sleepless In Seattle...
(This has got to be the epitome of Love At First Sight and Serendipity)

The Lakehouse...
(Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves were absolutely heartbreaking in this show)

Sabrina...
(not the Teenage Witch version, thank you very much. Sabrina and Harvey's on-again, off-again affair do not interest even one romantic gene in my whole entire body... but i'm talking about the Harrison Ford version, the old classic of your-mum-and-dad's-film-collection... watch it for the sheer old-time romantic in you....)

Turn Left, Turn Right...
(who can ever resist Takashi Kaneshiro and those yummylicious locks of his?! and not to mention, the sheer coincidence and fate of that particular love affair.. but i do admit that several times in that movie, i wanted to twist the male and female lead's heads ala the girl in The Exorcist 360 degrees around and ask them to take a freaking good look around!! lol)


yea, they amy be the most stereotyped movies of the whole Hollywood history, but heck, i think that in our world of freaking mindless cruelty and hopelessness, we all need a little pick-me-up in the size of just under 2 hours. and i happen to like my romantic comedies, thank you very much. yes, i do like movies like V for Vendetta but sometimes, all i need is a couple of laughs, a few lines of romantic sappiness to make my world feel just a bit better, or as some romantic cynics would probably sneer, to delude myself with ridiculous notions of love.

i shall be the judge of that....


*i do miss my fairytale...*

and so the holidays go on...

and the fairytale goes on too...

and the grind of life goes on too...

endlessly.....

"once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a princess...."

there was the noise of kids squirming in their seats and parents shush-ing them...

and there was the sweet buttery smell of popcorn...

and there was the mouth-watering smell of hotdog wafting from the seat next to you....


and there was the presence of you next to me...

and there was the green ogre-ey face and his beloved green lover looming above us, in taht sognature cartoon-ish face....

and then there was that moment...


XOXO Mel

A-RELAXING

so yes, people.. am back in JB, in the hot sticky humid weather that makes my hair go limp and my face start to crawl with perspiration..

but heck care...

i just a truly msian breakky this morning which consisted of thosai and puri and various spicy yummy curries... and that made me thought of the cereal with cold milk and the ham-and-cheese sandwiches i always had for breakky in Melb or rather the non-existent breakky that i sometimes have in protest of the 8am lectures i have 2 times a week...

and on the plane flight home, i told myself that this 1month of break has got to be the MOST relaxing break ever because come 16th of July, it's gonna be another one of those race-to-the-finish-line-sprint-without-water-or-fruit kinda thing... no stopping to smell the flowers nor would there be any stoning sessions... it would be work all the way... except this time, it would be harder (we're doing nutrition and metabolism the next sem!!) and longer (a full 14 weeks, 2 weeeks longer than last sem!!)..

so yes, a-relaxing i must go....

PBS

Reading: Ethical Models of Doc-Patient Relationship



Eating: Nothing except my lovely lovely lovely green tea!! PJ loves it too!! and I like being Santa Claus, Kelvin!! and PJ appreaciates it!!



Listening: Shakira's Hips Don't Lie and PJ&Kelvin's shouts of "What the heck?..."



Channeling Rachel now..."PBS SUCKS!!" yep, sure, PBS is over yesterday... but heck, it was the worst paper i have ever sat for in my entire exam-oriented life, a whole 19 years of it!! like Rach said, at times, it was like a instintive paper, you basically take a look at the paper and then just choose the 1st answer that SOUNDS right to you, instead of relying on your logic/rationale/whatever you have crammed into your brain the alst 12 weeks.



by the time i was done, for a moment, i suddenly felt that my brain was void of everything. ........................................................................................

........................................................................................

........................................................................................



it really IS the case... the first ever time i experienced such a thing before in my life, the entire 19 years of it too!! like i just poured my heart, soul, spirit, brain, mind, knowledge along with my nerves, hypothalamus, lymph, blood, sweat, tears and all the bodily fluids and organs into the freaking 2-hour paper that is only worth a mere 22.5% and requires us to be the most efficient machines ever... we have to inhale 84 one-hour lectures, diagrams and all for this 2-hour exam which has 60 complex MCQs and 7 short answer questions, much less writing an essay... so yes, time management in that tiny window of time is absolutely crucial to the every milisecond.

of sexual crimes in America and champions...

i was having my study break cum lunch when i swiched on the TV in protest of my long hours of mugging and i happen to chance upon The Oprah Show which was one of my favourites and still is.... and Oprah was talking about child sexual crimes in America and how America seemed to be confused about sexual offenders.

and i was struck by what one of the guest said on Oprah. Bill O'Reilly claimed that once a sexual crime was committed towards a child, the criminal should be just put away for life, without parole...

somehow, i have mixed feelings about this claim. yes, the guy who did it should be given a suitable punishment, not given rehabilitation and a small fine (that was what one Vermont judge passed to a sexual crime offender who raped a 6 year old girl over the course of 4 years). and yes, it was a heinous crime. the victim was a child for goodness sake!

but on the other hand, does the guy deserve to be put away for life even when he is deemed be to remorseful and wants to start life anew??

but then again, how the heck would we know that he is really really really regretful for what he did?? how would we know that he would not prey on another kid again?

does that justify O'Reilly's claims that all sexual offenders deserve a life sentence?


and then O'Reiily also said that all fathers should look at their kids in the eyes and reassure then that no matter what happens, they will always save them, rescue them from any situation. and because of that, until the fathers arrive, they are to fight with whatever strength and courage they have and be careful of all strangers. That i fully agree with him. i read countless autobiographies about kids who have been abducted and kidnapped and sexually preyed on and how their captors kept them submissive by using psychological tactics like telling them repeatedly that their parents do not want them anymore and are not looking for them and they(the captors) are the only ones that care for them.

therefore, i think it is extremely crucial for parents to always reaffirm and reassure their kids that come what may, they will always be there for the kids and the kids should never give up hope and have courage to face anything..

for me, i always know that my parents, my dad and mum will be there anytime, anywhere everyday of my life. even though i am overseas and pretty much oceans away from them, that thought enough gives me courage to keep going. i guess, i have been conditioned and reminded since young that they love me and will always do. and i have always felt loved and wanted throughout my life.

so yes, as O'Reilly said across the TV set into my apartment, fathers should always be the "champions of their kids"....

in my case, my dad and mum are both my "champions"....

Ahhh....

Listening to: Wayne Wonder's Hold Me Now (reminds me of Hawaiian beaches and glorious sunsets)

Eating: Cadbury's Brunch Bar (awesome stuff, PJ!! u got me addicted!!)

Doing: PBS Past Year Exams

Wearing: my old, comfy jammies

Thinking: all about the characteristics of the Haversian System

Wishing: I was hundred miles away on a beach, with a juice in my hand and a string of pooka shells on my neck


4 more days to E-Day man!! then just one week of that and I will be H-O-M-E!! i can't wait to see my family and my friends again, even though this routine has been going on since last year. i still feel the squirmy, suppressed jolt of excitement whenever i look at my empty suitcase in the corner of my room....

it will be a total goddess reward to finally come home and unwind from all the medical stuff i had to cram into my head.... i just want a nice, relaxing, doing-nothing holiday...much like a hot, warm, foamy, sweet-smelling bubble bath with candles and a bowl of choc-covered strawberries and an awesome book and nice music.... and after the soak, i will feel so good and refreshed that i can literally FLOAT out of the bathtub and walk on air with a shiny, scrubbed-clean aura around me!!


so until that day, i shall go a-nerding and read all about the Haversian Systems and eat brunch bars to keep my energy up instead of strawberries....

18th birthdays and BBQ feasts

happy 18th birthday, dear Rachel!!

may all your wishes come true!!

many happy returns of the day!!

hope you enjoyed the BBQ feast ya?? and all your lovely lovely pressies!! and your boy boy is ultimately the sweetest, girl!! give him a big kiss and hug when you get back to spore....

so you ARE 18 already....legal for well...practically EVERYTHING!! so yea, just take your time to do everything okie?? after all, you did do the 1st one on the list which was alcohol... but don't worry, it's just a teensy weensy little bit in that HUGE cup of lemonade...and you didn;t get drunk which is good... a small step goes a looong way, girl!! lol

anyways, have fun and enjoy the rest of the day...

XOXO Mel who is already 19 and wishes that she is 18....

the defintion of a nerd

Andrew's recent blog post was all about the definition of being nerdy and how his la-la land was study-land and it just got me thinking...

about MY definition of being "nerdy"....

so yes, i admit i AM guilty about the fact that i DO label some of my classmates/coursemates/random people on the street as being nerds. and yes, i DO sometimes (yes, most of the times actually) based my observations on their appearance and the presene of books on their arms and the unmistakable heavy bagpack over the shoulder and the thick glasses.

and these are all made on the fact that i might not know them well enough to make that observation..

so am i superficial?? shallow??jugdemental??

i guess the answer is YES....

yes, sometimes (yes, most of the times) appearances DOES matter whether we like it or not

whether we have countless of times declare that we WILL not fall into that superficial pit

yes, sometimes we are all human and we DO pass judgements on people, random people...

yes, everything we do, say, think, wear, carry, act etc makes an IMPRESSION on otehr people, whether we like it or not... whether we moan and groan and say that first impressions doesn't count....

and so, tomorrow, maybe, just maybe i might dig into my closet and throw out any turtlenecks, white boring shirts, plaid skirts, old fashioned jeans.... just in case....

the view

i have the choice of blogging of either of these:
a) how tired i am after a full day prac session
b) how much work to be done for the coming exams (84 one-hour lectures to go through)
c) how many things i have to juggle on top of the workload
or
d) how i feel that all the hard work will be worth it in the end

and i choose D....

after all, i am all about the long-haul and it's definitely no easy road to my destination and the bottom line is that in this line that i am in now, there is NO destination. there is only constant improvment, renewal... a never-ending road to some unknown, unreacheable evening sunset horizon.... at least, the view is beautiful from where i am.

i am after all, facing the sunset in in its full glory.

and the journey is wonderful.