of the darn Chinese stereotype

apparently I look like a mixed breed aka not Chinese-ey.

must be my maggi-mee hair, my tanned skin and my not-Chinese-looking eyes.
darn societal stereotypes of Chinese girls having straight hair, sepet eyes and fair skin.

I totally get slightly huffy whenever someone goes in Chinese, "ey, xiao jie, you speak Chinese arh? why you don't look Chinese at all one? I thought you are a Malay or Indian or mixed leh!"

then in a bid to get back, I go in the most phoenetically-accurate tone possible for little old Chinese me, "I really really am a Chinese and I speak Chinese. My grandparents come from China."
then they always do the doubtful once-over look. then the nice patients apologise and begin speaking to me in rapid -fire Chinese.

lols. totally cracks me up.

***
on another Chinese-ey note, Donnie Yen kicks butt in Ip Man, the mos t awesomest martial arts flick this year. I've always had a thing for martial arts flicks eg Hero, Fearless etc the works. and Ip Man totally lives it up for me.


and btw, the non-Chinese-looking syndrome runs in the family. lols. lucky me.

of shock therapy and cross breeds

sometimes, all you need is a little bit of shock therapy to bring your head down from the clouds.
you need that little brief scene of tears to illustrate that the world is not all rose-coloured.
because for all the starry-eyed hopes and ambitions you have for your life, sometimes, they don't quite cut it.

I always knew that when I signed for this, it will be for the long haul.
essentially no turning back.
no kicking or screaming or whining about how the world is so frigging unfair.
I had all these rose-coloured dreams that were slowly being torn apart.
and I was glad for those little reality checks along the way.
nobody could survive on dreams made of air and bits of fluff.
it's not all games and fun in the sun.

and today just proved that I needed a little shock therapy to bring me back down to earth.
and I'm glad for it.
i just hope that in time, those little reality checks will mold my fluff-and-airy dreams into some concrete, do-able, achievable threshold between my high ambitions and reality.
because I know, I for one, can never survive completely on reality.
I still need that little bit of fluff in my life.
so fingers crossed, this reality check can mold fluff and air, and not crumble what little concrete i have left.


** on a happier note, I have maggi-mee hair!! and patients think I am a cross breed!! lols. much thanks to my dear beloved Pri6 Chinese teacher who helped me to prove those old uncles and aunties wrong. lols **

** on a bitchier, smarter-than-thou note, I'm boycotting Twilight. Just because I want to. and because Robert Pattinson makes a sucky Edward Cullen. and because I dislike movie adaptations of books (yes, incl the HP and LOTR saga, and I'm a book-ie through and through, and I like my fantasy imaginative world untouched, thank you very much). and because Twilight is a wee bit overhyped. and because after repeated readings I find it lacking in taste and depth. So, shoot me. lols. **

hello, you.
I'm going home tomorrow afternoon! *yay*
thank goodness everything fell into place this week.
it's as if it's making up for the missed AMS opportunity at the much-coveted Paeds unit.

exams went pretty good.
my new apartment is pretty with polished wooden floors and a huge lounge.
my stuff will be sitting in my new apartment tomorrow morning.
I am thoroughly packed.
so, it's all good.

now I just want to go home and see my dad, my dogs, my girls and my beloved meepok.

of the art house and hardcovers

I had another of my Nova all-day-movie-marathon.
utter bliss.
art house flicks totally float my boat.

1st up was the Hebrew-Arabic film about lemon trees, the Israeli defence minister and a Palestinian woman. total heart-breaker film.

then it was the French flick about the grocer's son and the sunny countryside of France. it was oh-so-breezy and such a fun film. I miss films like that. it made you want to wear your childhood gingham pinafore, run barefoot among long grass and then plop down and gulp down some cool lemonade. it was really that breezy.

and the last one was an absolute humourous documentary about American teens in their little cliques on their Senior year.
that was really quite one of the best films I have seen in along time.
But I have to say that the documentary really made fools out of the American teenage generation and that of their respective parents.
It made me feel that my high school life was a heck lot better than that of the American dream.

and then I made the most amazing discovery at the Borders discount store!
I found the prettiest version of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens... it was in a gorgeous purple and white chequered pattern in mini hard cover version.
I totally stopped and stared for a few moments.
and then I bought it.
in the amount of 4 Aussie dollars!
what a find!
totally made my day.

and it's totally going into my permenant collection that will one day, be my family heirloom.
lols

of AMS and the biker dude

and so I got the Youth Mental Health AMS unit.
instead of Paeds Haematology that I originally wanted.
but owells.
everything happens for a reason.
so it's all good.

though I wish I could work at RCH and see the little kids and do the whole Starlight thing.
but when I got to ORYGEN, the place seemed fine and the supervisor was a cool dude.
and omg, there was a little shouting-cum-swearing incident that happened when I was there with this totally hot, angry biker dude in black leathers.
he looked like the exact replica of those rebellious, ultra hot biker from movies that you see, complete with piercing, brooding gaze and heck-care attitude.
but this one this morning was a patient at the centre.
a very angry patient.
must be having one of those days.

and and and...
I will be having a friend with me at ORYGEN.
actually, there will be 2 familiar faces.
so double yayness.

but oh goodness. I pray and hope and wish I have the strength to go through with the whole mental patients fiasco.

but then, maybe it won't be so bad.
we are all a little crazy, after all.

of apartment-haunting

thank you to the bloody landlord of my apartment.
stupid idiot just informed CS that he/she/it wants the apartment back.
and it's totally legal to evict me and my brother because he/she/it gave 60days notice. and that period is sufficient enough by law. hello, I'm an international and I would love to spend my hard-earned term breaks in peace back in Malaysia. should I be grateful instead that I am still here in Melbourne and not back in Malaysia and still have the time/energy/effort to go apartment-hunting?!

and it's frigging Nov27. and moi leaves for sweet, hot, muggy Malaysia on Dec5.
so I shall have to accomplish the almost-near-impossible in like 1week.

darn it.
goodness knows how much I hate packing and unpacking and carrying frigging heavy crates.

give me my 3 wishes now, fairy godmother.

1. a gorgeous 2-bedroom apartment under $1800pm

2. our stuff neatly packed and labeled in pretty boxes already sitting in our gorgeous 2-bedroom apartment and maybe a small, nifty sprite to unpack my stuff too.

3. water pipes a-flooding, stoves bursting into flames and general apartment-haunting pheonomenon when he/she/it moves in. or maybe just a poltergeist will suffice.

thank you.
and I wish for nothing else.

Oh goodness.
I really really really really need a good book right now.
I need a good dose of imagination, and less of reality right now.
And the books mum brought over is just outside my room, sitting on the shelves so innocently.
My fingers feel damn itchy now.
omg.

And the thing is, I want want want one really.
and I hate the control.
I loathe it really.

Another 48 hours to the first of the Sem4 exams.
then soon, I'll be done with Year 2.
woohoo..
I so wanna do something crazy during the holidays to celebrate that I am just 4 years away from graduation.
I think I shall get another tattoo. lols.

Obama 08

Obama 08.
It'll be interesting to see this Democrat leader wrestled his way though the worst US financial crisis, the 2 wars that Bush created and the nuclear showdown with Iran.
but hey, I'll say that change is good for the US.
Martin Luther King's famous speech has now been fulfilled. It's a huge step for Americans.

Been watching parts of Election Day during the afternoon.
Exciting stuff!
Now back to mundane, mind-choking Neuro.
Exciting stuff!

was watching bits and pieces of the ARIAs amidst frantic revising.
Aussie bands are seriously mind-blowing.
some of the acts were awesome.
step away, US mainstream bands.
Aussie bands are now on my playlist.

Sam Sparro, The Presets, Operator Please, The Living End, Faker
just to name a few, rock my socks.
and on a sidenote, Gabriel Cilmi is a tad overrated.
sure, she's 17 and has 5 ARIAs and she has this husky, unique-sounding voice.
but in my humble opinion, it's a bit too young to acknowledge her.

and Pink is still me love.

of Famous Amos recipe!!

hello.
guess what I got in my Hotmail box today?
something really astonishing that it seems like a hoax to me.
I got this forwarded email for the recipe of Famous Amos famous ChocChip cookies...

so good things must be shared thus tadaa....

2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal & blend in blender to a fine powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 tsp. salt
18 oz. Cadbury bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Cadbury bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 122 cookies..


again, I have my doubts about the authentcity of this recipe.

so Mel to Pheyyee: girl, if you got time, go try this recipe ya? you're like the most awesome baking goddess that I know of. so if this recipe is the real deal, then you will be the one who can reproduce the results... lols. i will gladly supply any baking ingredients if necessary.

*greedily awaiting supposed-Famous-Amos cookies from PheyYee aka domestic goddess**

Beautiful sunshiny day.
But I'm stuck inside, as usual, at my desk, looking out to brilliant cloudless sky.
I hope that everything will fall into place, so I can move through space with ease.
Ergo the two mindsets that will solve themselves and I can get on with life.

here's to praying and hoping and finger-crossing that I get the AMS unit that I REALLY REALLY REALLY want.
if I don't get it, I will just retreat under a huge mossy stone and lay there and come out only in June 2010 for my clinical years.

please please please please please....

*on tentherhooks right now, in need of serious mind-numbing and thought-occupying lecture materials*

I very much like to spend my time as a boho, living in long flowery skirts and billowy kaftans and stringed sandals and plaited headbands. I love the whole mentality eg the chill-out, flower power, love green earth, love and peace.
I would spend my time sunning out in the gardens and still have lily-white skin.
I would be an illegal resident in small bookshops.
I would hole up in those hole-in-the-wall bars with brilliant, undiscovered artistes.
I would use only organic veggies in my dishes.
I would have this small stone cottage with those big fire ovens out in the garden.
I would make pretty jewellery out of iron an stones.

And most of all, I would have gone for the awesome, brilliant, out-of-this-world concert by The Script.
sucks to missing it.

*back to grouchy old med student me.*

I hope the girl is feeling alright now. And you know we will do anything for you la, including buying Cadbury choccies!! lols.

Today was a sunnier, warmer day than all the yesterdays combined. Lovely, lovely day. Should've worn a dress instead of my jeans and sweatshirt and sneaks. lols.

And feeling the blahness from LMS since last night. I need mudcakes.

Much turmoil going on back home that I almost wished I was on a plane home with a front-row seat to what is going to be the biggest political drama in Malaysian history.
Now, I shall just have to remain informed with my parents' juicy soundbites and articles from the Internet webzines.

And the one week of holidays passed way too fast.
One minute, I was trekking in Launceston's National Park in my unappropriately-attired-boots.
and the next minute, I'm back in Asia Centre, trying to make sense of the lecturer's mumbo-jumbo-ing. What joy!

*am currently out of witty blogbites right now. lols*

**i'm too lazy to post up the Tassie pictures as my mum has the entire file and this blog is really for her and my dad's purveying. lols**

of la-di-da and samosas

holiday's in a week.
yayness.
am in my la-di-da holidayland now.
and i just had a smashing great time with the AlbertHousies, cooking samosas and pigging out in front of the telly.
all that sugar from the meringues is going straight to my head with that high-sugar-rush thing before going straight to my thighs and taking up residence there as dimply fats. lols
can't wait for dad and mum to come jetting over here. double yayness.

***
i thought i can see it through but i don't think i can.
because ultimately, you know what it is like to feel that way but you still did it.
so thank you very much. you totally made my year.

i am a daddy's girl.
i am 20 and yet i still do manja-ing thing with him.


i am a mummy's girl.
i am 20 and yet i still need her advice in everything.

of comic hottie-ness

going off a tangent here, comic book heroes and sometimes villians do it for me. *giggles*
ergo the last comic-to-movie film that i watched. awesome stuff.

there's something edgy and delusional and rebellious in him that i totally fell for.

least to say, the martial arts sequence he did in the NY sewer and the rather enjoyable fact that he was shirtless and had total washboard abs.

and him, with his 4-books-a-time (that totally cinch it for me) and his grace-out-of-water.

and her, like her twin, was totally gorgeous in the film, though i would prefer her to be slightly stronger in character.

sometimes, a girl likes to escape from reality just for a while, where there's a underground market full of monsters and bizarreness and the villian is a golden-eyed, white-haired delusional ergomaniac who is coincedentally, a total hottie, in my very humble opinion.

of jumpers and that damning decision

Sept 11.
just that day, i happen to chance upon this documentary about jumpers from the Sept 11 incident.
and as i saw person after person cartwheeling, tumbling through the air, there was this clutch and ache in my left chest.
and you can't help but imagine the thoughts that ran through their minds as they plunge slowly but surely to the grounds.

some say that those were so brave, so courageous to choose this form of death.
to be able to stand at the window of the 110th floor, glance down and think, "i rather die jumping, my own form of death, than stay here and burn to death.", and then follow through with it and jump, flying throught the turbulence, tumbling, and the inevitable meeting fo the hard ground.
and on the way down, did they regret their decision?
a whole agonizing 10-second worth of free-falling, with no parachutes strapped to your back, no giant air mattress to break your fall.

that 10-second-wait is that culmination of their lives.
to go out oh-so-gloriously, oh-so-sensationally and oh-so-damning.

Quote of the day:
Frailty is like pornography, it's difficult to define it, but when you look at it, you just know it.
- lecturer who did geriatric syndromes today -

of smarminess and EQ

there's this girl in lectures that totally pisses me off day after day after day, till earth stops to turn. *roars*
i hope she continues to sit far, far away from us, together with her posse.

there are meddies who despite, scoring top percentile in their VCE, have rock-bottom EQ.
i am definitely not the most EQ of people out there. (most EQ??)
but hey, give the rest of us a break.
we paid top dollar and lotsa lotsa dollars to sit in 1-hour lectures, hoping to get our money's worth of knowledge. (ergo us internationals and our full-fee places)
but you there, with that smarmy look on your face, have some common sense.
don't crack jokes about what the lecturer was wearing.
nor do i want to hear about your clever comments about how sex can lead to more than transient global amnesia.
and i do not want to hear what you did with your girlfriend last night.

and i sure hope as hell that your friends would have the courtesy to tell you to shut up, instead of laughing along with you or keeping as meek as possible.

*lols. i feel like some righteous nerd, campaigning for quieter lectures everywhere but that girl sure as hell, pisses me off to no end... or do i sound like a righteous nerd-slash-bitch?*

of spree and whee-ness

sitting next on my bedside table is a whopping amount of 9 books stacked on top of each other.
makes for some impressive tower of books.
and my heart totally skips a beat whenever i glance it.
lols.
thanks to the outrageous Spring Sale for Borders where everything was 15% off for that night and of course, the wonderful med peeps who got me a 50bucks book voucher for my lovely bday which i totally put to good use.
*hearts* med peeps and Borders!!
you need to understand that since i'm in Melb and books are darn pricey here, having 9 books at one go is heaven on earth for me. hence the excited gushing post.

and the fruits of my spree is sitting there, waiting for me.
thank goodness for the non-exam period where i can indulge just a bit more than usual.
wheee...

am now on Eoin Colfer's amazing Fowl story and Vladimir Nabakov's Lolita (btw, it's a banned book in Msia which i got here for a mere 10 bucks!! lols)....

and i love falling alseep to the smell of those pages, new books and old library tomes alike.

of fictionary playmates and schizo

i was daydreaming that day of authoring and illustrating children's books.
and of a pig with wings and could fly and having adventures all over the place even though people and pigs alike enlighten him about the fact that anything that is impossible to achieve can only be done when pigs can fly.
sense the irony? lols.
and my little piggy hero will be called Jiggles due to the jiggling fats on his tummy.

and also of another cute albeit past-his-due-date doggy who decided to learn new tricks.
hence teaching an old dog new tricks. lols

and also of another fish who wanted so much to explore earth and its earthlings that she built an mobile aquarium that could travel the globe.
hence fish out of water!! lols

exams creates little fictionary animal playmates in your imagination, you know?
but i am quite sure that i am not hearing voices (ergo schizophrenia)...
i just see little moving coloured scenes in my mind's eye when the stories unfold.
sometimes, i just get too ahead of myself. lols.

of that beginning and the end

the week started off somewhat badly, in a way.
the lectures were awful to goodness.
and textbooks and Lectopia weren't helping at all.
sucks.

but hey, it's our dear Shaleen's 21st on Thurs and she's having a glam party on Friday at some Docklands bar/club.
should be a nice resounding end to the week. TGIF!!
and i can finally have fun with the girls. it's been ages!!
and i've been a very good girl, haven't gone clubbing. it's been ages too!!
can't wait for that night. am not gonna miss it for the world...
hopefully, it goes swimmingly...

if Nicholas Chai Chien Hui is reading this post, give me your Sg number leh...
and ask Sushi to give to me too!!
totally sucks la, I sms all the way from Aussieland and I get no reply from both of you NUS-ers.
omg, don't tell me you forgotten little ole' primary-schoolmate me since you have your big, glam NUS peeps. lols.
i'm waiting....

hello.
the weekend was all good.
started off the TGIF with a good solid 4-hour-long dose of pure japanese anime at uni.
it was the annual Geek Film Fest and Friday night was Anime Night for geeks campuswide.
totally *hearts* Laputa and Mermaid Saga.
and and and... i met Kiki, who was as wonderful and talk-eable as before.
it was great to see that girl again.

then Saturday came and went with a visit to Crown and Ikea for some meatball fun.
and olympics awesomeness.

and Sunday was same old, same old.
Supre was having massive sales btw.
will need to spend time rifting through the racks someday.

of perspectives

all this while,
i've been enamoured by the olympics opening ceremony and the floating torch-bearer.
and
i've been preoccupied by the quiz tomorrow.

and on the other side of the world,
2 countries and 2 separatist governments are at war.
all in the name of souverignity.
and still, no peace corridor has been extended by the leaders yet.
leaving the wounded and journalists trapped in basements, ruins and most horrifyingly, a near-collapse hospital.

and as usual,
it puts life to perspective.

the olympics doesn't hold the usual glamour and anticipation for me now.
it seems more of a facade for politicians to mingle and put on their best peace-keeping faces.
and it takes attention away from every other world crisis.
while Aussie tv has been showing images of Steph Rice breaking the world record, nothing has been said about the South Ossetia war, other than a few passing sentences on the 6pm news.

and tomorrow, more images of olympic winnings will be shown on TV
and
we will be having panic attacks at a test that has only 16 MCQs
and
we will obsess over every little detail of neuroanatomy.

such perspectives.

of random phrases

phrase of the day:
"chou2 mei2 ku2 lian3-ing"

statement of the day:
" i swear i won't go havoc-ing."

statement of yesterday:
"i bruise like a to-mah-toe."

understatement of the day before yesterday:
"i have all four books, you know."
"duh."

overstatement of the day before yesterday:
"i have twelve books of the four books."
"haha. very funny."

and the boys had a wonderful beginning to their futsal journey.
it's a 4-2 glorious result.
and a pretty crappy cramp came out of that which scared the hell out of me. lols.

and after so long, today, we all got together for lunch and bridge.
and it was wonderful.
truly.
it's the small things that matter.
outisders see the big picture.
but sometimes, all you need is a little perspective and the small details that delight the soul.

of songs

i need quirky songs now as i am buried, literally suffocating under the load of work i have to do.

Baby's Romance by Chris Garneau is on repeat right now.

The baby's sleeping in the crib up top
And baby's sleeping above you
You will lift him to the parking lot
Your car is waiting there for you
Your car is waiting there for you

I would like to see a little more propriety,
Cooperate with me and answer me
Without a plea.

I know now, I know now,
I know now, I'm gonna tell on you.
I know now, I know now,
I know now, I'm never gonna tell on you.

The whiskey's waiting on the firetop,
The baby's going to drink too.
The lady's got no clothes she's at the shop.
But if she'd knew then she'd kill you.
The bugs are out cause they come out at night,
Usually they just bite our hands.
Cause normally we have clothes on without a fight,
But now fighting's a part of baby's romance.
But now fighting's a part of baby's romance.

I would like to see a little more propriety,
Cooperate with me and answer me
Without a plea.

been trying to figure out what this song really means.
or maybe, it's just the fact that it's so all over the place that appeals to me.
because my mind certainly is all over the damn place.

as if i can remember this...
On Old Olympus' Towering Tops A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops

this is much better:
Ohh, Ohh, Oh, To Touch And Feel Very Good Velvet, AH

and this is just plain... *speechless*
Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel A Girls Vagina And Hymen

of dirty mnemonics and rainbows

just that day, i saw a double rainbow!
just the prettiest things.

and i must learn the dermatome dance one day from YouTube.
coz learning the damn spinal segments is no fun, thank you very much.
and i just heard the dirtiest mnemonic from my PBL classmate that day.
he claims that you will never ever forget the sequence of the cranial nerves ever, ever, ever again!!

even now, i'm just too embarassed to tell the girls about it. lols.
something about a virgin and the V word and the H word.
but hey, if it helps you remember, my dear PBL mate, go ahead then.
lols.

of books and madness

Mel has the latest and lastest book of the Steph Meyer's vampire saga in her hands right now.
well, metaphorically in her hands.
because the med nerd in her chose to relinquish and banish the book to a far-off place just this evening.
because the med nerd in her knows the book-crazed nerd in her and knows that the book-crazed nerd will spend the entire night trying to finish the 730++page book and abandon her revision for her upcoming test.

*damn that med nerd in her!!*

*stupid, stupid conscience!!*

anyways, i''m not looking forward to the movie adaptation of it.
i've pretty much condemned any movie adaptaion of any literature.
the exceptions being LOTR (the books took me sooo long to finish that i nearly went crazy!!) and the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth in it (I've always had a thing for him, ever since i saw him in that series... *swoons*).
and i took a peek at the Twilight movie trailer on YouTube...

and omg...
it looked boring!!!
Edward was played by this dude who did Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and he looked terrible!!
and Bella... was well, un-extraordinary...
i've always pictured with her as a strong, exotic, incredible, different kinda beauty.
but in the movie, she was just so... blah.

owells, i still have Breaking Dawn to look forward to!! yayness...

of quirkiness

quite the quirky song...

The Man Who Can't Be Moved - The Script

Going back to the corner where I first saw you,
Gonna camp in my sleeping bag not I'm not gonna move,
Got some words on cardboard got your picture in my hand,
Saying if you see this girl can you tell her where I am,
Some try to hand me money they don't understand,
I'm not... broke I'm just a broken hearted man,
I know it makes no sense, but what else can I do,
How can I move on when I've been in love with you...

Cos if one day you wake up and find that your missing me,
And your heart starts to wonder where on this earth I can be,
Thinking maybe you'd come back here to the place that we'd meet,
And you'd see me waiting for you on the corner of the street.

So I'm not moving...
I'm not moving.

i'm in another phase now.
the quirky-songs phase.
so what's new??

and i just had the most satisfying Sunday afternoon with a book. i'm almost embarassed to admit this but i have sorta kinda a thing for John Constantine ever since i devoured the Hellblazer comics and watched that kick-ass movie.
and on my weekly Safeway trip, i felt this pull to Borders and in i went and got the paperback adaptation for Constantine and proceeded to finish it in 3 hours straight.
it was an awesome book.
it's the whole tortured, cynical, chain-smoking, saving-the-world-in-his-own-kick-ass-way, anti-hero complex that I'm drawn to. *swoons*
oh and not to mention, the very cool fight occult elements in it.

2 things i can't wait for in this coming week:

the Beijing olympics 3-hour long opening ceromony choreographed by the famed Zhang Yimou (equivalent to the hype of a nation showing the entire world what they are capable of)

and

the 4th and final book of Steph Meyer's vampire saga, Breaking Dawn (equivalent to the release last book of Harry Potter, in young female adult fiction world)

RIP Randy Pausch

I heard the most shocking news from Pheyyee today...
Randy Pausch of The Last Lecture fame passed away last Friday morning.
I always knew his death was inevitable
and i'm sure that he did the best he can to preserve some of himself for his kids.

But ultimately, it's so unfair a person as good as him is dead at such a young age.
and with three young kids.

Heath's death was a shock too.
but honestly, after a while, i don't care two hoots that he's dead.

But Randy on other hand, is a person that the world can benefit from.
he brings out the young kids in us with our childhood aspirations.
he tells us all about head fakes.
he was a Disney Imagineer.
he floated on zero-gravity.
he wrote a book and gave The Last Lecture for his children.

and that very book is the book that made me cry all over it, smudging the pages.
so thanks dad for introducing me that book. in that very way, Mr Pausch reminds me of you.

Rest In Peace, Mr Pausch

of tomyam and riots

my tummy is eternally damaged by the junk that i put it through daily.... grinding up the different types of food that i wolf down is no joke i tell you.
just ask anyone and they can tell you how many cravings i can have for just one day...
and i am currently in love with tomyam soup!!

so now my tummy has protested and raised a damn big riot. &*(@%@$!!
thus, i am home sick with the gastric-and-food-poisoning bit with the periodic flipping of the tummy.
it's crazy i tell you.

hello, bland tasteless porridge.
good bye, flavorful yummylicious tomyam. it's been great knowing you.

of 2nd hand and preloved and vintage

such a rainy Sunday.
really puts a damper on the soul, what with expectations of unearthing potential treasures from Camberwell Market.
but hey, at least PheyYee managed to get 4 pretty, pre-loved dresses for under 20bucks.
it's all about cheap thrills.
and cheap thrills are all we can afford, being poor overseas students.

and man, did I have cheap thrills at Savers on Sydney Road that day.
frankly, didn't think that I was going to buy stuff there but i emerged with this cool dark green bamboo bag, leather trench, a buttons-filled top and a Peter-Pan-inspired top for less than 25moolah.
it's all about that excitation of getting bargains after reefing through racks of pre-loved clothes.

and i choose to call them 2nd hand clothes as pre-loved or better yet, vintage.
and we all know vintage is sooooo "in" right now.
XOXO


**newsflash: Mel has a phase obsession right now and it has something to do with one little Facebook application called Piece Of Flair. there's just some satisfaction in stumbling upon the right little button badge that aptly describes you.**

of that post-exams euphoria

and so we started off post exams celebrations with just the right dose of clubbing awesomeness. music wasn't that good (me wants a GOOD R&B dance club session soooon!!) but boy, it was one night that opened my eyes to some strange going-ons of the med student variety. the bold, the beautiful and also, the downright desperate... the ultimate yum-cha session that trumps all others... the one where we ordered mountains of bite-sized food and tak the whole of 3 hours and only paid 16 bucks. one damn-worth-it session, i must say. and the company was wonderful...

never was one for KBoxing but true to the post exams celebrations motto of "Trying every darn thing", we girls had an all-out KBoxing session at 12midnight and stayed till the place closed and chased us away.

we didn't want to leave actually. we had so much fun screaming the place down with angry-girl songs and sweet ballads. and boy, can AiLynn go all Marion Raven on us!!
never was a friend of the mike, thus my act-shy face and Jacq's die-die-must-sing face... lols

and can i just say that PheyYee knows every sweet romantic ballad of the Chinese variety and the English ones too!!! lols now i know what makes her heart tick!!

all-out craziness + post exam euphoria + KBox session + wonderful company = one kick-ass girls night out

on another note, caught Sex and The City with mum that day. i'm not an avid fan of the long running series but like every female in the cinema, i admire the wardrobe. spectacularly drool-worthy.

the dialogue was snappy with clever comebacks.

but in the end, i left the cinema, pumped with new couture ideas swirling in my mind and the need for a more feminist female lead.

i'm a sucker for romance and i lap up love letters like there's not tomorrow. but the whole thing about Mr Big COPYING the love letters of great men is frankly... unoriginal and devoid of any meaning. any illiterate person can just type the letters and send it to their love ones and would they get back their ditched-at-their-altar lover back?? i think NOT.

and the ONE love letter that he wrote was superbly short and... somewhat mechanical to me. it's something like you write a business partner.
talk about fear of commitment....

and the whole affair of Carrie taking back Mr Big is just so blase. it's frankly disconcerting to know that they have been on-again, off-again for a freaking 10 years. and being a big city girl, if someone ditches you after 10 long years of fiddling with my heartstrings,you would think that commitment was never in his vocab to begin with. but Carrie just HAD to take him back huh?

but what the heck, the shoes and the bags and the wardrobe just about made the whole lack-of-feminism issue pale in comparison.

disclaimer: Mel is not a true-blue fan of Sex and the City and might have been shooting her mouth off at Carrie's unfeminist behavior but hey, it's her blog so it's her mess and it's her business. so true-blue Carrie fans, do not flame her.

of the hollowness and infatuations

me loves loves loves the end of exams.
for once, i don't panic at that emptiness, hollow feeling in my cranial cavity.
awesomeness is what i call it.

and the day out with my mum was great. i really did miss the city and the stream of shoppers in their multitude of clothes and actions. ( i almost think i forgot how it looked like, i swear)
and it's the girl in me that had me buy stuff that felt good to hold in my hands with their clear shopping bags.
and we went all the way to Collingwood (!!) to source for mum's beads.
it's her new infatuation now.
both me and her have our fair share of infatuations. (lols)

and am swooning now to Jeff Buckley's Hallulujah. what a haunting voice.
and i never could figure out the meaning in that song.
but it reminds me of those rainy, gloomy days.



**i have this weird little flippy feeling in my tummy these few days just because of the view. it's just due to an infatuation, i think. that feeling of unattainable-ness. it drives me to Google it. yes, i'm guilty of Googling it. and a fair share amount of time was due to that.**

DALY = YLL + YLD
my DALY is slowly piling up due to the insufferable hours of mumbo-jumboing Health Practice and all the incorrigible new terms i have to stuff down my throat and pray that they will remain in my brain come HP D-day.

and i can just reiterate the reasons for my increasing YLL:
- the many hours gluing my butt to the bloody chair
- the many hours spent squinting at the bloody small text on the lecture notes
- the many hours my brain spent trying to make sense of "systematic review"
- the many hours spent not exercising (hah! that's a good one!! lols)
- the many hours my shoulders are hunched up (i can feel my supraspinatus getting out of shape already)
- the many hours not sleeping and staying awake for bloody HP

HP = bane of my life
but
HP = hurdle requirement
so
HP = die-die must pass subject (which i probably will die trying)

Mel's suggestion:
go google epidemiology terminology and read it for fun... not for the faint hearted.



update: lols, i just realised what a whiny little girl i am.

rach said something really cool today (some would say lame, but wth. anything that can make me laugh is welcomed during this period.)

she was all, " Jasper very "mai4 yu2" for not wanting to share his smooth-face secret with us"

and Kim went, "mai4 yu2?? as in sell fish??"

and then we all went, "ohhhhhh...."

geddit? mai4 yu2 = sell fish= selfish??
"mai4 yu2" being the mandarin equivalent of selling fish for the chinese-illiterate.
lols.
just had to blog this one up.

that and rach's (again!!) "see you, alligator" good-byes.

Quote of the day: "There's always a dotted line to whatever you need to learn in medicine."
-Christen Barras-

darn it, i hate it when lecturers are right.
that and the 2nd mnemonic that you need to remember the 1st mnemonic.

my wish list changes often but at the top of the list, occupying permenant headspace would be the ability to absorb knowledge through power of osmosis...
i don't mind if i have to read the other half when the concentration gradient is no more. at least i still would have some info retained in my brain.
sad that this would never ever happen.
**
the cadever next to mine has a knee joint replacement. so instead of just pink and white cartilage, it was all shiny metal at the ends of the bone and a white plastic-ey meniscus in between.
wasn't what i expected prosthetic knee joints to be.

and dissection pracs really puts me off food sometimes.
the dissection lab smells of lap cheong eating it would remind me of that.
the fats on the cadever's body looked like nasi kunyit to me. so that's off the menu for while. (the cadever today was really fatty and my hand came out from the cadever all slick and shiny with fats. *shudders*)
**
the boy just had his hair cut yesterday. so now he looks like a boy, a much smaller boy. lols.

me loves Sweeney Todd and me is obsessed with the soundtrack right now.
lovely lovely songs!! ~~sigh~~
Tim Burton is a genius.

and quote of the day:
Gluteus maximus is used on exertion, climbing up the stairs. When this lecture ends, you can see gluteus maximus walking up the steps. -Jenny Hayes

lols.

i'm pretty sure i have OCD.
or maybe i've just been watching Friends a tad much last few months and am channeling Monica (which is btw my favourite character, next to Chandler).

i need my bed to be made the exact way before i start studying.
i need the kitchen clean and sparkly right after dinner.
i need the fridge to have the same layers with the right foods on it.
i need my desk to be cleared of clutter at least 2 feet around me.
i need my throw pillows to be in the exact same positions where i left them.

or maybe i'm just a somewhat neat freak.

of brothers and cousins

one thing great about doing anatomy is that you get to use cool names, cool latin names.

eg how can you not grin when you hear "gluteus maximus"?

and "phalange" just reminds me of Phobe aka Regina Phalange...

"Rachel, you have to get off the plane now. It has no phalange"....

that scene is always a classic with me.

but then again, me and anatomy have a love-hate relationship.

unlike biochem, which is a total disaster of a relationship, totally dysfunctional with it being the dominant, OCD party.

so this week being my brother's 18th, just got to make a big deal of the occasion i guess. just gotta celebrate the whole-turning-legal-and-possibility-of-getting-jailed thing.

being the nice sister that I am (contrary to the above meanie picture), I decided that a BBQ party will be just dandy for him. and being the nice sister I am, I morphed into David Tutera (ohhh, how I MISS that show!!! blah~~~ digressing) and got the stuff going with some helper muscle of course (eg my little baby cousin and of course, the boy). one cannot lug back 6kg of meat on one's own, especially if one is a small-sized, puny-muscled, 20-year-old female.

and thanks to PheyYee and Jacq who helped run the BBQ!!

we uni students, feel so ooollldddd compared to the Trinity-ians.

the guys could resist posing with the soccer ball candles that I was excited to find in this party supply store. a random shot... a really, really random shot. how can you not look at the above picture and not grin??!!the boys enjoying their cakes and leaving me just the crumbs.
then the rest of the night was just spent at the arcade and taking pictures.

p.s. i love my camera!! yay-ness... thanks to my lovely parents!!

of retribution and karma

first it was Cyclone Nargis in Burma.
then today it's the earthquake in Western China.
one does wonder, out of utter indifference of course, whether it was retribution for the the recent actions.

but one thing for sure that can be said is China will definitely handle this crisis better than the military junta in Burma.
the latter sure is one hard-headed block of wood with no feelings whatsoever.
it's just ridiculous for the people to suffer for their brand of "self-efficiency".

the world has gone mad, is all I can say.


***
on a more frivolous note, i went shopping for my brother's presents and i bought something for myself and it's like the first purchase that i made since coming back. (suddenly, in my mind's eye, i see myself as a frugal nun!! lols) and it's a freaking pair of fingerless gloves. only 8 bucks!! and i needed the gloves as it's freezing so it's like a necessity buy, not even an impulse buy. anatomy can do such drastic impact on my buying impulses, i tell you. *smirks self-righteously*

of doing right and the fake girlfriend

Lars Lindstrom: How'd you know?
Gus: How'd I know what?
Lars Lindstrom: That you were a man
Gus: Well, it's not like you're one thing or the other, okay? There's still a kid inside but you grow up when you decide to do right, okay, and not what's right for you, what's right for everybody, even when it hurts.
Lars Lindstrom: Okay, like what?
Gus: Like, you know, like, you don't jerk people around, you know, and you don't cheat on your woman, and you take care of your family, you know, and you admit when you're wrong, or you try to, anyways. That's all I can think of, you know - it sound like it's easy and for some reason it's not.

Lars And The Real Girl was an awesome film. you would think that you can't cry at a film that involves a sex doll as a fake girlfriend.
but i did. just a teensy bit.
because Biance "reached out from her wheelchair and touched us all".... lol.

note to self: must get Nova membership sooooon...

of Desree and Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet has always been one of my favourite epic love story ever.
Cheesy as that may be, I don't care. I grew up reading Shakespeare and this particular one is just close to my heart.
Not something I can relate to, but heck, the words have always been bee-yoo-tiful and I tear up every single time, even though I don't exactly condone the whole-suicide-without-your-love affair and Romeo's flights of fancies that change by the minute.

But, you just have to adore the intensity of the "star-crossed"lovers going about with their love lives. Nothing can divert them from their love affairs.

Cue Desree's Kissing You from Romeo+Juliet (again, my favourite song for the nights)

Pride can stand a thousand trials
The strong will never fall
But watching stars without you
My soul cries

Heaving heart is full of pain
Oooh, oooh, the aching '
Cause I'm kissing you, oooh
I'm kissing you, oooh

Touch me deep, pure and true
Give to me forever
'Cause I'm kissing you, oooh
I'm kissing you, oooh Where are you now

Where are you now
'Cause I'm kissing you
I'm kissing you, oooh

of conincidences and Anne Frank

Omg, guess what I just saw on the Yahoo! homepage news today?!
A postcard written by Anne Frank to her best friend, Samme was found in an old antique store.
And just yesterday, I was blogging about the Anne Frank diary and the holocaust.
How awesome~~ eh??

of Anne Frank and the Holocaust

We had the cutest little old man for clinicals today.
He was so like those old men that you see on black-and-white films with the receeding hairline, small and bony stature complete with that cute voice.
And he had that sense of self-deprecating humor that most old people didn't.

And get this. He was a Holocaust survivor.
I've finaly met one.
And even though he was only 6 when he was in Germany, he still remembered his mum being herded into trucks and him standing behind this huge wrought-iron fence, unable to get to her.
And from there, it was just a-wandering from Germany to Hungary and finally to Australia without his birth certificate.
Hence, his official age being 60++ and his daughter's age being 50++.

Listening to him just reminds me of the Anne Frank story.
I was lucky enough to stumble upon her published diary about her being in the Holocaust during her teens.
And teens are the most insightful creatures.
They emote so well (hence the emo culture right now), they cry and laugh so easily.
They get angry and rebellious at the slight injustice.
And the sun comes out the next minute with the slightest gesture of kindness.

And so, Anne documented this incredibly insightful diary about her being in hiding during Holocaust to avoid being sent to the camps, or worse, chambers.

Textbooks only bring the cold hard facts about the mistreatment that went on during that period.
But reading Anne is like attaching a familiar face or human being to those facts.
You sympathise with her, you wonder whether you could ever be as brave as her.
And your heart aches so badly at the epilogue when Otto (her father) wrote that they were caught just a day after her last entry.
And from there, it was just misery to her.
She was sent to the concentration camp where she died of malnutrition and disease.

And at the very end, you wonder what were her last thoughts, whether she thought of her faimly at all, whether she missed her diary which she affectionately called Kitty, whether she regretted being born Jewish, whether she would go to heaven.
And then you wonder when your time comes, what will be your last thoughts.

of Chinese Whispers and the Olympic saga

so what else do I see on the papers today??!!
nothing but more and more Olympic cock-ups.
China is hitting back now, harder and harder.
and of course, the Paris leg of the torch relay got disrupted.

and did I mention that the Chinese are damn fed-up about negative press that they have started to call the CNN the "Crooked News Network"?
apparently, according to them, CNN is paining such a horrific picture of China that the whole collective is feeling somewhat offended.

oh, but i just have this teensy weensy little thing to point out:
They do not get CNN OR BBC on cable or paid TV.
ONLY tourists hotels get those channels.

so how do they get hold of such news then?
apparently, their Chinese relatives overseas supply them with these so-called bad press.

hmm, i wonder whether they've heard of the phrase "lost in translation"?
or that chilldplay's game of Chinese Whispers where you all sit in a circle and a message is whispered one by one and at the end, it is inevitable that the message gets distorted beyond meaning?
or maybe they could just realise that "hey, CNN and BBC are english-medium channels. so maybe, just maybe, when you translate the news into chinese, it kinda screws up the meaning ey?"?

but because of the bad press from CNN and BBC, they are protesting outside French embassies and Carrefour and KFC.
and yes, even Carrefour and KFC are other hate targets.
apparently, these corporations donated funds to pro-tibet organisations.
so this one Chinese man retaliated by setting up the websites www.anti-kfc.com and www.anti-carrefour.com.

I don't blame them Chinese for doing stunts like these.
what can you do when almost the whole world is against you and you are definitely not the media's darling?!

but hey, nobody is ever a media's darling.
every famous person out there has their share of bad press right?
owells.
staying tune to the latest saga in the Olympics.
it's almost like a glowing, tell-all, vivid painting of the best and worst in man.

of my spanking new Lumix and hotpots

will post up the birthday pictures abit later in the week or maybe the next...
but for now, i just have to show off my spanking new Lumix and its chio-ness in taking cool pictures
bro was craving Pancake Parlour so off we went.

sleepy him at 11am in the morning... don't you just love black and white shots??here i look absolutely stumpy...the totally cool reject shop with their 10-dollars-a-pony head-on-a-stick and their novelty jars to collect money with... you have to be there to enjoy this moment.my favourite shot of the day: my wee little cousin (doesn't look very wee in this shot eh?? he's a grown up boy now and he rocks both my brother's and my worlds. i find it absolutely awesome that he's here in Melb with us and we have so much fun together. i always wanted those huge extended families with cousins getting in your way and in your business all the time. and Robin is the nicest little brother-cum-cousin that i can ever wish for.) and my brother.

the boys wanted those rice whisky to go with the korean dinner that we were having. so we ordered a small bottle and we couldn't finish it so the half-empty bottle is sitting in my fridge now.

the uber yummy mushroom hotpot and Robin in the background with his "My stomach doesn't want to eat anymore!!" complaints. only he can describe his tummy as a seperate person and get away with it.

of Nobu and that culinary gem

I wouldn't say that I'm a complete foodie. but i do enjoy that swirl of revelation on my taste buds that just drives me straight to foodie heaven, whereever and whatever that may be.

and Nobu does that with that right amount of omigoodness-es.
and stupid me, forgot to bring along the camera for that moment of culinary delight.
and i shall try to reveal all in that foodie-critic style. should be fun using those cheem cheem words. shall rack my brains out then.

so the first course was this appetiser specially recommended by our server.
it's this yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno and a drizzle of "..." soya sauce. (couldn't catch the name of the sauce but owells.lol)
and omg....
the yellowtail had the right fishy taste, and that thin sliver of jalapeno gave that right amount of spiciness. and I'm a sucker for coriander on anything. so the coriander on the fish was an added bonus.
it didn't have a lot of ingredients.
but the moment i put it in my mouth, it was really foodie nirvana.
it had that combination of taste that reminded you of being on a beach ten thousand miles away with a coconut in your hand.
it had that laidback feel to it.

and then came the beek tataki with crispy garlic chips and minced onion with this other sauce again.
i've tried my fair amount of beef tataki before. but this trumps all.
the raw beef taste was exquisite, it was so strong that the sauce and onion failed to mask it which I totally love!
and i absolutely abhor garlic and onion and ginger.
but this dish managed to entice me into eating those crispy yummy golden garlic chips.

and then the salmon skin salad.
and for the love of my life, I have never seen so many cute interesting little salad leaves in my life.
i can tell you right now that Nobu doesn't just use any salad leaves from the market. i think they specially import it from goodness-knows-where.
the salmon skin was good. but the veggie in me relish those little exploding bombs of taste with every leaf.

and then came the piece de resistance.
the black cod with miso.
omg omg omg omg omg.
this truly deserves 5 omg-es.
it was.... just heavenly.
the fish literally melts in your mouth with those little slivers of fat in between the slices of meat. the miso was salty and fragrant.
for a moment, you can just sit there with that piece of fish in your mouth and not care or realise where you are.
it really does transport you into this whole new place where taste is dominant. i swear on this.
we had the most lovely time just chewing the fish, not daring to swallow and just swirling it in our mouth to milk every last drop of fishy essence from the fish.
and then the last bite came all too soon. sad.

and the the house special hand roll.
Nobu is never ordinary. and their hand rolls rock all the other hand rolls into oblivion.
most hand rolls are just rice with a tiny sliver of fish.
but Nobu generously packs with 4 (i counted and tasted every one!!)different kinds of fish.
and all of the sashimi was not supermarket-unfresh-crap. it was good.

and the the sashimi platter that came with a bowl of rice. (omg, can i just say that the rice at Nobu even tastes wonderful?!)
the sashimi was to die for with salmon, mackerel, tuna and yellowtail.
but the fresh scallop was one little circular thick disc of delight to be reckon with.
i have never known scallop to be so sweet. but this was.
it gave me that feeling of luxury with that seafood-ey avalanche of saltiness.
but i could still taste that sweet sweet flesh.

and the bill came all too soon.
it was a whopping amount.
but all i can say is that it is totally worth it. every cent.

and good food really does inspire good conversation.
there's this connection between tummy and the brain that scientists have yet to discover.
we had the loveliest time because of that connection.

time to save up for the next-year-trip to Nobu. *grins*