.zongzi

Zongzi.

Zongzi, or glutinous rice dumpling, is one of my all time favorite food! In Australia, these are only available in May/June during the Dragon Boat Festival while in Malaysia, it's available everyday of the year.

.disappointed

You are the only one who believes me.

Nothing can explain my disappointment with the fact that they would rather believe the media than me.

I have repeated over and over again that the media is exaggerating the H1N1 situation to them. I tried to reassure them that extra precautions have been taken and that everything will be okay. And their responses made it sound like I'm too relaxed and unconcerned about how fast the swine flu spreads.

I am friggin' aware of how the virus works!!!!! Stop making it sound like you guys know the situation in Victoria better than I do! And being paranoid will not take you anywhere! Gahhh!

Going to do something to distract myself and calm down a bit. I'm sorry you guys had to listen to my rant. :\

.my new life

Speeding.

Soooooo...

– I'm going to be a postgraduate student at Monash University this coming July, for the next two years.
– I'll drive to uni when I've got a heavy bag/folio and take the train to uni on days when tutorials are only 1 hour long.
– I'll take the train 66% of the time.
– I'll be one of the people complaining about canceled/delayed trains.


I am so nervous about starting my new life. :\

.the best way to photo walk

Platform 1.

......Is to do it when you're out and on the go or out running errands.

I barely have enough time to "go out just for a photo walk" these days, since I'm working on my portfolio as well as to improve my design and multimedia skills.

This afternoon, I had to go down to Monash University at Caulfield to submit my acceptance form as well as run some errands in the bank before taking the train home. I thought I'd take my camera along anyway. I took about 20 - 30 shots and found a few that I really like. Will post up more on Flickr later!

Can't wait till my next 1-hour long errand!!!!!

.best neighborhood ever

Swanston's Bokeh.

I live on Swanston Street. Hmm.. Is that too much info? :P I don't think so, most of you would have already seen hundreds of my Carlton & Beyond or South-Easterly View shots to know where I live anyways.

Looking at this photo makes me sad, even though the vibrant colors show that Melbourne is a fun and great place to live in. There is a chance of us moving out in mid-January next year.. That is, if the landlord decides to come back to Melbourne to work. We'll have to move out. I don't know where we're going to move to..

I know renting is inevitable, but I really hope to have my own place someday, so that I wouldn't have to move again.. Umm in fact, I've started saving up a few years ago by putting aside an amount of money every month. I still need more jobs just so I could put more money aside for the future.

I don't wanna move out just yet. I love this place and I wanna stay a lil' longer!

But.. I guess we'd better start selling some of the stuff away, just in case.

.malaysian delicacies

Laksa for Dinner.

I was born in Malaysia, grew up in Singapore, spent majority of my school vacations in Australia, and relocated to Australia 4 years ago.

Being away for 4 years have made me appreciate Malaysian food more. So far, I have not found any authentic and delicious Malaysian cuisine over here, so SF and I resorted to cooking at home. It's much nicer and not to mention, cheaper as well!

I will be in Malaysia for about a month in November (can't leave for too long because I'm waiting to see if I become Permanent Resident in Australia) and I'm going to eat like there's no tomorrow! Let's hope I'll get to return for the Lunar New Year in 2009 for a while too or even better, become a PR before then!

.different paths

the Sign?

Take a look at the details of the leaf in the photo above. Look at those lines.. Don't they remind you of the different paths that you have to choose at a certain point of life?

Well, it does to me.

It's like, once you have chosen a path, it's hard to go back to the other because it's far. I still don't know what I really want in life, even though I've narrowed down my choices. Three choices.

Graphics Design, Multimedia Design (+ animation, application developing, games design, web design, etc.), or Photography.

Yesterday, I was granted full admission to Monash University's Faculty of Art & Design. But it wasn't 100% good news...

Monash Uni's Faculty of Art & Design decided that I'm not cut out for visual comm.. But they gave me full offer into multimedia design... They commented that I did not meet the basic requirements for visual comm.. And my guess is that 80% of the stuff I did for portfolio are multimedia design/games stuff, since that was what I did at undergraduate level.

Job-wise, Multimedia design is practical, but I enjoy photography so much that it doesn't feel like I'm working at all. An advice given to me by my favorite high school teacher is that you should go for a job that doesn't feel like a job at all, so you'll enjoy it everyday. My teacher loves teaching high school kids and so teaching doesn't feel like a job to her. I'm glad she loves what she's doing. :)

Hmm.. I suppose it won't hurt to try and have a bit of both... Right? Anyways, I'd better let my parents know and see what they say... If my parents give me the green light I'll go ahead and submit the acceptance form.

.i've gone out!

in Autumn.

Went photo walking at Carlton Gardens today for a short while.. Well better than nothing I suppose! And it makes me happy to know that I'm well enough to go out for more than 30 minutes! :D

.getting there!

Typography.

I think I'll be ready to go out for some photo walk session in a few days time! But first, I need to get rid of this stubborn cough, which has been stuck with me for exactly 2 weeks now. Yep, I've been coughing for 2 bloody weeks – and that's half a month! Ugh! So much time wasted! >:(

I am winning the battle! And I will win soon!!!!!!!

My secret to winning? Garlic. Sure, it gave me quite a bad garlic breath but it's working pretty well. So here's another thing I've learned from this two-week cough session – garlic is good for coughs!

Eat them raw or add some dark caramel sauce and use them as dipping sauce for dinner! It's really good! :D

Alright, wish me luck!

.new headphone

ATH-ES7 (audio-technica).

Hey guys, I don't think you should borrow me your expensive (or non-expensive) headphones because I tend to overuse them and end up having to buy a new one every year or something. :(
I am going to have to start taking good care of delicate gadgets like these..

Perhaps I could try not to use them too often.. I don't want to go deaf by age 30 (and I think I'm already semi-deaf from 10 years of discman/MD player/iPod).

--

The headphone arrived this morning while I was still in bed, so SF signed the delivery on behalf of me.. And I bought it less than 48 hours ago! :O

Anyways!! I decided I needed one since I work better with a headphone.. And it will also come in handy when I have sound-design stuff to do. Oh, and I'll definitely want a good headphone for travel, since those given out in the cabin are so stiff and uncomfortable. :\

This ought to cheer me up a little from having to stay home and recuperate for more than 2 weeks.. And it did!

.tea deprived

Tea.

Many of you should know that I'm a huge fan of tea, particularly those from China, Japan and Taiwan. I love tea! I've been addicted to it since I was 7 and am proud of it!

Apparently, you are not supposed to drink tea when you're down with a bad cough. And it's true, even though most doctors say nothing about it. I guess chamomile and peppermint tea are okay for coughs... But it's best to just stick with plain (not cold) water.

So I've been drinking plain water for the past 10 days. Not fun. I haven't had tea for 2 weeks now and it's killing me!!!

Please don't get me wrong, I don't mind plain water since it's healthy.. But I really want a variety of drinks... Honey lemon doesn't seem to be working for phlegm-y coughs so I've stopped drinking it...

...

Anyways, I think I'll just continue to drink more water and hope it can get rid of the cough sooner, so I can go back to drinking tea.

.gradually

Soft Companion.

For the past 10 days in bed, I had a companion named Julius.. And I've been hugging it to bed everynight without fail. On some nights, I'd wake up and find Julius' arm resting on my head.. It's true!

Hey all! I'm back.. Well.. Kinda. I'm still a little too groggy to be driving but I'm glad I'm gradually going back to my daily routine and chores. The cough is still clinging onto me and I don't know if it will ever go away.. :\ Perhaps distracting myself by doing loads of things will help get rid of it..

I got some EXTRA STRONG peppermint candies while grocery shopping today to soothe my throat further.. And extra Vicks VapoRub for the night, when the cough worsens.

Speaking of Vicks VapoRub, I think some of you guys might have heard that applying it on the sole of your feet and putting socks on help when you're having a bad cough during the night. It does actually! I could sleep through for a good few hours before waking up to cough and re-apply VapoRub on my feet. So do give it a try if you are suffering from a cough too, especially if it's been giving you sleepless nights. :D (Thanks for the info, Aryen!)

Alright, I'm going to get back to chores now. Later! :D

.still hibernating

Rough Beginning.

It's Monday. I'm still stuck with that cough which I developed out of nowhere two Fridays ago. And it's very, very irritating.

I have been sleeping better for the past few nights but I'm still not well-rested because I'm too tired to do anything extreme. I'm still lacking the energy to drive around and I can't even walk 400m to Safeway at QV to get some daily necessities..

The cough will go off eventually, just not tomorrow or day after.. But is there something I can do about my tiredness? I really don't want to waste anymore time at home and taking naps at random intervals during the day.. The only solution I can come up with is sleeping sideways (my favorite sleep posture), but my throat doesn't agree with it..

...

Have I permanently lost my bubbly and energetic self?


P/S Happy 100th post!!!

.enough is enough

Quilt.

I know blankets and pillows are comfortable, nice, soft and all, but I've had enough of it. I just want all my energy back, get out of bed and go back to my routine and do a bunch of stuff before I start graduate school (most probably) in two months.

Pray hard for me.. Won't you? :)

.sleepless nights

Daybreak II

It has been 5 days since I took this photo... And it has also been five days since I last slept at all.

You guys.. I'm not down with a fever anymore.. And my indigestion has been cured as well (kind of). But I'm down with a horrible cough. They are like horrible little buggers in my throat tickling me like there's no tomorrow, and it feels like they are having fun.

But it's so irritating that I can't sleep at all. I've been waking up every 5 - 10 minutes for the past few nights and .........

I can't continue anymore. I feel horrible. And I don't think I'll fall asleep if I go to bed now.

.a remedy for indigestion

The Remedy.

I woke up with a really bad indigestion this morning.. It was so bad that I could barely do anything.. So SF had to go get some coke for me.
And it works! I'm still feeling bloated at the moment but my abdomen does not hurt that much anymore.

...