My new place in Melbourne

I'm glad to be back in Melbourne. It's great weather--sunny, warm and beautiful. Moved into my new place on Monday. I'm housemates with Iylia, who has all the furniture it's awesome. I love this place!!! But my room was empty so we went to Ikea to buy some furniture. Lots of the things we wanted were out of stock but we made do with what was left.


My empty room. It's carpeted
Large built-in wardrobe

We wanted to bring the things home in a cab, but alas, the single bed wouldn't fit. So we had it delivered. That night I slept on the pull out couch, and Iylia had spare comforter and pillows. It was actually very comfy sleeping in the living room! haha.

Very early Tuesday morning, the furniture arrived

Boxes of furniture requiring assembling

Just 3 hours later, an empty room was transformed!

A bed, table, shelf and table lamp. The bed was kinda heavy, and I had trouble fitting the beam tightly into the headboard and tailboard. So I decided to hammer it. I held a sock with my left hand to hammer on it so I don't destroy the bed frame. But due to my sleepiness, I accidentally hammered my finger! Haha it was super painful!! It was slightly swollen and the nail's kinda discoloured.


Tuesday evening Iylia and I had dinner at Lazzat. Delicious. Anyway so we headed to his storage cage in QV to pick up my things. We were debating between taking empty suitcases along to pack the stuff in, taking a cab or making 2 trips.

BUT...we found 2 dented/broken abandoned Safeway trolleys in front of our place. So Iylia suggested we push those to load our stuff. It was damn funny, coz we were pushing empty broken trolleys down the street (10min walk). Iylia was nice enough to let me have the less broken one while he pushed the one without the hand-bar and broken rear panel. hahaha.

We got into QV carpark, ran and slid around in the trolley and got to the cage where we loaded all my boxes of stuff. It was perfect! But we looked so stupid and I was laughing hysterically.
My trolley loaded with boxes, a shoe rack which I hooked onto the outside of the trolley, and tried to pull the luggage bag.

Iylia hugging his broken trolley

The trolleys were v difficult to push uphill, and on unlevel broken pavement. Iylia kindly helped me pull the big luggage while I struggled to push the trolley straight. Then near our place, a young Japanese guy saw me struggling with the trolley and ran over to help. He said I looked very funny pushing it. Iylia single-handedly pushed and pulled both things and got to the gate quicker than me and Jap guy. haha. Hats off to you, Iylia.

Got home and unpacked all my stuff. They were kinda dusty. Anyway, so here's my room now:



Some photos of my house:

The living room: flat screen TV, DVD player, PS3?, Iylia's DVD collection, coffee table, couch and a plant.
The main door, and our shoe racks. The door on the right (with the blinds) opens to a balcony.
The dining area and our bikesThe corridor to our rooms and the toilet, and the kitchen
Fully equipped kitchen!

The toilet is huge:Our own washer and dryer!

There's a bathtub and seperate toilet bowl area too. haha.
I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!!!

i went for training today. Hills totally killed me but I am SOOOoooooooooo happy to see my MUAC teammates again! And Tony too! YAY =)

Mexican Vday 2009

I'm at Changi airport waiting to board my flight. Leaving is almost like second nature now, I hardly think much of it, suddenly I'm here at the airport, just like going to take a train to the mall or something. Suddenly I've left the States, and I'm in Europe, then before I know it I'm in Singapore. Technically, I've already left even though I'm still in Singapore. Everytime I'm here I feel like I'm in a vacuum, trying to envision what it's like in many hours, when I step off the plane in a different place. But these days, it doesn't mattter where I am, I could be anywhere.

Anyway, I had a great 2 plus weeks back home. Didn't get to meet up with everyone I'd wanted to, but loads of time with the family, which is always awesome!

I did Lasik the moment I came back to S'pore, and that is the most awesome thing ever! No more inconveneient wearing and removing of contacts, no more hassle of brining contacts, solution and all that. Perfect eyesight, no discomfort at all. I love this feeling. Sometimes I feel like I've begun looking at life through different lenses--it's been a great 6 months, and I'll write about it more in my next posts.

Our steamboat dinner at home on the last day of CNY

The perfect valentine's day! Vday is supposed to be a celebration of love and to spend time with your loved ones, so what better way than another of our super fun dinners at home?! Yay, love it! No nervous anticipation, stupid expectations and disappointments. Bae and I making the famous Magnolia Bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes! I ate loads of this in New York. Red, delicious and sinful...just what we need on vday! haha.

The red batter--2 full bottles of food dye!


Tremendous success! They look so cute and biteable!

Rong chipped in to help put the frosting. We decided not to make our own vanilla frosting but buy the Pillsbury one from the supermarket. Bt alas! They ran out of vanilla so we made do with chocolate frosting.

Not too bad, Rong!

We made a MILLION cupcakes! we tried to squeeze them all into 3 batches and look what happened...

Due to the rotating glass bottom and the oversized baking tray, the 4 poor quarduplets in paper cups were SQUASHED WEIRDLY!!! hahaha when we opened and saw that we laughed till we almost died! haha and I kept making funny jokes about how we should go take these mutants to Janice and say: "Hi Janice, look what we made! Red velvet cupcakes! What do you think? Can we sell it at your dessert bar? NO?! But why?? We wpent 3 hours making it!" hahaha. hilarious.

Red velvet cupcakes with chocolate frosting and little red heart decorations! too pretty to eat.

And my MASTERPIECES...

The weirdo quarduplets! From left: meet the CUCUMBER, MONESTER, GHOST and POLKA-DOTTED EGGPLANT! hahaha.
Ooooh, more cupcakes with icing sugar, and a special limited edition one with moons and stars. hehe.
Ern busy at work on the decorations for our Mexican themed dinner. She's working on a cactus, if you can't tell...

Bern decorating our little Mexican hats

Rong the SAMURAI chef volunteered to chop stuff. Bae supervising.

Me teaching Rong how to cube tomatoes.

The Samurai chef with his chopped up ingredients. So cocky...
Making our own guacamole dip!
Tadah! Delicious!!!

For some reason Bae was super enthusiastic about blowing balloons. And that was infectious, coz after that Mum caught the bug and was pumping balloons incessantly. hahaha. She even accidentally pumped the nozzle into one balloon!

Bae and Rong fussing over a pack of old balloons which kept bursting. hahaha

Mum setting the tables and washed up most of the things
Anyway here are the final products:

I am embarrassed. What is this!?!? It meant to say "welcome to Mexico" in Chinese. But apparently no one knew how to write it...as you can tell, Mandarin is not our forte...
And what is this!? Don't know what language...I regret to say we might not be big on languages...
only?! let's go!

I love our crazy elaborate dinners, they're a family affair! the preparation is as fun as the dinner itself!
Getting ready
Me cooking the chicken with Taco seasoning
Yum!!

there's a photo of Dad fussing over the handwritten Lassi recipe from New Year's dinner. Haha this time it's strawberry lassi! No thanks to the airport computers, the picture was accidentally deleted. ARGHHH

Putting on the Mexican hats
Ooo, our little Mexican hats Ern made.
Dad with his. They kinda look like Jewish caps...
The fianl product! Nacho chips with homemade guacamole dip, salsa and sour cream. Taco chicken, letttuce, tomatoes, Jack cheese, onions for the Taco shells (not out yet)

Bern showing off her Taco

I was so tired from preparing dinner since arvo, that I totally fell asleep after dinner! And missed my date with Yimin at Walas. Haha, I'm so sorry! But I did watch a DVD--Get Smart with the family when I woke up an hour later. haha. fun times =)

Ok gtg, I'm about to miss my flight! Will update more when I get to Melbourne! Take care everyone =)

UK 14-24 July 2008

Dad, Mum and I flew to London to visit Jie and attend her graduation.

Arriving in Bloomsbury, London
Spanish dinnerWalking around Chinatown after dinner, Mum super jetlagged.

Day 2, Breakfast
i love cream tea


Primark

Dressing up for a nice dinner and musical:1 Michelin Star restaurant, Arbitus



Watching Chicago the musical


We went running along River Thames, past Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Tate Modern Museum, etc. London is still kinda chilly and dready in summer. Feels a little claustraphobic.

Oxford
Waiting for the Oxford Express outside Hyde Park

Market


Harry Potter dining hall
I absolutely love the architecture in Europe/UK. It's so intricate, so old, so different...


If I just flap my wings hard enough maybe I could fly.


Rushed back to get tickets for another musical
Phantom of the Opera musical. I am in love with the soundtrack. I love these British musicals. They're so different from American, more contemporary stories. Phantom is very grand. Elaborate props, embellished costumes and grandiose music. The lead actor and actress had great chemistry, making it even more romantic. haha.

Jie's graduation
Looking very accomplished
Soon.One of life's milestones. Dad and Mum must be so proud.

Very good First Class Honours =)
Celebratory dinner at 1 Michelin Star Chinese fusion restaurant, Hakasan


Start of our road trip...with our rented new Audi A8. Niceee...i love driving

Windsor Castle




Grrr...I gotta hold up this house!

Drury House, oldest restaurant in Windsor, for lunch
Quaint and English. Perfect.

Bath
we walked-in to YMCA. It's the first time Mum's staying in a YMCA. Dad and Mum staying in YMCA?! Impossible! Must've drove them so crazy they started singing the YMCA song complete with actions. That's a retarded "M", Dad. hahaha!


Dad lying on a street bench like a tramp trying to take a good shot of the church.
Traditional Italian food in enormous portions.

At Bath market looking for Rong's flags.


Checking out the Roman Baths

Horrible tasting water from the springs or something.

Sally Lunn's Bath buns

We went for relaxing Thermal Spa as well! It wasnt hot like the hot springs in Japan/Korea. It's just warm mineral water. We floated around with floats. There was an open air rooftop pool with glass surrounds overlooking the city on one side and the countryside on the other. All we need is some cocktail...Tis the life! haha.


Cornwall
We arrived in Cornwall in the evening without pre-booked accomodation with the intention of walking-in, but alas, EVERYTHING was full!! Desperate and faced with the prospect of spending the night in the car, we found Headland Hotel, super cushy place right on the beach. Perfect.

Headland hotel

Beautiful beach with a great surf

Little picnic holes to shield from the chilly winds
Oooo people fly in here in helicopters? Fancy.

Our new Audi A8 isn't too bad either...

Surfing!
Managed to convince Dad and Jie to take surfing lessons with me haha.

Post-surfing. Huddled in thick bath robes with a hot drink.

Hiking



Hiking in a dress and slippers? Yeah!Land's End
We had lunch of cornish pasties too
Excuse me, which way to New York?

Coasteering
Dad, Mum and Jie went deep sea fishing and so I went to check out coasteering on my own. I was lucky it was a quiet day so there were only 3 of us with 2 guides. Perfect. So we had more time to do more stuff and it was more fun.


Coasteering is super fun. It's basically coast exploration. The water was kinda cold, but there were no jelly fish so it was gd. Our warm up activity was to dive underwater and pluck a piece of seaweed. So cold and so scary. I hate diving underwater when I can't see the bottom and don't know what's there lurking in the dark.

It's about 3hours we sawm swim along the headlands, climbed over rocks along the headland, explored caves, jumped off cliffs, and dived down an underwater hole as well. Hold your breath and dive through a small cave underwater. Fun but kinda scary. Even one of the guides didn't dare because he was quite burly and had a fear he'd get stuck. Only me and another young man went through it.

During the cave exploration, it was really dark and the guides said occassionally seals will walk out and scare the people. So we were looking out for them. The guide asked me to peer into a little corner in the cave to check and when I was checking, he made some seal calls and I totally got a shock and jumped. haha. stupid.

There were no seals coz they had all gone to look for Dad, Mum and Jie out at sea who'd feed them fish.

We also swam into a lil rock pool and the guides taught us how to float face down and let the currents wash you in and out of the pool and swirl you around. It was very fun. The guides obviously love their jobs.

Cliff jumping. Super scary! It's too counter-intuitive to fling yourself off a cliff. We jumped off 2 cliffs. We were taught the proper technique and the guides told us the common mistake was the "arm chair" technique where u jump in a sitting down position, and you smack your thighs painfully on the water.

On the first jump, one guide jumped while the other stayed with the 3 of us at the top. The young man tried to go first, but he didn't dare. I wasn't so scared until I saw how scared ande hesitant he was. After many failed attempts to jump off, his father-in-law, a 60+ year old man said "do u want me to go first?" and so he did. 3-2-1 he jumped down. Maybe at that age there's nth to fear anymore you know, you've lived. haha.

I went next. My plan was totally to march up there and jump off. But when I peered down the cliff, it was super scary. The guide counted down and I couldn't do it. But on the 3rd countdown I decided I just have to not think and take that 1 step, no biggie. The moment I left the cliff edge, my entire body just froze. Paralyzed with fear. I could not even move a muscle or scream. So i did the classic armchair, but it was not too painful, thankfully.

On the next higher jump, I did much better. I stood at the edge and screamed even before jumping off, thenI managed to do the proper technique. It was really fun. I'd have loved to do a couple more jumps!


The waves crashing along the headland was actually quite strong and high, so it throws you against the rocks. The currents were farily strong and the waters very choppy, but good thing I am a strong swimmer so it was alright. Midway through the elderly man had a lil trouble breathing, probably from the tight wetsuit and flotation device, so at certain points he walked on the rocks instead of swimming.

Super exhilarating! Jie was shocked at the lack of safety/insurance procedures. Well it's true it's risky, but heck, I'ma risk taker.

Dad, Mum and Jie had gone deep sea fishing.


Apparently, Jie's alternative career path could be to be a fisherman, because she caught like close to 20 fishes!

But Dad was the real pro coz he caught big fishes, like the catfish above.

One of the big fishes Dad caught, which would end up on our table later.
Dad and Mum's obsession with lobster.

The view from our hotel is just amazing

London
Dinner at Royal China at Canary Wharf

Breakfast at Covent Garden
=)

Tropical Sunshine, Singapore July 2008

Lan & I. Waddya do when you park illegally and your car's boxed in? Grab a cool beer on a warm evening pre-RJ class gathering.


Fancy lunches of gourmet burgers and beers


Sunny

NUS Rag Day:




APSC swim peeps:Xueyuan, Evan, YilinYilin, Val, Evan, me and XY
Uncle RobsWille and Joe =)
AaronJoe@ Walas with Yimin

Joey, Joe and me
Drinks @ One Rochester--Terrance, me, Lem and Val

Lem and I outside Zouk:



Helipad bar with the guys


Lan

Derrick Guo



Yee How

The coolest family on Earth
National Day Garden Party Alfresco Grill!!! =)
Red & White national colours & flower decor
The Chef
Ern, Al and me
Us kids, just short of Jie (in London)






My family =) (Jie is missed)

When we were Down Under...2008

Picking up from where we left off...back in Melb in June 2008.

Jas' farewell party

Liam and I

Ray and Iylia, in case you've forgotten

Jasmine, Sophie and me

Matt Irons and I


Mordy and I

Falls Creek!!!

Snowboarding with hardly any snow



Tis what happens when sit on the snowboard like a sledge and it slips under you all the way down the slope, and the ski lifts aren't working.

pro.

Night activities

MoviePictionaryUno Stacko

So many ideas men...

Photo whoring



Falls Creek Day 2 - Mountain run & The Hike









Scrabble


Day 3 - Mountain Biking at Mount Beautywhat's wrong with smiley faces?!



Weird fetish



leaving Melb
Dave Pariossien

My sendoff
S-Club!

10km Sandown Road Race -- 41.24!!!!

some old photos from San Churros with Iylia and Ray 2 weeks back.

Me looking greedy.

Highlights of my week

Thursday 15 May
Had a good painful massage with Liam. Liam's really nice, nice to chat with. haha. He is a damn fast runner/triathlete/adventure racer!

I had Bible Study at Kylie's pad. It was awesome! She baked some lemon yoghurt cake which was delicious. After that, Ray swung by to pick me up and we were headed for a nice cafe in Brunswick street, but alas, none of us copied down the address so we just stopped along the street and went into "The Oven" .

Nutella-banana pizza with vanilla ice cream--this is da shit!

Then we strolled along Brunswick where there were many Greek cafes, and Ray had never tried a Falafel so I barged in and bough ONE BALL and we tried it--some kinda spices taste which Ray didn't like. haha

Then to get rid of the taste, we bought a box of 4 pieces of chocolate from San Churros--Earl Grey milk choc and Pink champagne white choc were the best =)

Drove to Preeny for a nice long stroll while savouring the chocs. We walked to the playground and PLAYED! haha climbed into all the structures, walked across the swinging bridge, balancing beam, slid down the slide, down the fireman's pole, looked thru the fake telescope, climbed thru the tunnels...sat in the baby swing and finally swung on the (adult) swing until i had a headache!

So we slumped on the park bench and played...shoot, shag and marry! hahaha while popping mentos. Actually, Ray was rationing the mentos to contain my sugar high. it was HILARIOUS!!! I'm damn good at coming up with tough gay combinations man! Game results are confidential. haha it was soo funny.

Saturday 17 May--Sandown 10km Race!!!
I've been looking forward to this race! Very psyched up...until the morning. It was raining, windy and friggin 8degrees!

Ray came by, dropped off his handsome new bike at my place and we headed off to pick iylia and kaighin up to drive to the race venue. We followed D2's car all the way until...we had to stop at a petrol kiosk coz i had to pee...then we got lost. haha we were pathetic coz we cldnt read the map properly and were driving up and down Springvale Road like idiots...or rather, just warming up to run 3 n a bit laps of Sandown Racecourse...

haha, we got there and it was FREEEEZING! Liam was so sweet to take off his fleece jumper and lend it to me coz i was shivering and turning blue.

Liam: u shd put another jumper on, Elaine
Me: I don't have another jumper
Liam: Geez Elaine, you should've told me just now! Here, put this on. You can't be shivering like that before the race.

How sweet =) So I warmed up in a large oversized jumped which looked like a dress. But who cares, as long as you're warm. haha. I didn't do a thorough warm up coz it was too cold to be out there.

Anyway, I felt awesome during the race and kept a very constant pace throughout! I surprised myself with a smashing 41.24!!!!!!!! That's 3 n a half minutes faster than last year! Woohoo!!! haha during the race it was very windy--headwind on the uphill. And my R big toe and L small toe was seriously hurting, to the point i was certain the nails were falling off. I took off my shoes and there! Under my gold nail polish were blue/purple nails. haha. it's peculiar...

It's not very clear here, but the small toe is swollen, nail pruple. The R big toe is light blue (funky!) and it is very swollen and DAMN FRIGGIN PAINFUL I COULDN'T SLEEP ALL NIGHT!!! it hurt even when i didn't move.

Had Jap dinner with Ray in the city post-race, followed by dessert of crepes! Blueberry/Strawberry cheesecake crepe and red bean custard crepe from this place in Melb Central. Delicious!! A perfect treat for some awesome 10km running =)

Then we did the MOST RETARDED THING ever! We went into Coles supermarket and browsed around. Then I spotted this round sieve with a handle. It looked like a large table tennis bat. I grabbed it and pretended to smack it around. Then clever Ray took another one and suggested we could play badminton. So we walked inconspicuously to the fruit/veg section and plucked 2 green grapes. We considered taking a fresh springy mushroom as well, but it was kinda big. anyway, we scurried back between the supermarket shelves and started playing badminton with the grape! it was hilarious! Then grape #1 smashed and died, so i kicked it under the shelve. Then we took grape #2 and were getting quite pro at grape-badminton. but alas! some Coles staff were nearby so we ditched the match. Ray took grape #2, with a 2 step hop he smacked the grape and sent it flying over the shelf into the unknown (hopefully not on someone's head). hahaha. we burst out laughing, flung the sieves back onto the shelf and ran away. HAHAHA!!! RETARDEDNESS!!

Sunday I was feeling kinda frustrated so I grabbed my bike and headed out for an 85km ride despite the awefully painful toes/nail/feet (i could barely walk). My calves and R heel hurt alot too. But the ride was good. I felt strong, free, independent, aggressive, successful, confident on my bike. Yes, that's what I am.

Met Ray for the last 30km of my ride. You're awesome, Ray. haha. very good for a first ride on the roads...haha we then rode to Thresho's for a nice excitement and laughter filled dinner! haha! had to ride home in the freezing cold of the night post-dinner. I almost froze to death i tell ya. torture.

Monday I had the most painful run ever. it was just a 55min easy run, but both my calves/Achilles were hurting so bad i wanted to cry. anyhow had a nice dinner with Ray after. We had indian food followed by some dessert at Brunetti's.

Bleuberry cheesecake and chocolate tart. yummm...

Tuesday morning Ray gave me a wake-up call to have brekky of muffins with Wilson at thresho's. My favourite muffins, i'd definately wake up for them! hahaha. anyway after that we walked over to Video Dogs, a quaint cool DVD rental shop nearby to look for Raging Bull, this 1980 Martin Scorcese film starring Robert De Niro. I had to watch it for an assignment. Alas, the shop was not open at 10am, so we went back to thresho's, shared a date scone and big brekky then went back to borrow the DVDs. hahaha.

Headed back to my place to watch the show. It's a good classic film, very deep character portrayal which i liked. The show was more about La Motte's character--his insecurity, vulnerability and weaknesses than about boxing. Anyway...I did a swim workout after that. Can't cycle, my calves are injured.

Wednesday was awesome. I did my swim sesh in the morn, met up with Maddie in the arvo--it was great catching up!! haha. then i had a productive afternoon assignment wise. At run trg in the evening, we did a hardcore 5x1000m with decreasing rest. It was fabulous. Actually Tony said for me to do 4 coz my calf was injured and hurting quite bad. But i like pain yeah. haha. it was a good session!!! Felt tired, but great after.

Post training, 10 of us headed to The Clyde pub for some dinner. It was really nice. I had Beef & Guiness pie (delicious!!!) and some of Dave's fries =P and some of Ray's Chicken Schnitzel. haha. Jas bounced in and announced that she made the Aust Open team for Orienteering World Champs in Czech Republic! Way to go, Jas!!! We were all so happy, she's awesome at orienteering, and fully deserves the spot. It was a nice dinner and chat with the MUAC guys =)

After dinner, Ray, Iylia and me had planned an all-nighter to watch the Champions League Final--Man U vs Chelsea. haha. I'm not a soccer fan, but i'd accompany the boys. haha. the match was at friggin 4.30am! So we planned to watch a movie and snack pre-match, then head out for a 60km bike ride post-match. PERFECT eh? haha.

Ray went back to grab his bike so he could leave it at my place for our morning ride. Jas and I went to the supermarket, gossiped and giggled about girly stuff...haha. I bought a whole lot of snacks--Maltesers, gummy snakes, doritos with Salsa dip and Solo The Sub. haha. then we headed back to my place and chatted a lil before she had to leave. I lent her a pull over and scarf coz it was a cold night =)

At Iylia's place, Ray and I watched The Family Man, a Nicholas Cage show about "what ifs"...alternative paths in life if we'd made a different decision--How'd life have panned out if I hadn't left? Iylia was inking his comic book at the dining table.
Ray took sickening videos of me ranting bitterly and proclaiming my big career ambitions. haha. And IYLIA! there is a very INCRIMINATING video of you!!! hahaha.

Anyway, I rested on the couch post-movie while the boys played FIFA on Playstation of psych up for the Champs League match...haha!

3 guys huddled on a couch for Champs League Final. Except...the prettiest one on the left slept thru halftime, the 2nd half, and penalty kickoffs. Only woke up for the highlights of the Giro d'Italia cycling tour after. hahaha!

But i knew what was going on in the match coz i was constantly disturbed by Iylia the nutcase who was shouting, cheering, bouncing on the couch, jumping, bowing to the TV...anyway, congrats Iylia, YOUR team won =)

Ray and I left for our 60km ride in the biting cold at 9am. Met Wilson along the way too. My legs were spent from 1000s last night, and I was sleepy too. The first 30km to Mordi felt soooo super long! like forever and it's only halfway?!?!

Great shot of me and Ray at Mordi =) I was wearing 3 layers of long-sleeved tops, leg warmers, had a headband on as well. While the brave and tough Ray was in short sleeve?! Hats off to you man!

Ray and I. We had some competition up a short hill coz someone said he wanted to leave me behind, so i say--YEAH YOU TRY!!!

haha it was awesome, but i was soo tired after that! Came home and slept man! haha.

At Bible Study just now we had Pumpkin soup with bread, crackers and dips cooked by Kylie. We watched a sermon recording titled "indescribable". Awesome =)

also had an absolutely hilarious chat with iylia and ray online. man, i love u guys. heh heh heh. I'm loving life, and looking forward to my HOT DATE WITH DAVE TOMORROW!!! Wheee...hahaha.

AN INSANE WEEKEND

Cross Country Intervals

Ray swung by to pick me up for training at Bellbird Park at 8.25 this morn. the first thing he did when i hopped into the car was whip out the camera to snap a photo of my newly painted gold fingernails. I spent a darn long time last night painting it! haha.

We picked iylia and Kaighin n got to training venue. We did 6x600m cross country reps. Very hilly, very painful. haha. but it felt great, and i ran well. Post training, D1 had a very disturbing message left on his car. It went sth like this: "I'm not sure if you're into this, but give me a call at 12345678". It was written by this GUY sitting in a blue car sussing Dave out pre-training. *Shivers* haha.

GIANT PANCAKES

We went to Queen Vic market where we waited for Wilson and had delicious GIANT pancakes!!!

Jamaican Banana (banana, peacans, cinnamon sugar, ice cream and syrup)

Iylia being idiotic when i wanted to take a nice photo

My turn to be idiotic when he wanted to take a nice photo.

Lemon and Sugar (with vanilla ice cream). This pancake was very large and thick!

Berry Bliss (raspberry, blueberry, syrup, ice cream)

Me posing with Wilson's Cervelo P2C.

After laughing and chatting for sometime, we went back and I had to take a nap and get ready for the MUAC Dinner!

MUAC Formal Dinner

Iylia came to my place to meet me to go to the dinner, and we were fashionably late. haha. i was feeling fairly self-conscious coz i've never put so much make up n dress up n all.

Dinner was great: bread roll, calamari with salad, beef steak, flourless choc cake with cream. I had coffee, champagne and red wine as well.


me and iylia pre-dinner

me and Jasmine looking pretty =)

Liam and me (I look like Val!)

d2 and d1...with one of his many fabulous expressions.

me, Jas and Kate =)

d2 and d1 looking serious and intellectual..

team s'pore looking glamorous!

me, Ray and Kaighin. Sorry I'm dominating the picture! haha

Beautiful women

Al and her bf, Alan...so sweet...

me and Ray =) nice suit, Ray.

me and Dave P...awww....
I absolutely love this shot of Iylia and me! great toothpaste-ad-worthy smiles =)

me and Al looking girly n sweet.

Dave (YEAH love that expression!), Fred, Alex and me.

This is a great shot of Al, me and Iylia (HAHA).

Dave, Tim and Al.

me and COOOL FRED!

Alcoholics! haha. there's a thorn amongst the roses...

me and Kate =)

Me and the 2 Daves...

OH YEAH!! Awesome shot!

Iylia spoiling the photo...

Team s'pore not so glam already but having lots of fun..hahaha!

Post dinner we took a tram down to a bar on Swanston. It was awesome, so fun! I had an absolutely smashing time...felt so happy...most of the night! haha. what a nice time =) thanks to Ray for taking some very funny videos, Iylia and Dave for being my escorts! haha! and all the people who were laughing amused at me...

The Hangover

Sunday morning I woke up with a headache but thanks to my trusty all-encompassing-emergency-and-non-emergency service, Ray, who called and offered to buy me breakfast. Thanks a million, Ray! A short while later he rocked up with 3 muffins and orange juice, which i happily but slowly finished off.

Checked out the videos from last night -- they were hilarious! And I look uncannily like Val...i think! hahaha.

And then the extremely helpful (and sweet) Ray started tidying and cleaning up my room for me. Hanging up my scarf and coat, arranging my shoes, washing my plates and glasses, clearing up my breakfast and wiping the kitchen. Thanks man, you're the best =)

of suppers and laughters

It has been a pretty fabulous week so far. Let's see...

Monday night after training I watched a good movie at Nova called The Edge of Heaven. Turkish-German movie shot in Pulp Fiction style. Munched on a bag of Pita chips and Doritos and brain juice with fellow greedy-glutton, Ray.

Oh oh, I got back 2 assignments. H1 for my Language and Media assignment! "Outstanding" in all marking criteria areas and the comments: "WOW! One of the top papers! You certainly went beyond the assignment and demonstrated sophisticated critical thinking. Impressive!"

A very good H2A for my philosophical Sports, Entertainment and the Media essay. surprising...

Tuesday evening I met Man Kuan, my RJC classmate who's studying in Queen's University in Canada and down here for a holiday. I met him in the city--yes, I can still recognise you despite the extra 20kg...haha jk. We boarded what we thought was tram 16 and sat there chatting happily for 30min and then i realised that the surroundings didn't look familiar. Phoned my 24hr tram guide, Ray, and yes, we were not headed in the right direction. MK and I hopped off the tram to find that we boarded tram 7 instead of 16 and we now stranded in Glen Iris. Very funny, how the hell did we manage to be so cock eye!? Had no choice but to cab down to St Kilda.

I had a club sandwich at Greasy Joe's and MK had a steak. The food was good and surprisingly not that greasy...haha. We then went over to Monarch cake shop where we bought a slice of the choc German dessert and AN ENTIRE 100 YEAR OLD RECIPE CHEESECAKE. We ate the choc slice while walking along a small jetty on the beach. Very nice but very cold also.

Got back to my place and we shared a quarter of the cheesecake. Then MK cut me almost half of the remaining 3/4 to keep! In order not to end up greedily devouring the entire thing myself -- which i am definately capable of -- I phoned my emergency-weight-control service, Ray, to finish the cake off for me immediately.

A laughter-filled cake polishing session went from one hour to two then in a flash, it'd been 5 hours. Time flies when you're in good company with a good conversation.

Wednesday I had a fantastic run session--4x1200m, in which i surprised myself with my times. It's probably coz i've hardly been swimming so i'm less tired at the run sessions. Actually, it could be the fuel from the cheesecake, or the reminder that i'd to burn off that calories. haha.

After training, Ray and I visited Iylia who was ill. We passed him some recent race photos and gave him some cheesecake too =) I love Iylia's room, it's so cozy with a loft bed! We were huddled on the sofa looking at past photos...and I was snacking on some gummies and then got a sugar high again. It was hilarious! I was talk and laughing excitedly and the spoiler Iylia kept asking me to keep quiet as Jeff was studying in the next room.

Then, i had an intense laughing fit -- a common occurance of late -- while moulding Iylia's soft kneadable sketching eraser into a gross odd shape. Iylia and Ray were just standing there amused watching me laugh at nothing. I laughed until my abs hurt so much! haha hilarious. When I finally could stop laughing, I went home with a stack of Iylia's must-watch DVDs.

Thursday was a good day too. I woke up with hamstring muscleaches but still did my bike workout anyway. Met Yuhui and Dawn for sushi dinner at Seasalt. We sat next to a French family with extremely adorable young boys. haha. Bought some snacks to Bible Study, which was great. While walking home, Emma saw an abandoned Safeway trolley on the pavement and very kindly pushed it all the way back to Safeway at Lygon Court. I helped. haha!

When I got home, Wilson called to say he was very near my place and asked if he could visit me. Of coz, I don't mind nice company =) He came over with his friend, Sofian. Someone actually envies my little hole in the wall of a room! haha. Sofian is envious that my room is much bigger and cheaper than his in Degree1. We chatted about S'pore, JC, mutual friends, cycling, running etc. Fun times =)

Thurs/Friday: fellow-midnight-hunger-pangs-sufferer and concerned-caring Ray swung by to pick me up to St Kilda, where we strolled on the jetty. I love the sea, it's so vast, calm and serene. I love the sound of the gentle crashing waves. I love the smell of the sea breeze. but i didn't really like the cold winds.

We warmed up with some hot latte and apple pie which we ate on the beachside veranda of a restaurant (closed at that hour). In an attempt to undo the damage of the apple pie, we took a long walk along the coast. I love the coast. Then we walked on the sand. There was this large machine cleaning and smoothing out the sand, kinda like ice-surfacing in ice-skating rinks. We walked in the flattened paths created by the machine, examined our footprints, hopped around to create dents, i even wrote my name in the sand with my footprints. And then i stomped into tall ridges of sand in my suede boots, we touched the sea water, jumped into a large crater in the sand, walked backwards, walked fast backwards, then sat on a short wall to rest.

Ray was telling me about sea navigation. Red blinking lights indicate port (Left) side and green blinking lights were the Starboard (Right) side of ships. And about audio and visual morse codes and astro-navigation. Interesting. Then as dawn drew nearer, we started seeing more and more people, all joggers, passing by. It's so awesome to stay by the beach. We walked back as the sky got lighter and Ray dropped me off home =)

In the late morning, I got a couple of wake-up messages on my hp which I responded to then fell back asleep. I only woke up a little later to see more messages to go downstairs but alas, I overslept them and read the last message to open the door and not step on my present. I jumped outta bed and opened the door to find a brown paper bag outside.

Oooo while I was asleep I had a Thresherman's muffins-delivery service from Ray! Awwww...so sweet!!! My favourite blueberry and raspberry muffins for breakfast-in-bed. Unfortch, the delivery man had left to go home...n catch some sleep I hope! haha. What a nice start to a gloomy day. haha.

THANKS RAY!!! :)

Look forward to my next post on some cross country interval running at Bellbird Park tomorrow morning, hopefully gigantic pancakes for breakfast and then a smashin' good time at the MUAC formal dinner in the evening! Exciting!!! =)

Warragul XC & Puffing Billy Races!!

Warragul 6km XC Race--Saturday 3 May 2008

It was a pretty gloomy day and we met at uni at 11am to car pool down to Warragul, approximately 2hr drive. I was with the "Team S'pore contingent" as D1 calls it...haha which is Iylia, Ray and I =)

Iylia drove while Ray navigated. We stopped by Pakenham coz i needed to pee badly. haha. it was drizzling and cold. it was a v scenic drive...got to see farms and cows and sheep haha. we got to Lardner Park and set up base in an old shed which smelt like cattle.

Race start/finish area

The guys' race was 8km (2x 4km loop), at 2.10pm.

The boys doing run thrus. D1, camera friendly as usual..

The Formidable White Train!

The men at the starting line.


Kate, Camilla and me cheering the guys on.
Spot the Melb Uni runners in the white top with diagonal blue sash.

Almost 2km into the race, Liam on the R with Grant keeping up.

Not ones to miss a good photo opportunity, Tony and Matt Irons managed to look over and SMILE. Ray trying hard to pace Tony, which turned out to be a bad idea. haha.

D1 with Andy Selby close behind.

The guys ran superbly! Liam and Grant finished near the front, an exciting sprint finish between Dave Pariossien and Hamish...haha we were jogging around the course cheering the guys on and me snapping race photos for everyone. haha.

The girl's race, 6km, started at 2.50pm. it was a 2km loop followed by the 4km loop.

Renata, our new Swiss runner leading the women's race. Damn she's looks so cool and so pro!

Yup, that's me happily running across a muddy slippery patch. Not cool or pro at all.

Oh that's me again, trying to pace Al (ahead, out of the photo).

Alison Smith, women's XC captain

Sprint finish (to the toilet)!

I had a pretty good run except for the terrible terrible stomachache i had to endure during the race! Spent the half hour post-race in the toilet...haha. i ran the first 2km in 8.20, too fast i think, but i was feeling real good. haha. in the 4km loop we had to jump over a fence into a muddy loop with many ditches. I stepped into many of the ditches coz they were too wide for me to jump across.

Tony and the guys kept making fun of me, coz we were supposed to jump/climb over the wooden fence but i slipped horizontally in-between the bars instead, coz climbing over wld take too much effort for a shorty like me!


we had our usual post race picnic...scrumptious as usual. haha. D2 brought along an old table, how thoughtful.

Then the Team S'pore Contingent took some really nice photographs:

What a cute shot of me and Iylia. My mouth was stuffed with muffin!

What a nice shot of Ray and me. I was tip toeing.

Team S'pore

YEAH!!!

Ray, Iylia, Alison and me headed back to the city, with ME DRIVING! haha so fun, i like driving! Dropped Iylia off at Melb Central coz he was gonna buy movie tickets for Iron Man for Ray and me, then dropped Al off at uni. Then headed home to bathe and change for dinner.

We had Nandos for dinner and bought loads of snacks for the movie, which Iylia was CRAZY about..expected of a hardcore comic book fanatic. haha. Nice conclusion to a fun day =)


13.2km Puffing Billy Race--Sunday 4 May 2008

The race starts in Belgrave, in the v hilly Dandenong Ranges. We meet at Liam's studio in Smith Street to take a coach bus down. I ran this race last year in 64min 55 sec and was determined to beat that this year. At least this year's chilly but not raining.

Photos on the bus ride there:

Me and Wilson...nice =)

Iylia, me and Wilson at the Belgrave train station

Me so psyched up pre-race...
Iylia excited about his race tag, or is he just showing off his chest...

The race was good, i had a solid run and felt strong...it was HILLY! between 5-8kms was almost entirely uphill. haha. the last 2km was on terrain. it was a good run! I shaved almost 5min off my time from last year!! YEAH...1 hr 10s...fabulous. Could the secret be to be greedy and overeat desserts...? haha.

Trio shot: Ray, Iylia and me on the train tracks at the finish. cool.

Me and D2, Dave Ulbrick, who finished top 15! fantastic.

me and ray.

Iylia shooting his Magnum look...or is it Blue Steel? synchronised calf stretching with D2. haha. i was picking wild "magic" mushrooms from the soil and "de-gilling" them. GROSS GROSS GROSS. patterns nightmare!

couple shot--Ray and Iylia by the lake. sweeeet.

me and iylia by the lake. awwww.

Al and me =)

Ashlea and me.

We then took the bus back to the city. But we got caught in a jam so it took really long. In the meantime, we were entertaining ourselves by taking embarrassing shots. Here are a few of the LESS EMBARASSING ONES...


Iylia as poster boy for Powerade Energy. Caffine + sugar. which reminds me, after downing an entire bottle before the run, i got a Powerade HIGH and started laughing at every little unfunny thing. How cool is that? A natural high without drugs/alcohol! hahaha.

Wilson failing miserably in his attempt to look cool.

Ray showing off his superior balancing skills--a green apple nested on his head! amazing!

Hehe im not posting any embarrassing shots of me...right, so the 4 s'poreans decided to have lunch on smith street. What a spread!


Ahh...after walking around smith st after lunch i went home and knocked out!!! haha tiring weekend of racing, but so much fun =)