Tan Relays and DFO shopping!

Saturday 16/9

Took part in the Tan Relays around the Royal Botanic Gardens. Grey cloudy skies gave way to some warm sunshine! Abt 3.88km, on mainly gravel surface and some tarmac. Had a good race. It was great fun. there were almost 200 teams, all of different numbers depending on the division you are in. I ran 16.40. It was not bad but i wasnt hurting too bad. the legs dun haf enough speed to challenge the heart and lungs? yea but it was fun. We had a picnic on the grass after the race. Some of them brought snacks like biscuits, muffins, bread and fruits.

See our nice cute and cool tees? yep, David arranged them and has been marketing them as 'the way to be impossibly cool'. haha. he's damn funny.


The White Train!

After that went to Direct Factory Outlets at Cheltenham with some of my cell group girls. It was a long journey there! had to take a train then a bus. But it was worth it! haha 4 hrs of non stop shopping was barely enough to cover all the shops! in the end i bought a pair of 3/4 running tights, a pair of deep purple suede flats (shoe), a couple of tops and earrings. I bought a top for just 3 bucks!! and it was really nice. yep, great fun, very tiring too!! haha.

OMG! What a happy happy happy birthday! i just received my BIG TREASURE CHEST of LOVE! haha. i am soooooo touched and i must be the most lucky and loved person around! this is my 2nd treasure chest filled with cards and presents my 2 mths here! =)=)=)=)=) it was even sent via express 2-3 day post so i'd get it on time. hehe.

Now let's see what's in there:

1st, AN XXXXXL SIZE GRANDMA UNDERWEAR!!!! ain't that just the concept of SEXY now? hahaha. yep, coz i just said that i shd get more underwear, so thanks for a HUGE one! hahaha. ok there were other normal ones. haha it was placed right ontop of the box so the moment i opened it, i got a shock and burst out laughing!!! DAMN, do you think i've become so fat?!!? hahaha.


2nd, birthday cards from Val, Jie, Audrey and Clement! Val's is the small orange coloured Prints card with a devilish cow? in front. Audrey's was sooo funny! she's so cute. and clement's of coz so touching =) Jie's was a postcard on the back of the photo frame and collage inside.


3rd, a black polo tee, a white blouse and a red jacket from Topshop which Val shopped for me!

4th, a purple photo frame from Jie! Lovely, the key chain at the side was beautiful. In the frame was a photo of Clement and ernz, and my family during my birthday celebrations which they celebrated for me and val at CHIJMES on Sunday night.

5th, a CD of desperate housewives season 2 which Jie burnt for me. will come in handy =P

6th, a glass slipper handphone holder from Audrey! yes Bay, i knew it was a handphone holder! hahaha.

7th, 2 t-shirts and a swimming costume from home. necessities.

8th, a very very nice brown photo box from my beloved boyfriend. In the front was a photo of us. Inside, was a very cute card covered in cartoon lions(he thinks it looks like me when in fact, it's a mirror image of himself), and a stack of photographs of us. =)yay. just what i need. photos to put ard my room. i was just commenting that there's nothing of him in my room. haha. now there'll be lots! So sweet. i was looking at the photos for a very long time. our happy times together. i love the photos of us together in China. it's so...hmm...fun? blissful? sweet? man, i MISS YOU CLEMENT!!!
yea and his card was sooooooo touching i almost cried. haha. awwww...i'm so lucky to be with you honey. =)




Man , what have i done to deserve such love from my family and my bf?!?! haha!!! unbelievable. i miss val. she's in Paris now, gonna make her way to Leon. I miss jie too, a very thoughtful birthday present! And oh yes, my Clement looks so handsome in the photo!! haha. =) yea that was taken when he went shopping with my 3 sisters! mich, val and bern! haha. since i'm not ard hang out with my sisters and spend money on them eh? haha. get urself into their gd books? hahaha.

yep, above all, i reaaaaaaally appreciate the thoughtfulness, effort and love! i was practically moved to tears...i love my family, it's the best family anyone can ever have. and i love my bf. you're the best too =)

post more photos up the next time.

my 1st bday without Val!

Had a pretty good birthday! Woke up to clement singing me Happy birthday...haha. so sweet, fabulous start to my day.

well...had 2 edible presents...haha. Wille bought me a muffin, 2 donuts and 2 tall skinny chai lattes. haha. and i got a hug too =) Then had a tough training! track intervals. 4x1.2km with 4 min rest in between. Not totally recovered from the 21km i think. yea but i completed it well so im glad. Iylia bought me dinner at Toto's. i had a pasta tube stuffed with cheese and spinach in napolitian sauce. it was yummy! haha. then we walked to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping.

Just called home. they're cutting mooncakes before sending val off. i was so worried about her last nite! coz she's in an unfamiliar place with limited knowledge and practice of French! and she hasn't been away much so i'm worried! anyway, i miss my family! it doesnt exactly feel like a birthday without the meatball spaghetti, mash potates dinner and cutting the cake! Well anyways, i just had my family choir sing me a bday song! haha great. nice way to end the day =)

Havent received any presents but i know they're on the way! exciting! Yep, it was a good day! Thanks to those who remembered my bday! you really made my day =)

Some overdue photos:


This is the flyer for the MUACXC End of Season BBQ which Hamish made. Picture of the White Train.



Simon, Tony's (coach)2 year old boy playing with the cat at Al's house during brunch after the Burnley Half Marathon.



Our very own 2.01m tall runner! haha. that's his bday cake which Tony's wife made!

Yesterday i was aching SO BAD i had to peel myself off the bed just to go for class. Not to mention swim training in the morning. i woke up at 6am, but my arms were just weak n my legs ACHING terribly terribly. Never hurt so bad in a long while. Anyway, i did an easy 3km swim on my own in the afternoon at the uni pool. 1 time pool entry is AUD3.50! shocking. but oh wells, the pool's clean, heated, has good lane ropes, there's a minute timer on the wall, there's even a swimming program written on the board for whoever's interested, a nice locker and shower room. So it ain't that bad.

Yep, anyways today's training was just a 'relax' 50min run. But not for me. Everyone was running together in a group so I had to keep up. Was hanging around the back chatting - in between gasps for breath - with Cam, Gill and Iylia. Btw, Cam's this tall cute fast Aussie blonde. hehe. But of coz, i'd very much prefer my Clement.

Yepyep. we're having an end of cross country season barbie on 23/9. They all tell me how much fun it is, with crazy presentations and performances put up by some of the guys. haha. here's the flyer Hamish made (aorry cldnt f**king upload the picture). Apparantly we're nicked named 'The White Train' as in "le blue train" in the tour de france which was Lance Armstrong's Discovery team. We're printing a team tshirt with the train on it. haha. btw, White Train not as in caucasian whites but there was some story abt wearing white. forgot wat it was alr.

Anyway, Hamish got the idea for the photo came from this recent race in Sydney called the "City to Surf". a number of them flew up to race. It's a fun run and there's this category where a team of 13 can race as a caterpillar. All 13 members must be linked up, and it has to have feelers/antenna in front and a tail at the back. So Hamish modified one of the photos. Very nice. Abt the "City to Surf", they were telling me how there's this sideline race in which swimmers swim along the coast from the end point to the start point. So as the runners are running down along the coast, they're swimming up in the opposite direction. Crazy. if i dun remember wrongly they're wearing some weirdo outfits to swim. heh nuts. And of coz there's the underwear category where guys just run in underwear. maddness. In s'pore during the S'pore Marathon you get a couple of nutty caucasians dressed as fairies and bees and all running on the course, just to spice up the race.

I'm currently writing an assignment on the use of address terms by Native Aust Eng speakers for my Cross Cultural Communication module. So i was doing some research and found out abt Australia's history. It's weird coz i never really knew anything abt it's history, always thought of it as a cross breed between Europe and US. Well dunno much abt the Aboriginals but Australia was a British penal colony! They used to transport convicts frm Britan, Ireland and Scotland over. And these convicts were like 80% male. Together with British soldiers and what not, Australia was a masculine society. the gender imbalance persisted up until the late 19th cen. yep, a not so glorious and pretigious past. but oh wells, it has lead to the egalitarian society of today. This equality amongst all people is very obvious, leading one to feel very welcome and valued.

Such as myself. I'll be running the Tan relays in 2 weeks and everyone's so nice and encouraging me to participate and have fun (even though i'll set them back by like over 5 mins). It's always just to have fun. Have fun doing your best, that is. I remember there's this BIG FAT GUY who kicked this small young guy outta the uni games team coz he "wasnt fast enough". then Bry and the rest were so unhappy they were like "that's ridiculous. he's (Fat Man) the only one in the entire uni who thinks so. everyone'll just have him come along and have fun." It's always about having fun, always about the team, always about trying. cool. beyond cool.

Burnley Half Marathon and MUACXC rocks!

Woke up at 5.30am this morn to have breakfast before the Burnley Half Marathon. Andy gave Iylia, Tom and I a lift to the race site (and home). We were there early and boy was it FREEZING! the past 2 days were a warm 25 degrees and this morning is a bloody 12 degrees with rain. during warm up and just before the start it was raining pretty heavily! I was feeling miserable and dying for a pair of gloves and a beanie!

anyway it's an Athletics Victoria race, there were about 500 people on the 3.5loop course. Andy said it was a "good fast course" which meant undulating roads with gradual uphills and downhills. uhhhh...not sure i would think it's a fast course. A fast course would prob be pancake flat. Their idea of tough would be 21km of HILLS.

Anyway, took a while to warm up coz of the cold. but after that it felt great! I held back the first 6km then picked up and held it for the rest of the race. It was fantastic. I felt really strong and very happy! I was smiling and running and waving and cheering my other teammates. haha. bcoz of the back and forth loops you get to see everyone on the course many times. Well, i ran a 1.43.15 i was so happy. i thought if i did a 1.45 i'd be v happy. woohoo. haha. i had enough energy to sprint finish, much to my surprise. main prob was my knees and hip got stiff. havent been chalking up much mileage and definately havent been doing v long runs! the last 3 km really got to me. haha.

Well, obviously i was the slowest in the team. Bry ran 1.27 and Al 1.28. OMG they are soooooooo fast! yea and Tom did really well. 1.11. yep, i think the male winner won in abt 1.04? that's just insane. Anyway, Hamish who ran 5mins off his PB was running with a hangover and 3 hrs of sleep coz of his bday celebrations the night before! haha.

after race, my quads cramped up. jogged it off. we all went down to Alison's place, which was abt 1 km frm the start point. It was a potluck brunch. abt 20 of us were there, abt 15 of us raced, the rest came to support or were the spouse. The support was great. we were just encouraging each other and all. helped a great deal =) At the brunch there was brownie, muffins, rock cakes, biscuits, buns, hot tea and coffee. Perfect. and we just stood around and talked.

Tony (coach) turned up with his 2+yr old son and his wife. They brought a HUGE 3 layered homemade birthday cake for Hamish! It was Hamish's 30th birthday on tuesday. it was so brightly coloured and cute. Tony's son, Simon, is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute! he's really independent as well. just ran aroud playing with us. He was feeding me chips. haha! yep, and he was turning the cake around on the table so he could pluck off the Smarties/M&Ms stuck round the sides to eat. haha. he fed them to Al's dog too! Then has was preoccupied with eating chips and running around to give out chips. suddenly, he ran over the dining room to stroke Al's cat. he had his left hand patting the dog and his right the cat. haha. adorable. When the dog suddenly snapped at him, he got a fright and jumped back, but after a while he just went back to play with it. Brave little boy.

Yep, got home and did some housework, took a 30min nap and headed out to meet the girls from the athletics club. It was a girls gathering cum send off for Dyna who was leaving for the US. Yep, we chatted and had some tea snacks and drank red wine. At 5pm, the guys came to join us and we basically sat/stood around the bar and had drinks and chatted until 8pm! haha. It was so fun. They are seriously funny. Bry, the girls captain, is really nice. She's completing her PhD, a VVVVV fast athlete (ex-triathlete), pretty, funny and nice. Wooo. Anyway, I had a lot of fun chatting with all of them. They're all Australians, with 1 from UK, and then 2 S'poreans, Iylia and me.

I love the athletics people. We're having an end of x-country season BBQ on 23rd Sept, and we're (almost) all flying up for uni games. it's cool. Mon, wed and fri mornings after swim squad i have breakfast at Thresherman's with some tri guys. and i wonder y ppl tell me they cant mix with Australians and dun have Aust friends. Join a sports club! they're all so friendly and you all share a common interest and possibly personality so it's easy to get along. I've had a fantastic day today. Real happy after my run, felt good and was in the company of a great bunch!

Btw, people have been saying i look MATURE beyond my age. hahaha. At tri squad, some thought i was 21. At the athletics club, they thought i was in year 3. More examples but in short, i am a MATURE girl. hahahahahaha! but im proud to be 18 and done much =) oh and they cant believe ive been here 7 weeks and i got organised and started to train with the club after just a week, and i'm all nestled comfortably in the team. =)

Well now i better call Melvin who asked me out for dessert tonight. Somehow on days when u're busy/when 1 person asks you out, everyone asks you out.

I've got a couple of photos from the brunch but cldnt upload! will do that tmr. ciao!