Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Updates fm CBD Aucky

8:03 PM

Hehe. I'm sorry if I've grossed you out, yet again. I find this to be less disgusting than the cricket dissection I did a fortnight ago but more so than the worm dissection. Didn't upload pictures of the cricket and mollusc one coz it was much TOO small to see anyway.

But the fish dissection was awesome. Blood was spewing out everywhere. You can call me sadistic by nature but I was absolutely hypnotized by the goriness of it all. There were three different types of fish handed out for dissection and mine was the Grey Mullet. The hugest of the lot. And I was thankful for it. Coz when I looked over at Celia and her fish, all I saw was intestines, sprawled all over the place.

Apparently, during my dissection, I punctured the heart. Hence, exacerbating the spew of blood. Messy stuff. Heh. At the end of the dissection (not only did I have all my fish's organs out which was required of us) but I was also the only one in the entire lab with my lab coat stained with blood. And my gloves turned completely red. Needless to say, I reeked of fish the entire day. Pity the dude who was sitting next to me during the eco test. He prolly had to concentrate much too hard just to get past the putrid stench.


Perhaps I should've brought the fish home and cooked it???

A very Bloody affair........

Fish dissections aside, the past few weeks were rather good ones. I'm done with all my tests and assignments for the 1st half of the 2nd semester. And I can't say that I'm too fazed by it coz everything seemed to have gone pretty well. Spring break starts this friday and fingers crossed, if all goes well and I plan this thing right, we will be able to go skiing and snowboarding at Mount Ruapehu early next week. I'm a bit freaked out coz this time, I'm the one who has to do the planning coz my holiday buddies are caught up with assignments and the works til friday. ANd I still have not done anything yet. OMG. So yea, am starting right now. UMSA Ball's this saturday. And I have everything that I need apart from the chicken fillets. Hehe. My flight back to Malaysia apparently got cancelled and I wasn't informed about it so that's another tiny problem that has cropped up.

And finally! Things are beginning to heat up in Auckland. It's not so chilly anymore. The sun's out most days and the clouds are clear. But I don't wanna jinx it so I'll stop talking about the weather already.

The only thing that's bothering me is that I have not been able to achieve my volunteering goals yet. I applied for the psych victim support one but to my disappointment, applicants need to have a car of their own! And the training is a bit crazy to be honest. So that pretty much narrows down my volunteering field to absolutely nothing. JoBanana and I have exhausted almost all options. We tried the Starship Children's Hospital but to no avail coz apparently they have far too many student volunteers. We paid a visit to Volunteer Auckland and were treated really nicely. Sadly, most of the stuff we opted for did not require ongoing volunteer work, was out of the city or they were simply not looking any longer.

Odd. Coz volunteering should not be difficult. I guess there're just too many selfless people in Auckland. Either that, or everyone's looking for a way to beef up their cv's. I won't say that the prospect of writing down additional "achievements" on my cv has not crossed my mind at all, but I think volunteering is more about knowing that you are doing something selfless for a good purpose. I know that it'll be one other thing that makes me feel like a better person at the end of the day.

It just hit me. I'll be back in Malaysia in approximately 2 months. :)))

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Itchy Stitch-Y

5:04 AM

Dear Stitch (you know who u are)

I know this is completely random but I decided to do some googling for myself this time around and I think this one looks exactly like u in your legendary blue jumper. Anyways, thanks for bringing daftpunk into my life, coz once again, you've made me plunge into a love affair with yet another stream of music (apparently this one has a lot to do with helmets. LOL) I will be devastated when you decide to come and claim your ipod......

Stitch. Doooooon't leaaave next year!!!! :(((((((

ps : I keep thinking of that Stitch arghahahaghahahha impersonation that you did.

pps: I also googled gecko, but none of them had large enough eyes.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Touching

10:23 PM

we were shown this clip at our psych lecture the other day. And I almost cried. Watch!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Soymilk Druggie

4:48 AM

I am addicted to soy milk. This is, unfortunately, a very expensive addiction. Serious. I can finish one carton a day! Why la? Why do u taste so yummy?

I am also officially a druggie. Yes. You heard it here first. I learnt in psych that heroin stimulates the release of endorphins. And so does exercise. And now, when I don't go to the gym, even if it's just for a day, I suffer from this overwhelming, almost alarming withdrawal symptoms. Like I totally crash. There was once, I came back and slept until 8 pm!!!! And then I was completely stoned. I didn't feel like doing anything. Why la? WHY? Why do u invigorate my senses???
Two tests coming up, one lab report and one online test due. I also hate studying further level functions. But, I am liking vectors. Hehe. Ok. Gotta run.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

This One's for YOU, mom!

5:22 AM

Missing you both to bits!

I know mother's day has long passed us all but I don't get to do this everyday. And as children we're supposed to tell our parents how much we love them and appreciate them every single day. How our world is at their feet and how living without them is living in a world with no air (hahahah, ok, I stole that from Jordin Sparks' 'No Air'). But I don't do it everyday.

I was never one with parents. For as long as I can remember, I've only had a parent. But this story is heading nowhere down that sad, pathetic road where I revel in self pity. The only problem I had with having one parent instead of two is other people having a problem with it....

Fact is, I am probably one of the luckiest people on this planet. Because my mom is a superduperhero. At least to me and my sister she is and I don't expect her to be anyone else's saviour anyway. She's like mystique from X-men (minus the bad stuff and the blue-ness). She's a mom AND a dad amongst many other things. They say you can't have it all. But I know this is not true, coz she has it all. Job. Skills. Strength.

And speaking of strength, I've always thought of strength as something you can measure by having a hideously buff person prying jail bars open (just this random image in my head)... Nope. strength comes from within. And if there's someone who epitomises strength, my mom is the perfect candidate. In all honest truth, the amount of it she has is baffling. How can someone be constantly hurt by people she thought she could trust and still stand tall merely taking caution from the experience. How can she so swiftly pick up the pieces of her life when it came crashing down, not one or two times, but many many times? How did she support us and herself knowing that she had only herself to depend on, both financially and in terms of security?

I wish I could say she came out of it with just a few wrinkles on her face and crows feet settling at the corner of her eyes. But I can't even say THAT! Because my mom looks like she hit 30 and then never aged another day. Which technically means, hehe, I have good genes!

Irony. Sometimes, when I sit down in my room and think about calling home, the phone starts ringing. The connection is telepathic to the point of freakiness. Just when I need it, I receive a letter bombarded with affirmations. Thanks to mom, my wall's full of affirmations. I've always been a huge fan of affirmations, from shows, books, the works. But my mom actually comes up with them! I can fill a book! Hmmm. Maybe I will.

Freedom. When it came to me, I had all the freedom in the world. Trust. The freedom stemed from trust. She had a vast amount of trust in me. You know the feeling where you're holding on for dear life on a glass vase just coz someone else wagered that you'd break it? I felt that I had to hold on for dear life to that trust. Because I had it. You were smart mom! The freedom I had taught me my limits. The limits I broke earned me life long lessons. The trust never faltered.

My mom not only provided me with what I needed. She gave me all that I wanted. And not once did she make it feel like I owed her anything. Not once did she let me worry about things going dreadfully wrong. Never did she stop etching hope within me, willing me to look on the positive side. A cup half full. It was almost as if all my worries were perpetually siphoned into a bermuda triangle within her. And exactly that I was prevented from experiencing. The turbulent waves of woe that swept her insides. The 'what ifs' that plagued her mind to the point of perpetual migraines. The twists and turns when dawn became dusk and everyone else slept soundly.

Even as I am here she finds ways to just be there. She's in the bounce of my steps. She's in my mail, weekly. She's the wind that brushes past my cheeks in the still of the night. She's there in my head, willing me to think straight. She's here with me right now, with the tap of my fingers. And with that, I have always known that I will never be alone. And never have been. Her love travels leaps and bounds, and is great enought to make a hundred trips down the great barrier reef before reaching me.

I know today is not mother's day. It's just an ordinary day. Just an ordinary day that I picked to tell my mom how terribly proud I am of her for sticking in there, despite the hundreds of jars of pickles that she had to make and the hundreds of 'room-to-let' flyers she had to post up and the part time jobs in the hospital and the failed interviews and the umpteenth times she had to travel to and from Seremban and for believing in herself given the tumultuous circumstances. I knew that the day when the call bearing this awesome news would come was not far.

Congratulations Mummy! I am so very very proud of you! I am me because of you. And it's your drive that keeps pushing me forward. To take an extra step. To give it a little more when I feel like I just can't seem to. Just so I can be half the person that you are. You're an inspiration. A legend. And I will shout it from the top of a building if I have to.

This is a far too concise post on the reasons you're so great. It could go on and on. When you told me, I was so ecstatic, I went to everyone's rooms and started jumping up and down. This doesn't mean I will be spending more money over here. It just means that I knew you could do it.

PS : if you;re wondering what all the hype's about. It's about my mom getting a new job which pays (fuyoh) decently and allows her to travel to 14 different countries *waitforitwaitforit* New Zealand being one of them.

PPS : I feel so fabulous I'm afraid I might jinx it.
PPPS: Friends are coming by mini packages of tsunami wrapped in a box (if u know what i mean) and unfortunately, so is workload. I predict a mad rush in.......right about. NOW.
PPPPS: UMSA Ball coming up. Why am I such a ball person? Sigh!
PPPPPS: Just signed up for a victim support volunteer which, if all goes well, will assist in honing my clinical psychological skills. I REALLY want this. *crossed fingers*
PPPPPPS: If you haven't already guessed, my mom reads my blog and I can't say I'm too bothered by it. And if you're on my blog roll, she prolly reads yours too. LOL.
God is great!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Birthday....

12:43 PM

Happy 20th Cassieeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Hope u (had) a blessed birthday... *Hugs*

love this pic!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Clubbin Yo!

11:28 PM

Finally got a taste of clubbing in Auckland yesterday! I was supposed to go SO many times but the plan kept backfiring and for an instant there, I thought that maybe, I just wasn't meant to go clubbing in New Zealand? I mean, seriously, how many times can obstructions come in the way of your plans. It seemed like there was a string, constantly pulling me, or rather us, back from checking them clubs out. LOL. Figure of speech.

Anyway, it was pouring and even before getting to the club - Margarita, on Queen Street, my mood was down in the dumps. The last thing you probably want after dolling up for a night of fun is mascara streaming down your cheeks and your nicely done hair soaking down your shoulders. Still, with my will outwitting the dreaded weather, I trudged along with the rest and we made our way to Margarita, a 3 storey club infested with Asians. Music was good. Entrance was free for ladies, poor Bobbie and Joey had to fork out ten bucks each. And the cocktails were waaaay cheaper compared to similar ones back in Malaysia. Alcohol is perhaps the only thing that is cheaper in Auckland compared to Malaysia.

Here's a play by play photojournal of the whats, wheres, whos, whens and hows of the clubbin experience....






Game for the scene? Jobanana and Melitta forced me to pin my hair back even though I didn't want to.... Looks weird la!!


We went over to Grafton to get pissed first. hahaha. Ok. I am never using that word again. Us being us, we did not do the whole inebriated, intoxicated act that people here usually do before they go clubbing. The rest had a glass of red wine each and considering I had no appreciation whatsoever for any wine, I gladly passed.



Joey and his cuppa



A slightly blurred picture of Joanna and with her glass of toe-jamed liquid grapes....



Getting all preened up in Bobbie's room....



Melitta and me



Joey before his uber cool hair makeover.....



Jobanana and Melitta, all dolled up.... man, they look hot, don't they?



I love how all of us were looking in different directions in this picture... *laughs* me looking all mortified at something below, Melitta looking at the camera and *coughs* Jobanana, of course, looking at herself......*coughs*



Joey, after his uber cool make over. Notice his korean-esque look. Also notice the tag that says Shane on his jacket. "halo, I am Shane. I am from Korea. Let's do the tango..."



Bobbie in his "still standing?" look...... Sleek!



A somewhat spoilt picture that I seem to like. Looks like we're heading into the light......



And finally, we arrive at the club, all wet, mangled and with wretched nerves. We invaded the dance floor before anything else.



And then, shots.... That wasn't my shot, I was just posing with it...



They braved the shots. As I looked on......



I settled for a margarita which tasted pretty darn good! Behind us : "halo, I am Shane. I am from Korea. Peace out!"



The boys. Looking all flash........



Ruling the dance floor......... this is what I meant by infested with Asians. Check out the crowd...



That wasn't my peace out sign, that was Shane!!!!!



Mel was feeling sleepy, so she settled for a red bull so we could dance more.... LOL. Green apparition between our heads. Meet shrek, the drunk...



And then back to dancing..... I absolutely lurve dancing with Melitta!! She thought me some awesome moves. LOL.... There a few guys who were trying to squeeze in between us. They don't really ask you if you'd like to dance, they pretty much just appear in front of you and start gyrating wildly. (exception to Jobanana. This vietnamese dude asked her to dance with him. hehehe) Pretty freaky actually. But we succeeded in driving them away by ignoring their advances. They must've thought we were lesbians or something. Hehe. *Hush now Mike!!!*



the next few hours were alternated between going on and off the dance floor. Too many strange occurances to tell here. But we did have fun. And we were dead tired. Coz we clubbed til 5 am. Shocking? I know!!!!



The last of "Halo. I am Shane. I am from Korea. And I want to be a python. Sssssssssssss"


Turns out. Clubbing in Auckland? Pretty overrated. It's something I'd do occasionally but never too often. It's simply too tiring and a tad pointless. But it's FUN to dance and hang out and look at other people making fools of themselves. Just not too often. There was supposed to be a video. But had to take that out coz it was perpetually in loading mode.


Gotta sleep now. My biological clock is all messed up, thanks to sleeping at 5 am and waking at 1 pm. Sigh.


You know you love me!


xoxo