when i'm stressed,

eg while preparing for exams, i'll loose weight, coz i don't snack and only eat when i really have to.

eg while experiments in the lab dont go as planned, i loose appetite, and only eat when i really have to
muesli with milk for breakfast at 8am, a breadtop bun + small pear lasted me the whole day after and then a 100g Ritter Sport chocolate for dinner. went to bed at 10pm on a wednesday night.
had a microwavable frozen hokkien noodles for breakfast on the next day 7am, McNuggets meal at 3pm.
luckily the day ended with a dinner of nice sushi's and nice icecream for dessert.

found another aim for my life:
to bring my parents around to travel. anywhere. just anywhere in this world.
it's a happy feeling when they visit new places, experience new stuff. that makes me happy. i really want them to see the world. as much as they can.

few days ago i asked mum if she and dad want to go hk or tw when i go back for holiday in march. and this is what she replied, on msn:
'ok, can lah. got u take us , want!'
i only saw that when i got home and turn on my msn.
while at work, i got an sms saying (direct quote)
'we want 2 go 2 hong kong!'
i think they (or at least my mum is) are excited abt it :)

_______________

the feeling of
'psychologically ready to leave where i am now to start a new life/career in another country'
is actually scary >.<
but i'm still optimistic about canada

OCD

hmmm.... what are the symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?

i realised that i can't help but arranging things on the shelves in the supermarket when they're not in order. that includes straighting up clothes and small boxed items on the rack.
but after trying on clothes in the fitting room, i'm fine giving back the shirt and the clothes hanger separately.
i even think that, being annoyed when people always running late without a good reason falls in the same category. because so many of my friends are doing that until i question myself for being punctual! :S what kind of theory is that?!?!
and perhaps i can also include the fact that i'm not very good in handling last minute changes of plans.

are they all related to OCD??? or i'm just a control freak.

...

当妳知道他有新女友的时候，会替他高兴，
就表示妳不再在乎他了。
但是，怎么还会有一种 想哭但是哭不去来 的感觉？

hmm... some random stats
37 of my msn contacts are (appearing) online at the moment,
13 of them in melbourne,
3 are friends whom i'll ask to go out with spontaneously,

looks like i need more friends in melb,
not enough friends whom i can get along with.
bla

i'm bored... not just the simple bored but deep down bored and tired.
can't believe it's been 1 month and a bit since i had my holiday and i'm tired already.

should be sleeping now, but bcause of some reason, just don't feel like sleeping because i don't want tmr to come so soon :(
sigh

can i have some surprise? pleasant surprise of course. something to cheer me up

sometimes we complain about our friends 无事不登三宝殿,
friends who don't usually contact or hang out with you, not close to you, when they need your help, they'll come to you. sounds like these friends are not sincere.
but think about this, if they don't come to you when they know you might be able to help, does this make you think they don't see you as friends? i'm sure if you know they don't usually hang out with you, they'll know the same too. so if they still come to you in such situation, it either means, their 'skin is thick' or, they know you're a nice friend.
well well, not that i'm finding excuse from these friens, i'm trying to make myself less 'dislike' them ba. pathetic.

---------

i feel that, the more you konw about something, the pros and cons, the more you're picky about it.
to me, if i want to get something, especially if it's not something cheap, i'll want to get a good descent one eventhough it'll cost more. if i can't afford the good one, i rather not have it.
should i apply this philosophy of mine when getting presents for others? hmmm...

Because i'm too organised, because i'm efficient
i'm bored now :S

she usually speaks very softly. until sometimes i can't be bothered to clarify things

she usually speaks bit louder. she's usually very energetic and enthu therefore the volume tends to be higher most of the time until sometime i'm annoyed

i'm difficult to please huh

一边看着朋友 po 在 facebook 的 Vancouver 和 London 的照片，觉得这两个地方应该还不难适应吧；一边听着也跟着唱梁静茹的歌，想到我如果真的毕业后可以去这其中一个地方工作，我一定会想念那在 Melbourne 和朋友唱k 的日子。
突然觉得很舍不得

my recent fav

They are evil!!!

once i start a new pack, i can't stop until i finish the whole pack!!

so far i've tried sour cream and chives, roast chicken and herbs :)

then there's this one,

black sesame 'tang yuan' in ginger syrup (more like ginger soup to me). there are 5 tang yuans in a serve.

best dessert for the cold winter. ahhhh

when comparing


VS



just from how they look like on the outside.
我会‘看不起’that Nokia, because i assume Nokia is trying to 'learn' from BB.

but then, when



VS



i have no comment on that. haha... weird mentality of mine...

hmm... not going to that ski trip in mid aug anymore
and i actually feel relieved that i made the decision
eventhough i already gave up a trip to Sydney for S.H.E's concert
and if i am going to the snow, i have to give up 林宥嘉's concert as well as the dates clash
and i'll probably have to refrain myself from suggesting any karaoke outings with my friends

i'm still holding on the decision of not going to syd for the concert,
but i can go to 林宥嘉's concert, and another musical (the King and I) which was suggested and decided very last minute :)

there have been a few times where i felt relieved that i didn't end up buying some stuff. i think more frequent than when i regretted for not buying the stuff.

__________

"物以类聚，人以群分"
that is actually quite true, from the fact that
all of my close friends like to watch musicals, just like i do :)
at first i thought, hmm... perhaps it's not difficult to love musicals, but then i know quite a few ppl who has no interest in them.
but in terms of food preferences, we can be quite different

hmm... i missed out another friend's wedding

see, i missed out my cousins' weddings, my friends' wedding,
haven't seen the renovated bathroom and repainted home, well i haven't step foot on KL soil for almost 1.5 years,
then i will miss out the birth of my cousin's baby,
what else have I or will I miss out?!?! :(

26 June 8.37pm

Went to the (Brisbane) city with my parents yday. Took them to watch 3D ToyStory 3. Not worth going for 3D for this movie but they haven’t watched 3D movie in the cinema before, so we had to choose between toystory3 and shrek4. ToyStory fits our timing better. It’s always nice to bring parents to something new to them, try new food, see new places, especially when they’re happy or fascinated or excited about it, i’m happy. At MovieWorld that day, mum drove me for the first time ever, eventhough it was in a bumper car, i sat beside her in the same ‘car’, dad was in another car himself. She had fun, eventhough i would love to have my own bumper car, but i’ve played bumper car before elsewhere, i’ve drove a real car, sitting next to mum in the same ‘car’ was actually fun :)

And guess what, I bumped into my friend in the city yesterday! What a small world!!

How would you feel when you know your parents are wrong?? Not only you don’t agree with them, but they are actually being un-reasonable. Sigh... I know they should discuss things properly with them, i’m sure dad can think through and accept different opinion as long as they’re reasonable. But this time, i’m afraid to be the ‘middle person’. I am so helpless... argh. I think it’s a miscommunication; or rather it’s a lack of communication. I didn’t sleep well last night because of this. Tomorrow is the day, hope everything is fine!

So tired from driving today. Up north to around sunshine coast, abt 1.5 hours drive from Brisbane. First to Eumundi market, then the ginger factory, macadamia factory, lastly the pineapple theme park (pretty much means pineapple farm). The feeling of tiredness while driving is so scary!! When we were on our way back, i felt really sleepy to the extent of: i know my eyes will just close once i don’t concentrate hard. And now, i would say that, i hate driving. Haha!!

Feel so sien when ppl don’t want to ‘participate’ during holiday outings. When u’re on a holiday, you should enjoy as much as you can! Since you’re already there, might as well make full use of your presence, eg join the $12 guided tour for a 40mins ginger factory tour+tasting!! Just ‘boh lat’. :S

*yawn* 8.58pm Zzz...



30 June

‘Where can I see the koalas?’
‘At the zoo lor.’
‘Do I need to pay for the zoo?’
‘Yes’
‘then don’t want lor.’
‘-_-’
Might as well just stay at home right?! Didn’t even ask me how much to pay, but ‘pay money’ is the keyword. :S

By the way, everything was fine on Sunday. I didn’t witness the whole ‘process’, but as long as it ended fine. *phew*

I think my dark circles got improved during this holiday. If it really does, i think the way that works for me is to sleep early, early as in before 11pm. Doesnt matter how much tv i watch during the day until the moment before i sleep, and the same 8 hours sleep as i usually do in a normal day.



4 July

Back in action!

Airplanes do look like birds :)

And you know what, my JetStar flight got delayed (instead of my outgoing TigerAir flight). Yday morning, got an SMS from jetstar about the 1hr delay to 750pm. Not a bad service huh. And my check-in bag came out first on the carousel.
2 weeks ago, it was the last few and i saw my bag being transported onto the plane last. So that make sense, last in, first out from the plane, but last on the carousel. Not sure how yday’s work tho. I checked in quite early for the new departure time, but very late for the original dep time. And the girl who was a few ppl in front of me in the check-in queue had her bag on the carousel right after me. Actually, i guess it can still be logical if she’s the last person to check in for the flight and i’m the last. Haha. And in order for that to happen, that means most of the other passengers didn’t know about the delay before hand?

O well... not very important.

Better go slp now... i have 6 eps of kangxi and 2 eps of PS man to catch up on tomorrow. haha

20 june 1019pm

3rd TigerAIrways flight in one week, 1 got delayed for 1hr. tgt with the 2 TT i had last year, 1 in 5 got delayed, doesn't sound that bad ey? but i still want to believe that i'm just lucky. haha!! should still consider other airlines unless TT is a lot more cheaper. well perhaps i should say this after my Jetstar flight back to melb.

during the 2hr flight, the lady sitting on the same row as me, on the right side of the aisle started to throw up abt 45mins after the plane took off. the fligth attendants had to 'evacuate' the passenger sitting next to her, and the other passenger on the left side of the aisle. apparently that's part of their protocols.

felt lucky that i never had motion sickness on airplanes. (don’t jinx myself!!)
Feel lucky that I can afford my own flight tix, can afford a father’s day present, can afford a nice meal for myself, can afford a weekend holiday in Sydney.
Thinking back about what I have so far, I must say I’m a very very lucky person.
I don’t know how to swim, but my si4 zhi1 jian4 quan2
I don’t know how to dance, but I have a ‘near-perfect’ pitch for music, I can sing quite well.

I was quite well-known in primary schools for being good in inter-school singing competitions, story-telling competitions, good results in studies, MC of the school assembly, raised the flag during school assembly. While in secondary school, I ‘toned-down’ a lot, I’m not a loud student in school, the head-master didn’t know my name (I think) but still, I never been worse than top 20 in my class and there are at least 600 ppl in the same year and I’m always in the best class. My parents never have to worry about my studies, never had to pay for tuition, the money was ‘invested’ on my piano lessons instead :$

I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to learn piano, that is one of the things I never regret doing and am absolutely thankful to my parents for that. And I’m also very thankful to my parents for paying for my braces :D

I’m not sure how long I can live for. Since I was little, I did think about death, and I’m still upset abt it. I stop myself from thinking about the fact that every human being has to die one day and after that moment, you don’t know where you’re going to end up in, don’t know what’s going to happen. And I don’t know when am I going to lose my family (I’m not cursing them!) T_T. Eventhough I’m a Buddhist, I didn’t know too much abt buddhism. I guess even if I hear or read abt it, I’m too scientific to believe anything 100/100 :S (that reminds me that I should find out the mechanics behind airplanes before my next flight. Haha!)

Life is short. I can’t wait to finish my PhD and to start the next stage of my life. There’re still many things I want to do, many places I want to go, many things I want to own…

Was driving brother’s rented car in melb city. You know what, it felt good! Haha! I want my own car! But yea I know that’s not practical at the moment since I’m living in the city and ‘work’ near the city. Hmm… Canadians do drive a lot yea? Lol

I think I’m getting a lot of attention in my student life prior to starting my PhD. It’s within these 2.5 years that I have moments of ‘serious’ disappointments and frustration about my study and phd is a big part of my life at the moment. But i don’t regret doing what I’m doing.

*yawn* should go to sleep now, going to MovieWorld tomorrow! :D 1052pm.



21June 9.46pm

I nearly crash our car on our way back from MovieWorld!!!!! >.<

Mum, dad and aunt were in the car. None of them ‘scolded’ me this time, thank them for that. But I feel bad :S well, I did learn some lessons today.

It’s not easy to please our parents. It’s difficult to please our relatives visiting from home. There’re a lot of differences in living in Australia compared to back home. Food is different, weather different, way of eating is different, way of cooking is different, way of treating strangers is different. So if they’re not used to things here, but insist of doing things in their way, that will become a conflict unless there’s a reason of their persistence, then I can accept.

Well, 2 weeks… I can tahan. And I’m also a ‘guest’, so… the most ‘cham’ person is not me.

Luckily I brought Toto over. :)



23 June 1059pm

Been driving for 4 consecutive days. I’m surprised that after the 2 near crashes, my mum changed from not being confident with my driving, to calling me ‘the driver’. Eventhough 3 of the 4 days are short drives to the shopping mall or grocery stores, I feel tired to drive anymore. :S can imagine how tiring it is for ppl who need to drive to work every day. Driving is such a tiring thing to do. I remember asking my dad when I was little, asking him how he feels about driving, whether it’s a stressful thing to do or it’s ‘fun’ (as in a pleasure thing to do). Can’t rmb what exactly he answered, but he didn’t say it’s stressful. Perhaps driving in somewhere you’re familiar with will feel different. These few days I’ve been driving with the GPS, I can’t recognise where I’m going when I’m driving with the GPS, I’m sure I will recognise the ways if I drive without it. But because no one else in the car knows the way, I don’t want to turn it off just in case we get lost. But I’m trying to remember where we went and figure out the way back before the instructions given out by the GPS. Don’t know what they’ll do here after I go back :S I guess someone just has to learn the roads or lean to drive with the GPS.

Was going through the photos we took at MovieWorld. I took a photo for my parents at the MW entrance. Saw dad holding mum’s hand in that photo, aww… gan3 dong4 :`)

When we’re in a new place, somewhere we’re unfamiliar with, a young kid will need time and parents’ effort for the kid to settle down and get used to things there; an average young adult will probably adapt to the place easier; it’s interesting to see that when it comes to the older adults they want to do things in their usual way, if that is not allowed, they won’t be happy and will change things there to suit their usual habits. I’m happy to sleep in a room with just a mattress on the floor, a pillow and quilt blanket, I’ll leave my clothes in/on my bags, put my other belongings on the floor next to the matress. I won’t complain that there’s nowhere to hang my clothes, no bedside table or something to put my glasses. Hmm…

Feel more secured to live in an apartment compared to a landed property. Maybe that’s the paranoid me.

My holiday is getting boring now… I want to go lepak in the city!!!
11.31pm Zzz…

you see,
i like Hershey's chocolates,
and i'm starting to like


and i'm sick of many websites which when you choose your 'region', Australia is part of 'asia pacific' or even worse 'global/others' but not one by itself.

.
.
.

don't you agree i should move to Canada? wahaha

but then, i don't like to wear scarf during winter (there's a reason of course).
will i survive the cold?


i'm starting to feel that my phd is starting to get some positive returns.
first, my abstract was accepted as an oral presentation in the coming ASMR student symposium (that's tomorrow!!!) although i'm 1 out of 90 over applicants and there are 48 chosen for orals. so far i only have poster presentations in all the conferences i attended because my results aren't good enough to deserve an oral.
then today i just got told that my first paper is accepted in the American Journal of Human Genetics. i'm in the middle of the list of 12 authors and i must say i only contributed a little bit in that paper. thanks to my supervisor who really 'fights' for his staffs/students. he makes sure our name is on the paper if we deserve it.
and i've 'given' molecular diagnoses for patients from 4 families all within this year. and hopefully many more to come.
so fingers crossed and hope my luck in research is with me :)

life is more exciting when you have something to countdown to

mondays are better when it is a 4-day week
tuesdays are better when you're going for a movie with some friends after work
wednesdays are better when ... i have a good (happy) meeting with my bosses
thursdays are better when it's a pay week??
fridays are better when you don't have to work on weekends
saturdays are better when you know there's another day before monday comes
sundays are better when monday is a public holiday. haha!!

__________

as i'm abt to go home at the end of the day, i switched off my computer, took my stuff with me and
i actually looked at the monitor and said 'bye bye Hapy' softly!!! (It's a HP computer)
and i did name my laptop Toto!
am i crazy or something?!?!
i guess i'm not too crazy yet coz at least i realise what i'm doing. haha!

一个工作效率还好，忙多一点就唉声叹气的同事，
在一个lunch break 之后开玩笑地问我，、
'Have you found your pineapple? i saw you're looking for pineapples in your facebook.'
我就问，她有没有在玩，
她回答说，'I have better things to do than playing games on facebook'
我猜她是在lunch time 用她的 iphone 上网时看到的
我到现在都还记得，就知道 1）我是小气的人 2）我听了有不爽
当然我知道她可能没有要讽刺我还是怎样。
但到现在每当我上fb,就会想起那句话 :X