loha mamamia

You're A Star

hmm, where shall i start? its been about 2 weeks since i have blogged. yes, quite a few major blog-worthy events have happened since the last post, most important of all, the fact that i have turned into a legal adult, apparently mature enough to make my own decisions and face the consequences on my own. yeah, PAH. i'm just darned happy that i'm 18 now and can drink booze without being arrested! cool! also, that awful curfew isn't part of my life anymore, a fact i immediately utilised on my birthday itself (i didn't go wild clubbing or anything, and i am still alive, so people who'd be concerned about that fact can relax). in any case, i should list out the important events chronologically or in some semblance of order.

ENGG1000 PROJECT

Team Aesthetica: (from left) adam, jerry, stef, voon sien, tim, with our lovely contraption

as an introduction to our engineering design course this semester, we had a chance to gain some hands-on experience by designing a water transporter in 50 minutes. provided with balloons, skittles, cardboard, straws, 2 plastic cups, string and tape, we had to build a device to transport water safely from 3m above the ground on a pulley. although we didn't build a very innovative one, our design was one of the few which actually made it to the ground without spilling. we were so worried it would 'kantoi' after watching other groups go before us. but we pulled through! ahakz! sure, we didn't win an award, but it was fun anyway. go team Aesthetica!

AMAZING GRACE

this was an event organized by FOCUS, the church i'm currently attending. in true Amazing Race style, my group (Group 1, the Winning Group!) ran all around Sydney, looking for clues in all the important landmarks such as Rocks Market (where we had to hunt for a recipe for irish coffee, which is Ghar Ek's passion i gather) , Chinatown (we had to swallow pig intestines and liver, boiled but still horrid. the guys ate the intestines which had the same texture as balloons. yuk), darling harbour, and sydney opera house (duh). One of the challenges was to pose in hip hop, ah beng, ah lian, and formal clothing from a store. i got to dress up as ah lian. mmmz, will post the photo when i get my hands on it. also had to walk down a street holding hands, singing Amazing Grace. that earned us some weird looks. haha. Anyway, me, Hui Chien, Zhi Hui and Nathaniel (plus Cheng Chon, unofficially) came in third. very fun and unforgettable experience, thanks for organizing it, Ghar Ek and everyone else! it rocked.

FAREWELL ILLEGAL

camwhoring with my present

yes, and of course my birthday which took place last week is worth mentioning. i got two cakes this year, 'fat tat lor' as my popo would say. Ko Lo, Furry and Pangsai sent me a bear (which i've named Ming Ting Keong, and the tiny bear its holding is called Polly) + a cute magnet + a lovely letter + bookmark. so sweet! and i managed to receive the parcel on my birthday itself. =) timothy made a multimedia presentation for me, which is lovely too.

Ming Ting Keong and extras from the gang

that evening the girls at focus had a small gathering (females only!) in honour of my birthday at sze wen's place. thanks you guys! Karen baked me a mango choc crisp cake (everyone here is talented in baking and cooking by the way, if i learned from them all i'd be a 'sifu' when i go back home). then i got another cake at bible study on friday, (according to Zhi, its worth $36!!!) and a book from my group members. eheheh. Dad and Mum sent me some money, RM500, but apparently the transaction hasn't excatly materialized just yet. in any case, i treated myself to a new bag, a hat and some clothes already. they ARE from factory outlets and paddy's market! (something equivalent to chee cheong kai i think) =P

Pizza Hut!

the girls at my birthday gathering: pey pey, mandy, sze wen, hui chien, shih ying, karen, xiu yi, linda and me

FOCUS circle

HIP HOP FUNK

most recently of all i joined a dance class after hearing about it from voon sien. $90 for a semester, or 10 lessons. just signed up on the day of the class itself. eek, the weird thing is timothy joined me in my randomness and signed up too. there are only 4 guys in our class of about 30 people i think. go shane and timothy! we are the representatives of PE! LOL. got cramps in my thighs after the class. go figure.

i pulled out of the engineering camp i signed up for earlier (which cost $110) so i'd have enough funds to pay for this class. will start running low on money soon if i continue like this. self-control stef, that's the key. also, there's a few things happening this weekend, and i don't intend to drink at parties, so if booze is really such an important component of FUN in australian culture as i've been told, i probably wouldn't like the camp anyway. God blessed me because there was someone who wanted to buy my ticket! turned out to be Wani from my class. and the organizers were willing to give me the refund, which is great.


RANDOM FACTS

~i think university students are cool

Supporting Evidence:
1) there was once a big decorative clock on one of the lawns on UNSW campus which the head people were so proud of and named the 'unbreakable clock'. the engineering students said, 'unbreakable? pshaw' and tied the two hands of the clock together. now, its just a round circle of metal sitting on the grass. (Tim the Campus Tour Guide, 2007)

2) the truth of this story cannot be totally verified, but it is recounted as such: a group of psychology students decided to use one of their lecturers as a guinea pig for a certain theory of positive reinforcement. the whole class made a pact, when the lecturer spoke from the Right half of the lecture hall, the students gave positive feedback, paying full attention, asking intelligent questions and taking notes. when he lectured from the Left side, students fell asleep, chatted with each other and goofed off. pretty soon he was lecturing from only the right side. then they progressively reduced the area within which he must stand to gain positive feedback, to a quarter of the lecture hall, and so on. story goes, by the end of the semester, the lecturer was lecturing with his back pressed up against the wall at the far right side of the theatre. (Joe Wolfe [physics lecturer], 2007)

~timothy puts down the occurrence of stef getting pissed at him as 'quite freaky'. honestly tim, i was experiencing a hormone imbalance or something at that particular time and was feeling extra bi-yatch-y. sorry.

~the FOCUS bible study here seems to be much more serious about the Word than i've previously experienced. although i am not quite used to it just yet, i think a proper study of the Bible isn't too bad an idea. oh, and the senior pastor here is also Joshua, like the senior pastor in RLC. popular name for pastors? haha.

~the bbq outing for the petronas scholars was pretty fun, as i got more acquainted with those i've only just briefly met before. the scholars from Universiti Teknologi Petronas are cool, funny thing is they actually prefer UTP to sydney, and want to go home if given the chance. odd, somehow i'd always assumed sydney would be a much better choice compared to tronoh. apparently there are differing opinions.

the cute hat i bought at paddy's

the $20 bag

signing out, it's time to get my ass off this chair.