Gyaaaah! 7 days of house arrest, aka self quarantine. All in the name of not passing a little harmless flu around....

I'm back in Malaysia!! Flew in on Saturday morning and am now braving the sweltering heat. The air-con in my room must hate me, the remote died in my hand as I tried to turn it on. Brought back the usual assortment of cookies, chocolate and sweets. And also with 3 bottles of wine, a red, a white and a Chandon!! LOL my cousin remarked that he drinks up all the wine anyway, so the wine I buy have to pass his inspection.

So far, since I'm under the "quarantine", I just go online and surf the net. And also download massive amounts of manga to read. Need to clear the backlog of mangas waiting for me. Can't be bothered to download and watch anime anymore. Next sem, I'll just join the anime club and watch it from there. Besides, he's there too, so I can kill two birds with one stone :D

I've been reading this food blog a few days before I got back, and boy, did I develop cravings!! After all the posts on dim sums and xiao long baos, I went to Camy's Shanghai Dumplings and had my fix there. Steamed pork dumplings, xiao long bao and hot pork noodle - delicious! Came to less than $20 for 2 people. Probably one of the cheapest places in Melbourne to stuff yourself silly.

My msian number will be open starting tomorrow - it's the same old number. If you don't know the number, MSN or YM me or leave a comment and I'll give it to you!

Oh, and looking for people to go to DaiCon!! I'm really intent on going to Minori Chihara's concert and seeing all the anime figurines there! If anyone is interested, call me! Details are as follows:

Venue: MMU Cyberjaya, Putrajaya
Date: 11-12 July
Time: 10am-6pm

I took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! ""Longs for a loving, caring, and supportive relati..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

Probably one of the most accurate quizzes I've taken ever.

How is it that I always doubt myself?

Has it been a long week! Finished 3 exams so far - last one is in a week's time. Thank goodness. I had to sit for two exams in a day - a very rare occurence. It's also a terrible thing to do to a poor student like me T__T Imagine getting up at 7.30am, finishing a 3 hour paper at 12.30pm, have a short lunch then starting the next paper at 2pm! Thanks to Kai and Emir for all the moral support and tips on how to study, and Lionel for helping me to grasp certain concepts last-minute (which ended up saving my life!)

After Friday's 'double trouble', I woke up on Saturday just in time to prepare to go out for lunch with the other guys. As usual, it was Ramen-Ya again. Not that I'm complaining. Apparently the guys found out that after 2.30pm, most of the food goes for $6.50 - a drastic reduction from the $10 price! The bentos are pretty awesome too - I asked Emir to bring me back one when I refused to touch Tuesday's cold lunch and studied in my room instead while the guys went to Ramen-Ya (again).

After lunch, me, Emir, Evan and Tet made our way to Ian's place. There, while Emir DOTA'ed and the others played Orochi, me and Ian started on a visual novel - Planetarian. It was more than two hours long, and supposedly a tearjerker. I shed a tear for it, but mostly I was annoyed at how slow the plot was. I never was a patient girl at all.

Soon after we finished Planetarian, we had dinner and started on a Star Wars marathon :P Yi Jien came over for it, but left after the second movie. We watched Episode IV, Episode V and Episode VI in succession. It was partly boring, but I found the Luke-Leia-Han Solo love triangle hilarious. Also, the graphics were in some parts reminiscent of old-style space shooter games :D I also managed to find out that Looking for Group (LFG), a D&D-based comic was parodying Star Wars in parts of its' comics.

Speaking of comics, check out Zisa's work here: http://scarlet-dragonchild.deviantart.com/gallery/

Kai showed me her work, and I was taken aback by the beauty of it. My most favourite pieces are her 3-page Home comic and her piece on Bandung street life. The coloring is amazing as well - the way the colors flowed and mixed and conveyed the atmosphere. Kai has promised to get me a copy of her latest comic (just released yesterday!).

I'll be taking the whole weekend off to chill out, then resume studying again on Tuesday. On another note, I heard 4th floor Wadham is starting a D&D campaign =.= Is it not enough to have poker and mahjong and DOTA on your floor?!

Had an awesomely good week. Spending time to catch up with friends after the stress of Cafe - priceless. To just be myself and not care how others perceive me (screw the stupid announcements and the students' listening skills).

Currently I've turned my bedroom floor into a massive study table/bed. The weather here is getting colder and colder - tomorrow, according to the weather forecast, the min temp is 6 Celcius. 6!! Since my floor is heated, why not make use of it? I laid a huge wool blanket down on the floor, put my laptop and books next to it and commenced studying. Best of all, when I feel sleepy, just roll myself into the blanket and snooze for a while.

Ramen-ya is a pretty good place to eat. I went there again this week (the last time being last weekend). E loves the atmosphere there. The rest loves the food. I must admit, it's a pretty nice place. Small ornate lanterns decorate the wooden tables, and the lighting is dim, providing a sense of privacy. Ramen-ya serves pretty good food at reasonable prices as well - $10 for a ramen or a bento box. Since I tried their specialty ramen last week, I tried the chicken katsu bento box this time.

Now I feel hungry for Rose Garden's Spicy Fried Chicken Ribs - the MUST HAVE dish.

Just tonight all of us had an intense conversation about politics, religion, genetics/eugenics and pokemon. Very random, very funny, and most of all, the type of conversation I missed from last year. When Dominique (an American exchange student) came in we started arguing about society and marriage - why do we need to follow society's dictate to marry by a certain age? The answer is logical, from the genetics view, the biological view, the societal view as well as the government view.

On a random ending note: I've just realised that the amount of support we give and receive is enormous.

An interesting quiz from this website

Your view on yourself:

Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:

Your have very sensible tactics when approaching the opposite sex. In many ways people find your straightforwardness attractive, so you will find yourself with plenty of dates.

Your views on education

Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:

You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.


Now that Cafe is over, I find myself with so much free time. It's to the point that (as I told Pam) "I feel like I've just escaped prison". I barely remember the weeks (and free time!) before I took up Cafe. It's seriously that bad. But I've come out of it a better person, and with more time management skills than ever (try juggling assignments and prac and work....every second is precious). I'm going to keep a distance from Play next semester, I swear - and I've told Emir he have the right to smack me if I try to go for it. It's bad enough taking on Cafe.....Play will be 1000x worse.

I'll stick to enjoying life and studying than trying to head another committee.

I always thought that I would never get mad in front of people other than family. After all, I never really thought bad about anyone, and at most I hated my enemies with a quiet vengeance that soon fades away. I've been proven wrong, time and again. My anger bursts through the bars and I burn with it.

I thought it was under control. I try to think, to be rational. It did not work. My mind veered towards the irrational. Oh, it's so tempting. To just let out all the anger and frustration of dealing with those who can not keep up, who are not able to understand. And try as I might I cannot resist the call of temptation.

I shouted at the person I once called a friend. The frustration of dealing with group mates who are not up to par, the fatigue from practicing dance steps and cymbals beats again and again all came together to form a burning blaze. Was it so wrong to give in to it? Should I just have tried to let things be, and forget about it? Maybe I should have. But my anger reached the boiling point and bubbled over.

I do not feel sorry over it. Maybe I could have done something else, and be the vengeful demon I am. But I will not. I will not let my work, my child be left behind. And despite everything, we've made it this far. I will not give up now.

Grr... the flu has got me. Not the swine flu ( i hope) but a common flu, most probably due to stress. Sigh. So many things happening, and so much to do. Just because you don't see me doing anything does not mean I don't do anything. I run around a lot to get things settled, and if you don't do your share of the work, fine. But don't start accusing me of not doing anything. Thank you to everyone who have been very supportive, I appreciate it :)

Anyway, Cafe is almost here!! Our charity event of the year is almost upon us, with one week left to go. IH will be a grand place comenext Saturday, with replicas of the Wonders of the World, and pictures of the wonders as well. Ushers will be in traditional costumes, and there'll be alcohol in free flow. Tickets are $75 a head, but if you can't make it...... then come for our........

CAFE PREVIEW
Cafe International 2009 ~ Wonders of the World
Venue: Dimmicks Dining Hall, International House
Date: 7th May 2009
Time: 8pm

Australian Gold Coin entry. There'll be games and prizes up for grabs. Experience the performances without paying cutthroat prices!