Li is Doing…

But I had a good reason for that. Damn homesick & not getting enough sleep. Just didn’t feel like updating anything. But I’ll do so soon. Promise! Not too many photos cause I’m still not in the mood to take much. Can’t understand how those “emo” people can always take pics of themselves being emo. I mean just look at me! I can’t take any. =.=

Anyway, I’m gonna take my sleeping pills & hit the sack. Yeah, sleeping pills. Tell you next time. Tsk. & dun worry. I won’t get hooked on it. It’s just to calm me down at night so I can go to sleep. Ciao!

Now I’m in Melbourne. Everything is all Greek to me. I don’t know what I’m doing & I did a very embarrassing thing. Getting lost on my campus.  Thank god for a nice couple who decided to drive me back to my residential halls. Phew.

I just got my internet up & running. Had to go out and buy a network cable from a computer shop nearby. Luckily it was open. Heh. Went with 3 people who are staying at the halls too.

I’m so homesick right now. Everything is so different. By the way, I got no drinking water. Yeah. No kettle/electric jug so no drinking water. I’m surviving on mineral water (which is expensive here by the way) & water that my neighbor boiled & shared with me. Thanks!

I wanted to buy soft drinks ( For example: Coca Cola) in those small bottles we always find at 7-11? Cheap right? Not here. At the vending machine at my halls, it’s selling for Aus $ 2.50 each. No way am I paying that much. LOL.

My mineral water (600ml) cost me Aus $1++. I’m damn grateful to Kye Bei & her parents for offering to help me out & yes I’ll take you up on your generous offer. Hehe.

My room is a mess so no photos yet. I just dump everything  on the floor. Didn’t unpack a thing!

So later kay? I got so many stuff to do & learn it’s so overwhelming!

Happy Chinese New Year people!

On CNY eve, I went to my grand aunt & grand uncle’s house for a reunion lunch. It’s always reunion dinner, how come people don’t have reunion lunch or breakfast for that matter?

I hate peeling the shell of the prawns. Troublesome & dirty! So my dear mummy helped me to peel the prawn shell. Whoopee. Thanks!

People are always more generous when they know you’re going overseas. Hehe.

Grand aunt also gave us a cake.

After that, we went to another grand aunt’s house. Generous again of course. RM110 from her. Heh. Thanks. Unfair to my bro I know, but your turn will come one day!

& at night, our family, just the 4 of us had our own steamboat dinner.

1st day of CNY, my mum dragged me up early to go to the temple in Tanjung Tokong with her. While I was there, I met Ernest. Talk about bad luck. I thought early morning go temple can simply wear & be ‘lamnua’ cause after that I’ll be going right home, not going anywhere else. Hah! Damn embarrassing!

2nd day of CNY, auntie Yi Lin & her husband, uncle Andrew came by my house with their 2 children & a friend. Remember what I said about people being more generous when they know you’re going overseas?

So what if they spelled my name wrongly. That always happens. Lee instead of Li. Ahhh, it’s the thought that counts anyway. My grand aunt wrote on my Ang Pow ” Li Ching” instead of “Li Chin”. The thing is people always misspell my name. No wonder I thought the way they pronounce my name always sound kinda funny. Seriously, the G makes a bigger different than the EE.

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I have way too many clothes that I want to bring to Melbourne & the stupid baggage restriction is making me pissed. I had to choose between all my favorite clothes. That’s choosing between love,love,love,love & love!! Damn hard!

I had to pack away those that I want but can’t bring to Melbourne in these boxes. Packing is real hard work! Not to mention the wrapping in brown paper. I was at it for hours. & after that my back hurt so much.

& look at the state of my hand after the gumming of brown paper. I had to wash the sticky gum off using dish detergent.

Had to do it all by myself too. Especially the wrapping & the address writing. I’m so scared the box will break & my clothes will be lost forever. I think I’ll cry my eyes out if that happens.

After more wrapping & writing down the addresses, TADA !

Please don’t get lost! & don’t let the ship sink into the deep, deep ocean. Gonna ship by Pos Malaysia. I think there must be 40kg there if not more. This will cost a few hundred bucks. My dad was complaining but hey! I didn’t complain that my parents aren’t following me to Melbourne, if you guys were, I won’t even have to ship! I could use the baggage allowance belonging to you guys. So instead I’m saving you the plane ticket kay. Few thousands saved adee. All you have to pay is a few hundred to get my clothes there. I’m willing to wait 3 months!

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Tomorrow is the 3rd day of CNY & I won’t be here to enjoy it. Yup, I’m leaving tomorrow. At 10.25am, my plane will be leaving Penang. Will be staying the whole day At Changi Airport until 9pm when my plane to Melbourne leaves. Yup. A full day at the airport. How boring! Have to eat at airport too. Luckily I got spare Singapore currency. Only 20 singapore dollars lah! But still, can go money changer right? Hehe. Hope I don’t fall asleep!

I’ll be arriving in Melbourne on Sunday morning, 7.15am Australian time. Overnight on the plane. Bet I’ll be damn tired. Almost a day without bathing. Ew! First thing I do when I reach my residential halls is to bathe!

I’ll be staying at Howitt Hall, the 12 storey building. Should be nice if I get a room on the top floor but I got a feeling I’ll get one on the lower levels.

Will update about my arrival when I get my internet connection up & running in Melbourne. TTFN!

Ps. Pray that my plane lands safely will you? Thanks!

03/02/08

Was a Sunday. I don’t usually go out on Sundays. Sundays are for sleeping in late & lazing about at home but instead…

I went to Queensbay with friends. Long time since we all got together & went out.

I had a bit of a transport problem so Pheyy kindly offered to fetch me there & thus I went by her house first. Her mum drove us there of course. Waited for Billie, Shu Ling & Gaik to arrive.

We were all hungry but couldn’t decide what to eat. After walking around, we settled for KFC. Long time since I’ve eaten at KFC. Widely available in Melbourne I’m sure. Hehe.

While we ate, we took pictures. Since I’m leaving on Saturday, this will be my last outing with them for a long while. Aww, yes, I’ll miss you guys & many others as well.

This is one of my fries sticking out of my mouth. Yea, on purpose!

Time to introduce them :

So we’re clear on names & their faces & who is who. By the way, the names are from left to right in the photos.

There’s gonna be more photos & less words in this post I think. Haha.

After that we walked around & bought stuff. I bought this really short shirt for RM20. What with so little cloth it’s still expensive. Anyway, no photo of it cause I already packed it away in my luggage & I’m not gonna drag it back out just to take a photo of it!

We took photos here & there & fooled around.

Went to Padini to find Shi Ting too & at the same time I met other friends. Sorry I couldn’t see you guys clearly, wasn’t wearing specs at that exact moment. I only wear when I’m gonna buy stuff or window shopping so walking around doesn’t count as a must.

Sorry Pheyy for putting this photo but I can’t resist. Haha. Anyway, let me know if you want me to remove it kay.

& in fitting rooms…

Last stop was at Topshop. Oh, I love their clothes but I can’t afford it! Haha. Not without my mum there. Anyway I have way too many clothes to bring in to Melbourne. No point in getting more here. I’ll buy ‘em in Melbourne!

I saw this bag in Topshop. Only RM19. I wanted to buy it, but same thing, too many bags that look like that & no space for them in my luggage!

After that we left Queensbay. Shu Ling drove us all back. We cram into her car. Pheyy, Gaik & I were in the back seat. Billie got the front as you can see. Shu Ling dropped me & Pheyy back at Gurney Plaza where she teman me until my dad arrived to fetch me back. Thanks!

& that concludes my Sunday.

02.02.08

Went out with Ying yun, Siu Yuin, Lik Kiang & Maggie. We had lunch at Sushi King. & Ying yun ate like a cat! Haha.

 

After lunch, Ying yun & I met up with Pheyy. After that, Ying yun shopped for new clothes. PADINI had their big sales so we went there.

There were acrobatics performing on stage at Gurney Plaza. So I watched for awhile. It’s kinda freaky how they bend their body in all sort of ways that seem plain impossible.

Met up with Wen Qin & Wen Ling. Ying yun was so happy to see Wen Ling. Haha. Both of them are such a pair! After that we all had ice cream. Yum!
Then we sat at StarBucks & gossip while surfing the net on my notebook.

By the time this photos were taken, Ying yun had already gone home. Shucks!

I’ve been kinda busy this whole week. All the stupid packing is getting on my nerves. Baggage allowance is stupid! Besides that my parents don’t want me to buy second hand bar fridge or a second hand anything! They want me to buy new ones with warranty. =.= Hello! I’m trying to save some money here!

Anyway, here’s my update for Friday,

01.02.08

Mum & I had a buffet dinner at the Spice Market Cafe at Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa. The theme that night was Seafood & something buffet! Can’t remember what it was. It cost RM120 per person but my mum’s card got us a 30% discount so she only paid RM168 + RM30 (tax). I had the Seafood & International dinner buffet on December 28th of 2007.

Although I made a reservation for 2 people, three or four days before Friday, our table was outside instead of inside. No air-cond. Not too bad tho. It was evening & not so hot anymore. The last time I made reservations, I did so 2 days before the actual night & we got a table inside the cafe. What’s up with 01.02.08? There were quite a number of tables reserved. I wonder why.

Here’s what it looks like outside.

Anyway on to the food! Check out the many type of seafood! Oh & the desserts were heavenly.

Chocolate coated marshmallows & strawberries. A chocolate fountain for you to dip them in.

 

This noodle was also freshly prepared. You tell the chef which soup you want & with which type of noodles & whatever else you want to put in it. There’s a whole selection to choose from.

I had the guy there prepare a pancake for me. Fresh! & with the filling of my choice. I chose Chocolate chips & almond. He asked if I wanted ice-cream on it & I showed him the single scoop of ice cream in my bowl. LOL.

This time they gave us a finger bowl, to wash out dirty fingers after getting rid of the shells on the seafood. & also a wet wipe for each of us.

They had a live band as usual. Couldn’t get a clear picture of them since I was sitting outside but I sure could hear ‘em.

After we ate as much as we could (I didn’t eat for the whole day, preparing my stomach for the buffet mah!) , mum decided we should take a walk around outside before leaving. So while we walk I took the liberty of taking some photos.

This is what the Spice Market Cafe looks like from the outside at night :

 

31.01.08

Mum phoned me up as usual. Was about 1pm or so. Went grocery shopping with her at Cold Storage @ Gurney Plaza.

I bought a new book at MPH. Seeing Redd. 2nd book in the Looking Glass Wars. I love how Frank Beddor (the author) twisted the entire Alice in Wonderland concept. He makes it way more interesting than the original Alice in Wonderland. Totally a must read.

Met a few people at Gurney Plaza while waiting for my mum. I also went to buy the brown paper to wrap up my boxes to be shipped.

After buying all the groceries, mum fetch me to Nicholas’s house.

The night before that, I took a big plastic bag & folded most of my skirts, some jeans & pants & a few jackets to put into the plastic bag. When I lift up the plastic bag, it was real heavy. I mean it’s only clothes for Pete’s sake. But still when I weighed it, it was around 7kg. Hoo Haa.

Was gonna bring the bag of clothes to Nicholas. He’s gonna help me bring it in to Melbourne! He’s a really great help! Without him helping me, I don’t know how I’m gonna get all my clothes there, besides shipping, which will take some time. Thanks a lot!

He even sponsored me boxes to ship my clothes. Haha. The post office doesn’t sell those big boxes anymore. Only those shoe box sizes ones which is absolutely ridiculous. How is one suppose to ship clothes in that mini box?

We couldn’t find the way to his house cause I neglected to tell my mum he lived all the way up on (*undisclosed location*). So I called him for directions & it didn’t do any good. Very nice of him to drive down & guide my mum up. So my mum just drove & followed his car up to his house.

Oh, I so love the houses there. Darn pretty. & it’s so nice & quiet. Pretty houses to me are like toys to children. Awww. The attraction!

I sure hope I didn’t make him exceed his luggage limit. :p Anyway, you can always return me some of my clothes if it’s too much. Hehe. Thanks again!

29.01.08

I thought I could sleep in late but nooo, my mum phoned me up. She took me to Midlands One Stop to buy some computer stuff. I didn’t know that there was this nice computer shop there. So many cute nice stuff I would love to buy but I already have them.

Look at the mouse(s) they were selling for instant. Nice right? I wished I knew about this shop earlier. I so would have gotten one of them mouses. They also had these really cute USB hubs. Makes me wished I didn’t buy mine so early. Ahhh.

But I got this all in one memory card reader anyway. Made of aluminum so it won’t heat up so much. Looks like a lighter to me & they have it in various colors but black is such a classic right?

Also we bought another notebook cooler for my bro’s Dell Inspiron 1520. The Zalman cooler. Works really great. I should know cause I use one too. Cost my mum RM175 but it really keeps your notebook cool. Might want to consider investing in one if you keep your notebook on for say 4 hours & more. & yes, it’s made out of aluminum too to cool down your notebook. It works wonders.

And my mum also bought a headset for herself. Yup, she wants to talk to me via the internet while I’m in Melbourne. Oh I’m touched, but if you sneer or laugh at me I will close our video conversation! (Mum, as long as you send me money, I’ll be more than happy to talk/chat with you. )

After that I went home to watch a few more episodes of Desperate Housewives at http://www.sidereel.com/Desperate_Housewives . Yes, Eva Longoria is hot & totally worth watching. :p

At 7pm I went to Gurney Plaza to meet up with Pheyy. We both brought our laptops along. I was gonna protect my laptop by putting it in my laptop backpack but it felt so heavy that I decided to just put my laptop into my usual bags. Worked just fine. 13.3 inches laptop can fit in just about anywhere eh?

Then it turned out Pheyy’s laptop is even smaller than mine. A mere 12 inches, touch screen & the entire screen can turn 180 degrees? Not too sure. She didn’t dare turn it too much either.

We exchanged laptops & check each others laptop out & she thought it’ll be funny to change my XPS M1330 desktop wallpaper to this!

This is Pheyy :

I love this photo (Below) of her. She looks so darn innocent!

And yes, we took pictures. We couldn’t get to surf the net. Not too sure why. We were connected but it just couldn’t work. so we ended up catching up & chatting away.

26.01.08

Mum took me out to lunch & I told her that there was this belt I really like at Esprit. So she took me there again & I showed her it. Then she said that she wanted it too & she just didn’t get around to buying it yet. So after much consideration. She bought 2 of the same belt in the same color. One for me & one for her. Isn’t that great?

It matches jeans very nicely. I tried it out with jeans before. Add a bit of color to the dull jeans. Original price is RM129.90 but with my mum’s Esprit card, she gets a 50% + 10% =60% off. So it’s kinda like buying 2 for the price of one.

It’s also long enough to be use as a scarf. Multi purpose. I just hope those shiny sequins don’t fall off.

Also hop up to Big Bookshop to buy a few more files for bringing to Melbourne. Yeah. Very childish looking files. I’m still a child at heart & I just couldn’t resist Tinkerbell & her fellow fairy friends.

27.01.08

Ahhh yes, the pre-departure meeting in Melbourne. Boy, that was embarrassing.

Left the house at around 5.30am. My dad fetched me down to KL. I brought my PSP along & watched movies on it. Very relaxing eh. Pity I’m a bit long & the back seat isn’t longer than me. I had to curl my legs up. Laid back against my pillow with a blanket on me while hugging my gingerbread man.

We stopped at Ipoh. Went to a coffee shop there for breakfast.

I slept most of the journey to KL. Just felt so tired & sleepy. When we reached it was barely 11pm. We went to Berjaya Times Square. The price of the parking is deadly. I just know the maximum price if RM10 & we paid RM10 when we drove out.

Dad went off to do his shopping. Yeah. His shopping. I went to the largest Borders in the world ( Is that right?) & found comfort in books. I do enjoy a good novel. Wished my mum had gone to KL with me. There were so many books there that I wanted that can’t be found in Penang. I could only lust after them. Awww.

After that, dad came back n took me to McDonalds for lunch. Right, McDonalds. If it was my mum, she’ll have taken me to some nice restaurant. A pity she didn’t go! Aarghh.

At around 1pm we started walking from Berjaya Times Square to find Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur. Somewhere along Bintang Walk. So we started walking. I didn’t mind. I wore my good pair of comfortable Nike’s. Great support & comfortable. After awhile we still couldn’t seem to find where exactly Grand Millennium was. There were traffic policemen along the streets controlling traffic. So I asked my dad to go ask them! & he did. One of the traffic police wasn’t sure & he had to ask his friend. His friend then point us in the right direction.

It was scorching hot that day kay. I was starting to sweat & finally we reached the hotel.

Isn’t it lovely?

I love how the staircase has this nice big black balls.

There wasn’t like a notice board or anything showing me where to go. So I climbed up the 2 flight of stairs & I saw this:

It was only 1.30pm when I reached. Briefing starts at 2.30pm. So I was a wee bit early, sue me. The volunteers were very friendly but they were all in university. I was kinda hoping there’ll be volunteers from the college itself. Oh well. They did look kinda shocked when I said I’m from Penang, not KL.

Most of the people there were from KL. So I felt really awkward & seems like most of the people there are going to Monash University or transferring from Monash Malaysia to Monash Australia.

I sorta hung about & waited for everything to start. Talked with a few volunteers & they told me about what to expect in Melbourne, etc…

I went into the briefing room & picked any place I wanted. Few people were there so I had my pick of seats.

I didn’t stay for the session where you sorta mingle with the new students. It was just too weird & I felt way too shy. Guess I’ll have to curb that attitude when I get to Melbourne. I didn’t want to go up & ask people :”Hey, are you going to Monash College or Monash University?” They should have just separated out those that are going to college & those that are going to the university instead of separating by campuses.

So I left at around 5pm or so. My dad came to walked me back to Berjaya Times Square. On the way back I saw this:

I so wanna try that! I’m sure my mum would have approved.

Anyway, then my dad started driving us back home to Penang. I fell asleep in the car as usual. I fall asleep easily in a moving car. In fact, my mum used to take me out on a drive when I was much younger just to make me go to sleep. & it worked.

Last night I had to do something I didn’t really want to do but I knew I had to do it. It wasn’t a matter of choices. There were none. It was the right thing to do but how can one really define what is right & what is wrong? Morals doesn’t come into play here. If you (you know who you are) are reading this, I hope you move on & cheer up. Life still has to go on. Hard as it may be, don’t dwell on the past. It was as hard for me as it was for you. Maybe you don’t understand, maybe you do. If you blame me, try not to, if you don’t then it’s great. Time really flies darn fast. Before you know it, we’ll be dead (Unless my plane crashes first. Kidding!).

I thank those who were there to console me & take my mind of it. I’ll do the same for you if our positions were reversed. It’s time to look towards the future & work hard to get there. No distractions allowed. At least one day in the far future, I’ll look back & think about what motivated me to get there (That is if “there” is a really good place). I hope I can stick to this resolution.

“I don’t know how I’ll feel
Tomorrow
Tomorrow
I dont know what to say
Tomorrow
Tomorrow is a different day
Tomorrow”

- Tomorrow by Avril Lavigne

As of tomorrow, my dad shall me driving me down to KL to attend the pre-departure briefing for students who will be studying at Monash College/University in Melbourne, Australia. No one I know is attending it so it’ll be just me. Hope I don’t embarrass myself by doing anything silly. Actually no one I know will be at Monash College with me next month either. I’ll just have to make new friends & learn to cope with my new surroundings. February is just around the corner. A leap year so there will be an extra day for me this year. (Not really, the days are made up & fix by us. I still have to grow older on that so called extra day.)

Pre-departure briefing (Malaysia)

Location: Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur
160 Jalan Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur 55100

Time: 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm

Date: 27th January 2008

 

I’ll be back again tomorrow night. It’s gonna be tiring. A one day trip. Have to wake up at around 5am. Hopefully it’ll prove to be interesting & not boring. Please let there be Penang people there too. & don’t let them all be going to Monash University, let there be Monash College ones too. *crosses fingers*