Chapter : Recap! I'm 23!

So today is the day where I turned 23 and a year closer to become a crazy cat lady. Just to recap what’s currently going on in my life. It’s pretty boring, so bear with me. 

1. Failed my masters. It’s depressing. Cried a gazillion times because I was so upset by it but have a chance to resubmit but hoping that I won’t get someone that I do not like.

2. Someone finally arrived to Brisbane just to spend time with me but the first thing I did when I met him, I said that he was short then he teased and bullied me throughout our first meeting.

3. Birthday wasn’t really my typical birthday where I went out for dinner and stuffs. Instead, I celebrated it two days earlier because my sister to attend a friend’s wedding. So in return, she baked me blueberries and strawberries cheesecake! 

4. Decided to eat pizzas for my birthday and Sylvia was there too. Never ever order four large pizzas even though your younger brother who is still growing claims that he could finish one large pizza. 

5. Will only return back to Malaysia end of the year because of my masters thing. 

I would write up to 23 points but unfortunately, I’m not that exciting. So that pretty much sums up what’s happening in my life now. Short entry for today, need to go say my thank yous to all the lovely people who wished me happy birthday!

Chapter : Dad's Birthday Celebration

Yesterday we celebrated my dad’s birthday at this fancy restaurant, Lure. It was fine dining type of restaurant and it was also to celebrate my dad’s retirement. The restaurant won some award for the best seafood restaurant in some year. I’m not good with such details. We sat down and looked at the fancy menu and ordered our food. 

The pictures were all taken by my sister’s fiancé Patrick (still find it funny to call him my sister’s fiancé instead of boyfriend now…) 

 

Lure Menu

 

 Mom and the birthday man (wanted to say boy but it sounds funny calling my dad, "boy")

 

 

 My dad with his two daughters

 My youngest brother and my dad. My youngest brother finally smiled properly after when I threaten him that he will not be able to play my PSP. 

There was not a clear picture of my dad and my brothers so that's why I didn't put one up.

 

 My mom and her daugthers

 

 My mom and her sons

 

Me and my mom

 

 

 Me and my sister. Hugging my sister was like hugging a teddy bear!

 

Me and my brother. His hair is getting so long plus it's super straight, my elder sister said his hair looks like a coconut.

If you are wondering why isn't there a picture of my youngest brother and me, well...I didn't take one...He and I...not so close.

 

My sister giving my youngest brother a big kiss on his cheek. He looks very unhappy, don't you think so?

 

Unhappy customer?

 

 My sister and Patrick

The six course meal menu that my brother and dad ordered.

 

 Mixed Sashimi Plate  

Didn't managed to take a picture of my dad's Balmain Bug Salad though... 

 

Grilled Clearwater Scallops

 

 Pan Seared Coral Trout & Grilled Prawn

 

Black Angus Eye Fillet

That's the few dishes from the six course meal, will put up the dessert and cheese dish pictures later...now onwards to the rest of the other foods that we ordered!   

 Seafood chowder that my sister and my youngest brother ordered

 

 The bigger portion of the Pan Seared Coral Trout & Grilled Prawns dish. Patrick and my mom ordered this.

 

My sister's dish, couldn't remember the name but I know it's prawns! 

 

 My grilled fish of the day with sweet potato and crab meat risotto. My youngest brother also ordered the same thing but he didn't like the risotto.

 Patrick decided to take a picture of me finishing my meal for once!

  

 Lure ever famous advertisement and card design

 

 My pathetic attempt to copy the model

Then my sister ask the waiter to bring out the cake before the dessert

 

 The waiter who served us and my dad's birthday cake

 

 The entire Goh family

 

 The Goh family and the soon to be son-in-law. The waiter didn't know how to use the camera and my hair decided to flop down as soon the camera flashed. Just realized that my youngest brother's face looks very...surprised?

 

 My mom feeding my dad his birthday cake before the waiter took it away to cut it and serve us

 

Dessert! Chocolate Assiette

 

 Cheese Plate

 

 

 Crackers to go with the cheese

 

My dad's birthday cake. Something marble cake with something, Patrick told me the name but I forgot but look how they arranged it! So pretty!

 

 I have cake! But couldn't finish it because I was so full from dinner

 

 What's left of the cake

After dinner, we met up with my dad’s old friend from Malacca, Uncle Tai Ping and his family at Mt. Cootha (Don’t know whether I spelt the name correctly). We practically “grew” up with them because they have seen us since we were very young and played with them and stuffs. Man, how time flies and we are all grown up! The weather was pretty warm that night because I wasn’t shivering in my clothes standing up there enjoying the view…or maybe because I was wearing my super thick jacket that my dad bought from China.

 Uncle Tai Ping's son, Roger together with my sister and I.

So I just end the entry for the day with the view of Brisbane from Mt. Cootha. It’s pretty, right? 

 

Chapter : Updates

Oh my! It is almost towards the end of June! I have been busy completing my project for my masters and I can happily say that I’m FREE!! Well, not quite…I still have my freelance job to do which I have put on hold for a really long time. I’m so sorry Rowan. 

Hoping that I will pass all my subjects with flying colours because if I do fail one subject (touch wood!) I would not know how to overcome it. Plus, I wouldn’t know what am I suppose to do after that. Either I retake the subject or just fly back to KL and start looking for jobs. It’s nerve-wrecking thinking about this. But I shall put that aside…

It’s funny how everyone is crazy over World Cup (well, most people I know judging from the countless twitter spam) whereas I was one of the few who was working and staying overnight in uni and couldn’t care less who was playing against who nor who was in or out of the game. Now I catch a glimpse of the game because my brother watches it late at night when I’m busy surfing the web on my laptop and have to shush my brother when he started cheering or commenting how bad the player kick the ball or something because it’s really late and I do not want to wake the entire household.

July is fast approaching and my entire family will be reunited to celebrate my dad’s 55th birthday and his retirement. I can’t believe that my dad is already retired, I have already completed my studies (still waiting for the results) and my sister got engaged. It’s kind of hard to think of my dad as a retired man and thinking that my sister will be getting married soon. I still find it hard to call Patrick as my sister’s fiancé because I was so used to introducing him as my sister’s boyfriend. 

One time I overheard my sister talking to her best friend on the phone about the wedding thing and I remembered my sister saying that she wants a themed wedding. A. Themed. Wedding. I’m hoping that she will eventually change her mind because I fear that the entire “theme” that she was going for is based on colours and knowing her favourite colour is pink…okay, I do not want to go there...on the other hand, I do know that my sister wants to buy a wedding gown so she could keep it and probably pass it down to her children in the future like how my mom kept her own wedding gown in hopes that one of her daughters would wear it. Okay, I think she hopes that one of her daughters would wear it because she kept saying that we couldn’t fit into her cheongsam that she wore during her wedding or something…I don’t remember the details. 

I’m just imagining how big would the wedding would be since my sister is the eldest daughter and the first born child in the family…man, I wonder how many tables we would have judging on how many relatives we have plus my sister’s friends and my parent’s friends…but that is not a thing for me to worry because it will be handled by my sister and possibly a wedding planner and my parents. I just have to attend the wedding and hoping to “torture” the groom when the time comes. Boy, I’m such a sadist. 

All in all, I just hope when my sister gets married, my relatives wouldn’t come torturing me with the ever famous question, “So, when is your turn?”

Chapter : Am I Human?

Sometimes I wonder whether I’m really human. You might be wondering why, and I will explain to you my…daily routine for the past week.

• I wake up in the morning, and if I have classes that day, I will attend them.

• Then after that, I will rest for a bit, grab some lunch because I don’t want to die from starvation.

• Once lunch break is over, I will look in the labs to see whether my favourite spot is taken.

• If not, then I will sit there and start using the internet while waiting for my file to load.

• After that I will start working on my final project while chatting to people on MSN, Facebooking, Twittering and having some show playing at the background. (Yes, I enjoy multitasking)

• Then gradually will be engrossed in my work then will be hardworking for awhile before I find dinner. Mostly instant noodles or microwave foods, so unhealthy, I know.

• After dinner break, watch whatever show that is being played then continue working till late at night.

• Most of the time, I will be staying overnight in uni so I do not sleep.

• After that, usually around 1 or 2 am my motivation will just disappear and I start procrastinating. I know bad habit!

• After procrastinating for an hour or so, (probably more) I will force myself to continue my work but then I will start feeling hungry again. Supper time!

• Mostly this is when I eat little chips bought from the vending machine or drinking a hot drink to keep myself warm because the uni seems to enjoy blasting the air con from time to time.

• Supper time break over, continue working and then realizes its 6 am.

• Contemplating whether to head out at 6 am since the public transports are in service but choose to head out slightly later around 7 am or at times 8 am.

• Choosing between taking the train or the bus depending how tired I am or how hungry I am. I know, I eat a lot these days, it isn’t funny.

• Reaching my stop, either I would get breakfast if I take the bus or just walk straight home if I take the train. Like I have said, depends how tired or how hungry I am.

• Reach home, drop all my belongings on the little “study” table then on my laptop and surf for a little while then head upstairs to bed.

• Normally during this time it would be around 9 am or close to 10 am and my body is shutting down on its own, I would just drop dead on my bed and fall asleep.

• You might think I will sleep a GOOD EIGHT hours but unfortunately my body alarms wakes me up within 4 hours at maximum 5 hours unless I’m really exhausted.

• Then once I freshen up, I’m back in front of my computer continuing other assignments that are due soon. But most of the time, mind isn’t focusing because either lack of sleep or lack of nutrients in brains. Here is when I choose to eat or not to eat lunch because I’m always full when I just wake up.

• Browsing the internet again, chatting, checking through the usual websites I visit and mails, soon it will be dinner time.

• Normally I would be helping out or stoning in front of the computer because body takes time to start up.

• Dinner time break over, back in front of the computer and do the usual brain-wrecking assignments.Mostly not really fruitful.

• Work and work throughout the time then realizes it’s almost 4 am and then head to bed.

• Then the routine continues the next day…

So what do you think? Am I normal or not? Human? Yes or no? 

Chapter : Halfway

It seems that every Tuesday at my place, there would be a little dancing class. My ex-housemate would come over to the place and teach my brother and my sister’s boyfriend steps for Salsa. I was asked to learn but I was like “Err, no I don’t dance.” The only dancing I do is with my fingers, I thought to myself. I remembered my days when I was a little innocent girl, my mom decided that it would be a great idea to put her daughter into dancing classes! I kid you not, I have done Latin dances such as cha cha, samba, rhumba, and so on…but I forgot all of the steps already. 

Back then when I was a little one, I hated the opposite sex. You might be like thinking, “But WHY?!” but in my defense, when you are at that age, you think that boys are just mean people and vice versa. They say mean things to you and make you cry. But in my case, they say mean things, I just beat them up. I wonder what happened to that boyish side of me. I guess I grew up and threw that side away…or not.

Anyway, as I’m typing this, I’m just watching my sister’s boyfriend partnering my ex-housemate’s guy friend (he is playing the girl role) dancing on the balls of his feet to give the impression that he is on heels. I find it hilarious because he is pretty buff and muscular dancing on tip toes. Now they are using some Salsa dancing terms. Oh boy, they sound like they are from a different world from mine. 

My mother is the type where she loves her kids to take up some form of artistic stuffs. Be it music or dancing. I took up piano classes before but I gave up because I didn’t like doing the theory. I took up dancing (okay, forced to take up) but stopped because I didn’t like the idea of being partner with a guy or was there another reason for this…I don’t remember. The only thing that I have managed to continue on was my art classes which I eventually stopped after 7 or 8 years because the fees were getting outrageous and the teacher was getting a bit of a snob. 

Oh, another thing which I took up and then gave up later which made my dad very disappointed in me was my Taekwondo classes. I was up to the 2nd last belt (Brown II one more to be Black) then I decided to give it up. My dad kept pestering me to continue it but I was totally against it and until now I didn’t know the reason why I gave it up in the first place.

Now looking back, I realized that I have taken up a lot of things and giving them up half way. I wonder whether it is some psychological matter. Should I see a psychiatrist for this and let them psycho me? Cause my parents always say, "You are always doing things halfway." And I know that it's a fact.

Chapter : Assignment Pt 3

I like to write my assignment stuffs that I need to do so it would remind me because I’m THAT forgetful in remembering what stuffs that I need to complete. So, there is four weeks left before I officially graduate with a Masters degree but within those four weeks, I have to complete these tasks before I could scream and celebrate for joy!

THINGS TO DO

• Character Design

1. Princess
2. Prince
3. Evil Witch
4. Fairy Godmothers (3 types)
5. King (optional)
6. Queen (optional)

• Concept Design

1. The castle (inside)
2. The forest
3. View of the castle from the outside (scenery)
4. The broken bridge (obstacle)
5. The spindle area
6. Place where Sleeping Beauty sleeps
7. Evil Witch castle

All those pictures are to be traced and coloured in Flash

• Research for presentation for Visual Analysis and Critical Reflection
  
  
• Research for essay for Post Modernism and Modernism

• Compile the games’ pitching bible must include

1. Concept designs
2. Character designs
3. Market research (target audience)
4. Budget summary (how much do these people get paid?)
5. Detailed explanation of levels

All statements must have a solid proof to back up when doing presentation

• Flash ‘demo’ game

• 1000 words statement

• Freelance work

1. Animate the iceberg
2. Do the video editing
3. Find someone to do the polar bear animation (2d) unless it isn’t needed anymore

Wow, so many things to do. Looks like I will be sleeping in uni very often. Wish me luck!